Outsiders was a comic-book series published by DC Comics and written by Judd Winick. An update of the classic Batman and the Outsiders, it ran from 2003 to 2007, making it the longest-lasting iteration of the team to date.
Following the death of their friends Troia and Omen and the dissolution of the Titans, Arsenal and Nightwing decide to form a new team, one that won't be complicated by the bonds of family or friends. To this end, they recruit Thunder (daughter of Black Lightning), Metamorpho, Grace, Jade, and Indigo, and set to work dealing with the kind of threats that the Justice League doesn't notice.
Outsiders (2003) contains examples of:
- Amazonian Beauty: Grace Choi is a seven-foot tall muscular amazon. Her outfit is usually pants with a sleeveless crop top or a sports-bra-like top, both of which show off her muscular arms and abs. Despite the muscles, height and being somewhat of a butch, she's managed to rack up quite a few sexual partners.
- The Atoner: Indigo joined the team ostensibly to atone for her actions during the Graduation Day, specifically killing Troia and Omen. She was actually a new version of Brainiac.
- Back for the Dead: The old Shazam! foe Sabbac (who hadn't been seen in years) showed up just long enough for a Russian gangster to kill him and steal his powers.
- Baffled by Own Biology: In the first issue, Metamorpho appears at the team's new headquarters prematurely because of an "emergency", which he clarifies is because he has to pee.Nightwing: I wasn't aware you could do that.Metamorpho: Me either, hence the emergency.
- Batman Gambit: It's revealed by issue 40 that the reason why Deathstroke had been masquerading as Batman and feeding intel to the Outsiders was because the villains they were taking down had plans that were in conflict with the Secret Society. THEN it turns out this was actually a plan by Dr. Sivana who had joined the Society specifically in return to set up his own plan.
- Big Bad: The overarching villain of the 2003 series turns out to be Dr. Sivana, who's been orchestrating most of the series events from behind the scenes.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Indigo was a strange variation. She started off as a seemingly-homicidal robot, then got "reformed" into a cute Robot Girl, before finally being revealed as the latest incarnation of Brainiac.
- Butch Lesbian/Lipstick Lesbian: This very accurately describes Thunder and Grace's relationship, with Grace being the butch and Thunder, the lipstick.
- Clone Angst: The clone of Metamorpho created by Monsieur Mallah and the Brain is recruited first as an amnesiac Metamorpho. Later, he's faced by the original one and revealed to be a clone of him. He renames himself Shift and stays on with the team. Metamorpho wants to assimilate Shift back with himself, but eventually realizes that this part of him had made a life for itself. During this time, Shift finds himself soul-searching and trying to find meaning to his life.
- Clone Army: The "One Year Later" arc featured the team going on a mission to an African country in the middle of a civil war, where Monsieur Mallah and the Brain had gone into business selling clones of superheroes to the various belligerents.
- Clone Degeneration: The clone of Jay Garrick (the original Flash) created by The Brain, has to wear a suit that excretes a powerful anti-bacterial solution to keep his body from eating itself.
- Clones Are People, Too: Metamorpho's clone Shift tries to live his own life as a member of the Outsiders, with the original Metamorpho's blessing. But when his android girlfriend gets corrupted by pre-existing evil programming, betrays the team, and dies, Shift says he can't bear to live any more and begs Metamorpho to reabsorb him, which he reluctantly does.
- Coitus Uninterruptus: One issue had Starfire and Jade walking into Shift and Indigo having very strange sex in the Pequod. Indigo sensed them coming, but didn't want to spoil the mood.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: Chang Tzu tortured Captain Boomerang to force him to move at superspeed and let him get a reading (leaving him unable to stand) and started to vivisect the Black Queen (without, needless to say, anesthesia.)
- Consummate Liar: Two versions of this shows up. When trying to figure out which of the members is a traitor, Arsenal hooks them up to lie detectors. Nightwing points out that he's more than capable of beating a lie detector (to which Arsenal replies, "Not this one.") and alien member Starfire is completely immune. Arsenal uses his massive connections to procure an alien torture device that he modifies to work as a lie detector. Two other members of the team aren't even questioned because one is a robot and the other doesn't have a bloodstream. The robot turns out to be a Manchurian Agent whose "Indigo" personality was a mask; her true self is actually Brainiac version 5.0 from the future.
- Corporate-Sponsored Superhero: The team accepted sponsorship from a multimedia company called Optitron. The team has some doubts about the potential issues that could arise, but the funding is too good to pass up. Turns out they had good reason to be suspicious about the offer: they discover that Optitron is actually a shell company owned by Wayne Industries. Dick is pretty pissed that Bruce went behind his back like this.
- Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You: Dick Grayson called him out on this in one issue after discovering that Bruce has been secretly funding the team through a subsidiary of Wayne Industries.
