#This list starts with pretty bleak stories and generally gets softer as you move on.

[thecruellestmonth]

Spooky Jason Todd fic recs

Some of the best Jason Todd fics featuring the supernatural and the unsettling, the dark and the dreadful, in the spirit of the Halloween season. Reminder: read warnings and author's notes carefully.

"Six of Swords" by campitor https://archiveofourown.org/works/37046005 - Six of swords: upright, symbolic of a rite of passage, of change and transition; reversed, a symbol of unfinished business. Six vignettes detailing the birth of the Red Hood and the deaths of sons, from UTH to Lost Days.

"The Hollow Man" by sister_wolf https://archiveofourown.org/works/121473 - He didn't even know that it existed until it showed up in Gotham one night, this-- this thing that's wearing Jason's body like a costume. But not his body as it was when he died-- older, no scars, no marks at all. How is that even possible? (Or, the one where Red Hood meets the ghost of his fifteen-year-old self.) This story was written back in 2005, when Under the Hood was the one and only Red Hood Jason storyline, and fans were still speculating about how Jason came back to life and transformed from Robin to Red Hood.

"Bloodstains Won't Make It Matter" by skylarkblue https://archiveofourown.org/works/40999275 - Jason returns to Gotham to find another dead Robin. He steals away with the body and resurrects her, but there begs the question: what will they do? Destroy Gotham. That's what they'll do. It's ALIIIIVE! In which the second Robin resurrects the fourth. This is a story about friendship and tender acts of care, and this is a story about revenge and destruction and being fabulously unhinged. Come for the spooky resurrection horror, stay for the Dead Robins toxic friendship. [dark fic, graphic violence CW, resurrection horror]

"Ghost Story" by InsaneTrollLogic https://archiveofourown.org/works/14624928 It starts with the phantom sound of laughter, glimpses of motion just out of sight, a boy in a tattered Robin suit, and the sneaking suspicion that not all of Jason made it back from the dead. Maybe the real monsters are the family we made along the way... [graphic violence, depressing family dynamics, extreme supernatural harm inflicted on a child]

"No Lazarus" by join_the_conga https://archiveofourown.org/works/11307267 - Jason Todd is the second Robin to Batman. He was savagely beaten and killed by the Joker, and was subsequently replaced by Timothy Drake, the third Robin. Jason comes back from the dead and regains his faculties with the aid of Batman’s enemies abroad. This is a version of that story where Jason has nothing to bring his mind back to his body but Bruce Wayne—and the figment of the Robin that Jason once was. Every detail is unsettling and hostile to human life. Everyone hurts, and everything is awful. [content warning for some medical horror, canon-typical Gothic horror sensationalism about insanity and disfigurement]

"The Daughter of the Water" by chucklesbuckles https://archiveofourown.org/works/46605205 - “To walk the world!” it croons, bright gold spilling over its cheeks, highlighting the springy white curls crowning its head. It bends, cold wet hands cradling Talia’s face, wiping her tears away. It places a soft kiss to her forehead, tucking a loose curl of hair behind her ear, torchlight eyes burning. “Thank you for the body.” Creepy and wet!

"Haunting" by the_authors_exploits https://archiveofourown.org/works/7392994 - It makes a strange juxtaposition, the Batman so dark and frightening, crying over a dead boy behind a dumpster. An alternative scenario in which Jason meets his extremely sweet, extremely creepy Batdad. Obvious horror elements, but somehow the atmosphere is soothing instead of horrifying.

"promises" by sunspikes https://archiveofourown.org/works/40731531 - After a nightmare Jason's on the hunt for tea to soothe his sore throat. It turns out to be with Bruce, and he finds comfort in more than the just the tea. You've heard of hurt/comfort, now get ready for comfort/hurt!

★ "Rise Up With The Sun" by blacklettered https://archiveofourown.org/works/19053271 - His son came home on a Wednesday evening and Bruce did not call for the slaughter of the fattened calf but it was a close thing. A quiet and heartwarming reconciliation between father and son. (Also there’s a bunch of freaky Edgar Allan Poe shit happening in the background because lowkey Jason Todd walks the earth as if living and yet remains irrevocably connected to the forces of death and decay—but that’s not as important. Happy yet creepy ending!) ★

"Sealing the deal" by orphan_account - In which Bruce Wayne is kidnapped and it’s somehow not the most difficult part of anyone’s day. Or, in which Jason Todd is a selkie. One of the few really upbeat stories on this list!

