#this is the guy batman was a knockoff of

[popeyeotaku]

THE SHADOW

[salaciouscrumbb]

like why do this with the comic book character most known for adopting any & every child he meets? nut up or shut up when it comes to batman tv shows.

[vintagegeekculture]

There are some books that are functionally boy’s adventure books, but are not advertised as such (Stuart Gibbs is a good example), but I absolutely know what you’re referring to. I have some experience in the public-facing library/bookselling field, so I have a guess at some of the reasons that boy's adventure books are currently out of fashion. 

Shonen anime, and graphic novels trying to cash in on being similar to shonen anime, are currently considered to be the main replacement.

The dual successes of Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Captain Underpants are seen as the overall representation of “what boys want to read”. As with any success, middling-to-bad (or at least incredibly cynical) knockoffs are rife. 

Right now, books aimed at boys who have poor experiences around masculinity, or little interest in it, are extremely popular. So any story that celebrates masculinity is going to be looked at as being somewhat dangerous.

If you’re not interested in toilet humor and are a masculine kind of guy, you’re going to be looking at slim pickings.

-------------

P.S. I'm a WWII guy, except for a few years when I was a Spanish-American War guy -- I thought that was the same as having a personality.

Here's my observation on the popularity of Captain Underpants and Dogman: it ties in to an absolutely well understood track for stages of development in boys.

Now, keep in mind that I am not an expert in childhood development or education, but in the past, the reading habits of boys went through three comic book reading stages that maps, roughly, onto their growing capacities as they get older:

Archie/Harvey Comics Stage. This is usually a boy's first comic book, friendly and humorous and childlike. In the past, every boy's first comic is usually Archie, Jughead, or Richie Rich, or Casper the Friendly Ghost, Peanuts, Garfield, or Wendy the Good Little Witch. They like surreal humor, and the absence of concrete thinking and unreality of these books is a positive, as it matches the non-concrete thought processes of young kids, which is why adults often have trouble relating to this: if you ever saw a kid's drawings from this stage, people just float or fly in space, their feet not on the ground, and the sun is often drawn with a face. Notice that kids absolutely accept as a given that Pete and Pete are two brothers with the same name, which is something adults have a problem grasping. If you ever asked yourself why Spongebob Squarepants lives in a pineapple under the sea, of all things, instead of accepting it as a given (of course he lives in a pineapple, what do you expect?), you're probably past this stage.

Superman/Batman Stage. After the Archie/Harvey stage, boys move on to Superman and/or Batman, as their imagination capacities develop, they start to envision adventure and science fiction/other worlds apart from just humorous surrealism. Because they start to experience stories vicariously as their imagination expands to include putting themselves into the story, they tend to start to want adventure and action at this point, power fantasies of muscles, freedom, swordfighting, karate and sweet jump kicks, swinging over a rickety bridge with a rope, and wrestling a monkey (this is also the age that in decades past, boys got obsessed with Tarzan, and in more recent times, got into Adventure Time, a show about two brothers with no parents). All this is mingled with fantasy and science fiction as the ability to think in terms of other worlds and places emerges, but they still prefer pro-wrestling like good and evil as clearly delineated, as their moral reasoning is not super well developed. There are female villainesses in stories at this level, and their master plan is often to get the hero laid, which is a sign of evil instead of good. The fact that Batman and Superman seem to always have all the answers and win cleanly is a plus at this stage, since stories are lived vicariously as opposed to handled and seen with distance. Some people don't move past this stage, and you can usually identify these people because as they identify closely with a main character's state and emotions, put a book down when things get bad for the main character, and often say things like "wow, why does this writer like killing off characters or making them suffer?"

X-Men Stage. After a phase of being into Superman and Batman, most kids move on to an X-Men phase, usually by 6th Grade, but it depends on the kid. They start to be aware of society and the individual, and with that, in the case of many, comes an awareness of being on the outside looking in, so themes of being an outsider, rebel, and alienation start to be important. This is the stage your kids start to turn into little jerks who mouth off to you, and the reason why is the same reason kids (usually) move on from Superman to X-Men: it's the era that kids start to develop moral reasoning, a muscle they flex and apply to every aspect of their life and play with like a new toy. They probably aren't able to articulate it this way, but they like the idea of conflict with society, rebellion (as they are conscious of an individual and society for the first time), and even the idea of moral dilemmas. Also, because boys are going through puberty at this point, they start to find girls interesting, which is why the X-Women like Rogue, Storm, Marvel Girl, and Psylocke were so much more alluring and appealing than Lois Lane and Betty and Veronica. They also start to be aware of status for the first time, a person's relationship in comparison to others, something younger kids are only barely cognizant of, which is why they like things being hardboiled and "cool."

You could, for more modern times, update this list of stages to the Spongebob Stage, Adventure Time Stage, and Jojo/One Piece Stage. In the 1950s, the trajectory would be Tom Swift and other "boy with a helicopter" stories, then boyish gee-whiz adventure writers like H.G. Wells and Jules Verne, and finally, big-idea, believable guys like Heinlein and Asimov by age 12-14. The exact content is not important, the developmental stages in boys are.

If you're a Star Trek fan as a kid, Captain Kirk is usually your favorite character early on (in the Superman/Batman stage), where you vicariously experience and enjoy his coolness and ace-status (as a kid, I thought Captain Kirk was cooler than all the comic book superheroes put together), and then it usually becomes Spock as you get older and start to relate to his alienation and the fact he is different from everyone else. Star Trek deserves some genius prize because it has the adventure, cool monsters, and moral framework to appeal to kids at the Superman stage, but then grows up with them with dilemmas and big ideas as they enter the X-Men stage.

I do believe the reason Harry Potter has such a fan following is the books grow up with you. Harry Potter started off whimsical and charming (Harvey/Archie Stage), then became about adventure and good versus evil (Superman/Batman Stage) then was about moody teenagers, where the heroes are outlaws on the run from the clueless government and pair off with each other in love stories (X-Men Stage).

