#i like comparing him with bendy because bendy has a good design and i like him

[linterteatime]

Oh my god... A baby

[eldritch-spouse]

i was that one anon who asked you about Bendy and I finally fucking finished the game and omg i fucking loved it XD omg *spoilers* but when the ink demon said "we are one" or something along those lines, i FELT THINGSSSSSSS, ahh one with bendy who wouldve thought the day would have finally cum! i just wanted to smooch that bastard he was sooo close. Wanted to tell him that regardless of what he believes I still frickin enjoyed his companyyyyyy XD MANNN that game was so gooood

**SPOILERS FOR BATDR**

It's a very good game, especially compared with the first, but I have to say that I started non-stop cackling during the end.

It's just so wild. There beast Bendy is, going "Arise, my domain!" and these useless lost ones show up. They don't do shit. Any sense of urgency the game is trying to evoke falls flat on its ass because you don't take damage (as far as I can tell), it just looks like they're slapping Bendy's ass. Everything about that part is so ungodly stupid. And I mean this in the most affectionate sense.

The Ink Demon does have some pretty good lines throughout the game, especially around chapter 2 (I think??), where he starts calling out to you and explaining that he rules over this domain and whatnot. Part of me expected him to go "You are mine.". He doesn't, but it's implied. I'm very disappointed in the fact that he doesn't actively chase you, that bummed me out immensely. My thrill with these games is usually the chase sections...

I adore every Bendy form in this game. The designs are spectacular, and beast Bendy has no right to be that fucking thick. I will climb that fucker like a palm tree.

[biancatronic]

-First bendy is not a 100% representation of Walt Disney and his colleague, for me and what the fandom see and maybe there are similarities they look more like a mix of Disney with Fleischer studio designs, since in the animations it is comics bendy is a demon that tries to be good but ends up screwed in the end and don't compare with Disney cartoons that are focused on happy endings and family friendly content, because as much as Dark Survival the bendy cartoon was successful in an era ago but with guilt of Joey and his acts he bankrupted the old studio if he saw audios and of the original bendy where the damage of the past was joey's fault.

-Joey is not a Walter Disney, since in fact he represents the bosses and directors who took all the credit for just him, in chapter 4 of BATIM, Bertrum was enraged that Joey took his credit when he was creating Bendyland, and no wonder that the name of the studio is only centered on Joey Drew because Bendy's 2017 audios show the devil's path and hidden audios of Joey showing his true face and why did only Batdr think Joey is a saint, when in fact in the original batim he was a grumpy old man who, because of his actions, led some employees to death or some died due to the conditions of the studio, so much so that when the cycle restarts Joey in dark survival and at the end of batim he regrets his actions and it was for these reasons he created Audrey because Joey wanted someone to love him. Anyway, there is also evidence that both in the batim it shows in the written words that "the creator lied to us" can refer to joey and the acts he did, that is, who is shitty "father" is Joey and not Henry because on account of the shit the studio was going through he left before the studio went under water.

-Regarding Joey and Henry, Henry gave and showed the ideas and Joey brought them to life, so I agree with you on this point that Bendy has two creators, let's not start a fight who made Bendy first for God's sake. But Henry did not take credit, in fact this was almost a case of the creator of the cat Felix who even after his death did not earn any money or credit, in dark survival neither henry or the employees of the old studio gained mention in the posters and museum about the joey drew studio, as mentioned in the first paragraph the original batim represents the problems that cartoon studios went through in the 70's-80's and the drama of animators and directors robbed all credit.

I'm not here to vilify your opinion, you have your points and I have mine, I hope you understand my point.

I just saw a post about how Henry is the "Original" creator of Bendy when canon says Joey and I think it's a fascinating opportunity to discuss Ub Iwerks and Walt Disney so *Let's Go* and if I get any facts wrong please feel free to add or subtract!

History is full of pairings like Henry and Joey (the closest ones obviously being Henry and William Afton - ha. see I got jokes) but the notion of a collaborative creative process that isn't instantly *seen* is something I find interesting. So much work today is dissected and arguments can be brought to social media extremely easily. It's re-defined the creative process.

Ub Iwerks and Walt Disney were the best of friends who worked on Walt's 'Laugh o' grams' before Mickey Mouse. When Walt wanted to move into shorts production and took Ub with him. The two of them went to work for Universal with Walt asking for Ub to come up with the *image* of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit while coming up with his personality.

So that's Oswald - Walt's ideas and Ub's work (His dreams, my effort) which doesn't mean that Oswald and by proxy Mickey Mouse aren't part of Ub Iwerks's work (in fact it's fucking criminal and if you like Bendy and you don't know who Ub Iwerks is go look him up in Henry Stein's name ok.)

Oswald is really interesting because Universal and Pat Powers tricked Walt into a contract that they owned total and complete rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and Pat Powers - Walt's contact with Universal - announced that he had also hired away Walt's animators without them - or him - letting him know.

I remember in reading "Walt Disney: An American Original" a great story about how Walt and Ub came up with Mickey while they were still with Universal and managed to convince animators that were still "loyal" to Walt to draw the Mickey cartoon underneath their Oswald sketches while they waited their contract out. So imagine a bunch of dudes literally grabbing animation work and then hiding it when Universal supervisors came around.

From the Link I posted below:

[MARTIN: When the Laugh-O-Gram Studio eventually went bankrupt, Disney took a train out to Hollywood. But not very much time had passed before he was begging Iwerks to come out too. He couldn't make his cartoons' success without him.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

MARTIN: And that was where, in 1928, Ub Iwerks single-handedly animated "Plane Crazy," the first Mickey Mouse cartoon. After a record 700 drawings a day, Iwerks did in two weeks something that would have taken other animators months. ]

(JFC. If we can assume that Joey asked for Henry to do something like that and Henry did it the man is a fucking *machine*)

The rest of the story is - pretty much what we've gathered from Bendy canon unless the Meatly says otherwise. Ub ended up chafing under Walt's leadership, left the studio for 10 years and produced some pretty cool Looney Tunes cartoons even if his own studio folded. He rejoined the studio doing animation, special effects, and themepark design even winning an award for his work on "The Birds" (yes that birds, the Hitchcock Birds.)

Obviously Bendy is a story, but the real life stories about this kind of stuff are three times as interesting IMHO.

This is the most abridged version of the story *ever* and I'm sure I'm getting some facts wrong but I think both Ub and Walt would be the first people to say "we worked on Mickey together" as well as Oswald. A collaborative effort. Most creative efforts that are put in the spotlight are when things are negative and you have to really make the effort to say that it *was* the product of two people.

So it's *really interesting* that people are arguing over these two fictional characters and that Henry deserves just as much credit as Joey *especially* given that people are asking for Ub Iwerks to get more credit relating to Mickey Mouse.

There was a thread I remember reading on twitter (I wish I could find it) where an animator was talking about how in a Mickey Mouse short they were able to use a picture of Walt Disney for a joke for the first time - and how much of a shock it was. That's because Walt and Mickey are *sacrosanct*. You don't fuck with the image of Walt or the image of Mickey Mouse.

Think about it. TWDC has literally lobbied to *rewrite the copyright codes of the United States of America to protect Mickey Mouse*.

I like to say that if Walt had done what he did in the modern era or if social media had existed in the 30s he would have been like one of the big youtubers. He has an *image* that was carefully crafted - and Ub helped him design it! He was the one who said he should go by Walt Disney.

There's another quote in an American Original where Walt's like "I've kind of ceased to be Walt Disney. Walt Disney is someone else." And that's what successful branding *is*. Disney doesn't eat or yell or scare the hell out of his employees - Walt would bring cans of chili to other countries so he'd have something to eat and scare the hell out of his animators. He and Ub just butted heads then got back together and Ub helped us build themepark rides (think that Henry would give Piedmont a run for his money?)

You also have to keep in mind that even if the books *aren't* canon, Sammy was probably there pretty early and writing "The Lighter side of Hell." You can't forget the contributions of our favorite musical composer.

Any good creative project is a team effort and I'd like to think that Henry animated Bendy, Joey sold him, then they brought in Sammy who added more character. After all - Sammy technically (if they books are canon) mentions Alice and that the cartoons "need a girl."

So basically while Joey is twice as much of a bastard for totally breaking all his employees mentally - we have to give creative credit where it's due. Bendy was drawn by Henry, thought up by Joey, given a voice by Sammy (though I'd like to imagine Joey voiced him.) and then put into a world by the rest of the team.

Anyway, if people are going to have this argument I think it's important to draw from history - namely Ub and Walt and how the two *did work together* and apply it to Mickey Mouse and Oswald as well as our favorite Lil' Devil Darlin'. Again, history is full of partnerships like Henry and Joey and if you aren't careful you're going to forget one in favor of the other.

(I mean at least Walt didn't experiment on his employees outside of maybe asking them to ride rides or watch cartoons before everybody else)... As for Bendy tho.

This link above says it best, "Mickey is the Child of 2 Dads."

So's Bendy!

Joey's just the Disneyland dad and shitty parent and Henry's the one who'd probably be making sure Bendy and the crew would be eating and doing their homework before reading them to sleep.

That said, in reading the link, you should also make yourself *aware* of Ub Iwerks because he doesn't get nearly enough credit and Mickey being a team effort I think - in a world where people only bring attention to the negative aspects of creative partnerships - is important for people to know.

Let me close with my favorite Oswald animatic because it includes both Ub and Walt and Oswald and Mickey and it's inspired by Epic Mickey and it's just great.

[halfusek]

A question we all wanted to ask. Does Ink Demon-Joey conception work with BATDR? I know it 90% is, but still

honestly? yes and no.

i'm generally confused because in BATIM it seemed like they were leading up to revealing Joey as the Ink Demon -> then in Joey's apartment in BATIM we find on his board that note with "Me? Bendy!" which could either mean him thinking about portraying himself in the story as the Ink Demon or being bewildered at the idea -> then in Dream Comes To Life novel we learn that Joey and the Ink Demon have literally the same hand print. okay. -> and then in BATDR the Ink Demon doesn't even have even relatively human hands, not to mention all parts of his design that we associated before with the Joey=Ink Demon theory

so, what exactly is happening there? inconsistent writing? retcon upon retcon? incorrect execution of red herrings? (you can't use symbolism as red herrings. you just don't do that if you respect yourself as a writer and your audience that is supposed to interpret the symbolism)

well whatever is there that is happening, i don't think it matters much

the story of the cycle obeys the rules that seem to be defined by whoever is controlling the story. you could even write off these inconsistencies as Wilson being the one controlling it throughout BATDR and just making the story different

so yeah perhaps we just aren't... supposed to compare the symbolism in BATIM and in BATDR? maybe the books have their own symbolism as well as they seem to contain contradicting lore

so yeah here's what I think:

in BATIM the Ink Demon is Joey or at least symbolising Joey in the story and it's laid out more clearly as Joey is the one writing it

in BATDR the Ink Demon is not Joey but his behaviors still have some parallel to Joey's - for example Joey on one of the recordings says he walks around artists as they work, and the Ink Demon seems most active in the animation alley area where artists' desks are located. I think Joey and Bendy/Ink Demon still are tied by ties that "can't be erased" however as Wilson is controlling the story now, he doesn't understand this parallel so in the cycle controlled by him Ink Demon is "redesigned" just as the little Bendy is (isn't it weird that we see Audrey sketching the regular looking Bendy and not the one in these dapper clothes? where did they come from?)

I do think the links are still there but it's more that the Ink Demon represents Joey's dark past and bad things he's done that can't be erased anymore hence why Ink Demon is a purely evil creature

And then we have the little cartoon Bendy that we haven't seen in BATIM before, I think he is representing the Story Memory!Joey who is also a new addition to the cast - this Joey has hope in Audrey changing things to be better, in her choosing right and making this world a better place for everyone - and I think this "good" and hope could have brought out the pure cartoon Bendy

Also isn't it interesting how Ink Demon, cartoon Bendy and Memory!Joey appear in the game interchangably? I thought that was neat

But yeah in BATDR it definitely isn't anything like Joey straight up being the Ink Demon, just perhaps parallels and symbolism

[adobe-outdesign]

The Big Grand TIOL Review/Critique

I’ve been covering my thoughts on this a bit during my liveblog, but I figured I should punch out a proper review.

No spoilers review: This one’s a bit tricky in terms of reviewing it. The reason for this is that, in a way, I feel like some its weaknesses are part of its design, so it’s not fair to critique them.

Basically, DCTL is the essential BATIM novel, in that it does exactly what you’d expect a BATIM novel to do. Don’t get me wrong, it was by no means paint-by-the-numbers, but you had all the BATIM staples in there. Game-canon characters, the machine itself, people getting turned into cartoons, the Ink Demon killing shit, ect ect.

TIOL is different because it’s basically an in-universe memoir written by Joey about his life and philosophy. So the thing is, when you boil this book down, it’s kind of almost not a BATIM book in a way. It features a game-canon character and dives deep into his backstory, but most of the book has little to do with the studio until like the last 4/5s or so.

