The Prince Gives Up His Crown In Red Hood: Outlaw #36
by Josh Davison
[*Mild Spoilers Ahead!]
The Penguin has escaped his cell and now holds a gun on Jason Todd, current owner of the Iceberg Lounge. Things seem dire for Jason, but the Penguin doesn’t seem to remember that he’s also the Red Hood. Jason manages to get the upper hand, but the proceedings are interrupted by Bunker, who is furious that Jason hid Cobblepot in his own personal prison cell. Bunker leaves, but this gives Cobblepot an opportunity to escape too. If the Penguin gets free, what will become of the Iceberg Lounge?
Red Hood: Outlaw #36 rounds out the “Prince of Gotham” storyline for the series and ties it into the Year of the Villain storyline. Red Hood and the Penguin have another confrontation, and Jason’s secrets come back to bite him.
We learn the identity of the Wingman in this comic, but I’m not sure who it’s implied to be. It’s one of two people, but the comic doesn’t make it especially clear which of the two it is.
Red Hood: Outlaw #36 also does some silly and unnecessary retconning of that big Red Hood and Penguin confrontation from a few issues back. It retroactively makes that showdown a lot less cool.
The Year of the Villain part of the comic does leave me intrigued on where we are going from here.
Pete Woods puts in another issue of good artwork with #36. His style is well-suited to the youth and attitude of Jason Todd, and the action scenes look quite cool. Rex Lokus’ color art is vibrant and explosive too, greatly adding to the energy and appeal of the comic.
Red Hood: Outlaw #36 is a fun if somewhat self-defeating issue of the series. The aforementioned retconning of Jason and Cobblepot’s prior confrontation sucks some of the energy out of the book, and Penguin no longer knowing Jason is the Red Hood lowers the stakes a good bit. The botched Wingman reveal is pretty unfortunate too. That said, there are still some good parts of the comic, and my fascination with the Red Hood comics have got me used to a certain level of flawed storytelling. I can recommend this one, though it’s far from a must-read.
Red Hood: Outlaw #36 comes to us from writer Scott Lobdell, artist Pete Woods, color artist Rex Lokus, letters from Troy Peteri of A Larger World Studio, cover artist Dan Panosian, and variant cover artist Yasmine Putri.
Final Score: 6/10
