The following month's Batman #618 (October 2003) revealed that the appearance of Todd was a ruse by the villain Clayface under the direction of the Riddler and Hush. Tim Drake & Jason Todd Bonding Not Canon Compliant Non-Consensual Drug Use After spending 14 months hidden in an abandoned wing of Arkham by the Joker, Jason is saved before his death even while just on the brink of it even if it is to the point his reality and and fantasy are blurring together Language: English Words: 37,369 Chapters: 11 /? Batwoman told Huntress of his story in an attempt to convince her not to risk her life so often through rebellion. We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our site, show personalized content and targeted ads, analyze site traffic, and understand where our audiences come from. [8] The following issue, Batman #428, was published featuring Todd's death. Jason Todd was the logical candidate, ONeil said. Jason became the second Robin after Dick Grayson became Nightwing and Batman was in need of a new sidekick. As Batman's second Robin, Jason was killed by the Joker during the events of the 1988 Batman: A Death in the Family storyline from Jim Starlin, Jim Aparo, and Mike DeCarlo. The call-in vote to determine whether Jason lived or died has been parodied and pilloried numerous times, and never repeated. [24], It is later revealed that Todd had indeed died at the hands of the Joker. In an interview for the Infinite Crisis hardcover, Jeanine Schaefer states that Geoff Johns had planned to reveal the second Red Hood as the Jason Todd of the Earth-Two universe. Similarly to Batman and Nightwing before him, Jason Todd typically possess no inherent super-powers and relies on natural abilities, skills, and technology; During his time as Robin and under Batman's training (as well as Nightwing), Jason was initially considered a first-class athlete and a capable hand-to-hand combatant. Around this time, Batman discovers that the empty coffin buried at Jason's gravesite is a replica of what he bought. As Jason attempted to reveal Batman's identity, the Joker shot him, seemingly killing him. Following his complicated resurrection as the Red Hood, Jason was outraged to discover Batman didnt avenge his death by killing the Joker. [79], In the Batman: White Knight continuity, Jason Todd was the first Robin rather than Dick Grayson. O'Neil settled on using the poll to determine the fate of the second Robin. [58] He subsequently learns of his history from Starfire's computer, which states Red Hood has made 83 confirmed kills. [34], Todd eventually kidnaps and holds Joker hostage, luring Batman to Crime Alley, the site of their first meeting. This series starred a new lineup of Outlaws: Todd, Artemis of Bana-Mighdall and Bizarro, who was touted as a darker counterpart to the Trinity. After successfully capturing Joker (who fails to recognize him due to being older), Jason contemplates burning his killer alive after dousing him with gasoline. Joker brutally beat Jason Todd to near death. Now he was a street urchin who met Batman for the first time when he attempted to jack the tires from the Batmobile; a hard-hearted and rebellious kid who Bruce encouraged to be Robin in the hopes that it would keep him from a life of crime. [1] It is suggested by Ra's that the power of the pit resulted in Todd's mental instability. Many fans were skeptical, doubting that DC Comics would actually be willing to kill the Boy Wonder. The poll ended with a narrow majority of votes in favor of killing Todd, resulting in his death. But from this point on for Jason, the gray area between good and bad has disappeared. Comic Vine users. By saying that he died like "a hero," Jason makes it clear that the Bat-Family can no longer use the brutal manner of his death as a way to denigrate his use of crowbars as a weapon. Batman enters the car and is at Jason's mercy, detonator in hand. 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 . Tim spearheads a risky mission to recover their fallen brother in an effort to hold them together. A weekly roundup of the best things from Polygon, By submitting your email, you agree to our, The most tragic moment in Batmans history almost looked like this, Sign up for the In his grief, Todd kills an alternate version of the Joker, also involved in Batman's killing, who then mocks his loss, vacating alongside Donna, Ray, and Kyle to the planet Apokolips before Earth-51's destruction. Jason Todd creates a false arms trafficking of advanced military arsenal, knowing that Batman would respond. Years later, while trying to discover the identity of a mysterious figure plotting against him, Batman discovers that Tim Drake, Jason's successor as Robin, has been kidnapped. The backup introduces a massive retcon in which the Joker is responsible for orchestrating the major moments of Todd's life such as his father's imprisonment and death, his mother's overdose, his introduction to Thompkins, and his