Secret Six #5 Review and *SPOILERS*

Written By: Gail Simone
Art By: Dale Eaglesham, Tom Derenick, Jason Wright
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: August 19, 2015

Stretching The Truth

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Okay, it's time to get back into Secret Six and after the odd ass previous issue, I hope that this is able to move forward from where we left off in issue #3 with this not feeling too forced in trying to cover everything that's gone down.......... that being said, I do hope that we get some answers that make sense though too.  At this point in the story we have our Secret Six team hiding out in the burbs of Gotham at Big Shot's house, but the hiding might not be working out for them as much as they would have liked.  They've had mercs working for Mockingbird track them down and in the cliffhanger to the third issue, we saw that Big Shot might be working for Mockingbird and that nothing is as it appears to be.  Mostly, Big Shot probably being Elongated Man and Mockingbird actually being Riddler........ yeah, that's all odd, but let's get into this issue and find out what's what.  Let's check it out.

Explain It!:

Our issue begins on a bright shiny suburb-y day, where our Secret Six are kicking back a bit and having a barbecue.  Big Shot's cooking, Catman's lingering, while the rest of the team just kind of hang out and wait for their grub.  Well, all of them except Black Alice that is, she's still recovering from her time getting electrocuted and since she isn't joining the rest of the group with pinatas and RC Cola, Big Shot asks Catman to go get her...... that's where this title completely turns on it's head.  Catman goes to get Alice and on the nightstand by the bed he sees a picture of Big Shot's wife and realizes that shit isn't as it seems.  The woman in the picture is one of the people who captured him and stuck him in the coffin tomb at the bottom of the ocean with the rest of his new "friends" and with this revelation, Catman is about to go ask Big Shot some fist questions........wait, wait, just questions because that's a terrible line.  

Well, the barbecue goes to hell once Catman confronts Big Shot because the two start brawling, but eventually Black Alice gets the two to chill out and we get some backstory on what's really going on in this title.  As we expected from issue #3's cliffhanger, Big Shot is actually Ralph Dibny and the reason that our group are together goes back to a case that he was working with his wife Sue.  Ralph and Sue were hired to acquire a stolen diamond that the Riddler had and was showing off at a gala on his private yacht, but just like anything that's shown off in Gotham, it was stolen and the boat was sabotaged, causing everyone to abandon ship.  Now what does this all have to do with our six characters?  Well, they were all there, from hired security, guests, to actually trying to steal the diamond.  As the ship was going down, Elongated Man tried to grab Sue, but before he could the ship exploded and besides for finding out that The Riddler was infatuated with Sue and wanted to marry her, we don't have any real info about why Riddler singled out these six or why Elongated Man looks like he currently looks.  

In the end, Big Shot drives the gang down to the docks to where he believes Riddler is now hiding out, but it all appears to be a set up so Riddler could once again acquire his prisoners.  Sue is reunited with Ralph and I'm left wondering whether she actually has feelings for Riddler and this is all a set up for Ralph as well or if she was held captive by Nygma....... it's all a bit confusing.  Whatever is actually going on though, it looks like Riddler still plans on marrying Sue so I guess we'll have to wait until next issue to get some answers on what's going down.

That's it for this issue of Secret Six and even though I'm ecstatic that we continued with where we left off from issue #3, the explanations about what's really going on were kind of.......thin?  Is thin the word I'm looking for?  Big Shot is Ralph Dibny and he looks like this hulking brute because....... well, we actually never find out.  Riddler is calling himself Mockingbird because.......well, we actually never find out and Sue's been hanging with Riddler...... well, you get the idea.  Even us finding out why all of our "heroes" are chosen to be Mockingbird's prisoners wasn't really explored because all we know is that they were all at his "look at my diamond" party.  I do like the direction the story is taking because it seems really interesting, but I would have liked a little more in getting us there.  The art in this issue is great though and I'm happy as hell to have Dale Eaglesham back and Tom Derenick is great as well.  Hopefully we get the answers to our questions in the next issue because Gail Simone has my attention, I just want her to keep it.

Bits and Pieces:

Secret Six seems to be back on track with the story it's trying to tell, but too many questions linger here for me to get really excited about where we're going.  Yeah, the story is fun, but not everything makes sense to me and at times explanations feel a bit forced.  The art in this book is great and what this issue brings makes me pretty excited for where we're going....... just as long as everything makes sense when we get there.

6.5/10