Secret Six #1 Review

There is a cyclical nature to Big Two comics that has been alive and well since I started reading comics around the time of Final Crisis. This cycle is how you can tell the passing of time because every year, we get a big summer event complete with its checklist of spin-offs, tie-ins, and one-shots. Don’t get me wrong—I love big event fun with all of the punching and high-octane drama. But the leaves change, and the lasting effects of the event fade away by the time they fall. But what about when the winter cold rolls in, and I want to see more focus on the interpersonal dynamics that were damaged by all of the bombastic action? Enter Nicole Maines and Stephen Segovia’s Secret Six.

I was chomping at the bit to read this book the moment it was announced because Nicole Maines’ writing of Amanda Waller and the Suicide Squad in Suicide Squad: Dream Team was phenomenal. At first, I was slightly confused by the choice to use the Secret Six name, but this issue earns the title of one of my favorite DC Comics teams. Paired with Stephen Segovia’s art, and colored by Rain Beredo, this is a title I will be impatiently waiting for the next installment of.

In the fallout of Absolute Power, we find Jon Kent left dealing with the scars on his identity inflicted by Amanda Waller taking his mind & body from him. The intro to this issue ends with the repeating phrase of “It’s Over” as Jon Kent talks about how the Brainiac Queen and Waller controlled his brain. I found this to be a strong thesis introduction for the series because it’s not over… Sorry, Jon. Secret Six explores the lasting traumas inflicted upon these characters by Amanda Waller. This is seriously compelling tone setting for this #1 as we see a character, the son of Superman, trying to reassure himself. When a man of steel isn’t invulnerable; what will happen to those without that bulletproof body and mind?

Dreamer has quickly become one of my favorite characters under Nicole Maines’ pen. I understand she IS that character from The CW’s Supergirl, but that doesn’t always mean it will translate to writing the character. Dreamer is… and I say this with all the love in my heart, messy. She has a complicated past and a complicated present. Her relationships with everyone around her are in tatters due to her work with Amanda Waller. It makes her limitlessly fascinating to me because Maines puts her character in the hot water constantly.

Jay, aka Gossamer, would love nothing more than to see her head on a pike after Waller, with Dreamer in tow, inflicted travesties upon his home and family. This is only further complicated by his relationship with his boyfriend Jon, who is still friends with Dreamer. It’s messy and dramatic as verbal jabs are thrown from Jay towards her constantly. It’s really bringing the soap opera nature of comics back to the forefront with really strong writing for these characters who could have been easily shelved after the big event ended.

Instead, we get the Secret Six—a group of the messiest metahumans on the block, as it has always been. The spirit of the two prior series was of the soap opera and the interworkings of character dynamics. That’s why those books are so meaningful to me. I love to watch these characters interact with all the drama that can come with capes and cowls. But seeing the traumas left by a major event through that lens makes this book a must-read.

It is March 5th and Secret Six is dealing with the fallout of last year’s Absolute Power while we all await the announcements of this summer’s events. The cold air slowly shifts towards warmth as time progresses in the cycle again. We forget so many of the events of summers past as they’re washed away with the fall rain. But this comic is a reminder that some scars don’t heal as easily with time in our endless cycle. As flowers bloom, I hope this sets the tone moving forward to allow space to explore those quieter stories and traumas that come with event books, because it allows Secret Six to be something really special.