There are bound to be problems when something aims at one stage but has fans of the other. Hulk Hogan and John Cena are often hated by a certain kind of wrestling fan because they are Batman/Superman heroes kids love because they experience their strength and indomitability vicariously, and only grow to prefer the X-Men-like "cool rebel" Rock and Stone Cold later on. You don't like John Cena, or Superman, because he's not for you.

Now, all that said, when you talk about how boys don't move past Dogman, the Archie/Harvey Comics is the stage of development you're talking about, that books like Captain Underpants, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and Dogman operate at. And the reason they seem to be dominant is that boys stop reading after the Archie stage. In other words, in my opinion, you're confusing effect with cause: they have nothing for them except manga after this point as most boys stop reading entirely past the Archie/Harvey Comics stage.

Why? Your guess is as good as mine, it is simply the largest and underdiscussed social problem of our time, boys stop reading and often never read again. "Young Adult" essentially means girl's books now.

The reason why nobody is examining this issue is simple: men's rights advocates are not particularly concerned with helping boys, but more with bitterly whining about ex girlfriends and gripes with the family court system. So when a legitimate social issue happens that affects boys disproportionately (the fact boys stop reading entirely around age 9-10 and never read a book again in their lives) they have nothing to say and are not particularly interested in the issue.

As someone with a concern and interest in helping boys, I was initially very sympathetic to the Men's Rights idea that society leaves them behind, and it does happen more or less as they say it does: society lets them slip through the cracks, especially in the school system, where they are seen as a problem to be solved, especially when high spirited (normal). However, there was very little sympathy in that group for boys who were physically abused and beaten by parents. Most believe in corporeal punishment, as they care less about boys and more about the primacy of paternal authority - just as you'd expect from bitter, divorced dad, malicious pieces of shit. And boys being molested is often treated as a joke, and not with the seriousness and primacy the issue deserves.

Likewise, despite the talk of feminism helping men, women's rights are not especially concerned with helping boys either, because...well, why would they be? It also doesn't help that the leadership and vanguard (though not necessarily the rank and file or activist base) of women's rights movements are usually professional, striving educated women (a group with high rates of sociopathy and reduced empathy) so their focus is on access to elite institutions and professions. This is more especially obvious in the UK than in the US, where feminism is more explicitly linked to class, as one can see with JK Rowling. As a consequence of this, #MeToo was not about waitresses or gig workers who endure horrible harassment, but about access to elite institutions. There's a reason why when we picture sexual harassment, it's in business suits at a law firm, and not a diner waitress bothered by creeps or her manager.

I will say this: I am very heartened that #MeToo and activism and so on are now starting to include boys who were molested. Very few changes in our culture have been positive and that is one. There's a reason male survivors of sexual abuse and molestation keep their head down, were not included as a part of #MeToo initially, and that is starting to change. Self blame and guilt is a part of every abuse victim, but it is especially crushingly intense with boys too young to understand, and who are trained to endure and not ask for help from male friends.

[about-faces]

Batman: Caped Crusader, Episodes 1-2 thoughts (SPOILERS)

First things first, Harvey is as bad as I’d expected. I honestly can’t tell whether this is worse than the version we got in the last Timm-produced animated Batman show, “Beware the Batman.” That Harvey was a humorless prick straight out of the William Atherton school of jerkasses, while this one is a smug sleazebag who would be someone you’d love to hate if he weren’t also a complete inversion of a great tragic hero turned villain.

I’m just so sick of people portraying Harvey as a politician first and foremost, performing for the cameras and thinking about his career ambitions. I’m sick of him being a corrupt asshole and even an authoritarian. I’m sick him being two-faced, when the irony of his character is that he himself never WAS. Now that that’s out of my system, I’ll move on, because I know he has an arc in store that may prove more interesting than the usual Asshole Harvey takes.

They tried several things with the Penguin, and I’m not sure they gelled into anything that worked for me this time out. Making her a woman, that’s no problem, and I appreciate her classic style and appearance in a time when everyone just wants to turn Cobblepot into a boring Tony Soprano knockoff.

Ultimately, though, it all just served to make her a standard “Ma Barker” archetype. You know, the alleged matriarchal crime boss who was killed by Hoover’s FBI, who may have dragged her name through the mud to excuse their killing of an old woman? There used to be several takes on her in pop culture, although nowadays the only famous one is probably Ma Beagle from “DuckTales.”

With that in mind, they should have just cast Margo Martindale. Excuse me, didn’t use her full name: Beloved Character Actress Margo Martindale. Minnie Driver is a fantastic actress (I’m still mad that “The Riches” was not only cancelled but totally forgotten), but it was a waste not to let her use her real accent. As it was, she was fine, but she didn’t bring anything special to match the physical design. As an actress, she deserved more to play with.

Also, “Oswalda” is a terrible fake name. Like come on guys, you can do better. That’s on par with Revolver Ocelot’s real Russian name being “Adamska.”

The biggest problem with this take on Penguin is that she’s set up as some kind of brilliant mastermind, only to act incredibly stupid, reckless, and gullible. She kills not one but two innocent goons, including her own son, without so much as an investigation or even keeping tabs on the suspected rats to use them as pawns against Thorne! To paraphrase Dijkstra from the “Witcher” books, you don’t kill spies, you USE them. You feed them misinformation! You blackmail them into being double agents! This Penguin is bad at her job, so no wonder she loses everything within hours. It’s amazing she was able to build a crime empire in the first place!

I also dislike Bullock being a corrupt cop in the mob’s pocket. That fits Flass perfectly, but Bullock? Fuck no. Bullock IS dirty, but he’s dirty in a very acceptable way to cops. He’s brutal, he cuts corners, he’s crass, and he’s probably not above planting or concealing evidence, but selling out to the mob? Hell no. That’s just wrong. Hate that choice. Unless it’s a misdirection. This show sure does love its misdirections from what I’ve seen so far.

