Thursday, June 17, 2010

Red Hood: The Lost Days #1(of 6)

Red Hood: The Lost Days #1: Writer: Judd Winick. Artist: Pablo Raimondi.

Review: This story begins a few years ago with Ra's Al Ghul informing his daughter Talia that the second Robin(Jason Todd)had been murdered by the Joker. Talia is taken aback, and asks her father how the object of her affections, Batman, was holding up. Ra's figures Bats would be grieving, but would move on, while Talia feels that Jason's death would be something Bats could never recover from. Eventually Ra's tires of the conversation, and tells Talia to watch Gotham if she chooses, but he orders her not to reach out to Bats in any way. Time passes, and Talia keeps tabs on Bats from afar, and hears that he has been acting more reckless and violent, which leads to Talia having more and more of her father's men stationed around Gotham to continue to watch Bats for her. The years roll on and Talia gets word from one of her men that a drunk swears he was beaten up by the second Robin(since he was beaten up by Jason years prior). Talia does some investigating, and locates the young man in question in a sanitarium, and has him brought to one of her father's safehouses, where she has him battle a bunch of Ra's ninjas. The young man trounces the ninjas when they attack him(using Robin-like moves), but upon the end of the battle, he reverts back to his near comatose state. Ra's interest is now suitably piqued, and he has his scientists study the young man, who they confirm IS Jason Todd. Ra's begins to obsess over how Jason was able to beat death, and sends Talia and his men out to gather every scrap of information they can find on Jason and where he came from after his death at the hands of the Joker. Talia is unable to find anything that could explain Jason's sudden reappearance, while Jason's mental state doesn't seem to improve in the least. Months pass, and Ra's loses his patience with the whole situation, since the only thing he was ever interested in was how Jason escaped death, since Ra's could have possibly used that knowledge for his own benefit. Talia begs her father to give her more time, but Ra's tells her no, telling Talia that all of her work with Jason was for naught, and that even if she was able to restore Jason's mental capacity and return the boy to Batman, Batman would never love her, which was what Talia was after all along. Ra's then tells Talia that Jason would be sent away the following day to a place where he would be taken care of, but that Ra's was finished having time and resources spent on a project that could bear no fruit. With that Ra's enters his Lazarus Pit to restore his strength, while Talia heads to Jason. After some thought, Talia takes Jason, sneaks him into the room with Ra's Lazarus Pit and tosses the boy inside, with the hope that this act would restore his memories, ending this issue.

What I Thought: Well it's a well known fact that I am and always have been a Jason Todd fan, so I pretty much knew that I'd enjoy this comic, it was just a matter of how much. Now, I was a bit disappointed that Jason had no speaking parts, and that most of this story was told in Batman Annual #25, but that didn't really diminish this comic for me. I've always liked Talia(especially when Grant Morrison isn't writing her), as well as Ra's, and I enjoyed their dynamic here. They each had a reason for wanting Jason around and restored, Ra's to learn the secret of Jason's return to life, and Talia to return Jason to Batman in order to gain his love, and each reason made perfect sense. Hell, you could even make the argument that in the beginning Talia was only interested in Jason for Batman's benefit, but there were some scenes later on in this comic(after Talia had been caring for Jason for a while)that gave me the impression that maybe Talia was beginning to gain a different kind of interest in Jason... This was a great prologue issue to tell us how Jason's mind was restored, and I'd have to figure that the next issue should be EVEN better, as we see how Jason reacts to the changes that took place in his world after his death.

Score: 9 out of 10.I could bust out all of those moves if I really wanted to! Really!!

20 comments:

  1. You S.O.B. you didn't tell me you were reviewing this today!!! Lol jk You see what I mean when I gave it a 8. It was a great issue but little Jason interaction made it drop but I see why there was such little focus on him and more on Talia. Great review dude.

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  2. HA!!! I didn't know I had to pass every book I review by you first JT! :D I'd almost forgotten I had this comic until I lifted Batgirl #11 up from my comic pile and saw that this comic was next! I REALLY liked Ra's and Talia in this(especially since I'm currently reading a Batman trade that details the first few appearances of Ra's and Talia), but yeah, no real Jason parts def hurt this issue some.

