Shawn Martinbrough talks "flipping the script" on Jason Todd in Red Hood: The Hill
Jan. 30, 2024Interview | The writer on his new limited series Red Hood: The Hill and his short in this year’s DC Power
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Red Hood - AKAJason Todd- has been through a lot of late. While Bruce Wayne has been fighting his inner demons in the headline Batman book, he’s also managed to push Jason away once more and, in the recent Gotham War arc,he went several steps too far…
Martinbrough took the time to talk to Newsarama about this bold and ambitious new series, as well as his story for this year’s DC Power anthology, which teams the Spectre up withthe Questionand which ties into Red Hood: The Hill in an unexpected way.
Newsarama: What can you tell us about the story of Red Hood: The Hill?
Shawn Martinbrough:It’s a follow up to a story that I wrote in Red Hood #51 and #52. In those two issues we took readers back to The Hill, which I originally co-created withChristopher Priestback in 1999. In that time The Hill was a very dangerous and neglected area of Gotham. Now it’s gone through the process of gentrification and so you have a new cast of characters.
I always said when I was promoting that story that I approached it like a Western, where you have a cowboy riding into town and then getting caught up in the conflict between citizens of the town. In Red Hood: The Hill I approach it like The Wire, which to me is probably the greatest television show ever made. That was my ambition, to follow a story that had many different threads, many different characters and tie them all together into this one crime noir plot which built on the original story.
It’s been a few years since those Red Hood issues. Have you been planning what would happen in The Hill all this time?
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What happened was Sanford Greene and I had been talking during lockdown. Sanford was like, ‘Hey, we should get together and pitch DC something that you could write and I can draw.’ And I said, ‘What if we continue the story from the Red Hood issues that I wrote?’ And it was off to the races.
After that I just had all of these ideas about how we could continue the story of Dana Harlowe, the Watch, which is the vigilante group that was formed to protect The Hill in theJoker War, and Demitrius Korlee Jr, who is this rising crime figure.
Now the thing is, Sanford is always doing a million things, so it took a minute to nail him down. Fortunately Tony Akins, the artist who illustrated the original two part Red Hood story, was available. So it’s half Sanford and half Tony.
There’s a big cast of characters in this book, but Jason Todd is at the center of it all. How does he fit into this story?
Well, the fun thing about this is that it’s set in the past, shortly after the events of the Joker War. After the first two part story Jason was like, ‘OK, I’m gonna hop on my horse and head out of town,’ but then something keeps him there.
Does his relationship with Bruce still factor into the series?
Yes, we are going to build on that. At the end of the original story, there’s a little tease, Bruce’s present. We really build on that as this six part series goes on and we’re gonna see Bruce and Batman.
You mentioned The Watch a few minutes ago. Could you tell us a little about who they are for people who’ve maybe not encountered them before?
The Watch was compiled of neighborhood citizens of The Hill that banded together during the Joker War. That was a Purge-type situation where there was chaos spreading through Gotham, and the citizens of The Hill were like ‘OK, we have to band together and protect ourselves from this.’
There was an element that I teased in the original story where I suggested that they were trained by someone and in this story we really delve into that. It’s really fun to explore these characters from different walks of life, who all share this same sense of community and protecting what’s theirs.
One of the things I love about this book is that The Hill feels like a really lived in environment, like it’s a real place. How deeply have you thought it through in your imagination?
When Christopher Priest and I first created The Hill it was a very dark, neglected place. And like any inner city neighborhood that is rough or neglected, it eventually becomes prime real estate that’s going to be very attractive to the process of gentrification.
The Hill now is a completely different place to when it was first introduced. Where there was a cemetery at the center of the neighborhood, there’s now a memorial park. There are small businesses that have popped up. And when I decided to re-approach it 20 years later, I sat down and kind of did a little map of where things would be, and what pockets had been gentrified more than others. I really wanted to say, ‘OK, if I’m going to pattern this after a typical neighborhood in any city, what would it have? And what would the people be like that live there?’
So it’s pretty well thought out and Tony Akins and I really did a lot of developing for that first two part story that I just built on for this sequel.
Speaking of Tony, how was it working with him and Sanford Greene on this book?
You know, being an artist, it’s so much fun to write a story and see how another artist will visualise your words. Sanford has such a dynamic style - very stylized - and Tony has a very different style. Just seeing how they both have a unique approach to storytelling was really fun. And I cannot sing the praises of Matt Herms enough. He’s the colorist and he just did an amazing job.
Are you up for telling more stories set in The Hill after this?
I mean, if DC is interested in me doing more, I definitely have some threads that we can follow up going forward. It really is fun to get to play in this sandbox, in Gotham, and in this particular neighborhood of The Hill.
You also have a story in the new DC Power anthology, ‘The Session’. What can you tell us about that?
I have to give a shout out to editor Marquis Draper. Marquis reached out to me and was like, ‘We’re putting together the teams for the DC Power anthology and we thought it’d be interesting for you to come back and write a story featuring Crispus Allen.’
Way back in the 2000s I was the regular artist on Detective Comics, working alongside Greg Rucka. Crispus was a character that we co-created that I haven’t touched for like 20-something years. So I did some research and it was like, ‘Wait, Crispus is the Spectre now?’ And then I just thought it’d be really fun to pull in Renee Montoya as the Question, which is a classic character. The Question and the Spectre - that’s a fun duo to play with.
And so I came up with a story that also kind of teases a character who appears in Red Hood: The Hill. So people that read this, you’re gonna get a little bit of a tease in terms of what’s going to pop up during The Hill.
What did it feel like coming back to Crispus after all this time and seeing how much he’s changed?
I feel bad for Crispus! You know, he’s kind of gone through it. He’s been estranged from his family and his son died. But it’s cool. It was really fun to play with the dark side of Crispus, but also end on a positive note. It would really be fun to continue the adventures of the Spectre and the Question.
How does it feel to be a part of the whole DC Power project?
Oh it’s great. I got the comps in this week and it’s just a beautiful package, with stunning artwork and all these really great characters. It’s just really an honor to be included with so many talented artists coming together to celebrate these heroes of the DCU.
Jason Todd is one of many to have held the Robin mantle - check out our ranking of thebest Robins of all time.
Will Salmon is the Comics Editor for GamesRadar/Newsarama. He has been writing about comics, film, TV, and music for more than 15 years, which is quite a long time if you stop and think about it. At Future he has previously launched scary movie magazine Horrorville, relaunched Comic Heroes, and has written for every issue of SFX magazine for over a decade. He sometimes feels very old, like Guy Pearce in Prometheus. His music writing has appeared in The Quietus, MOJO, Electronic Sound, Clash, and loads of other places and he runs the micro-label Modern Aviation, which puts out experimental music on cassette tape.
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