Secret Six #36 & Iron Man 2.0 #7.1

After the last couple of pretty bad Marvel comics I've reviewed, I'm going to read a DC book as well as a Marvel book with the hope being that I'll break the streak of bad comics I've been unfortunate enough to have read these past few days. Although looking at the two books in front of me, I'm not really that optimistic.

Secret Six #36:

Summary: This issue kicks off for real with the Secret Six planning their assault on the Bat-family, an assault that Bane hopes will break Batman(the Bruce Wayne one) emotionally, since breaking Bats physically didn't work. Unfortunately for Bane, there are two problems... The first is that a homeless family was living in the warehouse the Secret Six was staging their attack from, which provides 4 potential witnesses to Bane's plans. Bane wants to kill the family and be done with it, but Scandal won't allow Bane to kill two children. Oh, and that second problem? Penguin, who the Six took captive last issue to gain insight on Batman and his associates, had a tracer hidden under his skin and had his people leak Bane's plans, which has brought a who's who of super-heroes to the warehouse. And when I say a who's who, I mean practically every hero from the Birds of Prey, to Bats and his colleagues, to the Teen Titans to Superman! In other words, the Secret Six were screwed big time. Since they did have the homeless family, Catman figured they may be able to barter for their freedom, and yells to the gathered heroes outside that they did indeed have hostages. Huntress, figuring this whole scene was going to end poorly and still having feelings for Catman, enters the warehouse and offers to let the Six use her as a hostage provided they let the family go. The Six agree to this and free the family, holding Huntress in their place. Even with Huntress, Bane realizes that his plan had been shot to hell, and offers the Six a dose of Venom to power them up with the hope being that if they were going to lose, hopefully they'd take a few heroes out first. With that, the Venom-fueled Six tear through the wall and attack the gathered heroes, ultimately falling in defeat. With that, the Six are all carted away, which is fine by Bane, since he realizes that working with individuals like the Six was a mistake, and that his next shot at Batman wouldn't fail.

Thoughts: Well, this was the last issue of the Secret Six. I have to say, it's been quite the journey... There were a few peaks, but sadly, there were more valleys. Fortunately, this series ended on a high note, as I found myself really enjoying this issue. Bane's plan to break Bats was sound, with the only flaw being his choice of team members, since they themselves were so flawed. I didn't really care for the whole, “blaze of glory” thing the team was going for as they staged their final assault on the gathered heroes, but I can understand why Gail Simone wrote it, since there was really no other way to end this one... The Six weren't going to surrender, and there was no way for them to escape. A suicide attack was really the only way this series could have logically concluded. Sadly Ragdoll didn't die, but since I didn't see him in the epilogue, I'm going to say that he did perish, just to make myself feel better.

Score: 8 out of 10.I love how smug Damian looks here.


Iron Man 2.0 #7.1:

Summary: This issue gets started with James Rhodes(War Machine/Iron Man 2.0) being briefed on the Palmer Addley case by his underlings. Yes, the Palmer Addley storyline is still going strong, although it was interrupted for a few issues by the lame Fear Itself x-over issues. While Rhodey is being briefed, some third world dictator has come to Paris to talk about ways to peacefully end the political strife that was running rampant through his country. The dictator doesn't like the idea of giving the dissenters in his country any extra freedoms, and as such is looking for any reason to leave Paris early, without a peace deal in place. While Rhodey is in the middle of his briefing, he gets word from General Babbage that some robot based on Palmer's designs was flying out of Asia towards Europe. Babbage tells Rhodey to suit up and Rhodey intercepts the robot in Paris. The two battle, and after some destruction, Rhodey defeats the robot. With the robot defeated, and no massive destruction or lives lost, Rhodey figured he thwarted whatever scheme Palmer had concocted... However, the dictator from earlier was right across the street from the battle and decides to leave Paris early since he felt threatened. With no peace plan negotiated, the dictator takes drastic actions and brutally cracks down on the dissenters in his country. In other words, it appears that Palmer got exactly what he wanted after all...

Thoughts: What can I say, I liked this issue. It was actually a great .1 issue, since any new readers learned everything they needed to know about the strange case of Palmer Addley during Rhodey's briefing, while giving us fans who have been following the series from the start a few new little snippets on Palmer's plans. I mean, I really loved the way it looked like Rhodey had won the day, at least until you realized that everything had gone exactly according to Palmer's plan, as the peace talks were scuttled. I may be in the minority, but I'm definitely looking forward to more of Rhodey butting heads with Palmer Addley.

Score: 8 out of 10.Didn't he?