Comic Review: Red Hood and the Outlaws #23

Red Hood and the Outlaws #23

DC Comics

Writer: Dan Abnett

Artists: Trevor Hairsine, Ryan Winn, and Rain Beredo

Ahh, Red Hood and the Outlaws. There’s something really nice about watching these three troublemakers come together and forging one of the best team dynamics in the DCU. Sometimes lying, sometimes hiding things, but always being good to each other as best they can. Honestly, RHATO has been pretty great since Rebirth started, and this issue is no exception. It also deserves a quick mention for being one of the issues that focus specifically on one character or another. In fact, that’s one of the biggest strengths of the series: it knows when to team its characters up and when to give one or two of them the spotlight. This issue is a great example.

The story focuses primarily on Jason’s father’s life. It is highly character-driven and extremely small-scale, and that’s what I like to see. None of it was especially silly, and when the characters did something dumb you knew it was because of their pre-established weaknesses as people. In a word, it is simple and believable. A story about family always moves me, and expanding on a character’s backstory through their family is, in my experience, often a success. Penguin’s involvement here doesn’t quite jive for me, but it’s a small blemish on an otherwise touching little story.

Jason’s father hasn’t ever gotten much development in the past (due to being, you know, dead), and so having an entire issue devoted to him is a treat. Watching his struggle to be a good father and a good person was legitimately touching, and the framing for it wasn’t too cheesy at all. I would have liked to learn more about Jason’s mother, but what we got was enough to make the story believable. Jason’s response is very believable as well. The characters here are very consistent and well-thought-out.

You know, I think there’s a very palpable difference between the quality of shadows between a comic where it’s all one person working digitally and a comic where the pencils and inks are done by separate people. The shadows are always, always going to have more depth to them when done specifically by an inker. I would say that the art in this issue is really quite solid and good-looking, especially the shots of Jason by himself in the dark. The colorist uses an interesting “overlap” style, where different shades are in different shapes on the object that overlap to create the right tones. There are a couple points where the digital nature of the coloring is a little too obvious, but that only happens once or twice, and the colors are often quite rich in the non-flashback parts of the story. The art communicates the atmosphere very well, and I must say that I like the character design of Jason’s father.