#to the point that Gun Batman could not survive in their timeline

[zahri-melitor]

Thinking about the shape of A Lonely Place of Living in relation to Tim's story and what Tynion was trying to do with it, and it's interesting to me, as I don't think it's his most successful story in terms of a narrative beyond re-establishing and re-centring a character, but he's once again playing with a lot of Tim's storylines and echoing various things (and not just ALPOD though obviously ALPOD, it's in the name).

Like you cannot get around that the story is about Gun Batman, because Gun Batman is right there. But the shape of how that works: it's a recapitulation of Red Robin themes. Because Tim's trapped, and Tim strategises a way to escape from his prison, and he has to cooperate with his enemy somewhat to achieve his goals, and as soon as he gets out the first thing he says to his family, to those he's closest to - is to warn them that Gun Batman is coming for them and particularly for Batwoman. It's SO Yost arc coded.

Gun Batman and Tim's discussions over whether the ends justify the means, and whether killing is acceptable echo through a lot of stories where Tim faces that and refuses to do so (The Young El and Dava arcs in Robin around #50 are always worth pointing out, because people don't know they're there, but of course also Red Robin #26 and trapping Captain Boomerang), but it's interesting here, as the story also establishes...if Tim doesn't even remember who Conner is, this Tim also may not remember having that fight with himself and redrawing that line, and then he gets to do it all over again.

And then we also get to do a Brother Eye aspect of the story, with the intertwined narrative of Bruce's paranoia, Tim's growing paranoia over the years, the echo between those all the way back for Tower of Babel when Tim tells his friends he'd never go so far as to have protocols like Bruce, but we know by 2010 he does have protocols as the life he's led has brought him to that, and what Brother Eye in itself says about Bruce's paranoia and that whole arc of Infinite Crisis and ongoing, about programming and about watching and observation and about control and about the overwriting of control of Brother Eye over the years (want to talk about OMACs and REMACs? there is stuff here to dig out about both) and about the similarities that exist between Bruce and Tim for Gun Batman to be able to exploit this faultline.

And also: you have Bruce's guilt threaded through all of this. Because the last 25 issues have been about Bruce mourning the loss of Tim in his heroic sacrifice, but interestingly in a way that is not like he mourns Jason and not like he mourns Damian, but in a way where he refuses to lose control.

In ALPOD the reason Tim approaches first Dick and then Alfred and then Bruce is because Bruce is losing control as he doesn't have a network. For Tynion's run, Bruce DOES have a network; and not only his family, he has all the other allies that Tim specifically recruited and anchored and befriended and he helped design and set up the Belfry for - a system that Tim sees as greater than himself and that he hopes can sustain things if he is selfish and steps away for his own purposes. But while it works, it's also shaky, because part of what made the post-Crisis Bat family and Gotham network function was Tim's presence as an anchor and a recruiter and a linchpin holding people together, and Tynion is saying things don't work as well without Tim's actual presence, and repeating the narrative that Tim learns over the years - he can't retire, he cannot step away, because when he tries to bad things happen.

Bruce can avoid losing his mind with grief because Tim built him a network (like he did while initially mourning Jason). But Bruce also doesn't allow himself to try to resurrect Tim after his sacrifice; whereas Bruce had to be talked through the 5 stages of grief by family members after Damian's death and then set out on a quest to alternately protect Damian's corpse/find ways to resurrect Damian (it ping ponged back and forth) when it was Damian who was dead.

And Bruce is so mad at himself when he realises that by allowing himself to process his grief like he did with Jason and live through having a dead son, every day, and remember his sacrifice...he's left Tim trapped, thinking people were searching for him and coming for him, when...they weren't. And he starts working to try and find Tim. Especially as Tim lived through Jason's death and Damian's death and Bruce's under-reaction to Dick's 'death' and he knows how Bruce reacted - and he's waiting for rescue. He could expect Bruce to come for him and storm the Gods themselves to get Tim back: because that's what Bruce so recently did for Damian.

Tim came looking for Bruce, because he didn't believe Bruce was dead. But Bruce didn't come looking for Tim, even though he's fought to resurrect another son, and realising that you haven't gone searching for the son who searched so hard for you when you were lost and believed dead? Yeah. Ouch.

And so Tim has to rescue himself and find his own way out - but he comes back still full of belief and forgiveness for Bruce. I also think there's something here in an inflection where Bruce gets the alert as they ARE now looking, and he storms into a hospital to get to Tim, as opposed to Jason's unknown, unrecognised resurrection and HIS hospital stay in Gotham.

The layers are there! There's a bunch of interesting themes! I just really wish it wasn't held together by Gun Batman. Though admittedly it's interesting to me that Tynion's version of Gun Batman posits that this is a universe where Damian was still Batman!666 and Tim had to kill him for it. AND that it can't be the future, because Gun Batman is being torn apart by the timeline, because of the changes made. He's not Tim's future. He's a nightmare, instead.

[themurphyzone]

Two Mice and a Baby AU

AU where the mice wind up adopting baby Superman. These HCs are based off the DCAU version of Superman and the Justice League. 

1. The mice choose to move out of the lab and into Smallville, Kansas. Cause if the lab caught this superpowered alien baby that can fly and shoot laser beams out of his eyes, the consequences could be disastrous. Brain re-establishes Brain Acres and farms the land (while also having a small lab in the house so he can do experiments and try to take over the world). Pinky mostly handles the livestock. 

2. The baby is named Clark. The mice’s neighbors are the Kents, and when Clark’s a little older he chooses to take Kent as his last name cause the Kents are just so incredibly nice. And it’s uninamously agreed by the mice and Clark that Martha Kent has the best dang apple pie in the world. They serve more as grandparent figures in this AU. 

3. Clark’s powers kinda fizzle out once he’s two years old, and don’t make a return until his high school years. 

4. Brain has created a huge defense system for the farm that would make even the Batman jealous. This is so nobody dares steal away his family. 

5. Pinky is a huge shipper on deck for Clark’s little crush on Lana Lang. He’s constantly telling Clark he oughta bring her home so they can meet her. 

6. Clark doesn’t really agree with Brain trying to take over the world, but he does appreciate the notion of improving the world somehow, just a little at a time. 

7. Clark grew up with horror stories of ACME Labs, and decided to do a little research of his own. He came to enjoy the sleuthing and decided to pursue a career in journalism. 

8. Lots of tears were shed on the day of high school graduation, the move to college, and eventually to Metropolis. 

9. Once Clark begins to rediscover his Kryptonian heritage and grew into his powers, eventually finding the Fortress of Solitude, Brain practically fell in love with all the interesting alien tech. 

10. Clark begins his stint as Superman. Brain creates a portal gun they can use to jump between the farm and Metropolis so they can visit often. 

11. Brain really cannot stand Lex Luthor. 

12. Clark sometimes wonders if he oughta go over to Gotham to help out, cause the city is just a crime ridden cesspool. The mice shout him down every time, cause nobody wants to ever wind up in Gotham. 

13. When Superman is brainwashed by Darkseid, the mice are horrified and try to snap him out of it, to the point where Brain even tries to attack Darkseid but is easily swatted aside. It’s only thanks to Pinky’s telekinesis that he survives the encounter. 

14. Clark is horrified by what he did under Darkseid’s command, and the people turn against him. That is, everyone except Lois, Jimmy, and the mice. Still, it takes a while for Clark to trust himself to make important decisions again. 

15. Pinky and Brain wind up in the alternate universe of A Better World, in which they discover that the Justice League have turned into the tyrannical Justice Lords. Brain begins to wonder if they truly stumbled into a better world where everything is clean, where crime is non existent, and where nobody ever has to turn a weapon on anybody ever again. 

But...Pinky notices that people are arrested for petty offenses, and even tries to help plea the case of one who was just out two minutes past curfew. But the peacekeeper doesn’t listen. 

And Brain realizes that it’s not a better world, if people are just randomly arrested for no good reason. 

The mice discover that their own son was the cause of this split in the timeline. Justice Lord Superman just tells Brain he was following his philosophy of creating a better world, and offers both mice a place in the Justice Lords, as a token of gratitude for raising him. 

Brain vehemently refuses. 

And later on...they discover what happened to their counterparts. Pinky had protested against Superman’s brutal methods. And in return, he died. Brain was lobotomized by Superman’s heat vision and sent to Arkham while trying to avenge Pinky. 

And when the mice from the normal universe seek answers from Arkham, they run into the alternate Brain. He can’t talk anymore, only communicating in squeaks and cries. Brain is startled to see himself not care about dignity at all. But upon seeing Pinky, the alternate Brain latches on to him and refuses to let go. 

Even with part of his mind fried, part of him will always know who Pinky is no matter what. 

When the Justice Lord fiasco is resolved, the mice make Superman promise he will never become what they saw. But Superman is still very shaken up, and doesn’t know if he can stick to that promise. 

[maxwell-grant]

Should Fantomas & The Shadow collide or should the former be only the echo of horror by the time the latter makes his debut? (Also, on a more cheerful note, might one please ask if you have thoughts on The Ghost Who Walks?).

I’ve talked before about how Zemba is the closest we’ve ever been to an official encounter between The Shadow and Fantomas, even if Gaspard Zemba, clever as he may be, is nowhere near as nasty as Fantomas. I imagine a proper Shadow x Fantomas crossover would be somewhat like Zemba, but with far more convoluted disguises and much more murder;

Fantomas being “an echo of horror” can be interesting, if the two exist in the same world. Maybe part of the reason why The Shadow can inspire such fear is because the image of evil he evokes is similar to those of supervillains who haunted the scene long before he came around, and he’s taken lessons from them. Timeline wise, Fantomas presumably died in 1913, but he still had adventures published long after WW1, and of course Fantomas cheats death all the time so, it wouldn’t take much to justify him somehow still being active.

The problem with a crossover between The Shadow and Fantomas is that the story would have to end with at least one of them losing and dying, and neither of them can really afford to do that. Fantomas can’t die because it’s almost a rule of Fantomas stories that he always gets away at the end, and The Shadow can’t die because, well, he’s The Shadow, and neither of the two would be willing to walk away without ensuring the other is put down permanently. Grendel vs The Shadow only got away with both characters surviving by having Grendel time travel back to his era at the last second, and Grendel is considerably less horrible than Fantomas (I’d even argue Fantomas is worse than The Joker in some aspects). If The Shadow fails to rescue his agents from being targeted by Fantomas, or lets Fantomas escape, it looks way too bad on him. But if Fantomas doesn’t kill any of them or doesn’t get away with some grand and horrible crime, there’s hardly much of a point to having the Fantomas be here instead of some less horrible, less slippery supervillain. It’s a similar issue I have with The Shadow crossing over with The Spider, where it’s an idea that makes sense on paper, but they operate by such different rules that trying to mash them together could end up not doing any favors to either character. 

Now, if this were set in some bigger pulp fiction crossover where the rules of individual characters are put aside to serve the needs of a bigger story, then we could start considering circumstances for these two to collide, or in particular, how and why is Fantomas still alive after decades to the point The Shadow has to take him out, how many people are going to die until he’s stopped, and what bigger forces might be at play here. Something to consider.

The Phantom is absolutely a character I should have at least one big essay on locked and loaded, considering how iconic and well-known he seems to be virtually everywhere on Earth outside of the United States. Even people I know who have zero experience with any pulp heroes still recall The Phantom, and funny enough while writing this post I was told by my mom that she used to receive Phantom comics by the mail, and of course there’s the whole fact that tribes in Papua New Guinea paint his semblance on their war shields, which is WILD and definitely one of the coolest things I’ve ever heard of associated with any character. 

He’s one of the few proto-superheroes I got to actually read in physical form growing up. I remember this big collection of the original Lee Falk strips at a library in the local mall and every now and then I’d grab a couple of them, and what really stuck out to me back then was that he was a Pirate Superhero (I don’t actually recall if he was a pirate, but the stories where he stormed into ships to pick fights with pirates stayed with me to the point I will always associate The Phantom with pirates), something I’d never seen before and even today I still think is a KILLER combination that has yet to really catch on in media. 

But besides from that, I actually don’t have much to say on The Phantom yet, other than he’s just a really, really solid character. I’ve talked briefly on him here where I point to him as the first example of a character who’s both a pulp hero and a superhero, as a character who is an incredibly strong contender for the title of First Superhero, and who absolutely would be considered just as integral to the whole thing as Batman if only he just happened to debut under the right circumstances. I haven’t taken the time to really dig into his history, and he seems to have a lot of it, including several cartoon adaptations and adaptations exclusive to non-English countries like Scandinavia and Sweden. I will get to it eventually, but part of the reason why I haven’t is because usually my goal is to go to bat for characters that I think are either severely misrepresented, or severely unknown, and The Phantom isn’t really either.

He has one of the most iconic costumes in the history of the medium (even if I don’t consider him the first superhero, he was inarguably the one to wear the first superhero outfit), he’s got a great lore that can easily lead to so many other kinds of stories and sort of kickstarted the whole “legacy superhero” concept, he’s got a unique home setting as Kit Walker but you can put The Phantom anywhere you want, he’s suited for big goofy swashbuckling punch-ups as well as grim and bloody action sequences, he’s a masked adventurer with a dog sidekick, which is usually a winning combo. He’s got a ton of comics, he’s got cartoons and videogames, he got a big flashy blockbuster, he’s got a superteam alongside Mandrake and Flash Gordon, he’s really done very well for himself on a global scale.

Most of his virtues and selling points are very self-evident and  even if he isn’t The First Superhero (and I don’t think he needs to be), even if he isn’t particularly popular at the moment and is stuck in legal complications, this is one character I really don’t see ever dying or being completely forgotten. He’s always going to come back, in some form or another. Even if in-universe he really is just a guy with guns, training and a costume, outside of it, Kit Walker did succeed in becoming an immortal ghost of legend, even if not to the audience his author probably intended. 

[stxleslyds]

EVENT LEVIATHAN issues 2 and 3

EVENT LEVIATHAN BUT IT’S ONLY JASON TODD.

Oh, Anon, I am sorry it took me so long to answer your ask, to be honest with you, I had completely forgotten this book ever happened and when I went looking for it, I saw who was the writer for it and my brain disconnected completely.

Michael Brian Bendis, what a polarizing writer. I had forgotten why I didn’t like his work much but this book made me remember that his writing gives me headaches. I swear, every time I read his work I am left wondering if I missed an issue or a page, it’s like I always lack information even though he makes sure to write a lot in those “monologue boxes”.

But I am not here to complain about Bendis, let’s talk about why Jason appears in this book and how is he characterized in it.

If you don’t know what Event Leviathan was about, in the first issue we are told that a terrorist has been attacking places simultaneously. This person, known as Leviathan collected some of the people that survived the attacks (like Batgirl), and others he let escape (like Green Arrow). All of the attacks were on organizations (A.R.G.U.S, Spyral, D.O) that were the pillars of the world intelligence community.

Because the case is big and operating on a big scale, several detectives and heroes (Batman, Robin, The Question, Lois Lane, Plastic Man, and Manhunter) have come together to figure out who is behind Leviathan’s mask.

In the second issue, their main suspect is Jason Todd after Damian suggests that Jason’s “special war on crime” can be related to this worldwide level of terrorist activity.

Well, If you couldn’t tell by the way that I phrased that, I really believe that DC and Bendis had to do some weird changes to the narratives because Jason hadn’t been really at “war with crime” for a very long time, or at the very least, not on that level (against organizations selling/controlling intelligence). So, right of the bat, I am confused as all hell.

Jason at this point in time was working as the Ice Lunge’s owner, so this was after the events of RHatO (2016) #25 and after Roy Harper’s death. But before I get to explaining why Damian and the others thought that Jason was behind Leviathan’s terrorist attacks, let's talk about Jason’s characterization.

How to write about a character based only on “tropes” that the publisher of the book told you. A Guide by Michael Brian Bendis.

We find Red Hood in Seattle, already investigating Leviathan. So, yeah, to me it was kind of obvious that Bendis put Jason there to build up the reason as to why Jason was the main suspect of being Leviathan or working with them.

We are offered some very casual banter with Batman as well as the ever-present subplot of Jason caring for Barbara Gordon. I am not a fan of whatever DC was and is trying to do when it comes to Jason and his crush on a person that he barely knew and has rejected him before. Bendis was probably told to put that there, I really don’t see Jason going out of his way to ask if Barbara is final but oh well.

In that panel we also see Jason say this to Batman, “can we put away the stuff between us so we can work on the case?” to which Batman answers, “of course”.

