Batman and the Outsiders #3: Teamwork Makes the Dream Work.

While markedly better than the first two issues in many ways, the team actually being the focus rather than just there while stuff happens….issue #3 isn’t anything to write home about. Duke coming to terms with his near death experience and self doubts has potential towards humanizing and creating great character development in the future but as is it’s a tad too soon to tell.

Sofia is “forced” to confront her father’s killer in some mind games prompted by The Demon in his bid to rebuild his empire. By showing us her willingness to kill Ishmael when push comes to shove it’s supposed to be the “Darth Plagueis” moment that makes the reader debate on whether she’ll fall to the “dark side” or not. It’s arguably the most interesting part of the comic, but also underwhelming. This isn’t someone we’d have any reason to believe would struggle with this decision nor is it the sort of moral quandary that inspires debate. Sofia is basically just some Joe Schmoe given powers and then her life is flipped upside down. The guy who murdered his family is at the end of a blade, and let’s be real, most people wouldn’t struggle with that situation despite knowing murder isn’t a good thing. I think the issue is that the reader has no real attachment to Sofia, there’s no weight behind her dilemma here aside from “killing is wrong”. Not knocking it as a valid argument because murder is always wrong, but without investment into her as a character…where’s the sense of drama or urgency here? It’s not a bad story development more so as one that feels paper thin.

Last issue she was suicidal, first issue she was ready to bust some heads when attacked. Sofia just feels very inconsistent and it takes away the weight of what we’re being given. It may also be an issue of pacing, because instead of hunting for Sofia as it was made a matter of urgency in the last issue and protecting her being a major concern in both previous issues, Batman and the gang have the Bat family version of a company picnic complete with trust falls instead. Not that I don’t get why they do, but it just doesn’t make any sense to deter the mission to have a “mental health day”, Batman doesn’t do that. If he can’t fix it on the fly he’d just bench whoever it is and carry on with the mission. It also raises more questions about why this particular group is the tactical team Batman needs to get things done when…they aren’t getting anything done. It just feels like too many things are happening at once while nothing is actually happening at the same time.

However, I will reiterate as I have regarding previous issues of this book, there are small moments that show promise. It is simply a hug between Signal and Orphan followed by reassurance from their leader Black Lightning. So I don’t wanna completely hammer on this book like it’s Ultimatum bad, because it isn’t, but there’s not a ton here to keep new readers on the hook and not much for older readers already familiar with these characters to be hyped about in future issues.