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Outsiders (2003)
Outsiders, Vol. 5: The Good Fight
The Outsiders have been thought dead for months. Then, deep undercover in the African country of Mali, trying to save innocent lives and stop a civil war, they are discovered.
With a new team consisting of members from teams past and one former super-villain, the team finds itself at odds with an entire nation, not to mention the super-hero community.
Also, the Outsiders try to thwart the Brotherhood of Evil's plot to sell metahumans to the underworld.
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 3, 2007
2 people are currently reading
89 people want to read
About the author
Judd Winick
786 books393 followersJudd Winick is an American cartoonist, comic book writer, screenwriter, and former reality television personality known for his diverse contributions to storytelling across multiple media. He first entered the public eye in 1994 as a cast member on The Real World: San Francisco, where he formed a close friendship with AIDS educator Pedro Zamora, an experience that deeply influenced his later work. Winick memorialized their bond in Pedro and Me, a critically acclaimed autobiographical graphic novel that earned several literary awards and became a staple in school curricula.
Winick's career in comics took off with The Adventures of Barry Ween, Boy Genius and continued with major runs at DC Comics, including Green Lantern, Green Arrow, and Batman. His stories often explored socially relevant themes, such as HIV, homophobia, and identity. He was recognized for introducing gay characters and tackling difficult subjects with empathy and clarity. His work on Batman notably included resurrecting the character Jason Todd as the Red Hood, a storyline later adapted into the animated film Batman: Under the Red Hood, for which Winick wrote the screenplay.
Beyond comics, he created The Life and Times of Juniper Lee for Cartoon Network and served as head writer for Hulu's The Awesomes. In 2015, he launched the Hilo series, an all-ages sci-fi adventure inspired by his own children. The bestselling series has been widely praised and is expected to reach its eleventh volume in 2025.
Winick lives in San Francisco with his wife, Pam Ling, also a Real World alum, and their two children. He continues to create heartfelt and imaginative stories for audiences of all ages.
Winick's career in comics took off with The Adventures of Barry Ween, Boy Genius and continued with major runs at DC Comics, including Green Lantern, Green Arrow, and Batman. His stories often explored socially relevant themes, such as HIV, homophobia, and identity. He was recognized for introducing gay characters and tackling difficult subjects with empathy and clarity. His work on Batman notably included resurrecting the character Jason Todd as the Red Hood, a storyline later adapted into the animated film Batman: Under the Red Hood, for which Winick wrote the screenplay.
Beyond comics, he created The Life and Times of Juniper Lee for Cartoon Network and served as head writer for Hulu's The Awesomes. In 2015, he launched the Hilo series, an all-ages sci-fi adventure inspired by his own children. The bestselling series has been widely praised and is expected to reach its eleventh volume in 2025.
Winick lives in San Francisco with his wife, Pam Ling, also a Real World alum, and their two children. He continues to create heartfelt and imaginative stories for audiences of all ages.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
June 27, 2018
This is a love story!
A love story between a big-assed French-accented gorilla and a smarty-pants evil brain in a cannister.
All the big quiche/crepe eating ape, M. Mallah, wants to do is somehow transfer the brain of The Brain into a suitable body, so they can commence the hug.
Okay. Okay! Don’t go apesh*t!
They’re actually working for the Brotherhood of Evil creating meta-humans to confound the Outsiders, but M. Mallah misappropriates DNA to build his dream clone dude but in real life someone would blow the whistle because Holy Moley this is so fraudulent.
Meta-human clone creation is the overarching plot thread that straddles multiple storylines as the Outsiders, presumed dead and faking it, except for Nightwing, take care of secret nasty business.
Superman confronts Nightwing about his methods, but Dick (Grayson), showing some balls, calls Supes bluff with the possibility of re-gifting Batman’s box-o-Kryptonite.
Reformed villain Captain Boomerang joins the team.
Crikey, it’s good to have this guy around, no?
Unfettered by DC’s mid-life CRISIS mega-storylines, Winik really shines as he’s able to take the reins and let the characters percolate with some deft writing and welcome humor.
