The First 10 Members of DC’s Outsiders, Ranked by Power

The most powerful members of the original Outsiders showed that Batman had chosen some of the strongest DC heroes for his new team. The Outsiders debuted in The Brave and the Bold #200 (1983) by Mike W. Barr and Jim Aparo, and one month later, they had their own series titled Batman and the Outsiders. This team formed when Batman decided he could no longer count on the Justice League to do the right thing. The JLA refused to intervene in the Markovian civil war, where Batman needed to rescue his friend Lucius Fox from Baron Bedlam. Seeing his teammates refuse to help him rescue an American citizen, he formed the Outsiders and made that his new core team.

The original lineup consisted of established heroes and some brand-new characters built around the team’s identity, with the first members including Batman, Black Lightning, Katana, Geo-Force, Halo, and Metamorpho. Over the next few years, new members rounded out the top 10, and many of these characters could level a city block before Batman could even get into his Batmobile.

10) Technocrat

Technocrat was one of the new heroes created to be part of the Outsiders. Geoffrey Barron debuted in Outsiders Vol. 2 #1 (1993) by Mike W. Barr and Paul Pelletier. He was an inventor and a business magnate who went to Markovia to sell his Technocrat 2000 battle armor and ended up joining the reformed Outsiders instead, as they tried to clear their names after being framed for a Markovian massacre.

Technocrat ranks at the bottom of the list because he has no superhuman powers, and all his abilities come from his armor and his intelligence. He is a genius-level cyberneticist and polymath who relies entirely on his powered exoskeleton, which is equipped with modular weapons, taser-like electrical shocks, and force-field projectors. He compares well to Iron Man from Marvel Comics, but is nowhere near his level in a fight.

9) Atomic Knight

Atomic Knight is Gardner Grayle, and he first showed up with the team during Outsiders Vol. 2 by Mike W. Barr and Paul Pelletier. Like Technocrat, he wasn’t there to become a member. He was there hunting down the Outsiders, believing them to be fugitives after they were framed for the massacre. For his origin story, his visions of nuclear apocalypse drove him to don the Atomic Knight armor and fight crime, including bringing down the Outsiders in the first five issues of the new series.

He ended up fighting Geo-Force to a standstill before becoming convinced of their innocence and helping clear their name. He was later formally invited onto the team on the eve of Geo-Force’s wedding. His armor grants enhanced strength, speed, and endurance, plus solar-powered energy blasts, heat and cold bursts, and a stasis field that can imprison foes. His fight with Geo-Force showed his might, and that puts him on a higher level than Technocrat, even though both rely on their armor.

8) Faust

Sebastian Faust is Justice League villain Felix Faust’s oldest son, and Felix sold Sebastian’s soul to the demon lord Nebiros. The twist was that the demon tricked Felix by giving Sebastian mystical powers instead. Sebastian was also a member for the first time in Outsiders Vol. 2, debuting in the first issue by Mike W. Barr and Paul Pelletier, to help them fight a vampire invasion of Markovia.

Faust’s powers manifest as soul magic, magic fueled by the souls of others. He has been a soul mage his entire life, and he can also see and reveal the spirits of the dead to others through touch. Because he has inherent magical skills, he is on a higher power level than the tech members of the Outsiders, who rely on their armor to give them their abilities. However, he ranks below veteran heroes because his powers are limited to utilizing souls.

7) Batman

Batman founded the Outsiders, and while he is a normal human with no superhuman powers, he still ranks as one of DC Comics’ most powerful heroes for many other reasons. He served as the team’s leader during its first comic book run before finally stepping away from the group in Batman and the Outsiders #32 (1986).

While he has no superpowers, he has gone toe-to-toe with countless superheroes and Supervillains who have incredible powers. His biggest strength is his intense planning before a fight, as Batman has contingency plans to beat any hero or villain, regardless of their power levels, including plans to bring down even Superman if the time arrives. His tactical mind and field experience let him consistently outperform metahumans whose raw power he lacks. However, he still ranks below the ultra-powerful members of the Outsiders on pure power levels.

6) Katana

Katana debuted in 1983 as a founding member of the Outsiders. She debuted for the first time in The Brave and the Bold #200 (1983) by Mike W. Barr and Jim Aparo. While Batman led the Outsiders into Markovia to save Lucius Fox, Katana was going there for vengeance against General Karnz, Baron Bedlam’s military commander, who was tied to her family’s death.

What makes Katana rank above Batman is the fact that she wields the Soultaker, a 14th-century mystical sword forged by Muramasa that traps the soul of anyone it kills inside the blade. This includes the soul of her husband, Maseo, with whom she can still communicate. She is also a samurai-trained warrior who is one of the best swordswomen and martial artists in DC Comics. However, because her power is solely melee-range, she ranks below the heroes with larger power bases.

5) Looker

Looker is Emily “Lia” Briggs, a former mousy Gotham City bank teller who debuted in Batman and the Outsiders #25 (1985) by Mike W. Barr and Alan Davis. It was exposure to a comet that activated her metahuman powers, and the Outsiders rescued her from the underground kingdom of Abyssia, where she eventually became that kingdom’s champion. She ended up as a key field member of the team.

Her original powers were very broad, including telepathy, telekinesis, psychometry, mind control, psionic energy blasts, force shields, levitation, remote vision, and enhanced healing. However, she got even stronger during a mission to Markovia when she was turned into a vampire by Prince Roderick. Even without her vampire powers, her near-complete psionic toolkit makes her a powerhouse ranked over most other Outsiders members.

4) Black Lightning

Black Lightning was the most veteran superhero that Batman brought in for the Outsiders. Black Lightning is Jefferson Pierce, and he debuted in his own solo title, Black Lightning, in 1977 by Jenny Blake Isabella and Trevor von Eeden. Batman brought him in to help rescue Lucius Fox during the Markovian Crisis in Brave and the Bold #200. Black Lightning was then a core member during the original run and was the secondary leader behind only Batman.

His powers are considerable. He generates and manipulates vast amounts of bioelectricity, capable of stunning or killing targets and creating an electromagnetic force field for defense. He is also a highly trained martial artist, ranking among the better hand-to-hand fighters in the DCU, which compounds his offensive lightning attacks with great close-combat skill. He ranks ahead of Looker because he is capable of massive damage that she can’t quite touch.

3) Halo

Halo was another new hero introduced in The Brave and the Bold #200 (1983) by Mike W. Barr and Jim Aparo. Batman discovered her in the Markovian woods as a young amnesiac with light-based powers. She is actually an Aurakle, an ancient energy entity that took up residence in the body of the murdered sociopath Violet Harper, resurrecting her with new powers and a new personality.

As for her powers, she generates auras in seven colors, each with a distinct effect: red projects destructive heat beams, orange delivers concussive force, yellow creates blinding light, green produces stasis beams, blue creates holographic distortions, indigo functions as a tractor beam, and violet has mental/empowering effects. Thanks to her seven-pronged power output, she ranks higher than Black Lightning because she can do so much more.

2) Geo-Force

Geo-Force is an ally who joined Batman thanks to the mission to Markovia. He is Prince Brion Markov of Markovia, and an experiment gave him earth-manipulating powers so he could stop Baron Bedlam’s coup. He joined the Outsiders during their formation in The Brave and the Bold #200 (1983) by Mike W. Barr and Jim Aparo. He was one of the team’s tanks in the first and second runs.

He has powerful geokinetic abilities. Geo-Force can manipulate rock at will, cause earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, fire lava bursts from his hands, create underground tunnels, and even alter Earth’s gravitational pull on himself and others. Of all the team’s members, he is the strongest, but there is still one person who is more powerful than him when it comes to metahuman abilities.

1) Metamorpho

Rex Mason debuted in The Brave and the Bold #57 (1965) by Bob Haney and Ramona Fradon, and as a long-time Batman ally, he was easily someone that the Caped Crusader reached out to for help when he formed the Outsiders. He had no problem helping Batman and the new team, even on a mission that the Justice League found too politically sensitive. He then went on to become the team’s most powerful member.

Metamorpho’s powers stem from exposure to an ancient meteor near the Orb of Ra. He can transmute his body into any element found in the human body, including oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, or any trace element, in any combination. His transformation ability extends to shaping himself into complex objects, from a working tank engine to a rain cloud, making him effectively a one-man chemistry set. Metamorpho can do things no other Outsiders member can, making him easily the team’s most powerful member.

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