Red Hood and the Outlaws, Vol. 1: Dark Trinity

Red Hood and the Outlaws (2016)

by Scott Lobdell, Dexter Soy (Illustrator)

A part of DC Universe: Rebirth!

Jason Todd, a.k.a. Red Hood has been many things--a Robin, dead, the Red Hood--now he's back and he's embracing his bad side!

With his new status as a villain, Red Hood plans to take down Gotham's underworld from the inside. Joined by a fallen Amazon named Artemis and a half-baked Superman clone named Bizarro, this dark trinity will soon discover that the line between hero and villain is harder to discern than they might think.

Collects RED HOOD & THE OUTLAWS #1-6 and REBIRTH #1.

Rebirth honors the richest history in comics, while continuing to look towards the future. These are the most innovative and modern stories featuring the world's greatest superheroes, told by some of the finest storytellers in the business.

Honoring the past, protecting our present and looking towards the future. This is the next chapter in the ongoing saga of the DC Universe. The legacy continues.

Genres: Comics, Dc Comics, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Comic Book, Batman, Graphic Novels Comics

150 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 2, 2017

About the author

Scott Lobdell (born 1960) is an American comic book writer.

He is mostly known for his work throughout the 1990s on Marvel Comics' X-Men-related titles specifically Uncanny X-Men, the main title itself, and the spin-off series that he conceived with artist Chris Bachalo, Generation X. Generation X focused on a number of young mutant students who attempted to become superheroes in their own right at a separate school with the guidance of veteran X-related characters Banshee and Emma Frost. He also had writing stints on Marvel's Fantastic Four, Alpha Flight, and The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix mini-series with artist Gene Ha. He wrote the script to Stan Lee's Mosaic and an upcoming film from POW Entertainment featuring Ringo Starr. He also participated in the Marvel Comics and Image Comics (from Jim Lee's WildStorm) crossover mini-series WildC.A.T.s/X-Men.

Reviews

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ok, so this wasn't perfection, but this is definitely one of the few Rebirth titles I've read that I'm going to keep up with if I can.



Even though this is volume 1, if you have little to no idea who Jason Todd/Red Hood is, then you might want to do a bit of research before you pick this up.
The cheap version is this:
Jason was the second Robin (after Dick Grayson left to become Nightwing). Sadly, he was an annoying character...which resulted in fans voting to kill him off.
I know! Harsh, right?!
So, the Joker beats him to death with a crowbar and (ta-da!) Batman has one more thing that gives him a little extra gloomy/brooding street cred. Fast-forward a bunch of years and Jason is resurrected as an anti-hero (Lazarus pits, FTW!) called Red Hood - a nod toward the (maybe) secret origin of the Joker.



I enjoyed the way minor flashbacks showed a different side of Jason's relationship with Bruce. In fact, that was maybe my favorite part of this thing. It set a nice tone for the story with those little nuggets of their past popping up as Jason's memories.



I gotta be honest, though. I'm not completely sold on Artemis and Bizarro as the new Outlaws. I didn't hate them, but I'm not singing the praises of this Dark Trinity team-up just yet. For now, I'm just a fan of Jason. Hopefully, I'll start digging these other two a bit more somewhere down the road, because the chemistry wasn't completely off, but I don't know enough about either of them to have strong feelings one way or the other yet.



Fun Fact: My 14 year old son's favorite thing about this Rebirthed Jason Todd was his chest taser. Can't say I blame him...it was pretty fucking cool watching him zap the shit out of Batman.



Definitely check this out if you're a fan of this character.

[Mizuki · Rating 4 out of 5]

When Red Hood saved this old lady from an explosion and then said old lady turned out to be a criminal, I'm on board.


Okay, I am totally pimping my silly fanart here (Link: https://www.deviantart.com/darkchildr...)

I can't stress this enough, the artwork of this first volume is so damn amazing! Every character are eye-candies, even Black Mask and the false-facers are great to look at!

