#beware the bat

[cranes-menagerie]

I love how the entire fandom universally agrees that Dick is the wife in his relationship

(cant find the original artist)

[standard-human]

ANNOUNCEMENT

as yall know, @cranes-menagerie and i have been working on a batman au, Beware the Bat. well, weve been considering setting it in an era other than the modern one. and today, weve finally decided, Beware the Bat is taking place in...

THE 80s!!!

...and the early 90s. but the 80s especially.

we're doing this because we love the aesthetic of the time, and because thats when all the good slashers came out and we like em for inspiration. story will stay mostly the same, its just the vibes thatll change

[bonf]

thinking about the 2013 Beware the Batman animated show and how they really actually made Batman and Bruce Wayne separate personalities so making this everyone else's problem too :D

They call each other by their full government names, even when alone or with people who know his identity. I mean the show flopped TREMENDOUSLY, seriously look at these visuals I'm not shocked they only aired one season -

And the show release was delayed for a year after the 2012 shooting at The Dark Knight so the animators could make the guns look "less realistic" -

And the absolute CRIME of making Alfred look like this... When he showed up on screen I was physically wounded. Literally what the fuck is this why does he look like Agent 47.

Yeah, it's no wonder the show died after one season. With everything stacked against it, I'm surprised it finished a single season at all!

But I cannot stop thinking about Bruce and Batman being separate in some capacity. They seem to share knowledge and memories, but they don't seem to share emotions or have the same opinions. The Robin stand-in for this series is Katana, and Bruce Wayne is shown to treat her in a somewhat parental and fatherly way. Batman, on the other hand, seems to have some romantic feelings for her. Tbh I assume this was done as a way to reaffirm that Batman is NOT GAY and IS STRAIGHT GUYS, because this Batman gets very gay with his opponents. Early in the show, we Batman AND Bruce Wayne acting fairly flamboyant (for 2013 so grain of salt on that) and the only straight love interest he has at that point turns evil within like 2 episodes. And then they just,,, don't replace her with someone else?? Until way later, and they force some weird tension with Batman and Katana to remind us that He Like Woman.

It's even weirder that they refer to each other by their full names. Bruce says "The Batman" and Batman says "Bruce Wayne" when referring to each other, as though separate. They both seem to struggle with knowing what the other "will do", as it doesn't seem they have much control over each other. They also don't seem to be able to speak with each other, or interact with each other in any way. They have no one-on-one conversation, the show doesn't give us a headspace where they can interact, nothing. Batman is just His Own Guy??? That's super weird, right?? It's pretty taboo in DC to write Bruce/Bats as multiple personalities anyways, but to write it and do NOTHING with it???

Batman also faces Magpie in this show. She's portrayed as a mirror of Bruce/Batman, having a "split personality" (per the show dialogue this is 2013 what do you expect) that eventually destroyed her "real self" and turned into Magpie permanently. She offers this to Batman, telling him that he can leave behind being normal and just be Batman forever. And Batman like, doesn't reject the offer. He's not opposed to the idea. The only reason he rejects her offer is because "Bruce Wayne would die" and then she kisses him and leaves him tied to a brain melting machine. Which is ???? Does this Batman want to remove himself from Bruce Wayne?? Hello???

From what I can tell, this isn't a direct copy of any particular Batman comic series, but a hodge-podge of random Batman information smashed into one series. Maybe there would have been more exploration into this idea if the series continued, but now I'm just stuck with this WILD version of Bruce Wayne and Batman and I cannot stop thinking about it.

[meara-eldestofthemall]

As most of you know, my beloved husband Mike passed away a few months ago. To be honest, I'm still grieving him and probably will for the rest of my life. Being a Bat-Gran, I decided to feed into the stereotype and get a fuzzy friend to live with. My intention was to get a kitten, but like most things in my life, it didn't quite work out that way.

This is Freya. She's about three years old and was rescued from a hoarding situation. She spent the first week in the house hiding under the buffet in my dining room, occasionally howling like a Klingon announcing the imminent arrival of her beloved to Sto'vo'kor. Freya has settled in nicely and spends her time chasing the elusive yellow spring...

And a great deal of the time napping.

