Red Hood and the Outlaws #20

Roy is pondering forgetting the last year with Lobdell as well.

I wonder if DC would be willing to put The New 52 on hiatus for a few months so I can take a break from comic book blogging! I try to do two issues a day to keep up and even that is a bit overwhelming. I've barely had any time to play Bioshock Infinite! I did a couple of half-assed internet searches to try to find someone else that is blogging about all of The New 52 books but didn't come up with anything. But like I said, it was half-assed. When I first began this, there was another guy on Tumblr called Every Last Panel and he was reading everything DC was putting out and writing up short blogs with scans. But he simply stopped posting around Wonder Woman's wedding in Hell and then disappeared from Tumblr altogether. So I guess I have to keep blogging so I can remember every comic I read from month to month. Dammit.

One thing's for certain: I need to make these things much shorter. And probably less funny with a lot more dry, boring, intellectual asides about the actual possibilities of somebody swinging from a rope or creating boxing gloves out of green light. Oh! I know! I can stop beginning entries with random bullshit and just dive right into the comic book!

Jason Todd is super happy to have forgotten everything he's ever experienced. Although I don't know how happy he can be about forgetting when he can't remember the things he wanted to forget. Isn't he curious about what he's forgotten? I would think he'd begin to wonder how his old memories could have been so bad and then he'd be curious what they were and then he'd want them back so he could know if he made the right decision! And then he'd get back the memories and he'd say, "Oh fuck. Yeah. That sucked." And then he'd have them wiped again and start the whole process all over. I think erasing your memories only works if nobody tells you afterwords that your memories were erased. You could just suddenly begin anew and think, "Hey! What's this?! Who am I? Where am I? Why do I know language after having just come into existence? And since I know language and concepts, I know I probably have existed for at least two decades before suddenly being aware of things which means I probably have amnesia! I wonder who I was? Maybe I should try to get my memories back!" Oh, hmm, that didn't work either. I guess you'll always want to get your memories back no matter what. Unless you're just a shallow twat with no sense of curiosity! So it should actually work pretty well for Roy Harper.

Saru decides to give Starfire a glimpse of Jason Todd's memories so they can sense why he would want to lose them. If Saru did that to someone with my memories, you'd just have memories of me eating cookies and masturbating (mostly at different times).

One of the memories Saru gives them a glimpse of is the night Roy and Jason first met.

Shouldn't giving this memory to Roy cause some kind of strange recursive memory since Roy now has the memory from two points of view?

Roy points out that this was a good memory! Jason was making friends! Who wants to forget how to do that? Seriously! I wish I could remember how to do that! I haven't made a new friend since elementary school! Well, not a real one, anyway. After third grade, I've simply just been faking it with everyone I meet. I mirror their emotions and it seems to all work out. I must be pretty good at faking it, though, since I was best man at my "friend" Doom Bunny's wedding! Saru goes on to explain what happened after Jason and Roy met.

Oh shut up! That's the stupidest thing anybody's ever said! Every fucking event could have been said to have "started" after any other fucking event that preceded the first fucking event! Stupid bald fucker.

Saru then gives them another one of Jason's memories where he couldn't handle being an Assassin because it felt wrong. Oh boo hoo! You're the one that wanted to discard all of Batman's teachings. If Todd could still remember Batman, he'd remember that Batman is the most morally and ethically upstanding citizen of the world.

After Saru gets done handing out Jason Todd's memories, he decides to go after Kori's memories. So that Starfire won't continue to be a totally shallow cum-dumpster, Saru points out that she actually feels too much! She's been lying for twenty issues about how she can't really connect with anyone unless their genitals are in her mouth. She actually, like Othello, loves too well! And she's been keeping one memory secret even from herself. Saru figures it's only fitting that she remember this memory since she's taking the side of the debate, "Memories are Good."

I was hoping it was going to be about Nightwing. But it doesn't look like we'll get much more than a taste!

Jason seems to be the only person to respect the old Jason because he seems to think whoever that old Jason was, he probably made this decision for a good reason. So new Jason is fine with having to begin again. Kori seems to be coming around but Speedy can't let it go. I think Roy needs Jason to remember that he was a shitty sidekick just like Roy was so that they'll have something to bond over.

His hat now says "DUNCE" for the 100% of people who can't read it from the small scan and bleeding colors.

Saru kicks them out Once and For Acres of All and they wind up in the snow, Roy crying as if the girl he loved most in the world just told him she'd erased her memories and as if his best friend did feel something when he sucked his dick. It's all very traumatic and dramatic and chromatic. But then it takes a turn for the monochromatic when Essence arrives!

Essence blathers on to her ghost mother Ducra and naked Saru about how this is the moment that started the events that led to their deaths! But she'll change it, by gum! She'll make sure they live! Because...well, I don't know why. Because she's in love with Jason Todd? I don't really know why she thinks they need to be saved. Perhaps it's the same feeling you'd have seeing a box of kittens slowly sinking into a lake. You would have to do something! So you'd search around for a large rock to sink the box faster. Er, I mean, wade in and save them!

And then in Seattle, Green Arrow discovers a bounty on the heads of Starfire, Red Hood, and Speedy of 500 million dollars each. And he jumps into action to save them in the Annual!

Red Hood and the Outlaws #20 Rating: +2 Ranking. Even though Jason Todd has lost his memories, it seems to be some kind of plan between Ducra and Saru to help him in the long run. Perhaps he'll learn that hiding and running isn't the best option and he'll be more determined to face his past once he gets his memories back. And there was a minor hint about Starfire and Nightwing, so, in the immortal words of Jelyde, that's got to be worth a point or two!