#or at the very LEAST get the good batgirl suit back

[bobbinalong]

dc so firmly positioning cass as batgirl again recently, to the point that she's finally getting a solo again, makes me slightly more hopeful for babs' future as a character than i was yesterday.

[aingeal98]

One little... Not even nitpick but just sad observation. This plotline they're setting up with Dinah and Cass trying to protect Babs from a future assassin looks very fun but I can't stop thinking about the conflict and drama it could create if DC let Babs be Oracle again, wheelchair most definitely included. It was a common character beat that the real Oracle Babs hated anyone seeing her as weak or powerless (Rightfully and understandably so because you know. Ableist society.) like it's a big driving motivation for her! Oracle gives her power and let's her control the narrative. People seeing her or even hinting that she could be weak and in need of protection, going above her head and treating her as a victim or a damsel in distress? Yeah she does Not react well to that. If she found out that Dinah and Cass, two of the people she loves most, were secretly trying to protect her, no matter how good their intentions are there's no way that doesn't blow up into at least one fight where no one is fully right and no one is fully wrong but it gets nasty and hurts everyone involved.

But with Babs in the Batgirl suit I just... Don't see any of that happening. My guess is they'll just let Babs in on everything right away and have very little conflict between the three of them. Of course I'd love to be proven wrong! I think there's a really good set up here for this plotline to do things with these characters and bonds that hasn't been done in a while. And fhey're slowly getting like 20% of Barbara's actual personality back instead of being The Smurfette. But at the same time, I've yet to see anything that makes me think DC would be willing to let a writer dive substantially into that angry, defensive side of Barbara. Because it's messy and ugly and also because it exists due to the trauma and ableism she suffered, and DC would rather print a million panels of her sitting in front of a computer with her legs crossed than ever let her be truly Oracle again.

[kiragecko]

List request batfamily’s worst hair day ever

[Warning for parasites/bugs in Babs' entry.]

Dick - a witch once gave him his dream hair. Waist length, perfectly straight, stayed in a ponytail without needing to be coated with gel first. Even Babs, his primary Mullet-Hater, seemed to find it attractive! And then it turned out the hair was actually sentient, and sucking out his memories. So he had to cut it off. He sulked for weeks.

Babs - the same witch gave her techno-lice. Little nanobots creeping around her scalp, their skittering feet far easier to feel than normal lice, though they were no easier to remove. Also trying to suck out her memories. She could see movement when she looked in the mirror! Babs isn't scared of bugs, but MEMORY-SUCKING BUGS?! She was ready to take a flamethrower to her scalp.

Jason - one of Ivy's creations mimicked certain puberty hormones. Jason spent hours growing hair EVERYWHERE. It was the height of summer. He had a beard! His whole body itched, he stank, and he had to remove layers to avoid heat stroke so everyone SAW. Just awful.

Tim - secretly, he's enjoyed most of his hair disasters. Doing stupid stuff with his hair and then being very deadpan while his companions suffer is delightful enrichment for him. But he was once at a gala, mildly disguised, and someone mistook him for his mom. Because he'd accidentally recreated one of her Business Looks. He'd been in a SUIT! The idea of Butch Janet has traumatized him for life and that was the worst hair day.

Steph - dyed her hair on a day that SOME Rogue had dumped something into the water supply. It turned out a patchwork of green, orange, bleached white, and black. She was terrified of mind control chemicals, or Joker Toxin, but apparently she doesn't get to have BADASS problems. Just an embarrassing dye job that she couldn't afford to get professionally fixed.

Cass - Wanted to go to her second rave. Got distracted by being Batgirl and didn't have much time to get ready. No hairgel in the apartment, and Tim was being moody and no fun, so she tried to find a solution herself. 'School glue' is not like 'children's markers' - it doesn't wash out after. She did not want to cut her hair off, but roots growing out with weird chunky blobs at the ends does not look good.

Damian - unknowingly wore the same spiked hairstyle as 13-year-old Drake for THREE WEEKS as Robin. He was foolish enough to think it LOOKED GOOD. He can trust no one.

Duke - still isn't sure what happened. He was in one of Ivy's parks, but when she finally turned up to free him she acted like HE was the one who had brought the weird hair-growing mist. Complained about him damaging her plants with his 'mammalian filaments'. Why would ANYONE choose to grow a 3 foot halo of hair that grew AROUND the underbrush he was trying to get out of?? He was stuck for almost 40 minutes! At least she just gave him a shave and kicked him out, it could have been a lot worse.

Bruce - involved alien ... pollen? Slime? Difficult to fit in an Earth classification system. His hair started melting, very slowly. As it melted, it stretched and oozed across his face. And then everywhere it touched also started sprouting wet hair? He has locked the report.

Alfred - back in his pre-butler days. Involved a theatrical wig attached with ENTIRELY the wrong adhesive. By the time he realized that taking it off was not going to work, the wig was half destroyed and he'd lost several patches of hair. There was no recovery by that point.

[starwarsmum]

Day 8 of @maribat-calendar-events Biofam Sept! Prompt today: Stabbing

Jason was excited - not only had he been allowed back into Alfred's kitchen with Marinette supervising him, but now that she admitted that she knew the family secret, she was going to be joining in on patrol! The little Pixie was a total firecracker and whenever they sparred she had a fifty-fifty chance of coming out on top.

Demon Spawn had been the most verbal about her joining the team, outwardly complimenting her skills which had to be a first. And he was the most vocal in his arguments about being her first partner but, ultimately, Bruce decided they needed to put her with someone more experienced to begin with.

And so, Jason had been chosen, partly because he was the least likely to accidentally make her do silly maneuvers (Nightwing) and because he wasn't going to fall asleep from a caffeine withdrawal (Red Robin). It also helped that they were so physically different, he was a bigger target should they come across anyone who wanted to do them severe harm.

Robin grumbled as they prepared to head out on patrol. Spoiler and Batgirl had the night off, but Nightwing was teaming up with Robin, and Batman planned to be around in case anyone needed him. Jason and Marinette, using the Mouse Miraculous, headed out to patrol in the financial district. 

Everything was pretty quiet as they stopped on top of Gotham Central Bank, Jason sitting down on the edge of the building as Marinette - excuse him, Multimouse - twirled her skipping rope nimbly. They had already stopped two attempted muggings and helped a young woman get home from a slightly sketchy looking alley. 

“So, first night on patrol everything you'd hoped it would be?” He asked teasingly, head tilted in her direction. She smiled over at him, dropping into a crouch as she joined him at the edge of the building. He was glad he didn't have to worry about bailing her out if she fell, because her grey suit blended in too well with the city.

“And more,” she said good humouredly, before checking in with Red Robin at base. They sat in companionable silence until Jason started talking about the things he wanted to try baking next. Multimouse launched into a passionate discussion about the differences between macarons and macaroons - he hadn't realised that they were different desserts as opposed to being the same dessert called different things from Europe to America - when Nightwing called for backup.

Instantly Multimouse was up and racing along rooftops, her skipping rope extending in a similar way to their grappling hooks. Jason ended up trying to play catch up as she practically flew to Nightwing and Robin's location, landing in the middle of a messy brawl with some of Two Face’s thugs.

With Jason and Multimouse in the fight, it lasted for maybe another two minutes. Jason turned to congratulate her on how well she'd fought but she rushed past him to Robin, who was leaning against a wall for support. With the cameras in his helmet, Jason could see he was favouring his left leg and tying a hasty tourniquet onto it. 

“Give that to me,” she said imperiously, grabbing the kit Robin was using and forcing him to sit down. She made short work of the knife wound he had sustained and released the tourniquet once he was stitched and bandaged up. She hauled him to his feet to make sure he was stable and glared up at him with her hands on her hips. 

“Tt, I am fine, it was a very light stabbing,” Robin muttered eventually, and it was hard to tell but Jason thought he might be blushing. Multimouse scoffed and turned away from the injured bat. Jason's jaw dropped open behind his helmet in astonishment as Robin grabbed Multi’s hand and turned her back. “I am sorry, I will be more careful in future.”

“You'd better,” she relented, darting forward to kiss his cheek before turning back to Jason. “C'mon Hood, let's get back to our own patrol. Wing, make sure he heads back to base if he's struggling at all and we'll see you when we finish.”

After that, the rest of the patrol was a breeze. Jason was far more interested in seeing how Damian and Marinette behaved once they were back in civilian attire. He'd been thinking a lot about the way they interacted in the second part of the patrol and he suspected that Damian had a bit of a crush on Tim's sister.

Jason wasn't disappointed in the slightest because as soon as they were back and Marinette saw Damian changing out of his suit, she flung herself towards him, detransforming in a flash of light. Sadly, the Demon brat caught her easily, even with an injured leg, but instead of pushing her away, the kid hugged her back. Jason exchanged a glance with Dick, who looked equally baffled.

“You need to be more careful, Dami,” she demanded softly, voice barely carrying over to the others. Tim didn't even turn, so it was unlikely he had heard her. Jason's jaw almost hit the floor for a second time when ‘Dami’ lifted a hand to push a stray strand of hair behind her ear. 

Marinette sighed and leaned into the touch, scolding him gently even as he seemingly murmured reassurances to her. Jason and Dick watched as he pulled on a civilian shirt before pulling Marinette out of the cave by her hand. They stared after the pair for another moment before Tim finally spotted them and asked what they were doing. 

They explained everything to Tim, who merely grimaced and turned away. “He definitely likes her,” he said grouchily, tapping the keyboard somewhat aggressively. “But it's not like it's going anywhere, I don't think he even knows what a crush is.”

“Uhhh, Red, buddy, I think he knows and, unless I'm very much mistaken, so does she,” Jason said, but Tim just shook his head. Jason decided he had to try one more time, and then it wasn't his problem anymore. “Dude, you're not listening: he was cuddling her. Like, face in neck, hell, practically canoodling."

“Do you really think that Damian, the kid so antisocial he needs to be kept away from the rest of his class, would be capable of charming Marinette?” Tim looked at both Jason and Dick pointedly, before turning back and telling them to get some sleep.

Jason, having done as much as he could, took the command at face value and went to bed.

[fezwearingjellybananas]

12, 17, 21

12. Is there an unpopular arc that you like that the fandom doesn’t? Why?

Series 4 of the Flash maybe? At least the main arc, there are parts that I did not like, but in general I liked having a not speedster main villain and them having to think their way around the problem more?

