#“his death” equivalent in Arkham knight

[oifaaa]

Have you played arkham knights yet? Been watching Jason's part and I kinda like it

Yep played it for the first time I think a year ago and absolutely adored it from start to finish funniest thing was I was wearing my fit bit and I noticed when I was playing the section where jasons chasing you in like a giant crusher my heartbeat was going 135bpm

[fridge-reviews]

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

Developer: Monolith Productions Publisher: Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment Rrp: £15.99 (Humblebundle and Steam) Released: 30th September 2014 Available on: Humblebundle and Steam Played Using: Xbox One Control Pad Approximate game length: 16 Hours

I doubt there is a single game genre that the Lord of the Rings franchise hasn't been 'officially' pushed into (fan games don't count). However there was a time when open world wasn't one of them. That seems really strange now given that it seems like such an obvious choice, but things are always obvious after the fact. I do have to admit though, the open world genre really does suit it.

The game is set in Tolkien's Middle-Earth between the events of The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring. You play as Talion, a man who has been cursed to be 'banished from death', meaning that until the curse is lifted he cannot die, not truly. This might seem like a benefit (and mechanically speaking it is) but thematically it's a fate worse than death for Talion who was forced to watch his family be slaughtered by invading Uruks and is unable to join them in the afterlife. A part of this curse also links Talion to the soul of a long dead elf and this is when I start to question how this is a curse rather than a boon, because this elven wraith grants you a lot of abilities that are most certainly positive.

Scattered around the world are Forge Towers, these are towers that you have to scale and activate to reveal the missions and collectibles that are within a region on your map. Essentially these are the equivalent of radio towers in the Far Cry games (or most other Ubisoft games). As was mentioned before, Talion is 'banished from death' which means that when he dies he gets respawned at a Forge Tower (I believe its the nearest but I'm not entirely sure).

Handily the icons on the map tell you which missions advance the story and which are side quests, meaning you can avoid the main mission and go explore the world.

In typical RPG fashion killing enemies and completing missions gains experience which will eventually lead to gaining ability points. As you would expect with ability points, you spend them to unlock new powers.

Finding collectibles, completing side missions and challenges earns a resource called mirian along with awarding you with experience points. Mirian is used to to purchase upgrades such as increased health etc.

You can use your wraith powers to stun enemies, interrogate them for intel and later on dominate their minds so that they fight for you.

Information gained through interrogations will reveal the name, location and power rating of the selected Uruk Captain within Saurons army. Further information can be attained by interrogating 'worms' which are specific Uruk's that will reveal a Captains strengths and weaknesses. This power rating is an indication of how powerful that Captain is and the more powerful a Captain is when defeated the greater the reward is for doing so. A Captain that survives a fight (or even an interaction) with you will increase in power, they also will make a point of mentioning how you died or ran away last time.

Combat in this game is pretty similar to that of Assassin's Creed or the Batman: Arkham games (Arkham Asylum, Arkham City and Arkham Knight). It's all a matter of keeping an eye on the button prompt that appears above an Uruks head so that you can counter them or dodge away. The best part of combat though for me was performing the combat executions, which you can only do when you breach a specific hit streak amount. They're just so visceral and very impressive looking.

Of course, you don't always have to kill these Uruks in huge group melees, you can be subtle about it and sneak in bushes taking them down one by one. Or snipe them from a distance with your bow. Or you could combine all three, which is likely how things will go because it's rare to find an Uruk all alone.

Uruks that kill you can challenge existing Captains within Sauron's army (or fill a gap left behind by a Captain you've killed), if they win the challenge the become promoted to Captain. You can even assist in their ascent if you wish by going to 'challenge' events and killing their opponents. Now you may be wondering why you would want to assist in their ascent, the answer is actually simple and relates to a previous paragraph, the more powerful a Captain is when they are killed the better the reward is.

I've mentioned that killing Captains gives you a reward a few times now but not actually said what the reward is, well now is the time. The reward for killing an Uruk Captain is a rune, either for your sword, bow or dagger. At the start of the game you can only equip one rune on a weapon at a time but if you spend mirian to upgrade the weapon it will be able to hold up to five runes. These runes have all sorts of benefits and there are a great many to find, some will heal you upon each successful kill, others increase the damage you cause etc.

I found the default field of view to be too close to the character, this meant that sadly I did have to mod this game slightly to increase it. Normally I would be against such an action, however, it seems that this is a peculiar quirk of the PC release for this game, the console versions apparently had a wider field of view on release. Because of this I've determined my slight modification to the game as a fix rather than an alteration.

In all honesty its the nemesis system that raises this game from being a fairly standard open world game into something more special. A great example of this is while I played I was killed by some random Uruk, that Uruk was then given a name, a title and became a Captain. I was so incensed by him killing me that I specifically hunted him down. Sadly I failed to kill him in three separate occasions so I saw what was once a random Uruk eventually reach the highest echelon he could. With each fight he would taunt me and I was so immensely satisfied when I finally killed him that I actually cheered. It was a totally unique and organic experience which caused me to completely ignore the main plot until I had finally killed him.

This game is definitely worth its current asking price and you don't even need to be all that familiar with the Lord of the Rings franchise to enjoy it. I highly recommend this game. Now I just have to see if the DLC's are worth their salt.

If this appeals to you perhaps try;

Middle-Earth: Shadow of War Assassin's Creed 2 Batman: Arkham Asylum

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If you’d like to support me I have a Ko-fi, the reviews will continue to be posted donation or not.

[rin-the-shadow]

All Right! Buckle up everyone! It's time for my equivalent of the Vizzini poison cup debacle, but regarding Arkham Riddler vs Audio Adventures Riddler in terms of who is the silliest.

On the one hand, Arkham Riddler puts people in Jigsaw-like death traps, which is clearly not a silly thing to do, whereas Audio Adventures Riddler can put on a menacing show, but most of his traps turn out not to be all that dangerous.

But on the other hand, Arkham Riddler puts a lot of silly little doodles all over the place in Arkham Knight, and the highly detailed Batmobile drawing next to a cartoonish one of Batman is kind of silly.

At the same time, Audio Adventures Riddler is a total drama king in close to all of his appearances, and is so completely theatrical about it that he straight up hijacked a variety show to use as a venue for his crimes.

Then again, Arkham Riddler can also be quite dramatic, and his audio for his riddles in Arkham City clearly indicates that someone was having fun writing them. And of course, there's also a lot of his commentary in Arkham Knight becomes unintentionally funny due to his delivery on the lines and occasional fumbling over double-meanings he didn't consider.

However, Audio Adventures Riddler also has the dorky uncle mode that makes itself known in like half his interactions with Miss Tuesday, and his determination to convince her that his schemes are cool can be pretty funny. There's also the way the entire podcast basically devolves into a ham-fest every time he and Batman are in shouting distance of each other.

Buuuuuut...it could be argued that Arkham Riddler also attempts to turn things into a ham-fest whenever Batman is around, and only fails to do so because Batman won't play along. Is it fair to deduct points due to the tone of the story he's in, or should that be a deduction?

[jjorbles]

(Repost) Why Batman should never use guns

Note: This article was originally posted September 16th, 2014 on the Agony Booth, which I used to write for. Since that site is sadly no longer with us, I’m reposting my old articles here.

Oh, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. Will I ever not be talking about you? Every time I think I’m done and can forget about you until next year, another damn picture comes out that I have to discuss. It’s beginning to feel like watching Zack Snyder’s Twitter feed is my whole job now.

In this case, as you’re likely already aware, the picture under scrutiny is the above image of the new Batmobile design. I’m not a fan of it overall; maybe it’s just the angle, but it seems to be a knockoff of the “Tumbler” from Christopher Nolan’s movies with a minimal hint of the ‘89 look. It’s just plain ugly with no style and nothing recognizably “Batmobile-ish” about it*.

[*So hopefully they’ll never actually call it the Batmobile, like they did with the Tumbler, so I don’t have to ever recognize it as the actual Batmobile.]

But aesthetics aren’t what we’re here to talk about. What I’m here to focus on are these things right here:

As if it wasn’t tank-like enough already, this new “Batmobile” has a prominently displayed gun turret on its front hood. There is some precedent for this: I’m told the Batmobile in the upcoming Arkham Knight video game has a similar look, and the Batmobile in the ‘89 film sported hidden artillery under the hood. But this is the first time a movie has featured Batman driving something quite so aggressively militarized in appearance. Likely, it’s meant as yet another reference to The Dark Knight Returns, which from all accounts Dawn of Justice is heavily influenced by, and which featured a huge, tank-like Batmobile armed with rubber bullet-loaded cannons.

As with anything that involves Batman and guns, controversy is unavoidable. The Caped Crusader has a long and complicated history with firearms, and even among the fans, there’s still much disagreement on what Batman’s relationship with guns is or should be. Like any fan, I have an opinion of my own, and given the title of this post, you can probably guess what it is. I don’t think Batman should use guns, regardless of what they’re mounted on. There are reasons for this beyond the political*. It goes straight to the whole idea and psychology of the character.

[*But in the interest of full disclosure: I support gun control, and tend to gravitate towards fictional characters with an aversion to guns. So feel free to pigeonhole anything else I say as part of my “agenda”, if it makes you feel better.]

For context, let’s go back to the beginning. When Batman first appeared in the pages of Detective Comics, as pro Bat-turret supporters are quick to point out, he had no issue with guns or lethal force in general. In those early days, he was frequently seen carrying a pistol, and he sometimes casually slew his enemies, or at the very least showed no remorse when the occasional crook bit it along the way.

However, this gun-toting Batman was very short-lived, lasting only a handful of issues. Batman in these early stories had yet to really develop an identity of his own, borrowing heavily from the Shadow, with a little bit of Zorro thrown in. After his origin was eventually established, writers latched onto the idea of Batman having a code of conduct that forbade using firearms or killing his enemies, and it stuck. It’s become every bit as iconic and important to his character as the death of his parents. Almost every time Batman has been seen holding a gun, it’s universally recognized as code for “Something is seriously wrong with Batman!” Often, it appears on covers as a WTF tease to suck readers in. In many ways, the gun, or at least the use of one, is Batman’s equivalent of kryptonite.

But while it’s pretty universally accepted that Batman doesn’t use guns as a rule in the comics, the movies tend to be less consistent. In seven films, there’s only been one concrete reference to Batman refusing to use guns, when he tells Selina Kyle, “No guns, no killing,” in The Dark Knight Rises. And while no director has ever gone so far as to have Batman pick up a glock, many playfully skirt around the issue any way they can.

As previously mentioned, the Batmobile and other vehicles piloted by the Dark Knight frequently feature guns and other artillery. The rule against killing has been even more brazenly ignored, with Batman frequently sending foes to certain death with either casual indifference or willful intent, the most galling of which was the infamous “I won’t kill you, but I don’t have to save you” moment from the end of Batman Begins.

This has, I’ve noticed, led to a certain divide among Batman fandom. For fans who mostly know the character from the movies, his rules against guns and killing are far less firmly established than it is for fans of the comics or the various animated series. This has led to a large portion of Batman fans coming to the conclusion that Batman’s code is not a hard and fast rule, or if it is, it shouldn’t be. They argue that Batman not killing his foes or refusing to use a gun under any circumstances is impractical. In real life, in order to truly make an impact on crime, Batman would have to kill people, and throwing the Joker repeatedly back in Arkham only to have him escape again and kill more people isn’t doing anyone any good.

To me, this argument misses the point of Batman entirely. First, it’s completely irrelevant to argue practicality about fictional stories, especially stories in science fiction or fantasy settings like comic books. Yes, in the real world, Batman would probably find himself in desperate kill-or-be-killed situations that would force him to off people quite frequently. But Batman doesn’t live in the real world. He lives in Gotham City, an exaggerated pulp/noir universe perpetually stuck in a pseudo-‘30s art deco world where a gangster movie is happening on every street corner every damn night. Batman doesn’t find himself in those situations because the writers are under no obligation to put him in those situations. Batman’s entire arsenal and fighting style are designed around nonlethal force. Batman can always take care of any situation with a Batarang instead of a gun, because it’s fiction and he can do whatever the writers need him to do. And the reason he keeps imprisoning the Joker over and over despite how futile it seems is no one wants to kill off Batman’s most popular nemesis. Duh.

But more importantly, arguing practicality with Batman is especially pointless, because Batman doesn’t do what he does for practical reasons. In case you didn’t notice, the entire premise of Batman is entirely impractical. If Batman really wanted to combat crime, he’d do far more good simply using his personal fortune to improve the police force, or better yet, to improve the economic situation of the city to wipe out poverty, a proven cause of high crime rates. Dressing up as his childhood boogeyman and going around taking down criminals one at a time would have almost no effect on crime overall. It’s a pointless endeavor that would, at best, only serve to feed his own guilty conscience.

So why do it then? Why become Batman? This is supposedly the “World’s Greatest Detective”; surely, he knows somewhere deep down that this isn’t the best way to go about things. The answer is pretty simple: Batman didn’t become Batman to wipe out crime. He became Batman in order to be the guy he wishes had been there the night his parents were killed.

Bruce Wayne isn’t fighting crime in a practical sense. He’s fighting the idea of crime, and his idea of crime is personified in Joe Chill, the man who murdered his parents. That’s what a criminal is to him. That’s what he must fight, and to do that, he must become crime’s opposite, which for him means Joe Chill’s opposite. Joe Chill was a coward, thus criminals are a “superstitious and cowardly lot”. Joe Chill killed his parents, therefore Batman must never kill. Joe Chill carried a gun, therefore Batman will never use guns. Batman doesn’t shun even the brandishing of guns because he has no use for one, but because guns, to him, are the symbol of everything he’s fighting against. Guns are the tools of superstitious and cowardly criminals. Batman, in his mind, is above them. Murder is an act of desperation that the cowardly Joe Chill resorted to, and Batman must never stoop so low. Batman is anti-crime, and if “crime” is Joe Chill, than Batman must never be anything like Joe Chill, even in appearance.

Batman’s entire character has revolved around this concept ever since the classic story “The Origin of Batman” from Batman #47*. In it, Batman finally tracks down Joe Chill, and must decide what to do now that he’s found him. It’s the defining moment for the character, when he chooses not to take revenge and not to kill.

[*This story was beautifully retold in an episode of Batman: The Brave and the Bold titled “Chill of the Night!”, which you should definitely check out if you haven’t seen it.]

The best Batman stories are usually about this difference between justice and vengeance. Even Batman Begins touched on this point: “Justice is about harmony, revenge is about you making yourself feel better.” Chill is crime and injustice personified, therefore Batman is justice personified. Batman must never kill or carry a gun, not because it wouldn’t do any good to anyone, but because if he did, he wouldn’t be Batman anymore. To kill would make him like the criminal, the enemies of justice, and guns have no purpose but to kill. Guns are the tool of the criminal and therefore unjust. Batman is the enemy of the criminal and must never resort to their tactics.

I’m not necessarily saying this is a correct or even healthy worldview. I’m saying this is how Batman sees things. It’s the entire point of his character. And the more we get away from it, the more he ceases to be Batman. His story begins to lose all meaning, and he becomes just another vigilante action hero. So yeah, Batman driving around in a friggin’ tank bothers me. We’ve already seen these filmmakers get Superman wrong, we’ve seen signs that they’re getting Wonder Woman wrong, and now it seems like not even Batman is going to feel like himself in this movie. You may disagree, but to me, this is yet another sign that this movie is going to be oppressively dull.

[i-became-the-lady-of-the-blog]

Okay, here's alternative for Yuuken so imagine Johnathan Crane/Scarecrow!Yuuken aka Yuuken creates a fear toxin equivalent.

For Yuuken, it could be after Grimm's death, so he wanted the yanderes to experience the same fear that Grimm felt, but the downside of the toxin that it ate away at Yuuken's moral code.

At first, it was vengeance or justice to do this, but then he gotten addicted to fear that the yanderes felt. He never seen people or faes like Lilia and Malleus so paranoid and fearing for their lives. It was addicting to watch them succumb to their fears and with Joker!MC running around causing chaos, it was easier to develop and experiment/improve upon his toxin without a watchful eye on him. He wanted not only the yanderes, but anyone that got in his way to succumb to their fear. After all, Grimm did by dying by the yanderes' own hands with no one beside Joker!MC who went off the rails into their own lunacy. A lost cause since the boys thought that the MC they known/obsessed over is long gone, but a fun agent of chaos to keep the yanderes busy and paranoid while he infects their home full of fear.

Cool idea! When you mentioned this, I thought of Crane form Arkham Knight

MC is cracking up to see yanderes' fears and how they act up while Yuuken terrorizes them. Power Couple MC & Yuuken!

Isn't this sweet justice?

Sike!

Who cares about justice when you can have all the fun in the world?

hmmm does Yuuken find their fears interesting? or research it?

[thevindicativevordan]

What are your thoughts on Batman?

Damn someone asked me about DC's most popular character (I was seriously wondering if I should even bother to make a post about him).

Obviously I have opinions, I don't think there's a single Superman fan out there who is wholly indifferent to this guy, you either love him or hate him. Or if you're a special snowflake like me, you do both at the same time. There's not really anything I can say that people don't know already about Batman, so I'll just offer my perspective.

Look I love Batman, I think he's cool as hell just like the rest of the world. I own a ton of his greatest comics hits in Omnibus and Absolute form. I own a lot of great Batman animated movies like Under the Red Hood and The Long Halloween. The Arkham games were something I spent a ton of time playing (all the while wishing there was a Superman equivalent admittedly) and enjoying. The Nolan Batman movies were some of the first superhero movies I ever saw, and I adored The Dark Knight completely. Animated cartoons like The Batman and Batman: The Brave and the Bold were my jam growing up, and the DCAU Batman played by Conroy absolutely lived up to the hype of being one of the GOAT Batmen when I finally sat down and watched the DCAU. There's a lot of great Batman content coming up that I'm excited for like Reeves The Batman movie and the Batman: The Caped Crusader cartoon.

If we define "GOAT" as being the most successful character than Batman is DC's GOAT character. No one has matched his level of success across multiple media like he has, he's achieved success in every form of medium: Film, video games, TV, radio, animation, novels and of course comics. The closest one is Spider-Man, and even then he still lags behind Bats in a few areas. Batman is pretty much singlehandedly keeping DC afloat considering how they badly mismanaged their other IPs over the years, and for that he deserves appreciation and respect if nothing else.

But he's not my favorite character, and that so much of his success comes at Superman's expense makes me bitter as fuck. So many of his stories involve him sealing his status as top dog by bathing in Clark's blood and I'm just so fucking sick of it. I'm sick of seeing his dumbass parents get their brains blown out in an alley, sick of seeing him cry and use that as an excuse to be a sociopath, sick of him doing heinous stuff and get off with no punishment, sick of Clark having to be the "brawn" to his "brains", sick of people wanting Wonder Woman to just be his girlfriend, sick of Nightwing constantly getting fucked over because he's still Batman's sidekick, sick of his fanboys shilling him to hell and back as the most badass dude to ever walk the Earth who can out preptime Cthulhu but also he's just a regular guy like you and me ;) teehee.

It's so disheartening looking over at how Marvel has made people fans of their entire universe while DC clings to Batman for dear life. People give more of a shit about the two Batmen in the Flash movie than they do about the Flash (not that I blame them but still). Totally understand why, throughout the clusterfuck that DC has been for decades, Batman's been an oasis of stability. The Batman writers have been constantly building up Batman and Gotham into the most fleshed out franchise ever, so that it can support stories ranging from crime noir, to horror, to cyberpunk, to family adventures, to blockbuster action adventures, to globe trotting escapades, and so much more. It's been pretty much an unbroken chain of, at the very least solid, storytelling since O'Neil started returning him to his roots, and Frank Miller took campy Batman to Crime Alley and beat him to death.

None of the other franchises can compete with that, either mired in constant reboots or multiple mantle holders fighting for the top spot. Add on the best Rogues Gallery in comics, the inherent coolness of being a ninja dressed like a demon armed with all the coolest toys and deadliest training, who operates out of his personal cave under his mansion with his butler attending to him, and I get it, I get why he's so popular. Must reiterate that I'm rather fond of the bastard myself.

Just wish his success didn't come at others expense so often is all.

[thegeekerynj]

All Death Metal Review (And nothing from Sweden!)

Death Metal: Trinity Crisis One Shot 

Writer: Scott Snyder   Artist: Francis Manapul

‘And who are YOU supposed to be? I’ve faced enough Dark Knights that no Batman scares me anymore!

Ha! Then it’s a good thing I’m not a Batman! I’m his MOTHER!’

———————————————————————————————————

Sweet Christmas! That took me by surprise!

Harley kissing Jonah Hex, that was really sweet, and gods awful creepy, and kinda gross,  after the exchange, and some thought…

This is it, Gentle Readers… the Beginning of the End of the Beginning of… Oh, crap, now I’m lost… This is where the story starts rockin’!

The Gang’s all together, and the Black Lantern Bat has determined what they need to do.

The plan? Split up, naturally. That AL-ways works…

When we left them in DM #3, the Lanterns are protecting the Home Base, and taking out the Crisis Energy Antennae on the Earths left in the known Universes, The Flashes are off and running through the Speed Force, trying to find Metron, and stay ahead of the Bathattan who Laughs, while the Trinity (Superman / Antilife, Black Lantern Batman and  Warden Wonder Woman) along with Swamp Thing, Harley, Hex and Jarro, head for Castle Bat, to gain access to the Crisis Earths, where the Crisis Energy is being harvested for Perpetua.

**WHEW!**

Getting into the Castle involves getting past an army of Dark Knights… and we have a bunch of real winners here! 

Bat Monday - Salomon Grundy in Bat ears, I could have busted a gut laughing, until I thought about what kind of weapon a zombie with Batman’s training could be, and shivered…

Kull, the daughter of Batman and Wonder Woman, corrupted by the Dark Universe…

Ark, the living embodiment of Arkham, with all of the knowledge and abilities of ALL her worst inmates…

Chiroptor, the amalgam of Batman and Chemo (Great Elder Gods!!)… 

And the Pearl, Martha Wayne, in the equivalent of HellBat Armor, complete with her iconic pearl necklace.

This is a real mindscrew for Batman, and the panels depict it, most intently.

One nice thing about Scott Snyder… he is consistent about tying up loose ends. Once we are in Castle Bat, we find out what happened to Barbatos, the Big Bad from Dark Nights: Metal. Not that we were actually wondering, since we got Perpetual, and the Batman Who Laughs, but, like I said, it ties up the package nicely.

Then, we are introduced to the character I have been most happily waiting for… the Robin King, and his Utility Belt of Death!

Gentle Readers, this is the story we have been waiting for, the chapter which tells us what the Heroes Plan of Action is, and where the story has been going, for over 40 years. You see, the opening page of this book tells us where this story began… with Marv Wolfman and George Perez, and Crisis on Infinite Earths!

Not to spoil too much, but Crisis, Infinite Crisis, and Final Crisis, ]well… they have all played a part in getting us to this story. It seems, the “Crisis Energy’ has fed Perpetua while she was trapped within the Source Wall, and, now, she wants it all, so she can recreate the Universes in her image.

Great job, if you can get it…

I can’t say enough good things about this story and artwork, as Snyder and Manapul have put together a really tight, hard hitting bottle / lead story, bringing us to the next step in the saga… 

Jeebus on a popsicle stick, I hope no one lets me down… that will hurt!

Out of 5🌶        🌶🌶🌶🌶.5

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Death Metal: Multiverse’s End #1

Writer: James Tynion IV   Artist: Juan Gedeon

‘Mr. Rabbit?

Yes, Young Lady?

Thank you for saving me.

What a kind thing to say! It was so scary out there, and you stayed so brave. I don’t think I could have done it without your courage.

You’re really, really soft.

I use a special carrot shampoo.

———————————————————————————————————

Once upon a time, about a million, bazillion years ago in cranky fat man years, somewhere around 1982, Roy Thomas and Scott Shaw! brought Earth-C into the DC Multiverse, the earth of anthropomorphic animals… yes, they brought Super-Hero Cartoon Animals to the Super Hero Universe.

Our introduction to this Earth was Rodney Rabbit, a comics writing and drawing hare, who created the Just’a Lotta Animals comic by day, and was Captain Carrot, a Superman-esque rabbit, who got his powers from super charged carrots, when danger struck.

But, I digress… because I got really excited!

So, we have teams on the 6 Earths, each Earth holding a tuning fork, focusing the psychic pain energy of the population to Perpetual, powering her attempts to recreate the Multiverse in her image. The Earths in play, Earth - 3 (Crime Syndicate), Earth - X (Nazi Earth), Earth - 29 (Bizarroworld), Earth - 43 (Blood League World) and Earth - 50 (Justice Lords Earth) are all worlds of pain and suffering.

Their energy is the right flavor for destroying, and creating.

The heroes, organized and led by the Green Lanterns of Sector 2814 (Hal Jordan, Guy Gardner, John Stewart, Kyle Rayner, Jessica Cruz, Simon Baz), are working to take down the Antennae before the energy can be fed to Perpetual to power her Cosmic Undoing. 

So, teamed with the Lanterns, we have Hawkgirl, Kid Flash (Earth-22), President Superman (Earth-23), Wonder Woman (Earth-6) and Captain Carrot, all hellbent on stopping the respective Antennae.

The problem… Each Earth’s inhabitants have been laced into the antennae, to directly feed the psychic energy to it..since the energy is effectively terror, well, what better way to induce some? Of course, this isn’t the only problem to be contended with…

Leave it to James Tynion IV to come up with a way to make a villain creepier than the Batman Who Laughs… How, you ask? Well, take the true polar opposite of Batman, and make him realize HE IS what Giggles says he is, and you have an interesting new ballgame.

You see, while the Batman who Laughs is the Ultimate CORRUPTED Batman, Owlman is the Anthesis of Batman, the purest EVIL to the Batman’s GOOD. And he plans to make sure that he continues to be the True Opposite…

Gedeon’s artwork is rough, but considering the story being told, and the pain portrayed by the characters, it fits, perfectly. Some times, I see Joe Staton and Nic Cuti in these pages, a little cartoony, but that’s not a complaint… The story concentrates a bunch on Guy Gardner and Cap, so, it seems to fit (and the art is reminiscent of the ‘A Guy and his G’Nort’ storyline from 1991). 

All in all, a very good story, and a fantastic use of a truly underused treasure.

Out of 5🌶        🌶🌶🌶🌶

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Speed Metal #1

Writer: Joshua Williamson   Pencils: Eddy Barrow   Inks: Eber Ferreira

‘Hey, Flash Family, Is it true a Flash has to die in every Crisis?!’

———————————————————————————————————

And the levels of snark from the Darkest Knight have reached Epic Levels!

The first three pages of this issue give us a rehash of everything  having to do with Wally West, since the beginning of the Rebirth Era, from Barry pulling Wally out of the Speed Force, to Barry and Batman finding the Comedian’s Smiley Face button embedded in the Batcave wall, to the events of Heroes in Crisis and Flash Forward.

The action picks up as Barry, Wally, Wallace and Jay leave the Batman’s Vault, in search of Metron’s Chair, with the Darkest Knight hot on their trails. 

In the Speed Force.

With the Darkest Knight’s presence corrupting the Speed Force, Barry and Wally bickering the entire time, I’m reminded of why I hated the post Crisis Flash… Wally wasn’t mature enough to wear the mantle of Barry’s fame.

Sure, he had the speed, he was even faster than Barry, but he was still the same jealous little kid inside, the one who needed to be patted on the head, the one who couldn’t get on with the Titans, even though he was probably the most powerful of them. 

He was just an immature kid, and here, Williamson dragged that all into the foreground once again.

All so Wally West, the King of the Redemption Arc, could have another Redemption Arc…

Sorry, that did me in. 

The rest of the story is pretty good… the art is wonderful, the Jay / Barry / Wallace interplay is really kinda neat, and all the Black Flashes… well, I’m a sucker for Death icons, so a mass of Death Speedsters, well that’s fun with a CAPITAL F!

But, did we need another Wally gets to whine story?

Sorry, this wasn’t the finest arc of the Death Metal Saga.

Out of 5🌶        🌶🌶🌶

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Death Metal #4 ‘Shot In The Dark’

Writer: Scott ‘Scream King’ Snyder   Artist: Greg ‘The Muscle’ Capullo  Inks: Jonathan ‘Bloodied’ Glapion

“So, ever wonder why you never see A Harley Who Laughs’?’

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And, that Gentle Readers, is the crux of one of those puzzles about this series… Why don’t we ever see more twisted versions of the Villains who infest Earth Prime?

The Robin King (this is the character who rates SECOND on my memorable Characters list, especially with his own One-Shot—— Who’s First?? Time, Gentle Ones in time…) puts the explanation out there, and it is very simple.

And worth the read… But, I digress.

So, Issue 4 picks up with Sergeant Rock describing what has been happening on Earth - Prime, and we finally get to see who has been carrying him around… AMBUSH BUG! Yes, the character that made the Fourth Wall more transparent than an open Anderson window has been carrying Rock around as his own personal narrator…

Which, if you know the Bug, is a joke unto itself.

So, here we go, the ride is picking up steam, and we are now following 6, count’em SIX, separate story lines. A guy could get whiplash, or Bullwhip or some other third rate character… But, I digress.

We have the Trinity storyline, the SpeedMetal storyline, Multiverse’s End, and the Lantern Storyline from the last issue, the Justice League / Legion of Doom story… am I forgetting anything? 

Oh, and of course, the Robin King.

Where to start with this… I guess the simplest place to start is the artwork.

Greg Capullo’s pencils are absolutely wonderful. For anybody who it's to watch the process of drawing I want to watch so he's got a really wonderful touch I recommend Greg Capullo’s Instagram site. As he's drawing pages for these books, he posts the pencils as he finishes pieces of the process . Normally, he has six or seven photo panels showing exactly what he's been doing.  In man cases, this involves crowd scenes, with extensive detail. His work is beautiful, it’s easy to see why he is such a sought after talent.

Jonathan Glapion’s inks on Capullo’s pencils are comparable to Austin on Byrne, and Janson over Miller, Janson over Colan… Enhancing, and not hiding the intricate detail rendered in the pencils, adding that last flash of lightning to bring it all together. The balance struck between them is almost organic, a constant growth between the two, bringing them to levels bordering on the true Classic Art teams of the last 50 years.

I do not make these comparisons lightly

Now, to the story. Scott Snyder is powering a roller coaster with a rocket sled. The coordination between the different aspects of these stories is both intricate and daring. With all the different aspects of this story spinning like plates on sticks, Snyder juggles the plot lines, and what is left to him by the myriad of writers as Emmet Kelly did in the heyday of Ringling Brothers.

His deft touch, and subtle influences are balanced by lace covered sledgehammer blows, leaving the reader reeling, and wanting so very much more.

Scott Snyder, much like Tom Taylor, has pulled out all the stops, cut the brake lines, kicked out the jams, insert favorite euphemism for creating a high speed, non-stop mad ride to Hell!

And, much to my wallet’s chagrin, I am very happy about it.

Now, as it crosses to other books, and other writers pick up the reins, I am sure Snyder will still be the whip hand driving the story, not allowing some of these writers to go too far astray (unless it’s Tom King… then, well Woo Hoooo!)

I can’t say enough good things about this story, or the team creating it. I’m beginning t feel a little biased, but, what the heck.

Out of 5🌶        🌶🌶🌶🌶.5

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Death Metal: Robin King #1 ‘The Robin Who Would Be King’

Writer: Peter J. Tomasi   Artist: Riley Rossmo

‘Aw! Come on, this is the fun part!

Get up and let’s FIGHT!’

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Games, within games, within games…

So, the Batman who Laughs wasn’t infallible.

And the Robin King is going to be the bigger threat to the Darkest Knight than any combination of the Trinity, Flashes or their cohorts.

At least, that’s my takeaway from this issue.

We continue the story of the Robin King, as started in the Tales of the Dark Universe one shot.  Bruce has grown up, and grown into his sociopathy, and genius. He has used the family fortune to get all the training necessary, and to accumulate all the tools, to begin his reign as the true Evil Overlord of Gotham.

Utilizing his accumulated weapons, he has taken out Commissioner Gordon, Firestorm, Animal Man, Adam Strange Blue Beetle (Ted Kord), and the Red Tornado, all in truly spectacular and extraordinarily grisly fashion.

While the Black Hole Implosion for Firestorm was a particularly well thought out death, I think, so far, the ‘Mortal Coil’ Death, for the Red Tornado was the most imaginative… making his powers totally uncontrollable, while moving him closer to his ultimate dream, to be a real person, before his form totally destroys itself from the stresses of his own speed.

Marvelous! Fantastic! Gross!

Enter the Batman who Laughs, with the proposition to make the Robin King special, one of his own…

But, he’s a Robin, so, off to the Groblin Pit he goes!

Hence, his mistake, and possibly another chink in the boiler plate of his plans… since Bruce Wayne is NO Robin!

Peter Tomasi’s scripting for this issue is simply remarkable. The creep factor he brings to this iteration of Bruce Wayne is almost eviscerating. Reading this was painful to my eyes and psyche, feeling the levels of insanity drip off the page, and scratch across my mind like a little bird’s unnaturally sharp talons.

He really hit all the horror factors.

Then, there was the artwork for this story. Riley Rossmo’s artwork set the mood for this story. His shattered pencil / inks style, which can be distracting, was integral to telling this story. It allowed the Reader to view this story as if it were playing out in Bruce’s mind, its all the fracturing being how he is viewing the world.

For me, this story has been the highlight of the series… thus far. I am anticipating this, which is near the midpoint of things, is setting up the Wednesday Night Episode…so, - 

Tune In, Gentle Readers! 

Same Bat-Time

Same Bat Channel!

The Best Is Yet To Come!

Did I neglect there is a B-story, with Signal, Spoiler, Orphan and Red Robin taking on Quietus, the amalgam of Batman Ras’ al Ghul and Duke Thimas, from another Dark Universe, written by Tony Patrick and drawn by Daniel Sampere?

This story brings in a plot line for ‘What’s happening for the Other Bat-Family Elements’, as they try to find their way through Castle Bat’s myriad streets… 

I am guessing we will start to see more of these stories.

I am completely fine with this, rather than having to recap things later…

Out of 5🌶        🌶🌶🌶🌶.5

[thecomicsnexus]

BATMAN: WHITE KNIGHT #1-8 DECEMBER 2017 - JULY 2018 BY SEAN MURPHY AND MATT HOLLINGSWORTH

SYNOPSIS (FROM WIKIPEDIA)

Batman corners Joker in a pharmaceutical warehouse, beating him excessively as Nightwing, Batgirl, and the GCPD look on in horror. Joker boasts that medication would let him do more good than Batman, prompting Batman to force a bottle of pills down Joker's throat. With a recording of the beating leaking and the Batmobile causing huge collateral damage, debate is sparked over whether Batman is doing more harm than good. Barbara and Dick learn Bruce's violence stems from Alfred being near death, kept alive only by Freeze Tech. Joker, now stable and using his real name Jack Napier, wins a case against GCPD for insufficient evidence and for non-intervention in his beating.

Freed, Napier visits Harley Quinn, who attacks him and insists he's not himself. Saved by a second Harley, Napier learns she is the original but was replaced: with Joker's obsession culminating in Jason Todd's torture, Quinzel left to try and help Batman save Todd, and was replaced when Joker unwittingly adopted an obsessed hostage named Marian Drews. Bruce and Victor Fries develop a treatment for cryogenic illnesses. Despite not being fully tested, Fries attempts to resuscitate Nora; anticipating this, Wayne hooks the system up to Fries' suit, curing him but aging him to his natural elderly state. Running for councilman, Napier funds construction of a library in poor district Backport and befriends Duke Thomas, an ex-GCPD officer who runs a local youth group. Meanwhile, Bruce discovers that many of his fellow billionaires have been profiting off of Batman by purchasing properties destroyed by Batman's battles and then flipping them after the city repairs them; Bruce is left shaken by this discovery. Using the Mad Hatter's tools to control Clayface, Napier gives Gotham's Rogues Gallery drinks secretly laced with his dust to control them by proxy.

Making the villains rampage across the city, Napier uses the distraction to access restricted documents and discovers a tax fund for Batman's collateral damage. In an attempt to move the villains to a less-populated area, Batman baits them into attacking Backport and Napier's library, thinking that they wouldn't attack a property owned by the Joker; the villains proceed to damage Backport and raze the library. Injured when Napier's library crumbles, Bruce later collapses at Alfred's bedside; waking to find himself stabilized on Alfred's life-support, Bruce finds Alfred dead in the bedside chair. Dick and Barbara discuss whether to intervene in Bruce's developing obsession in convicting Napier.

Drews, now Neo Joker, recovers the Clayface's remains, taking the Rogues Gallery into her control. When Batman intervenes in his protest, Napier goes willingly to GCPD. Warning he knows of the collateral fund, he offers to reallocate it to GCPD as councilman, giving Gotham a culpable Batman equivalent known as the GTO - the Gotham Terrorism Oppression unit.

Neo Joker attacks the GCPD, prompting Gordon to side with Napier and place an APB on Batman. Batman asks Quinzel for help taking down Napier, convinced he's pulling a long con; Quinzel refuses, certain Napier is legitimate. Bested by the GTO, which has recruited Duke, Nightwing and Batgirl and has built their own makeshift Batmobiles, Batman is arrested by Napier. Neo Joker uses a revealed superweapon to freeze Gotham harbor, demanding she be given Joker. Earlier, Bruce discovered Thomas Wayne funded Fries Sr. to create Freeze-Tech, circumventing US laws by tunneling under Gotham's German embassy; Fries Sr. later cut ties with Thomas to build the superweapon against his wishes.

Napier's medication becomes ineffective, making him periodically revert into Joker. Napier frees Batman, asking for help stopping Neo Joker in exchange for a confession (provided Quinzel isn't arrested). Napier, Batman and the GTO organize an assault on the freeze ray, piloting a fleet of Batman's Batmobiles. During the assault, Napier attempts to focus on Joker's memories and recalls that Todd is alive: Joker drove Robin to hate Batman and reveal his identity. Napier explains he already knew Batman's identity as all collateral taxes indirectly come from Wayne Enterprises. Making peace with Dick, Barbara and Gordon, Batman races through Gotham tunnels with Napier, who has reverted to Joker. The GTO bests Neo Joker's forces and reverses the freeze ray, flooding the tunnels. Overpowering Neo Joker, Joker releases Clayface and undoes the mind control. With Batman protecting him from Clayface, Joker and Quinzel pursue Neo Joker in the Batmobile; Napier returns and professes his love for Quinzel. Approaching a closing floodgate, Napier launches Quinzel through the gap in the Batcycle, causing him to crash. Quinzel beats and apprehends Neo Joker, and Batman saves Napier.

Confessing to his crimes, Napier surrenders and is granted a nicer Arkham cell and a wedding to Quinzel; as he finishes his vows, Napier permanently reverts to Joker. Using Napier's remaining funds, Quinzel begins restoring Backport. Confronting Quinzel, Batman reveals she manufactured Joker's medication and orchestrated events so the chase would end in the factory and be recorded. Explaining he only learned the truth from Joker, Quinzel explains she did it to break their stalemate before they destroyed Gotham.

Meeting with Gordon, Batman gives him the keys to the original Batmobiles for the GTO and confesses that Napier was right about him. Revealing that he's realized that he's been taking pleasure in harming criminals and that he's allowed himself to go too far in his war against crime, Batman unmasks himself in front of Gordon to earn back his trust.

REVIEW

To say this story is about role reversals would be an underwhelming generalization. There is more to this story and it is a product of our current times.

The first thing that comes to mind while reading this story is the how Trump got to be a president and how the UK voted for a Brexit. It’s about trust in the good guys, and how when that trust is broken, people will trust anything but the good guys. I’m not saying that Trump is a villain, but, you know, he wouldn’t be in power had he had better (trustful) competition. And coming from a third world country, this happens a lot, in many countries, with politicians in particular.

But it goes beyond that, when you feel like the authorities (like the police or the army) acts like a bully, you do not trust them anymore. You second guess all they do. That is actually a very good practice though, you SHOULD think rationally about motivations and goals of those you trust. But it doesn’t help institutions, it breaks apart trust in other things that may be actually good for society, and you open the door for crazy conspiracies and hoaxes that do more harm than good (like anti-vaccination fanatics or climate change denialists).

So it is fitting that this story ends with Batman revealing who he is, because had the people known he was paying for his own destruction all along, the Joker wouldn’t have had the upper hand. And people were eager to believe in the Joker, who in the shadows, was still doing evil (even if it was for a good cause).

And that is another thing to consider, that no one is right in this story (just like in real life). All these characters are wrong at some point, the Joker is right in his views most of the time, but the alternative is also flawed.

I am saying this is a story of our times, because it feels like the good guys are not as trustful as they used to, and they really need to step up and be more transparent in order to stop hate and corruption from coming into power (many countries seem to go for fascist ideas at this moment, last time something like that happened was before World War II).

Going to specifics of this story, Jason is alive (but thought dead) and he was also the first Robin. Dick is not the loyal partner here and Barbara is a bit less mature than we are used to. The whole story feels like a remix of the Batman movies and the animated series, but it is clearly not in any of those continuities. It also introduces a second Harley Quinn, who looks pretty much like the new 52 version of the character.

And of course, the stand-out of the series is the original Harley Quinn, and how he was the actual mastermind behind everything... for a good cause. That kind of reveal was justified and throws mediocre mystery arcs like Hush and The Long Halloween out the window.

There are a lot of easter eggs in the art, and it helps create this big landscape that is Gotham City. You can feel these backgrounds as being a very important part of the story.

It also leaves some unanswered questions to justify a sequel.

I give this story a score of 10.

[leavyes-a]

the prologue of levi talbot; aka, bringing us to anglerfish and the addition of a new staff member; aka, a statement on a conservator of beholding and how they came to belong to the magnus institute in chelsea, london, having been born in boston, massachusetts.

content warning for abuse, addiction, thanatophobia, and mild body horror.

levi talbot was a graduate of mrs. hana talbot’s school of acting, its drama department giving an annual performance of the traditional hooks-in-flesh ballet ( a wordless tragicomedy in a single act, in the grand scheme of things; to levi, an eternity, repeated nightly for an audience of one passive father for eighteen years ). since he was a child, levi talbot wanted to write about movies, and the history behind them, because levi talbot understood the world by watching through a screen. oh, he knew people and interacted with them on a regular basis, because film taught him how where his parents would not. his collection of tapes and discs offered an appealing escape from the stage he’d been carried onto as a baby: he was a knight, a pilot, a lover, sometimes even someone’s child. life didn’t always play out the way it would in a properly-scripted scene, but that was alright. at home, the scenes were pre-established and repetitive, anyways. a childhood split into takes that never ended with him as the victor. that was how he learned that he was not, nor would he ever be, the hero of his own or any story. and when hana reminded him, time and again, that the films he watched were only fantasies, he became an analyst: for films, and for himself, and for other people.

levi talbot was a graduate of miskatonic university. he moved to arkham because it was as much space as his mother would allow without going ballistic. in his freshman year ( levi talbot had credits enough from high school to finish in three; hana had made sure he took enough aps to reflect well on her ), levi begged a trusted mentor, a teacher ( someone who said that hana simply didn’t treat him right ) for a job in the library, working the media desk. his classes and his job veered towards archival work, towards preservation, and he was delighted. miskatonic had strange old films, and levi learned to work the ancient equipment in the basement levels to watch them on loop. they showed him things he couldn’t begin to comprehend, but his mentor was shocked when he tried. he churned out paper after paper on these films, none of them ever being read to the class, and eventually, his mentor called him in for a meeting in his office, and asked what levi liked so much about the movies. well, sir, it was the watching, the knowing. you could learn so much about the world through film, if you knew how to look. you could break it down a million different ways. films were a treasure trove of information, and levi drained them dry, even the most grotesque found-footage equivalents they had to offer. they had to put a limit on how many times he could speak during class. teachers of other courses he wasn’t attending were sending him their syllabi upon request. i want to do the reading, he said. it doesn’t fit into my schedule, but i need to do it.

levi talbot had a hunger, you see. knowledge was power. knowledge meant figuring out what his mother was doing to him, then how it worked, and how to combat it. knowledge meant making a name for himself at his institution, securing a position, being recognized. knowledge meant producing a body of work so large even death, that final, insurmountable obstruction, couldn’t fully erase him from the world. he handled every copy of his assignments the same way he would a manuscript, preserving them in plastic in folders in boxes. it wasn’t enough. the more he learned, the more full he felt, stuffing himself up with facts and data, but it couldn’t stave off death. he prayed at the altar of cinema for an answer. it gave him death equals redemption, and the heroic sacrifice; it gave him last words and blood from the mouth and the last kiss. it gave him a death in full bloom that meant something, and if he couldn’t escape it, he wanted to go out like that.

levi talbot’s mentor was a man with greying brown hair and a salt-encrusted mustache and thick eyebrows that hid too many eyes beneath them. he had been in arkham for so long, he said, that he’d grown into his seat at miskatonic, and could not longer be separated from it. he said he loved to watch levi. levi said he loved to watch him, because levi loved to watch everything. he said levi could become something great, that his altar could be transformed, and there could be something on the other side of all those lenses watching him back. he wouldn’t have to be alone with the screen anymore. his great love, his addiction could serve a purpose. and if he played his role and served their god, when it came into the world, there would be so much to see that they would never run dry of things to look at. and that god would give him a part, a dramatic, heroic part, where his death would have meaning if it came to that, and until it did his enjoyment of everything he took in would be like unto euphoria.

levi talbot said yes. and he became.

his becoming was slow to begin with. he took up with a man named wyatt, the sole employee of a horror-themed interview-taking blockbuster. a tourist trap, if one were being particularly kind. he took the hackneyed statements of visitors and converted them to dvds and sold them at the front counter. when someone who had brushed against the divine came to them, he broke out the same ancient equipment he’d used in college, and produced a special tape. some of them he kept in bins. some he kept inside. but while there was plenty of strange in arkham, there were not a lot of people willing to talk about it. those that came from out of town had decreasing percentages on whether or not they noticed the shop, whether or not they dropped by, if they wanted to tell a story, and if their story was real. levi kept watching movies, and levi kept watching people. they didn’t starve, and they didn’t grow. and wyatt, who loved only himself, found it in him to worry.

when levi talbot became part of the eye, hana was furious. miskatonic kept her at bay until it didn’t, because she was good at weaving her webs, and when she made her move, all opposition tripped on their way to the battlefield. except for the hunter, whom levi had met at a truck stop on a trip to d.c. levi had done them a favor, and they did levi a favor in turn. they took hana talbot from the streets of arkham before she ever reached the video store, and drove her across the country, way out into the desert. when they asked levi what to do with her, levi said that some spiders just deserved squishing. and that was the end of hana talbot.

levi talbot had become very good at producing, repairing, and conserving films, but their connection to the eye remained weak. their feeding was alright, but inconsistent in quality; plenty of people watched movies, and, while levi’s analysis and growing red string catalogue was fresh in many ways, it wasn’t the terror that the eye sought. and miskatonic simply wasn’t using levi was intended; though they had been the ones to figure out his quirks, they lacked the volume of relevant information to make good on his time. so wyatt let go, and sent a letter across the sea -- a real letter, paper and ink, to impress the head of the institute in london. and london was intrigued. they agreed to take the newly-named conservator. they had plans in london, you see, that such an avatar could advance. wyatt added a final request: that levi be allowed to go to school for the degree they’d wanted, taking the year to live amongst people. the institute acquiesced.

[iwritethat]

Jason Todd: Un-retirement

Request: I don’t think so?

Warning: Suggestive themes (lowkey nsfw idk), mature language

A/N: lol, it’s a bit suggestive but y’know.

>>>>—————————>

Retirement.

Did that not mean shit to these stupid heroes in spandex? Apparently not since you've got Red fucking Hood 'stealthily' tailing you from your workplace.

"Just come out already, I can't be asked for this kinda crap right now helmet head." You sighed, slamming your fist against the wall in frustration. Sure enough, your hunch was correct however as the metallic crimson you'd crossed on numerous occasions emerged from the shadows.

"You've still got it Deadpool." That nickname regretfully stuck due to your similar abilities, not that you minded since it was tribute to an unbelievable Marvel comic character despite his psychotic tendencies.

"Save it, whaddya want Red? Because if you hadn't noticed I'm retired. Done. Gonzo. Buh-bye." Your voice was cold yet full of sarcasm, you were doing okay out of costumes and capes - anyone could see that.

After your sentence in Arkham, getting released from that corrupted hellhole encouraged you to balance on the 'straight and narrow', away from the mercenary work. Currently you were a waitress, lowish pay but the plentiful tips kept you afloat in a rundown apartment area.

"You're a waitress (Y/n), that's a bit of a downgrade from an established antihero but whatever - I'll take what I can get."

"You get nothing." Was your stern response to his observations, waving a dismissive hand and retiring your attention to walking home.

"Would it hurt you for once, to just do it the easy way?" The vigilante prepared an offensive stance, your night of knocking hands off of you clearly hadn't concluded as of yet.

"Yes. Yes I think it would."

Painfully you ended up brawling with him and honestly, being back in the game was brilliant - thinking on your feet, flipping, fighting, and using your environment against him. Of course you were winning, healing factors were quite handy at least until the bastard shot you directly in the heart. With a choke of your breath, fingers darted to the wound where thick scarlet streams flowed like a waterfall, you couldn't breathe for a few seconds and as gut wrenchingly painful as it was, you left the bullet inside for the time being and dropped to your knees with an agonising cry.

"It's been a while since I've been shot, I guess I'm not as quick at repairing anymore..." The Red Hood froze, it never took you this long to heal. Instantly he skidded next you and desperately checked for your pulse, attempting to cover the wound and tossing his signature helmet aside to increase visibility.

"Why aren't you healing?! C'mon please!" He radiated a sense of urgency, who knew he cared right?

Silently, your fingers encased a solid plank of wood from the alley which instantly collided with the back of your enemy's skull, a hollow crack echoed through the empty street resulting in an unconscious male dropping to your shoulder. With a exasperated sigh, you unravelled the bullet from your skin, flicking it to the floor as your healing did the rest and afterwards literally hauled the well built vigilante into your current residence thoroughly pleased with your dramatic 'death' scene. Should’ve gone into the acting business.

You weren't inexperienced in this type of situation, having tied the potential threat up to your bedposts by his wrists and paced your room awaiting his return to semi consciousness for interrogation. A low groan was heard and you stood at the foot of the bed with his mask balancing between your fingers.

"Fuck no-" Your prisoner went to move, wrenching his arms to find themselves immovable right now, but you left his feet untangled so he could at least manoeuvre himself to sit up a little.

"You have beautiful eyes Jason Todd, lovely colour and I apologise for the less than decent accommodation but I needed to know what you wanted."

Jason wasn't usually cooperative but given your unusual relationship and current upperhand, he believed it to be the best path and so with a seething mumble of profanities he elaborated. "Help. Specifically your help to save the city from your old associates who are now interested in chemical warfare thanks to their new leader."

"Knew they'd be lost without me, too bad too sad. Next~" You mockingly sang, releasing a dreamy sigh as you inspected his crimson domino mask.

"That's it?! This is your city too!"

"Re-tir-ed, get it? I don't want to get arrested, as soon as I go out there I'll have Bats and the police after me again. So much aggravation." You responded with a deadpan expression and careless shrug.

"(Y/n), we wouldn't have dug you up if this wasn't serious. We need you, Gotham needs you. Huh, never thought I'd be saying this shit."

It took a moment to contemplate, but you're 80% confident that he could see the warring emotion in your eyes, the controversy and faltering settling in. It wasn't until he felt your weight rest on him and you gently press a knife to throat that he smirked.

"Kinky~"

"You better not be lying to me Red."

"I'm not, but there are better ways of torture, just so you know."

"Ugh, temporary 'unretirement' - that's what this is understand!" You voice was one of melodious discontent, fluidly slicing one of his hands free and standing up to go through your closet in search of your boxes up vigilante uniform.

Jason was preoccupied with releasing his other hand, that was until his attention was diverted by none other than yourself stripping right in front of him. Obviously out of respect he attempted to keep his gaze off of your beautiful figure and lace undergarments but the smug smirk you wore whilst slowly putting on your suit only made it worse. God why'd you have to be so hot? He always thought you were attractive but this was the equivalent of a wet dream for most that'd met you. As a result hormones were wizzing around the room like flys and it didn't take long for you clock his slight problem.

"Mmm, you're right Jay. There are other forms of torture..." Ringing with a seductive air to you, your knee slipped past his hip allowing you to tantalising straddle him with your hands  running up his toned leather clad chest.

"I love what I saw but Gotham-"

"Can wait 10 minutes for to persuade me to save it." As soon as your breath his hit ear you felt him harden even further underneath your hips and release a low moan he was no doubt trying to hold back when you rolled against him.

"Make it 20." His voice was now laced with lust, lower and huskier than before as he spoke only pulling you closer.

With a confident smirk, you moved to kiss him and he instantly reciprocated with no hesitation, allowing you to push him back down onto the bed where you could continue your rather intimate make out session.

At least until Batman slammed the door open before anything could progress, causing you to pull back and sit up with a pleased smile adorning your swollen lips.

"Good news, I'm reporting for duty Batman sir!" A mocking salute was aimed at the dark hero who continued to scowl then direct his discontentment toward his former partner who lay below you. Out of consideration, you went you remove yourself but that action was sabotaged when Jason latched his hand onto your waist to keep you in place, tugging you back onto his hips instantly - certain things Bruce didn't need to know about.

"Don't look at me like that! Like you've never fraternised with the enemy, least I have fucking amazing taste." The Red Hood defended, classic snarky tone in play.

"Hnn... We don't have time for this." Batman glared at you both, swishing his cape as he left. You boredly sighed but supposed it saved you getting undressed again, so once patting Jason’s bat symbol centred on his chest you readily skipped after the Dark Knight.

You were going to love this little game.

[cartoonfan7]

Random thoughts on my DC Universe.

Remember the DC Pseudo-AU I made which detailed a timeline for Batman and had some mention of stuff I was going to do in the future. Since I don’t have access to my post on The Riddler and his connection to the end of Batman (spoilers, it’s an alternate version of the events of Batman: Arkham Knight), I’m going to remake it from scratch. Until then, I wanted to get out some thoughts on this kinda-sorta AU and similarly invite others who may be more well-versed in DC lore than I, to help me refine some ideas. I might not ever write fanfiction about it personally since I’m not that good when it comes to constructing a narrative, but I can at least help build the world and give out a broad scope of the events and characters. My mad ramblings continue under cut:

I’m also taking inspiration from Justice League: Gods and Monsters and another idea for Batman, link here.

So first off the bat, I wanted to stress that the Arkham Games, or at least events highly similar to them still occur here in this pseudo-AU. Just an FYI. If I remember correctly, I believe that it was originally planned for the now-alive-again Jason Todd to be explained that he was from another dimension. I bring this up because that’s going to be my explanation for Jason Todd’s resurrection. It’s not too far-fetched to assume that another version of one of Batman’s sons got dimensionally displaced considering the bizarre nonsense that happens in the DCU. Also, like Rick Sanchez, science advances in my DCU, but never really finds the cure for death. Even the Lazarus Pit can’t overcome it. To the still alive, it only elongates one’s lifespan and ONLY brings the recently deceased back to life. Ra’s Al Ghul ALWAYS makes sure to have some Lazarus near him for this. Because I’m also planning on incorporating iZOMBIE or at least elements from it in this AU, one could argue that Jason could just come back as a revenant, but that would be at odds to the events of Arkham Knight, wherein Jason is held for well over a year (a few MONTHS at the very least) and is tortured and brainwashed into hating Batman. Plus, here Jason would have been killed when he was in his early to mid teens and by my currently loose timeline, the events of Arkham Knight don’t occur until well over 10 years later. Jason’s deceased body would be almost completely rotted away by then, assuming he wasn’t cremated by Bruce.

Brainiac, everyone’s favorite homicidal space computer, is in this AU, appearing some years after the appearance of Superman on Earth and a currently unspecified amount of time after the formation of the Justice League and it’s original seven founding members. (I love Cyborg, but why does DC keep trying to make him a founding member of the Justice League?) In this AU, Brainiac is a type of semi-cybernetic hive mind that rules the planet Colu and is currently on a warpath to assimilate the entire universe and beyond. Brainiac is above all else a scientist, so he’s also conducting a few experiments beyond that. Brainiac has allowed scant individuals from Colu a modicum of free will. They’re still subservient to him, but they have their own thoughts and feelings separate from the hive mind. These individuals are Brainiac 2 (Vril Dox), Brainiac 3 (Lyrl Dox), Brainiac 4 (Kajz Dox), Brainiac 5 (Querl Dox), and Brainiac 8 (Indigo). The other Brainiacs are either dead or assimilated Drones. Brainiac is conducting this independant thought experiment under the pretense of observing behavior, but he’s just desperately lonely and needs some kind of audience to witness his greatness. The other experiment about this is actually more reasonable. Brainiac takes cities from planets to observe the populace, both in captivity and unassimilated. He then either assimilates the rest of that particular planet’s population, destroys the planet, or leaves. (The last one only happening if Brainiac detects that the civilization he just stole from will end soon regardless if he has a hand in it. He sensed Krypton was dying, so Brainiac just took Kandor and Argo and just went on his (they’re) merry little way.)

I’m debating myself on whether I want to keep Superman’s powers dependent on the environment of Earth (yellow sun, lower gravity, different atmosphere) or if Kryptonian abilities are just an inherent part of their biology. Like, different Kryptonian castes are engineered with certain abilities in mind. Gaining MASSIVE amounts of inspiration from the Alternian Trolls from Homestuck and spin-off, Hiveswap, there are about 12 specific castes that rank from blood color, which is reflected in the color of their clothes and the different occupations available to them. I think it’d be kinda poetic if an alien as human looking as Superman still had something inherently alien about him, and I’m not about to give him horns or technicolor skin. Kryptonian reproduction (at least in Man of Steel) works similar to Alternian Troll reproduction, and those parallels are more highlighted in my AU. 2 donor parents, preferably from the same caste but it’s not a requirement, do not have intercourse, but rather literally donate bodily fluids to be mixed by an organism that acts like a living cloning facility. The child grows up not knowing who their biological parents are and people who don’t participate in donating genetic material will have police drones sent after to either collect some in person or purify the gene pool by expelling the malcompliant. As Krypton is beginning to come to an end, Lara Lor-Van and Jor-El decide “Fuck this, our world’s ending and our plan to escape the Krypton Empire is gonna go tits up, might as well create our own son and get him out of here so he can grow up to lead a better life than this.” Jor-El does another impromptu fuck you when Zod’s trying his takeover by stealing the Codex, the Kryptonian Equivalent to the Human Genome Project, with genes for EVERY ABILITY/BLOOD CASTE THAT MAKES UP KRYPTONIAN BIOLOGY, and infuses it into Kal. Although Kal-El presents as a Blue/Indigo Blood, biologically he’s a Gold Blood (Due to his parents, who are scientists). In terms of abilities, he mixes the super strength of Purple and Indigo Bloods with the flight and lazer eyes of Gold Bloods. As Kal, now renamed Clark, grows up in a small Midwestern Town, he goes through some angst regarding his unusual blood color and his strange abilities. His parents eventually tell him of his alien origins and Clark feels a need to help others. Like his arguable Marvel counterpart, Captain America, Clark Kent doesn’t like bullies or oppressors and jumps to try and defend the helpless any chance he gets. Although he’s been able to keep his powers mostly hidden, his parents are exceedingly worried about them being revealed in their entirety since they’ve the sense to realize that aliens existing could lead to bad things for their son, not to mention they’re almost constantly paranoid that government will find out about Clark and separate them. Clark’s angst about his life being a lie on account of him being an alien, along with his powers and the implications they cause runs into a head when he’s unable to save someone from a tornado. It’s not his father, but not helping is at odds with who Clark is as a person and he, soon after graduating high school, goes off on his own to ind himself. He eventually begins doing heroic acts while traveling abroad, inspiring some people the world over. He lets his powers slip up time and again, but they generally stay as rumors or urban legend until they’re eventually investigated by Lois Lane and her partner, Jimmy Olsen.

The nanite event in this universe occurs somewhere during the 8-10 years that Bruce retired from being Batman at the hands of Project Cadmus. The project, which has MASSIVE portions of it kept secret from the public, is a multinational collaboration project headed and funded by LexCorp, S.T.A.R. Labs, Stagg Enterprises, and Ferris Aircraft, among others, with a number of different scientists leading the project, these include:

Lex Luthor

Harrison Wells

John Henry Irons

T.O. Morrow

Michael Holt

Victor Fries (Contributing Scientist, Possible Test Subject)

Pat Dugan

Emil Hamilton

Ray Palmer

Silas Stone

Dr. Thaddeus Sivana

Kimiyo Hoshi

Stephen Shin

William Magnus

Kirk Langstrom

Dabney Donovan

Francine Langstrom (Assistant and Wife of Kirk Langstrom)

Victor Stone (Son and Assistant to Silas Stone, Test Subject)

Karen Beecher (Assistant to Ray Palmer)

Ryan Choi (Assistant to Ray Palmer)

Reginald Augustine (Assistant to Dabney Donovan)

Thomas Tompkins (Assistant to Dabney Donovan)

(I’d like to stress that this doesn’t tie into the origin of Mr. Freeze as his origin happened a number of years ago relative to the projects founding. He joined the project as a way to potentially find a cure for Nora’s disease and his own condition. Neither ventures yielded much fruit.)

The project’s public goals were a genuine attempt to solve various issue plaguing humanity and to try and improve scientific fields to gain things like full A.I., cybernetic implants, and to just save people and improve the world. The secret and true goals of the project were known only to a few who worked in the project and were much darker and complicated than previously believed. Like in 2014s The Flash, Harrison Wells’s identity was stolen by a time traveler name Eorbard Thawne, who, in the ultimate example of Why the fandom can’t have nice things, is currently on a mission to destroy the life of the currently soon-to-be Flash, Barry Allen. To this end, he’s manipulating events to bring about superpowers in a very Vriska-esque method of “Creating him so I can destroy him.” Lex Luthor on the other hand is worried and paranoid. During the 8-10 years that Bruce let Jim go on a joy ride in the IronBat suit, a lot of the supernatural and paranormal elements of the DCU started to show their faces and Lex naturally hates magic, especially in regards to the implications of it’s existence, and is looking for a way to counter it. (Batman and Green Arrow had some experience dealing with magic and the supernatural before the timeskip, but the statute of secrecy officially ended during the timeskip) A Mother Box was discovered during a LexCorp expidition and one of the projects goals, among the other previously discussed stuff, was to reverse engineer it or otherwise find a way to access the massive energy reserves inside it. A Father Box was soon after discovered and lets just say that “playing with fire” is now an understatement. These “God Boxes” as they were nicknamed acted like Holocrons from Star Wars except they can do A LOT MORE. The Nanites being churned out eventually and accidentally yielded the Alpha-Nanites (which bacame the basis or things like OMAC or the Metal Men), the Omega Nanites (some of which went into Cyborg and characters in the DCU that are technopaths), and Meta-Nanites (which if combined, could make someone a literal god). I currently don’t know what the actual events are or who did it, but the Nanites were eventually released in a massive explosion. The Nanites eventually permeated EVERY LIVING BEING ON EARTH. As the Nanites were meant to improve the human body, but were still (for the most part) prototypes, they could malfunction when activated, creating monstrosities like the Parasite, the various different Clayfaces, among others. They didn’t really affect Superman and other aliens since they’re programmed to affect things native to Earth. The project was later absorbed into A.R.G.U.S., an international agency founded in the wake of the disaster that’s essentially the DC version of Providence, a global agency/milita that deals with Meta-humans. This was done to offer various people in Cadmus redemption of a sort. Still, in the business of dealing with superpowers, magic, ancient societies (both benevolent and malevolent), monster, aliens, and even gods, morally ambiguous stuff still has to happen. This leads us into....

Jimmy Olsen. Did you know that in the Silver Age of Comics, Jimmy Olsen got superpowers every other week/was essentially the DC version of the Doctor with all the weirdness that went his way. This is my attempt to explain that. Jimmy Olsen is, like (FFXV Spoilers) Prompto Argentum before him, a line of clones made by Project Cadmus (the secret portion at least) made for being experimented on with specialized Nanites. Olsen was somewhat unique in that his nanites were almost like stem cells in that, unlike nanites that become unique to a specific person or type of people, his could be molded, at least temporarily, into any other type of nanites. As Cadmus was absorbed into A.R.G.U.S., a heavy moral decision of the higher ups was whether or not to continue his line and what would be done if it did continue. On the decision of putting regular humans on the front lines against the stuff the DCU has to deal with, they essentially became like Clone Troopers. One of the clones was smuggled out by a currently unknown A.R.G.U.S. scientist and was raised like a normal child. The stem cell nanites and the combat training were programmed into him during his development so they stayed. This wound up helping Jimmy during a freelance journalism career as war correspondent, which is how he met Lois and eventually got employed at the Daily Planet. My other option was to make Jimmy the human disguise of Brainiac 5 for an impending invasion of Earth that would have ended with him severing his connection to the hive mind and becoming a hero on Earth. I wasn’t sure how all that would go though.

Should Dick and Jason have two separate superhero identities or can they share the identity or Robin? I’m actually not too sure on what to do. In the case of Jason being Robin exclusively, it would make Batman more paranoid over Tim becoming Robin, which is in keeping with Batman’s behavior during the events of Batman: Arkham Knight. When he’s with Batman, I’d imagine Dick to wear an outfit similar to Batman Earth 1 as Nightwing considering what Nightwing in The Lego Batman Movie looks like. What do you think I should do? I do know that after leaving to be his own hero, which is done in a combination of Bruce trying to forbid Dick from fighting crime and a sharp increase in ruthlessness from him during his search for the Joker, (reinenting the Nightwing persona to be more independant from Batman if he had started AS Nightwing) Dick goes on to meet other superheroes like Katana, Roy Harper, among others and finds the Outsiders.

This version of the DCU runs on the Alternate History trope to an extreme with a backstory inspired by the recent Justice League Movie. See, in the beginning, as the universe began, various beings that came to embody different aspects the mind or personality emerged. One of the earliest races in the Universe met these beings and decided to collaborate with them, eventually creating the Lantern Power Batteries as these beings were pure energy. One of them, Parallax, wasn’t on board with this plan and was imprisoned alongside Ion in the Green Battery. The White Light Entity went around creating or encouraging the growth of life across the universe, at least until it fell asleep and, like Unicron in Transformers Prime, began to have the earth form around it in it’s slumber. As life developed on Earth various beings from other worlds came to Earth and helped influenced the growth of life, humans weren’t created by aliens or gods necessarily, but they certainly got as much help as they could from it. The gods and aliens were really only doing this to endear themselves to The Entity in the Earth as, while they didn’t know it was there for sure, they sensed that humanity, or at least the planet they inhabit, was special and it might do good to brown nose them. That is until a race of beings called the New Gods brought their war to Earth. Realizing that the New Gods war could destroy the planet, the various pantheons and aliens teamed up and fought them to a stalemate. At least until the newly created Green Lantern Corps stepped in. With so many united against them, the New Gods called a truce and swapped sons to seal the deal. The Guardians also shamed the aliens or pantheons who only showed up to kiss the Entity’s ass and implements a Star Terk-esque no interfering with the native life until they’re capable of intergalactic travel policy. The aliens and Gods agree and withdraw from the Earth, but not before the pantheons in an attempt to redeem themselves and do actual good, have the societies dedicated to them, like the Amazons, Atlanteans, various Mages and Wizard tribes, etc. do a King Arthur like thing, by retreating from the rest of human civilization and emerging to save them in it’s darkest hour. While some Atlanteans or Amazons emerged during the 2 world wars that occurred a really long time later, they strictly held to this rule, at least until Wizards dropped the ball and exposed magic in it’s entirety. Afterwards, the Amazons, Atlanteans, and other ancient societies slowly emerged from the woodwork, sending ambassadors and slowly reintegrating and re-conciliating with humanity.