Red Hood and the Outlaws # 4 & 5: Roy, Kory, and that damn memory problem.

[whitesycamore]

As promised in my RHATO #6 post, here are some moments from the last couple of issues. These pages develop the relationship between Roy and Kory further.




To recap, Crux hates Kory simply because she is Tamaranean, and Tamaranean's killed his parents in what was essentially an alien hit-and-run. Crux's powers are self-inflicted, and chosen as a way to take revenge on aliens.

Just before this first page, Crux had tricked Kory into flying through a piece of machinery that removed her powers, making her as vulnerable as a normal human.



It seems like losing her powers may have restored some of her memories.

Roy and Jason pick up on her distress signal, while they're in the middle of dealing with trouble of their own.





Check out Jason's smart collared shirt and handsome sweater vest combo. I have no idea why he's wearing them, but it's very Classic Robin. Alfred would be proud (also, Jason has his helmet on but no leather gloves. Somehow, this makes him seem even more naked than he is in issue 6, in which he spends about a third of the story completely starkers).





Finally Kory is as cold as she makes *me* feel when I look at her in that outfit.





I wonder what the ridiculous promise was. Perhaps she remembers something about their past together as Titans?





Crux obviously read the first issue.








BUT – just then Jason turns up! Followed by an angry mob, and the resulting confusion distracts Kory from taking revenge on Crux. I like to imagine that she would have spared him anyway.

On the subject of memory...

It's “in the past. So don't ever speak of it again”? I must admit, when I first read this issue last month I immediately got the impression that Kory's 'memory problem' would turn out to be something that she faked, as a way of avoiding uncomfortable conversations that she doesn't want to have..

In the most recent issue she talks again about the Tamaranean attitude to the past, with the implication that although they remember and respect the past, they have a strong cultural habit of not dwelling on it.

However, issue 6 also suggested that when it comes to human interactions Kory's memory really is intermittent, and while the emotional content of her memories remains consistent, her memory for specific information such as names fluctuates.

This raises some interesting questions about how exactly Kory's memory works, whether her poor recall is something specific to events that take place on Earth, and whether the lost memories she seemed to recover when she was de-powered will be permanent.

Comments

[darkknightjrk]

On her memory--I think that there is stuff that she's hiding and doesn't want to talk about, I do think what Jason said in the first issue about "seeing things through smells" has some merit. In the pages you posted of #6, we don't see her memories of Dick and Roy until after she smells the costume that Dick was wearing at the time.

But with the last issue and looking back at the last few issues, I was struck by something--I just hope the comparison doesn't cause y'all to come at me with torches and pitchforkes--this book scratches the same itch for me that Secret Six did. Fundamentally, this book is about the three (soon to be four) leads who have some good in them, some bad, a lot of flaws and quirks and are trying to get by in a world that doesn't quite understand them.

[rdfox]

Oh, great. You'd think I'd have learned not to read these threads the first time. Now my Tamaranean DCUO (and tabletop RPG) character is running around screaming "TAMARANEAN RAAAAAAAGE!" and punching people while the music from the Punisher Genesis game plays in the background. Anyone seen James Rolfe? He's the only one who can bring her down from this...

[thanekos]

nananananananuhTamaran-ean Rage

[jlbarnett]

Tamaraneans minds must work kind of like Wolverine's with trauma. It has to just be trauma because otherwise how could they retain knowledge to learn as individuals and advance scientifically as a species.

[icon_uk]

If their memories are scent triggered, maybe Tamaran is just an insanely smelly planet, and it's only offworld they find that there isn't enough memory prompting pong to keep going.

[jlbarnett]

how do you smell equations?

[icon_uk]

No idea, I was being facetious, though I spend more time wondering about how people smell at all? (I was born without a sense of smell, so on Tamaran I'd probably be a complete amnesiac)

Sense of Smell

[blue_bolt]

1. Sorry to hear that "icon_uk," Anosmia sucks.
2. Do you have a sense of taste? If you do then I can describe smell as being similar to taste. Perhaps it might be best to describe the sense of smell as taste but similar to hearing in that one can follow their nose.

P.S: Look on the bright side - you don't have to put up with farts, body odour, sewage, garbage, canine feces, pungent public washrooms...

Re: Sense of Smell

[icon_uk]

1) I've never known anything else, so it doesn't seem like a loss to me.

2) I have a sense of taste, but I get the impression it's a lot less sensitive than the norm; I get the five basic tastes; sweet, sour, sharp, salt and umami (Which I knew existed for years before I heard it had a name) but delicate tastes tend to be lost on me.

[tsunamiwombat]

Kori's memory issues are a editor driven plot device and most likely utterly devoid of any true explaination aside from whatever they pull out of their ass.

OR, something to do with the experiments done to her, which could have disrupted her bodies internal chemistry and electric structure.

