Red Hood and the Outlaws #16

Family Matters!

Written by Scott Lobdell
Pencils by Timothy Green II
Inks by Wayne Faucher
Colors by Blond
Letters by Travis Lanham
Cover by Tyler Kirkham & Batt with Alex Sinclair
Assistant Editor • Darren Shan
Editor • Eddie Berganza

Our cover shows the Outlaws — Starfire and Arsenal — gazing in horror at the Jokerized Red Hood. It's a really creepy cover, smartly playing off the boring closeups we had at the beginning of this event. I wish Kirkham did the inside art, as well, since I'm not the biggest fan of Green's work, although I am happy to see longtime Impulse inker Wayne Faucher back. But the worst part of this cover is the obnoxious ad for Arrow, perpetually telling us to tune in to The CW at 8/7 Central.

Our story picks up with Arsenal and Starfire saving the Teen Titans from a group of Jokerized homeless people. Starfire wonders why they don't just incinerate the creatures, so Kid Flash says he believes there's still a chance they can save these people. Roy Harper calls Kid Flash "Speedy" (which is funny because in the old continuity, Roy was the original Speedy) and he tells him to use his super speed to corral the victims. Kid Flash asks Wonder Girl what to do, and she tells him to belay Arsenal's order. But then she forces all the people back into the housing development they came from, which basically was what Arsenal wanted to do ... so I'm not sure why she disagreed with him.

Kid Flash quickly barricades the door, but easily becomes frightened when the Jokerized people begin to break through the barrier. Arsenal tells the Titans that Joker has captured the Red Hood, as well, and says they need to work together to rescue their teammates. Kid Flash and Wonder Girl refuse to listen to somebody wearing a baseball cap, but Solstice and Bunker are willing to hear him out.

Arsenal reveals that he's analyzed the Joker gas and has identified a warehouse that contains all the necessary ingredients for an antidote. He suggests that he and Bunker stay behind to contain the Jokerized people, while the rest of the heroes head to the warehouse. Everybody agrees to this plan, and when they reach the warehouse, they find a bunch of boxes labeled "Cure! Do not touch!" Kid Flash realizes this was a trap set up by the Joker, as bomb goes off two seconds after they open the door. Luckily, those two seconds is long enough for Kid Flash to pull the cure out of the warehouse and rescue Wonder Girl, Solstice and Starfire.

When they bring the cure back to Bunker and Arsenal, Kid Flash theorizes that the Joker is just toying with them and keeping them busy. However, they all decide to try their luck with the cure, anyway. When they open the boxes, they find a bunch of syringes, and Kid Flash admits he's afraid of needles to the point of starting to pass out just at the sight of them. Wonder Girl grabs Kid Flash and orders him to inject every single one of the infected people before passing out.

Kid Flash fights through his phobia and successfully inoculates all the victims. It takes a minute, but all the homeless people return to normal, with no apparent side effects from Joker's cure. The Outlaws and Teen Titans then begin planning their rescue of Red Hood and Red Robin.




This wasn't a bad issue. Typical of Lobdell's writing, it had insufferable narration (this time from Arsenal) and more infuriatingly vague hints at a character's backstory (this time Solstice and Starfire). I also still don't know how none of our heroes succumbed to the Joker gas. But I did like Kid Flash's role in this one — more than making up for inadvertently spreading the gas in the first place. He also was actually almost funny for the first time under Lobdell. I guess he's showing some progress after a year and a half of writing the character.

Next time, we'll bounce back to Smallville: Season Eleven.