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"A Death in the Family" is a 1988 American comic book storyline published by DC Comics in the comic book Batman. It was serialized in four parts from September to November 1988, covering issues #426 to #429. "A Death in the Family" was written by Jim Starlin and penciled by Jim Aparo, with cover art by Mike Mignola. Since its initial publication, it has been reprinted in various formats and editions. "A Death in the Family" is considered one of the most important Batman stories for featuring the death of Batman's sidekick Robin at the hands of his archenemy, the Joker.

Jason Todd, the second character to assume the Robin persona, was introduced in 1983 to replace Dick Grayson, as Grayson's role in the Teen Titans comics meant that Robin was unavailable for use in Batman stories. Todd became unpopular among readers after the Batman comics were rebooted following DC's Crisis on Infinite Earths (1985–1986) crossover event; the reboot characterized Todd as rebellious and impulsive. Editor Dennis O'Neil, aware of Todd's unpopularity, recalled a 1982 Saturday Night Live sketch in which Eddie Murphy encouraged viewers to call the show if they wanted him to boil Larry the Lobster on air. Inspired to orchestrate a similar stunt, DC set up a 900 number voting system to allow fans to decide Todd's fate.

"A Death in the Family" begins when Batman relieves Todd of his crimefighting duties. Todd learns that his biological mother is still alive and travels to the Middle East to find her. However, during his search, Todd is kidnapped by the Joker, who tortures him with a crowbar. Batman #427 ends with the Joker detonating an explosive in the warehouse where Todd is imprisoned. Starlin and Aparo prepared two versions of Batman #428: one that would be published if readers voted in favor of Todd's survival, and another if he was to be killed. A narrow majority voted in favor of killing Todd, and Batman #428 features a traumatized Batman discovering Todd's lifeless body in the warehouse ruins.

The storyline was controversial and widely publicized; despite Todd's unpopularity, DC faced considerable backlash for the decision to kill one of its most iconic characters. Todd's demise became one of the most notable cases of a comic book death and is considered a seminal moment in the Modern Age of Comic Books. "A Death in the Family" had a lasting impact on future Batman stories, with Batman's failure to save his ward pushing the Batman mythos in a darker direction. "A Death in the Family"'s plot elements have been incorporated into Batman-related film, television, and video game adaptations. An animated interactive film adaptation, Batman: Death in the Family, was released in 2020.

Publication history

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Background

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See also: Robin (character)

Robin, the sidekick of the DC Comics superhero Batman, first appeared in Detective Comics #38 in April 1940. Robin was introduced by Batman creators Bob Kane and Bill Finger to provide Batman with a companion and appeal to children.[1] The original Robin, Dick Grayson, made regular appearances in Batman-related publications from 1940 until the early 1980s, when Marv Wolfman and George Pérez began including him in the New Teen Titans comics.[2] This made Grayson unavailable for use in the Batman comics, and Batman's then-writer Gerry Conway felt that Batman needed Robin. As such, Conway and artist Don Newton introduced Jason Todd in Batman #357 (March 1983).[3] Wolfman and Pérez had Grayson set aside the Robin identity and become the independent superhero Nightwing in Teen Titans, while Todd became the new Robin in the Batman family of comics.[3][4]

Originally, Todd's origin story was virtually identical to Grayson's; like Grayson, Todd was depicted as the son of circus acrobats who became Batman's sidekick after his parents were murdered.[4] Dennis O'Neil, who wrote Batman and Detective Comics throughout the 1970s and became the Batman group editor in 1986, said that he felt Conway and Newton "[weren't] worried about creating a new character. I think they thought, 'We've got to have a Robin in the series so let’s go with the tried and true. This Robin has worked for so many years, so let's do him again.'"[5] Following the Crisis on Infinite Earths (1985–1986) crossover event, which rebooted the DC Universe,[a] Batman writer Max Allan Collins was asked to reintroduce Todd.[3] Batman #408 (June 1987) began a four-issue story by Collins and artist Chris Warner that reimagined Todd as a street delinquent who Batman attempts to reform.[6]

