Jason Todd (New Earth)

{{DC Database:Character Template
 * Image                  = Red Hood 0001.jpg
 * Theme                  = Batman
 * RealName               = Jason Peter Todd
 * MainAlias              = Red Hood
 * Aliases                = Robin, Nightwing, Red Robin, Hush, Detective Miles, Batman, Wingman
 * Identity               = Secret
 * Alignment              = Neutral
 * Affiliation            = Batman Family, Batman Incorporated; formerly Teen Titans, Challengers
 * Relatives              = Willis Todd (father) Sheila Haywood (mother) Catherine Todd (step-mother) Bruce Wayne (adoptive father) Damian Wayne (adoptive brother) Dick Grayson (adoptive brother) Timothy Drake (adoptive brother) Cassandra Cain (adoptive sister)
 * Universe               = New Earth
 * BaseOfOperations       = Gotham City


 * Gender                 = Male
 * Height                 = 6'0"
 * Weight                 = 225 lbs.
 * Eyes                   = Blue
 * Hair                   = Black, Red
 * UnusualFeatures        =


 * Citizenship            = American
 * MaritalStatus          = Single
 * Occupation             =
 * Education              =


 * PlaceOfBirth           =
 * Creators               = Gerry Conway; Don Newton
 * First                  = Batman Vol 1 408
 * Last                   =


 * Quotation              = He knew that Jason Todd was not Dick Grayson. It wasn't about skill, or endurance, or even their will to succeed. No. It was that Jason had a "mean streak". Jason was dangerous. And as a father... he was at a loss for what to do.
 * Speaker                = Alfred Pennyworth
 * QuoteSource            = Batman Vol 1 645

Jason Todd is a vigilante anti-hero who has been a member of and antagonist to the Batman Family. Batman originally trained him to be the second Robin, his new side-kick after Dick Grayson became Nightwing. Jason was murdered by the Joker, although he was later resurrected and returned as the second Red Hood.
 * Overview               =


 * HistoryText            =

Origins
Jason Todd was the son of Willis Todd and Sheila Haywood, although his mother was forced to relinquish his custody when Willis married Catherine Todd. Catherine was a drug addict and died from an overdose, while his father had once worked for Two-Face and was murdered by the criminal. Legally an orphan, Jason lived in his father's apartment in a derelict building in Crime Alley, where he turned to crime out of necessity. Jason became highly skilled in stealing tires from vehicles and during one of his usual thefts, he met Batman as he stole the Batmobile's wheels.

Jason was taken by Batman to a school run by Ma Gunn, hoping to reform the young man. However, Jason soon realized Gunn conducted illegal activities with the youngsters at her "school" and he escaped. When Batman located him, Jason informed him about Gunn's crimes and even assisted Batman in capturing her gang, after which Jason was taken in by Batman as the new Robin at the age of 12.

Robin
After six months of training, Jason was ready to go into action as the new Boy Wonder. In his early adventures, Robin assisted Batman against notable criminals like Two-Face, Mime, the Crime Doctor, The KGBeast, Deacon Blackfire and the Dumpster Slasher. While working on this last case, Jason became more aggressive and driven against criminals.

Unlike Batman's first protegee Dick Grayson, Jason was impulsive, reckless, and full of rage. After a first meeting with his predecessor, Jason struck a good enough friendship with Nightwing and during a troubled time for the Titans, Jason is recruited by Donna Troy to help on a mission. Jason becomes frustrated by the situation when Donna expects him to figure out plans and save everyone, like Dick would.

Jason's violent methods against crooks eventually caused the accidental death of a criminal. Jason's attitude got him and Batman in trouble, but he showed no sign of slowing down. Instead, Jason became more reckless until he was forbidden from going out as Robin.

A Death in the Family
Eventually, Jason discovered that his birth mother, who he had thought was dead for years, was possibly alive in the Middle East. Without telling Batman, Jason left Gotham for the Middle East to track his lead. However, by seeming coincidence, Batman and Jason crossed paths anyway as the Bat was following the trail of the Joker, who had recently escaped from Arkham.

