#dcu center

[guardian-of-time-and-space]

i NEED Robert Pattinsons Batman to be in the DCU because I desperately need to see battinson and corensupes recreating this scene! 😭

[selkie-on-land]

I tried to watch avengers assemble (the animated series). At first I wanted to watch it for Black Widow but I'm so disappointed and angry at it. She's an avenger, one of the first one actually, she built the team with Fury and Coulson but as always, it's a male only show : all the characters are exclusively male, and sometimes for a few seconds, when they need a damsel in distress, there is a woman screaming or she finally appears! Only to be there for at most 2 minutes in the whole episode (25 minutes) and only maybe 2 or 3 episodes. Even the new guy who is not an avenger yet but is becoming one get more screen time and line and everything actually than her an actual avenger.

This is infuriating! Not just about her character lack of screen time, she often doesn't talk either, just appearance time to time, she is so invisible and reduce as a poor damsel in distress.

I'm so so so sick of this !!! Of this male only society, the entire planet is already practicing separatism, everything is male only. And if you dare create one female character even if she has one second of time screen then all the trash are screaming and crying that they are erased and replaced by those *Misogynistic insult*. It is truly sickening to live in a world where you are not supposed to even exist but your people is the one creating the entire humanity.

I crave to have shows where there is not a single male in it !! But if you dare say so, you're a terrorist blablabla. The entire world is already like this and it doesn't bother anyone! But when it's about the invisible humanity, females, then it's an outrage to the world ??? Having female representation is categorised as hatred or hate speech. 💀

''How dare you allowing those things to be there in our things and to show that they actually exists!!?''

The entire society is applying DARVO on us, this is gaslight, this is manipulation. We are not the one who genocide half the humanity that birthed us just because they exist. Male are. Every media, every movie, every song they create is built on their hate towards us, every thing they do is created only to full their hate speech Agenda.

The only few shows dominantly with females characters are the Barbies ones, the animated movies.

In all the Disney etc movies, the ''princess'' or female lead doesn't have any female friends, her only possible friends are all male. (Except some rare exceptions)

In the 101 Dalmatians, the only female one is only there because they needed a mother role to birth all of them !! That's her only purpose 💀

In the aristocats, the strays one should be all females, the male one are very similar to the humans too, the female too, they tend to bond and to live together with their kittens and the male are excluded. The adult males don't bond they fight eachother, they kill eachother. So a made up family of Stray cats can only exists if they are all females.

Same in the Lion King, the male are excluded and not the leader or king of anything. The lionesses are the Queens.

Female friendship or sisterhood is inexistant unless it's for serving the sole purpose of misogynistic agents like peak me etc.

If you know movies or shows centered around women and girls please comments/share it !

I hope it's not the dystopian movie where there is no man left on earth ... Like we deserve to have representation, real one, not post apocalyptic one ...

So far I've got :

Barbie's animated movies

The Tinkerbell movies

She Ra (the reboot I didn't watch the original)

Marvel Rising saga

Supergirl (it's not exclusively female but the accent is put on them, minus for the TWAW speech)

Agatha All Along (even tho the only boy got more attention and get to have an entire episode focused exclusively on him while the other women including the main character have to share the few minutes of the episode 🙄)

Tell it to the bees

Portrait d'une jeune fille en feu

Ocean 8

The L world

[kingdomcomicscenter-blog]

[sunmaylight]

Shazam/Captain Marvel (DCU) x FGO Idea

Something I’ve been on and off writing plot points of is a DC Comic x FGO crossover idea where Billy Batson (Captain Marvel/Shazam) is the Master of Chaldea.

Now my knowledge of Billy Batson isn’t that great but I’ve done some research on this character to think he would be a good idea. Plus his connection to the Rock of Eternity and Shazam/Captain Marvel transformation opens up a nice can of worms. Even if my knowledge of Fate Series is mostly FGO and watching some of the Fate shows.

Anyways, Chaldea Master Billy Batson but he doesn’t transform into Shazam during the Singularities except for the Final Singularity. Also Constantine is there cause I like the fanfic author’s dynamics between him and Billy.

Some info of this crossover idea below

Premise is that Billy has been a Justice League member of the Justice League since he was 10 and been Shazam since he was 9 years old. His age and identity has been revealed when he is 12 because of a mission going wrong.

Here is a very small blurb of the Prologue (Singularity F) Section I wrote when I was writing this idea. It explains a the reason Billy is at Chaldea

Billy was 12 years old when he was chosen as the last Master of Humanity. 12 when he started a long battle to save humanity, 13 when he was bestowed the ranking of Cause, 14 when the last Epic of Remnant was taken care of. The battles he faces as Captain Marvel and Billy are nothing compared to what he experienced during the time spent with Chaldea.

Three years of war, hardship, struggle, death, life, joy, experience, companionship, and love.

This is his story of his time with Chaldea.

——

It’s been about a month since Billy revealed his true identity to the Justice League, two years since he was recruited into the Justice League, and three years since he was given the powers of Shazam. Yet, ever since they found out about his true age, Billy has been treated as- as a kid! Instead of a respected Superhero and “co-worker”, as the others put it, before his reveal.

At first he didn’t mind, but the longer it went on, the more he became sick of it. He needed a break.

His answer came as a call from John Constantine about requesting assistance for a job outside Fawcett City. Not as Captain Marvel, but as Billy Batson. Billy was curious about the distinction between the two identities, but agreed to it in the end. Fawcett City and the Justice League would be fine without him for a couple of days. Right?

If Billy could jump back to this exact point in time, he would have told his past self that it is actually longer than a couple of days.

In this AU, Zatanna is the on originally tasked by the Justice League Dark to observe Chaldea’s First Rayshift and give back a report. However, something comes up for her as the days dwindle down to the First Rayshift. She contacts John Constantine to go to Chaldea in place of her and he accepts.

Constantine remembers how Billy isn’t doing so well after the identity reveal and decides to bring him along. He contacts the boy under the guise of needing assistance that Captain Marvel can only help with. Billy agrees and the respective parties of Justice League Dark and Chaldea are contacted about this change. Which is also verified by Zatanna to avoid any breaches of security.

As John Constantine and Billy Batson prepare for the trip to Chaldea. Constantine stresses to Billy that he is at Chaldea as his ward and not Captain Marvel. The adult also tells Billy that he shouldn’t transform into Captain Marvel unless strictly necessary.

“Think of this as a learning experience for when you need to go to some magic place as Billy instead of Cap. You need to build some rep, kid. Here is a great place to do so”

Which Billy begrudgingly accepts the reasoning.

Which then leads to Billy and Constantine in Chaldea. Where Billy is immediately separated from Constantine somehow and is whisked away by Chaldea Staff to the Simulation Room. John Constantine lowkey panics over his ward’s disappearance while Billy goes through the FGO demo fight after realizing that he can’t get out any other way without exposing his Superhero alias.