What the hell was that? First Batman beats the living shit out of Jason (Jason even says that he never saw Bruce hit the Joker as hard as he was hitting him) and rips the bat-symbol of his suit saying that they no longer work together or whatever, then we have Bruce going to Jason to tell him that Roy is dead, he gives him a hug but then proceeds to tell Jason that he is still banned from Gotham.

DC really reduced all that to “stuff between us”, alright, all I am getting from that is that I was right when I said that DC lets Batman get away with his horrible treatment of his kids as if it just were a subplot. Lovely, I hate being right.

But that’s not really what I want to discuss, I want to discuss the level of detective/investigation skills that Jason has got going on for him in this issue. Suddenly Jason has information about what happens with organizations like Spyral, ARGUS, and DEO? And then Bruce asks Jason if he has been in contact with Talia recently?

I am not mad about those last things, don’t get me wrong, Jason being good at investigating and him being (possibly) in contact with Talia are great things BUT they don’t fit in his story anymore.

Where is this Jason coming from, it must not be from the narrative that Lobdell had going on, Jason never showed much interest in keeping up with that side of the world or in doing detective work. And his relationship with Talia was downgraded a lot, basically, all Talia had done was keep an eye on Jason since she first met him before he was robin (yeah, that was a thing that happened as told in RHatO (2011) #25) and that how she found out that he died, after he came back from the dead, she put him in a Lazarus Pit and then sent him to the All-Castle so he could become Ducra’s apprentice. That’s literally it.

Or are we working with a Jason that maintains his Lost Days origins? There isn’t time on the timeline for that to have happened so his involvement in this book and the way that they are writing him is very confusing to me.

Jason doesn’t say anything about Talia except that he pulls an Uno reverse card on Bruce and asks him if he has been in contact with Talia. But just like many things with Bendis as a writer we never really hear any of them say anything about Talia and they continue talking about something else.

Alright, back to sharing what they found it is! Jason has apparently investigated this very closely because he cannot stop bringing up the fact that the attacks leave no bodies behind. Either people escape or vanish from the attack site.

But here is where the so-awaited “Batfamily” mention comes in. After Bruce tells Jason that he is putting a team of Detectives together Jason asks this, “we can’t keep this in the Batfamily?” Gods, was DC on crack when they wrote this? The Batfamily? Honestly? Two of your best detectives are not around to help you and your so-called family left Dick Grayson all alone in Bludhaven!

What Batfamily are you talking about Jason? You, Bruce, and Damian? I can’t with DC pushing and pushing the wildest concept in their universe.

After all that Batman spends a lot of time explaining what has happened or what was supposed to happen, he talks to Jason about how the other detectives were getting closer to retrieve a body that they needed to study. In between what Batman is explaining the scene of Plastic Man talking with Leviathan happens and there Leviathan says that they know each other. So, that’s a clue, whoever is behind the mask is someone that Plastic Man has met before.

We find out that Batman was retelling that story to Jason, so Jason starts putting the pieces together. Batman already has a team, they know that Leviathan has been spearing some heroes’ lives, there is a cause for all the attacks (“a new world order”), and that the attacks leave no bodies. Jason even begins to put together the list of suspects but then Jason asks Batman if they have their number one suspect and Batman says, “Yes”, and it’s Jason!

This is so funny to me, like what? How did they come to that conclusion? Luckily Bendis “explains” the Detectives’ team’s reasoning, I guess? They take turns to ask Jason basic questions that Jason deflects from some reason? It is so dumb.

From this page the most important thing that I gathered is that Damian (the one who initially accused Jason of being Leviathan) says that he doesn’t “think that you (Jason) know you are doing any of this. I think it manifested itself out of grief”.

What? A terrorist that has some sort of technology that makes explosions that leaves no bodies and spares some people’s lives, is being manifested by Jason because Roy Harper died. Did I understand that correctly? That’s their big idea as to why Jason is their number one suspect?

Team of detectives, yeah, I don’t see it.

It makes zero sense! First of all, what “war with crime” was Jason having at the time, and they also say that that war was “a point of controversy for years”. Excuse me? Are they really calling Jason using guns (with rubber bullets) a SPECIAL war with crime? What are they referring to? Are they talking about the events of Under the Red Hood? Because Jason hasn’t been that version of himself in years! We don’t even know if those exact events happened in this continuity!

I am so lost; I actually don’t know why they are relating a terrorist attack to Jason. I don’t know, to me, Jason’s appearance here is unjustified and lacks logic.

Now, we find ourselves in the third issue, where an unnecessary amount of time jumping is done. First, we are in the present after both Batman and Robin let Jason run away. Listen, I know that they tried to paint it as Jason kicking both their asses but I saw those pages, they threw three punches and one of them connect with Jason’s jaw. Batman and Robin just stopped fighting Jason.

I don’t know, why they had to make Damian say that Batman let Jason get away when he was there too and did nothing.

And then they had Damian say this about Jason, “I have never been a member of his fan club but Jason Todd is one of the great master fighters of all time”. Okay, sure, Jason has had a lot of training and he has been immeasurably overpowered over the years but I still find Damian saying this a bit weird, like why would he say that? The fight that is shown after this look into the present is just like any other fight that any Bat-related hero has had. Dick has had more impressive fights than that one after the New 52 and he was immeasurably nerfed.

I love Jason getting recognition for the things that he does right and that he is good at but I need you to represent those moments better. The fight isn’t that grand and they clearly let him run away!

In the fight there all jumped off of a building, (Jason, Batman, Robin, Manhunter, Arrow, and Plastic Man) Jason shoots at everyone and they have a “fight” midair. Then Batman, Robin, and Jason fall through a glass roof and they continue fighting in a pool, this is where I say that they let Jason ran away, they showed us Damian kicking Jason in the face and Bruce punching Jason in the face. But then Jason electrifies both of them while they are in the pool? Listen, this is very nitpicky but Batman and Robin are wearing proper suits for vigilantism, if their suits aren’t prepared to receive some electric shots then wow, but also, the electricity does nothing to Jason even though he is also in the water? Jason’s Red Hood suit at the time was a pair of pants, a shirt, a vest with a hood, and some bandages on his arms… You are telling me that Jason was wearing a suit that protected him from that? Alright, I will believe it, after all, I am very dumb.

Then Jason fights Manhunter, a simple fight apparently, he doesn’t show much fighting skill because she looked like an easy target and then Jason stops fighting and decides to have a nice chat with Lois Lane.

“Why did you run?” I think he ran because a bunch of people accused him of being a terrorist and threw themselves at him at the edge of a building, what kind of question is that?

This page is just, I cannot describe how confusing it is. Lois finally asks that if it isn’t the Red Hood, then why would Leviathan try to set him up? To that Jason answers this, “I was thinking about that on the way down here. Because I am perfect. All this should be me” then he explains “I lose sleep running the numbers in my head, on how measured response to the criminals of the world brings nothing but more chaos. Batman knows this. If this Leviathan is making a big play to change the world, maybe it is the move the “crime-fighters” just don’t, will never have the guts to take. Maybe.”

What. Is. Going. On? Where did this version of Jason come from, this isn’t really in tune with UtRH Jason, RHatO Jason, or RHO Jason. This take on Jason is completely different, Jason doesn’t involve himself with threats on a worldwide scale, he doesn’t care how all heroes around the world operate, and he is not the only one that does things differently from Batman and other heroes that have similar morals.

What is this Jason saying really, is he suggesting that a global terrorist attack can lead to the reconstruction of how heroes work?

Why does Jason think that what Leviathan has going on is similar to things that Jason has done? What did Bendis read that I didn’t? How did Bendis come up with this characterization of Jason?

Because even though RHatO and RHO Jason went beyond Gotham he still fought for things that were directly aligned with his story, Ra’s al Ghul, the Untitled, Essence, all of that wasn’t on a global scale, why is he so suddenly aware of more than that, I just don’t think that his participation in this book is justified.

In these other panels he also comes off as way too aware of what is going on, and I understand that to a certain level all heroes might keep up with what going on a global scale but it seems like Jason knows way too much for someone that hasn’t been connected to those organizations and or people before.

Jason appears a little more after that but nothing of true importance is said anymore in this issue. After, Lois finishes her talk with Jason she reunites with the rest of the team and is like “It wasn’t Red Hood, let’s move on” and that’s that.

That was all Jason did in those two issues. A mix between nothing, knowing too much and him speculating about what a terrorist would want to do next.

Before I give my last thoughts about Jason and these issues, I want to share with you these panels from issue 5 of Event Leviathan.

There, Zatanna and the others confirmed it. Even though Lois listed the Red Hood as a suspect the other detectives told her that not only none of their suspects were Leviathan but that none of them were Leviathan adjacent.

OF COURSE, JASON HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH LEVIATHAN!

Here is what I think, Jason shouldn’t have been in this book, it makes less than zero sense for him to be there. Jason being set up by Leviathan had no logic whatsoever. Jason and Leviathan’s levels of “disruption” are on completely different levels.

I just don’t know why he was there.

Anon, once again I am sorry for taking so long to do this review, I hope you had fun reading this, and I hope that you have an awesome day!

[our-happygirl500-fan]

You know I really hate that some people say that Steph is more willing to use lethal force than the rest of the Batfamily or that she’s willing to kill because no??? She’s not??? There’s been literally a handful times in her 27 years in comics where that’s even been close to the case not counting canon alternate universes.

The first time was in her first appearance where she nearly kills her father but is talked down by Bruce and honestly to be fair she has ever reason to have wanted Arthur dead after a literal lifetime of physical abuse from the man. Like please remember Arthur Brown physically hit Steph and her mother and locked Steph in closets, brought home men that would try to sexually assault Steph and call her a liar when Steph tried to tell him about it. Not to mention that Arthur going in and out of jail most of Steph’s life and driving Crystal to drugs caused Steph to have to grow up far too fast and be the sole provider for her household like Steph at fourteen had jobs to take care of herself and her mother. Steph has every reason to want Arthur dead and she still didn’t try to kill him until after he tried to kill her first and was talked down by Batman almost instantly.

The second time was very early in her character appearances and it wasn’t even that she was willing to kill she just suggested that she and Robin leave some unconscious criminals behind because the place they were in was dangerous and Tim was like ‘no they’ll freeze to death’ and Steph didn’t understand why Tim was willing to risk their lives for people who were literally trying to kill *them* five seconds ago. A lot of people forget that Steph started out as a very jaded character not only because she had to be self sufficient as a child but also because every adult she grew up with was either a criminal or completely wrote her off as a ‘bad kid’ simply because of her environment there are several times where characters are like ‘are you sure about that girl :/’ to Tim and talk about Steph’s social background but never talk about Steph as a person. Steph has literally every right to be jaded in her early character because she’s literally only ever been able to rely on herself it’s only after she starts dating Tim and becomes friends with Cass that Steph learns to trust people and learn that there are genuinely good people in the world.

Then there’s Steph’s Robin run where she tries to beat Penguin to a pulp but Cass stops her but that’s because the case they were dealing with hit Steph incredibly close to home with Penguin’s workers who had kids were using their kids to commit a crime and that brought up Steph’s own issues with her dad and Penguin gloated in front of Steph and Cass that his Lawyers could get him out of anything so Steph punched him but as I said this is playing directly into Steph’s trauma and every member of the Batfamily has tried to beat Oswald to a pulp at one point or another so he doesn’t even count.

Steph does use lethal force once against Zazz and that’s to protect Bruce from being killed Zazz had not only nearly killed her but he was about to kill Bruce and Steph tried to protect him. Considering that Cass was shown that all it took for her to be willing to kill was Batman dying no one should judge any of the Batkids for acting out when Batman’s life is on the line.

Lastly is Blackmask who not only killed a man in front of her but chained her up and tortured her for five days. That’s right she was left alone with a man who tortured her, straight up tortured her took an electric drill and drilled into her skin and bones, took knives and scalpels and and made her watch as he carved up her flesh, made sexist comments towards her (a victim of sexual assault) and told her he would never forget the sound of her bones breaking. She went through all of that managed to break free and took Blackmask’s gun away from him as he tried to shoot her. When she took the gun Blackmask goaded her into shooting him told her that he’s killed so many people and he’ll continue to kill people if she doesn’t kill him and Steph points the gun at the man who brutally tortured her for five days whose daring her to pull the trigger and she goes “no I don’t kill”

Like how can any one even dare to say that Steph’s more willing to use lethal force after that!?!? This beautiful kind girl who grew up seeing the worst of people, treated terribly by ‘heroes’ and she still wanted to help people still risked her life continually for others. She tried to jump out of a window to save someone once and hand to literally be held back because she would have died if she did. She saw Gorilla Grodd hurting Cass and she literally said ‘take me instead’

Like this girl? This girl is more brutal than the rest of the Batfamily? Are you serious Tim tried to beat a guy to death because he hurt and the guy only survived because he was like magic, the last issue of Red Robin was Tim literally making a murder plan to try and kill Captain Boomerang. As mentioned before Cass was shown to be willing to kill when she thought that Batman was dead (but she doesn’t WANT to kill). Dick has a temper and has been shown to use brutal force before, Jason was a crime lord and Damian is well Damian he’s come a long way. Alfred has mentioned he has no rule against killing and Bruce has come close to crossing the line a bunch of times but those are mostly Joker incidents so you know fair. Heck Helena had to be tricked into not killing people if anything Steph is one of the people least willing to use lethal force second to Cass.

Once when Greta was literally threatening to kill her Steph defended herself and thought she might have accidentally killed Greta and freaked out about the idea of killing her and I’m supposed to believe that Steph’s ruthless.

In a canon alternate timeline where Catherine Todd never died so Jason never became Robin and Tim never became Robin to stop Bruce from spiralling after Jason’s death, Steph became the second Robin after her dad literally murdered her mother in front of her Steph started getting in the way of his crimes by giving tips to the police and when Steph confronted her father he tried to kill her and Steph defended herself and freaked out when she thought she’d killed him that’s how Batman literally met Steph in that universe finding her trying to save the life of the man who murdered her mother and literally tried to kill her.

Steph is a kind, caring, loving girl who has a lot of anger at the unfairness of life and the way she’s been treated but every aspect of her is a hero through and through. (Steph has never done anything wrong ever in her life so jot that down)

[staywhelmedbatfam]

Flashpoint

~Damian Wayne/Reader~

Summary: Flash finds you and discovers that everything is different. Thanks a lot, Barry. Inspired by Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox.

So I came up with this idea pretty quick after finding out that Flashpoint affected the Batfam. When I wrote this almost two years ago, I was in the process of watching season four of The Flash and was totally obsessed. IT'S ALL BARRY'S FAULT! Plus, Damian is one of my favorite Batfam characters and the effects of Flashpoint are just... hard to accept.

!!Also, Barry has traveled to the future within Flashpoint for this to make some sense and you are in college.

***

You’re sitting on the couch in your apartment, one of the doors to your balcony open to let in the light breeze and the news on the television for background noise as you finish up some homework. The news anchors are reporting on a crime that happened about an hour ago.

It wasn’t anything new for Gotham, especially when Batman caught the bad guys. Whether or not the bad guys were still alive at that point was the question. Sometimes you wonder what the city was like before Batman came into existence. For as long as you’ve been alive, he’s been around. Gotham City without Batman is just unheard of for your generation.

In an instant, your hair whooshed to one side. Startled, you look around the room and find a man standing behind you. He looked relieved to see you while you abruptly stood up and appeared stunned.

“(Y/N), thank goodness. I–” he began as if you knew each other.

“I’m sorry, but do I know you? And how did you get in my apartment?” Confused, he pointed to the open door behind him. There was no way he could get in through the balcony. Your apartment was on the fifth floor.

“I ran up like I usually do…” The look on your face told him you thought he was crazy and you started to reach for the pepper spray you keep on hand in case of emergencies. “(Y/N), it’s me, Barry. The Flash. You don’t remember me?”

You were a bit hesitant. “Should I?”

“Well…” Barry lets out a sigh, dropping his first thought. “Where’s Damian? Is he out on patrol with Bruce?”

Forgetting the pepper spray, you back down. “Listen… Barry. I don’t know who you are. I’ve never even met anyone by the name Damian or Bruce. I’m sorry.”

“Oh my gosh. I changed your futures too,” he mumbled.

You raised your eyebrows. “What?”

***

He tried explaining everything to you as best as he could in a condensed version and you attempted to wrap your mind around all the information he was giving you.

“So let me see if I understand. You have superpowers that allow you to run so fast that you can time travel and you went back in time to prevent your mother’s death. Doing so caused the future to change. And in the original timeline, Bruce was Batman and Damian was his son, as well as his sidekick, Robin.” Barry nodded.

“But I still don’t understand how I fit into all of this.”

The speedster winced and rubbed the back of his neck. “You were actually engaged to Damian and you lived together.”

