One team of DC antiheroes and villains like Bane and Deadshot would do almost anything, but even they balked at becoming ACTUAL lords of Hell.
Each of them a villain in their own way, the Secret Six was a mercenary group uniting to deal with any threat if the pay was high enough, (typically) regardless of the morality of the mission. But sometimes, even they were forced to fight against darker forces — and their own impulses.
In “The Darkest Hour” from Secret Six #31-33 by Gail Simone, J. Calafiore, John Kalisz and Travis Lanham actually got the chance to become Lords of Hell. And they almost went for it.
HOW DID THE SECRET SIX ALMOST RULE HELL?
Eventually consisting of Bane, Catman, Deadshot, Scandal, Ragdoll, King Shark, and Black Alice, the group became close over the course of their time together. But there was always the potential of betrayal within their ranks. This finally came to a head when Scandal had a vision of her dead lover, Knockout, beckoning Scandal to save her from hell. On an earlier mission, Scandal stole the coveted “Get Out Of Hell Free Card,” created as the one surefire way to escape the underworld. Desperate to revive Knockout, Scandal is horrified to find that it’s been stolen by one of her teammates — Ragdoll, who wanted to use it on his dead friend, Parademon. In their scuffle, Scandal mortally wounds Ragdoll with her blades. But with the card in his possession, Ragdoll disappears in a flash of light.
Black Alice takes the group to one of the gates to hell but leaves the team rather than venture there with them. In search of the card, the group discovers that Ragdoll — born soulless — is actually considered royalty within the confines of hell. Now a prince, he is a lord under the current ruler of hell, Lady Blaze. Reunited with Parademon, Ragdoll speaks with the Six — minus Catman, who explores the depths of hell with Etrigan to discover the final fates of his parents. Rather than fight though, Ragdoll decides to offer the team the chance to remain alongside him and rule the underworld as his Council. Each of them is transformed into new demonic forms and given the chance to rule over the damned instead of just being among them.
Since the entire lot of them are killers and sinners, they are all doomed to one day come to hell. But in this form, they would be spared the suffering of the others and even get to direct some of it. The group votes on the proposition, with the remaining team genuinely split between taking Ragdoll up on his offer or fighting to save Knockout and return to Earth as mortals. Bane and Scandal vote to fight, while King Shark and Jeanette elect to remain and rule. In the end, it comes down to Deadshot — who decides to just act on impulse and shoot Ragdoll in the head. Although this doesn’t kill Ragdoll, this does cause Blaze to arrive and punish the Six by reversing their demonic upgrades and trapping them in their own personal hells.
Bane is made a child again and consumed by rats like his mother was, Deadshot is trapped with undead versions of everyone he ever killed, Jeanette has to relive her ancient death, and King Shark is forced to eat at a vegetarian restaurant. Scandal almost escapes with Knockout in tow but turns back to help her friends. Alongside a returning Catman, the Six all resit the visions and confront Blaze, promising to bring down her kingdom eventually. Ragdoll is even inspired to stand by his “family” and give the card to Scandal, allowing her to properly free Knockout.
While they may have come close to becoming the ruling class of hell, the Secret Six members were always defined by the very fine lines they wouldn’t cross, and how that separated them from the genuinely fearsome and frightening forces they came into conflict with.
