As a fan of Mike W.Barr and Jim Aparo's Batman and the Outsiders, I am glad to see Katana finally getting some increased exposure with her self-titled series, membership in the JLA, and appearances on the Beware the Batman CGI series. Now it's time for DC to take another look at her teammate, Halo. Here is a great character that they have all but ignored for decades. She has it all, a unique look, power set and back story. Best of all, she is a truly original creation, and not just a female version of an already existing male hero. It's beyond me why DC decides to keep her on the shelf and out of the comic pages. If nothing else, she should show up in the pages of Katana, those two always had an interesting relationship.
Batman and The Outsiders was a GREAT team! Black Lightning and Metamorpho with Geo-Force, Katanna and Halo. I think I bailed right before Looker joined the team. It's a shame that so many cool new characters sit in limbo. The only thing that could have made BATO better was adding The Creeper to the line-up.
ReplyDeleteWeren't Halo's powers kinda like Jubilee's?
Wow, the Creeper would have made an awesome addition to that original outsiders team. I started reading Outsiders with the mondo (sp?) paper issue of Outsiders #1 and quit when Batman rejoined the team. That brief run on the book was really awesome. It had Barr and Aparo and some back-up features by top artists, Gray Marrow and Brian Bolland's features pop to mind as does the annual with art by Kevin Nowlan and a guest issue by Jan Jan Duursema that featured Katana and these little fairy creatures in Japan. Awesome stuff!!
ReplyDeleteYes, my all time favorite super team was BATO, and I stayed a loyal fan until the writing jumped the shark with Batman rejoined the team, and they began adding weird heroes to the group like Atomic Knight?!?! I guess Mike Barr (bless his heart) just ran out of gas, but I believe to this day Mike W. Barr, in his prime, was the BEST writer on the DC staff, and the funniest, if you ever bothered to read the Letters to the Editor page. Halo, I truly believe this, was the LAST original superhero in the DC Universe, like Ross said, with a multilayered origin story that required six issues. I really want her to be retconned and rebooted in the New 52.
ReplyDeleteI don't even think Halo and Katana KNOW each other in the New 52. What a shame. For what its worth, I think Looker was a rather interesting & original creation too!
ReplyDeleteI was a big fan of the original BATO. I'm a longtine Metamorpho and Black Lightning fan, and liked Halo and Geo-Force from the start (though both of them made rather unfortunate costume changes later on). It took a long time for Katana to grow on me, as I've never liked superheroes who kill, but my opinion gradually mellowed along with her personality. I quit the book soon after Looker joined and Batman left. It was never the same after that.
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ReplyDelete@AirDave and @Jeff Moore: You're right, the Creeper would have fit right into the team. In the Elseworlds story, "The Nail," Shade the Changing Man (the original Steve Ditko version) was also a member, and I thought that was a great idea, too. I've always thought Ditko's Shade would make a terrific SF TV series.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with Halo, and a large part of why I think DC doesn't want her to be revived, is that, due to her 'amnesia' and her youth, she is generally perceived to be a serious version of the Inferior 5's Dumb Bunny - very strong but too stupid to be effective. She had seven distinct super-powers (one for each color of the spectrum, not unlike the Lanterns of the New 52) and could be in a top power class if used effectively, but you don't outclass Batman in one of his own titles, so her weakness was her mind. And too many DC folk remember THAT above all the rest.
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