#lex is debating if he needs to get someone to take care of a dead body. mentally preparing for this to be thing to make tim go super villain

[anxi04]

steph and babs don’t need personas, as far as anyone is concerned they’re just family friends.

bruce has his “brucie wayne” persona, very clumsy, playboy, kinda air headed but still very smart and wants to do good for gotham. which of course makes him seem naive cause good?? for gotham??

dick has “richie grayson-wayne” who’s dabbled in modeling before becoming a gymnastics teacher. also very vocal about his “adorable little siblings”

jason never really had a “nickname” after all he was from crime alley and he had to look GOOD for them or else they’d go back to “he’s just like the rest of them”. his persona was very empathetic and kind though, which worked great for him since that’s how he was like. he always talked about doing several non profit charities. the elites switched their opinions of him on a dime, although the rest of gotham adored him.

damian refuses to go by a nickname. his persona is based around animals, mostly about abandoned animals. it’s very clear his goal for the future is to make good animal shelters and help every animal he can. it’s the only persona he could stomach and there were SEVERAL other ideas

cass is “cass wayne” very quiet, polite, generally just there in the background. normally hanging around one of her siblings, most often tim. although her being around him unnerves some of them, she’ll get a look in her face and then her and tim both know they were lying. they fully get why she hangs around tim

duke is regularly seen as the normal one. pleasant to be around, kind, but generally also just there. very normal student, not really sure what he’s gonna do. the elites don’t particularly for him, though the rest of gotham love him.

tim’s persona differs from the rest pretty heavily. he can’t get away with being like bruce, the elites vividly remember janet and see her in him very often, which vaguely scares them if they’ll be honest. he’ll act like “Tim Drake-Wayne” to unsettle them, after all he’s a Drake why is he acting clumsy? they’ve seen him when he was younger and he was the spitting image of perfect. it makes more sense to them when he trips and lands right where he can tell them something no one else can hear. “Timothy Drake” is what scares them though. the tim that casually whispers secrets no one else knows, who points out someone they’re supposed to have a “private meeting with” in a week. who has nearly cause several of them to go broke with such simple actions, and the only reason they didn’t was cause he let them stay rich. there was one elite who insulted damian near tim and suddenly said elite had to get an apartment in crime alley, pay his now ex-wife, a kid he had with some random person, and several debts

the fact that lex luther and tim are some kind of friends also doesn’t make them feel super great but that’s another issue

[ty-talks-comics]

Best of DC: Week of July 31st, 2019

Best of this Week: Batman: Last Knight on Earth #2 - Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo, Jonathan Glapion, FCO Plascencia and Tom Napolitano

The last case Batman will ever solve, might just be his most terrifying.

Beginning with Batman confronting an older Joe Chill in the past over the dead child in Crime Alley that looks eerily similar to Bruce. Our hero kind of surprises and disarms him by removing all of the weapons he’s hidden around his apartment. Chill seems to have been expecting him, preparing what he calls an “end of an era feast” for Bruce, implying he knows his identity. To make matters even more interesting, he insinuates that he didn’t even kill the Waynes for Marth pearls and makes it seem like there was an even larger plan afoot than anyone realized.

Cutting back to the Nightmare future, Batman and Joker’s Head are taken by surprise as a Speed Force Storm tears through the desert. Never let it be said that Greg Capullo hasn’t been improving his skills at body horror because the tornado is terrifying. Consisting of the constantly shifting, twisting and stretched bodies of Barry Allen, Bart Allen, Jay Garrick and possibly others, the faces scream and cry for Bruce to help them. It’s a shocking and unsettling sight as one can almost hear the deafening cries of atom splitting agony that they’re going through. The deep red of the storm doesn’t help as it just makes things FAR more threatening than they need to be. Bruce and Joker sit in a cave for safety while Bruce laments that there is absolutely nothing that he can do to save them.

The pair continue on, hang gliding through the air, crossing over a base named Fort Waller. Joker tells Batman that originally it was the last bastion of hope, where Mr. Terrific, Dr. Sivana, Ivo and others could combine their knowledge with the powers of the new avatars of the Green and Red to repel those incensed by Luthor. Batman asks him what happens and Joker’s narration ends as they watch the battle. Unknown Soldiers fighting abominations of the Red in a hellish battle of blood and fire until a Swamp Thing appears from the crimson dust of their fight, no longer appearing to have any faculties or emotion other than: KILL.

The tone shifts as they reach an area known as the Plains of Solitude, seeming a mass of crystalline structures similar to Superman’s secret base. The cool blues of this area offer something of a safety in a book that has otherwise been overbearingly tense since it began. It doesn’t help that Joker’s been doing variations of “can I be Robin, are we there yet, and knock knock jokes the entire time. Bruce snaps that he could never be Robin because Robin was a good guy and who in this world was still like that? Pods shaped like Superman’s baby rocket start landing close to Bruce and Joker before the pair are saved by… Superman?

Or so we think, this “very talkative” (end sarcasm) Superman leads the pair to a farmhouse in the middle of the plains where a surprisingly alive and potentially insane Lex Luthor greets them. Batman, furious at the state of this world demands to know what happened, what did Luthor do? Luthor answers that he had a debate with Superman. What makes this so interesting is that, Luthor says that he knows that he should have lost. The stakes were such that, the loser would be impaled by spike of Kryptonite and Luthor, having almost crapped himself a speech mostly using platitudes from others in his own words, didn’t hold a candle to Ka-El… but in the end, Superman ends up skewered and the world goes to hell with him.

It begs the question of, what happened? Did all of the people just side with Luthor on impulse? Did something happen to sway them or was someone else manipulating things? Everything is speculation. Things are cut short, however as Bane and Scarecrow show up to punish Luthor and bring Batman to their new God, Omega. Bane appears to be absolutely rotting with venom as his veins are green and his skin is pale. Scarecrow looks absolutely scraggly with long, gnarled fingers with syringes at the end of his fingers. Scarecrow has poisoned the Superman clone and forces him to try and break the Bat.

Suddenly, as Superman lifts Batman above his head, a sword pierces his chest as it’s revealed that Wonder Woman has returned to save the Caped Crusader. The two are told to run away by Luthor, to save the world as he opens a portal for them and is summarily torn apart by other infected Superman Clones. 

We see the full extent of the utter destruction Luthor’s actions have caused as they land on the cloak of The Spectre. Wonder Woman tells Batman that the fighting eventually spilled over and destroyed both Heaven and Hell. It only makes sense, doesn’t it? The forces of magic are very powerful in the DC Universe. How much trouble would it take for a Mordru or Neron to tangle with Doctor Fate or Zatanna, culminating in the ruination of the afterlife, damning everyone to a non-existence at the end of everything?

They enter the cloak and take a ride down the River Styx. Diana tells Bruce that the voices of the dead will be calling out to him for sending them there. Capullo stuns with a double page spread of many of DCs biggest heroes, showing Batman the sheer weight of what his as-of-yet unknown role in Luthor’s scheme was. There are far too many to name, but I will say that I appreciate Capullo putting Kyle Rayner among those in the front. His deaths in many alt-stories will always irk me, but I do like seeing him recognized and put higher than Hal Jordan or even John Stewart.

Things take an even darker turn as Alfred shows up among the dead and Batman almost climbs out of the little boat, knowing that he just saw Alfred not too long ago and he and Wonder Woman make it to the real Gotham City with a cliffhanger and a surprising reveal at the end.

Last Knight on Earth pulls no punches when it comes to depicting a desolate world where Doom wins. I want to say that it’s almost dour to the point of being almost being hopeless and that’s exactly what I love. I adore how much is being packed into this story, how many references to the greater DC universe we’re getting. Capullo’s art is probably the best it has been in years and the quality of the writing is right on part with Dark Knights: Metal. It’s a righteous trip as Batman lugs the annoying head of the Joker around like a planet hopping adventure. It’s really fun and very dark.

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

The world needs more Swamp Thing stories.

Runner Up: Justice League Dark Annual #1 - James Tynion IV, Ram V, Guillem March, Arif Prianto and Rob Leigh

This annual was dark, far darker than most of the Justice League Dark tales so far because of how self contained it was and the sheer weight of the situation therein. Sure, it wasn't a world ending cataclysm like the one they just stopped, but that doesn't make it any less horrible. I'd never heard of Ram V before, but their storytelling, combined with Guillem March's art makes me feel like I've been pulled back into the old days of Vertigo.

Magic is broken. After Wonder Woman and Zatanna used the Ruby of Life to repair the damage they did to magic after defeating the Lords of Order, magic itself is repairing itself, but in a manner that throws the old rules out of the window.

Consequently, the Parliament of Trees has been destroyed and now Swamp Thing has no one to answer to as the new Parliament of Flowers is seeking a new champion. After confronting Constantine about coming on as a consultant for the League, the con-man convinces Swamp Thing to go on the search for the new Avatar before he loses his humanity like Swampy did. Swamp thing tries to act like he doesn't care, but goes off to find the man.

The story descends into something of a tragedy as we're introduced to Oleander Sorrel, a flower botanist, and his wife Natasha. 

What makes this story so great is that, like the best Swamp Thing stories, it focuses on other characters and their own personal situations. The pair suffer in a broken marriage after the death of their son which causes Natasha to leave Oleander and himself delving deeper into his work, later resulting in his death. He becomes the Avatar of Flowers, but refuses to let go of his humanity after Swamp Thing tries to convince him that he is no longer a man.

He seeks out his wife and watches over her until Jason Woodrue, a very old DC villain that really hasn't been seen since the early days of The New 52, whispers in Oleanders ear. Oleander listens and suddenly a boy that looks very close to their son appears at the door. Natasha is happy, then another child appears and another until Natasha is absolutely blind with love for her new kids.

But not all gifts are good. There's no way that Woodrue doesn't get something out of this himself. There's always an underlying plot and Swamp Thing manages to uncover what really happened to Oleander. The fire that killed him was actually a pool of caustic that he laid in his flower bed and kills himself in. Oleander did die in the pool, but his memory lived on in the flowers that he planted. This revelation stuns Oleander and the children he created out of flowers begin to dissipate. He grows weary, knowing that Swamp Thing was right and Woodrue manages to convince him to rest for a while before feasting upon his flower flesh, regaining his own connection to The Green.

This annual definitely fit the title. It was Dark, not only from a storytelling standpoint, but also visually. Natasha’s post crying face was heart wrenching to see and Gullem March squeezed every bit of emotion out of it that he could. Her lips quivered, her eye makeup ran just a bit and there was a hopelessness that could be felt. Oleander’s transformation was a beautiful kind of macabre with his appearance, composed entirely of flowers, looking very sinewy and skeletal at the same time. Colors are very warm, juxtaposed against an ever growing sense of dread that culminated in the most haunting scene of Oleander growing more and more flower children. The shot is perfect as Oleander is shown to be a hapless man whose only intent is to make his wife happy, but his methods are horrifying almost wrong.

When the children begin to disappear following the revelation, light is shown on them while the background remains dark. Their petals waft away with the night winds as Natasha has to watch in horror, likely to be absolutely broken by the experience of losing her kids. Woodrue eating Oleander afterwards, however, is brutal. The color shifts to a deep red and Woodrue furiously munches on the flowers, gnawing and tearing his way into Oleander’s body and emerging as a new creature unto himself.

I haven’t been able to find anything about this Ram V person, but I want to read more of their work. This book was absolutely stunning and I hope that it does well enough to warrant another Swamp Thing mini-series or full run. Amidst the cancellation of the show after just one season, it’s definitely something the world needs more of. This story was chilling, well paced and had a great focus on someone else while keeping it’s main star tangential as he should be in things like these. This is a definite high recommend from me.

[blookmallow]

whos up for a 

✨COMPLICATED LUMENIA LORE POST ✨

i know, i know, try to contain the excitement

theres... a big spoiler in here but i cant figure out how to talk about this without it lmao so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ i dont think it rly matters to anyone anyway but the section its in is marked. this is still a work in progress but here it is anyway

All soul collectors (and familiars) have two alignments: life or death and light or darkness 

these do Not mean “good” and “evil” however, and all collectors have some connection to them all (and magic can be learned, as well)

--

Life aligned are often immensely powerful, but at times difficult to control without proper focus and discipline. They have high stamina and heal quickly, often have skill with healing and protection magic. Often have very high magic levels. They are often able to create small forms of life, with lesser sentience - such as Venus’s plants, Chris’s robots, Mayzie’s sugarsprites, etc. Shuri is an exception - she is a Death aligned, but studied extensively under Mother’s guidance and has learned (and even mastered) Life magic. Life magic at that level (creating forms of life) is inaccessible to humans, though some Antis in very rare circumstances can use it (though creating sentience is only possible to soul collectors). Lumeni who are not soul collectors often have life magic as well, but do not have the power that soul collectors have. Creating little motes to help out around the house (which disappear after a while) is a fairly common ability, but creating a lasting, real living creature with sentience would not be possible for those who are not soul collectors. 

Death aligned generally cannot make life (at least not without extensive training), but are very perceptive and empathetic, often skilled in divination and prone to visions or premonitions. They are very good at communicating with the dead - all soul collectors can do this, of course, and all can see ghosts (thats. Their Job) but Death aligned are particularly good at it, and often will pick up lost or abandoned souls that were not claimed by their collectors (either through unusual circumstances, negligence, or whatever the case may be) or will take over for others when dealing with particularly volatile souls. Souls of children are often transferred to Death aligned as well. Humans with Death magic in them can almost always see (or at least sense) ghosts. Premonitions and visions are common as well, often stronger in Antis. Most Antis can see or sense ghosts regardless of alignment, but Death aligned will have greater skill (and a better sense for the situation - a Death aligned Anti or human will be much more likely to figure out what an angry spirit wants, while a Life aligned might be able to see it, but not know what it is trying to communicate). Death aligned tend to have a higher comprehension of Time and Mortality. 

i havent sorted out Light and Dark as clearly yet, but 

Light energy is very strong and focused; can be difficult to control, especially in children, but can become highly powerful when used correctly. Often very physical, such as manipulating environments or elements. not well defined yet

Dark energy is chaotic and often destructive, frequently involves psychic abilities or altering the flow of time in small ways. also not well defined yet. probably even more undefined right now, :’) 

---

All soul collectors have these alignments, again, they all have a little of everything but will naturally be drawn to one side or the other in both aspects, and the abilities they have also depends a lot on what they study and what they practice. 

Familiars will almost always have the same alignment as their masters, but often will mirror in one aspect and have different tendencies in the other (like, SC has Light/Death, familiar has Light with Life tendencies, etc), and the souls in a collector’s possession will often have traces of the same alignments as their collector. this manifests in really weird ways with antis sometimes. more on that later

Soul collectors are born from eggs that form in an underground spring, drawn from the magic in the planet’s core (which is why their magic levels are so much higher than anyone else on their planet - other Lumeni bear children the same as humans. They are deeply affected by the planet’s core, but not born from it) 

there’s a lot of debate as to whether this is a strictly natural occurrence, or if the core has some kind of sentient will to intentionally create the eggs (or, if this core is possibly controlled by some higher being) (or if the core IS a higher being)

the First Egg was a twin egg - a single egg containing two collectors (and their two familiars), this being Rachna and Shivari (who would later come to be known as the Great Mother)

these two represent a perfect balance of the alignments - Rachna as Death and Darkness, Shivari as Light and Life. Again, not “good and evil” - there’s no evil twin (and they’re not remotely identical either lmao) and no conflict between them, they work Together, always, neither of them ever takes action without consulting the other first 

their familiars mirror them, “Muffin” is also Death/Darkness, and Jacinda is also Light/Life

Twin eggs are not exactly “siblings” the way humans think of them - they can look drastically different and have very different powers/attributes/skills, but will usually see themselves as akin to siblings 

Shivari created, over time, all the plant life on Lumenia. the legend goes that she also created all the animals and the first Lumeni themselves, but she won’t confirm it either way. she probably did not create the lumeni, though, in any case

Lumeni look up to her as their high queen, and some worship her as a mother goddess as well; she has temples across the planet 

Rachna is said to be the first to have realized the ability to create Underworlds and the whole system of soul collection and judgement. The extent to which this is actually true is unclear, but probably more likely than the “mother created lumeni” theory.

