Tuesday 2 June 2015

BATMAN'S PRODIGAL SON



He was taken from Batman by Joker and brutally beaten half dead before being blown up (though with his body still intact). Jason Todd was his name and he was the second Robin, Boy Wonder. 

Jason was completely different from his adoptive older brother, Dick Grayson. Unlike Dick, Jason hadn't grown up in the protective and loving embrace of his parents—in fact, he was what we might call a "street rat". He tried to steal the wheels off of the Batmobile before getting caught and subsequently brought under the wings of Batman. Jason wasn't as flexible as Dick, mostly because he hadn't been in the circus but he was just as eager to be Batman's protege. Neither was he as obedient as his older brother. Jason was more willing to take risks and dirty his hands a bit more, no doubt a habit from his old life. 

Shortly after Jason was buried, his body was retrieved by Talia al Ghul, the daughter of Ra's al Ghul, the head of the League of Shadows. He was revived in the Lazarus Pits where Ra's al Ghul bathed now and then to retain his youth. Needless to say, Jason wasn't too thrilled about being woken from the dead and returned a little deranged. He returned to Gotham and became hellbent on seeking revenge on Joker, even taking up the clown's old identity: the Red Hood. 















But that wasn't his only mission. He also started taking the Black Mask's control over the drug trade and reformed it a bit by forbidding the dealers from selling it to children. Of course if they were caught, the consequences were sometimes lethal. His policies in dealing with criminals came into conflict with his Bat Family, who were while happy to see Jason alive (though not really well) weren't so happy about his new tactics. 


After a power struggle between him and his brothers over the cowl, Jason left to join the Outlaws, a group of anti heroes slowly returning to the good side again. A reconciliation between his family has yet to be reached. 

Jason Todd always intrigued me. He's full of contradictions—on one hand, he's stubbornly the black sheep of the family yet he still wants to fit in. His view of the world is much more pessimistic and dark due to many of his traumatic experiences. It's as if he's the embodiment of bad luck; fans had voted for his fate: death. One wonders how his character would've developed had public opinion swayed the other way. 


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