Arriving in the Middle East, Jason and Bruce worked together to foil Joker's plan to work with with local terrorists but failed to capture the madman himself. With the conspiracy plot averted, Jason and Bruce worked together to try and find Jason's real mother.

Eventually, the duo located her in Ethiopia. Jason's mother - Shelia Haywood - was working as part of the relief efforts for the refugees. Though the mother and son were happy to be reunited, Jason discovered the truth about her - Sheila had a secret criminal record, which the Joker was using to blackmail her to commit crimes in Ethiopia.

Having followed the Joker and his mother to a warehouse, Jason alerted Batman to their plan. Trying to stop it, Batman focused on catching a truck filled with Joker Venom, leaving Jason alone in the warehouse with the Joker. Without his mentor as backup, Robin sprung into action to save his mother solo, but she double-crossed him, luring Jason into a trap to protect her secret.

Joker took the opportunity to beat Jason senseless with a crowbar. Joker then tied Sheila to a post and planted a bomb in the warehouse, leaving the mother and son to die. Jason recovered consciousness long enough to untie his mother, but they were unable to escape the warehouse in time and the bomb exploded, killing them both.

Batman having realized the danger Jason was in, arrived too late to save them. Dragging Jason's corpse from the wreckage, all he could do was fix the crime scene to protect Jason's secret identity. Later, Bruce made arrangements to have Jason and his mother's bodies returned to Gotham and properly buried.

For years, Jason's death haunted Batman, as he considered this his greatest failure: not properly training Jason in his role as Robin and failing to protect him from the Joker. Nonetheless, he used this experience to not make the same mistakes with the third Robin, Tim Drake.

Resurrection
Jason remained dead for six months, his legacy haunting Batman. However, when the evil-alternate reality Superman known as Superboy-Prime punched reality itself, the timeline stuttered, and Jason was restored to life.

Jason broke out of his coffin but collapsed from exhaustion in the cemetary. He was found there and hospitalized. After spending a year in a coma, Jason awoke but suffered from amnesia. Being released, Jason roamed as a vagrant, unable to remember his life as a vigilante.

Eventually, Jason was recognized by the supervillain Talia al Ghul. Realizing his condition, Talia took Jason in and, for several years, tried to restore him to full health. However, the mental damage from his strange resurrection appeared to be too extensive. From muscle memory, Jason remembered how to fight but could remember nothing else.

Talia's father, Ra's al Ghul, saw Jason as a lost cause and ordered him to be eliminated. In a last ditch effort to save him, Talia restored Jason's health and memory by immersing him in a Lazarus Pit in which her father was also bathing. Due to the magic of the pit, and possibly due to Ra's presence in it, Jason was restored, albeit with a darker personality.

Jason remembered everything, including his death at the hands of the Joker. On Talia's advice, Jason was convinced his death was never avenged and prepared to confront Batman.

Assassin Training
Once Jason arrived in Gotham, after the city's destroyed by an earthquake and subsequently repaired, he enacted a plan to get revenge on Batman.

He created a false arms trafficking of advance military arsenal, knowing that Batman would respond. This provided Jason an opportunity to plant a bomb beneath the Batmobile while Batman was on a stakeout for the arms deal. When Batman entered the car, unaware of the bomb, he was left at the boy's mercy, detonator in hand. However, Todd realized that his former mentor would never know about his resurrection nor that he would be Bruce's killer and abandoned the plan.

Jason then decided to confront and kill Batman directly by traveling across the globe in search of a similar, yet more deadly type of training that Bruce received when he first became Batman. Todd learned the murderous arts from various masters around the globe. Such training includes firearms, poisons and anti-toxins, martial arts, and bomb-making.

At the end of his training, Jason was pitted against the man who taught him to be an assassin, a German man named Egon, who was also engaged in a child sex slave ring. Jason, upon learning of the man's side business, freed a shipment of children and battled his new mentor. Though he was not able to physically best Egon, Jason ultimately defeated him by poisoning an energy drink the man consumed before the fight even started. With Egon dead, Jason burned the compound to the ground. He later remarked to Talia that he did not see this as murder, but rather putting "...down a reptile."

