Jason Todd
| Jason Todd | |
|---|---|
 Jason Todd as Red Hood in Red Hood: Outlaw #47 (August 2020). Art by Paolo Pantalena, Arif Prianto, and Troy Peteri. | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance | As Jason Todd: Batman #357 (March 1983) As Robin: Batman #368 (February 1984) As Red Hood: Batman #635 (February 2005) As Wingman: Batman Incorporated (vol. 2) #1 (July 2012) |
| Created by | Gerry Conway (writer) Don Newton (artist) |
| In-story information | |
| Full name | Jason Peter Todd |
| Species | Human |
| Team affiliations | |
| Partnerships | |
| Notable aliases | Robin Red Hood Red Robin Batman Wingman Arkham Knight |
| Abilities |
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Jason Peter Todd is a character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by writer Gerry Conway and artist Don Newton to succeed Dick Grayson as Robin, Batman's partner and sidekick, the character first appeared in Batman #357 (1983). Jason initially had a similar origin story to Dick, being an orphan adopted by Bruce Wayne, Batman's alter ego, after his circus acrobat parents were killed by criminals in Gotham City (Dick's parents were killed by a local mob boss while Jason's were murdered by Killer Croc). Following the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover event and subsequent reboot of the DC Universe, Jason's origin was changed and he was reinterpreted as a street urchin and petty thief whom Batman adopted after catching him attempting to steal the Batmobile's tires; this origin has since become the standard for subsequent iterations of the character.
Following Max Allan Collins's revamping of Jason's origin story in Batman #408–411, the character was written by Jim Starlin, who had him become increasingly aggressive and reckless. This led DC Comics to conduct a telephone poll concerning the 1988 storyline "A Death in the Family" to determine whether the character should die at the hands of Batman's archenemy, the Joker. The poll ended with a narrow majority of votes in favor of killing Jason, resulting in his death. Subsequent stories dealt with Batman's guilt over failing to save him. The character was resurrected in the 2005 "Under the Hood" story arc, which saw him become a murderous supervillain known as the Red Hood. In the current New 52/DC Rebirth continuity, Jason is depicted as an antihero who maintains a tense, albeit partially mended, relationship with Batman and has been accepted as a full member of the Batman family.
Jason has made several appearances as Robin and Red Hood in other forms of media outside of comics, including television series, films, and video games. The 2015 game Batman: Arkham Knight reimagined Jason resurfacing with a new villain identity, the Arkham Knight, after being trapped in Arkham Asylum for years and tortured by the Joker, who conditioned him to despise and turn on his former mentor before assuming the Red Hood identity near the end of the game.
- DC Comics superheroes
- DC Comics supervillains