Warning: Contains spoilers for From the DC Vault: Death in the family – Robin lives! #3!The Joker is a permanent fixture in Jason Todd’s life. He is the voice always in the first Robin Head, haunting him and driving him forward, sometimes in the most reckless ways. Jason is not exempt from his influence or terror in life or death, and the clown warping the second Boy Wonder into his own sidekick proves that he can use his nightmares like no other.
of these DC Vault: Death in the Family – Robin Lives #3 by JM DeMatteis and Rick Leonardi continues to chronicle the experiences of Jason Todd in a timeline where he survives the Joker’s assault in Ethiopia and eventually kills the Greening Clown. Although Jason did not succumb to his injuries, he still fights for his life in a different way – by throwing himself into an endless battle against his own fear.
In his quest to prove himself, both to his mentor and to himself, he goes on his own to confront the Joker, who is prepared for the meeting. The Joker Jason transformed from Robin into the clown-inspired “Game Jockey the boy Lucky.“
Joker cruelly twists Jason Todd into Jockey the boy Lucky
From the DC Vault: Death in the family – Robin lives! #3 by JM DeMatteis, Rick Leonardi, Rico Renzi and Taylor Esposito
Jason’s intended confrontation with Joker begins well enough, with the young vigilante dispatching animatronic guards, but the moment he reaches his true target he is paralyzed with fear. This is the perfect opportunity for the Joker to definitively take away the thing that Jason is trying to prove he deserves – his role as Robin. By dressing him in a red, green, and yellow clown suit and naming him Jockey the Boy Lucky, He makes fun of the child he terrorizes. Jason is already struggling to regain control of himself in the face of stacking trauma, and instead, the Joker has taken control for himself.
Jason ends up more like a puppet on a string than a capable vigilante, and the Joker is a bad puppet.
While Gotham’s worst clown didn’t manage to kill Batman’s sidekick in this timeline, he left him mentally and emotionally scarred. As Jason often does, he opts to jump headlong into confronting his fear at the source. He intends to defeat the Joker and simultaneously Prove that he is worthy of holding the Robin title And is stronger than the things that scare him. When it comes to Gotham’s resident green-haired terror, that’s rarely been the case. Jason ends up more like a puppet on a string than a capable vigilante, and the Joker is a bad puppet.
Joker takes control by transforming Jason Todd into his unwilling sidekick
Robin’s worst fears were made into reality
The Joker of this timeline is more unhinged than calculated, and yet he still seems perfectly prepared for this moment with Batman’s protégé. His claim that he left breadcrumbs around Gotham for Robin to follow highlights the idea that he is very much in tune with what will affect the boy. Unfortunately for Jason Todd, this is often the case, and The Joker manages to get under his skin like no other – sometimes without trying. He is an unknown force in his life, even in the moments when he is not physically present. Knowing that the story ultimately ends with the Joker’s death is unlikely to change that.
By turning Jason into the deranged “Jocky” character, the Joker is staking his claim on Jason’s psyche. All of his fighting and lashing out hasn’t cleansed the laughing monster that lurks in his mind yet, and the image of himself as in the clown suit will likely persist, in some way, for the rest of his life. He tries to escape his fears by going after the Joker, only for them to give him a name and a physical form. It is the rotten cherry on top of an unwanted cake. In creating jockey the boy Lucky, the Joker harness Robin The deepest fear.
From the DC Vault: Death in the family – Robin lives! #3 is available now from DC Comics.