Batman: Under the Hood, also known as Batman: Under the Red Hood, is a story arc in DC's Batman comics. It was written by Judd Winick, illustrated by Doug Mahnke, and published in 2005 as part of Batman (1940), running from issues #635 to #650. The series also acts as a tie-in to Infinite Crisis.
Following the events of Batman: War Games, Batman must deal with the Black Mask, who is now the ruler of the Gotham underworld. However, a new player is on the rise, a new Red Hood, which was originally held by the man who would become the Joker.
Upon the discovery that the Red Hood was Jason Todd, returned from the dead, and angry that Batman replaced him and didn't kill his "killer", Batman has to stop his adopted son and former ward's Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
A sequel to the classic storyline A Death in the Family, Under the Hood is notable for reintroducing the long-dead character Jason Todd as the brutally violent villain Red Hood.
The events of this arc were adapted in the 2010 movie Batman: Under the Red Hood.
Batman: Under the Hood provides examples of:
- Anguished Outburst: The climax of the scene revolves around this where Jason confesses his goals and attitude towards Bruce. He forgives his mentor for not saving him but expresses anger and dismay for allowing The Joker to run loose. Jason also rationalizes that he can potentially see himself sparing most of Batman's rogues, only excluding Joker. He confesses all of this while sounding morose and upset. Jason even sheds a tear when holding Joker at gunpoint; he's deadset on killing his murderer, but it's emphasized that it's not going to heal his trauma.
- Antagonistic Offspring: Jason's relationship with Bruce has strong shades of this, in addition to the obvious A Pupil of Mine Until He Turned to Evil.
- Anti-Villain: Jason Todd is this, as he's trying to control the Gotham underworld to make Gotham a safer place.
- Back from the Dead: The story arc saw the resurrection of Jason Todd after being killed by the Joker in Batman: A Death in the Family, being brought back due to Superboy-Prime punching the fabric of reality. However, due to the circumstances of his death, after returning from the grave, Jason becomes a violent anti-hero known as the Red Hood, killing criminals and trying to take over the Gotham Underworld.
- Badass Biker: The Red Hood's outfit consist of a leather jacket and red helmet, and he has been shown multiple times to ride motorcycles.
- Bash Brothers: Batman and Red Hood: even after all the time that passed between Jason's death and his return, they're able to fall right back in to this and work together flawlessly.
- Bread of Survival: In Batman Annual #25, it is shown that Jason Todd, after being resurrected, wakes up from a coma, escapes the hospital and breaks the glass of a bakery to steal some bread to eat. This moment is what originates the "Jason Todd loves bread" meme.
- Broken Pedestal: Jason used to truly and genuinely look up to Bruce, after his revival, his view of the man drops considerably not for failing to save him, but for the failure to kill the Joker for what he did.
- Calling the Old Man Out: Jason calls out Bruce on his moral selfishness, specifically not killing the Joker to avenge him.
- Came Back Wrong: This is a definite possibility with Jason. While he was resurrected due to Superboy-Prime's actions during Infinite Crisis, he was vegetative, only recovering when Talia dropped him in a Lazarus Pit. While Ra's Al Ghul was inside.
- Contrasting Replacement Character: After his resurrection, Jason becomes the Red Hood, a dark and gritty Anti-Hero willing to cross lines Batman won't.
- Cool Helmet: The Red Hood helmet, a red full-faced high-tech motorcycle helmet.
- Crowbar Combatant: A crowbar was used by The Joker in an iconic scene where he shows off his psychotic brutality by mercilessly beating Jason Todd to near death in A Death in the Family with a time bomb delivering the Coup de Grâce. Years later after coming Back from the Dead and becoming the new Red Hood, Jason reveals his identity to Joker and the readers by returning the favor. Thanks to these events, crowbars have had a very important connection to the two with Joker and Jason having used crowbars as either their weapon of choice or as a cheeky Mythology Gag in the mainline comics or in other continuities.
