Outsiders/Checkmate: Checkout

Outsiders (2003)

by Greg Rucka, Judd Winick, Matthew Clark (Illustrator)

They are two of the DC Universe's toughest teams: The Outsiders, featuring costumed heroes including Nightwing and Arsennal, and Checkmate, covert operatives including Mr. Terrific and Sasha Bordeaux. Now, in this tale by top comics writers Judd Winick and Greg Rucka, the teams cross paths for the first time.

Checkmate has hunted down the Outsiders and placed the team under house arrest. But there's no prison that can hold the Outsiders for long. The two teams soon find themselves united against a common foe: the demented super-villains of Oolong Island, last seen in the pages of 52. It's a mission no one else could complete -- and no one else wants to touch!

Collects Checkmate #13-15 and Outsiders #47-49!

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Dc Comics, Comic Book, Superheroes, Graphic Novels Comics, Thriller

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 30, 2008

About the author

Greg Rucka, is an American comic book writer and novelist, known for his work on such comics as Action Comics, Batwoman: Detective Comics, and the miniseries Superman: World of New Krypton for DC Comics, and for novels such as his Queen & Country series.

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Checkmate deputizes the Outsiders to sneak into Oolong Island where the mad scientists who started World War III are. Things go horribly wrong. Lots of fighting with creepy monster / machine hybrids. Chang Tzu (I am the evil Egg Man.) experiments on some of our heroes Mengele style before everyone eventually escapes. There's a huge cast to follow between the 2 teams but Rucka and Winick juggle it well.

[Little Timmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice cross over story. Good art also. Nice read. Recommended

[John Yelverton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not so much a teamup book, as a "Let's try and keep these two book series alive" book.

[Ben Truong · Rating 3 out of 5]

Checkout is a Checkmate/Outsiders crossover storyline written Greg Rucka and Judd Winick with illustrations by Eddy Barrows, Joe Bennett, Matthew Clark, and Ron Randall. Outsiders/Checkmate: Checkout collects all six-issues of the storyline (Checkmate #13–15 and Outsiders #47–49).

"CheckOut" is a five-issue storyline with a conclusion (Checkmate #13–15 and Outsiders #47–49), which has Checkmate – a governmental intelligence agency reluctantly teams up with the Outsiders – who is a teams that considers the ends justifies the means. Checkmate is prepared to sanction the Outsiders, even actively support their agenda by supplying information and resources, but with a plausible deniability should this plan hit the fan.

Checkmate has identified an island on which the world's greatest criminal scientific minds have been given free rein and all the resources they need, and Checkmate wants to close them down. The location of this island in the vicinity of both China and North Korea is politically sensitive, and so a covert operation is required.

Greg Rucka and Judd Winick penned the entire trade paperback. For the most part, it is written moderately well. Rucka and Winick balance political considerations, covert machinations and superhero slambangs, reviving an unlikely villain, but never really move beyond the standard and lacks cohesion. There is little concession for readers coming from either the Outsiders or Checkmate series to get to know the opposite team unless they have read their series.

Joe Bennett (Checkmate #13–15), Matthew Clark (Outsiders #47–49), Ron Randall (Outsiders #48–49), and Eddy Barrows (Checkmate #14) penciled the trade paperback. For the most part the pencilers have distinct penciling styles, which made the artistic flow somewhat rough with Clark the most distinctive, although seemingly rushed in places.

All in all, Outsiders/Checkmate: Checkout is a mediocre continuation to what would hopefully be a wonderful series.

[Sean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rucka & Winick combine their talents and teams in a decent crossover that doesn't end definitively. The teams combat some crazy machinations going on on Oolong Island. The action is pretty intense and the stakes were high. I still think Checkmate isn't fleshed out well enough. The Outsiders are done better but the ending left me wondering why. There was very solid art throughout. Overall, a decent crossover that needed one more issue to wrap things up.

[Alana · Rating 3 out of 5]

So Checkmate is basically DC's Queen & Country? Good to know.

[Ming · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dips a little from the usual Checkmate political scheming plots, with lots more action. But still very readable for me, despite not knowing most of the Outsiders characters.

[machado · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5*

[Richard Schaefer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This crossover between the Outsiders and Checkmate is great. Rucka and Winick work well together, and the story is a fast paced and fun one that does justice to both very good titles. I like to think of it as the end of the Outsiders series, although it limped along a bit longer, after Winick left. It makes a great finale.

[Vanessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this based on someone in one of the comic forums recommendation and it's solidly entertaining. This entry combines two DC super groups into a Watchman-esque conflict between the United Nations-sanctioned Checkmate (featuring Mr. Terrific and Sasha Bordeaux) and the Outsiders (featuring Nightwing-or as he's better known, Dick Grayson) who are now considered an illegal vigilante element thanks in part to a nuclear incident in Russia. The prologue summarizes all of this as best as it can.

The story opens with members of the Outsiders scattered around the world in hiding. They are being rounded up by Checkmate for a top secret mission involving North Korea and a pack of scientist supervillains (there's a joke here but it's just too obvious.)

There's a crazy complicated backstory to all of this so plan on reading The OMAC Project and Infinite Crisis to at least better understand what is going on. Having said that, if you read comics already then you'll know it's almost impossible to start at the true beginning (since Infinite Crisis is in itself a sequel to Crisis on Infinite Earths) so you can just as easily jump in here then work backwards if you are so inclined.

This is a digest compilation of 5 issues of the two series. The story was written by Greg Rucka and Judd Winick. The pencil work is from different artists; I preferred the penciling of Joe Bennett to Matthew Clark.

[Nicholas Palmieri · Rating 4 out of 5]

First off: Don't expect this book to make much sense if you've never read Outsiders or Checkmate before. There are 18 (!) main characters between the two teams, and all of their history is up to use and build on. You can see a clear distinction between the Checkmate chapters' more reserved, political tone and the Outsiders chapters' more "edgy," bombastic tone, but because both series deal with black ops, the two fit well together as different approaches to the same genre. As the continuation of Checkmate's adventures, there are enough significant developments and well-written characters to make it a solid addition. This volume is essential for that series, between volumes 2 and 3. But as the conclusion to Winick's Outsiders run, the book feels just as frustrating as the two preceding volumes ("The Good Fight" and "Pay as You Go"). After the one-year time jump, Outsiders became decompressed to the point where there was almost no story, and as soon as it seemed like something was developing, it launched into a four-issue flashback. FINALLY, this is the conclusion we've been building towards, and... it ends up having only tangential ties to what we wanted to see, ending up as "just another mission" instead of giving us an actual conclusion to previous plots. But that is a problem for the Outsiders series as a whole. As a single volume, this one has enough fast-paced action and fun to keep you entertained, and again, it's an essential part of Greg Rucka's Checkmate run. Absolutely read it in that context, but skip in any other.

[Brad · Rating 4 out of 5]

This crossover brings out the best two fringe DC superhero teams.
The U.N.-sanctioned spy team Checkmate captures all of Nightwing's Outsiders, then sends them out to destroy the mad-scientist base on Oolong Island. (Oolong was a big part of 52 and World War III.) The teams play well together, though there are obvious differences between the measured, eye-on-the-ramifications Checkmate and the blow-everything-up Outsiders.
There are nice action sequences and character moments. The writers do their best to contrast the teams' leaders, Nightwing and Sasha Bordeaux, both of whom have links to Batman. Overall, the book reads like a nice action movie.

[Timo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bought from the Waterstone's in London. Now why we do not have such bookshops in Finland?
Bought this mostly because I love Rucka's Checkmate, but I was a bit put back because this has Outsiders and I really do not know nothing about them except Nightwing.
But I was so pleasently surprised! This was actually really good. It was interesting to read about superheroes I do not know nothing about, although I missed the emotional link I like to have to superheroes I read about.
But as I said, I liked this one.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Want to read a slightly more adult comic that just throws the fights at you? This is a good one. The story is not the best. The ending is quick and very leaves something to be desired. But the action level is amped up. It's a good collection to get. A quick read on one of those night when you need a mindless thing to stare at.

[Sylvester · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this crossover of Checkmate and Outsiders, the teams join force to crackdown the Chinese government.

I think it was great to pitch the two teams together but honestly, stop doing crossover to force people to buy the comic books.

[Max · Rating 3 out of 5]

Winick is a substantially poorer writer than Rucka, which means this is at best a middling volume.

[Wahyunng · Rating 4 out of 5]

good book.
just the goood book.

[Ryan Haupt · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid story featuring two teams I liked at the time this book was release. Also, this Joe Bennett can draw! He made it a 4-star book with his linework alone.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one was better then the last one. The inclusion of the outsiders was fun. The artwork was pretty good and the story not half bad.