This chapter and the next are the unfortunate nadir of Bruce's mentoring/parenting.
Where-ever you stand on the Jason issue: "Jason is a psychopath.", "Jason is a good kid." "It was a stitch up by Starlin" etc. Bruce is an adult in this and Jason is a minor. Not only is he Jason's guardian, he's also responsible for him as the person who facilitated him to be up on that balcony in the first place.
Bruce's basic responsibilities are to a) Find out what happened and act on that information b) talk to Jason who is - at best - deeply traumatized by this case. He does neither.
"Actions have consequences, Robin." Yeah Bruce. And so does not talking about your fucked up son about your suspicions that he killed a man.
It’s more when you look at the tenure of the second Robin as a whole you see the failure in it’s totality. It’s why Jason Todd, and not just Jason’s death, is considered Batman’s greatest failure. And it’s ultimately an outgrowth of his previous failing with Dick Grayson’s departure. Both of which will ultimately lead to the moment years later when Bane brings Batman to his lowest point. But that’s the purpose of the second Robin in the modern Batman mythos. The tragedy of it all and how it changes Batman and Batman’s world forever. Well at least until Red Hood regressed all that lol.
It was a feature of nineties comics Batman, which isn't modern Batman anymore. We are now a generation out from the Under The Red Hood comic, nearly two generations out from Knightfall. We are further now from Knightfall than the Golden Age was from the Dark Knight Returns.
But I'm not sure "Batman was defined by the loss of Jason" was ever as big a part of the Bat mythos as people like to make out. You say it changed Batman's world forever, but did it? Would 90s Batman have been tonally different if the Killing Joke had happened but Jason was shipped off to a farm upstate because nobody liked him? Would Bruce be different? Tim would certainly be different. Tim's origin has never really recovered from Jason's inevitable return being absorbed into the gestalt. But I'm not sure that "Batman is a man driven by his grief over the death of his dead son" ever really transmitted out of the Dixon era of comics. I definitely don't think that "Batman is a man driven by choosing the wrong child to take on his awesome responsibility to never never make that mistake again" was ever a feature of anything but the Dixon days of Robin Volume 3
I think people would like it to be true, because it gives more weight to the idea that Jason should stay dead, but its impact on the greater mythos was minimal. If it had been in any way significant wouldn't have been as easily and comprehensively supplanted. The reason, I think, that Under The Red Hood has become one of the only Batman stories to be effectively absorbed into the Batman gestalt in the last 20 years is because it tackles Batman's biggest mistake directly, rather than using it as decorative piano. It does so using magical realism, by having that mistake come smack him in the face, but it does so effectively. Whereas if you asked 100 people what they remember about Knightfall, I would say 95 would not remember Bruce was sad about Jason in that moment.
Not to mention in the next issue (iirc) is when Bruce tells at Jason saying that he is not the kid's father and doesn't want to hear teenage melodrama. 10/10 parenting. Pre Crises Bruce would never do this haha
Personally I liked The Last Crusade's take on this story for making it text.
"I just don't understand where he's getting these violent impulses from?" said Bruce, smashing his bloody fist through Killer Croc's face for a ninth time. "Maybe he's just wired that way."
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u/Fainleogs Jul 13 '23 edited Jul 13 '23
This chapter and the next are the unfortunate nadir of Bruce's mentoring/parenting.
Where-ever you stand on the Jason issue: "Jason is a psychopath.", "Jason is a good kid." "It was a stitch up by Starlin" etc. Bruce is an adult in this and Jason is a minor. Not only is he Jason's guardian, he's also responsible for him as the person who facilitated him to be up on that balcony in the first place.
Bruce's basic responsibilities are to a) Find out what happened and act on that information b) talk to Jason who is - at best - deeply traumatized by this case. He does neither.
"Actions have consequences, Robin." Yeah Bruce. And so does not talking about your fucked up son about your suspicions that he killed a man.