DCU Comic Book Reviews

BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS #11

Outsiders No More, Part 1 Of 2

November 2008

Written by Frank Tieri

Pencils by Ryan Benjamin

Inks by Saleem Crawford

Covers by J. Calafiore

Synopsis

At Wayne Manor, Superman finds a drunken Green Arrow, who laments that Batman is really gone, as shown by the destruction of the Batcave.  At the Iceberg Lounge, Batgirl questions Penguin on the disappearance of Batman.  However, Penguin is bitter that Batman failed to help him defeat Intergang as he had promised.  Penguin states Batman is once more his enemy, wherever he may be.  As Batgirl leaves, Johnny Stitches offers to help find Batman.  Batgirl tells Joynny that his time as Gotham’s crime boss is almost up.  Elsewhere, Geo-Force and Katana talk to Commissioner Gordon to see if he knows where Batman has gone.  Gordon knows nothing, but suggests Nightwing might know.  At Arkham Asylum, the Joker lets the rest of the inmates know Batman is gone.  Meanwhile, Thunder contacts her father to see if the JLA knows anything, but they are just as clueless as the rest.  At Wayne Manor, the Outsiders debate if there is still a team if Batman is gone.  Just then, the team gets a message from … Batman.  And he needs their help.  

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

There have been two types of “Batman R.I.P.” tie-ins:  those that actually try to connect to the story and those that barely connect to the story.  This one falls into the former category and I think it was not the best choice.  First of all, Tieri completely ignores the ending to the last issue, so it will be interesting to see what happens when this tie-in is over what will happen with that.  Second, Morrison’s story is not over (and late, to boot), so Tieri needs to be cryptic in terms of what happened so he doesn’t give away the ending.  As a result, the issue suffers as Tieri skirts around the reason behind Batman’s disappearance because while we know he is gone, we don’t know why.  Not knowing why he left makes it hard to understand why the heroes are taking it so bad; after, all Batman has vanished before. 

While reading this issue, another thing kept creeping into my brain:  the writer and artist are trying to find ways to stretch out 22 pages.  Not only are the same scenes replayed over and over (Where is Batman, I don’t know) but the panels per page are ridiculously low, making some of the scenes play out longer than they really should have.  I am not sure of that was the intent or if that is just the way it played out, but that was the impression I got. 

Another thing that bothers me is the fact that this issue is essentially a continuation of Tieri’s own Gotham Underground mini-series.  I like it when writers are able to create stories with continuity in mind, but for some reason it bothers me when writers continue there own stories across titles.  It bothers me even more that the editor failed to include a note to point readers in the right direction to learn more about Johnny Stiches.  I mean, this is the first time he appears in this book, it would have been helpful to given those few people reading this title who did not get the mini-series a place to look for more.

I think those thugs deserve the beating Nightwing gives them just because they are idiots.  What criminal would hang around a police station that has the bat signal on the roof?  Is that a smart thing to do?

When Gordon talks about Batman disappearing from comics, again, my first reaction was a reference to the Knightfall arc when Azreal took over, but I suspect it is probably a reference to 52 when Batman was missing for an entire year.  Or it could be both.  Either way it kinda undermines the importance or seriousness of Batman being missing. 

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