Readers who have been playing close attention to DC's solicitations over the last few months will know that Outsiders by Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly, and Robert Carey has been teasing a big character death and an issue that will change the course of the series as it enters the back half of its 12 issue run. Well, Outsiders #7 publishes today and the moment has finally arrived...
It turns out that the body on the cover of the issue belongs to neither Batwoman Kate Kane or Lucius Fox as I had previously speculated - I'm clearly terrible at predicting this comic. Instead, the death in question is that of a character who hasn't really been active in comics for quite some time anyway. A cheat? Perhaps, but an interesting and entertaining one that makes sense given the book's connection to an earlier strand of DC lore. Let's get into it...
Spoilers ahead for Outsiders #7
The issue opens by finally following through on what Outsiders has been teasing for the last half-year: a full-on Planetary reunion.
Well, kind of. This is, in fact, an extended flashback to the final day of the classic Planetary line-up. The gang's all here: Ambrose Chase, the Drummer, team founder Elijah Snow, and Jakita Wagner who is receiving a promotion. Snow is retiring and she is stepping up into the role of Fourth Man, a position she graciously accepts with "zero snark whatsoever" - but then the world goes and ends. Typical.
Seemingly the only survivor, Wagner finds herself tumbling through realities - zipped past by the Flash at one point, perhaps implying that he may have been accidentally responsible for the destruction of Wagner's world - only to find herself in Metropolis and surrounded by superheroes. She understandably panics, fleeing with only the Drummer's sticks for company. After a while, however, she settles into a new life in the DC universe, even settling down with a partner. This peaceful semi-retirement doesn't last long, however...
At night Jakita dreams of rows of shelves containing files and folders marked 52, Convergence, Rebirth and the like... Yes, she appears to be dreaming of the DC offices. Finding herself adrift once more, she also encounters another multiversal traveller - Duke Thomas. In the mainstream DC universe he's known as The Signal, but this version of Duke, from the Dark Multiverse, goes by a different name: the Final Knight.
Duke points Jakita to an uncomfortable truth, one that Lucius Fox perhaps also became aware of last issue: all of their lives are fictions being observed by entities from another dimension (ie. you and me). Because of that, their realities will forever be at risk from the threat of being destroyed, rebooted, or otherwise revised. Hey, that's just the nature of superhero comics.
Crucially, though, Thomas also helps her to understand that while her universe is gone for now, like all stories, it may come back one day. As with all those other now obsolete DC projects - the New 52, Rebirth, etc - the Wildstorm universe is still out there, if only on bookshelves and in comic long boxes.
Transported back to the mainstream DC universe, Jakita sets out on a new path. She restyles herself as Drummer, leading to last issue's twist reveal and joins the new Outsiders team as part of a long-term plan to one day restore her reality. As she explains to the rest of the team, back in the present, "I took the name of the man who always knew the beat. I summon the attitude of the man who taught me to see secrets in everything. And I try to embody the heroism of the one who died to defend it all."
The cover, then, is mourning the death of Planetary's Elijah Snow, lost when that reality ended. It's not so much a cheat, as a bit of sleight of hand (especially given that Batman is on the cover but only appears as a background character in a total of two panels this issue). Still, we'll give it a pass this time as this is a fun and intriguing issue that finally gives us some proper answers to what's been going on for the last half-year. The big question now then, with only five issues to go, is: what's next? And will this strange series have wider implications for the DC universe as a whole as it heads towards its own next phase.
Outsiders #7 is out now from DC.
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