#Batman hasn't even meet all the kids and is already thinking about taking them in

[recycledraccoon]

The Batkids, all seriousness aside from the reveal, do think this is absolutely hilarious. Like, almost all of THEM have gotten surprise siblings or a sibling returned from the dead and now it's Bruce's turn.

Plus Danny and kids being openly suspicious of this billionaire?? *chefs kiss*

Most of the siblings are eagerly watching but trying SO HARD to not overwhelm Bruce's long lost little brother and his kids. It's bad enough that Damian has got off to such a bad start with the new cousins. They all meet in the hallways now and it's like two semi-feral cats (Dan and Damien) and one mischievous ferret (Ellie) having a stand off.

Dan and Damien: *locked gazes and raised hackles*

Ellie: *trying to decided which BatBurger would be the best option to stage an after school brawl behind*

Dick, in the distance: "I have the sudden premonition that I should check in on Damien today."

Steph, also in the distance: "Something's happening. I don't know what but I want to be there."

MEANWHILE

Danny, on the phone with Tucker and Sam: "He has a creepy lair in his basement I just KNOW IT."

Batman, lurking: *sweats*

Red Robin, watching Batman Lurk™️: *trying not to laugh*

Duke has only met Danny so far as Signal, but former Teen Hero Danny Fenton spots him and is SO intent on giving this young hero high calorie snacks or even a damn gatorade. If he sees him he will sprint into the closest store if he has to. Duke has a large collection of random post-it notes or wrappers/bottles with affirmations and gratitude Danny wrote. (It goes with other similarly sentimental gifts from Gotham citizens).

Danny hasn't MET Cass personally, but he has taken the kids to a ballet performance once with Jazz when she visited as "cultural enrichment". Surprisingly, Dan liked it more than anyone thought he would. Ballet is incredibly physically demanding, and he can see the beauty in that in their movements.

Jason tho. Jason sees Danny eye sad-wet cat Brucie Wayne with deep suspicion and immediately pushes his way into the Fenton's lives.

Jason LOVES Uncle Danny. Both because it gets Bruce's panties in an absolute twist and because something about the Fenton family just clicks with him. (Danny has absolutely clocked Jason as having returned from the dead. He's not a halfa or a ghost, but he has died and returned from the dead. Probably some type of Revenant? Danny's not sure when or how to broach the topic as they don't know each other well enough yet to our themselves, but Jason being around the family in the meantime will be good for him. Plus the kiddos love'm.)

Bruce is struggling to get his emotional constipation under control long enough to establish a non-hostile or unintentionally-creepy-billionaire relationship again with his baby brother.

Meanwhile Jason is already on the couch playing games with Ellie and Dan. He's already ordered himself a "I'm Someone's Favorite Nephew" mug which he absolutely drinks from at the Manor almost exclusively while he's there. Alfred allows this, given Jason got Danny to agree to meet him.

Jason will happily give Bruce the middle finger but he loves Alfred fiercely. It takes a bit but eventually Danny agrees to meet him. Jason takes Ellie and Dan out for the day to terrorize Gotham, and leaves the two older men to talk.

Danny has a long talk with Alfred, who absolutely has tried so so hard not to cry during all this, but absolutely does eventually. He must have felt so guilty for so long, his beloved friends Thomas and Martha gone, and their youngest son Daniel stolen and he had been unable to do anything but hold Young Master Bruce in both their grief. And yet here he is, a kind father to two beautiful children, telling him he's happy and grew up with a family who, despite a weird, bumpy road, loves him and his kids so so much. Danny doesn't have a photo album available right now, but he and Alfred set a date for Alfred to come back and have dinner to meet both Dan and Ellie, and to look at photo albums together, Fenton and Wayne both.

Alfred reminds Danny of Clockwork just a bit, with his impeccable timing and knowledge/intuition.

Slowly as Danny gets to know Alfred (and Jason, despite how he rags on Bruce, or how Damien seems to have become Dan and Ellie's highschool nemesis, which makes Danny think fondly of fighting-as-bonding in the Infinite Realms) he warms enough to agree, finally, to have dinner at the Manor with the family so Alfred can host, back in his environment as the impeccable Wayne family Butler.

This also means of course that Danny has also agreed to meet and talk with Bruce. (Creepy Billionaire...but also a name that long since lingered in the back of his head and heart though he didn't know why. A photo of a little boy and his big brother that pulls at those same heart strings.)

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I had another 11pm brain worm.

Enjoy

-x-x-

Daniel Wayne, the younger toddler brother of Bruce Wayne and the son of Martha and Thomas Wayne had been kidnapped the night their parents were murdered.

Daniel had been snagged the moment their killer heard people headed to the alley and Bruce in his state of shock didn't realize it until it was far to late and could only scream in horror (from everything) as his baby brother is crying his name. (If you wanna make it even more heart wrenching, make it Danny's first time being able to say Bruce's name right and/or Bruce had said some mean things to Danny earlier after he accidentally broke something of Bruce's, something like 'I wish youd go away' or 'I never wanted a brother, you're such a bother!')

Bruce is being held by Alfred as some police officers are chasing down the Wayne's parents killer while some stay behind to see if they could do something.

Minutes turn to hours and as they wait, praying the police at least found Danny, Bruce is ridden with guilt. From his parents death to allowing his brother to be kidnapped.

Eventually the police return to give Alfred and Bruce the news. And it's not good.

The killer escaped and Danny was nowhere to be found.

And it would take many years before he would be found.

-x-x-

Bruce gets a call from Damian during school hours one day. When he answers he is greeted with Damian demanding him to get to the school and explain himself.

Confused Bruce asks what does he mean and Damian responds with

"The two new students in class today are the spitting images of you and I father! Either they are poorly created clones or you have more hidden blood children!"

