Batman: Three Jokers is full of twists and turns, one of which was the unexpected prospect of romance between Batgirl and Red Hood. The two shared a tender moment in issue #2, but Jason took things a step further in the finale by fully declaring his love for Barbara.
Batgirl and Red Hood were the natural choices for the Dark Knight’s partners in Three Jokers considering their histories with the Clown Prince of Crime. Barbara was crippled by Joker in Alan Moore and Brian Bolland's Batman: The Killing Joke, and the clown beat Jason to the brink of death in Batman: A Death in the Family by Jim Starlin. While both eventually recovered from their respective injuries, the emotional trauma persisted, but Three Jokers by Geoff Johns and Jason Fabok gives them both the opportunity for closure. Jason takes the first chance he gets and kills the Joker called The Clown in the first issue but shortly after is forced to relive his trauma all over again at the hands of the remaining two Jokers. Batman and Batgirl manage to rescue Jason, after which he recovers at Barbara’s apartment, where the two bond over their shared experience. However, things take a romantic turn that neither they nor the readers expected.
When Barbara returns to check on Jason, she tells him how sorry she and Bruce are that they failed him all those years ago. “We all wish we had been there for you,” she tells him, tenderly holding his hand. The heat of the moment leads the two to kiss, but Barbara immediately seems to regret it, saying “We shouldn’t have done that” and “It was only a moment, Jason. That’s all it was.” Jason agrees for the time being, but issue #3 shows it meant more to him than he initially let on. He tries to bring it up with Barbara again after the final showdown, but she once again chalks it up to the emotion of the moment. Still, Jason can’t seem to put it out of his mind, causing him to leave Barbara a letter confessing his love for her. He writes, “I’ve always admired you, Barbara... You think what happened was a mistake. That it was a moment. But I think we could be great together, I really do. I’ll give up being Red Hood for us... All I need is one chance to prove to you I can do better. And I will devote my life to making you proud. Happy. Loved. If you don’t think I’m worth one chance, if it was all just you caught up in everything, then throw this letter away. I’ll never mention it. I’ll even understand. Whatever happens, I love you.”
Unfortunately, the letter falls off the door and gets swept away by the janitor before Barbara ever reads it, ruining any chance of a relationship between the two. Interestingly, Three Jokers is not the first series to propose a romance between Batgirl and Red Hood. Batman Eternal #28 also raises the idea, the difference being that in this storyline, the roles are reversed. In trying to convince Jason to stay in Gotham, Barbara implies that the two of them could start a relationship, but Jason refuses, saying, “I’ll never be Dick Grayson.”
It would have been interesting to see Nightwing’s reaction to Red Hood and Batgirl’s brief romance in Three Jokers had he been included. Regardless, on paper, Barbara and Jason have a lot in common through their shared, Joker-related trauma, but the ways they recovered and changed following those events are very different and, ultimately, make them incompatible. Still, never say never.