#My theory is she was the back alley doctor who delivered him. Willis was her associate or friend or former lover.

[thecruellestmonth]

Jason's feelings about Sheila Haywood

Batman #427 (1988)

"God, it must have been hard for you."

"...I'll save you... Mom..."

Batman: Gotham Knights #44 (2003)

"...I love..."

Batman #428 (1988)

"He threw... himself... in front... of me... in front of me... He took... the main brunt... of the blast... Such a... good boy... Must have... really... loved his... mother..."

Deadman: Dead Again #2 (2001)

JASON: "It's weird--she betrayed me to the Joker. Got us both blown up--but I'm not mad at her. It wasn't really her fault--her whole life was screwed up. Things just... happened. [...] You gotta tell me--is she going to make it?"

DEADMAN: "She's fading pretty fast, kid--"

JASON: "No, I mean-- her soul. What's going to happen to her... afterward?"

DEADMAN: "That's not for me to decide."

SHEILA: "Jason tried to rescue me... We almost... made it... So close... He turned out to be such a good kid..."

JASON: "Thanks, Mom..."

Batman Annual 25 (2006)

He remembered most of what happened. The search for his mother. Her betrayal. Joker. And his own murder.

Task Force Z #8 (2022)

"I died trying to save someone I cared about."

#Sheila Haywood #Jason Todd #Batman comics #Red Hood #Task Force Z #Jason Todd meta #Boston Brand #Deadman #Batman panels #Judd Winick #Matthew Rosenberg #panels #Batman Gotham Knights #Steve Vance #RECAP: Jason fully acknowledges that Sheila betrayed him and yet doesn't direct his rage toward her. #I guess it's fine if you want to make Jason call Sheila a 'bitch' and spit on her memory in your own fan fiction. You do you. #But Jason Todd is a bad victim. His trauma is wrong. His coping is wrong. He loves people he shouldn't. #He responds to what has caused him pain--and not what others believe *should* have caused him pain. #He doesn't follow a textbook or what others judge *should* be the correct and proper and convenient response to trauma and injustice. #Jason is used to taking care of his parents. He is used to his parents failing him. Catherine and Willis and Sheila. #But not Bruce. Bruce promised him better. And Jason is so deeply humiliated for letting himself believe that promise with all his heart. #And perhaps... though she didn't want to... Sheila stayed with Jason at the end. And that was a promise that Bruce didn't keep. #long post #longpost #long #thecruellestmonth #Also I see Batman 428 as evidence that Sheila isn't Jason's birth mother because she refers to Jason's mother in the third person. #My theory is she was the back alley doctor who delivered him. Willis was her associate or friend or former lover. #Boston 'Number One Jason Todd Stan' Brand #Deadman Dead Again