Superheroes? ... What Superheroes?

Wolverine by Greg Rucka Ultimate Collection tpb
Marvel Comics
Greg Rucka, writer
Darick Robertson and Leandro Fernandez, artists

Wolverine is quite possibly Marvel's most over-exposed character. Since his debut in Incredible Hulk No. 180, he has appeared in his own solo titles and too many incarnations and permutations of X-Men groups to count. At various times, he's been a member of the Avengers and the Fantastic Four, and he's guest starred in a number of other characters' solo titles, even if he wasn't the headliner of a given issue. Sometimes, he's even been featured in all of these places at once along with starring in more feature films than any other Marvel character to date. He's a popular little Canadian.

Greg Rucka launched a new solo title for the character in 2003 and stayed on board to write three story arcs or 19 issues, all of which are collected in this volume, before handing the reins of the series over to Mark Millar. I haven't read that many Wolverine solo comics; I've tended to catch him more as one of a group. I don't dislike the character; I just don't care for him as much as I do some others. But Wolverine and the Punisher were always the favorites of my brother, Shawn. I always think of my brother whenever I read a Wolverine or Punisher story I really enjoy. I think how he would have liked said story, too, and how sad it is that he will never get to read it. But that's another story.

Back to these Wolverine stories, I've read them all before -- all except for one. And I liked these stories. Enough that I wanted to hold onto them despite my efforts to scale down my collection before my wife decides to do it herself and just starts a huge bonfire. So I was happy to find all of these issues collected in a single trade. Trades can more easily be stored on a bookshelf, thus freeing up space for something else in the finite number of comic book boxes I've allowed myself to keep.

One of the things that stands out for me about these issues by Rucka is that Wolverine really doesn't appear in them at all -- at least, not if you are looking for the smallish brawler mutant in the familiar yellow and blue or yellow and brown spandex superhero suit. Instead, this collection would more correctly be titled "Logan." He still has his mutant healing ability and those nasty, razor-sharp claws, but the superhero suit doesn't appear once in any of the issues I'd read previously. There are no super-villains to be dispatched. There is just a man, albeit a special man, trying to do the right thing in a world filled with gray areas that blur the absolute right and wrong most of us try to live by.

In the first story arc, Logan lives across the hall from a waitress who works at a diner he frequents. They are not friends. They barely speak to each other at all. But the waitress senses something different about Logan and decides to confide in him one day just a little bit about herself. She's in hiding, and she fears the people she's hiding from will soon find her. When she disappears in a hail of bullets and mysterious nighttime intruders, Logan feels compelled to search for her.

The second arc follows the first, with Logan on a road trip. Stopping for gas, he stumbles across a heinous crime which takes him across the border into Mexico and presents him with a moral dilemma he can find no easy answers to. And the third arc, the closest of the bunch to a traditional superhero tale, sends Logan off to save an old friend he'd forgotten he knew and places him at odds with Sabertooth, the evil mutant who shares many of the same abilities.

These stories are more along the lines of a typical action movie plot or maybe even a spaghetti western starring Clint Eastwood than usual superhero fare. The one issue that differs, the one I hadn't read previously, is sandwiched between the second and third arcs and takes place almost exclusively in Logan's subconscious mind. He's sleeping during much of the issue, and we are given a glimpse into his dreams. This is the only place where costumes and other superhero tropes appear, and yet what troubles Logan's dreams are the events from the first two story arcs and questions Logan has about his own nature.

Especially if you've never read a Wolverine story in your life but enjoy a good, dramatic action movie, then this is the collection for you. Give it a try!

A Nice Visit With Old Friends

Serenity: The Shepherd's Tale hardcover
Dark Horse
Joss and Zack Whedon, writers
Chris Samnee, artist

I was a fan of "Firefly," the short-lived sci-fi series created by Joss Whedon that aired on Fox during the 2002-03 season, and the follow-up movie, "Serenity." I've also enjoyed two previous minis featuring the same characters in comic format from Dark Horse. So I was excited to learn that one of the characters from the series -- Shepherd Book, played by actor Ron Glass -- was finally going to get his back story revealed in a Dark Horse comic one-shot a few years ago.

When the book was first released in 2010, it was a hardcover. I decided to wait for the (likely cheaper) softcover and have waited patiently for three years, but one has never been solicited. Finally I found an online site, In Stock Trades, offering the hardcover at a cheaper softcover price and snatched it up.

