Cosplay: Jason Todd / Red Hood (2013)

So far, my Jason Todd cosplay has been the one I've been the most proud of, as well as the
costume that's been the most labor intensive.

Now that I'd played around with costuming and had seen the SDCC insanity, I knew I wanted to dress up and participate in the con-scene more. So when the 2013 Phoenix Comic Con started to get closer, I started a cosplay plan for my favorite Batman character outside of Batman himself: Jason Todd, a.k.a Red Hood.

For those of you who don't know, Red Hood / Jason Todd is the second Robin, the same one who is killed by the Joker. As comics are want to do, he is resurrected from the dead and becomes his own anti-hero vigilante. Think a more conflicted Punisher, one with "daddy" (Bat) issues. Through he doesn't in current comics, in the mid-2000s Jason wore a red domino mask underneath his helmet, mostly because it resembled a Robin mask. Because the red helmet itself was too difficult to make well in the short time I had (and I wanted to breath literally easier at the con) I decided to base my costume on that: the Red Hood without the hood part.

There were two challenges with planning this costume once I decided on a mask-not-helmet plan: what version to go with. DC had just recently changed his leather-jacket-over-kevlar from black to brown, and he had a new chest plate with the layers of armor instead of the older, more plain chest plate. I decided to meld the two, make a costume that was sort of the best of both, hopefully still cohesive. Now what to do about that armored chest plate...

Duct tape! I bought a thrift shop black tee-shirt (of course) and a multi-pack of duct-tape and went to work making duct tape armor.

After a layer of duct tape, which I shaped to fit my chest, I cut out cardboard ridges that looked like the shape of kevlar panels of Jason's armor. I then carefully set them on the original layer and put another layer or two of duct tape over that, carefully shaping as I went to make it look more like armored ridges.

From the craft store, I bought some textured cardstock in red; that became my bat-logo and the texture for my domino mask. For the mask, I actually bought another $2.99 party mask (the same I used for Harley Quinn) and cut it down then added new layers and textures with the cardstock (with aid from the glue-gun) to make it look more like the comic mask. Although, because each artist had drawn his mask a bit differently (something that is still a problem with Jason's costume pieces in comics), I ended up basing the look a bit more directly on the Nightwing design.


After that, another Salvation Army and Goodwill trip got me: a $10 leather jacket, $2.00 black knee pads (like for Rollerblading), and some bike gloves. I also ordered a used Batman Begins toy utility belt and a prop knife online (about $15 total, I think). The wig is "Old Faithful," as I've dubbed it, the same wig I used to cosplay Jubilee (only styled differently).

I tried the costume out first with a brown leather jacket I already owned. It looked pretty good and I was really happy with how the chest-plate turned out, but I just liked the black leather jacket look more, so that's what I decided to wear for the con.


I have to say, just like with Jubilee, cosplaying as a character that most people don't know as well but who others LOVE is a real hoot. Jason Todd is not an incredibly well known comic character, but he still has a very active (if small) and loyal fan-base. So when someone recognized me, they freaked out a bit. I think I had more pictures taken of me / my cosplay this year than at SDCC. It was a lot of fun!  ~ LK

Jason Todd vs. The Joker 

Found a Bat Family to scowl with