#this is huge but I would have DIED to have seen this in N52

[redrobin-detective]

Don't know if this had been asked before but how would resolve/explored/develop the batfamily dynamics pre 52? I don't know if it was you or someone else, but it was brought up that the idea of Damian being more Dick's kid than Bruce's would be a neat idea to explore. Bruce would still bond w/Damian but he'd have to deal w/Damian seeing Dick as his real dad and Dick staying Batman for Damian's sake. Tim and Dick repairing their bond while the former and Damian would learn to accept each other.

Sorry, I know, I’ve held onto this for nearly a week but this is such a big ask I’ve been thinking about how to best describe and format it so I’ve been doing it bit by bit. Because I’ve given quite a bit of thought to how to integrate the ideas of pre-Flashpoint smoothly into N52, using the plot lines and developments from the later without sacrificing the former. I think it could have easily have been done and been more interesting because DC dropped off on some intense plotlines. *Also to save my fingers, Pre = Pre-Flashpoint/N52

Dick/Dami- I have done a few posts about how close they were pre and how Dami and Bruce really weren’t. Bruce was not the best father before he came back from the dead and had no interest in working with Damian in order to help the boy heal. In my fantasy, this would have played out. Damian would have refused to leave Dick’s side as his partner while now Bruce is hurt/confused on why his son now doesn’t want to be with him. I want Damian and Bruce to have a relationship but I want B to have to work for it. Nightwing and Robin shows Dick and Dami together with Batman and Red Robin has Tim and Bruce teamed but slightly at odds with each other, the once close relationship showing strain while Dick and Dami are going strong. Eventually Bruce earns Damian’s love and trust and begins patrolling with Bruce but he still remains immensely close to Dick and, no one says it aloud, but everyone considers him more Dick’s child than Bruce’s. By the time of Damian’s death, it should be Dick who is outraged and inconsolable with grief barely able to function while Bruce goes into his angry/panicked mode because he’d barely gotten any time with Dami and now he’s gone.

Tim- Just Tim in general would need a lot of work done and I’m not just saying that cause he’s my favorite. Red Robin left us with some pretty massive loose ends not to mention Timmy had be been bent and twisted by his experiences to the point that he was different and not always in good healthy ways. In Batman and Red Robin, we see the strain slowly start to show. B is still mad for Tim almost killing Boomerang at the same time he’s upset at how much Tim has grown-up and grown away. He’s also lowkey upset about Dami and, I don’t want to say he’s using Tim to fill in until Damian comes back but it’s implied. He also becomes increasingly concerned for Tim’s mental/physical health. Tim meanwhile is a slow, steady downward slope of depression and feelings of isolation and hurt/anger/insecurity over how the batfam treated him the past few years. First half would show the two fighting and generally slipping down, maybe Tim has a bad health scare with spleen and finally enough is enough and they focus on pulling Tim back. Also like to see a resolution to the Ra’s arc in which Ra’s comes in and tries to sway Tim over to his side which becomes more possible as Tim slips further away from the batfam. The whole fam/Titans get together and help get Red in a better place. (also wishful thinking, as all this occurs, Tim begins to realize his love for Conner and is dealing with that on top of everything. It spills out one night and is delighted/terrified to find his best friend has felt the same way for a long time. they agree to put any relationship on hold until Tim is in a better place but they sneak a few kisses and the support really helps Tim get back together)

Tim/Jason- Just as an aside I’d really like to see this (brotherly/friend) relationship develop. I like that N52 had these two be friends but it drove me nuts that after 6 years of Jay wanting nothing more than Tim’s death they’re besties? I’d like to think Jay would be one of the first to see how bad things have gotten for Tim because he’s been there, he know what it’s like to be the forgotten Robin. And Jay is still angry but his head is finally starting to clear from the Pit and he acknowledges that what happened with him and B wasn’t Tim’s fault. And as he watches Tim slowly spiral downwards with seemingly no help, Jay decides he won’t see another Robin die. Jason approaches Alfred, then B about Tim’s health and ways to help. It’s tense and awkward as they test the waters but they agree to, separately, help get Tim straight. It’s slow going but between Outlaw missions, Jay stops by Tim’s apartment and hangs out with him. They patrol when B is with Dami, they talk and properly get to know each other. They find they have a bit in common and actually like talking. Tim finally talks about some of the messed up things that happened and lets Jay know how bad things got and Jay finally talks about his traumas and comes to terms with them. As Tim is still angry at Dick/Bruce, Jason becomes a confidant in the batfam.

Jason- Actually RHATO Rebirth Jason is a pretty good idea of what I’m thinking of. We have a Jason who, after a few years finally is able to move past the Pit’s influence and think clearly for the first time in a while. It makes him realize that most of his actions were done out of anger so he re-evaluates. B sees this and takes the opportunity to reach out which Jason appreciates and returns by telling B about Tim. That’s where B and J start making things right, when they’re talking about how to best help Tim, they’re also covertly talking about how to deal with what happened. It gets out that Hood is a Bat and Jay is forced to ally himself properly with his family in order to avoid being torn apart by the criminal community. Jay will never be the golden son, he agrees that he won’t purposely kill but he toes the line far more than Bruce is comfortable with. The trust between them is razor thin but they’re trying. B hates it but he uses Jason as an agent who does the things B cannot/will not do. Jay spends only about half the time in Gotham, the other half with the Outlaws (NOT Kory/Roy, Jay needs his own team not hand-me-downs, Artemis/Bizarro?). He gets on better terms with Tim, but is still at odds with Dick even more so on Tim’s behalf for replacing the kid when he was down. Eventually learns to like Dami and becomes a proper big brother with him. I’d like a side arc seeing Jason going back to school? Going to GCU maybe with Steph under a false ID, that’d be nice.

