User blog:Hatebunny/Jason Todd, RIP

So, apparently, today is the anniversary of Jason Todd's death.

Personally, I don't have any emotional response with relation to the demise of that character. But, the internet is ABLAZE with mopey tales of woe about the crowbar-beaten, bomb-explodey, body-still-intact-enough-to-be-held-by-batman-in-classic-NOOOOOO!-stancey Jason's death. I should note that he was given a pretty good send-off. His death was especially violent and gritty, considering that he was just an adolescent. And I'll remind you, that death was VOTED UPON. Even though there was admitted voter fraud, it was decided by democratic process that Jason Todd would die.

That's actually pretty great. Denny O'Neil and Jenette Khan gave fans a chance to have input in comic continuity, and that event - A Death in the Family had a significant effect on who Batman became from that point onward. He became pretty whiney for a while, but the positives outweigh the negatives.

One positive outcome was that with the death of that impulsive, risk taking little turd, a gap was opened for the Robin that readers and Batman deserved - Tim Drake. Another positive was that he came back.

While Batman's whininess eventually dwindled to only occasional "JASON! NO!" outbursts, Jason's appearance in Batman: Hush allowed for a whole new level of drama. While readers had grown comfortable with the idea of Jason being dead, his appearance there - even though it was an imposter - created a sense that maybe he would come back, and you had to wonder: how would what happened to him play out when he did?

And then, the we found out in Judd Winick's Batman: Under the Hood. The story was great, and it introduced Jason as a vigilante unafraid to kill or get his hands dirty. And I don't mean that in the same way that we might imagine Batman would become if he crossed the line. This was a natural progression for Jason Todd. He was impulsive, and he never really understood Batman's code of ethics. Without further guidance from Bruce, and after being brutally beaten and then blowed up, Jason would naturally become something of a psychopath.

Now, things have changed a bit. Jason's new history is coming to light, and though all that stuff I just described is supposed to have happened at some point, it doesn't feel like any of what's happening right now follows from it.

We'll see what happens I suppose.

I still think he was a shitty Robin.