Bottom line – This one is a huge step up from the last ponderous volume of the Outsiders. A fun read!
A love story between a big-assed French-accented gorilla and a smarty-pants evil brain in a cannister.
All the big quiche/crepe eating ape, M. Mallah, wants to do is somehow transfer the brain of The Brain into a suitable body, so they can commence the hug.
Okay. Okay! Don’t go apesh*t!
They’re actually working for the Brotherhood of Evil creating meta-humans to confound the Outsiders, but M. Mallah misappropriates DNA to build his dream clone dude but in real life someone would blow the whistle because Holy Moley this is so fraudulent.
Meta-human clone creation is the overarching plot thread that straddles multiple storylines as the Outsiders, presumed dead and faking it, except for Nightwing, take care of secret nasty business.
Superman confronts Nightwing about his methods, but Dick (Grayson), showing some balls, calls Supes bluff with the possibility of re-gifting Batman’s box-o-Kryptonite.
Reformed villain Captain Boomerang joins the team.
Crikey, it’s good to have this guy around, no?
Unfettered by DC’s mid-life CRISIS mega-storylines, Winik really shines as he’s able to take the reins and let the characters percolate with some deft writing and welcome humor.
Bottom line – This one is a huge step up from the last ponderous volume of the Outsiders. A fun read!
February 5, 2019
An impressive bounce back from the last crappy volume.
We now have ANOTHER new team. Well some of them are the same. After the events of Infinite Crisis one year has passed. The Outsiders are thought to be dead from the event. However, in hiding, they've been working to stop evil. The first arc is getting a more spy style fighting with Nightwing back as the team leader. This time taking matters into his own hands and being a bit darker than most are ready for. We also have a storyline after which revolves around A ape and his lover who is a big brain. Yeah people, things get freaky!
Good: The art is the same throughout and man is it a upgrade. The fights look great, the emotions come through on the page, and everything has a vibrant, darker, gritty feel to it. I never thought I'd say this but I like Nightwing being a little more hard edge in this, worked well. There's a great Superman scene here even. This team is a lot more fun than the last one, least in a way none get along that well but make for funny dialogue. I also thought the emotional moments and mystery to what happened worked well.
Bad: The villains. Well, the first arc was just a Flash-type villain. Or maybe even the real one? You'll have to read Checkmates to find out more! Also, the Ape and his lover...lame.
Overall, a nice jump back. Not as good as volume 3, but leaps and bounds better than volume 4. A 3.5-4 out of 5.
We now have ANOTHER new team. Well some of them are the same. After the events of Infinite Crisis one year has passed. The Outsiders are thought to be dead from the event. However, in hiding, they've been working to stop evil. The first arc is getting a more spy style fighting with Nightwing back as the team leader. This time taking matters into his own hands and being a bit darker than most are ready for. We also have a storyline after which revolves around A ape and his lover who is a big brain. Yeah people, things get freaky!
Good: The art is the same throughout and man is it a upgrade. The fights look great, the emotions come through on the page, and everything has a vibrant, darker, gritty feel to it. I never thought I'd say this but I like Nightwing being a little more hard edge in this, worked well. There's a great Superman scene here even. This team is a lot more fun than the last one, least in a way none get along that well but make for funny dialogue. I also thought the emotional moments and mystery to what happened worked well.
Bad: The villains. Well, the first arc was just a Flash-type villain. Or maybe even the real one? You'll have to read Checkmates to find out more! Also, the Ape and his lover...lame.
Overall, a nice jump back. Not as good as volume 3, but leaps and bounds better than volume 4. A 3.5-4 out of 5.
July 13, 2018
This was interesting.
A little closer to the series I loved before the last lackluster tie in issue. Crisis on Infinite Earths (I think that's what it's called) is yet another huge DC event I know virtually nothing about. In wiki-ing it, I found that it was an event that attempted to reboot and retcon some of the aspects of DC characters. Interestingly enough, it said Dick Grayson came out of it lighter. I don't really see that. It did something to Shift from the looks of things and this was either when Roy joined the Justice League or he's just not here because he's finding himself. I'm not sure.
