First Issue Special - The Outsiders!

Comic books have long been a haven for misfits and unusual people -- both in the content and the audience and the producers. Many a comic book reader of my generation latched onto the medium because it was colorful and exciting and filled up with characters who had trouble fitting into their landscapes as much as the readers might've done. Comics like The Uncanny X-Men and Doom Patrol made a theme out of the heroes being "freaks" compared to the regular society, despite their sometimes handsome appearances. Characters like The Thing were downright icons of the man dubbed "monster" by those who were more or less commonplace. 

In 1932 Tod Browning made a movie about such misfits called simply Freaks. This legendary movie was sensation because it used real people who were either afflicted or gifted (depending on your attitude) with physical anomalies that set them apart from the regular herd of mankind. This movie is actually discussed in the forward to 1st Issue Special #10 which sports an intriguing Ernie Chan cover which offers up figures which in no way match the characters within. Beneath that cover is a story by Joe Simon and Jerry Grandenetti which offers up some "Freaks" of their own, in this case calling themselves "The Outsiders". (The original title was "Super Freaks", but I guess DC was a bit scared of that one just as Universal had been frightened of Tod Browning's movie.)

Be warned though that this is merely a glimpse. We meet the team made up of "Doc Scary", "Hairy Larry", "Lizard Johnny", the "Amazin' Ronnie", "Mighty Mary" and "Billy". They are a super team of sorts under the leadership of Doc Scary and they costumes and drive around with laboratory attached to their car. We see them battle a mob to free a terrified kid named Billy who learn later was kept in a basement of a Tailor shop by his father wo is killed by two thugs. It results in a mob wanting to kill Billy. We also learn that Doc Scary was once sent into space and when his spaceship crashed his body was reconstructed by aliens who used themselves as models. We get a glimpse of the birth of Lizard Johnny who as a tadpole is saved by Doc when another researcher wants to chop him up. The Outsiders live in an underground complex beneath the hospital where Doc is a renowned surgeon, albeit one who works in disguise. Sadly we never learn more about the team as the story abruptly stops. 

Next time Gerry Conway makes organized crime shudder when he introduces Code Name: Assassin. 

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