DCU Comic Book Reviews

OUTSIDERS #34

The Good Fight Part One:  Cain & Abel

May 2006

Written by Judd Winick

Pencils by Matthew Clark

Inks by Art Thibert

Cover By Daniel Acuña

Synopsis

One year later…In the nation of Mali, there are a group of very young boys called the Peti’lions under the service of the President who terrorize small towns. At the Presidential Compound, Lieutenant Abioye finds the Peti’lions a waste since they will never grow up to be proper soldiers since they have never learned how to obey orders.  The rest of the presidential cabinets disagrees, think that Abioye is concerned because Peti’lions rape women.  The President of Mali, however, aggress with Abioye.  Two weeks later, Captain Abioy is sent on a reconnaissance mission to watch the Peti’lions slaughter a small town.  Unable to watch the slaughter, Abioye blows her cover to reveal herself as Anissa Pierce (aka Thunder).  The rest of the Outsiders join her to stop the massacre:  Dick Grayson (aka Nightwing), Grace Choi, Rex Mason (aka Metamorpho), Tatsu Yamashiro (aka Katana), and Owen Mercer (aka Captain Boomerang).  After it is over, Nightwing observes it will be a miracle no one knows you’re no tactually dead.

Review

Most of the surprises in store for this issue were contained in the cover.  There are new team members to the Outsiders so it becomes a question of how and why did the new ones join and where are the old team members.  But there are a few surprises inside, such as Nightwing’s comment at the end.  I also happened to catch the phrase “former leader of the Outsider” attached to Nightwing’s introduction.  It certainly acted like he was the leader during the fight, but that may be because he is in the field and the voice talking to Thunder is someone else.  Exactly who, will hopefully be revealed soon.  Very soon.

Other than that, this issue really just bored the living daylights out of me.  From here first appearance, I had a feeling Abioye was Thunder.  This held some interest (and did she sleep with the President; this was strongly hinted at but no outright stated), but as for the rest it really was not what I expected or wanted.  I understand that the Outsiders are supposed to be a team that goes undercover and ferret out the bad guys before they do bad things, but this is not a good way to start.  I realize part of the problem is the fact there is a new team, but as I mentioned earlier, that is blown by the cover.  And I will confuse you some more and say that I really like the idea of a team going undercover, but for the OYL re-boot, I think this was the wrong way to go.

Last I checked Owen Mercer was part of the Flash’s Rogue Gallery looking for revenge for his father’s death. Now he is part of the Outsiders.  Hopefully this will be explained (although one senses the reasons would be connected to the previous issue when the Outsiders saved after his rogue "friends" ditched him to save themselves).  Unfortunately, Owen's membership to the Outsiders blows my theory Bart Allen will be the new Flash.  Since Owen and Bart share the same mother, I figured Owen would be a natural as the villain for Bart.  It just seemed to work for me, but I guess DC disagreed with me.  What can you do?-- MRB

 

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