DCU Comic Book Reviews

SECRET SIX #14

Depths, Part Five:  Early Release

December 2009

Written by Gail Simone

Pencils by Nicola Scott

Inks by Doug Hazelwood

Cover by Daniel LuVisi

Synopsis

On a remote island designed by Smythe as a place for slavery and criminals, Wonder Woman is held captive by the demon Grendel.  Elsewhere, Catman is helping Jeannette to rescue the Amazons being held captive.  Bane and Scandal were helping as well, but now Scandal is frightened by the place of slavery.  She wants Bane to take Venom.  He refuses.  So she takes it.  Elsewhere, Deadshot and Ragdoll are hunting their former teammates, whose rescue of the Amazons goes against their employer, Smyth.  However, Ragdoll decides to find Smyth and beat him up.   Meanwhile, Catman and Jeannette are fighting Smyth’s bodyguard.  Just as the bodyguard is about to kill Jeannette, Deadshot kills her.  Elsewhere, Scandal is fighting Grendel and losing.  She is saved by Wonder Woman, who kills the demon.  Smyth, meanwhile, tells the Amazons they are wanted criminals and if they escape, they will be hunted down.  The Amazons decide to commit suicide rather than return to prison.  However, Wonder Woman stops them.  Afterwards, the Six return home.  Because of her actions, Bane decides to take control of the team from Scandal.  And his first order of business is to kick Scandal off the team.    

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

This was an average conclusion to the prison/slavery storyline.  There is a lot of stuff going on and it feels a little rushed (and may have been as the next story is connected to Blackest Night so maybe Simone needed to end early).  Anyway, I think the biggest problem is the role of Wonder Woman and the giant plot hole her role seems to cover (see below for more).  Besides that, I think Simone provided some nice moments with the Secret Six, dealing with their split and finding ways to continue their dysfunctional relationship even more.  At first, the Bane and Scandal relationship was odd, but as it has grown, it has become even more complex and I love the twists and surprises that Simone keeps tossing our way.  The rest of the team are still engaging, especially the dark, violent turn from Ragdoll, away from his usually comedic self, but showing that dark underbelly he has.  All of the team has gotten moments like that, so it was nice to see Ragdoll get his this issue.  Overall, this book still remains my favorite.  I think Simone needs to stay away from guest stars and focus on the team, to give them the space they need.

As I said, there is one big whopping plot hole in this issue.  At the beginning, Grendel has Wonder Woman bound to a table.  He is about to kill her.  Not only does he decide to leave her living when he goes to find the others, but somehow Diana is able to escape her predicament.  Two big problems.  First, why would Grendel care about the others?  He is a demon, with prey he seemingly will enjoy killing.  So, why leave.  Second, we don’t see Diana escape.  She just suddenly appears out of nowhere to recreate one of her famous scenes to kill Grendel.  It would have been nice to see Diana escape.  As it is, her appearance feels like a deus ex machina.  She suddenly appears, solves the conflict, saves the Amazons, conveniently looks the other way with the murders by the Six (or even the face they are wanted criminals), and then declares she will fix the prison. 

This was a brutal comic.  There is a lot of violence in this comic and a bunch of violence that we don’t see, but is still mentioned (such as Catman’s plan to make sure the bodyguard remains dead).  Since this is a book about a group of criminals, violence and killing generally works.  But not at the amount that we see here. 

I have to quibble with Diana’s assertion that Grendel was a demon.  Grendel tells Scandal that he is the son of Cain, the “first murderer” as he says on the third page, and a “cavebeast of a mother”.  Both seem to be human to me.  So, that would make him human.  A very old human, but human nonetheless.  The only way he could be considered a demon is if his immortality was the result of some demony thing he did (don’t you love the technical talk).  However, that is never explained here.  For all Diana knows, he is human. 

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