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Secret Six (Collected Editions, vol. 3) #1-2
Secret Six, Book 2: Money for Murder
The gang’s all Catman, Scandal, Deadshot, Ragdoll and their new recruits gear up to get out of dodge after a contract has been put out on the Secret Six. Join the team as they shoot, swindle, and scam their way out of the most dangerous parts of the DC Universe, and the grips of its most dangerous killers!
New York Times best-selling writer Gail Simone (BATGIRL, Red Sonja, Deadpool), is joined by artists Nicola Scott (EARTH 2), Douglas Hazlewood (TEEN TITANS), Javier Pina (SWAMP THING) and more in SECRET MONEY AND MURDER (collects SECRET SIX #1-14), for the most brutal battles yet of the DCU's band of baddies!
New York Times best-selling writer Gail Simone (BATGIRL, Red Sonja, Deadpool), is joined by artists Nicola Scott (EARTH 2), Douglas Hazlewood (TEEN TITANS), Javier Pina (SWAMP THING) and more in SECRET MONEY AND MURDER (collects SECRET SIX #1-14), for the most brutal battles yet of the DCU's band of baddies!
336 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2008
7 people are currently reading
107 people want to read
About the author
Gail Simone
1,081 books1,241 followersGail Simone is a comic book writer well-known for her work on Birds of Prey (DC), Wonder Woman (DC), and Deadpool (Marvel), among others, and has also written humorous and critical commentary on comics and the comics industry such as the original "Women in Refrigerators" website and a regular column called "You'll All Be Sorry".
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
October 21, 2021
Oh,my, lots of good adventures with the Secret Six. Encounters with Wonder Woman and Artemis, and betrayal and mayhem for all in range.
October 29, 2023
Hell yea. This series still rocks. The Secret Six have new members but the same old dysfunction! Now that the first volume got all the pleasantries and introduction out of the way, Gail Simone starts doing what she does and knocks it out of the park with a second volume that’s even funnier and more focused than the first. The Six get caught up managing a slavery ring, have a run-in with Wonder Woman, and in the book’s best arc, find themselves in the middle of a deadly hunt for a bonafide Get-Out-Of-Hell-Free Card! Gail Simone’s version of a pacifist and philosophical Bane is fantastic and it’s criminal that this series isn’t talked about more!
March 11, 2018
I enjoyed this book a lot more than the first. This is where the characters and story really seem to come into their own. Gail Simone writes Bane better than anyone else, and he is easily the best character in this book. I loved the first story arc involving the team having to carry an asset cross-country. The second arc, involving an island of slaves was not as good, but I did enjoy Wonder Woman showing up. I’m excited to see where this series goes as I think Simone has a great handle on these characters. The characters are really the strength of this book as most of the stories so far have just been okay.
June 25, 2019
4 1/2 stars
January 18, 2021
Another wonderful volume!
I'm really enjoying this series and I love having Nicola Scott on the art! Every page was gorgeous and it just added to a comic with some of the most interesting writing I've read in a comic in quite some time. Again, even more so than the last one, you see the start of such terrifying concepts as Clean Room with "Junior" in this book. The most interesting part about Junior, Jeannete and Artemis' introductions (to this series anyway) is that their backstories are so sympathetic that you feel for them, even as you understand that the plot is working against them in a lot of ways.
I read the Birds of Prey issue where they lost Knockout a while back but I forgot most of the details. It was sad to see Scandal grieving for her and seeing her in all of the tall gorgeous red heads that kept crossing her path. Scandal's bond with Bane was interesting and sweet in a way you don't often see without a writer inevitably pushing the male protector and his charge into a romantic situation. Thus far, I feel certain that isn't Simone's plan and I'm glad for it. Though Bane's protectiveness over Scandal veers into infantilizing a tiny bit for me.
Junior was absolutely terrifying. The Alcatraz heist and the multi million dollar bounty on the Secret Six's heads was really fun to read. The plots just keep getting better in this series.
