Today's Joker reveal for Injustice 2 was eyebrow raising for several reasons. One on hand, there's this Joker's obvious Suicide Squad-inspired look, that features an edgy haircut, a purple trenchcoat and a red chest tattoo, combining to create a Joker design that's receiving mixed reception. On the other hand, though, there's the trailer's several references to Jason Todd, the second Robin who was apparently killed by the Joker only to come back as Batman adversary The Red Hood.
First off, the gameplay reveal video (above) pits this new, edgy Joker against Injustice 2's Robin, which we already know to be Batman's son Damien Wayne.
The other, more subtle nod to the Batman's former protégé is the Joker's super move: a crowbar. For those unfamiliar with the comics, the Joker kidnapped Robin in the "Death in the Family" story arc, and beat him nearly to death with a crowbar before blowing up the factory in which the Joker kept him. In Joker's Super Move, he beats Robin to a pulp with a crowbar, electrocutes him, and then blows him up. Hmmm.
How does Jason Todd come back? The narrative varies. In the comic book arc Under the Red Hood, Superboy Prime punched time until Jason Todd came back alive, buried under ground, in the current timeline (I wish I was joking). In the animated movie adaptation of that story arc, Ra's al Ghul stole Jason's body and brought him back in the Lazarus pits (but he was changed for the worse).
But probably the most relevant example from which Injustice 2 could take inspiration if they were to bring back Jason Todd as the Red Hood would be (spoiler alert) Batman: Arkham Knight. In Arkham Knight, Rocksteady lightly ret-conned the nature of Jason's death in order to bring him back as The Red Hood/The Akrham Knight. Instead of killing Jason outright, the Joker still beat him nearly to death, but then kept him captive at a different location, torturing and radicalizing him to make him resent Batman and eventually become his enemy.
So, if Injustice 2 were to bring in The Red Hood, that's a good way they could pull it off (that's markedly less far-reaching than either of the two "canon" methods). But is it going to happen? NetherRealm Studios Head Ed Boon, known for being coy and cryptic, has been Tweeting some rather random and telling things that many see as Red Hood hints.
One such Tweet read "I see a red door and I want to paint it….. DAMMIT, now that song is stuck in my head…" Of course, this could be nothing, but someone like Ed Boon, who helms a DC Comics-based franchise and is aware that many people want to see The Red Hood, had to at least have known that people would read into in that way. This means his Tweet is either telling or simply irresponsible.
Of course, we have just more than 2 weeks until the release of Injustice 2, so we'll probably figure out a lot more about its final roster in the mean time.
