#Bruce has issues

[strangedesired]

I’ve seen a lot of posts about how much the kids like to be with Bruce and Batman because he makes them feel safe (being carried by him, tucked under his cape, etc,,)

But what about the hc that it is actually for Bruce instead. Like they just know how much he needs those interactions so he can convince himself that they are alive and still with him, so they just let him do what he needs to do to convince himself that his babies are safe.

For example:

Jason doesn’t like to stay at the manor because of the tension and the trauma (obviously) but every once in a while he has to spend the night because he’s too tired to get home or his safe house has been compromised and he needs a day before he can figure something else out. On very rare occasions, though, Jason has a little too close of a call and he needs to “use the caves medbay” (he actually needs to make sure that his family is alive and he’s not in another twisted reality where he is ripped away from them without saying goodbye)

One of these nights Jason has just gotten into bed after his abdomen had been stitched and wrapped, when he hears the door shift open and extremely light footsteps walking towards the bed. He turns over, expecting to see Damian coming to tell him goodnight (and that he should not have been so foolish as to let himself be shot but they both know that means Jason scared him and he wants to make sure his brother is okay) but instead he sees Bruce, looking apprehensive but also so so relieved.

Jason: B? Whats wrong?

Bruce: Nothing, sorry to disturb you, I’ll let you rest.

But Bruce does not turn to leave, he stands at the foot of Jason’s bed and just,,, stares at him.

Jason is a little alarmed, but mostly just confused. This is the most he and Bruce have seen of each in weeks and he doesn’t know what Bruce wants. But then Bruce moves up the bed so he can smooth Jason’s hair back.

Bruce: I’m glad you’re okay, Jay.

Jason is pretty taken aback, and he briefly thinks about removing his hand and telling him to fuck off, but he can see in the weary way that Bruce is standing, with his shoulders hunched and his knees locked, the way he keeps checking over Jason and stalling on his chest to make sure he’s still breathing, that he needs Jason to accept this comfort that he is trying to offer. So, he leans into the hand a little bit and hums softly.

Jason: Me too, B.

Bruce’s shoulders drop just a little and he cards his fingers through Jason’s hair one time.

Bruce: Goodnight.

Bruce removes his hand and hesitates for a second before he turns around and walks toward the door. When he reaches it, Jason hears him whisper.

Bruce: I love you.

Jason feels a rush of warmth and wrestles for a second with what to say back, he can’t quite make himself tell Bruce that he loves him, even if it’s true, but the hand in his hair was nice and he wants Bruce to keep trying, despite his tendency to fight against it.

Jason: Night, Dad.

Jason turns back over and pretends not to hear Bruce suck in a sharp breath and softly exit his room.

And if Bruce has a couple of tear tracks on his face by the time he makes it back to his own bed, that’s no one’s business but his own.

[ifyoucandaniel]

this is so stupid but here’s a little comic i made for a little bingo au me and @twisted-tales-told came up with a few weeks ago. pretty much just the idea that jason needed a cover at some point and stumbled in on bingo night and was quickly adopted by the little old ladies there. now he plays every friday and has beef with dora and gets sent home with banana bread :) clara is trying to set him up with her grandson and all of her problems with her land lord have mysteriously been solved :))

being involved in his community is very important to jason and he loves seeing them host community events bc it feels like his home is healing

bonus: none of the bats have the faintest idea what Jason does in his spare time aside from babs and dick is so butthurt he wasn’t invited (not pictured: nightwing outside the bingo hall window looking in look a kicked puppy while jason flips him off)

(this is my first comic pls be nice it’s just a sketch)

[angstandhappiness]

DUDE

i feel like the fandom as well as dc characters in general like to give bruce a lot of grief over his choice of side-kick. you know, the age old but so god-awful true argument that robin is a child, hasn’t come close to puberty, and has no place in their world of crime fighting and seeing the worst of humanity daily. and they’re all right, don’t get me wrong, but it’s funny how everyone seems to forget that bruce knows. he’s more intimately aware of robin’s youth than anyone else in the entire universe

how could he not be when robin tucks himself into batman’s cape on cold and windy nights, teeth chattering away as his small body winds the heavy kevlar around his tiny shoulders? how could bruce not know when robin pesters him for snacks and treats during patrol, pointing to and calling out to street vendors and folding his hands together in a mimic of a plea for ‘just one pretzel, c’mon b! just one’? how could bruce not know when robin loses a tooth and asks excitedly if the tooth-fairy will know where to find him since he doesn’t live where he used to? how could bruce not be aware of exactly how young robin is when he whines and cries over skinned knees, arguing to be carried home and laughing when batman complies, surprised at how light the boy is in his arms?

