#Then Bruce points out that he is Bab’s godfather

[midavalanche]

Jazz was visiting her new niece when Jason walked in to complain about bats to his Scary Assassin Mom(TM) (as his goons call her). They hit it off without realizing any of the other connections between their families.

The web of relationships gets debated on when everyone ends up in the same room and start pointing fingers at each other. Danny’s rogue gallery is highly entertained and provide a chalk board for drawing the family tree out.

Batfamily is thrown off enough that it takes a few minutes for them to question the randomly appearing chalkboard.

DPxDC Prompt #7

Danny is a clone.

But not of Bruce. Nor Tim. Nor Damian, Jason, or Dick. Not Clark or Diana or any of those usual suspects.

No, no.

You see, when Ra's realized that he was running out of Pits to revive himself with, before he resorted to allowing Talia to give him a grandson with the Detective, Ra's tried to clone

Himself.

After all, who better to be his Heir(/Vessel to Possess) when this body ultimately fails him.

But he failed. Repeated use of the Lazarus Pits had done something to his DNA. Changed or degraded it. All of the clones were unstable from the start. None surviving past the embryonic stage.

All but one.

Ra's last attempt before deeming the project a failure developed all the way to standard 40 weeks before flatlining.

In a last ditch effort to salvage it, Ra's instructed for the clone to be dipped in the Pit. Only to have the Lazarus Waters rip the stillborn infant away and down down down into it's depths.

Immediately following that last failure, Ra's finally relented and gave Talia permission to inseminate herself and bear him an Heir of his and the Detective's blood.

.

Meanwhile, in the Infinite Realms, an Old Clock finds a mortal infant choking on his first living breaths through the Corrupted Ectoplasm in his lungs which gave him life and brought him here. The Ancient smiles. The Realms has chosen her next King. And what a Great One he shall be. Now the Time Keeper needs only deliver the infant where he needs to be to become who he must become.

[petertoddgrayson]

Romantic bonds can exist in found family situations. Teen Titans is a found family too, and yet Dick and Kory, Gar and Raven, Roy, Wally and Donna all dated at some point (Even Dick shared the same sentiment when he gave a little speech to Kory who's about to join the JLA).

Babs is like that goddaughter/very close family friend who gets invited in family events. She's part of the "family", but her position is ambiguous. She's more like an older sister to Steph, Jason and Damian, a friend to Tim, a mother to Cass and a very close friend slash lover to Dick. She sees Bruce as a godfather or a coach while Selina as her peer.

Barbara's situation is weird because she plays a differing dynamics with each member of the Batfam. And while she makes a great love interest to Dick, pairing her with other members is downright weird and in some cases, incestous.

**Barbara was never Bruce' surrogate daughter**. Anyone who had a proper reading (and comprehension) from PreCrisis to present run knows that. Barbara never saw Bruce as a parent figure, **was never implied nor explicitly stated**. Bruce saw her as a **family** but **not as a daughter**.

Barbara operated as Batgirl for a period of time before meeting, and later, partnering with Bruce and joining the Batfamily. Heck she even fought him over who gets to have Dick as a sidekick. It only got slightly changed in N52 and recent run since Babs got deaged but still the same concept.

**In short Batgirl was a bat chatacter who wasn't part of the batfam until she became one.**

People who propagandize DickBabs as incest are one of the following:

1. Diehard DK shipper with no proper knowledge about Barbara's standing in the Batfam other than regurgitated out of context rants made by people on Tumblr and Twitter.

2. Diehard DK shipper who knows and understands her dynamics with the Batfam but still chooses to spread misinformation by capitalizing on the kind of people I mentioned above.

3. Stans who do not understand how loose and dynamic the concept of family is.

4. Stans with double standards but doesn't know it.

5. Stans with double and are aware of it but are in a deep state of indenial.

6. Casual Titans fans who got pulled into comic reading by the movies and have no proper understanding of Dick and Barbara's relationship outside the lens of imbittered shippers.

[tarisilmarwen]

RobStar Week 2022, Day 7 - Generations

(More domestic RobStar Flying Graysons family because I said so.)

---

"Hey Starshine," Nightwing said, coming over to stand behind his daughter where she sat at the kitchen table, adjusting his gauntlet.  "What are you working on?"

"Class project!" Mar'i said eagerly, straightening in her chair and turning her homework around for him to see it.  "We're making family trees!"

He leaned over the table to look at the paper.  The yellow ceiling light cast a bright circle on the paper.  In the center Mar'i had glued small pictures, printed from the extensive photo files on their family computer no doubt, connected by bright red marker lines and scribbled labels identifying each member.  It was still half-finished—his whole side of the tree had yet to be filled in beyond a placeholder for Bruce—but it looked neat and tidy and simple to understand.

