Batman #428: A Death in the Family is a seminal Batman comic from 1988 that still has a lasting impact after all these years. Without the events of those books, there would likely be no vigilante Red Hood or Tim Drake Robin.
Sold for $0.75 in 1988, a 9.0 or better CGC rating of the issue can command up to $50 or more on the collector's market.
Written by Jim Starlin, with art from Jim Aparo and Mike DeCarlo, the 3-part A Death in the Family storyline concluded with the Joker savagely beating Tood with a crowbar and then leaving him tied up in a warehouse after planting a time bomb. Batman arrives to rescue Jason but not before the bomb goes off.
Last week, DC Comics released the alternate version of the story which saw Jason Todd survive the incident and you can check out the most crucial scene below. In the revised panel, Batman still doesn't arrive in time before the bomb explodes but Todd somehow survives the blast.
Alongside The Killing Joke, A Death in the Family is regarded as one of the most important Batman stories as it cemented the Joker as his number-one nemesis and proved that the Clown Prince of Crime was capable of killing someone close to the Dark Knight and not just innocent bystanders.
The Death in the Family storyline was loosely adapted in the 2010 DCU animated original movie Batman: Under the Red Hood.
It was also loosely referenced in the DCEU in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, where a battered Robin costume in the Batcave, while Zack Snyder's Justice League features a scene where Jared Leto's Joker mocks Ben Affleck's Batman for failing to save Robin.
Rocksteady Studios' Batman: Arkham Knight (2015) also included elements from A Death in the Family.
Batman $428: Robin Lives! Synopsis:
What if one of the darkest hours in Batman's crime-fighting career never happened? Thirty-five years ago, fans voted on Jason Todd's fate after his brutal encounter with The Joker, which set Jason on the path to becoming the gun-toting vigilante Red Hood. But suppose fans had voted differently…
DC Comics transports you back in time with this special “faux-simile” edition of Batman #428 in which Robin lives! Featuring pages reconstructed from artist Jim Aparo's alternate art boards --which have been plucked from the DC vault and fully restored and remastered --this reedited version of “A Death in the Family, Book Three” turns the Dark Knight's greatest tragedy into a moment of triumph. Adding to the immersive authenticity of this alternate-history comic book, this version includes all the ads from the original 1988 edition plus a rewritten letters column.