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01/25/2004: comic comments: Outsiders #6
I need a snail icon or something. Sigh. At least the Outsiders cover date is January. I had some motivational problems, because I had already written comments on this one once, only my computer froze, so you all ended up with a boring computer rant entry then instead of with (hopefully more interesting) comic talk. Of course I could just skip random comics, yet I have this pile system, and it doesn't feel right to comment on the comics in the next pile, when I'm not finished with this one.
Outsiders #6 (written by Judd Winick, pencils by Chriscross, inks by Sean Parsons)
Surprise, surprise, Arsenal isn't dead after getting shot in the cliffhanger from last month. Didn't think so. *yawn*
At least the cliffhanger this month isn't about one or several team members being seemingly "killed." Unfortunately it's not that much better. Okay, maybe it is if you care about Metamorpho, which I don't. (I guess I could, but so far I haven't read him well written as an interesting character.) But the whole sequence at the end doesn't make much sense: Suddenly in the last panel a second Metamorpho pops up, we don't see him enter the Outsiders' headquarters, he's totally unnoticed until he is right next to them. I mean, WTF? Okay, so he can morph, and probably enter in a variety of ways, yet I assume a superhero base security system is designed for these kinds of intruders. And even if he matches the other Metamorpho, there should be an alarm of some kind when two versions of the same person are in the building at the same time. There's not even anything visible in the panels prior to the last. IMO it's cheap to have additional people just pop up in the last panel to get your cliffhanger.
I don't think of myself as an optimist, but somehow I have to be, because I shell out $2.50 each month in the hope of improvement that never comes. The thing is, Outsiders is not totally awful, and I'd really like a good series with Nightwing and Arsenal (and could even tolerate the other characters about whom I still mostly have no real clue, despite reading a book they're starring in now for several months). But back to this issue. I liked that Green Arrow and Connor Hawke were guest stars, and showed up at the hospital for Arsenal as his family. Otherwise, I have a hard time to find stuff I really enjoyed. For example I'm still amazed at how undynamic and boring the action sequences come across in this book, that in its conception relies on action.
I'm not sure the prison outbreak plot was wholly thought through. Maybe I'm missing something, but with their meta-human power dampening collars still mostly intact (except for the one guy whose was malfunctioning) how will they get out of Antarctica or survive for long in the cold? Also I'm wondering how long Brother Blood will stay dead. Or maybe the successor will be treated just like the old Brother Blood. And I have to say if one of his cult members kills him for a failed operation to take his place, the dedication of his followers (or the brainwashing) has deteriorated. Long time followers ought be used to this kind of outcome by now.
