#and then in his zombie like state was thrown into a Lazarus pit

[lunallaa]

So potentially hot take....

Jason Todd doesn't need to or should be that much a pretty boy. Not saying he should be super ugly or something but I am a firm believer of the rough and really just average appearance Jason agenda.

I know we all love how Dexter Soy draws him but let Jason be just a lil ugly a lil beat up yknow?

This post is all in silly goofy fun pls don't get mad 🫣

[galahadwilder]

Origin Theories

In honor of the spookiest season of the year, I would like to put up my theory for the interconnected origins of several Batman villains, Young Justice-style. This has already been shot down twice by DC canon, but I still like it.

We start with the Lazarus pits. We know that they are alchemical mixtures that are capable of healing any wound and even returning the dead to life. Sometimes they are artificial, sometimes they are naturally occurring, and sometimes they can only be made/exist at certain places thanks to something involving the structure of Earth's magic. This is all stuff that has been postulated during stories involving Ra's al Ghul. But why does Ra's get to have all of the Lazarus fun?

For the purposes of this theory, I will be postulating based on the "naturally occurring" version that can only occur at particular places on Earth. What happens, however, if the conditions are ALMOST perfect, but just a little bit off? What if it's possible to make an imperfect Lazarus Pit? What if... one of those is the Gotham Swamp?

This brings us to Solomon Grundy.

In the mid-1800s, a Gotham merchant named Cyrus Gold was killed and thrown into the swamp. Unspecified chemicals in the swamp reanimated his body as the unkillable zombie Solomon Grundy, who went on to terrorize Alan Scott AND Batman for many years. We already know that Lazarus is capable of bringing back the dead; an imperfect Lazarus might very well reanimate them, right?

Next on the list: the Court of Owls. They have been secretly running the city of Gotham for centuries, using their undying soldiers, the Talons. The Talons have some alchemical mixture in their blood that makes them not alive, but keeps them from dying as well. What do we know that can do that? Thanks to Solomon Grundy, whatever's in the Gotham Swamp.

But of course, the Talon compound is far more refined than whatever Grundy has. The Court will need somewhere to process it, to make it viable for their purposes.

Where better than the Ace Chemical Factory?

All this is fine, until one day a small-time comedian falls into one of the Lazarus vats. He emerges... changed.

The Joker can recover from near-mortal wounds. In fact, outright killing him doesn't seem to have an effect. DC Comics has outright stated, in at least one instance, that he is immortal. So what if... thanks to his fall into the Court's chemical vats, his body naturally produces the Lazarus compound? It heals him, constantly, keeps him on the brink of life, makes it so that no matter what damage he suffers, he will always recover with time.

And what do the Lazarus Pits do to people who've been healed by them?

Drive them temporarily insane.

"Temporarily" doesn't apply if your body is constantly producing the stuff. If you ARE a Lazarus Pit. You will never know sanity again - the price of immortality.

And THAT is my headcanon for the origin of the Joker. I just blew all y'all's minds.

Happy Halloween, everybody.

[taiblogcomics]

Will You Remember Me?

Hey there, circular add-ons. Geez, how long since we reviewed a Red Hood and the Outlaws issue? Too long? Or perhaps, not long enough~? Depends on how bad you think the series is, I guess. That blog title’s a meta reference, since who knows if you’ll remember the series, any more than all these characters remembering their pasts~

Here's a cover:

Oh, well, this is kind of confusing and metaphysical, eh~? The colour focus is really nice, to make you notice Jason and, well, Jason. Wow, imagine how weird it'd be to hold the corpse of your past self. And that's a sentence that only comic books could make you say! Mostly, though, I just find it weird how his normally-rigid mask can make sad eyes~

I super don't remember what happened last issue, so let's just jump in! So, Artemis has reunited with her old and possibly dead (formerly dead?) friend Akila. In fact, Akila re-introduces Artemis to a bunch more of her sisters-in-arms. Artemis is a bit overwhelemed right now, though, and excuses herself for a while. Akila apologises for stealing her ax, and Artemis is more weirded out by her friend being alive and her home restored than anything else. Frankly, who can blame her~?