Batman himself is… fine. He’s Batman. He’s not a bad Batman. He’s serviceable but unremarkable. But at least he wasn’t an irritating asshole, which is more than I can say for most Batman depictions these days. I liked Bruce trying his “falling off a boat” joke a second time, delivered verbatim after it flopped with Barbara.

Barbara being a defense attorney is a rather contrived choice, one that gets to put her at odds with Harvey while also giving her a professional in with both Batman and Gordon. Essentially, she’s in the role Harvey Dent is supposed to play. Except here she’s a defense attorney, which SHOULD put her at odds with her dad, since lawyers and cops don’t seem to like one another, for SOME reason!

And Harvey, even as District Attorney, can’t be in the role of legal ally to either Gordon, because the story is far more focused on making him a mayoral candidate who throws people under the bus for his own advancement! Feh.

Anyway, that was episode one. It was fine, I guess.

The screenplay is by novelist and DC veteran Greg Rucka, so of course Renee Montoya is the central focus. Seeing her interact with Sleazebag Harvey gave me war flashbacks to what Rucka did with Renee and Harvey in the comics: setting them up with a poignant dynamic of tenuous respect and kindness before dashing it all with “Gotham Central: Half a Life,” which solidified the perception of Harvey as a creepy, obsessive stalker for a generation of fans. That version of them was very much of display here. Sigh.

Also, Lucius Fox is Bruce’s lawyer now? Why? And also, what the hell? God, poor Lucius. He starts off in comics as the guy actually running Wayne Enterprises, then “Batman: The Animated Series” makes him Bruce’s right-hand-man, then Nolan and Goyer get the inspired idea to make him the Q to Bruce’s 007, while the comics don’t know what to do with him and even make him an authoritarian to cause friction with his vigilante son, and now this? It’s such a random choice. There’s no reason why this character should be Lucius. Hell, Lucius could have shown up there WITH the lawyer and that would have been fine. As it is, it’s just weird.

That said! I overall liked this episode an awful lot! For DECADES now, I’ve wanted to see someone remember that Basil Karlo was an older actor in the classic horror movie vein (his name is literally a combination of Basil Rathbone and Boris Karloff), but ever since “Batman: The Animated Series,” everyone has just tried to make him BTAS’ Matt Hagen. Like, I really liked the “One Bad Day” issue for Clayface, where he gradually killed his way to the top of Hollywood stardom, but even that was still BTAS Hagen, the Serious Actor, not Karlo, the old horror ham actor.

But with this episode, someone finally drew on the old Hollywood horror roots of the character, and they found a way to combine his shape shifting abilities into the mix! I’m so happy!

Of course, this is me, so I still have criticisms. Like, I think it was unnecessary to frame it as a mystery, because that added unnecessary complications. I know the original Clayface story was a whodunnit and you can’t do that now that everyone knows that Karlo is Clayface. I was annoyed by the misdirection of Karlo’s “death,” in part because I feared this would be another Clever Subversion, just like how the animated adaptations of “Gotham By Gaslight,” “Hush,” and “The Long Halloween” purposely went against expectations from the source material in stupid ways. Hell, they’re doing the same thing now with Penguin (“But wait, there’s a twist: she’s a woman!”) and Harvey (“But wait, there’s a twist: he’s an asshole!”), so I was afraid this Clayface would end up being someone else entirely. I was okay with it in the end, but I’m annoyed at the cheap fakeout as a plot point.

Furthermore, I don’t get why Basil disguised himself as the doctor (whose name I don’t remember) for the benefit of the actress (whose name I don’t remember) he had chained up in his hideout. What benefit was there in making her think he was the doctor? She was already aware she was a prisoner and was scared, so why the facade? It served no purpose in context, only just to misdirect the viewers.

This is what happens when you try to make something a mystery when it would work better as a thriller. Stop trying to wow audiences with twists and surprises when you could just be focusing on telling a good story. So what if everyone figures out Karlo is Clayface? Who cares! Just go with it! Let them be in on it while Batman and Montoya figure it out themselves, that’s where the tension lies! Stop trying to be clever.

Regardless, I really liked this episode. I want this to now be the canon comics origin for Basil Karlo’s Clayface. Just explain that the treatments for his face gradually affected his whole body, and boom, you’ve successfully explained how classic Slasher Clayface became Mud Monster Clayface. This is how Karlo should always be written from now on. If you really want a sensitive, angsty lug Clayface, bring back Hagen. Let Karlo be the gloriously hammy monster with aspirations of stardom.

[supernatural-bias]

𝐁𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐑𝐨𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐓𝐫𝐨𝐲 𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐀𝐛𝐞𝐝 𝐖𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐈𝐧𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐝𝐞

↳ warnings: none

↳ song: undone - the sweater song—weezer

masterlist! | commissions | carrd

• Rooming with Troy and Abed had been one of the easiest decisions of your life. Two years of friendship and student debt loans really did a lot to convince a person

• You were a little worried about the actual process of moving, considering what happened last time the study group got together to move, but it ended up going pretty smooth. Jeff didn't even try to pretend he was sick this time, something that Britta sarcastically applauded him for. And Shirley held back from judging you about your lack of Christian memorabilia. She instead resorted to clutching her cross necklace tighter than the time she found out Britta smoked pot

• In between lugging boxes and bedframes around, Annie reassured you over and over that she was totally fine with you taking up the apartment vacancy instead of her. She was honestly looking forward to her new place just off the cusp of campus grounds. Said it would be easier to get in for a midnight study session. Whatever that meant

• You just nodded slowly and excused yourself to pack in a different corner

• Troy and Abed on the other hand were absolutely stoked throughout the move. So much so, that they put most of their shenanigans on pause to get the move over faster. Most of them.

