Or - “Is It Okay If I Cheer, Now?”

There has been much discussion at Major Spoilers in recent months about whether we follow titles, characters, or just our fave-rave creative teams from book to book.  Some say they’ll read anything with Spider-Man, some say they gotta finish that run of Avengers, others insist that they only read Brubaker, and anybody else is just Folger Crystals.  I actually subscribe to an odd melange of the three, as well as a tendency to want to read interesting arcs (like the “Club of Heroes” bit in Batman some months back) of things I normally wouldn’t read.  But in Secret Six, we find the Total Package, the Ultimate Warrior, the Texas Rattlesnake, the Heartbreak Kid…  Wait, sorry, that started one place and ended just repeating wrestling nicknames.  In any case, this book represents characters I’ve always liked, (Deadshot especially, ever since I read his reintroduction in Detective Comics from like 1977) a title I’ve collected forever, (I started picking up the original Secret Six issues from 1968 before I got married) and creators that I would crawl over glass and bathe in rubbing alcohol to read (the superlative team of Gail Simone and Nicola Scott.)  Game, set, match, DC wins 3 bucks a month. (more…)

Or - “There Are Some Resurrections That You Just Don’t Complain About…”

Normally, I tend to rant about bringing characters back from the dead. It’s a convention that generally doesn’t work, and I think it’s no coincidence that the two forms of entertainment most guilty of using it (Comic Books and Soap Operas) have stigmas attached to their fanbase. But, frankly, Ice’s death was a cheap 90’s sales ploy carrying just about as much emotional weight as a chromium-embossed Bloodshot cover, and as hypocritical as it might make me seem, I’m gonna chalk up her return in the win column. Of course, she’s currently crazy, and ready to kill both Birds of Prey and Secret Six, so I supposed we have to call it a mixed blessing.
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Or - “Things Continue To Fall To Pieces… Thanks, Spy Smasher!”

With the rather unhappy news that Gail Simone is leaving ‘Birds of Prey,’ the title she pretty much made excellent again, I was a little bit saddened to see this issue in my hold bin. In my mind, it meant one less issue of awesome Gail writing… Turns out my mourning was very much premature, as BoP gave us a nice couple of twists on the traditional comic book fight scene, some character development for several of our twelve or thirteen main characters, and made me almost like the new Spy Smasher. (Turns out she’s still a schmuck, though.) Add to that some of the best matchups in comic book slapfight history, and it was enough to find my smile again…

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Or - “Russian History, Resurrection, The Secret Six And An Immortal Fistfight.”

It’s an interesting time to be a DC character. Sure, you’ve got tons of new storylines, a whole new world opened up, an old multiverse lurking ’round the corner, origins retold, World War III, Darkseid’s in the wings, and a host of all-new sandboxes to play in. Why, they’ve even undone the greatest injustice of Mark Waid’s run on “Justice League America” by revealing that Ice survived her seeming disintegration (if that woman WAS Ice to begin with.) It’s a bright, shiny new DCU, full of infinite possibilities. Of course, that doesn’t stop the BoP’s latest mission from going horribly off the rails and $#*#ing everything up…

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Or - “If They’re Really A Secret Six, Why Are They So High-Profile?”

That look on Lady Blackhawk’s face, my friends, is known to scientists and students of non-verbal communication as the “Skunkeye” ( also called “Stinkeye”), and it is used to imply that the subject of your scrutiny is so suspicious as to actually reek of illegitimacy. It’s commonly seen in singles bars, at all-you-can-eat buffets, and on the face of David Letterman. “But, Matthew,” you’re asking, “why is Babs Gordon’s dark doppelganger, her nemesis from college, the wicked and abusive power-mongering manipulator Spy Smasher sitting alongside Zinda, Babs’ trusted pilot/cowgirl/girl Friday? This can’t be right!” Indeed, my young friends, it is NOT right, but it’s interesting and entertaining, and sometimes that’s almost as good. You can sit here, in the waiting room (or wait there in the sitting room), but get comfy, ’cause Uncle Matthew’s gonna tell a yarn Ah done heard from a lady name’a Gail, in th’ back of an opium den off the arcade in Shanghai… and this ‘uns a corker!

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Or - “Sometimes Inspirado Strikes When It Strikes…”

So, I’ve been emotionally devastated today. First, I watched the two-part finale of season two of Doctor Who. On top of the underlying theme of loss of humanity, lost family, and missed opportunites, I had to endure the most painful breakup I’ve ever seen. It saddens me to the very core to see Rose Tyler completely break down, and worst of all, The Doctor never even got to say… what he should have said. Top that off with a round of American Idol Karaoke Revolution in which Simon Cowell called me awful, Randy Jackson called me “Dawg,” and Boo Berry burbled “Marmalade!” and my ego is as battered as my imaginary friends’ hearts. So, why the heck am I up at 1:30 on a Sunday morning, doing the old crackalacky on the laptop? Sapphire bullets of pure love, my friends, love for you, for comics, for heartbreak, for little Miss Tyler, and most of all, love for The Secret Six and Gail Simone…

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Or “Will You, Won’t You, Will You, Won’t You, Won’t You Join The Dance?”

The “Countdown to Infinite Crisis” tie-in miniseries were a mixed bag. “Rann-Thanagar War” was interesting, but in trying to show us the sheer scope of a war, it ended up feeling like a series of unrelated vignettes. “Day of Vengeance” was excellent, “OMAC Project” good but strange, but in my mind, the real gem of the line was “Villains United.” Not only did it establish the Society (And who’d have thought that a concept like the Secret Society of Super-Villains would be a hot commodity in the 21st Century?) as a major-league threat, it rebuilt the six main characters from the ground up, and proved that ANY character can be the Next Big Thing given a good enough story and competent writing. (more…)