Batman: White Knight #7 Reveals the Joker Never Killed Jason Todd

WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for Sean Gordon Murphy's Batman: White Knight #7, on sale now.

Sean Murphy's breakout success Batman: White Knight is heading toward the final confrontation between Batman, Jack Napier/the Joker and Neo Joker, but not before revealing a few more massive secrets. In Issue #7, Napier finally tells Batman what happened to Jason Todd all those years ago, and the truth is far sadder than anyone likely imagined.

Just like his main continuity counterpart, the Joker was responsible for the disappearance of Robin. Batman fans know that the Clown Prince of Crime murdered Todd during the events of "A Death in the Family" from 1988. While White Knight has been intentionally vague on the details, that hasn't stopped readers from mentally filling in the blanks with what they know from continuity.

After agreeing to team with Batman in order to take down Neo Joker, Jack Napier is able to tap into the Joker's memories in order to finally tell the Dark Knight what happened to his sidekick. It has long been implied that the Joker went too far and killed the young hero, but apparently that's not what happened. Instead, Todd eventually broke under the Joker's torture, and revealed the true identity of his mentor.

The Joker, wanting Batman to suffer through the "death" of his sidekick, and then again when he eventually learned the truth about his betrayal, let Todd go free. But instead of returning to Bruce Wayne, Jason Todd disappeared and allowed his mentor to believe he had been killed. According to Napier, that's how much Todd hated Batman for having turned him into Robin in the first place.

Instead of simply remixing what's come before, Murphy once again made the decision to turn a seminal story on its head. What really happened that night changes everything we know about the dynamics between Batman and Robin -- and the relationship between Batman and the Joker.

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A New Legacy for Robin

The story of Batman and Jason Todd has always been one of disappointment. After Dick Grayson left, Batman tried to replace him with a new protege, one he expected to look and act exactly like the last Robin. Despite all the effort that was put into molding this troubled young kid, however, Jason could never measure up to who had come before him. It all culminated in Robin's violent death at the hands of the Joker.

The disappointment didn't stop there, though. In DC continuity, Todd eventually came back to life only to be disappointed with how Batman handled his death. In "Under the Hood," Todd told Batman how disappointed he was with Batman for not seeking revenge against the Joker. If his mentor really cared for him, Jason felt, he would have killed his murderer by now. It has since become an endless cycle of failing to live up to expectations.

When it comes to Jason Todd, everyone has always been so caught up with the legacy of Robin that we ultimately forget that these are innocent kids thrown into a battle for their lives. No one ever stops to wonder whether Todd truly wanted to be a superhero in the first place. We all assume that everyone loves putting on tights, fighting criminals, and becoming something of a human weapon, but Murphy took time to reflect on the idea.

Batman essentially took a kid with nowhere else to go and turned him into a child soldier. It's all glitz and glamor, right up until you're broken, beaten, and the Joker has a knife against your throat. In this instance, Jason hated Bruce Wayne for everything that led him to the moment of his death. He doesn't care anymore, and he's done fighting Batman's battles. This isn't the familiar story of a Robin going down fighting like a hero. This kid is broken.

Throughout Batman: White Knight, Murphy has explored the idea of whether Batman is actually a hero or an unhinged animal who recruits kids to fight in an unending war. The battle has gone on so long that he might not even know what he's fighting for anymore, which is the heart of the battle between him and Napier.

In this issue, Batman tells Nightwing and Batgirl that he's realized he is fighting so they can one day give it all up, but learning the fate of Jason Todd will likely cause him to once again question everything he's done. He ruined the life of a kid in his war on crime. Was it worth it?

How The Joker Turns the Tables on Batman

Napier is able to reflect on the motives of his evil counterpart, telling Batman that he was jealous of Robin and tortured Jason in order to learn the Dark Knight's secret identity. By the Joker's logic, it would have made the two closer than ever before, continuing the theme of the Joker actually being in love with Batman in his own sick way. By knowing Batman is Bruce Wayne, the two would be inseparable.

Despite the presence of this dynamic, Murphy focuses more on what the Joker helped Batman see about himself. After years spent considering the Joker to be the murderer of his sidekick, Batman now realizes that he is his own biggest enemy. Jason blames Bruce Wayne for everything bad that happened to him, and he hated him so much for it that he allowed Batman to believe he was dead. As tough as Batman is, you just don't recover from a revelation like that.

In issue #7, Batman does a lot of soul searching in order to determine what he's still fighting for and whether or not he wants to continue that fight. Realizing that the Joker has turned the mirror back at him to show Batman's darkest reflection makes it even more obvious that this is the end of the Caped Crusader as we know him. He may be able to carry on for the sake of Gotham City, but there is no way to recover from this kind of realization.

Batman: White Knight has very much been a celebration of Batman's animated and live-action adaptations, but it also appears that Bruce Wayne has learned a valuable lesson from one of them right at the end. As The Dark Knight says, "You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain."