Outlaws Can Be Heroes Too
Review of Red Hood & the Outlaws #2
By: Andrew Hines
How do you upstage yourself after coming back from the dead?
If you're Jason Todd, you'll most likely team-up with an annoying former sidekick and a super-powered alien that used to date your rival. Issue 2 begins with a flashback of Batman's baby mama, Talia al Ghul, explaining Jason's return to the land of the living. Right after that we get right back to where we left off in the first book. There's also a huge attitude change from the first few pages to the present. Jason has gone from the streetwise punk fans know and loathe to the reluctant leader of a small band of heroic outlaws.
Scott Lobdell gives everyone their own unique personalities, rather than going with the Golden Age rule of everyone having the same basic attitudes. He puts a comic book spin on everyday scenarios and brings in conversations from the modern day. From the flight attendant to the driver of the rented limo, we see twists and turns that might happen in every day life. The difference is that they are meshed with the craziness of comic book reality. It takes a bit of vision to merge the two worlds.
Aside from Kenneth Rocafort's art still reminding me a bit of Cory Walker's run on Invincible, he takes the characters and makes them his own. Each character's design is far different from their incarnations in the old DCU. It might just be Rocafort's style that makes Red Hood's costume design work. I can't honestly think of anyone else who could make a full-body suit, a solid red mask and brown leather motorcycle jacket work together. There's also the fact that in no shot, is anything out of proportion. Rocafort is a professional and it shows. Well done, sir.
Lobdell and Rocafort make a fantastic team. The story mixes perfectly with the art in a way you rarely see. This earns it a 9.4 out of 10.
Cover of Red Hood & the Outlaws #2:
http://www.comicartcommunity.com/gallery/details.php?image_id=42666
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