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Jason Todd as Robin
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Comicscape - May 4, 2005

First, an apology: whereas I intended to run a reader response column to last week's COMICSCAPE about comics in the classroom, I've decided to run an original column instead. I only received a handful of letters and while all were original and several lead to inspired personal exchanges, I didn't feel they were really appropriate for a column. The letters dealt with the increasing influence of corporations in classrooms, the pros and cons of DO YOUR OWN THING, and a bit about childrearing. The column would've been a bit dry for an entertainment site and I'd get buried in hate mail and threats to stop reading the column (again). So, thank you to all who wrote me, and I apologize for not running your letters. I'll hold on to them for a week in which I'm sick or on vacation or something. Seeing as how we're talking about Jason Todd, for next week, e-mail me with your thoughts about killing and resurrecting characters either at kurtamacker@yahoo.com or comicscape@cinescape.com. Who should be brought back? Who should've stayed dead? Who should've never gone down in the first place? Should long-standing characters ever be killed? I'll run your letters with my witty retorts next week (I promise, this time).

I.
"But...question: what is Batman's greatest defeat? Answer: the death of Robin." The Riddler, in BATMAN #619

The name "Jason Todd" has to be one of the most charged in all of comics even more than Madeline Pryor, Ben Reilly, and even Rob Leifeld. The Robin that died in the line of duty resonates with modern readers almost as much as the death of Bruce Wayne's parents. He is an almost equally motivating force in the Batman's war on crime. I've always been fascinated by Jason Todd. Tim Drake has been Robin as long as I've been reading comics, and Dick Grayson is still around as Nightwing (and in the minds of many, might as well still be Robin). But Jason Todd is almost like the bastard, delinquent child that no parent likes to discuss. And as of BATMAN #638, he's alive (if I spoiled that for you, you truly are in the dark).

I've always had mixed feelings about the very idea of Robin. Rationally, I understand his purpose. When Dick Grayson was first introduced in DETECTIVE COMICS #38, he was designed to give younger readers a character they could identify with someone roughly their own age they could read about fighting alongside Batman. He also solved the monologue issue, in that Batman no longer had to talk to himself to explain the story to readers. Admittedly, it does look a bit awkward when a lone man in a cape and cowl is climbing in a window, saying "I bet this is where the mob hid the stolen jewels." Most criminals would probably laugh themselves to death and call Arkham Asylum, rather than cower in fear. On a more complex level, Robin also provides a lifeline to humanity for Batman. Like Wayne, he lost his parents to criminals and he provides a sort of surrogate family.

So, I "get" Robin. I understand the rationale for writing him into the series. And yet, part of me hates the little bastard with a passion. I like my characters dark, and the Batman darkest of all. On an aesthetic level, the idea of this kid trailing behind the Dark Knight though the skies of Gotham cracking wise just annoys the hell out of me. He annoys me like Jake Lloyd annoys me in THE PHANTOM MENACE (proof that kids ruin everything). I like the idea of Batman as solitary, brooding, off-balance, and constantly in danger of becoming that which he hates the most: a criminal. This is not a man with whom you want a personal relationship, paternal or otherwise. That, and Robin just opens up Batman for a slew of pedophile jokes. He just makes me think about kids hanging around Wayne Manor and playing in the Batcave like the Neverland Ranch or something.

But Robin-bashing aside, Jason Todd still interests me. In 1983 and before CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS, Dick Grayson became Nightwing. He had already been relegated to leading the Teen Titans in 1980, and made fewer appearances with Batman. DC Comics didn't want to eliminate Robin altogether, so a Dick Grayson clone was concocted and Jason Todd was born. Like the former, he was an acrobat whose parents were killed by criminals this time by the Killer Croc instead of gangsters. I can just see you, the reader, scrolling for the e-mail link to tell me that I'm full of crap and that Jason Todd was caught in Crime Alley trying to lift the wheels from the Batmobile. Slow down there, fanboy. I know. I'm getting to that.

Yes, from 1985-86, DC published Marv Wolfman's CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS miniseries (or, as I like to call it, CLUSTERFK ON INFINITE CONTINUITIES). Years of continuity revolving around multiple earths with different versions of the DC characters were cleaned up (through exploding planets), leaving only the versions we have today. The Batman you read about today is the one from Frank Miller's YEAR ONE. The Golden Age and Silver Age Batmans were wiped out, as were their Robins. In the new continuity, Dick Grayson's origin was essentially the same, though it was set more recently in order to coincide with his age. He remained the former-Robin-turned-Nightwing that we know. However, Jason Todd's origins were rewritten in keeping with the "grim and gritty" tone that was in vogue in comics following the release of THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS and WATCHMEN. Instead of the lighthearted Grayson clone everyone accepted before, he was a surly, hotheaded street kid. Batman caught him trying to steal the wheels from the Batmobile in Crime Alley, the very place where his parents were killed. After first sticking him in a school for troubled youths, Batman later allowed him to become the new Robin. Readers later learned that Jason's mother, Catherine, had died of a disease and his father, Willis, had been a criminal, employed and later killed by Two-Face. The boy was living alone, selling stolen tires to make ends meet.

Jason later learned that Catherine Todd wasn't his mother. After setting out alone to find her, Batman pursued the Joker to Lebanon to stop him from selling a nuclear missile to terrorists bent on destroying Tel Aviv. There, he found Jason and the two stopped the Joker together. Afterward, they discovered Jason's mother working for a humanitarian relief organization. The problem was that she was in league with the Joker in an embezzlement and smuggling scam. Of course, he screwed them both and beat Jason with a crowbar before locking them in a building with a bomb that exploded.

II.
"We knew that the technology for polling our readers by telephone was available and we asked ourselves if we could use it in effect, extend our policy of heeding the opinions fans express in letters and conversations at conventions and comic shops." Then-DC editor Dennis O'Neil, in the postscript to BATMAN: A DEATH IN THE FAMILY

DC did one of the single most controversial things in comics history more so than Joel Schumacher's bat-nipples. At the end of BATMAN #427, readers saw an advertisement that told them they had 36 hours to call either of two 1-900 numbers to vote whether Jason Todd lived or died. The readers spoke at least 10,614 of them did and Robin bought it with 5,271 for letting him live, and 5,343 for killing him. DC experienced a great deal of negative publicity for the move, as well as reactions from readers that didn't even know about the vote until it was too late. In the afterward of A DEATH IN THE FAMILY the trade that collects the arc, then-editor Dennis O'Neil admits that the decision to even consider killing Robin was made with some trepidation and that such a move would likely never be repeated (long before Superman died, I might add).

To the media and the public that criticized DC, killing any Robin was bad. Most of the public only knew Robin independent of his secret identity not Dick Grayson and not Jason Todd, but just Robin. It's amazing that anyone that didn't read comics would really care, but that's the effect that characters like Batman have had they matter to people as ideas, even if they spurn comic books. To those people, DC was killing an icon and a part of American folklore. Killing any Robin doesn't particularly bother me (I honestly wasn't crying when Spoiler bought it), but something about letting readers decide has never sat well with me. Frankly, I find the very idea both artistically inauthentic and kind of tasteless. Storytelling isn't a democratic endeavor. It's inappropriate for a writer in any medium to consult fan opinion about which direction a story should take. A story takes on a life of its own after a while, and it's the writer's responsibility to feel out where it needs to go. Imagine if Jim Lee and Jeff Loeb held a poll to pick the identity of Hush before BATMAN #619 was released. Stupid, isn't it? The idea of voting for such a thing is tasteless because it allowed readers to kill a character they didn't like. Guess what? You aren't supposed to like every character (or even every hero, for that matter). Would you really want to have a beer with Frank Castle? Part of what made Jason's character interesting was his temper. He wasn't supposed to be Dick Grayson with a new name. That difference, if written well, could've made for more interesting stories with Batman trying to relate to a Robin that was no longer a lighthearted counterweight. Fortunately, DC's actions didn't set a precedent and this sort of thing (reader participation) has only arisen occasionally since then.

III.
"His grave is empty. Where is Jason's body now?"
"That is a riddle, isn't it?" Batman and The Riddler, from BATMAN #619

Jason Todd's death had two major ramifications. First, it was more guilt for Batman. In that way, it worked well. Instead of thinking that this guy really just needs to get over his parents' death, we can refer to a more recent incident that only inflamed the guilt and anger that fuels his war on crime. The second is that it allowed DC to tease Jason's resurrection for a year and a half now, starting with BATMAN #617 in September of 2003, when Clayface pretended to be Jason (pretending to be Hush, complete with an empty grave). In #619, we learned that the Riddler stole Jason's body, but he never admitted where he hid it. In #629, Judd Winnick showed Jason Todd fighting Batman on the cover, but it turned out to be a hallucination caused by the Scarecrow's fright gas. During said hallucination, Batman saw Tim Drake as Jason Todd and fought him in the Batmobile (on autopilot, fortunately) until they arrived at the Batcave. We were left to believe that it was all a hallucination, until the next issue, wherein Alfred removed a green mask (wrong color, but whatever) from the Batmobile with Jason's silhouette hovering behind him.