This book was worth the wait. Coming from Joss and Zack Whedon, these characters read like the familiar friends they should be for someone who has watched and read all of their adventures. And Chris Samnee does a nice job capturing the likenesses of most of the actors who played these roles before. The art certainly isn't photo-realistic like some artists strive for, but Samnee captures the characters quite nicely in his own style.

Shepherd Book was kind of an enigma on the show. He was not one of the original crew members of the Serenity, but rather one of a handful of passengers who bought a seat on the spaceship to its next port of call. In the series, Shepherd is the title of a preacher, and that was mostly what we knew of Book's character -- he was a man of God, full of wisdom and quick to lend a listening ear for someone else's troubles. But through the course of the series, Book also proved he knew his way around a gun battle and was not to be underestimated as a hand-to-hand combatant. There was a history to the man that had very little to do with religion.

This book nicely fills in that back story, the details of which I won't reveal here. Buy the book; it's worth it.

In an interesting twist, Book's tale is revealed in reverse, like peeling away the layers of an onion. The book opens just moments before the attack that would lead to Book's death in the film "Serenity." From there, a number of jumps backward reveals the man's steps along life's path all the way back to his childhood. It is an interesting way to reveal the middle of a story when the end is already known. This is a good read and a satisfying answer to the mysteries of this character. Check it out!

There Be Unhappy Spoilers Hereabouts!

Fables 128-129
DC Vertigo
Bill Willingham, writer
Mark Buckingham, artist

In case you missed the header: ************SPOILER ALERT!************

I believe these issues are the last ones of the recent "Snow White" arc in Fables, all of which I have enjoyed reading, as always, except for one major plot point: They've killed off one of my favorite characters -- Bigby Wolf! To paraphrase the Emerald City coroner from "The Wizard of Oz," he's not only merely dead, he's really most sincerely dead. I say that because while Snow and several of the Fabletown witches believe there might be a chance to revive Bigby -- who was turned to glass then shattered -- this entire story arc has been narrated by an adult Ambrose, one of Snow and Bigby's children, and right after the shattering occurs, Ambrose says, "And that's how my dad died."

Now these are magical characters, so anything is possible down the line. But Ambrose's pronouncement seems to be a final nail in Bigby's coffin. To top it off, Bigby would not be the first major character to be killed off in the course of this series. Prince Charming died previously, as did Bluebeard, and both have remained dead ever since. And let's not forget Boy Blue, a major fan-favorite character of this series, killed off in the war against the Adversary. He's still dead, too.

There have been hints in recent months that bad things were going to befall the Wolf family. One of Snow and Bigby's kids has already died and another was forever changed, and not necessarily for the better. Now it looks like Bigby has died. He can always appear again in flashbacks, but it will be sad to know he is gone from the series in such a final way.

As for the rest of the issues, this arc has had Snow treated pretty poorly at the hands of Brandish. Bigby interrupted his search for the pair's missing cubs in an effort to save his wife, but did not fair so well against Brandish's trickery. Naturally, she's sad at Bigby's loss, but Snow is happy to be the one to strike down the villain as she vowed to do early in the arc. And she fulfills that vow with panache and style.

The artwork by Mark Buckingham is one of the highlights of this series, and he doesn't disappoint this time out. Both the fight scenes between Brandish and Bigby in No. 128 and between Brandish and Snow in No. 129 give a clear sense of the action and swordplay.

All in all, nicely done; I just wish they hadn't done that!

UPDATE: Just this past weekend, before this post went up but after I'd written it, news came out of ComicCon revealing the cover to Fables No. 134, which depicts -- Boy Blue and Bigby! No other details accompanied the release of the cover image, but there is renewed cause for hope. Especially since Prince Chaming has also recently been brought back from the dead in the pages of the Fables sister title, Faiest.

Now That's More Like It

X-Men: Soul Killer
Boulevard Books
Richard Lee Byers, writer
Leonard Manco, chapter illustrations

This is another of those 1990s Marvel prose novels and one of the best ones I've read. I'm not well versed in X-Men history like I am with some other Marvel characters, but this adventure pits Storm, Rogue, Cyclops, Jean Grey and Wolverine of the X-Men against the demon-sorcerer Belasco. Apparently the X-Men have quite a history with Belasco in the comics as many past battles are referenced in this novel. The five members of the X-Men are joined by Nightcrawler, Shadowcat, Colossus and Amanda Sefton of Excalibur. The two mutant teams also develop an uneasy truce with Dracula, lord of the undead, in opposing Belasco's scheme to bring the Elder Gods back to conquer the world.

