3 Common Misconceptions about Jason Todd (The Second Robin & Red Hood) (Patreon)

Hello again, 

Well I'm continuing my trend of Bat-Clan related videos and of being contrarian to what's commonly popular by discussing some common, but very popular misconceptions about Jason's character. 

For reference, I will only be talking about Post Crisis Jason Todd, or Crime Alley Jason, as opposed to the initial acrobat Jason, because while he did have some fun stories, he's not the one whose character deals with this stuff. 

Let's get the ball rolling on Jason Todd, the Second Robin, the founder of the Dead Robin's Society and Red Hood with point 1! 

Jason's death was not his fault. 

Sounds like a weird thing to need to say, but a common trend in DC at the time and for Jason going forward was characters blaming themselves for things done to them, or other characters blaming them for being victims. 

This was especially common for Jason Todd, and while its a rather unpleasant trope in general its downright painful when applied to the fifteen year old, because, for the uninitiated or unfamiliar:  

Jason was in Etheopia, having tracked down his birth mother alongside Bruce. She told a rather compelling sob story about not having wanted to give him up and he was very sympathetic to her. 

He saw the Joker extorting her, but waited until she was alone to offer her an evac. However, she only believed he could help her when he showed he was Robin, so she lied, said Joker had left and led him into the warehouse and when he tried to get away pulled a gun on him. 

He was then beaten half to death and despite everything, still tried to save her life with his broken body, going so far to use himself as a shield. 

It was possibly the most blameless death in comics, but it was quickly reframed as Jason being reckless, arrogant or otherwise disobedient. 

This was mostly done for the following reasons:

1: To avoid Bruce being blamed for... Some reason.
2: To deal with the PR and fan backlash backlash for brutally murdering a fifteen year old in a phone poll that as it turns out was being gamed by some comic store owners who thought Robin dying would sell more. In a comic that only existed cos the writer explicitly hated Jason for not being Dick. 

All in all, pretty distasteful. 

Point 2:

Jason was a good Robin, not even just good, Batman initially described him as 'The Best' to Superman.

He mastered the Robin training in six months, getting the equitant of degrees in computer science, criminology and martial arts. 

He had some good stories as well, one of my favorites is Batman: the Cult, where while Bruce is slowly having his mind warped by drugs after he got captured , Jason's sleuthing through the city, uncovering the Underworlders cult and ultimately getting Bruce out of there and keeping him psychologically together through the ordeal. 

He even tried to save Deacon Blackfire the villain of the piece, while Batman held him back.

Similarly, it was Jason who believed Penguin had reformed and he actually had, but Bruce's intervention ruined his parole and got him sent back to prison. 

Jason also briefly wanted revenge on Two Face for killing his father, but at the end of the mission just felt empathy for him and wanted him to get better.   

He also trounced the Joker in a straight up fight and even saved his life from a rage fueled Batman. 

The only flares of temper we saw that were remotely unusual for Robin or Batman at the time was when women were being viciously beaten, threatened or sexually assaulted. 

This is also not something Batman can claim superiority on, as a week after pulling Jason off an abusive pimp, Gorgon had to take Batman off the wrong suspect cos he also got emotionally involved in the case and was going too far. 

Broadly speaking, the, Jason was reckless, violent and arrogant stuff got retrofitted to his character after his death.

Point 3: 

Jason was smart as hell and I don't say that lightly. 

Even ignoring everything I said about about his qualifications, he did the best out of any Robin when it came to school and was considered a boring, wanna be adult, nerd type by his peers. 

He had a major love of classic literature, to the point where Red Hood could alter Bruce & Alfred to his identity, by sending such a book as a present. 

When he came back from the dead he was able to orchestrate a weapons deal between Penguin and gun buyers despite having no tied to either group and sneak by the Bat Mobile's security to plant a bomb under it. 

I don't particularly like the Jason tried to kill Bruce, thing from Lost Days, (OR one other thing in Lost Days) but I do enjoy smart Jason. 

When he came back to Gotham as Red Hood, he basically played both Bruce and Black Mask like moderately expensive kazoo's. 

He straight up won his first fight with Bruce, who had to go and improve his gear to fight Jason and even then Jason was torn up by dad feels at the time. Even then he only lost cos he intentionally set up a situation to make himself vulnerable to force Bruce to kill the Joker or him.  

There wasn't much of this later, Jason's character quickly devolved into angry guy with pistols, despite the fact he usually used Kris or Gatling guns he set up as traps. 

But there was a Green Arrow Crossover, when in annoyance at Bruce interfering in his work, Jason threw together a plan that separated Batman, GA, and the new Speedy. 

After having check mated local villain Brick, he coached the guy on how to defeat Batman and it was so effective, that if Brick hadn't spent time monologuing he might have killed Bruce. 

Jason easily escaped GA and Speedy was captured. He went on to basically simulate a safe version of what happened t him in Ethiopia while they debated morality and then he blew up her empty school, mostly to make a point before leaving. 

Conclusion: 

Well there you have it, there's honestly a lot more I could probably say, but I don't want to overstay my welcome. 

Sill I might touch on this or a similar topic again in the future, maybe something tied to Stephanie, the fourth Robin as well as they have a weird number of similarities one could almost think it was intentional. 

For now, I'll be signing off, but if you want to help out with my bills or like my work, please consider donating to my Ko-Fi or Patreon, where you can also see scripts, stories and 3D art!