Comics Corner: Red Hood: Outlawed

As a former teenage edgelord myself, I have a tender place in my heart for angsty comic book antiheroes evoking the over the top, hilariously blood-soaked Dark Age of the 90s. Granted, I spend as much time laughing at characters like this as I do laughing with them, but still, I have a lot of affection for characters like Jason Todd. Batman’s wayward, back from the dead sidekick turned occasional villain, occasional antihero is an odd duck in DC’s roster, both for the characters and for the writers. He’s simultaneously been at the center of some of my favorite Batfamily storylines, such as Under the Red Hood and Reasons to be Cheerful, as well as some of the worst solo series endeavors I’ve ever read. But hey, fresh blood can breathe new life into anything: one of the beauties of the comic book industry is that a new creative team can come along and completely revitalize a lackluster title. So, does the DC Webtoon Red Hood: Outlawed, manage this for Jason and friends?

Sort of.  

I’m not even sure where to begin here. Of all the DC/Webtoon collaborations, Red Hood: Outlawed is easily the messiest, most uneven of the bunch. And yet it keeps surprising me, delivering strong pathos and immaculate character work even when the plot is all over the place. 

The characters are probably the best place to start: first off, Bizarro. Superman’s backward-talking, endearingly lonely and clueless clone is Jason’s best friend and the team’s heaviest hitter. His arc focuses on his feelings of isolation, both from the world at large, the superhero community at large, and from the rest of his team as his friends grow closer in their romantic relationship. His POV chapters, in which we see the world from his perspective are surprisingly rich and soulful, with B’s oddly poetic inner monologues lending a heartwarming, somewhat maudlin tone to what are often slice of life chapters away from the main plot. 

And then there’s Artemis: the Amazonian antiheroine’s gradual defrosting and learning to accept herself, including the fact that she’s not nearly as grouchy or edgy as she thinks she is, is an excellent throughline for a frequently underserved character. One of her focus chapters in particular really worked for me: she goes to a secret underground layer where warrior women of the DCU can indulge in feminine activities like baking and sewing without fear of being judged. Honestly, that’s brilliant and I love everything about it. 

That her tender side also comes out around Jason helps a lot as well- I’ve found myself legitimately shipping Jaytemis over the course of this story, when beforehand I was fairly apathetic to it. They compliment each other nicely, with a cute undercurrent of friendly competition and playful snark highlighting two very damaged souls slowly coming together and building something real together. 

And of course there’s Jason himself. The way this story dissects Jason’s worldview, supporting parts of it while dismantling others, is honestly a great choice. His belief that sometimes his father’s one rule needs to be broken isn’t portrayed as a hundred percent right or wrong, but rather something that is situational. Sometimes, Jason has the right idea, and other times he just doesn’t. Sometimes, his rage-fueled, absolutist beliefs about ‘doing what needs to be done’ are dead wrong, while other times he has a point.

This is fueled by his relationship with Batman: Bruce at first comes off as a full-on abusive dad who isolates Jason from the rest of their family, but at the same time we see the good moments of their relationship, how Bruce ultimately does care for and respect his son, and how he wants him to be better than Batman, better than all of them. Jason and Bruce’s similarities are why they’re both a good and bad team, and why Jason does ultimately need the space that the Outlaws provide him.

It helps that while Jason’s relationship with his father is rocky, he gets on far better than usual with his brothers: while Tim and Damian only make a few (absolutely delightful) appearances, Jason’s one-on-one conversation with Dick is probably my favorite chapter of the whole series. Just two brothers getting dinner together, discussing old wounds and helping each other reach the futures that they want. 

And then there’s the plot. It’s a mess. It changes on a dime, making bizarre, unexpected swerves and sometimes abandoning storylines altogether. It’s whiplash inducing at points, frustrating at others, and baffling at others still. I have no idea why it does this, and to be completely honest, it’s easily the worst part of this Webtoon. I don’t want to spoil all the truly insane pivots the story takes, because frankly it has to be seen to be believed. 

The artwork helps a lot. It’s not as consistent as I’d like either, but the character designs are striking, the action scenes are dynamic, the facial work and body language express a lot of emotion, and the backgrounds convey the most immaculate of vibes at points. The soft, gentle pencils and warm, rich colors really help sell the emotional moments of the comic, allowing us to really feel the pathos of a given scene in a way that feels physical and tactile despite the thing being on a computer screen. 

The characters and the artwork are what I keep coming back to with this Webtoon. I’ll admit, I’ve considered dropping this one a few times. But Red Hood, as a character, is all about finding redemption in unlikely places, acknowledging mistakes and owning them, growing past them. If Jason’s character is about that, then hey, his series can be about that too. 

Happy reading, Outlaws!