#god I miss pre-crisis Jason

[crisis-on-infinite-batblogs]

Lesbian boyfriend son shaped man

[mysterycitrus]

i know you've been talking about jason lately so i'll ask about smth different... robin jason (sorry)

idk idk lately i've been wanting to take a peek at his robin comics for the sake of writing fic (ofc...) but i'd like to hear what u think before that, a summary of sorts if u may (i also wanna contrast what u say with what i get out of it so yeah)

i feel like his robin days are so muddled by his identity as red hood later on, and even before that it was his death. u had people constantly blaming jason for dying in text (or else they'd have to admit bruce can make mistakes and everyone in dc is allergic to doing that) and painting him like someone reckless and violent (classist editorial u need to DIE), and then people in fanon painting him like a sweet fella who would do nothing wrong and as well as being bruce's Only Actual Son etc etc for the sake of making the situation around him all the more sadder (yeah yeah pathetic meow meow we've all seen it)

and i'm just curious bc i rlly wonder what the actual comics say about him, most likely something in the middle of this? exams are killing me but my god i'll come back to life after im done just to read jason robin's days... have a good day !!!

the difficulty with reading about jason as robin is that there are three primary periods that all differ fairly dramatically from each other — pre-crisis jason todd is a strawberry blond acrobat who’s almost adopted by dick grayson before becoming robin; post-crisis jason todd is a kid from crime alley who steals the wheels off the batmobile before becoming robin; and post-crisis, post-utrh jason todd is a very angry, very violent kid who becomes a cautionary tale after he gets himself killed (something he is often blamed for).

we can walk the line here. pre-crisis jason isn’t particularly relevant because so much of robin!jason’s stories depend on his reinvention after the reboot. all the crucial factors leading up to death in the family — growing up in the alley, both his mothers, his relationship with the robin mantle, his developing relationship with dick grayson, his slow schism from bruce, his relative isolation from other superheroes — are all crucial to who he is, especially after his death.

fanon about jason is annoying because there are valid criticisms that can be made about how he’s written with regressive, classist stereotypes, but as always it pivots way too far in one direction. jason wasn’t the “happy” or “angry” robin in the same way that dick wasn’t the happy or angry robin — they’re both characters that possess more than a single emotion. it’s true that jason was later written to be more explicitly violent (to contrast him with dick) but also like… they’re both pretty similar characters that differ in interesting ways. dick created robin to be a symbol of hope and joy. jason carried that on when he took up the mantle. they can both be angry at stuff without the world falling apart. it’s not that serious.

the dialogue about dick being a child soldier but jason being the true son makes me want to tear my hair out. jason became robin because bruce missed dick and was afraid of being alone. they’re both his gd kids. acting as though bruce wayne doesn’t love dick grayson so much that extra-dimensional beings can clock it is so fucking stupid. it once again ties into fanon’s obsession with each character only getting to be “one” thing. tim is smart, which means he’s the smartest. jason said robin made him magic, which means he’s happy all the time. dick chased after zucco in a grief spiral, which means he’s the violently angry one, with no other character traits. dick can’t have been nice to jason because he’s nice to tim, etc. seems a little silly, no?

i think i’ve only read jason’s brief run as robin once, though ive gone through a death in the family + a lonely place of dying a bunch of times, so ig my advice for reading him is to keep in mind the context in which he was created. dc comics was reeling from losing dick grayson as robin, and were really throwing anything at the wall to get something to stick. many, many negative tropes are baked into his introduction, and thanks to writers like jeph loeb and scott lobdell they have compounded over time. jason’s updated backstory is, with actual critical intent by the writer, a really good examination of how poverty and class will affect how someone views the world. his death was not his fault — and removing sheila haywood from that warehouse purposely makes his story less tragic. he was a good kid! and he was angry for a good reason. if jason had lived, i believe he would’ve carried on the robin tradition and left bruce behind once their differences became insurmountable.

[zahri-melitor]

For the ask game, 4 and 24 for Barbara Gordon

4. How many people I ship them with

Well there's Dick/Babs. Dick and Barbara are probably my favourite canon couple in DC, for the way they balance and complement each other. And as much as they push at each other at times, they both enjoy being challenged by the other, and they've grown further together over time. It's how Dick always looks for Babs' hand at the end of the world. It's I don't like to be pushed and if you jump I'm there to catch you. (It's the fear of being pushed and the fear of missing the catch). It's the way neither of them are ever willing to name what's between them because they're both too afraid of if they're accidentally hurt by the other. It's the way Dick centres and calms himself by talking to Babs and he looks at her like she's a sunrise. It's how Dick can be a brake on Babs' obsessions and get her to relax. It's how lost they both become when the other is hurt or gone. It's how they can lounge around in a honeymoon suite discussing what they'd want in a marriage and kids without calling it a relationship. I adore them.

There's Dinah/Babs, because if there is one person Babs wants to have at the other end of a commline, following her orders? It's Dinah. And from experience at this point she trusts that when Dinah goes off script it's for a reason (even as it drives her wild). It's the way Babs orders Dinah around and Dinah enjoys it. It's the way they're so emotionally wrapped up in each other. It's Babs' tantrum over Dinah getting married and moving; it's the way she welcomed her back after Dinah broke up with Ollie. It's how Dinah was ready to fight Amazons and gods to save Barbara and hide what she was doing from Babs if it would save her life. It's the fact that working for Babs talked Dinah down from running into dangerous situations without backup when Ollie died. I love them so much and I delight in every time they're on page together, being thick as thieves.

There's Ted/Babs, which largely amuses me because they're both so very into the other's mind and programming/engineering skills, while also immediately concluding they're better off friends. They have a crush on each other's brain and I think that's incredibly cute.

And there's Babs/Jason Bard, which I am quietly fond of because it started out as a default relationship in pre-Crisis, turned them into interesting exes in preboot, flipped their relationship into something horrifically unnecessary in n52, and tried to repair it to a point where they could mend fences in Rebirth. I don't think Babs and Jason make a particularly good couple. I do love them as exes however, and it was actually my favourite stage when they were both physically disabled investigators ignoring people telling them they couldn't do their jobs.

24. What do you think is a secret they have that they never told anyone?

Amy Beddoes trying to shoot Clifford Carmichael, come on down.

I am certain Babs has never mentioned this moment to anyone else. The only person aware of what she got up to in that moment was Amanda Waller, and the Wall has never held it over her head.

Otherwise: Barbara has indeed run a DNA test on herself to establish what her biological parentage is. She's too much of a control freak to not have. She's seen the results, swore to herself that she would not let them affect her relationship with Jim, and continues to treat Jim like the father he's been to her since the day she came home with him. (She's still quietly cut up that she had to check) (No I don't know what the results said. I don't think it really matters)

[pandoraimperatrix]

Wandering Word's Meta (Part I)

Since I'm getting to the end of this story, I've decided to share with you a little meta that may or not be included in the main story.

Reminder that everything I'll write here only applies to My Fanfiction. Please for the love of GOD do not use this as some claim I'm making over the DC or the HBO Max's show canon.

Parallel Universes:

I take mostly what I understand as parallel universes from Doctor Who and Tsubasa Resevoir Chronicles/xXxHolic lmao. And from the DC canon Pre-Infinite Crisis. I don't think multiple Earths per se, but multiple timelines and diversions made by choices that change the path a timeline should or not take.

So, what made Dick1's timeline (from the show till just about the beguining of the 3rd season) so different form Parallel!Dick (our protagonist)? I honestly don't know. But there are two major diversions, though:

1- At the end of the troubles with Trigon, Parallel!Kory doesn't leave instantly. She stays for the ride and, even though she planned to leave, go back to Tamaran and her duties, she stays because she is in love with Dick, her freedom and her children.

2- When Parallel!Jason dies, no one brings him back and Parallel!Bruce goes mad, he kills the entire rogue galllery even the woman he loves, Selina, because she tried to defend her friends. P!Dick goes after him to make him stop, but P!Kory would never let the man she loves hurt his own father, so she goes instead, but since her powers were messed up because of her conflicting feelings, P!Bruce kills her easily. P!Rachel releases Trigon out of grief and their entire timeline start collapsing, because P!Rachel's powers are an Anchor keeping the fabric of reality weaved together.

I understand Trigon as an anomaly, it's always the same Trigon through all the parallel realities, in his prision he lives out of time and space always trying to break through.

Gar and CADMUS

One of the things that frustrates me about how I wrote this story it is the POV system... I have never written like that before and drives me a little bit crazy, but it was something that made sense when I started writing. We have P!Dick's POV and Kory's POV, all we learn about the other character's lives are through them.

The things we miss:

1- How the abuse and violation Gar suffered through his entire life, reaching the worst point by his kidnapping by CADMUS broke our boy. If the Chief put him in a internal prision (reason why he couldn't change into different animals), CADMUS violated him by pushing him out of that cage and into the wild, it is a different sort of control, but just as violent. In the Doom Manor he was never nutured as a child should, but he was protected and loved (by Cliff, Rita and Larry within their own capabilities), it was a house of monsters and he was the only one that wasn't monstruous, the one had never hurt anybody, that could look in the mirror and not feel ashamed. CADMUS broke that.

2- After Dick dies, Gar, who was holding himself by the skin of this teeth, goes down in a spiral as starts lashing out, hurting the people that remainded in his life with rashness, because, deep down, he thinks they will also leave and for his own protection he tries to reject them first.

3- He starts befriending the people hurt by this actions because of CADMUS, even if they don't remember him or what he did. Gar believes that it's own him to try to balance the awful things he did with acts of kindness or at least to reconnect to his own humanity by making the effort of humanizing the people that he hurt, because never again he wants to look at another scentient being as a piece of meat. But it isn't easy, there is a lot of guilt, a lot of fighting the conditioning.

Rachel's Powers and Importance

Same problem with Gar. Rachel at least gets a little more from the main narrative because she's not only a character, but also the Plot Device juggling this whole story together lmao

1- Unlike Trigon, Rachel is not an Universal Constant, that means that it can have other Rachels through parallel realities, but most of them are not Trigon's dauthers. Some of them are pretty regular girls without magical troubles. They are all still lesbians and gothics who catfish men online to afford Demonia Boots (THEY ARE EXPENSIVE) and Hot Topic clothes.

2- There was only One Rachel that supposed to the Portal. But something made the universes diverge and they became two, but this dissociation should have never happened, and instead of equal in power, P!Rachel got the small stick, and that's why Trigon consumed her, BUT because she wasn't the Perfect Portal, he was not able to break through completely.

3- When our Rachel ripped the walls between universes to snatch P!Dick since her own model had got himself killed, the other universe collapsed. It doesn't exist anymore, and now only one Rachel in the the entire multiverse has powers, all of them, and Trigon is locked in the prision she created for him.

4- So, what powers does Rachel have? She is a reality manipulator, she has access to the laws of the time and space and she can bend and twist them IF she her soul is strong enough for her to take the toil of doing such things.

I'll write Part II (mostly about Tamaran) whenever...

You can go on my ask box and make your own questions and theories, I'll love to read and chat about them!!

[pluckyredhead]

The Jason Todd Book Club

Over the weekend, a friend asked me how accurate the popular fanon that Jason is a book nerd is. “Mmm, medium?” I said. “There’s evidence, but fandom definitely took it and ran with it.”

Since it coincidentally came up on Discord tonight, I decided to compile every instance I know of of Jason either referencing literature, or just enthusing over books. If I missed any, please let me know!

(I don’t have issue numbers because most of these I took from my own previous posts on Tumblr and I didn’t note down the issues then. I’ll try to give as much context as I remember!)

Robin, Pre-Crisis:

Jason quotes the opening (and most famous) line from Moby Dick by Herman Melville.

This one’s borderline: Sherlock Holmes is of course a literary character, but he’s also famous in pop culture in general, and he never said “Never overlook the obvious” in the original canon. (The closest I can find is “There is nothing so deceptive as an obvious fact” from “The Boscombe Valley Mystery,” which means...basically the opposite of what Jason’s saying here.) Has Jason read Sherlock Holmes or is he just bullshitting random detective-sounding stuff? We may never know.

Robin, Post-Crisis:

This isn’t a book quote and it’s a very Dick Grayson line, but it is about book/printing history so I’ve included it.

Red Hood, Post-Crisis:

This isn’t a quote, but it’s an obvious reference to Hamlet and how the scene with Yorick’s skull is traditionally staged. (From Red Hood: Lost Days.)

Probably the main source of the fanon! Jason is so caught up in Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen that he keeps reading even while fighting other inmates in prison. Presumably he’s up to Darcy’s first proposal and is like “Oh you stupid fucker.” I wouldn’t put the book down, either. (From Batman and Robin (2009) #23.)

Red Hood, New 52:

Jason quotes an extremely famous line from Richard III, making Shakespeare the only writer he references twice (if you count the Hamlet thing). (From Batman Incorporated (2012).)

Red Hood, Rebirth:

Alexandre Dumas is best known for The Three Musketeers,  The Count of Monte Cristo, and The Man in the Iron Mask. I’m assuming Jason is referencing the last in this since literally everyone is wearing metal on their face, but Jason spouts a lot of very entertaining nonsense in this series, so who knows? Dumas is the only non-white writer Jason references, although very much part of the established literary canon. (From Batman & Robin Eternal.)

Arkham Knight:

This is just baby Jay being excited about books in general. Aw, nugget. Your life is gonna be terrible. (From, uh...one of the Arkham Knight tie-in comics. Sorry.)

IN CONCLUSION: Jason’s been around for 37 years and I was only able to find eight book-or-play-related panels, only four of which are unquestionably references to a specific author or literary work. He is shown reading exactly once. They are also all really really famous books/authors/quotes from old books with dead authors, so he’s either a totally basic bitch when it comes to literature, or he’s never read any of them but has heard other people quote them.

HOWEVER, I love this fanon so you’re prying it out of my cold dead hands. If you want to headcanon Jason as a book nerd, I say go with God! I’m certainly going to keep doing it.

Now to see if the nicknames “Little Wing” and “Jaylad” were ever used more than once each...

[ectonurites]

do u have any thoughts on the whole “tim is zapped to time prison” storyline? bc i feel like it could have been pretty interesting and a good way to bring back young justice/tim’s memories more immediately if it hadn’t been such a blatant attempt to just get tim out of storylines bc they had no ideas for his character

sorry lol u don’t have to respond i just kind of wish people talked about this storyline more? and the fact that tim lowkey became one of the only people in dc with knowledge of the other timelines (i think so at least) and nobody really addressed it?? like going into the next phase where people learn about other timelines after death metal.... tim should already know some of this stuff right?

YES YES YES OKAY LETS TALK ABOUT THIS this got incredibly long because I just have a lot to say (and i included screenshots) and i prob got a little off topic but. but lets get started anyways:

i haven’t read that particular storyline in a few months so i might be missing/misremembering some details here, but that whole ‘time prison + future tim’ thing was like. a really really interesting concept and the implications/impacts it has are a big part of why i liked tynion’s detective comics run as much as i did even with it’s flaws in characterization (such as treating tim like he was jimmy neutron boy genius and making steph..... be all ready to quit/breakaway from the team like that. the steph quitting characterization really started i think in batgirl convergence and unfortunately has haunted her since, even though pre reboot never giving up was like...... one of her defining traits. dc i hate you sometimes) 

i think that one of the biggest things that bothers me about the situation is how little we saw most of the other characters in the batfamily grieve (aside from steph and some with bruce, but again the way steph was portrayed just... hhhhhh. it very much reduced her to ‘tims girlfriend’ more than i’d have preferred) but otherwise like...as far as I can remember there was maybe one line in that monsters crossover thing where dick mentioned tim was gone, jason had a single line about avoiding the funeral in rhato, i dont think they showed any reaction from babs at all until after he was back, and the most for damian I recall is at the end of the 2014 teen titans run (#24) where he looks at... a case with the old red robin uniform Tim wasn’t even wearing anymore when he died? and that just bugs me. Instead of getting to see the actual funeral we get one flashback to it way after the fact once Bruce already knows Tim’s not actually dead

But at the time when they all DID think he was dead? the closest thing we see was in that same teen titans issue (#24) there’s a memorial-type ‘sharing stories’ thing after the funeral with tim’s titans friends but.... we don’t see something like that with his family. tim is a major presence in these peoples’ lives, they are his family, when he gets sent into time prison its even SAID how loved he apparently is

its just... idk. they all thought he was dead, and if they had put more emphasis on showing not just telling how that effected EVERYONE (not just steph) in the batfam, it might have felt a lot less like they were just putting tim away until there was a story idea for him. (like obviously I know they can’t make everyone’s stories revolve around Tim, but I’d have way preferred a detective comics issue of the funeral/memorial with the family than having there only be a teen titans one, I think it would have... held more relevance & meaning... but instead they just went right into that monster crossover story instead of lingering on this)

but then the Tim story itself once it does pick up way later, with titans tomorrow/future tim coming along having that whole “tell conner you’re sorry” “who’s conner?” exchange with current tim... that opens up A LOT of things to think about, and I think was pretty interestingly done if i’m remembering correctly. future tim recognizes the timelines are different, and ya know goes off to try to change things further ("whaddaya got there?” “a gun to kill batwoman” “NO!!!!”), theres lots of fighting etc etc the good guys win as we expect, but once that’s all settled tim’s left there with this whole. thought process

which ya know is the big indicator there’s weird timeline/reality fuckery going on (or also the read here can be that tim and kon are so connected across all space and time that their bond can transcend anything even timelines and realities and reboots... “and they were soulmates” “oh my god they were soulmates”) 

ANYWAYS lets not forget that tim isnt the only one who learns about this other timeline stuff during this whole situation!

Brother Eye has records of future tim’s timeline, and cass & steph see who they used to be! and as soon as steph finds out ‘holy shit i was ROBIN and BATGIRL?’ she also desperately wants to know more! which then a bit later leads into young justice 2019 where instead of going off to college like they told Bruce they were gonna, Steph and Tim go get the help of Zatanna to see what might be going on in their brains with these timelines and weird feelings (as we see in flashback form in yj 2019 #5)

and HOO BOY DOES SHE FIND THINGS! she gets in there and finds out that oh yeah, their brains had very much so been tampered with, and with her magic she undoes some of it, by unlocking memories, and Tim finally remembers Conner! (also in case u were wondering, that panel is specifically a callback to this one from yj 1998 #17 when Cissie quit the team)

one thing that I think is weird/interesting/idk if it gets... properly addressed even, was that Zatanna also poked around Steph’s brain too and she didn’t remember everything? Might have something to do even with how Tim had been in time prison, might have taken less work from Z to open things up because of that? Who knows

additionally i wanna call attention to how he said “That entire chapter of my life” which... leading into my next point a bit... strongly leads me to believe even though he’s remembering some things he definitely does not have ALL of his memories back (because theres a lot more than just the young justice ‘chapter’ of tim’s life that was drastically changed by the new 52 & rebirth) 

BUT moving on, i wanna bring up this part from later on (after they figured out that there was a crisis that caused things in the world to change, which is why their memories/brains were messed with) in issue #16

so yeah, I think it’s indicated even though Zatanna brought back some memories and opened up his brain a bit, there’s still many holes, and some things seem more like dreams rather than memories and he’s probably unable to tell which are which on his own to some extent. (also for reference the real thing that Tim thought was just a dream is... likely yj 1998 issue #1)

So based on the things i’ve brought up here (which are the things I remember off the top of my head, I could easily be accidentally leaving shit out LMAO i haven’t fully read through any of these books in at least 3 or more months now) I think it’s safe to assume that Tim definitely has a head start on getting back his memories before Death Metal happens, but that it was by no means a complete thing. So the after effects of Death Metal are probably just gonna... be a little less drastic for him vs most other people because it was already happening, but it’ll be kinda filling in the remaining gaps? 

And like you said he is absolutely one of the few people that already knew about about the timelines/the fact that these crises have happened and changed things, but pretty much all the other young justice characters are also aware that there was meddling in the timeline/that multiple timelines and alternate universes like this exist since they were all together as a group when it got explained (in like. yj 2019 #15 i believe is where most of the explaining happens) (and cass as well is aware of things to some extent because of her and steph’s interaction with Brother Eye) but the difference is that Zatanna didn’t go into everyone’s brains, so they aren’t dealing with the same memory things as Tim (and possibly Steph? because again Z DID go in her brain, she just wasn’t able to unlock all the same things as she did with Tim) 

but yeah in general i SO wish this was explored more, both in canon and in fanworks (fanworks tho... that can still happen >:3c). Memories hazily coming in for Tim while Kon and Bart are able to confirm or deny things, him dealing with conflicting memories and feelings about his past as they trickle in... like I think we’ll start to see these types of things moving forward across a lot of titles with Infinite Frontier (i BELIEVE dont quote me on this but I BELIEVE the person writing Damian’s upcoming solo had mentioned in an interview that the memories coming back of the other timeline aren’t going to be an all at once thing but will be more gradual for most characters) but the fact that it theoretically had already been happening for Tim for MONTHS and we only got that one crumb indicating it in #16 of it instead of any actual exploration makes me SAAAAAAD 

[northoftheroad]

Dick and Tim – brothers in arms

So I got this ask. And it’s a good thing I got it the first night of my summer vacation, and the weather hasn't been great ;-)

Once I started digging for comics with both Tim and Dick, I found several that I've never read. I got the impression Anonymous would like a complete list, so I just kept going. But this means I don't know if they even interact in some of the books, or if they make "blink and you miss it" guest appearances.

I'm sorry if they, by any chance, was asking for reading recommendations for good Dick and Tim moments and not The Complete List... Looking at the number of comics here that I haven't read/can't remember, I'm not really qualified to answer that. But if I had to try, I would mention:  

A Lonely Place of Dying

The New Titans #65

All issues of Nightwing vol 2 with Robin as a guest star, including Nightwing Annual #1 but excluding Annual # 2.

Showcase '93 #11-12

Knightfall Prodigal

Robin vol 2 #10, (DickRobin and TimRobin!) 175

Young Justice vol 1 #22

Teen Titans vol 3 #6

Bruce Wayne – Murderer and Fugitive

Birds of Prey #19

Batman: Gotham Knights # 8-11, 45

Red Robin #11-14

Batman: Gates of Gotham

That being said. Here is, as far as I can find, every comic where both Dick Grayson and Tim Drake have made an appearance (pre-Flashpoint):

Batman vol 1 #436. By Marv Wolfman, art Pat Broderick and John Beatty.

Batman # 436. (Tim's first appearance, in the circus audience the day Dick's parents were killed.) (1989)

A Lonely Place of Dying. Batman #440-442, New Titans #60-61. (When Tim tries to talk Dick into becoming Robin again but ends up wearing the Robin suit himself to help Batman and Robin.) (1990)

The New Titans #64 (1990)

The New Titans #65. By Marv Wolfman, art Tom Grummet and Al Vey.

The New Titans #65. (Tim turns up at Dick's place to learn what it is to be Batman's partner.) (1990)

Batman vol 1 #455 (1990)

Batman: Shadow of the Bat #1-2 (1992)

Superman: The Man of Steel #20 (1993)

Superman vol 2 #76 (1993)

Batman vol 1 #500 (1993)

New Titans #100 (1993)

Showcase '93 #11-12 (1993)

Justice League of America #70 (1993)

Bloodbath #1-2 (1994)

Batman vol 1 #510 (1994)

Robin vol 2 #0, 8 (1994)

Robin vol 2 #10. By Chuck Dixon, art Tom Grummett and Ray Kryssing.

Robin vol 2 #10 (DickRobin meets TimRobin during Zero Hour. DickRobin is also seen in a panel in Batman vol 1 #511 and Zero Hour: Crisis in Time #4 .) (1994)

Zero Hour: Crisis in Time #1-3 (1994)

Detective Comics #676-677 (1994)

Batman: Shadow of the Bat #29-30 (1994)

Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #62 (1994)

Knightfall Prodigal (Dick's first longer stint as Batman. And he takes care of Tim and the Manor on his own!) In Batman #512-514, Batman: Shadow of the Bat #32-34, Robin # 11-13, Detective Comics #679-681. (1994-1995)

Batman vol 1 #515 (1995)

Detective Comics #686 (1995)

Robin vol 2 #23 (1995)

Green Arrow vol 2 #101 (1995)

Contagion (Detective Comics #696, Batman vol 1 #529, Batman: Shadow of the Bat #49, Batman vol 1 #533, Azrael vol 1 #16, Robin vol 2 #28, Catwoman vol 2 #31) (1996)

The Final Night #2-3 (1996)

Robin vol 2 #29, 32-33 (1996)

Catwoman vol 2 #36 (1996)

Batman: Shadow of the Bat #53-54 (1996)

Detective Comics #698-701 (1996)

Marvel versus DC / DC versus Marvel #2 (1996)

Nightwing vol 2 # 6. (Tim and Dick talk and fight crooks.) (1997)

Batman: Bane (1997)

Ningtwing Annual #1. By Devin Grayson, art Greg Land and Bob McLeod.

Nightwing vol 2 Annual #1. (When Dick fake-marries a girl to investigate if she has murdered her previous husbands.) (1997)

Genesis #1 (1997)

Robin vol 2 #47-48 (1997)

Detective Comics #721, 724 (1998)

Nightwing vol 2 # 20. (Part of Cataclysm.) (1998)

Robin vol 2 #53 (1998)

Nightwing vol 2 # 25. (Tim and Dick talk and ride on train roofs. Dick has decided to become a cop.) (1998)

Batman 80-page Giant #1 (1998)

Brotherhood of the fist (Detective Comics #723, Robin vol 2 #55, Nightwing vol 2 # 28, Green Arrow 3 #135) (1998)

Batman: Bane of the Demon #4 (1998)

Batman vol 1 #554, 556, 560 (1998)

Detective Comics #727-729 (1998-1999)

JLA/Titans: Technis Imperative (1998-1999)

DC Universe Holiday Bash #3 (1999)

Batman 80-page Giant #2 (1999)

Young Justice: Secret Files and Origins #1 (1999)

Batman: Day of Judgment (Zombies...) (1999)

Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #120 (1999)

Robin vol 2 #71 (1999)

Young Justice vol 1 #7 (1999)

Batman and Superman: World's Finest #10 (2000)

No Man's Land. (Robin vol 2 #67, Batman vol 1 #562, Detective Comics #741, Batman: Shadow of the Bat #95, Batman: Legend of the Dark Knight #120, 126, Azrael: Agent of the Bat #56) (1999-2000)

Detective Comics #741 (2000)

Robin vol 2 #74, 76, 82 (2000)

Superman Y2K #1 (2000)

Batman: Gotham Knights #10. By Devin Grayson, art Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez and Rober Robinson.

Batman: Gotham Knights #10-11 (2000)

Batman: Outlaws 1-3 (2000)

Young Justice vol 1 #22 (2000)

Birds of Prey vol 1 #19 (2000)

JLA: Secret Files #3 (2000)

The Hunt for Oracle. (Birds of Prey vol 1 #20-22. Nightwing vol 2 #46.) (2000)

Superboy vol 3 #74 (2000)

Young Justice: Sins of Youth #1 (2000)

Young Justice: Sinds of Youth Secret Files # 1 (2000)

Titans #12 (2000)

Green Lantern: Circle of Fire #1 (2000)

Batman: Gotham Knights #1 (2000)

Harley Quinn #6 (2001)

Birds of Prey # 27 (2001)

Catwoman vol 2 #90 (2001)

Young Justice: Our World's at War #1 (2001)

World's Finest: Our World's at War #1 (2001)

Joker: Last Laugh. (The Joker "jokerize" a number of metahuman villains. In the later part, Joker taunts Nightwing with that he has killed Tim, just as he did Jason. Dick loses it and punches Joker to death, but Batman turns up and resuscitates Joker). (2001)

Harley Quinn #11-12 (2001)

Robin vol 2 #86, 95 (2001)

Gods of Gotham. (Wonder Woman #166-167.) (2001)

Wonder Woman vol 2 #175 (2001)

Nightwing vol 2 #63. (The aftermath of Joker: Last Laugh, where Dick is too depressed to work as Nightwing. Robin and Blue Beetle take his place in Blüdhaven this issue, so they don't actually meet.) (2002)

Azrael: Agent of the Bat #94 (2002)

Young Justice vol 1 #40 (2002)

Birds of Prey vol 1 #37. (2002)

Batman/Nightwing: Bloodborne (2002)

Batman: Gotham Knights #26. By Devin Grayson, art Roger Robinson and John Floyd. 

Bruce Wayne: Murderer and Bruce Wayne: Fugitive (Batgirl vol 1 #27, Nightwing #68-69, Batman: Gotham Knight #26, 28, 30, Birds of Prey vol 1 #40, 43, Batman #600, 605.) (Bruce is accused of murder and refuses to defend himself, and eventually escapes and intends to drop the identity of Bruce Wayne. Dick refuses to believe that Bruce can be a murderer and it causes a bit of friction with Tim.)

Batman: Gotham Knights #32-36 (2002-2003)

Batman: Gotham Knights #38, 42, 46 (2003)

Titans/Young Justice: Graduation Day # 1-3 (2003)

Detective Comics #782 (2003)

JLA/JSA: Virtue & Vice (2003)

Batman vol 1 #615 (Part of Hush) (2003)

Robin vol 2 #108-110, 118 (2003)

Batman: Family # 6-8 (2003)

Teen Titans/Outsiders Secret Files (2003)

JLA: Welcome to the Working Week (2003)

Identity Crisis # 1 (2004)

Robin vol 2 #120 (But not really – the issue is about how Tim has been stalking his friends, imagining them as traitors, including Dick.) (2004)

Robin vol 2 #125 (2004)

Teen Titans vol 3 #6. By Geoff Johns, art Mike McKone and Marlo Alquiza.

Teen Titans vol 3 #6 (2004)

Batgirl vol 1 # 46, 50 (2004)

Superman/Batman #5, 13 (2004)

War Games. (Nightwing vol 2 #97-98, Batman vol 1 #631-634, Detective Comics #799, Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #183-184, Gotham Knights #57) (2004)

Detective Comics # 800 (2005)

Teen Titans vol 3 # 21-25 (2005)

Outsiders vol 3 #25 (2005)

Teen Titans/Outsiders Secret Files (2005)

Nightwing vol 2 # 110. By Devin Grayson, art Phil Hester and Ande Parks.

Nightwing vol 2 #110. (During a period when Dick left the Nightwing identity.) (2005)

Infinite Crisis.  (2005-2006)

Action Comics # 841-843 (2006)

Adventures of Superman #648 (2006)

Nightwing vol 2 Annual # 2. (I honestly don't recommend this, but in the spirit of making a complete list... Tim is visible in two panels, overlapping with Infinite Crisis where Dick almost dies. Otherwise, it's a retelling of the revamped history of Dick and Barbara, including some things that no-one who likes Dick Grayson would agree is in-character.) (2007)

Teen Titans vol 3 #43 (2007)

Gotham: Underground # 1 (2007)

Wonder Woman Annual vol #1 (2007)

Countdown #43 (2007)

52 #30 (2007)

JLA: Classified #34 (2007)

Robin vol 2 #156 (2007)

Shadowpact #10 (2007)

Tales of the Sinestro Corps: Superman-Prime #1 (2007)

Nightwing vol 2 #142. By Peter J Tomasi, penciller Rags Morales.

Freefall (Nightwing vol 2 # 140–146). (One of the very best story arcs of any Nightwing comic. It has gruff Bruce, brotherly bonding, Nightwing and Robin infiltrating an island...) (2008)

Batman: Underground # 6-7 (2008)  

Green Latern vol 4 #25 (2008)

Titans vol 2 #1 (2008)

Robin vol 2 #178 (2008)

Batgirl vol 2 #1 (2008)

The Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul. (Robin vol 2 #169, Nightwing vol 2 #138-139, Detective Comics #839). (2007-2008)

DC Special: Cyborg #2-5 (2008)

Robin vol 2 # 175. (Some fun panels with flashbacks with Dick and Tim.) (2008)

Batman vol 1 #675, 678, 681 (2008)

DC Universe: Lats Will and Testament #1 (2008)

Final Crisis #3 (2008)

Detective Comics #847 (2008)

Batgirl vol 2 # 5-6 (2009)

Superman/Batman #55 (2009)

Detective Comics #850 (2009)

Nightwing vol 2 # 151. (The issue ends with some family time with Dick, Tim and Alfred.) (2009)

Nightwing vol 2 # 153. (Last issue, Dick moves from New York to Gotham and Wayne Manor.) (2009)

Superman #682 (2009)

Teen Titans vol 3 #75 (2009)

Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds #5 (2009)

Robin vol 2 #181, 183 (2009)

Batman vol 1 #686 (2009)

Battle for the Cowl # 1-3. (Jason intends to become the Batman "Gotham needs". When Tim can't convince Dick to take up the cowl, he dresses up as Batman himself to fight Jason. In the end, Dick defeats Jason – and becomes Batman.) (2009)

Batman: Blackest Night #1-3 (2009)

Red Robin 1 # 1, 4 (2009)

Batman vol 1 #697, 702, 703 (2010)

Batman: Gates of Gotham #13 (2010)

Red Robin # 11-15 (2010)

Superman/Batman #76 (2010)

Teen Titans vol 3 #88-89 (2010)

Batman: Orphans #1-2 (2011)

Birds of Prey vol 2 #10 (2011)

Gotham City Sirens # 22 (2011)

Secret Six vol 3 #36 (2011)

Batman: Gates of Gotham #1-5 (2011)

Batman vol 1 #708-709 (2011)

Detective Comics #872, 874, 877, 880, 881 (2011)

Red Robin # 22, 23, 26 (2011)

I'm going to skip post-Flashpoint because, well, there's hardly anything there. The worst thing with Flashpoint/New 52, in my opinion, was that it destroyed relationships between characters who used to be family, but ended up hardly knowing or even liking each other. :-( 

Detective Comics #975. By James Tynion IV, art Álvaro Martínez and Raúl Fernández. 

The only panel worth mentioning with Dick and Tim is from DC #975. Yes, it's sad – one of the best brotherly relationships in DC turned into dust. Here's to hoping future writers will pick up on their wonderful dynamic at some time.

(The pictures in the header are from: Red Robin #12, Young Justice vol 1 #22, Showcase ‘93 #12, Batman #441, Nightwing vol 2 #6, 25.) 

[aion-rsa]

Upcoming DC Movies: Complete Release Calendar

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The DC Extended Universe is in full swing! With a healthy schedule of upcoming DC movies in development, the DCEU isn’t going away anytime soon, and there’s still lots to look forward to.

So, it’s time to take a look at all of the DCEU superhero movies that will be released over the next few years. And trust us, there are a ton of them on the way, and we expect more details will be announced as we go forward. We have all the release dates for every one of ’em right here, as well as official details, the most interesting rumors, and suggestions for further reading where appropriate.

Thanks to HBO Max, Suicide Squad 2 is on schedule for August 2021, with The Batman, Shazam 2, Aquaman 2, and more due in 2022. There’s a bright future for the newly revitalized DCEU movies!

Here’s how this works, because the schedule is getting a little weird. We’re starting with the DCEU movies that officially have release dates attached to them. Then we’ll get into the stuff that we know for 100% certain is in development, but that don’t have release dates yet. Then we’ll get into some of the long shots, the projects that are announced but quiet or seemingly dead, at the bottom.

Keep in mind that many of these are the CURRENT release dates as of this update, and all of these are subject to change. We’ll keep updating this with more information as we get it…

Our first trailer. Warning: gore & adult language & supervillains & adventure & heart. Can't wait to see it in a theater with all of you on August 6. #TheSuicideSquad pic.twitter.com/HdqlGVP0lB

— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) March 26, 2021

Suicide Squad 2

Aug. 6, 2021

David Ayer going to be too busy with other projects until further notice, and none other than James Gunn (of Guardians of the Galaxy fame) has stepped in to write and direct Suicide Squad 2. This is now called The Suicide Squad, which indicates something of a soft reboot, but expect this to remain a DCEU movie.

The cast is positively bonkers.

