#losing family members to the Nine Hells and saving the world to make that sacrifice worth it

[whatisamildopinion]

Kyoto- Phoebe Bridgers

Pro-tip: don't think too long about how Moonshine and Bev have ouroboros arcs with family members and devils and saving the world at great personal cost. Don't think about it too hard. I definitely haven't (lying)

[phoebehalliwell]

Piper/Kyle, except it's an AU where Kyle's parents were never killed by demons, so he lived a perfectly normal, happy childhood and grew up to follow their footsteps into teaching and Kyle's a normal, maybe even a little boring archaeology professor who secretly dreams of having his very own Indiana Jones moment - up until the day he opens some dusty old chest and unleashes a demon that tries to kill him, and he barely gets away only to run into this petite brunette woman who proceeds to blow the demon the fuck up, and Kyle's never believed in love at first sight before, but he's pretty sure he can make an exception for Piper

wait omg mentally stable kyle au okay wait i gotta wrap my head around this kyle but not absofuckinlutely insane whatta picture omg. okay. i feel like he’s still gotta have this belief in the supernatural i feel like that’s a large part of the charm in literally any kyle dynamic with the sisters is Witch Who Gets It and Man Who’s Only Got Raw Data. there’s an appeal to that. seeing things from different angles all that. so we can say kyle ever good at puzzles has taken his parents notes and everything he knows and various texts and kinda pieced together okay magic does exist. but in this au he’s a professor and not an fbi agent so he can’t just walk around saying Magic Is Real because um he needs this job. also he’s never seen it. but like. the data does not like. like. like it’s real man like are you kidding me. and we’ll say he has one normal friend because he’s normal in this au and he’s like okay here me out tho magic is real and his friend is like ......okay. because like. it could be, i guess? i’m not gonna fight you on this. and kyle also definitely read a lot as a kid he reads a lot now and he’s always kinda like. like you know wondered what it might be like to be a man of action not someone stuck behind a desk all day seeing the world through books. so when he starts to see markers of the gathering storm,,, well. these are the times that make a man. he can either be a pussy about it and keep living his life through paper and ink, or he can follow his intuition. blah blah blah this leads him to get kidnapped by pirates which like. excuse me??? and kyle’s kinda kicking himself because he Wanted to be like a character in an adventure book and well like bada bing bada boom you get what you ask for. which. all due respect on his part. is smart enough to outwit them and escape. he might have dropped his wallet there tho. but when he goes back the same route wandering through the thick fog, all he finds is a solid wall of rock. so i guess he’s fucked in that regard. whoops. but!! magic is real. so that’s a dub. digs a little bit more into the blackjack cutting lore, maybe finds the x marks the spot on where their main hideout was, road trip to. seattle? i guess? port city that isn’t san francisco but is more reasonable to drive to that like. nola or boston. and lo and behold he finds it and find their documentation of the gathering storm accidentally trips a booby trap and jesus fucking christ pirate skeletons with sword which - respectfully - kyle is holding his own for the most part, not getting immediately worried, but there’s no way that would have lasted had the three skeletons not been blown to pieces. and he looks over and sees three brunettes and the one in the center is like who the hell are you? to which kyle really feels like He should be the one asking that question but after stammering out some kind of response about how he’s a professor and he was just looking for some soil samples something generic archaeological because hey. he doesn’t trust these women. he doesn’t know what side they’re on. and he’s not just gonna sacrifice the information he has on the gathering storm. and it’s obvious they don’t believe him, but they don’t kill him either. instead, the one in the center just says be more careful where you leave your stuff and tosses his wallet back to him.

and later at the manor paige is like we just let him go?? and phoebe’s like yeah how to we know he’s not a demon? he wouldn’t be the first to pose as a mortal in the mortal world (because phoebe went to the university to return kyle’s wallet because like it has is ID in it employee id all that under the guise of like. giving a lecture to some of the student’s there as the bay’s leading advice columnist oh hey is there a kyle brody here yeah haha he’s a friend of a friend anyone seen him no he’s on vacation right now? left real abruptly? and then immediately went into his office and touched every surface trying to get a premonition (au in which phoebe didn’t get her powers stripped) and concluded that he’s just Some Guy. like he like has friends and a nine to five and an apartment. so a guy). but piper’s like we don’t know. but we also don’t know what he’s up to or what his connection to the pirates was, which is why i cast a tracking spell on the wallet. and both phoebe and paige approve and in this au again phoebe didn’t get her powers stripped so in styx feet under it’s her and paige on mission and as paige is the one who cast the protection spell and as paige is also very stubborn and also refuses to let innocents die she is the one who gets to become death. she also has a very compelling relationship with death because like. she watched her parents die. and she’s prue’s replacement. the replacement for the dead girl. also fun paige/prue parallel! meanwhile right Should state in any piper/kyle au we just extend pleo’s divorce era by having him remain an elder and keeping that early s6 vibe. so piper’s definitely like a bit more neurotic than normal because you know things haven’t gone great for her and those pirates were warning about the gathering storm and honestly that better not be something that’s gonna hurt her boys because she really could not bear to lose another family member so she’s doing some digging which begins to imply that kyle knows more that he let on so where is he now? the university? great.

and kyle’s you know minding his own business in his office when the same woman practically kicks down his door and is like alright i’m gonna ask again who the hell are you and this time you better answer me honestly. to which: wow. like wow. she’s. she’s a force to be reckoned with and also kinda immediately gains points in kyle’s book for like a) kinda confronting him about knowing more because he’s pretty good at covering his tracks all that so if he’s been Found Out it’s by someone good and b) she also disintegrated evil pirate skeletons so like. 👍. But. he does not trust her for shit. no. absolutely not. he has no reason to. but piper’s not yielding blasts a hole in the wall near his head like quickly now or next time i won’t miss but kyle’s so fuckin stubborn he’s like 🤐 and piper’s. i mean, she can’t kill an innocent. she doesn’t know if that’s who he is, but she can’t run that risk. and kyle’s not saying shit, so she leaves.