17. Instead of XYZ happening, I would have made ABC happen…

So Iris never really gets a focus in the "Iris is going to die" arc, whereas she should have been the main character, her feelings should be front and centre, and that's the major thing I would change, but they never really went super into how did Savitar happen in the first place, so I've just had an idea to run with:

Okay. So we open with Flashpoint still, Barry running back to try and save Wally, and then the next episode is mostly the same except we're skipping the weird husks, Barry's actually involved in some kind of missing person case, and his new colleague who he's not getting on super well with, Julian Albert/Albert Desmond, is handling most of the metahuman cases, as instructed by his boss- Director of CSI David Singh

(They're Flashpoint changes- Barry's been thrown out and keeps calling him Captain Singh still. David has figured out Barry's the Flash and assumes this is related)

The first missing person case Barry picks up is for a Doctor Darwin Elias.

There's a few of the people getting powers- starting with Edward Clariss still, and Barry quickly puts together these are all people who had powers in Flashpoint and assumes this is something he caused.

(After all, he seems to have caused Caitlin getting powers, and maybe we keep the Dante dies part, or maybe it's Cisco's other brother, Armando, who Barry's never heard of before, or maybe we cut this entirely, I haven't decided)

We are skipping the Alchemy cult thing, but there is a bad guy called Alchemy who uses his Philosopher's Stone, and this is involved in giving Wally powers still, and Barry still unmasks him and reveals Julian who has zero memory of any of this

(Well. Al was the first Rogue to reform, way back in the Silver Age initially, and there is that one where Eobard uses his mind manipulation to get Al to go back to villainy unwillingly and try and help him kill Barry even though Barry's his friend now, so there is comic precedent for the mind control from a future speedster part)

Even though this is mostly an episode plot (or maybe 2 episodes) Barry still gets flung to the future throwing the Philosopher's Stone into the Speed Force. He doesn't see the moment of Iris' death but he does see the immediate aftermath. And Barry is a CSI, he's very good at his job, and he has the experience to know instantly that a speedster did this. Iris is in some kind of costume he doesn't recognise (but we the audience know to be reminiscent of Batgirl's), he can see Iris is alone but still warm, so this has only just happened, Barry doesn't see a date anywhere, and Jay grabs him and runs them back to the present right as the door starts to open.

Jay tells Barry he can't go back there, he can't find these things out, he just experienced the consequences of changing time and he knows how dangerous it is.

So Barry keeps what he knows to himself and we have an episode where Barry's plot is dealing with a metahuman who he knows could not have possibly got his powers from Alchemy yet has got some new ones and the other half is focused on Iris being a reporter, she's investigating something- maybe some thefts from various labs around the city where they suspect a speedster, and she gets herself into a sticky situation that she can handle by herself but it is dangerous and suddenly Barry is terrified, terrified of her job, he doesn't want her looking into things like this, it's almost like he's trying to go back to keeping secrets and excluding her from Team Flash and Iris is not having it, and this is where the break-up part happens.

The end of this is where Savitar reveals himself (in the suit), and cue the mid series break.

We open with Barry training Wally, only he seems to be acting strangely, but then, he and Iris are arguing, he's caught a second missing person case at work- Doctor Meena Dhawan- and it looks like there might be a speedster involved, so Wally shrugs that off, and shrugs off Barry later doesn't seem to remember he already taught Wally about throwing lightning.

Duet actually happens pretty early, maybe with James and Kara instead of Mon-El, and it's after Iris saves Barry he finally confesses what's going on, what he saw, and he doesn't know what to do because Jay's right, he's just had the consequences of time travel made so clear, but he can't lose Iris, and it's all just a mess.

But Cisco can vibe, and this is where we get that first hint that Barry didn't run to the near future, he ran a few years forward.

Team Flash have their first proper confrontation with Savitar in here- the next lab to get broken into is S.T.A.R., so they can respond to that one quickly and Savitar stops and looks right at Iris long enough for Barry to almost catch him, and Barry immediately puts together Iris was killed by a speedster, here's a speedster.

Only it's strange. Doctor Elias shows up- or rather, they go find him, he was giving people powers with help from Savitar (or as he puts it, under his request, but something's fishy about him), but whenever they fight him Savitar focuses on Barry, he never hurts anyone else, and he gave Wally powers, and then there's these tiny little moments where Barry just seems to be acting strangely.

Iris meanwhile is getting to be angry and conflicted and hurting and all the emotions about her apparent death intended to upset her boyfriend and she's also investigating because whatever he's pulling from these labs seems to be to do with the Speed Force. Getting the stone out again maybe?

But something's going on with Cisco's powers and the vibe of her future dead body keeps shifting- it's in a vibe we finally get the date of 18th March, 2024- and something's going on with Barry and-

And Iris is the one who figures it out and goes to confront the future Barry Allen who didn't come back to kill her, he came back to do the exact opposite.

Just changing it won't work, he remembers Flashpoint. But the Legends change time, and Eobard's changed time, and Barry figured if he tried just little bits at a time maybe he could direct the timestream away from that moment.

Away from the point where Eobard Thawne kills her and it was his fault, he wasn't fast enough to save her, he didn't save her-

And he was the one who brought Thawne back, his remnant at least, because of Flashpoint. He did this, so when Thawne dragged him back through time, he knew he had a way to fix it.

He can't kill his younger self. The paradox involved is too big, but if Barry Allen isn't running around any more, then Eobard Thawne has no reason to target the people he loves. The Speed Force trap isn't built to hold Savitar here- it's what he's been working on, to throw his past self into, to keep him away from Iris because Barry being close to people gets them killed.

And I think he might win. He sticks Barry in the Speed Force where he is at the start of s4, and he fades away, the vibe fades and Iris lives, but Barry's gone, and we end with Iris and Cisco clearly planning on working together to get Barry back.

Or that's one idea. The only actual thing I would very much like to change in canon is to put Iris's feelings as the most important thing in the "Iris is going to die" plot

21. What are your thoughts on crack ships?

Very positive, it's all just for fun, and you can have a lot playing around with relationships and seeing if you can build a plot for them

Thank you!

[Salty Asks]

[gamesception]

Sception Reads Cass Cain #4

Azrael: Agent of the Bat, #56-57 written by Dennis O'Neil, pencils by Roger Robinson

Last Time we had an issue with not much to say about Cass specifically, other than that she had a cute moment with Azrael. I mentioned it was a shame she didn't have more interaction with him in her own series, but in the /early/ early days, before her series even started, she did show up in Azrael's book a few times. I also said Jean-Paul had largely moved past his edge-lord roots, but while he's less edgy than in the Knightfall/Knightsend period his gimmick is still more edge-lordy than I remembered.

Cass did appear in some other books between these two issues, but these together make up a single story, and I have more or less the same things to say about Cass's appearance in both, so we're going to lump them together.

Anywhere, there's our girl. As usual, her costume's cool and spooky.

As I've already gone on about elsewhere at length though, without Scott's habit of cheating by just drawing Cass's eyes and facial expressions through it, the fully covering mask renders Cass faceless and expressionless. Combine that with her inability to speak and many comic artists lacking Scott's skill at conveying emotion through body language - instead going for these relatively stock poses... and yeah. It's not that this art is bad or anything, it's perfectly serviceable comic book art and writing. But Cass's character design and gimmicks just don't play well in that context, which was a problem with those elements of her concept.

Anyway, grumpy ole' Batman wants Azrael and Cass to take out some crime guy, Nick Scratch, who has supply stashes of guns, ammunition, and medical supplies. Fair enough. Dr. Thompkins wants them to do it without hurting anyone, but she usually doesn't get her way in these books. Iirc Thompkins is a DCAU original who got transplanted into the main comic continuity, along with fan favorite Harley Quin, Mr. Freeze's sympathetic backstory, etc. So much good material came from the Bruce Tim animated show.

Jean explains his gimmick to Cass, who kind of non-reacts to it. But I had kind of forgotten what his deal was at this point, so I guess that's convenient. Jean was raised/indoctrinated by a crazy assassin cult… actually there's some almost sorta parallels with Cass - though much closer to what her backstory would become post reboot. It's almost like there was some thought put into teaming these two particular bat folks up, at least a little. Shame they're not really taking advantage of that with their silent shadow depiction of our girl. Anyway, due to brainwashing Jean fights good but isn't very nice when he wears his costume.

They head to Scratch's place, Cass knocking out the guard out front so Jean can get in without putting on his suit, but then she kind of disappears from the rest of the issue.

The crime guy turns out to be ridiculous. And we're supposed to believe this guy gathered a cult of like hundreds of people. And they're not just here for the guns and medicine?

What are you idiots talking about, Nick Scratch is a bigger clown than the local supervillain who is a literal clown.

Jean-Paul gets recognized by a mook he and Cass beat up earlier in the issue, and part one ends here without Cass showing back up.

...

Issue 57 picks back up with Valley tricking Scratch into not killing him right away, instead killing him at a gathering the next day in public, and, importantly for Jean-Paul's gimmick, in costume.

Anyway, that night Cass reappears, steals most of Scratch's guns without being seen, goes to free Jean-Paul but he tells her to wait. The next day Scratch puts him in his costume, tries to get his followers to stone him since they're now out of guns, but Azrael's in costume now so he dodges the bricks and busts out of his bindings. Batgirl appears to beat up the few armed guards that are left while Azrael beats up Scratch and the book ends with them getting the med supplies to Dr. Thompkins.

All fine and good and standard, not too much to say about the issue overall, other than…

Some of these faces are AMAZING.

As for Cass...

Having Cass disarm the gang without being noticed was a nice touch, but in terms of our Girl she's pretty much playing the silent ninja trope, basically Batman's enforcer on the scene. In this book she's an extension of Bruce's will, keeping tabs on Valley and the Scratch situation alike. Her stealth and combat ability gets highlighted - some of her action panels are pretty great.

The problem is that she doesn't really come across as much of a character in her own right. Cassandra the teenage girl - sometimes goofy, sometimes defiant, sometimes unsure - just isn't here.

And speaking of unsure - why is she Batman's enforcer, when Bruce himself has known her for like a day? Even having saved Gordon, even with Barbara's endorsement, Batman should be keeping a close eye on her at this point, not trusting her to keep an eye on others. It doesn't help that the way the artist draws her she looks more like an adult rather than a teenager. Too tall, insufficiently gangly. More Bat-woman than Bat-Girl, as though it were still Helena in the costume rather than Cass. It comes down to generic comic book 'this is how I draw woman' stuff - not awful by those low standards, certainly not for the 90s, but lacking in individuality and expression. We're going to see much worse before we get to her solo title, though, so maybe I shouldn't be complaining here.

Again, though, as I've said too many times now, this is not primarily the fault of the A:AotB creatives. Cass's costume design was neat conceptually, and fire in Scott's hands, but fails to get her character and emotions across in the hands and styles of most other artists. In a collaborative/studio/factory format like mainstream superhero books where characters are going to show up in other titles by other creative teams, if a design only works in the hands of one particular artist then it needs another revision. Likewise for the silent protagonist gimmick.

