Titans has always had something of a rocky relationship with the comics it’s inspired by, never properly finding a balance between recognizable stories from DC lore and carving out its own mythos. The upcoming season 3 is looking to hew closer to established tales, though, and we now have another look at Jason Todd in his new role as the Red Hood.
Jason was introduced in the first run of Titans as the replacement Robin after Dick Grayson left Batman’s service and struck out on his own, his brash overconfidence and obnoxious arrogance mirroring that of his comic book counterpart. Although it was briefly teased in season 2 that he was about to die, he ended up being saved from his fatal skyscraper plummet by Superboy, and remained just as annoying.
We’ve already had a look at how Jason will appear in his new guise, but this BTS photo gives another glance into the emotionless grey void of his metallic mask’s eyes.
In the source material, after the character was retconned away from being a carbon copy of Dick, his brash and impulsive nature led to him becoming notoriously unpopular. This resulted in him being killed off in the famous Batman arc A Death in the Family and staying dead for so long he became a notable exception to mainstream superhero comics’ revolving door of resurrection. He was eventually brought back to life by Ra’s al Ghul using a Lazarus Pit, and returned to Gotham in his new identity of a violent antihero to wage a one-man war on the city’s criminal underworld.
Exactly how he’ll go about turning into Red Hood in Titans is currently unknown, as few plot details of the new season have been revealed. As of the last run’s conclusion, though, Jason was still alive, but the previous events caused him to strike out on his own, so perhaps he’ll have developed into a murderous vigilante without needing to die first.
