DCU Comic Book Reviews

THE OUTSIDERS #22

The Hunt, Part 2

November 2009

Written by Peter J. Tomasi

Pencils by Lee Garbett

Inks by Trevor Scott

Cover by Lee Garbett

Synopsis

In Wyoming, Clayface kidnaps Stephen Brosky, and his wife and kids, because he needs assistance.  Later, Geo-Force and Metamorpho investigate the Brosky house, but can’t determine why Clayface would kidnap the family.  Geo-Force contacts Black Lightning who reveals that Black Mask implanted a device in the brain of the Arkham inmates just before busting everyone loose.  So, Clayface is using Brosky to find the device.  Later, at Joe’s Bar, "Brosky" sits down and asks for a beer, only to realize that Geo-Force and Metamorpho are waiting for him.  The two battle Clayface and eventually defeat him and save the Brosky family.  Elsewhere, Katana, Halo, and Creeper are searching for Killer Croc.  Unknown to the team, Man-Bat is right behind them…

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

I am not quite sure why we needed an entire issue to tell this story.  Combined with the full issue devoted to tracking down Mr. Freeze and the (presumably) full issue to find Killer Croc, this overall story (“The Hunt”) has a severe case of decompression.  Don’t get me wrong, it is not a bad issue.  I like the way Geo-Force and Metamorpho play crime scene investigators to track down Clayface and then use that information later to defeat him.  However, both scenes felt overly long and I think might’ve benefited from a little judicious editing.  The same is true for the fight scene, which was drawn well by Pasarin, but didn’t need every inch of space to get the point across.  Overall, I think the story could’ve been told in less pages and it would not have lost any of its impact. 

Part of my problem with the story is not so much the decompression, but the impatience I am feeling for the Outsiders to involved in their own story rather than dealing with leftovers from Battle For The Cowl.  Except for Alfred, there is no connection to Batman anymore and while the in-story reasons why the Outsiders are doing their current make sense, I think DC editorial needed to assess if putting the Outsiders back into the Batman world was a good move.  While the Insiders story was not perfect, I liked the fact that the Outsiders were battling their own nemesis.  They need to get out on their own.  Or just put Batman back on the team and be done with it.  This in between doesn’t quite work.