Red Hood Outlaw #34: European Vacation

A quick read but still pretty decent, I am loving the way Lobdell is tying in continuity. I really wish more books were acknowledging the last 6-7 years worth of books rather than participating in this slow decline into a muddy timeline where nothing is a given. Precrisis? postcrisis? n52? So many series right now are flagrantly disregarding continuity (HIC being one of the worst offenders) and this series is a breath of fresh air. It is a bit odd that these last few issues have relied heavily on times long gone going back as far as 2011, but it’s nice that someone is doing it.

I’m really liking Jason’s return to Lawful Evil I’m really curious where we’re going to end up, with Batman finally begrudgingly accepting Jason’s methods like he could have done years ago when Judd Winnick wrote Under the Hood? Or a return to the murderous maniac and a struggle like we saw in Battle for the Cowl? I am once again curious if this series is ending, with Scott Lobdell neatly putting his toys back in the toy box and resetting the status quo to pre flashpoint status. My point being the last time Jason’s life was going this smoothly he got beat to death with a crowbar (as I’m sure he will tell you himself, every chance he gets).

I do feel like I’m not talking much about the actual issue, which was a good issue in a good series. Not a ton of plot progression especially as I’m mostly interested in the identity of Wingman, and a return to All-Caste land is literally the last thing I expected to happen. I uncertain if that is an indication of quality that the story is keeping me guessing, or possibly it doesn’t make as much sense as it could. I’m not too worried, the book is fantastic right now and this arc is really fun.