Batman: A Death in the Family

"A Death in the Family"

Cover of Batman: A Death in the Family trade paperback; art by Jim Aparo.
Publisher DC Comics
Publication date December 1988 – January 1989
Genre
Title(s) Batman #426-429
Main character(s)
Creative team
Writer(s) Jim Starlin
Penciller(s) Jim Aparo
Inker(s) Mike DeCarlo
Letterer(s) John Costanza
Colorist(s) Adrienne Roy

"A Death in the Family" is a four-issue Batman comic book story arc first published by DC Comics in Batman #426-429 from 1988 - 1989, which gave fans the ability to influence a critical plot point through voting with a 900 number, which would determine whether Jason Todd, the second person to assume the mantle of Batman's sidekick Robin, survived a bomb.

The story was written by Jim Starlin, pencilled by Jim Aparo, inked by Mike DeCarlo, colored by Adrienne Roy, lettered by John Costanza, and covers were illustrated by Mike Mignola. The story was collected as a trade paperback under the title Batman: A Death in the Family.[1]

Storyline

The story follows Jason Todd, the second Robin. In the beginning of the story, Jason and Bruce are in uniform hiding behind some crates while a mob plans. Then, out of the blue, an impatient Jason leaps out from behind the crates and attacks the criminals. When the struggle is over, Bruce asks him what he was doing and warns him that his impulsive behavior could cost him his life. Bruce then asks if he thinks that what they do is a game, to which Jason replies "Yes, life is a game." Bruce therefore relieves him of his duties. When Bruce mentions Jason's parents, the latter becomes upset and storms off, refusing to discuss the issue.

While walking through his old neighborhood, Jason meets Mrs. Walker, a friend of his parents, who gives him a box containing his father's old papers and other documents, including photos and articles relating to his family. Among the items, Jason finds his birth certificate and a stunning surprise: the name of the mother has been almost blotted out, but the first initial is "S", not "C" as in Catherine Todd, the woman Jason knew as "Mom". He concludes that Catherine was, in fact, his stepmother and resolves to find his biological mother. Searching the box, he discovers his father's now out-of-date address book which gives the name of three women whose first name starts with "S", and he tracks their present whereabouts using the Batcomputer. However, all three are based in the Middle East and Africa. Jason therefore runs away from home to find them.

Meanwhile, the Joker has escaped yet again from Arkham Asylum, leaving a trail of death behind him. Batman discovers that he has somehow obtained a nuclear weapon and plans to sell it to terrorists. He tracks him to civil war-torn Lebanon where he and Jason are reunited. They foil an attempt by Arab terrorists to destroy Tel Aviv using a nuclear missile sold to them by the Joker. Sharmin Rosen, a Mossad agent who was at the scene, and whom Jason was tracking, denies ever giving birth to a child in Gotham City. Another of the suspected "mothers" is none other than Batman's old acquaintance Lady Shiva, whom they track down to a terrorist training camp. A fight ensues, in which Batman is almost killed; only with Jason's help is he able to defeat Shiva. When she proves uncooperative, they administer a truth drug, and she then admits that she is not Jason's mother.

The dynamic duo then go to Ethiopia and meet the third "suspect": Sheila Haywood, an aid worker. She proves to be Jason's mother, and she has an emotional reunion with her long-lost son. However, unknown to Batman and Robin, the Joker had previously discovered that Sheila had previously performed "illegal operations on teenage girls" in Gotham; after a botched procedure resulted in the death of a teen, she was blacklisted as a medical practitioner. The Joker has used this information to blackmail Sheila into giving him the medical supplies her agency has stockpiled in a nearby warehouse. Not only is he denying the medical supplies to the starving in order to sell them on the black market, but the Joker also replaces them with his laughing gas which, once set off, will kill thousands of people. Sheila herself had been embezzling from the aid agency and, as part of the cover-up, hands her own son (now in his Robin costume) over to the Joker. The Joker brutally beats him with a crowbar. Robin is soon lying unconscious in a puddle of blood, which the Joker casually remarks is "a bit messy". The villain then restrains Jason and Sheila and leaves them in the warehouse with a time bomb. Sheila and Robin try desperately to get out of the warehouse but are still inside as the bomb goes off; Jason is killed when he throws himself on the bomb to shield his mother from the blast, but she too is mortally wounded. Batman arrives too late to save them and they die from their injuries.[2]

The bodies are taken back to Gotham for burial. Since none of their relatives can be found the only mourners attending the service are Bruce Wayne and three friends - butler Alfred Pennyworth, Commissioner Gordon, and Gordon's wheelchair-bound daughter Barbara, herself a victim of the Joker. Blaming himself for Jason's death, a guilt-ridden Batman resolves to carry on alone. He even rejects Alfred's suggestion to involve Dick Grayson, the first Robin. The Joker himself, meanwhile, has met none other than the Ayatollah Khomeini, who offers him a position in the Iranian government. The Joker leaves a warehouse containing the dead bodies of his henchmen and an address which Batman easily finds: it is that of the United Nations building in New York City.