Billy exist the Simulation Room and has the canon prologue interaction with Mash, Fou and Lev. Except that Lev gives Billy a piggyback ride to the entrance Rayshift Room. Lev’a reasoning is that it is faster than waiting for Billy’s short legs to keep up. It has nothing to do with the faintly familiar feeling of Solomon that the demon inside of him feels towards the young boy

Upon entering the Rayshift Room, Billy and Constantine meets each others eyes and is basically this

Then the meeting starts and Billy feels the magical exhaustion on him. The young boy is kicked out and is told to rest. Constantine volunteers to help Billy “like a Hero would do”. Which is instead a stressful conversation between the two on the way to Billy’s room on how did Billy end up in this situation.

After dropping Billy off, Constantine heads back to the Rayshift Room. When Billy is about to enter, he feels a pulse of familiarity on whoever is waiting on the other side of the room and when it opens to reveal Dr. Romani, Billy is relieved, disappointed, and a foreign feeling of surprise not his own.

Then the whole Rayshift disaster happens but Constantine survived it with a bit more of Chaldea Staff than FGO canon because of Constantine’s quick reactions.

When Billy ends up at Singularity F, he realizes that he can’t transform into Captain Marvel and scrambles to learn how to play the support role as a Master Candidate.

Lots of events happen and in the end, Billy realizes that he has to help Chaldea with the Singularities as himself instead of Justice League member Captain Marvel. Anticipation, excitement, fear and worry flood his veins as he goes on a journey of self-discovery and what it means to him to be a hero and magic user Billy Batson.

——

That is basically what I have for the beginning of it all without divulging into the main story of FGO.

Few other things I want to mention about this AU/Crossover idea

Billy can’t transform into Captain Marvel during the Singularities.

This is to make sure that Humanity is judged by themselves and not through the “Blessed Human of the Gods”. Also if Captain Marvel is in a Singularity for a prolonged period of time, the Singularity may destabilize and that would be an entirely new threat that no one is equipped to deal with. Plus Billy hasn’t made a contract with Shazam at any point when the Singularities happen. So no transformation but the Gods can send messages into Billy’s head/influence him to an extent.

The Gods look at Billy during the Rayshifts as “Ah, yes. Master of Chaldea. How can we assist you and have fun on your journey to restoring Humanity’s growth past 201x?” and “Who is this child that feels like blessings we don’t remember gifting? He feels nostalgic and anticipated. We shall send impressions on him to know that he has our support”

During the present day, Billy can transform into Captain Marvel whenever he pleases.

Summoning Servants

((Edit: added the Roman Servants cause I forgot about them when making this post somehow 😖))

When Billy can perform his first summoning, Medea is the first Servant to answer his call. Then later in Chaldea, Heracles is able to answer and followed by Artemis-Orion after the dumpling event. Chaldea notices how Greek Servants flock to Billy and wonder why.

Their curiosity grows as Roman Servants follow soon after. Romulus and Nero dot on the boy like their own kin. While Caesar flaunts like a peacock to impress an oblivious Billy whenever he gets the chance to in battle. Which is something that the Chaldea Staff did not need to see.

When Billy reveals himself to be Captain Marvel with the blessings of Greek and Roman Gods, then Chaldea understands that this boys is a walking catalyst for any Greek and Roman Servant.

State of John Constantine

John Constantine is in a coma after the explosion. He doesn’t wake up until the middle of the Okeanos Singularity. Has an internal breakdown when learning about the state of the world. Swears a storm when he realizes that Billy is going through Singularities as himself and can’t transform into Captain Marvel for extra protection.

When he recovered enough, he sets himself up as the main Justice League representative and starts building a report to give to the League. Hopefully this will help Chaldea from being perceived as a threat under the eyes of the Justice League and give them some protection. Everyone at Chaldea deserves it when (if) they are able to clear the Singularities and restore Earth to how it was before.

In the meantime, Constantine helps out where he can around Chaldea. But mainly watches over Billy to make sure he is doing alright outside of Singularities. During Singularities, he observes with the rest of the Chaldea Staff. Takes over for Dr. Romani and Da Vinci when there are pockets of travel/downtime in the Singularities for the two to rest a bit.

In the Minute Singularities, Constantine is sometimes dragged into them if the Threat level isn’t too high. Why? Completely by accident via Chaldea Servant chaos. He would be also traumatized by the Halloween Singularities if it wasn’t for the good alcohol in them.

Situation with the Watchtower

Since the Watchtower is in space, and farther away from any satellites, it isn’t affected by the mass sleeping effect on Earth. But in turn, anyone on Earth is affected by the sleeping effect. Meaning Superman, Impulse, Martians, etc. are affected. Normally that wouldn’t be a problem, but when the phenomenon on Earth happened, most of the Superheroes and vigilantes are on Earth to deal with a major problem.

Who is left in the Watchtower while Chaldea clears the Singularities depends on the writer. For me, I think Black Canary, Dolphin, Martian Manhunter, Donna, the Outlaws (old and new), and most if not all of the Earth Lanterns. Plus some Heroes who have future vision/clairvoyance high enough to notice a disaster swiftly approaching and have enough time to get to a Zeta Tube.

—

Well this is it for now. Might make a part two depending on how I feel.

[ovilusphoninghome]

HEY UM!!

OKAY SO

I’m writing a new Batfamily Fanfiction! ! !

I’d like to finish it before the hyper fixation dies soo we’ll see how that goes.

I’ll probably make some more stuff for this Au!

Soo stay tuned?

[gothaminsurance]

The only required reading in the batman fandom should be one solo book with a superhero that has nothing to do with the bat family.

[puppetmaster13u]

@f4nd0m-fun here (I hope they allow us to ask with secondary blogs soon)

Just how wild do you like your Batfam cryptids? I've got ideas for days.

One is a wing fic where all the bats essentially end up half demon. Thomas and Martha make a deal with Alfred to help fix the city and clean up the curses and everything, and. Alfred asks for 'the souls of your descendants' at the point, not caring much for humanity but hoping to get ahead of those pesky demons in his soul collection (so and so said he has Constantine's soul but that's only a piece! What about a bunch of souls that have been tainted by the spirit of a city that has never had reason to hope? Now those are some rare and dark souls).

The Waynes were hoping he'd take their souls instead but he refuses (maybe they're too full of hope or something) but, over time, he grows attached and ends up giving Bruce a shard of his power, allowing him to transform into a demonic winged form based on an animal for his protection after his parents die. When he's young the form is a snowy owl, but once he come back and became Batman his wings have changed. Each of the babies is the same way. As Robin, they gain their baby wings, but, once they move to a new name, their wings evolve.

'The Demon's Head' isn't just a fancy title, the Al'ghul's are demon descended, so Damien is at least a quarter demon even at the beginning, but Alfred's power can't be passed genetically like they thought, so he was born grounded. In this, he shows up sooner, Talkia asking Jason to take Damien with him to his father since she knows her father will kill him for being wingless.

