Secret Six Reading Guide
With the new Secret Six (2025) comic coming around, many people have grown interested in the veteran members of the Six that transferred over to the new run: Catman, Deadshot and Black Alice. For that I have decided to make a reading guide for my favourite team of misfit villains!
Optional prequels:
These are completely optional but help in giving context to the characterizations of the characters who existed previously to the Secret Six.
Suicide Squad (1987)
Green Arrow (2001) #16-#21*
Deadshot (1988)
Deadshot (2005)*
Helmet of fate: Black Alice
* Green Arrow and Deadshot (2005) are less necessary because their roles in the characters's lives get explained in Secret Six itself.
Villains United and Secret Six proper
Now we start getting into Gail Simone's work on Infinite Crisis and how that changed into an entire team book that she grew to love! For some of the history and the behind the scenes for the creation of the Six, I recommend this thread by her!
Villains United
Villains United: Infinite Crisis special
Secret Six (2006)
Birds of Prey (1999) #104-#109
Salvation Run #3
Secret Six (2008)
In Secret Six (2008) there are a few tie ins with other comics and events, notably with Action Comics and Blackest Night with Suicide Squad (1987). I don't find it necessary to put those issues here since the comic itself will tell you when to go find them.
Optional Sequel (the New 52):
Secret Six was rebooted for the New 52, deaging its former members and retconning some of their backstories and relationships. I personally love this run but I don't recommend reading this if you haven't previously read Secret Six (2008) since it doesn't give you a lot of context on its own. It canonized Catman as bisexual too.
Secret Six (2015)
