2018.021 Batman And The Outsiders Vol 2

This continues to be a fun read for me.  Sure, Mike Barr isn't my favorite writer.  He can be very hokey at times (a lot of the time), but he does tell a fun story.  This era of BATO was probably my favorite.  The characters were still new, Barr was trying to figure out what works with them and what doesn't.  We delve further into the new characters backstories.  It's all good stuff.  And if that's not enough, Jim Aparo hits home run after home run with his art.  I remember reading years ago that the thing he detested most was drawing team books.  You'd never know it looking at his art here.  It's just perfect.  And we get a look of the future of BATO with Alan Davis jumping in to draw some stuff.  

If you enjoy some of the cheesier aspects of the 80s, you'll love the pants off this book.

Batman And The Outsiders Vol. 2

Written by: Mike W. Barr

Illustrated by: Jim Aparo, Alan Davis, Jermoe K. Moore, Alex Saviuk, Jan Duursema, Rick Hoberg, Bill Willingham, Bill Anderson, Trevor Von Eeden, Ron Randall

DC Comics

018 Batman And The Outsiders Vol 1

This is a book I loved back in the day.  It wasn't my favorite, but I really did love this book.  I'm a sucker for team books.  This came out during the height of the popularity of The New Teen Titans, my favorite book of the 80s.  It used the formula that Titans used when it came out.  Take a handful of established characters, sprinkle in a couple new ones and voila, super-team.

The team formed by sheer luck.  Batman had just quit the JLA because the team vowed to stay out of Markovia during civil unrest.  Batman wasn't having it because Lucius Fox was in Markovia and was kidnapped.  So Batman recruited Black Lightning and the two of them went in to rescue Lucius.  Along the way, they met up with Metamorpho, Katana, Geo-Force and Halo.  Mission accomplished, they returned to America and formed their own superteam.

The writing in this book is just as cliched and subpar as I remembered, but the art by Jim Aparo is stunning.  Still to this day I look at it and oooh and ahhh at it.  As off as the writing is, it was still a really fun read and it brought me back to my youth in the 80s.  And as much as I gushed about the Showcase line of books a few posts ago, reading this in full color and reading this in the Showcase format are two totally different beasts.

That cover, too.  That cover is just beautiful to me.

Batman And The Outsiders Vol 1
Writer: Mike Barr
Artist: Jim Aparo, Bill Willingham, Steve Lightle, Pablo Marcos
DC Comics