-x-x-

Meanwhile the very students being discussed are calling up someone too

"Ellie? Dan? What's wrong? You better not have made too much chaos already, I just paid for the uniforms for that place."

"DAD! I THINK ANOTHER ONE OF THE FRUITLOOPS FAILED CLONES SOMEHOW SURVIVED!"

"What?"

[dannyphantom-justiceleauge]

Prompt idea: Danny and Jazz are related to Barbara Gordon.

Maddie Fenton is Jim Gordon's wife's cousin, which makes her kids Barbara's second cousins. Jim doesn't want to alienate Babs from her maternal relatives so they paid a visit on Jim's day off... Or at least Jim wished it was a day off, Jim took one look at the safety hazard and child endangerment of a home and decided then and there his taking these kids home with him, batman be damned. (And he still hasn't heard about the holiday depression, hate crime and blantant war cry yet). There are day's where Jim wonder's if it was the right call to bring this kids to Gotham, the kids sure think it is!

hmm, so to start I'd say that similar with Vlad, Maddie and Jack kinda just ghosted their families. not intentionally but once they became a couple, brain cells kinda faded and they're either off inventing or being totally in love. you have to be the one to put an effort in to stay in their lives and not everyone has the time or energy for that. add that they're ghost obsessed and obnoxious, and were already skating the line of legal before they got together and the Fenton's aren't talked to much. actually that could explain why they so easily believed Dani was a cousin. they have extended family they just don't pay enough attention to it to know what going on in it. the only reason Aunt Alicia had Maddie present for her divorce was that Alicia called her. they tend to forget you exist until you remind them. likewise with Vlad contacting them. they probably just lost track of time until he reminded them ‘hey we used to be friends >:)’ and then it was like no time had passed to them even though it's literally been years.

Jim's wife didn't make an effort to stay in contact with the Fenton’s. that part of the family wasn't even aware that the Fenton had children. after Barbara Sr. walked out on them (on Christmas too) Jim made an effort to track her down and keep the family together. his effort lead to him contacting the Fenton's and eventually trying to have a relationship with Barbara Sr. extended family. the kids deserved to have a family after all and he didn't think he was being a sufficient enough father with how much he had to work. so he agrees to bring the kids and visit, and see the portal that Jack raved about for twenty minutes. note, at no point in this phone call did Jim learn that Maddie and Jack had kids. so the family arrives and that's a surprise. the first of many bad surprised. because, speaking as someone who's seen his fair share of them, the Fenton house is like a mad scientist's lair. the weapons, the glowing liquids, the invasion of Fenton tech in every room, the ops center, and worst of all the actual lab that has a whole as portal to another dimension in it. equally concerning is that when he offered cook he found almost no uncontaminated food in the cupboard and was attacked by possessed ham when he opened the fridge.

when he finally meets the kids, Jazz and Danny, he starts asking some definitely pointed 'is this child abuse' questions, ones he asks kids he meets at work. Danny isn't trusting enough to answer beyond what amounts to 'I love my parents, get out of my house'. but Jazz has 'a finally I've been validated' moment and brings out the psych file on all her parents bad behavior, somewhat naively not realizing this will effect her parents custody over them. she kinda thinks everything will be solved if her parents enter therapy and counselling and calm down on the ghost stuff. it didn't occur to her she was describing criminal behavior to a cop. yeah. Jim Gordan has encountered too many super villains to let these kids stay here.

and sadly for the kids the law is really on his side. it seems almost like the Amity Police were waiting for a charge to properly stick on the Fenton's and once they could throw the book at them, they throw it hard. it becomes a whole thing. Jazz is smacked with guilt and regret. Danny is pissed at everyone; Jazz, Gordan, his parents, the cops. Phantom might actually be spotted trying to destroy evidence and get the Fenton's off but there's too much evidence and too much bias, and the closest to freedom the Fenton parents are going to get is a trip to Arkham. especially because every attempt they make to prove their innocence reveals more illegal stuff they were obliviously doing. it's a losing battle and a mess for everyone involved.

eventually the portal is properly shut down, their research was seized by the government, and Vlad comes around to gloat like an asshole even as he doesn't successfully get custody of the kids. because if Danny's parents are going to jail danny's going to make damn sure Vlad goes with them. which you know further complications. Danny doesn't directly reveal Vlad's secret, he just reveals the crimes, with Tucker's tech help and leads them towards the fact that Vlad's a meta and has a lab and a whole other portal in his basement. getting charges to stick to Vlad is a whole lot harder, and this time Danny is just flying around in the background, helping the police and making sure Vlad can't superpower his way out of the situation. the police end up concluding Vlad's powers are from ecto-contamination so anti-ecto weapons and shields work on him and are used to keep him contained. they don't know he's a halfa at least and he's not interested in revealing himself or Danny because that reveal would take him out of prison and onto a lab table. right now it's important that the government believe. he ends up in Arkham with the Fenton's wearing one of those belts that shorts out his powers and usually in a cell with a ghost shield. the guards have anti ghost tech added to their uniform. Jack spends a lot of time annoying him while there.

i know you said the kids are happy but i don't think they are. Jazz is wracked with guilt because she helped get her parents arrested and broke up their already broken family. Danny, as mentioned, is literally pissed at everyone. he was taken from his home and his job, he just lost his parents, his best friends are now a city away, he doesn't even have ghost to take out his aggression on. the government having his parent research is also going to be a major issue later, especially now that they know ecto-contamination can give people ghost powers. a lot of that is going on out of sight rn though. will a portal eventually be opened in Gotham? probably. will it effect the lazarus pit? absolutely. is both of these things going to be a problem for everyone? haha, yeah.

meanwhile you have Barbara dealing with the abandonment of her mother, and her father's abrupt adoption of two more kids. like she gets why they couldn't stay with their parents, she also saw that house. but adding two traumatized children to the mix isn't going to help keep their family together. especially when Jim is still working long hours and they're all just left alone in the house together. and James Jr. has sociopathic tendencies and was low key the reason his mom walked out. i think it's entirely safe to say they he doesn't want these two strangers in his house. Jim is still grieving about his wife leaving too and he is not in a good place to be taking care of kids. he's trying but he's not around enough and basically throwing himself into his work hoping things will be better when he gets home. he's trying to do right by them but he's also now a single parent supporting four kids. Jazz and barb do what they can to help by getting part time jobs but both want to go to college and leaving Danny and James alone in a house together doesn't bode well.

i definitely see Danny and James fighting hard and a lot. James basically just on principle and because they’re ages are close enough that he can get away with messing with Danny. Danny because he clocked James as a fruitloop from the beginning and doesn’t like being harassed. unfortunately James is manipulative enough that Danny ends up taking the blame for their fights and broken things a lot of the time. Danny receives the label troubled kid and it’s a whole thing, especially with his history of Problematic Behaviour at Casper. Jim tries to get Danny into counseling but the psych programs in Gotham are... yeah. it’s not super helpful.

i’m having a bit of trouble with the timeline because i don’t know when Barbara’s mother left or how old barb was. but canonically at least in the new fifty-two which is the timeline we’re using, Barb is the same age as Bruce. i’m kinda clocking her at 17 or 18 at the time they adopt Danny and jazz, making her and Jazz around the same age. they’re also adopted when Danny is around 15-16. i’m going to say James is a few years younger than Danny. Bruce adopts a 10 year old Dick Grayson when he’s 25, meaning Danny would be around 22-23 when batman gets his first robin. the age that Bruce became batman is a mixed number, most saying he was 26 in the new 52 beaning Dick was adopted before Bruce became batman? but the impression i got from most of the comics was he adopted robin after... unsure about that. we’ll say it happened the same year. Bruce was barely a year into superhero when he finds and adopts a child.

my point is, all the Robins are baby children to Danny. they’re tiny. they shouldn’t be doing hero work. even Dani looks around twenty now. infants. is it hypocritical of him to be treating these heroes as children when he himself was a child when he started fighting? yes and no. he is being that bitch about how young they are, but he doesn’t want these kids to have the kind of childhood he had. he doesn’t know how he survived being a fourteen year old super hero. technically he didn’t.

anyway i’m going to say Danny gets one quiet year where he gets to settle in with the Gordan's, read; hate everything and fight with James. then the government open a portal under Gotham (it’s the nearest major city to Amity and also pretty fucking haunted). so boom Danny is back to the hero biz, slightly rusty and in a new town with new rules. sneaking should be harder in Gotham, but Jim isn’t home enough to notice. Jazz and Barb are doing their best at college and worrying about the boys. Jazz despite her Ivy League dreams ended up sticking closer to Gotham just to look after her brother and to not fuck their budget all to hell. she dreams of maybe going to Harvard as a graduate student but that feels a long way off. the problem with sneaking out successfully is that James is a snitch and Danny has to make a deal with the devil so stop James from selling him out. James doesn’t realize Danny is Phantom but has noticed Danny’s scary eyes and basically concluded he has similar ecto-contamination to Vlad. he also recons Danny doesn’t want that secret out to anyone. note. this is very much a relationship where if Danny wasn’t a hero he could absolutely wreck James. like the only reason James gets away with so much bs is that Danny doesn’t use his powers on humans.

it should also be noted that a 16/17 year old Danny fighting ghosts means that Danny took to heroing in Gotham long before Bruce is. meaning Bruce has another role model. Danny's 'don’t use his powers on humans' rule, means that Danny isn’t doing as much to stop crime as the city needs. he’ll sometimes pop in and scare villains away from doing crimes. show up and spook would be muggers or rapist out of allies. occasionally possess and turn over bank robbers to the police. he’d prevent murders if he sees them. but he’s not really in control of the root causes and he’s rarely in the right warehouses, at the right time to see what’s going down or solve any major mysteries. he leaves the real crime investigation to the unfortunately corrupt police. he’s kinda too wrapped up in his own life to be super aware of the injustice around him. if he sees the problem he interferes but mostly it’s ghost fighting and high school for him

 and boy howdy is he wrapped up in ghost stuff. the government wouldn’t just have a ghost portal. they’d have ecto-contaminated people they’ve been experimenting on. some very sick, some developing ghostly powers, sorta like the spectra hospital episode. so Danny would have to deal with those types of characters. there’d be issues with the lazarus pit and league of assassins and he’d probably have to uncover a bunch of stuff about that and possibly get temporarily recruited. new portal probably means new part of the zone, so Danny would be getting new rouges on top of the old ones who swing by for old times sake. the Fenton’s and Vlad have been getting to know the people in Arkham and are probably going to break out at some point. the Fenton’s purely because they want to see their kids/ hear there’s ghosts in Gotham. Vlad to get revenge. also the Fenton’s are going to be fully labeled as villains at this point despite their relative naive innocence. they’re not actively trying to hurt anyone but if they supply Mr. Freeze with ectoplasm to help his wife and if they supply ghost weapons and some regular weapons to their other friends and end up doing wild research with the other scientist in Arkham well they’re just stacking charges. i do want a plot where Mr. Freeze’s wife successfully returns from the dead but as a mostly ghost and a lot of her personality has been lost to obsession. she’s his wife but not the woman he fell in love with. a whole oof situation that’s gonna fuck Mr. Freeze up and probably make him the Fenton parents enemy because they ruined her body. he can’t even have a second chance at this,.Danny’s down to help the new ice halfa (3 quarters? 75 cents? Danny would work on a quippy name later) and he’s sympathetic to mr. freeze and pretty much immune to the whole ice attack thing. so they kinda end up friends who fight when the Fenton’s are involved. Danny is trying to get Mr. Freeze to Jazz for therapy.

