Red Hood: Outlaw #43 – Scott Lobdell, Writer; Christopher Williams, Penciller; Scott Hanna, Inker; Arif Prianto, Colorist
Ratings:
Ray – 7/10
Ray: In Red Hood: Outlaw #43, Scott Lobdell continues to deliver one of the oddest and most quick-shifting books in the DCU, as you never know what genre it’s going to be in each issue and it can easily drop random developments that are forgotten as easily as they come. This issue opens with a segment where Susie Su gets murdered due to her affiliation with Jason Todd, only to immediately wake up with no real explanation.
But before that can be addressed, we’re off to an action-packed storyline where Jason, Artemis, and Bizarro fight a pair of mutant cheerleaders who turn into demons atop a moving train. This relates to Jason’s past with the Untitled, and takes a sharp turn into horror once the Obelisk the “girls” are after is revealed and they change into their true forms. New artist Christopher Williams certainly has a talent for body horror, but there’s so much going on here that it’s hard to get into any of the major plots.
The arrival of General Glory in Red Hood: Outlaw #43–one of the oldest DC heroes – in more ways than one – comes out of nowhere, as the cranky old hero basically takes command of the Outlaws despite no one really agreeing to it. The team dynamic is the best thing here, with Jason, Artemis, and Bizarro uneasily slipping back into a rapport. I’m never quite sure how intelligent Bizarro is supposed to be anymore, though.
From there, we also get an amusing segment where Ma Gunn tries to interview a new teacher for the kids under her care – and gets a pair of unlikely faces who are definitely better off here than they are in another book this week. And Jason’s ex-girlfriend Isabelle’s quiet life of caring for Jason’s dog is interrupted when she gets drafted into the Untitled’s war against the Outlaws. This book continues to take place in its own strange continuity where any subplot from five years ago can be pulled up at random.
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Disclaimer: GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
This comic book can extract stories from 5 years ago because they have the same writer