Red Hood Gang

The Red Hood Gang relates to any number of individuals associated with the Red Hood as seen in media based on DC Comics properties. They are tied into the Batman line of titles and first came into being in the pages of Detective Comics #168 in February, 1951. The original Red Hood was just a single person, who turned out to be the Joker. A second individual, Earl Benson, who was a gardener at Gotham University, captured the Joker, then impersonated the Red Hood, with the intent of claiming a reward for the villain's capture.

The first evidence of the Red Hood being a gang came in the 1988 graphic novel Batman: The Killing Joke. At the time of its publication, the story was not intended on being set in canon continuity, but events in the story have since been incorporated into modern DC canon. "The Killing Joke" posited the notion of there being several people who have donned the Red Hood guise in order to commit crimes, and it was always a different person per crime. Members of the gang forced a failing comedian to wear the hood for an ill-fated venture at the Ace Chemical Processing Plant. This incident brought the Red Hood into conflict with Batman, which ultimately led to him falling into a vat of toxic acid and thus becoming the Joker.

New 52
A gang based on mindless violence, the Red Hood Gang was a criminal organization lead by the mysterious Red Hood One. Each member, mostly middle to upper class city dwellers who were blackmailed into joining, was given a red mask and a number, the latter being branded on him with a hot iron.

The Red Hood Gang ruled the city before the first appearance of the vigilante known as the Batman. The gang robbed banks and murdered people, all in the name of chaos.

Planning to unleash a cocktail of deadly chemicals on the city, the Red Hood Gang was finally stopped by Batman, who exposed their plot to the media and then defeated the leader, who refused capture and, instead, plummeted into a vat of chemicals.

During the Zero Year blackout brought forth by the Riddler, Jason Todd attended an attempted revival of the gang, where Talia al Ghul decapitated the attempted leader, causing the assembled prospective members to fall into disarray in the chaos and be killed in an explosion by the Joker, thus putting an end to the existence of the Red Hood Gang for good.

The First Red Hood Gang
The first Red Hood Gang were a group of bank robbers who headquartered themselves at a place called Kleg's Auto. They wore dark clothing, leather coats and hid their faces behind red pullover masks. Led by a man named Gus Floyd, they robbed the Gotham Bank, and evaded gunfire and police capture. Floyd believed that the mask empowered him, allowing him to dodge six bullets from a bank guard named Clyde. They confounded police pursuers by throwing money out into the street as their vehicle pulled away, causing people to rush into the streets.

Back at Kleg's Auto, Gus bragged about how wearing the hood made him feel invincible. Another member of the group, Clyde Destro, shot Floyd to death, proving him wrong. He then became the second leader of the Red Hood Gang.

Members of the Gotham City Police Department continued to investigate the Red Hood Gang, after finding Gus Floyd's body in a refrigerator. An officer named Alvarez also found a witness that could finger Clyde Destro. They had an opportunity to arrest Destro, but let him go in the hopes that he might lead them to the rest of the gang.

Destro returned to his home and found another member of the gang, Trope, rifling through his apartment looking for the hood, which Destro had on him. Trope needed the hood in order to impress his girlfriend, so he shot Destro and took it. James Gordon and Harvey Bullock found the wounded Destro who was taken to the hospital, and learned about the gang's next target: The International Savings Bank of Gotham. The GCPD raced to the scene and engaged in a firefight with the remaining members of the group, gunning them all down.

The Second Red Hood Gang
A second iteration of the Red Hood Gang emerged a few years later. Following the election of Oswald Cobblepot to the position of Gotham's new mayor, his right-hand man, Butch Gilzean, felt that he was being squeezed out in favor of Oswald's new Chief of Staff, Edward Nygma. He put together a new Red Hood Gang and had them terrorize a public function wherein Cobblepot unveiled a statue of his mother. The members of the gang terrorized spectators by firing their guns in the air and one of them destroyed the statue by knocking its head off with a sledge hammer.

Butch later met with the gang in private to go over their next strategy, which involved ambushing Cobblepot at a social function taking place at the Sirens Club. In actuality, this was all a ploy on Butch's part wherein he intended on taking the gang down on his own, thus proving his value to the mayor, and getting back into his good graces. Butch had to step up his time table however when Cobblepot and Nygma learned where the gang was meeting. As they arrived on the scene, Butch turned on his own men and gunned them down. He played on the idea that he got to the scene before Oswald and Nygma. Nygma investigated the crime scene on his own and put together that Butch was actually the architect behind the new Red Hood Gang.

1st gang

 * Gus Floyd
 * Clyde Destro
 * Trope

2nd gang

 * Red Hood leader
 * Whiny Red Hood

Appearances

 * Batman Vol 2 0
 * Batman Vol 2 21
 * Batman Vol 2 22
 * Batman Vol 2 23
 * Batman Vol 2 24
 * Batman: The Killing Joke
 * Detective Comics Vol 2 25
 * Gotham: Red Hood
 * Gotham: Anything for You
 * Red Hood and the Outlaws 25
 * Secret Origins Vol 3 2