My Ode To Jason Todd....and my 1st comic script

That right there was likely the first time I ever saw an image of Jason Todd...did not know it was Jason Todd at the time, didn't have the slightest clue who Jason Todd even was yet, but based on the following two pages from that very same issue, I pretty easily figured out he was a former Robin and someone of great importance to the Bat-mythos:

See I am someone who jumped on the Knightfall bandwagon when Batman #497 came out so aside from the Adam West TV show & movie, the Tim Burton movies, and Batman: The Animated Series, my Bat-knowledge was minimal.  I was a Marvel guy, an X-Men kid, and it's safe to say the Image explosion in 1992 was the first time I ventured outside of Marvel in the roughly 5 years I had been reading at that point.  Still, one day when I was at Daggett's Comics in Holt, MI (now sadly closed sometime after I moved to PA) I was asked by Keith, the owner, if I knew what was going on in Batman.

"Nope, you know I only read Marvel and Image" was likely my reply but after being told about how his back got broken I was sufficiently intrigued to pick up the 2nd or 3rd printing of #497, followed rather quickly by picking up as many of the preceding parts of Knightfall as I could find as well as reading the story through to its conclusion.  Oh and then I had to find Sword of Azrael and Vengeance of Bane because they were direct lead-ins, and then I had to get the issues of Detective Comics and Batman that immediately preceded Knightfall to see how the story built up, and then I had to get EVERYTHING before that, and now my Bat-collection starts somewhere around issue #400 of Batman and #575 of Detective Comics (give or take), not to mention Shadow of the Bat, Legends of the Dark Knight, Gotham Knights, and so on and so on and scooby dooby dooby.

But I digress...

This is not a tale of my infatuation with Batman, rather it is a tale of my infatuation with the character of Jason Todd aka Robin II aka The Red Hood aka Gun-Toting Batman from Battle for the Cowl.  Aside from those references in Batman #496, I found that as I read more of Bruce Wayne's story I kept stumbling across the references to Jason Todd, particularly as I read the "Year 3" and "Lonely Place of Dying" arcs that brought Tim Drake into the Bat-family for the first time.  

See Tim was my Robin, I knew Dick Grayson was the original Robin because of B:TAS, but as a reader Tim was my first Robin and, to this day, remains my favorite (although Damian is fighting hard for that spot).  It's similar to the idea for some people Wally West is Flash whereas for others Barry Allen is Flash, for some Kyle Rayner may be their GL whereas others lay claim to Hal Jordan or John Stewart...it all depends on who was in the role when you started reading I suppose (making me wonder if anyone claims Dick Grayson as their Batman?).

Anywho, my interest in just who Jason Todd was grew because it was obvious that his death had a profound impact on Bruce Wayne both as Batman and as Bruce.  He refused the idea of another sidekick, removed anything that reminded him of JT from the Batcave, and was running himself ragged on the streets (which conveniently helped set the plate for Bane in Knightfall). Jason's death was a major event in the history of the Bat, and as my love for the character and his immense history grew, it became very evident I had to read "Death in the Family".

I don't remember if I read it before this, in all likelihood I did not, but what I do remember is that I purchased this story for the very first time in either 1999 or 2000 and either in Chicago or Canada.  It was an old printing, much like the "Lonely Place" collection I found, with cover material no different than your standard comic book.  I suppose they were both much like the 100-Page Spectacular books DC has put out in recent years and while I have been tempted to purchase a sturdier version of the story, I believe one exists with both "DITF" and "Lonely Place", but even if I ever do, much like my older version of "The Killing Joke", I will always cherish my original.

Reading that story, it was very hard not to feel sympathetic for the character of Jason Todd.  Yes, he was far more erratic than the Tim Drake Robin I was reading or the Dick Grayson Robin I had watched on B:TAS, but he was also far more lost.  His search for his mother, the way he was played, the way in which JT rebelled harder the more Bruce tried to protect him from himself...Jason was the most typical teenager of those three Robins, unfortunately being typical in that world can end in death, and in this case a death voted on by the fans themselves.  As you can see below, it was brutal...

Not to mention the explosion and this unforgettable image that followed...

