Spider-Man: The Secret of the Sinister Six

Sinister Six #3

by Adam-Troy Castro

First mass-market edition! Peter Parker, the amazing Spider-Man, has made an astonishing discovery -- he has a sister! Worse, a manipulative super-villain known as the Gentleman, who had a hand in the deaths of Peter Parker's parents, has somehow brainwashed her into becoming the deadly super-villain known as Pity! Together with Doctor Octopus, Electro, the Vulture, and Mysterio, they've formed the newest incarnation of the super-villain group dedicated to destroy Spider-Man, the Sinister Six. The Gentleman's plan to destroy Spider-Man is about to reach its awful conclusion!

Genres: Fiction, Comics, Superheroes, Science Fiction, Spider Man, Action, Marvel

448 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2002

About the author

Adam-Troy Castro made his first professional sale to Spy magazine in 1987. Since then, he's published 12 books and almost 80 short stories. Among those stories are "Baby Girl Diamond" (nominated for the Bram Stoker Award) and "The Funeral March of the Marionettes" (nominated for the Hugo and Nebula Awards in 1998). "The Astronaut from Wyoming," a collaboration with Jerry Oltion, appeared in Analog and was nominated for the Hugo and Nebula Awards in 2000, before winning the Seiun (Japanese Hugo) for best translation in 2008.

His "Of A Sweet Slow Dance in the Wake of Temporary Dogs" was nominated for the 2003 Nebula. His original short story collections include Lost in Booth Nine (published by Silver Salamander Press in 1993), An Alien Darkness and A Desperate Decaying Darkness (published by Wildside Press in 2000), Vossoff and Nimmitz (2002), and Tangled Strings (2003). He is also the author of the Spider-Man novels—Time's Arrow: The Present (written in collaboration with Tom DeFalco), The Gathering of the Sinister Six, Revenge of the Sinister Six, and Secret of the Sinister Six—as well as the nonfiction My Ox Is Broken! The Andrea Cort novels include, Emissaries from the Dead, The Third Claw of God, and a third installment currently in progress, tentatively titled The Fall of the Marionettes.

Castro, who married the divine Judi on 25 December 2002, lives in Florida with his wife and four cats: Maggie, Uma Furman, Meow Farrow, and the latest acquisition, Ralphie, an orphan of 2005's hellacious hurricane season.

Reviews

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

SINISTER SIX NOVEL TITLES RATED ON ACCURACY:

The Gathering of the Sinister Six: 2 stars. (Sure, they gathered, but that wasn't the main plot of the novel.)

Revenge of the Sinister Six: 2.5 stars (Yes, there was some revenge, but it was hardly successful, and again, that wasn't the main plot.)

Secret of the Sinister Six: 2 stars (Was the Fiers thing the secret, or Pity, or what? It seemed kind of vague....)

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are a lot of bad guys in this book. The Sinister Six, of course - Mysterio, Electro, the Chameleon, the Vulture, Doctor Octopus and a girl named Pity. The line-up of villains also includes a couple of nutty brothers and even the Red Skull. The book's title should have been Spider-Man: The Secret of the Nefarious Nine.

[Jennifer Mathews · Rating 3 out of 5]

WHY IS NO ONE TALKING ABOUT SCOOBY DOO AT THE END. I’m cackling.

Also get this man an editor, the amount of typos and grammatical errors was insane.

[Neil · Rating 2 out of 5]

This story was a bit of a letdown for me; I would say time has not been good to it at all (having read it when it first came out). The "main characters" were pretty spot-on, I think; the secondary, side characters did a decent job supporting the story as well. The character development was so-so; not nearly as good as in the prior book (first to me, even though Revenge is the second book in the series) but it had its moments like the "scene" where Colonel Sean Morgan is snarking about having to babysit Spider-Man and even ripping him a "new one" by telling him to "get over it" (regarding Peter's pathological feeling guilty over events he has no control over) so that he can face the Sinister Six in whatever they have planned next, or how Morgan wishes he had one hundred more agents like Spider-Man operating in SAFE. The action was hit-and-miss for me; the book seemed to slow down in parts. Also, it felt “weird” because the incidents in this book take place about a week after what happened in the second book (which I guess makes sense, considering the beat-down Spider-Man unleashed on three or four of the Sinister Six in the prior book and their having to heal from said beating).

