I'm here to see what all the fuss is about

So if you’ve been around the Jason discourse sphere for long enough, you’ve probably seen some ideas floating around about Jason in Under the Red Hood. 

Things like “Jason thinks he can clean up the streets by killing street dealers” or “Jason thinks petty criminals deserve to die”, etc etc.

Well. The thing is. Almost none of those posts correctly understand what happened in Under the Red Hood…despite Under the Red Hood being painfully obvious about what’s happening. And to be clear now, UtRH and Judd Winick are very problematic. They do humanize dealers and the narratives have some pretty ugly implications. That doesn’t change that people on here are blatantly misrepresenting the contect of UtRH for….seemingly no good reason, and in the process making up a narrative to criticize that doesn’t actually exist in the text.

So let’s take a look at what Jason actually does in UtRH.

So here, in the literal first issue of UtRH, we have Jason telling us and the gathered top earning dealers of Gotham his plan: he’s going to take over the drug trade. He is going to take it over. Not end it. Not stop it. Not even minimize it. Take it over, with certain added rules and protections like not selling to children. In return he promises protection both from rival gangs like Black Mask and from law enforcement like Batman.

Now, maybe this is just words! I mean he later runs around just killing random dealers for no reason except they’re dealers, right? Not really. He does kill them, for being rival dealers. Which is gross! It’s morally indefensible! It’s evil and wrong. But again, it is no way killing dealers to ‘clean up the streets’. 

He literally replaces them with his own dealers. He isn’t removing drugs from the street, he’s actively pushing drugs.

Onyx actually stumbles across a group of dealers:

And when asked who they work for: 

Red Hood. Jason is actively literally helping sell drugs. 

Black Mask’s personal assistant confirms this for us: 

So here we have confirmed by a hostile third party that Jason is expanding his territory, was recruiting drug dealers from Black Mask, and takes cuts from “drugs, racketeering, prostitution”. 

And when Black Mask asks “So now we’ve got another Batman? One who doesn’t mind the blood?” The answer is no. That Red Hood is competition.

The comic literally explicitly says to you that no, this isn’t a Batman who kills, this is a man acting as an upstart crime lord.

Even Morrison (into the bin, mate) kept that part of his character! (Pretty much the only thing that ties Morrison Jason to any previous post-UtH characterization.)

Pre-Flashpoint Jason would just…talk. He would just…say things. He would chirp and prod and mock and jeer and sometimes just start waxing poetic or start blasting his obvious issues OUT LOUD! For everyone to hear!

Which was kind of a breath of fresh air when it came to the bats? Especially at the time, when the bats would mostly convey emotion by gritting their teeth while their internal monologues went on (until finally someone started yelling—usually Dick or Babs).

Post-Flashpoint sort of shuffled him into the “sad, stoic dude” role, but Jason was very much not that guy! I mean, obviously he was sad, and he could be stoic, but in action he essentially weaponized his words and his emotions.

It was, IMO, it was a pretty essential element of his role as a narrative foil to Bruce.

Your father is the most influential person in this community- something like the headmaster of a school or pastor of the local church or even the patriarch of a large family. You expect that after this man has hurt so many people, targeting you would be the last straw.

It’s not. Bruce can’t cross the line. Can’t exile him, can’t expel him, can’t excommunicate him, can’t disown him. Because everyone is redeemable. Because he can’t ruin a student’s future. Because the Lord’s grace must reach the troubled. Because family sticks together.

No instead it’s your own fault. You knew he was dangerous so why did you allow him near? Reckless and impulsive and asking for trouble. It’s your disobedience to your father that caused this, and if there is a person deserving of pity here it is him, because he is the only blameless one.

Here are a couple of true statements that you would know if you read ADITF:

Jason didn't know the Joker was in the warehouse.

Jason didn't go into the warehouse to save his mother from the Joker, she told him to come with her so they can talk about what the Joker wants with her.

Jason was told that the Joker wasn't in the warehouse, that he had left a while ago.

Jason was given faulty information and his only sin was believing his mother.

And here are the panels:

Jason sees the Joker going into Sheila's tent and gets worried for her safety.

He says, "this is a job for BATMAN and Robin" not JUST Robin. He wanted Bruce's help.

