#super hero meta

[metalphoenix]

Super heroes as an allegory for Queer and Trans Narratives

Forgive me if this is a little rambley I have already taken my sleep meds.

I was just thinking about why I like super heroes so much (they have been my special interested for probably around 8 years now) and I think because they can be seen as a queer allegory.

You have a separate life, one that you have to keep separate from your day to day life. That very much feels like being in the closet/mostly in the closet. That secrete life comes with a different name and different clothes. Trans people or Drag Artists anyone? Most of the time super heroes find each other and form a tight community because no civilian will understand their experiences. This mirrors queer people finding and building community. In both Marvel and DC older heroes will take younger ones under their wings to teach them and give them community. Queer people have taken me under their wing and I've done the same for others.

Theres also the isolation. Most heroes are only "out" as heroes to other heroes and maybe a few civilians they really truly trust. Or maybe no one knows. The knowledge that you have a huge secret. You are hiding a big part of your self. Maybe the part that is more you than the you everyone else knows. You know that if you tell or someone finds out, everything will change. Others may or may not except that part of you. You may loose people you love. Maybe the people who are close to you are pro heroes (Ned from Spiderman) or maybe they are not (Foggy from Daredevil) but either way there will always be a possibility of rejection.

The danger of being a hero also lines up. They wear masks, cowls, helmets, disguises etc, to hide their identities because if people knew they and the people they love would be in danger. Heroes who's identities are known (either by their own volition or someone else's) are also in danger. Batman keeps his and his kids identities under lock and key because everything goes wrong when the wrong person finds out. Jessica Jones does not because she's tired of hiding. Queer people weather in or out of the closet are also in danger of being outed. I've been outed before and it ruined one relationship and almost ruined another. I've lost friends and family because of being queer and nonbinary and I'm from a pretty liberal area. Just look up death, houselessness, rape, unemployment, suicide statistic etc. All of them are higher for queer, trans and intersex folks.

The last parallel I can think of is how both super heroes and queer/trans people exist outside of the system/establishment. Heroes and vigilantes work outside of the justice system because in most cases because they see it doesn't work. They are usually at risk of arrest by cops or in danger from the government (the Sokovia accords are a good example of this). Queer people exist outside of many establishments: The gender binary, amatonormativity, heteronormativity, the sex binary, etc. Queer people are also at greater risk of arrest and experiencing police violence.

IDK these are just my thoughts. I hope everything made sense. If you can think of any other ways super hero narratives mirror lgbtq experiences feel free to put them in the notes! (or not its whatever)

[galacticnightz]

Nuh uh!!!

[little-pondhead]

Your Ancient History, Written In Wax

-

Danny knew he should have put better security around the Sarcophagus of Eternal Sleep. It wasn’t even Vlad who opened it this time! The fruitloop was too busy doing his actual mayor duties because for some godforsaken reason, the man got re-elected.

No, it wasn’t Vlad. And it wasn’t Fright Knight, either. Nor the Observants. Who opened the Sarcophagus, then? Danny didn’t have time to find out as Pariah Dark promptly tore open a hole in reality and started hunting Danny down.

The battle was longer this time. He didn’t have the Ecto-Skeleton, as that was the first thing Pariah had destroyed. The halfa had grown a lot over the past few years, and learned some new tricks, but apparently sleeping in a magic ghost box meant that Pariah had absorbed a lot of power. The bigger ghost acted like a one-man army!

Amity Park was caught in the middle of the battle, but the residents made sure it went no further than that. Vlad and the Fentons made a barrier around the town to keep the destruction from leaking. Sam, Tucker, and Dani did crowd control while Danny faced the king head-on.

Their battle shook the Zone and pulled them wildly between the mortal plane and the afterlife. Sometimes, residents noticed a blow from Pariah transported them to the age of the dinosaurs, and Phantom’s Wail brought them to an unknown future. Then they were in a desert. Then a blazing forest. Then underwater. It went on like that, but no one dared step foot outside of Amity. They couldn’t risk being left behind.

It took ages to beat him, but eventually, Danny stood above the old ghost king, encasing his symbols of power in ice so they couldn’t be used again. He refused to claim the title for himself. Tired as he was, Danny handed the objects off to Clockwork for safe keeping and started repairing the damage Pariah had done to the town. The tear he’d made was too big to fix, for now, so no one bothered. They just welcomed their new ghostly neighbors with open arms and worked together to restore Amity Park.

Finally, the day came to bring down the barrier. People were gathered around the giant device the Fentons had built to sustain it. Danny had brought Clockwork to Amity, to double check that they had returned to the right time and dimension.

Clockwork assured everyone that they were in the right spot, and only a small amount of time had passed, so the Fentons gave the signal to drop the shield.

Very quickly did they discover that something was wrong. The air smelled different. The noise of the nearby city, Elmerton, was louder and more chaotic. Something was there that wasn’t before, and it put everyone on edge.

Clockwork smiled, made a remark about the town fitting in better than before, and disappearing before Danny could catch him.

Frantic, Danny had a few of his ghost buds stay behind to protect the town while he investigated.

He flew far and wide, steadily growing horrified at the changes the world had undergone. Heroes, villains, rampant crime and alien invasions. The Earth was unrecognizable. There were people moving around the stars like it was second nature and others raising dead gods like the apocalypse was coming. Magic and ectoplasm was everywhere, rather than following the ley lines like they were supposed to.

Danny returned to Amity.

The fight with Pariah had taken them through space and time. Somewhere along the way, they had changed the course of history so badly that this now felt like an alien world.

How was he supposed to fix this?

-

In the Watchtower, The Flash was wrapping up monitor duty while Impulse buzzed around him, a little more jittery than usual. The boy was talking a mile a minute, when alarms started blaring an alarming green. Flash had never seen this alarm before, and its crackling whine was grating on his ears.

Flash returned to the monitor, frantically clicking around to find the issue, but nothing was popping up. No major disasters, no invasions, no declarations of war. Nothing! What was causing the alarm?

Impulse swore and zipped to a window, pressing his face against it and staring down at Earth. “Fuck! It’s today isn’t it? I forgot!”

“What’s today?” Flash asked. He shot off a text to Batman, asking if it was an error. The big Bat said it wasn’t, and that he would be there soon.

“The arrival of Amity Park. I learned about this in school; the alarm always gives me headaches.”

Flash turned to his grandson, getting his attention. “Bart,” he stressed. “What are you talking about?”

