#the world feels cruel and Bruce is a character who NEEDS hope to continue

[the-stove-is-divorced]

Does your version of Bruce self-harm? How and why, if yes. Why not and what are his other coping mechanisms, if no.

Interesting question!! Oh, for sure! I think Bruce can be an incredibly self-destructive character at times, personally. Not self inflicted wounds, but I do think he would cause general injury through neglect. Like neglecting fresh wounds, patrolling obsessively every single night, not taking care of older wounds, and actively refusing much needed pain meds.

I think, otherwise, if he’s feeling particularly guilty and full of self loathing, he’d neglect company work, never stop for a break and, again, be working nonstop on patrols. Neglect taking any pain meds for injuries or headaches no matter how bad it feels. The cowl is practically glued on. Bruce "Brucie" Wayne stops appearing in public eye. He lives in the Bat Cave. He’ll work himself to the bone and consider any discomfort as somehow deserving. Communication grinds to a halt. Starts to isolate. Pushes people away if they prod or show concern. But I also think having someone to keep himself together for, something he has to take care of (other than Gotham as a whole), some person he has coherent and active for, sorta helps but it's a band aid on the larger issue.

TYSM for the ask!!

[stxleslyds]

It’s very interesting to see your thoughts on Winnik cause personally while I like that he made jason a bit unhinged and fun in utrh his other characterizations of his were eh at best. Like why would jason not care about the world and why would he take over the drug trade of all things considering his history. I feel like Winnick had a very surface level understanding of Jason. There was a lot of his past to explore but it wasn’t explored that deeply. Plus I absolutely HATED his Bruce and talia characterization. And how he wrote Talia in both utrh and lost days was absolutely disgusting and his explanation for why he did it was that Jason loves Talia and that they were both messed up ppl??? Which is where I can’t forgive him. I feel like he was a one hit wonder because ever since utrh his Jason story started to go downhill. I also feel like it’s because DC doesn’t know how to write a character that’s from a poor background and that’s a huge disservice to Jason. I do hope that Rosenberg or another writer (hopefully female) does a good job on him. He’s been suffering under shitty writing for so long. Sorry for the long ask I really enjoy reading your posts.

Hi Anon, thank you for sending your ask!

Well, this is a great question because I love giving my opinions on Winick’s UtRH and Lost Days. I know those books (or some moments in them) are not everyone’s cup of tea and I had and have some problems with some of them but I have also come to understand them or even accept them as a writer bringing up a morally grey area in his books and doing it well (or at least I saw it that way after re-reading and researching a bit about his thoughts on those matters).

This is going to be a long post (I suppose) because there is a lot to cover and I want to let you know in a clear way why I think that what Winick wrote works beautifully for Jason. I will try to answer this as coherently as I can, so I will talk about the points you made in your ask separately so I make sure I don’t forget anything.

Let’s begin!

“Why would Jason not care about the world?”

I assume with that you meant about what happened in Bludhaven when Chemo was dropped there by the Society? That is valid but that really wasn’t Winick’s fault (I believe), that whole thing was shown in the book because back then the Bat-related books were more interconnected and that was what was happening in Dick’s Nightwing run at the time, which I think was used to explain why Dick suddenly stopped helping Bruce in Gotham.

And then I think Jason and Bruce watching that happen when they were having that conversation on that roof was very well planned out. I think Winick used that opportunity for Jason to be his peak level of little shit and make Bruce feel bad about not arriving in time to save another one of his kids. Even though Jason later revealed that he never blamed Batman for not arriving in time to save him, I believe Jason said that about Dick to make Bruce hurt more. Jason was trying to make Bruce stay in Gotham so either Bruce or him killed the Joker that night. Winick on the other hand had to finish his story, him branching out and having Batman go to Bludhaven would have benefited absolutely no one either, and it just didn’t fit the story that was being told in Under the Red Hood.

That’s why I think that Jason reacted that way to the Bludhaven and Chemo situation. If by caring about the world you meant something else let me know! (He obviously cared about Gotham in UtRH and other people in Lost Days).

“Why would he take over the drug trade of all things considering his history?”

Well, I have to be honest with you Jason wanting to control the drug trade in Gotham makes absolute sense to me, and even more when I think about Jason’s past history.

Jason and Bruce have always been (to me) clear opposites in various angles, and in UtRH, Winick talks about that a little bit too.

Batman was created to eradicate crime from Gotham after Bruce witnessed the death of his parents, that was the tragedy that set him off, and even though it was tragic and awful he had everything outside of his parents, he had a home, a support system, people that cared and gave him love, and money. He never had to be in contact with the cruel reality that was Gotham. We know through various stories that Gotham is deeply rotten and corrupted.

But Jason did know how corrupted, rotten and devoid of hope his city really was, he lived in the streets and in an abandoned apartment alone because he didn’t trust the police or social workers (he didn’t believe the system was helpful). He had seen his mother die at the hands of drugs after his father was sent to jail due to his criminal behaviour. Probably his father was a drug dealer and was the person that got his mother into drugs, (I believe that was later made canon, I might be wrong). But why did he do that? Maybe because he came from a poor and complicated background and nobody wanted to employ him so the real bad people of Gotham, like Black Mask, Cobblepot and many others, saw his vulnerability and his desperation to make money and they gave him a job as a drug dealer.

Considering that Jason was made out to have very deep problems with people selling drugs in schools and all that, I can estimate that maybe one of the big Drug Lords at the time employed Jason’s father when he was barely a teenager, that way he earned money, he stopped going to school and sold drugs to his peers so the bad people could control more people while they were vulnerable.

If all of that is true then Jason wanting to control the drug trade in Gotham, by becoming a Drug Lord himself, makes perfect sense to me. I mean let’s talk about this, what were his other options?

Kill every drug lord?

What if that set off a gang war in Gotham over who got to be the next big Drug Lord? I mean, it would be like real life, if someone dies in that sort of position there would always be someone else to take their place. Drugs are clearly (in Gotham) a great way to get money and power.

Also, if he killed all the drug lords then what happened to the people that were working for them, how could Jason help them get another job?

Explode every warehouse and facility with drugs in them?

And then what? Wait for Black Mask and the others to buy more and put a target on his back? Maybe kill some innocents so they can send a message to Red Hood that if he keeps destroying their drugs or whatever people will pay for it?

Maybe all the drug lords would come together and kill the Red Hood themselves, what could one man do against everyone else? Black Mask and the others had vulnerable people on a payroll, if they stopped working or went against what their boss said they would have been killed and then families would still be vulnerable and desperate to survive in Gotham.

Come forward as Jason Todd, the not so dead son of Bruce Wayne, and start a campaign against drugs?

Jason would have ended up dead in seconds, everywhere you look there are corrupt people. What could have been the point of that? What could have Jason be able to give families like his so they could stop living under the control of drugs and Drug Lords?

-

Jason being a Drug Lord himself was the best option because Jason KNOWS the reality of Gotham and Gotham’s people. His way of dealing with drugs could control the drug trade in the first 10 years and then eradicate it after that time. His plan was genius!

Jason knew that for people not to suffer as his family did, he had to take the slow and hard path of becoming the thing that he hated the most. He needed to attack the monster from within. So, when he made his first move he controlled the street-level dealers, he told them “I will protect you from both Black Mask and Batman if you stop dealing drugs to kids and in schoolyards if you do that, you are dead”, it is genius! By being clear about not wanting to have kids and high schoolers involved with drugs he set out a new path where those people weren’t forced into drugs and driven away from school. And that’s the way Winick made us see Jason’s not so new morals, he protects Gotham’s kids and he will kill you without hesitation if you endanger them.

From that he built, Winick made it clear, at first Jason would convince the people working for other Drug Lords to work for him if they followed his rules (and he offered them protection!). If Jason worked on the drug trade, he could have controlled who was inserted in the drug life or could have made it exclusive to the rich or club exclusive. In his intention of taking over the drug trade, he could have moved drugs away from Gotham’s most vulnerable.

And if he employed those vulnerable people, he would have made them work for him on other levels, that way those vulnerable people still had jobs and were protected from people like Black Mask. And in due time, fewer young and poor people would be involved with drugs or the drug trade.

Red Hood employs poor people and makes them not sell to other poor people or kids, he pays his employees good money so their families make a better life for themselves and their kids go to school, they are all protected by the Red Hood and his team (Jason could have trained others and make a team or gang that focused entirely on security), those people then get to retire with their families far away from drugs and maybe Gotham too.

I mean, Winick never did those things but I think that was the way he was thinking about it, he really set a golden path for future writers, his story had to finish Jason’s dilemma with Bruce and Joker but then his life as the Red Hood continued. And it could have been good if other writers used the characterization that Winick had given Jason: protector of children, killer of rapists and everyone that endangered women, children and teenagers. All of that was thrown away for a mythical fight with Ra’s al Ghul for people that were as trashy as Ra’s.

“I feel like Winick had a very surface-level understanding of Jason”.

I have to disagree. I think he understood Jason’s character before his death well and then built a grown-up version of him with those morals more developed after he suffered more and then saw how the world and Batman’s ways hadn’t changed after his murder.

We are talking about post-crisis Jason here; he was sweet and he loved being Robin but he also saw the world differently from Bruce and Batman. He lived a very different life than the one that Bruce lived when he was a kid. Jason even said that he “could fend for himself just fine” and that he had “graduated from the streets of crime alley”.

To me Winick understood this completely, he knew that Jason had had close contact with how drugs could affect people and what a criminal record could lead you to, but he also understood that Jason was a survivor of "crime alley" and all its worst people. He probably knew of things that people were doing of he saw them happening. He knew how to protect himself from those things but understood that not everyone could do it. And when Batman took him to Ma Gunn’s school Jason learned that Batman was ignorant of how awful and manipulative Gotham’s people could be. Ma Gunn wasn’t running an orphanage or cool school; she was teaching children how to steal and harm others. He hated it, he was “okay” when he was alone and now, he was locked in with older kids that beat him and Ma Gunn who was exploiting children’s vulnerability.

I assume Winick took that and maybe decided that was the moment when Jason knew that even if Batman was trying to do good, he still didn’t see Gotham (or that side of Gotham) for what it truly was.

When Jason became Robin and worked along with Batman, we could already see that Jason thought very differently about what should be done with rapists, and abusers of all kinds, Jason saw the world differently when he was a kid and a teenager and then after his death, Winick used that to build a Jason Todd that as a young adult still saw Gotham for what it truly was.

“There was a lot of his past to explore but it wasn’t explored that deeply”.

I am really confused by this (and I am very dumb), did you mean that his past before his death wasn’t explored? Because that was not the point of this book, the information was already there with Jason’s previous appearances in comics, and even then, Winick explored through flashbacks in UtRH how he saw Jason and what it was that Jason thought about crime.

If you didn’t mean that and you meant his past before the events of UtRH but after his death then, well, I would say that Winick couldn’t have fit that in UtRH but he did write a story about that time in 2010 when he wrote Red Hood: Lost Days.

“I absolutely hated his Bruce and Talia characterization”

I will only talk about the Bruce part here because you mentioned Talia later in your ask.

To me his Bruce was perfect. I really think that his characterization of him was spot on, but maybe I am biased because I don’t like Bruce at all? I suppose that you are talking about Bruce’s characterization in those last moments in "crime alley" with Jason and Joker? And how he decided that making Jason drop the weapon by throwing a batarang to his throat and saving Joker was a better option than Jason killing the Joker?

If it is that then I would love to see what you think Bruce would have done at that moment because I didn’t really see Bruce using a gun (in any way) as an in-character thing for him, and even though DC has always danced with the idea of Bruce actually killing somebody I know that they wouldn’t have him do it, and even less when it comes to killing the Joker.

I mean, Bruce brought back Joker from the dead when Dick finally killed that piece of shit so, yeah, I don’t know.

I feel like Winick was trying to show just how loyal and squared Bruce is when it comes to his own no killing rule. Jason wasn’t asking for Bruce to go on a killing spree he just wanted Bruce to kill the Joker and he didn’t. Winick even had Bruce say that about him not wanting to kill one person because he felt that if he did that, he wouldn’t be able to stop and I think that’s pretty true. Maybe it is a bit too much but I don’t think it’s a lie.

“How he wrote Talia in both UtRH and Lost Days was absolutely disgusting”

That is absolutely valid, listen, if you didn’t like how he wrote her at all I really can’t say anything against that. My first real and solid contact with Talia’s character was in that book, so when I read UtRH I really liked how he wrote Talia in that, it seemed to have that aspect of Talia’s love for Bruce being so strong that when she saw Jason was alive, she wanted to help him so Bruce could see how much he loved her. It is messed up but I believed it fitted her character, she had good intentions but her reasoning was a little bit wonky.

With Lost Days, I thought that her character was well written, she isn’t a hero and she isn’t a villain, she is just a player in the game that is the League of Assassins and that world. That obviously changed up until we had that scene happen between her and Jason, I was grossed out and I didn’t understand why that had happened which leads me to what you said next in your ask.

“His explanation for why he did it was that Jason loves Talia and that they were both messed up people”.

This is a part of the interview where Judd Winick answered a question about Jason and Talia sleeping together. The interview was done by Sara Lima in ComicVine’s podcast.

“SL: Why did you decide to write the romantic scene between Jason and Talia in Lost Days?

JW: For those playing at home, Jason Todd, at the end of Red Hood: Lost Days, and Talia slept together. I did that because it was really disturbing and to shine a light on the fact that these are not really well people. A lot of people didn’t like that, which was correct. “You weren’t supposed to like that. That was supposed to be, ‘oh God, stop that, what are you doing?’ It really was. As well as, for Talia, her reasons, being that Bruce had wound up inadvertently killing her father and she was ragingly angry with him and went from love to pure hate and still loving him at the same time. And Jason, given the opportunity to have sex with just about the only woman who Bruce has had sex with or really cares about, ‘Yeah, I’ll go there.’