Returning from the first film we have Viola Davis as Amanda Waller, Jai Courtney as Boomerang, Joel Kinnaman as Rick Flagg, and of course Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn Scheduling issues forced Will Smith to bow out of the project as Deadshot.

But then that new cast is wild! John Cena is Peacemaker, with Idris Elba as Bloodsport, David Dastmalchian will play Polka Dot Man. Daniela Melchor will play a genderswapped version of Batman villain Ratcatcher…and there’s more, including Sylvester Stallone as the voice of King Shark! We have a full breakdown of the cast right here.

Pandemic be damned, this one arrives on HBO Max AND in theaters simultaneously, so that August release date isn’t going anywhere.

The Batman

March 4, 2022

So, speaking of movies that had their release dates shifted because of the coronavirus pandemic, The Batman recently had to move from June to October of 2021 after its filming was put on hold fairly early on, and now it has had to vacate its October release slot for March of the following year, thanks to the aforementioned Dune reschedule, and also another production halt after star Robert Pattinson was diagnosed with Covid-19. Fortunately, principal photography has wrapped and this is now well on its way to meeting that release date!

The Batman solo movie has Matt Reeves as director. Robert Pattinson is the new Batman. Not only that, this movie will likely kick off a brand new trilogy of Batman movies. Expect a more low-key, detective focused approach to the Dark Knight than we’ve seen in previous movies.

Read more

Movies

New Batmobile Revealed for The Batman Movie

By Joseph Baxter

TV

The Actors Who Have Played Batman

By James Aquilone and 1 other

In addition to Pattinson as Bruce Wayne/Batman, Jeffrey Wright will play Commissioner Gordon. Jayme Lawson has a mystery role. Andy Serkis is Alfred Pennyworth. And then there are the villains to contend with! The Batman will feature an all-star rogues’ gallery of villains, with Paul Dano as the Riddler, Zoe Kravitz as Catwoman, and Colin Farrell as the Penguin.

DC Super Pets

May 20, 2022

OK, fine, this isn’t a DCEU movie project, and it’s an animated movie. But unless you have no soul, how can you resist Krypto, Streaky, Ace, Comet, and the rest of the amazing super pets? They had better be fighting the Brain Globes of Rambat in this movie, otherwise, we riot.

You can read more about DC Super Pets here.

Black Adam

July 29, 2022

Originally slated to be the villain of Shazam, Black Adam will instead be played by Dwayne Johnson in a solo movie. The character is certainly strong enough to sustain his own movie. Adam Sztykiel (Due Date, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul) is writing with Jaume Collet-Serra set to direct. 

Read more

Movies

Shazam: Who is Black Adam?

By Marc Buxton

Movies

Black Adam Powers and Abilities Explained

By Mike Cecchini

This is the kind of thing that could work as a nifty prequel to further flesh out the mystical world of Shazam if they choose to go that route. More importantly, this movie will feature the DCEU introduction of the Justice Society of America, including Aldis Hodge as Hawkman, Pierce Brosnan as Dr. Fate, Quintessa Swindell as Cyclone, and Noah Centineo as Atom Smasher!

We’re currently on the lookout for more info, but Black Adam is supposed to start filming in early 2021, which seems unlikely at this time because of the global coronavirus pandemic. This film had been scheduled for December of 2021, but lost that date with all of WB’s recent release date shuffles. It’ll happen, it’s just a question of when.

You can read a little more about the Black Adam movie here.

The Flash

Nov. 4, 2022

Andy Muschietti (of Warner Bros’ IT movies) is the latest director to try and get The Flash movie to the screen. This project has had a really rough road. Christina Hodson, who clearly made the studio happy with her Birds of Prey script, is writing.

Read more

Movies

Why James Wan Turned Down The Flash Movie to Make Aquaman

By Mike Cecchini

Movies

Crisis On Infinite Earths Confirms DCEU Movies With Ezra Miller Cameo

By Kayti Burt

Ezra Miller will reprise his Justice League role as Barry Allen. Kiersey Clemons is Iris West. Ron Livingston will play Barry’s father, Dr. Henry Allen (replacing Billy Crudup who played the role in Justice League). But here’s where things get crazy…Ben Affleck will return to the role of Batman for this movie. And Michael Keaton will ALSO return to the role of Batman for this movie!

How is this possible? Because it’s based on the DC Comics Flashpoint story, which for the purposes of the movies will be used to create a big screen multiverse. Wow.

Oh, and it that’s not enough, this movie will introduce Supergirl to the DCEU, played by Sarah Calle!

This movie has had an extraordinary amount of trouble getting off the ground, so let’s see if the combination of Muschietti and Hodson keep this one on schedule for that release date. Or any release date. But pre-production is well underway, so it looks like Ezra Miller’s Barry will finally get his day in the sun.

Aquaman 2

Dec. 16, 2022

After it made a billion dollars at the box office, you bet your trident that Aquaman 2 is happening! Right now the plan is for James Wan to remain involved and start developing the movie, but he won’t decide whether or not to direct it until there’s a script in place. Fair enough. Patrick Wilson seems set to return, though, and of course, Jason Momoa will be back.

You can keep up with all our Aquaman 2 news right here.

Shazam 2: Fury of the Gods

June 2, 2023

Shazam 2 is now officially called Shazam: Fury of the Gods and…that’s about all we know about it right now.

One thing is for sure, though, this movie will retain the look, feel, and charm that made the first one so successful, since both director David F. Sandberg and writer Henry Gayden are returning. And this time we’ll have an entire Shazam family to help out!

Wait…did we mention the Sinbad cameo? No, really!

Now, let’s get into the projects that are in the works, but don’t have release dates yet. We’ve grouped these roughly in the order we expect to see them based on how far along they are.

Blue Beetle

There’s a Blue Beetle movie in the works. And unlike the character potentially appearing in the Booster Gold movie (more on that down below), this one would focus on Jaime Reyes, the magical tech powered teenage hero who wields the scarab of original Blue Beetle, Dan Garrett. Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer (Miss Bala) is writing the script, with Angel Manuel Soto (Charm City Kings) directing.

There’s no release date yet, but this is scheduled to begin production in fall 2021, so maybe we can pencil in a 2023 release date.

Read more about the Blue Beetle movie here.

Untitled Superman Project

Ta-Nehisi Coates is working on a Superman feature film with J.J. Abrams producing. No other info is currently available, but it appears to be a reboot.

“To be invited into the DC Extended Universe by Warner Bros., DC Films and Bad Robot is an honor,” Coates told Shadow and Act when the news was announced. “I look forward to meaningfully adding to the legacy of America’s most iconic mythic hero.”

Will this continue Henry Cavill’s time in the role, or will it take a new approach? Will this be a completely different take on the Man of Steel altogether? Time will tell!

Zatanna

One of the most powerful magicians in the DC Universe is getting her own film, with a powerful writer attached. Emerald Fennell, who wrote and directed the brilliant Promising Young Woman has signed on to write a Zatanna movie for Warner Bros. No other details are available at this time, but you don’t sign an Oscar hopeful for a movie like this unless you’re serious about getting it moving.

The New Gods

Ava DuVernay will direct a movie based on Jack Kirby‘s New Gods. It’s not clear yet whether this will fit into the continuity of the other DCEU movies, but really, it doesn’t need to. The New Gods is a cosmic story of such incredible scale that there’s no reason to try and connect this to earthbound concerns. Tom King, the DC Comics writer who has made waves with his work on the New Gods-centric (and Eisner Award-winning) Mister Miracle series, is co-writing the screenplay with DuVernay.

The New Gods is the story of two worlds, the warlike Apokolips and the peaceful New Genesis, each populated by immensely powerful beings with fantastic technology. Darkseid is the evil dictator of Apokolips, and he swaps sons with Highfather, the leader of New Genesis, and each child is raised on the opposite world. Darkseid’s son, Orion, becomes a troubled champion of New Genesis, while Highfather’s son (raised by Darkseid) revolts and becomes the super escape artist, Mister Miracle. This barely scratches the surface of what this movie is about. We tried to get into more detail about it here.

The Trench

Aquaman director James Wan and producer Peter Safran are working on developing other corners of Arthur’s world in addition to Aquaman 2. The Trench will focus on the terrifying piranha-like beasts seen briefly in the first film, and will be a smaller-scale, more horror-focused movie, and one that won’t feature any of the main characters from Aquaman. A different approach to superhero movie worldbuilding, for sure. Noah Gardner and Aidan Fitzgerald are writing.

Read more about The Trench here.

Supergirl

Oren Uziel is working on a script for a Supergirl movie. It’s not clear what kind of ties this will have to the currently dead Man of Steel franchise, especially given the uncertain state of Henry Cavill’s future as Superman.

But one thing is for sure, the DCEU does have their Supergirl! Sasha Calle will be introduced as Kara in The Flash movie, and presumably she’ll lead this one, as well.

Green Lantern Corps

Fairly or unfairly, Green Lantern has the most working against him. The 2011 film failed to kickstart the DC Universe as planned, and received a lukewarm (at best) critical and box-office reception. There are, of course, ways around this.

Read more

Comics

The Secret Origin of Green Lantern: Far Sector

By Kayti Burt

Comics

New Green Lantern Series Expands Cosmic DC Universe

By Jim Dandy

One way is to simply not make Hal Jordan the central Green Lantern of the movie. Thisone may focus on as many as three Green Lanterns, with the main focus on a kind of buddy/cop movie with John Stewart and Hal Jordan. Geoff Johns is writing the script, but there’s no director in place yet, however Johns should be turning in his script soon and that will allow the director search to kick off in earnest. There’s also the recent announcement of an HBO Max Green Lantern TV show to consider. It remains to be seen what (if any) connection that will have to this movie.

We have more details on the Green Lantern Corps movie right here.

Plastic Man

This one is a little further off in the future as all they’ve done is hire a writer. But there is definitely a Plastic Man movie in the works, with Amanda Idoko (ABC’s The Mayor) working on a screenplay. We have some more details on it right here.

Blackhawk

Steven Spielberg has long wanted to make a Blackhawk movie, and he’s finally going to get his wish. And if it was your wish to see Steven Spielberg direct a DC movie, you’re also in luck. David Koepp is writing the screenplay. We have more details on this one here.

Batgirl

Joss Whedon was originally supposed to write, direct, and produce the Batgirl movie, one that was reportedly based on Gail Simone’s recent New 52 take on the character. He has exited the project and now Christina Hodson is writing. There is no director at the time of this writing, and rumor has it that this will be a project set to go direct to HBO Max.

Deathstroke

Joe Manganiello has long been cast as Slade Wilson, known to DC fans as Deathstroke. He even made a cameo in one of the Justice League theatrical post-credits scenes back when that was supposed to set up a Justice League 2 that never happened. But it turns out that the original version of that cameo in Zack Snyder’s Justice League was meant to set him up as the villain of The Batman solo movie (that is no longer the case), 

Deathstroke was also once set to get a solo film, written and directed by The Raid‘s Gareth Evans. Despite Manganiello returning for a brief scene as Deathstroke in Zack Snyder’s Justice League, it doesn’t seem likely that his solo film is happening anymore, which is a real shame as he would have been great in the role.

Justice League 2

Justice League 2 isn’t likely to happen at the moment given how the first film underperformed at the box office. It once had a release date, but that long since evaporated. Still, “The Snyder Cut” generated considerable buzz on HBO Max, and featured a teaser scene that was very much meant as a preview for what the director was looking for in his dark vision of Justice League 2.

Nightwing

The Lego Batman Movie director Chris McKay has been tapped to direct a Nightwing movie. Bill Dubuque (The Accountant) is working on a script. No other details are currently available, and this one doesn’t have a release date yet.

Justice League Dark

At one time this was called Dark Universe, until Universal came along and ruined that name with their failed horror movie shared franchise. This one will feature the supernatural characters from the DC Universe. Characters like Swamp Thing, Demon, Deadman, Zatanna, and even John Constantine.

Guillermo del Toro was attached to this one for quite some time, but had to leave the project. Then it was Doug Liman. Now J.J. Abrams is involved as producer for what will likely be an HBO Max series.

And now for the long shots…projects mentioned, rumored, or that haven’t had any movement in a while.

Man of Steel 2

Never officially announced, with no director or writer ever attached…another solo Superman movie starring Henry Cavill seems pretty unlikely at the moment. Especially considering that Henry Cavill appears to be finished as Superman, there’s an excellent Superman & Lois TV series on the air, and the aforementioned movie in the works from Ta-Nehisi Coates.

Cyborg

OK, to be perfectly honest, the Cyborg movie almost certainly isn’t happening. Ray Fisher made his first (very brief) appearance as Vic Stone/Cyborg in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, and played a crucial role in Justice League. At one point he was supposed to feature in The Flash solo movie, too, but it’s not clear if that’s still the case.

Read more

Comics

New DC Universe History Begins in May

By Mike Cecchini

TV

Crisis on Infinite Earths Ending Reveals New DC Multiverse

By Mike Cecchini

Basically, though…let’s be completely real: this movie isn’t happening. There hasn’t been any movement on it in years, despite once having been assigned an April 3, 2020 release date. As far as we can tell there has been no additional movement on this movie in years. It’s probably dead. Too bad, since Ray Fisher was great in the role.

Harley Quinn

Yes, there’s also another Harley Quinn movie in development! Well, at least there was at one point. Whether this is a solo project or something else remains to be seen. Keep in mind that while very good, Birds of Prey didn’t set the world on fire at the box office, which means that Warner Bros. might be a little more wary than before about additional solo projects for Harley, even with Margot Robbie’s star power. As for what shape this movie was supposed to take in the first place, your guess is as good as ours!

Gotham City Sirens

David Ayer is looking to direct a Harley Quinn and friends “girl gang” movie. Geneva Robertson-Dworet is writing, with Margot Robbie producing. It’s not clear where this stands on anybody’s priority list these days. Ayer has moved on to other projects, and as mentioned above, Birds of Prey wasn’t quite the financial success that Warner Bros. had hoped for. It’s possible that Gotham City Sirens has been put in a drawer for the time being.

Booster Gold

Flash and Arrow executive producer Greg Berlanti is going to executive produce and possibly direct a Booster Gold movie. Zack Stentz (Thor, X-Men: First Class) will write the script.

Read more

Movies

Men of Steel: 11 Actors Who Have Played Superman

By Mike Cecchini

Movies

Joker: 6 Actors Who Have Played the Clown Prince of Crime

By David Crow

Early reports described this as a “superhero buddy cop movie” that would involve Blue Beetle. We’ll get you more updates on this as they become available, but keep in mind there hasn’t been any movement on this in a long time, and the Jaime Reyes Blue Beetle movie is probably taking priority for the studio.

Deadshot

Warner Bros. knows they have one of the biggest stars in the world already in costume, so they’re reportedly considering a Deadshot solo movie, as well. But with Smith now having left Suicide Squad 2 this project seems like it may not ever materialize. Unless, of course, switching Idris Elba’s role (he was originally intended as Smith’s replacement as Floyd) means they’re keeping the door open for him down the road.

Lobo

The Lobo movie may attempt to be the DCEU movies’ equivalent of Deadpool. Jason Fuchs must have impressed Warner Bros. with his work on Wonder Woman, because he’s on board to write the script for this one. Michael Bay might direct. But with Lobo appearing on Krypton season 2 and a TV series for the character that had once been put into development (but is probably dead), this might be less of a priority for the studio now.

We have some more info on the project here.

Joker & Harley Quinn Movie

At one point there was yet another Joker-centric flick in the works. This one, a Joker and Harley Quinn movie is absolutely part of the DCEU movie continuity would pick up where Suicide Squad left off. There are currently no additional details available on this one, either. This probably won’t happen, however.

Warner Bros. is very happy with how their R-rated, out of continuity Joker movie performed both critically and commercially, and with Joaquin Phoenix’s Oscar win, it’s a safe bet that they’re at least quietly hoping to make him their definitive Clown Prince of Crime for the foreseeable future…even though Joker was never intended to be part of the DCEU.

Not to be confused with…

Jared Leto Joker Movie

Honestly, we’re having trouble keeping track of all these, but yes, there was also yet another Joker solo movie in development focusing on Jared Leto’s version of the character in the works at one point. Apparently, this has long been canceled, but we’re keeping it here to be safe for a little longer.

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We’ll keep updating this with more information about upcoming DC superhero movies as they get announced and information becomes available.

The post Upcoming DC Movies: Complete Release Calendar appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[dickgreyson]

Oh my god you're right. Bruce had Dick as his ward for years and never adopted him until Dick was an adult but he adopted Jason immediately as soon as he made him Robin. What the hell. I can't imagine how Dick must have felt finding that out. If I were him I'd be mad at Bruce and resent him for that.