Hush
After a period of time, Jason was discovered and approached by a new villain named Hush to participate in a conspiracy against Batman, one that would exploit Batman's past. Jason accepted.

While Batman attempted to uncover the mystery of Hush, Jason kidnapped the third Robin and took him to the cemetery where he was once buried. When Batman arrived, Jason revealed his identity, surprising his former mentor of his resurrection. However, during the fight, Jason swapped places with Clayface, faking his own involvement and once again putting his death into question.

Following the battle with Hush, Batman began seeing visions of Jason. Though the visions were assumed to have been hallucinations from the Scarecrow's fear gas, Alfred found Jason's mask in the Batmobile as another symbol of his resurrection.

Red Hood
Shortly after Black Mask became the undisputed crime lord of Gotham, Jason Todd reappeared in Gotham City having taken a new alias - the Red Hood. At this point, he took control of the drug dealing racket.

A few days later, Red Hood led Batman and Nightwing to a warehouse where they duo fought the android Amazo. After this, Red Hood called Black Mask and informed him that he stole the Kryptonite shipment from him. Black Mask sent Mr. Freeze to assassination Red Hood, but Batman and Nightwing arrived and joined the fight. In the midst of the battle, Red Hood escaped, leaving the Kryptonite behind, and told them he had gotten what he truly wanted: a "lay of the land."

Shortly afterward, the Red Hood found the Joker and beat him with a crowbar just as the Joker had beaten Jason.

The Red Hood assumed control over several gangs in Gotham City and started a one-man-war against Black Mask's criminal empire. Red Hood briefly teamed up with the former assassin Onyx, but she betrayed him. Before Red Hood could kill Onyx, Batman arrived, and the hero and villain fought, with the latter unaware that the Red Hood was his former protégé back from the grave. By the end of the fight, Red Hood unmasked himself in front of Bruce, finally revealing his resurrection.

Later, Jason broke into Titans Tower to confront Tim Drake, the Robin that replaced him. Wearing an altered version of his own Robin costume, Jason immobilized the other Titans and struck Tim down in the Tower's Hall of Fallen Titans. After a furious battle, Jason finally defeated Tim. Jason then tore the 'R' off of Tim's uniform and left him badly injured in the Tower for the other Titans to find.

A few days later, Jason started attacking Black Mask's illegal rackets again, only this time with a much more relentless approach. Soon, Jason found Black Mask's hideout and used a rocket launcher to destroy the place. This caused Black Mask to join Deathstroke and the Secret Society of Super Villains in order to catch the Hood. The Society sent Captain Nazi, Hyena, and Count Vertigo to eliminate Red Hood, but they were defeated when Batman came to Jason's aid. After the fight, having killed Captain Nazi, Jason criticized Batman's ethics and escaped.

Some time later, Jason held the Joker hostage and lured Batman to Crime Alley, the site of their first meeting. Jason asked his former mentor why he had not killed Joker to avenge his death, but Batman told Jason that he would never cross that line. Jason tried to force Batman to kill either the Joker or Jason, but, at the last moment, Batman threw a batarang that ricocheted back to Jason's shoulder. The Joker took advantage of the situation and detonated some explosives that destroyed the entire building. Everyone survived, but Jason escaped into the night.

One Year Later
While Batman and his teammates went on a hiatus for a year to train, Jason remained in hiding.

However, around the time of their return, Jason resurfaced in New York City as a murderous impostor version of Nightwing. Nightwing confronted Jason, but the latter suggested they become a crimefighting team. Nightwing refused, rebuking Jason's fatal definition of justice. Not long after their conversation, Jason was captured by mobsters and rescued by Nightwing. The two former Robins teamed up afterall, and, once the mission was over, Jason abandoned his Nightwing persona. He left New York City and sent Dick a telegram that assured him that they'd always be family.

Jason returned to being the Red Hood and worked alongside the Green Arrow-villain Brick as part of a gun-running organization in Star City. Jason's true motives, however, were to capture Green Arrow's sidekick Speedy and convince her to become an anti-hero like him. When Mia refused, Jason decided to blow up her high school instead. Though Mia was traumatized by the incident, she continued to work as Green Arrow's sidekick.

Countdown
Jason rescued a woman named Duela Dent, also known as the "Joker's Daughter" from the alternate reality of Earth-3. While pursuing Dent, Jason witnessed a Monitor shoot and kill Duela. The monitor turned its attention to Jason but was stopped in time by a second Monitor. This second Monitor apologized to Jason before disappearing.

Later, at Duela's funeral, Jason hid until he could be alone with Donna Troy. After explaining to her what happened, Jason theorized they might both be on the Monitors' hitlist because they had both been brought back from the dead. The two were then attacked by the Forerunner, an agent of the Monitors. Once again, the apologetic Monitor stepped in and saved the heroes. With the danger averted for the moment, he recruited them on a mission to find Ray Palmer in the Multiverse. During the trip, Jason took it upon himself to name the Monitor "Bob."

On Earth-51, Jason encountered that world's Batman. This version of Batman had begun using lethal force since his Jason died. Jason and the Earth-51 Batman developed a sort of bond, with Jason feeling vindicated over his death. The Batman of that world bestowed a new costume to Jason that he originally planned to gift to his own sidekick, giving Jason the new codename Red Robin.

As Red Robin, Jason went into battle with Earth-51 Batman against Monarch. However, during the battle, Batman was killed by the Ultraman of Earth-3, deeply affecting Jason. In his grief, Jason murdered an alternate version of the Joker who mocked his loss. As Earth-51 neared destruction, Jason and his multiverse-rescue team escaped back to their reality, landing on Apokolips.

Upon returning back to Earth, Jason abandoned the team he had worked with and went back to his usual crime fighting ways as the Red Hood.

Battle for the Cowl
After the apparent death of Batman, Gotham fell into turmoil without its champion. Jason was summoned to the Batcave by Tim Drake, who told him that Bruce had left something similar to a last will for all of them, including Jason. After listening to Bruce's last message for him, Jason left the cave telling Drake that they would see each other soon.

Having realized his oppurtunity, Jason donned his own version of the Batsuit, heavily armed and using the cowl previously owned by Bat-Devil. He fought the expanding crime wave but with extreme brutality, leaving his calling card as notes on his victims that read: "I Am Batman". Jason revealed his new costume to Nightwing and Damian al Ghul after saving them from several Black Mask enforcers.

Nightwing tried to bring Jason down, but the fight stopped when Jason shot Damian and escaped. Jason continued to kill and torture Black Mask's enforcers until his secret base was discovered by Tim Drake and Catwoman. Jason knocked Catwoman unconscious and, after a long fight with Tim, Jason finally stabbed the boy in the chest and left him to die. Catwoman caught up to Jason again for a rematch but was once again beaten unconscious.

Jason returned to his cave, where he prepared Tim's body to surprise Nightwing. However, Tim survived the attack and escaped from Jason, giving Nightwing the opportunity to defeat him. Beaten, Jason let himself fall into a nearby river with the promise of returning once again.

The Red Hood's Vendetta
Following their battle, Dick had won the claim to become the new, official Batman. As a result, Jason set out to become Dick's arch nemesis. Jason reworked his Red Hood identity to be more dramatic and created a new costume, one that was more reminiscent of the one the Joker had used before his transformation. Also, Jason stopped dying his hair black and allowed it to grow its natural color again: red, with a small gray streak left by his previous exposure to a Lazarus Pit. To complete his transformation, Jason picked up his own sidekick - a girl named Scarlet, the daughter of a criminal and a victim of the new criminal Professor Pyg.

With his new partner, Jason resumed his brutal and lethal methods of dealing with criminals, but now there was a twist. Using the media and internet, he exposed his methods to the public and actively marketed them as the way things should be done. Public opinion was actually at least somewhat in his favor, especially after he showed Batman and Robin protecting the Penguin from himself and Scarlet.

