Art Dive; Trevor Von Eeden - DC in the 80s

Trevor Von Eeden is one of those mysterious dudes you saw occasionally, and rarely do you see Von Eeden on "all time favorite artists" lists. But Trevor Von Eeden is absolutely one of my favorite artists of all time, and I wanted to explore some of his work. I wish he was a regular on a book after 1985, in my prime years of DC in the 80s childhood obsession, but he wasn’t. He had that Steve Ditko vibe to me, like “What happened to him, where is he?” I knew what happened with Steve Ditko after the internet became a thing, but still Trevor Von Eeden remained a mystery. I felt his work was this funked-up Alex Toth, more technical 80s version of a 70s-era Frank Robbins. But he had his own distinguishable energy. It was so fresh, so different from everything else out. It was dynamic, beautiful, and I wanted more.

Trevor Von Eeden in 2008.

I now follow him on Facebook, and I can tell you for sure he is alive and well. He’s even begun going to Conventions, and I hope I get the chance to meet him someday. I’d love to ask him about his experiences when he first began in the business, the bs he had to go through, and maybe the bs that eventually made him peace out. He’s also super passionate about his beliefs, which I love. If he did stories about what he is passionate about, I would buy it.

I thought it would be cool to read some of his work right now, and explore the art. Like an art historian. So pretend this is a DC in the 80s museum, and I’m the guy they gave you when you asked for a tour and we are going into the Trevor Von Eeden room. If you don’t like how I do it, another tour is starting soon.

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Batman Annual 8. 1982.

First of all, who else worked on this book. Mike W. Barr, a SUPER underrated Batman writer. His Detective run with Alan Davis might be my favorite of the 80s. John Costanza on lettering, Lynn Varley on colors and the legendary Dick Giordano on editing. Lettered, colored and edited by the Dark Knight Returns team.

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This main villain and his henchman. The henchman is a classic square jaw goon, and the classic hooded no face main villain, but with such powerful evil portrayed just through the eyes. The goon almost foreshadows a future Marv from Sin City, while the hooded villain recalls others who used religion as a shield for their hate.

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Look at that line and shadow work. I love that huge bat shadow falling on the dead victims, and then the Batplane underneath the sky and birds. It feels like the two pages are speaking to each other.

Here you see how Von Eeden played with perspectives, and his amazing symmetry. There’s something special going on here, a real angular exploration. 

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Batman totally backhanded this fake Jesus character. Like "Really dude?"

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BTW the story line is about some poison being introduced into Gotham’s water supply. Joker did this, Scarecrow, Ra’s Al Ghul. A popular Batman trope. I will say just as I’m reading this, it’s a really well told story. It’s an A to B to C story, very early 80’s comic book, but Barr has a way of narrative that fits Batman well. It’s the most “detective” of the Batman stories I’ve read. Von Eeden’s art is killing it tho.

The link work, the circles. I’d say Von Eeden is more of an alchemist than a cartoonist in this book. I feel like I am looking more through a book on Carl Jung, rather than a Batman comic. Am I projecting?

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Damn Batman is coooolddd. He's right though.

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Green Arrow limited series Issue 1, 1983.

Mike W. Barr writing again. This time John Costanza letters again, with Dick Giordano on the inks, Len Wein is editor, and Tom Zuiko is the colorist. Wouldn’t it have been funny if George Costanza’s cousin was the letterer at DC, and Jerry Seinfeld got to meet people who worked on Superman? They could have done an episode about Jerry being really sad Superman was dead and George tried to buy every issue of the story in NYC and destroy them so it would become really rare and only he would have it, until some store in Newark suddenly made millions because everyone took the train there to buy it.

Here it seems the line work is less experimental and more straight forward. Von Eeden is channeling Frank Miller in some of the shots, and I could easily have seen him working on Daredevil during this era. Still, it’s very much a unique look, and Giordano’s inks aren’t drowning out his style. It seems like it was only a few panels. Sometimes it feels like Von Eeden is experimenting with styles mid story. Love it.

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This has a really great story. There’s this love established between Oliver (Green Arrow) and an older rich lady. I was really feeling it. I’m also feeling this experimentation of panels. It gives this page the chaos it needs to convey an explosion and fire, and everything falling apart.

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Look at the sadness conveyed during the reading of a will of someone Oliver cared for, while the deceased's children argue over Queen getting a fortune, he could care less. Love how he gets smaller as their conversation gets more heated.