The revamped Todd became unpopular among readers, who disliked his rebellious, impulsive nature.[7] O'Neil stated: "[The fans] did hate him. I don't know if it was fan craziness—maybe they saw him as usurping Dick Grayson's position... It may be that something was working in the writers' minds, probably on a subconscious level. They made [Todd] a little bit more disagreeable than his predecessor had been. He did become unlikeable and that was not any doing of mine."[5] After Collins quit over creative differences, writer Jim Starlin and penciler Jim Aparo took over Batman.[3] Starlin did not like Todd and initially avoided featuring him, but began to use him in stories at the request of O'Neil. O'Neil informed Starlin of Todd's unpopularity, so Starlin "decided to play on that dislike" in his stories.[8] By 1988, the Batman creative team knew Todd presented a problem that needed to be resolved.[5]

Development

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"A Death in the Family" writer Jim Starlin in 2008. Starlin proposed killing Robin six months before he was asked to write "A Death in the Family".

O'Neil began to think that Todd either needed another personality revamp or to be written out of Batman.[9] Around that time, DC was planning to publish a comic promoting HIV/AIDS education, and requested that writers submit suggestions regarding which characters they thought should contract AIDS. Starlin filled the suggestion box with proposals to kill off Todd, but DC rejected the idea after realizing all the papers had Starlin's handwriting.[10] However, DC president Jenette Kahn was aware of Todd's unpopularity and did want to address it.[3] O'Neil and Kahn later attended an editorial retreat, where O'Neil recalled a 1982 Saturday Night Live sketch in which Eddie Murphy encouraged viewers to call one of two 900 numbers if they wanted him to boil Larry the Lobster on air. The sketch garnered widespread publicity and nearly 500,000 called in.[11] O'Neil proposed that DC orchestrate a similar stunt involving one of its characters, an idea Kahn found intriguing.[5][12]

O'Neil decided that Todd was "the logical candidate to be in peril", as he was unpopular and placing him in such a situation would have massive ramifications.[5] "We didn't want to waste it on anything minor", he said. "Whether Firestorm's boots should be red or yellow ... This had to be important. Life or death stuff."[12] Kahn added that they wanted to allow fans to have input in what to do with Todd, rather than "autocratically" writing him out and replacing him.[3] The idea of having fans call to influence the creative process was a novel concept at the time, and DC's sales and marketing vice president Bruce Bristow described setting up the numbers as the most difficult part of the project. Sales manager John Pope began calling AT&T to secure the two 900 numbers on October 1, 1987; it took him until March 1988 to reserve them.[13]

Six months had passed since Starlin initially proposed killing Todd, and O'Neil asked him to start working on a potential story.[10] Starlin decided to have the Joker murder Todd, inspired by The Dark Knight Returns (1986), a limited series by Frank Miller that featured Batman retiring after the Joker kills Robin.[8] Starlin wrote scripts for a six-part story,[3] and the decision was made to publish the first two parts in a single issue and the next two parts in the following issue to speed up the story because of the reader participation angle.[13] Aparo, inker Mike DeCarlo, and colorist Adrienne Roy provided the art, while assistant editor Dan Raspler suggested Mike Mignola as the storyline's cover artist.[3] Batman #427 features Batman arriving at a warehouse where Todd is imprisoned just as it explodes. On the back cover, an advertisement featured Batman carrying a severely wounded Todd. Readers were warned that Todd could die of his injuries, but that they could "prevent it with a telephone call". Two 900 numbers were given: one (1-(900) 720-2660) which would let Robin live, and another (1-(900) 720-2666) which would cause him to die.[12]

Editor Dennis O'Neil in 2009. O'Neil proposed that DC allow fans to decide if Robin was to die.

Starlin and the artists prepared two versions of Batman #428 depending on the outcome.[10] As O'Neil stated, "[i]t really could have gone either way. We prepared two choices of balloons. We had alternate panels. We had everything set up so that the two outcomes could be accomplished with a minimum of changes. We prepared for either situation."[13] Raspler explained that Aparo prepared three alternate pages and numerous panels with static images that could be easily rearranged. The two numbers were activated on September 15, 1988 and remained active for 35 hours.[3] O'Neil voted to let Todd live, as he felt killing the character would complicate his job as an editor,[13] while Starlin was unable to vote because he was in Mexico at the time.[10] O'Neil and Raspler checked the results every 90 minutes.[13] DC executive editor and vice president Dick Giordano expected readers to vote in favor of Todd's survival, while O'Neil believed they would vote for his death to see if DC would actually follow through.[9]