adoption of the Robin identity. Talia took Todd in out of her love for Batman, while her father Ra's al Ghul was interested in the secret behind his resurrection. The image of Joker repeatedly beating Jason in Jim Starlin's 'Batman: A Death in the Family' remains disturbing to this day, and this likely explains why it's become the story's focal point, but this has also served to spread a misconception about his death that is so powerful, even Red Hood gets fact and fiction mixed up. He is prone to defying Batman's orders, sometimes to success (bringing in the Scarecrow singlehandedly) and sometimes to failure (botching a raid on a drug lab by jumping the gun too soon). He also learns that the man teaching him bomb-making is involved in a Russian mafia-backed deal meant to push the resources of British law-enforcement away from mob crime and onto Islamic extremist terrorism with a framed bombing plot. The character's identity was revealed as Jason Todd in Batman #638. Meanwhile, Batman discovered that a cash-poor Joker was recouping his funds in an alarming way: by selling a nuclear warhead to Lebanese terrorists. Jason escalates things further by poisoning the cafeteria, killing 82 and sickening 100 more inmates. Sheila lives just long enough to tell Batman that Jason died trying to protect her. Todd also aided Batman while Gotham City was temporarily overrun by Deacon Blackfire as shown in Batman: The Cult. 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. Jason responds by correcting them that he wasn't actually killed by a crowbar, he was killed by the bomb that the Joker detonated after Jason tried to get his mother to safety. Hed deduced all on his own that Batman and Robin were Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson, followed their careers with relish, and noticed when Batman began to lose himself in grief after Jason Todds death. He was killed by the bomb. Jason became furious and blamed his mentors. It all started in 1988 with a storyline in the comic book Batman called "A Death In The Family," in which Robin was kidnapped by the Joker and graphically beaten by him with a crowbar. Task Force Zfollows Red Hood's dysfunctional zombie Suicide Squad, composed of dead villains such as Bane, Arkham Knight, Mr. Subsequent portrayals commonly depict Todd as an orphaned street delinquent with a troubled past and a violent demeanor, whom Batman attempts to reform and mentor. However, there are several stories where Jason Todd misremembers the details of his own murder. Please also read our Privacy Notice and Terms of Use, which became effective December 20, 2019. The two battle and Grayson eventually defeats Todd, who says that he will be seen again. Austin has a master's degree in Human Development and a background in writing for Govlaunch. Some of the mail response indicated that this was at least on some people's minds. Bruce eventually managed to track him down before his arrest and requested the GCPD appoint Jason as his guard to allow them to talk (though the issue ends before it's shown what they discuss.). Anguished and seeking vengeance, he initially . 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. 2023 GAMESPOT, A FANDOM COMPANY. Jason Todd appears in the Rocksteady Studios' Batman: Arkham series, voiced again by Troy Baker. Upon being questioned by Talia al Ghul, Todd says it was not murder but rather that he "put down a reptile". When "A Death in the Family" begins, Jason Todd's world is rocked upon learning that Catherine Todd, the deceased woman who raised him, was not his biological mother. As he points out inTask Force Z #8 (fromMatthew Rosenberg, Jesus Merino, Jack Herbert, and Vicente Cifuentes), Jason died putting himself between the bomb and his mother,hoping that he would serve as her shield, and it was this which represented his final, heroic act. In their war on crime, Red Hood and Scarlet freely kill criminals, villains, and anyone who gets in their way, even the police. This certainly seems to allude to the idea of Jason Todd having existed in the timeline of Earth-Prime, and seemingly having undergone the events of "Death in the Family", the infamous and oft . 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. [65], Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, which was published before "A Death in the Family", references Jason Todd. Jason was killed by the Joker in A Death In The Family before returning as the vengeful antihero, Red Hood. The obvious reason this keeps happening is because creators focus on the crowbar,but this tendency has shapedJason's narrative, turning him into a tragic victim rather than someone who was a hero to the end. But a few years later, when the Crisis on Infinite Earths offered an opportunity to reimagine anything and everything in the DC Universe, Jason was significantly reimagined. Todd later rescues Bunker and joins forces with a new Wingman to take over Penguin's Iceberg Lounge. The death of Jason Todd, also known as Red Hood, is one of the most dramatic moments in the history of DC Comics.As Batman's second Robin, Jason was killed by the Joker during the events of the 1988 Batman: A Death in the Family storyline from Jim Starlin, Jim Aparo, and Mike DeCarlo. This was not because ONeil or any of the other Batman office staff disliked the character, but because their readership seemed so divided on him. [53], Todd has also been revealed to be a member of Batman, Incorporated, initially operating under the name of Wingman, an agent-based in Europe. Joker beat Jason nearly to death with a crowbar in a warehouse in Ethiopia, then left him there to die with a bomb about to go off. The character debuted in Batman #357 (March 1983) and made his first full appearance in Detective Comics #525 (April 1983), but it wasn't until later that year that he would appear in costume as Robin in Batman #366 (December 1983) when he showed up towards the end of the story to help Batman fight the Joker. What I wanted to do here is put him in a place that he can't come back from. It is suggested by Dick Grayson that Todd was infuriated by Wayne's last words, a reaction that led him to become monstrous, murdering Batman in that same arc. Dressed in a version of a Batman costume, Todd is also living/operating out of an abandoned Gotham subway system. However, his dagger remains his preferred weapon of choice for hand-to-hand combat; it can cut through Batman's armor and arsenal. All of the henchmen die, and Garzonas is finally crushed by a pile of junk cars. Batman #635 Batman #636 Batman #637 Batman #638 Batman #639 Batman . On the 80th anniversary of Robins first appearance, Polygon is excited to present a look at some of that unfinished issue, including a high-resolution scan of rarely seen work from writer Jim Starlin, penciller Jim Aparo, and inker Mike DeCarlo straight from DC Comics archives. Bruce Wayne as Batman visits him there to inform Jason he's in Arkham for his protection. Oops. He also steals all of Batman's schematics to create replicas of his arsenal for his militia to use, and stalks him and his allies to learn their tactics. Timothy Drake eventually takes up the bat mantle when Dick Grayson refuses to and sets off to fight Todd, who easily defeats him. "[13] O'Neil would later regret his comment.[14]. As Batman's second Robin, Jason was killed by the Joker during the events of the 1988Batman: A Death in the Familystoryline from Jim Starlin, Jim Aparo, and Mike DeCarlo. Red Hood and Scarlet head towards an unknown destination. Upon meeting another man who had previously been brought back by the Lazarus Pit and had turned into a Minotaur, he realizes a similar fate will befall him the longer he stays alive. Over the following two years, he plans his revenge against Batman with Deathstroke's help. Considering the Joker is the one narrating this segment, it is open to debate whether he is telling the truth or not. With the details of his death now cleared up, hopefullyRed Hoodwill continue to subvert his family and readers' expectations in a way that only Jason Todd can. [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]. Shortly afterward, Red Hood finds the Joker (driven out of Gotham by Hush) and beats him with a crowbar just as Joker had beaten Jason. [27] Jason has since repeated the same pattern of killing his teachers when finding them guilty after he has finished with his training. The only outcome would have to be imprisonment or something worse. [19] The group included Roy Harper and Starfire. I love it! [37] After a Monitor shoots and kills Duela, he attempts to kill Jason, but is stopped by a second Monitor. Joker takes advantage of the situation, detonating nearby explosives that engulf the platform and send them plunging into the bay. When Jason is the victim yet again of the Joker's personal war with Batman, the batfamily begins to tear apart at the seams. The description given was that it came from Beirut, Lebanon and was a former possession of the Joker. Published Jul 10, 2022 Jason Todd was killed by a bomb, but in the modern day, fans and even Red Hood himself believe Joker beat him to death with a crowbar. Trivia He now operates as the Red Hood to honor his deceased brother and plans to get revenge on the Joker and Batman.[83]. Task Force Z#8 is written by Matthew Rosenberg, with art by Jesus Merino, Jack Herbert, and Vicente Cifuentes, colors by Adriano Lucas, and letters by Rob Leigh. agents launched an attack on HYDRA's base, Deathlok was sent to confront them, where he spotted his former mentor, Moonwing, and attacked him from behind. The only Robin to have died in main canon, Jason Todd is the second Robin to Batman following Dick Grayson's maturation into Nightwing. Joker had fun beating Jason, But the crowbar didn't kill him. Harley Quinn stopped him before he could kill Jason and called Batman for help, but by the time they arrived at the hideout where Jason had been held, the Joker had already left with him. There was a degree of discontinuity between the Batman and Detective Comics titles with regards to the portrayal of Jason. Instead of tragic silence, the Caped Crusader exclaimed, Hes alive! [73], In the Amalgam Universe, Jason Todd was a young S.H.I.E.L.D. Nightwing notes that Jason fights aggressively like he's angry at the world and doesn't hold back. DC declined to release a full scan of the second-most-complete alternate page in their archives, but did offer the below scan of its first panel, which reveals Jason stable but in a comatose state, back in the United States. 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. Oddly enough, these two missions led them to cross paths, foil the Joker, and find Jasons real mom where they cross paths with the Joker once more. Jason Todd was the second Robin, until he was brutally murdered by the Joker. She also hires the same carpenters who built Jason's casket and had them build a replica of it (the original was destroyed and beyond repair after Jason emerged from it). Even when he realizes Dick is still barely clinging to life, Batman threatens to kill a doctor with his bare hands if he doesnt immediately operate on the boy. . [72], In this alternate timeline, there appeared a version of Jason. Writer/artist Frank Miller, who had worked on Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Batman: Year One, said, "To me, the whole killing of Robin thing was probably the ugliest thing I've seen in comics, and the most cynical. "Most Suitable Person", The All-New Batman: The Brave and the Bold, "Why They Endure: Pros On TIM DRAKE's Rise Up the Bat-Ranks", "Behind Batman: Battle for the Cowl Part Two", "Exclusive: Dick Grayson Returns as Nightwing", "DC REBIRTH First Look: RED HOOD & THE OUTLAWS Retells JASON & BATMAN's 1st Meeting", "Dark Knight Returns: The Last Crusade: John Romita, Jr. Discusses His New Dark Knight Comic", "New Batman DVD to peek out from 'Under the Red Hood' Hero Complex Los Angeles Times", "Warner Bros. She has a B.A. Jason stayed dead for years until he was resurrected as Red Hood in 2004. You managed to find a way to win. When Tim Drake confronted him, a crowbar came into the mix. This process takes no more than a few hours and we'll Austin Mace is a freelance writer for the Screen Rant Comics team focused primarily on pre-Crisis DC Comics issues. The series eventually ended coinciding with the DC Rebirth event. Now."[17]. Sheila herself has been embezzling from the aid agency and as part of the cover-up, she hands her son, having arrived as Robin, over to Joker. He then revealed that he's been waiting a long time to kill both Dick and Logan. In the published version of Batman #428, the same page depicts Jasons funeral, where Alfred asks Bruce if he should get in touch with Dick Grayson. The death of Jason Todd, also known as Red Hood, is one of the most dramatic moments in the history of DC Comics. The Joker using a crowbar as his One-Handed weapon style is a reference to Jason's death; in which the Joker famously used a metal crowbar to beat the child hero to near-death before leaving him to die with his mother in an explosion. Batman was unable to find Jason and eventually assumed he had been killed. Jason's final preparation for his revenge against Batman is to forge alliances with several Gotham villains, including Scarecrow, whom he supplies with his militia and knowledge of Batman's tactics. 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. 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. Related: Red Hood Writer Talks Jason Todd's New Chapter, New Robin & More, However, while the crowbar beating is what ultimately became the defining image of his death to fans, Jason's lack of focus on the bomb that actually killed him is perplexing. The famous scene of Joker clubbing Jason to death with a crowbar occurs in Batman #428, written by Jim Starlin and illustrated by Jim Aparo, during the controversial A Death in Family storyline. Wearing another version of his Robin costume, Todd quickly immobilizes the other Teen Titans and strikes Drake down in the Tower's Hall of Fallen Titans. The character was resurrected in 2005's "Under the Hood" story arc, which saw him becoming a murderous antihero known as the Red Hood. Todd is booked under a pseudonym (John Doe), due to there being no identifiable prints on file for any member of the main bat heroes as well as Jason is still legally dead. I've heard alot of different stories and endings , including rape. 