Red Hood and the Outlaws #8:
Summary: We kick things of here with a bit of a backstory concerning Jason. After leaving the All-Caste, he decided to take over the crime families of Hong Kong to make some money that he would use to kill the Joker(what happened there?) and pester Batman for NOT killing the Joker. Needless to say, the crime families of Hong Kong weren't exactly pleased at the idea of an American teenager taking over their racket so they try to kill him. Repeatedly. And fail. Repeatedly. In the end, Jason had gotten the money that he wanted and was planning on leaving, which was when Suzie Su arrived to pick up the pieces. Why are we learning all of this? Because a few issues back Jason shot Suzie(but didn't kill her), so she went to Gotham with some of her goons and has taken the entire children's ward of Gotham General Hospital hostage. Red Hood, Arsenal and Starfire sneak into the hospital and while Arsenal and Star kill Suzie's goons, Hood confronts Suzie by himself. That goes about as you'd expect, considering the fact that Jason is a highly trained fighting machine and Suzie is a morbidly obese woman. In the end, Jason gets Suzie at the point of his gun and asks if she could ever let her vendetta against him go. She tells him no, so he shoots her in the head. From there, Jason gets the call that Alfred put out to all members of the Bat-family in Batman #8, asking for assistance against the Court of Owls. Hood doesn't plan on getting involved until he is asked specifically by Red Robin(?!). It turns out the two have a really good, almost brotherly, relationship going on behind Batman's back(as if ANYTHING goes on behind Batman's back!), so Hood decides to stay in Gotham to help out. His target during the Night of the Owls? Mr. Freeze.
Thoughts: Well I'll be damned! A good issue of this series! Huzzah!!! Yeah sure, it wasn't great, Hood and the Outlaws were more murderers than heroes and the villain of the piece blew chunks(Suzie Zu, the morbidly obese Hong Kong mobster? Really?), but it WAS good! And the ending was, dare I say it? Great! See what happens when you get away from all of that All-Caste/Untitled crap? Jason Todd is such a good character that even with a crappy opponent like Suzie Su, he CAN rise to the top. So this issue told us definitively that yes, Jason WAS killed by the Joker in the post-reboot DCU(we still don't know how though), and that he still has at least one ally in the Bat-family, and an unlikely one at that, in Red Robin. Yeah sure, it would have been nice if this info came out 6 or 7 issues ago or so, but hey, better late than never, right?
Score: 7 out of 10.
Um, not to be a jerk and all, but can somebody explain to me why/how Jason's helmet is so expressive?
I'm glad you enjoyed this, I loved the stuff at the end. I figured I'd be Meh about it considering the last issue and yeah, Suzie Su was meh but hopefully she won't be back, plus the way Jason just killed her was awesome.
ReplyDeleteI really like the idea that Jason and Tim are friends now, so if something happens with Bruce you kinda have Tim pulling for Jason or at least defending him when they all argue. I REALLY wanna see what happens when Bruce, Dick, Jason, Tim and Damian all meet up.
"I REALLY wanna see what happens when Bruce, Dick, Jason, Tim and Damian all meet up." <-This right here. If they DON'T meet up at some point during or after the Owls x-over, I'd almost have to consider the event a massive fail. They're all in Gotham, they're all helping Bruce, they HAVE to meet up at some point! The climatic battle, a scene at the Manor afterwards, ANYTHING!!
ReplyDeleteI feel like they may delay that, as much as I want a meeting I think Jason's gonna leave very quickly but I hope he does at least have a conversation with Alfred. And speaking of that, I love the logic that Hood came to Gotham and killed Suzie Su because the ONLY way that would go down is if Bruce was too busy with something else to stop him which made so much sense considering Bruce's current problems.
ReplyDeleteYep, as this issue was going down I was thinking "Um, if a hospital in Gotham was taken over, where the HELL is Bruce?!" but then we learn he was dealing with the attack of the Talons at the Manor, so it actually made perfect sense that Bats didn't pop up. This really WAS the only time Suzie could have done that without Bats showing up first.
ReplyDeleteAs for a meeting, I'd be happy if we only got like a page where the heroes are triumphant and Jason leaves, but gets SOME sort of acknowledgement from Bruce... A nod, a look, anything would work for me. But if he just pops up, works out of the shadows and vanishes with nobody knowing he was there, I'd be just a little bit annoyed... Not too annoyed, because that's how Jason rolls, but a little annoyed at the missed opportunity.
Right? Or she would've been knocked out by Bruce before Jason could even set the coordinates for the hospital. And yeah, I really want a meeting but I could see it just being Bruce telling Tim "Thank him for handling Freeze for me." and Tim looking surprised that he knows he and Jason are on good terms or something.
ReplyDeleteHA!! I could SO see that happening too! It's like I said in the review, NOTHING goes on behind Batman's back! Either a) he was the one who told Tim to put the olive branch out for Jason, since Bruce himself didn't/couldn't, or b) Bruce knows that Tim and Jason are buddies and is okay with it. I just can't believe that Bruce has no idea that Tim and Jason are on good terms.
ReplyDeleteYep, same thing I was thinking. It's gotta be one of those two because like you said, he knows EVERYTHING, he knows Jason's running around with an Alien and Roy, what I wanna know is what happens when Dick finds out....
ReplyDeletePoor Dick probably won't ever find out...
ReplyDeleteHe has to, just to see the look of betrayal on his face when he sees his former Teen Titans with Jason, unless he's told them to befriend Jason because he needs it or something. You never know with the bat family, they're always one step ahead.
ReplyDeleteThis was a really odd issue for me and the revelation of Tim and Jason beign in good terms got me kind of confussed since in the solicities for the next issues of Batman and Robin( after the owls thing), says that Tim is angry with Damian for killing Nobody, while he is fine here with Jason who since came back from the death is a murderer, but who knows hwo all this end.
ReplyDeleteI will be looking forward to that meeting too.
True that with Dick... Who's to say that he didn't ask Roy to check on Jason to try to keep him on the straight and narrow(although it seems Jason rubbed of on Roy if that's case).
ReplyDeleteThe Tim thing is weird, Alien... Unless he holds the current Robin to a higher standard than the former, "fallen" Robin, which is a possibility.