Jason Todd is a rare character whose existence is equally provocative within the DC Universe as it is for comic book fans. That is, when Jason Todd walks into a room, his presence has a loaded significance for both the people standing in the room with him and for us when we’re reading the scene on the page. Thousands of DC fans today remember calling in to vote for Jason’s Robin to live or die during the events of 1988’s A Death in the Family. To put it simply, Jason is a wound for Batman and for us as readers—one that never quite healed until it was reopened all over again when the Dark Knight was confronted by what appeared to be a grown-up and reanimated Jason during Jeph Loeb, Jim Lee, Scott Williams and Alex Sinclair’s Batman: Hush.

While Jason Todd wouldn’t return to life and the world of Batman until 2005’s “Under the Hood” arc in Batman, his brief “appearance” in Hush by way of Clayface laid the groundwork for a whole new generation of fans. At the end of Batman #617, a fully grown “Jason Todd” accosts Batman, holding the current Robin, Tim Drake, in a headlock with a blade to his throat. Artist Jim Lee designed an instantly iconic look for this version of Jason, complete with a white streak of hair. The sight of Jason towering over Tim made the scene even more arresting, as it hammered home how young the second Robin was when we last saw him get murdered by the Joker. Lee’s artwork reminded us of how, like Bruce Wayne, Jason Todd had to grow up quickly, much too quickly, making his tragic end all the more upsetting to think about.

While the white hair streak wasn’t part of Jason’s look when he came back properly in the events of Batman: Under the Red Hood, it’s become a design element that fans and artists alike can’t let go of. Artist Nick Robles drew Jason with it in for his Robins #2 variant cover, while Giannis Milonogiannis brought it into the cyberpunk setting of Future State: Gotham. More recently, Jason sports the white streak in The Joker: The Man Who Stopped Laughing, thanks to artist Carmine Di Giandomenico.

It isn’t difficult to see why Hush’s Jason Todd has been so enduring. Aside from how cool he looks, the character design taps into a truth we already know about the character. A marker like a white streak feels tailored to Jason because we know, as Batman fans, what he has been through. Even before he was beaten with a crowbar and then blown up by the Joker, Jason Todd had a difficult life. He grew up in the roughest part of Gotham, where he didn’t think twice about trying to steal the wheels off of the Batmobile as a child. In contrast to Dick Grayson and Tim Drake, Jason Todd had only fleeting experiences of joy as a child before he became Robin. When he appears in Hush with the white streak, his hair externalizes the pain that’s accumulated in all his years of life.

This is why Hush reimagined Jason Todd as a provocative foil to Batman in the years to come. Batman’s wounds are all internal, and he deliberately obscures anything that suggests his life as a vigilante carries an emotional or physical toll. I mean, the guy got his back broken by Bane and doesn’t even have a nasty scar to prove that it happened. And while Batman gets his fair share of injuries, which Dan Mora beautifully rendered in his cover for Detective Comics #1046, the Dark Knight keeps himself armored up in his Batsuit, or in a tailored suit or tux when he’s Bruce Wayne. His physical appearance exists within a state of denial, which is part of his tragedy as a character.

Jason Todd, on the other hand, is outwardly expressive, thanks to his appearance in Hush. He doesn’t make any effort to hide the white streak in his hair, itself a marker of how his character has had to live through far more than anyone his age should. It ties in with his outspoken personality, the source of countless arguments between him and Batman. Instead of wanting to bury his traumas like Batman does, Jason wants to exhume them. And it’s no accident that his first appearance in Hush is against the backdrop of his own grave.

Though it’s true that the Jason Todd of Hush wasn’t actually Jason Todd—rather, it was Clayface mimicking Jason to further destabilize Batman—the creative team struck dynamite with their vision of the character. Their faux Jason laid the groundwork for his actual return later that decade. As a Jason Todd fan myself, I couldn’t have asked for one of my favorite characters to return in such a fittingly dramatic way.
 

Batman: Hush by Jeph Loeb, Jim Lee, Scott Williams and Alex Sinclair is available in bookstores, comic shops, libraries and digital retailers. It can also be read in full on DC UNIVERSE INFINITE and has been reformatted to be read on your phone as part of DC GO!

Don’t miss the start of Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee’s H2SH, kicking off this month in Batman #158.

Jules Chin Greene writes about comics, TV, games and film for DC.com, and his work can also be found at Nerdist, Popverse and Multiverse of Color. You can follow him on Bluesky at @JulesChinGreene and on Instagram at @infinitevibes.

NOTE: The views and opinions expressed in this feature are solely those of Jules Chin Greene and do not necessarily reflect those of DC or Warner Bros. Discovery, nor should they be read as confirmation or denial of future DC plans.