Scans_Daily

Personally, I've also never been a great fan of DEATH IN THE FAMILY qualitywise, as I do agree that is quite poor when compared to the majority of the seminal works listed. Although I do disagree about THE CULT belonging there, but that is another discussion.

What I do however appreciate is what it allowed for the Bat-mythos as a whole, even though the intents of the original story wasn't that. For the Joker it was a really important story, even though I thoght that he was rather poorly written in it, as it really cemented his position as someone who could hurt Batman, someone who was a genuine threat to the Bat-family as he had killed one of them and physically crippled another. It also brought a new sense of consequence and tragedy in to the mythos, as it allowed following writers to establish Batman's war as something with casualties on both sides. And most importantly it made Batman someone who could utterly fail, as I do disagree that the responsibility for the death was somehow thrown on Jason, but rather that it was portrayed as Batman's greatest failure for a long time.

I would argue that the change in Todd in later stories was not to make him unlikable, that had been actually before the death, but rather to set the stage, unintentionally in some cases, for a change in how Batman failed with Jason. How it was not simply that Batman failed to save Jason's life, but that he failed to save Jason's soul by bringing him in to the Bat-family, which again is something I really like, even though it is pretty hammily dealt with by some writers.