Brain And Mallah Sitting In A Tree

Outsiders (Volume 3) #37
Written by Judd Winick
Art by Matthew Clark and Art Thibert
Cover by Daniel Acuña

Does it bother anybody else when a comic book cover shows none of the actual stars of the book? In my opinion, each and every cover of this series should have the Outsiders on it. Yes, the brain and mallah are in this issue but are they the Outsiders, no! End of Rant. So the man who looked like Jay Garrick last issue is actually Jay's clone, this ties into the whole cloning thing going on in Teen Titans right now and of course the Outsiders have a run in with Brain and Mallah. I like how DC is portraying Mallah and Brain as lovers, it's strange, but it does make them a lot more interesting. This was a decent issue but there was problems. Both Alan Scott and Nightwing seem out of character. Alan a little less, but he seems to be kind of a jerk here, maybe checkmate and his daughter's death has hardened him in the last year. I also wonder why the Outsiders wouldn't show him more sympathy considering Jade was a former teammate of theirs. Nightwing seems rougher than usual, he is more willing to cross the line. I guess that you can chalk this up to both the characters changing in the missing year. So I will let this go. I liked the way the whole Mali storyline ended. Them putting the evil dictator on the island and telling the new ruler to keep the peace or else, that was kickass and fulfills what the Outsiders is really about. No holds barred crimefighting. I know a lot of people, myself included, would love to have the power to put politicians in there place and the Outsiders do just that. It made me smile. I also wonder why Nightwing would not be more surprised when Superman shows up, considering Superman has been missing for a year! But I do think it is completely in character for Dick to have kryptonite with him. Still don't like the art but oh well.