Tim, poor baby. He couldn't fly as Robin because his wings were a shattered mimicry of Jason's Robin wings. He felt like he was in the shadow of the previous Robin, making the 'replacement' nickname sting even more, but, eventually, he grows into the wings of a cardinal and learns to fly.

I'm not sure if Alfred marks Barbara as his person, but if not, maybe he regrets not doing so, thinking that she might not have ended up paralyzed if he'd given her power. But also she's not really considered a 'Wayne descendant' life the kids Bruce adopted, so he'd have to directly make the deal with her. Maybe he does this with Stephanie when she comes along, still thinking about how Barbara might've been better off with a deal. Also, he keeps trying to hold off on gathering their souls because he's grown attached. I figure he'd probably end up wanting to turn them into proper demons too tho when they eventually die but, for now, until the city has been restored (if it ever will be), the Batfam is essentially immortal, and Alfred might be pulling some strings so no one realizes the Waynes are as well. As a side note, I debated Alfred x Lady Gotham for this story.

-

Then I had a dpxdc version of this where the wings were still demonic in origin but basically Scarecrow and Bruce are many many family lines removed cousins from an ancestor who was siblings with Jack Nightingale. On top of that, Danny had wings but they got charred when he was electrocuted. This one also has Clock x Pariah and they have wings due to something to do with ghosts, Danny gets a cloak made out of their feathers while his ghost side slowly grows its own wings (but he'll never have wings as a living again).

-----

Sorry for the long send, I got a bit carried away, but if you want I can dig up my AU again and share what I have for the wings at least, not sure what else I've got written down.

#colony of bats AU

Honestly I love both of these ideas, but what if they were say, combined.

Alfred gifts Bruce a shard of his power- everyone knows the Waynes have wings, even if in most cases too small to fly. But the wings are feathered, usually bright and flashy for the men who inherit the trait.

Which means they're very identifiable. But like you said, Alfred gets (ugh) attached to this little mortal. He's practically raised him and honestly thinks it's adorable watching him manipulate the other richfolk at galas into thinking he's such a "polite young man." Bruce is practically his baby!

So he gifts him a bit of his blood (which we know via Constantine can extend ones lifespan including giving them a bit of healing) and an itty bitty piece of his own power. Just enough for Bruce to be able to willingly call upon it. Just enough for him to disappear into shadows. Just enough for his eyes to gain a hint of an unholy glow. Just enough for a hint of claws. Just enough for feathered wings to shift into jagged mimicries of his own.

You know what could be an interesting thing? The wings are Realms in origin. We know the FentonNightingales separated into the Fentons and Nightingales some time after Jack, so whose to say that the Nightingales didn't get into magic. Perhaps they were given a gift to thank them after a bit of protection or assistance. And the infinite realms are well, infinite. It attaches to all worlds, including say the more demonic ones. But whose to say none of the Fentons made a deal or three in the generations following. They were witch hunters after all, perhaps they need something to keep up with the "traitors" of their bloodline.

Perhaps a deal which resulted in those matching wings.

Now, how could they find out their relation with the Fentons? While there could be the adoption route, what if instead it was right after Danny's accident.

He died screaming, visibly got electrocuted, his wings are torched, there's no way they're not taking him to the hospital. Which means things like blood tests, maybe even a donated organ or two because someone doesn't get blasted with that much electricity without consequences.

Which, it's the batfamily, they definitely have alarms set up for any sort of family pings for both themselves and their rogues. Just in case.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Also had no idea where to put it but if this includes demons and ghosts feeding on fear, or emotions in general, then Scarecrow could be instinctively attempting to feed and grow his wings. Also he deserves raven or rook wings. Maybe a jay's if you wanna go for color.

Oh my gosh, even if Alfred and Gotham don't get together, they definitely have tea together and spar. They're definitely co-parenting either platonically or romantically, it doesn't matter this is their specialist lil boy. Who then brings even more of the specialist lil ones ever!

God I love the implications of Clockwork and Pariah creating a cloak of wings for a ghostling for them to use as their feathers slowly grow back. Love what that implies for the culture of the ghost zone. Love the idea of it maybe having an influence on Danny's wings in ghost form since a ghost's appearance is influenced by their image about themself.

[protectingmyalgorithm]

can anyone tell me specifically what pisses them off about fanon batfam? what people get wrong? i need to know this stuff for my crossover au im writing (the amount of comics is really daunting to me, but im trying to read some!)

[zithcavooris]

If it wasn't cheating of me to post that rough draft as a drawing-a-day yesterday, I'm pretty sure it's cheating for me to post the line art the very next day. Sue me.

[escelia]

New Sibling Just Dropped

Or Danny gets willingly isekai'd into the DCU and gets a twin out of it.

I know I disappeared from the face of the earth for a bit there, and there's stuff I should probably be updating, but I come baring different stuff this time :D

Just started this for fun, and I have at least one other chapter of it done, but idk how long this bout of inspiration will last, so I'm just rolling with it for now.

@flamingpudding look! i pulled a jason todd and rose from the grave!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Danny was tired. The kind of tired you felt behind your eyes and in your bones, and weighed heavy with achievement. He was perched on the edge of a building in his ghost form looking over Amity Park with a soft smile as he watched Youngblood run through the park with human children, Cujo playfully on their heels. His galaxy cloak (which had been a coronation gift) billowed around his lap like a gas with stars twinkling inside. 

It had been a few years now since he took up the Crown of Fire and became High King of the Infinite Realms, and while he had accomplished many things since then, graduating from high school wasn't something on that list. It sucked that he wouldn't get to walk across the stage with Sam and Tucker, but in the face of all he'd been able to do for both Amity and the Infinite Realms, it was worth it. They coexisted now. There was still trouble every now and then, but Danny had helped the ghosts who insisted on staying in Amity Park find a place in their city where they could thrive.

Youngblood watched over the children of the city, Box Ghost started a box recycling center, Lunch Lady started a program to get food to families that couldn't afford it, and Pointdexter started reporting bullying at the school since he was already there. 

On the Realms' side, Danny shut down Walker's prison. Since it was his lair, he couldn't take it away from him completely, but it no longer housed the many ghosts the warden had considered "rule breakers." He'd given Walker a new set of rules to enforce and essentially took him under his wing as a royal soldier, kept under the close watch of Fight Knight, who'd defected from Pariah Dark so fast after his defeat that it was laughable. 

He'd done something similar with Skulker, though he was a harder case to crack. Unlike Walker, who was happy as long as he had a set of rules to enforce, Skulker wanted to keep hunting. He'd been recruited forcefully by Walker and Fright Knight after they caught him on his way to fight Danny again.

All in all, everything had begun to run smoothly now. The fatigue weighing on him reminded him that it had been hard to accomplish, and continuing to lead his double life hadn't made it any less exhausting. A cold breath rushed through his chest as he felt a familiar presence slide up next to him. 