Cass and the BOP- Having read Cass’s Batgirl run I think it’d be a natural progression that she’d fit in with the Birds. Cass loves her new family but she also needs space for herself to grow and she remembers Bruce was rather suffocating with her. She moves in fulltime with Barbara on the excuse she’s there to help/respond quickly but honestly she’s working on bettering her people skills and needs that constant human interaction. Babs teaches her to read when not on missions and the other Birds are very supportive of Cass. Cass also trains the other Birds in techniques and really hones the Team’s skills. They become just as formidable and respected as the Bats. They learn to coordinate better so they each can have more times off. The Birds would have their own section of Gotham as “theirs”, their own rogues gallery, get involved in the ladies’ personal lives. Barb is still struggling with her on again/off again relationship with Dick, now complicated by children in all but name, Damian and Cass (lol Bruce lost two children to other people). Cass is working on being a person and not a weapon but trying to keep up her impressive skills. Steph is a reserve member, available if needed but she’s really trying to ally herself with the Bats. She and Cass though retain a strong relationship, Steph because her relationship with Tim has soured and she needs someone and Cass because Steph was her first friend.

Stephanie- I’d basically like a continuation of her Batgirl run which was marvelous and go read it. Stephanie is still trying to prove herself to that Bats that she’s worthy of the cape and cowl and, for the most part, she’s earned it. Bruce now grants her the Batgirl title and keeps her on the roster and her belt equipped. But there’s always gonna be some tension between them and he’s undeniably harsher on her than the others. She patrols often with Dick and Damian who like/trust her more and, a lot of times, if Dick is working or whatever it will just be her and Damian. She relishes the big sister role and the feminine influence is good on Damian (though he’ll never admit to it). Continues her classes at GCU, nearly falls over when Jason sits next to her in her English Lit class. The big problem for her is keeping up with the other more confident/well-trained heroes and also repairing her relationship with Tim. She messed up, he took it badly, she moved up in batfam, he started spiraling out of control. He’s still angry about what went down but recently has been trying to repair the relationship. But too much has happened and they’ve both changed so much. Neither likes admitting how different from Robin and Spoiler they are. Her and Jay discuss how to handle Tim while studying poetry. As Tim’s health improves, he lets Steph in more and they start their friendship over. Also very close to the BOP/Cass and while she’ll hang out with them a lot out of costume, she’s determined to be a Bat. Maybe after she gains some confidence, she might switch over to the BOP for good.

[acceptsonlynttnightwing]

 People can’t be fans of RHATO and pre-52 Roy and the same time because they’re so different! I–Yo yes you absolutely can. Same as you can love Adam West Batman and Dark Knight Batman. Also even with all their difference I have seen plenty of fans merge the two. It actually isn’t that hard. Especially when you consider how much real people change over their lives. Or how people can act incredibly different around different individuals.

—-

Sorry, just want to say, I’d prefer if you could send this as a an ask - replying to submissions is weird.

I think you missed my point a little. When I said they were so different, I meant that OG Roy had experiences that make the very existence of N52 Roy impossible. Lian for example. Or his Outsiders era. It screws up the timeline to a ridiculous degree - like, the existence of 4 different robins really messes with Bruce’s and Dick’s ages, but having RHATO Roy would mean OG Roy missed out on a lot of formative experiences.

Yes, you can love Adam West’s and Christian Bale’s Batmen, but that because no one’s trying to reconcile the two or say one became the other. It’s very clear that both exist in seperate universes. No one would argue that say, George Clonney’s Batman grew up into the one Christian Bale played. Movies are like elseworlds - it doesn’t make sense to say the Tom Taylor’s Dark Knights of Steel fits in with the comic verse. However, Injustice was so cool because it built on pre-existing hero characterisations with just a few differences and more extremes.

Reboots should be like the later, not the former. If a character is basically unrecognisable, why would old fans want to read about him?

As for the second part of you statement, Sure you can merge the two - if you ignore large parts of canon, any logical timeline by which to base other characters and take basically nothing from RHATO except that Roy and Kori are suddenly BFFs with Jason. And even so, it makes little to no sense that the Outlaws even formed since a good number of their storylines (especially the Kori ones) has already been done in the ntt or New Titans.

And yes, people change over the course of their lives, but what RHATO did was completely rewrite Roy and Kori, not change them. Like, Tim and Damian and others grew/changed in N52 because they were young enough that it didn’t undo large swarths of their history (or STEAL large parts in an effort to make lesser know character more important). With the Titans, N52 just doesn’t reconcile with their past selves OR Rebirth selves. Like, I’d be more honest and comfortable with my friends vs my family - I can’t change my past depending on whom I’m with.

Roy went from being an reasonable and independent, if sometimes insecure hero to being the sidekick of someone who used to be atleast 5/7 years younger than him and who died before at 15. While Kori just became a weird bimbo with very little of her old complexity. Anyone wonder why the only part of OG Kori Lobell kept was the free sex one? (The sexual harrasment allegations he admitted to made me wonder for sure).

