#i have a lot of thoughts about the dc arc in general but we don't have enough info rip

[necrotic-nephilim]

@sasheneskywalker i love when you enable me to ramble about things because oh my god do i have thoughts.

so recently, i made a post discussing the phenomena of DC x DP and DC x MLB crossovers and why they exist and part of that post was discussing how largely speaking, at least half, if not more of the Batfamily fandom doesn't read the comics. if they interact with canon DC material, it's adaptations that are their own sequestered universes and oftentimes not remotely comic accurate or seeking to be. the most obvious example is the Young Justice cartoon. i'm adding a cut to this post because it just got so long i'm so sorry.

a lot of times, when people are discussing the "why" of this oversaturation of fanon-only fandom, they blame Wayne Family Adventures. and i think, to a point, i agree WFA is responsible for a boom in this fandom. but as someone who's been in the fandom long before we had WFA, to me it's the other way around. WFA was DC's way of meeting the demand for this easy-to-get-into, easy-to-consume content about the Batfamily that predicates itself on the comics just enough to be vaguely the same characters, but has a more sitcom, slice-of-life sort of vibe so DC could profit off of this section of the fanbase that otherwise wasn't consuming its primary material. and well, it's definitely worked. not only that, but i have a weird theory that the decline in the MCU also led to the rise in the Batfamily fandom. when you consider the fan content that made the MCU popular within fandom, it's that 2012 "they all live in Avengers Tower and Thor is eating poptarts and Clint is in the vents and there are movie nights every Friday" sort of vibe. those were the fics that were a hallmark of the fandom. and as the MCU has strayed from well... quality content in general, but specifically well-thought-out crossover content where characters can have their own arcs but also exist in a wider story where they clearly care about each other, that fandom was sort of homeless. so where do you go, if you like a superhero found family where you can have villains for angst but also stick them all in one big family-like home for silly crack and have a plethora of options for gay ships? well. you go to the Batfamily. if you write a crack/fluff Batfamily genfic with silly vibes and low stakes instead of say, a fic about a very specific comic issue even if it's a popular comic, you're *going* to get more traction for the former. because the fanbase largely just isn't reading the comics.

and i feel... complicated about this. because on one hand, Don't Like Don't Read has been a tenet of my fandom experience. i'm very pro-fandom and that includes fandom content i don't like. and to an extent, i do think this sort of should apply to Batfamily fanon. i enjoy having my moments with other comic purists, giggling over exceptionally painful OOC headcanons or even facepalming in pain over some content but it is on me to not interact with that content. you don't make fandom a better place by being hostile to fans who engage with canon in ways you don't approve of. and frankly? we as comic readers are not going to get non-comic fans to read the comics by being asshats to them. no one is going to want to pick up any comic if we get a superiority complex about it. and also, i feel like we're all lying to ourselves a little bit insisting comics are so, so easy to get into. they're not. we can just all agree, they're really not. i've been single-handedly helping my sister get into comics, specifically Wonder Woman and no matter how simple i make it, i watch her get frustrated trying to understand what pre-Crisis and post-Crisis and New-52 and Flashpoint and all these things mean and what a retcon vs a reboot is and what a Crisis Event is and what the hell Diana's current backstory even *is*. sure, you can give someone a beginner list of comics to start with and slowly dip their toes in the water but sooner or later, *something* is going to confuse them. comics as a medium straight up aren't going to be everyone's cup of tea. and if someone *just* wants to read silly fluffy fanfiction about the Batfamily, i can't entirely begrudge them for not wanting to take the hours and hours out of their day to understand this medium. it's not an accessible medium to get into. "read this and this, but this run is out of print and this run wasn't collected in trades at all but also make sure you read that event in order and this is a good comic but the backstory in it is retconned and you *have* to read this it's so important but it's also really bad because the author kind of sucks" sounds. ridiculous for someone who like. just wants to read some stuff about Nightwing. sometimes, we all make reading comics sort of sound like a chore, not a hobby.

so my point is, i do extend some grace to Batfamily fanon for existing. i think my biggest gripe is, as i said in my other post, misuse of tags (if you're not creating content about comics, maybe you don't need the comics fandom tag on Ao3, just the all media types umbrella tag) and my far bigger gripe: when panels are taken out of context to support fanon only headcanons. if i could impart *anything* onto the Batfamily fandom as a comic fan it'd be this: if you haven't *read* the comic, don't spread the panel. if you don't even know what comic it's *from*, don't spread the panel. it's fine to use comic panels to discuss your headcanons, but so often i see someone spreading a comic panel from a comic they haven't read, and when asked where it's from, they can't source it. a silly example that comes to mind is a post going around, taking a panel where Dick, in his internal monologue goes "here comes the sun. do do do do." and the post is claiming it's from him getting buried alive. when that panel comes from Nightwing (1996) #140, and he gets buried alive in Nightwing (1996) #127, two completely different moments frankensteined together. if you're going to not read the comics, that's completely fine, but unless you're sure of the source and the context, panels shouldn't be spread around. i'm sick of this specifically happening to Red Robin (2009), with ppl claiming Tim has totally killed people because he blew up some of Ra's' bases, when those panels within context, make it clear he gave everyone time to escape. and in a later arc in that very comic, Tim grapples with the idea of murdering Captain Boomerang, and *specifically chooses not to*, because he doesn't agree with murder, even against the person who has hurt him the most. if you'd like to write fanfiction where Tim is pro-murder and has done some sketch things, i'm totally on board and would probably like to read it. but there's no need to pretend it's canon from a few panels you saw out of context.

beyond that, i think it's not *entirely* correct to say that fanon is harmless. whenever i see very WFA-positive posts, they often default to the argument that WFA is fun and silly, and comic fans are killjoys for not liking it. which. i think is complicated because the issue is, WFA and fanon don't exist in a vacuum. if you like WFA power to you, i don't think it's the worst thing ever, but i do think it's degrading to these characters because honestly? they feel incompetent in the webtoon. it's one thing if WFA was solely a slice-of-life sort of deal, just having silly episodes where Bruce is taking on a PTA mom or they're all fighting for the last cookie. but when WFA attempts to take on more serious plots with these characters, it *fundamentally* falls flat in understanding them. i get it, Bruce comforting Jason having a panic attack because a noise reminded him of the crowbar felt cute in a microcosm, but i'm so serious when i say that storyline destroyed how like. half of this fandom understands Jason Todd's relationship to his trauma. it doesn't understand how he reacts when he's triggered, what coping mechanisms he seeks out, and how he would handle Bruce comforting him. even if i can believe for a brief moment Jason *would* be triggered by something like that, him running and trying to hide and then getting a hug from Bruce to make it okay is just. painful. WFA needs everything to be wrapped up in a nice, neat little bow. so even when it starts to tackle interesting concepts, it makes them fall flat with its need to be soft, low stakes, hurt/comfort. there was a two-parter episode that dealt with the complicated mutual hatred/jealousy between Tim and Damian that *almost* really interested me because for once, it felt like the webtoon wanted to explore canon messy dynamics. but of course, it had to be fixed with one conversation and a hug. you don't mend the *years* of issues these characters have like that. WFA isn't in character because these characters are hyperbole cartoonified versions of themselves to fit within the medium and be a cute happy family.

because that right there, is the crux of it. the Batfamily fanon seeks to simplify the Batfamily and force them into a nuclear family. there are so many fantastic posts on here discussing how the nuclear family-ification of the Batfam is eroding decades worth of complex histories so i won't go too far into that. but what i will say is that there's this need, in the Batfamily fandom, for the Batfamily to exist as a unit. they are a *family*. (honestly i think calling it the Batfamily is a misnomer and has been for years but we're in too deep now.) they exist to each other first, and any teams or friends they have come secondary to this family unit. you can *specifically* see this demonstrated in what headcanons are becoming popular these days. i have an entire lengthy meta in my drafts about how i *loathe* the "the Batfamily meets the Justice League" genre of fanfic because it makes no *sense*. in order to have this genre of fic exist, you must operate under the assumption that no one in the League, or adjacent to the League, knows the Batfamily exists and are thus utterly shocked to discover Batman has kids. and to make *that* work, you have to strip *every single Batfamily member* of such important dynamics and friendships so you can lock them all in Gotham for their whole lives. Dick can't have the Titans, Tim can't have Young Justice, Duke & Cass can't have the Outsiders, Jason can't have the Outlaws, Damian can't have the Supersons, Babs can't have the Birds of Prey, and so on. because if they had these relationships, they would be known to the League. the Batfamily fandom doesn't care about this, it's just "silly fanfiction", it's not trying to be serious. but how can you say you like Dick Grayson as a character if you don't understand the Titans *are* his family? at some points of his life, moreso than the Batfamily even is. it is constantly repeated to us in most comics with Dick how much the Titans mean to him. he *needs* them to be who he is. the same extends to every other Batfamily member, most of which have been full League members at this point. but in fanon, that doesn't matter. the Batfamily are a sequestered unit first, and all of those side relationships are secondary and easy to toss away, if it makes your fanfic work better.

and because they have to be a unit first, you have these forced relationships that dump years of actual canon material for the sake of making them get along. the Batfamily fandom has its favorites and well. it's no secret it's usually the boys. Jason and Tim by *far* stand out as fandom faves so, their dynamic is a heavily explored one. it does matter that in canon they don't tend to get along and especially don't see each other as family. what matters is that you can push dynamics onto them. and so fanon gets all twisted up about which Robin Tim actually idolized as a kid (Dick) and what member of the Batfamily is pro-murder but still an older sibling figure to him and looks out for him (Helena, or if you want the dynamic of once tried to harm Tim but they've reconciled, Jean-Paul) in favor of who's the most popular. Dick, Jason, Tim, and Damian are always going to be the standouts for popularity, but it's specifically Jason and Tim who are getting fanonized the most. and that's because really, we don't have much canon content of Tim that *isn't* the comics. for Dick you've got Young Justice (tv), for Damian you've got the DCAMU, for Jason you've sort of got the Under The Red Hood movie, but Tim sort of lingers in this limbo. (yes, he's in Young Justce (tv) and Titans (live action) but in neither is he the main character nor given much depth) so, he gets a *lot* projected onto him and has become fanonized. and even with Jason's animated movies, you don't see him interact with Tim, so people build it from the ground up how they want to see it, disregarding of canon comics. i think it's what makes him so popular in the first place- he's malleable into whatever you want or need him to be.

