The Outsiders Appreciation/Discussion thread 2020

[lemonpeace]

Hill has mentioned that his next plan for the book (should it survive) does involve stuff for Duke, which I know will please some posters here, especially lemonpeace. Hope it's dope and his fans respond well. Hell, I hope Hill can make me one. I buy this book for Jefferson, Tatsu and Dexter Soy's art. Everything else is a bonus.

I seen this and I wanna believe, I really do, but DC has demonstrated over and over that creators can promise the world and still not deliver; sometimes even if they want to deliver, you never know when DC's gonna pull the leash. i actually do like Bryan Hill, I think he is a solid writer, but his Outsiders run hasn't been without it's issues - the main thing being it's pacing. he has had some legitimately promising issues but sometimes it's like he's kinda spinning his wheels and having these characters talk about a lot of the same stuff over and over with superficial-feeling payoff, or in service of a pay off down the road. It's an issue that highlights his television background, he's playing to the next episode, which is fine in television because it's a weekly basis usually but comic issues are too spread out to be so overtly decompressed to the point of thinning out the momentum. if he does get a season 2 (which I hope for, if for no other reason than to see more from one of DC's most diverse titles and creative teams)
he needs to find a better build-up/pay-off balance, and for the love of god drop or pull back on Batman and let Black Lightning play that dominant role. Batman should be M, not Bond.

My problem isn't that Duke hasn't done stuff.

It's that he's only interacting with the same people (Cass, Bats and now Shiva) over and over. It feels like the new Outsiders are walled off from the old ones, for whatever reason.

I have no real issue with them needing to link up with the old Outsiders (it's a different incarnation of the team that's like 50% old members anyway) so much as I would like to see them dealing with characters from the wider DC universe in general. even still, they've had some pretty interesting appearances: we've had Lady Shiva, Ras al Ghul, Superman, Martian Manhunter - which is pretty good considering how large the cast is.

[The Cool Thatguy]

I have no real issue with them needing to link up with the old Outsiders (it's a different incarnation of the team that's like 50% old members anyway) so much as I would like to see them dealing with characters from the wider DC universe in general. even still, they've had some pretty interesting appearances: we've had Lady Shiva, Ras al Ghul, Superman, Martian Manhunter - which is pretty good considering how large the cast is.

I don't think you understand me.

I don't need the current team to meet, say, Jade or Grace from Judd W's Outsiders.

I need the current cast to interact with one another.

The vast majority of the time, BL and Katana only interact with one another, and Cass and Duke with one another (or Batman).

[lemonpeace]

I don't think you understand me.

I don't need the current team to meet, say, Jade or Grace from Judd W's Outsiders.

I need the current cast to interact with one another.

The vast majority of the time, BL and Katana only interact with one another, and Cass and Duke with one another (or Batman).

oh, ok yeah that makes sense. I agree, I don't think we've seen enough of the Outsiders interacting with one another enough either. Duke's always talking about how he can't trust Batman's way, but why isn't he working with BL or Katana? BL keeps saying the same thing as Duke, they should be working together figuring out their own path. Same with Cass and Katana, they both don't trust Shiva, why aren't they working together? Duke, Cass, and Sofia should be relatively close in age, what do they think of each other? That's what I'm saying, Bryan Hill's having these characters say the same things to the same characters but nothing is coming out of it. it's like tracing a bunch of dots instead of connecting them. I think these dots are meant to be connected, again I have faith in Bryan Hill's ability to believe that he intends to connect all these dots, but his pacing getting there is.....tedious.

[Korath]

BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS #17
written by BRYAN HILL
art by DEXTER SOY
cover by TYLER KIRKHAM
variant cover by SANFORD GREENE
ON SALE 10/13/20
$3.99 US | 32 PAGES | FC | DC
FINAL ISSUE
Series finale! The war with Ra’s al Ghul reaches its end, and none of the Outsiders will ever be the same. And none of them might ever be a team again! Did Batman choose the wrong allies to assemble to fight Ra’s? Or did those allies make a mistake in believing in Batman? The critically acclaimed series comes to its end!

[J. D. Guy]

First of all: eep!

Second of all, unless Hill is getting some type of a relaunch, what the heck was his Twitter post even talking about?

[king81992]

17 issues and all of them were wasted on Ras.

[protege]

17 issues and all of them were wasted on Ras.

That storyline definitely went on too long.

[protege]

17 issues and all of them were wasted on Ras.

That storyline definitely went on for too long. Sorry, duplicate post.

[Korath]

17 issues and all of them were wasted on Ras.

Not for me. i don't really like the three issues/one storyline approach of older comics and even some modern. I just wish Hill had gotten MORE time to develop the cast.

[Factor]

Glad I avoided the book after the first issue. Never liked the Bat-centric line-up and the Ras plot didn't entice me either.
I hope we can get a new Outsiders book that's independent from Batman and focuses on stealth missions around the DCU.

[Frontier]

BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS #17
written by BRYAN HILL
art by DEXTER SOY
cover by TYLER KIRKHAM
variant cover by SANFORD GREENE
ON SALE 10/13/20
$3.99 US | 32 PAGES | FC | DC
FINAL ISSUE
Series finale! The war with Ra’s al Ghul reaches its end, and none of the Outsiders will ever be the same. And none of them might ever be a team again! Did Batman choose the wrong allies to assemble to fight Ra’s? Or did those allies make a mistake in believing in Batman? The critically acclaimed series comes to its end!

Feels like this book went by in a flash (and it didn't even star a Speedster).

[Digifiend]

First of all: eep!

Second of all, unless Hill is getting some type of a relaunch, what the heck was his Twitter post even talking about?

Maybe it'll relaunch as just Outsiders, and Bruce and Cassandra will leave the team? Hill mentioned having plans for Signal, but not the others. They could have a roster consisting of Black Lightning, Katana, Signal, Sofia, and then bring in some other folks, such as Geo-Force? Seriously, there's been stuff going on in Markovia in this book, and yet Brion's nowhere to be seen?

[lemonpeace]

Maybe it'll relaunch as just Outsiders, and Bruce and Cassandra will leave the team? Hill mentioned having plans for Signal, but not the others. They could have a roster consisting of Black Lightning, Katana, Signal, Sofia, and then bring in some other folks, such as Geo-Force? Seriously, there's been stuff going on in Markovia in this book, and yet Brion's nowhere to be seen?

I may be willing to give Duke on Outsiders another shot without Batman in the book but this book kinda hurt my feelings with their use of Duke lol

[king81992]

Maybe it'll relaunch as just Outsiders, and Bruce and Cassandra will leave the team? Hill mentioned having plans for Signal, but not the others. They could have a roster consisting of Black Lightning, Katana, Signal, Sofia, and then bring in some other folks, such as Geo-Force? Seriously, there's been stuff going on in Markovia in this book, and yet Brion's nowhere to be seen?

This was one of my biggest issues with the book.

[Robanker]

Hopefully it relaunches as Jefferson's team, or one he co-leads with Tatsu. Real shame, I'll miss reading Black Lightning and Katana on the regular.