{"id":20127,"date":"2019-05-20T08:00:21","date_gmt":"2019-05-20T08:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=20127"},"modified":"2019-05-17T16:30:39","modified_gmt":"2019-05-17T16:30:39","slug":"batman-and-the-outsiders-volume-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2019\/05\/20\/batman-and-the-outsiders-volume-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Batman and the Outsiders volume 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy Mike W. Barr<\/strong>, Jim Aparo<\/strong>, Alan Davis<\/strong>, Jerome K. Moore<\/strong>, Alex Saviuk<\/strong>, Jan Duursema<\/strong>, Rick Hoberg<\/strong>, Bill Willingham<\/strong>, Trevor Von Eeden<\/strong>, Ron Randall <\/strong>& various (DC Comics)
\nISBN: 978-1-4012-7753-6 (HC)<\/p>\n

During the early 1980s the general trend of comics sales was yet another downturn – although team-books were holding their own – and the major publishers were less concerned with experimentation than with consolidation. Many popular titles were augmented by spin-offs, a recurring tactic in publishing troughs.<\/p>\n

At the time the Dark Knight was the star of two and two half titles, sharing World’s Finest Comics<\/strong> with Superman (until its cancellation in 1986) and appearing with rotating guest-stars in The Brave and the Bold<\/strong>, as well as his regular lead spots in both Batman<\/strong> and Detective Comics<\/strong>. He was also a member of the Justice League of America<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In July 1983 B&B<\/strong> was cancelled with issue #200, but inside was a preview of a new Bat-title. One month later Batman and the Outsiders <\/strong>debuted\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

The core premise of the new series revealed that Batman was convinced that the JLA was no longer fit for purpose; that too many problems were beyond their reach because they were hamstrung by international red tape and, by inference, too many laws.<\/p>\n

To fix the problem he recruited a new team intended to be living weapons in his arsenal: a combination of old allies and new talent.<\/p>\n

Markovian scientist Dr. Jace<\/em> specialised in creating superpowers. When King Victor<\/em> died, she used her process on Prince Brion<\/em> and his sister Tara<\/em> to create Earth-powered Geo-Force<\/em> (and Terra<\/em>). Rex (Metamorpho) Mason<\/em> is a chemical freak able to turn into any element, and Jefferson (Black Lightning) Pierce<\/em> is an electrically powered urban vigilante.<\/p>\n

They were supplemented by female samurai\/ninja Katana<\/em> who wields a magic soul-drinking blade and an amnesiac American girl with inexplicable light-based powers answering to Halo<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The introductory stories cleverly peeled back layers of mystery shrouding all the newcomers, with plenty of plot threads laid for future development in the tried-&-tested super-team formula that had worked so well with the New X-Men<\/strong> and New Teen Titans<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

This enticing hardback collection (also available as an eBook) resumes the daring departure of the Gotham Gangbuster, re-presenting BATO<\/strong> #14-23 and Batman and the Outsiders<\/strong> Annual<\/strong> #1, collectively spanning October 1984-July 1985, and also includes relevant pages from the Who’s Who Guide to the DC Universe<\/strong>. The entirety of the book is graced by the adroit writing of Mike W. Barr which – for the majority of the run – meshed perfectly with the understated talents of Jim Aparo; an artist who gave his all to a script. Eventually though he would move on to be replaced by a growing star of the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153British Invasion\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

The action opens with the first Annual as ‘\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6Land Where Our Fathers Died\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6’<\/em> introduces a gang of ultra-patriots seeking to head the country in their own hard right direction called the Force of July<\/em> in a barbed epic written by Barr and episodically illustrated by Jerome Moore, Alex Saviuk, Jan Duursema and Rick Hoberg with Aparo on inks.<\/p>\n

Illustrated by Bill Willingham & Bill Anderson, BATO<\/strong> #14’s ‘Two by Two\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6’<\/em> and #15’s ‘Going for the Gold’<\/em> (spectacularly and moodily rendered by Trevor Von Eeden) comprise a two-part thriller set at the 1984 Olympics with raving loon and self-proclaimed god Maxie Zeus<\/em> unleashing a super-powered minion on the team in an ploy to reclaim the Great Games for his own glory\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Aparo returns in #16 for the start of extended epic ‘The Truth About Halo’<\/em>: as inconclusive opening ‘\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6Goodbye\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6’<\/em> sees a couple claiming to be her parents reclaim the memory-wiped child before the next two issues spotlight Metamorpho. This diverting digression takes the depleted team to the desert and back three millennia for ‘We Are Dying, Egypt\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/em> Dying’ <\/em>and ‘Who Wears the Crown of Ra?’<\/em>, to explore the fateful origins of the ancient antecedents of Element Man.<\/p>\n

Seasonal Christmas tale. ‘Who’s Afraid of the Big Red \u00e2\u20ac\u0153S\u00e2\u20ac\u009d?’<\/em> then offers a powerful tale of date-rape and sexual bullying, which results in Geo-Force battling Superman<\/strong> to a standstill, after which a new year resolution details ‘The Truth About Halo: Part Two’<\/em> as grotesque gang boss Tobias Whale<\/em>, debased criminal surgeon Dr. Moon<\/em> and kinky assassin Syonide<\/em> reveal the sordid, shocking truth about teenager Violet Harper<\/em>, if not how she lost her memory and gained her powers. Powerful and haunting, the Barr\/Aparo thriller drops as many bodies as secrets\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

BATO<\/strong> #23 offers a triptych of solo tales by Barr, with Katana getting ‘The Silent Treatment’<\/em> (Jerome K. Moore) while saving priceless and extremely fragile Japanese pottery from thieves in, after which Geo-Force battles a tricked-up and amok robot shark in ‘Jaws 4\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 Gotham, 0!’<\/em> (limned by Von Eeden) and Black Lightning clashes with a sham radical social activist in Ron Randall’s ‘The Roar of the Ghetto-Blaster!’<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Slick stylist Alan Davis became regular artist with issue #22, as ‘The Truth About Halo: Part Three’<\/em> promised to disclose ‘What She is and How She Came to Be!’<\/em>. Invading the recently wrecked and abandoned Justice League Satellite, Batman’s squad and Dr. Jace utilise its advanced technology to scan Violet and finally find what they’ve been looking for\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Sadly, that only leads to Halo being abducted and imprisoned by immortal, antediluvian light beings called Aurakles<\/em>, prompting the heroes to breach the walls of reality to get her back\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

With a full cover gallery, Who’s Who<\/strong> data pages on Black Lightning, Geo-Force, Halo and Katana and a team pin-up by Davis, this is a splendid package to appeal to dedicated Fights ‘n’ Tights fanatics. Batman and the Outsiders<\/strong> was always a highly readable series and is re-presented here in most accessible manner so open-minded new readers in search of quality storytelling could do lots worse than try out this near-forgotten corner of the DCU.
\n\u00c2\u00a9 1984, 1985, 2018 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Mike W. Barr, Jim Aparo, Alan Davis, Jerome K. Moore, Alex Saviuk, Jan Duursema, Rick Hoberg, Bill Willingham, Trevor Von Eeden, Ron Randall & various (DC Comics) ISBN: 978-1-4012-7753-6 (HC) During the early 1980s the general trend of comics sales was yet another downturn – although team-books were holding their own – and the … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Batman and the Outsiders volume 2”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[10,76,162],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-batman","category-dc-superhero","category-outsiders"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-5eD","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20127\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}