Eye-Catching. Explosive. Thrilling. Detailed
That’s Al Smith, a student from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, giving one-word responses to a dramatic scene in the first issue of Batman and the Outsiders.
The imagery from the first pages of Batman and The Outsiders were really eye catching. Not only were they aesthetically pleasing but they offered great artistic detail. Comics create limitless visual opportunities and vivid drawings push our imaginations in multiple directions.
You’re listening to Remarkable Receptions—a podcast about popular and critical responses to African American novels and more.
In May 2019, DC Comics released Batman and the Outsiders written by Bryan Hill, drawn by Dexter Soy, and colored by Veronica Gandini. The story concentrates on Black Lightning, Katana, Signal, and Orphan with periodic appearances from Batman.
Whenever we read and discuss the first issue of the comic book, students always mention a scene from the opening pages, where a woman character is thrown off of a highway overpass onto a truck filled with flammable gas, triggering a large explosion. The woman character, it turns out, has special powers, so the explosion doesn’t kill her.
That dramatic scene is quite memorable for reader-viewers. Here’s Terrance Wellmaker explaining why he is fascinated by the scene.
The amount of backstory for this character in such little time is the exact reason I love comics. The creativity it took to take a perilous situation and turn it into a moment of self-discovery in five pages launched my intrigue into the rest of the comic.
Here’s Jalen White talking about why he finds the scene so captivating.
The comic opens with a splash of artistic explosiveness, and it immediately places the reader in the dangerous world of superhero antics. Dexter Soy and Veronica Gandini fill up the pages with larger-than-life visuals, and instantly showcases their creative vision for a tense DC universe.
The writer, Bryan Hill is an experienced comic book writer who understands the importance of starting a first issue off with a bang. And talented artists like Dexter Soy and Veronica Gandini know how to optimize visual representations.
Here’s Terrance explaining why fictional representations of dramatic action matter so much to him when reading comics.
Representation of dramatic action matters greatly to me when reading comics because it offers an emotional link to the characters involved. When an artist and writer's creativity work in tandem it gives you more leverage to care about said character(s), and I think that's a necessity to keep the audience interested and the character and comic engaging.
Here’s Jalen:
It takes a certain type of imagination to make dramatic action interesting, and the world of fiction makes for a perfect playground for that imagination to run wild. Within the borders of a single page, so much tension, emotion, and anxiety is showcased, and readers like myself can’t help but stay engaged.
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This episode was written by Howard Rambsy. The episode was edited by Elizabeth Cali.
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This podcast, Remarkable Receptions, is part of the Black Literature Network, a joint project from African American literary studies at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and the History of Black Writing at the University of Kansas. The project was made possible by the generous support of the Mellon Foundation. For more information, visit blacklitnetwork.org.