Review: Red Hood and the Outlaws Vol. 3: Death of the Family trade paperback (DC Comics)

Red Hood and the Outlaws Vol. 3: Death of the Family is a very Jason Todd-centered trade, and since Jason is the strongest part of writer Scott Lobdell's Red Hood series, that's a good thing. Though Lobdell is still in origin-telling mode (after last volume's spotlight on Starfire), the twist he offers on Jason's origin is good enough -- and told so cleverly -- as to make it wholly worthwhile. Alongside Batgirl and Batman and Robin, this is a "Death of the Family" tie-in that distinguishes itself well, and it's a shame that one of this title's strongest volumes should be Lobdell's last on the series.

[Review contains spoilers]

Lobdell's biggest bombshell comes in the middle of the very first chapter, the Zero Month issue: that the Joker specifically manipulated events so that Jason Todd would become Robin, and so that the Joker could kill him. It's a claim almost too preposterous to believe, even for comics, but Lobdell backs himself up well with a kind of cracked mirror story that shows events first from Jason's perspective, and then from the Joker's. That's clever enough to sell it, but it also adds a brilliant level to Jason going forward in that he's the figurative "son" now of both Batman and the Joker (not unlike the pre-Flashpoint Kon-El taking DNA from both Superman and Lex Luthor). What Lobdell has not yet revealed is why Jason chose the Red Hood moniker (I'm not sure if anyone has touched on this, including Judd Winick's original Under the Hood), but the fact that Jason "owes his life" to the Joker gives the Red Hood choice additional meaning.

Lobdell's "Death of the Family" Joker speaks a bit too on-the-nose, spouting outright his theories about the Bat-family where Scott Snyder makes it more circumspect, as if Lobdell gave the Joker the official DC Bat-office "Death of the Family" party line. Lobdell's claim about the Joker and Jason also pushes the boundaries of Snyder's claim that the Joker does not know the Bat-family's identities; perhaps the Joker sends Jason to Leslie Thompkins because he perceives some connection to Batman, not Bruce Wayne, but it's equally easy to argue the other way. Still, Lobdell has the Joker's crazy down pat, especially in the forced Red Robin/Red Hood grudge match and the revenge the Joker exacts on Jason later. This "Death" tie-in wasn't as fraught as the Batgirl one, but it still handily entertained.

Some prescience (or good planning) went into this trade, in that even though only two of the issues collected here are official "Death of the Family" tie-in issues (plus the Teen Titans crossover), all of it, from the Zero Month issue to the end, feels genuinely "Death" (or at least Joker)-related. The aforementioned Teen Titans crossover works especially well given that Lobdell has written both books from the beginning; the Red Robin/Red Hood team-up, though a Teen Titans issue, could be read almost just as easily as a Red Hood issue.

Indeed as sole writer of Red Robin Tim Drake and Red Hood Jason Todd, Lobdell introduces a new paradigm in the Bat-mythos; one where Tim Drake and original Robin Dick Grayson are not so close, and it's Jason and Tim who are akin to brothers. Of course the Batman or Nightwing writers might contradict this, not to mention that Lobdell gives up that ownership of Jason after this volume, but portraying Jason and Tim as the kind of "black sheep" sons of the Bat-family endears them both to the reader. Of course, those who like their Bat-family cozy will find much to enjoy at the end of this volume, in which Jason reconciles with Bruce and is welcomed back to the Bat-fold. As is his right, Lobdell lets his characters ride off into the sunset with this ending, despite that it's an almost immediate contradiction of Snyder's "Death of the Family" ending.

Though Outlaws Arsenal and Starfire don't get as much screen-time this outing, Lobdell gives them both significant moments. The first New 52 meeting of the Teen Titans and the Outlaws is notable in and of itself given how connected these characters were pre-Flashpoint, but also Lobdell demonstrates shades of Arsenal's old self in how he assumes a leadership role in the group. And while Lobdell hasn't yet delved completely into Starfire's past history with Nightwing, he offered some new insights here in scenes with both characters.

