BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS #14
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Size: pages
Price: 2.99
This review contains spoilers, click here to read
Curiously Marvel’s Thunderbolts and DC’s Batman & the Outsiders are in similar circumstances this week. In a weird case of synchronicity, both team books have been shaken up pretty good by plotlines well outside the control of the main title. In the case of the Thunderbolts, leader Harry Osbourne has become a hero in Secret Invasion and it looks like several Thunderbolts team members are headed to the Dark Avengers. Batman is RIP after events in his own book leaving Batman and the Outsiders without their titular leader.
The impact of the Batman RIP storyline and the loss of old pointy ears from Batman and the Outsiders has not been handled near as well as the transitions over in Marvel’s Thunderbolts.
Main problem is we are playing musical chairs with the writers. Frank Tieri is scripting the last three issues that fill the gap between Chuck Dixon and Peter Tomasi’s run and, BOY, this feels like filler. Leaderless, the Outsiders have broken up (nobody trusts Batgirl) so Batgirl heads out her own to recruit a team of villains to help fill the void left by Batman’s disappearance. (She only gets as far as Penguin and the Riddler) Nightwing has a problem with Batgirl’s methods so they start hitting each other. That prompts Alfred to scold them both in an alleyway. Meanwhile, there are hints of a new Azreal (?) who likes to self-flagellate, and the other Outsiders … hmmm, they’re not really in this book.
This book is a train-wreck. It’s a mess internally and editorially. And honestly, it’s been that way since its inception when Tony Bedard was abruptly bumped from the writing chores and suddenly replaced by Chuck Dixon (who was also suddenly dismissed). Perhaps there’s some editorial plan at work here, but if so, it’s unintelligible. Characters and plots fade in, fade out. I get the feeling when picking up an issue that I’ve missed at least two chapters in between. Even the book’s title is undecided. We cancelled the last “Outsiders” book for this “Batman and the Outsiders” and by issue 15, we’re back to the “Outsiders.”
Maybe someone has a direction for this book, but if so, I can’t discern it. It falls in the same category (as other reviewers have mentioned) as the Bart Allen Flash run and some other OYL storylines … simply petering along to an ultimately dead end. Maybe the story works slightly as an issue of Batgirl/Nightwing, but it sure doesn’t work as an Outsiders story.
There’s hope I guess. Tomasi’s starts with a special (i.e. reboot) and he’s done wonders for Nightwing and the Green Lantern Corps. The deck sweeping establishes a new roster of characters, including many classic Outsiders like Black Lightning, Geo-Force, and Katana. Plus the Creeper and Owlman (?) look to be interesting choices. Good. Hopefully, he can bring some kind of resolution all the dangling plot threads. Based on past performance, I’ll give the book a few more issues to see what Tomasi can salvage.
Still … poor form overall from DC.
Art: 2 - Average
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