*** this is the part where the spoilers happen ***

the second egg was another twin egg - this time containing an unbalanced pair: Kadri and Nahbi. Kadri is a necromancer - she is simultaneously Life and Death at once, with Dark energy. Nahbi was Death aligned, with both Light and Dark at once, and therefore incredibly powerful, but very, very dangerous though he never intended to be. 

Nahbi is dead. The story goes that he was murdered by an Anti, but the truth may be that he was in fact destroyed by his own power (which destroyed his familiar in the process, and destroyed the Anti’s body). He has a statue in the tomb beneath Mother’s temple garden, but is rarely ever spoken of now. Kadri cannot talk about him without getting extremely distressed. Not many people know about him at all. 

after that, the core produced another egg - this time, the first single egg, containing Kali and Dasa, a Death/Darkness aligned pair, though Kali has some light tendencies as well. This is said to have been the universe attempting to rebalance itself again after the last egg. They were the first born without a twin, which possibly may have influenced their eventual decision to join together - a sense of missing a twin that never was. 

*** ok the spoilers are over ***

Shivari, Rachna, Kadri, and Kalidasa are known today as “The Ancient Ones.” They are the only collectors hatched from single eggs forming one at a time - after this, the core began producing batches of several eggs at once in varying amounts, now referred to as “cycles.” The new cycles are highly varied and much more balanced, though twin eggs have become increasingly rare. 

----

alignments and notes about them if i have them but this is already getting to be way longer than it needs to be. also some mentions of their souls where i remember them bc i dont want to look up who everyone was assigned to right now lmao

Shivari (”Mother”) || Life/Light --- Jacinda || Life/Light

- Bee and Dan are both Mother’s souls, both tending toward Life/Light too 

Rachna || Death/Darkness --- (the unspeakable name only the ancients can pronounce) (”Muffin”) || Death/Darkness

- Lex has a high Death alignment; he’s good with ghosts and has a very strong sense for bad vibes and such. sometimes gets premonitions about things, not straight up visions of the future but just strong “I really should not do this” or “something bad is going to happen if I do that” or “there’s bad energy in here something really bad happened here” senses. his origin has it too but denies it violently and thinks its influences of the devil - which might be why lex trusts it and embraces it, as her opposite

Kadri || Life-Death/Darkness --- Skrab || Death / Darkness 

Kadri is an exception: she has a command of both Life and Death. Her powers are in fact weak necromancy - she can’t literally bring someone back from the dead (though it might not be impossible), but she can reanimate corpses and create skeletal minions with lesser forms of sentience. any zombies or skeletons she creates do not have souls and will just go back to being dead once she stops powering them, they’re basically just puppets, but a lot of collectors (especially Death aligned) think this is a complete abomination just on principle. kadri does not care. she has not spent any time honing her Death magic skills, so her ability with time/divination/etc is basically nonexistent even though the potential is there

- kadri’s souls tend to be especially chaotic because of that power imbalance and that’s why we have people like laelia 

Kalidasa || Death/Darkness

Venus || Life/Darkness --- Dahlia || Death/Darkness

Celina || Death/Darkness with some Light tendencies --- Cesare || Death/Darkness 

Shuri || Death/Light, with Life tendencies brought out through study --- Stasia || Life/Light

- dreyden has death alignment but is completely oblivious to it. he could probably see a ghost but wouldn’t notice it at all, or wouldn’t notice it was a ghost. he thinks he just has really bizarre luck sometimes and has no idea whatsoever that its often actually premonition - “i got off at Brookton because i just felt like it i guess, i dunno” actually ended up being the place he met his future boyfriend, made the best friends he’s ever had, finally found a place to live, etc, but he would never even consider “I had a premonition about this place” as like, even a Possibility 

- Skye seems like the last person you’d expect to have a Death alignment but he actually definitely does; he’s incredibly empathetic and sensitive to the energy and emotions around him, he can see ghosts, he’s had actual direct prophetic dreams before, he trusts instincts when he gets them because they’re usually right. He also has a very high Light affinity. this manifested COMPLETELY backwards with damian, possibly Because skye’s alignment is so solid and strong - damian’s powers are literally darkness, and despite being a piece of shit murderer obsessed with death, he actually has basically no skill with Death magic at all. he’s barely aware of ghosts. he acts on impulse and self interest, he ignores Vibes and Energy because he feels he’s above it and knows best himself regardless. he has No empathy. he loves to kill but he does not understand death. he doesn’t see himself as a person who can die. the dead want nothing to do with him

Chris || Life/Light --- Phoebe || Life/Light

chris doesn’t seem to match his alignment - telekinesis seems like it’d be a Dark magic, but it’s actually highly physical, you can actually see it manifesting as light in his eyes when he uses it, and it’s all about physically manipulating objects in his environment. He cares very deeply about his souls and has learned to communicate well with the dead, but struggles to connect emotionally in a way that makes sense to others around him. He cares fiercely, intensely, with everything in his being; he stores collected souls in a mechanism he integrated in with his own actual physical heart, but he has a very difficult time expressing and showing it, so he still often comes across as distant and emotionally oblivious, especially to Death aligned people 

- Gavin and Kayzee both have strong Light tendencies too. kayzee especially is a definite Life person 

Mayzie || Life/Darkness with some Light tendencies

mayzie is very very very bad at Death magic, which is. probably a big reason she dropped out of her training

[markoftheasphodel]

Heheh... FE/Polar Explorers AU. ;)

YOU WENT THERE.

So, Sir Sigurd Chalphy, star of the Royal Navy, sets off on a grand “scientific” mission to Antarctica with the not-so-secret goal of getting to the pole. Meanwhile, renowned explorer Arvis Velthomer, a man so ruthlessly efficient he’s eaten his own sled dogs, embarks on a scientific expedition to the frozen North.

Sir Sigurd’s expedition uses both dogs and ponies and they’re not planning to eat them. Anyway, Sigurd bids his wife and baby son goodbye and heads south with a merry crew that includes his BFF Dr. Quan Claus as second-in-command, the esteemed scholar Reverend Claud and a colorful bunch that includes a few well-born kids with sketchy credentials who happened to pony up funds for the expedition. Anyway, they go down to do some Science, which involves stealing the eggs from penguins thought to be the most primitive birds alive (they’re not) and a Missing Link and generally important. This egg stealin’ almost kills the three youngsters assigned to it, including young Azelle Velthomer, the frail but gifted half-brother of Arvis. Sigurd feels terrible about this and resolves to take special care of Azelle. He turns over some of Azelle’s scientific duties to Quan’s protege Finn, who is mostly there to handle the ponies but the ponies keep getting eaten by leopard seals. Finn takes very good notes, including notes on how the ponies get eaten by leopard seals.

Meanwhile, halfway on his journey north, Arvis and his small crew turn 180 degrees and head south. He does not report this intention to his backers or to the public.

With the Science part successfully accomplished, Sigurd’s party splits up. Azelle and a few others who aren’t faring well are sent home via ship. Sigurd, Quan, and three other especially fit individuals including Azelle’s BFF Lex are selected for the journey overland to the Pole, and Finn and a couple of others including Reverend Claud and Lewyn stay behind at the base camp to replenish the supply depots and to greet Sigurd et all on their triumphant return.