Also, the Titans were SUCH a huge part of Roy and (especially) Kori’s history, that without them or Roy previous closer to the arrows, the series was just super flat, generic and unrecognisable. Both Roy and Kori were largely defined by their loyalty to others and their emotional bonds. Of all the people to have amnesia, it’s just …

I’m sorry, I could ramble on and on and I’m sure you don’t want to hear it. In short, I hated RHATO’S portrayal of Roy and Kori and given how it doesn’t fit with Pre-flashpoint version OR with the Rebirth version. I took the destruction of Earth 52 in Crisis on Infinite Earths to be DC’s tacit way of saying it was gone.

Here’s what RHATO Roy and Kori are more like. It’s like if you had Rani’s first two Spiderman movies and then jumped to Spiderman homecoming and then went, “no it makes sense, you’re just not understanding the genius in saying a guy who became Spiderman as a high school senior and THEN lost his uncle, all while being best friends with Harry Osborne is the same as a guy who was spiderman by his sophmore year, lost his uncle a while BEFORE that and apparently had a fatherly relationship with IRON MAN (???). See, it’s brilliant! Who gives a hoot about logic or timelines or fans of the first guy (who existed for like 60 years before that)?”

[garthofshayeris]

I've seen you've talk about how rebirth Garth is not real Garth and I believe you obviously mean personally I am still annoyed over Roy's clone from n52 that everyone keeps acting like is Roy is still a thing, but how is he different?

I’m so glad you asked! It sounds obvious, but typically people like a character for their personality or their story arcs or their character development. Like, why else would you like a character, right? So when there are huge changes to the things that make you like the character, uh…there’s not much left.

So, obviously with reboots some things are going to be changed. Maybe someone’s appearance is altered. some of their backstory is switched up, some personality traits get dropped or added. What sucks about Rebirth Garth is they changed everything about his character, none of it for the better. And for a character who, until now, has had a major part to play in Aquaman and other dc comics for about half a century, it’s honestly pretty insulting. So many creators poured their hearts into shaping him into a character before the reboot. There was so much love put into his stories, that the comparison to rebirth is so, so noticeable. Like…if Dick Grayson was rebooted with a completely different backstory and personality and was only vaguely related to the Batfamily, I think fans would be rightfully upset. I feel the same about Garth.

His personality, or whatever attempt they made at one, is bland and boring. He’s a brute who likes fighting and….that’s it. Compared to preboot Garth who is consistently sweet and sensitive and emotional and good. He’s just a good guy who thinks of fighting as a last resort, because he would rather use his words than his fists. It was such a lovely, refreshing take on a male character (and one who is in big name comics like Aquaman and Titans and JLA) that to lose one of his key elements is terrible sad and disappointing.

Garth’s story is, ultimately, completely tied to Arthur’s. They bring out the best and worst in each other. Garth is Arthur’s foil, from the start he is there to complement Arthur as a hero and they’re part of each other’s arcs. And his backstory heavily influences how Garth acts and what he does. His story is one of grief and loss and identity and overcoming stigma, prejudice, and taking control of your destiny. His story is about healing. Or it was.

Because Rebirth Garth doesn’t have any of that. He is, essentially, a completely different character who happens to be named Garth. Sure, he mentioned offhandedly that when he was in Magic College he had a girlfriend who Died Tragically and then they never mentioned that again. It’s a cheap imitation of his Tula storyline, told in like 2 panels, because Tula is also a completely different character now. They’ve spoken in canon once. Two characters who have been so closely joined together for 50 years barely know each other now. This is the same for every other character who still exists in Aquaman canon (they’ve written out a ton). He’s never even spoken to his other love interest in preboot, Dolphin, at all.

Let’s get back to Magic College though. Garth’s powers (or the few he retained from his original power set, though honestly he just like glows now? They’ve never really explained what he can do) are there because he went to underwater Hogwarts and I guess you can just do that and become magic. In comparison, preboot Garth has magic because he’s an abandoned prince from a long line of powerful sorcerer-kings. But power corrupts and his father is murdered and his mother flees, and although she abandons Garth as birth he is so haunted by their deaths that they plague his nightmares. His powers are earned through an incredibly moving journey that includes (among other things) closure from grief and the literal act of taking ones destiny into their own hands. Garth earns his powers because he is pure of heart, because he is brave, and because he loves so, so much and because others loved him. And when he uses those powers in other comics, you remember the meaning behind them. So Rebirth Garth being magic “just because” is so reductive, so boring, so uninspired. I’d rather him be an average atlantean.

But Garth has absolutely no history with the Aquafamily. Giving us an emotional story with him now would be meaningless because he has no part in the comics or the Aquafam. Sure, they mentioned once that Arthur “raised” Garth but…there’s no evidence of that. They don’t speak to each other in Rebirth. There’s actually no way Arthur could have done that in the canon timeline, but it doesn’t matter because they make no attempt to show he’s even part of the family. Garth has been to exactly zero life events for Arthur. He’s never met Arthur’s daughter. He’s never shown just hanging with the others, and they hang out with assholes who tried to kill them before. He is never there. But we are told, once, that he and Arthur like each other. This character means nothing. You can write him out of the few issues he appears in and nothing changes. He’s completely worthless as a character.

So his personality is gone, his backstory is gone, his character themes and growth are gone…surely he still looks the same?

Wrong. He’a ugly. I’m sorry, he is. Everyone is always posting pictures of him saying he’s so pretty (and comparing him to his look on TT:YO as if those aren’t completely different continuities?) but he looks like every other black haired character in DC right now. He looks like Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson and Time Drake and every other fucking guy it’s boring and it’s stupid. He has ugly straight hair (a far cry from Garth’s usual big, curly locks) in a boring ponytail because apparently YJ and TT are the only source the artists ever used to draw him. And his eyes. He has blue eyes. BLUE. When his character has had purple eyes for his entire existence, when his purple eyes have been a major plot point for his entire existence, when his purple eyes were his one defining trait for his entire existence. Insulting.

And he has eye tattoos. Sure, you say, because we all know Garth got his eye scars while training with Atlan (also now a completely different character) when claiming his birthright (written out of canon) to gain his powers (written out of canon) so yeah, maybe they’re just tattoos now. Except some dumbass at DC couldn’t be bothered to put them on the right side of his face. Yet another defining character trait completely fucked up because nobody at DC cared about making this character. He exists to tick off a box, to say “hey, look, we brought back a character you guys wanted. Buy our comics.”

So, when I say Rebirth Garth isn’t the “real” Garth, this is what I mean. The characters are different in every way that makes characters matter. He’s a character who shares a name and nothing else. And I hate him.

[our-happygirl500-fan]

DC have done huge disservices to many characters with the N52 reboot completely butchering character’s personality but I’ll never be over how they took Stephanie Brown a character who was shown time & time again to never give up, she can’t give up, she doesn’t know how to give up, giving up goes against who she is as a person in her very core & then write her... constantly trying to quit.

Before the reboot Steph was shown that despite everyone being against her she wouldn’t quit Bruce constantly noting that Steph had “Determination in spades” saying “even after i fired her, her determination remained unabated. right up until the very end.” characters constantly noted that Steph’s unsinkable personality was what made Steph well Stephanie Brown.

Steph trying to quit or being a person who gives up would be like Cass suddenly deciding that she thinks the Batsymbol is worthless & Bruce’s mission is wrong or Dick deciding he hates acrobatics & yet when the reboot hit that’s exactly what DC did to Steph.

- Convergence Batgirl happened where apparently Steph had quit Batgirl (something that she had to prove herself for over & over) off screen & Steph fans who had been excited to see Steph again after her being missing from comics for so long could only look at it & be like ‘wtf is this!?”

- Then Batman Eternal came along & they had Harper Row giving a speech to convince Steph to be a hero & not run away from Gotham, Stephanie ‘got determination in Spade’ Brown suddenly needed a pep talk in not giving up. Then again this would not be the last time a Batgirl would have their agency thrown down the drain for Harper as seen when Batman & Robin Eternal came along & made Cass’s origin revolve around Harper...

- Then Tynion’s Tec run came along & as soon as she thinks Tim’s not in the picture anymore, Steph wants to quit, she thinks everyone else should quit. What is this!? Where is Stephanie Brown!? Where is Stephanie ‘literally died rather than stop being a vigilante because death was the only thing that could get her to stop & even then dying only slowed her down’ Brown!?

- And now Robin Eternal where Steph apparently quit off screen & only came back because Tim/ the plot needed her to...

This isn’t Steph any story that involves Steph quitting or wanting to give up is not Steph. Out of Tim & Steph Tim is the one who would quit not Steph, Steph has never wanted to quit, when Tim stopped fighting crime Steph kept on fighting crime, when Bruce sabotaged her & tried to force her to quit she kept on fighting crime writing Steph quitting or wanting to quit goes against everything she is as a character & is a huge disservice to her & the fact that DC keeps on doing this is showing that they aren’t even pretending to care about her anymore.

Writing a Stephanie Brown that quits is not writing Stephanie Brown it’s writing a character who isn’t even recognisable as Steph anymore.

[dilfdoctordoom]

your head canons are just perfect. What are some random ones you have for Dinah Lance and Bette

Uhhhh gonna be going off the top of my head here (& under the cut because guess who wrote a load whooo) but

Dinah

Dinah is trans!!! I liked it Bombshells, I’ve decided its canon across all universes because you know what? It’s amazing

Dinah’s metagene got activated because Alan the JSA accidentally irradiated her throughout her childhood. Barry got lightning, Dinah got a weird family. It’s equality

She adopts Mia!!! Her & Ollie do, since I don’t think that officially happened in comics even though we all know it should have

Hal/Dinah/Ollie is absolutely a thing that I need. They’re in love, there’s nothing you can do to disprove it

Though, like, personal headcanon for Dinah’s relationship is that her & Ollie are in an open relationship, Hal’s their third & Dinah is dating Babs but Ollie is not because. Could you imagine. Oliver Queen. Dating a bat. The thing nightmares are made of, I tell you

When Hal dies, his ring goes to Dinah. I’m sorry, I don’t make the rules, this is just how it is

Ollie & Dinah have a third wedding since their other two were, uh, messy & technically not legal in the new timeline. No supervillains attack & it doesn’t take place in a hospital, so she considers it a win

By the time she dies, she’s in the top five fighters on the planet

Dinah (with the help of Ollie) once attempted to assinate the Guardians of the Universe

She & Zatanna dated

Babs brings up the Ra’s Al Ghul incident whenever she wants to win a dumb fight. Tragically, Zinda & Helena have picked it up too. Will Dinah ever escape her shameful past? Probably not, the Birds refuse to let her live it down

Thanks to her dip in the Lazarus Pit, Dinah’s eyes like... glow in the dark. It’s not very noticeable, but when it’s pitch black, her eyes are a really faint green

