- "Do I look like Batman to you? Rethink your answer before I fill you up with lead."
- —Red Hood to Black Mask Thug
The Red Hood was the alias of a particularly infamous criminal active during Batman's early years as the Caped Crusader. As indicated by the name, the criminal wore a red bowl-shaped helmet as a means of covering his identity, although it is strongly implied that the person wearing the disguise was always different. The Red Hood is most notorious as being the former identity of The Joker prior to his encounter with Batman.
Since Jason Todd changed the Arkham Knight persona, he was able to lay his long-rooted vengeance against Batman to rest, and began to heal the damage that Joker inflicted on him at Arkham Asylum. It was during this recovery that the Red Hood was born, and is implied to have become the permanent holder of the identity. However, while he was once again aligned with his former mentor in wanting to rid Gotham City of its criminal contingent, Todd's willingness to take lives will forever keep them at odds.
Incident Reports
Before Arkham Origins Incident
Outside of the Joker's presence in the plot (and his psychiatric evaluation), the Red Hood was alluded to the on the Crime-Board in the Batcave, listed under the 2nd row as case 152, as well as on a separate billboard. According to the information, in addition to the Red Hood's role in the Ace Chemicals heist, he also had undergone several daring heists and major scores against other targets. His schemes were detrimental enough in Gotham City for Mayor Hill to make the apprehension of Red Hood a high priority for the GCPD. He also struck again some time later by taking $300K, which lead Kale to vow to capture and unmask the Red Hood, although some notes on the crime-board indicated that Batman wasn't sure if that was actually the Red Hood who had committed the crime. His actions ended up costing Gotham City millions worth of paper bills, at least at the time the report was made. Commissioner Loeb later claimed that the Red Hood was "run out of the city." Batman also began to speculate whether the Red Hood was, in fact, one or several criminals that were using the moniker. Sometime after this, the Red Hood case went cold.
After Arkham Origins Incident
Years after the events of Arkham Origins, Batman took in Jason Todd and began to train him as the second Robin. But only a few months into his training, Jason decided to go after the Joker, which resulted in his capture at Joker's hands. Joker tortured and brainwashed him, while Batman stopped looking for Jason after Joker sent Batman a video of Jason's supposed death. Joker got Jason to hate Bruce, with the final straw being the fact that Batman took on a new Robin, which lead Jason to believe that he was simply replaced. Jason eventually escaped and began plotting his revenge against Batman under the alias of the Arkham Knight.
Arkham Knight Incident
Jason allied himself with Scarecrow and Deathstroke, and planned to destroy both Batman and Gotham. After he unmasked himself in front of Batman, and after he saw how much that Bruce still cared about him, Jason decided to help Batman, instead. He took on a new name, and became a vigilante once more, albeit with extreme tactics, and tried to put an end to crime under the identity of the Red Hood. He tracked Batman's movements to the abandoned Arkham Asylum and freed him from Scarecrow.
After Arkham Knight Incident
Jason Todd as the Red Hood with Black Mask.
Jason Todd was still killing but now only to criminals as the Red Hood after the global revelation of Batman's identity as Bruce Wayne. Jason hunted down Black Mask and slowly took down his gang, always leaving one member for interrogation (before shooting them, too). Jason learns of Black Mask's hideout at the docks. He enters the building (involving kicking the door down and taking out the four entrance guards in a matter of seconds) and proceeds to wipe out the goons in the room. Black Mask is alerted to his presence, and barges in with backup, stating Red Hood made "a big mistake comin' here". After dispatching the goons, and sufficiently weakening and beating Black Mask down, Jason picks him up and slams him against one of the rooms large windows while telling the crime lord that he should have left Gotham when he had the chance. Black Mask begs for his life, offering "Drugs, Guns, anything you want" but makes the rookie mistake of saying he'll go "Anywhere you want! Anywhere!" So, instead of imprisoning Black Mask, Jason suggests "How 'bout you go to Hell?" and proceeds to forcefully kick him out of the 3-story window onto the street (and possibly a passing car as a beeping horn is heard around the impact sound). Jason then quips: "Say hi to Joker for me."
Gameplay
- Similarly to Nightwing, Catwoman and Deathstroke, Red Hood couldn't glide, and instead used "Pounce attack".
- Unlike the rest of the Bat Family, Jason used lethal weapons (such as his dual pistols).
- Jason had a few similarities with Tim Drake's Robin, as they both used the Zip-Kick. His evade, Blade Dodge Takedown and frontal Silent Takedown moves were also similar to those of Nightwing's, hinting that he went through the same training as Dick.
- Jason broke criminals' necks instead of choking them out. He also could not perform a knockout smash. However, he was one of the (if not the) fastest characters when performing silent takedowns because he killed henchmen immediately, not choke them out like other characters.
