As has been discussed briefly before, Jason Todd first appeared in 1984 as another circus kid, but in June 1987 that got wiped away completely in the pages of Batman #408.

Unfortunately, I used up a few pages from Batman #408 in this post about how Dick gave up being Robin in this iteration.

So to balance that out, I'm also going to look at #409 and #410, which expand on Jason 2.0's introduction and training, and also looks to maybe highlight how the kid got a bum rap, especially after he died.





As is perhaps well known, Jason 2.0 has perhaps one of the most iconic introductions of any Robin, HE'S the kid who boosted the wheels of the Batmobile!

Batman has just been to see Comissioner Gordon to confirm that whilst Robin isn't literally dead, the costumeed identity is,to all intents and purposes, gone for good. Gordon is relieved, he liked and admired Robin, but never felt right about Batman working with a child (Worth noting AGAIN, that Dick was actually 18 long before the events outlined in this story happened, but let's not brng logic into this situation.)

It's the anniversary of his parents being shot so Batman also visits Crime Alley, where a new home for juvenile delinquents has opened up, being run by a chaacter we'll meet later on, a sweet little old lady known as "Ma" Gunn, whose work and courage Batman strongly admires.

After chatting with her he goes back to the Batmobile and...





Batman trails the kid back to his "home"







I like to think Jason read a LOT of Philip Marlowe.

Struck with inspiration for what to do with this kid, and since she's local, he leaves him with "Ma" Gunn to look after him and make sure that he gets an education.

Of course, this being Gotham, things are never quite that rosy, as Jason soon finds out.





Jason disappears under a dogpile of a half dozon kids all bigger than he is, and still crawls out from under them, punching every which way, but eventually...



Now it has to be said that calling the leader of a group of child thieves "Fay Gunn" is not exactly Hickman-ish in it's subtle complexity, but I do love her unreservedly, in all her little old lady dressing, cigar-chewing, ruthlessness.

The next day Bruce Wayne visits her school with Vicki Vale and some of the Press, and everything is exemplary.





She is NOT happy, however, when one of her students is smoking weed. She has SOME standards... sort of





Jason meanwhile has gone straight back to his old home, and his old habits.





"What young man?" the guy asks, and Batman suddenly finds himself in the same situation as Gordon usually is at the end of their conversations. Jason has vanished like a ghost (have to say, sneaking away from Batman is quite a feat.

So Ma and her boys have gone for a little educational soujurn to the Museum, where "The Smile of Death", the neckalce the joker stole the night he shot and, to the public's eye killed, Robin. The Joker is in Arkham, but his wallet and his goons are outside, and their boss still wants the necklace, so they've hired Ma to do it for them.

It's going versy smoothly and it would have done, if someone hadn't tipped off Batman who, in a nice nod to Bat-history, finds them in a hall which along with the gems is hosting a display of the world's largest paste gems (Giant props are a VERY Gotham thing)

The fight goes well for the most part... but does include this moment...



There's one student left though and he's about to get the drop on Batman (literally), when...



Making puns when punching out bad guys, I wonder what that might foreshadow?



Now this is cute and all, but it flies so far in the face of the starts of the story it seems dlieberately reckless. A trained, experienced 18 year old Dick Grayson can be fired, but as 12 year old street kid can go straight to Robin? But such is life..

And now we move to Batman #410, which suggests that there's been more going on...





And this is where the tendency to make Jason 2.0 the "angsty rebellious kid from the outset Robin" just sort of falls over, look at this happily studious little geek! But there's more to come in that vein.

Jason notes that he's been studying a LOT of criminal files on Gotham's super bad guys, but he's never been given access to Two-Face's files. Bruce covers for himself, saying that it's merely an oversight, but Alfred privately calls Bruce out on this, he appreciates he's trying to shield Jason from learning about Two-Face and how he probably killed Willis Todd, but it's not going to make things any easier when the time comes.



Bruce acknowledges this, and so...



Awww.... :)

and next comes a rather awkward inroduction, for Batman, of not Robin.



No, I don't really think he is Bruce, but whatever gets you through this.

It turns out, of course, that the latest villain to show up in Gotham is Two-Face himself who, along with his two pairs of identical twin henchmen (The Doppler brothers, and the Rorrim brothers, whose names I had to mention because... Oy!)

And again, we see that new Jason is just as quippy and punny as before, if anything he's actualy moreso than Jason 1.0 tended to be, depending on the writer.



That's a VERY Robin takedown.

And when Two-Face take a bystander hostage, it's Jason who decides to weaponise being the Boy Hostage, suggesting the Harvey take HIM instead.



I'll bet you'll NEVER guess what he does next! :)

I'll leave the scans there, but will address again, that apart from the back story changing, Jason 2.0, by the time he was Robin, wasn't what he later became known for, thanks to years of writers retroactively peeing on his reputation from a great height; constantly stressing how unsuited he'd been as Robin, how rebellious and disobedient, and a punk street kid who smoked and made unsubtle innuendo to Barbara. (I mean aside from the cigarette he's seen smoking in his intro, he NEVER smokes again during his time as Robin, any scene which suggests he did is a retcon to make him look more of a punk, or something)

Let me be clear, from the outset Jason Todd 2.0 was a genuinely NICE kid. He was polite to people, he was not only a bookworm at school who got high marks in everything, but worked hard there so he could help organise school events to museums and the like because he enjoyed things like that. He even had a girlfriend (Well, sort of, he asked her out on a date, she said yes

He was no more disobedient than Dick or Jason 1.0 had been, and like them always with the best of intentions.

That shifted a little as he was set up for the death vote, he got moodier, but even then there was always a justification.

He intervened during a solo observation mission when he saw the Scarecrow was far more ready to unleash a new attack than Batman had been aware of, which accidentally left Scarecrow in a coma when he OD'd on his own new super-strong fear toxin, and Jason wasn't particularly perturbed by that, though Batman was.

His major break was shortly before he was killed, when he may, or may not, have pushed a multiple rapist (who Batman and Robin arrested and who then used his one phone call to torment his latest victim to the point she committed suicide, and then claimed diplomatic immunity because his father was an ambassador) and it's very tough to feel he was morally in the wrong if he had.

So that's Jason 2.0 folks. Opinions? Thoughts?