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viera's review
3.0
The problem with books that update once a month is that if they have any connection to a more popular storyline, they have to catch up with the stories updated weekly. Which means the monthly stories need to either be self-contained or move faster than the weekly stories. Batman and the outsiders moves agonizingly slow.
So now we have a problem. In between the last issue of Outsiders and this one, Alfred died in the Batman series when the city was under siege from the villains and Bruce had to sneak into Gotham and fight his father, a fight that is still underway where Cass is under the control of the Mad Hatter who is under the control of Flashpoint Thomas Wayne.
This is disconnected from the self contained and Gotham-dwelling Bruce in the last issue and the Bruce in mourning we see in this issue. We left this story in the middle of a plane fight, we now return to the plane flight with Alfred dead, but the fight resolved and Cass still hasn’t left Duke’s side. So the whole thing is broken and a mess. It’s probably not Bryan Hill’s fault that he didn’t know what was happening in Detective and Batman but it ruins the whole story for me. It’s sloppy. Should have just kept them away from Batman if it doesn’t fit the events od the comic or kept the whole arc rooted in the past.
As for the plot, Batman is bitter, Duke now controls the dark instead of light—total bummer because I like the foil. All the bats get darker as they age and there’s this guy that is a light in the midst of it—a random girl gets fridged by ra’s. Honestly this storyline makes ra’s out to be kind of petty and aimless. His plans are short sighted and all over the place. The only saving grace is Cass’s friendship with Duke and Katana’s friendship with Black lightning. They’re actually pretty similar optics which subtracts from it a lot, but relationships are the meat of stories so good I guess. Even tho we’re 8 issues in and Bryan hasn’t figured out how to make the two pairs of Asian fighter/black superhero platonic couples merge as a team. And Babylon changes personalities every issue. Is she even part of the team or is she their pet macguffin? Idk.
So now we have a problem. In between the last issue of Outsiders and this one, Alfred died in the Batman series when the city was under siege from the villains and Bruce had to sneak into Gotham and fight his father, a fight that is still underway where Cass is under the control of the Mad Hatter who is under the control of Flashpoint Thomas Wayne.
This is disconnected from the self contained and Gotham-dwelling Bruce in the last issue and the Bruce in mourning we see in this issue. We left this story in the middle of a plane fight, we now return to the plane flight with Alfred dead, but the fight resolved and Cass still hasn’t left Duke’s side. So the whole thing is broken and a mess. It’s probably not Bryan Hill’s fault that he didn’t know what was happening in Detective and Batman but it ruins the whole story for me. It’s sloppy. Should have just kept them away from Batman if it doesn’t fit the events od the comic or kept the whole arc rooted in the past.
As for the plot, Batman is bitter, Duke now controls the dark instead of light—total bummer because I like the foil. All the bats get darker as they age and there’s this guy that is a light in the midst of it—a random girl gets fridged by ra’s. Honestly this storyline makes ra’s out to be kind of petty and aimless. His plans are short sighted and all over the place. The only saving grace is Cass’s friendship with Duke and Katana’s friendship with Black lightning. They’re actually pretty similar optics which subtracts from it a lot, but relationships are the meat of stories so good I guess. Even tho we’re 8 issues in and Bryan hasn’t figured out how to make the two pairs of Asian fighter/black superhero platonic couples merge as a team. And Babylon changes personalities every issue. Is she even part of the team or is she their pet macguffin? Idk.
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