#CLOWN VIGILANTE SQUAD

[faeriekit]

DC AU I'll never write: Entirely normal clowns slowly learn the art of warfare in efforts to take down the Joker's crime empire.

Like normal, balloon-animal making, grease-paint wearing, part-time suburban party clowns out of work after Joker's rise to fame band together. Finally, someone gets the idea to...like...do something about it. Batman isn't going to, and the Police don't even try, so...who else but them...? And it's all, like, elderly clown hobbyists, Moms who do it part time since their kids are still little, a new graduate of clown school who suddenly can't get a job, an art school student who learned clownery for a performance art project, a teenager who only just got into clowning around and is Big Mad she can't enjoy her hobby now...

They don't know who Harley Quinn is but accidentally adopt her into the cause when she's sent to sniff them out and they like her too much. I would also like them to kidnap Robin but also by accident and mostly because he looks cold?? Where's your dad?? You want tea, hun? What's your favorite animal? *is gifted an immaculately twisted balloon elephant*

[pipedreame]

DPXDC Dead on Main — Justice is Swift (Vengeance is Sweet) Master Post

Summary —

Danny knew life in Gotham wouldn’t be quiet, it was literally Crime Capitol after all, but he didn’t expect to catch the attention of the entire squad of Bat Vigilantes as his civilian self or make friends with the Wayne family, and he sure as hell didn’t mean to kill The Joker on live television as Phantom, effectively drawing the attention of the entire city and what was left of the rogue GIW group… Fantastic.

(Okay, so he totally did mean to kill that clown freak, but only because he decided to take his little sister hostage as some twisted way to get at Batman… Sue him.)

OR

Danny trying (and spectacularly failing) to lay low in Gotham while simultaneously attempting to be a regular college student. As always, his life is a mess.

Relationships —

Danny/Jason, Tim/Bernard/Kon, Sam/Tucker/Val

background: Dick/Wally, Bruce/Clark, Damian/Jon

Directory —

AO3 || Ch. 1 || Ch.2 || Ch.3

Ch.1 Shitposts || Ch.2 Shitposts || Ch.3 Shitposts

Current Progress Report —

Ch.3 posted Sunday 1/21 (~7.5k words)

Ch.4 progress ~5k words

[fatgumsurpremacy-remastered]

Welcome folks-

My name is Festen Martinez, you can call me Festen. I am an actor above all else and a writer second. I write and draw for Team Fortress Two, as well as the Batman Rouges, (Some Hazbin), and FNAF. If you spark up a convo with me and I know the property and character you have a good chance at me writing for them too.

Feel free to send me requests and I’ll have a look. Current count (41, with 3 more in drafts).

Follow my second blog @faire-of-fictition

My hazbin oc blogs: @mc-tooley-tobias-toby , and @magnum-pritchard-repro

Other info:

21

He/Its

Bisexual

Transmasc

American (West Virginia, and Texas)

You can send me requests for your OCS or you can ask for mine as well. Don’t me shy, make yourself at home. 🧡

Requests open!

I am a Fandom Writer:

I write for:

Btas villains: Riddler, Twoface, Mad Hatter, Scarecrow, Harley, Ivy. Batman also

TF2: All Mercs AND MS PAULING

I will write:

•Should be obvious but chubby (or fat) reader

•Yandere (preferred)

•Smut (preferred, just reference what you’d want in the ask and I’ll give it to ya.)

•Non con/ Dub con/ CNC

•Platonic

•Headcannons

•Drabbles

•Imagines

I’ll draw any of the above as well

I won’t write (or draw)

•Scat

•Pedophillia

•Age Regression (dkh)

•Detransition

Masterlists:

Tf2

Demoman:

Demo joining a LARP group!

Yandere Demo w/ an s/o who doesn’t like dancing

Yan demo w/ bartender S/O

Engineer

Yandere Conagher Brothers x oblivious reader

Dell x trans husband smut

Yandere Engie and forced affection

Traveling preist Engie Art by @virginstoner666 💗

Go! Yandere Engineer x GN reader (almost smut)

Heavy:

Yan heavy cuddles!

Pyro

Yandere Platonic Emesis py Reader

Semi unmasked art

Ms. Pauling

Yandere Ms. Pauling

Semi Marriage proposal

Platonic Ms. Pauling and new trainee

Medic:

Yandere medic smut

Yandere medic with a captive that goes missing

Yandere medic and a partner w/ stolkholm

Yandere medic lap dance

Yandere medic Cycle of violence smut

Scout:

Get bonked

Yandere scout, kissing practice

Platonic scout

Sniper:

In my style

With a bratty so smut

Soldier:

Nsfw thoughts

Platonic Solly and overstimulated hugs

Spy:

Yandere spy egg vibes

All:

Yandere Red Octoberfest drawing

Would I trust them with my pets?

Demo and heavy x reader Head-cannons

Mercs reacting to a love letter

Yandere emesis Blue x reader

Yandere medic and sniper w/ clingy s/o

Emesis character comfort

Yandere mercs and if they’re comforting or not

Yandere mercenaries and how scary they are when jealous

Yandere Angel au with Sniper, Solider, and Medic smut

My my mercenaries

Soldier/Demo

Medic/engineer

Merc Headcannons

Memed science party

Spy and Engie dad stance

Btas

Alberto

Cornelius Stirk:

Stirk img.

Eddie

BTAS Eddie nsfw snippet

Yandere Arkham asylum riddler w/ shy and anxious reader

Yan telltale riddler with a reader who tries to escape

Yandere telltale Eddie

Yandere Arkham Eddie hcs

Handling it (smut)

Caked up Eddie img.

Eddie frame redraws💚

In my style: Ed and Jerv 💚💙

Nightmares img.

An Ed Kento for Sunny 💚💛

For Arkhamverse simps

Scantily clad ed

5’2 Au pt 1

5’2 suited up

5’2 Au ground img.

5’2 classic mv

5’2 smut pic

There’s a light img.

BTAS Insp. Art

Indulgent riddlebat

More fancy Eddie Art

Dilf Eddie?

Flashy Eddie ing.

Yandere platonic Eddie teaching riddles

Harley:

Harvey:

Au art

Harvey and insert art

Tasteful nudity

Ivy:

Jack:

Joinker au

More whore clown img.

Jervis:

Bonkers img

Jervis img.

Wonderlan img.

Reading img.

Johnathan:

Johnny img.

Scarecrow design img

BTAS scarecrow yandere head-cannons

Comp drawing w/ batman

Yandere BTAS headcannons

Ozwald:

Oswald Img.

Compilation

Au Squad: Jervis, John, Jack, and Edd

5’2 height matrix img (WIP)

Batman Vigilante Squad Au

Hazbin/Helluva Boss

Alastor

Under the Same Young Sky (male reader, ao3)

Vox

Yandere Vox housespouse

It Takes Time to See a Doll, Yandere Vox x Cis!Fem Reader P[1] [1.5]

Vox x chubbyfem reader wip

Ocs

Maddox

Maddox x reader play fighting

[fantasyinvader]

Last night I read Batman White Knight. It’s reminding me of how I walked out of The Last Jedi liking it because of the strength of the ending, but as I turned it over in my head the more problems I had with the story.

