The Outsiders (not to be confused with the novel of the same name) are a DC Comics superhero team that has starred in its own comic book series several times. The group is best known as "Batman's own superhero team" since he formed it, though he's not always a regular member.
The first series, Batman and the Outsiders, was launched after the cancellation of The Brave and the Bold, Batman's own Team-Up Series, in the early 1980s. Writer Mike W. Barr and artist Jim Aparo, both of whom had extensive experience with Batman, created the team and launched the series on the last issue of TB&TB, #200 (July, 1983).
In that story, Batman is angry at the Justice League for refusing to help him rescue his friend, Lucius Fox, from being caught in the middle of a military coup in the European nation of Markovia (because they didn't want to start an international incident). He quits the team and goes alone, ending up running into various other heroes while there, including:
- Black Lightning, a black superhero with electrical powers.
- Metamorpho, an adventurer transformed into a chemical shapeshifting creature by an Ancient Artifact.
- Geo-Force, the rightful prince of Markovia (and brother of Terra from Teen Titans) who gained the ability to manipulate the energies of the Earth (unlike his sister, who manipulates the earth itself) from an experiment.
- Katana, a female samurai wielding a cursed sword (it steals souls) on a mission of revenge against the man who killed her family. Batman saved her life so she feels indebted to him.
- Halo, an amnesiac, childlike girl with one superpower for each color of the rainbow (Batman basically brings her along out of pity.)
(Black Lightning and Metamorpho were already established characters; Katana and the others were introduced in that story.)
After rescuing his friend (and incidentally ending the coup) Batman invited the heroes to stay together as a team, which they did, as The Outsiders, based off Bruce Wayne's penthouse.
Later in the series, Looker, a beautiful telepath/telekinetic, and Atomic Knight, a man in Powered Armor, joined the team. (Atomic Knight was also a pre-existing character).
Eventually, the group left Batman (ironically, after he refused to help with a crisis in Markovia, busy with his own priorities) and the series changed its name to simply The Outsiders. (Batman later rejoined the League.)
The team disbanded when the series was canceled, but not before Halo recovered her memories and Katana got her revenge. Under the original name they lasted for 32 issues (August, 1983-April, 1986), before changing title to Adventures of the Outsiders, under which they got another 14 issues (May, 1986-June, 1987). As simply Outsiders, they had 28 more issues (November, 1985-February, 1988).
A short lived relaunch had Geo-Force looking for heroes to defend Markovia against a vampire lord. These included Superman's Anti-Hero Substitute the Eradicator, and the magic-user Faust, son of Felix Faust. Over the course of their first story Looker became a vampire, which is now seen as her status quo. They were also joined by Technocrat, another Powered Armor guy. There was also Wylde, a bear-like beastman. This version lasted for 25 issues (November, 1993-November, 1995).
In August 2003, Outsiders (2003) was launched, now led first by Nightwing (Batman's former protege Robin) and then by Arsenal (Speedy, Green Arrow's ex-partner) and Jade (Green Lantern Alan Scott's daughter, former GL for a while and ex-Infinity, Inc.). This version wasn't as popular as the first, and has something of a reputation for being composed of "heroes currently not being used by the League or the Titans" sort of like Marvel's The Defenders. Despite this, it went on to be the longest-running Outsiders title to date, making it to 50 issues up to November 2007 before being relaunched.
This version got two new directions in rapid succession, when Batman first recreated them as an "undercover" team that would be seen as borderline villains (a reflection on how successful the previous version had been), and then promptly disappeared, leaving Alfred Pennyworth to reassemble the original lineup, plus The Creeper and Owlman (not the Mirror Universe version, but a minor Gotham City detective wearing the same costume).
This version of the team then broke in half in the wake of Blackest Night, when Geo-Force started treating them as Markovian special forces. Black Lightning, Metamorpho, Owlman and the Creeper split off, leaving Geo-Force, Katana, and Halo. When Markovia signed a non-aggression pact with New Krypton, they were joined by a new version of the Eradicator, while Black Lightning's team were joined by the bruiser Freight Train. The Markovian team is later bolstered by Looker and the Olympian.
The "undercover" team was launched under the name Batman and the Outsiders, running for 14 issues from December 2007 to February 2009. Following Batman's disappearance, it changed title to The Outsiders, running for another 25 issues from April 2009 to June 2011, coming to an end with Flashpoint.
In 2018, DC announced a new Batman and the Outsiders series, featuring Batman, Black Lightning, Katana, Orphan (Cassandra Cain) and the Signal (Bat-ally Duke Thomas).
In 2023, a new version of the title debuted, as Outsiders, featuring Batwoman, Luke Fox (formerly Batwing) and Drummer (a new version of the character) operating as field agents for Lucius Fox. As the presence of Drummer suggests, this version draws inspiration from Planetary more than previous versions of the title.
