So...Jason Todd

Jason over all acts very sophisticated, speaks in a very elaborate manner, frequently uses undertones and coded language to distract or leave clues, and is over all prone to holding his helmet like Yorick’s sull.

But more than that, it’s that there are clues throughout his time as Red Hood. He sends a first edition copy of a book to Wayne Manor to let Alfred know it’s the real him back and not an imposter, leading to the revelation that they used to collect first editions together with Bruce. Then there’s also the sequences of him in the prison yard reading Pride and Prejudice.

Look at that tea pot, and the top of those book holders

And the collection of decorative knives from other cultures.

94.8 94.8 are you kidding me

He was the kind of kid who cared enough to do extra credit assignments and went to MUSEUMS to do research for homework and he was apparently really REALLY skilled at writing… like ok, when Alfred says your essay about European cultural history is outstanding, you know that shit is amazing.

Which is really incredible given that Jason was a fucking fifth grade drop out what the fuck… excuse me while I just. implode on myself for a second ok

This kiddo would pour over newspapers in the high school cafeteria while the other kids at school made fun of him, and everyone at school called him a square and shit all the time LMAO.

I tried to find this one panel but I can’t locate it, but one of his classmates once said something along the lines of “that Jason Todd thinks he’s SO mature, ugh, gag me with a FORK” jfc……

Growing up like that, Jason defaults to care taking as a defense mechanism. Sometimes that looks like traditional care taking, (stress cleaning, feeding brothers that can’t cook etc), sometimes its more like righteous anger and standing up for everyone but himself. Whether it be punching out bullies at school as Jason Wayne or offing anyone who deals to kids as the Red Hood it’s all coming from the same place. He doesn’t make a big deal out of it, some of it might be so subconscious that he doesn’t realize he’s doing it, but it’s there.

Give me more caregiver Jason. Let me have Tim being suprized that the Red Hood did his laundry, let me have Dick and Jason trauma bonding over being someone’s emotional crutch, let me have Jason being the only one that can get Alfred to take a break, Bruce realizing that the Red Hood is the same part of Jason that stood up to Willis Todd when he was beating Catherine. Jason over exerting himself trying to keep everyone safe. Give me Jason processing his trauma and understanding that sometimes he needs to take care of himself too.

ALRIGHT the human rambling disaster that I am struck again

Jump to the conclusion if it’s too long!

It’s just really hard discussing anything about Jason without acknowledging the sheer mess that DC’s whims made of him. To take that inconsistency into account let’s consider his relationship with Bruce from three angles:

Before Jason’s death / during his Robin days as portrayed before Starlin;

Before Jason’s death / during his Robin days as portrayed since Starlin and up until Jason’s resurrection, through mentions & flashbacks;

Post-resurrection.

Sadly enough the first era is the only one that bothers to portray a father-son dynamic with enough content to have a real opinion on, but I’ll take what I have. And what we have then is pretty great.

Jason’s Robin days

We’re in the 80’s, and Jason & Bruce’s relationship is the most ridiculously pure thing to have graced our poor souls. It’s soft and good.

They have great interactions, a real proximity, and overall bring a lot into each other’s life. Alfred and Bruce are happy to have another kid at home, and Jason is as much in need of guidance & of a family as any other kid. Jason doubts himself a lot and Bruce does his best to reassure him. He’s also is a teasing little shit and that’s great.

[Batman #377 || Detective Comics #579]

[Detective Comics (1937) #573]

JASON YOU’RE TOO CUTE. Also the tired dad feel is strong in that one lmao. Jay, lad, my son, my life,, what have you done to the newspaper,,,,

Ahem right, less gushing more commenting.

As you can see, Jason and Bruce’s relationship before his death/resurrection is pretty peachy. The slice of life sequences strengthen their father-son bond into the reader’s mind. We’re shown they’re father and son rather than just told so.

At some point Bruce’s custody of Jason is temporarily threatened, and that arc is a vivid telling of how strong their bond is.

[Detective Comics #542 || Batman (1940) #377]

Just. That whole speech. “Only Jason is real.” Definitely one of my favorite papa-bat moments.

And as Robin? Jason is clever, often brings valuable insight during cases, and respects Bruce’s teaching and authority. Bruce makes a good job at addressing Jason’s insecurities and guiding him, both through his training and by honing his moral compass.

(Note that I said honing, ‘cause Jay’s moral sense is very much present well before he meets Bruce. He was cool with stealing to survive but Ma Gunn’s school was too much for him.)

He’s initially nothing like the violent angry kid he’s now known as. Pre-Starlin, the only times Jason acts brashly is when confronted with his father’s killer. When Bruce addresses the matter, it’s not about blaming or judging him. ‘Cause he gets it, but it’s also his job to make sure Jason’s not compromised.

