On his path to becoming the hard-hitting vigilante Red Hood in DC Comics, Jason Todd tried a few other alternate identities, including his fellow former sidekick's mantle of Nightwing. Recently revived, Jason struggled to find his role in the world, briefly appropriating Dick Grayson's moniker. The event showed why he isn't cut out for the blue and black tights, but is perfect for wearing a red helmet.
Of all the heroes in the Bat-Family, Jason Todd has arguably had the roughest path to finding his own identity. Coming in as a replacement to Dick Grayson after he left the role of Robin, Todd's career ended after being bludgeoned to death with a crowbar by the Joker. After his subsequent resurrection, he adopted the moniker of Red Hood, an alias traditionally used by his killer. If it wasn't enough that two of Jason's most well-known mantles were hand-me-downs, it turns out he borrowed another well-known Gotham persona.
Nightwing #118 by Bruce Jones, Joe Dodd, BIT, Pat Brosseau and Javier Rodríguez begins with Nightwing violently stopping an attempted kidnapping and gleefully slashing the would-be criminal's throat. The news catches wind and reports Nightwing's new turn to violence, which comes to a perplexed Dick Grayson's surprise. A night of crimefighting takes a turn for the worse when Dick comes across a metahuman that gets the best of him in a fight which culminates in Nightwing being thrown off a roof. Before Dick can even process what's happened, he comes face-to-face with his murderous doppelganger which Grayson quickly realizes is his former Robin replacement, Jason Todd.
Dick is, of course, furious at the identity theft. Aside from Jason committing murder in his alter ego publicly, Nightwing is a path that Dick forged for himself and an extension of his own personal growth after he left Batman's influence. Jason was also the person to come in and replace Dick as Robin, so seeing him follow suit in wearing Grayson's Nightwing costume no doubt brings up old wounds. At the time of Nightwing #118's publication, Jason had only been back for a year and by then was known for the brutal fighting style he'd developed as the Red Hood. So while his attempts to take Nightwing's mantle come off as strange, it could be seen as a necessary step for Jason to find his own path.
Todd claims his assumption of the moniker was due to Dick's absence during the events of One Year Later. While he could have just as easily brought his own gunslinging justice as Red Hood, he chose to fight crime as a hero people recognized and felt comforted by. In the end, Jason walks away with a greater understanding of the roles he and Dick play. Dick is the gentle, everyman hero beloved by the public, while Jason's brutal fighting style is better suited for the dirtier work of the Red Hood. As someone who wrestles to find his place in the world, Jason Todd needed to see what it was like being Nightwing in order to understand the value of the alter ego Red Hood.