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[[File:secret-six-10.jpg|frame]]
A [[Legion of Doom|team of supervillains]] in [[The DCU]], there have been several incarnations of the '''Secret Six''', with the current{{when}} team created by [[Gail Simone]] and Dale Eaglesham. This incarnation is made up primarily of villains who are cooperating for personal and commercial reasons, working as a team to commit crimes and perform services for an exorbitant fee.
This version of the Six first turned up in ''Villains United'' #1 (July, 2005), fighting against the Society of Supervillains. After all, just because they are all evil [[Evil Is One Big Happy Family|does not mean they get along.]] They had a mini-series (''Six Degrees of Devastation'') before finally getting their own monthly title. [https://web.archive.org/web/20130928030721/http://www.606studios.com/bendisboard/showthread.php?208178-Okay-About-Secret-Six The series was cancelled] as a part of the ''[[New 52]]'' relaunch and replaced by a reboot of the [[Suicide Squad]] featuring a few key members, such as Deadshot and King Shark.
Has a [[Secret Six/Characters|character sheet.]]
{{tropelist}}
* [[Abusive Parents]]:
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** Bane's dad is a blind, arrogant crime lord named King Snake, the alias of one Sir Edmund Dorrance. While working as a mercenary he got Bane's mother pregnant... and left the two of them to ''languish in prison to serve out his life sentence''. Said prison, as you may gather from the fact that it let that happen in the first place, is a notorious hell hole and Bane only survived by becoming the biggest and meanest evil bastard in the whole place.
* [[Action Girl]]: Plain and simple, the women of this series will ''mess you up''.
* [[And Your Little Dog, Too]]: In issue #35, an hour-long beating doesn't convince the Penguin to go along with Bane's plan; it's when Ragdoll threatens to feed his pet penguins to King Shark.
* [[Animal-Themed Superbeing]]: Cat-Man and King Shark.
* Anti-[[Villain Protagonist]]/[[Sliding Scale of Anti-Heroes|Type V Antiheroes]]: Even the most psychotic of the Six are, to some extent, sympathetic characters, and the main practical difference between them and an average [[Nineties Anti-Hero]] vigilante is the fact that they generally fight (other) villains for profit. An exception to this rule is former member [[Token Evil Teammate|Cheshire]], who [[Gail Simone]] has [[Word of God|stated]] she always writes without any redeeming characteristics since she once [[Nuke'Em|killed a country]].
* [[Apologetic Attacker]]: Ragdoll often apologizes for killing people; once he apologized for not killing someone in their native tongue.
* [[Ascended Meme]]: In issue #35, King Shark sings his own version of the [http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/the-singing-shark "I'm a shaaaaark" song.]
* [[The Atoner]]:
** Issue #24 seems to imply that ''all'' the characters secretly wish to atone, even though many continue to act in a despicable manner throughout the series. An [[Elseworlds]] issue, it ends with the characters wishing that, even if only this once, they could have been the heroes.
** Bane ''was'' this in his own messed up way. When he found out that, because the world does not conform to his own particular sense of right and wrong he was apparently going to hell, he decided to give up on being the Atoner and do what he had originally wanted to: Conquer Gotham and break the Batman.
* [[Badass Boast]]: "You'll run. You'll hide. And in the dark... [[Prepare to Die|I will find you.]]"
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* [[Bittersweet Ending]]: At the end of Catman's story arc, {{spoiler|his son is still alive and has been adopted to a loving family and his kidnappers have all been killed, but Catman is unlikely to ever see him again and he tells Jade that their son is dead to keep her from looking for him}}.
* [[Black and Grey Morality]]/ [[Evil Versus Evil]]: The Six may not be saints, but the people they have fought have included a Society of Villains set out to mind rape superheroes and conquer the world, a sociopathic immortal cannibal, a sadistic poison obsessed assassin, a midget misogynist rapist, and the Nightmare Fuel incarnate Junior. The Six are bad, their foes are ''worse''.
