Jason Todd (ME-Prime)

"Not a lot people know what if feels like to, be angry... in your bones; that rage. They try to understand, the foster parents; everybody understands... for a little while, but then they want the angry little boy to do something he knows he can’t do: Move on; be happy. After awhile, they stop trying, and they forget that the little boy has every goddamn right to be angry!"

The Rage Never Goes Away
Jason Peter Todd was born to thirty-six year old druggie and Falcone enforcer Todd Wilson (under the alias Willis Todd), and eighteen year-old nursing student and Catherine Todd. Jason was not loved, as Willis was an abusive husband and father, and Catherine was too busy trying to defend herself to nurture her son. Eventually Catherine snapped and attack Willis, but Willis overpowered her. A neighbor called the police and Willis was arrested: leaving Jason a ward of the state, and his father would be killed in prison under mysterious circumstances.

Life in the Orphanage
After Jason was orphaned, and long before he was adopted by Bruce Wayne: Jason lived an in orphanage. He was bullied by the other kids often, and learned to fight them off, but life wasn't terrible; a beautiful girl named Helena Bertinelli lived there as well; they had crushes on each other, and were inseparable. After she was taken to Italy by her family, Jason ran away and took to the streets.

Life on the Streets and Becoming Robin
Jason became the second Robin after he attempted to steal the wheels of Bruce Wayne's sports car. Instead of calling the authorities, Bruce took the poor boy to his recently vacated mansion to give him a chance at prosperity. Eventually, Jason discovered his benefactor's secret life as the Batman, and demanded to join him in his crusade to purge the city of corruption; Bruce reluctantly consented, but Jason did not take the streets until after training for six intense months; Jason proved to have a intuitive ability to learn multiple forms of combat, and easily out fought thugs twice his age and size, and he had a passion for stopping crime that Dick didn't have, but he could often be overzealous; his impatiance and rage would often lead to him getting "monitor duty," which was Bruce's way of saying "You're about to be fired."

He Must Have Slipped
Jason's overzealous behavior was most significantly marked by a case involving Ian Chase, the son of a politician and a member of Black Mask's gang. He raped a woman and left for dead in Crime Alley. Chase evades criminal charges due to his father's status. Batman understands the need for patience in the case, but Jason is livid. When the Duo later find the woman dead, having taken her own life by hanging herself, Jason immediately heads after Chase. Batman catches up in time to see Chase falling to his death, with Jason near the edge. Though Jason claimed Chase slipped, Batman doubts him, and has the fear that he actually killed the him. Soon after, the father arrives in Gotham to kill Robin for the death of his son. Batman attempts to shelter Jason from this, but they Robin confronted the diplomat in a junk yard. The fight is interrupted by Black Mask, who in his attempt to kill Robin, ended in the death of the politician. Batman tried to use this disaster to teach Jason to understand that actions always have consequences, but Jason always denyed killing Chase. Batman decided to put Jason on monitor duty, indefinitely.

Family Reunion
While on monitor duty, Jason would spend most of his time reading up on random cases. After the the altercation with Chase and his father, and Bruce's distrust in Jason, lead to Jason researching his mother's death (the one person he though could have possibly loved him at some point); he found information that she survived Willis' beating, and was healed at the hospital: she decided to relocate and start new under an alias. The recent tensions with Bruce lead Jason to believe he had nothing to stay in Gotham for, so he decided to leave and find his mother. The tracks stopped at her chaging her name, so he had to find out what the new name was, and find her. He left Wayne Manor with the clothes on his back, utility belt (disabling the tracker in it), stole a motorcycle, and headed to the GCPD to find leads. He found out she changed her name to Sheila Haywood, and was relocated to Ethiopia, where she worked as an aide-worker. Jason got on the first flight to Ethiopia.

He Never Learned to Mind His Surroundings
What Jason didn't know, was that the Joker was in the GCPD yet again, getting interrogated. He killed the officers in the interrogation room, and saw Jason infiltrating the building. He recognized the boy as Robin and decided to tail him. He didn't know what he'd do, but he knew Batman wouldn't like it at all, and that's all that mattered. He hacked Jason's computer, found out who his mother was, and beat Jason to Ethiopia. He threatened Sheila into getting Jason where he wanted him.