BRO IM FUMING. ive been thinking abt this all morning bc someone reminded me but like everyone talks abt jason being bruce’s first canon adoption in any continuity and like that just isnt true? i was reading old tec a little while ago and bruce used ward and adoption pretty interchangeably, and at the time ‘ward’ as a classification had a very similar definition to adoption today. especially with these writers just like. not knowing adoption law, its pretty safe to think that they just thought of dick as bruce’s adopted son. bruce certainly thought of him that way. theres this one book pretty early on in tec where some how bruce ended up adopting like this evil kid (who dies to save robins life and his statue is on wayne grounds still im p sure). but bruce asks dick if he’s okay with it, like this kid is in need of a family and some people to look out for him. and dick pushes him to do it, so bruce says “okay i’ll have my lawyers draw up the adoption papers” and it follows the same process it did with dick. so actually? in any universe dick was the first kid to be adopted, then this evil billy kid, then later jason.

but ok sure. g-d is dead and we’re in post crisis continuity right? bruce never did adopt him, and it was around the time he started communicating any form of affection really badly, and became an emotionless pillar in dicks life who sometimes expressed anger. pre crisis dick individually decided that he was growing out of robin, and as the leader of the teen titans it was time for him to step out of bruce’s shadow and become a separate force for good. he recognised that bruce’s vigilantism comes from a place of pain and revenge, but dick’s comes from compassion and seeking justice. and he couldnt continue to work bruce’s way, he cant maximise his good-doing-ability that way.

but AGAIN. g-d is dead and we’re in post crisis continuity, dick got kicked out as robin. it was one of the few things keeping him together, he barely got to spend any time with bruce and he felt so alienated from his parents’ memory, that being robin was a way to bridge his divide from them and from bruce. it was one of the few places he knew he was making bruce and his mother proud. but then? dick was off at college and on a few too many teen titans missions, and bruce got jealous and self righteously angry that dick wasnt just his own personal soldier who asked how high when bruce said jump. so he took it away from him, kicked him out of the manor, and replaced him.

he went out, found jason, and adopted him. without even telling dick. he found out through like a news paper im pretty sure. can you imagine that? dick missed out on a childhood for this, he spent hours and hours training, he spent every night out fighting crime with bruce, or going through data and being bruce’s right hand man. at every single turn, he did whatever he could to make bruce proud. that way he might be more emotionally present. and instead? he goes and adopts another kid, encourages jason to call him dad, and is about a trillion times more affectionate with him. and he always said he had the papers drawn up to adopt dick in a drawer, but what good are they there? the mind games. he did everything in his power for bruce, he bled for him, and it just wasnt enough! can you imagine how soul crushing that must have been.

and to his credit dick was really good at keeping jason out of this, he snapped at him in their first meeting and yeah i understand why, its overwhelming. but after that he made an effort, because it wasnt jasons fault. he deserved a loving family, but like so did dick. so he kept this anger directed squarely at bruce.

but robin wasnt bruce’s mantle to take away, or to pass on. it was dick’s. he created it to help people, to work with batman, and to make his mother proud. and i just. [screams]

[violetsmoak]

Philtatos [1/?]

AO3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20101543/chapters/47615902

Blanket Disclaimer

Summary: During a patrol where Red Hood and Red Robin cross paths, Jason is infected with the blood of the Eros, the ancient God of Love, who informs them that they must track down his missing bow and arrows, or Jason will go slowly mad with an obsessive desire--for Tim. Though overwhelmed by the sudden attention being paid to him, Tim sets to work trying to solve the case, before Jason succumbs to madness. In the meantime, Jason discovers that there's more than godlike powers at work here, as well as a legacy that reaches back through the sands of time. 

Rating: PG-13 (rating may change later)

Beta Reader: None at the moment, but if anyone’s interested, message me through Tumblr.

JayTimBingo Prompts This Chapter: #art #gods in disguise #wings

Canon-Compliance: Follows the New Earth continuity, with elements of New 52 (ie the ones that don’t completely contradict everything that happened pre-Flashpoint). Ignores Rebirth completely. So, up to about 2016 in terms of publication dates? Robins War happened, but Red Hood hasn’t met Artemis or Bizarro, and nothing bad has happened to Roy ffs! 

———————————————————————————————————–

“Of all the warehouses in all the towns in all the world, you grappled onto mine.”

Tim suppresses a groan at the faux amusement even a voice modulator can’t disguise and prepares for the likelihood that his careful planning is about to go to shit. It’s as irritating as the customary flutter in his stomach.

He shifts out of his crouch at the edge of the warehouse skylight and inclines his head to the right, taking in the familiar leather-clad figure and expressionless red helmet. He’s not sure how he didn’t sense the larger man approach or at least hear the tread of his boots.

Jason knows how to be quiet when he needs to be.

Quirks of being a Robin; the habit of creeping around like a living shadow doesn’t disappear, even years after the fact.

“This isn’t your warehouse,” Tim replies at last, careful to keep his tone neutral and not betraying his irritation. While he doubts his predecessor would try to take him out from behind (he’s 89% sure, at least), Red Hood has tried to kill him several times and in several ways in the past.

Jason acts as if he didn’t hear him.

“Might be time to go back to school, Timbers, if you can’t even recognize a Casablanca reference. I thought you’re supposed to be the cultured one.”

“Except for Star Wars, I prefer my movies to be from the post-John Hughes era.”

“Heathen.”

It’s hard to tell if Jason is shuddering in disgust, or in response to the biting November chill; either is possible. Leather isn’t known for its insulating properties.

On nights like this, Tim can’t help being way more in awe of former Robins. When he wore the colors, he had thermal warmers built into his suit—Dick and Jason used to do this job in short-pants.

“Anyway, I’d never buy land here,” Jason continues, a deceptive nonchalance in his tone putting Tim on edge. “It’s right in a flood zone. I dunno about you, but I had enough floods to last a lifetime.”

“Hood, what are you doing here?”

“Should ask you that. I thought you were in California or something. Team-building exercises with the other kiddy heroes or whatever it is you do.”

Tim ignores the way his heart jumps at the notion that Jason gave any attention to his whereabouts. “Business trip. What’s your excuse?”

“Missed the smell of smog and sewer. Needed to get my fix.”

Right, because I really expected him to tell me the actual truth.

“Uh-huh.”

The two former Robins size each other up for several seconds, and not for the first time, Tim curses the helmet hiding Jason’s face. He hates not being able to read people, but in his experience, not being able to read Jason has the potential to turn deadly.

“Are we done?” Tim prompts.

“Yeah, we’re good. Now make like a Bat and step off.” Jason’s reached into his side holsters—and yes, there are the modified M1911 pistols he favors. Tim’s awareness of his position between Jason and the skylight grows. “I’ve got a creep that needs to fear of Hood put in him.”

There is an implicit order to back off, but Tim squares his shoulders.

As if that’s ever worked on any of us.

He has no intention of relinquishing his case, and not just because he dislikes Jason’s style of justice. Tim gets sidelined enough by both Batmans and Robin whenever he’s in Gotham, he won’t knuckle under because Red Hood also demands it. Tim might be a bit in love with the guy, but he knows how to compartmentalize.   

His feelings are inconvenient, but he’s resigned himself to them. He can pinpoint the exact moment it started to happen.

(His childhood fascination with Robin doesn’t count, even if it was watching Jason bulldoze his path through petty criminals that made him breathless and giddy in a way watching Dick never had.)

Tim blames the waffles.

No, that’s not right; he blames himself for asking Jason to stay for the waffles.

And the talking.

Which led to the joking.

Which led to that one moment where Jason, with syrup all down his chin, laughed at one of Tim’s throway remarks. Laughed, not sneered or scoffed, but genuinely laughed. It was unguarded and untouched by bitterness, warm and rich and his smile was that cocky twist Tim could remember from so many years ago. Something in Tim’s chest pulled tight, his mouth going dry, and he felt lightheaded. 

He should have known at that exact moment, because that’s what happened with Steph, when he looked at her one day and realized, he liked her.

Except with Jason, Tim thought he was just recovering from his surprise that his predecessor agreed to stick around for a while. And that they were getting along and that Jason was laughing.

After that, it was a slow roll toward the inevitable that he unknowingly (totally knowingly) ignored. He’s always excelled at shielding himself from his own feelings—had to be. But every time they met each other on random patrols that crossed over, or amid the monthly major crisis involving the whole Family or when Tim ran into him at the manor visiting Alfred, that buoyant emotion returned, stronger each time.

Sometimes he lets himself imagine that Jason gravitates to him more than anyone else. It fills him with the same dizzy warmth as whenever Jason gives him a look—one of those conspiratorial ones like he and Tim are sharing a joke, except half the time Tim doesn’t know what the joke is and the other half he’s sure it’s him, because what moron falls for the guy that’s tried and almost succeeded in killing him more times than he likes to admit?

He keeps quiet about his feelings, though. It’s not as if it’s something that will ever pan out. It’s simiar to having a crush on a celebrity; fun, if a little sad, to dream about, but never serious. In private, he figures he has a better chance of a healthy relationship with Lynx than with Jason.

He’s accepted that and intends to go on with his life.

“I lose you somewhere there?”

Jason’s voice startles Tim out of his head—he realizes he’s been silent for about thirty seconds—and he gives himself a mental shake. “Just trying to figure out your angle. This isn’t really your…thing.”

“Shows what you know.”

Arguments with Jason are an exercise in futility and Tim refuses to justify his continued involvement in his own investigation—call if professional pride. Instead, he restructures his plan for apprehending his target, accounting for the new and often volatile presence of the Red Hood. He wasn’t looking for a team-up, but he’s pretty sure that’s what’s about to happen.

Tim sighs inwardly.

Just because he’s used to his plans imploding because of Jason, doesn’t mean he has to like it. As to why Jason’s here, it only takes a mental review of the case to figure it out.

“Bunny Vreeland?” he guesses.

“Got it in one.”

Tim nods, because given the specifics of this case, that would be the angle Jason focussed on.

A spate of burglaries have occurred across the city, resulting in Gotham’s elite families and institutions losing valuable pieces of art. Normally Tim would leave a case like this to the GCPD—it should be pretty open-shut, since every theft that’s occurred has been witnessed by the victim.

Except, none of the witnesses seem to be able to recall anything that happened. And somehow, the extant security footage has offered no answers either. As for museums and galleries, those meant to be on guard with security were discovered…doing other things. A lot of them were found in some rather compromising positions, both alone and when working with a partner.

(Tim suppresses a shudder. He could have gone his entire life without seeing the footage a sweat-stained, middle-aged rent-a-cop taking care of himself the Natural History Museum’s security office.)

None of the victims remember how they ended up that way.

That sort of thing, he’d normally suspect it involved Poison Ivy, but she always leaves spores or trails of toxin behind. Every crime scene so far has been clean of any trace evidence.

Whoever is cutting a swath through Gotham’s art collectors has a specific taste—paintings, sculptures and wood cuttings with decidedly risqué themes. Given the behavior of the witnesses and security personnel, it’s entirely conceivable that there’s a metahuman with some kind of… pheromone projection ability running around Gotham. That alone wouldn’t draw Jason’s attention. Except, the latest person to fall prey to the thief was a teenaged girl. And while the age of consent in New Jersey is sixteen, the consenter in question needs to remember giving it to be valid.

Hence Red Hood’s involvement. 

“That happened yesterday,” Tim points out. He’s not sure what is more annoying to him: the fact he’s been on this case for a week and Jason thinks he can show up and take it from him, or that Jason’s been looking into it for less than twenty-four hours and has already tracked down the suspect. “How did you figure out you should come here?”

Okay, so it’s probably the latter.

“It’s art, right? Whoever’s doing this need somewhere to store the pieces, even if it’s only waiting to sell them off. And it’d have to be somewhere easy to get in and out of without drawing attention. I kept an ear out for any property changing hands around here that was inside the theft radius.”

“I checked recent property purchases, though. There haven’t been any for the past two months.”

“Well, there wouldn’t be any records of it if it was a handshake deal—which this was,” Jason replies. “It might not be on the record, but this place is now under the ownership of a Steven Howard.” He tilts his head to one side, and Tim suspects he’s being smirked at. “Why, what overly complicated scheme did you come up with to find this guy?”

There’s that teasing again, although the amusement is more genuine this time. Tim hopes the cowl covers enough of his face to hide the flush in his cheeks.

“I used tonight’s WE charity auction to showcase several pieces remaining from my parents’ collection, specifically those that fit the tastes of our thief,” he explains. “It was a last-minute decision, but I know a certain reporter that’s more than happy to plaster my name across newspapers and social media everywhere.”

“I don’t doubt that.”

“I was hoping to catch the guy in the act, but I got intercepted by a bunch of Lockheed Martin reps and couldn’t get away.”

“Probably for the best, or he’d have put the whammy on you, too.”

“Maybe.” He doesn’t say he would rather it had been him than the event organizer; the poor woman had been frazzled enough before succumbing to the wiles of the mystery thief. “I had a contingency if it happened.” Specifically, a taser in the sleeve of his suit. “Luckily, I left microtracers on the stolen pieces and used the GPS to find where they were taken.”

“How did you manage that? This guy’s been knocking out every electrical device he’s gone up against.”

“Devices that are turned on, yes. You don’t need a GPS to be turned on to trace it—”

His explanation trails off as the computer in his cowl alerts him to someone setting off the motion sensors he planted a half-hour earlier. The thief was gone by the time Tim arrived at this warehouse, but he knew he would be back.

Showtime.

The shipping area is surprisingly empty but based on the security-feeds he’s hacked into dozens of stolen relics—paintings, sculptures and photographs fill the office. The ones he used as bait—a series of Edo-period shunga—have been placed with some prominence in the middle of the room.

He adjusts the screens within his cowl, toggling through nine different enhanced vision modes before he settles on heat-vision. Since cameras don’t seem to pick up this thief, he’s hoping thermal radiation will be a better bet.

Leather shifts and out of the corner of his eye, he notices Jason crouch down beside him.

Looks like he’s fine with us teaming up, at least.

Out loud, he says, “Wait for my signal. We have to confirm before we engage.”

“Sir, yes, sir,” is the snarky reply.

Tim rolls his eyes and settles back into his observational position.

Jason doesn’t like silence, or at least that’s what Tim thinks because he can’t think of a single instance where they worked together that the older vigilante didn’t run his mouth. Even now, he only manages for several minutes of quiet, shifting his weight back and forth impatiently, before he asks, “So what’s your interest in this? Gotham’s elite getting duped isn’t really your thing anymore. The way I hear, you’re a lot more international these days.”

Tim’s eyes don’t leave the window.

“This is international. There were similar crimes committed in Boston last week, which stopped once the thefts started here in Gotham. Before Boston it was St. John’s, before that Dublin, London—as far as I can tell, it originated in Amsterdam.”

“What’s in Amsterdam?”

“Besides spider assassins and stroopwafel? Catwoman. Except it can’t be her because when the second spate of incidents started up in London, she was in Innsbruck casing the Swarovski exhibit.”

“Then how’d you get a beat on this guy? I got nothing from the security footage. It’s like most of it was erased or malfunctioned.”

“It wasn’t easy. Vague witness statements and enhancing whatever footage was available, which barely helped. By accident, I caught something reflected in a shop window and that was the most tangible evidence.”

“So the guy doesn’t show up on cameras, but still has a reflection. So not a vampire.”

“Not human, either, I think. Somehow, this guy made it from Dublin to St. John’s without being flagged by any checkpoint or even Customs. There are no flight manifests, commercial or charter, that include passengers of his description. Or line up with his times of disappearance. I’ve got a second-hand witness description of him in a Boston lounge at ten o’clock last Monday. Fifteen minutes later on the same day, someone saw him walking around the Wedgewood Museum here in Gotham.”

“That’s where the first theft took place.” Jason makes crosses his arms. “Even if he had access to a plane that travels Mach 1, he wouldn’t get here that fast. Meta?”

“It’s the only explanation that makes sense, since it looks like whatever his powers, he can turn them off and on at will. Probably only uses them when he’s committing the break-ins.”

“And the—wait. There he is.”

They both go silent and watch the suspect enter.

It’s a bit anticlimactic.

Steven Howard looks nothing like a suave master thief that can stir up lustful feelings in anyone. Slender, perhaps as tall as Tim but with a slighter build, dressed in skinny jeans, several layers of shirts and thick black gloves. His dirty blond hair is literally filthy, hanging in the mats that white people try to pass off as dreadlocks, and he’s wearing tinted shades. Inside. At night.

Jason is just as unimpressed.

“Are you kidding me?” he hisses. “This scrawny, pale douche wearing sunglasses at night? He looks like someone didn’t realize Woodstock is over.”

They continue to observe as Howard shuffles into the middle of the room, carrying a huge paper bad with what appears to be enough Batburger to feed twelve people.

“It seems consistent with the descriptions I have,” Tim says, doubtful. “He just… doesn’t seem the type.” Jason is already standing, ready to dive through the skylight and confront the guy, but Tim stops him, throwing an arm out in front of him. “If he’s a meta, we need to have some idea of his capabilities first.”

“Or we knock him out before he knows we’re there and figure that out later.”

“If you want to get hit with whatever pheromones he gives off, be my guest, I promise I won’t take any blackmail videos,” Tim says, and that at least makes Jason pause and reassess.

Below, Howard places the takeout on a pile of crates, and strolls over to the Japanese prints. He considers them carefully for several seconds, before shucking his gloves and reaching forward, stroking his hand across the surface. Then, he presses his forehead against it, fingers caressing the edges.  

“Clearly not concerned with artifact preservation.”

“That’s weird, right? Rich people don’t usually walk around feeling up pieces of art?”

“I don’t know, Hood, do you?”

“I’m not rich.”

“You steal literal fortunes from gangsters.”

“Yeah, but it’s not like I keep much of it. And I didn’t grow up with a silver spoon in my mouth like a few other people I could name.”

“Bite me.”

“Kinky.”

The other man is obviously being a smart-ass, but Tim still clenches his fist and hopes his cowl is low enough on his face to disguise the flood of color in his cheeks.

Down below, Howard straightens up and tugs his shirts off.

“What the hell?” Jason hisses. “We’d better not be out to watch this guy beat off in front of a painting!”

Before Tim can respond, the lights in the warehouse flicker, as if hit by a sudden power surge. Howard rolls his shoulders, like he’s warming up for exercise, and there’s an odd snap that echoes even this high up. 

Two enormous feathered appendages erupt from the man’s back, like something out of a video game, except this is real life. One minute there’s nothing occupying the space behind him, and a beat later feathers flare out to both sides, spanning almost the entire office.

“Holy shit. Are those… wings?”

“You mean you’re seeing them too? And here I figured I haven’t been getting enough sleep.”

“Knowing you, probably not.”

 “Still want to jump in without a plan?”

“Shut up.”

Tim’s fingers fly over the keyboard of his wrist computer, manually inputting characteristics since he can’t seem to capture the guy’s face on his device. “Whoever or whatever he is, he’s a complete ghost. He doesn’t show up on any of the usual databases. Which is surprising, because, wings?”

Jason shakes his head, slow as if trying to dispel disbelief. “One thing’s for sure, this is definitely our guy…”

There is a squeal of tires from behind them, and Tim’s head whips toward the loading dock below the warehouse. He fiddles with his wrist computer, tapping into satellite imagery to see from the angle he can’t. A half dozen black SUVs swerve into the lot and a wave of men pile out, dressed in black and carrying a varied assortment of firearms.

