Outsiders is a DC Comics series written by Colin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing, and drawn by Robert Carey. It is part of the Dawn of DC initiative. Other than having two bat-themed characters, it is unrelated to The Outsiders.
In the wake of The Gotham War, Kate Kane, the Batwoman and Luke Fox, the Batwing become disillusioned with vigilante work and decide to become archaeologists instead, exploring their universe and unearthing secrets. They are joined in this endeavor by Drummer, an elderly woman who talks to machines with drumsticks.
Outsiders contains examples of:
- Alliance of Alternates: In a way. Why not an alliance per se, in issue #3, Luke Fox infiltrates a gathering of alternate versions of Batmen in the "Batman's collective unconscious". Batwoman also meets her alternate counterparts, including a fishwoman version that can only speak in glubs, while still being intelligible to the others.
- Artistic License – Military: In Issue #2, it would be highly unusual, if not impossible, for a group of service academy students to be sent to observe a highly sensitive mission as the one Kate went on. Even allowing for that, it's not explained why Army cadets were observing a Naval operation instead of midshipmen.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: In Issue #5, Drummer makes a deal with a demon. He provides her with information that she wants, and in exchange she's to commit a murder for him. He neglects to specify who the victim must be, and thus she just murders him and is on her way.
- Broad Strokes:
- #2 gives a brief rundown of the history of the Challengers of the Unknown up to the current New Challengers. Following post-Dark Crisis "everything is canon" policy, this includes the original team, the 90s DC Weirdoverse version, and the New 52 reality show version. The fact the New 52 Challs were alternate selves of the previous incarnations is glossed over.
- #5 calls back to Nocturna's appearance in Batwoman (Rebirth). But while that story used the Actually Not a Vampire version of Nocturna (although she played up her similarity to one to prey on Kate's love of horror movies), this version definitely is.
- The Bus Came Back: Issue #3 sees the return of the Final Knight, an alternate version of Duke Thomas introduced in Tales from the Dark Multiverse four years prior.
- Canon Character All Along: Drummer is revealed in issue #6 to not be a variation of The Drummer, but Jakita Wagner looking for her old team.
- Comic-Book Limbo: A mishap with Carrier gets the entire team sucked into the literal Limbo for characters of old and canceled DC Comics. Drummer wanted to get their all along because she's really Jakita Wagner looking for her missing teammates. They live out suburban bliss as ordinary people.
- Desperately Seeking A Purpose In Life: In the wake of the Gotham War, Kate Kane has given up on being a vigilante, but doesn't know what else to do with her life before Luke Fox recruits her for his new team.
- Fisher King: Issue #4 is about a new Century Baby, and latest incarnation of a Jenny, named Jenny Crisis whose emotional well-being is connected to the state of the world. She feels chronic anxiety from the tension around the globe, and when she succumbs to it disasters happen. Conversely, when she feels good, prosperity occurs. When she gains control over her powers, she can channel and redirect any negative emotions from wherever it gathers towards places that can cope with it better.
- For Great Justice: In issue #3, the chairman of the assembled Batmen welcomes every version of the character into their "gathering of shadows and justice." The word "justice" is even emphasized by nearby echoes.
- Good Is Not Nice: In the second issue, the team finds themselves facing off against the Challengers of the Unknown, who are just trying to prevent a war with Atlantis by preventing a non-state entity like the Outsiders from violating Atlantean territory, but they are really aggressive about it. They're also presented as primarily seeing mysterious phenomena as something to punch, while the Outsiders want to understand them.
- Humanity Ensues: Carrier gets sucked in with the rest of the team into Comic-Book Limbo in issue #6 and becomes incarnated as a young woman. She's freaking out because she's both in the midst of a literal meltdown and will soon explode and she's never had a human body that feels the stress of a metaphorical breakdown before. Kate manages to talk her through it.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
- Issue #3 is a meta-commentary on Batman's Wolverine Publicity as it applies to his legacy in the wake of Dark Nights. The Duke Thomas that shows up is from the Dark Multiverse story where the heroes utterly failed to stop Barbatos and were all turned into monsters that destroyed the world, lead by Barbatos corrupted Batman. Duke concludes that Batman is a narrative contagion, sucking up everyone else's lives into his crusade and corrupting them to seek "justice" in a way that gratifies Bruce's self-aggrandizement of his trauma. He vows to destroy Batman's legacy by any means necessary to save the multiverse from his infection.
- Issue #6 involves going to the literal Comic-Book Limbo where it's discussed by the residents that one can tell if their book was concluded or canceled if the last thing one remembers before arriving is a hopeful open ending or a Cliffhanger.
- Musical Assassin: In issue #3, the adult Duke Thomas, in literal dark knight getup, wields the Parallaxe, a guitar embedded with lantern ring ingots that's also a massive axe.
- Protagonist-Centered Morality: Explored in the second issue, where the Monster of the Week is the orphaned offspring of one of those sea monsters that Aquaman regularly slaughters to protect his kingdom.
- Pun:
- In issue #3, the Joker/Batman fusion, called "The Smiling Bat", announces to his Metaverse counterparts they have a fox in the "bat-house". It is Luke Fox.
- In #4, when Jenny Crisis questions why superheroes act like they're the moral authority, Drummer agrees "And The Authority can get █████ ."
- Refusal of the Call: By multiple characters. Every member of the team declines being conventional superheroes, Kate feeling like the conflict is meaningless and Drummer repeatedly mocking the spandex crowd. Jenny Crisis also declines joining the team and elects to operate solo, incidentally dismissing the actions her predecessors had taken by mocking the idea that superheroes act like an Authority.
- Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: In #4, when Drummer tells Jenny Crisis the history of the Jennies, she says the previous incarnation was Jenny Sparks, Spirit of the 20th Century, but adds "We even had a Jenny Quantum once ... but not any more, I guess." This suggests that one of the several Cosmic Retcons since Stormwatch (2011) saw Crisis replace Quantum as Spirit of the 21st Century, but Drummer still remembers both versions.
- Sapient Ship: In the first issue, the newly-formed team discovers the Carrier, former ship of The Authority, which is threatening to blow itself up out of despair after losing its crew.
- Spell My Name with a "The": Inverted, when referred to as "the Drummer", Drummer says "Definite articles are for spandex fetishists and megalomaniacs".
- Stealth Sequel: It starts out looking like a Bat-book, if an unusual one, and over the course of the first issue quietly establishes itself to be "Planetary in the DCU". Gets more explicit when Drummer reveals she's Jakita Wagner and outright says that the team is in a sequel to her story.
- Superheroes Wear Tights: Played with; while recruiting Kate, Luke promises her that he's not going to make her wear a costume, but she does still end up wearing her batsuit. Luke himself still retains his Batwing armor in case he needs it.
- The Unchosen One: In issue #3, the various Batmen tell Luke he'll never be Batman as he doesn't use the symbol as a way of life like Bruce does.
- You Can't Fight Fate: In issue #3, it's all spelled out for Kate that, despite not wanting to play vigilante at the moment, she is tangled in the shadow of the Bat.