• "Abed, untie Troy from the chair. I need to put that in the back of my car. You can do that when we get to your place."

• "Ten more minutes?"

• "No, guys."

• "Aw man."

• The next few hours ran as smooth as they could with eight people trying to walk up two flights of stairs. Eventually, everything got unloaded into the living room, and excuses were made as why people had to leave. Some more elegantly than others

• "Yeah, as much as I'd love to stay and watch you three nerds discuss which Batman poster goes where—" Jeff hummed as he typed away on his phone, "—I've got places to be and women to charm."

• "What he said!"

• "Pierce, I don't think there's a single lady out there that would touch you with a ten foot pole." You deadpanned

• "Ertha Kitt did. And she did more than just touch me—"

• "Okay. Out."

• Troy and Abed surprised you that night with a new pair of pajamas to match their own, and an impromtu Inspector Spacetime marathon

•Both of them beamed when you came out into the living room later wearing it. A part of you figured they were just happy that you were cool with your blanket fort, though

• You ended up sitting criss crossed on top of an unpacked box while they took to their knockoff la-z-boys

• "Do you guys think we should actually unpack things before starting the next episode?" You asked at some point late into the night, glancing at the blinking analog clock on the TV stand

• "No." Abed answered you without even looking up from the end credits

• "Yeah me neither." You grinned. "I want to see if Reggie kills any blorgons this time."

• All in all, becoming their third best friend and tennant was one of the best decisions any of you had made—even if it did take you a month to convince Troy and Abed to let you take partial room in the dreamatorium

[abanava]

Fanon Tim Drake haunts my nightmares. I think the people responsible for him should pay me for emotional distress, everytime he gets babied I shrivel up and die. Like no, he was never smaller than the severely malnourished child who’s been living on virtually nothing his whole life (Jason).

No he doesn’t have an addiction to caffeine and never sleeps, he’s a canonically a power napper and he nearly never drinks coffee in the comics?? Like his favourite drink is some knockoff coca-cola.

No, Jason Todd was never his Robin? Like the whole reason he figured out Batman’s and robins identity is cuz of his obsession with Dick Grayson? Like bro took one look at a move Robin.Dick did and was like yep I know this guy?? And when people make him so self conscious that it’s actually insane?? Like sure he has his issues but not to that scale.

Like this is the kid that looked Jason dead in the eyes while he was beating the shit out of him and still said he was the better Robin.

Not to mention Bruce himself admitted that Tim was smarter than he was when he was Tim’s age.

Please I am begging you to stop making Tim some ‘UwU I’m an innocent baby that is so useless it physically hurts people’ please I beg 🙏🙏 I also believe so hard that people who write Tim like this have only real wfa (nothing wrong with it but it’s arguably the fannon Wayne family with a few in character (like what did they do to my man Duke))

‘But let people have their fun’ Tim Drake is like 80% out of character, the only thing they keep is his smart mouth. If you think of Tim Drake like this please do more research into his character 🙏🙏 I don’t even like him but fannon continues to ruin my life.

Also feel free to correct me if I got anything wrong 😁

[i-love-invincible]

Let's Talk About Atom Eve

Invincible Spoilers and Gore CW Abound! Please watch this incredible series... So who is ATOM EVE?

I would love to talk about this, but first we have to talk about character design in Invincible. The costumes, personalities, and heroes of Invincible are all self-referential. Take the Guardians of the Globe for instance, the first heroes we see on-screen.

We see these people, and IMMEDIATELY we get what they're about... even if these characters are new to us, we KNOW who they are. Flash, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, Batman, Green Lantern, all obvious parodies and fun little characters.

I'm sure your eyes will start glazing over once I go "blah blah subverting tropes blah blah absolute genius." but one thing that Invincible does very well is destroying the audience's connections with established superhero tropes (See the one million white boy video essayists talking about why Evil Superman is awesome.) The reason why the slaughter of the Guardians of the Globe in that fucking THREE MINUTE LONG SCENE is so surprising is because THEY ARE THE FUCKING JUSTICE LEAGUE (while the fight scene also conveniently tosses some casual shade to DC Comics.) Not only is it stunning since we have some frame of reference for how powerful they are, but also stunning because we have ALREADY become attached to these characters.

What follows are a couple real quotes from people I've shown the first episode to: "Oh Batman + Silver Surfer that's awesome!" "OH DUDE! FISH AQUAMAN" "Wonder Woman but she's a lesbian.. as she should be..." .. and all these people, the ones with the most superhero experience, were the ones all most taken aback by the ending.

So let's look at Eve.

At first glance, we get the same impression as a lot of the heroes we meet in Invincible: knockoff. In the same way Omniman and the entirety of the Guardians of the Globe are made to resemble the Superman and the Justice League so to does Atom Eve's costume and powers SCREAM token. She is the first female hero we meet that is Mark's age and perhaps more importantly (and more evident to a first-time viewer) she has some very clear themes of femininity. Such as her costume, which Doc Seismic callously points out in Episode 3 (neglecting the fact she designed her own costume)...

... as well as her name. "Atom Eve" is a combination of her ability to influence atoms and her middle name, but it is also a reference to Adam and Eve (see the bible.) She even has a female symbol with two revolving electrons around it emblazoned right on her damn shirt. So just like the Guardians of the Globe, her design is meant to carry a lot of weight and immediacy to the viewer, you see them and you understand who they are and what they stand for (or at least you think you do.)

So we've seen the way that the Guardians subvert our expectations so how does Eve diverge from the audience's first-impressions? Well for the first couple episodes she doesn't. You might even suspect her of being some one-dimensional, neglected and under-characterized female character (and to be honest if you were reading the comics you wouldn't be too far off...) until you start to see her dissatisfied with being a superhero. Her boyfriend cheats on her, the Teen Team breaks up, her parents consistently disrespect and talk down to her, she's misunderstood by the naive and silly Mark Grayson, and she struggles to find connection with anyone outside of when she's "beating up bad guys." She even goes as far as to reject a position in the Guardians of the Globe just to avoid her ex-boyfriend, despite her killer tryout.

She's frustrated by the frame that's been left for her, and realizes her powers enable her to do much more than beat up random villains. Her powers BY THE WAY, which up until now anyone could have mistaken for "shooting pink stuff," is actually atomic manipulation. She can just fucking rearrange matter to make anything she wants. So instead of being a superhero she fucks off to do things that ACTUALLY help people. Like idk she could be irrigating rivers and feeding the starving or like manufacturing free medicine or something. Atom Eve is a hero who is chronically misunderstood by literally everyone around her, even in the final episode Mark is under the impression Eve just stopped being a superhero to get away from her ex, parents, and school. However with the earth-shattering familial trauma that Mark goes through in the Season 1 finale, maybe they will have more in-common than either of them think.

and NOW there's a surprise ATOM EVE SPECIAL EPISODE! it shows off her origin story which goes even more in-depth into her trauma, and her loss of the only people who even WOULD be capable of understanding her. It also has my FAVORITE FIGHT SCENE OF ALL TIME!!! It was absolutely incredible

ps: omg why tf did they make her far-shot model have an x over the female symbol instead of the detailed electrons (crying emoji) cool i didnt proofread this okay i might do more of these okay bye, i love this show okay

[prettypleaseignorethis]

Absolutely broke my heart when I discovered white collar x Batman fics and then immediately realized how many of these crossovers seem to actively disregard white collar as a show

Like I’m still gonna read them and I’m still gonna have fun, but it hurts to see people misinterpreting Neal Caffrey as just a knockoff Batfamily member instead of the canonically-labeled sociopath and pathological thief that he is. Like this bitch will steal things because, and I quote, “it was there.” He got caught on bond forgery because he was so obsessively in love with a girl and he broke out of maximum security prison and subsequently got caught because of said girl (who, rightfully so, did not give a shit about him).

Respectfully, not a single one of the Batfamily is built like that.

And then people are treating Peter Burke like some idiotic traffic cop who doesn’t care about Neal at all, instead of a brilliant guy who has broken every moral and ethical bone in his body trying to protect his best friend. This man finished the series **SPOILERS** having (1) lied to a priest, (2) been kidnapped, (3) had his wife kidnapped, (4) gone to prison, (5) aided and abetted fugitives, and (6) violated probably a minimum of five domestic and international laws each episode. And that’s not even including all the plot points I’ve completely forgotten about

It hurts even more because that dynamic of impulsivity and intelligence and loyalty and criminal behavior and complete trust and absolutely gut wrenching codependency just reeks of Batman comics. Like Peter and Neal hurt each other and love each other and betray each other at every turn and it’s sooooo good and THAT is the crossover I want to be reading…

(Sorry for the rant, but I’m tipsy off red wine and white collar is leaving Hulu in two weeks and I’m struggling)

[lemonlimestar]

3 7 16 and 22!!

tyyy :]

3. screenshot or description of the worst take you've seen on tumblr

rimi why would u ask me this. there are so many. off the top of my head: the one fucking post where jason takes the wheels off of babs’ wheelchair “so she can rest,” the “steph is actually abusive 🤓☝️” post, the one au where knockout is a genuine mentor for kon (???????????????), the person who said steph and cass are siblings and babs is their mom and bruce is their dad (?????????), fucking clone babies. all of the clone babies. i hate the clone babies. kon actually wouldn’t be cool with being cloned without his consent and his relationship with tim would be forever tainted. hope this helps!

7. what character did you begin to hate not because of canon but because how how the fandom acts about them?

our dear friend jtodd. sick of him always and forever. i don’t tend to like villain characters in general but he Could be compelling if i still cared enough to engage with him more. bring back the pillhead and his little cunty outfit from batman&robin 2009 at this point u guys need to learn a lesson. also bruce lowkey, but honestly he pisses me off more in canon akdjsksj

16. you can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc)

already answered However i’d like to get on soapbox about how people strip characters of basic, foundational skills they either canonically (or honestly logically) have and or even enjoy doing. tim knows how to take care of himself. when you’re a vigilante who lacks superpowers you sort of need to know how to keep up your physical health to a certain extent. he’s not a coffee addict (<- forever a horrible take lmao) who doesn’t know how to function! he actively cooks for people he loves in canon! dick even taught him how to do laundry! and general chores! honestly, i feel like the way fanon tim gets treated ties into the casual ableism of fandom but i have to gather my thoughts better for all that akdhjssj

22. your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores

i also already answered this one but i will tack on kon’s nerdy interests and general dork personality <3 he likes star trek and lord of the rings…. his favorite show is a buffy knockoff… he has fuzzy slippers and kiss boxers…. he says shit like this

kon-el i love u

[siderealscribblings]

Really interested in that Electro hotness ranking, especially because the only Genshin knowledge I have is pretty much your fanfic series and the lore I've looked up around the characters you've mentioned. So with that said, outta curiosity, what are your favorite Genshin characters and how do you rank their hotness? I need to do more research :D

Man that's like saying the Book of Mormon musical was your intro to Christianity 😂

My fav character list and my thirst tier don't always line up but there's some significant overlap in some areas. In terms of simp tiers it's pretty much as follows (by element, in no particular order and factoring in appearance+personality+X Factors like Neuvillette's gap moe)

As you can see, Geo and Electro come out strong with 6 picks each, with Geo overall having the better guys including the Geo God Arataki Motherfucking Itto himself. Gameplay wise Navia is a monster who regularly deals excess of 100K per shotgun blast and that strongly contributes to her ranking.