Before Sigurd & co leave, they receive a polite telegram:

“BEG TO INFORM YOU PROCEEDING TO ANTARCTIC - VELTHOMER”

Sigurd feels betrayed but puts a happy face on it. He and his chosen few embark with some of the remaining healthy ponies and some dogs to pull their sledges. The journey out isn’t bad, but they arrive to find Velthomer’s standard at the Pole. They’ve been beaten by a matter of weeks.

This saps the party of a necessary spark to keep going. The weather takes an unexpected turn for the worse, even by polar standards. It prevents the crew at the base camp from reaching the supply depots and holds Sigurd and his men back when they’ve no time to spare. Their rations don’t replenish their strength even when eaten generously and the first supply depot they come across is as empty as they left it. Chulainn slips on the ice, deteriorates and dies. Jamke, unable to walk anymore, makes the noble decision to low-key slip out and perish alone so as not to hold the other three back. It’s for nothing, as Sigurd, Quan, and Lex die in their tent during the raging blizzard, only a few miles out from the nearest full depot. Sigurd writes a bunch of inspirational notes he hopes will be found by someone, someday.

When the weather lifts, Finn, Lewyn and the Reverend are able to reach Sigurd’s tent at last and find the horrible sight of their leader frozen solid, surrounded by letters, journals, and fossils, and his dead companions. It’s impossible to retrieve any of the bodies and so they’re left there, with a memorial cairn that’ll be covered by ice one decade at a time.

None of Sigurd’s notes include “Arvis Velthomer is a right dastard” but he was probably thinking it.

Back home, Azelle researches the penguin eggs and finds them to be scientifically worthless. Claud’s eyesight and health are permanently ruined by what he experienced and he spends the remainder of his life looking for the spiritual meaning of what the hell happened down there. Lewyn second-guesses himself for the rest of his own life as to whether it was cowardice or prudence that kept them from forging ahead to replenish the depots– but he also discovers their rations were nutritionally deficient, only producing 50% of the energy they all needed to survive. Finn broods about it and then writes a stomach-churning doorstop of a book about how it was all the Worst Thing Ever, not to be read by anyone fond of ponies.

Arvis, conquerer of the South Pole, marries Sigurd’s widow and has a lovely family with her. As for Sigurd, the debate over whether he was the purest hero of exploration ever or a noble bungler rages for more than a century.

[davidmann95]

So by the end of Justice League, the team’s not only gotten together, but it’s made clear that unlike the whole “they’ve gone their separate ways until the world needs them to get back together” deal the Avengers initially had, they’ll be formally gathering on a regular basis at Wayne Manor as a proto-Hall of Justice/Watchtower. Neat! Quick question:

What are they actually gonna do there?

This isn’t a rhetorical question. Nor is it an attempt at poking holes in the premise, as it is when I point out the concept behind the Suicide Squad as presented in these movies is dumb on no less than three major levels. I’m genuinely fascinated. Obviously there’s the immediate post-Steppenwolf Russian cleanup, some introductions to be made between each other and to the world, political discussions (debating how much to intervene on a global scale, Superman inevitably pointing out - if the continuity of the previous movies still holds at least tenuously true - that people are going to start looking askance at them again when the post-world saving euphoria wears off, etc) sweeping to make sure no Parademons stuck around, and so forth. But once that initial stuff is out of the way, and prior to all the rogues galleries eventually popping up and aliens attacking Earth twice a month to keep them busy...like, literally, what’s their job as a group?

As far as anyone knows, Steppenwolf was the one who would have brought about the dark future Batman foresaw (hell, maybe he was), so they have no reason in particular to worry about Darkseid being a thing. Superman and potentially Flash are the only global crime-fighters (Batman’s local, Aquaman does his own thing, Diana mostly seems to deal with stuff as it becomes known to her through the news rather than actively seeking danger out, Cyborg doesn’t seem like a dude who’d go ‘on patrol’ or whatever) and they could totally take care of 99% of what’s thrown at them with no issue, so there’s not much coordination on that front to figure out, or even a ton of relevant information-sharing to be done. Batman doesn’t seem interested in moving against the Suicide Squad unless provoked. Lex breaking out of Arkham is a concern given he knows who they are and they’d keep an eye open for him, but they don’t have reason to think he’s a global threat when he hasn’t had the necro-technology of a doomed spacefaring utopia dropped in his lap by the government; as far as they know, he’s just a brainy paranoid rich dude who now doesn’t have access to most of his money or resources. And since he hasn’t assembled the Legion of Doom yet, there’s no real reason to think there’s many if any public supervillains at all yet (as opposed to costumed criminals), so they don’t have anyone to fight who’d require all six of them.

Do they just hang out then? Tidy up and decorate the manor to make their workspace a little cheerier? Swap stories about wacky ways they’ve taken down high-rise bankrobbers? Head out to bars and have Alfred interact with them by radio to try and trick Bruce into meeting some nice Gotham guy or gal to give Pennyworth those grandkids he’s visibly just begging for? Do they take minutes of their non-discussions (is Flash their secretary)? Do research projects on one another to try and figure out how their freaky powers work? Get high and have late-night movie marathons where someone inevitably starts asking if Superman’s technically a zombie? Put together wedding stuff for Lois and Clark, and collectively try to figure out an alibi for Clark not being WAY dead? Does Barry bunk there since Bruce doesn’t want him living illegally in a filthy warehouse, and he and Alfred bond over stories about Bruce’s other kids over the latter’s cooking? Does Diana take them on a tour of the museum she works at? Does Victor get shipments of Waynetech delivered to the front door so he can try out new doodads and attachments since he can’t just head out in public to buy them, and Bruce or Alfred have to come up with excuses? Do Martha Kent and Silas Stone get invited to League cookouts along with Lois?

We can assume all manner of Injustice Gangs and Starros and Crime Syndicates and Amazos and other assorted threats await them one day, but I’m genuinely kind of fascinated by the idea of an early-days Justice League that’s already saved the world and doesn’t have anything on the immediate horizon demanding their attention, but they’ve committed to getting together anyway, so all the six most powerful beings on Earth can really do is tool around and become pals while they wait for trouble to show up meriting their collective involvement. I don’t usually solicit fanfiction, but if anybody who likes doing that is inspired by this, I’d be really curious to see your take on that whole weird implied status quo.

[gokinjeespot]

off the rack #1315

Monday, March 1, 2021

 Hi folks. Long time no write.

 I have been mostly isolating at home during the pandemic trying to keep myself and my family safe from Covid-19. I do go out and walk around our neighbourhood to get fresh air and exercise. I don't wear a mask outdoors like I do when I absolutely have to go into somewhere other people will be, like the drug store or my dentist's office. I get anxious when people come too close to me masked or not, but I also get angry when there is plenty of space to keep a safe distance and people don't move away. I have verbally admonished someone for being too close but have decided that I will keep my big mouth shut from now on and just get away from them myself. I don't know if I can keep my trap shut if I was confronted by the guy my brother did at work. This young guy came into the liquor store wearing a mask with a swastika on it. That would make me very angry. Angry enough to confront him? I don't know. I would like to be brave enough to ask him "are you for real with that mask?". Or "are you a Nazi?"…"you know the Nazis lost, right?". My brother would not serve him. It could have been worse though. That racist could have gone through his check-out without that ugly symbol on his mask and he wouldn't have known he was serving a bigot. I think it's better when you see them coming.

 My thanks to Doug for lending me his comic books to read.

 Daredevil #26 - Chip Zdarsky (writer) Marco Checchetto (art) with Mike Hawthorne (pencils) Adriano Di Benedetto (inks) Marcio Menyz (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters). This book may have been put into Doug's sub my mistake but it gave me a chance to catch up with what's happening with the Man Without Fear. This is part 1 of "The Black Kitchen" which ties into Marvel's "King in Black" mega event. Knull is now on Earth and is wreaking havoc. Kinda reminds me of the "Maximum Carnage" event back when I was reading on the regular. Here we have Venom symbiotes running amok in Hell's Kitchen. What I found interesting was the current situations of the main characters. Matt is in prison after being convicted of murder. He can still wear his mask to conceal his secret identity inside. Not true to life but hey, it's comic books. Elektra is now protecting Matt's turf as Daredevil and she's got super scary horns. Wilson Fisk is still mayor with Typhoid Mary as his head of security now. The big shocking ending is that symbiotes get into the prison and one bonds with Matt. Another symbiote bonds with Mary and she attacks Elektra. This sets up overwhelming odds for the good guys as any good comic book will do. Stay tuned.

