Friday, February 13, 2015

Secret Six #2 Review and *SPOILERS*

Written By: Gail Simone
Art By: Ken Lashley, Drew Geraci, Jason Wright
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: February 11, 2015

Bring It On!


*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Wow, it's been awhile since Secret Six came out.  The beginning of December is when the first issue dropped and I actually forgot all about this title due to it's absence.  But after reading this issue, I quickly got myself up to speed and remembered that last issued dealt with Catman getting abducted and waking up in a room that was shaped like a giant sized coffin.  Like him we were introduced to his fellow captors, Big Shot, Porcelain, Strix, Black Alice and Ventriloquist........... and I guess her dummy Ferdie too if we want to be specific and recognize a piece of wood that comes to life due to Ventriloquist's broken psyche and telekinetic powers.  Apparently the point of all these characters being put together is some sort of experiment where they have to come up with the answer to "What Is The Secret?" or they will be killed............ and I guess their captors mean business because with Catman's claustrophobia, he discovered that this coffin is also at the bottom of the sea and after his freak out, it's now leaking water.  When we left last issue, a faceless voice told the prisoners if they don't come up with an answer than they'll have to choose someone to die and if they refuse, one will be chosen at random.  Let's find out if this group of strangers can get out of this mess and if all of them can survive.  Let's check it out.

Explain It!:

Our issue begins with us seeing why Catman doesn't care to be locked up or wet and surprisingly it's more than him being called Catman and taking on those attributes....... just because.  It seems that eighteen months before this issue, Catman was captured and thrown into an empty cell where he was to remain for an entire year to pay some sort of debt.  The comic never gets specific about who his jailer is or what debt he needs to pay......... or why a year of solitude in a jail cell would pay for it but apparently that's what happened and seeing that his jailer would sometimes leave the sprinkler system running as a way to punish Catman in his cell........... well it's kind of understandable why he doesn't like water or close spaces.  Okay, now that we got that back story out of the way let's get into this issue.


Time's running out as our.......... well I can't say heroes or villains like I normally would so I'll just go with our new friends and time is running out for them to answer the question posed and for them to pick someone to sacrifice because they don't know the answer.  Well, after his freak out all of last issue, everyone is contemplating voting Catman off the island and I guess with the idea of death looming over him, Catman went and got his thinking cap on and realized that Ventriloquist is moving Ferdie around telekinetically and asks her if she can raise this coffin room above the water they're immersed in.  After a little bit of negotiating and Ventriloquist wanting a make out session with Catman,......... Which she gets, she really starts focusing when Black Alice is randomly chosen to die for not answering the question and she starts being electrocuted to death.


In the end, Ventriloquist raises the coffin and our new friends break out and start taking over what looks like a repurposed oil derrick that is being used to conduct this strange experiment, which we learn was put together because one of these six, two years ago murdered a young woman and the conductor of the experiment wants the guilty party to pay............. How this equates to locking up six strangers in a coffin at the bottom of the ocean and making them answer an unknowable question is beyond me but as the issue closes it looks like our new friends are done taking orders and are looking for a little payback from their captor........... Especially Black Alice, who's transformed herself into the Demon: Hezkinvade.  Hopefully she isn't a rhymer.


That's it for this issue of Secret Six where Catman took center stage as we got a little background on him and why he isn't so fond of water and confined spaces........... you know except for the whole cat thing.  Like last issue, I had a lot of fun with these characters and their strange dilemma and I hope to see a lot more of them preferably sooner than it took for this issue to come from when the first issue was introduced.  That's the biggest problem here, I actually had forgotten what happened in the first issue and had to go back and read that before jumping into this issue and I can't say that everyone will do that and do to this issue's tardiness of release, I think a lot of this title's hype has been lost.  I still dug it though and actually think that Ken Lashley's art is a lot better on this issue than the first and that's a big plus because I wasn't exactly sold on it there.  So yeah, go get reacquainted with the Secret Six, from what I've seen so far, it promises to be a good time.

Bits and Pieces:

Except for how long it's taken to come out, Secret Six continues to be a really cool and fun book.  Catman takes center stage in this issue as we learn a bit more about him and why he doesn't like closed spaces and if a character get's their own background explained a bit in each issue, well I'm all for that.  If you're like me and actually forgot about Secret Six due to it's lateness of release, do yourself a favor and go back and read the first issue first as a refresher and jump head first into this issue.  I had a good time and I think you will too.

8/10

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