Warning: contains a preview for Future State: Gotham #2!
Red Hood may be the black sheep of Batman's large family of allies, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t been paying attention to his peers’ development, adopting a new combat style (and wielding a vicious new weapon) that allows him to face Nightwing, Robin, and Signal all at once. While many of Batman’s allies, such as Dick Grayson and Tim Drake, have trained to fight in unison, Red Hood’s near-future fighting style allows him to completely disrupt his former allies’ flow.
In Future State: Gotham #2 by Joshua Williamson, Dennis Culver, and Giannis Milonogiannis, Red Hood interrupts an emergency meeting of the Bat-Family following a terrorist attack allegedly carried out by the Next Batman, Tim Fox. As Jason attempts to reason with several of his former family members, they quickly call him out for being a Peacekeeper for the Magistrate and attack him. While Red Hood is considerably outnumbered by several of DC's most capable fighters, he’s able to hold his own thanks to his new fighting style and new choice of weapon, the kusarigama.
The Bat-Family is made up of capable fighters, and each of them is truly a master of some martial art or particular weapon. Famously, Nightwing has used his twin escrima sticks, while Tim Drake's Robin has used a staff and Damian Wayne has his katanas. Red Hood, on the other hand, has utilized guns, knives, and other lethal weapons for most of his time as a solo vigilante. But DC's flash-forward Future State era sees him favor a new weapon altogether; a kusarigama, or chain-sickle. While this weapon gives him several advantages, including a longer reach and even the ability to grapple using the blade, a DC Comics preview shows the true advantage of this choice of weapon is the ability to redirect attacks.
The Bat-Family tends to fight in a synergizing style when working together, often utilizing each other’s strengths and setting each other up for devastating combinations. This fighting style often works, and has proven integral to several fight scenes in the comics, videogames, and films that feature the family fighting together against a common foe. Recently, in Nightwing #80 by Tom Taylor and Bruno Redondo fans saw that Dick had designed his own escrima sticks to become a staff which he can hand off to Tim Drake when needed. Red Hood’s new fighting approach counters this, as he quickly redirects Signal's Black Lightning-empowered sword to test Tim Drake’s newfound immortality. It seems the family can’t tag Jason as he uses his new weapon and style to use their greatest strengths against them. Nightwing even takes a minute to comment on how Batman would be proud of Red Hood… if the latter wasn’t such a disgrace!
It’s still too early to determine how this fight will go - Nightwing lands a solid blow, and Spoiler still hasn't joined the fight - but Red Hood seems to be at an obvious advantage as his weapon allows him to redirect his foes’ attacks and constantly disrupt their cohesion during the fight. Batman's found family may be wrong to think the worst of Red Hood, but as he uses Signal's weapon to down Robin and gets ready to duke it out with Nightwing, Jason Todd shows that he understands his Gotham siblings better than they think. Future State: Gotham #2 is available now from physical and digital retailers.
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