So on the one hand, I feel like that’s a problem, and we needed more game-canon characters, more about the cartoons, ect. But then again... it wouldn’t make sense for Joey to spend his entire life rambling about the studio instead of talking about his early years at all, would it? So in a way I can’t really fault the book for it.

In terms of flaws, it honestly has less than DCTL--while DCTL had some major glaring problems, TIOL is fairly solid all around, but is less of a satisfying read due to its premise, making it hard to compare the two.

In terms of whether or not you’d enjoy the book, I guess it’s most important to know what you’re going to get out of it. If you’re like me and like extreme character studies and backstories, de-fictionalized in-universe media, and long philosophical talks, you’ll probably really enjoy it. If you don’t and want something more standard for BATIM, stick with DCTL.

Overall, I enjoyed the book, though I do like DCTL more at the end of the day. I’ll give this one a solid 6/10.

Spoilers below the cut:

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Okay, I lied. I’m not gonna include an ugly section this time, mostly because, as I said before, this book has less glaring issues than DCTL did. With that said:

The Good

If you like Joey, you will love this book. I’ve said before that Joey is the best character (strictly speaking) in BATIM because he by far has the most depth, showing a layered and interesting character. This book takes that and runs with it, giving a deep look into his psychology, philosophy, and overall explaining a lot about why he does what he does and his way of viewing the world. It’s legitimately well done and makes you look at his character in a new way, and as someone who loves character studies this whole thing was a real treat for me.

They do a very good job making this feel like an actual memoir. Nathan is editing and leaves footnotes, he wrote a foreword explaining this is a reprint, Joey blatantly lies a few times because that’s what he’d do, ect. 

Also, if you enjoy foreshadowing dialogue--which I do, very much--there is more than enough of that here.

This one might be cheating because it’s probably unintentional, but there is a ton of Joey being gay in this book, some of it really overt. I’m not going to go into it much here as Dreamfisher already summarized everything for me, but yeah, there is no way this man is straight.

Everyone who was OOC in DCTL seems to be better here. Sammy, while still an asshole, is neither as big of an asshole as he was in DCTL nor is he being racist. Bertrum is still affable towards Joey, but here it makes sense because they literally just met, and unlike in DCTL he even corrects him on his name.

Other characters get some screentime, and while brief, it’s nice to get some more characterization for them, especially because a few of them never showed up in DCTL. Jack Fain in particular gets some much-needed characterization and really shines here, as well as Nathan.

While it’s not overtly ha-ha funny, I did chuckle a few times. Most at Nathan’s notes, as half of them are just blatantly contradicting Joey’s lies.

We get a bit more info on Henry and Joey’s relationship, as well as how the cartoons were made.

The Bad

As mentioned above, there’s weirdly not a ton of BATIM content in this. Sure, it’s about Joey, but the bulk of the novel features book-canon characters only and is more focused on how he got where he ended up than stuff regarding the studio. It doesn’t really feel like a BATIM novel until about 4/5s of the way through. Like I said above though, I don’t know how much I can critique that, as it’s kind of inevitable with a memoir.

There is a lot of navel gazing in this. If you like philosophy you’ll enjoy it, but if you don’t it might get irritating, especially when it’s just Joey’s opinions over and over.

While we get more info about Joey and Henry and how they met, there’s not much info given on their relationship. Joey just talks about how much he totes didn’t need Henry while Nathan indicates that it was way more personal than that, but we never learn how personal. It makes sense as Joey’s the one writing this, but it still would’ve been nice to hear some more remarks from Nathan on the matter or something.

There’s like a 50 page or so detective mystery that I didn’t really care for. There was nothing really wrong with it, but it didn’t feel like it told us a ton about Joey, and there’s not a lot of emotional investment as we don’t know these people. Combine that with the mystery being unsolvable to the reader (because Joey leaves out crucial information until the reveal) and it just kind of felt like a pointless side detour, and like that time could’ve been spent on something more interesting. Most we get out of it is the origin of Bendy’s name.

There’s a weird inconsistency where Joey claims he made Bendy (not surprising), but he also goes over the moment when Bendy was made and it blatantly shows the two collabing, so at best he would’ve been Bendy’s co-creator. It’s just strange that he would describe the process like that instead of changing it to fit his lie. I think the implication is that the process itself is fake--that Henry had nailed Bendy’s design when he first showed it to Joey--but like I said, the scene contradicts Joey’s claims regardless.

There’s not really a... plot? Not surprising as it’s a memoir, but some memoirs do a good job of building a climax by showcasing an important moment in the person’s life. Here, because things are being told out of order, we never really get a climax, as there’s no action and Joey’s little emphianys are scattered throughout. There’s kind of just a lot of people standing around and talking and not much actual action going on.

I was kind of hoping this book would go into Joey’s black magic stuff. I need to make this clear: I don’t think BATIM should ever go into this too much, as it’s really just the macguffin that explains the plot, and it wouldn’t make sense for Joey to sit there talking about all the cool satanic bullshit he’s been doing lately anyway. However, Joey’s mentioned the “Gods” before, so I was kind of hoping for something about his thoughts about religion or something that would hint at the demonic stuff. He thinks about the afterlife a lot, but that’s about it.

Overall

Like I said, you have to know what you’re getting into when you pick up the book. If you read this and it sounds like something you’d enjoy, then grab it. If not, then don’t bother. For me, personally, I’m glad I read it, even if it wasn’t quite on the same level as something like DCTL.

[secretsocietyxmen]

Bendis’ take on an Earth 3 Young Justice team bugs me for a couple of reasons. Mostly the logistics of it, like how he doesn’t really get how the Earth works (how is Steph supposed to be a hero on the evil mirror Earth while not implying that she’s evil in the normal universe? I’m not even a fan of her and I think that’s stupid).

But he missed the perfect opportunity to base the evil versions on the N52 incarnations of the Core Four that no one liked. I mean, the opportunity is right there:

Talon (Tim’s counterpart): a child prodigy, olympic level athlete, and budding sociopath. Owlman discovered him using his hacking skills to attack what little heroes remained on this earth, and decided to make him his newest protege. An eager opportunist, he’s willing to do anything and step over anyone to achieve his goals.

Kid Ultra (Kon’s counterpart): The bastard offspring of Clark Kent (Ultraman) and Lois Lane (Superwoman). He has all of their powers, and none of their weaknesses. Cruel and merciless, he’s always willing to display his power to anyone who crosses him.

Speed Zone (Bart’s counterpart): A terrorist and murderer with a refined version version of Johnny Quick’s speed drug flowing through his veins. (Not much I can do to compare him to Bar Torr, besides saying that making him black was a weird choice from the design crew. If an evil counterpart gets a race lift, it gives off the wrong vibes.)

Olympiad (Cassies’s counterpart): A spoiled brat who accidentally stole a cursed suit of armor from her mother’s archaeological research site. It corrupted what little good she had in her, and the power consumed her. She uses it to get and do whatever she wants, consequences and casualties be damned.



Like, long time fans of these characters would get why these were chosen, because very few people liked the N52 incarnations. Honestly, I would have thought it was funny.

[hellyeahheroes]

Spidey loves the kids

So this comic was in hiatus because COVID and...the revolution outside so it’s nice to see some normalcy that has nothing to do with the status quo of policing in this country.

Politics aside, Miles Morales: Spider-Man #17 starts out with Miles swinging through Brooklyn and then overhearing a kid crying. Apparently the kid got jumped by some kids from school for being too damn fly.

So this comic implies that the kid is queer identifying(TERFs don’t interact) and was going through a bit of queer bashing. I think this is the second confirmed queer character in Miles Morales Spider-Man run with the first being Jessica Drew. If you don’t want to count her due to the sketchy implications of her origin, fine but regardless it is great that the comic is starting to embrace more characters like this and there has been a shift in characterization towards men being more gender fluid in fashion and sensibilities in this comic(Sean and Judge) due to how much more open and aware Ahmed is compared to Bendis who admitted that he didn’t want to approach the topic out of fear of misrepresenting them. Regardless, this kid named Kenneth created a nice Spider-Man moment with Miles.

I love this because these are the kind of things that Miles can relate to and do. If this were Peter instead of Miles, Peter would immediately relate to being bullied and not really getting why Kenneth was bullied. Peter would walk this kid to school just like Miles but Peter wouldn’t really compliment the kid’s fashion sensibilities nor would he follow the kid on Instagram and support his creativity. Miles goes that extra mile, pun intended, because he, while he wasn’t bullied like Kenneth nor Peter, gets it on a empathetic level and immediately tries to uplift the kid’s spirit by supporting the interest that was the catalyst for his beat down.

That nice bit aside, the comic then reminds the audience that Miles is an unsupervised teen vigilante with CRADLE trying to apprehend him.

For those who don’t know, this comic is part of the Outlawed event which can be summed up as Civil War for Teen heroes. There are other tie-ins such as Magnificent Ms. Marvel, Power Pack, Champions, Ghost Spider and the infamous New Warriors reboot. The arc was put aside because of the pandemic and it’s nice that Eve Ewing can still write her event.

So I like to point out this dialogue between Dum Dum and Miles Morales about Fascism and Dum Dum’s retort. I think we all need to have some discussion about Fascism because too often, Dum Dum’s retort and people who use Nazis as the end all be all Fascists get away with not actually addressing Fascism.

Nazis are Fascists. No denying that and I am not going to do this sliding scale of good Fascists vs bad Fascists. There is no such thing as good Fascists except being the case of a dead one. That said, Miles could have quickly retorted that he inferred them to being Fascist not a Nazi. Regardless, CRADLE as far I’ve seen are not Fascist. They are authoritarian. Every Fascist is authoritarian but not all authoritarians are Fascists. I mean if the past couple weals have shown you anything, Liberalism can be authoritarian too. I am only digressing because I feel like we should have an honest dialogue about Fascism and how it’s presented in media. And it is timely that Outlawed is supposed to analogous to the state’s repression of protest and civil rights.

Anyways, Miles thumps CRADLE and escapes to school. There he meets up with Ganke and Judge and they pretty much comment on the police state at school.

So yeah. This is Miles’ new obstacle. On top of the other obstacles but yeah we will get to that. After CRADLE leaves, Miles goes to meet his parents and baby sister where they discuss CRADLE and Miles is annoyed that his mom defends Kamala’s law. Except for the whole detaining teen heroes who fight back thing. That part is not cool.

I just want to say that it is cool that this comic is back and the quality didn’t dio at all. Carmen Carnero’s art is a bit of a shift from Javier Garcon but it isn’t a step down at all and I can’t wait to see what else she does from this point forward with the characters. I see that she took more inspiration from Pitchelli’s and Marquez’s design for Ganke and Miles which will take some getting used to because I liked Ganke’s beard and man bun and I liked Miles’ waves.

Overall great comic but when is it not been the case since Ahmed took over?

@ubernegro

[a-la-la-llama]

Officially a twenty-one-year-old today, Damian was being dragged out to a run-down bar by the many annoyances that he was forced to call brothers. “Baby bird’s finally able to have a drink legally! It feels like yesterday when you threatened to stab me.”, he clapped his hand on Damian’s shoulder who immediately shrugged it off, with a far off look Dick sighed. “He did threaten to stab you yesterday.”, Tim corrected. “Tt, not my fault he decided a happy birthday was needed at midnight.” Damian crossed his arms as the group walked in. Jason had frequented the place enough to know the bartenders, who were now giving him crap because of the last time he came and started a bar fight. “Come on Larry, it’s Demon Spawn’s birthday! You can’t kick me out yet?”, trying to persuade the bartender into serving him, Jason threw an arm over Damian’s shoulder. “The infamous Demon Spawn is old enough to join the big boys, eh?”, the bartender asked, cleaning a mug before filling it up with a yellow substance. “Would you believe me if I said I was brought here against my will?”, staring at Larry with a deadpan expression he was handed a cup of beer. “First one’s on the house. It’s gonna taste bad but you’ll get used to it after a couple of rounds.” As if Damian hadn’t tasted alcohol before, it wasn’t hard to go to the middle of Jason’s stashes and fill them with water. After the second bottle of vodka, he was usually too drunk to even notice the difference. Taking a gulp, Damian could hear the cheers from Dick as Tim poured a suspicious amount of whiskey into his coffee mug.

Damian couldn’t be more content that he could now drink, or he would have already been annoyed at how loud and noisy the place was. Or the fact that a group of men were desperately trying to convince a group of girls to join them on the dance floor that was severely crowded and failing pitifully by not taking the hints. Don’t even get him started on those who were on the edge of blacking out and were making a fool of themselves on the dance floor. Tim and Dick had been the first to catch a buzz, one being a light-weight and the other having terrible health choices. Jason had grabbed the two on a mission to see what crazy plans he could pull while they were under the influence. This had not been Damian’s plan, he was spending his birthday sitting alone on a barstool when he would much rather be at home with his beloved fur family members than the human ones. But, he soon found himself on his own personal mission.