She can’t cook. At all. In the Arrowfamily, your options for food are Ollie’s chili (a safety hazard, 50/50 chance you burn to death) or Dinah’s unspeakable, ungodly creations that are probably an insult to the Presence himself. Or you can beg Connor to make you some delicious vegan thing

She’s got a little coffee addiction. It was really bad when she was on tour, a lot better now, but yeah, if you approach this woman before she’s had her first cup, she’ll scream in your face

This woman is bi & there’s nothing you can do about it

Dinah runs Sherwood Florists in Star City & all of the fam help out

Look, not technically a headcanon, but I want to make one thing abundantly clear: while Dinah Laurel Lance will always be a metahuman to me, I like Dinah Drake-Lance to be cursed by a wizard. I just think it’s fun

Bette

Okay, again, she’s bi. Like, we all know it, it’s not a secret, no cishet is working her original Flamebird costume

Bette loves glitter but even she knows that’s a little unsafe & never incorperates it into her costume. One day, though, one day...

She goes back to Flamebird around the same time Steph becomes Nightwing which is definitely inspired by @dykegreenlantern‘s death, but, yeah, she works as Flamebird again for a little while

When Kate retires, she suits up as Batwoman. It’s an awkward transition, but she makes it work

Oh, you think Tim has a caffeine addiction? He has nothing on Bette. Bette’s been in beauty paegents, winning tennis tourements, maintaining a 4.0 GPA & running around in a costume. Do you honestly believe she achieved that without caffeine? No. This girl is wired 24/7, there’s nothing that can be done about it

She came out to Bruce first. It would’ve been Kate, but Kate was in the army at the time & they hadn’t talked in years, so. Bruce

Bette’s one of the most forgiving members of the Batfam. Just look at how many of her friends turned into supervillains. She’s, like, yeah, okay, you’re evil now, are we still on for movie night? No? You have an evil scheme planned? Well, cancel it, we’re watching Mean Girls

I know Bette didn’t show up at Zero Hour, but she should have. Exclusively to judge Hank. He’s trying to destroy time but it’s very hard, she’s pulling the ultimate ‘I am disappointed in you and you have brought shame upon this team’ face & they haven’t even been a team in years. It’s not fair how does she even do this the Bats are weird. And then Parallax just. teleports her away. She’s too distracting to Extant, goddamn

I maintain that her & Terra II would’ve eventually become friends. Maybe even enemies to friends to lovers, since Terra II is a lesbian

She isn’t as huge on the whole no-kill thing as Bruce. Like, she’s never killed anyone herself, nor does she plan to (people like the Joker excluded), but she also doesn’t mind if her teammates cross that line

Her fights with Slade are always petty. She took Addie’s side in the divorce, okay, she’s gonna go in for the (emotional) kill when they’re fighting

She makes a lot of quips & is one of the best people at getting Batman to smile. Like, specifically Batman, and not Bruce. She’s seen him crack a grin at one of her puns, she swears

Artemis Crock is her ex girlfriend

Jesse Chambers is still, like, iffy on Bette after she... accused Jesse’s mother of murder. What a fun team up that was

I don’t know how or why it would happen, but Bat-Girl absolutely worked with the original Green Lantern at least once. Got no reasoning behind this, they’re just two of my favourite characters. I don’t think they’d get along (see: anything with Alan in it ever) but... it’d be an interesting team up, that’s for sure

She also knows Jason Blood but instead of being a fun adventure, that was more ‘okay yes I understand that Hank’s gone a little insane, he’s gonna be a future dictator, he’s committed mass murder, etc, but maybe you have some magic to undo all that? Pretty please?’

Her endgame relationship... I honestly change this all the time, but right now I’m on Bettenelli. Strong arguments have been made for Holly Robinson & we cannot ignore the possibility for a Bat/Cat next gen relationship, we simply can’t

Bette Kane deserves to be a doctor, screw what the N52/Rebirth said. Military Bette is gross & we do not support that in this house

[twocoinarchive-blog]

there are very few things i like about the n52 comics about harvey, and those things are, unfortunately, so easily overshadowed by the many things i loathe about the entire reboot

i like how we get a bit more insight about harvey’s relationship w/ gilda ( even if ! i’m disappointed by the fact that the writers forgot she’s a sculptor ,, rip ), and i like that they established ! that he has been bruce’s friend for a long time ( since pre - school, maybe even before, according to ba.tman and ro.bin : the big burn ) which is a stark contrast to new earth’s the long halloween where harvey and bruce only became acquaintances, barely even friends, and with harvey still showing disdain towards bruce

i do like that he’s been shown to be more, dare i say it, vain ( and a tad bit more selfish ) compared to his new earth counterpart, and while new earth will forever be my favorite version, it’s a fresh take on his character that i can enjoy

what easily overshadows this is, however, the poor backstory he was given. i can respect the writer’s making him striving towards, and becoming, a DEFENSE ATTORNEY ( at first, he later chooses to turn to the prosecutor route ), but they’ve done so in a poor way by making his entire character be spoiled by one, single thing — by making him a mob lawyer for the mckil.len twins. we’re speaking about harvey de.nt here, yall, harvey ‘ everyone who participates in mob business are immediately deemed as corrupt and almost just as bad as the criminals themselves, for they had a choice in whether they wanted to defend them or not ’ de.nt. i want yall to sit on that for a second. they took everything that had been established about harvey, a fair man whose sense of justice was immaculate and who breathed to put every criminal in goth.am behind bars, and made him into someone who worked for the mob. not even just the mob, but the WORST of the mob in the n52 universe.

