WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Red Hood: Outlaw #48, by Scott Lobdell, Brett Booth, Danny Miki, Arif Prianto, Ben Meares, Ben Abernathy and ALW's Troy Peteri, available now.
Jason Todd has had such a storied and tragic journey in the DC Universe, going from an ambitious Robin to a damaged Red Hood who believes in dishing out justice through brutal means. In Red Hood: Outlaw, at least he's trying to temper his anger, and not killing in Gotham out of respect for Bruce Wayne.
But the past keeps coming back to haunt him, especially now that the Clown Prince of Crime is unleashing hell in "Joker War." As a result, Joker makes a play for Jason, and brings up some of the most tragic moments of "Death in the Family, " the classic Batman story by Jom Starlin and Jim aparo that saw Jason Todd die.
In this issue, Joker is intent on making Jason relive his worst nightmare as he knows the truth about Bruce as Batman and the entire Bat-Family. His goons attack Jason at Ma Gunn's home where Jason grew up, but he puts them down, activating a self-destruct button so whoever's unconscious will die. But in the fight, he hears the familiar clunking of a crowbar and rushes to an abandoned section where he finds Punchline assaulting Duela Dent.
Duela has a history with Jason as he feels sorry for the disturbed young woman who calls herself "Joker's Daughter." They've tried time and time again to rescue her but Duela's broken beyond repair, which makes this beating even worse. Jason feels the pain here as this is how he was left for dead by the clown in the '90s, and the fear is ever-present as the memories come rushing back. But before he can go after Punchline properly, the brainwashed Dick Grayson attacks. Punchline eventually knocks Jason out with the crowbar but rather than murdering him, she pulls him away from the home. When it blows up, though, he comes to and rushes in to find Duela's body, cradling it just like the Bat did his years ago.
Red Hood feels like a failure because Duela needed help and instead, the bomb he triggered brought her nothing but death. An explosion is how he allegedly died after his beatdown too so it hits home hard. To make it worse, the rest of his colleagues are battling Joker's minions so Jason has to deal with this angst on his own.
It's revealed at the end that Punchline actually used a homeless woman as a fake Duela and still has the real one in her possession, who she is surely planning to use against Jason again. With this attack, Punchline knows that she's hit a nerve for Jason, so much so that he can't even tell that it's Duela due to the explosion and the fact she's wearing Joker's skin from the New 52. But while they think this is the ultimate torture, it could just push Jason even further over the edge.