Comic Book Review: Secret Six #23

Book Information
Written by John Ostrander
Penciled by RB Silva
Colored by Jason Wright
Inked by Alexandre Palamaro
Lettered by Travis Lanham
Cover by Daniel Luvisi

My Awe-Inspiring Opinion
I can’t count on my two hands and feet how many times the premise of this issue has been rehashed in TV, radio, and film; rich hunters have become bored with the same old game in their spoiled lives and wish for something new to hunt to rejuvenate their killer instincts. What better way then to use real humans right? But how dumb can these people be to take on a band of intelligent, yet ruthless killers? This overdone story premise is fun and exciting, thanks to John Ostrander, but I can’t help but wonder if this was purely more of a throw away issue then anything else.

Now maybe it’s just me, but I’ve always felt that the Secret Six to be a completely different entity from anything else in the comic book genre. This is a gang of criminals and murderers that I hold a certain level of respect for, the same type of respect I have for Hannibal Lectors character; they are paid to do awful things, and have very little regard for humanity in general…yet you like them. While in this issue we still get that same twisted feeling from each character, the story itself seems to stray away from what appealed to me since this title began.

Each character is given their own personal moment of victory in killing their hunter. Bane explains that snapping the spine of one man would show little respect for the Dark Knight, and instead beats the man to death with his own arm. This is very in line with Bane’s character and is quite humorous at that. However, each character seemed to be given an advantage by the organizer of this whole ordeal that felt a little too convenient. Scandal Savage is at her best when pissed off, The acrobatic environment made it an easy kill for Catman, Bane is almost impervious to…well anything, Deadshot is given one bullet which can do wonders with, and I’m not sure they organizer understands that Ragdoll truly has no fear. I’m sure we all enjoyed reading this as it fits into the cultural context of the series, but I wasn’t as impressed with Ostrander’s “Hey! Look what the Secret Six can do” type of story.

Silva is new to me. I’ve seen his art many times but never had a consistent diet of it. It’s very nice and fits in well with the six, but I felt at times that the inking and coloring were not as complimentary as they should have been. But that’s only a minor gripe, not enough to detract from the talent coming from the artistic team.

My Profoundly Climactic Conclusion
The premise has been done way too many times, but it’s still fun to read. Ostrander did a nice job at presenting some possible new mysteries too! Did Ragdoll actually kill his mom? Why does Jeanette despise getting wet? Some potential may come out of this Secret Six installment yet.

Ratings
Writing: 8
Themes: 5
Art: 7
Overall: 6.67 out of 10