i love jason peter todd so much it makes me go crazy. i think about him night and day. scroll past the wedding memorabilia for some short essays(???) ive written about him
Forgotten comic characters are a favourite thing to look into of mine. Whether they were simply short lived or erased from existence without any thought, looking into them is quite fun. :)
Meet Rena. She first appeared in Detective Comics 561, "Flying Hi." She is such a minor character that she didn't even have a character page on League of Comic Geeks, the site I use to catalogue my comics, until I added her! She was the new girl in school, and Jason Todd, still a blonde haired acrobat at this point, fell for her immediately. This issue centred around Jason deterring Rena from doing drugs. A very 80s plot, I know. He ultimately succeeds in keeping her away from such horrifying vices and the two start to date! Rena does not appear in the next issue, but returns for 563, "Winner and Still Champion", as Jason takes her to the manor for a visit. He almost tells her he's Robin, but Alfred stops him. Hormones tend to cloud judgement, i guess?
She has a few more minor appearances in 564 and 565, where Jason has begun neglecting his role as Robin and focusing on Rena instead. If Batman was this willing to put aside the cape for his girl, maybe he and Selina could've actually gotten married! Rena's final appearance is Batman 399. Her role is still minor, and after this she disappears from the continuity completely due to the Crisis on New Earth event. This changed Jason's backstory, but retconned Rena out of existence in the process. Despite only existing for five issues, I find Rena to be a very interesting character. She was Robin's first civilian romantic partner (to my knowledge), which could have been an interesting dynamic had she been allowed to continue existing. How she could have changed Robin II's fate is something we'll never know.
I hope that eventually, a writer for Jason or Batman brings her back. Her backstory involving drugs fits in well with the 52 Jason lore, as his mother died of an overdose. Consdering that all of Jason's romantic partners have been recycled from other parts of DC and changed to fit with him better (excluding Rose Wilson, who fits fairly well with him in my opinion), I think giving Jason his own sole love interest would be great. Starfire, Artemis, and Rose all exist in their own realms outside of Jason. That can work, but I think with Jason there's too much bending characters for it to make any sense. The fact that he and star canonically dated still leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Rena would be a perfect remedy! A childhood friend turned to lover... The tropes, people!
Rena...DC may have forgotten you, but I never will.