At one point Bizarro is like, wiping the glass with Jason's face and Artemis is like, 'I don't give a shit'. I totally love it! LOL

PS: I really like the ending with Black Mask, sucks to be him, though. XD

PSS: to be honest, I like the Black Mask in the Birds of Prey movie. LOL

Talking about Black Mask, during this re-reading I've been having some really impure thoughts regarding Black Mask/Red Hood slash/yaoi stuff. I totally don't believe Black Mask just wants Jason to be his right-hand or a potential heir (okay, okay. you can say Black Mask is only using Red Hood for his own ends all along, but adding the yaoi angle in always makes things more interesting!) *smirks* Hell, why would I miss all the signs during my first reading when those signs are all there in plain sight?! LOL

And not to mention all the Red Hood/Bizarro bro-mance in the context! LOL

Review for Vol. 2 https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Review for Annual #3 https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Review for vol. 37 https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Batman: Under the Red Hood review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Sam Quixote · Rating 2 out of 5]

So, even though I know Scott Lobdell is one of the worst comics writers ever, all I heard from friends was how boss the Rebirth Red Hood and the Outlaws was. Uh huh. Suuuuure it is. And, nuh uh to your uh huh, this wasn’t even half-good! Is everyone on crack? Am I?!

The story is a crap mess. It begins with Red Hood/Jason Todd shooting Gotham’s mayor – but of course it’s not what it seems. He’s “curing” the mayor of a techno-organic virus. Ok – “virus”. That’s lazy shorthand to mean something “bad” right? I guess, because we’re not told what a “techno-organic virus” is or does until the very end despite this being a key component to the plot, so it’s impossible to know or care about anything that’s happening up to that point because there’s nothing to understand. It’s amazing that Lobdell’s been writing comics for decades now and still fails at storytelling basics.

(Wait – “techno-organic virus” sounds familiar. Wasn’t that a feature of Marvel’s godawful Age of Apocalypse event also written by Lobdell in the mid-90s? Wow, this guy is shameless, not to mention utterly devoid of ideas!)

Black Mask is looking for an heir – even though he’s never cared about that sort of thing before – and decides to groom Jason as exactly that, even though they’ve just met and it’s obvious he’s working for Batman on the sly. What’s even stupider is Black Mask seems to know this but goes along with the charade anyway! Black Mask is also suddenly in love with Gotham and that’s why he’s doing what he’s doing with the virus… jeezus, Lobdell couldn’t have come up with more feeble motivations if he’d tried (and it’s clear he didn’t)!

Joining Red Hood are two other characters. Why two? Because subtitle – “Trinity” – and DC has a hard-on for that word. It’s that contrived. And because I think the previous Red Hood and the Outlaws title had three characters – I’m not sure, I didn’t read that one. Why’re they “outlaws”? Because Batman calls them outlaws at the end apropos of nothing. Everything about this book is so forced!

Artemis is one of the two – a “dark” version of Wonder Woman apparently. Her sole motivation is a MacGuffin – she’s chasing after the “Bow of Ra” because… she wants it. And apparently she tracked it down to a cargo train headed to Gotham and that’s how she and Red Hood meet. How convenient! Except it’s not on the cargo train. So she’s shite at tracking. Or incredibly dumb. Or both. Because she hangs around Red Hood for the remainder of the book, even going so far as to pretend to be Black Mask’s prisoner, in the hope of Black Mask possibly providing her with a lead to the Bow – a hope based on absolutely nothing! Did I mention how contrived the story is?

Bizarro makes up the trio and it’s arguably the worst version of the character ever. When we see him he looks exactly like Superman and then when he wakes up he suddenly looks much uglier. Out of nowhere he’s got a weird bowl cut – did someone give him a haircut in between panels? Why? And why do it to make him look like Simple Jack (see the excellent movie Tropic Thunder for that reference)??

Then he talks – Bizarro’s speech is probably his most distinctive feature – and Lobdell even manages to fuck that up. Bizarro talks in mirror-speak so he says the opposite of what he means. Except he doesn’t here for no reason. He says things like “NO! Me am NOT monster! Me am Bizarro!” when he should really say “YES! Me am monster! Me not Bizarro!”; Lobdell completely fails to honour the source material.

Why would Red Hood, Artemis and Bizarro be a team? Because contrivance + the hackiest writing in the biz = Scott Lobdell. The dialogue is especially terrible but to keep this review from becoming hideously long(er), if you’re gonna pick this one up, look for the early scene between Jason and someone called Ma Gunn who begins her clunky speech with “You see, I’m not the kindly septuagenarian I appear to be…” – this is not how people talk. And Black Mask is playing the most stereotypical Bond villain ever and he apparently has goons head-hunting new recruits in Gotham’s bars!

