#the batman and robin/crossovers separation is pretty unecessary but it gives me an excuse to break up the text and add an extra pic

[robiinjason]

Hiii, do you have any recs for Robin Jason comics? I'd love to read more about him but I have no clue where to start. Love your art btw it's all adorable <3

Sure thing!!! And omg thank you 🥺🥺 your art is super cute too!!

If I were to rec One Thing as a starting point for Robin Jason, Batman #408-#429 covers Jason’s main run as Robin and his death arc and is the main essential reading I’d recommend. It’s fairly short and a good place to start imo! 

Among others, it includes his post-crisis origin and first outing as Robin, his first meeting with Dick, the Garzonas incident, and his death and its immediate aftermath in the Death in the Family arc. 

While Jason’s time as Robin in post crisis is fairly short and not as hard to get through as other characters with longer runs, i know Reading Comics Hard so I’ll make a shorter list first, with more recs under the cut!

Batman #408-#409 (Jason's origin)

Batman #410-#411 (his first outing as Robin)

Batman #413 (smart boy Jason)

Batman #415 (more good Jason moments)

Batman #416 (his and Dick's first meeting, also Dick and Bruce argue)

Batman Annual #12 (has a solo Jason story set at his school)

Detective Comics #569-#570 (Jason gets to kick the Joker's butt)

Detective Comics #571 (the Scarecrow kidnaps Jason)

Detective Comics #573 (this one’s just cute)

Superman Annual #11 (Bruce, Jason and Wonder Woman visit Superman on his birthday and stuff happens)

Blue Devil #19 (Jason is pen pals with Kid Devil)

Batman: the Cult (a 4-issue pretty dark miniseries where Bruce is kidnapped and brainwashed by a cult. Some great Jason moments)

Batman #424-#425 (The Garzonas storyline, or when Jason may or may not have pushed somebody off a building. Trigger warnings for sexual assault and suicide)

Batman #426-#429 (A Death in The Family, or Jason’s death arc)

I’ll be referencing this Jason reading list, since it’s what I followed when I started reading. It can be checked for a more comprehensive list of his appearances too, since I’m not aiming for a full list! (though I might edit it to include more stuff eventually.)

First things first, Jason got rebooted once during his time as Robin; he was originally a circus kid like Dick in pre-crisis (before the reboot), and later in post-crisis got his more well-known origin as the orphan who stole the tires off the batmobile. I’ll be focusing on post-crisis Robin Jason since I’m still reading his pre-crisis run, but the list I linked has more info on that if you’re interested!

Batman and Robin-focused 

Stories centered on the Dynamic Duo!

Batman #408-#429 - Jason’s post-crisis run as Robin, as mentioned above! The last four issues are the Death in the Family arc. The Batman: Second Chances trade collects a good chunk of these (#408-#416), plus Batman Annual #11 and a couple stories from before Jason’s post-crisis origin.

Detective Comics #568-#582 - Jason’s Robin run in Detective Comics! It’s a fun read and Alan Davis’ art style is very cute imo. (Jason isn’t around from #575 to #578 due to getting hurt in #573)

Batman Annual #10-#12 - More Batman and Robin stories. #12 has a Jason solo story set at his school! 

Batman: the Cult - a 4-issue miniseries where Bruce is kidnapped and brainwashed by a cult. A pretty dark story and one of the last ones from before his death. Jason has some great moments in it!

Dc Retroactive: Batman - The 80s - Story from 2011 written by Mike Barr, who wrote Jason’s 80s Robin stories in Detective Comics!

Robin 80th Anniversary 100-Page Super Spetacular - One of the stories, More Time, is about Jason and Bruce and goes between the past (with Jason as Robin) and the present (with Jason as Red Hood). Short and very sweet!

Crossovers/Teamups

In which Jason meets or teams up with other characters, with or without Batman!

Blue Devil #19 - Jason is pen pals with Eddie Bloomberg/Kid Devil and teams up with him! 

Action Comics #556 + #594 - Jason meets Superman!

Superman Annual #11 - For The Man Who Has Everything, or where Jason goes with Bruce to Superman’s birthday, first meets Wonder Woman, and Stuff Happens. (Jason gets to be the hero!) 

New Teen Titans V2 (1984) #18-#31 - Jason joins the Teen Titans for a while! It’s fun to see him in a team and his characterization here is really good imo. (this is the span of issues he appears in but he isn’t in all of them)

Legends (six-part miniseries) - A DC crossover event! Jason has short but great appearances (the time where he breaks his leg, but wants to get up and help anyway).

Nightwing Year One #101-#106 - A rewrite of Dick's Nightwing origin with occasional Jason appearances until #106, which is a retelling of their first meeting where they work together to rescue Alfred. While I have Issues with the characterization of Jason in this, it has some cute moments and I’d be remiss to not include the story that introduces Dick’s nickname of “Little Wing” for Jason.

After his Death

Stuff dealing with the aftermath of Jason’s death and the impact it left on others. (Some of the stuff here is just listed for a single page or panel rather than a full story about Jason)

Batman #430-#432 + #496 - Bruce in the aftermath of Jason’s death. 

Batman Annual #13 - Jason appears in a flashback.

The New Titans #55 - Dick and the Titans find out about Jason’s death, and Dick confronts Bruce about it.

Batman: Year Three + A Lonely Place of Dying - While these focus on Dick and Tim respectively, they’re set after Jason’s death and show how Bruce is dealing with it. Year Three is in Batman #436-#439 and A Lonely Place of Dying (Tim’s origin story) is in Batman #440/New Titans #60/Batman #441/New Titans #61/Batman #442, also included in reprints of Death in the Family.

Detective Comics #618 - Has a nice little moment of Tim looking up to Jason.

Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #100 - The issue is mainly a Dick origin story, but in the end there’s a sweet and sad story about Jason’s beginning and ending as Robin.

Nightwing Secret Files and Origins - On the first story, Taking Wing, Jason appears to Dick as a dream/hallucination while the latter is having a near-death experience and accompanies him through various of Dick’s memories.

Joker: Last Laugh #6 - The one time when, upon believing Tim was killed and being taunted with Jason’s death, Dick kills the Joker. (the full thing is a six-issue miniseries)

Nightwing (1996) #63 - The aftermath of Dick killing the Joker (though he was revived), but I’m mainly including this for the one panel that shows a picture of Dick and Jason on what seems to be a ski trip.

Batman: Gotham Knights #34 - At the end there’s a story called “The Delusions of Alfred Pennyworth” about Jason’s ghost and Alfred.

Batman: Gotham Knights #43-#45 - Has a flashback to a Barbara and Jason teamup and a recap of Jason’s death as a social worker looks into it and investigates Bruce’s family.

Detective Comics #790 - Bruce talks to Cass about Jason on the day of Jason’s birthday.

Robin V4 #85 - The story itself is about the Joker reflecting on the Robins and Jason only appears briefly, but I think it’s worthwile to include as it’s one of the few times where the involvement of Jason’s mother in his death is acknowledged after Death in the Family. (Also there’s a panel where Jason kicks the joker on the crotch)

Green Arrow V3 (2001) #7 - The one panel where Jason is shown swinging around in heaven :)

Alternate Universes/Other Media

Some stuff that doesn’t fit anywhere else/isn’t quite comics/isn’t really canon, but I think is neat and wanted to include!

Letters - letters from readers sent during when Jason was Robin and after his death. They can be interesting to look through to get a sense of how he was seen by readers at the time (there’s even an eulogy by a clergyman!). The ones I’ve seen can be found in this tag, and this post links to a few too (as well as some other info regarding Jason and the vote that led to his death).

The Batman Files - A book that contains several files over various topics and characters across Batman’s history. Among other things, it has Jason’s death certificate. (mainly including this because early on I spent a while trying to find out how old he was when he died)

Tiny Titans #23, #29, #33, #39, #45, #47 - An adorable alternate universe comic in a kid-friendly setting! Jason’s design in it is very cute.

Batman The Brave and the Bold #13 - Jason and Robins from other points in time team up to save Batman!

Teen Titans Go! season 6, episode 17 (Egg Hunt) - He doesn’t actually appear, but Jason is namedropped and said to be Batman’s favorite Robin.

Batman And The New Robin (unmade cartoon) - An unproduced animated TV series from the late 80s that would have starred Bruce as Batman and Jason as Robin! Unfortunately the project was abandoned and the show was never made, but the full series bible is available to read in its entirety and a link to it can be found here! There’s a page on it on the Lost Media Wiki as well.