This article contains mentions of suicide.

Tragedy isn't an unexpected thing in comic books, but Jason Todd a.k.a. Red Hood has suffered more than most characters. After being killed by the Joker, Jason Todd returned to life and, despite how hard he's tried, it seems that he can't ever escape the shadow of death that looms over him.

Unfortunately, Jason Todd is often a character who has been defined by his death. While every Robin has died at some point in their history, no one has suffered as Jason Todd has. Jason's death was the first time a Robin was killed, and he's been dealing with that fact ever since. While everyone knows Jason's death way back in Death in the Family, Jason Todd has died (or 'died') several times more since then, making it basically one of his superpowers.

10 Jason Was First Killed By The Joker

Batman: A Death in the Family by Jim Starlin and Jim Aparo

Without a doubt, the most iconic and important death on this list. With fan reaction to Jason Todd as the new Robin being mixed, DC set up a telephone poll for fans to call in and vote for whether Jason would live or die. This garnered 10,614 votes, with 5,242 for Jason's death, against 5,271. This pushed DC to have Jason Todd infamously killed off by the Joker.

While searching for his long-lost mother, Jason was betrayed by her and handed over to the Joker. Joker proceeded to beat Jason with a crowbar before leaving him with a bomb, which killed the Boy Wonder. While Jason was eventually able to come back to life thanks to Infinite Crisis, as reality was rewritten to include the fake Jason Todd who tortured Batman in the Hush storyline.

9 Jason is Blown Up By A Bomb, Again

Batman #650 by Judd Winick and Eric Battle

Jason Todd would eventually return to life as the Red Hood. It was under this new name that Jason went up against both Batman and the Joker, and in the final confrontation with Batman, Jason reveals that not only does he have the Joker captured, but he also has a bomb rigged to kill them all in case Batman doesn't play his game. Jason tries to force Batman into either killing him or killing the Joker, but Bruce refuses.

Batman manages to bounce a batarang off the wall, hitting Jason and disabling him. But before he can stop Joker, he picks up the gun and aims it at the bomb. Wanting their story to end here, together, Joker pulls the trigger and blows up the bomb, seemingly killing all three of them. While these characters reappear later, there's never any explanation of how, and it certainly seems like this was written as a final moment for Jason at the time.

8 Jason Falls From A Lethal Height Fighting Nightwing

Battle For The Cowl #3 by Tony S. Daniel

During the events of Battle for the Cowl, Batman was seemingly dead due to Final Crisis.m raising the question of who would be taking over the cowl now that he was gone. Both Dick Grayson and Tim Drake were willing to step up and assume the role, but this was complicated by the reappearance of Jason Todd.

This version of Jason was still very much in his villain era, and he wanted nothing more than to become a new, brutal, and lethal version of Batman. This results in a battle between the three, and in the end, it seems like Jason falls to his death. Refusing to accept Nightwing's help, Jason allows himself to plummet hundreds of feet down into the river below. There is no question that it should be a lethal fall, with this being one of the last appearances of the most well-known, villainous Jason.

7 Jason is Crushed To Death By Captain Marvel Jr.

DCeased: Dead Planet #5 by Tom Taylor and Trevor Hairsine

DCeased is one of the darkest universes that DC has ever explored. After Darkseid accidentally unleashes a zombie apocalypse on Earth, it's not long until the bodies start stacking up. Almost all DC heroes are killed or infected, including heavy hitters such as Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman.

After the initial apocalypse, a small group of survivors band together to make a new life in Dead Planet. One of these is Jason Todd, who manages to survive and marry Deathstroke's daughter, Ravager. This is a surprisingly happy version of Jason, but nothing good in this world ever lasts, and Jason ends up being brutally killed by a zombified Captain Marvel Jr. (a hero's death, but a death all the same).

Dark Knights: Death Metal was one of the biggest battles that the Justice League and Bat-Family have ever been involved in. This was an outright war between the forces of the Multiverse against the Batman Who Laughs' dark army. Naturally, with the stakes this high, not everyone managed to survive.

While battling against the Robin King and his army of Groblins, the Bat-Family puts up a valiant fight but ultimately ends up being torn apart. Red Hood gets it especially bad with his entire arm being ripped off. Thankfully, Red Hood and the rest of the Bat-Family weren't dead for long, as Batman used his Black Lantern ring to bring the entire Bat-Family back to life. This death isn't nearly as tragic as the others on this list, but it's certainly one of the most brutal that Jason has been through.

