DCU Comic Book Reviews

BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS #10

Monsters

October 2008

Written by Chuck Dixon

Pencils by Ryan Benjamin

Inks by Saleem Crawford

Cover by J. Calafiore

Synopsis

At a nightclub, a young kid is attacked by a parasite alien monster that somehow gives the kid a super power:  fire.  Meanwhile, Grace, Thunder, and Metamorpho enter the nightclub, looking for the alien, thanks to a tip from Looker.  Although, the newly-powered kid tries to stop them, they are able to subdue the kid, but during the melee the alien and the ones keeping it locked away were able to escape.  They inform Batman of what happened.  Suddenly, the parasite alien appears near Batman, Batgirl, and Katana before it flies away.  Batman follows.  However, the team loses Batman’s signal and can’t follow.  So, they take the kid with the fire power to Looker, hoping she can find a telepathic signal via the alien that will track them down.  Looker determines the alien is an old movie theater.  Elsewhere, Salah is working on Remac’s interface when suddenly he experiences feedback and collapses.  His body is unconscious, but his mind somehow was transferred to the Remac. 

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

You know, after I wrote the following paragraphs summing up some of my thoughts of the issue, I realized I didn’t really say whether or not I liked the issue.  Which I did.  Dixon is an effortless writer, blending action, comedy, and mystery effectively.  He handles the large cast well, never allowing any one character to overshadow another.  One of Dixon’s strengths is his ability to craft long-term stories and character arcs.  He doesn’t really writer contained six-part stories so much as one, long continuous stories with various plots.  However, that strength is now working against the title.  Dixon was fired and let go without the benefit of finishing what he started and now a new writer will have to pick up those pieces whether they like or not since Dixon’s plotting is integral to the book.  And looking over the following paragraphs, that is where most of my problems come into play. 

Okay, I was wrong.  In my review last month (hey, look, a link at the bottom left of the page) I thought the last issue was Dixon’s last, well, issue.  Turns out it was this issue.  The ending last month was still a little weird, but at the very least it doesn’t seem as weird as before since we get to see the follow-up.  Not a conclusion, mind you, but at least a follow-up.  Still, my comments in the review of the last issue still hold.  Dixon has a lot going on with a number of different threads, all of which are going to be dropped with the R.I.P. storyline.  I suppose one could argue that Batman informed the team to finish the job because he has Black Hand business to deal with, which would allow whomever is writing the crossover to finish off Dixon’s work (and maintain some sort of continuity) without too much trouble. 

Going back to my last review, I also mentioned that oddity of the monster and how its sudden inclusion in the book seemed to be a left turn to the plot involving Jardine.  Well, in this issue the characters refer to the creature as an alien, which would suggest that the outer space material, with Metamorpho caught in space, might very well be connected to the events in this issue.  Of course, who the hell knows what Dixon had in mind, but at the very least the new writer could use that as an opening to tie off the plot in order to start anew. 

Hey, what are the odds the parasite alien would appear in the exact spot where Batman was standing?  He can go all over Gotham or the world and he barges right into Batman.  Huh?  What are the odds?  Well, in a comic book, the odds would be about 100%.  I am just saying, that is all.

 

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