Chris Cooper reviews Batman and Red Hood #20…

“The massive fallout from the recent events in BATMAN, INCORPORATED take Batman to the very limits of his sanity…will The Red Hood pull him back—or push him over the edge?“

Batman and Robin has been a really solid title, so once (spoilers!) Damian was killed off in the pages of Batman, Incorporated I had concerns over the direction of the title. Last months issue, featuring Carrie Kelley, dealt with denial and gave me hope that it wasn’t losing its way.

Sadly #20, featuring Red Hood and focusing on anger, does very little to move things along and ultimately just feels pointless. As a story it lacks focus, with the pair attacking a base in Africa and basically shouting at each other for most of it. Instead of any real development, it just peters out with Jason leaving Bruce on his own.

The title is clearly going to move around and use every character it can (next month is Batgirl and the month after Catwoman), but it just feels as though they felt a need to use Jason and thought “Jason’s angry, lets throw him in.” Strikes me as clutching at straws whilst the editors and writers figure out what they really want to do.

On the plus side I am keen on the cover, and the art is solid as we’ve come to expect, with a very Punisher-esque Bruce.

Overall though, Batman and Red Hood just feels as though it is treading water, and that’s a shame as it’s been a great title so far. That earns it a reprieve for the odd duffer, but I hope it find its feet again soon without a full time Robin.

Chris Cooper