will this be a jazz is an Arkham therapist route? maybe? will this be an Arkham guard Danny route? sure if Jazz is there. he’d remain a full time ghost hero on top of that though. and when Bruce finally gets around to being batman and solving crimes, Danny’s would have been the established hero in Gotham for at least seven years. he’s far from a perfect hero by anyone’s definition. he fucks up a lot. but he’s the hero that’s there and enough people have stories of being saved by phantom that his reputation isn’t terrible.it’s not what i would call good, but it’s not terrible. Danny and Bruce are going to overlap a lot and i’m torn on Bruce’s stance on the hero because on the one hand, Danny is a hero. he’s doing more than pretty much anyone else is to save and protect the citizens of Gotham. but he’s not doing enough. he’s not attacking the problem or corruption. he’s not scaring villains straight. he’s too busy fighting ghosts. the ghosts definitely need to be fought, Bruce appreciates it, but sighting ghosts wouldn’t save his parents. you know what, Bruce likes him. he still became a hero because the ‘not enough’ stuff but he’s genuinely glad to have phantom protecting Gotham and he looks up to Danny despite Danny being younger than him. Danny is more tenured. this will definitely be a Danny’s in the justice league story, he gets to be a founding member. they end up working together a lot, two sides of the crime fighting coin.

it also doesn’t take terribly long for Bruce to figure out that phantom is Gordan’s troubled son. he ends up seeing a lot of himself in Danny the person and tries to adopt him despite Danny already legally being an adult and still considering the Fenton’s his parents. after that they just kinda end up as friends. adult friends who just happen to be superheroes on top of everything. now i’m imagining Danny running in the gala circles and it’s funny to me. you know Sam and tuckers careers are going to take off and they’re going to manage to join those circles, ironically only showing up to parties if Danny is there. people tend to sneer at Danny because he’s just the son of a cop, and has a record on top of that. but Danny, Bruce, Sam, and tucker are chaotic together.i also see Alfred as being so proud that Bruce made an honest to got friend that in his mind Danny can do no wrong. Alfred will spoil Danny whenever Danny comes over and Danny’s living standards were already so low that he’d be amazed at anything Alfred offered. Alfred becomes determined to fatten Danny up.not that Gordan doesn’t feed his kids. but single dad cop budget is very different from billionaire budget. i didn’t know i needed Bruce to have an adult friend/ sorta mentor until this. i mean he has the other supers, but this feels a little more equal because Danny is already established and vetted before Bruce becomes a hero. just the fact that they live near each other makes is easier for Bruce to have consistent friendship with Danny.

now lets add big sister barb, except she and Danny don’t know each others secret identities. she gets the impression that phantom is familiar but initially writes it off as her hearing about phantom from jazz and Danny because that’s where the ghost was originally from. note: people assumed phantom followed the portal to Gotham. no one connects it to Danny, especially because the first year Danny is in town he doesn’t really advertise his superhero persona as being around. he still goes on late night flies, but even if someone spotted him they’d write it off as imagining things. but so it takes time for them to find out that they know each other as civilians and it becomes a whole thing. i could imagine both of them going to jazz for help and jazz looking at them, knowing full well who they are, and not realizing that they don’t know who the other is. and it’s a whole comedy of errors. barbs thinks phantom knows jazz because they were from the same town, Danny thinks Batwoman knows jazz because they’re both collage age and jazz is a genius. somehow they come out of this interaction still not knowing each others identity. Bruce also becoming friends with Babs and inviting her to galas, and Babs and Danny attending together as siblings unaware that both their connections to Bruce came from being superheroes and not from the fact that they’re Jim Gordan’s kids. sibling teasing ensues alongside some healthy suspicion and “Danny, please don’t embarrass me” “i’m going to do nothing but embarrass you because you said that.” i’m here for the chaos. i’m here to put off their secret identities being revealed for as long as possible just so when the reveal happens it’s as dramatic as possible.

is it going to be when Babs gets paralyzed? i think it’s going to be when Babs gets paralyzed. Danny will also go feral on the joker for hurting his sister. and it’s a whole different ball game then the joker is used to because Danny has powers. everyone got to used to Danny holding back. the joker isn’t prepared. so jokers hatred of Danny is going to become a thing for a while. joker teaming up with the Fenton’s because they still hate phantom could also be a thing. oof. nothing is easy ever. at some point James is also going to return to the plot knowing more about Danny’s secret than he should, possibly accompanied by Vlad. just a lot of potential drama and chaos to be had.

uncle Danny, being a thing with the Robins would also be cute, since he’s significantly older than all of them. i can see him solemnly giving each kid the “don’t be a teenage superhero speech” and all of them ignoring it and becoming heroes anyway only to years later realize, yeah Danny was right we shouldn’t have been teenage superheroes. Jason ends up fully adopted by Danny after he returns from the dead. like similar powers and this guy had my best interest in mind back before i knew what my best interest were. Danny probably being able to help cure the pit rage either through ghost zone stuff or contacting his villain parents. sounds like a plan. Danny being very anti murder but totally down with Jason just leaving his family after everything? a mood. Danny being a go between Jason and Bruce but not selling Jason’s location out. there’s some drama there. Danny and Jason vibing over trying to murder the joker. hell yeah. Dick trying to be the oldest sibling and use older sibling rights but being over ruled by cool uncle Danny. Steph and Danny bonding over villain parents. Dani visiting and being a cool older sister. Jim unaware that most his family are superheroes. Damian meeting and falling in love with Cujo and tolerating Danny because of this. Tim having an alarmingly large stalker file on Danny and just being a Phantom fanboy in general. the puns.