Bruce tells Jason not to handle the Joker alone and to wait for him.

You could say that this is the page where he disobeyed Bruce, but all he does is want to talk to Sheila about the predicament she's in. Again, he doesn't look for or go after the Joker.

Sheila moves them into the warehouse so they can talk privately.

HE IS EXPLICITLY TOLD BY HIS MOTHER THAT THE JOKER HAD LEFT A LONG TIME AGO. And that turns out to be a lie.

So all of this happens without Bruce's knowledge and what does he think in minutes of coming back?

(Sorry for the blurry picture)

"I warned you not to take the Joker on by yourself." He didn't.

"I begged you to wait Jason, but of course you didn't."

"You never listen. Why. WHY?" He has multiple times.

Bruce has no idea what happened, but automatically assumes that it was Jason's fault. Even when Sheila tells him with her dying breath what happened, he still calls Jason reckless.

well, headcanon that those security protocols were developed because of jason, and that he actually helped bruce develop them—hence why he knew so much about them—as bruce couldn’t believe such a small child managed to steal one, let alone two, of the batmobile’s tires

maybe it was part of jason’s robin training, their first little project together, the first time jason got to be the other half of The Dynamic Duo

Batman (1940) Annual #12

A great many people who crossed the same alligator spike pit moats as me told me it's wasn't that bad, and then casually revealed they were gifted grandpa's spike-proof suit and had alligator-charming lessons starting in toddlerhood, and mom's map of the spike layout to study. They thought this was normal, and genuinely believed they had navigated the alligator spike pit moat without an unusual amount of assistance.

As a corollary, the alligator spike pit moat does not, in fact, weed out unserious and/or terminally mediocre individuals, because many of those people have been gifted alligator-grappling tools and spike-resistant boots. Alligators and spikes deter a great many enthusiastic, hardworking, and talented people who don't have a bunch of fancy protective gear and extensive training in alligator spike pit navigation.

As a second corollary, I am very grateful for the unusual amount of assistance I received in crossing the alligator spike pit moat.

A disturbing number of people did, in fact, acknowledge that the alligator spike pit moat was intended to keep people like me away from people like them and loudly expressed their displeasure that I was not eaten by alligators. One of them used the word 'besmirch'.

An equally disturbing number of people have attempted to use my successful navigation of the alligator spike pit moat as proof that my kind are not being kept out on purpose-- if I navigated it, everyone else is clearly just being lazy. Many of these people seemed to hope that my adventure in the alligator spike pit moat would make me see their point of view re: the alligator spike pit moat being necessary to ensure meritocracy bootstraps were happening in a meritorious and bootstrappy manner. It did the opposite.

If he had to get a new identity for important (but personal) things I think he'd still use his real name and if anyone got suspicious he'd just call it a coincidence or ignore it. Because why would he had to pretend to be someone else if he's getting that degree for himself?

Imagine being kidnapped and assaulted by a group of men with no chance of escaping or possibly even surviving. Then having this man who looks like vigilante bursting in, killing all of your attackers and bringing you to safety. Would YOU dislike the fact that he killed them? Because I can guarantee that most people would expierience only relief and thankfulness if not a passive joy at them getting what they deserved

What about families of victims who couldn't get justice for their loved ones through the legal system. Would a parent of a dead child be upset at someone killing their baby's murdered? Yeah, I don't think so

In most comics Jason comes after the worst of the worst. Human traffickers, serial rapists, active pedophiles etc. People the victims and victims families would much prefer to see dead rather than alive in jail for a few years and then let go to walk free again

Being a victim and seeing Batman yelling at and attacking person who saved you and gave you justice would create a massive whiplash. It would make you feel that Batman wasn't on your side, on the side of the victim. How can the lifes of those criminals be more important than yours

Batman should be confronted with the reality that a lot of people would sided with Jason in those situations. We, the readers, should see a scene similar to that iconic Ragman panel

where people protect Ragman from Batman because for them he is their protector. It doesn't matter to them that he technicly kills people. He's protecting them and making their part of Gotham a safer place to live and they're willing to stand against Batman for him

It also shows how disconected Bruce can be from regular Gotham citizens and what they would consider justice. Something that we rarely see in Bruce vs Jason stories when it really should be at the core of their conflict