Contains spoilers based on solicitations:
My comments below on OUTSIDERS 13 were predicated on what’s turned out to be an incorrect bit of speculation on my part. Based on what seemed like obvious foreshadowing in that issue, I thought Jade was going to bite it.
She’d rightly pointed out flaws in Nightwing’s strategy, so I surmised that writer Judd Winnick would punish her (for being right) and Nightwing (for not caring about his teammates enough) by offing her. I’ve since seen solicitations for future issues, and what I expected doesn’t come to pass.
So, in one sense, there’s relief. Readers will be spared yet another super-heroine being killed to further the character development of her male co-stars. And that’s undeniably good. But, also based on solicitations, a member of the team dies, and soon. Is it a better story if the victim is male? And, more on my mind, is OUTSIDERS any good?
I’ve always thought the book’s first principles were shaky. The premise is that Nightwing wants out of the team game after the deaths of two of his close friends (Donna Troy and Lilith). Arsenal pitches the idea of a team composed of people who aren’t friends; Nightwing doesn’t have to care if they live or die, and he can concentrate on the work.
To my way of thinking, that notion demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of the Dick Grayson character. For heaven’s sake, he was created to counterbalance the gloomy, loner angst of Batman, to be a positive life force in a dark place. Nothing he’s done since has indicated he’s willing or able to turn that off. He builds personal relationships easily and is always more prone to grant the benefit of the doubt than condemn. Caring is his reflex setting.
And, honestly, the Outsiders are hardly the Suicide Squad in terms of rough characters. Arsenal is one of his oldest friends. He’s known Jade for years; she’s the daughter of a legendary Gotham superhero, for heaven’s sake. Thunder is the daughter of one of Batman’s longtime associates, and Shift is a clone of another former Outsider. Aside from Grace, who’s likable enough, that leaves only Indigo on the indifferent list. It isn’t exactly a seething cauldron of clashing personalities.
So the central premise requires that Nightwing behave in ways that are contrary to his nature. Winnick’s getting around to pointing up that conflict (using Huntress to do it, of all people), but it still doesn’t hold water.
And to go so far as to kill a character to either test Nightwing’s resolve to maintain emotional distance or shatter his façade of the same seems gratuitous. You can just see the cemetery and trench coats as rain falls on the troubled heroes. (And if the victim is Shift, who is quite literally an extra Metamorpho, well, that’s not exactly a portrait of narrative courage, is it?)
Beyond these issues, there’s the smarmy hipness that soaks the title like cheap cologne. Everyone quips. Arsenal’s a smarmy lothario. Grace is a bouncer broad with loads of tattoos. Thunder seems to have crafted her heroic identity (appearance-wise, at least) from a Destiny’s Child video. Indigo, being the android who’s figuring out humanity, gets to use dreadful pop culture phrases without any risk of Winnick being accused of wallowing in dated lingo. (He is, but he’s doing it ironically, so it’s all right.) (Well, with the possible exception of, “Bring it!”)
Okay, maybe I wouldn’t care if they lived or died, either.
In Winnick’s defense, he’s at least making some use of his central premise, flawed as it is. In Kurt Busiek’s POWER COMPANY, the guiding principle – super-heroics for profit – was very rarely in evidence in the actual title. Any character gauche enough to bring up the possibility of payment was quickly shouted down either by intractable schoolmarm Skyrocket or by circumstances that forced them to act like every other not-for-profit hero.
This was particularly disappointing, as it’s an idea that’s never actually been fully realized in mainstream comics, and I was looking forward to seeing what Busiek did with it. Maybe if the title had lasted, he might have gotten around to exploring issues of enlightened capitalism. As it ended, though, they were a marginally grumpy group of heroes who worked out of an office building instead of a moon base or tricked-out mansion.
But, back to the point. Is OUTSIDERS any good? I would say no, based largely on the insincerity at its core. It posits itself as an “edgy” superhero book but it’s too lazy to do anything really different with the genre. Its edge is entirely cosmetic. And when you compare Winnick’s work to that of someone like Gail Simone, his falters rather badly.
Simone actually seems to achieve what Winnick intends. She manages to write funny, sexy, thought-provoking stories while still crafting them around credible, well-rounded characters. It’s a fundamental difference, in that I understand why Simone’s characters do what they do and I know they’re sincere in their commitment. With Winnick, it just seems like there wasn’t anything good on television the day the team was founded.