then it’s the guardian angel episode where the charmed ones are there on instruction (though they don’t know what they’re looking for. maybe they were just scrying for information) and kyle’s there on a hunch and piper and kyle see each other and it’s um. mac charlie see each other from across the room reaction image. both like. what the fuck are you doing here? and in this one paige is still the one to get her guardian angel stolen and piper’s immediately on high alert because you know big sister/mom mode activated. but they don’t know what they’re looking for and kyle’s like it’s her guardian angel. and piper once again snaps to him firey look in her eyes but kyle’s really just trying to place nice here so he’s like guardian angels. they’ve been going missing being stolen whatever. he’s got the research on it. and piper doesn’t want to trust him but paige is really in grave danger. so, as the sister with the offensive power, she’s going with kyle, and phoebe has to make sure paige doesn’t like. pull a grams. (which for the record i do not accept prewitched as canon but like the elders definitely killed grams <3)

so blah blah blah piper’s now and kyle’s place which is ten times worse than his office because this is where he does his real work and he’s got all the guardian angel shit up and out and is explaining it to piper and it’s making sense but what catches her eye is something on the gathering storm that kyle left out now they’re talking about that they’re starting to realize they’re on the same side. blah blah blah save paige. next episodes what werewolf episode. skip. then!! idk paige still runs magic school right so she’s in the library and she calls piper and she’s like hey remember when you told me to keep an eye out on the gathering storm? and piper’s like yes yeah what is it? and she’s like well we’re inventorying the library and we have books on them and piper’s like that’s good news ! ? and paige is like yeah but we’re missing one. book five. in this something something series. and piper knows Exactly where that book is because she fucking saw it on kyle’s kitchen counter. so now she’s barging into kyle’s place which is getting to be a common occurrence at this point and kyle kinda wants to complain but this is by far the most interesting his life’s been ever and honestly? he’d be kinda bummed if piper stopped kicking down his door. wait actually scratch that you want my book no fuck you changed my mind. to which piper’s like look we’re looking for the same goal here right so give me the book because i have the rest of the series and this could be the missing puzzle piece and kyle’s like okay fine i’ve read the book cover to cover give me the rest of the series and i’ll get you your answers and piper’s like okay let’s get things straight here i’m the witch you’re some two bit archeology professor so when it comes to the handling of sacred magical tomes i’ll be taking the reigns here and kyle’s like fine then you won’t be taking the book. and piper’s like wanna bet and the next think kyle knows he’s hearing the door slam his book’s gone and he’s hearing tires peel out onto the street and he has no idea how she did it. 

back at the manor piper’s got her reading glasses on an volume one open and god this fucking sucks. so she makes phoebe take a stab at it and she hates reading it too. paige also starts it and is like respectfully no. piper’s the only one who did the reading in high school. this is her turf. but my god she cannot make it through all eight of these fucking books. So. she calls kyle. he has to come to the manor because there’s no way she’s giving him the books and there’s no way she’s letting him in magic school so. hi. welcome to the house. but!! by a contrived plot device!!!! a gnome has been shot in magic school this book was the only thing at the scene and paige wants to investigate further but she can’t just leave it out there so she brings it back to the manor she’s gonna cast some spell to find out if there are already spells on the book how to reverse it she just needs to find the spell first and like. there’s no way in hell paige ever wears an outfit with big enough pockets to keep the book on her. so she leaves it on the table. to which kyle asks how this is relevant to the collection. to which piper says don’t open that!! whoops. see, this is why i said we don’t let two bit archeology professors near magical books! piper/kyle charmed noir..............

[natashabarnes]

To preface:  Avengers: Endgame shook me to my core and I needed to find a constructive, healthy way to talk about what I am feeling and this seemed as good a way as any. This is an endeavor seeking emotional intelligence. So I’m here to talk about how media can affect us, honest-to-goodness grief, and yeah sure, my opinions and most importantly, Natasha Romanoff. There will be spoilers, obviously. You’ve been warned.

It’s late afternoon on Friday, May 7th, 2010.  I’m a super-soon-to-be-college-graduate, and I’ve just missed my bus home.  There are few places grimmer than where I currently found myself: the Inter-City Bus Terminal in Reading, Pennsylvania. The good news was that buses from Reading to New York ran roughly every two or three hours most of the day, I was going to be fine. I was going to be late, but I was going to be fine.  At the risk of sounding dramatic, I didn’t know it but I had a date with destiny that evening. Since I couldn’t imagine sitting around and waiting in a bleak af bus terminal, I sought refuge a mere block-and-a-half away at the R/C Reading Movies 11 & IMAX. Lucky for me, I was able to schlep my suitcase and (always) large purse over right in time for a showing of Iron Man 2. I remembered Iron Man (2008) to be a whole lot of fun so I sprung for a movie ticket to be able to watch most of Iron Man 2 before I had to catch my bus.  I knew nothing about this film going in and I was having a good time up until the moment Scarlett Johansson came on screen as Natalie Rushman (who even me, a noob S.H.I.E.L.D./espionage sector of Marvel, knew was actually Natasha Romanoff, aka the Black Widow).  Once she made her entrance into Tony Stark’s personal fitness center, I wasn’t having a good time, I was having a great time…and also a weird time.  I was in complete awe of her; I hung on her every word, her every move.  Everything about her radiated a sense of intelligence, purpose, intention, and most alluring to me, confidence.  Looking back I realize I was seeing the kind of woman I wanted to be; not only did she have every trait I wanted as a person, she seemed to be this unattainable personified perfection.  At the time, I wrote off my fascination with her pretty quickly as the voice in my head said “but you’ll never be like that, you know that, right? You’ll never have those things.” I had to leave to catch my bus just as Rhodey showed up to Justin Hammer’s Stark Expo presentation and at the time that was pretty much that.

Let’s skip ahead.  It’s the evening of Wednesday, April 24th, 2019.  Thanks to the kindness of my best friend/basically sister, I was able to see Avengers: Endgame a day early.  I’m a mess.  I’m soaking wet from the collar bone up and my eye makeup is every place on my face with the exception of my eyes.  I’ve been sitting for over three hours and somehow I’m out of breath, my sweat is cold. My status of Full Blown Mess was credited to the fact that I had to watch Natasha Romanoff die violently, fiercely, and courageously.  The shock I felt that night was all-consuming.  I kept saying to my friend through hard sobs, “I just thought she’d be safe. I really thought she’d be safe.”  So many people I know at this event found me after the fact to check in with me.  Am I okay? Do I need anything?  The only answer I came up with on the fly was “I will be, it hurts now. But I’m just…so proud of her.”  More on that later, but basically, people were so kind and if I had to be a mess, at least I was among people who also cared and understood where I was coming from. While my friend engaged in a last bit of work for the day, I sat waiting, attempting to calm down by staring at costume designer Jany Temime’s recent Instagram post where she selfied with Scarlett expressing excitement about working on the upcoming Black Widow film. I reminded myself that this night was not goodbye, just a very jarring “see ya later.”  Of course the present is not necessarily made easier to bear just because more (and potentially the best) is yet to come.

What a difference nine years made.  I’d gone from casual move-going fan who’d only read Spider-Man comics when I had time to being a hardcore, ride-or-die fan of Marvel Comics and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. My library had grown exponentially, along with my knowledge of these characters, and let’s not overlook my closet’s growth after falling into the deep pit of cosplay. I can’t exactly put my finger on the “when” of it, but at some point I stopped stifling the portion of my heart that belonged to superheroes and let them take over with complete abandon.  I’d always had a heavy habit of trying to be what other people wanted me to be.  Though I may have lived very independently, in retrospect my choices and interests were so often chosen for the satisfaction of other people (I am not assigning blame to anyone but myself on this one). Superheroes serve as a perfect example of a passion of mine I chose to shut down for so long. Once I leaned into that passion, I felt so much more complete.  It’s no surprise that Natasha Romanoff was the character I ended up being most passionate about.  