It was gut wrenching to finally read even if it was a decade after the story was originally published and I had seen Bats go through his breaking, a replacement AzBats, GraysonBats Round One, a plague, an earthquake, you get the idea.  The sadness of this story also made me appreciate how, despite the various writers, artists, and editors in the years since (and the years prior) there is a certain sense of history to the Bat-mythology.  There is a genuine feeling that EVERYTHING that has come before matters and has created the character we know today.  That was part of the issue of the New 52 I suppose, that it had the potential to erase the history that shaped the characters we love.  In the case of Bats, it seems like his history has been left relatively untouched (especially in the case of Grant Morrison penned stories) which is wonderful.  Yes there is the whole hyper decompression side of things, of how so much crap could happen in such a short time, but come on....it's comics, and in the post-Zero Hour DCU look at all the events labeled "Today":

The preceding page was labeled "one year ago" by the way and so all that stuff happened in one year's time...but I am seriously digressing from my point now, it happens, I do write these as I go after all. Back to JT...

So with the impact of Jason Todd's death hanging over pretty much the entire existence of Batman from that point forward,  it blew my mind when Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee and Scott Williams did this in their "Hush" arc:

Holy shit and a half!  Despite the fact that, in that story, JT was revealed to by a Clayface, it still was full of awesome...as pretty much the whole Hush story is in my opinion.  I don't care if it's not much more than getting to see Jim Lee & Scott Williams draw everyone in the Batverse, it is still tons of fun and I totally dig Hush.

So when Judd Winick took over the writing and threw a JT tease into his "As The Crow Flies" story...

...it got me more excited about the possibilities, and not just because of the cool visual of his Hush costume with the "R" on it.  The idea of Bruce having a dead Robin hanging over his head forever is powerful but so is the idea of Bruce having to deal with the Robin that died face-to-face.

Enter: "Under The Red Hood"

Right off the bat there is a tension to this story with commentary about how familiar this new Red Hood seems, Bruce questioning people who have been resurrected like Green Arrow and Superman, but in terms of images, the two powerful ones come when Red Hood takes a crowbar to the Joker and reveals himself there:

And then when he finally reveals himself to Bruce...

He is the antithesis of Batman in some ways, but in a fashion he is Batman without the moral restrictions, he is using the criminal element to control the criminal element essentially.  Yet he is still an angry young man, only now his rage is directed towards Bruce and The Joker and rightfully so.  The latter killed him, and he sees the former as having done nothing about it because Joker is still breathing.  The "But why...why on God's Earth is he still alive?" line that JT delivers pretty much says it all and in turn makes the reader ask the same damn thing.  After all, what would you do if someone killed your child? Would you take the law and life into your own hands as Jason wishes Bruce had done or would you leave it in the hands of the legal system as Bruce chose to? 

That issue, the issues of parental approval and disappointment, "I can do anything you can do only better", those are the things at the heart of Jason Todd's resurrection and the path he chose to travel upon his return to life. Toss aside the somewhat silly, yet totally comic book logical, notion that his resurrection came about as a result of Superboy-Prime punching the walls of reality (see bottom right corner of the image)...

...and just put yourself in either Bruce's or Jason's shoes to try and understand either man's position. 

Imagine being face-to-face with an estranged child you failed epically, finding out that failure has actually been righted, but knowing that its correction may be an even bigger failure, that the child has become the polar opposite of everything you ever wanted.

Imagine being face-to-face with your parent for the first time after years of estrangement, a parent who disappointed you in some epic fashion, and not only has that parent NOT corrected their mistake, they have replaced your role in their life.  Jason was replaced by Tim, the Joker is still breathing, no trophy case memorial in the Batcave can make up for those things, and now JT has made it his mission to prove that he can, in his own fashion, out Batman Bruce Wayne.

Judd Winick handled Jason's journey in as wonderful a fashion as I could have hoped and the only other writer who really got a grasp on the mindset of Jason was Geoff Johns in his one Teen Titans appearance from issue #29 (vol. 3):

His feelings of being forgotten, of being abandoned, those are the exact emotions I would expect from someone in Jason's position and I would have been very curious to see Johns handle JT (at that point) in a regular fashion. 

