Ratings and Rantings

Hey everyone, it's that time of the week again for the best weekly dose of comic content comics! This week we've got another the conclusion of Bruce Wayne's Road Home, we've also got Kick-Ass 2 and Carnage #1 making their JTCS debuts, so without anymore stalling let's get this show on the road.

Action Comics #894

On our last issue of Lex Luthor's Action Comics run, we ended things off with our chrome-domed psychotic friend being shot by Gorilla Grodd and coming face to face with Death herself. We start things off with Lex and Death standing over Lex's lifeless corpse. Lex doesn't believe that a teenage girl could be Death, so she proves it by touching his nose, and when it starts to decompose he changes his tune. Death tells Lex she can let Lex have a life review, but he doesn't want to see his life over again. She shows him anyway and we see some iconic scenes like him standing over Superman's casket, his recent fight with Superboy in front of his sister and niece, and Lex with the Legion of Doom. Lex gets upset but Death explains how often she has to deal with dying people and how she doesn't want to be treated as a villain for doing her job. I'm really starting to like this chick, she seems like a very interesting character. Lex then starts to barter with Death, asking her what he has to do to return back to life. Lex starts to go through the five stages of grief as Death watches on, unaffected after dealing with it so much. Lex and Death then talk about what Lex believes in, and Lex, a devout atheist, says there's no one to judge him and sentence him to hell of heaven if not Death herself. Lex then wonders if it is real will he get to make a case, and defend his actions. After some more discussions we find out that Death is just checking up on Lex, as she never stated he was dead, before placing him back in his body, now in on his plane with a neck brace on, wondering what the mystery is behind his meeting with death. Well this was a solid comic, very good read, and a great introduction to Death, who I've heard of but never read about from her appearances in Sandman. The only think I disliked was the last two or three pages which I omitted from the review as not to spoil the ending. This was a nice solid issue of a solid series since it's featured Lex. I'll give it a 7/10.

Lex: ...My life.

Death: Yup. There it is. With lots of people fighting. And lots of people being clever.

Justice League Generation Lost #12

We start this issue back with a view into the past of Tora Olafsooter, also known as Ice. We see that she loses the ability to control her power when she loses her temper apparently, which explains why she's always been a more quiet and timid character when compared to the outgoing and friendly Fire. We then fast forward and see an angry Tora, more in her Goddess state than her usual quiet self. Rocket Red tells Fire that the temperature is dropping rapidly, to 30 below Fahrenheit and how his suit won't function at below 60, so she tries to snap some sense into Tora by talking to her. Fire gets to close and gets decked by Ice. She tells Gavril to get himself and the Metal Men to safety and to leave her to try to handle Ice on her own. We then cut back to more of Tora's past and see her playing soccer with some kids while her father discusses stealing some money from an old folks home with his associate, who happens to be his father. When one of the kids playing with Tora falls and blames Tora, they get into a fight, and Tora unleashes her powers. No one see's them really, but Tora's father tells his wife to go pack up so they can leave town. We fast forward back to present day and see Fire and Ice have huge fight with the two friends taking each other to the limit. We see more of Ice's past and see they've moved to Germany. Tora's grandfather shows up and says he plans on taking her back with him to rule as the Goddess she is. Ice's father refuses and when she's taken by her Grandfather and his men, Tora's father tells her to make it colder than she ever has. She freezes everyone and everything around her, including her father, who's last words to her are be careful, be quiet, be calm. Remembering this snaps her out of her almost primal state, and returns her to the normal Tora. The issue ends soon after, but not before Booster, Beetle and Captain Atom get an unexpected and unwanted guest. I thought this was a great comic and showed us a ton about Ice, her past and a few new revelations. I really find Ice as an interesting character due to this comic, and it's continued to build the characters up so well that it's become a better series because of it. I'll give this issue a 9/10 for a great character establishing issue, although the background of Tora's mega powers could've been explained better.

