A while ago I did a list of comic book characters who should have stayed dead and the number one of that list was Jason Todd. Seeing as how his death will be addressed in "Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Scowls" I thought it'd be appropriate to revisit this subject and explain why I think Jason Todd should have stayed dead.
If your Batman knowledge is limited to the Nolan films-which would not surprise me-Jason Todd was the second person to be Robin The Boy Wonder. From a story standpoint, Dick Grayson had abandoned the mantle of Robin as he believed being Robin would only prevent him from being his own man. Dick became Nightwing and Batman went back to being a solo act. Originally, Jason Todd was introduced as a carbon copy of Dick Grayson, but after one of DC's many reboots the writers had free range to spin this new Robin in any direction. Jason was reintroduced as a common street punk in Gotham City. One night Batman returned to his Batmobile-which was parked in an ally-and found Jason Todd trying to steal the wheels off the car. After Jason ran off, Batman followed him and learned Jason was an orphan. Batman adopted Jason and trained him to be the new Robin. Now, from an editorial standpoint the DC Executives saw how popular Robin was in The Teen Titans, but also wanted to bring Robin back to the Batman books. They also saw how Dick Grayson grew up in the pages of Teen Titans and thought Batman needed a younger Robin. So the decision was made to promote Dick Grayson and create a new Robin, that way they could do new "Batman & Robin" stories and let Teen Titans readers keep the team's leader.
Sadly readers didn't warm up to Jason Todd. Jason was stubborn and rude and disobeyed Batman's orders. Readers often complained that Jason wasn't enough like the previous Robin. After Jason "accidentally" killed a criminal, Batman fired him from his role as Robin. Despite that, Jason/Robin went to the middle east to find his mother only to be fooled by The Joker, who planted information to lead Robin into a trap. The Joker beat Jason savagely with a crowbar and left him to die in an exploding building. At the end of that issue, two phone numbers were shown. Readers could call either number to vote: Jason dies or Jason lives. Rumors circulated that the votes were manipulated, but in the end 5,271 people voted for him to live and 5,343 people voted for Jason to die.
The following years began a new layer of guilt to Batman's character. He was more violent, less cooperative and refused to take on any other sidekicks. Batman hung Jason's costume in the Batcave as a testament to his greatest failure and his lost son. Many months after Jason's death, a new character named Tim Drake was introduced to be the next Robin. Batman was adamant about not taking on another sidekick, but over time Tim earned the role of Robin and became the longest running Robin in comic history and the first Robin to get his own solo book. In 2005, Jason's death was undone by the actions of an alternate version of Superman and Jason returned seeking revenge on Batman. Jason took the mantle of The Red Hood-a name once used by The Joker-and plotted to take over Gotham City, his grudge against Batman wasn't that Batman could not save him, but that Batman let The Joker live after what he did. After that story Jason stuck around and became an anti-hero before being welcomed back into the Batman Family.
And now? He's just around. That is it. Here is what I think: Jason Todd is not interesting because he died. Jason Todd was interesting because he was the opposite of Dick Grayson, he was interesting because his death added more character to Batman, he was interesting because he was a good villain. That is it. Just because he came back to life doesn't mean he's the coolest character ever. Plenty of characters die and come back and that doesn't make them any more interesting. The only reason Batman adopted Jason was because he felt lonely with Dick gone. AND JUST SO WE'RE CLEAR. Batman missed Dick Grayson because Dick was his adopted son, because Dick was a constant reminder of who Batman fought for. Robin was created to brighten the Batman universe and Batman became a lot less sad because he had Robin. It is not and never will be a homosexual or pedophilia thing. The Silver Age was silly and speedos are for swimming, get over it. Think of it this way, a father watches his son grow up under his wing and when the son is a young man he goes off to be his own person and the father misses the days of having a child. THAT is how Batman felt. Now I bring up that point to bring up my next point: killing Jason Todd was the smartest move that could have been made.
As we see in modern media, writers and directors and readers all want Batman to be sad because Batman only sells when he's sad and gritty and dark and boo freaking boo. But how long can someone say "my parents are dead" before it becomes a joke. Oh, wait. It already is a joke. Look, if my parents died I'd never get over it, I'd be torn to pieces, but that's because I'm an adult and adults can help that kind of thing. Adults stop other adults from being hurt. But if you're ten years old and your parents die, you''ll move on. After twenty years or twenty-five years you'd realistically come to the conclusion that-as a child-you could not have saved your parents. That's why modern Batman doesn't work as well because writers can't reason why Bruce Wayne would still be destroyed over his parents other than "he went crazy". But Jason Todd? A kid under his guidance? Totally different situation. Think about it, you have a kid and you get the kid into a situation where he dies and you failed to save his life. YOU could have done something. YOU were responsible. YOU have to bury the body and say "my son died". Parents are adults who lived full lives undirected by their children's decisions. Children DEPEND on their parents. Batman didn't just fail as a hero, he failed as a parent and a young boy suffered for it. THAT warrants guilt, THAT motivates a grown man to continue fighting crime. So how do you ruin that? How do you make that costume hanging in the cave pointless?
