Look, the whole "they go looking for crime, rather than waiting for it" thing is a marketing tagline and nothing more, let's get that understood right away. Nobody has made that approach work in comics for very long anyway. Instead, the foundation of Outsiders is what Winick always brings to the table, especially in his most recent outings: strong characterization and neat ideas. The team is an interesting mix, half old faces and half new, most of them designed or redesigned by the talented Tom Raney, who fulfills his half of the bargain along with Scott Hanna in providing dynamic, clear and interesting visuals. This is a solid first issue with a lot of potential.
Team comics are a dime a dozen, but really good team comics are a rare thing indeed. One thing that sets apart just about every good team is that the characters are interesting on their own merits, not just because their members of a team. Winick's cast so far pretty much fulfills that requirement. His take on Arsenal and Nightwing, sort of a yin-yang of responsibility, fun and crime-fighting, makes for a solid core, and I'll be surprised if his take on Metamorpho doesn't become as much a selling point of this book as Morph was over on Exiles. Slight tweaks of existing characters' personalities makes for some interesting familiar faces, who retain their familiarity while gaining a little bit of freshness.
Then there's the new team members, and Winick is batting about .800 with me here. Which is to say, I like two of them a whole lot, and I'm wary of the third. The two I'm interested in are Grace and Thunder, both introduced in this issue. Grace is a metahuman bouncer at a super-powered club in Metropolis, and for those of you counting, there's about three cool new DC Universe ideas right in there. Throw in that she's a fun character whose relationship to Roy is instantly believable and you've got a solid cast member. Thunder, the previously unseen daughter of Black Lightning, might give old school fans a little pause (Black Lightning is how old? And he had a daughter when?) but the tie to an old DC character is a good one, and so far the character's interest in super-heroing makes her an interesting lead as well. More interesting if you've already gotten a little backstory off of Winick's Green Arrow run.
Then we come to Indigo, and my one bit of wariness about the book. Indigo, like the references to a "carpet-bagging media conglomerate" and a couple of other story references, come directly out of Titans/Young Justice, a mini-series that I just wasn't all that fond of. I'm a little wary that some of the foundations of this book are laid on what was essentially a gimmick mini-series and a (probably) ill-advised death of a long-time DC character for what amounts to promotional purposes.
However, my worries are assuaged considerably by the excellent dialogue and narration in this issue (providing the solid basis of humor, personality and super-hero cool needed to make a team book work), by the choice of villain (a favorite of mine) and by the artwork, which is also terrific. Raney has been an up and down guy for me, working out well on some books and less so on others, and here he is definitely firing on all cylinders. His new designs for most of the characters are terrific (Metamorpho is a particular standout, gaining a more alien quality and then toning it down with the brilliant addition of street clothes, so fitting to his personality), his action is fast and readable and the whole thing has a larger-than-life feeling that makes it clear that this is about old school super-heroes as much as it is about having a new edge.