Speaking of people who come back from the dead, let's go check in on what Jason's doing, yeah? This bit I do remember: Jason just suspiciously happened to find the same warehouse he died in back when he was Robin. In fact, a hallucination of Robin is also here, begging Jason to help him. Jason says he's been trying, every day since he came out of the Lazarus pit. Rounding out the attendance is another hallucination, that of the Joker. The Joker's in classic form (both in appearance and attitude), making several jokes about Jason's death and laughing maniacally. Jason retorts that he's got a joke for Joker too. Joker leans in to hear it, and Jason pumps his guts fulla lead. He knows it's all in his head, but it's still satisfying, and Hallucinatory Robin is also grateful~

And Bizarro, what's he been up to? He's made frinds with the local populace, it seems. He'll protect them like Superman would, and he's decided that Jason and Artemis are smarter than he is, so he'll just bring the refugees to them and let them decide what to do. To prove he's not that smart, it seems, he's led them straight to a mountain. The refugees can't climb a mountain in their state, and even worse, a military helicopter comes up behind them and opens fire. The refugees can't return to their homes as ordered, because the military are the ones who destroyed them. Bizarro gets mad and takes out the chopper with his freeze vision, and catches it before it falls on the people. He throws it into the mountain and declares that if his charges can't go over the mountain, then Bizarro will simply move it. He then rears back and delivers a punch so powerful, it requires a whole splash page to display~

Back over with Artemis and the Amazons, Artemis is curious as to what Akila plans to do now that she's alive again. Her main plan is to recover the Bow of Ra, which is probably a good idea. She explains how it came to be in its current possessor's grasp. General Heinle is the latest dictator in charge of this country, which is Qurac, if I recall. He's the kind who is never satisfied with the level of power he has, and so sought the power of the gods, eventually leading him to the sale of the Bow of Ra in Gotham, which was several issues ago, back when the story featured Black Mask. Remember that? However, owning the bow and using it are not the same, and so he next sought the Shim'tar, the one who can weild it. The fact that the Shim'tar, Akila, was dead didn't matter. He just cloned some of her cells and restored the Bow. And since Akila is connected to the Bow, she was revived as well. Simple, no~?

So those two have reunited and reconciled, planning to go after the Bow together. How's Jason dealing with his past? Turns out the Joker isn't dead, and can't die, since it's Jason's memories and all. Jason can never purge the Joker from his memory, and probably shouldn't, since it's this traumatic moment where he draws his strength from, just as Batman does with his parents' deaths. But more importantly, Jason realises that Robin is just a lesser version of himself. As Robin, he never let anyone in, but he's made friends since then: Roy, Starfire, Bizarro, even Artemis. And if Robin had let folks in, maybe he wouldn't have died. And so Jason lets his past self die in the explosion, just as he really did, and returns to consciousness in the real world.

It's a good thing, too, since it turns out he was being tortured the whole time. By the previously mentioned General Heinle, no less. He's bored now, though, and Jason clearly doesn't know anything, so he orders him thrown out to the desert predators. As soon as they release him from his bonds, though, Jason beats up the guards and levels a rifle at the general's face. Suddenly the general is a lot more willing to talk. He explains that he doesn't have the Bow anymore. He tried using it, but it was too powerful. Only the Shim'tar could use it. Unfortunately, his efforts in this led to bad things, which Jason realised.

And then Akila was a zombie.

Can I even be fair to this when I haven’t reviewed it in, like, five months? I mean, it’s still somewhat intriguing. Bizarro is probably my favourite character. I honestly don’t think there’s anything particularly bad about this issue. It just doesn’t really draw me in, I guess~

Anyways, probably Suicide Squad next week, since I haven’t even read the rest of my Red Hood backlog yet~