Red Hood

Jason learned his mother was not his biological mother. Rushing off to find his real mother, he located her providing medical aid in Africa. Their reunion was soured when he found she was embezzling from the nonprofit she worked for and being blackmailed by The Joker to give him medical supplies. To square her debt to The Joker, she betrayed her own son (who she knew was Robin) to him. The Joker beat Jason severely, leaving him and his mother in a warehouse with a bomb. Batman arrived too late to save them. Jason's death haunted Batman for years, a pain that did not abate even as Tim Drake later became the third Robin. Unbeknownst to Batman, Jason was restored to life by the reality-altering actions of Superboy Prime but, his brain still affected by The Joker's beating, his memory was lost.

Jason was an amnesiac vagrant when he was found by Talia al Ghul. She restored his health in a Lazarus Pit and showed him Batman had both replaced him and not avenged him by killing The Joker. Jason confronted Batman, who expressed regret for not saving him but wouldn't apologize for not killing The Joker. The furious Jason took on the identity of Red Hood, a vigilante who dealt with criminals in a much more brutal and often final way than Batman. Jason found The Joker and beat him but didn't yet kill him. Luring Batman to Crime Alley, he held The Joker at gunpoint, threw Batman a gun, and said the only way to stop him from killing The Joker was to kill him. Batman used a Batarang instead, and The Joker took advantage of the distraction to set off explosives that dropped them all into the bay.

Jason had ambushed his replacement as Robin, Tim Drake, but didn't kill him when their battle left him with a grudging respect for Tim. After Batman's apparent death, Jason manipulated the gang wars in Gotham City, so he could take control of them. Tim interceded to end the violence, and Jason proposed they work together, but Tim refused. After Jason was arrested later in the gang war, Tim visited him in prison and helped him escape, believing he deserved a chance at redemption. He played him a message from Batman in which Bruce apologized for not offering him the emotional support he needed. Angered instead of calmed, Jason tried to take Bruce's place as Batman. Confronted by Nightwing, their battle ended with Jason falling off a speeding train.

Jason later tried to make up for his sins by leading a team of heroes and anti-heroes called the Outlaws. He became good friends with fellow member Arsenal. They bonded over their shared background as sidekicks (Arsenal was one to Green Arrow) who had failed their mentors. After establishing himself separately from the Bat-Family, Jason reached an understanding with them. He seemed to have the best relationship with Tim Drake, now calling himself Red Robin after Batman's son with Talia al Ghul, Damian, had become the new Robin.

More recently, Jason got a letter from his estranged father, who had died in prison. It revealed that years ago, in order to pay off debts, he had taken the rap for a murder that the Penguin had actually committed. Furious that he had grown up an orphan because of the Penguin, Red Hood went to war against him, shooting him in the face. The Penguin survived, but his eye was damaged, and for a time, he wore an eyepatch where his monocle had been. Red Hood even took over the Penguin's rebuilt Iceberg Lounge but was ousted by allies who felt he had gone too far. Batman captured Jason and turned him over to the police, but he was broken out by his friend and former Outlaw teammate Arsenal. Since then, the Bat-Family and Jason have achieved a tense peace, but he remains their most unpredictable member.