Bruce Wayne & Jason Todd

Gen Relationship
Relationship:	Bruce Wayne & Jason Todd
Alternative name(s):
Fandom:	Batman, DC Comics, Batman: Arkham Knight
Type:	Parent-child, mentor-protégé, enemies
Canonical?:	Yes
Prevalence:	Very popular
Archives:	Canon v Fanon by oumu-omu (2023)
See also:	Batdad Batman: Under the Hood Batfamily Bruce Wayne & Dick Grayson Dick Grayson & Jason Todd
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

Bruce Wayne & Jason Todd refers to the canon parent-child and/or mentor-student and/or inimical relationship between Bruce Wayne (Batman) and Jason Todd (Robin, Red Hood).

They're a freaking mess, is what they are.

Canon background

• In the tangled web of various the DC Comics franchise canon, Bruce and Jason have a complicated relationship, not only because of their mixed history as partners and enemies, but also because their personal relationship has been hazily defined.
  • According to some canon, Bruce and Jason are expressly referred to as father and son; even then there is inconsistent use of different terms such as "son", "adopted son", "surrogate son", "ward", and "foster kid".
  • According to other canon, Bruce and Jason are more bonded by their crime-fighting partnership as Batman and Robin—and then by the intense feud between Batman and Red Hood—with Bruce commemorating the second Robin as a protégé, soldier, partner, and friend rather than as a son; while Bruce is a mentor and may be something of a parent-like figure, he does not explicitly recognize Jason as his child.

DC Comics

Jason Todd's brutal torture and murder at the hands of the Joker, recreated as an "Are Ya Winning, Son?" meme. This incident and its fallout forever changed Bruce Wayne, Jason Todd, and their relationship.

After a grown-up Dick Grayson left the Robin mantle and Gotham City, Bruce Wayne adopted Jason Todd, who became Batman's sidekick, RObin.

As the American comic book industry trended towards "grim and gritty" comics in the late 1980s (i.e. the Dark Age of Comics), Frank Miller's wildly popular 1986 alternate continuity miniseries The Dark Knight Returns featured a possible future in which Bruce Wayne retired from Batman, having been consumed with depression and alcoholism, in part due to Jason Todd's death.

A couple of years later, Jason was later violently murdered by the Joker in the main DC Comics continuity's 1988 "A Death in the Family" storyline.

Jason Todd's death deeply and permanently affected Bruce Wayne:

[Along with other contemporary stories], "A Death in the Family" pushed the Batman mythos in a darker direction. It portrayed Batman as more violent and emotional following Todd's death, and for the next decade of comic book canon, he was haunted by his failure to save him. Conway felt that the storyline allowed for "the entrance of the real 'Dark Knight', the idea of Batman as the pitiless enforcer of Gotham". When the DC Universe canon was rebooted during DC's 2011 New 52 reboot, the events of "A Death in the Family" were left intact because DC editors deemed it too important.

Jason was resurrected about seventeen real-life years later, returning as the antagonist Red Hood in the 2004-2006 Under the Hood storyline. He was subsequently a viciously evil enemy terrorizing the Batfamily on-and-off for a few years, eventually becoming a helpful yet estranged ally by the time of the New 52 in 2011. Since Jason's reintroduction as the villain Red Hood, his relationship with Bruce during his younger days as Robin has been retroactively depicted as much more strained and distant.

DC Animated Universe (DCAU)

This incarnation of "Tim Drake", the second Robin introduced in The New Batman Adventures (1997), borrows heavily from Jason Todd comics. Like Jason in the original comics, DCAU Tim was a homeless young street thief fending for himself in the absence of his criminal father, who was one of the villain Two-Face's henchmen. After Batman saved Tim from Two-Face and discovered that Tim's father had been killed, Bruce took in Tim as his second Robin sidekick and "surrogate son".

Elements of "A Death in the Family" were incorporated into the animated film Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker (2000), a major factor in Bruce becoming isolated in his older age, in the vein of The Dark Knight Returns. In the possible future of Batman Beyond, Bruce ended his partnership with Robin after Tim was physically and mentally traumatized by the Joker, whom Tim subsequently killed. The trauma prompted Bruce to drive away all his allies, and Tim harbored bitterness toward Bruce for several decades, but the two finally begin to repair the relationship at the end of Return of the Joker.

