#nightwing has never been so greatful to see superman

[lazerswordweilder]

One day, mid way through a meeting, the zeta tube announces the arrival of Batman. Everyone turns to give him a piece of theirs minds for showing up hours late, except he’s barely standing, half his mask ripped off reveals a blue eye that isn’t focused on anything, matted black hair full of blood, he has stubble on his chin and he’s missing a tooth. His hand cluches his stomach as a knife pokes through his fingers he still tries to contain the blood, every breath he takes looks painful and there’s an indent in his ribs that wasn’t supposed to be there, there’s rips all over his suit revealing battered armour underneath, his cloak has long since been torn off and one of his entire boots is missing (along with a sizeable chunk of flesh), and J’onn cringes over at the pain and hunder and thirst and pain coming from his mind, iced over by vauge shock.

(Sorry about any typos, might write a fic on this I dunno)

[thevindicativevordan]

Comics this week?

Absolute Power #4 - Boring, half-assed ending to a boring, half-assed event. Waid probably played as best a game as possible with the hand he was dealt - keeping in mind that Snyder, King, and Taylor were all asked to write this event and none of them could crack it - but my judgement isn't softened by the circumstances. Waller sucked as a villain, the Amazos and Failsafe were boring, and this entire event felt like a dash to wipe the slate clean. Waid shamelessly recycles the same crap he’s been doing since Underworld Unleashed where people’s powers get swapped/buffed/changed. The Titans era as the premiere team ends in total failure, with Green Arrow all but breaking the fourth wall to tell the reader that the Titans suck ass, and will never be capable of replacing the League. Titans haters were utterly vindicated. That Waid of all people is the one who seals off the Multiverse and depowers Barry is a testament to how badly DC has handled both the Multiverse and legacies in recent years. Thank God Waller is off the board for the foreseeable future.

All-In Special - If AP was the wet fart ending to a flop era, this at least was promising. Yes "Darkseid energy" remains an idiotic concept, but at least reading this left me excited! Snyder and Williamson do their best attempt to channel Hickman's energy. They don't come close, but at least DC is finally trying to take notes from Hickman’s success rather than chase CoIE again. Williamson and Sampere tee'd up the JLU status quo for Waid in a satisfactory matter, I'm actually excited to see that play out after AP. I have so many questions regarding the Absolute Universe: is that the Absolute Legion? What happened to Skeets? What will happen to Booster? Absolute Superman appears to arrive on Earth as an adult, is that true? Wish we didn't have to wait another whole month for Absolute Superman because that book seems like it will be the one to directly tie into the Darkseid Meta plot.

I Know What You Did Last Crisis #1 - Picked this up for the Didio Nightwing issue and oh my God did it deliver. Meta story where Didio apologizes for absolutely nothing and says DC would be living in a golden age if they had let him kill Nightwing like he wanted. Laughed until my sides shook when Didio had Kon kill every Nightwing in the Multiverse. Nobody played the heel role like Didio did, gives the Nightwing fandom a collective middle finger one last time. Oh and it gave me some cute Kon/Cass moments which was nice. Rest of the anthology was mid, but Wielgosz turned in another banger Superman story with his Lex during Final Crisis short. Dude needs to get put on a Superman book pronto, everything he writes with the character is gold. They should give him Action instead of who they probably will.

My Adventures With Superman #5 - Another great issue. Pa Kent knowing the types of helicopters because of the history channel made me laugh. Thought he might have been a soldier like main continuity Pa but should've known better, that's not how this show rolls. Bloodsport is almost heroic. Man is nuts but he's willing to sacrifice himself to take out Superman and Amazo which is at least far more than someone like Lex or Deathstroke would do. Poor Amazo, I feel like he has to be a goner after the last issue but I almost wish he would stick around, I like his little brother dynamic with Superman. Sad it took me this long to realize Amazo is basically the Iron Giant. All the times I talked up Metallo as an anti-Iron Giant and here Campbell went and gave Supes a straightforward expy!

[youtwitinmyface]

SUPERMAN ADVENTURES #25

Written by Mark Millar Drawn by Mike Manley Published by DC Comics

"(Almost) The World's Finest Team" In this issue, Superman takes a trip to Gotham City. The Mad Hatter has managed to kidnap Bruce Wayne, and is holding him hostage. He's broadcasting live on TV from a secret location, where he's got a gun to Wayne's head and is threatening to kill him unless Batman shows up by Midnight and unmasks himself to the world. He's also managed to put one of his special mind-control hats on Robin and has him out of the picture, and Nightwing is out of state, so the only one in town is Batgirl. Superman arrives and meets with Commission Gordon, who appraises him of the situation, and then Superman rushes off to catch with Batgirl, so the two of them can team up to try to track the Mad Hatter. But it turns out that Batgirl isn't initially too happy to see Superman. The theme of this story is that Superman's usual methods don't work in a crime-ridden corrupt town like Gotham. Batgirl was interrogating some criminals, but they shut up when Superman arrived because they were no longer afraid. Batgirl they were scared of because, like Batman, they don't know what she's capable of, but they view Superman as a "boy scout" who would never harm them. So after some convincing, Superman tries to adopt a harsher demeanor, to put the fear of God into the criminals of Gotham, to find The Mad Hatter in time. It all comes down to the wire but, at the last minute, Superman and Batgirl manage to save the day. And it ends with Superman and the Batman family each developing respect for each other's methods. Okay, I could nitpick a little. The explanation for how The Mad Hatter caught Bruce Wayne seemed like it was too easy, the kind of thing Batman would have been prepared for. And he didn't even keep Batman sedated or anything, he just has him tied to a chair with a rope. Even with a gun in The Mad Hatter's hands, you tell me Bruce Wayne, the master escape artist, couldn't get out of those ropes and knock the Hatter out before he could blink? But, ignoring that, the interaction between Superman and Batgirl, written here as a competent crimefighter on Batman's level, was so well-written, so I really enjoyed this story. Michael Manley did such a great job aping the animated series' art style as well as Aluir Amancio, who drew the previous issues that Millar wrote, usually does, that I wouldn't have even noticed that there was a different artist if I hadn't checked the credits. This is a great story for Superman and Batman fans of all ages.

Check it out!

[stoptellinglieslois]

Principal of pleasure part 48

Superman x Nightwing pairing

Clark

I walked in the Wayne manor and I told myself a thousand times not to not come here to avoid these types of invitation to dinner.

But today I would reveal everything to Bruce about me and Dick and nip it in the bud.

My courage got me here as Alfred greeted me in the dinning room as I saw all the family here.

I sat down at the other end of the head table.

Bruce wasn't there yet I quickly drank the cranberry wine that Alfred already poured into the crystal.

As the Wayne family banter I noticed Bruce wasn't here yet, I looked for Dick who waved to me and smiled his eyes shined when he gazed at me.

I started to fumble with my napkin. "Nervous Superman." Damian asked me, He is sipping fizzy water with a sliced lemon and lime he looked at me through the corner of his eye.

"No Damian I am not but thanks for asking." I smiled lightly at him and I breathed in and waited for Bruce.

"Hey boys guess what." Tim got up off of his seat holding a crystal full of wine that spilled a little on Damian that cursed him I tsk Damian for his foul swearing.

"I've got a secret."

"Tell us so you could sit down." Damian barked wiping himself with a napkin.

"I've been using my money in my fiance's for the league of assassins." The boys started laughing at Tim.

"Your a nerd."

"NO I am not."

"Yes you are a nerd boy." Jason threw peas and carrots at Tim the boys started laughing more.

I stayed silent waiting for Bruce who hasn't arrived yet.

Where was he ?

"Boys where is Bruce." I asked.

"Don't worry he will be here soon he is just late I think he has loose ends to fix up well that's what he told me." Dick said to me. "In the mean time we started eating without him." Dick continued and raised his glass.

I remember yesterday telling Ollie I was going to stay away from these Dinner and get together that Bruce tries to include me in, But this is a great time to just tell him everything and be out in the opened with it.

I' am with Dick and that is that.

It felt like an hour had passed and still no Bruce.

I ate my meal the chicken was good the veggies at the manor was always fresh every time I came for a meal here.

I wiped my mouth with my napkin and started drinking more wine, I would wait if it took all night long for Bruce to arrive.

I didn't know it started raining a big thunder clap reverberated throughout the mansion lightning cracked and snarled as I looked out the window the sky looked dark and vexing clouds formed around where the sun was.

And then Bruce walked in.

Wearing all black turtle neck and slack pants. "Sorry I am late." He apologies and sat down next to Dick at the head of the table.

I drank more wine I had to calculate what I had to say about me and Dick this was not easy for me it is going to be something I needed to ponder before I tell him.

As we continued to eat dinner Dick looked at me he breathed in and out closing his eyes.

"Bruce I have something to tell you." He sounded so nervous as he spoke each word fumbled as he spoke.

"What is it Dick."

"I...I.. want to tell you something I haven't told you."

"Ok tell me Dick you could tell me anything." I felt knives and forks stopped moving Damian dropped his fork and he looked scared at what he knew Dick was going to say to Bruce.

"Could we all just maybe go into the living." Damian said.

"No I could say it here." Dick said nervous as he gulped I felt so sorry for him.

