Outcasts (DC Comics)

Outcasts
Cover art for the first issue of Outcasts, published by DC Comics in 1987.
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
Format	Limited series
Publication date	October 1987 - September 1988
Number of issues	12
Main character(s)	Kaine Salinger B.D. Rickenbacker Yancy Queeg Shock "Killer" Kowalski Professor W. R. Watson The Satan Brothers
Creative team
Writer(s)	John Wagner Alan Grant
Penciller(s)	Cam Kennedy
Inker(s)	Steve Montano
Letterer(s)	Agustin Mas John Costanza Bill Oakley
Colorist(s)	Tom Ziuko Nansi Hoolahan
Creator(s)	John Wagner, Alan Grant
Editor(s)	Mike Carlin Dennis O'Neil Reneé Witterstaetter

Outcasts is a 1987 twelve-issue limited series published in 1987 by American company DC Comics. It was written by John Wagner and Alan Grant, and drawn by Cam Kennedy and Steve Montano.

The series takes place in the dystopian future: a bleak world ruled by mega-corporations and corrupt politicians that prey on the weak and poor members of society. In this world, all manners of outrageous habits exists: Slaughterbowl (a hyper violent sport comparable to football) and government controlled euthanasia centers are among them.

The series begins with the city in an uproar due to the new law passed by corrupt city ruler, Boss Angel. He has just made being a mutant in Big City illegal and has ordered the "Mutant Clearance Act" by banning mutants on Earth, capturing them and shipping them off to work on off-world work colonies. He claims the decision was decided by ORCOM, the living organic computer that makes all of Big City's big decisions.

Kaine Salinger, the rich daughter of slain Public Defender Salinger and herself a mutant (in secret), recruits a resistance group of mutants and misfits to discover the truth behind the Clearance Act. Her team is composed of cyborg ex-Slaughterbowl Superstar B.D Rickenbacker, the cursed to be immortal Yancy Queeg and blue-skinned Dag Skinnard AKA Shock, a mutant with powers of electricity who is out to avenge the death of his girlfriend by Big City enforcers.

Kaine's mutant power is eventually revealed: anything she touches ages and dies. She is shown to touch a flower and it wilts and dies instantly. In order to live, Kaine must occasionally suck the lifeforce out of living beings. Her victims do so willingly, in exchange for money. Since they are poor and the Big City streets are tough, they sell their lifeforce to her. Kaine's dedicated robo-servant, Joseph, recruits her victims for her and maintains the Outcast headquarters.

On various raids and excursions, the team discovers and obtains proof of the horrible truth; all male mutants taken off-world are killed and their remains destroyed. The women are kept alive for breeding purposes because mutant children produce a certain enzyme in their heads that has healing properties and can prolong life, keeping you young and vital. Big City's rich and corrupt desperately want to be inoculated with this serum, named Immortalis, so they joined with Boss Angel and outlawed mutantism.

Boss Angel learns the identity of B.D. Rickenbacker during one of their raids and hires the psychotic mutants The Satan Brothers to find him. They start at B.D.'s last known address and torture his father for information, ultimately killing him.