Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by monitaroymohan
Red Hood: The Hill (2024) #5 by Shawn Martinbrough
1.0
I really don’t think there’s any redeeming this series at this point. I thought the previous issue, which brought in Batman and focuses a smudge more on Red Hood, meant we’d finally shift to this being a story about the title character, but we don’t. I wouldn’t even have that big of a problem of this not being a Red Hood story if the rest of the story and characters could prop things up. But they don’t.
Denise is an investigative reporter but her sole source is her sister, is she looking into things for herself or just getting herself into unnecessary scrapes? Why can’t we see her do the work instead of her being rescued all the time.
And then there’s her sister Dana, who is the real protagonist of the series. I just cannot get over how poorly she’s written and also drawn. She’s so erratic it makes no sense. She keeps getting posed with her ass out, and frankly it’s impossible to believe the creators take Dana seriously as a hero and character because of that.
If Junior is extending an olive branch, why not suss things out before making a move—which is what Red suggested. Red is there, backing her up when her whole team is down (Travis is on life support, so not dead yet). She has Red and Batman for the time being. So why does she go to the grand opening in seriously the most revealing outfit ever and then make a scene? She’s not wrong that Junior is up to no good. But what proof does she have? What is her endgame? I was embarrassed for her. I feel for Denise having to witness her sister have a public break down. I’m also confused that both Bruce and Junior offer to pay for her team’s medical needs—that’s not weird? Two different people helping the same people, but not the rest of the community? Also, if Bruce and Jason are friends of the family, how come they weren’t there to help Dana and co before?
The problem with this series is that there is no foundation for what we’re witnessing. Junior only just mentioned finding balance. What does that mean to him? How come he and The Watch were all trained by the same assassin, but while Dana and team became protectors, Junior went off to do his own thing? What was the assassin’s deal? She just arrived, trained people and left? None of this would be a problem if they didn’t have that training, right? Also, what are the cops in town doing! We saw the captain once, and that’s it, there’s no other help from anyone else? If that’s the case, then where’s the terror and fear in everyday life? It’s like we’re focusing on a small group of people and that’s it, no one else is affected in this town.
There are also unnecessary complications. Dana was headed to the Olympics when she was badly injured. Ok, so what does that mean? They may elaborate on that later in the series, but what are they trying to say now. Are we just supposed to feel sorry for her dashed dreams? She recovered enough to become a vigilante with limited training. Did her parents have to lose a lot of money because surgery is expensive in the US? What is the point of this aside? And how does Dana fit into Red’s backstory because it’s obvious he has a long connection with this family.
Noticeably, Carmen has disappeared completely now that she and Jason had that one intimate scene. Bizarre choices here.
Speaking of bizarre—Junior’s dad is alive. He’s senile, but alive. So what did Batman do to him? And why the cover up about his death?
So, Bruce shows up at the Godmode store opener and makes an ass of himself. He immediately impugns the honour of Leonora. You know the optics of this book look bad. The two white guys whoosh into the Black part of town, flaunt their wealth and scoff at everyone’s connections to criminals. It doesn’t help that the people they’re scoffing at are baddies, so there’s really no redeeming anyone here. But Bruce, ostensibly, isn’t supposed to know that, so he’s not ingratiating himself to the wealthy and powerful in the Hill.
The climatic action scene is once again chaotic, and worse, has no bite because we know Bruce is in no actual danger.
I don’t really understand the thinking behind the structure of this series. There’s a really good plot line here about underserved communities fighting back, and how poverty and violence causes so much infighting and fear, but that’s buried under so much aimless exposition, and truly dull creative decisions. Also, don’t tell a story about the Black community and have the white superheroes come in and lecture everyone/save the day. It’s important to tell inclusive stories in titles that people are familiar with, but this ain’t how you do it. What was DC thinking?
Denise is an investigative reporter but her sole source is her sister, is she looking into things for herself or just getting herself into unnecessary scrapes? Why can’t we see her do the work instead of her being rescued all the time.
And then there’s her sister Dana, who is the real protagonist of the series. I just cannot get over how poorly she’s written and also drawn. She’s so erratic it makes no sense. She keeps getting posed with her ass out, and frankly it’s impossible to believe the creators take Dana seriously as a hero and character because of that.
If Junior is extending an olive branch, why not suss things out before making a move—which is what Red suggested. Red is there, backing her up when her whole team is down (Travis is on life support, so not dead yet). She has Red and Batman for the time being. So why does she go to the grand opening in seriously the most revealing outfit ever and then make a scene? She’s not wrong that Junior is up to no good. But what proof does she have? What is her endgame? I was embarrassed for her. I feel for Denise having to witness her sister have a public break down. I’m also confused that both Bruce and Junior offer to pay for her team’s medical needs—that’s not weird? Two different people helping the same people, but not the rest of the community? Also, if Bruce and Jason are friends of the family, how come they weren’t there to help Dana and co before?
The problem with this series is that there is no foundation for what we’re witnessing. Junior only just mentioned finding balance. What does that mean to him? How come he and The Watch were all trained by the same assassin, but while Dana and team became protectors, Junior went off to do his own thing? What was the assassin’s deal? She just arrived, trained people and left? None of this would be a problem if they didn’t have that training, right? Also, what are the cops in town doing! We saw the captain once, and that’s it, there’s no other help from anyone else? If that’s the case, then where’s the terror and fear in everyday life? It’s like we’re focusing on a small group of people and that’s it, no one else is affected in this town.
There are also unnecessary complications. Dana was headed to the Olympics when she was badly injured. Ok, so what does that mean? They may elaborate on that later in the series, but what are they trying to say now. Are we just supposed to feel sorry for her dashed dreams? She recovered enough to become a vigilante with limited training. Did her parents have to lose a lot of money because surgery is expensive in the US? What is the point of this aside? And how does Dana fit into Red’s backstory because it’s obvious he has a long connection with this family.
Noticeably, Carmen has disappeared completely now that she and Jason had that one intimate scene. Bizarre choices here.
Speaking of bizarre—Junior’s dad is alive. He’s senile, but alive. So what did Batman do to him? And why the cover up about his death?
So, Bruce shows up at the Godmode store opener and makes an ass of himself. He immediately impugns the honour of Leonora. You know the optics of this book look bad. The two white guys whoosh into the Black part of town, flaunt their wealth and scoff at everyone’s connections to criminals. It doesn’t help that the people they’re scoffing at are baddies, so there’s really no redeeming anyone here. But Bruce, ostensibly, isn’t supposed to know that, so he’s not ingratiating himself to the wealthy and powerful in the Hill.
The climatic action scene is once again chaotic, and worse, has no bite because we know Bruce is in no actual danger.
I don’t really understand the thinking behind the structure of this series. There’s a really good plot line here about underserved communities fighting back, and how poverty and violence causes so much infighting and fear, but that’s buried under so much aimless exposition, and truly dull creative decisions. Also, don’t tell a story about the Black community and have the white superheroes come in and lecture everyone/save the day. It’s important to tell inclusive stories in titles that people are familiar with, but this ain’t how you do it. What was DC thinking?