Still, it is Winick and his obvious love for the character that has defined who he is in my mind, which is why the stupid Bruce Jones Nightwing arc was so disappointing.  I can see JT usurping the NW role and doing his best to ruin the image of the hero, but man was that story a mess...so disappointing.  That disappointment continued in Countdown as writers seemed to forget who JT was (as well as all the other characters) going into this story and, aside from bringing the Red Robin guise into official continuity, it was a waste of time for JT and the readers.

I appreciated his Green Arrow and Robin appearances because I felt they were consistent with who I think JT is at hear, especially the latter because it took place after Bruce's death and includes Jason seeing a message from Bruce that we don't find out about until later.

Now here's where I have some trouble because Jason reemerges during "Battle for the Cowl" looking like this:

My issue was not with his characterization (because I think JT taking up the mantle in Bruce's absence and doing it "better" makes perfect sense) nor was it with the costume per se, my issue was that that particular get-up is quite similar to one worn by the 3rd Batman (Michael Lane) of Morrison's run...

...and that costume presumably went down in the wreckage with Lane, Dr. Hurt, and the helicopter.  Obviously all parties survived, but how did that costume...or even the idea of that costume...end up in the possession of JT?  For that matter, how did Jason end up at that extreme after the fashion in which he walked out of the Robin story arc that went down very shortly before BFTC?

Those questions, the inspiration of Judd Winick's take on Jason, and just a general curiosity to give it a try for the first time all led me to write out a comic book script about JT.  It started as one single issue but as I wrote it took on a life of its own and by the time I finished it up (over the course of a year so thank god I wasn't subject to deadlines there huh?) it had become four issues that bridged the gap between Jason's Robin appearance and BFTC, explained how he got the costume, and hopefully ran consistent with the portrayal of the character as first introduced by Judd. 

I know there are some continuity glitches within the four stories as well as between the stories and what actually happened in the comics but those are all things I intend, for my own continuity obsessed mind, to go back through and rectify at some point.  Also, I did start to write my own take on BFTC since I was somewhat not happy with how the original story was done (rushed & somewhat shallow) but only got part way into my 3rd chapter before I got detoured, and have yet to pick it back up.

All that being said, here are some excerpts from the 1st chapter of my Jason Todd script, I think I may post them all in completion separate from this blog because it's already long enough as it is ;-)

Page 1

FULL PAGE

JASON TODD, in his RED HOOD apparel, stands on a rooftop overlooking Gotham City.  Snow falls around him; an electronic billboard behind him reads “ONLY 3 SHOPPING DAYS LEFT UNTIL CHRISTMAS! GO TO BUYMETOYS.COM FOR RUSH DELIVERY!”

JASON TODD

(Caption)

Another white Christmas, another day for family and friends, another day to pretend it’s all okay,

Page 2

1- Jason hops down onto the fire escape, taking the long way to the street for once. 

2- As he descends, he passes a window with Xmas light and a tree

3- A family eating dinner together

4- An older man by himself watching TV in the dark

5 - Jason stops halfway down, looks out over the city…

JASON TODD

(caption)

No crime.  Maybe the first day since Bruce…(pause)

Page 3

1- An open window, minimal Xmas decoration, a single father and his kid arguing over something catches Jason’s attention for a moment.

2- Back to Jason perched on the fire escape…

JASON TODD

(caption)

…since Batman abandoned this hellhole. 

3 - Jason hops down into a familiar alley from the fire escape. Graffiti is visible reading, “ABANDON ALL HOPE YOU WHO ENTER CRIME ALLEY”

JASON TODD

Wherever you went, whatever you’re doing, I hope you know that you gave up.  In the end, Bruce, you gave up. 

4- Jason pops the seal off his Red Hood helmet.

5 - Jason kneels down, setting the helmet on the ground to his side, a slight smile on his face.

6 - Tight on Jason placing two bullets on the ground next to a couple of withered roses, something left over from Bruce’s yearly visit.

Page 4

FULL PAGE

Jason stands over the flowers and the bullets, helmet in hand at his side, staring at this landmark in Bat-history, the smile on his face faded to solemnity.  The snowfall is getting harder, and you can see the kid from earlier storming away in the BG.