The one aspect of the book that pleasantly surprised me was Dexter Soy’s art which has vastly improved since his work on Kelly Sue DeConnick’s awful Captain Marvel run. It’s not nearly as messy and cheesecake-y, the lines are cleaner and the composition is clearer – he’s obviously gotten much more confident as an artist. The style looks a lot like DC’s animated movies – very slick, anime-esque. That said, Black Mask has never looked worse – that gimp mask he’s in was a horrendous choice!

I was actually hoping to be wrong and discover that Scott Lobdell had somehow written something good for once – but, unfortunately, no. I’ll give this book credit for having unexpectedly decent artwork but the writing is Lobdell’s usual total trashpile. Don’t believe the hype – Red Hood is still red poo!

(Sarky hat tip to the Real Dark Trinity for egging me on to read this!)

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

This must be a sign of the Apocalypse, Scott Lobdell wrote a book worth reading. I really don't understand how this could be so good, when his previous work on Red Hood was so awful. Lobdell used to write this book almost like he had ADHD and couldn't maintain a coherent thought. Yet here, we have what would almost be considered a slow burn. Jason Todd goes undercover to take down Black Mask. The flashbacks to Jason's time as Robin are really well done with muted colors to signal the time shift. Over the course of the book both Artemis and Bizarro are introduced and it's not until the closing of the book that they decide to go off together and help out Artemis. Artemis maintains most of her pre-Flashback history except for her time as Wonder Woman and she now has a huge ax. Bizarro picks up from the Forever Evil story and thankfully doesn't speak the opposite of what he means, instead, just in broken English.

Dexter Soy's art is REALLY good, especially now that he has a talented colorist in the mix in Veronica Gandini. Thankfully, he's not painting in watercolor like his garish run on Captain Marvel.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm actually looking forward to reading volume 2.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, this was certainly a pleasant surprise. My limited experience with Red Hood (a.k.a. Jason Todd, a.k.a. the second Robin, a.k.a Tootie from TV's The Facts of Life . . . just kidding on that last one) was strictly as a supporting character in various Batman volumes. This time around the two-gun hombre carries his own title, with - as the Beatles or Joe Cocker once warbled - a little help from his friends.

And what a trio for trouble this is -- like the back cover blurb states "Not Superman. Not Wonder Woman. And definitely not Batman! - It's the dark trinity of the DC Universe!" Red Hood - taking a cue from his mentor, but going about the crime-fighting / vigilante thing in his own unique way - unexpectedly but efficiently teams with the hard-as-nails Artemis ("DO NOT CALL ME 'PRINCESS'!") and the tough but tender Bizarro ("Me am Bizarro. Me am . . . alone.") to take down crime boss Black Mask and his evil organization. It was nearly non-stop action, with the bickering dialogue between Hood and Artemis being an entertaining highlight during the middle section of the volume.

[James DeSantis · Rating 4 out of 5]

2025 Review: I'm bumping this up to a 4. It's a ton of fun. It's amazing how awful the New 52 Outlaw series is, and how much better this series is. Jason can sometimes go on and on talking, but the chemistry with the outlaws is wonderful and the art is really solid. Black Mask is a fun villain, too, as always.

2017 Review: Well this is my first offical "Red Hood" title. I skipped New52 cause heard it was shit on shit. I still got to read "Under The Red Hood" even if I've seen the movie. So what did I think? Pretty fun!

There's two things I didn't like. Jason can be pretty annoying. He talks a lot, and usually has nothing really interesting to say. He's just a big old talker and his little quips aren't as fun as I want them. Also everyone coming together feels a little forced.

However the fight against black mask is fun, the outlaws are great (I love Bizzaro) and the art is solid. The ending, even cheesy, is still entertaining and holds a lot of hope for the future. I just hope this series keeps up. With Lobdell there you never know. Keep our fingers crossed!

[Artemy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rebirthed (DC's term, not mine) Red Hood and the Outlaws is a book that's been recommended to me by too many people on too many separate occasions, but I never trusted those recs, and who can blame me? Scott Lobdell is one of the most notoriously hated writers in comics, on the same level as Ann Nocenti and Rob Liefeld. And yet all this baffling praise for his Red Hood series kept piling around me, it seemed that wherever there was a comics discussion, someone would inevitably bring up how good Lobdell's latest book is. But even that wouldn't convince me to give it a chance, because why would I? It's a Lobdell book! It's like saying that Uwe Boll made a great movie!

