Outsiders #29

Writer: Judd Winick
Pencils: Matthew Clark
Inker: Art Thibert
Colorist: Guy Major

In the wake of the betrayal by one of their own team members the Outsiders establish a new set of operating rules. Meanwhile, Sabbac, Captain Marvel’s evil counterpart, gets an intriguing offer from the Society (a group of dozens of supervillains working together under the leadership of Lex Luthor) in return for his help. His job? Help the Fearsome Five break one of their teammates out of prison. And what does all this have to do with the battle between The Spectre and the wizard Shazam?

The tag at the top of the cover reads “Infinite Crisis Is Here!” Boy is it ever. Various threads from the Infinite Crisis lead in books begin to make their way into the DC mainstream in a big way proving just how far-reaching the new Crisis is. If you haven’t been reading some of the lead-ins (namely Villains United and Day of Vengeance) then you might want to play a little catch-up before picking up Outsiders. While the book certainly has a feeling of “new beginnings” for the team there’s also a healthy dose of back-story to deal with too.

Having said all that, this book seems to have improved a bit since I last read it (issue #1 was where I started and stopped). Winick still isn’t my favorite superhero writer in the world but he’s definitely getting better. I’m not a big fan of the constant bickering and backbiting going on but it’s minimal. The best part of the book has to be the art of Matthew Clark. His artwork seems to get better every time he gets a new assignment and with the Outsiders he’s certainly doing some of the best work of his career so far.
 

Special thanks go out to Jeremy Shorr, owner of Titan Comics for allowing us to use his advance preview books for review purposes.

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