"Down to Dust" by Sparkypants https://archiveofourown.org/works/47407291 - It's not the warehouse that Jason has nightmares about. It's Bruce. Bruce deciding to cremate him instead of bury him. Because if he had, what would Jason be now? An infinite number of pieces, cast into the wind. Smoke hanging in the air and never whole or home again, part of him always missing.

"bird of winter" by knowsphere https://archiveofourown.org/works/4992139 - There is a ghost in the manor. Damian meets a friendly ghost, who has returned in a new form to the world of the living. Based on Batman: Gotham Knights #34. This little story is soft and wintry, like a spoonful of mint ice cream. Damian is a sweetheart, and Jason gets a happy ending. A nice cleanser after reading too much horror.

"oh, just hangin' out" by mikkal https://archiveofourown.org/works/42365103 - Jason doesn't remember agreeing to imitate a dead butterfly, but here he is. | No. 3 A HAIR’S BREADTH FROM DEATH | Impaled - A Whumptober special, featuring gruesome gore and spooky Lazarus Pit side effects. And also an adorable Damian. Happy ending.

"Confessional" by Temeritous https://archiveofourown.org/works/45307363 - The woman grabbed him by the arm and snarled nastily, “A nice boy like you deserves to know what everyone thinks of him.” Then her eyes pulsed from dark brown to bright purple and she disappeared between one blink and the next. There is a witch here, so this story counts for Halloween. [content warning for a random bystander frankly confessing an extreme sexual fantasy while under the effects of a truth spell]

"Ghostgirl and Zomboy" by shauds https://archiveofourown.org/works/16476446 - "You don't make demands of the ghost, asshole, the ghost makes demands of you." He should have known better than to make his big comeback in October. Perfect time to read a mostly upbeat ghost story set during Halloween.

"(No Sense of) Preservation" by crying_jaybird https://archiveofourown.org/works/26959063 - Sometimes, Jason thinks about how if Bruce had made a slightly different choice, he would have been embalmed. [content warnings for trauma including obsessive thinking and death idealization]

"One Foot in the Grave" by samiraxlula https://archiveofourown.org/works/25047856 - Dying can be the birth of something new and awful, to make the worst of the living wish they weren't. But what happens when you steal from the dead? There are forces in this world that are unknowable and unstoppable.

"Osiris" by Sparkypants - The Joker killed him once, but Jason Todd had died over and over again, waiting for Batman to save him. Resurrection or not, Jason's death still haunts the corridors of Wayne Manor. It waits in the shadows, threatening his entire family. Bruce would go to hell and back to his protect children. This time, that may not be enough. Love can transcend everything, even if it can't overcome everything.

"between heaves of storm" by pendulum_north https://archiveofourown.org/works/49817317 - There were unnatural changes happening to him, he has no idea when it started, or how long it's been occurring. The opposite of life is not death, but a state somewhere torn between the two falsely-erected poles.

"suicide is the highest form of self love" by XanthosSamurai https://archiveofourown.org/works/30094071 - Every single night, Jason Todd dies. Every single night, Red Hood kills him.

"Never Come Back" by Wisetypewriter https://archiveofourown.org/works/32436694 - Bruce Wayne wakes up in Arkham Asylum. [RHatO (2016) #25, psychological suspense]

"Mask Of Blood" by Kieron_ODuibhir https://archiveofourown.org/works/20964923 - “Jason!” Batman had shouted, arm desperately outstretched as if to catch what was no longer there. He’d sounded wrenched apart. As though having experience losing this one of his several sons made no difference at all to the shock and pain of it, or even made it worse. Desperate to save his son, Batman consults Gotham's resident occult expert, Jason.

"two headed calf." by feliform https://archiveofourown.org/works/35118601 - Based on the "Two-Headed Calf" poem by Laura Gilpin. The Lazarus Pit heals Jason incorrectly, but at least he gets to die loved by a mother. [body horror, child redeath]

"Satin in a Coffin" by InsaneTrollLogic https://archiveofourown.org/works/24745558/chapters/59825830 - At the behest of several dead Robins, Stephanie Brown kidnaps a Robin. Steph sees dead people; Steph-centric.