The fact that Cass worked so much worse as a guest in other books may have contributed to her relative lack of crossover appearances compared to other bat characters, which may in turn have led to the eventual editorial decision to turn her into a villain, to see if she might have broader utility as a character that way, and that's the decision that ruined her character for so long.

But that's getting way ahead of ourselves.

[collindelade]

THE FLASH REVIEW

It's been a long journey with the development of this "Flash" movie. Originally announced in 2014, DC has had plenty of hurdles to overcome to get to this moment of release. The creators' biggest problem was the controversial behavior of star Ezra Miller. There were talks of reshooting with another actor, rearranging the movie to lessen Miller's role, and even scrapping the movie as they did with "Batgirl". Miller's personal behavior aside, how is the movie controversy aside.

Ezra Miller stars as Barry Allen, the speedster superhero trying to balance his everyday life with his hero responsibilities. After stumbling across a new ability to travel back in time, Barry sets out to reshape past events to save his mother and father. By doing so, Barry messes up crucial elements that give the formally defeated General Zod (Michael Shannon) the upper hand in finishing what he set out to do in "Man of Steel". Barry must group together an alternate universe Bruce Wayne (Michael Keaton), an imprisoned Supergirl (Sasha Calle), and his younger self to fix what he started.

In an alternate timeline without the controversies with Miller and DC not in the middle of a franchise restart, "The Flash" would be the best DC Cinematic Universe movie yet! Miller truly shines in both Barry's immature new hero action and in the more emotional moments. Barry is a very likable and fun character to follow both in and out of the suit. The same way Tom Holland nails being Spider-Man, Ezra Miller is great as Flash.

Director Andy Muschietti truly is the MVP here in delivering a wildly energetic and genuinely funny film. Michael Keaton is great returning to the role that defined him and his charm shines onscreen. Sasha Calle as Supergirl is a welcomed interpretation, even when giving the least development.

Where the movie starts to crumble is with its third action and rushing crucial character turns that deserve a movie on its own. While the first two-thirds felt developed and had a good pace, the last third speeds (pun intended) along, dropping characters and the escalation of the story to get to its wrap-up ending. Here is where the controversies with Ezra Miller and the DC restart initiative cannot be ignored. The finale feels rewritten, rushed, and abandoning any sequel threads that, right or wrong, are caused by these two real-world events.

Judging solely on its entertainment values, "The Flash" delivers and is a thrill ride full of great action and crowd-cheering cameo appearances. "The Flash" is worthy to have come out, the story of Barry Allen deserves to be center stage, and Ezra Miller did a fantastic job in the role (as for returning for the role, that's a heated debate). The majority of the movie remains strongly made and well-performed. That last third does bring the whole movie down, no matter how many surprises are thrown onscreen. In an alternate universe, there is a fantastic Flash movie, but we're going to have to settle for just a good, yet flawed one in this timeline.

7.5/10

[dilfdoctordoom]

On Tom Taylor, the Current Nightwing Run & Ableism

I did mention I was gonna do a post about it, so here we are. There are some things I want to make clear before we begin: the issue exploded on Twitter on the very first day of disabled Pride month; disabled people have been discussing the ableism in Taylor’s Nightwing run since it began; nobody has blamed Taylor for what happened to Barbara in 2011. We are, however, blaming him for the way she is written in his series during 2021. 

I am also going to be discussing the ableism in the fandom in this post. The reactions I have seen, from here to Twitter to TikTok, are showing not only a great misunderstanding of the situation, but a purposeful misunderstanding. The very real reasons disabled people are angry right now have been twisted to make us seem ridiculous and overly sensitive and I cannot help but feel that is very intentional.

Another quick addition: disabled people are not a monolith. Barbara Gordon spent over 20 years as a paralyzed wheelchair user. Stating (and I would like to note, never truly showing) that she is a part time cane user now is still erasing her disability. These things are not interchangeable.

So, with that out of the way, let’s begin.

Tom Taylor’s run is ableist. That is a fact of this situation. He made the active choice to include a version of Barbara Gordon that is ableist caricature. Story wise, the role that Barbara plays could have easily been filled by anyone else. There is no real season, within the narrative and outside of it, for Taylor to include this version of Barbara Gordon, who has received a decade of criticism from disabled people. It’s very well known that this iteration is problematic, to put it kindly, and Taylor is aware of that. 

He made the active decision to include her, anyway, showing, at the very least, that he is passively, if not actively, ableist. Passive ableism is still ableism and disabled people are allowed to take issue with that.

That alone is reason enough for disabled people to be angry. But that’s not why things exploded on Twitter.

On July 1st, the very first day of disabled pride month, the new design for Barbara was dropped. After months of teasing Barbara’s return to a wheelchair using Oracle (see: Last Days of The DC Universe, Batgirl (2016), etc), they debuted... a new Batgirl costume that the artist has openly said draws inspiration from the Burnside suit.

There’s a lot of issues to unpack here, so let’s start small: the issue with consciously calling back to Burnside. The Burnside era of Batgirl stories was... beyond awful. The villain of the series’ first arc, was an AI based on Barbara’s brain patterns when she was disabled. It was evil because of all the rage and pain Barbara felt. The actual Barbara, on the other hand, was good -- because she was able bodied. Because her PTSD had been tossed aside. It was a horrifically ableist era that drove the idea that Barbara’s life was terrible when she was disabled; that it was some horrible, twisted secret.

Comics have kept that narrative going. Barbara is seen hiding books on chronic pain; she reacts aggressively to the mere idea that she could be in a wheelchair again, acting like it would be weakness. Whereas Barbara had once been Oracle not because of, but in spite of, her disability, who was fantastic representation for the disabled community, she now acts like it is the most shameful thing in her life.

To call back to Burnside is to call back to that ableism and make no critique of it. If anything, it’s to embrace the ideas of that era.

There is also the design itself to consider. Many people have pointed out the inclusion of a back brace, as if that saves it from ableism -- it does not. Any person who has ever worn a back brace can take one look at this design and know that they did not consult a disabled person. Hell, by how impractical that thing is, I doubt they even Googled a picture of a back brace.

It’s a superficial acknowledgement that Barbara is supposed to be disabled. Something that was apparently thrown in to appease the numerous complaints of Barbara being able bodied; something that no one working on it put any effort into.

When it comes to aids, this is not a new thing for Barbara in Infinite Frontier. She’s said to be using a cane occasionally, that we got a better look at in Batman: Urban Legends, and as any cane user can tell you... that is not a cane that could feasibly be used. It’s another pathetic attempt to acknowledge that Barbara is supposed to be disabled, without actually doing anything of importance.

[IMAGE ID:  A segmented cane with a tri-pointed handle with a wrist strap. There is a stripe across the sections to connection them, labelled “solar battery charger buttons”. The text reads: “telescoping antenna doubles as cane or weapon if needed”. END ID]

Dropping this design (which we have now established to be problematic) on the very first day of disabled pride month is a sickening move. The very first day, and DC has doubled down on their disability erasure, thrown in superficial things like a back brace to act like it’s fine.

Tom Taylor is definitely involved in this, whether you like it not. No, he is not in anyway responsible for the events of the New 52 and what they did to Barbara Gordon, but that does not absolve him of blame for what is currently being done to her in his run.

When the design dropped, it started trending due to disabled fans reactions. To be clear: we were directly calling out the ableism in this design. This was Tom Taylor’s response:

[IMAGE ID: A tweet from TomTaylorMade that says: “Hey, @Bruna_Redono_F I think our new Batgirl suit is getting some attention.” He then adds a winky face emoji and tags @jesswchen and @drinkpinkkink. Attached are a screenshot showing that Batgirl is trending in the United States and a picture of the design itself. END ID]

This is him, bragging about how the disabled community reacted. Perhaps before this tweet, you could’ve made an argument that he was not ableist, but after he flaunted the fact that disabled people were rightly furious over this, like it was something to be proud of? No. If you are defending him, you are a part of the problem.

Taylor has included ableist writing in his Nightwing run, beyond the inherent ableism that comes with the current iteration of Barbara Gordon (whose inclusion, yet again, is his decision).

[IMAGE ID: A panel from Nightwing #79. Barbara and Dick are standing in his apartment. Barbara is saying: “I have some pretty new technology holding my spine together. I’m happy to do most things -- eat pizza in the park, take down low-level thugs -- but leaping from rooftops seems... unwise.” END ID]

What Barbara says in the panel above has bothered a lot of disabled people. The implication that she couldn’t “eat pizza in the park’ and “take down low-level thugs” without a spinal implant that conveniently erases her disability is... fucked up, to put it mildly. Those are both things that Barbara has done in a wheelchair. The first one is something wheelchair users can do and the implication that it’s not is beyond offensive.

But, let’s leave Barbara behind for a moment. I have previously mentioned that disabled people have been discussing the ableism present in this run long before July -- and that ableism is not only centred on Barbara. Dick is also a player in all this.

Dick Grayson was shot in the head. I don’t believe I need to retread the story, but just in case: Dick was shot in the head by KGBeast, developed amnesia from the event, and went by Ric Grayson for a long enough period in comics. If you have been active within the DC fandom for the past year or so, you know all about this controversial storyline and its fallout.

The Ric Grayson arc concluded itself the issue before Taylor became the writer for the series and ever since his tenure has begun, Taylor has completely ignored the reality of Dick being a disabled man. We understand this is comics, that things do not function the way they do in our world, but still -- it is clear that this gunshot wound to the head has affected Dick massively. We had an entire arc dedicated to how he struggled to find himself in the aftermath.

Taylor is choosing to write Dick as an able-bodied man, despite his canonical injuries and how they would impact his life.

This man is choosing to give empty gestures towards Barbara being a disabled woman (as discussed above, the completely dysfunctional back brace, etc) whilst writing her as able-bodied as possible. He writes both Dick and Barbara as able bodied as humanly possible. That is ableist. He is ableist. This is the same man that said he made a dog disabled ‘in honour of Barbara’. I do not think I need to elaborate on why that is bad.

The least he could’ve done, was get a sensitivity reader. We know that Taylor is not beyond getting people from marginalized communities to consult on his work (see: Suicide Squad), so why, when writing two characters that should be disabled, one that the disabled community have been criticising for a decade, does he not reach out to a single disabled person? A mere Google search could’ve improved the situation massively. In both the new design and the current writing, it is beyond clear that this is not just an able-bodied person writing it -- it’s an ableist person.

He could have listened to the numerous disabled fans that spoke out. Instead, he chose not only to refuse to do that, but to describe justifiable anger as ‘raging’. He treated us like we were crazy for daring to speak out about blatant ableism being parading around of us in our pride month.

