Red Hood and the Outlaws #12 Review and *SPOILERS*

Bizarro Cloned On A Wednesday

Written By: Scott Lobdell

Art By: Dexter Soy, Veronica Gandini, Taylor Esposito

Cover Price: $3.99

Release Date: July 12, 2017

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Even though things have not progressed as fast as I would have hoped in this series because of how it feels like this team has just gotten started, I guess that's the feeling of being spoiled by twice-monthly issues, I have to say though that this is one of my favorite titles coming out of Rebirth and while you can say that I'm biased because of how much I love Jason Todd and Bizarro, I think it has to do with how well the story telling and the art have been since the series began.  We had our Jason Todd story, then we had our Artemis tale and now that it looks like Bizarro is dying, it seems that we'll now deal with him before we get into some serious Outlaws action.  Let's jump into this issue and see what the fate of Bizarro will be, especially since the Outlaws have Solomon Grundy to go up against here.  Let's check it out.

Explain It!:

Our issue begins with us finding out that Ma Gunn's Home for the Criminally Infirmed is now the secret headquarters of the Outlaws and it's there that our heroes have brought Bizarro, in hopes that Ma Gunn will be able to help him.  Yeah, she has some medical training and all that, but when it comes to Kryptonian clones, she's in way over her head and things don't look good for Bizarro.  Red Hood and Artemis don't have time to feel sorry for their friend or for themselves though because a report comes in about Solomon Grundy tearing up a street fair a few blocks away and our heroes suit up to take on the undead monster.  

Yeah, Artemis is a powerhouse and Red Hood's taken on the brute before, but even with these things, the duo seriously get their asses kicked and Bizarro isn't about to lie around and let his friends die........ since he can hear everything that's going on from his bed.  Bizarro suits up and goes out even though he knows he'll die if he does and smashes through one of Ma Gunn's walls when leaving......  allowing the former caretaker to find a shit load of letters hidden within, addressed to Jason Todd from when he was a boy.  Yeah, we don't get much on that development, but this is all about Bizarro in my eyes and he gets to the street fair faster than a speeding cloned bullet and starts beating the holy hell out of Solomon Grundy.

In the end, Bizarro puts Grundy down as his friends beg him to stand down because they know that it will mean his life, but all Bizarro cares about are his friends and I don't care who you are, if you have any semblance of feeling within you, you can't help but get choked up when Bizarro falls to the ground and asks Red Him and Red Her to take care of his stuffed Superman doll, which he call Pup-Pup.  It's a goddamn touching moment that doesn't last very long though because as Red Hood and Artemis are looking over Bizarro's body, they're electrocuted by Lex Luthor, who seems intrigued at the concept of a B-Zero project still being out and about.

That's it for this issue of Red Hood and the Outlaws and while this is a fast read that goes into a big ass fight with Solomon Grundy, it is chalk full of fucking emotion that made me shed a damn tear when we saw how much Bizarro cares for his friends and is willing to die for them.  That's the majority of the book right there and usually this kind of storytelling, which seems only to lead to a fight and that's it, pisses me off, but here I think it was very well done because while I know that Bizarro won't really die here, it was told in a way that actually made me feel a part of the story and pulled my damn heart strings because of it.  The art continues to be phenomenal and just elevates this book so much, but Scotty Lobdell seems to have really gone above and beyond from what we got of him in the New 52 because his writing on this series has been great as well........... even if the progression of the story doesn't move as fast as I would like.  

Bits and Pieces:

This issues seeds a bunch of developments that will come to play into the future of this series and while it does that, it gives us a story that is full of the feels and actually made me choke up a bit.  I love these characters and the entire creative team is just doing one of the best jobs at DC right now in giving a series all they've got.  This is a fast moving issue, but the emotion that is crammed in feels perfect.

8.5/10