An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Batman (Comics), Batman: Under the Red Hood (2010)
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Relationships: Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne
Characters: Jason Todd, Bruce Wayne
Additional Tags: Character Study, POV First Person, sorry about that one i tried it in third and it didn't work, POV Second Person, suprise, Post-Batarang Incident (Batman: Under the Red Hood), Post-Comic Arc: Under The Red Hood in Batman (1940) #635-641 and #645-650, AND HERE WE GO, Paranoia, Self-Harm, Arson, Suicidal Thoughts, see AN for more TWs, Attempted Masturbation
Summary:
You were ten when you panicked and hit a man in a dumbass bat suit with a tire iron. It was a good hit, too, you know that now. He must have been surprised. But you ran and panicked because you knew that fucker wasn’t there to help you. He’d beat the shit out of Cre’s dad last week. Left him in the hospital after stringing him up to a telephone pole for the whole world to see. You ran as fast as you could, imagining the cords already tightening around you as he strings you up next. He followed you and you followed him and then it was five years later and you were dying, dead, gasping at the inside of a coffin, crying for that big stupid bat costume.
------
Jason wakes up alive and is upset about that.
hiiiiiii first fic on our account posted :) pls enjoy me torturing one (1) jason todd.
if youre ever confused about why preboot!jason does something or acts in a certain way i ask you to consider that hes like 18 and super duper suicidal
“jasons methods in uth werent sustainable” he didnt intend to sustain them
“jasons a hypocrite and his motives are contradictory” teenagers arent known for being particularly rational
“jason didnt plan for the long term effects and power vacuum left by his takeover” jason didnt plan for the long term, Full Stop
“why does jason do the whole uth confrontation instead of just killing the joker” hes 18 and he wants his dad to choose him
“if jason is trying to reach out to people why is he such an asshole” he is reaching out to get them to kill him
“its egotistical for jason to think his approach is the only right one” have you met a teenage boy. like ever
i could go on but you get the point. if one questions preboot!jason todd then one must consider the fact that hes supposed to be drinking buzzballz under a bridge (or lowkey just jumping off of it) and instead hes dismantling a criminal network and replacing its leader with himself
timothy the teetotaler kills me. hes a DARE kid. dumping out his roommates alcohol and threatens to get him expelled. i know he acts like someones pulled a gun whenever they take out a joint and it will never not be funny. his idol is dick "lets all try cocaine!" grayson.
i know dick saw tim very gingerly pick up a dime bag o'weed one time like with his very fingertips trying not to touch The Substance Itself inside of the bag and was like Oh i cannot speak of my life
and tim'll get better but he's never gonna not be weird. its not helped that the one time he tried weed he had a panic attack and had to breathe into a paper bag for like 4 hours until he passed out. its hard to be weed normal when weed makes you abnormal.
i know the reveal to tim is totally accidental and like reflexive it's probably dick's thing where he id's drugs by tasting them they're on some kind of bust or recon mission and tim's like hey... do you think this is cocaine or heroin? and dicks like 'thats coke for sure lemme see' and just sticks his finger in there and puts it in his mouth and tims like. NIGHTWING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and then they look at each other in silent horror for like 10 seconds before dick's like. '...its cocaine.'
tims trying to get him to leslies hes like COCAINE CAN GIVE YOU A HEART ATTACK THE SECOND IT HITS YOUR BLOODSTREAM ARE YOU HAVING A HEART ATTACK DO WE NEED TO GO TO THE CLINIC and dick is trying to deescalate the situation before tim tells bruce and ruins dick's entire year and keeps making it worse. robin this amount of cocaine will not kill me ive done way more cocaine than that "YOU WHAT!" it's barely even a kick i promise "YOURE ADDICTED TO COCAINE??" NO i just- i dont- it's been- at parties- "WHAT KIND OF PARTIES ARE YOU GOING TO????" NORMAL ONES.
