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

The crown jewels of Graustania have been stolen and it is up to the Secret Six to recover them, yet there is one thing that will make this mission particularly hard for one member of the team, that being Crimson Dawn. The task is straightforward – to get the jewels, return them and ensure that Princess Astrid becomes queen and aside from a couple of villains, it should have been a walk in the park. The one thing she never counted on though is Johnny Bright, her ex-husband from her previous life and to say it shakes her a little is putting it lightly. All of this presents an opportunity not only to right a wrong but for Crimson to exorcise some demons and to get back at the man who ruined her life. So it is that the team does their thing, infiltrating the villain’s confidence as well as those who would keep Astrid off the throne, all the while still trying to figure out just who it is that Mockingbird is. Writing this titanic tale is E. Nelson Bridwell and Joe Gill, the two providing a far more exciting issue than the previous one and they expand on Crimson Dawn’s backstory quite a bit, by far the most interesting part of it all. However, the rest does not leave one wanting. Joining them once more is Jack Sparling, whose work gets better with each subsequent book and provides some eye-catching shots of both Dawn and the rest of the team. One could say that the three of them almost made this tale far more complicated than it needed to be given how many villains were in play but thankfully they focused more on the one than the collective. Really good to see was Crimson get her revenge upon the man that left her shattered those years previous and seeing her play him like a fiddle was quite a bit of fun. The rest of the team were featured well though the focus was upon Crimson and they did manage to make sure that Mockingbird was not forgotten, the puppet master behind their very existence and one has to wonder if the identity of the man or woman will ever be revealed. The book ends with each of the bad guys being routed and Johnny Bright being left penniless and alone much like he had left Crimson those many moons before. Out of the entire series thus far, this is one of the better issues.

4 out of 5