and of course, the fanon ignores other characters in the Batfamily it doesn't know about. i feel like you could create a tier list of Batfamily characters by their popularity, going from the fandom main characters: Tim, Jason, Bruce, Alfred, Dick, Damian. to the underrated: Steph, Duke, Babs, Cass. to the forgotten about unless they're convenient for a story: Kate, the Foxes, Helena Wayne, Carrie, Selina, Harper Row, Maps, Minhkhoa Khan. to the absolutely unknown: Helena Bertinelli, Jean-Paul Valley, Onyx Adams, the Clovers, Julia Pennyworth. it's not lost on me that the ignored characters tend to be women and people of color. which is both a canon and fanon problem, DC will continue adding interesting characters to the Batfamily, play with them for a few years, then drop them to default to the "Batboys" again. and it's a vicious cycle of the fandom only caring about the "Batboys", and thus people entering the fandom via fanon osmosis won't have content about the other characters, therefore, they won't be interested in those characters enough to create it, and it's just this ouroboros consuming itself, no matter how much canon content we have of these other characters. and it's ridiculous just how large the Batfamily is becoming because of this, which is why i'm a pre-Flashpoint fan, because then the Batfamily was contained enough to actually feel like a family with every character having nuances relationships with each other, but i digress because those thoughts could be their own post.

and the thing about fanon is it doesn't exist in a vacuum. DC has started turning the comics to accommodate for what fans are asking for, because fans will beg and beg for content they're not going to consume. Tim Drake: Robin had Tim as a coffee drinker because that's the fanon accepted headcanon. and the resolution of the recent Gotham War arc was for Bruce to buy this new manor for everyone to move in and call him. nevermind that most of these characters have their own homes and have zero reason to be moving in with Bruce. Tim had his marina in Tim Drake: Robin, Dick has Bludhaven, Cass and Steph have their little side of town in Batgirls (2022), and so on. these characters are being forced together as a unit, as one big happy family living together, to appease what non-comic fans want and it's damaging comic relationships. Robin: Knight Terrors saw Jason and Tim team up and working together, which i've seen varying opinions on but i personally despised. their interactions made zero sense for any of their canon history, but it appeases them being this close sibling relationship that fanon acts like they are. also the fears they faced in their respective knight terrors didn't make sense for either character and *only* worked as a moment of bringing them together so they could reassure each other and have this weird dreamscape bonding moment. the canon is bending itself to the will of fanon rather than building on the pre-existing complex relationships. Tim barely even gets along with his most important team in Dark Crisis: Young Justice because it seems the only important relationships the Batfamily can have is with each other. and when we do see them outside of the Batfamily, it only seems to be to relive the glory days like with World's Finest: Teen Titans, instead of developing them as they currently exist. this isn't recent in the comics, it feels like you can trace it back to the New-52, but it does feel a *lot* worse over the recent years. WFA is fine when it exists in its own bubble, but the simple truth is, DC content never exists on its own. the adaptations will reflect back onto the comics. (the damage the Young Justice cartoon has done to some characters should honestly be studied) and so it does frustrate me a bit when fanon-only or adaptation-only fans act like we're being nothing but killjoys for being frustrated with this. since they don't read the comics, they don't see how the comics are suffering as a result of this.

people argue about what's out of character for the comics they don't even read. i'm sorry, but "bad dad Bruce" is consistently canon. that man is just kind of shitty. when you take someone who has the drive he has, who has this need for the Mission first, who needs a teenager in spandex next to him to keep him off the ledge, that guy is sort of going to be a shitty father figure. he just is. not on purpose or with malice, but when you compare him to any other dad in a big DC family, he sure takes the cake. it's why characters like Oliver Queen tend to *really* fucking hate Bruce for how he treats his kids. Bruce loves fiercely, but he doesn't do well with putting that love first. and his love is a controlling one, he is very particular about controlling how others in the Batfamily are "allowed" to operate. it's what drives the wedge between him and Dick, it's why Steph is never a true daughter to him. (besides the reason of her needing to be a love interest to Tim first, anyway-) i've never understood the massive outcry of people reacting to Bruce kinda being shitty in comics they're not reading. there are some moments that get ridiculously OOC with how cartoonishly evil he is (the whole Gotham War arc and that... complicated mess with Jason) but largely if you want sitcom loving nuclear father Bruce, you have to accept that is a fanon thing, not a canon one. the Batfamily being a nuclear family in *general* is fanon. most of the "Batkids" don't actually see Bruce in a particularly fatherly light and begging for moments where he calls them his kids or they call him dad outside of incredibly specific circumstances is just OOC.

it's getting harder and harder to exist peacefully in this fandom it feels like, if you don't comply to the standard fanon has set. i'm happy people are having fun with their blorbos, even if in ways i dislike, but that "harmless fandom fun" does ripple it's way back to canon, eventually. so i end up pretty tangled with my feelings because are fans at fault for DC making these poor decisions? probably not, but it certainly feels like an unfortunate cause-and-effect situation whether at the end of the day, nobody is happy. and of course, i know some fanon-only fans are striving to be more canon accurate and care about canon dynamics more than others, but for them it's always going to be an uphill battle with the above-mentioned out-of-context panels thrown around and ever-pervasive fanon overtaking anything that's truly seeking to be canon compliant. so really, it sometimes feels like we're all losing.

[fancyfade]

i have a question, as i am also a big enjoyer of damian wayne and have been spinning around the concept of an arc/issue/solo for him and i like to hear people's thoughts an ideas: if you could right a solo, or an issue of detective comics starring damian wayne, what would right, because GOD, DC needs to give him to someone who'll actually do something with him.

hmmmm I think a good follow-up to Robin: Son of Batman, which focuses a lot on Damian trying to redeem/"redeem" himself for what he did in the League of Shadows, would be an arc where the idea that he was fully responsible is challenged.

(I don't necessarily think he has to agree with it, I think lots of batfam members have insane senses of responsibility and if they immediately all went like 'yeah you're right this isn't something I could stop' it would get boring. I just would like to see it challenged by the text, like babs tells cass that she wasn't at fault for killing someone as an eight year old in batgirl. Before cass goes to fight shiva to the death in a battle she does not intend on winning b/c she won't kill again XD)

anyway so with that in mind. i think talia should be involved. I know I'm so insanely mad whenever I see this panel (link) b/c Talia's being asked to apologize and redeem herself for something that wasn't even in character (and i followed up: Bruce can act OOC and get it swept under the rug or justified he doesn't have to apologize for it (link).) ANYWAY but thats besides the point the point is I'm imagining Talia hearing Damian say like "we all must pay, mother." and I think she'd be like "who tf even told you that????" and she'd be a good second point of view in this arc, challenging Damian's ideas that he needs to actively redeem himself or he was a bad person earlier, because while Damian just sees what he did vs what he's doing now, she sees him as her child.

I also went kind of on about this when reading Knight Terrors (link) but I think it would be deeply discomforting for Damian to contemplate the idea that he wasn't in responsible for what he did in the League, because the way he deals with it is ok wait i'll just quote that post:

I think if he followed these thoughts (that his training is something that was 'done' to him) further, it would scare him, because the way he currently copes with it and views the world in general is by everything being his fault and his responsibility - in his control. If he admits or acknowledges that he was just a kid being raised a certain way, it’s not in his control, it’s not something he can redeem himself from, and it falls outside his current way he views the world.

anyway that said that's what like. the general 'next step' of Damian's arc I'd have i think would be neat.

I'd also be down with like. literally just fun adventures, like I wouldn't even hate Damian in high school and solving low-stakes crimes like we have in batman and robin 2023 if it wasn't written so blandly

[windamp]

let's rate red hood costumes

if i forgot smth lo siento. just let me know, there are so many of these and i am one creature

this is just for fun btw. nothing serious here! <3

now these are all comic canon red hoods (except maybe two? we'll get to them). no alt universes. maybe one day.

now on to the costumes

Hush Jason. Maybe not technically Red Hood but like. c'mon. close enough

i'm giving the rating 6/10

I know the trench coat was probably more for mr. hush himself, but i enjoy it. i'm also a filthy pouch lover so they do get points. also in red! cute. the boots are also neat. the negatives are that ugly robin dress/tunic thing. kinda silly. still it was good for giving bruce a spook.

2. the classic. the og. red hood utrh version!

9/10, easy. the casual outfit paired with the sleek red helmet. *mwuah* wonderful! nothing bad to say. it's recognizable. comfortable. stylish. great job all around

3. titans tower. ah.

-10/10. i would give props for running around in the scalies BUT THE UGLY ASS YELLOW TIGHTS. disgusting. bare his legs to the world you cowards. i'm mad. this could get at least 7/10 for sheer moxy if it weren't for those hideous target brand pantyhose

4. brothers in blood.

he's literally just copying dick, but being unhinged as hell about it.

5.5/10. he looks good. who doesn't in nightwing's fit? though he is copying, he does get points for obsessive weirdness of it all.

bonus?

???/10 i don't know how i feel. i've never known how i feel about this.

5. final crisis

i think he had a helmet in this arc and it broke but dont quote me!!!! pay me to read final crisis again if you have an issue.

he spends most of his time in jeans + leather jacket + just the domino

this is probably the most boring but i give it a 10/10 my boring ass loves it. no dressups just a guy in a shitty little mask. clapping. bravo. there's something ~thematic~ bout it

6. final crisis pt 2

1/10 i hate the red robin suit i hate it i hate it. we finally got tim out of the damn thing even though it came at too high a cost (he's trapped in robin purgatory). it does look okay in wfa, but usually in dc reg comics it looks like ass.

regardless jason looks bad in it too. very sweet of murdery bruce to give it to him but ugh. at least could've given him some ears on that mask. then it couldve been bumped a point

7. batman

the first time jason decided to wear a muzzle. hm.

6/10. there's nothing wrong with it. it's just a bit generically 'what would gun batman look like'. the face part is my favorite, with the weird grater muzzle, pointy ears, and red glowing eyes. it's fun

8. batman&robin

i need to get my first thought out. the little symbol on his chest reminds me of homestuck. i can't really unsee it. i know like theres no connection. but it looks like it could belong on a homestuck human

anyway. 3.5/10. he was willing to try something totally new, so i'm giving points. i enjoy the white. is the red hood goofy af? yes. yes it is. iconic, though? sometimes the upper black part is drawn lower, i've noticed. it doesn't change much for me.

i like the thigh highs going on here. the red guns are sexy!. he looks bad but there are good things here!!!

there is this version, which ditches the thigh highs, gives back the classic helmet, removes the cape for a jacket, and adds belts.

6/10 i think it fixes a lot about the prev costume, though it's really just like they threw utrh's costume and his previous batman&robin costume in the blender lmfao

wow flashpoint. father todd is not a red hood, so we progress.

9. nu52

an update on the og look. i do like the contrasting brown jacket, the prominant thigh straps. sometimes his helmet is drawn suctioned to his face so -2 for any of that cause it's so weird

8/10 not a bad update to the classic.

10. red hood/arsenal

i dont remember when he changed into this actually. in my head it's rh/a but i could be wrong.

i see no one talking about this abomination. his new fit? yah. this one? no?

4/10 the bottom of this is fine. i HATE the jacket. sorry it's just. ugly. his arm bands are also clunky. the matching between arsenal and red hood is nice though. so it didnt get too low. roy pulls it off better :(

11. wingman

hm. i didnt read this. this makes me not want too akdsfhsl

0/10. ugly. looks like a villain in some scifi thing in the 90s. like power rangers. sentai villain looking ass. boring grey, ugly lines and shapes, the goofiest helmet on earth......

ig willis is burdened with this curse now

12. 3 jokers (dubiously canon. i dont consider it so but since dc left it in the air we add it)

he has a helmet for a bit. this one is interesting bc i could actually see it as a futhering of his costume had he lived. sans helmet ofc. it's hard bc i don't not like this, i just feel it doesnt fit his aesthetic in the present day. 5/10. if jason had lived and not become red hood id rank it higher but then we wouldnt be here, would we?

