The Readers Wanted Jason Todd Dead

DC Comics, or to be exact, the readers of DC Comics, decided to knock off Jason Todd, the second person to become Robin the Boy Wonder, in 1988. the thing was, the creatives at DC weren't very fond of what Jason had become, so they decided to let the readers decide his fate.

That fate was death, and for a very long time no one missed him. in fact, people came to see Jason's death as a major piece of Batman lore, a moment in time that transformed the Caped Crusader and made him change his ways while creating a stark reminder of his failures set dead in the center of the Batcave.

An Echo of Crisis on Infinite Earths

There was a time, long ago, when superheroes didn't die on a regular basis. Killing off a character was seen as truly shocking and unexpected, which made each death all the more powerful. Crisis on Infinite Earths, which, along with killing Flash and Supergirl, erased thousands of characters from existence, changed everything.

But even then, with so many characters killed off, there was still a sense of surprise when it happened. In part because it was still a time when, if a character died, there was an honest chance that they would stay dead.

DC's Struggle to Give Jason a Purpose

And then, decades later, DC brought Jason Todd back to life. And he's been pretty useless ever since. The Readers Wanted Jason Todd Dead. Jim Starlin, who wrote Batman: Death in the Family with art by the great Jim Apro, had long wanted to kill Jason Todd. He hated the character and Denny O'Neil, the then editor of the Batman books, felt the same way.

At one point, the two even came up with the idea of having Jason die of AIDS as a way to bring attention to a horrific disease that the US government was essentially ignoring and, as a bonus, get rid of a character they despised. while the bigwigs at DC didn't want to kill Jason Todd by way of AIDS , they were open to the idea of killing him.

What Auditors Flagged in the May Filing

And they saw a way to make more than a buck off the idea, too. And so, Batman: A Death in the Family was born . In the story, Joker would beat Jason Todd with a crowbar and leave him in a building that explodes before Batman can reach it. At the end of the issue, readers were presented with two phone numbers.

They could call one to save Robin, or the other to kill him. And it would only cost them fifty cents per call. DC Comics put the onus on the readers, allowing them to decide what happened to Jason Todd. And, when the votes were counted, poor old Jason was dead.

Who is the Unnamed Buyer?

It was close. Very close. 5,271 people called the live line, while 5,343 people called the die line. A 72 vote difference. Still, the readers had decided. Jason Todd was, indeed, dead. In time, Batman put a monument to his fallen sidekick in the Batcave: one of Jason's Robin suits suspended in a glass case, reminding everyone in the Bat-Family just how dangerous their work was.

Then,in 2005, Superboy-Prime punched the wall of reality and Jason Todd came back to life. And, ever since, DC has never really figured out what to do with him.

A Familiar Pattern from the 2019 Crash

In Infinite Crisis, the same story that was used to explain how Jason Todd came back to life, Batman, looking to really knock the wind out of Superman's sails, said one of the harshest things ever written into a comic (all credit to Geoff Johns): 'Everyone looks up to you. They listen to you. If you tell them to fight, they'll fight. But they need to be inspired. And let's face it, Superman, the last time you really inspired anyone was when you were dead.'

The moment served as an important part of the story, but it was also a bit of meta commentary on how DC Comics had not been using Superman well in years.. That the character had become stagnant and, because of that, no longer felt special.