DC Comics will publish an alternate version of Batman #428 featuring the alternate ending where Jason Todd survives.
At New York Comic Con, DC announced their plans to release their first “faux-simile”. Initially, facsimile comics are comics that are reprinted with the original contents- including the ads- in place. However, a “faux-simile” will be made of Batman #428, the critical “Death of Robin” chapter in the “Death in the Family” story arc, but with a different ending.
In the original version of Batman #428, Jason Todd as Robin is brutalized and blown up by the Joker, and then Batman finds his dead body. However, the “faux-simile” will show Batman finding Jason’s beaten, but still-living body.
Jason Todd Lives!
This variant version of Batman #428 will feature work by writer Jim Starlin, penciler Jim Aparo, inker Mike DeCarlo, colorist Adrienne Roy, and letterer John Costanza. It’s unclear how this will be presented, however, as it’s not as if DC is commissioning the team to create a new comic since Jim Aparo passed away almost 20 years ago. Presumably, there are only one or two alternative pages that were already created by the team.
Jim Aparo’s Alternate page from ‘Batman Annual’ #25. It also appears in newer versions of the ‘Batman: A Death In The Family’ Trade paperback
Back in the day, Jim Aparo drew an alternate page where Batman discovered Robin alive. This was scrapped due to the infamous phone voting system where DC allowed fans to vote on whether Jason should live or die. In the end, 10,614 votes were cast and the fans voting to kill Jason off won by a slim margin of 72 votes.
However, due to the tight production deadlines, Aparo drew two versions of the scene before the fan votes could be tallied. Since they chose to kill Jason, DC officially ran the death page. Despite that, DC was able to repurpose the “living” page in 2005’s Batman Annual #25. The annual details Jason Todd’s eventual resurrection and transformation into the Red Hood.
Hopefully, fans will finally see the “alive” version in its full version. when the faux-simile version of Batman #428 hits comic shops on December 12.