The final issue in this collection is meant to be a "Requiem" tie-in, though Damian Wayne remains very much alive through the end of these pages. Jason and Damian have been historic enemies going back to Battle for the Cowl, and Lobdell ties this up well, too, contrasting the characters and even bringing Jason and Damian's continuity between Red Hood and Batman, Inc. in line. The best moment is when Arsenal tries to play catch with Damian, who's hilariously unfamiliar with the concept; if this precious moment is the Red Hood title's only farewell to Damian, it's a good one.

I'm not sure this series ever found its groove; though enjoyable, it was never about anything necessarily. Red Hood and the Outlaws Vol. 3: Death of the Family was the title's strongest volume yet, however (marred only by too many artists of varying quality), and it's too bad to lose Scott Lobdell just when things were on the up. Here's hoping the new team has as good a sense of these characters, especially Jason Todd, as Lobdell did.

[Includes original covers, sketchbook section]

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Review: Red Hood and the Outlaws Vol. 2: The Starfire trade paperback (DC Comics)

Scott Lobdell's Red Hood and the Outlaws Vol. 2: The Starfire demonstrates the versatility of this title in a way that ought to suggest good things going forward. But Lobdell tells a familiar story, and despite a welcome tweak here and there, the book remains mostly predictable.

[Review contains spoilers]

The last volume of Red Hood saw the team take on undead ninjas and giant monsters; the story was not "earthbound" in the "fighting crime in Gotham City" sense, but neither was it too far afield from what one might normally find among the Bat-titles. Starfire begins with the Red Hood versus mobsters, then a "Night of the Owls" crossover, then a four-part trip to space, and then a run-in with Superman. None of these stories feel out of place for the characters, and in this way Lobdell demonstrates the breadth of stories this series can tell. This genre-bridging is not something that could be comfortably done with another Bat-book like Batgirl or Batwing.

In this way, Red Hood and the Outlaws is largely reminiscent of Marv Wolfman and George Perez's New Teen Titans. That's a comparison that might give some purists pause given Lobdell's controversial recreations of both Starfire and Arsenal, but it's apt. The strength of Titans was that with Nightwing, Starfire, Raven, Donna Troy, and the rest, Wolfman and Perez could easily pit the Titans against the HIVE, but also send them to the alien planet Tamaran, or the mystic dimension of Azarath, or pit them against the gods of myth. Lobdell has not such a far-reaching cast here, but neither did Red Hood and Arsenal look out of place fighting alien hordes alongside Starfire, and this suggests a trip to Azarath or Olympus would work equally well.

But in the broad strokes, Lobdell is telling a story that Wolfman and Perez already told, and that we've seen versions of in different media since then -- Starfire returns to Tamaran, she fights her evil sister Blackfire, hilarity ensues. This is a problem endemic to the New 52 as a whole; in an attempt to keep DC's new universe relatively like DC's old universe, a number of origins remained relatively the same, and that inevitably lead to telling the same stories over again. What I never wanted to see with the New 52 was someone trying again to tell "Great Darkness Saga," for instance, and having it come out poorly (which had been the case once before); in the same way, watching Starfire battle Blackfire again "for the first time" doesn't hold my interest as well as if Lobdell had given Starfire an entirely new origin, making the character his own.

Lobdell does offer a good twist in making Blackfire Komand'r good, rather than bad; the story plays to expectations in the first two parts, and then reveals Blackfire to be on the side of angels in the third. I appreciated this -- just when I felt the story was too predictable, Lobdell goes against expectations just slightly. It may be too slight, however; I'd still argue the broad strokes of the story are the same. Also, Lobdell's four-part "Starfire" story lacks some suspense; the Outlaws go to outer space, they battle Blackfire and the Blight, they win, they go home. Other than to flesh out Starfire's twice-told origin, not much of consequence happens in this story.

One interesting character bit is how Lobdell tries to deepen the relationship between Starfire and Arsenal in this volume. The move is a little sudden and one might wonder if it's at least in part due to the backlash Lobdell received for Starfire's incidental sexuality in the first volume. If sudden, though, it works, in part because of the way Lobdell plays against type -- Starfire takes the dominant, stoic (stereotypically male) role in the relationship (which arguably she did not have in New Teen Titans with Nightwing) while Arsenal is more doting and emotional. Lobdell's Arsenal is such a goofball that it's like watching Starfire have a relationship with Changeling, which is weird (one would sooner imagine Starfire romantically involved with the late 1990s Arsenal than this guy); but the fact that they care for each other in a relatively straightforward and uncomplicated way is refreshing given, for instance, how fraught Superman and Wonder Woman's relationship is.