But then came a day when I found out that my GR buddy Chris dislikes Jason Aaron. I know, right?! And without reading Scalped, no less! Not only that, but he also hates R. M. Guera's artwork, which was basically a deal breaker for him. Coincidentally, Chris is one of the people who tried for the longest time to convince me to read Red Hood. That's when I knew what I had to do — I made a deal with Chris that I would bite the bullet and finally read that Lobdell book, and he in turn would read Scalped. And that's how I ended up here. But was it worth it? Well...

Well, I didn't hate it! I didn't find the book insulting to my intelligence or anything. It was a surprisingly solid and readable action romp that relatively pleasantly killed about an hour of my time, and it didn't feel like a chore. Which is in itself kind of a huge praise considering it's Scott Lobdell, isn't it? Between Jason Todd, Artemis and Bizarro, the book has an excellent cast of main characters which Lobdell handles well (this is my first introduction to Artemis and I really like her! Which other books does she prominently appear in?). And while the dialogue does occasionally get pretty clunky and cumbersome, and some of the exposition is grating, most of the banter among the main characters was really entertaining and at times even quite touching, especially between Jason and Bizarro.

However, I also didn't fall madly in love with Dark Trinity like so many others. The book definitely has a few things going for it like its likeable cast, quippy dialogue, entertaining action scenes and nice artwork courtesy of Dexter Soy, buuuut... I feel like the story itself kinda sucked? The opening issue was really fun and promising, but after that the entire schtick between Jason and Black Mask became tedious and predictable, and it dragged on for way too long. The book is 7 issues long, and I started to lose my attention around 4 or 5 because not much was happening. If instead of one long arc the book consisted of two shorter ones it could considerably improve the pacing, but as it is, for about half of this volume I was waiting for the story to get on with it and for something exciting to start happening again. Thankfully, it did pick up in the last issue and wrapped up the whole thing with the Black Mask, hopefully for good — he was a lame villain and the weakest part of the book.

Overall, Red Hood and the Outlaws, volume 1: Dark Trinity was a surprisingly inoffensive read that totally had its moments, and now that I'm done with the first arc, I am even kinda curious to check out the next one. It didn't make me reconsider Scott Lobdell's entire body of work or anything, but I have to give him that — he does write an okay Red Hood book.

Now where's your review of Scalped, Chris? ;)

[Oscar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good story. Cool team up!

[Subham · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one was so good!

I loved this one as it focuses on Jason now undercover with Black Mask and acting as his second-in-command and he is after the things his boss does and that includes a fight with this Amazon warrior Artemis and well we see both of them go at it and trying to get a weapon, only to find its Superman clone - Bizarro and that changes everything, He sort of defeats her and still thinks Black Mask trusts him and we see moments between the two until his real plan is revealed and we see Jason's true intentions maybe. Will this new Dark Trinity be able to stop the threat of Black Mask and at the same time prevent BM from world domination? Plus Batman and Ma Gunn cameo too and a new adventure awaits!

Its a fun volume and the beats play out the same way you might be thinking but I love the explanation right from the start of his intentions and his under-cover work for Batman plus I love the new dynamic this team forms and its great how the writers show they compliment each other really well plus him showing Jason in such bad-ass action was great and harkening back to the past and giving us a moment in the end like that was worth it and the art by Soy is the why it works all together so well. Just brilliant stuff.

[Chelsea 🏳️‍🌈 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was pretty good!

I’m shocked because the last Red Hood and the Outlaws series did absolutely nothing for me.

I’m struggling to accept that the Batfam in Rebirth just isn’t the tight knit family it used to be. Cass is orphan and Bruce didn’t adopt her. Steph had little contact with them outside of her relationship with Tim. The only batkids we see him actively train quite a bit are Tim and Duke (we barely even see him with Damian). It’s just odd.

