#and the boxes of family things i haven't touched bc there's no one left to ask about their contents

[kaikamahine]

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[evilwickedme]

hey it’s me from the Batman posts! (the one that left the tags abt wanting to get into Batman but having no clue where to start)

If its not too much trouble, I’d love any advice on where to start with Batman or Batfam(?) stuff, I saw someone suggest reading the Batman: Wayne Family Adventures thing on webtoon as an intro to the characters so I’ve been doing that, but I’ve got no clue about any of the official comics or shows/movies/etc. I’ve never read a comic series before so everything is super new to me.

I know different series(?)/versions(?) can be wildly different bc of different writers and stuff, I definitely trust your taste on what would be good / enjoyable bc the posts you’ve been reblogging are like 90% of whats gotten me interested in the first place

Thank you, and absolutely no rush!!

Hey I am legit SO happy that you sent me this ask this is literally my favorite thing to do!!!!

So to start with I do actually agree that wfa is a good starting point but for a different reason than I feel most people would recommend it. The thing about wfa is that it has a consistent design for every character, is humorous, touches not only on the main batfamily members but also many extended members, other noteworthy people in Gotham, and the batfamily's cast of friends and teammates as well. This means that while its approach to characterization is incredibly fanon-y, it's a good basis for how to continue. You read wfa, and you know that Dick is the first robin, wears ridiculous costumes, was batman for a bit, is nightwing, part of the teen titans... this isn't a lot, but it's just enough to orient yourself before jumping into some of the most convoluted art ever created, aka the comic world.

Another tip I'm gonna give you is to let yourself be confused. I think the people who end up sticking with comics are people who are aware that if they pick up a comic it's very likely the writers and artists have read and worked on comics that you haven't read yet or even heard of, so you're always going to be missing something. That's fine. If something is really important to the plot, it gets explained; if it's not, it's windowdressing. Often there'll be little boxes saying what comic and issue they're referencing, so if you find it interesting you can just go read it - otherwise, if it's not there, you can google it, or go to any comic fan and ask "hey do you know what this is about?" and if they know, they will answer. There is nothing a comic fan wants more than to explain how to get into their favorite character/s, trust me.

Anyway this has been a very wordy intro but here are some potential starting points for the batfamily!

Bruce Wayne

You know who he is. Pick up an issue of Batman or Detective Comics and he's there. Pick up an issue of any other DC comic and there's like a 30% chance he's there too.

Batman: The Long Halloween

Noir style, investigative, early in batman's career, two face's origin story

It has a sequel-ish story called Batman: Dark Victory that's almost as good

Batman: Hush

Batman: Year One

Frankly there's not going to be much information in this comic you don't already know, but also, it's a classic, so might as well

Batman: A Death in the Family & Batman: A Lonely Place of Dying (crossover with the new teen titans)

First story is Jason's death, second is Tim's introduction and arguably the start of the batfamily being a family

Tim drags Dick back into the fray in ALPOD. It's just sort of the kind of thing he does

Do NOT confuse A Death in the Family with Death OF the Family, which is a much newer story, and Not Good

Batman: Under the Red Hood

Jason's villain arc! More details below

Batman himself isn't actually my favorite but you know he's got some decent stuff since he's, uh, the main character. DC doesn't have a multiverse the way Marvel does - and getting into that would be a whole separate ask - but their elseworlds are stories about the characters in different situations. Some ones I've heard good things about include Gotham by Gaslight, Dark Knights of Steel, Batman: Last Knight on Earth, and I keep meaning to get into Batman: White Knight, which is a whole other universe on its own. I've been trying to get into more modern batman stuff and unfortunately I just haven't clicked with anything.

Dick Grayson

Guy has been in a lot of things. If you read a random Batman comics from before 1980, there's a good chance he'll be there.

Teen Titans and The New Teen Titans and Titans (1980s-2000s)

I haven't read enough of these to say much of anything, but he's a founding member of the TT

Nightwing

His post-Robin superhero identity. At first only present in NTT and occasional Batman comics, but eventually he gets his own miniseries in the early 90s, followed by an ongoing. Recently-ish started reading them and they're angsty and very 90s in a lot of ways but I'm enjoying it

Modern Nightwing titles also exist. For sure.