I got up off my seat with both hands on the table with all eyes on me as I breathed in. "I can't do this please stop it don't say it Clark." Damian pulled on my sleeve. "It's too late Damian. Bruce I am in a relationship with Dick." The gasp in the room Bruce just froze like a gargoyle statue in the old buildings that I see when I fly around Gotham.

"I am sorry what ?"

"I am seeing Dick."

"No you're not."

"B please understand that me and Kal are in love this is serious we've moved in together."

"No you haven't." Bruce yelled I have never seen him cry before, tears streamed down his face he shook his head in disbelieve at what we told him.

"Both of you can't do this to me. KNOWING HOW I FEEL ABOUT YOU." This was not what I wanted for him to lose his temper but it was too late.

"Bruce please try to understand me and Kal didn't want to hurt you." Dick pleaded him.

"The hell you didn't." Bruce pulled out a gun at Dick the shouts and screams in the dinning room as we all ran towards Dick.

Sheer shock etched on Dick's face. "What the fuck you are doing Bruce." Jason went in front of Bruce as Bruce shot a couple of rounds in the ceiling the chandelier came loose on it's wire and hung on it's last thread.

"Bruce are you crazy this is you're son."

"Clark you.... witch I told you how I felt and you went behind my back fucked around with my son." I put my hands up as sign of peace.

Bruce shot Dick shoulder I yelled so loud the windows cracked blood creep out of his shoulder.

"Holy smokes Bruce stop." Tim pleaded putting a napkin over the gun shot wound to try to stop the blood from spilling.

"You beg me not to kill him or I will kill you."

"You know you can't kill me."

"Some of these bullets are made of kryptonite."

"Bruce." Dick winced in pain and put his good hand up. "Stop it ok you won." I was mad I knew I was able to block anymore assaults but Bruce shot a bullet through my heart and this one was kryptonite.

I was shocked because he was right one of the bullets was kryptonite I fell to the floor clutching my chest as Dick yelled but I couldn't hear. everything is a blur the pain struck me hard my eyes involuntarily starting to close as I was being pulled away, Dick tear stricken face as his hand reached for me from a distance and then I looked at Bruce's before my eyes closed his turned a light lime green it went to cool blue to this monstrous green as before my eyes closed I thought about the green eyed monster.

I shot up my hand on my chest I breathed and looked where Dick was sleeping beside me.

I felt so relieved that it was all a dream I got up not trying to wake Dick and went outside.

I sat there on a wooden rocking chair my Pa built my Ma and and sat on it.

"Oh god thank Rao it's all a dream." All I had was Dick and this reinforce to never tell or be around Bruce again.

We needed from this moment on to stay away from Bruce green eyed monster I thought.

End of part 48 next is part 49

Thank you for reading

[thefaeriefeatherdark]

Okay… as someone who sees the arguments in the narrative for Trans Kon. The answer is no.

Ultimately Kon isn’t in the worst position and already has a pretty big existing fan base. Not like… Batman or Nightwing or super major character big, sure. But… not small.

Kon won a fan vote to get a miniseries not even 2 years ago, beating a Suicide Squad book with Vampire Batman on it. Their last mini just ended? They recently showed up in a new comic (presumably to help launch it), and they’re getting stuff in the current Unchained arc.

The Trans Kon story could be an interesting story, but the pitch itself was meh and immediately struck a lot of problems.

The major problem is it’d destroy any marketability Kon already has, it’d basically mean that no one would ever do an adaptation of earlier Kon ever again because doing so would be stepping into the middle of a controversy over using the pre-transition version of the character. They couldn’t release any Superboy action figures or toys, they couldn’t use the Superboy name, etc.

The big problem is the name! Characters can change their names! They can use slightly different names, etc. Taking every recognizable name used to describe a character and giving them a whole set of new ones all at once? Not a great idea!

Furthermore we can do a breakdown with the actual pitches problems:

First: It talks about how messy Kon’s original continuity is and wanting to fix it, but then… never goes into what it means about Kon’s continuity being messy…

To all extents and purposes Kon is actually a character with pretty clean continuity. Our one big problem in terms of working stuff in is the N52 stuff, but unless there’s a plan to use that (and since that incarnation sorta dies at the end anyway…) there isn’t a reason to bring it in.

Worse is the fact that the comic doesn’t actually do anything that could be described as cleaning continuity. It introduces a new “The person actually responsible for making Kon” character (and with Westfield, Lex, Donovan, and Harvest we don’t really need another).

Second: The pitch never tells us what it’s pitching.

The story spends a lot of time building up to the transition but never gets past introducing Connie. And what her ongoing Status Quo will be is a pretty important thing for a story to establish!

Like at the end of the book is she supposed to be back in Hawaii full time (this is sort of what they set up)? Because that’s a bad choice!

If you want to understand why: The main hero of Hawaii being white is pretty fucking bad. A fact that even the original Superboy comics touch on (which is part of why Kon leaves!)

Third: This issue is mostly based in execution but the Evil Future Superfam dynasty would’ve sucked.

I can’t say that with 100% certainty! I’ll admit that. But the phrasing of the pitch seems to be a very Byrne/Krypton sucked approach. The two things discussed here are how the Super Dynasty were missing the humanity of Earth and how Superboy gets to lead since they’re closer to the original Superman genetically…

All of which feels iffy! It doesn’t help that their major addition is that Kon has a brother who is more Lex Luthor and therefore smarter.

The general… eugenics-I-ness of stuff just seems a bit off to me personally.

I Also think people are assuming diversity means people will use characters! It doesn’t.

Kenan Kong (Superman of China) pretty much vanished the moment his series ended (until recent Action Comics).

Jess Chambers has been in a handful of specials and then a singular team comic that ran six issues.

I’m all for a trans exploration of Kon-El as a character (Though I’d probably go with Kon being non-binary)! BUT I do not think it’d actually help Kon very much in terms of them having a book or in terms of their sales.

I think it’s important to remember Kon’s not the only Superfam member without a book (and frankly Kon’s mini only ended a little while ago)! Right now Supergirl (a character who had their own tv show within the last decade and is supposed to be getting a movie) doesn’t have a comic book. Heck even Jon who does often get favorable treatment over others doesn’t have a book!

Kon not having a book right now is more likely a result of them holding it back for a bigger release alongside other books, or the Mini not having sold well, or lack of an interested writer, or that there is a book in the works but only in basic development phase, etc.

CONNER KENT/KON-EL from DC Comics

JUSTIFICATION:

"If it makes DC editorial actually use her instead of shoving her behind Jon all the time..." - Anonymous

Reminder: Submissions are always open!

[androxys]

I think if I could somehow mail a single TPB to every Batman fan on the planet for them to really read it would be the Death in the Family/Lonely Place of Dying trade paperback collection.

Like, I’m not saying that these stories are The Best Batman Stories Ever Told, or even that they’re particularly good. (I personally think LPoD is a great story, but that’s neither here nor there.) I do think, however, that these two stories are foundational to SO much of the modern Batman mythos as we know it (or interpret it, as it may be) and people are at a disservice by not understanding

a) That Bruce loved Jason and that Jason’s death was an unquestionable, morally indefensible tragedy

b) That Bruce went Totally Bonkers immediately afterwards, to the point of Superman having to get involved

b.2) That Batman and Superman are more than just co-workers, and that they’re actually friends

b.3) That Superman and Batman still have to exist within larger systems (though this point and everyone’s personal take on the whole U.N. situation varies, because sometimes comics sure make bad choices)

c) That Bruce was devastated by Jason’s death, and went into a death spiral of his own

d) That his friends--namely Alfred--did in fact see this happening and were summarily rejected by Gruff Bruce

d.2) I wish that, in this fantasy world, I could also mail The Caped Crusader Vol. 1 so that people could contextualize what Bruce was like immediately before and immediately after Jason’s death, and how people like Gordon reacted to this obvious and immediate change.

e) That people could see the actual origin of Tim Drake. Like, really, what he actually did rather than all the misconstruction and fanon telephone that is natural, but not entirely correct. This would then hopefully have the consequence of informing everyone’s understanding of Tim’s place as Robin--yes he’s a little crazy. A little intense. A little over-eager and afraid at the same time. But very importantly a character defined by connective tissue.

f) That Dick and Alfred have very interesting roles in those two stories. I mentioned Alfred already in DotF, but in LPoD those two are also cruising on the crazy train (both the normal vigilante one and the dead-Jason express) and picking up speed.

f.2) There’s a lot of Dick character work that happens here in short order--his circus roots, his relationship with the Titans, and then the beginning of his relationship with Tim as brothers. But it also establishes the way that Dick cannot become Robin again, that he can’t regress--Nightwing is who he’s supposed to be. Not being Nightwing, the identity he created for himself, is a disservice. This will color his time at Batman, and dovetails neatly into his held truth that he cannot save Bruce from Bruce.

f.3) Alfred is an interesting case study here in how quickly he jumps onboard with Tim, considering how opposed he is to Bruce’s self destruction in the endless war on crime... unless he views Tim and the dangers of Robin as an appropriate stopgap to hold Bruce from absolute destruction. That sure is a lot of burden to be put on one teen, however, so there’s another interesting wrinkle.

g) That this trauma never goes away. Even once Jason comes back in Under the Red Hood, the pain of losing him is still something that all of the aforementioned people still deal with because the death of a child is something you never fully get over. And it’s not like Batman didn’t try to do anything--he was fully ready to kill Joker. He was ready in the U.N. building and then left him for dead on a crashing helicopter. That’s part of what makes Jason’s return in UTRH so tragic, but the potency of that tragedy (you didn’t avenge me, Bruce) is amplified.

