Red Hood and the Outlaws Annual #1 - Brothers in Arms

[icon_uk]

...though, since in this case the brothers are Dick Grayson and Jason Todd, presumably not each others. ()



Okay, I'll admit it, there IS a plot about the former KGBeast, now know as the Beast, recovering a stash of weapons hidden in Gotham, but I'm going to focus on the sub plot, because I know my audience, and because it's fun.

So I'm skipping the raid on a boat by the Beast, and heading towards this, where Dick Grayson is back at the circus.



Now, it has to be said that for someone who spends so much time associated with the circus,

He ends up a mind controlled puppet... but looks REALLY GOOD in the role

Or the original Jason Todd loses his parents

Or the Joker blows the whole damn place up to prove a point... or something

In this case, he sees the Outlaws performing as circus acts; Jason as "The Masked Marksman", shooting tagets whilst leaping his motorcycle through flaming hoops, Artemis as The Arching Amazon, and Bizarro as, well... Bizarro.

Since he's probably doubts that mind control is involved in this case he heads backstage after the performance



And here's the first hint of a Rebirth related change of the past...



Now we now that Tim saw Dick perofrm (on the night the Flying Graysons made their final performance) but never that Jason had been to see him at some point in the past too... which is cute! :)

Not that he's going to tell Dick that of course....



Okay, 1) This is cute as hell and 2) "By the Seven Beards"... what on earth is that a reference too? Did she have a bad experience watching "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves" or something?

Jason explains that some time ago he managed to threaten the Russian Mafia out of Gotham, but they've come back and are looking for a stash of weapons. He'd heard that their agents were using the circus as a cover, hiring themselves as itinerant labour, but they're not sure who is involved yet, and wanted Dick's insights in how to find out.

So Dick is quickly introduced to the circus manager as an old firend of Jason's "Almost a brother".



I like that Dick isn't even trying to object.

So they all head out to the after hours social gathering of the circus staff, where Dick amuses Artemis by telling stories of Jason's Robin career (I have to assume he's whispering them, because there are a lot of people around)



I know very little about this version of Artemis, but I see quite a bit of old school Kory there... which is a good thing IMHO.

Meanwhile, Bizarro has his first crush, which I had to include.



Bizarro shyly approaches her, and after checking that the other performers didn't put him up to this, she reveals her face.





Awww,,,,, :)

Jason is approached by the circus manager, who is Angelique's father, who offers him and his friends some extra work, off the books, so it looks like they're in.

Artemis and Dick walk back to the trailer together and I leave it to your personal predelictions as to who is the one saying this line!



Artemis assures Dick that she can't see herself and Jason as an item, or indeed Jason with anyone at the moment. Dick flirts good naturedly a little, and Artemis wonders if they ARE brothers. Dick says not so much, but they share a father figure, and Artemis wants to know more about them, so Dick outlines what happened the time that Jason came home from his first solo patrol as Robin...





Well, I DID say they ended up in bed together... You're welcome.

Weirdly this does tie into a couple of other instances where Jason, instead of getting his own room in a mansion roughly the size of Luxembourg, gets Dick's old room.

The reference to "Falling out" with Bruce presumablty refers to the as yet unseen reason for Dick becoming Nightwing (Which has been left vague since the New52) and which will apparently be dealt with when the new writing team take over Nightwing in a few months.

So Dick returns to the trailer to find everyone



The last time I saw this much UST is was the "Free! Iwatobi Swim Club" anime...

So we cut to the next day, and Dick making another outing as a circus clown (though he avoids the probably fatal mistake in Gotham of wearing whiteface.



Smart move Biz old boy...

So Dick... I mean Flippy Flop, can balance one-handed on a ten pin, whilst balancing a beachball on one foot and pouring drinks with his free hand on a tray balanced on his OTHER foot... Artemis has a point.

So whilst Dick keeps the crowd entertained, the Outlaw team, on the circus managers orders, locate and enter the the underground vault containing the arms cache the Ruissian mafia (remember them?) want.

They find the Beast there, and engage in several pages to very physical violence, but it's the sort of thing you've seen many times before.

The Beast, mercifully, seems to have lost his awful "Boris and Natasha" Russian accent form days gone by, and having been cut loose by the Russian government is now an independent contractor. He's also no fool...



How can you hate a city which has Nightwing bouncing around it? Truly the Beast IS a villain.





Yeah boys, getting all excited about punching people, when you have two team-mates with actual super-strength (At least I assume Arttemis is that level of strong, I KNOW Bizarro is)

So it ends, with the bad uys carted away, Nightwing confirming with Argus that the weapons will be disposed of, and the Outlaws vanishing into the darkness before anyone realises they were working on the side of the angels.


And the Batboys say goodbye.


And again... Awwwww! :)

Artemis seems disapponted that Dick didn't stop to say goodbye to her, which Jason makes fun of (as you might imagine) and Bizarro happily notes that HE kissed the bearded lady... AND MORE THAN ONCE!



I haven't been following this title, but this was a fun little romp, with it's heart in the right place, which is not what I was expecting, so let's hear it for a pleasant surprise!

Comments

[locuatico]

I don't know how I feel about Jason having seen Dick perform. It feels like taking from Tim.

[janegray]

I feel conflicted about that...

On the one hand, as you say, it feels like taking from Tim. It's especially blatant if it was the night the Flying Graysons made their final performance. That they all went to see a famous group of performers, I can buy. That they all went the exact same night is pushing it.

