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Villains United and Volumes 2 and 3
- Bizarro Episode: Issue 24 randomly diverges from the main Six continuity to deliver a one shot Elseworlds tale that casts the Six and some of their opponents as heroes and villains in a wild west setting. It is a very well done, well written and entertaining example though. It also foreshadows the ending of the comic, with the alternate Six falling in a Last Stand just like the main Six do against an army of superheroes in the finale.
- Complete Monster: Mr. Smyth, from the "Depths" arc, is a man with a radical plan to "better" the world: Bring back the institution of slavery, as it is what "great nations" are built upon. Smyth takes in the slaves and forces them to work in horrible conditions, leading to their deaths from overwork, cave-ins or gas. When a slave named Maria refuses to work any more, Smyth has his assistant begin slaughtering innocent slaves en masse until a broken Maria promises to keep working. Smyth later tricks Deadshot into murdering Maria by offering her "freedom" if she can run to safety before telling Deadshot she is an escaping dangerous prisoner. Smyth also keeps Amazons as slaves with the intent to force them into servitude or death as well, and shows no concern over anything but the restoration of the institution of slavery.
- Crosses the Line Twice: Vandal Savage force feeding Cheshire and Dr. Psycho steaks cut from Solomon Grundy. Starts off disgusting, but Savage's matter of fact remarks about it and Dr. Psycho not really minding ("I don't mean to be rude, but mine's a bit chewy.") bring it around to funny.
- Ensemble Dark Horse: King Shark was popular enough that he's the only one of the four replacements who looks to be sticking around for a while. Not bad for someone who in recent years is mostly known as a punching bag for Conner Kent.
- He's Just Hiding: Some fans feel that being shot once from across the room like Pistolera is a pretty survivable and easy-to-retcon death by DC standards, especially since it is never even shown what part of her body the bullet hit.
- Hilarious in Hindsight: The head of the group that kidnapped Catman's son is named Erik Wallace. Meanwhile, the name of the writer of a recent Teen Titans series where a character Gail created dies in a particularly gruesome manner is Eric Wallace. According to Gail
, she had never even met Eric Wallace and this was a total coincidence. Given the gap between the time Gail's issue was written and the time of the character's death... - Jerkass Woobie: Pretty much all of the Six but especially Bane, Catman, Deadshot, and Scandal.
- Moral Event Horizon: If Cheshire destroying Qurac with a nuke and laughing about it didn't send her over the line, conceiving a replacement baby and forsaking Lian's life to get out of the team during Villains United probably did the trick.
- Never Live It Down: Cheshire's morality has always been argued since the Qurac incident but many chose to believe her love for Lian was her only redeemable trait even if she was evil. As mentioned in Moral Event Horizon, her actions during the Villains United miniseries were what proved to many there's absolutely nothing good about her and that she's a horrible mother. Those fans are quick to refer to the incident in question when people argue there's still good in her or that she still loves Lian.
- Take That, Scrappy!: Tarantula's death. The character is not popular due to the epic Double Standard involving her actual raping of DC Comics fan favourite Nightwing, and the fact that she was accepted into his team, the Batfamily, afterwards. Suffice to say, many cheers were had when she finally got her comeuppance and died.
- Tearjerker:
- Issue #36, featuring the last stand of the Secret Six.
- From #13, Jeannette briefly hallucinates that it's her birthday, before she was executed and became a banshee. Artemis and Bane are debating whether to leave the addled woman behind, but Scandal won't have it. Then reality begins to hit Jeannette.Jeannette: Oh, and there'll be roast capon and figs and cakes and the most interesting of restraints... wait. Wait. He's cut off my head, hasn't he? My husband. He's cut off my head.Scandal: Yes. I'm sorry.(Jeannette falls into Scandal's arms and both begin to cry')Scandal: You were... you were betrayed.
- From #34, the Six return from hell just in time to save Liana from the psychotic Randall. As the other members make Randall run a gauntlet, Scandal rescues Liana, who, despite everything, doesn't want them to kill Randall and asks Scandal to swear not to kill him. Scandal does, and hands Liana to Jeannette... and then she kills Randall. And then immediately after:Scandal: Would someone... would you one of you three men I love... the only men I love... please hold me for a moment? <Bane holds her and Catman puts a hand on her shoulder> I think I'm going to cry.
- During the final battle of the first arc Bane, who has finally kicked his addiction to Venom, sees Scandal is about to die. He takes out some Venom and whispers that only for her, the daughter of his heart, will he fall off the wagon. He then gives in to the mind-numbing rage.
- Scandal cries when she sees what he has done, knowing how important kicking the addiction was to him.
- Unpopular Popular Character: Ragdoll is regarded as one of the series' highlights by many fans, but his teammates (especially Scandal and Deadshot) are far from shy in telling him that he freaks them right the hell out.
Volume 4
- Ass Pull: The resolution to Sue being brainwashed is her memory simply comes back. Off-panel. It's apparent that Gail Simone didn't have enough time to address this subplot with the imminent cancellation of the book.
- Squick: Shauna seems to be this in general due to her lack of hygiene, to the point where Catman throws up after an accidental glimpse at her privates. Etrigan also causes this on Catman when the former casually mentions that he once had sex with Wonder Woman.
