DC Nation Shorts: Who Is Red X?
Many of my fellow Teen Titans fanatics found the series finale, “Things Change,” disappointing, as it failed to address a few lingering questions (as though a series finale is supposed to resolve every little subplot and top the whole package off with a pretty bow). And no question was more pressing than “Who is Red X?”
Short answer: “It doesn’t matter.” Red X is Robin’s dark side, his warped reflection, a painful reminder of his past sins and mistakes, a wrench in the machinery of the Boy Wonder’s black-and-white moral code (if a thief can “play the hero…”). Murakami and his team never revealed X’s true identity because they wanted to preserve his mystique, the idea he represented—and also because allowing the fans to speculate is so much more fun.
This hasn’t stopped the producers of DC Nation’s series of chibi-style Titans shorts from having a chuckle at the fandom’s expense. The episode that aired this morning (though it could well have been a rerun; I’m a bit behind) featured a humorous unmasking scene reminiscent of the the classic Johnny Bravo/Scooby-Doo crossover: “Red X is really… Jason Todd?! No, he’s… Alfred?! Batman?! Silkie?! Slade?!”
The answer, it turns out, is “None of the above”: the captured “Red X” is actually an elaborate robot decoy packed full of explosives. As the genuine article makes good his escape, Beast Boy shakes his fist and hollers, “I still say you’re Jason Todd!”—just before an X-shaped projectile glues his mouth shut.
I do love Trolling Creators.
