Before we review this thing let’s briefly talk about Jason Todd.
Jason was the second person wear the identity of Robin, after Dick Grayson. Initially a carbon copy of his predecessor Todd’s background and personality was altered following the companywide reboot (Sound familiar) Crisis on Infinite Earths. The new version of the character was disliked by fans so greatly that DC held a phone poll to let fans decide if Jason would survive the events in the classic story A Death in the Family; they voted to kill him (Although years later the validity of the vote is in question as apparently some asshole in California called hundreds of times with the vote of “Kill Him”). Batman would consider Jason’s death his greatest failure and use it as a reminder when dealing with new sidekicks and partners (This is partly why he treated the Spoiler so bad, presumably).
However Jason was brought back to life seventeen years after that phone poll (In real time) but now he was an antagonist to Batman rather than ally. Todd, calling himself the Red Hood, initially became a brutal vigilante who took things 100 times farther than Batman usually would. Over the years Jason suffered from inconsistent writing as DC couldn’t agree whether he should be a straight up villain or an antihero. During the events of Battle for the Cowl Jason finally become an irredeemable, and crazed, villain and that was pushed to even further depths in Grant Morison’s very good Batman and Robin where he basically became Dick Grayson’s (As the New “Batman”) archenemy. The point is that the way his character development has ultimately worked the last few years the Red Hood has become a psychotic super villain who is obsessed with destroying everything Batman stands for an replacing him as the new, monstrous protector of Gotham. A role, I must add, that he was excellent in.
So let’s give this guy a solo title, shall we? Because...why the hell not!
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| Jason Todd in his natural state |
I’m not the biggest fan of villains getting their own superhero books, though it’s certainly not something that should never tried once and a while. Secret Six is the best example. But under normal circumstances I wouldn’t touch Red Hood and the Outlaws with a ten foot pole. However it also stars Arsenal who’s been one of my favorite characters since 2003 during Judd Winick’s run on The Outsiders and I was hopeful that the horrifying changes to his character over the last few years would be undone in this reboot. Anyway this comic was written by Scott Lobdell and drawn by Kenneth Rocafort and his title “I Fought the Law and Kicked It’s Butt”. And no, after reading the story I don’t think that title makes a whole lot of sense.
Full review after the jump.
