Red Hood and The Outlaws #0 Review/Rant

Hey guys, I'm, not going to give you any false hope. This is probably 20% review, 80% ranting. So if you're not up for that, I'd recommend ya skip this post. So, let's get to it so I can get out some of this anger.

Red Hood and The Outlaws #0

Summary: We start things off with Jason being born, to a red headed woman named Catherine Elizabeth and his father, Willis Todd. They have sex in an alley, which I guess leads to Jason's birth. Jason's life sucked because his dad was a petty criminal and his mom was a drug addict. Willis Todd eventually gets arrested so Jason has to watch after his apparently pregnant mom (?), until she apparently OD's. Jason then lives on the streets, steals, and gets beaten up one fateful night where he's nursed back to health by Dr. Leslie Thompkins. Jason, taking after his parents, steals some prescription drugs from her clinic when he's caught by Batman. Thompkins talks to Batman and convinces him not to take Jason in, and Jason is soon adopted by one of Thompkins rich friends, Bruce Wayne. After some time, Bruce tells Jason he's Batman for some reason, and trains him to take over the role of Robin, to which Jason excels at but plays a bit too rough for Bruce. One day, Jason uses the Batcomputer and comes across a photo of his mom, alive and well in the Middle East and heads out to see her. Three days later he arrives there, reconciles and finds out it was a trap by The Joker. Joker beats Jason with a crowbar and blows up Jason and his mother before Batman can arrive to save them.From there we see Jason buried and he says he eventually came back with use from the Lazarus pit and he says "That's my story and I'm sticking to it." After that, we see that the entire thing, Jason's dad being locked up, Jason's mother "over-dosing" when she was apparently in a state that looked like death thanks to a flower, Jason being found beaten by Leslie Thompkins, and Jason being taken in and eventually becoming Robin was all planned by The Joker, just so he could "giveth and taketh away" to Batman.


Thoughts: Fuck you, Scott Lobdell. For the last four years, Jason Todd has been my favorite comic book character. I've read every Jason appearance from a Death in The Family to now, I've had the highs of seeing Jason, a character everyone referred to as "The Worst Robin" have his own Animated Film with an AMAZING performance by Jensen Ackles that brought Jason to life so much so that when I read a Jason Todd comic I hear his voice. I've had the lows of seeing Jason become a crazy murderer thanks to Tony Daniel, a anthropomorphic blob with tentacles thanks to Devin Grayson, and a pimply faced, red haired goon thanks to Grant Morrison, and I would gladly take ANY of those over what you've done to Jason Todd in the last year. It's not enough you've had this ridiculous All Caste shit, Jason going on intergalactic dates, and not to mention the ridiculously stupid scene you wrote with Killer Croc and Arsenal (another favorite of mine), but now, you write this horrible issue that retcons the entire reason Jason was taken in by Batman, to tell us a story about how Jason's parents met and he was conceived from them having sex in an alley?! Then... on top of that, you tell me, that the reason Jason became Robin, was because of a plan from THE JOKER? The Joker... knows who knows Bruce Wayne is Batman sets out to make a kid so miserable and pitiful that Batman decides to take him in, tell him his secret, then make him Robin, while meanwhile, Catherine, his mother, who KNOWS SHE HAS A SON, is just fine with living in The Middle East for no apparent reason and not asking where her son and husband are. And then, Joker says, ah, enough time has passed, now I'll reunite them and blow them up... Nevermind the fact we apparently just skipped over the whole Jason robbing a store at gunpoint then beating up his colleague for shooting a woman story that was set up in Batman #0, there's no point in even MENTIONING that here.

I suppose this is my fault for giving Lobdell another chance after I finally gave up on this series months ago. He's succeeded in making me drop this and Teen Titans, and now, with an upcoming run in with the Joker next month, I should be looking forward to the next issue of this, and that issue SHOULD be written by the man that deserves to write it, Judd Winick, instead it's going to be written by a non-talented hack that isn't worthy of reading a Jason Todd comic, let alone writing one. This issue just solidified the fact that I will not read any comic Lobdell writes again, including this one. As for this rating, It doesn't even deserve one, if I have it anything it would only be for the great art, but Lobdell's writing has even made me unable to enjoy that. So in honor of Zero Month, I think that's what I'll give this comic.

Score: 0/10 

Me: I'd burn this comic but it's not worth the use of a match.