this got away from me - Hestia

[hailsatanacab]

Living Children Yet Undead Soldiers

Oh man what a title!! So much potential! It would work so well with a pure DC fic, exploring death and the Robins - possibly through a Jason Todd pov (I mean he just really lends himself to this, doesn't he, can you just imagine the angst?????) but they must be a dime a dozen and idk if I could ever give that any justice

AND! As we all know, my brain rot rn is solidly dpxdc, so I'm afraid that's where I'm taking this title 😅

I'm thinking: older Danny, mid-to-late 20s, established Ghost King, but retired Phantom - he's still fresh enough to remember the pain/anger/hurt that comes with being a child hero, as well as the incredible fulfilment and happiness and sense of achievement, of making a difference, too. He has both sides of this, he knows what it's like, so when he meets the batfam for dinner (is it a Grayson brother situation like @tumbling-darkling 's fic? That'd be cool), he watches as each of them files in and becomes more and more agitated as he realises that most of them have died. He's not stupid, he knows who they are and he knows how dangerous the hero game is - and at least they've been resurrected without any lasting damage. They're not even that liminal! But still...

Things come to a head when Jason walks in and he's like oh fuck, he's halfway to a ghost himself and he doesn’t even know it - and he can't hold himself back any more. It's no longer about making sure these kids don't get hurt again, now it's about making sure these kids know the consequences of what they're doing, making sure that Batman isn't taking advantage of their youth and naivety, making sure that they're all okay after the truly harrowing ordeal of dying.

Because Danny knows. He knows how hard all of it is, how the crushing weight of responsibility sits heavy on your shoulders. How it feels to fail.

If he's being brought into this family, he will not stand seeing them all thrust into danger - he won't take their alter-egos away from any of them, that won't help, but he won't sit by and say nothing. He can't.

This is his first meeting with the batfam and everyone's nervous: they can tell he's anxious, angry, he's gripping the silverware too tight, breathing hard through his nose. Everyone's on their best behaviour, trying to make a good impression for Dick’s sake, but they're already messing this up?

And then Jason walks in, followed by Damian, who can't be any older than when Danny himself died, and that's it. That's enough.

Danny slams his knife and fork down and turns to Bruce, nostrils flaring and barely concealed anger on his face. "Bruce, do you mind if I have a quick talk with the kids in private?"

He forces a smile on his face, takes a deep breath to relax, but it barely softens his expression at all. "Nothing to worry about, just want to introduce myself properly and I'd prefer to do that sibling to sibling, you know how it is. Please."

Bruce doesn't want to leave. At all. Something is off and he doesn't like it - if he can't be privy to this conversation then it's not happening. Do you think he's stupid? He's not leaving his kids in the hands of someone he hasn't met properly, someone who is definitely agitated, and is definitely hiding something.

Either he leaves after some reassurances from Dick, or Danny says "Fuck it, fine, I'll do this here and now. I wanted to be discreet, but fuck it - I know who you all are and frankly, fuck you, Bruce."

Cue angry, righteous rant about death and responsibility and how disgraceful it is to manipulate children into becoming soldiers in Batman's own quest for justice.

"They're children, Bruce. They don't deserve to face death every single night and as much as they think they are, they're not invincible. One day one of them will die, truly die, and they won't come back from it. What will you do then?"

Oh man this really got away from me, I really enjoyed this title 😅😅 I'm going to leave it there partly because idk how it would end and also partly because this is now long as fuck haha

send me a title and I'll make up a fic outline

[confusedshades]

Oh my @ghost-bxrd

I'm blushing from that compliment! Thank you! I'm glad so many people are enjoying it. I absolutely loved your take on the voicemail Tim left after the Dick killed Joker. And I agree with @twilightangel83 and your take that Jason would absolutely reconcile with Batfam faster after listening. BUT (and hear me out) he wants answers dammit. He died and yes Bruce and Dick lost it - but he wants to know what Bruce was thinking when the Garzonas case fallout happened, why he'd started almost pulling away and not trusting his word on what happened. Why he'd had Barbara give an opinion instead of trusting his own son.

He gets why he couldn't kill the Joker, he also gets why he revived him after Dick killed him (and holy shit is that something he'd never thought his predecessor had, that level of anger and fury) but he needs to hear it from Bruce. He's upset with Dick yes, but he's upset in the way that a younger sibling is when the older one forgets to pick up the extra nuggets for dinner; basically it's forgiven until it can be used as blackmail. He also want's know exactly what happened that day because that voicemail? Was concerning as hell and in no way did it have all the information that Jason was so desperate for.

So when we last stopped, Jason had nabbed Tim, Dick had just discovered that Tim was missing and with him and Bruce searching for Tim, it's only a matter of time before they realize where he is, and who is involved. While Bruce is searching for camera footage of Tim, and Dick is looking everywhere in the vicinity for evidence; Tim is waking up bundled up in several blankets on a couch he doesn't recognise, with someone sitting in the armchair across from him. There's some kind of snack on the coffee table between them along with a sealed bottle of water.

Tim sits up, unsure of what exactly is happening. he could've sworn he went to sleep in his own room, in his own bed. Is he dreaming? Is this a hallucination? Who is this guy? Where is he? What is happening?

"Drink some water kid. Eat that sandwich. Jesus Christ you're basically skin and bones." With each word out of the man's mouth, Tim's eyes got bigger and bigger and bigger. Holy shit that was- "Jason?!"

"Got it in one. Now eat up, we've got a conversation to have."

Jason asks Tim about everything that confused him from "Why are you staying with your parents when they're hardly there? How come Bruce hasn't already snatched you up?" to "What really happened with the Joker and Dick?" to "What do you mean Bruce thought he killed the Joker at a UN meeting?!"