Tora's Father: No! This isn't magic or destiny! It's genetics! It's in our bloodline! She's just a girl with a gift! I won't let you make her into a monster!

Carnage #01 of 5

First things first, this comic has some AMAZING art. I mean freaking amazing. The art looks so real, and on one page you can even see the lines on someones fingers, that's just amazing. The issue starts with Spidey heading over to see an expo he was invited to by Tony Stark. It's about a new type of prosthetic that works with thoughts instead of deciphering binary. There was even a fun part where the prosthetic flipped off Tony Stark as apart of the demonstration, which the crowd loved. Tony did not on the other hand, and has Pepper Potts pull public reports of any patents or companies owned by the demonstrator, Michael Hall, so he can see how Hall came up with this technology. We see Tony step outside and notices an armored truck trying to be run off the road by a smaller truck, and someone who looks like Spider-Man following it, only he has more arms and an insane laugh. We see Peter Parker at home eating cereal and watching TV when he gets a call from Tony asking him how many arms he currently has. When a confused Pete replies that he has two arms, Tony tells him about what he just saw and Spidey, with a bowl of cereal in his hand, heads out to meet up with Iron Man. The multi-armed maniac causes a crash between the armored truck and the car following it, causing Iron Man to try to stop him, but he's quickly rendered inactive while the thing tries to escape again. Spidey shows up ans from Iron Man's description he figures out the symbiote is Mayhem, to his dismay. Our heroes are then attacked by an angry mob, as a result of the anger given off by Mayhem. Meanwhile, our symbiotic psychopath catches up with the armored truck and rips the door off. Back with Spidey and Stark we see two new heroes, also in power suits by the names of Royal Blue and Firebrick as they subdue the mob and Spidey and Iron Man. They then attack Mayhem, and kill him with one blast through the back as well as a woman who tried to stop the blast from hitting him. The issue ends soon after with us finding out who was in the truck as well as our first view at Carnage. This comic was a great way to start off, it was solid, raised a lot of questions and had beautiful artwork. Probably the best Spider-Man and Iron Man I've ever seen drawn. The bad news is this comic will only drop ever two months, but it'll keep me waiting. I'll give this first issue an 8/10.

Spider-Man: The crowd's not thinking straight, Tony... push them back but be gentle.
Iron Man: Got it. Recalibrating repulsors for minimal trauma.
Spider-Man: Oh yeah, yeah... I'm recalibrating my web-shooters for, uh...minimal...

The Road Home - Oracle

And here we are, on our second to last stop on Bruce Wayne's road home. We start off with more of Bruce's casebook and he mentions there are some people he didn't worry about while he was away, because he knew they could push past the grief and adversity and keep fighting the good fight, and Barbara Gordon is one of those people. We see Oracle finding out that the Seven Men of Death, Ra's Al Ghul's personal hit squad, are in town so she figures Ra's has the hit on Vicki Vale. Man, Vale is bigger in this series than Bruce it seems. Babs gives this information to The Insider by hacking his frequency that he claims no one should have been able to hack. He lets Oracle know that he's currently with Vale, and he then has to yell at Vale for her to realize how much trouble she's caused due to her trying to find out everyone's secrets. When Oracle asks if Insider is alright, he replies that's he needs a little help, then asks which of her Birds of Prey are near. She tells him a few and asks if he has any requests, and he replies that he trusts her. Oracle looks over her files to see who to send, and she remarks that she thinks The Insider is Bruce but she can't prove it. We see a great flashback scene with Bruce first coming to see Babs in the hospital after she lost the use of her legs. We see how much it pushed her to not just give up and to keep going, prompting her to become Oracle. We then see in present day that Oracle's called in Hawk, Dove and Batgirl. I was definitely glad to see Batgirl get some love, she's quickly become one of my favorite comic characters. Oracle does some hacking to lead the Seven men to her traps, where shre springs teams of three on them consisting of Ragman (he has a phone?!), Manbat and Manhunter, and Batgirl, Hawk and Dove. Meanwhile, Vicki narrowly escapes an explosion thanks to The Insider, but when he can't get up after the blast he tells her to run. Bruce eventually finds out Ra's plan, and Oracle tells Bruce she knows it's him due to his mannerisms and being around him long enough. Oracle wonders is Batman and Robin know but Bruce says he needs to finish what he's doing first and find Vicki. This was another great issue, that set up the final issue with Ra's. I'm wondering what will happen from here and how Vale will be handled but I loved seeing how Bruce helped fuel Babs to become Oracle. I'll give this great issue a 9/10, another great issue in this Road Home series.

