RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS #20 Preview/Discussion

[Zaresh]

I wonder... Maybe the parallel with Willis being a henchman is intended, maybe this story arc is almost as much about Jason's dad as it is about Bizarro losing it or introducing this Solitary character.

Also, I must point out that when Jason said that about a promise being a promise until it isn't anymore, I also took it as Jason thinking about Bizarro breaking his promises to them, as much as him reflecting about his own promise to Bruce (linking it with Bizarro actually about to break that promise indirectly as well as with his introducing inner boxes a bunch of pages before).

Or maybe I'm seeing too much into it for a book that pretends to be mostly just fun with a few things to think about.

[Aioros22]

That`s very great insight on Wills Todd previous characterization as a mere henchman to Two Face. The last two posts draw a-nother nice parallell about how Jason views them. They`re work for hire but they aren`t the bosses, the people who pull the strings. Is Jason hard exterior hiding some potential for forgiving regarding what his father represented? The small fish of Gotham..

Solitary is still bugging me in the good way. I thought he was supposed to be someone who could be revealed to be actually behind the Henchman App bussiness and playing Bizarro but as knowleagable as he was, it was clearly not the case. This is a Bizarro endeavour (well him and his chair hologram who appearantly can function as the real deal going by the last page...) but how did Solitary then knew everything that was up just by meeting him? Does he read minds? Is he the misterious person after the Outlaws?

Has the little fish became a shark?

[JasonTodd428]

I wonder... Maybe the parallel with Willis being a henchman is intended, maybe this story arc is almost as much about Jason's dad as it is about Bizarro losing it or introducing this Solitary character.

Also, I must point out that when Jason said that about a promise being a promise until it isn't anymore, I also took it as Jason thinking about Bizarro breaking his promises to them, as much as him reflecting about his own promise to Bruce (linking it with Bizarro actually about to break that promise indirectly as well as with his introducing inner boxes a bunch of pages before).

Or maybe I'm seeing too much into it for a book that pretends to be mostly just fun with a few things to think about.

Actually I don't think you are seeing to much into this at all. Those really are all very good points you are making and there was also a mention of Two-Face whom Willis worked for (and was killed by) at least in the previous continuity anyway. In my mind Ben and Emma are functioning like stand-ins for Willis and Catherine Todd and the fact that the first person Ben thinks of when he thought he was dying was Emma reminded me of that letter that we saw earlier in the series about how much Willis missed "her". (The exact line was in issue #15 and said "miss her more than"). Make no mistake I think Lobdell is making exactly that connection.

I also agree with you that Jason is talking just as much about Bizarro there as he is talking about himself. He may also be thinking that he may have to break that promise to Bruce BECAUSE of Bizzaro. Bruce trusted him with a clone of Superman and allowed him to continue watching over Bizarro despite how powerful Bizarro is. That trust, I think, is very important to Jason so if something does go horribly wrong with Biz here than Jason will have to step up a to contain it and he might have to break his promise and that trust all over again to save people's lives. He's pretty much caught between a rock and a hard place here and I think he knows it.

[Aioros22]

Great insight. Another reason that Tec's appearance last issue while not bad or out of character by any means comes out as outdated. What Bruce is going throught with Kate is not that different than what Jay is going throught with Biz. I actually think what would come out as surprising was Jason siding with Bruce not on the killing aspect but in terms of not knowing exactly what to do next. On one hand Jason trusts Biz to do the right thing on another, like you said, he is starting to tell between a wave and a rock.

Also, Ben and Emma as direct counterparts to Wills and Catherine is a mark of genious execution, thus humanizing his parents, particularly his father in a way it was never done before.

I am wondering if Loedbell's gambit in perhaps bringing Wills is to make Jason a stand out in the sense of having a father he believed to be dead he hardly knows after being adopted into this life by a parent he knows quite well but clashes alot.