Outsiders #11 – Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly, Writers; Robert Carey, Artist; Valentina Taddeo, Colorist
Ray – 9/10
Ray: One of the most ambitious comics to come out of DC in a while, this book was hyped up as a weird-science team-up of Gotham characters, maybe evoking a darker Challengers of the Unknown – only to quickly veer and become essentially a sequel to Planetary, bringing in Jakita Wagner as one of the main characters. And then just like that, it swerved us one more time and revealed that Wagner was actually the main villain of the series, driven to madness by the loss of the Wildstorm Universe and trying to do something much more akin to Hal Jordan under the influence of Parallax – but with an even more nihilistic edge. And that’s where we are at the start of this final issue – with Jakita having pulled off her plan to destroy the multiverse and being left alone at the end of time with only the Carrier for company. But the living embodiment of the Wildstorm Universe isn’t ready to give up the host just yet.
While this conflict is the main heart of this final issue, the three other main characters get quite the spotlight as well – with each of them being shown in the future, as we get a glimpse of how their story ends. Luke Fox’s tale takes him to the Batman Begins era, something that can only be recognized by the slang used. Lucius only goes eight years into the future, with a very poignant scene bringing his story full circle. And Kate gets a more dramatic finale – not nearly as long from now as one might expect. I doubt any of this will be taken for canon going forward, but it works very nicely with the themes Jakita Wagner has been wrestling with since the start of this series. The final scenes work excellently as not just a finish to the series, but as a sendoff to the Wildstorm Universe, which played a very key role in DC’s history. This series may have been a bit too out-there for some, but it was a great experiment.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
