Excellent Infinite Crisis Lead-In Centering On Some Of DC's Baddest

books:

	• Villains United (Countdown to Infinite Crisis) Gail Simone DC Comics, 2005 - 144 pages average customer review:based on 20 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

who are these people

DC kicked in a major storyline, one that affects the DC universe afterwards. It started with Identity Crisis and the horror our heroes created. And then there is a lot of stuff leading up to Infinite Crisis--which includes this collection. What we have here is the villians getting together to form a society--some join willingly, some are forced, some are just killed. And against Luthor, Black Adam, Dr. Psycho, Calculator, Talia al Ghul, and Deathstroke, who lead this new society, are some villians/almost-heroes (or perhaps some become heroes after this): Catman (some sort of Batman-wannabe), Chesire (who is she?), Ragdoll (who I think makes a really cool villian), Scandal (who is she and what can she do?), Parademon (kind of interesting and from Apokolypse), and of course Deadshot (who might be the only one we've heard of). They stand up to the society, some sort of choice to do so and being forced to do so. I think DC wanted to set up a new book, a sort of middle ground 'hero'. It's a good storyline, but I'm not sure how it will make it as a seperate book.

for more information click here

If You Enjoyed This Book, Pick Up "The Secret Six"

While I enjoyed the "Villains United" mini-series (featuring the debut of the "Secret Six" anti-heroes), I felt that the "Infinte Crisis"-mandated beats cut into some of the characterization and stopped the story short. Thankfully, Gail Simone returned in 2007 with Secret Six: Six Degrees of Devastation, a brutally funny and mature take on the super-villain squad that spins wildly out of control.

for more information click here

Excellent Infinite Crisis Lead-In Centering On Some Of DC's Baddest

When the one-shot "Countdown To Infinite Crisis" came out back in 2005, a couple months after the Identity Crisis (DC Comics) finale, it started a pattern that would continue on with a host of DC's biggest projects and events over the next year or so - taking big, immediate-appeal concepts that often hit across the DC Universe, and then often having these events spearheaded by characters who were certainly less-than-obvious picks. Countdown To Infinite Crisis officially ignited the post-Identity Crisis happenings and served as a prelude to Villains United as well as to Day of Vengeance (Countdown to Infinite Crisis), The OMAC Project (Countdown to Infinite Crisis) and The Rann-Thanagar War (Countdown to Infinite Crisis), and served as a major pivot point in the DCU. But instead of having the likes of Superman or Batman at the center of attention, that focus went to Blue Beetle, a character who'd seldom been seen in the few years prior, and whose heyday in the 1980s wasn't remembered by many as being particularly....memorable. But it worked tremendously well, he was the right guy for the story, and just as Day Of Vengeance brought in some highly unorthodox choices to lead the war against an insane Spectre, Villains United also went down that road.

In Villains United, Lex Luthor has succeeded in pulling a vast host of the DC Universe's deadliest bad guys into a co-operative venture the likes of which the Earth has never seen before. With so many A-List villains in the fold, the spotlight naturally falls on.... Cat-Man, Scandal, Cheshire, Ragdoll, (a single) Parademon and Deadshot?? With the possible exception of Deadshot, and with Parademons usually only counting as big players when they're en masse, not exactly the characters one would expect to take an important - let alone central - role in this. Those six, though, don't even form a part of Luthor's Secret Society; in the series's first big swerve (this isn't a spoiler, the first issue of the six parter sets this up) the main group in these pages arguably isn't Luthor's Society at all, but a much smaller group of lower-profile villains assembled by an unseen mastermind called Mockingbird to take on the Society. Going by the name The Secret Six, the group is headquartered in a surprising location (I don't think this place had been featured prominently within the DC Universe in ages) and isn't even made aware of their ultimate objectives. Whereas Luthor's Society has been recruited at least partly through coercion, the Six have been brought together by more direct force, and have no choice but to begin taking on Mockingbird's missions.

