#//Also funny as hell in the case of if other villains outside the League get him or he ends up chilling with people bc he wasn't given a

[davidmann95]

Sooo… Superman and the Authority?

magnus-king123 asked: Your thoughts on Superman & the authority Give it to me...lol

Anonymous asked: Seeing Bezos take his little trip into space the same day Morrison puts out a Superman comic that touches on how far we’ve fallen from the days when we dreamed of utopian futures where everyone explored the stars was a big gut punch. Not used to Superman being topical in that way.

Anonymous asked: What'd you think of Superman and the Authority#1?

This is far beyond what I can fit in the normal weekly reviews, so taking this as my notes on the first six pages, with this and this as my major lead-in thoughts:

* Janin's such a perfect fit for Morrison - the scale, the power, the facial expressions selling the character work, the screwing around with the panel formatting as necessary to sell the effect, the numinous sense of things going on larger than you can fully perceive amidst the beauty and chaos. It's a shame he wasn't around 25 years ago to draw JLA, but I'll take him going with Morrison onto other future projects.

* His intro action sequence is such a great demonstration of why Black actually does have something to offer, and also how he's such a dumbass desperately needing Superman to save him from himself.

* While Jordie Bellaire didn't legit go with an entirely monochromatic palate the way early previews suggested, it's still an effect frequently and excellently deployed here. And glad to see Steve Wands carry into this from Blackstars since there's such an obvious carryover from its work with Superman.

* "Gentlemen. Ladies. Others." Great both because of the obvious - hey, Superman's nodding at me! - and because it's a phrasing that reinforces that this take on him (and let's be real Morrison) is old as hell.

* I'm mostly past caring about whether this is an alt-Earth Superman until it becomes indisputable one way or another, this and Action both rule so what does it really matter? But while there are still a couple signs in play suggesting some kind of division (the Action Comics #1036 cover, Midnighter up to time-travel shenanigans) the "lost in time" quote clearly thrown in after the fact to explain how he could have met Kennedy outside of 5G that wouldn't be necessary for an Elseworlds, the assorted gestures towards Superman's current status quo, the Kingdom Come symbol appearing in Action, and that Morrison would have had to completely rewrite the ending if this wasn't supposed to be 'the' version of Clark Kent going forward as was the intent when they first planned it all say to me that no, no fooling around, this is our guy going forward one way or another.

* Janin and Bellaire making the first version of the crystal Fortress ever that actually looks as cool as you want it to.

Anonymous asked: I like that Superman and The Authority is basically the anti-All-Star; instead of the laid back, immortal Superman who is supercharged, we have a stressed, ageing Superman whose tremendous powers are fading. The former will always be there to save us, but the latter is running out of time and needs to pull off a Hail Mary. Also, he mentions in his monologue to Black that he was "lost in time" when he met JFK, so maybe he is the main continuity Clark. Or he's the t-shirt Supes from Sideways.

* You're absolutely right - the power reversal is obvious and the ticking clock in play seemingly isn't for his own survival but everyone around him as he wakes up and realizes all the old icons grew complacent with the gains they'd made and he's not leaving behind the world he meant to. Both, however, are built on the idea of preparing the world to not need them anymore - it'll still have a Superman in his son, but that'll only work because of the others he empowers and inspires. The question is what happens to Clark if he's not going to live in the sun for 83000 years.

* Clark's 'exercise' here does more to sell me on the idea of Old Man Superman as a cool idea than however many decades of Earth 2 stuff.

* Intergang being noted alongside Darkseid and Doomsday speaks to how much Kirby informed Morrison's conception of Superman.

* This isn't exactly the most progressive in its disability politics but at least it makes clear Black's being a piece of shit about it.

* It's startling how much Clark can get away with saying stuff in here you'd never expect to come out of Superman's mouth. "I made an executive decision" "Privacy, really...?" "You have nowhere to go, Black. Nothing to live for." "There are few people in my life who I instinctively and viscerally dislike, and you've always been one of them." It only works because there's zero aggression behind it, he's just past the point of niceties and being totally frank while making clear none of these assessments preclude that he cares and is going to unconditionally do the right thing every time. He is absolutely, per Morrison, humanity's dad picking us up when we're too drunk to drive ourselves home.

* The story doesn't put a big flashing light over it, but it's not even a little bit subtle having the material threat of the issue be a ticking timebomb left by the carelessness and hubris of generations past.

* Manchester keeps trying to poke the bear and prove his hot takes about Superman and it's just not working. The front he put up under Kelley is gone after decades of defeats, and as Morrison understands what actually conceptually works about him as a rival to Superman underneath the aging nerd paranoia he's exposed as what he absolutely would be in 2021: a dude with a horrific terminal case of Twitter brainworms. I was PANICKED when I heard there was an 'offensive term' joke in this, I was braced for Morrison at their well-meaning worst, but it's such a goddamn perfect encapsulation of a very specific breed of Twitter leftist who uses their politics first and foremost as a cudgel and justification to label their abrasive, judgmental shittiness as self-righteousness (plus it's a killer payoff to a joke from way back in his original appearance). Cannot believe they pulled that off when they're so very, very open about basically not knowing how the internet works.

* @charlottefinn: Manchester Black using his telekinetic powers to force someone he hates to fave a problematic tweet so that he can screenshot it and start a dogpile

@intergalactic-zoo: “Once they cancel Bibbo, Superman won’t be *anyone’s* fav’rit anymore!”

* Friend noted this issue had to be fully the conversation because the whole premise stands on the house of cards of these two somehow working together, and with three 'silent' inset panels the creative team pulls off that turning point.

* So much of this feels on the surface like Morrison bringing back the All-Star vibes with Clark, but when he drops a "That's all you got?" in a brawl you realize what's underlining that bluntness and confidence in the face of failure is that deep down this is still the Action guy too. This dude ain't gonna get wrecked in his Fortress while the other guy chuckles about him being A SOFT WEE SCIENTIST'S SON!

* Bringing up Jor-El made me realize that Morrison already spelled out that this is the final threat to Superman, what he faces at the end of the road:

"Now it's your turn, Superman."

* A l'il Superman 2000/All-Star reference with the Phantom Zone map!

* There's so much intertextuality going on here even by Morrison standards - Change or Die with the old hero putting together a team of morally nebulous folks out to 'fix' everything, Flex Mentallo with the muscleman trying to redeem the punk, Doomsday Clock with the fate of the world hinging on whether Superman can get through to a meta stand-in for an idea of 'modern' comics cynicism, DKR and New Frontier and Kingdom Come and Multiversity and Seven Soldiers and What's So Funny and All-Star and Action and the last 5 years of monthly Superman comics and Authority and probably Jupiter's Legacy and Tom Strong - but none of that's needed. You could go in with the baseline pop cultural understanding of the character and not care about any of the inside baseball shit and get that this is a story about a leader of a generation that let down the people they made all their grand promises to as inertia and day-to-day demands and complacency let him be satisfied with the accomplishments they'd made long ago, looking at a new era and seeing the ways its own activists are dropping the ball. The only thing that fundamentally matters in a "you have to accept you're reading a superhero story" sense is that because he's Superman he's willing to own up to it and listen to people who might know better about some things and try to set things right while he and those who'll take his place still have a chance. And yes, the oldster looking back on their legacy with a skeptical eye and hoping for better from the next generation, hoping most of all that their little heir apparent can fulfill the promise inside of him instead of being a provocating little shitkicker, is obviously also autobiographical.

* The overlaying Kennedy reprisal is such a great visual of a sudden intrusive thought.

* The Kryptonite secret is the obvious "This is going to matter!" moment, but "He lied about his son" is a bit that doesn't connect to anything going on right now so maybe that's important here too? More significantly, the Justice League can't actually be the villains here but that Ultra-Humanite's crew are in an Earth-orbiting satellite makes pretty clear what's up.

* I've said before that between Superman, OMAC, and a New Gods-affiliated speedster this was going to use all of Morrison's favorite things. King Arthur playing a role isn't exactly dissuading me.

* Love the idea that all the antiheroes have their own community in the same way as the capes and tights crew. They definitely all privately think the rest are posers though and that they alone are Garth Ennis Punisher in a mob of Garth Ennis Wolverines.

* Manchester's fallen so far he's gone from trying to convince Superman to kill to convince him to dunk on people for their bad takes and Clark just doesn't get it. Official prediction of dialogue for upcoming issues:

"According to these bloody Fortress scans, the only thing that can restore your powers is an unfiltered hit of dopamine. Don't worry, Doctor Black has a few ideas."

"Hmm. Maybe I'll plant a nice tree?"

"...fuck you."

* Ok I already talked about how great the Fortress looks in here but LOVE this library.

* A pair of pages this seems like the right spot to discuss from Black's original appearance that underlines both his and Superman's inadequacies up to this point:

Responding to the problem of "the government and penal system are hopelessly corrupt" neither of them has any actual notion of what to do about it in spite of their respective posturing beyond how to handle individual outside actors - each is in their own way every bit as small-minded and reactionary as the other. Clark's coming around though, and he's holding out hope for the other guy.

* Superman: Have a lovely mineral water :) proper hydration is important :)

Manchester Black: *Is a dude who can get so mad he vomits and passes out. At water.*

* That last page is the one to beat for the year, and does more to put over the idea of this as an Authority book than that Midnighter and Apollo are literally going to show up. It also feels like Morrison tacitly acknowledging all the ways the premise could go or at least be received wrong - from Superman saying 'enough is enough' to who he's bringing into the fold to go about it - in the most beautifully on-the-nose fashion imaginable. Maybe they'll save us all! Or maybe they'll drown us in their vomit.

[dork-empress]

Singing in the Dead of Night Pt 3

Lucy and Damian visit Metropolis.

Past chapters are under my tag 'lucy quinzel' and the whole fic is on my AO3 (url in my description). Please reblog and leave comments.

Flock of Robins

Timtiminey:Guys. Guys. Guess what???

Jason: I thought I deleted this chat.

Timtiminey: Ha funny you think I’d allow you to do that

Timtiminey: And you didn’t guess.

Dickbutt: Tim I’m on a mission.

Dickbutt:.....

Dickbutt: TIM CHANGE MY NAME

Timtiminey: You’re still not guessing.

Dick Grayson’s name was changed to DickiestButtiest

Stephaluffagus: Whatever Is It, Tim?

Jason: Why is Stephanie even on here?

Stephaluffagus: I was a Robin!

Timtiminey: And she asks the questions. Well, you SEE

Timtiminey: DAMIAN GOT A GIRLFRIEND

Stephaluffagus: WHAAAA?!:?HSLHFADSKLJFKL?????

Dick Grayson’s name was changed to DatAssTho

DatAssTho: Awwwww, that’s so cute!!!

DatAssTho: Our little hellion is growing up

DatAssTho: It’s like it was just yesterday he was threatening to stab us all

Jason: That was last week at dinner.

Jason: Who the hell said yes to go out with him?

Timtiminey: That’s the best part! The old man set them up.

Stephaluffagus: ALKSDAN LFKSNDAFLKNDASKLF

DatAssTho: Well thats just not fair. He never set up me on a date.

Jason: He put you on the Titans.

DatAssTho: Watch it, Todd

DatAssTho: Also, you type like an old man

Jason: With proper punctuation?

Stephaluffagus: Guys, we’re straying from the topic: Who is it??

Timtiminey: Harley’s niece, she’s got some like, clown ballerina thing going

Jason: QUINN?!?!?!

Jason: LIKE JOKER’S GIRLFRIEND????

DatAssTho: Dude, they broke up ages ago

Stephaluffagus: Yeah, she’s basically more hero than you are

Jason: You really want to go down THAT route Brown?

