Planetary fans:! READ OUTSIDERS !!!!!!!!!!

[Uncanny X-Man]

I just read the first few issues and I really liked it. The story, the art and the characters all work well for me.

I think crushing the readers' expectations as to what the book really is though is a very tricky business. You call it Outsiders and ostensibly present it as a Bat-book with a dash of Planetary, when it is in fact a direct Planetary sequel which just happens to star a few Bat-characters... I can see why some would be turned off. But the execution won me over and I'll be enjoying the rest of it, however long it lasts.

[BohemiaDrinker]

It’s just that Planetary is pretty sacred to a lot of people (myself included) and it’s just weird to take the concepts and shove them into an “Outsiders” book. It’s not Planetary and it’s not the Outsiders.

It’s like taking Watchmen and shoving it into a DC event book. Wait…

It’s alsofgtu57v a bit annoying to take one of the best written books of the modern era and use aspects for an under the radar basically meaningless (in the grand scheme of DC’s current direction) book that will probably be quickly forgotten.

On the plus side it may get a few more people to go out and read the actual masterpiece that is Planetary.

Heh. Planetary is pretty sacred to me too, I've been preaching it's gospel for about 20 years now. Which is kind of my point: It's a book that started being published 25 years ago. Nothing ever came of it (as it shouldn't, it's a closed work), but it's also old news. And it's probably one of the best, most sophisticated takes on superheros and pop media from the turn of the century, maybe all time in this particular media.

So then, 20 something years later, we get an unofficial sequel that's well written, well drawn, respectful to the original while updating some concepts that didn't really work in hindsight (I just loved the Jenny issue), weaving in some more heat concepts from DC lore (we've got Grant Morrisons limbo, but it's not miserable), and capable of turning some heads in the direction of the original and we should hate on it?

I think it's awesome, really. I'm glad that they're taking one of the best books they ever published and trying to make something of it that may be useful to the DCU, unlike some "Doctor Manhattan fights the DC universe, but only if you can endure my Harley Quinn knock offs for 10 issues" cash grab.

I'm literally loving this book. If we are to mine the past four good ideas, we can at least pick the good ones.

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

Ram V and Lalit Kumar Sharma's the Vigil already scratched that itch for me without being as on the nose about it.

I'll pass.