Words couldn’t form in your mind to express how you felt. Both of you sat in silence for a good minute. “I get why you went back and saved your mom, Barry. I’m sorry you lost her at such a young age, but from what you told me, you’ve caused a lot of changes for a lot of people. You have to correct this mistake.”

“That’s why I’m looking for Batman – er, Bruce. He should be able to help me.”

“What did you say his last name was?”  It rang a bell when he first said it, but you weren’t sure.

Barry answered, “Wayne.”

“That might be a problem. The Wayne Family got mugged before I was born and, from what I remember hearing about it, their son was shot and killed.”

It dawned on Barry that Damian didn’t even exist because Bruce was a child when he was shot, which left the question: who is Batman in this timeline? If his parents survived, then maybe… “(Y/N), do you know if Wayne Manor is still around?”

“It should be. Why?”

“If Bruce isn’t Batman, I think his father could be. It would explain Batman using guns,” he commented as he pointed at the television, where the news was still talking about the Dark Knight. “Thanks, (Y/N), and… I’m sorry about messing with your future.”

You gave him a half-hearted smile. “Good luck, Barry.” With that, he was gone in a flash and you were alone with your thoughts of what your relationship with Damian was like in the original timeline.

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[majingojira]

Batman Real-Time Aging Timeline

One of my fun hobbies is, well, a crossover universe where things age in real-time.  I’ve been working on a timeline involving masked vigilantism, and Batman is, of course, central to it.   Presented below is part of that rough timeline.  Things are still in flux, but understand that the primary sources for this are a few select crossover stories (IE: Batman & Captain America, Batman & Tarzan: Claws of the Catwoman, Batman vs Predator, Batgirl & Ghost, etc), and stories that involve real-time aging for the Bat-Family (IE: John Byrne’s Generations -- though even that is a bit weird).  And Pulps.  Lots and Lotas of Pulps.  Also, things are taken with a “Imagine trying to figure out what happened at Pearl Harbor when all you have to go on are the movies made from it” and most comics fall under the Michael Bay version.  

I’ll focus on dates of birth, mantel adoptions, marriages, retirements and the like, but I’ll also mention fun crossovers that occur along the way. Not all of them, but some.   So, brace yourself for weird.  But I did my best to include EVERYONE.  

1917 - Bruce Wayne born. 

1928 - Dick Grayson born. 

1929 - The Shadow saves the Waynes and their son from a mugger.  (Batman #259 - “The Night of the Shadow”) However, he only delays the inevitable as the Waynes are gunned down in front of the young Bruce who swears to never let that happen to anyone else. 

1930 - James Gordon, in an effort to clean up Gotham, takes to some mild vigilantism himself as “The Whisperer.” He does so for only a year before finding it too taxing.  Also: 

1931 - Barbara Gordon born. 

1937 - Bruce Wayne adopts the mantle of “Batman” to prey on the superstitions and cowardice of the criminal lot. 

1939-1945 - World War II

1939 - Batman/Tarzan: Claws of the Cat-Woman - Batman and Tarzan team up on an adventure.  A Wayne founded expedition to Africa was corrupted by Finnegan Dent (an uncle to DA Harvey Dent) and they looted ... Wakanda.  It’s Wakanda.  Sure, they don’t call it that, but Wakanda is already in the crossover universe, and how many bast-worshiping Egyptian civilizations exist in Africa?  One is enough.  Also, The Cat-Woman is a princess priestess of Bast stealing back the looted artifacts and uses a black leopard themed outfit for her escapades.  So, yeah, Catwoman is The Black Panther.  And she’s a dark-skinned African Woman named Khefretari.  The adventure concludes with her having to not use the mantle and ascend to kingship with the death of her father, but it is not the end of their story as she still has artifacts to return...

Batman and Superman meet for the first time. 

The Justice Society forms. As a social club for vigilantes and superhumans to unwind in.  They mostly share stories and shoot the breeze, but occasionally teamed up for larger missions, especially when America entered WWII. But it’s primary purpose is networking and recovery. 

1940 - Dick Grayson’s family is murdered in front of him.  Bruce Wayne adopts the boy and Dick soon joins Batman on his adventures as Robin the Boy Wonder.  

The Masked Vigilante Boom of the 1940s begins in earnest, with many people taking to vigilantism to battle crime. Black Canary and Green Arrow get their start among many others. 

1941 - Detective Comics #63 - Batman battles the master thief Raffles. 

1945 - Batman Meets Captain America - The Joker may be evil, but he’s at least not a Nazi! He ends up in a gulag for his troubles. He doesn’t find it very funny. 

1948 - The House of Un-American Activities starts to target Costumed Vigilantes.  The Justice Society disbanded in response.  Diana Trevor, Wonder Woman, starts working from inside the system to counter McArthy and J. Edgar Hoover.  Subtly and openly, be it the Holiday Girls (secretaries make excellent spies) or secretly abetting other superhumans. Still, most costumed vigilantes retire at this point.  As for the rest... Some are apprehended, others sign up with the government, and others still are killed in FBI Raids.  

As Superheroes are under fire from the government, several class-action lawsuits also hound more public figures of superheroes, and only a few survive with their reputations and resources intact. 

1949 - Dick Grayson goes to College (and later, law school).  

Khefretari/Selina Kyle finishes her mission and abdicates her role as Black Panther.  With the aid of Diana Trevor, she explains her situation to the UN world court.  In the end, she still serves some time for what she did (Colonizers gonna Colonize), but she is effectively let off with a slap on the wrist.  She did this to help mend the rift between herself and Bruce Wayne.  Doing so, however, removed her from the line of royal succession. Her brother, T’Chaka, father of T’Challa, becomes the next Black Panther.  Khefretari’s timing, however, could have been better, for you see ... 

1950 - Bruce Wayne marries Julie Madison.  

Bruce Wayne jr. born. 

Dick Grayson takes over as Batman II primarily with Bruce focusing a bit more on Family life.  However, he cannot leave it fully alone. 

Kathy Kane and Bette Kane attempt to help out their cousin Bruce on various cases, as Bat-Woman I and Bat-Girl I.  

1953 - Batman #253 - Batman and the Shadow meet as crime fighters for the first time. 

Kathy Kane and Bette Kane retire as Bat-Woman and Bat-Girl.  

1954 - Batman #259 - Batman and the Shadow meet again. 

Barbara Gordon is off to a party, and her own “Batgirl” costume gives her a minor edge when she stops a crime in progress. Thrilled with the idea, she begins to operate as Batgirl II.  Eventually getting Dick and Bruce to agree.  Because she will not take ‘no’ from either of them. 

Sandra Wu-San a.k.a. “Lady Shiva” is born. 

1955 - Julie Madison and Bruce Wayne divorce. Even married, even with family, Bruce is a might obsessive with this vow of vengeance.  

At this time, Bruce Wayne begins matching his wits against a man the comics report to be “Ra’s Al Ghul”, the Demon’s Head. He is also known as The Devil Doctor, Fu Manchu.  

Khefretari/Selina Kyle is now a free woman. 

1957 - Bruce Wayne marries Khefretari/Selina Kyle.  Helena Wayne born.

1958 - Batman: The Brave and the Bold “Trials of the Demon!” - Batman is summoned back to the 1890s by Jason Blood for help escaping being blamed for occult crimes.  Jason is subdued, but Holmes and Watson are there to help Batman adjust and rescue Jason Blood/The Demon Etrigan from the forces of hell itself. 

1959 - DC Comics: The New Frontier - The Centre attacks. 

Diana Trevor works out a government organization to better employ multi-mystery-man operations in the future with her at the head and thus limiting access to their identities or technologies by the other branches.  This is often called “The Justice League” or “The Avengers” among other things.  The laws about costumed vigilantism are changed somewhat.  The short of it is, Good Samaritan Laws apply now to people in masks, but vigilantism is still illegal.  Most Superheroes work either for government agencies or are deputized by such, work as private investigators, or bail bondsmen.  Some still act independently of that, but again, Good Samaritan laws apply. This is why the “No Killing” rule became so common in superhero stories at this time.  

1960 - Dick Grayson marries Barbara Gordon. They have a son, James Grayson.  

1961 - Birth of Jason Todd. 

1964 - Dick and Barbara Grayson’s second son, Dick Grayson Jr, is born. 

1966 - Batman/The Green Hornet - “A Piece of the Action”/“Batman’s Satisfaction”

1971 - The New Scooby-Doo Movies “The Dynamic Scooby-Doo Affair” - Batman and Robin meet Mysteries Inc. 

1973 - Barbara Grayson christens Helena Wayne as the new Batgirl (Batgirl III). Barbara Grayson refines the “Oracle Database”

1974 - Dick Grayson is critically injured on a case and retires as Batman.  Bruce Wayne Jr. becomes Batman III. 

Detective Comics #446 “Slaughter in Silver” - The new Batman crosses paths with The Shadow. 

1975 - Jason Todd is taken in by Bruce Wayne jr. 

1975-1984 - The “Biomega” War. 

1977 - Khefretari is nearly killed after suffering blackmail. Helena is incensed by this and becomes the Huntress to reflect her darker outlook. 

Batman Family #18 “A Choice of Destinies” - Helena Wayne joins the Lawfirm her family runs: Cranston, Grayson, and Wayne.  Founded by Bruce Wayne (Batman), Dick Grayson (Batrman II) and Lamont Cranston (The Shadow). 

1978 - Stephanie Brown born. 

1979 - Jason Todd starts college, Dick Grayson Jr. steps up to become Robin IV while he’s away.  Jason is ... a little annoyed at this, but doesn’t speak up about it. 

Tim Drake is born to Jack and Angela Drake.

Formation of The “New” Teen Titans, the prior group being a publicity op and little else.  The members are gathered by Raven, a sorceress daughter of an extremely powerful demonic entity (The First? Nyarlathotep?).  They include a Founder alien living on earth known as Garfield Logan or “Beast Boy”, Dick Grayson Jr. as first Robin IV and then Nightwing I, Kori’ander a.k.a. Starfire (a Vigori of Oden’Tall), Victor Stone a.k.a. “Cyborg” (a more severe cyberization given to a high school senior after a terrible accident than that of Steven Austin), and the amazonian handmaiden to the royal family known as Troia or Donna Troy/Wonder Girl. They are ‘supervised’ by Wally West a.k.a. The Flash III.  

1980 - Barbara Gordon survives an assassination attempt, but is left paralyzed from the waist down.  

The Oracle Database becomes the Oracle Network.

James Gordon sr. is tortured and nearly killed by the same assassins. 

Helena Wayne marries Santo Bertinelli, a young man born into a Mafia family who turned on them out of a sense of justice.  Helena Bertinelli Jr. born. 

Batman vs. The Incredible Hulk: The Monster and the Madman 

1981 - Fu Manchu/Ra’s Al Ghul meets his final end. Several groups spawn from the dissolving of his group, and others expand their bases of operations with the power vacuum established.  These include the Atlas Foundation, The Hand/The Foot, the League of Assassins, and the League of Shadows. Bruce Wayne and Khefretari fake their deaths to lead one of those splinter groups (after a Lazarus dip) in secret and try and turn the network towards good.  

Bruce Wayne Jr., Batman III, forms a covert band of metahumans dubbed “The Outsiders,” consisting of himself, chemical shifter Rex Mason (Metamorpho),  Geokinetic Brion Markov (Geo-Force), martial artist and enchanted weapon wielder Tatsu Yamashiro (Katana), atomic mutant Gabrielle Doe (Halo), Psychokinetic Emilia Briggs (Looker), and Electrical Mutant Jefferson Pierce (Black Lightning).  others join or leave over time, the team operates for a few years before disbanding. 

1982 - Jason Todd is killed in action.  Talia Al Ghul/The Daughter of the Demon, steals his body and revives it to begin twisting him into a weapon against the Wayne family that helped kill her father and leave Si-Fan in tatters.  Dick Grayson Jr. becomes Nightwing I. 

1983 - Cassandra Cain was born to “Lady Shiva” and David Cain. 

1984 - Carrie Kelly becomes Robin V to Bruce Wayne Jr.’s Batman III.

Spider-man and Batman: Disordered Minds

1985 - Batman and Spider-Man

1986 -  Detective Comics #572 “The Doomsday Book”  - Batman III (Bruce Wayne Jr.) and Robin V (Carrie Kelly) join Ralph Dibney (The Elongated Man) and aged private eye Slam Bradley on a case that takes them to London to prevent the assassination of Queen Elizabeth by Edgar Moriarity.  Mary Jane Watson-Parker is on the scene, herself a descendant of Doctor John Watson (and Red Sonja of Hyrkania), just in time for all to me the 132-year-old Sherlock Holmes as he helps ensure Edgar’s capture. Peter Parker, also on the scene as himself, learns that he is also a descendant of the Moriarity’s. Holmes gives the couple his blessing.

1987 - Dick Grayson Jr marries Kori’ander/Kory Anders/Starfire of Oden’tal.

1988 - Mar’i Grayson of Earth/Mary Grayson is born. 

1989 - Helena Bertinelli Sr. retires as Huntress.  

1990 - Harley Quinn first appears as the Joker’s go-to henchwoman. 

1993 - Damian Wayne born to Bruce Wayne Sr. and Khefretari.

Dr. Pamela Isley makes a bargain with the fae realms and becomes a creature of fairy similar to a Dryad. She is known only as Poison Ivy. 

1994 - Carrie Kelly becomes the “heroic” Catwoman in part to counter all the “Pretenders to the Throne” as it were (and to stop the Helenas from killing them outright for the insult). She also starts operating heavily within the Oracle Network, being groomed by Barbara to be her replacement. 

1995 - Tim Drake becomes Robin VI.  Stephanie Brown becomes The Spoiler.

Poison Ivy takes in Harley Quinn and helps her recover from the abuse the Joker heaped upon her or at least tries. She is kept as a ward of the fairies and has an extended life span as a result. It still takes her over a decade to get over “Mr. Jay.”

1996 - Carrie Kelly takes over the Oracle Network's primary leadership role. 

1998 - Helena Bertinelli Jr. takes up her mother’s mantle as Huntress.  

2000 - No Man’s Land begins. Cassandra Cain becomes Batgirl III.

2004 - Bruce Wayne Jr. starts working in an armored “Beyond” Batsuit. Tim Drake changed his costumed and started to be called “Red Robin” to his annoyance.  Jason Todd Attacks.  Cassandra Cain manages to annoy the editors of DC Comics.  

2005-2015 - The Biomega Menace trickles through with various attacks until it comes to a head in 2015 when it revives the Centre.  The beast is destroyed, ending the Biomega threat...for now. (Atomic Robo and the Ring of Fire, Pacific Rim)

2005 - Bruce Wayne Sr. and Selena Wayne recruit Cassandra Cain among others for “Batman Inc” to help them take down the other Si-fan factions, in particular, the League of Shadows which followed Cassandra’s mother, Lady Shiva (who could care less about it, but her uncontrollable force-of-nature like movements were throwing everything into chaos).  Cassandra adopts the identity of “Hei Bianfu” (Black Bat) or just “Batman of Hong Kong.” 

Damian Wayne is sent to live with the rest of the “Bat-family” to hopefully temper the bad influences still remaining around his parents that had seeped into the boy’s development. 

Kate Kane becomes Batwoman II. 

Stephanie Brown becomes Batgirl V.  

2010 - Tim Drake starts taking over as Batman IV.  

Cassandra Cain becomes Nightwing III.

2011 - Tim Drake weds Stephanie Brown.  Cassandra Cain lives with them.  Their relationship is the stuff of tabloid platinum.  

2013 - Luke Fox joins the American Batman inc. as Batwing II. 

2014 - Duke Thomas starts leading the Robin gang, to Damian’s irritation.  Of the group, Terry McGinnis, Harper Row, Riko Sheridan, and Isabella Oritz, along with Duke, do eventually meet Damian’s exacting standards.  Eventually.    

2015 - Duke Thomas becomes The Signal. 

Night of the Monster Men: Gotham is threatened by a fierce attack from Biomega under the control of a man invoking the name of Hugo Strange.  4 of the monsters are unleashed, several of them also carry a variant of the Insania Virus in their blood and viscera.  When people are exposed to it, it drives them to high aggression or even transforming them into hideous beasts.  A cure is quickly deduced, and Hugo captured.  The Bat-family during this crisis consists of Timothy Drake (Batman IV), Cassandra Cain (Batwoman III), Stephanie Brown (Nightwing IV), Sin Lance (Orphan--visiting from the Arrow family), Tiffany Fox (Spoiler II), Duke Thomas (The Signal), and a being referred to as “Clayface” (Identity currently unknown). 

