Todd & Joe Have Issues 08/27/17: Batman #424
There have been nearly a dozen Robins at various times and time lines in Batman’s history. Jason Todd, however, feels like the forgotten Robin. He was the second Robin, after Dick Grayson left to become Nightwing and during a time where the Batman known in the public consciousness was the Tim Burton film version, which did not feature a sidekick.
Jason Todd was doomed for failure and this issue, Batman 424, was the beginning of his demise. Todd started out as a ‘bad boy’ Batman found him trying to steal the hubcaps off the Batmobile. Do cars even have hubcaps anymore? Anyway, Todd never bought into all of Batman’s teachings and methodologies, as evident by this key scene from this issue:
It would be two issues later where the ‘Death in the Family’ storyline would start where, along with a 900 number call in vote, the fans decided if Robin would live or die. With less than 100 votes separating the final result, Jason Todd became a cautionary tale, almost like Bucky was to Captain America for oh so many years.
DC would cast Tim Drake as Robin less than a year later and Todd would stay dead for seven years our time before taking the mantle as sometime ally/sometime adversary, the Red Hood
Any discussion, thoughts, feelings, criticisms of this week’s selection can be placed below in the comments section. As well as suggestions about future choices for one shot issues to add to our list.
Oh pesky diplomatic immunity. Flashed back to the Lethal Weapon movies;) This was right at the edge of my Batman reading. Glad to see some of the older stuff’s starting to get collected, so I can fill in my gaps.