While waiting outside the building, Batman meets Superman, who has been sent to intercept the former by the State Department. Superman tries to convince Batman to leave, and his evasive attitude and refusal to answer questions leads Batman to punch the Man of Steel across the jaw; the Caped Crusader's hand is nearly shattered. At this point the Joker turns up: he is to be Iran's representative at the UN. Ralph Bundy, a CIA contact, tells Batman to keep away from the Joker, as any confrontation between the two could start a diplomatic incident, which the government would rather avoid. The Joker has diplomatic immunity and as such, cannot be prosecuted for any of his previous crimes.

The Joker is due to give a speech to the General Assembly, and Bruce Wayne uses his high-level contacts in order to get in as an unofficial observer. The Joker appears dressed in Arab clothes and he and Wayne exchange glances. The Joker pauses as the two make eye contact, as if identifying Wayne as the Batman, only to laugh dismissively and go on his way. The Joker then makes his speech, claiming that he and the Iranians are treated with disrespect by the rest of the world. He announces this treatment will no longer be tolerated, and produces a device with which he proceeds to release poison gas into the chamber. However, a security guard breaks up the Joker's weapon and inhales all the gas, saving the delegates and observers; the guard is revealed to be Superman in disguise. He flies out of the building in order to find somewhere to safely dispose of the gas while Batman and the Joker fight it out. The Joker gets out of the building and into a helicopter sent for him by his sponsors. Batman gets in and confronts the Joker; during the fight that follows, one of the Joker's henchmen opens fire with a machine gun. The bullets fly everywhere, hitting everyone, including the Joker and his pilot, who loses control of the aircraft; the helicopter crashes into the sea.

Superman saves Batman, who tells him to find the Joker's body. Predictably, the archcriminal's corpse is nowhere to be found. Batman laments that everything between him and the Joker ends that way: unresolved.

Significance

Promotional image from DC Comics, allowing readers to decide the fate of Jason Todd
Prepared panel if the final vote was for Jason Todd to survive the Joker's attack. It is used 18 years later in "Batman: Under the Hood" story arc. Art by Jim Aparo.

DC Comics and Batman editor Dennis O'Neil were already aware that Jason Todd had become unpopular with readers and decided to remove him from the Robin role. The question was how to do that. Seeking a new way to interact with fans, and perhaps inspired by references to a dead Jason in Frank Miller's non-canonical future history comic book miniseries, The Dark Knight Returns, the company set up two 1-900 number 50-cent hotlines giving callers the ability to vote for or against Jason's death. The call-in period started after publication of the issue in which Jason and his mother are trapped in the warehouse.

Over 10,000 votes were cast, with the final vote being 5,343 votes for Jason to die over 5,271 for him to live. DC published A Death in the Family to massive media attention, some of it critical. Over a decade later, in a Newsarama interview conducted alongside writer Judd Winick, O'Neil said: "I heard it was one guy, who programmed his computer to dial the thumbs down number every ninety seconds for eight hours, who made the difference."[3] If true, that would have amounted to over 200 votes (and 100 dollars), certainly enough to decide the count. There is no way to confirm that rumor, but it adds uncertainty to the question of whether the poll was an accurate measure of what fans wanted to happen to Jason Todd.

Other notable incidents in the story include Batman punching Superman and his treatment of criminals with greater violence than usual, raising questions about his moral center. Although the Joker has been responsible for dozens if not hundreds of deaths, it is only now that Batman, for personal reasons, seriously considers crossing the line set by his moral code and killing his nemesis. "His insanity always got him a stay of execution," the character thinks. "But no more. Jason's dead." In a story set shortly after these events, Superman confronts Batman with the fact that he left the Joker to die in the helicopter crash at the conclusion, although Batman pointed out in response that it had already been unlikely that he would survive an escape attempt on his own and trying to save the Joker would have definitely killed them both.

The story touches on a number of contemporary political and social issues, such as the Lebanese Civil War, the Arab–Israeli conflict, the Ethiopia famine, corruption and the handling of rogue states. When he goes to Lebanon, Wayne uses a fake Northern Irish passport, the province being synonymous with terrorism at the time. In reality however, Northern Ireland, as a non-sovereign entity, does not issue its own passports.

Although the plot point of the Joker getting hold of an actual nuclear missile is somewhat fantastic, the smuggling of nuclear material is an issue that came to attract serious attention following the end of the Cold War.

