outlaw.

is born into a shitty socioeconomic situation and forced to steal to survive from a young age, dropping out of his education early

grows up on some of the poorest streets in one of the most crime-ridden cities in america

has a father who is a criminal and has spent time in prison at least once during jason’s life only to disappear without a trace before jason is a teenager

has a mother who is addicted to drugs and is forced to look after her before she dies before he is a teenager

is finally taken in by a rich guy and given economic stability…only to be enlisted as a junior vigilante in a war against crime under the weight of his predecessor’s legacy with a legal guardian who doesn’t seem to realise that punching people in the face is not adequate therapy for a traumatised child

tries desperately to succeed at school whilst being a good robin, but ends up lonely and mostly friendless

tries desperately to incarcerate a serial sex offender and rescue his traumatised victim only for her to commit suicide because of said sex offender and for jason to find her body

his unchecked emotional issues become exacerbated to the point where he completely disregards his own safety and life whilst fighting crime

discovers that his biological mother is still alive and goes looking for her in the hope of having family, and upon finding her immediately trusts her and confesses that he is secretly robin whilst attempting to save her from the joker’s blackmailing…only for her to hold him at gunpoint and hand him to the joker on a silver platter

is brutally tortured half to death before having what was left of his broken body blown to hell by a bomb

comes back to life…buried alive and still carrying injuries from the explosion, forced to dig himself out of his coffin with his bare hands before being hit by a fucking car and spending a year in a coma, before wandering the streets for another year as a virtually braindead homeless person

has his higher functions restored in the lazarus pit and discovers that the madman who destroyed his life and countless others is still alive, causing jason to experience an emotional breakdown from which he is forced to recover alone

Batman #422

So, I was looking through my comics to decide what issue to jump to, since issues #417-#423 don’t have much of Jason in them. However, before I jumped into issue #424, I wanted to talk about the significance of Jason’s appearance in Batman #422 because it leads into the issues outlined in Batman #224.

This is the first time that the audience sees Jason struggling with Batman’s moral code. Issues #421 and #422 are about two men going on a killing spree, specifically targeting women who “need straightening out” and dumping their bodies in dumpsters. After murdering his partner in crime, Karl manages to walk away without any jail time and is immediately put back on the streets. Jason clearly has a problem with this because his outburst follows the court case, which is dismissed because of the evidence being used to convict him having been secured illegally.

Violence against women is Jason’s soft spot, which will be extremely important to be aware of in the following issue as well as the Death in the Family arc. Jason is angry that him and Batman worked within the law to lock someone up, only to have them walk away. He is especially angry that this man can go and attack more women, which he does end up doing. Bruce recognizes that there is an issue with Jason’s emotional state in the early stages of the problem developing, but chooses not to pursue the issue rather than helping Jason. In a later issue, this will be shown as a byproduct of Jason’s unresolved grief, but right now, neither recognize what the problem stems from.

oh jason, baby

jason and eddie being cuties in blue devil #19 (1985)