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Characters / Batman: Jason Todd

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Batman Main Character Index
Title Character
Batman (Bruce Wayne)
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The Bat-Family (Batgirl | Batwoman | Jason Todd | Robin) | Extended Bat-Family & Other Supporting Cast (Azrael | Huntress)
Villains
Bane | Catwoman (Selina Kyle) | Clayface | Harley Quinn (Harleen Quinzel) | The Joker | Lady Shiva | League of Assassins (Ra's Al Ghul | Talia Al Ghul) | Mr. Freeze | The Penguin | Poison Ivy | The Riddler | The Scarecrow | Two Face | A-F | G-L | M-R | S-Z
Spin-Offs
Batgirl (2000) | Batman Incorporated | Dark Nights: Metal (The Batman Who Laughs) | I Am Batman | Nightwing (Dick Grayson) | The Outsiders | Red Hood and the Outlaws | Robin (1993) (Tim Drake) | Robin (2021) (Damian Wayne)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/enuurdjxeaehz6b.jpg
"Hey, it's going to be hard to learn a great many things about me, but one I'll give you for free...I am no one's son."

Created by: Gerry Conway · Don Newton
First Appearance: 1983, Batman #357
Appearances:
Post-Crisis: Batman | Batman and Robin (2009) | Red Hood: The Lost Days | Batman (Grant Morrison) | Nightwing | Red Robin | Teen Titans | Action Comics | The All New Atom | Batgirl (2009) | Deadman: Dead Again | Green Arrow | Outsiders (2003) | 52
For the Man Who Has Everything | A Death in the Family | A Lonely Place of Dying (flashbacks) | Batman: Hush | Countdown to Final Crisis | Convergence
New 52: Red Hood and the Outlaws | Night of the Owls | Teen Titans | Grayson
DC You: Red Hood/Arsenal | Batman and Robin Eternal
DC Rebirth: Red Hood and the Outlaws Rebirth | Nightwing (Rebirth)
DC Infinite Frontier: Task Force Z | Nightwing (Infinite Frontier)
Dawn of DC: Red Hood The Hill

"I don't wanna learn to be no crook. I just boost what it takes to survive."

Red Hood is the codename of Jason Peter Todd, the second Robin, succeeding Dick Grayson as Batman's sidekick. He was initially little more than a Suspiciously Similar Substitute of Dick, down to the circus orphan background, who came in to replace Dick around the time the latter became Nightwing.

Then Crisis on Infinite Earths happened.

To distinguish him from Dick more strongly, Jason was then retconned as a troubled Street Urchin who first met Batman when the latter caught him stealing the Batmobile's tires (and thought it was Actually Pretty Funny). While he had his fans, the revamped Jason ultimately proved unpopular with readers, primarily because he simply wasn't Dick Grayson, with added fuel resulting from an event that left it ambiguous about whether or not he had killed someone. In Jason Todd's most famous (and controversial) story, readers were allowed to vote by phone to decide whether or not he would survive an event called A Death in the Family. You can probably guess how that turned out. Readers phoned in and, unfortunately, Jason Todd would meet his demise at the hands of none other than The Joker in what is still one of DC Comics' most controversial storylines.

For years Jason's death served as Batman's greatest failure. His uniform was hung in the Batcave in memoriam and served as a black spot on the Caped Crusader's crime-fighting crusade for years to come. Readers were introduced to Jason's successor in Batman #436, Tim Drake, who mostly felt the consequence of Jason's death through Batman's more careful approach and reluctance in taking him on as a partner. But for a long time, Jason Todd was one of the sole exceptions to the Death Is Cheap trope that notoriously plagues superhero comic books.

Then Infinite Crisis happened.

Superboy-Prime punching the walls of reality caused "ripples" to affect the time-stream, righting wrongs and undoing various retcons and events across the larger DCU. Jason Todd awakened in his grave and clawed himself out a changed man. Recovered by Talia al Ghul and given extensive training in assassination and gunplay, Jason adopted the name Red Hood, an alias that once belonged to the man who killed him and went on a one-man crusade against crime in Gotham City. During this, he also challenges the Dark Knight himself, whose Thou Shalt Not Kill code he sees as foolish and useless, while also seeking answers for why his former mentor never avenged him.

With the company-wide New 52 relaunch in 2011, Jason returned in a less antagonistic role within the Batfamily, serving as more of a bad-boy anti-hero. He also partnered with Arsenal and Starfire to form the Outlaws. Following the dissolution of that group, he worked as a mercenary alongside Arsenal in the aptly titled Red Hood/Arsenal. Following the DC Rebirth event, Jason formed a new group of Outlaws starring Bizarro and Artemis.

Not to be confused with the original alias of The Joker before he fell into a vat of chemicals, or that story about the girl who visits her grandmother in the woods.

Jason Todd has appeared in the following media:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime 

    Comic Books 
Main Continuities:
Other Works and Elseworlds:

    Live-Action Television 
  • Titans as Robin, portrayed by Curran Walters.

    Video Games 

    Webcomics 

    Western Animation 

The character exhibits the following tropes:

    A-K 
  • Affectionate Nickname:
    • Roy Harper calls him 'Jaybird', much to his irritation. But gradually accepts it to the point of calling himself that after Roy's death.
    • Bizzaro likes to call him 'Red Him' to compliment Artemis's 'Red Her'.
  • Afraid of Clowns: Depending on the Writer, he is sometimes portrayed as really hating clowns, a consequence of having been beaten to death by The Joker.
  • All Love Is Unrequited: During Batman Eternal, Jason is established as having had a crush on Barbara Gordon while he was Robin, but she viewed him as "not Dick Grayson" so he did nothing about it. It comes up again in the current day, but he doesn't pursue it. In Batman: Three Jokers, Jason kisses her after talking about their shared trauma with the Joker, but she turns him down afterward.
  • Always Someone Better: He feels this way towards Dick Grayson, the first Robin, and the guy who set the bar so high. Not so much in regards to the physical requirements of being Robin, but specifically in his deductive skills.
  • Amazon Chaser:
    • Averted by Isabella, a stewardess working for an airline that he sees infrequently. She's just a regular person, not affiliated with any crime-fighting. However, that isn't to say that she doesn't have her Badass Normal moments.
    • A more literal example than most cases is Artemis, his love interest for the latter half of Red Hood & the Outlaws was a literal Amazon who towered over him.
  • An Arm and a Leg: He apparently loses an eye and one leg in the Bad Future as shown in Batwoman (Rebirth) and Detective Comics (Rebirth).
  • Antagonistic Offspring: His relationship with Bruce has strong shades of this, in addition to the obvious A Pupil of Mine Until He Turned to Evil. In Convergence, both forgive each other.
    • From the New 52 onwards, Depending on the Writer, sometimes Jason is a willing and useful ally to Bruce, while others he only gets involved to be a nuisance to Bruce.
  • Anti-Hero: Jason has gone through the whole gamut of Anti-Hero categories through his publication story. He started as an outright Villain in his first appearance as the Red Hood before growing into a Classical Anti-Hero in subsequent stories, regressing into a Villain during Battle for The Cowl, becoming Unscrupulous Hero at the start of the New 52, and growing into a Pragmatic Hero through its duration and into Rebirth. This take seems to have stuck for Infinite Frontier.
  • Anti-Hero Substitute: Tried to become one for Bruce during Battle for the Cowl. Dick was not amused.
  • Anti-Villain: In his first appearance after his resurrection. Later appearances make him a rather crazed and unsympathetic Nominal Hero before he slipped into straight villainy during Battle for the Cowl. However, in Convergence and the N52 onwards, he's closer to a Good Is Not Nice hero.
  • Arch-Enemy:
    • Tried to be one for Dick during the time that he was Batman. It didn't go so well.
    • As the last member of the All-Caste, a sacred order of Warrior Monks dedicated to stopping them, the Untitled as a whole are this to him.
    • When it comes to more long-lasting villains, Jason tends to find an arch-enemy in The Joker and, to a lesser extent, Black Mask.
  • Axe-Crazy: Comes off this way in Battle for the Cowl and Batman & Robin. He claims that while he is homicidal he's not crazy.
  • Badass Biker: Most of his outfits consist of leather jackets and helmets, and he has been shown multiple times to ride motorcycles.
    Joker: When I wore that number, it was classy. More flashy maitre d' than motorcycle fetish. Oh, these kids today...
  • Badass Bookworm:
    • A necessity for anyone who wants to work with the World's Greatest Detective, but Jason is shown on multiple occasions and different continuities to have a deep love of reading and literature.
    • In the Batman: Arkham Knight tie-in comic, his room is lined wall-to-wall with books.
  • Badass Normal: He doesn't have a superpower to his name but he was trained by Batman himself, so you better believe he's a massively skilled fighter and detective.
  • Bad Butt:
    • After returning to the fold as a permanent member of the Bat-Family, Jason can veer into this. As it turns out, this Gun Nut Vigilante Man uses nonlethal rounds, uses swords that can only hurt a very specific kind of demon, reads Pride and Prejudice, and goes into bars to order milk.
    • While most of the Bat-Family have shades of this trait, it's especially notable because of how hard he averted this trope in first post-resurrection stories, back when he was a straight villain. He entered the Gotham underworld by cutting off the heads of all of their lieutenants, stuffing them in a duffel bag, and announcing that he was in charge from then on.
  • Bad Guy Bar: Regularly hangs out in these places to gather information. Tries to get Tim to one in Batman and Robin Eternal, which he manages to do.
  • Bad Liar: This changes depending on the writer, sometimes he's a great liar while in other appearances he is generally bad at it.
    • To avoid scaring his date with his baggage he told her he owned a Dry Clean business. His date thought that it was the most boring date ever.
    • Subverted during his period as the owner of the Iceberg Lounge where he manages to keep hidden his activities as Red Hood from everyone, including the aforementioned date.
  • Band of Brothers: In Post-Flashpoint with Roy, in Rebirth with the other Robins. He and Roy are still in touch as of Dawn of DC, as he provided leads to Roy as well as Dinah and Connor for a case in involving gun runners operating out of Gotham, where Roy, Dinah, and Connor find Lian as Cheshire Cat. It has yet to be confirmed whether or not Jason knew Lian would be there.
  • Be Careful What You Wish For: The Under the Hood arc where he came back as the Red Hood had the main driving point being that he resented Batman for never killing the Joker in retribution for his death at the Joker's hands. Jason would later get his wish in the worst way possible during the events of Countdown to Final Crisis, where he encounters a Batman from a world where the Dark Knight did avenge Jason by killing the Joker, only to escalate towards wiping out all the other supervillains as well as his fellow heroes once they showed disapproval towards his methods.
  • Befriending the Enemy:
    • Throughout his adventures Jason has tried to offer a chance at redemption to his foes (especially when the Joker is involved in their backstory). This comes to a head-on Red Hood/Arsenal where he takes Joker's Daughter under his wing to redeem her.
    • After taking over the Iceberg Lounge, Jason managed to bury the hatchet with Suzie Su and the Familia de Flores, going so far as to hire them as his security detail.