For some reason, at this point, I was hooked. I wanted Jason back. I can't really explain my fascination with the Robin that no one wanted, but I needed to read about him again. During IDENTITY CRISIS, I read a purported (and apparently, wrong) spoiler that fingered the resurrected Jason Todd as Sue Dibney's killer (hey, it would've worked with the trenchcoat and all). I was all for it, and I was a bit disappointed by the killer's real identity. I think by #635 when the new Red Hood was introduced (again, by Winnick), I didn't put much thought into who the masked killer might be. Some may recall that in the Golden Age, the Red Hood was the Joker's former alias (used before that unfortunate dip in the chemical pool). The post-Crisis story was essentially the same (as depicted in BATMAN: THE MAN WHO LAUGHS). However, the new Red Hood immediately set about taking over Gotham's underworld and troubling its new king, the Black Mask. When he first appeared in #635, he introduced himself to several bosses by throwing a duffle bag full of the severed heads of their lieutenants in front of them. In the last pages of #638, we got a giddy fanboy moment as the new Red Hood spent two pages beating the Joker with a crowbar. In the last panel, he removed his mask to reveal himself as Jason Todd, saying only, "Tell me...how does that feel?"

IV.
"There're many ways to raise the dead. None of them are particularly good." Jason Blood, in BATMAN #639

I wish I could say that we're in uncharted waters, but we're not. This is becoming a tired question in comics should writers bring back the dead or not? Frankly, any answer we provide will ultimately be irrelevant. Comic companies and writers will continue to kill and resurrect characters because such events generate sales. It almost feels like the death of any character is just a set up for another story arc in a few years in which we learn that "so-and-so wasn't really dead, but was transported to Dimension X just before the explosion, where he's been fighting demons after being summoned by the dimension's peaceful inhabitants that needed him to save their civilization." I don't have a problem with characters being killed or resurrected, per se, but I don't like if the event is forced and occurs unnaturally in the story arc. Meaning, if the story calls for that kind of thing, so be it. But, don't do it because it will drive up sales. Ultimately, it cheapens characters' deaths and readers will stop caring. Everyone pretty much assumes that Hawkeye's coming back, right? With Jason, I'm kind of curious as to where Judd Winick's going to take him. He's already established that Jason isn't all bad, although just barely (telling the bosses not to sell drugs to kids, and then striking up some sort of a partnership with Onyx). Whether he will be a villain or a hero that goes too far remains to be seen. Now, what do you think?

Al:: You may have noticed that last week Kurt had to do the listings all by himself, without the mighty Al Brown. That's because all I sent him were a bunch of jokes about making out with Wolverine. Kurt can't handle the truth! Okay, actually I just didn't get them to him by deadline because I suck. So for those of you that were wondering whose jokes were whose, now you know: the stupid ones are mine.
Kurt: I know where you live and I've watched you while you sleep. I am not to be toyed with.

DARK HORSE

CONCRETE HUMAN DILEMMA #5 (OF 6) (MR) $3.50

JINGLE BELLE #4 (OF 4) $2.99

SUPER MANGA BLAST #51 (MR) $5.99
The problem with Dark Horse is they don't have enough titles. I've already run out of lame jokes for all three of these books. Okay, here's the recap: Concrete: weird. Jingle Belle: Not sexy. SUPER MANGA BLAST!: Fun to say.

DC COMICS

BATMAN DARK DETECTIVE #1 (OF 6) $2.99
Whew, I was worried I wasn't getting enough Batman.

BATMAN STRIKES VOL 1 CRIME TIME TP $6.99

BLOOD OF THE DEMON #3 $2.50

DETECTIVE COMICS #806 $2.99
This is a "pre-WAR GAMES" story, so you can read it and pretend that WAR GAMES hasn't happened yet.

FALLEN ANGEL #20 (MR) $2.99
Final issue. Sigh. Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop spiking my coffee with absinthe.

FIRESTORM #13 $2.50

GREEN LANTERN EMERALD TWILIGHT NEW DAWN TP $19.95

HAWKMAN WINGS OF FURY TP $17.99
For hell hath no fury like a Hawkman scorned.

INTIMATES #7 $2.99

JOHN CONSTANTINE HELLBLAZER SPECIAL PAPA MIDNITE #5 (OF 5) $2.99
Last issue of the origin of the Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. Hell yeah.

JSA THE GOLDEN AGE TP NEW EDITION $19.99

JUSTICE LEAGUE ELITE #11 (OF 12) $2.50

JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED #9 $2.25
I guess elite versus unlimited is really a question of quality versus quantity, isn't it? It's like Chinese food regular or buffet? More or better?

LEX LUTHOR MAN OF STEEL #3 (OF 5) $2.99
I'm sorry, this still sounds like the title of a porn flick.

LOONEY TUNES #126 $2.25

MATADOR #1 (OF 6) $2.99
Note: "Matador" by Los Fabulosos Cadillacs is the greatest song ever written. (Check out a sample here.) If this book is anywhere near as good as the song, I hope there's a variant cover.

POWERPUFF GIRLS #61 $2.25
Al's favorite book just keeps on truckin'.

