That bloody crowbar! Part Deux
You know, it seems like the crowbar that was used in Jason’s death and bloody beating has been getting more recognition than the actual character lately.
It made an appearance in Detective 872 as an item being auctioned off. And is going to be making an appearance once again in Detective 873.
And that’s not even counting all the other appearances it’s made — you can check out our part one of That Bloody Crowbar!
And from Red Robin #19, here’s a disturbing scene: the Joker, in Jason’s Robin costume, carrying a bloody crowbar. Yeesh, those legs.
That bloody crowbar!
Jason’s role as Robin began with a tire iron and ended with a crowbar.
The crowbar has now become an iconic symbol of brutality. The Joker beat Jason with it before killing him in the warehouse explosion.
After Jason’s resurrection, he tracked down the Joker and returned the favour.
Weekly Robin discusses the use of the crowbar, its symbolism and its notoriety in a blog entry titled “Sometimes a Crowbar is just a Crowbar”:
But more often, especially since Jason Todd’s return from the dead in 2004-05, the violence of his murder is symbolized exclusively with a crowbar.
That shows the power of the graphic panels above. An off-screen, single-panel bomb just isn’t as affecting as what we see, over and over. Furthermore, a crowbar doesn’t have other connotations in superhero comics, leaving its symbolism pure.
As a result, there are Joker figurines with crowbars, andJoker cosplayers with crowbars. And there are Batmanstories—so many stories—that play off the symbolism.In the retrospective Batman, #683,Grant Morrison merely had to script a crowbar in a purple-gloved hand for readers to know what event in Bruce Wayne’s personal history that page alludes to.
In Battle for the Cowl, writer-illustrator Tony Daniel had skinny-replacement-Batman Tim Drake happen upon a crowbar during his fight with vicious-replacement-Batman Jason Todd. Given his history, it’s a bit odd for Jason to keep crowbars lying around. It’s even odder for Tim, a most cerebral and less evil Robin, to get that murderous. But this being superhero comics, he starts swinging.
Most recently, the little latest Robin, Damian Wayne, brought a crowbar into an interrogation room to use in “interrogating” the Joker. So far that’s turned out to be a poor idea. But at least everyone is speaking the same symbolic language.
Damian Wayne, the youngest and newest Robin, attempts to destroy the Joker with a crowbar. The results don’t work out so well for him.
Joker figurine, complete with crowbar.
Animated Joker with a crowbar from Batman: Under the Red Hood.
Joker cosplayer and ol’ Mr. Crowbar