Being the furry friend of Bat-Gran means she's a little ...odd. For reasons I have yet to figure out, Freya loves to watch an old 1950s TV show called Perry Mason. No matter where in the house she is, once the theme song starts, she comes mewing into the living room.

Freya only watches for a few minutes before wandering off. That's understandable since in every single episode, Perry will prove that his client is innocent by causing the true villain to break down and admit their guilt. She"ll usually return in time for the climax. Freya is surprised by Perry's legal skills each and every time.

I'm afraid to introduce her to Law & Order since only God knows how she'll react to Jack McCoy and his eyebrows of doom. Anyway, welcome home, Freya. May you nap in comfort (while slowly edging me off my recliner) for many years to come.

[patrothestupid]

drink only grape juice

[aburdthatdraws]

Happy Batman Day. I almost forgot to post this, but I reminded by a friend on Instagram, who made his own post. If you’d like to see my isnatgram post, here’s a link https://www.instagram.com/p/DAMGbmayuIP/?igsh=MWQ1ZGUxMzBkMA==. Happy Batman Day!!! Long Live the Bat 🦇!!!!!

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A post shared by J (@aburdthatdraws)

[cranes-menagerie]

Nightwing to Selina Kyle

[cranes-menagerie]

BEWARE THE BAT CHARACTER DROP: BILL THE HENCHMEN

am I adding thepandaredd's OC into Beware the Bat? yes

But I also got permission from the man himself(go follow him he's amazing and one of the best comictokers out there)

(art by thepandaredd)

Voiceclaim: thepandaredd

Bill is the caffeine addicted,done with everything, only in it for the money henchmen that has worked for every single rogue you can think of.

The more of a gimmick a rogue has, the more bill is gonna wish he didn't wake up that morning.

(most tame being someone like cobblepot, the more flamboyant being someone like Jervis tech).

He completely refuses to work for silver age villains, since they tend to be completely gimmick oriented and he considers it a waste of time. The jobs that bill gets sent on vary in importance. Some being where he actually has to be hired hand and some where he's just there to be someone who gets equipment.

He's almost identical to how he is in the skits from pandaredd, except now he has more employers.

He's got a very sibling type friendship with (legally distinct) Sal, they argue like cats and dogs but are both united under the common fact that they both cater to Gotham's rogues

[standard-human]

BTB CHARACTER DROP: MISS TUESDAY

voice claim: jenna ortega

miss tuesday is the riddlers snarky teenage assistant. shes absurdly smart (probably smarter than eddie in terms of logical thinking tbh) and has a weird uncle/bored niece dynamic with eddie

[bonf]

watching beware the bat from 2013 and it's literally insane but this scene hit me so hard that i MUST share it

[cranes-menagerie]

.....it's happened, I have officially found a smash or pass post with the boiled one

What have I done

It hasn't even been that long but I can tell the Internet will SOMEHOW find a way to make this fucker a Tumblr sexy man.

[dootznbootz]

in fact i am a tall soaked shivering big eyed fluffy noodle. i thought it was obvious??? 🤔

You're one of these fellas who gained sentience and grew big enough to hold a pen.

[meara-eldestofthemall]

This is my late husband Mike's last gift to me. It arrived in the mail this afternoon. Well, I guess it's official. I am the oldest nerd in Ohio.

[groundrunner100]

My Bat Symbol

In celebration of Batman Day, I drew my own Batman symbol.

No references used, completely freestyle. Will probably use it for a Batman drawing down the road.

Happy Batman Day, my fellow Dark Knights & Caped Crusaders!

[aforrestofstuff]

for any batarou shippers who follow me, I'm posting a fic right now called Beware the Kid Who Has Everything. It's a high school au of our favorite boys, and it's currently on chapter 3 of 8.

Here's the link (it's on ao3).

[twistedtummies2]

Year of the Bat - Number 9

Welcome to Year of the Bat! In honor of Kevin Conroy, Arleen Sorkin, and Richard Moll, I’ve been counting down my Top 31 Favorite Episodes of “Batman: The Animated Series” throughout this January.

  TODAY’S EPISODE QUOTE: “So, it wasn’t all for nothing.” Number 9 is…Beware the Gray Ghost!