Either way, I started out a little confused as to what was happening but I rolled with it. It wasn't that relevant to the story. We begin with Anissa undercover and I had some questions because she's a lot more yelly in this volume than ever before. It's a pretty dark storyline about child soilders and because African dictators were trying to murder hundreds of thousands of people, I'm completely understanding of Dick's extreme methods. There is a point where he threatens his hero, Superman, because Superman threatens to shut him down. The realization that he wasn't bluffing was pretty amazing.
The plot with the clones initially made me roll my eyes because Christ, how many times do I have to read this? But they got me interested when they talked about who was purchasing the clones, why and the story of the ape guy and his boyfriend (?) the brain was actually believable by the end? I know, I'm surprised, too.
I didn't like that Roy was replaced with Captain Boomerang. I've never been fond of any iteration of this character. Starfire is gone from the team here and I'm entirely sure why. I like Katana being here, though. I really liked seeing a rather sweet glimpse of Grace and Anissa's romance. Loved the "I take care of my girl" line. That's about all I enjoyed, to be honest.
The art wasn't my fave. I'm super picky about the way Dick is drawn and this just wasn't appealing.
So, I can't figure out if Winick was told "hey, you get about 15 issues to write whatever the hell you want" and he ran with that and made something amazing before giving up after three volumes. Or, if they said "make whatever the hell you want", he got super excited and thought he had a long time span and then the giant event attacked. I'm not sure but it sucks because it looks like what often plagues the Marvel series of today, plagued this series. Winick had something pretty damn spectacular going; one of the most intriguing, in depth, complex characterization filled series I've ever read and then it just stagnated.
It bums me out because this, like Gotham Central, will never be recreated. I'm shocked a series like this was ever allowed to get made. So, I'm mourning the loss of a wonderful series and awaiting the last volume. I'm bummed but I suppose I can always reread the best of this series.
A little closer to the series I loved before the last lackluster tie in issue. Crisis on Infinite Earths (I think that's what it's called) is yet another huge DC event I know virtually nothing about. In wiki-ing it, I found that it was an event that attempted to reboot and retcon some of the aspects of DC characters. Interestingly enough, it said Dick Grayson came out of it lighter. I don't really see that. It did something to Shift from the looks of things and this was either when Roy joined the Justice League or he's just not here because he's finding himself. I'm not sure.
Either way, I started out a little confused as to what was happening but I rolled with it. It wasn't that relevant to the story. We begin with Anissa undercover and I had some questions because she's a lot more yelly in this volume than ever before. It's a pretty dark storyline about child soilders and because African dictators were trying to murder hundreds of thousands of people, I'm completely understanding of Dick's extreme methods. There is a point where he threatens his hero, Superman, because Superman threatens to shut him down. The realization that he wasn't bluffing was pretty amazing.
The plot with the clones initially made me roll my eyes because Christ, how many times do I have to read this? But they got me interested when they talked about who was purchasing the clones, why and the story of the ape guy and his boyfriend (?) the brain was actually believable by the end? I know, I'm surprised, too.
I didn't like that Roy was replaced with Captain Boomerang. I've never been fond of any iteration of this character. Starfire is gone from the team here and I'm entirely sure why. I like Katana being here, though. I really liked seeing a rather sweet glimpse of Grace and Anissa's romance. Loved the "I take care of my girl" line. That's about all I enjoyed, to be honest.
The art wasn't my fave. I'm super picky about the way Dick is drawn and this just wasn't appealing.
So, I can't figure out if Winick was told "hey, you get about 15 issues to write whatever the hell you want" and he ran with that and made something amazing before giving up after three volumes. Or, if they said "make whatever the hell you want", he got super excited and thought he had a long time span and then the giant event attacked. I'm not sure but it sucks because it looks like what often plagues the Marvel series of today, plagued this series. Winick had something pretty damn spectacular going; one of the most intriguing, in depth, complex characterization filled series I've ever read and then it just stagnated.