Electro is entirely women but it's a solid roster of characters, half of whom are social disasters which only ups their ranking. Gameplay-wise Ei has been on all my teams since I pulled her and is my backup crutch character I break out when I need something to get hit by lightning.

Cryo has some of my favorite designs with Eula, Shenhe, and Kaeya being my standout fav's. Wriothesley is one of my fav Fontaine characters but I can never justify spending primos on him because my Ayaka is already cracked to death.

Hydro has probably my favorite characters+Yelan with Neuvi being a strong pick (gap moe+dragon buff+thigh high boots) and Furina triggering my love of failgirls (she's objectively not a failgirl but she has the aura of one). Childe again has a lot of gap-moe being a cheerful, friendly guy who also wants to fight everything he sees. Mona is Mona...and her second outfit is better than her first, don't fight me on this, you will lose.

Pyro has the character I simp the most for Diluc (the redheaded Batman knockoff with alcohol intolerance). Second 5-star I pulled after Kokomi and used almost as much. Thoma and Yoimiya get major points for personality and Dehya is carried on her design and personality alone. (Arlecchino doesn't make the list because she dresses like she buys her clothes at Bayonetta's rummage sales).

Anemo is strongly led by Jean with Xiao and Kazuha showing up with personality (Kazuha being an ungodly bro and Xiao having the personality of a guard dog). Xianyun gets points for stopping Furina from killing every team she's on with her sentries powered by lifesteal and enables plunge gameplay.

Dendro has a dearth of attractive characters, both of whom are guys. Alhaitham gets major points for being the lazy genius archetype I can't get enough of and Kaveh satisfies my love of bitchy male characters.

The rest range from ehh to no to fuck no in the case of the little characters and Aloy.

[disappearinginq]

Once a great while back you’d given outline of plot /character details for your original stories. I didn’t find it but I don’t know for sure if it was tagged/what it was tagged. Do you happen to remember the post or feel like giving an update on your original work?

There are in fact, four of them, which I largely refer to by the main characters in them. And despite the fact that they sound like romantic pairs, they are not.

There's Tally and Lir - set in a fantasy Ireland (I have not picked a name), Tally is one of the travellers and she and her family are essentially a traveling circus (leaning into family history here). This one I basically decided to flip a lot of tropes or things we see in popular fantasy/romantasy. Like Tally and Lir are not romantically involved. At all. People don't even comment on it. Lir is an amnesiac she fishes out of the river one morning, and her family basically rolls with it, assuming he's a deserter from the army. It also borrows heavily from Celtic and Irish mythology, and like how I write fanfic, I skip all over the place when writing this and I am discovering this is a really bad way to do it. So I'm trying work on linear story writing for it.

Sweeping vague overview: Tally tries to keep Lir out of the hands of the army, and the more time she spends with him, she suspects that he's not just a deserter, because the military is really scorching the earth trying to locate him.

Samson and Delilah - Yes, that's really their names. Delilah was the name of a beloved contraband pet rat I had in college and I just liked the name, and Samson gets his name because he refuses to tell her his real one for like 90% of the story. This one was based off a thought I had on the nature of redemption, and if I could make a truly unlikable character someone you could like by the end, even if you could understand where she was coming from. This has gone through a fair amount of revising - I got 30k words in, reread it as a whole, and realized nothing fucking happened. So I had to create some stakes, a ticking clock, motivation for one half of these characters, etc. And then there wound up being some serious world building going on that I did not expect, but I think it helps the story considerably.

Sweeping vague overview: a girl makes a pact with a demon to get revenge for herself and her murdered family, and the demon realizes that she might actually be the worse of the two of them. The redemptive power of friendship and platonic unconditional love saves the day.

Lucian and Ben: This one is steampunk Batman. And no, I will not be elaborating.

Nate and Rue - space western, which requires an ungodly amount of world building, to the point I've decided that this is Firefly territory, not Star Trek/Wars, because I am not coming up with alien species, languages, or cultures. Transportation is an unforseen nuisance. This is also one that started off as a 100% slapstick parody story. And then I decided that Rue and Nate really deserved some actual attention and effort, because they're a lot of fun. These two are 100% (again, platonic) soul mates to the point of codepency thanks to a shared childhood trauma. However, they're wildly different people - which I mostly decided on because I got really irritated at the idea that people kept trying to pedal to me that you can only be friends (or even speak to someone) who agrees 100% with you on 100% of things. And these two? Do not. One is a space pirate reject from the equivalent of Star Fleet Academy, and the other one is a science officer in said Star Fleet knockoff (really, it's the American military complex, and I decided that the basis of it was 'What if Star Fleet wasn't the good guys?'). This is another requiring a lot of logistics that my friends have been obnoxiously helpful with and solve like 2 years of my problems in one simple question and I love them for it while I scream into the void WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT WAS THIS EASY THE WHOLE FUCKING TIME?!

Sweeping vague overview: that shared childhood trauma is not so much a thing of the past as both of them wished it was, and they have to work together again to stop the Bad Guy who seems to be gaining popularity and making other people question if he's Really That Bad? (yes, he is, he so fucking is)

Anyway. The vague original fic updates that I really should be working on, but fanfic is soooo alluring and beckons to me.

[turtle--soup]

Watching TMNT Next Mutation Episode 7 (when I really shouldn't be but... eh.) 😅

Ramblings under the cut.

Sewer rays? OK.

Dude's riding a motorbike through the sewer. Raph just makes it look so cool he stated a trend huh?

"Do I wanna meet the NYPD? Hmm... naaahh, absolutely not!" Same Mikey, same...

Big monkey. Who is his voice actor? He sounds familiar...*

"I can't believe this! I've been dissed by a gangster ape!" Mikey bro this is like a regular Monday for you surely?