Batman & Robin by Morrison

In one of DC's ten million crises, Bruce "dies", and after a short story called Battle for the Cowl, Dick ends up becoming Batman. Damian is his Robin. It's an interesting time for batman comics, although not necessarily the best writing that Dick has ever gotten.

Batman: The Dark Mirror

Also a great story for the Gordons. Bruce is back from the dead, but Dick is still Batman in Gotham. This was my first even Batman comic and it's really good.

Obviously there's other stories, such as Grayson, where he becomes a super spy for a bit. There's a million and a half reading lists for Dick out there as he's a massively popular character and he's one of the characters DC is pushing the most right now. As with all the rest of these, these are good entry points; from there I trust you to find your way

Barbara Gordon

The original Batgirl, sort of (nobody really brings up bette kane unless they're pointing out that babs wasn't the original Batgirl, she's just not important). She appears sporadically in silver and bronze age batman comics and detective comics, but she quits being Batgirl shortly before being raped and shot in the spine by the joker in Batman: the Killing Joke, which I purposefully did not put on my rec list.

Birds of Prey

Babs-as-Oracle at her best.

Batman: The Dark Mirror

Babs' long lost brother comes back to town. It's fucked up.

I've been reliably told to stay away from her Batgirl runs - most people who are a fan of the character don't like that they retconned Oracle away and it's mostly not very well written. There's a comic called batgirls that lasted about a year that included her, and it's okay.

Jason Todd (my beloved)

MY MAN

Batman: Second Chances

Collected edition of Jason as Robin, so much fun. Extremely silly at times since it's the 80s.

Batman: A Death in the Family

For obvious reasons.

Then he's just sort of dead for 17 years. He shows up in heaven in a Green Arrow issue and is occasionally brought up or shown as a hallucination, but that's about it.

Batman: Under the Red Hood

There's a new crime lord in town and he's so smart and talented and hot omg I wonder who he is!!!!

The collected edition also comes with the annual that reveals how he came back to life

Task Force Z

This shouldn't be as good as it is.

Jason gets recruited to work with a team of undead villains

Jason gets called a hot a bunch of times, and is shirtless a lot. This doesn't matter but you know, like, yeah it does.

For Robin!Jason there's also Batman: The Cult - which I finally got my hands on recently but haven't read yet. For Red Hood!Jason there's lots of stuff, but most of it isn't very good or is actively bad. Most people will tell you to stay away from Red Hood and the Outlaws, and they're right, although the 2016 run is better. Most people will tell you to read Batman & Red Hood: Cheer, and they're wrong, it's ass.

Tim Drake

Frankly this boy has no flops. Or very close to it.

Batman: A Lonely Place of Dying

Tim figured out who Batman and Robin are at AGE NINE. Respect.

After this he appears in various Batman and detective comics issues, I haven't read any of these.

Robin

The first Robin to get his own ongoing! Like with Nightwing, it started with a miniseries (a few of them, actually) and got turned into a long running series from there. Lasted like 200 issues, too.

Tim FUCKS.

Not Steph's first appearance, but most of her appearances pre-2009 are in this series.

Young Justice 1998

It's insane in all the best ways. Cars have sex on panel. They play baseball to save the world on an alien planet. A power of friendship speech prevents the end of the world. In the first issue, a woman develops breasts so big she falls on her face.

This team eventually breaks apart and Tim along with 3 other teen heroes nicknamed the core four (Superboy, Impulse, & Wonder Girl II) become part of Teen Titans 2003, which I haven't read and is also a bit of a flop era fashion wise for everyone anyway. I do have the volume of TT03 where they meet the versions of themselves from the future and I plan on reading that soon-ish.

In the mid 2000s basically everyone Tim loves dies. Steph died in 2004 ish after a very short stint as Robin. Tim's mom dies, then his dad is murdered, and it's unclear what happened to his step mom, but she was in Bludhaven, which had an atomic bomb dropped on it. Impulse becomes kid flash becomes the flash becomes murdered, and superboy gets killed while saving the world. Steph does turn out to not be dead after all and Impulse and Superboy come back from the dead eventually but by God he's having a tough year BEFORE Bruce "dies".

