Red Hood and the Outlaws #11 Review and *SPOILERS*

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Written By: Scott Lobdell

Art By: Dexter Soy, Veronica Gandini, Taylor Esposito

Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: June 14, 2017

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Now it's time to get to one of my favorite books in Rebirth and while this story has been taking its time in keeping our Outlaws from being an actual team, the fact that I love Red Hood and Bizarro and find the art in this book some of the best art at DC right now have helped out a lot.  In our previous issue, Jason had finally put his past of dying behind him and came face to face with General Heinle, who up until this point we all believed to be a madman with the Bow of Ra, who turned its powers against his own people, but after a bit of threatening from Jason, we found out that the reanimated Akila, the former mad Shim'tar of Bana-Mighdall is the one with the Bow killing folks and now she plans on turning its power on the rest of Qurac.  She might actually stand a chance too because besides for having the Bow of Ra, she also had Artemis drink the Kool-Aid and has her right on her crazy trolley.  Let's jump into this issue and see if we can get our Outlaws together and working as a team or if the Bow of Ra will destroy everyone.  Let's check it out.

Explain It!:

Our issue begins with General Heinle and his troops standing their ground against Akila and the rest of the Amazons as they're pretty much told that if they don't surrender, they'll all die.  This leads to a run in with Artemis and Red Hood, where neither can believe that the other is with their respective groups, but it doesn't take Artemis long to realize that she's been duped because Akila doesn't waste anytime at all in going full on crazy and using the Bow of Ra, which she had previously told Artemis that the General had on the General, making him go all 'splody.  

With the real villain revealed, Red Hood and Artemis work together to take her down, which takes Artemis a little bit to get into, what with her guilt for killing Akila originally, but after Bizarro appears and Akila starts beating him and talking shit about how he's an abomination, Artemis rises to the occasion and claims the Bow of Ra for herself, showing us that she's able to wield it without getting all burn victim-ed up and crazy... also showing us that the Bow chose her as it's wielder.  I just wish that Artemis would have gotten to this sooner because in between that we're forced to see Jason using his All-Swords again that we saw in the New 52 Red Hood and the Outlaws, that just appear out of his hands and allow him to fight magic............ I hate them so much.

In the end, with Akila taken down, Artemis tells her Amazons that they're to live in peace with the people of Qurac........ which she hopes they'll do because she has no intentions on staying in Bana-Mighdall, but the victory celebration is put on hold when one of the refugee boys that Bizarro helped calls out because Bizarro's heart stopped beating and it appears that he's dead.

That's it for this issue of Red Hood and the Outlaws and while I still really enjoy this series, this arc was a little lackluster and the ending to it felt really rushed and underwhelming here.  All the dialog is still as perfect as its always been and the art remains some of the best at DC right now, but overall, we got Jason pulling out his All-Swords, which I hate, while we all just wait for Artemis to finish the fight and everything just ends........... Yeah, we get a decent cliffhanger to get us to our next story, but there really wasn't anything to this conclusion at all.  It's still an enjoyable issue because of the characters involved and the great art, I just hope that the next arc picks up the pace a bit.

Bits and Pieces:

We end this arc on a bit of a down note because everything just comes to a screeching halt here after a small ass battle that only seems to tie up Artemis' past so that we don't have to deal with it anymore.  The art was amazing as always though and the dialog and interactions between our Outlaws was spot on, I only wish that the story did a bit more.

6.8/10