Over twenty real-life years after TNBA first aired, the Batman: The Adventures Continue (2020) comic introduced a new version of Jason Todd, retconned as Bruce's former ward and the Robin preceding Tim. Jason was revealed to be a bad seed who grew up to become the hateful villain Red Hood, intent on seeking revenge against Batman and Robin, despite Batman's attempts to redeem him.

Batman: Arkham Knight (2015)

The in-game Batcomputer profile corroborates the origin story from the comics: Bruce took Jason in as his ward and sidekick after catching him stealing the Batmobile's tires. Alternatively, the tie-in prequel comic Batman: Arkham Knight — Genesis depicts their first meeting when the 15-year-old contraband-running orphan Jason saves Batman's life from the Joker; after Bruce takes him in, Jason is dismayed to find that he feels treated more like an assistant rather than a son. The second Robin was later trapped and tortured for more than a year in Arkham Asylum by the vengeful Joker, whose manipulations convinced both Batman that his ward was dead, and Jason that he'd been abandoned and replaced. During Jason's meandering years-long quest to get revenge on Batman, he becomes the game's titular antagonist, saves his former partner from the Scarecrow, and ultimately returns as a vigilante protector of Gotham under the name Red Hood, though "forever at odds" with Batman due to the Red Hood's lethal methods.

Other media

• The Dark Knight Returns (1986) and prequel The Dark Knight Returns: The Last Crusade (2016)
• Batman: Under the Red Hood (2010) and Batman: Death in the Family (2020)
• Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) features a memorial case containing a defaced Robin suit in Bruce's base of operations, and Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021) features the Joker mocking the murder of Batman's adopted son. This unnamed Robin has been assumed by fans, and officially stated by Warner Bros. and Suicide Squad (2016) director David Ayer, to have been the late Jason Todd, though Batman v Superman director Zack Snyder apparently intended for Dick Grayson to be this universe's first and only Robin.
• Batman: White Knight (2017)
• Titans (2018)
• Batman Ninja (2018)
• LEGO Batman: Family Matters (2019) - In this family-friendly movie, Batman clashes with the villainous Red Hood, who has kidnapped various members of the Batfamily in anger over Batman appearing not to care that Jason had run away from home many years prior. Batman then reveals that he'd been secretly using a satellite to stalk Jason's whereabouts and well-being on a daily basis, proving that he does care. Red Hood releases the Batfamily and joins them to defeat the final antagonist.
• Batman: Wayne Family Adventures (2021)

Discussions

Trolley dilemma in Gotham by mw-house (22 Sep 2020)

Reception

Bruce & Jason was one of the top 100 relationship tags on Archive Of Our Own for the year 2023.

Who is in the right?

• Who should capitulate to whom?
• Bruce's no-kill rule vs Jason's consequentialist ethics: Who is a better vigilante? Who is a better person? Whose violence achieves the most good?
• Bruce's abusive parenting and Jason's crimes against the family
• Canon discontinuity: Which feats and which failings should be considered canon when discussing the characters? Doylist vs Watsonian?

No reconciliation

While the vast majority of Bruce & Jason transformative fan works center on reconciliation, compromise, and fluff, some fans ardently believe that the characters are both more interesting with irreconcilable differences on personal and moral levels. The discussion mainly focuses on Jason becoming a less complex, less unique character as a Batfamily member compared to being an antagonist or exile, and Batman's vengefulness and uncompromising morality being weakened by any compromise with a killer.

There are enough Batbuddies running around. Batman is more interesting as an uncompromising vigilante who tries to make all murderers face jail time, and Red Hood is more interesting as his tragic enemy. Batman does the work that Gordon can't, and Red Hood does the work that Batman can't.

As much as I enjoy Jason-Bruce’s tragic dynamic, [Jason] needs to move on from that. It should be something in the background, always present, eating away at him. Not the main plot of every comic he is in. Plus, everything we’ve been shown makes their past relationship unlikable. In-universe, there’s no real reason for Jason or Bruce to continue their relationship. It feels forced at this point.

Comments

smh at jason todd’s grudge against batman always being portrayed as being morally gray or just some edgy teenage angst like no if my adoptive father let me get killed by some clown and i came back and found out that that clown wasn’t now a funny ass corpse? ohhhh girl.

