Red Hood (Batman Adventures)

### Goals

Fake her death to get her family away from the Valestra mob (succeeded, but backfired in the long run).
Get revenge on the Valestra mob.
Take over Gotham City for herself.

### Crimes

Faked death
Organized crime
Terrorism
Attempted takeover

### Type of Villain

Mysterious Crime Lord

**Victoria Beaumont**, also known as the **Red Hood**, was originally going to become a major antagonist in the *Batman Adventures* 2003-2004 comic book series, based on the continuity of the DC Animated Universe. The Red Hood appeared in *Batman Adventures* Vol. 2 #8 at the issue's end, but the ongoing series was cancelled before the story could be resolved. The 2020 revival miniseries *The Batman Adventures Continue* later revealed the Red Hood to be Jason Todd like in the mainstream comic book continuity, thus retconning the original plans Dan Slott and Ty Templeton had for this incarnation of the character.

## Biography

The Red Hood made an appearance at the end of *Batman Adventures* Vol 2. #8, where the Phantasm, the villainous alter-ego of Andrea Beaumont, was named by the Red Hood as the new leader of the False Face Society after the many failures of the Black Mask and his arrest at the hands of Batman after surviving an attempt on his life by the Red Hood and trying to murder Bruce Wayne. This subplot was meant to be resolved later on, but the cancellation of the *Batman Adventures* unfortunately prevented the mystery of the Red Hood from being resolved. Although Dan Slott and Ty Templeton, the creative team behind the series, were hopeful to finish the story one day, they were never able to do so.

Following the cancellation of the *Batman Adventures*, Dan Slott revealed some details of the planned Red Hood storyline, but didn't reveal the Red Hood's identity in case the opportunity arised to revive the series someday. Among them, Slott stated that the DCAU incarnation of the Red Hood was vastly different in comparison to the one from the comic books, noting that this Red Hood's background had ties with Lucius Fox, the Valestra crime family from the film *Batman: Mask of the Phantasm* and the Powers family from *Batman Beyond* (namely to an infant Derek Powers).

In the FanExpo 2013, however, likely convinced that the series would never be revived, Slott revealed that had the *Batman Adventures* been able to continue its run, the Red Hood would have been revealed as Victoria Beaumont, the mother of Andrea Beamount and the widow of the late Carl Beaumont. According to Slott, Victoria would have been the true leader of the Valestra mob but faked her death to get Andrea and Carl away from the mob, but her attempt had failed in the end, because as seen in *Batman: Mask of the Phantasm*, Carl ended up in debt with Salvatore Valestra and was murdered by the Joker while Andrea became the Phantasm to avenge her father. Thus, Victoria would have planned to destroy the Valestra mob as revenge for murdering her husband and causing her daughter to become insane as well as trying to take over Gotham City for herself, leading to a devastating confrontation against Batman and her daughter. Judging by Slott's words, it's highly possible that Victoria would have been killed during their fight, thus further damaging the relationship between Bruce and Andrea.

In 2020, the series was revived as a miniseries entitled *The Batman Adventures Continue*, with Ty Templeton returning as its illustrator but with Alan Burnett and Paul Dini, writers of *Batman: The Animated Series*, as its writers. Rather than going for Slott's original plans, likely because they had been revealed, Burnett and Dini had the Red Hood revealed as Jason Todd, the character most associated with the Red Hood alias in the mainstream comics.

## Trivia

* If the Red Hood had been canonized as Victoria Beaumont, then Victoria could have been the unseen overarching antagonist of *Batman: Mask of the Phantasm*, as it would have been Victoria's association with Salvatore Valestra that led Carl to get in debt with Valestra, thus angering the crime lord and sending the Joker to kill Carl, thus leading Andrea to become the Phantasm and starting the events of the film.
* Victoria Beaumont would have been the first incarnation of the Red Hood to be female, as all Red Hood versions have been depicted as male.