It's also interesting that this series of novels has its own internal continuity of sorts. The last 12 pages of this book list all of the various 1990s Marvel-themed prose novels to date in "chronological" order of how they happened. That might not be a big deal when it comes to a Spider-Man solo novel and an X-Men novel, but several of the books team various heroes in one adventure. For instance, the Doom trilogy teams Spidey with first the incredible Hulk, then Iron Man, then the Fantastic Four. Another trilogy I haven't read yet teams Spidey with the X-Men for a time-traveling saga. That adventure apparently happens immediately prior to Soul Killer because several times in this novel various X-Men characters mention still being tired from the conclusion of that tale.

One further item of shared continuity for these novels is SAFE, the Strategic Action For Emergencies federal agency. This S.H.I.E.L.D.-like national police force has never appeared in any actual Marvel comic as far as I am aware. But they have made an appearance in all of these novels that I've read to date. The head of the organization is Sean Morgan. This book includes several nameless SAFE agents led by one of Morgan's lieutenants, Major Nefertiti Jones, who has also been in several of the novels I've read before. I'm not sure why the novels don't just go ahead and use S.H.I.E.L.D., the more familiar Marvel national cops. I wouldn't think it would be a rights issue because S.H.I.E.L.D. is typically mentioned in the novels, but SAFE is always the go-to agency involved in the action of the books.

And speaking of action, this book begins with Belasco assuming control of a nest of vampires in Natchez, Miss., and using them to put his latest scheme into motion. He generates a massive storm cell over the city, partially to cover his other actions and partially to lure the X-Men to the area. Storm travels to Natchez to use her weather-controlling abilities in an attempt to limit the storm and subsequent flooding. Rogue volunteers to accompany her teammate, which proves fortunate for Belasco, as she is the main X-Man the sorcerer is hoping to lure into his trap. Belasco uses one of his vampire brood and Rogue's mutant ability to leech energy from people to assume control of the heroine. Then he uses the controlled Rogue to attack Storm. The other X-Men get involved when they lose contact with their teammates, and Excalibur is made aware of the situation by Dracula, who is alerted to Belasco's scheme when control of his Natchez nest of vampires is taken from him.

Obviously, the book combines typical superhero action with no small portion of supernatural activity. Oh, and no small amount of good writing. I'm not saying the book is flawless. There are a number of coincidences in both Belasco's plan and the mutants' final victory without which the story would fall apart. But again, this is by far the best of these Marvel novels I've read. Check it out!

These Are Their Stories

Gotham Central (2004-07)
DC Comics
Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka, writers
Michael Lark, Stefano Gaudiano, and Kano, artists

If you've never checked it out, this 40-issue comic book run is one of the best written series out there. It is set, obviously, in Gotham City, but focuses on the detectives of the Gotham City Police Department's Major Crimes Unit rather than the costumed vigilantes who also populate that fictional city. The moody artwork and muted color palette add to the crime noir feel of this series, complementing the writing beautifully.

No purse-snatchings or jaywalkers will be found in these pages; remember, this is the Major Crimes Unit. Some of the crimes the detectives of the MCU investigate include the murder of a young girl walking home after a baby-sitting job; the deaths of two women, both employees in the accounting department of the same pharmaceuticals company; an apparent suicide leads detectives to reopen a cold case that involved the murder of an entire high school athletic team; and someone killing young men after dressing them up in costumes that resemble that of Robin, the Boy Wonder.

A couple of the cases force the MCU detectives to investigate other officers, too. A pair of crooked beat cops accidentally causes the death of a young homeless girl while trying to cover up their illegal activities. A crime scene investigator long suspected of being on the take causes problems with some ongoing investigations, but both MCU and internal affairs detectives have trouble making any charges stick. And in an early story, one of the MCU's own detectives is accused of a double homicide.

Of course, major crimes in Gotham are often going to involve some of the city's more colorful criminals. One homicide the detectives investigate looks like it might be the work of Catwoman. Poison Ivy is involved in the homeless girl case. In the very first issue, two detectives following a tip on an open kidnapping case run into more than they bargained for in a rundown apartment building. Firebug and the Mad Hatter also pop up in the course of other MCU cases.

