Reviews in Brief: The Middle Man and Secret Six

Villains United/Secret Six
The backlog continues, Gentle Reader, and I know that many of you will be Shocked, absolutely Shocked when you discover that This Humble Author has never read Villains United or The Secret Six. For those Readers of This Humble Blog who are, perhaps, less Constant than others, the shock would be based on This Simple Fact: I adore Ms. Simone's writing. I have read most of her work, I blog about it, I even am teaching her comics (it is true, Friends!), but while I was Familiar with the Secret Six, thanks to Birds of Prey, I had never delved that deep into my backlog of comics, until now.

I have said it before, and I will say it again: Gail Simone is a master of the team up. No one, no one takes disparate characters and makes them work quite like Ms. Simone. Welcome to Tranquility, Birds of Prey, Gen-13, Secret Six, Ms. Simone is able to bring a rather diverse and, in the Secret Six's case, rather dysfunctional group of individuals together and make them a *team*. Catman, Ragdoll, Scandal, Knockout (This Humble Author's Humble Favorite), Mad Hatter, and Deadshot should not work together, but they do. In fact, even when they do not work together, they work together just perfectly.

The relationship between Knockout and Scandal was a familiar one to me, thanks to Birds of Prey. As an Adorer of All Things Amazon, I am fascinated by all things Resembling Amazons; thus, the Furies are particularly fascinating to me. Barda, of course, is a longtime favorite of mine, and Knockout is rapidly becoming another favorite Fury, and another favorite female hero/anti-hero. But the relationship between Knockout and the daughter of Vandal Savage works well on numerous levels, the most basic one on the level of friendship and trust. Written as a fascinating antithesis to the anti-relationship of Cheshire and Catman, the relationship between Knockout and Scandal works because they work well together. The same as the relationship between Catman and Deadshot: two people who should never be friends become friends, and the world seems right.

Dr. Psycho is still the scariest of All Scary Villains for This Humble Author, along with the Joker, but the Mad Hatter is discomforting, as well. It is a testament to Gail Simone's writing that we sympathize with the Mad Hatter, a character who is By All Rights unnerving. But so, too, do we sympathize with Ragdoll, with Deadshot, with all of these anti-heroes/anti-villains who exist in the liminal state between good and evil, between right and wrong. In that gray area, always, is the strength of the team.

Like Grant Morrison's run on X-Men, this mini-series by Gail Simone makes me regret any time I have spent *not* reading it. But now that the Dissertation is A Thing Of The Past, I can return to things like a Very Large Stack of Comics Backlog. Next on the list: getting caught up on Daredevil.

The Middle Man
Gentle Reader, I wanted to hate this pilot, so completely. I do not trust ABC Family for Good Programming. That is to say, I trust them for "good programming," but not for, say, Programming of a Good Quality. But this show is self-aware, smart, funny, absurd, and just pure joy. If you have not seen it yet, do catch one of the encore viewings. I promise you, you Will Not Be Disappointed.