2020 - Damian Wayne takes over as the primary Batman, but also dons the Nightwing attire because he likes it.  Terry McGinnis and Duke Thomas share roles as “Batwing” or “Batman Beyond.”  Cassandra Cain is known as simply The Batt. Stephanie Brown as Nightwing IV, with Tiffany Fox as Batgirl V. Harper Row mostly operates behind the scenes, but has the identity of “Bluebird” to help when it's needed.  Tim Drake is fully entrenched as part of the Oracle network.  Riko Sheridan and Isabella Oritz share duties as Robins.  

[bonesandpoemsandflowers]

So here’s a thing that happened, tumblr.

Many moons ago, I was in the Neuro ICU for a while. I was actually in there twice--for a week at first, then out, then in again for about two weeks. In between: “Nothing’s wrong! It’s resolved!” As you might imagine, given the spoiler there about how I went to the Neuro ICU twice: in fact, Something was wrong, and it was not resolved (then).

(it is resolved now, thank you)

This post is not actually ABOUT that, but we must start there, out of order.

This is a post about art and rivers and boys in cars. But we start in the Neuro ICU.

I don’t like talking about this time in my life. I would have been skittish and mysterious ANYWAY--I was raised like that--but I’m extra skittish and vague about my timeline because I don’t want to talk about it, you know? I survived something I had no business surviving. I had to relearn how to walk. That took months and that was the easy part. Because I am a big tiddy goth girl, and because I was very young then, people love to assume that the problem was drugs, and I did it to myself, as if that somehow makes anything less tragic.

I was 23 years old with a brain bleed due to a congenital defect, and even at the time, I had to defend myself: no, I’m not on drugs, I don’t do drugs, I didn’t do coke, I’ve never done coke.

I am also Colombian, which, I suppose, might play into their calculus about the coke, but WHO KNOWS. I was busy gibbering and almost dying at the time, which left little energy for noticing potential microaggressions.

Is it a microaggression, I guess, when you’re dying? Who knows.

I have never even been drunk, tumblr. I don’t drink. I don’t smoke. I don’t snort. I never have. This is mostly because I’m a paranoid loon with an off again, on again anorexia, ya know, thing, so occasionally I get really hung up on irrational concepts of bodily purity. People think it’s a flex when I try to explain this, that I’m relishing in some kind of moral superiority. I’m not. I admitting to SEVERAL defects (“quirks”) of personality there. The eating disorder. The deep distrust: I will not be vulnerable in the presence of others, I will not dull my senses, I will not allow myself to be weak. A certain perfectionism. A certain tendency towards slow burn self harm. Grand ideas made of nothing that sometimes take hold.

My point is that this big disruptive thing happened.

I survived, which is AWESOME. And yeah, I had to relearn how to walk, and some other things, but you guys know that I do yoga and aerial silks and lyra and ran off to Thailand to train kickboxing for a summer on fighter street and I STILL do not shut the fuck up about it.

So, cool, cool cool cool cool.

And I don’t even want to talk about that part, the medical drama, the body horror, the institutional whatever. My neurosurgeon was fantastic and like a week after my discharge I was high as SHIT on prescribed painkillers my caregivers insisted I take and wrote him a gushing effusive letter about how he was MY HERO because I was ALIVE and anyway that basically makes you BATMAN, DOCTOR LEWIS, I FUCKING LOVE BATMAN.

Again: high as fuck, ok.

 My point is: I hate talking about this.

Because once you’re a survivor in people’s minds, that’s all you are. You are reduced to this one event that had very little to do with you. You are defined by this thing that happened to you.

And this isn’t even the weirdest thing that’s happened TO me! But still. Happened TO me. Not something I did. Not my action. Barely even my reaction.

But again, personality flaws. What does it say about me that I look at social norms about comfort and inwardly I snarl that I want no one’s pity?

Except I’m not actually that mean. I don’t snarl.

I just withdraw.

This is a tactic that has served me well in life a BUNCH of times. Is it always the answer? No. Is it often worth a shot? Listen. Yeah. Yeah, it is. Sometimes you flee an abusive home life because that’s the only option, and you don’t want to die. Hypothetically speaking: sometimes all you can do is run.

But sometimes you flee people with mostly good intentions, maybe.

This is all very high minded but what’s prompting me to write this isn’t exactly the upcoming (many year) anniversary of the event. It’s something way more mundane and dumb.

I have not logged into my facebook account since this happened. I never bothered deleting the account(s), either. I presume they still exist. I have no idea HOW to log back onto them, and, more importantly, no desire.

“So what?”

So, okay, back when I had my first stint in the Neuro ICU? Like, totally out of nowhere, I just disappeared from people’s feeds. (you all know I do this) Somehow part of the story got out and SOMEHOW, I have no idea how, a small group of my friends managed to independently track down the hospital I was at. And this is on next to no info, across state lines, like--I have no idea how the fuck they did it.

I also don’t fucking know who they were.

I was told, at the time. I have a vague idea of who two out of (I think) four were, or might have been. I was kind of busy at the time, with the dying.

And when I say I don’t like talking about this time: I don’t like even THINKING about it. I avoid it.

Fleeing. See?

So I don’t have a memory of the names. I don’t have memories of the memory.

“So what?”

So, I know from groups other than this one, groups less dedicated than this one, that people actually get REALLY fucking mad at you for not accepting their get better soon wishes. And like, I get it! You were very worried and I did nothing to reassure you.

I WAS BUSY.

I was busy dying. Almost dying. Not dying. I was busy sleeping 20 hrs a day. I was busy being unable to walk. I was busy re-learning to walk. I was busy relearning how to write with pen and paper and for months I COULD NOT DO IT, do you have any idea how that feels to someone who is and has always been and has always wanted to be a writer? Fuck it. Fuck you.

The initial disappearance. I am not to blame.

But then doing nothing to reach out to anybody for YEARS and YEARS--

Okay, maybe a dick move on my part.

“So what?”

So I think one of the people who managed to track me down in the hospital was my best friend from high school, a terribly sweet Brazilian boy who mostly called me not by my name, but simply: The Devil.

I dig it. Always did.

And it’s high school, right. Everybody is thirsty as fuck for their friends, one way or another. We never dated--we were both always dating or pursuing other people--but we had the typical high school bestie unresolved romantic tension deal going on.

This is important so remember it for later: the problem was not attraction. The problem was not one sided unresolved sexual tension. I had a particular thing for how he looked while driving, shades on, one arm slung over the wheel in that terribly and typically male lounging driving pose that’s probably a safety hazard.

We spent a lot of time in his car.

I didn’t drive, at the time, because my mother didn’t allow me to learn, and I got kicked out of my house and disowned when I was 17. This dude spent a LOT of time driving me places. Boys in cars is practically a genre of erotic poetry, thanks to Richard Siken. This is because boys look Cool driving cars, wearing sunglasses, pretending they’re not paying attention to you while you know they are.

So he was fun.

More importantly, I guess, the fact that he picked my ass up at like 6 AM over and over and over again for a big chunk of my senior year is one of the few reasons I managed to graduate despite being technically homeless.

He was not a morning person. I am not a morning person. He did it anyway.

Why didn’t we date, I wondered, years later, for a fraction of a second, and then I forgot about it.

“SO WHAT?!”

So I’m grown up and happy and fulfilled and in a lovely long term relationship (remember! we’re buying a house!), so it’s not about “what if?” It’s that I’m happy and grown up and I write books sometimes.

But there it is.

I write books sometimes.

Artists are constantly stealing ideas from everywhere and this is good. Artists also steal from themselves, grubby little hands on secret parts of our hearts.

So I’m writing this book, right. My Great Work. My Break Out Novel. My SERIOUS FUCKING BUSINESS book. My “this is the thing I’ve worked the hardest on in my whole entire LIFE” book.

And in this book there is a male love interest. He is a political statement. I’m writing him as sexy and heroic as possible. I want this to be the MOST attractive man I’ve ever written.

Latino. Sexy as fuck. Not a criminal. Overly responsible. Action ready, and terribly nurturing.

Hot Single Dad and Reluctant Necromancer is my masterpiece. A passionate statement and stance against the depiction of Latino men in media. A war cry to examine our own subconscious biases. A weapon raised against an unjust system.

I stole parts of him from Frank Castle. I stole parts of him from Geralt. I stole (MANY) parts of him from this one IRL hot dad former Army Ranger guy, Mexican American with a tattoo on his arm of a jack o lantern one of his kids drew. I stole parts of him from this cute Marine in my DMs who gave me story advice about guns and gear. I stole parts of him from indigenous leaders from centuries ago, from the peoples he is descended from. I stole parts of him from every man I’ve met who worked in dog rescue. I stole parts of him from myself, hiding secret parts of my heart in the male character so that no one will know.

Lovely. All good so far.

I got like two whole drafts in before I was thumbing through some printed out pages, idly thinking: how funny that I don’t have any real life, personal to me models for this guy.

All my prior male love interests, you see, are based on someone. In the werewolf trilogy, they’re BOTH based on someone--different someones. The villain, too, is jokingly referred to as the “evil werewolf ex boyfriend” for a reason.

Everybody is someone.

So how funny, I thought, that necromancer hot dad lacks any references from my own--

OH, wait, fuck--

Overly responsible brown dude with sad dog eyes drives the female lead/occult specialist around while good naturedly complaining that she’s weird as shit.

Oh, damn.

And suddenly a bunch of teensy little backstory details made sense.

Cool.

“So what?”

Bonus round of self realization: my own understanding of this time in my life radically shifted, turning, lurching, sickly rotating on a new axis.

Why didn’t we date?

Somewhere between then and now, post ICU but pre novel writing time--

This one time I overheard somebody talking to somebody else and it had nothing to do with me but sight unseen, on the other side of the stacks in a used bookstore, one dude said to another: “you know that if you were lighter, you’d have a chance with her, right?”

How terrible, I thought, and I forgot about it.

Why didn’t we date?

Because my mother told me, when I was very young, that boys from Brazil were all very wild, and I should avoid them. And she told me this so early and so plainly that I never thought to question it. When I was older she took harder stances that I easily ignored because I knew they were wrong--don’t you dare bring a black boy into this house. You’re dating a Jew? I can’t believe you did this to me. What are you going to do next, kiss a girl?

WELL, Ma, as it turns out, I mean, not til college, but yes.

But the smaller, more mild statement was so much more insidious.

I wonder if he knew. I don’t think he did. I wonder if he figured it out later. I have no idea, because we were friends when we were still essentially children, and now we are grown. Not everybody thinks about this kind of thing, and I don’t blame them.

How much damage did I do?

Does it matter?

Does he know?

I know.

I know, now, that my rallying cry against a system’s unfairness is also a cry wrenched wetly from my own subconscious depths. YOUR biases against? Yes. But more accurately: my biases against.

“So what?”

So this kind of epiphany shit leaves you breathless about it and you wanna scream. You wanna SHARE it. You must infect others with this knowledge.

But you can’t out of nowhere foist this apology on someone. That’s selfish. That’s about redeeming yourself in your own eyes AND asking someone else to confront unpleasant emotions on your behalf, even though they’re the wronged party. Selfish. Tell me I’m not a bad person, baby. Tell me I never hurt you, not even a little. Forgive me if I did. Wade through this pile of astral shit for me just to make me feel better. Reassure me. Hurt yourself for me in the here and now.

So I’m not going to do that, obviously.

“So what?”

But there’s that other part of it, right? Not the apology. The surge of emotion. The realization that all those morning drives back then added up to something deep within me, something so foundational to my concept of care and maybe even the start of something like love--the knowledge that this person gently carved some ideals for you, so long ago, so subtly that you never questioned it, never even realized, because it felt so natural, because something about it is so inherently good and right.

Despite everything--despite society, propaganda, colonialism, the prejudice of my upbringing, my own unexamined complicity, ALL of it--

Despite everything, this person taught me something so deeply about love and the shape of it, something so foundational that I built all my art on it and didn’t even see the beams of it until halfway through my most ambitious and soul bearing undertaking.

This is how you care for another, went the lesson, and I wrote pragmatic actions over words romantic male leads all the way down.

This is what love might look like, and in my own life, ever ambitious, I chose a poet talented with words and actions and good fight choreography, because I think that’s sexy and dichotomies are mostly bullshit, or at least things that happen to other people.

But I didn’t learn what love looked like from my childhood home life, obviously. How could I?

Without you, though, without you and your mirror sunglasses at 6 AM and your exasperated teasing, devil, witch, bruja, without any of those, where would I have learned? How long would it take me, to find someone who would teach me a wholesome lesson?

I’m small and cute and predators love a victim with a lack of context. I give myself and my wit some credit, but what’s pattern recognition worth if you never get any good data points?

Deep lessons.

Again: this kind of epiphany makes you wanna scream. Who to infect, with all this new knowledge?

Maybe no one. Probably no one.

But maybe, just a little, you wonder--

How would that conversation even go?

Hey, so I wrote this book--no, it’s my fifth, not my first, but thanks--so I wrote this book, and there’s this character, right, and he’s--well, hahah, I mean, he’s not exactly--I just--funny story, really--no, god, no, you don’t have to read it--it’s just--he’s just--I mean, no, you, you’re just--forget it, actually, just--

Like, what the fuck is there to say?

“I couldn’t have written this without you.”

And

“Did you check on me? When you thought I was dead?”

and

“I’m sorry I didn’t notice, at the time, that I meant anything to you.”

or is it really

“I’m sorry I didn’t realize until now that you meant something to me.”

What to do with all this emotion? Or more accurately--like rivers carve out gorges, here is the shape of something that once was. This shape will always be here. Even without a single drop of water ever again: we see the river.

What to do with the shape of all this emotion?

I consult the great Richard Siken via a feat of bibliomancy. Advise me, O Oracle. The oracle is War of the Foxes (2015), turned over blindly in my hands, opened randomly to The Worm King’s Lullaby, pg 45, verse 1:

The holes in this story are not lamps, they are not wheels. I walked and walked, grew a beard so I could drag it in the dirt, into a forest that wasn’t there. I want to give you more but not everything. You don’t need everything.

This advice is too good. I close the book.

The advice does not tell me what to do, but it’s too good. The verse reaches into my chest and carves out my heart, slices it open. Inside my heart: pomegranate seeds. Tiny jewels, fit for a dragon, snacking on garnets and rubies, and the apple of Eden wasn’t an apple, because it was the desert, wasn’t it? It was a pomegranate. Something with scales, maybe snakes. The serpent, the devil.

What to do with all this love?

I swallow the pomegranate seeds. I buy myself some time. I want to give you more, but not everything. Do you need everything? I don’t know. I don’t have it to give to you, in any case. Does it matter?

Why are you doing this, me?

Because art is messy. Art is cutting yourself open over and over again. You clean up most of the mess, try to bottle the fluids and label them nicely or deliberately misleadingly, fit for someone else’s consumption, but either way, you’re bleeding.

Maybe this urge is bleed with me or maybe it is oh, you already did.

I swallow the seeds. I buy some time.

I’m not done yet. I’m not.

Maybe all this adds up to nothing.

Maybe if I do this right, it adds up to a lot.

Maybe if I do this right it will feel real, maybe what I want is to gift the shape of these rivers to somebody else, all emotionally intimately with strangers. This is a shape that love can be. This is a silhouette you may recognize.

Maybe that’s a tribute, or a tributary.

But it’s not about you, not really, so don’t get too big headed about it. This is about Art and something like Justice. Big things. This is a book about big things, about history and dogs, history and gods, crimes and lies, slaughter and slander.

Right, yeah.

An act of faith, an act of will.

I swallow the pomegranate seeds. I buy myself some time.

It’s not harvest season yet. Not yet, not now, not yet.

If not now, then when?

When it’s ready.

There is no ready. Perfection is an illusion.

Yeah, sure, but page count is REAL.

You’re evading. That’s another word for fleeing. Do you know that?

Yes. I do.

How long will you run?

Just a little bit more. Just a little. I promise.

[heroicadventurists]

Batman and The Outsiders # 1 **SPOILERS**

Lesser Gods part 1

Recap and Review

This issue begins in Los Angeles. A Father (Gabriel) and Daughter (Sofia) are driving along a highway. Sofia is listening to her headphones to the annoyance of her Dad. He tells her to play music in the car but she tells him she prefers the headphones. He promptly reminds her that he is her Father and asks her to take the headphones off. She complies.

-“You’re thinking about your Mother. I know what day it is. I won’t tell you how to grieve, but Ana would want you to be happy, she always said—" Gabriel

The car suddenly hits a man standing in the middle of the road, but instead of killing the man, he crushes the car.

