Magick

Jason does in fact have the right to ask. Bruce gave it to him implicitely. Because Bruce a) positioned himself as Jason's father, b) blamed Jason for Garzonas' father trying to get revenge on Batman and Robin and dying for it, c) argued that it was the natural actions of a father to try and avenge his kid.

Either Bruce IS Jason's father, and he failed to live up to the standard he set, or he isn't, and he sold a lie to an orphan to put him in the line of fire to deal with the loneliness of his eldest leaving the nest.

Jason, when coming back to life, seeing the Joker alive, must have felt incredibly betrayed and foolish. "I thought I'd be the last person you'd ever let him hurt."

Jason's ultimatum in Under the Red Hood is asking Batman to put his money where his mouth is.

Was it the natural thing for Garzonas senior to set-up an ambush to gun down Batman and Robin because fathers should avenge their sons?

Was it really Jason's fault back then that three men died in a failed scheme? When Batman toppled the pile of cars on top of Garzonas senior, when he tricked the subordinates into shooting each other, can we still blame Robin for not seeing this coming when he 'maybe' pushed Garzonas off the balcony?

If it is so inevitable that more deaths would follow a son's murder, why is the Joker still alive?

And if it wasn't, if fathers don't normally take bloody vengeance, then perhaps the three men that died should be blamed on the man that 'pushed' them?

Maybe Batman already had blood on his hands.

“Jason Todd and Bruce Wayne are destined to meet in every universe, doomed or not," I say into the mic. The crowd boos. I begin to walk off in shame.

"No, she is right," I hear a voice say in the back.

Sure, Red Hood stops the supply of drugs to kids, and the working girls are safer than ever, and those who are desperate enough to resort to goonery are finally able to actually put food on their respective tables, but there's something else. Something strange and more than a little intangible.

It's the weather that Gothamites notice first. It doesn't rain as much; the year following Hood's rise to power has record-low rainfall, almost on par with Metropolis for once. The air quality index goes down a hundred points, and if you ask the average resident, they might swear that the sun is somehow brighter these days.

Then, the crime rates start to plummet. A 40% reduction of domestic violence. 30% less murders. 60% less sexual assaults. And not just in Crime Alley, where the Hood is on the prowl: crime is down all over Gotham.

Public health is next. The rate of birth defects goes down 70%. Cancer diagnoses are halved. Cases of Sudden Infant Death Syndrom dwindle. Vaccines finally manage to flush out the last stubborn vestiges of preventable disease.

And then there's the weird stuff. A Gothamite wins the lottery for the first time in history. A woman gives birth to healthy octuplets. The number of accidental deaths reaches an all-time low. There are sightings of a strange man slicing glowing blades through the air, leaving light and lightness in his wake.

I spent almost an entire work shift drawing this tooth-rotting fluff

got to this moment in the book and immediately thought about the 'pale blue dot' quote.