WHO IS THE RED HOOD

[statham1986.insanejournal.com]

Spoilerific New Image Regarding G-Mozz's Batman and Robin Run

So, Morrison's new Batman run features a brand-new, very superheroey Red Hood, plus his new sidekick. Any takers on exactly who it is under the mask? Jason Todd's been done before, so I'm putting my money on the Joker.

Think about it. Morrison has already established that the Joker's mind works in a very particular way - Creating a new psyche to deal with the changing times and external stimuli, as we saw during the Clown at Midnight. With Bruce's Batman gone, there goes one of the most prominent influences on the Joker, and so, he decides to play the hero and get his own Robin, and show the pretender (because if anyone knows the new Batman isn't really Batman outside of the circle of allies Bruce kept, it'd be Joker) how it's really done.

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Comments

[thanekos.insanejournal.com]

... is that a vibrator wearing a quilt?

[statham1986.insanejournal.com]

On top of a mannequin with some water-pistols, yes.

[uadlika.insanejournal.com]

oh thank God I'm not the only one who thought it looked like a vibrator.

[statham1986.insanejournal.com]

Hmmm.. Given the comments, perhaps 'The Red Head' is a more appropriate name for the villain?

[foxhack.insanejournal.com]

.......................

Is "she" wearing a diaper? D:

[statham1986.insanejournal.com]

Hot pants, darn it!!

It's a play on the original Robin, I'd imagine, but then, a diaper would be more entertaining..

[nagaoka.insanejournal.com]

I thought it looked like a diaper too...

[bluefall.insanejournal.com]

So. Are we meant to understand that this faux Robin is somehow facially deformed, in a Ragdoll-esque fashion (or perhaps wearing a skin mask, a la Jane Doe), or is that just Quitely not being able to draw non-hideous potato sack people as per usual?

[statham1986.insanejournal.com]

I haven't read Batman and Robin #1 yet, but apparently, she's related to something that Morrison is setting up with one of his new villains, Professor Pyg, I think.

But from what I can tell, she's meant to be deformed, and it isn't just Quitely's art style. After all, he did a perfectly acceptable job with his version of Lois Lane and Luthor's neice (the name escapes me) on All Star Superman.

Plus, if the Red Hood is the Joker, which is what I believe, what better joke than to have fairly ugly Robin to his Batman, given what a handsome guy the original Robin turned out to be?

[darkknightjrk.insanejournal.com]

"I haven't read Batman and Robin #1 yet, but apparently, she's related to something that Morrison is setting up with one of his new villains, Professor Pyg, I think."

Yeah, she's pretty looks exactly like the girl that was about to get Pyg's doll face on at the end of #1. Except, y'know, she has the mask on her.

[thokstar.insanejournal.com]

Given that Pyg all but said that he's going to put a mask on her, it's likely she's the sidekick and her dad is the new Red Hood, who's permanently scarred by what Pyg did.

[interrobamf.insanejournal.com]

The impression I get from Batman and Robin #1 is that it's a permanently affixed mask.

[kagome654.insanejournal.com]

I think it's a little more obvious that it's a mask when you look at the variant (http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y16/Kagome654/BR-4-Var.jpg) cover.

[halloweenjack.insanejournal.com]

That's actually a pretty good rendition of how someone looks if they've had to have major face reconstruction and the surgeons didn't have much to work with. GIS for James Vance (the inspiration for Arseface from Preacher) sometime, although I wouldn't do it too soon before or after mealtime.

[venneh.insanejournal.com]

There's a chick at the very end of Bats and Robin #1, Sasha, whose dad, Niko, is turned into one of Pyg's henchmen, who have the same facial design, and the issue ends with him presumably doing the same to her.

So maybe chick = Sasha?

[kitty_tc_69.insanejournal.com]

I was thinking his head looked like a red pill, myself, which made me wonder if there's not also a Blue Pill running around.

