:3

"They'll see I'm like the Jason Todd of the Superman family. But less emo."

in issue 36, prime thinks this to himself while contemplating his own redemption arc. he's clearly at least pleased with this comparison, smiling to himself. now, this isn't really that crazy. like, okay, he kins him, sure, but i've kinned people who aren't my ultra major blorbo before. it's happened.

however, what makes this crazy is the wording. the Jason Todd. the Jason Todd specifically. now, why is this so crazy? we all know who that is, prime is just being helpful by clearly stating his name. well what's crazy about it is that he doesn't actually refer to characters by their civilian names like this very often. here's who he does, an elaborate list:

Alex Luthor Jr. *Referred to him as Alex, but Alex does not have an alter ego, so, there's nothing else to call him.

Bart Allen *I think he literally only does this once, when vandalizing Bart's grave and calls him stupid

Lois Lane *Refers to her as Lois, who could be Superwoman, but Lois is his friend, and he obviously would associate her more with being a civilian than a superhero.

Clark Kent (The Main One) *Refers to him as Superman ONLY until issue 36, where he says "What would Clark do?"

Barry Allen *In issue 39, he mentions Barry but notably is only using his name to differentiate him from Bart or Wally

Jason Todd *See above, as we know Jason can also be referred to as the Red Hood.

Damian Wayne *Messed up and called him that before switching to Robin in 37

now, please note that the ONNNLLYYYYY PERSON he refers to like this that he had NEVER MET at the time of him saying his civilian name is in fact jason todd. alex was stuck in the crystal universe with him, he had Major beef with bart and barry, lois is his new friend, he's interacted w supes since the 80s. it's Just Jason.

even worse, he doesn't even refer to everybody by their names if he knows them!! he usually defaults to their superhero alias!!! examples of superheroes that he's Met that he refers to by title rather than name:

Kon-El *constantly referred as the fake superboy or the other superboy. i think Once he calls him conner kent but i'll get to that in a second

Tim Drake *called him robin very derogatorily before tim sicced krypto on his ass

Cassie Sandsmark *just wonder girl

Diana aka Wonder Woman *redeemed him, by the way

KRYPTO *ONLY GETS CALLED A DUMB DOG when he ALSO REDEEMED HIM. prime even calls him "that dog" post redemption in issue 36. Bro

yes, jason is Different and Special in this way. he is the Only hero that prime hasn't met and yet refers to him in a rather shockingly personal way when he could just call him red hood like everybody else.

to drive this in further, he is referring to jason in a specifically positive way (note how he doesn't knock anything abt jason other than him being emo). the only other ppl who get this is clark and lois. bart and kon get insulted, while barry and damian and alex are used more neutrally. Yeah okay i think i've beaten this horse for long enough you get it you get the idea he acts like they're close when they're not let us move on

Bring Red Hood's Helmet Back!

okay moving along. in issue 37 we get one singular flashback panel where prime is working and getting into a heated discussion with a customer, to which he yells "THEY SHOULD BE MARRIED!" while wearing a shirt that says the above text and wearing a lanyard of a tiny fat plushie of red hood.

well frankly that's just an insane thing, isn't it? i've actually made a post about this before where i elaborated on every which way that he could've gotten the merch and why all of them are insane. because of that, i'll try to keep this short

for starters, his workplace has a uniform: a black shirt with a star graphic. this is the only panel where he is working and he is not wearing this shirt

prime tends to wear merch its true but theyre usually understated graphic tees with just the superhero logo (he's done this for superman, legion, batman, and amazing-man). jason's the only one who has gotten a shirt with words and also a second bit of merch on top of it

its distinctly very cute merch. its a fatson todd. prime why do you have a fat plushie of a gotham terrorist and wearing it to work. btw all of his other merch that we've seen in his room in final crisis is all like action figures and posters and stuff NO PLUSHIES.

listen no real casual fan is going to be wearing a shirt that says that. okay. a casual fan can say that on twitter all fine and dandy but no way are they buying that shirt and wearing it to their public workplace at a job they got maybe that week

see i kept it short. i'm so fucking good at this. lets continue.

"...YOU RUINED ME AGAIN!"

okay heres the Big One. the Most Recent one. in issue 39, prime is fighting against manchester black, who is trying to psychologically torture prime and he does it by making him experience a bunch of different hallucinations where he's trying to make him break down. the last one he does has prime be revealed to have killed a fair number of people and also beat up batman and wonder woman (who had redeemed him before) and lois is also there (his closest friend at this moment), and Also Jason Todd Is There Too, being held up by batman. prime crashes out and then punches reality, revealing that none of it was real and he just accidentally brought MB back to life.

sorry that was a really long recap. anyway this might not seem That gay but its pretty gay. manchester black (an unrelated third party) decided that it's more important that prime sees an injured jason todd than, say, Damian Wayne, who he befriended in issue 37 and is also robin and is also batman's son.

why? is it because MB looked into prime's brain and saw jason everywhere? is it because he saw the red hood merch? is it because he ships them? MB is a fudanshi confirmed?

anyway MB thought jason was so unbelievably important to prime he's on the same level as batman wonder woman and lois lane. that's how important he is to him apparently. you know a guy he hasn't spoken to ONCE. A GUY HE HASN'T EVEN MET. A GUY WHO DOES NOT KNOW HE EXISTS

In Conclusion

three strikes and youre fucking out. prime is obsessed with him no other explanation. that is in fact his blorbus blingus. his scrunkly. he loves him thats his fav no other real thing i gotta say. prime's personal close friend jason todd.

what makes it crazy is that he did all this in one arc and he's never really done this for any other superhero in specifics. like he's never worn multiple pieces of merch at once for green lantern, he's never told superman that they're similar (in fact, he tends to point out their differences), and hes never freaked out to the point of punching reality about harming someone he's never met before. jason is the one common denominator. he has to be his fav