The Jason Todd Chronicles #3 & #4. Detective Comics #525 & Batman #359.

Yes! It's time for the most reviled feature on this entire blog, The Jason Todd Chronicles! Seriously, the first two of these posts have gotten like NO views! But they're fast to do, and amuse me, so yeah, here's another. Plus I only have one more new comic to review(Annihilators #4) and I REALLY don't want to read it, so here we are. In order to increase the awesome factor of this post, I'm going to post not one, not three, but TWO old Batman issues!! I know, this is crazy!!!

Detective Comics #525(April 1983):

Apparently some stuff happened in Batman #358 involving Batman and Killer Croc. But since Jason Todd(supposedly) wasn't in that issue, I(supposedly) didn't read it. From Batman's explanation, he fought Croc in Batman #358 and the fight ended with Batman thinking Croc exploded or something... Thanks, Batman! After wandering aimlessly around Gotham City as Bruce Wayne(which you'd think would be kind of dangerous since he's a billionaire and all, and Gotham is filled with all kinds of crazies), Bruce realizes that Croc hadn't exploded as he thought, but was chilling in the sewers. After a quick change to his Bats costume, Bats heads into Gotham's wonderful smelling sewers... What? There must be SOME reason people stay in Gotham, why can't it be the pristine sewers?Jeez, that's a really tacky suit for a billionaire to be sauntering around in...


From that macabre scene(okay, so it wasn't really “macabre”, but I wanted to work the word macabre into this post somehow...), we head to Dick Grayson, who was in the twilight of his Robin days. It seems Dick had learned that Killer Croc's goons were shaking down the circus the Flying Todds were working at, and had enlisted Jason's parents to keep an eye on things and report back to him. We also get the first conversation between Jason and Dick here(to my knowledge), as Dick tells Jason he reminded him of somebody he knew a long, long time ago... Foreshadowing much?Huh, so Jason has always had a thing for Donna Troy I see...


And that about wraps up the Jason Todd segment of this comic... Dammit!! Oh well, I might as well blitz through the rest of this issue... Killer Croc jumps Bats in the sewer system and toys with him for a bit. Bats is afraid of Croc for some reason(which I don't get... The Joker is WAY scarier than Croc!), but manages to break free of a Croc choke hold by falling out of the sewers into some murky Gotham waters. And that's a wrap.Bats really talks to himself an awful lot, doesn't he...


Final Thoughts: You know, for a feature titled, “The Jason Todd Chronicles” this post was awfully short on Jason Todd... I guess I could hang my hat on the fact that it featured the first time Jason and Dick talk to each other(to my knowledge...), but it was mainly more of Killer Croc being pushed as a huge menace. Too bad Croc became... you know, whatever it is he became nowadays, because he started off looking awesome! As opposed to Jason, who sat around in pink spandex lusting after Donna Troy... But hey, even the best of us have to start off somewhere, right?

Batman #359(May 1983):

Having killed Batman in Detective #525(or so he thinks), Croc calls a bunch of mobsters and thugs together to pronounce himself the new kingpin of Gotham's crime scene. The criminals tell Croc that they're still loyal to Gotham's imprisoned kingpin, Tony Falco, so Croc decides he'll do something about that... Oh, and he sends his top goon to the circus to collect the protection money he was extorting from them. That'll be pretty important later on... Trust me on that... Seriously! Why would I lie?Those are some nervy criminals in Gotham! I sure as hell wouldn't be talking back to Killer Croc!


Batman is acting all melancholy after his repeated failure to defeat Killer Croc, while Killer Croc breaks INTO jail to kill Falco. That plan goes perfectly, unfortunately for Croc, his escape from prison leave something to be desired and he sets off the alarms. Bats hears the alarms and heads to the jail, discovering Croc sneaking around on the rooftop. Bats attacks Croc and gets his ass handed to him... AGAIN!So much for all that, “Round three will belong to me!!!” stuff from Detective #525. Oh, and I found that, “Are you hurt?” “Only my pride...” line flat out hilarious... “Bats am sad now...”


Over at the circus, Jason Todd's parents spot Croc's goon strolling out of the circus owner's tent counting money and decide to follow the guy... Um, you two are acrobats, NOT cops!! The Todds follow the goon as he gets into his car and decide to tail him, but the goon spots them and continues to his destination. I'm sure hilarity will ensue and the Todds will get off with a stiff talking to...Poor Jason... His pre-Crisis parents were idiots...


While Commissioner Gordon is telling Batman the sad, sad story that is Killer Croc's origin, the Todds are walking into Killer Croc's trap... Idiots...Um, why isn't Croc wearing any pants?!?!?


Final Thoughts: You know, Detective #526 is the final part of this storyline(I'll review it eventually...), and has Jason donning a costume for the first time... That's kind of surprising to me because Jason was barely in these past few issues! The story revolved around Dick's relationship with Jason's idiot parents and Bats getting his ass kicked by Killer Croc(AGAIN!). You'd think DC would have built Jason up more before killing his parents and sticking him with Batman, but instead they just kind of thrust him into the spotlight all of a sudden. I remember reading the first few comics Tim Drake appeared in, and his eventual path to becoming Robin was more steady than Jason's, “Whoops, your parents are dead! Now you're Robin!” story. If nothing else, I'm glad these first few Jason comics are out of the way, because they hardly featured him doing anything. From this point onward it should be clear sailing as Jason moves from random circus acrobat/Dick Grayson clone to Robin #2... At least until DC decides to retcon Jason's history and I get to chronicle the origin of black-haired Jason Todd... Who is the actual Jason Todd... Well unless your name is Grant Morrison that is, in which case Jason is a bizarre combination of both versions of Jason Todd... Ugh, DC history is SO confusing...