Within the period allotted for voting, the poll received 10,614 votes. When tallied, the final results were quite narrow, with 5,343 votes in favor of Todd's death over 5,271 for his survival—a margin of just 72 votes.[3][13] Although Kahn dispelled rumors that the process was rigged in favor of Todd's demise,[3] O'Neil said it was possible that hundreds of votes favoring Todd's death came from a single person, adding a degree of uncertainty to the honesty of results. He recalled hearing that "a lawyer programmed his Macintosh to dial the killing number every few minutes", but admitted that he had no evidence to verify the claim.[9] O'Neil canceled a party he planned to throw once the verdict was in, and made the decision to keep the result secret until Batman #428 was shipped. O'Neil did not tell his wife, Starlin, or Aparo.[13] Starlin had expected Todd to die, but was surprised by how close the vote was.[10] Production director Bob Rozakis supervised Roy as she finished coloring, and then had Steve Bove take the "real" Batman #428 to finish it in the secrecy of his basement.[13]

Publication

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"A Death in the Family" was published at a time when Batman was seeing a surge in popularity. Following the success of The Dark Knight Returns and the "Year One" (1987) storyline, monthly sales for Batman were at their highest level since the early 1970s, and Tim Burton's Batman (1989) feature film was in production.[3] DC announced "A Death in the Family" shortly after the release of the critically-acclaimed Batman: The Killing Joke in 1988; according to author Chris Sims, "the letters pages broke out into debate" over whether Todd should live or die.[14]

Batman #426, the first issue of "A Death in the Family", shipped on August 23, 1988, while Batman #427, the second, shipped two weeks later, on September 6.[3] Both issues bore a cover date of December 1988.[15][16] Fans voted to determine Todd's fate between September 15 and 16, 1988, and Batman #428, which featured Todd's death, shipped on October 18, 1988.[3] The storyline concluded with Batman #429, shipped on November 29, 1988.[3] The last two issues bore January 1989 cover dates,[17][18] and also contained a guest appearance from Superman.[3]

After the first three issues of "A Death in the Family" sold out, DC quickly compiled the storyline into a trade paperback in time for the 1988 Christmas shopping season. The collection, Batman: A Death in the Family, shipped on December 5, 1988, less than a week after the release of Batman #429.[3] A 2009 hardcover reprint included Wolfman, Pérez, and Aparo's 1989 sequel storyline, "A Lonely Place of Dying", which introduced Todd's successor Tim Drake.[19] A hardcover deluxe edition was published in April 2021.[20]

For many years, the version of Batman #428 in which Todd lives remained unpublished, though the pages remained housed in DC's archives in Burbank, California.[21] Batman Annual #25, published in March 2006, used one of the alternate pages Aparo had prepared,[20] while some panels were released by Les Daniels in his book Batman: The Complete History (1999) and by Polygon author Susana Polo in 2020.[21] In March 2020, the DC Daily web show unveiled all of the pages to the public for the first time,[22] and the artwork was finally published in the 2021 deluxe edition.[20]

Synopsis

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While eavesdropping on a child pornography ring and awaiting police backup in Gotham City, Jason Todd ignores Batman's orders and attacks the criminals. Batman chastises Todd and asks if he considers crimefighting a game, to which Todd replies that life is a game. At Wayne Manor, Batman relieves Todd of his duties as Robin due to this emotional instability. An enraged Todd storms off. Meanwhile, the Joker, Batman's archenemy, escapes from Arkham Asylum; Batman discovers that he has obtained a nuclear weapon and plans to sell it to Arab terrorists, and tracks him to war-torn Lebanon.

While walking through his old neighborhood, Todd meets a friend of his parents, who gives him a box containing his father's old papers and other documents. Todd discovers that his mother's name on his birth certificate is blotted out, and her first initial is "S", not "C" as in Catherine Todd, the woman he knew as his mother. Todd concludes that Catherine was his stepmother and decides to search for his biological mother. He uses the Batcomputer to track three possible individuals to the Middle East and Africa. Todd travels to Lebanon, where he and Batman reunite. The two foil an attempt by Arab terrorists to destroy Tel Aviv using a nuclear missile that the Joker sold to them. Batman agrees to help Todd find his mother, and Todd interrogates his first suspect, Mossad agent Sharmin Rosen. His next suspect is Batman's old acquaintance Lady Shiva, who states she is not Todd's mother after he and Batman administer a truth serum.

