#ac reads dc comics

[ac-liveblogs]

you know i think the only recent development with jason i've actually liked is the hint that, kidding or not, the joker considers jason his son in some way, like he's just as responsible for the 'birth' of the red hood as batman is.

and like. it's true! he is! joker taking pride in creating a weapon (loose cannon it may be) that psychologically shatters batman makes sense! and it's absolutely horrifying in a way that i wish was used to fuck with jason, and scare bruce, more!

jason is a meticulous and logical planner with a large skillset, like batman. jason is also a manipulative sadist, like the joker. having him weave in and out as ally, rival and enemy, embodying both of them at different points in the narrative, is a goldmine that DC unfortunately passed up by making him an angsty anti-hero in the New52.

(i didn't care for the way grant morrison wrote jason, but he did seem aware of this possibility. morrison's jason horrendously unfashionable ensemble merged design elements of the joker and batman far more obviously (the commitment to the original pill helmet + a more traditional 'superhero' suit with batman's boots, logo and cape but an inverted mostly white colour scheme).

additionally, sasha as scarlet brings both robin and harley quinn to mind - a younger student and sidekick, as well as a severely mentally ill young girl who has been manipulated by a predatory man and then styled herself after her partner (right down to her name; scarlet riffs on the red hood the same way harley quinn is themed after the joker, where robin was purely of dick's creation and drew on his own heritage).

jason and sasha were an intentional foil to dick and damian - 'alternate heroes' making use of social media and soaking in as much attention as possible in contrast to batman and robin sticking to the shadows. where nightwing named himself after kryptonian myth, a symbol of hope (connecting him not just to batman, but to superman), jason names himself for the man that dragged him into the muck. it's great! these two as enemies is fantastic! (and also probably set a precedent that makes deciding tim's new superhero identity extremely difficult)

this may also be what inspired lobdell to give red hood the red bat on his chest in the new52, but given the way jason got that suit i don't think that was the intention necessarily - though the idea of jason as the joker's intentional successor in some way was definitely on his mind given the events of jason's zero year chapter, so i guess we can thank him for that.)

i think it's one of the reasons i like jason's white streak so much. it's an interesting and unique design element that sets him aside from the other bats, but personally it reminds me of joker falling into the vat of acid at ACE chemicals. just as the joker was reborn as a new person, physically changed forever, so too was jason todd in the waters of the lazarus pit.

(my favourite design element in gotham knights is the addition of a glasgow smile to jason todd, the implication being that the joker carved it there. rather than the 'J' on his face from arkham knight that marks him as property, the smile makes it seem like the joker was in some way trying to make jason 'like him'.)

obviously, its nicer if jason manages to avoid becoming a raving lunatic like the joker and doesn't conform to batman's ideology - straddling the line is probably the ideal for his character design, but an eventual awareness of the fact he's doing that would be so goddamn interesting.

all this to say: i miss batman reborn :( i wish it had more time to cook :( please make jason an antagonist again he's more fun that way :(

[betterthanbatman1]

Littol guy!!

[bearforceone3]

avery and ace designs for… reasons

[laufire]

ch. 8 of "investigating lois lane" talks about the period of months following superman's death and it's making me want to entertain a story where superman stayed dead, just the same way I often think about that re: batman in the late 00s era.

[detectiveforfree]

him is bapy your honor

[kbkirtley]

Let me introduce you to the White Knight’s billionaire supervillain, Matthew Fox, through similar characters/character inspirations!

If you’re a fan of villains like X-Men’s Magneto, Young Justice’s Ra’s al Ghul, Black Panther’s Erik Killmonger, or Renegade’s Ace Anarchy, you might find a new favorite villain in The White Knight!

The White Knight is available for pre-order right now! Learn more at KirtleyBooks.com!

[fezwearingjellybananas]

Reasons Marvel should make Kate Bishop/Hawkeye arospec:

Marvel and DC picked purple (ace colour) and green (aro colour) for their archers

Connor Hawke/Green Arrow is canonically ace. We could have a Green Ace Archer and a Purple Aro Archer

Pun opportunities

[givemewallywestorgivemedeath]

Do you know where Ace was first introduced? I want to learn more about him, but I'm not sure where to start in the rebirth flash run.

Oh buddy hold onto your butt because I'm going to give you the full Ace West reading list:

1) The Flash Vol 4 #31-36, #43-52 (plus 2014 annual)

2) DCU: Rebirth #1

3) Teen Titans: Rebirth

4) The Flash Vol 5 #1-87 (plus 2018 and 2019 annuals)

5) Teen Titans Vol 6 #1-7

6) Titans: The Lazarus Contract (Titans #11, Teen Titans #8, Deathstroke #19-20 and Teen Titans Annual #1)

7) Teen Titans #9-47

8) Teen Titans Special #1 (2018)

9) Titans Vol 3 #16-18

10) DC Love is a battlefield

11) The Flash Vol 1 #750-762

12) Teen Titans Endless Winter Special

13) Generation Zero: Gods Among Us

14) Death Metal: Speed Metal

15) The Flash Vol 1 #781-782

16) JL: Road to Dark Crisis

17) The Flash 783-788 (< that comes out this week) (plus the 2022 annual)

(there's also Teen Titans Academy but I would skip that honestly. Like at most just issue #13 and it'd be before number 15 on my list)

[gibbearish]

anyone else experience the thing where you have like. ships in law. like someone you follow is turbo into a pairing from a media you know nothing about so youre like. well guess this is our ship now

[jerseyluck]

Batman (2016) Vol.3 Annual #1 Readthrough

Tis be the season, and in the spirit of that we are going to look into some holiday comics. And we are going to start with Batman Annual #1, a Christmas anthology.

The book opens with the most famous tale of the book: Tom King and David Finch’s Eisner winning Good Boy.

The story opens with an example of the damage that the Joker does on a daily basis. In this case, Joker left a bunch of dogs behind to go feral, and only one has survived: a hound in an Ace mask.

We then cut to best butler, Alfred Pennyworth, going to the dog pound to adopt the surviving dog. The book then cuts to an amusing scene where Bruce is ambushed by the aggressive dog and is mildly annoyed. Bruce doesn’t seem to think that the dog can recover from the trauma that Joker put him under.

But Alfred isn’t one to give up! Before the Christmas season, the butler spends time trying to train the dog. And slowly but surely the dog starts to behave and is willing to trust.

In a heartwarming moment, Ace comes towards Batman after a rough night out. By Christmas, it has gotten to the point where Bruce is giving the dog a bat mask. And in a hilarious moment, Bruce asks Alfred what his Christmas present is not realizing Ace is the present.

This is easily one of the best stories Tom King ever wrote and is the best story in the annual. David Finch does some decent art that makes the story work. However, there is some better art in this annual.

And one of the stories with better art is Silent Night by Scott Snyder and Ray Fawkes with art by Delcan Shalvey.

The story opens with an exploration of how Batman is able to respond to crimes so fast. Bats has tapped into Gotham’s 911 call centers, with a computer listening to key words. If there are enough context clues, Batman gets an alert to go to the call.

We cut to Gotham’s Time Square analogue where a group of people dressed in trench coats arrive. This being Gotham, citizens call it in, and Batman shows up thinking that this might be a terrorist attack.

But as a pleasant surprise, the group happens to be street performers to some fancy acrobatics. In a true Christmas miracle, Bruce actually gets a moment of peace because there isn’t any trouble in Gotham that requires Batman.

Next is The (Not So) Silent Night of Harley Quinn by Batman legends Paul Dini and Neal Adams. And it is just a riff on the classic tale where Batman carols with the police and no crime happens because of his influence on Gotham.

In this version, Batman captures Harley after she tries to sneak in Gordan’s holiday party. Bats drives Harley out of Gotham while Harley does some singing in the Batmobile. As this is happening, we get to see hijinks where things almost happen but through acts of little madness, everything turns out all right. My personal least favorite story from the bunch.

