Having had his memories wiped from his mind, Red Hood is thrown into the middle of a conflict between the League of Assassins and the Untitled. He's told he has the secret to ending the impending war, but has no recollection of what that could be. Meanwhile, Arsenal struggles with his relationship with Starfire and makes a potentially dangerous alliance with the enemy. Can this once great team get their act together in order to prevent the Untitled from gaining supreme control of the Earth?
Red Hood and the Outlaws Volume 4: League of Assassins collects Red Hood and the Outlaws #19-24 and Red Hood and the Outlaws Annual #1 written by James Tynion IV.
After having its plot derailed in Death of the Family, Red Hood and the Outlaws finds its feet again in this collection. An amnesiac Jason Todd is spirited away by the League of Assassins just as Arsenal and Starfire are attempting to help him regain his memories. The League is certain that Jason holds the key to defeating the Untitled, but Jason is weary of allying himself with such a shadowy organization. To make matters worse, Arsenal's relationship with Starfire is crumbling and this is but one of the reasons he decides to help the Untitled in the upcoming battle against the League of Assassins.
Though not nearly as fun as the earlier issues in this series, League of Assassins features the international intrigue and pulse pounding action that made Red Hood and the Outlaws so addictive. There's also a return to focusing on character-driven narratives, as Tynion IV explores Jason's desire to be a good guy and Arsenal's unwavering desire to keep the team together. However, the real stars of this collection are the League of Assassins. Its line-up here consists of fan-favourites like Lady Shiva, Cheshire and Bronze Tiger. Though I'm a huge Lady Shiva fan, even I'll admit that Cheshire is the standout in this collection. She's wild and totally unpredictable. Her design is pretty cool, as it further references her namesake, and she's given the ability of teleportation (again, like her namesake). Her interactions with just about every character are hilarious and totally memorable. That's not to say Bronze Tiger and Lady Shiva aren't deserving of attention. The design for the former is rather nifty and his relationship with Jason Todd provides a much needed emotional reference point within the narrative. Shiva, meanwhile, has a bit of a strange get-up, but she's every bit as dangerous as she's ever been.
League of Assassins is a breath of fresh air, as it returns Red Hood and the Outlaws to form. It's a little grimmer than previous issues, but that's to be expected given how heavy Death of the Family was. The League of Assassins are admittedly a little less intimidating than they usually are, but this makes them much more relatable. Furthermore, Tynion IV takes great care to make this arc into a character study of who Jason Todd is. More often than not, he's portrayed as an emotionless gun-toting anti-hero by other writers, but here we see a more tender side of him. It's also worth mentioning that for those who really hated Starfire's costume in the New 52, this is around the time that artists started experimenting with it and providing more coverage. Tynion IV also gets bonus points for giving us glimpses of Talia. It's just too bad she wasn't involved in the main action of the story.
Rating: B