It bums me out because this, like Gotham Central, will never be recreated. I'm shocked a series like this was ever allowed to get made. So, I'm mourning the loss of a wonderful series and awaiting the last volume. I'm bummed but I suppose I can always reread the best of this series.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 20, 2021
Outsiders: The Good Fight continues where the previous trade paperback left off collecting the next eight issues (Outsiders #34–41) of the 2003 on-going series and covers three storylines: "The Good Fight", "Silver and Gray", and "Mad Scientists".
"The Good Fight" is a three-issue storyline (Outsiders #34–36) has the Outsiders faking their own deaths and are operating in secret overseas. This version of the team includes Captain Boomerang, Grace Choi, Katana, Metamorpho, Nightwing, and Thunder. Thunder goes undercover in the government of Mali and gets close to Dictator Ratu Bennin. The team is forced to blow their cover when Thunder intervenes to stop child soldiers from massacring a small village.
"Silver and Grey" is a three-issue storyline (Outsiders #37–39) has the Outsiders figure out that it was the Brotherhood of Evil that are responsible that the Outsiders has faced with Dictator Ratu Bennin. The Brain and Monsieur Mallah are running a massive cloning operation while trying to build a new body for Brain. The Outsiders track Brain and Mallah to an abandoned nuclear facility in Russia, where the villains are expecting them. The Brotherhood releases a group of metahuman clones that are able to defeat the Outsiders.
"Mad Scientists" is a two-issue story (Outsiders #40–41) has the Outsiders discover that Brain and Mallah have been collecting DNA samples for years, while working with an unknown third party – Doctor Sivana, who has been controlling the Outsiders behind their backs – since the beginning. Apparently, the villains they've legitimately taken down have all been Sivana's competitors he wanted to get rid of – with his ultimate goal of world domination.
Judd Winick penned the entire trade paperback. For the most part, it is written moderately well. Winick completely reconfigures the Outsiders and their objective parameters. Instead of being a team of superheroes striving to eliminate the bigger threats among the super villain community, they're now a mixture of covert agents and paramilitary unit. They take on the tasks the superhuman community generally believe themselves unable to touch due to complex political considerations.
Matthew Clark (Outsiders #34–37, 40–41), Ron Randall (Outsiders #39–41), Tom Grindberg (Outsiders #37 and 39), and Pop Mhan (Outsiders #38) penciled the trade paperback. For the most part the pencilers complement each other rather well – with the exception of Mhan, who has a more individual style that clashes with the remainder. However, the layouts are good and the figures less so, angular and distorted.
All in all, Outsiders: The Good Fight is a mediocre continuation to what would hopefully be a wonderful series.
"The Good Fight" is a three-issue storyline (Outsiders #34–36) has the Outsiders faking their own deaths and are operating in secret overseas. This version of the team includes Captain Boomerang, Grace Choi, Katana, Metamorpho, Nightwing, and Thunder. Thunder goes undercover in the government of Mali and gets close to Dictator Ratu Bennin. The team is forced to blow their cover when Thunder intervenes to stop child soldiers from massacring a small village.
"Silver and Grey" is a three-issue storyline (Outsiders #37–39) has the Outsiders figure out that it was the Brotherhood of Evil that are responsible that the Outsiders has faced with Dictator Ratu Bennin. The Brain and Monsieur Mallah are running a massive cloning operation while trying to build a new body for Brain. The Outsiders track Brain and Mallah to an abandoned nuclear facility in Russia, where the villains are expecting them. The Brotherhood releases a group of metahuman clones that are able to defeat the Outsiders.
"Mad Scientists" is a two-issue story (Outsiders #40–41) has the Outsiders discover that Brain and Mallah have been collecting DNA samples for years, while working with an unknown third party – Doctor Sivana, who has been controlling the Outsiders behind their backs – since the beginning. Apparently, the villains they've legitimately taken down have all been Sivana's competitors he wanted to get rid of – with his ultimate goal of world domination.