Babs: You can't fix this, Bruce. You can't give me my legs back.

The Road Home - Ra's Al Ghul

We start the final Road Home issue with Bruce summing everything up in his casebook, saying how Ra's wants Vicki out of the way because he wants to be the only one to ruin everything Bruce has built. We then see Ra's Al Ghul, ashe talks about how he's forgotten the detective's name, I guess that's the first sign of old age, eh Ra's? Back with Vicki, we see her about to be killed by one of Ra's men, but The Insider shows up at just the right time thanks to the JLA transporter in his suit. Vicki runs away and finds the police while The Insider fights off her attacker, but they pull their guns on her, obviously working for Ra's. They fire shots but miss because their apparently near-sighted (really?!) and Vicki escapes. When The Insider catches up with the rogue cops he uses his Wonder Woman like lasso to find out that there's an open hit on Vicki, to which he of course realizes is courtesy of Ra's. The cat and mouse game continues with Vicki trying to run but continually being led in one direction like Ra's has planned with the Insider trying to catch up in time to save her. When Vicki decides she's tired of running she goes back to her apartment to trash her findings so her secrets die with her, but Ra's is already there waiting. The Insider finally finds out where Vicki is and heads there but his suit is on zero reserve battery power. The Insider finally arrives between Vale and Al Ghul, as Ra's welcomes him back. He comments in his casebook that seeing her work laid out it makes his secrets seem obvious, and he regrets that he's had such a fear of living life all this time, before unmasking in front of Vicki. The issue ends soon after with Vale making a major choice, and we finally end the Road Home series. This was a fine issue, the ending with Ra's was pretty anti-climactic though, but other than that this was another fine issue in a series of issues, I'll give it a 7.5/10.

Bruce Wayne: She doesn't deserve to die, Ra's, just because she did her job... and my job prevented me from being honest with her.

Kick-Ass 2 #1

We start off this first issue in the second chapter of Kick-Ass with our heroes, Hit-Girl and Kick-Ass training in a boxing ring, which seems more like Kick-Ass getting his ass kicked by the young heroine. Kick-Ass wants to call it a day but after a little confidence boost in the form of verbal abuse from Hit-Girl, he guts it out. We then cut over to Mindy McCready's (Hit-Girl) new home, and when asked about school she spouts off a bunch of believable stuff, until her new guardian, Marcus, tells he he knows that she's been with Kick-Ass training and trying to assemble a new team of heroes. She denies but when they go up to her room and she sees all the weapons of hers that Marcus has found, she admits that he's right. He asks her to give up the weapons and masks and she promises. We then see a flashback from when Mindy went home and how her being Hit-Girl is a secret between her and Marcus, since her mother wouldn't be able to handle it. We then see that Kick-Ass' house was blown up and his father is brain-damaged all due to his secret identity being discovered, but that's yet to happen yet, so we fast forward back. Dave (Kick-Ass)'s dad had just broken up with the woman from the last book, so he and Dave were back to eating Chili seven-days a week since that's all Dave's dad knows how to cook. Dave was also still very lonely and crushing on his own personal Lois Lane, Katie Deauxma. Later on we see Kick-Ass hit the streets with a new ally by the name of Doctor Gravity, who gave me a hilarious laugh at the expense of Kick-Ass. Doc Gravity tells Kick-Ass that a few guys on his facebook are talking about making a Justice League of sorts, and Kick-Ass jumps at the opportunity. He and Doc Gravity are then with with a sneak attack by two angry thugs, but Kick-Ass handled both thugs, proving he's learned a lot since he started out. When he goes to meet with his Super Friends, he texts Hit-Girl about joining him but she declines, due to the promise she made Marcus. The issue ends soon after with Kick-Ass coming face to face with his future team of allies? This was a great comic, the ending was great, and I really enjoyed it. I'm wondering how Hit-Girl will get back in the game and all the questions about what's going to happen with Kick-Ass, Red Mist and this new team. I'm also glad they added Marcus to the comic since in the movie he became Hit-Girl's legal guardian. This was a great way to continue a great story, I'll give Kick-Ass 2 a 10/10.

