Red Hood
Red Hood | |
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Publication information | |
Publisher | DC Comics |
First comic appearance | As Joker: Detective Comics #168 (February 1951) As Jason Todd: Batman #635 (February 2005) Red Hood Gang: Batman Vol 2 #0 (November 2012) |
Created by | Bill Finger (writer) Lew Sayre Schwartz (artist) Win Mortimer (artist) |
The Red Hood is an alias used by multiple characters appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics.[1] The identity was first used in the 1951 story line "The Man Behind the Red Hood!", which provides the earliest origin story for the Joker. The storyline depicts an unnamed criminal wearing a red dome-shaped hood who, after a chance encounter with Batman, is disfigured by chemicals and becomes insane, giving birth to his future Joker persona.
Five decades later, the identity was used again in the 2005–2006 story arc, Batman: Under the Hood, in which Jason Todd, Batman's second crime-fighting partner who had been killed by the Joker, comes back to life as a violent vigilante, using his killer's former alias. Since his return, Jason operates as the Red Hood in the main DC Comics continuity. In The New 52, a 2011 reboot of the DC Comics universe, one storyline introduces a criminal organization called the Red Hood Gang, and retroactively establishes the Joker (prior to his transformation) as its former leader, and Jason as a former member.
Both the Joker and Jason Todd incarnations of the Red Hood, as well as the Red Hood Gang, have been adapted into several forms of media outside of comics, such as films, television series, and video games.
Fictional character biography
The Joker
The Red Hood first appeared in
In Batman: The Killing Joke, writer Alan Moore added the new detail that the future Joker, at that time a cash-strapped, unsuccessful comedian, had been made to adopt the Red Hood guise by a gang of criminals so that he could play the patsy for them. This story presented a darker version of the origin and introduced the idea that the Joker acted as an unreliable narrator concerning his own past.
A
Jason Todd
Another version of Red Hood appears in the Daredevil storyline running through Batman comics, written by
In the second story arc of
After Barry Allen's involuntary tampering with the continuum, Red Hood is shown, along with Arsenal and Starfire, as one of the Outlaws, a close knit group of anti-heroes. Still not above killing, and still angry at the world, Jason has now reverted to the street clothes costume, forgoing his feud with Batman for stealthier, more cloak and dagger missions. Eventually, Jason and Batman reconcile and call a truce between them.[3][4]
In an interview for the Infinite Crisis hardcover, Jeanine Schaefer states that Geoff Johns originally planned to reintroduce Red Hood as the Jason Todd of the Earth-Two universe, but such plans were discarded.[5]
Red Hood Gang
In The New 52, a 2011 reboot of the DC Comics universe, a gang called the "Red Hood Gang" appears in issue #0 of Batman (vol. 2). A young Bruce Wayne, not yet Batman, has recently returned to Gotham to start his crime-fighting career. One of Bruce's early targets is the Red Hood Gang, which he manages to infiltrate. To Bruce's dismay, the leader of the Red Hood Gang knows his group has been infiltrated and manages to weed out a disguised Bruce. Though the Red Hood Gang attempts to kill him, Bruce manages to escape into the sewers after the police show up to break up a robbery. The Red Hood Gang eventually follows him into the sewer system, but a prototype motorcycle hidden in the tunnels allows Bruce to escape. The Red Hood Gang is later seen outside of Bruce's apartment, scoping it out for their next hit.[6]
The Red Hood Gang subsequently reappeared in the first story arc of the "Zero Year" event, "Secret City", where, five months prior to the birth of Batman, Bruce gets involved with the Red Hood Gang to spoil their plans to sink a pickup truck full of men who refused to join their ranks. During this encounter, it is revealed that the Red Hood Gang's ranks have expanded. It turns out their leader has begun blackmailing innocent Gotham citizens into joining the group, threatening violence against them if they refuse to be his henchmen.[7] They eventually steal an airship belonging to the Penguin and several weapons from Wayne Industries. Bruce discovers that the Red Hood Gang has been doing business with Bruce's uncle, Philip Kane, who has been selling them weapons after being forced to join the gang. When Bruce discovers this, he goes to tell Alfred, but a bomb from the Red Hood Gang to "welcome him back to the city" blows up the apartment.[8]
