#i’m guessing it’s new52 GA

[strawberrytalia]

I have seen Arrow stans rightfully praise Green Arrow Vol 2.

I have seen much love for GA 2001 despite its flaws.

I have seen so many recommendations for Longbow Hunters.

I see some people still rec GA Rebirth even if it’s a little off.

But I never see anyone talking about Green Arrow 2011 lmfao. It’s like the forgotten family member.

[incoherentbabblings]

Comic Book Shenanigans

So these two panels caused a little kerfuffle didn’t they?  Dick’s statement that Bruce has to be father to a bunch of batkids?  Correct.  Dick’s second statement that Damian suffers the most from Bruce’s ‘scattered’ parenting tactics - not because he’s the youngest, or most vulnerable - but because Damian’s Bruce’s ‘one real’ son? Eeeehhhh hmmmm.  Bruce leaving off the final S in sons accidentally/intentionally(?) stating that he doesn’t think of Dick or Jason as his sons?  Oh people’s butt clenched so fast and hard.

I can get behind the idea Dick not thinking of himself as Bruce’s son, since they emphasised it enough in the past that Bruce made a point of not trying to replace John in Dick’s life. This didn’t stop Bruce from viewing Dick as his son though (my favourite example is definitely Superman/Batman #65, it may have been a fear gas hallucination but by god you can pry that panel of bby Dick calling Bruce dad from my cold dead hands.  Other examples include the adoption arc in Gotham Knights, Bruce Wayne: The Road Home where in Bruce’s notes he talks about Damian, Dick and Tim as his sons and so on).  The above statement from Dick however requires Dick to know that Jason also doesn’t think of Bruce as his dad.  Which again, I can get behind in this continuity, but I can’t get out of my head how when Jason first woke up and dug his way out he literally started begging for his dad to come help him.  Again, we know Bruce thought of himself as Jason’s dad, hence the adoption years before Dick up to the Batman and Robin Convergence Issue.  Tim is in a similar boat in this universe but again Pre-Flashpoint he was the only one of the boys to take Bruce’s surname and do the whole Father’s Day issue of Robin and so on.  

The point is, Dick's exclusion of himself I can justify because I can get behind the idea that's how Dick himself understands his relationship to Bruce or how Dick thinks Bruce understands their relationship (true or not).  The dismissal of Tim and Jason, whilst fustrating, are totally logical in this universe. 4 Robins in as many years means heavily affected relationship trees right?

But this week's Batman where Bruce deliberately separates Jason and Dick from Damian is poorly phrased at best or is actively dismissive of Bruce's relationship to Dick and Jason at worst.  They're not his sons because...?  They're not related to him?  Or at least, that's the conclusion that many people jumped to.

I know Seeley and King do think of the batfam as an actual family regardless of biology (I'm sure they’ve both said as much in interviews in the past).  I saw lots of praise for Dick's relationship to Damian in this issue, how it really blurs that line between fraternal and paternal and how frightened Damian is in being replaced in that position in Dick's eyes. So I guess people got confused over how the boys can clearly see each other as brothers but Bruce cannot acknowledge any of them as his sons apart from the one he's (conveniently) biologically related to.  Maybe you could argue it's also because Damian is younger and needs guidance beyond that of a mentor (which is why Dick blurs the line between brother and dad right?) but the 'only bio kids count' schtick is still there in the background, especially in these panels.

I don’t really blame the writer’s for this. I think that after the New52 made it that Tim, Dick and Jason were never adopted nor really had that paternal influence due to the condensed timeline alongside the focus of Damian being The Son of Batman while the other three were distanced from Bruce as a father figure and so on and so on, have really made people feel like DC is dismissive of adoptive families.  Especially when by 2011 Bruce was referring to the boys as his sons [plural] even if Dick and maybe Jason didn’t feel the same way, then the reboot happens and now Bruce only refers to Damian as his son, and the status of the others when it comes to who is or isn’t adopted and when this all happened is really unclear.  On a tangent it’s linked to Cassandra’s treatment as well with the feeling that she has really been shafted for years now (oh my goodness people are begging for her to be adopted again at the end of Tynion’s arc, just so she can have a set place in the family no questions asked no more conveniently leaving the poor girl out of group shots and so on).  The same arguments are happening on the Green Arrow side of things right?  With Mia still …well MIA… and Ollie’s relationship to Roy versus Connor versus Emiko...

It’s really unfortunate (but I believe unintentional, not that it lessens the impact really) phrasing that is a bit screwy.  Dick’s statement (a totally understandable one from my point of view and makes sense in universe) from this weeks issue coincidentally coincided with King’s panel from Batman and it just made people remember that the Bruce isn’t really being allowed to be a father to any of the kids because of the consequences of the condensed timeline of the New52. 

Maybe this is something Rebirth will fix, maybe not. If not though, can I nudge editorial a little bit?  Bruce seems to not be allowed to be a dad to anyone outside of Damian, who just so happens to be his biological child, which leads to an uncomfortable line of thought that the others don’t count because of their lack of relation.  The reality is that it’s probably a lack of history.  We don’t really know what the three boys relationship to Bruce was before the New52 starting point outside of the odd flashback or annual here and there (with I think Jason’s remaining the most intact and Tim’s...not... lol Tim what a mess...)  If the paternal relationship is ignored, you have either just a mentor relationship (which I really doubt Bruce could do and not create a familial attachment to the boys) or the unfortunately persistent child soldier analogy, which is something no fan wants nor believes in… I think.  I hope.