Natasha is a strong woman who spent a lot of her life in the service of others across moral and political spectrums.  She followed their orders always and has plenty of regrets about her past.  Maybe I was self-projecting, but throughout my dedicated years as an MCU viewer and Black Widow comic reader, I always saw Natasha’s arc as two parts:

1) a woman coming to terms with what she’s been and what she’s done seeking to move forward in a more universally beneficial direction.

2)  a woman learning who she is, what she wants and choosing to act of her own volition.

Obviously the two are deeply connected. While her past experiences may have made her moral compass more grey than that of her peers, she’s a woman who wants the Right Thing To Do to be the choice she makes of her own agency.  There’s a beautiful deleted scene from Captain America: The Winter Soldier where Nat speaks to Nick Fury for the first time in confidence after discovering he faked his death and did not include in on the secret.  “I needed to keep the circle small.  You would have done the same thing,” he says.  “I know,” she replies, “that’s a problem.”  A scene she has with Steve Rogers discussing trust that made the final cut achieves a similar idea.  In past appearances in the MCU, Natasha had expressed a desire to make amends for her past and seemingly had started to do so through her work with S.H.I.E.L.D. and her participation the Battle of New York.  These moments in Cap2, as the fandom frequently refers to it fondly, are less about her outward actions and more about her inward struggles. What she seems to learn by the end of the film is that letting people in is a key part of her goal of a truer sense of self.  By the time we meet her in Captain America: Civil War, within the first hour of the film she delivers one of my favorite quotes as the family around her begins to split apart, “Staying together is more important than how we stay together.”  Nat’s journey continued to be one of finding self-possession, self worth and using that greater sense of self to give back to others, both the found family around her and the innocent she can protect.  

With all of this in mind, Avengers: Endgame is my favorite MCU film and features my favorite Natasha Romanoff content we’ve seen so far.  From the moment the film begins, she is a woman hell-bent on remedying the greatest tragedy in the history of the world.  Long gone is the woman we met in her first two films who did the bidding of an organization and/or focused mainly on giving back to those she felt she owed. In Endgame, Natasha aims to save the world, to bring back everyone lost, to restore families.  We first see this when she agrees to find Thanos with the team and reverse the snap. When that mission fails, we skip ahead five years and that’s when I personally really lost it. In five years, Natasha has never stopped trying to fix the world. Let’s be clear, every other member of the original six Avengers most definitely has stopped trying to find an antidote to The Thanos Problem.  Sure, Steve is trying to fix things in a different, more practical way, but there’s still an acceptance of the circumstances in his actions.  The sight of her alone broke my heart and filled me with a sense of honor.  This is a woman we have always seen in control and put together and when we find her she is a noble, beautiful wreck. She’s abandoned most self care, wearing only her depression clothes, and surviving off hope and peanut butter sandwiches desperately communicating with allies around the universe. These people make time for her but are clearly losing patience with her and her insistence that not only can this be fixed, but that it is all of their responsibility to do so.  And in case it wasn’t obvious enough how much she’s changed, this scene gives us what I believe will be (for now at least) Nat’s most iconic moment on screen.  “I used to have nothing, and then I got this…this job, this family.  And I was better because of it.  And even though they’re gone…I’m still trying to be better.”  Nat sums up her entire character arc in this one delicate and stunning moment showing just how strong allowing herself to be vulnerable has made her.  Loving has only made her braver, caring has only made her more tenacious, and giving has made her unstoppable.  She is, in this moment, the woman she always wanted to become.

Remembering the aforementioned scene is absolutely necessary when absorbing Natasha’s choice later in the movie to sacrifice her life so that her team can get the soul stone.  Her entire life has lead her to this moment. Yes, killing off the only female from your original team is a bold move with a LOT of weight attached to it, and one that can definitely be seen as shortchanging her, but I just can’t see it that way. Natasha Romanoff made the ultimate heroic choice, one that the rest of the film hinges on.  My brain can’t navigate the concept that fans have been robbed of her unnecessarily without also hearing a diminishing of the selfless choice she made and the course she followed in the time we’ve known her and beyond.  It’s only when I think of the alternate concept of Clint dying for the soul stone that I feel completely, hypothetically swindled (though while we’re talking about him let’s also not forget how excellent it was to see a man and a woman with no blood relation platonically love one another unconditionally).  Please don’t misunderstand, if you are angry, I respect that, we all deal with stuff different ways, this is just my take.  Natasha Romanoff earned that moment.  Is it devastating to watch? One thousand percent yes, but what I felt even more deeply than the devastation was pride.  I am so proud of this character that in no way can I bring myself to see this choice as abuse or mistreatment of her character.  In that moment, she was magnificent.  Natasha Romanoff died valiantly, unafraid, and of her own free will so that everyone else could live.  Natasha is a hero of the highest standard, full stop.

Entertainment Weekly recently featured a half-hour interview with the original six Avengers to promote Endgame. I was more than moved to hear Scarlett speak about Nat’s arc and confirm what I’d been absorbing as an audience member for years.  “She’s come into her own as a woman saying ‘who am I and what do I want and what do I need out of my relationships and also out of my own self’ and she’s someone who is understanding her own self worth.”  Without going into deep detail, watching Scarlett’s performance as Natasha has affected me in a way I can only describe as profound.  Every MCU film she appeared in had at least one moment that hit a nerve inside me in ways equally gentle and harsh, but still every nerve was hit with the reassurance of knowing that if she could change, I could too.  Catalysts for personal growth can come from anywhere and at my most lost somehow I remembered that moment sitting in a theatre watching Iron Man 2.  Something in my brain told me to follow that feeling I had watching her, not in an effort to emulate her completely, but to see an example of someone one who is “my own woman–first, last and always.”  Natasha taught me that self love, self worth and opening yourself to others are traits more powerful than lightning, stronger than a suit of armor and they’d protect me more than a shield.  In the years I’ve watched and read this character, my life has changed for the better in every way.  She’s been a gift to me and the gratitude I feel is overwhelming.  I may have saved myself, but Natasha taught me how.  As fans I think we all love having more media to look forward to, especially when that media features an inspirational figure for us.  Before Endgame I’d frequently have passing thoughts reminding me that someday the time of Scarlett’s particular incarnation of Natasha will be over.  Who would I be without this character? After Endgame, I’m less afraid of that future.  No matter what form of this character I will have in my life, I will always follow her example and I will try to be better.  

[chatoyisou]

ten of cups, nine of cups, three of wands, the lovers, the hanged man, the fool, and the magician for any muses you'd like!