And there goes the rest of my plan…

⁂

Jason creeps to the edge of the warehouse roof to check out the new arrivals, cursing against the newest complication; Red Robin showing up on his patrol and skinny white boys with wings weren’t bad enough, now he’s got to deal with gangster too?

This was supposed to be an easy night. Break a few bones, shatter a kneecap or two, then go finish off that leftover pizza.

He suspects that whatever this is, it’s going to take up the rest of his patrol.

“Who is it?” Tim wants to know, no doubt fiddling with his fancy tech to, like, use satellite imagining figuring it out instead using his eyes.

Nerd.

“I’m seeing a lot of Kalashnikovs and Makarovs,” Jason replies, tapping his comm so he doesn’t need to shout and give away their position.

“Russian? Ivgene maybe?”

“Bratva, I think. Those guys’ve been trying to push into Gotham since Alex Kosov got arrested and the Odessa Mob started to flounder.”

“Hm. I think you’re right. I’m going over the list of theft vics again, and Ishmael Knyazev is on it.”

“Knyazev…why does that sound familiar—wait. Like Anatoly Knyazev? KGBeast?”

“His younger brother.”

“Shit.”

“I’m pretty sure those Degas’ down there in the warehouse belong to him.”

“Guess he holds a grudge…”

Down on the pavement, the men spread out, a bulky guy bearing some resemblance to Slade Wilson but without the muscles gives orders. He barks at his men to surround the building, ordering them to retrieve the paintings and whatever else appears valuable, and detain the thief for their boss to speak to.

Jason snorts, because he knows what constitutes a Russian mafia talking-to. Steven Howard, or whoever he is, is about to have a lot in common with a plucked turkey. Assuming he goes quietly, which Jason isn’t entirely sure of; they still don’t know what wing-boy is capable of.

As he returns to the skylight, he notes Tim already standing and doing a pat-down check of his equipment.

“If they’re here to address a grudge with this guy, we need to get down there before it gets ugly. I figure we have about four minutes before they infiltrate the place.”

“What happened to not just jumping in?”

“About two dozen Bratva members.”

“Yeah, so? What should we care?” Jason counters. “A bunch of scumbags tearing each other apart sounds like a night off to me. And if Feathers there takes a bullet or three, even better.”

Tim faces him dead-on then, and Jason can imagine the reproachful look beneath his stupid cowl. “Theft isn’t a capital offense.”

“Rape is.”

In his mind, anyway.

“Not according to New Jersey Law, and we don’t get to make that call. That’s what the courts are for, and that’s where this guy is going after I interrogate him.”

Jason huffs and narrows his eyes. “We really gonna have this discussion now, kid?”

Tim bristles and turns away.

“No,” he retorts, “because we don’t have time. I’m going in—with or without you.”

And without sparing another glance at him, Tim takes a running leap and jumps through the skylight to mitigate impending disaster.

Jason remains still for a beat, watching as Red Robin plummet through the air to the warehouse below, glass and metal exploding around him, and then curses.

Because, of course his replacement is going to make it his business. Jason’s perfectly content to let these low lives take each other out—death by mobster is a pretty karmic fate for a rapist, in his opinion.

Tim hits the ground several feet behind their mark, who whirls around and stares with wide eyes. The feathers in his giant wings puff up, and he bends into a defensive crouch, a snarl upon his lips.

“Who the—you! What are you doing here?” ‘Howard’ snaps, clenching his fists.

“Getting you out of here before you become a pincushion,” Red Robin growls, snapping a hand outward to grab at him. “And you’re going to answer some questions.”

“Don’t touch me—!”

“Then get moving, or we’re both—”

Apparently, Tim’s estimate was about three minutes off, because there are muffled explosions from the entrances of the warehouse and then the mobsters are piling in, shouting commands and threats, guns in hand.

“—in trouble.”

Several men fire warning shots into the air, some of which bury themselves in the frame of the portraits nearest Tim and Howard, who gives a growl and shoves away from Tim, stalking toward the incoming threat. His wings flare up in anger. “You brutes dare to—!”

But his approach startles the mobsters, who apparently weren’t expecting to encounter a shirtless winged man coming after them.

Easily startled and trigger-happy—never a good combination.

Tim’s leg snaps out, sweeping Steve’s feet out from under him, just in time to save him from the next wave of bullets ripping through the air where his head was. As Tim lands on the ground with one hand, he uses his other to throw a fistful of R-shuriken that embed themselves in the shoulder of the nearest mobster, who drops his gun with pained curses.

Ah, hell.

Jason leaps over the ruined frame of the skylight.

If anyone asks later, it’s because he doesn’t want to explain to Alfred why the poster child of the family got killed in a mob shoot-out on his watch.

(And yes, just Alfred, because while everyone else can go fuck themselves, the number one rule of the family is that you don’t upset the kindly old Englishman that puts up with literal batshit.)

But the reality is, he’s not about to let the only Bat he trusts become riddled with bullets.

Tim isn’t his family, or a friend—they don’t know each other well enough for that—but there’s always been a kind of certainty to him, so Jason knows exactly where he stands with the other vigilante. And that he can turn his back on him without having to worry about an incoming knife or a nerve-strike.

When they first met, he zeroed in on Tim because of lingering resentment and a burning desire for vengeance on his replacement, misdirected as that might have been. Now that he’s mostly over the madness of the Lazarus Pit and endured a few grudging family team-ups in the face of Gotham’s usual psychopaths, his tendency to cross paths with Red Robin feels like it’s motivated by something more complicated. There’s a connection between them, a shared experience of being the replacement that no one really wanted, constantly measured against the legacy of their predecessor and then cast aside with painful ease. They’re outsiders in the family, in a way that neither Dick nor Damian will ever be, and in his own screwed up way, Jason is a bit protective of the kid.

(Not that he intends ever to admit that.)

So yeah, going after Tim isn’t really a choice.

Can’t promise I won’t shoot that winged fucker for causing all this trouble, though.

As he lands in a heavy crouch, Jason notices Tim’s mouth part in surprise; he can’t help being insulted by that.

Sure, they’re relationship can at best be described as limbo, but the kid should know by now Jason no longer hates him with a fiery passion. If he must partner with any of the Bats, he sticks close by Tim, and not only because he has less trouble asking him for help than Dick or Bruce.

(Seriously, the last time he called in a favor with Dick, he couldn’t even get the word out.)

Tim, back on his feet now, sends another hapless gunman flying in Jason’s direction with a well-placed right hook; the guy’s eyes go wide at the sight of the Red Hood, who swings and backhands him into unconsciousness. As the body goes limp, Jason grabs the falling gun with one hand, and uses the other to prop the mobster up as a shield.

Shoving him out in front of him, Jason ducks behind the body to avoid the rain of bullets now coming at him courtesy of this guy’s buddies, carefully inching forward behind his human shield.

“No killing!” Red Robin snaps from across the room; he tosses a tiny device at two more guys, and as it explodes, a controlled concussive blast knocks them to the ground.

“I’m not killing anyone.”

“You’re not exactly preventing it!”

“Everyone’s a critic…”

Still, at the next opportune moment, he throws the man aside and shoots the guns out of the hands of the three shooters, before whirling around to kneecap the fourth that sneaks up from behind him.

One of the injured men tries to come at him again, this time with a knife, but Jason ducks the clumsy blow with ease, punching him in the gut and dragging him into a headlock as he doubles over. He swings him to the ground, takes another shot to hobble him, and then ducks as the two other mobsters crowd him.

Howard looks like he’s trying to inch away from the firefight, but he’s sent back to the ground with a well-placed tap from Red Robin’s bo staff.

“Don’t go flying off just yet,” Tim growls, then vaults over him and puts himself between the winged man and another cadre of mobsters, sweeping his cape in front of them both to shield them.

Must have upgraded it to be bulletproof since I last saw him…

Jason throws one arm up to catch a downward swing from his nearest opponent, twists his body to avoid his comrade, and then strikes the latter in the face, rolling and twisting the arm in his grasp to send the man backward. Both now on the floor, he downs them with two precise shots to the knees, and then stalks forward to finish another with a front-kick to the sternum.

Nine down—how many left?

There’s a lull in the gunfire, and Jason engages his helmet’s infrared system to find the remaining mobsters; they appear to be retreating for the moment, but the thermal readings suggest they aren’t going far.

“Got an exit strategy?” he prompts, backing toward Tim and their hapless charge, guns still primed to shoot.

“You seriously still need to ask?”

“Does it involve going up? Because I don’t think that’s going to work.”

Tim follows Jason’s gaze toward the skylight where the Slade lookalike is perched, disengaging the safety on what Jason recognizes almost too late as a Dragunov.

And ten to one the fucker’s primed with armor-piercing rounds!

There’s only time for Jason to get one person down and to safety, and between the winged bastard that caused all of this, and Tim, there’s no contest.

He vaults forward as the first shots thunder through the air, throwing himself at Tim as bullets careen into Howard. Jason doesn’t know if it hits him anywhere vital, but they do pierce through the thick wings, sending him to the ground in a crumpled heap.

Several of the same bullets plow into Jason’s shoulder when he can’t quite move out of the way in time. He feels blood blossoming across his skin—not the numbing, bone-deep ache of a major injury, but more of a graze—as he lands on Tim’s less than cushioning body.

“Christ, kid, eat a sandwich,” he growls, tightening his hold on the kid and rolling them both out of the path of fire. With an inelegant inchworm crawl that should embarrass anyone trained by Dick Grayson, he manages to get them over to a bunch of crates to provide cover.

It’s just in time, too, since another stray bullet glances across Jason’s helmet; this isn’t as lucky as the body armor. The screen shatters and his comm fizzles out from the force of the shot, and Jason snarls out a breathless oath at the pain and sudden disorientation.

There’s another dull roar, a second round of automatic fire, and this time its Tim knocking him out of its path, dragging them lower down behind the crates.

A beat later, Jason senses fingers scrabbling at the catches of his helmet—

“Ja—! Hood—you alrigh—?!”

And then the helmet is off, and Tim looms over him. He is surprisingly clear in Jason’s vision considering the hit he just took. The cowl hides his eyes, but the way his jaw clenches suggests worry.

Something shoots through Jason then, hitting him like a blow to the gut, as if someone snuck up behind him and sucker-punched him. But there’s no one near him except Tim, probably wouldn’t coldcock someone while he’s down.

For a moment, Jason imagines the entire world slows, and the roar of gunfire fades out, replaced by a puzzling whispering that drowns everything else out:

“—should e’er I go, will you go with me--?”

“—come back to me—”

“—I would that you would leave them all to perish—”

“—bury us together—”

There’s a harsh, swooping sensation in his stomach and Jason gasps for breath, the pain of the action refocussing him on his immediate surroundings. Sound returns, the echoing words bleeding into Red Robin’s voice in an eerie double timbre.

“Hood, answer me! Are you okay?!” Red Robin demands, and then lowers his voice into a hiss, “Jason!”

Physically shaking his head to clear it, Jason forces his concentration past the strange haze surrounding him and pushes the other vigilante away, pausing only briefly to assess that he hasn’t been shot too.

“Not cool, man, secret identity, remember?” he grumbles.

“You’re still wearing a mask,” Tim shoots back, but what would normally sound waspish for him sounds tense. “Or half of one at least.”

Jason grunts in response, digging into his pocket for the spare domino he keeps on hand, peels the backing off the adhesive strip and fixes it to his face. He peeks around the edge of the crates to study the sniper up high, while Tim cranes to check on their mark; Howard is still moving, shoulders and wings shifting like he’s trying to get up. They need to get him out of the line of fire, much as Jason would rather not, and stop the guy from bleeding out.

Another barrage of bullets demolishes the top edges of the crates.

“Police are on their way,” Tim tells him, flicking something on his wrist computer.

“Awesome. Just in time to identify our corpses.”

“As if you haven’t had worse,” Tim snorts, studying the projected display. “All the exits are covered; unfriendlies on our four, six and nine.”

“And the one up top.”

Another bullet embeds itself three inches from Jason’s head. He and Tim consider each other for a second, and the younger man digs another handful of gadgets from his bandolier. He juts his chin at the skylight, his meaning plain, and Jason nods.

Simple enough plan. Of course, it’d be nice if there was something to distract them a bit more. I really don’t want to get shot again just now—

Their buddy Howard decides that’s the optimal moment to try to get up again, pushing himself to his feet with a snarl. His wings unfurl with a whump sound, the blast of air rippling from them sending a few of the nearer mobsters staggering. It has the added effect of drawing their attention, and for a moment, there’s a lull in the amount of projectiles heading for Jason and Tim as the gunmen focus on the new threat.

“That’ll work.”

“Go!”

They burst out from behind the crates, Jason already shooting several rounds at the sniper up top, while Tim flings a handful of circular pods at the nearest enemies. This first wave of devices are knockout gas, which downs the two closest mobsters and makes Steve cough and stagger.

Jason’s target pulls back to avoid his attack, but isn’t fast enough, ends up taking a shot to the calf and staggering forward. He plummets to the ground, and there’s a familiar sound of bone cracking—Sorry, asshole, that sounded like a femur—and then Jason swings around to take out the trio sneaking up on them from behind.

Tim automatically ducks beneath his arms, neatly avoiding the barrage of bullets, and tosses another handful of gadgets; this time, upon contact, wires snap out and wrap around the attackers, making several overbalance while the others lose grip on their weapons. Jason’s clip is empty now, and so he drops his own guns, pulls out the modified grapple gun and fires; it punches through the shoulder of one guy, and Jason retracts it, pulling him forward and then downing him with a punch to the jaw.

Red Robin’s last device is something metallic that lands in the middle of the floor and vibrates with a startling intensity; Jason’s about to make a lewd joke, when his grapple is tugged out of his hands—along with every other metallic weapon nearby, which collect in a pile around the device.

“Really?” Jason grouses.

“Like you really need a weapon,” Tim shoots back; he’s already got his bo staff primed and ready—Must be made of some non-metallic polymer this time around—and sweeps the legs out from under some stragglers.

Jason decides to show his feelings on the matter by plowing forward and brawling with the remaining members of the mob. He doesn’t pull his punches, listening to the snap of forearms and crack of broken ankles and cries of pain.

And as suddenly as it started, it’s quiet again.

The warehouse is in ruins—along with quite a few of the relics.

Howard gapes around. “You animals. You absolute savages! You just…look at this!”

“Hope you have insurance,” Jason quips.

“Don’t really care if you don’t,” Tim adds, bringing out one of the remaining pods; he snaps it open before Steven can say anything, and rope wires explode outward to wrap around him, wings and all. “Now, let’s go have a conversation before the police show up.”

Grabbing hold of the guy by the front, he fires his grapple and flies upward; Jason stares after him for a bit longer than a blink, shakes his head. After tugging his grapple out of the pile of weapons (with more difficulty than he’d like), he follows.

Sirens scream in the distance, as he and Tim face down the winged man who is teetering a bit as he tries to keep balance.

“Well, that’s just rude,” he mutters, his pinched expression reminiscent of Damian’s permanently constipated look. “And a waste, really.”

He closes his eyes in concentration, and the wings vanish, causing Tim’s bindings to loosen. Both Tim and Jason leap forward to grab him in case he tries to make a run for it, but he sidesteps them with surprising ease.

“Knock it off, I’m not going anywhere,” he snaps before they can try again. “What’s the point, you just destroyed my pad.”

“You’d think you’d be more bothered about having been shot,” Tim deadpans, and then studies the shirtless man with a frown on his lips. “Or not.”

There isn’t a sign injury on him.

“I heal fast.”

“Good to know,” Jason says.

Without another word, he snaps head forward and headbutts the pasty-faced bastard. Who crumples to the ground once more.

“Hood!” Red Robin cries in protest and recrimination.

“What? It was that or a bullet.”

Red Robin pulls him backward and away from their detainee, mouth turning downward. Jason intends to mirror the expression right back—he isn’t in the mood for Tim’s bitch-face—but his vision falters a bit, tunneling a little as it settles on Tim’s form.

Okay, so that was a bad idea. If I didn’t have a concussion before…

“Man, you really shouldn’t have done that…” their winged detainee mumbles, picking himself back off the ground and glares at Jason through bleary, bloodshot eyes. “I mean, if you weren’t screwed before by the bullet, you definitely will be now.” His gaze flicks to Tim, and the corner of his mouth ticks up in a way Jason doesn’t like. “Probably quite literally.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Jason snaps, finger itching towards a trigger once again.

“That’s not important,” Tim interrupts. “I want to know who this guy is. Metas tend to avoid Gotham.”

“Well, darling, I’m not a meta.”

“Then what the hell are you? Because those wings ain’t human,” Jason growls. “And this is the only time we’ll ask nicely.”

The winged man draws himself up, somehow managing to loom despite the fact he’s perhaps an inch taller than Tim and narrows his eyes at them like he’s looking at vermin.

“I am Eros,” he says, lifting his chin, “the God of Love.”

⁂⁂⁂

Next Chapter

[scaryscarecrows]

Boy Wonder, MK II

AN: Hilariously, in some...I wanna say it was pre-crisis, but I don’t remember now...older Robin!Jason comic, Bruce really does just leave the kid in a seedy bar. Luckily for him, the Friendly Neighborhood Sex Workers take a shine to him and nothing bad happens, but still. Bruce. He’s like twelve.

* * *

Dove is not Batman’s biggest fan by a long shot. Oh, sure, he’s not that terrible, all things considered, he’s not blowing up factories and eating people, but. But. He breaks windows. He makes Penguin mad. And he stuck a kid in tights and told him to go punch serial killers.

So. No, Dove really doesn’t like him very much. He’d better hope to God she never finds out who he is, or CPS will be on him so fast…

Robin hasn’t been seen for months. Two-Face beat the hell out of him (not Dent, Two-Face, there is a difference, Harvey felt guilty about it) and...that was sort of the end of it. He’s not dead, Dove knows, because there’s been reports coming out of Bludhaven about some ‘flippy punchy bastard’ and if that’s not the kid, she’ll go back to the streetcorner. Dove’s not...happy about it, exactly, but Batman hasn’t press-ganged any more kids and that’s...fine. Maybe he’s learned his lesson.