Batman and Todd travel to Ethiopia and meet the final suspect, aid worker Sheila Haywood. Haywood is Todd's mother, and the two have an emotional reunion. However, the Joker discovers that Haywood had performed illegal operations on teenagers in Gotham and has been blacklisted as a medical practitioner. The Joker uses this information to blackmail her into giving him the medical supplies her agency has stockpiled in a nearby warehouse. He sells them on the black market and stocks the warehouse with Joker venom which, once set off, will kill thousands of people. Haywood had also been embezzling from the aid agency and, as part of a cover-up, hands Todd, in his Robin costume, over to the Joker. The Joker brutally beats Todd with a crowbar and restrains him and Haywood in the warehouse with a time bomb. Unable to escape, Todd throws himself on the bomb to shield Haywood as the warehouse explodes. Batman arrives too late to save them and they die from their injuries.

A traumatized Batman takes Todd and Haywood's remains to Gotham and holds a burial for them with Alfred Pennyworth, Commissioner James Gordon, and Barbara Gordon. Batman blames himself for Todd's death and resolves to carry on alone, rejecting Pennyworth's suggestion to involve Dick Grayson, the first Robin. Meanwhile, the Joker meets with Ayatollah Khomeini, who offers him a role in the Iranian government. The Joker leaves a warehouse containing the dead bodies of his henchmen and the address of the Headquarters of the United Nations (U.N.) for Batman. As Batman waits outside the U.N. building, Superman appears and tries to convince Batman to leave. The Joker is Iran's representative at the U.N. and will be giving a speech at the General Assembly, and any confrontation between him and Batman could start a diplomatic incident.

During his speech, the Joker attempts to kill the entire chamber with Joker venom, but Superman intercepts the gas. Batman pursues the Joker, who escapes in a helicopter sent by his sponsors. Batman boards the helicopter and fights the Joker. One of the Joker's henchmen opens fire with a machine gun and shoots the pilot, crashing the helicopter into the sea. Superman saves Batman, but the Joker's body is not found. Batman laments that everything between him and the Joker ends that way: unresolved.

Literary analysis

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Despite Robin's status as one of the most famous sidekicks in comic book history, there has been little literary analysis of "A Death in the Family". According to Kwasu Tembo, it is generally only discussed "as either a case study within a broader discussion of Batman's ethics, or as a case study of DC's editorial decisions and socio-historical engagement with its readership."[23] The story's narrative message is that Batman cannot save everyone,[14] and it portrays Todd as a tragic figure whose sympathetic journey ends in death.[24] Tembo contended that his death leaves the reader to ponder his nature as "Batman's greatest failure, as an orphan betrayed, and/or as a careless and overzealous lost boy who reaped what he had so impulsively and thoughtlessly sown."[25]

Tembo wrote that Todd's death "can be more thoroughly understood as a complex form of scapegoating" and that its circumstances are comparable to a public execution.[26] Todd was unpopular because he struggled to live up to the standard of his predecessor Grayson, which thus made him a "bad" Robin.[27] This created jealousy among readers, who concluded that Todd was unfit to be Robin.[28] Citing René Girard's theory of mimetic desire, Tembo wrote that O'Neil's decision to let fans determine Todd's fate created a "mimetic crisis" because readers "could now not only influence [Todd]'s existence in the story world, but in being given this power, compete against him."[29] He theorized that readers saw themselves as being more fit to be Batman's partner than Todd; by voting to kill Todd, they thought they were helping Batman.[30]

Fans who voted to save Todd may have voted to preserve the classic status quo, or because they found the Joker murdering a child during an emotional period in his life unsettling.[26] The closeness of the vote indicates that fans may not have despised Todd as much as commonly believed, but the verdict was representative of a shift in the public's opinion of Robin.[26] According to Tembo, Todd's death takes place on several interdiegetic levels, including the extradiegetic (the real world) and diegetic (the fictional universe).[31] Todd is a bad sidekick on the diegetic level, but a good scapegoat on the extradiegetic level.[32] Tembo wrote that "the vote revealed the zeitgeist's fundamental misunderstanding and/or egregious oversimplification of the interdiegetic nature of [Todd]'s death, its underlying structure based on the interaction between the reader, Batman and Robin."[25]

