"A Death in the Family" is a 1988 storyline in the American comic book Batman, published by DC Comics. It was written by Jim Starlin and penciled by Jim Aparo, with cover art by Mike Mignola. Serialized in Batman #426–429 from August to November 1988, "A Death in the Family" is considered one of the most important Batman stories for featuring the death of his sidekick Robin at the hands of his archenemy, the Joker.
Jason Todd, the second character to assume the Robin persona, was introduced in 1983 to replace Dick Grayson, who was unavailable for use at the time. Jason became unpopular among readers after 1986, as writers began to characterize him as rebellious and impulsive, and Starlin advocated killing him off. Editor Dennis O'Neil was considering having Jason revamped or written out of Batman when he recalled a 1982 Saturday Night Live sketch in which Eddie Murphy encouraged viewers to call the show if they wanted him to boil a lobster on air. Inspired to orchestrate a similar stunt, DC set up a 900 number voting system to allow fans to decide Jason's fate.
"A Death in the Family" begins when Batman relieves Jason of his crime-fighting duties. Jason travels to the Middle East to find his biological mother, but is kidnapped and tortured by the Joker. Batman #427 ends with the Joker blowing Jason up in a warehouse. Starlin and Aparo prepared two versions of the following issue: one that would be published if readers voted to have Jason survive, and another if he was to be killed. A narrow majority voted in favor of the latter, and Batman #428 features Batman discovering Jason's lifeless body in the warehouse ruins. The storyline ends when Batman and Superman stop the Joker from killing the United Nations General Assembly. The story was controversial and widely publicized; despite Jason's unpopularity, DC faced backlash for the decision to kill one of its most iconic characters.
Retrospective reviewers agreed with the decision to kill Jason and have ranked "A Death in the Family" among the best Batman stories, though its plot has been criticized as nonsensical and its depiction of the Middle East as Islamophobic. Jason's death had a lasting effect on Batman stories, with Batman's failure to save him pushing the comic book mythos in a darker direction. Tim Drake succeeded Jason as Robin in 1989, and Jason was resurrected as the Red Hood in the "Under the Hood" (2004–2006) storyline. "A Death in the Family" remains a popular story among readers and has been reprinted in trade paperback form since its initial publication. Plot elements have been incorporated into Batman films, television series, and video games. An animated interactive film adaptation, Batman: Death in the Family, was released in 2020.
Publication history Background
Robin, the adolescent sidekick of the DC Comics superhero Batman, first appeared in Detective Comics #38 in April 1940. He was introduced by Bob Kane, Bill Finger, and Jerry Robinson to give Batman a companion and increase his appeal to children. The original Robin, Dick Grayson, made regular appearances in Batman publications from 1940 until the early 1980s, when Marv Wolfman and George Pérez began including him in the New Teen Titans comics. So Robin could continue appearing in Batman comics, Batman writer Gerry Conway and artist Don Newton introduced Jason Todd in Batman #357 (March 1983). Wolfman and Pérez had Dick set aside the Robin identity and become the independent superhero Nightwing in Teen Titans, while Jason became Robin in the Batman comics.
Originally, Jason's origin story was virtually identical to Dick's; like Dick, Jason was depicted as the son of circus acrobats, who became Batman's sidekick after his parents were murdered. Dennis O'Neil, who wrote Batman and Detective Comics throughout the 1970s and became the Batman group editor in 1986, said that Conway and Newton worried about creating a new character. I think they thought, 'We've got to have a Robin in the series so let's go with the tried and true. This Robin has worked for so many years, so let's do him again. Following the Crisis on Infinite Earths (1985–1986) crossover event, which rebooted the DC Universe, Batman writer Max Allan Collins was asked to reintroduce Jason. Batman #408 (June 1987) began a four-issue story by Collins and artist Chris Warner that reimagined Jason as a street delinquent whom Batman attempts to reform.
The revamped Jason was unpopular among readers, who disliked his rebellious, impulsive nature. A scene in Batman #424 (June 1988) in which Jason seemingly breaks Batman's no-killing rule and lies about it was particularly controversial. After Collins quit over creative differences, writer Jim Starlin and penciler Jim Aparo took over Batman. Starlin disliked Robin, as he found the concept of a crimefighter using a child as a sidekick ridiculous. He initially avoided featuring Jason, but began to use him at the request of O'Neil. Starlin "decided to play on that dislike" in his stories. By 1988, the Batman creative team knew Jason presented a problem that needed to be resolved.
