Red Hood and the Outlaws

Jason Todd: The only reason I’m here is ’cause if anything happens to you–that would make me the worst former sidekick ever.

—Red Hood and the Outlaws #1 - To Roy Harper

Red Hood and the Outlaws is a comic book series released as part of DC Comics' New 52. It follows former Batman sidekick Jason Todd as the titular Red Hood, a dual-wielding pistol marksman, accompanied by Green Arrow’s rejected sidekick Arsenal (Roy Harper), a damaged soldier of fortune, and the alien Starfire, a former prisoner of intergalactic war who won’t be chained again.

Tropes used in Red Hood and the Outlaws include:

• The Alcoholic: Arsenal is a recovering one. He laments hanging out in a bar in #4 even though he's only drinking soda.
• Ascended Fanon: Arsenal calls Red Hood by his Fan Nickname "Jaybird." Red Hood is not pleased.
• Aw, Look -- They Really Do Love Each Other: Issue 8 provides a lot of this, bordering on Fan Service. As a Fan, this troper is not displeased.
• All X: The All-Caste, with their home in All-Where, fighting with their All-Swords.
• The Atoner: Ducra.
• Batman Cold Open: The beginning of Issue #6 is the end of some sort of escapade Red Hood has gotten into on a Nuclear Submarine!
  • In many ways the beginning of Issue #1 can be considered this as well, as we witness Arsenal getting busted out of jail by Red Hood and Starfire.
  • And done again in Issue # 8
• Biological Mashup: Crux's mutated form, which is both bat-like and reptilian.
• Blood Magic: Red Hood's All-Swords get extra power from his blood. Or, something like that. It hasn't been explained yet.
• Book Safe: Red Hood smuggles a collapsible bow to Arsenal inside a bible in the first issue.
• Breather Episode: Only in Red Hood & the Outlaws can the superhero equivalent of the hospital scene of Hardboiled be considered the "Breather Episode", but Issue # 8 fits the description.
• Broken Bird: How many readers see Starfire. It's not certain at this point if this was Lobdell's intention. She gets really snippy and hostile whenever anyone tries to talk to her about her past, and we eventually find out that her most precious memory is killing the only Citadel member who showed her sympathy in all her time as a slave. It's even lampshaded how screwed up the team must be.
• Brought Down to Normal: What Crux attempts to do to Starfire. It didn't last for long, thanks to the Citadel's experiments on her.
• Continuity Nod: Issue #2, Red Hood gets an air hostess' number. They met in Batman #426, 20 years ago. She still remembers his drink order, although in modern continuity, they probably met 2-3 years ago. And he mentions 'A Death in the Family', although that is a Shout-Out.
  • In issue #6, it's revealed that Red Hood's costume is actually one of Nightwing's old costumes. Though in-universe information is lacking thanks to the recent reboot, it seems to be based on Nightwing's Renegade costume.
  • The Night of the Owls tie-in nods to the revelation in Batman that Haley's Circus (of which Nightwing was a performer) was a recruitment service for the Court of Owls. It may also be a reference to Red Hood's pre-Crisis history as a circus performer.
• Crazy Prepared: He's one of the Sons of Batman, so obviously Red Hood is going to be this. A confrontation with gangsters in China shows he hides guns in the potted plants just in case he gets held up without weapons.
  • Arsenal has a detonation device in his quiver, in case it's ever taken from him.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Starfire has spent most of her life as a slave to the Citadel, after being sold into it by her own sister. She mentions some experiments done on her too, which were all likely horrific.
• Deadpan Snarker: Red Hood, although Arsenal and Starfire do get their shots in.
• Death Seeker: Arsenal fights Killer Croc for the sole purpose of dying looking like a hero, after hitting rock bottom.
• Deconstruction: Starfire is a portrayal of what an alien princess Ethical Slut would really be like.
• Depending on the Artist: Despite the company using the same designs for characters. Killer Croc looks different than to how he was drawn in Batman #1 just a few months before he appeared here. The design for Mr Freeze by the book's artist also appears different from how he looks on the Batman Annual cover.