"See?" Mar'i said excitedly, pointing out his and Kory's pictures, and tracing the lines that branched down to her and Jake.  "There's you, and mommy, and Jake!"

"Not bad," he complimented, patting the girl on her back.  "Coming along really well."

She beamed.  "Yeah.  Mom's side was pretty easy."  Her red marker tip moved back up to Kory and now followed the tree up her line.  "There's Grandma and Grandpa, and Auntie Blackfire, and Uncle Wildfire."  She paused a moment, giving a sulky pout.  "But mommy says I have to call them 'Koma' and 'Ryan' on my homework."

Nightwing chuckled, leaning back and cracking his wrist.  "Well your mom's right," he said.  "Your aunt and uncle do technically have secret identities to keep."

Kory walked by the table at that moment, passing them, a sleepy pajama-clad Jake slumped on her shoulder.  She paid him a grateful smile, as she carried the little boy on her hip.  Nightwing's heart warmed at the sight, Jake's squished cheek and droopy legs looking absolutely precious.

"Are you getting ready to head out?" Kory asked him, tucking her hand behind Jake's head.

He nodded.  "In about another fifteen minutes or so."

"Mar'i requested assistance filling out your side of the tree," she told him.  She turned.  "I will put Jake to bed and be back down shortly," she promised.

She headed towards the stairs.

Nightwing pulled out a chair, the legs squealing on the floor, and sat himself down next to his daughter.  "What do you need help with, babygirl?" he asked.

Mar'i's face scrunched up.  "I... don't know where to put Alfred," she confessed.

"Hmm," Nightwing considered, pressing pensive knuckles into his lips.  That was a bit of a conundrum.  He wasn't Bruce's father, though he often took on a fatherly role.  Perhaps an uncle?  "What does your assignment say?"

"Um..."  Mar'i shuffled through her stack of pictures until she found her homework sheet.  "It just says to draw your family tree."

Nightwing tapped her paper.  "Put him down as an uncle or godfather," he suggested.  Spotting something on Kory's side of the tree he added, "Like you did with Galfore."

Mar'i's red pen scratched a notation next to Bruce's portrait, then she flicked through her pictures until she found a good one of Alfred and grabbed up a pair of scissors.  Nightwing watched her carefully cutting an oval around Alfred's face and head.

"Any other questions?" he asked.

"I don't know how many people to put on your side," she admitted, ducking her eyes with a sheepish look.

He chuckled.  "Yeah, there's a lot of them."  He leaned forward, resting his arms on the table.  "How about we limit it to just your aunts and uncles?"

Mar'i nodded, accepting the logic, and drew her paper back towards her to scribble out the names—Jason Todd, Tim Drake, Damian Wayne, Babs Gordon.

She added Cassie and Cass off to the side and then set about drawing all the connecting lines.  Nightwing watched with fascination, mentally adding and continuing the family tree in his head.  His parents.  Galfore's wife and children.  Thomas and Martha Wayne.  Raven.  Beast Boy.  Cyborg.  The branches grew and split, growing ever-larger, until his mental picture was much bigger than what could fill his daughter's little sheet.

He marveled a little, to himself.  For a short terrible time he'd had no family, after the only one he'd ever known were killed, and now he had so many connections, so many people in his life.

Kory's soft steps came back down the stairs.  She came up behind Mar'i's chair and looked over her daughter's shoulder, then clapped her hands.

"Oh it looks wonderful, Mar'i!" she praised.

Their daughter beamed, a radiant smile.  "Help me find some good pictures!" she requested eagerly, brushing dust off her family tree and capping her marker.

Mother and father both sorted through the stack of printed papers with their daughter, pausing to admire and laugh over some, gaze at others wistfully.

"Oh!" Mar'i said, when they had finished picking out the portraits.  "Almost forgot."

She grabbed up her marker again and wrote at the top in tall capital letters, very neatly.

"I.  Love.  My.  Family," she sounded out as she wrote each word.

Kory's eyes glittered at him as she smiled at him overtop Mar'i's head.  Nightwing grinned back.

"Me too, kiddo," he said.  "Me too."

[about-faces]

BATMAN: THE LONG HALLOWEEN MOVIE LIVEBLOG (1/?)

Opening scene! I see they got rid of the Godfather pastiche of “On this, the day of my daughter’s wedding!” shit entirely, moving the location of Bruce and the Roman’s meeting to the latter’s penthouse. Is the screenwriter trying to make this movie stand on its own, or is it a tacit admission that all of Loeb’s Godfather references were cheap and lazy? Let’s see! 