Case in point, this is a Jason Todd who is not only less angry with Bruce but actively working with him. It was odd to see, to tell the truth. Rebirth Jason met Bruce when he was a little older than pre 52. He died the same way but, it seems like he came back less angry with Bruce. I don’t see a lot of evidence that he tried to kill Joker when he came back or that he was the type of guy that kidnapped the former Robins and tried to take the cowl.

Still, I enjoyed this. Jason wasn’t 100% the Jason I love in Under the Red Hood but he’s a lot closer to his former character than Dick is in the current Grayson run so I’ll take it. His narrative is pretty entertaining.

I enjoyed this premise. I really like that that same jealousy was here with Jason believing Bruce doubts him because he’s not Dick. I liked the flashbacks to Jason as Robin and the insight into his doubts. I really liked the scene of him staring at Dick’s former suit in the glass case in the Batcave. I liked seeing Bruce lighten up around Jason, too.

I loved Artemis as a character. Shocking but I actually thought she was pretty well written. A little stale but I never felt like she was sexualized by the writing or the art and I’m pleasantly surprised.

I was also surprised by how well Bizarro worked in this story. Usually, I can only take those characters for about a minute or so before their dialogue gets on my nerves but Bizarro was fine here.

So, it’s a tentative recommend. Jason isn’t quite what I expected but I found this book easily enjoyable.

[Molly™☺ · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Dark Trinity, whilst not being nearly as iconic as the OG DC Trinity, bring enough flair and flavour to firmly cement their status as one of DC's most underrated dynamics. Jason Todd shines as a protagonist, and Bizzaro and Artemis are the perfect supporting duo. With stylish art and an open premise, it will be a joy to see this trio together in the next volume.

[Liam · Rating 4 out of 5]

( 3.7 STARS )

Red Hood is such a great and real character, I loved how in this volume we got a satisfying amount of flashbacks and character development! This trio worked so much better than expected and, overall, I really enjoyed this volume!

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Damn this was actually really good, better than I was expecting! This is my favourite characterisation of Jason since the three jokers story, really good to have a book where he’s an anti-hero and not a villain. The story itself was a good way to introduce this “team” and I like the relationships they have so I’m looking forward to reading what comes next.

[Wing Kee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as bad as I thougth it would be (second half at least).

World: I liked the art, and yes I'm going to compare this start of series with Lobdell's start of series in the New52. The art there was also good but where that was just a sexist 90s comic wet dream in 2012 this new version (also good art) is much more muted and in my opinion pretty good when the splash pages go big. The world building here is solid for a Rebirth title, the reboot but not a reboot does a good job at creating the world for Jason to play in and the pieces of Gotham that's used here is interesting and something that I do enjoy. If it can get the best of Brubaker's Black Mask and channel some ground level crime fighting with grey areas than I'm all for it.

Story: This is where things start to get iffy and clearly the weakest part of the book. The writing is fractured and choppy as all fuck and it does the story no favours. An example of this is Artemis in Black Masks lair and her sudden jumping into different areas of the house due to poor scripting and pacing. This happens a lot in the book with character moments jumping and shifting in suddenly and action sequences framed poorly. That aside, how is the story? Stupid. Illogical and asks too much of the reader to be stupid with it. I have to get into spoilers here cause I can't express how stupid this book is without it. The setup of Jason infiltrating Black Hood's organization is done so poorly and such a stretch you question Black Hood's intelligence (of course it's solved in issue 4 but that's still pushing it) Then there's Jason and his responses while inside the organization and him trying to interact with Artemis and Bizarro, how is this logical and even believable. The undercover stuff was just poorly written, can we at least have a Matches Malone thing for Jason, that solves everything...he has a fucking bat on his Red Hood costume, that's just stupid. It makes the readers feel stupid for believing it and it shows the writer being stupid for writing something that illogical. Of course as I said after issue 4 it's a non factor it's all about the action and when it hits well it does. The character interactions are also strong when it does it, especially the Dark Trinity. At the end, the end was way better than the start and them going off somewhere not Gotham is the best choice for the series. Please...no more stupid character choices to serve the story please...Oh and Lobdell maybe got notes about his portrayal of women in his past books cause it's a lot better (not perfect) here.