The man stands on top of the car and pulls Gabriel thru the windshield. He grabs his neck and you see a light escaping his eyes and mouth before he dies. Before Sofia can run, the man grabs Sofia by her neck.

-“Nothing from my touch. Strange. So scared. You don’t know what you are. Let me show you.”-Strange killer

The man proceeds to throw Sofia over the bypass and she slams into a gas tanker. The tanker explodes from impact and the scene ends with Sofia’s screaming face.

The issue switches to Gotham City. Signal and Orphan appear to be at the docks, taking cover from a mad man (Saint John) wielding a machine gun. Signal tells Orphan that he can rush Saint John but Orphan tells him to wait for Black Lightning. Duke does not respond well to this.

Suddenly Black Lightning appears, firing lightning at Saint John’s helmet, while Katana slices his gun with her sword. Black Lightning tells Katana to cover her eyes and he lights Saint John up.

With Saint John down, Black Lightning reprimands Signal for not waiting for him & Katana. Signal tells Black Lightning that he is not his Father and he’s not Batman.

-“Neither are you, Signal. That’s why I had to save your life. We have to work together. We’re a team.” – Black Lightning

Shamed, Signal walks away and tells everyone he will call GCPD. Katana asks Orphan if he is normally like this. She responds that he has been different since he was injured by Karma.

The scene switches once again to Kubrick Towers. Bruce is meeting Jefferson for a report.

-“Duke’s not right. Cassandra thinks this is recess. Katana will kill someone before this is over.” -Jefferson

Bruce tells Jefferson they are his team and to make them what he wants them to be. Jefferson questions if this is truly his team. At this point Jefferson and Bruce have a real conversation about Bruce’s real intentions with forming the Outsiders.

-“I need to solve some things. For myself. And they…need more from me than I can give.” – Bruce

On his way out, Bruce tells Jefferson he put the penthouse in his name.

We switch to what appears to be the Batcave. Batman is surveying the wreck from earlier in the issue. It’s confirmed that Gabriel is dead and Sofia is missing.

We move to an abandoned building that Tatsu is living in. She is trying to communicate with her husband’s soul inside her sword.

Tatsu tells Jefferson he is not as quiet as he thinks, and he comes out of the shadows. He tells her that he needs her wisdom. Tatsu tells him to pick up a sword. They spar while Jefferson asks Tatsu for her help.

-“Duke is punishing himself. Cassandra is a mystery I can’t solve. Help me with them.” – Jefferson

Jefferson tells Tatsu that he needs a partner. He wants her to challenge him. After he leaves, her husband’s soul speaks to her “Taaatttsssuuuuu”. She cries as she holds the sword.

Next, we see Cass and Duke riding her motorcycle. During the ride, Duke is only thinking about Karma and he cries out for Cass to stop. She asks Duke if he’s ok and he tells her he still sees Karma.

“It’s okay. When I sleep…I see my Dad.”-Cass

Cass tells him it’s okay to be afraid, and he yells that he is not afraid. Cass begins to apologize but their batwatches go off.

The Outsiders meet up with Batman on top of a building. He briefs them on The Ark Program. A consortium of billionaires wanted to create their own metahumans. Batman burned it down. The architects tried to kill all the test subject, and only the Ramos family survived. Bruce Wayne and Lucius Fox set them up in a house in Los Angeles and Batman promised them they would stay safe. Batman informs the team that the Mother eventually died due to the experiments and Gabriel was just killed. Their task is to find Sofia and bring her to Gotham. At this, Batman grapples away.

Right away, Black Lightning is distrustful of Batman and wants to decline the mission. In the end, Katana informs the team that they are taking the mission.

-“I don’t trust Batman. But that doesn’t matter. What does matter----is us trusting each other. Because I have a feeling we are own our own.”-Black Lightning

We go back to Sofia, and she is at the train station trying to keep a low profile and get out of Los Angeles. As she’s walking a man in the shadows grabs her from behind. He tells her that she will pull humanity from the ashes; and thru her a new age is born.

Review

I really enjoyed this comic. First off, the art work is AMAZING. Dexter Soy really took this comic book to the next level. The only thing that threw me off was Bruce looking like an older version of Jason. I had to do a double take for a moment. Speaaking of Jason, Gabriel's license plate was TODD JASON. Dexter did a great job.

I really enjoyed the development we’re getting with Duke. Duke had a very traumatic experience with Karma in Detective Comics, and it’s nice to see them addressing those issues.

I am also intrigued by Jefferson’s relationship with Duke and Tatsu. A part of me feels like Duke is pushing Jefferson away because he reminds him of his Father; or he feels that Jefferson is trying to take his Father’s place. He really has no other reason to be this combative. Jefferson is eventually going to break down Duke’s walls; and when he does, I think they will have an unbreakable bond.

Jefferson and Tatsu have a lot of chemistry and I would probably ship Jefferson with Tatsu if I knew the status of Anissa and Jennifer. If he hasn’t had them yet, then I wouldn’t ship them, but if he’s divorced from Lynn already, then it would be an interesting relationship to explore.

When Jefferson visited Tatsu, she told him that Cassandra was afraid of her future. I hope this is tied to Detective Comics 980 where Cass learned she was both Batgirl and adopted. Stephanie seems to have taken the news from Tec 980 well. She's not bitter that she was never Robin or Batgirl in this timeline. She is actually referring to herself as a Robin in Young Justice. Stephanie doesn't care what time line it happened in, a win is a win. Cass's situation is entirely different. While she can take the same approach with the Batgirl mantle, she can't do that with the adoption. That has to be something formally initiated by Bruce. I think there are a couple of things Cass could be afraid of: (1) Deep inside she is bad and they will get rid of her like they did Basil (2) She never reaches her full potential and does not become an official bat (she never wears the symbol) (3) She's never adopted again (if Bruce doesn't adopt her, what does that mean for their current relationship?). It could be something else entirely or a combination of 1-3. Hill has a lot of compelling directions he can go with Cass. A follow up from Tec 980 would be great.

Last, but certainly not least….Bruce Wayne. Honestly, Bruce came across as someone who really doesn’t care what the team is doing as long as they stay out of his hair and they’re alive. When Bruce met with Jefferson at Kubrick Towers, he confirmed my suspicions that he formed BatO and put Jefferson in charge so he could be Duke and Cassandra’s primary mentor. While it may seem messed up that he is not making time for them, I respect the honesty of the situation. Bruce’s life is crap right now. He’s trying to rebuild his relationship with Damian, he has no clue what to do with Jason and this Iceberg situation, Dick is Ric and at some point, he should realize that Tim is missing on Gemworld. Not to mention his Dad from another Universe is teaming up with his enemy and he’s still heartbroken over Selina. He’s stretched thin and has realized he doesn’t have the physical time or emotional availability to look after/mentor Duke and Cass. He’s giving them a better option in Jefferson. He even gave Jefferson a pent house for his troubles. I think Jefferson knew from the beginning why Bruce formed the team, which explains why he doesn’t trust him. They are laying the seeds of Batman eventually leaving the Outsiders and if that happens, I feel like this comic will be a great vehicle for Black Lightning to shine. I wouldn’t be surprised if they phased Batman out of the title once they have some consistent sales. It wouldn’t be anytime soon, but I wouldn’t mind BatO becoming The Outsiders.

This was a great issue with some great art. If you’re a fan of these characters I highly recommend you pick up this issue.

[summeryewberry]

Titans Review: S01E01

Titans (2018), season 1, episode 1.

My thoughts:

Firstly, it's not perfect, and it certainly doesn't have to be. 

It's good enough to be entertaining. That's all I ask from my entertainment. And in that it succeeds.

Quick plot re-cap: Rachel Roth, a teenage girl who seemingly has a second personality inside her, sees her mother murdered in front of her and flees home. She's drawn to Detroit, and to a young cop, Detective Dick Grayson, whom she recognises from her prophetic dreams. Dick is outwardly distant, but quietly concerned about Rachel, which keeps them in each other's orbit. Even in Detroit there are people hunting Rachel; they claim it's to save the world, because Rachel is a portal that must never be opened. What they don't care about is the scared young girl, who doesn't know anything about all of that, only that people keep trying to kidnap her.

Secretly, Dick is struggling against his own anger and a violent streak, that sees him take the law into his own hands when his sense of justice is offended (such as, when a child abuser walks free). For years, Dick has fought outside the law as his alter-ego, Robin, but a year previously split with Batman because, he explains, he was worried he was "becoming like him." (Whether that means becoming more violent like him, or just losing his own identity, isn't clear.)

Meanwhile, a woman in Austria wakes up in a car crash, with no memory of who she is. She manages to piece together the basics from her handbag (Name: Kory, Residing: Das Alpen Hotel, etc). In her hunt for answers, she discovers her own super-strength and ability to generate beams of heat. She’s also - apparently - looking for a girl called Rachel Roth.

The first episode doesn't provide any answers yet. It does, however, set up a slowly unfolding timeline. It's not quite as slow as, say, American Crime Story, but it's a pronounced change of pace from the existing Berlanti DC shows. In that, it plays as more of an adult drama, rather than a superhero show. More Stranger Things, than The Flash. In fact, I'd say there are no heroes in the first episode at all. Instead, the characters are simply lost people, stumbling along, trying to survive, but all with the potential to become greater than who they are right now.

The production values are excellent, and there's some genuinely beautiful camera work in the first episode.

It’s a bit jarring when the story jumps between America and Austria, because there's only the most vaguely tenuous link between them as yet, so it seems like two different stories being told right now. But I'm sure that'll smooth out once all the characters come together.

I was warned about the violence before watching the episode, so I was expecting it to be very hard to watch, but it turned out not as bad as I was expecting. It's still plenty graphic though, so I won't blame anyone for finding it too much. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of graphic violence in any medium, although I'll make exceptions if the story has something else to offer. In this case, I think Titans does have other things to offer; certainly enough to make me curious about future episodes.

Tone-wise: Titans is not exactly like the DC cinematic movies - it's got more humour and emotional connection than those have had (to this point) - but it's not inconsistent with the movies, either. If you wanted to imagine them taking place in the same universe, you could.

To be clear, that's not a bad thing. My problem with the bulk of the DCEU cinematic films to date is that the plot made no sense and I didn't care about the characters.

I have no problem with a grimmer, more serious tone, because I still maintain that a good writer can can make anything work. Do the writers behind Titans have that ability? I can't tell yet, but there’s none of those particular cinematic pitfalls evident here. The plot progresses from point A to point B, in ways that make sense, and so far the characters are already people that you want to care about. So that’s a good start.

It’s pretty standard TV pilot material: introduce the characters, give us a taste of their personalities, and show us enough of what they are facing to sell the story ahead of us.

Episode 1 does a lot of set-up, with no conclusions or pay-off yet, so we'll have to wait and see how the writers handle their themes and characters from here onward.

Things I loved: - The theme music! I'd listen to that music on its own. - “Heaven Must Be Missing An Angel” on Kory's introduction. That made me smile. - The understated details: Rachel has clearly been crying when she buys her bus ticket, because her eye make-up is smudged and wet. - Rachel/Raven in general. You really feel for her and want her to be OK. - Dick's personality. He's cynical and struggling and angry, but not without charm or humour, and we do get glimpses of that. - Also his compassion. He can't not help. It's obvious that all he wants is to help people. - Clearly I am an oblivious lesbian because I missed the implication that Kory and the hotel receptionist had a "thing", until someone else pointed it out. Duh. - I love that they got an actual German speaker to play the hotel receptionist. It sounds simple, but too many shows don't do it. So that was beautifully understandable German, and very nice to hear for once.

The rest of the German is charmingly terrible though. Ah, good old American media.

I know Dick doesn't like guns any more than Batman, but outside of that context, it's actually refreshing to see a cop who doesn't shoot at every little thing on American TV. I didn't realise how much I was expecting a guns-blazing rescue scene until it didn't happen.

Robin is well-cast, too. I'm impressed they managed to find an actor who was athletic, without being too “butch”. And he’s pretty! So good casting, there.

Things I learnt from watching Titans: the best way to shoplift, is to turn yourself into a tiger.

So...

In general, I liked it, and I’m looking forward to seeing more.

[batman-is-me]

Here it is everyone. My take and evidence of the Batman and No Killing/No Guns. Detective comics 27-46 (December ‘40) and Batman 1-4 (December ‘40).

Batman 4 is the stopping point because it is that issue where the rule is stated.

Detective Comics 27. Read it but everyone knows the deaths. So skip. We all know that none of the chemical syndicate makes it, but for the record 2 people. The guy he throws off a roof and the one he punches into acid. However, there was no guns used by Batman.

Detective Comics 28. Kicks a guy out a window. He was charging him right when he entered. So the simple throw is easily survivable but the fact the window was open and they where in the penthouse didn't help.

Detective Comics 29.Doctor Death in Detective Comics does not die at the hands of Batman. His death comes at his own hands. Jabah, Doctor Deaths assistant, isn't said to be dead. Suspected to be dead tho, due to Doctor Death not Batman. Except Batman cause him to be unconscious. So deaths being the caused by Batman. More like from Doctor Death.

Detective Comics 30, Batman, on panel 62, ends up killing Mikhail and implies that Jabah is dead. Killing him by kicking him way to hard.

Detective Comics 31. No deaths no guns.

Detective Comics 32. Batman ends up killing the Mad Monk. A vampire with two silver bullets. Up to this point Batman is not shown to have a gun since Detective Comics 28. This is the first time since Detective comics 28 Batman intended to kill a person.

Detective Comics 33. Batman is shown welding a Gun. Doesn't fire it. But is the source of the cause of death of the villain. He throws a chocking gas pellet into the cockpit of the plane the villain is flying. I mean he could have survived with a little thought. Hold your breath and continue to fly the gas would have disipatted fast cause of speed and open air.

Detective Comics 34. Batman is the indirect cause of death. Batman tussles with the villain in the car, saves the girl and gets out of the car and grabs the rope of the batplane with her before the car drives over a cliff.

Detective Comics 35. Batman is shown with no Gun. Again. One of the death in this issue is not at the hands of Batman it's in the hand of the other Sin Fang henchmen. Yes Batman did kick him back but the intention would not have been to kill. Just written so that he fell into his partners sword who could have easily avoided it. The other is at the hands of Batman when he hurls the idol of kali at Lenox (aka sin fang) and he falls out the window. Kind of weird. To be honest.

Detective Comics 36. So Batman has a gun. It seems like at this point the gun isn't an actual fixed point to his character. It's more or less there if needed. And he uses it signal the police. There is no deaths in this issue by Batman.

Detective Comics 37. No Gun. Three deaths. 2 cause by other henchmen to other henchmen. The 3rd was not the intentions of Batman. He punch Count Grutt into a door, that The Count stabbed into the door himself so he is the cause of his own death. Cause in the next panel Batman states that it is better that he died. It shows his intentions where not to kill.

Detective Comics 38. Famous for the first appearance of Dick Grayson. Now another issue of No Gun. Now Batman does not kill anyone in this issue. Robin does tho. Kills 2 of Zuccos henchmen and Zucco kills one of his own.

Detective Comics 39. Batman does a pretty big bad one here. Pushes a giant statue on some people. And yeah. Kills people. The other death in this issue is when Batman and the henchman both fell out of a window. Also no gun.

Detective Comics 40. Hey look it. No deaths in this issue. Also no Gun. First appearance of Basil Karlo. Very interesting issue with Clay face. Trying to not to give a way plot points in this one.

Detective Comics 41. No guns and deaths caused by Batman or Robin in this issue. Sort of follows the pattern of bad guy does something. Encounters Batman, escapes encounters Batman again, gets captured/killed.

Detective Comics 42-46. All of these issue have 2 things in common no deaths cause by Batman and no guns used by Batman. There are two apparent deaths in this span that one would say caused by Batman. Both characters actually are not dead. As evident by later issues. One being the Joker in Detective 45 and Hugo Strange in Detective Comics 46.

Detective Comics 46 Is the last in the span of comics (in Detective Comics) in the timeline till Batman 4 (released same month and year)where the no Killing rule is Stated clearly. Last seen being the cause of Death in Detective 39.

Batman 1. This one is interesting cause you get two Batman stories. One clearly made for Batman 1 since it's the first story in the book. No deaths, no Gun. The second Batman story is basically a different Batman. The writing, the art, and the overall fell is just different. He uses a gun on his Batplane to shoot one of the monster men and hooks/hangs the other monster man. The third Batman story in this issue is more like the first. Especially in feel, art, and tone. Plus a proto-Catwoman. The fourth and final Batman story in this issue is also true to form of story 1 and 3 in tone, art and feel. No death, no guns. Basically your basic hero captures bad guy.