The detectives of the MCU aren't just throw-away characters created solely for this series, either. Many of the detectives had a history in DC Comics before the debut of Gotham Central in 2004. Fan favorite character Renee Montoya, for example, was originally created for "Batman: The Animated Series" as a recurring uniformed police officer. She debuted in the comics at about the same time in Batman No. 475, cover dated March 1992, and was often paired with hard-boiled police detective Harvey Bullock, a longtime supporting cast member in the comics. After spending several years as a uniformed officer, Montoya was promoted to detective and continued to be a recurring character in the pages of Batman, Detective Comics and other Gotham City-based comics.

Another featured player in Gotham Central is Crispus Allen, who debuted in Detective Comics No. 742, cover dated March 2000. This was during the time immediately following the "No Man's Land" story arc in the Bat-books, a long series of arcs that left the Gotham City Police Department severely understaffed. This was also during a time when then-Detective Comics writer Greg Rucka shifted the focus of that book so that it emphasized the detective nature of Batman's character and the Dark Knight worked very closely with a number of the GCPD's finest. Detective Allen was a recurring character in Rucka's run of Detective Comics and would eventually become Montoya's partner.

Capt. Maggie Sawyer is another name comics fans might recognize from beyond Gotham Central. Margaret Sawyer made her debut in Action Comics No. 595, cover dated December 1987, early in the post-Crisis reboot of Superman. The character's back story is that she was originally from Star City and moved to Metropolis to head up the new Metropolis Police Department's Special Crimes Unit. Sawyer was a mainstay in the Superman titles during the rest of the late-1980s, the 1990s and into the early 2000s. The character was popular enough among Superman fans that she was included in the cast of "Superman: The Animated Series" and even appeared in some episodes of the live action "Smallville" television series. In 2002, Sawyer's character moved from Metropolis to Gotham City to lead the GCPD's Major Crimes Unit.

One notable Gotham City cop not featured prominently in Gotham Central is James W. Gordon, who most casual fans know as the police commissioner in Gotham. Gordon has retired or been forced from office in elections a number of times in the history of Batman stories, but he rarely stays away from the familiar job for long. The entire run of Gotham Central hit at a time when Gordon was no longer serving as commissioner. In his stead, a man named Michael Akins serves in that role, but Gordon is still a Gotham City citizen and makes a number of cameo appearances in the title for various reasons. After all, in a city known for its often-corrupt police force, most of the detectives in the Major Crimes Unit were handpicked by Gordon for their positions, a source of pride for many of them.

Several of the other recurring detectives in Gotham Central had appeared in other comics prior to this title's debut, many of them during Rucka's run as writer of Detective Comics. These other characters include detectives Marcus Driver, Tommy Burke, Josephine MacDonald, Romy Chandler and Nate Patton and Sgts. Vincent Del Arrazio and Jackson Davies.

Of course, Batman also makes appearances in the title during the course of its 40-issue run. Again, this IS Gotham City. But the majority of the issues don't include Batman at all, and the ones that do have a specific purpose for including him, and they rarely involve more than a panel here and there. Mostly that is by design, as the writers truly wanted this series to be about the cops in Gotham City and their lives, not another superhero book, although these characters exist in a world populated by superheroes. In fact, the name Batman never appeared in the title of the individual issues, although later collected editions often were named Batman: Gotham Central.

From a storytelling standpoint, the absence of Batman is explained by the timing of the series. During a large portion of Gotham Central's three-year run, Batman and the GCPD were on the outs with each other as a result of another Bat-centric crossover called "War Games" and its sequel, "War Crimes." Rest assured, though, this run can mostly be considered a self-contained read requiring very little knowledge of events in Batman or other DC Comics of the time. In the few instances where a previous comic story is relevant to understanding a Gotham Central tale, references are available in the specific issues or in the trade collections.

This Is Why I Like Trying New Titles

Astro City: Knock Wood and Justice Systems (Astro City tpb Vol. 5: Local Heroes)
Homage Comics/Image Comics
Kurt Busiek, writer
Brent Anderson and Alex Ross, artists

Last time out, I discussed my positive reaction to the first two trade volumes of Astro City. I felt I had a good handle on the series after reading those first two and could discuss them at least semi-intelligently. But when I decided to buy some trades to try out the series, I found a good deal and bought the first five. That left me with more to read after writing my last post.

