Bizarro Speaks Out on Jason Todd

I love Spoiler and I'm glad she's dead; I hated Jason and I'm glad he's alive.

I was entirely opposed to bringing Jason back to life, particularly as it stinks so much of that most malodorous of all Batman arcs, "Hush" (the ultimate monument to the vacuity of Loeb's writing...until Superman/Batman came along). But then War Games happened, in which, Stephanie Brown a.ka. Spoiler a.k.a Robin, was killed. Just as in a Greek tragedy, Stephanie's own actions, stemming naturally from her character, led inexorably to own destruction. In doing so, she became the ideal Tragic Robin.

That, of course, rendered Jason Todd irrelevant. Before Stephanie's death, Jason's death made him the great casuality in Batman's war. Because he was the only one of Batman's allies to have died, his death overshadowed that fact that he was a jerk and no one liked him.

But Jason's death wasn't tragic, merely horribly unpleasant. It had no irony, no bitter twists, or unintended circumstances. Jason was simply killed by the Joker (uncharacteristically brutally, I might add; I was embarrassed for the Joker). Well, lots of people are killed by the Joker: welcome to the DC Universe, bub.

But, Stephanie's death! There's irony and tragedy!
Batman fires Stephanie because she's overconfidence and doesn't seek the input of others (his own worst faults).
The plan to unite the underworld under Batman unites them against him.
Stephanie makes her own murderer in the king of the Gotham underworld.
The plan, designed to give Batman control of the underworld, results in his losing control of the police (and his own Bat allies).
The plan fails because Batman kept one of his identities secret from Stephanie yet results in his Batman identity being publicly seen on television.
Batman searches desperately for the cause of this attack on his city, not realizing that he caused it (wow, that's straight out of Sophocles!).
In trying to help Batman, Stephanie hurts him terribly.
In trying to replace her boyfriend as Robin, she ensures that he will replace her instead.
In trying prove how worthy she is, Stephanie proves how right Batman was to fire her.

While some of the writing on War Games was muddy, structurally it was a brilliant multi-pronged tragedy (no matter how many fan-boys didn't "get it"). We experienced pain because of the many tragic circumstances, rather than just watching Jason experience pain and get a crowbar all bloody. Then get blown up.

With Stephanie as the Ideal Tragic Dead Sidekick, Dead Jason is immediately superseded as Dead Sidekick and serves no function in the Batman mythos that she doesn't serve better. But Alive Jason becames Former Sidekick Who Crosses the Line. That's a new mythic idea, one that I can't remember ever really seeing in a DC story, one that adds enormously to the Batman mythos (and his personal tragedy). And having Jason adopt the identity (Red Hood) of the man who killed him? Bitter; good work, Judd!

And that is why I really liked Stephanie, and I'm glad she's dead, but I really despised Jason, and I'm glad he's alive.