Tim in return asks about how Jason's alive again, why did he take so long to come back, "What do you mean there's a mini Bruce running around that the man doesn't know about?!"

They spend most of the evening and early night trading information and getting to know each other. Eventually Tim makes to move to go on patrol, but Jason puts his foot down. "Kids don't have any place in Bruce's crusade for justice Timbo. He started it because of what he saw and felt and experienced as a child, and Dickiebird joined in because that's who he is. But you and I? We never should've been part of it. Robin is something that gives the city hope, but a child, any child, shouldn't have to try and fix the wrongs in a city just because a lot of adults fail to do that in the most basic of ways in their day to day lives. It's an amazing experience being Robin, don't get me wrong, but it's too heavy a burden and the price too steep."

Tim scowls but he also sort of wants to agree. Jason cajoles Tim into spending the night, and once he's asleep, Jason sneaks out to patrol. Except he doesn't go out as Red Hood. He walks the streets as a civilian - stops the occasional crime he comes across, but mostly checking out his territory incognito.

He notices Batman and Nightwing frantically searching everywhere, even hears over the police scanner he's got connected to the comm in his ear about how they're being ruthless tonight and the noted absence of Robin might be to blame.

Early next morning, Jason starts a list. he sends off a message with a photo of Tim asleep in bed, hair sticking out everywhere to Bruce via a burner phone. exactly 3 minutes later the phone rings. Thus starts the cat and mouse game of keep away and guess who. Jason drags this out for a week and a half, dropping hints and watching Bruce and Dick stumble around in the aftermath of all the half lies Tim didn't quite always spell out, and prevaricated, and evaded.... some were small things, some were a little bigger.

Then one night, he sends Batman and Nightwing on a wild goose chase. While they're out, he and Tim sneak back into the cave. (Alfred is most shocked but happy. He is however quite understanding of the dramatics "But why must this family resort to such extreme theatrics to make their point?")

Batman and Nightwing aren't quite sure of what to make of the scene that greets them when they get back to the cave.

Prompt

Tim is a genius, so it’s really no surprise that he’s got the number of each batfamily member saved in his phone long before he becomes Robin.

But then Jason dies (and comes back to life) and Tim is struggling to keep Bruce alive and Dick from spiraling.

To cope with the stress of having the lives of Gotham’s two most important vigilantes depend on him he starts leaving Jason voicemails and text messages on his old number detailing progress and setbacks, fears and hopes, and the dream of finally finding somewhere he belongs. Along with the crushing realization that Tim’s own hero ��� Jason— is long dead.

Unbeknownst to Tim, Jason listens to and reads every single one of the messages.

[dukereviewsmovies]

Duke's Holiday Reviews: The Nightmare Before Christmas

Hello, I'm Andrew Leduc And Welcome To Duke's Holiday Reviews...

Yes, I'm Back With Reviews For The Holiday Season, And What Better Way To Make Up For Not Having Alot Of Halloween Reviews This Year Than The Halloween Christmas Hybrid That Is The Nightmare Before Christmas...

No Synopsis For This Review Let's Dive Into The Nightmare Before Christmas...

After We Get A Brief Introduction From A Narrator (Who Is In No Way Patrick Stewart) Before We Cut To Our First Song...

And Who Doesn't Sing Or Play This Song Every Halloween?

It's A Great Song And I Honestly Love It...

As Sally (Voiced By Delia Deetz From Beetlejuice) Escapes The Clutches Of Her Creator, Dr. Finkelstien (Voiced By Uncle Lewis From Christmas Vacation) Jack (Voiced By Jerry From Fright Night) Manages To Escape His Horde Of Fans So He Can Sulk In The Graveyard About How Everything Is The Same Every Halloween, Which Leads To Our Next Song...

And It's Another Good Song...

It Let's The Audience How Jack Feels As He Sings While Also Showing Us What Powers He Has As Both A Skeleton And As The Pumpkin King...

Watching The Entire Scene, Sally Grabs Some Deadly Night Shade Before Returning To Dr. Finkelstien For Repairs While Jack Walks Endlessly Through The Forest With His Ghost Dog, Zero...

The Next Day, The Mayor (Voiced By Otho! From Beetlejuice) Discovers That Jack Is Gone As Jack Himself Discovers A Row Of Doors For Different Holidays, Eventually Jack Becomes Interested In A Door Shaped Like A Christmas Tree...

Opening It Jack Falls In It And Travels To Christmas Town Where We Get Our Next Song...

And What Can I Honestly Say About This Song?

It's A Good Song And Like This Is Halloween It's A Song You Only Think About At Christmas...

With The Mayor Sounding A Red Alert For All Of Halloweentown, It's Quickly Called Off When Jack Returns In Something That The Penguin From Batman Returns Would Most Likely Drive...

Calling For A Town Meeting That Night, Sally Deals With Finkelstien Early By Placing The Deadly Nightshade Into His Soup, Masking It With Frog's Breath Which Puts Him To Sleep So She Can Go To The Meeting...

There, Jack Tells The People Of Halloween About Christmas Town...

And It's Ok...

While It's A Good Song, It's Not One Of My Favorites So...

The Next Morning, Finkelstien Locks Sally Up For Knocking Him Out As Jack Arrives To Borrow Equipment For Him To Begin Some Experiments On Christmas...

Escaping Her Chambers In Finkelstien's Laboratory, Sally Gives Jack A Present Only To Have A Vision After Picking A Flower Which Shows Her That Jack's Vision Of Christmas Will Only Lead To His Death And Destruction...

The Next Morning Leads Us To Our Next Song...

(Start At 0:22)

And Again It's Just Ok...

It's An Interesting Song, But Again It's Not One Of My Favorites When It Comes To This Movie...

