Writer – E. Nelson Bridwell, Joe Gill
Artist – Jack Sparling

After three fairly exciting issues of Secret Six, E. Nelson Bridwell, Joe Gill and Jack Sparling craft this tale of a jailbreak in foreign China where they must go undercover to succeed in said mission. While this book was a fairly easy read, it was still slightly heavy on the verbiage used throughout and one has to wonder if Gill, who would fill out Bridwell’s plot, might be able to trim down the fat as it were as time goes on or if every issue is going to be just like this. Getting to the meat of it all, this story, as previously stated, would involve Mockingbird sending the Secret Six into China in order to break out one General Pao so that he might defect to the United States. First, the Six have to get into the country and to do that, they need to go undercover, which will involve some very elaborate makeup and a very specific plan with no margin for error. Bridwell and Gill keep things moving at a steady pace, the book rarely slowing down as the team must continually be on the move so that they escape capture while also doing what they can to get their man out of prison. One of the most interesting facets is the fact that Pao is the man who held King Savage captive during the Korean War, the man who made Savage become a traitor to his country. Savage had sworn that should they ever meet again, Pao would pay with his life and yet now, at this moment, he cannot do what he had promised. Instead, thanks to Mockingbird, Savage must work with Pao to secure his release and it is a tense situation, to say the least. With each issue, there is a little backstory to go with one of the characters and it is good to see that continue here, making it all the more interesting, not to mention King Savage. As for the artwork, Sparling does a great job for the most part, the caricature-like drawings of some of the characters aside and one can see that he is indeed the right man to bring the stories of the Secret Six to life. As for Mockingbird, his identity still remains a secret and even those within the United States government are now wondering just who this Mockingbird is and what his plans are. Why has he orchestrated the events that have taken place in the last few issues of the series and where could it be leading? For readers, this is part of the mystery that has been spun since the first and is part of what keeps people reading. This was not the best issue but it was still fairly solid.

3 out of 5