 Action Comics #1028 - Brian Michael Bendis (writer) John Romita Jr. (pencils) Klaus Janson (inks) Brad Anderson (colours) Dave Sharpe (letters). Bendis closes out his run on this title with so much schmaltz you're going to need a shovel to get through it. Jimmy Olsen is the new owner of the Daily Planet. What the nique? Conner Kent goes to the farm team. Jonathan Kent goes back to the future and the Legion of Super-Heroes. I don't know if a new art team is going to come on board but I sure hope so.

 Detective Comics #1033 - Peter J. Tomasi (writer) Brad Walker (pencils) Andrew Hennessy (inks) Dave McCaig (colours) Rob Leigh (letters). The art on the first page with Batman and Robin tumbling in the foreground with flashback panels behind gave me goosebumps. It's why I will always love reading comic books. Batman beats Hush by giving him a good old fashioned beat down. The rest of the Bat Family is saved and Bruce can take a breather. Now that the Wayne fortune is lost to him I'm curious to see where Bruce ends up after he moves out of the mansion.

 Batman/Catwoman #2 - Tom King (writer) Clay Mann (art) Tomeu Morey (colours) Clayton Cowles (letters). The jumping back and forth in time is a little confusing for me but I really like this Black Label story. The relationship between these lovers is more than complicated especially where the Joker is involved.

 DC kicks off 2021 with a plethora of comic books taking their characters 10 years into the future with their "Future State" event. Doug decided to check out the following.

 Future State: Superman vs. Imperious Lex #1 - Mark Russell (writer) Steve Pugh (art) Romulo Fajardo Jr. (colours) Carlos M. Mangual (letters). The story opens with a meeting of the United Planets inner circle. They are debating the inclusion of the planet Lexor which is lorded over by Lex Luthor, the supreme anal pore that we all know and loathe. Lois Lane is Earth's representative and she votes to reject Lexor's membership until Superman lobbies to allow his arch foe's planet to join so that the poor inhabitants don't suffer from Lex's villainous ways. It's a morality tale of Unity, Progress and Compassion.

 Future State: Robin Eternal #1 - Meghan Fitzmartin (writer) Eddy Barrows (pencils) Eber Ferreira (inks) Adriano Lucas (colours) Pat Brosseau (letters). In this future Gotham City the Bat Family has been decimated. Bruce is dead, Dick is in Arkham and Jason now works for the law enforcement agency that killed Batman. No mention of where Damian is. I have a feeling that the son of Bruce will show up later as a big surprise. Tim's the last man standing and he's vowed to continue the tradition of keeping Gotham safe. Too bad he doesn't live long fighting against the super cybers. The last panel reveals why this book is called Robin Eternal. Hint: the Lazarus Pits are involved.

 Superman: Worlds of War #1 -  This $7.99 US anthology of four stories starts off on Earth and ends up on Warworld.

 "The Many Lives of Clark Kent" by Phillip Kennedy Johnson (writer) Mikel Janin (art) Jordie Bellaire (colours) & Dave Sharpe (letters) is my favourite one simply because I loved the art so much. This is where we find out why Superman is missing from Earth.

 "Time and Effect" by Brandon Easton (writer) Valentine De Landro (art) Marissa Louise (colours) & Dave Sharpe (letters) features the new Mister Miracle poking around Warworld. Why? We don't know. Guess we'll find out if we keep reading.

 "Midnighter: Future State" by Becky Cloonan & Michael W. Conrad (writers) Gleb Melnikov (art) Jordie Bellaire (colours) Travis Lanham (letters) has Midnighter running around creating a bloody mess everywhere. It could have just as easily been Lobo or Wolverine in this piece.

 Finally "Do Not Go Gently" by Jeremy Adams (writer) Siyam Oum (art) Hi-Fi (colours) Gabriela Downie (letters) features the new Black Racer trying to free the slave labour on Warworld. Unless you're a Jack Kirby Forever People fan you wouldn't care.

 As a fan of Mikel Janin's art I would have felt ripped off having to pay for the three fillers in this comic book just to have his work in my collection.

 Future State: Catwoman #1 - Ram V (writer) Otto Schmidt (art) Tom Napolitano (letters). Selina is still Catwoman ten years down the line as she attempts to rescue Gotham City citizens being transported to a reformatory by train. Similarities to Nazi behaviour is an easy way to make the bad guys evil. All the previous Batman related Future State books say that Batman is dead but this one has a surprise at the end. Hey, it's Bruce in shackles.

 Future State: Dark Detective #1 - Mariko Tamaki (writer) Dan Mora (art) Jordie Bellaire (colours) Aditya Bidikar (letters). This title blows the whole Bruce/Batman is dead plot device clear out of the water. I can see why the bad guys controlling Gotham City wants the populace to think that, but how are they going to keep up the charade when Batman is clearly running around fighting crime? I like that Batman has lost the cape in this one. This $5.99 US book has a back-up story by Matthew Rosenberg (writer) Carmine Di Giandomenico (art) Antonio Fabela (colours) & AndWorld Design (letters) that I liked even more than the feature. It follows Cole Cash AKA Grifter as he tries to dodge the law. He gets arrested and meets up with Luke Fox AKA Batwing and a whole lot of fun ensues. The Huntress showing up at the end makes this more appealing.

 Future State: Dark Detective #2 - Mariko Tamaki (writer) Dan Mora (art) Jordie Bellaire (colours) Aditya Bidikar (letters). This issue explains how Bruce Wayne/Batman "dies" and how Bruce continues to fight crime. I was disappointed that the back-up story didn't follow up on Grifter and Huntress but was a different story about Jason Todd/the Red Hood now working for the bad guys as a bounty hunter capturing masked vigilantes. It starts with him bringing in the Vigilante and ends with him teaming up with a ruthless Ravager to stop an old school Red Hood gang leader stealing from the rich to give to the poor. Rose has no qualms about killing their bounties but Jason brings them in alive, that's why their nickname is "dead or alive". Har. I like Jason's Akira bike.

[the-desolated-quill]

Justice League - Quill’s Quickies (No Spoilers)

Oh Warner Bros. You’ve really fucked up this time, haven’t you?

I’m sure we’ve all heard about the situation at the box office by now. Apparently Justice League only made $281 million worldwide during its opening weekend, which for any other movie would be great, but not for Justice League. You see the geniuses over at Warner Bros and DC decided to spend $300 million on the movie (that’s including the extensive reshoots directed by Joss Whedon). And if that’s not bad enough, according to some sources, the film’s extensive marketing brings the overall budget to somewhere in the realms of $450 million. The film is going to need to make at least $750 million in order to make any sort of profit. That is beyond stupid and judging by current figures, it looks as though the film is set to bomb big time. Whether the film is good or not is frankly immaterial at this stage. It’s going to flop. That’s practically a guarantee thanks to WB and DC getting too big for their fucking boots and spending a moronic amount of money on a film that was never guaranteed to be a hit. You’d think they’d have learnt their lesson after Batman V Superman. The fact that movies like Deadpool, Logan and even their own Wonder Woman became gigantic hits on relatively lower budgets should have given them just a little clue that maybe pouring the equivalent of Scrooge McDuck’s money bin into Justice League wasn’t a good idea. And now it looks as though the entire DCEU is in jeopardy as a result.

Let’s face it. Even if Justice League was a good movie, it would have struggled to make a profit on such a ridiculously massive budget like that. It was always destined for the cinematic graveyard no matter what Zack Snyder or Joss Whedon did. The fact that it’s crap just means the movie can now die faster.

