Secret Six #20

Hoo boy, those guys have gone and done it. They forgot one important rule of blackmail; make sure the subject is capable of being blackmailed.

After last issue's tremendous set up, things kick right off. A gang of thugs is threatening to kill Catman and Cheshire's son. They state that the kid is already dead, but he gets one more year of life for every member of the Secret Six that Catman kills. There is a fantastic moment where Catman actually seems like he might act on that threat, but then he turns things around. He tells the kidnappers it is too late for them, go ahead and kill his son. He is going to make them pay. Yowch!

Catman goes ballistic and he's on the hunt for these guys. They truly don't understand the hell they've unleashed for themselves. Even better, four other members of the Secret Six are speeding along to back Catman up. Scandal, Deadshot, Black Alice, and Ragdoll are all helping their feline pal for their own reasons (Deadshot's are the best, he doesn't want Catman to sink as low as the rest of them already are). Meanwhile, Gail Simone is giving us another membership drive as Bane and Jeannette are going to fill out the Six's roster with "four other known metahumans." I don't have any real guesses, buy maybe Livewire from Simone's Superman run?

I guess Jim Calafiore is the regular penciller on this title now. He's not glamorous, but his storytelling is clear and he has a nice take on costumed characters. He did a nice job making the three kidnappers unique too, even though they don't have costumes.

Good