It is funny reading this; it really needed an editor. I do not remember it having so many mistakes when I first read it. Most of the mistakes were punctuation errors, but there were also several spelling errors, missing words, or even "the wrong word" being used in a sentence like "Although the blizzard had closed the storm to both incoming and outgoing traffic, the runway lights still glowed bright as far as the limited visibility allowed them to be seen at all" (345); the word "airport" should have been used instead of "storm". The mistakes occurred often enough to jar me out of the story, so that was a bit frustrating at times.

I think the "funnest thing" about this book is that it continues the author's insertion of "pop culture" references throughout the story. For instance, I am sure the reference to the long-deceased operative of the Gentleman who obtained valuable treasures before WWII has to be a reference to the first Indiana Jones movie (since the name of the dead operative is "Belloque" and was French) (82-83). The name "Ivan Rastokov" (130) sounds familiar, but I could not find any information on him or what he might have been associated with; it could just be a "throwaway name." There was a reference to "a guy named Joe" that I forgot to mark down, but "Joe" was a character from early in Spider-Man's career who started off as a criminal but left crime behind and took on a legal career (if I remember correctly). An FBI agent by the name of Starling is mentioned (332), which I assume refers to "Clarice Starling" of Silence of the Lambs fame. I am not sure if the FBI Agent whose name is "Martin Walsh" is significant or not. I found out that Christian Szell was the villain in the movie (and book) Marathon Man (130). I am pretty sure the first Die Hard movie is referenced on page 139 (in a comment about how an undistinguished NYC cop visiting Los Angeles stopped a terrorist attack in a high-rise building "a few years ago"). I think the reference to a "Caspar Gutman" (166) might refer to the villain of the Maltese Falcon movie? I am pretty sure the reference to William Shatner and John Lithgow looking out their airplane windows in terror references an episode of the Twilight Zone about a passenger on an airline who sees gremlins on the airplane’s wing (375). I am also sure the reference to the female Chinese opium smuggler in China is the Dragon Lady of Terry and the Pirates fame (375). And I forgot that Scooby and the Gang (Fred, Daphne, Velma, and Shaggy) show up at the end of the book and find Pity on a deserted road in Maine (although how she reaches Maine in three days is beyond me!) (440-442). One other mention that I forgot to right down the page number is a reference to a spy ring that is broken up by the clumsiness of an ad executive from NYC that I am sure is a reference to North by Northwest with Cary Grant playing Thornhill (the character who broke up the spy ring). It would be interesting to know what other pop-culture references the author made throughout this book.

I also learned that the reference to the wall of fire at Peshtigo, Wisconsin, references the nation’s deadliest fire (which occurred at the same time as the great Fire of Chicago) (226). While the fire in Chicago is better known, the firestorm that occurred in Peshtigo had a higher loss of life and greater area of damage. The exact loss of life is unknown because of so many people who were killed and the records that were destroyed, but it is estimated that between 1500-2500 people lost their lives in addition to the unknown number of animals killed. It was a crazy firestorm and was the inspiration for the fire bombings of Axis cities like Dresden and Tokyo in WWII by the Allied forces.

I think the “biggest weakness” of this story for me had to be how it showed how some of these villains really should not be able to stand up to Spider-Man. The Vulture is “merely” an elderly man in a flying suit of armor; he should not be able to take the blows to the head that he takes from Spider-Man and continue to carry on without any major concussions or other damage to his head (brain). Doc Ock is a normal human yet is able to withstand sub-zero, freezing temperatures while wearing soaked clothing in the worst blizzard to hit NYC followed by hanging from the side of an airplane as it is flying through the air with no issues to his health or ability to breath followed by falling several thousand feet to the ground below with no parachute and surviving. I am sorry, but I could not suspend my sense of disbelief enough to believe that Dock Ock could have survived any single one of these events without any kind of ill effects or dying, let alone all three of them in rapid succession.

Then there is Electro, who is made to be so overpowered that he is just plain annoying in this book; he is able to either “override” the electrical impulses in the brains of SAFE agents and either kill them or cause seizures to happen to incapacitate them or he is able to cause their bodies to explode, yet he never causes a seizure in Spider-Man’s brain by overriding the electrical impulses of Spidey’s brain? He never forces Spider-Man’s body to explode like he did the SAFE agents?!? Really?!? I could not believe that one, either.