Jason was able to keep ahead of Batman and Robin, getting to criminals first and evading their attempts to apprehend him. His successful streak ended, however, when he failed to capture and kill Gabriel Santo. Batman and Robin arrived to Red Hood and Scarlet but were defeated by the villains. The villains then stripped the heroes naked and held them prisoner, planning to reveal their identities to the world over a live-cam.

It was then that Jason and Scarlet were ambushed by an assassin called Eduardo Flamingo. While Batman and Robin escaped from his trap, Jason and Scarlet attempted to combat against Flamingo. However both of them proved inferior to Flamingo's skills, and it was only with the timely arrival of Batman and Robin that they were not killed. Jason used the dynamic duo as cover and proceeded to crush Flamingo with a truck.

In the aftermath of the fight, Damian was critically hurt, Scarlet escaped, and Jason was captured by police. Grayson offered to rehabilitate Todd, but Jason disappointedly refused. Jason admitted he always desired to be what Batman wanted, "but this world...this dirty, twisted, cruel and ugly dung-heap had...other plans for me." As Commissioner Gordon lead Jason away, Todd tauntingly asked Grayson why he hadn't put the original Batman's corpse into a Lazarus Pit to bring him back yet, drawing attention to his own resurrection.

Escape from Arkham
For months, Jason was held in Arkham Asylum for observation. During his captivity, Bruce Wayne returned from the dead and once again became Batman.

Jason filed an appeal to be moved from Arkham Asylum, stating he had passed all the psychological checks, but Bruce visited him and told Jason it was for his own protection.

Despite Batman's opposition, Jason was transferred to a regular Gotham prison and, upon his arrival, the suicide rate spiked among top incarcerated crime figures there. Red Hood had to kill many prisoners in self-defense as they ambushed him for his time as a vigilante. Jason escalated things further by poisoning the cafeteria, killing 82 people and sickening 100 more. Jason was immediately transferred back to Arkham but was broken out of the paddy wagon by a group of mercenaries.

Though the mercenaries assured Jason he was in no danger in their care, Jason broke free from them anyway and fought them all off as Batman and Robin arrived. One of the hired guns revealed a piece of relevant information: their employer had captured Jason's former sidekick Scarlet. Jason, reaching one of his weapons caches and assembling a new costume from the scraps he had, sprung into action with Batman and Robin to rescue Scarlet.

Upon finding and freeing Scarlet, Jason escaped with her using a helicopter. Though Batman and Robin attempted to chase him, Jason revealed that he had planted bombs across Gotham City months ago, forcing the Dynamic Duo to avert their attention to disarm them. Red Hood and Scarlet were reunited and flew off, ready to bring more of their brand of justice to Gotham.


 * Powers                 =
 * Abilities              =
 * : In his training as Robin he has been taught acrobatics. He further practices his abilities as the Red Hood even going so far as to chase the Batman Family around just to test his speed.
 * : Jason has driven a variety of vehicles from cars and boats, to being trained in the Middle East by an ace pilot to fly helicopters.
 * : Having been trained by Batman, Jason has reached the level of "professional athlete".
 * : Having been trained by Batman, Jason has perfect aim when using batarangs and later, firearms. To increase his skill with firearms he went a step further than Batman on his journey around the world to learn from the masters how to kill a target with different types of guns.
 * : Jason has received excellent education and tutoring from Batman, and thus has extensive knowledge of various subjects, which include Science, Mathematics, Forensic Medicine, Geography, History, and Leadership. He has also proven to be a highly efficient criminal strategist and organize as the Red Hood. He also has a GPA of 94.8.
 * : Taught by a world renowned bomb expert in Russia, Jason is able to assemble and defuse a wide variety of conventional explosive devices, from improvised to military grade designs.
 * : Taught by Batman, Jason is fluent in several languages having spoken English, French, German, Italian and various others with Russian being his weakest.
 * Jason has shown some skill as a detective.
 * : Jason Todd is a highly skilled combatant, showing his skill in fighting Nightwing and even Batman. He has defeated Tim Drake at Titans Tower. Jason's fighting style focuses on brutality, strength, and speed; he is shown to have studied over half-a dozen fighting styles and has proven to be a master of Aikido, Capoeira, Karate, Ninjutsu, Savate, Krav Maga, Kickboxing, and Tae Kwon Do. He has received extensive training from Batman, and after his resurrection, had traveled the world, learning every form of martial arts he could, just as Batman did.
 * : Although contradictory to his once childish nature, Jason's learned to survey his targets before attacking and killing them. He spends long hours scouting targets and assuring that they deserve his brand of justice.
 * : Jason has shown to be skilled enough to hold his own against the Green Arrow in a sword fight until he ultimately lost.
 * : Jason is an expert marksman and highly skilled with throwing weapons, such as batarangs and knives.
 * : Jason is highly skilled in the use of many weapons, including firearms and knives.
 * Lip reading: Bruce taught Jason how to read lips when he was 12.
 * Lip reading: Bruce taught Jason how to read lips when he was 12.