The third collection, Confession, breaks the done-in-one tradition of the title to present a longer narrative about the Confessor and his sidekick, Altar Boy. It was a very good read, presenting some familiar archetypes and taking them in new and unexpected ways. The same goes for the fourth trade, The Tarnished Angel, collecting one longer narrative, this time looking at an aging villain in the Astro City universe. Again, a nice read I very much enjoyed.

That brings us to the fifth trade, Local Heroes. This collection returns to the shorter standalone or two-part tales about various heroes in the Astro City universe, this time focusing on a different era in time for each of the narratives. And, in all honesty, this trade is proving a little harder to get through. Maybe I'm tired of Astro City and ready to move on to something else for a bit -- time to cleanse the palate, so to speak. The stories here aren't bad, just not holding my interest as well.

Until I came to this two-parter, the sixth and seventh chapters in this collection of nine. This one had me VERY interested to see what was going to happen, which was a pleasant surprise to find.

This tale is a courtroom drama, not the kind of thing one expects to see in a comic book format very often. The central character, Vincent Oleck, as often is the case in these Astro City tales, is a nonpowered individual, a defense attorney in Astro City during the mid-1970s. Oleck is representing the son of a mobster in a murder trial. The young man, obviously not a nice man at all, is accused of beating his girlfriend to death during a fight at a local restaurant in front of several witnesses. Oleck has no doubts that his client is guilty, but it is his job to defend his client to the best of his ability. To add to Oleck's pressure, the mob boss is less than happy when the prosecution begins its case and things look pretty open-and-shut.

Oleck finally gets an idea the night before he is to begin presenting his case to the jury. It is a novel strategy that could only have a chance in a world full of people used to superheroes, and to Oleck's surprise, the gambit seems to be working. And that is when Oleck's real problems begin. No more details on this tale because I don't want to spoil it. Instead, I encourage you to seek it out and read it for yourselves. A reader doesn't need any other reference to follow this story; Busiek does a great job of giving all the relevant information right there in this story. But it is a gripping story that left me wondering about the outcome from the first few pages. But then, I should have expected more than the surface drama from this story; it says right there on page one that it is a horror story!

Truly Great Story-Telling

Astro City tpb 1: Life In the Big City/Astro City tpb 2: Family Album
Homage Comics/Image Comics
Kurt Busiek, writer
Brent Anderson and Alex Ross, artists

I've been curious about the Astro City books for a while now. It can be daunting, however, to know there is already a huge backlog of stories published when considering something new. And there were always other books that I was more certain about to fill my time. In the past, Astro City had been published sporadically, as a series of smaller minis and such, rather than as an ongoing book. But a while back, it was announced that an Astro City ongoing was ready for launch; it debuted last month, in fact. I decided it was now or never for taking the plunge, so that if I liked the series, I wouldn't just be getting farther and farther behind. So I recently went on the hunt for some of the earliest trade collections.

The conceit of this series is that superheroes are the norm on this world. They've been around for decades, and the general populace is pretty used to their existence and their adventures. That isn't to say that the average person is bored by superheroes. Just not as surprised as we might be if one suddenly showed up in our world. Many of the stories are typical superhero fare, but told from the perspective of the everyday person on the street, the office workers whose day is disrupted when a super-powered fight breaks out near their building, for instance. Or still focusing on the superhero, but more on the mundane aspects of their lives when not fighting to save the city or world. The very first story gives us a glimpse into the life of a hero named Samaritan, kind of a Superman analogue. He dreams of being able to fly. The power of flight is one of his heroic abilities, so why does he dream about flying when he goes to sleep at night? Because during his waking hours, he is always flying at super speed from one crisis to the next, never having the luxury of enjoying just floating among the clouds.

Another story focuses on the youngest member of the Furst Family, a multi-generational group of heroes. Astra can convert her body into pure energy, so she is a valuable member of this superhero group, which also includes her parents, an uncle and a great-uncle. With all of the adventures Astra has been on, she can talk fluently about battle tactics and multi-dimensional realities. But this pre-teen girl has absolutely no contact with other children her own age, doesn't know what kinds of programs they like to watch on TV or what kinds of music they listen to or even what kinds of games they might play during recess.

These are the kinds of things that set this series apart. Busiek is excellent at looking for the human aspect of superhumans. And because all of these characters are his own creations, even if a certain plot device might be familiar territory for comic books, you are never quite certain when a character might be affected in a new and interesting way. Because these aren't corporate-owned characters who can't undergo real, lasting change, anything could and does happen. But that ability to find the human quality in all of these characters -- powered or not -- makes it easier for a reader to relate to what is happening to the characters. We've all felt like an outcast or uncertain how to proceed in a given situation or not quite up to a task before us. By connecting with these characters on an emotional level, the reader is pulled into the story.