Oh yeah. Justice League is crap. And when I say crap, I mean crap. (And please bear in mind this is coming from someone who actually enjoyed and defended Batman V Superman). Granted it’s not the worst movie I’ve seen. It’s not even the worst DC movie I’ve seen. That honour still goes to that misogynistic, wafer thin and utterly tone deaf piece of shit known as Suicide Squad, and while Justice League does share a few of the same problems with that movie, at least I didn’t feel unclean after I watched it. So hey. At least it has that going for it, right? But to say I left the cinema feeling disappointed would be an understatement.

So some random alien called Steppenwolf shows up to take over the Earth using these Mother Boxes. Who is Steppenwolf? I don’t know. What are the Mother Boxes? I don’t know. Why does he want to take over the Earth? I don’t know. This is literally all you’re getting I’m afraid. There’s not even any philosophical discussions or symbolic meaning to it like Man Of Steel and Batman V Superman had. When I say this is literally the entire movie, I mean LITERALLY. Some random alien we’ve never heard of shows up to grab some boxes that have never been mentioned before in previous movies and tries to take over the Earth because... he’s evil I guess. It’s so uninspired and so thin on the ground, you could have told me that Zack Snyder scribbled the entire script on the inside of a chocolate wrapper whilst he was on the toilet having a shit, and I would honestly believe you.

I’m sure some of you are objecting to me blaming Zack Snyder for all this, and I’m sure Joss Whedon deserves a lot of blame too, but honestly i’m past caring at this stage. Is Joss Whedon to blame for mucking about with Snyder’s vision, or is Snyder to blame for not better co-ordinating Whedon? I don’t know and I don’t care to know. We could debate for days whether it’s the organgrinder or the monkey who’s at fault, but at the end of the day the result is the same. The movie is crap and I’d rather neither of them were let near this franchise ever again.

This movie doesn’t even have any decent characters to fall back on. I suppose Ezra Miller’s interpretation of the Flash was okay. He provided a few genuine laughs and his Speed Force sequences do look pretty cool, even though they don’t in any way cover new ground because, you know, Quicksilver exists in the X-Men movies and his running scenes looked so much more impressive than this. i also quite liked Ray Fisher’s portrayal of Cyborg, and there are some genuinely touching moments at the beginning of the movie with his character. Beyond that, there’s basically nothing. Aquaman is by far the dullest character in the movie with no personality and is basically just the spare wheel. The film never takes advantage of his unique powers or the underwater setting, and he never gets any real moments where he stands out or comes into his own. You could literally replace him with Robin or Green Lantern or the Martian Manhunter, and it wouldn’t have made the slightest bit of difference. And as for Wonder Woman... Oh how the mighty have fallen. Remember when her solo movie broke new ground, doing away with a lot of the sexist tropes we normally see in these types of movies and became something truly unique and revolutionary? Well hope you enjoyed that while it lasted because here the sexist tropes are back with a vengeance. Wonder Woman is pretty much interchangeable with Lois Lane and Martha Kent because they all play the same role. The empathetic woman who props up the male heroes. The only thing that sets Wonder Woman apart is that she can fight, but not too well because God forbid she should steal the spotlight from Batman or Superman. 

And then of course there’s other sexist elements that I’m sure you’re all aware of by now. The Flash tripping over and comedically landing on Wonder Woman’s tits (LOL, a feminist icon has been reduced to a sexist punchline! How hilarious!) and of course the fact that most of the Amazonians seem to have scrapped their practical armour in favour of leather and/or metal bikinis (and to those people defending this saying that it’s historically accurate, fuck off. Seriously, just fuck off. This is a movie that claims that Amazonian warriors, merpeople, aliens and Gods had a massive war at some point in Earth’s prehistory. I’m pretty sure that’s not historically accurate, but suddenly the studio and filmmakers care about historical accuracy when it comes to how much bare naked flesh the sexy women warriors are showing in fight scenes? Fuck off. Your argument has the same whiff of bullshit as those idiots defending Suicide Squad’s romanticising of the Joker and Harley Quinn’s relationship by saying that it’s intentional because it’s from Harley’s point of view and that, if you turn your head to the side and squint hard enough, a few seconds of one particular scene could be interpreted as abusive. Look, we all like an underdog and i’m sure it must be hard to hear people constantly criticising your favourite franchise, but can we at least have the fucking spine to admit when they screw up? You just sound pathetic!).

But the absolute worst characters are Batman and Superman. Yeah we all knew he was coming back, so it’s not really a spoiler. And do you know what? I really wish Superman stayed dead. Because not only is the way they bring him back from the dead so contrived and so stupid, it also results in Batman’s character arc being regressed in order to justify this massive leap in logic. Remember in BVS when Batman became so paranoid and so controlling that his actions nearly resulted in catastrophe? Well the exact same thing happens here. In fact there are a few moments where he’s almost indistinguishable from Lex Luthor at points with his rhetoric, but the movie just wants you to conveniently ignore that. It’s okay. He’s a good guy, so it’s alright for him to be a hypocritical arsehole. So not only has Batman become a wisecracking fascist with a massive God complex, Superman has also become an insufferable dickhead. The reason why I liked Man Of Steel so much was because it got me to appreciate the character in a way I never had before. Justice League seeks to undo all of that by reminding me of all the reasons why I hated the character in the first place before I watched Man of Steel. He’s a ridiculously overpowered Mary Sue (or is it Gary Stu?) who can do no wrong, can beat up baddies effortlessly to the point where all threat and tension is chucked out of the window, and keeps stealing all the good scenes from other characters. Is the Flash about to prove his worth as a hero by saving a family? No it’s okay. Superman can do that. Is Wonder Woman going to avenge her fellow Amazonians by defeating Steppenwolf once and for all? No it’s okay. Superman can do that. Is Cyborg going to reclaim his humanity by saving the world? No it’s okay. Step aside Cyborg. Superman’s got this. Superman can do anything because he’s powerful and special and the bestest guy eveeeer.

So to all those people who were complaining about how much you hated Man of Steel because it ‘wasn’t your Superman. Boo hoo,’ I hope you’re pleased with yourselves. Sure they may have brought the entire franchise crashing down into a pile of rubble, but at least they ‘fixed’ Superman.

You can tell this movie is trying so hard to be like the Avengers, right down to the bullshit alien invasion story, but they forget what made Avengers Assemble so good. All the characters were well developed and likeable, each of them were given their own arc and they all evolved and bonded over the course of the movie. Justice League just pales in comparison. It gives the illusion that they’ve all bonded and evolved by the end, but they haven’t really. There were never any moments where they felt like real people or where they truly interacted and grew closer to each other over time. We never learn anything significant about them and I certainly don’t feel an overwhelming desire to see them all again in future films like I did after the first Avengers. I’m not necessarily saying each member of the League needed their own movie before a crossover, but there must be a better way of doing it than this.

So there you have it. Justice League. 10 years of production and approximately $450 million spent... and this is the result. A lifeless, shallow excuse for a movie with one dimensional characters, incompetent direction, and the realisation that all this buildup meant precisely jack shit in the end. Can the DCEU continue after this? Not in its current state, no. And if I’m being honest, I’d rather it didn’t.

[a-wayne-at-heart]

[Bruce & Dick Panels] New 52: Nightwing #30

I won’t go so far as to say that Dick Grayson is Bruce Wayne’s favorite son - let alone, child - because that will always be up for debate. After all, Bruce has a unique relationship with each of his children (biological or otherwise). 

However, I do think that, among the Robins, Dick has the most complex relationship with Batman, even by virtue of his long tenure alone. 

This set of panels from the New 52′s Nightwing #30 contains one of my favorite Bruce and Dick sequences because it give insight into their relationship as father and son. It’s one of the most dramatic (and brutal) ones I’ve read so far, but that’s part of what makes it memorable. 