I am interested in the fact that the few times I come into contact with Diana's views on killing, I disagree with her. One of the best parts about reading a book about anti heroes is that, when your own personal morals align with the anti heroes, you're sort of forced to realize the ways in which you own morality wouldn't fly with your heroes. In this book, I was more on Scandal Savage's wavelength than Wonder Woman? It's happened a few times in the past like in DC Bombshells where she stopped Steve Trevor from killing Nazis and here where she basically tells Scandal Savage to get far away from her because Scandal admitted to making an exception for killing slavers. Considering what these men did to their captives, I honestly can't disagree with Scandal...
Anyway, Artemis was a pleasant surprise in Rebirth Red Hood and the Outlaws (before that ill advised romance plot) and I was pleased to see her here. The Amazonian plot in this book was really interesting and unexpected.
All in all, definitely a recommend and I can't wait t read what happens next!
I'm really enjoying this series and I love having Nicola Scott on the art! Every page was gorgeous and it just added to a comic with some of the most interesting writing I've read in a comic in quite some time. Again, even more so than the last one, you see the start of such terrifying concepts as Clean Room with "Junior" in this book. The most interesting part about Junior, Jeannete and Artemis' introductions (to this series anyway) is that their backstories are so sympathetic that you feel for them, even as you understand that the plot is working against them in a lot of ways.
I read the Birds of Prey issue where they lost Knockout a while back but I forgot most of the details. It was sad to see Scandal grieving for her and seeing her in all of the tall gorgeous red heads that kept crossing her path. Scandal's bond with Bane was interesting and sweet in a way you don't often see without a writer inevitably pushing the male protector and his charge into a romantic situation. Thus far, I feel certain that isn't Simone's plan and I'm glad for it. Though Bane's protectiveness over Scandal veers into infantilizing a tiny bit for me.
Junior was absolutely terrifying. The Alcatraz heist and the multi million dollar bounty on the Secret Six's heads was really fun to read. The plots just keep getting better in this series.
I am interested in the fact that the few times I come into contact with Diana's views on killing, I disagree with her. One of the best parts about reading a book about anti heroes is that, when your own personal morals align with the anti heroes, you're sort of forced to realize the ways in which you own morality wouldn't fly with your heroes. In this book, I was more on Scandal Savage's wavelength than Wonder Woman? It's happened a few times in the past like in DC Bombshells where she stopped Steve Trevor from killing Nazis and here where she basically tells Scandal Savage to get far away from her because Scandal admitted to making an exception for killing slavers. Considering what these men did to their captives, I honestly can't disagree with Scandal...
Anyway, Artemis was a pleasant surprise in Rebirth Red Hood and the Outlaws (before that ill advised romance plot) and I was pleased to see her here. The Amazonian plot in this book was really interesting and unexpected.
All in all, definitely a recommend and I can't wait t read what happens next!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 23, 2015
This volume is as mixed a bag as the team itself. It has some of the best characterization in the entire series (particularly for Scandal and Bane), but also includes the worst story from the series' run. That's the last story, and you'll enjoy the first two far more, but once it ends you know whatever comes next will be better. You'll read this for the characters, and you'll love it for them. Hell, you'll buy the next book for them.
So Knockout is dead. DC editorial killed her off outside of Secret Six, an infuriating trend in DC and Marvel comics, and we open on Scandal mourning her lover. Simone makes the most of it by writing the team giving Scandal the worst pick-me-up possible: by hiring a stripper famously for cosplaying Knockout to be her girlfriend for a night. That's Secret Six in a nutshell: this quirky found-family finding inappropriate ways to deal with tragedy.
It's largely a volume about handling death. The first story follows a "Get Out of Hell Free" Card forged by the Devil himself, which has every costumed mercenary in America hunting for anyone who might be carrying it. The next story follows Batman's alleged death, and the humorous rivalry between Catman and Bane over who would be a better replacement for him. Both stories are full of action, but are about mercenaries growing weary of living in the gray zone, realizing they've got to grow up and do better. And then a bar fight breaks out, because it's funny to see Scandal beat up douche bags.
