Review: ‘Secret Six’ #1 Deals With Some Heavy Repercussions
by Tony Thornley
Last year, Amanda Waller took over the DC Universe. The Justice League reformed to stop her. Now, the Secret Six re-assembles to clean up her mess.
Nicole Maines, Stephen Segovia, Rain Beredo and Steve Wands dive into the DCU’s dark side.
Superman, Gossamyr and Dreamer are still still dealing with trauma inflicted by Waller during her takeover. Unfortunately, when Dreamer gets a vision that Waller may have escaped prison, she knows that she can’t sit back and let that happen. Soon, the trio have set in motion a battle they may not be able to win, at least not without the help of Deadshot, Catman and Black Alice!
Overall, I really enjoyed this issue. While I’m still not the biggest fan of aged-up Jon Kent, I can accept it is what it is. Maines does a fantastic job dealing with the trauma he’s fighting from Brainiac Queen and Waller assimilating him Borg-style, and using him as a puppet. Really, the only rough spot in Jon’s storyline is actually in Bizarro’s dialogue, which admittedly very difficult to write.
She also does some interesting things with Dreamer, helping build sympathy for her and her journey just enough that it doesn’t clutter the story. She makes it clear that there’s more coming in the series for Nia. What she does here is the hook to keep us invested.
Where the issue falls short is in the character of Jay Nakamura. The character has existed for three years now, and I still fail to see why we should care. He has no personality outside of “angry” and it’s a problem that continues to get worse the longer he’s around. He’s a cipher, and I’m continuing to see no reason why we should be invested in the character outside of Jon Kent caring about him… That’s not going to be enough, and frankly it’s going to reach a point soon that Jon is going to be better off as a character without him.
Segovia is quietly one of the best superhero artists in comics. His work in the opening sequence of Jon fighting Bizarro is engaging, and he doesn’t fall into the trap of skimping on the details while two characters are brawling. In the quieter moments, he gives the story room to breathe. Dreamer’s panic after waking up from her vision is paced just right that we don’t just feel for her in the immediate aftermath, but we can take in details around her to show why the vision was so troubling. The characters’ faces do get a little over-stylized in a few places with Jon and Jay getting very wide, chibi-like eyes in a few panels, but overall, I love his work here.
Beredo is incredibly good at working colors into Segovia’s lush pencils, making the line work blend into the color with an almost inkwash effect. He matches the mood and helps set the scene for every beat in the script with his color choices.
Secret Six #1 is available now from DC Comics.
Overview
I was a bit on the fence with this series announcement. After this issue though, I’m excited to see the rest of the series play out. Maines has really become a talent to watch.