Timtiminey: OOOOHKAYYY

Timtiminey: Rest assured, the old man vetted the girl. She’s…..unique? I’ve only seen her file, or part of it anyway

DatAssTho: Bruce has secret files doesn’t he

Timtiminey: I think I made it through the first encryption, but I’m working on the next between other cases.

Timtiminey: After all, we have to make sure she’s alright for our little Dami-kins

Stephaluffagus: Isn’t he on this chat?

Timtiminey: He’s had this muted for ages

Jason: YOU CAN DO THAT?!

Timtiminey: I mean, YOU can’t. I will turn it off for you

Jason: …….

Jason: Well you know it’d be a shame if I

Jason: @DamianWayne

Timtiminey: WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!

Damian: You’re dead Drake

DatAssTho: RIP

Stephaluffagus: He will be remembered

Jason: Prick.

“Get on already,” Damian said, exuding as much disinterested and grumpy energy as his body could manage.

Lucy skipped over to him, and looked at the seating arrangement on the Robin Cycle. “Hmm”, she said, “I don’t know if I’ll fit.” She climbed up to the back of the cycle only for her tutu to spring her backwards.

“What the hell is in that thing?” Damian asked, scowling. whatever had hit him was way more solid than fabric.

“Oh all sorts of things!” she said, “It’s my utilitutu!”

Damian really should have been used to this by now. “Your what.”

“Utility Tutu. I’ve got my balloon animals, my gas bouquet, my tamborine…”

“Well get rid of it or something,” Damian said, and was somehow surprised she did as was asked. Left in just a leotard, she hooked the tutu around her arm and jumped up behind him, wrapping her arms around his waist.

Luckily, he was wearing his helmet, so no one could see him blush.

He revved up the motorcycle to try and drown out his thoughts. They’d been particularly loud ever since Tim said what he said...and, maybe since Lucy said what she said.

Were they dating? Is that what was happening? Lucy had called it a date, but Lucy was weird. It wasn’t like Damian understood how these things were supposed to work. This was super not in the training regime for the League of Assassins.

Did he...want it to be a date? He was even less sure. Lucy was...odd, but she had grown on him. She was the exact opposite of him, cheery where he was brooding, she was peaceful, he was violent. She was...kind and funny and playful. He was super not. they were both smart, but that seemed to be where the similarities ended.

And yet, it kinda worked. She was pretty, in a girly way, or at least thats what he could tell from under her makeup. He’d never been...really interested in girls or anyone. He didn’t know what it was supposed to feel like. If this was how it was supposed to feel like.

Well, he wasn’t going to be forced to be in a relationship with anyone. If she tried anything, he would tell her no, in no uncertain terms. Then he could get Tim and the others to shut up.

Once the decision was made, of course, he was left to ruminate for the remainder of the ride. He might have welcomed some of Lucy’s chatter, just to get his mind off things. Damn Bruce, not letting him use the batmobile…

Finally, a blur appeared beside him. “Need a lift?” Jon asked, rushing along beside him. Damian couldn’t help a smirk as he followed him through the city.

They came to a stop in an alleyway, though it didn’t hide much. “Whoa,” Jon said, eyebrows raised, “Hello, who’s this?”

Lucy stood on the top of the motorcycle, slipping her tutu back on and giving a deep curtsy, “Greetings! I am Commedia, The Dancing Delight, Columbina of Gotham and--”

“She’s Harley Quinn’s niece,” Damian said, cutting her off, “Lucy, Superboy, Superboy, Lucy.”

Lucy jumped down, eyebrow raised, “Now, come on. Surely you boys know how hard it is being defined by those who came before you.”

“Yeah, Robin,” Superboy said, holding out his hand for her to shake, “Honestly, no manners. Nice to meet you, Comme...Colum..um.”

“Lucy’s fine,” she said, “Aunt Harley said it’d be good for me to go and see some of Metropolis, maybe get some shopping done.”

Jon smiled, “Well, there’s plenty to do around here, and you picked the perfect tour guide! Come on, Mom and Dad are working today. I’ll show you around.”

Damian followed the pair of them around at a pace where you could just barely tell he was part of the same group. He was in his black outfit again, with sunglasses so that Lucy couldn’t tell who he was, and all of Metropolis wouldn’t know Robin wasn’t in Gotham.

Jon took them on the full tourist tour, going to see the many wonders of Metropolis. Though, a few stops Damian was pretty sure weren’t on the main route, like when they went to the top of the Daily Planet building. Other than that, though, it was a lot of pretty buildings, old buildings, the Superman memorial/dedication (they just left it up when Superman came back) and other sites that were considered important.

Damian sulked, having seen all these before and not finding them any more impressive than the first time or any time after that. What did surprise him was that Lucy didn’t seem any more impressed than him. He would have thought she’d go Gaga over the tourist trappings, considering she react to abandoned (allegedly) mines like a family at Disney World.

But she looked at each one, nodded in appreciation, and went onto the next thing.

Jon was kinda weirded out by it too, Damian could tell, not that Jon was ever subtle. He kept looking to Damian as if to try and explain her behavior, not that he was ever going to be doing that.

“Ok,” Jon said, as they sat outside the capitol, “Is there anything you WANT to see?”

Lucy shrugged, “To be honest, buildings don’t really interest me that much. But I’m glad to have gone with you, of course.”

“For fuck’s sake,” Damian said, “What’s the point of going around like this if you don’t even like it? We went around all damn day for YOU!”

Lucy tilted her head, “We went so that Superboy could show us things and we could get to know him.” She smiled at him, “You clearly admire Superman a lot, and you’re clearly like him. I’m glad you get along with your dad so well.”

Jon smiled, confused, but appreciative, “Thanks?” Damian grumbled. “But, I’d like to get to know YOU better as well. So if there’s something you like, the city has everything.”

Lucy hummed, “I honestly mostly just like to people watch in my free time.”

Jon beamed, “Oh man, I have the perfect place then.”

With a hop, skip, and a kryptonian-powered jump, the three of them were in the rafters of the Metropolis Subway station, looking down at everything and everyone as they went by. Damian was just glad they were inside, and being underground had him feeling a bit more at home.

Lucy practically sparkled, leaning way too far over to look at everyone. “What are they saying? Can you hear them?”

“Uh, which ones?” Jon said. She pointed aggressively. “Well, that one’s a family on vacation, the dad there is going over the itinerary, he’s got it printed out. The daughter there is trying to get him to skip the museums so they can get to the aquarium faster.”

“Ohh, what’s at the aquarium?” Lucy asked, kicking her feet like a child.

“Some fish, jelly fish are cool...Oh, they got a new shark there, I think.”

Damian groaned again, “Ugh, who CARES? If you wanted to go to the aquarium, then lets go to the aquarium! Instead of just watching someone TALK about it! These are all just normal people!”

“Robin, dude,” Jon said, “If it’s what she wants, why not? We are here for HER after all.”

That in of itself would have been enough to shame Damian, but Lucy was staring at him. She stared unblinking, and unsmiling. It was actually creepy. Like she was staring through him.

“Nobody’s normal.” She said, very seriously, her voice no longer taking on the cheery affectation. “Not a single one that I’ve ever met. Many of them TRY to be normal, but it is an illusion. A moving target, an ideal that doesn’t exist and people are shamed for not attempting to achieve.”

Damian could feel himself resist leaning away from her. “Uh, Lucy?” Jon said, “Something you want to talk about?”

Lucy blinked like she was remembering she was supposed to. “I suppose it is personal to me,” she said, “My…mother was always a little scared of Aunt Harley. First scared of her success, then scared of her villainous career. She always wanted to be normal. She wanted…me to be normal. She was scared of what I’d be. Who I’d be like.” She smiled, an echo of her previous smile, “It’s not quite the same as being a disciple for a great hero like Superman or Batman.”

Jon was suddenly looking very awkward. “Well,” He said, “I mean, having Harley Quinn as your aunt isn’t that bad. And you’re good anyway! So, no need to worry.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Lucy said, “It doesn’t matter if I was good or bad. It just matters that I was strange.” She tilts her head, looking down at the mass of people rushing back and forth. “Ever since I was little, people didn’t feel…real. They’re just. Stories. I couldn’t relate to my peers, as my teachers would say. I don’t know how to explain it. The only time I tried, my mom was so scared she sent me to a camp. One of those meant for bad kids to help them behave.” She tilted her head, “But they weren’t bad. They all had different stories. I realized there were no normal people. Just people with stories.”

Damian couldn’t have spoken if it was to yell for help. He stared at Lucy, trying to decide if he should be concerned or sympathetic.

Jon cleared his throat. “Well, I think you’re nice. And that’s what’s important. No problem with learning more about people and helping them.”

Lucy smiled, “Thank you.”

Jon’s head whipped to the side. “Ah, shoot, Dad’s calling me. I’ll be right back.” Lucy’s cheery attitude was back and she nodded, as Jon took off.

Lucy looked over at Damian for a moment. Damian felt he should say something. Apologize, maybe? He wasn’t sure what would be appropriate, and if it was appropriate, would Lucy want it. She worked on a whole other level, that was clear.

Lucy went back to watching people below her.

“My mom,” Damian started, not sure where he was going to end his sentence. Rule one of being in his family was to not reveal details about himself. But it was Lucy and she…she was his friend. “She was a…she’s a villain. I was supposed to be too. Maybe would have been if I didn’t go to live with Batman.”

Lucy nodded, “That sounds like a very interesting story,” Lucy said, “Thank you for telling me.” She tilted her head towards him. “Hey Robin, there’s this comedy place here in Metropolis I looked up. I was hoping maybe we could go tonight? I’m kind of a comedy nerd, and it’s always good to support people at an open mic. Maybe you’d even laugh once.”

Damian braced himself. This was a date. She was asking him on a date. He had prepared himself for this. “I can’t,” Damian said, the words practiced, “I don’t think of you that way. We can hang out and…be friends, but no.” There. No question about it.

Lucy looked at him, and tilted her head, thinking. “Ok,” She said, simply. Didn’t seem too heartbroken. It was a relief. “Hey Superboy,” She said, voice raise just slightly on the sounds of trains, “Do you want to go on a date to a comedy club tonight with me?”

There was a brief pause, then with a burst of wind, Jon jumped up back to the rafters. “Yeah, that sounds good,” and they shared smiles, “Robin, I can get her back to Gotham if you want to head home.”

Damian blinked, trying to process what exactly was happening. “I–,” technically, he wasn’t supposed to leave Lucy, for reasons Batman hadn’t been overly clear about. But if something was going to happen, she’d be plenty safe with Jon. Still, he wanted to argue this, even though he had nothing, and he knew he had nothing. “Sure, that sounds fine.”

Jon held out his hand to help him down, but he could easily get out by himself. And so, alone, he went home. And he didn’t understand the strange feeling in his gut.

Bruce stretched his neck coming down to the batcave, seeing Tim on the computer. “Commissioner Gordon has kindly invited Batman and Robin to the Wayne charity Christmas Party on my behalf,” he said, “I’ve got Dick coming down to wear the Batsuit for me. I’m going to work to have Damian as Robin, but would you and Steph take on patrols that night? At least some of us should actually be doing work.”

Tim didn’t answer. He stared blankly into the computer. Bruce sighed, most likely he didn’t hear him. “How long have you been down here? You’re going to ruin your–”

“Are you planning on telling Damian?” Tim asked.

Bruce paused and looked at what Tim was staring at. It was medical records of Delia Quinzel, specifically of her pregnancy.

Specifically the fake pregnancy records that Bruce had made. “What are you talking about?” Bruce asked.

“Please don’t insult me,” Tim said, face stoic, “You really think I can’t recognize your digital fingerprint all over these files?”

Bruce took a few deep breaths. “Have you told anyone?”

