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I have mixed feelings on Outsiders 20. So far I have really liked Peter Tomasi and Lee Garbett’s run, The Deep. Each issue seemed to have plenty of info, plenty of action, and plenty of surprises. I can’t say that this issue was no good just because it didn’t have any surprises. I guess when you get to the conclusion all the cards are on the table, and it’s just a matter of how you play them.

The Outsiders is a team composed of some of the least popular characters in DC, but Tomasi really brought them up to the best they can be. I said before (and I’m standing by it) that Ousiders: The Deep has been my favorite read for months. Even when I hadn’t gone to the comic shop for three weeks and came home with a fat stack of books, this was the first one that I delved into.

In this issue, we get to see a dope villain team-up with Ra’s al Ghul and Vandal Savage, the two immortal bad asses of the DCU! My one complaint is that we just didn’t get to see enough of them before the end of this arc. Issue 18 ended with a glimpse of Savage while issue 18 had him meeting up with Ra’s. Why couldn’t their plans have been included or at least alluded to in the previous issues? I can’t complain though, because I was pretty distracted in the meantime with the Deathstroke excitement.

I’m not sure if these two plan to continue their work on this title with a new story arc, but god I hope so. Tomasi has really kept me excited with the outsiders month after month, while I couldn’t see anyone drawing these characters other than Mr. Garbett. Few pairs of artists seem to work as well together as these two do, and it would be a shame to see them split up.

Ps- Long live the Creeper!

(4.5/5)

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There are more than enough problems to go around in the conclusion of Emerald Eclipse, as things start wrapping up for the emergence of Blackest Night. Just as the Alpha Lanterns were able to provide the final push in quelling the riot in the sciencells, the Green Lanterns look up to their beloved Oan sky only to see that it is beginning to fall apart. Trouble is on the way!

Soranik Natu (still on Korugar) is having trouble dealing with her daddy-issues (what child of Sinestro’s wouldn’t?) while Arisia and the newly empowered Daxamites are able to finally kick the last of Mongul’s faction of the Sinestro off of Daxam. Most of the issue however is spent on Lanterns Guy Gardner and Kyle Rayner standing up to the Guardians’ execution order of the attempted sciencell escapees.

Over the past few months, I have given Peter Tomasi and Pat Gleason a pretty hard time for their (in my opinion) shortcomings on the Emerald Eclipse story arc. I didn’t care for Tomasi’s seemingly short attention span, nor for Gleason’s stretched out character faces. The strengths of these two as a team seemed to be action. In this issue (and the past couple), I have noticed that I do like how well Gleason can draw a large scene like the outdoor execution and argument sequence.

All in all, Emerald Eclipse was an ambitious story with quite a bit going on and simply not enough space in each issue to address it all. I am still fairly new to this title, so that might just be how it has to go. Maybe someone could point out to me the reason I preferred Sins of the Star Sapphire over this arc.

(3/5)

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So it has been a couple of weeks now since I have posted anything here on ACBR, so first let me apologize for my hiatus. Sorry. Now that all of that is out of the way, let’s quickly think about how much has been going on since I have been gone. Today, Detective Comics was released starring Batwoman rather than Batman, Last week, Tim Drake hit the streets in Europe as the brand new Red Robin, Paul Dini has introduced us to two new titles with Batman: Streets of Gotham and Gotham City Sirens, and the new Batman has taken over the title with the same name. So all of that has taken place just over the past few weeks. So as my first review after the hiatus, you might think that I would want to tackle one of those right away.

But by now you have seen the title of this review and noticed that I have decided to start with the slightly more obscure Outsiders. Now the Outsiders are largely a part of the new Bat Family, but many of us may have looked over them lately as all of these new and exciting things have been happening in Gotham lately. Don’t let the fact that “Batman” has been removed from the title cause you to assume that it does not belong in your weekly or monthly list of “must-buys”. Outsiders just may be the best and yet most overlook-able title in production since the end of Final Crisis.

Now I admit that I have let the Outsiders slip below the radar for quite awhile now, but not for a second longer. I am writing this review of the last three issues together just to catch up as quickly as possible and let anyone who is reading this know just how good it is with the least amount of elapsed time.

Tomasi has really produced some entertainment gold here. In a way, I am really glad I let these issue sit around unread so long because if I wasn’t able to read these three issues in a row, I might have lost my mind. The last pages of issues 17 and 18 were so exciting that I nearly ripped the next issue in a rush to find out what happened next. Other than that, there are tons of really neat moments in each and every issue. For the forty-five minutes or so that it took me to read these three issues, I wasn’t bored for a millisecond.

Another thing that Peter Tomasi has done really well with the Outsiders is show us why each and every Outsider is essential without shoving it in our faces. Each member of the team gets a chance to show off their individual talents by taking care of a problem that all of the other member working together might have struggled with. My personal favorite was the Creeper taking care of some intruders to the Haven in issue 19.

But don’t think that the title characters are stealing the show here. While Alfred Pennyworth gets plenty of chances to kick some ass, the villains are the one who are getting me from page to page. This is probably one of the most exciting story arcs in terms of villain team-ups since Batman: Hush. I really want to, but I just decided that I won’t tell you anything and let you find out. There’s at least one more issue left in this arc, so I’ll fill you in when that comes out if you absolutely insist on not buying these.