* [[Black Comedy]]: Violence and killing is often played for laughs in this book. The whole sequence with Deadshot and Catman shopping for ice cream at the beginning of the
* [[
* [[Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick]]: Most, if not all of Ragdoll's dialog.
* [[Breather Episode]]: Immediately after the extremely dark "Cats in the Cradle" storyline, we get the stand-alone issue "Predators
* [[Brother-Sister Incest]]: Heavily implied to have gone on between the second Ragdoll and his sister Alex {{spoiler|aka Junior}}. And that is the LEAST disturbing thing about the family. Ragdoll's home life was sort of like "I love Mallory" from ''[[Natural Born Killers]]''. Only with a less caring father.
* [[The Cameo]]: Issue #7 of the ongoing series features an extremely gratuitous (but awesome) appearance from the [[Birds of Prey]], a team that Gail Simone famously wrote before the Secret Six. Inexplicably, the roster shown there did not at all match the one used by then-current writer Tony Bedard, swapping out Manhunter, Misfit and Infinity for Grace Choi.
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** Do not touch the Hatter's hat, you will pay by the finger.
** Never try to interrupt Junior on the phone. Seriously. Do not do it. Whoever you need to call, it can wait.
* [[Downer Ending]]: Issue #24 is a non-continuity [[Elseworld]] story that has characters from the Six in a Wild West setting. They face off against a gang of thugs and crooks led by a Wild West version of Junior. Expecting them to win? [[Kill'Em All|They are not that lucky.]]
** {{spoiler|The ending of the series is also this. Bane led the team into an unwinnable situation so he could 'rid himself of responsibilities for others' and everyone else on the team gets captured by heroes, with the text indicating that many of them have broken bones at best. [[Your Mileage May Vary|Luckily, the entire DCU rebooted after this issue]]}}.
* [[Duct Tape for Everything]]: Scandal uses duct tape to tie up and gag Pistolera after she tries to assassinate Knockout. Giganta later
* [[Dysfunction Junction]]: Scandal's father is Vandal Savage, the first murderer. Catman's father was a big game hunter who was a complete and utter bastard to everything and everyone around him. Ragdoll's father was an abusive cult leader. Jeanette was raised in the household of mass murderer Countess Erszebet Bathory. Bane spent his childhood in one of the hardest prisons in the world. Deadshot's parents hated each other so much, his mother hired his brother to kill his father - and Deadshot accidentally killed his brother trying to stop him. Black Alice's mother died of a drug overdose, and she brought her back as a zombie. The Six give a whole new meaning to the word "dysfunctional".
* [[Elseworlds]]: Issue #24 is a non-continuity story that has characters from the Six in a Wild West setting. They face off against a gang of thugs and crooks led by a Wild West version of Junior. Expecting them to win? [[Downer Ending|They are not that lucky.]]
* [[Even Evil Has Standards]]: Weird, strange, and difficult to hold on to, but standards nonetheless... except for Cheshire. It seems to be what sets the Six apart from the villains they fight, as Vandal Savage, Junior and Smyth certainly do not have standards of any kind.
** For a specific example, Scandal tells the Mad Hatter to back off when he tries to mind-control Elastigirl into eating Beast Boy.
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** In "The Reptile Brain" story arc, Ragdoll rips out King Sharks eye.
* [[Fan Disservice]]: [[Up to Eleven|Junior]].
* [[Fan Service]]: The characters get naked pretty often. Particularly in the first pages of issue #5 of the mini, where pretty much all of the Six are naked, from [[Ms. Fanservice|Knockout]] to [[Estrogen Brigade Bait|Catman and Deadshot]] to [[Squick|Mad Hatter]]. Also Bane, for those who are into bears. The only character who has not been at least partially naked by this point is [[Fan Disservice|Ragdoll]].
