Legends of the Dark Knight #2 | Batman: Under the Hood by Judd Winick

The notion that Batman needs a Robin has never really been all that contentious; his first replacement Robin, however, was another matter entirely.

Jason Todd was introduced in the Batman comic in the spring of 1983, and before the year was out he would assume the Robin mantle left vacant by Dick Grayson, who’d become Nightwing and quite literally flown the nest to fight crime in Blüdhaven. Originally conceived as the do-gooding Dick by another name, Crisis on Infinite Earths’ reshaping of the DC Universe would reimagine Jason as a destitute delinquent who meets Batman when he’s caught red-handed trying to steal the tyres from the Batmobile. Reliant on a seemingly endless reservoir of rage instead of acrobatics and athleticism, Jason’s rebellious Robin would challenge readers’ preconceptions – and, more often than not, test their patience - with his cocky attitude and frequent lapses of morality. It’s even implied that he crosses Batman’s sacred red line more than once, killing the criminals that he’s sent to subdue. Whilst I find Jason’s Robin a captivating contrast to the more straight-laced Dick, many readers did not take to the Dark Knight’s even darker sidekick, and these readers made their voices heard when DC offered them the chance to play villain. By a margin of just seventy-two votes, an historic telephone poll decreed that Jason should die at the hands of the Joker.

Arguably a fittingly tragic end for a character who could never quite achieve redemption, Jason’s demise in A Death in the Family also added a new dimension to the Batman character. His grief and unprecedented failure would be the catalyst for many an interesting arc going forward, but the cost was that Jason’s journey - be it towards redemption or damnation - would be left incomplete. It would take sixteen years for DC to set matters right with Judd Winick’s acclaimed Under the Hood run in the main Batman title.

Under the Hood serves a brutal climax to Jason Todd’s story as well as a beautiful coda to Batman’s emotional journey since Jason’s death. Healed by Ra’s al-Ghūl’s Lazarus Pit following Superboy’s rewriting of reality, Jason assumes the mantle of the Red Hood and returns to Gotham bent on doing what Batman cannot - what Batman will not. Winick’s tale is an alluring blend of spectacle, intrigue and misdirection. At no point in the story is the reader absolutely certain of anything - questions of identity, intention and morality lurk beneath every panel. Even the Red Hood’s pragmatic manifesto to conquer and control crime, rather than stop it altogether, is as much a means to an end as it is an end in of itself.

The story’s greatest success is its intelligent handling of the relationship between Jason and Batman, and how it plays so mischievously upon the suppositions that we, as readers, and the World’s Greatest Detective, within the fiction, make about the Red Hood’s beef with the Bat. He failed to save him. He let him die. Yet in a masterstroke of storytelling; a vindication of character traits running two decades deep, Winick reveals what Jason considers to be his former mentor’s great betrayal, and it’s not an act, but a rather startling and obvious omission - at least to Jason. It’s something that perfectly sums up the opposing ideologies driving these two former friends - something that speaks as much to the arguable futility of the Batman as it does the tragedy of Jason Todd.

However, as focused as it is on the central cold war between Batman and his former protégé, Under the Hood also takes the time to develop its other key players. Winick has great fun with Roman Sionis, the Black Mask, as the most powerful man in Gotham’s underworld finds himself suddenly and hilariously impotent; an unwitting pawn in a game that he doesn’t even know is being played. In an expositional epilogue published in the 2006 Batman Annual, “Daedalus and Icarus”, Winick even explores the alluring complexity of Talia al-Ghūl as the tale of Jason’s restoration is firmly rooted in Nanda Parbat and the mystical machinations of the Demon’s Head.

Initially a tight little story concerned with the Red Hood’s no-holds-barred takedown of the Black Mask, events quickly escalate to envelop some of the more outlandish rogues in Batman’s gallery. Deathstroke makes an insanely explosive appearance alongside his lesser-known Secret Society of Supervillains, while Clayface muddies the waters of the mystery and Mr Freeze chills with his hard-hitting home truths. Winick has the Red Hood shake Gotham so hard that seemingly all its villains come scurrying out into light, each desperate to carve out their own place in the new order.

And Winick’s fraught, emotional tale is told through some dazzling artwork. I read Under the Hood straight after A Death in the Family, and the difference was like watching a movie in 4K HDR straight after an old VHS. Whilst both stories contain a number of powerful and enduring images, Under the Hood’s are so vibrant and visceral that it often feels like they aren’t contained to the page. Pencillers Doug Mahnke; Paul Lee; Shane Davis; and Eric Battle created some jaw-dropping, cinematic images during this run, but what really makes them stand out is Alex Sinclair’s colour work. Against the ink blanks and moody blues of Gotham, the red of that hood pops every time - just like the heads of those who find themselves in the Red Hood’s sights.

