When last we left our brave heroes, they were in a quandary over the prospect of parasitic space aliens in Gotham City. Self-sacrifice is paramount to Batman's cause and these seemingly incompatible creatures actually provide him one moment of epic heroism. Personal preferences dictate that Gotham City will always have the capability to bring out Batman's unsurpassed characteristics and the presence of the city throughout this tale enhances the fundamentals of BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS. A leap into the unknown and a daring assault on one of these creatures bestows murky/beautiful artwork. The physicality allowed to Batman undercuts the super-natural aspects, while refusing to deny them their existence. When you deal with Batman, you deal with him on his own terms.

The mixture of the Gothic, the fantastic and the elements of detection make this a rare case of Batman being bolstered by his proximity to his fellow team-mates. I have stated this previously but with each new issue, I have been waiting for some misstep; something that would drive these characters back to the contemptible land of Superman/Batman robots rocketing into space to save the world. Yet, with each new issue, I continue to be impressed with the ability of the artists and writers working on BATO to bring out each character's best points, while providing a cohesion that makes these heroes act like a real team.

The B-Movie Sci-Fi feel of Batman and the Outsiders has been something that I have enjoyed about this title since Issue 7's wonderful inter-galactic melodrama. Issue 10 manages to meld overt references to alien parasitic life-forms while highlighting and enhancing Batman's mortal nature. This is not an easy thing to do. Keeping in mind how critical my first impressions of BATO were, I feel it would be remiss of me not to state that I now find this series to be a superior and more deftly handled example of how a multi-character title should be executed than either CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS or its sequel INFINITE CRISIS.

There is an especially B-Movie feel to the first page.

Batman and the “OUTSIDERS” in…

“MONSTERS”

Later on we have a nice reference to the 50s Sci-Fi mindset of this story-line when Looker's mind-meld with the hapless victim of alien influence provokes visions of an abandoned theater projection room with "canisters…old film stock", with one panel depicting a poster for an old movie called "THE GIANT".

The closing pages depict some kind of transmission of consciousness from Dr. Salah Miandad to Remac; another aspect to this issue which has a B-Movie flavor to it.

Next issue ties in directly with the “BATMAN, R.I.P.” arc; the last line asking the question:

"THE END OF BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS?"

Let's hope not. I'm enjoying it too much.