  • Belligerent Sexual Tension: Has a pretty palpable one with Artemis.
  • Berserk Button:
    • Anything involving abusive or neglectful parents get under his skin rather quickly, thanks to his troubled youth with a drug-addled mom and a Disappeared Dad.
    • Father figures, in general, tend to be this for him as well. Considering his tumultuous relationship with Batman and his own father, it's not surprising.
    • Due to the trauma of his death at the hands of The Joker, anything with his involvement is all but guaranteed to set Jason on a renewed Roaring Rampage of Revenge. This extends to his former henchmen as well as other clown-related villains.
  • Beta Outfit: Before Dick officially handed down the Robin title and costume to him, the Pre-Crisis Jason first wore a costume cobbled together from Dick's old circus outfits with long sleeves and fully covered legs. He only wore this twice, first to tag along secretly and then for a test run.
  • Big Brother Instinct:
    • Has developed this towards Bizarro as of Rebirth.
    • Shows it towards Damian during their brief collaboration in Teen Titans.
  • Big, Screwed-Up Family: His Black Sheep status on the Bat-Family aside, his parents are this. Post-Crisis, his stepmother Catherine overdosed herself on drugs, his father Willis was a petty crook who ended up serving a prison sentence, and even after the sentence was served, his father did not return to the family. His birth mother is not better, as she is working for the Joker and sold him out when he tried to rescue her.
  • Blaming the Victim: Characters (and out-of-universe, writers) will ignore/overlook Sheila Haywood's Parental Betrayal of Jason to the Joker, instead blaming Jason's own recklessness and temper for his death.
  • Break His Heart to Save Him: What he does to Roy at the end of Red Hood/Arsenal.
  • Breakout Character: Jason was Killed Off for Real in the late eighties and stayed that way for about twenty years in real-time. Post-Resurrection, he's enjoyed quite the popularity boost, headlining a series for almost a decade and appearing in many Bat Books as a semi-regular guest.
  • Brilliant, but Lazy: More accurately brilliant but impulsive: Jason has a genius-level intellect with a solid grasp of various scientific fields, is knowledgeable of history, loves reading, is fluent in several languages, and is a skilled strategist, organizer, and detective. But he's brash and impulsive, often rushing into situations without much consideration. His training has made him a master of the Indy Ploy but his lack of foresight often comes back to bite him.
  • Broken Pedestal: He used to truly and genuinely look up to Bruce, after his revival, his view of the man drops considerably not for failing to save him, but for the failure to kill the Joker for what he did.
  • Byronic Hero : Jason was a street kid abandoned by his parents who was adopted by Bruce after he tried to steal the Batmobile's wheels. After he was murdered by Joker and brought Back from the Dead he became a snarky gun-using Anti-Hero who feels he was underappreciated during his life and has a poor personal view of himself. He is highly intelligent, skilled at all manner of tasks, abrasive, brash and impulsive while being extremely loyal to his loved ones and compassionate to the weak.
  • Cain and Abel: With Dick, Tim, and Damian. He regards them as both his brothers and, at times, his enemies. He is the Cain of the equation, trying to murder Tim and Damian on several occasions and regularly attacking Dick.
  • Calling the Old Man Out:
    • While he is willing to take orders from Bruce, he always does it with a healthy dose of snark on the side.
    • He lays a beautiful one on Bruce when he takes over the Iceberg Lounge.
  • Came Back Wrong:
    • A definite possibility. While he was resurrected due to Superboy-Prime actions during Infinite Crisis, he was vegetative, only recovering when Talia dropped him in a Lazarus Pit. While Ra's Al Ghul was inside.
    • In Batman: Under the Red Hood, he asks Bruce if he believes that it was the Pit that caused Jason's Face–Heel Turn, or if he's just showing his true colors.
      Jason Todd: Does it make it easier for you to think that my dip in the Lazarus Pit turned me rabid? Or is this just the real me?
  • Canon Discontinuity: Scott Lobdell has made sure to completely remove from the canon the short-lived tenure of James Tynion IV as the book's writer.
  • Can't Hold His Liquor: In an interesting deviation of fandom impressions of him, the second volume of Red Hood and the Outlaws reveals him as suffering from this while having a drink with Artemis. And with just one drink to boot.
  • Charles Atlas Superpower: Trained by Batman, the Badass Normal superhero.
  • The Chew Toy: Tends to get beaten up by most other members of the Batfamily, and by villains, too, particularly in line-wide crossovers.
  • Chick Magnet: While not as prolific as a certain other former Robin, Jason has attracted quite a number of romantic interests over the years, including Artemis, Essence, Isabella, and Rose Wilson.
  • Cold-Blooded Torture: His debut appearance in the comics demonstrated this a couple of times when he brutally murdered two criminals off-screen, though they did show us the bodies.
  • Complexity Addiction:
    • His MO. In his debut as the Red Hood, Jason enacted an elaborate scheme by becoming a crime lord, driving Black Mask's drug operation broke and forcing him to release Joker from Arkham Asylum. All this to force Bruce to kill the Joker for him.
    • It's revealed in Lost Days that he had many chances of killing Bruce and The Joker but explained to Talia that he didn't go through it since it would mean them dying without knowing who did it. Ironically, this makes him similar to The Joker.
  • Cooldown Hug: Ask Bruce for one after he learns of Roy's demise.
  • Cool Helmet: His Red Hood helmets... except for maybe the ones with lips.
  • The Corrupter:
    • Pre-Flashpoint. In his brief appearance in issues 70-72 of Green Arrow Volume 3 he enacted an elaborate scheme to capture Mia Dearden and try to talk her into embracing his lethal methods of crime-fighting. After Mia rejected him, he left her alone.
    • Subverted Post-Flashpoint, he broke up his friendship with Roy and left on his own at the end of Red Hood/Arsenal, fearing he was holding back Roy's potential as a hero.
  • Darker and Edgier: Post-Crisis, oh so much so.
    • Even when he was Robin, Jason's backstory was much grittier than Dick Grayson's. His father was a crook and his mother was a drug addict who died, leaving him an orphan on the street where Batman found him. Then it turned out that it wasn't his mother who had died, but his stepmother! His real mother worked for the Joker and turned him in at the earliest opportunity. Then he died.
