So why bring Jason Todd back?

[rossshow]

http://comics.ign.com/articles/642/642257p2.html


[b]JW: Because it made a really good story. To begin with, how it started with me, in "Hush", when [Jeph] Loeb and [Jim] Lee brought him back. And I've told Jeph this, I think the first time I saw him in "Hush" and after they brought him back and it turned out to be Clayface. I told him the truth, I said, "Man, I was so disappointed when it was Clayface." And he said, "Well..." And I said, "No, f--- well." I was thrilled, because I didn't see it coming and I was flooded with ideas. I said, "Man, I wish I'd thought of that, because nothing could be more horrible." And Jeph said, "Yeah, yeah I agree. " and we left it at that.

As someone who writes comics I read this and thought, "Man what a great idea." I saw the whole story, the whole thing laid out now. Jason's back. I've said this since then, I don't care how he got back. The story of how he came back was really secondary to the fact that he was back. This was greatest failure. This right here, the embodiment of it. He basically created Jason to become a hero and here he is coming back as a monster. And that's what I was thinking, the more horrific he is the more horrible it is and the worse it is for Batman. This is a father who lost a son and the son has returned bad. He's come back wrong

[rossshow]

saw it all in front of me and everything I've done with the Red Hood and Jason Todd is what I saw, just the ideas came to me and I said, "That is going to be so great." Because, Batman is a character -- and this is stuff I talked about with [Brian] Bendis and Bendis has said in the press is that he doesn't want to write Batman and I was right there with him for a very long time. Batman's hard, because so much of it has been done. That meaning that Batman is such a psychological character and he's been down so many roads and been dissected so many times, there are very few tales that are original and fresh that could show a different aspect of his character. And Jason Todd coming back, that's horrific. That's the biggest thing that could happen to him. Because it's iconic, Because it's big. Because I think the biggest iconic piece in the Batcave is Robin's tomb. You know, the glass case holding his costume. Guys aren't so much drawing the dinosaur and the big penny anymore. Its presence is a reminder of Batman's greatest failure -- everything from how human he is to even a level of his own spirituality. And now all that's being challenged.

It wasn't simple enough for me [to have] Jason just come back and be evil. Instead, he's come back and he's an extension, probably of what he was on the way to becoming, which is a version of Batman, but one that doesn't have the same boundaries. And what could be worse? Nothing. And I just loved it. That's the difference between being a reader and someone who writes the comics. You fall in love with the characters so much, but not enough that you aren't willing to do terrible things to them for the story. And that's good. Fans are supposed to get angry and worked up. We want them to get angry and worked up. You get readers saying, "I can't believe you're doing that to Batman." That's one thing opposed to, "Boy that story sucked. That was so by the numbers and uninteresting." It's good that it's upsetting and it hits you in the gut. That's our job, to put the characters through those paces.


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