Jason Todd

Jason Todd is a DC Comics superhero and antihero created by Gerry Conway and Don Newton. He first appeared in Batman #357 (1983) as the second character to take on the Robin identity.

Originally a circus acrobat like Dick Grayson, Jason was later reimagined post-Crisis as a street orphan from Gotham's Crime Alley whom Batman caught trying to steal the tires off the Batmobile. Bruce Wayne took him in and trained him as Robin, but Jason's aggressive temperament and willingness to use excessive force created tension with Batman's methods.

In the landmark 1988 storyline "A Death in the Family," readers voted via telephone to determine Jason's fate, and the Joker beat him to death with a crowbar. He remained dead for nearly two decades before being resurrected through a combination of Superboy-Prime's reality-altering punch and a Lazarus Pit. He returned as the Red Hood, a violent vigilante willing to use lethal force against criminals.

As Red Hood, Jason occupies a morally gray space in the Batman family, sometimes an ally and sometimes an antagonist, defined by his belief that Batman's no-kill rule allows Gotham's worst criminals to keep hurting people.