Old escape question, Secret Six 14, 2009, how did Diana get free?

[Carabas]

Spelling? It's Jeannette.

And yep. You're quite right. For a self-described Wonder Woman fan, Gail was amazingly casual in making Diana look pathetic in this book, without even letting Diana get any kind of payback at all.

In fact, I remember discussing the story and my displeasure with Diana's portrayal at the time, and Gail told me straight-up and in no uncertain terms that Secret Six is a villain title and hero's will ALWAYS look bad in it when they show up. She specifically told me that Batman didn't look good in his appearance, Diana didn't look good in THIS appearance, and she told me that if she ever had cause to use SUPERMAN in Secret Six, he probably would've come out of it looking bad too.

I specifically remember asking her straight-up "So Secret Six is the book where superheroes just get crapped on?" And, I kid you not, her response to me was "Pretty much." Or something very close to that. She casually told me in no uncertain terms that Secret Six was a book where the real heroes look like garbage in order to prop up the Six.

I fail to see the problem with this. Is the name of character X in the title? No? Then character X at best gets to play second banana to the characters whose book it actually is.

[Mark]

Beyond that Diana came out well in her appearance. Yes she was taken down by Jeannette, but Jeannette was revealed to be a banshsee with a particular dislike of amazon's. It follows that she's develop something special for Diana just in case they ever met and be able to concentrate her sonic blast at Diana alone and I'm no more surprised that Diana went down a bit slowly than I would be if she were struggling against chloroform. She got loose (which was the main puzzlement for me) and killed the demon and then straightened out the situation. Well as much as she could have. She was written as a bit haughty and imperious but then she was dealing with villains after all. The ending was frustrating but then anything dealing with Amazon's Attack was frustrating.

[Vanguard-01]

I fail to see the problem with this. Is the name of character X in the title? No? Then character X at best gets to play second banana to the characters whose book it actually is.

I don't mind that Gail had Diana lose. I just don't get why she made her look so weak and let her get all-around crapped on. There are ways to have a character lose and look less impressive in a story without outright abusing them.

Beyond that Diana came out well in her appearance. Yes she was taken down by Jeannette, but Jeannette was revealed to be a banshsee with a particular dislike of amazon's. It follows that she's develop something special for Diana just in case they ever met and be able to concentrate her sonic blast at Diana alone and I'm no more surprised that Diana went down a bit slowly than I would be if she were struggling against chloroform. She got loose (which was the main puzzlement for me) and killed the demon and then straightened out the situation. Well as much as she could have. She was written as a bit haughty and imperious but then she was dealing with villains after all. The ending was frustrating but then anything dealing with Amazon's Attack was frustrating.

She went down like a weakling against an attack that the rest of the Six were able to withstand just by plugging their ears. Since Diana was ALSO plugging her ears, that makes her look pathetic. The greatest female superhero of all time, kneeling on the ground, foaming at the mouth, in front of a disgusting, amoral monster who thinks SHE has a right to be self-righteous about the Amazons? And then she gets dragged around in the dirt by yet another disgusting monster. Then she gets sold to a slaver. She literally spends all but the last half of the last issue as a pathetic damsel-in-distress.

THEN? When it's time for her to make her "comeback?" She breaks out of elaborate restraints (off camera), kills a demon, and doesn't even punch Jeanette's or Ragdoll's teeth down their throats for their abuse of her. She literally is face-to-face with the scumbags who assaulted her and sold her into slavery, and she doesn't even TRY to show them who the real hero of this story is?

No, that is not "coming out well."

[wagthedog]

I don't mind that Gail had Diana lose. I just don't get why she made her look so weak and let her get all-around crapped on. There are ways to have a character lose and look less impressive in a story without outright abusing them.



She went down like a weakling against an attack that the rest of the Six were able to withstand just by plugging their ears. Since Diana was ALSO plugging her ears, that makes her look pathetic. The greatest female superhero of all time, kneeling on the ground, foaming at the mouth, in front of a disgusting, amoral monster who thinks SHE has a right to be self-righteous about the Amazons? And then she gets dragged around in the dirt by yet another disgusting monster. Then she gets sold to a slaver. She literally spends all but the last half of the last issue as a pathetic damsel-in-distress.

THEN? When it's time for her to make her "comeback?" She breaks out of elaborate restraints (off camera), kills a demon, and doesn't even punch Jeanette's or Ragdoll's teeth down their throats for their abuse of her. She literally is face-to-face with the scumbags who assaulted her and sold her into slavery, and she doesn't even TRY to show them who the real hero of this story is?

No, that is not "coming out well."

Pretty much sums it up!

[Mark]

I don't mind that Gail had Diana lose. I just don't get why she made her look so weak and let her get all-around crapped on. There are ways to have a character lose and look less impressive in a story without outright abusing them.



She went down like a weakling against an attack that the rest of the Six were able to withstand just by plugging their ears. Since Diana was ALSO plugging her ears, that makes her look pathetic. The greatest female superhero of all time, kneeling on the ground, foaming at the mouth, in front of a disgusting, amoral monster who thinks SHE has a right to be self-righteous about the Amazons? And then she gets dragged around in the dirt by yet another disgusting monster. Then she gets sold to a slaver. She literally spends all but the last half of the last issue as a pathetic damsel-in-distress.

THEN? When it's time for her to make her "comeback?" She breaks out of elaborate restraints (off camera), kills a demon, and doesn't even punch Jeanette's or Ragdoll's teeth down their throats for their abuse of her. She literally is face-to-face with the scumbags who assaulted her and sold her into slavery, and she doesn't even TRY to show them who the real hero of this story is?

No, that is not "coming out well."

Well have to wait until I find issue 13 to say anything on that part of it, I remember it differently but it has been a while now and I could be wrong.

[Carabas]

I don't mind that Gail had Diana lose. I just don't get why she made her look so weak and let her get all-around crapped on.

Who knows? From what others are saying there was some good old heavy-handed editorial interference in play./

[Vanguard-01]

Who knows? From what others are saying there was some good old heavy-handed editorial interference in play./

This is true.

Either way, the story just left a bad taste in my mouth.