At the time team titles were what I wanted to read so I was excited to have another title with new and old heroes. Having Jim Aparo on art was a huge plus. I loved this book and really liked the cross over with New Teen Titans.

Batman and the Outsiders was a "must-read" title when it made its debut; the idea of Batman no longer seeing eye-to-eye with the handcuffed lack of response / methods of the JLA was the next, logical step in DC team comics--a needed breath of fresh air almost as consistently interesting as The New Teen Titans. Mike W. Barr (one of the best Star Trek comic book writers) and Aparo were a magnetic combination making the title so much fun in its early run.

Never missing an opportunity to capitalize on success, the crossover (BATO #5 / TNTT #37) felt natural, with the anticipated tension between Robin & Batman worth every panel. Their conflict was spot-on, and would be revisited in the near future, but Robin asserting himself as a leader to his former mentor--and in front of everyone--was a strong sequence.

I liked it when it came out.  I haven't read it since then so I have no idea how it would hold up...though I know the art is still amazing.  

Pre-Crisis just once? I'm wrong?

I read the first issue and crossover with the Titans; but, that was it. I wasn't especially interested in many of the characters; but, timing of it was more of an issue. I was in high school when it came out and had tapered off on a lot of comics and didn't really pickup again until the summer of 1985. I missed enough of it that I never really gave it a second look. I only dabbled in Bat books, in the 80s, other than the obvious standouts, like Dark Knight, Year One & Two, etc. I had discovered the indies and read more and more of that, as time went by, though I tried a lot of the new material that came out from 1986 onward, depending on what it was. Stillm ostly drifted in and out of Bats, depending on the story. Just didn't interest me as much, on a monthly basis. I was picking up more earlier reprint material, like Shadow of the Bat (reprinting the Englehart/Rogers stuff) and the Saga of Ra's al Ghul (reprinting the O'Neil/Adams/Novick stuff). Most of the rest of the time, I was filling in gaps from the 60s and 70s, with Batman, Detective, Batman Family and Brave and the Bold. Legends of the Dark Knight was my first regular Bat book in quite a while, other than brief runs of 5 or 6 issues, at a time. then it was batman Adventures. I read a lot of minis & one shots, like Gotham by Gaslight, because they weren't the same old thing and not as stuck in a cycle.

I liked it, and read it up until Batman quit.

The first two years were really good, up until the end of the storyline about who Halo really was, then it seemed to dip a little in quality, but was still an entertaining read. But after the end of the Kobra storyline (around issue 27 or 28), I started losing interest and may have dropped the book soon even if Batman had stayed in the group. I have to wonder about that - Mike W. Barr had to have been happy that the Outsiders got a Direct Market book on the nice paper, but I wonder if his enthusiasm was dampened a little by Batman being yanked out of the book and sent back to the Justice League to try to bolster sales on that title (this was during the JL Detroit era).

Jim Aparo's art suffered a bit* from having to go to a monthly schedule, but his work was still heeds and shoulders above most other artists in comics.

The early issues got a little melodramatic, but that seems to be a hallmark of books edited by Len Wein. Still good stories though.

As Hoosier X noted, the Katana story was a highlight of the series. One detail I got a kick out of was


I was sad that Brave & Bold got canceled, but this was a good replacement. If I recall right, DC had a contract with a South American publishing company to ship them four Batman-themed comics per month (Batman, Detective Comics, and I believe World's Finest). So Batman & The Outsiders was created specifically to fill a gap in the publishing schedule of another country on another continent. Sometimes coldly corporate decisions work out well.


* If you're an art fan and you ever have a chance to pick up this book or this other book, I highly recommend it. The books are in black and white, showing off just how good an artist Aparo was and giving most of the stories an appropriate noir** feel. Volume 2 is roughly half Aparo art, and Volume 3 is all Aparo except for maybe a couple stories.

** Except for the story with Batman on skis. Batman on skis is awesome, but it's not noir.