"[5], In 1988, Dennis O'Neil suggested that an audience might be attracted to the comics by being offered the opportunity to influence the creative process. The death of Jason Todd, also known asRed Hood, is one of the most dramatic moments in the history of DC Comics. [54] Later, however, the Wingman ruse is exposed and Todd returns to being Red Hood. The storyline is notable because it was published ten years before the confirmation of Jason Todd's resurrection. By choosing I Accept, you consent to our use of cookies and other tracking technologies. Batman then asks why Jason never returned to him, Jack says that the Joker was jealous of Robin for knowing who Batman was and Jason hated him so much for making him Robin that he disappeared. Tim was Robin for 20 years, until he himself was usurped by Bruce Waynes biological son, Damian. The full page reveals more, including the arrival of Dick Grayson to Jasons hospital room although a penciled note in the margins says to strike him, and redraw the panels in favor of having Alfred in the scene instead. It features a plaque reading, "Jason Todd, a Good Soldier". Todd enters into a pact with Hush and the Riddler. Scarlet flees Gotham, her mask finally falling from her face as she exits the city limits. while Nightwing (at least in Injustice) is . Jason Todd is the second Robin after Dick Grayson and the sixth Red Hood, who was subject to the first Red Hood, The Joker's torture. After spending a year in a coma and subsequently another year as an amnesiac vagrant, he is taken by Talia al Ghul after a small-time crook recognizes him as Robin due to his combat skills on the street.[1]. Batman admits that he has often been tempted by the thought of taking the Joker somewhere private to torture for weeks before finally killing the maniac, but says that he refuses to go to that place. [27][28][29], After learning of the Joker's arms deal in Los Angeles for another terrorism scheme against Gotham, Jason begins to stalk the villain as a masked assassin. Beyond the reveal that Jason is not dead and has become Red Hood, little else is known about how exactly Jason survives the attack, why Bruce lied about burying his body, or what led him to become . When Dick presumably died, Batman was willing to risk everything. In the issue, Jason Todd is betrayed by his own mother to the Joker, who savagely beats the young hero with a crowbar. [22] Batman notes that while Todd doesn't possess Dick Grayson's natural athleticism and acrobatic skills, he can become a productive crimefighter by channeling his rage. Sheila and Jason try desperately to get out of the warehouse but are still inside as the bomb goes off. Or was he an annoying pest, unfit to wear the mantle that Dick Grayson had made so legendary? If Jason is to cheat death, he will survive the explosion after being beaten to death by a crowbar by Joker. Upon learning that the man training him in lethal combat is also the leader of a child sex slave ring, Jason frees the latest shipment of children and takes them to a local embassy, then returns to the training compound and poisons his new mentor for his crimes. Sharrett, Christopher. For many years following his brutal execution, the Bat-Cave featured his Robin costume in a display case as a memorial to him. It is implied that Todd's death was a contributing factor to Batman's retirement. Todd acts as leader of the Outlaws, a group of antiheroes that "have several different exciting characters from the DC Universe some we've seen before and some we haven't," Batman Group Editor Mike Marts said. Jason earns the Robin mantle a short while later by helping Batman apprehend the gang of thieves. [4] Jason Todd was created as Dick Grayson's replacement as Robin. The explanation for the character's return was revealed in Batman Annual #25 (2006). About six months after Jasons death, ONeils Batman office introduced Tim Drake, created by writer Marv Wolfman and artist Pat Broderick. He was introduced in 1983, originally with a largely identical backstory to the original Robin, Dick Grayson. Austin Mace is a freelance writer for the Screen Rant Comics team focused primarily on pre-Crisis DC Comics issues. Dick rushed over as soon as he heard, and offered Bruce his help in tracking down the Joker. In 1988, DC Comics left the decision to off the character in the four-issue storyline A Death in the Family up to an incredibly close-running reader poll. This reckless