Lobdell also cleverly brings back Isabel, the stewardess who Red Hood Jason Todd chose not to date last time. Lobdell wisely skips what inspired Jason's reversal and instead simply gets on with it; Isabel's presence in the "Starfire" story offers a good "real person"'s counterpoint to the superheroics. As I've said before, what sells Lobdell's Jason Todd is precisely his interactions with Isabel before and now; whereas the Red Hood is a master take-no-prisoners assassin, without the mask Jason stammers over his words on a date with Isabel. That the Outlaws are not just human, but actually a tad inept outside of their superheroics, can't help but endear them to the reader.

The rest of the book is enjoyable -- especially as drawn by Kenneth Rocafort -- but again, without a great amount of suspense. The highlight of the first issue, leading in to the "Night of the Owls" crossover, is the revelation that Jason Todd and Tim Drake have a friendship kept secret from the Bat-family; this raises my esteem of both characters to see them palling around in a way above Bat-family politics. The final Superman issue is the book's main rough patch, in which the joke that everything the Outlaws throw at Superman fails goes on too long. The issue might also be construed as passing the time until Outlaws can line up with "Death of the Family"; while I understand the necessity, the issue doesn't distinguish itself otherwise.

I remain optimistic about Red Hood and the Outlaws. Though the characters (namely Starfire) were ill-formed in the beginning, there's a madcap Three's Company bent to the group now; Outlaws is a title with serious superheroics but that doesn't take itself too seriously. As Red Hood and the Outlaws Vol. 2: The Starfire demonstrates, however, this is still a book in search of a strong story; after Scott Lobdell gets past "Death of the Family," hopefully Outlaws can start to do more of its own, new thing.

[Includes original covers, "Essence" back-up stories, Rocafort sketchbook]

A review of Red Hood and the Outlaws Vol. 3: Death of the Family, coming up next.

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Review: Red Hood and the Outlaws Vol. 1: Redemption trade paperback (DC Comics)

DC Comics released Red Hood and the Outlaws: Redemption, the first collection of writer Scott Lobdell's controversial New 52 series, with issue #6 placed before issue #1. With this change, DC would seem to try to mitigate some of the sharpest criticisms about Lobdell's series, namely his treatment of former (pre-New 52) Teen Titan Starfire; whether it works largely depends on how much faith each reader is willing grant Lobdell and his long-term plan for the series.

Immature and irreverent, Red Hood will not be a book for everyone, but it is an apt descendent of DC books like Judd Winick's Outsiders, and presents especially well Winick's pseudo-creation, the modern Red Hood Jason Todd.

[Review contains spoilers]

Red Hood's great controversy comes from a sexualized presentation of Starfire in the first issue, including when Starfire arbitrarily offers herself up for sex to (also former pre-New 52 Teen Titan) Arsenal Roy Harper. Based on the first issue alone, the audience would conclude Starfire also had sex with Jason Todd, making her essentially the sexual plaything of the Outlaw team's male members. That Starfire's sexual persona ruins her animated Teen Titans depiction isn't a fair condemnation given that her original characterization, as created by Marv Wolfman and George Perez, greatly involved her sexuality; still, issue #1 of Red Hood does come off somewhat dirty.

Issue #6, however, takes place before issue #1, and it implies (though does not directly state) certain facts that mitigate the events of issue #1. First, Jason and Starfire don't ever have sex and it's strongly suggested that they're devoutly platonic friends -- that when Jason tells Roy that he'd had sex with Starfire, he lies. Second, in the sixth issue Lobdell preserves the idea that Starfire can intuit an individual's language through physical contact (something true of Wolfman and Perez's Starfire and even of the animated version), and Lobdell even enhances this to include Starfire gaining the person's "knowledge." With this, the reader could safely suspect that Starfire's abrupt propositioning of Roy may have more to do with investigating her new teammate than sexual gratuity per se, though Lobdell never addresses this outright one way or the other.