Tom Taylor has failed to do the bare minimum and in doing so, he is, at very, very least, guilty of complicity. Again: passive ableism is still ableism.

The argument at hand is not just about Barbara Gordon and the continuing ableism that shines out from her current writing. The argument is about the treatment of disabled characters in his run. It has also become about the way he treats physically disabled people.

We also can’t have this conversation without acknowledging the fandom’s role in it all. I waited a day to write this up, to allow all the reactions to flood in... and I am sickened.

We have everything across the board. Able-bodied people that have actually listened to disabled people, who have supported us (which is deeply appreciated). Able-bodied people who may have had good intentions, but a skewed sense of the situation and perpetuating some of the more insidious lies being spread around (IE. that this is only about the new costume).

There are, obviously, the ableist reactions, though, that we will be discussing here. People deeming the current issues as ‘crazy’, calling disabled people ‘overly sensitive’ and ‘delusional’. Many people have completely glossed over the examples given for why Taylor, specifically, is ableist, and instead have resorted to telling disabled people that we are wrong and should be mad at DC instead.

It’s important to note that Tom Taylor is an adult man. He doesn’t need a fandom to attack disabled people for daring to call him out. He is not the victim in this situation; he has, for quite a few disabled people, been the aggressor.

I have seen claims that Infinite Frontier is a ‘slow burn’, implying that disabled people need to patient... as if we have not waited a decade for less ableist writing. There is a complete refusal from able-bodied fans to actually listen to what disabled people are saying. They would much rather rush to the defence of the (honestly rather mediocre) current Nightwing run. 

Disabled fans know that comic book spaces are ableist. We know that both DC and Marvel and many of their writers are ableist. We are still allowed to be pissed as hell about it and acting like the current reaction being had right now is disabled people being ‘overdramatic’ is yet another example of how the able-bodied side of the fandom both refuses to listen to and undermine disabled people when we call out ableism.

We know it when we see it. We always do and we always will and we will always be able to recognize it far faster than an able-bodied person. If this many disabled fans are coming out and talking about an issue, calling it ableism, then it’s time for you shut up and listen.

Stop being a part of the problem and start supporting disabled fans for once.

[ectonurites]

Wait, I'm confused, what's happening with Barbra? Like I know she had a chip installed in her spine that allows her to walk and I know it was brought up in the books a while ago that the chip may not last much longer but how is Nightwing book being albeist towards her?

So to begin with, the whole thing with the chip was ableism in general, it was altering a very visual disability into something more subtle and palatable for an able-bodied audience so she could be Batgirl again and it could only get brought up when it was convenient. Now that itself isn’t on Taylor or the current Nightwing run, this choice was made in 2011 and imo DiDio is at core the person to blame for that since the New 52 & erasing Steph & Cass’ importance as Batgirls was his whole thing.

At the end of Joker War last year DC made the move to begin transitioning Babs from her role as Batgirl back into acting as Oracle, which at first sounds good… except they’re missing the point of Oracle because that identity is inherently tied to Barbara being a disabled woman. As annoying as having her back in Batgirl has been, at least that’s the identity she created before being shot. But Oracle was created so that she could continue doing hero work as a wheelchair user, and putting her back into that identity without letting her be visibly disabled is, again, missing the entire point. Now, that as a choice falls more on the Batbook editorial team (like if we want to put specific names we could say Abernathy since he’s the lead editor and Tynion as lead writer), since they’ve been making the bigger calls about batbooks.

The current Nightwing run comes into the picture after Joker War, and now Babs is heavily featured, acting as Oracle while… still able-bodied. Again, not inherently Taylor’s choice and I do believe him when he says it’s not something he alone has the power to change, but the way he has been approaching things in regards to the subject has been getting a lot of criticism because it’s been very careless. Books have been regularly hinting her chip is going to fail for well over a year now, and yet in the most recent issue of Nightwing, Babs takes on a new Batgirl costume and decides to go back out in the field because as Oracle she wasn’t able to accomplish what she felt she needed to.

Her going out as Batgirl again was probably not really his call, because this is all part of the bigger Fear State event, BUT the way he has her talk about why is the big problem that is entirely on Taylor because he wrote the words. I made a post about this when the issue first came out, but to reiterate…

Portraying Oracle as limited like this, when in the previous continuity something like this situation would not have even remotely stopped her, is ableist. It’s saying that what she can do while she’s disabled isn’t “enough”

(Nightwing (2016) #84)

Was he probably told by editorial he had to get from point A (Babs acting as Oracle) to point B (Babs going out in a new Batgirl suit)? Sure. But he did NOT need to write her downplaying what Oracle can accomplish to do that.

The way Babs is being written in the Nightwing book in particular (although frankly I DO think we also should be calling attention to it as she shows up in other books, its just that Taylor’s been the most annoying in response to criticism on twitter so the conversations go on longer, and his book features her probably most heavily) is not respectful to Oracle and what Oracle stands for, and that is the problem.

THIS is the Babs as Oracle we want back, not the one in the panel I posted above.

(Birds of Prey Vol. 1 #8)

(Harley Quinn Vol. 1 #11)

Having Babs flip flop between Batgirl and Oracle while walking around is disrespectful to her as a character and is what we are talking about when discussing the Nightwing book being ableist in how it’s handling her.

Not all of the fault for the entire situation is on this single run, it’s a deeper problem that’s been at DC for a decade now, but the Nightwing run is most heavily featuring it so choosing not to financially or otherwise support it (no matter how much they try to lure us in with a cute dog or fingerstripes or a romantic pairing you might like) until it does better is a big way we can show DC that we don’t want to put up with this shit anymore.

[hintofelation99]

Batfamily sorted into Hogwarts houses?

Ooohhhh a classic, I love it! Tbh I have no clue how controversial my opinions are here, like honestly each member fits several houses well. So I just went with what felt best to me, but I'd love to hear other's opinions!

First let's go over the main traits of each house, these are the traits I will be focusing on.

Gryffindor -> Bravery, daring, nerve, and confidence

Hufflepuff -> Hard work, dedication, patience, loyalty, and fair play

Ravenclaw -> Intelligence, knowledge, curiosity, creativity, and wit

Slytherin -> Ambition, leadership, determination, cunning, and resourcefulness

Bruce

-> Hufflepuff: I feel like this one will be rather controversial and honestly it was pretty difficult to decide on. But I think his overall dedication to the mission is what sold it for me. Like that's one of his more consistent character traits, he values the mission above all else. And I don't think of that value or dedication as coming from a place of ambition, but rather a place of loyalty. Honestly Batman's relationship with Gotham really exemplifies both patience and dedication, at least it does in my mind. Hufflepuff is also sometimes thought of as the house that accepts all, so people who don't have a good designation can go there, which is pretty on point with Bruce adopting a shit ton of kids.

Dick

-> Gryffindor: This one might be a tad cliche, but I think that it fits. Because all of the batfam is daring and brave, but Dick takes so much joy from these traits. He’s known for defying gravity and having fun doing it. He’s also the typical confident older brother, like he definitely has insecurities but overall he’s a pretty confident guy. He’s a leader who paved the way for Robins and continues to protect the rights of young heroes. He’s known for being super protective of his family and is willing to make sacrifices for them. Also he brave enough to design a custom that had no pants and confident enough to run around in that costume.

Babs

-> Ravenclaw: Babs the oracle, she’s basically the definition of knowledge. She definitely exemplifies other houses as well but her dedication to knowledge and intelligence definitely put her in Ravenclaw for me. After being paralyzed a lot of people thought she would give up being a vigilante, but instead she turned information into a weapon and a shield. Instead of giving up she created a new and now invaluable position. She isn’t just smart, she’s clever and quick thinking, always ready for any situation.

Jason

-> Hufflepuff: Okay, so in a lot of ways Jason mirrors Bruce. He’s incredibly loyal to his home, has strict rules that he (mostly) stands by like don’t hurt kids and no abusers get no mercy (and yes I’m using the terms rules loosely here). But honestly what sold the whole ‘Jason is hufflepuff’ thing for me is how protective/kind his is of crime victims, specifically women and children. He was a crime lord who fought to for kids, who didn't tolerate abuse, and who protected prostitutes. And yeah that's all super brave and very Gryffindor-esque, but in my mind it all comes from a place of genuine kindness, and that's what makes him a Hufflepuff to me.

Cass

-> Hufflepuff: Cass is deadly, she could snap just about anyone like a twig, but she's also a complete cinnamon roll. She's a sweetheart who adores her family and, for the most part, likes people. Cass is kind and sweet and she literally booped Batman on the nose. Like if that isn't the most Hufflepuff thing, than I don't know what is. She's just the epitome of 'soft cute Hufflepuff,' but also never forget that she can easily kill you.

Tim

-> Ravenclaw: In my opinion (and I think also canonically but I'm not 100% on that) Tim is the smartest bat. Tim literally outsmarted Ra's Al Ghul and he figured out Batman's identity when he was just a child. And he's not just 'I know a lot of things' smart, he's cunning and knows how to plan for any outcome, how to out wit others, how to lie to Batman. Like in the Red Robin arc his Tim's side quest is outsmarting the league of assassins and pissing off Ras Al Ghul. That's such a Ravenclaw (and baller) move.

Steph

-> Gryffindor: Steph had the nerve to put on a purple suit, she was daring enough to hit Robin with a brick, and she was brave enough to become Batgirl even after her encounter with Black Mask. She's bold and shameless in all the best ways. Like Steph isn't the greatest fighter or most skilled bat, but she's bold and fearless and that's what makes her such a great hero.

Duke

-> Slytherin: This one took me forever to decide on, but I realized that Duke has all the smarts of a Ravenclaw and all the bravery of a Gryffindor. Traits that both fit perfectly into Slytherin. He's cunning and smart and an amazing leader and so determined. Duke lead the 'We Are Robin' movement and made his life goal to out riddle the Riddler. Honestly he's the perfect mix of smart and brave and really exemplefies the best of the Slytherin traits.

Damian

-> Slytherin: This one is a bit lack luster and a bit typical, but I do think it's fitting. He's cunning and ambitious and really values his heritage. Damian knows his life goals, he knows where his heritage can take him, and he will do anything to reach his full potential. And I do think that he has some Hufflepuff undertones, undertones that come out even more around animals and Jon, but overall he is a Slytherin.

And wowie, I'm done. This took waaayyyyyy longer than expected, so sorry for that. Honestly when I saw this ask I was like 'oh, cool, easy!' then I tried to answer and holy shit. I went back and forth so much and could not decide. So after many days and much thought this is what I ended up with. That being said I did really love this ask bc it was super fun.

