Red Hood And The Outlaws #40 Review

Red Hood and the Outlaws #40
Written by Scott Lobdell
Art by Tom Derenick
Colors by The Hories
Published by DC Comics

One of the few titles I’ve been reading consistently since the first issue debuted with the rest of the New 52, Red Hood and the Outlaws is a book I always looked forward to each month. It never took itself too seriously, and was always an old-fashioned superhero comic first and foremost. The dynamic between the Red Hood, Arsenal and Starfire always reminded me of the best issues of Marvel’s old Defenders series; a group of heroes who weren’t a team, weren’t a family, just a group of friends who needed each other.

And now it’s all over.

Issue #40 marks the end of the road for Red Hood and the Outlaws. The book has been cancelled to make way for the slew of new books that DC is launching in the wake of their big Convergence event, which includes the spiritual successor to this title, Red Hood/Arsenal, by Lobdell and artist Denis Medri. While I’m sure that book will be just as much fun, it won’t have the same dynamic as the book I’ve been reading for over three years.

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At its core, Red Hood and the Outlaws was always about the friendship between three very damaged characters and how they dealt with the various issues in their lives. Red Hood, especially, went from being a fairly one-dimensional Batman parody when the series launched to a fully fleshed-out character that readers pulled for. Watching Red Hood have to deal with what happened to him and his fractured relationship with the Dark Knight provided some of the best issues of the run, including the outstanding “Death of the Family” tie-in issues.

Add in an Arsenal that reminded me a lot of the character before James Robinson got his hands on him in the Justice League: Cry for Justice miniseries, and a Starfire that wasn’t incredibly annoying and you had a winning formula. Red Hood and the Outlaws was a book where the character interaction was the highlight of each issue, not who they were fighting or why. I could have read 20 pages of the three of them eating dinner, just talking. That’s how interesting Lobdell made the relationship between the three.

The lion’s share of the credit for Red Hood and the Outlaws being so good for the duration of its run has to go to Lobdell. He somehow managed to channel whatever it was that made his X-Men work so enjoyable for so long and give it a bit more of an edge.

While #40 is the final issue, it really doesn’t read like one. Lobdell and artist Tom Derenick do a good job of wrapping up the whole Helspont/Blackfire storyline and have a lot of fun in the process, but the series finale doesn’t do much to bring the title as a whole to a satisfactory conclusion. With the new Red Hood/Arsenal title coming, that’s hardly surprising, as Lobdell will surely pick up many of the plot threads from this book there. Still, I would have liked to see Red Hood and the Outlaws go out on a much bigger note than the subdued ending we get here.

The Bottom Line: Red Hood and the Outlaws #40 is a fitting, if understated, ending to a series I’ve loved since issue #1. And while knowing the story will continue in some capacity in Red Hood/Arsenal, I’m going to miss checking in with three characters I feel like I’ve gotten to know pretty well.

R.I.P Red Hood and the Outlaws, 2011-2015.

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