I was less than impressed with Johns writing on Three Jokers. I liked him on Booster Gold although he still had some flaws. I'm taking a look back at his first attempt to write Jason Todd in Teen Titans #29 and how that fits with the characters' past with the team.
Johns tries to come up with compelling ideas and retcons to make stories fit into his vision. Johns wrote DC a fan letter prior to working with the company to suggest Lex Luthor would be a better choice for the human DNA that fused with Superman's to create Superboy and retconned that change himself when he took over Teen Titans. When Judd Winick wanted to bring back Jason Todd Johns suggested it being a Jason from another universe...which misses the point of Under the Hood. We've already had stories of Batman reacting to a fake Jason Todd that were created to taunt him. This would be the first time the actual Jason would be able to voice how he felt since his death.- Trying to make a character look sympathetic by having other character(s) treat said character badly. This has the side effect of making the latter (if their heroes at least) look unlikable.
- Bringing back a lesser known characters just to kill or maim them.
- Retcons. Some work better than others but when he doubles down on them to back up a portrayal he's using. He did this by hyping up how the formerly good Max Lord was evil, retconned all his positive traits to the point it became nonsensical and made for a far less compelling character.
Johns has Jason as Red Hood attack Titan Tower just to test his successor Tim Drake. He alludes to Jason's past with the Teen Titans but retcons all the details to fit the narrative that Jason is the "bad Robin." Which I never understood, why make that connection if you're not even going to get the details right? Even with the changes it still makes the Titans themselves look bad.
After breaking into the tower Jason takes out Cyborg and Beast Boy saying this:
"Cyborg and Beast Boy. Their inseparable from what I remember. But days like this...everyone is breaking apart. I never got to work with them when I was with the Titans."
That's blatantly untrue. Sure Jason didn't team up with them the first time he worked with the Titans but they were with him when the team went to save Nightwing and Raven in Zandia. During a fight with the Brotherhood of Evil Gar even saved Jason from a burning tree.
When Jason encounters Raven under Johns he has claims that:
"Raven on the other hand...I kind of felt sorry for her. Even if she used to lecture me. Tell me to watch my anger. She said it made me prone to reckless and self-destructive behavior. She said it could get me killed. She was right."
This is pure B.S. of the highest order, the kind of writing that pointedly ignores what happened to paint Jason into a bad light. What actually happened showed what a highly capable hero Jason Todd was as Robin and a Titan. Arella, Raven's mother, was hurt by Bloods' followers and most of the Titans instantly assume she was killed. Jason was the only one that actually checked and gets Donna to confirm that Arella is alive. Jason agrees to play medic to her until they can get her help showing his maturity. During this time Raven was brainwashed by Brother Blood and Jason gets her to snap out of it long enough to heal her mother. He's never seen having a temper during this whole arc.
Not even in an earlier arc when he worked with Donna Troy, Speedy (Roy), Aqualad (Garth), Hawk (Hank) and Flash (Wally) does he ever show any problems with his anger. Quite the opposite as he's literally the only member on the team that's not dealing with personal problems. Jason even stops an enraged Donna from killing Hawk and gets her to realize that she has to step up as leader. Hell, Jason even tells her flat out that he's not Dick Grayson, he's a kid that's not ready for leadership.
Johns has Jason feeling bitter, not just about being replaced with Tim as Robin but over the fact he's not even among the others in the Titans' hall dedicated to the honored dead. He mocks the fact Kole gets a statue, which works for a meta nod to her short time with the team but doesn't fit his character. Tim's former hero worship of Jason is totally forgotten at this point which is a shame as it would have made for an interesting story. While Johns builds up Tim he never gives Jason any credit for the things he did and never even bothers to explain why Jason never got a statue. I don't think he ever bothered to give any excuse even after this issue and it's especially odd when you consider Dick Grayson is a founding member.
Given the links Johns has done with old canon (including alluding to canon fans wanted to forget with Booster Gold once losing his arm) and his habit of creating his own canon I think these changes were deliberate to reinforce the negative view DC wanted for the character. Although I still have trouble fitting his portrayal with the one Judd Winick was writing at the time. It's a little hard to see that Jason taking time out from his plans to pay Tim a visit and vent his problems to someone he sees as his replacement. More so that the character Winick via Alfred said hated "dress up" decides to don a Robin costume (with yellow tights) just to fight Tim. Then write out "Jason Todd was here" just to leave an impression before the Titans inevitably paint over it.
Jason is impressed with Tim and wonders if he would have turned out any different. There's potential in that line that gets realized in Red Hood and the Outlaws when Jason has a team of his own. But for the most part Johns take underlines the very real problem at DC when it comes to writing anti-heroes and especially Jason Todd. A lot of writers ignore who Jason was and try to rewrite history to make him something he's not. It gets worse when it comes to Three Jokers (which the creative team wanted to be canon before saying it depends on the readers) which further takes away Jason's positive traits and fails to show his strengths.
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