The basics is this: Joker becomes sane after being force-fed some pills designed by the OG Harley Quinn, who videos Batman doing the feeding and posts it online. People begin turning against Batman, who is in a bad place due to Alfred being sick and dying, which Jack (formerly the Joker) uses to his advantage. He wants to clean Gotham up as it’s White Knight, which includes going after the police and Batman.

It’s an interesting idea on paper, but I feel that the title of White Knight comes across as more of a reference towards certain individuals on the internet.

Take the Joker for instance. The early chapters try to make him out to be actually not a big threat. He just tried to rob a bank dressed as a clown, which had the police and media label him a super criminal. He claims he was fed drugs which turned him into the Joker. Hell, the book treats it as him becoming sane, it’s comes across as the Joker was a split personality and Harley’s medicine allows Jack to regain control. It wants to paint the Joker as his more harmless Silver Age self. No evidence of him being involved in major crimes, no killing Jason Todd (torturing him, yes, but no kill), no crippling Batgirl.

But then Harley is called out by her replacement, Marian Drews, for falling in love with a SERIAL KILLER. So we’re left with “Joker did nothing too bad” followed up by him having murdered at least 3 people within a period greater than a month.

Speaking of Harley, this book operates on the logic that there were two Harley Quinns. The OG Harley who sides with Jack, and the one dressed like she is in the first Suicide Squad movie. The former is meant to represent everything good about Harley, like her intelligence while the latter is everything bad about what Harley has become. There’s even a comment from the former about how the latters outfit sets feminism back… but that ignores that the Jester outfit is meant to represent Harley Quinn being Joker’s battered girlfriend and the more sexualized looks, after Arkham Asylum, represents her dumping the Joker and her having more autonomy with her body. New Harley breaks up with the asshole and sometimes even acts as a hero, but this is supposed to be the Harley that we’re not meant to root for. The one that becomes Neo-Joker when she takes over Jack’s plot.

Which is a doozy. Jack has Clayface mind-controlled by Mad Hatter’s stuff, and then invites all of Gotham’s villains to drink with him. He slips pieces of Two-Face into the drinks, allowing him to control all of Gotham’s supervillains at once. He uses this as an army to cause a distraction while he goes through Gotham’s paperwork to discover that there’s a fund set up (to the tune of 3 Billion dollars) yearly to cover damages occurred in the midst of Batman’s crime fighting. Oh, and he engineers it so Batman destroys a library he was building in Backwater to make him look bad.

Joker uses the Batman Devastation Fund to get elected, and his solution to the supercriminals (who he’s controlling until Neo-Joker hijacks his plan) is to get elected into city council and… use the money, money that was meant to repair Gotham, to fund a new branch of police. Vigilantes with badges, body-cams and more advanced tech. He’s somehow allowed to defund the BDF to create a more powerful police force to arrest Batman. And people are cheering him on because “he’s a victim,” and “he’s going after the 1% and Gotham’s gatekeepers.” It even plays his mental illness as a Jekyll and Hyde thing, split personality complete with his body physically changing between the two forms with Jack unaware of everything Joker’s done.

It would make more sense if the meds actually caused him to develop a split personality, with OG Harley molding him into the man she wanted.

Meanwhile, people who keep reminding us that this is the Joker we’re talking about are presented in a bad light. Batman’s deteriorating due to the stress of Alfred’s illness and death. Guy on TV describes them as SJWs. But in end, Batman is willing to hand over military grade tech to the police and unmasks himself to Gordon. So what is the final message here, with all our concerns about police brutality? Give the police more funding but also more accountability? Never mind Jack’s new cops end up turning Gotham into a police state in the later sequels, or how even Harley talks about how Jack didn’t play by the rules and how messed up what he did was. And the story ends with the meds no longer working and Joker taking over for good.

People say that this was a deconstruction of Batman before the final chapters made it a reconstruction. To me, it feels more like the editors told the writers to change things during publication. It doesn’t feel like it has the knowledge about the source material to make it work (hence Jason Todd being the first Robin because the writer couldn’t be asked to look it up) and they wanted to do this big statement against Batman only for them to screw things up resulting in an ending to try and fix things.

But it felt like it was just white knighting Joker and Harley until the end, when it's revealed Gotham needs Bats and the BDF was paid entirely by him. Kinda reminds me of the time my sister asked what their deal was, because she saw people on facebook acting like they had a great relationship. I explained their history and she couldn’t believe people thought they were something to aspire to.

[frostise]

❝ you actually think the joker's still alive? ❞ frost quirks a eyebrow at that while rubbing the back of her neck at the thought of joker somehow coming back to torment the city again as if he was the michael fucking myers of gotham. ❝ sounds like a load of bullshit to me... ❞

of course everyone's heard of his death at least somewhere in arkham. he was infamous after all. she couldn't give a rat's ass about the batshit insane clown or learn anything special about him other than that unpleasant experience when she was still with the squad. his unpredictable behaviour was enough to make her skin crawl. it only served as a terrible reminder there were bigger monsters somewhere out in the world who would be willing to nuke a city full of not just people but innocent children as well. hell, even frost had boundaries she would never be that eager to cross.

louise was focused on moving on upon arrival she hardly realised she was already in survival mode. muscles tense all over as if she was expecting another battle with a criminal or a certain vigilante in the area, dark eyebags from the lack of sleep in the asylum and having to rely on her heat signature like a geiger counter to ensure they were in the clear. gotham has a special way of making outsiders feel unwelcome no matter your reputation. the same can't be said to hemlock here who was far too comfortable. there are the cops patrolling the streets in the dead of night and she's here acting as if they were actual sane people shopping. she must be a gotham girl at heart, or maybe an outsider way more experienced with the city than frost ever could be.

at hemlocks question, louise decides to dart her eyes all over the store shelves before recalling the mannequin on a display window from earlier. she's got enough food and beverages to last for another week or two. ❝ you know what? screw these food brands. think it's about time i get changed outta these nasty peels. ❞ she abruptly exits the supermarket and enters the louis vuitton store, already picking off the luxurious bomber jacket from it with a content smirk.

"Don't worry." Securing those precious cosmetic spoils in a small bag that was also pilfered, River chuckles, "I doubt we'll have much to fear about the dear 'boys in blue', darling... I heard most of them are still busy, dealing with the damages left behind by Joker's latest bout with 'death'."

Now there's a thought to roll your eyes at. Joker, dearly-departed and ding-dong-dead? The grease-painted weirdo's sure to never see the Pearly Gates, for sure; but River would bet both arms and a leg that Hell itself would spit his ass back out, the moment his tootsies touched the sulfurous ground. Until then, why not enjoy this little reprieve of a clownless city, until the gagster comes slinking back? Maybe then all the helicopter bits will be cleared-up.

Everyone was always in such a hurry, even when they didn't really need to be.

"Besides, we can't go just yet! We might be done here-" Wide gesture is made to the ransacked store, "But we're not done here. Can't keep in running around in these orange digs, after all... I mean, unless you want to."

