Written By: Peter Milligan
Art By: George Perez, (1-15) Fernando Blanco (16-20)
Inked By: Scott Koblish
Coloring By: Tom Smith
Lettering By: Rob Leigh
Edited By: Eddie Berganza & Chris Conroy
Cover By: George Perez with Tom Smith
The Plot
Shade the Changing Man is visited by Enchantress in this world of Flashpoint as they struggle with altering magical realities and reminisce on the once powerful super team, The Secret Seven.
My Awe Inspiring Opinion
We aren’t in an Elseworld’s title ladies and gentlemen. This book’s title is, in fact, correct. I have no doubt that anyone and everyone reading this knows all about the mysterious reboot that DC is inflicting on the DC Universe. Why they decided to do this, we can only speculate, but I’m confused as to why they felt the need to completely change my favorite comic book title into a mesh posh of unfamiliarity.
The flashpoint event has one major advantage which is, at the same time, a major disadvantage…the consistent comparing and contrasting that will no doubt be apart of every DC fan partaking in this event. From what’s come out thus far, and what’s going to come out, there seems to be a legitimate amount of familiarity in each title to generate interest in fans. I picked up this first Secret Seven tie-in issue because of my love for all things Secret Six. How amazed I was to discover that it has absolutely nothing to do with Gail Simone’s Secret Six.
Now before I go into my bash fest, I must first congratulate DC on following through with their promise to make many of these tie-ins “stand-alone.” Secret Seven has that fresh feel that doesn’t require its readers to be familiar with regular Flashpoint miniseries or have any knowledge of Shade or Enchantress. If you want something new and strange, Secret Seven could be a good choice for you.
Now onto my hatred for this first issue…
I don’t so much hate it as much as I don’t really understand it. There are a lot of things going on in this issue but no explanation is given for why they’re happening. The importance of these events isn’t explained, which makes me wonder why this title was even published. It could be the connection Shade had to the Suicide Squad a few years ago which prompted this spin-off, but even then I still didn’t quite get the “point” of it all.
Maybe if I knew more about Shade and his significance within the DCU I would better appreciate this issue in and of itself, but even with its new a fresh feeling, the book itself comes off more confusing than anything else. There’s no clear definition as to who the bad guy is (which may be the point, I don’t know) and who the good guy is. All that IS, in fact, clear is that Shade somehow stole Joseph’s amazing Technicolor dream coat, Enchantress looks shockingly like Carmen Sandiego on the cover, and that the entire issue feels like a bad episode of “Dr. Who.” Give me my Tardis and send me back to a time when a good comic consisting of a team of seven was being published. (Oh Sovereign Seven, how I miss thee.)
George Perez puts out some pretty good work, however crazy it may be. Perez has seemingly become a foundational aspect to DC when looking for an older artistic style, which I’m sure was the point. I just hope all those heads with blood-shot eyes can recover from seeing Shade’s concealed crotchal area.
My Majestically Climactic Conclusion
Maybe I’m allowing love for the Secret Six book to dictate my feelings towards the Secret Seven, but I really think that this three issue tie-in series will flop on its face while the rest of the world stomps on top of it. I only hope it the next two issues are better.
3 out of 10 Stars
