Batman: Under the Red Hood Kindle & comiXology

I will admit, I watched the excellent movie before reading this collection, so I was not surprised by much in this story. However, there are numerous plotlines left out of the movie, further explanations on the origin of Red Hood, and more depth in this collection. In short, even if you HAVE seen the movie, this collection is still different enough to not be classified as entirely predictable.When I first opened the envelope this book came in, I was surprised at its size. I had looked at the page count on the product description, but was still taken back a bit by how big this collection is. I paid a bit more than I thought I would have to for this book, but immediately felt a bit relieved when I saw its girth. Anyway, the writing style is very enjoyable. This functions pretty well as a stand-alone book, but there are a few significant story points readers ought to be familiar with before reading this collection. I had read 'Death in the Family' before this, so I knew all about Joker's murdering of Robin. If you're a Batman fan that has read pretty much any comic post 1986(ish), this should come as no surprise to you. What was surprising was that, apparently, Black Mask (who is a delight to read in this story) is no the chief mob boss in Gotham. While this was explained briefly, it felt a little off at first, since as far as I have read, Black Mask has been a hard B-level villain. There are several plot points similar to this in UtRH, but nothing is outright confusing. What I'm trying to say is that this Batman story is definitely more entrenched in then-current story canon than say, The Long Halloween. Regardless, dialogue is penned very well, with characters' speech patterns easily distinguishable and organic. The story moves a bit awkwardly at some points, in a way that I can only say was noticeable because I have seen the film adaptation. I must say, certain points of the movie's scene ordering is superior to the book, but the movie had the advantage of picking and choosing which elements it wanted to retain. Overall, this is a just a cool story, and the stakes feel real for the Dark Knight. He is facing one of his most challenging opponents, an opponent he may not be able to, or even want to, stop.The art was slightly disappointing in this collection. Mahnke's talent has improved over the years from this work, so the work here has not all aged well. The most noticeable example is probably the image at the start of each chapter. Batman's chest looks laughably stylized, and way off-proportionally. That being said, none of his work is awful; it is at worst mediocre. In certain panels, he knocks it out of the park, and that is the art I identify most with this story. Selected panels from Jim Lee's Hush are included in the end of this book, which makes all prior work seem weaker by comparison.To end, I'm very glad I purchased this book. It introduced an excellent new villain who is anything but black and white. This collection is not perfect, but it was a very satisfying read across every chapter. It never becomes dull, and while sometimes predictable, not riddled with distracting story tropes. While not enjoying the same proportional excellence as its movie counterpart, any fan of the movie, or Batman in general, will enjoy this collection.

Jason Todd, the second Robin, was historically so disliked that fans voted to kill him. In Under the Red Hood, Judd Winick has the unenviable task of making Jason not only interesting but compelling, and he more than manages to pull it off. Under the Red Hood takes one of Batman's greatest mistakes and forces him to confront it head on. This is a great companion piece to A Death in the Family and one of the biggest events in Batman's career, so it's a definite must-read for Batman fans.

Like so many people who left a review before me, I read this book after watching the 'Under the Red Hood' movie as well as the Arkham Knight game. This is first formal introduction of Jason Todd in the comics and man is it good. Jason Todd wasn't like the other Robins and you can see what lengths he goes to help save Gotham in his own way. Good story and loved the action and art.. Highly recommended!

I bought Under the Red Hood along with A Death in the Family because I'm a huge Batman fan and yet had never read either of these stories. Since they're intrinsically connected, I thought it would be fun to read them back-to-back.I cannot suggest this approach highly enough--A Death in the Family is SO MUCH BETTER than I thought it would be, given its age. And the two stories are wonderfully connected in interesting ways.Under the Red Hood (UtRH) is an excellent story--there were some confusions because I didn't realize that the War Games and Hush story lines impact what's going on in UtRH. I still haven't read War Games, but I have read Hush--and if you haven't, go ahead and do yourself a favor and pick it up. I did some quick research to answer my questions in relation to War Games (Why is Nightwing in a knee brace and why is Barbara Gordon, AKA Oracle, not in the story) and I was more than able to continue.My only complaint, and the reason for the -1 star, is that somewhere towards the end of the arc, they switched to an artist that I honestly thought was some kind of amateur. Sincerely bad--his drawings of the Joker alone made me want to put the book down. BUT, the story itself was good.I will also say that, at times, the dialogue between Batman and the Red Hood (mostly towards the end) felt kind of...silly, I guess. Like they were talking around the subject in order to fill pages. But still--this is a great buy.

Batman: Under the Red Hood is an extremely important and influential Batman story, for obvious reasons, and you really get bang for your buck with this surprisingly thick volume. I was shocked at how it dwarfed some of my other volumes, and I was left reading it all day, even when I skimmed some segments. Without spoiling too much, this is a great book not only for how it characterizes Batman, The Joker, and the Red Hood, but also the attention and fantastic writing to underrated villain Black Mask. My only real complaint is that some of the writing is a little scattered and busy when it brings in the DCU at large. I understand that references to outside material is cool, but if you didn't read (or do some serious research) about the era in which this came out, you'll be almost completely lost regarding a few key plot points. The sub-plot regarding The Society was almost entirely pointless as well, serving to give Deathstroke a couple (admittedly cool) scenes and then give a very confusing a limp twist, which was later retconned away.Overall, Under the Red Hood is a great and entertaining read, just one that could have done with a little more editorial control.

I did not expect to enjoy this that much. I expected to find out what happened to Jason Todd because I knew he died and then I knew he was back as the Red Hood which for those clever clogs out there might seem a touch odd since he had been in the ground for going on a few decades in real time.I loved this. It couldn't have been better, except for the end which we will get to. The Red Hood is fantastically clever, witty, confident, a good tactician and most of all someone the criminals are terrified of. It is the opposite side of batman. Instead of no killing and stop all crime the Red Hood's philosophy is you can't stop crime and you can't stop people being criminals. So he kills, he tortures and he steals only to sell it to other criminals if he helps his overall cause. He isn't a villain though, he protects children, he stops crime and he hates 'the freaks'. It is a very interesting duality and there is a great sense that Batman is both happy he is back and horrified at his way 'son' has become.The overall plot arc is very clever and moving. It is well reconned into other plot lines too so what is only one volume becomes a weaved story over multiple years of publications.Now to the reason it has four stars. This has spoilers. The reason Todd is back is because Superboy punched reality in anger and made Todd come back from the dead. yes that is the best DC could come up with. It was utterly disappointing, i would have preferred nothing at all over that and it just hangs over the story when you think back on it.I still wholeheartedly recommend this story, it is one of the best but keep in mind that someone at DC needed a serious smack for that last little bit.

Batman tangles with a super slick vigilante using the old red hood name to kill most of gotham's gangland figures.Batsy recognises the killers moves as his ownand begins to suspect his identity.The action is compelling and the dialogue is snappy and funnythe non ending however is a tad messyas the fight has no victorand events are immediately over shadowed by a major disasterleading, im sure, to the next great cross over event

I've been loving following Jason Todd's return as the Red Hood. I bought this after Red Hood Lost Days and for over three quarters of this novel, I was impressed: good dialogue, humour, psychology... And I gotta admit i was desperate to find out how Todd found his way out of the grave. I wish I could erase this. It didn't fit, and it undermined Batman's thoroughness. Even with the poor explanation- this is a great read and a worthy 3 1/2 stars.

I completely love this one!

Very pleased with this book. Thank you.