She doesn't though, and the grinning assassin plans to take full advantage of the empty mall before cops finally catch wind of their presence here. "So what's your favorite brand, Frosty?"

[ozymoron]

Y'know, if jerome or jeremiah ever ran for a position of power in gotham they'd actually have a high chance of winning

they would lmao i mean with the amount of followers they both had theyd surely win and with jerome hes got jonathan and his fucking gas like idk if the joker gas makes people like jerome but if it did, he could just do what he was going to do with that crowd but like. not die. and get them all to vote for him too and boom. hes mayor

im sure jeremiah could convince a lot of people to vote for him although pretty sure jim would be tryna stop him along the way like he did at the end of season 4 when he was tryna show his followers how hes basically just a shittier version of jerome (very real of jim ill give him that (i say this affectionately but also degoratory))

i wonder what theyd do in power lmao

jeremiah would prolly turn it into a dictatorship or something. completely remodel the city. do what he did in season 4 and destroy the bridges, completely shutting off the city from the rest of america (gothams in america, right?)

jerome would prolly go fucking wild, turning the whole city into a circus, complete anarchy oh my god the j squad in office

they start passing stupid laws and really petty ones too like glasses are banned now, everyone has to get up at a specific time every idk tuesday or something and do a silly little dance, no ones allowed to make fun of jervis. thats been banned (reluctantly), everyone in the city, if jonathan wants to experiment with his fear gas on them, has to let him

they start pulling cartoonishly evil stunts like bricking up some tunnels and then painting the tunnels back on, manholes, when stepped on, will flip causing you to fall in, all mats are now covering pits full of spikes

crime is legal now, of course

eventually the three get into a fight and begin splitting the city into three sections (jervis gets the smallest section. he is not happy about this)

i feel like at some point jerome kidnapped jeremiah and forced him to make blueprints for some weird as buildings jerome wanted ythink jerome would do the thing he did to oswald in arkham to jeremiah? like force him to dress up as a clown and make him do a silly clown dance? idk i think thatd be a bit funny

the gcpd is in shambles. feel like at some point they had to go underground just to get away from all the chaos and destruction. jim is stressed out of his mind, harveys prolly just chilling like he always does bruce prolly ends up starting a group underground of vigilantes who want to help stop jerome and the j squad (justice league??? idk lol)

got a bit carried away oops this post is quite long

[arabian-batboy]

Speaking of things that went to waste, the Court of Owls have so much potential, but DC kinda ruined it by having them just be the League of Assassins 2.0 with cooler edgy outfits.

The fact that owls are the natural predators to bats was an interesting play of words and unlike the LoS, the Court of Owls and their history is stationed around Gotham City which would give a lot of options for story-telling, but my main issue with them is that DC half-assed them. If you’re going to claim that they were secretly the one responsible for so many events/crimes in Gotham City over the years, including the murder of both Bruce’s and Dick’s parents, then go all out and just make them Batman’s true main arch-nemesis instead of that boring clown.

And while you’re at it, try not to have their organization be filled with hundreds/thousands of boring nameless henchmen/Talons that are there just to be defeated, try to minimize the number of Talons for one elite squad of no more than 10 immortal Talons from different time periods with full/semi-full conscious, that way it will make sense how the Batfamily can take them on without outside help and it will also make the Talons more interesting since they’re no longer silent masked pawns, but actual verbal enemies with their own history/characterization, you can even have it where the leaders/parliament of the CoO will create one Talon per every vigilante in Gotham City and that Talon would be hand-crafted to be the perfect match against each on of them (maybe the Talon that was supposed to be Bruce’s half brother could be his opponent).

[thr-333]

Could you possibly do one where Mari/Mari and marine is/are the daughter/son of the joker?

I actually planned quite a lot for this after you asked but could never get my thoughts to make something comprehensive so I give up here's what I got!:

-Twins are Joker and Harleys kids born before the two split up(and so help me they will split up this story needs gay aunt Ivy)

-As you might know, these two clowns have another kid; Lucy. Harley left Lucy with her sister when she was born. In canon, she thinks Harley is her aunt but I would say in this fic she learned the truth when the twins were also dropped off.

-So the twins grew up in Gotham with their aunt and big sister knowing full well who their parents are; as such they make the responsible choice to suppress every part of themselves that resembles them and constantly dye their hair in an effort to avoid looking like them. You know healthy coping mechanisms. -

-Naturally, Marinette has brown hair with blue eyes and Marion blonde with brown eyes.

-Their personalities are a bit different from Mismatch. 

-Marion is still a trickster and a trouble maker but this time around has Marinette fully involved and responsible for his shenanigans. He has a bit of a habit of talking to himself(or singing random phrases), sometimes in the third person; he hates when he does, so Marinette always tells him off. He’s always gets the impulse of dying his hair outlandish colors and will vehemently deny his favorite color is green.

- Marinette is crafty, both figuratively and literally. She’s smart, her mother is a doctor after all she can be manipulative to people that arent her(close) family to protect the ones she cares about. She has a deep-seated fear of becoming a trophy, an object to be put on display like her mother and so dresses the opposite and pushes away her love for fashion.

-They will always call each other Mari but if someone else tries they both answer its a nickname they strictly use for each other.

-In a world where Gotham exists it makes absolutely no sense that Gabriel wouldn't start his reign as Hawkmoth in Gotham(the place with the most negative emotions like geez) so that works out perfectly for the twins becoming heroes(Adrien can move to Gotham or be left in Paris to be kept safe your choice)

-Instead of the twins proving themselves by helping an old man up off the street they go a step further is beating up the thugs that try to rob him(all Fu’s set up of course). When they come home to find two mysterious boxes on their beds they make the only rational conclusion children of the joker would; it’s a bomb!

-Not wanting to get the police involved for obvious reasons they find the security footage(which gets the police involved in a different way) and start tracking down fu to see why he’s trying to kill him.

-And as you may recall at this point in canon Ladybug and Chat Noir are defeating an Akuma, well they're not here they’re off to beat up an old man so thats Batman’s job for the time being.

-The twins get caught up in the fight as civilians and are saved by Batman who immediately recognizes them(you don't think Batman has case files on all of Jokers hellspawn?) so that’s gonna be a problem later but never mind that for now~

-The twins track down Fu, who is wondering why they aren’t out fighting the Akuma. Long story short Fu comes back to the house with them and proves they aren't bombs giving them the miraculous.

-I’m a bit indecisive on the names. I thought Marinette would be Red Bug and Marion Black Cat(yes I know that names already taken I don’t care). But I thought Crimson Bug would work better because then their names would start with the same letters. Then I wanted alliteration like Black Bug and Crimson Cat but that obviously doesn't make any sense since Chats color is green not red-- then I realized it would be completely in character for them to call themselves that confusing everyone in the process so no one quite sure whos name is who(if you wanna write it go with whatever I just thought it could be funny)

-As for costumes Marinette's probably wouldn't be skin tight because deep down she really doesn't want to look like that but more practical armor or less form-fitting at least. Marion's hair turns green when he transforms something he freaks out about and Marinette's turns red(glowing or not either would look cool)

-So anyway they go off to defeat the akuma blah blah blah Batman seeing these two young untrained superheroes can only think of one thing: I have to adopt them. So that’s gonna be fun!