Next is Stag by Steve Orlando and Riley Rossmo. And this story is actually a lead into the pair’s then upcoming Batman/Spirit mini. Before we go any farther this has my artwork in the annual.

The story opens with Bruce, Commissioner Gordon, and new character Barry O’Neil opening a winter wonderland for Gotham. But then we get a Steve Orlando classic of using an obscure character, Mister Blizzard shows up to cause trouble because … he wants a new ice age?

Anyway, we get a good moment of Bruce leaving to get into his Batman gear. And very quickly, Batman takes Mister Blizzard. We then get a discussion from O’Neil, regretting that his attempt to bring joy to Gotham’s children went that badly.

The story ends with Bruce lamenting to Duke Thomas that O’Neil has been a charitable icon to Gotham since he was child. As Bruce wonders what Gotham would be without O’Neil, the old man is assassinated by a mysterious figure.

The annual ends with The Insecurity Diversion by Scott Bryan Williams and art by Bilquis Evely.

This story opens with Gotham under attack chemical anxiety-causing gas (ala Scarecrow’s fear toxin). We also got a new villainess, Haunter, at Arkham’s holiday party. And because this is a short story, both factors lead to Haunter escaping the asylum.

The book explains that Haunter has the power to kill people from their DNA, and she is pals with the Scarecrow. The fear-loving crook did Haunter a solid and let her escape.

However, Batman comes to stop the pair of villains. He exposes the villains to a nerve-toxin to capture the pair. And that is the end of this forgettable story.

Overall, this annual is a fun read. While there are some stories that are better than others, there isn’t a bad one in the bunch. Art throughout the book was spectacular.

7.5/10

[evasive-anon]

Damian from Dceased would be a cool pre-existing option for this prompt. I know DC vs Vampires is more popular on tumblr and probably in general but please let me lore dump on this.

In his last appearance DCeased: War of the Undead Gods #8 Damian's just turned 18, he's lost almost all members of the batfam (Alfred and Cass I think are still kicking, Steph is an unknown because Damian begged Talia to take her to a pit when she was dying and he never finds out what happened to her) and he likes aborbs the life equation from Cyborg and sacrifices himself to save the galaxy from the anti-life equation zombies. Any death moment is a great excuse to isekai someone is what anime taught me so it seems like it'd work.

Notable facts from the Dceased timeline that could be tasty angst food for showing up in the past:

At the start of Dceased, Damian and Alfred lose everyone super quickly. Basically the anti-life virus infected people through the internet so Babs, Dick, and Tim all are turned about immediately. Dick and Tim are at the manor and start attacking Alfred, Bruce intervenes and saves Alfred but gets infected in the process. Alfred ends up having to kill all 3 of them with his shotgun which gives Alfred super PTSD (panel below is one of Alfred's nightmares afterwards).

Before he dies, Bruce gives Alfred a package and letter for Damian. The package? A batman costume in Damian's size and the letter basically says the mantle is his job now. (lowkey wtf bruce why do your last words to your kid gotta be batman related omg.) Since Damian was with the supers when this started his story and the justice league's are pretty intertwined but on a high level, he becomes Batman gets reunited with Steph who becomes his Robin (this dynamic SLAPS).

Damian also made his way back to the batcave at one point and found that Jason must have beaten him there because Bruce, Dick, and Tim are now buried and this is where this iconic panel comes in:

I think this moment is key, because if you want a Damian who particularly moved by Jason finding him Dceased Damian has good reason. In this moment he realizes he may at least still have one brother alive in this world, but tragically, the world is doing VERY bad. The JL determines fleeing the planet is their best option. They setup some space ships in key cities around the world for a survivor exodus, and to Damian's Jason does not show up to any.

Unbeknownst to him, Jason and Cass are actually together and alive but defending a orphanage alongside Rose Wilson, Mary Marvel, and Commissioner Gordon. They didn't have any transportation that could get them and the kids all to a ship by launch time so they had to hunker down unless they intended to abandon some of the orphans.

5 years later, the JL ends up coming back to Earth and Jason and Damian do end up reuniting, Jason tells him Bruce was right to make him Batman and Damian freaks out cause Jason actually got married. He also finds out Cass is alive. Its like a happy moment before things go downhill again.

And they go downhill very quickly, Constantine enlists the help of Jason, Damian, Rose, Cass, and Swamp Thing to go on an adventure to get the spear of destiny and go the Rock of Eternity and while at the second location an infected Capt Marvel Jr (Freddy) kills Jason before Cass takes the staff from Shazam and uses her newfound lightning powers to kill Freddy.

Rose is super upset to have her husband killed in front of her (TWICE THANKS TO HER BEING ABLE TO SEE THE FUTURE) and Damian is pissed that the family he JUST got back is now dead.

Damian gets extra pissed when Constantine doesn't even apologize for getting his brother killed after promising him no one would die. Why not apologize? John reveals he literally bamboozled Damian into giving support for his plan with the loophole of only promising to not kill anyone who wasn't ALREADY dead. lmfao. Damian did at least deck him for it but like the absolute audacity, but GOD Constantine was so funny and out of line on that.

Honestly that sums up all the batfam deaths prior to Damian's own. But his final panels go INSANELY HARD. He's literally like you took my family and I'm gonna take you out. Peak Batman vibes. Usually I hate Damian being the one with the mantle but I think it really worked in this run.

Prompt:

Damian, who has just lost the last member of his family, goes off the deep end and, in a fit of violent rage, goes tumbling through a portal and back in time.

Jason doesn’t know how the scary guy with the gunshot wound became his problem but he’s not heartless enough to leave him to bleed out beside some dumpster in Crime Alley.

[ac-liveblogs]

The other thing I never got is why they didn't introduce Bernard doing some Buzzfeed Unsolved Supernatural shenanigans. Make that be how he met Robin again, in some haunted ass building spewing conspiracy theories. livestreaming "investigations" into weird cult shit around gotham or pestering rogues

If we hit 20k likes I'll go ask the riddler if he's the troubled 5th dimensional manifestation of batmans desire to solve every mystery, I don't know how twitch works

Tim ends up following him and joining the crew to ensure he doesn't get himself killed by the court of owls idk

[alannawrites]

Hello! My name's Alanna and I'm the lead editor of LOVE UNLIMITED, Marvel Unlimited's romance comic line. This week we finished a story about Gwendolyn Poole, AKA Gwenpool, coming to the realization that she's aromantic and asexual--and though I usually prefer to let the stories speak for themselves, I wanted to talk a bit about this one.

There was basically no awareness of the asexual spectrum when I was growing up--I went through both high school and college secretly feeling like I was some kind of alien in a world that made no sense to me. Finding out that other people experienced the same thing, and that I wasn't weird or broken, was a big moment in my life.

I know how much it would have meant to me to see a character grappling with the same questions I was. I searched desperately for myself in stories as a kid even though I couldn't quite define what I was looking for yet. I'm so glad that there are more ace stories now, and honored that we were able to bring one more into the world.

I was inspired and emboldened to pitch this story by the work my friends Andrea Shea, Ro Stein and Ted Brandt did on Connor Hawke's story at DC, by Latoya Raveneau's ace advocacy within Disney, and by my erstwhile assistant editor and co-conspiritor Kaitlyn Lindtvedt, who, I discovered after a few months of working together, was also ace! We were helped and supported at every step by other aces at Marvel as well--there are more of us than you might think! It's also amazing that our EIC and Marvel greenlit this story and gave us the freedom to tell it the way we wanted.

I'm so grateful to @jeremywhitley, @bailiesartblog and Kelly Fitzpatrick for bringing this story to life. Working with an all-ace team has been so special--there's just something magic about knowing that even though our individual experiences differed, we had something fundamental and formative in common. There are pieces of all of us in this story, if you know where to look.

Anyway! Like many aces, this is something I get shy talking about, haha--so that's all I've got for you! (Unless you want to read more here!) Thank you all for reading and loving the story, and congrats to aroace icon Gwenpool!

[laufire]

march reading meme!

BOOKS

A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle. Letters from Watson sent this from January to March, alongside a couple of other shorts ("The Field Bazaar" and "The Man with the Watches"). An interesting thing about it is that Sherlock was portrayed as somewhat bitter on the issue of credit (he does all the work, subpar investigators take underserved glory), while he's usually, in both ACD's later works and adaptations, portrayed as ~above such feelings. "The Field Bazaar" was interesting in that, in describing why Watson is a good "foil" for Sherlock's smarts in the books, actually illuminates why I think the smart investigator/fumbling idiot dynamic just. Fucking sucks for me lol. I don't get a kick out of it, I much prefer when they pair two investigator of different talents and portray those as both interesting and helpful in their investigations.

Investigating Lois Lane: The Turbulent History of the Daily Planet's Ace Reporter by Tim Hanley. Amazing read. It takes you through the history of the character, often looking at it through the lense of real-life issues and movements, getting into the different eras, adaptations, etc. It's giving me a lot to think about, both within the dc fandom and outside it.

Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri. This one I also read in substack newsletters, going for about a year, the last one being sent in March. It was a reread, and I maintain it's a book everyone should at least try to read. Inferno is by far my favourite part (the theology lessons in Paradise grate on me, in comparison).

Batman: The Ultimate Evil by Andrew Vachss. This book was written by a crime fiction author and attorney that specialices in representing children and in child abuse cases, who was approached by DC to write a book featuring Batman facing child sex trafficking. In the book, Bruce ends up discovering that his mother, Martha Wayne, was a sociologist who was investigating a child molester ring, and that's what caused their deaths. That's what caught my eye first, because really, how many canons give any weight and importance to Martha? If they opt to make the Wayne murders a conspiracy, it's always about Thomas's actions. I also appreciated that, even though the author clearly had to follow some dc-mandated lines (fictional country, individual villain), he practically hits you with a hammer when it comes to dispel a lot of the myths we have about child molesters and how they operate, specifically to challenge those dc-mandated lines. I wish we'd seen more of the social worker character, but I liked her as it was.

Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata. I picked this novella exclusively for vibes and not plot, and it's what it gave me. It's also made me think a lot about how men see women, and how through their eyes our selves are twisted. Komako and Yoko are fascinating characters in part for how inescrutable the male lead finds them and how he might be misunderstanding them. There's so, so much hinted under the surface, about their persons and about their relationship.

The Lady Astronaut of Mars by Mary Robinette Kowal. Short novelette I picked on a whim. A 60+ yo astronaut is offered a chance to travel to space again, her dream come true. She has to choose between taking it, or staying with her ailing husband, who has little time left. The story apparently later expanded on some novels/prequels, I might pick them up.

COMICS

Secret Origins 80-Page Giant. I picked this one up for Steph's story (I'm going through her comic arcs), but ended up reading all the others. It's cemented my desire to pick up the Young Justice comics. These teens are sooooo chaotic and fun lmao, all of them (back then) with such weird and interesting backstories.

Lois Lane (1986). A two-part issue that shows Lois getting in deep in an investigation about child abductions. It's gets gruesome and heavy at times, but it's a great read, specially for her character. It shows Lois at a moment that the mainline comics seem to have ignored (she missed out on a great professional opportunity due to Superman), and it shows how obsessive she gets and how that is what makes her a great investigator and reporter. I also liked the glimpse at the dynamic between her and her sister Lucy there, how dismissive Lois was of Lucy's stewardess' job, for example.

DC First: Batgirl/Joker. I don't like it as much as the early-Batgirl (2000) run but it's kind of on that vein. Barbara tells Cass about her first encounter with the Joker, and Cass is determined to prove herself against him. I loved the art as well (very different than in the cover).

[captainsupernoodle]

Okay. This is very cute and I'm looking forward to reading it more with every panel I see. But also.

What

THE FUCK

is this????

Batman: One Bad Day: Mr. Freeze #1 - “The Darkest Winter” (2022)

written by Gerry Duggan art by Matteo Scalera & Dave Stewart

[about-faces]

Last night, I was once again struggling to actually write smut for a Harvey/Bruce/Gilda fic, when I noticed a very timely new guest comment on my Gilda fic, Bust. It was the first truly critical response I’ve gotten so far, and while that sort of thing would normally send me into a depressive tizzy, I actually found it really interesting!

So instead of actually writing the ship, as I should have been, I wanted to take this opportunity to think about just why the heck I shipped them in the first place.

Here’s how I responded, with added scans to hopefully better illustrate my point, plus some additions that occurred to me upon drafting this post:

I’m actually glad you raised this point, because I would have felt the exact same as you just a few years ago!

I’m gray-asexual, and I used to be a bit bothered by the rise of Bruce/Harvey shippers, because it was their canonical platonic FRIENDSHIP that mattered so much to me. I gradually warmed up to the shippers, because 1.) I realized I was ace and they probably weren’t, and 2.) they at least understood the importance of Bruce and Harvey’s bond, which is more than I can say for LOTS of official DC media.

Still, something bugged me about the ship, and I realized what it was: the lack of Gilda from the equation. She’s always been deeply important to me, especially her scant older appearances, and erasing her for a Bruce/Harvey ship (even one I’d come to appreciate) didn’t sit right with me.

But like you said, it’s not canon, and I’ve always been deeply invested in canon, even the stuff that’s frustrating and contradictory. So yeah, the throuple would have bugged me too.

Except! It all depends on WHICH canon you’re talking about!

So over the past 15 years, I’ve been obsessed with tracking down the entirety of the obscure, forgotten Batman newspaper comic strip from 1989-1991. I’ve posted the entire thing at @batman-daily, and I strongly encourage you to check it out. A couple years ago, I reread it and noticed something really interesting: the remarkable relationship between Bruce, Harvey, and the latter’s wife, Alice, who is Gilda in every way but name. They are all mutual friends, with Alice even going to visit Bruce alone to help/bully him to take care of himself.

It all reads like a perfect long-game setup for a love triangle, or for Harvey—having become Two-Face—to go after his loved ones in a jealous rage, like he did in Paul Dini’s “Two-Timer,” a story which notably showed that Grace had feelings for Bruce.

With that in mind, consider the final story arc of the newspaper strip, wherein Bruce acknowledges his OWN feelings for Alice and PASSIONATELY KISSES HER, all in a hilariously roundabout way to save her marriage to Harvey! It makes sense in context and is frankly hilarious.

And it works! Because Harvey isn’t jealous! The love triangle conflict you expect NEVER HAPPENS! Because they all love one another! And that love saves Harvey in the very end!

Was it explicitly a throuple? No, but nor have Bruce and Harvey ever canonically touched dicks. And yet the love between Bruce and Harvey in canon is true and real enough that shippers who want to make it sexual are perfectly allowed to do so, because it’s the love that matters. At least, for those of us who aren’t afraid to acknowledge the love between men, platonic or otherwise. And that love is rooted in canon.

So consider this: the mutual three-way-love between Bruce, Harvey, and Alice/Gilda is ALSO canon. That comic strip has been officially accepted as DC multiverse canon in the “Crisis on Infinite Earths: Absolute Edition,” which designated it as Earth-1289.

Furthermore, there’s something else you need to consider: the fact that Harvey HAS been used in love triangles against Bruce in several stories in recent decades. I already mentioned “Two-Timer,” but there’s also Nolan’s “The Dark Knight,” the animated “Gotham By Gaslight” film, and the Telltale game. In various ways, these stories serve to throw a wedge in the friendship between Bruce (the protagonist, whose story serves him) and Harvey (the guy who is going to lose it all, the woman included). I hate that shit. I hate the contrived drama that’s meant to stir up needless added conflict between two men who love each other.

And then, on the other hand, you have Mariko Tamaki’s Gilda story from “Batman: Black and White.” Tamaki depicted Harvey and Gilda being in a distant, loveless marriage, where even on their wedding day, he was constantly ignoring her in favor of work. The only person who could actually get his attention was Bruce.

At the time, this felt an awful lot like that problem I was talking about with the Bruce/Harvey shippers: raising up the gay ship while throwing the woman under the bus. In this case, for the purpose of doing an avenging girlboss take on Gilda. I hated that too, especially when Tamaki didn’t even follow through with the gay subtext in her next, miserable Two-Face comic.

You know that meme of a bride, groom, and best man all kissing one another, while the bride flips off the cameraman in the end? @whipbogard redrew the Tamaki wedding scene as that meme, right around the time I reread the comic strip. And suddenly, everything clicked into place for me.

After a lifetime of never, ever having any serious fandom ships, I fell in love with the idea of Bruce/Harvey/Gilda. Take what the comic strip did and bring it into the mainstream canon I love to spite the canon I hate.

In those great old Gilda stories, she saw through Harvey’s bullshit and knew how to reach him, however temporarily. She could do the same with Bruce. She’d be a valuable third voice for the ongoing toxic relationship between Bruce and Harvey, the one who could love them both while also getting to be frustrated with how fucking stupid and fucked-up both these men are.

Before she was reduced to a ride-or-die killer housewife in "The Long Halloween" (which, I'll grant you, has its own appeal), classic Gilda would actually stand up to Harvey and tell him to cut out his shit or else. I love the idea that she can also see right through Bruce, understanding how very alike he and Harvey are, even if they don't want to admit it.

Writing Gilda this way speaks to me as a longtime fan of both men, while also wanting to try to develop her place, as a woman stuck in the middle of their decades' worth of conflict and angst. She sees these men at their best, worst, and most pathetic/ridiculous, and while she's got the nerve to stand up for herself and call them out as needed, she still loves them nonetheless. For me, Gilda has become the voice for fans just like me, who are helpless to stop Batman and Two-Face from continuing the cycle of violent, toxic friendship, but still loving them nonetheless, and always hoping for the best.

So, at this point, let’s say I’ve at least managed to make you grudgingly accept my reasoning for the relationship. Even if that’s true, I’m gonna guess that the mention of a threesome felt like it came out of left field. I can’t argue with that. I wanted to actually write that as its own smutfic but, being ace, I struggle with that. But I really liked the idea, and as I was writing this, it just really wanted to be mentioned, so I included it.

The response has been positive (until now), which indicated to me that I had been successful in introducing Gilda as a viable third into a slice of fandom which had only shipped Bruce and Harvey. This is fanfic, after all, such things are expected, even encouraged, so I leaned into it.

Now, if I were ever (un?)fortunate enough to write for DC, officially? I doubt I’d have the nerve to go that far. But I’d still want to at least embrace the polycule-coded relationship between those three that we saw in the newspaper comic strip. I think it adds a whole new, refreshing spin on their ongoing dynamics, while being rooted in relationships that were established all the way back in 1942 by Bill Finger.

Finger’s story, at its heart, was all about how love can save a life. How love is the only way to defeat the villain. For Harvey Kent’s part, Gilda’s love was every bit as important as Batman’s unwillingness to give up on his friend. So I’m just taking it one step further within the freedom allowed me by fanfic.

Sorry for the length of the reply, but as you can see, I only came to this shit after several decades of thinking about 80+ years of official material. I hope I have at least been able to lessen your feelings of being jarred out of a story you otherwise seemed to appreciate. For my part, I hope to further develop the potential of this fucked-up polycule in future stories, and maybe—just maybe—I’ll be able to get you on board too. Hope to see you then!

(art by ofossart)