The Dark Knight Returns Predicted The Death Of Robin In Batman Comics

“The Dark Knight Returns” does not specify what happened to Jason, exactly, but you don’t have to read too deeply within the lines. In one of the comic’s first scenes, Bruce is having a drink with Commissioner Gordon (who now knows the former Batman’s secret). When Gordon laments “what happened to Jason,” Bruce leaves. He later thinks to himself of how he promised Jason “never again.” During one of Bruce’s sleepwalking episodes (driven by his urge to be Batman), he comes to in the Batcave, looking at the case holding Jason’s Robin suit; a memorial to a fallen soldier.

Finally, in issue #2 (“The Dark Knight Triumphant”), when Bruce considers taking in the young Carrie Kelley as his new Robin, Alfred again reminds him of Jason’s fate.

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When Miller created “The Dark Knight Returns, Jason was Robin in the mainstream Batman comics, the kind still targeted at children. Before 1986, Robin dying was something that could only happen on fake-out covers:

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The suggestion that Boy Wonder had truly been killed in the line of duty was there to show how different this take on Batman was from the norm. But no doubt because of how acclaimed and instantly influential “The Dark Knight Returns” was, the idea stuck in DC Comics’ craw. Look at this excerpt from “Detective Comics” #571 (by Mike Barr and Alan Davis), published during the thin window between “The Dark Knight Returns” and “A Death in the Family.”

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Moreover, Jason Todd was not a popular character. There was innate resentment from readers who preferred Robin I/Dick Grayson, and to distinguish him from Dick, Jason was also written as a more abrasive, punk-ish Robin. (Jason’s revised origin story? Batman caught him stealing the Batmobile’s tires and decided to save him from a bad path.) This wound up only making him even more unpopular next to Dick.

Starlin also disliked Robin in general, preferring Batman as a solo act since, as he once told UniversoHQ, “the idea of taking a kid along to fight crime is ludicrous.” Starlin pushed to kill Robin off and eventually got his wish. He chose the Joker as the killer explicitly because of “The Dark Knight Returns” — Frank Miller’s intent (vaguely hinted at in the story) was that the Joker was Robin’s murderer. Then-DC editor Denny O’Neil turned Starlin’s idea into a publicity stunt: Readers would vote on Robin’s fate via telephone poll. The “yes’s” narrowly won.

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Starlin soon realized his mistake: “The book came out and the executives up at Time Warner realized they had all these lunch boxes and sheets with Robin on them and suddenly it was completely my fault for killing off Robin. Within three months I was gone.” (Starlin’s last “Batman” issue was #430, the first issue published after “A Death in the Family” concluded in #429.)