-Anyway they go back home trying to be sneaky and immediately get caught by Lucy: ”Don’t tell Aunty!”-- ”Oh I already know” (her names Delia by the way)

- So now the twins get a support system and a family that will look out for them unbelievable right? This support system immediately threatens Fu making sure he actually trains them and doesn't just set them loose on Gotham.

Anyway that's the end of my semi-cohesive plan and here's a vague outline for the fic:

1. Becoming ladybug and chat noir setting up adoption, and school(Bruce invites them to Gotham academy to keep an eye on the jokers children)

2. First day at school setting up Artemis(and by extension young justice), and own passions, Adrien is also at this school now so Marinette falls, Jason finds out falling in love with Marion

3. Becoming friends with Artemis, convinces them to give their passions a try, Marion runs from hood, some let me adopt you stuff also Jason's spite for Cat Noir

4. Skip a bit of time a few months or so, young justice need help Artemis suggest mari and mari, Marinette has a smackdown with batman about their heritage, at odds with young justice Artemis comes to their defense. Young Justice have an ‘oh’ realization on the job when Marion sings a lullaby to a scared child, now the young justice form the mari and mari protection squad

5. Doing ladybug and cat stuff batman approaches them again this time luring them into adoption with a partnership on finding hawkmoth, Red Hood and cat fight. Marion comes back all huffy and there's a scene with Lucy this time comforting them, Marion goes out to get air runs into hood marion bristles stirring Jason to meet him as a civilian, class come to visit, at odds with lila

6. Doing well at school even made a few friends when the Paris class come to visit completely under lila’s control, lila tries to slander the twins for not worshiping her only to out herself when she tells everyone they laughed at her(the twins never laugh), Jason also drops by further discrediting her, lila tries to throw their heritage in their face but they get support openly working with heroes as civilians, this little section ends quite happily with them being sort of accepted at school and batman tolerating their existence for not attacking the person who tried to make their life miserable

7. Time skip few years out of high school now, ladybug and cat are working well with gothams vigilantes widely considered part of the batfam even if no one knows each other's identities. As mari and mari they are doing good work mainly outside of gotham. Marinette is starting a fashion boutique with a little financial help from Wayne enterprises she also does costume design for heroes and villains, villains mainly because she can't stand their current outfits. Marion quite likes his music but isn't sure how he will feel in the public eye is great friends with Jason and the skip picks up with them officially starting to go out identities unknown. They are still hesitant about their identities in civilian life Marinette starting her business under a false name and Marion cant start his because of his heritage. Jason officially has to admit they are going out to the family is met with grilling by aunt and sister, joy by harley once she tries giving them sex advice they leave, his brothers tease and both are tense about Bruces reaction but he begrudgingly accepts. Are out as ladybug and Cat still snippy with hood but it’s not as bad they are closing in on hawkmoth. Go to hang out with young justice as well they aren't well-liked in Gotham but they’re fine with that(not really)

8. NOW things can go to shit joker finally has enough of them deciding to get a hold of them but I think it should be as ladybug and chat revealing their identities to the world. The twins are terrified rightfully so. Get saved now it’s weird between hood and marion, marion feeling betrayed Jason knew who he was and knew who his father was but still decided to date him and he just can't understand why. Adrien was so scared for Marinette and now they both have to work out why. Gotham is at odds the heroes they admire are born from a villain they fear. Bats are a bit weird feeling like they were tricked while also kind of acknowledging the twins are good people

9. Harassed in their everyday life now the twins go to young justice where they get met with awe for being established independent heros, bats there are acting weird but the twins say something to shift perspective leaving to let them mull on it. Jason tries to apologise saying he doesn't see Marion like that blah blah Marion has a breakdown asking how he can be anything but a villain. Marinette's having whiplash going from loved to hated and still dealing with the trauma of seeing her father. They snap. In public a big ol scene and they get akumatised everyone sees it, it’s on tv. Hawkmoth comes out to get their miraculous the batfam can’t beat him. He’s monolouging probing at their deepest fears when they snap back to reality realizing none of it’s true every part of them has worked to be good people and they are they don't hand over their miraculous beating the akumatizaton and beating hawkmoth while akumatised.

10. They are released from the hospital a few days later, getting hesitant recognition on the streets. It's not thunderous applause but it is something. Their family comes to pick them up, Adrien is crying to Marinette about not scaring him like that(her family took him in when Gabriel was revealed). Marion gets picked up by Jason they patch things over. They get accepted into the batfam and work as ladybug and cat for everything. Marion decides to start playing music and Marinette reveals her face to her fashion brand.

[lady-of-glass-and-bone]

Thank you for the tag! I love these things but I also hate them because I had to choose only 9 characters.

Eddie Munson (Stranger Things)

Alexa Woods (AvP: alien vs. predator)

Adrian Chase / Vigilante (Peacemaker)

Ezra (Prospect)

Ellen Ripley (Alien series)

Colonel Rick Flag (The Suicide Squad)

Jack Russell (Werewolf by Night)

Buck Barnes (MCU)

Pennywise (IT) don't @ me for being a clown fucker I KNOW

Tagging literally anyone who sees this, just do it.

Got tagged by @anotherdumbasslesbian for this. Narrowing it down to just 9 was harder than I thought and I had to make some tough cuts.

No pressure tags for @pho-carrot @xannerz @xanex-angel @gal-incognito @actualdickgrayson @rem-fandago @project-alice @stennnn06 @gwenstacyismyicon @lastwordbeforetheend @brownbearbutch @dumbjockgirl @dumbass-adora @adgjl103 @moonbuckets @ti2guhr and anyone else that wants to do it that I might have accidentally forgot.

[aion-rsa]

From Man of Steel to Zack Snyder’s Justice League: A Complete DCEU Timeline

https://ift.tt/3eYjG5C

This article contains spoilers for Zack Snyder’s Justice League and other DC movies.

The timeline of the DC Extended Universe began in a fairly clear manner, with most of the events of Man of Steel set in 2013. As more films were released, containing flashbacks, or lacking a clear chronological setting, things became increasingly complicated. And by the time we got to Birds of Prey film, its precise placement in the DCEU is downright murky. But there are contextual in-universe clues in the form of media, gravestones, mugshot photos, or throwaway lines of dialogue that provide some clarity. 

With the long-awaited release of the Snyder Cut of Justice League hitting HBO Max, it’s a good time to break down what we know so far about when some significant moments in DCEU history took place.

100,000 B.C.

The Kryptonian Expansion: Krypton begins interstellar exploration and launches scout ships into the void of space. They colonize and flourish for 100 thousand years until artificial population control is introduced. (Man of Steel)

18,000 B.C.

A Kryptonian scout ship crash lands on Earth; one Kryptonian escapes the craft, leaving behind an empty pod. (Man of Steel) According to a Man of Steel prequel comic that may may not still be canon, her name was Kara Zor-El.

