Red Hood Loves Arsenal #4

I bet Batman loses because he's an adult and adults are BLECH!

This is my favorite comic book that DC puts out each month. It is full of action and rebellion and hilarious jokes. My favorite character is the rockabilly genius. He is so rockabilly and smart! One of the things he does that is totally hilarious is when he says to himself, "Note to self!" Then he says a thing that he wants to remember later! His name is Roy Harper and he is a red-headed, half-Navajo, recovering alcoholic. His best friend in all of the world is Jason Todd, also known as the Red Hood. He is quite funny himself. When he meets somebody who annoys him a little bit, he shoots that person in the face with two guns! Ha ha! Take that, minor annoyance! You deserved it! They are currently working as Freelance Vigilantes which is a much better career choice than Salaried Vigilantes because they have more free time to themselves and they get to be picky about the jobs they choose. But they have to be careful being freelance! If they are not careful, they will find they did not put enough money away at the end of the year to pay all of their taxes! That could shut them down for good!

This issue begins with Roy and Jason visiting Gotham City to promote their business. If you are new to this comic book series, do not worry. Jason Todd narrates the story and makes sure at the beginning of every issue that new readers can be caught up on who he is. In this issue, he explains that he was a Robin and that he was pretty good at it until he died. Ha ha! That is a good joke, correct? If he were pretty good at the job, he would not have died while attempting it. Then he points out how he came back to life with a huge mad-on. Oh! I know that phrase! When a writer wants to show just how well they can write while also connecting with a young, rebellious audience, they drop in the phrase "mad-on." When you see that phrase, you know exactly the quality of writing you will be getting in the comic book.

Roy and Jason have encountered Batman on the first page of the comic book. That makes things very exciting because nobody wants to read about how they traveled from Detroit to Gotham. That would be very boring and I would not want to continue reading the comic book. But this is very exciting! I am literally excited! Pretty soon, Batman, who is an adult, will learn a lesson about not taking young people lightly! Young people are very smart and know a lot of things that old people are too stupid and biased to know. If old people were smart then they wouldn't have had so much sexism and racism in the world before young people could change it, right?

I really like how much Roy and Jason narrate the story so that I can be right inside of their heads and know everything they are thinking. It helps me to understand their motivations which would be difficult to understand if I just looked at the pictures and read the dialogue because the narration often contradicts the dialogue and images. Plus Roy and Jason can be very snarky inside their heads in ways that they are not being snarky with their mouths. It is so funny that I cannot be drinking soda while reading the comic book.

Ha ha! I thought this was funny when Jason Todd was just being sarcastic. But it reaches a whole new level of hilarity when he makes the clarification that he was being sarcastic!

Roy Harper makes a great pun about throwing the baby out with the bat-water which I didn't get at first and had to look up because I'd never heard the phrase "to throw the baby out with the bathwater." But once I realized that was a thing older people say (which Roy knows about because he is a genius), it was super funny. I'm not sure what the phrase means or how it fits into the battle but it's pretty clever anyway, right?

Even though the comic book began perfectly by starting with a battle, the story winds up jumping back to hours earlier when no fighting was taking place. It is slightly disappointing because I just want to see Red Hood and Arsenal kick the butt of the new Batman. But I guess I don't mind since I now get some conversation between Roy and Jason which should be hilarious.

In case you missed it earlier when Jason Todd narrated that he was the Red Hood, or the part where Robot Batman called them "Red Hood and Arsenal," Jason Todd explains in his narration that he is Jason Todd and Red Hood and his friend is Roy Harper and Arsenal. I'm super glad that he continues to clarify this stuff because you never know when a new reader will pick up a new issue and begin reading it on page four.

See? Roy Harper is a genius. He already knows how to defeat Underbelly. You can tell because he pointed out that he was being brilliant with his new idea that would probably make perfect sense if Jason Todd had let him finish his thought.

Jason Todd runs into a woman that used to care about him a lot when they were both just kids on the street. He could never drive her away from him because she was totally in love with his tight abs and rebellious attitude. He would say, "Get away from me! I can take care of myself!" And Gabby would be, "Oh my! I think I just peed myself with love pee!" He remembers this one time where she was very nice to him in the past. It only lasts for half a page but now I know exactly how much she means to him and how much he meant to her and I hope they kiss and do the other things that happen after the kissing! The thing that makes them both pee love pee! That is an adult thing but I understand it just fine. I have seen the pornographic websites on my father's laptop that doesn't work anymore for some reason.

