It looks like the ranks of the super-hero team books may have a new king, as the second issue of Outsiders is about as good a super-hero/super-villain slugfest as you can get. Winick actually centers the story not around the heroes but around President Lex Luthor, who happens to be in town when a bunch of super-intelligent gorillas invade New York. I loved reading Lex Luthor in this issue, and his intelligence and arrogance is such that I left the issue wanting to vote for him, and I know the guy's a super-villain! Raney and Winick also deliver some fantastic visual spectacle, with great crowd combat, the scariest Grodd this side of Scott Kolins, a pretty impressive scene with Thunder, Grace and a fighter jet, and they close out the book with the surprise villain, leaving me anxious to see what's next.
Ever since Lex Luthor was elected President, I've been waiting for someone, anyone to do something with the concept. There have been the occasional neat ideas here and there, but I think Winick gets credit for the best presentation of President Lex to date. His grumpy confidence in the face of Grodd's disruption of his day is endearing to the reader, even if it probably wouldn't be to those who were actually in his presence, and his reaction to the super-powered individual who comes to his rescue is also very entertaining.
It's not just Luthor and his security procedures that get to shine in this issue, though. Winick is clearly having fun with the setup of the Outsiders, taking the interpersonal bickering that has long been a super-team staple to whole new levels and continuing to make the various characters interesting. I especially enjoyed the interplay between Indigo and Metamorpho, although Grace and Thunder get to shine as brave and tough characters as well. In addition, the enormous budget that is backing the team allows them to have some neat toys, and I like the idea that they're going into battle with a whole bunch of untested technology.
Raney's artwork is, unsurprisingly, very impressive to look at. He gives a great sense of Grodd's size and power, does a lot of great work with armed monkey crowd scenes, and keeps the whole thing rocking along with plenty of speed. The incoming jets and helicopters, the way Arsenal and Nightwing keep moving throughout the fight and the impact of the jet all have a great sense of motion and speed, highlighting even more the pauses in the action when Lex is rescued or when he happens upon the true master villain behind the whole thing.
And the villain? Well, I'm not going to spoil it here, or even hint much, but I'll say that I was pleased to see the villain make an appearance, and I'm interested to see what will happen when the villain faces off with a team, not to mention with Lex Luthor. At any rate, it's another surprise from a series that has so far been full of surprises, and which I'm liking quite a bit so far.
