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heroicadventurists · 5 years

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Batman and The Outsiders # 1 **SPOILERS**

Lesser Gods part 1

Recap and Review

This issue begins in Los Angeles. A Father (Gabriel) and Daughter (Sofia) are driving along a highway. Sofia is listening to her headphones to the annoyance of her Dad. He tells her to play music in the car but she tells him she prefers the headphones. He promptly reminds her that he is her Father and asks her to take the headphones off. She complies.

-“You’re thinking about your Mother. I know what day it is. I won’t tell you how to grieve, but Ana would want you to be happy, she always said—" Gabriel

The car suddenly hits a man standing in the middle of the road, but instead of killing the man, he crushes the car.

The man stands on top of the car and pulls Gabriel thru the windshield. He grabs his neck and you see a light escaping his eyes and mouth before he dies. Before Sofia can run, the man grabs Sofia by her neck.

-“Nothing from my touch. Strange. So scared. You don’t know what you are. Let me show you.”-Strange killer

The man proceeds to throw Sofia over the bypass and she slams into a gas tanker. The tanker explodes from impact and the scene ends with Sofia’s screaming face.

The issue switches to Gotham City. Signal and Orphan appear to be at the docks, taking cover from a mad man (Saint John) wielding a machine gun. Signal tells Orphan that he can rush Saint John but Orphan tells him to wait for Black Lightning. Duke does not respond well to this.

Suddenly Black Lightning appears, firing lightning at Saint John’s helmet, while Katana slices his gun with her sword. Black Lightning tells Katana to cover her eyes and he lights Saint John up.

With Saint John down, Black Lightning reprimands Signal for not waiting for him & Katana. Signal tells Black Lightning that he is not his Father and he’s not Batman.

-“Neither are you, Signal. That’s why I had to save your life. We have to work together. We’re a team.” – Black Lightning

Shamed, Signal walks away and tells everyone he will call GCPD. Katana asks Orphan if he is normally like this. She responds that he has been different since he was injured by Karma.

The scene switches once again to Kubrick Towers. Bruce is meeting Jefferson for a report.

-“Duke’s not right. Cassandra thinks this is recess. Katana will kill someone before this is over.” -Jefferson

Bruce tells Jefferson they are his team and to make them what he wants them to be. Jefferson questions if this is truly his team. At this point Jefferson and Bruce have a real conversation about Bruce’s real intentions with forming the Outsiders.

-“I need to solve some things. For myself. And they…need more from me than I can give.” – Bruce

On his way out, Bruce tells Jefferson he put the penthouse in his name.

We switch to what appears to be the Batcave. Batman is surveying the wreck from earlier in the issue. It’s confirmed that Gabriel is dead and Sofia is missing.

We move to an abandoned building that Tatsu is living in. She is trying to communicate with her husband’s soul inside her sword.

Tatsu tells Jefferson he is not as quiet as he thinks, and he comes out of the shadows. He tells her that he needs her wisdom. Tatsu tells him to pick up a sword. They spar while Jefferson asks Tatsu for her help.

-“Duke is punishing himself. Cassandra is a mystery I can’t solve. Help me with them.” – Jefferson

Jefferson tells Tatsu that he needs a partner. He wants her to challenge him. After he leaves, her husband’s soul speaks to her “Taaatttsssuuuuu”. She cries as she holds the sword.

Next, we see Cass and Duke riding her motorcycle. During the ride, Duke is only thinking about Karma and he cries out for Cass to stop. She asks Duke if he’s ok and he tells her he still sees Karma.

“It’s okay. When I sleep…I see my Dad.”-Cass

Cass tells him it’s okay to be afraid, and he yells that he is not afraid. Cass begins to apologize but their batwatches go off.

The Outsiders meet up with Batman on top of a building. He briefs them on The Ark Program. A consortium of billionaires wanted to create their own metahumans. Batman burned it down. The architects tried to kill all the test subject, and only the Ramos family survived. Bruce Wayne and Lucius Fox set them up in a house in Los Angeles and Batman promised them they would stay safe. Batman informs the team that the Mother eventually died due to the experiments and Gabriel was just killed. Their task is to find Sofia and bring her to Gotham. At this, Batman grapples away.

Right away, Black Lightning is distrustful of Batman and wants to decline the mission. In the end, Katana informs the team that they are taking the mission.

-“I don’t trust Batman. But that doesn’t matter. What does matter----is us trusting each other. Because I have a feeling we are own our own.”-Black Lightning

We go back to Sofia, and she is at the train station trying to keep a low profile and get out of Los Angeles. As she’s walking a man in the shadows grabs her from behind. He tells her that she will pull humanity from the ashes; and thru her a new age is born.

Review

I really enjoyed this comic. First off, the art work is AMAZING. Dexter Soy really took this comic book to the next level. The only thing that threw me off was Bruce looking like an older version of Jason. I had to do a double take for a moment. Speaaking of Jason, Gabriel's license plate was TODD JASON. Dexter did a great job.

I really enjoyed the development we’re getting with Duke. Duke had a very traumatic experience with Karma in Detective Comics, and it’s nice to see them addressing those issues.

I am also intrigued by Jefferson’s relationship with Duke and Tatsu. A part of me feels like Duke is pushing Jefferson away because he reminds him of his Father; or he feels that Jefferson is trying to take his Father’s place. He really has no other reason to be this combative. Jefferson is eventually going to break down Duke’s walls; and when he does, I think they will have an unbreakable bond.

Jefferson and Tatsu have a lot of chemistry and I would probably ship Jefferson with Tatsu if I knew the status of Anissa and Jennifer. If he hasn’t had them yet, then I wouldn’t ship them, but if he’s divorced from Lynn already, then it would be an interesting relationship to explore.

When Jefferson visited Tatsu, she told him that Cassandra was afraid of her future. I hope this is tied to Detective Comics 980 where Cass learned she was both Batgirl and adopted. Stephanie seems to have taken the news from Tec 980 well. She's not bitter that she was never Robin or Batgirl in this timeline. She is actually referring to herself as a Robin in Young Justice. Stephanie doesn't care what time line it happened in, a win is a win. Cass's situation is entirely different. While she can take the same approach with the Batgirl mantle, she can't do that with the adoption. That has to be something formally initiated by Bruce. I think there are a couple of things Cass could be afraid of: (1) Deep inside she is bad and they will get rid of her like they did Basil (2) She never reaches her full potential and does not become an official bat (she never wears the symbol) (3) She's never adopted again (if Bruce doesn't adopt her, what does that mean for their current relationship?). It could be something else entirely or a combination of 1-3. Hill has a lot of compelling directions he can go with Cass. A follow up from Tec 980 would be great.

Last, but certainly not least….Bruce Wayne. Honestly, Bruce came across as someone who really doesn’t care what the team is doing as long as they stay out of his hair and they’re alive. When Bruce met with Jefferson at Kubrick Towers, he confirmed my suspicions that he formed BatO and put Jefferson in charge so he could be Duke and Cassandra’s primary mentor. While it may seem messed up that he is not making time for them, I respect the honesty of the situation. Bruce’s life is crap right now. He’s trying to rebuild his relationship with Damian, he has no clue what to do with Jason and this Iceberg situation, Dick is Ric and at some point, he should realize that Tim is missing on Gemworld. Not to mention his Dad from another Universe is teaming up with his enemy and he’s still heartbroken over Selina. He’s stretched thin and has realized he doesn’t have the physical time or emotional availability to look after/mentor Duke and Cass. He’s giving them a better option in Jefferson. He even gave Jefferson a pent house for his troubles. I think Jefferson knew from the beginning why Bruce formed the team, which explains why he doesn’t trust him. They are laying the seeds of Batman eventually leaving the Outsiders and if that happens, I feel like this comic will be a great vehicle for Black Lightning to shine. I wouldn’t be surprised if they phased Batman out of the title once they have some consistent sales. It wouldn’t be anytime soon, but I wouldn’t mind BatO becoming The Outsiders.

This was a great issue with some great art. If you’re a fan of these characters I highly recommend you pick up this issue.

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