Batman and the Outsiders #3 Review

Training Day

Writer: Bryan Hill
Artist: Dexter Soy
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: July 10, 2019

I am a Bryan Hill fan and really have liked this series so far.  How much have I liked it?  Well, enough to get blocked on Twitter by Tony Isabella for defending it!  Seriously, that guy hates the player, the game and just about everything else!  Oh well, I liked what we got in the first two issues of the series and am excited to pick up from the cool cliffhanger of the last issue.  So, how was this issue?  Let's find out...



The issue opens with Batman telling the Outsiders the what's what with Sofia.  We already saw Ra's Al Ghul trying to get his meat hooks into her at the end of the last issue and this just confirms it.  I don't mind a quick little recap to start an issue, but why isn't Batman doing more about it?  Like going and getting her?  I understand the team got their asses handed to them by Ismael, but a bonding exercise in the sewers is going to help get Sofia?  It's like a corporation going camping during a hostile takeover.

It really felt odd to me, but it seems like it is going on to give Ra's some time to get Sofia to come over to the Dark Side.  It felt odd that she would ever join up with the guy who murdered her father, but Hill twists it into an initiation scene that had some nice tension to it.  In fact, I wouldn't have been upset to get this for the entire issue.

While Sofia has some big choices to make, Hill runs the Signal through the ringer...with Karma.  Yea, ever since the baddie showed up in Hill's run in Detective Comics, Duke has been a one-trick pony of "not good enough" and while it's forced in again here, I'm hoping the outcome will finally put it all to bed.  Again though, it felt odd to let Sofia dangle in the wind just to get Duke's confidence up a bit.  I'm sure it will pay off in the next issue or two, but that's only because Hill has the keys to the car here.

There's really not much more going on this month.  Sofia kind of makes her choice, but since she didn't go the whole way, it feels like Hill is leaving the door wide open for her eventual redemption.  And then the whole thing ends with an offer that took place earlier (which felt a little odd) and was really just the set up to an eventual offer (which has been angering me every time).

This issue was just standard fare in the story department.  I liked the Ra's and Sofia parts, but Batman and the Outsiders feel like they are only here because their names are on the cover and while I fully understand why that is, I wish they had something better to do than playing games with Duke's heart.  Check my Backstreet Boys reference off my list this week!

Dexter Soy is pretty damn awesome and he continues to be here.  It is beyond me how anyone could throw shade at his art and I will fight them with the fervor of a Tony Isabella when he falsely believes he's been slighted. #Zinger

Bits and Pieces:

While I have enjoyed this series so far, this issue falls flat.  While watching Ra's Al Ghul work his evil magic on Sofia was really good, the parts with Batman and the Outsiders felt unnecessary and really slammed the brakes on the building tension.  I loved Dexter Soy's art as usual and while I think that Bryan Hill will get back on track quickly, I can't give this issue the high marks this series has been getting from me up to this point.

6.5/10