“Hell no,” Tim said, finally looking up, “And I cleaned up your mess. But I don’t know if anyone else has looked into this before now.” Tim glared at Bruce, “So I ask again, are you planning on telling Damian that you’ve put him in charge of protecting Joker’s biological daughter from her own father?”

Bruce came over and looked at the corrected records. They were, in fact, cleaner. Bruce’s were too normal. Tim added in complications that could have happened, just enough to make people think they’d already found what was wrong. “We don’t know what Joker knows.”

“Oh, and he just happened to escape Arkham and disappear at around the same time a teen starts hanging around his ex-girlfriend.” Tim said, dryly.

“If he does know,” Bruce said, “Then its our job to stop him. If he doesn’t, then we still stop him. But Lucy has a target on her back one way or another.”

“Which is why you put Damian in front of it?” Tim said.

“I trust Damien,” Bruce said, “To protect her. But I don’t want him to be biased against her because of her parents.”

“So, you’re putting him at risk, so that he can make friends?” Tim demanded, arms crossed.

Bruce took a deep sigh. “One day,” he said, “Lucy is going to have to confront where she’s come from. And the rest of us are too. I’m trying to give us all the best chance.” Bruce said, “Besides, Damian needs more friends other than Jon.”

Tim screwed up his face, then snorted. “Alright, old man,” he said, “I’ll go with your plan for now. But if something goes belly up, I reserve the right to at least one ‘I told you so.’”

“A fair compromise,” Bruce said, “What have you found about Joker’s movements?”

“He’s going quiet right now, which isn’t much like him,” Tim said, “But I think I’ve tied him to this fancy surgical robot that’s gone missing from Gotham Hospital.”

“Well, I’m sure there’s nothing mind-breakingly awful he can do with that,” Bruce said, sarcastically. “Let’s take it to the streets.”

Tim jumped up and followed him to the batmobile.

[silverwhiteraven]

Oooh the Krypto-Bat + twins au sounds really interesting! I would love to see more of that if possible!

Krypto-Bat + Twins AU (For the Krypto-Mari AUs) [ Posted on Ao3 ]

Twins AU with Marinette and Clark, Aka, Kia Jor-El and Kal-El

They were sent from Krypton at the same time in separate pods/ships, and when they land on earth, the pods are separated enough to land in two different places

Kal-El is, as originally, ends up in Smallville, adopted by the Kents as Clark

Kia ends up in Gotham

Bruce is already an adult here, and already Batman, including having taken in Dick and potentially Jason as well

Batman is the one to find Kia, mostly because, ever-vigilant, he knows about when something is about to crash into the territory he protects and is determined to be the first to arrive before anyone else.

He takes her in because for one, ‘what the heck, a tiny child with super-strength is in my backyard’ and felt he lucked out with her not ending up in the hands of a villain instead. For two, he’s really curious about what she and her little partially-destroyed space pod are. For three, The Justice League hasn’t been formed, it’s not even a baby of a thought in Batman’s head yet, so he has no one else he trusts to be able to hand a super-powered alien baby off to, so, congrats, Bruce, you have a daughter!

Dick is like ‘oh heck yes, someone else to teach all the ways of being one bendy acrobat’

Also, Since Dick can’t get the Nightwing name from Superman (since there is no Superman yet) He has a different hero name, Blackbird

Jason is the dotting older brother type and none of you will change my mind

“Oh god the teething” will be something Bruce groans about in the future when talking about raising this child. First of all, she’s really strong, and develops her physical invulnerability early on, so you have this baby that will probably chew on the granite gargoyles around the mansion and all the batarangs in the cave

Kia, now named Marinette Wayne, spends a lot of her time with Alfred, so she learns early on how to seem like some all-knowing, all-wise entity, and how to control her emotions and outward expressions. They bats will learn to rightly fear her as much as they fear Alfred

Learning how to be a mini-Alfred doesn’t stop her from being fun, being absolutely sweet, or even a sunshine child. Alfred made sure she doesn’t pent up or bottle emotions, she learns how to deal with them in a healthy way and divert the bad ones into powering good ones

Pair that Alfred attitude with training to control her powers and, eventually, training to defend herself as well as fight, in case she ever decides to join the ‘family business’, and you have a force to be reckoned with, even from a young age

The Jason dying thing can either happen or not

If it happens, when he comes back, his rage about being ‘replaced’ can be lessened, considering he already knew the Robin mantle wasn’t meant to ever sit permanently on anyone’s shoulders

Hell, he even looked forward to the day Marinette would be offered the chance to take it up, he may actually rather be more peeved that it wasn’t saved for her before someone else filled it in

A new hero name Jason may potentially take is Cardinal. He takes it up either because dying never happened, so he never becomes Red Hood after Robin, or, he eventually rejoins the family and decides to take up a new one after dropping the RH name.

Damian coming around is going to be funny, here is why

Marinette and Damian would be about the same age at this point, so you have two ten year olds duking it out

One ten year old is trying to kill all the Robins

The other ten year old is trying to prevent the other ten year old from killing her brothers

Damian is a trained assassin that knew she had super strength because the LoA knows things it shouldn’t, but they also don’t have knowledge of Kryptonite or her invulnerability, so he isn’t prepared at all for her interference

Marinette is a semi-trained not-yet-vigilante with super strength, invulnerability, and a determination to pin down her new brother and tell him to stop trying to kill their brothers

She utilizes a lot of her knowledge from Alfred and gains some well earned but reluctant respect and wariness from Damian

All her pinning of him, something she only manages to do out of pure strength because her fighting skills are not as fine and sharp as Damian’s yet, allows for her to continuously rant to him about morals, her explanations of why he shouldn’t kill her brothers, and her thoughts on how terrible and inaccurate the teachings of the LoA are. He is forced to hear all of this, and, eventually, he actually listens

It helps that he also learns to stop attacking the other Wayne children because, with Marinette as their ever-vigilant protection and buffer, he has no hope of succeeding, so he might as well play nice

Damian still takes up the Robin mantle, Marinette letting him, as she has no desire for it yet

They’re both 15 when Damian decides to take off the Robin suit and, instead of continuing to pursue the Batman title as a ‘rightful heir’, wants to make his own name for himself

His new hero name is Starling

Marinette finally accepts the offer to be Robin

This is such bad news for the criminals, not going to lie, but so much fun for her, for the bats, and for us

First of all, the new costume

We all know about how the ‘traffic light’ might just be a way for Batman to be able to keep an eye on his kid while also making sure no one will hit them with their car when they run across the street like idiots without looking

But Marinette is invulnerable and also has enough fashion sense to demand she tine down the colors

She also has taken a liking to the idea of following in her dad’s footsteps and making her Robin look to be as dark, scary, and Cryptid-y as possible

So here is the suit:

The cape is black on the inside, the outside is an almost-black green that allows for blending into the foliage of all the ivy that grows all over the walls of the old buildings of the city

The eyes/lenses of her mask are gold/yellow instead of white, since it was the only place she was willing to add the color. It helped that it would create a creepy eye-glow effect

The body of the suit is black as well

The gloves and boots are a dark red, with an uneven fade into the black of her arms/legs. This causes an illusion of her having been walking through the blood of her enemies, while having also just removed her hands from the chest cavities of the last ones she dealt with. Obviously, she’s going for the scare-factor with that particular look, and Bruce is admittedly impressed with it, even if he disapproves of her making people think she doesn’t follow the no-kill rule

Over-all, the look is high-key intended to make her seem like a Cryptid, much like the Batman one is supposed to

Second! This is about the time all her other powers are going to be coming into the light

So Gotham and its criminals are introduced to a new Robin, and while it may seem nothing odd, they have another thing coming

Robin is suddenly creepy as hell, for one, especially with the dark and bloody appearance paired with the seemingly unnatural ability to be bendy and lithe

Robin is also much stronger, and a few of the smart ones decide never to engage her in combat.

Robin is also suddenly much faster than before, randomly at first, almost seeming to teleport. Rumor has it even Batman was shocked the first few times

Criminals started using insulated grips on their weapons because their weapons were getting unnaturally hot

Coats became common with the minions of villains, because hearing breathing from the shadows would sudden be accompanied by indoor breezes and temperature drops

Wait… is, is Robin, looming? Since when did Robin loom like that? When did they start being able to soundlessly move closer? Wait, hold on, since when did Robin’s feet not touch the ground??

They hate how suddenly they can’t hide things, either, Robin seems to know where they hid all their weapons, their explosives, their traps, their plans, everything

Evil people start hoping really, really hard that the shadow they just saw move is Batman, and only Batman

You guys get the idea, Marinette as Robin is effective and scary and no one outside the Bat Clan/Family know how she does it

Clark, over in Smallville, is dealing with all these new powers, too, and our thoughts go out to him not having as great an outlet for them as Marinette does

But hey! He becomes Superman at, like, 22, so we can skip right to that! In just a moment!

[Interlude: Hawkmoth.]

It is purely by accident that Marinette, 16 years old and still freshly mantled, finds him and ends up taking him down. It was supposed to be a very casual family trip to Paris, nothing more, and it went rather sideways for her instead.

The Justice League still has yet to be formed, so asking for help was simply hit or miss with wherever Paris sent the plea. The Waynes didn’t even know one had been sent to Gotham while they were gone, aimed at Batman, until after the family returned.

The family got caught up in the middle of a joint Akuma and Sentiminster attack, Marinette the only one able to escape fast enough to change into Robin. She joins the Ladybug and Black Cat superheroes in fighting, her presence both shocking and relieving them

She learns about her vulnerability to magic during the fight. She can take the physical blows just fine, but the moment she’s struck by a magical blast, she feels it like any other person. She got lucky that it wasn’t a terrible hit, or one with magical side-effects, but it did injure her, and painfully

The other heroes realize she needs more protection, and are able to offer her a Miraculous, which she accepts in an instant, not at all wanting to keep getting injured. After she transforms, the blasts no longer hurt her, and she can take the physical blows even better than she had before, not to mention she was loving the extra power-boosts on top of what she already had

No, using a Miraculous doesn’t hurt her or make her sick, because channeling or ‘wearing’ magic is different than being attacked with it (Plus, in DC canon, Superman is able to use magic items (it was a sword if I remember right) that can grant him powers and such. Having a vulnerability to something does not equal having a negative reaction to general contact with it.

“Just because a knife can cut you doesn’t mean you have to grasp it by the blade; grab the handle.” - SilverWhiteRaven)

Her X-Ray and 4-D vision powers start acting up, and this is where she purely by accident gets to see exactly where Hawkmoth and Mayura have hidden themselves while they wait the fight out. She does notice she can’t X-ray any of them while their Miraculous were transforming them, and she guessed it was another magic thing interfering with her abilities

As soon as the Sentimonster and Akuma are defeated, she informs the two local heroes about who she saw and where

They seemed uncertain, and a bit sad about the news, and guessed they may have had previously unknown personal connections to their villains

She helps them make a quick plan of action. They used the post-battle recovery time that usually happens, the short recharge period, to their advantage

The three of them storm the Agreste mansion together, and it’s all over before even a rush of adrenaline can kick in

Robin spends a short moment of time to monologue a rant on morality and heroism to the two defeated supervillains as their two abused Miraculous are recovered. She was pretty sure that by the time she finished her speech and left to rejoin her family, both heroes were looking at her like they had instant crushes

Ideas for the Justice League start up after learning about the hit-and-miss cries for help from Paris

[End Interlude: Alright, back to it!]

By 22, Marinette has gone through 7 years of being Robin, and also college, and she and Damian have joined Tim in running Wayne Enterprises. Tim can go take a nap now, and none of the other Waynes are going to let anything stop him

Marinette, the genius she is, has invested in Stuart Semple, the creator of Black 2.0, as her first move in the business, and that I will come back to in a minute

Superman reveals himself to the world, and, loandbehold, every member of the Bat Clan who are in on her secret recognizes that very power set he displays, and all eyes are on Marinette

She realizes, too, that suddenly, she isn’t the only one. Her escape pod was too damaged and missing too many parts after crashing to have given her anything about her original home, and now there’s Someone Else who might have answers!

Pulling herself together, she asks her dad to accompany her to Metropolis, all the way in Kansas (yes, I am doing that, it is way more logical to protect a whole country when the city you put yourself in is in the middle of the thing and not even over on the coast closest to Alaska and Hawaii)

Marinette, when she gets there, makes her way to the top of the tallest tower, Batman in tow as her overseer and moral/emotional support

She gets Superman’s attention by legit just yelling for him, because what else do you do from the top of buildings besides yell into the wind?

He shows up, a little confused, but mostly surprised by the sight of someone who looks a lot like him

She’s very nervous now, a bit scared that they’re wrong and that Superman isn’t like her, that they are nothing alike, and as she notices their similarity in appearance, is anxious about how high her hopes have suddenly become, and how far of a fall the disappointment will be. But a little reassurance from her dad in the shadows and she gets the words out

“Hi, I’m Marinette, and I was wondering- Well, I mean, I needed to know- Just- Wow this is hard, I’m not usually like this, uhm- Superman, are you- are we- did you come from the same place I did? Can you look at me, and- just x-ray me if you can do that, because I can, and if you can, too, that might mean… Well… Please..?”

His eyes are wide and disbelieving but he does it, he looks, and all the time that he, too, spent looking at himself with his X-ray and 4D vision, comparing his biology and it’s differences to that of humans, recognizes the traits of a Kryptonian in her. “Kia?”

Marinette tears up at his response, and chokes out, “I don’t know if that’s me, but please, I want to find out.”

Marinette is able to collect herself, as is Superman, enough to call Batman out of the shadows and introduce the two, explaining that Batman had ‘assisted’ (have to at least try to keep secret identities intact) in her raising and was simply acting as backup and support for her while she came to Metropolis

Superman invites her to visit the Fortress of Solitude with him, and she accepts, telling her dad to head home and, if things went well, not to expect her home for a few weeks, as she would be spending all of her time learning everything she could

There’s a lot of happy crying and comfort hugs the moment the Fortress welcomes her as Kia Jor-El, twin of Kal-El

Just like she warned Bruce, she spends weeks away in the Fortress, learning as much about Krypton as she can get

She listened to the holograms of her birth parents telling her stories, even the ones every Kryptonian child was told to scare them into behaving, or little tales told to teach morals. She didn’t care that she was already an adult, already knew all these lessons from human versions, but they were what she wanted to hear

Learning of old legends, gods, and mythical creatures were some of her favorites to hear, and she was determined to retell them to her family when she returned

She listened to a lot of kryptonian music, too, discovering it had just as much variety in genres and cultures as Earth

You can bet your bucks that she is going to be recreating Kryptonian instruments a to learn to use, as well as learn every dance the Fortress has recorded in its archives

She has a field day when she discovers there are kryptonian puzzle boxes she can recreate

Her favorite days, however, are when Clark comes by to check on her, finding her in the middle of the day, after yet another all nighter of reading Kryptonian non-fiction novels, and he orders her to bed. She doesn’t like the orders, but after the first time, she never complained again. Clark had left the Fortress after day three of them being in the Fortress, and came back to check on her a couple days later to find her sleeplessly tired and still reading. After forcing her to lay down, he convinced her to stay put if he taught her one of the lullabies he had learned himself. Now, every night he was with her in the Fortress, they either sung the Kryptonian lullabies together, to each other, or, fell asleep to the voices of their parents singing instead

Keeping true to the self-promise, when Marinette returned to Gotham, she excitedly told her family as much as she could

Dick, inspired by many of the stories, and wanting to pay tribute to his youngest sister’s heritage, asks if he can create a new hero identity

She happily agrees after asking Clark about it over the phone, and Nightwing is born

They laugh a bit at it, actually, considering that Robin’s colors are a tribute to the Greysons, and Nightwing is one of the Kryptonian Gods, and yet they’ve ended up swapped between them

Justice League time! This is my favorite part, where it gets into pure identity shenanigans

Give it a few more years before the whole idea comes together. Batman may trust his daughter’s brother, but he still needs to get to know him. They still butt heads often enough, but Marinette is a good, if exasperated, mediator that helps them settle down and come to agreements more

When the JL is finally founded, Marinette is 25, and Bruce is, in fact, only there for the official first day of it in operation

That’s right, Bruce retires!

After so long of fighting the corruption and crime of Gotham, there has actually been progress and improvement. Enough so that Bruce is comfortable with actually retiring as a field vigilante, instead joining the behind-the-scene bats by becoming Agent B

Who other than Marinette takes up the cowl of Batman?

She outright told Dick he can’t pull off the attitude for it, and even Damian could agree she was the best fit

There were, of course, questions of how she would hide the fact of Batman suddenly becoming a woman. After rolling her eyes and saying the fact that female armor doesn’t have to look feminine, she tells them that the answer was simple!

Stuart Semple

That’s right, Marinette was already planning to become Batman after her dad!

She also manages to convince Bruce to play a long-term prank on the JL, all the way from day one. What is the prank, you ask?

They don’t tell anyone except those within the Bat Clan that the cowl is being passed on, and no one will ever know that there was a new identity behind Batman

So, how is it pulled off? Like this:

For one, Bruce will reveal his identity as Batman as a sign of trust to the heroes of the JL

Then, immediately after, he will go home and hang up the cowl for good

Then Marinette is going to take out her redesign and take up the Batman role

The entirety of the new suit is going to be made with Black 2.0, and combining it with the cloak that will cover her whole body, a new full-face mask/helmet, full body armor, a speed that will keep pictures from getting clear pictures of even her profile, and her Kryptonian ability to masterfully manipulate her voice to keep the frightening baritones of her dad, her identity is securely secret, and the prank perfectly maintainable

Add in her own personal touch of changing the usual white eye lenses to gold, layering the cloak with a mechanism that raises and lowers the layers to allow for maximum looming height (where no one can tell if her feet are touching the ground) while also keeping it out of the way when crouching or keeping low, and you have a Batman that not only looks like a literal and legit void with creepy glowing eyes, but one that is going to be scaring the hell out of every single hero, too, when she walks by them in the halls of the JL

Really, it’s the perfect functional prank

It gets more fun every time she comes home from a mission and tells everyone about how her teammates kept commenting that they had worried about Bruce’s age, but with ‘him’ upping the scare levels and seeming to actually be improving in ‘his’ skills, speed, and strength, they find they have nothing to worry about

It’s barely a week in before she overhears a few people considering begging Batman to tone down the endless-void look, but she accidentally scares them off when they spot her, and she’s certain the prank is going to last a good amount of time now

Gotham continues to improve, enough so that the constant presence of Batman isn’t required, easily manageable by the other bats, even in lessened numbers

Most of the bats suspect Marinette taking up the cowl and the new look had a great deal of impact on the most recent crime drops

Bruce has taken to putting lawn chairs in the mansion’s library and using one of Marinette’s old sippy-cups for his evening scotch and cocktails, claiming to be catching up on a missed childhood, with an adult twist

Bruce discovers the Wii, and family game nights have become a thousand times funnier after all the wrist straps get lost

There’s something else Gotham and the JL notice after Batman ‘stopped holding back’ along with the new look. Batman got gentle

It wasn’t that he wasn’t gentle before, no; Batman has always cared about others. Has always treated the villains with humanity and made sure the ones that needed it got the treatments they needed, always made sure no one got hurt unjustly and no one died. Always made sure victims were looked after and safe. But now it’s a lot more

Batman becomes slower, softer, gentler when handling people, good or bad, ‘his’ fist a gauntlet of iron coated in the fluffiest of velvet and stuffed with plush cotton. He even began using words first a lot more, kicks and fists less and less

It boggles everyone this sudden new contrast, this scary as hell void, this renewed cryptid, this beastly monster of the night, having a heart light as a feather, pure as gold

In fact, oddly enough, it scares them all, heroes and villains alike, a hell of a lot more

Everyone knows never to underestimate someone who seems soft, and if Batman is already a better fighter than before, and softer than ever, then please, they beg in the names of the gods, what else is hidden under that cowl?

The prank still works wonderfully, of course, because no one connects the cryptid-ness of the last Robin, that everyone was told had ‘moved on from the Robin mantle’, with the improved cryptid-ness of Batman. Remember that ‘I sure hope it’s just Batman’ thing? Well now they’re frightened of Batman all over again, but they still fear the ‘Return of Robin’, because once again, if Batman has improved, what in the world has Robin been up to?

The prank finally ends with the decision of picking her duty over continuing to keep the secret

Themyscira is in need of some help, some problem there that the Amazonians can’t figure out themselves

Thing is, it’s a women-only place

So the decision is to volunteer for the mission, or keep up the prank

Obviously, she’s a good person and volunteers, deciding it’s time for the prank to be revealed

Thing is, she doesn’t say she’s a woman or even drops the deep scary voice before raising her hand and saying, “I’ll go.”

Everyone is dead silent and just stares

Her hidden straight poker face cracks and she stands up with a laugh, before she unclasped her cloak and drapes it over the back of her seat

Then she pulls off the full-headed mask/helmet, fully breaking the look of an endless void

Everything is dead silent still as everyone stares, before Superman drops his head into his hands, realizing what has been happening, and just bemoans, “Kia, why…”

That’s when the noise breaks and everyone looks at Superman, basically all asking, “WAIT, you KNOW her???”

Marinette is cracking up, trying to suppress her laughter as she subtly sends a message to her family not present at the meeting that the gig is up

Everyone quiets down when Batman stands and clamps a hand down on our unmasked Batman

“Everyone, this is Marinette, ex-Robin, Bruce Wayne’s daughter, and Kia Jor-El, my twin sister.”

It’s noisy all over again, and this time she can’t keep the laugh in

Diana, though, may or may not be dead silent, staring at Batman, and feeling very, very gay right now

Everything settles down eventually, and everything gets back on track, but it will be months before the JL members stop being absolutely disbelieving that they got bamboozled so well and for so long, and they may just be even more frightened of Batman than ever before

The Bat Clan gets a whole new round of laughs after Marinette returns from Themyscira and describes the reaction of the Amazons when Diana introduces Batman as one of the volunteering heroes, before remembering to also mention that Batman, despite the name and previous holder of the mantle, is indeed a woman

Also, considering that Kryptonians are functionally immortal when their powers are working, Marinette is basically permanently Batman now, and can watch over Gotham and everyone else for basically forever now alongside Superman and Wonder Woman

Good luck figuring out how to explain it when the public notices the youngest Wayne daughter isn’t aging any more

Imagine all the kids she’s probably going to end up adopting into the Wayne family over time, too. ‘Mominette’ is too valid to exclude, and this is absolutely going to be a moment of “Oh my god, it’s a learned behavior.”

AND THAT’S BASICALLY IT!! I really hope you liked this, I had so much fun thinking up this whole idea!!

Edit: Now has a Companion/Alternate Story! Krypto-Rogue Twins AU!!!

[theoutcastedartist]

No new art really, if you've seen my original post on the MHA amino then you know where this is fucking going. Right down to Angstville because for some reason I'm obsessed with hurting my favorite Goth Jesus. You'd think I'd talk about my "Stain's Redemption" AU first since I've mentioned it but hahahaha

Y o u w e r e w r o n g ;´)

I straight up just copied and pasted my original post because I'm lazy but I REALLY wanted to share this with Tumblr lmao

Warning for (potential) manga spoilersss

Alrighty sinners, Let's get to the post itself then. Shall we?

·············

So let me just address something real quick about how I feel about the latest chapters of the MHA manga:

Seeing Aizawa cry has to be the most heart breaking thing I've seen in MHA (outside of the whole deal with Eri, sweet baby child ;-;)

And I completely FLIPPED when it was revealed that Shirakumo was BASICALLY turned into Kurogiri and just I'M CRYING--Cloud Angel Baby NOOOOOO!!!

They all deserved better than this T-T

Anywho enough about my grieving over fictional characters, let's talk about my AU, inspired by these recent chapters. Note that I'm a terrible writer. I guess this also includes a snippet of what I plan to write for this AU since it transitions from explanation to literature at some point just because I was kinda bored. Imma let you know right now that I'm a shit writer so uuuuh bear with me.

---------

The Reticent AU takes place in an Alternate Universe where Shirakumo is ALIVE and separate from Kurogiri. Instead of Loud Cloud being turned into a Nomu, Eraserhead is turned into one. His appearance for the most part remains the same, minus the scars all over his body, including around the neck, from experimentation.

He barely speaks due to pain he feels when he does talk and has no recollection of his life before being a Nomu, not even his own name. He manages to escape the League of Villains at some point and "befriends" the Hero Killer: Stain, or well more like the other way around (only because I find Stain befriending an emotionless mute to be funny). He finds Stain's views of false hero-hood and admiration for All Might quite contradictory yet amusing and lets him live during their first encounter.

It is rather hard to say whether he is a villain or a vigilante. He'll kill only if necessary but his intentions and motivations are unknown. He despises All Might as the Symbol of Peace. It gives false hope to the people as well as a false sense of security. He found it completely revolting. Aizawa did believe in good people, but All Might isn't one of them in his books. Pretty much considered one only because he's hanging around with Stain.

He never gave himself a name, nor did he care all that much for it, it was Stain who dubbed him with the alias "Reticent", meaning not revealing one's thoughts or feelings readily. He was never one for being open for as long as he could remember.

It's rather fitting, so Reticent keeps the given name.

·············

* I didn't know Shirakumo was tan, not white before I made the art (forgive me)

Oboro Shirakumo A.K.A Loud Cloud is currently the homeroom teacher of our beloved Class 1-A and best friend of our resident screaming banana, Present Mic. They have given up on their dream to start an agency due to the loss of their closest friend from high school. Fifteen years ago when they were still students at UA, Shota Aizawa had gone missing and authorities concluded that he was dead. It was such a heartbreak to Shirakumo and Yamada, that hurt never fully healed.

Shirakumo is still a friendly and nurturing spirit at heart, but not as open with his feelings anymore. He's more reserved with his thoughts and feelings. He's a reticent person.

He takes an instant liking to Ejirou Kirishima and Hitoshi Shinso. Kirishima's friendship with the explosive Katsuki Bakugou reminds him of his friendship with Shota. Their personalities seemed so different, yet their bond had remained solid and strong. As for Shinso, the purple haired teen reminded him of his old friend. He could see the growing potential in these two and takes them both under his wing. The three of them train together outside of school and the Kirishima and Shinso form a close friendship with each other along with their sensei. Both children are like sons to Shirakumo, he thinks that Shota would like them too if he were still here.

·············

So... Izuku Midoriya, the "villain magnet" of class 1-A, ended up finding himself standing face-to-face with the Hero Killer: Stain and... his partner? The news never reported anything on him having a partner. How strange. Either Stain's partner is a very recent addition or this guy was really good at covering his own tracks.

"Stain, leave them be. They are just mere children. Killing them would serve no purpose to your cause. I wouldn't waste your time with Native either. "

Midoriya grimaced at the sore and raspy voice. It sounded painful, but he could hear the underlying threat. The Hero Killer sighed and backed off from Iida's paralyzed body.

The two villains left before Todoroki had arrived.

"I think that's the first time I've ever seen you smile."

Agakuro sat down next to Reticent, who was currently petting a stray cat, and offered him some fruit. The smaller man hummed quietly and took a few slices of apple. Both men sat quietly with the soft purring of the stray.

"I've been meaning to ask, what is your quirk exactly? You can erase quirks, but you can also manipulate basic elements and the blood in people's bodies."

Reticent signed, 'I have more than one.'

"More than one quirk?" Stain cocked an eyebrow.

Reticent nodded and quietly spoke, "Nomu."

"I've heard about their appearances here in Hosu. They are these large looking creatures with their brains exposed. You sure as hell don't look like one of 'em." Agakuro mused as he chewed on some cantaloupe. His friend was making his signals again.

I was suppose to be a more perfected Nomu. All for One took care of my progress himself.'

"Is that why you have so many..."

'Yes.'

·············

"Principal Nezu?" Shirakumo and Yamada stood in the white creature's office. Both men wondering why they were called to see him.

"Ah Loud Cloud and Present Mic! I apologize for pulling you out of your classes, but it seems you both are being called to assist Gran Torino with something he found." Nezu explained. The two men in the room looked at each other confused.

"What does he need us for?"

"Well it seems that they have another one of those Nomus in custody. I think you may remember the name Shota Aizawa?"

·············

Shirakumo was BEYOND annoyed about the situation. It must be a mistake. Their old friend was not some gruesome quirk experiment accompanying the Hero Killer. Shota Aizawa wanted to be a hero, despite feeling that he was inadequate for such due to the nature of his quirk. It has to be a mistake.

"How much longer-"

"Calm down will you! I'm frustrated about this too. There's no way it could be him, but... who knows."

They arrived at the police station withing a few minutes and walk inside. They see Gran Torino standing there waiting for them. They follow him to where Tsukauchi is finishing up with questioning the person inside. Looking through the window, Shirakumo and Yamada's eyes widen with disbelief. The other person looked just like...

"Ah Present Mic, Loud Cloud. Thank you for arriving on such short notice. I know you are both very busy men."

The two Pro-Heros turn to the detective as he stepped out of the interrogation room. Present Mic appeared alarmed and Shirakumo just looked... mad.

"Well it appears that he doesn't remember anything before being experimented on. We have a case of amnesia on our hands."

Shirakumo practically growled,"Experimented on? What the hell are you going on about detective!?" Why was Tsukauchi being so damn vague?

"That man in there is indeed Shota Aizawa. His base quirk of Erasure is still there and DNA results confirm this. From what I'm gathering, fifteen years ago he was kidnapped and had been subjected to illegal drug testing as well as having multiple quirks forced into his body. He's a more sophisticated Nomu it seems."

"More 'sophisticated'? What stopped him from having brains popping out of his skull like all the others we've seen?" The voice hero questioned. Something wasn't adding up here.

"All for One..."

The other three men became tense.

"Isn't... Isn't that the villain All Might fought at Kamino Ward?"

"According to him, it seems that All for One was the one who did this to him personally, there was extra care in your friend's 'recreation'. As to what his added quirks are, we're not sure yet of what they are or even of how many."

Gran Torino turned to the younger men,"We were hoping that you two would talk to him. Maybe to help trigger any memories from before his disappearance."

"So what? You think the 'power of friendship' is going to magically bring back his memories?" Shirakumo scoffed at how ridiculous that would actually be.

"No, but miracles do happen. I've seen many things during my time. They are rare, but they happen."

"Shirakumo," Present Mic started, "if there is even a slim possibility of getting Sho's memories back, shouldn't we at least try? For him?"

Shirakumo sighed at his words, "Fine. For Shota's sake."

The two younger men walk inside.

--------

"Shota?"

'Who were they talking about? Is that his name?'

After the detective had left the room, two other men had walked in. He assumed they were Pros based on the costumes. No normal person dressed in THAT much leather (referring to Present Mic).

"Do you... remember us, Shota? Hizashi and I?"

It looks like they ARE talking to him. He shook his head no. This was the first time he has seen these two men. The way they were looking at him made him uncomfortable.

"Sho...ta? Is... that my name?"

The two men standing winced at his croaking voice. In all honesty, he would sign, but he had no clue if these two even knew sign language. So he just resorted to talking.

"Do you remember your own name?"

"No."

"Do you... remember us?"

The raven haired man shook his head, 'No.'

"Is... Shota my name? Do you know me? I'm sorry I- I'm just... so confused."

His voice was so raspy and weak. Black hair covered the scar under his eye. Hizashi and Oboro wore sad looks on their faces at the sound. The taller of the two, Oboro, knelt down by the man's knees.

"Yes. We do know you. Your name is Shota Aizawa. You were once a member of UA's class 2-A about fifteen years ago." Oboro started as he gently pried one of Shota's hands from the yellow blanket the officers gave him. His arm was covered in scars... like his legs. God only knows what they did to him all those years. Hizashi just observed their movements, unsure of what to do he added on to what Shirakumo said.

"You love cats and taking naps, you were the most rational one out of the three of us. All three of us had dreams of starting an agency together..."

The two pro-heros continued talking for what felt like hours. Shota listened to every word as they recounted their old adventures from highschool. Maybe with enough luck, they could help Shota get him memory back. Shirakumo was starting to think that the raven wasn't ever getting his old memories back until...

"Sushi... I- We had a cat named Sushi?"

Hizashi had flung himself so fast to Shota as he held onto him tightly and cried. Shirakumo also had a tear-streaked face, but he held a blinding smile as he watched Shota awkwardly pat the blond's back.

Miracles do happen.

More of this angst shit coming soon ;)

[inexchangeforyoursoul]

... apparently, these are becoming a weekly endeavor. (watch me getting an autoblock as soon as I post this) ( AO3 )

tl;dr Hawks is in high spirits (no pun intended), and Rumi’s Intrigued™

Meanwhile, somewhere not too far away, a vaguely annoyed Dabi is sneezing a whole lot, questioning whether his feeble ass is allergic to feathers.

(((I almost chose an angsty ending. Almost. But apparently I cannot do that with series and games that are not depression station in the first place, F.)))

“Say… you are in a reeeeeally good mood today, aren'tcha?” Rumi notes between two obnoxious milkshake slurps next to the remaining morsels of their lunch while taking a full round on the revolving barstool. It’s a Monday, it’s a conference day, a boring conference day where she’s about to kill herself out of sheer boredom… and Hawks, who’s usually also only present in body and ready to passive-aggressively tear the thing down, is radiating a hundred different levels and shades of sunlight. Of course she’s gonna jump on this.

“Huh?” the hero replies, returning to the present; the pen he’s got bouncing between two fingers while reading through the despair-inducingly thick paper pile in front of him (most likely invitations and offers of various kinds) never stops in its fast, metronome-like movement. The little smile that's been plastered over his face all day perks up a little as he looks at her, too. He’s obviously missed the question directed at him, but doesn't seem to be bothered by it.

“I said you are in a good fucking mood, twerp,” his friend repeats with a click of the tongue. Something’s definitely up. “And that you didn't catch it is all the damn proof I need. Haven't seen you this well-adjusted since… ever, actually.” Slurrrp.

“Aaah… guess so,” he muses with the rhythm slowing and a thoughtful expression for a change.

“I had the best fucking sleep ‘since ever’ is all.” The pause preceding this is uncharacteristically long, and his persistent smile returns before he even reaches the conclusion.

“You slept?” chortles Rumi in disbelief, then starts choking as some of the remaining milkshake finds its way to her lungs. The plausible fact that this alone could make him feel alive should not be this funny.

Hawks’ smile widens into a grin and he leans onto an elbow, shoving the documents aside. “Seven hours and thirteen whole-ass minutes, bitch. It's a new record!” It wasn't exactly that much, probably just under seven if he wanted to be honest. But point stands.

Once having regained composure, the heroine lets the information linger for a few seconds. Hmm. Hmmm… “Explains why you are functional and were late for the meeting. What it doesn’t explain is how you, Mr. 10 minutes ahead of everyone’s schedule… early bird extraordinaire… slept in.” That goofy expression is not his usual one, no. There's a snoop to be had, here. After a deep, deep, grin-ridden sigh, she turns back to him, leaning on the counter as well. “Has it got anything to do with dodging, like, all of my invitations lately? Hmm?” She wiggles her brows at him.

Man… she just went there, didn't she. Unfortunately, the persistent smile refuses to cover for him. In fact, it's more incriminating than anything, creeping wider once more. Well then. “Hasn't got as much to do with it as you would like, fam. There's only about… 15% of overlap.” Plus some change.

Maybe more, now that he thinks about it… because the disturbingly domestic (and even worse, occasionally comforting and enjoyable) shenanigans with the League have long outgrown the ‘meeting up with actual S-rank villains in my fake free time because spy lmao’ category. Rumi wouldn't buy that anymore, she's seen enough to know that he's full of shit.

There's a glint of a hunter’s in Rumi’s eyes… a hunter’s that has found fresh track. Her grin turns into a triumphant sneer. “So you do admit to seeing someone.”

The smile on Hawks’ face gains a streak of concern. “Please don't make me think about it in those terms,” he moans, furrowing his brows. “Any of the people I've been dealing with are freaks of nature.”

“So are we,” she notes, not missing a beat.

That earns a similarly fast fling-and-point of a pen in her general direction. “Word.”

She snickers. “Come on…! Tell me about that dreamy 15% that has you so pepped. I'm dying to know~”

He thinks about it for a bit. Then, the feathers of Hawks’ wings rustle, and he himself takes a gander around the restaurant; there's mostly heroes, sidekicks and managers gathered in the building in the first place, who are similarly disinterested in each other's dwindling lunch break times and private lives. While assessing the room, he's silently weighing his options as to how much he can say, and how he should choose his words.

“So… I've been roped into a kind of internship in the past months that I wanted nothing to do with, and am still hella iffy about,” he begins, keeping it just low enough for it to be not overly suspicious.

“Good start!”

“I know, right? Anyway… it's dirty work, but turned out to be tolerable, most of the time. The coworkers are all bonkers, but I've already come to the terrifying conclusion that I'm not all that different.”

“Took you long enough.”

“Hush, I'm telling your story…! Who you might be interested in, I think, is the contact person that keeps a close eye on me even today.”

“OOOH, this is getting spicy~ are they, like, twice your age? You are into older people, after all. Oh, and dude or lady? Other, maybe? You are being really cagey.”

“What did I just say?! Also, I'm not into older people. This peep is up to five years my senior, tops.”

“Never had to listen to yourself when going on about Endeavor, have you!? And see? You just admitted the peeper is older!”

“That’s fan rambling, and ever since I had to work with him, I have held my horses in check, hon. As for the other thing? Honestly, I never asked about their birthday or age, but I've been getting older sib vibes. Could be younger or as old as I am, for all I know. But let me fucking continue. SO… we've been getting along okay lately. Way too well, actually, considering the mutually hostile ~strictly professional~ gig we both started out with. Not that we're not assholes to each other still, but we are… like, frenemies.”

“Strangely mysterious person is already starting to sound like you.”

“…”

“Okay, Pot, okay!! Stop looking all disappointed and tell me about Kettle.”

“… Kettle will be a great stand-in name, thanks for the contribution. You are allowed to acknowledge this with a hum.”

“Mhmm.”

“Excellent. Back on topic… as you know, my yesterday… had been a thing.” For the first time that day, the smile disappears entirely.

Rumi hums again with a nod, which doesn't get shot down. From what Hawks was willing to share about family, it had been obvious that he wasn't on particularly good terms with his parents in the first place, but…

“Long story short, yesterday was also internship day, and I was in a pretty bad mood when we met. Tired, anxious, angry, you name it, I had it. Thankfully there's no news coverage, and I didn't want to bring it up, either… but Kettle… knows me well enough to tell when I’m faking it. And how to push my buttons. The prodding got the best of me, eventually; really, this irritating bitch can get under my skin with an efficiency you can only dream of… but anyway, I was so pissed... like, borderline feral, that even they were surprised. Which, in turn, made me feel like a wreck once I realized what I was doing. So they hammered the last nail into the coffin by putting on their calmest, most civil face, -a rarity, really,- to ask the single, logical question in that situation. And I caved. For a dreadful moment I honest to god thought Kettle would make fun of me, you know. What kind of number two hero has their mother stuck in detox every three months…? Fuck, if not for the bar fight, I wouldn't even know she relapsed two whole years ago already! But, uh… they… seemed to understand. We had a therapy session for peasants at my place, then. Kinda like what we have sometimes. And that's when it really got…” Tongue click. “… heavy.”

Rumi’s ears have been attentive and alert, but hearing this makes them part. She takes a second-long break; there's something that usually helps Hawks sleep a little better. And heart-to-hearts tend to push him over the brink, hell, some nights they do this just so he can get some rest. “… You cried.”

With some delay, he nods. “… I did.”

She lets out a tired sigh. “Managed to weird ‘em out, huh.”

“Actually… it ended up being a half drunk weeping contest for the emotionally constipated,” he muses, eyes staring into a scene from the past, located somewhere past the pen in his right hand. “They opened up a little to me, too. Which was new, but… comforting. I learned that while my mother frequents the station, Kettle’s mom has been hospitalized with a severe case of mental breakdown since they were a teen. They miss her… but cannot visit. They fear that showing their scarred face would make her relive the freak show that resulted in her being sent there in the first place.”

“ … Jesus. Both of you sound like the life of the party when running a hashtag-mood.”

The remark brings back the shadow of his happy smile. “I guess so. But, guess what?”

Hers returns as well; they reached the nice part. “What?”

“I ended up leaning onto Kettle… and them onto me. We hugged it out… and stayed like that for like an hour, the sniffling messes we were. And in the morning… I woke up in the arms of someone, warm and safe… sun shining into the room, little bastard relatives chirping outside. I could even smell fresh coffee being made someplace, coming from the open window. And that… that felt divine.”

Rumi takes a delighted sigh. “The life, bitch. That's… the life.”

“Yeah.”

They lie around like that for a few minutes, sprawled on the counter as the noises of the still busy restaurant creep back into their little bubble before it inevitably pops. Hawks breaks the comfortable silence then. “All in all… I admit that you have been right about me all along.”

Her feet bounce an increasingly impatient rhythm against the metal frame as her mood and blood pressure lift back to normal. “Right about what? You are a felon for not supporting pugs, an abomination for even daring to look at pineapple pizza, and an absolute disgrace for turning down ghost peppers! Be more clear, dammit.”

Hawks tosses the long forgotten pen onto the form pile and leans in closer, hiding his mouth with his hands from view. He breathes it in a whisper so low, only people with superhuman hearing or big ole rabbit ears could catch his voice right now. It’s time to make her day, too. “Rumi, I think… I'm hella gay.”

She reflexively does a little hop on the stool as a very high pitched “Holy shit…!” escapes her mouth, turning some heads. Seeing that it's the two of them up to their usual shenanigans, the few people return to their own worries and discussions.

It takes her inhuman effort not to screech like a hare on the spot; punching the air and gasping for it, she calms down eventually. Having found a semblance of self-restraint, she leans back down in, aggressively whispering to him: “First of all, told you so, and more importantly!! Bitch, you're in love, and didn't tell me?!”

As much as Hawks enjoyed watching her outburst, he finds himself sinking behind his arms now. The incessant grin is back in its full glory and is starting to hurt his cheeks, which have turned very pink in color. An unconvincing “nah” is the only thing he can muster.

Rumi breaks into some light-hearted cackling as she moves over, then gently peels Hawks’ defenses off of him to have a closer look. “Bruuuh…! You are in full rose textured shojo manga mode. That's adorable.”

There’s an attempt at rebuilding said defenses. “Shut it, you overgrown furry.”

She’s unperturbed by the lukewarm defensive taunt. “And you kinda smell like smoke from up close, too~ It’s your first love, right? Aaah, baby boy’s growing up, I’m so happy for you…!” With that, Hawks receives a spine shattering hug.

“Rumimyribs,” is all he can squeak before the gesture does more than just some joint popping. He’s had a near-death experience with these ever since the first time she did that, holy shit.

“Hee hee~ I didn’t forget you’ve got bones made of glass, don’t worry.” She pops back down onto her seat while Hawks gets over the scare. “Sooo... when are you gonna introduce me to your boyfriend?”

“It’s… just a crush, man. He’s… not my boyfriend…” Even thinking about it feels weird… and saying it… really is something else.

She nods. “He doesn’t know it yet! Gotcha.”

Siiigh. “Girl, I can’t just…” STOP, stop… hold the damn phone right there. Ending that sentence would birth more questions to dodge, and he’s not up for brain work at the moment. With a dismissive wave, Hawks restarts the answer. “Anyway, you've seen him already at the very least, so there’s that.” That's all she needs to know- they both know a number of people with fucked-up faces, she won’t admit possibly having missed him, and this… will destroy her.

“… well shit. Now I'll stay up at night wondering who the fuck it might be.”

Bingo. “You’re welcome.”

“Asshole,” she huffs, swatting his hair before settling for a good ruffling. “… say, baby bird.”

“Hm?”

“Want a drink? It's on me. Let's pop one in honor of your heart throb and first crush.”

... uh-oh. “… Rumi.”

“I hope you know this calls for some supreme shit… let me look for a good place nearby, for after this hell is over.”

She's already typing into her phone. Oh no.

“Rumi.” This does not bode well. He has so much shit to do tomorrow. And here’s this pile of junk, most of which he’s yet to have a look at…

“How’s a Zombie sound?”

“RUMI,,,”

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Justice League review

Sometimes when you expect the worst, you get the best instead. At the very least, you can get something a hell of a lot better than expected, and I have to say, that is most definitely the case here. Justice League is a movie I went in expecting to be a bit disappointed in; it has the clashing styles of dark, intense Zach Snyder and goofy, snarky Joss Whedon, it’s the sequel to some very contentious films (films I enjoy but realize are not the top of the superhero film pecking order), and has tons of awful CGI that looks more at home in a Syfy original movie than a superhero film. Yet despite all this, or maybe even BECAUSE of all this, I greatly enjoyed Justice League.

The story is pretty simple: something is coming, and that something is Steppenwolf, a warrior from Apokolips who wishes to conquer and terraform Earth in the name of his lord and master Darkseid (who is sadly only namedropped once in the whole film). Batman decides it’s time to get a team together to stop this shit, so he tries to recruit Aquaman, Flash, and Cyborg to his team. Wonder Woman joins up with him and Flash happily comes along, but the other two turn out a bit trickier to persuade. Can the team come together in time to stop Steppenwolf, or is this born-to-be-wild Apokolips native gonna be taking Earth on a magic carpet ride to Hell?

So, let me just start off by saying that this movie is pretty messy. This is obviously due to the tragic death of Snyder’s daughter, which caused him to step away and have Joss “Cheatin’” Whedon come in and fuck the tone of the film up in reshoots. Alright, alright, that’s a bit of an exaggeration; as much as I loathe Whedon, he did some good here, and I didn’t really mind the tone clashing that much. To me, it just added to the movies charm, and kind of felt like a good transitional point: BVS was a very dark, grim story, the dawn of justice, so to speak. There was still darkness, but the light was coming. And here in this film that light is coming in full force, the morning sun come to vanquish the horrible night. So yeah, I can dig it. I can’t dig that stupid fucking “landing in Wonder Woman’s boobs” joke, but Flash’s embarrassed face afterwards was too cute for me to be mad at. And I can’t lay all the blame on Whedon either. For instance, it was Snyder who cast Amber Heard as Mera, and in her single scene, she managed to give a performance that rivals Jennifer Lawrence in the X-Men prequel trilogy in terms of awfullness. She gives a wooden, generic performance that has me praying for a Flashpoint movie if only so I can see Gal Gadot cut her stupid fucking head off. Snyder is also responsible for the divisive villain Steppenwolf, but…

...You see, I actually kind of liked him. Steppenwolf is a weird choice, especially when there are so many more interesting Apokolips residents you could send to fight, such as Granny Goodness. Steppenwolf is a choice that baffles me when you have so many more famous characters you could be using here. DC does not have the problems Marvel had when starting the MCU; Marvel’s most iconic villains and heroes were off in the hands of Sony and Fox, and Marvel had to use their B-listers to turn them into icons. DC has no such problem. We could have had Starro be the villain, or Granny Goodness, or really just about any big cosmic threat from DC you could think of. Instead we get the relatively obscure Steppenwolf, and instead of going for his corny Robin Hood-esque outfit from the comics, they instead opt for the clunky black-and-grey armor routine we previously saw with Ares in Wonder Woman.

But I said I liked him, yeah? And despite spending an entire paragraph ranting about him, I actually do. You see, unlike Ares before him, Steppenwolf actually gets a lot of scenes throughout the film, and while his character is about as deep as a puddle on a hot summer’s day, boy howdy is he the most perfect trashy sci-fi villain you can imagine. Ciarán Hinds truly sells this generic villain as a menacing threat despite his very generic motives. The best comparisons I can give is that Wolfie here is a lot like Ronan the Accuser of Guardians of the Galaxy, Kaecillius from Doctor Strange, or Apocalypse from X-Men: Apocalypse. None of those villains I mentioned are particularly deep, but their actors give them weight and presence even though the script and the story don’t seem to. I’d say Steppenwolf can sit at their table; he’s simple, but he’s fun in a trashy B-movie way. All his snarling about his “mother” (as in the Mother Boxes, not Martha this time) really helps. It lends him an old school cheesy charm.

Now, what of our core cast of heroes? As usual, I have nothing but good things to say about Affleck and Gadot. They easily carry this film on their shoulders when it seems like things might start to slack a bit, and they are, as far as I’m concerned, the definitive versions of their respective characters. Wonder Woman and Batman have never been as good on the silver screen. And then we come to Cavill as Superman. I’ve always liked him, but in hindsight I feel like the stories he has been in have kind of failed his character. Superman is a bright, optimistic, shining paragon of truth, justice, and the American Way. And here, in Justice League, he gets to be that for the first time on film in decades. Superman, after getting brought back to life (it’s not really a spoiler, it’s the most obvious thing in the world) and having a badass scene where he beats the shit out of the League in confusion, gets to be his stronghearted, corny, heroic self, and Cavill cements himself as my favorite live-action performance of the Man of Steel.

And what of the newcomers? Of the lot, my favorite is Aquaman, who is a laid-back, funloving jackass with a dirty mouth and a generally carefree attitude. He’s easily the most enjoyable new character in the movie, and Jason Momoa plays him to perfection. I’m super excited to see how he does in his solo film; his portrayal here gives me faith Momoa can manage. The other two newcomers are a bit more of a mixed bag, but let me say, they aren’t AWFUL. Flash here is really the biggest love-or-hate ele,ment, as he makes a lot of jokes, about 50% of which are really cringey and miss their mark, with the other 50% being genuinely funny. Flash has a bit of an interesting character thing going on with his relation to his dad, but this isn’t fully utilized, and Flash is basically there to do all the fast running, and it IS cool when he does. On the plus side, we have an awesome scene where we see him running, and when he runs, time outside his run slows down… except this is when he’s fighting Superman, and you see Clark turn his head towards Flash as he runs and the ensuing reaction from Flash before… well, it’s the minus side: he crashes. Flash crashes a lot in this movie, and it’s annoying.

Cyborg is a similarly divisive character. He definitely grew on me as the film went on; at first my brain rejected him because I’m so used to Khary Payton’s portrayal of him on Teen Titans. He did grow on me and I like him alright, but I feel he really wasn’t given a lot to do in this movie and his character wasn’t explored to any great extent. This is really the flaw of doing these kind of big teamup movies without several films worth of buildup, though I will say that at the very least we get a good basis for the characters who are new, better than what we were given in Suicide Squad at any rate. It’s a serviceable introduction, but boy do I wish we got a little more. And if you think there’s some MCU bias here, this is the kind of problem I had with Age of Ultron too, as well as Iron Man 2, where they introduce so many new characters and do absolutely nothing with them while expecting us to care. Though, again, I will say Justice League does this a lot better than either of those movies as well.

A couple of things I didn’t really get into were the CGI quality and the humor overall; I actually burst out laughing at a few of the jokes, so it evened out with some of the cringier jokes, and while a lot of the CGI in this film was incredibly awful for a multi-million dollar film, I’ve seen worse, and the overall product is still enjoyable. Then there are some things it’s not even worth touching, like the complaints about the Amazons outfits. I can’t believe something so stupid and inconsequential actually became a point of discourse.

So, overall, this is a good movie. It’s not as good as Wonder Woman, but this is yet another step in the right direction for the DCEU. This was fun, entertaining, filled with likable characters… it’s like the polar opposite of Suicide Squad. That film was filled with poorly-developed douches with cheesiness enhancing it to the point the film is only enjoyable as so bad it’s good or trashy cult classic at best (keep in mind I DO have a soft spot for Suicide Squad, I’m just painfully aware of its numerous failures); meanwhile, this film has likable characters with decent enough development and cheesy campiness that honestly enhances the film to the point it feels like a sci-fi action film of old at some points. This is a pretty damn good movie, and one of the better hero teamup films. I hope the DCEU can learn from what worked best about this film and apply it to their upcoming projects, because if they do I think they’ll make more classics to rival the MCU. I definitely recommend checking this film out if you enjoy superhero movies, because this one is, despite or even because of its flaws, a lot of fun.

The post-credits scene has Luthor and Deathstroke meet up to start plotting to create a Legion of Doom. This is an interesting development, one I hope they actually follow up on unlike all that “Knightmare” bullshit from BVS. It might give Eisenberg room to actually grow and develop into his role as Luthor; his brief appearance here certainly seemed a lot more tolerable, though he had about one minute of screentime, so who knows. One more thing: there are rumors around that there’s actually a director’s cut that follows Snyder’s vision more closely, and honestly, I’d be interested to see it if only for comparison’s sake. I mean, we have two versions of Superman II, so why not Justice League?

Whatever the case, I’m happy the DCEU is doing some good shit now.

[ethanalter]

Emmys: ‘Master of None’ Co-Star Lena Waithe On Crafting Her Coming Out Episode, ‘Thanksgiving’

Lena Waithe as Denise and Aziz Ansari as Dev in Netflix’s Master of None (Credit: Netflix)

As we enter Emmy season — nomination voting runs June 12 to June 26 — Yahoo TV will be spotlighting performances and other contributions that we feel deserve recognition.

As the co-creator, star, executive producer, and a writer/director of Master of None, Aziz Ansari is the face of the acclaimed Netflix series, which earned him an Emmy for Outstanding Writing last year. But Ansari and his alter ego, struggling actor and foodie Dev Shah, take a backseat in two of Season 2’s standout episodes. For example, the sixth installment, “New York, I Love You,” offers up a triptych of stories following New Yorkers who exist outside of Dev’s day-to-day life.

And while Dev is very much present in the eighth episode, “Thanksgiving,” it’s not his story that’s being told. Instead, this moving, hilarious half-hour puts his friend Denise, played by Lena Waithe, front and center for an autobiographical account based on her own experience coming out to her mother, portrayed onscreen by Angela Bassett. “What’s so cool about Aziz is that he’s the sort of dude that wants to surround himself with really interesting people,” the actress tells Yahoo TV about creating an episode where the ostensible star plays second fiddle. “He really wants to be able to pass the ball, and that’s how I want to work as well.”‘

It’s worth noting that life doesn’t completely imitate art in “Thanksgiving,” which takes place over the course of multiple Turkey Days, starting in the early ’90s and ending in the present day. Writing her first Master of None script in collaboration with Ansari, Waithe says that certain liberties were taken in terms of characterization and incident. But she hopes her own experience can inspire similar stories from other artists. “We’re ready for more stories like this,” she says emphatically. “There could be a show all about a queer person of color and her friends, and people would show up for it. I think they’re hungry for it!”

We spoke with Waithe about the writing process that resulted in “Thanksgiving,” and how her mom reacted when she learned she’d be played by Angela Bassett.

Lena Waithe as Denise in Netflix’s Master of None (Photo: Netflix)

“Thanksgiving” obviously came from a very personal place, as most of the Master of None episodes do. How did you translate your own life into this episode? A lot of it came out of a conversation I had with the writers about my life. They asked the question, “How did you come out? What was it like?” and I started to tell them. I was very honest, and that conversation was very animated. Afterwards, they were like, “Yes, that’s the story we have to tell, because we haven’t seen it before.” I actually didn’t think my story was that special! But Aziz and Alan [Yang, Master of None‘s co-creator] said that there was something really cool about it. The writers are the ones who came up with the way to frame it, so that we could get all of the information into one episode.

So the idea of structuring the episode around multiple Thanksgivings emerged from the writers’ room? Or was that also based on your life? It was definitely in the writers’ room, but the Thanksgiving idea was based on stories I told them about women talking around the table, and the conversations we would have. I thought it was so smart to play with those different timeframes; once they told me that I was like, “Oh, that’s brilliant.” Aziz and I were able to hit the ground running once we got that framework.

Dev has elements of Aziz in him, but also has his own distinct personality. How different is Denise from you? I think the biggest difference is that she’s a lot more laid back; I’m more animated, a little bit more high strung, and a little louder. But I’m just as blunt, we have a similar fashion sense, and I go hard for my friends. This was the first time I’d ever written anything for myself, and I stretched myself a little bit in writing it. I’m familiar with the tone of the show, and I definitely know the guidelines in which we color in. To me, it was more fun writing for the mother, for Catherine. It’s harder to write for Dev, so I would always tell Aziz, “You handle that,” because it was so specific to his voice. There was no weirdness between Aziz and I as we were writing it; we were literally passing the laptop between us like a basketball.

Angela Bassett as Catherine in Netflix’s Master of None (Photo: Netflix)

Speaking of Catherine, what elements are there to her character that you based directly on your own mother? The big thing was that I wanted to make sure she felt human, and that she wasn’t the villain. She was just a person that had this thing thrust upon her that she wasn’t very well equipped to handle. That happened in real life, so I really wanted to make sure that came across, and the fact that even though she doesn’t always know the right things to say, a lot of her [actions] come out of love and protection for her kids. A lot of people have said to me that they love that she’s not damning her daughter to hell, and she’s not disowning her. It’s more a case of, “I can’t wrap my brain around this, so excuse me while we go on this bumpy road to comfort level.”

She’s different than my mom, because my mom’s not a television character, so there was a lot more to lean on. Angela really created the character; she understood what we were doing, and brought her own flair to it. The cool thing about it is that nobody is pointing a finger at the mom and saying, “She’s awful.” Everybody’s saying, “This is just a really refreshing look at what it’s like to come out within a black family.” And I think, to me, that’s a huge triumph, and I take a lot of pride in that.

Kym Whitley as Joyce and Angela Bassett as Catherine in Netflix’s Master of None (Photo: Netflix)

Are the other two women in the episode, the aunt and the grandmother, also based on people in your own life? Absolutely. The grandmother is loosely based on my grandmother, my mother’s mom, who passed away, so it’s definitely very much a tribute to her. She’s the one smoking cigarettes with plastic on the couches, and saying crazy stuff. That was her all day long! I do have a biological aunt, my mom’s sister, so Aunt Joyce is a combination of her and a lot of my mom’s friends who were very much my “play aunts” growing up. In the episode, we never specify if Joyce is Catherine’s sister or friend, and I love that the lines are blurred. My mom has a lot of close female friends, and they all had different ways of gossiping, different ways of talking about what was going on in the world, and different ways of talking s**t. So Kym Whitley [who plays Joyce] is really, I think, the unsung hero of the episode. She embodies all of these black women that you’ve ever met, and that you know have your back.

What was your reaction when you found out you’d be acting opposite Angela Bassett as your mom? Honestly, I thought she was a little out of our league. You can ask Melina [Matsoukas, who directed “Thanksgiving”] and Aziz; I literally told them, “Y’all are crazy. This is not going to happen.” But Aziz was like, “We’ve got to reach for the stars. Let’s see what happens.” I was in London at the time, and he emailed me saying, “It’s looking good.” And then two days later, he was like, “She’s doing it.” It made me go, “We’re making something really important now! We can’t bulls**t; Angela Bassett is gonna be on set!” [Laughs] We had the episode written, and were making changes and tweaks to it, so I think we all realized we had to step it up.

What was it like telling your mom that she’d be played by Angela Bassett? Here’s the funny thing: she actually found out before I could tell her! We were trying to keep it under wraps, and Angela went to the Emmys and was on the red carpet when someone asked her, “What do you have coming up?” She blew the lid off by saying, “I’m going to go play Denise’s mom on Master of None.” People ran with the story, and that’s how my mom found out. She was really excited and happy.

What was your favorite scene to write in “Thanksgiving,” and which was your favorite to perform? The one that I enjoyed writing the most was the scene between Catherine and Joyce after Denise has just come out to her. I like writing for black women period, and there’s nothing more amazing or hilarious than two older black women who are single as hell, talking about a young woman being gay and what that means. It was like they were playing tennis — it was awesome. People expect Denise’s coming out scene to be the one I liked performing the most, and I loved doing it. But I really liked the scene at the table with Nikki [the second girlfriend that Denise brings home, played by Erica Mena]. It legit felt like a family, and Erica did a phenomenal job poking fun at herself. We found our groove in those scenes at the table, and it was really fun to shoot.

One of the things that Master of None does really well is illustrating how specific cultural stories can also be universal. We’ve seen coming out stories told before, but “Thanksgiving” tells it from the perspective of a black woman coming out to her mom. How did you find the universality in what was a very specific experience for Denise? When I write, I don’t necessarily think about making something universal. Whenever a thing is very specific to someone’s experience, it can’t help but be universal. The thing I hate the most is when people write up the middle, because when you do that no one can really relate to it. It feels like you’re actively trying to appeal to everybody, and it goes to that saying about “if you try to please everyone, you’ll please no one.” This might make me some enemies out here in the world, but I don’t have a desire to please everybody. I just don’t. I’m an artist, and I want to make things that are specific, honest, and fresh that appeal to me and my senses. It’s my job as an artist to keep my finger on the pulse; that way if things that only appeal to me stop appealing to the world, it means I have to get out in the world and touch people. Writing something that is specific and makes me laugh is how comedians work. If they tell a joke that doesn’t make them laugh, how can they expect to make somebody else laugh?

Are there any specific prejudices within the black community about gay rights and coming out that you wanted to make sure you hit through writing this — not as a lesson, but something for families to watch and come to some sort of understanding? I think there are prejudices in every group. That’s made very clear in the scene with teenage Denise when she comes out to Dev. She says, “Some black people think being gay is a choice.” But no group is a monolith; I’ve seen images on the Today show of black parents who have trans kids and they’re super-embracive. I think it’s more generational than it is cultural. Now, remind you, there are elements of the culture that speak to some of these elements of homophobia. As each generation passes, the easier being out and being yourself will become. It’s the old ways of thinking that we have to rid ourselves of. My mother and aunts are of a different generation, and came to this belief system that we, as a minority, have to do everything we can to assimilate into our society. That means being married, getting a house, having a good job, and being a contributing member of society. For my generation, it’s about, “I may not wanna have kids” or “I may not wanna buy a house with a white picket fence.” It’s about changing up the status quo.

In terms of deciding the personalities of the two women Denise brings home to meet her family — the level-headed Michelle, and the wacky Nikki — how many variations on those characters did you explore? Michelle [played by Ebony Obsidian] is loosely based on my actual girlfriend, Alana, this very professional, awesome girl who’s very much my equal and we just vibe. No shade to the Nikkis in this world, but there are phases you go through when you date people like that. You want somebody to have fun with; they may not be your level intellectually, but you’re just like, “This is fun, we’re vibing, I like looking at you, and we have more sexual chemistry than we do an emotional one.” Aziz and I liked the idea of Denise bringing home a chick that’s not as popular with her family, but they didn’t love the first girl either because she was a girl. I’ve only brought home one girl, and that girl is the girl I’m currently with, because I know how significant that is. Even when you’re straight, bringing home people is weird. When you’re gay, it’s even more heightened, and I think we kinda wanted to show that gay people go through those weird dating phases, too.

Assuming the show doesn’t return, as Aziz has suggested, do you have an idea in your mind as to where Denise goes next in her life? Sure. I think that’s just the writer in me. I hope she eventually gets engaged. Maybe have a kid, and be a cool radio personality. She’s very blunt, and I think she has a great voice. I want her out there giving her opinions about things that are going on in the world. She’s sort of like a black Judge Judy, and I would love for her to have a job where she gets to give her blunt advice to not just Dev, but to everybody. That’ll be my dream for her.

Since Dev’s culinary series, BFFs, is defunct, maybe he and Denise could team up for an advice show. I’d love that! Advice from Denise & Dev. We’ve already got the title! [Laughs]

Master of None is currently streaming on Netflix.

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[davidmann95]

Thoughts on Scott's Justice League?

So I don’t think we can discuss the current Justice League without bringing up Metal. Not just because it’s essentially the first arc, but because Justice League as a followup to that recontextualizes what it is. Metal, dearly as I love it, does very similar things to plenty of event comics over the last decade: things suddenly go completely to hell in a way that illustrates moral and philosophical failings on the part of our heroes coming to a grotesque head, and it might truly be the end this time until the champions pull through at the last, heralding a bold new age of heroism…and then everything keeps being miserable as shit and we repeat it all next year because the problem persists, still crying out for a symbolic slaying. Metal is that to a T.

Except Snyder along with Tynion actually stuck around to assure the follow-through. And while he’s moved past the sort of overt riffs that defined most of his collaborations with Capullo, what he’s done here fulfills the same promise as their Batman run: lulling a franchise into something noticeably closer to how Grant Morrison’s vision for how it should work, with Snyder’s slicker, more bombastic, action-movie commercial sensibilities succeeding at selling those ideas where Morrison didn’t. Except in this case it isn’t just that Batman’s cool and aspirational. It’s the model for the entirety of DC Comics.

I don’t know that this is the best Justice League thing. It isn’t as perfectly poppy and clever as Morrison’s own JLA or as funny and character-driven as the animated series (the two obvious influences), Orlando’s ersatz effort at handling a side book as if it were made up of A-listers yielded likely more profound results in isolation, and Priest and Woods’ immediately pre-Snyder run was pretty inarguably better put together on a nuts-and-bolts craftsmanship level while also succeeding at making it the ‘serious’ title people had been trying and failing to for years beforehand, making it the perfect final word on that era. But it’s absolutely the story that most potently synthesizes all the stuff that makes the Justice League work in the massive, iconic sense. It’s big threats, it’s inter-team bonding and drama, it’s grand spectacle and mythology and iconography, it’s puzzles the size of the world met with impossible come-from-behind victories, it’s cosmic and moral horror and shining inspiration, it’s Superman punching a fool so hard time explodes.

Let’s hover on the spirit of that last bit for a second. This is the lead book for DC as a lineup in a way Geoff Johns’ Justice League tried and failed to be (in so many ways this feels like what we would have expected a Geoff Johns Justice League run to look like once upon a time - this big loony generative fanboy thing building on the structure of existing mythology and relationships to construct a megaphone to scream the theme through), dictating the direction and tone of the entire line. And the first arc ends with a Flash-powered car driving around the Earth so fast it turns into a White Lantern; later Space Krakens get involved. When Metal came out I said it was impressive that it managed to feel like it had changed everything even though surely it couldn’t have, but now I’m not so certain; we’ve got astro-gorillas in the first issue of Bendis Superman, Morrison’s got Green Lantern, Tom King’s Very Serious Batman involves his parallel universe dad and Kite Man. The rock star spirit Snyder was heralding with Batman and trying to spread to the rest of the line with Metal has at last broken loose, and we’re back into superheroism as the world of the casual ineffable bizarre, the core of the shared DCU headspace huffing nitrous and slamming on the pedal until its heel breaks through the floor as Superman uses his X-ray vision to block an invisible evil galaxy from firing waves of pure self-loathing at Earth until Flash can stand still enough to unlock the true nature of the multiverse as he learned to do from a mean baby wielded against him by a gorilla. Justice Incarnate, this decades’ most perfect encapsulation of everything strange and wonderful about DC that was clearly NEVER going to show up again is now a semi-regular presence, and Justice Legion Alpha apparently aren’t far behind. It’s all odd and beautiful and exciting again, just like we all knew deep down it was always supposed to be.

Outside the context of the DCU as a whole, it’s still a perfect capstone to Snyder’s career. The final transfer from his initial haunted house horrors to roller coaster thrills, and the upscaling of his themes of the aspirations of our best selves vs the primal lure of our worst into the moral axis on which the entire hero/villain dichotomy of DC rests, and literally having who wins the argument determine the death or evolution of all of reality. For me, this is the best incarnation of his old saw, because when it’s framed as being directly placed in the hands of Folks Like Us which kind of world this is going to be, it asks both the moral question AND the interrogation of what kind of power fantasy we actually want the cape-and-tights crowd to represent.

It’s also a capstone in terms of seeing how many artistic prisms his sensibilities can be filtered through, utterly changing the vibe while maintaining the impact, and resulting in easily the best the main Justice League title has ever looked. Jim Cheung’s shining blockbuster theatrics; Francis Manapul’s classical statuesque bombast; Howard Porter sticking his head in as a tip of the hat to the JLA roots; Javier Fernandez’s grungy, inky, yet springy cartoon action fitting the decline of a vibrant superhero universe perfectly; the likes of Doug Mahnke, Mikel Janin, Frazier Irving, and Guillem March doing one-offs and fill-in work; Steven Segovia and Daniel Sampere’s clean, traditional superheroic lines; and the main artist and MVP, Jorge Jimenez, whose energy and acting and velocity and overtly manga-inspired flourish makes it the most purely enjoyable, exciting book about the slow agonizing end of everything that’s ever been put to paper. All fit the tone, all make it their own.

Do I have issues? Certainly. Snyder’s writerly tics are still present (though offloading a lot of the monologuing to third-person narration has I think helped enormously), giving Tynion and his more character-centric work a foothold on the villainous issues - and for that matter giving them far more standalone character pieces than the heroes - makes it unintentionally feel like their argument hold primacy, a handful of members are characterized somewhat generically (particularly Wonder Woman, which is a surprising shame given she’s who Snyder has mostly talked about writing next), and likely a few other quibbles I could think of. But by and large, this remains one of the best titles on the stands: the collective scope of the DCU, all the sprawling universe-shaking structures and dopey detritus, smashing its biggest most meaningful toys up against one another for the fate of everything but EVERYTHING, where the soul of any given schlub on the street is going to determine the destiny of the multiverse. It’s not the singular best DC (though it’s proudly part of the best-of-DC crowd), but by god, it’s going to be the singular MOST DC or it is going to burn the world down trying.