Outsiders #23 Review

Outsiders #23

Here we are with the final story in Tomasi’s three part arc involving small units of The Outsiders spanning the US in search of some of the criminals who escaped Arkham in order to remove Black Mask’s chip and control.  In the first issue a team of Black Lightning and Owlman went after Mister Freeze, while in the second issue we Geo-force and Metamorpho going after Clayface.  While not bad team-ups, they did seem to be lacking in personality.   I am happy to say that a team-up of Creeper, Katana and Halo make for a much more interesting read here.

You’ve got Katana, rigid and humorless, teamed up with Creeper, who is seemingly more laid back and cracks a joke no matter the circumstance.  I expected sparks to fly and fly they did after Halo was downed by Killer Croc and the team began to be attacked by Man-bat.  This is what makes for an interesting team dynamic, people of different personalities working together to try and get the job done.  Add the stress of human lives into the mix and you’ve got a pretty interesting story.  Its been a while since we’ve seen this sort of life out of the team.

To add to that you also have Katana letting lose on Killer Croc in a way I’m pretty certain no one’s ever done before.  And that’s not all, there was a particularly well done scene with Man-Bat and Creeper and to say that Halo steals the show in the end is to short sell the book.  She owns the ending.

I have to say that this is Pasarin’s best artwork to date with the backdrops and characters meshing rather well and each panel flowing along with the story.  The fights in particular were interesting to watch, especially Katana’s as there was no dialogue or inner monologue to explain to the reader what was going on, which made for an unexpected treat.

Of course, we only have two more issues of Outsiders before Didio takes over the book in January.  There’s a part of me that’s sort of glad for this as Tomasi seems to have spent most of this series pre-occupied with his duties on Blackest Night, but at the same time I really feel like the book has been getting better since that initial story arc and I wouldn’t mind seeing where he takes things after Blackest Night.