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It's no surprise I think Jason is a great character. He's smart, funny, genre savvy and walks a line between being a villain and being an antihero. He's often dismissed as the Robin no one liked, but I don't think that's the case anymore. He has a very loyal fanbase who are ready and willing to shell out the money for a monthly to explore this character. I'm going to try and list why I think it would be a good idea, though there will be overlap.
1) The problem with using Jason in the batbooks is that he has to be squeezed in, either as an ally in Outsiders or as a "villain" in Batman & Robin. Squeezing him in usually means having to push him to either be more of a villain than he should be (see Battle for the Cowl) or it gets just plain insane (see Nightwing #118-#122 for tentacles if you dare) and as he has tense relationships with a lot of characters, it's easy to thrust him into being a plain twiddling the mustache villain - don't. That's incredibly disrespectful to the background of the character as having been Robin. The point is that I don't think it's too much to ask to give Jason a good motivation, like killing off the bad guys as he does in Batman & Robin, while still keeping him as an adversary. I think that would be infinitely easier in a book for him, much like it was for other antihero-almost-villain-but-not-quite characters such as Secret Six, who are a villains but at the same time, often do things for the right reasons and to a degree, they're often tolerated because of it. In his own standing ground, you don't have to slot him in anywhere to be an ally or villain: you can just have Jason being Jason and if that includes killing people with rocket launchers or saving the innocent in his won way (such as the no selling drugs to under 12's rule), then more the better.
2) Jason is a member of the Batfamily. It's a fact. He is the boy Selina references when she says she has to give up her daughter so that doesn't happen to her, the case Alfred looks at sadly in many issues, the little brother that Dick loved to the point of killing the Joker during Last Laugh, the first adopted son for Bruce that he could never really let go of, he was Tim's hero whose case Tim used to talk to, Barbara's crime fighting partner and little pain in the butt, the boy Donna tried to put in charge of the Teen Titans, someone even Roy and Wally sat and got along with and do you any of this stuff gets remembered? What Winick did was create someone who thinks Batman doesn't go far enough and puts all of these people who care so deeply about him in a very uncomfortable moral place. It's wonderful and it's terrible and yet, how much of this have we actually seen?
Well...we got some Donna interaction which was a bit bizarre in most places in Countdown, we got a single panel with Roy in Outsiders, we've had Tim and his relationship (fallen idol syndrome, much?) handled beautifully by Johns and Nicienza, we've had the bizarre Nightwing run where Dick doesn't think he should save him (yet if it was Tim or Damian, you bet he'd be written as desperate to do so), a beautifully handled couple of issues in Outsiders where Dick acknowledges his help even if things are incredibly tense (considering Lost Days says Batman never cared about 'us', I've always wanted to hear how he felt about Dick these days) which doesn't diminish either of their characters and Batman & Robin, where Dick and Jason are more or less in character but as it is Morrison, you can't take it 100% seriously. I'm not going to acknowledge the Battle for the Cowl fiasco. It didn't sit with any previous characterisation of him and feels seriously out of place.
So essentially, almost six years after his return, this is it. No interaction with Barbara, none with Alfred and he hasn't even met his adopted sister Cassandra. Johns did a great job of showing that for the Batfamily, two-three years had gone past since his death and Jason seemed to be expecting people to have missed him and they have, for all intents and purposes, moved on. He expects to shake things up a bit. Instead. we don't really get much of it.
We have Under the Hood, his return arc. A Green Arrow arc, in which Bruce and Jason don't even interact so literally, his return arc five years ago was the last time we saw them interact. I find that a total waste of an excellent character who questions Bruce in a way a lot of readers do. I'll go into that in my next point. We have the bizarre Nightwing run with the tentacles. We see Jason's POV on taking out bad guys in World War Three for about three pages. Two Outsiders issues. Three issues of Robin. A quick arc of Batman & Robin, in which he's very much a plot device even if he is mostly in character. Basically, we haven't gotten the emotional meat from him since the Green Arrow run three years ago. How much has Dick, Tim, Steph, even Damian gotten in that time? Even counting the third of Countdown that was okay if not 100% and the awful Battle for the Cowl run which is basically just camp, there is so much that hasn't been explored. Essentially, for most of this, Jason has been faffing about. We haven't gotten into the meatier stuff, despite having a line up in one of the fore families of the DC Universe. That's why I think he should be in an ongoing: there's so much left to explore.
3) When it comes to Jason, writers have to walk a very fine line. If Jason is too competent at killing villains or it is seen as it being a good thing, then Batman starts to look weaker. Unfortunately, his ability to challenge Bruce is his central theme. What I'd have liked to have seen is Jason having good short term effects but seeing that Bruce's way works longer in the long run. He offers another outlook, in a similar way to Huntress but this is much closer to home. It's an outlook I'm interested in and when he's written well, he's written really well, which is what makes me a fan. I think an ongoing could explore the effects, such as creating villains because peoples loved ones are dying or escalation, as that happens quite a bit in Gotham. In the regular titles, they have to be very careful to show Jason's viewpoint without supporting it. I think we'd get a better view of what Jason does and we're getting it in Lost Days, but where does that leave the character in present day? I think we should be able to see his journey through as fans and sales have indicated, he's got almost as many as Red Robin. I think he has a chance to shine as the kind of antihero he is and there's a market for that, so I think you could show his way much better without having to constantly worry about if he's being good, how does that make Batman look?
4) Jason is a decent vigilante. He uses lethal force, he crosses a line but if he took a step back into the grey area, he would probably be no more unusual in Gotham than Huntress. It's the fact he's in Gotham City, which is big about the no kill rule. There are vigilantes that kill. It doesn't make it right, but it doesn't mean Jason is a villain for killing the bad guys. There's a fine line between good and bad and Jason straddles it, sometimes being a little more one than the other because he thinks it's what Gotham needs so no child has to die the way he did and so the guilty, the intensely guilty is what he's even willing to limit it to, get punished and don't fill any more grave yards. I think he deserves a chance to shine and explore what's good about his methods and what needs work, but without the character development, we'll never see how he does. I think he needs the spotlight and Lost Days has proved he can carry it well.
5) Jason is not a villain, but he's not a hero either. What we have is an emotionally damaged, traumatised, angry, hurt teenager given the tools of Batman to survive and he's hitting back hard and fast. Too hard and too fast for it to just be the effects of post traumatic distress or the lazarus pit or just Jason himself, but for it to perhaps be a mixture of all those things. It was even quoted that he's "broken, but not unfixable" and the fact he's broken is the interesting part. He's not this villain wanting to destroy Gotham city. He's an antihero who wants to take Gotham back from the scum that's killing it and is going about it in a harsh and violent manner. I don't want an irredeemable villain or someone out to make a quick buck. We have those types of villains. A traumatised 21 year old who's got an arsenal and is furious with the city's vigilante (who happens to be his father) for not taking down the Joker? That's interesting and it's different. I don't want Jason to lose what makes him special. I think an ongoing could preserve it and set a precedent for what Jason is supposed to be like, which could stop all the inconsistency.
5) Jason is a failed Robin, not an actual failure. Robin is supposed to be a capable beacon of light. Jason is rarely ever that, which tends to bring about this idea that he was a failure as Robin. But just because Jason was a failure as Robin (if you see it that way), doesn't mean he's not capable, intelligent and a good vigilante. Tim got progressively darker and then was removed from the Robin role. Robin is young and enthusiastic. Anger isn't supposed to enter into it, not in any real way. Tim went on to become Red Robin.
With the right writers, Jason could easily come into his own, but they seem to just want to bog him down and get worse and worse. He doesn't need any more failures in this trauma conga line. He already has a murdered father, an ODed mother, an adopted father who hasn't seen him in quite some time yet he's dying to get the attention of, an older brother who with one hand reaches out and with the other thumps him, a younger brother to whom he was a hero and who can now only see his flaws because he's not this bright little Robin but a vengeance focused young man striking out and for the most part, people who just don't bother acknowledging him despite the fact he's been to hell and back and is, despite how he's doing it, trying to do a good thing. The fact that Nicienza even writes Jason as sad and not sure where to go from here at the end of Robin gave me hope that he'd be handled well. Then Battle for the Cowl had him shooting kids, pushing Selina off a roof and having some dark terrible secret, plus Tim reenacting his murder and Dick beating the crap out of him.
Hasn't he suffered enough? Doesn't the character deserve a chance to be the focus and see what he's like when he's not being kicked constantly? Lost Days has brought us both emotion and action and I think an ongoing could do wonders for showing us what this character can really do if a writer would just take him on and deal with him on the same level people like Winick, Johns, Dini and Nicienza do: as an antihero doing the wrong thing, not as an Arkhamite hell bent on destruction. He's the failed Robin. That doesn't mean he can't still be a great character and one that's worth developing, even if that development leads down a dark path, I'd be happy as long as it's written well.
Jason shows that the family can fail is a wonderful way of putting it. He is a failure of the system, though saying he's Bruces failure being Bruce's last words to him makes me want to hit things. Who tells their kid that, seriously, if he actually came to the house to listen to it, then he's making an effort to go there and try and make some sort of peace with his father. He has some pretty intense PTSD which is evident everywhere. He has issues with being made to feel like a victim. Striking out is a normal reaction and the fact they can't see that probably shows that feelings are getting in the way. I believe that's something worth reading about.
6) Batman has changed over the years and so has the role of Robin. He was more cheerful with Dick. He was more violent with Jason. He was more thoughtful with Tim. He even lightened up a bit with Steph. Batman is often defined in part by his Robins. People who say Jason was too violent seriously need to see what Bruce was doing at that time. Jason saw nothing wrong with it because Bruce didn't...then comes back two years later and all the rules have changed? It's bound to make him seem out of sync. I think that just adds to the tragedy, because it pulls on the heartstrings. I think the journey from Robin to Red Hood is an important one and I'm glad it's being told. What I'd like to see after is the road ahead with Bruce coming back. Everything has changed, from a lighter Batman, a darker Robin, Red Robin, a new Batgirl, the Birds of Prey coming in and Alfred has become even more bad ass. You're giving all the other Batkids (except Cassandra, which still pisses me off and yes, I'd like to see her in Batgirl along with Steph, Babs and Wendy or see her in another ongoing too -- isn't Nightwing open right now?) so why not give Jason the same chance to develop as they've been giving everyone else? He has the fans. DC has writers capable of doing it. Let's see what Jason can do given his own space to grow, either as part of another ongoing or his own. Let's give him the chance to develop, as everyone else has.
7) Jason has a lot of issues that could easily be addressed in an ongoing. The Joker took his life, but in a lot of ways, he also took Babs' - so could we see what these two do if put in a room together? She hates the Joker almost as much as he does. Zinda uses guns in Gotham, so he's not the only one. Helena is more brutal with the bad guys and again, this is something very akin to what he's like. He's never had the chance to interact with Stephanie, despite the fact her "death" was directly before his return. He's never met his adopted sister who is intense and brutal, but finds solace in the fight in a way Jason has never been able to. He's never dealt with the business with his mother, if she was even his mother as no one bothered to check. He grew up in Crime Alley and understands Gotham on a way that it would be great to see on street level - this isn't about sending people home with broken bones, it's about eliminating a problem so peoples kids can play safely outside. He has a distinct hatred for anyone out to hurt girls in particular - Barbara is referenced a few times since his return, but just look at Garzonas or his reaction to a girl taking revenge on people who had been killing women earlier on: he says it's good. He doesn't like to see the innocent hurt if it could be prevented. I love Bruce to bits, but I don't think he'll ever truly understand what it's like living in Crime Alley. It's a point of view I'd love to see explored.
Jason is not evil because his father was or because he was already evil as Robin. Jason seemed to become a lesson more than a person. One of the things I actually liked in Year Three was that it was shown that JASON had died, not just Robin. It seems without the Robin status, he's nothing but the child of a two bit crook and as Tim says, the apple never falls far from the tree as far as the DCU is concerned. This, again, irritates. Jason isn't his father. Cass isn't her mother or father. Steph isn't bad because of her father. It's taken forever to get to a good point with Steph, I want a good point for Cass like whoa and Jason really needs to draw a distinction there too. He is just potential and it's being wasted making him act like a simple villain, interchangeable with the Joker half the time. That's not Jason. His power lies in his ability to make his family members feel like crap. He's emotionally manipulative, passionate and angry. That's a great combo for someone trying to save Gotham but at the same time, point out to "Daddy" that he's becoming obsolete.
8) I want to see how the relationships have evolved when Bruce comes back. Dick has now had his own super violent Robin that he shows an amazing care and affection towards. There are a LOT of echoes for Jason in Damian: both throw up upon finding bodies, both crowbarred the Joker and Dick sits with him, talks with him and works through issues. Tim has now tried being on the other side, having taken Jason's old costume and I think he's come back understanding things a little bit better than he was at the end of Robin. Damian and Jason were both cared for by the same person, mothered by her and yet, seem to know very little about each other. Steph was another failed Robin who took her life back in a different way. Bruce had been lost in time and had amnesia. He's reaffirming who is and considering it's Jason, I will be very annoyed if he's not even touched on in his return. I know time in monthlies is limited, so an ongoing would give the time necessary to explore all of this.
I don't think Dick and Tim hate Jason. I think he's Jan Brady, as noted by Nicienza. I think no Robin liked to be replaced. Look at Tim's reaction to Damian and Steph taking the suit. Tim always regarded Jason as a cautionary tale, someone who was too impulsive and paid for it and for Jason to be walking around, the effect of that was explored in The Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul. Now why can't we see Jason develop, as we've seen Tim do? Jason is a person. He's not Robin. He's not even the Red Hood as much as he used to be, as so much of that is tied to his anger which we saw diminish significantly in the later issues of Robin, just to have Battle for the Cowl have it be worse than ever. A little consistency in his personality would no go amiss.
Now I totally get Dick and Tim's hesitation with Jason. Dick is very much the first Robin, being all bright the way he is. Tim is a logician and he knows the rules, it's why he doesn't handle Damian very well either because Damian crosses the line and seems to get away with it but when he plays by the rules, they seem to be able to deal with one another in a more functional light. To Dick, he was a brash kid who he was obviously fond of. To Tim, he was the lesson and someone he watched as Robin so there is probably anger that Jason would sully that. Dick, I feel, should have gotten on more the way Morrison writes him: "You've made a mess, come on, let's clean it up." instead of Daniel who was "Come home *punch*!" or in Nightwing when he isn't sure if he should let him live or die. It's ridiculous, because if anyone could understand this issue, it would be Dick. I suppose Blockbuster may have been too recent and it was still smarting but come on. Labeling him as the bad Robin only gets them so far and we know from Dick dealing with Damian that he can deal with anger.
Though one interesting thing I remember noting is that Tim attempts to reach out before the fight in Teen Titans. When Jason then tries to reach out in Robin, Tim has lost both fathers, both mothers, his girlfriend has 'betrayed' him and his best friends have been dead. He's in no mood to put up with Jason on a logical or even emotional level so he shuts down, the same way Jason would attack him in Teen Titans. It's all about timing. Considering you have all of this, not to mention Alfred, it seems like there's a few heart tugging story lines that can be set to ninjas and guns that just haven't been done. It's wasted potential, rather like Jason himself at the moment.
9) Jason is cool. I'm sorry, but it's true. He waves at villains before he kills them. He uses rocket launchers. He mocks people wonderfully. He's utterly genre savvy. He doesn't mess around with costumes like a fetishist so much as he's practical. He knows how to work things in Gotham. He is a fallen hero without being a villain. His mask looks like a sex toy. He is a character that I would love to see kick some Arkhamite ass on a monthly basis.
10) Jason isn't the symbol. Robin died. Jason came back and Robin didn't. That's the person who should be mourned. Jason is a person and he has failures and triumphs, just like anyone else and sometimes, I don't think writers can remember that you can mourn one without demonising the person that came back. I honestly believe you can develop Jason into a strong character while still keeping the lesson of the dead robin alive. As Bruce says, it doesn't change anything. My only hope is that upon Bruce return, he remembers he has four sons that need him to varying degrees and, I think, he needs them. Dick will keep him bright, Jason will keep him questioning, Tim will keep him logical and Damian will give him the role of a father. I think what they have is the best of all possible worlds in these boys (though I want to include Cass in that, because she also adds a daughter which is something else entirely from having sons) and I just wish the DC would realise what an interesting family dynamic there is there and settle it with accurate characterisation and a little bit of grace. DC took a chance in making Steph Batgirl and it turned out brilliantly. They took a chance on Lost Days and it's great! I just don't want him to be forgotten about as soon as it's over. Winick brought in a great character. He's often forgotten about, even in universe (which sucks, as even in Robin, teachers comment on his death to Tim) and I think if we can keep him around and consistant, that'll stop and people will get over the method of his return, the exaggerated hate for him in the Robin role (it was a close call) and the inconsistant characterisation and relationships to see how fantastic this character is and could be.
1) The problem with using Jason in the batbooks is that he has to be squeezed in, either as an ally in Outsiders or as a "villain" in Batman & Robin. Squeezing him in usually means having to push him to either be more of a villain than he should be (see Battle for the Cowl) or it gets just plain insane (see Nightwing #118-#122 for tentacles if you dare) and as he has tense relationships with a lot of characters, it's easy to thrust him into being a plain twiddling the mustache villain - don't. That's incredibly disrespectful to the background of the character as having been Robin. The point is that I don't think it's too much to ask to give Jason a good motivation, like killing off the bad guys as he does in Batman & Robin, while still keeping him as an adversary. I think that would be infinitely easier in a book for him, much like it was for other antihero-almost-villain-but-not-quite characters such as Secret Six, who are a villains but at the same time, often do things for the right reasons and to a degree, they're often tolerated because of it. In his own standing ground, you don't have to slot him in anywhere to be an ally or villain: you can just have Jason being Jason and if that includes killing people with rocket launchers or saving the innocent in his won way (such as the no selling drugs to under 12's rule), then more the better.
2) Jason is a member of the Batfamily. It's a fact. He is the boy Selina references when she says she has to give up her daughter so that doesn't happen to her, the case Alfred looks at sadly in many issues, the little brother that Dick loved to the point of killing the Joker during Last Laugh, the first adopted son for Bruce that he could never really let go of, he was Tim's hero whose case Tim used to talk to, Barbara's crime fighting partner and little pain in the butt, the boy Donna tried to put in charge of the Teen Titans, someone even Roy and Wally sat and got along with and do you any of this stuff gets remembered? What Winick did was create someone who thinks Batman doesn't go far enough and puts all of these people who care so deeply about him in a very uncomfortable moral place. It's wonderful and it's terrible and yet, how much of this have we actually seen?
Well...we got some Donna interaction which was a bit bizarre in most places in Countdown, we got a single panel with Roy in Outsiders, we've had Tim and his relationship (fallen idol syndrome, much?) handled beautifully by Johns and Nicienza, we've had the bizarre Nightwing run where Dick doesn't think he should save him (yet if it was Tim or Damian, you bet he'd be written as desperate to do so), a beautifully handled couple of issues in Outsiders where Dick acknowledges his help even if things are incredibly tense (considering Lost Days says Batman never cared about 'us', I've always wanted to hear how he felt about Dick these days) which doesn't diminish either of their characters and Batman & Robin, where Dick and Jason are more or less in character but as it is Morrison, you can't take it 100% seriously. I'm not going to acknowledge the Battle for the Cowl fiasco. It didn't sit with any previous characterisation of him and feels seriously out of place.
So essentially, almost six years after his return, this is it. No interaction with Barbara, none with Alfred and he hasn't even met his adopted sister Cassandra. Johns did a great job of showing that for the Batfamily, two-three years had gone past since his death and Jason seemed to be expecting people to have missed him and they have, for all intents and purposes, moved on. He expects to shake things up a bit. Instead. we don't really get much of it.
We have Under the Hood, his return arc. A Green Arrow arc, in which Bruce and Jason don't even interact so literally, his return arc five years ago was the last time we saw them interact. I find that a total waste of an excellent character who questions Bruce in a way a lot of readers do. I'll go into that in my next point. We have the bizarre Nightwing run with the tentacles. We see Jason's POV on taking out bad guys in World War Three for about three pages. Two Outsiders issues. Three issues of Robin. A quick arc of Batman & Robin, in which he's very much a plot device even if he is mostly in character. Basically, we haven't gotten the emotional meat from him since the Green Arrow run three years ago. How much has Dick, Tim, Steph, even Damian gotten in that time? Even counting the third of Countdown that was okay if not 100% and the awful Battle for the Cowl run which is basically just camp, there is so much that hasn't been explored. Essentially, for most of this, Jason has been faffing about. We haven't gotten into the meatier stuff, despite having a line up in one of the fore families of the DC Universe. That's why I think he should be in an ongoing: there's so much left to explore.
3) When it comes to Jason, writers have to walk a very fine line. If Jason is too competent at killing villains or it is seen as it being a good thing, then Batman starts to look weaker. Unfortunately, his ability to challenge Bruce is his central theme. What I'd have liked to have seen is Jason having good short term effects but seeing that Bruce's way works longer in the long run. He offers another outlook, in a similar way to Huntress but this is much closer to home. It's an outlook I'm interested in and when he's written well, he's written really well, which is what makes me a fan. I think an ongoing could explore the effects, such as creating villains because peoples loved ones are dying or escalation, as that happens quite a bit in Gotham. In the regular titles, they have to be very careful to show Jason's viewpoint without supporting it. I think we'd get a better view of what Jason does and we're getting it in Lost Days, but where does that leave the character in present day? I think we should be able to see his journey through as fans and sales have indicated, he's got almost as many as Red Robin. I think he has a chance to shine as the kind of antihero he is and there's a market for that, so I think you could show his way much better without having to constantly worry about if he's being good, how does that make Batman look?
4) Jason is a decent vigilante. He uses lethal force, he crosses a line but if he took a step back into the grey area, he would probably be no more unusual in Gotham than Huntress. It's the fact he's in Gotham City, which is big about the no kill rule. There are vigilantes that kill. It doesn't make it right, but it doesn't mean Jason is a villain for killing the bad guys. There's a fine line between good and bad and Jason straddles it, sometimes being a little more one than the other because he thinks it's what Gotham needs so no child has to die the way he did and so the guilty, the intensely guilty is what he's even willing to limit it to, get punished and don't fill any more grave yards. I think he deserves a chance to shine and explore what's good about his methods and what needs work, but without the character development, we'll never see how he does. I think he needs the spotlight and Lost Days has proved he can carry it well.
5) Jason is not a villain, but he's not a hero either. What we have is an emotionally damaged, traumatised, angry, hurt teenager given the tools of Batman to survive and he's hitting back hard and fast. Too hard and too fast for it to just be the effects of post traumatic distress or the lazarus pit or just Jason himself, but for it to perhaps be a mixture of all those things. It was even quoted that he's "broken, but not unfixable" and the fact he's broken is the interesting part. He's not this villain wanting to destroy Gotham city. He's an antihero who wants to take Gotham back from the scum that's killing it and is going about it in a harsh and violent manner. I don't want an irredeemable villain or someone out to make a quick buck. We have those types of villains. A traumatised 21 year old who's got an arsenal and is furious with the city's vigilante (who happens to be his father) for not taking down the Joker? That's interesting and it's different. I don't want Jason to lose what makes him special. I think an ongoing could preserve it and set a precedent for what Jason is supposed to be like, which could stop all the inconsistency.
5) Jason is a failed Robin, not an actual failure. Robin is supposed to be a capable beacon of light. Jason is rarely ever that, which tends to bring about this idea that he was a failure as Robin. But just because Jason was a failure as Robin (if you see it that way), doesn't mean he's not capable, intelligent and a good vigilante. Tim got progressively darker and then was removed from the Robin role. Robin is young and enthusiastic. Anger isn't supposed to enter into it, not in any real way. Tim went on to become Red Robin.
With the right writers, Jason could easily come into his own, but they seem to just want to bog him down and get worse and worse. He doesn't need any more failures in this trauma conga line. He already has a murdered father, an ODed mother, an adopted father who hasn't seen him in quite some time yet he's dying to get the attention of, an older brother who with one hand reaches out and with the other thumps him, a younger brother to whom he was a hero and who can now only see his flaws because he's not this bright little Robin but a vengeance focused young man striking out and for the most part, people who just don't bother acknowledging him despite the fact he's been to hell and back and is, despite how he's doing it, trying to do a good thing. The fact that Nicienza even writes Jason as sad and not sure where to go from here at the end of Robin gave me hope that he'd be handled well. Then Battle for the Cowl had him shooting kids, pushing Selina off a roof and having some dark terrible secret, plus Tim reenacting his murder and Dick beating the crap out of him.
Hasn't he suffered enough? Doesn't the character deserve a chance to be the focus and see what he's like when he's not being kicked constantly? Lost Days has brought us both emotion and action and I think an ongoing could do wonders for showing us what this character can really do if a writer would just take him on and deal with him on the same level people like Winick, Johns, Dini and Nicienza do: as an antihero doing the wrong thing, not as an Arkhamite hell bent on destruction. He's the failed Robin. That doesn't mean he can't still be a great character and one that's worth developing, even if that development leads down a dark path, I'd be happy as long as it's written well.
Jason shows that the family can fail is a wonderful way of putting it. He is a failure of the system, though saying he's Bruces failure being Bruce's last words to him makes me want to hit things. Who tells their kid that, seriously, if he actually came to the house to listen to it, then he's making an effort to go there and try and make some sort of peace with his father. He has some pretty intense PTSD which is evident everywhere. He has issues with being made to feel like a victim. Striking out is a normal reaction and the fact they can't see that probably shows that feelings are getting in the way. I believe that's something worth reading about.
6) Batman has changed over the years and so has the role of Robin. He was more cheerful with Dick. He was more violent with Jason. He was more thoughtful with Tim. He even lightened up a bit with Steph. Batman is often defined in part by his Robins. People who say Jason was too violent seriously need to see what Bruce was doing at that time. Jason saw nothing wrong with it because Bruce didn't...then comes back two years later and all the rules have changed? It's bound to make him seem out of sync. I think that just adds to the tragedy, because it pulls on the heartstrings. I think the journey from Robin to Red Hood is an important one and I'm glad it's being told. What I'd like to see after is the road ahead with Bruce coming back. Everything has changed, from a lighter Batman, a darker Robin, Red Robin, a new Batgirl, the Birds of Prey coming in and Alfred has become even more bad ass. You're giving all the other Batkids (except Cassandra, which still pisses me off and yes, I'd like to see her in Batgirl along with Steph, Babs and Wendy or see her in another ongoing too -- isn't Nightwing open right now?) so why not give Jason the same chance to develop as they've been giving everyone else? He has the fans. DC has writers capable of doing it. Let's see what Jason can do given his own space to grow, either as part of another ongoing or his own. Let's give him the chance to develop, as everyone else has.
7) Jason has a lot of issues that could easily be addressed in an ongoing. The Joker took his life, but in a lot of ways, he also took Babs' - so could we see what these two do if put in a room together? She hates the Joker almost as much as he does. Zinda uses guns in Gotham, so he's not the only one. Helena is more brutal with the bad guys and again, this is something very akin to what he's like. He's never had the chance to interact with Stephanie, despite the fact her "death" was directly before his return. He's never met his adopted sister who is intense and brutal, but finds solace in the fight in a way Jason has never been able to. He's never dealt with the business with his mother, if she was even his mother as no one bothered to check. He grew up in Crime Alley and understands Gotham on a way that it would be great to see on street level - this isn't about sending people home with broken bones, it's about eliminating a problem so peoples kids can play safely outside. He has a distinct hatred for anyone out to hurt girls in particular - Barbara is referenced a few times since his return, but just look at Garzonas or his reaction to a girl taking revenge on people who had been killing women earlier on: he says it's good. He doesn't like to see the innocent hurt if it could be prevented. I love Bruce to bits, but I don't think he'll ever truly understand what it's like living in Crime Alley. It's a point of view I'd love to see explored.
Jason is not evil because his father was or because he was already evil as Robin. Jason seemed to become a lesson more than a person. One of the things I actually liked in Year Three was that it was shown that JASON had died, not just Robin. It seems without the Robin status, he's nothing but the child of a two bit crook and as Tim says, the apple never falls far from the tree as far as the DCU is concerned. This, again, irritates. Jason isn't his father. Cass isn't her mother or father. Steph isn't bad because of her father. It's taken forever to get to a good point with Steph, I want a good point for Cass like whoa and Jason really needs to draw a distinction there too. He is just potential and it's being wasted making him act like a simple villain, interchangeable with the Joker half the time. That's not Jason. His power lies in his ability to make his family members feel like crap. He's emotionally manipulative, passionate and angry. That's a great combo for someone trying to save Gotham but at the same time, point out to "Daddy" that he's becoming obsolete.
8) I want to see how the relationships have evolved when Bruce comes back. Dick has now had his own super violent Robin that he shows an amazing care and affection towards. There are a LOT of echoes for Jason in Damian: both throw up upon finding bodies, both crowbarred the Joker and Dick sits with him, talks with him and works through issues. Tim has now tried being on the other side, having taken Jason's old costume and I think he's come back understanding things a little bit better than he was at the end of Robin. Damian and Jason were both cared for by the same person, mothered by her and yet, seem to know very little about each other. Steph was another failed Robin who took her life back in a different way. Bruce had been lost in time and had amnesia. He's reaffirming who is and considering it's Jason, I will be very annoyed if he's not even touched on in his return. I know time in monthlies is limited, so an ongoing would give the time necessary to explore all of this.
I don't think Dick and Tim hate Jason. I think he's Jan Brady, as noted by Nicienza. I think no Robin liked to be replaced. Look at Tim's reaction to Damian and Steph taking the suit. Tim always regarded Jason as a cautionary tale, someone who was too impulsive and paid for it and for Jason to be walking around, the effect of that was explored in The Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul. Now why can't we see Jason develop, as we've seen Tim do? Jason is a person. He's not Robin. He's not even the Red Hood as much as he used to be, as so much of that is tied to his anger which we saw diminish significantly in the later issues of Robin, just to have Battle for the Cowl have it be worse than ever. A little consistency in his personality would no go amiss.
Now I totally get Dick and Tim's hesitation with Jason. Dick is very much the first Robin, being all bright the way he is. Tim is a logician and he knows the rules, it's why he doesn't handle Damian very well either because Damian crosses the line and seems to get away with it but when he plays by the rules, they seem to be able to deal with one another in a more functional light. To Dick, he was a brash kid who he was obviously fond of. To Tim, he was the lesson and someone he watched as Robin so there is probably anger that Jason would sully that. Dick, I feel, should have gotten on more the way Morrison writes him: "You've made a mess, come on, let's clean it up." instead of Daniel who was "Come home *punch*!" or in Nightwing when he isn't sure if he should let him live or die. It's ridiculous, because if anyone could understand this issue, it would be Dick. I suppose Blockbuster may have been too recent and it was still smarting but come on. Labeling him as the bad Robin only gets them so far and we know from Dick dealing with Damian that he can deal with anger.
Though one interesting thing I remember noting is that Tim attempts to reach out before the fight in Teen Titans. When Jason then tries to reach out in Robin, Tim has lost both fathers, both mothers, his girlfriend has 'betrayed' him and his best friends have been dead. He's in no mood to put up with Jason on a logical or even emotional level so he shuts down, the same way Jason would attack him in Teen Titans. It's all about timing. Considering you have all of this, not to mention Alfred, it seems like there's a few heart tugging story lines that can be set to ninjas and guns that just haven't been done. It's wasted potential, rather like Jason himself at the moment.
9) Jason is cool. I'm sorry, but it's true. He waves at villains before he kills them. He uses rocket launchers. He mocks people wonderfully. He's utterly genre savvy. He doesn't mess around with costumes like a fetishist so much as he's practical. He knows how to work things in Gotham. He is a fallen hero without being a villain. His mask looks like a sex toy. He is a character that I would love to see kick some Arkhamite ass on a monthly basis.
10) Jason isn't the symbol. Robin died. Jason came back and Robin didn't. That's the person who should be mourned. Jason is a person and he has failures and triumphs, just like anyone else and sometimes, I don't think writers can remember that you can mourn one without demonising the person that came back. I honestly believe you can develop Jason into a strong character while still keeping the lesson of the dead robin alive. As Bruce says, it doesn't change anything. My only hope is that upon Bruce return, he remembers he has four sons that need him to varying degrees and, I think, he needs them. Dick will keep him bright, Jason will keep him questioning, Tim will keep him logical and Damian will give him the role of a father. I think what they have is the best of all possible worlds in these boys (though I want to include Cass in that, because she also adds a daughter which is something else entirely from having sons) and I just wish the DC would realise what an interesting family dynamic there is there and settle it with accurate characterisation and a little bit of grace. DC took a chance in making Steph Batgirl and it turned out brilliantly. They took a chance on Lost Days and it's great! I just don't want him to be forgotten about as soon as it's over. Winick brought in a great character. He's often forgotten about, even in universe (which sucks, as even in Robin, teachers comment on his death to Tim) and I think if we can keep him around and consistant, that'll stop and people will get over the method of his return, the exaggerated hate for him in the Robin role (it was a close call) and the inconsistant characterisation and relationships to see how fantastic this character is and could be.