My Top Ten Favorite Jason Todd Stories

First off, let me preface this piece by saying that making this list was no easy task for yours truly. Why? Mainly two reasons.

The first reason being that by the time Jim Starlin took over the writing duties on the Batman title in 1987 you could tell he'd rather not have to be writing Batman stories with Robin in them. In fact he made every effort to make the character unlikable. From the constant attitudes, acting out against Batman's orders and the not-so-subtle hints that Jason threw a rapist off a high-rise building to his death, there were already steps in play to throw a monkey wrench in the character's longevity even before the infamous 1-900 call-in for fans to decide whether the Joker ends up killing Robin in the Death In The Family story arc.

The second reason comes down to matter of personal preference. Simply put I'm not the biggest fan in world of Judd Winick. I've never liked his writing although I know many people on Bottalk who love the Marvel title Exiles very much.

What does this have to do with Jason Todd? Well, as it turns out, Winick has written the majority of stories featuring The Red Hood, who turns out to be Jason Todd returned from the grave. So seeing as how I find many Jason Todd stories to have a character that has been purposely crafted to be unlikable as well as his return being handled by a writer that I don't particularly care for, you could understand how crafting a Top Ten Favorite Stories list might prove somewhat difficult.



Now with that out of the way, here they are:

10. Detective Comics #526



"All My Enemies Against Me."

A pre-crisis story by Gerry Conway that features the entry of a red-haired Jason Todd into the Wayne household after Killer "King" Croc feeds his parents to Crocodiles. I don't know about you guys, but I've always thought this was a pretty gruesome and interesting way for Jason's parents to to killed off.

In the post-crisis version they attempted to make Jason Todd less like Dick Grayson the former Robin, by having him be a street urchin whose father was killed working as a hired thug for Two-Face. Here in the pre-crisis version Jason and his parents are circus acrobats and when Batman and Robin get the Todd's involved in getting the dirt on Killer Croc's criminal empire (this was back when Croc was more like Bane and wasn't turned into a big dumb oaf yet), they end up being found out by Croc who has them fed to his pet Crocodiles.

These events remain hidden from Jason until after he first discovers the entrance to the Bat-Cave while staying as a house guest at Wayne Manor. Meanwhile Dick Grayson and Barbera Gordon go out looking for the missing Todd's and to their horror find them murdered. Jason then decides to put on one of Dick's old circus outfits and ends up helping Batman stop Killer Croc for good when his parent's murder has been revealed to him. Seeing the same sorrow and anger in the young boy that reminds him of his own childhood, Bruce Wayne takes the boy in as his own.



9. Detective #561



"Flying Hi"

Written by Doug Moench with dynamic pencils by Gene Colan, this is a lighter tale that involves Jason Todd's first date with a girl named Rina, who was his romantic interest at the time. Also from the pre-crisis era, it's just nice to see a Jason Todd story without a whole bunch of angst that instead features a young man in the throes of new found love.



8. Batman #408-409



"Did Robin Die Tonight?" and "Just Another Kid In Crime Alley"

Max Allan Collins(whose work you may be familiar with from his comic adapted into film, Road to Perdition) wrote this 2 part story which introduces the reader to the post-crisis version of Jason Todd.



Here he is no longer a carbon copy clone of the previous Robin, Dick Grayson. Not a circus acrobat, but instead a wise-cracking street punk, who smokes and has the stones to boost the rims of the Batmobile.



Despite the main story of Ma Gunn and her school for criminal youths being rather ho-hum, future writers always seem to get some good mileage out of the boy who had the brass to rip of the Batman.



7. Detective #560



"The Batman Nobody Knows"

One of the ongoing subplots in the Bat-books by Doug Moench and Gene Colan at the time was how Batman was spending more and more time with a reformed Catwoman as his partner instead of with Jason Todd as the new Robin. Jason was always kind of bratty and jealous when it came to Catwoman stealing time away from him and his adoptive father. It all comes to a head in this issue where even back then in 1985 Batman was manipulating events behind the scenes in order to bring these two together and have them come to some kind of accord. Ultimately they team up and a tender moment is shared between Jason and Catwoman that leads to them having a better understanding between one another in the future.



Batman, you sly dog you, of course you could've just bribed Jason with an Atari 2600 to accept the new woman in your life, but where's the fun in that, right?

6. Superman Annual #11



"For The Man Who Has Everything"

Okay, okay, so this one's sort of a cheat. It's one of the greatest Superman stories ever written by the Watchmen creative team Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.