Thousands of Years Ago

Darkseid seeks to conquer Earth, but is foiled by the combined forces of man, Atlanteans, Themyscirans, Olympian gods, and at least one member of the Green Lantern Corps, Yalan Gur. Three Mother Boxes are hidden across the planet: in Atlantis, on Themyscira, and with mankind. (Zack Snyder’s Justice League)

Millennia after the Amazons are created, Ares goes to war with the Olympian gods, and kills all of them, including Zeus. Themyscira is created with Zeus’ remaining power. Somewhere during this period, Atlantis sinks beneath the waves. (Wonder Woman)

The ancient wizard Shazam imbues a champion with the powers of six mythological figures, only for him to become corrupted by the power. (Shazam!)

Diana of Themyscira, daughter of Queen Hippolyta, grows up on the hidden island, and trains to become a warrior under General Antiope. (Wonder Woman, Wonder Woman 1984)

1918

Diana saves Steve Trevor who has crashed on Themyscira. He warns her of the great war, World War I, raging across the globe. She joins him in the world of man, and together they seek to stop the evil Dr. Maru and General Ludendorff (who Diana incorrectly believes is the God of War, Ares). Steve Trevor dies. (Wonder Woman)

Read more

Comics

Wonder Woman Movie: Complete DC Comics Easter Eggs and Reference Guide

By Mike Cecchini

Movies

Does Zack Snyder’s Justice League Set Up Wonder Woman 3?

By David Crow

1974

Thaddeus Sivana is magically transported to the Rock of Eternity and fails the test of worthiness conducted by the wizard Shazam. (Shazam!)

1980

After the explosion of his homeworld, Kal-El of Krypton crash lands on Earth, and is taken in by Jonathan and Martha Kent of Smallville, Kansas. This date is approximate, but while being interrogated in Man of Steel, Superman says he’s been on the planet for 33 years. (Man of Steel)

1981

Thomas and Martha Wayne are murdered in Gotham City, leaving their young song Bruce an orphan with a serious grudge against criminals. (Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice)

1984

Diana Prince operates in secret as the heroine Wonder Woman, while also working by day at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. After unwittingly using the Dreamstone, she resurrects Steve Trevor (who inhabits another man’s body). Barbara Ann Minerva, also through the use of the Dreamstone, gains superpowers and is ultimately transformed into Cheetah. Businessman Max Lord wishes to become the stone itself, and uses his powers to create global chaos. (Wonder Woman 1984)

Read more

Movies

Wonder Woman 1984: DC Comics Easter Eggs and Reference Guide

By Delia Harrington

Movies

Wonder Woman 1984 Post Credits Scene Explained

By Mike Cecchini

1985

Lighthouse keeper Thomas Curry rescues and falls in love with Atlantean queen Atlanna; Arthur Curry, aka, Aquaman is born shortly thereafter. (Aquaman)

Circa 1995

Bruce Wayne begins operating in Gotham as the vigilante Batman.

1997

Jonathan Kent dies in a tornado after discouraging Clark from using his powers to save him. (Man of Steel)

2013

This is a bat-signal in the dark, but this is a reasonable estimate on when both Dr. Harlene Quinzel becomes Harley Quinn, and when Dick Grayson, Batman’s partner Robin, is murdered. Suicide Squad lists Quinzel’s date of birth as July 1990. It seems unlikely she would have become a psychiatrist, and assigned to the Joker in Arkham before age 23. Still, Robin is dead by October 2014 (and presumably dead by the Black Zero Event in late 2013, as shown in Man of Steel). This allows for about a year for Harleen to help Joker escape Arkham, take a transformational acid bath, and help the Clown Prince kill Grayson.

Read more

Movies

Man of Steel: Complete DC Comics Easter Eggs and References Guide

By Mike Cecchini

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Superman Movies Ranked: The Best and Worst of the Man of Steel

By Mike Cecchini

Batman apprehends Floyd Lawton, aka the hitman known as Deadshot, while he’s Christmas shopping with his daughter. (Suicide Squad)

General Zod invades Earth, and Superman reveals himself to the world. Bruce Wayne witnesses the battle between the two, and sees the Wayne Financial Building in Metropolis collapse. (Man of Steel)

2014

Harley Quinn is captured by Batman after Joker drives their car into the harbor, and abandons her. When she is introduced in Suicide Squad, she is listed as an accomplice to Robin’s murder, which is what leads to her arrival at Belle Reve prison. (Suicide Squad)

2015

Victor Stone and his mother are in a car accident which kills her, and puts him on death’s door. Victor’s father uses Mother Box technology to keep him alive and transform him into an incredibly powerful cyborg. (Justice League)

2016

The holy trinity of DC meet! Batman and Superman duke it out before joining forces against Lex Luthor’s Doomsday creature. Meanwhile, Diana joins the action, and dons her Wonder Woman suit in battle. Sadly, Superman dies, but Bruce and Diana decide to form a league of heroes. (Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice)

Read more

Comics

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice – Complete DC Comics Easter Eggs and Reference Guide

By Mike Cecchini

Movies

Suicide Squad: Complete DC Comics Easter Eggs and Character Guide

By Mike Cecchini

Amanda Waller establishes the government sanctioned Task Force X, also known as the Suicide Squade, to respond to metahuman threats (and following the death of Superman). Enchantress enslaves Midway City, but is ultimately thwarted by the squad. (Suicide Squad)

2017

Bruce Wayne and Diana assemble a team including Barry Allen, Vic Stone, and Arthur Curry to battle Steppenwolf, who has returned to Earth. Superman is resurrected, and ultimately joins the fight. Shortly after Superman’s return, Lex Luthor breaks out of Arkham and reveals Batman’s secret identity to Slade Wilson, aka Deathstroke. (Justice League)

2018

After defeating his half-brother Orm and stopping a war between the underwater kingdoms and the surface world, Arthur Curry ascends the throne as king of Atlantis, wielder of the Trident of Atlan, and ruler of the seven seas. (Aquaman)

2019

Billy Batson is granted the powers of Shazam, and thwarts Dr. Sivana’s evil plans. While this could take place a little earlier, it is pretty well established within the film the events occur after those of Justice League, so we’ll just default to year of release here. (Shazam!)

Read more

Comics

Shazam: DC Comics Easter Eggs and References Guide

By Mike Cecchini

Movies

Shazam 2 Will Have a Sinbad Cameo and a Cool Title

By Delia Harrington

Barry Allen encounters a parallel universe version of himself in STAR Labs. Though it is unclear when in his timeline the encounter occurs, it is before he has adopted the moniker of The Flash — which is given to him by the Arrowverse’s Barry. Based on his reaction to the meeting, it can be assumed this takes place before Barry has explored other realities via the Speed Force. (Crisis on Infinite Earths)

2020

Harley Quinn and Joker break up, and she establishes a new life in Gotham. She goes to war with Roman Sionis, and the Birds of Prey are formed. The events of Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) take place after both Suicide Squad and Justice League — and at a time when Batman has gone missing.  (Birds of Prey)

202?

