By
Elizabeth Airelle
"That's My Story--And I'm Sticking To It!"
We take a break this month from our outlaws still in space
for a story everyone has been waiting for since the reboot started: Red Hood’s origin. Like most people, his story
starts with his own parents’ story. His mother Catherine Elizabeth was a high schooler
who met the older, charming, troublesome Willis Todd. After a hook-up in an
alley [ahhh romance] she becomes pregnant. Willis was welcomed into her family
home but it did not last very long. Jason grew up to the sounds of his parents
fighting a lot. Jason was often left alone while his father was “working” and
would watch over his mother who now was battling depression and drug addiction.
While Jason seems to feel sorry for and love his mother his
feelings for his father seem much different, more cynical. He would have to put
his drunken father to bed. Spending quality time with dad was working the
corner dealing drugs [the same corner Willis met Catherine]. Jason never seemed
to mind when his father got hurt whether by a batarang [but then Willis bragged
about it] or gunshot wound. Then the day came when his father was arrested. And
that was it, he died in prison. This left Jason the man of the house and he tried
his best to protect his mom by scaring off her dealers. Like many addicts, he couldn’t save her from
herself and found her “dead” in an alley.
Jason then began a life on the street stealing to survive.
While he never hurt anyone others were not as nice to him. He was nearly killed
but was saved by Dr. Leslie Thompkins, who tried to lift his spirits. After he
recovered Jason attempted to steal drugs
from her but was stopped by Batman. Batman was ready to cart the boy off to
juvie hall but Leslie intervened and somehow convinced Batman otherwise. With
that we was whisked off the street to a “friend of a friend” who happened to be
Bruce Wayne
After a moving in Bruce told him the truth about
himself. He had hoped that Jason could
channel that similar loss into something larger than them. From the start as Robin, Jason had doubts
about himself. He spent 6 months training and then would spend every night at
Batman’s side. At first he was great at it. Shortly thereafter, the anger from
his youth would come out and he would get more and more violent with the
criminals.
Jason was then put on monitor duty where he came a across a
photo of his mother who was clearly alive. 3 days later Jason was in the Middle
East reunited with her but immediately it all “went bad” as the Joker was there
and beat him nearly to death with a crowbar and then blew him up. Jason doesn’t
remember what happened between his death and after: he just remembers awaking
in the Lazarus pit.
The story doesn’t end there! The backup tale has the Joker
takes over the narration and he has been in Jason’s life long before his death.
One night Joker was bored and needed something to do, he noticed a young Jason
in the next room whose father was having a gunshot wound treated. Joker decides
he wants to make Jason a “star”. Joker was behind Willis’s arrested, he was
also responsible for Catherine’s overdose which turns out to be not so deadly
after all, just the illusion of death. He also was the one who dropped off a
near death Jason to Dr. Leslie Thompkins and maybe the one who had him attacked
in the first place. Before he knew it he created his own Robin, but shortly
after destroyed him too. Joker feels disappointed after all his hard work Jason
didn’t stay dead. Of which isn’t good For the Outlaws, because next month we
finish up our space odyssey then we head into Death Of The Family!
They said this would be the story that changes everything
and it did. I guess we will start with his mom. There is only one woman now,
Catherine Elizabeth Todd.Gone is Sheila Heywood, his biological mother from A Death
In The Family whom Jason had discovered as a different name on his birth
certificate which led him around the world until he found her. Catherine was
originally Jason’s stepmother Pre-Crisis, a woman we only saw in quick
flashbacks, we knew she was probably a drug addict who’d died of an overdose.
Catherine plays both roles in Jason’s story: mother and destroyer. Catherine
“died” but shows up alive in the Middle East in the Joker’s plan to lure Jason
to his death. Somehow that makes it all that much worse, when you think of the
little boy with the baseball bat, wanting to protect his mother from her
dealers and how she delivered him to a killer with a crowbar.
Some people are having a hard time understanding why Jason
would be so loving and protective to his drug abusing mom? You got to remember
that is his mother, love can be unconditional for a parent-child relationship.
But if we’re really looking at things to adjust to, there is a huge change is
that in the panel where Willis is getting arrested for the last time you can
clearly see a baby bump on Catherine! Was Jason going to be a big brother at
one point? Is he still and we don’t know it?
Next we have his meeting with Batman. I miss the old version
with him stealing the wheels off the batmobile but I get it, times change. Also
the adding of Leslie Thompkins being involved with his becoming Robin and she
clearly has been de-aged in this new 52. I wonder if she is still part of Bruce’s backstory as a
child?The big bombshell is the Joker not only killed Robin but may
have even created him. The Joker is at
best an unreliable narrator but we are to believe he is telling the truth. If
this is the truth this is pretty wild. The Joker controlled his life and his
death. We are all left wondering the details but this has got to be something
that will be explored in Death Of The Family.
Also a minor observation, Roy Harper now seems to have been
an alcoholic rather than a old 52 heroin addict as mentioned on the Who’s who
in the new 52 page.
This issue does raise
questions such as; does Joker know Leslie Thompkins has a connection to Batman?
Why else would he drop Jason off there? If he knows about Jason does he know
about Bruce or the others? Does he simply not care? Who was the person at Jason
grave? What became of Catherine’s pregnancy? Why didn’t Catherine’s parents
take Jason in? Does Batman know of Joker’s involvement? These questions are all
the more reason to keep reading.
Until next time Hoodies !!
You can find Elizabeth chatting with other Hoodies at:
https://www.facebook.com/RedHoodOutlaws
And follow our Twitter feed: @RedHoodOutlaws