Hit-Girl: My dad would have had you doing a hundred push-ups for all this whining.

Kick-Ass: Not if he'd cracked my goddamn ribs, man. I feel like Rihanna after a quiet night in.

Well that's all for me this week gang, as always I thank you for reading my ratings and rantings, and feel free to comment with questions, disagreements or just tell me how awesome I am. The answer is very by the way, so until next time, I'm your friendly neighborhood Blogger-Man, Jason Todd, signing off.

Next Time on Ratings and Rantings

Brightest Day #13, Red Hood: Lost Days #6, Batman & Robin #16, and Amazing Spider-Man #647.

Batman: Under The Red Hood Review

Hey everyone, Jason Todd here once again for another animated movie review, this time I'll be taking a look at Batman: Under The Red Hood, the animated movie adaptations of "Under The Hood" and "A Death in The Family." I plan on giving you guys an in-depth, impartial review based on what I thought of this movie, regardless of my fondness of the Red Hood/Jason Todd characters. Also, below the review are the poll results from last week, and of course, don't forget to vote on this weeks new poll as well. So, without further hesitation, I present to you, my review of Batman: Under The Red Hood.

Batman has fought crime in Gotham City for years, with his former Robin, the now Bludhaven based hero known as Nightwing dropping in every once in a while, Gotham crime knows to fear the Dark Knight. So when a new vigilante moves into town, one that will cross the line Batman won't by killing villains and drug dealers, Batman plans on stopping him. Batman tries to stop The Red Hood but he always seems to be a step ahead. Batman eventually comes to believe that Red Hood may be the murdered former Robin, Jason Todd. Meanwhile, The Red Hood is quickly making enemies, the biggest being Black Mask. So when Black Mask enlists the help of The Joker, we have a three way battle between Batman, The Joker and The Red Hood himself. Will Batman take out his former partner? Will The Joker kill again? Will Red Hood kill The Joker once and for all?

Likes

The Story: As a fan of the original story, this story captures it well and adds it's on spin. While A Death in The Family is classic, the story is sub par, and gladly the film knew this and omitted most of it, only the Joker beating Jason Todd with the crowbar and blowing him up was taken from that comic. Everything else was given it's own spin for the movie, instead of randomly throwing Superboy Prime in and having him punch a wall to bring Jason back, Ra's Al Ghul and his Lazarus pits were brought in instead, which made a hell of a lot more sense. The ending was changed as well, as in the comics you may recall the final showdown between Red Hood, Batman and The Joker never ended because of the explosion in Bludhaven, and luckily this couldn't happen in the animated film and it's better for it.

First Appearances: This movie was monumental in many ways, portraying the debut of Jason Todd, The Red Hood, and Black Mask in animated form for the first time ever. Also, making their DCU Animated film debuts were Nightwing, Ra's Al Ghul and the always illusive and A-List character of Al Ghul's bodyguard Ubu! Oh yeah!

