Red Hood: Outlaw #36 Preview/Discussion (Spoilers)

[Sonia]

Red Hood: Outlaw #36

Source: http://www.adventuresinpoortaste.com...ood-outlaw-36/

Summary: There’s no way to plan for every contingency...even for a son of the Bat like Jason Todd. His goal was to take down the Penguin and assume his role as the prince of Gotham, but the best laid plans go awry when Oswald Cobblepot gets the last laugh—and the last bullet! And not even the Red Hood and his posse can stop him. (How could they with the Iceberg Lounge under siege and Bunker, Wingman and the Sisters Su too busy to help Jason deal with a Penguin ascendant?) Don’t miss the startling conclusion to “Prince of Gotham!”

What can Lex Luthor offer former sidekick Jason Todd? Sidekicks…broken, battered and catastrophically dangerous sidekicks. The Teen Titans they’re not!

[Arsenal]

Good Dog. Very good dog.

[Sergard]

Good Dog. Very good dog.

Very good Dog indeed. Seems like someone earned herself a big treat. Although I'm a little sad that Dog doesn't wear the heart-shaped dog tag.
At least Woods didn't forget the batarang scar on Willis' arm.

[Dark_Tzitzimine]

Hmmm.

This reeks at last minute change, all that build up just to fix things like that?

[Arsenal]

Hmmm.

This reeks at last minute change, all that build up just to fix things like that?

Are you referring to Penguin not remembering? Or something else?

[Dark_Tzitzimine]

Yeah.

Jason shooting the Penguin was this huge thing that now is just being unceremoniously swept under the rug.

[JasonTodd428]

Yeah.

Jason shooting the Penguin was this huge thing that now is just being unceremoniously swept under the rug.

That's not how it read to me. To me it's more like Lobdell tied up a loose plot thread and not that he's sweeping anything under the rug. All that has happened is that we have found out that there were consequences for Jason shooting the Penguin in the monocle after all. It resulted in memory loss which means that he cannot connect Red Hood to Jason Todd and thus everyone's secret IDs are safe. (That is of course assuming that Penguin isn't lying about it.) I really didn't expect it to turn out any other way to be honest since Bat characters secret IDs are a touchy thing that DC seems to prefer remain intact.

[Jackalope89]

Dog is best sidekick, bar none.

[adrikito]

Thanks for this preview. I enjoyed everything here.

[Zaresh]

Good preview, good suit, good Dog.

It's not that I wasn't expecting this for Penguin (status quo is the Boss), but I'm also wondering if it really is a memory loss and not Penguin straight pretending he doesn't know. Seems like he's not lying but, eh, I wouldn't trust him.

[Arsenal]

If/when Lobdell picks up Willis is alive / Grandma Gunn trapped in a bottle plot threads, he could easily make Willis responsible for Penguin’s memory loss.

[Jackalope89]

If/when Lobdell picks up Willis is alive / Grandma Gunn trapped in a bottle plot threads, he could easily make Willis responsible for Penguin’s memory loss.

Jason has probably the most dysfunctional family.

Dad is a former henchman for Two Face and became some kind of super meta.
Grandma used to run a home for "wayward boys" (criminal activity using them boys) but in Rebirth, became an "Alfred" like character for him.
Biz is like the younger brother he always needed.
Artemis, while supportive, cuts through his BS without hesitation (and has her own pat to deal with).
Bruce is, well, yeah. They're definitely on the outs right now.
Dick, well, he's not Dick right now. Though they kind of patched things up before the "Ric" thing.
Tim... Not sure where they stand with one another right now.
Damian, well, Damian burnt that bridge, and blew up what remained.
Kate, oddly enough, he seems to have the best familial relationship with right now, for as little as the two interacted.
Cass and Steph are question marks.

[Sergard]

Okay, it's late at night and I'm tired: So it is crazy-theories-time.
What if the cop on the right (who may or may not look at Jason in the panel) is Jack Crane (also known as the pre-crisis villain Savage Skull)?



When I read Jack Crane's story I was a little sad that it was part of pre-crisis and not post-crisis. Because in Detective Comics #528 it is mentioned that he and Harvey Bullock taught "ghetto kids" how to box.

Detective Comics #528 Harvey Bullock Jack Crane.jpg

And post-crisis Jason was a street kid, so the idea wouldn't be too far-fetched that he was one of those "ghetto kids". Especially since his post-crisis origin shows that Jason knows how to defend himself (Batman #409).

[Zaresh]

Just wanted to point out that we don't know yet about Willis being a meta, or even really alive by now. Solitary could be what we were told he was in the end (a self-deluded man), and Wingman could be just some dude from Gotham or even from some alternate universe. It's still all up in the air, I think.

That stuff about that cop could be the kind of nod Lobdell would pull, I think. I can see it being the case, heh. And we could get our resident burglar if someone brings Nocturna back. No one has used her in a long while, right? Heh, and Jason has ties to Croc now again, thanks to Roy. Bringing pre'Crisis characters to the cast, just in a different way, a little roundaboutly.

Huh. It gives me some ideas, at least.

[RedBird]

Whilst early on in the series Jason revealing his and by extension the rest of the Bats identities would have been an interesting problem to tackle, ultimately nothing in this comic series or any other that had featured penguin since, has implied that reveal to be of any major consequence. It most certainly was a loose thread, or a question in the background but it never seemed to be presented as any sort of ticking time bomb to the narrative.

The real consequence of that moment is and has always been the destruction of Bruce and Jasons relationship, penguin was just a tool for the story and a means to an end.

On the one hand it is quite a convenient resolution, but this is comics logic, and if penguin is allowed to not have to suffer the usual consequences of DEATH when someone shoots you in the face, I think its only fair that Jason doesn't have to suffer the consequences of exposed identities on top of everything else.