Jason leaves Gabby a thousand dollar tip instead of taking her into a seedy motel bedroom like she really wanted. He then goes off to pout about Batman saving his life as a kid because look where that got him! Dead, that's where!

Roy Harper has gone off to meet Killer Croc under an Alcoholic's Anonymous Meeting. He lied to Jason about going there because Roy and Jason are best friends and completely trust each other. So much so that they can lie to each other's faces and know that the other one already knows they're lying and nobody needs to explain anything and it saves face and makes dignity and is not immature at all but very realistic.

This dialogue would be easier to understand if Jason Todd narrated what they were talking about! More narration please, Mister Lobdell!

Meanwhile "behind" the Mexican Border, Palette wakes up full of holes. I don't know why he's called Palette but I think it's because he loves having paint mixed on him. He was dead but now he's not. That probably somehow explains why Suzie Su is staring at him from the corner of the room. See, she was dead once and now she's not! I'm glad she's back and alive because Jason Todd really isn't the cold blooded murderer that some writers like to portray him as being. So when he previously shot Suzie Su in the face, he probably knew she would come back to life and that he wasn't actually murdering her at all. Although Jason Todd is no Batman and he understands that bad people sometimes need to die, he's not as cruel or vicious as that scene where he murdered Suzie made him look. He's really just a lost, angry kid who had a lot of bad breaks and feels like he was abandoned by his cherished father figure. He just needs to be loved! But not in the peeing love pee way of love. He needs caring non-doing-it intimacy like you would get from your mother or your uncle or a dog. He needs hugs, the poor baby!

Why is Jason Todd always thinking things he would never say out loud?! What kind of person hides their true thoughts?! Poor damaged baby-faced, rock-hard-absed Jason Todds, that's who! My poor sweetie!

Jason Todd believes the city is only behaving because it's being watched by cameras. How did that ever stop Gotham from behaving before?! He doesn't want to be watched doing whatever it is he's going to do, so he shoots out the camera.

Here he is shorting out the camera.

And here is the footage. It's been edited!

Roy meets Jason outside the place where Jason thinks they'll find the Gotham version of Underbelly. Jason Todd points out in the narration that he knows about Roy's secret meeting which isn't awful and horrible at all but good. It is very good. It is so very good that Jason Todd must know about this thing. It would be so very bad if Roy Harper somehow were allowed to have a thing he did in secret without Jason Todd obviously knowing everything there was to know about that thing. It...is...so...very...eeeEeeeerrrrrr...good. Gasp. Gasp. Okay. Okay. Fun comic book. Good comic book. Best comic book.

Jason Todd tells Roy a story which is proof for why the location he's scouted is where Underbelly was created. See, this one time, he and Batman battled some villains there and it wasn't fun. There you go. Proof. Bingo. Bad place.

But before Jason Todd can drop the real big bit of evidence, Batman attacks! So now the story has caught up with the beginning and it's time for a big action packed battle!

What do you mean, "How is that possible?" It's only happened to you and your Bat-Armor in every single appearance you've made since Bruce died!

As Roy and Jason battle Robot Batman, Jason narrates how he was holding back in all of his attempts to kill Batman. I knew it! He could have killed him if he wanted to! Batman is such a decrepit old stooge! And Jason Todd isn't a psychopathic murderer and never has been no matter how many stories seem to say otherwise! He's my favorite and he's the way I think he should be and will always be that way and everybody who writes him different is wrong! He's such a sympathetic boo-bear!

Underbelly appears during the battle so that nobody will ever know if Red Hood and Arsenal could defeat Robot Batman (they totally could). Now they'll all have to battle Underbelly! Which shouldn't be too hard since Arsenal blew up Underbelly with a single arrow last issue.

Red Hood Loves Arsenal #4 Rating: +52 Rankings! How is this comic book not outselling every other comic book published each month? It is so very entertaining and full of value. The jokes are sublime and other words that are synonymous with sublime. The narration is very helpful and very much appreciated because it helps to understand who Jason Todd is and how extremely capable he is even if his actions would seem to show otherwise. Because even if he's being defeated by his opponent, he can narrate the story and say, "I could easily defeat this opponent but reasons prevent me." See? He's the best! Also, whenever anybody does something in secret without telling Jason about it, he can narrate, "I know exactly what they are up to because I am the smartest and the very best." If you want to read a comic book that nails the characterization of two rebellious young people then you should be reading this comic book. And remember that Roy Harper is a rockabilly genius because it might not be very apparent and I'm not sure how often Jason Todd narrated that fact this issue.