The Voice Acting: This film had an AMAZING cast, a truly great cast. Bruce Greenwood (Christopher Pike in Star Trek of 2009) portrayed Batman and did an fantastic job as The Caped Crusader. He did so well that he's going to voice Batman in the upcoming "Young Justice" cartoon that debuts later this year. Simply said, if Kevin Conroy were to step down as Batman, I would accept Bruce Greenwood as the definite Batman voice with no problem, that's how good he is. The Red Hood's voice actor, Jensen Ackles (of Supernatual and Smallville Season 4) gave Hood's character the voice I've always envisioned him having and did a great way of portraying his snarky humor and comedic timing, while still coming off as serious in the heavier scenes of the film. Throw in the amazing voice talents of John DiMaggio (Bender of Futurama) as The Joker, Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother) as Nightwing and the scene stealing Wade Williams (Prison Break) as Black Mask. If you aren't a fan of Black Mask, you will LOVE him by the end of this film.

The Artwork and Choreography: The artwork in this movie is great, it's crisp and comparable to the artwork in Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, yet it has it's own style. The fights are choreographed perfectly, there's even one scene where The Red Hood and Batman fight side by side, and it looks amazing, there are no words to describe it, but what I love best is you can see the obvious teammate influence when Batman and Nightwing fight side by side. Also, throw in the fact that no two fights look similar, so there's always something enjoyable.

Dislikes

Nightwing: This is honestly the only thing I disliked in the film. Don't get me wrong, I didn't hate him, and Neil Patrick Harris voices him perfectly, he just had no purpose. He pops up, helps Batman when bats really didn't need his help, then shows up again and has no bearing on the end of the movie. Really, it's not a big complaint but him randomly popping up telling bad jokes was kind of annoying, because while Dick does joke around and lighten the mood, he also knows how to be serious. Also he had a weird buzz-cut, where's my traditional Nightwing with long hair or a ponytail?!

Final Rating: Honestly, I enjoyed this movie a lot. I watched this film three times, and there was nothing I could find wrong with it. It's enjoyable by comic fans and non-comic fans. I even had a friend watch it, one that believes all Superheroes should have powers like Superman or The Flash, and by the end he'd changed his position on that and decided he really liked Batman and Red Hood. The actors are great at their roles, and portraying the necessary emotion, whether it's the Joker's psychotics, Red Hood's attitude and jokes or the deep scene with Jason and Batman, it comes off the way it should when you read the comics. This is, without a doubt my favorite DCU Animated Film and one of my favorite films in general. I'd love to see a continuation to this, and more voice work by this amazing cast, especially Greenwood, Ackles and DiMaggio. I'd recommend this to anyone, comic fan or not, because it's a great story, with an amazing cast and it's action packed, as well as an emotional story. Definitely a 10/10 rating for this great movie.

Well, that's it for this review guys. I didn't get SUPER in-depth because while the story is reused it's still interesting because things have been added to enhance the story so it's not rehashed. I hope you guys found it informative and enjoyed it. Also, below I've included a link for the next DC Animated Film, Superman/Batman: Apocalypse. It's based on the second arc of Superman/Batman and will feature the two title characters along with Supergirl, Darkseid, Doomsday, Granny Goodness and even more characters. And under that is last week's poll results. So, I'm outta here, I'll be back this week with another edition of Ratings and Rantings, as well as the topics for next weekends "Top Five 5", so until then, I'm your friendly Neighborhood Blogger-Man, Jason Todd!



Last week's poll question asked "Whose Comics would you like to see crossover and lead to a team-up?"

Last Place with 11.1% - Tie between Superman/Lex Luthor and The JLA & Deathstroke's Titans.
2nd Place with 33.3% - The Femme Fatales of the Batfamily and House of El, Supergirl and Batgirl
Winner with 44.4% - The Gotham City Sirens and The Birds of Prey. Dini, Simone, make it happen!