"A Death in the Family" has also been analyzed for promoting Islamophobia through its portrayal of Arab terrorists. The terrorists the Joker collaborates with are portrayed as anti-American, anti-Israel fanatics who seek to violently take over the Western world.[33][34] They are referred to as "bandits-in-bedsheets" and depicted as unshaved and always holding weapons, while Jamal, the terrorist leader, is overweight and perpetually sneering.[35] In a 1991 study of Arab terrorist depictions in comic books, Jack Shaheen wrote that "A Death in the Family" conflates Arabs, Muslims, and terrorists together as one, and they are equated to the Joker, an insane supervillain.[35] Both Jehanzeb Dar and Shaheen cited the Joker's speech to the General Assembly as a particularly egregious example of Islamophobia in "A Death in the Family".[35] Before he attempts to poison the chamber, the Joker gloats:

I am proud to speak for the great Islamic Republic of Iran. That country's current leaders and I have a lot in common. Insanity and a great love of FISH. But unfortunately we share a mutual problem. We get NO RESPECT. Everyone thinks of Iran as the home of the TERRORIST ZEALOT! They say even worse things about ME, would you believe? We've both suffered unkind ABUSE AND BELITTLEMENT! WELL, WE AREN'T GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE!! You'll no longer be allowed to kick us around. In fact, you aren't going to be able to kick ANYONE around ever again!

— The Joker, Batman #428

Dar described the Joker's speech as blatant Islamophobia disguised as humor. By portraying as Arabs as insane like the Joker, Shaheen and Dar argued "A Death in the Family" promotes the idea of "Them vs. Us", pitting the Arab and Western worlds against each other as diametrically opposed in their values.[35][36] Further, the story contains errors in its depiction of the Middle East. Starlin writes Batman as speaking Farsi, the Persian language, in Beruit, while the Joker dons a traditional Arab headdress and robes as the Iranian ambassador even though Iran is not an Arab country.[36] Dar concluded that "[Starlin]'s and [DC]'s disregard for cultural, religious, and political accuracy simply points to a crude and racist generalization: Arabs, Iranians, and Muslims are all the 'same' and 'hate' the West."[36]

Portrayal of Arabs

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Scapegoating

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  • Tembo article
    • Intro
      • Unlike other major DC deaths (e.g. Superman, Maxwell Lord), Todd's death was not purely an editorial decision—the fans participated. "[I]t can be more thoroughly understood as a complex form of scapegoating."
      • The ordeal was not dissimilar to a public execution
      • Those who voted to save Todd may have voted to preserve the classic status quo, or because they found the Joker murdering a child during an emotional period in his life a bit too far. The closeness of the vote indicated that Jason wasn't universally despised, but the verdict was representative of the public's shift in opinion of Robin.
      • Todd is one of the more fascinating iterations of Robin because of how much a subset of fans hate him. Saying he's the most interesting Robin because he was the one who died is ironically uninteresting; "Instead, I will illustrate that Jason's death makes him the most interesting Robin precisely because of how and why he dies in terms of literary anthropology."
      • Todd's death takes place in three levels: extradiegetic (the real world), diegetic (the fictional universe), and hyperdiegetic (story within a story). Todd's death was determined by 72 votes, and a lot of factors are at play: the death can be seen as the result of readers jealous of the unpopular Todd's close proximity to Batman in his role as sidekick, fans just interested in what would happen, and a critique of his characterization and scapegoat punishment for his disrespect of Batman.
      • "René Girard’s fundamental interest in the relationship between desire, violence and scapegoating as the mediation and control of violence is particularly helpful here, as it provides a useful theoretical framework with which to conceptualize an event of complicit, publicly and interdiegetically determined death."
    • "Good" Robin and sidekick standard (probably not gonna need this all - it's more relevant to the Robin character rather than ADITF but it'll be good to still take notes)
      • To answer the question of a good Robin, we must define a good sidekick: a good sidekick is basically a living weapon, provides tactical advantage and both second threat to/target for the villain
      • "Empathy, patience, emotional fortitude, maturity, discipline and adamant moral-ethical commitment are 'soft' skills that are just as, if not more, important as the 'hard' skills of stamina, pain tolerance, physical strength and athleticism in a good sidekick. There is one other, and perhaps slightly controversial, paradox underpinning the idea of a good sidekick: they must be simultaneously dispensable and indispensable, replaceable and irreplaceable, useless and useful. It is this paradox at the heart of the concept of the sidekick that I believe ADITF also ultimately exposes."
      • The "good" Robin must remind Batman there's still innocence in the world, yet paradoxically has that sense of innocence destroyed in Batman's war on crime. Robin is similar to a child soldier in this sense. Robin basically needs to be lethally efficient but mask that lethality with his youth and cheer.
      • First issue with Todd: he has to live up to the standard established by Grayson, his predecessor who's the most-widely recognized and culturally beloved version of Robin. Grayson essentially became Batman 2.0 as a superhero in his own right. He can do everything Batman can do and has advantages over Batman (e.g. he can move on from the past)
    • Todd, aka "Bad" Robin
      • Todd is a "bad Robin" because he doesn't fit into the mantle as established by Grayson. His secret identity and identity as a superhero clash, and he's not a good person morally (e.g. actively disobeying Batman)

