Red Hood and the Outlaws #5

I've been a large proponent of this book since the first issue where half the comic world went crazy because she slept with Roy on a whim. It's been a great action book with fantastic art and a compelling story. I find all three characters very likable, and there have been some great moments that have surprised us all. Sadly, issue #5 doesn't quite live up to the quality of the first four issues, and leaves the reader with a somewhat anticlimactic conclusion to the fight scenes introduced in issue #4.

Issue #4 set up this great dichotomy between Jason's fight against the "Untitled" and Starfire's battle against the vengeful monster "Crux." Crux had depowered Starfire, and Jason was in a fight against a seemingly immortal creature where he dual-wielded swords. That was cool, which is an adjective underused when thinking about Jason as the "Red Hood," frankly, he's just cool.
The problem with this comic is that these fights conclude a little too conveniently. In Jason's case, he pulls this crazy move where he coats the swords with his own blood which allows him to finally kill the member of the Untitled. It was awesome, but what disappointed me was that nothing really happened up to that point. The member of the Untitled suggested there was more to this situation than the All-Caste told him, but Jason quickly disregarded that and quickly killed finished him off instead (I said he was cool, not smart).

At the same time, Roy comes to the rescue of Starfire by using some sort of electric shock arrows on Crux, briefly incapacitating him before Cruz comes back and almost kills both Starfire and Roy. Conveniently, Starfire gets her powers back just in time, some sort of dumb excuse about how trials and tests that she suffered through changed her makeup from others of her kind. Yeeeeeahhhhhh, ok Mr. Lobdell, fantastically lazy writing there big guy.

The comic concludes with the town after them because they think Jason killed a cop (what the Untitled was in disguise) and Jason's left to wonder how many of the Untitled are left, and how many cities are under their control. Which I guess is what the next few stories will be about, searching out the Untitled and taking them down in the name of the All-Caste. That's alright I guess, but I'm much more interested in finding out why these three are "outlaws" and answering other questions (like why Jason wears a bat on his chest).

What I liked: Again, shout-out to Ken Rocafort for some great pencils, this is still one of the best looking books in the DC line. I'm starting to get a better idea of who Roy Harper is in this new universe, even if it is slower than I'd like. Also, Jason's just awesome in this book. And not in this stereotypical Judd Winick bad-ass-depiction type of way, in an actual awesome-awesome way.

What I didn't: It tied up loose ends from the last issue, but didn't really build upon them. I have a feeling this won't be the last we see of Crux sadly, he wasn't that cool, oh well. While normally when I read this comic I go "well that's cool, and that's cool, and that's cool" that didn't happen in this issue.

Conclusion: Decent comic, just didn't reach it's typical level of "awesome" as the rest of the series. Hopefully that returns next month. Wow sometimes I can be a lazy blogger 7.5/10 (C).