Characters: Jason is a hard nut to crack in the Bat family, he's the unwanted Robin that someone decided to bring back to be the Red Hood. I'm still not sold on the character and I don't find him that interesting because of a couple of reasons. First his personality is abrasive and sarcastic in not a good way, he's not a dick like Damien, he's not charming like Dick and he's not snide like Tim so he ends up being just whiney and brooding. He needs a better personal voice and a better writer. Two, the idea of him using Guns and him being the wannabe Punisher for DC does not work because of his relation to Batman. You can't have your cake and eat it too, either make him a full vigilante and at odds with Batman, don't have him in this illogical and does not work relationship where Batman accepts him for who he is and Jason needs to not kill, this balance does not work and makes the writing and stories lack weight. Artemis is an interesting choice and I love that she's on the team, playing her as the anti Wonder Woman is great and I think we will need more of that in the future. What we don't need is the Mistress, the Mjolnir wannabe...please be more original Lobdell and DC, Artemis is already fucking awesome as is and her relationship with Diana is drama gold! Bizarro is also a great choice and I think the best thing about this series so far, having him be a child was also great, I look forward to seeing the world through his eyes and the drama and humour it will bring. This Black Mask is stupid, I'm sorry but Brubaker ruined Black Mask for every writer that followed him cause everyone else either can't do the hard boiled crime boss or makes him silly and stupid. I am happy with the death of the stupid ass gimp mask but someone please write him better than this, he's so hokey and stupid which made the story stupid.

There is potential here, I can't believe I'm saying this for a Lobdell book, but they need to go all in with this group and don't dance around trying to please Batman fans by not really giving them what they want. Batman fans gravitate to Red Hood cause he kills and Batman doesn't he is trying to be the DC punisher, just let him and let him cut his ties with Batman.

Onward to the next book!

*read individual issues*

[Allison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hands down one of the best Rebirth series. Loooooooove.

[Batastrophe · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a definite step up from the N52 Outlaws title. First of all, the actual format and narrative devices being used were much better--it's just a far more solidly constructed book than the previous series. The use of flashbacks throughout juxtaposing Jason's current story with his time as Robin, the symbolism of the Dark Trinity--it seems to me that this book was constructed with far more intention than the old Outlaws was.

I did appreciate Jason in the book--how he's written, how he's drawn--it was all pretty good. I also really liked getting to know Artemis and Bizarro. That said, I do feel like Bruce wasn't totally in character. He wasn't the worst written I'd ever seen him, but he just didn't really feel right.

I also feel like the timeline is pretty confused. It does a good job of taking us through how Jason became Robin, but everything after is pretty muddy. The staples of his story are there--becoming Robin, getting killed, the resurrection, the confrontation--but everything that comes after is unclear. Jason mentions his time in Arkham--so that still happened? Did he totally fly off the rails? Is he recovering? Are we dealing with a Jason who was an anti-hero or a supervillain or just misunderstood...?

It's hard for me to believe he's suddenly on such good terms with Batman when I can't really pin down exactly what his history with him is. And don't get me wrong--I love anti-hero Jason, I much prefer him like this to when he was a full-fledged super villain--it's just odd that the book's making vague references to these things if they're going to end up retconned. Or are they? Overall, it's the same issue that's haunted Jason Todd's character for years, and I suppose it's one that won't really just go away.

Overall, I enjoyed the book, but it could've been better. The pacing could be tightened up a bit, and I want more interaction with Artemis and Bizarro. I also don't really get Artemis's history, much the same way I don't get Jason's--is this a brand-new Artemis, or the same one who's been around for years? If part of the aim of Rebirth is restoring DC's history, I'm not really sure what's going on with Artemis.

I'll stick around for volume 2 though, because so far this is a hellavalot better than the N52 series was.

[Don · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an outstanding story. Following some of the best Batman comics, this is a true detective story where red hood is trying to uncover the truth behind a mysterious crime boss. It is full of humor , action, and several unexpected twists. Love the artwork too. Bright and vibrant colors, beautifully drawn pages. I liked that all the backstory was included in the story arc and not assumed. Definitely will continue this title

[Siona Adams · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really fun series! The Dark Trinity as a whole is really interesting to me, and I like the direction this series takes with Bizarro (him am funny). I believe the next volume focuses more on Artemis, so that should be pretty cool when it comes out!

[Mia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was this something unbelievable, no, but has Jason love of my life and art was amazing.