Fanon

• The Rule - The core of modern Batman is defined by his unwavering adherence to his no-kill rule. The Red Hood is known to defy Batman's rule in pursuit of his goals. Thus, compromise from one or both of them, or total capitulation, is necessary for the two to reconcile professionally and personally.
  • For the sake of rejoining the Batfamily, fanon Jason usually agrees to abide by certain restrictions when operating as Red Hood. Restrictions may include: only using non-lethal methods to subdue enemies under any and all circumstances; only killing enemies outside of Gotham; or only killing enemies under very limited circumstances such as a life-or-death situation, no matter how heinous their crimes. Maiming might stay on the table. Stories often describe Red Hood restricting himself to non-lethal methods based on his desire to stay on good terms with his family rather than genuinely sharing his family's aversion to killing. Otherwise, the narrative may take a more Kantian position that killing is always wrong, and Jason becomes a morally better person and vigilante by bringing his behavior and method's in line with Batman's.
  • Alternatively and much less often, fanon Bruce is the one to adjust his rules. He might permit Red Hood to use lethal force to some given extent, either out of a personal desire to keep his son from being exiled, or out of a genuine belief that Red Hood has sound judgment in his methods. Sometimes extraordinary circumstances force Bruce himself to choose using lethal force over upholding his personal code.

• Whump - Some works use whump to force a reconciliation. In these works either Bruce or (more commonly) Jason is injured, and the other character may keep vigil at his bedside, or otherwise provide support—thus forcing the estranged characters to reconnect, and discuss their feelings or the events which led to their estrangement.

• The D-Word - Jason referring to Bruce as "Dad" is usually emphasized as a very emotionally significant moment in fan works. Conversely, Jason sometimes gets emotional when Bruce refers to him as his son.
  • Angsty Rebellious "You're not my dad!" moments - In fan fiction, Jason is an angsty, rebellious young man who lashes out at tenderness, rejects Bruce as his father figure, and unfairly assumes that his loving family doesn't want him around. In canon, Bruce is the one who more often denies that Jason his son, while Jason is the one who insists that Bruce is his adoptive father.

• The Memorial Case - Jason often destroys the memorial case containing his old Robin costume, asserting that he's neither a cautionary tale as the bad Robin, nor a symbol of Bruce's guilt, nor simply "a good soldier" and not a son. There do exist works in which Jason has reactions to the memorial case other than violence, such as shock or an understanding of his family's grief—but often if the memorial case appears in a fic with Jason, then that sucker is getting violently smashed or otherwise disassembled.

The glass case itself is actually a pretty touching tribute: a constant reminder of the brave boy who wore the suit and the danger that comes with it, but that inscription… ugh… a good soldier. Newsflash, Bruce: none of your kids were ever ‘good soldiers’ all of them eventually walked away from you / went behind your back. Also: he was your son. You literally adopted him you fucking moron.

• Like He Never Left - Years after his death, Bruce and Alfred have kept Jason's room exactly as he left it. In some rare instances, Jason's room has long-since been packed away, or Jason's room has been destroyed since Wayne Manor was canonically demolished by the Cataclysm.

• DCEU - In stark contrast to the majority of his other incarnations, the DCEU version of Batman is willing to use lethal force to bring down enemy threats; some fans speculate that Jason's death prompted him to change his no-kill rule. Additionally, some speculate that Batman may gravitate to the role of a mentor and even parental figure for his teammates—especially the Flash and Cyborg—due to empty nest syndrome.

Fan works

Fan art

• 

  [1] by inkdandy (2016)

• 

  I Hate You But by Feri-Marife (2016)

• 

  art by tigerinmarch (2022)

• 

  little babby… dorito… by kikipancakes (2023)

• It was time to animated Jason. by potatocat (2013)
• http://tealgeezus.tumblr.com/post/74672405136/you-loved-him-he-knows-that-it-should-be^WBM
• some random things^archive.ph by ranta000 (2015) - Based on Justice League (2011) #19.
• batdad^WBM by ninalinovna
• fancomic by m-alejandrita
• thats his little boy^WBM by weirdplutoprince
• https://doc-anders.tumblr.com/post/658711769900105728^WBM
• Gotta keep a straight face u guys^{Archived from the original} by aylendoesart, based on a post by littleweirdoalien
• misunderstanding by royharpersmom (2022)
• They both love Gotham, and I think they inspire each other to see the city in a new way.^WBM by minnow-doodle-doo (2022)
• overlapping internal monologues by hleamii (2023)

Edits

• Under the Red Hood gifset using quotes from The Goofy Movie^{Archived from the original} by amarits
• Frankentodd^Archived by crisis-on-infinite-batblogs
• Batman's Bad Plan (feat. Solid JJ and Connor McKinley) by KaiserNeko (2022)

Fan fiction

• "Beneficiary"^WBM by sirsparklepants (2023-02-06) - The beneficiaries of the estate of Jason Todd.