Bane has also randomly joined the team, and feels the best he's been since Knightfall introduced him, or at least since No Man's Land. Most writers don't grasp what makes him work. He's not a brute or a hulk, but a person psychologically scarred by growing up from birth in prison, who fetishizes order because it's always kept him alive.
He's also a recovering junkie from Venom, a drug that once gave him super strength. Inevitably the team is backed into a corner and he takes it again - but it's the fallout, and how the team cares for him in withdrawal, that shows how well Simone gets what makes him work.
Because it's Simone, Bane even gets to be funny - by trying to fix "Scandal" by daddying her.
The other character you have to meet is Jeanette. She's a banshee. Jeanette seemed like an excuse for artists to draw Victorian-style clothing in this otherwise modern setting, but now she gets phenomenal growth. What were tragic back stories for how she died becomes a rare depiction of PTSD: she's undead, but not over having died. There's one fight scene in particular that triggers her back to her own beheading, making it a character weakness much more sympathetic than early infodumps and flashbacks on her existence. Now she comes across as a vital reboot of DC's old Silver Banshee idea.
But we can't talk about this collection without examining the Prison Nation story. The Six are hired to serve as security on an island of slaves, which opens up a dozen conversations that are cut short. Can killers really look down on slavery? It's a great question that the series never has the guts to grapple with. People just change their minds and brawl. Wonder Woman randomly shows up; so does Grendel. We're informed that Grendel and Scandal are technically siblings, but we're informed a couple pages before the story ends. The team divides over the morality of psychologically torturing an Amazon, most of them seeming to takes sides for no reason. It just feels like a setup for backstabbing and twists. Nothing feels earned, and only one thing about the status quo changes. It's a story that probably needed to be twice as long, and that needed to be more honest with how its characters engaged in its themes. It's the first time that the Secret Six formula breaks.
That formula in the very next story, though. Which is why I'm pre-ordering Volume 3.
So Knockout is dead. DC editorial killed her off outside of Secret Six, an infuriating trend in DC and Marvel comics, and we open on Scandal mourning her lover. Simone makes the most of it by writing the team giving Scandal the worst pick-me-up possible: by hiring a stripper famously for cosplaying Knockout to be her girlfriend for a night. That's Secret Six in a nutshell: this quirky found-family finding inappropriate ways to deal with tragedy.
It's largely a volume about handling death. The first story follows a "Get Out of Hell Free" Card forged by the Devil himself, which has every costumed mercenary in America hunting for anyone who might be carrying it. The next story follows Batman's alleged death, and the humorous rivalry between Catman and Bane over who would be a better replacement for him. Both stories are full of action, but are about mercenaries growing weary of living in the gray zone, realizing they've got to grow up and do better. And then a bar fight breaks out, because it's funny to see Scandal beat up douche bags.
Bane has also randomly joined the team, and feels the best he's been since Knightfall introduced him, or at least since No Man's Land. Most writers don't grasp what makes him work. He's not a brute or a hulk, but a person psychologically scarred by growing up from birth in prison, who fetishizes order because it's always kept him alive.
He's also a recovering junkie from Venom, a drug that once gave him super strength. Inevitably the team is backed into a corner and he takes it again - but it's the fallout, and how the team cares for him in withdrawal, that shows how well Simone gets what makes him work.
Because it's Simone, Bane even gets to be funny - by trying to fix "Scandal" by daddying her.
The other character you have to meet is Jeanette. She's a banshee. Jeanette seemed like an excuse for artists to draw Victorian-style clothing in this otherwise modern setting, but now she gets phenomenal growth. What were tragic back stories for how she died becomes a rare depiction of PTSD: she's undead, but not over having died. There's one fight scene in particular that triggers her back to her own beheading, making it a character weakness much more sympathetic than early infodumps and flashbacks on her existence. Now she comes across as a vital reboot of DC's old Silver Banshee idea.