Another “weakness” for me is the massive body count these villains exact while attacking a research facility. They murder between 50 and 100 individuals at this lab alone, yet SAFE and other government agencies refuse to use lethal force against these clowns, these villains? It makes zero sense that no lethal force is used, that the government is going to allow higher body counts “just” so they can be taken alive as opposed to dead. I did not believe for one moment that lethal force would not have been used against these villains, especially after all of the death and mayhem they had already caused.

This brings up the third biggest weakness/peeve for me. Where are the other heroes? A comment is made that the officials of the city have been trying to reach the Avengers, the New Warriors, and the Fantastic Four, to no avail. Why is that? Cap was sitting in Tokyo “the week before” watching Spidey battle these villains on TV in his hotel room. It’s not going to take him over a week to return to NYC to lend a helping hand. He knew Spidey needed help; he could see it while watching the fight on the television. He, at the very least, would have returned to aid Spider-Man and the authorities in apprehending these villains. Where were Daredevil and Luke Cage and Iron Fist (Danny Rand’s facility was attacked, for Pete’s sake!) and Doctor Strange? The author even has Wolverine returning to Westchester to Xavier’s mansion; it is said the mansion is filled with sleeping students and teammates. Why were the X-Men not helping Spider-Man out? Why were they not involved in the battle? Especially with Pity clearly being a mutant. Why did she not show up on Cerebro? Why was Xavier not aware of her presence? Why did he not send the X-Men to either apprehend or capture this young girl?

Also, going back to Doc Ock and the airplane. Doc Ock is slamming Spidey and Pity into the sides of the aircraft; the author makes it sound like the plane’s fuselage is heavily armored or something, what with the amount of damage and pounding it takes without breaking. Yet the skin of an airplane is extremely thin and any amount of damage to its integrity will be catastrophic in nature. Ock’s blows are beyond catastrophic in nature and start a chain reaction of causing the plane to fall apart in flight. Yet, it somehow survives the smashing that takes place inside the main cabin as Ock battles Spidey and Pity. Makes about as much sense as two military planes colliding in Terminator “V” and essentially surviving the collision.

I felt the story was pretty strong, overall, despite some glaring problems in the second book. This book seems to highlight the weaknesses of that book and making them glaringly obvious in this one, which really weakens the story. Also, this is more of a “personal opinion/thing,” but the chapters were too long. They seemed to go on forever. Shorter chapters would probably have been better, as they would have set the ‘mood’ of the story moving quickly along as opposed to slowly plodding along due to the length of the chapters.

There were some other moments that made me “laugh.” For example, at one point, the Gentleman is internally despising his hired guns. As the author puts it, “he had not been prepared for just how distastefully common they actually were” (167). So harsh! Hilarious, but harsh. Yet this insufferable prig gets his at the end, when the Chameleon shoots him several times in his rented hangar, takes on the Gentleman’s identity, and plans to leave with the Gentleman’s treasures. I have to admit, I never saw that coming the first time I read the book, let alone the second time (having forgotten how the Gentleman got what was coming to him). It was quite the shock to me when the Gentleman’s death was revealed, who killed him, and that it was quite a welcome death indeed.

I did like how the Gentleman had a plan to betray the Sinister Six. He had promised them each at least ten million dollars in cash and paid half of that to each of them up front. What they did not know was that he had some kind of catalyst that would erase all ink, rending their money worthless, while he had exchanged all of his cash for "hard assets" (like diamonds, fur coats, pieces of artwork, etc.). An EMP was supposed to be set off to erase all electronic data stored on hard drives in the city followed by all ink being erased once the Catalyst was set off. Doc Ock figured things out and ambushed the Gentleman at his hangar before he could take off in his specially-modified cargo aircraft (granted, it is revealed that the Gentleman is actually the Chameleon in disguise). So that was one of the "better parts" of the book, of its story, that the Gentleman had plans within plans, wheels within wheels, and Six had no idea what was coming their way (well, five of the Six, as Pity worked for the Gentleman directly).

It was an okay book. I cannot say I would recommend it to anybody, but I am glad that I reread it and finished the “final” book in the series. It was still an enjoyable read, overall, despite its weaknesses and mistakes. I would probably rate it 2.5 – 27 stars, rounded down (sadly).

[Jaq Greenspon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like the other books in the series, Spider-Man: Secret of the Sinister Six uses Adam-Troy Castro's storytelling abilities to overcome poor copy-editing and typos. As the third book in the trilogy, this is the one where everything gets tied together and the bad guys are soundly defeated while the good guys, despite being battered and pounded and ending up in the hospital, emerge as victorious, once again. Even so, there are a number of nice surprises and a few startling revelations.

