For this extra reading diary, I’m looking at the Nigerian
unit’s “Why the Bat Flies by Night” because it was my favorite story. Because Batman.
There’s a sort of parallel that can be drawn here between Bruce
Wayne (Batman) as the bat of the story, and Jason Todd, as the bush rat. For those not familiar with Jason Todd: he
was the second Robin after Dick Grayson moves on to become Nightwing,
relocating to Blüdhaven, a city close to Gotham.
“Why the Bat Flies by Night” describes how the bat, jealous
of the bush rat, tricks him into boiling himself alive. The bush rat was always complimenting bat’s
super delicious stew and bat would always reply with: “I always boil myself in
the water, and my flesh is so sweet that the soup is good.” The bat even goes on to “demonstrate” just
how he does this – it’s all a trick, just sleight of hand.
But the bush rat believes it. And, when he gets home and tries it out
himself – the bush rat dies after jumping into a pot of boiling water. After the bush rat’s wife reports to the king,
the king issues a warrant for the bat’s arrest.
To avoid being caught, the bat hides himself by day… and flies only by
night.
Basically, this story breaks down into three parts: 1) the
Bat realizing his jealousy, 2) acting on that jealousy, and 3) the
consequences. Remember these for later.
Switching back to Bruce Wayne and Jason Todd.*
Bruce first meets a young Jason when Jason is trying to steal
the rims off of the Batmobile. Now, at
this point in his career, Batman is not a young man anymore – he’s envious of
Jason’s youth. But that’s all he’s
jealous of. Among other things, Jason is
angry. His tragic past is constantly on his mind and
it’s difficult for him to find any peace – often feeling a compulsory need to
be training or to be out patrolling Gotham.
Much like how Bruce had been in his younger days.
So Bruce takes Jason’s anger and points it at a target: the criminals
of Gotham. And like how war dogs of old
were simply pointed at the enemy when they were unleashed, Jason went where he
was pointed. But there were risks…
Jason Todd was brutally murdered by the Joker, Batman’s archnemesis
(and one of the few supervillains who has remained consistently terrifying
throughout each of his incarnations).
Now, calling back to the three parts of “Why the Bat Flies
by Night.”
Number one: the bat realizing his jealousy. Batman finds Jason and recognizes almost
immediately the talent, the anger, and the youth
that Jason has.
Number two: acting on that jealousy. While Bruce can’t trick Jason into killing
himself like what happened in the story, he instead adopts Jason. He trains Jason and directs Jason’s anger
away from any self-destructing tendencies and away from innocent people, and
towards the criminal populace of Gotham City.
Number three: the consequences. Jason Todd dies after being beaten bloody by
the Joker with a tire iron. But it doesn’t
end there (because comic books) and he’s resurrected in a Lazarus Pit –
effectively restoring him to life. However,
he doesn’t come back whole – he comes back worse. He comes back and, after learning that Batman
didn’t seek retribution against the Joker for his death, takes on the mantle of
the Red Hood.
 |
| Jensen Ackles portrayed Jason Todd/Red Hood in the animated film "Under the Red Hood" [x] |
*For the purposes of this piece, I’m only going to talk
about post-Crisis Jason Todd. I’m also grossly generalizing a lot of what
happened in the comics. To my fellow
comic nerds who find their way here: I’m so sorry. As it is, I’m way over word count.
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