Red Robin/Batgirl - Collision Review (Spoiler Warning)

Hey, Hello, Hola, and Bienvenidos. Once again I'd like to welcome everyone to my Red Hood. So, if you're like me, last year's Battle For The Cowl started a bunch of interesting things you were looking forward to. Sure Jason turned "evil", and Damian became Robin, and Dick became Bats which we all predicted, but two more things happened. Tim Drake became the Red Robin, and Stephanie Brown became the new Batgirl. Batgirl, written by Bryan Q. Miller quickly became one of the best monthly comics, bringing seriousness and a fun tone, as well as making everyone, even Damian likable. Red Robin written by Christopher Yost quickly became one of the worst monthly comics in my opinion, even to the point some of my fellow bloggers decided to drop the series. So, what happens when you take one of the best and one of the worst series, with two characters who have history comparable to Dick Grayson and Barbara Gordon? That's what we find out in Red Robin/Batgirl - Collision. (By the way I'm very happy with this opening paragraph.)

Collision takes place in Batgirl #8, and Red Robin #'s 10, 11, and 12, which is why he gets top billing of course. Our story starts with Batgirl and Red Robin running into one another in the recently abandoned by Batman but re-bandoned (?) by Oracle and Batgirl. Tim is upset to find Steph still "playing dress-up" as he calls it. After some bonding, if you can call it that, Tim lets it spill that Ra's Al Ghul and the League of Assassins are after Bruce Wayne's friends and allies and Doctor Leslie. After kicking some assassin butt and saving the good Doctor, Tim and Steph share a romantic moment on a rooftop while in costume, intil the part is crashed by Prudence a.k.a. Pru, a former member of Ra's League of Assasins. Pru tells Tim that she was hired to kill Stephanie Brown, before pulling a gun out and pointing it right into Stephanie's face. Steph then proceeds to lay down an all-star Smackdown onto Pru that would make Bruce Wayne do a double take. After Steph is done beating Pru senseless, we find out the gun wasn't loaded and Pru came to help Tim, because she owed him one.

Meanwhile, we see that Ra's has come to Gotham, and he's looking for an audience, with Thomas Elliot. Ra's tells Hush, he want's everything Bruce Wayne has. We also see both Vickie Vale and Tamara Fox looking desperately for Timothy Drake/Wayne together, little do they know their being hunted by Ra's Al Ghul's assassins. At the same time, the power in the Batcave is disconnected and we see two more of Ra's assasins jumping down a rope to enter the Batcave and attack Barbara Gordon. After an dodging an explosion back at one of Tim's weapon cache's in Gotham, Red Robin, Batgirl, and Pru come face to face with Ra's best assassins, The Seven Men of Death, which is an odd name because one is a woman. Also, why the hell are the X-Men called that when they have women on the team? But I digress, after an amazing fight scene with the Seven Men of Death and Red Robin, Batgirl and Prudence, the heroes escape on Batgirl's "Ricochet" Motorcycle thing. Tim hooks one of the Seven and drags him away so he and Pru can beat some answers out of him. Steph leaves to make sure Oracle is okay. Right outside of Wayne Manor, Vicki Vale and Tam Fox are running after being shot at by the assassin sent by Ra's.

While Red Robin and Pru interrogate their hostage, Gotham's Finest, Batman and Robin arrive on the scene. Damian makes a hilarious joke about Red Robin having some decency and getting a longer skirt. Damian eventually recognizes Pru as one of his grandfather's assassin's and attacks her before Red Robin SLAMS him harder than necessary, which made this comic worth the price of purchase. Vicki and Tam pull one over on the assassin and Vicki clocks him with a shovel. Vale then grills Tam about Drake and asks what's his big secret? Tam quickly answers, covering for Tim who she knows is Red Robin, "We're engaged!" The assassin wakes up in time to grab Vale from behind and hold a knife to her neck, but she's luckily saved by Batgirl. Red Robin tells Batman to trust him and do as he asks, Batman agrees to do so and Red Robin tells him to wait for his call. Finally we see Ra's assassins ready to strike on each intended target. The targets are all unaware of the danger surrounding them. The targets include Damian Wayne, Dick Grayson, Barbara Gordon, Alfred Pennyworth, Lucius Fox, Stephanie Brown, Vicki Vale, Julie Madison, Selina Kyle, and Jim Gordon.