"You didn't time out," Danny pointed out without looking to face the ghost beside him. Clockwork hummed in acknowledgment.

"Sometimes it's pleasant to watch time flow in person." It was Danny's turn to hum at him. 

"How are you feeling?" The Ancient asked thoughtfully. The younger ghost tilted his head pensively. 

"It's hard to say. I'm tired, but I'm happy. And also sad..." he paused to gather his thoughts. "I feel like I've done everything I needed to."

But not everything he wanted to do. 

"Go on," Clockwork pressed. The teenager did turn his head now to make a face at his mentor. If the guy knew how he felt and what he was going to say, why would he say it out loud? But the other just arched a brow at him and waited.

"Fine," he pouted. "I've spent so much time and energy finding places for everyone here. The GIW are gone, my parents stopped hunting ghosts, Jazz got into the psychology program at Stanford, Sam and Tucker are graduating today... I helped make that happen, I know I did! But they're moving on without me. They're growing up and I don't feel like I am."  

'I don't feel like I'm ready.'

Danny stopped to take a breath and wipe away the icy tears gathering in his eyes. He felt stupid for crying over it. He was 17 for Ancients' sake! Jazz would have told him he grew up too fast, but he still felt like a child. He had no idea what he was doing! And yet! And yet... he felt...

"But you also feel ancient, right? Like you've been around too long and seen too much?" Clockwork said as though he were reading from a script. Danny sulked. Stupid time ghost with his dumb Time Stream TV or whatever. 

"Yeah..."

"All Ancients feel that way. Though you may be feeling unbalanced in more ways than one because of how young you died and the fact you are half human."

"What do you mean?" Danny turned his whole body to face him now, tucking his knees under his chin and circling his arms around them. His cloak moved with him in inky black wisps and settled around him again like clouds of galaxies. 

Clockworks form shifted to that of a child.

"You feel young because you died young. However, it is the nature of humans to grow and change. While you may have died at 14, your childhood died before that. You yearn to grow and learn, while also being an incredibly powerful Ancient."

He supposed that made sense. He recalled all the years cleaning the lab before the portal had even been built, and the fighting and neglect (Jazz's words, not his) that spawned his disdain of Christmas even longer before. He wanted to go back to school. He wanted a reason to love Christmas. He wanted pets and family dinners that didn't come alive. He wanted to grow up properly.

"But you still want to help people," the ghost said as though Danny had been talking out loud or having his mind read. 

"I hate it when you do that," Danny complained. Clockwork just smiled smugly.

"I know." He laughed at the glare Danny threw him. 

"I have a proposition for you," the older ghost began. Danny perked up in intrigue. "I know of another earth dimension with some problems that need to be addressed. Your role as High King puts you in a position to be helpful."

"Their problem has to do with the Realms?"

"In a manner of speaking, yes. Ectoplasm from the Realms is pooling into what are referred to on their planet as Lazarus Pits. They are both helpful and harmful as they do not dissipate into the air so they continually collect and concentrate emotion, but they do sometimes revive the dead."

Danny grimaced in disgust at the thought of dunking a person into a stagnant pool of contaminated ectoplasm. "That sounds disgusting."

"Quite," Clockwork agreed. 

"So what's your proposition?"

"Well, if it is agreeable to you, I would like to de-age your physical form and place you with a family that's had dealings with the Pits firsthand. I've found them to be quite charming." 

"Ah, so you want me to go in undercover?" Danny couldn't help but roll his eyes a little. It wasn't a half bad idea. He could try his hand at childhood again and still get to handle his duties as King Phantom. Leading a double life again would be easy enough, it was just stepping from one role into another. 

"Not at all." Clockwork smiled knowingly. Danny was officially suspicious of his ghost guardian. "This planet has had all kinds of dealings with the occult, and even humans with superpowers isn't that unusual. While I would advise against telling anyone you are a king right away, you are in fact just that: a king. You may do what you wish." 

For an ancient and wise time ghost, Danny thought Clockwork was really shit at hiding his expressions. Though he tried to keep the grin off his face, Danny could clearly see the twitching of his lips and gleam in his eyes that promised the old man was scheming. 

But to get his childhood back. Or, at least a semblance of one... it deserved consideration. Danny looked back out at the cityscape again. Sam and Tucker... they were down there graduating from high school without him. He'd been the one to encourage them to pull away from Team Phantom activities to zero in on their studies, but he didn't regret it. Sam wanted to major in environmental science and Tucker wanted to go to MIT and he just didn't fit into those plans. After Jazz left for Stanford, his parents often forgot he was still there. He'd managed to convince them to study ghosts properly instead of hunting them, and with a little help from the "friendly ghost King Phantom" they were given a place to start. They dove into their research with the same excitement and fervor they'd had all their lives. Which of course meant he went days, sometimes weeks, without seeing them emerge from the lab. It was easy enough to slip past them to the portal while they were distracted. 

The point was that he'd started to feel his anchor to this city, to this realm, start to dissipate as the people who kept him there started to break away from him. He still loved them, wanted to protect them, but they were safe and happy now. He felt fulfilled in his task of protecting them, but there was a buzzing beneath his skin to do more. 

Danny took a deep and controlled breath. He didn't need it in his ghost form, but it felt good to feel his lungs stretch to fullness. 

"When would I start?" He asked finally. The straight face Clockwork had been trying to keep, and he really was so bad at it, finally broke into a wide grin. 

"Right now. Everything is already in place and your duties in the Realms will be taken care of in your absence." 

Danny smiled softly at his guardian. Clockwork sure had a funny way of showing it, but he cared so deeply for the boy next to him that when Danny responded with a bad pun, he couldn't even be annoyed. 

"Well, no time like the present!" He winked.

Clockwork chuckled, and with a flash of light, he sent Danny on his way. 

The more time the older ghost spent with his young ward, the more he appreciated him. The Danny he’d come to know was nothing like the Danny’s from other worlds he’d encountered while trying to prevent Dan from existing. His Danny was now truly one of a kind. None of the others, not even the ones that eventually turned into Dan, had been Ancients. There would never be another Danny like him, and every universe was adjusting to include him should he ever decide to visit them. He had a place in any world, should he choose, but Clockwork knew he was needed most in the one he’d sent him to. It would be truly entertaining to watch the young Ancient settle into his role there, and Clockwork was actually finding himself looking forward to it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was dark and quiet a long while before Danny opened his eyes. And when he did open them it got really loud and really bright really fast. It belatedly occurred to him that he should have asked like a billion more questions before agreeing to be iseaki’d into a different dimension to join a family he knew literally nothing about. 

There was shouting before someone in what looked like a ninja cult uniform shoved a knife into his hand and pushed him in the path of a person in a different uniform. The man in front of him was dressed in blue and black and wearing a mask that covered his eyes, but Danny could see the surprised shape of his mouth before it morphed into something like anger. And then he was being lunged at.

