In Gotham City, Batman and the Outsiders continue to bond together as a group.
Batman puts Katana and Halo together as a mirror Batman and Robin, with Katana’s dourness and Halo’s brightness counterbalancing each other. He helps Black Lightning become a teacher again and find his true calling. Geo-Force enters college overseas and begins to meet other people not tied to the Markovian crown. Metamorpho, well, he’s still stuck on Sapphire and dealing with all the issues that come with loving a beautiful woman with a controlling maniacal billionaire father with a cro-magnon as a body guard.
Halo goes off to school and Batman (disguised as Bruce Wayne) sets up Katana as a Japanese bookseller. It is at this point that the Cryonic Man strikes, first in an altercation at a hospital where Geo-Force and Metamorpho are visiting Dr. Jace, still fresh from their confrontation with the Fearsome Five. At the end of the issue, the Cryonic Man has encased the Outsiders in ice and has kidnapped Katana.
Katana is to be used as replacement parts for the Cryonic Man’s family, locked in cold stasis, very similar to another Batman villain, which makes me wonder why Mister Freeze was not used in this story, instead of inventing a new villain, but such is life. The Cryonic Man leaves behind Katana’s sword, and when Halo picks it up she hears it talking to her “YOU ARE NOT KATANA!” Halo responds hesitantly, “N-No! But I’m her friend…” Halo convinces Batman to trust her and she grabs the sword and takes to the skies.
The Outsiders rescue Katana and Halo says to her friend “Tatsu… I…I know about your sword.” Katana’s reaction is an astonished “WHAT?” Halo continues, “Why didn’t you tell us? You must be—” and she is cut off by Katana, “Silence Gabrielle! We will discuss this later!
The Cryonic Man meets his fate as the three bodies he has been keeping as organ farms in stasis begin to wake up and kill him with their energies via electrocution.
The Phantom Stranger lends a hand against his old foe Tannarak when the Outsiders come across children being aged beyond their years in a Christmas style story. Being a super-hero group, frequently instead of facing one foe they would face multiple foes, most notably their earliest foes consisted of The Masters of Disaster…
New Wave controlled water, Shake Down controlled the earth, Cold Snap could generate ice, Heat Stroke generated fire, and Wind Fall manifested air powers. The Masters of Disaster were apparently hired to kidnap and execute Black Lightning for the accidental death of the girl he killed when he retired from heroics. The Masters lose however and the family wind up forgiving Black Lightning of his transgressions, clearing up the guilt block Jefferson had to use his powers.
The real story in the BATO saga up to this point involves the back story of the samurai, Katana, and wtf is up with that sword of hers always talking to her???
The sword is called “The Soultaker” and upon striking a fatal blow in an opponent the sword is able to absorb the soul of the target and keep it in the sword. Through means of a mystic ritual someone familiar with the rites of the sword can call upon the spirits of the sword and bring them forth in order to serve as slaves for the one who summoned them.
Katana’s sword is stolen one evening which forces her to go in search for it. She already knows who has it, her ex-brother-in-law Takeo Yamashiro, a leader of the Japanese Yakuza. But, I get ahead of myself. Tatsu decides to buy Gabrielle a kitten to distract her from the things she has learned. But that night after Katana has cleaned The Soultaker sword, a man she knows by his tattoo comes, they do battle and Katana loses. The ninja takes The Soultaker from her, leaving a duplicate in its place.
After Halo goes to school, Tatsu leaves to return to Japan to find her real sword.
When Tatsu arrives in Tokyo, she is greeted inside her hotel room by The Outsiders. Halo had discovered a note Tatsu left behind and Batman traced the call to the particular hotel (he IS the world’s greatest detective after all). Metamorpho asks what’s the big deal between one sword over another and that is when the origin of the voice is revealed.
“This sword is inhabited by nothing. MY blade is inhabited by the spirit of my slain husband!” — Katana
Takeo Yamashiro, the man who stole the sword from Katana, is also Katana’s ex-brother-in-law and it is Maseo Yamashiro who inhabits the Soultaker sword. Takeo uses the ancient rituals and summons several fighters to do battle against Katana, including Maseo.
The Outsiders find Takeo in the Yakuza and begin the battle when discovered by Takeo’s minions. Katana is taken aback at the sight of her husband, even more so when he tries to kill her. As he explains, he has no choice but to obey. Katana will die at the hand of her newly resurrected husband.
Forced to retreat from the battle as the mystic weapons of the warriors are overpowering the Outsiders, Katana must now reveal her past in full…
Tatsu was raised normally as any Japanese girl would be raised, noting a natural talent for the martial arts, and as she grew into womanhood, she became the object of affection of a pair of brothers, Takeo and Maseo Yamashiro. However, Katana chose Maseo over Takeo, and a large part of that decision seems to be Takeo’s decision to join the Japanese underworld. With both of their parents dead on both sides, it was just Tatsu and Maseo until they had twins, Yuki and Reiko.
Their life was happy for a time, but it was not to last. Takeo had risen in rank and power and came back to exact his vengeance and to gain his price, Tatsu. In an altercation, he set fire to their house which claimed Yuki and Reiko and struck down his brother with the Soultaker Sword. Katana disarmed Takeo and took possession of the sword and she was instantly reunited with her husband via mental link through the sword.
The last altercation between the groups has Maseo force Tatsu’s hand. Maseo noticed that Katana cares for Halo, and so he realizes he must endanger Halo, to get Katana to do what she must, which is to kill his spirit form. Katana does so and picks up the Soultaker sword and rams it through Takeo, killing him instantly and taking his soul.
It is worse than the Outsiders could have imagined, because before all the assassins returned to the ether, one of them blew a blowdart at Batman, and he succumbs to the poison on their flight back to the United States…
Next Up: Does Batman survive his poisonous exploits in Japan? Will Zeus take over Gotham City? What do you like to do on the Force of July? More Outsiders coming up next!