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

As seen in the epilogue of Zack Snyder’s Justice League, in a potential future, Superman has succumbed to Darkseid’s anti-life equation following the death of Lois Lane. As a result, he becomes a powerful weapon wielded against humanity, and his former teammates, including Batman and Flash, as well as Mera, Slade Wilson, and Joker. Many heroes of the past, meanwhile, have perished. (Zack Snyder’s Justice League)  

The post From Man of Steel to Zack Snyder’s Justice League: A Complete DCEU Timeline appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[queercbc]

Birds of Prey

I loved it! This movie continues the fun, bright direction for this universe while bringing something entirely new to comic book-based films.

[Spoilers for Birds of Prey below]

Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) is FUN. I know literally every review for this film uses that word, but after watching the movie a couple of times that is the word that stays with you through most every scene. Unlike Suicide Squad, BoP keeps all the promises made by the trailer and more. Cathy Yan and Christina Hodson help bring some of the most important characters in comics to life in a pulsating film about orphans overcoming misogyny.

I have waited for this film ever since I first saw Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad.

Suicide Squad failed to translate what made the comic book team so compelling, and insisted on shipping Harley with an abusive psychopath. (I still can’t believe Ayer had Margot Robbie unironically say the line ‘Normal’s just a setting n a dryer.’ Ugh) I remember feeling betrayed when the film ended with her and the Joker riding off into the sunset. Despite all this, Robbie had obviously done her research and was able to bring a charismatic distillation of New 52 Harley to the big screen.

Then, the WB announced that along with their planned Gotham City Sirens film there would be a romantic film about The Joker and Harley, which sounded horrible and cliche. Luckily, Suicide Squad was critically-panned and Wonder Woman was the first clear-cut success for the DCEU (Sorry Snyder diehards.) WW proved that nearly everyone would go to the theater to watch a superhero film that was not only centered around a woman, but was directed by one as well. Ultimately, this film is what happens when R-rated and female-led films are proven to be successful. Yan and Hodson had nothing to prove, but they definitely proved that they could create a team of women who everyone could relate to.

Robbie was able to help convince the studio that the Birds of Prey was the right direction to take the franchise in. This way she could use the notoriety and appeal of Harley Quinn to shine a light on lesser known characters. Through the narration device we have Quinn literally introducing us to lesser known DC characters like Renee Montoya and Cassandra Cain.

Renee Montoya was created for Batman: The Animated Series, just like Harley Quinn. Unlike Harley it took a bit for Montoya’s character to be developed once she was introduced in the comics. In Gotham Central we got to see more of Renee’s life as a queer, Latina woman in law enforcement. Later in 52 we saw her recovering from the trauma of being framed and publicly outed, and then beginning her journey to becoming a vigilante.

In BoP, Renee Montoya is still a badass, queer Latina woman. She has tried to work within the patriarchal, authoritative system for decades but she never got the credit she deserved. We see her journey from hard-drinking tough detective stereotype to member of the Birds of Prey. Rosie Perez is great and it is nice to see a woman that Hollywood might consider old getting to have action set pieces and be just as much a part of the team as the rest of the women. 

Cassandra Cain (the Batgirl everyone forgets) is another character who deserves more recognition. A girl who was raised to be an assassin, but cannot bear to kill another human being. She does not speak and can only communicate through body language.

Cassandra Cain is a completely different character. She is not a trained assassin, she is more a Jason Todd or Mia Dearden analog for Harley: an abandoned child doing what they have to in order to survive. Ella Jay Bosco is fantastic and this interpretation of the character would not work if Bosco’s comedic timing were not as good as it is. She and Robbie bounce off of each other perfectly.

Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn is just as incredible as you expect her to be.  She is obviously great with the slapstick comedy that Harley is known for, but the emotion is always there on her face, ready to bubble to the surface. I wish the film focused less on her relationship with the clown, but it does allow Robbie to play with a heartbroken Harley, a woman trying so hard to hide the pain in her life behind a painted smile. (Please stop calling her the female Deadpool, She-Hulk smashed the fourth wall first and better anyway.)

Helena is the woman who is least served by the story, but there isn’t much to her character. I understand that it is part of her that she has no social skills and has been singularly focused since she was a child. If this franchise continues it would be nice to see her grow beyond her need for vengeance. The role really only works because Mary Elizabeth Winstead brings her wry smirk and deadpan performance to the role.

Ewan McGregor and Chris Messina are also excellent in the roles they are given. The characters are obviously queer-coded, being just as campy and fun as the rest of the film, but their role in the film is mostly to personify the toxicity and abuses of power that have hurt these women in the past. 

Dinah is the one of the only characters aside from Harley that gets explored through the narrative and not by the narration alone. Through Montoya we learn that, like in the early comics, Dinah’s mother (presumably Dinah Drake) was a vigilante whose death caused Dinah to lose faith in the kindness of the world. I’ve already discussed Dinah’s difficult journey to the big screen. This Black Canary is a songstress and fighter, we see that Dinah is willing to work for Roman and keep her head down, until she sees women being assaulted. As jaded as she appears she is always ready to throw down to protect those around her, and is ready to open her heart to other people, especially Helena. Jurnee is incredible at delivering emotion one second, and then a great comedic line less than one minute later. Her ability to emote is exceptional, every look Dinah gives is filled with clear emotion and meaning.

The action in this film is also grounded and dynamic. The action scenes are less influenced by previous superhero films, but by John Wick, even going so far as to bring in the film’s director to punch up the fighting sequences. Each woman has their own style, and to praise Robbie once again, she obviously trained and performed many of the Harley choreography.

Birds of Prey is beautiful, fun, powerful and exactly the kind of film DC should be making.

[P.S. I could not stop listening to the amazing soundtrack while writing this.]

[mceproductions]

Best of 2020 Movies #10: Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of one Harley Quinn

DC and it’s history is both timeless and timely.

They can make some of the greatest characters, and yet when adapted for medium these same characters can get some of their own creations retroactively put into the greater canon itself.

Harleen Quinnzel a psychiatrist who falls for and becomes the right hand of the clown prince of crime is one of them.

Yes what many call one of the best original characters ever made for tv, got her own legacy growing stronger.

And with Margot Robbie bringing a fiercely wicked portrayal more see Harley Quinn as one of DCs major players.

Case in point her continuation from suicide squad in which after being dumped by the joker Harley ends up running afoul of Gotham mob boss Black Mask.

All the while a detective, an informant, an heiress turned vigilante and Harley give chase to a pickpocket who brings the wrath of Black Mask and his enforcers down on them all.

While the team up doesn’t occur til the films final act, these four definitely own the movie.

And make guys re-examine how they treat women.

But still not want any of us expected from this famous team up.

And like the title says it was Fantabulous to watch.

SUM 22: Gotham by Daylight sees 5 ladies looking for emancipation from the dark side of the mobs grip.

[pipedreame]

⊹₊ PIIVED DPxDC MASTERLIST₊ ⊹

posted to ao3:

Justice is Swift (Vengeance is Sweet) // 3/? 25k words

Pairings: Danny/Jason, Sam/Tucker/Val, Tim/Kon/Bernard

Danny knew life in Gotham wouldn’t be quiet, it was literally Crime Capitol after all, but he didn’t expect to catch the attention of the entire squad of Bat Vigilantes as his civilian self or make friends with the Wayne family, and he sure as hell didn’t mean to kill the Joker on live television as Phantom, effectively drawing the attention of the entire city and what was left of the rogue GIW group… Fantastic.