Jack Gives Everyone A Task To Do For Christmas But The Biggest Task He Leaves To Zombie Trick Or Treaters, Lock Shock And Barrel (Ps. One Of Them Is Voiced By Pee Wee Herman)

Who He Gives The Task Of Bringing Santa Claus To Him On The Condition That They Don't Tell Their Boss, Oogie Boogie Which They Agree (As They Cross Their Fingers Behind Their Backs)..

This Leads Us To Our Next Song...

And, It's A Good Song...

I Love How They Say They're Going To Do All These Things To Santa Once They Have Him Only To See Them Not Do Anything When The Time Comes...

As Jack Hires Sally To Make His Santa Claus Outfit, She Tells Jack About Her Vision, But He Is Too Focused On Christmas To Listen To Anything Sally Has To Say...

Anyway, It Leads Into Our Next Song...

And, What Can I Say About This Song?

It's Basically The Song Everyone Thinks Of When They Think Of This Movie...

And It's A Great Song Because That's What The Filmmakers Were Doing When They Were Making This Movie: Making A Christmas Classic...

With Santa Claus Captured, Lock Shock And Barrel Take Santa To See Jack As He's Being Fitted In His Santa Claus Costume Only To Take Him To See Our Villain Of The Movie, Oogie Boogie Afterward, Which Leads To Our Next Song...

And It's Quickly Become One Of The Great Disney Villain Songs (Even Though I Don't Really See Oogie Boogie As A Disney Villain But His Own Separate Entity)

The Song Is Well Written And Is Very Well Sung By Ken Page, Who Honestly Owns This Role As Much As Sarandon Is Jack...

Everyone Celebrates Jack Prepares To Take Off But Sally Creates A Fog With Some Fog Juice Which Almost Ruins Jack's Flight...

But With Zero's Nose Shining Bright, Jack Pulls The Sleigh Through Which Leads Sally To Hope That Her Vision Doesn't Come True As She Sings Our Next Song....

And This Is Probably The Only Song In The Film I Don't Like...

It's Dull, It's Dreary And It Slows Down The Film To The Point I Just Want To See Jack Start Delivering Toys...

And Speaking Of Jack Delivering Toys, He Does Just That And..,It Doesn't Go The Way He Wanted...

In Fact, It Scares The Kids And Adults So Much It Leads To The Police Bringing In The Military To Stop Jack...

This Leads Sally To Try To Get Santa Out Of Oogie Boogie's Lair Only To Get Kidnapped Herself As Jack Gets Blown Out Of The Sky By The Military...

As Everything Starts To Calm In The Mortal Realm, Zero Finds Jack Which Leads To Our Next Song...

Managing To Return To Halloweentown In Time To Save Sally And Santa From Oogie, It Leads To A Final Battle Between Jack And Oogie Which Ends With Jack Tearing Oogie's Sack Body Off Causing His Bugs To Be Destroyed..,

Though Tell You The Truth, I Kind Of Prefer One Of The Alternate Endings To Oogie Over This One...

This Ending Reveals Oogie To Be Finkelstien Who Hates Jack Because Of The Fact That Sally Loves Him Over Finkelstien, I Felt It Made More Sense And It Would Have Been A Better Explanation For Oogie's Comeback In Kingdom Hearts Rather Than "Oh, Maleficent Brought Him Back"...

With Jack Giving Santa His Hat Back, He Takes Off As Jack And Sally Are Saved By The Mayor With Help From Lock Shock And Barrel...

Also If They Became Good Guys At The End Of This, Why Did They Become Bad Guys Again In Kingdom Hearts?

Anyway, Everyone Celebrates Jack's Return As It Starts Snowing On Halloweentown Which Leads To One Final Song Between Jack And Sally Which Leads The 2 To Admit They Like Each Other As Our Movie Ends...

And That's The Nightmare Before Christmas And What Can Honestly Be Said About It That Hasn't Already Been Said.,.

The Songs Are Great, The Characters And Sets Are Well Made, And I Honestly Love It, So, I Can't Say This Enough But See It Now If You Haven't...

Surprise Review Later This Week, But Till Then, This Is Duke, Signing Off...

[ty-talks-comics]

Best of DC: Week of March 27th, 2019

Best of this Week: Detective Comics #1000 - Various Writers and Artists

Possibly more controversial than I'm thinking it'll be, I'm glad Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo did the job of reintroducing Slam Bradley into the DC Universe. Slam Bradley, of course the way I choose to remember him, was one of DC's first characters and the precursor design to modern day Superman. He was a 1930s dick (detective in this case) who made his name in infamy with racist depictions of Chinese people being swung by their braids with toothy grins. He's likely the reason DC won't reprint some of the early Detective Comics works in a compendium.

This is without a doubt, a great celebration for one of the greatest comic book characters of all time, if not THE greatest. The difficulty in reviewing something like this, much like Action Comics #1000 (if I reviewed that one, I don't remember) is that so many stories have their ups and downs, hits or misses and there's so much ground. But some of these were so good that this book is getting an entry all on it's own this week.

He's been made better in recent years with a badass run as a side character in Ed Brubaker and Darwyn Cooke's Catwoman (2001) as a cool former police officer with a son by the name of Slam Jr. on the force. He was probably some of the best parts of his short time there and was very compelling in interactions with Selina.

Kevin Smith and Jim Lee have arguably done some of the best and WORST Batman projects ever, but through the good and the bad, both have immense talent and their tale “Manufacture for Use” added a beautiful layer to the significance of the metal plate that his emblem is made out of.

The book is simple enough, a montage of Batman fighting his greatest villains shows in the background while his alter ego, Matches Malone, has a conversation with a merchant peddling in the various pieces of gear left by villains. He has Harley hammers, crazy quilts and even freeze guns, but there's only one weapon Malone is interested in; The Gun belonging to Joe Chill. The weapon that killed The Wayne Family.

