Ok, now I've got to the News part.
Jason's whole pose in the page was.... Well, you can see how much those few words shocked him. Wouldn't have been surprised had he started to cry. His right hand over his mug, specially, speaks a lot about his body reaction to the news.
From that page on, I changed a lot how I saw Bruce between my first and second reads. But first things first: Jason's reaction, for me, feels genuine. He first feel shocked, then confused, then angered, then hurt. And in the end? He tries to to rationalize the info Bruce is serving. He is still sad, and hurt, and definitely resigned; he sounds pessimistic, but he has reasons to be so. This is depressive Jason, and the reason he shouldn't be left alone. But we also see hopeful Jason, genre savvy Jason, even if for Bruce his thoughts probably sound more like denial. It's funny how Jason keeps swinging between hope and hopelessness. A pessimistic optimist, which is why he usually expect bad things to happen, the worst things to happen, but he also tries to not give up so strongly. I can connect with that feel so much.
Besides that, as I mentioned, I think Jason goes the calm, logical route because how much he feels he messed up after reading Willis' letters.
Back to Bruce. Oh, did I have a problem with Bruce here in my first time. I thought he was being manipulative, cold, calculating Jason's reaction, fishing for his thoughts--making Jason talk for assessing how he should control him, throwing him small pity bones as if he were a wild, hurt animal he wanted to pacify, always maintaining a prudential distance. But in my second read I realized that Bruce was actually trying to be a good parent here. He seemed more worried about Jason's mind than wary of his potential violent reaction and meltdown. He felts concerned about Jason's reasoning regarding the risks of the life of a vigilante. And he's not calculating Jason's reaction and assessing him before leaving the diner: he's probably thinking about how much Jason can deal with without breaking, he sees how insightful Jason can be. He's looking at Jason under a new light, even if he's still worried. Or, well, I think Bruce is thinking like that. I would prefer to think he is, rather than my previous conjecture.
I had a similar change of perspective with Bruce in the last part outside. I'm not going into detail there, but well, I felt that lie about not hating him and being there for each other was another bone he throw to Jason for cold, calculated reassurance, but as cheap as it may sound to native speakers, thanks to my second read, I think it was, again, a genuine gest, out of worry, and rudeness and an attempt to show Jason that he didn't think of him as an outsider, let alone hating him. Same for the last panel of Bruce in the car looking back: he's probably worried, and thinking about how to assist Jason and assure that he doesn't lost himself /hence how we get Kate in a few issues, probably).
Some other bits from that scene in the outside: Jason really needs to feel himself loved. All those comments about people hating him are clearly a way to provoke a reassuring reaction (or a confirmation that he is hatted otherwise). At least, under Lobdell's writing is like that, and I think it's pretty in character. Another bit about Jason in that part: how he not only puts his own problems down and pushes himself forward them, but how the first thing he does afterwards is worrying about how hard coming to deliver the news had to be for Bruce. Damn, isn't Jason a good person? It hurts that he punishes himself into being a bad guy (because it's necessary and all that). Caring about others foremost oneself is a trait for many bats; but I think it's more touching in Jason's case, for some reason.
More bits. The photo in Roy's contact profile. I can see Roy himself choosing it. I don't know it that's a lot in character, but it fits what I know about him. Also, it's interesting that we don't get to see if Jason deletes the contact or not. As someone who is willing to move on, he should: he doesn't need the contact. If Roy's back, he will call Jason. And if Jason has moved on, he will not call Roy's voice mail for anything. Now then, if he doesn't delete the contact, then it speaks of how he's not doing so good about Roy's death. It could be that, and he will finally lash out in a few issues just in time for Artemis and Bizarro to arrive and help him to put himself together. We will see.
Not much more to say about Appleton that hasn't been already said.
In the end, for a transitional issue that had to tackle a lot of stuff that came from other issues in even other books, with all the limitations that worked against the chance of getting a more natural outcome for the characters previous story, it was smart. Clearly, they couldn't stop an arc that it's still starting, neither they could let Jason take a prominent role in HiC. Or letting Bruce start a new pursue after Jason, dropping his own story in his book aside. They could have used another character instead Bruce (Ollie, Donna, Alfred, Tim, Barbara...), but it wouldn't have been so juicy, I think. And wouldn't have shown us Jason's hiding insides and how much he has matured like this.
And this is all I had to say. Hope it's not too boring.