13. batman's gift

i debated putting this, but it's different enough from the nu52 vers

very fun. body armor all over. i like the red arm guards here unlike w/ the prev one that had these (less bulky ?). i like the leg stripes.

it doesn't really do much to change his look, but there are differences

7/10

14. task force z

it's like the above but more just body-armored. really all he's done is remove the jacket and get shoulder pads. 6/10. the negative point is for the lost jacket :(

bonus

7/10 i did say if he ditched the tights i'd rank it higher (twas all a dream through lmao)

15. current

controversial of me, but i think. i think it's fine.

now i do agree his little hoodie is.........well it's not that great. my least favorite part tbh.

the new brown pants nicely contrast, though i have seen this costume with grey pants too?

here we are. The red bandages are fun, i think if they were white i'd hate 'em but the red is interesting. i also like when bits of them are sticking out. idk. cute detail.

i like the muzzle mask as well. that with the hood has given us delightful in shadow!jason where only his eyes glow out. i also like when artists put his white hair tuft out. adorable. probably not what he's going for but that's what the creature no face look is for

really the hoodie is the one thing i'm ??? on. it looks silly in a bad way. there are ways to keep a red hood while giving a better jacket/vest. future state's was much nicer.

7.5/10

this wasn't in the ratings but i do prefer any weapon beyond the crowbar sigh. it starts showing up through a lot of them so i decided to just not do anything about the score.

[fairystarstorm]

Current impressions + ranking of the new teen titans

I recently started reading the New Teen Titans and I am on issue #27. So I decided to do a short analysis of the current main 7 + talking about my impressions of then before I started reading the comics. Most of my knowledge of them is from young justice S1, the dcau, the first episode of teen titans (2003) and the summary videos I watched when I had comics fixation when I was like 16. (And the Kami garcia books but lets not talk about it)

7. Wally West/Kid Flash

So like most of my opinion of Wally came from young justice, the arrowverse and the justice league cartoon. I basically saw him as a jokster. Didn't have too much of a strong opinion of him in the cartoons but I liked him in the flash series.

He's a lot more introspective than I expected him to be. Especially regarding his feelings about being a superhero and his feelings regarding Raven are interesting to grapple with. As well as the volume where we saw his insecurity when it comes to Dick.

The reason why he is low is that the others don't have a issue where I genuinely dislike them as I did during the Maladie saga. Basically it felt like he escalated the situation a lot with his anti-russian sentiment + the general hypocrisy of hating Russia for shit the US was also doing. I kinda hope to see him grow more from that.

I don't currently feel like I have a favourite friendship between him and the other titans. It is mostly because of how little I feel we see him interact much with the rest. Even with Donna and Dick I feel like we don't see much of them with him (especially compared to how much time we see those two spend time together). Which feels odd especially since they are all apart of the original teen titans (which at some point I might read). And because we see little of their friendship, I don't really have a good read of their friendship. We see his relationship with Raven a lot more, but I don't really care for it right now.

Rating 5.5/10 could be way worse but definitely could be better

6. Garfield/Beastboy

Again I saw him as a joker. Like the most I have seen him was in the DC animated movies. He is also usually one of my least favourite characters so that tracks. All though I do feel like the original comics give more insight in his joker personality these few volumes than from the few things I saw him in. I really hope that they will dive more into that in the next volumes.

I still don't have that strong of an opinion of him. His jokes regarding women leave a bad taste in my mouth, even though I get where they come from. I just hope we see him develop a more healthy relationship with himself and his past so they can stop.

The doom patrol arc is my fave story line for him. Wish we got to see more of him dealing with the fact that he killed someone but granted he is not the type right now to handle his issues right on.

I really like his banter with Vic. Especially considering how they are both people that have to grapple with the fact that their difference makes them non-human to other people.

Rating 6/10 same as Wally but there is no issue where I absolutely hate him or am annoyed by him.

5. Victor Stone/Cyborg

The only thing i have seen him are the justice league animated movies and I know he also a founding member in the Zack Snyder movies. So I am genuinely very curious why that got retconned.

So because I only really saw him in that (and the one episode of teen titans I have seen) I didn't really have any strong feelings about him or any thoughts really. In the beginning I was a little afraid they was gonna make him like an Angry Black Man, but I have been pleasantly surprised. I wanna see more of him with the kids (also not them already showing in the 80s how important representation can be for people)

I have so many thought about him and his dad. Like I know how difficult it can be to have a parent that loves you but can't show it. My dad and I's relationship is similar without all the anger on my part. So the issue where he and his dad spend his dad's last days together hit me in the heart. Like crying, pain in my chest and all. It feels so bittersweet to finally connect with your parent when it is almost too late. (I wish we got to know more about his relationship with his mom)

Him grappling with his humanity and his new body is also a highlight of his character. So I hope they keep touching on it for now and that we can also transition to seeing him more comfortable with himself.

As stated with Beast boy section, my favorite friendship for him is with beast boy. We don't get to see much of his relationship with the others as much but I like his friendship with Raven.

Rating: 6.5

4. Dick Grayson/Robin/Nightwing

Been my fave since young justice. Also I feel like this is the moment to say I rewatch teen titans: the judas contract because him and Koriand'r. Sometimes only their scenes too.

So safe to say that if I made a ranking before I started reading the comics, those two would be top 2. Basically the reason I wanted to read dc comics for the longest time (them and birds of prey).

But moving on to his character in the comics. I really like how they have implemented his character in the theme where he is basically the only one without powers. Like I feel that in a lot of stories, the one without powers is somehow made to still feel overpowered. By being so much smarter than the rest or still having beyond human constitution even though they don't have powers. So I really appreciated during the tamaran arc that we actually saw him physically struggle during the battle.

I feel like we haven't gotten much of a story arc/volume that was really focused on him except for in the beginning and kinda his relationship with kory. I am curious to see what they are going to do with him moving forward. Also I do appreciate the emotional intelligence we got to see from him when he and Kory talked after getting together.

Speaking about Dickkory, I feel like they sre definitely the type of ship I am gonna start liking after they get together. Because si far their relationship in comics is still a little so-so. We don't really get to see that much of them interacting even as friends. It feels like a lot of will they, won't they? mixed with him being like don't kill anyone you're on earth. However every single moment of them together that I have seen over the years is amazing. So I hope they can fully pull me on board soon.

However I am extremely happy that they didn't use kori's relationship with the white man (I can't be bothered to look up his name) as a jumping of point for Dick and kori to get back together. So far he has also been respectful of that relationship. I like a healthy amount of jealousy in romances but I really do loathe it when it is used to spurn one character into action. Like they are finally trying to move on from you, and now your bitch ass comes crawling back. It gives "I don't want this toy, but no one else can play with it either".

Now speaking about my fave Dick relationship is his friendship with Donna. I don't have much to say about them, but I just like all of their interactions.

7/10

2. Donna Troy

I knew nothing about Donna Troy before this. Like the only thing I have seen her in was the last scene of judas contract. I know she is in the titans show, but honestly I didn't watch it because I thought it was connected to the arrowverse.

So I went in completely blind when it came to her. However she got my heart so quickly. She feels so genuine to me. The struggles she is facing with not knowing her background. The way she feels not completely at home with the amazons as a result (this was especially hitting me as a kid from first gen immigrant parents). There is just so much potential in her and I think it is a shame with how little she is adapted.

Side eyeing her 29 year old boyfriend for now tho. It just doesn't sit right with me that this young woman that doesn't know who she is, is in a relationship with a man that has so much more experience on her. Like this man has already been divorced, what is he doing with a 18-19 year old. From what I have heard the unhealthy factor never really gets addressed fully, so praying from good fanfics.

I also love her friendship with koriand'r. She opened her house to someone who was practically a stranger to her. She tries to teach her about earth and be a guide in this unfamiliar world. In a way she paid forward the kindness Diana and the other amazons gave her. I think their relationship is the one I believe the most.

8.5/10

Top 2 will be posted soon but I just wanted to post part of it. Like I have been writing this for over a week and I still have so much to say about Kori and Raven 😭😭😭😭😭

[bitterrobin]

Reader Beware....

another Flamebird in Gotham au, notes app substitution on this site!

this time I'll be listing my personal goals for the au and the developing fanfiction. (ignore if you don't want spoilers! /or you just couldn't care less about my DC/Batman thoughts)

create a fic/maybe a series that develops Bette Kane and introduces her to an audience that does not know her

Bette is highly underrated and unused. The potential in her parallel to Dick Grayson and her history with both Kate Kanes is a lot. Now that I've gotten into this fic and my hcs, I will now forever resent Grayson (2014) bc I can see so much there if you just swap Dick for Bette as the insider-spy. (Kathy Kane characterization in that comic notwithstanding).

characterize and humanize Talia al Ghul

I very much prefer a Talia that is complicated and tragic. She deserves her own development arc and she deserves a characterization that won't paint her as a strictly abusive mother. There's so much there, she's an old character and a great one! (Morrison I am closing my hands around your bald head). Yes, she's not a perfect mother. Who is? I prefer a Talia who maybe wasn't there for Damian all of the time, but she tries, goddamnit. Talia has her own heavy trauma and baggage that should be taken into account with the way she raises Damian. She should have way more in common with her son, especially when it comes their relationships with Ras.

actually write Damian Wayne in a published fanfic for once (you do not want to see my many many drafts and wips)

Not as much to add here, other than I don't think my Damian headcanons or characterization is that far removed from canon.

focus on other aspects of Gotham City that aren't tied to Batman/Robin (like Ragman, Wildcat, Mother Panic)

Self-explanatory. Gotham is a huge and diverse city, and having only Batman and vigilantes directly associated with him operate there is super boring.

Integrate Bette Kane and Kathy Kane into the wider Batman/"Batfamily" mythos

Also self-explanatory. It'd be nice. They're the first Batwoman and Bat-girl!

Create future opportunities for smaller, lesser known Batman characters (if this becomes a full series) like Charlie Gage-Radcliffe, the Foxes, Calvin Rose, Onyx Adams)

Please I need to see them in fanfiction form. Charlie is my blorbo who needs more comics, and Calvin is my favorite Talon. Also, he's canonically a former member of Haly's Circus and he wasn't given the immortal juice like the others - it is my hc that he was in the circus around the time that Dick was.

Rectify the deaths or character assassinations that I don't like (Orpheus, Holly Robinson)

Orpheus's death sucks major ass. Bringing him back no matter what, just to satisfy my brain. Holly Robinson deserves to be Catwoman for at least a while longer.

If I'm crazy enough to do it - introduce Christopher Kent in the future to an audience who does not know him.