Also, can we nickname him "Suppository Head"? That's what I'd call him.

[statham1986.insanejournal.com]

His catchphrase is 'MEDICATION TIME - THAT'S RIGHT, MR MARTINI!!', if that's what we're going to be calling him. Just for the sheer WTFness of a Cuckoo's Nest reference.

[xdoop.insanejournal.com]

If the girl there is the daughter, I'm wondering if guy is the father.

[milleniumrex.insanejournal.com]

Oh, charming. Nothing like hideously mutilated teenage girls to brighten up a Batman comic.

I'm going to guess this new Red Hood is the Joker or something bizarre like that. Morrison couldn't care less about Jason Todd.

[statham1986.insanejournal.com]

Exactly my line of thought. Morrison has done as much work with the Joker as he has done Batman over the course of his run, and Didio said there'd be a unified approach to using him following RIP - Meaning this. Morrison has an idea for him, therefore he's out of bounds for now, which is undoubtedly better than pre-RIP, where Joker gets messed up and scarred but still appears normal in every other book.

[rdfox.insanejournal.com]

Thank *god* that Joker's the one character most suited to having ill-conceived Morrison randomness retconned away...

[foxhack.insanejournal.com]

I don't think that's a teenage girl. :p

[milleniumrex.insanejournal.com]

The figure hanging on Red Hood? From Batman and Robin #1, I'm pretty sure it is.

[foxhack.insanejournal.com]

No, I mean that think that's an adult woman, not a girl. :p

[seriousfic.insanejournal.com]

I see the Punisher's being a bit of a pill.

And who knew Leatherface was so well-proportioned?

[crinosg.insanejournal.com]

you know who they should bring back? Ally Babble.

No relation to the above, just wanted to add that.

[tahngarth.insanejournal.com]

They already brought back Batman Jones, so maybe!

[icon_uk.insanejournal.com]

He'd probably be a shock jock on Gotham FM

[khamelea.insanejournal.com]

I miss the previous Red Hood.

[sherkahn.insanejournal.com]

I'm going to say either Dr. Hurt or Hush.

[perletwo.insanejournal.com]

Dr. Hurt himself is shown holding the keys to Wayne Manor on the "DO NOT MISS" page at the end of B&R #1, along with an image of Red Hood and silhouetted honey in another panel, so I'm guessing he can be ruled out.

[foxhack.insanejournal.com]

Frankly, I doubt Morrison would use Hush. Mostly because he sucks. :p

[statham1986.insanejournal.com]

How true. That was one of the things that struck me about RIP and the mini-event it generated - Dini was good enough to adknowledge the walking plot device of Jezebel Jet, but Morrison pretty much ignored everything else anyone was doing in generating his own massive storyarc.

Still, Hush does mostly suck, so perhaps it's best Morrison ignores him. Dini's only just managed to start showing a little bit of potential for Tommy, so let him do some more work..

[volksjager.insanejournal.com]

Joker. Anyone here have a hellokitty vbrator ?

[nymphgalatea.insanejournal.com]

I love, love *love* how good Quitely is with body language. I love the way Dick is sitting, quietly contemplating this fresh new craziness, while Damian is swaying on tiptoe, dying to go smack something.

And that Dollotron-Sasha is insanely creepy. This comic is ferocious!

[sistermagpie.insanejournal.com]

This is an interesting comment coming off a conversation elsewhere I was just reading--the poses really play with their relatives sizes/ages. Dick's sitting Indian style and hunched over looks very much like a child's pose to me, with Damian's standing up, making him taller with Dick beside his feet. Like, I can't imagine Bruce ever sitting in that position. (*insert obligatory observation about all the positions Dick gets into that Bruce never could*)

[psychop_rex.insanejournal.com]

Well, whoever the Red Hood turns out to be, it's a nice look for him. The sidekick is... disturbing, but hopefully other artists will streamline her design somewhat. I'm not one of those people who insists every woman in comics meet his standard of feminine perfection, but I'd prefer that they NOT look like something out of a horror movie.