Under the Hood has become such an integral and renowned part of the Batman mythology that in 2010 Winick adapted his story for the DC Animated Original Movies line as Under the Red Hood, which to this day remains one of the series’ greatest commercial and critical successes. Bruce Greenwood (Captain Pike in the 2009 Star Trek movie) spearheads an all-star cast that includes Jensen Ackles (Smallville) and Jason Isaacs (Star Trek: Discovery) in an inevitably condensed and toned-down but spiritually faithful adaptation that pays breathtaking homage to the animated series of the early 1990s through its animation. In the few instances where the movie does depart from the story’s key beats, it’s where it seizes the opportunity to break free of the comics’ continuity to enrich the tale. One particularly nice revision is the idea that Batman wasn’t the only one left wallowing in self-recrimination over Jason’s demise - that it left as much of a mark on Ra’s al-Ghūl, the Joker’s on-screen paymaster at the time of Jason’s death, as it did Jason’s mentor.

 

It’s quite apt that Jason Todd was born out of one crisis and resurrected by another as, seemingly, his whole existence is defined by crisis. A tortured soul lost in the crack between hero and villain, Under the Hood makes it easy to believe that Jason was always destined to walk down this dark path. The Lazarus Pit may have drawn out the devil in him, but that red-hooded devil was always there, just waiting for “a most surreal turn of disappointment” to let him loose.

The entire Under the Hood run is collected in Batman: Under the Red Hood, which is available to download from iTunes’ iBooks Store for just £3.49 or Amazon’s Kindle Store for £5.45. A trade paperback is also available, with today’s cheapest retailer being Wordery who have it listed for £15.23 inclusive of delivery.

The animated movie Batman: Under the Red Hood is available to download in 1080p from iTunes for £7.99. The iTunes Extras include a memorable Jonah Hex DC Showcase short and in-depth documentaries on Dick Grayson and Jason Todd respectively. The movie has not been released in Blu-ray in the UK, but you can pick up a region-free import relatively cheaply on eBay or in the Amazon Marketplace.

TV Review | Titans developed by Akiva Goldsman, Geoff Johns & Greg Berlanti

Having come to appreciate comic books much later in life than most, the Teen Titans were never on my radar. However, when I did stumble across them, I was instantly taken by the group’s diverse and complex characters as well as the aberrantly adult themes at play in their stories. Their live-action debut in DC Universe’s inaugural TV series takes these strengths and pushes them to their limits in a short but thrilling season that drops the Teen and embraces the Titan. 

Whilst Titans is not part of the DC Extended Universe (the “DCEU”), artistically it clearly takes its cues from the franchise’s turbulent movie universe. Everything from the score to the colour grading screams out Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, but no more so than the season’s cleverly intertwined, character-driven storylines that are every bit as challenging and comic-book reverent as those found in 2016’s underrated powerhouse of a summer blockbuster.

 

Developed by the dream team of recent DC president and long-time chief creative officer Geoff Johns (Flashpoint, Infinite Crisis, Batman: Earth One), Akiva Goldsman (Star Trek: Discovery) and Arrowverse mastermind Greg Berlanti, Titans’ first season is built around an adult Dick Grayson and a teenage Rachel Roth as they discover each other and their rapidly escalating misadventures lead them to Koriand'r and eventually Gar. It’s a tight and diverse ensemble - one that’s seemingly custom-built for the inclusive sensibilities of today, and more importantly one that sets the stall for stories that transcend genre. From the grit and gore of crime-addled Gotham to the supernatural horror of Raven and comedy sci-fi of Beast Boy, Titans is every bit as eclectic as it is engrossing. While, like the best of today’s event series, the season’s storylines follow an ongoing arc, its episodes are nonetheless discrete little stories - when you hit play, you never know whether you’ll be delving into the murky legacy of the Bat with Dick Grayson; the wacky world of the Doom Patrol with Gar; Kory’s forgotten Tamaranean mission; or Rachel’s chilling past - and even more terrifying present. 

As a Batman nut, inevitably it was the allure of seeing a more mature live-action take on Dick Grayson that drew me to Titans, and Brenton Thwaites does not disappoint in bringing to life a jaded and dangerously violent young man who’s lost somewhere in that fascinating lacuna between Robin and Nightwing. His story in Titans isn’t just a quest for identity, but for belonging too, and pleasingly it’s one that draws heavily on Dick’s development in the comics, albeit with more than a few atypical spins on it. 

