Gamestop has revealed that they are offering the Red Hood as exclusive DLC for Batman: Arkham Knight. We’ll run you down on what this means below.
For the benefit of gamers and possibly Batman fans not familiar with recent comics history, the Red Hood is a pivotal character in the Batman mythos. This has been the alter ego of two people; the man who would be known as Joker, and Jason Todd, a former Robin.
Joker’s connection to Red Hood is old, but really just a footnote to modern stories nowadays. In one version of Joker’s origin, he was originally the criminal Red Hood, until he fell in a vat with a mysterious serum that drove him crazy and turned him into the Joker. In some alternate earths were Batman is a villain, Red Hood is often portrayed as the hero (and actually that world’s version of the Joker).
Jason Todd’s turn from Robin to Red Hood, from hero to antihero, has been tumultuous and great stuff for lots of comics. A lot of his past and history has been revised, as is commonplace in comics, but what nonfans need to know can be summed up into three points:
He is more ruthless and extreme than Bruce,
He was presumably killed by the Joker in the graphic novel Batman: A Death in the Family
He was resurrected years later in the story Batman: Under the Hood, using the Red Hood persona, and with grudges against both Batman and the Joker.
Of course, many fans have long speculated that the Arkham Knight himself is Jason Todd. Although it would usually be uncharacteristic for even an antihero to work with the bad guys, Jason would and has worked with villains before, with the intent of double crossing them later. He’s been the outright villain in some comics storylines as well.
Is there a possibility that this Red Hood could be Joker? Yes, but it’s highly unlikely, because Joker is dead in this Batman universe, but especially since Rocksteady would know fans would rather this story be around Todd.
Red Hood is part of the exclusive Red Hood Story Pack, only available if you preorder with Gamestop. I’m not enthused that this is an exclusive, of course, but this also seems to be further proof that Todd, if he is not the Arkham Knight himself, will be playing a major role in Batman: Arkham Knight.
Batman: Arkham Knight is coming to Windows, Playstation 4 and Xbox One on 2015.
