#and i think ill read thru the robin issues

[tiercels]

da new yrs haul + kirby for scale

[daedalusdavinci]

hey. do the gotham squad kids for the character ask meme

adslkfjnsdlkfsndfsf ; ; ok three in one post im gonna put this under the cut to spare my dash

send me a character and ill tell you...

Jason

What made me like them in the first place

you try reading his robin comics and not falling absolutely in love with him. hes just like... he was so genuine and caring and saw the magic in everything, but he also had such a strong sense of justice and maybe it didnt align perfectly with batmans but i LOVED it, i loved his anger because it came from such a place of compassion!! i feel like thats a fraught thing to say but id never seen any of the stuff online or anything, and i just loved him bc he could be kind of a shit but he was just such a cute kid. he was a KID kids are supposed to be shits. and then he came back as red hood and i was like YEAHHHH BOYYYYY and ive never been the same since

Who I ship them with

i think jason is aro but if hes not going to be i say roy bc. i mean. what was all that fr

Random headcanon I have about them

im a desperate believer in commie crimeboss jason who uses the enemies tactics to get inside and get people out again, supporting people safely until they dont have to rely on crime anymore and can find their feet

My favorite moment of theirs

theres so many. i love that comic where batman tells him to distract someone and he pelts them w snowballs its such peak little shit baby jay. i love his comic w two face and the "its too much". i love his appearance in outsiders its so small but i feel like it has such potential. WHEN HE TURNS DOWN RED ROBIN IN COUNTDOWN,, when he fights all the batkids in tfz fr and then his little moment w steph right after,, crying sobbing i love him i love everything abt him

Plotline/story I want to happen

bring back crimeboss jason im not asking. also. fucking. make him a team of actual antiheroes ffs wasted potential

Any issues or insecurities I think they have

i think jason has heavily internalized the bats constant messaging of "you were always going to end up this way you were always a bad egg" and has made his home in this mentality of "im not good and no one wants me here so ill make myself impossible to get rid of and thatll have to be okay" and he really just. he treats himself like a weapon instead of a person because he thinks itll make it hurt less

Favorite quote

i can post quotes from him all day long and i have claimed many as favorites but the truth is that i love everything he says. anyway heres one i like from ep 44 of wayne family adventures

Kiss, marry, hug, or kill

hug i love him

Random thing that reminds me of them

my old emo phase playlist

Any talents I think they might have

i think hes very good at a lot of things but also first aid

On a rate from 1 to 10 how much I love them

10 billion he is my favorite of all time

What I think about their family

i could make an entire post about jasons family. i love them. but specifically in relation to jason its a lot of delusional wishing and a lot of oof. i dont think jason and bruce repairing their relationship completely is realistic w the way comics are now, but i think he still places a lot of trust in dick, maybe more than dick deserves, just bc dick really was his hero growing up and he cares about him so much. i love jason and damian being brothers thru talia. but also, realistically, i think jason probably has the best relationship w duke rn bc duke didnt get all the failed robin stories that the others did nor was he around for jasons death so its like a clean slate type of deal. in general, though, i wish his relationship w everyone was better and i wish there was more elaboration on all of it

Who I think should be their bff

i think its a crime that dc never revisited his relationship w eddie, but also, theres definitely something to be said for the potential of him partnering up w rose. i like his and roys nonsense but it really doesnt make any sense. i also wish dc didnt ignore countdown (even tho i understand why they do) and gave him some kind of relationship w donna and kyle. i have complicated feelings abt this bc functionally jason has no friends outside of some extremely nonsense stuff post reboot

What animal they would be

sorry but im not team catboy jason at all the boy is a dog person. that said, wolf, bc he thinks hes a lone wolf even tho thats not how wolves work at all and hes frequently characterized as a feral angry monster when hes much more complicated than that but also sometimes people think hes a harmless puppy when the boy has very much killed people

Three songs that remind me of them

ive made jokes about me against the world before as well as kryptonite (art in links :') )

but i think better and what you make it by with confidence are pretty good. wish i had examples of metal songs but i just dont rlly listen to metal ever

Favorite episode/issue/thing centered around them

TASK FORCE Z!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! its SO GOOD TT^TT i dont want it to end

How badly they need hugs

so badly. so badly. he has so many problems.

