Outlaws

Origin

Following some advice from Red Hood, Roy Harper goes into mercenary work and gets himself in deep trouble in the Middle Eastern country of Qurac. Red Hood comes to his aid along with Starfire, unintentionally laying the groundwork for an informal team called the Outlaws.

Creation

The Outlaws was created by Scott Lobdell and Kenneth Rocafort in Red Hood and the Outlaws, one of the 52 new series in DC's 2011 revamp of its comic universe. The team was created to be the cast of a Jason Todd-led ongoing series. Scott Lobdell answered some of Comic Vine's questions on 9/20/11.

Team Evolution

Prior to the team's on-going being released, writer Scott Lobdell described the team as being comprised of very "damaged" characters who never really recognize themselves as an actual "team," suggesting that some of the members (Todd, especially) have a reluctant relationship working together.

Apparently ready to give up his career as the Red Hood, team "leader" Jason Todd is sucked back into the world of super heroes when he crosses paths with Green Arrow's former sidekick, Roy Harper, now Arsenal and a recovering drug addict, as well as Starfire, a former prisoner of war, finding her place on earth. In a post on DC's official blog, Lobdell also described a new fourth member, a young African-American by the name of Crux, who has a bone to pick with hostile alien life on Earth, creating tension between him and Starfire.

As of DC Rebirth, the team's history has been rewritten. Jason, while on a mission to take down Black Mask, befriends Artemis, an Bana Amazon on a personal mission, and a Bizarro clone freed from Black Mask. After Mask falls, the three agree to work together at least until Artemis completes her mission.

After Bizarro and Artemis get lost in the multiverse, Red Hood turns his sights first on taking over The Penguin's criminal enterprise in Gotham and is later recruited by Lex Luthor to train a new generation of super-villains that he turned into anti-heroes.

Controversy

The release of Red Hood & the Outlaws #1 was initially met with a fair amount of outrage amongst fans and bloggers mainly due to the portrayal of Starfire, by many best known for her almost undying love and commitment to Dick Grayson in the past, while in the first issue she claims she can't (or won't) ever remember meeting anyone called Dick or being a member of the Teen Titans. Todd explains it as her species having an incredibly short memory span when it comes to humans, Starfire herself partially confirms this herself when she claims (to herself) that she can barely tell Roy and Jason apart most of the time.

The portrayal also received a negative reception by bloggers that labelled Starfire's bed manners as sexist. While Roy and Jason received some criticism for seemingly 'taking advantage' of Starfire's possible inability to tell humans apart.

That information should be followed up with what is learned of Starfire in issue Red Hood and The Outlaws #6 where Starfire and Jason have a sit-down with some deep conversation. Starfire tells Jason that she can see and remember a human (Dick Grayson) and has happy memories of her time together with him when she first came to Earth. She says that she cannot remember his name but that she will when she sees him again. Starfire says that Tamaranians appreciate and respect the past, but they live in the moment. She gives good, heart-felt advice to Jason during this sit-down about his own life and is far from being emotionless.