History
Batman: Under the Red Hood
Jason Todd was a kid in trouble with the law. Batman found him stealing the tires off the Batmobile. Impressed with the boy and hoping to prevent him from a life of crime, he later took him in to train him to become the next Robin. Jason was eager to be the second Boy Wonder, and on his first assignment helped Batman bring down the Riddler. As years passed, however, Batman noticed Jason displaying excessive force and a darker outlook. Eventually, Ra's Al Ghul hired the Joker to distract Batman and Robin while he toppled the economy in Europe. During the fight, Joker escaped while Batman prevented his henchmen from carrying out the Clown Prince's havoc. Attempting to prove the Joker, Jason pursued the Joker, but eventually found himself overtaken and held captive by the Joker, who beat Jason with a crowbar. Before Batman could get to their location, Joker departed, trapped Jason inside the warehouse, with a bomb the Joker had set up exploding just as the Dark Knight arrived on the scene. Jason perished instantly. With the unnecessary death of Jason weighing on Ra's mind, his guilt drove him to secretly take Jason's corpse, and immerse the body in a Lazarus Pit in order to bring Jason back to life. However, the Pit had affected Jason's mind, and he in his madness overpowered Ra's guards and jumped out escaping. Ra's found no body and thought that the boy was deceased, but felt he had meddled enough.
Years later, Jason returned to Gotham using the past alias of the Joker, the Red Hood, with the main difference being that Joker's Red Hood getup was more of a maitre'd style while Jason's was more of a motorcycle fetish. Jason, bitter at Batman for failing to avenge his murder at the hands of the Joker by killing him, planned to avenge his own murder by confronting his killer, while meanwhile putting an end to Black Mask's criminal empire. Jason took up a more aggressive type of crime fighting as the Red Hood. He managed to interfere with the drug trafficking of Black Mask's operations, eventually letting them continue under the condition that he get a share of the profits and that they don't sell drugs to children, also showcasing a bag full of decapitated heads as a strict warning of what happens if they didn't heed his warning. He also ordered for some criminals to steal an advanced robot from Black Mask called Azalo, and eventually assassinated them when they came close to exposing his existence. Red Hood then lured Batman and Nightwing to the ACE Chemicals Plant and then escaped, although not before cryptically remarking to Batman that it was the site of the Dark Knight's first failure. He later managed to hijack another weapons shipment from Black Mask by disguising himself as one of his henchmen, although he was prevented from escaping by chopper. He then lured Batman and Nightwing to the train station and detonated an explosive, injuring Nightwing in the process. He then departed under the cover of an incoming train via motorcycle, although not before telling Batman that he hasn't lost his touch, while also dropping the name of his true identity: Bruce Wayne, as a hint towards Red Hood's potential identity. He eventually arrives, saving one of his drug dealers while killing one of the dealer's would-be assassins by shooting the molotov cocktail while it was still in his hand, and fought against the Fearsome Hand of Four mercenary group hired to take a hit on Red Hood. However, he later reveals that he had been stalling as he had contacted Batman to aid him in subduing them. After it seemed all of them were defeated and knocked out, Red Hood mentioned he missed working with Batman, but then shoved Batman out of the way when the cycloped assassin fired on them, resulting in Red Hood being held at the assassin's mercy (who planned to blow his head off with his laser beam at point-blank range). However, Red Hood managed to electrocute his would-be assassin directly on his face, resulting in his head exploding. Batman and Red Hood then got into an argument regarding his killing one of the assassins, with Red Hood eventually stating his motives of getting rid of all crime, even resorting to murder since those who are immune to Batman's fear tactics can't be dealt with any other way. Batman then tried to offer to help Red Hood, but Red Hood refused, citing that it was too late and that Batman "already had his chance."
Eventually, he arrives at Black Mask's office with a modified rocket launcher equipped with a laser scope specifically to get Black Mask to notice him before firing at him. This resulted in Black Mask using his connections to release the Joker from Arkham Asylum in a desperate effort to kill the Red Hood. This, however, resulted in the Joker capturing all of Red Hood's drug dealers, as well as imprisoning Black Mask and Ms. Lu with the intention of luring Red Hood to him and torching them. Red Hood arrives, and admits that he was actually behind Joker's release, revealing his prior actions against Black Mask were specifically to get Black Mask desperate enough to release Joker and thus ensure their "reunion." Red Hood then interfered with Batman's attempt at capturing the Joker, and then brought him to an abandoned apartment complex, where he proceeded to dish out revenge to Joker by beating him with a crowbar, just as the Joker had done to him years before, as well as cryptically stating that the reason he and Joker knew one another was because Joker effectively helped create him. He eventually confronted Batman at Crime Alley, the origin place of Batman himself, and fought him in a huge battle, eventually resulting in Red Hood unmasking himself to Batman, although his equipment got destroyed. He and Batman then fought all the way to the apartment complex. He then tells Batman, while bewildered that he thinks Batman believes he's angered because he failed to save him earlier, that he forgives him for not saving him, but then demands, after kicking down the door to Joker's hiding spot, why Batman spared Joker despite not only killing him, but also the pain and misery he has inflicted in general. He then learns that he doesn't because Batman fears that by doing so, he may go beyond any hope of redemption and become no different than the criminals he faces. Jason then attempts to force Batman to either kill the Joker, let Jason kill the Joker, or otherwise shoot Jason. Batman refused, and Jason, trying to force Batman to act, then shoots at him while his back is turned. However, Batman threw a batarang at his gun, resulting in it detonating in his hand and wounding him. Jason then activates a cache of explosions inside the fireplace, and collapses after witnessing Joker try to prevent Batman from disarming the explosives to ensure all three die in the explosion as what Joker wanted, only for Joker to be knocked out by Batman. While the Joker survived the explosion, this time Batman was able to rescue Jason, who disappeared as the Dark Knight emerged from the rubble. Alfred later asked if Bruce wanted Jason's memorial removed from the cave, but the latter decided to keep it, as even in the wake of Jason's return, he had still failed. Bruce then reflected on how delighted Jason was to be Robin, which only added to his tragic guilt.
Powers and Abilities
- Master Martial Artist
- Expert Weapons Master
- Expert Marksman
Behind the Scenes
- Batman: Under the Red Hood was Jason Todd's first media appearance.
- Bruce Timm instructed Judd Winick to include the Death in the Family prologue for viewers unfamiliar with Jason Todd's character.
- The film ignores Superboy Prime punching the walls of reality in Infinite Crisis, and uses the Lazarus Pit as the sole reason for Jason's revival, while in the comics the pit was used to cure brain damage he received during his resurrection. As all of the Crisis' have been retconned following the DCnU, The Film's explanation has been translated into the mainstream comic books.
- The blood sample names for when Jason died and the Red Hood, 00428 and 00635, are references to the issues where he died and when he returned as the Red Hood, respectively.
Gallery
.jpg "Teen Jason (Batman- Under the Red Hood).jpg (34 KB)")