He shrieked as he dodged out of the way. Not his most graceful save, but whatever. His voice was a bit shrill and his center of gravity felt way off. He must have actually been de-aged! He wondered how old he was now. He still felt light on his feet thanks to his ghost half which felt blessedly intact. But the other guy was fast and he ducked into a roll just in time to dodge whatever weapon he was holding. This guy meant business, but he had no idea why he was trying to kill him. 

‘Great, thanks Grandfather Clock for throwing me right back into the good ol’ days,’ he thought sarcastically. Nobody had attacked him for no good reason like that since Walker and Fright caught Skulker mid hunt for the very last time. 

What he now saw was a baton swung down from overhead and Danny knew he wouldn't dodge it in time, so he caught it with the flat of the blade that had been shoved into his hands.

“Wait! Why are we fighting?” Danny yelled, panicked as the guy pushed more force into it. The man's face twisted into something like confusion for a moment and he backed off just the tiniest bit before the scuffing of shoes to his right had him looking over just in time to see another guy in a mask, this time in red, rushing at him. He threw his hands up in surrender. 

“Wait!” He shrieked before he was absolutely bodied sideways into the ground. 

Why was he doing this? He was half ghost, he could have just gone intangible and disappeared. He didn't have to be body slammed into the ground. Wasn't he a child now? Did that guy in red actually just slam a whole child into the ground? 

“Red, hold on! This one's different!” 

“What do you mean?” The guy Red asked. He was still pinning Danny to the ground.

“Yeah, what do you mean?” Danny asked breathlessly, then whimpered, “Someone please tell me what's going on!” 

The one hovering over him must have seen something on his face that convinced him to not try and kill him anymore, because he grabbed him by the collar and started dragging him along. 

“We'll take him in for questioning. Don't let Robin see him.”

“Who's Robin?!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It had been a long, arduous, and confusing journey from wherever they were to… well, wherever they were now. They'd blindfolded him for the transport so he still had no idea what was going on. He had learned that the guy with batons was Nightwing, and Red was actually Red Robin. The one they called Robin was a feral looking thing with swords, he was very small and stabby. Then there was Batman, and he totally threw off the whole bird theme but was easily the most intimidating. And that was all he knew so far. He'd been restrained at an interrogation table. 

Danny groaned and knocked his forehead onto the table. He really, really wished he'd asked Clockwork more questions. He'd at least been able to catch a glimpse of himself in the glass behind Batman. He looked like he was eleven or twelve again, which was not as young as he'd been expecting, but much more preferable than being a literal toddler. The group of people he’d been brought in by seemed to be heroes. They were all incredibly weary of him, but hadn’t gone out of their way to harm him since his capture. Though it was hard to call it a capture when there wasn’t a chase involved. 

“How old are you?” Batman asked suddenly. His voice was low and rough and somehow Danny could tell it didn't sound like that naturally. 

“Um, maybe eleven or twelve?” Danny replied carefully, picking up his head from the table and having the decency to look a little embarrassed. 

“And what's your name?” He looked like he was expecting something.

“My name is Danny, sir.” 

“Hmm…” 

It was quiet and awkward for a long moment.

“Why are you different from the other clones?” 

“Yeeeaaah, I'm not a clone.” Danny absolutely did not jump when the brute slammed the file folder shut in front of him. 

“We'll see what your DNA results have to say about that,” he said confidently before turning to leave, his cape dramatically flaring out behind him.

Sheesh, and he thought he’d had a flair for the dramatics.

‘Okay, time for some assessment,’ Danny thought to himself as he looked around the small closed room. It was soundproofed incredibly well. While he didn’t have super crazy hearing, it was enhanced by his ghost half, and combined with his other sharp senses, it tended to help him gather more information than others could. The most he could hear outside the room was a quiet hum of activity and nothing discernible. Still, he needed to decide how much he would say to these people. How much truth did he want to weave into his tale? These people clearly already had their own assumptions about him in mind, and while there was absolutely nothing wrong with being a clone, he knew he didn’t have what it took to keep up an act like that for long, which would just end up being awkward for everyone. 

He also would not be telling them about his status as Ghost King, per Clockwork’s suggestion. His captors seemed like the uptight sort, and revealing that he was a big, scary ghost monarch didn’t seem like it’d go over well. Telling them he was a halfa would probably get them off his back over the clone thing, at least. He went over the list in his head.

He was a halfa from another dimension, so he couldn’t be a clone.

He had no plans of fighting with anyone unless absolutely necessary. 

He did not have a way back to his other dimension. 

His name was Danny, and he didn’t have a family anymore.

He did not know why he was in the middle of whatever fight he woke up in. 

No, he didn’t know those people.

Danny must’ve been lost in thought for quite a while because his thoughts were interrupted by Batman bursting back through the door. The man’s demeanor had changed completely and he whipped off his cowl to reveal disheveled dark hair, blue eyes, and an expression of absolute heartbreak that accompanied his shuddering breaths. With the mask off, he reminded Danny a lot of his father. 

Batman searched his face and, much like Red Robin had before, seemed to notice something there. 

“She did it twice,” he muttered to himself. “Two of them this whole time and she didn’t tell me about either of them,” he said through gritted teeth. His frown deepened. Danny copied his frown. 

“Hey, are you okay?”

He still had no idea what was going on.

[kingdomcomicscenter-blog]

[maxwell-grant]

There's a trend people have pointed out in superhero stories over the past 20 or so years that is the death of "regular" supporting casts, an increasing absence of un-powered sidekicks or people involved who aren't in the thick of the action or in the hero's secret. Everyone who interacts with superheroes is a couple issues away from becoming one, every story involves a supervillain encounter or several dozen, every hero's gotta have a lunchbox-ready "superhero family" made from these characters, and every side character that doesn't join them is either going to die or become a supervillain.

The defining example people use for this is Spider-Man's supporting cast, with every Spider-Man cast member short of Aunt May and J Jonah Jameson getting some kind of powered upgrade or symbiote, and I'm gonna say Amanda Waller is an excellent case study of how this kind of thing happens, and I think it helps to explain why Amanda Waller has been, Like That, for the past 30 years.

She’s wearing a grey shirt underneath a blue blazer and it’s tucked into a similarly blue skirt that stops at mid calf. She reminds me of the neighbourhood aunties I used to see leaving for church every Sunday morning.