A case in point is the standout episode “Jason Todd”, which sees Dick encounter Batman’s new sidekick in a tense tale that looks to lay the ghosts of Dick’s childhood to rest while confronting the duality still tearing him in two head-on. Curran Walters is perfect as the ill-fated Robin replacement; his Jason could have been torn straight from the pages of an ’80s comic, were it not for the modernised body armour and misdirected aggression that calls to mind Damian Wayne as much as it does Jason Todd. Yet it’s this cocky, f-bomb dropping little shit that pulls Dick’s inner struggle into sharp focus: How can he say that he’s done with Batman and Robin, only to dust off the red suit whenever duty calls? 

Thwaites’ fellow Home and Away alumnus Teagan Croft is every bit as impressive as Rachel Roth / Raven, whose personal storyline drives the entire season. As with Dick, Titans’ Raven is a largely faithful but utterly grounded take on the character. The darkness within Rachel - her “soul-self”, if you like - is reflected in a sullen, gothic façade that screams teenage angst whilst belying the extent of the rage broiling away inside of her. Yet as the series progresses, and particularly through its depiction of her budding friendship with Gar, her empathic abilities come to the fore and we even see flashes of a “normal” teenager; of a sweet vulnerability often masked by a terrifying and overwhelming power. It’s a carefully constructed, layered rendition of one of DC’s most difficult-to-nail characters. 

Much was made of the casting of Anna Diop (24: Legacy) as Kory / Starfire, and as someone who nearly melted when Doctor Who changed gender, I can at least understand why avid fans take umbrage with changes in the realisation of much-loved characters, if not how they often express their ire. But with Kory, all the show has done is to change the colour of her skin; it’s no more contentious than casting Grant Gustin as dark-haired Barry Allen or having Stephen Amell play a Green Arrow free of that embarrassing bycocket. That’s certainly not to say that a character’s skin colour can’t be inviolate when it’s central to who that character is or what their story represents - within the worlds of DC, having J’onn J’onzz masquerade as a white man just wouldn’t work, for instance - but that is clearly not the case with Starfire. As a character, Kory remains true to the comics in every significant way, and Diop’s playful, bad-ass performance is breathtakingly good. Starfire makes Titans pop as effectively as her magenta hair does the ubiquitous grey cinematography. Make no mistake, she’s the face of the series - the image that lingers once you look away from the poster.

Rounding out the team is Ryan Potter’s (Big Hero 6) Garfield Logan, who brings some much-needed levity to a dark and brooding show, and somehow without undermining the sensitivity and loneliness at the heart of the character. This kid’s a tiger who doesn’t want to have to bite; an awkward, video-game nerd forced to play Titan. And whilst he is still instantly recognisable, Titans’ Gar eschews his traditional green look in favour of the actor’s natural skin tone (a move that, funnily enough, doesn’t seem to have attracted the same level of scorn as Starfire’s less conspicuous change of hue). Gar’s reimagining makes sense to me on a lot of levels, removing a lot of needless obstacles in the storytelling in addition to saving Potter countless hours in the make-up chair. I suspect that it’s also for practical reasons that, at least for now, Beast Boy’s metamorphic powers are limited to assuming the form of a slightly unconvincing tiger. Green Tiger Boy it may be, then, but as green tiger boys go he’s in a league of his own. 

The season’s villains are a similarly varied bunch, and, like the Titans, hail from corners of the DC Universe seldom explored in the mainstream. Though only minions of the inevitable, Raven-related big bad, the Nuclear Family make the transition to live action the most effectively, providing the still coming-together Titans with a threat that’s often as silly as it is sinister, though Robin’s mid-season nemesis, Nick Zucco - imagine Two-Face crossed with the Phantom of the Opera - really gives them a run for their money. 

All told, DC Universe’s streaming service could not have had a brighter - well, darker - start than Titans. With the Doom Patrol spin-off series now underway and a second season of Titans in the works, this show is already shaping up to be the bedrock of a fantastic new DC TV universe.

Of course, I still think that DC have missed a trick with Titans and Doom Patrol. Comic book fans love crossovers, as do, it seems, the binge-watchers of tomorrow. But with the apparently divorced DCEU intent on limiting itself to the silver screen, setting itself apart from even the could-have-been Man of Steel prequel, Krypton; the Arrowverse the exclusive preserve of the CW; Black Lightning off doing its own thing, at least for now; and FOX’s soon-to-be-canned Gotham beyond the reach of even the Waverider, DC really need to somehow consolidate their ongoing ventures if they are to garner the same level of viewership and acclaim as the those unified under the banners of Star Wars; Star Trek; and, of course, the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Titans’ home service is, after all, named DC Universe - not DC Multiverse. 

Whilst DC Universe is not yet available in the UK, the first season of Titans is currently available to stream on Netflix. At the time of writing, there is no official word on when we can expect DC Universe to be available in the UK.