Meta And Such

Heres some ideas

a Kleptomaniac Teen who isn’t a real threat but keeps stealing shit and its always annoying and turns into more trouble than anyone expects. Once stole a prized fabershe egg from penguin while trying to turn his life around as a hotel room cleaner. Frequent shit stirrer, never the big bad.

Serial Killer Georg, a zodiac killer style bad guy, who thanks to some curse or other, can never be permanently killed. He can be temporarily killed but much like Jason himself, he wakes up in whatever coffin/urn/bottom of the sea you put his corpse in and makes a comeback. Possibly he has some mild super ability to keep it interesting. He wants to die and hates waking up, which makes every round of murders more spiteful. He is fixated on red hood after getting caught and killed a couple of times, he considers this a game for two.

Madam Content Warning, a crime lord and cruel madam of a brothel who worked her way up from sex worker to queen of her own territory. She’s bitter, cunning, and utterly without pity. Jason is more than willing to get down in the dirt and fight her, but there is an element of failure about it all even when he wins. This one explicitly explores Jason’s history around SA, his parentification as a caregiver for his mom, and his experiences with destitution. She is a constant threat, the spectre of human trafficking in Gotham that has never been addressed let alone defeated.

Mister Content Warning. A rapist who Jason kills ruthlessly and publicly. He isn’t reoccurring, but a named opponent Red Hood permanently removes from the board. Most likely he was in a position of power, maybe a tv personality or an exec of something. He is a thesis statement of what red hood is prepared to do.

Dirty RICO investigator, he’s been taking money from gangs to look the other way for years then red hood came in and killed the golden goose. He’s a saboteur from inside the system, working in tandem with Jason’s enemies on the streets.

thank you and good question! uuuhm, how about,

Leslie Thompkins Redux - Leslie might be dead at the moment, not sure, but this character is an update of the specific kind of radical she was in the 80s: a woman who runs the safe injection site in the narrows. Its a wildly ambitious, chronically underfunded, and constantly under attack. Red hood’s support keeps her in business, but they don’t actually get along. She's the non-violent but by no means toothless alternative to Red Hood's solution for the drug trade.

Pole dancer Marge - she’s not a victim of human trafficking, it’s just her normal job. They're friends when out of their work uniforms. They don't engage with each other on the job.

Part time Goon - and possibly Jason's neighbour. He's trying to go straight but money is forever tight and he's got kids to raise. He picks up shifts from criminal groups between the legitimate jobs he's perpetually cycling through. He and Jason get along... kinda. Sometimes. Its complicated.

Precocious Little Shit - Part Time Goon's younger kid, a child who is very annoying to Jason specifically, we're talking getting bullied by 8 year olds on fortnight vibes. They regularly get into more trouble than intended and need rescuing.

Troubled Little Shit - Part Time Goon's older kid, a young teen who is going through it. They've got a drug habit, mental health issues, and a grab bag of personal dramas and tragedies. They're looking for a reason to live to 20. Jason desperately hopes they find one.

A career clown trying to fix the profession's reputation in Gotham. Jason is both skeptical and grudgingly impressed at the sheer audacity. He has made it his personal mission to never once laugh at his jokes, but also nobody is allowed to kill this guy. Every interaction they have is unremarkable low stakes but also insane. Jason is having Light Yagami style internal monologues around him while the clown is very sincerely making a balloon animal.

Retired Prison Guard - a really nasty piece of work, who happens to know a lot of useful stuff. They were forcibly retired after the drug ring they ran through the prison got busted by a rival gang, so now they want to bring it all down. its a 'if i can't have it no one can' situation. Jason hates this person and is hated right back, but circumstance has made them allies. Sort of. (Not Really).

Big Tony - a giant tabby cat that lives in the alley out the back of Jason's house.

Little Tony - a bouncer for one of the bigger clubs on that side of Gotham, and a genuine good guy. He and Jason are friends. They might share a smoke at three in the morning when both have finished work for the night. Pole Dancer Marge might also make an appearance.

The Screaming Clairvoyant - the lead singer of shitty punk band that does the dive bar circuit around Gotham, who happens to have a very mild form of magic vision. Can they see ghosts? The future? Disturbances in reality? They don't really know, they don't know much of anything, except what to do for someone ODing out the back of a bar and how to dodge the cops. Jason genuinely likes their music. Are they friends? They are unsure. They definitely know each other 👍

A Mean Old Lady - she runs the local thrift shop and she hates everyone. Except Jason. She likes this one exhausted young man who comes in to pick over the dog-eared paperbacks and musty smelling hoodies.

Jason is done!!

Bruce makes the hard call to follow the Joker to Lebanon to stop him from selling a missile instead of tracking down Jason, his son who is clearly struggling. If this was a well-written story, this would have a good consequence -- his presence directly prevents the Joker from selling/using the missile and lives are saved as a result -- and a bad consequence -- he has damaged his relationship with Jason. But instead, Bruce finds Jason in Lebanon and, while there is absolutely hurt from him not being there for Jason, the pair quickly fall in step together. And, most importantly to this meta, the missile is launched. Bruce didn't prevent the sale or the firing of the missile, and it is purely through plot contrivance, Joker's shoddy reconstruction of the weapon, that it doesn't actually nuke a city. Bruce didn't need to be there. He has zero effect on the situation.

Jason makes the decision to try and help Sheila, and his trust and heroism are used against him to lead the Joker to beat him and blow up the building with him and Sheila inside. Jason makes the decision to sacrifice himself completely and throw himself in front of the blast to save the woman who betrayed him. This should have a good consequence -- he has saved Sheila's life -- and a bad consequence -- he is killed or severely injured. But instead, Sheila dies anyway, and Jason's death is a fucking MadLib. It has zero bearing on the character choices because it was a fill-in-the-blank choice. Jason's actions have no effect on his or Sheila's lives.

Bruce makes the decision to kill the Joker for killing his son. This should have a good consequence -- the Joker is finally taken out -- and a bad consequence -- this has pushed Bruce to a new low, sent his morals in an absolute spiral, and it didn't bring his son back. Or, he should make that decision and then change his mind, prompting a good consequence -- his moral integrity is intact, and Jason's memory isn't sullied by blood -- and a bad consequence -- the Joker is still alive to hurt so many people after Jason, and it didn't bring his son back. Instead, through plot armor so visible that it is traffic cone orange, the Joker can't be killed because of plot contrivances, he has diplomatic immunity and the most powerful man in the world protecting him. And he's also just. Not dead from getting shot a bunch of times. Because of plot contrivances Starlin does not even bother to write.