couple this fact with the knowledge that n52 made harvey de.nt, not just two - fa.ce, but harvey de.nt into quite the asshole early on, really doesn’t sit well with the Morally Good and Ethically So - So Clean character we have been introduced to in new earth, and despite the fact he refuses to deal with the mck.illens later on, this is just one big mix for a character that, when boiled down, is really just Asshole Lawyer who Got Punished By His Former Clients. he really is an asshole in this continuity, though. a damn shame. i don’t personally want to read about an asshole lawyer, that’s not what i signed up for when i decided to dedicate myself to this character

anyways let me go back to the topic at hand, because while i do adore the relationships that has been established in this continuity, there are some instances where it really just brought a frown to my face. let me take as an instance: 

his relationship with bruce seems to be build up more around the fact that harvey wishes to be more like him. these comics makes it seem like harvey is actively jealous of bruce’s life style and wishes to be more suave and charming, which contradicts his being in new earth, where it seems like he’s decently happy with his current way of life. 

and

his relationship with jim gordon is nothing less but strained in this continuity. jim is shown as, get a load of this, quite the CORRUPT cop, which as well all know he truly isn’t in the older comics. but due to this we can see that jim ( along with bruce and gilda ) to drop some of his ethics, ethics that he still value in this run ( thank god ), in favor of making everything easier. it’s a bit dirty, isn’t it ? it doesn’t feel right and it doesn’t fit their new earth relationship, which had been shown to be good and honest ( before the courtroom accident ). also, he tried to encourage harvey to basically spill anything he had on the mckill.ens ( thus effectively violating the attorney / client privilege ) which, if found out, would absolutely damage not only harvey’s reputation, but his entire career, and i don’t know about you all, but that doesn’t sound very cop like of someone, especially not someone who, in prior continuities, harvey was able to place his trust upon. of course he might be trying to pressure harvey into spilling secrets because said mobsters had tried to assassinate the entire gordon family, but my point still stands.

of course i could spend another whole week ranting on about how upset i am about them killing off gilda. “would you die for harvey, mrs. dent ?” erin mcki.llen asks after breaking out a jail, and when gilda answers yes, she stabs her. anticlimatic, but not surprising, and yet it still stings. but this really just gives harvey the one motivation to become Angry and Resentful™ ( something that he has not shown to be before in n52 due to a lack of a tragic backstory alá. abusive dad, or a lack for a backstory at all ) that every other male character has by now in n52 — angst and a motivation for revenge because they fridged the most important character in his life. it’s a trope we’ve seen a billion times before and let me be honest here : i don’t like it. to think that this is the premise they’ve set up in order for him to become two - fa.ce ! the one thing i DO like about this is the ending of this particular comic arc ( the one where gilda dies ). it’s heartwrenching and despite my dislike for the comic in general, it make me choke up a little. that despite his anger and need for revenge, his first priority still lays with gilda, even if she has turned to death, and sorrow and regret begins to worm its way into his character. it’s amazing how much of a vital part of his character she was established as in n52 ( compared to the new earth version, which quickly got boiled down to her simply being a housewife )

ANYWAYS

what makes this even more funny to me, this whole n52 deal, is that there’s no downright reason for him to be so heavily dependent on The Coin as he is. there’s not anything spectacular, it’s not his dad’s old trick coin that was used in a sick nightly game, it’s not the lucky coin of a certain mr. maroni — no, what it is is but a single, coincidentalcoin that happens to have two heads which he had in a coin collection. that’s it. that’s literally it. i’m so confused as to WHY he decided to later on revolve his entire crime career around this silly little piece of silver. at no point in there entire run of n52 pre - tw.o - face harvey do we even SEE him dabble on the topic of chance and fate and duality. there’s no signs of prior mental illness either, everything pointing towards that the actual trauma of getting acid poured on his face and seeing his wife die within a matter of hours being the Culprit towards him developing schizophrenia and dissociative identity disorder — which is a bullshit reasoning. the origin arc we are introduced to in The Big Burn falls completely flat as an origin story for tw.o - face, however, i must admit, it’s a huge leap as a story for harvey de.nt, despite its MANY flaws.

i don’t agree with many of the other works in n52 either.

however, i admit i am a sucker for the all - star batm.an story, My Own Worst Enemy. it gives a lovely little explanation for the inconsistencies in harvey’s and tw.o - face’s character throughout the years, and while her certainly is rather sadistic with literally no moral compass at all, something that doesn’t feel right, i can agree with a majority of everything delivered, even if it hits home a tad bit too hard with the fact that it’s revealed that harvey’s about ready to give up on life and fully willingly to let tw.o - face take control once and for all, a rather obvious sign of him not only being severely depressed, but also suicidal ( may i remind yall that he has quite literally shot himself in the head. he’s one lucky — i’m saying lucky loosely here — son of a gun ). if i may say it, it’s a part that hits a lil bit close to home

long story short n52 is still shit, i only read it for harvey and for the art, and for the fact that i rlly want to icon these Crisp n Clean panels

thanks for coming to my ted talk 

[oh-mother-of-darkness]

asks (40)

Anonymous said: Holy frick that is so encouraging and I needed that so much bc I literally visited my college to measure my dorm room and drove home in tears bc I panicked myself into a frenzy about whether or not everything leading me to this point has been a mistake and what if I fail and ruin my life before it even starts (I have since calmed down a little) so your encouragement was much needed & is much appreciated

I’m glad I could help <3 <3 <3 Good luck at school! I’m sure you’ll kick its ass

areverieofchaosdreams said: It's Fanfiction Writers Appreciation Day. So thank you for all your amazing stories!!!