Anyway, this got to be much longer and much closer to a rant than I anticipated, but this thought has been rattling around in my head since I saw one too many things that made me think “this person has not actually read A Death in the Family,” so this is my soapbox.

[ultfreakme]

Jon Kent’s multiple Daddy Issues: A Ramble

As the title suggests, this will be about Jon’s relationship and his feelings with regards to Clark.  I’m dividing this into 2 phases. Phase 1 is pre-SOKE, Phase 2 is SOKE and holding the Superman Mantle.

PHASE 1

At the moment, Jon is in a very difficult position with the Kent family and the world in general. He has missed out on about 6 years of his life with his family and friends, but the world had moved a mere three weeks. But his problems didn’t start here, they started even before that.

Pre-Volcano torture, Jon had two major issues

Being perceived as a threat rather than a hero, and having to live up to Superman.

On multiple occasions, Jon has been either used by someone with evil motives to take out their mission(Manchester Black) or he’s been deemed a threat to earth(Saviour!Tim and Parallax, Damian for a while because of the Goldie killing and kidnapping thing). His days as Superboy started off great, but on many occasions he’s expressed insecurity with his powers and realized that being Superboy means living up to his father’s name and finding a place for himself. Now I dislike Bendis’s decisions, but he did bring up Jon’s doubts, something that has plagued him for a while.

I love Super Sons & Superman Rebirth but Jon’s emotional issues are rarely explored or taken forward. He has a realization, and it’s left in the dust primarily because he was never the center of any story up until SOKE. After a while, Jon’s sorta getting that being a hero isn’t as easy or cool as he once thought and the idea that he has a legacy to live up to is sinking in. On top of this, a person tried to kill him because he has the potential to be evil. He also has insecurities with being half-kryptonian and half-human(Eradicator, it’s made worse in SOKE).

Point is, Jon’s trepidation started when he was young.

Next thing that caused a HUGE, GLARING problem, is the volcano torture, which I’m going to talk about in two-parts

Jon was not saved

From SOKE #9, we know Jon’s been stuck in the volcano for about 5-6 years. During this time, he called for help and he says he even called for Nightwing. If I were Superman’s kid, I’m calling dad first, but at some point, he must’ve gotten exhausted enough to call upon anyone, anyone, even Nightwing who literally cannot fight someone as powerful as Ultraman but this is was a kid desperate to be saved.

It’s even worse, because Jon must’ve seen Clark saving multiple people day-to-day. He knows what his dad’s capable of and seen it first-hand. His father is his hero, he’s the universe’s hero and he failed.

Jon was tortured not by an imitator or someone sharing his father’s face, that literally is his dad but in a different universe

See, if Jon was tormented by someone in the likeness of his dad, he can tell himself “this will never happen, this means nothing” because the differences are surface-level. Ultraman is simply Clark Kent gone wrong, and to a kid, even as smart as Jon, that must leave an impact. Ultraman was using the same power-set as his dad, and when he had first gotten to that Earth, he actually thought it was his dad. So to not only be abandoned, but to be trapped and tortured by a version of his dad for years must leave some long-lasting and unshakeable trauma. 

Jon was never sent help, he escaped on his own and found his way back home.

 Superman, his dad, isn’t infallible and he failed him. To truly understand the weight of this, read Superman: Up In The Sky. The entire arc is about one human girl who gets abducted, and everyone’s telling Clark to not chase after this one child across the universe because the Earth needs protection, but he does it anyway because there’s a kid waiting for him and he can’t let that kid down. The run explains the guilt he feels, the lengths he’d go to in order to save one soul even if it sounds like a fools errand. He goes through hell.

This is what Jon’s expecting.

Now despite all this, Jon clearly still loves Clark and all his interactions with Clark are casual and warm after the age-up. Still, he’s lost time with them and is seeing his family after so long. The lasting effects of the time lost comes through in Bendis’s(derogatory) next arc with the Superfam where Jon temporarily returns from his summer camp with Legion of Superheroes(LoSH) with Brainiac 5, and the second he sees Kon he’s like “dad did you guys replace me with a cooler son?”. Bendis probably used it as a “haha the funny!” joke thing but I’m taking it as Jon’s immediate and deep insecurities with regards to being Clois’s kid. He was gone for a while and he had no idea what was happening during those 6 years. For all he knew his dad Superman could be dead, captured, or maybe they forgot Jon and thought him dead and moved on. He has issues about his place on Earth, and its so much worse than before.

I frankly don’t want to discuss LoSH, I’ve read it twice and I still remember nothing. Anyways, his reasoning for going, and the reason why LoSH invited him was because he was supposed to show them how 21st century heroes work and to help LoSH reconnect to og superhero roots. The worst pick of a candidate for this but whatever. So he goes because he has purpose there, but he returns promptly because, most likely, he doesn’t find any need to be there. His place isn’t in this far future.

So he comes home, everything’s settling in, the family’s together, Conner has been confirmed to not be his replacement. It’s going great!

Not.

Right as things calm down, his dad leaves on another mission and gives JON the Superman mantle.

Thus begins Phase 2 of Jon’s daddy issues

PHASE 2

Things are terrible. Jon’s not had the time or space to really explore what kind of hero he wants to be, what kind of Superman he wants to represent. With the realization that his dad can fuck up and being a Gen Z teenager, he’s realizing his dad’s not perfect, hence the “Why don’t you do more?”.

Most people I’ve seen shit on Jon for saying this and not having done more than Clark in these 13 issues. The point of SOKE and Dark Crisis at the moment isn’t to say Jon is better than Clark. He isn’t, but he can be. He’s potential that needs to be realized, not the immediate answer to Jon’s own question. SOKE is about Jon figuring things out and on his way, he is going to fuck up.

So he starts off all confident, but quickly realizes he’s been given a task far beyond his capabilities.

He’s not ready. The narrative makes it clear, Jon himself has his doubts. His biggest villain in SOKE isn’t Bendix, it’s the shadow of his father. Jay’s arc is about Bendix and is very action-oriented. Jon gets the emotional arc, and it’s peppered in everywhere.

We start with re-establishing that Jon cannot rely on Clark anymore(#3 and #4). His dad has abandoned him once again to help someone that isn’t him. There’s a simmering, subtle bitterness Jon holds towards Clark which he can never express. It starts with the Annual where he’s talking to his dad’s hologram, continues with Nightwing #89 where he goes to his dad for advice but gets nothing and would rather be left alone, and keeps going in #12 when he says he knows what it’s like to not be saved and says he won’t let it happen again.

Jon’s new definition of his Superman is surrounding what Jon wanted out of a hero. He wanted someone who would be there, someone who’ll answer the call but he’s so hesitant with it because much like the entire world, Jon knows it is an uphill battle trying to be better than Clark. With all the insecurities from phase 1 in mind, it’s even worse for Jon.

His father is his challenge, but also the person he wants to make proud because at the end of the day, that’s his dad.

The worst part is he can’t direct any of his resentment towards Clark because ‘technically’ it is not Clark’s fault. He didn’t know those 3 weeks meant 6 years for Jon. He wasn’t the one who tortured Jon. Clark shows how upset and angry he is at Jor-El for subjecting his son to this. Clark isn’t at fault.

To the rest of Jon’s universe, Superman is still perfect.

So what the hell is Jon supposed to do with all this emotion?

Say nothing.

He will say absolutely nothing, he will continue to be a good son, he will carry on his father’s(the one who the world sees as great) legacy. He won’t and can’t say “actually my dad wasn’t that great” because who the hell is going to take him seriously?

No one.

Jon’s going to be on his best behaviour and be the best son ever. “Dad, will you be proud?” “Dad are you looking?” “Dad do you approve?”

The saddest part, is that it’s kind of pointless.

Because Clark doesn’t see the Jon in front of him anymore.

In Action Comics, Clark’s like beaten to a bloody pulp and he’s sorta hallucinating or dreaming and he says “my son’s turning 12″(sir your son’s 17 going on 18). In a more recent issue he talks about this toy he made for Jon when he was a kid, and makes it for these two other young kids. In World Without a Justice League: Superman, it’s very clear he doesn’t know who Jon Kent is anymore, and he’s living out this dream where he gets to see Jon grow up. And this Jon is absolutely nothing like the real Jon.

This Jon has no fear, no need to gain his dad’s approval and he’s confident. Clark makes a speech about how proud he is of the dream Jon and envisions him in a suit that’s basically a copy of his own.

Clark’s image of Jon, even if it’s unconsciously, is of a child. A 12-year old kid. Not the 17-18 year old. He’s simply refusing to look at the current Jon and Jon rn doesn’t know this.

Jon’s fighting against the mantle of Superman and the ghost of his past self, and at almost every turn, he’s losing. Jon doesn’t know about Clark’s opinion, but even without direct insight, he’s constantly fighting to show the world he’s worthy of being a hero and is trying make people look at him. Not Clark, not the 10-12 year old him, but the current him.

I think Dark Crisis made a conscious choice when Jon’s first battle there is with Cyborg Superman. His biggest problem is assembling a Justice League. Jon can’t resent his father for being such a good person that he went out to a place called “Warworld” to save people, he can’t. How can anyone be annoyed that Superman’s helping people?