Reception

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Contemporary

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The first three chapters of "A Death in the Family" sold out quickly,[3] and the storyline garnered significant publicity. Newspapers that covered the story included USA Today, Reuters, and the Deseret News.[37][38] Many reports failed to mention that Todd was not the original Robin.[37] O'Neil had been an editor at Marvel Comics and received angry mail from fans when characters like Phoenix and Elektra were killed, so he was prepared for reader backlash to Todd's death. However, those deaths occurred during a period of recession in comics, and Robin was one of DC's most iconic characters. The backlash and controversy "A Death in the Family" attracted was unlike anything O'Neil had ever experienced.[37]

O'Neil spent the days following Batman #428's publication "doing nothing but talking on the radio. I thought it would get us some ink here and there and maybe a couple of radio interviews. I had no idea—nor did anyone else—it would have the effect it did."[5] After three days, Peggy May, DC's publicity manager, ordered O'Neil to stop talking to the media. She also barred anyone from discussing the story on television. While O'Neil was initially confused, he came to appreciate May's order because he did not want the public to see him as "the guy who killed Robin."[5] Raspler was chastised by future DC president Paul Levitz for referring to "A Death in the Family" as a "stunt" in an interview.[3]

Todd's death divided fans at the time, with some celebrating while others bemoaned it.[14] O'Neil and the Batman team received a considerable amount of hate mail and angry phone calls, with O'Neil describing the calls as "rang[ing] from 'You bastard,' to tearful grandmothers saying, 'My grandchild loved Robin and I don’t know what to tell him.'"[5] Frank Miller was strongly critical of "A Death in the Family", calling it "the most cynical thing [DC] has ever done. An actual toll-free number where fans can call in to put the axe to a little boy's head. To me the whole killing of Robin thing was probably the ugliest thing I've seen in comics, and the most cynical."[39] NPR cultural critic Glen Weldon found Miller's criticism ironic, as Miller was the one who introduced the notion of the Joker killing Todd in The Dark Knight Returns.[40]

Retrospective

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Critics generally agreed with the decision to kill Todd in retrospect.[40][14][41] Sims wrote that killing Todd was "unquestionably the right decision" and made for a far better story.[14] He opined that allowing the Joker to defeat Batman enhanced both characters: the Joker winning made him "a deadly threat... whose actions have lasting consequences", and Batman losing made for "a motivating loss at a time when new readers were coming in".[14] Additionally, Hilary Goldstein of IGN and Jamie Hailstone of Den of Geek! praised the story's handling of Todd's death for its emotion and portraying the dangers of superheroics.[41][42]

Reviewers generally faulted "A Death in the Family" for its plot.[41][42][43] Hailstone described "A Death in the Family" as "the ultimate 80s epic": "brasher than Top Gun, louder than Hulk Hogan and more implausible than The A-Team". Both Hailstone and Goldstein found the plot hard to believe,[41][42] and Hailstone said that it veers into nonsense when the Joker is appointed as an ambassador.[42] Charles Prefore, writing for Screen Rant, said the story "can't decide if it wants to be fun or dark";[43] while Todd's torture and death at the hands of the Joker is quite somber, elements like the "globetrotting nature of the story" and the Joker becoming an ambassador for Iran are evocative of the goofy Silver Age of Comic Books.[43] Prefore said the story's grim moments, which caused "A Death in the Family" to gain a reputation as one of the darkest Batman stories, overshadow the rest of its outlandishness.[43]