On the other hand, I do like that even though Jason's father was a criminal and a screw up, he at least tried to be fatherly with Jason, and took him to a place where Jason could at least temporarily let go of his worries and feel like the child he was.

I've seen a ton of scenes where Jason's dad is portrayed as a violent neglectful abuser. This has got to be the first time I've seen a scene where he does something kind for Jason (even if he did it by stealing from an elderly couple).

[icon_uk]

I don't think there's any suggestion that it's the same night as Tim was there, because you'd think Jason would mention "He was free, he was happy... right up until his parents made a mushy SPLAT noise as they hit the ground and his life was ruined"... Tim connects with Dick's moment of tragedy, Jason connects with Dick's moment of happiness)

And yes, even if the only reason they went was because his dad couldn't scalp the tickets for cash, at least his dad took him. And I think this is perhaps the first time I've ever seen him depicted actually with Jason (as opposed to him having walked out a good while before)

[janegray]

But you said "on the night the Flying Graysons made their final performance" O_o

I thought their final performance was the one where they died?

[icon_uk]

Not quite, I said Tim saw them on their final performance, I said Jason had seen them "at some point in the past". :)

[janegray]

Oops ^^"

[zachbeacon]

Couple things about Bizarro.

So the beans make me think he's gone full-on Defenders Hulk. Is that how they're using him these days?

Bizarro-talk is often inconsistent. For a second I thought he was repulsed by the lady's beard but I guess actions speak louder than words.

[icon_uk]

Yes, this Bizarro seems to be "gentle giant" who has limited understanding of complex concepts, and has great difficulty articulating his thoughts.

The reverse speaking Bizarro worked when he made one-off appearances, but as an ongoing character in a small team I think it would be insanely difficult to maintain, eg does he reverse EVERYTHING he says, and if not, why not, and how much DOES he reverse?

[locuatico]

it worked in that mini with Jimmy Olsen, but that was mostly comedic, so it fits perfectly.

[cypherfdp]

How old was Dick when he became Robin in post-Rebirth? One thing I liked I about young justice was that even though he was the youngest, he had the most experience by far.

[locuatico]

so far, it seems to be the same as during Nu52, so around 16.

[icon_uk]

Not sure about that, since the Rebirth added about 10 years of past to Dick's career, with the original Teen Titans, who had been retconned out by Abra Kadabra.

Heck, the latest Detective Comics has the original Robin costume design in it, which seems contrary to everything we've seen about the New52

[beeyo]

Gotta be honest, changing the original Robin costume was one of the few things I liked about the New 52. It's silly looking, and it gave each of the Robins a distinct look from each other, even if we barely ever actually see them in action

[icon_uk]

I don't mind each Robin having their own look, but I've not found any of the New52 looks to be appealing at all as they share the common problem of the New52 of being chronically over-designed with far too many unnecessary lines on the costume.

And after all that redesigning, they still don't have a distinctive silhouette to them which, for all it's impracticality, the original Robin costume did, with the short sleeves and the pixie boots.

[beeyo]

I'd say that Dick's is definitely over designed, but i think he made it himself and it surely looks like something an over excited teenager would doodle in his notebook. Jason's is fairly simple, much more toned down than Dick's. It still looks like battle armor but shouldn't it? Bad enough Bruce is sending kids out to fight violent maniacs, the least he can do is not them out in pantyhose and speedos. And if I recall correctly, Tim's original Robin (sorry, Red Robin) costume was just his second design, with the red sleeves.

[deepspaceartist]

I can see the original Robin suit existing post Flashpoint as a "Dick cobbled together his own costume and snuck out before Bruce thought he was ready" kind of deal. Bruce then proceeded to get him a proper suit, with effective armoring and actual pants. Then it could be trophy cased as the first Robin suit, even if Dick only used it once before switching to the nu52 version.

[zechs80]

Not to mention Tim has a single R now again in the costume too.Meaning he's a Robin again.

[kalanyr]

The Bat timeline is a mess N52 even more so post Rebirth. They kept way to much stuff and the character ages don't line up for 10 years removed globally and Rebirth adds in at least another 6 months of stuff. But Dick seems to have become Robin somewhere between 13 and 16 , with Babs becoming Batgirl sometime in the next 12 months (pretty much as soon as she moves to Gotham). It sort of has to be on the early side of that for Babs to have spent a reasonable time as Batgirl, been paralysed, became Oracle, had her restorative surgery and therapy and went back to Batigrl again. Or for Dick to have still been Robin when the Justice League formed unless Jason / Tim / Damian are super duper compressed.

Babs and Dick both seem to currently be somewhere around 23ish currently. Batgirl's are style just makes her look a lot younger but she mentions working on her doctoral thesis.

[beeyo]

The dialogue in this issue felt weird, like the whole issue was translated from another language by a person that doesn't quite fully grasp English yet. But it's still a heartwarming little piece and I love it. RHATO remains one of the better comics out today.

[kurenai_tenka]

Has any other New52 comic kept the same author since it started? I thought DC liked shifting authors all the time, it's really strange.

The art looks nice.

ETA: On a less 'broken record' note, that WAS really cute. Although I lament the loss of the white hair streak again, as sometimes I just can't tell them apart (doesn't help that their ages and bodytypes got much more similar).

[remial]

what happened to Roy?

[jmacq1]

I may be wrong but I think he got moved back to the Titans?

[michaelsaint]

This was good! More stuff like this from Jason and the rest please. :)