Batman's Character Analysis

From the outset, the relationship between Bruce Wayne and Jason Todd was a strained one. The rocky relationship between the two characters is explored and changed forever in the graphic novel Batman: Under the Red Hood, penned by Judd Winick and illustrated by Doug Mahnke. When Bruce, fighting a secret war against crime as the Batman, takes Todd in as both a son and sidekick, he had no idea the impact the young robin would have on his life. Spawning from a difference in morality and ethics, the relationship between Jason and Bruce goes from one full of love and hope to a relationship filled with regret and hatred.

When Batman first met twelve year old Jason Todd on the streets of Gotham, he had his mind set on giving the boy some sort of fulfilling

life. Orphaned and fending for himself on the streets, Jason was caught by Bruce trying to steal car parts from the Batmobile. After failing to find the homeless Jason a spot at a boarding school for troubled kids, Bruce took Jason under his wing. Bruce knew that unless he could direct Jason along a better path as the Batman’s sidekick, Robin, Jason would likely end up a criminal like any other Batman had faced.
Dick Grayson, the previous Robin, had been optimistic and willing to follow orders. Jason, after a life on the streets, was impulsive and full of rage. Bruce made Jason swear that regardless the situation he would never kill a criminal, for if he did he'd be no better than them. During his career as Robin, Jason followed this rule, however begrudgingly. Jason’s time as Robin was cut short however as he was killed by Batman’s arch nemesis the Joker in a successful attempt to get at Bruce.
While he didn’t agree with some of Bruce’s ideologies, Jason loved Bruce as a father and did his best to uphold the standard Bruce had placed upon him. His ambiguous morals and a damaged sense of right and wrong often came to clash with Bruce’s beliefs, yet for the most part he followed Batman’s training and rules with enthusiasm. His new principles were put to the test when Jason located the man who had killed his mother. Flying into a rage, Jason tracked the murderer down and rampaged through the criminal’s thugs until he reached the man himself. However, controlling his fury, Jason left his mothers killer to be locked up in jail instead of exacting his revenge as he sorely wished to do. This shines as a clear example of Jason’s dedication to adopting Bruce's ideals and moral centre. Similarly, Bruce saw the anger in Jason and trained him cautiously, believing that he could still aspire to becoming something better. When Jason found his mother’s killer and chose justice over revenge, Bruce swelled with both pride and hope for the young robin.
Batman blamed himself for Jason’s death for a multitude of reasons. Firstly, he believed he hadn’t properly trained Jason for his role of Robin. He had tried to train Jason using the same methods he had applied to training Dick Grayson (though perhaps more carefully), regardless of the difference in personality between the two boys. He thought that if he had taught Jason in a manner tailored to Jason’s personality, that maybe Jason would not have been so rash and fallen into the Joker’s trap. Secondly, Bruce himself hadn’t been able to save Jason from the Joker. Lured into the Jokers trap on the false pretense that he would be meeting up with his believed to be dead mother, Jason instead met the Joker and was viciously beaten to death with a crowbar. Although Bruce tried his best to save Jason, by the time he had tracked him down Jason was dead and the Joker gone. Bruce also held himself accountable for his own parents deaths when he was a child, making Jason’s death hit even harder. It was the second time in his life he had failed to save the people he loved from death, and it would continue to haunt him for years after.
Despite his apparent death, the story of Jason Todd was far from over. Revived with his memories restored via a Lazarus Pit (natural pools beneath the earth’s surface with restorative powers) by one of Batman’s enemies, Jason learns that not only was his death never avenged, but that Batman felt no remorse for sparing the Joker’s life after he had killed thousands in the time Jason had been dead. Beyond furious with Batman for not ending the Joker’s life and in turn saving hundreds of others, Jason vows to kill the Joker himself. Returning to Gotham under the moniker Red Hood, Jason begins a lethal and brutal war against Gotham’s criminal empires. Ultimately he aims to cleanse Gotham of its criminal empires, one bullet at a time.
Not aware of the Red Hood’s true identity, Batman is puzzled at the antihero’s impressive training and skills not unlike his own.

Bruce comes to clash with Red Hood multiple times during Jason’s crusade through Gotham, as in the mind of Bruce Red Hood is no better than the criminals he murders. Planning to reveal himself to Bruce, Jason captures the Joker and then baits Bruce into a final showdown. Throwing Batman a gun, Jason puts his own gun to the Joker’s head and presents Batman with two choices: either shoot Jason in the head, or on the count of three Jason will kill the Joker. However Batman isn’t left to make a choice as the Joker, outsmarting both of them, collapses the building the three are standing on via explosive charges. Batman frantically searches for Jason under all the rubble, although Jason had already escaped by the time Bruce had regained

consciousness.
Jason’s extreme anger and hate toward Bruce grew from the actions, or, inaction Bruce had taken towards the Joker after Jason’s own death. Firstly, Jason had thought that even if Bruce seemed to disregard the hundreds of lives Joker had taken before taking Jason’s own, that Jason’s death would be the final straw that would make Bruce realize what had to done; kill the Joker. When it hadn’t, and the Joker would go on to kill thousands more, Jason felt utterly betrayed by Bruce and his hatred for his former mentor first appeared. Additionally, finding out the Joker was still alive destroyed all the beliefs that Bruce had instilled in Jason. The fact that Jason died and the Joker got away with it was the final proof that Batman’s ways were heavily flawed. In Jason’s mind, Bruce was stuck in a futile game of cat and mouse: locking up all the criminals just for them to escape and killer more people. If Bruce had the guts to do what was necessary in a city like Gotham, it would be a much safer place. Jason said to Bruce that if the situation were reversed, he “would have done nothing but search the planet for this pathetic pile of death-worshipping garbage and then send him off to hell!” He had already forgiven Bruce for not being able to save him; he hadn’t and couldn’t forgive Bruce for letting the Joker live. Jason expresses these feelings through the choice he forces Batman to make: shoot and kill Jason to save the Joker, or let Jason kill the Joker. Either way Bruce’s moral code would have to be broken. Feeling betrayed by Bruce for not avenging his death, and furious at his inability to take the necessary step in fighting crime, there was no way Jason could ever go back to the way things once were.
Growing up on the streets and having only a short career as Robin, Jason never had a good chance to adopt Bruce’s views.

While he followed Batman ‘s no kill rule he never understood why that rule existed. One reason Bruce believed that murder was never an option is that by killing criminals, you yourself are no better than them. His belief is that criminals should always be humanely brought to justice, and that their fate should be decided by the justice system. Operating outside the law, the Batman may capture criminals, but he does not decide the sentence for their crimes. He believes that one must have faith in the justice system, otherwise there is no point in the first place. Another reason Batman could not kill the Joker or any other criminal is that he knew that if he crossed that line, he could never go back. It wasn’t that it was too hard to cross that line; it was too easy. He emphasized this point by referring to the Joker and saying “A day doesn't go by I don't think about subjecting him to every horrendous torture he's dealt out to others, and then end him.” If he were to kill one of his many enemies, there was no doubt he would soon after be joining their

ranks.
The father-son relationship between Bruce and Jason was broken by the two men’s’ extreme and polar beliefs. At the end of Batman: Under the Red Hood, the two heroes share the same main emotions: anger and regret, although for different reasons. While both of them shared the same ideals for Gotham City, they treaded dissimilar paths in reaching it.