Oh goodness I’m all a blushin :’)

Anonymous said: *HAPPY WRITER APPRECIATION DAY* Send this to someone whose talent has blown you away, who you'd like to encourage to keep on writing always, and who you'd like to thank for working their butt off to provide fandom members with breathtaking stories to consume! THANK YOU :D

Aw thank you!

Anonymous said: Hi! I Hope you're well! Do you still take fic requests? Because I really miss Colin Wilkes and I'd love to a story of him with your writing!

Unfortunately I don’t often take requests these days, but I’ll definitely keep Colin in mind!

dirtycherrypie said: hey! applying for WE for the R&D department (may or may not be aware of producing bat gadgets)

dirtycherrypie said: SHit forgot my name - Bea, at your service!

[Bruce Wayne voice] hired

tigers-and-weeds said: Literally just fell down the rabbit hole on your tumblr for the last 12-24 hours. I am in love with with you headcannons and fics! The angst feeds my soul... So I figured I would request: anything angsty with Dick and Damian please please please

Okay again I don’t usually take fic requests BUT I like me some angst so the odds that this will eventually happen.... are extremely high. I’ll try to remember to dedicate the next one to you :) And thank you!

math--ew said: I went on a little birthday vacation to california and I've never been to the beach before. I was bending down to grab a pretty shell and this huge wave knocked me face first into the sand. Like, five people saw and laghed but I got the shell so I guess it's a win win.

Duuuude back at Lake Michigan last month the same thing happened to me. I was taking care of my little sister and her five year old friend, so I was so busy making sure they were okay that the wave plowed me halfway across the beach

babybatbrat said: when i was in ap physics i once spent an entire study period in my physics teacher's room working on one problem. as far as i could tell i was doing all of the work correctly and had all the initial values right so i was racking my brain trying to figure out why i wasn't getting the right answer. the third time i went up to my teacher and asked for help he told me to start at the beginning and walk him through my process bc he couldn't tell why i was getting it wrong either (1)

babybatbrat said: (2) so i start the problem and explain how i got through all the values - "okay so the rod is 5 inches long and half of 5 is 3 and a half -" and i stopped there bc it occurred to me that 3.5 is not half of 5. "it's what?" My teacher asks. i put my head in my hands and stood there for a minute before picking up my work and walking to the back of the classroom while he laughed, bc i had just spent 45 minutes convinced that half of 5 was 3.5 and not, in fact, 2.5, and that was the only thing wrong

Honestly??? Relatable

babybatbrat said: One time i woke up at six in the morning to hear the neighbor's dog barking and instantly realized that meant my dog had jumped the fence, so i went racing outside and sprinted down the street to catch her. when i did i picked her up and turned around to go home and then saw my neighbor standing on their front porch, realized i was in only an oversized spiderman tshirt and snowman pajama shorts, holding a twenty pound labrador and thats how i met my new neighbors

Incredible...... 10/10.....

thrakaboom said: Not a funny story,but two days ago at comic con I met Tom King and he showed me a picture of his kids while he was signing my books

Well hey that’s pretty cool

Anonymous said: I adore your Tumblr. It was a wonderful way to get into the Batfamily fanbase; prior, I thought that there was only one Batman and a single Robin, dearie me was I wrong. And those stories you write, just great. The Headcanons are just as enjoyable. As for Batman, that has come to be a sibling enjoyment. Thank you for your contributions and existence!

!!!!!! Welcome to the crew!

frnkensteingrrrlz said: hey!!! i just went through ur reasons to be happy tag and!! i'm so so happy bc of it (esp the damian hcs, they're spot on imo and he's my favourite) so i hope u have a good day!!!

Thanks! I am having a good day today! Although I’m sure it’s been a long time since you sent this :////

Anonymous said: HELLO I have just discovered and binge-read all of your fics with my homeboy Damian in them, and just wanted to pop by and say that I love you & you are my hero & you write my boy so well so thank u and I hope your life is blessed & you achieve your wildest hopes & dreams

My day is made :D

badfaith00 said: Best batman storyline you've ever read ?

Ooooooh hm I’m mighty attached to n52 Batman and Robin? Particularly the first storyline, but the second is also fantastic

Anonymous said: THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SHAMELESSLY REBLOGGING YOUR OWN WORK BC I HADNT SEEN IT BEFORE AND ITS HONESTLY SO PHENOMENAL ITS GOING ON MY LIST OF ALL TIME FAVORITES THANK U AND BLESS U

THANK YOU!!! THAT ONE IS MY FAVORITE AND I AM VERY PROUD OF IT

onwardmotley said: In today's Detective Comics someone finally told Bruce and co that Tim's alive. They didn't explain where he is, or how to get him back, but hey. It might've had more impact if anyone was seen actually mourning Tim and it wasn't just played as him being in cosmic time out, but at least it should end soon idk. Hopefully.

Tim Drake? It’s been years since I heard that name.....

Finally. Thank goodness.