Cobblepot’s trying for the straight and narrow again (well, for him, he hasn’t stabbed anybody in forever and the last five shipments were legal), which means Batman has no business being in here-what is that.

It’s...it’s technically Robin, but it’s not the one in Bludhaven. This one’s shorter. Oh, for fuck’s sake, he got another one. Another one! Really?

Cobblepot frowns, raises the eyebrow behind the bottle, and says nothing to him.

“What do you want.”

“Information.” Batman always sounds like he’s drunk a gravel milkshake. Dove wonders if he thinks it sounds scary or what. “There’s been a murderer targeting the homeless population.”

“Tragedy. But not my forte, Batman, don’t even attempt to blame it on me.”

“Hn.” Batman stands, somehow, even taller. “But you might have heard something.”

“I might have.” Cobblepot tilts his head. “Step into my office. The child stays outside, I will not have...breakages.”

Yeah...Robin the First (????) had a habit of doing handstands on the furniture. Among other things.

“I’m not gonna break things,” the kid grouses suddenly. Then he takes a closer look at Penguin. “Hey, s’that a real bottle?”

Alley kid. Christ on an ostrich.

Dove tenses to either prevent Cobblepot from stabbing the boy or to get the hell out of the way. Cobblepot breathes deeply, visibly counts to ten, and turns sharply.

“Office. Now. The brat stays here.”

Batman looks like he might be laughing. Fuck Batman.

They go, though, and Dove’s left with a tiny, scowling child who, on closer inspection, is trying to puff himself up like, well, a scared bird.

“C’mere, kiddo,” she says. “You hungry?”

At first, he doesn’t answer. But then he turns on the same cocky grin his...predecessor...had, or somethin’ in that ballpark, and chirps, “C’n I have a vodka shot?* I got ID, I swear, I just left it in my other cape.”

Pfft. Sure, kiddo, and she rides a unicorn to work.

“No,” she tells him, “but I can getcha a hot chocolate.”

“Spike it?”

“Keep dreaming.” He clambers onto a bar stool and Jesus, he really is tiny. “So where’d Big Bat pick you up?”

“I stole his tires,” Robin announces, twisting dangerously to look at a painting behind him. “And beat the shit out of him when he asked for ‘em back.”

Dove refrains from laughing at him. Barely.

“Really.”

“I did! Ask ‘im!”

She just might, if only to see the look on his face.

“And he made you Robin.”

“Uh-huh-oh, wow.”

What-oh. Yeah, the Iceberg has an enviable wine rack, but the hot chocolate recipe was Cobblepot’s mother’s. There’s supposed to be a heaping helping of Irish cream, but Robin doesn’t need to know that.

“Here ya go, kiddo. S’cold outside.”

“Thanks!”

He’s not too sure about the wafer stick, at first, but he ends up eating it and accepting the other one she gives him. It’ll be a little bit, probably, before people catch on that he’s new. Which. It probably doesn’t matter, but...but. Still.

Batman comes back and Robin leaps off the stool.

“So? Are we gonna get ‘im?”

“Hn.”

That must be Batman for ‘yes’, because Robin cheers and bounds towards the door with a shouted, “Thanks for the drink, Miss Marquis!”

And then they’re gone.

Goddamn Batman, teaching his...whatever they are to him...his stalky habits. And then some.

Oh, boy, and then some. Hopefully this one’ll fare better than the first. Or see the light and get out before it’s too late.

THE END

*Jason, in all reality, would get that shot and either choke on it or pour it into a plant when no one’s looking. :p

[americankimchi]

cindy how would u recommend going about becoming familiar with the various robins and batchildren and such? any particular comics or shows or whatever?

oh man u have UNLEASHED the BEAST 

it’s been a Hot Second since i’ve read the comics but

COMICS:

if you just want to know who’s who then i’d say start with nu52 bc it crams a lot of characters old and new together in a godless chaotic way

if you want to know the batfam SPECIFICALLY, then i’d start with pre-boot stuff like batman: cataclysm, the final crisis arc (well it’s not Just the batfam but it provides the context for/leads into the next arc which is pretty choice), Batman R.I.P, Battle for the Cowl, and the subsequent arcs

(does the will smith pose) now for my favorite boy wonder whomst is blessed with the name dick grayson, bestboy, who has done some things wrong and many that are questionable but then again who hasn’t in comics since the writers are a rotating wheelhouse of inconsistencies and strange character choices nothing wrong ever in his entire life, the first robin, nightwing, batman 2 (kicks bat!azrael under the rug), and the love of my life,

PLEASE read batman and robin (with dick and damian as the subsequent holders of each title) because it is just. good. i love them. i love these kids. they’re A FAMBILY........... (pours one out for tim u_u)

or read any of the titans comics! not the teen titans ones (i mean u could nothing is stopping u go forth and live ur best life) but the ones where they’re all grown up...... donna troy.............. my WIFE

nu52 has a really cool arc with the court of owls called “night of the owls” which introduces a REALLY cool new spin on dick’s backstory which is *chef’s kiss* choice

/pointedly ignores everything that happened to dick after this arc because honestly, what the fuck, What The Fuck, and i repeat WHAT the FUCK,,

for tim drake, read young justice since that’s His team or his titular red robin series and i’m so!!! proud of him!!!! baby boy!!!! BABEY!!!!!!!!!!!! honestly if i hadn’t been introduced to dick grayson first (i mean,,, most of us have been since he was the first and the most popular in terms of media rep ghjdfkghfj) i’m like....... pretty sure he’d be my favorite robin. he’s the best detective among the robins (though that’s not saying that they’re lightweights in that department; every single bat is Incredibly Proficient in investigation. it’s just that tim’s the best, possibly even better than batman himself, which is truly saying something)

JASON TODD THE MAN WITH THE TRULY QUESTIONABLE CHOICE IN HEADWEAR.......... shoutout to condom!jason we’ll never forget this truly iconic look

read red hood and the outlaws!!! i think that’s the best way to get to know Ya Boi since it shows him in the best light :>

damian........... son boy allowed........... most of his arcs are tied in with dick’s and bruce’s but he’s got some good ones too!!! although most of those are in nu52 now and i don’t know much about nu52 except for that unfortunate time where dc Tried It with my boy. aside from that the aforementioned batman and robin series is SUPER good for dames

AS FOR THE BATGIRLS............. god i am ashamed to say that,,, i don’t know much about them,,,,,,, aside from batgirl, black bat, and the birds of prey comics (pre-boot, not nu52) which has ORACLE!BABS!!!! oracle babs....................... how i miss you.................... /stares longingly into the distance................... back when they did you justice and didn’t just shaft you back into batgirl status because they decided that they couldn’t just FUCKING use stephanie brown or cass cain no they had to take you from your pinnacle, from your peak, rewind and destroy the struggles that you had to overcome to become the best you you could be after you had batgirl taken from you in the most violent way possible and i! am! still!!! furious!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

bruce is. well he’s batman pick a comic any comic fghkjfhgf

CARTOONS:

justice league the animated series for some WHOLESOME BRUCE WAYNE GOODNESS it’s truly the best at showing bats in the best way... shoutout to the episode where he held [redacted]’s hand bc they were scared ;_;

young justice is super good too! it kind of uh,,, replaced,,, tim’s role as leader with dick grayson which i understand because dick is more popular and that’s how u get the #views but have no fear!!! timbo is in season 2!!! and jason for like 3 seconds!!! but there is also a SEASON THREE NOW WHICH I STILL HAVEN’T SEEN HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH /grabby hands

teen titans, the OLDER teen titans, not the more memey reboot... honestly who was i, who were we all before the terra arc

and the batman animated series of course!!! also batman: beyond if you want to see old grouchy grandpa batman in the twilight of his years still alpha as FUCK though

and that’s all i got for u off the top of my head!! hope this helped :L

[darkspellmaster]

If S3 ends with a Crisis event that causes Bruce's disappearances that implies a BatDick arc somewhere down the road (Idk, maybe The Light gets taken down but Earth gets toasted somehow in the process and many cities, like Gotham become a No Man's Land. S4 takes place a few years because things have to get that bad before Dick takes up the cowl), maybe the CoO's can be one of the shows main enemies? They could change it up to be a ancient sister conspiracy to the Light. Honestly I think-

2 it’d be cool of Steph could be the next Robin during that time. If Dick became Batman. Tim would become Red Robin because M'gann moved on from the Team (maybe to join another team or be something else important in light of whatever her brother to Mars) and left him in charge of leading the next gen of heroes (yeah I know he left but he could come back. It’s not being disowned by the JL). That leaves Steph to be Dick’s Robin. It’d also be cool because Damian might be too young to be Robin -

3 but events (if Damian isn’t discovered or taken in by the Bat’s in S3) might cause Talia to give her son over to Dick’s care (no matter how hostile they can be to each other, Talia does respect Dick’s abilities and would trust him to protect Damian) if things get too dangerous for Damian to be around her. Which would be good because Dick and Steph pre n52 were the two characters who helped Damian become a good person more then anyone else. Damian would be too little to be Robin but old -

