The Cup Is Only Reviewing Comics: Secret Six #19

I can't remember if Deadshot had a personality before Gail Simone or not, but it's irrelevant because he is now Adam Baldwin as Jayne from Firefly...as Deadshot.  Which is awesome.  I think Gail Simone may be my favorite writer in all of comic books right now.  This book has been nothing short of great from the beginning, and this particular issue was no exception.  I also love the way she's writing Ragdoll.  The bit on the first page is the perfect example, so I'll just quote it.

"Oh, forgive me, Thomas.  I was thinking what it's like to be abandoned and tortured and abused and forgotten.  When your life is so worthless that your only degraded value to anyone is when your pain gives them amusement, and the person entrusted to care for you sees you as more disposable than used tissue.  But then I thought, "I wonder what it's like to ^%$# a butterfly?"

The bit where Black Alice hands him the note that says "Do you like me? Check one...[]yes []no" is also great.

Then there's the last page, which is one of the best cliffhangers I've seen in quite a while.  To completely spoil it....I'M SPOILING NOW! STOP READING IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE SPOILED...

Catman's son has been kidnapped, and the kidnapper has called him on the phone to tell him that they're going to kill the boy no matter what he does, but they'll give the boy one year of pleasant life for each member of the Secret Six that Catman kills in the next five minutes.

I've been engaging in some debates about what to do in various hypothetical moral dilemmas online recently, none of which were remotely plausible scenarios, and this one would go right along with them.  Of course, this is comic book reality, so it's as plausible as anything else they do.  As to what the right choice is in the dilemma, it seems to me that most moral systems would have Catman do nothing.  If they're eventually going to kill the kid anyway, why kill someone else too just to prolong it?

But, of course, there's the possibility of eventually tracking down the kidnappers, and Catman is a master tracker.  But he may only get the chance if he kills a member of his team and buys that year for himself to try.  And, since this is not a super-hero book, but rather a super-straddling-that-line-between-hero-and-villain book, there's a real possibility that he will just take one or more of his teammates out, which is one of the things that makes this book so exciting.