An Arrowverse adaptation of the Secret Six comic book series could offer an avenue for recasting the character of Ralph Dibny and continuing his and Sue Dearbon’s storyline from The Flash. It could also continue the stories of several supporting Arrowverse heroes, whose series are about to come to a close.

The Flash faced several production problems heading into season 7, but one of its biggest was the question of what to do with the character of Ralph “Elongated Man” Dibny following the firing of actor Hartley Sawyer. Ralph was deeply entangled in season 6’s storyline, which introduced the character of Sue Dearbon; the heiress who, in the comics, married Ralph Dibny and went on to join the Justice League alongside him. Most fans felt that Natalie Dreyfuss’ performance as Sue Dearbon was one of the best aspects of The Flash season 6 and nobody wanted to see her dismissed or written out of the Arrowverse as a side-effect of Sawyer’s bad behavior. Unfortunately, rather than immediately recast Ralph for season 7, The Flash showrunners elected to have Ralph and Sue’s story largely settled off-camera, and sent them off to have their own adventures in the finale of the episode “Mother.”

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A Secret Six show could offer a smooth and natural explanation for Ralph’s recasting by adapting one of the comic’s storylines.  More, such a series could be used to continue the stories of several other popular characters, whose original series set in the Arrowverse are coming to a close in 2021. The Arrowverse has already found success doing something similar with Legends of Tomorrow once before and Secret Six could be their next big spin-off.

How The Secret Six Could Recast The Arrowverse Ralph Dibny

The original Secret Six series premiered in 1968 and was based around a team of covert operatives led by a mysterious figure known only as Mockingbird. Secret Six is best known, however, for a revival of the concept written by fan-favorite author Gail Simone, which spun out of the 2005 Infinite Crisis event and Simone’s Villains United mini-series. Simone’s new Secret Six team was still led by a mysterious figure called Mockingbird, but the team now consisted of a number of anti-heroes and villains, whom Mockingbird had assembled to disrupt the plans of a newly formed Secret Society of Supervillains. The team, which included Deadshot, eventually freed themselves of Mockingbird’s control, but continued to work together as a team of mercenaries that was too amoral to be a superhero team but still not quite bad enough to be considered outright villains.

Simone revived the Secret Six concept once again in 2014 for the New 52 DC Comics universe, with a new lineup, some new characters, and The Riddler in the Mockingbird role. One of the new characters was a private eye named Damon “Big Shot” Wells, who became bigger and stronger the angrier he became. It was eventually revealed that Big Shot was Ralph Dibny in disguise and that he had adopted the Big Shot identity after he found himself unable to use his stretching powers to stretch following his wife’s kidnapping by The Riddler.

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This base idea could easily be adapted for the Arrowverse in recasting the role of Ralph Dibny. The Flash has already established that Ralph’s elastic power set allows him to shapeshift, although it’s something he can’t do easily or for extended periods. It’s entirely possible that he might get “stuck” while undercover, leading to his adopting the Big Shot identity permanently to further distance himself from the “World Famous Elongated Man.”

How A Secret Six Series Could Continue Ralph and Sue’s Story From The Flash

Ironically, Ralph and Sue’s swift departure from The Flash provides the perfect means of introducing the Secret Six into the Arrowverse. The Flash season 7 episode “Mother” ended with Sue Dearbon being offered a place on Team Flash. Sue declined the offer, saying that having brought down the Black Hole crime syndicate that had blackmailed her parents and tried to frame her for murder, she and Ralph had decided to travel the world and start exposing every super-crime group like Black Hole, noting “there’s an organization just like them in every country in the world.”

Such an organization run by the mysterious Mockingbird could easily serve as the chief foil for a new Secret Six series. The show could open with Ralph and Sue in the clutches of the organization, along with four other unfortunate souls forced to work for Mockingbird. For extra added drama (and a nod to the comics) Ralph could be brought in as a new character, hypnotized to think he was someone else with similar powers and Sue forced to play along with Mockingbird’s game to save Ralph, not knowing that Ralph was by her side the whole time. (Something similar was done on Batwoman season 2, with the hypnotist Enigma reprogramming Beth Kane to become Alice and, perhaps not coincidentally, using the word “Mockingbird” as part of her hypnotic triggers.)

Where The Secret Six Could Appear In The Arrowverse (& Who’d Be In It)

Beyond being the perfect means of continuing the saga of Sue Dearbon and Ralph Dibny, a Secret Six series could also offer a new lease on life to several other Arrowverse characters. One of the best things about the Secret Six concept was its flexibility and how the series made use of characters from almost every part of the DC Comics Universe, either recruiting them as short-term adversaries or long-term recruits. One of the most interesting Secret Six storylines pitted the team against Wonder Woman, after discovering that their employer was a slave trader who was trafficking captive Amazons. Depending on how the team was set-up, honest heroes could be recruited to the Secret Six, being forced to work for Mockingbird only to continue working with the villains and anti-heroes on the team in the name of the greater good or, more likely, to keep them under control. This might be an ideal role for Dreamer, whom many have hoped to see continue on in the Arrowverse after Supergirl comes to an end.

The Secret Six lineup has usually favored more ethically flexible characters, but there’s no shortage of those to be found in the Arrowverse. The Secret Six team could be an interesting outlet for Black Lightning‘s Anissa “Thunder” Pierce, and her wife, Grace Choi; two vigilantes who have skirted certain legal lines in their careers. Frost from The Flash would also be an ideal recruit, should she find herself needing to get away from Central City following her upcoming trial. The Secret Six would also be an ideal home for Painkiller, if his solo series isn’t picked up by The CW. Perhaps the most interesting choice of all would be Alice from Batwoman, whom many fans have singled out as being far more interesting and oddly moral (in her own mixed-up way) than the law enforcement officials and vigilantes struggling to keep her in Arkham Asylum.

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About The Author


Matt Morrison
(1836 Articles Published)

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Matt Morrison has been writing about comics since before the word
“blogging” was coined. He got his start writing for the
legendary DC Comics digital fanzine Fanzing,
before receiving his own column, The Mount. Since then he has gone on
to write for over a dozen websites, including 411
Mania, Comics
Nexus and The Cult of Nobody. He holds both an MS in Information
Science from the University of North Texas and a BFA from the
University of Texas at Arlington. Known as a font of comic book
history trivia, he has delivered lectures on the history of American
Comic Books, Japanese Manga, Doctor Who, and Cosplay at over a dozen conventions
and served as an Expert In-Residence for a course on Graphic Novels
for Librarians at the University of North Texas. In addition to his
work for Screen Rant, Matt is currently the Editor In Chief of
Kabooooom.com and writes reviews for No
Flying, No Tights – a graphic literature and anime review site
aimed at teachers and librarians. He also maintains a personal blog –
My Geeky Geeky Ways –
which hosts his extensive episode guide for the television series
making up The Arrowverse as well as his
comedic Let’s Play videos. What little spare time he has is
devoted towards acting, role-playing, movie-riffing and sarcasm. You
can follow his adventures on Twitter, @GeekyGeekyWays.

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