5 DC Resurrections Done Right (And 5 That Sucked)

3. Jason Todd - Under The Red Hood (Film)

Now while there is a very compelling argument for Jason Todd's return having been an unnecessary one - one this author has subscribed to in the past, and still sympathises with to a degree - the answer also isn't that simple.

Judd Winick's 2004 storyline, Batman: Under the Hood, saw the return of Jason Todd after DC had flirted with the idea in Batman: Hush. The story itself was fairly decent, but the actual method of Todd's return (if readers could even get past the idea of him returning in the first place) was frankly ridiculous. The book reveals that Jason had been brought back to life courtesy of the Superboy Prime punch, and as far as excuses go, it just wasn't all that good.

But this is where things get interesting. Back when Warner Bros. Animation were experimenting with Animated Original Movies (productions that would adapt key story-arcs from DC's past), they recruited Winick to turn his comic into a full-length film. The resulting product was Batman: Under the Red Hood, and due to the self-contained nature of the story, the writer was forced to make some changes.

Fortunately, though, those changes made Jason's return a genuinely compelling one. Instead of Superboy Prime being responsible for Jason's resurrection, it is revealed in the film that Ra's al Ghul was the man responsible, having swapped Todd's corpse for a dummy and placed it in the Lazarus Pit as a means of making amends to his heir apparent.

The resulting story was thoroughly engrossing, with Jensen Ackles in particular selling Todd's return perfectly. Without that change though, it's doubtful the film would've had the same effect.