Retconning Tomasi

I started looking around for reactions to RHATO #9 VOL. 2 and I was surprised someone had a problem with a certain retcon.

SPOILERS AHEAD

During Damian's death Bruce didn't deal with it well under Tomasi. How Bruce used Jason in particular was disturbing as he tried to trigger Jason's memories of his own death by bringing him back to the site he died.

The country was also said to have been Ethiopia. Needless to say it didn't end well as Jason understandably wasn't pleased to be used and his own trauma ignored.

In RHATO Lobdell changes the country to the fictional country of Qurac which was previously done in Birds of Prey years before Jason's return. Here's when the retcon comes into play: Jason stated that he's only returned to the country once since his death to rescue Roy in RHATO #1 VOL. 1. Meaning the Tomasi story isn't canon.

I don't really see the problem with this as even Tomasi never actually did anything with this plot. The tension between Jason and Bruce over this was treated like it was no big deal when the bat family confronted Bruce. Everyone acted like it was no worse than Bruce yelling at Babs and Tynion just had a throw away line about it that was equally unimportant. The story never used the impact to it's advantage and other writers already pretended it never happen to have team ups. If there was never a proper follow up that actually bothered to give it weight then it doesn't matter. The story is completely pointless since it completely dismisses what should have ruined the their relationship.

I'm happy to see it go since it forced unneeded drama, made Bruce a completely self-centered (*1) jackass and never cared enough to show how much this should have affected Jason afterward.



*1 I know someone is going to claim Bruce wasn't self-centered because he wanted Damian back. Except he was because Bruce never stops to think if Damian would WANT to come back. Even in his talk with Jason it's about what Bruce wants. He never considers or cares about Jason's pain.