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I love everything about this page. So stylized. Again the panels are loose, but Von Eeden’s symmetry plays into it. Also, his moon scenes really get me. I saw this in the Batman Annual as well.

Why didn't we get 20 issues of this???? If you haven’t already, go out and get this Green Arrow mini-series.

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Look at this page in issue 2. This is classic illustrating. Some Ditko, but a style completely Von Eeden's own. The next two pages after this make the comic worth whatever you pay for it. Just go buy it.

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In Issue 3, I feel Von Eeden takes a step up in artistry. The first page is one of the best pages in comics, IMO. Look at Count Vertigo sweating! The story telling is all in the eyes. Amazing stuff.

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I really enjoyed the minimalism on this page too. Recalls some of Jim Aparo's 1970s work, some Miller stuff on Daredevil. GIVE ME 20 ISSUES OF THIS STORYTELLING. 

Wow did I enjoy the 3 issues of Green Arrow that I’ve owned for decades and never read. What a waste. Or maybe now was just a great time to read it. Que sera sera. I have to get #4 on Ebay like right now. Man, these shipping and handling fees. I would so rather get this at a shop or a con. 

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Thriller #1.

As a kid I thought Thriller was about Michael Jackson, and even when I found it wasn’t, I still didn’t want to read it. I DJ weddings and I’ll play MJ, but I’m just into him. Janet Jackson I love though. Rhythm Nation FTW. But I bought some issues a few years ago in the dollar boxes, just because I knew Von Eeden was on them. First of all, if it’s on Baxter Paper, so it’s amazing. Baxter Paper feels like "Hey I'm a Special Comic!!". Second of all Robert Loren Fleming, the writer, worked on Ambush Bug, which is still one of the greatest series of all time. So I can't wait to read this. 

There is a lot of experimentation in this. It’s very quick, fluid. It’s almost like a dream. They’re introducing characters at a breakneck speed and it feels like they need to get them all out before they can really start the story.

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This is a particularly interesting sequence that feels like it could work in a Deadman story too. I love the face and the shading. Von Eeden is such a strong, interesting inker too. 

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Love this drawing. This character Data blows my mind, the inking on him is so different. BTW this Data has the ability of a few 647k computers, so watch out Microsoft Word documents. 

I read #2 and just feel this needs more attention, story wise. I'll get all the Von Eeden issues and read them all at once. Or I won't, who knows. So hard to find time to read anything. They will go in the read pile, which has books that I bought in 1986, so yeah.

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Finally, the classic Batman and the Outsiders #15.

Here, Von Eeden’s work gets dirtier, and so much more experimental. Heavy pen lines, crazy inking. I wonder if this was a fun issue for him, or whether it was part of the process of him leaving DC. Another Mike W. Barr collaboration.

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There is this hot Outsiders versus New Olympians splash page. It’s so different, so much more independent then what you were seeing at the time. Poster-worthy. I also wish Maxie Zeus was a bigger Batman villain. He felt like a major player in the 80s, but now, he's not even top 100.

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Katana bitch-slapping the archer Diana, and Antaeus floating. Von Eeden did so much with eyes, that it was lost if you looked at the pages too quickly.

The issue was great, but felt like it was over too quick. Much like I feel about Trevor Von Eeden’s career at DC in the 80s. I'm going to finish Thriller, and hunt down more Trevor Von Eeden work from the 80s. I think he's a forgotten master, and although he helped create Black Lightning, he just doesn't get the credit he deserves for his work.

-Mark Belkin

Celebrating the Force of July

I was looking around for something to post in celebration of Independence Day 2018 and was shocked to discover that a post about the ill-fated Force of July wasn't easy to find. Hence, here's our write-up.

Created by Mike Barr and Jim Aparo, the Force of July first appear in 1984's Batman and the Outsiders Annual #1.

Batman and the Outsiders Annual #1 (1984) -- cover pencilled by Frank Miller, inked by Jim Aparo

The cover of this issue is noteworthy since:

a) Frank Miller penciled it (and it would appear Jim Aparo inked it),
b) the "It's 1984: Do you know where your FREEDOMS are?" call-out is a reference to George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four (which was also adapted as a film in the UK that year) AND popular American television Public Service Announcement "It's 10PM. Do you know where your children are?", and
c) Batman is nowhere to be found on this cover (which is odd considering his name is in the title of the book).