She had caught his eye first. He was scanning the crowd trying to locate his brothers in an attempt to convince them it was time to head home. Damian had to do a double-take when he saw her midnight sky hair in the faint yellow glow of the bar. She sat directly across the room from him on a tall table with her head down in what seemed to be a book. He didn’t register how long he had been staring but was pulled back to reality when a drink was placed on the counter. “She’s your age. Real sweet and has been coming here alone for the past two months.” It was none other than Larry the bartender that gave him an all-knowing smile that eerily reminded him of Alfred’s. “Tt. This is going to Drake’s tab, correct?”, jeering his head to the drink. Larry shook his head at the topic change, “I’m just saying you should go talk to her, that’s all.” Damian grumbled, he was an Al Ghul and Wayne, he would never succumb to the embarrassment of pinning after a girl in a bar like some others did around him. Then again, she didn’t have to know that, did she? He doubted he would ever see her again, what harm could come out of it? Damian, no last name, mused about the next following steps he would take.

She felt the presence of a pair of eyes on her. Keeping her head low she hoped the lack of interest in the setting was enough to throw them off. It was a common occurrence actually, what did she expect to happen coming into a place like this by herself. But this felt different somehow, the aura coming with the gaze made her distracted. She fiddled with Plagg’s ring, located on her right hand’s pointing finger, spinning it around. She adorned the leather as it was much more suited for the dark city of Gotham than her spots. The night vision was an added bonus that came in handy when traveling around at night and the sassy talks she had with Plagg. She had felt the eyes travel off her for a moment before they were right back on her. Now she couldn’t even focus enough to remember what she was just about to write. Frustrated, she tapped her foot impatiently on the chairs stepping stool. That she hated to admit she used to get up and her foot barely reached it. To her wit's end, she snapped her head up only to meet the most beautiful emerald green eyes she had ever seen. With newfound inspiration, she drowned herself back into her book.

Damian hadn’t expected her to snap her head up so quickly as she did, nor did he expect her to stare right at him when she did. Though, he couldn’t have been happier that she did, especially taking into account the lovely pair of doe eyes he was able to stare into at the moment. Her eyes were similar to a clear sky’s baby blue color but not as dull. It was almost like they had a certain electrifying touch to them because they seemed to glow in the dimly lit area. As if on the verge of catching fire at any given moment, holding a world of secrets and passions that he desperately wanted to uncover. Her eyes left him as quickly as they came leaving a void in his vision. The strange girl that captivated all of his attention in a blink of an eye without even knowing it, dove her head back down. He gave himself a sly grin.

Step One: Catch her Eye. Check

“I’d like-“, before he can even turn and ask Larry he already pulled two drinks out of nowhere and they were resting on the counter. “Good luck! Don’t make me regret this.”, lectured Larry. Mustering up his courage, Damian took a drink in each hand before making his way across the bar. Thankfully, his brothers were nowhere in sight and couldn’t possibly ruin this for him, yet that is. He set the drinks down with two little clinks, drawing her attention from her book to him. “Mind if I sit here with you?”, implored Damian gesturing to the open stool next to her. “I assume you brought me offerings to bargain with?” Damian almost short-circuited with how cute her voice sounded. “O-of course!” He mentally cursed himself at the small stutter but covered it up by handing her a drink. Damian noticed how one cup held a pink bendy straw and gave that one to her. She didn’t take a drink until she got a nod from Larry behind the bar. It wasn’t the first and certainly wouldn’t be the last time someone offered a drugged drink, but Larry always kept an eye out for her and said it was safe. “I’m Damian.” She nodded, “Marinette.” He felt a smile creep onto his face,” Nice to meet you, Marinette.” The name gracefully rolled off his tongue.

Step Two: Catch her name. Check.

Once out of his stupor he realized she had once again returned into the book. Peering over her shoulder (out of curiosity not to get closer to her, never!) , he noticed it was filled with intricate drawings with French notes written in the margins. “Isn’t that French?”, he questioned, “Are you not from Gotham.” She scribbled something down before looking up and answering. “It is and nope! I lived in Paris all my life until four years ago.” He pondered for a moment, “Any reason why?” The girl squirmed in her seat, ‘Dammit Damian! Now you made her uncomfortable, she hates you!’ She twirled her ring a couple of times, “I needed a change of pace and couldn't take living there anymore. So I packed up and left.” Damian could tell it wasn’t something she shared with most people and wondered what made him different. Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, he relished in the fact he was able to catch some of her secrets though it wasn’t what he was after at the moment. Taking another glance at what she was doing he realized that she was drawing in a sketchbook that seemed to be filled with countless articles of clothing. “Is this a hobby of yours?”, he asked pointing at a model sketch. She looked up at him and seemed to beam, “I’m an up and coming fashion designer! I come here every day to find inspiration! You won’t believe how many different styles you can see here!” Damian had found what caused the spark in her eyes and listened to her ramble about it happily.

Step Three: Start a Flame. Check!

She excitedly explained all the little details in her most recent designs and provided reasons and meanings behind each one. He hadn’t meant to read the margin notes of the dark green peacoat that was drawn with intricate gold embroidery. “Is this one from me?”, he questioned with a sly grin and side glance. Damian noticed how the color of her cheeks and the tips of her ears, that were now exposed as she tucked her hair behind them, turned a dark pink compared to her pale skin. The contrast helped him realize how her face was dotted with freckles that resembled constellations in his mind. A smile crept upon his face again, “I had already drawn the jacket but couldn’t decide on a color scheme. When I looked at you earlier, I concluded that you had really pretty eyes.”, she admitted mumbling the last sentence. Marinette was tense now and caused Damian to be determined to lighten the mood. “You know what they call a jacket on fire, right?” The random question threw her off as she furrowed her eyebrows together before raising one. “A blazer.” Nonchalantly as possible, he grabbed his drink and took a swig as the joke settled in. He admitted it wasn’t the best but was still rewarded greatly. A smile graced her lips before she burst into a fit of giggles, hiding her blush behind her hand. He was left catching his breath at the sweet sound of her laughs tinkled like bells in his ears. Completing his final step.

Step Four: Catch a Smile. Check!

Damian had not expected to get this far based on his track record. No matter how much the press gossiped about his looks and mysterious charm, he was never good at the social and relationship points in life. Damian would admit that the main problem was his inability to adjust to the variety of people’s personalities. Yet, this small slip of a girl who was an incarnation of pure sunshine made it feel so easy. His usually cold, harsh, and stoic demeanor vanished once in her presence. Damian felt like an entirely different person but found himself liking the new one better. His mind raced a million miles a minute on what else he could possibly do as they continued to talk. ‘Would it be weird if he tried to hold her hand? Maybe he could get a dance with her? What was a good way to catch her number? It’s dark he should definitely offer to walk her home. Getting a date didn’t sound bad either.’

Oh.

Oh.

Oh no.

Damian realized the girl sitting next to him was already five steps ahead of him on her own mission. She had already caught all of his feelings and his heart in the hour they spent together. He knew she knew it too as she gave him a pleased smirk. Damian Al Ghul Wayne had his heart stolen from him right under his nose.

And he had no intention of taking it back.      Next!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Aged up Daminette that I wrote about at 12 am....Enjoy?

[glutko]

FNaF Bootleg Merch VII: Come Back to Me(xico)

View the previous six parts here.

After a year of inactivity, this series has returned. eBay has finally listed enough bootleg FNaF toys for me to do a new, extra-long entry. And let me tell you, they’re particularly rancid this time. I wasn’t trying to aim for that, but here we are. 

In addition, there may or may not be non-FNaF figures that are only here because they popped up when I searched FNaF on eBay. So look forward to those!

So, without any further delays, let us dive into this rabbit hole once again...

Where do we begin? I know! Let’s talk about the current line of Mexican FNaF bootlegs known as “Five Nights at Freddy Twisted The Twisted Ones”. Why is the name so weird? Well, that’s because it comes from the official label, as seen below:

First off, what the hell is up with the Funtime Freddy/Bonnie figures? They’re Funtime, obviously, but also Nightmares? Or Twisted, due to how bad the figures look? And why are they holding puppets of themselves? Bonnie in particular looks like he tore off Bon-Bon and is holding it in the air like a display of victory.

Nightmare Funtime Foxy’s paint scheme is so bad that I thought his chest cavity was smashed open and his guts were falling out. Only Ennard looks presentable. Good lord. But it doesn’t stop there, friends: there are two more bags in this series. Let’s get some Twisted animatronics up in here!

...On second thought, maybe not. 

From left to right, we’ve got a confused Twisted Foxy with a broken jaw that’s made out of scabs, Stealth Mode Twisted Wolf that wears an ill-fitting tie whilst reciting Hamlet, an easily-impressed Twisted Bonnie who’s trying to copy Wolf, and a Phantom Twisted Freddy who looks absolutely putrid, and not in the way that Scott Cawthon intended. Looks like he was made out of a rotting avocado. Disgusting.

We’re not done yet, though. Let’s take a look at the third and final bag in the Twisted series. And it’s a beauty.

Where do we even begin? The Twisted Puppet with an orange squeezer in its chest that’s clearly a ripped-off fan design? The mutant Springtrap that looks like a cross of Scraptrap and that Salvage fandesign? The 12 oz. Mouse reject Stanley made out of sacks? Or the Twisted Nightmare Chica with peeling paint and a torn bib that says “LETS”? Here’s the answer - none of these, as I don’t want to look at this image anymore.

Here’s a bag of translucent Bendy and the Ink Machine figures that popped up because I searched FNaF on eBay. Yep. Don’t give them to a child, they’ll eat it and die from toxic paint or something.

I know I showed these filthy figures in a previous part, but man, seeing them in a proper display and under normal lighting is so fucked up. Look at Chica, man! That shit is utterly horrifying, and I know it’ll kill me in my dreams tonight. The Bonnie and Puppet aren’t much better, either. Also, why does Foxy have huge shoulder pads? Are they trying to make him look like that buff anime version of him and failing miserably?

Hey... you ever heard the term “half-assed”? Where someone does a lackluster job at something?

This isn’t even quarter-assing it. Did the person who make this have a vague description of Ballora to go off of? “Yeah, there’s this robot girl who looks like a half-naked ballerina. Her face splits into four halves. Also, she wears all-pink, except for her tutu, which is purple and looks like it’s made out of one of those paper ruffs you’d find in a birthday decoration. Get to work.”

Ugh. I need something to take the taste of crap Ballora out of my mouth. I know! Let’s go visit our lovely Rockstar animatronics! I bet they’re doing well this time of year!

Hm. I made fun of figures similar to these in the last part... but these are lower in quality, implying that the bootleggers are ripping off bootleg toys again. That’s right - it’s another case of bootleg Inception!

Speaking of, here are the original figures for you to compare them to, because I am too lazy to come up with my own content. Or maybe these are the bootlegs, I don’t really know. 

I will say this, though - Scrap Baby looks absolutely terrible. On both of them. The face rivals paper Ballora in terms of sheer crapness.

Yaoi Hands Toy Bonnie. Yes. I have no idea what fan design this figure is supposed to be ripping off. I don’t think any FNaF character has a design quite like this. Is this a repaint over an existing non-FNaF figure? Please let me know.

Edit: It’s a figure of Drawkill Toy Bonnie. Huh.

Let’s take a small break from these crap FNaF figures and look at a set that was recommended to me by eBay. Y’all ever heard of Miraculous Ladybug?

The bootleggers have, and dear GOD what the hell is wrong with their EYES. They are wired, man! They’ve taken some bad drugs, and now they’re suffering and paying the price. Also, what’s up with those short chibi things? Are they supposed to be that big and freakish? 

Can we please stop looking at this image? 

Ah, yes, there we go! For our final bootleg set, we have these... figures of the plushies? I don’t really know. 

Why are there two Mangles, one of which appears to be absolutely plastered with blood? What’s wrong with Toy Bonnie’s face - did he have some of the drugs as well? Why does the Puppet look like it’s fallen into a vat of paint stripper? Why does Foxy look like he’s got a vest made of turkey on, as well as fake fingernails for ears? Why are there two Freddys? Why is one of them hiding behind Foxy? Is he shy?

Is... is that Loss on Chica’s bib?

And that’s all I have for now. I must say, I do hope that the bootleggers find out about Help Wanted and Security Breach. Then we’ll have quality Vanny, Glitchtrap, and Glamrock figures to point and laugh at.

[thecomicsnexus]

SUPERMAN: LEVIATHAN RISING / EVENT LEVIATHAN #1-6 / SUPERGIRL #34-35 / ACTION COMICS #1010-1014 / WONDER WOMAN ANNUAL #3 JUNE 2019 - JANUARY 2020 BY BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS, MARC ANDREYCO, GREG RUCKA, MATT FRACTION, STEVE ORLANDO, STEVE EPTING, ALEX MALEEV, BRAD ANDERSON, SZYMON KUDRANSKI, YANICK PAQUETTE, MIKE PERKINS, STEVE LIEBER, EDUARDO PANSICA, JULIO FERREIRA, NATHAN FAIRBAIRN, PAUL MOUNTS, FCO PLASCENCIA, V. KEN MARION, SANDU FLOREA AND HI-FI DESIGN

SUPER SHORT SYNOPSIS

Late eighties anti-hero recruits spies from all known organizations and takes over Talia’s Leviathan, planning on releasing all types of secrets to the world, thinking Superman would approve.

