The Outhouse - The Greatest Comic Book Forum

by ****** » Thu Jun 03, 2010 2:16 pm

guitarsmashley wrote:weak.

4thy's level of Batfanaticism? Yep.

by **guitarsmashley** » Thu Jun 03, 2010 2:22 pm

thefourthman wrote:@Zero: so just to be clear... a book that came out several months later pulled you out a book you were enjoying. (The last issue of Under the Red Hood came out in August of 2005, Infinite Crisis began in October)

Winick Batman has been good. I wasn't going to pick this up because I like to move on with my comic reading but this should be decent.

by **Zero** » Thu Jun 03, 2010 2:24 pm

All I know is I have Batman up to #638 and I never picked up the second half of the story due to IC making it sound stupid. I was trade waiting at the time because I really enjoyed the first half but finding out that the reason for the return came from an unconnected to anything Bat-like reason put me off. That's a perfectly valid reason! It's like OMD causing Bucky's return or House of M bringing back Hawke... Nevermind.

by **Mr_Batman** » Thu Jun 03, 2010 2:34 pm

I've never read Under the Hood

by **GLX** » Thu Jun 03, 2010 2:56 pm

amlah: I never wrote a review for the Batman prose issue, no? Can I post a review for that, this week?

by ****** » Thu Jun 03, 2010 2:57 pm

GLX wrote:amlah: I never wrote a review for the Batman prose issue, no? Can I post a review for that, this week?

Sure.

by **thefourthman** » Thu Jun 03, 2010 3:00 pm

guitarsmashley wrote:Winick Batman has been good. I wasn't going to pick this up because I like to move on with my comic reading but this should be decent.

I like what I have read of Winick's Batman, like I said, my current run to date begins with 638. I enjoyed the second half very much. I was just trying to figure out how something that came out sometime after this story ended made him lose interest in it. He claims (and I will take his word for it cause I could care less - although I would assume it was issue 5, cause six and 7 were post year jump) that Inifinite Crisis #6 or a related tie-in caused him to lose interest in the book is reading so he stopped halfway through, and trade waited the rest but after the offending issue came out lost interest altogether. IC 5 couldn't have come out earlier than 5 months after the final issue of the Under the Hood arc.

I just think (as a lot of times with Winick's work) there is a little creative memory going on here.

Winick brought Jason Todd back and for whatever reason never explained it. DC explained everything wacky that happened for that little two year period as superboy punch, when most of it had to do with the editors not doing their job. Regardless, the bullshit reason for everything that happened back then turned him off this one book? It seems odd to me, unless he dropped all DCU books, but 5 months early seems weird too.

I just don't understand it and wanted to. That's all.

by **GLX** » Thu Jun 03, 2010 3:03 pm

amlah6 wrote:Sure.

Awesome possum. If I can find an issue of SHIELD #1 (for a relatively cheap price - no second printings), then I'll join in next week. As for this week, I just don't care for Red Hood.

Oh, and we've done a back to back issue Review Group before, no?

by **thefourthman** » Thu Jun 03, 2010 3:05 pm

GLX wrote:
Oh, and we've done a back to back issue Review Group before, no?

are you calling the sod a liar?

by **GLX** » Thu Jun 03, 2010 3:08 pm

thefourthman wrote:are you calling the sod a liar?

I remember something similar happening before. Just sayin'. :smt102

by ****** » Thu Jun 03, 2010 3:08 pm

GLX wrote:As for this week, I just don't care for Red Hood.

Not a good reason for skipping, FYI. :wink:

by ****** » Thu Jun 03, 2010 3:12 pm

GLX wrote:I remember something similar happening before. Just sayin'.

Jude picked XMF two picks in a row, but they weren't consecutive issues.

by **BlueStreak** » Thu Jun 03, 2010 3:20 pm

Red Hood: The Lost Days Review.

To preface, I've only been reading the Batman books for about a year. I figured the whole Batman: Reborn relaunch gave me a chance to jump on with relatively little problems. So, I've never read any of the Under the Hood stuff. I knew that Jason Todd was back via reality punch, I knew he was angry for the world, and I knew that he's an antihero at best and a villain at worst. I also know that he has a surprising handle on social networking and viral marketing due to his Batman and Robin arc. But other than that, he's kind of a blank slate to me.

So, we kick off this mini-series with Ra's a Ghul informing his daughter Talia about Jason Todd's death. Talia, being the concerned love interest of Batman that she is, keeps tabs on Gotham and eventually comes into the possession of one half brain-dead Jason Todd. She takes him in, cares for him, and is forced to make a desperate move when Ra's tells her that Jason has to go.

This was a shockingly engaging and enjoyable comic. For a mini-series that appeared to be filler material designed to suck in Batfanatics, Judd Winnick engages casual fans of the Batman family and makes the reader care about the story he has to tell. Winnick wisely chooses not to disclose how Jason Todd came back to life, nor does he focus on Todd's charactization at all. Instead, Winnick uses Talia as the vessel to make the reader care about Todd, by focusing on what her love for the Dark Knight leads her to do. Winnick obviously gets Talia a Ghul and knocks her characterization out of the park.

Artwise, Pablo Raimondi does a serviceable job. While his art is not fantastic, it doesn't distract from the story, which is what truly is necessary in this case. I don't know if this is Raimondi's first work with DC or if I just haven't paid attention to him before, but I certainly hope that he's used more often by DC as he's a better artist than many of DC's other standard fill-in artists.

Overall, while I wouldn't reccomend this to the standard non-reader, this is a solid book for even the most casual of comic book readers. If you like the Batman family, then you will enjoy this book.

Story: 8.5
Art: 7
Overall: 7.75