The story that revived Jason as an interesting villain "Under The Hood" was a good story, it played with the relationship between Batman, The Joker and Jason Todd. It offered a villain that was much more personal for Batman and it matured a juvenile punk into a relentless foe. But that should have been it. Jason Todd/The Red Hood should have died again in that story, after that story, whenever! The point is Jason Todd should have never been alive long enough to become a hero again. Don't get me wrong, when Jason was welcomed back to the Family by Batman it meant a lot to me personally. The Robin Legacy holds a lot of personal importance to me. But don't you think that Jason's costume hanging in the cave would have meant even more to everyone if Jason died in the line of duty, returned to life as a villain, but made a heroic sacrifice in the end? That would improve the importance of the costume, it'd represent that no matter what Jason Todd will always die a good man. But no. Even with Jason alive that costume hangs in the cave, even with Jason being part of the family he still uses guns, kills people, and uses the alias of the man who killed him. That is only cool until you realize why it's not cool. That is why I think Jason should have stayed dead. That is why he is my least favorite Robin. Because The Death of Jason Todd used to mean something to Batman lore and the comic book industry as a whole. And now that meaning is as pointless as a Suicide Squad movie.
Thanks for reading.
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Sadly readers didn't warm up to Jason Todd. Jason was stubborn and rude and disobeyed Batman's orders. Readers often complained that Jason wasn't enough like the previous Robin. After Jason "accidentally" killed a criminal, Batman fired him from his role as Robin. Despite that, Jason/Robin went to the middle east to find his mother only to be fooled by The Joker, who planted information to lead Robin into a trap. The Joker beat Jason savagely with a crowbar and left him to die in an exploding building. At the end of that issue, two phone numbers were shown. Readers could call either number to vote: Jason dies or Jason lives. Rumors circulated that the votes were manipulated, but in the end 5,271 people voted for him to live and 5,343 people voted for Jason to die.
The following years began a new layer of guilt to Batman's character. He was more violent, less cooperative and refused to take on any other sidekicks. Batman hung Jason's costume in the Batcave as a testament to his greatest failure and his lost son. Many months after Jason's death, a new character named Tim Drake was introduced to be the next Robin. Batman was adamant about not taking on another sidekick, but over time Tim earned the role of Robin and became the longest running Robin in comic history and the first Robin to get his own solo book. In 2005, Jason's death was undone by the actions of an alternate version of Superman and Jason returned seeking revenge on Batman. Jason took the mantle of The Red Hood-a name once used by The Joker-and plotted to take over Gotham City, his grudge against Batman wasn't that Batman could not save him, but that Batman let The Joker live after what he did. After that story Jason stuck around and became an anti-hero before being welcomed back into the Batman Family.
And now? He's just around. That is it. Here is what I think: Jason Todd is not interesting because he died. Jason Todd was interesting because he was the opposite of Dick Grayson, he was interesting because his death added more character to Batman, he was interesting because he was a good villain. That is it. Just because he came back to life doesn't mean he's the coolest character ever. Plenty of characters die and come back and that doesn't make them any more interesting. The only reason Batman adopted Jason was because he felt lonely with Dick gone. AND JUST SO WE'RE CLEAR. Batman missed Dick Grayson because Dick was his adopted son, because Dick was a constant reminder of who Batman fought for. Robin was created to brighten the Batman universe and Batman became a lot less sad because he had Robin. It is not and never will be a homosexual or pedophilia thing. The Silver Age was silly and speedos are for swimming, get over it. Think of it this way, a father watches his son grow up under his wing and when the son is a young man he goes off to be his own person and the father misses the days of having a child. THAT is how Batman felt. Now I bring up that point to bring up my next point: killing Jason Todd was the smartest move that could have been made.
As we see in modern media, writers and directors and readers all want Batman to be sad because Batman only sells when he's sad and gritty and dark and boo freaking boo. But how long can someone say "my parents are dead" before it becomes a joke. Oh, wait. It already is a joke. Look, if my parents died I'd never get over it, I'd be torn to pieces, but that's because I'm an adult and adults can help that kind of thing. Adults stop other adults from being hurt. But if you're ten years old and your parents die, you''ll move on. After twenty years or twenty-five years you'd realistically come to the conclusion that-as a child-you could not have saved your parents. That's why modern Batman doesn't work as well because writers can't reason why Bruce Wayne would still be destroyed over his parents other than "he went crazy". But Jason Todd? A kid under his guidance? Totally different situation. Think about it, you have a kid and you get the kid into a situation where he dies and you failed to save his life. YOU could have done something. YOU were responsible. YOU have to bury the body and say "my son died". Parents are adults who lived full lives undirected by their children's decisions. Children DEPEND on their parents. Batman didn't just fail as a hero, he failed as a parent and a young boy suffered for it. THAT warrants guilt, THAT motivates a grown man to continue fighting crime. So how do you ruin that? How do you make that costume hanging in the cave pointless?
The story that revived Jason as an interesting villain "Under The Hood" was a good story, it played with the relationship between Batman, The Joker and Jason Todd. It offered a villain that was much more personal for Batman and it matured a juvenile punk into a relentless foe. But that should have been it. Jason Todd/The Red Hood should have died again in that story, after that story, whenever! The point is Jason Todd should have never been alive long enough to become a hero again. Don't get me wrong, when Jason was welcomed back to the Family by Batman it meant a lot to me personally. The Robin Legacy holds a lot of personal importance to me. But don't you think that Jason's costume hanging in the cave would have meant even more to everyone if Jason died in the line of duty, returned to life as a villain, but made a heroic sacrifice in the end? That would improve the importance of the costume, it'd represent that no matter what Jason Todd will always die a good man. But no. Even with Jason alive that costume hangs in the cave, even with Jason being part of the family he still uses guns, kills people, and uses the alias of the man who killed him. That is only cool until you realize why it's not cool. That is why I think Jason should have stayed dead. That is why he is my least favorite Robin. Because The Death of Jason Todd used to mean something to Batman lore and the comic book industry as a whole. And now that meaning is as pointless as a Suicide Squad movie.
Thanks for reading.
Facebook: The Panel Biter
Twitter: @ThePanelBiter
Podbean: Panelbiter.podbean.com
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