Lois Lane: more important than anybody in the world.

REVIEW

If you enjoyed “Batman: Hush” and “The Long Halloween”, you will probably like this thing.

When you do a mystery story, the key is to not hide clues to the readers. Otherwise, you are cheating. The excitement of reading this type of stories relies in the user being able to go back and see all the clues to the climax. None of that happens here.

This story started in Action Comics a long time ago, I stopped reading when I realized I wouldn’t be able to enjoy it month to month.

Yes I stopped around the time Lois and Clark revealed they had secret identities as Spyral agents. If you thought was going to play any kind of importance in the story you were wrong. They blow their covers in a few pages. Tiger gives Lois all of Spyral’s secrets. Now, on his defense, he didn’t seem to have much of the choice (unlike other characters), but almost everyone suspected Lois was Leviathan.

And that was one of the many things that are mentioned and are never properly explained. There is a list of suspects, some of the characters named weren’t in the story until that point (and they don’t actually appear either). Then Batman gathers a group of “detectives” that includes Green Arrow and Manhunter. You could think Manhunter was a good option, but it was put there because Batman got manipulated to include her (as she was being framed). However, there were no real reasons to have her there. Then Lois gathers a second group of detectives that includes Harvey Bullock, Zatanna and John Constantine. Also Elongated Man, who at least you could say is a detective. These things just appear out of nowhere. Because Bendis is only showing you what he needs you to see for his story to have something in it. It is very hard not to compare this story with the “Sixth Sense”. In the end, the story only works if you are manipulated to not see things.

Like this scene. We are led to believe Leviathan knows a lot about Plastic Man. He even mentions the Freedom Fighters and the All-Star Squadron. Plastic Man history with those groups relies on a Golden Age existing, and it being the post-crisis history of the DCU. But as Batman later says, Leviathan has access to all the information from all those agencies. It is possible for one of them to have access to other timelines, I suppose.

Also (as introduced in the Year of the Villains special), the bat-family suspects Red Hood is Leviathan. And they even have the theory that he doesn’t know he is Leviathan because Roy Harper just died. This from the group of detectives where the only efficient investigator is Jessica Jones Lois lane.

I forgot Deathstroke was also one of Jessica Jones Lois Lane detectives. I don’t even remember him speaking. Also Renee is there. But why Bullock, was he ever a good detective in the first place?

There is a Wonder Woman annual tie-in that you could easily skip.

As I was saying, information is deceiving during the story, no one acts like themselves, Batgirl accepted to be part of Leviathan to do nothing for 6 issues and then appear with something that will prevent them from exposing everybody’s secrets. Which is very absurd on itself.

But I think the final insult is when Damian looks at Manhunter’s stick and realizes there were other Manhunters before, and this leads to the big reveal. I actually had a facepalm when this happened. Who would have imagined that Mark Shaw was even canon? I know he appeared after the new 52 but he wasn’t manhunter. I mean I guess there were clues because at a certain point Lois and Clark go into a library that has copies of the “Janus directive”. Right?

Mystery cases are hit or miss in comics, mostly because writers don’t do their homework, editors demand casualties and tragedies and characters have to fill up roles they shouldn’t.

Which leads to my main problem with the story. Dialogues and Lois Lane. The dialogues in this book are broken. They add very little to the story and they constantly take you out of it because they don’t sound like themselves. And the main issue seems to be with female characters. They honestly sound like Jessica Jones. Lois Lane seems to be a super-hero here, but she isn’t even working when the story starts. I mean, technically, no one discovers anything.

Why would the reader suspect of Mark Shaw until the end of issue #5? Did I miss anything? Why not Peacemaker?

Also, for the extra giggles, this panel is from Doomsday Clock #11

Who is that Manhunter?

Anyway, I hate to be so critic of Bendis. I really enjoyed his Ultimate Spider-man, but his throw-away dialogues take any story down. In the tie-ins you can read Andreyco’s dialogues and they don’t take you out of the story. They sound as they should. I think he should try what Giffen and DeMatteis did, and concentrate on plot, leaving dialogues to another writer. I am pretty sure Bendis knows how to write these characters, but somehow, in the creative process, he loses himself into these generic characters he likes to write. Then again, the plot of Event Leviathan wasn’t particularly good and his Lois Lane is out of character from the plot.

I was hopeful when they announced his Man of Steel, but he has been disappointing me even more than Tom King.

By the way, there is no ending. There is another phase to this story coming up next year.

The art deserves its own section here, because they are all good artists, even in the tie-ins. There are moments where Alex Maleev does shapes instead of characters, but it’s not that often and I can live with that. In general Event Leviathan kept the aesthetics, and that is more than the standard these days with events.

So very unpredictable mystery thriller paired with amazing artists. Just like “Batman: Hush” and “The Long Halloween”.

I give these issues a score of 6.

[davidmann95]

New comics this week?

AN EXTREMELY IMPORTANT NOTE FOR THIS BLOG GOING FORWARD

So as I alluded to before, my local comic book store closed last week. Today, I tried the other reasonably local place, and while everyone there seemed like decent people, it’s clear comics are a side aspect of their storefront and it isn’t really suited to what I’m looking for. Along with only getting a fraction of this weeks’ comics for the moment, this means that to reach the store I know of that *is* going to reliably cater to my needs, it’s going to require a 40ish minute drive in each direction. As a result, from now on I’m only going to be getting new comics on Saturdays, maybe every other Saturday. So I’m going to ask you, given that - other than the folks who tell me I’m an objectively bad person in real life for liking Bendis Superman - you’ve largely seemed like a plenty decent bunch, to not ask spoilery questions about new comics until a couple weeks after they’ve come out from now on unless I’ve already commented on them, including questions that bluntly allude to major events such as if I had gotten a bunch of “What do you think about the history-rewriting reveals regarding Moira MacTaggart?!” asks the day House of X #2 came out.

And on that note…

Powers of X #6: Everyone else was so certain they knew what was going on with the setup in X^3, but I had a hunch as far back as PoX #1, baby. Now that the book’s done, I really have to marvel at how far Hickman’s gone on a pure structural basis to force the X-Men to be good: the ‘Avengers Machine’ was in practice just a matter of lineup, and like Morrison’s innovations a lot of what he’s done could be and was easily discarded by boring, unimaginative creators. But now he’s forced the entire merry mutant band to step forward in the Dawn of X rollout with actual ambition, conceptually if surely often not in execution. But for now, the villains such as they are are defined, the heroes such as they are have shown a bit of their hands, the themes and concepts are set, and the…fuck, the PROLOGUE is over. Hope I’ll be able to get that Tom Muller design variant cover for X-Men #1, it’s cool as hell.

Absolute Carnage: Miles Morales #3: A disappointment compared to the main series, honestly, especially coming from Ahmed.

Miles Morales: Spider-Man #11: The title proper however continues to deliver really satisfying old-school flavored but distinctly modern Spidey action; I dropped off the original Bendis run after the first full story so I speak from a place of ignorance to a certain extent, but I can’t help but think this is what Miles should have been all along.

Superman #16: Weird and absolutely delightful to see David Lafuente here, the dynamic between Jon and Damian is ably recaptured accounting for the changes on display, and the ending’s note-perfect. This would be a standout issue in what’s for me been a standout book, except that unfortunately? While he’s done better with him in Event Leviathan (which I unfortunately wasn’t able to get the new issue of), it turns out Bendis is generally as completely unsuited to - or uninterested in - writing appropriate dialogue for Damian Wayne as he was Emma Frost. So maybe the most visibly, pervasively flawed chapter of this run yet, but charming as all get-out nonetheless for me personally.

Year of the Villain: The Joker: It’s fine. Phillip Tan’s certainly better suited to this than he was that Batman & Robin arc back in the day, one or two quality Joker bits, a nice little moral bow tying it up fighting against the more problematic traditions of Gotham’s history. Haven’t seen John Carpenter’s work so I can’t speak to it in that regard, but if you’re a sucker for Mr. J, this is maybe worth going for even if you’re not a completionist, though by no means essential.

The Batman’s Grave #1: Right up front: dig that Steve Cook logo! The main book’s been stuck with that pseudo-Arkham thing for so long, but this baby is gorgeous. Hope somebody’s taking notes. Anyway, this is basically what you’d get if you told a computer program to generate a Warren Ellis Batman comic, but that’s the opposite of a problem. Truth be told, I was a bit concerned: would Ellis be phoning this one in for an easy payday, as he has before? Would Hitch’s style not suit Gotham on this sort of intimate scale? I knew it would be good, Ellis has long quietly been to Batman what Ennis is to Superman and Hitch has been doing his best work in years recently, but would it be great? Answer’s fuck yeah, this is basically Moon Knight #7. And while there’s the obvious bit of setup for the plot at large in the sole fight scene, I’m particularly interested in the implication of Alfred’s accusations. Even if on the surface it’s just a rephrased take on the common boring internet refrain “why doesn’t Batman just spend the money on charity?”, it’s specifically phrased not as using his money to FIX Gotham, but BUY Gotham and then presumably fix it, bringing a whole other layer of privilege and class considerations to that as a ‘solution’ - that I suspect Ellis is keenly aware of and that he’s more than skilled enough to navigate - in a way that if the book chooses to pursue it further could easily give this old saw that’s usually simply defeated by “that’s not how it works in Batman’s world because if it could there wouldn’t be any more Batman comics” something substantial to grapple with even removed from that underlying genre acknowledgement. Even with the HoXPoX finale, this was such a shadowy, sleek, oddly humane little murder mystery that it couldn’t help being my favorite of the week, and I expect it to improve from here as the larger story reveals itself.

And finally, RWBY #1…which I’ll get to discussing along with the other comics from this week once I get those, as I haven’t read this yet. I’ve been hearing about RWBY for years and decided to give it a shot when I heard Marguerite Bennett was doing a tie-in series for DC, and while the pacing is, charitably, dicey for the first couple seasons, I’ve really come to tremendously enjoy it. Still a couple episodes from the end of Volume 3 though, and I know this takes place between Volumes 3 and 4, so I’ll get to this in a day or two.

[ink-logging]

Detective Comics #1000, Chris Conroy & Dave Wielgosz, eds.: I bought this on impulse because it was on the new releases shelf and people were talking about Batman online. It’s a 100-page anthology tribute for the Batman character’s 80th year and the one thousandth issue of “Detective Comics”. I don’t think anyone is ever at their best in a tribute anthology, but that makes them kind of interesting to look at, you know? There are eleven stories, which I will now spoil in their entirety.

1. “Batman’s Longest Case”, Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo, Jonathan Glapion, FCO Plascencia, Tom Napolitano: The first of two stories in which Batman is doing something that looks grim, but is actually happy and anniversary-ish - both with similar titles, and both from major Batman writers. This is the better one, because I think Capullo is an interesting artist. He’s comparable to Jae Lee, in that he’s someone who had some work in comics under his belt prior to being ushered into the second ‘generation’ of popular Image artists, and has continued to evolve quite vividly over the years. The Capullo of today dials up the use of shadows and silhouette that used to sort of decorate the folds of Spawn’s flowing cape and such - here, they’re used more to focus attention on storytelling fundamentals: geography; gesture; etc. I also generally like the colorist, FCO Plascencia, who’s done some Varleyesque color-as-mood work on earlier comics with this team, though the story here is subdued... very classy, dressed for the gala.   

Hints of ‘90s grotesquerie only pop up once Batman has solved a large number of flamboyantly abstruse riddles and discovered that the titular Longest Case is really an initiation test fronted by wrinkly old Slam Bradley, the original Siegel & Shuster-created star of “Detective Comics” back in 1937, who welcomes Batman to a Guild of Detection. This is clever of the writer, Scott Snyder, because Batman as a basic concept is hugely derivative of earlier pulp, detective and strip hero characters - and, if you’re being honest about paying homage to the character’s origins, you might as well play up lineage as your metaphor.

2. “Manufacture for Use”, Kevin Smith, Jim Lee, Scott Williams, Alex Sinclair, Todd Klein: In contrast, this story shoots for the quintessential. Smith, of course, is the filmmaker and longtime geek culture celebrity who’s written comics off and on, so maybe it’s his distance from the continuum of superhero writing that has inspired a short story that could have run as a backup in any Batman comic since the 1970s, give or take few cultural references. Matches Malone (Batman, when he is being an undercover cop) descends into the secretive world of true crime memorabilia to buy the gun that killed Bruce Wayne’s parents, which he then melts down to form the metal bat-symbol plate Batman wears on his chest, verily steeling his heart with the memory of this tragedy to fortify him in his neverending battle against crime! NANANANANANANANA BATMAAAAAN! Jim Lee and his usual crew makes everything look like it’s ‘supposed’ to, provided you see this type of statuesque posing as the best sort of superhero art, which many DC comics readers presumably do, given how a lot of these things look.

