WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Batman: Three Jokers #3, by Geoff Johns, Jason Fabok, Brad Anderson and Rob Leigh, on sale now.
Batman: Three Jokers forced the Dark Knight, Batgirl and Red Hood to confront their inner demons and unresolved trauma as they confronted a trio of Clown Princes of Crime that had menaced Gotham City from the shadows. Of the three members of the Bat-Family present, Jason Todd was rattled the most by the incident, forced to relive his most painful memory after being captured and nearly transformed into the new Joker. As the dust settled from the final battle, Jason resolved to be a better man as he retired his Red Hood persona and left Gotham to find himself. However, given Jason's true motivations behind this decision, he is destined to fail and eventually fall back on his old habits.
Throughout Three Jokers, Jason and Barbara Gordon had grown particularly close over to each other, picking up romantic tension that had been previously introduced as they navigated their trauma together. While the two shared a kiss as Jason recovered from his recent ordeal at the hands of the Jokers, Barbara quickly dismissed the tender interaction as a mistake in a fleeting moment of vulnerability. While Barbara maintained this stance by the story's end, Jason was clearly haunted by the kiss despite, Barbara's rebuttal.
In the aftermath of the Bat-Family's confrontation against the Jokers at the Monarch Theater, Jason takes the opportunity to talk to Barbara while Batman engages the sole remaining Joker for a final interrogation before he's carted back to Arkham Asylum. Despite Jason insisting that there was something between them, Barbara flatly turns him down again, angrily storming off when Commissioner Gordon warns her to keep her distance from the Red Hood. Still determined as ever, however, Jason leaves a handwritten note taped to Barbara's apartment door announcing that he's willing to leave his Red Hood alter ego behind to prove he can become a better man worthy of Barbara's affections.
Jason is taking this new direction for all the wrong reasons. Not striving to be better for himself or any greater idealistic cause but for the love of a woman who has no intent on starting a romantic relationship with him. Barbara isn't even aware of Jason's intentions: The note that he had taped to the door fell to the ground and was unceremoniously swept up by a janitor before Barbara could ever read it. Jason is working towards something for someone who doesn't even know he's doing it for her. It's epically tragic, and if Barbara continues to spurn Jason -- which she is likely to do -- then a resentful Jason could fall back on old habits out of spite if not his own violent nature.
Jason had earlier contemplated leaving behind his Red Hood persona after realizing he had adopted it when he believed he was abandoned by the rest of the Bat-Family. As Three Jokers ends, this change looks indeed set to take place, albeit with Jason pursuing this change for all the wrong reasons. Jason's relationship with Bruce Wayne and Barbara Gordon was put in the spotlight over the course of the story and he realized how far he had to go to overcome his pain and unresolved feelings. But despite the revelations, Jason is not working on his betterment and self-evaluation for himself but because he believes it's what Barbara would want for him. And when he finds the change doesn't bring her to his arms, he is in for a rude awakening that could set him on another destructive spiral.