act was motivated by a selfish desire to protect his secret identity even at the potential cost of Jasons salvation. As one might expect,Jason's death is an infamous momentwithin the DC Universe, a fact that is addressed in the newest issue of Task Force Z. While Todd is overjoyed to be reunited with his real mother, he soon discovers that she is being blackmailed by the Joker using her to provide him with medical supplies. However, Todd does not wear the Robin costume until completing six months of training. To make the very concept of Batman obsolete, he puts a lot of effort into public relations: he drastically alters his Red Hood costume to look more like a traditional superhero outfit and recruits his sidekick Scarlet. During one of his special moves, he pummels his opponent with it multiple times, a direct reference to Jason Todd's death. After a storyline in Nightwing as part of the One Year Later event where Todd took the mantle of Nightwing for himself, the character reappeared in his Red Hood persona as one of the focal characters of DC's year-long weekly Countdown series starting in May 2007. Talia then gives Todd the idea to be the Batman that Gotham needs. In the official alternate ending artwork, that fans couldve easily voted for with just 73 more phone calls, Batman wastes precious time removing Jasons Robin costume before taking him to receive emergency medical treatment. Welcome to the Jason Todd Reading Order. So he'd be this kid, who wanted to be Batman's sidekick. Red Hood : Yes, we have. The bomb goes off. Todd never turns up on any missing person reportsas he was never 'missing'nor can he be identified since no prints are on file for him. Then he was retconned to be a street urchin with parental issues. Jason Todd Wasn't DC's First 'Dead Robin', controversial A Death in Family storyline, Batman Fans Were Right to Vote for Jason Todd's Death, X-Men's Most Underrated Member is Secretly One Of Marvel's Deadliest Heroes, Juggernaut's Tragic Ending Proves His Powers Are Pure Nightmare Fuel, Bruce Banner Confirms His Final Plan To Kill The Hulk. Jack reveals that Jason eventually broke from the torture and said "I wish I'd never met Bruce Wayne", and that Joker let Jason go free. [51] After his exile, he became Red Hood and came to be at odds with Dick Grayson, Starfire's ex-lover, and his Robin predecessor. Roy and Starfire are in a sexual relationship. [44] In the issue, Todd is characterized as increasingly unstable and his idea of "finishing off" Batman and Robin now consists of stripping them down to their underwear and exposing their identities via webcam activated by a phone poll [a nod by Morrison to his death poll]. Navigation. The call-in vote to determine whether Jason lived or died has been parodied and pilloried numerous times, and never repeated. Batman: Under the Red Hood is a direct-to-DVD animated feature based off the comic book story of the same title. He also claims the white streak of hair that he got is from being resurrected in the Lazarus Pit, though the white streak disappears again. He is later convinced by Damian Wayne to turn against Ra's when the latter takes it too far by using Amazo to slaughter millions. He keeps the second Robin's uniform on display in the Batcave as a reminder. Maybe they would have done it less than a year later, with Jason wary and more obedient from that time he disobeyed Batmans orders and nearly got him killed. It's one of the most brutal deaths in comic book history and even managed to sneak its way into the DCEU with homages to his death in Batman V Superman and Suicide Squad. In this version, we're going to make the scene longer. Some of the mail response indicated that this was at least on some people's minds. DC Comics made history with 1988's Batman #427 (by Jim Starlin, Jim Aparo and Mike DeCarlo). The Many Deaths of Jason Todd is an Batman fic by Zoeleo, found on Archive of our Own. The Joker, on the other hand, would occasionally remind Batman of this loss to torment him. Over the following two years, he plans his revenge against Batman with Deathstroke's help. The Death of Jason Todd By: Katie Trillion. [49], Following the events of the "Flashpoint" storyline, the DC universe was relaunched, with Red Hood becoming the leader of the Outlaws in their series, part of the New 52 line of comics. Flamingo is assumed dead, although Commissioner Gordon reports that his body cannot be recovered from beneath the