So he shut up, bottles it all in and works even if he’s scared shitless(because of the volcano trauma, the murder accusation, everyone calling him ‘Superteen’, multiple people all over the world cowering in fear when he wants to help, pre-existing far from the Goldie death issue, him being used by Manchester Black to attack his family, fear of endangering his lover and family,  failing his dad and therefore the earth if he doesn’t respond right). He can’t afford to do anything else because as Superman he doesn’t have the time.

Thus, Jon’s stuck in this emotional prison, unable to find any place to express his problems.

[otakuminami]

I needed Dick and they delivered

Spoilers

OMG They delivered a great start to Dick’s arc. Like I got worried for a second that after Rocket’s plush arc, Dick’s might suffer as well. In a way I’m happy that it started, but like I cared more about what was happening in this episode than I did in Rocket’s arc.

For starters, Flying Dick Grayson (aka Dan Danger) is back. I’m just in love with the idea that Dick goes back to being a Flying Grayson every now and then. I live for more acrobat acrobat Dick Grayson, even though we see him as an acrobat Nightwing. I just need more performances from Dick is that too much to ask?

Also I was screaming for a net. I know he doesn’t need one, but you know

Trauma

Anyways, I love the whole enforcing not only the acrobat part of Dick’s character but also the detective. I feel like we don’t really get to see enough of him being a detective anymore (from any of the bats really) so I’m glad to see it here.

I love how they sat next to Clark and was like “Superman” without looking at him. Like they could have just been like “hey Clark got a minute?” But they had to be dramatic I love it!

Clark is not giving into peer pressure

Good for him!

This reminds me he’s kinda like Bart now.

I love how that’s how they got the entire group back together again. It worked seamlessly.

Kaldur took a needed month off (I think he should have taken more but sometimes having too much time off is bad too).

“Wyynde loves the look” made me laugh so hard

Also is Admistad wearing a Red Robin outfit or is it just me? Did Tim become Red Robin?

When I was watching them all get together, I was thinking don’t get Miss Martian involved please, and I’m glad they didn’t. Do you know how much trauma she would be in if she heard there might be a chance her husband is alive? Like I know he is alive but like she’s still mourning him and I feel like that’s something you tell someone when your absolutely sure.

Barbara mentioned as an amazing hacker! Love it!

Also the Bart Allen is missing alert. I’m like amazed that they do that. I’ve never thought about it but do you know how useful that could be. I wonder what other times that has been used.

I’m also crying because Jay had to call in to find his speedster teen

I’m crying think about when he decided to say he was missing. How long did he wait? Did he think he was with the outsiders for a bit? Did he have yo call the outsiders to find out he wasn’t with them?

But back to Bart’s time traveling adventures

His thought to go run and grab a collar and put it around Lor Zod’s neck with a determined look on his face like this isn’t the jokester he pretends to be. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this but Bart is almost like a completely different person than the one he acts. I’ve noticed this back in season 2 and I’m kinda glad that they remembered it because I don’t really see this type of character a lot.

When Lor Zod put a collar around Bart’s neck, I screamed. The trauma he faced when he was younger and all the effort he did to change the future only to then be placed back into the same position he was in made me want to yell at the unfairness of it.

I really hope we get to see some memories/backstory/trauma of Bart’s future. Like I know it’s probably not important but I would like to see more of him.

Also Lor Zod is basically abusing Bio ship. He needs to just get his ass kicked by someone already.

Maybe Miss Martian

The fight between the OG team and Klarion was pretty cool.

Also baby Teekl is so cute!!!

Klarion’s opening speech about contacting him only to stop when he realized who it was got me laughing hard. Does he do that every time? How many times does Teekl interrupt him when he does it? Are people intimidated by it? When I saw it I was like yeah ok Klarion you think you’re scary.

Magic School bus? I wonder who’s going to be Miss Frizzle and who’s going to be Arnold?

Phantom girl finally wakes up. I wonder how she is going to get them out without getting caught.

Also I’m getting the vibe that Ursa is going to be more of a threat to them than Dru and I don’t know how to explain it.

Also Conner thinks he killed Clark? Poor Conner. He’s suffering and he doesn’t remember everything.

Does he remember who M’gann is?!?

Also House of Luther,

I almost died.

But they mentioned Kara!

Indirectly but still! She’s in the universe!

At the end when they found signs of life in Kaizer Thrall, at first I thought it was Kara because she was mentioned and also they’re doing Kryptonians.

But then they said human and male and 11 and I was like who could that possibly be? We were all hoping for Wally to return this season but that can’t be him unless he de-aged but that’s highly unlikely even with the powers of a speedster because it’s kinda odd to do that.

I absolutely have no idea who this could be.

[thomasewardlow]

Here’s the thing. The X-Men are coming to the MCU. It’s going to happen in some form or fashion, and it’s probably going to happen sooner, rather than later. With that said, I think there is one character we’re all dying to see. Someone who is a strong fan-favorite. Someone who has been called “the most popular X-Man character” (probably, at least once). Someone who, let’s face it, hasn’t really shined in media outside of the original comics. Who has, to put it mildly, been done dirty by Fox — whether in the original ’90s cartoon or in the popular ’00s movies.

Let’s talk about Cyclops.

Cyclops is an easy character to get wrong. You can’t see his eyes, so it can be difficult for actors to emote realistically when playing him. He’s one of Professor Xavier’s premier students, so it’s easy to depict him as a brown-nosing know-it-all. He’s repressed, so it’s easy to depict him as a stick in the mud, especially compared to perennial fan-favorite and classical tall, dark, and handsome bad boy Wolverine. He’s the clean-cut, All-American, Wonder Bread white guy of a crew with a blue demon, a Russian Superman, a literal African goddess, whatever character we decide Beast can be today, a Holocaust survivor with all of the Byronic charisma that every Shakespearean character of all time can muster, a beautiful woman whose tragic destiny is to literally end the world or commit the most heroic self-sacrifice of all time, and the aforementioned Wolverine. That’s a cast of characters where it’s easy to get lost in the shuffle, and Cyclops does.

And that’s downright tragic, because Cyclops is absolutely fascinating when you get in the weeds. Don’t take my word for it; it’s canon. Every telepath that has ever interacted with Cyclops has decided that he is far and away the most interesting person in the room. Sure, his complete inability to express himself well means that you need to be able to literally read minds to know that quickly, but most of the X-Men (and a great many of their creators) agree with that assessment eventually. And that inability to express himself well? Cyclops is one hair shy of canonically confirmed to be neurodivergent (likely Autism Spectrum Disorder). That level of representation is something the MCU is only starting to experiment with now, and a positive and accurate portrayal of ASD (and one that, unlike Drax, is actually confirmed on-screen) is something that could be a real benefit.

But the trademark of the MCU is snark-filled irreverence, and I feel a great amount of trepidation that Cyclops isn’t going to be done right. And he can be! You just need to understand who he is at the most basic level and then build up from there. (You know. How all characters should be written, so that they’re internally consistent and allowed to grow in believable and fulfilling ways. But I digress.) And because the MCU has such strong (if snarky) character archetypes already on hand, and because Cyclops will naturally need to interact with many of them, let’s look at two that have helped define the current public notion of Marvel super-heroes: Tony Stark and Steve Rogers.

The first thing to understand about Steve and Tony is that they fit into the popular literary archetypes of the Hero and his Lancer, respectively. The Hero and the Lancer are foils to each other, and in an ensemble cast of strong personalities, these are fantastic archetypes into which to slot, respectively, the leader of the team and the most popular member of the team. Super-hero teams are particularly fond of doing this, and popular Hero/Lancer pairings in super-hero comics include Steve and Tony, Superman and Batman, Batman and Nightwing, Leonardo and Raphael, and Cyclops and Wolverine. It’s important to understand that the Lancer is, in many ways, everything that the hero is not, and this means that, while they may share the same goals, they each represent something the other could never be and they each have something the other will never be able to possess. This allows the two of them to be better than the sum of their parts, but it also naturally lends itself to creating strong character conflict, which is how we avoid plot-driven stories. Notably, Captain America: Civil War is literally all about a Hero and Lancer’s buried or repressed resentments coming to a head because their worldviews have diverged past the point of maintaining the initial mutual respect that characterized their early relationship.

Steve and Tony are wildly popular MCU characters. So, it benefits us for the point of this discussion that Cyclops, at his most basic, is essentially a fusion of these two into a brand-new character that combines some of the best aspects of both. Like Tony, Cyclops is a sarcastic iconoclast with no respect for traditional structures of authority.

Like Steve, Cyclops is a born leader with an innate ability to inspire those who work him to be their best selves, and everyone who has ever worked with the guy for any amount of time has willingly and wholeheartedly followed his lead without question.

This combination of character traits makes Cyclops a potentially fascinating character — especially in an MCU which no longer has either Tony or Steve to rely on.

Of course, understanding a Hero means understanding their Lancer, as well, since that relationship is symbiotic. And one way that Cyclops has traditionally suffered outside of the original comics is that he is chronically overshadowed by Wolverine. This is understandable, as, on paper, Wolverine is a far more fascinating character in his own right than Cyclops is. He’s gruff-but-honorable, he has a dark and mysterious past (which makes for a good breeding ground of random encounters), he’s seen more of the world and had more life experience than almost anyone else, he has a surprisingly sensitive and romantic side that’s normally hidden under layers of tragedy and pathos, and he’s a useful window into several parts of the Marvel Universe that we normally don’t get to see: Japan, Alpha Flight, Madripoor, and the Weapon Plus Program (the seedier underbelly of Project: Rebirth, from Captain America’s origin).

