The Bat-Family in DC Comics is one of comics' most visible examples of found families, with Nightwing and Jason Todd being the first two orphans that Bruce Wayne took in as Batman. And while the members of the Bat-Family are mostly consistent today, the details of each member of the group was much more inconsistent in the past. The second Robin, Jason Todd, is a perfect example of this, evident in the fact that he was nearly adopted by Dick Grayson before Batman eventually took him in.
In Detective Comics #526, Dick Grayson volunteers to adopt Jason Todd after the latter's parents are killed while they were trying to track down Killer Croc (written by Gerry Conway, art by Don Newton and Alfredo Alcala, colors by Adrienne Roy, and letters by Ben Oda). At the time, Jason and his parents were known as the Flying Todds and traveled with the Sloan Circus, similar to how Dick Grayson and his parents were the Flying Graysons act in Haly's Circus. Previously, Dick had personally asked Jason's parents, Trina and Joe, to help him pursue Killer Croc, and was later horrified to find that they had been fed to crocodiles. Feeling responsible, Dick tried to take Jason in before Bruce rebuffed him, and adopted Jason himself.
If this sounds bizarrely out of character for Jason Todd, it is because this issue was from before Crisis on Infinite Earths storyline, which across 1985 and 1986 rebooted entire parts of the DC Universe. In Jason's case, his entire personality and backstory would be changed. But Detective Comics #526 reflects the brief period in which Batman's eventual second Robin was almost identical to the first, stunting the growth of both characters as a result. This pre-Crisis Jason had almost exactly the same origin story as Dick Grayson, with his parents being circus performers who were later tragically murdered. Jason had red hair to distinguish him from Dick Grayson, which was changed to black post-Crisis, later spawning inconsistencies with his hair color down the line.
Within the events of the story, Dick Grayson's attempt to adopt Jason Todd before Bruce Wayne signified a thematic cycle between all of them as orphans. Though Dick was still Robin at the time, he was old enough to be independent of Batman, and had already been doing detective work of his own. Adopting Jason, whose parents' murders he put on himself, would be an opportunity for Dick to provide the guidance, support, and understanding to another orphan that he had been given by Bruce after he had lost his own parents years before.
Essentially, Detective Comics #526 shows why the reboot of the DC Universe in Crisis on Infinite Earths brought new life to its biggest stories and characters. For many fans today, it is strange to imagine Jason Todd being anything like Dick Grayson, considering how his post-Crisis character revamped him as a rebellious, cigarette-smoking kid from the Narrows who was caught stealing the wheels off the Batmobile. And while a significant number of fans at the time were not happy with Jason Todd's Robin, culminating in them voting to kill him off in Batman: A Death in the Family, his departure from Dick Grayson (Nightwing) post-Crisis opened doors for the different types of sidekicks that Batman would have later down the line.