#so if wade is the only son other than duke that simon interacts with on a regular basis AND he watched wade's

[coachbeards]

my thinking is that simon saw wade's reaction to nathan's arm breaking (a very valid and normal reaction for anyone to have during a gruesome event, especially a young child) and duke's problem solving of carrying nathan to the hospital

(i have a headcanon [more of a wish lmao] that duke's troubled had activated when he was carrying nathan to the hospital, thus giving him the super strength necessary to do so...and i know simon saw that and only saw potential and his heir)

but the moment became such a stark difference like......simon watching wade react in fear and nausea, to duke taking the initivate to rescue nathan and not shy away from what happened.

so from that day on, duke was simon's heir over wade.

normal things to say to your 8 year old kid

[bigskydreaming]

This is a weird question but how do you feel about Simon Baz, it's no secret he gets beans in storytelling since they introduced Jess but I feel like his fanon/meta character has a lot of parallels with Kyle and Dick. Plus he's one of the only Lanterns B likes and while I didn't love that arc I like that (I pretend he likes him because he's so similar to Dick in a lot of ways)

There are no weird questions here, just long, rambly answers that don’t really address anything actually asked of me!

I mean, sometimes you guys get lucky, I guess, but that has very little to do with me.

LOL anyway. To be totally honest, I don’t actually know Simon or Jessica all that well. I’m open to learning more about them, if anyone has specific story arc recommendations, but its been a long time since I trusted or liked DC’s stories in general enough to go actively seeking out new characters to enjoy....as I’m usually more likely to end up being frustrated by everything DC does with them, lmfao. 

Its usually only when new characters cross paths with the stories of other faves I do keep up with, that I start investing in them and seeking out more about them. Like with Duke, once I started catching up on the Batfam’s Rebirth stuff and read him in their stories in general, that was when I started seeking out more about him. Like, I only read Batman & The Signal once I caught up with back issues of Robin War and read Duke in those....because lol, as I might’ve said before, I’m not really a Batman fan so much as a Batfam fan. I don’t even actually read Batman books that don’t have other members of the Batfam in them as well. LOL. I like Bruce well enough when he’s not being written like an ass, but I’m here for his kids, and always have been.

Anyway, its a little different with the GL franchise because while with Bat books, its not just Dick but a bunch of the Batfam that I like and follow their stories across the board....I pretty much ONLY ever read GL books when I hear Kyle makes an appearance. And for the most part he hasn’t really interacted that much with Simon and Jessica that I know of, since he’s so rarely written as being on Earth these days and they’re a lot more Earth focused in their stories I think? That’s just my impression, but please let me know if I’m missing significant interactions between them and Kyle (as it also means there’s more Kyle appearances I’m missing, lol).

Also, I tend to wait for a lot of Kyle appearances to build up and then binge read them all in one go, because for as long as Johns has been directing the GL franchise, like....its not just his side-lining of Kyle’s character I dislike, its that I pretty much always hate his takes on ALL characters, lmao. And its weird, I like a lot of his big picture ideas, like the emotional spectrum as a whole I really like and think added a lot to the GL mythos, but...I just hate his writing. LOL. Something about the way he writes people just bugs the crap out of me in general. I guess maybe its just the traits he prioritizes and focuses on the most while neglecting the traits and characteristics I like to see prioritized? I don’t even know dude, but its definitely a thing with me. And its not limited to just the GL franchise, but all his stuff. I did NOT like his Teen Titans stuff either, lmao.

(The fact that now Morrison is more steering the GL franchise has not changed that situation much for me personally since I may not like a lot about Johns’ writing, but I have nothing good to say about anything Morrison does, lolol.)

So I just let GL stuff pile up until I have a good stockpile of Kyle stories to dive into, and then like....get it over with all at once like ripping the band-aid off, lol. That way, as much as specific story stuff might bug me, hey, at least there’s a lot of Kyle to get me through it, y’know? So if there are stories with Kyle interacting with Simon and Jessica in the past year or two in specific, they’re on my TBR list and I just haven’t done that binge read yet. Other than Kyle’s brief period with the last Titans book before it was canceled, I haven’t read any GL stuff at all since they....had him kill his son from the future and then had Soranik brand the Sinestro Corps symbol into his chest as punishment. Because. Yeah. I pretty much finished that story, looked at the wall and was like....its gonna be a little while til I calm down enough to see what DC does with Kyle next. LMAO.

Anyway, both Simon and Jessica very much strike me as characters I’d like if I read more of, and I know because of how they’re used in general, there’s probably a lot of Justice League stories out there with them and other non GL-franchise focused stuff....its just that thing where I don’t actively go seeking out stuff with new Marvel or DC characters until I’ve read and enjoyed enough of them in other books that I’m like, okay, there’s gonna be a lot of bullshit to wade through, but they’re worth it. LOL.

SO! If anyone has any recommendations for Simon or Jessica-centric stories that highlight them well and think are must-reads for grasping their core characterizations.....by all means, hop on this post or leave them in the notes or in asks. I’m very open to reading more about them, in recommended arcs.

Incidentally, anon, the fact that Bruce specified that he liked Simon once bodes well, especially if you think its because Simon maybe reminds him of Dick in a lot of ways. I say that because one of the things I enjoyed about Kyle’s time on the JLA was that Bruce gruffly stated on a couple of occasions that Kyle was one of the few GL’s he’d ever respected - and I think Kyle and Dick are a lot alike in a lot of ways, and have always thought that had a lot to do with Kyle reminding Bruce of Dick too, lmao. So if Bruce likes all three because of similar character traits, chances are it’ll hold true with Simon for me too.

Like, you’ve definitely piqued my interest now, because I’ve never actually heard someone describe Simon as being similar to Dick in specific....but there is literally NO quicker way to sell me on a character than by saying “I think this character is a lot like Scott McCall, Dick Grayson and/or Kyle Rayner.”

(Sadly, that trick does not work with my other Big Four fave characters, Bobby Drake. As he is a Glorified Dumbass, and that is not a character archetype that guarantees instant fondness. Only Specific Glorified Dumbasses need apply).