DC Needs to Do Something About Jason Todd

Jason Todd is the most unfortunate Robin. It’s pretty common to find people who think Dick Grayson is the best Robin. Tim and Damian both have fans who will fight for them. Even Stephanie Brown has a cadre of shooters ready to stan their queen Robni. However, it’s rare you’ll find anyone saying that Jason is their favorite Robin. Jason was so unpopular as Robin that DC Comics had fans vote to see if they would kill him off. Jason lost, readers got “Death in the Family”, and Jason was relegated to the cemetery of heroes no one loved. However, Jason got a second chance at stardom as Red Hood. Red Hood made Jason hot again, with Red Hood going from villain to anti-hero with his solo book and later a team book, leading a group known as the Outlaws. However, Red Hood’s popularity has fallen precipitously. Red Hood is still important to the Batman mythos, but nowadays he feels surplus to requirements.

Jason Todd needs some kind of shot in the arm. DC has been doing a great job of bringing back old characters and making them popular again, and they need to work their magic on Jason Todd. There are several roads they can take to make Red Hood a big deal again, but there’s one in particular that would make Jason popular again. In fact, it’s the same way they made him popular in the mid ’00s — by making him a villain again.

Jason Todd Hasn’t Felt as Vital as He Did When He Was a Villain

DC could try to make Red Hood work as an antihero again, but let’s be real — the same loss of popularity would happen because Red Hood just isn’t that interesting as a hero. Sure, it’s fun to see him get more violent than the rest of the Bat-Family and sass everyone but that gets really, really old fast. However, DC definitely had a star on their hands when they decided to bring Jason back as a villain. Jason Todd as the villainous Red Hood just makes more sense than Jason Todd as the violent, mouthy Bat-Family member Red Hood.

Jason Todd as Robin was fine, but he was basically just Dick Grayson 2.0. It wasn’t until he was just about to die that he started to become the mouthier Robin we know today, and even that is overstated by creators and fans. There’s a reason that fans chose to kill Jason Todd. While some of it was surely fans gleefully picking death because the whole situation was novel, Jason Todd just didn’t have a lot of fans. He wasn’t a popular character, and much like Barry Allen, was more important dead and as a symbol than he was as an actual character. That’s why “Under the Red Hood” — and technically “Hush”, since it was established after the fact that he was involved, even though the Jason Todd who appeared there was Clayface — was such a great story. It brought back Jason Todd as a villainous character, one out for revenge against Joker, Gotham City, and Batman himself.

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It makes sense for Jason Todd to be a traumatized person out for revenge. It makes sense that the would want to kill the Joker and it makes sense for him to blame Batman for it all. Jason Todd now is sort of a boring character; he’s “edgy” and that’s really the extent of who he is as a character as a hero. Him and Damian will bicker, he’ll make fun of Tim, and he’ll sass Dick and Batman. There’s really nowhere new to take the character as a hero, and that’s a big reason why his popularity has fallen so hard. Readers aren’t interested in reading the same violent Red Hood stories where he almost kills but then holds back because he’s a member of the Bat-Family.

For years, Jason Todd was Batman’s biggest failure, which is why it made so much sense for Red Hood to be a villain. Jason is one of the most skilled members of the Bat-Family — after his return, he was trained by Talia al Ghul and the League of Assassins. He’s smart and he knows his way around criminal enterprises, having fought them with Batman and having run his own gang after his return to life. Imagine how awesome it would be if a mysterious new force enters Gotham’s underworld. Batman and the Bat-Family have no idea how to counter them, or even find them for that matter, and eventually Red Hood goes to Batman and tells the Dark Knight that he’s found their secret base, leading Batman to them. They get there and suddenly Batman is hit from behind. Jason stands revealed as the newly villainous Red Hood, with a new Scarlet — his sidekick from when he became a more-Batman like vigilante version of himself during Morrison’s Batman and Robin (which is still the best Red Hood has ever been) — by his side, his hatred of Batman and the other members of the Bat-Family exacerbated by the way they treated him like a second-class member of the group. Suddenly, Red Hood is interesting again.

Jason Todd Makes a Much Better Villain than Hero

Jason Todd as a hero is like the Punisher if he only kneecapped his foes. He’s talks a big time, but that’s it. He’s gotten boring the more “respectful” he’s gotten as a hero. That’s the problem with Jason Todd. He’s just not that interesting of a character if his trauma over his own death doesn’t cause him to hate the world around him and try to get revenge.

If DC wants Jason Todd to be successful again, they need to bring him back to being a villain. The Bat-Family has had things too good for a while now. They need to take a loss, and the most entertaining loss they could take is if Jason Todd decided that his hate and revenge was more important than being the ignored middle child of the Bat-Family. Jason Todd is a mediocre hero, but he’s an excellent villain.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments!