Quote Originally Posted by shaxper View Post
Just read Batman #703 tonight and am now completely caught up with the title. I mention this for two reasons:

1. As if in direct response to my previous post, this was a single issue story and it paid homage to a lot of old continuity, not just operating as "an island unto itself."

2. The old continuity it brought up came directly from this Bronze Age run of Batman I've been reading, particularly the Conway Killer Croc arc. It specifically mentions Joker and Croc working to have the criminal underworld kill Batman, and it references Vicki Vale's break-up with Batman, which also happened in that storyline.

On the one hand, I found this gratifying. These later Bronze Age stories are where Batman's continuity first really took shape but, occurring right before the first Crisis, that continuity also got discarded only a few short years after it began. These stories NEVER get referenced, even though it was a very impressive run, as a whole.

On the other hand, there's a real problem here. The Killer Croc/Joker plan from "ten years ago" is being discussed by Dick, Tim, and Damian, three of the four Robins (okay, there was also Stephanie Brown for a few months). Still, Jason's absence seems particularly pronounced in this discussion not just because he's the missing Robin, and not just because Tim walks in in the Red Robin costume that he got from Jason. Instead, these two facts only play up the relatively big problem that Jason's parents died in the very issue being discussed. The biggest, most memorable aspect of that individual issue was that it left an orphaned Jason Todd in Bruce Wayne's care.

Of course, of all the characters and continuities revamped during the first Crisis, none was changed more heavily than Jason's. The Jason Todd that was killed by the Joker and came back as the Red Hood who is still at large in these comics was an entirely different character, and his parents met very different fates.

So...now that we're post-post crisis, and everything counts again, how are we supposed to reconcile this? Did writer Fabian Nicienza intentionally reference this old story in order to make us wonder, or is this still a 100% post-crisis Jason Todd, with the original guy still totally obliterated from continuity?

It would be interesting to see all this old continuity starting to count again. As it stands, I found the references in this issue incredibly gratifying and oddly timed.
Its basically a little of both. To try and make my points clear...

1.) The story with Croc and Joker teaming up did happen. That part did and Vale's breakup with Bruce Wayne. Those stayed the same.

2.) But Croc never killed Jason's parents. Because DC is keeping the post Crisis explanation going that Jason was an orphan from Crime Alley that boosted the Bat-Mobile's tires.


I really wonder if we will see Nocturna/Jason brought up where she tried to adopt him. Or if that too has been pushed on the "retcon , never happened" deal.