Jason Todd

Jason Peter Todd is a character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. First appearing in Batman #357 in March 1983, he was created to succeed Dick Grayson as Robin, Batman's partner and sidekick. Initially sharing a similar origin to Grayson, his character's origin was rewritten after the Crisis on Infinite Earths event. His origin, which has since been the standard for most iterations of the character, re-imagined Todd as an orphaned pre-teen living alone in Gotham City who came from an abusive family and was forced to partake in crime from an early age to survive who was taken in by Batman as his adopted son and protégé.

Following Max Allan Collins revamping Todd's origin in Batman #408–411, the character was written by Jim Starlin, who had him become increasingly aggressive and reckless. This led to DC Comics holding a telephone poll in 1988's "A Death in the Family" storyline to determine whether or not the character would die at the Joker's hands. The poll ended with a narrow majority of votes in favor of killing Todd, resulting in his death. Subsequent stories dealt with Batman's guilt over failing to save him. The character was resurrected in 2005's "Under the Hood" story arc, which saw him becoming a murderous antihero known as the Red Hood. Subsequent stories have shown Todd's on-and-off attempts to redeem himself and rebuild his relationship with Batman, with Red Hood eventually being accepted as a full member of the Batman family.

Todd as Robin and Red Hood has made several appearances in other forms of media outside of comics, including television series, films, and video games.