DCU Comic Book Reviews

OUTSIDERS #33

Deep Impact

April 2006

Written by Jen Van Meter

Pencils by Matthew Clark

Inks by Art Thibert & Steve Bird

Cover by Daniel Acuña

Synopsis

Disguised as Deathstroke, Roy Harper (aka Arsenal) takes the “captive” Grace to one of the stronghold facilities operated by the Society.  There, they find Vault and Chain Lightning have Mary Marvel locked in a containment unit.  Meanwhile, Katana, Captain Marvel Jr. and Thunder follow Arsenal’s bracelet signal to a nuclear reactor plant.  Thunder dive bombs to the plant to create a diversion and a way inside.  Arsenal and Grace blow their cover and remove Mary Marvel from the containment unit as the others capture the members of the Society.  While Captain Marvel Jr. flies away with Mary Marvel, the Outsiders place the Society members in the containment field to leave them there for when the place blows up.  Arsenal has a change of heart and goes back for them before it does blow up.  Later, Arsenal tells Grace that he needs to determine who he is and what he wants to be.

Review

Man, do I miss Matthew Clark.  Dietrich Smith’s work on this issue is not bad, but I think I had gotten used to Clark’s pencils and the way he draws he of the characters to the point where another artist just does not quite look right for me.  In a way it detracted from the story, but not too much.  I liked this issue and I am glad that Donna Troy and the others was nowhere to be seen.  In previous issues I had complained about the fractured story lines and I think this issue definitely benefits from keeping it to one story.  I am not familiar at all with Vault and Chain Lightning, so there appearance and Chain Lightning strange split personality were a little jarring to me. 

I found the brief bit with Mary Marvel and Jr. to be a little odd, almost forced.  At no point do I ever recall reading about Jr.’s decision to join the Outsiders, either to the team or to anyone else.  Maybe it was in a different book that I missed.  So when Mary talks to him about the reason he joined, it just seemed out of place as if a resolution to his time in the Outsiders needed to be written before it even got started.  A lot of that may do with the One Year Later flip coming up in the next issue, but it just seemed odd to me. 

Ultimately, this is was just a blah issue that served to tidy things up before the One Year Later leap.  Hopefully, Judd Winick will back.  Based on the cover, at least Nightwing will be back.  It should be interesting to see where things go.-- MRB

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