(This is why I referred to her and Jason as 'damaged people who've found each other for comfort' in my last post Re: this series, because I refuse to accept Kori's memory problems are 'normal' for her species)

Cute moment between Roy and Kori, glad to see they didn't do something bullshitty like have an entire storyarc where she's depowered. Kori is prettymuch one of the most badassed females in the DCU at this point - Issue 6 more or less flattened my reservations about the issue 1 boondoggle, she's incredibly intelligent and philosophical and confident.

Still don't get this memory thing though.

[darkknightjrk]

"Kori is prettymuch one of the most badassed females in the DCU at this point - Issue 6 more or less flattened my reservations about the issue 1 boondoggle, she's incredibly intelligent and philosophical and confident."

Definitely--it really sounds like they're pushing Starfire as a big lead in the New 52. Their tie-in with Night of the Owls specifically mentions a badass fight between her and Mister Freeze (along the lines of "what do you get when a walking nuclear reactor fights a man who can create absolute zero environments"), and then the next "arc" having Starfire in control of a space pirate ship and being considered "the most respected and feared figures in the galaxy."

[tsunamiwombat]

Also, is it just me or is her outfit SHRINKING?

[darkknightjrk]

It's very cold out there--shrinkage happens. :P

[arbre_rieur]

Er, I'm pretty sure the promise she's referring to is Roy's comment that "we're going to be fine."

[whitesycamore]

It isn't, since that's the promise which Kory refers to as *not* the most ridiculous promise he's ever made to her. She's clearly referencing some past event, which could be recent, or could be from their time in the Titans together.

[arbre_rieur]

Oops, I misread her comment as "Isn't that..." My bad.

[jaybee3]

While it's great that DC/Lobdell seem to be walking back the image they gave of Starfire in issue #1 (or given the seeming "if you don't like it - there's something wrong with YOU" line maybe not) it still doesn't address the way Jason and Roy acted and openly talked ABOUT Kori/Kory in issue #1 as if she was a sex object (with Jason's first line talking about how he's had her) and then them seemingly high-fiving over the swimsuit model with no memory they have in their company.

Subsequent issues (which I haven't bought since I'n not going to reward this title but I have seen scans of) seem to make it clear that neither Jason or Roy are like that with each other or with Kori since. So what was the point of the who frat-boy high-fiving in issue #1 (the issue that introduced these characters to all those supposed new readers). That's the part I still haven't gotten over.

[ruhig_knight]

That still bothers me, too. It seems DC's hoping fans were too enraged/distracted by NuStarfire or they were ugh..."just being guys." With how much an improvement issue 6 was, it makes Jason's behavior towards Kory in #1 even more sleezey. This woman helps you out and you're oggling her and bragging about "having her" with a fellow frat boy? No, just no... Either way it seems somebody at DC is playing safe now with this book (must've been the article with that little girl).

[whitesycamore]

Issue 6 was written by a different (and better) writer than issue 1 though, which accounts for the less brain-melting interactions between Jason and Kory.

So I'm not sure it's fair to say that makes Jason's behaviour in issue 1 even more sleazy.

[halloweenjack]

The way to understand the whole strategy behind that #1 (as well as the first issue, or the first few, of Voodoo and Catwoman) is to take a look at this interview, and specifically this bit near the beginning:

Before the relaunch, Comic Book Resources ran a survey that attempted to measure the reader anticipation of the coming DCnU relaunch titles… STATIC SHOCK ranked 46 out of 52. This is a SERIOUS challenge.

…

Around the first or second week of Oct 2011, the first sales data (of the Sep 2011 #1 issues) was published from DIAMOND. DIAMOND ESTIMATED SALES data is freely available online – anyone can get it for themselves. According to this report, STATIC #1 came in at 34,004 units sold. Oh, my goodness.

…

ANTICIPATED SALES for Static # 4 or 5:
(34,004 units)*(0.60) = 20,402 units.
ANTICIPATED SALES for Static # 12:
(34,004 units)*(0.40) = 13,601 units.

Uh-oh. Any title selling less than 20,000 units will be considered for CANCELLATION.

…

To me and Harvey, the best chance for STATIC’s survival was to plan big, exciting stories. Create solid story that QUICKLY grew to important and dramatic climaxes for Virgil and Static. There was no time to play it safe, or to do slow-burn stories. Time was our enemy. We needed something nearly geologic to upset the repeat of history in order to keep the book alive.

Like Static Shock, RHATO was competing against 51 new/rebooted/renumbered titles, some of which (the Batman and JLA books) had big advantages in terms of publicity and promotion, and had the potential to fall off the readers' radar really, really quickly, as Static Shock itself did. It's a fairly sleazy way of grabbing attention, but if it hasn't been slated for cancellation already, it must have worked.