Superhero Media: Batman - A Death In The Family

One of the Batman stories considered so classic that it is rarely cut from canon with a new DC line-wide reboot, A Death In The Family tells the story of Jason Todd searching for his mother and then paying the ultimate price to protect her from the Joker. Written by the legendary Jim Starlin, of Adam Warlock fame, the story is famous for deciding Jason Todd's fate with a reader poll conducted with a USA "900" number, with the votes falling strongly in favour of death. What this means is I get to flex my literature graduate skills a little as we discuss the narrative effects of the story, and its reflection of the broader Batman canon through the fandom. Neat, huh? First off, if you're wavering on reading this story, A Death In The Family also features the Ayatollah Khomeini making the Joker Iran's ambassador to the United Nations. No, really. Then Batman and Superman have to take him down without causing an international incident; it's quite a bit of fun.

Jason Todd dies in an explosion after being beaten close to death by Joker with a crowbar, it's about as brutal as a Comics Code Authority-approved comic can be, especially when you consider that Jason is around 15, still legally a child. Of course, with Starlin at the helm, A Death In The Family is well-written and engaging, but there is no escaping that it's a multi-issue story leading to a brutal child murder. A brutal child murder that the fans voted for. Personally, I don't understand the general hatred that many Batman fans have for Robin, outside of the rabid section that wants the comic to be as grim and gritty as possible; even from a writing perspective, having a second character to bounce dialog off is always a better device than inner monologue. Even the Robins who don't die get changed up, like Nightwing, Red Robin or whatever Damien Wayne is doing, though I think he died too at some point? Hell, derivative versions such as Batman Beyond tend to not even use Robin in any recognisable form.

Is it that this section of the fanbase, which A Death In The Family demonstrates to be no new phenomenon, doesn't realise that the lighter tone and concept of Robin is intended to balance the "Dark Knight" aspects of Batman? Because the comics seem to understand this, with the run introducing Tim Drake (included in my copy of A Death In The Family), Knightfall and even Hush covering the idea that Batman needs his support network to function at maximum and maintain his sanity. This isn't even subtext, it's the text, pretty explicitly in some cases, with Tim Drake shouting "Batman needs Robin!" more than a few times. I concur, Batman, both the character and the media he headlines, needs the presence of Robin, be it Dick, Jason, Tim, Carrie, Stephanie or even Damien, they balance the grim and gritty and anchor both the narrative and the reader in something more grounded than a billionaire in a bat costume punching the mentally ill because he's still sad about his mum dying. Still, A Death In The Family is a good story and well worth including in any comics collection.