The art is just as amazing as it was when Tomasi and Garbett started this arc back with issue 15. (Fernando Pasarin and Jeremy Haun took over the pencils with issue 19, but it still looks great.) My favorite sequences are those that take place on the street against a villain that I will leave nameless. Don’t worry, Pasarin and Huan dont drop the ball at all.

I cannot stress enough that issues 15 through 20 absolutely must be on your must-buy list the next time you hit the comic book shop. Sure they probably won’t be collectors items any time soon, but remember that the reason we buy comics in the short run is to have fun and read an awesome story. That is exactly what you are getting here.

(4.5/5)

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Last week, I gave Green Lantern Corps 33 an unfavorable review, and my complaints are all still the same. Green Lantern seems to be where all of the beef is going, while GLC is like the hub for everything else that needs to happen to facilitate Blackest Night. Am I enjoying Green Lantern Corps right now? Sure. Is it exciting me? Not in the slightest.

I said before that the reasons I love GL and GLC are pretty much the same reason I like movies like Die Hard. The plots are straightforward and the action is super cool. Sure, the storylines of the Green Lantern world are actually quite complicated and technical, but it’s never really difficult to know what the author wants you to know. Once again, I find myself disliking the abundance of things going on in Green Lantern Corps 34 and the lack of time spent on each individual thing.

Ion Sodam Yat is pretty angry at the Daxamites for his messed up childhood, he and lantern Arisia are off to Daxam to help them against Mongul and the Sinestro Corps, Mongul and Arkillo conclude their power struggle for now, lanterns Rainer and Natu privately express their love for one another as she takes off to Korugar to quelm the unrest following Sinestro’s escape, Kryb is starting to feel some love in her heart, and lanterns Gardner and Kilawog drop off one of the Red Lanterns in the sciencells. Go over that again. It’s all one sentence! A little bit of a run on isn’t it? And that’s exactly how this issue and last issue feel. They’re just a mess of things happening with no real connecting theme. I’m sure it’s all going to come together eventually, but right now it’s really annoying. Writer Carlo Tomasi doesn’t seem to appreciate that we are buying these comics from month to month. And whatever happened to the lonesome lantern Saarek?

Also, I enjoy Tomasi’s use of humor in the Metamorpho character in Outsiders, but something is wrong with the way he writes Guy Gardner. It may not be his fault though, because in my opinion Guy Gardner is the lamest character this side of Oa. Humor is good, but I’m not diggin’ the Disney and whiskey jokes.

Patrick Gleason’s artwork here isn’t exactly my favorite. I don’t know if other readers enjoy his work, but I personally don’t like the way he draws human faces. They’re too saggy or elongated or something. They just rub me the wrong way. My favorite part of the issue as a whole is the coloring done by Randy Mayor.

Don’t get me wrong; the series isn’t ruined or anything. Most of the story for these past two issues seems to be setup. The quality of the writing and artwork still have the potential to conclude this storyline with some fireworks. I’ll keep buying the issues, I just hope they can tie up all of these dangling loose ends that seem to be spawning and spawning with no ending in sight.

(2/5)

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It looks like I got a little bit ahead of myself when reviewing Outsiders 15. Metamorpho and I had the same idea of adding the whole crew up to the sum of Batman. And that is the way Outsiders 16 begins. After we get reacquainted with the characters again, it’s time for the grit of the story arc. Last issue was just about all introductions with the final page or two showing some sort of earthquake taking place in Germany. The last thing we see is the shadow of some massive monster standing over the poor smashed pooch.

Here we pick up with the Outsiders orbiting the planet in Batman’s rocket, yes; rocket now nicknamed “The Haven”. After picking up the earthquake on the sensors, Geoforce (the apparent tactical leader of the gang) orders Metamorpho and Creeper to stay behind while he and the others go down to the surface to check it out. Meanwhile the members of some secret society with artificially elongated life spans are all being called in to fulfill their part of the soul-sale. Suprisingly, they are all pretty agreeable when it comes down to the time to give it all up.

Throughout the issue, we get some fun gags and believable chitchat amongst the gang, but my favorite part of Tomasi’s writing here is his take on Metaporpho’s quirky personality. Every silly and sarcastic remark is paired with an equally humorous frame put together by Lee Garbett. Also, it was refreshing to see the realism in Geoforce’s choice to send Halo to talk to the doctors. I’d love to live in the ideal world where anyone could be friendly to anyone else, but that is ideal and it’s all one usually sees in popular fiction. It’s nice to see some social honesty, even if it isn’t the most morally pleasing.

Despite some of the good stuff, I think it’s time to start moving past the introductory phase. Last issue was all intros, as was the one-shot issue before it. By the end of this issue, one Outsider is kidnapped. I am hoping that this development will serve as a vehicle to take the team out of overture and into verse. Also, I would like to see this series start to take itself a bit more seriously. Sure I like all of the humor, but I am just hoping to start seeing something that digs a little bit deeper- as the greater of comics tend to do.

Other than that, I have no complaints from this issue. Tomasi shows himself to be one of those rare writers that can bring consistent humor to a story without making it seem too campy, while Garbett brings that epic and detailed work that he brought with the last issue. This is a fun comic book on its own and a good edition to the series, a series that seems to be on the verge of greatness.

(3.5/5)

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