So, for starters, a little context (with some spoilers):

We all know that Dick is the original Robin, the one who set the standard for the ones to come. When he was beaten up by Two Face, Bruce “fired” him out of fear of putting the boy’s life in danger again. Dick eventually “outgrew” his scaly green spandex shorts to become the Titans’ leader and  Blüdhaven’s protector, Nightwing.

As Nightwing, Dick’s a young adult who’s wise beyond his time and remains unbroken by all the trauma he’s faced. He also has a more “mature” confidence about him and often speaks to Batman as an equal (always with some level of affection and respect, though), something he’s earned over the years. Thus, it’s no surprise that, in over 75 years of partnership, they often butt heads over matters of principle. (Which fandom has tackled extensively in meme form.)

But this time (at the risk of oversimplification), we’re shown a fight between a child who put himself in harm’s way and a father who (quite harshly) reprimands him for it out of love.

Backstory: During the events of the Forever Evil story arc, the Crime Syndicate’s Superwoman reveals Nightwing’s civilian identity to the world, and everyone (except for Batman and Lex Luthor) thinks he’s killed. In the aftermath, Bruce sends him on a mission to infiltrate Spyral by posing as an agent. So, how did Bruce talk Dick into doing it? Read on.

“We need to do it again. You and me. I need to see if they broke you. I need to see if you still have the heart you once had.”

“I trained you to live, and I watched you die!”

Like a frustrated father, Bruce pushes Dick to toughen up. (He knew his son could take it. Or, well, that he had to.)

“Fight like you’re alive!”

Like a son afraid of disappointing his father again, Dick obeys and puts up a fight. (See that smirk on the second panel below? That’s the smirk of a father who knows that his son can surpass him and is proud of it.)  

“They’re family! My family! I can’t do it to them... I just can’t.”

Now, while Bruce tells him about Spyral mid-battle, Dick is still trying to absorb the fact that Bruce is asking him to keep pretending to the rest of their family that he’s still dead.

They both hear each other, but refuse to listen. One is decided that their best option is to transform the situation into an opportunity to keep their family and other superheroes safe, over the emotional cost; the other, unwilling to break the trust that bonds them in the first place. This shows their fundamental difference in character: Bruce’s judgment is ruled by his pragmatism, while Dick’s, his sentimentality. 

At any given time, neither of them is completely right or completely wrong. When they argue, the writers usually give them both a valid point of view. As an audience, we’re drawn to how they balance each other out, which was the main purpose the Robin character was created in the first place. 

“We fall because someone pushes us. We get back up to push back.”

A son who feels betrayed by his father...

“I know I’m hurting you. My family. I’m making that sacrifice because I don’t give up. I don’t give in.”

A father who acknowledges it, but stands firm with his decision...

In Forever Evil, Bruce is clearly shaken when he thinks he’s lost Dick. (What’s that saying about how parents aren’t supposed to outlive their children?) He obviously can’t “fire” Dick anymore and he knows he can’t rein him in from crime-fighting either, so he mentors him one more time instead.

Bruce expects Dick to be the best man he can be and trusts him to be more resilient than other superheroes because, not only is it how Bruce and Alfred raised him to be, but it’s also how he naturally is. And, Bruce is desperate to equip him to be just that because he knows it’s possible with this son of his.  

When I first read this issue, it broke my heart. Bruce seemed heartless, but he was actually focused on the bigger picture, which is true to his character. It was the sacrifice-a-few-for-the-good-of-the-rest spiel. Sometimes it’s almost as if he’d rather his children hate him and outlive him, than die on his watch.

As hurtful as it was, Dick relented and eventually became Agent 37. This from a man who has shown many times over the years that he’s fully capable of choosing his own path in spite of Bruce’s influence. That’s how much he loves and trusts Bruce.  

(Granted, perhaps DC just wanted to take espionage for a spin, but still.) 

Bruce isn’t a perfect parent. Dick isn’t a perfect son. (Far from it.) Well, who is, anyway? But, every bone that broke that day made it clear how much they cared about each other.

Talk about “tough love”, huh?

This is about as interesting a segue as you can get into Grayson, really, which in itself deserves a separate post. It was an awesome series and Dick was really in his element in it. Plus, there are some brief, but beautiful Bruce and Dick moments in it, too. 

[theexperiment-hq-blog]

Sample App - Lex Luthor, played by Admin Lex

OOC Info

Name: Lex

Age: 21

Pronouns: she/her

Triggers: (redacted)

Second Choice Character: N/A

Discord: (redacted)

IC Info

Muse Name and Alias: Lex Luthor

What is your primary canon(s) for this character? Smallville through s3, though I don’t care much for the particulars, just the friendship between Lex and Clark is mostly what I’m after, and of course Lionel. After this it becomes simplified pre-nu52 comics canon. Lex’s views on Superman and his ideals/beliefs are taken from the Lex Luthor: Man of Steel comic.

Approximate Age: 50

OTPs, BroTPs, NoTPs:

OTP: Lex/Clark, big time, although I am more than happy to play it onesided, which is just as fun. Other ships I have are Lex/Bruce, Lex/Dick, Lex/Oliver--basically, I’ll just pair him up with any of the male heroes.

BroTP: Lex/Diana, Lex/Mercy, Lex/Kara, and I love having Lex play father to Kon. Lex becoming part of the superfam in general is something I’m weak for.

NoTP: Nothing in specific, though I do play Lex as gay so ships involving ladies are out.

Give us a bulletpoint outline for what your character’s history might look like:

Lex was born into the extremely wealthy (but new money) Luthor family, son of business mogul Lionel Luthor and his wife Lillian.

When he was 9, in Smallville on a business trip with his father, Lex was caught in the same meteor shower that brought Kal-El down to Earth.  Lex, a sick and asthmatic child, was all at once cured after the meteor shower, though he lost all his hair from exposure to the Kryptonite radiation. It wouldn’t be until much later, doing his own research on his condition in his 20s, that Lex realized the exposure to the radiation had also caused him to become a metahuman. Lex’s abilities are quiet and easy to hide: A superhuman immune system and increased healing factors. As of being abducted, only one person (Jason Todd) is aware that Lex is a metahuman.

No longer the perfect Luthor heir, Lex was regarded with disinterest by Lionel (who hadn’t established a particularly fatherly relationship with Lex before, either) and somewhat discarded once Lionel found out Lillian was pregnant again.

Shortly after Lillian gave birth to Lex’s brother Julian, she realized Lionel’s true intentions--to eventually pit the two brothers against each other for who would get to be the true Luthor heir. Terminally ill herself, and afraid that once she was gone there would be no one to protect Lex, she smothered Julian in his crib, reasoning it was better to have one dead son than two sons damaged and tormented by their father. Lex, once he realized what happened, told Lionel he killed Julian by accident, in order to protect his mother.

After Lillian and Julian were gone, Lionel had no choice but to raise Lex as his heir.

Excelling in his schoolwork, Lex graduated high school at 16 and went off to Princeton to study chemical and biological engineering (Lionel was, predictably, not impressed with his son’s desire to be a scientist instead of a businessman).

Admittedly, Lex did much more partying than attending class, quickly spinning out of control. He never failed a class, but... also had to spend two months in rehab after an overdose.

Lionel decided, five years later, that enough was enough and forced 21 year old Lex to come back to Kansas. Not to Metropolis, like Lex had assumed, but to be exiled to boring, middle of nowhere Smallville to run a LuthorCorp fertilizer plant as a punishment, Lionel having hopes that Lex might… shape up a little.

Upon arriving in Smallville, however, Lex wasted no time in accidentally crashing his Porsche into the river—only to be pulled out and resuscitated by a teenage boy, whose name happened to be Clark Kent.

