Red Hood and the Outlaws #5

I don't believe Crux was a good enough villain for two full issues.

This issue begins with a kind of apology for Crux in much the same way that Stephen King apologizes for Cujo on the last page of that novel.

"Tonight was something of a Holy Grail for him." No. I would accept 'revelation'. Perhaps 'epiphany'. But not Holy Grail. Wrong.

Roy Harper electrocutes this stupid jerk whose name I already forgot and I had to glance up at the top of the entry to remember it was Crux. He pins him to the ground with an arrow and runs off to find Kory while the idiot Crux lies there and wonders why the Human isn't on his side.

Well, Crux, even if the human was a complete xenophobe like you he'd still do the same thing to you because you look like a xeno, you stupid bastard. I hate Crux. I hate the idea of Crux. I hate the guy who became a super villain because of one even in his life and now he's dedicated every waking hour to compensate for that one event. And the power of his trauma has allowed him to become a super scientist and a super geneticist and a super flying bat thing! And the power of his isolation has allowed him to recover lots of alien gadgets which are very useful in very specific circumstances! And even though some of those gadgets are as tall as the pyramid they were supposedly found beneath, he can still drag them around the world every time he comes across an internet rumor that will help his mentally ill cause!

Crux is a giant piece of shit. The Untitled aren't much better!

Red Hood continues to fight the Untitled Policewoman. Good thing they both express every single thought in their head about the first four issues of this comic book out loud while fighting or they would never reach the conclusion that they've both been used. Some rogue Untitled is trying to start a war between Jason Hood and the Untitleds. And it's working because even after Jason and "..." realize what's going on, they continue to enjoy being manipulated and keep fighting with each other.

Roy Harper finds Kori shivering in the ice. For one page while he tries to keep her warm, she seems almost like the old Starfire. Perhaps taking away her powers has cleared her head. Which is why she was calling Dick's name last issue. Or else she was just horny.

Hey! Imagine that! One arrow pinning Crux to the ground in the snow didn't hold him!

Meanwhile, Jason Todd has fallen into a fountain and journeyed through time to a lesson he learned from Ducra, the All-Mother. While in that fountain and in a fugue state, Jason Todd has a Holy Grail!

The series has a plot! Hunt down the 108 ghosts of the Untitled!

The fight with Crux goes as expected. Crux is defeated. And Kory gains her powers back because she had some alterations to her Tamarannean physiology that Crux couldn't have known about. And so he wasn't able to actually drain her of her power for more than a few minutes. But as Starfire is getting ready to incinerate Crux (YAY!), Jason Todd appears being trailed by an angry mob consisting of the population of Middleton, Colorado.

Oh no! Starfire is bringing Crux with them! Shit. Is he going to become an Outlaw?!

The story is coming together quite a bit better now. Less confusing and more extremely simplified. Overall, it was nicely done and it always looks nice as well. So I'll allow it to climb the ranks by one slot this month mostly because any comic at the bottom of the heap that does a decent job at not sucking should be given a Warm Fuzzy.