Writer E. Nelson Bridwell and artist Frank Springer brought together six individuals who all possessed special skills and dark secrets, and were all being blackmailed into the service of the faceless Mockingbird. The Secret Six was made up of boxing champion Tiger Force, nuclear physicist August Durant, illusionist Carlo Di Rienzi, mistress of disguise Lili de Neuve, pilot and stuntman King Savage, and femme fatale Crimson Dawn. The Secret Six's first mission was a success, with the team stopping villain Zoltan Lupus from demonstrating his weapons of mass destruction.