For the sake of keeping this article relatively short, I'm NOT going to give you a play-by-play of what happens in this issue. All you really need to know is that a new super-team (sponsored by an ultra-patriotic US politician, naturally) is introduced as new antagonists for the Outsiders. Seeing as how this issue was an Annual -- and thus needed to resolve within 48 pages -- the Outsiders go toe-to-toe with the Force of July, get defeated and captured, but manage to rally at the last minute and thwart a dastardly scheme and save the day. The story ends in an ambiguous way and the reader is left wondering if the Force of July survives at the end. Spoiler: they do.

The roster included (from left to right): Mayflower, Major Liberty, Sparkler, Silent Majority, and Lady Liberty. [That's Metamorpho lying face-down on the ground between Major Victory and Sparkler.]

 panel from Batman and The Outsiders Annual #1 (1984) - pencils by Jerome Moore, inks by Jim Aparo

While this particular story (written AND edited by Mike Barr) was somewhat clichéd and will probably never make anyone's 'Best Of' list, it was admittedly exciting to get a NEW team of characters for the Outsiders to battle. The series was still within its first year of publication and slowly building its own distinct rogues gallery (Masters of Disaster, anyone?) -- so this was good. A team of super-characters privately sponsored by the government is an idea as old as time itself, so we weren't really moving into new territory here. Regardless, the Force of July made formidable adversaries and had an interesting patriotic-themed gimmick, so this was a really cool concept to a 10 year-old me. [Just to be clear, I wasn't a 10 year-old when this Annual came out -- I was a 10 year-old when I started collecting and reading Batman and The Outsiders back issues.]


The next time we saw the Force of July was nearly a year later in The Outsiders v1 #2. The Outsiders v1 (aka Baxter Trade format) was a pretty exciting time for Outsiders fans -- we were treated to a glossier paper stock and back-up features spotlighting individual Outsiders members.

As a direct consequence of Batman and The Outsiders Annual #1, we find the Force of July punching their way out of a mountain. They are now part of a plot involving the Bad Samaritan and Gobrachev.

panel from The Outsiders v1 #3 (1985) - illustrated by Jim Aparo

By this point, the Force of July have been relegated to c-list villains and are easily dispatched by the new and improved Outsiders (Looker is now on the team).

They next appeared in 1987's The Outsiders Special #1. The Outsiders Special #1 was followed by 1987's Infinity Inc. Special #1 (released that same month) -- it was a cross-over. You were able to join the two covers to create a REALLY big battle scene between The Outsiders, Infinity Inc., the Force of July, and Psycho Pirate.

Covers to The Outsiders Special #1 and Infinity Inc. Special #1 (1987). Art by Eduardo Barreto. 

The cross-over ends with the Force of July deciding to withdraw from the battle because it was going to turn into an international incident on foreign soil.

They redeem themselves in The Outsiders v1 #23 (1987) when they team up with The People's Heroes to defeat a Russian menace known as 'Fusion'. This entire issue was staged as a flashback that occurred between 1986's The Outsiders v1 #13 and The Outsiders v1 Annual #1.  This is a particularly charming issue since The People's Heroes are ANOTHER patriotic-themed team of super-powered characters ALSO created by Mike Barr and Jim Aparo -- and it's pretty amusing to see the two teams (who are essentially American and Russian counterparts of each other) interact.

panel from The Outsiders v1 #23 (1987). Illustrated by David Ross and Bob Smith.

By the end of this issue, it was starting to seem plausible that the Force of July could actually be a team of government-sponsored super-heroes with a conscious who actually do good for the DC Universe (rather than a 'puppet' super-hero team controlled by the U.S. government).

The Force of July would last be seen together -- as a unit -- in the pages of John Ostrander & Kim Yales' Suicide Squad v1 #27.

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I'm not sure how detailed I want this article to be, but it would be kind of a shame if I didn't explain who was who, and what their powers were. Aside from Major Victory, nobody on this team had a Who's Who listing, so I'm just going to by what's been revealed in the comics.


Major Victory:

He led the team and wore an enhanced suit that gave him super-strength, super-endurance and the ability to fly. Most notably, he was a die-hard American patriot who did what he did for America. There wasn't really much more to him than that. He was arguably the most boring of the bunch.

panels from The Outsiders Special #1 (1987) - pencilled by Chuck Patton and inked by Bob Smith

Lady Liberty:

She appeared to have the ability to fly and the power to shoot energy beams. What kind of energy? I'm not sure -- they left it kind of vague. Whatever it was, it could be used to disintegrate things, levitate and move people/objects (like a tractor beam) or create thick smoke. I get the feeling her powers could do whatever the writer needed them to do in order to suit the story. In the spirit of the Statue of Liberty (which was a gift to the United States from the people of France), she spoke with a French accent. It is also revealed that she was originally from France.

panels from The Outsiders Special #1 (1987) - pencilled by Chuck Patton and inked by Bob Smith

Mayflower:

She's the group's botanokinetic (aka: ability to control plants with her mind). Her powers vary from making vines raise from the ground (to entangle someone) to having fully-grown redwoods sprout from the ground (to crush someone). A dialogue with Geo-Force gave a bit of insight into her origin -- she was originally from England and shunned for being a "freak", and she somehow found her way to the United States and was recruited to join the Force. I imagine she spoke with an English cockney accent. Her codename is based on the English ship that transported the first batch of Pilgrims to North America in 1620 -- hence her 'thematic' costume.

panels from The Outsiders Special #1 (1987) - pencilled by Chuck Patton and inked by Bob Smith

Silent Majority:

He didn't talk very much and had the power to create duplicates of himself at will. It would appear that injuring him also allowed him to create duplicates of himself. Each of his duplicates were an exact replica of him and had his proportional strength. It didn't seem like the duplicates had independent thought. He was like a DC version of X-Factor's Multiple Man (of Marvel Comics) if Multiple Man was less chatty and his duplicates all had a hive-mind. 'Silent Majority' was actually a term popularized by 37th U.S. President, Richard Nixon, to describe an 'unspecified large group of people in a country who do not express their opinions publicly'.

 panels from Batman and The Outsiders Annual #1 (1984) - pencils by Jerome Moore, inks by Jim Aparo

Sparkler:

This bratty-looking kid had the power to fly and shoot fireworks. He also had the power to turn himself into a living firework -- but we never saw this ability again after his first appearance. A 'Sparkler' is another name for a hand-held firework that burns slowly and shoots sparks everywhere.

panels from Batman and The Outsiders Annual #1 (1984) - pencils by Jerome Moore, inks by Jim Aparo

Abraham Lincoln Carlyle:

He was a later addition to the team and first appeared in 1987's The Outsiders Special #1. Other than being an early example of an Uncle Sam cosplayer, Abraham's only ability was that he was rich and really REALLY wanted to be president of the United States. At some point he manages to get a hold of Psycho Pirate's Medusa Mask, and that becomes his power.

panels from Suicide Squad v1 #27 (1989). Art by John Snyder and Pablo Marcos.

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So, what became of this interesting crew of super-powered patriots? Well... with the exception of Major Victory... they all got killed off when they fought against the Suicide Squad during 1989's Janus Directive cross-over event. (which will make a great article for another time. wink wink)

Suicide Squad v1 #27 (1989). Cover art by Karl Kessel

Following the Janus Directive cross-over, Major Victory got absorbed into the Suicide Squad and fought alongside them for about 2 years before parting ways. Ultimately, he became a casualty of Eclipso's vengeance and bit the dust in Eclipso v1 #13 (1993).

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As far as fan reaction was concerned, the most surprising thing about the death of the Force of July was that it DIDN'T happen in an issue written by Mike Barr. By 1989, when the Janus Directive cross-over event was published, Barr was still working with DC Comics -- so I'm not entirely sure how this one slipped through the cracks.

While I never read any real criticism or praise about the Force of July in the letter columns of Batman and the Outsiders' issues, quite a few readers did chime in after the death of the team. One reader wrote in to comment that they were thankfully to Ostrander "for ridding DC of more deadwood by having the Squad kick the tar of the Force of July. They were growing awfully lame."

Another reader, Charles D. Brown of Brentwood, NY, theorized that the creation of the Force of July was Mike Barr's "way of sticking it to right-wingers and to express his own opinion that 'government-approved' super-heroes will never be as good as the real thing because the very fact that they do work for the government doesn't allow them to have as much of a conscience and a free will as 'outside' heroes. And after seeing Force of July, Checkmate, Suicide Squad and all other tearing at each other over false tips, barely visible sources, or just because somebody with a security pass says so -- you know Barr was right."  He also added that Abraham Lincoln Carlyle won't be missed, and that Sparkler was pretty annoying. (What can we say, Charles? Every team needs it's 'Cousin Oliver/Danny Chase'.)

Every reader who wrote in had no problem with the Force of July getting killed off and even applauded it, but always concluded with "...but you could've at least kept [insert name here] alive. They had a really cool power and would've been great on the Suicide Squad."

