Finally! (RHatO 009)
So I've been catching up on Night of the Owls (and coming to the conclusion that most of the tie-ins are an easy miss). One of those issues is Red Hood and the Outlaws 009. Now if you've been following my LJ you KNOW my less this charitable feelings about this book and it's portrayal of Jason.
But this time, I was pleasantly surprised. We FINALLY saw the Jason we all know. The one that has issues upon issues about Gotham, Bruce and the rest. Not psychotic issues, not killing everyone insane issues. But issues that make him think and make nerves raw, makes him wonder and second guess. As much as I want Jason to deal with his issues and heal I HATE the whole "it's a soft reboot so we'll wave our magic wand and say it happened off panel."
This issue showed he's not as "healed" as he's presented himself and I really enjoyed watching him with Roy (who really seems to get all the issues Jay is dealing with) and Kory (who obviously doesn't get it). I also liked how he was reaching back on his own death and rebirth experience when dealing with the Talon that was sent after Freeze (even though the Talon giving up and getting his own mind "back" seemed to go against everything else we've seen on them in the cross-over). It was positively healthy, or at least the start of dealing with it in a healthy and accepting fashion. I also like that the end of this one counter pointed the end of the last issue with Suzie Su very nicely.
One thing that pissed me off was batgirl's posturing. If anyone should understand the fucked up head space and the struggle to get himself back to something close to sanity, it should be Barbara. But noooooo. She's going (try to) kick his ass if she sees him in Gotham again. Grrrrrr.
And as seems to often be the case, Roy gets the best one liners. Hehehehehe :)
Anyhow, we'll see where this book goes from here. Maybe it'll finally become the book I'd hoped it would be.
But this time, I was pleasantly surprised. We FINALLY saw the Jason we all know. The one that has issues upon issues about Gotham, Bruce and the rest. Not psychotic issues, not killing everyone insane issues. But issues that make him think and make nerves raw, makes him wonder and second guess. As much as I want Jason to deal with his issues and heal I HATE the whole "it's a soft reboot so we'll wave our magic wand and say it happened off panel."
This issue showed he's not as "healed" as he's presented himself and I really enjoyed watching him with Roy (who really seems to get all the issues Jay is dealing with) and Kory (who obviously doesn't get it). I also liked how he was reaching back on his own death and rebirth experience when dealing with the Talon that was sent after Freeze (even though the Talon giving up and getting his own mind "back" seemed to go against everything else we've seen on them in the cross-over). It was positively healthy, or at least the start of dealing with it in a healthy and accepting fashion. I also like that the end of this one counter pointed the end of the last issue with Suzie Su very nicely.
One thing that pissed me off was batgirl's posturing. If anyone should understand the fucked up head space and the struggle to get himself back to something close to sanity, it should be Barbara. But noooooo. She's going (try to) kick his ass if she sees him in Gotham again. Grrrrrr.
And as seems to often be the case, Roy gets the best one liners. Hehehehehe :)
Anyhow, we'll see where this book goes from here. Maybe it'll finally become the book I'd hoped it would be.