- Depraved Bisexual: The brutal dictator of the African country the team infiltrates is revealed to be one of these when he forces Thunder (who's undercover as one of his military advisors) to sleep with him. Originally, she believed he was only into men, but one of the other advisors says that the dictator just has "specific" tastes that don't correspond to gender. She never sleeps with him, instead Shift masquerades as her and douses him with a hallucinogen.
- Death Seeker: The Brain is revealed to be one of these, having been driven nigh-suicidal by his existence as a disembodied brain. Worse, he cant really off himself anyway, and Mallah refuses to do it because he can't face life without his master.
- Driven to Suicide: Shift effectively kills himself by re-merging with Metamorpho after a botched prison break to rescue Black Lightning results in him accidentally killing 47 people at Iron Heights.
- Drowning My Sorrows: Shift indulges in this after being forced to kill Indigo. Despite claiming that alcohol doesn't affect his physiology, he manages to get pretty damn hammered.
- Everyone Has Lots of Sex: A frequent complaint about this incarnation of the series was that there was a lot of focus on the characters' sex lives.
- Evil Luddite: An interesting version. Dr. Sivana's grand plan, specifically named after Ned Ludd, turns out to be to destroy all technology on Earth with a device that will also wipe the memories of every intelligent being on the planet, leaving them all blank slates for him to mold and rebuild in his own image, and let him shape a new technological foundation.
- Extreme Mêlée Revenge: When Grace finally catches up to the man who kidnapped and trafficked her as a child, she beats him to a bloody pulp with her fists.
- Fan Disservice: When Sabbac gains control over the Seven Deadly Sins, he promptly unleashes Lust on the Fearsome Four, leading to the reader getting an eyeful of Shimmer and Psimon getting it on, and Mammoth and Jinx hooking up, along with the entire prison and staff of Alcatraz.
- Fate Worse than Death: Rather than taking the African dictator to the World Court or something, the Outsiders end up dumping him on a small, barren island hundreds of miles from anything. There's just enough resources to barely survive, but basically no shelter.
- Hotter and Sexier: The series was notable for having more sexual content than most DC series at the time.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: The opening panel of the
final issue depicts Grace (restrained by Rex and J'onn) angrily declaring to the reader that they've "killed the Outsiders!" ...only, as we switch perspective, it is revealed that she was actually yelling at Batman. - Material Mimicry: Shift was originally an accidental clone of Metamorpho, but eventually he underwent Divergent Character Evolution, gaining the ability to absorb and mimic almost any substance he touched.
- Modesty Bedsheet: In Issue #28, Starfire and Nightwing are laying post-coital in bed, and the bedsheet covering seems to be strategically placed as to cover their naughty bits but still showing as much bare skin as the artist could get away with.
- The Mole: Indigo is actually Brainiac 6, sent to infiltrate Earth by posing as a superhero.
- Pædo Hunt: One arc had the team join forces with John Walsh to hunt down a child trafficker who kidnapped Lian Harper.
- Rage Against the Mentor: Subverted. Dick is furious at Bruce for what he believes was an attempt to exert control over the new Outsiders by providing them funding through a subsidiary of Wayne Industries and secretly providing Arsenal with intel. Bruce explains that he really was just trying to help the new team by funding them — they needed money, and he has money. Bruce just didn't want Dick to feel like he owed him anything. Dick calms down but says it was still wrong of Bruce to pass on intel to Arsenal without telling him. Bruce responds by telling Dick that he hasn't spoken to Arsenal for over a year. Dick immediately calls Arsenal to warn him, only to find out that Arsenal is currently meeting with "Batman". Whoops, I mean Deathstroke.
- Really Gets Around: Grace is fairly open about her sexuality, and ends up in relationships with both Arsenal and Thunder.
- Remember the New Guy?: Thunder was created for this series, but is treated as though she has always been around.
- Rogues Gallery: They end up encountering the old Teen Titans villains the Fearsome Five (later Four) several times.
- Scenery Censor: This scene
◊ involving Shift and Indigo. - Statuesque Stunner: Grace. She stands at an imposing height of approximately seven feet tall.
- Summon Bigger Fish: Katana releases Sabbac from her sword, in return for him destroying Sivana's lab
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Nightwing takes some time to warm up to Indigo, as she was responsible for the death of his friend Donna Troy.
- This Is No Time for Knitting: Devils are boiling out of a gate, Thunder swears, and her father, Black Lightning, rebukes her. She wonders that he worries about her language then, and he says that fighting demons is exactly when you don't want to offend Heaven.
- Very Special Episode: The Outsiders once team up with John Walsh (yes, that John Walsh) to go after a child trafficker who has kidnapped Lian Harper.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Nightwing was pissed to discover that his team, which was supposed to be free of Batman's influence, was being sponsored by a subsidiary of Wayne Enterprises.
- You Are in Command Now: At one point, seeing the team was going to nowhere because of Nightwing (who wasn't in the team enough to command it) and Arsenal (severely injured and unable to replace Nightwing), Jade takes the leadership of the group. That is, until she goes to fight in the Rann-Thanagar War and dies in the middle of the war.
