In our review of Outsiders #1, a new team is formed not for superheroes or battling super villains. This team is funded by Lucius Fox and includes Kate Kane, Luke Fox and newcomer Drummer.
Title: Outsiders #1
Writer: Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly
Artist: Robert Carey
Color Artist: Valentina Taddeo
Letterer: Tom Napolitano
Cover Artist: Roger Cruz with Adriano Lucas
Variant Cover Artists: John Cassaday, Dan Mora, Christian Ward, and Roger Cruz
Note: This Review Contains Spoilers
Synopsis
Outsiders #1 begins as Kate is alone in Rhapastan, a dangerous urban environment. Kate in her Batwoman uniform minus her mask senses someone. She throws a batarangs and it is caught by Luke Fox. He has a proposition for the woman.
Luke is forming a team to search for knowledge, and he wants Kate to join him.He wants to examine those things that are beyond existence. The conversation is cut short by an ambush. Batwoman agrees to join. Luke insists that this has nothing to do with Bruce Wayne, it is an outsider thing.
On the way to Antarctica, the site of the first mission Lucius Fox is revealed as the financier and on the ground the two connect with the enigmatic Drummer. She is noticeable not a spandex clad heroine but an older woman with an unusual gift. She claims to be able to talk to history. She debriefs the two on the excavation site. Researchers have been sent in but they failed to come back which prompts the Outsiders to investigate.
Drummer informs the team that the site is fifty miles long and it is about to explode. Kate puts on her mask and introduces herself as Batwoman. They are immediately encountered by the self defense systems. Luke activates his Batwing armor and gives Drummer cover. The three escape and move forward.
Drummer discovers that they are really in a ship. They find the missing team. They are possessed by the long dead crew of the ship. It is here that Luke shows his place on the team. He is empathetic to the crew and offers to help them find their way home, the team is freed and now are in medical.
Analysis
The art in Outsiders #1 fits this type of story. Along with the colors it is slightly muted but there is still vibrant colors here. The design of Drummer is an athletic older woman with noticeable wrinkles under her eyes and gray in her hair. She is attractive must in a mature way that is not common in a lot of comics I have read. I find this character to be refreshing visually as well as in her writing. We really do not discover much about her but she is good at what she does and she is definitely not weak.
Kate has a slightly different presentation as well. She has let her hair grow out. Gone is the buzz cut she sported in the New 52 and also gone is the wig stitched into her cowl. Her cowl is clean. Luke is using an armor that appears as it is needed including separate wings and boot jets similar to Batman Beyond. In this issue we do not get a view of his entire cowl but his head is surrounded by an outline including the bat ears.
In Outsiders #1, this is a different kind of team. It keeps the general theme of a multinational team that the Outsiders are usually known to be but here just as the newest incarnation of the Birds Of Prey does not include Barbara Gordon, this team has nothing to do with Bruce Wayne. That is even a condition for Kate joining this team. She usually has a difference in opinion with Bruce and it seams her solution to the Gotham War was to leave Gotham.
I believe this is a good pairing to join Luke to Kate. These two are the most outside of the entire bat family and it may be appropriate to see Jace Fox join this team in the future. It may help his family dynamics that were shattered at the end of the I Am Batman run.
Editor’s Note: DC Comics provided TBU with an advanced copy of this comic for review purposes. You can find this comic and help support TBU in the process by purchasing this issue digitally on Comixology through Amazon or a physical copy of the title through Things From Another World.
