The third season of HBO's Titans is in full swing with a storyline centering around DC's Red Hood. Fans of the angst-ridden anti-hero are treated to gratuitous nods to the comics, including Red Hood's infamous confrontation with the leaders of Gotham's drug runners. Despite the initially rushed plot with too much crammed into episode one, the rest of the season has panned out well with a delightfully devastating storyline leaving the audience unsure if the team will be able to save Jason both from himself and Scarecrow.
Curran Walters is doing a fantastic job portraying Red Hood, putting his all into the character and giving Jason Todd the performance he deserves. The beginning of the season had a dismaying lack of suspense surrounding Red Hood's true identity, but since most fans already knew who was behind the mask, it seems the writers decided to create suspense elsewhere. While there are plenty of similarities between the show and the comics, Titans also took a few liberties with the story of the Red Hood.
Similarity: Killed By The Joker
As in the previews that fans were teased with a couple of months before the airing of season three, the Joker is depicted violently beating someone with a crowbar. Jason sneaks out to face the Joker alone and is caught off guard in a defunct carnival.
In the comics, a very important detail of Jason Todd's death is his murder at the hands of Batman's arch-nemesis, the Joker. The crowbar plays a central role in his torture, though the scene in the comics is much more drawn out, the villain wanting to prolong his twisted game.
Difference: Killed In Gotham
In Titans, the Joker attacks Jason in Gotham, never leaving the city limits with him. Since Jason's death was actually in the comic storyline Death in the Family, instead of the Red Hood plot, the writers needed to skim through it instead of lingering on that part of the story.
The original comic version puts Jason's death in Ethiopia. His birth mother sells him out to the Joker who takes him where Batman will struggle to find him. The villain leaves him beaten in a warehouse to die in an explosion just before he can be rescued.
Similarity: Dumped In A Lazarous Pit
In both storylines, a Lazarus pit was involved in Jason's revival. The unfortunate side effect of the Lazarus Pit is that it heals the body but can twist the mind and leave a person confused and volatile. In both cases, this is true.
For the show, Jason was revived in a pit within Gotham city limits. The comics are a little more roundabout with it, as the pit is located in the secret home of the League of Assassins. Talia al Ghul uses the pit to heal Jason's injuries and poison his mind against his family.
Difference: Not Revived By Superboy-Prime
In the show, the audience learns that there is a Lazarus Pit forgotten by the League of Assassins somewhere in Gotham. This is what Jonathan Crane uses to revive Jason Todd. The comics had an entirely different way to revive Jason before he became Red Hood.
DC had a storyline with a regular boy who became a hero in a universe where superheroes didn't exist. Superboy-Prime ended up turning villainous and set off a chain of events that changed reality, reversing Jason's death. He woke up inside his coffin and had to dig his way out. The Lazarus Pit was used to heal him but not revive him.
Similarity: Grudge Against Batman
A huge part of the Red Hood origin story is based around his fury at Batman. The show depicts Jason being fired from Robin shortly before his death, leading him to experiment with eliminating his fear. The drug and his past PTSD drove him away from the hero community and made him vulnerable to manipulation.
The comics show Jason furious over the fact that Batman never avenged his death, and had replaced him with another Robin. He saw Bruce's methods as ineffective and set out to prove he could protect Gotham better with his own methods.
Difference: Driven By Scarecrow
In both cases, Red Hood's quest for revenge was encouraged and manipulated by someone hiding in the shadows. The show and the comic use different people and methods to drive Jason. Titans places Scarecrow as the mastermind behind all the chaos, only using Red Hood as a figurehead. Later episodes show Crane twisting and poisoning Jason's mind, making him stay even when he has doubts.
Talia al Ghul is the driving force behind Red Hood in the comics, but she doesn't control his actions once he reaches Gotham. She used the pit to heal his wounds and destabilize his mind, riling him up with lies about his family never caring for him. Talia feeds him doctored information to wind him into a rage and then sets him loose on Batman to keep him distracted and shake his hold on the city.
Similarity: The Red Helmet
The red helmet used in Titans is a fantastic costume piece that does great service to the comics. Jason first shows his Red Hood persona in the show wearing the signature helmet, but the comic version didn't start out that way.
Red Hood used to be an old moniker of the Joker before he fully developed his villainous trademark. He would wear a strange cylindrical red helmet and a cape to commit crimes. In reference to the man who killed him, when Jason first returns to Gotham, he uses that same costume, eventually morphing the style into a more practical design of leather jacket and helmet.
Difference: An Actual Hood
In a good chunk of the comics, Jason doesn't actually wear a hood, despite being called the Red Hood. In a few stories like Future State: Gotham and Red Hood and the Outlaws, a hood has been added to his costume, but that's not how it started.
The show takes a little interpretive license by adding a hood to his original costume jacket. It complements the look and helps to bring the character off the page and into live-action in a more seamless way.
Similarity: Wants To Help People
Even when Jason Todd was Robin, he just wanted to help people. Growing up as a street kid in Gotham gave him a close-up look at the desperation that people suffered, especially those living in Crime Alley. When he was given the chance to be a hero, Jason took it as a way to change things for the better.
When he became Red Hood, Jason began to start bigger operations to aid people, even becoming a drug lord to limit distribution and keep kids from getting involved. He had no problem killing criminals to keep them from repeating offenses and he was still protective of the innocent.
Difference: Attacking Gotham
The two storylines give Jason very different methods of infiltrating the city and becoming a vigilante trusted by citizens. In the comics, Red Hood doesn't actually attack the city. He takes over the drug gangs to restrict sales and punish anyone who sold to kids, and he only ever attacks the Batfamily or criminals victimizing others.
The show has Scarecrow running the operation behind the scenes, using Jason as a figurehead to give people something to believe in while he completely destabilized the city. Jason ends up wanting to leave Crane and rejoin Nightwing, as he's not happy with the destruction caused and the innocents harmed. The plan was to tear apart the city and their trust in heroes, and then have Jason come in and save the day, with Crane pulling his strings. Fans are still waiting to see what happens and if Jason can be saved from himself.