“The Place Between Pages”
Artist: Robert Carey
Color Artist: Valentina Taddeo
Letterer: Tom Napolitano
Review by James Attias
Outsiders #6 is the end of the book as we know it. Wait, no it’s not! Let’s not finish here…
Horton Hears a What?
This run’s been the drunk uncle of the non-linear storytelling model, jumping from episodic issue to what appears to be the main story thread issue. It’s starting to get difficult to follow, even for my nerd brain. We seemingly go back to the narrative, written in prose, (we assume this is being told by The Drummer, but who knows at this point).
The tale also seems to be narrated by a somewhat older and softer Lucius Fox. Either way, it appears that he and The Drummer, as well as the omnipotent ship they’re all living on, have figured out the shape of everything. That’s right, the shape of reality is… A snowflake.
Boomers must be laughing in their La-Z-y Boy chairs. That’s right, a snowflake. I’m sure there’s some scientific, genius-level reasoning for this creative choice, but I couldn’t stop thinking about The Grinch, and how the entire story takes place on a snowflake. Am I the fool… or are the writers fools for not doing a better job?
The End is The Beginning… is The End
Once this strange shape has been shown, we’re then pulled into a world that can only be compared to something from Doom Patrol… the place between the pages. That’s when our story gets really meta and things start to get very weird. I don’t want to give anything away because the shock value is almost the best bit.
Either way, the art was good, and consistent, which means more and more to me these days. A consistent artist on a title, really makes it easier to escape and believe what you’re reading. These are clearly the same characters we saw last issue, they haven’t changed due to a completely different style of line art.
Either way, I’ll be eating my own words next issue, if they change the creative team. Until then the art and a few somber moments were all this book had to offer this month.
Conclusion
Outsiders #6 is a very unusual meta-issue that aims to add to the bigger picture when in reality it made everything feel just a bit more confusing. Hopefully, we’ll get a more linear tale next time.
Images Courtesy of DC Entertainment