Following the previous solo issue, Outsiders returns to check in on Drummer, Fox, and his super-heroic son. While Kate fought against her destiny among undead cowboys, the rest of the Outsiders head to the jungle seeking theirs. Inevitably, the gang unearth another cosmic mystery, but this time they have a difficult choice ahead of them. Let's take a look!

The Lost City Of Canon

Lanzing and Kelly aptly subtitle this story "Outsiders in the cities of order and chaos." Incidentally, it features the key agents of order and chaos clashing in a bid to control an ancient weapon. More specifically, Klarion and Dr. Fate fight over the very literal big-freaking-gun of The Lost City of Cannon. Of course, the cannon is a massive metaphor for the concept of "canon." As alluded to in the adventure in issue #7, the multiverse is in a state of ever changing chaos around the main DC Universe. According to both lords, the gun has the ability to destroy every other universe or solely just the DCU. In other words, whatever the cannon chooses not to destroy becomes "canonized." Which is extremely metatextual.

Additionally, Outsiders continues to utilize Jakita Wagner's ugly journal as a narrative framing device. In it, Drummer virtually admits to using her prior experiences with other timelines to guide her to where the gun "always is." On the other hand, writing about a gun that has never existed as having always been canon is diabolically meta. On the subject of canon, Drummer explains that the advanced region of Opak-Re colony belongs to her ancestor Lord Blackstock. In fact, Jakita harbors unexpected self-hatred of her own blood and skin tone as a result. Otherwise, Drummer fully expects to use the gun's destructive powers for her own frustratingly mysterious purposes.

Story Is Life But They Speak In Riddles

Meanwhile, Luke Fox reaffirms his commitment to the Outsiders by taking stronger leadership of the group. Despite Jakita lying to the team, Lucius and Luke reluctantly agree that the existence of objects like the cannon prove the team's necessity. That said, The Last Knight's meta concerns of living in Batman's moral shadow are still living in his and the writer's heads rent free. In response, Luke doesn't hesitate to challenge both lords and choose independence. He even evokes the famous John Lewis quote about necessitating "good trouble." Which for all intents and purposes in this story, boils down to "whoever has the biggest gun wins." Or in a nutshell, somehow refusing to fire the biggest Chekov's gun known to man equates to victory.

In many ways, the weird outweighs the cool. For one, it is incredibly cool to see how imposing Teekl or Carrier can look in action. Comparatively, the native Weapons Of Order fashion themselves in colorful fusions of Japanese samurai armor and ridiculous Euro tracksuits. Yet, because Drummer describes the rules of the DC Universe as "narrative," supposedly, the foundational needs of the universe excuse the lack of context. Which is just an in universe hand wave to anything weird they come up with. Still, they have a mid-fight conversation that amounts to useless platitudes about how "heroes in the story never give up," then he immediately gives up. Moreover, the stylized lore dump comparing the DCU to the Kali-Yuga cycle on the ancient tablet gave me a migraine.

Recommended If...

• You've been reading Planetary/Outsiders monthly.
• You're into metatextual content.
• Wildstorm references like Opak-Re or it's big ass gun excite you.

Overall

Overall, this was a fun but esoteric issue. Did it need a subtitle on the cover? No, but at this point it does feel like the writing team needed a symbolic refresh. Yes, Robert Carey's art varies in quality, but there are some genuinely cool panels when the poses aren't so stiff or the lines so squiggly. I particularly enjoyed the random Scooby-Doo-like montage of the Outsiders dungeon crawling. In terms of narrative, the heavy lean on meta commentary can feel a bit much. In spite of that, Outsiders tends to warm things over with humor that still works. While the end of the story and return to the status quo felt undercooked, this new direction seems fairly mixed-positive for now.

Score: 6.5/10

DISCLAIMER: DC Comics provided Batman News with a copy of this comic for the purpose of this review.