He and others had been leaving Batman clues since his first days as a hero to have him join a guild of detectives, solving unsolvable or very difficult cases and knowing that Slam is one of the detectives along with Hawkman, Hawkgirl, Martian Manhunter, The Question, Detective Chimp, Elongated Man and his wife, Sue Dibny is relieving and fantastic.

I'm glad DC hasn't shied away from him given his past history. Even his inclusion in Superman of China based on his former character, warts and all, seemed like DC was kinda ashamed of it, but here he is, as awesome as he was later in life!

Upon seeing it, Alfred questions why Bruce would keep it as a trophy, nothing the ridiculousness of The Penny and the Dinosaur, he sees the gun as strange or even perverse. Batman, however, wishes to never see it cause anyone pain again, melting and forming it into an oval adorned with the symbol of a Bat.

Batman has dedicated his life to stopping crime in Gotham at all costs, but not everyone see his methods as being right or just. Doctor Leslie Thompkins has been looking over Bruce since his parent’s murder and oped that he would take his pain and do something productive with it, actually fix Gotham, but instead she sees how vengeance has consumed him, turning him into something of a violent monster himself and she’s not wrong. They meet each other on the anniversary of his parent’s murder in Crime Alley and are beset upon by a group of teenagers whom Batman viciously slaps the hell out of. Dr. Thompkins stops him out of fear and Batman looks like the real villain here.

If that isn't chilling...

Brian Michael Bendis is a GREAT Batman writer. Checking out his 15 pages in the Batman Walmart 100 Page Giants, much like Daredevil, Batman is a character that is PERFECT for him. “I Know” drawn by frequent Bendis collaborator, Alex Maleev, is amazing. Penguin started becoming disillusioned with the meetings put together by villains like The Joker on how to finally get rid of The Batman, Penguin begins to muse about who had the money to fund Batman. I believe he proposed the idea to the others, but they all shot him down, citing times Batman showed up when Bruce was a hostage or how he “blubbered like a baby.”

Penguin didn’t let it go, however, and prepared Suicide Bomb Penguins to attack Wayne Manor while Bruce was hosting a ton of high profile Gothamites. It would have been the end of Bruce Wayne.

Warren Ellis writes some very character driven stories, but when he has to get technical, he is a master as good as any. In “The Batman’s Design” he goes over Batman’s methodology when taking on criminals, treating things like a chess game that he’s already won. He leads the criminals to a trap and plays them like a fiddle, setting off an explosion that knock out or send some flying, determining a sniper’s location and just being so terrifying that the leader just hands him a bomb switch before his ass gets destroyed.

Becky Cloonan does a great job of alternating between cool and warm tones for when Batman is in the shadows vs contending with explosions he’s setting off. Batman looks slim, but imposing regardless. This is definitely some of her best art so far!

Now… if you ask any of my friends from when I was in The Navy, they’ll tell you about how I waited in line for Batman: The Arkham Knight. I was excited. I was elated. The conclusion to an amazing trilogy of games that shaped a newfound love for the character for me! And it bloody sucked. I HATE Arkham Knight with a passion. If it’s not The Batmobile, it’s the Joker, if not the Joker, it’s the Knight himself, if not him, then Scarecrow as the shitty final villain.

I really loved the noir tone that was set by Elizabeth Breitweiser’s colors over Steve Epting’s art. Things are very dark and cool. Batman is shrouded in shadow and Doctor Thompkins acts as a small light by comparison. There is great contrast when action happens with warm tones as Batman slaps the teens and Batman standing in the shadows as Leslie and the kids are under the one light is powerful.

Suffice to say, I was not pleased when it was said that The Arkham Knight would finally be appearing in comics different than his video game counterpart, but… I dunno, I kinda like him here.

His characterization seems to be that of someone who has lived in Gotham and has seen Batman’s methods of treating the poor citizens, the weak and the sick. He sees Batman as a cancer, a darkness that needs to be exterminated for Gotham to truly thrive. The best thing, there’s precedent for this kind of character.

One of the first few arcs for Detective Comics involved a cool set of villains known as The Victim Syndicate, people who have been hurt or grievously injured in Batman’s relentless pursuit of crime. These guys put Batman’s team through the ringer, almost turning Stephanie Brown against him completely as Tim Drake had been presumed dead at the time. Another casualty of war. If I remember right, The First Victim noted that there was someone or something coming for Batman soon and if that’s the Arkham KNight, then I am excited.

The Victim Syndicate was one of James Tynion IV’s best ideas during his run and I really hope whoever the creative team is for Detective Comics thus forth lives up to the quality. Peter J. Tomasi and Doug Mahnke are both amazing, so I have high hopes if its them.

But Penguin had an epiphany. Ending Bruce Wayne would not end Batman. Batman would become focused. Driven. Possibly to the point of killing. Bruce Wayne is the only thing keeping these villains alive, so Penguin relents and never reveals what he believes he knows, until years later when Bruce is old and mute… but who says that Bruce has lost a step? He zaps Penguin who is taken away as Bruce tells him that he knew, pretty much calling him a “coward ass bitch” as he’s taken away.

Overall, while there were few misses, this collection of stories had great ideas, great characterization, heart and was just fantastic. Looking forward to another 80 years!

This one was just cute. The Batfamily interacts with each other and take a FANTASTIC family photo drawn by Tony S. Daniel. Starring, Batman, Alfred, Nightwing, Batgirl, “Robin” Damian Wayne, Red Hood, Batwoman, Catwoman, “(Red) Robin” Tim Drake, Spoiler, The Signal, Cassandra Cain Ace the Bathound and Huntress. It’s a well put together double splash page and everyone, even Bruce seems happy.