Warning! Spoilers for From the DC Vault: Death in the Family - Robin Lives! #4!The interpersonal relationships of the Bat-Family have always been complicated, but perhaps the messiest of the bunch are Joker.

Jason Todd's heartbreaking alternate-timeline fate is revealed in From the DC Vault: Death in the Family - Robin Lives!, which concludes with issue #4 by J.M. DeMatteis, Rick Leonardi, Rico Renzi, and Taylor Esposito. After of the Bat-Family. Jason is given the therapy, love, comion, and that he needs to move on. But all is not as it seems, even after Jason gets the love he deserves.

Bruce ends up quitting his role as Batman, promising to help Gotham as Bruce Wayne. But that doesn't mean that Batman is leaving Gotham City. Instead of Bruce retiring Batman, Nightwing ends up taking the mantle instead. At first, this seems like a pretty easy switch, especially with the Joker dead. Unfortunately, Jason Todd ends up becoming the second Joker, and it's not the first time DC has attempted such a switch.

Red Hood Transforms into the Joker - And It's Not the First Time

s from Batman and Robin #6 by Grant Morrison, Philip Tan, Jonathan Glapion, Pete Pantazis, and Pat Brosseau

While Jason is on fairly good with the Bat-Family in the present DC timeline, that wasn't always the case. When Jason first showed up as Red Hood, he was the antagonist of the story and firmly an anti-hero, but as time went on in the pre-Flashpoint years, he simply became more and more villainous, culminating in Jason becoming a full-on Bat-Family villain. Now and then he'd pop up and cause chaos in Gotham City, but something interesting happened. Because Bruce Wayne was gone from Gotham during this time, the Batman that Jason most often fought against wasn't Bruce, but his brother Dick Grayson.

Many stories would go out of their way to specifically frame Red Hood as Nightwing's Joker.

Red Hood and Nightwing fought quite a lot, starting in Battle for the Cowl by Tony S. Daniel, as well as appearing sporadically in Grant Morrison's Batman and Robin. Many stories from this post-Infinite Crisis era go out of their way to specifically frame Red Hood as Nightwing's Joker, which was most evident when Dick reached out to Jason, genuinely trying to save him, and Jason responded with a monologue similar to the Joker's from Alan Moore and Brian Bolland's The Killing Joke, where Batman offered Joker the same kind of redemption.

The Controversial Three Jokers Story Also Suggests That Jason Todd Becomes the Joker

from Three Jokers by Geoff Johns, Jason Fabok, Brad Anderson, and Rob Leigh

Another example of DC suggesting that Jason could become the Joker was during Three Jokers by Geoff Johns and Jason Fabok. This story reveals that there's more than one Joker, and they have their eyes set on turning Jason into the fourth. Ultimately, they decide that Jason wouldn't make a good Joker, but the fact they even considered it is just another example of the many times that DC has considered this twisted fate for the former Boy Wonder.

Despite all of these examples of Jason being turned into the Joker, none of them painted him as particularly dangerous. In Three Jokers, he was rejected by the other Jokers. In Batman and Robin, Red Hood's journey and ideals only paralleled the Joker; he never actually became him, but he filled a similar arch-nemesis role in opposition to Dick Grayson's Batman. In From the DC Vault: Death in the Family - Robin Lives!, however, the darkest and most dangerous version of Jason Todd emerges at the very end of the story as the true Joker to Dick's Batman.

Jason Todd recently tracked down and battled the Joker in the 12-issue series The Joker: The Man Who Stopped Laughing by Matthew Rosenberg and Carmine Di Giandomenico, which is available now both digitally and in collected editions from DC Comics.

The Joker has always had a secret identity, but it's never really mattered. Who the Joker once was wouldn't change anything, and he never actually stops being the Joker. This identity-less status quo isn't the case for Jason's version of the Joker. Jason knows who Batman and the Bat-Family are. He knows that Dick Grayson is currently Batman, but no one in the Bat-Family knows that Jason has become the Joker. Even more complicated is the fact that Jason is one of the head doctors at Arkham Asylum, giving him a perfect place to manipulate Batman's other villains and a true secret identity.

Red Hood Becoming the Joker Is the Worst Possible Scenario for His Character

Jason Todd Will Never Escape Tragedy

The extent of the damage and chaos that Jason causes is unfortunately left up to readers' imaginations, as the series ends directly after the reveal that Jason has taken on the Joker's identity. Because Jason knows who the Bat-Family is, and they have no idea that he's the Joker, he could cause a significant amount of damage in a short amount of time. All readers have is narration stating that the Bat-Family hoped that Jason would make a difference and save lives and that he'd use his skills for good, but the final words of the story it that these hopes were wrong.

When and how did Jason Todd first return to Gotham and Batman's life as Red Hood? Find out the answer in one of the best Batman stories of all time, Batman: Under the Red Hood by Judd Winick and Doug Mahnke, available now both digitally and in collected editions from DC Comics.

It seems that no matter what universe Jason Todd is in, he will never be able to escape the Joker, and it seems like he is destined to become the arch-rival of Nightwing. More than once, Jason has become either an analog to the Joker or just straight-up becomes the Joker, and he's almost always positioned against Dick Grayson, either as Nightwing or Batman. It's a tragic fate, and one that Jason can never seem to escape, no matter how things go for him. Even in a story where it seems like he got everything he needed after the Joker's Death in the Family attack, he still ended up a villain.

Nightwing and Red Hood Have Always Had a Complicated Relationship

From Brothers to Enemies and Back Again

It's a shame that it seems like Jason Todd will never find a happy ending, especially as he's so deserving of one. After his death at the hands of the Joker, Jason's character has been almost entirely defined by his hatred and fear of the clown. Jason either ends up being victimized by him, turning into him, or his stories revolve around getting revenge on him. The Joker was the worst thing to ever happen to Jason, as DC now treats it as if it were the only thing to ever happen to him, resulting in Jason being more alone than ever, as he can never truly get close to his family.

The entire reason Jason Todd became a villain and took on a Joker-like role to oppose Dick Grayson's Batman was because he didn't have the comion and that he needed after the trauma he went through. But now, readers know that even if Jason did get that love and comion, even if he hadn't been killed by the Joker, it truly doesn't matter. No matter what, at some point, Nightwing will always have to face Red Hood as a twisted version of his own personal Joker.

From the DC Vault: Death in the Family - Robin Lives! #4 is available now from DC Comics!