As Deadshot is dragged, kicking and screaming towards nobility through the connections he makes with more morally upstanding teammates, we get to see Catman move in the opposite direction. The entire Secret Six series looks as if it will be about Catman trying to overcome his criminal past and join the ranks of the superheroes.
A quick history of the character: Thomas Blake was a big game hunter turned supervillain. He did Cat related crimes in an orange and yellow costume that was identical to Batman's blue and gray. Sometimes he worked with Catwoman and sometimes against. He was really bottom rung by the time it was implied he was eaten off panel by a gorilla during a Green Arrow story.
Simone worked overtime to rehabilitate Catman the way Ostrander built up Deadshot 15 years earlier. This Catman was accepted by lions as one of their own and became a dangerous hunter of men. Catman and Scandal both have more than a little Wolverine in them, which is good because DC doesn't have that so much. So, you can slim a guy down and make him a kick ass fighter, but then what? You are still left with a character problem in that, he has no character.
From the get go, Blake is being pulled towards the side of the angels. He tips off Green Arrow to the existence of the Society and the Secret Six. He warns the heroes that the Society is planning to attack Metropolis in Infinite Crisis. He and Deadshot are the center of the team with Blake pulling towards the team doing good deeds and Deadshot pulling them towards pure mercenary work.
As the series goes on, Catman becomes a father (yeah, spoiler alert) with Cheshire. He gets oddly protective of Cheshire even after she betrays the team many, many times and tries to kill them. The main series puts Blake through some harsh times. There is an arc dedicated to the fact that his son is kidnapped by a deranged billionaire. Catman loses all humanity...you know, writing all this up, Simone pretty much lifts Deadshot's arc beat for beat from Suicide Squad.
I thought this would provide a nice contrast with Deadshot's development but they are both on the same bumpy path to salvation. Catman doesn't get to almost martyr himself but, otherwise, the emotional ebb and flow is the same.
Looking through all the other characters, Scandal is the only one who softens somewhat in that she develops a fondness for Bane and finds new love with a stripper after her old girlfriend is killed. Ragdoll stays gleefully obscene throughout the entire run. Bane and Deadshot are both kind of ruthless pragmatists with slightly different codes of conduct. As I reread the last 11 issues, I will assess any further developments but I have suddenly lost a bit of respect for this series.
After the Six deal with Wonder Woman and the prison warden who builds a prison based on Dante's Inferno (a neat idea that isn't pursued much), there is a fill-in issue written by Ostrander that brings in his Father Craemer character from the Spectre and Suicide Squad to counsel Deadshot. The Blackest Night crossover kicks in next and, let me vent a bit about this...
The Blackest Night was meant to be the big climax to Geoff Johns run on the Green Lantern. I get the feeling DC editorial pushed the timetable on it up to make it a big summer crossover after the failure of Final Crisis. The concept should have been awesome, the DCU vs. zombies of all the dead characters. Zombies were reaching a peak of popularity at that point and the idea of Batman dealing with his zombie parents or something was kind of cool. However, I think the idea to make them invincible sort of screwed the pooch. You can shoot or blow up a zombie in the Blackest Night and they will just reform. How boring. If you can't stop an enemy, there is no dramatic tension.
OK, so the Blackest Night happens to coincide with Amanda Waller's attempts to lure Deadshot back to the Suicide Squad with an ambush. The Six fight the Squad and then team up to fight the zombies. Of course, the only way it can end is with a deus ex machina. There is another great Deadshot moment at the end as he turns down Waller's job offer in a most unique way.
The next arc is the fall of Catman as the group tries to stop him from losing his soul in pursuit of the men who kidnapped his son. It is a very dark and bleak arc that ends with Catman AWOL.
Then, you have a one-off Ostrander fill-in where the Six are lured into a Most Dangerous Game scenario. It is a cool little one off issue.
The next issue (24) is one of the most baffling of the entire series. It takes place in the wild west and all the characters appear as western versions of themselves. This issue is never explained or contextualized. Just weird.
The next arc follows the Secret...Twelve? Bane and Jeannette have hired on four new members to fulfill a contract made by Spy Smasher (remember how much Simone seemed to love her back in Birds of Prey)? They run headlong into the original Secret Six. Simone sidesteps the big question of how these guys survive when all their missions go wrong and no one ever pays them. She has them working for Amanda Waller again by the end of the arc, so now they will go on dirty missions for the good of the world. Simone has effectively rechristened the Secret Six as the Suicide Squad.
The last bit of issues will have crossovers with Birds of Prey, Action Comics and Doom Patrol. I will also attempt to figure out why no one read this book. For your enjoyment, here is Catman beating the hell out of Batman...
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