The Outsiders #1

“Nuclear Fear, Part 1: Beginning with a Bang!” and “Statue of Limitations” - November 1985

I honestly don’t know where to start with this review except to say that this comic is bat shit insane. True, the main story is plenty weird and features the Batman-less Outsiders defending a nuclear power station from The Nuclear Family, a family of robots, including mom, dad, little boy, little girl, and dog, wearing white jumpsuits and sporting nonsensical nuclear powers. And while that’s all super weird, the weirdest part of the issue comes with the last page, a single page gag strip starring Halo. You see, the Dahli Lama or a Buddha or something has moved to California and has told his own personal Mr. Drysdale to carve him a bunch of Halo statues. The banker or real estate agent or whoever he is invites a duly impressed Halo over to the house to check them out. While there, the Dahli Lama arrives and asks what’s up with the statues. You see, he doesn’t want a bunch of Halo statues; he wants a lot of the little machines that you talk into and say, “Hallo? ‘Stat Chu?’” Or, translated for the my non-racist readers, “Hello? Is that you?” Following the God awful punch line, Halo and the banker literally tip over onto the floor with a thud. I’m not quite sure which surprises me more, that Mike W. Barr got DC to publish this sub-Archie gag, that he got Jim Aparo to draw it, or that I honestly can’t wait to see what he pulls in issue two.