Jason Todd might be dead (again), and fans are being asked whether he should be (... again).
This week’s episode of DC Universe’s Titans ended with a cliffhanger, as the superhero soap opera is wont to do. Dick Grayson (Brenton Thwaites) and Starfire (Anna Diop) were unable to stop the assassin Deathstroke (Esai Morales) from dropping Jason Todd (Curran Walters) off of a building. The young Robin plummeted and the show cut to black, leaving fans in the lurch for a week.
But in the meanwhile, DC Universe’s forums have something for them to do: Vote on whether Jason should live or die.
“Will he live or will Jason Todd die?” says the poll description. “Take the poll below to let your voice be heard! This isn’t the first time that Jason’s fate was left to the whims of others; will history repeat itself or will he live to mouth off another day?”
The description refers to the 1988 Batman story arc A Death in the Family, in which the second issue ended with the potential death of Jason Todd, the second Robin. Readers were offered the opportunity to call a 1-900 number and vote on whether he should survive.
The poll was the brainchild of Batman writer-editor Denny O’Neil, who thought giving DC’s audience control over a plot might drive sales — and who knew that despite his prominence, Jason wasn’t a very popular character. Readers had 36 hours to call one of two numbers corresponding to their choice, both of which charged a small fee. In the meantime, O’Neil, writer Jim Starlin, and artist Jim Aparo began prepping two different following issues: one where Jason lived, and one where the Joker succeeded. In the end, he died most terribly.
In the postscript on the first A Death in the Family collection, O’Neil shared that the poll recorded 10,614 votes. But despite that turnout, the tally was in favor of Jason’s death by a mere 72-vote margin. Jason died, and remained dead for nearly 20 years, until he was revived by ... well, it’s a long story.
As of the writing of this post, DC Universe’s poll is repeating history by running neck and neck, with 7059 votes for Jason to live, and 7154 votes for him to die. But an episode of television has a much longer turnaround than an issue of a comic book.
Update: After Polygon reached out to DC Universe, a representative was able to confirm that the next episode of Titans has already wrapped. The poll is just for fun — not for Jason Todd’s fate.