"A Death in the Family" remains a popular story among readers,[44] and despite their reservations over the plot, writers still deemed it worth reading.[41][42][43] Hailstone called the story a "guilty pleasure" that, while not as groundbreaking as "Year One" or Batman: Son of the Demon (1987), was entertaining nonetheless,[42] and Prefore summarized it as "a good read if you don't mind all the strangeness".[43] Numerous publications have ranked it among the best Batman stories, including IGN and Complex in 2014,[45][46] and GamesRadar+ and Screen Rant in 2021.[47][48] Sean T. Collins of Rolling Stone ranked it among the 15 Batman stories he considered "essential" to understanding the character, praising Aparo's art and how Starlin characterizes the Joker.[49]

[44]

Legacy

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"A Death in the Family" was representative of the American comic book industry's trend towards "grim and gritty" comics in the late 1980s,[40][44] and it is remembered as one of DC's most controversial storylines.[50][51] Chris Snellgrove of Looper described the scenes depicting Todd's torture and death—featuring the Joker covered in the boy's blood— as "one of the most disturbing moments in the publisher's long history."[52] DC editors took the lessons they learned from the "Death in the Family" controversy and leveraged media coverage for publicity when killing off major characters in the future.[53]

While "A Death in the Family" sold well, it had a negative effect on Starlin's standing at DC. DC's licensing department was infuriated over the death of Robin because of the amount of merchandise—such as lunchboxes and pajamas—that bore the character's likeness. According to Starlin, "everybody got mad, and they needed somebody to blame—so I got blamed."[54] Work quickly dried up for him, and within six months he departed DC and returned to Marvel Comics, where he wrote The Infinity Gauntlet (1991).[10]

Effect on future stories

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"A Death in the Family" had a lasting impact on future Batman stories and, as such, is regarded as one of the most important Batman comics ever published.[55][56] The story altered the DC Universe: instead of killing anonymous bystanders, the Joker murdered a core character in the Batman fiction.[57] Alongside The Killing Joke (which featured Barbara Gordon, Batgirl, being shot in the stomach and paralyzed) and the success of the 1989 Batman film, "A Death in the Family" pushed the Batman mythos in a darker direction.[3] "A Death in the Family" portrayed Batman as more violent and emotional following Todd's death, and for the next decade of comic book canon he was haunted by his failure to save his ward.[58] Conway felt that the storyline "allow[ed] for the entrance of the real 'Dark Knight', the idea of Batman as the pitiless enforcer of Gotham."[59] When the DC Universe canon was rebooted during DC's 2011 New 52 reboot, the events of "A Death in the Family" were left intact because DC editors deemed it too important to be discarded.[60]

Todd was likely to be replaced as Robin regardless of his survival.[61] O'Neil wanted to wait a year for a successor, but DC's higher ups demanded a new Robin immediately. O'Neil and Wolfman began developing the character of Drake, who debuted in the 1989 storyline "A Lonely Place of Dying" by Wolfman, Pérez, and Aparo. O'Neil arranged for a nuanced introduction that explained why Batman would need a new sidekick after Todd's death, and Drake was designed to appeal to both Todd's fans and detractors.[62] Drake proved popular among fans and starred in several limited series and a 1993–2009 ongoing series,[62][63] until he was replaced by Damian Wayne in 2009.[64] Wayne notably shared Todd's willingness to go against Batman's wishes and use lethal force;[65] Grant Morrison and Frazer Irving's Batman and Robin #13 (2010) featured a scene in which Wayne beat the Joker with a crowbar.[66]

Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, Todd's death was notable as one of the few comic book deaths that remained unreversed. A popular aphorism among comic book fans was that in comics, no characters stayed dead except Bucky Barnes, Uncle Ben, and Todd.[67] Todd's revival was first teased in the "Hush" (2002–2003) storyline by Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee, which features Clayface impersonating an undead Todd to taunt Batman.[58] After writer Judd Winick read "Hush", he wondered why DC never revived Todd.[14] Winick and artist Doug Mahnke's 2004–2006 storyline "Under the Hood" revived Todd as the murderous vigilante Red Hood; the in-universe explanation for Todd's revival was that he was restored to life after Superboy-Prime punched the wall of a pocket dimension.[58] Todd eventually re-joined Batman's supporting cast as an "on-again, off-again ally",[14] and starred in the series Red Hood and the Outlaws (2011–2021).[68] Despite his resurrection, in 2020 Polo noted Todd was still most famous for dying in "A Death in the Family".[21]

In other media

[edit]

Bruce Timm and Paul Dini considered adapting "A Death in the Family" in Batman: The Animated Series (1992–1999), but decided against it because they considered the story too violent. As such, they skipped over Todd in favor of incorporating some of his characteristics in Drake.[69] The story was eventually adapted in the comic book sequel Batman: The Adventures Continue (2020), written by Dini and Alan Burnett and penciled by Ty Templeton. In the Adventures Continue adaptation, the Joker and Harley Quinn kidnap Todd, and the Joker beats him with a crowbar with intent to kill him. Harley objects to killing a child and finds Batman, who arrives as the warehouse is engulfed in flames due to hydrogen tanks. A wounded Todd begs for Batman to kill the Joker, but Batman instead tries to save him; Todd attempts to stop Batman but knocks over more hydrogen tanks, causing the explosion and his apparent death.[70]

Elements from "A Death in the Family" were incorporated in the 2010 DC Universe Animated Original Movies film Batman: Under the Red Hood, an adaptation of "Under the Hood" directed by Brandon Vietti.[71][72] In the film, Ra's al Ghul (Jason Isaacs) hires the Joker (John DiMaggio) to distract Batman (Bruce Greenwood) and Todd (Jensen Ackles) while he destroys Europe's financial districts. They follow the Joker to Bosnia, where he kills Todd in similar fashion to "A Death in the Family".[73] An interactive film adaptation, Batman: Death in the Family, was released in 2020. The film is a sequel to Under the Red Hood, with Vietti again directing and the cast, with the exception of Vincent Martella replacing Ackles, reprising their roles.[72][74] Similar to the voting system from the comic, the film allows viewers to determine if Todd lives or dies, leading into several different scenarios that feature him becoming Red Hood, Hush, or Red Robin.[75]

"A Death in the Family" is referenced in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU), a shared universe of superhero films based on DC characters. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) features a damaged Robin suit on display in the Batcave,[76] while Suicide Squad (2016) reveals that Harley Quinn helped the Joker murder him.[77] Zack Snyder's Justice League (the 2021 director's cut of Justice League (2017)) features a scene in which the Joker mocks Batman for Robin's death.[78] While Warner Bros. and Suicide Squad director David Ayer stated that the dead Robin was Todd,[79][80] Batman v Superman director Zack Snyder later revealed that he had intended for it to be Grayson, unlike "A Death in the Family".[80] Snyder had planned to explore Robin's death in detail in his planned Justice League sequels prior to their cancellation.[81] Before the release of Zack Snyder's Justice League, Snyder proposed a comic book prequel to Batman v Superman that depicted Robin's death, but DC turned it down.[82]

In "Emperor Joker", a 2010 episode of Batman: The Brave and the Bold (2008–2011), a fourth wall-breaking Bat-Mite references "A Death in the Family" and the 900 number, and Batman is briefly seen cradling a dead Robin.[83] Todd's portrayal in the video game Batman: Arkham Knight (2015) was inspired by "A Death in the Family".[84] The DC Universe and HBO Max streaming television series Titans (2018–present) features Todd as a central character portrayed by Curran Walters. After the second season episode "Deathstroke" (2019) ended on a cliffhanger with Deathstroke attempting to kill Todd, DC Universe held a poll in which fans could vote to determine Todd's fate. The poll was only intended as a throwback to "A Death in the Family", and did not have any impact on the series.[84] Elements from "A Death in the Family" will be incorporated in the third season of Titans, set to premiere in 2021.[85]

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ The DC Universe is the shared universe that most of DC's comics, including those related to Batman, take place within.

References

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Bibliography

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