Batman and Robin #25

August 13, 2011

Title: The Streets Run Red Part 3: Boys’ Night Out

Writer: Judd Winick
Art: Greg Tocchini & Andy Smith
Colorist: Artur Fujita
Letterer: Patrick Brosseau
Cover Artist: Guillem March
Editor: Mike Marts
Publisher: DC Comics

Red Hood’s twisted partner, Scarlet, has been captured and held hostage by someone with a grudge against Jason Todd. As he comes to the rescue, though, he’s got two unwilling partners by his side – Batman and Robin.

Judd Winick, the writer who brought Jason back from the dead and has probably done most of the work with the character since then, finishes off this three-issue story by contrasting Jason and Dick Grayson, Batman. It’s a fair enough point of contrast – Jason harbors a deep hatred for Dick that is understandable, if not justifiable. And the end of this story places Jason in an interesting place – he’s certainly not part of the Batman “family” anymore, but he can’t entirely separate himself from them either. The unfortunate thing is that the book really doesn’t have anything terribly new to say about any of the characters involved, and in fact, sets up a status quo for Jason that it seems will be negated by the time his new Red Hood and the Outlaws title launches in the new DC Universe in September. (It feels kind of unfair to judge these books in view of a relaunch that hasn’t happened yet, but it’s also practically impossible not to do so.)

The book has its moments, but not really enough of them to make it an easy recommendation.

Rating: 7/10