rubble. Joker's Crowbar appears in 36 issues. As Hush, Riddler, and Jason collaborate, Jason initially confronts Batman at his gravesite. In the DC Bombshells continuity, Jasn was a child from the Basque Country in Spain who aided Kate Kane and Renee Montoya during the Spanish Civil War. Jason Todd is the titular central antagonist of the 2010 animated film Batman: Under the Red Hood, and the main protagonist of the 2020 animated interactive follow-up Batman: Death in the Family . After he was resurrected, Jason learned Batman didn't avenge his death. Between one agonised, gasping breath and the next, Jason was awake and staring up at a woman in a cave: his grandmother, Lavernai Pocolom, Roman Goddess of Thieves and Cheats, and Etruscan Goddess of the Underworld. However, Jason secretly survived the gunshot thanks to the hidden body armor he was wearing at the time, and the Joker would continue to keep him captive at Arkham, eventually hiring Deathstroke to watch over him. Batwoman told Huntress of his story in an attempt to convince her not to risk her life so often through rebellion. Jason Todd resumes his persona as the Red Hood and appears in several issues of Green Arrow alongside Brick as part of a gun-running organization, which brings Batman to Star City. Jason Todd appears in Batman: The Adventures Continue, a comic book series set in the continuity of the DC Animated Universe. Sometime later, after the Joker is cured of his insanity, Harleen tells him about Jason, and Jack Napier (Joker's true identity in this continuity) says that he can't remember what happened to Todd. Bye bye Robin - bye bye Jason Todd. Slipping out a crowbar, he began to beat Jason with it, intending to kill the boy in order to prevent Jason . According to Dennis O'Neil, who took over as Batman editor in 1986, "[The fans] did hate him. Sometime later, Jason came back to life in his grave. Todd's death continued to haunt Batman afterward, as he considered it his greatest failure. Jason Todd appears in the Rocksteady Studios' Batman: Arkham series, voiced again by Troy Baker. any Comic Vine content. Joker takes advantage of the situation, detonating nearby explosives that engulf the platform and send them plunging into the bay. With Red Hood still characterizedbyhis rage at criminals, it seems this reframing of his deathcontinues to dictate how he's characterized. Similar to his mainstream counterpart (Post-Crisis on Infinite Earths), this version of Jason was originally a young orphan living on the streets and met Batman while attempting to steal the Batmobile's tires. Even when the superhero death/resurrection cycle exploded in the 1990s and after, there was a time when Jason was counted among the most hallowed of comic book deaths, alongside Uncle Ben, Gwen Stacy, and Batmans parents themselves. [31] Shortly after the events of "War Games" and just before "War Crimes", Jason Todd reappears in Gotham City as the Red Hood. to attend college. After Crisis on Infinite Earths reworked everyone's backstories he became much more of his own character. The Joker tortured Jason for over a year in an abandoned wing of Arkham Asylum while filming himself, and eventually convinced the broken Todd that Batman had abandoned and replaced him. His brother Danny had fallen in with a street gang named the . Jason is transferred to a Gotham prison and upon his arrival, the suicide rate spikes amongst top incarcerated crime figures there. Todd and Drake are confronted by another Red Robin in Robin (vol. Anguished and seeking vengeance, he initially . At some point before the events of the comic, he was captured and tortured by the Joker, who wanted to know Batman's secret identity. Cameron Waldrop Jason Todd's Scar in Gotham Knights Explained The whole story of the scar can be seen in the A Death in the Family arc in the Batman comic (Volume 1, Issues 426-429) which includes a deadly attack on Jason Todd (as Robin) by a crowbar-wielding Joker. The sound that was made when the steel rod connected to the youth's body was sickening to hear. Jason then switches places with Clayface to observe Batman from afar. On June 6, 2011,[19] as part of DC Comics' line-wide revamp initiative, it was announced that Jason Todd would headline his title in the guise of the Red Hood. Taking a Robin any Robin away from Batman was risky, ONeil said in his 1988 postscript to A Death in the Family. 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