Outsiders: Five of a Kind
Various Artists and Writers (originally published as
single issues in Five of a Kind one shots and Outsiders #50)
ISBN # 978-1-4012-1672-6, $14.99.
I was a big fan of the Judd Winick Outsiders. The humor, the action and more than anything else, the character driven stories that had a resonance of near-reality beyond what you normally see in comics. They were flawed, they made mistakes, and their lives were messy and complicated, just like mine. I felt connected to those Outsiders. For the first time, I got to see a team grow from a random collection of people into a group. So I was less than overjoyed when I found out that the team would be reordered to once again become Batman and the Outsiders. This was in part because I am old enough to remember the first Batman and the Outsiders series and saw an idea that started out great and eventually fell apart. I had cautious high hopes that this change would be a good one. Unfortunately, this was not a stellar start.
The Five of a Kind one shots were of established heroes who were asked by Batman to see if the Outsiders members had what it takes to meet his “needs” as the new Outsiders. This premise in itself is flawed. Batman wants his Outsiders to “get their hands dirty”, to be seen as villains so they can operate autonomously of the scrutiny that is being heaped on established hero teams. Much like when he initially created the Outsiders, they will have to do illegal things. And yet he has high profile heroes like Martian Manhunter and Wonder Woman doing their testing. And Katana, a member of the original Outsiders and surely well known to Batman is one of the tested. A reason is given but it feels more like it was just to justify the story rather than a true testing point. In fact the story was supposed to be Katana and Shazam! (Captain Marvel, actually) but he shows up only at the beginning and the end. Since becoming the new guardian of the Rock of Eternity, he has become a lot less useful, in my opinion.
The other stories were hit and miss at best. Visually the best of the series was the Metamorpho/Aquaman (the new one) team up called Rogue Elements. Josh Middleton’s art has a soft watercolor feel to it that works perfectly with the fluid nature (both real and implied of both characters. And while the story was fairly standard, the final page showing how Batman’s single-minded choices are costing the team was perfect. Conversely, the Thunder/Martian Manhunter was too much. The colors were too bold, the line work to frenetic and every panel was crammed full of activity. It was hard to get involved in the story (which had ties to the then upcoming Death of the New Gods) because the art was just exhausting. And Thunder comes across as either too whiny or too ethnic throughout this story, two problems she never had before. And oddly in the Grace/Wonder Woman story Member of the Tribe, Grace, usually a very ethnic, swearing and uber confident kind of a girl was subdued introspective and actually polite most of the time. I’m almost surprised that they remembered to draw her tattoos.
The saving grace of the graphic novel was the aptly named “You killed the Outsiders” where Batman (as Matches Malone) and Grace go to a villain bar to help establish their street creed and they run into the Suicide Squad making collections of villains for what will become Salvation Run. The art of Matthew Clark, Ron Randall and Art Thibert is solid and all the characters look “right” ( an unvoiced complaint I have with several of the other stories) and the story was a strong opening to what will come ahead. I am a little confused at why even young Meta supervillians would be dealing with a street level thug like Matches Malone, let alone Bolt but I guess Gotham is a smaller town then we thought.
I think the thing that is causing the most trepidation in my mind is that for a team that is supposed to be on the outside of the main goings on in the DCU, they managed to hit on just about every event in recent history. This one graphic novel had direct connections to Salvation Run, The Death of the New Gods (and therefore Countdown to Final Crisis), Infinite Crisis and Amazons Attack! And the insular connections go way beyond that. I fear this new incarnation of the Outsiders will before long fall under the same problem as the old: Batman is simply too high profile a character, too much a part of the many universe and in too many other places to be a stealth, beneath the radar, look at me I’m a villain ( but not really) kind of character. He will only ever be able to be behind the scenes, leaving the need for there to be a strong decisive character who leads this team in the field and of the folks that they have left, that character is not present. The inclusion of Green Arrow and Batgirl (two characters also out of place) has not filled this void either.
I want a lot from the Outsiders. They are one of the books that I have stuck with from the beginning and would like to ride out until the end. But this new direction is making the road very bumpy and I don’t know how much longer I can hang in there. Especially since this is not the horse it was when I got on.
Page last updated on October 12, 2008