• "BATMAN HITS THE RED HOOD WITH HIS BATARANG"^WBM by upswings (2022-03-28) - This is a shitpost reskin hack of Olaf Hits the Dragon with His Sword, by David J. Prokopetz, based loosely on the events of Under the Red Hood, written by Judd Winick. (You are unlikely to get much out of it if you’re not familiar with UtRH; it’s essentially a very bizarre form of fanfiction.) It’s pretty depressing! But if you are familiar with UtRH you probably expected that.

• "A Proper Goodbye"^WBM by ceebmonster (2017-09-11) - The emergence of the Red Hood throws Bruce into disarray, and then Jason pays him a visit.

• "Gotham Is A Mother"^WBM by Kieron_ODuibhir (2014-07-18) - Excerpted tags: Angst, parenting, came back wrong. Or not, Crazy Jason has a point, Classism, Meta, oversized guns, a real mother, Father-Son Relationship, Families of Choice

• "when you were young you used to dream about fires"^WBM by someplacewarm (2020-04-01) - Bruce travels back in time and finds himself in Jason's childhood home. Things aren't easy, but they were never this hard.

• "this gun needs no bullets" by sacrr (2017-02-10) - A true Knight is made, not born.

• "Mint Chocolate Chip"^WBM by LemonadeGarden (2019-05-17) - Summer vacations have been going on just long enough for Jason to start getting bored, when he gets an unexpected visitor. From the future.

• "don't take your guns to town"^WBM by kreestar (2020-11-19) - batman comes home from a night patrolling to find a 10 year old jason todd waiting for him in his kitchen. across gotham, at the same time, red hood is stopped by a 25 year old bruce wayne. Inspired by Batman: Zero Year.

• "Rise Up With The Sun"^WBM by blacklettered AKA greneknyght (2019-06-01) - His son came home on a Wednesday evening, and Bruce did not call for the slaughter of the fattened calf, but it was a close thing.

• "Growing Like A Breeze"^WBM (2022-04-27) by whaleofatime - April 27th isn't anyone's favourite date, but it's somehow worse than usual today, when Bruce gets his car stolen. It's nice of Red Hood to come to his rescue. Nicer even that Jason keeps him company afterwards.

• "through the valley of the shadow"^WBM by Goldmonger (2021-12-19) - They’d really wanted Robin, they told him, in between sucker punches, but the little brat was tough to get alone.

• "a little bit louder now" by mx_chrx99 (2021) - A mission gone awry, too many memories, too much blood, and not enough time. Bruce races to save a son he couldn't save before.

Meta

• Re: "Opinion on Jason Todd/Bruce Wayne relationship as a father-son?"^{Archived from the original} by bat-lings (14 December 2018)
• Bruce loved and loves Jason Part 1 Part 2 and follow-up; Jason and Bruce’s relationship in Pre52 vs. New52; Batman #629 analysis, in which Jason appears as a hallucination; Bruce Wayne’s adopted kids are just as valid as his biological one; Bruce’s knowledge of Jason’s resurrection by comic-commentary et al
• “Be Of Knightly Countenance”: Masculine Violence And Managing Affect In Late Medieval Alliterative Poetry And Batman: Under The Red Hood^{Archived from the original} by Lisa D. Camp (2018)
• Y'all can joke about the Jason Todd memorial duck pond, but I’ll just stay crying about Bruce funding and sponsoring educational programs after his son died as a way to cope with losing him. and Things Bruce Wayne Never Did Again After Jason’s Murder by samiralula01 (2021)
• Every single comic panel I could track down of Bruce and Jason being referred to as father and son by sohotthateveryonedied (2021)

External links

• Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne on Archive of Our Own (AO3)
  • Bruce Wayne is Jason Todd's Parent
    • Bruce Wayne is Jason Todd's Biological Parent
  • Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne Have a Good Relationship
  • Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne Get Along
  • Bruce Wayne Adopts Jason Todd