But just as Heroes need Lancers to embody everything the hero isn’t, so too do Lancers need Heroes to give them direction and focus and point them in the direction that the story needs them to go. On his own, Wolverine is Rambo: a war vet whose past trauma prevents him from living a meaningful and fulfilling life and manifests itself as cinematic aggression, hopefully against targets that we have successfully convinced the audience deserve this rage even though they had nothing to do with its origin. If we want literally anything else from Wolverine, we need to pair him up with someone who can give him focus and direction and whose orders Wolverine will be willing to take, in spite Wolverine’s checkered past with trusting in authority figures not to, oh I don’t know, brainwash him into a mindless killing machine and erase all knowledge of his past. (Just for example.)

Being that kind of authority figure takes a very specific type of character. And luckily, we have exactly who we need: Cyclops. Cyclops’s utter disregard for traditional power structures neatly dovetails with Wolverine’s lived experience, his ability to command respect through personal loyalty speaks to the hidden romantic in Wolverine, his ability to command obedience through demonstrated competency and earned trust quiet the cynic on Wolverine’s shoulder, and his ability to do all of this without resorting to violence or punishments keeps Wolverine from reacting badly to Cyclops’s authority just on general principle. There’s literally nothing for Wolverine to hang his anti-authoritarian hat on. But that only works if you don’t butcher Cyclops’s character so that Wolverine can shine. If Cyclops is a nerd and a tattletale, then it doesn’t make sense for Wolverine to hang around with the X-Men long enough to form any other bonds. Your only option at that point is to make Wolverine less combative and more of a straight man, which takes away all of the fun parts that make Wolverine so appealing in the first place.

Wolverine needs Cyclops for Wolverine to work as a character. A symbiotic relationship. Like all Lancers have with their respective heroes. Without Luke Skywalker, Han Solo is just a drug-dealing scumbag criminal. Without Superman, Batman is just the Punisher in a funny hat. The Hero brings the Lancer up as a character by speaking to a part of the character that the world has quieted. Wolverine needs that in order to be the character we want to see on screen, and Cyclops is the perfect character to bring that out in him.

And lest this begin to sound too formulaic and like we’re treading over ground already covered in the MCU, I should point out that all Hero/Lancer relationship do not look the same. Tony Stark was a snarky rebel because Steve Rogers was an earnest traditionalist (at least before each grew through their relationship and took on aspects of the other — again, writing character-driven stories naturally leads to character growth and fulfilling, completed personal character arcs). But Cyclops doesn’t need a Lancer like Tony, because they would be too similar in too many ways as characters. Like Tony, Cyclops possesses the cinematically-useful character trait of being able to absorb, internalize, process, and intuit large amounts of new information quickly, and then make complex plans of action that are totally reliant on this information that, until just a few moments ago, he did not possess. But Cyclops also shares an important character trait with Steve Rogers: the ability to explain his plan to others in a way that makes it clear to them what their role is, why that particular role is both vitally important and something only they could accomplish, and that he is trusting them to complete their role without direct supervision because he knows that they can do this, even if they doubt themselves.

With that particular set of character traits, it makes sense that Cyclops’s Lancer is someone who has a vast amount of knowledge and practical experience which Cyclops has not had time to acquire himself, but who lacks the ability to communicate that experience to others in a way that immediately inspires trust and obedience. Enter: Wolverine, a man whose practically-limitless skills, knowledge, and experience have been acquired through such a great amount of tragedy and pain that he cannot see how to move forward into a more positive direction without outside help.

And Wolverine isn’t the only character whose fits this mold. Characters with a vast amount of skills and life-experience who nevertheless find themselves subordinate to Cyclops include: Wolverine, Cable, Storm, Dr. Nemesis, Nightcrawler, Mister Fantastic, Emma Frost, Bishop, Namor, and even f*#@$&n’ Magneto.

That’s right. Magneto. The man so arrogant, he named himself Magnus. The man with such an absolutely inflated sense of his own importance that he made his helmet crest the national flag of all mutants anywhere.

Yes, believe it or not, there was an extended period in the comics where that Magneto willingly placed himself as Cyclops’s second-in-command.

Because in spite Magneto’s experience, his intricate control of what is essentially a force of nature, and his fearful force of personality…even Magneto realizes that Cyclops is simply a better leader than he is. And when you can win over that guy, you certainly have my vote.

[forestlingincorporated]

When Superboy Died For Nightwing

When reading Infinite Crisis and it’s build up, you may notice that Nightwing seems to have a target on his back. The reason for that is fairly simple... Nightwing was supposed to die. 

The decision came from Dan Didio, who admitted to not really liking Dick all that much, but always claimed the decision was a rational one: Dick Grayson had touched the most heroes lives, his death would effect the most people, and bring the most people together. Didio felt Dick’s death would be a hero’s send off for a character that had lived through his coming of age arc and had no where to go. 

Didio: We were looking for the big death in Infinite Crisis – the big moment. We were looking for something that would have equal import and merit and weight in this story. One of the things I’ve been proven wrong about is that I had felt that Dick Grayson was a redundant character – Tim Drake had filled his role as Robin, he would never be Batman, so where could he go? My big fear was that Nightwing would get older than Batman.

As Didio states, he was wrong. Dick had plenty of storylines to be told, and even had his own run as Batman, which was wildly loved. Stories we got because the other people on staff disagreed that killing Dick was the right move - not that it wouldn’t be impactful, but that is was just not a good idea. 

Phil Jimenez: Though I can’t think of a character who would have a greater impact than Nightwing dying.

Geoff Johns: True, but it’s Dick Grayson. My mom knows who he is. Nightwing would’ve been a mistake.

Geoff Johns, who ended up writing Infinite Crisis #6, in particular went to bat for Dick. He thought the idea of killing Nightwing was so bad, he offered up a character, who he’d not only been writing for but was one of his favorites, in his place - Conner. 

Geoff: Superboy was the best choice.

Phil: Just in terms of links to other characters, though. Dick has so many connections to other characters. In many ways, even more than Superman or Batman, Nightwing is the soul, the linchpin, of the DCU. He’s well respected by everyone, known to the JLA, the Titans, the Outsiders, Birds of Prey – everyone looks to him for advice, for friendship, for his skills. He’s the natural leader of the DCU. His loss would devastate everyone and create ripples through the DCU. If it wasn’t him, it had to be a hero that really impacted so many.

Geoff: Well, what other character? Not Wonder Girl. Enough women have died in the DCU. Superboy was my favorite Titan. And I literally had to offer him as a sacrificial lamb.

Interviewer: You killed your favorite Titan? That must have been hard to write.

Jeanine Schaefer: I literally had tears in my eyes when the pages came in.

Geoff: I really fought to have Conner in TEEN TITANS. He gave the title a dynamic the book never had before.

Jeanine: It’s one of the reasons [his death] worked so well and became such a powerful scene. I remember talking to Geoff when the decision was made, and he was, correctly, really adamant that it matter.

Geoff: And Phil did such a great job with facial expressions there, depicting everyone’s sorrow.

Eddie Berganaza: We were hoping to save both Nightwing AND Superboy. But at the end of the day, if we were going to do something really impactful, we really had to go all the way. It just worked for the whole story.

Notably, DC has had off-and-on legal disputes over the Superboy IP with the Siegel family for years (if you’re wondering why they never called Clark ‘Superboy’ in Smallville... yeah) and were actively Going Through It with the Siegels around this time. So, yeah, if two writers were presenting DC with two characters asking the corporate execs to pick which one to kill off, and one of them was Extremely Profitable Fandom Darling Nightwing and the other had their hero name wrapped up in a messy legal battle... I can’t prove that was a factor, I don’t have a quote saying it is, but I know which one I would pick from a cold, business-oriented standpoint. 

All of that to bring me to a rather interesting comic given it’s time frame, writer, and characters involved... Teen Titans #33, by Geoff Johns and Marv Wolfman, published one month before Superboy dies in Infinite Crisis #6. It makes a note at the beginning to read Infinite Crisis #5 before reading Teen Titans #33.

This is a team-up comic between Conner and Dick, who have really not had much interaction, especially not one-on-one. We get a good look inside both of their heads and really see into the emotions of both characters. 

There are several panels that use their mental dialog to parallel the two characters. Dick is doing his best to be a mentor figure, and Conner is trying his hardest to appear put together, which puts them at odds where Dick is hoping Conner will be vulnerable with him and admit when he’s worn out or needs help, and Conner doesn’t want to show weakness in front of Nightwing because he doesn’t want him to think he’s a fuck up. 

It’s really sweet, actually, Dick is a fantastic mentor, even if Dick personally feels out of his depth sometimes doing it. 

And they are given just enough time to really bond for a minute...

Just in time for Conner to die in Dick’s place. 

It’s a really interesting comic from that standpoint, designed to put Conner in harms way for Crisis #6, wrap up a lot of Conner’s emotional drama and self-worth issues with the help of a mentor figure (note that Conner’s sacrifice ends up being about Conner coming to terms with himself, and not about motivating other characters as Nightwing’s would have been), and masks a Superboy send off as a Nightwing send off. 