(Okay, so he totally did mean to kill that clown freak, but only because he decided to take his little sister hostage as some twisted way to get at Batman... Sue him.)

OR

Danny trying (and spectacularly failing) to lay low in Gotham while simultaneously attempting to be a regular college student. As always, his life is a mess.

tumblr wips:

Conceal, Don’t Feel // Dead on Main Frozen/Rise of the Guardians AU

Confessions // Dead on Main identity reveal

prompts:

Tim accidentally summons Danny

Jason finds an injured Danny and decides to keep him

Danny having supernatural strength shenanigans

Danny realizes that Red Hood has something seriously wrong with him and wants to help (Red Hood just saw this guy get stabbed and now he’s getting a cure for the Pit Rage… wtf)

[moviemunchies]

Birds of Prey Review

Comic book movies don’t have a great history with fight choreography.

Okay, yes, there are some spectacular fight scenes in Marvel movies, but seriously, how many of those are done with actual fight choreography? With actual actors or stunt people and not just CGI models? Because the most awesome fight scenes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe are mostly CGI involving powers or lasers or the like. When it comes to actual hand-to-hand combat, Marvel movies are sorely lacking. I mean, yeah, those scenes exist, but they’re not good.

Take the fight in the street in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. It’s full of close-ups and shaky cam, so you only have a vague idea of most of the moves they’re making. The first time it’s exciting to watch but every time afterward I remember thinking, “Wow, this fight scene sucks to watch.” 

And to be clear, Marvel isn’t the only one to do this. All of Hollywood was doing it for about a decade, and DC movies did it too. The fight scenes in The Dark Knight don’t exactly show off choreography well either. I think that the comic book movie with the best fight choreography was, until this point, Kingsman: The Secret Service.

Until Birds of Prey that is.

Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn is a female-led comic book movie. Basically, because Margot Robbie’s got enough clout and her take on Harley Quinn was the most popular part of Suicide Squad, she helped put pressure on studio execs to get this movie made. So not only does it star Harley Quinn, it stars one of comics’ most well-known female superhero teams, the Birds of Prey. And it’s directed by a woman, Cathy Yan, which means that DC now has TWO released comic book movies starring and directed by women and Marvel hasn’t done that. Unless you count Captain Marvel, which had two directors, one of whom was a dude so I don’t really count that.

I’m not sayin’ anything, I’m just sayin’...

The Plot is a bit like this: Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) broke up with the Joker. Thing is, her relationship with the Joker is part of what’s been keeping her alive, as no one would bother her as long as she’s attached to the clown who scares the stuffing out of everyone. At the top of the list is Roman Sionis (Ewan McGregor), aka Black Mask, a crime boss who runs most of Gotham’s underworld. Tangled up in this are Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez), a grizzled detective that’s building a case against Sionis, and Dinah Lance (Jurnee Smollet-Bell), the singer at Sionis’s club who becomes his driver after he witnesses her beating the snot out of some crooks. Sionis is after a specific diamond which contains the secret to the Bertinelli crime family fortune, but that diamond gets jacked by a teen pickpocket named Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco), and now everyone’s after her. And then there’s someone (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) who is taking out prominent mobsters in Gotham City and everyone assumes is working for Sionis.

It’s a bit of a tangled Plot with several characters, and in truth it’s not helped by the fact that it’s told a bit out of order. Our narrator is Harley Quinn, and she tends to forget details, so she backs up and explains them in a way reminiscent of someone telling a story. And that makes sense, especially because Harley Quinn is explicitly an insane woman. But it can be a bit hard to follow who is doing what and when until it all converges about halfway through. It’s not a bad plot either, though its structure and shape kind of screws some of the characters in terms of screen time and character development.

Because, at its core, this is Harley Quinn’s movie. She gets the most screen time, narrates the story, and it’s mostly about her trying not to die. Which isn’t bad at all, but I would have liked to have seen more of Huntress, or watched Montoya solve more crimes, or Cassandra’s home life. There’s enough in the movie that you don’t feel like they’re ignored characters; they all have good scenes and distinct personalities, but I don’t think that they’re used to their full potential. It is slightly frustrating, because Harley Quinn has little to do with the comic book version of the Birds of Prey. But I can’t fault the film too much; Margot Robbie lobbied to have this film made, after all, and without her involvement as Harley I don’t know that it would have been greenlit.

What makes this movie stand out is that it’s got fantastic fight scenes. I mean, spectacular fight scenes. Chad Stahelski (as in, the guy who directed John Wick) was brought in to work on them, and it shows that they put a lot of work into them. They’re over-the-top, yes, and not like the gritty and rough action scenes you’d see in John Wick films; but they are glorious to watch and oh so much fun.

And this is a film where these sorts of scenes work. Part of what makes comic book movies not really conducive to great fight scenes is that they’re almost always about the fate of the world or some such thing; we don’t need kung fu, we need lasers and explosives and crap! But this is a film about taking on a crime lord who has a city in his pocket. It’s more low-key, and so of course we believe that a bunch of women who know how to kick ass can take down our villain and his minions.

Margot Robbie is loads of fun as Harley Quinn, which was expected I think, by most people who went to see this movie. As to the rest of the cast:

Ella Jay Basco injects a lot of likability in Cassandra Cain; she’s an in-name-only adaptation of the character, but despite that and being a pickpocket she shines as sort of innocent in the moral swamp that is Gotham City. Rosie Perez is a fantastic Montoya: a grizzled cop who wants to help but is limited by the system that rewards others for her work, and grew up watching way too many 80’s cop movies. Smollet-Bell does great work as Dinah Lance/Black Canary, a woman who wants to do the right thing but also knows that it’s not in her best interest. Mary Elizabeth Winstead does great with what she’s given, as the angry vigilante, but I really would have liked for her to have more to do.

As for our villains, Ewan McGregor is having a ball in this role. He’s a bit over-the-top and I think maybe it goes too far at times, but a terrible sleazy hate sink of a mob villain is the sort of antagonist a movie like this needs. And his right-hand man, Victor Zsasz, is played by Chris Messina with a lot more depth than I would have expected, but you still want to deck him because he’s a creep and a monster.

What makes this film really stand out though is that it feels like it was made by women. That’s a difficult statement to qualify, but watch the movie and you’ll see. There’s no objectifying shots of the camera lingering on cleavage or a woman’s rear end. The villains aren’t just violent mob criminals, they’re sexist creeps; and yeah, some of the behavior is exaggerated, but not all of it, and there’s a lot of problems that women deal with every day, like Montoya not getting credit for her work while her male partner did, and Sionis acting like the women in his club are there for his enjoyment, or no one taking Harley seriously unless she’s attached to a man everyone’s scared of. And hey, there’s a fight scene in which Harley throws Dinah a hair tie so that it doesn’t get in the way while she’s fighting.

But even if that all goes over your head, this is a great film. It has likable characters, fantastic fight scenes, and while there are some intense scenes (usually involving Sionis murdering or torturing people), it’s a fun movie. It doesn’t feel like it’s trying to pull a twist on its audience, play with your expectations, punish any of its lead characters, or deconstruct anything. It’s straightforward in what it wants to do and what kind of audience it wants to be shown to.