SEVEN SOLDIERS SHINING KNIGHT #2 (OF 4) $2.99
D'you think Morrison realizes that this plot is more or less the same as Just Visiting, the horrendous 2001 Jean Reno/Christina Applegate "comedy"? Knowing Morrison, probably.

SUPERMAN #216 $2.50

SWAMP THING #15 (MR) $2.99

THUNDERCATS VOL 5 ENEMYS PRIDE TP $14.99
Okay, all together now: Thunder! Thunder! Thundercats...Ho!

TWILIGHT EXPERIMENT #4 (OF 6) $2.99

VILLAINS UNITED #1 (OF 6) $2.50
Al: Be warned: More DC Countdown tie-ins! In this issue, apparently the bad guy is Mockingbird, which is confusing because she's an Avenger. Could it be a DISASSEMBLED/COUNTDOWN crossover? Hey...whoa, my eyes are bleeding.
Kurt: DISASSEMBLED/COUNTDOWN crossover? Are you trying to give them ideas or something? How about we throw in HOUSE OF M just for good measure? You're like the one kid in class that reminds the teacher about the test.

Y THE LAST MAN #33 (MR) $2.99
Al: This was not the #1-selling book in America last month, so obviously not everyone heard me. That's okay, I'll say it again but louder: LESBIAN PIRATES. LESBIAN PIRATES. LESBIAN PIRATES. Sheesh, what's it take to make you buy a comic book? Ninjas? Monkeys? Oh, we got ninjas and monkeys. Now shut up and get your wallet out.
Kurt: So, would those be like, muff pirates instead of, you know, butt pirates?
Al: p.s. lesbian pirates.

IMAGE

DEADWORLD #1 $3.50

FELT TRUE TALES OF UNDERGROUND HIP HOP ONE SHOT (MR) $2.95
Comic-book interpretations of rap songs by a couple of underground MCs named Slug and Murs. The really weird part is that I'm not making this up.

KANE VOL 4 39TH TP $16.95

SEA OF RED #2 (MR) $2.95

MARVEL

AMAZING FANTASY #8 $2.99
I wonder if there's a boring book somewhere called UN-AMAZING FANTASY. I mean, isn't fantasy supposed to be amazing by definition?

DAREDEVIL REDEMPTION #4 (OF 6) $2.99
Obscure trivia note: The Quick And The Dead, a bloody awful 1995 cowboy movie inexplicably starring Sharon Stone, also takes place in a town called Redemption. Aw yeah, you are no match for my obscure trivia knowledge!

EXCALIBUR #12 $2.99

EXILES VOL 4 LEGACY TP $12.99

GLA #2 (OF 4) $2.99
This is a love-it-or-hate-it book, and I ended up on the hated-it side, but I feel tradition-bound to mention this week's guest star: Brother Voodoo! Y'know, it was more fun to love Brother Voodoo when he wasn't popping up in a different book every week. Maybe Marvel mistook my ranting for an entire movement of Brother Voodoo fans, and I'm actually responsible for his seeming ubiquity these days. Hey Marvel: um, it's just me. I mean, thanks and all, but...just me.

HOUSE OF M COIPEL POSTER $5.95
Oh thank heaven! There's a poster! For people who think comic books require too much commitment.

HUMAN TORCH VOL 1 BURN DIGEST $7.99

MARVEL MILESTONES WOLVERINE X-MEN TUK CAVE BOY $3.99
Finally, the legion of fanboys that have been clamoring for Tuk the Cave Boy reprints see their dreams come true. But seriously: huh?

MARVEL MUST HAVES ULTIMATES 2 #1-3 $4.99
Why must I have them? I own the originals already. Must I still?

NEW X-MEN #13 $2.99

NEW X-MEN VOL 7 HERE COMES TOMORROW TP $10.99

POWER PACK #2 (OF 4) $2.99
Al: Power Pack opens an interdimensional rift while Alex tries to get to second base in the family room. Dude, I hate that!
Kurt: Second base? Jeez, that is old school, isn't it?

ROGUE #10 $2.99

SHANNA THE SHE DEVIL #4 (OF 7) $3.50
Now on Marvel Knights and booby-free!

SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN VOL 5 SINS REMEMBERED TP $9.99
But I don't want to remember this arc!

SPIDER-GIRL #86 $2.99

SPIDER-MAN UNLIMITED #9 $2.99
Solicitation: "A bystander to a battle of Spidey's loses his memory!" Man, that idea is just...just...unlimited!

ULTIMATE ADVENTURES ONE TIN SOLDIER TP (RES) $12.99
For everyone who ignored this the first time around: you're on a roll.

ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR #18 $2.25

X-MEN EVE OF DESTRUCTION TP $14.99
Does this mean the X-Men are going to be destroyed? Bring it on. Wolverine gets to live, though. Al would cry if the hairy bastard bought the farm.

Questions? Comments? Let us know what you think at comicscape@cinescape.com.