Why People Love The Red Hood
How To Write A Rebel Character (Jason Todd Edition)
Jason Todd is a really interesting character to me. Despite how he causes a lot of pain and disruption in the Bat-Family’s lives and has blatantly disrespected Batman’s ‘No Killing’ rule a bunch of times, people still love the character. So much so that he’s been featured in critically acclaimed video games, animation films and graphic novels.
This got me thinking: “Why Do People Get Behind the Rebel known as Jason Todd?”
But before we move on, please be sure to subscribe to the Pat Murphy Guide to Comics and my youtube channel Reverb Comics! You do not want to miss out on our awesome content!
Now before I get into why we love this rebel; I’m going to give you a run-down on Jason Todd in case you aren’t familiar.
Jason Todd’s Comic Book History
Now funny enough, Jason had the exact same origins as Dick Grayson (the 1st Robin) in the early 80’s. Jason Todd was originally created at DC Comics largely because the Dick Grayson character moved onto leading the Teen Titans in the 1980’s. This caused problems in the Batman comics since Bruce couldn’t really talk to anyone. Hence, Dick Grayson graduated from Robin to the Nightwing superhero mantle in the New Teen Titans series. And Jason Todd became the new version of Robin in the Batman comics.
Fans did NOT like how Jason Todd was a cut & paste version of Dick Grayson. Hence, when the Crisis on Infinite Earths series took place in 1985, the continuity was completely rebooted to fix some of the storytelling issues the editors and writers were having at DC Comics.
After the Crisis on Infinite Earths event, Jason Todd’s origin was completely revamped! Batman first came across Jason Todd as a disadvantaged street orphan trying to steal the tires off the Batmobile. His Mother Catherine was a drug addict who (supposedly) died of an overdose. And his Dad was a former medical student who was hired in Two-Face’s gang before disappearing suspiciously.
Bruce eventually decides to mentor and reform Jason Todd to help him direct his rage towards something productive. He trains him and eventually becomes Bruce’s sidekick known as Robin. He was largely portrayed as a rebel who, at times, defied Batman’s orders.
At one point, it was implied that Jason killed a criminal. When Batman arrived on the scene, he saw the criminal take a 22-story fall. Jason maintained that the criminal slipped and fell off the balcony after he interrogated him.
Eventually, in the A Death in the Family story arc, Jason Todd was captured, tortured and beaten by the Joker and was left to die in an explosion.
Fun Fact: DC Comics fans technically killed Jason Todd!
In 1988, the comic legend at DC Comics Dennis O’Neil suggested that the readers should have the opportunity to influence the creative process in the Batman series. The creative team at DC Comics settled on the idea on opening up a telephone poll so that fans could decide the fate of Jason Todd. Everyone at DC Comics pretty much thought this was a good idea because Jon was not as popular as Dick Grayson and, at the same time, he wasn’t just a minor character. At the end of Batman #427, Jason’s fate was up to the fans. Inside the issue listed two ‘1-900’ phone numbers that fans could use to vote whether Jason should live or die.
Within a day and a half, the verdict came in. Fans voted to have the character die!
What’s incredible is how close the verdict was!
5,343 votes came in for Jason’s death and 5,271 votes came in for his survival. This was a 72-vote margin!
In Batman issue #428, Jason Todd officially died.
Later in the comics, he comes back from the dead after Superboy-Prime punches reality in a paradise dimension. (I know, comics can be weird sometimes). Ra’s Al Ghul later takes him in and puts him in the Lazurus pit to restore him to full health. He did, however, suffer from mental instability after this.
Afterwards, he assumes the Red Hood mantle, becomes an anti-hero in Gotham and seeks revenge on Batman!
Now that we know who Jason Todd is, let’s dive into why people get behind this character!
#1 – He Represents Batman’s Failures & Shortcomings
Despite how Bruce Wayne is a ridiculously talented human being who can single-handedly take down villains and forces as powerful as the Justice League, he still makes mistakes.
Now you can make the argument that if Bruce left Jason Todd alone as a street orphan, he still (probably) would’ve gone through some tragic situations.
However, Batman as a character is too brooding to give up on the opportunity to blame himself over Jason’s death. Despite how Batman mentored him, trained him and tried to teach him right from wrong, it wasn’t enough. Batman could not save Jason Todd from the Joker and himself.
Despite how Batman is this larger-than-life symbol, this part of Bruce’s career is significant because it shows his humanity. It shows us that sometimes, no matter how hard he tries, he can still fail.