Also srry if there are any typos but if I keep trying to edit this I will never finish bc I will keep changing my mind.

[dont-be-so-shy]

Can I just say - I am so interested in what it would be like if Duke Thomas was introduced pre-Flashpoint. 

[get ready for. a lot of background info] 

Because like, everything post-Flashpoint is weird as hell, for me at least. Jason and Tim are close? (I know everyone wants them to be [including me], but they’re not.) The Bat-Family being an actual functioning family working in the same city? Barbara being Batgirl? Cassandra as Orphan of all things? 

If Duke were introduced just before Flashpoint, say, when Bruce is off starting Batman Inc. and there are two Batman’s, and then Flashpoint never happened? 

I believe the most recent Batman comic pre-Flashpoint was Gates of Gotham, during which Cassandra, Tim, Dick, and Damian team up (Damian and Cassandra’s first meeting). 

At this point, Tim is back in Gotham with Tamara Fox and the Neon Knights initiative, getting back into the swing of things, faking Lucius Fox’s death, getting fake-shot and becoming fake-crippled for a year on live TV, Dick is Batman working with Damian’s Robin, Stephanie’s Batgirl, and Alfred. Alfred, Damian, and Dick live in Wayne Tower, I believe. Jason (very murderous) was recently a patient in Arkham Asylum and later, a prisoner at Gotham Penitentiary and has just rescued his kid sidekick Scarlet. Helena Bertinelli is working with Dinah Lance and Barbara in the Birds of Prey. 

Barbara is an assistant professor at Gotham University and she and Jim Gordon have recently fought Jim’s son and her cousin, James Jr, a psychopath killer. Cassandra is in Hong Kong, having taken the name Black Bat, using Bruce’s name idea and a suit Tim made for her, working as a member of Batman Inc. As far as we know, Bruce and Tim are the only people actually speaking to her. Bruce Wayne just publicly revealed that he has been funding Batman for years and starts Batman Inc. (Batman Inc. is basically Bruce [and/or Bruce!Batman] recruiting a bunch of vigilantes from different countries to act as the “Batman” of that city). At this point, Bruce and Damian aren’t working together. Bruce loves Damian as much as any father, but that does not mean that they mesh. 

(Also, if we are working with True Canon!Bruce, AKA abusive!Bruce, then this is a good time for Duke to become a member of the Bat-Family, in terms of Bruce’s mental health and the fact that he’s out of Gotham so much.) 

(And just for the full Background Knowledge, the Teen Titans team consists of Cassie Sandsmark, AKA the leader, Lorena Marquez, Jaime Reyes, Amy Allen, Christopher Freeman, M’gann M’orzz, Rose Wilson, Virgil Hawkins, Tim Drake-Wayne, Raven, Bart Allen, Kiran Singh, Mas y Menos, Roy Harper, and powerless Eddie Bloomberg. Damian has just quit the team, saying that one Robin is enough.) 

This is the Bat-Family Duke comes into, one where everyone is kind of disjointed and Helena is the only normal person ever. (Barbara is usually also normal but she just fought her psycho cousin-brother, so no.) In fact, Duke would probably be recruited by Damian (who showed no qualms about taking in Colin Wilkes without consulting anybody). Stephanie probably wouldn’t have a problem with him, Dick and Barbara might, and who even knows what Tim thinks at any point in time? 

Imagine being a newly-discovered metahuman with parents dead to the Joker just trying to train and protect the city in its daylight hours, having to deal with suddenly social media-savvy Red Hood, whose trying to turn public opinion against you while also running about wreaking havoc, weirdos like Professor Pyg, Harley Quinn who is no longer dating Joker but still a criminal, and the nerves of not knowing how the Head Honcho (AKA Bruce Wayne) will react to you. 

I think he would probably work with the Birds of Prey a lot and I imagine having a team up with Tim at one point, which I think would be completely hilarious. (Him meeting Jason, on the other hand.) 

[fancyfade]

Cass, Duke or Dick!

I'll do Cass b/c i'm in the cass mood atm

favorite thing about them: hnnng her everything!!! Okay so like. I'll try to limit it. Her perfectionism and the way that she holds herself to such a high standard that she wouldn't hold other people to in terms of moral behavior which is very interesting narratively albeit not very fun for her :P

least favorite thing about them: The way she knocks people out to keep them out of her way even if they're her allies like dang that's kind of creepy

favorite line: So many I like... hmm two of my faves were in plots I don't like though ;_; We'll go with You can change, you can, because that emphasizes so much of what is important to her character

brOTP: Stephcass, Babscass

OTP: I don't have one for her.

NOTP: IDK if I have one for her either

random headcanon: I think that she should listen to heavy metal loudly in the manor and annoy bruce. But also he gets his makeup out from his emo days and they put on eyeliner

unpopular opinion: Tim and Cass aren't that close. They're mostly portrayed as super close in his series, and usually to make him look better (cough dark cass arc cough)

song i associate with them: I have a short playlist for Cass :P Emotionless by Good Charlotte, Will I ever make it home by Ingram Hill, Save yourself I'll hold them back by MCR, undefeated by skillet and Iam the enemy by all good things.

favorite picture of them: This one I drew! The first time I drew her actually I spent so long on the shading

[image: a drawing of Cassandra Cain as Batgirl with a black suit and yellow trim on her boots, bat symbol, and shoulder pats. she is crouched on a rooftop at night and being lit dramatically from below. end image]

[northoftheroad]

Alright better Nightwing origin story between these two and why: Judas Contract or Dixon’s Year One? Which elements of each story work better and what are each stories’ flaws Etc?

I don't know what is supposed to make me prefer Dixon's Nightwing Year One (which is an expanded version of what he wrote in Nightwing: Secret Files and Origin, 1999)?

In the stories from 1984, we see very little of Dick's thought process on why he chose his new identity. It's that well-known page in Tales of the Teen Titans # 44 when he puts on the suit. After all, the important story is that Deathstroke has captured the other Titans. It introduces Adeline and Joey Wilson. Dick's new name and outfit is merely a detail.

NYO explores Dick's journey to becoming Nightwing in detail. Why the name; why the costume design; why continue to fight crime; why go back to Gotham (originally, he just went there to give Jason Robin; he was committed to the New Teen Titans, not to helping out in Gotham). That's not a bad idea – too bad about the execution.

Pro (an extended) Judas Contract:

It's Dick's choice that he has outgrown Robin. (Tales of the Teen Titans # 39)

Dick chooses his new identity to honour Bruce and Clark - and also his birth parents and Starfire. Nightwing was a Kryptonian bird; Clark decided to use it as a vigilante name in homage to Batman.

Bruce isn't an asshole who fires and/or kicks Dick out.

Dick has a good relationship with Bruce and Jason.

Bruce scolds Jason when he uses a Robin suit (Batman # 366). Dick gives his blessing for Jason to become Robin (Batman # 368). Dick's history as Robin is respected by everyone involved, even though Robin was not, at this time, a family nickname. (It wasn't even clear that Dick had a saying in how the suit looked.)

Pro Year One.

Uh - I like when Dick goes to Clark for advice and support, which he didn't have to in 1984 because Bruce wasn't an asshole.

We get a reason for the design of Dick's first Nightwing suit - it was inspired by his father's circus outfit. But it's Alfred who finishes the design and adds yellow feathers, mind you.

Points to that Dick goes back to the circus to explore his roots, I guess. But he also did that in the early 1980s, in Robin solo stories, when he had left college. So being kicked out by Bruce isn't necessary for that to happen. (By the way, in 80s, Dick worked with the Hill circus. In NYO, Dixon makes a nod to this because Haly and Hill are in a partnership. Lorna Hill runs the circus in both stories.)

Dick exploring his circus roots in Batman vol 1 # 339 (1981)

Bruce is an asshole in Nightwing Year One, Jason is a brat, the Titans are hardly there and and it gives Barbara more importance for Dick's younger years than I prefer (but then, this is Chuck "co-writer of Robin Year One and Batgirl Year One" Dixon, so what else to expect?). I'm also not a fan of the art...

I think we're meant to read NYO as that the reason Bruce kicked Dick out was that he felt Dick was growing up. This has pretty much been a common denominator in every version. Jim Starlin wrote it in Batman # 416 (1988). Marv Wolfman in Action Comics Weekly # 613 (1988) and the Robin 80th anniversary. And Chuck Dixon in Robin vol 2 # 13 (1995).

Even in NYO, Bruce tries to keep an eye on Dick. He still cares – but he's written as (way, way) worse at handling and expressing feelings.

In Grayson Annual #2, Dick talked as if he had decided to leave Robin himself. But the latest interpretation, in Nightwing vol 4 # 79, is back to that Bruce fired him (but Dick made the choice to leave).

It would have been nice with a version where it was up to Dick to decide he had outgrown Robin. But I can live with the story from Batman # 408. Emotionally inept Bruce gets scared by Dick's latest brush with death; at least partly, he uses this as an excuse to push Dick away because he doesn't want to be the one who is rejected. And Dick chooses to leave.

[stxleslyds]

I saw your rant about the Red Hood Movie lol (I agree DC keeps hurting my boy Jason) and you said something that interested me, you mentioned that you don’t like it when Jason is drawn with a bat symbol on him but why? Personally I feel that him wearing the bat symbol makes sense because he’s always tried to fit in with the family and it’s his way of connecting with them because he’s never had a family before. He gets along with his other siblings sometimes so I don’t think it’s ooc. I consider ‘bat symbol’ Jason an era of the past and am perfectly fine with his new Red Hood logo it looks sweet (but I wouldn’t be angry if he had the bat symbol on or not in the future). I’m curious what you’re thoughts are!

Hey there Anon, I have to be honest with you, your ask has been proven very difficult to answer, this here is my third draft. I have decided that instead of explaining my thoughts as I was trying to do in my previous drafts, I will now just link you to some of my past posts when I bring up certain points that make me think Jason should have never worn the bat-symbol on his chest.

Just a heads up, I am not a fan of Batman, the “Batfamily”, or Jason being dragged to any Bat-related content, I think it makes his character bland.

In order to make the answer clear to me as well as to anyone who reads this post, I will be separating my thoughts on how I think Jason’s relationship with Bruce has led me to think that he shouldn’t wear a bat-symbol or be involved with any Batman related content, and how Jason’s relationship with his brothers has led me to think that he isn’t part of any Batfamily or has ever been written as someone with true reasons to consider the others his brothers/allies/friends. I will separate each of those two groups in four different sections: pre-New 52, New 52, Rebirth and Infinite Frontier.

