Apparently you either love or hate it. Me? I feel like I need to go over it.
SPOILERS AHEAD
I read someone else's issue just to see this but I'm mostly focusing on the fight not the mystery it's self.
I still maintain that Bendis should have had more tension between Jason, Bruce and Damian given their issues in other titles. It's something he briefly addressed and glossed over before but it would have made the reaction of the fight more believable. Damian previously thought Jason wasn't a great fighter in TT before he was defeated and seeing just how much he underestimated him might have made it work better. He could have used that to the advantage of the "he's Leviathan" idea since that implies that Jason has been hiding his fighting prowess. I still have no idea why Damian and the "Detectives" believe it had to be Jason. Yes they explained it but the reasoning was extremely weak.
Even Ollie and Damian (I think?) don't seem sure later on.
I still maintain that Bendis should have had more tension between Jason, Bruce and Damian given their issues in other titles. It's something he briefly addressed and glossed over before but it would have made the reaction of the fight more believable. Damian previously thought Jason wasn't a great fighter in TT before he was defeated and seeing just how much he underestimated him might have made it work better. He could have used that to the advantage of the "he's Leviathan" idea since that implies that Jason has been hiding his fighting prowess. I still have no idea why Damian and the "Detectives" believe it had to be Jason. Yes they explained it but the reasoning was extremely weak.
Even Ollie and Damian (I think?) don't seem sure later on.
Damian isn't written well in this, in general Bendis seems to have trouble with character voices. I couldn't tell if he was impressed with Jason or being sarcastic. Manhunter complains that they weren't taken out fair and square as if there were rules of engagement that had to be followed for all vigilantes. Despite the fact they all ganged up on him. Out of all of them she lost in a hand to hand fight. She almost sounds more like a child than Damian. Acting like it's confirmed that Red Hood is guilty because he flees them? That's not proof.
Why did Batman act like he wasn't part of the defeated group? Bruce says "he beat you all" like he wasn't there then (I think?) admits they got their asses kicked. He also says (in some confusing dialogue) that he wasn't letting Jason off easy. Are we meant to think he is planning something and faked being taken down? Why would he do that? Was he going easy on Jason ?
A lot of dialogue is confusing because the speech pattern doesn't sound like it came from the right character. Some of it is pointless and is trying to be humorous. The art it's self can be confusing.
A lot of dialogue is confusing because the speech pattern doesn't sound like it came from the right character. Some of it is pointless and is trying to be humorous. The art it's self can be confusing.
Lois really ran down to introduce herself and interview Red Hood? Shouldn't he know who she is? If she was eavesdropping on the conversation last issue she should know that he does. The dialogue is weird because we know there are close connections with Red Hood, Batman and Robin being family yet they use his full name like he's not. Then Lois records the whole thing and mentions the family thing. I thought that wasn't known with Red Hood's undercover job and now Lois is openingly mentioning it? Jason allows it and outright states he has a connection to Batman? WHY? Is that being printed like the Sanctuary story was?
Jason even stopping to have an interview in the middle of a chase/fight is ridiculous. Personally I think it would have worked if it was framed better. Maybe:
1. Have Jason be in the middle of a fight with one of the heroes and Lois decides to yell out her questions. Jason lampshades it but goes along with the interview while still being in the middle of a battle. This at least would acknowledge the silliness and could be funny.
2. Have the talk happen when Lois and Jason both research a lead and end up at the same place.
Sure, he might have figured it was worth a shot to explain his side of the story to someone that's willing to listen to him. Fine. But it doesn't reflect well on the others if he's just causally discussing this during their supposed battle. Plus Jason could have used that time to escape.
I thought no one died since they know teleporting is involved. Why is Lois acting offended and saying people are dead? Jason thought in depth about the reason he was set up while he was falling? Well he put more thought into it than the detectives did. But I want to call attention to this detail because of the fight it's self. Jason is multitasking throughout the whole thing and I'll follow up on that later. I'm not by any means a Bendis fan but wanted to give this fight a run down. I will say that it feels like a lot is missing and some of it is confusing.
Question: I might be wrong about this because I don't have the issue in hand but where was Vic during the fight?
Manhunter: She's been rebooted so her beat down isn't shocking. Despite her protesting it was fair, she was the one attacking when he was explaining himself.
Green Arrow: Ollie has a good aim and fights at a distance. He has a supportive role, he doesn't actually get his ass kicked but manages to unintentionally hinder his allies. One arrow goes down the barrel of one of Jasons' guns, which is used to take out Eel. The second arrow is deflected with Kate's staff towards Bruce and Damian. This one I can buy as Roy used to be partners with Ollie and craft trick arrows. Jason would be well aware of how they worked and their weaknesses.
Plastic Man: This is the hardest one to buy given his abilities. I have no idea if it was supposed to be a trick arrow besides clogging the gun. It doesn't look like it in the art and the "trick" side is facing away from Eel anyway. As a result Eel looks like he was defeated by a backwards flying arrow. This needed to be told better.