In a way, Jason is a physical manifestation of Bruce’s guilt. Which is why Jason comes off as a such a powerful character.
To Bruce, there will always be that voice in the back of his head that tells him he might not be capable of protecting Gotham. After what happened to Jason, I’m sure he always wrestles with, at least, a bit of that doubt.
Jason also goes out of his way to show off how faulty Bruce’s moral compass is. Batman uses deception, force and intimidation to keep order in Gotham. Jason goes out his way to show Bruce why it’s necessary to take that extra step to kill criminals.
Batman has been operating in Gotham for years and the likes of the Joker, Two-Face and Black Mask still commit atrocities. Jason is the character that asks the question:
“If you’re going to operate with a faulty moral compass, why not just take the extra step to kill criminals?”
Now whether he’s right or wrong is entirely your opinion! But like or hate him, we can definitely see why he wants to take revenge on Batman by exposing his hypocrisies.
When Jason came back from the dead, he found out his death wasn’t avenged, he got replaced by another Robin and Gotham’s criminals are still operating at large. And he’ll have to live with PTSD for the rest of his life. If I was him, I’d be pretty mad at Batman.
And I’d also argue that Jason Todd highlights Batman’s bad character traits. Not only is Jason upset at Bruce for not avenging his death, he also shares a very toxic character trait with the Dark Knight. Both Bruce and Jason, fail to let go of the past. I talked about this in my Nightwing video.
To make a long story short, Dick Grayson moved past the trauma of losing his parents to the criminal Tony Zucco. However, Bruce never got past his trauma like Dick Grayson did.
Bruce is stuck in the past and uses his trauma as a justification to do crappy things like keeping secrets from his family and friends.
Jason is pretty similar to Bruce. Now I don’t blame the guy for his attitude. The guy was a street orphan, escaped a household filled with violence and addiction and got brutally beaten by the Joker. Jason went through SEVERE trauma. But here’s the thing that’s really toxic about Jason, he uses that trauma as a justification to do bad things.
He uses that trauma as a justification to kill criminals and to cause hurt and pain to the Bat-Family.
Jason Todd is one of the best rebel characters I’ve ever seen because he highlights Batman’s shortcomings as a hero, exposes the hypocrisy of his faulty moral compass and takes after Bruce’s worst personality traits. He pretty much exposes everything that’s bad about Batman, all while being a unique 3-dimensional character in his own right.
What’s interesting and terrifying about Jason is that, despite how he’s pretty hardcore, sometimes he’s right. Bruce has a habit of putting people in danger. If that wasn’t the case, Batgirl would not have gotten paralyzed from the waist down by the Joker.
What Jason represents is terrible and awful, but a bit of it is true. Why not put an end to someone like the Joker?
Now there’s a ton of other reasons to love Jason Todd!
If you think about it, he fits really nicely into the Bat-Family.
#2 – He Complements the Bat-Family Really Well
Out of all of the Robin’s he’s the rebel anti-hero of the group. Dick Grayson is the athletic and acrobatic ‘older brother’. Tim Drake is the most relatable yet has the best detective skills. And Damian Wayne is the redemptive assassin of the group.
Each of these characters complement each other very nicely as they all bring something unique and cool to the team.
And not only that but…
#3 – A Lot of People Resonate with Jason
For me personally, I really resonate with Nightwing. Like Nightwing, I’m the older brother and I like how he let’s go of things. To be honest, it’s a really nice and healthy way to live.
But I do recognize that a lot of people resonate with Jason Todd.
There are people out there who went through severe stuff like Jason and have grown up in families with addiction, chaos and dysfunction.
DC Comics has always done a fantastic job when it comes to representation and letting people know that they’re not alone with their struggles.
But what do you think? Do you think Jason Todd is the best rebel character out there? Leave your thoughts in the comments!
As always, thank you so much for taking the time to read this post! I personally love how Jason, in a way, wears his inner demons on his sleeves. Him adopting the Red Hood mantle is just perfect if you think about it. He got abused and killed by the Joker (who was formerly known as the Red Hood). In a way, his owning his trauma, which to me, is just perfect.
Please be sure to subscribe to the Pat Murphy Guide to Comics and my youtube channel Reverb Comics! You do not want to miss out on our awesome content!
Stay Groovy!
“You can’t stop crime. That’s what you never understood. I’m controlling it. You want to rule them by fear but what do you do with the ones who aren’t afraid? I’m doing what you won’t. I’m taking them out.”
– Jason Todd, Under The Red Hood