5. Robin II (Jason Todd)
In spite of what many modern readers, including filmmakers, believe, Robin, the Boy Wonder, is just as important to the Batman mythos as Commissioner Gordon, Alfred, and the Joker. Well, the Robin introduced as The Sensational Character Find of 1940 in Detective Comics #38 embodied as Dick Grayson was anyway. That was until Jason Todd started wearing the pixie boots and yellow cape in 1983 when Grayson finally graduated to the adult superhero roster as Nightwing over in Teen Titans. The strange thing about Jason Todd is that for a character less than five years old off the page his back story was rebooted coming out of the seminal Crisis on Infinite Earths maxi-series that reset the DC Universe to get rid of the dead weight of redundant characters. When he was originally introduced in Batman #357 the only difference between his origin and his predecessors was that Jason had reddish-blonde hair but this direct lift of Graysons story didnt seem to upset fans too much. However when the character was re-imagined as a homeless street orphan with an edge in Batman #408, he just didnt seem to click with the buying public anymore who looked at him as a whining, ungrateful putz because he talked back to the Dark Knight and did some shady things to criminals. Because of his perceived unpopularity, the DC brain trust, led by editor Denny ONeil, happened upon the idea of doing away with the character by using methods straight out of the gladiatorial pit by letting the fans decide by way of a 1-900 phone line if Jason Todd would live or die at the end of the A Death in the Family story arc running through issues 426-429 of Batman in 1988. Just like the bloodthirsty Roman populace of Nero, the fans voted thumbs down by a margin of 72 votes to have the Joker beat the living tar out of the kid with a crowbar and then blow him to smithereens. Even though according to Jason Todds Wiki page, Denny ONeil contends there was voter manipulation by one fan with the help of a Macintosh. Whatever it was, the public spoke and Batman was once again a grim solo avenger of the night.
IMPACT: Robins death, even a replacement Robin, made national news with non-comic book readers wondering just what was going on in the pages of a medium many considered juvenile at best. The hue and cry against Jasons murder was so loud that a new Robin in the character of Tim Drake was created toot suite in 1989. The public, general and comic book, took to the new Boy Wonder with his updated costume and fighting style and it wasnt long before Tim Robin became a stalwart fighter in his mentors war on crime with poor Jason Robin consigned to a cold grave until his convoluted resurrection in 2005 in the pages of Batman #638 during the Under The Red Hood story arc as the eponymous anti-hero.
OPINION: I was a subscriber to Batman when Jason Todd was killed but I missed out on my chance to vote in his life or death poll wherein I would have voted to keep him alive because Im just sentimental like that. A Death in the Family was a good story just like the stories that sprang from it, particularly the A Lonely Place of Dying arc, which introduced Tim Drake but Im of the belief if a major character is to be killed dont resurrect him or her unless you have a good reason to do so and a better story in which to bring them back. I dont know about the reasoning of bringing Jason Todd back but the stories about a resurrected kid sidekick trying to make sense of his role in an adopted family he feels alienated from has been solid reading for almost ten years now and is responsible for the best video offering ever under the DCAU banner.