Impulse barely glanced over his shoulder. Now that Flash was facing him, he could see a strong glow coming from Earth. “The first villain, first anti-villain, and the first hero,” he said anxiously. “They all protect the town of the original metas. They’re all here.”

“Here? Now??”

“Yeah? They weren’t before, but they are now. The first hero said there was time stuff involved, which was what inspired me to start practicing time travel in the first place.”

“I’m not following.”

“It’s okay. We should probably go welcome them before they tear apart Illinois, though. The history I remember says that some of them freaked and destroyed a chunk of the Midwest during a fight with each other.”

“WHAT?”

[justwannabecat]

The one where having a secret lab in the basement is not as much of a red flag as it should be.

Because somehow, EVERY. SINGLE. ADULT. IN ALL OF AMITY. Have “secret” basements.

Sure, MOST of them have refitted them to act as emergency bunkers in case there’s another large-scale ghost attack, with rations and shields and blankets and all that, BUT. Even BEFORE the portal opened up, they were there.

Some of them were laboratories dedicated to one of many sciences. Some of them were just storage for the more concerning family heirlooms. At least one person kept the taxidermied bodies of each and every pet they had over their lifetime. Really, it was more odd for someone to not have some weird secret in their basement.

So when Danny ran from Amity and learned just how many people didn’t have strange, niche basements for their hobbies, he was a little put off. When he was eventually asked to stay with the Wayne family in Gotham, well, maybe he could have phrased it better.

How was he supposed to know that asking if they had a “super-secret basement either for your job, your personal life, or disaster prevention” would lead to them thinking he knew about their nightlife?

[seanotty]

Greatest Warrior in the Galaxy

[lord-squiggletits]

I think the key component to my personal reading of post-Delphi Pharma is that he's trying to be a horrible person on purpose. Not "on purpose" in the way that people have free will to exercise their own choices, but in that Pharma's "mad doctor" persona is a performance he puts on to deliberately embrace how much everyone else hates him. Basically, if people already think you're a "bad Autobot" and a horrible doctor who just kills his patients for fun, why try to prove otherwise to people who have already made up their minds about you? Just fully embrace the fact that people see you as an asshole. Don't try to change their minds. Don't plead for their forgiveness or understanding. Just stop caring. If you're going to be remembered as a monster, you might as well be a memorable monster, and eke as much pleasure and hedonism as you can out of it before karma catches up to you and you inevitably crash and burn.

I mean, I guess you could just go the route of "Oh, Pharma was always a fucked up creepy guy and Delphi was just him taking the mask off," but I really don't like that interpretation because, for one, it feels really wrong to take a character like Pharma becoming evil under duress and going, "Oh well clearly he did the things he did because he was evil all along," as if somehow Pharma breaking under blackmail/torture/threat of horrible death was a sign of him having poor moral character. As opposed to, you know, suffering under the very real threat of horrible death for himself and everyone he cares about while being manipulated by a guy who specializes in psychological torture.

The second reason is that it just doesn't make sense to write Pharma as having been evil all along. I mean...

Occam's Razor says that the best argument is the one with the simplest explanation. Doesn't it make way more sense to take Pharma's appearances in flashbacks, his friendship with Ratchet, his stunning medical accomplishments, and the few we see of him speaking kindly/sympathetically (or in the least charitable interpretation, at least professionally) towards his patients and conclude "This guy was just a normal person, if exceptionally talented." Taking all of these flashback appearances at face value and assuming Pharma was being genuine/honest is a way simpler and more logical explanation than trying to argue that Pharma for the past 4 million years was just faking being a good doctor/person. I mean, it's possible within the realm of headcanon, but the fact is Pharma's appearances in the story are so brief that there simply wasn't room in the story for there to be some sort of secret conspiracy/hidden manipulation behind why Pharma acted the way he did in the past.

I just can't help but look at things like Pharma's friendship with Ratchet (himself a good person and usually a fine judge of character) and the fact that even post-Delphi, pretty much every single mention of Pharma comes with some mention of "He was a good doctor for most of his life" or "He was making major headways in research [before he started killing patients]" which implies that even the Autobots themselves see Pharma's villainy as a recent turn in his life compared to how for "most of his life" he "used to be" a good doctor.

And although Pharma doesn't know this, we as the readers (and even other characters like Rung) know about Aequitas technology and the fact that it actually works, so... if Pharma really was an unrepentant murderer, why couldn't he get through the forcefield too? The Aequitas forcefield doesn't require that a person be completely morally pure and free of wrongdoing or else how could Tyrest get through, just that they feel a sense of inner peace and lack feelings of guilt. Pharma has murdered and tortured people by this point, and put on quite a campy and theatrical show of how much he sees it as a fun game, so why then can he not get through?

It circles back to my headcanon at the start of this post that the "mad doctor" persona is just that-- a persona. Delphi/post-Delphi Pharma's laughing madman personality is just so far removed from every flashback we saw of him and everything we can infer based on how other people see/saw him before that, to me, the mad doctor act is (at least in large part, if not fully) a persona that Pharma puts on to put his villainy in the forefront.

To avoid an overly simplistic/ableist take, I don't think Tarn tortured Pharma into turning crazy. To me, it's more like the constant pressure of death by horrific torture, the feeling of martyrdom as Pharma kept secret that he was the only one standing between Delphi and annihilation, the physical isolation of Messatine as well as the emotional separation from Ratchet, being forced to violate his medical oaths (pretty much the only thing Pharma's entire life has been about), etc. All of that combined traumatized Pharma to the point that the only way he could avoid cracking was to just stop caring about all of it. Because at least then, even if he's still murdering patients to save Delphi from a group of sadistic freaks, Pharma doesn't have to feel guilty and sick about doing it. As opposed to the alternatives, which were probably either going off the deep end and killing himself to escape, or confessing to what he did and getting jailed for it.

In that light, Pharma becoming a mad doctor makes sense. It avoids the bad writing tropes of "oh this character who was good his entire life was actually just evil and really good at hiding it" as well as "oh he got tortured and went crazy that's why he's so random and silly and killing people, he's crazy" and instead frames Pharma's evil as something he was forced into, to the point where in order to avoid a full psychological breakdown and keep defending Delphi, he just had to stop caring about the sanctity of life or about what other people might think of him.

Then, of course, the actual Delphi episode happens, and Pharma's own lifelong best friend Ratchet basically spits in his face and sees him as nothing more than a crazy murderer who went rogue from being a good Autobot. Then Pharma gets his hands cut off and left to die on Messatine. At that point, Pharma has not only been mentally/emotionally broken into losing his feelings of compassion, he's received the message loud and clear: He is alone. Everyone hates him. Not even his own best friend likes him any more. No one even cared enough about him to check if he actually died or not. He will only ever be remembered as a doctor who went insane and killed his patients.

So in the light of 1. Having all of your redeeming qualities be squeezed out of you one by one for the sake of survival and 2. Having your reputation and all of your positive relationships be destroyed and 3. People only know/care about you as "that doctor who became evil and killed his patients" rather than the millions of years of good service that came before.

What else is there to do but internalize the fact that you'll forever be seen as a monster and a freak, and embrace it? People already see you as a murderer for that blackmail deal you did, so why not become an actual murderer and just start killing people on a whim? People already see you as an irredeemable monster who puts a stain on the Autobot name, so why beg for their forgiveness when you could just shun them back? You've already become a murderer, a traitor, and a horrible doctor, so what's a few more evil acts added to the pile? It's not like anyone will ever forgive you or love you ever again.

Why care? Why try to hold on to your principles of compassion, kindness, medical ethics, when an entire lifetime of being a good person did nothing to save you from blackmail and then abandonment? Why put yourself through the emotional agony of feeling lonely, guilty, miserable, when you could just... stop caring, and not hurt any more?

[cali-kabi]

~ Happy Birthday Galacta Knight also happy anniversary to Kirby Superstar Ultra ^w^🎂🍓💫

for this piece I drew Galacta’s design from every game he appeared in and my dark version of him as well :3💖I loved this game sm it was so good drawing this makes me want to play it again <3 🎮

[ghostreblogging]

Damian stands before the corpse of his brother.

Is it a corpse? He doesn't know.

They had come to this lonely stretch of land that was once called amity park because something something. Damian hadn't really cared. It was supposed to be a simple get in and get out situation . They were already much busier with their own cases .

Eerie ruined houses and buildings seemed to paint a rather depressing picture. Because you could feel that people used to live here. Half drunken bottles and stollers were out. Just like if everyone just disappeares while walking. But the rotting flesh In the strollers seemed to suggest that darker things have happened here. The everyday norm seemed to frame the gateway to hell. The green glow was the only thing that was truly out of the ordinary.

Perhaps it's just an opening to another Lazarus pit.

But It doesn't feel like a normal Lazarus pit . Damian would know that better than anyone. It somehow felt brighter. And an electric buzz permeated the air. It felt sickening. The destroyed sign makes somewhat of an archway for the entrance. It says Fen- something something? The letter had long fallen off from the elements

"God, bloody hell. This place just reeks of infinite realms," the laughing magician commented before pulling another cigarette from his pocket.

"Infinite realms?" Father grunted

"Don't get your panties twisted. There's a reason I didn't tell you about them, the more you know the harder they are to deal with"

There were more mindless chatter between his family. But Damian ignored that in favor of staring down the archway . It felt like a cold shiver on his back and a horrible burning sensation on the palm of his right hand. Weird.

Damian knew that what awaited him was death. He didn't know whose though.

"Do you feel that?" Damian asked before he could stop himself

Grayson turned to look at him, raising his eyebrow. "Babybat, what? What feeling?"

Damian knew he already walked into communication.

"The cold shiver, and the burning sensation on your right palm"

"Ha! Just sounds like your scared demon brat"

"Forget it"

And they promptly walked into hell.

Damian I've missed you so much! But it's dangerous here. You'll get caught by him

Inside Damian felt as if he was walking for years. All with that , horrible disgusting smell. Burnt flesh and plastic. So overwhelming that his eyes stung even through his mask. He had to wake with his eyes half closed. Stumbling his way through the uneven terrain.

Winding corridors made out of crushed rubble.

Damian , be careful there is sharp glass there

Eerie glow that never seems to get closer.

Damian? I really don't like the Lazarus pits

It was dark and an encompassing ceiling above him felt like spiderwebs, a trap. But beyond that you could see the sky.

Hey Damian? Let's go stargazing again!

Hey Damian please don't go further

Something kept bothering him but he didn't know what. But he kept on walking.

And eventually they found themselves in a big chamber. Lazarus pit waters filled the caver like a lake. Beautiful flowers that seemed misplaced grow up to the sky.

The sky.

Maybe that was the source of the discomfort?. They came in at dawn.

It shouldn't have been dark .

And the stars were wrong. How long did they walk for?

Long enough. Just go please

There was a huge rift. Beyond were Lazarus green lands with floating landscapes. Sometimes you could see something big float by . Damian wonders if they were living or just a part of the landscape.

Beautifully enchanting. Like freedom, feeling of wind on your ski-

And then Damian's eyes fell on the thing. How could he have not noticed that.

Please get away that is not me that is not me that is not me that is not me

Like some kind of a lost puppet it was hung in front of the rift. That was the source of the smell. A white suit that once had been sterile, burnt and fused with the flesh below. Dark burnt hair that hung and thankfully concealed the empty eyes.

For once Damian was thankful he couldn't see something. He just felt that if he saw the thing's eyes, he would never recover.

Because that face.

He knew that face

It was one of he had forgotten a long time ago.

Damian please that is not me plEase. I aM LOSiNg my SeLF

A brother that went missing during a mission.

"God what the fuck is that" Grayson's voice broke Damian's trance.

Damian frowned. It didn't feel appropriate to talk here.

Hide. Hide hide hide hide

A voice broke the silence soon after.

"I advise you to leave immediately" a familiar voice. From the oh so familiar corpse . It grated against his ears. And the corpse moved in tandem. Exaggerated and cartoonish but in a horrid way like a machine struggling to run in their later years. It felt like it was coming from everywhere at once.

Hey Damian let's not go here

Damian it's not a good idea to be here take you family and leave

Damian, let's go another route

I can barely maintain luciedicy please listen to me

"I advice you to leave immediately" just like clockwork. The exact same tone, the exact same horrid little dance.

"Well we can't. Well we can't before we know why In the everliving earth there is a direct portal to the infinite realms here." Constantine seemed to have nonchalance as he spoke but Damian saw his cold sweat. And eyes darting , trying to look anywhere but directly at it .

The corpse directly ignored Constantine. It turned to him . Each movement sharp and gutted.

"Damian we are finally together again :) "

[tanglepelt]

Dc x dp idea 127

After the events of the nasty burger. Clockwork doesn’t rewind the explosion, but rather then fully trust Danny not to allow Dan to happen. He took matters into his own hands.

