Red Hood

Jason Todd was the son of Willis Todd and Sheila Haywood, although his mother was forced to relinquish his custody when Willis married Catherine Todd. Catherine was a drug addict and died from an overdose, while his father had once worked for Two-Face and was murdered by the criminal. Legally an orphan, Jason lived in his father's apartment in a derelict building in Crime Alley, where he turned to crime out of necessity. Jason became highly skilled in stealing tires from vehicles and during one of his usual thefts, he met Batman as he stole the Batmobile's wheels. Jason was taken by Batman to a school run by Ma Gunn, hoping to reform the young man. However, Jason soon realized Gunn conducted illegal activities with the youngsters at her "school" and he escaped. When Batman located him, Jason informed him about Gunn's crimes and even assisted Batman in capturing her gang, after which Jason was taken in by Batman as the new Robin at the age of 12.

After six months of training, Jason was ready to go into action as the new Boy Wonder. In his early adventures, Robin assisted Batman against notable criminals like Two-Face, Mime, the Crime Doctor, The KGBeast, Deacon Blackfire and the Dumpster Slasher. While working on this last case, Jason became more aggressive and driven against criminals. Unlike Batman's first protegee Dick Grayson, Jason was impulsive, reckless, and full of rage. After a first meeting with his predecessor, Jason struck a good enough friendship with Nightwing and during a troubled time for the Titans, Jason is recruited by Donna Troy to help on a mission. Jason becomes frustrated by the situation when Donna expects him to figure out plans and save everyone, like Dick would.

Jason's violent methods against crooks eventually caused the death of a criminal. Jason's attitude got him and Batman in troubles, but he showed no sign of slowing down. Instead, Jason became more reckless until he was forbidden from going out as Robin. During those moments, Jason learned the truth about his real mother and doing more investigation, he tracked down the possible persons to the Middle East. Going alone at first, Jason was soon joined by Batman, who was following the trail of the Joker, who had recently escaped from Arkham. Jason and Bruce managed to foil Joker's plans to deal with terrorists, but they failed to capture the madman. With the crisis averted, Jason and Bruce resumed their quest to find Jason's real mother and eventually, they located her in Ethiopia. Shelia Haywood was working as part of the relief efforts for the refugees and once she was reunited with Jason, she told him the truth about their past. Unfortunately, Sheila had a criminal record which Joker used to blackmail her and use her for his own profits. Shelia tried to keep this from Jason, but he soon spotted Joker in the place and he followed the madman and his mother to a warehouse. After learning Joker's plan, Jason alerted Batman, who set out to stop a truck filled with Joker Venom. Meanwhile, Robin went to save his mother from Joker, but he was lured into a trap by her, who was also crooked and couldn't risk being exposed. In the warehouse, Robin was beaten to a bloody pulp by the Joker, using a crowbar. Joker then tied Sheila to a post and planted a bomb in the warehouse, leaving mother and son to die. Jason recovered and untied his mother, but they were unable to escape and the bomb exploded, killing them both.

Batman arrived too late to save them and all he could do was fix the crime scene to protect Jason's identity and later, he made the arrangements to have their bodies returned to Gotham and properly buried. For years, Jason's death haunted Batman, as he considered this his greatest failure: not properly training Jason in his role as Robin and failing to protect him from the Joker. Nonetheless, he used this experience to not make the same mistakes with the third Robin, Tim Drake.

It is later revealed that Jason indeed had died at the hands of the Joker, but when Superboy-Prime alters reality from the paradise dimension in which he is trapped (six months after his death), Jason is restored to life and breaks out of his coffin, but collapses thereafter and is hospitalized. After spending a year in a coma and subsequently as an amnesiac vagrant, he is recognized by Talia al Ghul. She spends several years trying to help restore Jason to full health, but the mental damage appears too extensive. Jason's is still able to fight, due to muscle reflex, but he appears to have no awareness of the situation. Talia's father, Ra's al Ghul sees Jason as a lost cause and orders him to be eliminated. In a last ditch effort to save him, Talia restores Jason's health and memory by immersing him in a Lazarus Pit in which her father is also bathing. It is suggested that exposure to the Pit's energies together with Ra's might have affected Jason's personality. On Talia's advice, Jason determines his death was never avenged, and prepares to confront Batman by traveling across the globe in the same path of training as his mentor.

Using the money from Talia and infuriated by her statement that he "remains un-avenged," Jason paid a group of mercenaries to help him return to Gotham. Once Jason arrives (during the aftermath of the event of No Man's Land), he enacts a plan to get revenge on Batman. He created a false arms trafficking of advance military arsenal, knowing that Batman would respond. This provided Jason an opportunity to plant a bomb beneath the Batmobile while Batman is on a stakeout for the arms deal. Batman enters the car and is at the boy's mercy, detonator in hand. However, Todd realizes that his former mentor would never know about his return nor that he would be Bruce's killer. Jason then decides to confront and kill Batman directly by traveling across the globe in search of a similar, yet more deadly type of training as Bruce received to prepare for that day. Todd learned the murderous arts from various masters around the globe. Such training includes firearms, poisons and anti-toxins, martial arts, and bomb-making.

Jason was pitted against the man teaching him assassination, a German named Egon, who is also engaged in a child sex slave ring. Jason, upon learning of this, frees a shipment of children and battles his new mentor. Though he is not able to physically best Egon, he does defeat him by poisoning an energy drink Egon was consuming before the fight ever started. Jason then burns Egon's compound to the ground. He later remarks to Talia that he did not see this as murder, but rather putting "...down a reptile." After a period of time, Jason is discovered and approached by Hush to participate in a game against Batman. While Batman attempts to uncover the mystery of Hush, Robin (Tim Drake) is kidnapped and taken to the cemetery where Jason was buried. When he confronts the kidnapper he discovers, much to his surprise, that the kidnapper is apparently Jason Todd. During the fight, Jason trades places with Clayface, who impersonates Jason for the end of the fight. Following the battle with Hush, Batman begins seeing visions of Jason. They appear to be the result of Scarecrow's fear gas, but Alfred finds Jason's mask in the batmobile, following one of the visions.