DC Comics has been on fire lately. The publisher has been able to wrest control of the sales charts from Marvel Comics, overtaking the House of Ideas as the topselling purveyor of superhero comics. All of this started with 2023’s “Dawn of DC”, when the publisher fixed, for lack of a better word, several of their major heroes, building up the Superman line of books, and spreading the Black Label love to other characters instead of just Batman, then began to rebuild the rest of their universe during the next publishing initiative, 2024’s “DC All-In”, introducing the world to the Absolute line and reminding readers why DC has the best B-list in comics.
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One place where “DC All-In” has been especially good is with team books. Justice League Unlimited brought back the greatest DC team, Titans got a new creative team and eventually became New Titans, and JSA dropped to some acclaim. These three were just the beginning, as 2026 saw Legion of Superheroes, Doom Patrol, and Teen Titans all return to comic shelves. DC is rebuilding their universe and lately readers have been seeing some very interesting teasers. They star Batman and the Justice League at odds and are drawn by the incomparable Bruno Redondo, teasing a new book from him and current DC architect Joshua Williamson. Looking at the direction that DC has been taking over the years, I think I know what’s being teased next – the return of Batman and the Outsiders.
DC Is Bringing Back Batman’s First Superteam – the Outsiders
Over the last few weeks, DC has been putting out these teasers, with fans speculating on what they meant. Now, some things were obvious – it was going to be a project from Joshua Williamson and Bruno Redondo, it was going to be Batman focused, and there was going to be some connection with the Justice League, which would lead to a fight of some kind of a separation. Since then, there have been various rumblings about the book and what it’s going to be, but I think it’s going go in a very particular direction – the return of the Outsiders.
So, for those of you who aren’t as up on their ’80s DC lore as others – and let’s be honest: we should all know more ’80s DC lore, they’re great comics – the Outsiders first appeared in 1983 in Batman and the Outsiders #1. Lucius Fox was kidnapped by Markovian terrorists and when Batman asked the Justice League for help; they refused because it could cause a diplomatic incident. This spurred the Caped Crusader to create his own team, bringing together Metamorpho, Black Lightning, Katana, Geo-Force, and Halo to rescue Fox.
The Outsiders would serve as Batman’s personal superteam for a few years, with fans falling in love with Black Lightning and Katana (and to a lesser extent Geo-Force, although he would always be overshadowed by his sister Terra). Batman would eventually leave the group and the team would be joined by Looker, fighting threats throughout the DC Multiverse before fading away. A new version of the team would be brought together by Nightwing in the ’00s, formed from remnants of Titans, Black Lightning’s daughter, a Metamorpho clone named Shift, Grace the Amazon, and a mysterious cyborg named Indigo. This version of the team found some success, but Batman was added to it and it sank like a stone.
Recent years have seen Batman use the Bat-Family as his own personal superteam, leading to the Outsiders becoming somewhat passe. There’s really no need for them in his life, or at least there wasn’t until recently. DC K.O. brought a major change to the Justice League. After the battle against Darkseid, the heroes and villains were given visions of the future, ones that revealed the God of Evil’s next attack. Everyone decided that the best thing to do was to present a united front and villains have been brought into the Justice League.
At first, Batman was at the forefront of this, but that changed as time went on. He’s been working closely with Lex Luthor, trying to watch the villain, and this has led to no small amount of distrust between them. Batman is pretty much done with the League’s amnesty for supervillains at this point. In Justice League Unlimited, he’s dealing with what he thinks is Lex Luthor doing evil stuff, but really isn’t. This whole thing is about to go sour and Batman might believe that it’s time to bring back his old team, because he can’t trust anyone else.
The Outsiders could be his ultimate failsafe. Most of the original members of the team are still around, respected veteran heroes who would jump if Batman asked them to. Someone like Grace, the Amazon brawler from the ’00s team, could be brought back and Arsenal could polish off the Red Arrow costume. The best way to sell this team to readers is with the biggest creative team possible and who better than Williamson and Redondo?
DC has been bringing back every old school part of their universe. Just look at the DC Multiverse right now – it looks like the pre-Crisis one, with all of the great old school teams and characters coming back into vogue. Even ’80s refugee Firestorm is back and better than ever. DC is turning back the clock in the best possible way and the next thing they need is the Outsiders. It’s the perfect addition to the DC Universe, and if that’s what is going to happen here, Williamson and Redondo are the perfect team for it.
The Return of the Outsiders Could Show How Serious DC Is About Rebuilding Their Legend
As far as it goes, the Outsiders don’t have the fandom that teams like the Legion of Superheroes, the Teen Titans, and the Doom Patrol have. Their time was the early to mid ’80s, when DC was in flux. The multiverse was about to end and something new was about to born and the Outsiders fit perfectly into the DC Universe of the time. They came back to prominence in the DC renaissance of the ’00s but faded away as that era did, the New 52 overwriting it. Since then, DC tried to make the team into Planetary and failed.
However, DC also tried to do a Teen Titans comic a few years ago and it failed. Same with the Doom Patrol (although Unstoppable Doom Patrol is excellent); came back but didn’t get big enough. The Oustiders have a recent failure, but DC is on fire right now. If these teases go where I think they’re going to go, DC is going to use the best creative team they can to bring back one of their most underrated teams.
What do you think about these teases? Come back to comment section after NYCC and tell me how wrong I was in the comments below.
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