"Certified turtlefied!" Adding that to the List of Things I Can't Believe They Say

"Cops in the sewers? They don't sell donuts down here!" Raph providing the obligatory donut jokes 👍

"I dunno what you been eatin'. But I want some." Why don't they believe Mikey about the monkey dude? Like literally they are talking turtles. If anything a talking ape is less weird

These gangsters are all dressed like they're cosplaying alt- design Joker Funko Pops. Or they got lost on the way to audition to be in the 60s Batman TV show.

"We're ninja - not the Power Rangers!" Yesssssss they're crossing the streeeeeaaaamms!

Raph 'n' roll honestlyyyyyyy that's a catchphrase?? Raph buddy...

"That's team leader" 😤 Aw Don Don, you don't deserve this disrespect

"EY BAWS" hoooooo my god

"The schnooks" OK Venus.

"Battlin' crime is FUN! Heh heh I feel like Batman!" Yeah that'll be the knockoff Joker suits.

Also like... the guys are acting like they don't fight crime? But like... they fought the Foot before? And I know that was bc they were an evil ninja clan specifically but you can't tell me they weren't Doing A Crime every now and then? And that was probably why the turtles fight them, at least sometimes??

The TA DAAAAA sound effect again 👌

All the money flying out of the back of the van this is genuinely the cheesiest live action cartoon

God I love how completely done Donnie is today

Mikey that was so fruity (affectionate)

Oh that's convenient. They moved most of the gold in Fort Knox to NYC for a bit. Of course.

The turtles just so happen to be living directly under half the gold in America right now. Of course.

"Translation for the thick of skull" oof Donnie he's your brother! Or not. So you all have a free pass to hit on your sister Venus.

"I suggest big caution" Leo providing much needed representation for people who can't words good (me).

NUCULAR?? DON WTF YOU ARE NOT HOMER SIMPSON

Isn't there a super villain who's a big monkey dude? I can't remember rn and its winding me up**

Honestly these accents... I could've been a VA on this show. I can butcher an East Coast accent with the best of them

Was I supposed to be able to see that wire??

Oh no they've trapped Venus in a classic Thunderbirds episode!

No genuinely though this could be pretty exciting if it wasn't like 3 minutes from the end of the episode...

Raph is very worried. "Whadda we doo just stand around and PANIC??" He's so relatable

Aw Don...

Aw they're crying 😭 bless them

It's a good job Donnie and Venus didn't die, the other three have to share one brain cell and I'm not sure Splinter could handle that alone

The code was Donnie's birthday asdghghfgdgk

"You mess with the monkey and it gets funky" this dude is legit a Power Rangers villain

--

*IT WAS GARY CHALK! I knew I knew that voice! How's a guy get typecast as a talking gorilla, anyway? I really hope that whoever cast him did that intentionally, and if they did I hope they also know that they're a legend.

**I think I might be thinking of Gorilla Grodd??

[thevindicativevordan]

Comics this week?

Superman #20 - Rest in pieces Rudy. God I love Mora's art, I haven't been this excited by a freaking Doomsday story since the first time I read Death of Superman. Give me all the blood and guts, Doomsday amplified by the power of Hell rules. He's like a freaking Balrog now! Never realized it before but Doomsday is basically Evil Goku under Williamson and it rocks. He loves fighting and killing, and all he wants is to get stronger. Even old man Doomsday as the Time Trapper is seeking to use his biology to evolve and grow more powerful, like how Saiyans do when they’re badly damaged. I loved the conversation between Time Trapper and Superman at the start too, where Doomsday waxes on about how the two of them are eternal and destined for conflict forever.

I love that kind of anime monologue between two foes. I hate it when it’s like Doomsday Clock, where it’s a bunch of meaningless wank about how Superman “matters” to the structure of the multiverse. Here it works for me because it’s Trapper inflated ego mandating that he has to cast Superman as some primal force in order to cope with how he keeps losing to the guy. He wants to become a god, clearly he isn’t lacking pride, and it would be unbearable for him to keep losing to “a regular guy”. Bringing in Golden God Superman from One Million also does justify it somewhat since that Superman basically is a god himself. I can buy that a Time Trapper who has been feuding with Superman-Prime, and having witnessed his power, views Superman with respect. Lot of mysteries set up in this issue: what is Superman's "red levels"? Zod is going to take Superman's eye at some point?!? God I hope the rumor of Williamson leaving isn't true, the man is in the zone right now on Superman.

Absolute Wonder Woman #2 - So good. My favorite page is the one where Sherman makes the panel where Diana dresses down the commander into a W, and then you get Diana and Steve talking to her Pegasus. Great composition with the art and Thompson shows us the two sides of her Diana in one page: the stern warrior and the compassionate hero. I was not expecting Absolute Steve to be a relatively straightforward take, I almost figured he would turn out to be dead, and serve as Diana's "Virgil" guide in Man's World. With mainline Steve dead currently I hope to see Thompson make use of Absolute Steve, I know it's awkward for WW of all franchises to devote time to fleshing out a man, but as her premiere LI I believe he needs it. Also I guess Absolute Diana is bi? Thompson said she views her Diana as queer but unless I'm misreading, there's definitely some attraction between Diana and Steve.

Another thing this issue I liked: we get a sense of how Diana's past informs her fight with the present. Batman lost his father in a mass shooting and the Party Animals are a chance for him to strike back against that. Superman lost his parents and his planet because of the greed and cruelty of the ruling class, which he gets the chance to fight against on Earth in the form of the Lazarus Corp. With Wondy it's made clear that the monsters of hell were a source of torment for her and Circe, and that's why Thompson starts off this first arc with Diana fighting monsters. Diana gets to finally push back against foes similar to her past tormentors. I will add this criticism however: if it’s just faceless monsters without a known Wondy villain pulling their strings, then I think that’s a mistake. While I like what the monsters represent on the whole conceptually, they’re not grabbing me as actual characters.

