Justine Manzano I’m very open about my geekiness. I consider it a badge of pride. This blog post rests very strongly in my geek side. You have been prepared. LOL
My favorite comic book hero for over a decade has been Jason Todd or the Red Hood from DC. Originally one of Batman’s Robins, he was murdered by the Joker. Ages later, he was brought back as a villain. The Red Hood. He has since evolved into an antihero.
So why is he my favorite? Because he’s pretty much the patron saint of victims of violence.
For an overview of Jason’s story, you can check out Jason’s DC wiki page: https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Jason_Todd_(Prime_Earth)
There are a lot of examples of the point I’m trying to make here throughout the course of Jason’s story, but I’m going to take the biggest, most obvious example.
When Jason Todd was the second Robin and the adopted son of Bruce Wayne, he was murdered horrifically by the Joker. After being
lured to a warehouse by his long-lost mother, who was in debt to the Joker, the Joker turned on her, then beat a 15-year-old to death with a crowbar, then blew him up.
Some time later, after a lot of weird comic book stuff (Superman Prime punched a hole through dimensions, and in the shockwaves left behind, Jason Todd came back to life…in his grave. And was then forced to scratch and claw his way out.), that lead to more weird comic book stuff (he ends up in a coma, then brain damaged, then after being rescued by Talia Al Ghul, an assassin who had a relationship with Bruce Wayne, she throws him in a Lazarus Pit, which heals wounds, and heals his brain damage), Jason Todd discovers that not only has Bruce Wayne recruited a new Robin, but the Joker has escaped from jail. And that one really burns Jason. Because Jason doesn’t understand why the monster who killed him is still alive.
Filled with rage at being forgotten and not avenged, Jason enlists the help of Talia to train in the things Batman would never teach him–how to kill. Because Batman doesn’t kill, and Jason thought maybe his son being slaughtered by an irredeemable monster, would be enough to make him break that rule.
Returning to Gotham as the Red Hood, Jason takes over the criminal underground, killing drug dealers who won’t follow his rules (no dealing to kids), and begins taking out criminals, willing to wipe the evil off the streets and be a “better Batman” who WILL kill.
Eventually, Jason creates a showdown. He asks Batman to either kill the Joker himself, or to standby and watch Jason do it. Batman finds a way out of it (a horrible way that will make you hate Bruce Wayne), but there’s a reason Jason wouldn’t just kill the Joker. He had him. He was holding him hostage. But he didn’t want to do it for himself.
Though it’s never said in the comics, the psychology of it makes so much sense to me. 
As a victim of violent crime myself and a child who had endured child abuse, I understood. When you’ve lived your life protecting yourself, building yourself up, keeping yourself alive, there’s only one thing you want in life.
For someone else to finally do the protecting. For someone to protect you.
Jason wanted Batman to protect him. And failing that, he became that savior for other people.
Because as lovely as the idea of a protector who locks the bad guys up in jail sounds in theory, if you apply it to the world of Gotham City where jail is like a revolving door, that wouldn’t make a victim feel safer. When Jason Todd steps forward as Red Hood, it’s horrifying for Batman, a man who never wanted to kill, who thought he could save the city without that level of bloodshed.
What Jason becomes in Batman’s eyes is very different from what he becomes in the eyes of the victims of Gotham City. To them, he is the protector of the people. He is the reason the villains who hurt them will never hurt them or anybody else again. He removes the villains from the equation completely.
This is not to say that victims of violent crime uniformly want their victimizer to die. Some may, but others may not. It’s also not necessarily true that they would enjoy Jason Todd / Red Hood. But what I do know is that we would like to never have to fear for our safety again. And Red Hood is a fun fictional fantasy to indulge in.
And that is why Jason Todd is my favorite superhero. It also doesn’t hurt that he’s snarky as hell. So, what is your favorite superhero?