SL: He’s like, ‘yeah, cause I hate that guy.’

JW: Yeah! ‘I hate that guy!’ And I think that Jason probably had the hots for Talia. She’s hot, he doesn’t exactly have a lot of relationships going on – It’s not a good thing for either of them. These are two people who murder people, two people who are screwed up, screwed up emotionally. There’s this question that why would he do that and Talia only loves Bruce. She might only love Bruce, but she does have sex with other people because that’s just sex. And we’re all grown-ups here. I think those who shake their fist and get angry at this kind of thing might be some of our older readers. I’m an older reader, but I acknowledge the fact that people aren’t that chaste and grow up: people have sex. That’s why I ended it like that; It was messed up.

Maybe it was in another interview or something but this is the only time that I have seen Winick talk about that and I don’t think he mentioned Jason loving Talia but he did say said that “These are two people who murder people, two people who are screwed up, screwed up emotionally”.

When I looked it up, I found that someone that is described as screwed up is a person that is “emotionally disturbed”. That description is one that I feel is valid for both Jason and Talia at the time, they both had a lot going on and were fighting some demons so maybe it’s not a nice thing to say but I can’t say that the statement isn’t true. Or at least that’s how I see it.

When I came across that interview for the first time, I wasn’t expecting Winick to apologise for writing that interaction but I did want an explanation so after he said, “A lot of people didn’t like that, which was correct. “You weren’t supposed to like that. That was supposed to be, ‘oh God, stop that, what are you doing?’ It really was” and “for Talia, her reasons, being that Bruce had wound up inadvertently killing her father and she was ragingly angry with him and went from love to pure hate and still loving him at the same time. And Jason, given the opportunity to have sex with just about the only woman who Bruce has had sex with or really cares about, ‘Yeah, I’ll go there.’”

I felt like that was enough, granted I didn’t like it and I still don’t like it but I don’t see it as Winick writing something disturbing with evil intentions, I just see it as him writing these two morally grey people doing some very morally grey stuff.

This is not me saying that this is how things have to be taken, I know and understand many people who absolutely don’t like this at all and that’s valid. I am not here to change your mind about that, personally when I read the why he wrote that I felt like that explanation was enough but that is just me.

“I feel like he was a one-hit-wonder because ever since UtRH his Jason story started to go downhill”

I think Winick was only meant to write Jason’s comeback to comics, around the time he was writing Outsiders and Green Arrow. And there was also the “Infinite Crisis” (Winick wasn’t involved with that one) event going on in the middle that explained some stuff like how Jason was resurrected which was explored in Batman Annual #25 in 2006 (like a year after the UtRH book had come out and it was also written by Winick). Then with the popularity of the UtRH book the animated movie was made (written by Judd Winick) and because that was coming out DC allowed Winick to write the six-issue mini of Red Hood: The Lost Days in 2010.

The UtRH story didn’t go downhill, DC simply couldn’t handle that level of mature storytelling at the time, just after that event ended DC was already planning on changing stuff and then the New 52 came years later.

Winick’s Jason even made an appearance in Outsiders #44-46, there Red Hood wanted to help the Outsiders break out a good man (Black Lightning) out of prison because he hadn’t killed anyone (it had actually been Slade). Jason/Red Hood’s characterization and story going downhill wasn't on Winick, it was on DC and their lack of interest in making their characters complex and dual.

“DC doesn’t know how to write a character that’s from a poor background and that’s a huge disservice to Jason”

Absolutely. But in my case, I do think that Winick did work with Jason’s background very well. To me, he set a path and no one could follow it but I might also be horribly wrong.

-

I also hope that Rosenberg does an amazing job! I absolutely love his work, as I have said before he is super funny and isn’t scared of writing characters who kill. I feel like he will bring back the sarcastic little shit that Jason once was but he will also bring back that sense of seriousness and dedication that Jason has for the work that he is doing. Rosenberg even showed us some of that in that prelude to Task Force Z in Detective Comics, I absolutely recommend them if you haven’t read them, issues #1041 and #1042 were the ones with that backup story.

I can see that we have very different opinions but that’s just a part of the comic world, we all perceive these comics differently and that’s valid! I am glad you enjoy reading my posts and I hope that even though we have those different opinions you were still able to enjoy my answer! If you think that I misunderstood anything that you say please let me know, sometimes my brain just doesn’t click.

Hope you have a fantastic week!

[themaribatpit]

Jasonette July Day 14: Loss

Written by: The Maribat Pit  @jasonette-july-event Prompt: Loss Rated: T (Presumed Major Character Death) Based on the trailer for the upcoming Gotham Knights game: https://youtu.be/IhVf_3TeTQE (TW: flashing images towards the end of the trailer)

Jason is walking home on a rainy night in Gotham after a long day working with Roy.  He was hoping to quickly get back home to his girlfriend and relax for a few days. He felt his phone vibrate, he took it out from his pocket to see it was a call from Batman. The words “Incoming Transmission: Code Black” were written boldly across his screen. Jason had a bad feeling about this. He walked into a nearby alley and looked around to see if he was truly alone before taking this urgent call.

He was unsure whether to pick up the call or not, his relationship with Bruce had been strained ever since he was killed by the Joker and came back as the Red Hood. Even if they had reconciled, they still argued and disagreed with one another.  This was probably him asking if he was willing to go undercover again like he had done with Black Mask.  He continued to stare at the phone, thinking of all the possible reasons that Bruce may have wanted to call him. “What is Code Black?” He thought to himself as he answered the call.

His phone sparks to life with the image of Bruce, Jason immediately knew something was wrong. Bruce never showed his face in any Bat related communication. “If you’re watching this, I’m dead.” Jason could not believe what he was seeing, he barely registers the rest of the message. Thinking back to how he first met Batman, trying to steal the wheels off the Batmobile. To him, Batman was invincible, invisible and unstoppable. After all his training as Robin and even after his return as Red Hood, a small piece of him had felt that Batman could not be beaten. He had watched Batman face aliens from outer space and gods from another world. Knowing that Batman was well and truly gone felt...impossible.

He slowly trudges home, his vision blurs as he slowly makes it home on autopilot. He enters his apartment, not even taking his wet clothes or shoes off. Marinette hears him walk in, “Welcome home Jay, I made boeuf bourguignon.” Jason doesn’t even notice her, and in that moment she knew something wasn’t quite right. Normally Jason would joke about how it was a miracle nothing was burning, it could happen, given how clumsy Marinette was.  He slowly drags his feet to the living room and slumps on the sofa, his head in his hands. Marinette peeks her head around the corner, looking visibly concerned.  

Marinette slowly walked to the sofa and sat next to Jason, putting a hand on his thigh. “Jay?” she quietly asked.

Jason’s voice begins to crack “He’s gone, I can’t believe it, he's really gone.” He lifts his head up to look Marinette dead in the eye, “Mari, Bruce is gone.”

Marinette gasps, she had heard the news report but she didn’t think it was true.  She had assumed it was the start of an elaborate ruse, but the look in Jason’s eyes told her otherwise.  Marinette knew Jason and Bruce’s relationship was complicated, but he was visibly hurt and shocked by the news.  Jason wanted a lot of things, he never really wanted Bruce to die, not like this anyway. If that were the case he would have gone through with his plan of blowing up the Batmobile, all those years ago.  Marinette reached up to gently wipe a tear from his face, he held her hand close to his face before she could pull it away.  It was the first of many that would be shed at that moment.

For so many years, before and after he died, Jason wanted Bruce to understand him.  He seemed like a pointy-eared brick wall at times, he never thought there would come a day when it would fall.  Batman had almost seemed untouchable, even when Bane broke his back, he came back stronger than any of them.  Marinette gave a startled little squeak as he pulled her close to him, before wrapping her arms around him. He pulled away slightly but her face was still very close to his, he ran his thumb along her cheek as she leaned into his touch.  He savoured the warm softness beneath his fingertips.  His teary eyes looked into hers for a moment, before he leaned in close to kiss her.  At that moment, he needed to feel the warmth that radiated off of her.  He needed to hold her close to him, he needed to know that she was really there, and not just a cruel fleeting dream.  

Marinette was surprised, in the years that she had known him this wasn't a side of Jason that she had seen before.  There was a feeling of desperation in that kiss, one that only Marinette was privy to.  Whenever Jason kissed her in the past, sometimes it was passion, sometimes with a gentle softness, and other times because he took a certain delight in making her blush.  This time there was passion, but almost never with the desperation and anguish he felt at that very moment.  By contrast, Marinette was a lot more trusting, more forgiving, more optimistic.  It was something that Jason didn’t take lightly, especially considering the person he was by comparison.  With the Kwamis' help, she had seen him through his bouts of pit madness.  Nevertheless, when the kiss broke, she was breathless for a moment, but she didn't pull away.   She rested her forehead against his, brushing aside the occasional tear from his eyes.

For the rest of the night Jason continued to hold Marinette close to him, his chest heaved with sobs every so often. Even with his complicated relationship with Bruce, he was still the one who adopted, taught and cared for this street urchin of Gotham. As the two held each other, Jason’s phone began to ring, displaying Nightwing’s blue bird symbol on screen. Jason took out the phone and looked to see who was calling. He stared at the screen, unsure how to talk to Dick after the loss of Bruce. He looks back to Marinette, ”answer it” she told him with a gentle smile, he needs to be with his family now.

Jason took a deep breath and answered “Hello?”

He could hear Dick’s voice, unusually hoarse on the other end “Hey Little Wing, you saw the message didn’t you?”

Jason solemnly responded “Yeah. I got his message.”

“We need you Jason, just as Bruce said, Gotham needs its guardians. We’re all here at the Belfry. Babs, Tim, Steph, even Duke and Cass. Are you with us?” asked Dick.

Jason looks back to Marinette, who then nodded to him with a smile and mouthed “Go.”

He turns back to the phone, “I’ll be there in an hour, Ladybug can handle things here”.

As he ends the call and stands up from the sofa, Marinette puts a hand to his chest and lifts a finger, signaling to wait just a moment before running to the bedroom. She returns with two wrapped presents, “They were meant for your birthday next month, but...I think you need it now more than ever.”

She places the two boxes next to Jason, and asks him to open them up. Jason picks up the first box, slowly unwrapping to reveal new body armour. His eyes widen, he runs a hand across the large red bat symbol on its chest.

“Mr. Fox and I worked on this for you, he may be an excellent inventor but he lacks a tailor’s touch.” she explained. Taking out a cue card from the gift box, Marinette clears her throat and begins reading from it. “The tri-weave bodysuit consists of an outer and inner layer made from a titanium-dipped tri-weave fiber mesh.”  Marinette tried to read the words with some confidence, despite the fact that English was her second language. She wasn’t even sure if English speakers understood what these words meant. “Sandwiched in between is the MR-fluid based liquid armor system. The proprietary WayneTech Smart MR-fluid hardens in response to impacts, specifically designed to provide superior shock absorption.” As she read the cue card, Marinette thought working these materials into the design was challenging enough, never mind having to list out what they were for.  Still, not everyone had her magical super suit, so she never really thought about how a normal human would have to shield themselves.  Judging by the smile growing on Jason’s face, clearly she was reading some things right. “The liquid body armor layer is also more flexible than the ceramic or fiber-based armour, allowing for greater maneuverability.”  Marinette took a breath and gently placed the cue card back into the box, “I hope you understood those words, because I didn’t” she joked, and for the first time since he’d come home she saw Jason smile. “I also modelled it after your favourite hoodie for maximum comfort.” Saying the last two with emphasis as if it was the most important thing when it came to armour.

Jason chuckles, “This is perfect Pixie, thank you.” As he stands up to give her a hug, she stops him and gestures to the other gift. As he opens the second box he sees within a new Red Hood helmet. “Same materials as your suit. Light, breathable and comfortable.”

Jason picks up the new helmet and begins inspecting it from all angles. He is curious about the black embellishments around the vision slits of the helmet. “Hey Pixie, what's with the dark eye rings?” he asks, turning his head to face her.

She gives him a wink “Red Hood with a pinch of Ladybug.”

Jason places the helmet down and goes to the bedroom to change into his new armour.  Tikki zooms over and both of them give each other a firm nod. If Jason was putting his trust in Marinette to hold the fort here, there was no way she was going to let him down.

[pop-culturereference]

Up High

Characters: Damian Wayne, Tim Drake, Dick Grayson

Relationship: Damian Wayne and Tim Drake

Summary: After KGBeast shoots Dick, Damian is angry. He even contemplates killing KGBeast. Good thing Tim is there to talk him down. (Even if Damian was tempted to kill the KGBeast, he would not actually do it. idk what DC was thinking with this arc in Teen Titans.)

From the tallest building in Blüdhaven, the city was completely different. Damian sat, dangling and swinging his legs, as the sun rose and shone off of the water in the bay. Up close, Damian knew, the water was murky and clogged with bobbing debris, but the glint of the sun hid that from him when he saw it from all the way up here. It was quiet; the noise of the streets didn’t reach up here—the workers cleaning the streets, the screeching of the metro, the shouting. 

Grayson had taught him to love places like this. Up high, everything was different. Grayson had called it  “a clearer perspective.” He’d told Damian, “I come up here to re-orient myself. You know, Robin, when you’re down there, everything is so up-close and you’re right in the thick of it. The buildings are taller than you, you get shoved and pushed in the crowd, and the streetlamps are just bright enough to show you all the rats crawling out of the sewers.” He’d taken off Batman’s cowl then, and ran his fingers through his hair. “It’s the same thing with being Robin. You have to look at it like this. That way, instead of showing you the rats, the streetlights are like stars.”

Damian had scoffed. At the time, he didn’t believe anything Grayson told him: he wasn’t Damian’s father; his father was dead, and Grayson thought he could replace him. Now, though, he felt like Grayson’s words had seeped down into his bones.

That was good, because Grayson probably wouldn’t be saying any more of that; it was Damian’s duty now to hold onto as much of him as he could. Just after Damian thought he had his brother back, KGBeast had shot him in the head, and he was gone again. That was what brought him up here: he needed a clearer perspective. He itched to kill KGBeast. It scraped at his every thought. He couldn’t go a day without rage crawling in him.

How was any of this fair? First, Damian had died. Then, he came back to life, but Grayson was dead. They’d been reunited and things had miraculously worked out, and Damian had been almost ready to believe that the world was a genuinely good place. But after all that, after things aligning so well, finding hope, KGBeast had ruined it. Grayson deserved better, and KGBeast deserved worse.

Damian kicked his legs harder against the concrete of the building. Above the city like this was the perfect place to make his choice.

Grayson was the one who’d taught him the value of life. He would be disappointed in Damian if he killed the KGBeast. Damian could already picture the look: Grayson standing sternly with his hands on his hips, but sadness and pity in his eyes. Grayson would never make that look again. Grayson was no longer Grayson. 

Something had to be done. The world was unfair, and Damian wasn’t going to wait for it to take away the only good things he had left. Grayson was gone and Ric wouldn’t care; Ric didn’t even like Damian. 

Earlier that day, when they were finally allowed into the hospital after the surgery, Damian planned to tell Grayson about the animals. He always liked hearing about them; he would smile, ask questions, and try to ruffle Damian’s hair, so Damian hoped that it would distract him from the possibility of forced retirement from Nightwing.

“I am teaching Ace how to open doors, he is progressing very quickly. He now fetches my blades for me, even when my door is closed. It was a brilliant-”

“Look. Kid. I’m sorry, I don’t know you, I don’t know your dog, and I don’t care. I’m not Dick. I need you to leave me alone.”

“Do you remember Pennyworth? Last week, he caught Alfred, the cat, in the-”

“What part of leave me alone don’t you understand? I. Don’t. Know. You. I can’t babysit, God,  I’m strapped to a hospital bed! Get! Out!”

Damian had stormed out and come directly to Blüdhaven to get above and away from everything. The tear tracks on his face had long since dried, but he didn’t think he could face everything yet, so even as the sun rose, he stayed. The sunrise was beautiful but cruel. He couldn’t start another day with his family, he could never adjust himself to Ric in Grayson’s stead. 

The world was horrible, and killing KGBeast wouldn’t fix the damage he had done, but the world would be slightly better with him gone. Damian was already a killer; he’d killed more people than he could count, not that he’d ever bothered to keep track. One more wouldn’t make a difference.

When the sun rises above the waterline completely, he thought, I’ll leave, and I’ll track him down and kill him.

Until then, he looked out over the city and tried to find what Grayson saw. 

Damian could almost hear him saying, Don’t worry so much about it, Little D. The point is to not worry.

“Tt. Nonsensical as always,” he replied to the voice in his head. Then, “I,” he started. He quickly looked around, just to double check that he really was alone up here. “I miss you already,” he whispered. He felt the beginning of tears and snot, so he sniffed and blinked until they left.

When the sun left the water, he stood up and turned around to leave, only to see someone else on the other end of the roof.

“Damian,” Drake called. 

“Turn around and jump off, Drake,” Damian called back. He stood with his arms crossed. Had Drake followed him there? Was he going to lecture him? Did his father send him?

“I just talked to Dick,” Drake said, walking closer. That gave Damian pause—did Grayson send Drake? “He told me to leave him alone.” With every word, he stepped forward and he didn’t have to yell so loud to be heard. “And, he told me that he sent you away and that he wasn’t a damn babysitter.”

Drake sounded bitter, so for once they had something in common.

“Tt,” is all Damian could say, unable to even come up with an insult for Drake.

Drake sat down where Damian had been sitting just barely watching the sunrise and patted the concrete next him, motioning for Damian to sit. Damian did not.

“Dick loved to climb up high,” Drake said. “I think it made him feel at home, plus, he always said something about perspective.” He heaved a sigh and craned his head back to look at Damian. The sun glistened off tears in his eyes. “You and I both know that the Dick we saw today was not Dick. One day, he may make it back to himself, but for now… I think it’ll be a bit.” He pulled one leg to his chest and let the other dangle off the edge as he continued, “I know he loved you a lot. I can’t figure out why- I’m sorry, forget I said that last bit. What I’m saying is, even though we haven’t ever gotten along, I want to try. For Dick.”

“Tt.” Damian took a hesitating step toward Drake, then lowered himself down to sit next to him. He refused to look at him, though, eyes on the horizon. Drake moved to pat his shoulder, but Damian grabbed his hand and twisted. “If you try to touch me again, I throw you off.”

“Ha! So endearing. I see now why Dick likes you so much.”

After that comment, they sat in silence for a while. Drake swung his legs like Damian was doing earlier, so Damian very pointedly did not kick or swing his own.

“You know,” Drake said, glancing at Damian from the side of his eye, “I don’t think I ever quite understood Jason until today. Dick was shot, and Bruce does nothing? Weak. Doesn’t Dick deserve more than that, after everything?”

“My father-” Damian starts, defensively, but Drake doesn’t stop at the interruption.

“Then, I realized, I get it. Bruce is right. If we went and killed the KGBeast, that would just continue a cycle of violence. It would just go from generation to generation. Bruce passes it to us, just like Talia passed it to you.”

“My mother-”

“Changing the world isn’t easy, Damian. Especially for us. It always starts with little things like this. If we killed KGBeast, why don’t we kill every criminal? It would be unfair to only kill criminals who only hurt us personally.”

Damian agreed. If he killed the KGBeast, he would have to kill most criminals he met. For the sake of justice and fairness.

Drake sighed and turned his head to Damian, trying to look him in the eyes. Damian still refused to look back, gazing out over the city.

“Not every criminal, not even every murderer, deserves to die,” Drake said. “I stick by this more than ever. I need to, for Dick. God, Damian, when you first showed up, I thought you were hopeless and that we either needed to send you back to Talia or lock you up. You had killed people, and, sorry, but you were an insufferable brat.” He huffed a short laugh. “Still are sometimes.”

“I will push you off.”

“Wait, Damian. Listen, for once. It took years to convince me. Dick kept telling me that it wasn’t really your fault and that I just had to give you a chance. I never really did, and I’m sorry for that.” He took a deep breath. “That’s his legacy. His legacy is you. He loved you and was so proud of you, Damian. And he was right. I hate to say this, but I just needed to give you a chance. What do you say? Will you give me a chance?”

“Tt.”

Drake laughed, a little teary. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

They sat in silence as the sun climbed the sky and the shadows shortened. Damian still itched to kill the KGBeast, but maybe that wouldn’t be justice after all. He had been just about to leave and hunt him down when Drake showed up, but now, he’d thought better of it.

“Drake,” he said.

“Hm?”

“I don’t need babysitting. Tell that to Grayson when you see him next. And, also tell him that...  he was right about perspective.”

[queenvaleska]

mushy gushy stuff

M a n, I never thought I would have to make a post about this. :(( don’t get me wrong, I’m so very excited to see what Gotham has in store with Jeremiah as the Joker! I think it’ll be a story line that proves itself to the viewers. I have the highest faith in Cameron and I just know he’s going to have so much fun with this role. I love Jeremiah but--Jerome was my first love, my favorite redhead. I’m just so sad and frustrated with how they dealt with Jerome in that episode. Did they really feel the need to kill him, twice? Of course I’m angry about Jerome not becoming the Joker as we all hoped he’d be, but at the end of the day I cared more about Jerome Valeska than who he was meant to be. He’s genuinely one of my all time favorite characters. I have been with that ginger since episode sixteen, season 1 as many of you have been :( I’ve seen him grow and I’ve cheered him on and cherished him ever since I could remember. Yes, he lives on through Jeremiah but it’s not the same. Jerome was something so special to me, and you bet your ass I cried like a baby after the most recent episode. He’s been through so much shit, and hey please try to understand that I know he’s messed up and psychotic. He’s done horrible things, I understand that. But if you really take the time to learn his back story, you see that he’s just a scarred kid who grew up with a cruel family. His own brother turned everyone he ever loved against him. He was abused so much, his own father told him the world didn’t care about him. How fucked up is that? Later on, someone he had considered close (Theo) stabbed him in the back. He just needed someone to give a crap about him, to listen to him, to care and be there for him when no one else would. Jerome Valeska really does deserve better. The effect of all that negative shit turned him into the person he is today. That’s why the whole story line between him and his brother just kills me. These poor kids. I just wanted them to have more than two minutes together where they could actually vent wholeheartedly. They both deserved to hear each other’s side to the story. They could’ve ruled the city together. I would’ve loved the idea of two jokers spreading chaos!! Too bad, god man, and then there’s the whole dynamic between him and Bruce. All those moments together--I think Bruce was one of the few who saw him for what he really was in the end. They had so much history together and now it’s all gone

I apologize for making this all such a  big deal but Jerome just matters so much to me. A good part of the fandom was just tired with his character, others hated his personality and looks, and others are pleased to wish him good riddance but please just let the Jerome fans who adore him mourn in peace. We deserve that shit. I hate when people say: ‘they’re just a fictional character, they’re not real. They couldn’t have possibly mattered to you as much as you think they did.’ He brought so much happiness to me and he still does bro. Jerome was everything to me. He cheered me up and gave me inspiration in my writing, he was a bright light that kept me going. It just got to me seeing my poor boy die without getting any help, without anyone actually taking the time to listen. Yes he’s a lunatic ((and yes, I will always love his crazy side,, it’s what made him perfectly villainous and lovable. It’s charismatic<3)) but anyone could see that all the time he spent in Arkham didn’t help at all, if anything it made him even more merciless, damaged, and cruel. 

I agree that in his last moment he just looked worn out and tired which fucking hurts me. And when he was laying all lifeless on top of that car, still kind of smiling I wanted to just crawl in a hole and weep

BUT HEY \\ Do I see potential in that Clayface theory? (Maybe Hugo Strange is involved! We all knew Jerome was interested in him) Definitely! Do I believe there’s a possibility he’ll come back and be resurrected? Hell yes!! I have so much hope, listen I totally believe this softie will come back. I’m going to continue this blog. He deserves that <3 Again I’m so sorry to get all sensitive and mushy gushy on you guys, but I just had to get it all off my chest. This was a big one for us. :’’(( In the mean time, if anyone wants to come talk to me or vent about Jerome my door will always be open at @epic3rose

[zmediaoutlet]

hello there. could you make a proper post about ragnarok? your tags are teasing me & i wanna know what you liked about it. personally i was vibrating with excitement throughout, it was so good. after all the dark, boring marvel stuff, finally some quality fun. everything a blockbuster should be, done right. (with enough brothering to warm my samndean heart)

hi there, anon, I’d be delighted. Though coherent film reviews aren’t really my business, this movie was just–supremely delicious enough to make it happen.

THOR: RAGNAROK spoilers below.

Vibrating with excitement is a great way to describe the experience of seeing this movie, and for that I think we need to start with a little background. Anyone who reads my tags on a regular basis knows that, truly, #taika waititi is my hero. Why, though? Well, to start with, he is a genius, and what he’s a genius at is a particular kind of comedy. A lot of people say that there’s a particularly New Zealand sense of humor to his films–not being a Kiwi I don’t know that I could say, either way. However, if you’re a fan of Flight of the Conchords or Rhys Darby, you can hear the echoes of that comedy style throughout his work. It’s whimsical, clever, self-deprecating, ranges from surrealist to subtle. What it is not, ever, is mean-spirited. Sometimes there’s a light jab to the ribs, but it is always, always given with a quirk of a smile. Such a refreshing thing, especially given how… cruel comedy can be, in the wrong hands.

What’s more important than his skill with comedy, though, is the way he’ll layer in real, true feeling–and never makes it schmaltzy. If you’re forced to watch a “feel-good family film” from a lesser director, there will be ‘funny’ moments (often based in personal humiliation and mockery), there will be brief drama (usually melodrama), and there will be moments of poignancy where everyone realizes that they really do love each other, after all. Puke. Contrast here Waititi’s masterpiece–yes, screw you, it’s a masterpiece–Hunt for the Wilderpeople. This movie is genuinely, laugh-out-loud funny–and it also made me cry, genuinely, at the same time that it made my whole chest full and warm with sympathetic joy. The man knows how to layer in emotion with his humor in a way that doesn’t make the audience feel cheaply manipulated. When Ricky Baker earns his happy ending at the end of Wilderpeople, your face hurts from smiling and your eyes are wet, and–if you’re me–you feel grateful, to be treated like an adult by a director. Such a joy not to feel dragged along like a simpleton, not to feel like the script was written with crayon. (No spoilers for Wilderpeople, but if you’re reading this and you haven’t seen it, you fucking should. I think it’s streaming on Amazon right now.)

So. Then we came to Thor. I didn’t have high hopes for the character’s franchise after Thor: The Dark World (though I did like that movie more than most people, it seems). However, as soon as Waititi was attached, my immediate reaction was shock and then a thrill, and holy shit, did he deliver.

We open in medias res with Thor at the height (so far) of his power, and immediately you can feel the change from the previous films. Under Waititi, Chris Hemsworth is allowed to be… fun. Thor has gotten some jokey moments in his previous appearances, but generally speaking that pretty brutish brow is crumpled and weighed down while he muscularly grimaces about whatever the latest tragedy is. Leaping directly into this film, with that Thor jovially chatting with a skeleton and then just oozing pure arrogance at this absurd comic-book malevolent baddie, even as he dangles absurdly at the end of a chain–yes, I thought, yes. This is exactly what I wanted. The entire cold open of the film broadcasts so hard what we’re about to get into–yes, we’ll be watching Thor beat up minions, but it won’t be tedious as it so often is with these superhero jaunts. The use of The Immigrant Song just cements it, as Thor grins and jockeys and wins, as he always knew he would, perfectly choreographed to the riffs.

We could have lingered tediously here, too, but no–again, we’re shown how good it can be when a great director knows what the movie is actually about. The action scene unfurls and the script swings along loose-hipped, casual, knowing we can keep up. We’re introduced off-handedly to Skurge, with more of that lovely semi-absurd Kiwi humor, and those of us who recognize his name might raise our eyebrows knowingly–but the foreshadowing here tells us otherwise. He’s not a bad guy, not really; he’s just a person, beautifully humanized with his ineffective little boasting, just trying to do his new job. Our hero blasts forward, and again–here we are in pretty Asgard, and things are bright, loose, funny. The casting of the characters in Loki’s little play is joke enough on its own (and hallelujah to those three for agreeing to do it!), but here again: we’re given all the information we need to know about the background of the key relationship without going into tedious flashback, and while the emotion is dropped in as a joke we remember how intense it was, at the time… all while Thor watches, almost grim, and unsurprised, so the character development continues in the background.

I won’t go beat-by-beat with the script–though, christ, I could, you can feel Waititi’s hands all over it, smoothing and shaping and improving–but it really is impressive. It does its job, setting up for where we know we’ll need to go with Infinity War, but unlike some of the more boring entries in the recent MCU (and I am looking directly at you, Doctor Strange, no matter how fun your cameo is) this movie actually stands alone. It’s a cohesive story, fun diversions aside, with a single goal, and the reason it works is that Waititi knows what this story is about–and it is not about the larger MCU, not at all. It’s about family.

Hemsworth does a great job with his Thor this time around, better than he ever has. He’s not a bad actor, by any means, but he was previously given very little to actually do. His best moments, by far, were in those scenes he had with his little brother–and here we come to Tom Hiddleston, aka the reason the Thor franchise works at all in the first place.

I want to say that I am not a Loki!girl. Apparently they’re somewhat creepy. That said, one of the biggest coups in the entire MCU is the casting of Hiddleston as Loki–and, likely, the fact that Kenneth Branagh held the reins in the first Thor appearance, so the Shakespearean nature of the character could really be shaped for the franchise’s future. A wild-haired trickster villain, all bronze silly horns and green-and-black drapery, could have been purely preposterous–but from the first scenes with Hiddleston as Loki, he was more than that. One of the best single moments in any ‘superhero’ movie is the moment in the first Thor where Odin reveals Loki’s parentage; it’s beautifully subtle, heartbreaking, as Hiddleston casts his eyes to the side and breathes out, Laufeyson. That’s it. That’s the moment where everything cracks apart, and it’s done so very, very well. The heartbreak of that leads to the conflict in Thor, to Loki’s vicious appalling hurt in The Avengers, to the near-insanity and raging grief in Thor: The Dark World. Here, Waititi pulls back, which is the right move–Loki’s well of betrayal is still deep, but it’s been long enough that we’ve seen it, we’re kind of done, and while it still motivates his behavior we get the sense that Loki, too, is tired of it. He’ll fight his brother because they are not brothers, because that’s what they’ve always done, and yet… you can see the desire for reconciliation, lurking under the surface. The change in Loki gives Hemsworth’s Thor something fresh to work with–not only a heartbreak, not only a long-frustrated love, but finally his little brother. We can see the long history echoing back and forth between them, both the good and the bad of it. They smile at each other, even as they roll their eyes and fight and get frustrated, and it’s like coming home.

When I give writing advice, my first and biggest piece is always: what is your story about? I said before that Waititi knows this, and it’s what makes the movie work. There’s not really a B-plot–the whole story, all of it, is about the Odinson family, specifically about how Odin’s actions have reverberated through millennia. There’s a strong undercurrent thematically of imperialism, of the strong oppressing the weak, of thoughtless power crushing everything in its path (look to Jeff Goldblum’s [incredible!] Grandmaster, or even to Hulk, for echoes of this)–but it comes through most clearly in Hela, Odin’s first child, who learned his lessons of to the victor go the spoils far too well. In Hela we can see the biggest warning of what could have happened with Loki–power untrammeled, viciousness, the unloved child cast aside and made to hate. But again–this is a story about family. Hela runs roughshod over Asgard, desperate to rekindle her campaign of destruction–and what do we see, elsewhere? Thor and Loki, mistrusting each other, but working together. Thor gains his own allies, and Loki gains his, but ultimately the day is saved by the two of them, working together.

It’s not a novel idea. A disproportionate amount of good heroic fiction is about the good Many taking on the evil One, The Lord of the Rings being almost an Ur-example in modern fantasy. Personal supremacy is generally the trait of evil characters, while good folk seem to succeed entirely based on the Power of Friendship, the narrative rewarding them for sticking together with Handy Coincidences and usually a last burst of strength to take out the enemy. That’s certainly the case here… sort of. Valkyrie folds to Thor’s winning smile and dons her armor to finally avenge her fallen sisters; Bruce Banner makes the decision to sacrifice his self, to let Hulk back out, to save the helpless folk of Asgard. Loki sacrifices his freedom and a comfortable position at the Grandmaster’s side to help his brother. Thor makes the most visible sacrifice–expecting to lose his life, he instead loses his eye (connecting him back to his not-so-sainted father)… and thereby gains massive, massive power. What’s fun, though, and what separates this movie from its more tedious brethren is: this isn’t enough. We don’t have to sit through a forty-five minute slog of Our Heroes fighting together against Hela. They fight, certainly–and immediately realize that they will never, ever be enough to beat her, and so they sacrifice the biggest chess piece of all: home. It’s a big move, though relatively safe–audiences may like looking at Asgard, but they certainly don’t have their hearts leap in their breast when its safety is concerned. It’s not like we watched Earth blow up–no offense to Douglas Adams.

Still. Even as Asgard shatters and Hela (presumably) expires, we’re reminded: home isn’t a place. It’s people. Trite? It ought to be, particularly in Idris Elba’s somber tones. It isn’t, though, because Waititi earns it. We love Korg, and Maik–who’s not dead! (Hooray!) We’re proud of Valkyrie and Bruce. Even poor, doomed Skurge, who we knew couldn’t really be all bad, from his very first seconds on screen. This team that has been assembled is truly a team–more so than the Avengers, despite all the fanfiction that was written to the contrary. For me, the heart of the movie is the moment when Loki comes to Thor, affixing his new eyepatch, and there’s no great swell of music, there’s no hug, but when Thor tosses the little bauble, expecting it to pass through Loki like through so much ephemera–it doesn’t, because Loki is solid, and here, and home. Family.

The beautiful colorwork and clever camera movement and soundtrack choices (the return of The Immigrant Song as a capstone to the movie’s theme made the hair on my neck stand up even as I laughed out loud with delight–and it’s doing the same right now, even just remembering it) and all the excellent jokes, and everything about Jeff Goldblum and his cranky henchwoman–they’re really just icing on an exquisitely made cake. The bones of the film are solid, because they were put in place by a creator who knows what he’s doing and has the confidence to pull it off. (And hats off to Marvel/Disney, for letting him do so.)

In conclusion: Taika Waititi is my hero.

[knifeonmars]

Capsule Reviews, October 2020

A few general thoughts on some comics I have read in the recent past. 

Batman: I, Joker

Though it's sometimes considered one of the classic Batman Elseworlds tales, I'd long resisted reading I, Joker on the grounds that I'm very much not a Joker fan, but after a finally reading it I was thoroughly impressed. The premise sees a man brainwashed and surgically altered to resemble the titular archvillain in a futuristic Gotham so that he can be ritualistically hunted and murdered by "The Bruce" a descendant of the original Batman who controls a cult-like populace. It's a premise which has only gotten better with age, given that we're now 75 years in the age of Batman and the Joker has moved in the years since Ledger's portrayal in The Dark Knight and culminating in the recent Joker film, towards being a counter-culture symbol of angry populism. The presentation of an empty, cruel Batman satisfying a horde of bloodthirsty worshipers is an on-point as a piece of cultural criticism as it's ever been, and while it's not as vicious a parody as something like Marshal Law's City of the Blind, it's still a great skewering of Bat-fandom in general and what the character has become. It's also just a really solid comic: It's 50 pages, so it's tight and exactly as long as it needs to be, sets up and pays off everything elegantly, really well designed and rendered, well paced, and while I was left wanting more I was also satisfied with the story. I, Joker is a wonderful little gem that I think more people should read.

Fantastic Four: Grand Design

I've been a big fan of Scioli since American Barbarian, but I put off reading his Grand Design because I'd heard some unflattering things about Piskor's X-Men: Grand Design and feared similar issues here. I think Scioli's effort does have some of the same problems people have pointed out about Piskor's, but as a noted fan of him, I still mostly ended up liking this book. The nature of the Grand Design books is essentially skewed recaps, so this book is more than a little clipped and distant in the way it surveys the Fantastic Four's history, cutting out a lot of the emotion and nuance of many events in favor of wry humor. 

Scioli offsets this to some extent by emphasizing the troubled relationship between Reed Richards and Sue Storm, choosing to make explicit the troubles which are generally left subtextual. Here Sue actively pines for Namor as she realizes that leaving Reed would mean loosing her whole support network and Franklin Richards is strongly implied to be Namor's son rather than Reed's, the kind of stuff which has never flown in the mainstream comics. 

Those kinds of creative flourishes, the points where Scioli actually gets to write something rather than just recapping, is where the book comes alive, and so I have mixed feelings about the ending. Scioli essentially goes off the rail around the late 70's, abandoning established continuity in favor of his own inventions as he rushes towards the end. The results are refreshing and should feel familiar to followers of Scioli's other work, with Black Panther showing up in a Voltron-mech and Reed Richards becoming a Herald of Galactus, but there's a tangible sense that this is only happening because Scioli's not interested in Fantastic Four continuity past this arbitrary cutoff. To me, that was disappointing, given that I'd hoped to see an all-encompassing attempt to wrangle these character's' histories, and a lot of interesting characters and plots written after the 70's are dismissed to somewhat crotchety effect, and the actual ending is quite perfunctory. After most of the series has slavish recapped individual plot points, once Scioli is on the final pages of the book he skips over years of events and ends things without any sort of catharsis or emotional payoff. 

All in all, Fantastic Four: Grand Design did not end up being my favourite Scioli book by a long shot. It's clipped and dry for most of it's length, and then when it finally gets interesting, it just... stops.

The Marquis of Anoan

A long held subject of curiosity for me, a well-timed sale on Comixology meant that I finally took the plunge on checking out this short Eurocomics series. In it, a young Frenchman journeys around and beyond early 18th century France, having encounters with seemingly paranormal events and confronting them with rationality and science. It's quite enjoyable. It's gorgeous rendered, and though each story is relatively short by North American standards, they're densely written and presented, so they never feel overly short. They're very European in certain respects, like their approach to romance and nudity, but never in a way that struck me as particularly offensive, though that's obviously a matter of personal taste. I was ultimately left disappointed that the series is dead in the water after five books, with a decade having passed since the release of the last one. One of the most amusing threads running through them was the development of the title character's reputation as a magician and exorcist, much to his discomfort. The ending of the third book in particular has a diagetic text piece and illustration from a contemporary paper which shows how the populace at large views the protagonist and I'd have loved to see that kind of presentation further developed.Alas, the series is ended, but it's well worth checking out for anyone interested in relatively low key and beautiful Eurocomics. Just keep in mind though, that this ain't Hellblazer, nor does it aim to be.

Elseworld’s Finest

A two-part, 100-page Elseworld's tale that I picked up out of sheer curiosity, Elseworld's Finest reinterprets the duo of Batman and Superman as figures from the pulp adventure stories which saw their brief heyday in the years immediately preceding the birth of the superhero genre. It's a world informed by Indiana Jones and Disney's Atlantis, or at least by the things which influenced them. Bruce Wayne is a roguish solder of fortune, Clark Kent is the survivor of a misty and forgotten space kingdom linked to Atlantis, it's all very pulp as it moves through an origin story for the pair which sees them being variations of their more recognizable superheroic selves. It's really quite fun, and an amusing genre shift for the proceedings, which should appeal to anyone who grew up enjoying latter day takes on such stories, by which I mean, if you like Indiana Jones or Atlantis you'll find this fun. The only aspect which irked me is that there are a few too many winks towards the DCU as we know it, in the form of characters like Hal Jordan and Carter Hall popping up in bit roles, but overall the whole thing is quite agreeable. I don't think it's resonant in the way that I, Joker turned out to be, but it's still a very fun Elseworld's story.

First Knife

Simon Roy and Artyom Trakhanov teaming up for a post-post-apocalyptic story revolving around an ancient cyborg waking in a post-lapsarian tribal far future Earth is extremely up my alley, so I was really looked forward to this series and was not disappointed. Anyone who's seen Roy's work on the first arc of Prophet or Habitat at Image Comics will find the vibe and conceits here familiar, but not overly so, and the series takes things in a different direction than either of those stories did. This is not a series about cyborg Buck Rogers awakening in the future and saving the day with the power of old fashioned, plain spoken American gumption; it's about a barely human soldier losing his grip on sanity as he's worshiped as a god, and the people who surround him dealing with that. It's very good. There's action, wonderfully emotive, textured, and distinctive artwork, and it's generally a pleasure to read. Highly recommended to fans of that strain of primitive scifi.