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...and this concludes our article on the Force of July. Hopefully, you are now armed with new knowledge and know what's going on every time someone out there makes a 'Force of July' joke. (probably not very often)

Happy Fourth of July and God Bless America!

-Justin

We looked back at 1993's Outsiders v2 so you didn't have to...

One of the few perks of managing a blog that doesn't have any sponsors or corporate backers is that you can write about whatever strikes your fancy (within reason), as long as you can somehow tie it in with DC comics of the 1980s. Today's article will be examining a series I can't believe I missed the first time (since I'm a self-proclaimed Batman and the Outsiders fan), but was probably swept up in collecting whatever "hot" book Wizard Magazine was praising at the time. This is poaching a little further into 90s territory than this zine is normally accustomed to, so I apologize about that. [If you're into 90s comics, do check out The Unspoken Decade — a fantastic site that covers a wide range of 90s material.]

Outsiders v2 hit the comic book stands in late 1993. As it happens, 1993 was a tumultuous year in comics: Valiant comics was at a fever pitch, Image comics was in it's second year of publication and churning out massively hyped creator-owned titles, Malibu Comics decided to jump into the fray and launch it's Ultraverse line of books, and new comic book publishing companies [Topps, Bongo Comics, Triumphant Comics, etc] had popped up trying to snag a share of that comic collector's valuable dollar. Where was Marvel and DC comics in all of this? X-Men, Superman, and Batman were still dominating the market, but their *other* books may have been passed over for the 'flashier' competition... and that's one of the biggest challenges Outsiders v2 had to face.

Covers for Outsiders v2 #1 Alpha and Outsiders v2 #1 Omega (1993)

A glut of comic books being released wasn't the only thing happening in 1993 — we were starting to see the rise of gimmick covers and extreme revamps of classic characters/teams to keep collectors interested. The former, I'm assuming, was to have a fighting chance of getting spotted on an overly-crowded comic book rack, and the latter was to keep up with Image Comic's 'extreme everything' that seemed to be all the rage among collectors (and Wizard Magazine).

Back then, at a glance, I wouldn't have recognized half of the characters on the cover(s) of issue(s) #1, and probably just dismissed it as an 'extreme revamp' of a classic DC team for a new audience. The cover art (pencilled by Travis Charest) was very... Image-esque and not something ordinarily seen on a DC cover. Having two #1 issues was a bit of a trip, too. Unlike Jim Lee's X-Men #1 (1991), which had five different variant covers, Outsiders v2 had two different #1 issues (Alpha and Omega) which told the same story from two different points of view (and sported a different cover depending on which characters were featured in the issue). I can see the appeal of having two #1 issues for collectors to collect, but it may have been confusing to anyone who didn't realize each issue contained a different story. I can't remember these being released with foil-embossed covers or anything (the copies I'm holding in my hands are pretty standard fare), but both covers joined to form a diptych to complete the whole team roster — so I guess this was the gimmick in and of itself.

Outsiders v2 roster - art by Paul Pelletier and Robert Campanella

Buyer Beware: the art on the inside of the book does NOT match with what's on the cover of the #1 issues. Paul Pelletier pencilled the first 19 issues (plus the 'zero issue') of this ongoing series and Robert Campanella inked over Pelletier's pencils. Prior to his work on Outsiders v2, Pelletier was know for his lengthy run as penciller on Malibu's Ex-Mutants and a few issues of Marvel's Incredible Hulk. Campanella had previously inked Suicide Squad, Wanderers, and Wonder Woman. Together, the duo brought a look that was quite reminiscent of Erik Larsen's work on the tail end of Outsiders v1 - a look that was somewhat cartoony (e.g. exaggerated jaw lines, overly expressive facial features), but still worked with the mood of the book. Readers were claiming that Pelletier's work was very reminiscent of a young Alan Davis' work (which, honestly, I just didn't see).

The NEW Outsiders v2 roster consists of Halo, Looker, Katana, Geo-Force and three NEW characters who debuted in issue #1. Halo, Looker, Katana and Geo-Force were all co-created by Mike W Barr in the original series. [You probably didn't recognize Looker on the cover of issue #1 because her eyes weren't glowing blue. I know I didn't.] Faust (a sorcerer), Technocrat (a man with a cybernetic suit of armor)and Wylde (a human/bear hybrid) were created by Barr and Pelletier for this series. Why weren't Metamorpho and Black Lightning included in this line-up? When this ongoing series was debuting, Metamorpho was finishing up his own mini-series and was still an active player in Justice League International v2, meanwhile Black Lightning was mysteriously absent from the DCU at the time. My best guess is that Tony Isabella (the creator of Black Lightning) was still disputing with DC over the rights to the character*. Metamorpho was originally created by Bob Haney and Ramona Fradon. Maybe the big take-away here is that Barr likes to write characters he had a hand in creating?