Our final book starts with Ra's wondering why no one can find Red Robin. Maybe that's because he's behind ya big guy. Ra's tells Tim his efforts are futile because even if one person survives the others will die. Red Robin takes a walkie talkie off of a guard he knocked out and says "Report." The Walkie Talkie answers "Hey, Ra's. How's it going?" We see that the intended targets have been saved by allies of Tim Drake, either former Teen Titan partners or other Gotham heroes. Superboy having saved Alfred Pennyworth, Kid Flash helping Catwoman, Mahunter and Jim Gordon, Batgirl who was still with Vale and Tam Fox, Huntress with Lucius Fox, Manbat saving a freaked out Julie Madison, Wonder Girl... attempting to save Oracle who saved herself and Batman and Robin who beat up the Ninjas that attacked them. Prompting Damian to chime in with "Really, Grandfather? Ninja? I'm insulted" as Batman swings off. Ra's is shocked that Red Robin was a step ahead of him, and Tim tells him "Did you think I was going to run all around the city, desperately trying to save everyone all by myself? I'm not Batman. I have friends." Tim shows that he's never trusted Ra's and has been gathering information for a while now. Ra's angrily attacks Tim, and Tim knows he can't beat Ra's. He mentions that Ra's can take Bruce to a stalemate and has been around forever and knows all types of fighting styles, so Tim just tries to survive. It's shown that Tim has been stalling to give Lucius time to prepare the paper work. He tales Ra's today he became an emancipated minor, and as of right now he is the controlling shareholder of Wayne Enterprises. He says Bruce knew that just in case something happened to him, that Hush could steal his Legacy, so left work to Lucius that if he started spending recklessly, to transfer his majority shares to Tim. He knew that Hush was going to transfer everything of Bruce's to Ra's after a simple threat, so he beat him to the punch. After finding this out, Ra's tells Tim, "Well done, Detective." before kicking him out of the building window. As Tim falls, satisfied in stopping Ra's Al Ghul, he is saved by Dick Grayson in mid-air.

Tim wakes up surrounded bt Steph, Dick, Damian and Alfred. Tim tells Dick he knew he'd save him, because he's his brother. Stephanie then asks him if he forgot to tell her anything. Tim looks confused as Damian gives him a newspaper and says "Congratulations, you dog." Tim opens the newspaper to see the headline "Engaged: Teen Wayne Heir Tim Drake to wed older woman" by Vicki Vale. A confused Tim askes, how long was he out for. Tim is later shown swinging around Gotham, with some alterations made to the Red Robin costume, claiming he's redeemed the honor of it, and it's no longer a punishment. Next, we see Ra's talking to a woman with a hood on saying Tim Drake passed every one of his tests, and "He will produce a worthy heir." Lastly, we come across an angered Tim Drake from a year ago after being told Damian was replacing him as Robin. He breaks a portrait on the wall of "Mordecai Wayne" and recognizes him as Bruce. The last thing we see, is Tim saying, "He's Alive." As we finally know what sent him around the world looking for proof that Bruce was lost in time.


Damn that was a long review. You owe me X! But really, I enjoyed reading this crossover, and I thought it did a good job of showing Tim finally come into his own. We also got to see why Tim has been so adamant that Bruce was alive. Sadly, Yost couldn't keep this going since the beginning because I really enjoyed this crossover. Now that Red Robin is getting a new writer I can only hope that Tim continues to grow and show that he definitely belongs to stand side by side with Dick and Bruce.  I very much so enjoyed seeing the growth between Tim and Steph as well, and I hope they get back together and don't get the run-around like Babs and Dick. With that said, I'll give this entire crossover a solid 8/10 rating and I'd recommend it to anyone who's a fan of Tim, Steph or just a good comic.