The Good Soldier Falls
When Jason found his mother; she was overjoyed to see her son again, having grown into a young man, but her fear of Joker overcame her love of Jason, so she followed along with Joker's plan, and took Jason to a warehouse normally used to store medical supplies. Once there, The Joker emerged and beat the Jason brutally with a crowbar until he couldn't get up, all the while taunting Jason with how he got his own mother to betray him, and then left him and Sheila in the warehouse with a time bomb. Even with everything she had done to him, Jason still attempted to shield her from the explosion, saving her life. Batman kept a two trackers on Jason's belt, so he tracked him down, but he was too late to save them, and is only able to hold Jason's lifeless body in his arms. Ashamed of her actions, and obersevant of the sorrow Batman was feeling, Catherine confessed to her part in her sons death. Bruce angrily turned to her and shouted:

"HOW COULD YOU BETRAY YOUR OWN SON!?! YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE HIS MOTHER; YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO PROTECT YOU CHILD WITH YOU LIFE!!! YOUR COWARDICE HAS COST ME MY BOY..."

Eventually Bruce regained his composure, and Batman hollowly bellowed:

"You will never make up for this, ever. There is not a damn thing you can ever do to absolve yourself of this trangression. I don't ever want to see your face again. Don't ever leave this city. I want to you to wake up every day and remember what you did to your son... To my son"

Return to Gotham
"Why do you do what you do?"

"Because when people do unspeakable things to people you don't even know; you do something about it, because you can, because you should."

Alfred contacted Jason after Bruce's death; he was overcome by the grief of losing the closest thing to a father he ever had, but he had no inention of returning to the hellhole some people chose to call a city. Alfred told him that he needed to come back, as he felt Gotham would need the entire Bat Family to fill the hole of Batman now that he was gone. He decided to return to Gotham, because deep down, he had always wanted to come back home. He met Cassandra Cain (who also returned to Gotham from Hong Kong) one night while she was attempting to stop an attack. He was able to dispatch the attackers by himself. She read his fighting style:

"Rage and sorrow are so seemlessly expressed which each strike; you are like a poem in motion."

She instantly deduced that he was a student of Batman, and it didn't take her too long to figure out he was the lost son, Jason Todd; she found herself smitten with the honest, albeit brutal passion that epitomized Jason, an infatuation that Jason also returned.

Becoming Batman
"Come on Al, he's not Batman; Batman does not kill."

"Batman as no limits; Bruce did"

After Bruce Wayne died someone had to take up the cowl; Dick was his own man, and he lacked the passion that made Bruce the Batman; that rage that kept Batman fighing, but Jason does. Jason knew that Dick wouldn not take up the mantle, and he also knew that Gotham would truly plunge into chaos if no Batman was there to keep the monsters at bay, so he decided to take up the mantle himself. As Jason attempted to take the suit, Dick attacked him, and the two fought, destroying the Batave until Alfred stopped them; Alfred gave Jason his blessing to wear the cowl, much to Dick's astonishment. Alfred later showed Jason Bruce's will, where he specifically awarded Jason Wayne Manor, as he truly thought of Jason as his son; Bruce also left him a recording where he personally gave him permission to assume the totem of the Bat, along with declaring his regret over how he never made Jason feel like a son, the pride he felt over Jason becoming the Red Hood, as well as telling Jason that no matter what tragedy surrounded them since he took him in, he never regretted taking a chance on him:

'"Jason...I just want you to know that I love you so much; you're my son, and I'm so sorry that I never made you feel that way, and that I didn't help you channel your rage; I had it too, but I had help keeping my eyes on things worth fighting for, so I learned how to control myself. I'm so proud of you; of everything you've done; you've made a name for yourself as Red Hood; you took a name corrupted by chaos and showed the criminal underworld that their superstitions have a bite. I know we had our issues; I know I didn't do right by you, Jason, but that I never regretted taking a chance on you; you are my son, and I love you. You are rough around the edges; you are blunt, aggressive, and unrelenting; you truly have no limits; you would make a better Batman than I ever could: if all you would do is try. Please, Jason, don't let your rage define you anymore." '

Battle For the Cowl
News of Bruce's death somehow traveled to reach many ears, including the League of Shadows, David Cain, Sandra Wu-San, and Slade Wilson.

