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A review by monitaroymohan
Red Hood: The Hill (2024) #2 by Matt Herms, Shawn Martinbrough, Shawn Martinbrough
1.0
There are wheels within wheels and maybe they’re finally beginning to turn? I still don’t think the writing and art and editing are doing justice to a story about lawlessness and a town forgotten by our heroes. It’s not doing justice to the concept of gang wars and what leads people down the dark path. There’s something different and innovative hidden under the poor execution of this story.
Case in point—the book starts with a flashback to the Joker War where something bad happened to Omar. Who the heck is Omar? We find out he worked for Dana and now he’s out to kill her. Why? Don’t ask me. And this stuff is revealed over panels of Jason and Carmen getting intimate. My dude, what? I know they’re trying to do that tv thing where a sexy scene is intercut with something terrible, but they don’t get that right. There is no poetry, symmetry, or sense, to the execution of this book. The only upside is that Jason Todd is paired up with a curvy Latina lady, instead of the boring conventional women he usually gets stuck with.
I don’t think it helps that the real protagonist of the story is Dana, and not Red Hood, who’s name is on the title. I don’t know if I would have a problem with that if Dana wasn’t so rashly written. Why is she always racing into trouble solo and needing backup? Why won’t she let her team live their lives and start families? She could, and should, take a step back and see how she can sustain the work of The Watch, starting with Jason who’s there to help. Why be unnecessarily stupid and need rescuing when you literally have a whole team and a veteran vigilante to help you? See, this is what annoys me. You want to introduce/re-introduce new characters but then you write them poorly and they annoy the readers. Dana deserves better.
Her and Denise’s rivalry doesn’t make any sense. I get Junior hating on Denise because he thinks she no longer cares about her people, that’s pretty typical of folks stuck in their small ponds while their neighbours become big fish elsewhere. But Dana getting and staying mad with Denise makes little sense—especially since Dana being the Watch is supposedly helping Denise and vice versa. Don’t get the hate for each other.
I feel like as this story goes along the threads will be tied to together, but man, it’s going to be a slog to get there.
Case in point—the book starts with a flashback to the Joker War where something bad happened to Omar. Who the heck is Omar? We find out he worked for Dana and now he’s out to kill her. Why? Don’t ask me. And this stuff is revealed over panels of Jason and Carmen getting intimate. My dude, what? I know they’re trying to do that tv thing where a sexy scene is intercut with something terrible, but they don’t get that right. There is no poetry, symmetry, or sense, to the execution of this book. The only upside is that Jason Todd is paired up with a curvy Latina lady, instead of the boring conventional women he usually gets stuck with.
I don’t think it helps that the real protagonist of the story is Dana, and not Red Hood, who’s name is on the title. I don’t know if I would have a problem with that if Dana wasn’t so rashly written. Why is she always racing into trouble solo and needing backup? Why won’t she let her team live their lives and start families? She could, and should, take a step back and see how she can sustain the work of The Watch, starting with Jason who’s there to help. Why be unnecessarily stupid and need rescuing when you literally have a whole team and a veteran vigilante to help you? See, this is what annoys me. You want to introduce/re-introduce new characters but then you write them poorly and they annoy the readers. Dana deserves better.
Her and Denise’s rivalry doesn’t make any sense. I get Junior hating on Denise because he thinks she no longer cares about her people, that’s pretty typical of folks stuck in their small ponds while their neighbours become big fish elsewhere. But Dana getting and staying mad with Denise makes little sense—especially since Dana being the Watch is supposedly helping Denise and vice versa. Don’t get the hate for each other.
I feel like as this story goes along the threads will be tied to together, but man, it’s going to be a slog to get there.