Also, below you can see the results of last week's poll. This weeks poll is going to be a little different, I had so may picks that I decided this week we'll have two polls so be sure to vote on them both. And below are the results of the last poll which was "Which character would you like to see star in their own Video game?"

Last place with 10% - Once again a Speedster falls behind, The Flash.
3rd Place with 20%  - The Cap falls back as well, Captain America.
2nd Place with 30%  - Our favorite Amazonian, Wonder Woman.
The Winner with 40% - The Emerald Archer, Green Arrow should get his own video game. No Boxing glove arrows!!!!

And that said, looks like I'm done for the day. I'll be back for a huge edition of Ratings and Rantings later this week, and a review of Wolverine: Enemy of The State as requested by Marc, as well as a new poll next weekend. Until then, you've just been Gobsmacked!

- Jason Todd

Taking A Look: Under The Red Hood

Hey everyone, Jason Todd here with some big news in my opinion. But first, just letting you guys know I picked up a few comics today so expect a Review a Few tomorrow or Saturday, because I'll be busy Friday. For those wondering I picked up Blackest Night 7, Black Lantern Green Arrow, Teen Titans #80,  Flash Rebirth #6 FINALLY, and Gotham City Sirens #09. Really looking forward to the Blackest Night stuff and finishing Flash Rebirth, and Sirens and Titans should be cool.

Now back to the title of this article. As most of you know I'm a huge Jason Todd fan, hence the name. I've blogged about how I think he's been misused a lot, from when he was killed and then he was used pretty awesome after his return but once Bruce "died" he was made a C-List villain and someone no one has taken seriously. The fact that most casual fans don't even know who Jason Todd is, only knowing Dick Grayson and some knowing Timothy Drake, I've always felt like Jason doesn't get respect. Hell he's looked at as being the one time Batman couldn't get there in time to save someone he cares about since donning the cape and cowl. So Jason deserves respect. And he's finally going to get it.

In the release of JLA Crisis On Two Earths (In stores now), we are treated with a preview of the upcoming Batman: Under The Red Hood animated movie. It's based on Judd Winick's graphic novel and it will feature things about Jason's past including his beating by The Joker with a crowbar and being blown up. Apparently it will feature his return, as well as the Lazarus Pits as Ra's Al Ghul has been confirmed to appear as well. It even will feature the showdown between Batman and Jason with Joker in the middle right before Bludhaven was blown up by Chemo. Oh and did I mention it also features the Animated Debut of Black Mask? So without further adieu I present to you guys, a preview of Under The Red Hood.





For those that don't feel like watching the entire video, I believe around the two minute mark of the second video you can hear a little of the voice over work. I'm really looking forward to this, we have Bruce Greenwood as Batman. I don't know a lot about him but having heard some of his work Batman I will say that if we couldn't have Kevin Conroy who is the voice of Batman, then he's a damn good second. He gets my vote for a great job. Jensen Ackles (of CW's Supernatural and Jason Teague of Season 4 of Smallville)  as Jason Todd/Red Hood was a great choice. Having seen him play both joking roles and serious roles I know he can give Jason some well needed clarity with his voice. And with the always entertaining Neil Patrick Harris as Nightwing and John Dimaggio (Bender of Futurama) as The Joker I'm interested in seeing how he does as the Clown Prince of Crime. Also, Jason Issacs (Lucius Malfoy of the Harry Potter films) will play Ra's Al Ghul so that alone should be worth the price of admission.

All in all, it's still early to tell but I'm really looking forward to this animated movie. I'm hoping this is the first step to introducing Jason Todd to the non comic reading fans and also redeeming him in the eyes of many fans. Hopefully this is everything I hope so and I'll be reviewing it the second I get a chance to see it. I'm also interested to see what you guys think about it and also what other comic storyline's you guys think would make awesome animated movies. Until next time, you've been gobsmacked by The Red Hood. :P

- Jason Todd