Favorite thing about their personality

his determination and the way he just keeps pushing forward even though everything seems to be telling him to just lay down and die all the time

Favorite thing about their appearance

youll pry those precious little curls out of my cold dead hands you know what im talking about

Why I love them so much

i feel like this whole post has been about why i love him so much. it sjust a statistical fact that i have a thing for characters who have died honestly so this was fully inevitable

Steph

What made me like them in the first place

i honestly cant remember but reading through her comics i just love her fucking wit. shes genuinely hilarious and shes also like!!! her independence and determination?? and the way she just constantly defies peoples expectations of her and keeps pushing i just. ugh. its hard not to love her she deserves so much better

Who I ship them with

i havent read all of stephs comics yet or anything, buuuut ngl her and kara are adorable ; ; and ofc cass is a classic

Random headcanon I have about them

i have Opinions about steph being the third robin instead of tim. many of them. also, she fucking deserves it

My favorite moment of theirs

from batgirl (2009) #4. cryign sobbing losing my mind i love her so much. i feel like you know a supers rlly made it when a kid looks up to them and it is never not fucking heartbreaking

Plotline/story I want to happen

give me robin steph or give me death. i dont know how. but i will change tides to give her the time she RIGHTFULLY FUCKING DESERVED. ohhhh im so mad about what they did to her im always mad about what they did to her

i also think she deserves significantly more bonding time w the batfamily than she gets. maybe i havent read enough comics yet (im still working through them, and i desperately hope that its just that), but it seems like she only rlly spends time w damian, cass, babs, and tim in any memorable capacity, and thats unacceptable to me. gotham squad when. not to have brainrot on main but her and jason have so many similarities in their background and treatment at batmans hands and stuff i just think they should fucking bond

Any issues or insecurities I think they have

steph is CONSTANTLY, CONSISTENTLY told that she isnt good enough, by the people she admires and loves the most. she tries so fucking hard to be good, to be perfect, and people still find fault in the smallest damn things. its devastating. i dont imagine she has a lot of self worth

Favorite quote

steph has endless great quoteable moments. her quips are fucking hysterical. but HONESTLY. honestly. my absolute favorite steph panel in the world? this one right here, from the secret origins 80 page grant

Kiss, marry, hug, or kill

hug i love her so much

Random thing that reminds me of them

can i say jason? lol

Any talents I think they might have

i think steph has a lot of random surprising talents. i think itd be fun if she did some random niche crafting thing, like pottery

On a rate from 1 to 10 how much I love them

gonna say a tentative 8 bc im still reading her comics but i adore her shes vastly underrated

What I think about their family

her dynamic w her mom is genuinely so interesting. her mom starts off extremely neglectful, but its still clear that she cares, and that she is trying, in her own way. and she gets better, and shes there for steph in some moments where it really fucking counts. i really like their moments

Who I think should be their bff

kara and cass

What animal they would be

im not really sure tbh

Three songs that remind me of them

lol skip associating characters w songs is a rare thing for me

Favorite episode/issue/thing centered around them

theres,,, not a lot of substantial stuff about her, honestly. she exists as a side character for a long time. but im rlly enjoying batgirl so far!!

How badly they need hugs

soooo bad and she deserves it she deserves someone who will tell her that shes good enough and that she matters

Favorite thing about their personality

shes so unwaveringly kind, even when people are so fucking cruel to her all the time. its astounding.

Favorite thing about their appearance

i love the spoiler mask it is so creature

Why I love them so much

again i feel like ive jsut been tlaking about this the whole time. its hard to put into words concisely why i love her but reading her comics its hard not to feel for her, to root for her, to feel angry at the sheer amount of injustice she faces. shes just so,,,

Duke

What made me like them in the first place

i feel like when it really clicked into place like oh. im obsessed with him. was like. duke, to me, is symbolic of the future. hes a step away from everything that batmans been and towards claiming hope for the city, firmly his own person and not dependent on batman in the way everyone before him has been. and its just. GOD. we love a man who believes in community organizing his comics make gotham feel like a home in a way a lot of them dont, really underlining his connection to the people who live there and what happens to them in a way i feel like bruce himself has grown distant from

Who I ship them with

n/a he needs to int w more people dc give him more fucking comics challenge or ill bite you

Random headcanon I have about them

you know how i love a good meta with powers tied to their emotions

My favorite moment of theirs

his ints w batman like this make me cry every goddamn time. from all star batman

batman secret files: the signal #1

Plotline/story I want to happen

GOTHAM SQUAD TEAMUP FUCKING WHEN!!!!!!!!!!! STOP BEING A COWARD DC GIVE THE PEOPLE WHAT THEY WANT

also i want more stuff about duke learning to control his powers. and i want him to team up with other supers outsiders was great now give me more and people his own fucking age

Any issues or insecurities I think they have

he has batman daddy issues, the way they all do, and is constantly worried about disappointing him. obviously has trauma out the ass. but idk again he needs more comics. i also need to catch up on his comics probably its been a hot minute ive been distracted with other people

Favorite quote

this one from all star batman #3 is pretty fucking good, but he has a lot of good content really

Kiss, marry, hug, or kill

hug

Random thing that reminds me of them

arkham jasons helmet and dukes helmet look similar to me. catboys who r actually dogboys

Any talents I think they might have

i think he should work lighting in theater tech bc itd be funny

On a rate from 1 to 10 how much I love them

solid 8 i would love him even more if he had 50 years worth of content but alas

What I think about their family

its one of those things that i wish dc would elaborate on bc you know they could just. drive the angst in so hard dc stop holding back. give it to us. let us write the angst fics come on stop being lame

but w the batfamily i think hes in a weird space where he doesnt want to give up on his birth family and is trying to find the balance between holding them in his heart and learning how to lean into his new siblings and learning how to have them both

Who I think should be their bff

cass but i think dc should spend more time on his friend group (which it hink. theyre doing rn and im just behind on comics) and give him more super friends

What animal they would be

dog not elaborating ive been doing this meme for too long

Three songs that remind me of them

you are my sunshine n/a

Favorite episode/issue/thing centered around them

all star batman had a lot of rlly fun duke moments honestly but batman and the signal and new talent showcase were also (kisses fingers)

How badly they need hugs

he does need one but i think more than that everyone around him is just compelled to hug him bc hes just soooo baby

Favorite thing about their personality

hes so optimistic and vaguely fucking insane which is such a fun combo when paired against batman. he seems approachable in a way that a lot of the batfam isnt, too, and i appreciate that about him. hes their little ray of sunshine fr

Favorite thing about their appearance

love his stupid little helmet ears so much theyre so dumb they dont look anything like the bat ears and everything like little cat ears

Why I love them so much

again. see all of the above. ultimately i love duke for what i think he brings to batman comics and the potential for a new direction hes a vastly underrated (and underwritten) character no more tim comics only duke comics now

[dillydedalus]

what i read in february

check to find out if i defeated my nemesis thomas mann by reading the magic mountain or surrendered to his absolute rule over my unread books shelf

milkman, anna burns this is deeply divisive on the bookish internet apparently with fights over a) whether it’s brilliant or garbage, b) whether it’s difficult, c) whether literary difficulty is a moral issue (with both renouncers-of-milkman and defenders-of-milkman variously taking either side). here’s my lukewarm take: a) it’s good, b) it’s not that difficult but can be frustrating to read, c) it’s not a moral issue, like, obvi. anyway, y’all probably know what this is about (girl in belfast during the troubles finds herself stalked by dangerous paramilitary, gossip & violence abound). i found the decision not to use proper names, either for the characters (narrator is middle sister, other characters are ‘maybe-boyfriend’, ‘wee sisters’, ‘third brother-in-law’, etc) or the setting really interesting - it added both to the conversational feel, the paranoia in the community and the universality of themes like civil violence, paranoia, mistrust, sexual harrassment, pressure to conform etc. 4/5

paradise, a.l. kennedy (uni) idk man this is well-written and especially the writing about drunkenness & the depth of hannah’s addiction & misery (and joy, which kennedy does not avoid) is vivid, but i’m still p meh on it, and it was definitely too long for what it was doing. i’ll add more after the class where we’ll discuss it (update: the class was unfortunately a mess so I’m still ehhh about it) 2.5/5

die verängstigten, dima wannous (tr. from arabic) an english translation, the frightened ones, is coming out some time this year i think. this story is told thru two narratives, one by sulaima, a syrian woman with anxiety living in damascus, whose brother has been disappeared by the regime and whose lover nassim has fled the country, and one thru chapters of the unfinished novel nassim leaves behind for sulaima, narrated by a girl called salma, whose life story mirrors sulaima’s own. this is a very interesting set-up, and i think both the narrative structure and the combination of anxiety as a psychological illness and anxiety/paranoia as a social state caused by political repression & violence were really interesting, but sometimes the book felt a bit muddled and confusing to me. 3/5

der schlaf der gerechten, wolfgang hilbig (the sleep of the righteous) this is a collection of connected short stories set in a mining town in east germany - the first 4 stories follow the narrator figure (who’s not necessarily the same, but very similar throughout all stories) as a child and young adult, growing up in a town almost without men after world war 2, whereas the last 3 describe the narrator’s return to this town as an adult after reunification, struggling with his own and east germany’s past. i ADORED the first stories - they are insanely good, dark, atmospheric, beautifully written and so evocative of the materiality of this town, the ash, the coal, moulding fruit, gritty, grimy, ash coating everything (the blurb on the back says that your hands will come away from the pages stained with soot, and i feel that). the second set is good too, but it moves away from that sensual evocation which i loved so much. 4/5

the golden fool (tawny man #2), robin hobb y’all i really tried to read this one slowly, and it worked for four days but then i decided that i might as well read read the entire second half in one day so. anyway this is hard to talk about w/o spoiling a lot but robin hobb truly is the queen of character writing. loved the elliania plot, loved the coterie forming, loved the bingtown delegation, loved fitz and the fool having Feelings Drama (made me Big Sad tho - also fitz is my son & all but good god he can be a dumbass). i feel like this one’s mostly setting everything up for fool’s fate but it’s good. 4/5

the sixth extinction: an unnatural history, elizabeth kolbert engaging & accessible nonfiction book about extinction, including both past extinction events, the history of science about extinction and focusing on the current extinction event (with several example species, from frogs to rhinos) mostly caused by humans fucking everything up. 3/5

the course of the heart, m john harrison tbh i just didn’t get it.... maybe i’m not versed enough in gnosticism & weird esoteric shit. anyway, this is about three friends haunted by some spiritual ritual (lol) they held while at uni with a sinister guy called yaxley. you never find out what they actually did, but they construct a whole mythology about it that i uh. didn’t get. tbh i pretty much checked out halfway thru. 1.5/5

barracoon: the story of the last “black cargo”, zora neale hurston (audio) interesting & sad & really touching account of cudjo lewis, one of the last africans to be shipped to america as slaves, mainly made up of his own narrative, collected & put together by hurston. some interesting background info about how the book came to be as well. 3/5

how to survive a plague, david france in-depth account of the aids epidemic in the us, especially in new york, combining personal stories, insight into aids activism, scientific progress (and for most of the book, lack thereof) and staggering political neglect and failure. well-written, informative and well-explained but (obviously) very emotionally draining.  4/5

fool’s fate (the tawny man #3), robin hobb lmao i love emotionally dying about robin hobb books. anyway A LOT happens in this one & i was very emotional about most of it but most emotional about fitzchivalry farseer (idiot, son boy, changer) and the fool (beloved!) and my man burrich (lol say the words ‘heart of the pack’ & i’m already overwhelmed). anyway this was a very epic & hardcore emotional conclusion to this series & robin hobb may make me cry any time she wishes. 4/5, series rating 4.5/5

what it means when a man falls from the sky, lesley nneka arimah collection of short stories mostly set in nigeria and in the us. some of the stories are magical realist-y, some are more realist, but almost all are concerned with familial bonds and bondage, the complicated relationships between parents and children. the stories are well-executed and precisely told, but while i liked quite a few of the stories (esp. the title story) i just didn’t feel particularly strongly about most of them. 3/5

heimsuchung, jenny erpenbeck (visitation) another interesting take on 20th century german history from erpenbeck - this one is centred around a house by a lake in brandenburg & told thru the various people connected to the house over the years & decades, owners, visitors, neighbours, etc. it’s an interesting concept & well-executed & clever & erpenbeck can write but it kinda paled for me in comparison to her aller tage abend, which does a similar thing in very different way. 3/5

currently reading: look okay i have Not finished the magic mountain but i am still reading it so i still have a chance of defeating mann in single combat. i’m actually kinda liking it but it’s A Lot, so i’m taking it slow. also call me zebra which i am v v...... unsure about??