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  3. Haha only when they have Jason Todd in them! Lol but yeah they were written fantastically. I love how it shines through with Judd's writing how everyone has a purpose. Talia didn't feel like she was doing anything wrong by hiding Jason from Bruce and how he wouldn't love her for it. It gave her a reason for keeping it from Bruce.

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  4. The Talia thing was INSPIRED, because it made so much sense! If Talia could have "fixed" Jason up, and then returned Jason to Bruce, I'm sure she was thinking that act would FINALLY get Bruce to love her unconditionally. And Ra's motivation was also perfect. As a guy who is ALWAYS cheating death, OF COURSE he'd want to know how Jason did it, especially if Ra's could do the same thing. Yeah, Judd did an awesome job of coming up with reasons for both of the Al Ghuls.

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  5. I couldn't have said it better myself dude. Both of the reasonings made SO much sense and if Judd can do all that in one issue with the Al Ghul's, imagine what's coming up for Jason in the next five issues.

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  6. Totally agreed mi amigo! This could be mini-series of the year if it keeps up like this.

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  7. Couldn't agree more buddy, Between this, Birds of Prey, Gen Lost, Booster Gold and Batgirl I'm loving what DC is putting out.

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  8. Hmm, I agree with 2 of those 4 books you've mentioned! Stuff like Gen Lost is actually pushing me BACK into Marvel's waiting arms... If Marvel was a person and had arms that is...

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  9. I can see why you'd dislike Gen lost after Hai-Me but whats wrong with Booster's series? I don't think he's had a bad arc yet.

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  10. Yeah, there's nothing wrong with Booster's series per se, it's been solid throughout, but I can't really say it's a must read every month, you know? It's like a good reliable(if unspectacular)work horse. Always a good read(7-9 out of 10), but rarely exciting.

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  11. I get what you're saying, but considering half the comics I regularly review never get higher than an 8 anyway I'd give Booster a pass.

    Is it just me or does Jason Todd need a monthly series? He's the only Bat-kid without one besides Cass Cain who may be White Canary for all we know...

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  12. Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute here! You give out 10's like candy on Halloween Night JT! :D I go and check out your Ratings and Rantings, and I'm almosy always seeing a 10! Then again, I'm one to talk, since half the comics I read usually end up with a 7 of an 8! If I ever go insane or get trapped in my house for a few months, I'd probably go through every review I've ever done here and see just how many 7's I've handed out... I'd say at least 50% of all of my scores are 7's!

    You know I'd buy it!

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  13. Lmao Like candy on Halloween?! Away with you sir! I rarely give out tens, besides last week I'd never given out more than two in one review lol.

    I'm glad you caught almosy, and how would you get trapped in your house? haha

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  14. I dunno about this - sure, the reasonings were good, but most of the story was already told in the annual, so I was a bit let down by this myself...

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  15. Well, after you gave out THREE 10's in one week, I tend to think of you as Mr. 10, JT... Whatever the HELL that means...

    Yeah, agreed Nagash, but I think it was a good way to catch any new readers up to speed. Plus I really liked the story(annual and here), so I had no major gripes here.

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  16. I'm just a fusy bastard when it comes to things like that, eh? ;)

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  17. Lmao, Mr. 10. I love how that's my name for giving out three Tens, you make it sound like I give everything a ten. Which wasn't the case with that Hatter story at all... Lol

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  18. I hear you Nagash. I'm just so glad to see Jason getting SOME attention, I'd probably be happy if they just reprinted random stories from his Robin days and sold them as "new"! As long as one of Jason's arms don't get chopped off, or he gets randomly killed off and returns as a ring wearing zombie, I'm fine!

    And look how well that Hatter review worked out for you! You got some major attention for it! I say lambast ALL of the books you read, and see what happens!

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  19. Lol couldn't agree with you MORE about Jason. The day Jason loses an arm Is the day I change my screen name...

    Lol Lambast. Well that's because the dude was nice about it, now if he Mike Carey'd me, lol things may be different.

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