3. “The Legend of Knute Brody”, Paul Dini, Dustin Nguyen, Derek Fridolfs, John Kalisz, Steve Wands: Dini has written tons of comics, with not a few of those drawn by Nguyen, but this feels mostly like DC1k (acronym’s resemblance to “DICK” a purely innocuous reference to Nightwing, I assure you) acknowledging the extensive legacy of “Batman: The Animated Series”, on which Dini was a writer and producer. The story takes the form of a biography of an infamously clumsy hired thug for supervillains, whom even the most novice reader will have figured out is a Batman Family asset about halfway down page 4 of 8, leaving a whole lot of laborious and narration-heavy slapstick to wade through. Admittedly, this might work better as an animated cartoon, with voice acting leavening the pace of the gags, but I’m also not sure ‘this would be better in a different art form’ is the impression superhero comics should be giving right now.

4. “The Batman’s Design”, Warren Ellis, Becky Cloonan, Jordie Bellaire, Simon Bowland: 

Most of the drawing in DC1k is the kind of stuff you can easily trace to a few popular and fairly narrow traditions of ‘realistic’ superhero art. Becky Cloonan is the only woman to draw an entire comic in here -- Joëlle Jones co-pencils a story with Tony Daniel later on, and Amanda Conner does a pinup, mind -- and her work is the only place in this book where you catch glimpses of a global popular comics beyond the superhero provinces in the Hewlettian wild eyes of the hapless human opponents of her Batman, lunging through velvet layers of cape and smoke, lipless mouth parted on a shōnen ai jaw. It is really very impressive. 

The writer, Warren Ellis, does a pathos-of-the-hard-man story, in which Batman explains his combat strategies via narration while carrying them out, occasionally making reference to the medical bills his prey will incur and their timely motivations as terroristic white men who feel ignored by the world, and at the end Batman asks the last guy U WANT TO LIVE IN MY NIGHTMARE, LITTLE BOY and the guy is like n- no dr. batman sir, and gives up because Batman’s is too dangerous and scary a life model. It is made clear from the text that Batman has programmed himself into a system of reactionary violence that he inevitably reinforces, but this message is so heavily sugared with cool action and tough talk that the reader can easily disregard such commentary, if so inclined, which has been a trait of Ellis’ genre comics writing since at least as far back as “The Authority” in the late 1990s. It fits Batman as naturally as the goddamned cowl.  

 5. “Return to Crime Alley”, Dennis O’Neil, Steve Epting, Elizabeth Breitweiser, ‘Andworld Design’: I was surprised that there weren’t other writers from across the Atlantic in DC1k, given the extensive contributions of Alan Grant and Grant Morrison to the character. I was maybe not as surprised to see Dennis O’Neil as the lone credited writer to pre-date the blood and thunder revolution of Frank Miller et al. in the mid-1980s, as that commercial shadow is far too long to escape. Of course, O’Neil was one of the architects of superhero comics as a socially relevant proposition and Batman as a once-again ‘serious’ character in the 1970s, and it may be a reflection of his standing as a patriarch that this story contains no sugar whatsoever: on the anniversary of his parents’ death, Batman is confronted by a childhood caregiver who has figured out his dumb secret identity, and castigates him for doing stupid shit like dressing up as an animal and punching the underclass when he could actually do something as a wealthy man to improve the world. Then Batman starts beating the shit out of young masked teens who have stolen a gun, after which Batman, who is also a masked thug, is told that he is, at best, a figure of pity. The end! 

What emerges from this story, to my eye, is that Batman is a terrible fucking idea if examined with any sort of serious realism - and Steve Epting draws the story as close to photorealism as anything in this book gets. I also think it is not insignificant that O’Neil, the writer here most unplugged from superhero comics as a commercial vocation, is the one to make these observations; to believe in superhero comics is to understand that there is play at the heart of these paper dolls, and to make your living from these things is to contemplate new avenues for play. Maybe Batman is dark, obsessive! Should he... kill? Sure, Bill Finger made him kill. The Shadow killed lots of dudes. So did Dick Tracy. Ramp up the verisimilitude too much, though, and you’ve got a guy wearing a hood going out by the cover of night to scare the shit out of superstitious cowards who’ve been taking from the good people of society, which, in terms of motivational narratives, is the same origin as the Ku Klux Klan. To play nonetheless, is the craftsman’s burden.

6. “Heretic”, Christopher Priest, Neal Adams, Dave Stewart, Willie Schubert: Meanwhile, on the other side of the coin, is veteran Batman artist and frequent Dennis O’Neil collaborator Neal Adams. And while Adams is not credited as the writer on this story, it bears all the hallmarks of his 21st century work at DC: whiplash pacing; uneasy expository dialogue; and eager callbacks to Adams’ earlier work. This is the Batman comic as a continuity-driven adventure, and I found it largely incomprehensible as a story, not unlike Adams’ recent “Deadman” miniseries. I still like his husky Batman, though. 

7. “I Know”, Brian Michael Bendis, Alex Maleev, Josh Reed: Hey, did you know Brian Michael Bendis, writer of approximately ten and one half zillion Marvel comics, is writing comics at DC these days? Here he teams with longtime collaborator Maleev for a story that brings to mind the old line from Grant Morrison’s & Dave McKean’s “Arkham Asylum” about Batman being the real person and the guy under the mask being the mask. The Penguin, of all villains, figures out Batman’s secret identity, but elects not to pursue Bruce Wayne in his private life, because destroying Bruce Wayne would create a pure Batman far too dark and twiztid for anyone to handle. Or, maybe that is all just an image the perfectly sane Batman has deliberately encouraged as part of his umpteenth contingency plan. I would argue that this is a gentle spoof of people taking Batman too seriously, which clicks with what I’ve read of Bendis’ idea of the character in those 100-page comics they sell at Walmart: a globetrotting detective-adventurer, appropriate for all ages. Bear in mind, I’ve read maybe 0.2% of all Brian Bendis comics.  

8. “The Last Crime in Gotham”, Geoff Johns, Kelley Jones, Michelle Madsen, Rob Leigh: Whoa, now we’re talking! Kelley Jones! Just look at this: 

Such totally weird stuff, coming from the artist who drew all those classic ‘90s covers with the huge bat-ears and wildly distorted musculature, the cape this absurd, unreal shroud. It looks like he’s working from photo reference with some of this comic, but also just tearing out these drawings of huge jawlines and shit, this total what-the-fuck-is-going-on haze, which perfectly matches Geoff Johns’ furiously ridiculous story about an elderly Batman and his wife, Catwoman, and their daughter, and Damian, and a dog, who all investigate a mass murder that turns out to be the Joker’s son committing suicide, and then Batman unplugs the Bat-Signal because crime is over in Gotham forever, and then we find out it’s all the birthday wish of Batman, who is blowing out the candles on his birthday cake, in costume, in the Batcave. Is “Doomsday Clock” like this? Should I pirate it??

9. “The Precedent”, James Tynion IV, Alvaro Martinez-Bueno, Raul Fernandez, Brad Anderson, Sal Cipriano: Inevitably, we come to the story that argues that Batman is actually a great guy, and his pressing of children into action as vigilantes under the cover of night is an amazingly positive thing. This is what I mean by “play” - it doesn’t literally make sense, we all know that, but if you buy into the superhero idea, you can buy into this universe of metaphor where the Batman Family is a vivification of finding your company of people, and belonging, and being loved. Lots of talk in here about snatching young people out of the darkness and forging them in light, and helping them find a better path - it sounds like Batman is signing these kids up for the Marine Corps, which is one of several organizations that recognizes the power of these arch-romantic impulses.

10. “Batman’s Greatest Case.”, Tom King, Tony S. Daniel, Joëlle Jones, Tomeu Morey, Clayton Cowles: This is just unbearable. Oh god, what absolute treacle. It’s the second story in this book about Batman being serious and mysterious, but it turns out something nice is going on - he really just wants a photo of the whole Batman Family, because he lost his family when his parents got shot, but then he cracked his greatest case by finding a new family, which is the Batman Family!

All of this is communicated via clipped dialogue in which various Batman Family superheroes trade faux-awkward quips and cutesy ‘moments’ that are supposed to embody the endearing traits of the characters, but read as the blunt machinations of art that is absolutely desperate to be liked. This is art that is weeping on my shoulder and insisting I am its friend, and I want to get away from it, immediately. Tom King is the most acclaimed superhero writer of this generation, and I can only presume his better work is elsewhere.

11. “Medieval”, Peter J. Tomasi, Doug Mahnke, Jaime Mendoza, David Baron, Rob Leigh:

Finally, we have the obligatory story-that-leads-into-next-issue’s-serial, thereby demonstrating that Batman endures. It’s done as a series of 12 splash pages, depicting Batman in battle with his greatest foes, and it benefits immeasurably from the presence of artist Doug Mahnke (some inks by Jaime Mendoza), whose been a favorite of mine since those early, blood-splattered issues of “The Mask” at Dark Horse decades ago. Broadly speaking, Mahnke is working in a similarly muscular vein as many contributors to DC1k, but his sense of composition, of spectacle -- that boot-in-the-face energy the British call thrill-power -- adds an important extra crackle, and an element of humor; his Batman looks like a hulking maniac dressed in garbage bags, beating the shit out of monster after leering monster. What we are seeing is the fevered imagining of a new villain, the Arkham Knight (a variant of a character introduced in a video game), whom writer Peter J. Tomasi characterizes via the old trick of having the villain narrate to us a bunch of familiar criticisms of the hero, which the hero will presumably react to and overcome, or acknowledge in an interesting way, or something, in future installments. This probably would have worked better if other stories in this book hadn’t already made a lot of the same points in a manner that is not an advertisement for the rebuttal of those points... or if I were even capable of reading a story like this without imagining a final dialogue bubble coming in from off-panel going “SIR, THIS IS A BURGER KING DRIVE-THRU.” But something’s gotta go in issue #1001.

-Jog

[eb-the-gamer]

BEFORE YOU READ, KNOW THIS REVIEW POST HAS SPOILERS FOR BENDY AND THE INK MACHINE!!!!

@bendysstudio @themeatly--official

I have played Bendy and the Ink Machine in full now. What do I think?

Well...

The game was good, for sure, you can tell they put a ton of love, especially now with the polish added by updates, the incorporation of fan music, and the attempts at keeping everything engaging throughout the chapters. 

However, It could be really improved upon...

STORY - By far the strongest of Bendy’s points is its narrative, old cartoons are Organically creepy in a lot of ways because of a few factors, among these are the contrasting aspects of the imperfections of movement and the oftentimes unnoticed details in things like wrinkles and textures (as examples, Pete chewing Tobacco from Steamboat Willie, and the infamous cab colloway dancing ghost from Betty Boop.), so it makes a ton of sense to utilize that as a horror concept. The game throws us a steady stream of questions from almost the start of the first chapter, but while a lot is answered, there is a lot unanswered or not followed through on and it can be hard to ignore when you think about it ESPECIALLY by the end. Were the employees really all corrupted by the ink, what is Henry’s purpose, why did henry not know about his own messages if he’s written them while looping everything over and over, and how could he see or write them without the glass tool (and what with?), what is up with the animatronics and cages you set up. the game kind of shrugs at a lot; its by no means a dealbreaker because of what the story does explore about the studio, but it is noticeable.

9/10 - Amazing - The game’s big draw, though some questions are not all answered in a meaningful way, what the story does cover is still really interesting and worth playing through.

 DESIGN - Bringing actual life to something like a cartoon but failing so hard is a really great idea, and a lot of the time the game shows us the hubris in the want vs. the reality of the consequence; the monsters and places the game creates reflect it well. Everything looks like its made from the sunbleached, aged paper artists used and everything is a wonderfully messed up reflection of life at the studio and the cartoons within, particularly with the projectionist, butcher gang and the unnamed giant hand (I’ll call him Lil’ Handful). the world of Joey Drew productions is a really cool, realized one. simple but slightly barren and “off” work offices giving way for the bigger, detailed and mysterious places in the lower levels. I will however knock some of the update decisions, particularly with Sammy and Bendy himself. they originally looked blobby, as the updates came, they both got more defined in shape - respectively looking more muscular and emaciated looking, which took away from the toonish aspect of the it. Where once were feet that looked like strange melted stubs going into the floor, are just...solid feet and where once was something that looked like a melting candle trying to retain a shape is what is more or less a thin ink zombie (complete with limp). Bendy’s final form is also lackluster for me, I love the Muggshot (Sly Cooper series) tiny dangle-legs and walking around on hands thing; but its threatening, not as scary or horrifying as something that's stopped trying to be likable could’ve been taken. Everyone else is pretty good though especially the butcher gang and boris, who stayed pretty much the same and kept design elements in all forms through the production. Text for audio logs could have been bigger at times too. all in all, design is solid, but something was definitely lost as more polygons and detail were added for certain characters.

9/10 - amazing!- a great use of elements from animations of the past used in a 3d space, just the right amount of cartoon goofiness and uncanny details, though some designs were fixed when they weren’t broken.

CHARACTERS - Not much to say, I like em all, (Henry is delightfully levelheaded to the extreme, Boris is a cutie, Bendy is a threatening silent presence...) except maybe that one obnoxious guy in recordings, Wally Franks, and even then, he’s not AWFUL (I’d compare him to Fleem from Smallfoot, intentionally made to get on a nerve at least a little), the most interesting character for me Bertrum, the architect who calls Joey out on his bullcrap, and Alice Angel, both versions of her - but the manic first variant you meet first is interesting to listen to and learn about in particular. Boris is kind of lackluster, while he is nice and the reveal of him and other toons being made en masse is awesome, it also means we don’t get much time with them. Sammy sort of just comes and goes twice, and Tom!Boris and Allison I felt got the shaft and should have been established earlier for a connection. Joey is a jerk who suddenly becomes somewhat good in the last acts, which confuses me - since there was no in between those two points that's explained...

7/10 -  Good - characters are great to listen to and watch, and if the game had had more time to focus on a lot of them, that might have made them feel more complete.

SOUND - sound, music and voiceacting is well done, lots to appreciate from the creepy gurgles, to the odd stuttery sound of a projector. though there are occasionally some bad bits of soundmixing and audio. some recordings that you can find in the game stand out, there’s one that's really hard to listen to in chapter 5 because the character speaks in a really gravelly voice, in addition to the fuzzy audio effect and the ambient noise surrounding it.

8/10 - Great! - I only wish there was more! aside from one or two recordings, everything and one sounded nice, and the unease of silence is used equally well.

CONTROLS AN’ GAMEPLAY - They’re standard first person fair, responsive for sure, though sometimes the sensitivity of the controls can raise by themselves (I don’t know if that's by design, since it was at the same point as markiplier, right before a section involving being stealthy is taken on, which might actually be really clever if its true. Combat can also be wonky, but Its passable since its not a main focus, except for one REALLY obnoxious enemy gauntlet in the last chapter, if there were defined checkpoints between each wave, I’d be more inclined to let it go. Puzzles are pretty standard as well, lots of fetching, but other stuff such as playing minigames and stealth crop up to shake it up. Stuff is unlocked after everything is said and done in the story, and while it is cool narratively (messages written by henry on previous loops) and as a view of the progress the game (though, the Archives are missing a lot of info on characters like Alice and Bertrum), it just feels like its not enough for a repeat playthrough, difficulty settings and maybe achievements for unconventional but creative actions in-game, working towards something big at the end might’ve helped in that regard (here’s hoping that's the case for the console releases next month)

7/10 - Good! - its standard stuff with an occasional misshap, but there is variety to it and its simply fun for me to play.

OVERALL - The gameplay is serviceable, and aside from the main story there’s not too much reason to play the game again, but its still a solid experience the whole way through, and the time and effort of the people who made the game really shines and makes it worth playing. maybe wait for the console release, in case they add anything to that, but theres not one excuse not to play it.

[thattimdrakeguy]

For all those kicking back against the new direction remember these characters were written out and replaced because they were viewed as stagnate. DC decided to to do something different. Sure they got a save in bendis but DC is still firmly behind the new guys and writers like writing them more than YJ guys which is why they are so visible and widely used. This is a chance to do something new and bold with characters DC would rather toss. Give it a chance b4 condemning it.

Honestly the only thing I’ve seen people get huffy about is Conner having a wife and a maybe baby, and a lack of explanation behind why Cassie’s silent armor (or what ever it was called, it was a New 52 TT thing my memory goes out on that) sudden disappearance wasn’t explained. More so on the first one in almost every way.

and that was just two sentences.

I think too many people are ready to stand up and hate on it and Bendis when it’s two sentences with no context to anything. Not Conner’s age, how long he’s been there, why they got married, is that even his actual baby. They didn’t even try to give it a chance.

They wanna act like it’s a new Lobdell, but honestly, Tim’s been written the best he’s been in years, Bart’s been written the best he’s been in years, Cassie’s been written the best she’s been in years, and I’m gonna say it, EVEN Conner.

There might be more flaws with Conner then the rest, but it’s in no way shape or form a new Lobdell. He’s shaky at best with Conner compared to the others, and could obviously be better.

Peter David, shaky at best with Tim during the original run, often times forgetting he’s supposed to be the relatable one, relying too much on Batman styled jokes for a character that is only related via franchise names to Batman, and pretty much always forgot Tim was supposed to be the underdog one.

So I’ve seen more flaws in Peter David’s depiction of Tim, even considering the fact he was using a persona, then I do with Bendis’s depiction of Conner. Bendis just took too much from 90s Kon when other people wanted TT Conner, and Bendis was writing the TT Conner era with the flashback, and then gave him a wife and maybe baby.

So messy, a bit frustrating, and some unnecessary drama, but it’s the third freaking issue. For a guy that’s new to working for DC and writing those characters.

I can understand wanting to be vocal about things that upset you, I do it all the time. But what’s frustrating is the way people are presenting their opinions. Like they wanna boycott Young Justice, or that Bendis absolutely ruined the franchise, all in two sentences that have no context. When I just feel like that simply isn’t the case.

It’s just change people are scared about, and change is scary, but no one’s even gave it a chance yet.

I can understand not being happy with it, but to react in the way I’ve seen people react is just bonkers to me.

I’m gonna thank Bendis more then condemn him because honestly he’s doing way more good then bad so far, and every one deserves credit where’s credits due.

The series so far has been tedious and opening up more questions and less answers then people have asked for, but this has been the best depiction of these characters in years. With wonderful designs, (MOSTLY if you wanna talk about Conner acting more 90s then 00s) in-character for all of them, and overall just putting the team back together.

Bendis has a hard job of figuring out a way to get rid of the New 52 garbage, nothing was ever gonna be perfect, but I’m taking what I can get because for a lot of people if he brought up more of the New 52 stuff people would be losing their minds thinking he’s gonna be writing the Lobdell styled Titans.

[adobe-outdesign]

The Big Grand DCTL Review/Critique

In my previous liveblog I said that I’d do an overall review/rating kind of thing to summarize my thoughts on the book, so here you go.

No Spoilers: So I’ll preface by saying the book isn’t bad. It has it’s... moments, but it’s pretty enjoyable overall. The FNAF books, for example, were fun to read but they were also a hot fucking mess. This is not a hot fucking mess  - it has its flaws but it’s pretty decent over all.

Spoilers below the cut:

The Canon-ness of the Book

I would like to say first off that I really don’t think this book is meant to be 100% canon - not to say it isn’t canon, but I don’t think it’s supposed to lie up with the games perfectly.  It was approved of by Kindlybeast, but they didn’t write it - Adrienne Kress did, they just helped to develop it.

To explain better: There are a lot of contradictions in this book with the main lore. Some are more minor and could potentially be waved away, but others are extremely glaring. Here’s a short list of the ones that come to mind:

In the book, the Ink Machine is secret and almost no one knows about it. In the game everyone knows and actively complains about the machine on a daily basis. In the Employee Handbook, there’s even a memo from Joey proudly introducing the Machine to everyone.

The book claims you put ink into the Machine and it changes it in some way (effectively running on ink). In the game, it seems to produce ink itself - Joey’s memo kind of indicates this, as does the blueprints, and Wally’s “who really needs that much ink anyway” makes less sense if they’re putting ink into the machine rather than it making the ink.

Plus on Thomas’ board he has a list of the gallons of ink produced each day, with the highest amount written with exclamation points - if it ran on ink this doesn't make sense, as to get 423 gallons of ink he would’ve had to have put 423 gallons of ink into the thing to begin with.

Sammy is wildly OOC in this, as he’s basically a feral asshole throughout the thing, while in canon his merch description calls him a “decent person” and he generally seems agreeable most of the time, except for when he’s annoyed. The book even claims he doesn’t refer to women by their last names, while Susie’s tape tells us the exact opposite (as according to her he referred to Allison as “Miss Allison Pendle”).

Bertrum is also OOC in this - in canon, he’s extremely egotistical and hates Joey for multiple reasons. In the book, they’re buddies (even hugging each other) and Bertrum seems more humble. He doesn’t even correct Joey on calling him “Bertie”, when he had an entire tape about how much he dislikes being called that in the game.

The timeline for this part is also very wrong - it’s treated as if they just met (which could explain why Bertrum doesn’t dislike him yet)... but Bendyland was in progress for years before the studio went to hell, and he even has his BATDR tape (wherein he’s actively disliking Joey) dated years before this book takes place.

This also makes it kind of impossible for him to be the octopus ride like in canon, because he literally just joined the studio when Joey started killing people (and keep in mind that designing and building a ride like that would have taken at least a year or two).

The ink is, for some reason, somewhat alive, able to move around on it’s own and possess people. This was never indicated in the game, ever.

Buddy wakes up as Boris. In the game, stuff like Grant’s tape indicate the ink creatures wake up and then transform (the files even have an unused transformation tape from Wally, who’s likely our Boris). You can kind of headcanon around this one if you try though.

At the end, Norman and a few background characters die. Joey says he didn’t use the machine on them because they had been infected by the ink for too long and didn’t have souls any more. This means that, according to the book, The Projectionist cannot exist (as Norman wouldn’t have had a soul to use and Joey outright says he couldn’t/didn’t use the machine on them in the first place).

Some of these are pretty minor, but some of them are extremely glaring and even casual gamers would pick up on this stuff.

Basically, we have two options: Either Kindlybeast doesn’t know their own story/characters too well, or they didn’t require this to line up perfectly with the games. Except the first option doesn’t make sense, because they’ve recently published stuff that contradicts what’s said in this book in favor of matching the actual lore from the games, proving they do know their own story.

For ampel, Bertrum’s BATDR tape, which lines up with the game’s lore and corrects the mistakes in DCTL, was released in March - long after this book was in production. The thing about the Ink Machine being secret was also disproved in the recently-released Handbook, which instead says they employees do know about the Machine, just like they do in the game. So Kindlybeast do know these things don’t line up with canon.

I think basically they approached Adrienne and were like “hey, can you write a prequel novel based on our game?” and while they offered her some guidance, she mostly just did her own thing based off of it (she even said it felt like working on fanfiction while writing it) and Kindlybeast liked it and published it. It’s an adaptation of the game and its lore, done by a new person - things tend to change in adaptations. I don’t think they needed or cared if it lined up like puzzle pieces, they just wanted a good story, which they got. It is canon... but it’s also not, if that makes sense.

So for our intents and purposes I’d consider this semi-canon - take what you can as canon (which is most of it, as the most major contradictions also tend to be the shortest scenes) and ignore the stuff that doesn’t line up with canon, unless otherwise stated by Kindlybeast or confirmed in BATDR.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Overall, I’d say this book is about 70% good and 30% bad. When it is good, it is really, really damn good - but when it’s bad it leaves an awful taste in your mouth that’s hard to get rid of.

The Good:

Like... the majority of the book, really

Buddy and Dot are wonderful characters with strong personalities. They’re super likeable, bring some much-needed heart into things, and have great chemistry.

While some of the aforementioned characters are majorly OOC, the ones that are in-character (Joey and Norman are good examples) are amazing - every scene with them is gold and the book really fleshes out their personalities.

Some of the new lore tidbits are great, and help explain some things in the game (like how Lost Ones are created) or are just interesting (like Sammy drinking the ink and the idea of the ink being able to infect people, which sounds like something that could have directly come from the games).

The book goes into way more depth about what being a cartoon/ink creature is like, which is some much-needed exposition and is extremely interesting.

It also has a ton of heart and good intentions. I was worried about it being overly dark, but if anything it has far more sweet moments than depressing ones.

The Bad:

The contradictions I mentioned above. Some of them are easy enough to ignore, but some are incredibly jarring and take you out of the story (and make it impossible to take it as 100% canon without breaking the space-time continuum).

I kind of mentioned it above, but the stuff with the ink being alive and possessing people comes right the fuck out of nowhere, has nothing to do with the game lore, is completely tonally dissonant to BATIM as a whole, and literally has nothing to do with the plot of the book, like, at all. It feels like a few pages from a Venom novel got mixed in with the early draft and no one remembered to remove them before publication.

The racist shit - it’s only like 1% of the book, but when that 1% of the book ruins a really good character it’s a pretty big deal.

A random NPC dies for no reason and this death has more relevance to the plot than Norman, who dies off-screen.

Also consider: They could’ve found Norman first, Buddy runs off to get back to his house, Norman follows and gets killed via neck snap. Fixes both problems at once.

There’s very little tension during the horror moments because we already know Buddy will die but not until the end and that Dot will live.

The Ink Demon acts more like an xenomorph than the Ink Demon in this - his behavior is bizarre and it feels pretty generically horror movie monster-ish compared to how he acts in the game.

