this comic was almost 3 years before death in the family!
wow this was released march '86
death in the family was december '88
thats over 2 and a half years BEFORE jason todd died
this comic started the robin costume in display which was adapted into comic mainstream 3+ years later
perhaps they were trying to adapt this into mainstream cannon as the future of batman....but it didnt fully end up that way
still really interesting death in the family obviously got the idea for jason's death from this story