Judd Winick penned the entire trade paperback. For the most part, it is written moderately well. Winick completely reconfigures the Outsiders and their objective parameters. Instead of being a team of superheroes striving to eliminate the bigger threats among the super villain community, they're now a mixture of covert agents and paramilitary unit. They take on the tasks the superhuman community generally believe themselves unable to touch due to complex political considerations.
Matthew Clark (Outsiders #34–37, 40–41), Ron Randall (Outsiders #39–41), Tom Grindberg (Outsiders #37 and 39), and Pop Mhan (Outsiders #38) penciled the trade paperback. For the most part the pencilers complement each other rather well – with the exception of Mhan, who has a more individual style that clashes with the remainder. However, the layouts are good and the figures less so, angular and distorted.
All in all, Outsiders: The Good Fight is a mediocre continuation to what would hopefully be a wonderful series.
September 1, 2014
Go figure. The 1 year jump ahead as a result of Infinite Crisis event actually seemed to help the Outsiders title. A little. It’s not the “holy shit!” upgrade I’ve been hoping for from Judd over the last couple of collections, but it’s something. The team has certainly changed a bit. The lineup isn’t exactly the same and that makes for some interesting new interactions between the crew. It’s good to see Nightwing back and Winick continues to make him the “Dark Knight” of the group. One tiff that Nightwing shares with an unexpected visitor had a very “Batman” vibe to it. Didn't know Grayson had it in him. Judd is finally doing a better job of selling his version of Nightwing to me. And, for the boys, there’s a little girl on girl action to keep things interesting. The trade also benefits from focusing on one storyline and isn’t a collection of a few shorter ones. It allows Winick time to tell a longer story and it doesn’t seem as rushed as some were in the past. Judd’s choice in villains was also pretty interesting. He takes a couple of the lamest baddies ever and sells them pretty well.
The story also gets an assist by having a consistent artist throughout. About fucking time. Inconsistencies in artwork have hurt this title from the beginning, and while I am not a huge fan of Matthew Clark, he does a good job here. Starting Winick’s final collection (Outsiders: Pay As You Go) today and here’s to hoping he’s been building towards a toe-curling climax that’s gonna leave me needing a cigarette.
The story also gets an assist by having a consistent artist throughout. About fucking time. Inconsistencies in artwork have hurt this title from the beginning, and while I am not a huge fan of Matthew Clark, he does a good job here. Starting Winick’s final collection (Outsiders: Pay As You Go) today and here’s to hoping he’s been building towards a toe-curling climax that’s gonna leave me needing a cigarette.
February 8, 2019
This volume was much better than the last. Have some questions about a lot of the in-between that we've missed over the year gap but hopefully that is answered soon. Hoping it will be time to finally confront Doctor Sivana as well.
Nightwing threatening Superman with kryptonite was ballsy as hell.
Thunder and Grace are great together. Thunder was badass in this volume all around. When she's undercover at the beginning. You know that was tough and she puts in the work.
Boomerang is a weird addition.
I need to know what happened with Shift.
Katana is badass and I love having her on the team. One point in the story she had me cracking up with just how direct she is.
This felt like the first couple of volumes. A strong team doing the work that needs to be done.
Nightwing threatening Superman with kryptonite was ballsy as hell.
Thunder and Grace are great together. Thunder was badass in this volume all around. When she's undercover at the beginning. You know that was tough and she puts in the work.
Boomerang is a weird addition.
I need to know what happened with Shift.
Katana is badass and I love having her on the team. One point in the story she had me cracking up with just how direct she is.
This felt like the first couple of volumes. A strong team doing the work that needs to be done.
March 5, 2025
Like a lot of One Year Later stories, this one is jarring. It jumps ahead without any warning or preamble and it can sometimes be hard to tell what is confusing on purpose, as they slowly fill in the gaps, and what is confusing just because it’s confusing. I still enjoy the character work, but I miss Arsenal and think some of the dynamic changes here lead to a less compelling team overall.
February 25, 2010
I would like to once again thank the DC writers for smoking crack so that I'll never have to. Of course Mallah and the Brain are in love and trying to make a body for the Brain so they can be together. I'm not sure if I feel horrified or gleeful about that characterization choice, but it definitely made this trade more interesting.
