#whatever happened to the caped crusader?

[runa-stuff]

Was anybody going to tell me that Neil Gaiman wrote a Batman story, or was I supposed to find out after reading it and checking for the writer myself because I recognized those heart-crushing-yet-beautiful feelings as ones that I only ever get from Gaiman-stories?

[wwprice1]

Incredible sketches by Andy Kubert for the great “Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?” story!

[imjustheretoseetheprivateblogs]

RIP Kevin Conroy

Goodnight, Wayne Manor

Goodnight, Batcave

Goodnight, Mechanical Dinosaur

Goodnight, Giant Penny

Goodnight, Alfred

Goodnight, Batmobile

Goodnight, Boy Wonder

Goodnight, Joker

Goodnight, Catwoman

Goodnight, all you villains

Goodnight, Jim Gordon

Goodnight, Bat Signal

Goodnight, Gotham City

Goodnight, nighttime

Goodnight, Batman

Goodnight, Kevin Conroy

Goodnight...

Good bye.

[davidmann95]

Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader. How do we make it less of a crushing disappointment?

I mean, I’ve always liked it just fine? Not necessarily one for the ages or anything in the way you’d hope for from Gaiman - especially given the pedigree of that other Whatever Happened story it’s banking on - definitely a little full of itself by the ending, but a perfectly good two-parter with great moments and a really sweet ending, with Kubert matching the various artists evoked here perfectly.

[phantomchick]

Apropos of nothing but the whole fucking thing about Bruce being embittered and deadened and rejecting hope is such a bullshit trope in both the movies and the comics. Bullshit on so many levels. The only reason B puts himself through the amount of suffering he does every night while fighting crime is because he believes he actually is making a difference and that Gotham CAN be saved, that there’s something worth fighting for there in the first place - he is literally the most hopeful person within the entire dc universe I mean compare him to literally every hero that condemns Gotham as an impossible to save hellhole. Bruce is prepared to believe in goodness coming out of that hell hole if he fights for it. 

The idea that the kid who saw his parents murdered in an alley and grew up trying to become someone with the skills to stop that from happening to anyone else doesn’t believe in heroes or in people being worth saving in the first place??? When his entire belief system is rooted in every life being worth saving??? Is absolutely insidious grim dark nonsense that detracts from the core of the character and I roll my eyes so hard at it.

[dykesbat]

i hate this man <333

from Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? - 2009

[itscharh]

Over the years I have slowly been building up my Gaiman collection as a huge fan. I've discovered quite a few graphic novels along the way that I did not know existed, or that were by this good Sir, including Marvel 1602 and Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? As an aspiring author and screenplay writer, who is also low-key dabbling in the independent comic scene with an amazing artist friend; I'm hugely inspired by Gaiman's masterful character creations. Especially his ethereal ones such as The Other Mother. So just thank you Humble Bundle and Mr. Gaiman for allowing me to spam all my friends and family with this for the holiday season.

Cheap Stuff

Me; Hurrah for Tumblr where we do not market or sell anything hurray!

Also me: Look there is a Humble Bundle of all the comics I've ever done published by Dark Horse where you can get so many pages of comics for practically nothing and also do good by raising money for Refugees.

[comicsandrecords]

Filling in some gaps in my collection on Free Comic Book Day

[lowpolyoverlord]

hii!!¡ ✨so i hav an idea for a request!!¡ and it just came 2 me but yegh I wud love if u cud do a lil sumthin wiv female reader wher ur at the fairground? mayb tryin rlly hard 2 win a game so u can get a huuge teddy n who else shud come along but soldier boy himself n he wins it 4 u n ofc ur starstruck!!🤩🧸✨ idk mayb he's ther 4 publicity prob but do whatever i luv ur writing so hav fun n run wiv it lol💕🍭 tysm bby!!✨υ´♡⁠ ﻌ ♡⁠`⑅υ

Three in a Row and You Can Get The Girl

Description: You wanted that giant teddy bear and you were not going to leave the fairground until it was yours. It really helped when America's masked crusader comes to your aid.