Family Reunion
"Your father would be so proud of you, hell I'm proud of you...nephew."

Despite how the family felt about Jason's official acension to the cowl, they were all angered to see Deathstroke attempt to usurp the symbol, and Jason felt especially pissed that he kidnapped and drugged Cassandra; Deathstroke used Cassandra to draw Todd out in the open. Before Slade could speak, the new Batman immediately engaged him in combat; Slade attempted to blind him with rage by telling him that they were related, but Jason outright denied this and continued to fight Slade, beating him into submission. Jason attemped to interrogate Slade, but he couldn't take him seriously; he taunted Jason, calling him a thug in suit, and not the real Batman. One Loyal Friend is Worth a Thousand Relatives Slade's taunts were affecting Jason more than he wanted to admit. He decided to compare his DNA with Slade's; he was horrified to learn that he was in fact a Wilson, but Alfred reminded him that Bruce adopted him, and in all the ways it mattered, he was a Wayne.

War For Gotham (Batman vs. League of Shadows)
"You were are greatest pupil; you learned the lesson your predecessor never did. Will you stand with us now? Or will you make the same naive mistake the Detective did?"

Melting the Cold Heart
"Victor, I'm asking you, begging you; will you help me save this city? Will you help me save my Nora?"

Personality
At first glance, Jason would appear to be misanthrope, and easily angered person with little to no toleration for other people, but he's more than just an angry orphan. Jason's youth of no nurturing love from his parents caused him to avoid people, and he is hesitant to commit to anything when other people are involved, whether it be a team as small as Batman and himself, and the Outlaws, or one as big as the entire Batman family; in addition to his general mistrust of people, he has even stronger hesitance to interact with women, largely due to the fact that he "died" because his mother betrayed him. Jason's brutal upbringing had one unintended effect: he has a strong sense of fairness and justice, and he cannot tolerate acts of cruelty; he often got into fights with bullies at the orphanage and school.

Philosophical Views
After getting adopted by Bruce, Jason was given to opprotunity to learn, and he took the chance seriously. He read on multiple religions, ethics, science, and morality from a young age; it did not take long for him to reject theism, and later deism and define himself in part as an agnostic atheist (He always says "There is no evidence of any gods currently, therefore I don't believe"), but he was never a fan of defining himself by what he didn't think, so he defined himself generally as an empiricist (a theory of knowledge which states that knowledge comes only or primarily from sensory experience), which when challenged he said "Because those are the tools we have, which is why we have more than one person verify things, especially since we inhabit the same world" He is a nihilist (the view that there is no inherent or objective meaning to life or it's products), because objective information would exist with or without living beings to know them, there for anything determined by man is subjective, which he said makes sense and is nothing to criticize if said subjectivity is tempered by one's understanding of objective information. Morally, he is a secular humanist (It posits that human beings are capable of being ethical and moral without religion or a god. It does not, however, assume that humans are either inherently evil or innately good, nor does it present humans as being superior to nature. Rather, the humanist life stance emphasizes the unique responsibility facing humanity and the ethical consequences of human decisions. Fundamental to the concept of secular humanism is the strongly held viewpoint that ideology—be it religious or political—must be thoroughly examined by each individual and not simply accepted or rejected on faith). Jason also believes people are inherently neutral at best, and generally lean towards the negative side more often than the positive (By his estimation Gotham dove right in the pool of negativity), but he refuses to stop protecting them, because he believes that everyone has a chance to prove him wrong, and no child should be dealt the hand he was.

Trivia

 * The All-Caste's name for him: "Masanori" is a Japanese name meaning "model of justice."

Links

 * Character Gallery
 * Quotations
 * http://injusticegodsamongus.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:RoninTheMasterless/Fan_Red_Hood_Profile  942700_520921487966860_798980221_n.jpg