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. Having been trained in the use of Batman's batarangs in perfect aim, he has some lethally sharpened shurikens based on his former mentor's designs as throwing weapons. It is implied that Todd's death was a contributing factor to Batman's retirement. Jason stayed dead for years until he was resurrected as Red Hood in 2004. Specifically, he wanted to bring the character back from the dead. As I looked the pages over and tried not to freak out too visibly, DC archivist Ben Le Clear told me a story of ONeil who had voted for Jason to live and other DC staff hanging around the offices, biting their nails well into the final evening of the poll. Faking his death, even tho I'm sure he died. Task Force Zhas been part of a larger moment in DC'sInfinite Frontierera that has given Red Hood the transformational arc he has always deserved. Jason Todd 's relationship with Batman turned sour as a result of his battles with criminals, which were almost suicidal. Intuitively, it's a situation that Todd should remember with crystal clarity. ", The details of Jason's death are revealed in the comic book one-shot Dark Knight Returns: The Last Crusade, by the first series' author Frank Miller with Brian Azzarello, and art by John Romita, Jr. Romita reveals that the Joker, like in the "A Death in the Family" story arc, plays an important role in Jason Todd's demise in Miller's Dark Knight Universe. Todd asks Batman why he has not avenged his death by killing Joker, a psychopath who has murdered countless people and crippled one of their best friends, arguing that Batman should have done it "because he took me away from you". People were used to Grayson, and Todd felt like a rushed sl. After receiving training from the All-Caste, Jason received a pair of magic knives called the All-blades which are large bronze knives capable of slaying magical foes, but are harmless against mundane enemies. 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. In effect, ONeil said in 1988, extend our policy of heeding the opinions fans express in letters and conversations at conventions and comic shops.. The character has made appearances in several forms of media outside of comics, including television series and video games. Mia is deeply troubled by the discussion but ultimately decides to remain with Green Arrow. Todd instead decides to kill Batman directly by traveling across the globe in search of a similar, but the deadlier type of training to Bruce Wayne's own to prepare for that day. However, when Superboy-Prime alters reality from the paradise dimension in which he is trappedhis punches against the barrier keeping him from the rest of the universe causing temporal ripples that create an overlap of parallel timelines (Hypertime)Jason Todd is restored to life (as he was meant to survive the Joker's assaults), breaks out of his coffin, and is eventually hospitalized; because he wandered so far from his grave before his discovery, no connection was ever drawn between the two events. Later, at Duela's funeral, Jason hides until all of the Teen Titans have left except Donna Troy. Initially sharing a similar origin to Grayson, his character was rewritten after the Crisis on Infinite Earths event. Jim Starlin and artist Jim Aparos 1988 comic Batman #426 kicked off A Death in the Family, which saw Jason Todd discovering that his biological mother might still be alive, then running away on a globe-trotting trip to unearth her identity. To anyone who asked why Batman was such a loner, such a disciplinarian to his partners, such a hardass about who got to play vigilante in Gotham City, readers pointed to the glass case in the Batcave that contained a childs empty costume. On the one hand, he wants to be more sparing of the lives he targets for retribution. At the start of Countdown, Todd rescues a woman from Duela Dent. "A Death in the Family" is a 1988 storyline in the American comic book Batman, published by DC Comics. Scarlet desires to stay with Red Hood as his partner. The story, written by Judd Winick, concentrated on Jason Todd's lost years of globe-trotting and training after his death and resurrection before his return to Gotham . Then, a house ad asked readers to call one number if they thought Jason should live, and another if they wanted him to die. O'Neil said, "The logical candidate was Jason because we had reason to believe that he wasn't that popular anyway. "Notes from the Batcave: An Interview with Dennis O'Neil. Sometime later, Jason came back to life in his grave. About six months after Jasons death, ONeils Batman office introduced Tim Drake, created by writer Marv Wolfman and artist Pat Broderick. Scarlet flees Gotham, her mask finally falling from her face as she exits the city limits. This became especially apparent after his death. Shortly afterward, Todd leaves New York City and the Nightwing mantle to Grayson, along with a telegram telling Grayson he has returned to normal and still considers himself a gift from Batman.[36]. Published Sep 18, 2021 Jason Todd's murder by the Joker has been revisited in recent DC Comics stories, and he deserves more than to be defined by his most traumatic moment. False. Over 10,000 votes were cast and Jasons fate was sealed by a razor-thin majority of only 72 votes.
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