Red Hood and the Outlaws #16

With both teams missing their leader Arsenal and Starfire help the Teen Titans take on a Jokerized mob. Writer Scott Lobdell continues the current trend of having Arsenal, not the Red Hood, be the voice of the book (of course he kinda has to do that this month as the Red Hood doesn't appear in his own book). The issue is actually one of the better Death of the Family tie-ins. Of course that's not saying much.

Arsenal comes up with a plan to find the antidote for the Joker Venom (in such a way that made absolutely no sense to me, no matter how many times I re-read the panels). While he and Bunker keep the mob at bay the rest of the team retrieves the supplies (something Kid Flash probably could have done quicker on his own, but oh well).

Aside from the main story, and its logic problems, Lobdell throws in tons of extras including a glimpse of the person responsible for getting Roy off of heroin (it ain't Ollie), and the foreshadowing of not one but two DCU baddies coming their way once the Death of the Family crossover concludes.

Logic problems aside and despite missing its leading man for the entire issue, Red Hood and the Outlaws #16 is, for the most part, fun. Dumb fun to be sure, but there's certainly enough for fans of the characters and it feels more like an old-school Joker story and far less unseemly that many of the increasingly gritty and awful Death of the Family issues have been. For fans.

[DC, $2.99]