The Ugly:

The B-plot with Buddy’s grandfather should have been cut. I know that sounds harsh, but really think about it: what effect did it have on the plot? It only crosses with the A-plot twice, and both times nothing came out of it. It gives Buddy a chance to learn how to draw and he goes through some character development, but I find it hard to believe that couldn’t have been accomplished by expanding the A-plot.

The main problem is that A) this is a BATIM novel so we want to see the studio, not Buddy’s relatives at home, and B) it makes it kind of slow towards the middle, wherein the stuff with the studio barely progresses while we keep cutting back to the B-plot.

I didn’t dislike reading it or anything, but it makes the plot flabby, and slicing it out would’ve given us much more time in the studio and the characters we like rather than trying to juggle two plots at once, effectively streamlining it and making for a more cohesive story.

The ending (like the last 5 chapters) is a hot mess in multiple and varying ways:

Sammy shows up and... gets knocked out by a projector. Which is funny, but it amounts to nothing plot-wise and makes Sammy’s whole appearance kind of pointless

Killing off a bunch of characters, one of which was a main character, off-screen

The weird Venom shit that has nothing to do with the plot of the books or the games and amounts to nothing

Bendy acting fairly OOC, especially with how he goes about killing people 

Buddy grabs the idiot ball bard by trying to drown a creature made of ink in ink, then standing right near the spot so he can be grabbed and killed

Not only does the “can’t use them because they had been infected for too long and no longer had souls” thing not only raises the aforementioned plot hole with the Projectionist, but it raises a plot hole in the book itself: When the other are exposed to the ink they die, but when Sammy drinks the stuff he turns into a Lost One. Which one is it?

Keep in mind that that was more bullet points in those 30-some pages than I have for the entire rest of the book

There are only like... two actual horror scenes in the book, and one of those is the climax. While it makes sense that too much couldn’t have happened before the ending, it feels like there could have been more than that.

Not all of the characters from the games appear. I know it’s a tall ask but it’s also easy to see how they could have been integrated, and some of them could have easily taken the roles that were given to NPCs instead.

I feel like this book would be more engaging as a non-fan, as the plot tends to progress like a mystery, with you learning a bit more about what’s happening with every scene in the studio... except as a fan you already know what’s happening, so there’s little to keep you engaged until you get into that nice juicy lore at the end.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s lots of little details that tell us new info and the character interactions are great, but a lot of the scenes are just like “Surprise, Sammy is crazy!” and it’s like thanks, we already knew that. The mystery is supposed to build and move the plot forward, but there’s effectively no mystery.

Overall Rating

I’m worried this review is going to come across as overly negative, as it’s much easier to critique what’s wrong than it is to say “this part was good!” like 200 times. But all of the stuff I was talking about that’s an issue? That’s like... 30% of the book, maybe less. Some of the most problematic scenes you could literally remove and loose nothing plot-wise (which is frustrating but you know). The bulk of the book is very good, the lore stuff when handled correctly is amazing and it even provides some extra answers that we didn’t have before, and the characters are great.

Overall, I’d give the book a solid... 7/10, I think. Not perfect, but pretty damn decent all around. If you’re a fan, I’d highly recommend picking up a copy if you haven't already.

[zebraslovescupcakestoo]

Gambling bet

It's a booming night for gambling and auctioning. The people and whole place was in a masquerade like themed like the ones in a 19th century lectures I've once read...

But I was not expecting to be in one as a gambling 'prize'. I was in a cage, tied up from the back with a collar chained at my neck like an animal. My mouth was gagged to prevent me from saying or even screaming... even if I could, I doubt that will help me...

How did I ended up like this? Bendy DeMon. But his real last name is Drew... I was so close to nab him in that alley way until I got knocked out from the back... I was a fool for not realizing he had Boris Wolfenstein as his second hand man of the Alfonso mafia and now I've really gotten in a huge mess this time.

If I remembered correctly, this must be one of those black auctions slash gambling events only the social elites and exceptional takes place... Some of the items are from Europe and foreign regions that must have at least a thousand dollar value each! But there are some 'items' that are illegal like myself and I believed some dangerous weaponry or exotic animals...

“Our turn is up. You better not screw up more than you are now, ace defective.” I quickly looked at my right to see that demon smirking as I was transported to the stage as a center of attention. He was wearing his best black stripped gangster suit, complete with a black fedora and a demon mask. I gritted the cloth that was tied at my mouth as I glared. This is bad... I have to escape, but what can I do? This place is filled with influential and rich people who are no different than the crooks I've dealt with. If I do something reckless, they have the 'authorities' in their pockets to destroy me and anyone close to me... What would my father do in this situation?

“Our next item featured in tonight's event is a prize by the gentlemen  Mr. Dancing Demon. This one is one of the top member of the CPD and a detective. He's in no one's favor, but if you win the game against Mr. Dancing Demon, he will be 'yours.' You can use him as your personal pet, or use him to avoid minor incidences to stay on top of the 'law.' But if you found him too 'good,' you can always use his organs as a quick, pocket money or if you had 'desires,' he does have a nice body...” The announcer was treating me as I was a commercial item and I felt a lot of eyes gazing at me... I'm getting a whole mess of feelings of what they were thinking... But I can tell that I was an interesting 'prize' to win. I will admit... I'm terrified... If one of them 'wins' me, my life will be more like h3ll and then God knows what will happened to my nephews... My best bet in worst case scenario was to give them again to my uncle in Australia, but then again my cousin will trick them again...

I then noticed that there was a black table set up and there sat Mr. 'Dancing Demon' A.K.A. Bendy along his sidekick, Boris. His partner was wearing black suit and pants, but he had a large, grey fur over coat that made him look like a million bucks. He was also wearing a mask that looked like a wolf. “Mr. Demon, how would you like to do it? Auctioning or Gambling?” The announcer asked about my fate. I looked at him again and he thought about it for a minute... he then gave his answer. “I will gamble. I do admit I really do love the money, but this one... hehehe... oh, this one...” He was teasing me and then grabbed the chain. “I have sooooo much thoughts about this one... he wasn't easy to catch, but if any of you have anything that could give an 'equal' amount, I could just part with it... for now.” He then yanked me at him as I almost hit the bar. I grunted. Now I feel like his pet. “Now who's first?”

----Several card games later------

I can't believed that demon is 'winning' all of their money and some priceless items to boot!

There was a fairly amount of people who grabbed their 'pocket changes' and their values on this bet for me! Any card games like poker or black jacks, he wins it all. There's gotta be almost fifty thousand dollars in cash and value in total... There's a trick I 'detected' while I simply watched. If I can detect the 'trick' to anyone, I can use that as an advantage to unmask his cheat and then while they're 'distracted,' I can escape!

But what can I do? If I don't do it soon... Huh?

I then noticed the last odd person wearing a red mouse mask... that I think I've seen it before... He was also wearing a black and red detailed Chinese soiree suit. His hair was black with two curly buns I think I've seen them before. He was smiling underneath that mask and it made Bendy angry. I can tell judging from how he was gritting his teeth and trembling his hands. I then saw another figure who was a few inches taller than the other one. He was wearing another familiar rabbit mask. He was wearing a white with blue detailed Chinese soiree suit. His hair was also black but with twin pony tails... I think he's looking intensively at me behind that concealed mask... which sends a shiver down my spine. “Guess I can't see one without the other, huh?” Bendy said in a deep tone. “I can say the same thing for you and Mr. Wolf too. At least we can do fine on our own if we get separated.” The guy in a mouse mask said. “I should have known from your nicknames it was going to be you two. I'm done for tonight.” He was about to get up until the rabbit guy spoke. “We still have the right to challenge for the 'prize' as stated tonight's rules. We waited for our turn cause you have something 'rare' and doesn't belong here.” He then puts a suit case on the table. “What's that you got in there? Candy?” Bendy mocked the guy in the mouse mask. “Very humorous, Mr. Double D. But don't you think you're being unfair, again? My friend is ri-” *TACK! * Then there was a switch blade stab on the table that stun the crowd. “When I said I'm done, I mean I'm DONE! Just looking at those mask makes me wanna puke! We're leaving, Mr. Wolf.”

“What's the matter, Demon? You think you can't beat him in another card game? Or maybe you've ran out of luck because of the black cat's karma have kicked in? They don't like to be played 'rough' like you do.” The one with a rabbit mask smirked at him and it sets him off even more. “If we weren't in a social gathering, I would have 'loved' to have a couple of stuffed animal heads for my coats.” In a quick reaction, he tried to slash their masques but the rabbit grabbed his wrist just in time. The rabbit guy was then holding his grip really good to prevent Bendy of getting the upper hand. He must be a REALLY GOOD Chinese boxing expert cause I know Bendy is a knife handling expert next to his speed demon skills. “Still a karate freak, humping rabbit?” Bendy spatted. “I wouldn't even think of f#king with you with a stolen d!k, ya back stabbing demon.” The rabbit replied and I think he was glaring through his mask. I feel his murderous tension when he said that and I feel like I shouldn't try to make him angry if they win.

Or IF they try to bet on me.

“Guys! The host is coming! Knock it off!” The mouse whispered harshly and pointed an individual in white coming our way. They immediately break up before it escalates to a fighting scene. Under normal circumstances, Bendy would have done it, but I guess he's just 'behaving' at the moment cause I knew that he isn't the one who throw these kinds of auctions... And that there's other syndicates that benefits these events for 'rares' and other important 'essentials' for anything.

“Is there a problem?” The white man asked. Can't his clothing be any whiter than his mask?

“Not really, just personal issues. We both just wanted to take a chance of getting his 'prize' he presented. He can keep the rest he gained from others for all we care.” The mouse explained.

Just me?! Who are you both working for why would I be any use of you two IF you win? I better need to think of an escape, FAST!

“Mr. Demon. I'm sure that the evening isn't over yet and I wish to see at least one more card game of yours. Maybe that new card game you've made recently that became quite popular recently that's very challenging and tested your luck pretty harshly. Was it Double Memory?” He calmly questioned at Bendy after pleading for another game of cards. That made the demon perked his ears and I can tell from his mouth expression that interested him. “Oh? THAT game?” He then smiled wider and he made a nod to Boris as to hive him some sort of communication. The wolf reached in his pocket to take out two, unopened, cartoon Bendy themed playing cards. You've already have one deck opened already... Why two new ones and what is that 'Double Memory' card game? I did heard it once before in a rumor and nothing else... Keep listening.

“If I remembered correctly, that 'Double Memory' card game is  the same thing like the 'Memory' game with two exceptions. One is that it uses two decks instead of one. Two is that not only you need to match the numbers, but it has to be in the same suit. Like you need two exact identical cards to make a match.” The mouse explained.

“Correct, rodent. Now since I was the one who created that new game, I will choose the decks.” He then held the unopened packs together and held it close to his face. “Let's make this quick, shall we? I want to 'play' another but a different 'game' with this cat.” He then looked at me as if he had some sort of cruel ideas of what my fate will be. “First one who gets the most pairs wins.”

“Those cards... are they the newest toys you've recently released? They looked very high design.” The mouse innocently said. That makes the demon's grind wider. “Ah! So you finally noticed some better taste. My products needed MY personal touches on the marketing side and I wanted to be done professionally.” He then opens the deck and the cards were fairly scattered.“Compared to your father's puny ideas, mine were all beautifully well selected by yours truly. The design of the deck is far more elegant than the ones that was made originally.” The deck back design was mostly black with a golden like floral themed that resembles to a throne roses. I do admit it's very uniquely beautiful despite it was made by him. The mouse looked like he was in awe like a curious child who is choosing which ice cream flavor he wanted to pick. “I admit, Mr. Demon. You really did a fantastic job of making these wonderfully deck designs.” The mouse complimented. “I thank you for that, cheese brain. Now pick your first move.” Bendy impatiently replied.

The mouse took a few seconds to scan all of the cards on the table while playing with his index finger as if he was deciding which ones he'll pick first. “I shall start with five hundred.” I was nervous once he turned the first one with a four of diamonds. If he turns a wrong one, Bendy will have a turn... and he never loss a game yet tonight. He then reaches for another one across the table and... another four of diamonds! “Lucky rat... Just watch! I'll have my turn as soon as you fail.” Bendy rarely 'complimented.' Then the mouse took another card, a ten of hearts, then asked. “Say Old friend... I need to say this before I forget.” He then continues his turn as he reaches for another one. “I do admire anyone who's been having a hard time growing up as a child and made a name for themselves. I like it when someone who have a dream and they pursued it whether they made it or not. As long as they take responsibilities...” He flipped another exact match! Bendy then sneered his eyes at him. “The f#k you mean by that, mousey?”

But the mouse still has his eyes on the cards. “I'm sorry. Have I offended you when I said that? Don't get me wrong. I just sometimes have that envy of independence like yourself in your 'front' public image. I am barely in a position to make choices like you. The cards you made personally by yourself is one good example... I can't barely even ask for that... not just for marketing smarts... right?” He lifted his head a bit as if he's on to something. “Hm?” Bendy kept his cool and I think he was still sneering until... he surprisingly gasped as if he gets what he's saying. The mouse keeps getting the right cards as if he KNEW exactly where they are! Boris then whispered something like 'he's bluffing!' and it was impossible...

