Friday, November 29, 2019

Red Hood (and the) Outlaw(s) #40 Vol.2

Jason struggles with protective feelings amd the students get more fleshed out.

SPOILERS AHEAD

I can see the students representing different aspects of Jason (though this could be me overthinking things again):

Devour is the part of him that's bitter about the way he's been treated, that everyone thinks the worst of but still has a soft protective spot for kids. The flashback of him with the car kind of reminded me of Jason stealing to survive. His reasoning for wanting to become a villain reminded me of another scene: Jason expressing his disgust at those attending his charity because he witnessed how the people of Gotham didn't care about him.

Cloud 9 naturally brought back memories of Jason's Robin days. Not so much because of her recklessness but because of her asking why he can't have fun. He could be more carefree in his early days as a sidekick and after losing so much over a year ago (our time) he doesn't have time for it.

Babe in Arms grew up too fast mentally and wants someone to tell her it's okay to just be a baby. The problem is that she has no one (that's living) that she can trust and is actually pretty lonely...just like Jason.

Doomed and DNA are considered monsters that don't fit in. Jason has alluded to feeling different through narration in the past. I have theories on the rest being linked to his death and rebirth. Basically he feels like a freak.

Vessel is the most mysterous but we do know his powers are connected to death and he's the only one of the students Jason threatened. I'm assuming he's extremely dangerous and if the character sheet is still accurate he might not be human.

There's another layer to why Jason agreed to become a teacher and that's because he was lonely. It really highlights how Jason was going through the motions since he lost his team. It sounds like even the company of the Su sisters, Bunker, Wingman, dog and Isabel didn't make him feel less lonely. He was leaving Gotham behind before Luthor made him an offer. Did he have a plan or did he just want to leave?

His protective side really shines as he continues to doubt himself. Although his crowbar mention might be misunderstood by his students since he currently wields one. I'm still disappointed that the crowbar holds no importance to the story. No one has directly commented on it and we don't know why he's using it.

Caden seems like he's extremely dangerous and was purposely kept from the others for their safety. The "evil" Bizarro and Artemis might be creations from the holo room (shown during Caden's first appearence) but how would anyone know what they looked like now? Even if Jason was aware of it being fake his "welcome back" response to seeing them is lackluster. No shock at the different appearence?

I thought the Doomed/DNA pairing might be set up but I didn't want to assume until they were developed more. While it might seem kind of fast it does make sense that they'd be drawn together. DNA stated why they are attracted to him and Reiser has someone that literally understands him. In terms of what he says and being different. This could be a fun pairing even if I question why Reiser is cool with the super villain angle. How different is this version of the character to the original?

I wasn't surprised that the art was good as I have seen David Messina's work before in IDW Angel titles. He's even worked with Lobdell previously on the Gunn/Illyria mini series Only Human.

I am a little annoyed that I won't be seeing a new issue until the new year especially when the Outlaw reunion is so close.



Questions Raised?: Is Ride Share going to return? With all the characters it seems like there wouldn't be much room for him.

Jason told his students about his friends? Why would he when he barely trusts them?



Say What?: Cloud 9 saying Shay is Jason's girlfriend might be a joke at to how unlikely that pairing is. Shay was dating Cameron Chase (the female lead of Chase) during New 52.

I can buy Jason blaming himself for his death and claiming he disobeyed Batman all the time, etc. Low self esteem and all that. I don't like the narrative though since that's not quite true and everyone blames him. Besides all Robins disobeyed orders.

No comments:

Post a Comment