I’m not even completely sure if they made their decision on who to kill when Teen Titans #33 was written, but it’s clearly on their minds, and I find it a very interesting read with the behind the scenes background in mind. It’s an easy comic to overlook if you don’t know what was being discussed, but it’s very much a sweet gesture to give these two room to bond and have Conner literally sacrifice himself for Dick on the page. 

It REALLY turns into a real bait and switch right there at the end, they very much lean into the idea that it’s going to be Dick right up until it’s not. When the decision to kill of Conner instead was made, they leaned into it hard as a surprise, and I gotta be honest... I feel like it works very well. 

[kiseiakhun]

Ask Meme: GARTH

GARTH

First impression - I encountered him first in the rb Titans book so I thought he was the muscle of the team 💀 Like he was one of those STRONG BURLY MEN ready to FIGHT EVERYTHING. But I also fell in love with his design and paid a disproportionate amount of attention to him; he was the most visually interesting character in the book for me.

Impression now - I want Garth to [censored] me and [censored] and then [censored] and

All joking aside, Garth is such an interesting character to me. He has such an air of mystery about him probably because he never appears in any books and there's just. So much potential in his character? Like, if you go down a list and tick off his traits... he's one of the more tragic characters in the dcu and he has such a complicated relationship with his mentor. He's strong enough to stand next to the likes of Superman and Wonder Woman. It's been stated on-page that Garth is one of the most competent magic users in the DCU. He should be a powerhouse. He should be in every major event, standing next to the headliners, and it's so tragic that he suffered from the Aquafam irreverency syndrome that struck everyone close to Arthur. Garth feels like a character in limbo; Arthur himself is just stepping back into the spotlight, and now that we have Jackson he can't really fill the role of Aqualad. It's clear that the writers don't really know what to do with him and that's so sad :/

I looove him. I love the concept of his character. When he's written right (re: the way I prefer), he works as such a great counter-balance to the more hotheaded personalities he's usually stuck with. He gives breathing space on a team full of aggressively emotional people. He's like a rock to rest on among a stormy sea. There's so much to explore when it comes to just him, too - I mean, Garth is the LOST PRINCE of an UNDERWATER KINGDOM born with STRONG INNATE MAGIC POWERS who was ABANDONED BY HIS PARENTS FROM BIRTH in order to SAVE HIM. He has purple eyes!! He has cool tattoos! HE HAS SEXY EYE SCARS. He's the subject of an ancient prophecy! His relationship with Arthur jumps all over the place from love to hate to love to hate. He has SO MANY PARENTAL ISSUES you can fill up a whole book with them. He has SO MANY ISSUES. Garth is literally an anime pretty boy. I can't believe more people don't love him, except I can believe it because he rarely ever shows up ;_; Wasted potential, thy name is Garth

Favorite moment

Remember when he had to rehydrate himself every two hours? That sure was a choice.

In all seriousness though, probably the time he led the mission to save Lilith (Omen). Let him be smart and competent... let his friends see and acknowledge it...

Idea for a story - ONE DAY I'm going to write that Roygarth fantasy epic where they have to journey through Treacherous Lands to save someone (Wally). Currently I have just vibes. But once I find a plot it's over for you hoes.

Unpopular opinion - Imagine if Garth was popular enough for people to have opinions. Umm. I like his rebirth look better 😔 that's the version I was introduced to and unfortunately I imprinted.

Favorite relationship - I looove his relationship with the Titans, to the surprise of absolutely no one. I do wish his and Wally's friendship would get explored more - he and Roy have this vitriolic thing going on, and he occasionally pops up in Nightwing books to give Dick supportive words of advice, and he and Donna have similarish personalities (at least outwardly, Donna seems a lot less chill on the inside than the image she tries to project) so they have this tendency to just snark about the others from the side and it's great lmao. In comparison, his and Wally's relationship seems less prominent which is a shame imo. They're friends too!

Favorite headcanon - After Koryak died Garth plundered his clothes and stole his fashion sense. I realized a couple days ago that Rebirth Garth resembles Koryak far more than he does pre-Flashpoint Garth and I'm still recovering from it.

Also he's so chill because he smokes a metric fuckton of weed. (Garth ran out of weed at the start of rebirth and that's why he was Like That)

[ask meme]

[bigfan-fanfic]

Coulrophobia - Part 5

Joker!Batdad meets the Justice League

Surprisingly enough, they wanted you most.

Clark Kent, Metropolis reporter extraordinaire - has come to meet the Joker.

He takes off his glasses. “Look, Mr. Wayne. The truth is... I’m Superman.”

Bruce immediately nods. “We know. I’m Batman.”

Clark looks absolutely shocked. “You ARE?”

Bruce tilts his head. “You didn’t know? Then... why are you here?”

Clark blushes. “For your husband. The Joker. To invite him into the Justice League.”

And if that doesn’t just make you hoot with laughter....

Basically the Joker has become Gotham’s flamboyant symbol of hope. An avatar of laughter and joy in the face of adversity. Inspiring Gotham to take itself back from criminals and laugh at having been so scared in the first place. The perfect new member of the League.

Clark explains sheepishly that Batman wasn’t on their list - he’s seen as volatile and not representative of hope.

But he extends the invite, and after discussion with Nightwing, Harley, Red Hood, Prank, and Robin, you all join the League.

There’s already four members besides you and Bruce - Clark, Diana Prince, Barry Allen, and Allan Scott, the Green Lantern

Diana isn’t so much a fan of the Joker, but she admires Batman’s discipline.

Barry and Allan are huge fans and love hearing news about the Joker and the Joker Gang doing good in Gotham.

Bruce gets a little jealous when you start calling Clark “Baby Blues” for his sparkling eyes, but you make sure to show him he’s your only one - let’s just say you and Bruce share a chair at the meeting table.

It’s actually great fun to work with a team now on a more global scale. While your kids help out, generally you all agree to let your sidekicks and kids handle the cities while the Justice League works on bigger threats. So you have Red Hood, Nightwing, Prank, and Robin help out in the other heroes’ cities (the Joker Gang pretty much has Gotham covered now) and you, Bruce, and Harley go on League missions.

Your brand of humor and trickery bleeds across the League - Clark cracks jokes against villains, Barry laughs and uses your confetti bombs when he gets the chance, and even Diana sees the fun in your style - she comments that with your ferocity, if you were a woman and drunk, you could be one of Dionysus’ Maenads.

Simply by virtue of Bruce playing a lesser role in the League, the JL learns to not take itself too seriously, and thus it never becomes complacent. You, the Joker, keep them grounded - they aren’t gods or masters of the universe: they are people just trying to do some good, and you make people laugh.

And together with the League - you start bringing some laughter and joy to the world.

[thevindicativevordan]

Why do you think DC wanted to boot PKJ off Action Comics ?

Anonymous asked: Expectations for Aaron writing Action?

Well I was working on a NYCC 2023 post, and unfortunately the damn thing suddenly deleted itself. Left me totally drained seeing all that hard work gone, so I'm going to keep it short this go around.

Aaron is a very similar writer to PKJ in both tone and style. If he were taking over for the long term I'd be cautiously optimistic - but he's only doing three issues. Doesn't matter if he sucks or is great, he'll be gone in a blink of the eye. Leaves me with no strong feelings regarding him.

Pitch sounds cool, it's the Multiverse Bizarro that Tomasi used. It will be darker in tone and Bizarro has a new power seemingly. Waid consulted and Aaron says he "passed the Waid test". Shows how influential that Waid has become that he's being brought in to help the other Superman writers. Once an editor always an editor. Timms on art is fine, he's not an artist I have strong feelings for but I liked his work on Son of Kal-El and his brief Superman run with PKJ. Given Bizarro was on the cover of Williamson's first issue but is showing up here, I wonder if this is just Williamson farming out a story to Aaron that he didn't have time for himself anymore.

After Aaron, Williamson takes over for "House of Brainiac" which is the big Superman crossover story. Brainiac wants to find his Queen and is unleashing his Bottled City of Czarnia to get her. Supes, the Superfamily, Lex, and Lobo team up to stop him. Great pitch - but Williamson writing another event by himself is a huge red flag. He's 0/2 on events thus far and my concerns had previously been soothed by the assumption that PKJ would help him this time, which sadly is not the case. If it's shit at least we get to see Sandoval draw the hell out of the fight scenes.

Next we will get at least two more creative teams, one of whom is almost certainly Waid and Henry doing the Phantom Zone/Aethyr storyline. Not happy to see Waid claim that story, his Silver Age sensibilities are not going to live up to what PKJ was building to. Huge disappointment at this chance to let PKJ flesh out the Phantom Zone like he did Warworld pass by. After Waid we have one more team, and if Tom King isn't shooting his shot by now he will never get on a Superbook. Turning Action into an anthology book feels like a last minute decision made to buy time while they try and get a permanent creative team, which I do think has a chance of being King.

As mentioned in other posts, PKJ claims he will still be writing Superman and I believe that means he's been tapped to write the Justice League relaunch. He was saying on Twitter that we would get to see his Warworld plot threads such as Kryl-Ux unfold elsewhere, and also he would touch on the backstory of the events we saw in the FS House of El one shot. Sounds exciting to me, the kind of story actually worth bringing JL back.

Oh and starting with issue 10, Williamson is doing a Superman arc that is a Western, expands on Moonlight's backstory, and brings in Terra-Man. Sign me the hell up for that! Redondo seems to have permanently moved to Superman from Nightwing which means I'm probably dropping Nightwing soon.

For other DC news I am ecstatic to see Spurrier and Campbell reunite for more Hellblazer, but otherwise it was a fairly muted showing from DC aside from one huge rumor that I'll cover in a separate post. Oh and I guess there was the Elseworlds announcement but since that was mostly Batbooks I’m not interested.

Apologies to all the Asks about the new Ultimate Universe, I did get them but they were deleted.

Ultimate Spider-Man - Pitch is perfect, a mid-life Peter inspired by Spiderverse Peter B. Parker is exactly what I want. Ideally this Peter will be married to MJ and a father to Mayday but we can't rule out Hickman throwing a curveball and having him be divorced or dating Liz Allen or something. Seeing DoomReed hold the spider in the vial that Maker had, plus the transition scenes of 6160 Peter wearing all the suits makes me guess that DoomReed will time travel back and give Peter his powers similar to how he and Tony used time travel to save Cap. Thus this Peter will have been Spider-Man for a while, in secret. Or it's setting up a bunch of variant covers and instead we will see what happens when Peter gets his powers much later than usual. Either way I am excited about reading Spider-Man comics again, no mean feat.

Ultimate Black Panther - Great choice for writer, Hill's run on Blade rules and his name dropping Dune as an influence has me hyped since I love the book too and it's influence is all over the work of Hickman and PKJ. Great artist in Caselli. Moss is the editor and that is not great. He edited the main BP book and his tenure has been a disaster. Hickman needs to be involved to protect Hill from Moss. Costume design is not great either, feels 90s in a bad way. Of all the new Ultimate books, this is the one I hope is most like the old UU in terms of updating T'Challa, his supporting cast, and Rogues Gallery for a modern era. Fine to start off with "Ultimate Moon Knight", but let's not wait too long to bring in traditional Panther foes like Achebe who need the spotlight and revamps.

Ultimate X-Men - Not interested. Momoko is a talented artist but I only care about the A-List X-Men. A bunch of OC mutants does not intrigue me. Easy skip.

No Ultimates is surprising but my suspicion is that Black Panther will tell the story of T'Challa housing the Ultimates in Wakanda and Hickman wants to push people towards Hill's book. Eventually the Ultimates will spin out of UBP I reckon.

Expect the same level of quality here as Orlando showed on the previous SW book. That said if this is not setting up the restoration of the twins being mutants, I find more Magneto drama tedious. Either pull the trigger and make them mutants again or keep them away from Magneto and the X-Line.

And that was basically it for Marvel announcements that I care about. Might check out the vampire event since McKay is writing, haven't decided yet.

[robin-nightwing-agent37]

The one thing that has given me peace about the current Nightwing is that relationships don’t last long in DC. So when Dick and Babs break up it is going to be messy and I don’t know how they could ever get back together after that. Unless DC does decide to marry them but I can imagine a very negative pushback happening because of that and since DC has no direction for Barbara Gordon any more they might just actually do it.

There is proof from both Tom King and Devin Grayson that DC never truthfully cared enough about Dick Babs to push it. It's really the writers pushing their preferred ship. It's not anywhere near the same as DC pushing Lois Clark or Marvel pushing Spiderman Mary Jane.

I don't see anything positive coming from an engagement or marriage for Nightwing period. Ive said it before, but Nightwing should be single and if we do have him in a romance, it should be with someone who he hasn't been romantically involved with before and have it be a VERY LONG buildup similar to Superman and Lois Lane (40 freaking years of buildup is WHY Lois and Clark lasts as long as it does).

Also, like I said before, Dick Babs getting married after what they did to Dick Kory's potential marriage is just rubbing salt on an obviously open wound. Like you're literally having Dick marry the character who was retconned into his life and never treated his ex-girlfriend with respect. And then really DC Dick Babs already got engaged once it ended. It's over. The same way y'all say Dick Kory is over, so is Dick Babs.

Nightwing getting married to either Babs or Kory will be soley the result of shipping fandoms having control over a narrative they shouldn't have control over. Your ship doesn't get to define canon nor does it get to take precedence over actual good content. You wanna know what kills good ideas/concepts? Bad writing, direction and pandering to fanon. That is what kills great characters like Nightwing.

If you want Nightwing to grow as a character, it's time to let the past be the past and move him on to new, fresh original ideas.

[river-bottom-nightmare]

zatanna said the word anchor point, and that's where she lost dick. anchor points and multiversal constants and universal stability. galaxies shattering into pieces behind his eyelids before swirling together tighter and more whole, before dick would inevitably wake, the lights from that goddamn recurring dream still flashing in his mind.

constantine was looking at him with sympathy, pity. dick wanted to wipe that look off his face with bleach. with acid. he normally wouldn't consider fighting john constantine, since he's always been able to sense the sheer power bubbling under the man's drunken and sloppy exterior. though, apparently, that ability to sense was what could possibly give him the edge in the fight he was imagining, but would never happen.

there were only a few people in the room, but someone would rip him off the man. maybe clark, whose features were painted with worry and concern. that, and the lights from the galaxies outside the watchtower windows, the eternity of the galaxy covering the entire room in a gentle wash that dick had been able to ignore for all of his life, excluding the past couple of hours. maybe diana, who was starting to look at dick with a bit of fear. not of him, but for him, and for everybody else. dick couldn't blame her. she had more than enough experience with powerful men who made themselves god. the only difference was that dick would rather let himself burn up from the flame that was inside of him before becoming whatever they said he was.

it's not about becoming, raven whispered in his mind. her presence was gentle, familiar. it took a certain length of self control for dick not to latch onto her, about the length of rope needed to make a noose. you already are. there are no new powers or abilities or anything that will happen to you. you always were a nexus being, and you always will be. it's just a part of you.

"just a part of him." just a part of him? like how wally's slowly failing heart had just been a part of him? or how jason's pit-induced fits of rage were just a part of him? or how cass' assassin training she fell back on no matter how hard she tried to override it was just a part of her?

bruce hadn't said anything. actually, zatanna had stopped talking, not that dick had been fully listening in the first place, and everyone was lost in their own quiet thoughts. but bruce's silence had been the most stomach-churning, the most horrific.

dick knew bruce didn't like metas. knew it because of the sighs he used to make due to the league's foolishness back when dick was robin, running a hand through dick's ruffled hair and telling him he was so glad you're not like them, dick, they're exhausting. he knew it because of bruce's fury every time someone powerful fought in gotham and destroyed the city, rubble on the ground as they went off, completely unconcerned of the damage they left behind. he knew it because of the extensive files in the batcomputer detailing each league-affiliated and known meta's weakness, or how their strength could be flipped like a playing card, until dick was almost convinced being a meta made one weaker. (according to bruce, it did.)

bruce didn't like metas. and dick wasn't a meta, but no one knew what he was anyway. no one but the magic users, whose vague explanations told them they weren't really sure what he was either.

"you're connected to the universe, dick," zatanna sighed. "the multiverse comes together in you. and as much as i don't like it, we need you."

all eyes were on him. dick was looking at his feet, but he could still feel them. that was one of his new "powers," right? knowledge of the multiverse? a gross misuse and bitter accusation, dick knew. but he couldn't get the fear out of his mind, and fear left unchecked grew fuzzy with mold until it disintegrated into anger.

"you need me?" dick said hoarsely. "the multiverse, what, comes together in me? you do realize what utter bullshit that sounds like?"

"i know it don't seem all that good, but trust me," constantine said. "it's a thing. it's real. you are one."

"you said these people are supposed to be beings of power," dick argued back. "so why aren't you a nexus being? or raven? or fucking ra's al ghul. i'm sure as hell not a being of power. i'm human."

"i suppose that's exactly what makes you one," diana murmured. "i have met many powerful men in my life. i've found the ones that i respected the most were the ones that were most in touch with their humanity."

this was crazy. this was crazy. dick felt like the particles that came together to make him were blowing away in confusion until he was one big cloud of unrecognizable light, before he was scattered in every direction. how the hell was he supposed to be one of the things that kept the universe together when he couldn't even keep his own damn self together?

avoiding bruce wasn't working. dick just felt like he was about to fray at the edges. so, gathering up his courage, dick turned to face the man and quietly, in a voice more delicate than china, said, "b?"

batman didn't look at him. batman didn't even look up. but batman did speak.

"alternate universe superman. he called you the multiversal constant. the one thing he could depend on."

out of the corner of his eye, dick could see clark nodding a little.

bruce continued. "you named yourself after a mythological figure who was known as the catalyst of change. or the great rebuilder. and kryptonians we've met have said how well you embody the role."

"it's...it's just a name, bruce."

"you, of all people, know it's not," clark said.

"so what am i supposed to do, huh?" dick whirled around. "fight this battle zee's recruiting me for that's entirely above my skill level. become some sort of, what did you say, universal anchor? i don't know the first thing about this shit, and i don't know what it'll do to me!"

"you're scared," bruce said, always willing to cut right to the chase with everyone but himself.

dick didn't answer.