For simple economic reasons, I'm still not likely to pick up the new Astro City ongoing in single issues, but from time to time, when my budget allows, I would like to return to this world to read more of these incredible adventures in trade format. They're simply that good.

And He's Back In Form

Daredevil by Mark Waid tpb Volume 3
Marvel Comics
Mark Waid and Greg Rucka, writers
Chris Samnee, Marco Checchetto and Khoi Pham, artists

I was a little underwhelmed by the second trade collection of these Mark Waid Daredevil stories and likely wouldn't have purchased this third volume if it hadn't already been pre-ordered. I'm glad it was! These stories are back up to the high level set by the first trade, and by no small coincidence, these stories also serve to wrap up the story started in that first trade.

We start out with two Daredevil guest appearances in other books written by Greg Rucka, Avenging Spider-Man No. 6 and Punisher No. 10. Previously, Daredevil had confiscated a unique hard drive of criminal information on all of the major Marvel Universe crime "families" as depicted in the first trade collection of this title. With the help of the Avengers, Daredevil used the information on that hard drive to bring about the downfall of one of those criminal cabals, as detailed in the second Daredevil trade. But possession of the device has left Matt Murdock, Daredevil, and all those around him targets for the other four groups. This trade collection begins with Spider-Man trying to intervene, urging DD to turn the drive over to either the Avengers or the Fantastic Four, while the Punisher hopes to take the information for himself to use in his one-man war on crime. The three, along with a new partner for the Punisher, agree to work together instead, but things do not go exactly as planned, which leads directly into Daredevil issues 11-15, also in this collection, wrapping up the saga of that hard drive, but also setting DD up for some trouble with the ruler of Latveria, Dr. Doom!

Very fun, high-flying adventure tales. And unlike the DD guest-appearance included in the second trade, these two "extra" books seem to flow a little more naturally with the Daredevil ongoing. Pick it up; you'll be glad you did!

Did I Miss The Name-Dropping?

Justice League 18
DC Comics
Geoff Johns, writer
Jesus Saiz and Gary Frank, artists

This was an interesting little one-off issue of Justice League. In the wake of the battle against Atlantis, the League decides it needs to beef up its numbers. On his own initiative, Cyborg called in a number of non-members to help the League toward the end of that battle. All of those participants, plus a few others, are invited to the League's base to be considered for membership.

I find it interesting that this decision to add new members is not longer. Between the Darkseid arc, the formation of the team, and the Graves arc, when things jump ahead five years to the current time, the League had decided to add new members with disastrous results. We don't know much about that time as we've only heard about it as a past event with few known details, but it is brought up as a reason to keep the League at its current seven members every other time someone suggests adding to the ranks. Not so this time.

Anyway, all of these prospective new members are invited via The Grid, an invention of Cyborg's that allows him to connect with any and all electronic devices anywhere on the planet to not only send messages but "watch" everyone, too. Kinda creepy, in an NSA sort of way, but it also moves Victor into very much the role that Oracle used to play for the superhero community in the previous DC Universe. Unfortunately, it also gives the bad guys of the quickly forming Secret Society of Super-Villains a way to gain access to the League by simply traveling back along the same pathways Cyborg is using.

And that brings us to the title of this post. Apparently, all of this villain recruiting is not leading to a new version of the Legion of Doom as I theorized. You can understand why I might have thought that name would be used: a Legion of Doom version was part of the Flashpoint crossover that led directly into the formation of this DCnU reality, and the members we know of so far include Cheetah, Black Manta and Scarecrow, all members of the original Legion of Doom from the "SuperFriends" television show along with Luthor, Brainiac, Bizarro, Grodd, Giganta, the Riddler, Sinestro, Toyman, Solomon Grundy and Captain Cold. It just seemed a natural fit. Of course, the name Secret Society has been used a lot in the past 10 years or so, too, so I'm not upset by that choice for the name exactly. I just don't know when the name became common knowledge. It is used by the heroes of the League in this issue as a fact, but I don't recall any of the villains we've seen so far use the name, so how do the heroes know it. Doesn't sound like much of a secret, really, except maybe from the readers.