    • Post-Resurrection he took on the Joker's old mantle as the Red Hood, abandoning the Gentleman Thief aspect of the role and adopting a gun-toting Badass Biker motif.
    • In the Rebirth series of Red Hood and the Outlaws, after Roy's death, he becomes even more Dark and Edgy. Throwing away his guns, he picked up a katana and a crowbar as melee weapons, while adopting a look that wouldn't have been out of place in Mortal Kombat. He eventually fell back in line with his previous characterization, but the look stayed even after he picked the guns back up.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: Averted for a while, as he was a leather-clad, black and red-wearing villain who was undoubtedly troubled but still quite homicidal. Played straight after his Heel–Face Turn, where he is a leather-clad, black and red-wearing anti-hero who has genuinely turned over a new leaf.
  • Deadpan Snarker: It seems to come with the territory of working alongside the stony Batman.
    "Oh my goodness gracious, I've been bamboozled!"
  • Deceased Parents Are the Best: Played with. Jason has very few kind words to say about his father Willis, but he still tries to avenge his death when he discovers Two-Face killed him. He goes on a similar rampage during Red Hood and the Outlaws when he discovers that Penguin set Willis up to take the fall for a botched operation. He has a better opinion of his (step)mother Catherine, though, and while he never outright praises her, he took care of her and dealt with her dealers until she died from an overdose. Afterward, he keeps her photograph with him until A Death in the Family and claims she was "sick" to Bruce rather than admit she died of a drug overdose.
  • Deconstructed Trope:
    • Of Pay Evil unto Evil. It's because of his homicidal tendencies, that he ultimately fails in his goals, while Batman succeeds and is accepted by Gotham.
    • Of the Kid Sidekick. As it turns out, bringing in children with emotional issues to fight against the war on crime doesn't help those emotional issues, and they're liable to get seriously injured or killed. Or worse.
  • Depending on the Artist: Is his "hood" smooth and rounded, or is it flatter and shaped more like a human face, with cheekbones and lips?
  • Depending on the Writer: What is Jason's relationship with Bruce and the Batfamily? Is he distant and simply opposed on a matter of principle or is he bitter and vindictive, willing to get one of them killed to prove a point? Does he want to kill every villain he comes across, or only the complete monsters with no hope of rehabilitation? Does he even kill? Or has he changed to a non-lethal approach? Is he even effective at what he does? Or is he a borderline joke? All these aspects change depending on who's writing him at the time.
  • Despair Event Horizon: After getting beaten, killed, and resurrected, he snaps after learning that Bruce didn't avenge his death and that he got himself a new sidekick. This led him to take the Joker's identity of the Red Hood.
  • Didn't Think This Through: Jason is a very impulsive character, making this one of his major flaws.
    • In A Death in the Family, Jason tracks his birth mother down to the Middle East with the intent of meeting her. He doesn't tell Bruce that he's going, and it puts him in the crossfire of one of Batman's more dangerous missions and the Joker when he finds out that his mother is under said villain's employ. This proves to be a fatal mistake.
    • Jason's debut story as the Red Hood portrays him as a Crazy-Prepared upstart in Gotham's criminal underworld, constantly staying one step ahead of Batman and Black Mask. However, his ultimate goal was to get Batman to either kill Joker or himself and didn't count on his former mentor taking the third option that left him alive and in the Batfamily's crosshairs.
    • His sub-par infiltration of Black Mask's criminal empire in Red Hood and the Outlaws included refusing direct orders, refusing to murder anybody (or even attempting to hide the fact that he wasn't), and generally being a very obvious mole. He was still surprised when Black Mask pulled the rug out from under him and figured out that he had ulterior motives for joining.
  • Divergent Character Evolution: The whole impetus behind his original darker Post-Crisis revamp was to make him something other than essentially just a Dick Grayson clone, in turn leading to all the further developments he's undergone.
  • Doesn't Like Guns: Infinite Frontier has him develop this mindset after realizing that killing tends to negatively impact the lives of innocent people.
  • Domino Mask: It seems to be a requirement for Robins. Most depictions even show him wearing the mask under the Red Hood mask.
  • The Don: Jason assumes this role during the Prince of Gotham story arc.
  • Dual Wielding: His favorite way to use weapons, from mere handguns up to the mystical All Blades.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: His sidekick Scarlet is the one person he cares about post-resurrection. He also never attempted to hurt Alfred, even gifting him a book that he knows he likes.
  • Everyone Has Standards: Jason makes it very clear that he only kills people who he absolutely thinks deserve it. The majority of his appearances also show him threatening to murder any drug dealers who try to sell to children.
  • Evil Former Friend: To Dick.
  • Evil Orphan: Bruce brought Jason into his home and his world. Jason paid him back, following his resurrection, by becoming one of the worst vigilantes Bruce has ever had to deal with.
  • Evil Redhead: Pre-Flashpoint, Jason was retconned into being a natural redhead, where Batman apparently made him dye his hair black to hide the fact that Robin was someone else now. This was a throwback to the original Pre-Crisis circus boy version, but that Jason had blond hair and chose to dye it black himself. Starting with New 52 it appears that black is his natural hair color again, as with his revised Post-Crisis street kid origin.
  • Fallen Hero: His portrayal in Under the Red Hood, Battle for the Cowl, and Batman & Robin, where he is mourned as a hero gone bad.
  • Fire-Forged Friends: In Nightwing Year One, Jason Todd didn't have a very good relationship with Dick. This is changed when the two end up in a situation where they save Alfred's life.
  • First-Person Smartass: Jason always narrates his story with quite entertaining quips, sometimes even Breaking the Fourth Wall.
    Jason Inner Monologue: I missed what happened next... because I was dead.
  • Flanderization:
    • His grudge against Batman has changed from opposition to his nonlethal philosophy on fighting crime, to desperately seeking out his approval. As of Rebirth, this attitude has extended towards Nightwing as well.