But we can't talk about this collection without examining the Prison Nation story. The Six are hired to serve as security on an island of slaves, which opens up a dozen conversations that are cut short. Can killers really look down on slavery? It's a great question that the series never has the guts to grapple with. People just change their minds and brawl. Wonder Woman randomly shows up; so does Grendel. We're informed that Grendel and Scandal are technically siblings, but we're informed a couple pages before the story ends. The team divides over the morality of psychologically torturing an Amazon, most of them seeming to takes sides for no reason. It just feels like a setup for backstabbing and twists. Nothing feels earned, and only one thing about the status quo changes. It's a story that probably needed to be twice as long, and that needed to be more honest with how its characters engaged in its themes. It's the first time that the Secret Six formula breaks.
That formula in the very next story, though. Which is why I'm pre-ordering Volume 3.
Read
May 18, 2016Gail Simone is extraordinarily talented, and this series does an admirable job in adding new perspectives to the DC universe. These guys aren't moustache-twirling villains, but they're not good guys either, and you get their perspective on seemingly simple perspectives like "all women love the Amazons" and "betraying your team is bad" and "those nice brothers are nice guys". It's just not as FUN as my Marvel wheelhouse, so I'm not sure overall if I like it.
July 1, 2018
Like Suicide Squad, but better. Also like the Squad, this book is super torture porny. It gets substantially better with the second and third arcs in this book, where they think they may want to behave like heroes. The Ragdoll interstitial story is truly delightful, and provides nice insight into his perspective on the world.
February 3, 2017
Brilliant, brutal, disturbing. I'd give it 5 stars, but honestly, it was so relentlessly horrible, I can't bring myself to do it! Feminist by way of showing you what the opposite looks like, then slitting its throat. Then everybody gets hurt anyway. Maybe not for everyone!
August 27, 2016
Thoroughly enjoyed this. Simone knows how to make a reader care for villains, no matter how bloodthirsty they are. Great story, great sexy art by Nicola Scott.
August 20, 2018
Book 1 was good, but it didn't have Nicola Scott on art duties. That's what pushes this volume to 5 stars. It's also the volume where the six come into their own, with the addition of Bane, as well as the evolution of Ragdoll into a much weirder character that he will continue to be. The gang is still completely amoral, and each member is amoral in his or her own way. Sure, some of them have a personal sense of honour, but you'd have to look really hard to find it. I mean, sure, Deadshot doesn't like being tricked to shoot a runaway slave in the back, but what is it that pisses him off - the slave, that she's a runaway, that he was tricked? Who knows?
The best trick the book pulls off is its balance of dark and funny. The banter is offset by some truly sick stuff, even among team members. Simply put, the team cares about each other, but most of them don't put the team above their own well-being. As it should be.
The two major arcs are both really good, the first featuring a twisted villain that could be dismissed as "trying too hard" if it was someone other than Simone writing. But Simone creates a wonderful combination of menace and body horror, without reducing them to a cackling self-parody. The second arc features villains no less sickening, but of a very different sort. It's also a fun story about what really happens when the team goes up against a genuine A-lister (Hint: It doesn't go well.)
The volume also contains what I believe is the beginning of the Nightwing ass-fixation. Make of that what you will, but if you enjoy your superhero glutes lovingly rendered, you can do worse than Nicola Scott.
The best trick the book pulls off is its balance of dark and funny. The banter is offset by some truly sick stuff, even among team members. Simply put, the team cares about each other, but most of them don't put the team above their own well-being. As it should be.
The two major arcs are both really good, the first featuring a twisted villain that could be dismissed as "trying too hard" if it was someone other than Simone writing. But Simone creates a wonderful combination of menace and body horror, without reducing them to a cackling self-parody. The second arc features villains no less sickening, but of a very different sort. It's also a fun story about what really happens when the team goes up against a genuine A-lister (Hint: It doesn't go well.)
The volume also contains what I believe is the beginning of the Nightwing ass-fixation. Make of that what you will, but if you enjoy your superhero glutes lovingly rendered, you can do worse than Nicola Scott.
November 10, 2015
I was trying to decide if I liked this volume any better than the first, but I think they're on fairly equal ground. There's a bit of a shift in the team this time, with Bane joining the ranks and I quite liked that - I'm a fan of Bane. A couple of the big DC heroes show up in this too, which was nice, and one figures quite prominently in the later half of the collection. As expected, the stories are engaging and the villainous characters are perhaps more likable than many people are comfortable with. Then again, that's the point of a title focusing on a team of "bad guys".
February 10, 2017
The Secret Six series is a incredibly fun read, it's a shame that this doesnt get enough love from the DCU fandom. I'll even go as far to say I like the second book better than the first
(also, Gail it's apparent that you need to give CatShot their own mini-series, spin off, one-shot, whatever because these own kinda steal the spotlight from everyone else)
(also, Gail it's apparent that you need to give CatShot their own mini-series, spin off, one-shot, whatever because these own kinda steal the spotlight from everyone else)
July 22, 2015
Excellent continuation that continues to turn b-list and gimmicky villains into characters that you will care about. The story flows nicely too and is it continuously filled with big risks and unexpected twists that leave you shocked. Definitely reommend for a fan of comics or villains.
August 8, 2016
They should have made a Secret Six movie instead of the terrible Suicide Squad one as this comic is far superior in every way.
A Special mention to Nicola Scott's awesome art in this, I think after Frank Quietly, she is my favourite artists currently working in comics.
A Special mention to Nicola Scott's awesome art in this, I think after Frank Quietly, she is my favourite artists currently working in comics.
January 17, 2018
Scott's art is amazing in this book, and it is accompanied by some really good coloring. Simone script maintains the Six in their own little corner of the DCU with a few cameos here and there that serve to connect with some incidents end events of that timeline in the publisher. With their unique villains and team dynamic, this is a must if you're fan of the first book.
March 19, 2021
Extremely fun. Reading this series is helping keep my mind off things with my health right now and it's wild and goofy and violent and extremely enjoyable for that. Every now and then I check in with some of the deeper aspects of the comic or choices and cringe a bit, but it's fulfilling its purpose right now to sweep me away, and so for that I am thankful.
Read
December 15, 2022Still a bit messy at times, and every story has one of the six betray each other and then come back together in the end, but man it’s just so fun! I like Nicola Scott, but she’s gotten much better since this book. I think the coloring/inking is hindering her pencils, but she’s still super expressive.
June 28, 2023
8.5/10 this was like the most fun I’ve had reading a comic book in a while. Great characters, brutal action, funny dialogue, great plot, just all around great. The arc about the card and the few issues following were INCREDIBLE and while the arc on the slave island wasn’t as captivating, it was still a Damn good read. Overall loved it. Thank you Nadav for recommending this to me.
November 12, 2018
I thought this was strong. The book seems to be really gaining momentum.
I was a little disappointed in the Big Reveal. It made a lot of sense, but wasn't related to things I was interested in.
I was a little disappointed in the Big Reveal. It made a lot of sense, but wasn't related to things I was interested in.
May 29, 2019
Love all the characters and the continuation of this team. BUT Feel like I’m really missing the Birds if Prey crossover and I say that should be read first.
December 3, 2020
I'm just glad I don't have to read it anymore. The best part was Bane and Scandal's father-daughter relationship and the rest was either meh or cringe-worthy.
September 20, 2022
Get Out of Hell Free. Batman is not replaceable by Catman. Banshee and the Amazons.
December 16, 2022
I really enjoyed this. There was a lot of good character work too...
May 9, 2025
ragdoll rules!
good art, fun storyline.
good art, fun storyline.
June 12, 2016
I enjoyed this better than the first collection. I'm interested to see more.
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March 27, 2018Dead shot and Rag Doll amuse me. Often I wonder what’s going on like where did Bane come from? But, hey,it’s all in good fun. Well, antihero fun.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews