Batman: Under the Red Hood

/ Alex Good

Batman: Under the Red Hood

Batman has always had a Robin problem. He’s never been that popular a character, doesn’t fit well with the Dark Knight’s grim persona, and the relationship between Bruce Wayne and his young ward probably seemed creepy at the time and ever since has become the stuff of comedy sketches. Even Robin’s costume looks campy and ridiculous, with elven slippers and shiny green speedo briefs under a shirt that might be a minidress. Fans even voted to have the Joker kill him off in the 1988 storyline “A Death in the Family.”

That particular iteration of Robin was Jason Todd, who was the second lad to step into the role after the departure of Dick Grayson (who went on to become Nightwing). In this story, however, Jason is back as a new crime-fighting crusader who goes by the name of Red Hood. Even though it’s more of a helmet than a hood. But whatever.

How Jason was resurrected is a tale too complicated for me to relate or, if I’m being honest, understand. Suffice to say that Jason as Red Hood is now taking out Gotham’s crime syndicates, which are being run by Black Mask. This should mean he’s one of the good guys, but his methods are quite brutal, which doesn’t sit well with Batman. It seems that when Jason came back from the dead he brought with him a taste for vengeance and rough justice, whether because of how he died or due to some infection from taking a dip in R’as al Ghul’s Lazarus Pool isn’t clear. So there’s a lot of blood in these comics, and bodies are soon piling up all over the place.

I thought it was a strong story, with good character development and conflict between the two leads. Jason/Red Hood has a grudge to settle with Batman, not for letting the Joker kill him but for not killing the Joker in revenge. And he has a case.

Bruce, I forgive you for not saving me. But why . . . why on God’s earth – ??! Is he still alive!!?? . . . Ignoring what he’s done in the past. Blindly, stupidly, disregarding the entire graveyards he’s filled. The thousands who have suffered . . . the friends he’s crippled . . . I thought . . . I thought killing me – that I’d be the last person you’d ever let him hurt. If it had been you that he beat to a bloody mass. If it had been you that he left in agony. If he had taken you from this world . . . I would have done nothing but search the planet for this pathetic pile of evil, death-worshipping garbage . . . and sent him off to hell.

I think this is a question that a lot of Batman readers have probably asked over the years. But we just have to accept that the man has a code and that’s all there is to it.

The conflict between Bruce and Jason is the main one being explored throughout the series, and it culminates with lots of bone-crunching fisticuffs and blood splatter. There’s also some dark comedy, especially coming from Black Mask and his exasperation with his incompetent underlings. And I got a chuckle out of things like how the Batman symbol is printed on the soles of the Dark Knight’s combat boots.

Most of all, however, I think they finally made something out of Robin. I count myself as a die-hard Robin hater, and I’m not a fan of Nightwing either. Red Hood as the back-from-the-dead vigilante, however, is a character with some edge. There were a lot of improbabilities along the way and parts that I felt didn’t add up, but this was a solid comic all around.

Graphicalex

20 thoughts on “Batman: Under the Red Hood”

  2. “Fans even voted to have the Joker kill him off in the 1988 storyline “A Death in the Family.”
    * finger wag

    Uh, uh, uh, not quite. Fans voted to kill off Jason Todd. Todd just happened to be Robin at that time. Todd was an asshole back then and he’s an asshole now as Red Hood. Unlike you, I hate him 😀

    I talk about that whole “killing the Joker” thing in my review of Red Hood. To summarize, it isn’t up to Batman to do the killing, but the State.

    Batman: Under the Red Hood (Batman/Robin #5) ★★★☆☆

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    • Given how much I dislike Robin, I think pretty much every Robin, I actually enjoyed what he evolved into here. It fit the character too.

      Batman’s not killing anyone at least has consistency while he’s on Earth. I just finished the Off-World comic though and he maintains it in deep space while fighting aliens and where presumably there are very different justice systems in play. It feels like a tougher case to make in that comic!

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      • Yep, Todd was an arrogant jackass and he’s stayed that way in becoming the Red hood. I wish he’d die again, but he’s popular enough that I don’t see that happening unless DC does another massive overhaul.

        Yeah, once you move on to aliens, then it just becomes a mess. and that’s where commie pinko lefty liberal comic artists have a heyday. Making hypotheticals into “real” and “edge cases” the main line 😉

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      • Nah, Jason kills commies. and lefty leanie pinkos too.
        That’s why fans like him so much 😉

        I just checked our spider plant this morning, and guess what I found hiding in it? Yep, a commie pinko lefty liberal. Damn things are worse than ants!

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      • The only plant we have is that one spiderplant. Mrs B has a black thumb, and I don’t care, and that has been the only plant that has survived us both, hahahaha 😀 It’s still going strong and recently we noticed it is sending out a tendril, trying to find another place to send a new one to. That’s getting snipped soon enough.

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