But that doesn't change the fact that this story is a big deal for Jason Todd. It's his first visit to the Fortress of Solitude as well as his first time ever meeting Wonder Woman.



And to top it all off, not only does Jason save Batman from the MacGuffin that is called the Black Mercy,he also is the guy who ultimately stops the piece's villain Mongul, by turning his own devices against him.



5. Batman #395



"Film Freak!"

Another tale from writer Doug Moench, but this time with pencils by one of my favorite Spectre artists, Tom Mandrake, about the crazy new motion-picture inspired villian in town dubbed Film Freak.

Remember the whole Catwoman spending more time with Batman than Jason subplot? Well this was still in full effect here and so while Batman and Catwoman are off tracking down Film Freak on their own, Jason decides to team up with supporting cast member Lt. Harvey Bullock because he also has a penchant for old movies. It's a lotta fun watching this "Odd Couple" beat Batman and Catwoman to the punch on a few clues in the Film Freak case and the creation of a rather enduring relationship between the kid and Harvey Bullock which sadly post-crisis was abandoned.



4. Batman #426-429



A Jim Starlin penned story with good, classic art by Jim Aparo, this is the aforementioned Death In The Family storyline which resulted in the death of Jason Todd. I've always found it interesting that while Starlin made Jason an annoying little prick the whole time he wrote the book, he had the good sense as a writer to really make you care about Jason's plight to find his Mother in the issues leading up to his eventual demise. From Jason assisting Batman in his fight against master martial artist Lady Shiva, to the brutal beating of Jason Todd with a crowbar by the Joker himself, this Batman story earned it's rightful place in Batman lore. There wasn't an issue that went by after this story that Batman didn't feel the sting of this loss, from Mudpack to Knightfall and ultimately the present day with Jason Todd's return as the Red Hood.



3. Batman #416



"White Gold And Truth"

Another Jim Starlin penned story with good, classic art by Jim Aparo, this story features Jason Todd's first post-crisis run-in with his predecessor now known as Nightwing.(A quick side note: Nightwing Year One totally contradicts the events of this issue, even though I find Batman #416 to be the better story) While Nightwing and Jason have a typical team-up that would end on an upbeat note after an initial face-off, the meat of the story is of course in the confrontation between Nightwing and Batman where he finally gets him to admit the truth behind why there was a new Robin in the first place.



2. New Teen Titans #20



"Past Imperfect"

Jason Todd joins a group of interim Teen Titans formed by Wonder Girl a.k.a. Donna Troy in a story penned by New Teen Titans co-creator Marv Wolfman and pencils by artist Eduardo Barreto.

With the current group currently disbanded, Wonder Girl invites Speedy, the Wally West Flash, Hawk (of Hawk and Dove) and Aqualad along with Jason Todd the new Robin to fill in as the group goes after super-assassin Cheshire. There's a lot of interesting material here, from the self-deprecating one-liners about his own costume.....



.....and his crush on Donna Troy.....



.....which would later be touched on in the DC weekly series Countdown.....



.....as well as the insight that Donna was looking to him to have all the answers because she associates the Robin costume with Dick Grayson rather than himself, plus the only one there with the detective skills to realize that Speedy and the villain they were hunting, Cheshire, had once been an item.

1. Batman #424



"The Diplomat's Son"

Yet another Jim Starlin story in the top slot. Jason discovers that model Gloria Stanson's been raped by one Felipe Garzonas. Jason is sure they have everything they need to put Felipe away for good, but it turns out that Felipe is the son of the Ambassador to Bogatago, and on top of his entourage providing false witness to his innocence, his father's Diplomatic Immunity gets him off the hook.

However Batman and Jason end up busting Felipe due to his drug habit which will lead to his recall back to his own country. But before he leaves America Garzonas calls Gloria once he's been released to rub it in as if nothing of consequence has happened. With no way to contact a now terrified Gloria who is too scared to answer the phone, Jason is too late to stop her from hanging herself. This leads to Jason running off without Batman to confront Garzonas at his hotel room in an angry rage. By the time Batman shows up Garzonas has already fallen to his death, where it is implied that Jason pushed the rapist/murderer to his death.



This story encapsulates Jason's anger issues and need to reject the authority figures in his life, be it Batman or his moral code, a defining moment in the character that plants the seeds for his new found philosophy and turn as the Red Hood in future titles.