MY SON. Look, I like Jon. Mildly. He's alright. But Chris is MY defacto Superman child and everyday I mourn what could've been if he wasn't aged up (deja vu) and he was able to exist for just a little while longer so that he could interact with Damian. So, if this au becomes a series, you best believe that I'm including at least a cameo. Jury's out if I fully replace Jon in the au or I make them similarly-aged brothers.

Expand/lengthen comic arcs I like and wanted to see more of (Robin: Son of Batman in general, We Are Robin, Talon, unironically Beast Boy 2000, Streets of Gotham)

Mostly self-explanatory. I just wanted to see more of Damian/Maya. Suren hanging out and going on adventures. We Are Robin needs a longer series, Talon is one of my fav comics, and I genuinely just wanted to see more of Bette in LA in Beast Boy. I also wanted to see Colin and Damian in SoG. (Plus, there was a Ragman backup running there!)

maybe give characters who are considered part of the "Batfamily" but are usually never given their dues - a chance to be main characters (Duke Thomas) (once I actually fully research him)

Yeah. This needs development on my part. I like him a lot, I just want to understand him better and give him some screen time so to speak. If I do get around to a We Are Robin rewrite or just incorporate it somehow into a larger fic.

umm... maybe expand on al Ghul lore perhaps, and develop the League of Assassins into something functional, terrifying, and tangible

Requires further research. But I love @arabian-batboy's take on how the family names (the al Ghuls, the Orghams, the Darga) connect to Behenian stars and the idea that each star could be connected to a hypothetical family and their powers. It's just cool.

[nyhti]

Can I ask for Jeremiah Arkham (my beloved!) headcanons? (If you are so inclined)

TBH your blog is the thing that has made me stan these old men 🤧😰

Haha. Okay. Sorry this took literally like a month and a half lol. It is what it is. I'm glad my blog has been able to make people care about characters that imo don't get enough love <333 And I'm flattered people want to hear my takes on them!

So, yeah, I figured I could write about Jeremiah's trauma, but first let's clear some things up, or otherwise this might be a confusing essay.

Firstly, my Jerry takes only from Alan Grant's Jerry. I don't like how anyone else wrote him. Neither do I really like how even Grant started writing him later on. Jerry has a surprisingly good character arc from The Last Arkham (Batman: Shadow of the Bat #1-4 (1992)) to Madmen Across the Water (Showcase 94' #3-4). After that though, it felt like Grant no longer knew what he wanted to do with the character and even went backwards on the progress the character had made, which to a reader was incredibly disappointing.

So in a nutshell: my Jeremiah is morally most like he was in Madmen Across the Water, personality wise most like he was in The Last Arkham, and sprinkled in are some traits and fun little facts from later issues by Grant.

And when it comes to Arkham Asylum itself, I go with pre-crisis Arkham, even thought Jeremiah is a post-crisis character. I just don't like any edgy torture chamber version of Arkham. Arkham is not a perfect place by any means, but in my verse, the staff actually tries to do good. Think of the Arkham we see in Super Powers #1 (1984). That's my Arkham.

I will also be touching on the history of Arkham Asylum and Amadeus Arkham in this one a bit and for that please keep in mind that I do not like Grant Morrison's writing. My Arkham/Amadeus lore is based on Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe #1 (1985), with some changes made. The only thing I take from Batman: Arkham Asylum (1989) are the names Constance and Harriet and Morrison's headcanon that Amadeus wrote a journal. Also, Amadeus is still alive in my verse lol. You can guesstimate from Who's Who that Amadeus lived to about his 70s, so he really should still be alive during his nephew's time as director. Might write about how that affects Jerry in my verse someday.

So. With all of that out of the way. The flashback from Shadow of the Bat #1. The trauma something like that would leave you with was left unexplored in the story so of course I wanted to explore it in my verse.

I think there is a period of calm right after the incident. It's like nothing ever happened. Like everything is fine. It's not, of course. Jeremiah just hasn't yet even began to process what happened and once he finally does, it all comes back. He has flashbacks that leave him vomiting on the floor, he has nightmares that leave him shaking in cold sweat. He starts to develop these new fears. He begins to fear being in places like stores, or anywhere with a lot of people around that he doesn't know. He becomes more vary of strangers in general. He will eye at their clothes and bags and wonder if they could be hiding weapons. You might think he could avoid facing these fears if he just stays at home, but no. Even in the quiet of his own room, they keep him company. He has this new goal in life, he has this dream career ahead that he starts to feverishly study to reach, but every time his parents leave to run errands, it seems impossible to concentrate on his books, as he fears his parents won't make it home. And the worst thing is, that he is afraid of being afraid. He is afraid and ashamed of his behavior and feelings. He feels he has to hide it all. He lies to his parents that he is fine and even though his parents can see through it all, they choose to believe the lie rather than get their son help. Why? We are going to have to talk about my headcanons for his father and for the whole Arkham family.

Just for a moment, think about it all from Jeremiah's father's perspective. First, your own mother's mental health starts to decline. Then, your dreamer brother tells you he is going to re-open the asylum that has brought nothing but shame on the family name. Years later, your brother's wife and young daughter are murdered by a man who is later admitted to Arkham Asylum. Sometime later this man dies in an "accident" under your brother's watch and you have your suspicions. You then begin to witness your brother's mental health slowly decline until he is admitted to his own asylum. This tarnishes the family name even further and now even people you've known your entire life wonder if you could be next. Years later your only child is nearly killed by an escaped patient from Arkham.

He needed a culprit for all that had happened. It couldn't have just been change, because how do you protect yourself, your family, against change? You can't. In order to feel like he could protect his son, he needed something more tangible to blame. He was faced with tragedy after tragedy and it all tied down to this one place - Arkham Asylum and it's patients. The answer was clear. The culprit would be mental illness and the asylum that was full of it. He convinced himself if he could keep his son away from the asylum, from mentally ill people and from mental illness itself, he would remain safe.

When Constance and Harriet were still alive, Jeremiah and his parents would visit the asylum often. It was like a second home to them. During these times, he never had an issue with a single patient. He would even talk to them sometimes and found them to be perfectly fine people. He simply chose to forget every positive interaction he had had with a patient for an easy culprit. He could not put his son in therapy, because that would mean that he is mentally unwell, and therefore in danger.

Of course Jeremiah, being that he was only a child and that he had already faced judgment from his peers at school for his last name, would adopt his father's beliefs. In canon, Jeremiah freely tells Batman about his gift of how he can see into madness. In my verse, he would not. He never understood just exactly what it all was and how it had happened, but he knew he could not tell anyone, because they might think he imaged it all. If mental illness is the worst thing that can happen to a person, then any odd behavior or beliefs are to be seen as threats. Being able to suddenly see into a man's mind and learn everything that had ever happened to him definitely counted as odd to Jeremiah 16 years old. He never told anyone that detail until- oh, I'm skipping ahead.

Time does start to heal Jeremiah's wounds. Little by little, he would start to feel more at ease in public places. He would learn ways to treat himself when he began to specialize in psychiatry, but the lack of support meant he still carried the trauma around. It would still come back to him in nightmares during times of stress.

In my verse, he is also a psychotherapist and I don't know how it is in the rest of the world, but at least in Finland, to become a psychotherapist, you need to go through psychotherapy yourself and, oh boy. Oh man. Jerry in therapy? Dr. Jerry ”HOW DARE YOU QUESTION MY SANITY?!” Arkham in therapy? That could be a topic for an essay of it's own, but let's try to keep it short. I'm not sure just how easily you could lie in therapy like that, but if it is possible, Jeremiah would be lying the entire time. He's just so damn scared that if he says one thing wrong, they are not going to give him his license or worse, they are going to lock him up. Jeremiah could possibly get away with not mentioning the incident at the store, because the therapist wouldn't know about that, if Jeremiah himself doesn't bring it up. The tale of his uncle, on the other hand, is public knowledge in my verse and the therapist would definitely ask how that affected Jeremiah. He would have to talk about his family trauma to some degree, but might get away not mentioning any personal trauma. Either way, he does get his license. I think the therapist might be able to tell Jeremiah didn't tell them everything, but ultimate, they would see he's not ”crazy”, just very anxious. And working at Arkham would not make his anxieties any better.

Every day is like walking a tightrope. Everything could be so nice and calm for days and just one little slip up could send the whole asylum into chaos. Even though my version of Arkham is not edgy, even though it's not some spoopy mega prison with 20 casualties everyday, you still have to stay on alert. Jeremiah especially, being he's the one in charge of the whole show. He knows that you could be having the most normal, most boring day of your life and then a heart beat later have someone threaten your life. Just like at the store.

It's the uncertainty of life at Arkham that makes him have such a need for control. He needs to know exactly what is happening and where at all times to feel safe and weirdly enough, he does. He feels safe at Arkham. More safe than anywhere in the world, even though many would call it the unsafest place in the city. It's safe for Jeremiah, because he's in charge. He holds all the strings. If someone so much as farts in the staff locker room, he'll have a written report on it on his desk in 15 minutes. It's outside where he feels afraid.

He doesn't venture out a lot. He is a workaholic. He did use to have a social life, but little by little, he just stopped staying in contact with friends when work consumed his life. It's gotten to the point where all that progress he made all those years ago to be comfortable in public spaces has faded away. Really, spending every waking moment at Arkham has made it worse. He could be at a clothing store trying on new shirts, but his mind is still at Arkham. He's constantly looking around for threads. He's eyeing the place trying to see how much security there is. Could that person be hiding a gun under that coat? What are the best possible exict routes if worse comes to pass? He can see threats everywhere, but he cannot do anything about it. He has no control here. He's definitely having a panic attack at aisle 9.

Obviously all staff at Arkham need to be aware at all times, but Jonathan, being the Master of Fear and all, would notice that Jeremiah is far more vigilant than the others. Now, Jonathan is not physically a threat at all. (I'm going with pre-crisis Jonathan so no ”violent dancing”, this man cannot throw a punch to save his life.) And while Jeremiah is obviously not strong either, he's definitely been to a self-defense class or two in his time. What I'm trying to say here, is that Jeremiah could defeat Jonathan in a fight any day. This became crystal clear to Jonathan the first time he snuck up behind Jeremiah and whispered ”boo” in his ear. Suddenly he found himself face down on the floor with Jeremiah on top of him before he could even realize what was happening. Jonathan began to suspect Jeremiah's behavior wasn't just normal ”you have to be vigilant in this job” behavior, but rather something more.

I'm not going to go into detail about my arcrane headcanons here or we'd be here all day, but to keep it short, Jonathan becomes the first person, 28 years after the event, that Jeremiah opens up to. First person he actually tells the whole story to. It's at that time that he is finally able to truly heal from it all.

[enigmatist17]

Okay, I finally have all the episodes done, and man oh man do I have thoughts.

First off, I can see why people compared this a lot to BTAS, and tbf I did too, but it's just not BTAS. While it has a lot of the same vibes, it makes its own 1940's noir style, which I think really works for the most part. Gorgeous city and background, but I can see the Bruce Timm "similar faces for certain characters" thing going on, which does kind of take me out of things a little. Love the fighting, love the gore and deaths that very much feel in tune for the gritty Gotham/DC world, love some takes on early villains that I kind of hope we see later on in more seasons. Over all I think it's a solid 8/10, and I need more of this show.

So there are some...issues ---

I really didn't like how Bruce is such a dick to Alfred, like come on guys :/

I get this is the early years, and usually he's kind of standoffish, but there were a few times he was just downright nasty and I am not with that >:/

Was also not a fan of Harley's redesign and how short her arc was, she needed more time before the big reveal of how she's already down the rabbit hole, which, while that's a nice change, felt very abrupt and I don't like how that all ended with such a small amount of time to see her on the other side. I really hope she kicks ass in a potential second season, and generally I just want to see where she goes before Joker.

Not cool they made Bullock corrupt yet again, poor dude can't catch a break I stg.

ALSO WHY DID YOU KILL HARVEY/TWO-FACE ARE YOU FOR SERIOUS

WE COULD HAVE HAD THINGS MAN, WE COULD HAVE HAD SUCH A COOL FUCKING STORY WITH HIM AAAAAAAAAA

And fuuuuuuuck that reveal at the end

Onto the more positive things ---

I love love love love love the Two-Face angle they went with, where he is the non-aggressor and Harvey is the one off of his nut. It really works with how they showed him to be through the season, kind enough but 100% in it for himself/his campaign, and to let that desire and paranoia to consume him as opposed to pouring it into making Two-Face was a refreshing take for him. It's a FUCKING SHAME THEY KILLED HIM COME ON.

Really liked Nocturna(?), I know she was supposed to be in BTAS but was considered too dark for the time, so it was nice to see some concepts being shown here.

Alfred is and always will be the GOAT, that's about it for him. Same with Jim Gordon, dude was solid as he was practical, and as always I love him <3

Even though her name was dumb, I really didn't care about Oswalda being genderbent? She was ruthless and just as horrendous as I expected, and I'm here for that.

Overall I liked it, 10 episodes is far too short IMO, but hopefully we get more in the future!

[themyscirah]

Jess? Or Hal? For the ask game (And if you've done both of them, just pick your favorite super)

I haven't done either yet! I'll do Hal in this post and maybe Jess in another after this

Tw for canonical past suicide for later in the post (skip the story idea section)

First impression:

My real first encounter with him was probably as a guest appearance within Green Lanterns, but the first book I read with him was GL/GA. I don't remember too much of what I thought of him there, it was probably more of a general "oh he seems cool I guess" kind of neutral/positive attitude. By the time I read a Hal comic I'd already met Simon, Jess, and Jo so he wasn't a contender for the spot of my favorite lantern. I never fully finished GL/GA though bc I had the book on loan

Impression now:

Mixed. There are some Hal moments I genuinely do love and like, but tbh he can get on my nerves very easily. Of the Earth lanterns he's either my least or next to least favorite (which doesn't mean I don't like him!) but he's also like the "main character" of GL so I get annoyed when I feel like other GLs are being ignored in favor of Hal.

Favorite moment:

With that said there are sooooooo many Hal moments I just love. He's very much a character made by specific moments for me (rather than a general appreciation of who he is overall). Some Swishy fave contenders include his "Avenge me" internal monologue when he fights Mongul in GL (1990) #46, and OFC the Emerald Twilight arc a few issues later. Also in the very first issue of that book, where he jumps off a cliff in front of some campers (waiting until the last moment before using his ring) was an important moment for me in reading Hal, because it was the first time I went "oh! This guy is crazy!"

Idea for a story:

An exploration of the fact that Hal literally killed himself on panel in GL (2011) #19. Because like what the hell, why did this happen and then NO ONE EVER TALKED ABOUT IT. (This is insane to me). I think I'd probably revisit it in a dream sequence, maaaybe doing a rewrite/reimagining of his Knight Terrors issue (which I have NOT read lol) to kind of address that and talk about his mental state and things that had an impact on that, stuff like his parents, the Guardians, PARALLAX. Basically it'd be Hal and the ghost of Tomar-Re just talking about how he is not okay. A pretty heavy response to a pretty heavy topic.

Unpopular opinion:

I'm going to be so real here like 95% of my Hal opinions are unpopular bc its just me talking about how I think he's overrated. Like we're bros ig but still. Overrated.

Like I LIKE him but I'm annoyed at him like 80% of the time bc DC is always putting out a mid story focusing on him while ignoring my faves WHO ARE SO COOL AND DESERVE STORIES 😤💔😭

I guess one beyond that is I'm not a fan of his friendship with Barry. Maybe this is just because I haven't read anything where they're like... interesting? But I just don't get the hype. ESPECIALLY compared to his relationship with Oliver which is absolutely insane in comparison. Like why are we talking abt Barry rn when OLLIE LITERALLY SHOT HAL AND HAL RESSURECTED OLLIE. like guys. Guys. Are you seeing this shit.

Favorite relationship:

Like ship wise? I'm not a huge Halcarol fan personally but I do think they're kind of the epitome of "you're perfect for each other. Never involve anyone else in what you have going on," kind of messy drama-filled relationship with a lot of history.

I also really like halollie and their relationship but not in like a "they should date" way or anything like that. Like they're bros to me who emotionally have a whole complicated little thing going on like idk

Within the lanterns I think the frenemy whatever thing Guy and Hal do is SO funny. I love especially the beginning of GL (1990) where Guy just in his free time shows up to ruin Hal's life while Hal is just so sick and done and mad about it. Peak comedy, Guy never change

Fave headcanon:

Do I have any headcanons about Hal? Not really. I try to think about him as little as possible (kidding). No um I'd say I don't really have any, and if I did they'd probably be really basic or smth like that he cries watching both Top Gun movies.

[teratron]

"Wonder Woman: Hush", or Wonder Woman Vol. 1 by Tom King review

I've been reading this monthly but wanted to wait until the first few issues were collected as a trade to review it since King's work I'm told his work reads better collected than standalone. King and Sampere were probably the biggest high profile team to be put on the Wonder Woman book since Rucka back in Rebirth in 2016 (eight years ago, damn).

I have real prior attachment to King's work since I've read his Batman run sparingly and almost none of his various miniseries. Interviews he gave went back and forth on making me excited. On one hand, he brought the old tired line of "WW has no good stories" that he usually backtracked on when pushed but on the other hand his story about being inspired by George Perez to write the book despite his initial disinterest was nice to hear.

King came in swinging in certain respects with stuff like the general plotline of the U.S. vs. Amazons and introducing the idea of Diana having a daughter (to be talked about a later time). But if there's one main thing I think I could talk about when it comes this run so far is that I think I figured out what King is going for so far. That being to give WW her equivalent of a Batman: Hush story.

Hush, for the few who don't know, being the famous Jeff Loeb/Jim Lee Batman story from the 2000s most notable for the introduction of the titular Hush character and it's art (if you've seen any Batman poster or image from the past two decades, chances are you've seen a page from Hush). Part of what makes the story so famous being that while it's story pretty bare bones/thin, it serves as a very popular tour of both Batman himself and his larger world without having to retread his origin. His rogues gallery, his relationship with Catwoman, the Bat family, Superman, you name it Hush probably has it. So with that in mind, I thought I'd tackle this first volume through the lenses.

New Villains, Same Problems

Like with Hush, we're introduced to a hyped a new villain (not uncommon in WW history sadly) who was supposedly always in the background before finally "revealed" in this storyline. In this case, The Sovereign, a "King of America" who speaks in plural and the latest descendent of a long line of rulers who has been secretly ruling America since the first colonists arrived.

We get quite a lot of him in this opening arc, mainly through his narration as it's presented in past tense of Sovereign telling Diana's future daughter, Trinity, of his failed war against her mother. This has been a point of contention for some as instead of getting Diana's own insights of what's going on around her, we instead this guy's P.O.V. just telling us how he continually underestimated Wonder Woman only for her to continually triumph over him despite what he through at her.

One of the things King said in interviews was to make "Wonder Woman cool" and this has been reasonable criticism that most of the plots have been "Sovereign underestimates Diana and is surprised when Diana overcomes him". With this in mind, my interpretation of Sovereign has come to be he's less about what he says about America (though there certainly is stuff there to look at) and more specifically how he's a "stand-in" on certain types of comic book fans.

The type of comic fan who knows Wonder Woman but doesn't read her solo adventures, at most reads her when she pops up in other people's books. The type of fan who thinks WW's traditional weapons of the bracelets and lasso are lame in comparison to the sword and shield. The type of fan thinks Wonder Woman's only "role" in the DC Universe is to be a second-rate female Superman and token girl on the Justice League. A Wonder Woman who knows her place and doesn't upset any feelings by bringing up any of that annoying feminism. Like Sovereign, these fans are surprised (and in the case of "power scalers") and quick to anger when Diana far out exceeds their expectations and challenges their previous view of her.

Sovereign getting defeated so easily is a surprise to him but not to us. And so far he hasn't been defeated by the popular image of Diana as a sword swinging barbarian looking for blood. But by a Diana who forgoes her sword, and relies on her own natural abilities and her true iconography of the lasso, bracelets, and even the Invisible Jet. A Wonder Woman who can take time out of her life to visit a sick boy and take him to Themyscira. A Wonder Woman who relies on her relationship with Steve Trevor for help, not the traditional "alpha males", Superman and Batman.

We, as Wonder Woman fans, already know Wonder Woman is cool but Sovereign (like these fans) doesn't.

Now with that in mind, it's not like there hasn't been problems with King's approach. His dialogue has never been his strongest aspect and even with my own interpretation in mind, it does get flat out repetitive after a while. Solicitations (as of this writing) seem to suggest issue #14 will the start of the end of the Sovereign storyline and in that case, I am interested with how King will proceed from there once he can't fall back on Sovereign's narration.

A Grand Tour

King has said in interviews he's using a mentality of "give the fans what they want/makes them happy". This primarily meaning, despite new creations like Sovereign or unrelated characters like Sarge Steel, much of his run has been a grand tour of most of the major aspects of Wonder Woman world.

Lasso and bracelets as her main tools? Check

Invisible jet? Check

Showcase her villains? Check

Reference the clay origin as much you can? Check

And continuing beyond just these six issues with spotlights on Steve Trevor and Cheetah.

Probably the biggest example of this being he originally made it a rule that he wanted to keep the focus on Diana and that meant "no Wonder Girls". But fans asking him repeatedly made him change his mind and thus, amusingly enough, King has probably done more to write a cohesive "Wonder Family" in a similar fashion to the Bat-Family than people like Gail Simone, George Perez, or Greg Rucka.

It's a nice move from King though ironically, while I thought he's written them well, I'm actually not the biggest fan of the Wonder Girls if I'm honest. So I'll just ask King nicely if he ever sees this that I'd happily take an Artemis team up!