Red Robin 2009

After Bruce "dies" and Dick becomes Batman, Dick makes Damian his Robin and nobody believes Tim that Bruce is still alive, so he steals the Red Robin costume and goes on a mission to save his dad!

Not a comic to read first because it's so uncharacteristic of Tim as a person, but definitely something to read as soon as possible, because it's ridiculously good.

After flashpoint/n52 Tim doesn't have his own ongoing for a while, but he does come out as bisexual in an early issue of Batman Urban Legends (2021) and he got his own ongoing called Tim Drake: Robin in 2022 which was ugly AF and yet cancelled far too soon. There's a Young Justice run from 2019 I haven't read yet.

Stephanie Brown

For her I would go to Google, bc I haven't gone down the rabbithole enough for her yet. I know her first appearance was in a batman comic where she became spoiler to spoil her dad's plans - her dad being a third rate villain called the cluemaster - and she almost kills him, so good for her. Afterwards she appears every once in a while in various comics, most notably in Robin, where she and Tim as Robin start dating despite him knowing her identity but not the other way around.

Robin 60s (I don't remember the exact issues)

Steph gives birth and gives her baby up for adoption

Robin 126-128

Steph becomes Robin when Tim quits for his still-alive-but-not-for-long dad.

War Games

Steph does a fucky wucky and accidentally starts a gang war which gets her killed

There's another Robin arc where she comes back and it turns out she was never dead, Leslie (the family doctor) simply faked her death and sent her to Africa to recover

Batgirl 2009

Her first and only solo ongoing, but it's really good

She also appears a lot in Cass's Batgirl ongoings, and occasionally shows up in yj98. Her most recent series in Batgirls, which isn't very good but her interactions with Cass are very gay, and we've all been shipping it for 20 years at this point, so frankly it's long overdue. Unlikely to become canon tho, unfortunately.

Cassandra Cain

She doesn't use a lot of words, so neither will I. Probably.

No Man's Land

Frankly I am terrified to read this, it's so many goddamn issues, but this is her first appearance. I have one "volume" and it's as big as the fucking Bible.

Batgirl 2000

She's the first Batgirl to get an ongoing. The one from 2008 I've been reliably told isn't very good. She's absolutely terrifying in the 2000 one, I approve.

Outsiders 2016

Supposed to also be good for Duke content. I think at this point she's going by Orphan? Idk she's had a lot of names.

Idk I prefer Black Bat

Spirit World

Mini series that recently ended. Soooooo good. Alyssa Wong is a top contender for favorite modern writer.

She's mostly a background character. Bc DC is both sexist AND racist. She was also in batgirls.

Damian Wayne

Frankly he's my least favorite of the batkids, but that's not his fault, he's been a victim of a lot of really racist writing.

Batman: Son of the Demon

Somehow both his origin AND an elseworlds that doesn't count. Not required reading, but Bruce and Talia are madly in love in this.

Batman by Grant Morrison

After UTRH and before Dick was forced to become Batman Morrison reintroduced Talia's son, who in this version was a rape baby bc apparently brutalia weren't in love and Talia drugged Bruce. Fucking fine, I guess.

His character growth during his time as robin is sweet tho.

Robin 2021

His only solo ongoing, pretty good

Super Sons

He had two team up comics with then fellow child Jon Kent, son of superman, and it was fucking adorable. Then they aged up Jon to 17, so they're still friends, but Jon has his own shit going on.

Duke Thomas

He's REALLY new, and I haven't read any of it, I'm sorry.

Robin War

Batman and the Signal - I finally got my hands on the first issue of this last week!

The Outsiders 2016

Frankly they should capitalize on the Duke & Cass friendship/siblingship more often.

Alfred Pennyworth

I haven't read it, but there's a series called Pennyworth about his days as a spy for the crown. Supposed to be pretty good.

Kate Kane

The Jewish lesbian batwoman of our dreams

Batwoman: Elegy

Her introduction

Also, it's written by Greg Rucka, and if he can do one thing, it's write sapphic women. I'm not even joking.

Get the newer edition that has both of her original Rucka stories

Batwoman ongoings

She's had a couple, they're both supposed to be pretty solid, I've only read a few issues here and there

Batman in other media

Animated: I'm currently watching Batman the Animated Series for the first time and it seems to really get Bruce as a character, even if Robin will be there one episode and his existence will be a plot hole in the next. The Justice League animated series has also been fun so far. Teen Titans have gotten a number of animated adaptations all of which have pretty strong followings. There's an animated show called "Young Justice" which is a Teen Titans show and I refuse to watch it (it has a very devout following, but all that means is that the Young Justice - All Media Types tag on ao3 is just the same as Young Justice Cartoon and I have to filter heavily when looking for yj98 fics). Lego Batman is a REALLY fun film, and I think it turned into a whole franchise.

Live action TV: I have watched the first season of both Titans and Gotham, but both of those were before I was into the batfamily as a concept. My impression of Titans is overall negative and my impression of Gotham is overall positive.

Live action movies: There are so many Goddamn Batman movies. I like the Dark Knight Trilogy, but even calling it "based on" the Dark Knight comic trilogy is giving it a lil more credit than it deserves. The Batman 2022 is massively popular with the comic fandom for a reason - I'm not a big fan of it, but I did enjoy laughing at the movie so at least there's that. Batfleck sucks. I haven't seen anything else, up to and including the Joker movie. Oh, and Birds of Prey was really good, but that's not Cass.

Video games: The Arkham trilogy is well loved and I have indeed just bought it, but I haven't gotten to it because I'm currently working on Gotham Knights and uh. Okay so listen. This game is a lot of fun and I will be finishing it. But it's like. Got a massively antisemitic plot point. I can't even say I don't recommend it, I'm genuinely enjoying the game a lot. But I've never seen anybody bring this up, and it's bugging me.

ANYWAY I'm sure I've missed a LOT but this is introductory so you know I'm giving myself grace. There's characters I completely skipped and I'm sure mega fans of characters I haven't read much of will be offended that I said such and such about them but you know it's only been about a year and a half since I started reading dc comics and I'm still figuring it all out. And I probably will still be figuring it out for the next decade. To me that's actually part of the fun of it.

[sunlightandsuffering]

Just watched this YT video about a Reddit story in which a woman is happily married with kids but finds out about her husbands "hidden Tinder account" and basically him "cheating" on her, and after outing him as a cheater to their shared friends and family and divorcing him (and a whole bunch of events), a year later, finds out it was all their neighbours doing by somehow getting the husband's intimate pictures and using them to catfish women on Tinder, the whole post is about her asking how she could make amends with him and repair their relationship it reminded me of your divorce so much you got no idea lmao 😭 as if I was reading the same story again, literally could felt the same hurt this woman and Mikasa felt over destrying a marriage with the love of their lifes over a false accusation of cheating and them trying to fix their relationships Gotta admit I like your EreMika version better, cuz of how funny it is and cuz the reddit story ends with the marriage broken for good and them split up 😔, mainly cuz the husband felt like after everything that happened their marriage was broken beyond repair (even if they still love each other deeply), and I can't think about that for my beloveds 😣 I like to believe they would find a way to love each other again, even if it takes them a lifetime to do it 🤧 Kinda wishing to see how you would wrap the whole thing tbh, gotta love this au for how angsty it and I just need to know if there is a happy ending for them! (Feel free to ignore this ask if you want to tho! either if you don't want to spoil anything or you simply don't want to talk abt it, I know how you feel about talking about this au ever since your blog got flooded with ppl slandering Mikasa for it) (This a little vent off but Redditors are really a different breed I swear, they left comments on the woman's post blaming her for not being able to foresee the future and realize he wasn't cheating on her, as if she didn't have reasons to believe her husband was cheating, like I understand the husband had it way worse but she was a victim too ffs)

omgggg reddit does always have the wildest stuff I agree lol, like u never know what the fuck ur gonna read. But that's so heartbreaking ugh! But this is kind of what I wanted to achieve in divorce AU, like it's no one's fault, but I wanted angst where no one could really be blamed it was just circumstance and unfortunate misunderstandings! JUST LIKE A SHOUJO MANGA LMFAO !but don't worry i ALWAYS give happy endings, u can count on me for that, I'll never end something with angst I just don't have it in me lol.

but that's so heartbreaking for the couple, hope they fucking sewed that neighbour or something omg like that's awful, he literally broke up a marriage!!! ruined lives!!!