Batman 2. I'm doing this one different than Batman 1, as in I'm just gonna say talk about all 4 Batman stories in general way with the overall purpose of this read through in mind on point out what is necessary with the specific story listed. So.... All stories in Batman 2 followed the model of Batman 1 (stories 1,3, and 4). All in tone, art style, and overall feel.

Batman 3. The four story share the same tone as the previous issue. All light hatred. No guns, no murders. It's basically the tone of the silver age but a little darker. Hell in the 3rd story of this issue Batman says he has a problem that points guns at him. Which is obvious since you know it's a gun and he is human and he probably gets it a lot so it's gotta get annoying.

Batman 4. Also like the previous stories in the first 3 Batman comics minis the 1 story in Batman, they all have that same light hearted feel. In the 4th story in this issue you see Batman wielding a gun but it's not his, and only used it to shoot gun put of another criminal. No death. Well not directly caused by him. The death comes from gangster on gangster violence Batman tried to stop. Now the most important panel comes in story 2. The “No killing with weapons of any kind."

Outside of That 1 story in Batman 1. The killing and use of gun are not seen since Detective Comics 39. And even with that it isn't all that common for Bruce to really kill anyone in that DC 27-39. It was more sporadic, just like the use of the gun. Hell even in DC 37 you can tell that he didn't intend on killing the bad guy. Now the time Batman 1 released was June of 1940 and Detective Comics 39 was May of 1940. So basically a month or two due to how dating of the books where not really exact in that time period. For example, a Spring issue (Batman 1) could be either May or April. So I find, like my opinion suggests, that using these comics as a legitimate argument for the character to kill are absolutely idiotic. Approximately 8 issues from this time period of pre-statement of "The Rule" (including Batman 4 in the timeline) had him kill/use a gun. Thus the DECADES of the rule being one of the Character's defining characteristics. It's what makes him better than the villain. It gives him a moral center. It shows that you can reform and be better if given the opportunity. This rule, as high top production (the video I shared) has said, it makes the death of his parents mean something in more ways than one. Hell even Frank Miller, had Batman say that guns are the weapons of the enemy as he snaps a shotgun in half. And the fact he is a writer that I absolutely dislike and is given more than necessary knew that. And people who think these rules are outdated and should be removed have no idea what Batman is all about. I don't care if they have been reading Batman for 40 years they completely missed the point and where not paying attention. They need to go back and reread them.

[damijon-supersons]

Are you still taking prompts? Damian and Jon playing Mario Kart or whatever video game you want to use.

Okay, since you said I could use any video game I want (haven’t played mario kart, sorry. Aside from Pokemon, Nintendo wasn’t part of my childhood), I’m going to use Injustice 2 XD

Also, I’m sorry anon, but I am going to hijack your prompt! I’m going to use this to express my refusal to believe that Damian will ever go back to becoming an evil character! What I noticed was, in about 4, yes FOUR different times, DC has predicted that Damian will revert back to his evil ways in some way when he grows up.  Nope, I am not having it! (Btw, the ones I’m talking about are the Injustice timeline, Damian’s battle with his illusion future self in Robin: Son of Batman, Batman Beyond Rebirth, and in Detective Comics 966)

Damian has worked too hard, has literally died and back, to prove that he has changed for the better. There is nothing that will convince me that 13 years of great character development for Damian will be thrown aside because he turns evil again in the future! Nothing! 

And you know why I’m so sure of that? Because our Damian in this main timeline right now has someone that all of those evil adult Damian timelines didn’t have…a certain boy named Jonathan Samuel Kent.

“I’m picking Robin,” Damian announced.

He placed the cursor on a portrait of a much older Damian on the screen, and then an electronic monotonous voice intoned ‘Robin’.

“Heh, that’s so like you,” Jon replied dryly. “Well, if we’re picking ourselves it’s not fair for me. I don’t know why but, I haven’t seen a single game with a Superboy on it.”

“Just pick your dad,” Damian teased. “You’re practically the same anyway, except you’re three decades lamer.”

Jon stuck his tongue out at Damian. “Shut up, this Superman isn’t my dad. This one’s like, super evil. I’m never gonna pick…‘not-dad’, he said with finality. He ended up picking Bizarro, earning him a snort from Damian.

“Hey, don’t laugh!” Jon chided Damian. “Jason said he’s actually pretty cool.”

“Todd said the same thing about your costume,” Damian casually replied.

“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean?” Jon asked with a raised brow.

“Just that his idea of clothing gets him thrown out of most restaurants,” Damian answered with a smirk. “But never mind that, it’s time to kick your ass!”

The boys had gotten a copy of a new fighting video game that was inexplicably based on the world’s heroes, which included renditions of most of the people that Jon and Damian knew. It had an impressive roster of intricately rendered characters like their fathers, the League, and other heroes—including weirdly out of place characters they didn’t know about like an ice ninja, a Japanese thunder god, and a red horned man with a gun.

As the game advertised, it was set in an alternate universe where Superman became an evil dictator, and the whole world decided that being dark and gritty was an essential part of a balanced diet. With equal parts amusement and curiosity, Damian and Jon had decided to play the game with little more intention than to laugh at how hilariously off the characters were compared to their real-life counterparts.

But Damian being Damian, he also played to win. And Jon being Jon, he was definitely not going to lose to Damian in anything.

The Damian in the game was much older, and as Jon put it—much to real Damian’s chagrin—a lot taller and better-looking. He also used a sword which he used in most of his attacks. The real Damian picked up on the controls quickly, and there wasn’t a single moment where game Damian wasn’t swinging his lethally sharp blade. It whistled with a shrill shwing with every strike, making it sound even more dangerous.

Unfortunately for Damian, Jon’s character, Bizarro, had ice beams that shot out from his eyes.

“Gah! You cheater…” Damian grumbled as game-Damian was interrupted from a flashy sword combo by a single ice beam. “Fighting  in a two-dimensional field is idiotic. If it were really me, I’d have sidestepped that!”

“Told you Bizarro is cool.” Jon giggled.

“I hate you and your puns!” Damian groaned. “That’s it, taste defeat, farm boy!” He executed game Damian’s special move—a sword combo with an explosive finish via batarang. It was enough to give Damian the round.

“Hah!” he pumped his fist in triumph.

Instead of looking disappointed with his loss, Jon’s cheeks were almost bursting from stifling his laughter.

“What…what’s so funny?” Damian asked as his smug smile wavered.

“Your special…” Jon began as he breathed in  to compose himself, “was to do an awkward ninja run, look really stiff while using your sword…then pose and wait for three whole seconds before your batarangs hit me.”

“That was two seconds, tops,” Damian said, completely missing the point.

Jon snorted and burst out laughing.

“Damian…your video game self was so extra, it’s like the only thing you left out was shades and shiny teeth.  You were trying way too hard to look cool.”

“Hey,” Damian protested. “It’s a decently styled—”

“The only thing that makes this even funnier is that it’s totally you,” Jon giggled heartily.

Damian frowned. He didn’t know how to retort without making it obvious that for a few seconds, he’d actually wanted to try posing like his game-self did.

The boys kept playing and trying different characters until Damian went back to playing himself. Jon chose Batman for the first time, and he noticed Damian tense up. As the story of the game went, game-Damian turned against Batman and sided with Superman. Game-Batman had readily abandoned his son in turn. Whenever the two of them would face each other in the game, they’d both spew out scathing and hateful taunts that made Damian squirm.

This time, Jon won handily, winning with Batman’s special move.

Jon blinked. “Did your game-dad just…use a bat-shaped jet to drag you in the air and blow you up with a small army’s worth of bullets and missiles…?”

Damian looked as mind-blown as Jon. “That…was the most impractical use of the Batwing I’ve ever seen.”

“That was overkill,” Jon mused.

“And that’s considering that my dad has intentionally rammed the Batwing into things in real life before,” Damian nodded.

“Hey, Damian?” Jon asked as he eyed his friend anxiously. “Are you okay? You seem kinda antsy ever since I picked your dad…”

Damian avoided looking straight into Jon’s eyes. “What do you think about how the game depicted my future?” he asked with a guarded expression.

Jon raised his eyebrows—the question took him by surprise. “It’s a video game. I don’t really care what they said you were.”

“But you thought that the Damian in the game was evil, right?” Damian continued, glancing expectantly at Jon.

“Well, I mean, everyone was sort of on this gray line—“ Jon stopped after seeing Damian’s annoyed look. “Okay, fine, I thought he was evil. The game makes it a point to make you act as unlikeable as possible anyway.”

Damian shifted uncomfortably on the couch. He sighed as if resigning himself to a cruel fate.

“That game…” Damian began, his words calm but measured.  “It’s not the first time that something predicted that I would betray my father and turn to evil in the future.”

Jon listened with rapt attention as Damian continued. He’d never seen Damian this gravely serious before.

“When I was adventuring with Maya, an artifact manifested future versions of ourselves based on the parts of ourselves that we couldn’t come to terms with. I was forced to fight an adult version of myself that was still the bloodthirsty assassin my grandfather trained. I barely survived.”

“Wow…that’s rough,” Jon said gently. He could tell that Damian was upset in a way that could not easily be dismissed.

“That’s not all,” Damian continued. “There’s…something I’ve never told you before. Drake…he created this computer program that could calculate a person’s approximate future based on their experiences and personality. On two separate instances, that program predicted that I’d turn back to my old ways—once as the new ruthless leader of the League of Assassins…

“…and another as a more tyrannical and deadly version of Batman. 

“Either way, it seems like everything agrees that my future will see me becoming the evil I’d sworn to reject.”

Damian ended with a solemn silence. He bowed his head and stared at his knees. “Do you understand why I never told you this before?” he asked Jon, who had a mixed look of confusion and concern on his face. “Knowing what I’d just told you…and what I’m destined to become, no one in their right minds would associate with me. And I wouldn’t blame you if you decided to leave and stop talking to me.”

Jon knew that Damian wasn’t the kind of person who cried much—if at all. But the sheer cold silence that Damian was giving him was worse. It was as if Damian was deathly certain that he would leave right then and there and never come back. Damian had already accepted that Jon didn’t want to be friends with him anymore, and that he was just waiting for Jon to say so.

Jon knit his brow. Damian’s willingness to accept his dark future was frightening, to be sure. But one detail, or rather, the lack of a certain detail, tugged at his mind.

“Damian,” Jon asked carefully. “In all those futures…what happened to me?”

Damian wrinkled his nose at Jon. “Those were my futures, not yours. Why would you ever be in them?” he snapped.

“Because, dummy,” Jon retorted with a stubborn look. “Do you think I’d let any of those bad futures happen to you? Now, tell me where I was in your future, or when exactly you got those predictions. Did we even know each other already  when you got them?”

“Well I…” Damian trailed off, his eyes widening in apparent realization. “No, I suppose we hadn’t met yet when the program had made the predictions. You weren’t there yet when Maya and I were completing my atonement for the year of blood. And you and I’ve only been public as a team recently, so the game wouldn’t have put you in…”

“Then that settles it!” Jon declared ecstatically. “Damian, there’s one thing that your futures didn’t count on—the fact that we became friends!”

“What do you mean?” Damian asked with genuine curiosity.

“Damian…in the first place, I don’t believe that just because some things predict your future, you can’t decide it for yourself,” Jon explained adamantly. He was wringing his hands as if willing Damian to understand.

“I don’t care how many people say your future will get messed up—you’re a good person. You’ve fought and sacrificed so much to become who you are today. You’ve become someone that your family loves and cares about! You’re not Damian, Ra’s Al Ghul’s grandkid. You’re Robin, son of Batman.”

“And more importantly—“ Jon continued, cutting off Damian’s inevitable retort. “Dude, I’m your friend! I mean, sure, we argue sometimes, and you’re mean, and you tease me a lot…”

“Tt,” Damian clicked his tongue as if to say ‘that’s not helping’.

“But…we’re friends.” Jon waved dismissively. 

“Not just because we’re working together as superheroes, either. We’re friends because we want to be. Because I want to be. You…you get what it’s like to be a kid and a hero at the same time, I can talk to you, and we can hang out and stuff. I never tell you this but, I kinda look up to you, you know? You’re always so in control and awesome, and like a ninja and…sometimes it’s cool…”

“Are you saying you think I’m cool?” Damian smirked.

“Shut up Damian! I’m in the middle of something here!” Jon chided him. “What I’m trying to say is, whatever happens…I’ll help you find a future that’s better. I’m not gonna leave you. We’re partners, now and in any future. Your bad futures aren’t gonna happen because I’m here to make sure they don’t.” Jon flashed Damian a toothy grin.

“And if for some reason, I end up having to fight you and fulfill that dark future?” Damian asked coyly. His voice, however, had softened and relaxed.

“Then I’ll beat you, duh!” Jon emphasized. “Laser eyes beats sword, remember?” he finished by sticking his tongue out.

“You sound so sure,” Damian said as he shook his head. Whether it was in disbelief or gratitude, Jon wasn’t sure.

“Don’t worry about your future,” Jon said with a grin. He held Damian’s hands enthusiastically. Before Damian could even protest,  he was already hovering a few inches off the floor, carrying Damian with him.

“Superboy’s got your back!” Jon promised.

The corner of Damian’s lips twitched. He wasn’t in a hurry to show any kind of emotion. But what he said next was better than any sort of ‘thank you’ that he could think of.

“I know. I believe you.”

There you go, guys! Consider this fic my rebuttal against DC trying to make Damian evil as an adult! No way Jon would ever let that happen! I’m convinced that Jon would help keep Damian good if anything would ever tempt him to return to his less heroic ways. I hope this fic was okay, I was agitated when I wrote it and it might have typos and stuff :p

Also shoutout to @harljordan who let me use their awesome edit from Supersons #8 above :)

EDIT:  I couldn’t resist making this edit based on this awesome post script idea by @desolationofzara :D

BUT THIS IS WHAT REALLY HAPPENED

Edits by me, and I screencapped my game for this XD

[visualssometimesetc]

Film Analysis & Review: Joker 🃏

⚠️ N O T E : If you have not watched, please skip this post!

———————————————————————

Can we give ten minutes’ of applause to Joaquin Phoenix for his EXCEPTIONAL performance? 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

Ok let’s begin.

I was kept at the edge of my seat every minute of the film. He had me at the first scene. I remembered thinking, “I felt that.” How many times have we (pretty sure I’m not the only one) done the same?

As females we slap on our lipsticks, as men we slap ourselves on the cheeks; telling ourselves to sober up. Wiping tears away, we smile at the mirror, our reflections betraying the very emotions we feel deep in our hearts, bury them deep down and walk off, facing the world once again.

The movie doesn’t specifically say which time period this takes place in, but an educated guess would be take us between the 70’s to 80’s. If we were to work backwards from the recent Batman movies set in current times, plus heavy mentioning of Thomas Wayne in this film and how young little Bruce was before tragedy struck, the above is not hard to arrive at. And if we were to work with this timeline, it would give insight on the movie’s context and the people of Gotham set in that era.

The 70’s and early 80’s were a difficult period for the general public due to recession. Stagflation (high unemployment and inflation) was rampant and economic disparity only grew more apparent: the rich only seemed to accumulate more wealth while the middle-classes and poor became poorer. Naturally, people on the streets are on edge, they are generally not empathetic or understanding, especially to those deemed ‘different’ from them. It was a “every man for himself” world. Things like mental illness and depression were definitely not spoken of, for fear of continued unemployment.

While us viewers were able to sympathise with Arthur Fleck (Phoenix’s movie character), the above could possibly highlight the reasons for their behaviour towards him. They were otherwise cold, took advantage of Arthur, bullying and beating him not because they couldn’t understand, but they didn’t care. They could only afford to care for themselves. I couldn’t possibly count the number of times my little heart broke whenever he got mistreated for pseudobulbar (inappropriate bouts of crying or laughing).

My childhood friend, whom I watched the movie with, pointed out that all along, Arthur’s mother Penny Fleck could support herself. She was a perfectly fine human being, but due to her narcissistic personality disorder, she relied on Arthur to care for her, from bathing to feeding, and even carrying her around the house. Arthur may not have known about this, yet due to his delusional disorder, he could possibly have imagined his mother sustaining something serious that she could not perform daily activities on her own.

A huge theme was also the blatant representation of depression. I strongly believe the only reason keeping Arthur alive until he learnt the truth, was Penny. We see from the film later on that his relationship with Zazie Beetz’ character Sophie Dumond was all in his head. It was also told to us that his stand-up stint at the pub was a horror show. Apart from his co-workers whom he didn’t see after getting fired and his mother, Fleck did not have any companion at all.

