Warning! Spoilers for From the DC Vault: Death in the Family - Robin Lives! #4!The interpersonal relationships of the Bat-Family have always been complicated, but perhaps the messiest of the bunch areRed HoodandNightwing. These characters have a long history together, both as brothers and enemies, and that’s never been clearer than when DC decided to revisit the idea of Red Hood becoming Nightwing’s own personalJoker.
Jason Todd’s heartbreaking alternate-timeline fate is revealed inFrom the DC Vault: Death in the Family - Robin Lives!, which concludes with issue #4 by J.M. DeMatteis, Rick Leonardi, Rico Renzi, and Taylor Esposito. AfterJason Todd succeeds in killing the Joker, it seems like life will finally be turning around for themembers of the Bat-Family. Jason is given the therapy, love, compassion, and support that he needs to move on. But all is not as it seems, even after Jason gets the love he deserves.
Bruce ends up quitting his role as Batman, promising to help Gotham as Bruce Wayne. But that doesn’t mean thatBatmanis leaving Gotham City. Instead of Bruce retiring Batman, Nightwing ends up taking the mantle instead. At first, this seems like a pretty easy switch, especially with the Joker dead. Unfortunately,Jason Todd ends up becoming the second Joker, and it’s not the first time DC has attempted such a switch.
Red Hood Transforms into the Joker - And It’s Not the First Time
Panels fromBatman and Robin#6 by Grant Morrison, Philip Tan, Jonathan Glapion, Pete Pantazis, and Pat Brosseau
While Jason is on fairly good terms with the Bat-Family in the present DC timeline, that wasn’t always the case. When Jason first showed up as Red Hood,he was the antagonist of the story and firmly an anti-hero, but as time went on in the pre-Flashpoint years, he simply became more and more villainous, culminating in Jason becoming a full-on Bat-Family villain. Now and then he’d pop up and cause chaos in Gotham City, but something interesting happened. Because Bruce Wayne was gone from Gotham during this time, the Batman that Jason most often fought against wasn’t Bruce, but his brother Dick Grayson.
Many stories would go out of their way to specifically frame Red Hood as Nightwing’s Joker.
Red Hood and Nightwing fought quite a lot, starting inBattle for the Cowlby Tony S. Daniel, as well as appearing sporadically in Grant Morrison’sBatman and Robin.Many stories from this post-Infinite Crisisera go out of their way to specifically frameRed Hood as Nightwing’s Joker, which was most evident whenDick reached out to Jason, genuinely trying to save him, and Jason responded with a monologue similar to the Joker’sfrom Alan Moore and Brian Bolland’sThe Killing Joke, where Batman offered Joker the same kind of redemption.
The ControversialThree JokersStory Also Suggests That Jason Todd Becomes the Joker
Another example of DC suggesting that Jason could become the Joker was duringThree Jokersby Geoff Johns and Jason Fabok. This story reveals that there’s more than one Joker, andthey have their eyes set on turning Jason into the fourth. Ultimately, they decide that Jason wouldn’t make a good Joker, but the fact they even considered it is just another example of the many times that DC has considered this twisted fate for the former Boy Wonder.
Despite all of these examples of Jason being turned into the Joker, none of them painted him as particularly dangerous. InThree Jokers,he was rejected by the other Jokers. InBatman and Robin, Red Hood’s journey and ideals only paralleled the Joker; he never actually became him, but he filled a similar arch-nemesis role in opposition to Dick Grayson’s Batman. InFrom the DC Vault: Death in the Family - Robin Lives!, however,the darkest and most dangerous version of Jason Todd emerges at the very end of the story as the true Joker to Dick’s Batman.
Jason Todd recently tracked down and battled the Joker in the 12-issue seriesThe Joker: The Man Who Stopped Laughingby Matthew Rosenberg and Carmine Di Giandomenico, which is available now both digitally and in collected editions from DC Comics.
The Joker has always had a secret identity, but it’s never really mattered. Who the Joker once was wouldn’t change anything, and he never actually stops being the Joker. This identity-less status quo isn’t the case for Jason’s version of the Joker.Jason knows who Batman and the Bat-Family are. He knows that Dick Grayson is currently Batman, but no one in the Bat-Family knows that Jason has become the Joker. Even more complicated is the fact thatJason is one of the head doctors at Arkham Asylum, giving him a perfect place to manipulate Batman’s other villains and a true secret identity.
Red Hood Becoming the Joker Is the Worst Possible Scenario for His Character
Jason Todd Will Never Escape Tragedy
The extent of the damage and chaos that Jason causes is unfortunately left up to readers' imaginations, asthe series ends directly after the reveal that Jason has taken on the Joker’s identity. Because Jason knows who the Bat-Family is, and they have no idea that he’s the Joker, he could cause a significant amount of damage in a short amount of time. All readers have is narration stating that the Bat-Family hoped that Jason would make a difference and save lives and that he’d use his skills for good, but the final words of the story admit that these hopes were wrong.
When and how did Jason Todd first return to Gotham and Batman’s life as Red Hood? Find out the answer in one of the best Batman stories of all time,Batman: Under the Red Hoodby Judd Winick and Doug Mahnke, available now both digitally and in collected editions from DC Comics.
It seems that no matter what universe Jason Todd is in, he will never be able to escape the Joker, and it seems like he is destined to become the arch-rival of Nightwing. More than once,Jason has become either an analog to the Joker or just straight-up becomes the Joker,and he’s almost always positioned against Dick Grayson, either as Nightwing or Batman. It’s a tragic fate, and one that Jason can never seem to escape, no matter how things go for him. Even in a story where it seems like he got everything he needed after the Joker’sDeath in the Familyattack, he still ended up a villain.
From Brothers to Enemies and Back Again
It’s a shame that it seems like Jason Todd will never find a happy ending, especially as he’s so deserving of one. After his death at the hands of the Joker,Jason’s character has been almost entirely defined by his hatred and fear of the clown. Jason either ends up being victimized by him, turning into him, or his stories revolve around getting revenge on him. The Joker was the worst thing to ever happen to Jason, as DC now treats it as if it were the only thing to ever happen to him, resulting in Jason being more alone than ever, as he can never truly get close to his family.
Joker Turns Jason Todd into His Own Terrifying Sidekick - I’m All In on This Perfect Theory
Red Hood and the Joker have a complicated history, which is made all the more complicated by DC’s desire to turn Jason into the next Joker.
The entire reason Jason Todd became a villain and took on a Joker-like role to oppose Dick Grayson’s Batman was because he didn’t have the compassion and support that he needed after the trauma he went through. But now, readers know that even if Jason did get that love and compassion, even if he hadn’t been killed by the Joker, it truly doesn’t matter. No matter what, at some point,Nightwingwill always have to faceRed Hoodas a twisted version of his own personalJoker.
From the DC Vault: Death in the Family - Robin Lives!#4is available now from DC Comics!
Red Hood
Jason Todd is a complex figure known for his tumultuous journey as Batman’s second Robin. Initially impulsive and rebellious, he’s resurrected after a tragic death, becoming the vigilante Red Hood. Armed with intense combat skills and a moral ambiguity, he challenges Batman’s methods, navigating a path between heroism and anti-heroism in Gotham’s unforgiving streets.
Nightwing
Nightwing is the superhero moniker taken up by Dick Grayson, upon his aging out of the Robin role and becoming a superhero of his own. Inspired by the original Kryptonian hero of the same name, Grayson has risen to comic book immortality with the identity, earning respect as one of the greatest leaders in the DC Universe.
