Catherine Todd - Blog Posts

atp is it so crazy to think latino!jason could be canon? you will take catalina todd, brazilian mamá luchona from my cold dead hands

Team “Catherine Todd deserves the world and a nuanced limited series that explores poverty and the broken American healthcare system”

I love how L*bdell decided to strip all nuance from Jason's family by making Willas a predator and domestic abuser that was routinely involved in crime, and Catherine, the poor rich girl who used drugs to cope with the trajectory of her life and neglected her child. All of this to make Bruce "actively endangering children" Wayne a better parent and somewhat rich saviour to Jason rather than the complex tragedy that was this family and how at the root of it all, they genuinely each loved each other.

I love how now in modern comics it's all about the Joker and his fuckass behavior rather than positively re examining the systematic exploitation of the middle and lower class in Gotham by the villans or the mob and the general class dynamics.

man, not to be melodramatic, but there is something like. genuinely a little disturbing about just how widely accepted rhato's WILDLY classist willis todd retcon is. in all my years lurking on the comic book internet, i've seen a grand total of one person really pushing back & being vocally pissed about it, and that's... so fucked, considering just how bad it is

people who have only read later comics at least have the excuse of only having been exposed to the post-butchery version of jason's origin, but there are WAY too many people who've clearly read his post-crisis robin run but talk about it like the changes lobdell made were these minor cosmetic tweaks

i don't know how you could read a story where the through-line is that this kid loved his parents (BOTH of them) so much, not even bruce wayne could relate to the intensity of his grief when he lost them... but NOT see a retcon that rewrites said parents to instead be neglectful, abusive caricatures of poverty whose son only learned about the concept of love and kindness by the grace of some virtuous rich fuck who takes him in in an attempt to teach him how to be a good person as anything but a fucking insult

"jason grew up in poverty on the 'bad side' of town" and "most of jason's childhood was spent in a (relatively) stable home with parents who loved him" are apparently just completely incompatible statements. because yeah i mean, obviously, it's a lot more realistic if he'd never experienced a single positive thing in his life before he met bruce, right? if literally every single person he'd ever met before bruce rescued him from the hell on earth that is a low-income neighborhood was a morally-vacant piece of shit?

willis todd's rap sheet in jason's post-crisis origin had not a single violent offense. the dude ran numbers and worked in chop shops. he was the criminal equivalent of a mechanic with a delivery gig on the side (and it's pretty heavily implied he was only even doing that because he wanted to be able to give jason a better life)

if that translates to "violent, morally bankrupt scumbag who beats his wife and doesn't give a shit about his kid" in your mind, i mean this in the kindest way possible, but i think you really need to do some introspection on why that is lol

Finally, because I'm tired of how the entire fandom, even the comics, specifically the new 52, easily portrays Jason's struggling family as abusive. Because isn't it a good thing that he gets adopted by the richest man in Gotham rather than his shitty.

Willis Todd was a hardworking father who had to deal with horrible circumstances, and Catherine was a sick woman who needed to allievate her pain.

Alright. Willis Todd being an abusive father to Jason is a trope often utilized. Comparing this version of him to Bruce's reactions to Red Hood is fantastic. Lots to analyze there.

However, I raise you. There needs to be more fanwork addressing the classism behind Willis Todd being characterized as an abusive alcoholic. In some version of canon, Willis Todd was a good dad in a shitty situation. He was poor, his wife (Catherine) was sick, and he had a newborn baby he needed to provide for. In this horrid situation, where he has no family to fall back on and no higher education to obtain a decent well-paying job, he tries to get quick money. He's desperate to keep both his wife and son alive.

Catherine turns to drugs because it's easier and cheaper to buy drugs than healthcare. The pain she experiences is debilitating, and she'd do anything to not feel pain for one godsdamned second. Unfortunately, this turns into an addiction.

This ultimately shapes the way that Jason views crime. Bruce, while he may be sympathetic to individuals who resort to crime to pay their bills, will not understand huddling in Crime Alley in the dead of winter as he debates whether to buy food or pay for heating. He won't understand the bitterness, hatred, pain, and resignation of never having enough money to survive as you get chewed up again and again.

If Jason's dad is just an abusive criminal, that not only perpetuates the notion that all criminals are evil, but it will shape how Jason views those who commit crime. Breaking the law doesn't make someone bad. There's plenty of reasons people commit crime, whether to survive, protect someone, or something else. The issue, especially in Gotham, is the system that perpetuates wealth inequality through bribes and unethical governmental practices.

Anyway, I think Jason's Red Hood is more fleshed out if it accounts for him acknowledging the desperation behind goons and small-time criminals because he grew up without other options.

Reposting this on my main account

A happy mother's days to the mothers of my favourite Bat Kids, some of you weren't the best for reasons out of your own hands, but I'd be damned if I let anyone tell me that each of you didn't love your special little babies with all your heart & no amount of fanon, classist or racist comics or takes will change that. This is y'all day so lets celebrate it talking about your favourite Bat Mom moment

(P.S anyone tries passing Bruce, Dick, Selina, Alfred or Jason as a Bat Mom will be promptly ignored)