This is one of the greatest and most renowned episodes of the Animated Series…but as of these recent years, it’s also become one of the most difficult to talk about. In some ways, this episode is even more profoundly impacting now than it ever was before. It’s funny, because the reason(s) for this, I’m sure, will be lost on many future Batman fans; they will never know just how big a deal this episode was when it came out, and how big a deal it is now in this given year. Thankfully, however, those points will not detract from the greatness of this story on its own terms, and a great story is exactly what it is. In this episode, Batman finds out about a series of bombings, committed by a mysterious villain simply referred to as “The Mad Bomber.” He recognizes the crimes as being almost identical, in every way, to the attacks of a fictional villain in a TV series that Bruce Wayne loved dearly as a child, “The Gray Ghost.” To try and solve the case, Batman gets help from the Gray Ghost’s original actor, an aging performer by the name of Simon Trent. Simon has seen better days, as the combo of his typecasting and other personal issues have led to him falling on hard times, and he’s grown bitter about the role that once made him a household name. Batman must find a way to not only stop the Mad Bomber, but reinvigorate Trent’s spirits, as he teams with the Gray Ghost himself to end the crime spree.

Much like the later “Legends of the Dark Knight,” this is an episode that essentially pays homage to Batman’s roots, but in a much more subtle way. I guess I can’t go any further without bringing up the big point: the voice of Simon Trent. It’s none other than Adam West: the original 1960s Batman. The creators of B:TAS were huge fans of the original Adam West series, and odes and homages to the show are sprinkled throughout, some more obvious than others. Trent’s character is one of the biggest examples, as his fictional foibles are a sort of exaggerated mirror of how West’s own career and life went after the 60s series ended. It goes even deeper than that, however: the Gray Ghost himself is a thinly-veiled parody of The Shadow, a character I’ve mentioned many times in the past, who was one of the main inspirations for Batman as a character. (The first Batman comic ever made was an outright ripoff of a Shadow story. No joke, look it up.) Even the villain of the piece feels more like something out of the Shadow than your typical Batman tale, let alone the silly sixties. It’s a double-homage, in a sense, to two great influences on the creators of B:TAS.

This is also what makes the episode hard to watch now: Adam West has been dead for only a few years now, yet, and Kevin Conroy’s passing is still even more painfully recent. You can’t watch this episode as a Batman fan without feeling a sort of pang, realizing not only the significance of two of the greatest Batmen in history onscreen together, but the fact that both are no longer with us. In a weird way, though, that makes the episode even more powerful, because of what the whole story is really about: nostalgia. The way nostalgia effects all three of the main characters in the story – Batman, the Gray Ghost, and the Mad Bomber alike – is a BIG part of this story. Trent is someone who tries to shun the past, who feels pained when he looks back, and has to come to terms with the fact the world has changed, and he has to change, too. He’s haunted by the role that made him once iconic, while also dealing with the issue of being seemingly obsolete, no longer sure of who he is or what his life has truly become. The Bomber, meanwhile, is the opposite extreme: without giving away who it is, it’s someone who clings TOO CLOSE to the past, and to the things they loved in youth, and that obsession drives them to toxic self-destruction, not to mention acts of cruelty and spite. It’s probably not a coincidence that Bruce Timm, one of the show’s creators – a fan of the 60s series – plays this character; a sort of self-parody in the form of the world’s most unsettling fanboy.

It's Batman himself who shows the value of nostalgia and the balance of where it needs to fall: he clings close to his past, as we know, and the Gray Ghost character and series is revealed to be no exception. But he doesn’t allow these things to rule him or destroy him. For people who grew up with Kevin Conroy and Adam West alike, this episode shows just what made both of them such special actors, and reminds us of why both of their respective takes on Batman were so interesting, while also providing a fascinating story that combines all kinds of tonal elements to create an intriguing and entertaining tale. But above all, it serves as a lesson in the dangers and the values of what we keep close in our memories. I think it’s fair to say that everything about this episode – it’s actors, it’s inspirations, and the series it hails from – will be a treasured, nostalgic memory for many years to come.

Tomorrow we move on with Number 8! Hint: “But they share my unique face! Colonel Whathisname has chickens, and they don't even have moustaches!"