Secret Six #36

You know you're in trouble when Ragdoll is the voice of reason. On the eve of Bane's plan to take on Batman by attacking those closest to him the team begins to fray as they are surrounded by heroes who have followed the Penguin's tracker to the abadoned warehouse the Secret Six is using as its temporary base.

In an attempt to end things quickly Huntress calls in favors and brings in everybody, and I do mean everybody, to take the Six down, but as Huntress realizes far too late this isn't the team to back down against an overwhelming show of force. As Ragdoll points out this team only has one redeeming virtue: they simply don't know when to quit. That's one lesson they never learned.

The Secret Six aren't just another super-villain team. As screwed up as they all are there's something noble about a group who will fight for each other, against all odds, knowing the chance of actually winning is impossibly high. And in this final issue Gail Simone let's them go out Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid style.

This final issue also gives us King Shark eating half of a mobster responsible for the kidnapping and murder a ten year-old girl, a marriage proposal that would make Glenn Beck's head explode, and one hellacious final battle.

If I have any complaints with the way the Six go out, it's only small ones. I appreciate that the team goes out on their terms. I also like that Ragdoll and Huntress are the ones who see the truth so clearly here and that Scandal is given a moment to wrap up her personal storyline.

Are these last two issues all little too Bane-centeric for my tastes? Perhaps a little. I would have liked to have seen the series go out on a Catman storyline instead, but Gail Simone gives him plenty to do in this issue including a couple nice scenes with his best bud Deadshot and his final conversation with Huntress.

We know King Shark and Deadshot (both horrifically redesigned) will be showing up in the new Suicide Squad but so far there's been no word about what will happen to the other members of the team after the DC Reboot. I'm hoping the Six will rise again, but realizing both comic fans and publishers are fickle (and often don't listen to each other all that well) I realize this might be the end of the Secret Six.

I'll hold out hope, because Gail Simone's already performed one miracle. She took an under-utilized Bat-villain from my childhood who had become a joke and turned him into one kick-ass anti-hero. If she can do that for Catman who's to say she won't find a way to resurrect the Secret Six as well?

[DC, $2.99]