    • His Gun Nut tendencies have been exaggerated as well, as he constantly reminds the reader that he loves using guns. Interestingly, this gets subverted during the Outlaw era since he has stopped using guns altogether, opting to use a katana as his main weapon.
  • The Generic Guy: In Batfamily stories, he (like Tim) often just shows up in a group, and doesn't have any distinctive role.
  • Genius Bruiser: As befits somebody trained by Batman, he's both a highly trained intellectual and a lethally skilled fighter.
  • Good Is Not Nice: During his tenure as Robin and once again following his Heel–Face Turn post-Flashpoint.
  • Groin Attack: Jason isn't afraid to fight dirty, as Dick and Tim would attest in one Teen Titans storyline. Tim returns the favor at the end of the issue.
  • Guns Akimbo: He's especially fond of dual-wielding handguns. In Batman and Robin (2009) he even owned a pair of custom-made red ones.
  • Has a Type: Jason has a serious thing for redheads — with the exception of Isabella, almost every character that he's ever shown any romantic attraction to has been a redhead.
    • Starfire, during her time on the Outlaws, was a seven-foot-tall alien princess with (literally) flaming red hair whom Jason had commented occasionally as being very attractive.
    • During Batman and Robin Eternal and Batman: Three Jokers he was shown to have been nursing a crush on Barbara Gordon.
    • Artemis is a tall, muscular redhead whom Jason shares Belligerent Sexual Tension with.
    • Platonic example in his best friend Roy Harper, who has a head of bright orange hair.
  • Heel–Face Turn: Has pulled one by the time of New 52 and Rebirth. His tenure as Red Hood began with a one-man war against Batman and all crime in Gotham by any means necessary. Compared to the homicidal maniac that he was following his resurrection, Jason has really mellowed out. He can still be a Jerkass at times, though.
  • Heel Realization: After accidentally shooting an innocent kid's parents he decided to stop using guns so no other innocent bystanders would be caught in the crossfire.
  • Heroic BSoD: Jason takes Roy's death really hard.
  • Hero Killer: According to the New 52 backstory, he attempted to kill, Bruce, Tim, and Dick on different occasions shortly after taking the Red Hood identity.
  • Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Roy, at such grade that the editorial has officially stated that they're each others' best friends. Fittingly, he's devastated by Roy's death in Heroes in Crisis.
  • Hidden Depths: It doesn't come up a lot, but Jason is the most erudite and well-read of the Robins. Before his death, he was aware that Bruce and Alfred had a mutual interest in finding rare first-editions of books and adding them to the library at Wayne Manor, and he is introduced post-revival by sending a new addition to his former butler. Later, he is seen reading Pride and Prejudice in prison. At one point he holds the Red Hood helmet in a clear Shout-Out to Hamlet.
  • Identity Impersonator: As the Red Hood, Nightwing, Wingman, Hush, and Batman.
  • I Got Bigger: Died as a teenager, came back years later as a young adult, big enough and strong enough to go toe to toe with Bruce.
  • I Have Many Names: Robin, Red Hood, Red Robin, and (for a while) Wingman.
  • Important Haircut: After Roy's passing, he started sporting a buzzcut as part of his new look. That was widely unpopular and grew out really fast.
  • Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Treated as such in-universe. In Grant Morrison's ''Batman and Robin'', Dick and Damian note that they've already defeated Red Hood numerous times before.
  • Informed Attribute: Rebirth has Jason playing off the role of a criminal overlord despite never showing him doing anything even remotely criminal. Or showing him having enough foresight to handle organized crime.
  • In-Series Nickname: Roy (and the fandom) loves to call him Jaybird.
  • Interspecies Romance: With the Amazonian super-heroine Artemis, a member of his second team of Outlaws.
  • In the Hood:
    • For a short while, Jason used a sleeveless red hoodie on Red Hood/Arsenal. Likely inspired by his Arkham Knight appearance.
    • His Outlaw costume replaces the iconic red helmet with a red hoodie.
  • Irony: Loves this. When he comes back for his revenge on Bruce, he uses Batman's hated weapon, guns, kills often, something Batman has always refused to do, and even names himself after the Joker's previous alias.
  • It's All About Me: Refuses to see that there are factors beyond "betraying him" at work when Bruce refuses to kill the Joker. When the Society uses Chemo to obliterate Bludhaven and Bruce wants to make sure Dick is okay, Jason stops him because they haven't completed their fight yet, and he won't let Grayson ruin this moment for him.
  • Jerkass: Jason is an angry character by default, but can sometimes come across as this. His attempt to murder fellow Robin Tim Drake comes to mind.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Saved a Chinese village, would put his life on the line for Roy and Kori, and is shown supporting Alfred and Bruce after Damian's murder.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: During his appearances in Battle for the Cowl and Batman & Robin, when any attempts at reaching out to him end in betrayal and attempted murder.
  • Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: Pre-Flashpoint, just after he had an uneasy brotherly bond with Tim, Bruce left an accidental Breaking Speech telling him that he's broken and needs help. This pushes him over the edge and makes him more willing to kill his adopted brothers to become the next Batman.
  • Karma Houdini: While the reboot erased most of his criminal record, he still tried to kill Batman, Nightwing, and Red Robin at some point shortly after his return to Gotham. As far as we can tell, he never received a comeuppance for this nor do his would-be victims hold any grudge against him.
  • Katanas Are Just Better:
    • His All-Blades in Red Hood and the Outlaws which are only effective in dealing with magic. It's useless for dealing with normal mooks and Jason only uses them when the All-Caste or magic users attack him.
    • He starts using a regular katana as his main weapon after Roy's death.
  • Kid Hero All Grown-Up: A dark example. Being a Kid Hero was detrimental to his psychology and was a large contributing factor to his death. After some character development, he becomes a straighter example.
  • Killed Off for Real: At first, anyway. He was killed off in 1988 and not resurrected until 2005. In between, a common mantra was "Nobody stays dead in comics except Bucky, Uncle Ben, and Jason Todd".
