REVIEW: Batman and the Outsiders #6

Writer/Co-creators/Artist: Mike W. Barr & Jim Aparo Reviewer: Will Dubbeld

Ah, Batman, the perpetual loner. Unless he’s tooling around with a Robin. Or hanging out with the Justice League. Or deciding to start his own superteam called the Outsiders. So he’s a perpetual loner who needs friends. I’m not entirely sure how the Outsiders team came to be, if Batman was on the outs with the Justice League at the time, if he was jealous of the Teen Titans and wanted his own group of B-listers, or if they were drawn together by happenstance, but I do know it’s a great read. Aside from a sweet spot in the mid-2000s, DC has been rolling gutter balls since around 1993 in my opinion. Perhaps not gutter balls, but they sure as hell haven’t bowled a 300 game (Vertigo notwithstanding) since Kingdom Come. There are always some bright spots like Jonah Hex, Secret Six, about 45% of Johns’ Green Lantern run, but all in all there aren’t a lot of phenomenal contemporary DC comics. The 1970s-80s, however! They were action-packed fun-filled superheroics! DC was in that transition phase between your daddies (or granddaddy’s) four-color punch-ups of yesteryear and a more matured look at how to tell a story with pictures. The result was a sweet mélange of lighter ‘gee whiz!’ stories and a wellspring of deeper subject matter. Batman and the Outsiders is no exception. As mentioned prior, I have absolutely no idea why this team existed; save for what I was able to glean from the odd issue picked from quarter bins and flea markets. I was fortunate enough to pick up a near complete run at a convention this year for pennies on the dollar so perhaps I’ll know the answer to that mystery when I get around to reading them in full. Having randomly grabbed issue 6 didn’t fill me in on any real backstory (of anything or anyone, really), but it is a helluva lot of fun. The Outsiders at press consisted of Katana, Halo, Black Lightning, Geo-Force, and Metamorpho. And of course the G.D. Batman. I could go into some detail about the individual members and their respective powers and shticks, but everyone does pretty much what their name leads you to believe. Comics are good for that. The book opens with Katana cajoling teen member Halo into going to school. That’s the books opener. A somewhat stern, matronly Japanese woman and a perhaps somewhat simple teenage girl at odds over school. Beautiful. Katana proceeds to a meeting with Bruce Wayne who is acting as a go-between for the team and Batman. Evidently the Outsiders are unaware Batman and Bruce Wayne are one in the same, but I’m guessing they all find out by the issue 10 cliffhanger reveal. Also this at least sets precedent for Batman, Inc. . . . In short order we cut to Geo-Force and Metamorpho visiting an ally who’s been hospitalized, only to run afoul of a new super-villain attempting to steal an artificial kidney. This new menace is apparently a flying, knockout gas wielding, speedster with a cold gun, who I find noteworthy because Batman will later arbitrarily name The Cryonic Man. All but picks the name out of his cowl . . . In the book’s remainder we’re treated to a look at Cryonic Man’s lair, a ramshackle abandoned house complete with ‘no trespassing’ sign and a secret basement laboratory. Very Scooby-Doo/1950s-60s super villain. Apparently Cryonic Man is some sort of organ-and-limb harvesting weirdo that keeps folks in stasis tubes and has a long lost love he’s trying to rescue from an ailment like so much Mr. Freeze. Oh, he also thinks it’s 1955. Presumably because he too was frozen in stasis. Probably cryogenically . . . The Outsiders plan on springing a trap on the Cryonic Man, which he almost immediately recognizes as a trap, but to quote, “it’s a trap, I suppose . . . but the risk is worth it . . .” I love this guy. He sees a news report dangling a crime in front of his nose and immediately thinks, “This is b.s. but what the hell, I’ll take a crack at it.” The Outsiders spring the trap, mix it up with Cryonic Man, and the reader is treated with an almost William Dozier-esque “What’s This?!!!” cliffhanger. Phenomenal book. Mike Barr had his finger on the pulse of 1983 superhero comics. All the familiar tropes and comfortable clichés are there without coming off as trite, and all the hokey storytelling tricks slide comfortably into place. Aparo gets a free pass here because he’s tied with Norm Breyfogle as my all-time favorite Batman artist. I don’t care what book, be it grade A or fishwrap, either of those two illustrate, if it’s a Bat-book it goes to the head of the class. The lettering is great as well. Lettering doesn’t always get the love it should, but it’s tight and concise here, and worthy of praise. Kudos to the creative team. Heart swelling with pride and nostalgia, I took to this book like slipping into a comfy pair of slippers, or some other worn-out, tired-ass cliché. I’ve got thirty some-odd issues of this series to read by my reckoning and absolutely cannot wait to dive in. It’s one of those books that makes me regret collecting anything post-1990 and makes me thankful I’ve longboxes full of Golden Oldies I can retreat to when I’ve had my fill of the modern day Big Two.