If you like comic book movies, or superhero, please check it out. If you love action scenes, you have to check it out. I know this movie might not appeal to everyone, but to those that it does, it’ll be fantabulous.

[wits-writing]

Birds of Prey (Movie Review)

Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn), from now on referred to as BOP for brevity, directed by Cathy Yan with a script by Bumblebee screenwriter Christina Hodson, follows Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) as she carves out her own place in Gotham City after breaking up with the Joker.

After an act of destructive spectacle to make sure everyone knows she’s serious about the breakup, Harley finds out just how many people want her dead now that the Clown Prince of Crime won’t be protecting her. Special notice in that aspects gets given to Roman Sionis (Ewan McGregor), aka Black Mask, a mob boss of Gotham’s East End currently making a play for the city as a whole.

[Full Review Under the Cut]

BOP’s story structure and aesthetic presentation are an exercise in communicating perspective. Harley provides the primary framing through her narration and overall off kilter way of looking at the world. Slow motion, the tone of the music and use of on-screen text impart how she’s our main filter for these events. Moments that don’t focus on her and the occasional nonlinear order of the central narrative’s events are Harley as the narrator backfilling that information. Her narration at one point outright says to the audience, “I guess I forgot to tell you about them.” Narration often gets framed as a lazy way to impart exposition and character development, but BOP uses Harley’s narration with a purpose. In the larger subtext of this being a post-breakup recovery story, Harley literally controlling her story’s presentation ties in with taking control of her own life.

Though like she says early on, Harley’s not “the only dame in Gotham looking for emancipation.” Once she makes her grand statement to let everyone know she’s cut ties with Mr. J for good, chaos spiraling out from that ends up ensnaring several other characters in her path as she runs from the people that want her dead. Starting with the Gotham street rat, Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco). A foster kid who’d rather be on the streets than living her bleak home life. The kid ends up accidentally running afoul of Sionis when her routine pickpocketing brings her into possession of a valuable item that could give him the resources to expand his control beyond his turf into all of Gotham. Harley plans to save her own skin by agreeing to deliver the kid to Roman in exchange for protection. When Harley finally crosses paths with Cass, complications prevent her from turning the kid over to the mob boss right away.

Those complications become the heart of Harley’s character arc as circumstances force her to get to know the kid. Cass sees Harley’s flippant way of going about her criminal life and sees someone who has things figured out. A notion Harley tries to dissuade her of even as her moments with the kid are the first non-alcohol or drug induced states of happiness she’s had since the movie began. Robbie and Basco’s interactions have a sisterly back and forth to them, especially in the moments when Cass proves cleverer and more resourceful than Harley anticipated.

Cass is also the center of the Venn diagram formed by the stories of Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez) and Dinah Lance (Jurnee Smollett-Bell), aka Black Canary. Renee mainly knows Cass as a recurring face at the police station every time she’s gotten caught pickpocketing. In her daily life, Renee’s job as a detective involves a lot of people either not taking her seriously or stealing credit for her work. She’s been building a case to take down Black Mask for years but gets talked down from her pursuit by everyone else at the GCPD. Perez plays Montoya with a world-weariness that sells the years of being ignored that have taken a toll on her.

Her investigation leads her to Dinah, a singer at a club owned by Sionis recently promoted to his personal chauffeur. After seeing her mother lose her life trying to protect people in Gotham, Dinah wants to keep her head down and go on surviving for as long as possible. It’s complicated by the fact she can’t stop herself from caring or wanting to get involved despite everything. A trait shown in her tender interactions with Cass, whose foster parents live in the same apartment complex, and fighting to protect a drunk Harley outside the club. Smollett-Bell and Perez get their best material playing against each other in scenes where Renee tries to convince Dinah to help inform her on Roman’s plans.

Rounding out the Birds of Prey is an interloper in Black Mask’s plans to control Gotham, Helena Bertinelli (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), aka Huntress. Her role makes her BOP’s secret weapon as she’s the lead we at first learn the least about. All we know at the start is she’s going around killing mobsters that have ties to Sionis’s operations. She doesn’t say anything but takes care of her targets with ruthless efficiency. Once she’s given the room to talk, it becomes clear that she has all the skills necessary to handle her vigilante manhunt but has a negative amount of social skills or flare for drama. Helena’s attempts at stoic one-liners are hilariously inept and Winstead plays each one perfectly.

A character I’m more mixed on than any other element of the movie is Black Mask himself. None of that is down to Ewan McGregor’s performance, who’s playing the representative of the type of controlling, entitled monster of a man that Harley doesn’t want in her life anymore after her breakup. While McGregor’s charisma can almost make you forget how awful Roman is, BOP has no interest in letting the audience forget what he’s willing to do to anyone that even slightly wrongs him. It makes for the movie’s most disturbing moments, especially when he’s sharing the screen with his torture-happy partner-in-crime, Victor Zsasz (Chris Messina). He makes his motives to kill Harley plain when he tells her he wants her dead just because he’s free to do it now that she’s out from Joker’s protection, not any specific grievance. However, that lack of specific antagonism with the main character makes him feel hollow outside of his cruelty, existing as something for the heroes to bounce off for their arcs. He’s functional and well played, but not much beyond that.

Once all the characters are gathered and their story threads have fully converged, BOP has its boldest showcase of the stellar action that makes it stand apart from other movies in the superhero genre. The movie never slouches to deliver on the goods when it comes to its leading ladies tear it up in the fights. Every one of them does something different, keeping things varied with different settings and weapons. Varied tones to the fights keep them from getting exhausting. Most of the fights focusing on Harley maintain the movie’s usual stylization, like her breaking into a police station with a glitter loaded shotgun. Which contrasts with the grounded street brawl when we first see what Dinah can do in a fight. Action scenes escalate as the movie goes, culminating in the previously mentioned final showcase. The fights up to that point already embrace Jackie Chan levels of “every object can be a weapon if necessary” and takes it to the next level. All boosted by the work of cinematographer Matthew Libatique and editors Jay Cassidy and Evan Schiff keeping visual information clear, which helps every bone crunching impact land. Pushed further by the soundtrack consisting of Daniel Pemberton’s original score and songs, plus some well-timed needle drops.

Like Christina Hodson’s previous work as a screenwriter with Bumblebee, what stands out about BOP is how it capitalizes on the wasted potential of previous entries in the film series, in this case 2016’s Suicide Squad. While in that case, the stylization and music choices were crudely plastered on, BOP uses every element with pointed purpose and feels genuinely fun rather than forced as a last-minute decision. Yan, Hodson, Robbie and the rest of the collected cast and crew put together a movie that accomplishes being exactly the kickass, glittery ride it sets out to be.

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[secondgenerationnerd]

Omega squad do you know Clownhunter?

Damian: Personally we don’t, however I’m pretty sure Todd is in contact with him from time to time.

Lian: *sarcastically* What? Uncle Jason knowing a clown killing vigilante who wants to kill the psycho that killed him? How weird is that