4 to contribute and decide to change his ways. It’d be a different approach. Particularly if he was genetically aged (like I think some canon has him, but Idk) so he was older enough to fight (like 8) but he would come into the world w/o knowing Bruce first. Which would be a constant stress for Dick since Damian would be comparing him to, in Damian’s eyes, a god that was his father. (Which would probably lead Damian to being disillusioned when Bruce came back and wasn’t a perfect human being).

~~~~~

Not sure if the whole world will end up a mess, because if Bruce goes missing that means that they won, and I don’t think they’re going to win this season. The title Nevermore can indicate the idea of Raven showing up (Which could lead into later episodes where we have the character coming into play in season 4), but I also think that it could indicate the wrecking of the Justice League and the fall out from that. I think that Season 4 will have the “death” of Bruce, but yes totally can see the fall out with the CoO coming in and picking up where the Light left off after they get wrecked by Apokolips. I’m pretty sure the split off of the light will lead to other issues in the future for the Team, and we probably will see a very different JL come season 4 or 5 depending on what happens at the end of this season. And I would totally be up for BatDick, or Dickbats. 

Interesting run through there. I like it. Honestly I don’t see Steph being robin, I can see here being Nightwing though, and having Damian work with her and Dick as Mentors. Given that the Bat family is way closer to one another than in comics, I can see Jason, when brought back and Tim both working with Damian in their own ways. Maybe Tim teaches him about computers along with Babs allowing Damian to actually get to know Tim better and not try to kill him. 

It’s going to be an interesting aftermath seeing what Greg and Brandon and the writers have cooked up for us going forward. Because I don’t see them cancelling this any time soon. 

[stepichu]

UHH???? I CANT BELIEVE YOU HAVE AN ESSAY ON HIS HAIR?? LIKE YOU CANT JUST SAY YOU HAVE SOMETHING LIKE THAT AND NOT SHARE???

i’m laughing oh my god alright here’s the over the top explanation and analysis of why sometimes jason has the streak, and other times he doesn’t that i wrote (i didn’t include exposition on what the streak is but i had explained it earlier in the discord chat)

Jason’s first reappearance afterhis death was just before the Hush Storyline, in the main Batman comics, and hedid have the white streak. It was there, it was blatant, and he was rocking it.His double also had the streak. He also had the streak in the flashbacks of himsearching for the Joker, before he returns as Red Hood. Strangely, he didn’t have the streak when he initially emerged from the Lazarus Pit, but that mayhave been a colouring error, or the streak just took a while to appear. Thatisn’t clear. Regardless, he did have it until at *least* Batman Annual #25:Daedalus and Icarus: The Return of Jason Todd. (Winick, Starlin) This issuegives readers a summarized version of how Jason came back to life and made hisway to Gotham to find the Joker and Batman, and features the fight in thegraveyard, where he reveals his face for the first time. However, if you readany issues included in the Under the Red Hood Storyline, (Winick, Mahnke) youwill notice that Jason is missing the white streak he’s known for within fancommunities. He inexplicitly regains the streak in Countdown to Final Crisis,although it’s not explained at all.

There are a couple theories as towhy he doesn’t have the streak, but the community is unsure of which is themost accurate. The first is that the artists simply forgot, or didn’t want tokeep drawing it in. Relatively understandable, given that there is noexplanation for it. Generally, when an aspect about a character is changed,there’s a reason given by the writer that changed it. Using Jason himself as anexample, before the Crisis on Infinite Earths Storyline, he actually had redhair. His initial persona was a redheaded acrobat (who dyed his hair black tolook more like Dick), although his backstory was changed after the CIE due toreader backlash that he was too similar to Dick Grayson. Writer Grant Morrisonlater brought back the Red Hair in Batman and Robin Vol. 1 #5, explaining thatBruce made him dye his hair. Notably, the Jason in these issues has the streak,indicating that it could be more writer choice than artist choice.

The prominent theory is thatJason dyes his hair regularly in order to remove the streak. It’s almost anunwritten agreement that no, Jason does not have red hair, that was just anunfortunate choice by Morrison, because this Jason is not the same Jason fromPre-CIE. Therefore, unless the streak magically went away on his own, he mustbe dying his naturally black hair black again. It could be argued that his hairgrew out black, but this is unlikely, as when hair turns white, it’s due to aloss of pigmentation that in almost any circumstance, can’t return. (https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-does-hair-turn-gray/)In addition, since he trained with the All-Caste, that would presumably beextremely stressful, and stress is known to cause hair to go grey in somepeople.

Given that Jason has been writtenmany times by many different writers, any one conclusion about his hair ispractically guaranteed to be disproven or changed at some point in the future.However, given the general consistency of his black hair and the seeminglyrandom reappearances of the white streak, it is most likely that he dyes his hairas per the writer’s and artists’ discretion.

**TL;DR** he most likely dyes itbut we don’t actually know

[deadcactuswalking]

REVIEWING THE CHARTS: 15th April 2018 -- Extended Super Deluxe Version 3 & Knuckles

Holy busy week on the charts-ioli! There are nine new arrivals this week – two of which sample the exact same Lauryn Hill song - so let’s just get on with it, shall we?

Top 10

Drake... Thank you. Thank you for being such a streaming Cookie Monster that your new track, “Nice for What”, debuted at the top. Please stay. I don’t want the dreck one space below it to even see another week in the top ten, let alone at the top of the charts.

What is that dreck, you ask? Well, unfortunately to you and fortunately to me, I shall refuse to repeat its name until it exits the top 40. Google it! I won’t waste any more space in my show to talk about this trash.

At number-three, we have our second new arrival in the top five, “One Kiss” by infuriatingly hit-and-miss producer Calvin Harris and the latest of many of his pop girls that he can just grab out of a bucket for a quick smash (hit, for all you people with minds in the gutter), Dua Lipa.

Sadly, that means that “These Days” by Rudimental featuring Jess Glynne, Dan Caplen and the return of the Macklemore, has dipped down two spaces to number-four.

“Paradise” by George Ezra also took a small one-position hit to number-five, but if you care about that song’s existence, you’re a terrible liar.

“Friends” by Marshmello and Anne-Marie won’t budge at number-six. Good for them, I suppose.

“This is Me” by Keala Settle and The Greatest Showman Ensemble streams down (no pun intended) four spaces to number-seven.

“Feel it Still” by Portugal. The Man, the most unlikely sleeper hit of this year – and that’s only because it was a hit LAST year in the US – has been taken down a notch or two... or three, to number-eight at its thirty-seventh week in the chart.

“Lullaby” by Sigala featuring Paloma Faith at number-nine won’t go away!

Although the saddest drop here is Post Malone’s “Psycho” featuring Ty Dolla $ign, dropping two spaces to number-ten. Am I the only one who wanted this to hit the top, especially after it got a video and noticeably an increase in radio play? No? Well, let’s just get on with the climbers.

Climbers

“Love Lies” by Khalid and Normani grows on both me and the charts, where it took a five-space jump to #18... but that’s it in terms of anything notable. I could talk about Bebe Rexha and B Young possibly getting a top ten hit as they creep up into the top 15, but they’re not really having immense leaps so I’ll decline.

Fallers

She says, “do you love me?” I tell her, “only partly. This forced meme couldn’t give my song boosts while it’s charting.”

Talking about forced memes, I apologise for possibly the cringiest passage I’ve written on this show thus far, but the content still rings true, as Drake’s “God’s Plan” just kind of cannonballs from its

number-one spot it had just two weeks ago, dropping five spaces to #16. The Weeknd sees some falls too, as “Call Out My Name” drops ten spaces to #17, and “Wasted Times” takes a 12-space drop to #30. The biggest story here, however, is Mabel’s “Fine Line” featuring Not3s, just nosediving 20 spots to #35. Damn, these new arrivals really shook the charts, huh? Talking about losing songs too soon...

Dropouts and Returning Entries

We have a whole lot to mourn here, with some damn good songs like “Havana” by Camila Cabello featuring Young Thug, “Tip Toe” by Jason Derulo featuring French Montana, “Blinded by Your Grace, Pt. 2” by Stormzy featuring MNEK as well as “Mine” by Bazzi (which still might rebound next week due to the album) all dropping out from #34, #40, #39 and #27 respectively. We also have the not-as-sad losses of “Never be the Same” by Camila Cabello from #20, “New Rules” by Dua Lipa from #37, “Let Me Go” by Hailee Steinfeld and Alesso featuring Florida Georgia Line and Watt from #38, and “Strangers” by Sigrid from #35. We also have some absolute collapses for “Try Me” by The Weeknd from #17 and “Check” by Kojo Funds and RAYE from #32, both of which are not even in the top 75 anymore. Rest in peace to all of you, but good riddance to some.

“Pray for Me” by The Weeknd and Kendrick Lamar also returned to #32. I don’t know why but I really don’t care – this song doesn’t really deserve the attention.

NEW ARRIVALS

#40 – “I Like It” – Cardi B featuring Bad Bunny and J Balvin

People who follow me on Twitter know that I listened to Cardi B’s album, Invasion of Privacy, and wasn’t too big of a fan. This track, however, was definitely one of my favourites out of the bunch. Some part of me just absolutely loves that delicious Pete Rodriguez sample, providing Cardi with a Latin-infused trap beat that matches her bombast and simple yet effective flow. Those horns are just beautiful, and I love how the vocal samples play into Cardi’s hook and her “woo!” ad-libs that are just injected with fun. Bad Bunny’s deeper growl is entirely different from his sadboi moaning on his last single, “Amorfoda”, but damn, if it doesn’t still impress, with a melodic flow and Daddy Yankee inflections. Oh, yeah, J Balvin is here with some Lady Gaga references, but his autotuned bounce is completely drowned out by this crazy instrumental. Cardi, don’t do anything else. I like it like this.

#39 – “Mad Love” – Sean Paul featuring Becky G and David Guetta

Why does David Guetta get a featuring credit? Sure, he produced the track but I’m pretty sure that doesn’t give you free range to a feature, especially when producers usually (should) get credited for their work anyway. Well, is the song any good? No. I can tell you that. The watery synths that introduce the track are just kind of... pathetic? As are Becky’s attempts at Jamaican inflections, and Sean Paul’s as-always infuriatingly mediocre bars, coupled with his hilariously careless “singing” on the pre-chorus. Don’t give me “Fake Love” flashbacks. All that, however, can’t really distract me from the fact that maybe Guetta deserves his featuring credit, as his dancehall-influenced beat has some buzzing synths and clattering drums on the chorus that just make everything so much more exciting and... “mad”. Despite by enjoyment of Guetta’s instrumental, I can’t dig Becky or Paul here, so I think I’ll give it a skip if you can’t look past the vocals.

#38 – “Dancing” – Kylie Minogue

Man, it’s hard to believe that Kylie Minogue of all people has a song that takes ages to get to the top 40 after bubbling under for weeks on end, but yeah, I can understand why, because this track has an identity crisis. Is it country? Is it just some of what Minogue does best, bubblegum dance-pop? Who knows? Who cares? Well, Minogue does, obviously, as she tries to pull off a country twang and a melody that I don’t think she can really handle anymore on the chorus. The instrumental is the least notable thing here, especially with that weak drop – well, that is, if you ignore the pop-by-the-numbers writing. That one line as the hook – “when I go out, I want to go out dancing”. Yeah, maybe, you should stay home tonight, Minogue, as if you’ve lost your touch on making damn good pop jams, you’re probably not too great on the floor, either. Sorry.

#37 – “I See You Shining” – Nines

I feel like Patrick Star when I see these nobodies creep into the top 40 on this show sometimes. Who are you people? This one bothers me especially, mostly because of how terrible the name of this act is. Nines? What, are there bands called Sevens and Eights that just couldn’t blow up? Are you going all Timberlake on us and being dressed up the nines? Actually, looking at this dude, I don’t exactly think he is – no shade and he doesn’t look bad, particularly, but the dude’s not wearing a suit and tie or anything. Apparently, he also goes by Nina with the Nina. I see... Well, since I’m supposed to be talking about the song here, I suppose I should mention how it sucks. It’s just some more generic braggadocios faux-reggae faux-grime nonsense with a nice vocal sample, if anything. Nines has very little of a presence. It reminds me of the trap-rap you poor Yankees get oversaturated with, but with a bit more energy and more cluttered instrumentals. I’m just getting sick of this new brand of bore-hop, with the stale reggaeton drum patterns and the uninterested MCs.

#27 – “Be Careful” – Cardi B

Yo, Cardi, why’d you have to be so brutal on Offset? What did he do except be somewhat homophobic, possibly a cheating jerk and a terrible liar...? Yeah, maybe, I get why she had to go in on this dude, and I can buy her aggression with the Wii Shopping Channel synths and the occasional reverb-soaked shrieks of some person saying “yeah”, which I assume is a twisted sample of the classic “yeah! Woo!” break, but I’m not entirely sure. Cardi’s singing doesn’t totally impress, but it does its job at making elevator music somehow threatening (despite her insisting that it’s NOT a threat) and pretty awesome, which it really shouldn’t be. Sure, it does feel monotonous, but it’s a pretty nice love-on-the-rocks track, with a catchy hook to boot. However, it’s not the best song to sample Lauryn Hill’s “X-Factor” that debuted this week.

Fun fact: Lauryn Hill’s song also samples a Wu-Tang Clan song which samples a Barbra Streisand song, so I imagine Marvin Hamlisch and his team, writers of “The Way We Were”, is getting royalties upon royalties for the decades of use his song had. That also means that “Be Careful” has like seventeen credited writers, but that’s besides the point. The song’s decent.

#25 – “Answerphone” – Banx & Ranx and Ella Eyre featuring Yxng Bane

I’ve heard of these artists before several times in passing, mostly because Ella Eyre is one of UK’s favourite feature-pop girls, Yxng Bane has charted last week and Banx & Ranx did a few Gorillaz remixes last year. I didn’t really know how they’d mesh, but I did know what to expect – a boring dancehall track with some autotuned rapping from Bane and serviceable vocals from Ella Eyre.

Yep, I was right. Eyre has a slightly smoky voice here, which can sound croaky and unfitting against the bouncy dancehall production and looping melodies on the keys, along with an ugly synth tone and a stale but notably somewhat garage-influenced drum pattern that speeds the song up enough for it to not become boring. Yxng Bane has like 20 seconds of the song, and I’m glad, because he’s not very interesting here at all, and I wouldn’t want this song to be longer than the three minutes and eleven seconds that it is, otherwise it’d be pretty gratingly snooze-worthy. If you have insomnia, I recommend this instead of ASMR or whatever you find on the Internet, because this will definitely send you to sleep.

Well, now we have our three big ‘uns, starting with...

#14 – “Dreams” – Ruti

Who? What? Where? When? How? Let me repeat that first one, who? That’s the problem with these reality shows – they have much more of an effect on the UK charts and honestly, I couldn’t care less for who wins; I just watch the auditions. Ruti here is the winner of The Voice UK this year, and on her debut single, she covers a Cranberries song that I hadn’t heard prior, “Dreams”. Hence, after listening to this decent enough albeit bland piano-lead rendition with a shaky vocal performance from Ruti, I listened to the original version and realised that I really could have gone without knowing Syco put their turn-songs-to-snoozefests hands on it.

#3 – “One Kiss” – Calvin Harris and Dua Lipa

Calvin and Hobbes bring us some by-the-numbers slightly tropically-tinged EDM-infused electropop, with a decent synth melody and some interesting vocal samples, as well as experimentation on the drop that is just kind of all over the place and balls to the wall, with its deep samples of Dua singing “one”, brief blips of a horn riff, a reversed percussion pattern and a whole lot of pointless synth noise.

That’s really all I can say about this. For the first time from Dua Lipa and the seventy-eighth time from Calvin Harris, all I can say is that it exists and I’m entirely indifferent on it. Sorry.

#1 – “Nice For What” – Drake

So, this is the biggest debut, because of course, it’s Drake, and, yeah, guys, as much as I hate this dude’s lack of charisma and overall just boring flow, writing and even beat choice, he’s won me over on this one. Big Freedia starts the track with a few drum fills and distorted shouting, before the pitched-up Lauryn Hill sample (I told you it’d come back) enters like a Kanye track from 2004, and the percussion hits heavy as with nearly all of Drake’s singles. Then Drake starts spitting with delivery I’ve never heard from him before – a Kanye-like melodic hook as well as a repetitive but effective flow in the verses as he talks about this girl that “hits them motherf***ing angles”. Big Freedia then comes back to break it down into the chopped sample hook as Drake chops his own verse up, creating a weirdly jerky experience. If she hits them angles, you’re hitting the gym because this is the strongest single I’ve heard from Drake in years. Congratulations, my man, you deserve this number-one! It’s probably the best I’ve heard for a long time.

Conclusion

Damn, Drake really takes the cake with “Nice for What” running with Best of the Week, with tied Honourable Mentions for both of Cardi B’s debuts. Worst of the Week... I can’t really say anything here is outright bad, but I suppose Kylie Minogue takes it with “Dancing” while Dishonourable Mention goes to “Dreams” by Ruti for taking all of the excitement out of an excellent song. See ya next week!

[junker-town]

Can NASCAR save itself when Dale Earnhardt Jr. is gone?

BASS PRO SHOPS NRA NIGHT RACE, SATURDAY — 6:51:55 P.M., 40 MINUTES UNTIL LAP 1/500

The DJ keeps playing the wrong music.

The Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway is the one NASCAR event a year where drivers can choose the song that accompanies their pre-race introductions. “Lights Come On” by Jason Aldean booms across through the bleachers, but it’s not right. “X Gon’ Give It To Ya” by DMX (which an official press release will later call “Gon Give It To Ya,” by X) is supposed to be playing as driver Matt DiBenedetto walks the red carpet. He's visibly annoyed.

The sound system in the infield where I’m standing is messed up, but someone fixes it just in time for the opening bars of Birdman and Lil Wayne’s “Stuntin’ Like My Daddy” to rush out of the stadium’s giant speakers.

Cash money still a company And b[censored version] I’m the boss And I be stuntin’ like my daddy, stuntin’ like my daddy... I'm the young stunna, stuntin' like my daddy...

The crowd erupts as Dale Earnhardt Jr. bursts through the curtains with the stadium’s nickname splashed across them: THE LAST GREAT COLOSSEUM. Fans’ primal screams and shouts of “JUNIOR!” and “DALE!” drown out the music.

NASCAR’s favorite son says something muddled into the microphone, then raises it above his head, triumphant. He hasn’t been racing well this season, but fans don’t seem to mind. They’re just happy Dale Jr. is still here. For now, at least; he’s retiring at the end of this season.

The stands whoop and holler louder and louder as the 14-time most popular driver climbs into the bed of a Chevy truck, the chariot awaiting him at the end of the red carpet. He holds onto the cab like it’s reins of steel and glides down the straightaway to his Chevy, the high tech, aerodynamic race car he’ll soon drive around the track.

Kyle Busch, the best and most hated driver in the sport right now, walks out to boos a few drivers later. Fans flip him off, but he has his two-year-old son Brexton with him, and the kid repeatedly pretends to fall as he holds his dad’s hand. The crowd softens at the sight of the goofy toddler and some cheering breaks through the jeers.

Busch bends down, and Brexton screams what sounds like “Fuck yeah!” into the mic. At a press conference later, Busch will say he told his son to yell, “Truck yeah.” Reporters in the media center will be skeptical.

The intros end. No other driver gets a response even close to what the fans gave Dale Jr.

Photo by Brian Lawdermilk/Getty Images

VOLUNTEER PARKWAY, BRISTOL, TENNESSEE — 9:02:39, FRIDAY MORNING

It’s the morning before the Bristol Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race, and I’m speeding.

I’m not not pretending I’m a race car driver, but I’m mostly worried I’ll be late for Chase Elliott’s 9:15 a.m. press conference. The Friday night race won’t start until 7 p.m., but the day begins early for reporters, who used to have to arrive at the track twelve hours ahead of time to beat the terrible traffic. Attendance has fallen so much that there’s hardly anyone on the road right now and won’t be until this afternoon, but no one’s thought to change the schedule.

Bristol straddles Virginia and Tennessee. During prohibition, bootleggers ran moonshine across the state line. They’d pack potent, highly flammable, homemade booze in the trunks of their Fords and Chevys and outrun state troopers, tearing around the sharp corners of country roads. They’d also race each other, which is eventually how NASCAR was born. Moonshine used to be the predominant illegal substance in the region, but these days it’s painkillers and fentanyl. Several of the talk stations I switch between as I approach the stadium are discussing the opioid crisis.

The deep green Tennessee hills are breathtaking. They rise straight up, walls of trees for miles. Taller mountains behind them fade into lighter greens and blues. Horse farms and dilapidated houses dot the countryside behind the auto body shops, car dealerships, Jiffy Lubes, and O’Reilly Auto Parts stores that line the road. The sky is bright and clear.

And then I round a corner, and there it is. Bristol Motor Speedway.

The stadium’s walls are as vertical as the hills, but they’re made of metal instead of earth, plastered with corporations’ neon signs rather than trees and underbrush. Logos of Food City, Bass Pro Shops, the NRA, and other sponsors, as well as the faces of famous drivers — Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt Sr. — adorn banners wrapped around the building’s many steel spines. One sign says OUR ROOTS ARE IN RACING. Another says THANK YOU DALE JR. RVs fill the hills behind the stadium and the Earnhardt Campground beside it.

The colossal structure is unnatural, arresting, incongruous with the landscape. It appears almost alien; beings besides humans might have put it here. I’m so distracted by the sight of the thing that I almost miss my turn. I pull a sharp left and channel my inner bootlegger, speeding up as I round a corner before pulling into the lot next to the stadium. The campgrounds sprawl up the hill beside it, and the RVs parked there make up a village, a temporary neighborhood on wheels. Confederate flags fly from at least four of the trailers’ roofs. They flap gently in the light breeze.

BASS PRO SHOPS NRA NIGHT RACE — 7:26:44 P.M., 5 MINUTES UNTIL LAP 1/500

After the driver intros, I walk through the concrete tunnel that takes me underneath the steeply banked track to the main concourse. Black-and-white photos of Dale Sr. are plastered onto the cinder block walls. There’s also a picture of Dale Jr. posing with a broom in front of the Bristol trophy in 2004. It was the first time anyone had swept the weekend. Junior won the Busch series race (now called the Xfinity series) that Friday, then won the Nextel Cup series (now the Monster Energy Cup Series) on Saturday night.

Bristol Communications Department

“It’s Bristol, baby!” he yelled into the microphone when asked immediately after why the win was so special. Those words are now set in plastic in the form of a huge statue in the fan zone outside the stadium’s gates.

I make my way into the stands, which have mostly filled up along the straightaways but are still half-empty around the turns. Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA” is playing as I slide into an empty row of bleachers. Everyone’s standing as though it were the national anthem.

‘Cause I’m proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free!

All of a sudden I hear a voice in my ear scream, “ARE YOU PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN?”

I whip around to find a guy wearing a DRUNK LIVES MATTER tee-shirt bending down so that his face is level with mine, about three inches away. He’s holding a big black flag that has both the NASCAR and Monster Energy logos splashed across it. I recoil and don’t say anything.

He responds to my silence with, “You should be.” Then he drapes the flag around my shoulders and puts his hand on my back.

“Stop it, what are you doing?” I say, swatting the flag and his hand away and jumping back so quickly that I almost fall over onto three shirtless, middle-aged men in front of me. Flag Guy stares directly into my eyes. He shakes the NASCAR logo in my face.

“You just got baptized by the greatest thing this country has,” he says.

Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports

BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY — 11:45:58, FRIDAY MORNING

I’m standing on the asphalt of the infield, sweating in the thick Tennessee heat, watching a pit crew guy screw lug nuts onto a tire. He’s working on the No. 3 car, which is owned by Richard Childress Racing. Austin Dillon will drive it in tomorrow’s race. This strikes me as somewhat heretical. You wouldn’t give Babe Ruth’s No. 3 to another Yankee. How can anyone run No. 3 after Dale Sr.?

I made it in time for Chase Elliott’s press conference this morning, but shouldn’t have bothered racing to get there. The 21-year-old son of NASCAR legend Bill Elliott (A.K.A Awesome Bill from Dawsonville) just offered platitudes about trying hard — he’s been running well this season but he hasn’t won a race yet. The most interesting thing he said was that he wants to watch the upcoming solar eclipse from an airplane.

I passed Chase in the pits a few minutes ago and asked him if I could ask him a few questions. He told me I have to go through his PR guy or he’ll get in trouble. He's a smart kid who knows better than to offend anyone — an easy thing to do in the age of the internet — and put his sponsorships or public perception at risk. He keeps it vanilla.

“No, I mean, it’s frustrating every week. I don’t know how to quantify frustration. I don’t know how to measure it. None of it’s good. We want to be competitive, we want to compete, we want to have a good last season.” — Dale Earnhardt Jr.

The infield smells like gasoline and cigarettes. The entire place could go up in flames at any moment and I wouldn’t be surprised. Huge, eighteen-wheeled haulers that bring the cars around the country during the 38-weekend season are parked in a perfectly straight line, a life-sized toy box. These trucks are basically RVs with hydraulic lifts that put race cars in compartments above the living area when drivers aren’t racing them or practicing, which a few are currently doing. They zoom around the track between tune-ups.

The pit crew guy finishes adjusting the screws on the tire. He tells me that the drills he used fifteen years ago were the same ones I could buy at an auto parts store. So were the cars’ brakes, exhaust pipes. But now, racing teams make everything in-house, test cars in wind-tunnels, and calibrate them within an inch of their steel lives. All of this means that it now costs $40 million to run one car for one season. In 1994, brakes cost $3,500 at the Daytona 500. Now, they cost $38,000. NASCAR knows the high costs are unsustainable, and everyone — from drivers to team owners — wants to bring them down. But that’s easier said than done; once it gets going, technological progress is hard to stop.

John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports

I walk up to the No. 3 car. This thing used to be the common thread between mere mortals and racing gods, but automotive sales are plummeting as more Americans stay in cities. Not that a sedan you’d drive off a lot has much in common with the one I’m staring at now, anyways. This machine resembles something a UFO would pilot more than it looks like the Camry I’ve rented. I stoop down to peer into the metal exoskeleton. The most substantial thing inside, besides the 900 horsepower engine under the hood, is the HANS device, a safety measure that looks like a neck brace with extra padding. Dale Sr. refused to wear his and died after colliding head-on with a retaining wall during the last lap of the Daytona 500 in 2001. That October, NASCAR made head restraints mandatory.

Ads for DOW Chemical splash the car’s black sides. R.J. Reynolds, a tobacco company, was the first Cup sponsor in 1971. The company managed to hang on through the decades as Big Tobacco was dying, but gave up the sponsorship in 2003. Nextel picked up the rights, then merged with Sprint, renaming the races once again in 2008. Sprint abruptly dropped the sport late last year. NASCAR had to scramble. Eventually Monster Energy stepped in.

After Chase’s press conference I asked Tad Geschickter, who co-owns the team JTG/Daugherty Racing with his wife Jodi, what he loves about NASCAR. I expected him to say something about the roar of the engines or the thrill of speed.

But he said this:

“For me, there’s no other sport that can provide the value for corporate america that this can. NASCAR fans say, ‘My team can’t run without this sponsor, so I’m going to buy their product because I love the sport.’ That turns into huge business results. And that’s what keeps corporate America coming back.”

A sport that started because guys had to rebel against The Man in order to get drunk has become a vehicle — a very, very expensive vehicle — to make The Man even richer.

I leave the infield, descend into the tunnel, pop up into the concourse, and walk out into the bleachers. I climb up to the very top row, marveling at this massive crater in the middle of the Tennessee country.

No one else is up here except for one old guy with white hair and leathery, tan skin. He’s wearing a Dale Jr. tank and drinking a beer wrapped in an ancient koozie with Dale Sr.’s No. 3 on it. A cooler beneath him is packed with ice and ten more beers.

Charlotte Wilder

The cars practicing are so loud that he has to lean in very close to hear me when I ask him his name. He reeks of booze, and says his name five times before I give up and take out my phone, asking him to type it for me. His fingers are too shaky for the touch screen of my iPhone, so he takes out his flip phone and slowly types out D-A-L-E.

“Just like Dale Sr.” he mouths. “And Junior.”

I yell into his ear, asking if he’ll miss Dale Jr. when he retires. He nods.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” he mouths.

Dale isn’t the only one who feels lost when he thinks about a future without Dale Jr., and NASCAR knows it. Right now, the hope is that those fans will transfer their allegiance to another driver, perhaps one like Chase Elliott, who also comes from racing royalty.

The problem is, there aren’t many compelling reasons to do so.

BASS PRO SHOPS NRA NIGHT RACE — 7:31:01 P.M., SATURDAY, LAP 1/500

“Drivers, start your engines!”

The sound of 40 cars starting up at once rumbles from the pits. It echoes outside the walls and across the hills, a deafening heartbeat inside the stadium’s metallic rib cage. I understand now why one of this place’s nicknames is “Thunder Valley” — the sound climbs to 140 decibels, the same as an aircraft carrier in full swing. Fans put in earplugs or don noise-blocking headphones. They adjust their radio scanners to track their favorite drivers. No one talks to each other because they can’t. It’s the opposite of a silent rave.

The drivers circle around the track, shaking their wheels from side to side to create friction and warm up the tires faster, which helps them stick better to the smooth concrete. The cars are more animals than machines. They’ve subsumed the drivers inside and become sentient.

The green flag drops and they’re off.

It’s a beautiful, hypnotizing dance set to the sounds of a chainsaw slicing through aluminum. Awesome in the literal sense. The vibrations buzz through the bleachers and into my feet, my legs, up into my spine. When you watch a race on television, you can’t feel the rumbles, you can’t hear the fullness of the roars. You can’t smell this noxious mix of cigarette smoke, burning rubber, spilled beer, and gasoline fumes.

But now, witnessing a race in person for the first time, I get it. I can’t look away.

On the 88th lap, fans stand up and cheer to honor Dale Jr. as he whizzes by. Two guys a few rows down stay standing, each raising three fingers to the sky, an homage to the original, and only true, No. 3.

Dale Sr. isn't dead. He's more alive than most people who walk the earth.

And, although it was an almost impossible order, the son has managed to win over the crowd that still worships the father. Dale Jr. has become nearly as beloved as the sport’s most beloved driver of all time. He’s filled his dad’s shoes better than anyone could have imagined.

What remains to be seen is whether there’s any driver in the sport today who can even come close to filling his.

Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports

BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY — 3:11:15, FRIDAY AFTERNOON

Matt DiBenedetto is sitting in the media center Friday afternoon before qualifying rounds, which will determine the order drivers start in tomorrow night. He had a bad first practice, but he’s feeling better after the laps he just ran.

Cars and money matter more than talent now. You can be the most gifted driver in the world and it doesn't matter if you don’t have the cash. This bothers 26-year-old DiBenedetto to no end. Not only does he have the technical ability to succeed in this sport, he has the personality. He’s beloved by his fan base for his funny tweets, a hashtag dedicated to his love of burritos (#DiBuritto), and his honesty on Reddit and Snapchat. His following isn’t huge; he has about 50k followers on Twitter, peanuts compared to Chase Elliott’s 700,000, or Danica Patrick’s millions. Still, his fans are so engaged that he almost got voted into the All-Star race.

“But yeah, I could send one tweet and ruin my entire career,” he jokes, tapping his phone, which sits on the table in front of us. I tell him I could too, and we both laugh, fall silent, then shudder before continuing our conversation.

In a sport where viewers’ loyalty centers on individual drivers, a guy like DiBenedetto, or Darrell “Bubba” Wallace Jr. (who wasn’t racing at Bristol because he currently doesn’t have a sponsor), or Ryan Blaney, or Landon Cassill, could be instrumental to bringing in new, younger fans — if they could win. Most of the other personalities just aren’t that interesting. Kyle Busch puts on a show, but fans hate him. This works when you’ve got Dale Jr. to play the hero to Busch’s villain. But what’s a heel without a face?

Times have changed drastically since the days when guys lit Winstons and threw punches at each other in the pits after a race. It wasn’t just the drivers, either. If you believe the stories, one time Lee Petty’s wife Elizabeth — mom to Richard — got in on a fight and walloped the driver Tiny Lund (who weighed 270 pounds, easily) in the back of the head with her pocketbook. Legend has it she was packing a .45.

Now, drivers look more like Goldman Sachs interns than the mechanic who’d fix your car if you pulled into one of the auto body shops off the main drag in Bristol.

DiBenedetto, however, looks like a normal dude from Grass Valley, California because he is one. He got bit by the speed bug as a kid (he doesn’t know why, neither of his parents were into racing) and grew up pushing go-karts around dirt tracks. His parents moved the family to South Carolina to pursue his racing career, but stopped paying for his cars when he was 16 because they couldn’t afford it. He’s hung on to the sport by a thread in the ten years since, hopping from team to team, getting in cars thanks to his sheer talent and a lot of luck.

Photo by Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images

Matt DiBenedetto

Dale Sr. didn’t come from money, either. But he could use spec parts to throw a car together and muscle his way to wins. You can’t do that anymore. DiBenedetto knows he needs more sponsors, but he can’t get them, because he isn’t winning. And he isn’t winning because he doesn’t have the best car. And he can’t get in the best car because he doesn't have sponsors, because he isn't winning.

It’s a Catch-22.

“So that’s where the hard part is,” DiBenedetto tells me. “If you have the same skill set in baseball, being that determined and that exceptionally good at what you do, you can legit make it. Racing is not that way. If I had a 30 million dollar sponsor behind me, I could drive a racecar well. I know I could be on a top team.”

Racing is made up of dynasties. Bill France Sr., who founded the sport in 1948, passed the business down to his son Bill Jr., who passed it down to his son Brian, the current CEO. Then you’ve got the drivers: Earnhardts, Allisons, Walltrips, Elliotts. NASCAR seems to think a last name can make up for a lack of charm. They’re going with what they know and with what’s worked before. You can almost imagine the marketing meeting: Dale Sr. and Dale Jr. worked out, and people loved Bill Elliott, so let’s push his son Chase.

But you can’t teach charisma. NASCAR got lucky once: one of the biggest stars to ever drive a car had a son with a great personality who was gifted at connecting with fans. And even then, it took Dale Jr. a while to be loved for who he is rather than who his father was.

DiBenedetto wasn’t born with a silver wheel in his hands or a last name that’s etched into the walls at Bristol, but he can entertain on and off the track. Perhaps NASCAR will wise up and realize this could actually be key to his — and the sport’s — future success.

Later this afternoon, DiBenedetto will totally botch his qualifying rounds and will have to start the race tomorrow 34th out of 40 cars. This will suck, and he’ll be pissed about it. He’ll release an honest video on Twitter telling his fans he’s sorry, and that he’s as upset as they are. He’ll delete it a few days later.

Tomorrow morning, sitting in front of his hauler, DiBenedetto will tell me that his lousy starting position could actually be a good thing. If the front of the pack wrecks out — which they often do at short tracks like Bristol — he’ll be able to scoot by them and have a real shot. But the CEO of the construction company that sponsors DiBenedetto will be sitting nearby as the driver says this to me, and it will seem very much like DiBenedetto is trying to will the chance of a win into existence.

There won’t be one.

BASS PRO SHOPS NRA NIGHT RACE, SATURDAY — 9:25:32 P.M., LAP 272/500

The sun goes down and the fluorescent lights come on, glinting off the hoods of the racecars, adding an artificial glow to the cars’ dizzying circles.

After a brief stint in the top ten, things aren’t looking good for Dale Jr. He’s fallen back to 21st as we enter the third and final stage of the race. Busch, Kyle Larson, Elliott, and Erik Jones (all of whom are in their 20s, except Busch, who’s 32) battle for the top spots, but by lap 361, Busch is in first again. DiBenedetto managed to crawl his way up a few spots, but he’s stuck firmly in 29th.

There are very few wrecks.

“This race is terrible!” a reporter says, too loudly, in the press box.

One of my southern colleagues father’s used to say that “Racing at Bristol is a damn fistfight in a soup bowl.” But it isn’t anymore. The speedway used to be a one-groove track, which meant cars had to physically touch each other — called a bump-and-run — if one was going to break out of the single-file line. In 2007, owner Bruton Smith resurfaced and modified the track to create more space and allow drivers to race side-by-side with plenty of room to pass.

Fans hated it.

They wanted the old, rough-and-tumble, wreck-heavy style of racing back. After only half of the stadium’s 160,000 seats sold in 2012, Smith tried to narrow the track again by grinding the upper groove down, but drivers complained that all it did was make things slippery (“It’s terrible,” Busch declared). This race is more tetherball game than fistfight.

Busch pulls away. Dale is 22nd and falling. DiBenedetto is back in 30th. There’s a flurry of excitement over the radio as it looks like there’s a prayer Erik Jones can catch Busch. For a few moments, as they battle it out, the race is thrilling. I get a taste of what the sport used to be, and I’m struck by a sense of loss. I miss something I never knew.

Fans who did know the sport in its wild, lawless form miss it even more. But that doesn’t mean they’ve stuck around.

Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports

EARNHARDT CAMPGROUND — 2:45:01, SATURDAY AFTERNOON

Cindy Lee sells unofficial NASCAR merchandise from a tent in the Earnhardt Campground outside the stadium’s gates. Most of the gear for sale is dedicated to the Dales, but there are also glow-in-the-dark Bristol shirts, photos of Danica Patrick in a bikini, and beer koozies. There are also shirts that say “If you can read this, the bitch fell off,” above a caricature of Donald Trump pushing a sexualized Hillary Clinton off a motorcycle.

Lee stopped watching the races after Dale Sr. died and NASCAR changed everything about the sport in the years since. It’s almost entirely different now; there are three stages to a race rather than one long slog, the system of awarding points isn’t the same as it used to be, and there are now playoffs in addition to the regular Cup Series championship (as well as other, more in-the-weeds alterations). It would be like taking the NFL, making each touchdown worth 9 points, resetting the score at halftime, and tacking on a five-game postseason after the Super Bowl.

“You never could get a ticket unless you knew someone who had season tickets who was selling one. Now you can get ‘em off street corners. Food City has ‘em for sale.” — Cindy Lee, t-shirt vendor

NASCAR also got cocky. In its heyday in the 1990s and through 2005 or so, top brass thought their sport was invincible. They tried to appeal to a broader national audience, forgetting that they were built on the backs of die-hard fans who bought season tickets to regional tracks. Executives messed with races, adding new ones in Las Vegas and moving old staples off the schedule (the beloved North Wilkesboro Speedway lost both its dates) and added races in *gasp* Chicago, Kansas City, Dallas, and Southern California, leading many fans to believe that NASCAR was abandoning its Southeast roots. They even tried to build a track outside New York City, in Staten Island. But that and many of the sports’ other plans flamed out after the recession, when the states that many fans come from — Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, and California — were hit the hardest by the economic crash.

The sport also adopted more safety measures and reconfigured some tracks to make them less dangerous.

Lee isn’t jazzed about any of this.

“With all the equipment they’ve got ‘em wearing now, it’s not like racing anymore, it’s about money. It’s sports, it’s not racing,” Lee says, standing by a display of toy cars. “If they hit each other, it used to be, well, fine. It was racing. That’s the way it was. Now they wanna penalize ‘em. They don’t let ‘em go out and race and have fun.”

She pauses, looks around the campground.

“Bristol used to be sold out, and it hasn’t been in years,” she continues. “You never could get a ticket unless you knew someone who had season tickets who was selling one. Now you can get ‘em off street corners. Food City has ‘em for sale. I went last night to walk around the campground. There’s only one-third of the vendors here from three years ago.”

Charlotte Wilder

Lee is right. Races at Bristol, which once sold out 55 consecutive races, always have empty seats now. Between the ticket prices, transportation, and lodging, it can cost families thousands of dollars to go to a race. The sport is struggling a bit on TV, too: ratings for seven of the eight races Fox broadcast in the first half of the season were down from 2015. The sport is okay financially until 2024, because it’s locked into billion-dollar broadcast deals with Fox and NBC Sports, but after that…well, who knows.

A man who doesn’t want me to use his name in this article is browsing the racks of Cindy’s booth with his grandson named Diesel. The guy, I’ll call him Jim, works at a paper mill in the south that used to be employee-owned until a global corporation bought them out last year. He’s here for the first time in five years because Diesel wants to see a race. All of Jim’s friends, who used to have season tickets, gave theirs up when cars ceased to look anything like the ones they drove and the drivers they loved retired or died.

But there’s another reason Jim stopped coming.

“I’m mad at Earnhardt and Johnson for calling for taking down the confederate flag,” he says. “I don’t like it. It’s the same as these people calling for tearing down these monuments. It’s just part of history. And it’s mostly white people who want to tear these down. I don’t get it.”

He's referring to Dale Jr. and Jimmie Johnson, who supported removing the confederate flag from the South Carolina State House after white supremacist Dylann Roof murdered nine people at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston in 2015. Dale Jr. also spoke out against Trump’s immigration ban back in January. He most recently tweeted “Hatred, bigotry, & racism should have no place in this great country. Spread love,” after the white supremacist and Nazi rally in Charlottesville, where a white supremacist killed a woman, Heather Heyer, with his car when he deliberately backed into the crowd.

“It’s sad and frustrating to see what happened,” Dale Jr said at his Thursday press conference. “And you feel sort of somewhat responsible to speak on it.”

Dale Jr.’s statements didn’t come across that brave to me when I first heard them. They seemed more like human decency than anything bold or divisive. But as I stand here talking to Jim among the multiple RVs flying confederate flags, it's somewhat impressive Dale Jr. said anything at all.

“Look,” Jim says. “I got black friends. But we gotta separate race — just like church and state — from what we love. We gotta keep race out of racing.”

Before I can ask him exactly what he means by “keep race out of racing,” he tells me he and Diesel have to go find something to eat, and he walks away.

Diesel follows, unwrapping the toy car Jim bought him, a replica of Kyle Busch’s Toyota. Busch is Diesel’s favorite driver, even though Jim only likes drivers who race Fords. The majority of fans will hate it if Busch wins tonight, and it honestly doesn’t seem like any outcome would make Jim happy. But maybe, if Diesel gets to see Busch take home the trophy, the trip will have been worth it.

BASS PRO SHOPS NRA NIGHT RACE — 10:44:98, LAP 500/500

The checkered flag falls. Busch wins, sweeping the weekend for the second time in his career.

Dale Jr. comes in 23rd.

He pulls into the pits, where none of the drivers are fighting each other, and climbs out of the car. He’s pale after sweating out 10-15 pounds of liquid over the course of three and a half hours. Shaking his head and putting his hands on his hips, he stares at the Chevy that let him down. His crew chief pops the hood and they both look at the engine.

“This race track can be a lot of fun, or it can be very difficult,” Dale Jr. says to me and two other reporters. “I use to drive — gosh...”

He trails off, rubs his temples.

“I just don’t know what to do,” he finally continues, exasperated. “We were quick for 20 laps. We passed five cars. Then we just dropped like a rock.”

Charlotte Wilder

One reporter tells Dale Jr. it’s the most frustrated he’s seen him all season.

“No, I mean, it’s frustrating every week,” Dale Jr. says. “I don’t know how to quantify frustration. I don’t know how to measure it. None of it’s good. We want to be competitive, we want to compete, we want to have a good last season. I don’t want to be out there just packing it in. It’s a lot of work to run 23rd, I’ll say that.”

Busch drives his Toyota up victory lane and climbs out onto the roof. Someone hands him a broom and he sweeps the top of his car, mimicking — intentionally or not — the picture of Dale Jr. that hangs in the walls of the tunnel. The crowd boos and flips him off. He plugs his ears and stares them down, taunting them from the jumbotron as confetti falls.

Dale Jr. looks up at the huge screens. He grimaces as he watches Busch celebrate, as though someone's about to reset a bone he's broken. Squinting his eyes and pursing his lips, he shakes his head and walks away alone, disappearing into the maze of haulers.

12:46:23, BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY, SUNDAY MORNING

The pit crews have packed up the cars and the haulers are starting to leave. Race trash — beer cans, cigarette butts, water bottles, energy drinks, stray ear plugs, bits of confetti — litters the pits and the stands.

The stadium smells like a campfire, and the Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race logo (a fish with bat wings, which look suspiciously like the butts of rifles) flips around and around on the jumbotron. The track has cooled off, and my shoes no longer stick to the concrete as I walk up to the concourse. I can’t figure out what feels so strange, but then I realize Thunder Valley is quiet for the first time all weekend.

The storm is over. Bristol sits empty, straddling state lines and decades, the past and the present. The future is anyone’s guess.

The drivers left long ago, but fans still wait outside while the trucks roll out. They cheer as each one exits the gates. The haulers honk in acknowledgement, each blast loud and guttural, leftover noise. I get into my rental car. Right before I close the door, I hear much louder screams and cheers float up from the stadium’s entrance.

Dale Jr.’s truck, with the Nationwide logo and No. 88 splashed across the sides, emerges. It makes its way down the drive, honking the whole time. The remaining fans don’t stop cheering until it’s out of sight.