Outsiders: Five of a Kind #1 Nightwing/Boomerang

One-sentence summary: This just seemed like a poorly plotted story with decent writing.

Honestly, the writing behind this seemed decently thought out and certain points were made very well. If the rest of the story hadn't stunk, I think it would've been a pretty eloquent way to illustrate the relationship between Nightwing and Boomerang. However, it lost me from the get-go. The entire idea of sending two more or less normal people, in comparison to most the supehero world, off to fight a gigantic sentient batch of radioactive, deadly acid is so ridiculous that, even in comic book form, it comes off as unlikely. That's a challenge.

The art was varied in this, although was never really bad. I'm generally not as much an art guy as some folks (I've got the select few I really like, but mostly I don't notice) so I won't comment on art that neither impresses me nor horrifies me.

I want the new Outsiders to be good, I do. This was a sort of blah start to things, but hopefully things will pick up in the next few weeks with this title, but we'll see.

Robin #164

One-sentence summary: An interesting lead into what looks to be a rather large-scale story for Robin.

It seems a fair number of folks really dislike the book Robin; while I don't share that, I can see where they're coming from. And I can see why they might dislike this upcoming story, with the collection of pretty horrible villains (Tapeworm?) trying to go Bart Allen all over Robin. Somehow, though, I want to see it. I don't have a great explanation why -- maybe I just have a penchant for heroes facing long odds, particularly when those odds include a pair of villains named Micro and Macro. It's just so comic book-y, something young in me loves it. And maybe that's what we should realize with Robin -- is this a book being picked up by folks wanting to see the '80s era giant dick-Batman come back, or is it being picked up by tweens who are going a couple steps farther after watching the Teen Titans cartoon? If it's the latter, then not only does this book make sense, but it succeeds wonderfully. It's not a PG book, don't get me wrong -- Dodge took off, moderately graphically, a guy's hand in this issue. But maybe it has that sense of fun, that art style that just occasionally borders on the cartoonish/animeish, that opens it up to that audience without being a separate brand of comic from those on the shelf around it.

I'll keep reading Robin. I'll look forward to the next issue, not because I really am worried about what will happen (I'll assume Robin will win), but because I'm wanting to see it happen. I want to see how it happens, because I bet it will be fun.