5 Jason is Shot To Death By Deadshot

Task Force Z #3 by Matthew Rosenberg and Eddy Barrows

While working for Task Force Z, Jason Todd had to deal with a plethora of zombie supercriminals. Naturally, this was an incredibly dangerous combination and Jason was almost killed several times. Unfortunately, they finally got him when a zombified Deadshot shot Jason to death. Despite attempts to save him for the sake of continuing his new mission, Jason died on the operating table from his wounds.

This resulted in the use of Lazarus Resin to bring Jason back to life, making this another example where Jason wasn't technically dead for long, but still definitely died. Not only is he pronounced dead by two separate doctors, but the heart monitor he's hooked up to also flatlines. This is also one of the few times when Jason's death was an accident, as Deadshot was mostly feral from being revived, and wasn't fully in control of his actions.

4 Jason is Killed By Green Arrow After Becoming A Vampire

DC vs Vampires #6 by James Tynion IV and Matthew Rosenberg.

While DC has explored many apocalypse scenarios, one of the most sinister versions was in DC vs Vampires. Instead of the immediate and bombastic loss of the world, as seen in DCeased, this apocalypse was much quieter. In this story, members of the Justice League have been transformed into vampires, and they slowly try to infect everyone they can. The big twist is revealed when it's shown that Nightwing has become the Vampire King.

As Nightwing begins to slaughter the Bat-Family, Jason Todd is the only one who manages to stand up against him. Despite Nightwing's overwhelming power, Jason manages to put up a pretty good fight. Despite his best efforts, he's eventually overpowered by Nightwing and Wonder Woman. Instead of becoming a vampire, Jason orders Green Arrow to shoot and kill him, which the Emerald Archer reluctantly agrees to.

3 Jasin is Talked Into Killing Himself By The Joker

Suicide Squad: Get Joker #3 by Brian Azzarello and Alex Maleev

Jason Todd and the Joker have had a long and complicated relationship. The biggest problem is that Jason is almost entirely defined by what the Joker did to him, since his time as Robin wasn't actually significant in and of itself. He was different from Dick Grayson, and a worthy wielder of the Robin name, but he just wasn't able to capture that magic or fan love as Dick had. While he definitely had his fans, it wasn't enough to save him from being killed off.

Despite the fact every other Robin has died at some point in their career, it's only Jason who is known as "the Robin who died." Joker takes advantage of this and manipulates Jason in the final pages of Suicide Squad: Get Joker, pointing out that no one cared who Jason was when he was alive, and was only important as a dead man. While the comic is ambiguouos about who Jason uses his final bullet on, it it intentionally so, leading readers to ask if the ending sees Jason simply give into Joker's manipulations, and take his own life.

2 Jason Attempts To Crash A Plane Into A Meteor

Gotham War: Scorched Earth by Chip Zdarsky and Tini Howard

After Batman edited Jason's brain chemistry so that he couldn't be a hero anymore, it seemed like Jason's days of saving people were over. Jason managed to pull out one more trick though, as a meteor was heading straight for Gotham City, Jason entered the Bat-Plane and flew it into the meteor in a surefire suicide mission.

It seems that Jason was fully willing to sacrifice himself to save Gotham, but thankfully, it didn't come to pass. The Bat-plane auto-ejected him, allowing Jason to float down to safety. This moment proves that even after having his brain altered by Batman, Jason will never stop being a hero. Despite being practically paralyzed by overwhelming fear, he still laid down his life to protect Gotham citizens. It shows that Jason's death doesn't always have to be tragic or meaningless, that if DC insists on killing off Jason, he can at least die a hero.

1 Jason Was Most Recently Killed By Zur-En-Arrh

Batman #148 by Chip Zdarsky and Jorge Jimenez

The most recent death that Jason Todd went through was in Batman #148. In this story, Jason agrees to sacrifice himself against Zur-En-Arrh. As Zur is a pure version of Batman, the major rule he has to obey is a refusal to kill. If Zur ever killed, it'd cause Failsafe to reactivate and shut him down. While Batman initially planned to sacrifice himself, it was Jason who ultimately stepped up and did it. Taking a brutal blow to the head from Zur-En-Arrh, Jason is killed instantly.

Thankfully, due to the suit he was wearing, Jason was brought back to life by Lazarus liquid that was injected into Jason's body from the suit he was wearing. This injection allowed Jason to come back to life, only moments after he was killed. While Jason wasn't dead for long, he most certainly was dead, and considering how willing DC is to kill him, it's unlikely to be the last time that Jason Todd dies.