A review by nickpalmieri
Outsiders, Vol. 4: Crisis Intervention by Jen Van Meter, Matthew Clark, Dietrich Smith, Judd Winick

3.0

The stories weren't bad, but they weren't too memorable. A major step down for the series, mainly because it had to tie into all of the series going on around Infinite Crisis. The first two issues were a fun little story that featured the return of Sabbac and the Fearsome Five, in spite of the fact that the central plot device relied on something from a different title (Day of Vengeance). Then we get the completely-out-of-place Firestorm issue, which isn't terrible but doesn't belong here. Then there's one more Winick Outsiders issue, which is good, if a little unfocused... and then Jen Van Meter takes on the final two issues, wrapping up what Winick started. The final three issues are one complete story with a few different elements, but none are particularly interesting and all are tied up with events in other series. There's a nice acknowledgment of the significance of a plot twist from volume 3, but there's no real elaboration on its significance. Van Meter is stuck in a fairly problematic situation here, and with the weak stories without the clever dialogue like Winick uses, it's not too interesting. The art splits based on the two story threads, one artist of which is great but the other of which is not very good. The stories in this book are solid enough, but they aren't quite at the level of previous Outsiders books.