  • Knight in Sour Armor: While Jason was firmly a Pragmatic Hero through all of Red Hood and the Outlaws run, he has grown into this on Red Hood/Arsenal, mainly because he wants to become a role model for Duela Dent. Red Hood and the Outlaws (2016) keep this characterization, this time having Jason being a positive influence on Bizarro.
  • Knight Templar: As the Red Hood, he considers the murders he commits justified because he's only killing criminals.
    L-Z 
  • The Lancer: Usually takes this role among the Robins and, in more than a few cases, to Batman himself.
  • The Leader: Of the Outlaws, and even his superpowered teammates like Starfire, Artemis, and Bizarro usually defer to his judgment.
  • Legacy Character: Literally all of his titles have come from other characters. As a Running Gag, he's also always the second person to have it.
    • Dick Grayson was the first Robin before Batman took the mantle from him and eventually gave it to Jason.
    • The Joker was, if not the original, the only known holder of the Red Hood title; Jason took it up after being revived as a middle finger to Batman.
    • During Countdown to Infinite Crisis the Batman of Earth-51 gives him the mantle of Red Robin, which belonged to that universe's native Jason Todd.
    • For a while, he also operated as the (second) Wingman with Damian Wayne as his sidekick Red Bird.
  • Legacy Immortality: An attempted invocation of this trope. He wanted Batman to continue long after Bruce's passing but as a grim figure of urban legend. He was willing to kill for it, but ultimately the legacy fell to Nightwing
  • Lighter and Softer: Despite the Rebirth issue implying the contrary, Jason has become much more restrained and rational by the second volume of Red Hood and the Outlaws thanks to the many adventures he has gone through over the last few years.
  • Like a Son to Me: For better or worse, Bruce views him as one of his sons even if they don't always see eye to eye.
  • Lonely Rich Kid: Implied during his time as Robin in Rebirth as he remarks that his best friend is a Gargoyle statue.
  • Master Poisoner: Poison is listed as one of his specialties, and he was able to showcase this in Batman (Grant Morrison) where he secretly poisoned a prison cafeteria, killing 82 and others severely ill.
  • Meaningful Rename: His moniker as the Red Hood is twofold:
    • During his days as a gang leader, outside of the Bat-Family, the Red Hood calls to mind a certain murderous clown's initial moniker. Taking up the name of Batman's worst enemy was originally meant as a middle finger to the Dark Knight, and to serve as a walking reminder of his mistakes. It serves to highlight his fixation on Batman's many faults, via using a name that only Batman and the other members of his extended crime-fighting family would recognize as having previously belonged to the Joker.
    • However, upon reintegration into the Bat-Family, his name takes on a more subtle bird-themed meaning a la Nightwing. Being that a hood is something that falconers use to control large birds of prey, it's a reintegration of his time and history as a Robin while also being reflective of his graduation to a more dangerous, bird-themed vigilante.
  • Middle Child Syndrome: What motivated Jason's Roaring Rampage of Revenge is that he thinks Batman didn't love him enough to kill the Joker after his death and forgot about him. In Batman and Robin (2009), it's revealed that Bruce asked Jason to dye his naturally red hair black to look like Dick's, and Jason admitted that Bruce expected him to be just like Dick. This is the kind of thing that will have adverse effects on the mental health of a normal child, never mind a troubled one. This was almost immediately retconned though, with only the Convergence mini acknowledging it.
  • Mr. Fanservice: Jason has a dark and troubled past and a tendency to wear leather jackets. Sometimes, he is drawn spending an entire issue naked. Hilariously acknowledged by DC themselves by including him in the Sexiest Man of the DCU of 2020 poll run by their streaming service, DC Universe. Jason won by the way.
  • My Greatest Failure: Was (and sometimes, still is) this to Bruce. Not saving Jason was a big black spot on Batman's crime-fighting record, and it haunted him for years. Even after Tim Drake entered the picture to take over for the departed Jason, the shadow of Jason's death loomed over much of his early tenure as Robin. Even after his resurrection, Bruce still keeps Jason's old uniform up in the Batcave as a reminder of his mistake.
  • No-Holds-Barred Beatdown:
    • After trying to take over the position as Gotham's native crime-fighter and being abandoned by his protege Scarlet, Jason is on the receiving end of one by the then-Dynamic Duo of Dick and Damian.
    • When Batman thinks that Jason murdered The Penguin on live TV Jason gets this again, and this time so bad that he couldn't use guns for a while.
  • No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: His efforts to protect his mother from the Joker led to his mother betraying him to Joker and his subsequent death.
  • Not Me This Time: He is one of the suspects thought to be Leviathan thanks to his connections to the League of Shadows and his motivations similar to Leviathan. He even lampshades this by saying he is the perfect scapegoat for it.
  • Older Hero vs. Younger Villain: With Bruce and Dick both.
  • The Oldest Profession: It is implied given his dialogue with Mia Dearden, a former sex trafficker victim and the second Speedy, that he engaged in this when he was younger to survive alone on the streets of Gotham.
  • One-Man Army: In a Badass Normal kind of way. Damian outright admits in Event Leviathan that even if he's not one of Jason's biggest fans, there is no denying Jason Todd is quite undisputably one of the greatest martial artists in the world, and Bruce himself does not disagree in any way whatsoever, which says a lot about Jason's skill in combat. Considering that just before said declaration Jason had handily dealt with a team of veteran heroes hand-picked by Bruce, this is not an exaggeration in any way.
  • Parental Abandonment: Jason's father abandoned them by merit of being in prison and (later) being dead. Jason's mother abandoned him emotionally, if not physically, by becoming a withdrawn drug addict who later died.
  • Parental Betrayal: He views Bruce not avenging him like this. Also, his biological mother betrayed him to The Joker in A Death in the Family
  • Power Tattoo: Gets painted with some tribal-looking ones on his chest as part of his "graduation ceremony" with the All-Caste, disappearing afterward. Tynion made them permanent and they even glowed whenever Jason meditated or used the All-Blades, but once Lobdell returned to the book, he dropped them and now only appears inside Jason's dreams.