[farbsturz]

title: Phantom Pain

fandom: Batman (Comics)

characters: Tim Drake & Damian Wayne

rating: general

tags: hurt/comfort

word count: 2117

AO3

beta reader: @mildlycuriousdragon

this is for @kanekill, i hope i did an okay job!

description: 

“I’m alive. I’m Tim Drake. I’m alive and well. I’m in the manor. I’m alive. I’m okay.”

Blue were forced shut and the young man took a shaking breath, struggling to keep his heartbeat under control. The short sentences were mumbled over and over again though his mind couldn’t grasp anything but the pain in his chest and limbs. It was so unbelievably stupid, Tim was aware that he didn’t stand on that rooftop anymore. But his body felt the missiles hitting him anyway, over and over and over again.

Sweat. Short breath. Wide unfocused eyes. A suppressed scream. Messy hair. Blanket on the ground.

And an aching pain in his chest threatening to knock him unconscious.

It hurt. Stupid, he knew. But it still hurt so much. Hands clutched at his shirt as if they could tear something away that wasn’t there. He hated it.

“I’m alive. I’m Tim Drake. I’m alive and well. I’m in the manor. I’m alive. I’m okay.”

Blue were forced shut and the young man took a shaking breath, struggling to keep his heartbeat under control. The short sentences were mumbled over and over again though his mind couldn’t grasp anything but the pain in his chest and limbs. It was so unbelievably stupid, Tim was aware that he didn’t stand on that rooftop anymore. But his body felt the missiles hitting him anyway, over and over and over again.

How many nights had he woken up to these too vivid memories? Had clutched his chest and screamed quietly for Stephanie or Bruce or anyone to end this? Had begged to not be left alone anymore? Tim had lost many beloved people in his life. A pain that accompanied him with every breath and step he took. But this? This was more physical.

This was a phantom pain.

Idiotic if you were to think about it. Tim hadn’t lost a limb. But in a sense he had lost his body in dozens of explosions. He might not have stayed dead  but the missiles had hit him anyway. And the pain… the pain had been so much in such a small amount of time.

Short and hitched breaths left him as a shaking hand reached up to run through sweaty hair.

“I’m alive. I’m okay. I’m-”

“An idiot.”

Well, so much for calming down. Tired eyes snapped open and looked for the sudden voice intruding his own, body growing tense at the presence he hadn’t noticed. His brain absentmindedly scolded him for letting his guard down and it took Tim a second too long to process who was leaning in the doorframe to his room.

Damian was wearing black sweatpants and a hoodie with the nightwing symbol. It had been a gift given jokingly by Dick but the little Robin had started to wear it whenever their oldest brother hadn’t been around. While the boy had tried to explain on several occasions that the material was merely pleasant to wear, Tim and the others had known that it was worn for a more sentimental reason. No one had commented on it, though.

His little brother’s hair was still neatly in place and judging by the dog at Damian’s side, the boy had not yet been asleep. Not out of the ordinary for people with their kind of hobby but the more interesting question was why the other was even in this part of the manor. Tim’s and Damian’s room were pretty far apart and it was rare for the demon brat to be in this side.

The young man straightened his back and tried to glare as best as he could in his weakened state. His current relationship with the Robin was awkward at best. It had been a few weeks now since Tim had been back but never had he been with Damian in a room alone. Hell, they hadn’t even exchanged more than a few sentences since his return and it was unnerving to see the other in his room now. Tim didn’t know where the two of them stood and while they had never been each other’s favourite, their fighting had become less after Damian had been resurrected.

Green eyes were staring at him in silence and Tim didn’t know how to react. What did the little Robin want from him? There wasn’t anything he had done wrong as far as the young man could judge and Tim found his heart calming down a little even if only to maintain the illusion of being fine to outsiders.

“You are an idiot, Drake.”

He blinked.

“Pardon?”

And there it was again, the clicking tongue which had become a trademark of his brother.

“I said, you are an idiot, Drake.”

The words didn’t hold any menace or bite. If anything they almost sounded soft with the way Damian kept his voice low. Why he was talking quietly, Tim didn’t know. But it left him only more confused.

The boy, however, seemed to run out of patience and Tim watched as Damian pushed himself off the frame, fully entering the room with Titus close by. It was both fascinating and astonishing how loyal the dog was to its owner but then again the little brat always had a way with animals. The zoo in the batcave was proof enough. No matter how much trouble Damian had with people, Tim could see a glimpse of the good heart Dick had mentioned dozens of times whenever the boy took care of his pets.

He slowly pulled his legs closer as Damian came to a stop in front of him, whether it was to hide his uneven breath or to protect his vulnerability the young man didn’t know. Their eyes met and for a few seconds the still dark room was quiet except for their breathing. It almost seemed as if his little brother searched for something and Tim tried to mask whatever emotion might be evident on his expression.

“Do you seriously believe we wouldn’t notice? That I wouldn’t notice? Please, Drake, I know you underestimate me but this is truly insulting.”

Damian crossed his arms and in the lack of light Tim could almost fool himself into seeing a pout on the other’s lips. He was confused and tired and the spoken words didn’t make any sense at all.

“Damian, I don’t know what you’re talking about. Whatever it is you think I did, I can assure you that I’m not-”

“-okay.”

Tim stopped and looked for any clue what this might be about. It was annoying to be interrupted over and over again but right now he couldn’t find the nerve to fight about it. He would just let Damian play his little game and hope he would leave soon enough.

“I am not sure whether this is supposed to be a selfless or selfish action but I can recognize stupidity when it stands in front of me, Drake.”

He sighed.

“Can we talk about this another time, Damian? I’m really not in the mood right now.”

But green eyes didn’t waver. Rather, they were averted by now.

“You’re hurting, Timothy. It’s so obvious it’s painful. Did you think Father wouldn’t notice? Even Pennyworth knows something is up… Coming back from the dead is messed up. It’s not to be brushed off as easily as you may try to pretend.”

Damian’s voice was painfully quiet by now and Titus whined softly at the shift in its owner’s emotion. But the boy simply petted the loyal dog and forced himself to continue.

“I had nightmares the first few weeks after I was brought back. I-I… still have them at times. And when I’m sparring or out there fighting…”

His brother took a deep shaking breath and Tim noticed the trembling hands being clenched into fists.

“... When I get hit in the chest sometimes...”

And as Damian lifted his hand to place it at the spot he meant, the young man understood. It was where the heretic had stabbed him. Where the blade had torn through him. Tim had seen the wound first hand, had wondered how anyone could have let a child into such a cruel world, fighting wars meant for adults.

His little brother searched for eye contact again and even though green spoke of the hidden pain he had endured, they also reflected the stubbornness and determination Damian was known for.

“Grayson has told me it’s not necessarily a weakness to sleep badly. Or to relive moments of the past. He told me that if someone is hurting, they should not keep it to themselves but search for a valve. Allowing these events to eat you up only corrupts your mind and heart… And if you are not fully focused, a mistake can lead to repetition.”

A deep breath was taken and Damian lowered his head as he began to play around with the hem of his nightwing hood.

“What I am trying to say is… I know what it’s like. To feel death pulling at your leg to get you back. To wonder why you’re here while others are gone. It’s unfair. And this pain in my chest, these dreams I have, they only remind me of the second chance I got. Whether I deserved it, though, I’m not that sure...”

Tim felt something swell up within him and the lump which had previously prevented him from breathing deeply was gone. Without thinking he reached for his brother’s wrist and gently pulled him onto the bed with him. It was a surprise to see Damian comply but right now he could only guess that they both needed someone to hold onto. Sometimes Tim forgot that the boy was only 13 years old and it hurt, knowing that their little Robin had to deal with such a burden and pain by himself. It was a sick irony how the two brothers finally found a reason in death to bond in life.

Lightly wrapping his arms around Damian’s so small and fragile body, Tim ran a hand through the little boy’s hair as the other returned the embrace. A tired but genuine smile lingered on his lips as Titus licked his hand and the young man tightened his hold. While he was sure that this wouldn’t become a habit for them, it was nice to finally hold his brother like this. No matter how often they might fight, how often they insulted and threatened each other - They were family. And family would always stick together.

It was now  that Tim realized that he would always go back to Apokolips to save Damian. He would die for his family.

But right now he had to live for them.

After a few minutes Damian finally pushed away and Tim allowed him to put distance between them once again. The little bat pulled the hood over his face and turned to leave, Titus close by. However, he stopped in the doorframe and clicked his tongue in annoyance.

“Come on, Drake, hurry up.”

Blue blinked in surprise and it took him a second to understand that Damian actually wanted him to follow. Hesitantly, Tim pushed himself off the bed and put his slippers on, silently following his brother through the manor to his room. The times the young man had been in here was only a handful and he took his time to take in the furniture.

A chimney rested at the side with Jason’s helmet and Dick’s escrima stick on top, a violin case in another corner, bookshelves, and some swords decorating a wall. What quickly caught Tim’s attention was the easel and blank canvas. Damian walked towards it, lifted a colour palette and paintbrush to examine.

“I either create music or art whenever I relive the pain from my death. It helps me focus on something else. Watching the paint run down the canvas or listening to the long tones can help easing one’s mind.”

Damian shrugged and held the items out for Tim to take, expression unreadable.

“In Todd’s words: Worth a try.”

Tim lightly shook his head in amusement at the quote but found himself moving towards his brother. He took the offered tools and stared down at the different colours. The clicking of a tongue interrupted his musing about a possible image to draw.

“It’s not rocket science, Drake. Just move your hand for once instead of your brain.”

Glaring slightly, Tim merely huffed and dunked the brush in a calming green colour.

“And here I thought we were getting along, Damian.”

It was lighthearted bickering and Damian crossed his arms in silent approval as Tim drew the first line. His eyes followed the paint turning the canvas into his own personal project and with each stroke the pain in his chest made place for the curiosity of the future outcome of his more or less artistic nature.

Tim didn’t know how long he was drawing, seeing as how at some point Damian had fallen asleep on his bed with Titus laying next to him, but he was grateful for the given valve. While he could still feel the fading presence of his dream, Tim was at least sure that he was alive and home.

The okay part would come eventually.

[briangroth27]

Thor Ragnarok Review

Full Spoilers…

Thor Ragnarok is a fun, enjoyable movie, but I didn’t love it.

I absolutely admire the willingness of writers Eric Pearson, Craig Kyle & Christopher Yost and director Taika Waititi to go all-in on the scope of the Marvel Universe, from Surtur’s (Clancy Brown) fire pits to Asgard’s glittering spires to the Grandmaster’s (Jeff Goldblum) universal junk heap. The world-building was well-done, whether on the scale of introducing new planets and “deities” or smaller, funny bits like revealing the Asgardian Infinity Gauntlet is a fake, and I loved how inspired by Jack Kirby’s design aesthetic the film was. More MCU shows and movies should be unafraid to dive into the outlandish facets of the comics instead of remaining totally grounded. The score is also very fun, taking a lot of inspiration from the 80s with its electronic distortion. The biggest problem for me lies in the humor: there’s too much of it. Don’t get me wrong; I love fun superheroes and think there’s far too much praise heaped onto grim and gritty heroes, as if they’re more “realistic” or “worthwhile,” especially from adult comic fans and teens who think violence equals maturity. However, there’s a difference between having a sense of humor and allowing the humor to overwhelm the stakes of the film, and that’s Ragnarok’s issue. There’s hardly a dramatic moment that isn’t undercut by a joke, robbing those scenes of the impact they should have and undermining any sense of danger or gravity. Even Hela, the Goddess of Death (Cate Blanchett), laying siege to Asgard never felt like an urgent threat. It felt like the movie was afraid even a bit of seriousness would undermine the comedy, instead of using the comedy to break the tension of the impending apocalypse. Also, everyone seemed to have a slight variation of the same sense of humor (or no variation at all), making them all sound the same.

Thor didn’t have much of an arc in the movie, but Chris Hemsworth was certainly game for anything this time around, and he—and Thor—seemed to be having a great time. The problem is, the sense of bemused fun undercut scenes as important as Odin’s (Anthony Hopkins) death. It’s not that Thor was laughing when his father died—and I did like the peaceful resignation and acceptance of his death from everyone involved—but (as I’ve seen pointed out elsewhere online) Hemsworth had a much bigger reaction to his belief that Odin died in the first Thor than he did to his actual death. Perhaps that could be chalked up to him being more mature now or this death not being his fault (plus Odin’s death was followed immediately by Hela’s return), but he hardly acts like it’s Loki’s (Tom Hiddleston) fault either beyond calling him on his culpability once or twice, even though his brother has robbed him of at least a year with his father by usurping his throne. That said, there were several good brotherly bits between Odin’s sons and I’m glad they finally reached an accord by the end. I also enjoyed the wisdom Thor got to impart to both Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) and Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) about what it means to be a hero: running towards your problems to deal with them instead of running away. It was very odd we didn't see Thor react to the deaths of the Warriors Three (Tadanubo Asano, Ray Stevenson, and Zachary Levi); as Thor’s best friends, the movie leaving it open as to whether he even knows his compatriots are dead or not was downright bizarre. In fact, Thor's relationship with Mjolnir got more focus when its importance to him was awkwardly spelled out. I did like that Thor discovered his powers aren't primarily fueled by his hammer, though prizing it over his relationships with actual people in yet another joke felt cold.

It was nice to see that Loki really just wanted to belong in a family, as evidenced by the highly entertaining dramatization of his death in The Dark World (provided by Matt Damon, Luke Hemsworth, and Sam Neil in great cameos as Asgardian actors). I also love that this performance made Frog Thor canon to the films! Thor's story about Loki turning into a snake to trick him was another great nod to the complexities of their brotherly relationship. Loki’s inferiority complex over not belonging or being treated as Thor’s equal was well-depicted in the play; he wasn't really evil, he just wanted respect. That also reflected in the way he ruled as Odin: he wasn't a cruel or evil king, just a lazy one. With that in mind (and the fact that they've done the plot so often), Loki's inevitable betrayal fell totally flat for me. He's gone back and forth so many times that it felt like the writers were afraid of committing to making him good or evil, stagnating him as a character. Plus, he’s totally toothless as a villain: we now know that if he does manage to rule again, he won’t even be a threat. My friend also pointed out that it was odd an advanced alien such as Loki was so effortlessly dispatched by Dr. Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch). I did love Loki's reaction to seeing the Hulk again for the first time though; that was perfect!

Valkyrie was my favorite part of the movie and Thompson made me a fan of the character. She brought a great sense of disaffected badass fun to the character, who also came with enough pathos in her backstory to give her depth the other heroes lacked. Thompson said that her character is bisexual and it would’ve been nice to see that reflected onscreen. I also think they should’ve given her more of a moment against Hela during the final battle, especially since her fall from grace was the Valkyries’ failed attempt to stop her initial onslaught. As my friend pointed out, the depiction of that battle with Hela looked classical and beautiful. Whether Thor falls in Infinity War or not, I’d love to see Valkyrie’s adventures continue; perhaps she could even team up with Sif (Jaimie Alexander)!

Hulk’s arc was essentially the same as in The Incredible Hulk—Banner accepting that he can point Hulk at worse problems than his alter ego—only with him being the Hulk more often beforehand. Incredible Hulk is one of my favorite MCU films, but I didn’t need to see him circle back to this point; the character regression to once again loathing himself that started in Age of Ultron was unnecessary, so getting him back to the point of accepting himself like in the first Avengers felt like more wasted time. It also doesn’t help that I’ve never been a fan of the “Planet Hulk” storyline, so the gladiator stuff wasn’t too thrilling to me (Thor’s “he’s a friend from work!”, inspired by a kid visiting the set, was still funny though). Banner was understandably completely thrown by “waking up” on an alien planet, but that’s really all the movie gave him to do beyond repeating old character arcs. Hulk enjoying being a gladiator was fine, but I really want them to find some way to repair the rift in Banner/Hulk to finally and permanently move him into a new direction; I’ve long thought a She-Hulk team-up would teach him to do just that, since Bruce’s cousin loves her transformation, and I hope we get that sooner rather than later. Maybe Bruce could start tinkering with his mutation to keep his brains as Hulk or his brawn as Banner. Hulk also gets one of my least-favorite modern superhero jokes in this movie—a huge buildup to an epic moment that’s immediately undercut by the weapon or whatever not working—so that was another strike against his character here. I did think Thor saying Black Widow's "the sun's getting real low" line to calm Hulk was funny, but it also felt like they ran the gag into the ground.

Hela was a great villain and I really liked her motivation: she was cast aside and locked away by Odin after she’d helped him bring the Nine Realms under his control because she wanted to keep conquering and killing (this was also a good explanation for why there are only Nine Realms but thousands of different planets). Odin deciding he didn’t need her anymore—despite her actions bringing him to power—played well as an example of men exploiting women until they aren’t useful anymore. Hela’s anger at Odin for this disrespect and imprisonment felt totally justified, even if she was an insane murder-obsessed villain. I'd say she's the Thor films' best villain and Blanchett was excellent in the role; I hope she returns. That said, she didn’t get much to do. Her army of dead Asgardian soldiers was cool, but for some reason the film trapped her in Asgard without providing her with a real obstacle or giving weight to her attack. The Asgardian forces felt like nothing more than faceless cannon fodder rather than people being slaughtered; even the Warriors Three were dispatched largely unceremoniously. They didn’t have to send her to Earth—there’s no reason she wouldn’t set out to continue her path of conquest elsewhere first—so there wouldn’t have been a need to create major ripples in the rest of the Avengers’ lives by sending her to Midgard. As effective a killer as she was, I expected her to be a bigger problem with more to do. I definitely think she survived Ragnarok—Thor triggering the Norse apocalypse on purpose was an inventive solution to the Hela problem and great twist, by the way—since “Asgard is the people, not the place,” so she should still have a power source. I think she'll be the Death that Thanos (Josh Brolin) is obsessed with.

Jeff Goldblum’s Grandmaster was a very memorable presence! While at first I thought his character would play a bigger role in the movie, he didn’t feel as underutilized or confined as Hela and he certainly served his purpose of uniting Thor, Hulk, and Valkyrie. Grandmaster was entertaining and the film’s style of humor fit Goldblum best out of everyone. If you want to see complete, unfiltered Jeff Goldblum, this is the movie for you! I loved his reaction to the uprising in the second post-credits scene, even if it left me wondering where all the rebels had come from. In all the other scenes—save one moment of the arena audience booing Thor getting zapped to prevent him from defeating Hulk—it seemed like everyone loved the Grandmaster and his contest of champions. Even the junkers who Valkeryie attacks to retrieve Thor seemed more concerned with claiming property than voicing discontent with the way things are. All the gladiators, who are the only ones who talk of rebellion, left with Loki. So who was left to dethrone the Grandmaster?

The other rebellion, led by Heimdall (Idris Elba) against Hela, was cool. I would've liked to see him using his sight to evade Hela's troops a bit more—that could've made for a tense sequence—but what we got was great too. I was surprised there are apparently only a couple hundred people in Asgard, though. With both this and Inhumans, it seems the MCU has set up parallels to the refugee crisis and I'm interested to see how that pans out (and where it will be dealt with). All these Asgardians have powers too, right?

I liked the effortless cameo Doctor Strange was able to make and appreciated his power prowess, but his mastery of all magic over even "gods" was a little jarring given where he was last time we saw him. The joke of making Thor ill/confused from the constant teleporting got a little old, but I did like Mjolnir slowly flying through the Sanctum Sanctorum demolishing things. That it was disguised as an umbrella was a nice reference to the classic comics' concealment of the hammer as Dr. Donald Blake's walking stick too. I expected a bigger role for Strange given the conversation they used as a post-credits scene in his film, but I feel like using him any more would've overshadowed Thor if they were going to make him so much more powerful and competent than the title character.

Korg (Taika Waititi) was fine, with many of his jokes landing, but he was also a major culprit of the film's habit of undercutting nearly every dramatic moment with a joke. I didn't like Karl Urban's Scourge—he was too much of a fool to take seriously—but I was surprised he got an arc. His fascination with and the film's spotlight on semi-automatic guns as "cool" things was bizarre and didn’t fit the film at all; on a purely technological level alone, surely Asgardian weapons are more powerful than AR-15s. Surtur was cool despite Thor's jokes in the opening scene robbing him of any trace of menace, but I expected him to be harder to defeat. Jane Foster's (Natalie Portman) absence was awkwardly explained: how would random civilians on Earth know about her dumping him unless she made it public, which feels way out of character for her (and even out of character for someone like Darcy (Kat Dennings)). The film's focus away from Earth and lack of scientific explanations for anything made her absence less glaring, except for the romantic relationship disconnect between the second and third films. I wouldn't mind seeing Jane again in a future MCU film. I would've liked to see Sif again, but it probably would've resulted in her death, so I guess it's good she wasn't included.

Ultimately, Ragnarok is a fun, likable movie, but not one of my favorites. I wish they'd struck a better balance between the jokes and losses the characters faced, and that Hela had more to do. Hopefully they’ll achieve that balance going forward.

[ladyknightskye]

The 13 Ghosts of Darcy Lewis (3)

Summary: Halloween is one of Darcy’s favorite holidays, but the spooky fun is about to be hijacked. Now, Darcy must traverse a nightmare vision of the Avengers Compound and collect the 13 ghosts of the Avengers before midnight or else the spell will never be broken. However, she’s going to have some mighty monsters to fight - the Avengers themselves.

Author’s Note: This fic will be 31 chapters long, but each chapter will be of drabble length (approx. 200-1500 words). I’m using a prompt list of my own making to guide the story. A chapter will be posted each day, with the exception of the first three, because I couldn’t get to posting them before now. :) I hope you enjoy!

Chapter 3: Gauntlet Thrown (Spells)

Characters: Darcy Lewis, Pepper Potts, Laura Barton, Jane Foster, Betty Ross

Relationships: mentioned Tony Stark/Pepper Potts, mentioned Betty Ross/Bruce Banner, Jane Foster & Darcy Lewis

Warnings: None

Darcy loved Halloween. She loved the costumes, and the candy, and the whole ambiance. This year looked to be especially awesome since she got to party with the Avengers. Well, everyone who lived and worked in the compound was invited, from the mightiest janitor to the lowliest director of operations, and that was just fine with Darcy Elizabeth Lewis. She liked people, and this was a chance to mingle with everyone. Not to mention the fact that Laura Barton, Betty Ross, and Pepper Potts were going to be in attendance as well.

           She was just entering the party, glancing around to see if she could find Steve and Bucky – they’d said they’d meet her at the door – when it happened. A shiver ran down her spine, and her skin felt like it had hit a wall of ice. The world went black, then white, then black again, until she found herself standing in a nondescript room. The walls were stark white, and she realized she wasn’t alone. “Guys?”

           Pepper, Laura, Jane, and Betty all turned to her. They were dressed in their costumes as she was. Pepper had dressed up as a police officer – of the decidedly not-sexy variety in order to mess with Tony – and Betty was an Egyptian woman. Jane had gone all out as a Tudor era queen, and Laura was a simple demon in an all black outfit with a pair of horns on a headband. Darcy herself was dressed as a witch with a cute little fascinator hat, green and black striped stockings, and a little black dress paired with black lace elbow-length gloves.

           “Good, our last contestant is here,” a voice murmured. The five women turned to see a woman melt out of the whiteness, her golden skin and amber eyes a warm contrast to the sterile color. “I am called Enchantress. I have brought you here for a challenge.”

           “A challenge?” Laura barked. Betty glanced around fearfully, and Jane and Pepper looked fierce.

           “Ah, already one of you shows her true colors,” Enchantress murmured, regret coloring her tone. Betty disappeared, and the other four cried out. “Calm yourselves! She is unharmed. But she couldn’t take the challenge ahead.”

“And I repeat,” Laura snapped, “What challenge?”

“Yeah!” Jane agreed, “Who the hell are you to come here and kidnap us?!”

Enchantress grinned, her lips bright and cruel. “It is a shame isn’t it? That you are so strong of will, yet you have no strength of body or power to match. That was Ms. Ross’s problem – her strength of will was not enough. Do not mistake me, she is a brave woman, but her bravery only extends to that which she needs to defend her beloved from her father. Her fire burns because of another, not in spite of them.”

Jane glanced back at Darcy, and then to Pepper and Laura. “I’ve had power, and I don’t want it again.”

“That is true,” Enchantress mused, “You have Dr. Foster. Are you sure though? I offer not the power of the Aether, but something else.”

Jane shook her head. “No. I’m fine as I am. Now let me, and my friends, go.”

Enchantress laughed, the sound dark and ominous. “I’m afraid the only person you disqualify is yourself.”

Jane disappeared the same as Betty. Pepper and Laura continued to stand their ground, but Darcy approached them. She stayed behind Pepper and Laura, and couldn’t help but feel like the older women were almost like lionesses protecting her. “So, three remain. And you still haven’t told us what this challenge is,” Darcy said finally. “Is this like the Highlander or something? Only one can survive?”

Enchantress grinned, the expression just as sharp and terrifying as everything else about the woman. “No, it is not a challenge to the death. I am not evil, just . . . a little cruel. No one will die tonight. Even if they appear to, it will only be an illusion.”

“So comforting,” Pepper snapped.

“So, can we opt out like Jane?” Laura continued.

The golden woman cocked her head. “No, because I must have a winner this night. I could allow two of you to go, but that does not guarantee that I would have a worthy champion. So, I allowed for two of you to be disqualified before the true test begins. Congratulations, ladies, on winning round 1.”

“Let Darcy go,” Pepper said.

The woman smiled. “You are a protector, that is plain, but I will not.”

Darcy put up her hands. “No, Pep’s right, let me go! Whatever magic mumbo-jumbo that you want to bestow, I’m not the right one for it. I’m just the intern.”

Enchantress’s grin turned cold and calculating. “Are you? Is that what Captain Rogers and Sergeant Barnes think?”

Before Pepper could let loose an invective, or Laura a cry of frustration, or Darcy a gasp of surprised outrage, the three women were gone. The last thing they heard was Enchantress’s voice – “Break the spell, and win the night.”

[renaroo]

Promises (5/30)

Disclaimer: Batman and associated characters are the creative property of DC Comics. Warnings: One Year Later/Evil Cass allusions Rating: T Synopsis: For an entire year after the Crisis which threatened to wipe everything they knew and loved off the Earth, after so many hardships and loved ones lost, Cass and Tim find themselves battling on different sides of the globe not only for the fate of what’s left of the world, but for the sake of once again feeling purpose. [A One Year Later fixer upper]

A/N: WOW. Super long time, no updates. But, hey, I’m back in the swing of things and I’m here to make up for it with a giant chapter of feelings~

Special thanks to @secretlystephaniebrown for being just a fantastically supportive friend and for giving long ago feedback on this sucker before the hiatus <3

A Grave Awakening

Everyone in Titans Tower had, in some form or fashion, personalized their rooms. Their preferences and needs were all met in every way possible. Which made it somewhat more of a curiosity how the unpowered among them would decorate.