The motivation of the Red Hood Gang comes to light, and it is revealed that they had been inspired by the impact that the murder of Bruce's parents had upon the city. The murders of the famous and beloved Doctor and Mrs. Wayne had made the residents of Gotham fearful, since if even the rich and powerful could be gunned down by a random criminal, no one was safe from crime. Embracing nihilism, the Red Hood Gang killed, robbed, and caused suffering to make the average citizen know their lives are worthless and they can and will be murdered at any given moment.[9]
The culmination of the Red Hood Gang's campaign of terror is their plan to take over the Axis Chemical Plant and use its resources to create a flesh-eating bacteria. Batman lures the Gotham City Police Department to the plant. During the raid and the battle that ensues, Phillip Kane is mortally wounded by the leader, who accuses him of betrayal. Most of the gang is arrested, while Batman goes after the leader, who ultimately falls into a container of chemicals rather than be taken alive. A few days later, police discover the body of the leader of the gang, Liam Distal, stuffed into a barrel of lye. The lye has dissolved the better part of his remains, meaning there is no way to tell when he was killed. Bruce surmises that the Red Hood Gang leader he encountered was an impostor who killed Distal and took his place, but there is no way to confirm this, nor know when the impostor murdered Distal.[10] Later, the remaining members of the gang are killed in an explosion caused by the Joker. After this, the Red Hood Gang seems to be defunct.[11]
In other media
Television
- A heroic, alternate reality version of the Joker / Red Hood appears in the Batman: The Brave and the Bold episode "Deep Cover for Batman!", voiced by Jeff Bennett. Being the last bastión of resistance against Owlman's rule, he ends Up summoning allies from alternate universes, chasing Batman to arrive at his dimension. He soon becomes an ally of Batman and with his help they end Owlman's crime league, the Injustice League. [12]
- Two incarnations of the Red Hood Gang appear in Gotham.[13]
- The first version appears in the episode "Gotham City Police Department (GCPD) kill Trope, Regan, and Haskins, though a young boy picks up the fallen mask while they are not looking. According to the Gotham Chronicle website, Destro survived being shot and is in police custody.[14]
- A second Red Hood Gang appears in the episode "Mad City: Anything for You", consisting of an unidentified leader (portrayed by Edward Nygma discover Gilzean's connections to the Red Hood Gang. He kills the gang, but Nygma and Victor Zsaszeventually expose Gilzean.
- The first version appears in the episode "
- The Jason Todd incarnation of the Red Hood appears in the
- An unidentified Red Hood makes a cameo appearance in the Harley Quinn episode "Gotham's Hottest Hotties".
Film
- The Jason Todd and Joker incarnations of the Red Hood appear in Batman: Under the Red Hood, voiced by Jensen Ackles and John DiMaggio respectively.[16]
- A statue of an unidentified incarnation of the Red Hood appears in Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox.
- The Joker incarnation of the Red Hood appears in Batman: The Killing Joke, voiced by Mark Hamill.
- An unidentified incarnation of the Red Hood makes a non-speaking appearance in The Lego Batman Movie as one of many villains enlisted by the Joker to attack Gotham City.
- A Feudal Japan-inspired variation of Jason Todd / Red Hood appears in Batman Ninja, voiced by Akira Ishida in the Japanese version and by Yuri Lowenthal in the English dub.
- The Jason Todd incarnation of the Red Hood appears in Lego DC Batman: Family Matters, voiced by Jason Spisak.
- The Jason Todd incarnation of the Red Hood appears in Batman: Death in the Family, voiced by Vincent Martella.
Video games
- The Joker incarnation of the Red Hood appears as a DLC skin for the Joker in Injustice: Gods Among Us.
- The Joker incarnation of the Red Hood appears in Batman: Arkham Origins.
- The Jason Todd incarnation of the Red Hood appears in Batman: Arkham Knight, voiced by Troy Baker.[17]
- The Jason Todd incarnation of the Red Hood appears as a playable DLC character in Injustice 2, voiced by Cameron Bowen.[18]
- The Jason Todd incarnation of the Red Hood appears as a playable character in Gotham Knights, voiced by Stephen Oyoung.
Lego Batman
- The Jason Todd incarnation of the Red Hood appears as a playable character in the Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita versions of Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes.
- The Jason Todd incarnation of the Red Hood appears as a playable character in Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham, voiced again by Troy Baker.
- The Jason Todd incarnation of the Red Hood appears as a playable character in Lego DC Super-Villains, voiced by Cameron Bowen.
Miscellaneous
- The Red Hood appears in The Batman Adventures #8. Due to the series being cancelled, Dan Slott and Ty Templeton of the creative team hoped for a chance to resolve it, though they have yet to do so. Slott later added that the Red Hood would have tied into a subplot concerning Lucius Fox, the Valestra mob from Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, and the Powers family from Batman Beyond as well as be revealed as Andrea Beaumont's mother Victoria Beaumont, the real head of the Valestra mob who faked her death in an attempt to get her family away from them, only to learn they had become involved with them anyway and seek revenge on her former cohorts.[19]
- An original incarnation of the Red Hood appears in Batman '66. This version is Professor Anders Overbeck, a psychiatrist who was brainwashed by the Joker through his malfunctioning brain regulator machine.
Merchandise
- An action figure of the original version of Red Hood was released as part of the Justice League Unlimited toyline, included in a six figure set.
- In July 2014, ).
- A Red Hood figure was released in Mattel's DC Multiverse line, based on his appearance in Batman: Arkham Knight.
- In 2015, Arkham Knightfigure's body, and a slight repaint of the Red Hood figure's head, depicting Todd's transition between his Arkham Knight and Red Hood personas.
- Funko has released a Red Hood Mystery Mini in their Batman: Arkham Series line.
- The Imaginext DC Super Friends line includes a Jason Todd Red Hood in the Series 2 blind bag set from 2016.
See also
References
- ISBN 9780345501066.
- ISBN 978-1-4654-5357-0.
- ^ Red Hood and the Outlaws #1–2 (2011). DC Comics.
- ^ Red Hood and the Outlaws #18 (2013). DC Comics.
- ^ Infinite Crisis (Hardcover ed.). p. 258.
Well, Geoff's idea was to have Red Hood be the Jason Todd of Earth-Two. So he'd be this kid, who wanted to be Batman's sidekick. He sneaks into the Batcave, and the first thing he sees as he boots up the bat-computers is ... Batman murdered. And so he uses Bruce's stuff, training himself to take over for him. I think there was even talk of his possibly being Deathstroke's Robin.
- ^ Batman (vol. 2) #0. DC Comics.
- ^ Batman (vol. 2) #21. DC Comics.
- ^ Batman (vol. 2) #22. DC Comics.
- ^ Batman (vol. 2) #23. DC Comics.
- ^ Batman (vol. 2) #24. DC Comics.
- ^ Red Hood and the Outlaws #25. DC Comics.
- ^ "345552_FINAL_Publicity.jpg (image)". 2.bp.blogspot.com. Retrieved 2010-12-29.
- ^ Moviepilot (4 February 2015). "The Red Hood Gang Comes to Gotham in February". moviepilot.com. Archived from the original on 14 July 2015. Retrieved 6 February 2015.
- ^ "Gotham Chronicle —". gothamchronicle.com. Archived from the original on 31 July 2017. Retrieved 18 March 2018.
- ^ Del Rosario, Alexandra (August 22, 2020). "'Titans': Red Hood, Barbara Gordon And Scarecrow Set To Appear In Season 3 – DC FanDome". Deadline.
- ^ "New Batman DVD to peek out from 'Under the Red Hood' – Hero Complex – Los Angeles Times". Los Angeles Times.
- ^ Kato, Matthew (July 23, 2014). "Play As The Red Hood In Batman: Arkham Knight including his also the main villain of the story Arkham Knight". Game Informer. GameStop. Archived from the original on July 29, 2014. Retrieved June 21, 2016.
- ^ Craddock, David. "Injustice 2's Red Hood DLC Arrives on June 13". Shacknews. Retrieved 2017-06-26.
- ^ "CBR.com - The World's Top Destination For Comic, Movie & TV news". CBR. Archived from the original on 14 August 2016. Retrieved 18 March 2018.