It then strike me what he means: Bendy have made these deck of cards specifically for cheating by making the deck designs HIMSELF!!! He noticed it like I did?!

I then saw the rabbit's grin grew wider and said. “You know, Bèndàn. Let me give you one piece of advice. If you're planning to use your 'front' business image with these tactics, make sure you're duly prepared.” Isn't that Chinese word means... ?!?! YOU ARE SO LUCKY THAT MY NEPHEWS DON'T SPEAK THAT KIND AND TYPE OF LANGUAGE!!! If I wasn't tied up and gagged, I would have a WHOLE hour of lecturing you and ask who raised you!

I glanced back at the mouse as he was pairing the exact cards... No way! How did he figured out his trick like I did? Then there was a final flip... fifty two cards were all flipped. The white guy was impressed and gave a small applause. “Bravo, Mr. Souris. You have won a well deserved prize from Mr. Demon. I do admit, it's a very rare find, even in the Chicago's crime syndicates. I hope you'll be treating him well.” I then heard the cage's door opened by one of the staff members and I was handed to the two mystery guys who won me.

“Hey!” Bendy took out another deck with a different design, but it was just a regular one. “Just give me ONE more round! I will bet ALL of the money and the priceless items for him! Come on! He's not even worth THAT much compared in gold values!” He seems like he was determined to keep me for his 'interests' or something like that.

“Nah, that crap you've collected doesn't interest us. The cat is all we needed.” The rabbit replied as he held me close. I feel something in my chest. What is this feeling? Relief or was it...? No, never mind that. It must be stress over tonight's 'activity' and I'm not thinking straight right now.

Bendy was not done talking. “I'm not letting him go THAT easy! There's a rule about-”

“A penalty fine if we declined and leave the auction before the announcement is over, correct?” The mouse interrupted him. “Yes. It's a one thousand dollar fine to the organizer of tonight's event.” Boris cleared that specific rule.

“Okay! There!” The mouse then tossed another five hundred on the table, both Bendy and Boris choked. They weren't the only ones that were surprised. Who are they behind those masks and how rich they are? Not even Bendy would have bluffed or put that much amount for anyone but Boris.

“Oh! And before we forget...” The mouse said something but before I get to hear it, there was a bag that covered my head and the rest of that memory was blurred....

-------

It was all just twists and turns with the walks, cars and doors. I feel like it's one of those movies where they catch a 'suspicious' character and they brought them at their secret hiding spot, and I was the 'star.' How Ironic.

But what's really going on in my mind is who are they, what would they want with me now that I'm in their 'possessions' and how do I get out of this?

Paying all back wasn't exactly an option... I don't want to become their puppet like Bendy does with the other police men and women either...

I was then tossed on my back and was hand cuffed over my head. Judging from what I felt and positioned, I'm guessing it was a bed. I then heard somethings and they talked in a foreign language. I believed it sounded Chinese, based on my previous investigations with those people...

I then felt the bag removed from my head and it took me a minute to adjust the dimness of the room. It was dim, with only low lights to see that it's a luxurious private bedroom you might see in social elite movies.

I saw only the guy in red, but instead of wearing the same getup from that black auction, he wore some sort of a red and white track jacket, along with a black vest, red tie, black pants and he wore a beast themed facial mask. His eyes were black despite the dimness of the room.

He then removed the gag from my jaws and I took a breath of relief. “Thanks...” I told him. I'm still a bit cautious, but so far they seemed to act nice so I play along for now. He seemed cheerful and replied. “You're welcome! It's been quite an evening. Especially for that dancing demon himself. That card trick was very strategically challenging.” He then took out a card from the night table's drawer next to me that Bendy have made himself and showed the deck's design. He placed a finger on one of the tiny floral. “If I'm not mistaken, there's a rumour from the 'underworlds' about a certain pair of eyes that can detect more than just hidden secrets.” He then lifted his finger to reveal the 'glow mark' of another hidden floral.

It was so tiny yet so convenient for Bendy cause he can easily tell which card is which by temperature. After a few minutes, they slowly faded away so it would avoid of him getting caught. Sure, it would take a lot of work to memorized ALL of it and mastered the games, but the effort will be paid off fully in spades and tonight's winning rounds was the proof of it.

“I know for a fact that he hid most of the packs inside of Mr. Wolf's overcoat for heat and two more in his own pockets for the Double Memory game he played with you. What makes you think my 'unusual' eyes had anything to do with that rumor without any solid evidence?” Is he trying to bluff me into confessing about my 'sight' abilities? I may used them to detect lies but... I do not wish to use them 'willingly' if you know what I mean.

“I'm not forcing you to tell us, but based on our own 'investigations,' we can suspect that you don't always used them as a lie detector.” He winked at that statement and I was shocked. How much did... no, it's too convenient. He's just trying to make me spill the beans! So I decided to ask the most important question I had in mind, but then the other guy with a twin ponytail, who had a similar outfit he changed like him, but in whit and blue, said something in Chinese and then he went to another room. The other guy then came over to me with some threatening yet calming aura. Like one of those cool guys... I sensed something intense from him, not just from his glaring. “Who are you people and how did you know who I was?”

He answered this. “We're just somebodies who doesn't like certain somebodies like that Bendy Drew you've keep an eye on. You're may be equals apart that you don't play dirty like he still does, but you might be prove useful to us.” He then stomped his right foot on the side of the mattress next to me, indicating that he's not the 'joking' type and that he's probably much tougher than he looks... “So you're saying that you're not gonna reveal your names yet I'm somewhat 'valuable' to your needs... Look, I know that I might not have known much, but I did guessed that you and your partner had a history with Bendy. I'm surprised that you even know his real family name.” The only people who knew his real family name were very few aside myself. The rest were in coffins.

“Let's just say... We 'we're' allies a few years ago before he became the new leader of Alfonso Mafia. Call it a mistake for trusting someone who was similar to us, but we're currently keeping tabs on him just so that he's not gonna 'surprise' us again.” He explained their relations. “You guys were allies? For how long exactly? And how much did you know-MGR!” He then grabbed my jaw and made me look straight in his glaring eyes. He had that deep blue eyes that are very beautiful... and very terrifying at the moment. I feel like a scaredy cat being in a stare down against a, intimidating blue eyes, white dragon.

“I just said that we 'used' to be friends, it doesn't mean we're still in touch with each other.” He 'clarified' it. “Ny-ok! You guyz are in neutrwal in 'public' evwent aftwer whatwever happened.” I struggled to say it and then he lets go of my jaw. I took a breath of relief before I continue. “So... why did you guys rescued me, despite you'll probably ain't gonna have all the money right away? I've-”

“Got two nephews that are currently in your care after an incident with your late father and sister. Despite that you had relatives that can raise them, you yourself wanted to care them instead. After graduated from high school, you went straight into the police academy and was an exceptional student. Despite your height, you had that speed, quick thinking and also that 'unusual' detection that got you on top. Of course, you also had a few friends like Sheba and Kitiana to help out, but after the incident with your own, you wanted to do your cases alone after you got more independent from the top brass. Guess what happens when you get too overly confident?” He took a part of my biography and explain it to me like he new me 'very' well.

I was stupefied... and I didn't need my 'sight' techniques to tell that he was smirking at me like he was taunting me to crack under his 'joker' persona. “How much did you knew about me before you 'rescued' me?” My curiosity tingled. “Just enough to understand your background before we... 'co-operate' with one another. You may be a sticker to the rules, but I can see you're not a slouch nor a corrupted copper.”

He wants to what? Co-operate? With people that I didn't know well aside they knew Bendy behind his public image? This is too suspicious. I then noticed that the guy in red came back. “I'm back! Did you guys behaved well?” He said in a cheering tone. “We did, just talking.” The guy in blue said plainly. I wanted to give my opinion, but judging from his actions and my position, it's best that I stay on his good side. The red one then asked the next important question. “Did you wanted to negotiate of that one thousand dollar debt? It wasn't exactly easy for us to get it... without being detected in public image.” So these guys have a public image? I mean, that explains the money but I don't recall anyone in the social elites in Chicago with those particular hair styles nor features... Not even the underground rumors here had people like them.

But for now I'll focus on that 'negotiation.' “What exactly do you meant on 'co-operating?' I don't work with shady people. Don't get me wrong, I really do appreciate for rescuing me from Bendy or in worst case scenario, sold to a crooked rich criminal, but I'm not gonna start playing 'dirty' for whatever you guys want do to get even with that crooked demon. I still have my standards!” I don't want to soil my father's honor in the name of justice by being crooked to a pair of vigilantes who hated the same guy as I did. The guy in red then broke it down to me. “Oh! I'm sorry. Guessed we had a misunderstanding here. See, we're not asking to 'cover' for us whenever we slip up, it's more like... keeping an eye out on Bendy until he's permanently behind bars. Easy, right?”

...what?

“Let me translate for you.” The guy in blue then said as if I didn't understand a single thing. “We needed someone from the law side that keeps us informed in this city. As much as we have numerous ears and eyes on these streets, we needed at least one person in the police department to keep us informed on what and where is this demon and wolf is doing.”

I wasn't that confused, but I had to ask. “Just that? You expect me to keep an eye out for him and Boris? Then what about that stuff about my personal life? I'm sure that-OW!” The blue guy then grabbed my collar tight, lifted me close to his face and glare me down again. “You are not in that position to decide on your own accord, remember? We can easily kill you, let you live or give you a more living h3ll.” His eyes were sending shivers down my spine. “You are 'ours.' However, that black cat's luck have shine upon you since we do show mercy. All we asked is that you keep doing your 'detective' job as usual and if we asked for an update, you'll provide your information from the law side of things. But don't say 'just look at the morning papers' crap, we know that you and your group of three don't always give the whole crucial evidences to the department.”

He then lets go of my collar and my head fell back on the pillow. I tsked. “So what you're saying is that I have to share classified information to a pair of vigilantes who used to be my enemy's friends so you may have a chance to get revenge like I would? And how can I trust you two if you're not gonna use me as an escape goat if things get out of hand?”

They both looked at each other for a few seconds until the guy in blue nodded. The guy in red then whispered a 'Thank you' as if he was happy to have that permission. Even with that mask, I can tell he was smiling. They then turned to me and the red one said. “If we unhand cuffed you now, reveal our identities and tell you our stories of how us and Bendy came to be, will you be our ally?”

I was surprised. “Seriously? Even tough we just met aside your partner had made a background check on my personal life?” Are they really going to risk their identities to someone like me? “Did I also mentioned that you've helped some people out of morale, despite that it goes against the law itself?” The blue one pulled that fact. “Like how you manage to catch a minor fruit vendor thief, only to found out that he only stole it to help his struggling working mother from hunger. So you helped them out a bit until they were fine and never reported it.” I was even more surprised. He... even found out about that? It wasn't to benefit my image just... I tried to he humble and compassionate like my father would have done it.

If... if they believed to risk their identities exposure to me then... “I guess as long as it doesn't involves the innocents or criminal activities, I'll trust you two... and I'll co-operate for now.”

The blue one then uncuffed my restrains and I rubbed my sore wrists due to extensive time bounded. I looked up to them and asked one more time before they do anything else. “Are you still sure that you both are willingly to risk your identities to a cop like me?”

“If it's going to convince you of how serious we are to get that double-crossing demon and his doormat dog behind bars permanently, we'll take it.” The blue one said as they reached out for their facial masks.

Once they removed it, I was not prepared for this. Even if I was just an underdog detective, no amount of police training was prepared for this unbelievable moment that only happens in books or movies twists.

Upon their reveals, I recognized those two faces from anywhere. “Mickey and Oswald Disney... Holey tuna fish! I... How... why...” I struggled for words. I mean, sure it explains the money but that still leaves on their vigilantes life style and other things that relates to Bendy and the Alfonso mafia.

And if this made public, it's gonna be a huge talk of the decade! I felt like this is going to be a long night.

Mickey then started to speak. “Well, now that we didn't need to introduced ourselves, how about we start our story? Say, how we met Bendy before he became who he is?”

----- Author’s notes ------

AHHHH!!! It feels so LONG to write a fanfic, even for a one-shot. It’s been busy and frustrating these past few months with the holidays, work, and my motivations that drains me. I hope you’ve enjoyed a little BBTIM AU fan story here.

So on a side notes, I did got this inspiration from an anime scene from the Lupin the 3rd series, ‘the woman called Fujiko Mine' back in 2012 and also the card game of ‘Double Memory’ was also from that gambling anime called ‘Kakegurui’ in episode 2. So I hope I’ve explained it well cause like I’m trying to be more honest, my story explanation sucked so I hope you might get that idea here and there.

Anyways, hope you like an alternate story line of how Felix met Mickey and Oswald in the BBTIM universe.

BBTIM humanized characters belong to Marini4.