Context is Important: The Jason Todd Chronicles (Intro)

(I promise at some point this blog will contain things other than my fan-gushing and rambling about Jason in some form or another. I DO have other interests, I swear.)

I’ve written at length about the crafting and marketing of Jason’s character from post-Crisis until his death in 1988, but despite all of my venting and searching for explanations, there’s still a vast majority of people who either choose to accept that Jason had always been a snot-nosed punk or haven’t read his appearances to form an opinion. After seeing many panels of him from his appearances post-Crisis, it’s easy to assume that the soul-crushing hatred had a legitimate reason to exist. But the problem is most of those panels or pages are taken out of context of the larger story that was being told. When you go back and read his appearances in the comics surrounding certain events or decisions, you get a far more complete picture of those events or decisions and the character motivations behind them. As a result, Jason ends up looking a bit more sympathetic as a tragic figure rather than a pain in the ass.

Basically, context is important.

With that in mind, I’m going to spend the next few weeks delving into the full run of Jason’s appearances starting from post-Crisis and ending with his death. This will include just the issues from Batman (#408-#429) for a couple of reasons:

• His controversial character/revamped backstory are told in Batman. All of the “big-name” events he was involved in also happen here, including his death.
• Detective Comics was inconsistent with his characterization and most of his appearances there treat him as Dick 2.0.
• Because of his short-lived tenure (in real world time, he was only around for about two years in his PC form), there aren’t many times where he pops up in other books or stories.
• Tackling more than one book would be too brain-twisting and headache-inducing.

I’ll include analysis when I feel it’s necessary, but for the most part my goal is to provide people with a way to absorb his history without having to go out and purchase twenty different comics. If you find, at the end of this adventure, that you still don’t like him or don’t see why other people do, that’s fine. But I want people to have an informed dislike of him rather than going by the hatchet-job of his characterization between 1988 and 2011 or on the word of some very sour comic readers.

Enjoy the ride.

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