Red Hood and the Outlaws - More Like Red Hood and the Beach Vacat
This is going to sound weird, but I'm kinda annoyed at Lobdell for writing these characters well enough that I like it. You see, with all the new 52s and Marvel's constant events, I'm a little over my comics buying budget. So I need to not like some of these titles. But, no, Lobdell does as good a job writing adults as he does teenagers.
It opens up with an action bit with Red Hood and Arsenal. Mentions Batman and his past with the other members of the Bat Family but then basically says "F- Gotham" and with that it's done. And fulfills Lobdell's goal of letting use get to know Jason Todd outside of who he is in relation to Gotham and Bruce, etc. The opening action sequence is great and looks like something out of a Robert Rodriquez movie.
Continuing our look on what's changed in the new DC 52 there's mention that Starfire's relationship to Dick Grayson is still canon. But at the same time it's swept away with some alien ADD problem that Starfire has. I think this was pretty clever on Lobdell's part. On the one hand, you don't piss off the old readers who want as much canon to remain canon as possible. On the other hand, you get to wipe her slate clean and not worry about her acting out of character or anything.
I love how her beach fan service is lampshaded by some kid uploading her photo to the net as well as that service as a plot point. A lot of people have been expressing disgust and other feelings over the "let's f-" scene between Arsenal and Starfire. I have to admit that while it's establishing a whole "aliens have a different code of ethics" thing, it also was a bit jarring. Arsenal's reaction "gak!" is definitely what I thought. It's one of those thing's that's a tough line to toe. On the one hand, she's an adult and she's free to act that way - I know humans who do. On the other hand, she's a comic book character and so there's an extra sense of pandering that gets put on top of things because she's doing what Lobdell thinks she should be doing.
In the end, the Starfire thing isn't bad enough to keep me from checking out another issue. I find the heroes compelling, if a bit 1990s anti-hero, and I want to see where this goes. I will definitely at least go through the first story arc.
