Letters to Secret Six #7

[HoM]

Please take a moment and let us know what you thought of this issue!

[HoM]

This is what I'm talking about. I've always enjoyed a prison break, be it the titular TV show, or the ridiculous Christopher Lambert franchise, Fortress, I love seeing folks come together to get out of a place (yes, I know, my references are extremely specific, and there are much better prison break films out there, but c’mon, I’m a product of my millennial upbringing).

UDC, your handle on these characters shines through every single issue, and the way you’re furthering the ongoing plot threads of previous arcs, even as you push ahead with new stories, is masterful. Each arc featuring a focus on a different member of the Six gives me a good idea of how many stories we have until the “season finale” (three more arcs? Maybe four?) and that countdown gives this a kind of urgency I appreciate.

There are so many questions being juggled, and I love seeing the framework of the world you’ve created in action. The Six behind bars, working the system; the flashbacks to Mister Toad’s past; Penguin’s continued machinations and wanting of revenge. In previous issues, it was the torture and brainwashing of Hammer, and as I’ve seen the next issue, I know there’s more to come on that trend.

To be honest with you, I’m surprised I enjoy this book as much as I do—I pitch this book to people as “an Arkham City-styled Secret Six”, which it both is and isn’t, but I think gives the right kind of idea. And really… how is that supposed to work? I don’t know, but it does. Not only does it work, it fires on all cylinders, and it’s so totally in the spirit of the DC2, a successor to New Outsiders in an age where the DC2niverse doesn’t get to see that title anymore.

Anyway, thanks for sharing your work, and I look forward to both editing, posting and reading the next issue!

Here’s hoping your Professor Pyg is as much an abomination as Morrison’s.

[UltimateDC]

Jun 1, 2018 11:41:04 GMT -5 HoM said:

This is what I'm talking about. I've always enjoyed a prison break, be it the titular TV show, or the ridiculous Christopher Lambert franchise, Fortress, I love seeing folks come together to get out of a place (yes, I know, my references are extremely specific, and there are much better prison break films out there, but c’mon, I’m a product of my millennial upbringing).

The idea for this story came from prison stories like Oz or the previously mentioned Orange is the New Black. It just seems a fertile environment to tell stories in, one defined by constant danger, tribalism, and inertness. Plus I thought it would be a good place to explore Toad's character since it's somewhere both familiar and hostile.

UDC, your handle on these characters shines through every single issue, and the way you’re furthering the ongoing plot threads of previous arcs, even as you push ahead with new stories, is masterful. Each arc featuring a focus on a different member of the Six gives me a good idea of how many stories we have until the “season finale” (three more arcs? Maybe four?) and that countdown gives this a kind of urgency I appreciate.

Thanks, man. Character is definitely at the forefront of any story with these folks because it's just so much fun to throw them into these kinds of hopeless situations and see how they handle it. As for the various plot threads, I'm trying to make this story feel continuous - episodic, yes, but still serialized enough that it all feels connected. I'm glad to see that's working and hope I can bring it to a satisfying conclusion.

There are so many questions being juggled, and I love seeing the framework of the world you’ve created in action. The Six behind bars, working the system; the flashbacks to Mister Toad’s past; Penguin’s continued machinations and wanting of revenge. In previous issues, it was the torture and brainwashing of Hammer, and as I’ve seen the next issue, I know there’s more to come on that trend.

I'm going to go on a tangent about backstories here, so bear with me:

About a week ago I saw Solo: A Star Wars Story, and while it was a fun diversion and all, it was a pretty empty movie, made more for fans to go "I understand that reference" than to build mythos or tell a groundbreaking story. I think a big reason why it wasn't terribly complex is that there's not a whole lot to Han Solo as a character. I'm not saying he's a bad character or poorly written, but he's very much an archetype. He arrives in Episode IV fully formed, has a character arc, and goes from there. A prequel about his backstory can't accomplish much because it'll just end up with a guy who's a selfish scoundrel at the start of A New Hope. Say what you will about the Episodes I-III, but at least the backstory of Darth Vader - a super-evil cyborg space wizard who brought down an entire religion/military unit - is big enough that there's a story worth telling somewhere in there.

That's how I feel about the Six. These are characters in the extreme, yes, but that doesn't happen overnight. No one begins their life as a murderer or an assassin or anything like that, and the journey to that point feels to me like a story worth telling. Toad is an odd figure, yes, but there's that delectable contradiction of his scummy affectation and his legitimate loyalty towards the Circus of the Strange and Professor Pyg is particular. How he became someone so weird is something I wanted to get into, and since no one bothered to give him a backstory, I got to make up my own, which was pretty fun.

To be honest with you, I’m surprised I enjoy this book as much as I do—I pitch this book to people as “an Arkham City-styled Secret Six”, which it both is and isn’t, but I think gives the right kind of idea. And really… how is that supposed to work? I don’t know, but it does. Not only does it work, it fires on all cylinders, and it’s so totally in the spirit of the DC2, a successor to New Outsiders in an age where the DC2niverse doesn’t get to see that title anymore.

That means a lot. New Outsiders has always been one of my favorites on this site. I didn't aim to put the spirit of that series into the Six, but I'm flattered to read the comparison all the same.

Anyway, thanks for sharing your work, and I look forward to both editing, posting and reading the next issue!

Here’s hoping your Professor Pyg is as much an abomination as Morrison’s.

I don't know if I can match the madness of Grant Morrison, but I'll give it my best.

Thanks for reading and commenting!

-UDC