and it hurts bruce more directly than any blow he’s ever received when the league glares at him and accuses him of child endangerment. it feels like getting sucker punched in the stomach when alfred tuts and tsks away when robin returns home with bumps and bruises, the smallest of side-eyes sent in his direction. it hurts because it’s all true and yet his heart feels like rupturing when robin smiles despite his age and reassures bruce that it’s all okay, he doesn’t mind getting hurt, he’s strong, he’s brave, this is nothing. 

except it’s not nothing and robin is so young and such a child and bruce knows. he knows and he can’t do anything about it because he also knows that, just as he was born, fated, to be batman, he knows that the boy was always meant to be robin. it doesn’t matter if bruce stopped him now, said no and barred the boy from ever parading the name robin ever again. it’s too late. he tells himself over and over again that it was better this way, to have robin by his side rather than the boy running off on his own, but it kills bruce. it kills him because robin is… the boy is meant for better things in life. his child deserved better things in life but he’s batman and he can’t change that

robin is a child and he can’t change that

[kierancaz]

Does anyone else not like the way Damian is drawn in the new Batman and Robin comic ????

Like, after his solo Robin series, I just cannot look at him like that. He looks almost exactly like Jon.

Where is his tan skin ??? His green eyes ??? HIS HOOKED NOSE ???? They took away everything that made his design cool and interesting and new and pretty and also just like a huge part of his ethnicity.

It just bothers me so much like I want to read the comic bc it does seem pretty interesting but Damian’s design is making it soooooo hard. It extra sucks bc the art style is amazing. I actually love the way Bruce is drawn and also White Rabbit is super cool. Damian is just throwing me off so hard like that’s literally not him that’s Tim or Jon or Dick but that isn’t Damian Wayne/AL GHUL like tf look at this

He’s pretty yah, whatever, now look at this:

THESE ARE NOT EVEN THE SAME FUCKING PEOPLE ???? It’s not even a difference in art style bc there was plenty of variations in art style in the Robin series but he still had his main features I mentioned earlier.

Idk call me a nitpicker or smth but this bothers me so much if it doesn’t change at some point I don’t think I will be able to read the new Batman and Robin series.

[tim-drake-scholar]

Hey idk if anyone else needed this but hey look at Bruce not just giving his approval, not just giving affection, but truly appreciating Tim Drake and everything Tim has every done to help Bruce/Batman. I just think it’s nice

[welcometogrouchland]

♫ I do what I want/Crying in the bleachers and I said it was fun/I don't need anything from anyone ♫

(ID in Alt) you guys ever think about your own posts and get upset?? Anyway Damian Wayne I love you I'm so sorry your life is like that

[cyanbeetle]

Trinity thesis

[sarahreadstoomanycomics]

Okay I'm back to rebuilding my funny comic panel collection.

[hood-ex]

I will say that, as someone who takes care of an 8 year old, it is pretty hilarious to think about Dick fighting crime so young. Like there's just packs of animal crackers in the batmobile because Dick will get hungry during the middle of a case. And god forbid Bruce forgets to pack a water bottle for Dick because then he'll just hear a litany of, "I'm thirsty, I need water." I mean, I know Dick is usually depicted as more mature/responsible than your average kid, but it's so funny to think about Bruce and Alfred having to deal with some of those typical kid needs and behaviors.

[starry-bi-sky]

my martha knight au in a nutshell:

Danny/Martha: see up here?

Danny/Martha: *taps skull*

Danny/Martha: intense psychological damage

-----------

Danny/Martha: *upon finding out she's pregnant*

Danny/Martha: oh my god i cant be a mom, I'm fifteen and homeless--

Danny/Martha: im going to be a terrible mother--

Danny/Martha: i live in a cAR--

Danny/Martha: what if the baby inherits my powers? Oh no--

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Danny/Martha post giving birth: i've only had Bruce for a minute and a half but if anything were to happen to him i won't even need to fuse with Vlad, I'm razing this goddamn planet to the ground myself

Danny, to Baby Bruce: you are the last remaining thread of my sanity. I'm going to give you the world :)

---------------

Danny/Martha prior to getting pregnant: Fuck it, if everything in my life has led to this moment, i'm allowed to make one stupid decision. I'm getting drunk and getting laid

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Danny/Martha while Bruce was a toddler: i swear to fucking god i am going to kill the next person who talks to me--

Bruce: hi mommy!! i brought you something!!!