- As with Harley and Batgirl, any purchased WayneTech upgrades did not carry over to Jason when playable characters were implemented to challenge maps in October. This was addressed in the November update, and he gained several improvements, such as the Blade Dodge Takedown, critical strikes and armor upgrades. These upgrades are always available (even when not purchased as Batman), and only apply to challenge maps.
- While most other characters have learned to perform them silently, Red Hood still produces noise when performing floor grate takedowns, ledge takedowns and reverse ledge takedowns.
- However, if the reverse ledge takedown could be performed without the use of Grapnel Gun, Red Hood would silently grab the enemy with his legs, and would not alert enemies. (Although the player needs to press the "Silent Takedown" button when the game informs about loud takedown possibility.)
- Due to not being designed to fight outside of his story pack, Red Hood is unable to fight ninjas and brute enemy types, which makes his enemy pool significantly more simplistic compared to other playable characters of the Bat Family. In predator, Minigunners are not present either.
- Because of this, Red Hood also can't interact with all environmental objects such as the melee weapons. He can interact with Environmental Takedowns objects only. However, this could also be because his hands are already occupied by his guns, although the same doesn't apply to Nightwing.
Gadgets
- Zip-Kick - Was similar to Robin's Zip Kick where Jason propelled himself toward the targeted foe.
- Handguns - Jason was equipped with two dual action guns that he could use at will.
- Flashbang - Jason used Flashbang grenades to stun enemies and escape from armed thugs. They could also be used to initiate a ranged beatdown.
- Grapnel Gun - Jason also had a grapnel gun that similar to Batman, Azrael, the Bat family & Deathstroke.
Known Identities
To date, only two people have been known as the Red Hood:
- The Joker (supposedly)
- Jason Todd
Victims
Jason Todd
Arkham Knight:
- Scarecrow's Personal Guards (After His Redemption)
Red Hood Story Pack
- Killer Moth (Pre-Story Pack)
- Numerous Penguin Thugs (In Chinatown)
- Russian Mafia (Pre-Story Pack)
- Numerous Black Mask Henchmen
- Black Mask
- The Black Glove Organization (Pre-Story Pack)
- Black Spider (Pre-Story Pack)
- Big Tony (Pre-Story Pack)
- Doctor Aesop (Pre-Story Pack)
- Clock King (Pre-Story Pack)
- Sal Maroni (Pre-Story Pack)
Gallery
Trivia
- Red Hood's biography in Arkham Knight implies that Batman is still alive and that he faked his death.
- His Silent Takedowns involve snapping his enemies necks.
- Jason is most likely the person who sent Oracle the weak points in the militia programs that they used to control their tanks. Precisely why he didn't show up in person is unknown, but had he arrived in person, he very likely would have ended up thrown in jail.
- In his DLC, despite the fact that some enemies are bulletproof, he still uses his guns to execute them during certain takedowns and ground takedowns.
- Troy Baker reprised his role from Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham.
- When playing as Red Hood, by combining Big Head Mode and Photo Mode, the camera can be tricked to show inside his mask. Surprisingly, Jason's head model can be seen. While it lacks eyes, the letter J is visible. It is unknown why the model even is inside the mask, as it is never visible.
- Red Hood is one of the three characters that speak during gameplay, making a one-liner after doing a silent takedown in predator mode. This doesn't affect stealth in any way, even if taking out an enemy right next to another enemy. The other characters to do so are Harley Quinn and Batgirl.
- However, unlike Harley and Batgirl, Red Hood only speaks on his DLC, and doesn't speak in challenge maps.
- Even while playing as Red Hood, Arkham Knight still provides commentary in Predator Mode. This is easily explained by the fact that the challenges are set in virtual reality.
- In A.R challenges, defeated enemies show up as "Unconscious", no matter what was done to them, even shooting them clean through the head several times. This was presumably done so that Medics could revive them to add challenge.
- While wearing the Arkham Knight suit in the Red Hood DLC, Jason still appears in his Red Hood costume during the cutscenes, but not the actual gameplay. This is rather strange as the cutscenes are not pre-rendered, as the effects of Big Head mode can be seen if enabled.
- Red Hood's Arkham Knight suit notably serves as an unmarked spoiler in the showcase. Why it wasn't made locked until the reveal in the story (like the Batmobile MKII) is unknown, but it's possible that Rocksteady simply didn't even attempt to hide AK's identity anymore, as the game had been out for several months and his identity is more or less common knowledge even outside the fanbase.
- Although, it's possible that the outfit wasn't locked due to the Streisand effect; had they locked it, people would expect Jason to have a secret outfit that is revealed in story mode, and by not locking it, certain players might think that the costume is for RH simply due to his similarities with AK.