Geo-Force and the Art of Confusing One's Enemies

Batman and the Outsiders #10 - Pages 17-20
The Outsiders are in the house/oil rig, but does that mean Matches Malone has been exposed?ALMOST! Batman's gotta ready-made story about how he roofied Matches, took him up to his apartment and took his clothes. "Clean rep" indeed. And you can see here how, after decades of Silver Age shenanigans, Batman's secret identity-saving technology is incredibly advanced. I bet you can't tell how he put his cowl on in the middle of that sentence. I bet it and I make a bundle. Neither can New-Wave, and it makes her so angry, she wants to drown Matches' suit!
I've got to hand it to her. New-Wave is a dedicated supervillain who has gone and found every possible water-related expression/Jack Kirby concept in existence and is ready to use it no matter who the audience is. But sometimes, she tries too hard. Shouldn't the expression be "sleeping... with the fishes"? But I'm not comics writer. Mike Barr must know what he's doing.

So how was Batman going to defeat the Masters of Disaster all by himself (he hoped)? By turning their own ill-conceived powers against them!
Aww, ya froze yer boss lady. And now she looks like she could play the baddie in Disney's animated musical of Titanic. And that karate chop to the ribs? Totally took out Coldsnap.
Hahaha. Heatstroke, trying to nail exactly who is the "easy one" in the Outsiders is like trying to decide which Nick Cage movie is the "bad one". And without that sword, what? She won't be able to slap you silly?
I only WISH that was a different sound effect, but it's not. Katana has "whapped" Heatstroke on the side of the head. Maybe Tatsu's superhero name should have been Nun Chuck. She could have been catholic and everything.

But here comes Geo-Force with his version of witty repartee. See if you can understand why he's saying that.
I guess he's talking about Black Lightning and his impending execution. Which Shakedown wasn't going to conduct personally, I don't think. Really, it's a conversation GF started one whole issue ago.
See? Shakedown recognizes the words, he's just wondering why GF is still nagging him about that. And why would GF gladly stand still?
Because that's the only way he can hit an unmoving target, presumably. What's Black Lightning's reaction to being freed? Immediately slap Geo-Force down for his bad dialog. The previous issue started with BL's rockin' poetry beats, so he knows what he's talking about. Poor Geo-Force... he just hasn't mastered the American idiom. He's still discovering all kinds of expressions.
Cornered when he could bust through the wall, fly away, or fire lava blasts at Shakedown's face, GF panics until he is inspired by the expression "going down". I'm almost afraid to look at the next panel for just how he interprets that.
Oh, he was just inspired to use one of the powers he has. It's a good thing Shakedown said that, because Geo-Force was completely forgetting about his own abilities. And it's true that when I hear the words "going down", I think yes! The gravity-enhancing powers I stole from Star Boy!

So Geo-Force has scored a win, albeit accidentally, but what about Halo who almost blew the whole operation by failing her Hiding in shadows roll? She's trying to convince rather than fight because like the reader, she knows Windfall isn't so bad. Breaking the fourth wall again, honey?
Yes, red aura should do it.
That's your RED aura? Somebody didn't get the memo about reading the script before taking the color paints out. Blinding Windfall might do something, if Windfall didn't detect an invisible Halo by sensing the contours of the objects in the air just minutes ago! She's a regular Daredevil, that one!
BLOWN AWAY! Obviously, New-Wave's put her kid sister on the same diet of idiom research. Something Batman might want to try with Geo-Force, if you know what I mean.

Two down, two that only LOOK down, and so that's three to go. Oh, and the Sheltons as well. A packed finale tomorrow!