[Detective Comics #580 & 581]

And when Jason promises to keep himself in check, it’s all it takes for Bruce to take him back on the case. That’s how much he trusts him. Read the end of the issue and see how Jason proves himself worthy of that trust.

Not only does Jason understand Bruce as much as Bruce understands him, but he’s very perceptive in general. He tends to be straightforward with what’s on his mind… at least when it comes to calling out Bruce lol

[Detective Comics #579]

(They’re talking about Leslie on the last one btw. She was Bruce’s surrogate mom after his parents’ death and they have a great dynamic. Another pearl straight outta the 80′s!)

They get each other, they trust each other, they respect each other. Honestly Bruce’s relationship with Jason was the most healthy he’s had with any of his kids.

We can kiss all of that goodbye after Starlin has his way with Jason. And since Starlin’s “““characterization””” is the one that crossed the years, of all things, we can consider Jason’s initial portrayal pretty much retconed— and his relationship with Bruce with it. Shame, huh?

Of Flashbacks and Victim-Blaming Robin days, 2.0

From the 90’s to the reboot there is… few material about Jason’s relationship with Bruce. Or about Jason outside of his death/Robin.

Whether Jason is mentioned or appears in a flashback, the goal isn’t to recall a father-son relationship. It’s to drive through the point that Jason was reckless and violent. That new portrayal has its predictable impact on their relationship, and that’s pretty much all there is to say.

[Gotham Knights #43]

Obviously Bruce doesn’t trust Jason, since Jason is now a “reckless angry kid who likes to inflict pain on criminals”. Beatty delivers cool stories, but if you read that arc you’ll see that he lies it very thick when it comes to victim-blaming Jason.

Depending which writer/comic book you’re reading, it’s implied or affirmed that Jason is Bruce’s son. You’ll probably have a line about Bruce’s unending guilt, or Jason’s (*sigh*) recklessness. Mostly Jason’s a cautionary tale addressed to either Tim (who never gave much of a shit about Jason btw) or Cass (Batgirl #7 is a rare instance where it’s done without victim-blaming because Pucket is da bomb).

But there’s legit no material about Jason’s childhood in the Manor, or how him and Bruce acted around one another, what they talked about, Jason’s personality aside of “angry”, how Bruce addressed his son’s self-doubts – oh right modern!Jason is an arrogant brat who claimed the Robin mantle for himself so that’s out.

DC rolled with Starlin’s portrayal, and didn’t bother to construct anything else between Jay & Bruce to replace the parts they chose to erase.

[Batman (1940) #645]

The point is: Jason and Bruce’s father-son relationship before Jason’s death is barely spoken of. We don’t know shit about how Jason was as a kid. Bruce loved him but didn’t trust him since his “mean streak” made him sooo dangerous and unmanageable. That’s it. Jason is the bad Robin first, the dead Robin second, and Bruce’s son last.

Resurrection and onward

Jason and Bruce’s relationship post-resurrection is complicated, for obvious reasons, and has interesting potential. My main problem with it is that it’s seldom addressed after Jason makes his dramatic return in UtH & the arc is closed.

For all that I have a love-hate relationship with Winick’s writing, and for all that I don’t like everything he’s done with Jason, his narrative is mostly coherent (and a good read overall!).

Winick doesn’t talk outward about Jason and Bruce’s bond before Jason’s death, but enough is implied. Jason’s damaged psyche centers around Bruce and what wrongs Jason considers to have suffered from him. He reorganizes his entire identity and actions around Bruce.

It’s not only consistent with Jason’s mental health at this stage, it’s telling of Bruce’s importance for him. The same way Bruce must have been his world after he took him out of the streets, Bruce is still very much his world when Jason is on a vengeance frenzy.

Killing Bruce, taking revenge against Bruce, making a point to Bruce; everything is about Bruce. It’s the whole “the opposite of love is apathy not hate” thing. DC could’ve expanded on that and made it evolve into whatever, but they just, y’know. didn’t.

[Batman (1940) #650]

I like Under the Hood and Lost Days well enough except for the Jason/Talia ugh. Problem is, DC obviously had no idea what to do with Jason after that, so his relationship with Bruce stays at a status quo.

Post-resurrection Jason isn’t so much estranged family than an antagonist who makes some cool appearances here and there— when they’re not so terribly written that they make me cringe.

There are some other interesting things here and there, giving depth to Jason’s estrangement from Bruce & the batfam…

[Green Arrow (2001) #72]

… but those elements are few and far between, and fail to establish a solid construction/development of any kind between Jason and Bruce. UtH!Jason put on some interesting bases but afterwards? Jason as a character is stagnating, and so is his relationship with any member of the batfam.

