Memorably reintroduced by writer Gail Simone and artists Brad Walker and Nicola Scott in the early 2000s, Secret Six has become DC’s premiere cult-favorite comic book of the past twenty years. With its ever-evolving lineup of anti-heroes and villains, groundbreaking storylines, LGBTQIA+ representation and willingness to play for keeps when it comes to its characters, Secret Six may not be a household name (yet), but it’s garnered a legion of devoted fans which only seems to grow with each passing year.

DC’s newest Secret Six is a six-issue limited series by Nicole Maines and Stephen Segovia that adds Dreamer, Jon Kent and Jay Nakamura to a roster that also contains team veterans Catman, Deadshot and Black Alice. Spinning out of the events of last summer’s Absolute Power and Maines’ earlier Suicide Squad: Dream Team, it promises to address the fallout stemming from Nia Nal’s involvement in the death of Jay’s mother, as well as the role Jon played in Amanda Waller’s attempt to rid the world of superhumans.

We can expect fireworks. That goes without saying. But to give us a better idea of this latest stint with the Six, we sat down with Maines to discuss whether her heroes are actually villains, why it’s fun writing sassy characters and whether there may be a little more to the friendship between Jon and Nia than we realize.

You said something that I found interesting in the press release announcing Secret Six. You said Dreamer, Jon Kent and Jay Nakamura are all at the start of their potential villain origin stories. Do you really see them at a risk of breaking bad?

I think so. I think that's always right around the corner for a lot of superheroes. I think a lot of the time, they toe the line between good and evil. The battles that they fight are so high-stakes, there's so much life and death that hangs in the balance and that affects people in surprising ways.

I think Absolute Power specifically affected Jay, Jon and Nia in a much larger way than perhaps everybody else. Jay's watched his home country of Gamorra be seized by a dictator once, Henry Bendix, and it was through Dreamer and Jon's help that they overthrew him and got Jay’s mom and home back. And Jay had that for about five minutes before Amanda Waller moved in and did the exact same thing with Dreamer's help. It was unwittingly, of course. But for Jay as a grieving 18-year-old, after Amanda Waller orders the death of his mother, he realizes that his friend who helped save his country has now played a pivotal role in condemning it, and he's like, "Oh, I'm coming for you."

For Dreamer, she's at her no-good-deed moment. She has tried so hard to do the right thing and use her powers for good and it seems like every time she tries to help, she just makes things impossibly worse. And so, for her, she's just like, "What am I even doing? And why am I trying so hard to be a good person if it just seems like I'm going to be a villain no matter what? Why am I fighting with kid gloves?"

And for Jon, his dad is his North Star and he’s been taught to believe, "I need to fight for truth, justice and the American way." But through his own experiences and his own traumas, he might be coming to a different conclusion than his dad and might be realizing, "Maybe what I'm fighting for isn't actually what I think I'm fighting for."

For Jay, specifically, he's like, "Yeah, you are fighting for the American way. But the American way is imperialism, colonialism and exploitation of marginalized people. So, who are you really defending, people or a dangerous, bloodthirsty institution?"

So naturally, for all of these kids, they're like, "What is the right thing to do when you realize that the powers that be are evil? What do I do about that? And does that still make me a hero or am I a villain for protecting them?" It's not black and white.

You’ve written all three characters before. Why did Secret Six feel like the correct franchise in which to bring them back?

Secret Six is, I think, perfect for these three particular characters because it is comprised of these folks who originally had good intentions and through perhaps fault of their own, fell into being villains. That is how they've been perceived and that's not a label that they can shake off.

There was a story in the 2008 Secret Six that Gail Simone did where they go in and they try to help. They're trying to track down human traffickers or something and do something good. And Nightwing comes in and saves the day and he's like, "You guys have three seconds to get out of here and I'll pretend like I never saw you."

And Catman says something like, "See, this is what I f*cking can't stand. We can do all the good in the world, and yeah, we're not doing it as squeaky clean as they are, but they're always going to look at us as the bad guys because that's just what they've decided we are."

I think specifically for Jay and Nia, they're in a very similar position. They're fighting for the right things, but the world around them has decided that they are respectively a cyber-terrorist and a war criminal. And for Jon, yeah, he was turned into a cyborg and forced to round up superheroes and hunt them down like animals, but he can be forgiven because he has that S on his chest and that means he's a good guy. The other two don't get that.

On that note, the relationship between Nia, Jay and Jon is charged, to say the least. What does adding Catman, Deadshot and Black Alice bring to the mix?

Well, Black Alice, it gives her something to dissect, make fun of and pick apart. She's a lot of fun because she's just so mean and awful. But she should be! Because similarly, she's just been used and abused by frankly less powerful people. She's always a tool and she's sick of it. And Catman and Deadshot are fun because they have been through this wringer before and their job is not made any easier by having to babysit four emotionally charged teenagers with superpowers that could all, frankly, eviscerate them at a moment's notice.

In most of the recent Secret Six runs, there has been an element of humor beneath all of the villainy, tragedy and weirdness. Can we expect the same thing in your new series, or are you going a different route?

100%. These characters are f*cking fantastic. I don't want to spoil it, but there's this great scene in issue #2 where Deadshot and Jon are fighting and he incapacitates Jon and he flips out a cigarette, and he's just like, "All right, you catch your breath. I'm going to smoke this, and then you're going to tell me why I had to see you twice today."

Yeah, it's fun. It's cute because all these characters are so, maybe with the exception of Jon, pretty sassy.

I’ve been really fascinated by the dynamic between Dreamer and Amanda Waller in your comics. Can we expect that to be explored more in the series? Was that one of your reasons for wanting to do it?

I wanted to keep going with it. It was really important to me in the wake of Absolute Power to make sure we weren't glossing over or moving too quickly away from the fallout of it all, specifically in regards to what Amanda Waller did to Dreamer, Jay and Jon. I wanted to home in on it, I wanted to focus on it, I wanted to have a spotlight on that. Amanda Waller and Dreamer, and I've said this before, I think they're two sides of the same coin, in that their professions and Dreamer's powers have shown them both the world coming so close to ending.

Amanda's done apologizing for playing God and for abusing her power. And Dreamer's like, "Oh my God, is Amanda Waller right? She can't be. I can't do what Amanda Waller did."

But now coming out of Absolute Power and out of Suicide Squad, putting Amanda Waller's memories behind a firewall in her brain and torturing her with information that she knows she knows and can't access is a little f*cked up. That's taking a page out of Amanda's books.

Finally, I’m just going to ask, what is the relationship between Nia and Jon. Are they just friends, or do you think there’s maybe possibly a little more there?

Is there something going on between Dreamer and Jon Kent? I think if there is, I don't think either of them would admit to it. Jon is so desperate for things to get back to normal, and that includes Jay. And his problem is Jay is potentially incapable of going back to normal because he has nothing to go back to. Everyone and everything he loves has been destroyed, and he is spiraling into this vortex of anger and grief, and I don't know if anyone can pull him out of that.

Dreamer definitely has a thing for Jon, and if he does have a thing for Dreamer, I don't know if he would admit that to himself right now. I think he's just so terrified of losing the best thing in his life…but he might have already lost it.

Secret Six #1 by Nicole Maines, Stephen Segovia and Rain Beredo is available this week in print and as a digital comic book.