Wolfman and Perez's intended their sexually-liberated Starfire as a thematic foil to their emotionally-repressed Raven, among other things. In any other context, a buxom alien who just so happens to require physical contact to learn about her surroundings would seem obviously more sexual fantasy than character. Lobdell's story stands just on the line between Wolfman and Perez's precedent and objectification; both interpretations seem valid, though in moving the sixth issue flashback to the beginning of the book -- the only New 52 collection in which DC has presented the issues out of order -- the collection itself would seem to argue for the more indulgent interpretation.

Redemption succeeds largely on the strength of Lobdell's presentation of Jason Todd. Formerly the whiny sidekick no one liked, Jason reemerged under Judd Winick's pen as the Red Hood, a tough renegade Robin who contrasted well with the noble Dark Knight. Grant Morrison's deranged Red Hood didn't fit quite right, and Lobdell returns to Winick's interpretation. Lobdell's Jason is slightly younger, even a bit socially awkward, until he puts on the hood and starts firing bullets. This counterpoint -- as well as Jason's friendship with Starfire and his inane banter with pal Roy Harper -- makes Jason easy to like. He's genuinely surprised when a stewardess gives him her number (unlike, the audience will agree, Nightwing Dick Grayson), and then when Jason starts to call the stewardess and hangs up so as not to involve her in his troubled life, the reader genuinely feels for him.

Outlaws is also exceptionally readable in that it positions itself in a unique space overlapping a number of genres. There's a number of "realistic" heists here of the kind to be found in a standard action comic, with break-ins, break-outs, fantastic disguises, and so on. But Redemption turns quickly to focus on Jason's "ninja" training and wars between various secret societies, evoking stories like Dennis O'Neil's Manhunter or Ra's al Ghul tales (not coincidentally, given the specter of al Ghul hovering in the book's background). There's even a (somewhat abrupt) bit of standard superheroics when a rogue monster attacks Starfire.

All of this further evokes Winick's Outsiders, a book equally at home in high politics or evil supervillain stories. What was true for Outsiders and is also true for Outlaws (and, as well, Wolfman and Perez's Teen Titans) is that the team is made of such diverse personalities with such diverse backgrounds that they work in nearly every story -- and moreover, that the book's emphasis is not truly on the plot at all, but rather on the characters and their interactions with one another.

Winick's Outsiders, too, pushed the sexual boundaries of what was ordinarily comfortable in DC's mostly-platonic super-teams. Lobdell has a ways to go, however, before his Starfire is as well-rounded as Winick's Grace such that Starfire's sexual gratuities don't seem so forced.

Those who will not like Outlaws even more so than Starfire fans will be ardent fans of Arsenal (nee Speedy and Red Arrow) Roy Harper. Roy faced his share of character insults even before Outlaws when pre-New 52 his daughter Lian was killed, his arm was severed, and he returned to using heroin; given all that, his groan-worthy quips and general dimwittedness in Outlaws ought be relief, though it won't be. Indeed Outlaws forgets Roy's pre-New 52 years of leading the Titans himself or his Justice League membership in favor of making him the punchline of all of Outlaws's jokes.

Lobdell positions Roy as the Outlaws' conscience and, every so often, their heart, but Lobdell couches this in so many unfunny moments -- meant to be unfunny, but unfunny nonetheless -- that Roy's wisdom doesn't come through as strongly as his stupidity. Obviously Lobdell has Roy on an arc toward maturity -- like how the immature Flash Wally West and Beast Boy Gar Logan both matured -- but there's a danger the audience won't care about Lobdell's Roy long enough to see him get there.

Red Hood and the Outlaws: Redemption, again, won't be for everyone, and indeed its lack of reverence especially for its characters earlier lives will turn off some. But Red Hood is at its core a buddy comedy, with all the dopiness that buddy comedies entail -- and one uniquely positioned to tell a greater variety of stories than many other DC New 52 titles. Purists might find linking Wolfman and Perez's Teen Titans with Scott Lobdell's Red Hood and the Outlaws revolting, but Red Hood may increasingly become the site of Titans-type character studies as the series continues.

[Includes full covers, sketches by series artist Kenneth Rocafort]

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