* [[Foe Yay]]:
** Between Catman and Huntress. It starts with waltzing and meatballs to the head and just escalates from there.
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* [[Full-Frontal Assault]]: Oh, so much. Catman's flashbacks, Junior, Bane... [[Gail Simone|the author]] has admitted to enjoying seeing how many ways she can get her characters naked.
* [[Genius Bruiser]]: [[Gail Simone]] has remembered that Bane is also a criminal genius, and he is starting to regain this status rather than being simple brute strength.
* [[Goofy Print Underwear]]: Issue #11 gives us a look at the characters' nightclothes, and among others Scandal wears polka dot
* [[Haunted Headquarters]]
* [[Heroic BSOD]]/[[Villainous BSOD]]: {{spoiler|Bane, after learning that, even as a [[Noble Demon]], he's going to end up in hell}}.
* [[High Turnover Rate]]: Before getting their ongoing series the group had a hard time maintaining six members.
* [[Homoerotic Subtext]]: Catman and Deadshot, which everyone up to and including Simone has noticed, and Simone describes the subtext between them as being like "a neon sign", and given that we now know that Catman is indeed bisexual was probably intentional. Nicola Scott, one of the artists who worked on the book, also gleefully [https://web.archive.org/web/20170415040842/http://stormantic.com/3673/art/catman-and-deadshot-by-nicola-scott drew a fan a picture] of Catman and Deadshot in bed together.
* [[Hunting the Most Dangerous Game]]: A group of wealthy sociopaths kidnap the Six and plan to hunt them for sport...[[Kill'Em All|it turns out as well for them as you would expect]].
* [[I Ate What?]]: In one issue, Cheshire and Dr. Psycho dined with Vandal Savage after failing him. During the meal, Cheshire suspiciously asks what the food was. The answer: {{spoiler|Solomon Grundy}}.
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* [[Leaning on the Fourth Wall]]:
** When Deadshot is {{spoiler|puking after being poisoned by Cheshire}}, he narrates to himself, going on randomly about angels... and then asks the person helping him if he said that stuff about angels aloud. He is assured that he did not, and remarks that he worried about narrating out loud.
** Ragdoll does this in a few issues as well, most noticeably in issue #29, a crossover with the Lex Luthor ''Action Comics'' storyline where he spends the issue talking directly to the reader. He even begins his narration by referring to things that happened in "that other book".
* [[Les Yay]]: Between Scandal and [[Bi the Way|Jeanette]]. [[Gail Simone]] has mentioned on her Tumblr that Scandal and Jeanette hooked up once and they are just not compatible, but still very good friends.
* [[Luke, I Am Your Father]]: More like {{spoiler|"Ragdoll, I am your sister"}}, but still. Well, ''he'' knew it, the readers (and everyone else) did not.
* [[MacGuffin]]: The Get Out of Hell Free Card.
* [[Man Bites Man]]: Almost everyone on the team has bitten someone at some point. To date; Scandal has bitten off a villain's ear, Bane has torn out a mook's throat, Ragdoll has bitten a man to death after locking up his power armor and Jeanette has bitten off three of a serial killer's fingers and Catman... well, look at the trope's page image. King Shark's special abilities are specifically noted as "Chewing and Biting".
* [[Manipulative Bastard]]: Their original leader, "Mockingbird" {{spoiler|(
* [[Marked Change]]: Jeanette gets [[Prophet Eyes]], black marks on her face, deathly white skin and black streaks in her hair when she uses her banshee powers. We would tell you to run when you see that, but by then it is already too late.
* [[Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane]]: Deceased [[New Gods|New God]] Knockout appears to possess Liana, a stripper hired to cheer Scandal up, [[I Want My Beloved to Be Happy|to tell Scandal to enjoy her life]]. It is never revealed if this really was a paranormal event, or if Scandal was just having a drunken hallucination.
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* [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]]: Green Arrow thanks Catman for the heads-up on the Society's plan. Catman decks Green Arrow for pushing the villains by brainwashing villains who learn too much to the point where something like the Society is even possible.
