Written by Scott Lobdell
Art by Kenneth Rocafort
The Solicitation
Red Hood is convinced that the super assassin Essence set him up in his battle against the Untitled...and Arsenal and Starfire are prepared to help him get some payback! Plus: The trio learn that the super-villain known as Crux might be a kindred spirit after all! And the murderous Suzie Shu waits in the wings for her revenge!
Preview
The Story
Ah, yes, the story. Hum. Remember that Essence character from issue #1? That girl that appeared to only be able to talk to Jason, the Red Hood, and no one else could see her? Turns out she's the daughter of the person who trained Jason in all the way spooky stuff and they banged a while back.
But wait, there's more!
Crux, our master villain with a hatred for all things alien but wants to surround himself with alien tech, is transported into Arkum Asylum by Jason disguised as a doctor with what I assume is some psychic paper borrowed from Doctor Who. (Its blank paper people, but get used to it, there is more than just blankness there!)
Roy shows that he is into planes and technology and learns to fly Crux's ship (which they got due to Crux being in Arkum now). Starfire is bored and also disgruntled about how earth people treat aliens. Then Jason gets a visit from Essence.
Essence still can't be seen by people, which soon corrects itself so that way all our heroes can fight her. Jason pulls an all-blade from Essence, which can only be pulled in the face of true evil, thus showing Essence's true colors. I think. They seem to be made up in all black.
Apparently our big villains are around because they all drank from this dark water years ago. Seriously.
Essence then gives away her weakness by declaring that no weapon made of man can harm her. What convenience, we have a ship full of alien tech. Throw, well, anything at her. And they do, so she disappears. For now.
Jason then remembers that he has the flight attendant's number from issues ago, and gives it a ring for some reason. When the lady answers, he hangs up. Why? I assume it is to humanize him and make him feel like he has some sort of connection to the human world and human emotions.
Cliffhanger time! Miss Su, who Jason messed up a couple of issue back, is awake and angry. She wants the Red Hood! Now!
So-so story for me, overall. Just seem to float along and hit a couple of minor points, have the heroes fight something, and then on to the next. Just like their ship. Floating along.
The Art
Um, yea. This just got bad again. I know I tend to go all split personality it seems when it comes to the art, loving it one month and rejecting ti the next. The criticism matches the art though. When this artist slows down and isn't flashy, this book works. When the page is half white with little bits of action going on and panels at random angles, then this artist fails.
Take the first page. Just fine. Everything on the page is used. No weird angles, no tilted panels. Just right. Turn the page, and we get weird angles again. For what seems like no reason. And is sporadic as can be.
Let's walk through where the artist wants the eyes to go through this two page spread. In the bottom of the left side, and I believe you can see this in the preview, we see the top of Red Hood's hand. This, judging by the costume change of the character, is going to be the last thing you look at. Start with the ambulance panel, then go right. right, right, then center of the page, then the lower left corner. I would say to look at the layering of the panels to help guide you with the order to look at them, but that doesn't help either.
The two pages that we get the flashback to Essence's origin is how the rest of the book needs to look. It used up the entire page and had all the panels transition from one to the other that was easy and logical to read. Then we jump back into chaotic panels until the very last page.
Also, when transition from a panel showing the plane hovering over the city, don't show the next one where they are heading towards the city. If anything, they should be leaving. Also, when you just showed that Red Hood's mask is broken, don't show it magically fixed in the next panel without him mentioning it or the art showing that he changed. It didn't seem like any time changed between the two pages.
Generally not happy with the artwork on this one.
The Cover
The text that says "At Last! The Return of Essence!" is misleading. In fact, I had forgotten about her.
All the characters seem flat on this cover, like there is no depth showing you any sense of the third dimensional perspective that you should get telling you which characters are attacking from what depth of their angles. For example, if Red Hood is up in front, make him slightly bigger to show that he is closer to the viewer than Red Arrow. In this case, it almost looks like Red Arrow, Red Hood, and Starfire are all the same distance from us, thus the confusion.
Grades
Words: 5/10
Pictures: 2/10
Recommend: Skippable. just know that Essence and Red Hood banged and that Essence's mother was who trained Red Hood.
Buy Next Issue: It's supposed to be the Red Hood crosses over into Night of the Owls territory issue. I'm game.
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