My mom used to say that you are the company you keep. So what kind of person does it take to keep a variety of bruised, battered, and dangerous personalities in check? - Amanda Waller: DC's Most Terrifying Woman

To those of you who haven't read John Ostrander and Kim Yale's Suicide Squad, there once was a time where Amanda Waller was something more than a powerful antagonistic force able to butt heads with the biggest superheroes, and something other than a heartless establishment face out to make superheroes miserable for ill-defined reasons. Structurally speaking, Suicide Squad is a comic about marginal DCU characters forced to deal with actual real life problems, and it's central character is a marginalized person forced to deal with DCU problems and characters. The members of the Squad are a rolling parade of costumed misfits and maniacs assigned to go around the globe to fight and kill and die on dirty missions to deal with dirty laundry and stop war zones from erupting, while Amanda Waller is forced to shuffle around her cadre of D-list supervillains and disgraced superheroes and get into stand-offs with secret spy societies, living nukes, voodoo cartels, and Batman.

Amanda Waller neither looks nor acts like the kind of character that stars in a superhero comic, and she is the central character throughout the 66 issues of the run and we follow her character arc from beginning to end as she's forced to spin plates to accomplish her goals and prevent bad situations from getting worse. She is the most fully realized character in the run and everything rests on her shoulders. We spend a lot of time inside her head, her team, her associates, she is the center holding together an extremely chaotic book with no two characters on the same page. She is, and has to be, an extremely powerful person, someone who stands her ground no matter what, an unbeatable force of will because that is the only way she's going to survive the situations she's in, the only way she can be "The Wall", the kind of person who can repel Batman, command a platoon of monsters, talk her way out of Deadshot's contract, someone who can stare at Darkseid and credibly threaten the President into letting her live.

That's the part that everyone is more or less familiar. But there is, or at least used to be, much more to Amanda Waller than just being The Wall, not in the least because being The Wall is also hampering her effectiveness as well as straight up killing her.

"Amanda's toughness has taken her a long way" "It's taken her as far as it can. But it can't take her no further. It's actually starting to drag her down. I'm scared for my baby sister, rev - scared that the anger in her is congealing into hate." - Suicide Squad #31

We get to know her backstory, her plans, her points of contention with the system, her relationships with people around her, and how deeply she cares about things and people even as she sends them to the meatgrinder. From the start we learn that Waller staffs her team with people she's prone to getting into disagreements with, like Simon LaGrieve and Rick Flag, specifically so they can cover her moral blind spots and pick up the slack in emotional intelligence she's lacking, be the heroes that she can't afford to be. It is unspeakably crucial that the Squad is led by Rick Flag as well as Bronze Tiger, a fallen hero who owes Waller for his recovery who eventually takes Flag's baton. Waller stands up for her team, gets into fights with her superiors when they decide to terminate them, and takes the fall for them when necessary. Waller is a person who does Bad Things - but she is not a Bad Person.

The book in no uncertain terms frames the Suicide Squad's existence as monstrous in a scale Waller doesn't understand until the very end, and it digs deep into the unethical things Waller has to allow for and perpetrate in order to keep it running no matter how many lives it saves, and she spends the first half of the book on a downward spiral. But then there's the 2nd half of the book:

In the first 39 issues, Amanda’s flaws are her undoing. As she pushes away the people she hired to act as a balance, she grasped tighter and tighter to her uncompromised vision of the Suicide Squad despite the constant changes and derailment. Her choices had consequences: the death of Rick Flag, her demotion, employees quitting, and finally, the disbandment of the team.

The last 27 issues have Amanda rising up from the ashes after a year in jail. She’s less in her own way – she communicates, her anger isn’t driving her, she’s more receptive of alternative perspective and recognizes when she’s wrong in real time – but she’s still just as scary.

Waller rebuilds her relationships with the people she drove away, takes a different tack to how the team works, and starts going out into the frontlines with the Squad. She brings Oracle (who actually made her debut in this comic) into the fold, saves her life and plays a big role in Barbara making progress in overcoming her Joker trauma. She genuinely puts in the work to improve as a person and do things a better way than before, even if there is an inescapable immorality to the very existence of the Squad and what they do. That immorality never goes away, and it only further horrifies her when learning how badly her project has gone. In fact, it's that very inescapable immorality that ends her arc.

She learns that the CIA has started using a new Suicide Squad to support a brutal regime in South America, and when faced with the full extent of her complicity in Western imperialism? She decides right then and there to end the Suicide Squad for good after they liberate the population of said regime from said Squad. She is the only person who gives a shit about the country enough to start the assignment for free once she knows about it, force the Squad along, lead the mission in field, and personally (and even gently) usher the villain to his death at the end, to end what began with her.

She does bad things, and she does good things. She cares about people, and she uses people. Her decisions ruin as well as save the world. She spins a million plates to match wills and wits with the strongest, wickedest, most cunning humans and superhumans alike, and she still has superiors to answer to and people close to her she hires to judge her for what she does. She endured racism and misogyny and poverty for decades and rode whatever she could to attain as much power over her own life as someone like her could possibly attain, and to have it, she must be a willing tool of the state and bend the knee to Ronald Reagan, the man she derides for what he did to her community, hating every minute of it.

She lost her family to sexual and racial violence, and now she wrangles a penal battalion comprised of some of the worst people on the planet to inflict violence on her orders. She has saved and redeemed people, and she's haunted by the corpses she's left in her wake. She is oppressed and oppressor, someone who could only escape the ravages of American imperialism by becoming one of it's chief enforcers, and still she rebuilds herself into a better person from it upon confronting and challenging her role in it. She is not a bad person, she is not a good person either, she is just afforded a degree of agency and complexity unpowered characters in superhero books simply don't get.

Okay cool, now what is she up to these days?

That, I guess. That is what a strong but unpowered person who does not allow themselves to be bossed around by superheroes or supervillains looks like now. Everytime there's a call for a military bad guy, Waller gets tagged in to be DC's Henry Gyrich. There was a point where Waller was made to contrast the likes of Sarge Steel and Wade Eiling, someone who butted heads with them because she was a well-meaning person working for and committing evil as often as she attempted to stop it. These days, the most consistent beat with her is that she is the most dangerous person alive and worse than the villains she wrangles into working for her. She is a thing to be overcome, a hypocrite to be exposed, a challenge to the natural order of the universe, and she is too terrific at it to be shuffled off quietly. She is a Bad Person and so everything she says and does is Bad (and thus can be ignored).

Integral to Suicide Squad's structure was the fact that Waller was the center holding everything together, the ultimate third party: spinning plates working with, for and against all of the others so she can bend rules and be bent by them. Bent, but never broken, because The Wall doesn't break, others break first. Waller was a one-of-a-kind character, and that broke her, because beating Sarge Steel and Wade Eiling at their own game means replacing Sarge Steel and Wade Eiling. Waller doesn't look like them, she doesn't look like the superheroes either, and so she can't be one of them. She can't even look like herself a lot of the time, they try to slim her up everytime they think they can get away with it.

