Outsiders (2003 Series) #10

March 20, 2004

Quick Rating: Good
Title: A Family Matter (Devil’s Work Part Three)

Captain Marvel Jr. throws down with Sabbac, with the Outsiders for backup.

Writer: Judd Winick
Pencils: Tom Raney
Inks: Scott Hanna
Colors: Gina Going
Letters: Comicraft
Editor: Eddie Berganza
Cover Art: Tom Raney
Publisher: DC Comics

Last issue the Outsiders and Black Lightning faced off with the all-new, all deadlier Sabbac. At the last second, Captain Marvel Jr. showed up to help take down the villain who killed his old foe.

This issue, although it still says Outsiders on the cover, is mostly Marvel’s show. He faces Sabbac almost solo as the Outsiders mix it up with an army of lesser demons and the father-daughter duo of Black Lightning and Thunder learn some very important things about each other. People who like the Shazam! family less than I do will find these scenes the best parts of the issue, as those are the only segments that really develop the stars of this book at all. I like any screentime Captain Marvel Jr. gets, but to be fair, this isn’t his title and he really hogs this conclusion of the “Devil’s Work” story arc.

Tom Raney steps up where Judd Winick stumbles here. The artwork in this issue is just plain beautiful. Raney has a rare talent to draw a lot of costumed types in a jam issue without anyone really overshadowing the others and making every character really good. The art team also does some nice work with Black Lightning, giving his electrical powers what must be a computerized effect that makes his lightning bolts almost three-dimensional. You can really picture the arcs of lightning leaping from his hands to shock the heck out of Sabbac’s demons.

While I’m still not of fan of the behavior Black Lightning has distributed since Winick started writing this title and Green Arrow, in this issue he is at least consistent with the current version of the character and gets some nice development, including a scene at the end that took me by surprise. Every so often in a book that’s part of a shared universe, you get a little reminder that events aren’t taking place in a vacuum – this is one of those instances.

This is a solid superhero title, but not a great one. Not yet, anyway. Still, it’s built an audience and that audience won’t be disappointed in this issue.

Rating: 7/10

Outsiders (2003 Series) #9

February 17, 2004

Quick Rating: Very Good
Title: Lightning From Above and Below (Devil’s Work Part Two)

Black Lightning shows up to rip his daughter from the team just as the battle with the new Sabbac gets nasty.

Writer: Judd Winick
Pencils: Tom Raney
Inker: Scott Hanna
Colors: Gina Going
Letters: Comicraft
Editor: Eddie Barganza
Cover Art: Tom Raney & Sean Parsons
Publisher: DC Comics

Last issue Ishmael Gregor murdered the two-bit Captain Marvel villain named Sabbac, stealing his power and amplifying it in the process. This issue, the Outsiders try to regroup to take him down, only to get a monkeywrench thrown into the mix when Black Lightning arrives. He’s been watching the team, particularly his daughter, Thunder, and frankly, he’s not impressed.

While the “old hero looks down on the new team” bit has been done plenty of times in plenty of comic books, Winick handles the whole thing rather well. While I’m still not crazy about how he’s treating Black Lightning, either in this title or in Green Arrow, I have to admit that at least he’s being consistent within his own version of the character. It’s also good to see the team beginning to bond a bit, even if it’s just to defend one of their members from being ripped away. Even the new “temporary” member, Huntress shows some guts in this issue. We also get a last-page guest star that I suppose I should have seen coming, but still put a big ol’ smile on my face, because it’s someone who doesn’t get nearly enough use in the DC Universe these days.

Tom Raney’s artwork is good, but at points it’s almost too good. There’s a scene where Sabbac tries on suits after slaughtering a few innocent people that is way, way more graphic than anything I expected to see in this title, and while this isn’t really an all-ages book to begin with, any parents that happen to flip through this issue will be incredibly disturbed by that scene. It almost makes me think this book should have had a “mature readers” sticker on it just for the sheer gruesomeness of one panel.

Winick has done a good job revitalizing these characters, the only complaint I can have about this issue is that he doesn’t spend enough time on some of the “lesser” characters that I really enjoy – namely Indigo and Metamorpho II (who still doesn’t have his own name – how long will that take?). It’s a solid read, and fans of the title will not be disappointed.

Rating: 8/10