Villains We Love To Hate

It's been a contentious issue for many WW fans that her rogues gallery is so often poorly thought of and treated. Tying back into my earlier point about Sovereign being a stand-in for the people who underestimate Wonder Woman's value in real-life, I'd say that also goes for the villains.

Here, it's not the U.S. Army, or any other traditional obstacle Sovereign throws at Wonder Woman that defeats her. Instead the only thing that comes closest enough are her rogues working together.

King didn't go to much into depth on them, I hope to see what he does in future issues, but a detail I liked is the gravitas he and Sampere all gave them. Sarge Steel, Sovereign's lacky and man on the ground, gets made a fool of by almost all of them and even Sovereign himself shows up to Grail in person as a sign of respect. It's a rare showing of WW's villains being treated as people you don't want to mess with.

Issue #6 is probably my favorite purely from a showcase spectacle of seeing Diana run a gauntlet of her most famous rogues and still taking the time to showcase both her sheer power and also endless compassion.

The Princess Herself

This brings us to King's writing of the main woman herself. He hasn't made a secret he finds her difficult and was hesitant to take her on. Something a lot of Wonder Woman fans are used to hearing from most writers.

King certainly leans more towards the royal and slightly stiff way of making her speak. This was similar to how he wrote her the few times she showed up in his work before and I'll be honest, I'm not a fan of it. Diana's been written as formal before with writers such as Perez and Jimenez but here it just kind of bugs me. Mainly the lack of any contractions. I realize King is trying to emulate Diana having an accent but on the page it makes her come as almost aloof to the people around her.

As for her characterization? I'd say he's been mostly on the ball there's stuff that's doesn't sit quite right with me like threatening to disembowel people in the middle of combat but stuff trying to check up on Silver Swan to help her while in the middle of fighting Giganta is a pretty dead-on Wonder Woman moment.

I feel King's hesitance in writing becomes apparent with how much he relies on the Sovereign's narration. I feel, more hope honestly, that this is him finding a way to ease into writing Diana more normally rather than relying on people around her.

The Art

Anyone familiar with this run so far is probably aware the most praised talking point is Daniel Sampere's art. And it's entirely justified, Sampere leans more towards the portraying characters as these living icons, similar to Alex Ross, and his work on Wonder Woman might the best showcase of the ability.

It's known King is a light-scripter, so it's obvious it leaves much what will probably be the most well-remembered moments of this run up to Sampere's imagination.

All told, I'd say Sampere is probably my favorite "modern Wonder Woman artist", at least the best since Nicola Scott and Liam Sharp.

Final Thoughts and the Future

There's still a bit more I want to talk about but I'm only reviewing the first trade here so that leaves out me wanting to get to review his issues following #6 but overall I would say these were so far some of the strongest run of issues for Wonder Woman since Greg Rucka. The art is doing a lot of heavy lifting but if King's philosophy is to "make the fans happy" than I'd say in this fan's case, I'm pleased so far with these first six ones.

I do have more substantial critiques for the later issues but I feel I'll leave it here for now. It's also apparent I didn't talk about Trinity but I feel she's best given her own review/post for herself since I didn't want to muddy the water of this (probably too long) review.

We'll check back in with issues #7 - 10 when the next trade release.

P.S.

We'll be skipping the Absolute Power tie-ins though. #11 was completely awful and I'm not interested in a Damien Wayne team up. Sorry King, even I got limits.

[luthwhore]

Lena was a prominent figure in the comic, Superwoman. I think Lana was Superwoman in it. I was wondering if you’ve read it and what was your thoughts on it? Specifically the character, Lena

The few things I know about her is she’s a wheelchair user and one of the few people Lex Luther calls his equal, True Equal (not really sure about this one fact). It would also be appreciated if u could refer to a post talking about her in the lens of a disabled person, I’m (kinda?) sure there was one and i didn’t reblog it

Sure! So, I referenced by dislike for the Superwoman (2016) comic in my Lex comic rec list, but I haven't really gone into it on its own before, mostly because at the time I was reading it I was still getting into comics and hadn't really started doing a lot of liveblogging or commentary at the time.

I also want to preface my feelings on the ableism around Lena, both in this comic and in general, by saying that I am not physically disabled myself. I have several close friends who are, including a roommate who is an ambulatory wheelchair user, so disability representation is something that I try to be very aware of, but I am not of any kind an authority on disability issues.

Also, I'm talking about this arc mostly from a Doyleist perspective -- i.e., focusing less on the culpability of the individual characters and whether I think their choices are understandable or justified and more on the choices made by the real people writing the arcs. This is not a condemnation of Lena's actions; this is a criticism of the writing choices made around her.

Putting this under a cut because I realized this is getting very long.

For a bit of backstory, Lena had been ill as a child -- with what, it's never specified, but the implication is that it was something chronic -- and that in an effort to "cure" her when he was a teenager, Lex had inadvertently paralyzed her.

This is actually something that was introduced by Geoff Johns' during Forever Evil, and other than the kind of dehumanizing language of calling her an "invalid" (which will be a recurring thing), I don't hate it. Lex does clearly see his inability to cure her as a failure, but it presents him coming to terms with it and realizing that he wants to rekindle his relationship with Lena, presumably for the first time in many, many years.

I don't have a major issue with this writing choice, because prior to Forever Evil, n52 hadn't really broken much with the unambiguously evil version of Lex that had been presented since Crisis on Infinite Earths, so the idea that he had neglected Lena out of shame that he couldn't "cure" her doesn't seem terribly out of place, and it presents a nice moment of character growth for him.

Justice League (2012), also written by Geoff Johns, is the first time we actually see Lena. When we see her here, she's shown in a wheelchair, and sees to be working for Lexcorp.

You get the sense that in spite of genuinely loving Lena, Lex has a tendency to be far too over-protective of her, often keeping her in the dark about things, which is a dimension to their relationship I really like! Geoff Johns is known for taking inspiration from Smallville in a lot of his Superman comics -- there are a LOT of nods to the show when he writes Kon -- and this, to me, feels very much like Smallville-inspired characterization.

One thing that DC does, that tracks across Geoff Johns, Dan Jurgens, and Phil Jimenez's writing of Lex and Lena, is really, really focus on "curing" Lena. In spite of what he says to her at the end of Forever Evil, he still ultimately sees her disability as his fault, and therefore, sees her as something to be fixed.

You can definitely put this off as a character flaw of Lex's, and I'm definitely not arguing that it's not in character for Lex to want to do so -- but it IS worth noting that this arc was happening at the same time that DC was leaning hard into erasing Barbara Gordon's disability as well, so this not an isolated incident of DC treating disabled characters like they need to be "cured".

For context: Barbara Gordon was the first Batgirl, and after being paralyzed by the Joker, then took on the identity of Oracle and ran The Birds of Prey. However, after around two decades of her acting as Oracle and being established as a hero completely separate from Batman, DC aged her down, erased her disability, and relaunched her as Batgirl with the start of the n52. (Recent years have tried to walk this back a little, but there was almost a decade of her being written as having miraculously healed from her disability.)

(It also does make me think a little of the "Lexmas" episode of Smallville, where Lionel is willing to put Lex through a surgical with a very low survival rate rather than accept the prospect of his losing the use of his legs. This isn't relevant per se, but I do think it's an interesting similarity.)

Toward the end of Justice League (2012), there is a scene in which Lena, while in possession of a Motherbox, pulls a gun on Lex and tries to kill him, and it's left unclear whether she was being influenced by the Motherbox or acting of her own accord. This is technically the start of the arc that gets picked up in Superwoman (2016).

Afterward, she ends up in a coma from her use of the Motherbox, with Lex once again swearing to find a way to heal her.

We also get a really touching scene of Lex talking to Lena at her bedside and admitting that part of the reason he has decided to be a hero now is that he wants to make her proud, and he knows she wouldn't approve of his past actions. This feels in line with the characterization established in Forever Evil; Lena is Lex's only family, and she's the only person in his life he can earnestly say he loves.

So, this is where we are at the start of Superwoman (2016). Lex and Lena have recently reconnected, and Lex is trying to be a better person in large part because of his love for Lena. Lena tried to kill him, which Lex believes was due to the influence of the Motherbox, and Lena is put into a coma.

It does seem like Geoff Johns was setting up Lena to become a villain during Justice League, or at least the potential for it, which I have... kind of mixed feelings about. On the one hand, I do think there is an interesting tension there, because Lex kind of expects to just pick up his relationship with Lena where they left off, and I think using her as an antagonist for him could have been interesting. On the other hand, with how the previous several arcs had set up Lena as the entire reason for Lex's redemption arc, it seems like an odd choice?

However... that's not quite what they do. While getting revenge on her brother is clearly a priority for her in Superwoman, she also... just kind of wants to take over/destroy Metropolis? For reasons?

In Superwoman (2016), we find out that Lex had tried to heal her by experimenting on her, and that when the experiment didn't immediately work, Lex abandoned her. (I personally find that really out of character, given what we were shown about their relationship prior.)

And we are once again treated to a character in a wheelchair being cured of her disability. This time, specifically as part of a villain arc. Which is... a choice, I guess. If they were going to use her as an antagonist, I really wish they would have done so without erasing her disability, but that's DC for you.

I also feel like a lot of her emotional complexity is stripped out in favor of making her like... a #girlboss villain, which is pretty par for the course for something that came out in 2016. The characterization here just... doesn't feel congruous with the Lena we were shown before.

I personally think, whether they wanted to use Lena as a hero or an antagonist, it would have made for a much more empowering arc not to heal her of her physical disability and instead have her seek to prove to Lex that her disability isn't something that needs to be "fixed" and that she's still fully capable of operating on his level with or without the use of her legs.

I also think the choice to use her as a villain who just wants to take over Metropolis (ig as a way to prove that she's better than Lex? by succeeding at something he failed at?) was a mistake, because one of the core conflicts with Lex and Lena in Justice League (2012) was that... Lena disapproved of a lot of Lex's actions?

The message in the comic re: Lena's disability also just feels. Really muddled? Like. It almost says something important here -- the "I knew my body meant nothing to you if it wasn't a perfect reflection of your fantasies of what it should be, but it was mine" line is good!

I think in better hands, it could have been a really powerful story about Lena's bodily autonomy, and how no matter Lex's intentions, he was still ultimately making choices that should have been hers, to make, but it just got buried in the mess of her being a generic scenery chewing supervillain, and I think that message would have hit a lot harder if they hadn't "healed" her, and if they had focused more on giving Lex and Lena and emotional arc instead of just... having her do a bunch of villain monologuing before having Lex defeat her.

Anyway I hope the "Ultrawoman" arc gets retconned out at some point because this really felt like a waste of potential for Lena and I think she deserved better than just getting turned into a supervillain before being written out of the canon.

[on-leatheredwings]

damn..... at least i was smart enough to copy it

--

talia hating you with passion just to slowly warm up to you cus you make her son happy (smth which was considered nearly impossible).... yummy...... 🤤

sadly, i don't can't fully get into comics right now since I'm kinda busy with uni and paperwork but the stuff I've read so far was fun

my only question is WHy there are so many of them?!?? good for the fans ig but how am i supposed to read it without a guide??

I remember picking up some Batman and Robin volume where Batman turned out to be Dick. "is Bruce dead or something?" i thought jokingly.... 😔

Yes. Yes, he was dead, as i quickly found out..... At least now i put more thoughts into what i pick up to read

about btd - if your only problem is the artstyle you may check out The Price of Flesh. it was created by one of btd artists (the one who drew the fox guy) and it's relatively new, so the visuals are way better

no like getting into comics is genuinely so ridiculous and dumb lmao .... like the only way to read them is to go by like... character i guess?

if u wanna read damian, read batman and robin by tomasi and all its related runs, robin 2021 ... to read tim, read a lonely place for dying, robin '91, a lot of 90s batman also has tim as robin but not all-- UGH ITS SO FRUSTRATING.... kinda why i was a cartoons-and-video-games-only girlie back in 2017-2020 like i just need less options/more streamlined progression 😭😭😭😭

there are guides out there BUT OH LORD WHY DO WE EVEN NEED ONE... GUIDES TO READ MANGAS ARE LIKE: START AT CHAPTER 1. :)

AND YEAH NGL I FORGOT BRUCE WAS FR DEAD FOR A SECOND IN THE 2010'S AND DICK WAS BATMAN WHILE DAMIAN WAS ROBIN. LMFAOOO....

and hmmmmm !?!? ill check out tpof :3

something that makes me laugh is how bruce really should be like fucking 60-70 but so he can keep being batman, he's just eternally 40s-very early 50s. i think canonically the timeline from dick > jason > jason DYING > tim > jason COMING BACK > steph's small robin stint > damian > duke/cass is like. 10 years. which is kind of insane considering the decades of content. they would have to undergo these arcs EVERY DAMN DAY FOR THIS TO MAKE SENSE 😭

if dc was brave they'd retire batman and have cass take over while damian does more growing to inherit (altho he shouldn't . imo.) and what the fuck is tim doing

ppl are kinda fine with it but i feel him going robin > red robin > drake > robin is such a lame regression. he should have his own identity. red robin was already too much like robin, but now hes just ROBIN while damian is also robin. which is fine without context, im okay with multiple robins but come on can tim be his own hero now.

so yeah in general i just pick and choose what arcs i wanna read... i was huge into injustice back in the day which was an alternate universe games/comics canon. its rlly simpler living that way 🚬

[bobbinalong]

i would love to hear ur thoughts on steph and her pregnancy arc!!! since cannon really dont adress it in any way and its not like id want her whole thing to surround it but considering how much she cared for the baby before she gave it up its interesting how its ignored!! and its also why ur au is so lovely bc its nice to think how she would have adapted!!

I mean, generally, I do think it's an arc best ignored, honestly, since all it really was was a weird pro-life PSA by Chuck Dixon, who. Just in general seems to be a weird conservative, I don't know. I get why writers today would rather not touch all that.

BUT that being said, if they ever do bring it up again, I should hope it's from Steph's perspective and explores some more of her feelings on the matter. Because you're right, she clearly did care for the kid and she did consider keeping them not too long before going into labour. And then she had an anxiety dream about her weirdo dad and that was that until she brought them up to Bruce while dying. And we saw most of that from Tim's perspective, since it's his solo, but it would've been nice to see more about how she felt even then.

(All that is why I feel alright about this AU -- if circumstances were different, if maybe she just hadn't had that dream, she might have very well kept the kid.)

If it'd get retold in some way today (which like, why would it, but DC is also insane, so who knows, tbh), I'd want it to be a much more nuanced view on the issue from Steph's perspective, because we missed out on that.

It must've been a lonely time for her, right? We see her clashing with some of her friends (which ... let's not even touch that right now), we know she starts homeschooling at some point and the only one her age who supports her in this is her weirdo boyfriend who's real name she doesn't know. And their relationship gets weirder every day he wears a mask and she can't anymore. Her dad's away and also garbage, her mom's working in shifts, but at least she's trying to be around, trying to be better. There's a lot there.

I'm not touching it right now in the AU, either, but I don't know, maybe I will at some point. It does interest me.

[nothinggathers]

Oh! I wanna ask number 16 and 18 for violence ask game 👉👈

16. you can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc)

LOL I'm almost nervous about this one. Fanon Gavin. Just... fanon Gavin. I don't get it. He's very much a one dimensional prick in the game and that gives you so much scope to employ him as an antagonist, and there's so much you can do with him in that regard! The set up in the game gives damn good reasons for Gavin to treat androids like shit, and it implies he's very much the one to play Bad Cop with criminals, and...

Fanon says he has a sort of affectionately antagonistic relationship with the stone cold murderbot and has cats, and basically puts him through Hank's arc and I feel like that misses out on so much of Gavin's potential as a character. He's a very blank slate in a lot of respects, and I get the appeal of putting this dipshit in the fandom snow globe and giving him a thorough shake, but I don't personally want to see him redeemed. I'd rather see him continue to be a prick and an obstacle, just one that nuts up and does his job in a way that sometimes has him pointing in the same direction as the likes of Hank so Gavin can be a prick and obstacle in a way that benefits the good guys sometimes. 18. it's absolutely criminal that the fandom has been sleeping on…

Josh, and I'll admit I do this too. We all know that North got dealt a raw deal by the narrative, and that Simon is quietly one of the more complex characters in Jericho. Kamski gets a decent amount of attention although I wish more people played with him as an outright antagonist out for his own ends instead of portraying him as obtusely benevolent in the background. Chloe doesn't get enough attention but that's my personal biases at play. Everyone accepts that Amanda is a really cool concept that is drastically underserved by the canon.

But Josh.... Our man Josh. He's a pacifist, and he's a university lecturer model, and...

I think out of all the androids in Jericho, Josh is the one that's looked into the civil rights movements that have worked in recorded history and how they're viewed by people now, and that's why he espouses the opinions he does. There are a lot of parallels between the android push for their rights and the Black Civil Rights movement, (and a lot of entirely justified criticism of the way the game handled all of that 'cause god damn DC, really?) and I really think that something could be made out of those parallels being a tactical choice made by Jericho, with Josh at the head of it, specifically to trigger those memories and equate the androids to something familiar and human in the minds of the general human population. And of course it doesn't happen because I'm pretty sure that DC didn't put that much thought into it, but I'd love to see someone better placed than me reframe that narrative as Jericho Knew What It Was Doing instead of "Yeah, DC is a huge piece of shit". (He is. Like I said, I doubt this was intentional on the canon's part. The canon handles this terribly because DC is a giant steaming turd of a human)

Josh is a university lecturer. He's used to getting humans to challenge the way they think and make them see things from different angles, it's kind of what he was built for. If anyone should be directing the revolution with a view to historical events it should be him.

Although I guess arguably that's canon sleeping on Josh, not just fandom.

[beyourownanchor6]

Yeah I thinj supergirl being on a separate universe really messed things up. I liked it when after Crisis On Infinite Earths they brought her inti earth prime. But by then the shows were ending, and because of covid the endings weren't even satisfying. But as a stand alone show Supergirl was one of my favorites, even with the plot holes.

Oh I actually disagree there, I think the CWDCTV universe was better than the MCU in that you could just watch parts of it and jump in at any time without needing previous knowledge of the franchise. Like I slowly dropped the shows one at a time and it still didn't impact my enjoyment of the shows/movies I wanted to watch. Meanwhile my bff wanted to watch Wandavision and asked me what else he needed to know to understand Wandavision and when I told him all the movies he had to watch, sometime just for a like 5 minutes of Wanda backstory, he asked me what he had to watch to understand those and we kept going like that and basically reverse engineering "you need to watch most of the MCU." Like he had to watch Guardians to understand their part in Infinity War, and he had to watch Infinity War to understand how Wanda lost Vision. Like it was a lot of backtracking just to understand one tv show, ya know? And like, i haven't watched most of the Thor movies, i watched one captain america movie, i didn't watch the antman movies... so a lot of stuff in the big crossover events goes over my head. Like i was watching The Marvels and at the end Kamala goes after Some Girl to start a team that I *think* will be the young avengers, and I don't know who that girl is because i didn't watch Hawkeye. I'm gonna watch thunderbolts but i already know that a lot of the backstory will go over my head cause I didn't watch Hawkeye or Black Widow.

Yeah we do. And oh, I loved it too, even if it made me very angry. It wasn't triggering or anything. But i hated how they closed Justin's arc (no spoilers in case you haven't finished it yet). And that's what my bff says! Lol me to, i've had the hots for mr. Bates since i was a teen. And yeeeees i loved Bates Motel. I shipped Norman and Dylan (i was freshly coming out of supernatural's Wincest, and hey, at least these two are only half brothers). Yeah since that last message i've thought about it more and i'm excited. The best part will be managing my diet. I'll eat so much ramen jesus christ.

Yeah, it's gonna be weird to have daredevil without foggy. Nice, glad you like punisher. He definitely is hot. And lol same.

I used beans with my mom and she understood it better! So thanks!

Oh yay for a trip, but sorry you got sunburned! Do you have moisturizer? Living in brazil i get terrible sunburns on the summer (not even like at the beach or anything. Just leaving the house to do errands is enough to get sunburned) and applying moisturizer to the sun burns always helps. My week was cool. I hooe yours was too!

rambling under the cut 😎

yea i don't remember what went on with most of those shows at the end bc i left lol. and i think arrow finished before the pandemic and was still a shitty ending lmao. well it was going downhill before that but, lol

ohhh i meant just more in the story/plot lines that marvel is better. and they always seem to have a bigger budget or something lol. idk dc movies always seem ehhh in comparison, at least to me lol. i also never really got that into most of the dc characters, so that could be a lot of it. i like some of the movies, just overall i think marvel is better. but definitely agree marvel is hard to just watch one thing randomly bc they all go together 😅 i took a couple years off a while back and had to catch up on a lot. i still haven't seen a lot of the shows and a couple of movies, but i've seen enough to understand the general plot. i usually just say whatever and go along with it if i missed something/don't understand 😆 i really enjoyed hawkeye! personally i thought black widow was ehh and unnecessary for the most part

oh yea, i hate that too 😭 that felt so unnecessary for multiple reasons. idk if you watched sons of anarchy, but i loved seeing ryan hurst again! i don't even remember his character or most of the plot of bates motel, but i did enjoy it lol. also love vera farmiga. lots of good actors in there. and of course max thieriot. he plays in that show fire country now, idk if you've heard of/watched that but it's really good! i think you'd like it if you love 911

i saw a really bad quality video of a trailer for the new daredevil and i saw foggy and the punisher in it! i definitely am more excited for that now lol

oh that's awesome! glad she understood beans 😊

thanks, and i do! i ordered one that has aloe in it too and that seems to be helping. i look less like a tomato today than i have the last couple days, so there's that 😆 hope you're having a good week so far!