Outsiders v2 #3 - introducing Faust, Technocrat and Wylde in the letters page

I enjoy Mike W Barr's writing, and his work on 1983's Batman and the Outsiders cemented my life-long adoration for the team. Outsiders v2 is a different kind of book (editor Kevin Dooley is quick to point out that it's 'Outsiders' and not 'The Outsiders'), and seems to be written differently than what we've previously seen in BATO. Interpret this any way you want, but this feels like an early 90s book. By the early 90s, it felt like everything had been done: Superman had died and returned to life, Batman had been crippled and replaced, Hal Jordan had gone crazy and turned against the Green Lantern Corps, Aquaman's hand was replaced with a hook, and there really wasn't much that could surprise a DC reader anymore. Sales now seemed to rely on how much you could shock/entertain the reader and keep them coming back for more - this seemed true to form with the Outsiders v2 ongoing series (hint: a long-standing Outsider is killed in the first issue). In the letter column for issue #5, editor Kevin Dooley warns readers "Now, the team is back with some old faces and some new. And some of you older fans may be a little upset with the plans we've got for the team. Don't expect things to remain the same. We're going to try the unexpected, the unrestrained, the unprecedented, and perhaps attain the unspeakable." and this series delivers on his promises. (Dooley picked up as editor for the series at issue #5 after Bill Kaplan left to edit a few Image titles.) 

The Outsiders I grew up reading - art by Paul Pelletier and Robert Campanella

So, where's the 80s connection I was alluding to in my opening paragraph? Well, this ongoing series picks up after the events of The Outsiders v1 #28 (1988) in which Halo ends up in a coma and Looker is de-powered. This new series opens with Halo being revived from her coma and Looker gaining her powers again — it's like nothing had changed since we last left the team! (Except for the newly resurrected Metamorpho who is now a member of Justice League International, the unexplained absence of Black Lightning and Windfall, and there's a continuity snafu in which a fully-powered Looker assists Batman in defeating the Mudpack in Detective Comics #604 - #607 (1989), but let's overlook that for now).

There are currently no Outsiders v2 reprint collected versions, so, unless you were lucky enough to obtain the single issues at a flea market as I have, you're going to have a hard time finding these issues. Keep reading if you want to hear SPOILERS.

Here's an extremely brief synopsis of the series: the previous Outsiders (sans Black Lightning, Metamorpho, Windfall and Atomic Knight) meet together for a ceremonial event in Markovia (small Eastern European country. think: Belgium) and, due to a series of events involving vampires, decide to band together. They pick up a few stragglers along the way (Faust, Technocrat and Wylde) and become a team. The vampire story arc is resolved by the end of issue #4, and the rest of the series consists of the Outsiders being on the lam while fighting to clear their name, or splitting into two teams with the intent of the "good" team trying to prevent the "bad" team from causing too much damage. As mentioned, this is a mid-90s book and the stories moved pretty fast to keep up with the attention span of readers. Sometimes it moved too fast and there wasn't enough emphasis on character development to really make you want to invest interest in these characters. 

You want action? The Outsiders will give you action! illustrated by Paul Pelletier and Sam De La Rosa

There's no shortage of action (i.e. huge fight scenes), nor guest stars in this series - appearances by The Eradicator, Checkmate, Jean Paul Valley as Batman, Superman (with mullet), Lady Shiva, and the New Titans (as well as references to other current titles such as Deathstroke v1 and The Flash v2) continued to remind you that this was a 'totally relevant' series being published in the 1990s. To the creative team's credit, a few 'classic' Outsiders-related villains appear in this series: the Masters of Disasters appear in an issue, and a Kobra splinter-group battle the Outsiders for an issue. Dooley affirms in the letter columns that they were trying to keep Outsiders v2 'fresh' and went to great pains not to keep rehashing the same ol' battles with the same ol' adversaries (in issue #14, he states that the appearance of the Masters of Disaster in issue #9 had caused sales of the series to drop after a long stretch of increased readership) — so we've got stories with the Outsiders battling Felix Faust, Eclipso, the Jihad (Suicide Squad villains, remember them?), and Darkseid's forces. Actually, the Outsiders battling the Jihad was one of the more memorable issues in this series.