- Decapitation Presentation: Red Hood enters the Gotham underworld by arriving at a meeting of various mob bosses with a duffle bag containing the heads of their lieutenants, and announcing that he was in charge from then on. This is somewhat toned down with a Gory Discretion Shot in the animated film (though they're shown explicitly in Batman Death In The Family).
- Despair Event Horizon: After getting beaten, killed, and resurrected, Jason snaps after learning that Bruce didn't avenge his death and that he got himself a new sidekick. This led him to take the Joker's identity of the Red Hood.
- Didn't Think This Through: Jason's debut story as the Red Hood portrays him as a Crazy-Prepared upstart in Gotham's criminal underworld, constantly staying one step ahead of Batman and Black Mask. However, his ultimate goal was to get Batman to either kill Joker or himself and didn't count on his former mentor taking the third option that left him alive and in the Batfamily's crosshairs.
- Domino Mask: Jason wears the clasic Robin domino mask under the Red Hood mask.
- Dramatic Unmask: When Batman fought the Red Hood to a standstill, during which RH managed to strip Bats of one glove and his utility belt before ripping his mask off. Stoically, Bruce made no attempt to cover his face. His secret was safe, however: the street they were fighting on was empty and the Red Hood, a.k.a. Jason Todd, already knew... and who himself has just performed his own Dramatic Unmask, with a twist: he's wearing a Domino Mask under his helmet, which of course doesn't hinder Batman recognizing him in the least.
- Dual Wielding: Jason's favorite way to use weapons.
- Everyone Has Standards: Jason makes it very clear that he only kills people who he absolutely thinks deserve it. He also threatens to murder any drug dealers who try to sell to children.
- Evil Orphan: Bruce brought Jason into his home and his world. Jason paid him back, following his resurrection, by becoming one of the worst vigilantes Bruce has ever had to deal with.
- Fallen Hero: Jason Todd, and he is mourned as a hero gone bad.
- He Who Fights Monsters: In the climax, Batman freely admits to the Red Hood that he actually fantasizes about killing the Joker every day, but won't do so because he believes if he starts killing, he won't be able to stop.
- If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him!: Batman openly admits that he fantasizes about killing the Joker every single day, but won't because he believes that if he starts killing, he won't be able to stop. Used to justify why he hasn't taken out the Joker at the very least, given how the latter is utterly beyond redemption and has racked up a ridiculously substantial body count. But if it's okay for Batman to kill someone, it might be okay for Batman to kill anyone.
- Irony: When Jason comes back for his revenge on Bruce, he uses Batman's hated weapon, guns, kills often, something Batman has always refused to do, and even names himself after the Joker's previous alias.
- It's All About Me: Jason refuses to see that there are factors beyond "betraying him" at work when Bruce refuses to kill the Joker.
- Jerkass Has a Point: After the Red Hood, a resurrected second Robin (Jason Todd), goes on a revenge spree that culminates in him and his former mentor, Bruce Wayne, in an apartment with a bound Joker, Jason and Bruce debate about whether or not Bruce should have killed the Joker to prevent the death and terror he has caused,. This culminates with Bruce making a slippery slope defense that if he started killing, he'd never stop. Jason breaks down and says that he's angry that Bruce didn't kill the Joker... to avenge Jason. It's meant to show that Jason's bluster does somewhat boil down to him thinking that Bruce didn't love him enough and that he doesn't understand Batman's philosophy. However... Infinite Crisis had Bruce outright planning to kill Alexander Luthor Jr. with a gun when he thinks that Alex caused the death of Dick Grayson before Wonder Woman stops him. Similarly, he tries to strangle the original Lex Luthor to death in Forever Evil (2013) when he thought that Lex had killed Dick with Catwoman unable to stop him and Bruce only stopping once Lex reveals he just temporarily stopped Dick's heart. And in Batman (Tom King), when KGBeast shoots Dick in the head, Bruce tracks the guy down and brutally beats him and leaves him to die in a snowstorm (he didn't die, but Bruce didn't know he'd survive). So... Jason is right. Bruce didn't love him enough to avenge him, because his slippery slope argument will be ignored if his favourite son is killed or almost killed.