[Brendan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Red Hood has grown to be one my favorites, I enjoyed the introduction all those years ago and haven't looked back. The Jason Todd arc is basically the Winter Soldier of the DC world and that's not a bad thing. This team up of the Dark Trinity, not a name I'm a fan of, the outlaws is much better suited, is a refreshing team compared to the boring other team books. I'm finding the Gotham characters are the ones better suited to my interests and as the others fall off, these certain few stick around.

[Aali Hashim · Rating 4 out of 5]

edit:
i'm dropping my rating to 4 stars because honestly, scott lobdell is not a great writer lol

2nd read
4.5
this was awesome but i wish jason's undercover work for sionis lasted longer. it felt a little bit rushed

1st read
so good

[Aidanmark30 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was really good! It’s about: Red hood has been recruited into an organization of a crime boss. He joins, of course, its a cover. He plans on taking the organization down from the inside. When Red hood is tasked with stealing a top secret bioweapon for Black Mask, he has to fight Artemis for it. what was the weapon? His own clone of SUPERMAN! Now Red hood, Artemis and Bizarro are all trapped in Black Mask headquarters and have to unite to take him down. I love Dexter Soy’s art and Scott Lobdell’s art. The storyline was very interesting too. I liked how they made the flashback idea. Can wait to read the next one. I rate this book: 4.5/5.

[Ondřej Halíř · Rating 4 out of 5]

Akcni humorna jizda co se nebere vazne a krom fajn dialogum a character writingu nabizi i prijemnou kresbu ktera neni takovy zatuchly mainstream. Za me paradni oddechovka.

[literaryelise · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was so surprisingly tender and warm hearted. Jason Todd I love you and you can do no wrong <3

[Aarthika · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ok this was really impressive. I had no clue about the dark trinity ever existing but I'm excited to read more about their adventures.

[sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of people told me I wouldn't like this book, and I therefore went into it with very low expectations. Maybe that's why I ended up enjoying it so much; I don't know. All I know is that I thoroughly enjoyed reading this comic, and it has confirmed the fact that Jason Todd is my favourite DC character (along with Poison Ivy and Kate Kane).

I've been slowly going through the Batfam section of the rebirth, and this was the next volume I needed to get to before I could move on, and it was the reason why I wanted to read the rebirth comics in the first place. I've always been fascinated with Jason Todd, and all I wanted was to read more about him. Thing was, I'd heard so many bad things about this volume from people I trust that I ended up pushing it off for more than a year.

Luckily enough for me, I have access to Hoopla now, and so I finally decided to take the plunge and read this book. And honestly? I really liked it. Maybe it has to do with the fact that I've never officially read a Red Hood comic before, but I thought that this was highly enjoyable, and it only confirmed the fact that I love Red Hood a whole lot.

The art was beautiful, without being so beautiful that it draws your attention away from the story, and I felt like the colouring worked really well with the story and its ambience. On top of that, I found the storyline fascinating, and loved the little touches of humour here and there.

All in all, I highly enjoyed this, and I would definitely recommend it if, like me, you love Red Hood but haven't read any other comics about him before. I'm seriously glad I finally read this, and can't wait to read more of the Batfam line of Rebirth comics!

