Overview
- Jason Todd was the second boy to serve as Robin the "boy wonder" sidekick of the Batman, following Richard Grayson's retirement from the role. Jason's heroic career was cut short when he was trapped and murdered by the Joker.
Before Batman
- Willis Todd was a small-time petty criminal, numbers man and car thief that lived in the Park Row district of Gotham City. Having a fling with a medical practitioner named Sheila Haywood, who was performing abortions for teenage girls illegally, he was left with a son named Jason, after one of Sheila's operations resulted in the death of a teen and she was forced to flee the country.
- Later meeting and marrying a young drug addict named Catherine Todd, Willis was eventually caught for his crimes and sent to prison, after which he never returned home despite earning early release after a few years (it is believed that he was murdered after double-crossing Two-Face). This left Catherine as Jason's only remaining guardian.
Becoming Robin
- While still a minor, in order to survive and to feed Catherine's habit, Jason was taught to steal and rip off car parts for money. When Catherine died from a drug overdose, Jason was left alone on the streets, still stealing car parts for cash. This led to a fateful encounter when Jason was discovered by the Batman in an alley; stealing the tires of the Batmobile.
- Taking the child in, Bruce Wayne tried to put Jason in a school for troubled youths but simply could not keep him there due to the school encouraging lawless assault. With that option gone, Bruce took him in as his new ward and began training him to become the new "Robin".
- As Dick Grayson was in the process of becoming Nightwing, Jason was completing his training to become the new Robin. Their paths crossed in Gotham City when Jason was meant to face "the Gauntlet", his final test to become Robin. Coming across Dick, he assumed facing off against his predecessor was the test, and their rivalry was born. Soon, it was realized that the real Gauntlet had gone awry and Alfred, disguised as Two-Face as part of the gauntlet, was being held hostage by Killer Croc. Dick and Jason worked together to get to the warehouse, defeat Killer Croc and free Alfred.
- Nearly the polar opposite of his predecessor, Jason smoked, was rebellious, was cynical and had a mean streak to him that Dick never had. He was an angrier Robin who would sometimes use excessive force on the more vile criminals, becoming more violent and angry as time went on until, in one notorious incident, a serial rapist named Felipe Garzonas dodged the charges for his crimes due to his father's diplomatic immunity. After one of his victims committed suicide, Jason headed for Felipe ahead of Batman, with Batman arriving in time to witness Felipe falling from a building to his death. While Jason claimed that Felipe had gotten spooked and had slipped over the edge, Batman and other members of the Bat family secretly suspected otherwise.
Death
- After discovering Batman's knowledge of the death of his father, Jason became more and more reckless in his actions and began disobeying Batman's direct orders, as well as leaving himself open to being shot on a few occasions. When Batman tells Alfred that he was considering making Jason take some time off, Jason storms off and returns to his old neighborhood.
- While going through some contents, he learns that Catherine was not his biological mother. Finding three names for his possible mother in his Father's address book and looking for them on the Batcomputer, he takes off to go look for his mother in the Middle East. At the same time, the Joker was in the Middle East trying to hijack a nuclear warhead.
- As Jason finds the first name on the list, Israeli secret agent Sharmin Rosin, he helps her disrupt an arms sale orchestrated by the Joker but discovers that she was not his mother. Batman, who was looking for both Jason and the Joker in the Middle East, finds Jason and helps him on his quest. With the next name being "Sandra Wusan" (aka world-renowned assassin Lady Shiva), Batman tracks her to Lebanon where she was training prospective assassins, mercenaries, and terrorists. Eager to finally face the Batman in combat uninterrupted, Shiva knocks Jason unconscious and challenges the hero to a death duel. While initially underestimating her, Batman manages to hold his own long enough for Jason to awaken and attack her from behind, the distraction of which was enough for Batman to promptly knock her unconscious and subdue her for interrogation. When asked if she was Jason’s mother, Shiva sarcastically claims to have littered dozens of babies across the globe. When Batman doses her with sodium pentothal, Shiva claims to have sired no children (although this later turned out to be a lie), confirming that Jason was not her son.