Oh hey, they gave Bruce an actual reason to say “I believe in Gotham City.” In the comic, he just says it because Loeb wants people to go “Yes, I’ve seen The Godfather too!” There’s no reason for Bruce to say it, given that he immediately moves onto talking about something else entirely. At least here it’s backed up by the context of his conversation with the Roman. Already, this movie is bending over backwards to make Loeb’s plot make sense.

Between this and all the screenshots I’ve already seen, Harvey Dent always looks angry and/or evil with constant downturned eyebrows. Before he was Two-Face, he was Resting-Bitch-Face.

The opening credits showing Tim Sale’s art feels like a half-assed way to deal with the fact that the animation style, though stylized in its own way, in no way resembles Sale’s art which really made TLH a hit. It’s like they’re saying “We can’t do it justice, but we can at least pay tribute to it with the opening credits,” but all it’s doing is highlighting how this isn’t Sale’s art. With its heavy cel shading, it’s more like Batman The Brave and the Bold on low battery.

Johnny Viti is a snitch for Harvey! Already the story is strengthening the idea from the comics that (name redacted) is the killer, by establishing an actual connection between Harvey and Viti! 

Seriously, is Harvey going to make this stinkface this whole movie? And how much is this movie going to abuse obvious foreshadowing the way the comic did?

Johnny Viti has been shot and killed. So they’ve cut the comic plot point of Viti murdering the banker Richard Daniel in front of his wife. Again, this creates a direct correlation between Harvey’s dealings with Viti and Viti’s murder, making it tighter and more sensical than the comic. Although I’m not sure where Viti was even shot. His head was exposed, but no blood is appearing behind it, just dripping down his hand and filling the tub. Whatever, compared to the comic, this is already a masterpiece of plotting.

GOD HELP ME I’M DOING THIS

Alfred is sad that no children are showing up at Wayne Manor on Halloween, despite the fact that he’s not even standing by the terrifying front gates and somehow expecting children to walk, like, a fucking mile up to their front door. Jesus, Alfred, at least make an effort before you give up! You’re giving out full-sized candy bars, they WILL at least show up to the creepy gates for that!

So they’re also adapting Bruce’s Scrooge-like arc from Loeb and Sale’s Legends of the Dark Knight Special: Ghosts, eh? Not a bad idea.

Alfred ghosts on Bruce mid-sentence! Cute implication that Bruce learned it from years of Alfred dealing with his batcrap and “nope”-ing out.

Tiny Babs and James Jr! Aw, look at JJ, being a happy normal kid and instead of the creepy “psychopath” he was retconned into being by Scott Snyder.

Aw, Gordon’s an adorable dad. He’s even playful and joking! Wow, I feel like I’ve never seen him be a sweet, loving dad to his kids, at least not when they actually were kids. It’s always conflict, angst, and/or neglect.

Ahhh okay there’s the “sorry family, my horrible job calls” moment. Well, it works better after showing him and his family actually being happy for once. The way it plays out in the comics, it’s a wonder that Barbara hasn’t just divorced him already, especially after his affair and JJ almost getting killed in Batman: Year One. 

Harvey returns home, still sporting that horrible face and looming like a sinister fridge. This is not a Harvey that instills tragedy so far.

HI, I’M BOB EVIL. 

Oh, he switched on the light and now his features have softened? Is this how they’re establishing his duality, that he spends his nights out and about like Mr. Hyde (even when he’s winning elections and looking his best for the press) and turns back into Jekyll at home or with friends? Interesting. Interesting. I hate it. 

Gilda lives outside, apparently, enjoying a nice dinner of cigarettes and wine, wrapped in her Depression Blankie.

She seems to be in a depressive haze, almost a dissociative state where she barely acknowledges Harvey at first even when he speaks to her. Then she realizes he’s there and her mood brightens because OH BOY OH BOY HARVEY’S HOME HARVEY’S HOME! Given how Gilda of the comics had absolutely no life, hobbies, nor interests outside of Harvey, this doesn’t bode well. But I’ve already been spoiled that this Gilda does have more of a backstory, which gets some big foreshadowing in the next moment.

Gilda, internally: “Oh shit.”

“Shit shit shit.”

“Shit fuck fuck fuck shit.”

“THINK, GILDA, THINK! PLAY IT COOL! FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FU”

“SMOOTH.”

“Oh thank fuck.”

So okay, in keeping with the DC Universe in general, therapy just doesn’t exist here. Only snuggles and black and white movies with your spouse when he finally gets home from work and--

Harvey sees the Bat Signal and his jerkass scowl returns, while Gilda’s brief happiness vanishes. Time for Harvey to ditch.

If I squint my eyes and pretend that no greater story exists, I love this screenshot. 

“Oh cigarettes and booze, you’d never leave me.”

Okay, let’s see how they play out the famous rooftop meeting of the trio, which is usually credited to Loeb but was in fact created by two separate stories in 1990 by Bill Messner-Loebs (in the comic strips) and “Eye of the Beholder” by Andrew Helfer. Yes, I am still salty that even Christopher Nolan and David Goyer give Loeb credit for that, why do you ask? 

The familiarity between Batman and Harvey is played a lot colder than it did in the comic, which built off Batman: Year One’s clandestine partnership between the two. Don’t tell me this Harvey is going to be a bitter asshole to Batman as well as Bruce Wayne in this version. Hopefully it’s just a bad line delivery and Harvey’s stinkface making this seem worse than it will be.

Ah, I see they’re bringing in some of Nolan’s The Dark Knight into this Harvey, having him rage at Gordon for the failures of the police. Also, having him furious at his stoolie’s murder is an interesting change, given how callous he was about Viti’s death in the comics. 

Viti was about to turn state’s evidence against the Roman, and his testimony would have been damning enough to “put the whole family away,” so Harvey assumes the murder was a mob hit. I’m not sure what the killer’s motivation is going to be in this movie, but if it was to give Harvey less work so he’d go home (as in the comics), they sure as fuck screwed that up! Now he’s going to have to be in the office 24/7, starting again from square one! This will either be a major plot hole or indicative of a greater tragedy to come, depending on how the screenwriter has changed things. 

Batman wants to see the jack-o-lantern left behind at the crime scene, and Jim Gordon goes, “You think it’s important?” It’s literally evidence left behind by the killer, Jim! Of course it’s important! How the fuck did you make Captain?! Was it because every other cop was already out of work because they were corrupt?! 

Here, it’s Gordon who proposes the three of them work together, with an emphasis on Harvey and Batman being two sides of the same coin in a way that’s every bit as on-the-nose as what I just said there. I do like anything that emphasizes how Batman gets to be Harvey’s dark side before he goes off and gets one of his own, with blackjack and hookers. 

UGH. I guess even this script can’t resist Loeb’s penchant for dredging out obvious cliche idioms that heavy-handedly reference Two-Face. On top of that, the way this plays is like Harvey and Batman are rivals who are being forced to play nice by Jim Gordon, like they’re dolls he’s shoving together and saying “NOW KISS.” 

This time, both Batman and Harvey ditch Gordon mid-speech. I like that. 

I see they got rid of Falcone’s penchant for wearing a rose lapel, an addition by Loeb/Sale which was an obvious Vito Corleone reference. Interesting how this keeps distancing itself from The Godfather. It’s like it wants to both celebrate the comic while also trying to make it more original and coherent. If so, it’s a tacit admission that the comic was derivative and poorly-plotted?

Falcone puts the blame for Johnny Viti’s death squarely on Dent, whose legal shit-stirring had made the Roman’s rivals--like Maroni--suddenly bolder. In another bit of foreshadowing, I note that Alberto perks up at Dent’s name. Also, the Roman next has his bodyguard throw a mouthy goon down a stairwell because he comes from the Wilson Fisk school of wasteful human resources.

Okay, I’m burned out here, and I’m barely a third of the way through the first part. So I’m 1/6th of the way through the whole thing. FML let’s continue this tomorrow.

EDIT: Part 2 is up!

[bluboothalassophile]

Hello Blu!!! Blu, I'd like to ask you, what if exist a flashpoint like in Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox (in your mind/your point of view), for ex: What if Jason had been saved by Bruce, what would have change in this flashpoint paradox? What other things/people would have changed? What do you think of this? Sorry just a random question that came to me ^^ and i'd like to know your opinion! ^^

Hello,

In a flashpoint where Jason lives instead of dying… Alright, well, I’ve thought a lot about this. I even have a story on the parameters of if Jason had lived rather than dying, but that’s a bit closer to the Arkham Knight AU for what happened to Jay.

Anyways, B would save Jason, he wasn’t late, but Jason’s still in critical. I HC that B managed to save Jason but couldn’t save Shelia so that bitch dies in the very explosion she was meant to die in (a moment of silence as we mourn the bitch… okay back to business).

Jason is rushed into a hospital, coma, rehab, years of work to come back; because he’s not magic. Dick is now growing the fuck up and pulling his head out of his ass and trying to be a big brother to Jason as Jason struggles through PT. Alfred forces the family to see a shrink (JL or other), traumas are addressed rather than manifesting unhealthily. Alfred finally just had enough of this shit and said they would see a shrink; all because Jason’s brush with death scared decades off him, and B, and they both see the value now in maybe growing up and addressing the traumas. Also, B doesn’t blame Jay, especially not after he finds out about Sheila. 

They address Jason’s trust issues, inferiority feelings, how he felt when they isolated him and were going to take Robin away from him. Dick gets to talk about his needs to grow up, spread his wings, be himself, and address his anger issues and maybe they’ll also talk about his relationship with and his feelings about Jason and how Jason IS NOT his replacement. B never develops his god complex, because God Knows That Man Is Merely A Man! It’s fucking annoying too, B feels that.

I think that Dick and Jay work on becoming brothers through Jay’s PT, movie nights, Titans actually properly meet Jay, books, books, more books, and Jay might even get to go to that school dance he wanted to go to. Even if he’s pushed into the dance in a wheelchair. Dick’s Titans, Garth, Roy, Donna, Lilith, and Wally completely support Jason’s role as Robin now. Yes, Jason still is crushing on Donna, but she’s out of his league and she finds it sweet.

In that time, I think Tim finds the Waynes, and I think Tim and Jay bond; tight and fast, Dick’s actually stepping up to be a big brother. Tim becomes Robin, Jason focuses on PT; resentments about that situation are addressed and Jason doesn’t have that festering wound of being replaced. 

Tim is now the baby brother, and Dick and Jay adore him. They like teasing Tim, and drawing Tim out of his shell, maybe even doing normal brother shit, like beating up Tim’s bullies, rough housing with him, and even possibly formally telling Jack Drake to fuck off, Tim’s their baby brother. I think with that in mind, B legally goes about adopting Tim, and Tim is shocked at this news. They have a huge family dinner to make the announcement, and Tim cries like a baby in joy (No one will ever say anything about that, because Tim’s family).

Stephanie comes barrelling into the family (Jay’s starting to go back into the field; possibly under a different name, Red Bird, or Bluejay or something). Dick and Jason torture Tim about his crush on Stephanie, and they adore Stephanie. B tolerates her still, and maybe tries hard. Stephanie never becomes Robin, staying Spoiler, and she practically lives at the mansion. She trains with the boys, plays with them, and is never adopted because of Tim’s feelings for her, also B might like her but she’s so not his kid. Babs takes a real liking to Stephanie, and takes Steph under her wing, even presenting Batgirl to Stephanie when she’s older.

Yes, we still find Cass, or better Cass finds them, and she’s adopted by them. Babs is still Oracle. The Batfamily; whilst dysfunctional in different ways, is functioning, and they are recovering. B adores her; obviously and she’s his favorite child; the boys all know this and they adore her. The boys are also painfully aware that Cass can do no wrong in B’s eyes, and could probably get away with murder, they can never get away with anything.

Jason never clashes with Joker; and Joker is a quadriplegic, blind and mute after B is done with him. [I Know There are ways to incapacitate Joker without killing the fucker, so B can stay on his ‘No Kill’ rule and Joker is fucking gone from the depths of nightmares and on a painful trip to Hell]. Joker dwindles into nothing more than a nightmarish memory on Gotham’s psyche. 

Jay and Roy become BFFs during his PT and Roy’s recovery, and get into a shit ton of antics still. Jason never makes that first kill, but is still reckless, he even acquires the All-Blades; though no one knows how he accomplished that. Alfred is the one who teaches Jay to shoot, it’s a coping mechanism to make Jay feel some form of control and safety. No, he does not use guns on his patrols, opting to stick to B’s methods and the swords.

Jason becomes a Titan, on a team with Raven, Eddie Bloomberg, Conner Hawk, Kyle Rayner and Koriand’r on his team. Jason torments Dick about this when Kori crashes here and Dick’s tripping over his tongue and feet around her. Tim just finds it hilarious too.

Dick and Babs never work out, but they stay friends, and Dick eventually marries Kori. Babs and Kori are great friends, and have a girls weekend once a month (Babs is Mar’i and Jake’s aunt, Raven’s still their godmother and Wally their godfather).

B and Talia never get back together, instead their fall out is of epic proportions when B finds out about Damian. The Bats take Dami in without questions.

Damian still clashes violently with Tim, Jason beats Damian up though and Dick comforts Damian. Damian still bonds closest to Dick, while Tim and Jay both leave the demon spawn to Dick. Tim will never admit this but he totally slept in Jason’s room for the first year after Damian moved in; after that first night and he was violently woken up by Damian’s attempt to murder him. Jason is Tim’s favorite brother at that point.