Danny/Martha, immediately flipping on a dime: hi baby!! what do you have?

Bruce, a weird child like his mother: a spider :)

---------------

Danny/Martha, talking to Falcone after he made an unsavory comment at her and Bruce: If you ever come near me or my son again, I will dig up your shithead father's corpse and make you eat his skin.

Danny/Martha: do you understand me

Falcone:... crystal, ma'am

---------------

Danny/Martha new in Gotham: *getting mugged*

Danny/Martha: *grabs man's arm*

Danny/Martha: I AM GOING TO BREAK YOU IN HALF LIKE A TWIG, FUCK BOY, DO YOU HEAR THE WORDS COMING OUT OF MY MOUTH--

(she then proceeds to terrorize Gotham's night life for the next extended period of time, mostly unintentionally)

---------------

Danny/Martha: Danny Fenton?? No. you must be mistaken, my name is Martha Knight.

Danny/Martha: this here is my littlest knight, Bruce.

Danny/Martha: I made him all by myself :]

[alizalayne]

it's so amusing that when you're an author who is like any minority, you have this caveat where if your book gets banned, you kinda have to mentally acknowledge whether it was banned by Bruce, the one really bigoted guy who wastes everyone's time in florida. idk how bruce is doing. you don't need to learn who he is really which is why im not using his surname. but if you have a book out commercially, bruce has probably written "damaged souls" on a form about you. so there's a street cred element to all this like did people really have a vendetta against your work...? or was it just bruce again

[batcavescolony]

People who say "Batman was better without his kids" must really like the whole ELEVEN issues that Bruce had before Dick was introduced because that's the only time he didn't have a kid. Bruce Wayne/Batman was introduced in ’Detective Comics' #27 and Dick Grayson's Robin was introduced in 'Detective Comics’ #38. Dick was around before Alfred existed, if we can have Alfred why can we have the Robins?

[kittykatninja321]

RH: The Hill was not a Jason story but it was so nothing that it had no effect on his character and can be completely forgotten and disregarded. Robin Lives is not a Jason story but is has the audacity to bring back the classic classist “he’s always going to be doomed” take while making him the final villain. Can someone say real and true about him for once

[inamindfarfaraway]

Batman fun fact! Did you know that Scarecrow’s toxin doesn’t always cause fear? Sometimes it does the opposite! In Detective Comics #571, he wields a variant that completely inhibits the biochemical fear response, preventing people from feeling any concern for themselves or using basic common sense. He runs a racket administering it to star athletes, who take huge risks and get badly injured. Then they’re willing to cough up a lot for an antidote. Batman and Robin - here Jason Todd - catch on, but Bruce is dosed with the reverse fear toxin; since his intelligence is his greatest strength, being too overconfident and reckless to think twice about anything makes him his own worst enemy.

This premise was adapted in the Batman: The Animated Series episode “Never Fear”. There we see that with no fear of losing his moral integrity, Bruce becomes cold and merciless to criminals. Robin - here Tim Drake - has to catch somebody he leaves to fall off a building, tie him up to stop him endangering himself and others and give him the antidote to prevent him murdering Scarecrow.

But in the comic book, Jason is kidnapped by Scarecrow. He gets gassed and hallucinates Bruce dying and telling him that it’s his fault. He isn’t around to keep Bruce in check as he goes to rescue him through a series of death traps that he can’t resist cutting it as close as possible in. So how does Bruce not go off the deep end? How does he not lose sight of what’s important? Not lose himself?

Because even a drug designed to shut down stress at the most fundamental level can’t overpower his true worst fear. The Dark Knight might feel fearless…

but a parent never is.

[tezzbot]

I love these two so much it's ridiculous...

[welcometogrouchland]

Disgustingly messy and crusty sketch dump but I couldn't get my own terrible theory out of my head and ended up making a bunch of sketches about it. Also at the end a bonus dickbats and Damian doodle bc I was reading an issue of their Batman and Robin run (IDs in Alt)