There's also Castro's incessant inclusions of pop culture references. In the first book, these were clever and veiled, if you didn't get them you weren't at a loss and it didn't affect your enjoyment in any way. Here though, he seems to finding his only joy in writing the book in how many ways he can shoehorn in a reference and while many of them are cool, there are points when they become distracting... not because they're there, but because you notice when you don't get it and you feel like you're missing out on something, like a private joke you're not in on.

That all said, I did breeze through this in 2 days. It's a quick read, full of action and character development. Castro's best relationship (and probably his best drawn character) is Red herself, Mary Jane Watson-Parker, and her relationship with her husband as Mrs. Spider-Man. She is followed closely by his work with Max Dillon, the living lightning bolt known as Electro. Castro bounces between viewpoints, inhabiting the minds of several of the participants in this drama but these two stand out as offering particularly new insight into both the world of the super-villain and the Hero support network.


Castro also seems to be having a good time playing with the tropes of the comics (which it's obvious he either knows very well or had studied extensively before embarking on this work). The various agencies involved in the operations, the references to other characters and events within the Marvel universe all serve to create a fully realized world.

The only downside, really, is the moments of dropped threads and missed opportunities. When the plot hinges around a a device which can replicate the powers of on of the bad guys, you have to wonder why the bad guy didn't just create the desired effect rather than having the group go through the motions of stealing the device? Also, and this was a big one for me, Castro ands a chapter with Mary Jane watching the news and hearing about her husband's death in an Italian restaurant (and really, where was the Billy Joel reference here?) and the next time we see her, the action is over and the happy couple has been reunited. This seemed to me to be an amazing opportunity since at the moment this occurs, MJ is with Jill Stacy, Gwen Stacy's sister (and if you're not a comic fan, just know that Gwen's death came at the hands of Spider-man trying to save her after the Green Goblin had thrown her from the Brooklyn Bridge). This is also just after Jill has expressed something akin to PTSD when she seed Spidey on TV and MJ has to assure her (although she can't say why) that she knows Spider-Man is really broken up about Gwen's death. Just imagine the scene when Peter Parker's wife totally loses it when she hears about Spidey's death in front of a woman who blames Spidey for the death of her own sister. That's dramatic gold and character development silver right there. Would have loved to see that play out onstage rather than have it swept under the rug in favor of more action sequences.

Finally, the epilogue is fun, and again provides a nice look into a character we're not expecting who also gives us answers we've been waiting for. It's a bit of a cheat that he comes in deus ex machina-like to reveal all but given the action of the final battle, it's the only way the information can reasonably be presented without even more severe convolutions and writerly betrayal of characterization.

In the end, the trilogy is worth reading. It's a faithful superhero story and adds nicely to the cannon (and introduces a character who may show up in the next Spider-man film... an added bonus for sure).

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well crafted Spider Man tale. Finishing off his trilogy Castro churned out a fast paced action packed page turner. With betrayal and heart break waiting in the wings and poking its nose in as the tale drew to an end. A very nice plot twist at the end as well as leaving the future of Pity up in the air.

[Kieran Westphal · Rating 3 out of 5]

sincerely: why is the scooby doo gang in this. why are they the post-script teaser for future books. why did adam troy-castro do that. why did anyone let him do that ???

[Asaf Cygelberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't like deeply a few things about this trilogy, and actually thought to stop at the second book. But my new books were yet to arrive, so I read this last book of the three.

It's not a very bad book, and indeed I gave it 4 stars, but you have to put up with some things. Like many typing mistakes, the book pages not opening enough without great force to let you read the text near the middle, the use of the same adjectives repeatedly, and characters I didn't like.

All in all, it is readable, though.

[Ross Vincent · Rating 4 out of 5]

Completing the story that started 2 books prior.
Spider-Man once again has to take on the Sinister Six. Only this time, we learn what the teams true purpose is. It's not as small as one would assume. We're talking James Bond villain style madness. And, the inside jokes continue up until the very last page.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

It wasn't bad. Your normal super hero vs villains story. Having grown up with DC comics I wasn't familiar with half the characters in this book that weren't in the 90s animated series or the live action movies but it was still a fun book.

[Daniel Hood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good old fashioned SpiderMan fun.

[Scot Hickey · Rating 4 out of 5]

good

[Seth · Rating 4 out of 5]

A simply amazing book.