[statham1986.insanejournal.com]

The thing is, if it's appropriate the the character and the story, then why not have a couple of characters who do look like they belong in horror films?

The Batman villains, the girls in particular, are all particularly insane (except Selina), and for the most part, overly good looking, so I don't see any reason why we shouldn't have just one really quite terrifying female character.

[oddpuppets.insanejournal.com]

I feel the same. Batman is at it's heart a very gothic-noir horror fantasy. It is fantastical in a horrific and mostly 'realistic' way - all the horror is grounded, sickeningly. It is Freudian in the popular sense, a deep incision into the twisted grey matter. A female character who is hideous, whose outer appearance reflects her inner depravity, is completely in line with the Batman atmosphere. Mind you, that's only if Morrison doesn't pull another Marvel Boy and have her be beautiful underneath. I haven't read the first issue yet so I am in the -do-not-know.

That's why I am a little hesitant about Batman and Robin, actually. This kind of book seems like the perfect stepping ground for Morrison - away from the incomprehensibility of R.I.P. and the flawed actualization of Final Crisis - but it is also has a flying batmobile. I love it, but it also clashes with my view of Batman in his native Gotham. Fine, Batman with the JLA can have some crazy stuff. Go go Bat Rocket! But the batmobile being a flying machine in Gotham? Something about that just doesn't feel right.

However, I'll give Morrison the benefit of a doubt. Besides, Quitely is an illustration god so I'll buy it with pleasure.

[statham1986.insanejournal.com]

I think, given the rather massive shift in the status quo, that Morrison is finally trying to move away from Batman being so incredibly dark - which was one of his mission statements, as I recall, when he started out on Batman.

With Dick assuming the role of Batman, it's a perfect time to try something a little different, and a flying batmobile is lighthearted enough that you could certainly see Dick enjoying the idea, I think.

[oddpuppets.insanejournal.com]

Oh, I don't necessarily think Batman is dark - but I think the environment that he works in *should* be twisted and gothic. Of course, I view things through the lens of BTAS. The environment is dark, but Batman is not as twisted as the criminals who inhabit Gotham.

[statham1986.insanejournal.com]

True. The BTAS version of Bruce was one of my favourites, somehow, because they struck that perfect balance of having Batman be just dark enough, but not overbearingly so. And Bruce Wayne was utilised well, and in a different fashion than the 'he's just a mask' idea that some established.

But the books have got increasingly dark, I felt, as we crept toward RIP, so to me, this is Morrison trying to lighten things up a little, and given it's only temporary, why not let him play?

[psychop_rex.insanejournal.com]

In theory, I completely agree with you - but in practice, she freaks me out. Anyway, you can look like you belong in a horror film without looking like THAT. What about the character in 'Eyes without a Face' who's had her face horribly ripped up from a car accident? We never actually get a good look at her face, but the creepy porcelain mask she wears - which is as eerily beautiful as only a mask can be - indicates that once, SHE must have been beautiful - very, very beautiful, almost impossibly so - and for her to wear a mask like this, her face must have been reduced to something truly horrifying. It's much more subtle and psychological than 'BLEAH! FREAK-FACE!'

[statham1986.insanejournal.com]

Well,perhaps we consider this the opposite, and perhaps the girl is pretty beneath the mask but wants to be ugly, for whatever reason and that's why she dons the permanent mask. There's likely some psychological explanation behind her look and what she's doing, as there is with all Batvillains, so I'm not trying to jump to conclusions before I know the answer.

[psychop_rex.insanejournal.com]

Oh, I'm sure, and I'll admit that I'm just going by knee-jerk reaction here, but my knee-jerk reaction is still 'Blech!' If she DOES keep that character design, I just hope it's streamlined a bit by other artists so it's not quite so creepy.