I Do So Love Comparing And Predicting

I suppose comparing Thomas Blake to Shinomori Aoshi yesterday struck a chord with me, so here we are. I've seen at least part of Aoshi's character arc, how he wound up no longer caring, what brought him out of that, and where he went from there, so maybe draw some parallels between the two.

From the flashback in Secret Six #1 it appears Catman lost another family to poachers. This after Deadshot killed the first one he was running around with*. He got a little vengeful on those stinking poachers, which troubles him at least some of the time. As near as I can tell, he went to Africa to rediscover himself after his less-than-impressive run-ins with Green Arrow during Brad Meltzer's time on that book. He was a shell of himself, but somehow found acceptance with these lions, then they were killed. And now it's happened again**. At this point, all he has is the team he runs with, and that's a problem, isn't it? Because he told the Huntress that he and his group were trying to do better, but it was a work in progress. Except I'm not certain his teammates have the qualms he has about certain jobs, so can they actually do "better", in the sense of taking "good" jobs, helping those who need help, stuff like that***? Blake is feeling disconnected, working with people he may care about, but who do things bad enough he can probably divorce himself from those feelings. He doesn't want to be a villain, but he's not certain he can be a hero. He's not even sure he wants to continue existing.

Aoshi got to that state by losing four friends/subordinates, who had fought hard for him. Aoshi prizes loyalty, which is why when he was offered high ranking government positions, he turned them down, because the four were not desired, and he refused to simply abandon those who had fought for him faithfully. Then they died for him, after he had failed to beat Kenshin and claim the title of the strongest. Then Kenshin told him to train and return for a rematch, so he could try and claim the title for those four. Except Aoshi decided the way to do that was to give up caring about anything other than that fight. He allied himself with evil men (Shishio, who planned to overthrow the government and plant himself as ruler), and nearly killed a man who was once his ally. Kenshin eventually got through to him during their rematch, by telling Aoshi that his attempts to divorce himself from his humanity, while using his friends' deaths as an excuse, was dishonoring their memories. He'd made their deaths a millstone around his neck, rather than something which inspired him to greater heights. Plus, Kenshin reminded him there are other people still living that could use Aoshi's guidance, including the 15-year old that's tried to assume his position at head of the clan since Aoshi damn near killed the person that had been running things in his absence.

After that whole sequence, Aoshi resumes control of his group, and sets himself upon trying to be a force for good. He decides he will fight evil, and fight for justice. He's not careless with his life, merely dedicated to a greater cause, and determined to see it through. So where does that leave Blake? The dead lions are his loyal friends who have died. His actions towards the poachers, and maybe even confronting Batman are his questionable actions to "honor" their deaths. They saw something in him that they deemed worthy to stay with them, and so he's going to prove them right by confronting the big, bad Bat, or by scarring the ones who harmed/killed them. That leaves the Six as the friends that are still alive and need guidance. The question, and maybe this is what the first arc is going to cover is, what is their purpose? Is it to make money? Is there a person or organization they want to stick it to? Are they trying to help others? What jobs are off-limits, if any? Blake has to serve as the conscience of the group, but he can't do that until he decides what goal he's pursuing. He told Deadshot he thought he had lost the horizon, so he needs to reacquire it.

That requires someone to help show him the way, though. Aoshi had Kenshin, someone he respects and recognizes as having walked a similar path; Catman has. . . He fought Batman, and while I imagine Catman respects Batman to a certain degree, I doubt he would accept advice from him. He spoke of how Batman holds himself above the people he protects, and Batman's certainty in what he does and how would probably convince Blake they don't have much common ground. I don't think he needs to be following the guidance of any of his teammates, so based off people we've seen thus far, I guess that leaves the Huntress. They like each other, or are at least interested in one another. More important, she's had a long struggle to find peace for herself. She seemed dedicated to venegeance for a long time, but she's found other things now, between working for the Birds and being a teacher. She can relate to Blake feeling alone and uncertain, so maybe she's the one who can provide that moment of clarity.

* It was Deadshot disguised as Deathstroke, correct? that was the big surprise of Villains United? Well, that and Luthor being the mysterious leader of the Six. I say it would have been more interesting if it had been the same Lex running the Six and the Society, instead of one being Lex, and one being Alexander Luthor pretending to be the real deal. It was OK the way it went, but if anyone could use a ragtag group of villains to scare more villains into joining a larger group for protection, it's Lex Luthor, and it's the kind of scheme he'd use, since he'd be the only one who knew the truth.

** Though I'm making an assumption that the pride was wiped out. If that isn't the case, that might be concerning.

*** Assuming that's even what he meant. I'm going off what I remember from flipping through that trade in a bookstore, and I was more focused on Tora flipping out and the Harley/Misfit fight. The Secret Six as the A-Team. Now I wish to hear Bane say something about someone flying Knuckle Airlines, Fist Class.