while u all know to me clark kent smallville is a kinsey 6 homosexual you maybe don't know i think he's the only one like i think pretty much all other clark's are straight or bisexual and i think he finds this out at the big multiverse meeting like talking about how hard it is that he doesn't want to fuck his hot girlfriend and not being attracted to women but forced to have so much sex with them and all the other supermen are like um no yeah i do like personally for myself no hate only love personally for myself i love eating pussy. yeah women are extremely attractive and then they can see he's starting to freak out so a few of them are like but you know men are great too! and birthright superman is like yeah i mean i mostly prefer men and 2025 superman is like lois pegs me which isn't the same thing but he thinks it might help. which it doesn't. and gay clark kent smallville is like oh my god even among all the other supermen in the multiverse im completely alone and a freak next thing i know you guys are going to tell me you weren't friends with lex luthor and 2025 superman is like LEX??? and current run superman is like i mean yeah sure i let him hit sometimes (shrug) and birthright superman is like the way our friendship in high school fell apart is my greatest regret. and gay clark is like oh wow at least there's that he was so much cooler and older i never understood why he'd want to waste his time with a high school kid like me and then all the supermen are like wait what. and clark's like um we met when i was in high school? and they're like and he was too right? and clark's like no he was CEO of lexcorps and they're like wait so how old and gay clark's like im not sure i should answer that and theyre all like gay clark how old was he!! and gay clark is like im MORE than just gay clark and then 2025 superman is like yeah you're also statuatory in progress clark and then he's like darn it sorry that wasn't very nice and gay clark is like (crossing his arms) i dont have to listen to this. my wife is waiting for me on the other side of the portal. and then while all the other supermen are mouthing things like wife? wasn't he gay? he jumps back through. and tells lois that they'll have to reschedule they're monthly two minute missionary because he thinks the trip did something to his body.
oh hey just remembered i found a book at the store the other day that listed out the timeline for pre-new52 batman. fascinating stuff to me only probably. gonna attach the photos but the text i’ll type out beneath a read more bc this bitch is long
PAGE 1
Timeline
•Bruce Wayne is bom to Martha Wayne and Dr Thomas Wayne He is their orty chid and is heir to a family fortune going back generations to the founding of Gotham Cty.
• Bruce grows up in Wayne Manor, attended to by Alred Pennyworth, the family butler. His childhood friend is Thomas Tommy" Eliot.
• At an early age, Bruce falls into a concealed pie in the grounds of Wayne Manor and lands in a huge underground cave filled with bats.
• Dr. Thomas Wayne dresses as a costumed character he calls "the Batman" for a masquerade ball, and defeats a gang of hoodlums when they crash the party.
• After taking Bruce to a movie, Thomas and Martha Wayne are shot and killed by a mugger while walking though Gotham's notorious Crime Alley.
The gunman, a thug named Joe Chil, escapes and the case is never officially resolved. Leslie Thompkins is one of the first people to arrive at the murder scene and comforts a traumatized Bruce.
• Bruce grows up in the care of Alfred Pennyworth. In his early teens he leaves Gotham City to travel the world, studying criminology and forensics while training under the greatest martial arts masters.
• Years later, Bruce Wayne returns to Gotham. His body now a living weapon, he vows to battle wrongdoers and prevent crimes like the one that took his parents' lives. In his first outing he dresses in street clothes and is badly beaten. Recuperating back at Wayne Manor, he sees a gigantic bat crash through a window and takes it as an omen.
• Now determined to strike fear into the hearts of criminals as the Batman, Bruce develops his costume and weapons and begins renovating the cavern beneath Wayne Manor into his secret headquarters, the Batcave.
• In his first outings, Batman battles corrupt cops crooked politicians and the mobsters that control Gotham's underworld.
• James Gordon, a new face on the Gotham City police force, finds himself allying with Batman against the corruption that has taken root within the GCP.D. under the leadership of Commissioner Loeb.