The Outsiders battle the Jihad in Outsiders v2 #6 (1994). At least two Jihad members get killed off.

This series is easy to read and doesn't require great intellectual effort to follow. Most mail from readers were usually a mix of "where is Black Lightning/Metamorpho/Windfall/Atomic Knight? Please have them rejoin the team", "why did you kill of Looker? she was my favorite", "please add Creeper/Blue Devil/Blue Jay/Firehawk/[insert other obscure DC character here] to the Outsiders roster", and "why did you change Halo's outfit/hairdo? please change it back". If for no other reason than to give the readers what they want, the Outsiders do meet up with Metamorpho in an issue, Windfall does rejoin the team and Atomic Knight becomes a recurring character (so we may as well just go ahead and consider him as a member of the team). It is later revealed by issue #10 that Looker is not actually dead, but is now a vampire [more on that later].

The dramatic return of... vampiric Looker! Illustrated by Paul Pelletier and Robert Campanella 

Something notable about this ongoing series was that it gave the Eradicator considerable attention since his 'death' in Reign of the Supermen and resurrection in Action Comics #693 (1993). The Outsiders battle the Eradicator early in the series, and he becomes a team member several issues later (and would stay with the team until the end of the series). Barr's interpretation of the Eradicator is a 'take no prisoners' energy being who just wants to punish the guilty. One would assume that this would get tired very quickly, but I found the Eradicator to be one of the more interesting characters in the series — but this may be because he was one of my favorite 'false' Supermen from the Reign of story line. By the last issue of Outsiders v2, Eradicator had quickly been snatched up by Superboy, Supergirl, Alpha Centurion and Steel to embark on a new story arc that was more interesting than whatever the Outsiders were doing at the time.

The Eradicator: pre- and post- resurrection from 1993's Action Comics #693 

This series did NOT have the Comics Code Authority seal on the cover. This may have had something to do with the accumulated body count the Outsiders had racked up — Wylde, Katana and Eradicator had no qualms about killing opponents. (Vampires need to feed on blood to survive, hence Looker the vampire was killing opponents off panel and drinking their blood. This was the extreme 90s, what other reason do you need?). When asked why there was no CCA seal, Dooley explained in the letter column of issue #22 "It's a long, complicated decision process weighing paper stock choices, possible newsstand versus direct sales, adult content and basically it's something that was decided long before I got here."

Why was this series cancelled after 25 issues?

The short answer: sales. One of the perks of reviewing/researching a mid-90s book is that some comic book sales data is available online and can provide a bit more insight as to what was going on in the comic book market at the time. Sales for Outsiders v2 were never incredibly strong (they were passed over for an annual - twice) and I'm impressed the series lasted as long as it did. To quote Dooley again: "I am constantly surprised by diehard Outsiders fans. Their loyalty surely rivals that of supporters of LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES (or LOSHers), but they're more exclusive. They've followed the team through trials and trials until their eventual, shall we say, demise." . 

Based on the interactions Kevin Dooley was having with readers in the letter columns, it was a little difficult to determine who was the main driving force behind the stories — editor Dooley or writer Mike W. Barr? It seemed like the creative team was just throwing ideas at the wall to see what stuck. Dooley was eager for feedback from readers and was often asking how they felt about the new characters introduced, the direction the series was headed and how they felt about issue x, y and z. At the time, Dooley was also editor for Green Lantern v2 (particularly the Emerald Twilight storyline), Aquaman v5 (hand replaced with a hook) and Guy Gardner: Warrior (the two former titles experienced an explosion of popularity during Dooley's reign). Dooley was the right man for the job, and had a very definitive idea of how to revitalize a comic book series in order to keep it afloat in a competitive/aggressive comic book market. I'll admit, reading about Azbats battling the Outsiders was not a twist I saw coming and did fill me with nostalgic glee.

In my opinion, the series died because Outsiders v2 lacked a strong A-list character to bring in readers. A lot of 80s readers picked up Batman and the Outsiders v1 because it was initially Batman's team, and you could expect to find Batman in the book. There isn't very much that Batman can't sell. The Outsiders v1 (1985) realized this fifteen issues in and quickly re-added Batman to the team. The formula is pretty simple: attract readers with an A-list character, and, via strong character-driven storylines, get them acquainted with the rest of the team. As interesting as the Eradicator was, he wasn't high profile enough to make a new reader want to pick up the book. En masse, most of the characters were a little dull and we didn't get much of an opportunity to get to know them better — it's a little difficult for a writer to dive into too much characterization when a team consists of eight or more characters. 

