warrior-of-storms

[warrior-of-storms]

Alright, let's do it. Let's talk Death in the Family.

(This is gonna get long, I'm sorry in advance)

DitF picks up pretty much immediately after The Diplomat's Son and Consequences, and that is some important context that I personally missed out on the first time I read DitF. Bruce benches Jason at the beginning of DitF because he believes that Jason is "in no shape emotionally to be on the streets." I think this is a fair conclusion to draw, but I also think Bruce goes about it entirely wrong and also is dead wrong about the reasoning.

See, Bruce thinks that Jason is finally getting hit by grief for his parents and that that is what's messing him up, but personally? I think that's complete and utter nonsense. Bruce is either blind or stupid to be drawing that conclusion (or just. poorly written. Which is definitely an option, and for sure the one I think is actually the case here.) It's been a good three or four years at least since Catherine's death, and only a little less since Jason found out about Willis. I'm not saying that he's completely over them, because of course he's not, but I am going to say that there's a more immediate and dare I say likely explanation for Jason acting off in the beginning of DitF: the Garzonas case.

See, up until the Garzonas case, Jason hadn't really encountered that kind of crime before (on page at least - there's a lot of his Robin years that we just don't get to see). Most of Jason's time as Robin has a fairly light-hearted tone to it, and even the worse cases aren't generally that bad. Brother Blood, for example, was pretty rough, but Jason wasn't involved in the worst of it. Batman: The Cult also was bad, but Jason wasn't the target, and Bruce kept him out of it as much as he could. The Dumpster Slashers trilogy (Batman (1940) #414, 421, & 422) happened shortly before the Garzonas incident, and Jason didn't appear in those at all. All of those, combined with what Jason says about his patrol schedule in NTT #20, indicate to me that Bruce has done his best to shield Jason from this kind of violent and/or sexual crime.

(^ The patrol schedule comment in question)

Now from a Doylist perspective, I think that the Dumpster Slasher issues didn't include Jason simply because Starlin didn't like him and thus didn't want to use him if not absolutely necessary, but if we approach his absence from a Watsonian angle, I think this explanation makes a lot of sense.

Even if Jason wasn't deliberately kept away from rape cases and other sex crimes prior to this, he still has plenty of reason to be rattled by this one. After all, Jason is the one who first found Felipe and Gloria after following a scream on an otherwise normal patrol. Jason is the one who tries to comfort Gloria at the police station after she's given her statement, and later, Jason is the one who finds Gloria after she kills herself.

(Batman (1940) #424)

(Detective Comics #574, Legends #5, New Teen Titans #27? 28? I don't remember, sorry)

Jason doesn't do well with feeling helpless. He doesn't like sitting by idly when he could be doing something to help. This is a well-established trait of his even before Starlin's run, as seen in the panels above. He became Robin to help, and it distresses him when he can't. So of course the complete and utter failure of justice that occurs within The Diplomat's Son doesn't sit right with him. Whether or not he actually killed Felipe Garzonas (I still maintain that he's innocent, but that's not the argument I'm making here), he did get accused of killing him. In short, Jason had a lot to be upset about in this case.

So that's where we start off Death in the Family: Jason, reasonably upset and acting out of character in a way that Bruce and Alfred both notice, and Bruce coming to a (likely) wrong conclusion about why and telling him to take a break from Robin.

[Next]

[warrior-of-storms]

The idea that Talia only helped Jason as a gift to Bruce comes directly from Ra’s al Ghul and it’s just him being a misogynist so the fact that so many people in fandom just uncritically agree with this assessment is kinda crazy

[warrior-of-storms]

Dick gets back from his Titans mission and finds out that Jason died, and not long after hears something like "did you hear Batman locked that dude in a subway tunnel?" and is immediately like "oh no he's losing it"

Dick: And you locked someone in a subway tunnel??

Bruce: 1. it was a sewer maintenance room, 2. I told the cops where he was. eventually. he got himself out anyway, and 3. it seemed like a good idea at the time?

Dick: I get that you're grieving but this is too far

Bruce: what? no, Jason was there

Dick:

Dick: what

Alright, I have to ask... is this about KGBeast?

Hi, I'm Warrior and I'm reading Batman: Year Three and I just need to know if this is about the KGBeast thing, because Dick is saying that that happened after Jason's death, but I know for a fact that it didn't, because Jason helped with that case! Jason was there!

Jason was helping with Gordon with impersonating Ronald Reagan! Jason was in all four Ten Nights of the Beast issues! So that leaves us with two options:

Whoever wrote Batman #439 didn't do their research

Batman locked someone else in the sewers after Jason's death

I think 1 is significantly more likely but 2 is also a valid option

[warrior-of-storms]

Great news! In Batman Annual #13's flashback prologue, Jason gets pants and long sleeves for a winter variant of his suit. The cold little bird is not as cold as he could have been 💜

Jason being a cold little bird: a collection

someone get this kid real pants!!

[warrior-of-storms]

Alright, I have to ask... is this about KGBeast?

Hi, I'm Warrior and I'm reading Batman: Year Three and I just need to know if this is about the KGBeast thing, because Dick is saying that that happened after Jason's death, but I know for a fact that it didn't, because Jason helped with that case! Jason was there!

Jason was helping with Gordon with impersonating Ronald Reagan! Jason was in all four Ten Nights of the Beast issues! So that leaves us with two options:

Whoever wrote Batman #439 didn't do their research

Batman locked someone else in the sewers after Jason's death

I think 1 is significantly more likely but 2 is also a valid option

[warrior-of-storms]

write a new scene → realize it contradicts something from chapter 3 → fix chapter 3 → now chapter 7 makes no sense → cry → repeat

[warrior-of-storms]

Okay the specific panel I'm thinking of is this one

Like?? ain't no way. Jason didn't consider Robin a game. Jason took Robin so seriously. Not that he didn't have fun as Robin, but it was always first and foremost about helping people for him

Jason in his second issue literally wasn't even Robin yet, and was still taking it seriously. He was helping because it had to be done, and he didn't trust that Batman would deal with it.

Jason tried so hard to do the right thing as Robin, and he prioritized doing good over what he wanted. The Teen Titans mission, for example, he wanted to help fight, but he understood that someone had to help Arella, and he was the least experienced against Brother Blood, which meant that the others were needed for the fight more than he was. Instead of protesting this, he volunteers to help Arella, because he understands the importance of it even if it's less glorious or dangerous or fun.

Even in Starlin's run, he takes Robin seriously. The Diplomat's Son is all about Jason taking Robin seriously! He's so upset because Robin isn't enough to fix the problem!

Even if you wanted to claim that Jason treated Robin as a game, that would not, could not be true after TDS. Jason was upset by the events of this story because it mattered. The Diplomat's Son is arguably the most serious and mature case Jason has to handle in his time as Robin, and it rattles him.

For Bruce to ask if Jason is treating this as a game, and for Jason to say yes, is such a betrayal of Jason's character that is just infinitely worse than anything that happens in rest of Starlin's run. That one singular panel is worse in terms of Jason character assassination than any of the other characterization sins that happen to him as Robin.

Quite honestly, I think Death in the Family is worse in terms of Jaybin character assassination than anything else in Starlin's run, and that's saying something.

[warrior-of-storms]

I decided to keep reading, because the reading list I was working off of covers a bunch of important post-DitF comics featuring reactions to Jason's death and such, and man... Batman #430-435 is just depressing.

"Maybe I could stop thinking about Jason. Maybe I could sleep." I just feel bad for him!! He misses his kid 💔 (Batman (1940) #430)

He keeps a picture of Jason with him?? As Batman?? And pulls it out to look at after solving a seven-year-old cold case and reuniting a mother and son?? I feel like giving him a hug, this is just sad :( (Batman (1940) #431)

As for Dick, I read part of this scene a while ago, but it's still just devastating. That was his brother!! That was his baby brother, and Bruce didn't even try to contact Dick to tell him Jason was dead!! They didn't interact on page very much, but I think it's clear just from this reaction that they were close. That was his brother 💔 (The New Titans (1988) #55)

The next issue I read from the list was Batman (1940) #496 and aughhhhh this one was painful. Just. Ow. It's been a few years and Bruce's greatest fear is still Jason's death. It's just a memory instead of a hypothetical now.

"But... Jason... Jason is... dead." Just stab me in the heart, it'll hurt less!! The fact that he beats up the Joker while screaming Jason's name is such a devastating parallel to the way his thoughts at the end of DitF while he climbed up to fight Joker were just Jason's name... augh I will never be okay about them. That was his son! Jason was his son and I'm never going to be okay!

(Detective Comics (1937) #571, Batman (1940) #429)

So yeah, anyway, I'm very normal about all of this 👍

[warrior-of-storms]

Quite honestly, I think Death in the Family is worse in terms of Jaybin character assassination than anything else in Starlin's run, and that's saying something.

[warrior-of-storms]

This makes such a good point actually; for as little of their relationship as we're shown, Dick has an almost surprisingly severe reaction to Jason's death. A much closer relationship is implied than we actually get to see. Still, the little we do get to see is really sweet.

(Batman (1940) #416)

Dick spent a decent chunk of this issue yelling at Bruce about how he has a serious problem (because he does, and Dick is lowkey right to be mad at him, but that's a separate thing) but after that the first thing he does is meet up with Jason, offer to team up on the case they were working, and give Jay his number and old Robin suit. First impressions were less than stellar but once Dick knew what was going on and got the yelling at Bruce out of his system he immediately stepped up and was chill with Jason.

(New Teen Titans vol. 2 (1984) #21)

When Jason teams up with the Titans, he asks them to say hi to Dick for him when he's leaving. Now, granted, Dick has been kinda going through it for A While at this point, but I think this implies that in the year or two between their first meeting and Jason's Titans team-up, he and Dick got to spend some more time together. Enough that Donna would know it was okay to contact Jason for this team, and enough that him asking them to pass his greetings to Dick wouldn't be out of place.

(New Teen Titans vol. 2 (1984) #31)

The next time Jason joins a Titans mission, it's with the direct goal of saving Dick. It's not that long after the first one, a couple weeks at most, and Dick immediately is like "hey Jay if Bruce gets on your case about this, send him my way and I'll deal with him for you :)" which is such an older brother thing to say. They're on a first name basis in front of the Titans, which implies to me that they're close enough that Bruce and/or Jason was willing to let Jason reveal his identity to them. And, I mean, Jason also said his name on the previous mission, so I think there's definitely more of a history there than we get to see.

(Also, not so fun fact: that final panel is the last time any of the Titans see Jason on-panel before his death. Unless something happened that we didn't get to see, that was the last time any of them saw him.)

And then Jason died.

(The New Titans (1984) #55)

That is not the face of someone who was told he lost a distant friend or relative that he only met a handful of times - that's complete shock and devastation. There's desperation in how he goes to the computer to verify whether or not Jason is dead. And when it turns out that Jason is in fact dead, he breaks down.

(The New Titans (1984) #55)

He also expresses guilt about not being there while visiting the grave with Kory, which, I mean, if there's one thing Dick Grayson does well, it's feel guilty about everything forever, but this goes beyond that. If he was distant from Jason, he wouldn't take it as personally that he wasn't there. If he didn't care about Jason, there's no reason to feel guilt over being unable to save him.

(The New Titans (1984) #55)

Then there's this scene which. Ugh. I do not like Bruce in this scene, but my own problems with Bruce Wayne's inconsistent characterization aside, Bruce says "You weren't at the funeral. People asked about you."

First of all, it's 100% Bruce's fault that Dick wasn't at the funeral. I mean, Dick couldn't have made it anyway, he was off-world, but the fact remains that Bruce didn't invite him.

(Batman (1940) #428)

Second, there were all of five people at that funeral, so who was asking after him? Barbara? Jim? The priest? Regardless of who it was, someone knew that Dick and Jason were close enough that it was weird that Dick wasn't there.

And that's not even taking into account anything from later (because I haven't gotten there yet 🙃) like Dick's repeated hallucinations of Jason, or the fact that the mention of Jason is what pushed Dick over the edge to kill the Joker in Joker's Last Laugh, or the photo in Nightwing vol. 2 #63 of Dick & Jason on a ski trip together. They were definitely close before Jason's death, and if the hints dropped in Jason's Titans appearances or Dick's immediate reaction to his death aren't enough proof of that, the long term effects on Dick definitely are.

Jason and Dick’s relationship actually was good enough that, once we account for Jason’s time as Robin being so short in real time and not fleshed out, we can assume they were very close. it actually makes more sense than them not being close, definitely more sense than them being “okay at best”. What bothers me about “okay at best” is that it implies that them having a good relationship was only the outcome we can see if we look at things positively. There’s no option but for them to have been good brothers. That’s not fanon. There is no “worst” in this scenario, because Dick and Jason were always reaching out to each other (well. Dick was always reaching out to Jason. Duck on that “Dick avoided Jason while he was Robin” believers). Jason’s not close to anyone of his other siblings (besides Duke) in canon, but Dick has never been up for debate. Brothers in Blood is…a mess. But it clearly shows that Dick is one person Jason would never want to cut off (with Jason reaching out to Dick this time…in his own fucked up way). That doesn’t come from them having been distant as Robin and Nightwing.

Jason being 11 years old to 15 was squished into a very short run irl. It was almost the same amount of years as in-universe. Compare that to Dick or Tim’s decades as Robin. A lot of stuff with Jason was never given screen time because he was killed off before that could happen. Post-crisis Jason was Robin while Barbara retired and Dick was trying to be someone separate from Batman. It was just Bruce, Jason, and Alfred because that’s what made sense with the story, not because Dick wasn’t close to Jason. If Jason hadn’t been killed, we would’ve seen more of those stories. But we saw enough to know that they weren’t two people who happened to share a guardian. I’d like to remind everyone that Jason’s time on the Titans as Robin is explicitly still canon. That should explain enough. Even post-crisis, when Dick isn’t even told about Robin, he still gives Jason his own costume and number so that they could talk whenever Jason felt like it. “But he never called” We have no clue if he called or not. Jason was barely Robin in real time. There was no time to fit any of that in there while accounting for Dick’s own ongoing stories, and then Starlin just not wanting to write Jason in general. Everything else points to the conclusion that they were close, they were brothers in every sense of the word. You have to be willing to put the pieces together when it comes to Jason’s time as Robin because we have so little of it, even though it’s supposed to span almost 5 years. We are missing a lot. But look at how Dick is personally haunted by Jason’s death. Not like Danny or any other kid’s, but Jason’s specifically. He hallucinates him in his own solo, he’s so shaken that Raven immediately offers to help him with her powers, he brings it up in TLL. All decades before Jason’s resurrected. If you want to believe they didn’t have a close relationship, then you can choose to be wrong, I guess.

Point is: people aren’t compensating for fanon “Dick was a bad brother” bs when they say Dick and Jason had a close relationship as brothers before Jason died; it is literally the best interpretation. “They wish they had been closer” is still the fanon interpretation, actually.

[warrior-of-storms]

As far as I can tell, this is what my Jaybin readthrough has taught me: whoever was writing Detective Comics in the 80s liked Jason Todd as Robin, whoever was writing Batman before Jim Starlin wasn't overly fond of Jason but didn't have anything against him, and Jim Starlin hated him

[warrior-of-storms]

So I want to do a whole thing on Death in the Family now that I'm done with my Jaybin readthrough, but before I get to that I just wanna scream about this because it's so deeply unfair.

This is Jason's funeral. We all remember Jason's funeral, right? How Dick wasn't invited and all that? Right, so, question is, what are Babs and Gordon doing there?

I just finished reading every Jaybin comic in post-Crisis, so I can confidently say that Jason and Barbara never met on-page while he was Robin. I think it's later stated that she was tutoring him or something, but we never see it while he's alive.

Other question, why are there so few attendees? Did Jason really have no friends in school? Not a single one? I know the Titans were off-world, but like?? No one? No one but Bruce, Alfred, and the Gordons (who may or may not have even interacted with Jason outside of costume ever??)

If the issue was protecting Batman's secret identity, which it may well be, then why was there never a memorial service for Robin? He had friends! Jason snuck off without telling Batman on his second Titans mission, but the first one? He had approval on the first one! He got along with Donna and Roy, and Wally & Garth didn't seem to have any problems with him. And on his second mission, he seemed to get along well with Gar and Kory too. And that's not even mentioning Eddie Bloomburg, his pen pal! Did anyone bother to tell Eddie that his friend died? Bruce had to know about the pen pal thing, right? You can't exactly mail letters without an address. But no, no memorial or anything for Jason, the most he got was Dick crashing out for a bit and that annoying kid getting kicked off the Titans for being callous about it.

And it's one thing to take this funeral in isolation, it's sad all on it's own, but the thing that really ticks me off is that I read Judas Contract a couple weeks ago too.

Terra died actively betraying her team, her friends, and she was buried a hero. Terra's betrayal was covered up by the Teen Titans so that her half-brother could retain his untarnished memories of her.

Do you see my problem here?

Jason died trying to save his mother, one of the two people directly responsible for him being in this situation in the first place. Sheila betrayed him, and, I mean, no one knows that aside from Jason and the Joker, but come onnnnnn. Terra dies a traitor and has a beautiful funeral attended by her team and the Outsiders despite it. Jason dies a hero and his brother wasn't informed of it until a good while after the fact. Terra dies a traitor, and it's deliberately hidden from everyone who didn't personally witness her betrayal. Jason dies a hero, and everyone spends the next several years talking about how it was his fault and slandering his character.

[warrior-of-storms]

Jason Todd Was a Theater Kid

It's been a headcanon of mine for a very long time that Jason was a theater kid, specifically in high school, but I never really had evidence aside from just. vibes. (I mean, let's be real, UTRH wouldn't have happened the way it did if he was, say, a jock or something. That's ex-theater kid behavior.)

However, I've been reading through Jason's post-Crisis Robin appearances and now have evidence! It's still not necessarily canon, but it's definitely more solid than "idk he just feels like a theater kid"

Not only does Jason show an interest in working on a play, he has apparently previously helped with the sound board and is willing to help with the lights. Now, that could mean anything, but sounds to me like he wants to be involved in theater but feels like he can't due to the commitment to Robin (Batman Annual #12)

While Jason is shown taking notes on the whole exhibit for an extra credit paper (which, can I just say, nerd), Bruce says "recent interest in costume," which to me implies that Jason found the costuming and historical dress more interesting than the rest of the research for his paper, enough that Bruce took note of it. In addition, Jason is the one who comes up with the idea and then carries out the plan to dress up and act as the ghost to trap Yoshio Tahara (Batman #413)

Obviously, disguise is a common tool in Batman's arsenal, but Jason always preforms his roles with a certain enthusiasm, and he's very convincing. He poses as an adult multiple times despite the fact that he's 12-15 and very short, which is partially thanks to Bruce's impressive disguise resources, but definitely some of the credit has to go to Jason's acting (panel from Detective Comics #573, it wasn't a super effective disguise but he is wearing the hat even though it's not strictly necessary)

I mean, come on, he's making jokes about winning an Academy award after (successfully) pretending to be Two-Face. That's a theater kid. (Detective Comics #581)

Shakespeare quote is less theater kid and more just general nerd stuff but I'll throw it in here anyway. Nerd. (Detective Comics #569)

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk

[warrior-of-storms]

Jason being a cold little bird: a collection

someone get this kid real pants!!

[warrior-of-storms]

i saw this and i had to stop everything because look at this cute little boy that deserved so, so much better (tagging @coolgirl who made the graphic that gave me 5 years of life)

[warrior-of-storms]

Silly little jackets. (Champions panel that the jackets show up in under the break)

[warrior-of-storms]

So. Was anyone going to tell me that Batman: The Cult was pretty good or did I have to figure that out myself because it was on the post-Crisis Jaybin reading list?

No seriously, I think this needs to be made required reading for Jason fans, because the villain, Deacon Blackfire, makes a lot of the same points about permanent solutions and cleaning up the city as Jason does in UTRH. Granted, he takes it significantly farther than Jason does and has an entirely different method and motivation, but the key points are there.

In fact, there are multiple elements of later stories in The Cult. Gotham is declared a lost cause and an evacuation is ordered, much like No Man's Land/Cataclysm. The bridges also get blown, though that one's on Blackfire, not the government.

Idk, it was pretty neat