I don’t know where I got it into my head that Red Hood: The Hill, even if a sequel to the previous works by writer Christopher Priest and artist Shawn Martinbrough, took place specifically in the aftermath of Jason Todd’s key role in Batman/Catwoman: The Gotham War. It doesn’t, as a matter of fact, and I’m not even turning up DC publicity materials that say so, so I guess that’s just my mistake.

DC’s mistake, in collecting now-writer Martinbrough’s two issues of the Red Hood series (formerly Red Hood and the Outlaws and Red Hood: Outlaw) before its cancellation in 2021 and then the six-issue Red Hood: The Hill miniseries in 2024, was not also including Priest and Martinbrough’s Batman: The Hill special from 2000. Because then, if Red Hood: The Hill is outside the present moment (if not outside continuity entirely) and also barely a Red Hood story, at least it would be a full recounting of Priest and Martinbrough’s decades-long “Hill” project. Without Batman: The Hill (which has never been collected), Red Hood: The Hill lacks its first chapter and most of its context, and that’s an additional drag on a book that has other problems of its own.

Insofar as Martinbrough and artist Sanford Greene pick up from Priest to tell the story of the Hill’s next generation, Red Hood: The Hill is workable — after the war (the Joker War, in this case), how easy or difficult it is to lay down arms and stop fighting. But characters with names like Strike, Edge, Track, Slayer, and Tommy Maxx smack of 1990s forgettability; Martinbrough doesn’t do quite enough to make them feel fully realized. And quite a lot of the story turns on characters making senseless decisions for the needs of the plot — evidence disbelieved, villains left to run rampant, and so on. There’s potential here, but I’d venture not enough of that potential is realized for more from the Hill any time soon.

[Review contains spoilers]

Red Hood: The Hill leaves room for a sequel, as Batman: The Hill did before it, but again, I’d be surprised if one is coming (maybe not for another 20+ years). As it is, these are clearly Martinbrough’s unpublished scripts for the Red Hood series — figure that Red Hood: Outlaw crossed over with Joker War in 2020, with issue #48, then Martinbrough’s issues #51–52 took place in the aftermath of Joker War, ending the series, and then 2024’s Red Hood: The Hill picks up immediately after issue #52. I appreciate DC’s willingness to publish these instead of leaving them to wither in the index drawers, but I doubt this is the start of something — not to mention that Red Hood is already spoken for in a new series more germane to the character. (Update: You know.)

The Hill books have been notable, to DC’s credit, for featuring predominantly African American creators writing about Gotham’s predominantly Black neighborhood The Hill. Priest’s Batman: The Hill in particular set white mainstream comics figures Batman and Commissioner Gordon against inner city gang violence and showed fiction to be impotent when met with reality. Batman not only has to go to extreme lengths to save the day, but Priest also has Batman disguise himself as a Black man and give advice to Black teens, something I wonder if Priest has any thoughts about two decades later.

Over 20 years later, Martinbrough’s Hill is less concerned with Gotham’s racial politics and it’s perhaps lesser for it, as the story mostly focuses on the Hill’s own Dana “Strike” Harlowe, leader of the Watch. The group formed to protect the Hill during the Joker War, but now that it’s over, most of the team is ready to move on while Dana’s still fighting. But Dana’s caught up investigating the role Demetrius Korlee Jr. — son of the gang boss Batman defeated in the original book — might be playing in recent violence.

Red Hood: The Hill’s difficulties come in that the reader knows explicitly that Korlee is a villain, but it’s not until toward the end that Dana can get anyone to believe her. Jason acknowledges the possibility, but in his own apparent attempt to relax, advises Dana not to let it consume her. Meanwhile, even though Batman even went up against Korlee’s father, neither he nor Oracle can find evidence and they’re skeptical of Korlee’s guilt. It’s the “idiot ball” trope, the World’s Greatest Detective unable to solve the mystery that’s already so obvious to the audience, and that makes for tedious reading.

Moments like this abound in the book. Korlee arranges for former Arkham resident Leonard Kreckk to conjure magical monsters (already a departure from Hill’s more realistic tone) to attack the Watch. It turns out Batman had placed Kreckk in the Hill but that “no one” knew Kreckk was there, Batman says, “I made sure of that” — clearly not! And then, even though Kreckk is obviously taking money for supernatural hits, Batman won’t let Red Hood arrest Kreckk out of some sense of responsibility that’s never made clear to the audience. Later, Batman, Red Hood, and Strike find Korlee Sr., such that they can get the evidence they need, but no precautions are taken to prevent Korlee Jr. from following right behind and killing his father and all his father’s staff.

Again, there’s room for a sequel — after all that, the heroes don’t get Korlee definitively, and assorted other related enemies are out there. Dana maintains she’ll continue the Watch even as there’s no sense the others have changed their minds, and that’s the kind of hard-headed failure to learn from their mistakes that I rather like in my vigilantes. There’s also a mysterious present that’s passed from Batman to Jason, Jason to Dana, and then Dana to Korlee, surprisingly, but the contents are never revealed. I’d hoped we’d see what’s inside by the end, but either we’ll find out sometime down the road or never, the latter being the more likely.

If you picked up Batman: The Hill 20 years ago, Red Hood: The Hill continues the story; I’m a sucker for unexpected sequels decades down the road. But it’s hardly even Jason Todd here — for all his happy-go-lucky nature, this could be Dick Grayson or Roy Harper or anyone here — so as far as Red Hood readers are concerned, his next chapter is elsewhere.

[Includes original and variant covers, character designs]