WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Batman/Superman #5, by Joshua Williamson, David Marquez, Alejandro Sanchez and John J. Hill, on sale now.
Joshua Williamson and David Marquez's Batman/Superman introduced the master plan of The Batman Who Laughs: Make the regular DC multiverse as dark and twisted as the Dark Multiverse from which he hails. A key component of this has been creating the "infected," a group of six corrupted former heroes: Shazam, Donna Troy, Hawkman, Blue Beetle, Jim Gordon and Supergirl. The newly horrific heroes are now going by a name familiar to multiple generations of DC fans -- The Secret Six, and the latest issue reveals why that name is a perfect choice.
After their name being teased in the previous issue, Batman/Superman #5 sees the Secret Six appear in full, all of them dark dimension versions of themselves and all of them working to achieve their ultimate goal of converting Earth in its entirety to the wicked Heavy Metal darkness of the Dark Multiverse. The Batman Who Laughs converted these specific heroes because all of them have the distinct energies required to open a portal to the Dark Multiverse through which he would pull his universe's Justice League Satellite. The maniacal caped crusader had converted the former home of the Justice League into a Bat signal which, if shined on a world, would change its entire population into infected. Thus, in this issue our the title heroes are fighting to stop this from happening.
This, as many fans know, is not the first time that a team known under the name The Secret Six has appeared in DC comics. The first iteration of the group appeared in 1968, with a team made up of covert operatives headed up by a mysterious figure -- whose identity was a secret even to their teammates -- known as the Mockingbird. We see the Mockingbird in every iteration going forward. The next appearance of the team was in 1988, with old team reuniting after twenty years and introducing some new members. The team wouldn't take a turn toward the villainous until 2005 during the Villains United crossover, when Gail Simone created an all new Secret Six with a roster consisting of Cheshire, Ragdoll, Catman, Deadshot, Scandal Savage and an errant Parademon.
Up until this point, the Secret half of the name has always referred to the group operating in, well, secrecy. However, this time around the name seems to be a direct jab at both the Dark Knight and the Man of Steel. When it seems that our heroes have won, and Superman has done with the dark satellite what he does best -- that being throwing it into the sun -- the heroes discover that the members of the six that they thought had fled were instead going to break out their captured leader.
It is here that Superman suggests one of the reasons that the name is so fitting. As the Dynamic Duo realize what evil is now loose in the world, the Last Son of Krypton states that what is coming is on their shoulders. It was the decision of Bruce and Clark to keep the infection a secret that enabled things to get as bad as they've gotten. Williamson and Marquez together create six mournful panels -- one for each corrupted hero -- where in the narration Superman accepts responsibility for the loss of allies, family, and friends, and we see the two of them informing the families and allies of the corrupted heroes of what has happened.
The comics ends in a very dark hour for our heroes. Bruce and Clark have been played by the Batman Who Laughs because of a mistake which has already come at the price of the people closest to them, and may also cost them their universe as a whole. As things stand now the Batman Who Laughs and his Secret Six are at large in DC Universe and it will likely take more than just Batman and Superman to overcome him and his six deadly allies.
Batman/Superman #6 releases January 22, 2020.