WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Truth & Justice #12 by Jeff Trammell, Rob Guillory, Jean-Francois Beaulieu, and Becca Carey, on sale now.
Right from the beginning of his recent non-canon adventure, Red Hood knew that the murder of his old best friend was odd. Max Dawkins was a good man and he never would have touched the drugs that police determined was the cause of death. As he investigated this senseless murder, he eventually tracked it back to the Scarecrow.
But in his rage-fueled attempt to bring Jonathan Crane down, Jason never asked the essential question: Why? As it turns out, Scarecrow was merely the gun and not the proverbial gunman. As Truth & Justice #12 reveals, the true cause of Max’s death was Talia al Ghul, who was testing Jason Todd to see if he was worthy of becoming the next Ra’s al Ghul.
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Talia needed to push Jason to his physical, mental and emotional limits to get the answer she wanted, but killing Max was just a means to an end for her. However, it was Jason’s main motivation for hunting down Scarecrow. Talia was counting on this, most likely not even informing Crane that he would be hunted down like an animal. But she was counting on the Scarecrow to not go down without a fight, presenting Jason with the second phase of his test: Overcoming his fears.
Red Hood tracked down Max’s murderers with ease. He dispatched Scarecrow’s goons before engaging their boss in a one-on-one fight. But in his anger, Red Hood allowed himself to be dosed with a direct injection of Scarecrow’s fear toxin. The toxin forced Jason to relive his trauma. He woke up in his own coffin and had to claw himself out before being confronted by his two greatest fears. Jason then saw a Batman who never had any faith in him and expected him to fail. But what he saw next was even worse.
Jason has more reason to hate the Joker than most, considering he killed the young Robin. Some part of Jason is still afraid of him and what he could do to him
Fortunately, Jason managed to overcome his fears, defeating Crane in the process. But he had learned something from his hallucinations and refrained from killing Scarecrow (he did leave a painful scar though). As the police put Scarecrow away, one officer pulled away to inform Talia that Jason had only partially passed her test, powering through the toxin, but failing to kill Crane.
Talia found this disappointing but still promising. She intended Jason to replace her father, but to do that he would need both Ra’s mental fortitude and the willingness to go through with murder to make a better world. Oddly, Jason is the perfect candidate to replace Ra’s permanently. He has died before and been revived by the Lazarus Pit, so he has the experience to handle it. His training is nearly on par with Batman’s, making him a prime physical candidate. And as Talia’s test demonstrated, he has the mental strength to overcome his own demons.
But before he could even think about becoming the new Ra’s al Ghul, he’d need to fully discard the morality Batman instilled in him during his years as Robin. Once he accomplished that, Jason would be the perfect successor to the Demon’s Head. Fortunately, it seems that Jason is trying to learn from his past to be becomes the best version of Jason Todd he can be.
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