0  . the fool - when you first created your character , what did you originally envision for them ?

nari . actually , nari was ? completely different when i first made her ; her name was sora , first of all , & she was attending a whole different institute ( one that was in a completely different country , & also collaborated a lot with sfit ) . some kids from sfit were visiting hers , there ’ s some big complicated story , etc . etc . she was ? supposed to be this calm , stoic girl & now she ’ s turned bubbly & lively & i ’ m actually really glad about it !

I . the magician - have you followed through on your original vision for your character ? are they as they were when you first began ?

nari . i ’ m changing certain things back to how they were before ( i . e . instead of being a beginner in fencing i ’ ve decided to change her back to a pro ) because … it felt weird rescripting an entire character just for tumblr ? it started making no sense to me so i ’ m saying fuck it & doing whatever the hell i want it ’ s my blog anyways

VI . the lovers - have your character ’ s heart & mind ever been at odds with one another ?

pitch . OH BOY . so i … have not read the guardians of childhood books yet bUT i do know how pitch was changed into what he is now ? so i want to say yes & no . yes , because subconsciously , he doesn ’ t want to do the things he ’ s doing . no , because it ’ s subconscious . he truly does believe he has to do what he ’ s doing .

XII . the hanged man - what is the most significant thing your character has had to sacrifice ?

ayano . her family . like just straight up ? her family . not only did she lose her mom but she also died to protect her brothers & sister ; only to realize that she had played right into kuroha ’ s hands . that ’ s the thing that makes her regret her choice most ; that in the end , she couldn ’ t save them .

ー☆* three of wands - do you have any long - term plans for your character ?

lunaeh . OHHH YES I DO first of all lunaeh is literally one of my favorite ocs , so BOY OH BOY do i have some things planned !! i remember while originally writing about her , she was a part of the lunanoff court & served as one of the council members to the tsar , & a part of the tsarina ’s entourage . i also ?? let her side with pitch as a bargain ; just that she ’ d come help him when he needed her . also there ’ s probably like more i ’ m forgetting but they ’ re spoilers !!

◥█̆̈◤ nine of cups - when was the last time your character felt on top of the world ?

rowan . whenever they ’ re with asra honestly . i ’ d say ? defeating the devil made them feel so good because not only did they stop him from taking over the world they ? also saved the people from the plague . & that just made them feel that way .

◥█̆̈◤ten of cups - what family memories does your character hold dear ?

luke . is it any surprise it ’ s the memories he has with thalia & annabeth ? they gave him the first real idea of ‘ family ’ & friendship & over - all love , they were there for him when he needed it . he just … loves them so much . like , even if you disregard the idea of family & replaced it with like , friendship for example , he ’ d still love them to the ends of the earth !! 

tarot inspired prompts . ( a . a . ; anon . )

[robininthelabyrinth]

prompt from Litra#2(/2) ColdFlash Instead of becoming a thief, Len became a cop. He's in internal affairs and determined to never let another cop get away with the things his dad did. Then Barry gets his powers and starts disappearing at strange times. Talking to people outside the precinct about active cases. ect. Clearly Len has to find the truth, and if all's well, then at least he'll have an excuse to spend time with the hot lab tech.

For the Coldflash week day 1: Role Reversal

Fic: An Internal Affair (Ao3 link)

Fandom: The FlashPairing: Barry Allen/Leonard Snart

Summary: Leonard Snart, Captain of Internal Affairs, is known as Captain Cold for a very good reason: He hates corrupt cops with a merciless vengeance, and once you’re on his list, you’re in serious trouble.

His next target?

A CCPD lab tech named Barry Allen who’s developed a suspicious habit of disappearing at random intervals.

—————————————————————————————————-

“Forgive me if I don’t get up to say hello,” Len drawls as Captain Singh walks into his office. He leans back in his office chair and gestures vaguely towards one of the seats, because if he doesn’t Singh will take one anyway.

Singh smiles tightly. He’s trying to be nice, but it’s hard for him. He takes a seat and makes an effort to make the smile more sincere in preparation for the nice, friendly chat that they’re not actually going to have. “Of course not,” he said, nodding at Len’s injured side like he knew something.

He knows nothing.

Oh, it was common knowledge by now that Leonard Snart, one of the CCPD’s finest undercover agents, recruited into the joint task force with the FBI and tasked with helping slowly take apart the unrestrained control the Families had over Central City, was grounded at last when information about his identity slipped out to such a degree that his (now former) colleagues in the criminal underworld turned on him with the hatred they reserved only for cops and traitors.

Everyone knew, also, that before he’d gotten out and back to the safety of police custody, Leonard Snart took a bullet to the gut and a bullet to the thigh.

Everyone knew that Leonard Snart was still healing from them, but that he’d refused time off and insisted on coming back to work - even accepting a position that was largely a desk job in order to do so.

Everyone knew, last but certainly not least, that Leonard Snart was a hell of a lot smarter than he seemed, because his humble acceptance of a desk job (to keep busy, he’d said, with a straight face and a bowed head) that was designed to keep him out of trouble was in fact just another stratagem, because it got Leonard Snart the job he’d been angling to get for who knew how long.

Internal Affairs.

Head of Internal Affairs.

It was a fairly impressive promotion, yes, although he had been moving up steadily in rank in absentia. But in view of his immense sacrifice, the vast amount of time Leonard Snart had spent underground - over a decade at least, and possibly two, the reports on the matter differed - gathering invaluable information on the criminal world, it was agreed that he would be rewarded with a particularly large promotion in order to compensate him for being assigned to a position that most cops reviled.

His superiors had been particularly happy to give him the position, because it satisfied their desire to reward him without letting him get too much in the way of their existing operations.

After all, no good cop actually wanted to be placed in Internal Affairs, where you investigated your friends and coworkers instead of the bad guys.

A job where you were hated by other cops.

That wasn’t an issue for Leonard Snart, as the department soon discovered, because he hated most cops just as much in return.

Abusive father that used to be a cop, the whispers said - they’d always known that, of course, but no one had put two and two together until Leonard Snart had been made a Captain and spent his first few months on the job systematically destroying men’s careers with an icy smile that never wavered.

Captain Cold, they called him - sneers and mockery at first, but as he took down one untouchable after another, men and women who were infamously corrupt but (it had been believed) were too valuable and good at their jobs to be removed, the term changed to one of fear and respect.

Mostly fear. Not a little bit of hatred, too, for the man who seemed to have nothing to hide and nothing to lose and whose entire existence, now, seemed wrapped around a vendetta aimed not at the criminals but at the members of the CCPD who enabled them.

That’s what was said about him.

It’s just as Len said: they know nothing.

Oh, it’s all true, all of it, all the rumors, everything from his piece of shit of an ex-cop dad to his time undercover to his manipulation of the system to get the position and power he wanted. They got all the big picture stuff right; they just messed up on the details.

It’s the details that matter most.

First off, some asshole at the CCPD let slip who Len was to someone who eventually told the Families about him. Len doesn’t yet know who it was, but he intends to find out, given what that little slip had cost him.

After all, Len didn’t just get shot when the Families discovered his betrayal.

He’d been kidnapped.

Tortured.

Sentenced to a slow and painful death, all alone in the dark.

And he would have died that death, too, if Mick Rory hadn’t come to save him.

Mick Rory, arsonist, pyromaniac, thief, muscle, thug.

Mick Rory, committed criminal.

Mick Rory, Leonard Snart’s best and maybe only goddamn friend in the whole wide world, who Len had lied to from day one and kept lying to through thick and thin. Who Len had used for his friendship, for his strength, for his credibility in the criminal community, and given him back nothing in return but lies.

Despite all of that, Mick came for him.

Mick fought through the assholes guarding the door and he shot the assholes who were torturing Len and he got Len out of there.

Mick got Len away from the Families, carried him in his arms while Len was bleeding like a stuck pig and scarcely aware of what was happening, crying like a child.

He got Len to the hospital, to safety, even though he knew Len was a cop now, a pig like all the others.

Then, when the police assigned to guard Len’s room arrived, they kicked him out.

They kicked him out.

After all, why would a good cop want a criminal hanging around?

Without anywhere else to go, Mick went home.

And at home…

The Families fire-bombed his house that very same night, knowing that his pyromania would keep him from saving himself.

They were right. He survived only due to a fluke, a part of the building falling fast enough to extinguish the fire faster than expected.

Mick Rory now lies in a hospital bed with in a very high end burn clinic in Keystone City, nearly two-thirds of his body burned, as the best paid doctors in the region tried to salvage what they can.

Len never even had a chance to thank him.

Lewis Snart might’ve been the one that taught Len what a corrupt cop looked like, but it was what the cops did to Mick Rory that makes Len truly hate them.

“Can I help you?” Len says to Captain Singh, head of the midtown precinct, who seems to have lost the ability to speak since entering the room.

“I want to discuss the newest case you’re working on,” Singh finally says.

“Have you got intel for me, then?” Len asks, deliberately cruel. Cops hate a snitch as bad as any felon, and the suggestion that Singh’s here to snitch gets the flinch Len was looking for.

He doesn’t actually have anything against Captain Singh personally - the guy’s a good cop, believe it or not, with good detection skills and better management skills and unlike most of the lot of them, he’s not completely in a Family pocket - but Singh’s a believer in the blue line, the idea of cop solidarity über alles, and until he remembers that his loyalty should come to justice and truth before friendship and comradery, the instinct to paper over the crimes of the cops on his team simply because he feels he can’t spare them, Len’s not about to give him the benefit of the doubt.

That’s why Singh’s here, after all. He’s not here to snitch.

He’s here to ask Len to back off.

More fool he. Len never backs off.

(Len will admit, however, that he’s a hypocrite: he’s never had any problem valuing friends over laws - his first loyalties are to Lisa, tucked far away with her skates and the college he’s paying for, and to Mick. But not at the expense of the corruption of the blue, the same goddamn people who are supposed to be protecting the helpless; that’s not a crime against society, which Len could forgive, but a crime against his city, and Len will never forgive that.)

“No,” Singh finally says. “Listen, I know this is a long shot -”

“Who?”

“I - what?”

“Who?” Len repeats. “Who do you want me to back off of?”

Singh looks suspicious; good for him. He’s not an idiot: he knows a request to back off will only make Len more suspicious.

“I don’t want you to back off, exactly,” he says. “More - I don’t want you wasting your time.”

Len arches his eyebrows and waits.

Singh’s an experienced cop, veteran of a thousand interrogations and interview rooms, and he knows how silence can be wielded as a weapon.

It’s just that Len’s better at it, that’s all.

“Barry Allen,” Singh says, giving up the name. “I don’t know how he got on your list -”

“He’s never here but his work always gets done,” Len says dryly.

“He’s efficient -”

“He’s always arriving late, looking like he’s been busy somewhere else.”

“He’s always had an issue with -”

“He disappears at odd times, say, around the same time something is going down.”

“There’s always something going down -”

“He knows more about crime scenes than he should upon first glance.”

“So he’s good at his job -”

“He talks about active cases with people outside the precinct.”

“We all do to some degree -”

“Brand new set of friends.”

“Not exactly a crime -”

“And all of that following nine months disappearance -”

“On medical leave!” Singh bursts out, a vein starting to pulse in his forehead. “He was in a coma!”

“Yes,” Len drawls, stretching the word out. “He was, wasn’t he? Then he got himself transferred out of the hospital into a private facility - a private facility run by Harrison Wells, aka the genius behind the Accelerator explosion that supposedly caused Allen’s little ‘accident’ - and what do you know? Not only does that place not have proper records as far as I can tell, it appears that, both before and after the explosion, they have only ever had the one patient.”

Singh is gaping at him.

“Now, I don’t know about you,” Len says, tilting his head to the side in his most irritating, exaggerating thoughtful way. “But when you put all that together with the fact that a lot of these bad habits are newly developed following that so-called coma of his - except for the punctuality, of course, that’s long-standing - you get a very interesting picture. One I intend to look at a bit more closely, until I find out what he’s hiding behind it.”

“Goddamnit, Cold, he was hit by lightning,” Singh says through gritted teeth. “Some changes are to be expected. It’s a miracle he even got that much of him back -”

“Yeah, about that,” Len says and now his teeth are bared. “Funny how his job was still open after nine months.”

Singh straightens up like he’s just been shocked by lightning himself.

“Funny, too, how there weren’t any concerns regarding his mental state after being hit by lightning,” Len continues. “But you know what’s the most funny of all?”

Singh is silent.

It’s okay, Len wasn’t asking that expecting an answer.

Len leans forward. “What I find the most funny, Captain Singh,” he says, as conversationally as he can, “is that he says that he was in a coma for nine months, right? Nine months. It’s been a little over nine months since the explosion. Nine months, and he’s back to work in a week? No bedsores, no muscle atrophy, no deterioration, no physical therapy, no occupational therapy - oh, no, our Mr. Allen apparently leaped out of his hospital bed and went for a goddamn run around Central City, fresh as a daisy. And, in the process, either during the coma or during that run -”

Len flips open the folder on his desk, revealing two photographs. One is Allen before his mysterious nine-month absence; one is after. He’s shirtless in both, because Len’s contacts sometimes like to snag shirtless pics for him ever since they figured out he was pansexual - something that usually pisses him off, except he wouldn’t have figured out the weirdest part of this whole Allen thing if they hadn’t so he supposes he has to forgive them.

“- the man picks up a set of abs,” Len concludes, his voice flat. “Now, Singh, I know you’ve given up ogling other people in your marriage vows, but tell me, in view of your past experience in this field, does one generally get that sort of body development lying in a hospital bed?!”

That last bit was said with a full on snarl.

Okay, so Len’s a bit touchy on the whole hospital bed/coma subject.