JASON TODD

What would Mommy and Daddy think of you right now Bruce? What happened to that precious vow you drilled into my head once upon a time?

-----

Page 10

1 - Jason Todd relaxes his grip on the gun in his holster, and lets out a deep breath.  For once, he doesn’t want to kill anything.

2 - Amygdala sits down on top of a dumpster against the wall, Kid Jason kind of mulls around the area, kicking at cans and the like

AMYGDALA

Why you run away friend?

KID JASON
I guess I was tired of dealin’ with it all.  Tired of being a disappointment.

3 - Jason Todd winces at that word, cueing a flashback to…

4 - Batman #424 when Jason let someone die, telling Batman “He Slipped”

5 - Back to Kid Jason and Amygdala, Kid Jason looking at something in his hand that he picked up off the ground.

KID JASON

See, I guess I’ve been blamin’ my dad for my parents breakin’ up. He works all the time, never home, hell he won’t even be home for Christmas.

6 - Kid Jason throws the crushed can at the wall..

7 - TINGS down at the feet of Jason Todd.

8 - Jason Todd’s face looks softer than it has previously…

Page 11

1 - Kid Jason looks cold for the first time tonight as he wipes a tear from his eye

AMYGDALA

(clueless)

Chris’mas?

KID JASON

Yeah, Christmas.  So I told him I hated him, and that I wanted to go live with my mom.  Didn’t realize how much it hurt him.

2 - Jason Todd, biting his lower lip until blood comes out cues…

3 - Flashback to Batman #425 when Jason Todd’s mistakes cost three people their lives, and Bruce‘s disappointment…

4 - Kid Jason sits down as Amygdala stands up and wanders over to the opposite side of the alley.  The entry to the alley is visible in the BG behind Kid Jason, the snow and wind have started to pick up again.

KID JASON

So he picked up the phone, dialed my mom up, and told her I had a question to ask her.  Truth is, there’s no way in hell I would wanna go live with that…that…that bitch!

5 - Jason Todd, hands on his forehead, as if the memories hurt…

6 - Flashback to Batman 427 as Sheila Haywood stands next to the Joker over Jason Todd’s bloody, beaten body. 

 7 - Kid Jason, his head also in his hands, wipes the tears away. 

KID JASON

She’s the terrible one. She cheated on my dad, she left us high and dry, she…

MOCKING VOICE

(off panel)

WAAAAAAAAAH! My mommy sucks! WAAAAAHHH!

8 - Four thugs (Jerry, Lynn, Evan, Joe) stand in the entrance to the alley.  Two carry baseball bats, one has a crowbar, the other appears unarmed.  The snow is whipping around them in a frenzy, collecting on their shoulders, hats, and feet.  They have obviously been standing there awhile.

JERRY

Life sucks kid, parent suck too.  Why don’t ya go and cut yourself over it?

LYNN

(swinging the bat at his side)

But first…why don’t you give us everything you got?

----

Page 19

FULL PAGE- OVERHEAD

Police rushing into the alleway, Kid Jason crumbling into the arms of an officer, five dead bodies, lots of blood and snow, and Jason Todd’s head in the corner looking down over the entire scene.

JASON TODD
(caption)

Doubt…

Page 20

1 - Jason Todd in Red Hood helmet speeding away on a motorcyle, snow and wind swirling all around him.

 JASON TODD
(caption)

..the last thing I need is doubt.  But what that kid said, I can’t shake it.

2 - Same

JASON TODD

(caption)

I looked at him, all I could think of was Bruce.  An alley, a gun, a blood covered kid.  Bruce.

3 - Same

JASON TODD

(caption)

I’ve heard it all before, the lines about redemption, but this was different. It wasn’t coming from holier-than-thou Batman…

4 - Same

JASON TODD

(caption)

It was the face of innocence.  It was Dick at the circus, it was me and Dent, it was…it was Tim and Boomerang‘s kid. 

5 - Same

JASON TODD
(caption)

But that way, Bruce…Batman’s way, it hasn’t worked. Joker’s still out there, Harvey, Cobblepot...

6 - The back wheel catches on ice, the bike slides out from underneath Jason Todd, sending him crashing into a snow bank.

Page 21

1 - Jason Todd sits up out of the snow bank, protected from any serious injury by his helmet & body armor. The bike though, the bike is not so good, fixable, but unrideable. 

JASON TODD
Bane…even Bane.

- Jason Todd picks the bike up, looks up at his surrounding, and lets out a bit of a laugh.  He hadn’t been really paying attention to where he was driving apparently.

JASON TODD

(caption)

Bane shattered him, broke him, and Batman still let him live.  It’s like he forgave him, like he didn’t hold that hate in…in his heart.

3 - Jason Todd walking down the road with the bike despite intense snowfall and bone chilling winds.  One gun is missing from his waist holster, unknowingly left buried in the snow.

JASON TODD

(caption)

It wasn’t about hate for Bruce, it…it wasn’t about revenge.  Justice, always justice, blind justice.  He believed in it, maybe to a fault, but he believed in it.

4 - Jason stops walking, pops off his helmet, and looks into the snow.  In the BG, a set of bars, like a gate, are visible.

JASON TODD

(caption)

Maybe justice isn’t possibly always, maybe rehabilitation doesn’t always work, but for Bruce, it was enough to know he tried.  As long as he tried…

5 - Interior of the Batcave, still in disrepair from the Black Glove, shot on the shattered case containing Jason Todd’s Robin costume.

JASON TODD
(caption)

I don’t know if I’ll ever find my way back to your side of the fence Bruce, if I’ll ever be as “Batman” as you dreamed, save that for Tim and Dick, but maybe…just maybe..

Page 22

FULL PAGE

Jason Todd stands just outside the gates of Wayne Manor.  It’s hard to tell the state of the Manor due to darkness and the snow, but it seems as if some windows are still busted out, the scars of what happened in RIP still remain.  I’m picturing a panel from Robin #7 when Bruce sees the state of the manor under AzBats watch.  It’s looming, towering over Jason Todd, imposing, with the words “WAYNE” on the top of the gate half covered in snow.

JASON TODD

..maybe it’s time to go home again.

END ISSUE

---------------

I suppose I will put up the complete scripts after I do some editing for spelling & grammar instead of just a straight C&P like those up there (apologies for any goofs).

As for how Jason has been used since BFTC, well I found Grant Morrison's take on him interesting and you can read about that in more detail in this blog: The Grant Morrison Odyssey Book Five. I was happy Winick came back to the character to follow up on that story arc, and I liked JT and Scarlett heading off into the sunset to do lord only knows what. 

As soon as Dick took over the mantle, I had some idea that perhaps Jason would be the Joker to his Batman but alas that was not to be as the New 52 brought us Dick's return to Nightwing and...

This was a book I have struggled with since its inception.  It's not great, at times parts of it have just been bad (see the Death Of The Family tie-ins), but, for all his flaws, I do think Scott Lobdell has a decent enough handle on Jason Todd (just not his other cast members or logic or his own internal continuity, but the latter two could also be DC editorial).  The book has had its own amazing moments, such as this...

...and has shown a fair bit of promise, enough that I actually referred to it as one of the most improved books of the New 52 at one point and I still stand by that statement.  I am excited to see the road James Tynion IV takes JT and crew down, I have really dug his Talon book thus far as well as his various back-ups and shorts in other Bat-Titles.

So in short, it is safe to say that Jason Todd is one of my favorite characters in comics but just as with every character, he has had his rough patches and needs a caring writer with a vision to handle him.  Judd Winick was that guy and I would love to have him back on a JT book but doubtful that would ever happen. Lobdell seemed to have some grasp on what he was doing, Morrison's take in B&R was very unique and his current "Jason as Wingman" idea in Batman Inc is one I am very intrigued by as well, and time will tell what Tynion has up his sleeve for our middle-child Robin.

With his first appearance apparently being in March of 1983 (Batman #357), Jason is celebrating his 30th anniversary this year.   He has survived being a Grayson-clone, an origin changing Crisis, death, replacement, rebirth, red hair, psychosis, and still he endures.  His tale of redemption is one that endures....