June 2, 2021
I think I’m done with this particular series. I’m just not feeling it at all. I’m not even crazy about most of these characters. I think the main reason I stuck around for as long as I did was because of Nightwing (my favorite comfort character), but I’m not too fond of the way he’s being written here. More Batman and less Nightwing, and that’s not who his character is. The story’s okay. It’s nothing great, but it’s not bad either. It’s just forgettable.
December 30, 2021
One Year Later comes to the Outsiders and its decent and sets up more storytelling, which is the goal. Here, we see the somewhat newly structured team battling real world issues while the world thinks they're dead after an unrevealed catastrophe. I'm intrigued. There were some very run of the mill super hero fights and the art was subpar but overall this was a decent book that has me interested in reading the next volume.
October 12, 2024
I read this series entirely for Dick and Roy so my enjoyment definitely went downhill
They even replaced Roy with a ginger with similar facial hair to just cause me unintentional disappointment...
Dick standing up (threatening?) to Superman was fun though.
They even replaced Roy with a ginger with similar facial hair to just cause me unintentional disappointment...
Dick standing up (threatening?) to Superman was fun though.
August 5, 2025
Meh
J'aime toujours autant Matthew Clark sur la série, mais On a l'impression que Winnick a été saoulé de devoir jouer avec les impératifs lié à la fin d'Infinity Crisis et One Year Later et qu'il essaye tant bien que mal de finir ce qu'il avait commencé depuis le début de son run.
On le sent forcer d'apporter des changements significatifs à l'équipe mais tout est un peu forcé.
Le remplacement de Shift, le retour de Nightwing, le départ forcé d'Arsenal - obligé avec son implication dans la série Justice League of America - le nouveau boomerang, le départ de membres (Jade, Starfire, etc) et j'en passe
Tout est posé là, sans trop savoir pourquoi et c'est vraiment dommage, car l'intrigue autour de Sivana et de son plan ainsi que de l'implication des Outsiders est très intéressante.
Dommage encore une fois que la créativité des scénaristes soient autant mise à mal par des events forcés.
J'aime toujours autant Matthew Clark sur la série, mais On a l'impression que Winnick a été saoulé de devoir jouer avec les impératifs lié à la fin d'Infinity Crisis et One Year Later et qu'il essaye tant bien que mal de finir ce qu'il avait commencé depuis le début de son run.
On le sent forcer d'apporter des changements significatifs à l'équipe mais tout est un peu forcé.
Le remplacement de Shift, le retour de Nightwing, le départ forcé d'Arsenal - obligé avec son implication dans la série Justice League of America - le nouveau boomerang, le départ de membres (Jade, Starfire, etc) et j'en passe
Tout est posé là, sans trop savoir pourquoi et c'est vraiment dommage, car l'intrigue autour de Sivana et de son plan ainsi que de l'implication des Outsiders est très intéressante.
Dommage encore une fois que la créativité des scénaristes soient autant mise à mal par des events forcés.
October 18, 2010
Clones with problems, villainy at its most sympathetic (a talking gorilla trying to manufacture a body for his soulmate, a talking brain encased in a metal box), with solid action-packed art pacing Winick's twisted story, a situation your average superhero would never think they would find themselves in, only the Outsiders could get out of. And what a great, ominous foreshadowing of an oldtimey bad guy sure to wreak havoc in the upcoming volume. A lotta fun.
December 22, 2016
This story arc begins One Year Later after the events of Infinite Crisis. The Outsiders are believed dead and begin a covert operation to avoid a civil war in the country of Mali. They stumble upon cloned metahumans which lead to a reunion with enemies they're all too familiar with. Heroes straddling the line of what's right and what needs to be done leads to great characterization. Some of Winick's strongest writing.
July 30, 2007
definitely not for kids, but still interesting.
Read
May 19, 2008One Year Later
December 5, 2025
It's the best of fights
Read
July 6, 2014I like them
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews