#Babs is having a.... kinda crisis?

[idontcaboose]

Haunted Car Au Part 12

Previous. Masterpost

Danny wasn't completely sure what all of the sound files Duke uploaded into the radio storage. Granted, the fact that there was apparently a 10 Terabyte hard drive just for the radio seemed a bit much, although it was over half full before Duke gave him a metric butt load of sound bytes, so maybe Batman was onto something. Now it was about three-quarters full…. How many files were there?

Either way, whoever named these files are the MvP of this entire situation. Either they were just the name of the saying, or we're named something like ‘exasperated 4’ and they were On Point!

Unfortunately there weren't any defined names other than movie references. Why were there three different versions of the “Hey, Becky, look at her butt” Danny didn't know, but he might use them for reasons.

Duke had left him alone with a disgruntled “Good Luck” after Danny started playing the ‘mood’ files to see exactly what they were. He figured Duke would come back in a few hours to have a “conversation” about his predicament. Until then……

DID THEY SOUND BYTE BATMAN HIMSELF?!?!?!

Next

@kizzer55555 @sebas-nights @candeartist422 @trappednyourheart @fandom-life-corrupted-me @tkiesai @2lbballpeenhammer @admiralwidow @rewrittenwrongs @whotfevenknowsanymore @symmetricalastigmatism @thespacedragons @atinygracie @okami-love @lesbian-spider-drone @1n0sss @forgetmenot-bluepurple

[ronnyraygun]

I can make GK sooooooo much sadder than it has to be.

[Check the Tags]

[leoruby-draws]

Kid Villains, pt 2.

Decided to post more kiddy villains, bit of a sequel to this. First up is Kitten, Mothman's bratty daughter from the 2003 teen titan cartoon:

Modeled her costume after the Rosy Maple Moth, while there are species of moths with the name kitten on them I figured she would prefer a pink outfit.

Thought it'd be kinda cool for her to be a villain for the batkids, she's already evil so why not. I don't imagine her to be all that talented at the job tho she would still be very dangerous if you underestimate her. I think she would work particularly well against Steph, being that Mothman started as a villain for Barbara (Cass might be too high level for her tbh).

Here's some more doodles:

Here's my Scarecrow's sidekick oc, I should probably name her something like Rag Doll or Raggedy Scream maybe? The three boys are oc's modeled after the Terrible Trio, criminals who commit crimes wearing animal masks. Their identities change a lot over continuities, so these kids are probably aspiring to be the next incarnation of this group.

Here's another random oc, a sidekick for White Rabbit (Jaina Hudson). Thought it'd be funny if it was just a kid in a silly rabbit suit, like what the kid wore in that movie, A Christmas Story. I'm not sure on what his personality should be. Maybe someone genuinely nice, a cheerful, polite boy who likes to hand people bombs (unintentionally dangerous) or maybe someone pretending to be nice but is actually malicious. Whatever's funnier I suppose.

Here's some characters inspired by the Super Friends enemies, the Super Foes. You'd see some of them return for the Robins 2021 mini, except for Toy Boy. Giggles and Guffaw are newer, only appearing in the mini.

I messed with their designs a bit to make them more unique looking. Honeysuckle for example was shown with either red or brown hair but I gave her a sorta dark maroon, thought it contrasted well with her green outfit. Honeysuckle btw, is older than the rest, and is more of an enemy to Dick and Barbara, tho her teenage self has no problem attacking the younger sibs.

Also Giggles and Guffaw might look a little similar to a certain anime starring a group of sextuplets, just being a little funny there. I gave these kids some made up names, mostly taken from whatever writer created them. Couple of them worked out pretty well actually, like Bridwell (well, spring, stream) and Estrada (Road).

This next one is a character from the 2004 cartoon The Batman, which I never actually watched but I did see commercials of. His name is Prank ( Donnie ?), a protege of the Joker. He wasn't evil enough to stick it out, but I gotta say I just loved his costume (esp how the jacket resembles Robins coat a bit). Made up a last name for him, just a random one from searching up famous clowns.

Being Barbara's peer, he's also more of a antagonist for the older kids, decided he and Honeysuckle should friends. I kinda want to use them as a sorta contrast to Babs and Dick, that could be fun to do. Also look at baby Dick, I don't draw him enough at this age.

Speaking of Barbara, I've been going back and forth between having her start out as either 12 or 16. All the other kids start out really young, so it makes sense for Babs to do so as well. But I kinda like the thought of her starting out much older, makes her more unique among the batkids (in pre-crisis she became Batgirl in like her 20s btw, cool huh?)

More various rivals for the kids to fight, excluding my oc Pink Rabbit, all of them more antagonists for the kids themselves rather sidekicks of the villains that Batman fights.

Here's Jason and Steph torturing poor little Enigma, who would be considered the bad guy here?

Here's some more proteges, Holly probably exists in this world, she's a bit too old for all this nonsense tho. Kitten is also a Super Foes member and was in Robins 2021 as well, she's been shown to be a sidekick to the Cheetah and Catwoman. Maybe she's just likes to attach herself to any cat-themed villain.

Crazy Quilt is more of an enemy to Robin than Batman, plus he has his own legacy in Crazy Quilt II, so obviously I had to include them. I wonder what name should I give the younger one, Duvet? Silly Blankie? idk

Lastly here's Earth 3(?) Jason Todd as Talon II paying a visit to the Training Wheels universe, seems like hes a bit of a crybaby. I don't think we've seen a earth 3 variant of Jason, so I'm just making up my own version of him. Wonder why he seems so nervous...

Anyways!! That was a lot, hope you liked all that!

[disniq]

Hey, I have a comics question for you—I've seen the concept of Bruce having compared Jason unfavorably to Dick while he was Robin referenced a fair amount in fics, and I feel like I remember seeing you talk about it before? Maybe? So I thought you might know. But I was just wondering if there was a canon basis for it anywhere, because the only time I actually remember any comparison happening during post-crisis was that time Jason was in the hospital and /he/ called Dick better than him and then Bruce reassured him. That said, I really did not pay attention to a lot of the flashbacks/retcons on Jason's Robin run from N52 or Rebirth, so I thought maybe there could be something there?

(Just to clarify, absolutely not meant to be any shade on this trope implied in this question, it's just something where I've seen it across multiple authors and so I'm curious where it came from.)

Hi! I'm sorry this took so long to answer, real life has been kicking my ass this week.

So! I did a quick check of the comics I thought most likely to contain such a comparison - Nightwing Year Zero, early RHATOs, all the various JayDick teamups - and I can't find any panels of Bruce himself directly comparing Jason to Dick either.

But there are at least a few examples in more modern comcis of Jason voicing resentment about Bruce's standards and how they relate to Dick;

Nightwing (2021) annual

Batman Urban Legends (2021) #1

There's also a small mention in Batman Eternal of Babs comparing them when Jason was Robin;

Batman Eternal Vol. 1

I think it's fair to extrapolate that, even if Bruce didn't say it directly to Jason's face, it's plausible that Jason could have picked up on the general feeling of being compared to his predecessor.

Also, I personally kinda like the meta intersection with the way irl fans and writers insisted on comparing him to Dick (which is understandable, given that Jason was the first legacy sidekick. People didn't know how to deal with someone new taking up an existing mantle)

But, yeah, I'm gonna call this one another example of fandom running away with the ~implications~

[northoftheroad]

I know I just gave you an ask and you must be super busy, but what do you think abt Dickory vs Dickbabs?? Personally, I think Dickory is way better but in Tom Taylor’s run and the current runs, Dickbabs is the main ship. Anyways, I just wanted your opinion on it :D

Also thoughts on Tom Taylor’s run? I thought about it and I kinda have mixed feelings. On one hand, it’s great for fanservice and has some super cute and funny moments. On the other hand, the characters and their relationships are kinda one dimensional. Thoughts?? Take your time and thanks if you answer! <3

Hi, As I've said before (and I'm going to quote myself from older posts here quite a lot, if you happen to come across them 😉 ), I'm fine with both pairings as long as it's well written. I guess a lot of fans lean towards preferring what they grew up with and such like. I'm old enough to have started reading Batman when the idea of another Robin than Dick Grayson was ludicrous, and read the NTT in my slightly older teens. So I definitely have a nostalgic feeling for Dick/Kory.

I think they worked well because they were so different; they each learned from the other and grew as people. Being with Kory helped Dick become more emotionally open after some ten years of growing up with Bruce and Alfred. In NTT # 26, he talks about how he is too introspective and that Batman taught him to be guided by his head, not his heart. And in turn, I'd say Kory learned not always to be ruled by her emotions, and Dick helped to ground her on Earth. They had their fair share of problems, one obstacle was their different approach to relationships and sex. While Starfire is fine with being married to another guy, for reasons of state, but live with Dick, it takes Dick quite some time to come to terms with that he loves Kory enough to get over that. Dick and Kory were one of the most stable and loving couples in DC for over ten years. Now, in superhero comics, writers and/or editoral make the rules. There were plans to let them get married, but as far as I remember a change of editorial led to that being scrapped. We got Dick being raped by Mirage instead, and eventually, the couple split up. Disregarding that, I think you could very well see them growing apart. They were young when they started dating. I guess they were a couple for two-three years? At that age, it's not unreasonable to think they developed in ways that made them decide to go their separate ways.

If Dick and Kory were good because they were poles apart, I'd say Dick and Barbara are more alike. They have both worked with Batman; they are originally street-level detectives and athletes; they are used to work in similar ways. I could see them as a slightly more mature couple than Dick and Kory, being more in sync and relaxed with each other because they have similar backgrounds and shared experiences. (Which, of course, could make them a more boring couple in fiction…) I'm not a fan of the retcon that they've been friends since school, but they did work occasionally together as youngsters, so it can still make sense to write them as really good friends, imo. I honestly think Dick and Kory have been written as a good couple more than Dick and Barbara. Maybe things had been different if Devin Grayson had got the chance to tie up her long arc with Dick in Nightwing vol 2. Not that I think her run was without its problems, but it would presumably have been better if she had got the opportunity to finish what she started. The ending (or rather the absence of a decent ending) of her run, and the fact that the first Nightwing stories after Infinite Crisis were downright cringeworthy, has soured my impression of her writing of Dick/Babs. So I guess editorial decisions have ruined both Dick's most important relationships…?

I don't know if you're new to the debate about Dick/Kory vs. Dick/Barbara? Because it's sometimes a heated discussion, with people claiming he doesn't deserve either of them, he mistreated one or the other etc.

(Here's what Barbara herself had to say about Dick, by the way. In Birds of Prey # 71. By Gail Simone, art Ron Adrian and Rob Lea.)

I can definitely work myself up too much about fictional characters myself, but there are a few things I try to keep in mind… Fictional characters have no agency. Creators and editoral use them to tell stories (and sell stuff…). Don't get angry at fictional characters or, even worse, real people who love them. Also, reading comics is a lot about filling in the blanks between panels, and different readers can put a book down with very different pictures of what has happened. You can absolutely find examples where Dick has been written as behaving badly against both of them. Sometimes, it's a reasonable part of the writer's long game, sometimes it actually is bad and out-of-character writing. (And if you look, you can find examples where the women have been written as behaving badly against Dick too.)

Honestly, the most important thing for me when it comes to Dick and relationships is that he takes them very seriously indeed. Dick has not had a lot of one-night stands and is on record as saying he's not comfortable with casual sex. When he had one with Helena/Huntress, he wanted to talk about starting a relationship just because of that. When he (fake) married a girl to try to expose her as a murderer, he still avoided to sleep with her, and then he offered to stay with her when the case was closed, because he felt bad for deceiving her. Outside the blasted annual, I don't know of any time he was written as (knowingly) having sex with someone while he's in a relationship with another. Girls tend to break up with him, not the other way around. I'm sure other people have different ideas, and it can vary between writers and eras, but I think you can read Dick as someone who likes to be in a relationship, to be intimate with someone – but who's not into casual sex.

When it comes to Tom Taylor's run, I pretty much agree with you. I don't hate it, as some people seem to do, but I think the art has been the best part. It's mostly been pretty meh, TT has at several times spoken about how Nightwing is an A-lister among DC superheroes, but I don't think he shows it. And here and there he produces some really nice panels/pages (sometimes it's up to debate whether the characters are out of character or not). We're heading towards the end of his and Bruno Redondon's run and they've hinted he's going to stop being Nightwing. As if we need a third period of Dick not being Nightwing in ten years… 🙄 The best writer of Nightwing vol 4 was Sam Humphries, in my opinion. Unfortunately, it was very short.

Ok, this post has definitely gone on long enough... but if you want to go deeper into the rabbit hole, here are some earlier posts.

[n64spoon]

random ted kord hc's because im going insane and need to spread propaganda SOMEWHERE.

love language (giving)

ive done alot if thinking about this one and have come to the conclusion that his love languages are acts of service and gift giving. i kinda based this decision off of how he acts with babs and booster in countdown to infinite crisis. dude is about to go bankrupt AGAIN but he's still offering to pay for tickets and lets booster borrow his card, even if it negatively affects him. hes a superhero for one but also his entire reasoning behind becoming the second blue beetle was because he feels like he OWES it to dan, he wants to make up for his blind faith to his uncle which lead to dans death. i think he loves doing favours for people because it makes him feel good about himself, and he loves the feeling of being appreciated.

love language (receiving)

words of affirmation and physical touch. he has boundaries when it comes to the physical touch of course, but booster is the main exception, with ted being quite touchy himself at times. i like to base this off of the first appearance of dan's death in blue beetle 1967 where as dan says his last words hes caressing teds face UGHH that shit fucks me up man -- but i can definitely imagine him melting in someones hands if they held his face or something (booster, of course).

then theres the words of affirmation. ted gets compliments alot, obviously, usually due to his status in hub city and his intelligence. but there are times where he feels unappreciated or isnt taken seriously, usually by higher ranked heroes (cough cough BATMAN cough) . in countdown to infinite crisis (yes im referencing this comic AGAIN im SORRY) he is pushed aside constantly by multiple people. the few people who did listen to him, namely superman and wonderwoman, its stated in booster gold 2007 he "felt bad for wasting their time.". ted needs reassurance, he needs to be reassured that he isnt a bother. though at times a wise-cracking jerk, he still does care about how others view him. and spending like most or his childhood being put down by his father and then years later by heroes he works with he deserves someone telling him he's doing good once in awhile 😭.

[sporkberries]

Do you have any Huntress/Helena Bertinelli issue or comic run recs? 👉👈 you have infected me with helena brainrot (positive)

So There are a two ways I can answer this question, the way i did previously with just the comics I'd recommend to get started or a full timeline for her- This time ill go with the full timeline. If you just wanna dip your metaphorical toes in the water check out this post, if you want to read her story from start to finish this is the post for you.

FIRST SOME CONTEXT ON HELENA BERTINELLI'S CHARACTER CREATION. Pre Crisis on Infinite Earth's there was a character known as Helena Wayne, she was the daughter of Earth Two's Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle and was The Huntress. She was fairly popular but the whole uhh massive crisis event erased her from continuity. The problem was people still wanted Huntress she was a recognizable name and also just people liked her so Helena Bertinelli was created. Despite sharing a first name and a superhero name Helena B and Helena W are INCREDIBLY different characters in personality and just.. in like every conceivable way. Alrighty now lets get started, Helena Bertinelli makes her first ever appearance in The Huntress(1989) I really like this comic run. It's pretty intense dealing with both CSA as well as SA but i think it does it pretty respectfully and well. Overall I really like this comic, that being said the art is a bit... rough, so i understand not wanting to read it. The Huntress(1989) 'era' of Helena ends with Justice League International Special 2, which btw if anyone has an actual good scan of this please let me know because my scan is ASS Then we got Detective comics #652-653 which has Helena's new costume and a team up with B-Man himself. Now its time for Robin III: Cry Of the Huntress- This is the first Helena and Tim team up!! I love them so much they r so silly so I consider this book required reading, also Helena has an awful mullet it's amazing Helena also has another story with Tim around this time in Benedictions which is a three part story in Dc Showcase 1994 # 5, Robin(1993) #6 , Showcase #6. Azrael is also running around as Batman during this so thats fun and quirky(i like azbat okay)

Next is Dixon's Helena with Huntress(1994) ERMM this is a comic that exists. It has some panels I like but i don't think its required reading it's uhh... Dixon!! and WOagh no wayyy another tim team up its almost like they are siblings bffs 5ever this is crazy Detective Comics #685-686 and Robin #17 also sidenote i like Lynx's 90's design a lot sighh Next is a string of complicated and long story lines. With Batman Contagion, Batman Legacy, Batman Catacylsm, and Batman No Man's Land. Also she gets her best outfit here yayyy :). Now parsing through all this stuff I don't really care that much about Batman: Legacy and I'm not gonna lie to you and say I've read Contagion in it's entirety because I haven't. Just know that Gotham gets hit by a mutated ebola virus and it sucks and is bad for everybody sjdkfbasdkg. Also again cool new Helena outfit top ten epic moments. Before all the No Man's Land stuff there is Birds Of Prey: ManHunt and Nightwing/Huntress. I do not like the latter and have no strong opinion on the former other than it's the start of a long line of Babs treating Helena like shit. ManHunt does have Dinah and Helena interactions though so :) yippeee Almost forgot this but Read Detective Comics #703 its a really cute Helena and Tim story read it right now thank you XOXOOXO I consider Cataclysm and No Man's Land, No Man's Land especially, CRITICAL HELENA READING. HELENA IS SO GOOD IN NML OH MY GOD. Cataclysm is kinda the set up to No Man's Land and also has a cool Helena/Steph teamup in Blunt Trauma. But No Man's Land is where the really juicy stuff is. I'm not really gonna say what specific issues Helena shows up in because you should really read all of or most of No Man's Land as its not only an important Helena story but THE MOST IMPORTANT Gotham story(in modern times anyway). I read the 5 trades but I've heard good things about the Omnibus as well. If you need further help with No Mans Land and how to read it just shoot me an ask or smth. READ NO MAN'S LAND Okay now after NML Huntres Joins the Justice Leauge of America in JLA #16. I have not read all of Helena's JLA stuff so i cant really comment on it I'm a failure sorry... NOW FOR THE RUCKA STUFF GREG RUCKA LOVE OF MY LIFE!!!!! So First check out Batman Chronicles #15, it's not all Helena but it does have a Helena story which is her first meeting with The Question so erm go read that !!! Now time for one of my fave huntress stories, Batman/Huntress: Cry For Blood. THIS STORY IS SO FUCKING GOOD. It does retcon Helena's previous backstory which i have mixed opinions on but the new backstory is far from bad and also its just soosososo good i love greg rucka so much go read it right fucking now. Now I have bad news for you gamers. We have the Hush storyline wherein Jim Lee introduced the dreaded Helena Ab Window. Hush is generally pretty good but that outfit is uhhh an outfit!! she starts showing up in Batman #609 Generally speaking I do like this storyline so I would recommend the whole thing. Helena regularly starts appearing as a main character in Birds Of Prey at issue 56. Birds Of Prey IS a mixed bag but most of Helena's appearances from here on are in there so... Be prepared for a healthy dose of sexism though. Outside of BOP check out The Question: Pipelines which is a story in Detective Comics 854-864 written by love of my life Rucka of course. Helena is not in the whole thing but its a good story and her and Renee are a great Duo so I recommend it. While your out it also check out both issues of The Question: Convergence. Also written by Rucka and featuring Helena, its good :). Now I did leave some shit out like Battle for the Cowl but thats because I dont like battle for the cowl and also I don't think Helena is very central in those stories so TA DAA here is my list enjoy anon sorry for any spelling errors Tutorial on how i read comics safely

[soleminisanction]

Something I realized recently when I started deep diving into supergirl is that she has barely any connection to Stephanie brown. Like I knew there wouldn’t be that much interaction or development because of how the timelines fit together but there really is nothing there. Their entire friendship is basically built on a couple of batgirl issues and the plans for a new young justice that never actually happened. There’s not even a meta connection between them. Honestly if people had to ship Kara with another blue-eyed blonde girl Cassie is already a much better fit (or give Kara her history back and let her kiss babs, the batgirl she actually has romantic tension with)

I've never even heard about the "new YJ" thing, though there were three other female characters -- Stargirl, Miss Martian, and Bombshell -- who randomly showed up in the second-to-last issue of Steph's Batgirl run completely out of nowhere because apparently Brian Miller had wanted to make them part of Steph's retinue but never got the chance so he shoved them in at the last minute. So if he was going to pitch that as a new YJ, thank god it didn't happen.

Kara also comes out of fucking nowhere in Batgirl 2019 but apparently they met in a...World's Finest mini-series, I think? Apparently the same one where Tim met up with Nightwing!Chris Kent? That's what at least one article says anyway, I haven't been able to find that book so I don't know for sure. But yeah, other than that, Brian Miller et al just went, "Hey, people loved Batgirl and Supergirl together in the animated series, so let's make Kara Steph's new bestie!" and then she just started turning up and doing the stock 'cool Bat and puppy dog Super' routine. It was really forced.

As for Kara and Babs... the awkward thing is, they didn't actually didn't have much of a relationship in the comics either. The timelines didn't match up. Babs was a relative late-comer, compared to Kara -- she's a Bronze Age creation that came about because of the success of her character on the Adam West show, only got introduced in the 70s, whereas Kara was early Silver Age if iirc. They only interacted about a half-dozen times before Kara was taken out of continuity by Crisis on Infinite Earths and, not long after that, The Killing Joke happened.

The Batgirl/Supergirl relationship was mostly popularized by the cartoons; it only got introduced to the comics very recently in the Batgirl of Burnside era. Whereas yeah, Kara actually has a well-established friendship with Cassie -- she's an honorary Amazon, she's been a Titan, hell, she's had more adventures with Tim than with Steph.

But yeah, it can be kinda tricky when pop culture origins get mixed together like that. And that's without factoring in the weirdness that is Supergirl's comics history post-Crisis, they went to some odd places with her.

[cephalog0d]

Hey, Batfans, are you a weird completionist who likes sortable data way too much, like me? Do you want a giant spreadsheet of appearances of a bunch of Batfam members that you can filter across multiple people to see where they show up in the same issue together?

WELL GOOD NEWS because thanks to my hyperfixation I made a spreadsheet. (It's view-only but if you save a copy it should be editable for personal use.)

The Spreadsheet currently contains all post-crisis appearances for the following characters: Barbara Gordon, Cassandra Cain, Damian Wayne, Dick Grayson, Duke Thomas, Harper Row, Helena Bertinelli, Jace Fox, Jarro, Jason Todd, Jean-Paul Valley, Kate Kane, Luke Fox, Stephanie Brown and Tim Drake. I feel like that's most of the big ones (and several not-very-big-ones), but if there's a Bat-person missing you'd like to see on there, feel free to ask!

This is up to date through July 2023. I have intentions to keep updating it on a semi-monthly basis, but we'll see if that happens.

All sheets are conditionally formatted so if you enter "Y" in the Read column it will highlight the whole row in green to mark it off, if you're the kind of person who likes to keep track and mark things off a list.

The Master List is filterable by any character, and more importantly, multiple characters! Up to "all of them" although I don't think anything actually contains *all* of them.

(Some more notes below)

SOME NOTES:

Dates are the start of the series, since that's how a lot of places besides DC itself with their weird "volume" convention distinguish different runs.

These aren't sorted by preboot vs. New 52 vs. Rebirth vs. IF, sorry, that was too many sorting functions for now. You can kinda figure it out by date, though (New 52 was 2011, Rebirth was 2016, IF was 2022) or look up the issue on a wiki and see what version of the character is tagged.

On that note, all of this was pulled from the DC Wiki, and while I did a little bit of spot-checking as I went for things I knew off the top of my head it's entirely possible things are missing or mis-attributed. I'm happy to update accordingly if there are.

Similarly, I didn't go through every issue here to check what role people are appearing in, either in terms of what identity they're using (e.g. Spoiler vs Robin vs Batgirl) or if they're a major character or not. Some of these are as minor as background appearances or off-screen mentions. Some day I might add more metadata to sort for those things, but right now that's not part of it.

[abyssling]

⚠️DC vs Vampires #12 Spoilers⚠️Random ending feeling talking

So let's talk about the ending. Straight to the point, I didn't really get the purpose of the end. Barbara takes the throne and becomes the new lead, then leave humanity to what… hope? You mean Kara? Ok now it looks like you suppose to write an 800 words essay but you notice the topic after you have done 750 words already, and the topic is "Dawn of DC".

Honestly, I don't know why DC wants to make every elseworlds connected or slightly stick to the prime world. It's not officially said that DvV is connected to the main story, but the ending title "Dawn" gave me the first thought of it. And have a look at the neighbor issue <Dark Knight of Steel>, it is labeled as Earth-118 in <Dark Crisis Big Bang>. Who knows what's next on the menu?

Back to the #12 story itself. As a DickBabs fan, I can not say I didn't enjoy the bittersweet content between my two sweet potatoes. Dick Grayson looks stunning in his dramatic leather coat that we have seen several times and I still wanna thank whoever designed this for him, you did a gods job.😇 Babs on the other hand very predictable, she tricks Dick with a soft point and makes her "feed Grayson anything he never looks what he eats anyway" plans work. To me, it's quite disappointing that the story ends in a lover's way but the family's way. As I said earlier, this story begins with Batfamily. The tragedy caused by Dick's family, it will be perfect if it ends with the family (Damian). That will be the lesson you learn to go with your brain but your kidney.

We have two characters who got their one-shot issues, Harley and Damian. Harley played her character as the poison blood, very important very badass. But what does Damian do? He fights Grayson once and in the end he just… waits downstairs? Damian should be a more useful character in the final battle.

If anyone remembers there are a few interesting foreshadowing such as bringing back Bruce with Lazarus Pit and magicians trying to reverse the vampirism. I was kinda looking forward to those contents but they just snapped.🥲 (You don't even give Bruce a proper burial?? Look at his half and broken body.🥲)

Another unbearable fact, don't wanna be rude but what's wrong with all the guys in this story? Half of them were torn apart with one take, good guys are keep sacrificed for protecting the big guns. Even Superman can't stand till last. (Where the hell did you get the Kryptonite sword? Batcave? And I was hoping Supes will stand by Dick's side or something? That will be cool.)

Let's see the big guns. We got:

Barbara, Kara, Starfire, Harley Quinn, Mary, and Jayna. All girl's power, I'm not blaming anything, but Grayson are you keeping all the badass manpower to yourself but your family and… Green Arrow? What's on your mind?🤔

Let's just say, I will give 6.5/10 for the whole DC vs Vampires arc. The story is twisty, the storyline is brave, and has some not-so-good character personality writing. Mainly because it brings out too many characters at once and can't focus on the group of its skeleton. We got a very handsome (but not so smart) Dick Grayson as Vampire King and let him be taken down by his lover. Old clich but suited for the dramatic. I still kinda want Dick to win the battle. Anyway, it's a good year for Nightwing fans and DickBabs fans already. Thanks for listening to my Ted Talk.

[desperatecheesecubes]

All righty y’all! As a celebration of passing 3K comics read and the new year here’s a list of comics I personally think are Worth Your Time. I only included runs I’ve read at least a good chunk of so if you’re personal favorites aren’t here I might not’ve read em yet, or just haven’t read enough to pull of my favorites in the case of longer runs

In (mostly) alphabetical order:

Another Castle by Andrew Wheeler and Paulina Ganucheau : A fun cast of characters, a princess who kicks ass what more could you want, really.

Aquicorn Cove by Katie O’Neill: in fact just go ahead and read everything Katie has written. It’s all lovely and heartwarming, full of diversity and genuine characters. I could not recommend enough. Great for all ages!

Avatar Katara and the Pirates Silver/ Suki Alone/Toph Beifongs Metal Bending Academy: These standalone stories have been excellent. They really fit in with the tone and pacing of the show. I can’t wait for Azula’s solo to release.

Avatar The Lost Adventures: On the sillier side of what ATLA was (mostly) but a good fun time over all.

Avatar Free Comic Book Day Issues: they’re free!

Batgirl (2000): Cass’s batgirl run is phenomenal actually. Really, for real, you should try it.

Batgirl (2009): Stephs batgirl run is shorter and you can pick up the entire thing in TPB form easily. This era of Batfam comics also has a special place in my heart, I feel like a lot of writers found their stride here. There’s room for hope and all that.

Batgirl (2011- the Gail Simone half): if you’re on Tumblr im sure you know the problems with this run. I just really love Babs, this was one of the first comic series I ever read, my introduction to Babs, and also Gail is an excellent writer and some of the stories in this run are just phenomenal all around- looking at you issue 30.

Batgirl Special (1988): you want some QUALITY BabsGirl content?? This is an excellent start!

Batgirl The Greatest Stories Ever Told: collects a number of classic BabsGirl stories from the pre-crisis Batman comics. As well as some post crisis comics I’ll be putting on this list on their own anyway.

Batgirl Year One: The definitive post crisis Batgirl origin story! I loved all the nods to what Babs goes on to do (work with black canary, become oracle etc etc) and the art is very fun.

Batgirls: Can you tell I like the batgirls? The art is fun, the stories are low stress. It’s a fun run to just pull up and have a good time with. The earlier runs definitely dealt with heavier narratives but not everything has to be doom and gloom to be good.

Batman Cataclysm and No Man’s Land: You’ve probably heard people talk this arc up before. They’re not lying to you! It’s long, and there’s a lot of batfam members active in it but it’s absolutely worth reading if you enjoy the bats

Batman Second Chances: collecting Jason’s post crisis origin (issues 408-416) plus a few other stories this is definitely worth the read if, again, you like the bats.

Batman Death in the Family: the one Jason dies in and Tim’s pre N52 origin!

Batman Knightfall: Bane comes in and absolutely wrecks Bruce’s shit what’s not to enjoy

Batman Court of Owls/Night of Owls/City of Owls: man the Court is such a cool enemy concept for Bruce. Some of the only good things N52 gave us IMO

Batman Death of the family: I just really enjoyed the whole family having to come together I won’t lie

Batman Fear State: this was an absolute mess but it was a FUN mess

Batman and Robin (2011): alright don’t murder me but I though this run had more depth of writing than the 2009 run did…. Like both are good but I kinda think this one’s better…. In fact just go ahead and read the whole Robin Requiem arc

The Batman Chronicles 5 and 10: some absolutely stellar Babs stories!!!

Batman Eternal: look at the whole batfam (at the time) go! Makes my brain go BRRRR

Batman Incorporated (2012): also known as the one Damian dies in and the one where Jason pisses himself and it becomes a plot point for some reason! Fun!

Batman Batgirl: More good Babs content!!

Batman Battle for the Cowl: All hell breaks loose in the batfam. Good chaotic fun really

Batman One Bad Day Two Face: I think Two Face is the best Batman villain and I’m tired of pretending otherwise

Batman Urban Legends 1-6: Jason almost adopts a son, Tim comes out as bi, Grifter gets up to some stuff

Batman Wayne Family Adventures: literally all fluff!! Everyone can use some fluff now and then

Birds of Prey (1999) I’m a black canary Stan I don’t know what you expected

Black Canary (1993): the best stand alone ack Canary solo. Dick and Helena steal a tank in this run, there’s a story that talks about Dinah putting on her mom’s uniform for the first time it’s all good stuff

Black Canary (2007): this is less stand alone and needs some arrowfam knowledge to truly enjoy but I want more people to love Sin (I still want her to be red canary)

Black Canary and Zatanna Bloodspell: a BC/ZZ graphic novel what more do you really need to know?

The Brave and the Bold (2007) issue 33: I will never emotionally recover. Another good Babs story!

Christmas With the Superheroes (1988): a collection of stories that are holiday inspired! Some great moments in here and a nice variety

Convergence Batgirl: I really enjoyed stepping back into Stephs batgirl run. A nice what if scenario

Convergence Superboy: Kingdom Comes Supes pleading with 90s Kon just got to me OK?

DC Festival of Heroes/DC Pride: more short story collections

DC First batgirl/joker: another Babgirl story recommendation? It’s more likely than you think

Earth Prime 4: this is a fun stand alone Stargirl story. You don’t have to watch the tv show to follow it (I say this with certainty because I myself don’t watch the show)

Extraordinary by V.E. Schwab (if you’ve read Vicious the novel first): hard to talk about this without spoiling the plot of the novel but if you read and enjoyed that this is also good yes

The Final Night: the 90s had some real bangers didn’t they? Also known for the time Hal died (for realsies)

The Flash (2011): flash fans will probably passionately inform me there’s better flash stories prior to N52 but I haven’t read em and *I* think this run is damn enjoyable. And this is my list and I can put whatever I want in it

Gotham Academy: zany wacky hijinks ensue

Green Arrow by Mike Grell: Grell knows his shit

Green Arrow (2001): look at the Arrowfam get together!!!

Green Lantern/Green Arrow Hard Traveling Heroes: politics in comics can be good actually

Green Lantern Legacy/Alliance: some of the DC graphic novels are excellent really

Identity Crisis: this story made me insane I love it

Injustice Gods Among Us: it’s not a ‘what if Superman were evil’ story so much as a ‘what if Superman lost his way and broke everyone’s hearts and then also the world’ story

Legends of the DC Universe #6-11: some great stories of Dick Grayson, Clark Kent, Hal Jordan, Oliver queen and Barbara Gordon!

Let them live! Unpublished Tales from the DC Vault! #2 and #5: great Dick and Ollie content

Marvel Adventures Superheroes #1: Spidey, Hulk and Ironman have to dog sit, what could go wrong!

Nimona by N.D. Stevenson: I would die for literally every character you don’t understand

Nubia and the Justice League Special: Nubia has a really long day and we get to vibe with the Justice league gang circa 2021/2022 I’m certainly not complaining

The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang: very cute. Family friendly!!!

Robin Year One: Dick Grayson as a young Robin!

Sensation Comics featuring Wonder Woman/ Sensational Wonder Woman: Wonder Woman stories can be something so personal actually

Shadow of the batgirl: CASS!!!

Showcase ‘94 #12: more Babs!!

Starfire (2015): Kory deserves more on goings I’m not kidding

Stargirl/ Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E./Stargirl spring break special : I love Courtney she’s such a good character

Supersons: I will mourn the loss of Jon forever

Superman the death of Superman and all its subsequent parts: yeah this is a certified banger storyline. Plus it gave us Kon-the boy of all time

Superman the wedding special: whoops Clark got kidnapped and Lois has to save him!

Superman/Shazam first thunder: and then Clark adopted Billy…. Right?

Superman smashes the Klan: yeah I see why this is called required reading

Task force Z: I am willing to die on this hill

Teen Titians by Kami Garcia and Gabriel Picolo: they’re not the TTs of main comic continuity and that’s OK

Teen Titans year one: who gave the artist to draw all the kids so small and remind me that oh my god they’re just children

Thor (2014) and The Mighty Thor (2015): I love Jane

Truth and Justice (2021) #4 and #6: more batfam stories

W.I.T.C.H.: nostalgia isn’t blinding me this is good comics

Wonder girl (2021): we deserve Brazilian characters actually reflecting the culture correctly but I also really enjoy Yara.

Wonder Woman (1987) #90-100, 160-161, 206-213: definitely not the ONLY good WW stories but some very good Wonder Woman stories

Wonder Woman agent of peace/Wonder Woman black and gold/Wonder Woman come back to me/Wonder Woman Hiketeia: More Wonder Woman stories!

Worlds finest (2009): 2009-10 batfam my beloved

[elirium]

Important notes people who know more than i do had:

#tiny note but as a jpv fan. he didn’t grow up in the cult#his dad put all the cult info into his subconscious memory but jpv himself didn’t know anything about the order until after his dad was shot#and crawled to jpv’s door as Azrael and died in his apartment after admitting their whole life was a lie#so you can add that to the trauma bucket!#(also his dad had the same name azrael is a generational thing etc)

from @avaraydrake

#okay as someone who just finished reading Az’s 100issue run#I wanna mention that ur on the right track abt his mom being assumed dead before he knew her HOWEVER#jpv also went on an adventure when he thought she might be alive and the woman that he thought was his mom then sacrificed herself to save#him :) directly in front of him :) and I’m STILL HAVING FEELINGS ABT IT#and depending on where you place it jpv has also died (at the end of his run akdjks SPOILERS LMAO) but idk if they ever resurrected him or#what. haven’t checked his wiki just yet abt that but ye \o/ love this boy and his weird almost-Catholic-but-more-Gen-cult guilt

from @dyketectivecomics

1) he killed i'm pretty sure two people canonically? (at least pre reboot) only one of them directly though (the other, he let fall into a Vat while having a mental health crisis, near the end of i think knightquest the crusade?? or begining of knightsend) 2) bruce also doesn't hate him, he just doesn't give a shit about him past using Azrael and controlling them, which, imo, is kinda worse?? the number of people who fully accepts both jp and az is tiny (it's like. babs. cass. debatably alfred) 3) azzy isn't evil!! he's very dear to me, and the fact that over the course of sword of azrael/knightfall/azrael and also the new azrael we have, he has sooo much character developpement is so important to me. even as soon as sword of azrael, he tries to go against what he's been made for to be an angel of mercy instead of angel of death. he's kind of shit at it, but like. he's trying!! he's shown with compassion more than once, making choices to save ppl instead of going for the kill etc 4) dick relationship: no notes. should add that jp also doesn't like dick and is kind of dramatic about it. once dick kissed the girl jp likes. "the heir to a stilted throne" or something 5) star wars: no notes, he was a comp sci major, of course he likes star wars 6) kind of. don't think you could make azrael's activation work the same as the pit? but like. i'd like to see it done. but a plot point the tim&jason EtC fic writers love is to have tim idolize jason pre-pit. though you might have it work with tim idolizing jp as a hacker or smth idk 7) vibes are immaculate, i hope people do write more jpv & tim fics that don't make jp/az a malicious abuser for most of knightfall when they really weren't (mostly told him to stay away, though the choking Did happen),i also hope you have a nice day, thank you for reading my ramblings JPV and Azzy are soooo important to me <33

from @creetchure

A helpfull step by step guid on how to turn your EtC jason & tim fics into Etc Jean-Paul Valley & tim fics

for people who have never read a comic <3

i made a power point

[kara-zor-els]

do you have any recommendations for dick and jason (together or separate, both is fine) comics for someone who’s just starting to read them? i have some knowledge of the characters and batfam and i’ve read several batman comics, but i never really got into the robins-after-they-were-robins comis so i’d like to start with dick and jason…thank you so much :)

I really don't think I'm the person to ask for this, as I'm both very new to comics and I haven't read a lot of batfam, but for Jason I'd safely recommend:

Batman: Hush (not essential, he shows up in a few issues towards the end and is then seemingly revealed to be clayface. I say seemingly because it was then retconed to have actually been him at the beginning. Iconic for introducing the white steak though)

Under The Red Hood (sometimes also known as Batman: Under The Hood)

Teen Titans vol.3 #29 (the famous Jason breaking into Titans Tower issue)

Red Hood: Lost Days

Nightwing: Brothers in blood (bad but it's where you get tentacle monster jason. Casually Comics on YouTube did a good review of those issues, which I would recommend)

He was also in countdown to final crisis, which I have not read yet but will probably get to once I decide to read final crisis.

I'm not too familiar with later appearances as the universe shifts into the New 52. This is where the Red Hood and the Outlaws (Roy and Starfire) era comes from, where Jason gets softened up a lot. I have not read it because I'm honestly not too interested in Lobdell's writing.

Then there is the rebirth run on RHATO (with Bizzaro and Artemis) which I heard is more readable? But still tragically written by Lobdell. However the last two issues are a self contained story by a different writer, which I'd recommend

In conclusion: read UTRH, Teen Titans #29 and Red Hood: Lost Days for pre Flashpoint Red Hood Jason and maybe check out RHATO rebirth for post Flashpoint Jason? @dailyjasontodd has a cohesive reading list for him.

Now as for Dick... his 90s nightwing run is generally considered a good starting point (I have read a few issues here and there), unless you want to start from the beginning of his nightwing career with the 80s new teen titans run. He also pops up in other batman-related comics (I'd personally recommend birds of prey (1999) but he only pops up sporadically. Issue #8 sets the base for his relationship with oracle!babs)) and eventually has a run as batman (with Damian as his robin) after Bruce "dies" in Final Crisis in Batman & Robin 2009 (I'm skipping a few events here). He then had a few nighwing runs during and after the n52 (and a run as Grayson). You can pick up the most recent nightwing run (Tom Taylor) as it's pretty beginners friendly (I mean I'm a beginner and I could follow it just fine) but it's honestly just kinda boring? The art looks great though, so at least there is that.

[silverwhittlingknife]

Red Robin 1-12: a love letter to continuity

a.k.a. I could footnote this entire run and that's so much of what I love about it

This is an incredibly minor one-off moment with intense awareness of what’s going on in other comics, done with a thoroughness that is 1) totally unnecessary because 99% of readers will never notice, and therefore 2) SO GREAT

References!!! So many references!!!

(This is a really long post because there are just SO MANY references; I’m so sorry; I’m just very enthusiastic; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!)

Okay!  So I like a lot of things about Red Robin 1-12 (such as DICK and TIM), but one of the things I like most about it is pretty low-key: it’s very grounded in continuity, and it really rewards people who’ve read a lot of comics.  Chris Yost - who wrote the 12-issue arc that culminates in a fight with Ra’s - is really careful about keeping track of recent events and crossovers and who-knows-what and who’s-friends-with-who, and he brings in characters from Tim’s solo and his team books and past Batman crossovers.

Among other things, Yost explicitly references a ton of characters and events from the final issues of Robin, including:

Tim’s high school friends Zo and Ives, and his contacts Harper and Bard

Tim’s final battle with Shiva in R 183

the new Anarchy killing his siblings in R 182

Dick and Tim’s final encounter in R 183

Tim's go-to fake name "Alvin Draper" (a deep dive going all the way back to the 90s, when Tim uses the alias in Robin, Young Justice, and issues like Detective Comics 697)

Tim telling Steph to stop wearing the Spoiler costume in R 182 after he finds out she hired someone to attack him in R 177 (...it’s complicated, but look, none of this is Yost’s fault)

Tim worrying that Batman was going crazy in R 176

Tim breaking Jason out of prison in R 182

Yost's also careful to keep track of and reference events from other comic books around this time, including:

Jason’s murder spree in Battle for the Cowl (and we even get Tim having the logical emotional response of blaming himself for freeing Jason),

Hush replacing Bruce in Batman: Streets of Gotham (and Ra’s tries to figure out what’s going on!), 

Superman being the one who (apparently) brings back Bruce’s body in Final Crisis, 

the attack of the Justifiers with the Anti-Life Equation in Final Crisis,

Tim and Cassie grieving Conner in Teen Titans,

Tim and Cassie’s goodbye in Teen Titans, 

Tim’s meeting with Conner in Adventure Comics (and Tim muses on what Conner deduced about his costume),

Tim’s meetup with Dick in Batman: Blackest Night (and Tim second-guesses not telling Dick about his evidence), 

Dick and Damian moving to the Penthouse in Batman, and Steph and Babs moving to the Batcave in Batgirl (when Tim heads to the Batcave, he's startled to run into Steph instead of Dick, and when Babs calls Dick later, she also calls from there)

But that's not all! Yost's also really interested in older comics!

The entire plot of RR is a follow-up on Ra’s’ interest in recruiting Tim from all the way back in the Resurrection of Ra’s al-Ghul crossover!!

plus Yost creates a League character who specifically remembers and references Resurrection, 

plus Tim notices that the current White Ghost is different from the old White Ghost, 

plus Tim talks to Bruce’s gravestone, much like he talks to his parents’ gravestones in Robin,

plus Cassie mentions Tim’s Batman needs a Robin catchphrase from all the way back in Lonely Place of Dying,

plus in one of Dick and Tim’s fights, Dick says Tim should get therapy in Metropolis, which is a very in-character thing for Dick to think of because Dick himself seeks therapy from a Dr. Parker in New Teen Titans and kinda low-key tries to get informal therapy from Clancy in Brothers in Blood, plus I’m 90% sure that this refers specifically to Dr. Claire Foster, a Metropolis psychologist and minor Superman character (who Yost has Donna suggest that Kory see in the Titans issue he wrote),

plus Dick and Tim have a fight when Tim’s heading to the airport, and the fight starts when Dick tries to grab Tim and hold him back, and Tim throws him off, which is exactly how their fight over the Lazarus Pit in Resurrection starts too,

plus Tim only wins his physical fight with Dick because Dick has second thoughts and backs off and lets him win, rather than actually losing, which—again—is basically how their fight went in Resurrection,

plus Dick’s "Tim’s my equal, Damian’s my responsibility” line is a nice shorthand that’s very in-character and true to how Dick thinks of them in other comics (Dick has a high opinion of Tim and generally thinks of him as an equal or even better than Dick at things in New Titans and Nightwing; Alfred just told Dick that Damian is his “responsibility” in Batman and their relationship will continue to be ‘guardian and child’ in Batman and Robin),

plus RR 1 has some clever visual and verbal parallels to Batman 416, and just generally I love the idea of low-key replaying the Bruce-Dick-Jason / Bruce-Dick-Azrael dustups with a new Dick-Tim-Damian dustup which is both completely different and extremely similar,

plus, Yost adds some fun original characters (Tam and the assassin trio), but without introducing them at the expense of Tim’s previous relationships - Tam and the assassins aren’t the focus in the big finale, and Tim’s traditional friends and allies are,

and Yost neatly introduces the new characters by fitting them into existing mythology (you already know Lucius’s daughter Tiffany, now meet her younger sister; you already know Ra’s has assassins, now learn some of their names).

Non-Batfamily Characters

But wait! I’m not done!  There are even more continuity references!  Consider how RR keeps track of—and references—what’s going on with non-Batfamily characters:

The Wild Huntsman, an incredibly minor character from Justice League: Europe, shows up to try to stop Tim from stealing from a museum in Germany.

Tim runs into a new Killer Moth and mentions that he’s hard to identify because “the costume and the man” change regularly, and Killer Moth panics and asks if Tim’s with the Atom, which is a reference to the Atom fighting Killer Moth and torturing people in Cry for Justice (and Tim has “no idea” what Killer Moth’s talking about, as indeed he wouldn’t!)

In order to kidnap Hush, Ra’s and his group of assassins have to knock out Katana, because she’s one of the former Outsiders that Dick asked to start guarding Hush in Batman: Streets of Gotham,

The montage of Ra’s’ targets and Tim’s allies spotlights a bunch of lesser-known Batfamily allies and Bruce Wayne love interests from Batman/Batfamily comics through the years!!  Man-Bat!!  Huntress!!

I’M STILL NOT DONE.  Consider how careful Red Robin is about names:

When one of the assassins says, “Flash,” Tim guesses that they probably don’t mean “Wally” or “Mister Allen,” which is a short-and-sweet way of clearly distinguishing between Tim’s relationship to Wally (part of Dick’s generation, someone he’s worked with before) and Barry Allen (older, Tim never met him).

Ra’s al-Ghul calls Tim “Timothy,” just like he does in Resurrection, and Tim remembers that Ra’s usually calls Bruce “Detective,” which nicely sets up the coming-of-age moment when Tim does something clever and Ra’s calls him “Detective” 

When Tim says the name “Hush,” Steph misunderstands and thinks he’s telling her to be quiet, because Steph was presumed dead during Batman: Hush so—unlike a lot of the other characters—she has no reason to recognize the name.

Tim’s inner monologue refers to himself as Robin and then he has to course-correct as he tries to figure out what he should call himself (and just in general Tim’s identity-crisis inner monologues where he distinguishes between himself as “Tim Drake” or “Tim Wayne” or “Robin” or someone else are straight from similar musings throughout Robin)

Harvey Bullock thinks Tim is Dr. Mid-Nite because their costumes look similar.

Relatedly, Red Robin is careful about keeping track of who-knows-what and which characters have relationships to which other characters. Thus for example:

Alfred doesn’t know that Tim’s taken off until he goes upstairs and finds that his bedroom is empty,

Dick finds out about Tim’s theory that Bruce is alive because Tim tells Cassie and she calls Dick,

Nobody knows Tim’s new codename unless they ask him and he tells them,

Tim doesn’t know that Dick and Damian are now in the Penthouse instead of the Cave (and that Babs and Steph are now in the Cave), because that move happened while he was gone,

Dick finds out that Tim’s in Gotham because Babs calls him to let him know, and Babs knows because Steph got in touch with her when she ran into Tim,

Damian and Prudence recognize each other from Damian’s days in the League.

Also, I am a connoisseur of character flaws and weaknesses and insecurities and mayyyybe less-than-ideal coping mechanisms, and Red Robin is ON POINT.  Among other things:

The specific Brucequest plan of “run away from home on an impulsive quest without telling anyone where I’m going” is SUCH a classic Tim Drake response to personal problems I CANNOT TELL YOU.  There was the time he ran away to Paris without leaving a note in Robin (while in a guilt-spiral), or the time he ran away from Central City, or the time he snuck into NML, or the time he quit Robin and didn’t tell his teammates, I COULD GO ON,

plus Tim’s insecurities about his place in the family (and the ways he ties that place and his identity to the Robin costume) are straight out of Robin and Nightwing and Damian’s first appearance in Batman and Resurrection, and ditto feeling threatened by Damian and being super-hostile toward him as a result, plus Tim’s idea of Robin both as something you earn and as a symbol of love (and as something that’s Dick’s to give and take) goes all the way back to his origin story,

plus the “I’m fine” line, and lying, and not confiding anything in anyone, and just generally responding to a personal crisis by getting super-involved in crimefighting and pretending he’s totally fine are all Peak Tim Drake, and very reminiscent of how Tim responds to the aftermath of Darla’s death in War Games and the aftermath of his dad’s death in Teen Titans and the aftermath of Dodge’s death in Robin (in Tim’s defense, his role models are Bruce and Dick, so...yeah),

plus in RR 12 Tim’s—not trying to die, he’s trying to win, but he’s also extremely willing to risk or sacrifice his life in ways that the people who love him might be understandably unnerved by, and that feels very true to some moments in Teen Titans,

And this is kind of fuzzier, but one thing that I really, really love about RR is that even though it’s very much a Tim story, it’s got a lot of love for the supporting cast.  

Lucius Fox is the one who realizes Hush needs to be stopped and that he can use a legal trick involving Tim to do it, and the reason why he has the authority to pull it off is because that’s how much Bruce trusts him, which is a very nice way of honoring how important Lucius is to Wayne Enterprises and the Batfamily

Bruce is the one who trusted Lucius and trusted Tim in return and that’s why they’re able to pull it off; 

Tim only saves the day in the end because he calls on a bunch of Batfamily and Titans allies; 

In the finale, Tim loses his physical fight with Ra’s!!!  I will never be over how great this is.  Tim wins the protect-everyone battle that matters to him, via cleverness and trickery and allies and friends and figuring out what Ra’s is up to and asking the right people for help, but he loses the physical fight, because Ra’s is a fantastic fighter and there’s no possible way for Tim to beat him.  How many superhero comics end in a triumph where the character knows he’s gonna lose the physical fight and then does indeed lose it and you’re still cheering for him and understand why it’s a victory?  Not a lot.

Ra’s doesn’t lose the battle of wits because he’s an idiot—he loses because he doesn’t anticipate Tim calling on allies, which is a very reasonable assumption because Tim hasn’t been doing that; 

plus an after-fight scene tells us that Ra’s wasn’t trying his hardest because this was mostly a test for Tim; 

We end not with Tim saving someone but with Dick saving him.

Like. It’s a great Tim showcase that still saves some key BAMF moments for other characters, and it lets Tim have conflict with other people while still keeping the other people understandable and sympathetic, and it does all this while still giving Tim his own genuinely satisfying victories: his hunch that Bruce is alive is right, and his evidence will save Bruce; the final confrontation with Ra’s is enormously fun.

There are also just a bunch of ways the story feels right on a thematic level!

The whole storyline starts with a fight with Dick and ends with a reconciliation with Dick AS IT SHOULD because Tim’s relationship with Dick is at the CORE OF HIS CHARACTER okay i might be a little biased here but I am also RIGHT

Tim figures out that Bruce is alive via a split-second instinctive visual recognition, followed by a bunch of actual detective work to confirm the split-second insight, which is a PERFECT way for Tim in particular to make the deduction because that’s exactly how Tim figures out Dick’s secret identity in Lonely Place of Dying,

Tim’s big issue 12 finale involves him declaring, “I’m not Batman—I have friends,” which is a version of things that Tim says repeatedly in Young Justice and Teen Titans, but more broadly, the importance of “nobody works alone, we have to lean on each other and ask for help” is, like, the Ur-Tim-Drake-thematic thing, the core insight at the heart of Batman needs a Robin,

plus it’s an insight that Tim consistently struggles to apply to himself in Robin and Teen Titans, so Tim forgetting this and relearning it again is a great thematic arc for the whole twelve-issue story

And of course, the big finale ends with Dick CATCHING Tim while he’s FALLING, which is the most thematically appropriate thing you could possibly have happen for those two characters IN PARTICULAR.

And Red Robin works with the other comics and the history of the DC universe and relies on them, as opposed to being its own self-contained solo act that warps everything around it, so on a meta level it’s enacting the same in-universe moral that Tim uses to defeat Ra’s.

IT’S JUST SO GOOD YOU GUYS

[soleminisanction]

Do you consider Barbara the first or second Batgirl? I’ve always considered Barbara the second. I try to keep Bette alive in my memory and it would be awesome to see DC do more with her! She could be so fascinating! I find it interesting that she started off as the Batgirl who had a girlish crush on Robin to then unknowingly taking the name Flambird who is the partner of Nightwing in Superman lore. Bring her back DC!

Do you have any rarepairs when it comes to Babs? Or any unpopular opinions?

Depends on if we're talking in- or out-of-universe. In the post-Crisis continuity, she's been established as the first Batgirl, with Betty -- who, for the record, is kinda distinct from Bette in the same way that the modern Kate Kane is distinct from Kathy -- being her Earth-2 equivalent. But in terms of out-of-universe history, she's the second, though she is the codifier and the one who originated the role in the minds of most pop culture.

I don't really ship Babs with anybody. My unpopular opinion is that I don't think she needs to be completely paralyzed to be good disability representation, and that she can be that while being both Batgirl and Oracle.

There's definitely ways to do that representation wrong. The way the comics went about it, with the magic cure that contradicted decades of her characterization as Oracle? That sucked, and from what I hear they haven't been handling the balance between her two roles great in the more recent comics either, which also sucks. But in other adaptions, worlds, or even reset timelines within the DCU, there are ways to do it that I think work great.

Like the Gotham Knights video game version, where the injury is established to have been something she always knew she could recover from, but it took years for her to get back to the point where she could act in the field again, and even then she has to use assistive devices and deal with chronic pain. That's good disability rep, and people who dismiss it just because she can walk are wrong to do so.

[evasive-anon]

I think Stephanie wasn't brought up because it would have made Jason's side too sympathetic to readers when he was the villain.

So Winnick brought Jason back as Red Hood and in interviews he was pretty clear that his intent was just to find a new way to torment Batman. He recreated Jason but really just as a tool to create conflict. He wasn't intending Jason to become a hero or antihero later on so he wasn't trying to establish bonds between Jason and the robins came after him.

Continuing down that vein- I know we all get stuck in the kill/ no kill standards in Batman content but I don't think the killing is the only aspect of making Jason a 'bad guy' in the story arch. Part of creating a hero is establishing something like purity of intent, a real to desire to help people, so in contrast to make Jason a villain he had to make his motivation self-satisfying. So Jason in UtRH is only really focused on his own vengeance and hurt. In that way, bringing up Stephanie would have been antithetical to the goal because for Winnick's Jason its really just meant to be about him.

BUT, if in some alternate timeline, Winnick actually made Jason an antihero not a full bad guy I think we could have gotten some fucking AMAZING content. God, I think about this everyday. We coulda got some banger lines about Bruce's ability to fail his partners and Jason would acknowledge Steph was killed and use that as ammo against Batman and Black Mask. He could have made call backs to how Bruce and Dick fell out back in his early Robin days. He could have harped on Batman's actual codependency with him during his robin days cause lowkey post-crisis B kinda isolated Jason because he seemingly was afraid he'd up leave him some day like Dick did. (Which literally is what kids are supposed to do.) Jason doesn't even really bring up Babs in arguments for killing the Joker in UtRH which is wild cause that wasn't some kid that popped up while he was gone he rolled with Babs too in his Robin days.

The fact that under the red hood takes place directly after the arc where Stephanie died and the comic acknowledges this yet Judd Winnick doesn’t take the opportunity to have Jason say something cuntish about it to Bruce boggles my mind every time I think about it like that’s crazyyy