 * Strength               =
 * Weaknesses             = * Rage: Jason's most notable weakness is his rage. Batman and numerous others have told him that his rage blinds him in battle to the point of leaving physical and mental weak points open for attacks. Recently, Jason has made steps to putting the past behind him and has become a more disciplined and controlled fighter as a result of recalling his time with the All-Caste.


 * Equipment              =
 * Red Hood Costume: Following his resurrection, Jason took on the Joker's old mantle of the Red Hood. His interpretation however involved denim jeans, biker boots, a t-shirt, and a biker's jacket. He wears two masks, the first being a red-domino mask, fixed in place with spirit gum, and includes a built-in radio transmitter/receiver and Starlite night-vision lenses. His gauntlets and boots each contain eight compartments in which he can store items. His second mask was a metallic red hood, which offered many of the same functions as his mask, thought also added better protection for his face.
 * Robin Costume: After becoming Robin, Todd received Dick Grayson's old Robin costume. It included a fabric tunic, that offered limited protection against bullets and blunt attacks, a yellow cape, green speedos and pixie-boots. The Tunic offered little to no resistance against gunfire. His utility belt carried batarangs, grappling hooks, gas pellets and assorted other bat-related weapons.
 * Red Robin Costume: The costume originally worn by the Jason Todd of Earth-51, and worn towards the end of his stint with the Challengers from Beyond. Similar in some ways to Tim Drake's costume, this costume offered many of the same protections and functions, although it had added glider capability in the cape, and assorted Robin-esque weaponry.
 * Batman Costume: Unlike the conventional Batman costume, Jason's version was far more militaristic, with heavier body armor of gray and black. Rather than the normal cowl design, the pointed ears were made to look more like devil horns, and the lenses glowed red giving him a far more demonic appearance. The mouth of the of the mask was covered with a gas-mask type device. Rather than carrying the normal non-lethal utility belt, Jason's was filled with assorted lethal weaponry.


 * Transportation         =
 * Batmobile
 * Batcycle
 * Weapons                =
 * Gadgets: following his resurrection, Talia al Ghul acquired Kord Industries, giving Jason access to Batman-level weaponry and gadgets.
 * Firearms: Jason often uses his handguns in battle and has shown access to firearms of high-caliber, including RPG's.


 * Notes                  =
 * This version of Jason Todd was adapted by Max Allan Collins and Chris Warner from the original character created by Gerry Conway and Don Newton. Jason Todd would later become Red Hood, an anti-hero adapted from the original Red Hood created by Bill Finger and Bob Kane.

}}
 * Trivia                 =
 * Jason's birthday has been given as August 16 and died on April 27.
 * Jason's favorite meal is pot roast.
 * During his Robin days, Jason Todd was an occasional smoker.
 * Recommended            =
 * Batman: The Killing Joke
 * Batman: A Death in the Family
 * Batman: Under the Hood
 * Teen Titans (Volume 3) #29
 * Nightwing: Brothers in Blood
 * Green Arrow: Road to Jericho
 * Countdown to Final Crisis
 * The Search for Ray Palmer
 * Red Hood: The Lost Days
 * Wikipedia              = Jason Todd
 * DC                     = None
 * Links                  =