OUTSIDERS by Collin Kelly & Jackson Lanzing in November

[HsssH]

Voidsong was the best thing of theirs that I read.

Oh yeah, forgot that one so they are not Orlando tier yet.

[king81992]

This starting roster (and the premise) doesn't inspire confidence.

[king of hybrids]

There's something funny there in how Luke wound up winning in the long run since we haven't seen Jace and Tiff since I Am Batman ended.

I’m not sure. Luke being crapped upon by his family was meant to set up for Luke being a superhero-hating sellout in Future State for Jace’s benefit.

Meanwhile, unless the art was off, a black man connected to the Arrow or Bat families is Dr Hate, Waller’s agent in the quest to kill all superheroes. Im deeply suspicious of a character assassination coming up.

[Mantis-Ray]

I’m not sure. Luke being crapped upon by his family was meant to set up for Luke being a superhero-hating sellout in Future State for Jace’s benefit.

Meanwhile, unless the art was off, a black man connected to the Arrow or Bat families is Dr Hate, Waller’s agent in the quest to kill all superheroes. Im deeply suspicious of a character assassination coming up.

I feel like thats unlikely since they've already abandoned the Future State plotlines.

Plus I don't really see the connections between Dr. Hate and Luke aside from both possibly being black.

[Will Evans]

I’m not sure. Luke being crapped upon by his family was meant to set up for Luke being a superhero-hating sellout in Future State for Jace’s benefit.

Meanwhile, unless the art was off, a black man connected to the Arrow or Bat families is Dr Hate, Waller’s agent in the quest to kill all superheroes. Im deeply suspicious of a character assassination coming up.

Watch Dr Hate end up being Orpheus

[Bat-Meal]

There's something funny there in how Luke wound up winning in the long run since we haven't seen Jace and Tiff since I Am Batman ended.

I’m not sure. Luke being crapped upon by his family was meant to set up for Luke being a superhero-hating sellout in Future State for Jace’s benefit.

Meanwhile, unless the art was off, a black man connected to the Arrow or Bat families is Dr Hate, Waller’s agent in the quest to kill all superheroes. Im deeply suspicious of a character assassination coming up.

What? No, they wouldn't ruin Luke to prop-up his brother. He's being used weirdly in this new series, it seems, but he's still a co-star and the Team's leader.


Besides, he is included in the Variant cover of Batman #140:

Luke and Kate are in the bottom right corner, barely visible, but they're both there. Which is the first time in a long time that Batwing has been included in a Bat-Family pic that I'm aware.

[Mr. White]

I do share the apprehension to this series. Especially having read Planetary.

Also, I hate the fact that each of these characters will be, seemingly, retaining the Bat Motif (as well as the title itself being connected to the Big Cheese). Apart from general Batman-Fatigue, it almost guarantees an appearance, which I can really do without. True Batman doesn't need a reason to show up and I get it's all about driving sales, but c'mon...

That said...

Anything with Luke Fox gets an automatic trial from me. Apart from the obvious, I've always appreciated the existence of a "Bat" character who wasn't being driven by angst etc.

Kate? Icing on the cake. The whole military-styled approach to "superhero-ing" is pretty neat.

**Bleedingcool has some major spoilers on this one

[Bat-Meal]

First review is in: https://www.weirdsciencedccomics.com...-1-review.html

[skyvolt2000]

What? No, they wouldn't ruin Luke to prop-up his brother. He's being used weirdly in this new series, it seems, but he's still a co-star and the Team's leader.


Besides, he is included in the Variant cover of Batman #140:

Luke and Kate are in the bottom right corner, barely visible, but they're both there. Which is the first time in a long time that Batwing has been included in a Bat-Family pic that I'm aware.

Maybe the Wayne Family Adventure trades?

I have to check my trades but I think there is one with both of them there.

[Koriand'r]

This starting roster (and the premise) doesn't inspire confidence.

I don't care, I haven't read anything with Batwoman in it since the WW arc in the New 52. Having purposely ignored I Am Batman out of loyalty to Luke Fox and all those Batwing issue I bought and loved, reading this new Outsiders feels mandatory.

[Aahz]

Imo the issue was kind of boring, and I have no idea what is going on.

That's not a good combination.

[Factor]

The issue didn’t sell me on this concept at all. This is not an Outsiders reboot, it’s Planetary but they were not brave enough to name the book for what it is.
But nothing in the issue explains why all of a sudden these characters are acting like Planetary. It just doesn’t make any sense with their previous appearances and conceptually it’s weird as hell that the new Planetary is a Batbook.
If they really wanted a DCU version of the team, characters from the wonderverse, Atlantis, Metamorpho (an actual Outsider!) or even the Hawks would have made more sense.
I like Luke Fox and Batwoman, but they’re ill-fitted as the new Elijah Snow and Jakita Wagner. And they’re not even acting as themselves, but as embittered former Batman sidekicks, which they’ve never been.

[Caivu]

Felt really weird and rushed. Kate was way too quippy, and some of her dialogue was completely out-of-character, like the joke about Drummer being older than her mom; Kate's mom is dead (making Kate using her in a joke really strange), Kate herself might be older than her mom at this point, and if Kate was talking about Catherine, then Kate never refers to her as "mom". Having her be the everyman audience surrogate for this series is very odd.

[Bat-Meal]

And they’re not even acting as themselves, but as embittered former Batman sidekicks, which they’ve never been.

Pretty much confirms that the writers did not bother to do any research on Luke and Kate in preparation for this series. It's not as though either character has a particularly long history to research either - they've only had 1 or 2 solos each.

Going back to the interviews I read - the writers wanted to tell the stories they wanted to tell. DC Editorial pulled Luke and Kate out of the toybox for them to play with - they weren't the characters the writers requested (I'm not aware of them requesting any characters in particular), and so they decided to make them 'fit' the stories.

Felt really weird and rushed. Kate was way too quippy, and some of her dialogue was completely out-of-character, like the joke about Drummer being older than her mom; Kate's mom is dead (making Kate using her in a joke really strange), Kate herself might be older than her mom at this point, and if Kate was talking about Catherine, then Kate never refers to her as "mom". Having her be the everyman audience surrogate for this series is very odd.

I doubt Kate is older than her mother, she might have been pre-Rebirth, but she was de-aged in Rebirth by 5 years. The only 2 times I've seen her age mentioned on page was at the start of her 2 solo series; the first time she was stated to be 32, but in her second solo she was stated to be 27.

Making Kate quippy sounds again like the writers think Kate is one of Batman's sidekicks (that in combination with them seeming to think Batman trained her) - I suspect they think she's one of the Batgirls and hence a lot younger and more insecure than she actually should be.

[The Cool Thatguy]

Kinda sad that, instead of creating a new direction/new canon, they're strip mining Planetary, of all things.