- Left with one last name on the list, Dr Sheila Haywood, Jason and Bruce track her to a refugee camp in Ethiopia where she was working as a doctor and Jason is successfully reunited with his mother.
- However, the Joker had discovered the camp and, learning that Sheila was embezzling funds from her organisation to continue her medical work, the villain blackmails her into giving up several truckloads of medical supplies and replacing them with Joker Toxin. When Jason learns of this, he attempts to find his mother while Batman goes to stop the delivery of the toxin. As Jason reveals to her that he is Robin, Sheila thinks that he was going to reveal her embezzling to the authorities and betrays him to the Joker and his men.
- Viciously beating Jason with numerous objects, most notably with a crowbar, the Joker realises that the Batman would soon be back and that he would be in trouble if the vigilante found out what he had done to his sidekick. Betraying Sheila, as a witness to his assault, to die in a warehouse set to explode, the Joker escapes as Jason, broken and bloodied, regains consciousness long enough to free her from her bonds. Attempting to drag her son with her to safety, Sheila runs out of time when she discovers that the Joker had locked the door behind him.
- Returning just as the bomb erupts, the Batman sifts through the wreckage of the warehouse to find Sheila. Mortally wounded, the doctor tells the hero of Jason's last moments as she died, revealing what the Joker had done and lamenting that Jason, despite his problematic upbringing, was too good a son for her to deserve.
Episode 24 / Episode 25
- The Gotham's Outlaw is an Iconic Battle Suit style set available for heroes and villains. The style is based off of Jason Todd's appearance in the New 52 comic book continuity.
Episode 35: Metal Part I
- The final step to open the Dark Robin's Gift requires the player to complete collection A Simple Machine. The parts of the collection are clues to the location of the crowbar the Joker used to murder Jason Todd. Upon completion, the player's character is rewarded with the Worn Crowbar catalyst by Oracle (if hero) or Calculator (if villain) to open the gift.
Related article links (6)
Dark Robin's Gift · A Simple Machine · Joker · Worn Crowbar · Oracle · CalculatorEpisode 36: Metal Part II
- Metal Pt. II: Batscape: Batman's mind manifests his guilty for Jason's death by showing Joker hitting him with a crowbar during the cutscene inside Park Row Theatre.
Associated Equipment
- Gotham's Outlaw Costume Style
- Dual Pistol Weapon Style
Trivia
- In the comics, Jason Todd was resurrected as one of the consequences of Infinite Crisis and became the villain then anti-hero Red Hood. In the game, Todd has yet to return to life.
- In the episode Metal Part II, the developers recycled the model of Tim Drake as Robin to portrait Jason.
- Jason Todd first appeared in Batman #357 (March 1983), created by Gerry Conway and Don Newton.
- The Joker using a crowbar as his One-Handed weapon style is a reference to Jason's death; in which the Joker famously used a metal crowbar to beat the child hero to near-death before leaving him to die with his mother in an explosion.
- Amongst the events in his pain-filled career, Batman considers the death of Jason Todd as his single greatest failure. He rates it next to the deaths of his parents and his inability to move on or prevent those who are close to him from being consumed in the same obsessive darkness that consumes him.
- While he was briefly a member of the Teen Titans, a memorial statue was not erected for Jason at the Titans Tower following his death. In direct contrast, Batman had a memorial case erected in Jason's memory within the Batcave; positioning it so that it would always be within his eyesight; to remind him of his failure and to serve as a sobering warning to the other members of the Bat Family of the dangers their chosen paths have placed them in.
Gallery
- Joker kills Jason Todd
- ( Metal Pt. II: Batscape)
Related article links (1)
Metal Pt. II: BatscapeExternal links
- Jason Todd Wikipedia
- Jason Todd DC Database