Lex and Clark became fast friends, despite disapproval from both of their fathers, and despite Lex’s nagging feeling that Clark had been keeping secrets, lying to him all along. He set out, naturally, in search of the truth—was Clark one of the superhuman mutants that plagued the town due to the mysterious meteor shower? Was he something else entirely? Lex became obsessed. With Clark, with  the meteor rocks, with the super powers, obsessed with finding out the truth, and it was this obsession coupled with Clark’s need to protect his own secret at any costs that tore their friendship apart, as close as they had become.

Lex returned to Metropolis three years later, and took up a vice presidency at LuthorCorp while finishing his studies at Metropolis University. For the next few years he focused his energy on quietly expanding his own sphere of interest in LuthorCorp with the intention of dethroning Lionel, whose business practices had become a little too unsavory for Lex’s liking, and who also had no intention of handing the business over to his son.

One boardroom coup later, a livid Lionel Luthor was removed from his position as CEO and forced into an early retirement. Lex rebranded the company as LexCorp and cleaned up business practices considerably. It was around this time that the costumed entity the newspapers dubbed ‘Superman’ surfaced in Metropolis.

Where the citizens of Metropolis saw a savior, Lex saw the destruction of human potential. As Lex understood, it was the drive to be mythic that inspired greatness. It was inherently dangerous when something real became mythic, that we then lose the part of ourselves that yearns to be great. Because when faced with a myth? We can’t win.

The Justice League formed not too long after, and Lex found himself threatened by not only the Alien, but an entire organized council of superhuman beings that thought they had the right to govern humanity’s decisions, stifling the potential of mankind to rise up and handle any obstacle thrown at them. The League, Lex was certain, would mean the accidental destruction of the common man. A council of superhumans and aliens could not be trusted with this sort of power. Mankind, Lex maintained, should be responsible for itself. This was the main reason for his descent into supervillainy, and all his schemes to date have been directly targeted at the heroes, with as little civilian involvement as possible. There are risks Lex cannot afford to take.

Lex has also kept his name impeccably clean in the public eye. Lex being a supervillain is not common knowledge.

His most recent project is complicated to describe, and Lex won’t define it himself if asked. The Justice League, of course, assumes Lex was attempting to create a superweapon, cloning Superman like that. Lex disagrees with the word cloning, seeing as his DNA was also in the mix, but... how do you explain that this was one fucked up, last ditch effort to have a family? Anyway, a father-son supervillain team sounds stupid when you say it out loud. Lex lets them think what they want.

Interview

What would it take for you to switch sides? (hero to villain; villain to hero; neutral to either)

Lex laughs, actually laughs, and it’s silvery rather than malicious. There’s a knowing edge to his easy smile. He leans back, relaxed, amused rather than hostile--as he’s sure some of his villainous peers would be.

“You know, I don’t think the allegiance lines are as clear cut as they would have you think.” It’s just a touch dismissive. They, like a curse, it falls from his lips scornfully. “Their side has stooped to heinous acts too, haven’t they? Is it so hard to think those of us who oppose them are capable of good, too?”

If you ask Lex, nearly everything he does is good. Still, he plays along.

“If the world were in danger, I suppose. I couldn’t see myself not stepping in to protect my fellow man. It’s a shame, isn’t it, how often mankind gets caught in the crossfire of their cosmic disputes?”

And as playful as his tone is, there’s something hard and sharp underneath too.

How would you describe yourself? How would your friends describe you? How would the public describe you?

This is an easy one. He’s answered the same question dozens of times, magazine interview upon magazine interview, how does one define the famous Lex Luthor?

“Ruthless,” he throws out carelessly, that smile still playing at his mouth. Lex rarely looks out of place, never uncomfortable, never phased, never anything but put together and prepared for anything.

He’s a good actor. He has his dad to thank for that. Don’t get caught, don’t cause a scandal was the unofficial motto in the Luthor house, and Lex still finds himself repeating the words decades and decades later.

“I’m sure that’s one you’d hear from any side. Charismatic. Powerful. Intelligent. A gifted strategist. Sexy, if you read the magazine spreads,” and there’s another laugh here. “Of course, if you ask the Alien, I’m sure the description would run the gambit of morally corrupt, megalomaniac, power hungry. And several things it wouldn’t be polite to repeat. I won’t pretend not to be any of those things, but I’d also agree with the public assessment.”

If you could gain any superpower/swap your superpower for another, what would it be and why?

Swap your power for another? Well, if it were up to Lex, he’d have no power at all, as dependent as he’s become on his superhuman healing. He toys with the question in his head, debates on just flatly saying he wouldn’t take a superpower, but...

“I’ve always wondered what it’s like to fly,” Lex settles on finally, an odd tone to his voice, a shadow over his words. “When I was younger, I thought it would be the best thing. You read the comic books too, right? There was that superhero they milked the hell out of, Warrior Angel, and what kid doesn’t look up to some fictional hero and want cool superpowers like theirs? It’s funny, looking back on it. Kill your darlings, or so the phrase goes. Now, I’m more curious what it is he sees, looking down on this world like God above men.”

What is a secret you have never told someone?

This question gives him pause. Lex doesn’t particularly like giving away his secrets, but then, who does? Fine, he’ll throw them a bone. There’s a lot he could say without saying too much, omitting names and dates and identifying details.

“You know how they say you never forget your first love?” And any lingering genuine humor is gone from Lex’s voice now, just an amused sort of ruefulness lingering. “Would you believe I’m still hung up on mine, thirty years later? Maybe it’s the idea of him.” Actually, Lex is pretty sure that’s exactly it. When Lex thinks of him, it’s as that fifteen year old boy, certainly not the Alien.

Lungs full of water; a smile like the scorching sun glinting off the river; golden corn fields as far as the eye can see.

“I was in my twenties, he was a teenager. Our fathers hated each other. We were from completely different walks of life. All excellent reasons not to say anything about it, and I never did, but at the time I used to think I would have followed him anywhere, I would have done anything to keep him, even if it was just as a friend. Made it hurt like hell when he turned his back on me.”

If there was one choice in your past you could change, what would it be?

Lex’s eyes narrow slightly, a frown settling into the curve of his lips. He looks older, without the slight smile. He’s had a long life, a lot has happened to him. But if it’s only one thing he could change, one mistake...

“I would have been at Cadmus Labs they day they took my son,” and it’s about as cold as he ever gets in public these days, icy rather than a slight coolness. He’s made a point of doing that, referring to Kon that way, as his son--and Kon-El is an abhorrent name. Lex thinks of the would-be birth certificate, locked away in his desk with all the other forged papers that would have allowed the boy to legally exist. He was a Luthor by birthright, Lex is the one who wanted him, the one who created him with his own two hands, hours on end spent in the lab. “Perhaps I could have, ah, prevented their acquisition of Superboy.”

If you had one day where you could do anything you want, free of consequences, what would you do?

No doubt they’re expecting some grand scheme, the death of Superman perhaps, or a plot to dissolve the Justice League once and for all. The truth is far less exciting.

“I’d track down my father, wherever it is he’s retired to.” Lionel could be dead, for all Lex knows. He hasn’t gone searching for him, and anyway Lex is sure if he tried, Lionel would be trying to block him at any corner. He hasn’t spoken to his dad since the takeover. He’s not sure what he’d say, there’s always been too much unsaid between them, but it’s... it’s easier, looking back on this as an adult, to reconcile Lionel’s actions with the fact that despite everything, Lex did love his father.

Extras

Lex is half Mexican through his mother. He speaks Spanish (and several other languages) fluently, but his accent is slightly southern.

A few years ago, with some information stores stolen from Brainiac, Lex was able to crack the Kryptonian language and work out the rules of grammar and a vocabulary of a few thousand words. It hasn’t been especially useful yet, but half the fun was learning it in the first place.

Prior to being abducted for the Experiment, Lex had been drawing up plans to run for President in 2020, which is, incredibly, unrelated to his status as a supervillain.

He has a scar bisecting his upper lip from the single time Lionel hit his son--he had forgotten to take his wedding ring off. This is the only still visible scar on Lex’s body, as the rest of his injuries happened after gaining his healing mutation.