Lois Lane: She didn't fight but the random interview felt dumb. Was she trying to distract him and Jason decided to humor her? While I did have several problems with it the talk between Jason and Lois was one of the better written sections. Jason pointing out that he already paid for breaking her old recorder several times over by even talking to her and her agreeing? That felt like one of the few in character moments.
Robin: Damian seemed to flip on whether he thought Jason was guilty. During the fight he impulsively attacks Jason head on getting in the way of the other heroes. Did he lose his cool because Jason was running? Regardless Jason was able to defeat him before.
Batman: He barely did anything but I think he was trying to protect Damian because he knows he can't take Jason. Maybe he was protecting Jason? It's hard to tell. Their team up against him was brutal and (from a meta stand point) Jason's answering hit felt satisfying after all the false accusations the Waynes have made against him. But this is one of the parts that felt like we were missing panels.
Red Hood: Jason has shown in the past, most recently with his TT fight with Damian, that he excels at improvising. He's able to use things around him to his advantage and during the DOTF TT tie in we got confirmation that he can fight blindly (sees arrow deflect.) In RHATO we've learn that Jason was the only human to master the All Caste training to see the past/present/future all at once. With that in mind I could see this fight being possible. Jason would have an advantage, it would certainly explain a lot. That said All Caste training hasn't been fully fleshed out but in theory I could see it working like this.
The All ability is to be one with three different times at once, right? At the beginning of the fight Jason is shooting at several targets, hitting them, being attacked and STILL thinking in depth about why he was picked as the prime suspect while falling. Maybe Bendis didn't have any of that in mind and I'm overthinking this.
I expected this to be something like Catwoman taking out three members of the Flash family at once but it's not as bad as I thought it would be. It still could be improved, less choppy storytelling, with better dialogue and character voices. But most of it surprisingly seems plausible. At least with the fight, the detectives themselves come across extremely dim and even end up having Amanda Waller listening in on them. The set up continues to feel rushed to me with the "team" acting rash.
Question: I might be wrong about this because I don't have the issue in hand but where was Vic during the fight?
Manhunter: She's been rebooted so her beat down isn't shocking. Despite her protesting it was fair, she was the one attacking when he was explaining himself.
Green Arrow: Ollie has a good aim and fights at a distance. He has a supportive role, he doesn't actually get his ass kicked but manages to unintentionally hinder his allies. One arrow goes down the barrel of one of Jasons' guns, which is used to take out Eel. The second arrow is deflected with Kate's staff towards Bruce and Damian. This one I can buy as Roy used to be partners with Ollie and craft trick arrows. Jason would be well aware of how they worked and their weaknesses.
Plastic Man: This is the hardest one to buy given his abilities. I have no idea if it was supposed to be a trick arrow besides clogging the gun. It doesn't look like it in the art and the "trick" side is facing away from Eel anyway. As a result Eel looks like he was defeated by a backwards flying arrow. This needed to be told better.
Lois Lane: She didn't fight but the random interview felt dumb. Was she trying to distract him and Jason decided to humor her? While I did have several problems with it the talk between Jason and Lois was one of the better written sections. Jason pointing out that he already paid for breaking her old recorder several times over by even talking to her and her agreeing? That felt like one of the few in character moments.
Robin: Damian seemed to flip on whether he thought Jason was guilty. During the fight he impulsively attacks Jason head on getting in the way of the other heroes. Did he lose his cool because Jason was running? Regardless Jason was able to defeat him before.
Batman: He barely did anything but I think he was trying to protect Damian because he knows he can't take Jason. Maybe he was protecting Jason? It's hard to tell. Their team up against him was brutal and (from a meta stand point) Jason's answering hit felt satisfying after all the false accusations the Waynes have made against him. But this is one of the parts that felt like we were missing panels.
Red Hood: Jason has shown in the past, most recently with his TT fight with Damian, that he excels at improvising. He's able to use things around him to his advantage and during the DOTF TT tie in we got confirmation that he can fight blindly (sees arrow deflect.) In RHATO we've learn that Jason was the only human to master the All Caste training to see the past/present/future all at once. With that in mind I could see this fight being possible. Jason would have an advantage, it would certainly explain a lot. That said All Caste training hasn't been fully fleshed out but in theory I could see it working like this.
The All ability is to be one with three different times at once, right? At the beginning of the fight Jason is shooting at several targets, hitting them, being attacked and STILL thinking in depth about why he was picked as the prime suspect while falling. Maybe Bendis didn't have any of that in mind and I'm overthinking this.
I expected this to be something like Catwoman taking out three members of the Flash family at once but it's not as bad as I thought it would be. It still could be improved, less choppy storytelling, with better dialogue and character voices. But most of it surprisingly seems plausible. At least with the fight, the detectives themselves come across extremely dim and even end up having Amanda Waller listening in on them. The set up continues to feel rushed to me with the "team" acting rash.
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