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[lipsofpoison.insanejournal.com]

I bring you some scans from the Jason story from Legends of the Dark Knight #100. With huge thanks to islwyn who encouraged me to go hunting for this, I found it a very enjoyable issue. Please excuse the slight wonkyness of the scans, my scanner hates me.

It's six months after Jason's training began and he's now an officially trained Robin. He's been really happy all day. This is running concurrently with flash-forwards to Bruce searching for Jason when Jason was searching for his mother during A Death In The Family. This little bit with Alfred, Bruce and Jason was what sparked my love for the story, though.









Then of course, it goes to Bruce finding Jason with this final scan which is pretty much heartbreaking. I like it as an ode to the case, though.

Comments

[fungo_squiggly.insanejournal.com]

Har, Alfred-ruleage. "All night drinking club," indeed.

Of course now I'm imagining an "all night drinking club" frequented entirely by tuxedo clad gentlemen's gentlemen, all exchanging slight, stiff bows to one another in greeting and occasionally engaging in formal bouts of fisticuffs when the good sherry begins flowing a bit too freely.

[greenmask.insanejournal.com]

Formal bouts of fisticuffs. That's wonderful!

[merseybeatler.insanejournal.com]

Indeed!

[runespoor7.insanejournal.com]

...so. The thought bubbles in that last panel. Bruce/Jason OTP y/y?

Thank you for scanning this! *is looking for that issue*

[lipsofpoison.insanejournal.com]

There's so much in this issue that was so 'subtext rapidly becoming the text'. I did find mine on Amazon so perhaps try there?

[lyraeinne.insanejournal.com]

...It's actually almost breaking my brain to try and read this story without the subtext in this instance. Which is a little weird for me, because usually I only really see it with Dick, at least to that degree. But damn, there are times that Bruce/Jason really wants to enter my extremely disturbing and fucked up personal canon too.

[runespoor7.insanejournal.com]

In my canon, Bruce and Dick are platonically in love and don't realize it, but Bruce-and-Jason was fucked up from start to finish (okay, maybe slightly less so with Collins), and replacing the 'and' with a slash doesn't so much make it more fucked-up as it makes it make more sense.

[ladymirth.insanejournal.com]

*blinks*

'M gonna go cry now.

*bawl*

[icon_uk.insanejournal.com]

And that's why you can't have nice things anymore Bruce, you keep breaking your worryingly pretty sidekicks.

[oddpuppets.insanejournal.com]

I've been a Batman fan since I was just a tiny kid. My first introduction was through Adam West's TV show. To me, as a kid, there was nothing campy about it. It wasn't serious, but it *was* comic book - the plots, the action, the wonderful narration at the end of each episode - "Will Batman survive this derring death trap? Will Robin make his flighty escape? Tune in next time, same Bat-time, same Bat-channel!" It was wonderful.

I then discovered B:TAS. I watched that thing the entire way through, from the very first episode. I remember how excited I was to hear about a Batman cartoon. Before that, it was Scooby-Doo team-ups and the Super Friends.

This is all to say that my introduction to Batman was through every other media BUT the comic books. Comic books came rather late into my life. To me, the comic book store was a rather forbidding place - even though the staff were always cheerful, they were adults, and here was me, this kid, just daunted by the immensity of these things, the rows and rows of cartons full of bagged issues.

I of course fell in love with comics, but the comic book store would always remain somewhat daunting. I got my fix through book stores, and Wizard. Wizard is where I first heard of Jason. It was not a positive depiction. They all made fun of the dead Boy Wonder, mocking his character, noting that his poor popularity was the reason behind his death. This influenced me so that I too shared their point of view, despite never having ever read any book with Jason in them, nor the issues of his death.

Then I picked up Legends of the Dark Knight #100.

There were several fun stories in this issue, prefaced by that gorgeous cover by Alex Ross. There was one, a retelling of Dick's entrance into Bruce's life, I remember having some odd yet gorgeous art - not the kind of art you normally saw in comics. But there was only one story that tugged at my heartstrings, that really made an impression. And it was this one.

The art? Gorgeous, evocative, clean lines that knew how to use space and dynamism, that spoke volumes without the scratchy lines of my then-hero Jim Lee and Joe Madueira. The writing...I fell in love with the writing.

It was this one story that forever changed how I viewed Batman, Jason, and how to tell a Batman story. I can honestly say that out of all the Batman stories I have read, this is simply one of the best. Batman is not only the Dark Knight Avenger, he is the caring father. Alfred - delightful as always. And Jason...earnest Jason, fighting Jason, a superhero to the very end. Whenever I saw Jason derided from then on I could only think, "You haven't read this." It's a short, bittersweet tale, but in those few pages Robinson painted a story more worthy than many Batman stories I have seen come out in recent years. For all the trappings of Batman, there should always be a warm, beating heart, flowing with compassion. Robinson showed that more than any other right here.