And then there’s the n52 & Rebirth I guess. It obviously wants to deliver a father-son narrative, but doesn’t do great job at it. Again, aside from a few cute scenes, the “he’s my son but he does baaaad things” eternal dilemma, and Jason’s newfound proximity with the batfam coming out of nowhere (especially with Tim wtf), I didn’t find much content to have a solid opinion on.

(Salty) conclusion

My opinion of Jason & Bruce’s father-son relationship is that it’s hella cute pre-Starlin and that Winick’s version of it makes sense within his Under the Hood & Lost Days narrative (I personally cut out “bad seed Jason” and keep most of the rest).

I think we lost a lot of potential when Starlin’s work became the reference. I think the Red Hood and his baggage with the whole fam could’ve been richer and more interesting if Jason’s initial characterization was kept in mind.

Yes, Jason and Bruce’s initial relationship could’ve used some more tension/conflict in between the sweet moments but… as far as I’m concerned Starlin’s writing wasn’t the way to go.

I think the only way to build a coherent interpretation of Jason & his relationship with the fam is to make a patchwork of canon elements and to fill in the blanks yourself. Thus what I have on Jason & Bruce that takes the Red Hood into account isn’t so much an “opinion” on canon material than a personal construction.

There is a part of Jason Todd’s violent streak that authors have always either totally missed or skimmed over when it comes to his original (Batman 1940-) Robin run and that is his very specific triggers revolving around sexual assult. Post-crisis Jason’s Robin run was vaguely 20 issues long (and Starlin didn’t like child sidekick characters so his involvement in those issues is limited) but there was a very clear character path Jason was on which is “good kid plagued by the past” which totally makes sense given his background.

In the whole run there are only two recallable outburst which are not sex assult related. The first against Two Face, when Jason found out his dad had been murdered (and Bruce hid it from him for over six months ouch) but by the end of the issue Jay had calmed down and saves Dent’s life in the end. The other I see referenced is the issue where he throws Scarecrow into his own fear toxin because he thought he should taste his own medicine which is a bit reckless, but rather than leaving him for the cops he takes him to the cave for treatment (I always viewed this outburst as more plot convient than a show of Jason’s recklessness essentially since Bruce does something similar later in the issue). But other than those literally all of Jason’s outbursts are against sexual predators.

We have Jason fighting a pimp who had been threatening a prostitute directly before this

Then in the dumpster slasher serial killer storyline (Someone every couple weeks is killing pretty blonde women and dumping them in dumpsters, Bruce struggles greatly with this case and it spans a couple issues) before Batman can even arrest the killer a woman (who’s sister was murdered) revenge kills the murder and we have this reaction from Jason

Then the most famous example of Jason (possibility) pushing a man to his death. That issue started out with Jay breaking into a penthouse apartment because he heard screaming and he finds a woman named Gloria whos been sexually assaulted by Felipe Garzonas. They take Gloria to the police station but won’t arrest Felipe because he has diplomatic immunity. Later they get Felipe on a drug charge so in retribution (specifically against Robin) he calls Gloria and threatens her right there in the police department. Jason rushes over to see if she’s okay but it was too late. Batman’s solution to this is getting Felipe deported back to his country but Jason doesn’t find that an adequate solution and goes after Felipe himself - Felipe falls to his death and we’re forever left to wonder if Jason pushed him or if he slipped and Jay just let him fall.

Directly after this is the Death in the Family storyline - which starts out with Jason jumping into breaking up a child porn operation before Batman’s ok (Batman was waiting for police backup for some reason idk) but he throws Jason the photographer

Basically it drives me crazy to hear about how wild, unpredictable, and crazy Robin Jason was by current authors because he wasn’t. He was basically the most predictable person who had very obvious triggers, and honesty it’s just another thing they missed about Jason’s character. Even if he isn’t a victim of assult (at least he’s never been confirmed to be one) his hatred and disgust of it is validating to victims (myself included). Robin Jason is relatable to not just assult victims but people with trauma who have trouble dealing with their trauma and to have that be disregarded as him being a bad egg is infuriating. Jason Todd is a hero. His Robin is a hero. But before he was a hero he was a victim and he understands that anger and desperation that comes with it. That is what I want to see from authors. I don’t want them to forget about these outbursts or turn them into something far worse because they think Jason is bad for this. I want to see it addressed and talked about. Jason is such an interesting character and his mindset is barely ever touched by cannon.

He isn’t Bruce and Dick his life wasn’t ruined by one single night, it was so many things, and it was never really good to start. He wasn’t them, he didn’t need a cape (at least not right then) he needed some kind therapy and help. Which Bruce realizes way too late.

Jason Todd Pinup by Nick Robles (@artofnickrobles on twt)

Or when people rec songs/shows/fics and you suddenly know everything you need to know about who they are as a person?

Happy Frog Kyle Friday!

Jason in the fucking background with two jokers: