DC Reveals Red Hood’s New Job Before Taking Over The Teen Titans
Adam has been writing in the entertainment news space for over a decade. Beginning his career of covering film and TV at CinemaBlend, he has also appeared on The Flash Podcast and done several radio spots.
Jason Todd, a.k.a. Red Hood, has been a lot of things over the years: one of Bruce Wayne’s adopted sons, the second Robin, a Joker murder victim, a resurrected superhero, an antagonist to the Bat-Family, the first Red Robin, a gun-toting antihero, the list goes on. Most importantly in this case, he has experience commanding teams in the DC universe. This started with The Outlaws in the New 52 and Rebirth eras, and then he served as Task Force Z’s field leader during the Infinite Frontier era.
That leadership streak continues in less than a week, as it was announced earlier this year that Red Hood will lead a new version of the Teen Titans. Ahead of this status quo shift for DC’s "Next Level" publishing initiative, it’s been revealed that Jason is keeping busy with a new job; one that has him helping people in a less flashy manner.
Red Hood Is Hiring Out His Services In A More Admirable Way
Teen Titans (Vol. 7) #1, Written By Kyle Higgins, Art By Daniele Di Nicuolo
In the preview pages for Teen Titans #1, a husband and wife in Issaquah, Washington are shown waiting at a Big Belly Burger to meet with someone they’ve never met before to help them track down their missing son. All they know ahead of time is that this mystery individual helped their friend’s brother with a “missing persons thing up in Tacoma,” though since the brother in question used to embezzle, the wife immediately questions his recommendation. Thankfully, it’s Jason who shows up to meet them, and they immediately recognize him as Red Hood.
However, rather than offering his particular set of skills free of charge like he's done in the past as a vigilante, Jason makes it clear up front he only takes cash. This is reminiscent of when Luke Cage and Iron Fist ran Heroes for Hire in the Marvel universe. Still, Jason is at least more trustworthy than the average bounty hunter or mercenary. He also did his homework ahead of time, as he follows up with the couple about the relay server focused on “kids with powers” their son, Cole, was “fixated” on before he disappeared.
What Red Hood’s Teen Titans Will Look Like
It’s unclear how Jason ended up in this line of work that sees him traveling around the United States, if not the globe, to help people out for the right price. Regardless, this period of his life will likely end once the new Teen Titans series’ main story gets underway. Just like fellow Robins and adoptive brothers Dick Grayson, Tim Drake, and Damian Wayne, it’s Jason’s turn to lead a team comprised of younger superheroes, and it’s unlikely they’ll charge for their services.
The Kyle Higgins-written and Daniele Di Nicuolo-illustrated Teen Titans series follows Red Hood teaming up with Fairplay, Cheshire Cat, Proxy, and Wildcard. These four characters are part of Ascend, “a fast-growing youth movement training kids to survive in a world shaped by superhuman conflict.” As previously teased, one of their own goes missing during an Ascend rally, though it’s unclear if this is Cole or someone else. Either way, they’ll join forces with Red Hood in order to find their friend, even though their methods drastically differ.
Red Hood taking over the Teen Titans comes almost half a year after the end of the DC K.O. event, where he fought The Joker during the third round of the cosmic fighting tournament. Before that, Jason appeared alongside Helena Bertinelli, a.k.a. Huntress, in the first and only issue of DC Black Label’s Red Hood, as it was canceled following controversial social media comments by writer Gretchen Felker-Martin. Higgins and Di Nicuolo are the same team behind the Power Rangers: Shattered Grid event from Boom! Studios, as well as Image Comics’ Massive-Verse.
Red Hood's new journey kicks off when Teen Titans #1 is released Wednesday, September 2 by DC Comics.
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.