Comic Vine Review

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Red Hood and the Outlaws Annual #1 - Trust Fall

3

Arsenal and Green Arrow argue over their difficult relationship as assassins set their sights on the trio.

*This review contains spoilers*

The Good

Writer James Tynion IV dives into Roy's rocky past, Jason Todd's critical decision over his identity and Starfire's struggle to open up... but despite all of theses seemingly compelling plot points, the most appealing part of this entire read doesn't involve someone from the team. Instead, Cheshire's New 52 revamp steals the spotlight and overshadows the rest of the cast.

Truth be told, I've never been much of a Cheshire fan, but Tynion clearly had a lot of fun reinventing the character. Her traditional focus on poison still remains, but now she has a new and incredibly dangerous power at her disposal. Power aside, her playful yet diabolical banter was a good time and easily the most entertaining aspect of this issue, especially seeing as it poked fun at her pre-Flashpoint relationship with Roy. The fight was decent, but it's the chatter which boosts its enjoyment and that's all thanks to Tynion making Cheshire vivacious yet still deadly and focused.

This issue's primarily about Roy and the emotional turmoil he's faced along the years by Ollie's side and now in his relationship with Kori. Roy's New 52 history with Green Arrow swiftly goes through the motions without much of a punch. It reveals Roy's a brilliant inventor, Ollie didn't want him int he field to protect him, briefly hinted at drug use, and then their falling out. The only particularly interesting note here was a certain villain being introduced into Roy's past, but whether or not anything will develop from that has yet to be seen. When the two are forced to team-up, everything kind of moves forward as expected ("I'm here to help!" "No! I can look after myself!") and the only element which really made the whole thing standout was Roy's hysterical inventions defending the island.

Well, it seems clear at this point Tynion is taking Todd in a whole new direction. I see no reason why Todd would willingly want to remember his past at this point since he knows how much blood he has on his hands. Now, that's of course not saying the option is completely ruled out -- I'm certain Tynion could conjure up some plot device to make Todd willingly have his memories rushing back, but with the current state of affairs, I don't view it as likely. This is sure to make or break some opinions, but for me, it's a development I'm happy with. The prospect of a blank canvas for Todd is appealing to me since the character has had such a difficult history. Naturally, more chaos is heading his way and it'll hardly be sunshine and roses for him, but I'm absolutely curious to see where Tynion will go with him. Will he strive be become a new hero or will he be tested and realize he's meant to be an anti-hero?

If there's one thing I can praise a good deal, it's the art. Al Barrinouevo's work is a bit inconsistent when it comes to the level of quality but it never takes too big of a dip. The impressive panels truly wow'd me and everything else still comes off as quite visually pleasing, primarily thanks to BIT's strong focus on bold colors and bringing the exotic location to life.

The Bad

Perhaps my expectations were too high, but I was expecting much more of an emotional punch in this annual. Tynion is juggling a lot of compelling material at once: Todd's struggle over his past and how to proceed, Roy's tainted past with Ollie and his complicated relationship with Starfire. Despite each of these issues getting adequate attention in the issue, I couldn't help but feel as though they were going through the motions and not as gripping as they could have been. I by no means have a heart of ice, but I found myself completely uninterested with the retelling of Roy's history and that took up a majority of the read. Personally, I feel like this $4.99 issue serves as basically a big tease for the title's new direction with Todd instead of delivering some legitimately satisfying moments.

There are some stellar panels to be found here, but a few facial expressions felt inappropriate for the moment. There's one scene where a young Roy is lashing out in anger, yet he looks like he's yawning and prepared to take a nap instead of being enraged. I also noticed a few minor art inconsistencies here and there, but nothing too major. For example, Ollie has brown hair on the monitor and his eyes are visible through his mask in the final sequence, despite them being covered by his mask in every other scene.

The Verdict

Honestly, I'm straight down the middle on this one. While the art impresses at times, Roy's inventions deliver laughs and Cheshire's involvement is a blast, I thought the focus on important dramatic elements in the book weren't especially moving and, if anything, mainly served as build-up for the bigger picture ahead. Developments are certainly made, but nothing surrounding them was particularly enthralling for me.