First though I would like to say that Jason as the Red Hood wearing a bat-symbol doesn’t make sense to me from the most basic of things, Jason’s vigilante name has nothing to do with Bats. Who wears bat-symbols? Batman, Batwoman, Batgirl, Batwing… All people that who have the “Bat” prefix on their names, nobody else wears a bat-symbol, Nightwing, Robin, Red Robin (Robin), none of them wear it, so why would Red Hood do it? It just makes zero sense. But anyway, that’s just me being annoying, I guess.

Jason and Bruce’s relationship.

First let’s go back in time to when Jason hadn’t died yet. You said that Jason wore the bat-symbol so he could connect with his family because Jason had never had that before, well, I see things differently, Jason had a family and that was his mother, the mother that he cared for when she was sick and the mother that he saw die to drugs after his father was put in jail. He had a family with her. And then he had a family with Bruce when he was Robin, but because Bruce started to neglect and not pay enough attention to him after he realized they weren’t seeing eye to eye in various things, Jason was pushed to act the way he did when he found that his birth mother was alive and “being manipulated by Joker”.

Jason’s father was abusive with his mother and didn’t care for Jason, Bruce wasn’t ready to be a father (even after Dick) and when Jason started to not want to follow his every rule Bruce neglected him, later his birth mother betrayed him and was one of the people involved in Jason’s death.

My point here is that Jason had a family with one person who died to drugs and then every other “family” that he found ended up betraying him or neglecting him. So, I don’t really think that Jason has much trust in the whole concept of “family” at least not when it comes to any of his experiences outside of Catherine Todd.

Now let’s move to the events of Under the Red Hood where Jason comes back to comics. Jason doesn’t hate Bruce then but he felt betrayed by him and felt like Batman’s whole crusade was not good anymore. Jason expressed several times in that book the fact that he didn’t believe Batman was good for Gotham and that he became a better version of Batman, the Red Hood.

Red Hood could do things that Batman didn’t dare do, he was better. So, why on earth would Jason wear a bat-symbol then? Well, Jason never wore a bat-symbol pre-New 52 when he was wearing his Red Hood suit. NEVER.

Jason didn’t care for Dick or Tim, he saw Dick as inferior to him because of Nightwing’s no killing ways and he was completely indifferent to Tim, his only interactions with him were when he cut his throat a little bit in Batman: Hush and when he called him “the pretender”.

So, Jason wasn’t looking for family he just wanted Bruce to kill Joker for him, and Bruce didn’t. When things got complicated and Jason realized that Bruce was too much of a coward he improvised, he told Batman that in order to stop him from killing the Joker Batman would have to shoot him (Jason). Batman didn’t use the gun, but he did save the Joker by throwing a batarang at Jason’s throat. When Joker detonated the explosives in the building they were in Bruce once again saved Joker from the rubble and didn’t look much for Jason.

That my dead Anon is the first time Bruce betrays Jason in such a big way that made me think that Jason would have never wanted to interact with Bruce in a good way. I will repeat it now, Bruce SAVED the Joker instead of letting Jason KILL the Joker.

After Under the Red Hood we got to see that Jason was alive and well in Green Arrow #69-72, where he made an appearance, there I can say with a 100% certainty that Jason hated both Batman and Bruce. He actively did things that pissed Bruce off and was searching for conflict with the man.

Jason and Bruce don’t interact much after all that because at some point Bruce “died” and that’s where Battle for the Cowl comes in. There is where we see one of the craziest Jason characterizations, there Jason took on the mantle of Batman because Gotham needed Batman (what? Red Hood was created to replace Batman!). But in that book Jason actually harmed both his brothers and left them for dead. In that book we also see a horrible message that Bruce left for Jason where Bruce told him that “Jason was broken and he tried to fix him” and that “Jason was my (Bruce’s) biggest failure”. I don’t know about you Anon, but if my father saw me that way, I would be packing my bags. And Jason didn’t look like he was looking to connect with his “family”.

After all that we don’t see Jason until Batman and Robin vol.1, where we see the weirdest characterization of Red Hood, this Red Hood hates Batman and would kill anyone just because. Jason had zero need to connect with his family there.

I just want to remind you here that Jason never wore a Batman symbol until here in his Red Hood suits, he only wore the symbol when he “was” Batman and that was OOC.

So now I welcome you to the New 52, where Jason wears a bat-symbol on his Red Hood suit for the first time. I HATE New 52 Jason Anon; you will find zero love for him here. That man wore a bat-symbol on his chest even though he didn’t believe in Batman’s ways and while he had this internal conflict about whether he hated or not Bruce. This Jason gave up a memory from his Robin years with Batman because he didn’t care enough to keep it, then he was seen acting like an ass towards Bruce and Barbara in the “Court of Owls” event.

But this whole shit show was written by Lobdell and one day he decided that Jason cared about what Bruce thought and let us know that maybe Jason secretly admired Bruce (in the post I will link here! I talk about what happened in those issues among other things). That story would be followed by Batman and Robin vol.2 #20, or what I like to call “the second time Bruce betrayed Jason in an even more painful way”. I am not going to explain what happened there, but I will like here! the post where I talked about what happened there and why I think that Jason should have never been on good terms with Bruce again from that moment on.

In that post I also discuss how much of an abusive and manipulative person and father, Bruce has and can be. He is a disgusting human being and Jason called him out about it but DC loves to write Bruce being abusive and then swiping it under the rug, Jason being on good terms with Bruce or wearing a bat-symbol on his chest is just horrifying after witnessing that issue, and it normalized Bruce’s abusive behaviour when issues later the same writer (Tomasi) had Jason interact with Bruce as if nothing had happened.

After that Jason was seen interacting with Bruce when the latter lost his memory, Jason even hugged Bruce there, it was OOC, and like I said it normalized Bruce’s abusive behaviour or at the very least made it look as something of no real importance.

Now, we are entering the Rebirth era of Bruce and Jason’s relationship, Jason was still wearing that fucking bat-symbol on his chest and this time around Jason even made a deal where he wouldn’t kill anyone while in Gotham (RHatO vol.1 #6), Lobdell even wrote them as being all buddy-buddy after the mess that was the New 52, absolutely disgusting.

Jason didn’t interact with Bruce in Rebirth that much, in fact the next time that Batman made a big appearance in the Red Hood book was in Red Hood and the Outlaws vol.2 #25, yeah, the issue where Batman beats the living shit out of Jason twice because he thought that Jason had killed Penguin. Father of the year, Jason wasn’t dying to be part of Bruce’s family, he was just brutally beat to be part of it. Bruce also ripped the vat-symbol off of Jason’s chest and told him that he didn’t “belong” with him or in Gotham any more. The AUDACITY of that bitch, can you believe? Jason belongs in Gotham as much if not more than Bruce.

Later when Red Hood and the Outlaws became Red Hood Outlaw, we saw Bruce and Jason interact again when Bruce informed Jason of Roy’s death, hugged him and also told him that he was still not allowed in Gotham, what a swell guy that Batman lad!

After that Batman went after Jason Todd when Jason came back to Gotham (without King Batman’s permission) and told the world that Jason Todd was alive and well and taking over Penguin’s Casino. Jason actually threatened Batman with revealing too much information about himself to the world (meaning, Jason threatened Bruce with revealing his secret identity) and that was that. Jason and Bruce only saw each other a few times when DC needed to make money with one of their boring ass events like Joker War and Bruce was shown “welcoming” Jason to Gotham in Red Hood Outlaw #51 or #52, I don’t remember but either way, it was absolutely hilarious and made zero sense. I am sorry, but after Bruce being a manipulative, abusive and all around a horrible person, I don’t feel anything except rage when they make them interact as if they cared for one another.

Shit hits the fan in Infinite Frontier with Urban Legends: Cheer, once again instead of explaining what happens there, I will just link you to the six posts I made about that mini. Part one, Part two, Part three, Part four, Part five and Part six.

Here I will only talk about the comeback of the bat-symbol in Jason’s life. Like you said Jason used (still has in some books) his own logo on his chest after Bruce ripped off the bat-symbol and told him to fuck off. That Red Hood logo was still done with the bat-symbol in mind and I just thought that it was ugly, like, there is no need for a logo if you are going to give him an ugly one along an even uglier suit. But that’s not what matter here, what matters is that the bat-symbol IS making a comeback because at the end of UL: Cheer, Bruce gives Jason a brand new (ugly) suit that has the bat-symbol again. That gift comes as a slap to the face after the disaster that was that book, from every point of view that mini should have not come out to the public. But it did because it forced the “Batfamily” down our throats through Bruce deciding to welcome Jason back to the “family” by giving him a suit with HIS logo on the Red Hood suit that kinda looks to me like Bruce saying “glad that I own you too as well”. The whole bat-symbol thing doesn’t sit right with him and sadly I don’t see it like a “Jason era of the past”, I see it like a metaphorical jail for Jason’s character, he is not free to be the character that he is supposed to be (a perfect opposite to Batman that shows that duality MUST exist in Gotham), and instead all we get is another Batman wannabe that is just as boring as the Batman himself.

Jason and his brother’s relationship.

The funny ha-ha thing with this is that we are not supposed to see Dick, Jason, Tim and Damian as four brothers (and to be honest I have never seen them four as brothers, as far as I see it, Jason hasn’t had a brother since before died). DC always makes it clear that Damian is Bruce’s only son so yeah, there is a big misunderstanding there within DC themselves, they have no problem with trying to sell us their absolutely nasty version of a family but at the same time they refuse to acknowledge any one except for Damian as Bruce’s son.

Even though I don’t necessarily believe that Jason sees his brothers as such I still call them that way because they were/are all Bruce’s children.

But this is not about Bruce so let me talk about Jason’s interactions with his brothers in the pre-New 52 era. So, as I said earlier in this post Jason didn’t think Dick was a big deal in UtRH because *just* like Batman Dick never killed and his way didn’t work or whatever (if only Jason knew what Dick did), and with Tim, Jason was mostly indifferent, he only hurt him a little bit in Batman: Hush (for the little bit that he took Clayface’s place) and then he referred to him as “the pretender”. Then we jump to the events of Teen Titans for Tim and Nightwing for Dick. In Teen Titans #29 Jason went to Titans Tower and beat the living hell out of Tim just because, now that thing was OOC and written by Geoff Johns but it existed and it further proves that DC writes this “family” through violence every time they can and then they just hope we forget it happened. With Dick, well, there was the Brothers in Blood arc where Jason dressed up as Nightwing and killed people in his name, he did it because he wanted to “bond” with Dick because he thought that Dick had killed Blockbuster, the whole arc was a mess and I can tell you this about it, Jason wanted to bond for all the wrong reasons and Dick was written as actually preferring Jason to be dead.