• Doomed Hometown: What happens to All, which Red Hood feels is his real home and where he truly grew up.
• Eating the Eye Candy: After showing off a fancy new pair of Flight Wings Arsenal remarks on how cool Red Hood looks. Starfire thinks he's talking about Red Hood's "buns" and wholeheartedly agrees.
• Ethical Slut: What Starfire is supposed to come off as, although she has had sex with only one person off panel in one issue so far.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Arsenal's most cherished memory? Hitting Rock Bottom, trying to fight Killer Croc in order to "suicide by Croc" only to have Croc realize this and tell him to get his act together. A scaled up beast told Arsenal he was embarrassing, meaning there was no where to go but up.
  • Becomes Refuge in Audacity when Waylon Jones, a.k.a. Killer Crock then becomes his sponsor in his Alcoholics Anonymous Program.
• Fantastic Racism: The gimmick of Crux, a human bent on killing every alien on Earth. He has a special hatred for Tamaraneans, blaming them for the death of his parents after they were killed by the crash of a Tamaranean war cruiser, directly into their car, as he sat in the backseat.
  • He just lucked out as his parents were highly respected alien researchers.
• Fat Bastard: Suzie Su, a relatively rare female example
• Female Gaze: Red Hood and Arsenal provide a lot of this.
• Friendly Enemy: Killer Croc is Arsenal's AA sponsor
• Full-Circle Revolution: Arsenal was a victim of one.
• Genius Ditz: Arsenal. He's a cheery clown, but he's also brilliant at making weapons.
• Great Escape: Issue #1 starts with Arsenal being busted out of a Qurac prison by the Red Hood and Starfire. The reason is detailed in this page's quote.
• Hand or Object Underwear: Red Hood spends part of Issue 6 completely naked, walking about using his hands and a palm leaf to cover himself, along with bandages on his torso after his clothes get destroyed. Could also double as Naked People Are Funny.
• He Who Fights Monsters: The fact that Crux turned himself into exactly the type of monster he's dedicated his life to hunting is called attention to in #5.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Red Hood, to some degree. He deeply cares for the All-Caste, considering them his family and hesitating when confronted with their zombie forms, and saved a village.
• Knight Templar: Crux. Obsessed with killing aliens? Check. Willing to go to extreme lengths to do it? Check. Honestly thinks he's the good guy, and people should praise and more over side with what he does? Check.
  • He's so much so that he's literally perplexed when Arsenal attacks him to defend Starfire.
• Legal Jailbait: S'aru looks like a preteen and lounges around half-naked, but is in fact over 400 years old.
• Lightning Bruiser: Starfire and Crux.
• Limited Wardrobe: Surprisingly averted even in-costume by Arsenal, who has a lot of distinct baseball caps.
  • So far, no civilian outfit has been used more than once by any of the cast, barring Red Hood's All Robes.
• Mafia Princess: Suzie Su, whose father appears to be very well-connected.
• Male Gaze: One of the first things we see of Starfire is her ass. And only her ass, since the panel cuts off her body from the waist up. To say nothing of the fact that the swimsuit scene in the first issue was supposed to have her in a semi transparent bikini, though the editorial shot that one down.
• Non-Linear Character: Red Hood and Starfire have very different views of time than most. Starfire views time as completely disjointed, for example only remembering Nightwing, vaguely, after seeing the similar-looking Red Hood. Red Hood views time and space as singularities, thanks to being trained in the Achres of All, which seem to warp time and space themselves.
• Not So Different: How Red Hood handles his Talon during the Night of the Owls. He relates to being killed and reanimated as a killer, and not being in control of his own life. The Talon asks Red Hood for help, as he cannot self terminate.
• Person of Mass Destruction: Starfire, some people are even worried that she may be a radioactive hazard. Made scarier when something designed to drain her powers fails to do so!
