A Death in the Family commentary by yours truly
Jim Starlin your burning hatred for Jason makes his characterization so interesting istg
Bruce was 100% right in removing Jason from the field, while was wrong in putting him there in the first place, he realized his mistake and corrected it.
More on his reasoning for putting Jason on the field (making him robin) can be seen in detective comics #574
The Titans were alerted Joker scaped?! Can't imagine how guilty Dick felt when he came back to earth and saw the notice.
“Why didn’t Batman call backup? The situation was pretty manageable per superhero standards until it went to shit in a matter of minutes.
The decision to chase the madman with the nuke instead of going after Jason (when he ran away and was suspected to be in gotham) was correct imo. Not only is Jason a trained vigilante that can also easily access to Bruce's money, Alfred is looking for him in the meantime, he didn't forget about him.
And they find him! And Bruce immediately gets involved in the search for his mom! He completely understands why he wants to meet her and is very supportive!
Bruce is NOT at fault for Jason's death, neither is Jason, if anything, it's on Sheila and The Joker full stop.
Jason was a teenager going through a very distressing time, violent and almost suicidal in Bruce’s eyes, if Bruce tried to bench him again or drag him to the laughing gas truck chase, he would have run away like he already did, because he's dead set in finding his mom and he will remain by her side by all means.
I found the theme about Bruce having to weight The Mission against Jason very interesting. His son or the greater good? What matters most to him? And when he does put Jason first, it’s too late.
I think his death was unavoidable in the sense that with or without Bruce's help his mind was going to find his bio mom.
The only way Bruce could have prevented it was by addressing Jason's violent spiral in a way that would have actually connected with him.
Because Bruce knows there's something wrong with Jason, and he tries to help! But it's not the right way for Jason! And so, it doesn’t work! And the love was there! And the intention was there! But it wasn't enough!
"But Bruce didn't avenge him!"
Bruce (in shock and probably actively dissociating because I don’t think he could have given his statement to the police while in Brucie mode otherwise): Get your ass ready joker because I’m going to fucking GET YOU
I think we shouldn’t take Bruce 180° in personality as his true unfiltered opinion, his violence and isolation are clearly motivated by grief.
Did Jason's death kill the parental and loving Bruce that we knew in pre and post crisis too? I think I need to read more comics to find out.
Also! The amount of times Bruce has tried to kill the joker and has been stopped/discouraged by others, talk about plot armor!
He also tries to avenge Jason in Batman: Hush but is stopped by Catwoman and Jim Gordon (ignore Loeb saying Jason wasn’t skilled enough he’s just talking shit)
Bruce telling Alfred not to contact Dick was about emotional support, they knew dick knew, Bruce probably got an alert that Dick accessed the batcomputer file.
Yes, Dick knew Jason was dead weeks after the fact (Bruce did indeed not tell him, someone else did), BUT he was also invited to the funeral and didn't show up.
Dick doesn’t get mad about it because he understands Bruce is grieving and forgetting to tell him wasn’t something made out of malice (See new Titans vol. 1 #55) Their conversation is so interesting too!!! (Ignore the punch)
In general, I want to study Dick’s reactions to Jason’s death under a microscope because there’s so much to say about this exchange. Jason is not a martyr who died for a greater cause nor was he aware of what he was getting into! He’s a person! A child that didn’t deserve any of the shit he went through!
In conclusion, I highly recommend this comic + NTT #55, they are very good and clear a lot of fandom misconceptions about Jason's death and people's opinion surrounding it.
2087
jbbartram-illu
kianamaiart
tangentwithtanner
blakekathryn
dededos
germansingergirl