Batman What Would Have Happened If Fans Let Jason Todds Robin Live

Batman: What Would Have Happened If Fans Let Jason Todd’s Robin Live

A new incarnation of a popular story is prodding Batman fans to ask themselves the question: What would have happened if they’d let Jason Todd live?

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Batman What Would Have Happened If Fans Let Jason Todds Robin Live

A new incarnation of a popular story is prodding Batman fans to ask themselves the question: what would have happened if they’d let Jason Todd live?

DC’s seminal 1988 comic arc A Death in a Family is seeing renewed interest thanks to the attention from the recent animated movie of the same name. The movie allows audiences to choose from multiple endings, Bandersnatch-style. And while this sort of choose your own adventure viewing experience may be somewhat new, this is not the first time the story has offered readers the chance to pick their own ending.

When A Death in the Family began hitting the shelves of comic shops, the series was an immediate fan favorite. But Jason Todd – the newest incarnation of Batman’s adolescent sidekick Robin – was not. Panned by readers for his character’s choices, as well as just not being the beloved Dick Grayson, the books’ writers had little choice but to respond to fan outcries. In a scene that has become infamous among comic book readers, Jason is beaten viciously with a crowbar by the Joker before being blown up inside a warehouse. What many later readers may not know, however, is that fans were the ones who chose the Boy Wonder’s fate.

Batman What Would Have Happened If Fans Let Jason Todds Robin Live

For Jim Starlin and Jim Aparo’s A Death in the Family, DC editor Dennis O’Neil had an idea: let the fans decide. Printed in the back of the comic were two phone numbers for readers to call to vote on whether the much-derided Todd would survive his brutal run-in with the Clown Prince of Crime. The two 900-numbers would not have been free and, yet, the phones started ringing and the votes poured in, sealing Jason Todd’s fate. The newest Robin was murdered in the comics in a way so sudden and shocking that it quickly became comic book legend, with the panel of Batman pulling his sidekick from the smoldering wreckage becoming an iconic image.

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This begs the question of whether or not the writers and artists had a plan in place for Jason Todd surviving his torturous time with the Joker. As it turns out, yes. In a 2020 video released for DC Daily’s Robin Week, it was revealed that two different sets of pages were written and illustrated to prepare for whichever eventuality fans voted on. Images of the panels can be seen showing an elated Batman holding a limp Robin and joyously announcing, “He’s alive!” A second page shows him declining Dick Grayson’s help, insisting he will go it alone.

The pages seemed to indicate that the writers of the original comic were ready for the story to continue whether or not Todd lived or died. Regardless of Robin’s fate, a traumatized Batman would still have the same knee-jerk reaction of withdrawing from loved ones before seeking out the Joker on his own in an effort to avenge what his young protégé had suffered through.

While not much may have truly changed in the comics immediately, without Robin’s violent death it’s unlikely fans would be treated to his ever-evolving character or his turn as a solo vigilante. The death, while brutal and likely undeserved, created the opportunity for new and exciting storylines that continue to this day.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/batman-death-family-jason-todd-lived-ending/

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