• Selina Kyle is inspired by Batman's example and begins her career as Catwoman.
• Batman matches wits with the evil Professor Hugo Strange.
• Bruce Wayne becomes engaged to heiress Julie Madison. Meanwhile, Batman faces off against The Monk, a werewolf-vampire.
• An unknown comedian agrees to pose as a criminal kingpin called the Red Hood. While leading other crooks through a chemical factory, he is chased by Batman and falls into a bubbling vat. He emerges with his skin bleached chalk-white, and reinvents himself as the psychotic Joker.
• A horde of new "themed" villains appears in Gotham, inspired by the example that Batman himself has set. In short order the city is rocked with crimes by the Calendar Man, the Riddler, the Mad Hatter, Poison Ivy, the Scarecrow, and the slow-witted Solomon Grundy.
PAGE 2
The Gotham City Police Department places a Bat-Signal on the roof of its Gotham Central headquarters to alert Batman to emergencies.
• Batman teams up with James Gordon and district attorney Harvey Dent to take down the notorious Falcone crime family. In the process they find themselves on the trail of a serial killer known as Holiday.
•During courtroom proceedings, Harvey Dent is splashed with acid by a mob informant. The left side of his face suffers severe scarring, and Harvey becomes the double-sided villain Two-Face.
• The Penguin waddles into the Gotham City scene.
• Batman investigates the identity of the Hangman killer and once again crosses paths with the Falcone crime family.
• After his trapeze-artist parents are slain by gangster Boss Zucco, Dick Grayson joins the Dark Knight's crime-fighting crusade by taking on the role of Robin, the Boy Wonder.
•Thespian Basil Karlo takes on the role of serial murderer Clayface.
• Julie Madison calls off her engagement to Bruce due to his playboy ffestyle.
• Wonderland-themed, twin villains Tweedledee and Tweedledum arrive in Gotham City.
• The expert mercenary Deadshot takes aim at the Dark Knight.
• The criminal Killer Moth debuts but quickly meets defeat.
• Batman and Superman begin a semi-regular partnership to tackle large-scale threats together.
• Batman welcomes new members into his war on crime, and soon attracts an entire Batman Family. Ace the Bat-Hound is his canine partner, while former circus acrobat Kathy Kane becomes the original Batwoman.
• Batman adds the Bat-copter and the Whirly-Bat to his fleet of vehicles. These flying craft join the Batplane and give Batman dominance in the skies above Gotham.
• The brilliant scientist Victor Fries suffers a tragic accident, and soon Mr. Freeze becomes a chilling presence in Gotham's criminal underworld.
• Batman teams with Wonder Woman, Superman, the Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman, and Cyborg to form the Justice League of America.
• Matt Hagen becomes the monstrously malleable Clayface Il.
• Thomas Blake, better known as Catman, takes a swipe at the Dynamic Duo.
• Robin becomes a founding member of the Teen Titans alongside other super hero sidekicks.
• Barbara Gordon puts on the cape and cowl to become Gotham's latest hero Batgirl!
• Dick Grayson leaves the Batcave to attend Hudson University.
• Bruce Wayne and Alfred Pennyworth relocate their main base of operations to the rooftop penthouse of the Wayne Foundation building in the heart of Gotham City. A new Batcave is established beneath the Wayne Foundation's skyscraper.
PAGE 3
• Zoologist Kirk Langstrom experiences a strange genetic transmutation and becomes the monstrous Man-Bat.
• The deadly Talia al Ghül and her father, Ra's al Ghü, begin to take more active roles in Batman's Ife. With the backing of the League of Assassins.
Ra's al Ghül plots genocide in order to restore the planet's ecological balance.
• Dr. Phosphorus makes his debut as a villain after suffering the agony of a radiation accident.
• Platinum-haired Silver St Cloud becomes Bruce Wayne's latest romantic interest, though their relationship is short-lived.
• Lucius Fox becomes Bruce Wayne's business manager and accepts responsibilty for running the day-to-day business operations of Wayne Enterprises.
• Gangster Maxie Zeus surfaces in Gotham, convinced he is the living incarnation of the Greek god of lightning.
• The mutated Kler Croc begins his run of reptilian villainy.
•Batman quits the Justice League of America and assembles his own team of super heroes, the Outsiders, whose members included Katana, Metamorpho, Geo-Force, Looker, Halo, and Black Lightning.
• Jason Todd officially debuts as the second Robin.
• Dick Grayson abandons the Robin role forever, becoming Nightwing to rescue his fellow Teen Titans from Deathstroke and the HIVE.
• Roman Sionis, alias Black Mask, breaks into Gotham's organized crime ranks as a major player.
• Multiple realities are merged into one during the epic event known as the Crisis on Infinite Earths. In the aftermath, some elements from Batman's history are rewritten as a new, unified timeline takes effect.
• The Ventriloquist and his puppet Scarface carve out a piece of the Gotham underworld from rival mob bosses.
• The artificially enhanced Russian assassin known as the KGBeast ignites a cold war in Batman's territory.
•Jason Todd goes in search of his real mother, but runs into a trap set by the Joker The Clown Prince of Crime beats the second Robin with a crowbar, then leaves him locked in a warehouse with a ticking time bomb. Batman arrives too late to save Jason from the explosion.
• The Joker shoots and paralyzes Barbara Gordon, and kidnaps Commissioner Gordon so he can subject him to psychological torture.
• No longer able to use her legs after the Joker's attack, Barbara Gordon takes on a new role as the all-seeing information broker Oracle.
• Tim Drake officially joins Batman's crusade as the third Robin.
• Deranged serial killer Mr. Zsasz becomes the latest maniac to terrorize the people of Gotham.
• Stephanie Brown, aka the Spoiler, becomes a vigilante to thwart her father, the Cluemaster.
• The villain called Bane defeats Batman in combat, breaking his back and leaving his paralyzed. Bruce Wayne is forced to relinquish the mantle of Batman to newcomer Jean-Paul Valley (Azrael) for a brief time.
PAGE 4
• As the new Batman, Jean-Paul Valley adopts a formidable suit of Bat-armor to defeat Bane.
• Now recovered from Bane's injury, Bruce Wayne reclaims the tile of Batman from Jean-Paul Valley.
• Bruce Wayne hooks up with a new flame, Gotham radio host Vesper Fairchild.
• Barbara Gordon, now Oracle, organizes a strike team called the Birds of Prey. Her partner is Dinah Lance, the Black Canary.
• A powerful earthquake rocks Gotham. Its citizens are evacuated and the city becomes a No Man's Land, ruled by criminal fiefdoms and protected by Batman and his agents.
• Martial arts prodigy Cassandra Cain inherits the mantle of Batgirl from Barbara Gordon.
• Former Arkham psychiatrist Dr. Harleen Quinzel takes the name Harley Quinn and makes a splash as the Joker's sidekick and occasional love interest.
• The Joker murders James Gordon's second wife, Sarah Essen-Gordon.
• Bruce Wayne's bodyguard, Sasha Bordeaux, learns that her employer is secretly Batman.
• Mistakenly believing he has a terminal disease, the Joker decides to go out with a bang. He infects a prison full of villains with "Jokerized" venom and wreaks havoc across the planet.
• Bruce Wayne's paramour Vesper Fairchild is found murdered. Bruce and his bodyguard Sasha Bordeaux are held as suspects but eventually cleared of all charges.
• Bruce Wayne's boyhood friend Tommy Elliot appears as the bandaged villain Hush, launching an elaborate plot against Batman that involves nearly every member of the Rogues Gallery.
• Heeding Batman's call, Stephanie Brown becomes the fourth Robin.
• Ra's al Ghül is seemingly killed as his daughters Talia al Ghül and Nyssa plot to usurp control of his worldwide empire.
• Stephanie Brown apparently dies after being tortured by Black Mask.
• Batman learns that his withdrawn, suspicious behaviour of recent years stems from the fact that his fellow heroes in the Justice League of America altered his memories when he discovered they were mind-wiping captured super-villains.
• Tim Drake's father is killed by Captain Boomerang, leaving Tim an orphan.
• Batman develops the Brother Eye surveillance satellite but realizes that his construction has become self-aware. Brother Eye turns thousands of innocent victims into malevolent OMAC agents.
• Jason Todd, somehow restored to life after his murder at the hands of the Joker, assumes the vigilante identity of the Red Hood. He confronts Batman about his failure to save him, and embarks on a bloody crusade to take down Black Mask.
• During the event known as the Infinite Crisis, Batman fights to stop the cosmic super-villain Alexander Luthor from restructuring reality.
• After surviving the Infinite Crisis, Batman decides to take time off to retrace the path that led to his transformation into the Dark Knight. It is a quest that spans the better part of a year.
PAGE 5
• With Batman away from Gotham, Harvey Dent tried--and fails—to become the city's protector and put his violent past as Two-Face behind him.
• Kate Kane becomes the new Batwoman, operating in Gotham City during Batman's absence.
• Former Gotham City police detective Renee Montoya becomes the new Question, following the death of the previous hero of that name, Vic Sage.
• Bruce Wayne retums to Gotham and officially adopts Tim Drake as his legal son.
• The Riddler turns over a new leaf, refocusing his brilliant mind to the task of solving crimes rather than creating them.
• Batman joins Superman, Wonder Woman, Red Tornado, Vixen, and other heroes as a member of a newty restructured Justice League of America.
• The Joker kidnaps Robin and drives him all over town on a demented holiday spree.
• A new Ventriloquist and Scarface arrive on the scene, with the beautiful "Sugar" now animating the tough-talking puppet.
• Batman pulls together a new team of Outsiders, with members including Katana, Metamorpho, Grace, and the Martian Manhunter.
• Bruce Wayne learns he has a biological son as a result of a long-ago liaison with Talia al Gül. Damian Wayne is now ten years old and has little respect for authority. He is a top combatant, thanks to the tutelage of the League of Assassins
• Bruce Wayne finds a new love interest in Jezebel Jet, though he does not detect that she has an ulterior motive for getting close to him.
• The members of the Batmen of All Nations-the Musketeer, Dark Ranger, El Gaucho, Raven Red, the Wingman, Man-of-Bats, the Legionary, and Knight and Squire solve a mystery planted by the villainous organization the Black Glove.
• Jason Todd takes on the identity of Red Robin.
• Ra's al Ghül returs to the land of the living.
• Stephanie Brown resurfaces as Spoiler, revealing to Tim Drake that she survived her encounter with Black Mask and had been recuperating in Africa.
• As Batgirl, Cassandra Cain searches for her father Cain and fights against Deathstroke's newest assassins.
• The villainous Hush returns to Gotham and shockingly removes Catwoman's heart from her chest.
• Doctor Hurt implements a plan to take down Batman, neutralizing his foe with a hypnotic trigger and forcing Bruce Wayne to become the "Batman of Zur-En-Arh" to hold on to his sanity.
• Gotham City is rocked by the debut of the Club of Villains, whose members include the Hunchback, Pierrot Lunaire, King Kraken, Charlie Caligula, Scorpiana, and El Sombrero.
• At the end of the universe-shaking Final Crisis event, the New God Darkseid apparently annihilates Batman with his Omega Sanction beams..
• With Batman seemingly dead, his would-be successors— including Dick Grayson and Jason Todd— vie for the right to become the new Dark Knight
PAGE 6 (whew…. this is a lot)
• Ex-cop Michael Washington Lane becomes the new Azrael, picking up where Jean-Paul Valley left off.
