Well fuck Batman y’all, it’s time for Titans! This week in “Jason Todd,” none other than, you guessed it, Jason Todd shows up!
Dick and Jason go on a side adventure and we get an insight into what it’s like to be Robin, more of Dick’s childhood and backstory, but so little plot progression. I can’t decide if this episode is better than last week, or if I have just reached a level of straight apathy with this show that I’m experiencing “okayness” as improvement. Whatever let’s just dive in.
1. Starting to see the pattern
If you haven’t noticed, we are alternating with plot-based episodes and sidebar adventures trying to flesh out the entire world of the DC Universe original series’. Actually, do we know if these are all going to take place in the same world? I guess this and Doom Patrol are going to definitely, but what about Swamp Thing and Stargirl? Maybe a conversation for another day. But anyway, all the even numbered episodes have all centered around introducing new characters and concepts that sort of vaguely connect with the Rachel stuff. We got Hawk and Dove first, the Doom Patrol second, and now, Jason Todd the second Robin who also fills us in on more Dick Grayson/Bruce Wayne background and dynamics. While slowing down the overall plot of the season, these episodes have helped build the world, and if I’m being honest, I would prefer getting new one-offs as fodder than the extra episodes the Marvel Netflix shows have. Still, makes you wonder if Geoff Johns and co. really only had material for like 6 episodes when they were plotting this season.
Regardless, we have made little headway in the “people trying to kill Rachel” plotline, which seems to be the driving force for the season with Dick trying to get his shit together being a close second. I could see us getting a full transition from Robin to Nightwing by season’s end, but if we’re going to keep doing enfleshing this world, it’s going to be tough to kill Trigon unless all that stuff just happens in the season finale (which seems to be tentatively titled “Raven?”) It continues to be odd and unevenly paced. But I guess consistently being uneven is at least consistent? I don’t know.
2. Robin 2.0
Meet Jason Todd, the little shit who became Robin. Curran Walters plays the second Robin, and boy he seems straight ripped from the comics, but also kicked up to the extreme just a smidge. He’s a super cocky, beer drinking, 19-year old, little SOB who says fuck way more than any of the people on this show did the five episodes prior and who just renders the most violence possible in all of the fight scenes he’s in. So much about Jason works early on in the episode with the cracks about the Batmobile, loving being Robin, and wearing his tragic childhood on his sleeve. But then he almost kills a bunch of cops and that, “I can do whatever the fuck I want attitude,” just seems way too reckless. Also that and practically pleading to get into a barfight. Dick looks at Jason and sees so much of himself, and that scares him. He also sees a bully, and Bruce’s complicity in that and THAT is probably scarier. This is a Robin who loves being Robin, loves beating up literally everyone, congratulates Dick on killing Tony Zucco, the man who killed his parents (we’ll get there), and who just has all of the unearned confidence of a rich, straight, white man. This is Jason Todd. Maybe not Jason Todd as Robin, but definitely Jason Todd as what he will become as Red Hood. This show is at least getting it’s hero casting right.
3. Atlas the Strongman and The Melting Man
We get dropped into Dick’s past and his former Haley’s Circus crew in this episode with more flashbacks and more Lil Dickie. We go back to the funeral of Dick’s parents and the last moment all the people that were in Haley’s Circus were all together and we are introduced to Clay Williams, stage name of Atlas the Strongman, who Lil Dickie wanted to go live with instead of Bruce. He seems like a kindhearted man who knew Dick would have a “better” life with Bruce. We’re also introduced in flashback to Nick Zucco, Tony Zucco’s son, who becomes the villain the Melting Man to get back at Dick for his role in the death of his father and the rest of his family after the Maroni’s came after them after Tony died. He’s a weak one-off villain, who doesn’t get a lot of character work cause we see Dick murder his dad and are then supposed to feel bad for him. He’s got a funky Gotham-esque look wearing half his face as a mask over the part of his face that was screwed up by acid? It’d almost be comical if we hadn’t have seen the pictures of what he did to the rest of the Haley’s Circus troupe earlier in the episode.
Continued belowIn both cases, these are original characters made for the show. Nick maybe less so since I’m sure Tony Zucco has been shown to have a family at some point in the comics. He has a daughter that Dick dates during The New 52 run on “Nightwing.” Clay is a completely new character, and a contrast to the implicit father figure that Bruce has been shown to be in this show. Again it’s weird that Bruce’s name is spoken so much and he isn’t present at all in this show. This is such a distinct show with a distinct audience so I guess they can make those leaps but still. Having both of them in this sidebar adventure was interesting, with Clay coming out as a better character than the waste of a villain Nick turns out to be. Especially since it seems the death of Tony Zucco is the primary motivator for Dick’s current actions. Guess we should talk about that.
4. Batman kills babies
The main theme of this sideshow episode is dealing with the way that Batman has ruined and “ruined” people’s lives both directly and indirectly. Dick seems pretty confident that Bruce turned him into a raging, monstrous lunatic. So much so that when Tony Zucco is finally arrested for other crimes and Dick learns he’s going to strike a deal, Dick sabotages his police transport, beats the crap out of him, and then leaves him to die when the Maroni crime family shows up to kill him for snitching. So Dick didn’t actually pull the trigger or use his own hands, but he didn’t save him even though Zucco asks him too. Dick firmly responds “No,” and leaves the scene. It’s tough stuff to watch, but gives us a better sense of why Dick tried to flee Gotham and go on the straight and narrow.
Jason thinks Batman has made his life so much better, taking him off the streets, giving him something to do with his anger, teaching him to fight, and making him a celebrity. Jason is completely unhinged and Dick wants him to realize that (before a certain crowbar comes a-calling). Of course it doesn’t work, but both instances paint a very dark and harsh picture of Batman. Batman killed these two children basically, or ruined their lives in an effort to further his crusade. It’s a lot more heavy handed in this show than it has been in most comic storylines, but it’s all right there. This is Batman’s fault. And Dick decides to give up Robin completely at the end of the episode because of it, while Jason wrecks some cops and skips on back to Gotham.
The problem with all these things for me, is that there’s no reprimanding for any of these people. Jason should be arrested as Robin in Milwaukee for doing this to these cops, but I doubt this will be mentioned again and he’ll be fine in Gotham. Likewise, Gotham’s PD should’ve shut Batman down after Dick got Tony killed, but I doubt we’ll see any of those repercussions either. I’ve gotten used to all the edginess of this show, the violence (which has been toned down some), and the language, but what’s missing are stakes for anyone.
5. Oh there’s the plot
So Rachel and Beast Boy have three or four lines between the both of them as they meet Jason at the Titans new safe house in Chicago. (Sidenote: We haven’t left the Midwest at all yet, and I think that’s a Johns thing. I’m ok if the Titans settle on Chicago, there are not enough interior United States superhero teams, I just think it’s interesting. It also makes me wonder where Gotham is in this world). Kory is the only one that has any sort of thing to do outside of Jason and Dick this episode. She changed outfits, which is definitely a good thing as the oddity that was the fur boa and purple dress was starting to wear on me. Going with the bright purple jumpsuit is an improvement, and one that still looks very bright, but also less silly. Her and Dick talking about his life, and then talking on the phone sounds really sincere and it’s clear there is chemistry with the two still. Dragging The Messenger into a Bruce Wayne safe house and handcuffing him to the shower was hilarious. But it’s all that happened plotwise to move the season’s plot forward. That and the last minute “I’m only gonna talk to Rachel” bit. There was a sliver of plot here, why even have any of it at all?
That’s all for this week folks. Sound off in the comments below and tell me I’m wrong and we’ll see you next week for, hopefully, an episode that moves the needle forward some.