It was obvious he contemplated suicide, from the scene in the lift where he formed a gun with his fingers and ‘shoots’ the side of his head to him actually firing a gun in his house. His mother also said some really awful stuff to him with regards to Arthur wanting to be a comedian. “You don’t have enough funny in you.” Words seriously hurt, especially if it comes from a loved one. He did not have the support of his mother, even though she always told him he was her ‘happy’. Yet he may also have imagined her saying the above, no thanks to his condition.

His almost-complete lapse in social cues, no thanks to his traumatic childhood, also made it really hard to have friends. The scene of Fleck taking notes during a stand-up was blatant enough. He was laughing at all the wrong timings.

I read this before and I thought it really true: “Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.” - C.S. Lewis. Arthur’s world crashed, literally, when he found out the truth about his mother and his birth.

The amount of cruelty and ridicule Arthur received from the public also made him the ‘Joker’ we now know him by. You may not agree with me, but I felt that he was the by-product of society. By killing and causing chaos, he relieves some of the pain caused to him throughout his entire life. He also “hits back” at society for all the times he was abused by its very system and people.

Something to note is that while Arthur has not met all of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs before moving up to self-actualisation. He could not meet his needs, many thanks to society, yet he manages to achieve transcendance, also through society. It basically hands it to him; from unconsciously becoming the face of the clown face movement that sparked riots in the movie, to being hailed as an icon of rampaging chaos throughout Gotham. This derives in him ‘purpose’ in life, to simply create chaos, and that his self-identity is void due to his unmet areas of Maslow’s hierarchy.

Comic book fans would not like this portrayal of Joker due to the difference in storytelling. Comicverse’s Joker fell into a tank of chemical waste and thus became who he is; his sense of humour was also described as sadistic, not depressing as portrayed in Todd Phillip’s take on Joker.

I also get why Joaquin’s character did not obtain a lot of fan conversions from its cinematic lovers as well. The Joker (RIP Heath Ledger 😭) of The Dark Knight (2008)/The Dark Knight Rises (2012) was a scheming, though equally ruthless jokester and this film is a complete deviation from Phillip’s treatment of the same character.

I highly respect Todd’s take however, from its storyline to the really great visuals; I loved every second of footage. Something I learnt and always enjoy exploring in film theory is the message behind the film. “Why was the film released in this specific time period? What is the director trying to portray by releasing this?” This movie came out only this year, a time where mental health awareness is heavily talked about, and also a time where economic recession is speculated to set in.

I think this movie is a great 101 for those who do not know much about mental illness and depression. It helps one to empathise with sufferers and hopefully ignites something in sufferers to not give up but seek help. It sends a message to the masses about mental health and in my opinion, this makes it a good movie. Releasing a film in our current times also makes it all the more relevant to who people can become in light of trying periods ahead.

A food for thought would be the metaphorical meaning of the film visuals. Another question I was taught to ask was, “Is there a reason why this film is shot this way, with bright colours/black and white?” I don’t know about you, but despite the film’s heavyness, its vibrant visuals and even Joker’s outfit bears a stark contrast. It led me to consider how in society, we put on a ‘happy’ front, to mask the fact that on the inside, we are a depressed, sad bunch. To distract from what’s actually real here.

All in all, I respect that every actor is also an artist, and everyone has their own interpretation of Joker. I liked all three cinematic portrayals, yes even Jared Leto’s, all for different reasons.

I really like this movie; it’s an 8/10 for me, except I just felt that IMDA’s (Singapore) classification of this film should have been M18 instead. It kinda is too heavy for a sixteen year-old.

But these are just my thoughts. Thank you for reading, if you even made it this far! 🤗

[jewishclarkkent]

Bruce/Clark; PG-13; grief and loss

Summary: Despite the fractured bones he’d scanned countless times, the contusions and scars carefully hidden by armour, part of Clark believed the Bat would outlive them all. For fifteen years, night after night, Bruce survived the streets of Gotham. Until he didn’t.

Note: This fic references Bruce’s canonical death in Final Crisis and relies heavily on the Superman: New Krypton storyline. To those unfamiliar, here is a brief synopsis of the events and timeline relevant for the purpose of this fic: Clark liberates the bottled city of Kandor from Brainiac, freeing thousands of Kryptonians, including his aunt and uncle, to live on earth; Jonathan Kent dies from a heart attack while Clark is off-world dealing with Brainiac; shortly after that, Bruce seemingly dies after being hit by Darkseid’s omega beams; humans and Kryptonians don’t get along, Clark’s uncle gets assassinated, and Clark’s aunt eventually relocates their people to another planet to serve as New Krypton.

Thank you to @superhero-justice and @superbatfleck for cleaning this up for me. Any remaining mistakes are my own. Constructive criticism welcome.

Reporters rush in and out of the Daily Planet offices in pursuit of the latest scoop, shoes squeaking and clicking on the floor. Others are hunched over their computers, racing to meet the print deadline, each keystroke as loud as a bullet. One floor down, the refrigerator in the break room emits a low hum. Ten blocks away, a car alarm is blaring on the street and a dog starts barking. There are other indistinct sounds he can’t isolate, nor can he manage to block them out. He hears all of it, and he hears none of it.

He startles when he feels a hand on his shoulder, swivelling his chair to find Jimmy leaning against his cubicle. Judging by the worried expression contorting his face, he must’ve been trying to gain Clark’s attention for some time. Clark watches his mouth move, the thunderous tick tick tick of his wristwatch making it impossible to concentrate on the individual sounds that make up the words. Bruce had not been wrong to insist lip-reading would be a useful skill to pick up.

“—ark? You okay, buddy?”

The smell of freshly-brewed coffee wafts into the room from the shop across the street, so overpowering that Clark can taste it in the back of his throat. “Yeah, I’m fine,” he says in a rush, fighting the urge to gag. He reaches under his glasses to rub at his aching eyes, squinting against the too-bright fluorescent lighting and the glare from his computer screen. It takes a full five seconds to realize what a colossal mistake like that could cost him, and he lets the frames slide back onto his nose, hoping the slip-up went unnoticed.

Stupid, the voice in his head berates. It sounds remarkably like Bruce. Stupid and reckless.

Jimmy frowns and bites his lip. “You’ve been staring at that article for, like, forty minutes.”

Clark turns back to glance at his computer. He’d been searching the Gotham Gazette archive when he stumbled upon an article about the charitable work of the Wayne Foundation. A picture of Bruce accompanies the headline, looking handsome and respectable in a tailored suit. It was taken at a recent fundraiser, where he had given a speech about building a brighter future for Gotham, about believing in the city and its people. The small, private smile on his face is what makes the photo remarkable—not the patented smirk Bruce Wayne would wear in public, but a warm, genuine twitch of his lips. Cassandra had been in attendance that evening, and Bruce kept his focus on her as he spoke, his smile that of a proud father.

Clark’s heart lurches at the memory. Will details like that eventually begin to fade? Given time, will he forget the rhythm of Bruce’s heartbeat, like an old song whose tune can be recognized but never recalled? Will he forget the sound of his voice? Not the low growl of the Bat or the charming lilt of his public persona, but the deep, rich cadence that belonged to Bruce, with its notes of grief and sorrow. Batman and Bruce Wayne each leave behind a legacy, but they were a mask and a performance. The man underneath was known to so few, and the realization he’s the one who doesn’t get to live on leaves Clark hollow.

As far as the public is concerned, both Bruce Wayne and Batman are alive and well. It required impeccable planning and execution, of course, but that was Bruce down to his core: always ten steps ahead of everyone else, always a contingency plan for even the most inconceivable scenario. His own death was hardly that, of course, but Clark never imagined it would go completely unacknowledged.

“I just…. have a lot on my mind,” he says, fighting to keep his voice from breaking.

I lost my dad and best friend within weeks of each other, is what he doesn’t get to say, what he aches to cry out. They’re dead. The words crawl up his throat like bile, leaving an acrid taste on his tongue as he bites his lip to trap them, nothing but a thought for him to choke on.

“You know, Chief’s in a good mood today,” says Jimmy, gesturing toward Perry’s office with his thumb. Clark tries and fails to hide a flinch as Perry’s assistant begins stapling stacks of documents. “I bet he’d let you take off early, if you ask.”

There is truth to that. Despite his gruff exterior, Perry is a kind man; he has been taking it easy on Clark since his return from bereavement leave, assigning fluff pieces that required little time and effort. Just as Superman was powerless where it mattered most, Clark Kent could offer nothing of substance.

“No,” Clark says, even as a splitting headache assaults his temples and his X-ray vision flickers on and off. He hadn’t lost control over his senses like this since his abilities first started developing. The buzzing in his ears gets worse and he barely resists the instinct to cover them. Maybe, he thinks, his eardrums will finally give out and rupture.  “I need the distraction.”

“Well, all right, if you say so,” Jimmy concedes, though he doesn’t seem convinced. “If there’s anything you need, pal… just say the word.”

Though he means the gesture to be genuine, the smile that stretches Clark’s mouth is strained, pulling on muscles he thought had atrophied over the last few weeks. “Thanks, Jimmy,” he says. “You’re a good friend.”

After Jimmy disappears down the hall, Clark turns towards Lois’ empty cubicle with a sigh, craving the comfort of her company. Her investigation in Washington pertains specifically to New Krypton, and he’s beyond grateful for the work she’s putting in.

He pulls out his phone, intending to return Diana’s message from a couple days ago. Scrolling through his recent calls, he tenses when he reaches Pa’s number. He hasn’t been able to bring himself to delete it, and he stares at it for a long time.

He doesn’t make a single call.

***

They always believe they can outrun him, Clark notes with exasperation, wondering if Flash often encounters the same issue. He wraps a metal pole around the three robbers he captured before turning to deal with the two who’d taken off by foot. As they run, the robbers turn to shoot at him, the bullets ricocheting off of Clark’s chest. Really, will they ever learn?

Busy as they are emptying their ammo on Clark’s chest, they don’t notice the dark figure that descends from above. Clark hardly needs the assist, but he stops and watches as the first robber is knocked down with a swift kick to his back. Wide-eyed, the second robber turns his attention to the figure, aiming the gun in his direction. Batman avoids it with ease, performing a flip right over the robber, kicking his legs as soon as he lands behind him. There’s fluidity to the way he moves, like poetry in motion. If Clark didn’t know better, he’d swear the man was flying.

The man aims his gun at Batman’s head a second time, but his reflexes are no match to the vigilante’s. Batman grabs his arm and twists, the sound of bone breaking almost as loud as the man’s scream. The gun scatters out of his grip, sliding on the ground until it lands at Clark’s feet.

“Was that really necessary?” Clark says, folding his arms over his chest. He steps on the barrel of the gun, assuring it cannot be fired but still admissible as evidence.

Batman makes quick work of tying up the two robbers, police sirens wailing in the distance. “It’s a clean break,” he responds. Clark’s X-Ray vision confirms as much. “We need to talk.”

They land on a secluded, dark rooftop of a skyscraper, city lights twinkling below them. A quick scan confirms there are no cameras that could compromise them and no aircrafts with a vantage point to capture the exchange.

Back turned to Clark, Batman observes Metropolis from the landing. He’s as still and silent as a statue, cape billowing in the wind.

You wanted to talk, so talk, Clark wants to snap, but bites his tongue. He knows better than to press the issue, but even after all these years, he’s irked at the way Batman monopolizes his time with so little regard. Instead, he puts his hands on his hips, tapping his foot as he waits.

Finally, Batman turns his head to address him. “We’ve got a situation.”

“If this is about New Krypton,” Clark begins, heart hammering in his ribcage, “I’m handling the situation.”

“I’m sorry about Zor-El,” says Batman, the modulator masking any emotion in his voice. He turns fully until they’re facing one another. “I understand your aunt seeks retribution for the attack that took his life.”

Clark clenches his fists. “As I said,” he speaks through gritted teeth, “I’m dealing with it.”

“Given how personal this situation is for you,” continues Batman, “some in the League are concerned about where your loyalties may lie. If you bothered turning up for a meeting, perhaps you could put those fears to rest.”

Clark feels a muscle in his jaw jump, heat rushing to the surface of his skin. “And what do you think, World’s Greatest Detective?”

“Given your aunt’s actions up to this point, I’m concerned about escalating conflict between Earth and New Krypton,” Batman says. “You, of course, will be caught in the crossfire. Your loyalty to the people of Earth, however, has never been in question. I only worry about the psychological effect having to make that kind of decision would have on you.”

The sentiment would mean more, Clark thinks, if he weren't staring at the impassive white lenses of a mask.

“I also think,” continues Batman, reaching for his cowl, “it’s a necessary discussion we will table for a later time. I’m here on a personal matter, not League business.”

Clark’s heartbeat speeds up and pulsates in his ears, chest growing tight as he holds his breath. Of course, he knows exactly who he’s been talking to, who inherited the mantle. The distinct way he moves alone would have given it away. Still, in that split second before the mask is removed, there’s the possibility of seeing his friend again.

A familiar pair of blue eyes meet his gaze, framed by a shock of black hair. The similarity is remarkable.

“Dick,” says Clark, trying to hide his disappointment. “What can I do for you?”

“It’s about Tim.” Dick takes a deep breath, pinching the bridge of his nose. “He thinks Bruce is alive.”

A chill goes down Clark’s spine, body going rigid. “What?”

Dick sighs, running a hand through his hair. There are heavy bags under his eyes. “He… doesn’t believe Bruce is really gone. He’s insisting we have to find him.”

Furrowing his brow, Clark opens and closes his mouth before settling on a response. “But… I don’t understand. He knows what happened. You both saw the body, read the report—”

“I’m aware,” Dick cuts in, an edge of impatience creeping into his tone. After a moment, he relaxes his jaw. “I’m worried about him. I think… maybe he’s reaching his limit. He’s lost so much this year alone and now that Bruce is gone… I’m scared of what it might do to him.”

Tim lost a father for the second time, Clark realizes with an aching heart. That on top of the other tragedies that have mired his life.

“Maybe I don’t have any business asking this of you,” Dick continues, “But I don’t know what else to do. He won’t listen to anything Alfred and I have to say on the matter. He refuses to let go. I was hoping that… maybe you could talk to him.”

“Dick,” Clark starts as gently as he can. “There is nothing I wouldn’t do for your family. You know that. But if Tim won’t listen to you, what makes you think he’ll want to hear anything I have to say?”

“You were there,” is the curt explanation Dick provides. “You found his body. You… you were there.” Guilt flickers across his face. “Besides, I’m not exactly his favourite person these days. I took away the one thing he had left that meant something to him.” He’s trying so desperately to fill the void Bruce left in everyone’s life, to keep his family from crumbling under the grief.

Clark thinks of the ten-year-old who’s lost a father he’d hardly gotten to know, hiding his grief behind a Robin costume. “How is Damian?”

“Angry,” Dick says with a sigh, his eyes glazed over and far away. “Lost. Confused. Impulsive.”

Throughout the years, Clark had seen that same expression on Bruce’s face whenever he thought of Jason, all that he couldn’t do for him. Clark imagines Dick is thinking much the same.

“He’s a good kid,” says Clark. “If anyone can get through to him, it’s you.” He places a hand on Dick’s shoulder, giving it a squeeze. “Tim will come around, too. He loved being Robin, but he loves you more.”

“Please,” Dick says, bowing his head. For a moment, he looks exactly like the little kid Clark first met fifteen years ago. “He’s my brother, and I can’t help him. I don’t know what else to do.”

“All right,” Clark agrees. “I can’t promise it’ll accomplish much, but I’ll talk to him.”

Dick abandons his military stance, rounding his back as some of the tension leaves his body. “Thank you.”

They stand shoulder-to-shoulder, watching the traffic below them, the blinding glow of headlights giving Clark a headache.

“I was thinking,” Clark starts, “About the day you came to see me at the Planet, after Bruce fired you.”

Dick snorts, lips quirking at the memory. “Not his finest moment.”

“No, it wasn’t,” Clark smiles. “God, I don’t think I’ve ever yelled at anyone like that. We didn’t speak for three weeks.”

A flash of surprise crosses Dick’s face. “He never told me that.”

“Of course he didn’t. He knew I was right.” Bruce never liked hearing truths he wasn’t ready to acknowledge. “You were cultivating an identity of your own, building an independent life, and he feared there might not be any room in it for him.  He was terrified of losing you, so he pushed you away.”

“For all his brilliance, he was a goddamn idiot sometimes.”

The laugh that rolls off of Clark catches him by surprise, the sound of it foreign to his own ears. For the first time in their conversation, Dick sounds like himself, rather than an imitation of his father.