"raven, establish a mental link between me and nightwing."

raven nodded, then with a flutter of her hands, dick felt a presence inside his head. it scared him to realize how easily he accepted it, how easily he had always accepted it. he never understood how unusual that was until now.

of course i'm scared, dick whispered into the mind link. i've gone my entire life knowing exactly who i was, what i could do, what i strive to be. and in the span of one day, that's all gone.

then what do you plan to do about it? bruce asked.

he said it so simply, so easily. like discovering something this monumental about himself was just another tricky case or difficult puzzle to solve. dick would have an easier time plucking each and every star in the galaxy and making a mosiac out of them.

raven's hood was lowered, but dick could still feel her eyes on him. constantine's features were still dripping in pity, zee looked imploring. diana was looking at him with hesitating acceptance, bruce was unreadable as always.

but clark. clark was looking at him with steady eyes and and a kind smile. he looked knowing, quietly vindicated. it was as if he'd known there was something...off about dick. something two hopscotches and a backbend away from "special," but close enough. something that had led to clark giving dick a piece of his people's legacy, and trusting him to fulfill it to the best of his ability.

clark wasn't scared of him at all. but clark couldn't make up for bruce.

"will you help?" zatanna asked.

everything inside dick was itching to say yes. jumping at the chance to help his friends, aching to be useful. it was a response he'd carefully cultivated years ago, and pushing it down was an almost physical ache.

but the stardust behind his eyes wasn't so easily forgotten. the hook behind his navel that seemed to drag him into the fabric of a universe that dick couldn't comprehend still dug into him. the world was spinning and the stars were turning and the earth was tumbling over itself, all of them in an effort to stop their twisting and turning and to right themselves once and for all. but dick wasn't moving. dick was completely, utterly still.

"i don't know," he said.

Dick Grayson Anniversary Week ‘21, Day 6: Universal Constant

"i don't know," the author says, because she truly has no idea what the fuck she just wrote. i started imagining nexus dick grayson and this just spilled out onto the page. it makes absolutely no sense, but there are some nice sentences in there that i don't want to get rid of, so hopefully yall can somewhat make sense of this ramen soup of a fic.

tag list: @woahjaybird @birdy-bat-writes @anothertimdrakestan @screennamealreadyused @subtleappreciation @bikoncon @catxsnow @pricetagofficial @maplumebleue-blog-blog @sundownridge @thatsthewhump @dickgraysonweek

[stxleslyds]

Jason doesn't show up in DC's animated series (though the does "spiritually" show up as Tim Drake in Season 2 of Batman the Animated Series).

Jason has a strong presence in the video games, though. So what is your opinion on Jason's characterization for Arkham Knight? He is a DLC for the Injustice games as well. Judy be warned that I did watch some clips of Arkham Knight and the torture was too gruesome for me.

RED HOOD IN VIDEO GAMES.

Hey there friend, thank you for the ask!

INJUSTICE 2.

I had to do some research on Red Hood’s appearances in the Injustice games because I was never really in touch with that story. Here is what I knew about it, there are two games for PC, one of them is Injustice and the other is Injustice 2, the games also have the comic books that give context/background to the lore of the game.

I used to play Injustice: Gods Among Us on mobile phone, and I had Jason as a playable character there, I also found out way too late that “Nightwing” wasn’t really Dick Grayson, it was Damian because he took on the mantle after he and the rock killed Dick in the comic (forever mad at that ridiculous death and the kinda scary art that comic had).

I looked for information about Red Hood’s backstory in wikis and all that because I refuse to read an alternate universe book written by Tom Taylor, there are things that I am just not willing to do.

All in all, I think that this Jason was in surface level, the same as his canon comic counterpart up until the time of his resurrection. Given that the world was at war and the League of Assassins wasn’t working openly, he and the others had to live in the shadows, he seems to have been trained proficiently by both Batman and the LoA so he is a very hardcore opponent. There are some bits of his story with Damian and a place called Gorilla City that I do not understand because I haven’t read the comics but I am fine without it.

The thing is that this Jason is pretty cool, he sticks to his morals and fights for what he believes is right, he doesn’t look like the kinda guy that takes sides in this war which is probably the best idea. Both Batman and Superman seem to be on the wrong side of history with they ideals.

What I did see and I loved eternally was the ending to Red Hood’s story, I will link the video here! But I will also copy and paste all that he says there because I think it’s really important and where I was able to see more of his characterization.

"That. Felt. Good. Titanium composite hollow point bullets with a C4 kicker. Fastest, most explosive ammo in the world. I made them myself. With the invasion over, Bruce and Superman started fighting again. I wasn't down with either of them. On the one hand, the Regime's right. Scumbag murderers and rapists deserve to die. But on the other hand, I'm no fan of government authority. Especially the dictatorial variety.

So, while the world's finest fight each other, I fight for the people. The weak. The innocent. Anyone who can't protect themselves. When they cry out for a saviour, I'll answer. As for the criminals that threaten them? They need to know that their actions have consequences. That the Red Hood is coming for them.”

This is excellent, I absolutely love this, this Jason knows his morals and doesn’t bow down to anyone and in the end, he is truly a hero to the people that need heroes the most.

Him saying that he believes that some criminals have to die but that he can’t really join Superman’s side because he cannot associate with it because he isn’t a fan of dictatorial ideas, I love this man.

I feel like this is a fair characterization for Jason, I believe that if something along the lines of what happens in Injustice happens in current continuity then Jason wouldn’t join any sides, he wouldn’t be neutral per se but he will fight for his own ideals. And his ideals in most universes are protecting people and I think that’s great. I love to see a world where Jason is seen as more intelligent and put together than the Batman.

Something that I find quite funny and interesting from this game is the dialogues that characters have with each other when they fight, I found this video compilation where you can see all the dialogues between Red Hood vs Robin (Damian Wayne), they are so fun and I love the animations too.

BATMAN: ARKHAM KNIGHT.

Oh, ArkhamVerse Jason, my beloved.

He is, to me, the epitome of this meme.

I have actually watched the whole game playthrough, several times, and Jason had a DLC as the Red Hood for that game (Nightwing has one too and I will talk about it later because I love this version of him). And, yes, the torture scene is very gruesome, it was incredibly sad and it made me feel bad. But I also think that they made it that way so it could support the kind of storytelling they were going for.

The reality is that this Jason suffered his whole life, and was constantly introduced to lifestyles that he never wanted to be part of. The world around this Jason wasn’t kind at all to him and there is a long list of people who did him wrong.

Although ArkhamVerse Jason didn’t die, like his comic counterpart did, he suffered the most. And his suffering really drove him to be the best version of an unhinged Jason Todd. But it’s clear, his brutality and murder intent isn’t laced with his Red Hood persona or at least not on the same level as it is with his Arkham Knight persona.

This Jason’s characterization works to perfection, but it only works that way because he was well developed within the game lore and the comics. This Jason was extremely well trained, he is probably the smartest version of Jason, his mind and his level of preparedness are unparalleled when it comes to other Jason Todd variants (a little MCU Loki talk right there).

I would go as far as to say that this Jason would be an excellent match to peak Dick Grayson from before New 52 in comics. Those two would clash so immensely, but man, it would be one hell of an intellectual and physical fight. Two Kings doing what they do best.

Anyway, for now take my word for how well characterized Jason is in the ArkhamVerse, I will make a post were I deep dive more on his character both in game and comics. There is so much to say about him, he is truly interesting and very complex.

Now, I will be a little cheeky and I will use this ask as an opportunity to talk about my man, ArkhamVerse Nightwing aka Pretty Boy.

I love him so much! In the game when you get to meet him (I will link the video here! it’s five minutes long, and worth the watch) you get to see both Nightwing’s and Dick’s personalities. Nightwing is fun and relaxed, he is a little bit cocky and doesn’t let Batman be a pain in his ass, he is truly a beast. Although he is never seen without the mask in a moment when he is alone with Bruce you can really see Dick’s personality shine through. He obviously has had issues with Bruce in the past but there is also this palpable respect coming from both of them to the other. Bruce wants to protect Dick but he acts like a jerk instead of telling him what is on his mind. Dick wants to help Bruce at all costs, he refuses to leave Gotham until they solve something that he was already working on before Bruce needed his help.

There is also this sort of goodbye scene between the two (I will link it here!) that is extremely sad because Dick doesn’t believe Bruce when he tells him that he is proud of him. Dick cuts him off just when Bruce was trying to open up and I think that scene speaks volumes about how rough their relationship was. Dick never finds out that Bruce was “dying” after being infected with the Joker’s blood/gas, so it’s very bittersweet.

There is also the Nightwing DLC, where we get to see Dick being the best of the best, he is so skilled and funny and smart. It is amazing how much this game made me love their Nightwing even though he doesn’t appear much, his dynamic with Penguin is just perfect, Dick literally makes Penguin’s life very difficult. All of the people working with Penguin kinda fear Dick a little bit, some of them are even impressed by his skills.

Oh and, when Nightwing gets captured at some point in the game, Penguin’s men are saying something along the lines of “I was sure Batman will come in” “how come?” “what’s tied up downstairs and getting the crap beat out of it?” “Oh yeah, Nightwing” and that is so true, if I were Batman, I will also risk my life for Nightwing.

I just love Nightwing, he makes me so happy! He is the best here!

Anyway, enough of me loving Nightwing uncontrollably, I will make a separate post where I only talk about ArkhamVerse Jason so, yeah, be ready for that one because I love that Jason too, he is hot.