Red Hood and The Outlaws #39 Review and *SPOILERS*

Written By: Scott Lobdell
Art By: Tom Derenick, Sean Parsons, Wayne Faucher, The Horries
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: February 18, 2015

Red Hood Ravaged

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Last month in Red Hood some wacky shit went down in the search for Starfire.  First the big bad Crux went and got himself rehabilitated and with him not being crazy anymore, he joined up with Red Hood and Arsenal to track down their Tamaranean Princess and then DC Comic's news of the new books coming out in June dashed my dreams of Crux becoming one of the Outlaws when it was revealed that this title will become Red Hood/Aresenal......... I really thought Crux would add a really cool dynamic for the team......... Maybe they still will but it looks doubtful at this point.  Let's jump into this issue and see if our heroes can find Starfire and see if they can all get off of this drug kick and find some clarity for their final issue next month.  Let's check it out.

Explain It!:

Our issue begins with Jason Todd throwing away his entire supply of venom.......... I'd like to think it's because he decided he didn't need it to be a bad ass but we all know it's because Roy is back in action and being an addict was kind of his thing.  After the drug purge, Crux lands the ship in the area where he believes Starfire will be and as it turns out, finding a Tamaranean isn't an exact science.  All they need to do is search out an entire jungle and even that impossible task is made harder when our heroes ship suddenly explodes.

While Crux and Arsenal are knocked out, we see the perpetrator of this explosion is none other than Rose Wilson (daughter of Slade Wilson) and she's scouting the area to find the body of Jason Todd but as we all know, you can't count out our former Robin.  He has a gun to her head and after a brief tussle we find out that Rose has been hired to take out Starfire because she made a lot of enemies when she went after her former slave masters a few issues ago.  Speaking of Starfire, when we last left her she was chained out in the jungle trying to detox herself when her sister arrived claiming that she'd be the one to kill her.  Apparently though, this is a Tamaranean expression for "I love you" because here we see Blackfire taking care of Starfire and cleansing her body of the drugs.  Also we get a little info on why Kori was taking them in the first place.  Up until now it's seemed like Kori just hit a low point and wanted to escape with some narcotics but really she was going undercover and trying to get to the black market drug trade that had financed her former tormentors life on Earth....... Sorry Kori, that's a nice story and all but it really just comes off as a story and you just simply like your drugs.

In the end, our Outlaws get reunited and we find out that the alien warlord Helspont has come to Earth and it looks like he's ready for an all out invasion.  Starfire thought she was just getting rid of her demons from the past but it looks like she's opened herself and her friends to a whole lot more trouble.  I have no idea how all of this can be resolved in only one more issue but man do I want to find out.

That's it for this penultimate issue of Red Hood and The Outlaws and while it was nice finally getting all the Outlaws back together again and even adding Rose Wilson and Crux to the mix, it just came off as a mediocre story.  More of a getting back to basics before the final issue next month and I really can't fault it for needing to get somewhere before then.  It just wasn't very interesting compared to what we had last month and besides for the hype of our heroes taking on an alien invasion next issue, all I got from this is drugs are bad and now our heroes are clean again.  The art though was great.  I love Tom Derenick pencilling these characters because it seems like he knows them perfectly and really when I look at this series my biggest concern is if the artist can draw the Red Hood helmet right and here it looks perfect.  I know that's not really the best way to judge an artist but these are my reviews and I'll do what I want.  See you next month for the final issue, where we'll see what will become of our trio of Outlaws.

Bits and Pieces:

While this isn't the greatest story to be told in Red Hood and The Outlaws, it acts more of a return to form for our heroes so we can get ready for the final issue.  The high point of this book is definitely the art and color team, it makes me so happy when I see Red Hood's helmet look right and man is it done right here.  With one more issue left, fans of these characters will definitely want to check out what the future holds for our Outlaws.

6.8/10