So I have three exams this week... so this will be a short post! I'm really sorry ://
But anyway. Jason Todd! One of my favorite characters of all time. He's a wonderfully complex vigilante turned uhhh more morally gray vigilante/antihero turned back into a vigilante who's still morally gray but maybe a little less. Has DC butchered his character, of course, as they've done to pretty much every character. DC's great with setting up stuff for fanon. Canon is only real when it's good.
I'll be doing a little talk about my favorite Jason Todd outfit! For somewhat obvious reasons, I'll only be looking at Red Hood outfits. Jason Todd was still in the era of spandex and neon Robin outfits, so I'm not even going to dignify them with being put in the running with his other outfits.
So, costumes! He hasn't had too many, probably due to him being, y'know, dead for a good couple of years, but they are all really cool. He hasn't had a Discowing costume. His helmets have been... interesting. In advance, I do not know the order of his costumes, so I can't say when they're from. As per usual, I have zero qualifications to talk about any of this. And with that, let's get into it!
Costume #1: Red Hood Hoodie
The helmet is great. There isn't a weird nose or a mouth. It's simple and clean and it looks intimidating but not stupid. 10/10.
The hood seems... impractical. Like, is it glued to his helmet? There's no way it can stay on there while he's doing all his fighting business. I'm not the biggest fan of what looks like a zip-up sleeveless jacket. It's a bit of an awkward looking design, and again, where is the hood coming from?? Buddy, you're already wearing a full helmet. No need for a hood to cover anything, your helmet does the job. Also, not a design thing but geez it must get so hot in those costumes. Skin-tight tactical bullet-proof whatever, plus all the physical activity. Although I guess Bruce would've figured something out. Anyway, 5/10, not too visually offensive but also just impractical.
Costume #2: Goggles Red Hood
If you can't tell from what I nicknamed this costume, I'm not a fan of his goggles or whatever they're supposed to be. The half-mask/re-breather looking thing is cool though. This wouldn't be the greatest disguise for Jason's white front hair bits though, which I'm assuming is why he usually has a full helmet vs. most of the other bats. But hey, it looked cool while he had it. 7/10 for his goggles/mask thing.
I see we've moved past the dad utility belt into a more almost punk looking belt, and I'm here for it. And the gloves?? The metal fingerless glove things are so cool, I love them. Although I guess it's not great for fingerprint stuff. But they just look so coollll. I am kinda wondering why he's wearing just a T-shirt. Like... that's a good couple of inches open to being sliced. Not that any of Batman and co.'s costumes seem to provide much protection against stabbing and slicing. Also, how on earth did he get into it. That seems suffocating. The vest is a no for me though. It looks like something for a New Year's party. And again, the hood. How would that even stay up?? And it's another thing open to being grabbed. I get that he's Red Hood, but the helmet is fine. Stick to just a helmet. I give it an 6/10. The gloves are a 10/10 though.
Costume #3: Ninja Red Hood
I think this is essentially the same as the previous one, but he gets extra points for having a domino instead of goggles. It bumps it up to an 8/10.
Also look at those Adidas-knockoff stripes on his pants! I dunno why it sticks out to me but now I made you look at them too.
Costume #4: Biker Jason Todd
Another helmet costume! I've seen other depictions where his helmet has a visible nose and sometimes even a mouth, and I will not burden you with those images. Trust me, they're awful. This helmet is good. It looks intimidating. 10/10. Also, how does it look inside I wonder? Like... where does his nose go? I'm intrigued.
But costume! We're back to a classic Batman protégée (thanks LanguageTool, I now know protégée has two accents) bodysuit. I think the bodysuit is nice because it feels like a small compromise with Bruce, and a step to reconnecting fully with the Batfam. I am... confused by what look like garters?? What are those for Jason. I don't think you need them to hold up stockings. Also no more utility belt! I feel like the utility belt would be helpful, although maybe a bit cumbersome. And again, he has a good couple inches of skin exposed to get injured. And he has... interesting gloves. Like, they're reminiscent of gardening gloves. Or Bruce's makeshift gloves from Zero Year. Why did you stop wearing those nice punk gloves?? You can modify it to cover your fingertips. But my favorite favorite favorite thing about this costume is the jacket. It's such a classic Jason outfit (I swear the man either owns a dozen of these or just lives in it because he's always wearing it), and it suits him and his background. It's casual and simple and it's brown. Jason Todd isn't Batman or Red Robin or (Damian) Robin or Nightwing. He's not an all-black costume kinda guy, or a green or blue guy. And yes, he has the red because he's Jason and he's emotional (not in a bad way) and dramatic and a bit violent, but he also wears this brown jacket. And brown is a warm, stable, neutral color. And in a lot of ways, that's also Jason. He's loyal to a fault, and he's determined and dedicated. And it's not a fancy high-tech thing, or at least it doesn't appear that way. It's just a jacket. Not one of Bruce's costumes. He's already wearing the bodysuit. No, the jacket is a casual, civilian outfit. And that's what Jason is, in a lot of ways. This is a discussion for another day, but I think Jason is the character who's most connected to Gotham. And this jacket is a perfect representation of it. 10/10 for the jacket, 8/10 because of the leg straps and gloves.
So in summary, I love Jason's jacket and I very much appreciate it when artists don't draw his helmet with any unnecessary facial features.
That's all for this week! Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed my ramble heh. See you next week for another article!
Comments