Appearances in adaptations:
- A teenage version of The Outsiders (initially featuring only Black Lightning, Metamorpho and Katana) appeared in a few episodes of the cartoon version of The Brave and the Bold. A later episode added Geo-Force and Halo to the roster and showed Black Lightning and Katana in their traditional costumes.
- The Outsiders are also formed in the final episode of Beware the Batman, consisting of Batman, Katana, Alfred, Oracle, Metamorpho, and Man-Bat.
- Katana appears in Suicide Squad (2016).
- A take on The Outsiders appear in Season 3 of Young Justice (2010), which introduces the Markovian power struggle and adds Geo-Force, Halo, and Forager to the show's ever-expanding cast under the tutelage of Black Lightning. The actual team called the Outsiders bears closer resemblance to the Teen Titans, being created and lead by Beast Boy and comprised of Wonder Girl (Cassandra Sandsmark), Blue Beetle (Jaime Reyes), Kid Flash II (Bart Allen), Static, and Geo-Force, with El Dorado and Cyborg both joining later on in the season. The end of the season sees Geo-Force leaving and being replaced with Forager, Superboy (Conner Kent) and Terra. The start of Season 4, Phantoms, revealed not only that Robin (Tim Drake), Stargirl, Livewire, Windfall and Looker had joined the Outsiders in-between seasons but also that Cyborg had left in-between seasons to join the Justice League.
Kingdom Come had an alternate universe version of the group, called Batman's Outsiders, consisting chiefly of the offspring of the Well-Intentioned Extremist Justice Leaguers led by Superman.
Tropes:
- Anti-Hero Team: Batman created them to be superhero black-ops team to take on missions the Justice League wouldn't normally do out in the open.
- Dirty Business: In theory anyway. The Outsiders were made to handle situations too dirty for the League to handle. However, it doesn't quite work when their founder is one of the greatest moral paragons in comics. The worst act out of all the Outsiders teams was one brutal interrogation.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: All of the various teams, to some degree.
- Rogues Gallery: Their most recurring foes tend to be teams, like the aforementioned Force of July and the Masters Of Disaster.
- Baseball Episode: The Outsiders #6 (1986) has a back-up story titled "The Outsiders at the Bat"; a comical adaptation of Casey at the Bat featuring the Outsiders playing baseball against Kobra and his henchmen.
- Aborted Arc: The 2007 series had both its introductory arc (the giant gun built in secret by hypnotized astronauts) and its follow-up (the alien creature that escaped from its drug-dealing handlers) abruptly interrupted to have the book tie into Batman RIP.
- Attack Hello: Cassandra (Batgirl) Cain tosses Thunder through plate glass as a greeting to the group. (This is not followed up in the next issue, which has Cass peacefully co-existing with Thunder and no mention of how they met.)
- Bathroom Break-Out: One issue of the 2007 series opens with Metamorpho captured in France for hijacking an ESA shuttle and ramming it into the International Space Station. He asks to go to the bathroom, and the prosecutor and two police officers escort him inside the bathroom (giving him enough privacy to do his business, of course)... But Metamorpho being Metamorpho, he finds a creative way to escape.
- Bollywood Nerd: Salah, who is probably Pakistani but fulfills this role as the tech expert and robotics engineer.
- Scenery Censor: A scene involving a nude Batgirl.
- Bunker Woman: The issue that introduces Owlman has him rescuing a little girl from a basement.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Some of the speeches Lady Shiva gives to convince her daughter to abandon Batman's and Outsider's cause and seek her own destiny sound like she's reading common complaints about the way Cassandra Cain has been written in Batman and Robin Eternal and Detective Comics (Rebirth) prior to joining the Outsiders. She brings up how the codename Orphan is nonsensical and borderline insulting, the fact Cassandra is not allowed to wear Bat symbol feels like a mockery and how it often feels she's being held
back out of fear she'd overshadow more "classic" Batfamily members, all things her fans were vocal about. She even says Batman will always see Cass as Un Favorite in favor of Barbara Gordon, which feels like an outright Take That! at DC editorial, well known for holding that very sentiment. - Will They or Won't They?: While starting off as mutual confidants, a large part of Brian Hill's run explores this growing dynamic between Black Lightning and Katana. By issue #12, Tatsu makes it clear that she's more than interested in a Relationship Upgrade with him, but Jeff simply wishes to leave things as they are for personal reasons.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: A particularly darker example given by Lady Shiva to her daughter Cassandra Cain and Duke Thomas. She firmly believes that Batman has no real plan for the young duo and that their status as his sidekicks squanders their potential to become more. She then goes on to encourage them to break away from Bruce's shadow so they can finally evolve as heroes.Lady Shiva: "Neither one of you needs him. You should have your own cities to protect. Your own names. And your own symbols..."