  • Pretty Boy: Mostly under Kenneth Rocafort's pencils, who ranked up Jason's attractiveness a lot, drawing Jason as a tall, somewhat leaner Raven Hair, Ivory Skin guy. His Rebirth iteration is drawn bulkier by Dexter Soy, but still keeping his boyish looks intact.
  • Prodigal Hero: Jason has this relationship with the rest of the Bat-Family. After spending some time as a crime boss and murderous outlaw, he was welcomed back into the fold and is allowed to operate with Batman's blessing. While he's there are moments when he disagrees with them, the rest of the Bat-Family work frequently with Jason.
  • Progressively Prettier: Inverted during Grant Morrison's time with the character, where he was depicted as a balding redhead with pimples underneath his mask.
  • A Pupil of Mine Until He Turned to Evil: How Bruce sees him after his resurrection.
  • Red and Black and Evil All Over: Played straight at first after his resurrection, and then tiptoed towards subversion. Averted in most modern stories, where he's firmly on the side of the good guys, except for the bad attitude.
  • Redeeming Replacement: The original Red Hood was the previous identity of the Joker and the original Wingman is a class-A Jerkass. While he did little to redeem the name Pre-flashpoint, this iteration of Jason manages to redeem the name and the Wingman identity with his heroic deeds.
  • Redemption Rejection: Pre-Flashpoint. Bruce, Tim, and Dick gave him many chances to come back to the family but he rejected each attempt, saying that it was already too late for him. Although he accepted Bruce's chance to turn his life around and became the second Wingman in Batman Inc..
  • Red-Headed Stepchild: Thanks to recent retcons. Before Crisis on Infinite Earths, he was naturally blond and dyed his hair black, and afterward, his hair was just naturally black. After Final Crisis, Grant Morrison retconned his hair into a deep red, which he dyed black again (to fit better with the red/black color motifs of the author's stories).
  • Red Is Heroic: Unlike his previous iterations, who used to be Red and Black and Evil All Over; these days, Jason is on the heroic representation of the color red.
  • Red Is Violent: During his debut appearance as Red Hood, he fits this trope to a T. He even has Red in the name.
  • Replacement Goldfish: Not only does he view himself as Bruce's replacement for Dick, but during Batman Eternal, it seems he views himself as Barbara's replacement for Dick when he was thought dead
  • The Resenter: Especially so in Post-Crisis, before his Red Hood reboots.
    • His whole first appearance was all about resenting Bruce for failing to kill the Joker.
    • As he mentioned in Outsiders, Jason shows resentment towards Dick Grayson for being more loved by Bruce than he.
    • The classic Tim example where he attacked Tim at Titans Tower in the Teen Titans comics, though he walked away from that being more bitterly impressed with Tim.
  • Resurrection Revenge: He spent many years planning to force Batman into killing Joker as revenge for his death. Unfortunately for him, Batman really doesn't want to break his one rule and opted to subdue Jason instead.
  • Reunion Vow: Jason promises to come back for both Isabel and Dog before leaving Gotham again at the end of the Prince of Gotham story arc.
  • The Rival:
    • Tries to set himself and Scarlet up as rivals to Dick Grayson's Batman and Robin, with the aim of making them obsolete.
    • After his resurrection, he often says he will be a better Batman than Bruce Wayne ever was.
    • While he does like using guns, he normally will ditch them when fighting Bruce, Dick, or Tim, just to prove he can be better than them. So far that has failed many times, except for his fights with Tim, which he normally wins.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: He's pretty unamused at being dragged to different universes by the Anti-Monitor, and angrily quits the Challengers From the Unknown group once he's back to prime earth. Considering its Countdown, you can't blame him.
  • Sharp-Dressed Man: Takes to wear a classy three-piece ensemble during his tenure as owner of the Iceberg Lounge.
  • Ship Tease: Compared to his pre-flashpoint self, he seems to be following Dick's footsteps with Kara Zor-El, Barbara Gordon, Rose Wilson and Artemis.
  • Shameless Self-Promoter: After he and Scarlet try to dethrone Batman and Robin as the protectors of Gotham, even broadcasting his intentions over TV. Dick and Damian are not amused.
  • Sidekick Graduations Stick: Well, not so much a "promotion" as much as being "replaced while deceased", but Jason has never gone back to wearing the Robin costume once he was established as the Red Hood.
  • Small Name, Big Ego:
    • He has a habit of antagonizing people he really shouldn't, given his track record. His fights with the Robins he antagonizes most, Dick and Damian, almost always end with him losing, and while Bruce will put up with his antics when Jason does something that really upsets him, it is not pretty for Jason, such as when Bruce thought he killed the Penguin — the fight is so one-sided that Jason doesn't land a single hit and has his helmet kicked apart and his symbol ripped off for extra measure.
    • Veers into The Worf Effect, as we see Jason repeatedly taking out far more dangerous opponents, and in the above-mentioned fight Jason never actually tries to fight Bruce.
  • Smug Snake: In his Anti-Villain days where he declares he can be better than Batman and Nightwing. His track record against them says otherwise.
  • The Snark Knight: Jason can be very cynical and uses a lot of sarcastic Heroic Self-Deprecation.
    Jason Inner Monologue:It might not be a popular thought, but not everyone wants to be alive.
  • The Sociopath: Portrayed as such in Battle for the Cowl and Batman & Robin. He even describes himself as a homicidal maniac. After Convergence, he's not even a Sociopathic Hero.
  • Stern Teacher / Apathetic Teacher: Jason bounces between the two in the Generation Outlaw story-arc.
  • Street Urchin: In his revamped Post-Crisis origin, which is also the version used for all subsequent incarnations of Jason, he was a homeless orphan from Crime Alley whom Batman eventually recruited after catching him trying to steal the tires from the Batmobile.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Pre-Crisis, for Dick Grayson who had by then aged up and had his own thing with the Titans taking up much of his time (and officially became Nightwing around the time he officially passed the Robin mantle and his own old costume to Jason). About the only differences are that Jason's real hair color is different and thus dyed to match, and his parents didn't die from sabotage but were murdered in person. Their circus act is even called the Flying Todds, and they have a great deal of professional respect for Dick and the Flying Graysons.
