Story: Life & Death
Reviewer: Paul Sebert
Writer: Geoff Johns
Artists: Tony S. Daniel
Colorist: Jeromy Cox
Letterer: Phil Balsman
Editors: Jeanine Schaefer, Eddie Berganza
Publisher: Distinguished Competition
Jason Todd is not happy”¦
Let’s face it you’d be unhappy too if you’ve been dead for a decade.
You’d be even less happy if you were the one character in comics history to quite literally be killed by the fans. Pause, picture yourself in Jason Todd’s shoes. Remember people actually shilled out a buck to call 1-900-DIE-ROBIN? He was murdered by the fans.
And if you were Jason Todd chances are you’d be downright seething with rage when you look at Tim Drake. I mean look at Tim, he’s got everything you never had. He’s got a cool costume, a spiffy motorcycle, friends among the teenagers of the DCU, a spot on the later episodes of Batman The Animated Series and the respect of fans. No one says “Tim Drake isn’t the real Robin.” Doesn’t that make you boil with rage Jason? Doesn’t it just eat you up inside that this punk kid was the first sidekick to get his own spin-off title that’s run well over a hundred issues? That HE started the whole trend of adolescent heroes getting their own books.
Oh and you Jason? What did you get? You got Dick Grayson’s old fishnet speedos, two incompatible origin stories (Pre-Crisis and Post Crisis), and the loathing of fan boys everywhere. You were supposed to provide insight into Batman’s world through a new set of eyes, but no one ever gave you half a chance. Right from the start you were just viewed as an absolute rip-off of Dick Grayson. And just what did Dick do so well before becoming Nightwing anyway? Get bopped on the head by the Penguin? Say “Holy Hand Grenades Batman?” You were the more competent Robin than Dick ever was.
So you try to reinvent yourself. You try so very hard to be cool and rebellious you know “street tough” in that oh so hip 80s way. But the fans just view you as a punk, and before you know it, they’re literally calling for your death.
Then you look at Tim Drake yet again one last time. You never had a chance to live with a normal family with a loving father. You never went to a good school. You never had a cute girlfriend in purple tights.
Tim had all of these things, and lost them all. In the span of six months he managed to screw up everything worse than you ever did.
Doesn’t that just burn you up? Doesn’t that you make you want to put on the ugliest pair of yellow tights imaginable by man and beat him senseless?
Well that’s what the real Jason sets out to do in this issue.