Suicide Squad was preoccupied with exploring a perspective from a world outside the superhero worldview, but we no longer have her perspective or that of people around her, we only know her through the superheroes she inherently defies and has had an adversarial relationship against from day one. She is someone with a viewpoint that is charitable to neither superheroes nor institutions, and thus, the universe is increasingly less sympathetic to her, the less utility she has to the grander narrative where everyone has to pick between one of two options. If she wasn't powerful and assertive, she'd be another Leslie Thompkins, another Jiminy Cricket the heroes passively ignore. But because she is powerful and doing morally compromised things without asking Batman's permission, she must have a personal grudge. She must be a government monster. She must attack the superheroes for no reason, no ideology, no motive.

So now she's just The Wall 24/7, the mean icy establishment boot who is strong and clever and cruel and hates superheroes and wants to destroy superheroes and rule the world from the shadows. Everything she does is a fuck-up she refuses to take responsability for, everyone is right to hate and distrust mean old Waller, and now everyone gets to look good by dunking on her. They couldn't make her a superhero, so they made her a generic supervillain instead. And now that she's a bad guy, she no longer has to believe anything, she doesn't really have to mean anything, they don't have to write stories about something other than superheroes and supervillains, and they don't have to let a fat woman of color take up space and screentime they could be giving to Harley Quinn and Slade Wilson instead.

Even by the time of Waller's debut on the tail end of the 80s, her career opportunities were on their way to extinction

Days Of Future Past marks the triumph of the superhero comic that's pretty much concerned with no-one but superheroes. Where Ditko and Lee's Spider-Man featured a single costumed crimefighter in the context of a commonplace existence, the X-Men of the 80s focused on a huge cast of mutants who had little if any lasting involvement in the everyday world.

By the 21st century, the corporate superhero comic would largely - if not exclusively - concern itself with little beyond a large class of superhumans and their fantastical existence. I suspect there's a significant correlation between that and the continuing cultural  peripherilisation of the superhero comic - Colin Smith

Amanda Waller is one of the strongest characters in all of comics, she was as powerful as an non-superpowered character given center stage could possibly be, a perfectly designed character from which an entire corner of a shared universe was developed out of with her as the center making it work, but as the room for civilian casts and unpowered protagonists got smaller and smaller, so did Waller's options. If she was a Spider-Man character and somehow didn't get killed or made into a villain, they would have slimmed her up and given her a symbiote, because you're nobody unless you're web-swinging. Characters didn't look or act like Amanda Waller, and unfortunately, they still don't. It's just instead of making more characters like her, they gutted Waller to be more like the rest. If she couldn't make it, who else even could.

Keep your eyes peeled for this summer when she'll team up with two meaningless robot baddies to burn down the Justice League and I guess the universe for the next reboot or something.

[wisteriavines]

I just realized!!!

This means that Tim spent more time with the Alternate Batfamily — more time raising, loving, and being loved in return knowingly and unconditionally — than he ever did with his original bat family

Would he ever wish to return to them? Stay up late contemplating what it would take to return to them after a bad day, a day of too many reminders of how different everything- he is? Does he ever need to spend several minutes convincing himself of why he can’t-shouldn’t return? Does it get harder every time he does?

Most of these questions are asked on the assumption that Tim’s mental health and view of his placement in the family improved positively— he had to set up a good example right?

Just time travel, tim is bruce's dad AU.

There's so many ways this could go.

Whatever got tim in the past. wether killed the Drakes or they ended in the future.

Tim with 20, kinda lookin like his grandfathee took his persona. And adopted little bruce wayne recently orphaned. Tim stayed a month or a year, make your take.

The bats manage to get tim back, and little Bruce ends alone again.

Older bruce only have vague memories from that time.

Tim remembers everything and it only reinforces his thinking about seeing Bruce as his son.

Oh!

Tim, who's used to taking care of Bruce anyways and kind of seeing this older adult as his son, ends up in the past. He finds a depressed, angry, and bitter child who's lost his parents and ultimate alone.

Alfred doesn't trust Tim at first, but eventually, Tim manages to become a staple older figure in the household. He talks to Alfred about emotional bonding, where he should involve himself in Bruce's life more (instead of being on the outskirts like an employee), and overall Bruce hacks (Tim is and isn't surprised that the hacks he's built up for adult Bruce work for child Bruce as well with minor adjustments).

Overall, Bruce starts to come out of his grief of losing his parents.

He even considers calling Alfred or Tim "dad."

Then Tim disappears.

[wilwheaton]

One very simple question :)

(Tv/comics)

Marvel. Or DC?

I have liked them both and disliked them both, at different points in my life, for a variety of reasons. At the moment, I'm not paying attention to them at all.

When I was a kid, I was all about Xmen and Fantastic Four from Marvel and, Batman and Justice League (Marv Wolfman's run in the late 80s) from DC. Never really cared for Superman. The 1967 Spider-Man was awesome as a cartoon, but I rarely read the comic book.

In the 70s, I was only allowed one comic per week, usually picked out from whatever was left on that spinning rack at the drugstore. So more often than not, I ended up with something like House of Secrets or House of Mystery or one of those horror anthologies that didn't need me to read the issues before or after, like the serialized superhero comics did. I got a lot of replay value from those books.

In the 80s, I had my own money and the ability to drive myself to comic conventions, and that's when I fell in love with Sandman, Watchmen, pretty much the entire Prestige Format that became Vertigo. I recall feeling like Marvel was for kids, then, and DC was serious. I was only 16, so take that for what it's worth.

But speaking of being 16, I'm gonna focus on Batman for a sec. I loved Batman 89, and I think all the efforts to make a Batman movie ever since have fallen short in ways I couldn't predict back then. It's gotten better with age and by comparison, for me. Michael Keaton is my favorite Batman, the way Christian Bale is my favorite modern Bruce Wayne (they both pale next to Pure. West. if anyone asks me).

The OG Batman series is maybe my favorite series of all time not called Star Trek or The Prisoner, and the 1966 movie is my favorite of all the Batman movies. Of course I love the animated series, and I get to be Blue Beetle in Brave and the Bold, so that's pretty awesome and its whole own thing.

Turning to the current moment, with rare exception, all the MCU and DCU movies do nothing for me. I thought I must have been missing something, so tried really hard to give them a chance to knock me out. I watched as many of the MCU movies as I could stand, and I just felt exhausted and bored by all of it, by the time I got to ... I can't even remember. Something with maybe Thanos and Ant-Man? I felt like it was a big, complicated mess of fan service and meetings that could have been e-mails, resulting in in a stew full of interesting ingredients that have all blended together into a flavorless paste. I do enjoy all the James Gunn movies, though, even if Chris Pratt is the worst Chris, because James always centers the characters and their conflicts, then uses the action and stunts to support the story.

I feel like a lot of this sounds harsh, but even Star Wars, my favorite movie when I was a kid, has grown into something I don't recognize or care about. I'm old. I know what I like and what I don't like. I'm not patient like I once was, and it's clear I'm not the person those studios want in the theatre, anyway. I could make that joke about how it's the children who are wrong, but I accept that I am not in the demo, and I am genuinely happy for everyone who loves the spectacle and the experience of seeing those films with an enthusiastic audience. I just won't be there with you, but you can find me in the parking lot, yelling at a cloud.