Anonymous said: Idk if I prefer your soul crushing angst or your heartwarming fluff... actually I like to suffer so I'll stay with angst lol

Y’all seeing this? Anon gave me permission. Can’t yell at me next time because it won't be my fault (thanks babe :))

Anonymous said: for music, idk what kind of music u like so here is variety: St. Vincent - Paris is Burning, Sea Wolf - Dear Fellow Traveler (tbh everything by Sea Wolf is great), Dirt Poor Robins - Eleanor Rigby, Between Wind and Water- HAEL, Ellem - Kings and Queens and Vagabonds, The Rigs - Rise & Fall, Tally Hall - Light and Night, and Streetlight Manifesto - The Hands that Thieve.

Thank you! I’m excited to listen to these! I’ll start right now!

Anonymous said: 1) What are the good comics to read for Batfamily stuff (from any point in time) and 2) what are the best Jason Todd comics? Thanks!

Okay for Jason I would definitely start with the big ones, which are A Death In the Family and Under the Red Hood. After that you could try Red Hood: the Lost Days and Countdown to Final Crisis. I would avoid the n52 series until you have a good enough grasp of the character to recognize bad writing when you see it. 

For the generalized batfam.... that’s pretty broad. My personal favorites are Red Robin, Batgirl (2009), and both B&R series. If you have more specific questions, you should IM me! I promise I’m better about answering those than asks

yellowwallsbluesky said: Have you heard Swooner by The Zolas? I've really been jamming to it lately

Listening to it right now! Sounds like a bop so far :)

Anonymous said: Hidden citizens paint it black 💜

Much obliged!

Anonymous said: Harry styles "sign of the times".

[adds to list] thank you!

neo669 said: I MISS CASA OLE!! Sorry just read that you lived in Bryan/College Station and I used to live there as well. It's kinda hard to find people that even know that it exists. But I'm sure you can kick law schools butt. You got this!

Yooooooo I miss cstat too :((((

palliddark said: Adalgiza, and I'll be a translator (English to Brazilian Portuguese)

[Bruce Wayne voice] also hired

maeofthedead said: I love your headcannons and now I sort of want to cry thank

Excellent that is the exact target response 

Anonymous said: Love your rant in the tags about the pizza making I'm laughing so hard

Listen..... I have strong feelings

Anonymous said: Did you hear they're making an omnibus of Tomasi's entire run on Batman & Robin?? I just heard and now I kinda want to get this massive book in honor of my favorite batkid and the series that made me love him so much

Man I already have all the individual volumes but if I didn’t......

sonicboom00724601 said: Hi. :) Nice headcanon. :)

I’m not sure which one you’re talking about, but thank you! You're real sweet

Anonymous said: can you maybe write an interaction between Wonder Woman and Captain America? I absolutely adore your style and would love to see your take on it.

Hmmmm I don’t really have a good enough grasp of Captain America’s characterization to try that one :////

Anonymous said: i tried to kill on mosquito that was on my ceiling by slamming it with a book but mosquito was on the move so i bounced swiftly and jammed both my wrist and thumb and now my existence is Pain. also my thumbs swelling and looks purple, so that's nice

Oh shit anon you good???

daziy said: Do we know who Barbara's mother usually is?

Yeah! In her original version, Babs had a birth mom and an adopted mom. She was originally Jim’s niece, so her birth mom’s name was Thelma Gordon. After the adoption, her parents were Jim and Barbara Gordon, with her adopted mother being her namesake. So two Barbara Gordons.

I think for awhile the canon was that her mother died in a car crash, but the current version has her still alive. She left Jim when Babs was young, taking her son (Babs’s brother) with her. James Gordon (the son) turned out to be a serial killer. 

Barbara Gordon Sr. and James Gordon Jr. both appeared in the n52 Batgirl series during the Death of the Family arc. There’s also a very good story about James from the Dickbats period. That one’s called The Black Mirror, if I’m not mistaken?

Anonymous said: Hi! What do you think of the upcoming metal event? Dick and Damian seem to have a big role in it ( I hope Jason is involved too but there's still no sign of it)

Hmmmm I don’t know that I have an opinion just yet, but as always, I hope to be pleasantly surprised 

Anonymous said: bless you are your wonderful tagging system. know that i may have avoided death because of how easy it was to f ind the thing I wanted in your tags. bless

Oh goodness anon I hope you’re not serious about almost dying.... but thanks?

Anonymous said: hi amy! would u say that damians narrative is written as a child abuse one? like there are definitely many allusions to it but its also not as explicit as say, cassandra or rose. like how much of it would u chalk up to comic world dynamics and how much to actual abuse? also would u consider jason to also be a case of this?

Oh I have very strong opinions about the role of abuse in Damian’s narrative. It’s absolutely there, and the effects are staggeringly large. There is no doubt in my mind that the league was an abusive environment, and I can’t justify some of the things Bruce did either.

I think I would say the same thing for Jason, if not quite as strongly. I definitely think that some of the things that happened to Jason as a child shaped his story later on, but less of those were abuse than outside circumstances. The n52 takes a different track on that one, I think, but I don’t put much stock in that characterization. 

Anonymous said: has jason forgiven bruce for not killing joker? if so, what made him?

Unlikely. They get along better these days, but I would argue that comes from poor characterization of Bruce, not an actual resolution process. 

mellenabrave said: My mom accidentlly threw my Damian doll away (╥_╥)

Tossed in the garbage by yet another parent--

Anonymous said: Whoa where'd you get that bat and oracle shirt you're wearing in your necklace pic? It's so cool! (The necklace is also gorgeous!)

Shoot I think it was from Redbubble? But I can’t find it now

Anonymous said: Omg that necklace was so cool!!! Kudos to the maker of it!! Also I really like your top!!

Thank you <3