Secret Six #1

Writer – Gail Simone
Artist – Ken Lashely
Inker – Ken Lashley, Drew Geraci
Colours – Jason Wright

Secret Six is a book that we as readers never thought we would see again.  Thankfully, DC decided to pull a property out of the drawer that people tended to have a lot of fondness for and get its original writer, Gail Simone to come back and work her magic on it once again.  So the question is, is it good?  Thankfully, yes it is.  Simone does a good job of introducing this new team a little differently than the last by caging them all up together with a countdown that will determine the fate of one of them.  We meet Catman again, though he is not named as such right away, as well as Porcelain, Strix, Ventriloquist, Big Shot and Black Alice.  It is an interesting cast to be sure and though little is said or done other than setting up the predicament we find our heroes in and the introduction of them, it is all done in a way that sets up a bit of mystery and makes it very entertaining.  The artwork by Ken Lashley is some of the best pencils that have been seen from the man in years and the book looks gorgeous.  The only problem lies in the fact that Mr. Lashley never tends to stick around for very long.  That in itself is not very fair to the reader, for if he should leave after giving the book such a distinctive feel it would be quite the disservice to the readers so hopefully he got a lot of lead time on the title.  Other than that, the book is a very effective first issue.  Catman looks a little younger than he was to his original counterpart and some of the players that were on the first team are missing, but this team looks like it could be going places and Simone and company make us want to find out.

4 out of 5

Shaft #1

Writer – David F. Walker
Artist – Bilquis Evely
Colours – Daniela Miwa

John Shaft is a boxer, a soldier and a man from the streets.  He also refuses to take a dive for anyone.  He has never done it before and he refuses to do it now.  Not doing so is going to get him into a bit of trouble.  Coming straight from the silver-screen is Dynamite’s newest series featuring a character from one of the greatest films of the 70’s.  As such, to say that putting out a book like this makes one have high hopes for it is putting it lightly.  Surprisingly, it did not disappoint.  As a first issue, it did what it needed to do by introducing the main character, his villains, the setting and the conflict that will take this book going forward.  It also did it well with a good script by David F. Walker that drew you in and some great pencils by Bilquis Evely.  One thing that was nice to see was keeping the book in the time period the source material originated from instead of modernizing it which would have been a big mistake.  The only bad from the issue was that it was not completely exciting though it was entertaining.  With the way the book left off, you can see that there are plans in store for our hero and it should be fun watching them unfold.

3.5 out of 5