He deages Danny and in order to ensure he had no contact with Vlad ever again. Unleashes a grieving and peeved super powered toddler on the dc universe.

Jack is a hero’s alternate. Like say Clark or Bruce. Even any of the batkids or super kids. So if a dna test were to occur. Well. It would register Danny as their child.

[glitter-stained]

On Duke Thomas and the problem with the ASPD diagnosis

There are many many messed up things with the way personality disorders are classified in the dsm-5, but I think what best illustrates how fucked up the ASPD diagnostic criteria are is that Duke Thomas (yes, Duke Thomas, the Signal) could definitely get diagnosed with ASPD.

FYI, ASPD means Antisocial Personality Disorder, this is the clinical entity usually referenced when we talk about psychopathy or sociopathy. So how does that fit Duke? (It doesn't. And yet...)

First is the question of why should we diagnose Duke, a teenager whose personality is still in construction, with a personality disorder? Well, while you only get diagnosed at 18 (criteria B), your "transgressions" occur since age 15, which means Duke's behaviour in We are Robin (when he was a traumatized homeless teenager in a hellscape of a city)can 100% be used to spring a diagnosis on him at 18. Criteria D is just excluding schizophrenia and bipolar episodes. Now let's take a look at criteria A: at least three manifestations from this list of signs that someone is "disregarding and transgressing other people's rights" :

1. Repeated liable to arrest behaviours

So, like when Duke got arrested for being part of We Are Robin, then escaped arrest and did it again and again?

2. tendency to lie for either profit or pleasure: repeated lies, use of pseudonyms or scamming.

Funnily enough, I don't think Duke had a pseudo in WAR aside from Robin ofc (feel free to correct me if I misremember) but Isabella and the others sure did! Still, when Duke gets arrested, he lies and insists he isn't part of the WAR and hasn't done anything illegal, which fits the criteria as "lying for personal profit". (If you're feeling full of righteous rage reading this it's normal, I'm trying to prove a point.)

3. Impulsivity OR inability to plan ahead.

Duke is definitely able to plan ahead, but I know very few clinicians who, upon hearing how this mf jumped off a bridge to escape a moving police car, wouldn't write down "impulsivity"... And it's not like it's his only similar offence. I'm not saying he is impulsive, but that behaviour is definitely enough to get him classified as one in the eye of a clinician, especially if they're meeting him after an arrest and hearing from that episode second-handedly.

4. Repeated fights and aggressions.

Do I need to develop why this would fit Duke?

5. Inconsiderate disregard for his safety OR other people's safety

If you thought I was being unfair about the impulsivity for jumping from a bridge, you can't tell me this doesn't fit here. Again, far from the sole iteration of it from Duke in WAR, but one of the most memorable.

6. Persistent irresponsibility: this one is all about pathologizing and shaming financial and employment struggles, which is its own nest of issues but doesn't concern our boy Duke since he isn't an adult.

7. justification/indifference after harming, stealing or mistreating someone (lack of remorse).

The question here is, does street vigilant violence count as harming someone? I'm gonna go with yes, because there is no question of whether it is justified, and attempting to defend oneself is here considered a sign of a lack of remorse. (Whether or not you count it doesn't matter so much though, because we're already over three hard yesses.)

So, to recap, whether or not we count criteria 7 and 3, Duke already fits the bill of 3 criteria, and thus fits criteria A.

The last criteria to examine, criteria C, is :

"manifestations of a conduct disorder before 15". So you're going backwards in time investigating the person's past actions to see if they fit the criteria having, most of the time, only data like police records, grade reports, foster care interviews sometimes, on top of your own retroactive bias. To quote Duke's bio "during his time in foster care, Duke went from an upstanding student to becoming a bit of a delinquent, receiving poor grades and racking up an extensive police record due to his investigations into his parents." I'm not gonna go through the whole list of conduct disorder symptoms because there is so many, just know the cutoff is 3. For Duke, we can identify: "picks up fights", "stays up late at night despite interdiction from his guardians (before 13 -when was Duke first placed?), "often skips school" (again, before 13), "has run away and spent the night outside at least twice or once but didn't come home for a long time", "has b&e into someone's house/car/building" (i'm pretty sure that happened at some point? An abandoned building that legally belongs to someone else counts btw), "lies often to avoid obligations". I might have missed some from Duke's time in foster care so feel free to point out any sign of conduct disorder I didn't spot!!

In conclusion, Duke fits the criteria for ASPD and would have been, in universe, liable to be diagnosed as soon as he turned 18 (which could very well had happened if he had stayed in the system or gotten arrested). So, is the conclusion that Duke Thomas actually has ASPD? Obviously not. The point is the dsm criteria for ASPD (and conduct disorder) are so fucked up that fictional superheroes who definitely don't have it meets them on a technicality. Even if we accept ASPD as a valid clinical entity (which is highly debatable) this wording is so wrong I can't wrap my head around this.

Another point you might have noticed is that post-crisis Jason Todd (Jaybin, not the Red Hood) would also have been a very valid test to highlight how problematic these criteria are. While little Jason is at risk because there is also a huge classism problem in these criteria (which don't do shit to acknowledge necessity theft and actively shame financial insecurity), Duke is at risk because studies have highlighted the racist bias in these criteria: regardless of clinical intent, the awful, unclear wording of these criteria have led to a huge race difference in ASPD diagnosis. Add to that the foster care to prison pipeline, a story where Duke had been diagnosed with ASPD would have been all too realistic (assuming dc writers know about aspd).

All these critiques are acknowledged in the DSM-5: Revised Text version, where researchers warn against the bias and unclear wording of these criteria. But let's be honest: clinicians barely ever read the diagnostic characteristics of the original DSM-5, let alone the revised text (generally because 1. They're overworked and 2. To interview properly, you need to ask questions based on the criteria while talking to the person, which is super hard and means you need clear, defined, easy to memorize criteria). So most of the time, clinicians just base themselves on the diagnostic criteria. Just saying "hey careful about bias these criterias aren't that well written" in the revised text isn't enough : if ASPD is going to stay an entity at all, it needs better criteria.

The ASPD criteria are amongst the worst failures of the DSM-5, and the case of Duke Thomas perfectly illustrates the pitfall in which we might fall if we don't remain critical of classifications and take into account how they fit within a social and political sytem.

*This post simplifies listed criteria to what clinicians actually use while diagnosing for clarity's sake, but doubting your sources is smart, so feel free to check out the detailed criteria to check I'm not misinterpreting what the dsm says by simplifying it since the DSM-5 is available online for free, search key for ASPD is F60.2 and for conduct disorder is F63.81.

[supersaiyanjedi14]

Just got done watching the new episode, and can I just say that I freaking LOVE Sally's conversation with Poseidon? This scene not only demonstrates just how much Sally loves her son in spite of the various struggles, it also touches on just WHY Percy is the hero he is.

As an urban fantasy, PJO is one of a long line of stories that involve the mundane intermingling with the fantastical, specifically in the context of someone from our world entering into this wildly different one. Superman, Narnia, Harry Potter, just off the top of my head. What makes these stories stand out is that, even when the protagonist gets adjusted to a world of magic and monsters, it is the fact that they come from good old normal Earth that keeps them and their worldviews grounded. No matter how many wizards and aliens they bump into, they are still coming from the position of a human being. Superman may be an alien who bumps shoulders with god-like beings, but behind it all is Clark Kent, a guy from Kansas raised to be a kind and decent person by two people who were shining examples of humanity themselves.

That right there is a big part of who Percy is. Percy's spent most of his life surrounded by gods and monsters with a view of the world that is so wildly different from our own we cannot begin to understand that. But Percy doesn't come from that world, he comes from OUR world. He's not a Greek god intermingling with the puny mortals, he's a kid from New York who understands the people around him. If Percy had been brought up at camp and raised as a demigod, he would have gone hand-in-hand with the Olympian way of doing things, no questions asked. But Sally didn't do that. She brought him up to be a boy first, demigod second. It's what allows him to look at how the gods act and say "No, this is wrong." He refuses to go along with the BS, because any decent person can see that this manipulation and ego flexing is no way to treat people. And this feeds right into his motives for opposing Kronos and Luke. He's not fighting for the gods, he's fighting for the world he actually came from, a world where opposing evil is right and just, not an opportunity for glory.

And Sally and Poseidon both know this. They wanted Percy to grow up separated from all this toxic crap, because they knew he would emerge all the stronger, and more importantly, better, for it.

"I'm Sally Jackson's son" indeed.

[theromanticscrooge]

Rob, Gumball, and the Villain Rivalries That Belong on a Sitcom Set and in Couples' Therapy

So, the episode "Glory Hog" of the 2009 cartoon League of Super Evil follows the attempts of a lame supervillain team to net a big-time hero rival. They manage to draw the attention of Captain Glory, an even more extreme boy-scout parody take on Superman. L.O.S.E. are known for playing Ding, Dong, Ditch and jaywalking. They're a better fit as the opposite of an aspiring Scooby Doo gang vs a guy with super strength, flight, and laser vision. Captain Glory's usual nemesis is Skullosus, a skull in a jar atop a mech suit. He has a full flank of minions, a space ship, and a planet-decimating death ray.

Skullosus almost destroys Earth in Captain Glory's absence, but gives up when his beloved hero rival fails to make his timely appearance. When the two finally reunite, Captain Glory and Skullosus' rivalry carries the subtext of a romantic couple making up after one of them was caught exploring their options or emotionally cheating. They're a Rupert Holmes Pina Colada situation where Skullosus reminds Captain Glory about the mutual excitement they glean from fighting each other. Skullosus is an even match for Glory Guy's powers, might, and tenacity; just like the jaded man's wife in the aforementioned Pina Colada song hates yoga and loves getting caught in the rain as much as he does.

Another fun and more well-known take on this goofy hero-villain dynamic are Batman and the Joker in the 2017 Lego Batman movie. The Joker considers Batman a centerpiece of every villainous scheme and exploit. How the Bat will react or interact with various parts and pieces of his plan, as well as the Joker himself, are elements he actively anticipates and consciously thinks about. It's a highly personal and devastating blow when Batman asserts the Joker's rivalry is one-sided.

As Batman learns to appreciate and better understand the importance of having other people in his life, one of his penultimate "I'm learning" moments is when he finally delivers a heartfelt, genuine "I hate you" to his rival. That's all the Joker wanted. It's his equivalent to a rough, stoic sitcom husband telling his taken-for-granted housewife "I love you." That first confession opens the floodgates. From now on, the Joker can have the meaningful banter and earnest effort he deserves from his heroic rival.

More serious hero vs villain conflicts in comic books present the hero and villain respectively as opposite sides of opposing themes. In the specific case of Batman and the Joker, they can be generalized as order vs chaos. They're both the most extreme ends of a very black and white sense of morality. Both are deeply traumatized men with enough presence and power that whatever actions they take can shape Gotham for the worse or the better. Most stories focusing on the Batman vs Joker dynamic are interested in exploring the consequences of two clashing extremes in regards to social issues or exploring the psychological impact of this all-consuming obsession with each other on Batman or Joker respectively.

A huge part of what makes Lego Batman work as a satirical lens is that Batman becomes a self-obsessed narcissist and the Joker becomes an "I'm evil for the fun of being evil" villain that exists more in the realm of Saturday morning cartoons than otherwise. The Batman caricature is a subversion of the generally gloomy, dark, and severe character most modern takes are. This combines the camp of the 60's Adam West series or even the 90's live action bat credit card antics with the fixation and obsession superhero pop culture has with Batman at large. When Batman is such a self-interested figure, it makes sense to paint this variant of the Joker as more sensitive than he would be otherwise. Gotham is at the mercy of a "notice me, senpai" Joker instead of someone that wants to watch the world burn.

In a nutshell, the rivals with romantic subtext framing works beautifully in a more satirical work. If these characters can pull from a more serious framework where the characters are so fundamentally at odds they have to seriously consider whether or not they should kill each other, it's that much funnier to place them in a strained sitcom couple dynamic. The more extreme debate of this fictitious world would be a dramatically different place without this hero or villain becomes a simmering argument about whether the hero or villain is sleeping on the couch tonight.

Keep this in mind and then look at The Amazing World of Gumball episode "The Ex." Both previous examples rely on the existing library of comic books and characters as a foundation for their goofier hero and villain. The Amazing World of Gumball can similarly pull from this library but builds up the characters and story involved to the point they can and do stand alone. They present a new and deliciously bizarre template that other future stories could borrow from for setting up further hero and villain rivalries with a frustrated set of not quite sitcom spouses.

In general, TAWOG is a delightfully subversive series, whether it's poking fun at a wide breadth and depth of pop culture, delivering fantastic social commentary, or sneaking in surprisingly insightful and heart-wrenching character writing.

To set the stage, the wacky and colorful world of TAWOG relies on characters remaining unaware that they live in a syndicated TV cartoon outside of very limited, special circumstances. Its a couple of steps above how the 90's Animaniacs casually leaned on the fourth wall for jokes and comments vs the very active, deliberate part the fourth wall holds in TAWOG's world-building. The fourth wall becomes the static-filled void just on the outskirts of Gumball's reality. Characters are aware enough of the seams in their world that episodes like "The Money" use storyboards and unfinished CG rigs as parts of jokes about the world falling apart without a healthy budget.

Though, the physics and overall stability of this world rely on characters staying blissfully ignorant or outright forgetting parts of their reality that an amorphous creator, an unseen entity, or what is referred to as 'The Universe' itself deemed as unimportant. Usually, these forgotten 'parts' are jokes about how unanimously unlikeable disco music is, how unfashionable mullet hairstyles are, or bad ideas like the general construction of the Hindenberg blimp. Then, TAWOG takes this one step further and invents the tragedy behind the character Rob as a more existential dread-flavored look at the cartoon's overall relationship with its fourth wall.

Originally, Rob was just a playful background character. The Universe decides that he's a negligible part for whatever reason alongside the tertiary character Molly and mercilessly ejects both of them into this static-filled void. In show buildup to the discovery of the void follows Gumball and Darwin progressing from seeing its existence as a tin-foil hat conspiracy theory to diving into the void itself to save their friend before she's completely erased. In-cartoon logic of scrubbing any part of the world clean is a gradual process. The process can be stopped if its caught soon enough or a particular item is retrieved and reinstalled into the world at large before it dissolves or however else deletion/dissolving occurs within the limbo of the void.

Gumball and Darwin go to rescue Molly from the clutches of the static, but ignore Rob's desperate attempts to draw their attention and get their help to escape. He was already an unnamed background character, but now he's been knocked down one level below that already dubious narrative hierarchical position and doomed to oblivion. He literally clings to the back of Mr. Small's van on the tail end of the Molly rescue attempt, unseen by Gumball and Darwin, and forces the Universe to acknowledge him. When Rob does return to the 'normal' world, he's in an incomplete state. He doesn't remember who he was or what his original connection to this world was. Most of his body are rough polygons with patchy, glitched-out textures and TV static. One of his feet is an incomplete CG wire frame.

Because TAWOG is a satire series, Gumball establishes that all of the recognizable on-screen characters fill some sort of established character archetype. All of the other 'good' archetypes have been filled. Rob is assigned The Villain role and starts to fill said role in large part because he was forced into this. Depending on the episode, Rob is playing a required narrative part as much as any other character in the cartoon, but he also has moments addressing his unique frustration and fight with the construct around TAWOG as a whole. Rob is definitely a sympathetic character.

His worse actions aren't excused but his tendency towards more extreme and forceful solutions or behavior is understandable. He had to claw his way back into the world and more or less fight to maintain his right to exist. He feels unseen and unheard; this isn't helped by Gumball immediately jumping towards "what's Dr. Wrecker's evil scheme today?" vs any kind of more thoughtful and substantive discussion with Rob. There's never a moment of "How are you?" unless Rob literally steals the spotlight and tells Gumball, as well as the watching audience, where his thoughts and feelings are.

After the events of "The Disaster" and "The Rerun," Rob has successfully achieved his goal of destroying everyone Gumball loves. He destroyed Gumball's life by tearing apart his family through the right set of wrong loaded phrases or emotional manipulation and even temporarily erasing all of said family from existence. He backpedaled on and ultimately corrected these actions; as he's said, he never wanted to be the villain but he feels so forced that he has fully become the role where he was just playing at it before. After such an intense scrap with his nemesis, Rob wants something more casual and low-key. He's so locked into villainry, he's downgrading from a Level 10 threat to the more manageable Wile E. Coyote ventures he started with.

"The Ex" also immediately follows the awkward tension between Rob and Gumball at the end of "The Rerun." He isn't sure if he can hate Gumball with the same intensity as he did before and those fierce, bitter feelings were a significant motivator in his interpersonal relationship as Gumball's nemesis. Because of these more lukewarm feelings, he "breaks up" with Gumball and shifts his attention to Banana Joe. Joe is more compatible with Rob's Wile E. ventures as a promising Roadrunner. He's annoying and dim, but the lack of wit is offset by enough sheer dumb luck that helps him avoid Rob's complicated traps. There's strong potential to maintain an ongoing, evergreen unseen nemesis role that Rob had with Gumball before Gumball finally acknowledged him and strong-armed him towards something worse and more sinister.

Gumball is devastated by the breakup. He's been bragging and gushing about Rob to his girlfriend Penny ever since Rob became his official nemesis. There's personal attachment. Gumball is partly responsible for goading Rob towards the horrible, evil depths he's achieved. He was Gumball's project. This new nemesis doesn't know or deserve the results behind the fruits of his labor. As far as Gumball is concerned, there's no Rob without his lovable, rapscallion nemesis Gumball Watterson.

It's especially ridiculous how active a role Penny plays as Gumball's emotional support and advice in his misguided ploys to win Rob back. In other setups like this, such as 2017 Lego Batman, Batman does have a female love interest. The hero-villain rivalry can exist alongside an established heterosexual love interest or love story. If anything, having this dynamic exist next to a blatant, straightforward romance further drives home that the sitcom couple subtext is a comedic framing device. Penny's relationship with Gumball is a separate and distinctive thing from the unique, intimate bond that Gumball shares with Rob as his nemesis.

What's really fun about Gumball expressing such strong jealousy towards Banana Joe is that he brings the same grand gestures and harebrained desperation towards winning Rob back as he would to romance Penny. Rob has carved out a special place in Gumball's life that nobody else could fill. Gumball follows the conventions of a classic "make my ex-boyfriend jealous" story up to the mature move of trying to move on and be just friends instead.

But then he inadvertently reignites the fire of Rob's hatred towards him and gets his own shoujo-romance fireworks and goopy-eyed "I hate you!" declaration. These two have the same kind of chemistry that makes more grounded takes on the Batman-Joker rivalry work mixed with the framing that makes the more satirical takes work as well. It's a weird tight rope walk, but TAWOG has firmly established itself as a story that can swing between genuinely gripping drama and more absurd, outlandish situations. Granted, Rob and Gumball have enough of a genuine connection that there's room for Rob to segue from a nemesis to a real friend. There could be a redemption arc. Every major scene Rob has reinforces the idea that he is on the teetering edge between maintaining his villain role and an honest desire to be allowed to just exist.

Outside of the nemesis story, Rob presents interesting commentary that fits a wide variety of people considered 'other' by society that get brutally demonized, ostracized, and ridiculed. Rob is a case of someone that was pushed so hard that he becomes exactly what society expected and feels so lonely and unsupported that he doesn't see a realistic alternative. Being the Villain is his only means to survive, to protect himself, and is the only tool set he knows of to achieve any kind of results. This is why Rob resorts to kidnapping Banana Barbara and posing as Superintendent Evil in late season 6 episodes rather than trying to launch a meaningful dialogue with anyone else. He's convinced that force is the best method and has no proof of otherwise.

I'm still hoping for some kind of closure for Rob's overall character in a yet-to-happen Amazing World of Gumball series finale. He deserves it. And viewers deserve one final bro hug between Gumball and his closest interpersonal relationship outside of his family and his girlfriend Penny.

[tarucore]

I think the ‘no-meta’s in Gotham rule’ could be more easily explained by the fact that the main evidence people bring up for it is from a Superboy comic not a Batman one, and maybe Bruce is just straight up lying to him

[icedragonlizard]

How I can see Galacta Knight interacting with Kirby and some of the dream friends

I've recently developed a self-indulgent headcanon that sometime after the events of Heroes in Another Dimension, Hyness becomes generous enough to finally let Galacta Knight be free from the crystal he's been trapped inside of for so long. About time that he was let out!

I have some interpretations for dynamics that he could have with Kirby and some of the dream friends. Do note I said some of them, because as of right now I don't have ideas for how he'd interact with all the dream friends, but I'm glad to share the ideas that I do have!

Anyways, let's go over them.

Kirby: I can easily see a friendship here, as Kirby always tries to be everybody's friend! While I imagine Galacta Knight would be very irritable and temperamental as a result of traumatization from being trapped in crystal for eons, he'd most likely take well to Kirby a lot sooner than most others. The fellow younger pink puffball is hard to resist. And because Kirby is compassionate and empathetic, he'd feel terrible for what Galacta Knight has been through and would give him a very much needed hug that he's been so incredibly deprived of.

Meta Knight: Even though I don't commonly factor in extra mode content in my headcanons, I do canonize Meta Knight summoning a clockwork star and make a wish to fight Galacta Knight as something that happens in my verse. And that's exactly why I don't see these two getting along. Galacta was already messed up from being eternally stuck in crystal by that point, he's not happy that Meta just summoned him, beat him up, and left. He kind of holds a grudge against him for it. He'd most likely want to fight Meta for revenge if they encountered again, and it wouldn't help that Meta would just gladly take the challenge as an excuse for another fight. It'd take quite a while for these two to warm up to each other, as Galacta would certainly need some time to get over his bitterness for Meta.

Dark Meta Knight: This one is pretty interesting to think about. I think there's an actual, sincere possibility that Galacta and DMK could get along over them both sharing a distaste for Meta Knight. But... despite this possibility, I think the most likely outcome of this dynamic is that they'd both just fight and try to kick each other's asses. They're both temperamental assholes that easily lash out. DMK is largely stand-offish and rather bad at making friends, and I imagine that Galacta would probably distrust other knights in general because his encounter with Meta Knight left a foul taste in his mouth. If they were to see eye-to-eye, I think it'd take a while for it to happen.

Magolor: I actually headcanon that Magolor knows about Galacta Knight's existence because the Lor Starcutter has information on him. Galacta was in Halcandra before, allowing the Lor to detect him and store him into her memory, and that's what made it possible to make a mask based on him in Merry Magoland. Anyways, I believe that Magolor would be giddy and excited to meet Galacta in person. He'd love to learn more about him and show all his merch to him. I feel like Galacta would be weirded out by Magolor at first due to his over-the-top eagerness to know him, but I could see him eventually coming around and even taking well to the wizard's whimsical nature. Magolor could also amaze Galacta with his comically big ultra sword.

Susie: I've noticed that Galacta Knight and Susie have many things in common: being largely pink, both have had extremely long-term trauma (Susie stuck in Another Dimension, Galacta stuck in a crystal prison) and they've both got a large knack for violence. I think it's very possible they could bond or at least get along over these things. Pink bitches named breakfast! I believe that much like Magolor, Susie would also be very excited to meet Galacta. She'd find him to be even cooler than Meta Knight, especially delighted that he's pink! Galacta would probably be quite off-put by her at first, but I could see him coming around to like her for a mutual love of pink and also liking all the tech stuff she does. I hc Susie is past mechanizing people, so no worries about Galacta being a robot here. I think they could get on!

Marx: When Marx first learned about the Meta Knight vs. Galacta Knight incident and that it involved a clockwork star to let the fight happen, it caught his attention. He pestered Meta about the details as he was curious to meet Galacta himself, which he'd then have the chance to do so after Galacta is free from crystal post-HiAD. Anyways, I imagine the dynamic between Marx and Galacta to be rather complicated. It'd likely be tense at first, since Marx might be insufferable enough to ask a bunch of obnoxious questions in regards to the allegations of "greatest warrior of the galaxy", which would prompt Galacta to skewer him on the spot. I know I said that Galacta could maybe come around to Magolor for being whimsical, but Marx is a bigger handful by comparison that'd be harder to warm up to. I think it's not impossible for Galacta to eventually come to like Marx, but it'd take a long time to get there, and would hate him at first.

Ribbon: Ribbon would most likely be mind-blown by Galacta Knight. I'm not sure there's much else to say in that regard. This knight is pink just like Kirby, and look at that weaponry and armor! She'd compliment him like nuts. I think Ribbon is someone that Galacta could come to like faster than many others. She's very nice, compassionate and loves pink! Galacta might have difficulties in getting along with people in general right after being freed of crystal because he needs time to recuperate and heal, but he could warm up to Ribbon a lot quicker than he could to most other dream friends.

The Mage Sisters: Considering that I headcanon Hyness freeing Galacta Knight, I imagine that made the cult leader's daughters become interested in meeting him shortly after. I think the first impressions wouldn't be great as Galacta would want some time to himself initially, but I think he'd probably be able to come around to find these women to be alright. Zan Partizanne and Flamberge might be a little obnoxious with how much they'd like to spar with him, but otherwise I think he'd come to take a liking to their fighting spirits and capacity to cause extreme chaos and violence. He's known Hyness for a long time, so he'd be able to reveal a lot of stuff to them.

Those are all the dream friends that I got stuff for in terms of interacting with Galacta Knight. Sorry I couldn't do them all as of this time. I currently can't think up stuff for how the heck he'd interact with King Dedede, Bandana Waddle Dee, Taranza, Daroach, Adeleine, Gooey and the animal friends. But hope you enjoy what I do have here!

Like stated above in the stuff I put forward, the idea of both Magolor and Susie having a big fascination for Galacta Knight is pretty humorous. Heheheheheheheh.

[radioactive-earthshine]

Hello

Could you explain what you mean by Bart and Brainaic's friendship? I admit I never read any bit of LOSH and the only thing I remember of them interacting is when Brian told Bart he drank to forget him. It doesn't seem like they are friends but IDK

Teen Titans/Legion Special (2004)

This is actually something fairly on brand for Querl to say given his crassness inherited from the long line of Dox-Bitchiness. Querl is one of those great examples of a character who is a good person but he's not necessarily polite and nice all of the time. Although in more recent comics and media he has gotten significantly nicer.

His loose "blink and you miss it" friendship with Bart in the 90s comics comes as a little bit of a surprise considering the types of characters they are but it works as their dynamic evolves around mutually started chaos and working to get out of said chaos. The start of their connection also shows a surprising side of Post-Zero Hour Querl when he elects to show Bart some compassion after he had a very bad day.

This is not to say that their friendship was without a lot of frustrations as Bart did inflict himself upon the Legionnaires in ways that left... an impact.

Bart's first encounter with Querl can be found in his own comic when recently stranded Legionnaires specifically sought Bart out for help in getting back to their own time.

It ended disastrously when Bart while in the midst of an extreme case of the zoomies attempted to use the Cosmic Treadmill to take them home, but he had absolutely no ability to control it, and instead just flung everyone around through varying intervals of time (and gave Imra a migraine and Querl, Koko).

Impulse #21

Bart was even more hyper-active in this issue than normal, and I think it had something to do with the Slurpee he was drinking at the start of it.

Regardless if the zoomies were a result of Mark Waid deciding to go full ham for the chaos in this issue, or if the slurpee did something, the day did not end well and the Legionnaires left hoping to find another way home.

Querl did not expect to see Bart again for a long, long time, if ever.

They were all wrong.

Because like the One Ring he resurfaced as he inflicted himself upon them again about a day later at S.T.A.R. Labs in Legion of Super-Heroes (1989) Issue #88.

But not before the issue opens up reminding everyone that while Bart does have his chaotic moments, Querl is no less guilty of chaos and is his own unique brand of mayhem.

They are in fact, kindred.

LMFAO @ Rokk's "I've asked him NOT to." in regards to blowing up S.T.A.R. Labs because Rokk has about as much control over Querl as Max or any authority figure over Bart when he has an inkling.

S.T.A.R. Labs' solution to dealing with Querl was to put him under watch and surveillance, much to his extreme foul-mouthed displeasure, another trait he shares with Bart.

"What could possibly go awry?" is early Bart Allen's famous summoning incantation.

With Bart back in proximity of the Legionnaires things begin to unfold again chaotically, this time however it is Querl's fault for trying coopt Bart into helping him operate under the radar put on him.

This is their first instance working together, and it is the incident that brings them together and what likely prompts Querl to drink.

With the telepathic ear plugs, Querl directs Bart and gives him what he believes are clear instructions, but he didn't count on Bart's own brand of logic and instead helps initiate a countdown towards nuclear meltdown.

Fortunately, everyone is able to work together to stop catastrophe and all it takes is a Coluan finger subjected to speed force.

"Well. THAT went all right, then, didn't it?" you're a grenade in a barrel full of oatmeal, sir.

The day's events leads to the Legionnaires being kicked out of S.T.A.R. Labs, and out of a home, until they can find a solution to get back to their time.

It also leads to the heartbreaking scene at the diner where Bart is very bluntly and firmly told that he was absolutely not accepted as a Legionnaire. But not only that, he was the first ever hero to be turned down. Superboy at this time is an honorary member so it's a poignant gut-punch and it's hard to read.

Querl lurks outside for reasons unknown.

In true Bart Allen fashion all he wanted to do was help and he did act earnestly it just was not a good day. Six to One rejected him and the comics do not reveal who voted to allow him in.

It is likely that Querl voted to allow him membership, but we never find out, but it is my personal interpretation due to how the final page goes and this is where we see Querl lean into compassion for someone kindred. Maybe he saw a little bit of himself in him.

Querl opens up to Bart literal direct communication and this is the start of a positive friendship between them. Bart has this link with Querl for an impressively long time in comic continuity, at least 11 issues, however the comics do not show them actively communicating until later when Bart is needed to help save the world from C.O.M.P.U.T.O.

We see them again in Legion of Super-Heroes (1989) #99 when Querl reveals to his team that he shares a link with Bart and summons him. Much to the Legionnaires' bemoaning.

Querl isn't wrong, they really are up against time and a threat that is literally world-ending. He trusts Bart is capable and reliable enough to efficiently help them at this point and Bart does.

We also get a humorous snippet showing Querl trying to translate Bart's pictograms. If anything, communicating with Bart sometimes had to have been a mental exercise that he either appreciated or attained a migraine from.

After this point, we do not see them interact much except for in the Teen Titans/Legion Special, and then the next time they are seen even in the same proximity is during Final Crisis when another Brainiac 5 entirely bottles Bart's 'youth' and leads to his resurrection.

They had an interesting and unexpected dynamic/friendship and it is one I feel people generally neglect to notice or consider unless you happen to be a fan of both comics.

We do see some hints in other media that is a throw-back to this old friendship and dynamic such as in The Legion of Super-Heroes in the 31st Century Issue #15 when an alternative history to Bart Allen lands him working with Querl in his birth time.

In this particular version of Bart he has not evacuated to the past (if he ever does) and he is still in VR, however he still works with Querl in harmony and manages to impress them enough to get an invite to the team immediately. The entire issue is like a little love-letter to Bart and is a delight to read and stands on its own.

So there's Bart's interesting relationship/friendship to Earth 247's Brainiac 5 that maybe some in the Flashfam fandom or LOSH fandom may have overlooked.

It's fun, it's unexpected and it's interesting, and it would have been nice to see it a little more fleshed out but 1000 years of time displacement just makes this impossible.

[cartoonfantasychic]

Hello! So this is one of my edits from Instagram (my main social media hub) and it’s basically a trailer for my account. It just showcases a sample of my interests and I just want to see if anyone else likes what I like. Welcome!