Outsiders #1 (2023)

Kate Kane is wandering around a ruined city in the war-torn nation of Rhapastan. She turns a corner and finds Luke Fox waiting for her, and he tells her that he has been looking for her ever since she left Gotham. She tells him that she is trying to get justice for the city by attacking the Western forces who destroyed it, but he points out that she has deliberately positioned herself in the perfect place to be ambushed. He says that she has lost her purpose in life and suggests she is trying to get herself killed. She yells at him that she is sick of being a superhero and the constant, pointless cycle of fighting that never achieves anything, and to her shock he agrees with her. Luke tells Kate that he has founded a new organization to seek out knowledge of the strange and unknown and invites her to join. They are attacked by an A.R.G.U.S. squad, who Kate easily dispatches while Luke watches on. She agrees to join him as long as Batman isn't involved in any capacity, and Luke swears that he isn't. They fly in a stealth jet to Antarctica, and along the way Luke tells her that the Outsiders are not a superhero team, but a global organization with field offices all over the world and immense resources to achieve their goals. He tells her that the organization has a four-person leadership committee consisting of himself, Kate, his father Lucius Fox and the "Fourth Man". At the Outsider's Antarctic base he introduces her to the Fourth Man, an enigmatic metahuman archaeologist known only as "Drummer". Luke and Drummer tell Kate that they detected an extremely dense object fifty miles long under the surface of Antarctica, and none of the researchers they sent down to look at it have come back. Drummer also tells Kate that all their readings suggest the object is about to explode. The three of them descend down to the dig site and enter the object through a hole that the Outsiders cut into the side, emerging into a high-tech corridor. As soon as they enter the hole seals behind them and automatic defences activate. Luke and Kate fight off the automated guns until Drummer is able to make them explode using technopathic abilities. They flee through the corridor and emerge into an immense hangar. Drummer communes with the object and tells them that it is a ship named "The Carrier". She guides them to the ship's reactor, which is about to detonate. Along the way they pass a series of skeletons in glass cases labelled "Century Babies", which she stares at until Luke calls her to keep up. They find the missing researchers floating around the core and the voice of the Carrier echoes through the room. It reveals that it is from another Multiverse known as "The Snowflake" and cannot find its way home, and that everyone it knew is dead. It is filled with rage and despair and has decided to kill itself and all of them. Luke tells the Carrier that he understands its pain, and promises that he will help it find its way home, if it shuts down the reactor and lets the researchers go. The Carrier agrees, but one of the scientists volunteers to stay behind and remain connected to the Carrier. Eighteen hours later, Drummer sneaks back into the Carrier and goes down to the reactor. She pulls out a battered book titled "Planetary Guide".