...wow that's a very big answer to a very simple question.

[trexiejan]

My Opinion about Barbara Gordon as Oracle.

Oracle is a great character. Don't get me wrong.

My issue has nothing to do with her disability but more on how her writers and fans brag about her job and position in the DCU in an arrogant way.

I've met a lot of toxic barbara gordon fans who think she's an untouchable goddess who everyone has to worship and who thinks she runs the entire universe.

Again Oracle is a great character but I don't like it when her writers and fans ignore, sideline, and dumb down other dc characters to prop her up.

I think she's a bit overhyped and her role is over-exagerrated.

let me explain.

Her fans think she's the brain of the DCU.

I disagree with this.

Barbara is smart but I refuse to believe she's DC's no. 1 most smartest character when the Brainiac Family, Lex Luthor, Detective Chimp and Mr Terrific are right there.

Her fans think she's the one and only tech support and central hub of information for the entire dc superhero community.

Who gave Barbara this title?

In what world where 10 billion+ people exist, is it possible to only have 1 person capable of using technology and providing information to people.

I don't think Barbara is that special.

There are plenty of DC Characters who know how to use a computer.

Who know how to research.

Who know how to hack.

Who know how to communicate with other heroes.

Who know how to use technologies

The Brainiac Family, Lex Luthor, Cyborg, Mr. Terrific, Danny Chase, Bruce Wayne, Tim Drake, Luke Fox, Blue Bettle, Green Arrow, Atom etc.

and Governments exist in dc too!!! There's literally Amanda Waller!

Batman has the Bat-computer in his Batcave

The Titans have a huge computer at Titans Tower.

The Justice League has the watchtower which has even installed highly advanced off world technologies.

You expect me to believe these characters don't use their own computers and resources and just wait on Barbara to hand feed them information???

Why are her writers and fans ignoring all these other intelligent tech users and information brokers in DC?

Why are they making Barbara the center of their universe.

Reastically, A lot of characters don't really need Barbara to do things for them.

They can do what she does.

A lot of DC teams have fully functioned and stood on their own without her help.

Her fans always say she's a huge part of the Justice League and Suicide Squad.

Yes she is a member but she's not an integral part of those teams and I'm sorry but she's not easily remembered as a member of those teams. She's forgettable.

Nobody knows who Oracle is outside of comics.

Oracle doesn't even exists in multiple Justice League and Suicide Squad cartoon shows and movies.

Again Barbara is a great character but her role and importance is over-exagerrated.

And I don't know if this is the right word but she looks like a cloutchaser to me since she's often shoehorned into other character's histories and into other teams she has nothing to do with to maintain her relevance. Worse she dumbs down characters along the way to justify her presence.

just like What Tom Taylor did in the Titans book when he shoehorned her into their team despite the fact that she's not a Titan and she's not needed. They literally already have Cyborg for tech support 🙁 what's worse is that Cyborg got sidelined to make her look more useful to the team.

Again I don't hate Barbara.

I just don't like the constant bias towards her.

I do think Barbara is Gotham's information hub, but I don't think she's the queen of the entire dc universe.

Overall i think she's better on her own with her own original supporting cast because Every other hero she touches gets dumbed down to prop her up including Dick.

Dick is an intelligent detective and he's also a good hacker. He's even hacked an alien computer before but the second he gets paired with Barbara, he stays away from technologies and gets dumber so he can be the himbo muscle and she can be the Brains behind their operation 🙁

[artbyblastweave]

So I recently had the thought that Superman as depicted in the DCAU canon probably has the best-articulated-by-the-narrative and most-consistent character flaws of any Superman I’ve seen, in a way that’s enabled by the long-formedness and consistent creative vision of the series.

He’s got an Atlas complex that grinds the gears of his equally-durable, equally-capable colleagues in the Justice League. He has deep-seated fears of moving the wrong way and breaking something or someone, which is then upstream of some moderate control issues. He’s got anger problems, although it’s rare for someone to push him far enough that this takes center stage; you see this with Prof. Hamilton in the series finale of STAS, but also in a number of fights against opponents strong enough that he starts getting frustrated. When the stakes are lower, he can be cocky bordering on genuinely vindictive; there are lots of examples of him rubbing his opponents' noses in it when he finally gets them on the back foot, and it’s shown in flashbacks that he was genuinely kind of a dick when he was a teenager and hadn’t completely sorted out what proportional responses looked like. He doesn’t always think through the implications of his grand projects, be that the implicit threat-escalation posed by the expanded JLU, or the massive disarmament project he spearheaded that turned out to be part of an alien invasion scheme. There are probably more of these that I’m forgetting. The final roundup here is that he’s a good guy. He’s far and away from a perfect guy, with perfect judgement. All of this amounts to something that’s more coherent and specific than the contradictory, subject-to-eternal-revision mess you could assemble from his 60-something year publication history in the comics, but nonetheless with a substantial-enough runtime that all of these traits can be put on display again and again.

In turn, this allowed the collective DCAU continuity to get away with at least three “what if Superman went rogue” plots- four if you count the mind-control situation in Legacy- specifically because they did the legwork to establish the concrete neuroses and psychological vulnerabilities that might cause this specific version of Superman to go rogue. It was never completely insane that Luthor might figure out the exact set of words, actions, and personal losses necessary to coax this depiction of Superman into an authoritarian partnership for the supposed greater good. It’s not completely insane that this depiction of Superman, if pushed far enough, might lose faith in the collective judgement of humanity and decide to put the world and all his loved ones in a bottle. And when the Cadmus plot rolls around in JLU, it’s as effective as it is because they’ve already advanced two roads-not-taken, established what levers you need to pull to make this specific version of this guy cross the line, and that Cadmus and Luthor are pulling all of them. 

I emphasize the specificity here, because the flipside of this are Superman-gone-rogue narratives that jump right to that as the cornerstone of the continuity, with no real opportunities for juxtaposition. A major issue I eventually developed with the Injustice franchise is that despite its pretenses of being an alternate universe, there’s no established continuity that it’s deviating from, bar its own. To some extent I feel as though it’s banking on the audience transposing their gestalt-understanding of Superman and the broader DCU- hell, their understanding of the Justice Lords arc in particular- in order to elide that they’re playing extremely fast-and-loose with the specifics of what has and hasn’t happened to Superman in this continuity. The DCEU is a runner-up- jumping right to the Damocles-sword of a bad-future after two movies is jumping the gun, in the same way everything about the 2010s DCEU was jumping the gun. I think you could plausibly attack TDKR’s portrayal of Superman under this logic, although I personally wouldn’t- but that’s its own post.

Point being that you can’t sell me the upset of a paradigm if you never established it-you need to set up the pins before you can bowl worth a damn.