Then we jump right into Battle for the Cowl and even though (once again) this Jason was extremely OOC he did try to kill both Damian and Tim and fought Dick too, so, so far, I am not seeing Jason wanting to connect with his brothers, it was more like him going “be robin to my weird ass version of Batman or suffer!”. It was just weird.

Then there was Batman and Robin vol.1, where Jason’s Red Hood was just a blood thirsty and crazy and he didn’t want to be part of any family. I might not like Jason being written as part of the family but what this book had going on was not it.

Now, get ready because it is New 52 time again and this is messier than his relationship with Bruce in this timeline. The most recognizable relationship (or lack of thereof) was Jason and Dick. Lobdell just let us know one thing about what Jason thought of Dick and that was HATE. Jason HATED Dick, why, you ask? Oh, um, no one really knows, the only panel we were shown as “proof” of why Jason hated Dick was when Jason was acting like a little bitch when Dick was teaching him stuff during patrol (RHatO vol.1 #6). But, yes, Jason “had” (apparently) a good relationship with Tim. Yeah, no gracias, listen, Jason and Tim having brunch for two pages (RHatO vol.1 #8) isn’t making me believe that Jason cares or sees Tim in a good light, just throwing a brunch between them isn’t proof of them being the best of brothers but then again Lobdell loved giving Jason every character trait and relationship that Dick once had (examples: Tim, Roy and Kory). That brunch didn’t mean much because later on during the Death of the Family event Jason almost killed Tim (Teen Titans #16) to “save” his father from Joker (talk about bad writing). Jason and Damian had a very weird and forced “bonding” moment in that same event (you can include Damian to the relationships that Lobdell borrowed from Dick), all of the sudden Jason cared for Damian and he was acting all brotherly, because “they worked together” as different people in Batman Incorporated #4, this weird interaction between Jason and Damian (it can only be called weird because it looked out of place and you cannot change my mind, even Jason thinks it is weird in those panels) happened in RHatO vol.1 #17. In that same issue is where Jason tells Dick that he was trash because he didn’t want to say hi to Kory and kinda tells him that Dick “underestimates” Kory, listen, New Teen Titans isn’t a book that I enjoy reading most of the time but Lobdell needs to do some re-reading himself, Dick isn’t trash to Kory, Lobdell was trash to Kory. Anyway, at that point in time, Jason had a bad relationship with Dick, a secret admiration for Bruce, and a weird ass relationship with Tim and Damian.

Before we go on let me tell you what I think about the whole New 52 dynamic. Jason was used as a replacement of Dick Grayson. Dick was the one that had good relationships with his brothers and father, Jason up until the start of New 52 didn’t care for Tim or Damian, hated Bruce and kinda had a soft spot for Dick. In the New 52 the tables were turned. Jason’s relationship with Tim was never developed in paper, they for some reason were friends only when they stood together like they did in Robin War and Batman and Robin Eternal, there was never development or a reason as to why they “were in good terms”, they just *were*. The whole Jason and Damian thing didn’t last long because Damian died and then the whole mess of Batman and Robin #20 happened with Bruce.

Ahh, Grayson #12, the time when Jason and Tim’s last braincell died, they threw so much shit Dick’s way and for nothing. I will forever be mad at this, they really thought that Dick of all people faked his death, and because Bruce was conveniently amnesiac nobody dared say “hey, wasn’t it Bruce the one that told us that Dick was dead?”, seems to me like New 52 Jason and Tim can go be friends with that one braincell all by themselves. This is not family; this is people teaming up with whoever so DC can sell another weird comic event. Also at that time Damian was alive and Jason couldn’t have cared less about him being there (maybe it was because Jason was there when Damian was resurrected? Who knows?).

And now we jump to Rebirth because I hate the New 52. Tim was nowhere to be seen. Jason just forgot Tim existed and it wasn’t until the Red Hood Outlaw era in which we saw Jason interact with Damian again. What we did see, was a reconciliation between Jason and Dick, Jason was written as acting completely different in RHatO Annual #1, Jason respected Dick and his work and also said that Dick “had been a better brother than he had given him credit for”. Then Jason appeared once in Nightwing and they talked about Dick’s new girlfriend. And that was that for a long while.

As I said, during the RHO era Jason and Damian shared a couple of issues in the Teen Titans run, I have talked about these issues before in two posts (Post 1 and Post 2) but I will summarize what happened there here quickly.

Apparently, Jason and Damian had been working together in secret (never shown in actual comics), Jason gave Damian targets and intel of people for Damian to put in his secret prison for villains. When Damian and the Titans go after a target something goes wrong and the Titans end up hurt. Damian goes after Jason without a second thought and accuses him of betraying him, a physical and emotional fight ensues and it ends with Jason promising that if he sees Damian again, he will kill him. That’s all for Jason and Damian being on good terms in Rebirth.

But it all changes in Infinite Frontier, in August of 2021 we see the *real* comeback of the “Batfamily” in Robin #5. Dick, Damian, Jason, Tim and Stephanie appear in this issue but the only things of essence happen between Jason and Damian and Dick and Damian. Only one of them made sense, and it wasn’t Jason and Damian.

Jason was there to bring Damian back to Bruce. Listen, the last time Jason and Damian were seen together they were actively hiding their work from Batman and then they ended promising to kill each other, and now Jason came fresh out of Urban Legends: Cheer #6 wanting Damian to go back to Bruce. Damian tricks Jason into a hug, but surprise! it wasn’t a hug, Damian electrocuted Jason to get him of his back.

And that’s all.

-

I understand that there have been moments where Jason has been written as wanting to connect to one or two people from the “family” but its never developed or based on something of true essence. You might consider it actually strong family connections but I just don’t see it that way.

Jason wearing a bat-symbol after the abuse and manipulation that Bruce put him through in new 52 onwards is just dumb to me. And given Red Hood’s origin, Jason wearing a bat-symbol in the first place is absurd and goes against everything that he once was.

Jason officially started wearing the bat-symbol again in Detective Comic's back up story written by Rosenberg and will continue to use it in the ongoing book Task Force Z.

The bat-symbol is annoying but Rosenberg writes Jason beautifully so yeah, I am biased there...

We just have different opinions on the matter Anon, but don't take this post as an attack towards you and what you think, it is just that I just don't like Jason being involved with anything Batman.

I hope you have a fantastic week Anon!

[sohotthateveryonedied]

My ideal YJ season 4, because SOMEONE can’t follow directions and stop making unnecessary time skips that no one wants

(This is written with enough salt to fill the fucking Pacific, I swear.)

First off, no time skips!!! Why, you ask? Because we don’t fucking need one, that’s why. I didn’t turn on Young Justice because I was hoping it would be about a bunch of thirty-year-old has-beens who aren’t even in the superhero game anymore because they can’t throw a punch without shattering their hip. For every year that this show skips, my patience thins just a little bit more.

HOWEVER!!! The introduction of the Legion of Superheroes means we’ll be getting some time travel shit, right?? Some good ol’ time fuckery?? Some timeline shenanigans?? Then how about we get some flashbacks between the past and the future?? Pretty please??? There is no better opportunity to bring back all of the phantoms (literal AND figurative) of the Team’s past than to do it in a season that is LITERALLY titled “Phantoms.” Show us big milestones from the five years between seasons one and two like Dick becoming Nightwing, Wally and Artemis quitting, when all of the freshmen joined up, etc. Have the season center on linked conflicts between the past, present, and future because this is seriously the PERFECT season to do that! Connect Jason’s death to his resurrection! Connect Wally and Artemis quitting the hero gig to Wally’s triumphant return! The possibilities are limitless! And if the writers don’t take this golden opportunity for whatever reason, then guess what!! They’re dumbasses who just missed a huge opportunity that we’ll probably never get again!!!

(Also, let me just say real quick that if Artemis is in a relationship when the season begins, I’m gonna lose my fucking mind. This is an opinion thing so you don’t have to agree, but if she is dating someone to try and “fill the void” after Wally which leads to a whole love triangle thing when he comes back, I will break things. Buildings will fall. Trees will be uprooted and yeeted across nations like goddamn Paul Bunyan. Don’t fucking do it.)

This one goes without saying by now, but Wally West is going to come back. That’s happening. That’s gonna be a thing. I’m almost positive about it, unless of course all of the hints at his return in season 3 were just Voltron-level baiting, which is highly probable at this point. Still, I’m sticking with my faith that Wally will be back before the season ends. Have him be stuck in the Speed Force. Have him be stuck in the Phantom Zone. I don’t care where he comes from, just bring him back home and reunite him with his friends and family, please. Maybe then I can finally rest. (Bonus points if he’s got boosted speed and/or a red and silver Rebirth-style suit!)

Bring in Inertia, AKA Bart’s clone Thad!! I know I had a super good reason for this when @damthosefandoms​ and I talked about it weeks ago, but I honestly forgot all of it. Regardless, I think it’s an excellent idea because Bart deserves the screen time, PLUS he’s already our resident time traveler so why not give him some spotlight in a season all about time travel? And while you’re at it, introduce a wonderfully crafted character who could make the season SO much more interesting, whether he takes Bart’s place in an echo of the mole plot from season one or just as a wild antagonist who is ACTUALLY a teenager like the rest of them. (Looking at you, Lex Luthor and Deathstroke and all of you bad guys who already have gray hair and aren’t remotely interesting anymore.) (Okay, that last part was a lie because they are pretty interesting, but still. Give us some younger villains.)

Also I would really like Bart and Ed to be official because. I mean, did you see their interactions in season four?? The whole “Virgil being a seventh wheel which implies that Bart and Ed are a couple” thing?? Come on, man.

The Phantom Zone!! It’s a thing!!! Use it!!!

This one is more wishful thinking than anything, but I would really dig a huge final battle on Apokolips in the season finale. As wild and shocking as the season three finale was, I was expecting a cool battle sequence between those who were under the influence of the anti-life equation and those who weren’t that never happened, which made the ending seem a bit...empty. What better setup for a battle sequence than the entire Justice League, Team, Outsiders, and Legion fighting together against Darkseid and his minions? It would be incredible.

JASON TODD!!! OUR FAVORITE PHANTOM WHO IS ALREADY REVEALED TO BE ALIVE!!! In my ideal “Under the Red Hood” arc, they would give us a ton of flashbacks (see??? it fits in perfectly with what I said earlier about bouncing between the past and future!!) to Jason’s death which probably happened during a Team mission instead of with Batman and Joker since it’s a Young Justice-centric show and all. Then we get to see the Red Hood operating with the Light as their secret weapon or maybe even their new enforcer until, after a whole season of watching the Batfam struggle to bring their wayward son and brother home, he switches sides and fights alongside them in the final battle. Fucking splendid you funky vigilante.