It had been so important to Dick to carve a path for himself, to create an identity that was his alone. When he had taken up the mantle of Nightwing, inspired by the Kryptonian myth Clark shared with him, Clark’s chest swelled with pride. Now, the same age Bruce had been when he first donned the cowl, Dick is giving all of that up, relinquishing the life he’s built to preserve a legacy. It’s not the kind of sacrifice someone so young should feel compelled to make.

“Dick,” Clark tries, biting his lip.  The pressure in his chest intensifies, grief squeezing his heart. “You don’t have to do this. There are other ways to honour him.”

It’s the wrong thing to say.

Dick steels his jaw. “You’ve made your feelings on the matter perfectly clear,” he says, “And I’ve done the same.”

Clark bows his head, shame flushing his cheeks. The first time he had seen him as Batman, Clark lost it. The words he hurled at Dick were cruel and fuelled by anger, accusing him of parading around in Bruce’s skin. Rao, he had nearly lost control of his heat vision, ready to strip Dick of the costume by any means.

When he finds his voice again, his mouth tastes like cotton. “It’s not what he would’ve wanted.”

That much, Clark knows unequivocally.

Dick puts on the cowl, turning away and walking towards the edge of the roof. “It’s what Gotham needs.”

“What about what you need?”

Dick turns his head. “Don’t worry about me, Superman,” is his curt reply before firing his grapple gun. “I’m Batman.”

***

It takes two tries to enter the right security code into the hidden panel, his shaking hands causing him to hit the wrong buttons. Another attempt would have triggered extensive and unpleasant safety measures. Once the fingerprint and retinal scans confirm his identity, the gate swings open with a small creak.

Clark stands frozen in front of the picturesque property, inspecting its perfectly manicured lawns and impressive architecture. The grounds of the Manor are completely unchanged from the last time he’d visited; nothing to reflect the devastating loss it sustained, the absence of its very soul. It seems impossible, when Clark feels it with every beat of his own heart, every breath drawn from his lungs.

Leaves crunch under his boots as he begins walking, his legs feeling heavier with every step. The lone figure sitting in front of the unmarked grave doesn’t react to his arrival. Tim has his arms wrapped around his legs, knees drawn to his chest with his chin resting on top of them. The thin t-shirt he’s wearing hangs loosely on his wiry frame, offering little protection from the cold October breeze. His hair is a little longer, falling messily across his forehead.

Clark settles next to him in silence. He’d done the same for Bruce, a few times, as he knelt by his parents’ graves, and later Jason’s, placing fresh flowers on the polished stones. Clark had kept a hand on his shoulder and said nothing as Bruce wept. The only comfort he could offer was his presence; all he could do was bear witness to his friend’s pain, so Bruce wouldn’t have to confront it alone.

He hasn’t been able to offer the same to Bruce’s family, these past few weeks.

“Wondered if you were going to come by,” Tim says after a time, voice rough with disuse. How long has he been sitting here, cold and immobilized with grief?

The words aren’t accusatory, but guilt still slices Clark like a shard of kryptonite. He shrugs out of his jacket, wrapping it around Tim’s shoulders. Tim doesn’t slide his arms through the sleeves, but doesn’t take it off, allowing it to engulf his smaller frame.

“Sometimes,” Clark starts, throat going dry as he pushes the words out, “most times, even—” he pauses to wet his lips, staring at his shaking hands. He can feel Tim’s eyes on him as he struggles to speak. “It was so easy to think of him as invincible.”

Bruce may have been one of few non-powered individuals on a team of metahumans, but there never seemed to be anything he couldn’t do. So much strength, brilliance, and competence that defied all odds. Despite the fractured bones he’d scanned countless times, the contusions and scars carefully hidden by armour, part of Clark believed the Bat would outlive them all. For fifteen years, night after night, Bruce survived the streets of Gotham. Until he didn’t.

“He’s out there, Clark,” says Tim. “He’s alive.”

Nothing could have prepared Clark for how excruciatingly painful those words were. He squeezes his eyes shut, a violent lurch unfolding in his chest. Is this how Dick felt, listening to his brother insist Bruce is alive while grappling with his own grief?

“Tim,” he starts, swallowing past the lump in his throat. “I know you want that to be true. I know you miss him. We all do, but—”

“Don’t give me that crap!” Tim snaps, startling Clark into opening his eyes. “I know how it sounds. This isn’t denial, this isn’t grief. Why won’t any of you listen? He’s alive.” He takes a deep breath to regain composure, nostrils flaring. Gradually, he schools his features into calm apathy that betrays nothing.

It reminds Clark so much of Bruce that he has to look away. Outbursts were a rare thing to witness; anger always crackled underneath the surface, but it was always so carefully-controlled, channelled to where it could be used as an advantage.

I don’t want him to end up like me, Bruce had confessed to Clark only months ago, as Tim grieved his family, forever branded with the loss. On that dark Gotham rooftop, for the very first time, Clark heard fear in his friend’s voice. I can see too much of myself in him.

“I carried his body in my arms.” Even now, Clark bares its weight; like Atlas, eternally condemned to hold up the sky. “You saw it, too. You heard Dr. Mid-Nite’s analysis. It’s Bruce.”

“You were dead once, too,” says Tim, digging his fingers into the dirt. “It’s practically part of the job description.”

“You know that’s different.” Clark bows his head in shame, staring at his hands. Bruce was only human. Yet, even with all his abilities, Clark had been completely powerless to save him. Just as he’d been too late to save his father. What use were they if he could do nothing to save those he loved?

“Is it?”

There’s a moment of silence. “I can’t hear his heartbeat,” Clark finally says. “If he were—I’d be able to…” he pauses to wet his lips. “I thought that maybe, maybe it was just out of my reach. But I… I looked everywhere. Even went back to Apokolips. I can’t… I couldn’t hear it anywhere, Tim. It’s gone.”

Tim whimpers. When Clark turns to look at him, he has a hand over his eyes. Clark is suddenly reminded of just how painfully young he is. Too young to have lost so much, to shoulder so much of the world.

He reaches to place a comforting hand on Tim’s shoulder, only to have it knocked away. “There’s an explanation for it. There has to be. We don’t know much about the Omega sanction,” Tim lifts his chin, the knot of muscle at the side of his jaw pulsating.

Clark hangs his head. “I told myself that, too,” he admits. He had used every piece of technology at his disposal to assess different possibilities. Had made Hal replay the scene of Bruce’s death with his ring over and over again, a dozen times, until Hal placed a gentle hand on his back and said, Enough.

“He wouldn’t have given up on us,” Tim says, voice breaking. “Any of us. You all may have given up on him, but I won’t. I can’t. Bruce needs me.”

“There’s a difference between giving up and letting go, Tim.” Even as he says them, the words feel out of place on his tongue. The truth of the matter is, Clark has no idea how to let go.

“Not in this case,” Tim says. “I owe him too much.”

Something heavy settles in Clark’s stomach at that. “That’s not… he would never want you to think that,” he urges, furrowing his brow. “After Jason…” Clark tries, unable to complete the thought. “You were the one that saved him, Tim. Bruce thought of you as a son long before he signed the dotted line that made it official.”

Tim says nothing to that. “Did you ever tell him?” he asks instead, staring ahead at the unmarked grave. Clark’s expression must reflect his confusion, because Tim elaborates before he can ask. “How you feel about him.”

Loving Bruce had come as naturally as breathing, the feeling festering in his chest for years before he recognized it. Tim’s use of the present tense is accurate, too. Nothing, not even something as finite as death, holds the ability to eradicate all that he feels for Bruce.

He was fairly certain Bruce felt the same about him. Though they never spoke of it, the tension between them had always been too thick, the air too charged, for it not to be the case. The truth was, Bruce not reciprocating his feelings was not the worst case scenario. Clark knew exactly what would come to pass if he confessed his feelings, and it’s what he dreaded most. Bruce would admit to sharing those feelings, but refuse to allow himself to act on them. Because the mission came first. Because there was no room for something so frivolous and self-indulgent in their lives. Because it was too dangerous. Because of a million reasons Clark couldn’t bear to hear Bruce list.

“I didn’t think he’d wanna hear it,” is what he settles on saying, his voice so small he hardly recognizes it. He’ll never get the chance to now.

“I’m going to find him,” says Tim, hugging his knees closer to his chest and curling into them. Tears streak down his cheeks, but his voice is determined. “Whatever it takes, I’m gonna find him.”

Clark shuts his eyes, a tremor passing through his body. “There’s something you should know,” he starts. Speaking the words feels like swallowing stones. “I’m going away for a bit. Maybe… maybe more than a bit. There’s something I have to take care of.”

Tim nods. “New Krypton,” he concludes. Always the detective. “Your family needs you. And mine needs me.” He gets up and dusts the dirt off his clothes before beginning the walk back to the Mansion.

“Tim,” Clark calls after him. Tim stops but keeps his back turned. “You’re family to me, too. All of you.”

Tim’s entire body droops, as if finally collapsing from the weight chained to it. “For what it’s worth,” he says, “I think he would’ve wanted to hear it.”

The words hit like a jolt of electricity, crackling down Clark’s spine as he watches Tim walk away. He sits in silence for a long time, pulling at the wet blades of grass beneath his hands, the gravity of his failure slamming square into his chest.

Even when he finds the strength to stand, his legs are wobbly, making for a painful trek back to the Mansion. He stands at the front door for ten minutes, staring at the expanse of wood before gathering the courage to ring the doorbell.

When Alfred opens the door, Clark’s breath catches in his throat at the sight of him. “Master Clark,” he greets, tone polite. His attire is immaculate as ever, suit crisp and freshly-pressed. It’s his haggard face, however, that belies the change in him, as if he’d aged years in the span of weeks. There are dark circles rimming his eyes, deep lines etched on his skin like battle scars. My son has died, he said when Clark and Diana had come to deliver the news, holding Bruce’s ruined uniform like an offering.

“Alfred,” Clark says, his own voice strained. He takes a step forward into the house, only making it through the threshold before he collapses onto his knees. Alfred catches him, his arms infinitely strong, accustomed to handling more weight than he should be able to carry. They don’t waver even when Clark’s entire body convulses with the force of his sobs.

“I’m sorry.” Clark presses the words into Alfred’s jacket, barely more than a whisper. Sorry for not having been around in the last few weeks, leaving Alfred to pick up the pieces of grieving children. Sorry for not being there to save Bruce in time. Sorry for having all these abilities, yet being so powerless, so utterly useless when it mattered most. “I’m so sorry.”

Alfred’s arms tighten around his shaking back, voice wet when he speaks. “It’s all right, son. It’s all right.”

[squipitme-blog]

The Walking Dead Is No Match for Its Eagle-eyed Fans

If you have a couple of hours and a few brain cells to kill, I highly recommend going spelunking in the deep well of online commentary on The Walking Dead. From fan fiction to nitpicking the set to challenging plausibility to porn, there’s quite literally everything to sate a curious (Walking) Dead-head.

There’s even one fan theory that is “an idea from a Batman theory mixed with Shutter Island.” It explains that, ultimately, Rick is actually in a mental hospital, with Laurie, Michonne and Andrea as nurses, the Governor and Negan as doctors, Shane as the general practitioner who committed Rick for kidnapping two children, Judith and Carl, and the whole rest of the cast rotating as fellow patients. Why a fan theory would ignore the entire concept of the apocalypse that’s garnered the show cult status is a mystery. Also, forget Batman — that happened in Season 6, Episode 17 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Regardless, here’s a cherry-picked selection from the World Wide Web of geeking out on The Walking Dead. Enjoy at your own risk of never watching the show the same way again.

Let’s talk about the blood

OK, this one is something that has personally bothered me, and I’ve been waiting for the perfect moment to bitch about it. So, there was an iconic moment in Season 1 — perhaps one of the moments that solidified the show’s status as serious as fuq — when Glenn and Rick throw on some tarps and slather themselves in zombie goo, hands and organs so that they can walk among the dead undetected. Luckily, they pull off their smelly scheme in a nerve-wracking scene, and a new defense tactic in the Walking Dead universe was born.

So, it makes sense that in the very successful spinoff series Fear the Walking Dead (which centers on a different group in California at the start of the outbreak but operates within the same confines of TWD), they use the same strategy to walk among the dead. What bothers me is that they go from rubbing on a pretty disturbing amount of blood and guts to just a couple of hand smears on a shirt. This seems to be because the character always trying to go on a zombie jog in FTWD is pretty boy Nick, and it makes sense that the showrunners don’t want his adventurous ass always looking like Swamp Thing. But it just takes you out of it, in my opinion, that we’ve gone from Rick and Glenn wearing the the contents of two adult humans to Nick just sporting a little zombie blush.

Can zombies stop and smell the roses?

Which leads us to the next point fans pointed out online: What’s this nonsense about the walkers somehow being able to smell? We’ve seen all manner of deformed, decaying walkers, from solitary heads still gnawing on the ground to zombies missing parts of their faces, like the pet zombies Michonne kept as protection when we first met her in Season 3. The zombies are not supposed to be sentient, and they clearly don’t have any feeling, so why is their sense of smell so keen that they can sniff out their prey, differentiating between live humans and fellow zombies by scent?

This also helpfully leads us to another great crowd-sourced point: The zombies have gotten dumber as we’ve gone on. This could have a legitimate explanation, which is that at this point, the remaining zombies have been rotting for a long time, making them slower and dumber. But it’s still worth noting that in the first episode, the little zombie girl that Rick sees not only picks up her dropped teddy bear — suggesting far more motor skills and a kind of consciousness that we don’t get from present day TWD zombies (or even FTWD zombies, for that matter) — but also starts to run at Rick, which is a far cry from the post-drug-and-alcohol bender kind of stumble we see the zombies do now.

Fans also pointed out that throughout the gang’s time in Atlanta, zombies could throw things to break glass and climb fences. A possible explanation is that the producers didn’t have a complete idea of how every aspect of the show would operate yet, which plenty of shows do (for example, Carrie talks to the camera in Season 1 of Sex and the City but she stops doing it by midseason, showing that they quickly realized this was silly AF). It probably became clear that Rick et al. would have had a rough time surviving this long against those wily Season 1 zombies.

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Let’s get nitpicky

My favorite kinds of TWD fan comments comb the show for aesthetic deviations from the narrative. For example, people were really pissed that the prison lawn was mowed in Season 3.

Honestly, this one is fair. When our ragtag gang stumbled onto the prison, it had been months since the walkers took over the world, and everyone is just trying to find a turtle to cook or a gun to shoot. They’re definitely not finding the time or gas to hop on a John Deere for a joyride. Internet sleuths actually found out that the show pays its location’s owners to go without lawn upkeep for three weeks prior to shooting. Clearly, someone dropped the ball on this one.

More: Bring It, Negan! The Walking Dead May Have Just Revealed Its Secret Weapon

The Herbie the Love Bug of TWD

I also can’t help but giggle at the magic Hyundai Tucson fans noticed in Season 2 (which some fans and critics started referencing as a character). The vehicle model was from 2012, but in the show’s timeline, it’s supposed to be 2010. This is clearly an ad placement that was a production oversight — or maybe the showrunners were severely underestimating their fans back in Season 2.

What about this most recent season?

Boy, have fans stayed the course in their obsessive hunt for mistakes and plot holes. Since the 2017 premiere of the second half of Season 7, fans have already pointed out two huge errors that can’t be unseen.

In “Rock in the Road,” as Rick and his Alexandria angels dejectedly exit the Hilltop’s mansion only to be met by Hilltop residents wanting to join their fight, the camera pans over our heroes standing on what is supposed to be a southern plantation’s porch, with the front door wide open. The careful eye will notice that the mansion is no Georgia gem after all — there’s a paper mural faking an interior.

http://i.imgur.com/JY8Fkzs.mp4

But worse of all, in the very next episode, “New Best Friends,” fans spotted a plane in the background as Rick stares out from a trash mountain over the world’s wasteland — clearly, no place that planes are flying around anymore.

The paper background is kind of funny, but the plane is kind of sad because it could have easily been edited out. But who knows — maybe the showrunners were actually hinting at a new crew of NASA engineers who survived and are going to save the day in Season 8 by sending everyone up to Mars! Maybe every plot hole and misstep is leading up to some grand plot twist we can’t even imagine! I’m just waiting for someone to explain whether or not Dwight/Negan’s wife’s name is Sherry or Honey, because they use both.

Also, props to Eugene for this epic gag in last Sunday’s episode. He’s chomping on a pickle while he apologizes to Dwight for biting his crotch last season. Well played, D, well played.

Source : sheknows

https://squipitme.com/2017/04/10/walking-dead-no-match-eagle-eyed-fans/