Batman and Red Hood #20 Review

BATMAN AND RED HOOD #20

by Peter Tomasi, Patrick Gleason and Cliff Richards

Batman, why are you being a Shane to Jason? 

So, Batman and Red Hood #20 is the second part of the "Five Stages of Grief" arc, and I think it's much better than the last issue. Here, we start out with Carrie Kelly giving back most of the money she got from Bruce in the last issue, only to be escorted out by Alfred... Who offers her a part time job watching Titus. Later, Batman and Red Hood go out to take out a merc team who tried to kill Damian in the earlier issues of Batman Inc, and then the crap hits the fan. First off, people have been criticizing this series for Batman's uncharacteristic and crazy behavior. I think, it actually works for the series. I mean, the man just lost his son! And after all Batman's been through over the New 52, you'd think Bats would finally hit his breaking point. Now, I hate the fact that just when we thought the relationship between the family and Jason was starting to patch itself back up, it's torn back down here for surprising reasons. That's what I didn't like about this. We're back to square one. But besides that, I love Tomasi's characterization for Jason (If Tynion still can't make RHATO good, I hope DC goes to Tomasi). 

Now, I love Patrick Gleason's art, but when it gets interrupted with a fill-in artist, a lot of the power of his work is lost. Now, don't get me wrong, I appreciated that Cliff Richards tried to imitate Gleason's artwork, but I think it would have worked better if DC gave Gleason this entire issue, then the next, entirely to Richards. The transition between the two artists was jarring, but not as bad as it could have been if Richards used the style he used in Pride & Prejudice & Zombies. Also, it seems like the amount of detail on Red Hood's mask changes from page to page with both Richards and Gleason, and it gets kind of annoying. 

Batman and Red Hood #20 could have been a great issue of it weren't for the artistic missteps it takes throughout. Pick it up, but don't expect to remember it for years to come.

STORY: 4/5

+ Tomasi does a nice job handling Red Hood
+ Awesome action scenes

+ Batman's erratic behavior makes sense if you think about it

- Everything Jason and the Bats worked for is torn down

ART: 3/5

+ Patrick Gleason's pages look nice

+ Cliff Richards does his best impression of Gleason

- Jarring transition

- Richards takes a LOT out of Gleason's pages

- Red Hood's mask is a Transformer

VERDICT: 3.5/5