Singh’s shoulders slump down, a recognition that he doesn’t have the answers Len’s looking for and that there is no way that Len’s dropping this investigation - either into Allen, or into Singh for enabling him.

And because Len’s investigations are typically confidential among the Captain rank at this early stage, if Allen hears so much as a whisper on the subject before Len’s ready, Len will know exactly who to blame.

Len smiles at him. The smile has teeth.

“Good talk, Singh,” he says encouragingly. “Have a nice day, why don’t you?”

Singh’s lips are pressed together until they’re very nearly bloodless with rage, but he’s smart enough not to say anything. He knows how dangerous Len is.

He walks out with his shoulders squared, much like someone who wants to punch someone and is very nearly there, but barely refraining.

Len dials a number on the phone at his desk before grabbing his crutch and limping heavily over to the door that Singh had rather rudely left open, particularly given that he knows that Len prefers a closed door and has difficulty walking to close it.

“Chum in the water, sir?” his assistant asks dryly. Technically, Len ought to have a whole team, and he does, but he’s spread the best of them out widely among the precincts of the sprawling Central City. This isn’t really 'home base’ for him, just an office he can use for the time being, but that’s fine. As long as he can do his job, he’s fine. And he can do his job here with just him and his assistant.

(Why did he never consider investing in a personal assistant when he was a criminal? They’re so useful. He would’ve saved himself so much angst. For example, his current assistant, Danvers, is an avenging angel in disguise - he doesn’t know what he’d do without her.)

“Not him,” Len tells Danvers with a faint grin. “That was just a friendly chat. Come in and take some dictation, will you?”

“You make that sound so awful,” she observes. “I should sue for sexual harassment.”

“If you’re getting sexually harassed, then I’m in a hostile work environment.”

“Boss,” Danvers says, suppressing a grin. “You are a hostile work environment.”

“Kara,” Len says. “Just get your ass in here.”

She laughs and gets her ass in there with her speed-typing box - she used to be a court reporter before Len snagged her, and she’s amazing - just in time for the open phone line Len dialed to start picking up things on the other side.

The other side being the desk immediately adjacent to one Detective Joe West’s, who had the dubious honor of being Singh’s confidant, Allen’s mentor (possibly father?), and one of the poor souls lower down on Len’s list, given the remarkable speed by which the open investigation of his officer-involved shooting (West being the officer) got resolved.

Someone should really do something about the security in this place. Len plans on giving them a list before he leaves - but only after he’s done exploiting it.

“- don’t let Cold get to you, chief,” West is saying. “He’s got nothing on you.”

“That isn’t the issue,” Singh replies with a sigh. “I don’t want him here at all. Investigating my people -”

“When he could be doing something useful with his time,” West agrees. “Goddamn parasite.”

“Joe,” Singh says, mildly censoring. “He’s your superior officer.”

West snorts. “By cutting in line - yeah, yeah, I’ll back off. He did amazing work with the Families, not just here, but everywhere, I’ll give him that much. But I don’t have to appreciate the fact that the guy’s working out his childhood trauma on us.”

“Joe!” Singh exclaims. “That’s uncalled for.”

“Oh, come off it,” West says with a laugh. “We all know the story - dad was a bad cop and a mean drunk that liked to knock his kids around. And now the - I mean, our very respectable visiting Captain Cold, he’s got a vendetta against the boys in blue instead of the guys that really need to be taken off the streets.”

“If a cop’s done something wrong, they need to be taken off the streets too, Joe,” Singh says. “That’s what Internal Affairs does. You can’t hold it against Cold - I mean, Snart - that he’s good at his job.”

“Even you call him Cold,” West points out. “And that’s saying something.”

“No, Joe, it isn’t,” Singh replies, sighing. He sounds tired. If he was tired, he shouldn’t have tried to go up against Len. “I’m pretty sure I just called him it to his face, and that’s still not saying anything. The man really is good at his job, and he’s utterly fearless. We need someone like him rooting out corruption, we really do. But sometimes he goes barking up the wrong damn tree -”

“Someone in our precinct?” West asks, his tone lighting up with interest.

“That’s confidential,” Singh snaps, clearly remembering himself. “Damnit, Joe, he’ll have my job if you go around blabbing.”

“My lips are sealed,” West promises, and though he tries to raise the subject of Len a few more times, Singh is having none of it and firmly steers the conversation onto their current investigation.

After listening for a little longer, Len nods to himself and hangs up the line.

“…did he really call you Captain Cold to your face?” Danvers asks, her lips twitching with suppressed laughter.

“Cold, anyway,” Len says, allowing himself to smirk as she starts giggling. “I think I made him angry.”

“Boss,” she says, lifting her glasses and wiping the tears of laughter out of her eyes. “You make everyone angry. It’s practically your hobby.”

Len grins. She’s not wrong.

But the grin slowly fades as he thinks about the task he’s set for himself.

He’s engineered a few meetings between himself and Allen – usually he sets up the first meet and one of the local Jitters, where he can ‘accidentally’ stumble with his (annoyingly still-necessary) crutch to get people’s attention, and Allen’s no different.

Well, he was a bit oblivious but eventually it worked eventually. Len took the precaution of telling the barista that he was trying to get Allen’s attention, which definitely helped cover his ass stumbling so many times – Kendra thought he was hilarious and adorable and definitely hinted strongly to Allen to pay attention.

Since then, they’ve been sitting together whenever their coffee runs ‘coincidentally’ match up.

That’s probably how Singh realized that Len was onto Allen’s case, putting the seating and Len’s high-level sealed reports together.

The problem is, though, is that Allen is…frustrating.

“Thinking about your newest boytoy again?” Danvers asks.

She only looks innocent.

“Target,” Len corrects. “Not boytoy.”

“You’re basically a cat, boss,” she says. “You play with your food and your toys and your targets all the same way.”

“Basically a cat,” Len says, rolling his eyes. “This is what I get, is it? I employ you, you know.”

It’d taken weeks to break Danvers of her annoying habit of being excessively deferential, so she knows he doesn’t mean it.

Her smirk makes that very clear.

“You didn’t answer the question,” she points out.

“Because you phrased it in a stupid way,” Len grumbles. “But yeah, I was thinking about Allen.”

“What’s the problem, then?”

“Well, to start off, he’s extremely shady,” Len says. “He’s got to have some secret way in and out of Jitters, because I have literally blinked and he’s slipped out somehow. He’s always whispering about stuff with those new scientist friends of his from STAR Labs, and they’re almost always talking about the latest disaster in town, and that’s usually followed immediately by Allen disappearing for a bit.”

“That doesn’t seem like a problem,” Danvers says. “That sounds like a good lead.”

Len makes a face.

“No?”

“He’s nice,” Len complains. “Like, legitimately nice. I see why everyone here likes him; he’s friendly and acts all well-meaning and he helped an old lady cross the road last week –”

“Oh, I see the problem,” Danvers says, grinning. “You think he’s hot.”