They adopt Duke a year after Damian, Dick and Jason actually insist on this; with Cass’ help, and Duke is dragged into the lunacy of the Bats.

Cass and Stephanie are BFFs, and they work closely with Oracle, they are Orphan and Batgirl, and together all of Gotham’s criminals fear purple glitter bombs, and ass-kickings. The girls are the ones who stumble over Harper Row and her brother, Cullen, and they quickly accumulate Harper and Cullen into their little group. B has no idea what to think about this, but everyone knows he’ll never say no to Cass.

Tim becomes a Titan, on a team with Kon, Bart, Cassandra Sandsmark, Zachary Zatara, Tanya Spears.

Kate joins their ranks, but is not permitted her firearms, in fact, she is the biggest clashing force in the Bats with B. But B, and the family are firm on their No Killing policy and their No Fire Arms. In fact, this is almost a fall out for Kate and B until the Bats have to save Kate, and they kind of make it clear that if she’s in she’s all in exactly how they want. If not, she’s no Bat.

Luke joins into the Bats too, though that’s completely accidental as he’s only interested in saving his father at the time. But he kind of falls hard for Babs, and sticks around. He’s also the buffer for Tim when it comes to keeping his secret as Red Robin from Tammy, though Luke vastly disapproves of tihs. But neither of them want Tammy in the Batfamily world; it’s dangerous. Luke and Tim also save Tammy from Bane’s venom, with the aid of Stephanie when that rolls around.

B marries Cat. No heartache or heart break there, they are married, almost a year after what happened to Jason because they realize: Life Is Too Fucking Short.

Jason gets into Princeton, he’s always at the top of his class and involved with athletics and vigilant life. He’s not a lady’s man like Dick was before Kori, but he’s good with the ladies, and has a lot of girls who are his friends. He’s not Mr. Popular but the world has finally stopped comparing him to Dick. Jason’s time in Princeton is huge! The family is extremely proud of Jay and they are vocal in their pride, even being the dorky family cheering at his graduation. Jason did punch Dick for that, and caught Tim in a headlock as Stephanie glitter bombed them both for having a banner there. Cass has the photographic evidence of this. Damian just clicked his tongue in disapproval before Dick glitter  bombed him too. Duke was Cass’s perch for the glitter bombing so, he was safe from all glitter bombs. Over all though, it’s good times.

Jason later goes to Harvard to study medicine, which he’s really excelling at. He wants to be an ER doc, to help people shortly after their trauma, knowing the importance of quick actions after extensive damage.

Tim and Tammy get engaged. Tammy is furious when she finds out she engaged a Bat, but she’s mostly upset he didn’t trust her enough to say something.

Cass does become a ballerina, and still takes acting classes from Clayface.

Babs and Luke eloped; a weekend in Atlantic City neither of them really remember.

Tim and Tammy break up though when Tim moves to San Francisco to be with the Titans more.

Duke goes to Princeton after Jay, and meets Claire, they start dating.

Damian becomes a Titan, he’s on a team with Kaldur’ahm, Garfield, Wallace West, Jon Kent (for whom he is falling for almost painfully), Djinn and Emiko Queen.

Helena was born at some point, she’s adored and the center of the family’s eyes, even Damian fell for her. He’s also a sucker for Mar’i and Jake (though he’d soon eat glass than say that). 

Jason finds Terry and Matt, by accident after they lost their parents in a wreck and were at the hospital Jay. The DNA testing showed Terry and Matt were B’s kids, so he kind of brings them home. B goes off on Waller for this violation, and the using of his DNA to create the boys. 

Babs and Luke adopt Carrie Kelley and Nell Little, bringing them into the Bats when they can’t keep Carrie out of it.

Life continues on though, and they keep going. They are a family. They aren’t perfect, the Bats are far from perfect, they still have epic blow outs, and fights, also huge feuds but they are a family. They banned together after Jay’s near brush with death and didn’t travel down that morbid rabbit hole of self destruction and god complexes of inadequacy.

