Red Hood's New Gotham Team Is the Best Thing to Happen to Jason Todd in Years

Warning! Contains spoilers for Red Hood: The Hill #6!

Summary Red Hood finally has his own supporting cast, the Watch, allowing him to grow as a character beyond the shadow of the Bat-Family.

The shift in narrative for Jason Todd in Red Hood: The Hill is significant, marking a departure from his previous character development.

By teaming up with the Watch in the Hill, Red Hood may be on the path to defining himself outside the Bat-Family and developing his own stories.

With a new set of Gotham friends, Red Hood is finally becoming the Gotham hero he was always meant to be. Almost every member of the Bat-Family has managed to grow up and move on: Nightwing left Gotham and got his own supporting cast, and Tim Drake went off to boarding school with his own adventures. Jason Todd has always been stuck in the shadow of the Bat-Family, but that seems to finally be changing.

Throughout the story of Red Hood: The Hill, including the opening issues by Shawn Martinbrough and Sanford Greene, Red Hood has his own supporting cast and tries to protect a section of Gotham that Batman doesn't usually visit. While this doesn't seem like that big of a narrative development, these small status quo changes are huge steps for Red Hood as a character, as most members of the Bat-Family got to branch out a long time ago.

While working in the Hill, Red Hood meets the Watch, a group of local vigilantes that formed during the events of the Batman "Joker War" story to keep their part of Gotham safe. Red Hood decides to team up with them to help them bring down a gang that's been trying to take over the Hill. This six-issue miniseries is one of the first times in Jason's history that he actually got to have his own supporting cast that wasn't borrowed from other corners of the DCU, and hopefully, it's a trend that will continue.

Related 1 Detail of This Iconic Red Hood Costume Defined Jason Todd's Adult Characterization Judd Winick's Red Hood will always be iconic, especially regarding one legendary and character-defining costume feature that fans still love today.

Red Hood Can't Grow Without a Supporting Cast

Panel from Red Hood: The Hill #6 by Shawn Martinbrough and Tony Akins, the Final Issue of the Series

Red Hood, as a character, has often struggled with actually deciding who he is. It's no secret that of all the former Robins, Red Hood has had the biggest identity issues. Dick Grayson went from Robin to Nightwing pretty seamlessly. Tim Drake had his time as Red Robin. Jason came back as Red Hood, but he wasn't immediately a hero. He spent some time as a brutal villain to the Bat-Family, and then he spent some time as an anti-hero who was constantly at odds with the Bat-Family. Neither of these ways of defining himself lended themselves to Jason going out and finding his own place in the world.

While Red Hood has teamed up with other characters during his Outlaw days, they were never supporting characters to him, but instead their own characters.

The biggest story elements that a comic character needs to cement themselves as true story leads are a unique location and their own supporting cast. Jason has never had either of these while the other Robins got both. For example, Nightwing famously moved to Blüdhaven, leading him to his supporting cast of the Blüdhaven police department and his apartment denizens.

While Red Hood has teamed up with other characters during his Outlaw days, they were never supporting characters to him, but instead their own characters, like Arsenal and Starfire. This difference from other Gotham vigilantes has stifled Red Hood's character development for years, but he might finally be moving past this deficiency with the introduction of Strike and the Watch.

Red Hood Might Finally Be Escaping the Bat-Family's Shadow

Will the Watch Return in Future Red Hood Stories?

Jason needs to grow as a character, and now that he has the location of the Hill and the Watch as his supporting characters, he might finally be able to grow outside the Bat-Family's shadow. Jason will be allowed to have character interactions and stories that don't revolve around the Bat-Family or Batman. He can actually grow as a character, as his adventures won't be tied to another main hero, like they were in the Outlaws. Hopefully, Red Hood: The Hill was just the first step towards Red Hood finally becoming his own character with his own stories for fans to enjoy.

Red Hood: The Hill #6 is available now from DC Comics!

RED HOOD: THE HILL #6 (2024) Writer: Shawn Martinbrough

Artist: Tony Akins

Colorist: Matt Herms

Letterer: Troy Peteri

Cover Artist: Sanford Greene