[glitter-stained]

To be fair, it's clearly been a team effort from Red Hood, Nightwing, Batman writers (and I'm probably missing some) to rewrite Bruce as a worse and worse parent. The issue imo is the retroaction. It pisses me off because it's one thing to be like "yeah he's abusive so now we're gonna roll with it and develop from that pov instead of pretending like it never happened", I could get behind that sentiment, but the retroactive retelling kinda feels like saying "well Bruce is acting violent so clearly he's always been this exact kind of violent to his kids". Which is not how abusive relationships work!!!!

I'm so pissed I desperately need dc to understand how abusive and just complex family relationships work because goddammit. Okay.

1) You don't magically become immune to the power imbalance with your parents the day you turn 18. Parents are not supposed to hit their kids. Ergo, Bruce doesn't need to be physically violent to Damian or the kid version of the batkids to be physically abusive.

2) Emotional child abuse is an actual thing, please treat it seriously.The shitfest at Tim's 16th birthday, for example, is a clear example of terrorising your child, and that's abuse.

3) You can be abusive to your kids without wanting to, out of love, out of a want to protect them, out of fear that they'll grow up a bad person if you're too permissive. People love to pretend like abusers are a monstrous, wildly different breed because it's reassuring. The idea is that abuse is not love, and thus we normal people are safe because we love our family and therefore we could never be like that, and thus we don't have to worry about being a bad person and a bad parent like those monsters out there who are clearly different (and less human) from us. That's a terribly harmful rethoric on two points:

-it stops people from introspection, questioning their methods and trying to do better. You think you could never be an abuser because you love your kid, so you'll excuse anything you do that is abuse as "education", "not the same", "a lapse in judgement" or simply won't examine it.

-it harms victims. By telling victims "if that person who you love and rely on abuses you they don't love you" you're making them choose between two options: 1. That person who you love, and who you need to love you, doesn't or 2. What happened wasn't that bad/wasn't abuse/was somehow an exception or you're remembering wrong or it was an accident, etc., etc. What would you choose? Would an 8 years old rather believe they're remembering it wrong, or that their parent doesn't love them?

To put it simply, it's a punitive rethoric rather than a harm-reduction oriented one, it puts victims and vulnerable kids in danger and encourages victim-blaming. Sorry, but "someone who loves you wouldn't do this", yes they would. Sometimes, people love you, and they love you "wrong", in a way that hurts you, and sometimes parents abuse their kids on accident. Whether someone is a hero or a villain matters way less than whether people are getting hurt and what we can do to stop it. Right now, our options with batman are batman being the cliche abusive villain of his children's story or ignoring every bad thing he did with a good dose of victim-blaming and flimsy excuses. What I would give for one (1) batman story arc about him realising all the times he tried to do what he thought was right for the children hurt them or simply didn't realise the way their relationship worked was harming them, and doesn't skirt about the term abuse, and he tries to do better, and we have hopeful perspective for the future as he decides on concrete ways to work on their dynamics. I think showing that perspective, which is closer to what a lot of abused kids experience than the cartoonish villanization we often get as representation, would help a lot more kids than a generic *insert superhero* beats up an abusive parent, hugs their kids and there's a helpline number at the end of the issue. (Note: not to say all abusers love their victims, parents who don't love their kids are an unfortunate reality and these people's experiences are valid too, I'm just saying there's nothing intrinsequely contradictory about love and abuse).

4. Different children get different parents. You grow, learn (sometimes for the better and sometimes from the worse) from your experience with your first children, learn from your mistakes to do better, apply inappropriate patterns that would have worked for one kid on a kid with different problems and do worse. And then of course there are the roles people tend to assign themselves amidst a system, so for example someone designated as a scapegoat is gonna have a different experience of the family than someone who isn't, or someone who was parentified with their siblings, and someone parentified with their parent, etc. By which I mean, in regards to dc, retconning Dick's and Bruce's early relationship or Jason's and Bruce's early relationship to make it less healthy because of your correct analysis that Tim and Bruce's early relationship is unhealthy is an overcorrection. Of all the instances of OOC behaviour to fix, that's not necessarily what you should have been focusing on.

"but Glitter, why can't we just show the batkids going no-contact and healing?" I mean, you could. Not saying it wouldn't be good. But would dc ever go for that, when so many dc fans are specifically batfam fans? Sometimes, for many reasons, going no contact is not an option. Irl, that can be because of cultural factors (for example can't go no contact with someone without losing the entire family that's like 8/10th of your support system which isn't affordable for your mental health, or you could be a disabled person reliant on the abuser and help is not accessible or it takes years to access, etc.) For characters in comics, one of these contraints in the narrative. (Also, in the example of Jason, his attachment to Gotham/crime alley can be an obstacle for example, because realistically fully going no contact with Batman as Red Hood means leaving Gotham.) But whatever the reason, I think when going no contact is not an option, that's when you take the opportunity to showcase other ways to heal/distance yourself from the toxicity/keep yourself safe as best you can.

Honestly when it comes to characters I'm less concerned with whether or not they are good as to whether or not they are a good, or at least unharmful, representation of the things they've come to stand for and the themes they gravitate about. The reason why I hate Battle for the Cowl and Heroes in Crisis have less to do with "oh no Jason/Wally are so evil in here" and more to do with the representation and messages they send on mental illness. DC has been writing Bruce on a spectrum from "accidentally abusive at times" to "extremely fucking abusive" for a very, very long time now, to the point that several beloved characters have become entangled in terms of functioning, development etc. with those events and dynamics, the least they could right now is give us stories about this that are helpful instead of doubling down on ill-timed retcons that make it worse, victim-blaming like it's an olympic sport or just plain ignoring it like it'll go away if we don't look at it.

So yeah, those are the main gripes I have with the way dc handles abusive!batman right now, feel free to add more or bring up some nuance I've missed!

It's kind of annoying (and weird) how DC keeps trying to rewrite how Jason and Bruce met to paint Bruce in a worst light.

Originally, Batman finds Jason stealing the Batmobile's tires, the kid runs away, and Batman finds him. Discovering the kid is homeless, he gives him to the authority and Jason finishes at Ma Gunn's school. Ma Gunn is actually teaching the kids to be gang members, so Jason tells Batman. Together, they win again Ma Gunn, and Bruce takes Jason in because he sees himself in him.

Well, in Nightwing: Year One, they change it for "Batman kidnapped Jason when he found him stealing his tires and forces him to become Robin", with Jason ATTACHED AND GAGGED in the batcave. (I like this comic except for that because wtf)

In Red Hood and The Outlaws (2011), they changed it for "Jason stole drugs from Leslie and Batman was ready to beat and throw a young teen in jail, but Leslie begged him to give him a chance", which again, wtf. Batman beating up a child. Okay.

In Red Hood and The Outlaws (2016), they changed it for "Bruce put Jason in Ma Gunn's school because he couldn't handle him after taking him in". The only good addition they made is "when Batman caught Jason stealing his tires, he bought him food".

I do not understand why they need to make him awful to this 12 years old so bad. What do they want to make it as if Bruce forced that life on Jason but also didn't want to deal with him. Why they cannot let it as it is, with Bruce having fun dealing with this lil shit that stole his tires and being there for him when he needs him later on, until he finally craves and takes Jason home.

And that's why I am so critical on how Batman and Bruce is written in Nightwing and Red Hood stories, because the writers are incapable to make their main character have conflict with Bruce, without changing his character and their story to make him abusive. They need him to be the bad guy of Jason's, and sometimes Dick's, story because they don't know how to make you side and care for their character without making the other side a monster.

[fairymascot]

hi! this is the link to the tweet

https://twitter.com/ivygirl851/status/1537784566274043906?t=IwwAmRSbYQ4Xt7AT79HTXg&s=19

(clickable link to tweet)

ah, yeah, i've seen this person around on twitter! i don't disagree with their take necessarily, but i do find them to be a bit militant about it.

the thing about comics is, there is no 'one correct' characterization. characters get passed off from writer to writer, get thrown into various bizarre and forced arcs due to the higher ups' whims... you can have five different people say they're fans of a character and each have radically different ideas of who the character even is. i know what *i* want to see in my poison ivy characterization, and i can point to several canon examples that incorporate it, but in the end it's just a few drops in a bottomless sea of contradictory depictions.

i totally understand being protective of ivy and not wanting to see her demonized in canon. first off, from the get go, i think we can all agree 'cares too much about the environment' is kind of a weird trait to give a supervillain! on top of that, she's a woman, she's queer, she's a victim of parental abuse at the hands of her father & intimate partner abuse at the hands of woodrue. she saved harley for no reason other than not wanting her to suffer the same way she did. she's traumatized, she's empathetic, she wants to make the world a better place. that's why it's incredibly jarring to see some writers twist themselves into a pretzel going ARGHHH NO, WOMAN EVIL ACTUALLY BECAUSE something something evil seductress something kissing men to death something. there's a lot of bad, forced, sexist takes on her in comics. wilson's take, however, isn't like that at all.

wilson's ivy is unhinged, she's vengeful and violent, and she wants to see humanity rot. she is also painfully human herself, she is suffering, she is lashing out as a result of her own trauma and pain, and she aches for harley all the while. it's undoubtedly a villainous take on her character, yes, but it is sympathetic, nuanced and compelling. you can tell wilson has put a lot of thought into what makes ivy tick, how she sees the world, how the human and the green side of her are constantly struggling against each other. i think she's doing masterful work so far, and it's very reductive to say she's doing wrong by ivy's character just because she's not forcing a redemption arc (which, let's be real, isn't her choice to make to begin with). and looking at how shallow, juvenile and frankly boring harley's character has been since her redemption, i sure am glad ivy hasn't fallen to the same fate. honestly, let women be problematic. let them be unhinged and fucked up. imo, ivy shouldn't be redeemed to join harley, harley should instead fall off the wagon and go back to committing crimes with her sexy plant gf. but i digress.

there's so many takes on ivy's character out there. in one story, we see her saving a young girl from a pedophile kidnapper. in another, we see her looking with near-murderous intent at a similarly aged girl for plucking a fistful of daisies at the park to give her mother. there's versions like the original superhero girls where she's a teenager who attends superhero school, and is really shy and sweet and nerdy and wouldn't hurt a fly. there's takes like her reboot origin story where she becomes poison ivy in a fit of rage after working for waynetech and suggesting they could improve sales by brainwashing everyone in gotham, which unsurprisingly gets her fired. in injustice, she says she wants nothing to do with children. in cycle of life and death, she makes herself three of them.

long story short, it's meaningless to get overly invested in one version of her character and then actually expect canon to cater to you. pick and choose the stories that fit your preferences. complain online if you want, sure. but the way this person appears to be in an ongoing online crusade against dc in general and wilson in particular just seems... pointless. i enjoy hero ivy, on rare occasions where it happens, and i enjoy villain ivy, and somewhere-fuzzy-in-between ivy. all of these can work. all of these can make great stories. to me, the most important aspect is whether she's treated with actual respect by the writers and artists, and whether the end result is an actually good story. to which wilson's work so far answers with a resounding yes.