In last week’s episode of DC Universe’s Titans, Robin—Jason Todd (Curran Walters)—found himself at the mercy of Deathstroke (Esai Morales). The episode ended with Jason plunging off of a building, with his fate literally up in the air. With the question of whether Jason lives or dies once again up for discussion, DC Universe has created a poll in which fans will vote on whether Jason Todd survives the fall or meets his end. The poll, naturally, is just for fun, as Jason’s actual fate was decided months ago when the next episode of Titans was written and filmed, but who doesn’t enjoy speculating about killing a teenager?
Deciding Jason Todd’s fate by committee has become a favorite pastime for some DC fans. In 1988, after a tumultuous five years as Robin, Jason was caught in a bomb blast perpetrated by The Joker in Batman #427, part two of “A Death in the Family” by Jim Starlin, Jim Aparo, Mike DeCarlo, and Adrienne Roy. The issue ended with an ad that presented two 1-900 numbers fans could call: one to save Jason, the other to kill him off. Over 10,000 calls were placed, and by a margin of only 72 votes the second Robin was sentenced to death. (You can read all about Jason’s time as Robin, the creation of “A Death in the Family,” and the aftermath of Jason’s death in this oral history on the subject.)
It’s been about a year since DC Universe did their last poll on whether Jason Todd should live or die. That poll was based on re-litigating the outcome the original “A Death in the Family” storyline, and, like this the current poll, was just for fun with no real outcome determined by the results of the vote. The results of the previous poll, which amazingly is still open for voting, have Jason surviving by a large margin as of this writing:
The current poll, as of this writing, is neck-and-neck, with only 55 votes putting the “Jason Lives!” camp in the lead. The poll asks fans to only vote once per day, but there’s nothing stopping anyone from refreshing the page and voting again immediately, so if you want to be like the lawyer in 1988 who apparently rigged his computer to call the ‘kill’ line over and over again, feel free.
Jason Todd’s fate will be revealed tomorrow, when the new episode of Titans is made available on DC Universe.
