Red Hood and the Outlaws #31 Review

Daddy Issues

Written By: Scott Lobdell

Art By: Pete Woods, Rex Lokus, Troy Peteri

Cover Price: $3.99

Release Date: February 13, 2019

Jason Todd came face to face with the man called Solitary at the end of last issue...who, if you don't know claims that he's Jason's father, created the Outlaws as we knew them at the beginning of Rebirth and is the leader of the organization called Underlife that Red Hood has been trying to shut down.  Yeah, that's a lot going on with this character and if that wasn't enough, he's also got Bunker from the New 52 Teen Titans in a science experiment.  Let's see if all of these things add up in this issue of Red Hood: Outlaw.  Let's check it out.

So yeah, there's been a lot of build up to Solitary and what he means to not only Jason's background, but to this entire title as a whole because he was able to take down Smarty-Pants Bizarro-like he was nothing, while also telling us that he's the one that put Bizarro and Artemis with Jason Todd.  If that wasn't enough we also saw in a flashback previously that Artemis came in contact with him when she was an Amazon for hire, working for Lex Luthor and a bunch of other things that would take me far too long to write out here.  Ultimately though, he's the leader of Underlife and the man responsible for making mutant, genetically altered Solomon Grundys, that is called "Mondays" in this book.  What does this all mean with everything else, including a captured Bunker?............ I have no idea. 

Yeah, something seriously got lost in this or the stories leading up to this or things were forced to end as quickly as possible because for all the build-up we've seen of this character, there certainly wasn't a lot to show for it here.  Underlife, Bunker, Mondays, it doesn't really add up for me and just seems to come out of nowhere for no real reason except so you know there's a threat going on, whether there was any real build up to it or not.  Yeah, we saw Jason fight a small town recently, but besides for that, this Underlife comes off as a great big bust because it just seems to end her with barely a whimper.

The art in this issue is great and it seems that we have ourselves a new Outlaws team by the end, even if it seems incredibly forced and I'm still wondering why anyone is actually following Jason going forward, but the idea of the team is still cool and I guess I can just leave it like that.  This seems like a bunch of ideas thrown together in the end, which by themselves could have been fun, but the way they were forced together here is just a disappointment overall and I can only hope that the title finds its direction again going forward because whatever this was, it certainly didn't satisfy.

Bits and Pieces:

While the art remains strong in this issue... that's all there really was to look forward to because the culmination of everything that we've dealt with in this series since Rebirth began was supposed to come to a conclusion here... and while I guess there was some conclusion, it just happens out of nowhere and comes off really forced, while not really explaining anything except for the surface stuff that the readers have already known.  Yeah, this was a disappointing issue and I can only hope that brighter days are ahead for this title.

5/10