Star Trek and Batman & The Outsiders

 

Is Halo appearing anywhere these days? I've always thought that she was criminally underused.  One reason might be her convoluted backstory.  Hopefully DC will realize her potential one of these days.

Halo and Thor

 

Halo's costume makes her look right at home on the rainbow bridge.  That was enough to suggest a story to me, as I always enjoy using this criminally underrated DC heroine.

X-Factor Vs. The Outsiders

 

This is the First time that The Outsiders have met X-Factor, but as the X-Men, these groups have a bit of history on the blog - The Outsiders first tried to tame The Phoenix in STF #3454 and first met her in STF #112, and the one hero able to withstand The Phoenix Force was revealed in STF #2526... The X-Men came to The Outsiders assistance in STF #2595... and both teams had an adventure at The Statue of Liberty in STF #2675...

Tintin and Batman and the Outsiders

 

Batman has been called the World's Greatest Detective and Tintin can never pass up a good story, so it wouldn't surprise me to see the young reporter get involved with The Outsiders, especially when there's a mystery to solve.  Tintin previously met Batman in STF #752, and first encountered him way back on a B&B cover from 2010...

Batman and the Outsiders and Captain Marvel

 Presenting Part One of a Three-Part Epic!  It looks as though Mar-Vell intends to take one of the team far past the boundaries of Gotham - but who will he choose?  Make sure you come back tomorrow for Part Two of this saga to find out!

Ms. Marvel and Halo

 

In a move that surprised many, Marvel has killed off Kamala Khan in the comics.  At first I wondered why because despite the fact that her comics have never been huge sellers, the character is about to make her big screen debut in The Marvels.  My hunch is that like most comic book deaths, this one will be reversed rather soon and the reintroduced Kamala will no longer be an Inhuman but a mutant, to more closely tie her to the MCU version.

Batman & The Outsiders and Ghost Rider in: "Cult of Vengeance!"

 

Howard Mackie and Javier Saltares' relaunch of Ghost Rider in the 90's really made an impression on me.  I remember being disappointed that the series would not revolve around Johnny Blaze, but the Danny Ketch Ghost Rider design was so cool it was hard to resist.  I especially liked the new look for the motorcycle, with its flaming wheels.  Plus, Johnny joined the series soon enough!

Halo and Spider-Girl

 

I got a kick out of Spider-Girl. Generally I think there are too many offshoots and variants of existing characters, but her story was set in one possible future so it worked for me and did not dilute the concept.  I haven't seen much of her lately though, perhaps she has been set aside to make way for more Spider-Gwen stories.  I am kind of hoping to see her in one of the Spider-Verse animated movie sequels, but I haven't seen or heard anything to indicate that there are plans for that.

The Avengers and Batman & The Outsiders

 

Sure, JLA/Avengers was a dream come true and X-Men Vs. The New Teen Titans was great, but I wish Marvel and DC could have found a way for these two teams to meet.  Especially if that meant that we could have had Jim Aparo on art chores depicting Earth's Mightiest Heroes.  I've only seen a couple of Marvel hero sketches by him and I always hoped to see more of his interpretations.

Batman and the Outsiders Vs. Mephisto

 

The Batman has finally been released, and I was thoroughly entertained by it.  (No Spoilers in this review) It's probably the most like a Batman comic of any live action adaptation so far.  Batman is finally a proper detective and the movie is very much a film noir.  The cast was uniformly excellent.  Zoe Kravitz and Colin Farrell are easily my favorite live action versions of Selina Kyle and The Penguin, I look forward to seeing more of both in the movies and on streaming shows.  I wanted more of both Alfred and Commissioner Gordon, but they were also excellently realized, especially in their interactions with Bruce Wayne/Batman.  Paul Dano was very effective as The Riddler, even if the character was a few steps too far away from his comic book counterpart for my taste.  Robert Pattinson himself made for a great Batman, though his Bruce Wayne was missing the bored socialite act - but that is an element that can be explored in future installments, he's still perfecting his dual roles at this point. The fight choreography was very well done, you could actually see what was happening. Gotham looked fantastic and felt like a real place and the score was moody and thrilling.  The Nirvana song worked, but we'll see how much it dates the movie like Prince's contributions to Batman '89 as the years pass.  I didn't mind the 3 hour run time, though that may change with repeated viewings.  I absolutely loved that we got a little bit of Batman voice over narration just like in the comics, and hope we get even more the next time around.  The costume looked better onscreen than I had been expecting, and I look forward to seeing what upgrades he gets the next time around.  I still miss the white eyes, but I don't know if we will ever get them with this ultra grounded version of the character.  In fact, that's my only real quibble with the movie - it is so gritty and down to Earth, that I don't know how any of Batman's more fantastical foes like Man-Bat or Clayface could ever fit in here - let alone connecting it to a larger DCU with Superman and the Justice League and so forth.  Matt Reeves has expressed interest in using Mr. Freeze, though, so maybe this world will broaden its comic book horizons going forward.  Cant wait for it to hit HBO Max in 5 weeks so I can watch it again!