JLU #1 - This was ok. I guess I’m interested to see where evil Air Wave is going. What it isn’t however is exciting. Waid is turning in a perfectly serviceable DCAU knockoff comic, but what I’m not getting is any sense of real ambition here. It’s safe, and it suffers from being safe while Williamson is letting Mora cut loose and the Absolute books are taking way more risks. Williamson and Waid are doing the exact same thing, mixing in DCAU and Silver Age concepts while modernizing them at the same time - but Williamson is doing it better. Hurts Waid even further that both of them are paired with Mora, and Mora’s work in Superman is on another level compared to JLU. I don’t think Waid was the right choice to relaunch JL, this is giving me flashbacks to how Marvel benched the F4 for a while, and when they finally made their big return it happened in a mediocre run that’s already forgotten. Got a feeling JLU will be received similarly.

Incredible Hulk #19 - Took a long time to get here, but I actually enjoyed the climax to the Eldest arc! Klein’s art made all the body horror come off as beautifully Gothic, and I’m intrigued to see what Charlie’s newfound powers mean for her and Bruce.

[wanderingmind867]

The Silver Age Justice League didn't really need Denny O'Neil trying to make them more like The Avengers. Because let's be clear here: that's what they did. And it falls flat on its face. Green Arrow can't be Hawkeye, no matter how hard you keep trying to make him seem as down home, arrogant and brash. Hawkeye has all those traits covered, and he actually grew up a poor circus archer! Green Arrow was born into privilege, and he can't then try to act like an off-brand hawkeye. No, Green Arrow makes more sense in his original form. A more lighthearted version of Batman (even by adam west batman standards). Oliver Queen should be a bit of a suave playboy both in and out of costume, like a combination of Tony Stark and Bruce Wayne. We can have him be a playboy to hide his insecurites. We can have him showing love and affection to his sidekick. We can have him being a philanthropist who wants to help people. But we can't have him be a knockoff of whatever marvel was doing, just worse!

But we can't have whatever the hell Denny O'Neil did to the character! Because what he did to the character was fundamentally change him, and just make him a worse knock off of Hawkeye! Clean shaven Green Arrow is the better Green Arrow, and I have to treat them separately. Green Arrow with a goatee and who's dating Black Canary: that guy's a D or an E on a tierlist. Silver Age Green Arrow (with his sidekick Speedy, his Arrowplane and Arrowcar, and his general lighthearted charm) is an A-lister.

Same with Batman. Modern Age Batman (so Post-Crisis onwards), is a resounding F. Bronze age Batman (who was dark and edgy, but at least still occasionally made jokes and dressed in Blue and Grey) gets in D or E tier. But Silver age Batman (the one Adam West and Diedrich Bader both portrayed), that guy's in S tier or A tier. Silly Batman is the best. But from 1969 onwards, he got worse and worse. Same with Green Arrow, and with the JLA.

[unfortunate-songbird]

i have two groups of funky ocs and they’re silly and important

space it’s literally just knockoff star wars:

-aggressively promotes self care guy with guns and anxiety

-tragic-childhood-house-fire-orphan girl with anger issues who likes baking

-non-binary dork with adhd who does nothing but #hacking and playing Google snake

-literally dick Grayson from Batman but without the eldest daughter syndrome (alternatively Mikey from tmnt)

-angst magnet guy who decided dying in an explosion was better than owning up to his Series Of Terrible Life Choices

-minor character: boss who is strict but secretly amused by the groups’ shenanigans and also eats bugs

Bonus! They have a dnd fantasy au because I have no self control and C is an enabler

basically like all those middle school series about a kid who falls into a fantasy world that kinda thing:

-“shut up ok ur twelve years old obviously I, a 17 year old, am smarter and knows everything” (knows literally nothing)

-girl who decides the best way to deal with her grief over her plot-relevant mysteriously dead mom is by explosions and overthrowing a government because a kid she’s never met asked her to

-embodiment of all those weird girl who wears bright colors and stares at bugs every recess

-biggest Spider-Man fanboy ever (found out what Spider-Man is two days ago)

-“what if we just went home instead of going on a super dangerous quest for no real reason” (nobody listens to her)

Anyways they’re my Silly Goobers please ask me about them

[slickbackdani]

Takes That Give Me Psychic Damage

"The Owl House not redeeming the genocidal colonial dictator is lazy writing that contradicts the show's messages and retroactively means the entire show was always badly-written kids' stuff."

"All superhero movies and shows — with the sole exception of The Boys — is right-wing/police/military propaganda, especially The Suicide Squad because, while it criticized the moral failings of the American military, it also had American characters fixing their government's messes and saving the day so therefore it's supportive of mindless jingoism and white supremacy."

Similarly, "The Batman was military propaganda even though the military was never even alluded to once in the entire film."

"All female-counterpart heroes like Batgirl, Supergirl, and She-Hulk are lazy zero-effort knockoffs whose only fans are gross male nerds who don't understand women — and the fact that these female heroes have personalities/backstories/roles that largely differ from their male counterparts is totally irrelevant for reasons I don't feel like explaining."

"Batman, Kratos, Solid Snake, Agent 47, and Ezzio Auditore are all literally the exact same character with no differences between them because brooding and violence and white guys."

"My Adventures with Superman is bad because it's appropriate for all ages so that automatically makes it stupid and childish and lacking in depth but also unappealing to kids because, as EVERYONE knows, children have no interest in things that weren’t made exclusively for them! Also the art style makes all the characters look like children and changing the characters' races is actually bad for diversity because it somehow means characters who were already POC won’t be included as well."

"All works of classic literature are racist/imperialist/fascist/capitalist propaganda and getting rid of them is the only way society will be allowed to progress."

"I'm justified in being a condescending asshole to people who liked Avatar because it is objectively bad and people only like it because they've literally been brainwashed. As for the people who liked the movie because they agree with its message? You say we should improve society and yet you participate in society. Interesting. I am very intelligent."

There are more I'll add later, but these are all I could think of.