“Of course he’s hot,” Len snaps. “Lots of people are hot; I’m pansexual. That doesn’t usually distract me from doing my job. Besides, he’s half my age.”

“You exaggerate,” she says. “But putting that aside, you are doing your job, because your job is figuring out if someone is up to something. If even you’re getting good vibes off Allen, then maybe, just maybe, this one time, a cigar is actually just a cigar.”

Len blinks at her.

“Maybe he’s clean,” she clarifies.

Len snorts. “He disappears for nine months, claims he was in a coma, and comes back in the best shape of his life,” he says, rubbing his eyes. “At the minimum that’s going to involve some sort of medical insurance fraud, or possibly unemployment fraud. Plus, the guy’s a pathological liar, at least when it comes to avoiding confrontation. He lies about everything.”

“But?”

“His lab work is good,” Len admits. “I haven’t seen any patterns of him altering evidence in favor of any given party, and the lab boys over at the Feds say the reports are basically done right, though they can’t quite get the centrifuge data to match up quite right.”

“A real enigma, then,” Danvers says. “Your favorite.”

“Danvers.”

“Don’t you Danvers me,” she says. “It is your favorite. You should go ask him out on a date.”

“I can’t date a target.”

“Go ask him out for a totally platonic dinner, then,” she says. “Do it when you know something’s about to go down – and don’t think I don’t know that just because you’ve been burned doesn’t mean your connections in the underworld are totally gone. That way you can eliminate each possible affiliation.”

“First off, that’s entrapment,” Len says. “Second, there are so many Families alone that we’d have to go on a date every day for a year for that to work. Third, he twig onto what I’m doing and deliberately not go to something he’s affiliated with to throw me off the scent. And fourth, even if it wasn’t a bad idea, it’s not working. There’s no Family-associated pattern to any of his disappearances!”

Danvers is sniggering.

Maybe he shouldn’t have admitted how often he’s been meeting up with Allen.

He glares at her balefully.

“Give me your notes on his movements,” she orders, as if she was the boss. “I’ll get them cross-referenced with all the different types of city events I can fine so you can do your pattern-spotting on the outside instead of the inside; if he’s going to some sort of dumb concert series or something, you wouldn’t want to waste your time. In the meantime, you have a date.”

“I’m not seeing Allen again until tomorrow,” Len objects automatically.

Danvers smirks at him like he’s admitted something. “Of course not,” she says. “But it’s an MR day.”

Len nods, glad that she reminded him. How hard it is to remember what day is which is one of the downsides of deliberately randomizing his visits to the clinic in Keystone where Mick is so that no one can track him when he goes there. He’d prefer to go on a regular schedule – Len’s always liked timing things – but it’s his duty to keep Mick safe. Or at least, it’s the very least he could do, after all Mick’s done for him.

If Len was a good man, he wouldn’t go at all. He’d leave Mick alone. He wouldn’t burden him with Len’s baggage and Len’s job and Len’s everything, not to mention the fact that Len’s enemies are even more numerous now than they were when he and Mick were partners.

The Families want Len’s head on a plate. Many of his old contacts in the underworld know he’s a cop now and hate him for it. The corrupt cops that fear him are gunning for him. Even the clean cops hate him for violating their precious boys-in-blue code.

Len would be better off being friends with no one at all, and if he was a good man, he would refrain.

But he’s not a good man.

“I’ll go catch a ride,” he says. “Is my pick-up here?”

Danvers wrinkles her nose. “Boss –”

“Oh, good, then Charlie is here.”

“I hate that guy,” she whines. “I don’t care if he’s good at losing people, he’s going to kidnap you and eat you one of these days.”

“You exaggerate,” Len says, shaking his head. “I’ve known Charlie for years –”

“He has priors for cannibalism and attempted cannibalism,” Danvers hisses. “Literal cannibalism.”

“Technically,” Len drawls. “He only has priors for defacing a corpse. Cannibalism isn’t technically a legal crime, and no one proved he was involved with any killing –”

“If you don’t ring me the second you get to the clinic, I’m going to hunt you down,” Danvers threatens. “Don’t think I won’t.”

“Who exactly is the boss here?”

“You, sir,” she says. “Now go and do what I told you to do.”

Len rolls his eyes, but gets up, wincing. His leg and side are really pulling on him today. He uses Mick’s clinic to meet his physical and occupational therapist anyway, which is a good cover for going to visit Mick’s bedside, but going to PT/OT with an already sore leg is going to suck.

“And when you’re done with that, we can talk about you dating a target,” Danvers adds just as he gets to the door. “It’s actually not against the rules until there’s an official inquiry open.”

“No, Danvers.”

“I’ll book you a table for two at a nice restaurant for Friday,” she says. “It’ll have a pre-paid deposit and you’ll have no choice but to ask him to go or you’ll waste the money.”

“A, you’re abusing your access to my credit card,” Len says. “B, I could always go with someone else, did you think of that?”

“Boss,” Danvers says pityingly. “Mick can’t go, your sister’s out of town, I’m busy that night, and you have no other friends.”

…damnit.

“Have fun!”

“Mick wouldn’t bitch me out like this,” Len grumbles.

“I’ve been writing up all the details of your little investigations on a secure-line VPN groupchat for him to look at,” Danvers says cheerfully. “You wanna bet?”

Len flips her off and limps off towards the waiting car.

Mick would totally mock him over this whole Allen thing.

————————————————————————————————–

A/N: …this was meant to be a ficlet but is running away from me. It’s still in progress, so please feel free to throw suggestions as to things you might want to see this incorporate as it continues.

[aion-rsa]

Batman: Last Knight on Earth Begins with a Stunning Twist

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Batman: Last Knight on Earth is a new Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo story with an unexpected twist. We unpack the first issue.

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This Batman article contains major spoilers for Batman: Last Knight on Earth #1. 

Batman: Last Knight on Earth begins a stunning and beautiful conclusion to the eight-year Bat-saga spun by writer Scott Snyder and artists Greg Capullo, FCO Plascencia, and Jonathan Glapion. Since 2011, this team (along with inker Danny Miki later in their run) has produced some of the most exciting Batman stories in comic book history, from a detective yarn that introduced an owl-themed criminal cult that ran Gotham from the sewers to the horror-tinged return of the Joker (this time sans face) in "Death of the Family." And this year's dystopian, post-apocalyptic Last Knight on Earth already feels like a story that will be remembered for years to come. 

While Snyder and Capullo left the main Batman book in 2016, the team has continued the saga they began with "The Court of Owls" in some shape or form since then. 2017's Dark Nights: Metal crossover event series, for example, picked up the story in an unexpected way, introducing an entirely new multiverse of nightmare Earths and Batmen.