Regular penciller Paul Pelletier left the book after issue #19 (to pencil Green Lantern v2 for Dooley, I'm assuming) and, after a single issue by guest penciller David Ammerman, Casey Jones pencilled the last few issues of the series. Jones' pencils combined with Chad Hunt's inks gave the series a grittier/rougher feel and, daresay, may have re-ignited interest in this series had this creative team started several issues sooner.

The Outsiders battling Darkseid and his minions - Outsiders v2 #22 (1995)

I've never read Outsiders v3 (2003) or Outsiders v4 (2007), so I honestly can't tell if you if it gets better than this. At a glance, the rosters for Outsiders v3 & v4 have none of the original team members, and seems to be more of a Teen Titans spin-off book. At least the Creeper finally got to join.

Lasting Legacy

Make no mistake, this is a 90s comic through-and-through. I don't think I've ever overhead anybody saying that this was their favorite incarnation of the Outsiders. In thirty years from now, when our children/nephews/nieces ask us what the early 90s were like for comic books, we'll throw these issues at them and say "here". Besides being a snapshot of what was going on in the early 90s, this ongoing series did introduce a few ideas that stuck...

1) Looker as a vampire:

Outsiders v2 gave Looker, nobody's favorite DC character, a vampire make-over that augmented her from being DC's version of the X-Men's Marvel Girl to a character worth paying attention to. I realize that's putting it a little harshly,... but while Looker was a key member of Outsiders v1 (and I can't imagine the 1980s Outsiders without her), she wasn't exactly selling books on her own merits. Vampires were a hot pop culture commodity in 1994: films like Bram Stroker's Dracula (1992), Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992) and Interview with the Vampire (1994) ensured vampires would remain on our collective conscious, while Marvel Comics published titles such as Morbius: The Living Vampire, Blade: The Vampire Hunter, Midnight Sons Unlimited and Nightstalkers to remind us that vampires were viable antagonists. [In 2016, the hot pop culture commodity is zombies, evidently.] Looker being turned into a vampire was one of the few 'events' from this series that actually stuck, and she is still a vampire 20 years later,      

cover of National Comics: Looker #1 (2012)

2) Faust:

Of the three new Outsiders created for this book, only Faust seemed to have had the staying power to still be remembered twenty years later. While most fan mail during the series was indecisive about how much they liked Technocrat and Wylde (often comparing the former to Marvel's Iron Man and the latter to a hybrid of Marvel's Hulk and Beast), it was apparent that readers were intrigued with the son of Felix Faust and found him to be one of the most interesting new characters featured in the series (and not just for his relationship with fellow teammate Halo). Once the series was concluded, Faust would become a member of DC's Sentinels of Magic in 1999's Infinite Crisis, while Wylde would never be seen again after issue #19 of the series he debuted in (turning even more bear-like after his appearance in Zero Hour didn't do anything to help his popularity with readers). Technocrat is still alive and kicking (as of this writing), as we last seen him making a brief appearance in Outsiders v4 (2009).

Faust had that cool 'generation x anti-hero' look that made him an instant hit with readers. Art by Casey Jones and Chad Hunt.

I'll be the first to admit that Faust had a bit more je ne sais quoi that led him to be a little more fondly remember than his other two teammates. I remember collecting the 1994 Skybox DC Master Series trading cards and kind of glazing over the Technocrat & Wylde trading card wondering who they were and if I cared enough to find out. A Faust trading card was also featured in the same set, and... well... you can tell me which one looks like a character you'd want to read about:

So where was Aparo during Outsiders v2?

Jim Aparo, illustrator of the original Batman and the Outsiders series (and later Outsiders v1), was busy illustrating Green Arrow v2 during Outsiders v2. Aparo did make the time to contribute a cover for the last issue of the series:

And that wraps up this review. Hope this article brought back some fond memories (or at least memories).

-Justin

*Tony Isabella has gone on the record to say "Only once in the past have I agreed to a use of Black Lightning that I didn’t write myself and that was Mike Barr's Batman and the Outsiders. I was okay with Mike writing my character and, when he told me about his series, I gave it my blessing. " (source: tonyisabella.blogspot.ca)