- Knight Templar: As the Red Hood, Jason considers the murders he commits justified because he's only killing criminals.
- Legacy Character: The Joker was, if not the original, the only known holder of the Red Hood title; Jason took it up after being revived as a middle finger to Batman.
- Meaningful Rename: Jason's moniker as the Red Hood calls to mind a certain murderous clown's initial moniker. Taking up the name of Batman's worst enemy was originally meant as a middle finger to the Dark Knight, and to serve as a walking reminder of his mistakes. It serves to highlight his fixation on Batman's many faults, via using a name that only Batman and the other members of his extended crime-fighting family would recognize as having previously belonged to the Joker.
- My Greatest Failure: Jason's death weighs heavily on Bruce, as it has haunted him for years, and not saving Jason was a big black spot on Batman's crime-fighting record. Even after his resurrection, Bruce still keeps Jason's old uniform up in the Batcave as a reminder of his mistake.
- Parental Betrayal: After being resurrected, Jason believes that Bruce is guilty of this. Even after Jason's death, he still keeps letting the Joker live, and eventually replaces Jason with another Robin. It's not hard to see his viewpoint since the Saviour of Gotham apparently was ready to replace his dead son & partner without even bringing the killer to "justice".
- A Pupil of Mine Until He Turned to Evil: Jason Todd, after returning from the grave and taking on the mantle of the Red Hood, becomes the antithesis of everything Bruce stands for, as Jason has made it his goal to lethally stop all crime from Gotham.
- Pyrrhic Victory: When Batman faces Jason Todd, who forces him to choose between letting Joker die or killing Jason, Batman makes Jason drop his weapon and sends him into shock by throwing a batarang at a pipe so it rebounds and cuts the side of Jason's neck.Joker: I love it! You managed to find a way to win... and everybody still loses!!
- Red and Black and Evil All Over: The Red Hood is a leather-clad, black and red-wearing villain who was undoubtedly troubled but still quite homicidal.
- Redeeming Replacement: Jason techinically, as the original Red Hood was the previous identity of the Joker.
- Red Is Violent: Jason Todd, after coming Back from the Dead, made a Face–Heel Turn and became a more violent vigilante than Batman himself under the name of Red Hood. He even has Red in the name.
- The Resenter: Jason resents Bruce for failing to kill the Joker.
- Resurrection Revenge: Jason spent many years planning to force Batman into killing Joker as revenge for his death. Unfortunately for him, Batman really doesn't want to break his one rule and opted to subdue Jason instead.
- The Rival: After his resurrection, Jason says he will be a better Batman than Bruce Wayne ever was.
- Sadistic Choice: Jason pulls one of these on Batman, forcing him to choose between letting Jason kill the Joker or killing Jason himself, so Batman would break his one rule or fail to Save the Villain; to Jason, his own life meant less than knowing that Batman loves him.
- Shrine to the Fallen: Following Jason Todd's death, his Robin costume was put on display in the Batcave. When he was brought back to life, Bruce opted to keep it to remind him of his failure.
- Too Dumb to Live: Anyone that does crime in the vicinity of Jason Todd. At least people who Jason targets himself are just unlucky, but people that know Red Hood is a problem at the moment and continue? Basically committing suicide.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: While Robin in Post-Crisis, Jason embodied many of the positive, adventurous traits that one would associate with one who held the Robin moniker. Then he got killed and resurrected, becoming the murderous Red Hood.
- Villain Killer: Jason, after being killed by the Joker and resurrected, abandoned Batman's rule against lethal force and essentially became DC's equivalent of the Punisher, racking up a considerably high body count of criminals.