Additionally, a Red Hood arc gives perfect reasoning for some Batfamily content! Let us know what Cass is like and how she joined up as Orphan before season three. And while you’re at it, let Tim get some spotlight too?? Please?? Maybe even give us some Tim/Stephanie content because the writers wouldn’t drag out a whole boring breaking-up-but-not-really-because-nothing-actually-happens-there-and-they-get-barely-any-screen-time thing for Tim and Cassie if it wasn’t for a good reason. They could show Barbara training Steph to take over as Batgirl, or at the very least have her last scene in the season be of Steph opening a present from Barbara that turns out to be a purple suit with a bat symbol on the chest. It would be spectacular.

And lastly, this one isn’t really relevant even though it is, but. I am more than okay with Damian Wayne not being present in this season. It’s not that I don’t love him, which I do. But the kid was an infant last we saw him, and the only way he could become Robin anytime soon is if Dick were like thirty and I’m Not Here For That. Save Damian for future seasons when you actually need new characters, rather than cramming in a million easter eggs for no reason when you already have a perfectly good main cast right there.

Seriously, Grandon. I’m fucking begging you here.

[miss-choco-chips]

Umm... I was wondering if you could Maybe do a follow up on your mini fic Last Line from dicks pov? It gave me alot of feelings and i would love to see the fallout?

Your work is really good! Its so cool how your brave enough to put pieces of yourself out there for other people!

Hey babe! Thank you for your kind words! It made me smile getting this, you are very sweet <3

I totally forgot about Last Line lol, but when I saw it reminded me that I actually wrote a bit more of it, both before and after the scene I posted. So, this isn’t exactly what you asked, but here’s some backstory and then the fallout!

---.---

Four years old, and he watches the red string on his finger pulled taunt towards the crying boy, the color of the thread well disguised among the red blood of the murdered acrobats.

Nine, and he watches from the shadows as it swings right and left, following Robin’s pirouettes from building to building. The thread, that usually goes a few feet before ‘vanishing’ from sight, was almost completely visible now, at such a short distance from the person holding onto its other end.

He’s on his twelve when he tries to explain to Dick the importance of him going back home. He wasn’t sure of his success, even though the older hero took him to the manor, because during his whole speech, Nightwing hadn’t looked up from the red joining them together. It wasn’t exactly how Tim wanted him to find out, but… Batman needed a Robin, and he was out of options.

At fourteen, he feels Kon’s hand clenching on his shoulder, as they both watch from the side how Nightwing swept Barbara off her feet and twisted her around, laughter falling from both their lips even as Dick thread’s end was pointing towards Tim. The third Robin didn’t turn to look at his best friend, didn’t meet Bart’s eyes or react to Cassie taking his hand on hers. He just made sure his face was perfectly devoid of any emotion when he muttered, low enough only a kryptonian would hear, ‘I wish it was any of you’. 

(A few nights later, when he and Conner were sitting quietly on the Tower’s roof, the clone took Tim’s hand with his own, his lack of red string blatantly obvious as he said ‘If I had any, I wish it could be you’. To this day, it’s the sweetest thing anyone ever said to him)

He is so, so tired, and he’s only sixteen. But keeping up with the shitfest that was the Battle for the Cowl, helping Dick while ignoring his red string (pulling him towards Nightwing, now Batman, stark contrast against the dark of his suit, with distracting insistency), dealing with Damian’s abuse as expected of him as the ‘mature, older brother’, coping with Bruce’s death, the shock of Dick throwing him, his soulmate, away so so easily…

(Shouldn't be surprising; Dick had been discarding him in favor of others since they met, shamelessly displaying his various relationships in front of him with an attitude that might be called cruel from anyone else but that just earned him playful shoves from other Leaguers while Tim was expected to swallow his pain, because a red string isn’t a promise, Dick is free… and yes, he knows that, but it doesn’t mean shit to his dying heart)

(Maybe, when he left for proof of Bruce being alive, it wasn’t so much for his old mentor than it was for himself)

----.----

Tim is seventeen and halfway across the world, looking at the string attached to his hand that never truly meant anything to any other than him (not to Bruce, who never took Dick aside and talked to him about consideration with his soul mate; not Dick's conquers, who never gave a fuck  about the red string in the hands that touched their skin, even when a lot of them knew who was on the other end of it; not Dick himself, who after asking every thing out of Tim and having it, forcefully took the one thing Tim wouldn't give by choice and claimed Tim was his equal, his soulmate, so he never could be his sidekick... even if it was the first time ever that Dick even mentioned the string tying them both together), when he thinks 'you were always free; now, I'm freeing myself’.

He gingerly bites on the string, and with his other hand takes a handful of it and pulls.

The pain piercing his heart is expected, but not new. He had been feeling it since the first time he saw Dick's back as he walked away with someone else.

He times it carefully, too. He doesn't think Dick would care, but just in case, Tim waits until it's morning in Gotham, when he's sure Dick is probably sleeping after patrol.

Maybe he would wake up without noticing

---.---

In Gotham, Dick is carried by Alfred and Damian to the cave, when the new Batman's screams of pain woke everyone in the Manor up. They are suspecting cardiac arrest, and then Dick looks down to his hand and notices the string, always tense, signaling him where his north is, where Tim is, laying loose and lifeless.

He panics, asks Superman to track Tim down or something, and when the man confirms Tim is still alive somewhere in the Middle East, he knows.

And like a freight train, the parting words Kori told him the last time they saw each other hit him right in the chest.

"He isn't going to wait for you forever"

----.-----

When Tim does come back, at nineteen, it’s a quiet thing. 

He spent the last how many days carefully setting his systems up, making sure his mainframe would outstand Oracle’s scrutiny when she realized he was back in town and tried to hack her way into his life.

(He didn’t blame her, of course not. Dick was charming enough, good enough, anyone he set his eyes into would be helpless to nothing but fall in his arms.

And, wasn’t Tim the one who would have been intruding, had he tried to chase after the first Robin? Everyone knew he and the original Batgirl were a perfect match, thousands of times better than Tim, whom Fate just wanted to screw over.

But not anymore)

The first thing he did, once the safe houses were chosen and his programs up and running, was to ruthlessly hack into the Batcomputer and take a look at patrol routes. 

He would need to keep clear of Diamond District and Old Gotham, least he risked crossing paths with B and R. The Financial and City Hall Districts were apparently Batgirl’s playground for the night, and if he wanted to drop by and let Cass know he was back, he could always search for her by the Upper West Side down to Chinatown.

He would avoid the Upper East Side like the plague, though. Maybe Coventry too, just to be safe. Lots of skintight blue in that direction.

Which left… Crime Alley, the Bowery and Burnley, mainly. He needn't check to know who’s house that was.

And that’s how he ended, on his very first night back on the streets, dragging Red Hood’s bleeding ass away from a blowing up building.

-----.-----

Apparently, saving a recently rehabilitated murderous vigilante was a bonding experience, because Jason didn’t kick him out of his side of town, nor tell on him. 

He couldn't, however, do anything to prevent the criminal gossip mile from spreading, and before a week had passed, half the city was aware of the new player on the board.

-----.------

Jason was taking a breather, smoking while sitting on his favorite rooftop, when the rustling sound of fabric told him his peace and quiet was over.

“I thought you were back at being N”, he greeted, not bothering to turn around or get up. 

“B was out of town, and Robin needed someone to watch over him during patrol.”

A quick glance around had Hood snorting, “Then y’re doing a shitty job. Don’t see the midget anywhere.”

It would never NOT be weird to hear a strangled laugh coming out of the Bat suit, as tight and humorless as it was now. It seemed big ol Dick wasn’t doing so great tonight.

“Batgirl took him to a party in Diamond District. Gang war.”

He humms in response, not bothering to keep on the smalltalk. N, no, B was here for something, and it wasn’t Jason’s job to ask it out of him; if it was important, he would do it himself.

“Where is him, Hood?”, he finally went to the heart of the matter. 

Jason tilted his head, still looking over his city, unmindful of the steps coming closer to his position, “Robin? Ya just said it, B. Going senile? Gang war, wasn’t it?”

“Don’t play around. You know I mean…”

Oh, yeah, Dickie still wasn’t sure what to call Timbo. Criminal gossip only went so far, for someone who didn’t bother to shout his hero name to everyone he beat up. It was very possible only  Jason was aware of his new monicker. All gothamites knew was a young vigilante showed up recently, wearing red and black and hanging out with the Hood, which immediately upped his street rep to ‘not to be fucked with’.

“Lil red?”, he completed for his older brother, feeling both charitable and petty. Batman’s wince was more evident by the rustling sound of his cape; he had hit a sore spot, hadn’t he? 

“Where? I’m not asking again.”

“Good, ‘cause I’m not answering. Must be ‘roundere somewhere, the little creep.”

“Hood, I’m running out of patience.”

“And I’m out of cigarettes, your point? I don’t have him on a leash asshole. We just share the same hunting space, it’s not like we go home together and do face masks while we talk about feelings.”

They did go to a safespot, though, and share beer and pizza while cursing their relatives and Fate as a whole, but it wasn’t necessary information for the fucker. He just breathed in the last of his smoke before dropping the cigarette butt and stepping on it, stretching as he did.

“Now, any more of this riveting conversation, or can I go? No, wait, it was a rhetorical question; get out of my part of town, ass. I’ve been plenty generous by letting you come this far, but our truce lasts as long as the lot of you don’t build any sandcastles on my playground and you know it. Now, scram.”

He could feel Dick’s reticence at leaving without what he came here for, but Oracle must be talking him into letting it be for tonight, because he didn't push. Jason turned just in the right moment to catch the way Dick looked down to his gloved hand, as if expecting the lifeless red string to be pulled taunt in Tim’s direction by some miracle. Jason felt the smallest ping of pity, quickly washed away by the memory of the younger hero’s haunted eyes as he told Jason the story of his severed soul bond and how he came to do it.

Thirty seconds after the bat vanished into the night, a little red bird landed softly on the spot next to him.

“Thanks, Hood”, he muttered, just as tired and hurting as he’d been ever since he saved Jason’s ass and they became partners, but with the smallest hint of lightness that made him prouder of driving Dick away than he’d ever been.

“Don’t mention it, but fair warning, the big B scomin back home in a few days, and he’s harder to kick out than a hurting, annoying bluebird.”

“I know”, Tim sighed, well aware of both facts. “I’ll play it by ear. For tonight, what about bashing some skulls and ruining Two Face’s new op? Good intel says it’s just a few blocks from here, and shattering bones always makes you smile.”

“Babybird, you speak the language of love.”

“Wasn’t that french?”

“I’m trying to compliment you, don’t be a smart ass about it.”

“I am smart, and I do have a good ass. That seems like an impossible request.”

----.----