• A new Dynamic Duo emerges, with Dick Grayson as Batman and Damian Wayne as Robin. At first their partnership seems rocky, but they put aside their differences long enough to defeat the schemes of the psychotic Professor Pyg.
• Tim Drake takes up the identity of Red Robin, a role formerly filled by Jason Todd.
• Dick Grayson publicy debuts as Batman by facing off against the Scarecrow.
• Stephanie Brown becomes the latest person to wear the costume of Batgirl.
• As Black Mask and the Penguin stir up trouble, the Falcone crime family resurfaces in Gotham.
• The Green Lantern Corps faces its biggest challenge during the Blackest Night crisis. Black Lantern rings bring the corpses of dead heroes to life, including what is believed to be the body of Batman.
• Batman's dead body is revealed to be a cloned fake created by Darkseid.
• Sent back in time by Darkseid's power during the Final Crisis event, Batman embarks on a journey back to the present day. He experiences time-skips that lead him into adventures as a witch-hunter, a pirate, and a gunfighter.
• Jeremiah Arkham, administrator of the infamous madhouse, is revealed as the new Black Mask.
• A time-tossed Bruce Wayne finally returns to present-day Gotham and retakes to his role as the city's protector.
• Speaking to the news media, Bruce Wayne reveals that he has secretly funded Batman's activities for years, and announces the formation of a new global super hero team: Batman Incorporated.
• As part of his mission to recruit new heroes, Batman enlists Bilal Asselah, a French Muslim who takes the identity of Nightrunner. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, Batman recruits David Zavimbe, who assumes the costumed identity of Batwing.
• Reality is altered once again during the Flashpoint event. On a changed Earth, Dr. Thomas Wayne fights crime as Batman following the tragic murder of his son Bruce. The Flash succeeds in restoring the timeline, but some events are forever altered.
• Batman faces the threat of Gotham's oldest secret society, the Court of Owls, and the assassin called Talon.
• The hideous Dollmaker kidnaps Commissioner Gordon, spurring Batman into action.
• Father and son suit up as the Dynamic Duo, as Bruce Wayne takes the rebellious Damian Wayne under his wing.
• Barbara Gordon, now recovered from her paralysis, returns to the role of Batgirl.
• Dick Grayson takes up his Nightwing identity once more.
• Jason Todd, once again using his Red Hood identity, takes command of a new team of international operatives called the Outlaws.
And that’s all she wrote! Everything post Flashpoint is New-52 I believe, but by god am I bad with all of the timeline changes. They don’t stick in my head. Book was published likely sometime around 2012 but I am a fool and didn’t look at the publish date 😭
imagine you are a 10 year old raised to kill in a ritualistically abusive cult and then you get sent to live with your fuckass dad in new jersey usa and he says literally everything you were ever taught to believe by the authority figures in your life is not true and is in fact morally reprehensible and unacceptable and to top it off literally nobody in his family likes you even a little bit and they feel very comfortable with you knowing this. And through a series of unfortunate events you get sent BACK to the cult after getting a little blown up and your father doesn’t look for you at all. and then you have to seek him and his family out because your withered husk of a grandpa is trying to bodysnatch you and his chud son you didn’t even try THAT hard to kill attacks you and has to be dragged off by the butler. so they work with your mom to keep you from getting bodysnatched and then you decide it’s time to go live with papa and bond with him or whatever and then he bites it. so then you’re stuck with his OTHER chud son as batman but you get attached over time while you’re working together as batman and robin but THEN your dad comes back from being fake dead in the timestream and the brother you got attached to fucks back off to the most cursed city maybe in the world. then your clone kills you and you go to real biblical hell. and this is like. All in the span of a year, maybe. damian is much stronger than me i would have walled bruce into his own wine cellar cask of amontillado style and left him to die a miserable death