I want to digress a bit for this posting to talk about something else that has gotten my attention recently. For probably the first 6 months after the DC relaunch I had no idea who or what the Red Hood was. Then finally by chance I stumbled across some video clips on Youtube of
Batman: Under the Red Hood. Again we see DC out doing Marvel by light years in the arena of well done animated movies and TV programming (case and point,Young Justice).
I spent a good part of my day off on Friday hunting numerous reviews and previews online of all 16 issues of
Red Hood and The Outlaws to get an over view on the series and it's characters. First off, I love the concept of former Batman side kick Jason Todd coming back from the "dead" as a
Punisher style vigilante who comes at odds with members of the Batman family. Both the movie and the comic book series had some great moments of exploring Todd's anger issues of his murder by the Joker and his resentment toward Batman over it. Aside from that I just love his kinda non-costume urban street wear look. This is more like what I've always wanted
Deadshot to look like in both the old and new DC Universes. The potential for the Red Hood character and the
Suicide Squad practically has my mind racing when I think about all the will of the minds and intellect type confrontations Batman and
Amanda Waller have had over the years in the old DCU as well as in
Justice League Unlimited.
 |
| Red Hood and The Outlaws #8 |
Now when it comes to
Roy Harper (
Arsenal ) and
Kori (
Starfire)
in the 52 relaunch it's a bit of a mixed bag. Harper isn't that
different from the old DCU but he's not as serious of a character and
his self deprecating humor at times is a bit heavy handed. Needles to say there's no Teen Titans, Cheshire, daughter or drug addiction in his back ground (as of yet anyways) which I don't know if I could ever get used to for the Roy Harper character. As for Starfire
there's that whole thing about the TnA and her sexuality in general
we've all heard plenty of already. Not a big issue for me and in general
I'm more over all accepting of her rebooted character and her origin.
I have to say I did enjoy a lot of the snappy dialogue between this threesome team. And speaking of threesomes I kinda almost expected things to go in that direction given the dynamics of this team along with the more contemporary pop culture writing of comics these days. From an art work stand point it was all around pretty sharp no real complaints on that end except for maybe an issue or two. After having reviewed this series do I wish I had picked up this book when the relaunch got started? I would say kinda sorta but at the same time not really. I'm still not into the new DCU but of all the titles I've tried out if there was one that was worth picking up still I think it would be Red Hood and The Outlaws.
 |
| Batman: Under the Red Hood |
A good chunk of Batman: Under the Red Hood can be watched on Youtube clips. These are some of my favorites when it comes to the Jason Todd and Batman confrontations:
Young Justice was awesome today! We finally got to see some long anticipated confrontations that made for some of the best fight scenes this season such as between Sportsmaster and Black Manta. In general the episode had some really well thought out writing check out the preview clip below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BYSk1lb_tc
Next up: Red Hood and The Suicide Squad!