  • Taking Up the Mantle: Jason really wanted to be the new Batman in Battle for the Cowl.
  • Technicolor Ninjas: Played straight as Robin. Eventually subverted as Red Hood, who has a penchant for Red and Black and Evil All Over
  • The Teetotaler: While plenty of superheroes avoid drinking while on patrol, Jason has a longstanding abstention from drinking alcohol. Given his substance-abusing parents, and his best friend Arsenal's alcoholism, it's not difficult to understand why Jason would have this particular issue. This is especially notable given his aforementioned tendency to hang out in Bad Guy Bars.
    • As far back as his time as Robin, there's a scene in a bar where he orders a glass of milk.
    • Twice in Red Hood: The Lost Days, where Talia orders a bottle of wine for them to share but only she drinks her glass, and there's a scene where he doesn't drink his vodka while toasting with his bombmaking tutor's friends.
    • Averted in the second volume of Red Hood and the Outlaws. He goes out for a drink with Artemis, where he turns out to be a real lightweight.
  • Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: Enjoys this relationship with Artemis, who towers over him and is far stronger than he is.
  • Took a Level in Badass: In a dark way. Jason's certainly not going to be on the receiving end of any crowbar beatdowns any time soon.
  • Taught by Experience: Red Hood and the Outlaws volume 2 reveals that he's picked a considerable amount of awareness through his adventures, becoming able to accurately describe and analyze certain elements on Artemis's past by comparing them with his own experiences.
  • Tall, Dark, and Handsome: He is the tallest of the Batkids and a very attractive young man.
  • Tall, Dark, and Snarky: He is also very witty and has a charming "bad boy" persona.
  • Team Mercy vs. Team Murder: Batman has a No-Kill Rule while Jason's mercy was eroded when he was murdered by the Joker. Their polar opposite methods of disposing of Gotham's crime have them at constant odds.
  • Those Two Guys: He and Tim are usually paired up together in Batfamily stories. This was dropped as of DC Rebirth, with Tim going back to Bruce's side and later, to Young Justice, coinciding with when Jason was more on the outs with the family.
  • Thou Shalt Not Kill: Played with. Jason promises it to Bruce at the start of Red Hood and the Outlaws second volume, just to seemingly break it by shooting the Penguin in issue 25. Then in issue 36 is revealed that he shot Cobblepot with a blank since he never intended to kill him.
  • Token Evil Teammate: Whenever he joins heroic teams, he never stops murdering people he deems evil.
  • Too Dumb to Live: Compared to his Pre-Flashpoint iteration, Jason Todd makes numerous mistakes that nearly get him killed, such as blowing his cover against Black Mask within minutes of meeting him, and continuing to act as if his cover was intact, even after he was captured, stripped down, and unmasked shortly after attempting to turn against him.
  • Trauma Button: Seeing his place of death or even something similar to it is enough to give him PTSD flashbacks (in Rebirth) or make him lash out (in volume 1, as Bruce found out the hard way).
  • True Companions:
    • How he came to see Roy and Kori through the course of Red Hood and the Outlaws. While Kori has considerably played down her friendship with Jason after leaving the Outlaws, she's still considered by Jason as one of the few real friends he has. Roy, on the other hand, rekindled his friendship with Jason in the leadup to Heroes in Crisis, later reuniting during the events of Dark Crisis and promising Roy he would help him find Lian. In "Green Arrow" 2023 #1, while it has yet to be confirmed whether Jason knew that Lian was in Gotham, he provided leads to Roy, Dinah, and Connor on a case involving gun runners operating out of Gotham which had the outcome of the Arrows finding Lian.
    • In Rebirth, Jason, Artemis, and Bizzaro become this as they turn into the Dark Trinity with Jason developing feelings for Artemis and later gaining a Big Brother Instinct for Bizarro. Unfortunately, they were split up with the latter two transported to an Alternate Dimension.
  • Tsundere: Started as Type A towards Roy and Kori but he mellowed out to Type B as Red Hood and the Outlaws progressed.
  • Underwear of Power: During his time as Robin, naturally.
  • Ungrateful Bastard: In his late Post-Crisis phase, he tried to kill almost anyone who tried to help him out. For example, he backstabbed Tim after he helped him escape from Arkham, almost killed the group that helped him escape imprisonment, and threatened to blow up Gotham after Dick and Damian helped him save Sasha.
  • Used to Be a Sweet Kid: While Robin in Post-Crisis, Jason embodied many of the positive, adventurous traits that one would associate with one who held the Robin moniker. Then he got killed and resurrected.
  • Villain Killer: After being killed by the Joker and resurrected, he abandoned Batman's rule against lethal force and essentially became DC's equivalent of the Punisher, racking up a considerably high body count of criminals.
  • Warrior Monk: What his time with the All-Caste turned him into in Red Hood and the Outlaws, though he still has anger issues from time to time.
  • "Well Done, Son" Guy: Post-Flashpoint, this was one of his defining character traits, as instead of being angry at Bruce now all he really wants is Bruce's acceptance.
  • Wicked Cultured: He retains his love of reading after turning to a Sociopathic Hero as Red Hood, sending Alfred a book, and later seen reading Pride and Prejudice in prison. His love of books is almost in every version of his character, as he references classics a lot even in modern continuity.
  • Wild Card: In Post-Flashpoint, he sometimes helps out the Batfamily in times of crisis, sometimes working with the villains for his own reasons. It's one of the reasons why Bruce sometimes defers to him, as Jason is willing to do things he can't do himself.
  • Will They or Won't They?: With Artemis. They do... for a while, anyway.
  • You Killed My Father: The original pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths version of Jason had his parents killed by Killer Croc after Batman and Robin got them involved in the ongoing case. Jason only found out after the fact due to tagging along secretly, while dressed in a makeshift costume. In his anger, he jumps Croc and knocks him out, to everyone's surprise.

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