Development
O'Neil decided that Jason either needed another personality revamp or to be written out of Batman. Around that time, DC was planning to publish a comic promoting HIV/AIDS education, and requested that writers submit suggestions for characters to kill off from AIDS. Starlin, who had advocated killing Robin when he began writing Batman, filled the suggestion box with proposals to kill off Jason, but DC staff rejected the idea after realizing all the papers had Starlin's handwriting. However, DC president Jenette Kahn wanted to address Jason's unpopularity. O'Neil and Kahn attended an editorial retreat, where O'Neil recalled a 1982 Saturday Night Live sketch in which Eddie Murphy encouraged viewers to call one of two 900 numbers if they wanted him to boil a lobster on air. The sketch garnered widespread publicity and nearly 500,000 viewers called in. O'Neil proposed a similar stunt involving one of the DC characters, which Kahn found intriguing.
O'Neil decided that Jason was "the logical candidate to be in peril", as he was unpopular and placing him in such a situation would have massive ramifications. He said: "We didn't want to waste it on anything minor. Whether Firestorm's boots should be red or yellow ... This had to be important. Life or death stuff". Kahn added that they wanted to allow fans to have input in what to do with Jason, rather than "autocratically" writing him out and replacing him. The idea of having fans call to influence the creative process was a novel concept at the time, and DC's sales and marketing vice president Bruce Bristow described setting up the numbers as the most difficult part of the project. Sales manager John Pope began calling AT&T to secure the two 900 numbers on October 1, 1987; it took him until March 1988 to reserve them.
Six months after Starlin proposed killing Jason, O'Neil asked him to start working on a potential story. Starlin decided to have the Joker murder Jason, inspired by The Dark Knight Returns (1986), a limited series by Frank Miller that featured Batman retiring after the Joker kills Robin. Starlin wrote scripts for a six-issue story, and the decision was made to combine the first four across two issues to speed up the story because fans were participating. Aparo, inker Mike DeCarlo, and colorist Adrienne Roy provided the art, and assistant editor Dan Raspler suggested Mike Mignola as the storyline's cover artist. Batman #427 features Batman arriving at a warehouse where Jason is imprisoned just as it explodes. On the back cover, an advertisement featured Batman carrying a severely wounded Jason. Readers were warned that Jason could die of his injuries, but that they could "prevent it with a telephone call". Two 900 numbers were given: one (1-900-720-2660) which would let Robin live, and another (1-900-720-2666) which would cause him to die. The numbers were activated for 35 hours in the United States and Canada from 9a.m. Eastern Time on September 15, 1988.
Starlin and the artists prepared two versions of Batman #428, depending on the outcome. As O'Neil stated: "It really could have gone either way. We prepared two choices of balloons. We had alternate panels. We had everything set up so that the two outcomes could be accomplished with a minimum of changes. We prepared for either situation". Raspler explained that Aparo prepared three alternate pages and several panels with static images that could be easily rearranged. O'Neil voted to let Jason live, as he felt killing the character would complicate his job as an editor, and Starlin was unable to vote because he was in Mexico at the time. O'Neil and Raspler checked the results every 90 minutes. DC executive editor and vice president Dick Giordano expected readers to vote in favor of Jason's survival; O'Neil believed they would vote for his death to see if DC would follow through.
The poll received 10,614 votes and 5,343 voted for Jason's death over 5,271 for his survival—a margin of just 72 votes. Although Kahn dispelled rumors that the process was rigged in favor of Jason's demise, O'Neil said it was possible many votes favoring Jason's death came from a single person. He recalled hearing that "a lawyer programmed his Macintosh to dial the killing number every few minutes", but had no evidence. O'Neil canceled a party he planned to throw once the verdict was in and decided to keep the result secret until Batman #428 was shipped. O'Neil did not tell his wife, Starlin, or Aparo. Starlin had expected Jason to die but was surprised by how close the vote was. Production director Bob Rozakis supervised Roy as she finished coloring, and then had Steve Bove take the "real" Batman #428 to finish it in the secrecy of his basement.
Publication "A Death in the Family" was published when Batman was surging in popularity. Following the success of The Dark Knight Returns and the "Year One" (1987) storyline, monthly sales for Batman were at their highest level since the early 1970s, and Tim Burton's Batman (1989) feature film was in production. DC announced "A Death in the Family" shortly after the release of the critically acclaimed graphic novel Batman: The Killing Joke in 1988; according to author Chris Sims, the Batman letter column immediately "broke out into debate" over whether Jason should live or die.
Batman #426, the first issue of "A Death in the Family", was released on August 23, 1988, and Batman #427, the second, was released two weeks later, on September 6. Fans voted to determine Jason's fate between September 15 and 16, and Batman #428, which featured Jason's death, was released on October 18. The storyline concluded with Batman #429, on November 29. The last two issues contained a guest appearance from Superman.
After the first three issues of "A Death in the Family" sold out, DC compiled the storyline into a trade paperback in time for the 1988 Christmas shopping season. The collection, Batman: A Death in the Family, shipped on December 5, less than a week after Batman #429. A 2009 hardcover reprint included Wolfman, Pérez, and Aparo's 1989 sequel storyline, "A Lonely Place of Dying", which introduced Jason's successor Tim Drake. A hardcover deluxe edition was published in April 2021.