The story makes clear allusions to the Iran–Contra affair, including the Joker's sale of a cruise missile to Arab fighters with Israel as their target. Ayatollah Khomeini makes a brief but important appearance, appointing the Joker as a UN ambassador for Iran. (The Joker's appointment as an UN ambassador was later retconned to the fictional nation of Qurac). But the story's depiction of Persian (referred to, in that language, as farsi) as the language of Lebanon and Arabic as the language of Iran reveals how superficially it treated its Middle East setting.

Overall, the depiction of Batman in a rare emotional state, the murder of a well known superhero, and the phone-voting element have allowed A Death in the Family to remain a significant milestone in American comics.

This story strongly suggests that the Joker knows Batman's identity: Robin revealed his true identity to his mother while the Joker was close around. Robin's mask is already gone by the time he wakes up and tries to escape from the time bomb. Jason's death has been described on the telex (though attributed to an accident). The Joker tells Batman that "even a madman can add 2 plus 2...". Batman tells the Joker that Robin's real name was Jason. The Joker stares at Bruce Wayne and laughs maniacally. Bruce Wayne changes into Batman in front of the Joker and the entire assembly attending his speech at the United Nations Plaza (Albeit in a room clouded with gas and nobody paying specific attention to Bruce). The Joker just wants to kill Batman along with countless other victims with a gun, instead of having a special death just for him (which could indicate he no longer feels as obsessed with him, now that he may or may not have just recently discovered his true identity).

IGN Comics ranked A Death in the Family #15 on a list of the 25 greatest Batman graphic novels.[4]

Jason Todd's legacy and return

The issue of Jason Todd's death was often raised over the years in the mainstream Batman stories, becoming almost as important a factor in his life as the death of his parents. It intensified Batman's feud with the Joker, making it even more personal. In the course of the Batman: Knightfall story arc, Batman is exposed to the Scarecrow's fear toxin, causing him to hallucinate about Jason's death. However, instead of fear, he reacts in rage, and brutally beats the Joker while screaming Jason's name. He often visits Jason's gravesite and raises his death as a factor in his reluctance to take on new sidekicks, such as Tim Drake (the third Robin and current Red Robin), Stephanie Brown (the fourth Robin, and third Batgirl), Cassandra Cain (the second Batgirl), and Damian Wayne (the fifth Robin). Jason is memorialized in the Batcave; his Robin costume is preserved under glass, along with the epitaph "A Good Soldier."[5]

In the Hush storyline, it was hinted that Todd is alive, as a young man who strongly resembles him is standing on his desecrated grave. However, in the end, Batman finds that it was Clayface mimicking the role. In the "Under the Hood" arc, it is revealed that it was Todd whom Batman had fought, but he then switched places with the shapeshifter in collaboration with the villains Hush, Riddler, and Talia al Ghul. Todd reveals himself to Batman as the murderous vigilante, the Red Hood. Jason cripples Black Mask's criminal organization in Gotham, and kidnaps the Joker and beats him with a crowbar in an abandoned building. During the ensuing struggle with Batman, Todd detonates the building, but he, Batman and the Joker survive.

The details of Todd's return are revealed in Batman Annual #25 and Red Hood: The Lost Years #1-6.

DC reaction

In other media

Televison

Film

Jason's death, as depicted in Batman: Under the Red Hood.

Video games

Miscelleanous

References

  1. ↑ Manning, Matthew K.; Dolan, Hannah, ed. (2010). "1980s". DC Comics Year By Year A Visual Chronicle. Dorling Kindersley. p. 235. ISBN 978-0-7566-6742-9. Written by Jim Starlin, with art by Jim Aparo and haunting covers by Mike Mignola, 'A Death in the Family' proved a best seller with readers in both single-issue and trade paperback form.
  2. ↑ Beatty, Scott (2008), "Batman", in Dougall, Alastair, The DC Comics Encyclopedia, London: Dorling Kindersley, pp. 40–44, ISBN 0-7566-4119-5
  3. ↑ "Robin II," Titans Tower
  4. ↑ Goldstein, Hilary (June 13, 2005). "The 25 Greatest Batman Graphic Novels". IGN.
  5. ↑ This exhibit was actually first seen in The Dark Knight Returns, published approximately three years before "A Death in the Family". The epitaph is a quote from Bruce Wayne in DKR: "I will never forget Jason. He was a good soldier. He honored me. But the war goes on."
  6. ↑ "If I had to do it again, I would certainly have kept my mouth shut." -- Dennis O'Neil, Who Killed Robin? An Interactive Whodunit, from DC Comics: A Celebration of the World's Favorite Comic Book Heroes by Les Daniels
  7. ↑ Batman and Robin #13 (Jul. 2010)
  8. ↑ "Mark Hamill & Kevin Conroy Tease Hush & Death in the Family Animated Films". ScreenGeek. September 5, 2016.
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