The Worst Robin Makes The Best Batman

Put him as your main character and he will reign for ten seasons

When given the chance, comic book readers chose to murder Batman’s sidekick in cold blood.

Robin was just a comic book character, of course, so readers had to play by the rules. Much as they wanted to off the kid themselves, they had to make a phone call.

Issue #427 of Batman gave readers a choice. Batman’s sidekick Robin was beaten, broken, and left to die by the Joker. But his fate was not yet decided.

If readers dialed one phone number, Robin would die. If readers dialed the other number, Robin would live.

In December 1988, DC published issue #428 of Batman. A final tally of over 10k votes left Robin for dead by a 72-vote margin.

It would be nearly twenty years later before the writer for “A Death in the Family” discovered readers had not voted to kill Jason.

He’d been murdered, it turned out, by one person.

Ring wrong, the jerk is dead

To this day, investigators have yet to find out the person’s identity.

Through his own investigative efforts, Dennis O’Neil — the writer for the “Death in the Family” storyline — uncovered clues that point to the worst criminal of all: a lawyer.

“I heard it was a lawyer who was using a Macintosh and lived in California — I obviously don’t have hard information on this, but I heard someone out there programmed his computer to dial it every couple of minutes, and since there was only about 65 votes that made the difference if that story is true, that guy, that guy killed Jason Todd!” — Dennis O’Neil on the Blu-Ray for Under the Red Hood (affiliate link)

Without a real Batman, we may never know the true identity of the person who killed Jason Todd.

I wish we did. That character’s death turned an asshole into a miracle.

But you wouldn’t clap yet. Because making something disappear isn’t enough; you have to bring it back.

That’s why every gimmick-driven comic book death has a third act. The hardest part. The part you can only pull off while wearing a Red Hood.

The Reverse Batman

After Ra’s and Talia al Ghul use the Lazarus Pit to resurrect Jason Todd, he chooses revenge against the man he believes is responsible for his death.

Not the Joker. Oh no, the Clown Prince is innocent.

The Red Hood blames Batman.

But Jason believes he is not yet ready.

Like Batman choosing to take revenge on criminals, he first seeks the training that will empower him for his quest.

Like those early parts of Batman Begins, Jason travels across the globe in search of a similar, but deadlier type of training to Bruce Wayne’s own to prepare for that day. For years, he learns as many skills as Batman did during his favorite camping trips with Liam Neeson.

It’s not enough to know what Batman knows. He has to be better than Batman. He must learn how to be more than a man himself. He must become a symbol that frightens even the Dark Knight.

But in the midst of Jason taking down a brutal group of criminals, Talia ambushes Jason, only revealing her identity when he defeats her.

She is proud and says she has already prepared the way forward to Gotham. But then she sees his face.

She expected to find him “ready.” Instead, she finds him hesitating. She reminds him that he remains unavenged, and as long as he hesitates, justice cannot be done.

Furious, Jason uses Talia’s money to pay a group of mercenaries to help him return to Gotham. Upon arriving, he enacts a plan to get revenge on Batman, whom he resents for refusing to kill the Joker and thus avenge his death.

The dynamic duality of the show

While a resurrected Jason Todd would be the main character, this show wouldn’t make the same mistake as so many other shows. Batman still needs to be in the show, at least as a constant off-screen presence.

But we want the audience to yearn to see him. We’ll provoke that itch by focusing on Batman when he’s not being Batman. Or at least, when he’s not in action.

We see Batman in moments of quiet — when he thinks he’s alone. When he’s confident, assertive, fighting crime, only to get tripped up in the most bizarre way.

See also: Wait…Batman is trans??

Is someone watching him?

Is someone ****ing with him?

Think of that scene in Batman Begins where it flips to a horror movie told from the POV of each criminal. No one knows where Batman is coming from…

Let’s do that, but for Batman. The only time we’re in Batman’s POV…is when Red Hood is terrorizing him.

Storylines

Season 1 pilot

Years after Jason’s death, Batman discovers that Tim Drake, Jason’s successor as Robin, has been kidnapped.

He confronts the kidnapper and is stunned to discover that he is an adult Jason Todd, standing at his own desecrated gravesite, and wearing a redesigned and darker version of his Robin costume.

Batman and Robin aren’t sure how they’ll defeat this Jason…until it starts to rain. And Batman sees a flaw in Jason’s face.

This isn’t Jason Todd. It’s Clayface.

We think everything is fine. We get just enough of an outro to feel like maybe pilot was like its own movie, everything will be okay, the show could end here and it would be fine.

The whole thing even gave Bruce a chance to process his grief over losing Jason.

But that night, Tim can’t find Bruce. He’s not in the Batcave. His costume is still there, too. He asks the bat computer to locate Bruce. It says he’s at the graveyard.

Oh no

When Tim finds Bruce, he has already dug up the grave.

Todd’s actual body is missing.

Robin: “What does this mean?”

Batman: “It means this is just beginning.”

The episode ends on just a brief shot of the Red Hood watching the two of them from a position that mimics Batman’s famous guardian pose.

Season 1 arc

We think Jason/Red Hood might be on a path that allows for him to either complete his revenge…or take the first step to redemption.

Each episode pairs the Red Hood with a different classic Batman villain. He manipulates them according to how it will further terrorize Batman. Things are going well for Jason and his revenge…until the Joker shows back up.

Jason has terrible PTSD. His plan falls apart. He’s nearly killed again. He feels he’s losing control.

A special episode

A special episode retells key events only from Batman’s POV, in which he figures out this is Jason Todd resurrected and on a direct path with Joaquin Phoenix.

The return of the Joker

Jason Todd eventually kidnaps and holds Joker hostage, luring Batman to Crime Alley (Wikipedia) and an explosive confrontation.

The Red Hood demands Batman explain or atone for not killing the Joker.

Batman admits that he has often been tempted to torture and kill the Joker, but he refuses to go to that place.

Jason then offers Batman an ultimatum: he will kill Joker unless Batman kills Jason first.

Penultimate finale

Holding Joker at gunpoint, the Red Hood throws a pistol at Batman and begins to count to three while standing behind Joker, leaving Batman with only a headshot if he wants to stop Todd from pulling the trigger.

At the last moment, Batman throws a batarang that disarms Jason. Joker takes advantage of the situation, detonating nearby explosives that engulf the platform and send them plunging into the bay.

While the original storyline had the Joker and Red Hood submerged and thought possibly dead, our penultimate finale would reverse this setup.

Red Hood and Joker swim out to different shores, still alive.

Instead, it leads to what we think might be Batman’s death.

Season finale

“At this point [Jason] is beyond the point of no return in terms of ever being considered even remotely a hero.” — Dennis O’Niel, Behind Batman: Battle for the Cowl Part Two (IGN)

Jason is consumed with grief for what just happened. He wanted justice. To teach Batman a lesson.

Now Batman is dead. The Joker is still alive. And Gotham is in worse trouble than ever.

Desperate, Jason rushes into a place that he might not be able to come back from.

A dark night

He invades the Batcave, obsessed with the idea that there must be a Batman. He made a mistake. He will atone for it.

Maybe it’s time for the world to see the Batman they deserve.

But when he tries to take the cowl, Robin and Nightwing stop him. They point out all the things he’s done that prove he’ll never be worthy of being Batman. The Batman cowl will never belong to the Red Hood.

Jason points out it will never be theirs, either. There’s only one Batman. And now he’s dead.

The statement puts the three back into a grief-stricken fight that only ends when Alfred gets caught up in the chaos.

It’s not the boys — Tim, Dick, and Jason — who hurt him. They’re so distracted fighting that they miss that the Joker is still alive.

And he’s in the Batcave.

A cliffhanger hook into season two

Joker kidnaps Alfred, and in a terrifying recreation of the events that led to Jason Todd’s original death, the three Robins now race to save Alfred from the Joker.

Will they save Alfred? Is Batman alive? Will the Joker turn out to actually be Batman in disguise?

It would serve them right. After all, Robin did the exact same thing to Batman back in The Untold Legend Of Batman Issue #3 (ScreenRant).

Stay tuned for Season Two!

(not really, this is just a thought experiment)

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