Jason Todd

Biography

Jason became an orphan when he was twelve years old, with no family to take him in, though he was already well adapted to survive on the streets thanks to the inspirational guidance of his junkie mother (overdosed) and thug-for-hire father ("disappeared"). He was an angry child, to say the least, with a daredevil streak that never allowed him to settle on mere survival. When a normal person finds the legendary Batmobile parked in an alley, seemingly abandoned, they either hurry away while looking nervously at the shadows, or maybe the bolder ones snap a video to post on YouTube with their phone first, then hurry away while looking nervously at the shadows.

Jason tried to boost the hubcaps.

Batman took him to a home for troubled kids rather than to juvenile hall. That unexpected act of kindness made a strong impact on Jason, though not in the way Batman likely intended. For weeks, Jason would consistently turn up at crime scenes, and more than once managed to track down the elusive vigilante. The night when he showed up and actually helped Batman take down a gang of thieves, it became clear that Jason possessed potential far beyond the stunted expectations that life had dropped on him.

Hoping to rehabilitate the boy by helping him channel his rage into something more constructive, Batman offered to train him. Jason became the ward of Bruce Wayne, and the student of Batman. After months of intensive training, further sharpening his resourcefulness and athletic prowess, Jason adopted the code name Robin, inspired by his favorite stories from Wayne's vast library, with a costume design inspired by the memory of the circus that stuck with him from an early age.

Jason's tenure as The Boy Wonder would ultimately prove to be as short lived as it was tragic. The more cases they worked, the more unpredictable the younger half of the dynamic duo became. At first, Robin became prone to excessive force and defying orders with mixed results. Eventually, his risks became increasingly dangerous, bordering on suicidal.

Batman was forced to retire Robin from the field, a decision met with more than a little resentment. The teenager ran away from Wayne Manor, never to return. Bruce's search for his missing foster son led him to the burnt out remains of an abandoned warehouse in east Africa. Although no body was found, DNA evidence recovered strongly suggested that Jason died in the blast.