SECRET SIX #32
Written by GAIL SIMONE
Art by J. CALAFIORE
Cover by DANIEL LUVISI
There is really no place more fitting than hell for this team to fall apart. The fight over the "Get Out Of Hell Free" card continues - Scandal hoping to save Knockout, and Ragdoll saving it to free Parademon. The odds against Ragdoll would be high, but it turns out being born without a soul makes you somewhat of prince in hell, and princes can command demon hoards. Further complicating the things, Ragdoll's reveals that his relationship with Alice was driving him sane, and that he doesn't actually want to leave hell but prefers to keep the card "just in case".
Meanwhile, Catman has gone off with Etrigan to find his father, leaving the rest of the team to deal with Ragdoll and his army alone. Catman, he's just an upstanding guy.
Yet the saddest part of this issue is Bane's reaction when he learns that he will inevitably end up in hell, foreshadowing the return of the Bane we knew before Secret Six.
They revealed that Bane was headed back towards villainy and venom at WonderCon, undoubtedly so that his character matches the Bane in the next Batman film. It's always a sad when a character is screwed over for a movie, but this one in particularly really gets to me. Gail Simone made Bane great, she made me care about his character, she gave him more potential than any writer has, yet they are going to take it all away. They are making Bane worse for us and catering to readers they hope to gain from this movie.
Back to the issue... does this mean Bane will be leaving the Secret Six? The current turmoil suggests reorganization is underway. They're a team with little loyalty - Scandal leads them all into hell for selfish reasons, Catman abandons them for selfish reasons, Bane seems to be headed out the door because redemption is impossible, even Ragdoll can't bear to let the card go despite wanting to stay in hell. They need to become a team again. Hell, maybe they'll even go back to six members.