Meanwhile, the Society itself has an inner circle consisting of Luthor, Black Adam, Talia Al Ghul, Deathstroke, The Calculator (another unorthodox choice for such an important role, and one that would have been unthinkable before Identity Crisis revamped the character as a computer-inclined entrepeneur who doesn't plan out crimes of his own but who sells his organizational services and resource-gathering skills to other villains) and Doctor Psycho, plus it quickly gathers upwards of 300 other associates. And although we don't see all of them on the pages, we do see a lot, and they've brought in a ton of recognizable characters like Solomon Grundy, Scarecrow and Dr. Polaris, not a bunch of generic henchman-type villains. Although there are immediate benefits to such a united force, the ultimate goals behind the inner circle - or perhaps just those of Luthor himself - remain something of a mystery in the beginning.

Some will be disappointed that the Society and its grand plan aren't given the total focus in here, with so much being spent on the Secret Six but I think it worked great and that it was better not to cram too much into six issues; much of the struggle between the Society and their collective 'good guy' enemies takes place in the tie-in issues to Villains United (Firestorm # 17; Breach # 7 - now There was an underappreciated series; Action Comics # 831; Superman # 221; JSA Classified #s 5-7 - see JSA Classified: Honor Among Thieves, Nightwing #s 109 & 110) and much of it happens later, as Villains United was always intended to flow straight into Infinite Crisis.

This tale is done extremely well, with lots of twists and a couple of Highly unexpected returns; it can be read on its own although having the 'tie-in' issues enhances and extends the whole series. Villains United works as both a vital piece of the extended crossover arcs that started with Countdown To Infinite Crisis and continued straight through that event, and, like Identity Crisis, did a great job in taking previously unused (or occasionally mis-used) characters and making important, interesting characters out of them. This isn't the kind of story geared for someone new to comics, but for somebody already into the DC Universe it's a dream project. Also recommended, in addition to the aforementioned 'Countdown' events (Day Of Vengeance, Rann/Thanagar and OMAC) are JLA: Crisis of Conscience (Identity Crisis) (Countdown to Infinite Crisis) and JSA: Mixed Signals.

for more information click here

leaves you wanting more

Action packed! Fun book, interesting characters. Tons of villians. This is the best of all the Infinite Crisis lead ins. If you were a fan of Gail Simone's Deadpool/Agent X stuff, you can't miss this. Villains United is just plain cool.

I thought it was a cool concept...

What if villains team up to fight evil? I know it's been done before, but how many stories out there haven't been? Regardless, this series ended up being a surprisingly good read. I remember looking at the cover and browsing through the compilation and thinking...oh man this is going to be cheesy. But to my delight I really enjoyed the character development and the few twists the authors threw in. Basically, Lex Luthor creates a team of super villains to take on the super heroes of the world. But many villains refuse to join in. A smaller team of villains is created by "Mockingbird" to fight the growing team bent on world domination.

Like I said, the overall story has probably been done before, but if you know the DCU then you know they'll stop at nothing to surprise you in the end. And surprise me they did! I gave 4 stars because I don't think they kept Black Adam's abilities and ruthlessness consistent with other stories they've written about him. But that seems to be my problem with Superman stories as well, you give someone godly powers and you end up having to tone them down for the weaker fights so they don't dominate the battle in a few minutes. Anyway, worth the money and worth the time to give it a quick read.

for more information click here

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4

Villains United is one of the four miniseries that lead up to DC's Infinite Crisis.Lex Luthor uses the events of Identity Crisis (as well as the threat of unstoppable force) to persuade nearly every super villain to join his "society," which is led by a core group of himself, Deathstroke, Talia, Black Adam, Dr. Psycho, and Calculator. But a band of relatively obscure villains--Cat Man, Scandal, Cheshire, Deadshot, Parademon, and Ragdoll--organized by a mysterious figure named Mockingbird and calling themselves the Secret Six, defy Luthor, leading to all-out war.It's action-packed and includes some fantastic full-page shots, and is fun for people who like to pick out people from criminal lineups.If you can't recognize everyone, the trade paperback has a guide to the characters as well as a summary of events leading up to the six-issue series (but not the 2006 one-shot issue published during the run of Infinite Crisis).Written by Gail Simone (Birds of Prey) with art by Dale Eaglesham and Val Semeiks. --David Horiuchi

for more information click here

hot