#coworker approved

[ferniliciousness]

I never want to look at another bg again

[mintytealfox]

I no likey the 'misunderstanding trope' unless I am the one behind the wheel PFFF

ye its THAT au again heh

there is more to the flower that Norton has and why its important 😏 I want to try and draw the lead up to this but if I don't then I will write it out

[welcometogrouchland]

Batman #149 by chip zdarsky is mostly unremarkable, but I'm really fascinated by how it makes a great case for 'good' endings not saving 'bad' stories*. Because there's a lot of interesting concepts in this issue (bruce having to deal with his rapidly aging and decaying clone making him think about his own life, re-establishing a 'nest' so to speak for his family after pushing them away, etc) but bc of the OOC slog that came before it, almost every moment w/ the batfamily comes off as unearned and disingenuous imo.

Like, everything with Damian is the perfect example in this. Because in isolation it's...fine. admittedly it's a missed opportunity to not go deeper into how Damian would feel about a clone of his dad who tried to kill considering Damian's relationships with clones of himself (the heretic rejects and respawn) or with former enemies who wanted him dead but who were manipulated and/or brainwashed (like suren and maya).

Zdarsky doesn't go into any of this but you could maybe excuse it as the issue not being about Damian. However, coupled with the previous bizarre characterizations of Damian in 147 and 148, it ends up not being fine- instead it starts to feel...icky how Damian (who, despite often being drawn and written as white, will never have his connection to the non-white al ghuls forgotten and will always be effected by racism even when not portrayed as a poc) is constantly written as overly violent, uncaring and narrow minded in this run. Coupled w/ trying to recanonize the morrison origin for Damian it's like. OH this is badly written and laden with subtle bigotry, sick**

That's me going into detail on it with Damian but it's applicable to other things in this issue- the way Cass, Steph and Duke have all been ignored or turned into jobbers makes their inclusion in the 'family' here feel hollow instead of satisfying. Bruce proclaiming that Zur was still a part of him and he needs to accept responsibility for his actions (when it means taking in clone son) wrings hollow when just last issue zdarsky was bending over backwards to separate Bruce and Zur bc otherwise the Jason thing would get really awkward. Ends are achieved through means that feel hollow or strange. I'm at my destination but damn why'd the bus have to do all that???

I only really have opinions on this latest arc of zdarskys Batman bc it's the one I've read the closest (bc I'm a hater, masochist and avid follower of even the bad damian storylines) but it's not saying great things.

Bc zdarsky can do one thing good in this book, and it's write Bruce and Tim. And yet this entire story, whether of his own volition or editorial mandate, includes other characters who aren't Bruce and Tim, the fabric starts to unravel in very telling ways.

(p.s, I think pennyworth manor is an interesting idea but I feel like in execution it's just gonna be 'bruce living in a house haunted by the memory of the people he couldn't save' but with a different dead guy this time. Illusion of change and whatnot)

*whether or not the ending is good is up to you ofc, as is your opinion on the proceeding arc! I saw some ppl complain that the ending was too "WFA" for them, which I get even if I dont think it'll literally be the same premise. If anything it's probably a lead into the new tec run. Likewise many ppl who aren't in the weeds of Damian and Jason characterization liked the previous arc! But I have my opinions and rest my case before the bench

**disclaimer, I'm white and portrayals of bigotry in comics are complicated and subjective, but I am basing my point here off what other poc comic fans on socmed have been saying about 149. Also the "sick" is sarcasm incase that wasn't obvious

[erikahenningsen]

[butch-himbo-king]

giving up being masc in 2024 i can’t handle everyone and their mother deciding they can say whatever unhinged shit their repressed horny brains are saying abt me it’s too much i’m retiring from serving butch realness cause these bitches can’t handle it

[redemptior]

work today almost killed me gamers

[omtai]

work blows they put me on the main tills and i literally haven’t been on the main tills since i started so i have forgotten everything beyond scan things i feel dumb

[yogsothott]

On one hand, friends exploring their gender is a cool and joyful thing, on the other every time it makes the "cis person who geuinely sees me as a man not an oddity they gotta play along with to be nice (or even bc they care)" goes back to being my white whale.

[comfortlesshurt]

brutally reminded that somewhere out there is a physical copy of an absolutely terrible detective conan genderbend au i wrote when i was like 12

i am not thriving today so here's a tag rant

[shamblz]

Getting up at 5.45 tomorrow to go to a work seminar in Manchester at 9 to hopefully get back home for around 6.30 so I have time to make it to Leicester so I can go cinema with my mum and watch the Edward Scissorhands ballet broadcast at 7 so I can get back home for probably around 11pm so I can go to bed and get up for work again the next day at 6.55

[summoningspark]

happy new year i got so weird and i'm going to continue getting even weirder

[erikahenningsen]

[i-am-agent-washingtub]

Took my little brother to school with me and all he did was nibble my homework >:(

[permanentreverie]

feeling like the loneliest girl in the world

[dentist-brainsurgeon]

In real life news I, and several coworkers got to be a lab rat for a seemingly new gift card scam.

Guy come in, grab visa gift cards, ask for $250 each specifically to be put on them, and they pay with a very suspicious looking credit card that processes very slowly, then bam, gift card "paid" for. I was suspicious of this already, but then I look over at my coworker a few registers away and she also had some guy ask for $250 on a gift card, told a coworker about it and he says someone did the same thing at self checkout yesterday, $250 again, and also had a slow processing time, and not too long ago another coworker had the same thing happen at self checkout and messaged us about it. I'm not sure how this scam works but, this is the first time I've seen something like it