X-Men and The Outsiders in "The Taming of the Phoenix!"

 

These groups have a bit of history on the blog - The Outsiders first met The Phoenix in STF #112, and the one hero able to withstand The Phoenix Force was revealed in STF #2526... The X-Men came to The Outsiders assistance in STF #2595... and both teams had an adventure at The Statue of Liberty in STF #2675...

Power Pack and Halo

 

Thank you to Justin, a Patron of this blog, for suggesting I pair Halo and Julie Power together due to their similar powers.  There's definitely story potential there!  I've always liked Jim Aparo's design for Halo's outfit, it's quite unique.  I parted ways with my original Batman and the Outsiders art page featuring Halo, but I still have one page of Aparo art in my collection:

Batman & The Outsiders and Iceman

 

I was not surprised when Iceman was one of the first X-Men to get his own mini-series.  While he may not have been as flashy a character as Nightcrawler or Wolverine, and not even a member of the "All-New" X-Men, he still had gained fans from his appearances on Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends.  Plus, during the winter months, it was easy for kids to roleplay as him while horsing around in the snow. It was a weird series though!

Crystal and Halo

 

These are two very underutilized characters, in my opinion.  They are both pretty powerful and have interesting back stories.  There have been very few solo stories featuring them, usually they are in a team setting.  I think that there's plenty that can be done with both by featuring them in some solo adventures and allowing them to really shine.  With the way comics companies are streamlining these days, who knows if that will ever happen.

Ant-Man and Batman and the Outsiders

There had been talk for a while about M.O.D.O.K. getting an animated series on Hulu, but lately I have been hearing that he may actually be making an appearance in the live action MCU - possibly in the third Ant-Man movie.  It would be great if they can find a way to pull off such a crazy looking character.  They found a way to make Arnim Zola work, so anything's possible, I guess!

Batman and The Outsiders Vs. The Masters of Evil

I've heard talk of bringing The Thunderbolts to the MCU, which I am all in favor of.  To properly feature that team though, they really should introduce The Masters of Evil first.  With no new Avengers movie yet on the horizon, I'm not sure where they would show up.  I hope a place is found, because I loved that gathering of foes, especially in the classic Under Siege arc.

Halo and Dazzler

Josh Brolin's Thanos was very cool, but he still isn't my favorite MCU villain.  That title goes to Cate Blanchett as Hela.  She was so much fun to watch and Blanchett chewed the scenery in all the right ways.  Her various looks throughout Thor: Ragnarok were all spot on, very faithful to the source material and quite impressive on the big screen.  I wouldn't mind seeing Hela make a return appearance.

Storm and Halo

I still remember when Alan Davis took over the art chores on Batman and the Outsiders.  At first I was not happy to see my favorite artist, Jim Aparo, be replaced, but I soon began to really appreciate Davis' unique style.  When he went over to Marvel to work on the X-Titles, he really began to blow up in popularity, and deservedly so.  My favorite works by him are the two JLA: The Nail mini-series, just spectacular work there.

Batman & The Outsiders and The Phoenix in: "Corruption Interrupted!"

I guess one positive thing about the new Dark Phoenix movie looking more like X-Men: The Last Stand than the comics that the classic story is based upon is that it doesn't completely close the door on a proper retelling by Marvel Studios at some point down the road.  Sure it would be the third cinematic version, but if they follow the comics it won't be anything like audiences have seen before.

The Outsiders first tangled with The Phoenix in STF #112...

Halo and Nova

I may be in the minority on this one, but I have always thought that Halo's costume was very cool.  I love the asymmetrical design of it and it looks good from many different angles - even if it might be a pain to illustrate for some.  Most of all, it's just unique!  Other artists have tried to update Jim Aparo's original look for the character, but nothing has worked as well for me as the original.