9. The Red Hood Gang Were Gotham's First Supervillains
In pre-New 52 continuity, The Red Hood began life as a masked alias used by several criminals in order to commit their crimes. Meanwhile the seminal graphic novel The Killing Joke speculates that The Joker used the identity when attempting to rob the chemical plant he fell into and gained his ghastly appearance. The Red Hood mantle was later adopted by a vengeful Jason Todd, the second Robin, when he came back to life. For Zero Year, Snyder and Capullo re-imagine the Red Hood identity as a terrorist gang, each member of the gang wearing a black suit, red mask and an identifying number. A bit like The Prisoner. Batman believes that some members of the gang aren't even criminals, but rather upper or middle class Gotham residents who have been blackmailed or threatened into joining. He refers to these members as sleeper agents, who can be activated at any time. Snyder very cleverly plays on the modern world's fear of terrorism here, stating that the crime is "beneath the skin. Something viral, hidden until it is too late." The gang do a real number on the Caped Crusader in Zero Year, burning a battered Bruce's swanky Gotham brownstone to the ground and leaving him for dead. Snyder even treats us to a new origin for The Joker as, during a confrontation at ACE Chemicals, Red Hood One refuses Batman's help and actually hurls himself into the vat of nasty stuff. It's later revealed that Liam Distal, the man that authorities suspected of being Number One, was already dead and dissolved in a barrel of lye. Bruce Wayne is haunted by this, having had no way of knowing that Distal was killed, so even before he became The Joker, the Clown Prince Of Crime was causing Batman sleepless nights!
