Warning! Spoilers ahead for Batman: Urban Legends #5!
Batman has trained several wards over the years to fight crime, and each has developed their own techniques as they have grown up. Notably Red Hood has revealed one particularly useful trick to gain information. While the trick is simple enough, it is ultimately one that Batman can never pull off quite the same way that Red Hood does.
In Batman: Urban Legends #5, Batman has been kidnapped by Mr. Freeze and Gotham's latest villain, Cheer. After the Caped Crusader saved Red Hood from an untimely demise, the villains chose to capture Batman instead and make a hasty exit. Red Hood leads the Bat-family in a tense investigation as they attempt to find where the villains took the Dark Knight. Following up on his leads, Red Hood decides to approach Dr. Olivia Romero, the person who first created Scarecrow’s fear gas, as a plainclothes civilian and strike up a conversation to see if there are any connections between Cheer and her that he might have missed.
Red Hood’s conversation with Dr. Romero proves fruitful, as the lead allows Red Hood to close in on Cheer’s place of work and find how the drug kingpin gets his materials. In previous issues, Red Hood antagonized Dr. Romero by playing bad cop needlessly in an attempt to intimidate the Gotham University professor. Attempting to make amends and refine his investigation skills, Red Hood visits Dr. Romero again out of costume and asks for her forgiveness before turning the conversation back to his investigation. Through observation and genuinely heartfelt conversation with Dr. Romero, Jason Todd was able to acquire in a benign manner as opposed to the skull-cracking methods he usually relies on while under the Red Hood.
While Batman oftentimes gathers some useful information for his own investigations under the guise of Bruce Wayne, he could never so blatantly follow up on an investigation like Red Hood just did. Being Bruce Wayne has its benefits, but when following up on criminal investigations, being a publicly recognizable billionaire playboy can more often than not prove to be a liability for Batman. Jason Todd, on the other hand, is a nobody as far as the world is confirmed. If Red Hood reveals himself without his costume to others, he can potentially gain more information through building trust as opposed to the intimidation tactics his costume and reputation facilitate. The move is undoubtedly dangerous, as a hero’s unmasked face can be their greatest liability, yet the reckless move fits in perfectly with Red Hood's present desperation as he tries to find his missing father figure.
Batman is defined by the various gadgets and tactics he uses in his war on crime, yet Red Hood just showed off a trick the Caped Crusader can never reliably pull off. The secret identity of Bruce Wayne comes with a lot of perks, but a lot of responsibilities as well. On the other hand, as a nobody, Jason Todd suffers no such limitations and can freely reveal himself to whomever he wants to further his own investigations.