[Jacqueline · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved Red Hood and the Outlaws vol. 1: Dark Trinity - I simply loved it! Jason Todd as part of the "Bat Family" is a character that I'm not super familiar with. Yes, I read the original, A Death in the Family where he's killed by the Joker. And I've both read Judd Winick's Under the Red Hood and seen the Warner Brother's/DC Comics animated film based on it (which is quite possibly still the best of several excellent animated DC films) where Jason comes back. But that's mostly about it. However, the previews and such about this book were very enthusiastic, so I decided to order it from my local comics shop and try it out. I'm so glad I did - because this book is wonderful!
Jason is a complex character, and this story uses flashbacks extremely well to introduce the character. It's not, say 50-pages of straight backstory, but the flashbacks are interwoven into the story well. Obviously, they are there because the book is aimed at new DC readers, but, and it's an important, but, the flashbacks are well-integrated and they enhance the story. If you are familiar with Jason's story arc, they simply remind you of the important points, and if you are not - well, now you know. For the long, continuing, and complex world of graphic novels and comics - this book is almost a primer on how to do that well. Plus, you have things like the very famous full-page picture of Batman, kneeling in the rain, and holding Jason's body, but Jason's comment that he was dead so he doesn't remember it.
Which brings me to the second point - I wasn't expecting this book to be so funny, but I did (literally) laugh out loud at several points. Jason Todd to me has always been a tragic figure. The Robin Who Died. The person who, like his parents death, profoundly affected Bruce Wayne and his mission by dying. (And even Bruce using the term, "the mission", became a stronger, clearer, and more obvious part of his role as Batman because of Jason's death.) But in this book, he's not the street-wise kid with an attitude problem. He's smart, and sassy, and his own man with his own way of doing things. In some ways, even though he's nothing like Dick Grayson either, he reminds me of the first couple Nightwing books by Chuck Dixon, as Dick feels his own way and becomes his own man and his own type of superhero. Jason, here is the same - he follows his own code, he has his own way of doing things, he knows his way isn't Bruce's way, but he's still becoming a hero. The characterization in this is brilliant and I loved it. And yes, there's a lot of humor here - both Jason's inner monologue, and in his conversations with Artemis.
The plot of the book starts with Jason "shooting" the mayor of Gotham City. However, Jason hasn't suddenly turned assassin. He's actually shot medicine into the mayor to cure him of techno-organic virus. Black Mask had been using the virus to control the mayor. Batman, who had made a show of trying to "stop" the Red Hood's attack talks to Jason, finds out about the techno-organic virus, and learns that the "attack" on the mayor was part of a plan. Jason intends to go deep undercover to take down Black Mask and his organization.
As the newest recruit in Black Mask's organization, Jason discovers that he not only blew-up the "orphanage" run by another criminal, Ma Gunn, but that he intended it to be full of children at the time. Jason also sees Black Mask kill three of his own men for "disappointing" him. But that might have been your typical undercover-in-the-mob story - until Jason tries to stop Black Mask from attacking a train delivering a super-weapon to Gotham City. In an attempt to stop Black Mask from getting whatever is in the train, Red Hood runs into Artemis. This Artemis is a Amazon warrior, a rival of Princess Diana (Wonder Woman) and on a quest to find the Bow of Ra. And she's brilliant! I loved the character of Artemis, and I hope she stays as a regular member of Red Hood's Outlaws. Also, the dialogue between Artemis and Jason is brilliant. It's well-written and it sparkles like a 1930s film. Not that Artemis and Jason are a romantic couple (yet) but their dialogue is just incredible.
Jason worries that the train car that Black Mask steals has some horrible bioweapon aboard. Artemis thinks it's her Bow of Ra. They are both wrong - it's Bizarro, a Superman clone created by Lex Luthor. The last third of the book has Bizarro brought to Black Mask's hideout, Jason trying to connect to Bizarro, Artemis pretty much wanting to kill off Bizarro as a threat, and eventually Black Mask using his techno-organic virus to take over Bizarro. Black Mask using his own brain to control Bizarro becomes his downfall, as Jason is able to use the cure he used on the mayor, as well as his own relationship with Bizarro to free the Superman clone from Black Mask's control. The backlash destroys the mobster's mind. At the end, Jason and Bizarro agree to help Artemis on her quest for the Bow of Ra.
Meanwhile, when Jason meets up with Batman to report - the two both learn a bit about each other.
I hope DC Comics continues to publish this book in graphic novel collections, because I will definitely want to continue to buy and read it. Highly recommended.
Red Hood and the Outlaws vol. 1: Dark Trinity collects the Rebirth special and issues 1-6 of the series. Writer: Scott Lobdell; Artists: Dexter Soy, Veronica Gandini, Taylor Esposito.

[Ronald Esporlas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I cant believe that this is really good especially it is written by Scott Lobdell whose run in New 52's Red Hood and the Outlaws, Teen Titans and Superman have a negative reception. Also the art of Dexter Soy gives the story justice. My favorite part are the flashback panels.

With a coherent story and good characters this is one of the best rebirth titles.

[Mols · Rating 4 out of 5]

love love love what they did with jason in this. his relationship with bruce is a highlight of this volume but artemis stood out as well. i’m excited to learn more about her in the next issue.

[tyrosine · Rating 5 out of 5]

11/10 experience, Jason Todd,,,Artemis,,,,Bizarro,,,,,,,the found family that they are ! CHEF’S KISS