From what Starfire and Cyborg had said to him, Tim had taken the same approach to dressing up his room and locker the way the Robins before him had. Plain and boring.

His colors matched his uniform, and there was a photograph from his, Cassie, Bart, and Kon’s first day at the tower. 

There was some training equipment, a punching bag and the like. 

And endless supply of batarangs should he choose to open any of the doors of his dressers as well as a lot of other equipment. 

A computer desk, a gaming chair that only really got use when Bart invaded some of his personal space. 

Bland was perhaps a word Tim found more apt for his tastes than boring. And that was not any unplanned thing. Tim had known from the start exactly what he was doing. 

Not leaving a mark.

Tim’s grandest fear for years was the belittlement and degradation of the Robin name. That somehow his very use of it, his role, would take from the people that came before or after him. He had been trained endlessly to follow their steps, but also to not step out of line.

The impression he was responsible for making within the hero community went almost without saying: he was the new Robin. Not the Robin. Not that one. Not...

Throughout the entire room there was only one break from the Spartan bareness that Tim had taken up, and that was a ridiculous, oversized clock that hung across the room from his bed that was a gaudy Gotham souvenir in the shape of the projecting Bat Signal in the Gotham night. 

It was black and yellow, but the most annoying part about it was the thick outline toward the edges -- a bright white strip that, at night, had the audacity to glow in the dark. 

It was hideous and annoying. 

Tim had never once touched it to so much as take it down let alone set it. After all, it had been a long standing challenge between him and Kon. 

Kon had gotten it as a gag. Kon had hung it in Tim’s room without permission. Kon had refused to take it down despite Tim demanding he do so. 

When Tim looked at that gaudy, awful clock, he thought of his best friend. He thought of the one person who had trusted him -- and only him -- like no one else in the world. He thought about the only person who knew his identity in the Tower, who knew he had Enya CDs in his collection, that he would defend Stephanie’s right to be Robin even against his former teammates. 

He looked at that clock and it was suddenly all horrifically apparent to Tim that in the grand scheme of things, he truly had lost. 

And it didn’t matter what the world threw his way from that moment forward, he was not going to feel more terrible than he did in that exact moment. 

Tim set on the edge of his bed, staring at the awful clock on the opposite wall when he heard the hesitant knock on the door of his room. He turned just enough to see that it was Bart, looking particularly out of place not bursting in and taking charge of the room as per his usual manners. 

“Hey, uh...” Bart stumbled on his own words, bringing a hand to his mouth and chewing on a finger nervously before trying again. “We... I think almost everyone who’s coming is... come. So... They’re outside right now.”

Looking at Bart, Tim attempted to muster some sense of feeling, some words of comfort. After all, he was fairly sure that Bart had never lost someone on this magnitude before. Not since Max Mercury and...

Still, Tim couldn’t stop the dumfounded staring at Bart. 

“I was sent to get you and Cassie,” Bart spat out at last. “So we can... Start. And things.”

Tim looked back down to his lap and folded his hands together. The rub of the leather against itself gave a satisfying crackling. It felt like that should’ve been more than answer enough for Bart or anyone else. 

But Bart was still waiting expectantly at the door. 

“Tim... I don’t know what to do,” he finally said. “It’s not fair that we’re asking you... asking you to...” He squeezed his eyes shut and lowered his head. Tim could already see the tracks of tears working their way down his cheeks. “I can’t ask it of Cassie -- no one could be that cruel to her. But, Tim... Tim. I... I know you’ve been to too many funerals lately. That I should be the one of us to go up and-and... but I can’t. I can’t stop crying every time I think about it. I’d run away, right off the stage.”

“No, Bart, you can’t do it,” Tim said lowly. “We’d never ask you to... This is hard for anyone. And you don’t want to. And we’d never tell you to do something you can’t do.”

“But you’ve--”

“I don’t have any tears left, Bart,” Tim said simply, drawing the speedster’s gaze entirely. Tim let out a dry laugh. “I don’t. I can’t... I have to do this because Kon deserves it. Just like Stephanie and my dad deserved it. But I didn’t have tears left for them either. The kids who died in my school deserved it. Orpheus deserved it. Not to mention all the heroes who died in the Crisis. Everyone deserves it, but I’ve only been asked to speak for one and... I have to make it count for all of them... because I don’t cry for them anymore. I have to make this one moment count.”

Once the word vomit was clear from his system, Tim looked back toward Bart, maybe looking for some reassurance or perhaps just acknowledgement that such feelings weren’t the epitome of selfishness in the face of the people who had truly lost everything. 

What he received instead was a stare of mounting horror from his childhood friend.

“Dude,” Bart whispered, breathless and lost in a way he never was from running. “Robin... you need... I’m so sorry.”

Genuinely surprised by the statement, Tim turned more toward the Kid Flash. “What do you mean? What are you sorry about?”

For once, Bart’s mouth didn’t seem to be working in his favor. After a few aborted instances of trying to get words out, he then turned and took off like a speeding bullet, as if to get as far away from Tim as possible.

Which... was fair. Tim wasn’t sure if he was the most consoling force in the world. At least not anymore. 

It wasn’t fair for him to not be supportive, to not be there for his closest friends at the time where they needed him most. But Tim couldn’t force himself to be better yet. 

Tim sat on the edge of his bed for a little longer, waiting for it to be time for him to out and lead everyone else in the one thing he couldn’t yet afford for himself: healing.

By the time Tim made his way down to the ground floor, the sun was setting and it was clear to see that Bart had not been exaggerating about everyone being there -- Titans then and past. 

He still found himself hesitant to step forward, because the statue before them was daunting, casting the kind of shadow in the golden sunset that nearly seemed as long as the one that Kon himself cast over them at that moment. 

Tim knew every Titan was there, but it still caught him off guard when Dick approached him, arm still in a cast, limp still obvious. He wasn’t in his Nightwing suit, though he wore the mask over his eyes. 

He had to have had Roy or someone else sneak him out of the Manor after all he had been through. There was no way Bruce or Alfred had let Dick out of their sights long enough for him to pull such a stunt alone. 

Dick approached Tim without any of the reluctance or hesitation that seemed to keep paralyzing Tim with every step. And despite his mask, it was clear that he was in the throes of concern for Tim. 

The intensity of it made him uncomfortable. 

“Tim,” Dick said softly. “Kory told me you had wanted to eulogize and... This year... This year has been too much on you. I was the one who asked Conner to help me during the Crisis, and as a Founding Titan... well I think it would be proper for me to do this.”

A flare of emotion that had been escaping Tim nearly all day came up in his chest and he narrowed his eyes. “I’m not a fragile doll, Dick,” he said lowly. 

“We know that, Tim,” Dick said. 

And it was that we that was suddenly very telling.

Perhaps Bruce did know about Dick escaping the Manor after all.

“If I don’t do this today, I’m never going to forgive myself, Dick. And that’s the truth. And if I don’t do it because of you, then I’m probably not going to forgive you for it either,” Tim announced with what he hoped was just the right amount of gravitas. 

For all the gravity, though, Dick seemed more saddened than anything. 

“You’re right, I’m sorry,” Dick said. “Just know... I’m here for you.”

“Yeah...” Tim said, heading toward the other Titans. “Seems like everyone is.”

If Dick had more of a reaction to that statement, Tim didn’t turn back to see it. He was a man on a mission by that point. 

Fortunately no one else tried to stop him as he got in front of everyone and cleared his throat. 

"I... What I need to do is say something,” Tim said, already flummoxing. But as the eyes of all the Titans turned toward him, he built his resolve and continued. “About Superboy... about Kon. Because...” There were phrases like he deserved it and he would’ve wanted on the tip of Tim’s tongue. But none of them were true. Not entirely. 

But everyone was still looking to him, so Tim dug deeper, found words that felt hardened into his bones, felt larger than Kon, larger than his feelings toward everyone else lost as well. 

“He’s... gone now,” Tim said, brows furrowing as if the gravity of that fact was still new and surprising to him. “He was my best friend. Sometimes my big brother. Sometimes my little brother.” He paused, caught his breath, made an effort to not meet any eyes but also to not look away. There was a blur of a crowd before him and he couldn’t see anyone. Which was good. Because he could feel the tears welling up despite the fact that he didn’t think there were more of them in him. “We did some stupid things together... We talked about girls. We talked about cars. And... when my dad died... when Spoiler died... even when I really didn’t want to... we talked about that, too.”

Tilting his chin up, Tim caught his breath again. It was so damn hard to say, but he couldn’t stop himself anymore. 

His audience, despite Tim, was seemingly captivated. Caught in awe.

“I don’t know who to talk to now about that stuff. I guess there’s always Batman and Superman... I mean, in times of Crisis that’s what you’re supposed to do, right?” Tim went on. “Look to your heroes...” 

H reached up and roughly rubbed away the tears that escaped his mask, took another sharp breath. He could finally see who was around him at that point. The original Titans, or what stood of them by that point. The new Teen Titans and Titans alike. The Titans before his own, and then... him, Cassie, Bart... The members of Young Justice wearing clothes they’d long abandoned so as to pay respects. 

Uniforms of every color. 

“When we lose one of our own, we never know quite what to do,” Tim continued. “Because... we are the heroes. It doesn’t matter if we’re still seen as kids, if we’re still seen as young and maybe a little impatient. Because we’re the Titans. And in this time of Crisis, the world looked to all of us. We answered.” He looked up to Kon’s likeness in the statue, a crushing weight continuing to settle in his chest. “Kon answered. Because Superboy was a hero. And the whole world got to see that he deserved to be called it.”

Cassie burst into tears, tucked between Koriand’r and Bart, Tim knew she would be held up, even if he didn’t know if she’d be okay. So he finished up.

“They say that people live on… That you don’t forget them if you talk about them,” Tim said softly. “So let’s never stop reminding people what Superboy did for them.”

By the time Tim was stepping down from the front of the crowd, he felt it. The emotions that had been chiseled into his bones, gnawing from the inside out through the aches and pains of tiredness. He felt what had been missing since the night he found his father dead and his classmates murdered and his girlfriend tortured.

Tim felt the tears come and he kept them back long enough to walk away from the crowd, numb to the words Cyborg was currently giving, numb to everything but the tears that were managing to get past his mask and no doubt loosen the adhesive.

The only thing he could feel once his vision blurred was how strong Dick’s grip was when he caught Tim’s shoulders with his one good arm and pulled him back against his chest.

Nose bending against Dick’s chest, Tim didn’t care as he leaned in further until his forehead and chin were pressed into the fabric of Dick’s shirt and his head tucked under his mentor, friend, and brother’s chin. He didn’t care who saw, though he doubted anyone was paying attention as the ceremony continued on.

“Let’s get you home,” Dick whispered, rubbing circles into Tim’s back, still pressing him close. “I’m so sorry, Tim.”

Nodding along, Tim had little to say back. Just questions.

Questions like why was Dick sorry when there were those more responsible? And what was home anymore when he was fatherless and motherless and friendless and there was no Blüdhaven and—

He meant the Cave. The Cave was his home.

And there was something, even if Tim could only think of it peripherally, inherently wrong with that sentiment.

When they reached Gotham’s harbor it was well past sunrise. And, for reasons Tim refused to reflect on, he felt some tremendous relief at the realization. Not because it meant that he could finally stop flying the Batwing or because he would be able to lock himself in the guest bedroom that had been his officially for a week and unofficially for years.

There was something heavier there. Something he couldn’t quite put his finger on until they dipped into the cloudy Gotham waters and finally entered the tunnels that took them to the Batcave far, far into Bristol.

He finally was able to put a finger to the emotions he felt when they came in for a landing and, against all expectations, Bruce was actually still awake and in the cave working. Still there. Still being Bruce.

And when that realization crept into Tim’s mind, the horrible truth set in.

Tim’s best friend was dead. But the man who made Brother Eye was as good as the father that Tim had lost only a few months before.

After realizing his own emotions, a nauseousness overcame Tim and he leaned forward, setting his forehead against the steering wheel of the Batwing. His eyes were wide, though hidden behind the loosened domino mask.

He felt sick. He felt wrong. He felt so goddamn ungrateful.

“Come on, buddy,” Dick’s always soothing voice called before Tim could feel the strong grip of Dick’s hand on his shoulder, shaking him once again. Always there to be a guiding light — that was Dick Grayson in a nutshell. “I know you have to be tired, but I’m not about to let you sleep in the Batwing. Not when there’s a warm bed and Alfred’s tea waiting on you just upstairs.”

Which meant walking past Bruce. Which meant walking past the man who built the construct that would eventually lead to almost losing Dick, to actually losing Kon.

The man he had looked up to his entire life. The man who took Tm under his wing. The man he loved like a father when he didn’t know what a father’s love felt like. The man who believed in him the way almost no one in the world could.

The man who had not so much as turned from the Batcomputer since their landing. The man who had not gone to the Metropolis statue ceremony. The man who had kept Tim out of the loop until Jack Drake was making his last phone call. The man who kept Stephanie Brown’s death a secret until Tim’s usefulness as Robin was realized during the Gang War.

The Batman, and all the complicated feelings that Tim had never addressed because how could he?

“Tim, I’ll carry you if you don’t walk. Just watch me,” Dick teased.

Without further prompting, Tim got to his feet and looked up at Dick.

Dick had already taken his mask off and his own exhaustion was clear in his face. Some sweat had accumulated just below his hairline, and strands of his hair had gotten caught in it, highlighting the obvious fact that Dick could use a decent haircut. He was sweating and weary from pain but he somehow managed to exude sympathy even before he reached forward and pulled Tim into another one armed hug.

