Red Hood and the Outlaws Vol. 2: Who Is Artemis? (Rebirth)

by Scott Lobdell

[Quirky Cat]

I received a copy of Red Hood and the Outlaws, Vol. 2: Who Is Artemis? from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Red Hood and the Outlaws is a very unique and interesting hero team-up (though they wouldn’t appreciate you calling them heroes, maybe anti-hero is a better fit). Together Red Hood (obviously) Artemis, and Bizarro take on missions that matter to each of them. Volume two is focused more heavily on Artemis and the Bow of Ra that she is hunting down. Though there is an issue focused more on Bizarro, for all the fans of him that are out there.
Scott Lobdell (Daredevil, Teen Titans Rebirth, Uncanny X-Men, etc) continues writing for the series, which is fantastic because I don’t know if anybody else could set the tone the way he does. The artwork is done by Dexter Soy (known for Batman Beyond, Batman: Arkham Knight – Genesis, but is best known for his work with Red Hood and the Outlaws), and I just love what he creates for us to enjoy.



Issue number seven, as mentioned above, is more focused on Bizarro. In it we see Red Hood (AKA Jason Todd) is having a moral dilemma about Bizarro’s existence. The man really does seem to want to do good, he just doesn’t really know what good is. Jason is unsure if he can control Bizarro and keep him from hurting people, so he has to make a decision. Trust his gut and let Bizarro continue to learn, or take Bizarro out. It’s an oddly endearing scene, in the end. One I certainly appreciated.
Issues eight through twelve focus on Artemis and the Bow of Ra. It was nice getting to learn more about Artemis and her backstory. Apparently she has a team-up past with Wonder Woman (even if there was some animosity involved), so there’s a new fun fact for you. Her story is actually pretty heart breaking, though I wish they had shown us more of her home before they dug into the introduction of her best friend/possible lover, Akilla. I just feel like there’s so much more to learn about Bana-Mighdall and it was just glossed over so quickly (but then again, I’m greedy for information like that).
All three of our heroes have to face their past in this volume. Bizarro remembers not being treated human by anybody but Red Hood and Artemis (or as he calls them, Red Him and Red Her). Jason has it pretty rough too – he ends up in the building that’s literally adjacent to the one he died in. Needless to say that brings all those awful memories back up to the surface for him. Artemis has to see her best friend, alive and corrupt again. Needless to say this volume gets a little heavy at time; though I greatly appreciate all the character development.
I’m curious to see where volume three will lead, now that all the loose ends have been tied up. It’ll be starting off with all the characters having received a decent amount of growth and development, so there’s a lot of potential going forward. I can’t wait to see what happens next.


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