(It also happens to be the reason why I am so peeved at Jason's resurrection - but that's another story entirely)

[lipsofpoison.insanejournal.com]

I love Jason here but I love Under the Hood too - I can relate to them both being the same rather messed up person and things like this give me hope for him. It's beautiful, snarky yet sad and how he should be handled.

[daggerpen.insanejournal.com]

Motto.

[toasty_fresh.insanejournal.com]

Motto~ I still love Jason, but the Jason we've got today is a far cry from this . . .

[ar_feiniel_.insanejournal.com]

I love when Alfred teases Bruce.

[parsimonia.insanejournal.com]

Wait. Alfred says "Taming of the Screw." I'm assuming he either means "Taming of the Shrew" or "the Turning of the Screw." Right?

[faile_neume.insanejournal.com]

It's an intricate combination of the two.

[parsimonia.insanejournal.com]

Ah, so it's...a Shakesperean romantic comedy, involving ghosts, children and a crazy governess?

[lipsofpoison.insanejournal.com]

God, I hope so.

[psychop_rex.insanejournal.com]

This is why they should have left well enough alone and just kept Jason dead. He died a hero, trying to protect his mother; his death echoed throughout the Bat-books for decades afterwards. It's one thing when a hero dies an insignificant or inconclusive death - a death swiftly dealt with, that can easily be retconned away - but this was a significant death, and it should have stayed in place. He would have been remembered as the Batman's deepest guilt, as the Joker's most notorious victim, as a bittersweet, meaningful part of the Batman legacy. Now he'll be remembered as a psychotic punk who came back briefly from the dead, then took a high-dive into the river. Blech.

[runespoor7.insanejournal.com]

Except that more often than not, Jason's death was used as a lesson against 'being reckless' and 'disobeying Batman', and Jason described as something like a violent upstart who didn't let Batman save him. It was about as significant and meaningful as Steph's death, and being remembered as a victim is not something I would wish on anyone.

[lipsofpoison.insanejournal.com]

Motto. I think that has a huge baring on his personality, actually. He doesn't want to be the victim

[janegray.insanejournal.com]

Motto. It was never "Jason died a hero!", it was always "Jason got himself killed because he was dumb and reckless, Tim you have to be better than that!"

[psychop_rex.insanejournal.com]

Oh, sure, it was misUSED, but that's really more of a recent thing, and more the result of sloppy writing than anything else (as Steph's 'death' was, in my opinion). I would direct you to the sequence in 'Knightfall' where Batman is fighting the Joker/Scarecrow teamup, having taken down dozens of other Arkham escapees in the days before. Exhausted almost to the point of collapse, it's looking like he'll have a tough time - both villains are fresh as daisies, and here comes the Scarecrow with a blast of fear-gas to the face.
And he sees his greatest fear - an endless replay of Jason's death, happening over and over again, and he can't stop it, can't do anything - and you'd think that'd be the end for him, now wouldn't you? But no - he gets MAD. He channels his fear into anger, lays out the Scarecrow with one blow, then lunges at the Joker and lifts him by the scruff of the neck.
"Jason... Todd," he snarls.
"Jason Todd!" he growls, as he smacks the Joker a good one in the chops, sending him flying.
"JASON TODD!" he roars, anger and exhaustion merging into unstoppable rage.
Over and over, he thinks of Jason, and cries his name.
"Jason!" he yells, and I'll let the sound effects finish the scene.
KUNCH
SWAK
SHOK
CHOOF
SHUMP
CHUD
SWOKK
SPLAMM
"JASON!!!"
And that pretty much does it for the Joker.
THAT is an effective use of a death - a source of rage and sorrow for the Batman lo these many years later. It wasn't just being remembered as a victim, or a 'violent upstart who wouldn't let Batman save him', as you put it - sure, Jason was overly impulsive and a bit of a brat at times, but that had nothing to do with his death. He died doing the right thing, died far too young, and he died not due to any particular misstep on his part, but due to the fact that Batman couldn't get there in time to save him - and that guilt will haunt him 'til his dying day. "Just a boy - but forever gone" is what he thinks at the end of the fight, and that strikes me as a pretty good way of putting it.

[lipsofpoison.insanejournal.com]

Let's hope his run in B&R will help change it,

[kingrockwell]

Since I first saw scans of this, it's been on my must-be-sought-must-be-bought list. I'd have done so online already if I weren't moving so soon.