About Heroes

Writer: Judd Winick
Pencilers: Fredie Williams II & Carlo Barberi

Does anyone wanna read a comic that has the most fucked up flow ever? No?

The recent issue of Outsiders came out and yeah…..not good. The first five pages or so we see Roy “Arsenal” Harper coming home to visit his daughter, then….it stops. Now when I say stop, I mean stop, no transition, no explanation, nothing. The next page leads you back to where the story left off, with the Red Hood talking to Nightwing.

Is anybody getting the feeling nobody gives a flying fuck about the Outsiders anymore, cause that’s the feeling I get from Winick. Instead of thriving in this title Winick has slowly been drowning. Mind you Winick’s characterization of Nightwing is tolerable but, given Jones’ & Wolfman’s latest incarnations, that isn’t saying much. I guess I just expect more from this title. How do you go from a good arc involving Monsieur Mallah and the Brain….to this…..crap. The most interesting part of this whole issue was the Arsenal side story…the one that seemingly connects to NOTHING. I don’t care about the current story, the characterization for Black Lightening feels flat and yeah just.. no. Gail Simone and many others have done great jobs reinventing ‘b-list characters’ such as Catman, Black Canary, etc. but, Winick just can’t seem to do it with Black Lightening and it hurts this story. Maybe things will come to fruition in future issues but, if the story is constructed in such a way as this issue was, why pick up another. It almost seems like this story is being written as a trade rather then an ongoing title, and not even that good of a trade so far. Winick man, I love your Green Arrow run but, you have to do better then this if you want me and others to keep reading Outsiders. More energy needs to be put into this title then is seen with this issue and this non-transition transition crap must never EVER be done again, lest you want to incur the wrath of DC fans…..which is less like the Wrath of Khan, more…like the wrath of Stormtrooper #1 in Star Wars: A New Hope, oh sure he looks alright but, you know when blaster fire starts the guy is gonna start some shit, maybe pick up C-3PO use him as a shield.

The artwork throughout this issue was “alright”, that’s all I can say, it becomes a tad annoying half the time when everybody looks EXACTLY the same, what’s ironic is, there were two different pencilers in the issue. Same general jaw lines for Waller, Alan Scott, Mr. Terrific, AND Black Lightening. The Red Hood & Deathstroke….same guy….oh yeah didn’t you know….he just switches masks…least if page 15 is any indication. See 17 and 18 for the shocking revelation that Jason Todd and Dick Grayson are actually TWIN BROTHERS!!! DUM DUM DUMMMM. Again I reiterate, it seems like the same faces keep getting repeated, much like me and my bitching of the faces. In short the art just adds to this issues’ overall SUCK.

Oh on a side note, Checkmate, good gosh Checkmate. I didn’t like the ongoing series and I don’t like when they make “guest appearances” in different DC titles. You want a sure fire way to slow a title down, put a pointless appearance of the Checkmate team in it. I keep thinking that DC has a memo circulating wherein all titles must have at least one appearance by Alan Scott, Mr Terrific, Amanda Waller, or all three.

To close this all up, transition problems, uninteresting characterizations, storylines, Checkmate, and artwork make this possibly the worst issue of the Outsiders I have ever read…EVER. If this title is gonna survive, the writing as well as the artwork has gotta get better, and soon. I’d give this an F but it gave me an excuse to make a Star Trek & Star Wars reference in the same sentence. D-