Red Hood’s Empowering Story Is Still Misunderstood in Comics
Warning: This article contains discussions of suicide and spoilers for Suicide Squad: Get Joker! #3.
Jason Todd's arc as Red Hood in DC Comics is one of the most dramatic for any character in the Bat-Family. Reclaiming an old alias used by the Joker, Red Hood introduced a level of brutal violence that the Bat-Family had long avoided, initially making him a villain. But as his relationship with Batman mended over the years, Red Hood has become a necessary voice countering the contradictory aspects of Batman's moral code. If there is anyone today that would call Batman out on his shortcomings, it is Jason Todd.
As Batman's second Robin, Jason was famously killed by the Joker in 1988's A Death of the Family storyline by Jim Starlin and Jim Aparo. Jason's death as Robin drastically altered the course of Batman's publication history, and was emblematic of the dark tenor that hung over many comics in the 1980s. His return decades later as the brutal vigilante Red Hood pushed Batman's character to new territory, as Bruce Wayne was forced to reckon with his past failures as a father, mentor, and superhero. Now, as a committed member of the Bat-Family, Red Hood is poised to finally move out from the shadow of his death as Robin, which makes his characterization in Suicide Squad: Get Joker! all the more troubling.
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Despite the fact that A Death in the Family was released almost thirty-five years ago, Jason's death at the hands of the Joker continues to define his character in the eyes of some writers, apparent in the Black Label miniseries, Suicide Squad: Get Joker! The miniseries details a version of Task Force X led by Red Hood as they embark on a
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