[kat-walrus]

My Ideal Batman Universe

(not mentioning metahumans or titans or members of other hero family for the most part)

(Written as these come to me so this post is a goddamn mess)

- Bruce is currently 40+ - Robins: Dick, Jason, Tim, Stephanie, Damian - Batgirls: Barbara, Cassandra, Stephanie, Tiffany and/or Nell (in the future) - Duke Thomas & Harper Row exist and are Lark and Bluebird respectively - dick was adopted young, at like 8 or 9 - Both Colin Wilkes & Maya Ducard exist and are Damian’s friends - Dick trained Rose Wilson - The incident with Blockbuster happened to Dick - Catalina Flores is a BiTCH and disGUSTING but she can exist because that event could have been important - Court of Owls exists (but the Parliament of Owls is stupid and does not) - Mary Turner & Calvin Rose team up with the Batfam after the Court falls - Jason died, of course, and came back to life - Jason got some training from Assassins and whatnot - let Jason have his outlaws, but why not have both sets at the same time? Roy & kori & artemis & bizarro - speaking of roy, Lian Harper exists and is jasons honorary niece - dick is Lian’s godfather - lian & roy are adopted into the Batfam because oliver queen is a piece of shit who threw out his surrogate son when he needed him the most and no amount of retconning will make me forget & forgive u, queen - selina Kyle is totally not the batfams tired mom,,, definitely not,,,, - speaking of selina being a mom, Helena Wayne exists - selina & Harley & ivy are the Sirens - the Sirens may or may not be the chill lesbian aunts, (Harley & ivy are totally gay for each other) - Barbara manages the birds of prey with Helena Bertinelli & Dinah Lance, both of whom are also cool aunts - tims new earth canon fuck the n52 - stephanie became spoiler because of cluemaster - dick was Batman at some point with Damian as his Robin, but did return to being nightwing - Tim is seen as ra’s al ghul as being Batman’s most qualified successor - Damian was disowned by his mother because Talia is Horrible - Jason has that lil white tuft in the front of his hair - jasons eyes didn’t used to be green but they are now (they may or may not glow when jasons mad) - dick founded the teen titans & tim has his new teen titans - okay no offense, Damian, but Lian’s the next leader of the teen titans - babs is in a wheelchair and will never regain the use of her legs - Cassandra has a speech impediment because her father is an asshole who brought her up isolated - Cass prefers sign to spoken language - Cass is a ballerina - Cullen Row is gay and Harper Row is a lesbian - dukes the Voice of Reason and is honestly the only one who realizes a lot of what the Batfam and birds of prey and Sirens do is Not Normal and Strange - duke is a breath of fresh air to Alfred, who is long-suffering

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Mike Babcock, Toronto Maple Leafs MVP and coach of the year

With a three-goal and three-point cushion in the rookie scoring race, Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs likely has the Calder Trophy wrapped up – hell, he’s within 0.05 of slaying the Patrik Laine points-per-game argument. The hype train has now pulled into the “Hart Trophy vote” station; he’s not going to win, but he’s going to get votes, for certain.

But at this point I’m less concerned with Matthews getting his due and more concerned with Mike Babcock finally getting his. Because when they give out the Jack Adams Award this season, and if the Maple Leafs are a playoff team – and there’s a 97.6-percent chance of this, despite the loss to the Washington Capitals on Tuesday night – it needs to be in Babcock’s hands.

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We all know the Jack Adams is won or lost on the strength of a coach’s narrative, because the broadcasters vote on the award and they care more about three-minute vignettes with broad strokes of story than they do the minutia of the stats.

Babcock, for perhaps the first time, has a story to tell: The Leafs were not expected to make the playoffs, they’re likely going to make the playoffs, they don’t have a goalie carrying the team and he’s had to herd cats with the number of young players that have thrived from start-to-finish on this journey.

So you have the coach overcoming the odds and a surprise team. But he also has an air-tight case for the Jack Adams and, in turn, as the catalyst for the Leafs’ success. This is true both in intangibles and in real numbers.

You can find the intangibles in nearly every story written about Babcock this season, and his handling of the young roster.

From the Detroit News:

Matt Hunwick, a 31-year-old veteran defenseman from Warren, is, like many veterans over the years, impressed with the attention to detail and preparation Babcock and his assistants brings to the task. “With the amount of preparation they put in and the amount of film they watch, there’s really no stone unturned,” said Hunwick, who also played at Michigan. “And, with his philosophy, he’s got a game plan every night and we’re expected to execute it to the fullest, and I think that’s part of the reason we’ve been so successful this year.”

From the Toronto Star:

“The passion he brings for games . . . it’s amazing,” said centre Brian Boyle, who joined the team Leafs last Wednesday after a deadline deal with Tampa Bay. “The knowledge he has of other people throughout the league, you have to love the game to know what he knows.”

From Sportsnet:

Babcock may not be everyone’s cup of tea–Chris Chelios recently told a Detroit radio station that veteran free agents didn’t want to play for him here – but his level of preparation and willingness to tell it like it is undoubtedly make his teams better. And the Leafs are currently better than anybody imagined.