As Snyder explained to us, Last Knight on Earth is "a stone’s throw away from Metal in terms of insanity." And it shows. The first issue not only drops the Caped Crusader into a post-apocalyptic hellscape he doesn't understand but also kills him on the way there. It's the stunning twist of the opening pages of Last Knight on Earth #1 that sets this book up to be Snyder and Capullo's most subversive creation yet. The Batman we follow for most of the book isn't even the Bruce Wayne we all know and love but a CLONE of Bruce.

read more: The Actors Who Have Played Batman

Last Knight on Earth is actually a prestige-sized sequel to a short story Snyder wrote for the 2014 Detective Comics #27 anniversary issue, with art from Sean Murphy, who was originally set to draw this three-parter before Capullo took over. The story, "Twenty-Seven," introduced one of Snyder's most intriguing concepts: when Bruce becomes too old to keep fighting his war on crime, he creates a machine to ensure that Batman's mission will continue for generations after his death. This machine produces a new Bruce clone every 27 years (you get the significance of that number), just in time for the previous one to retire and die. Each clone is "born" as a fully-grown adult in fighting shape, remembering the original Bruce's life up to the moment he made the oath to his deceased father to "become a Bat."

In "Twenty-Seven," the new Bruce clone is born during Year 200 of the Batman's career, decades after the first Batman lived. Not as much time has passed in Last Knight on Earth, as we discover that an older, much grayer Alfred is still alive as well as many of Bruce's former allies and enemies. The rest of Bruce's world has changed drastically, though. 

The shift from detective yarn to Mad Max-level desert sojourn is an abrupt one, and it's all the more effective because of it. Snyder has always been good at injecting horror into his Batman stories, Capullo delivering the grotesque and terrifying visuals with relish. Under their pen and pencil, Bruce's second life (Alfred hints that there have been more lives than that, though) feels more like a haunting walk through the afterlife than another chance to save Gotham. In fact, by the time Bruce wakes up strapped to a hospital chair in Arkham Asylum, the city's already fallen. 

Read more: Why Batman Still Matters 80 Years Later

Last Knight's first chapter begins with Batman losing big time, suffering a symbolic (and final) defeat against his own childhood trauma. Snyder interlaced quite a few "what if" realities in his later arcs on Batman, windows into possible futures where the Caped Crusader would succumb in epic battles against alien threats and larger-than-life foes (see: Batman Vol. 2 #49). But Batman's fateful demise is delivered in an almost matter-of-fact way by Snyder and Capullo. 

"Something about this case felt different," the narrator we'll soon discover is actually the Joker's decapitated head in a lantern says on the very first page. But the setup couldn't be more ordinary. Batman is investigating a peculiar case that you imagine will end up in his Black Casebook one day, and the latest clue leads him to where his whole story began: Crime Alley. It's here, in this place of pain for Bruce, where it all ends for Batman.

Waiting for him at the end of the line is the rotting corpse of a little boy with more than a passing resemblance to little Bruce on the night his life changed forever. Again it changes, as the corpse boy is revealed to be a trap with a gun aimed right at Batman's head. There's a shot in the night -- and our Bruce ceases to exist. 

read more: The Early History of the Batman TV Series

That in the end Batman is killed by a macabre version of his past self, a metaphor for what Bruce must look like on the inside after decades of physical torture and mental anguish, is fitting for the character. The second half of Snyder and Capullo's Batman run, comprised of the "Endgame" and "Superheavy" arcs, primarily focused on whether Bruce (and Gotham City) could survive without Batman. If given the opportunity to abandon his cursed life as the Dark Knight, would he? 

In "Endgame," Batman sacrifices himself underneath his crumbling city in order to end the Joker's reign of terror. "Superheavy" reintroduces Bruce as an amnesiac who doesn't remember his life as the Dark Knight and instead devotes himself to running a home for the orphaned children of Gotham. When the truth is inevitably revealed to Bruce, as Gotham falls under attack, he doesn't hesitate. Using an earlier, prototype version of the clone machine that becomes the gateway into Snyder and Capullo's final Batman story, Bruce is able to regain all his past trauma and become the Bat once again. 

To Alfred's terror, the old Bruce returns to the path of self-destruction, hellbent on avenging the death of his parents for the rest of his life. Snyder and Capullo's Batman was always destined to die by his own hand. He made the choice -- and then he made it again.

Read more: How Batman II Became Batman Returns

Of course, it was some other mastermind who lured the Caped Crusader into the final trap in Last Knight on Earth, but it makes no difference who it was, and Snyder and Capullo don't tell us. All we know is that the murder weapon is that helpless boy from decades ago, still waiting for a savior in Crime Alley. 

Last Knight on Earth's explosive first issue is full of excellent, non-stop action, including a fight with giant Green Lantern babies (!!!), but that's the cherry on top of this literary sundae. Snyder told us that the story has ties to epics such as The Odyssey, with the Bat clone going on a journey through terra incognita to save Gotham from a new villain known only as Omega.

"To me, it’s very much an intimate story of Batman coming home and understanding himself in a new way and understanding his purpose in a new way," Snyder said, who also described the first image that inspired the rest of the story: the Caped Crusader making his way across a desert with "Joker's head in a jar."

read more - The Best Batman: The Animated Series Episodes

Snyder explained that, as he thought more about the picture in his head, "it became clear to me that it was Batman using the old to light the way with this lantern which was the Joker’s head towards this new purpose." But what is this new purpose?

The first issue shows us a future in which humankind has turned against both heroes and villains, overthrowing the powerful beings who have reigned over it since the dawn of the Age of Heroes. According to Wonder Woman, one of the few surviving members of the Justice League in Last Knight on Earth, Batman was the very first victim, "torn apart" in the Hall of Justice by the people he had pledged to protect (I assume Diana is describing the demise of one of the earliest Bat clones since our Bruce died in Crime Alley, although the timeline is still a bit hazy in the first issue). 

Last Knight on Earth, then, is the evolution of an earlier question asked by Snyder and Capullo in "Superheavy": Will Batman be able to hang up the cape and cowl when the world no longer needs him? Can Bruce find a new purpose beyond Batman?

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Alfred tries to force that new purpose on clone Bruce by trapping him in a fake Arkham Asylum to convince him his past life was a delusion brought on by the death of his parents. But Bruce sees through the ruse. He dons the cowl again and embarks on his own quest for answers.

Beyond The Odyssey, it looks like Last Knight on Earth will have a little in common with The Divine Comedy too, as Batman travels through the remains of the DC universe like Dante through the nine circles of Hell, the bodiless Joker lantern every bit the storyteller and guide that Virgil was on that famous journey. But will Bruce -- any of them -- ever find paradise?

Batman: Last Knight on Earth #1 is out now. Issue #2 hits shelves July 31. 

John Saavedra is an associate editor at Den of Geek. Read more of his work here. Follow him on Twitter @johnsjr9. 

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Feature John Saavedra

May 29, 2019

DC Entertainment

Batman

Scott Snyder

Greg Capullo

from Books http://bit.ly/2WeLFWn