* [[Nightmare Fetishist]]: Scandal, Parademon, Jeanette, Deadshot (sometimes) and definitely Ragdoll. We can add Black Alice to the list, being the first known person to find Ragdoll hot (well, in-universe, anyway).
* [[No Celebrities Were Harmed]]: Scandal's new girlfriend Liana is a big [[Shout-Out]] to [[Name's the Same|Liana Kerzner]] - both are [[Hello, Nurse!|gorgeous]] [[Heroes Want Redheads|red-headed]] [[
* [[Non-Indicative Name]]: The team currently has ''eight'' members, and [[It Makes Sense in Context|when they are filming a commercial]] [[Lampshade Hanging|it is pointed out that their name does not make any sense anymore]].
* [[Not So Harmless]]:
{{quote|'''Ragdoll:''' "Yes. I understand. You're one of '''those.''' One of those enemies who think I am only [[Ugly Cute|adorable,]] and not a threat to be measured '''more''' carefully. A joke, a jester, a 'jape in jammies. '''Do you know how many of those people are corpses now, {{spoiler|Scandal Savage"}}'''
* [[Now That's Using Your Teeth]]:
** A tied-up Bane once ripped out a man's throat with his teeth.
** Catman bit out the eyes of the man who kidnapped his son.
** Ragdoll disabled an opponent's power armor and then started chomping into his unprotected face.
** An unarmed Scandal once bit off an alien's
* [[Odd Friendship]]:
** Ragdoll and the Parademon.
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* [[Shout-Out]]:
** To [[Tiny Titans]] of all things, when Ragdoll has a dream involving a similar art-style and using the catchphrase "Aw yeah".
** Issue #8 was titled "Double Date", the same titled as the ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]'' episode [[Gail Simone]] wrote which was the closest the series ever got to ''[[Birds of Prey]]''.
* [[Slap Slap Kiss]]: Cheshire attempts to enact this after she and Catman fight in the second mini and ''earnestly'' offers to make love right in the middle of the battlefield. Catman is understandably freaked out, is horrified to find that he is actually considering it, and pointedly turns her down.
* [[Speech Bubbles]]: Ragdoll has a pretty, cursive font for his bubbles, while everyone else has more normal speech.
* [[Spiritual Successor]]: To the [[Suicide Squad]]. They share a member (Deadshot) and a similar theme of bad guys acting as (sort of) good guys. The connection was
* [[Squick]]: In universe, Catman finds the fact that Jeanette is technically dead and sleeping with Deadshot to be highly squick-y. Deadshot, naturally, is not that bothered by it (and who can blame him?).
* [[Take That]]: The controversial ''Titans'' tie-in to ''[[Brightest Day]]'' involved the villain Dwarfstar hiring Deathstroke to kill Ryan Choi, a character Gail Simone co-created with [[Grant Morrison]], and whom she wrote almost all the adventures of. As payback, Gail wrote a scene in issue #28 {{spoiler|where Giganta hospitalized Dwarfstar by way of torture}}.
* [[Taking You with Me]]: Parademon detonates his collection of Mother Boxes at the end of ''Villains United''. In a tragic twist, while many, if not all their attackers survive, he perishes.
* [[Teeth-Clenched Teamwork]]
* [[Then Let Me Be Evil]]: Bane embraces villainy again after discovering he was damned.
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* [[True Companions]]: Issue #34 absolutely confirms the Six as this. They're a freaky, dysfunctional family, but they are a family.
* [[Ugly Cute]]: Ragdoll, whom Black Alice finds cute in universe.
* [[The Unseen]]: Mockingbird as of the
* [[Villainous Crossdresser]]: Ragdoll once took the opportunity to try on parts of Wonder Woman's costume. He very clearly enjoyed it.
* [[Vitriolic Best Buds]]: Catman and Deadshot.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Better Than It Sounds/Comic Books]]
[[Category:DC Comics Series]]
[[Category:The DCU]]
▲[[Category:Secret Six]]
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