“Babs is a very intense guy and he demands that everyone kind of plays his way,” winger Matt Martin said. “It doesn’t matter who you are. You’re going to play the way he wants you to play or you’re going to get some sort of punishment for it. …[Chelios] was here for a long time and I’ve only been with him for three-quarters of a year now, but he is hard and he demands that guys play the right way and I don’t think that’s a bad thing.

So he’s got that master motivator, attention to detail thing down. He always has, mind you, but it just becomes all the more obvious when the team isn’t in the midst of a playoff streak like the Detroit Red Wings were. It feels like he’s building something, rather than being a caretaker for it, and that perception makes a different when it comes to award time.

But it’s not just testimony that validates Babcock’s season.

Through 79 games, the Maple Leafs have a team shooting percentage of 8.32. That’s seventh best in the NHL this season, behind the Washington Capitals (9.36) and the Minnesota Wild (9.24).

If this holds, Babcock’s Leafs will have one of the highest shooting percentages in his tenure in the NHL. Corsica tracks team shooting percentage at 5-on-5 back to the 2007-08 season. From then until now, Babcock’s had one team shoot this well: The 2011-12 Red Wings, who had Jiri Hudler at 19.7-percent and Valtteri Filppula at 16-percent. (Wow!)

The Leafs’ shooting percentage last season was 6.36, so this is a bit of an improvement. Ditto their scoring chances (52.14 percent, up from 49.10 percent from last year). Ditto their expected goals-for per 60 minutes, a great scoring metric from Emmanuel Perry; as defined in laymen’s terms by NHL Numbers: “They calculate the likelihood that each shot taken will lead to a goal and use that to calculate the expected goals for a team. So, if a team generates 20 shots that each have a 5 percent chance of being a goal, they would accumulate one expected goal.”

The Leafs’ expected goals last season at 5-on-5 was 2.38 per 60 minutes, and that’s jumped to 2.82 this season.

So what’s changed? Well, let’s start with the obvious: Auston Matthews, William Nylander and Mitch Marner arrived and are the first, third and fourth-leading scorers on the team. Nazem Kadri improved by 14 goals, thanks in no small part to Babcock casting him well.

The offensive spark extends to special teams, where the Leafs are clicking at 24.4 percent compared to 15.4 percent last season, even if they’re going to end up with about 20 fewer power-play chances. (Hey, kids don’t always get the calls.) They crash the crease and do it well, which has always been a Babcock hallmark.

Which brings us to the essential question: How much of this is Babcock?

I like Dimitri Filipovic’s take on Babcock: He gave the Leafs the structure and the template, and then the talent started really arriving to make it work in Year 2. You can’t give him credit for how damn good the Leafs’ Trinity of rookie scorers has been, but you can give him credit for the structure on and off the ice that’s helped them flourish. When’s the last time a team had three rookies at its core and none of them really hit the wall? It’s extraordinary.

But the fact remains, it’s a young team, and Babcock’s led them to what we all assume is going to be a playoff spot. It’s still a team trying to figure a few things out. They give up too many shots per game (32.8). Their team GAA is 2.84, 21st in the NHL, and another reason why Babcock’s Jack Adams candidacy differs than that of John Tortorella, Bruce Boudreau and Barry Trotz, who are all likely to have coached Vezina finalists.

They’re also 31-1-9 when leading after two periods: a .756 winning percentage that’s 25th in the NHL, by far the lowest for any playoff team. So they’re still learning this whole winning thing. And yet Babcock has them in the playoffs.

Look, I have no idea why Babcock hasn’t won a Jack Adams. At this point he’s Al Pacino, wondering how the Academy missed him in “The Godfather Part II” and “Dog Day Afternoon” and “Serpico” and hoping that the 2017 Leafs are his “Scent of a Woman.”

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One reason he hasn’t won has been the assumption that the Detroit Red Wings were a machine and he was just walking around it with a clipboard in case one of the gears started sparking and smoking. Part of it is the Jack Adams Award’s slavish dedication to the obvious: ‘Hey this was a bad team and now it’s a good team and the only difference is PATRICK ROY!’

Part of it is, no doubt, Babcock’s utter lack of humility, which is actually one of this greatest attributes: Not only because he’s earned that swagger having accomplished what he has in the NHL and internationally, but because without he wouldn’t have been the first free agent who willfully accepted the challenge (and, well, the eight years of millions of dollars) to come to Toronto.

Much like it’s become increasingly impossible to deny Matthews the Calder and deny that the Leafs Are Actually Good, it’s hard to deny that Mike Babcock has done the best coaching job in the NHL this season, and should be rewarded as such.

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Greg Wyshynski is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter. His book, TAKE YOUR EYE OFF THE PUCK, is available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.

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