The Jason Todd and Roy Harper Parallels
Who else is stoked about Jason’s appearance in episode 6? Even though it was brief, I’m still hoping we get more of him as the season plays out. (Honestly, it would be weird if they just dangled such a tantalizing prospect in front of us without actually doing anything. Especially since Jason’s such a fan-favorite!)
But I was re-watching the previous seasons, and I stumbled on the episode ‘Satisfaction’ in s2. That’s the episode where the original Speedy finds out he’s been cloned and replaced, and has to come to terms with his mentor, his clone, and his desire for revenge against Lex Luthor.
But throughout the whole thing, Roy’s anger just seemed…familiar.
I can’t help but feel that, if the show’s creators decide to run with the Red Hood story line (and they’d be missing out on a golden opportunity if they didn’t), then we might just see some parallels between Speedy’s transition to Arsenal, and Jason’s to Red Hood.
Jason will regain his memories. He’ll confront Batman, his family, or something else, depending on which direction the show decides to take it. But whatever happens, there’s going to be a reckoning.
Jason’s going to want to know why he was replaced, and how they could have left him with Ra’s for all that time without knowing. I suspect that he’ll be especially angry with Dick, since he’s the first one Jason was actually able to remember. And if he remembers that much, then he’ll remember that Dick took his new team with him and left Jason on Infinity Island.
The thing that’s interesting here is that Roy was cloned because the Light wanted an ‘in’ with the Team. Roy’s clone (now known as Will) was their mole.
But with Jason, we can be sure that Ra’s is holding onto him for some reason, but we just don’t know what it is. I 100% know that Ra’s knows exactly who Jason really is, so we can probably rule out the whole ‘found a wandering zombie boy, took him in and raised him as a part of my killer ninja family’ idea. But that does beg the question.
What does Ra’s want Jason for?
It can’t be for espionage purposes, like the Light used Roy for. Because, for one thing, they were banking on Green Arrow’s desperation in order to get their mole into place.
Somehow, I doubt that would work with Batman. Because, for obvious reasons, Bruce would be somewhat suspicious if his dead partner just showed up one day at his door. Not to mention that it’s Batman. The man probably questions his breakfast cereal in the morning, for crying out loud.
So Ra’s is taking a different approach. He’s going to use Jason to serve some other purpose, eventually, and it’s anyone’s guess at this point as to what that would be.
But one way or another, Jason’s back, everyone! He’s back, and he’s going to start remembering things. And when he does, he’s going to be hurt, he’s going to be angry, and he’ll be dead set (pardon the pun) on getting either revenge, or satisfaction.
That’s right everyone. We have Arsenal. And now we have Jason. I don’t know if we’ll get Starfire, Artemis or Bizarro, but we already have 2/3 of Red Hood and the Outlaws. And if Roy took on his RHATO name, then I’d say it’s a pretty good bet that we’ll be seeing:
