#that i could kinda explore with reverse robins but obviously not as much as i could

[yellowocaballero]

'there's such a thing as too honest' sounds interesting to hear about <3

Yes!!! That's actually a Flash fic :D. There is an unmentioned and unposted "New Wave!Steph and Tim harrass Superman" fic, and this is the "New Wave!Steph and Tim harrass Flash" fic. I have an extremely specific vision of the Flash. This is my design.

I've never posted it because I wanted to post the Superman fic first and I never finished the Superman fic :). Someday tho!

I seriously have this whole internal idea and schema for Barry and Wally and this is just my excuse to write it. Wally and Linda's relationship is largely sourced from my other Wally story, which I'm still inordinarly fond of. I grew up in a fantastic Natural Science museum, and you can tell.

Un-copping characters under the cut. Yet again, this is my design.

“I have a secret to tell you.”

It was practically impossible to get the undivided attention of an assembly of elementary schoolers drunk off life, but the man standing behind the table at the front of the room managed it. Maybe it was the way he said it - soft but clearly audible, conspiratorial but welcoming. 

Or maybe it was the bow tie? The bow tie was hypnotic. Stephanie was hypnotized. 

With great relish, the man in the bow tie and white lab coat announced to the group, “I’m the king of Atlantis.” The group broke into giggles, and Bowtie affected a faux-hurt look. “What, don’t believe me? Don’t I have enough muscles?”

“Aquaman can talk to fish!” A third grader at the front volunteered imperiously. “And he controls water! He’s Jake’s favorite superhero.”

Next to her, a boy shoved her arm. “It’s the Flash, I said the Flash -”

“I’m pretty socially awkward around fish - but that coelacanth fossil in the Paleontology exhibit can talk and talk for days.” Bowtie held up his hands in faux-defeat. “I admit it, I’m not King Arthur. No long and flowing golden locks on me.” It was literally always so funny hearing people call him that. He couldn’t have picked a more on-the-nose landlubber name. “There’s one big difference between us, besides our stunning good looks: King Arthur controls water with magic. But I control water with science.”

The crowd rippled with incredulity. Next to Steph, Tim was still disinterestedly playing the new Link’s Awakening on his Gameboy Color. Tim always had his head ducked over some game or phone when they were on Batman business. He insisted it was part of his cover as Disaffected Teen ™, but Steph was pretty sure that he just completely failed to find a kid’s science museum demonstration interesting. 

On Steph’s other side, another slightly-too-old-for-this kid sat with a chemistry textbook on his lap. He was pretending to be fully engrossed in the textbook - which looked like it was for high schoolers and not a twelve year old - but Steph could see him sneak peeks up over the textbook every few minutes. Steph had to agree with him: there was something magnetic about Bowtie. It wasn’t just the charisma or sense of humor, either. There was something about him that drew you in. Steph had to presume it was his negative charge. 

“Let me guess: science and magic can’t do the same things, right? Dr. Fate, Zatanna Zatara, all those heroes - us normal people can never do something that cool, right?” Tim snorted softly. Bowtie continued setting up his experiment, taking a deflated balloon and using a hand pump to inflate it.  “But Superman doesn’t fly with magic. Superman flies because of his biology! With some special biology, some amazing science - anybody could be a Superman. Because, as Arthur C. Clarke said, ‘sufficiently advanced science is indistinguishable from magic’.”

“What about the Flash?” A kid cried. The other kids murmured in agreement. The kid sitting next to Steph jerked his head up to look at Bowtie, eyes shining. “Flash’s magic!”

Bowtie took the balloon off the pump, tying it neatly. He arched an eyebrow at the kid. “Really? The Flash’s given a few interviews where he says differently. We got any Flash fans in the audience?” The entire audience broke into the loudest claps and cheers of the night. Bowtie’s grin widened. “Mr. Popular. Last time I checked, he gave an interview to CCN explaining his powers. Anybody know what he said?” 

“That his only superpower is speed!” The kid said instantly. “He doesn’t have intangibility powers, like everyone’s saying - he just vibrates his atoms so fast that they can pass through solid surfaces! He can’t control the wind, either - he creates tornadoes and whirlwinds by spinning the air with centrifugal force!”

“Looks like we have a Flash mega-fan in the audience.” Bowtie grinned again, and the embarrassed kid ducked his head back into his textbook, cheeks as red as his hair. “The Flash goes pretty fast. We don’t actually know how fast - he’s never found his upper limit. But that’s not his real weapon. Without his real weapon, he’s just some guy who runs fast. Does anybody know the Flash’s real weapon?”

“Science,” the kid whispered worshipfully. 

In tattered chorus, the assembly of children cried, “Science!”

Bowtie laughed. “You got it. Who knows - with enough knowledge of science, maybe any of us could be the Flash!” Tim and Steph glanced at each other and rolled their eyes. Leaning against the wall behind them, seemingly engrossed in a newspaper, Bruce was undoubtedly losing respect for this man by the second. “Who here wants to learn a superpower now? Anybody?” The crowd went wild, and the man gave a little bow. “If the people demand it! Now, I need a volunteer from the audience. Jake, how about you?”

With impressive efficiency, Bowtie managed to rub a balloon on the heads of several enthusiastic children. Tim glanced at Steph out of the corner of his eye, and she shrugged in agreement. A long time ago, when he first took this job, he probably rubbed the balloon on his head himself. These days, that was probably a bit more dangerous…

“Take a look at the chalkboard behind me. You see it? This is a diagram of an atom. We have another class on the atom, so stay tuned for that if you’re interested. Now, the little guys flying in circles around the bigger part is called electrons. When we rubbed the balloons against our hair, we just collected up a bunch of electrons. And these electrons have a negative charge. Remember that, it’s important!”

Bowtie turned on the faucet in his desk, letting thin stream of water flow from the faucet into the little sink built into the desk. “This balloon’s like a magnet now. It’s full of negative charges, so it’s looking for something with a positive charge. And this water has just what it’s looking for. So let’s look carefully…”

Bowtie held the balloon next to the stream of water. Sure enough, the water began to bend towards the balloon. The kid next to Steph was paying full attention now, the pretense of a textbook left abandoned on his lap. Bowtie pulled the balloon further and further away, sending the water spreading out from the sink in a flowing ribbon that stretched out halfway along the table. 

The children ooh’d and aah’d. The kid next to Steph looked excited too, but Steph noticed that he looked a little confused. On Steph’s other side, Tim clicked his tongue. 

“That water’s stretching real far for some balloon static electricity, huh,” Tim muttered quietly.

“Yeah,” the kid said, as if Tim was remotely speaking to him. “I did this at home forever ago. The water only moves a few inches.” 

“Look at that,” Tim told Steph. “The water only moves a few inches.”

“He’s so cool,” the kid whispered. 

“Look at that,” Steph told Tim. “Bowtie’s so cool.”

“Bowtie?” the kid hissed, affronted. “He has a doctorate.”

“Dr. Bowtie,” Steph allowed. 

All three of them sat patiently through Dr. Bowtie’s explanation of static electricity. And Steph thought she was good with the kids who come through Dr. Leslie’s clinic. Dr. Bowtie made her look like a chump. With a few strategic jokes, some physical comedy, audience engagement, and the inherent mysticism of the bowtie, the kids were captured. Even the patient adults standing around the back wall were engrossed. Although Steph was pretty sure that the moms in the back were more interested in Dr. Bowtie’s pretty face. He was alright. Cass was prettier. Tim told her to stop saying that Cass was prettier than women, men, and the Grand Canyon, but it was true. 

They all clapped politely when he finished. The kid had gone back to his textbook, making careful annotations in the margins. A group of kids attacked Dr. Bowtie with sheer enthusiasm, which was pretty expected, but Steph saw plenty of adults walk up to him and shake his hand too. It was obvious to an expert in body language: even the adults admired Dr. Bowtie highly. Everybody around him looked at him with respect and awe. You could hardly tell just by looking at him joking around and adjusting his bowtie, but the humbleness was part of the mystique. 

But Steph was cheating. She already knew all about this guy. Uncle Clark had asked her very politely to stop putting together extensive dossiers on their targets, but Bruce had looked at him as if he was crazy. Steph had to agree with him. As if they would ever approach dangerous people without a background check? Uncle Clark had also asked them to stop calling them targets, which was slightly more fair. Uncle Clark had an overdeveloped rigamarole of kindness. It was the Kansas. In Gotham, stabbing you was a handshake.

Once the crowd thinned out, leaving Dr. Bowtie to clean up his station in preparation for the next group, Bruce finally rolled up his newspaper. Steph and Tim glanced at each other, but Bruce made a small hand signal as he walked towards the front. They quickly stood up and ambled in his wake, chatting meaninglessly about what five star restaurant they’d check out after this. The Central City Michelin situation was dire, but apparently there was a legendary burger place. Ohio was a desolate land.

Bruce stood on the other side of the table, waiting until Dr. Bowtie crouched down behind his desk before removing his baseball cap and sunglasses. He tossed them over his shoulder and let Stephanie catch them, stuffing them in her purse. 

“That was an awesome show,” Bruce announced. “Never seen anything like it. How long have you been doing this, Dr. Allen?”

“Please, it’s just Barry.” Barry stood up, holding a glass flask in one hand. “And it’s been -”

For one microsecond, Barry looked shocked. His hand twitched open. And just as quickly, his hand twitched closed and his expression smoothed out. Nice. Somehow disappointing. Steph loved the ‘holy shit, it’s Bruce Wayne!’ heart attack. Can’t you tamp down on the superspeed and drop the flask anyway? For the entertainment value?

“Just a few years,” Barry said smoothly. He looked at Steph and Tim, loitering behind Bruce in different levels of disaffectedness. “The show’s not really designed for high schoolers, but I hope you two got something out of it anyway! We have a show for teenage audiences later today.”

“I learned so much about electrons,” the girl who spent the last eighteen months swallowing forensic textbooks said solemnly. The boy who spent his thirteenth rotation around the sun making bombs gave him a thumbs up. “Bruce was the one who made us stop by, though.”

“I had no idea electrons were so interesting,” the med school dropout said earnestly. To be fair, he was a dropout.  He shook Barry’s hand firmly, before passing over a business card. Barry took the card, and his face twitched slightly when he looked at it. Another missed opportunity for shock. Sad! “The name’s Bruce Wayne. Would you mind lending me a bit of your time? I already talked it over with Ms. Landis - and you have a free hour before your next show, right?”

Slowly, Barry said, “Yes, I do. I’m sorry, Mr. Wayne, can I ask what this is about? Ms. Landis didn’t…mention this…to me.”

“Mention what?” 

The red headed kid popped up at Barry’s elbow, blinking in confusion between the four of them. Barry’s eye twitched again. Steph didn’t blame him - mostly because Tim’s dossiers were very thorough. 

“That I have a business meeting after the show.” Barry patted Wally on the back. The two looked nothing like each other, but there was some indefinable similarity anyway. “Wally, why don’t you catch up with Linda in the Exxon exhibit? I think I have some stuff to talk to Mr. Wayne about.”

Wally had never looked so wounded. “You said that you’d eat with Linda an’ me at the cafe after the show” He turned his righteous attention onto Bruce, who looked politely attentive. “If you wanna talk with my uncle then you gotta make an appointment.”

Barry’s face twitched again. “Mr. Wayne, this is my nephew Wally West. Wally, this is Bruce Wayne.” Wally still looked unimpressed. Tim looked a little incredulous that somebody in this world didn’t know who Bruce Wayne was, but Steph didn’t know how to break it to him that normal middle schoolers weren’t hip on other city’s billionaires. “You know how Linda’s parents work at a Wayne Industries biotech lab?” Wally nodded, uncertain of where he was going with this. “That’s Wayne.”

“He’s rich?” Wally looked at Bruce with new, appraising eyes. “So that’s what rich people look like…”

Bruce grinned at him, sticking his hands in his pockets. Barry looked a little like he wanted to die. “Sorry for stealing your uncle, kiddo. But what’s that book you got there? Isn’t that for high schoolers?”

Wally brightened, pulling out the textbook from underneath his elbow. Steph couldn’t help but be a little surprised - it was advanced high school Chemistry, for juniors and seniors. “I’m on the pressure and volume chapter! Uncle Barry’s been helping tutor me. Did you know about Avogadro’s Law? It’s the rule that equal volumes of gasses at the same temperature and pressure have the same amount of particles!”

“Wow,” Steph said, impressed. “I didn’t know what an atom was when I was your age.”

Wally lowered the textbook, squinting at her dubiously. He pointed at the chalkboard, which still had a well-drawn image of an atom on it. “Even little kids know about atoms, dude.”

Steph crossed her arms, amused despite herself. “Inner city Gotham doesn’t really have guys like your Uncle Barry. We’re all scienceless orphans.” 

“You caught me,” Tim said, seemingly bored. 

“That’s actually what I’m here to talk to your uncle about,” Bruce said lightly. “The Wayne Foundation’s thinking about expanding into science education outreach. We’re focusing on inner city Gothamite kids like Stephanie here - oh, Barry, this is my ward Tim Drake and his girlfriend Stephanie Brown, say hi -”

“I could do with less science, frankly,” Tim said. 

“You’re just still pissy that Mr. Freeze robbed us so many times.”

“I just think Batman and Robin could have done a better job catching him.”

“They did a great job -”

“Before he stole five hundred thousand dollar’s worth of tech and research.”

“But we’re looking at donating funds to free children’s programming at museums across the nation,” Bruce said beatifically. “I’m thinking about investing into this program, and your boss said that you were the real shining star of the department! I’d like to speak to someone passionate about the program, and apparently there’s nobody more dedicated than you, so if you have some time to chat…?”

Even Wally understood what that meant. In their endless quest to harass other superheroes, Bruce had sneak attacked another unsuspecting middle class suburbanite. Barry’s boss had officially thrown him into the lion pit of businessmen and put him in charge of securing hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding. Bruce said that this was his way of seeing how they operated under pressure. 

And Steph could already see that Barry was the coolest head she would ever meet. Which - duh. He was a total cheater. Anybody could be chill if they had thirty internal minutes to chill out. Barry obviously took a few mental minutes to recover from the power of Bruce’s pocketbook, but he didn’t waste a physical second before looking down at his nephew. “Hey, Wally. Could you give Stephanie and Tim a tour of the museum while I talk with Mr. Wayne?”

“Of course I could,” Wally said, unimpressed. “I practically live here.” 

“Consider it practice for your future life as a docent,” Barry said importantly. He ruffled Wally’s hair again, making him grin. “Thanks, kid. I’ll be back in a flash.”

Wally groaned. “That’s so bad.”

“You’re funny,” Bruce said. Steph and Tim fought dual winces. If they were in costume then Bruce would be tearing the man a new one for ‘cuteness’. “Where’d you get your doctorate, Barry? I went to Harvard myself, but some things you just gotta get out of the way.”

“He has a doctorate in education from Brown,” Wally informed Bruce imperiously. Steph had never met a kid who was the expert in his uncle’s life, but judging by Barry’s embarrassed look he would have skipped over the Ivy League part of the equation. Which - what? “He’s got a bachelor’s in Chemistry and Physics from Ohio State and a master’s in Applied Physics from University of Chicago! Pretty cool, right?”

“Dude,” Tim said, “pick a field.”

Steph elbowed Tim, but Barry just looked a little embarrassed. “I was going to go into forensics. But…well…you know. Life happens.”

“The cops told him to ignore some evidence and he refused so they fired him -”

“Let’s say a little less, Wally.”

A failed cop. Counter-intuitively, Steph was surprised. Guess he hadn’t learned his lesson until later in life. Bruce (Gothamite) and Uncle Clark (Literally Uncle Clark) had known that path would be a fool’s errand from the start. 

“Physics to Education is a big jump,” Bruce said. He already knew the answer - they had copies of Barry’s personal statement in his Brown application - but a cornerstone of interrogation was asking the same question in different ways. Liars couldn’t keep their stories straight. “Why the change of heart again?”

Barry shrugged helplessly. “I wanted to help people. Don’t you, Mr. Wayne?”

Bruce didn’t say anything. 

Of course he didn’t. He didn’t understand at all. As he hadn’t understood Uncle Clark, as he hadn’t understood J’onn J'onzz, he didn’t understand Barry Allen at all. The two other people on Earth most like himself - present company excluded - and he was faced with a horrendous and complete lack of understanding.

How could he? Bruce had poured his life into creating justice and vengeance and fighting against cruelty. It was Bruce. He had fed his life into his mission, and it was just barely enough to succeed. He couldn’t afford to half-ass this. For a very long time, nothing else had existed in his world. 

Uncle Clark and J’onn J’onzz hadn’t needed a teenage girl to beat the power of hope into his brain. Uncle Clark was dedicated to Superman with his entire heart, but it wasn’t why he got up in the morning. J’onn was just a sentient person who couldn’t stand to see people suffer, and maybe his own altruism had saved his broken heart, but he was powered by empathy and kindness. 

Barry and Uncle Clark had weird definitions of helping people. To them, it was as simple as making people smile. Giving them a bit of hope in their day, or restoring optimism to a tired crowd. A lesson that sparked an interest in science, a newspaper article that opened up a reader’s mind to new perspectives - to them, that was enough. If they were ordinary people, it would have been enough. 

Bruce did not respect the complete lack of hustle. There was a reason why he only hung out with Alfred, Steph, Tim, Leslie, and Gordon - the only other real hustlers in the world. Bruce was an ordinary person, and gratuitous acts of million dollar philanthropy were nowhere near enough. Nothing was enough for him - not even Bruce. But he liked Uncle Clark and J’onn J’onzz and Barry Allen anyway, and Steph knew that was what he really didn’t understand.

“Paleontology, huh?” Tim asked Wally. He turned off his Gameboy and stashed it in his cargo pants pocket. “You got any T-Rexes?”

“Oh, man,” Wally said. “Do we ever.”

[bigskydreaming]

For that matter, I also kinda wish we saw more of like....characters during the time period Dick was believed dead, looking at Bruce’s behavior and feeling it was just plain WEIRD given how it differed from his behavior after Jason and Damian’s deaths. Did nobody really go....hey, something is fucked up here, that Bruce hardly seems phased that Dick’s dead, when he completely lost his shit the two previous times his sons died?

Tbh, most of my issues with the reactions of various characters to Dick’s return, like....a lot of it has to do with how they made themselves out to be the victims of HIS callous lies or whatever, with zero regard to what he’d suffered and what all of that had cost him, yes, true. 

But beyond that, a large gripe of mine is how none of their reactions led to any kind of....awareness about their own past histories with Dick and the double standards they held within their own personal dynamics with him.

The way Jason punched Dick and gave him shit for letting him believe he was dead, that Jason mourned him, grieved for him, that you just don’t do that to your brother, to another Robin....but nowhere in canon or fanon did this ever lead to Jason reflecting on his and Dick’s history together and from this and his experiences here, like....revising his impression of the time HE was believed dead and what Dick must have felt and gone through....when for several years, Jason was off training with the League while Dick still believed him dead, still mourned him, grieved for him, even though Jason could have at any point revealed to him that he was alive.

The way Tim judged Dick for doing what they all would have expected Bruce to do, but never Dick to do.....but nowhere in canon or fanon did this ever lead to Tim reflecting on their past conflicts and examining past expectations he’d held that had led to problems between them. Like the fact that Tim historically has a hard time accepting any loved ones’ deaths, especially in light of how often heroes come back from the dead, and all of that was a huge part of what he cited as his problem with Dick not believing him about Bruce being alive....and yet none of that behavior was on display in Tim’s own reaction to being told Dick was dead. 

There was no sign of Tim ever having doubts about Dick being dead, searching for alternative explanations, when the one he and the others were given had to be extremely flimsy at best, just to begin with. That there was no hint of Tim ever having considered going to extreme lengths to bring Dick back, like when he’d tried to clone Kon, or contemplated using the Lazarus Pit to revive his parents, or tirelessly searched around the globe for proof that Bruce was alive even when all he really had at first was a hunch and was looking for anything he could hold up as evidence he was right, when pretty much no one believed him.

The way Barbara said Dick Grayson managed to disappoint her yet again.....but nowhere in canon or fanon did this ever lead to Barbara asking herself or explaining to anyone else just what the hell has Dick ever done to her that counts as such a massive disappointment that her first reaction to seeing one of her oldest friends alive and back from the dead is disappointment, rather than celebration? And that similarly, nowhere in canon or fanon did this ever get examined in reverse, to ask if Barbara has ever been the one disappointing Dick instead - did he maybe hope for her to take his side when Bruce fired him, instead of Barbara continuing to work alongside Batman and offer no actual objection to Bruce giving away a name and title she knew didn’t belong to him, to give out to someone else? 

In fanon mergings of timelines, did he maybe resent her for sending him away when Firefly burned down his circus, or other times he tried turning to her but got rebuffed? Again, nothing about Barbara’s reaction, just like Jason and Tim’s, ever led to an honest examination of their dynamic or deepening of it by acknowledging that things are a two way street - instead it was just accepted, noted and moved past, all at face value: Dick’s return after being believed dead was obviously just evidence of him having disappointed her yet again - without even mention of what those previous disappointments on this level were supposed to have been.

Like, I’m just saying....post-Spyral is hardly the only time I think the characters have been too quick to view their dynamics with Dick as a one way street, and them somehow always the ones who are being subjected to his actions, and never the other way around.....but it is one of the most evident examples of it, IMO, and how rarely its picked up on...let alone capitalized on as an opportunity to explore the reverse for a change.

[dcarevu]

Batman TAS: Vendetta

“Alfred! You’re beautiful!”

Episode: 23 Robin: No Writer: Michael Reaves Director: Frank Paur Animator: Spectrum Airdate: October 5, 1992 Grade: B

I love it when in Batman media, we get to see Batman solving mysteries. Particularly when it’s a little bit more involved than Batman simply putting something into his computer and having it shit out an automatic answer for him. I like to see him investigating a crime-scene, interrogating thugs, and exploring new areas. That is exactly what we got to see in the episode Vendetta, as Batman tries to figure out who is seemingly axing off different convicts that share some dark connections with Harvey Bullock. Because of these connections, along with some framing and some false evidence, Batman suspects that Harvey himself could be the one causing trouble, a concept that I feel was begging to be done. Bullock often suspects Batman as not only being untrustworthy, but sometimes even having a hand in specific crimes (see On Leather Wings). Here it is a reverse situation. Harvey didn’t do anything wrong (as Commissioner Gordon insisted to Batman, letting him know that Bullock is a good cop), so Batman, instead of immediately blaming him and going after him, takes his time, trying to make sure that he has the mystery solved. This highlights one of Bullock’s flaws, and that is his pride (which we have mentioned before). Once he suspects something, he has too much pride to consider other possibilities. And sometimes, these suspicions of his can get him into a lot of trouble like in the episode P.O.V. Batman, on the other hand, is much more unbiased when he is at work. And even though he heavily suspected Bullock, in the end, he was willing to admit that he was mistaken to Bullock’s face. Bullock, obviously foreign to this respectable behavior, seemed confused, but perhaps it was enough to maybe teach him a thing or two. Batman’s little speech at the end was really nice too, and it shows that even though he feels similar about Bullock to how Commissioner Gordon feels, that he’s stubborn and hard to work with, he still respects him on some level. He knows that Bullock wants what is best for the city, and that he believes in keeping crime down while keeping innocent people safe. They both have questionable ways of working with the law too. Bullock can be slimy, sneaky, and willing to break some of the rules. So can Batman. But one major difference is that Bullock is an official employee, while Batman isn’t. Yet another thing that he is incredibly proud of. He also seemed to assume that Batman wouldn’t ever bother helping out someone like him, as if they were enemies. He didn’t seem to understand that Batman wants the same basic things that he does. The two could probably work pretty well together if they tried. And I’m not going to pretend that Batman can’t be just as stubborn as Bullock. He’s the protagonist, so we may not notice it as much (we get more insight on him), but we are sure to notice a lot of Bullock-like qualities that he possesses as we move much further into the DCAU, when he meets up with some future protagonists. Batman can be a dick, guys. But that’s a discussion for another day. I’ll just leave it with saying that I think as Batman gets more jaded and as things around him start changing, he gets much more disgruntled.

“Why’d you stick your neck out like that to help me?”

“We may have different ways of enforcing the law, but we both believe in it.”

Speaking of disgruntled, Killer Croc makes his first appearance here, and it is pretty satisfactory. When I first saw this episode (my dad watched it with me, by the way, alleviating the pain of him only seeing I’ve Got Batman in My Basement and The Forgotten prior), I already knew who Croc was, and had already seen an episode with him, so the buildup was not nearly as strong. For Char, I think it was more elevated, as I don’t think she was expecting him. She was familiar with his Suicide Squad design, though, so it was hard for her not to compare it with this more ugly one. Yeah, I don’t know about Croc’s design. I’m pretty used to it, so it doesn’t bother me, but I have heard others say that they’re not really a fan. He only kinda looks crocodile-like, and I think that is because of the more subdued, realistic approach that this show was initially going for. I tend to prefer the hulking mass that we get to see in Arkham Asylum, which is significantly scarier. In this episode, we see the fear in the convicts’ eyes as they witness the strange-looking, reptilian man, and I think that it ends up being a little anticlimactic, especially since he doesn’t kill them or anything (on top of looking the way he does). Taking all that into consideration, the episode would have gotten an A most likely if the issue was fixed. Buuuut, I do like Croc as a villain, despite this. He has an interesting enough backstory, he creates a challenge for Batman, he has a cool habitat, and his personality is fine. He’s definitely not a sympathetic villain like Freeze or Two-Face, but Harvey Bullock was the one with the focus this time. It makes sense that Killer Croc would serve more as that scary, mysterious threat which lurks around in the water, stalking and capturing him. Too much insight can take away from the intimidation. Also, not every villain in real life has all that much depth to them. As long as the episode is still entertaining and has other qualities to take the place of the intense feels (and this episode does indeed), then it’s perfectly reasonable that not every villain in Gotham would either. Sometimes you just need an evil guy, with an evil plan, and a cool gimmick.

Oh, Spectrum is back with the animation. This is weird because, again, I thought they went under after Heart of Ice which was a handful of episodes back now. Also, this episode isn’t quite up to snuff with a lot of the things that they’ve done. I noticed some recycled animation, some weird models, and overall a cheaper-feeling quality. But it’s not Akom-level stuff either, it’s closer to Dong Yang, which is 100% fine by me. I’m trying not to be spoiled. This is a 90’s television show, aimed at kids, which had an accompanying toy line. How much can I really expect? So while not very recognizable as Spectrum, it is still beyond passable, and the directing/storyboarding was a highlight (take a look at some of the below screenshots).

Do these look like Spectrum drawings to you?

This one is a little more like it. 

I like the bit where Commissioner Gordon dumps out his nasty coffee. Another little bit of character.

Croc’s hand reaching out of the water. “Hayyyy, guys! Can I get a lift?”

This still doesn’t do the intensity of this guy’s fear any justice. His sudden gasp was one of pure panic.

These types of blue colors are incredibly common in Batman TAS. The team couldn’t always use the variety in colors that they wanted. They were pushing the budget as it was.

This section confused me a little bit. We see Bullock toss a toothpick to the ground. But later, the toothpick is treated as though Croc planted it to frame him. It must have been a different toothpick, right? This is not communicated very clearly. And I don’t know, how would Croc have known that Bullock would have a toothpick on him? How would he know that others would notice? And how well known for carrying a toothpick around is Bullock, exactly?

A great shot. 

The planted toothpick. Or maybe it’s actually the one Bullock dropped. I’m not entirely sure. 

We see lightning flash, engulfing Bullock in light. It looks awesome in motion because we don’t linger on it. Although one thing that bugs me about cartoons is that we always hear the thunder boom at the exact time that the lightning strikes, which is generally not what we experience.

Look at those reflections. Another cool use of lightning. We need a Top 10 Lightning Strikes post eventually I think. Hmm...

There was nothing like this on TV at the time.

Just an s short of being a Psycho reference.

This might be the first time that we see how the entrance to the Batcave works? Oddly, we hear the clock ticking in this scene. I wonder if the hands move. And if they do, there has to be some function to prevent the door from opening  when it reaches 12 normally. I’ll bet that Alfred is the one who has to fix the time.

I love how the camera slowly pans as we see them coming down the stairs, with the computer system in view. I’d love to hang out in the Batcave. 

Another scary Croc entrance. Fitting that this episode aired in October.

“Ah, turnips.”

Awesome shadow work. For no other reason than that it looks awesome and makes Batman look hella intimidating. This is why people fear him.

Batman smacks the plant out of his hands. Get the gross vegetables out of his face!

“I’ve got plenty of answers. .38 caliber answers.”

“You’d better hope your men are very good shots.” I’m sure you guys can come up with many alternative captions for this screenshot.

Batman’s nose is a little crazy here. He’d look more like a bird if the ears were missing. 

This scene made me chuckle. A false Harvey Dent walks in, dropping wet. Like, yup, that’s him alright. Nothing nefarious going on at all.

Gotta feel a little bad for him, even if you don’t like him.

“Alfred! You’re beautiful!” Best moment.

See, I mean, he looks okay. Just not the best Croc design out there.

Hmmm.. Recycled segment.

Now these are some Spectrum shots!

A really cool Batman entrance. 

Char’s grade: B

Next time: Fear of Victory Full episode list here!

[bigskydreaming]

Is there anything dumber than a reverse-age AU? No, seriously, Dick is the paragon because he was the first Robin and antedated Speedy, Aqualad and Aquagirl, and Kid Flash. And you can go down the list. Tim has to follow Jason because Jason would be different without the death trauma: Tim himself had a bit of a complex about not "deserving" the mantle Dick created and Jason sanctified. Then we get to Damian, who is young enough to be Dick's son.

Like, I’m not trying to shit on people who just like reverse age AUs for the fluffy aspects a lot of them tend to have, to be fair. Some people are just looking for fluff, and I get that. Those AUs don’t appeal to me for many reasons I’ve already gotten into in depth, but on a surface level I mean, its not really a big deal to switch things up sometimes for the hell of it. But in any kind of in-depth examination of that premise, I feel there’s a whole lot of missed opportunity left to explore in that....with that being I guess the thing that nags at me most? 

I mean....I would be genuinely interested in reading a reverse age AU that actually acted as kind of a....”It’s A Wonderful Life” examination of what happens if Dick isn’t the first Batkid, but the youngest. I think it can still be plausible for Tim, Jason, Cass and Dick to all end up adopted even if Damian is the oldest.....but the one thing I’ve never seen any reverse age AU examine is the part I’d reeeeeeaally be interested in, like you alluded to with the other original sidekicks....

And that’s the element that’s really missing from reverse age AUs for me, personally.....acknowledgment of Dick’s impact not just on his family’s formation....but the DC universe as a whole. Dick wasn’t just the first Robin. He was the first child hero, period. He was what started the whole movement, not just within his own family, but outside of it as well. Without his example, would Donna and Garth have left their homes to become heroes for the surface world/Man’s world? Would Wally have even tried replicating Barry’s experiment, thinking that it was even possible for a kid like him to be a hero? If Bruce’s first child and protégé was his biological son, would Oliver have thought to take Roy in as his ward instead of just making sure he ended up with a good home?

Look, I love Damian. But Damian is not Dick, and it doesn’t really track that their positions could be switched and wind up with nothing else being all that majorly different......I guess the thing about reverse age AUs that makes them really just not my cup of tea is like....to me, it seems like they should result in HUGE ripple effects and alteration to the Batfamily and the DC Earth as a whole....and those ripple effects imo ARE the story, ARE the things really begging to be explored by that premise to me.....but its not really what I think most readers and writers of those stories are looking for, hence the disconnect for me. 

Like....as I said, I do like Damian, but for who he is. And who he is, is just....not the bright, shining example who captures the imagination and inspires other people the way Dick inspires people. And that’s okay! Because its not a knock against anyone else to not be that, its just who they are.....and who they are isn’t Dick Grayson. Everything about Dick Grayson specifically, is what led to the trend of child heroes both on a meta level and an in universe level. Nothing about that is accidental.....those only appeared in more and more comics because Dick Grayson, the original Robin, captured the imagination of readers and appealed to them and made them want to see MORE child heroes.....just like the sight of a young child in bright colors and cracking puns even as he kept pace with one of the most dark and infamous heroes of the DC Earth captured the imagination of other young people like Dick and with talents and powers of their own and made them sit up and say hey, maybe that could be me too....if someone my age can be BATMAN’S partner, why couldn’t I be Wonder Woman’s/Green Arrow’s/Aquaman’s/The Flash’s? 

And I just don’t really see Damian having that effect on peers, you know? Because Damian is like his father in temperament and preferences, whereas Dick was deliberately a contrast by his own choices. Damian wanted to BE like Bruce growing up hearing his father’s legend....and then he wanted to be more like Dick, when he realized Dick’s own strengths and attributes, IMO.....but as the first child, without Dick’s example? Damian would be more inclined to be a mini-Batman, calling himself something like Batboy and molding himself in his father’s image......which means keeping to the shadows. Being more myth than in-your-face-indisputable-fact like Dick was as Robin. And Bruce would have been more inclined to see this as a good thing, and keep Damian as much beside him in the shadows as possible, unlike Dick who just wasn’t suited to that and wasn’t interested in trying to be that. 

So I think that a huge potential ripple is right there from the start....like maybe there would be other Batkids and protégés for Bruce after Damian, but would there be other teen heroes? Would there at least maybe have been a delayed start to the other teen heroes, not inspired by Damian directly but more just parallel evolutions who took a little more time to find the inspiration and opportunities to impress themselves upon their mentors? Would even Gothamites know for sure that Batman even had a partner, or partners plural, or would they be more rumor than symbol, like Dick was as Robin, and the other Robins were inspired to be when following HIS example, rather than BRUCE’S example?

That’s what I would really love to see from the reverse age AU premise, personally. And why the ones that exist just don’t really draw me in - they all seem to by premise alone just kinda devalue Dick’s effect on his surroundings as well as just his character as a whole.....there’s the impression that it doesn’t really matter if Dick came first, that anyone could have had the same effects and results that he did, when like.....that’s just not true, IMO. And it is kinda an inherent knock against his character because it sort of runs with the idea that Dick’s no big deal, that his precedent is no big deal, that he wasn’t necessary, for the DC Earth to be the one we all are drawn to today, and that’s just....I don’t see it. 

I mean, so much of that is what draws me to his character, personally....the fact that he IS so much bigger than just himself, that his actions and choices have such far-reaching implications. Dick Grayson IS the ripple effects that he’s caused from day one of his creation.....and ignoring that, acting like that’s no big deal and like it could just as easily have been any other character when to my mind it wouldn’t have been any other character because no other character has made the choices he has, specifically, for the reasons he has, specifically.....like, I think that has a lot to do with a lot of the almost implicit or absent-minded....not even contempt, but just....non-interest in his character, that many fans of other Robins have. 

Like, what if Dick wasn’t the first - that’s the basic premise of these particular AUs. But the conclusion almost all of them result in is....nothing else would really be all that different. And that’s just not that far away from saying that Dick’s character is largely irrelevant and inconsequential....when to my mind, obviously, nothing is further than the truth. Yeah, what if Dick wasn’t the first? Honestly, truly asked and examined.....what would be different? Not just about his family but the whole DC Earth?

Because I think the differences would be enormous. 

LOL, this is the 80th anniversary of this character’s creation. A character who has consistently been one of the highest profile, most visible characters in the entire DC universe for pretty much all of those 80 years, in one way or another. Who has only spent part of one issue dead, in all of that time. And in none of that time retired, or absent, or not in some way still at the center of the cape community.

How do you pretend that a character with that much history, that much presence.....has no real distinct impact on everything he’s connected to? That he could be plucked out of that tapestry and easily and seamlessly switched with a character who is noted for being the night to his day, just as Dick originally was the day to Bruce’s night? It just doesn’t make sense, IMO.