Villians United TP 1st print Gail Simone Dale Eaglesham Infinite Crisis Secret Six

Description

Villains United Paperback
Writer Gail Simone
Art Dale Eaglesham

When the super-criminal community learns that the Justice League of America tampered with their minds, they band together in a deadly alliance, seeking vengeance.

But not everyone agrees. Six villains refuse to join this new Society. Recruited by the enigmatic Mockingbird, these rogues are all that stand in the way of an all-out war between hero and villain. But who is Mockingbird and what is the real agenda?

The Society’s murderous mission rocks the status quo between good and evil as shocking revelations make certain that when the Secret Six complete their mission, nothing in the DC Universe will ever be the same!

Villains United is one of the four miniseries that lead up to DC’s Infinite Crisis. Lex Luthor uses the events of Identity Crisis (as well as the threat of unstoppable force) to persuade nearly every super villain to join his “society,” which is led by a core group of himself, Deathstroke, Talia, Black Adam, Dr. Psycho, and Calculator. But a band of relatively obscure villains–Cat Man, Scandal, Cheshire, Deadshot, Parademon, and Ragdoll–organized by a mysterious figure named Mockingbird and calling themselves the Secret Six, defy Luthor, leading to all-out war. It’s action-packed and includes some fantastic full-page shots, and is fun for people who like to pick out people from criminal lineups. If you can’t recognize everyone, the trade paperback has a guide to the characters as well as a summary of events leading up to the six-issue series.

Collecting VILLAINS UNITED #1-6.

Publisher DC Comics
Paperback 144 pages
ISBN-13 978-1401208387
Weight 9.6 ounces
Dimensions 6.67 x 0.25 x 10.2 inches

One of the best Infinite Crisis prequel stories, Villains United opens with a few pages summarizing the slow buildup reveal of Lex Luthor’s Secret Society of Supervillains. The Society had been hinted at in numerous comics across DC’s publication though they were eventually revealed in Infinite Crisis to be lackeys of the real culprit: Alexander Luthor of Earth 3 posing as his Earth 1 counterpart. Villains United shows a great counter view point of the Society’s reveal from the point of view of the Secret Six: a small group of B and C list villains who operate on their own terms and outright refuse to join the Society, despite the consequences. Cheshire, Parademon, Deadshot, Ragdoll, and Scandal Savage are the base of the team but frankly the real star is Thomas Blake aka Catman. A D-list Batman rogue, Blake is recast here as an honor-bound, badass loner who only wants to protect endangered wild cats. When he refuses the Society, Luthor and his allies (Black Adam, Deathstroke, Talia al Ghuls, Dr. Psycho) balk at being turned down by such a no-name character and dish out retribution, thrusting Catman in league with the Secret Six. Now these two “secret” teams of villains are going head-to-head.

All in all, Villains United has very little to do with the main Infinite Crisis story other than being one of the first comics to reveal that the Luthor of the Secret Society is actually Alexander Luthor in disguise. However, the villains don’t factor too much into Alex’s main plot aside from distracting the DC heroes with their chaos and occasionally kidnapping the survivors of other Earths to power Alex’s Crisis machine (as seen in the main Infinite Crisis story arc). Thus, this book acts as a nice stand alone chapter that pits two fun teams of villains against each other. Again, the biggest boon of Gail Simone’s book is the fact that she does wonders for the Secret Six. While Deadshot has become something of an A list baddie thanks to the Suicide Squad movie and comics and Cheshire had a decent role on the beloved Young Justice cartoon, the rest of the team have fallen out of favor in recent years. I would also highly recommend reading the Infinite Crisis Companion after this book as one of its four stand alone comics acts as a sequel to this book both in showing the massive jailbreak that Alex Luthor executes with the Society, as well as the Secret Six contemplating whether or not they’re finally going to join the battle between the Society and the heroes. Again, any book that can make Catman interesting and cool is a winner.

Collects Villains United #1-6. Near mint, 1st print.