Red Hood and the Outlaws #22 Review

Slipping Away

Written By: Scott Lobdell

Art By: Dexter Soy, Alison Borges, Veronica Gandini, Taylor Esposito

Cover Price: $3.99

Release Date: May 9, 2018

Let's continue on with the saga of what I'm calling Smarty-Pants Bizarro hope to whatever deity you want to believe in that we can glimpse some kind of ending coming our way because even though I love Bizarro.......... and pretty much anything Outlaw related, this story has gone on way too long and has left so many dangling plot threads that I need to have some kind of closure on.  Hopefully, that all begins here.  Let's jump into this issue and see if Bizarro is still juicing on synth K and if Red Hood has gotten Ma Gunn's letter.  Let's check it out.

So while I've been bitching the past couple of months about how this story has gone on way too long, this issue goes and does something unexpected by showing us the light at the end of the tunnel.  The problem is, for what we had at the end of the last issue, it seems kind of out of place.  That's right, I guess I can never be happy, but that aspect aside, there's a lot to love about this issue.

We've got Penguin continuing to be tormented by our hooded hero, some Artemis backstory that includes Lex Luthor, which lends itself nicely for our hero going to try and speak to Luthor personally and the degeneration of Smarty-Pants Bizarro.  There's a lot of stuff going on here and while it's pretty much just vignettes, the small page space for each of these parts of the story use their panel time well in portraying what they need to and also dropping a ton of heart on us at the end for how Jason Todd and Bizarro treat one another.  

All in all, this is getting us on the path that I want this series to be on right now and while it took a bit of a jump to get to that place, I had a good time with the majority of story.  Now if I could just understand what was going on with the villain or what his power set is.  I love the art in this issue and if you don't feel the emptiness at where your dead heart used to beat by the end of this issue......... Well, then you're a lost cause.

Bits and Pieces:

Red Hood and the Outlaws is finally getting to the place that I've wanted this series to be and while we may still have a bit of a journey ahead of us to get where we're going, with issues like this........ Well, it's going to be a pleasant ride.  I loved the art in this issue and the emotions it allowed me to feel by the end. 

8/10