“I’m so sorry, Timmy,” Dick repeated.

But Dick wasn’t the one that Tim wanted to be sorry.

They walked out of the Batwing together and both stopped close to the computer dock where Bruce sat. When he still didn’t turn around, Tim scowled and headed toward the lockers so he could change into the pajamas he could always count on Alfred leaving there.

Almost predictably, Dick went to Bruce to force the matter. It was what the original Boy Wonder was best at, after all.

“I see a lot of missed calls stacking up on the third monitor,” Dick declared as Tim ripped off what remained of his mask adhesive and began to yank at his boots and gauntlets. “They all look familiar, but you can never tell with how smart collect calls are getting these days. You ever asked one if they’re a robot? They get all offended, but they can’t say they’re not robots. It’s weird.”

There was a pause of silence where Tim was certain that Bruce was not going to bother answering. So much so, that as he unclasped his cape, Tim was almost startled by hearing Bruce’s gruff voice answer.

“They’re from the Justice League. Various members. Mostly founders,” Bruce replied.

“Do they need more help for the relief efforts?” Dick asked.

Tim pulled up his pajama pants and tightened the strings.

“They don’t want things to be messy, so my resignation would be preferable,” Bruce answered. “Diana has already tenured hers, setting the example. No one was going to ask her for it. Not even me. But she did it, and now it is the seemly thing for members of the League who are in violation of the Charter to do.”

“Booster Gold doing commercial endorsements isn’t in violation of the Charter?” Dick asked dryly.

“Booster Gold did not almost destroy time and space or invaded privacy on an international scale,” Bruce responded. “Worst of all… Brother Eye never once helped me to prevent the unpreventable.”

“It was the wrong way to go, but they can’t have a Justice League without a Batman,” Dick urged. “If you don’t resign and it’s put to a vote, who on the current roster would stand with you?”

Tim closed his locker door quietly and looked back toward the dock, wondering if the list in his mind was close to Bruce’s.

“No one,” Bruce answered coldly.

He was wrong. Tim’s reserve status as established by the same clause that had allowed Dick as Robin and Jason after him to work on League cases would have made Tim eligible for voting privileges.

Tim would still defend him. Even in his angriest, his saddest, his loneliest.

Because Bruce was still Batman.

“No one would,” Bruce repeated.

Without saying goodnight or acknowledging either in the cave at all, Tim started on his way upstairs. He needed rest almost as much as he needed closure, and his near sycophant nature on the matter was making him nauseated all over again.

Neither Dick nor Bruce seemed to notice his departure.

It was still debatable if Bruce had realized he was there at all.

Heading upstairs, the exhaustion hit Tim like a Ferrari at one-sixty, and even the mental image of such a thing felt appealing compared to the truly rotten guilt that was eating away at him from the inside out.

He had no plans other than to reach his room and collapse into his bed.

But, of course, there was always something unexpected along the way.

The guest room Tim had made his own was merely one of several in the wing of Wayne Manor. Dick’s old room was a bit further down, close to the Master where Bruce of course slept. Tim had been offered Dick’s room before, but considering the trauma of Blüdhaven and everything with it that Dick had undergone, no one had to even ask Tim to move further down the hall. He did it the moment he saw Bruce and Alfred drag Dick home from the Gang War.

There was also Jason’s room. A room that had never been a topic for discussion in all the years Tim had had access to the Manor. And it remained even more so recently.

What Tim wasn’t used to, even if in the back of his mind he was always aware of it, was the guest room that was reserved for one person who never utilized it.

And he was certainly not expecting to see her sitting in the middle of the room’s floor with the door wide open.

“Cass?” Tim called out, stopping in the hall.

Cassandra was sitting in the floor with her back to him, though much like the brief time they had lived together in Blüdhaven, it wasn’t much more than a loose tank top and leggings. Her body was folded over, hugging her knees, chin resting until she heard Tim call out.

Of course he hadn’t surprised her or snuck up on her, but she apparently had been anticipating that Tim walk on by. Because when Cassandra turned to face Tim, tears were fully falling from her cheeks.

“Cassandra,” he muttered again, taking a subconscious step into the room. “How long have you… What’s going on—“

“Didn’t go,” she told him.

“Didn’t go?” Tim repeated in confusion.

“To see him,” Cass said lowly. “To say goodbye.”

Then he remembered — of course. Kon had been the first boy outside of Gotham that Cass truly got to know, the first other hero to get to know her. He was a friend to her, too.

And Tim hadn’t even thought of what Cass had lost recently.

“I know you’re not a Titan, but… If you had told me you wanted to go, Dick and I would’ve taken you,” Tim assured her, getting down to his knees to be more on Cassandra’s level. “I would’ve taken you. I know he was… he was your friend and mine and…”

Cassandra shook her head once, but meaningfully. It was more than enough to let Tim trail off without pressing further.

“I’m… not the same person,” Cass said almost quietly, tears still falling. “I’ve… I’ve volved, Tim.”

“Solved?” Tim asked, still confused, before hesitating as he saw her shoulder, his eyes adjusting to the room.

Cass had never been particularly shy about her body, to what was usually Tim’s dismay, but because of that he had seen her collection of scars. None stuck out more vividly in his head than the exit wound on her shoulder that he had seen up close and personal before. It was large — having grown with age since her father had shot her when she was still so young. And seeing it, remembering it, had always managed to bring Tim’s blood to a boil.

But, right then, at that moment, it wasn’t there.

None of them were.

“Your scars…” Tim said out loud, astonished before looking to Cassandra’s face, searching for an answer. “They’re gone.”

Her tears kept falling but her expression didn’t change. “I’m not the same,” Cass said. “Lazarus… I’m not the same. Please. Please, Tim. Don’t… Don’t tell Batman.”

Tim stared at her, processing everything. His brain was still a foggy mess of emotions and repressions and all the more. But for that moment, clarity hit him.

He was good at being able to shove his feelings aside to put someone else’s first. Most of the time. This time.

With a little hesitation, Tim grabbed Cass’ shoulders with the same strength that Dick had done with him for most of the day. It was enough to put her full attention on him. “I won’t. I’m here for you,” he assured her.

Dick probably would have ended it with a hug, but Tim wasn’t there yet. He couldn’t give out those with the same meaning. But Cass seemed to be in tune, as she reached up and put her hands over his to squeeze them back. And they both let the tears come.

By the time he woke up in the morning, Tim wasn’t sure who was responsible for putting the blankets over him and Cass as they had passed out on the floor of her room.

[cassiejade]

I read 21 books this month.

That’s right 21.

I am so impressed with myself, this has been the best reading month ever. Ever. Thank god for audiobooks I listened to 11 audiobooks this month, and if it wasn’t for audiobooks I wouldn’t have gotten through some of these books.

I just cannot believe I read 20 books; I’m just in a huge reading mood and just want to read all the books. I can’t get enough and I hope this feeling never goes away. I haven’t felt even close to burning out yet.

Help me when I do lol that slump is probably going to be brutal!

Lets get into my wrap up lol

The Long Way to A Small Angry Planet  by Becky Chambers 4 out of 5 stars

If you are ever looking for an audiobook recommendation, get this one, its such a fun sci-fi read.

Love, Life, and the List by Kasie West 3 out of 5 stars

I don’t know what to say about this one, I didn’t love it but I also didn’t hate it. Kasie’s books have either been a hit or miss with me, and I think it’s because her storytelling doesn’t feel consistent to me.

The Thief  by Megan Whalen Turner 3 out of 5 stars

I was honestly expecting a bit more from this, I’ve heard so many people raving about it, Regan at PeruseProjects has been fangirling over this series so hard that I had to read it, and I was really bored for most of the story.

The Theif’s Daughter  by Jeffery Wheeler 5 out of 5 stars

I read the Queens Poisoner last year which is the first book of the Kingfountain series, and I loved it. I also highly recommend these audiobooks, the narrator is just wonderful. This is a King Arther retelling but its done in the way that its like a prequel to King Arther, its a two-generation series with the first three books dedicated to the events leading up to King Arther and the last three books are the next generation, I haven’t read those yet but I am really looking forward to them.

The King’s Traitor  by Jeffery Wheeler 5 out of 5 stars

I’m not gonna say much about it except this was a great ending to a trilogy.

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden 5 out of 5 stars

I don’t know where to begin, the first thing I’ll say, It was everything I wanted from the synopsis. I have a guilty pleasure for a Russian setting, dark fairytales come to life, and the writing was just gorgeous. If you’re a fan of Laini Taylor’s writing I say pick this up. It has such a lush and rich setting, you feel like you are in the world.

Magic Study by Maria V Snyder 4 out of 5 stars

I read Poison Study last year and was a bit enchanted with the world and these characters, I was so frustrated with them at first but the things that infuriated me in the book weren’t an issue continuing on. I loved the school setting so much

Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel 5 out of 5 stars

I didn’t know much about this before getting into it. I had a general idea that a girl had fallen down a hole and landed in the middle of a giant metal hand. SOLD! GIVE ME. This was told through dossier reports and interviews and it was amazing. Loved and can’t wait for the next book.

The Mark of Athena  by Rick Riordan 5 out of 5 stars

This is the one that turned me onto Riordan’s writing, I was a bit bored while reading the Percy Jackson series, struggled through the Lost Hero, and was hesitant about Son of Neptune, but I loved this one. Everyone coming together from the Greek and Roman camps, Annabeth is a total BAMF, Percy and Jason’s testosterone-fueled competitions. There was just so much that I loved.

btw I’m totally convinced this is what Annabeth was thinking when Percy and Jason met 

Wonder Woman: Warbringer  by Leigh Bardugo 4 out of 5 stars

I was surprised to enjoy this as Wonder Woman is not my all-time favorite DC character, I am a huge fan of the movie and I’m slowly coming around to her. I am familiar with Wonder Woman’s canon story but was really open to a new perspective, a new story from a different point of view, and Bardugo definitely delivered. The action was great and Diana was delightful.

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black 4.5 out of 5 stars

Alright, this book definitely delivered on the hype. I was a bit skeptical going in, everyone left and right was loving this, yet the beginning was so slow. But the storytelling was a bit hypnotic and I slowly and surely just fell in love.

Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire 4.5 out of 5 stars

I adore this series and I hope it continues, every book just leaves me wanting more.

Paperweight by Meg Haston 3 out of out of 5 stars

This is a hard one to sum up, its such an important topic, dealing with all sorts of mental illnesses. But I didn’t care for much of the story, it was angsty, emotional, and just all around a bit overwhelming at points.

The Time Machine by HG Wells 2 out of 5 stars

I was actually really bored reading this, it was a long story being told to a group of friends, the story-telling was rushed and there were points where what the time traveler was saying just didn’t make sense. I listened to this on audiobook and I think that was the only thing that kept me going with the story.

The Picture of Dorian Gray  by Oscar Wilde 1 out of 5 stars

So I guess this is somewhat of an unpopular opinion but I don’t care, come at me, this book is trash! Just straight up garbage. First of all, I don’t like being told how the world works from the eyes of pretentious upper-class fuckboys who have never done a single day of actual work. I understand that these characters weren’t meant to be relatable and to actually be disliked but that doesn’t mean I have to enjoy these long-winded pretentious and boring monologues

Second of all this book romanticizes suicide because all these characters are garbage people; a young girl kills herself over heartbreak and one of the garbage people said that he wishes some of his mistresses had loved him enough to do the same and how lucky the heartbreaker was to be rid of such a love-struck inconvenience. Umm, all y’all can just go choke.

Third, fuck this book.

Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard: The Hammer of Thor  by Rick Riordan 4 out of 5 stars

I am really enjoying the Magnus Chase trilogy. Its so much fun, I love the references the bits of pop culture. The diversity is also amazing, and the Norse gods are just so much fun. I cant get enough to be honest.

Batman: Nightwalker by Marie Lu 4 out of 5 stars

Maybe I’m in the minority here but I really enjoyed this, I was hooked from the getgo and couldn’t read the story fast enough, I needed to know everything that was happening next and I needed to know it now. A really gripping story with a new take on Bruce Wayne.

Scythe by Neal Schusterman 5 out of 5 stars

OMG! Why did I wait so long to read this?!?! This was phenomenal! I loved the story, the world, how dark it was, the characters. I cant think of a negative thing to say. I was hooked to the pages from start to finish, there was no point where I felt bored while reading this.

Yes Please  by Amy Schumer 3 out of 5 stars

There were quite a few points where I was laughing so hard. I listened to this on audiobook too and it was amazing with a cast recording, Seth Meyers came in and read a chapter, Carol Burnett popped in to say that Amy was her best friend, her parents came in and did some readings, and then Patrick Stewart came and read some poems. It was just great. Have I sold you on it yet?

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley 2.5 out of 5 stars

This was an interesting story, but the worldbuilding could have been better, the beginning was super slow! I wasn’t even fully interested until I was almost halfway through…thank god for audiobooks lol.

Artemis by Andy Weir 3 out of 5 stars

I would have liked this a lot more if there wasn’t so much description, so much detail of A going to B and then B going to C, and then why were doing all of this, why the thing is doing the thing! So too much detail, too much spoonfeeding explaining.

On the bright side; I liked the humor in the book, some of it was forced but some lines were great! The story wasn’t that bad. At the end of the day, I did enjoy it.

What was your favorite book you read this month? Mine was probably The Bear and the Nightingale and my least fave was the Picture of Dorian Gray.

  January 2018 Wrap Up: aka my best reading month ever I read 21 books this month. That's right 21. I am so impressed with myself, this has been the best reading month ever.