But yeah ur right the whole divorce au idk i haven't touched it in a while bc for a bit there it was getting so heated lol, and I don't get paid enough to field everyone arguing with each other in my ask box and arguing back myself lol, it's just too much effort. I'm definitely down to give it a happy ending though I just need some inspo, I'm like trying to remember where I left off with it and I think the last thing I wrote a drabble for was angst lol?? Where they were fighting in Eren's hallway or bedroom or something? And before that was the seafood drabble LOL!!!!! I'm trying to think of how I could resolve it, I'm down for happy suggestions if you have any anon!!

[megacarapa]

tagged by @headphonemouse in their "show off your toolkit" game i don't feel like explaining it just read leon's explanation ANYWAY here is my crafting bag =)

which contains......... a lot of stuff and i love blabbing so cut for length😂

tagging anyone who sees this and feels like they wanna do it since it really is a cute idea

there is so much stuff that i will have to separate it into a few pictures, first one:

top from left to right:

- my collection of embroidery floss (which i use more for making bracelets/tapestries than actual embroidery), i keep them in an ice cream box😂 theres a lot of them but i do use them pretty regularly

- a box with leftover thread, which i also have a lot of, i use them here and there for random stuff but i've been trying to figure out a better method to use up more of them jfkf

- a glasses case which i use to store the specific thread i'm using on whatever project i'm working on in the moment (right now it's the thread for the needlepoint i'm working on), if i'm doing two projects at once then i just find a second glasses case, everyone in my family wears glasses so they're lying around everywhere😂

bottom left is two different types of white thread, i could get into it but tldr white thread is a necessity a lot of the time so it's helpful to have a lot of it, the first one i bought recently and the second mom gave to me

bottom right is wool mom gave me one time i tried crochet for a few hours, as you can see i haven't done much but i wanna try it more in the future so i've been keeping it together with my other stuff, theres more wool in the storage room

the cardboard stuff on the left work as looms for when i'm making bracelets, they're not a necessity but it's easy for me to get confused with a bunch of thread so they help with that

on the right is one big embroidery hoop that mom gave me and 3 smaller ones i bought randomly one time, censored out is a Secret Project TM that i started and did a bunch of work for in 2020 and then haven't touched since, i tend to do that, like, sometimes my projects will have unbelievably long hiatuses, but i WILL get to it, its something i want to finish

top left to right:

- a fuck ton of glue😂😂 i use this stuff a lot for various things

- origami paper☺️ which i wanna try more often but i haven't in a while

- another glasses case for keeping pins so i don't accidentally stab myself

bottom left to right:

- my ruler!! it has both centimeters and inches, really handy, maybe my favourite thing in this whole bag

- another cardboard loom but in circle shape, theres a bracelet technique that requires a loom like this

- pink box cutter (i think its called that in english??) that i've had since elementary school, i should probably get a better one but i'm emotionally attached nfnfkf

- crochet hook given to me by mom along with the wool

- that thing for punching holes into stuff, i mostly use it for paper, i forgot what its called

- candle i used to make waxed thread a few times

- needle cushion that mom made for me =) she also did the embroidery on it, it's so😭💕💕💕

along with that i have a little case dad gave me that i use for keeping smaller stuff

from left to right

- the case itself

- small toothpick that i use for correcting mistakes on bracelets/tapestries

- bigger wooden stick for tying tapestries onto

- pencil, eraser, sticky tape (which i should get more of hghjf)

- keychains for when i wanna make....... keychains (which i don't do too often bc they're a pain to make jfjfkfl)

- binder clips

and well, i AM a guy, so of course i will have some.......

soccer scissors🙄!!! 🤣🤣 i stole these from maja

that's it for the crafts bag, but speaking of things i stole from maja, look at the bag i use to store paper😆

and this is unrelated to everything but since we're on a "things i stole from maja" kick look at this violetta lunchbox that i stole from maja

its tiny as shit and can barely hold anything and sucks but its my favourite thing ever, i always bring it when going on hikes

thank you for reading😂