Red Hood and the Outlaws #2

This comic book will be either action packed or very confusing.

This issue begins one and one half year previously. I think I'll start a timeline and label the years AFP (After Flash Point) and BFP (Before Flash Point) Year One will begin with most of the new 52's first issues. Any comic that declares the time is now will begin in the current year and month. AFP 1 begins November 2011 (not September because I'll be going by the cover date on the comics. And as comic fans, we all know how out of whack that system is!). So the first issues that ran in normal time would be AFP 1:1. Who knows if I can keep track of this especially since I'm making up the system after consuming three beers. I'll just add the notations to my Notepad file that has the Super Hero Pecking Order (Batman on top!) and the number of times each Super Hero should have died. I'll be right back.

So, starting over. One and one half years earlier (BFP 2.6), Jason Todd is brought to the Hundred Acres of All and the monks of the All Caste by Talia Al Ghul. So Damian's mother is bringing a former Robin, also formerly dead, to some monks for training. Or spiritual reassessment? Or maybe just to get under Batman's cowl.

Talia is Ra's al Ghul's daughter. Now things are coming together for me. And Talia resurrected Jason Todd by putting him in a Lazarus Pit. Correction. Jason Todd was mysteriously resurrected. But he only regained his soul when he was placed in a Lazarus Pit by Talia.

This old lady is Ducra, the leader of the All Caste. And apparently the greatest fighter ever in the world ever. She decides to train Jason Todd because she can't see leaving him to the real world. Apparently this has-been Boy Wonder is some kind of major player, as Wolfram and Hart might say.
Sixteen pages later and we're back at the end of Issue #1. What the hell kind of story telling is this? Did I really need to know that they were on a plane and Jason Todd got the number of some hot stewardess and Roy Harper is an annoying jerk? Oh, I already knew that.

Jason Todd and the Outlaws have returned to the All Caste, a group of people who are very important to Jason Todd but I've only known about for two comics. And now they're all dead by someone named The Untitled. You know, once you name yourself The Untitled, you've got a title, douchebag. It's like when Prince named himself that symbol so nobody would know what to call him or how to vocalize his new name. But he just became The Artist Formerly Known as Prince. Ha ha! In your stupid Prince face, you arrogant jerk! People are going to communicate no matter how hard you make it!

Jason Todd also kills this thing called Suzie Su on the way to the All Caste.

Jason Todd and the Outlaws are jumped by all the re-animated All Caste Monks. They defeat them and it somehow bonds the bunch of them enough for Jason Todd to consider them a team.

It's a good thing I have four of these comics to read all at once (I think I actually have six but I'm just reading through Issue Four until I catch up on all 52 titles) or I definitely would not be able to follow this from month to month. Let's hope it all clears up and starts dealing in the present and future instead of being steeped so heavily in Pre-52 lore. I don't mind the comic building a past for Jason Todd but it just feels like this comic is relying way too heavily on people's knowledge of the Pre-52 storylines.