• Poirot Speak: Starfire's narration slips into Tamaranean when she's attacked in #4. She also pronounces the name "Richard" as though it were Tamaranean at the end of the issue.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: So far, 3 former Titans, 2 of whom are failed ex-sidekicks. The resurrected, violent, mildly crazy Red Hood, who managed to get kicked out of the Batfamily after coming back from the dead, is The Leader. former alcoholic and Arrow family dropout Arsenal (even with the most traumatic bits retconned out) and Princess Koriand'r... who as a young child was sold into slavery by her sister, to save her home world, spent much of her life in death camps, and doesn't really remember alot of things concerning earth clearly. Which is good, because Red Hood tried to kill someone she deeply cares for. Several times. And nearly killed their mutual brother, whom she was a teammate of.
• Really 400 Years old: S'aru the Protector.
  • Essence
• Redheaded Hero: Arsenal and Koriand'r are natural redheads, and in previous continuities Red Hood was a redhead who dyed his hair black, though it's not certain at this point if that's still in continuity. Oh, comic books.
• Sad Clown: Arsenal tries to chat and make jokes whenever he can, but it's fairly obvious that he's practically dead on the inside. He admits this in Issue 5 to Starfire, saying he believes that as a team the three of them could help each other.
  • Christ, the entire team is dead on the inside and trying to cover it up.
• Scenery Porn: Even people criticizing the comic have praised Kenneth Rocafort's art, especially the backgrounds.
  • Issue 6 takes scenery, character, and costume design to a whole new level.
• Schmuck Bait: A long, empty corridor that leads to the McGuffin and gives your War Trained Princess the creeps? Seems fine.
• Shadow Archetype: Red Hood, to Batman. After being revived, Red Hood trains with the All-Caste, a secret, somewhat mystical sect of warriors who mirror Batman's League of Assassins. Red Hood is also Crazy Prepared like Bats, with safehouses around the globe, each one full of weapons and supplies.
• Sliding Scale of Anti-Heroes: Red Hood is Type III to IV, Arsenal is Type III and Starfire is Type V. Red Hood states that he's become Lighter and Softer in recent years, noting that he no longer enjoys killing people, even criminals.
• Stripperiffic: Starfire's already-revealing costume goes Up to Eleven here. She now effectively has only a pair of pasties covering her nipples, and the bikini she wears late in the first issue actually manages to be more modest than her default costume. See also the aforementioned semi-transparent bikini.
• Take Your Time: Despite the threat of the Untitled, as well as Red Hood's vow to destroy them all, it doesn't look like he's going to follow up on it anytime soon. Though, mostly because he has no idea where any of them are.
• Trick Arrow: Though Arsenal has mostly avoided these, he has used a bomb arrow.
  • Went all out with trick arrows in issue 5, which has him taking down Crux with an electric arrow, and making a fire with a fire arrow. And when he destroyed most of his arrows to stop Crux, we get brief glimpses at a bunch of other trick arrows that haven't been used yet.
• The Shadow Knows: In the first issue Simon Amal's shadow in one panel is Crux
• Whole-Episode Flashback: #6 takes place a month before the events of #1 and details how Red Hood met Starfire in the first place -- and there are several other flashbacks within that context!
• Winged Humanoid: Crux can turn into a massive reptilian bat-like creature thanks to his mastery of reverse-engineered alien technology. He can also swim lightning quick in this form.
• A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing: The Untitled sheriff of a small town. And of course when Red Hood finally kills her/it, the body goes back to its human form, just as the local villagers are able to come out and see.
• Word of God: Lobdell himself stated he was very surprised at the amount of controversy the first issue caused. He goes on to say that he doesn't see why people see Starfire as an ADD-stricken Ethical Slut. He also assures disgruntled readers to keep reading, as answers will be revealed later, not that this has stopped some people from dropping the book outright.