Red Hood & The Outlaws is the Best Team Book!

Admittedly that's a bold statement, and I want to clarify that this applies only to DC Comics. However, if I were ever going to pick a hill to die on, this would be it (in terms of comics.) I enjoy several team and quasi-team books being released right now, including X-Men: Blue, Green Arrow, and Teen Titans. However, RHaTO hits a different sort of sweet spot that I didn't know I had.

Forming in the aftermath of Flashpoint, the original incarnation focused on "former heroes" bent, but unbroken by their circumstances in life, attempting to do some good in a world unsure of their place. Jason Todd, Koriand'r, and Roy Harper (Red Hood, Starfire, and Arsenal,) fought The Untitled, League of Assassins, aliens, and often each other.

This team was met with lukewarm reception at best, and outright dislike at several choices made for the team. These included the seemingly erased history of Starfire as a Titan, Roy now struggling with alcoholism, and Jasons' role as seemingly Dick Grayson-lite in the series. Over the course of the book, the team would eventually decide to disband--though Arsenal would attempt one last partnership with Red Hood in the short-lived Red Hood/Arsenal. Enter, Rebirth!

Out with the old, in with the new! Red Hood and The Outlaws #40 & #1.

Expectations for the series were, understandably low, as the new series was announced as a part of the Rebirth lineup. Jason had been in underwhelming stories beforehand, Bizzaro was spotty at best, and Artemis had been MIA for years. Still, teaser images and interviews with the creative team beforehand would all prove effective and the final product delivered has become (as I say in the title,) the best team book from DC Comics right now. The Dark Trinity concept, has proven to be a winning formula, delivering something fresh that other books at DC can't deliver.

Aside from one of the best-looking titles out right now, Red Hood & The Outlaws delivers compelling, dysfunctional family drama in a way that I've not seen in a book before. Not only is this dynamic apparent, it's lampshaded regularly, but never hamfisted. With Red Hood and Artemis playing the role of bickering, loving parents and Bizzaro as the shockingly understanding child, it is one of the oddly more humorous books that DC has, but still manages to pack in plenty of action.

Mr. & Mrs. Red. Red Hood & The Outlaws #13

Where volume one of this series felt like two brothers and a girlfriend, volume twos dynamic manages to tug at your heartstrings in a way that I don't think other books can. You empathize with these characters. When Jason is feeling protective of Bizzaro, you are, when Artemis is feeling confused, you are, when Bizzaro wants to help, so do you. It's quite a roller coaster to read, really.

Where books like Justice League, JLA rely on the spectacle of the Worlds' Greatest Heroes gathered for good, Suicide Squad and Green Arrow challenge our perceptions of power, right, and wrong, and Teen Titans and Titans hark back to a familiar time for comic fans, RHaTO doesn't have any of those luxuries and instead focuses more on the new relationships built from new perspectives and watching this unfold has been nothing short of a treat.

This is coming from, I like to think, a place free of bias. While I'm a fan of Red Hood, I'm not against calling out poor writing and the like when I notice it. I had almost no opinion on Bizzaro and Artemis when this began either. I like to imagine this was what it was like reading the first few issues of New Teen Titans when that team was originally introduced.

...Well that was unexpected. Red Hood & The Outlaws #13

Needless to say, I have no idea what to expect going forward and I love that. I have little idea as to the scope of the adventures, what reunions and departures we'll experience. However, I look forward to figuring that out with the rest of the fandom. Hopefully, if you haven't yet, this has encouraged you to pick up the series.