Pairings: Soldier Boy x Reader

Warnings: Soldier Boy is his own warning, language. Sweet, toothache cuteness

Note: This request is another fave and I love it so much. My heart yearns for sweet Soldier Boy. Also to add--some do not understand the idea of fan fiction and how you can ultimately change a bit of the character's personality to your liking. That is the entire idea of fan fiction. Yes I know Soldier Boy is as a whole-a butt, and is overall written as a terrible person. However, I like to think that in the presence of women- from what I have seen from small parts of the show, he had some potential to be super sweet to women.

Also...I can do what I want.

"Ah, I'm sorry pretty lady, but you need about five more wins if you're wanting the 62" teddy." The service worker at the ring toss stand politely told you, as you deflated, a bit disappointed.

You stepped to the side not wanting to get in the way of others, but you were seriously eyeing that teddy for yourself.

You had come to the fairgrounds alone since your date had stood you up for the third time this week.

You didn't care though. You only knew the guy a few months.

Besides, you were at the fair, having fun. Riding rides, eating the amazing food from some of the vendors, and playing the games with such confidence that probably by the end of the night you will win that huge teddy.

Hopefully.

"Wanna try again? " The service work from the ring toss said.

You thought about it for a second before nodding and putting away the container of food you had gotten earlier. Stepping up to the plate, you readied yourself for yet another round of ring toss.

-------

Soldier Boy huffed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"We are so sorry that this happened. We had no idea that Homelander would be here. He didn't even book a venue-" The super soldier held up a hand to his PR committee.

"Shut up-just shut the fuck up. Christ on a cross, I need a fucking minute." With that, he stumbled out of the tent and out towards the rest of the fair.

It was supposed to be his publicity "Welcome Back" stunt, but the caped dickhole had to come and ruin it. Soldier Boy grumbled as he walked around, trying his best to collect his thoughts before he did something stupid. Rounding a corner, he stumbled into the rows of games.

"Ah, you almost got it honey! I'll let you try one more time for free okay?" Soldier boy heard loud and clear.

Then his eyes landed on you.

You were leaning forward trying to throw the rings on the bottles in front of you. You would get a couple and lose on the last throw. It was always the last throw with those things.

"Sorry sweetheart. You played a good game! Maybe next time you'll win the big guy. I mean, you could get it in a different way- if you know what I mean" You smiled sweetly in return until he had said that last part and you immediately frowned.

Soldier Boy didn't know what he was doing, but before he know it he had walked right up to the stand and wrapped his arm around you instinctively.

"Howdy there darlin'. Been looking everywhere for you. Which one are you trying to get?" They way you stared at him made him feel a different type of way. The service worker stumbled over his words while Soldier Boy placed a twenty dollar bill onto the counter.

"I got you, Princess." he says as you continued to rack your brain around what had occurred.

---

"Uh, good game...sir." Soldier Boy plucked the giant bear off of the hook and held it towards you. You grinned as you hugged it.

"I'm taking both of these--show some goddamn respect to the ladies. Get fucked." Soldier Boy said as he plucked another bear off of another hook to carry and to give to you later.

You had thanked him profusely and stumbled over your words. You told him he did not have to do any of that.

"I wanted to. Saw the way you looked when you tried your hardest to win that stuffed animal."

"It was pathetic." You finished his statement with a laugh.

He chuckled along with you.

"Not exactly. Thought it was mighty cute if I'm being honest." He reached over to pat your head.

"Hey! Soldier Boy! We need you for photo-op! Where the hell have you been?" The two of you looked at each other, before Soldier shook his head.

"I have to get going. Mind taking my place with the other big guy?" He asked holding out the similarly fashioned teddy bear.

You nodded quickly as you reached out to grab the bear from his hands.

"What was your name again?" He questioned, not yet letting go of the bear in his hand.

"Oh, I never told you my name, It's Y/N. Y/N L/N. You?" A spark in eyes appears as he lets go.

"The hero name is Soldier Boy, you probably already knew that. But you can call me Ben, Princess." Smiling a goofy smile you shake your head and wave your goodbyes. Turning, you could hear him call after you.

"Meet me at the concession stands near the Funhouse later! Wanna' win some more things for ya'." You gave him a thumbs up, as you finally decided that maybe, just maybe, getting stood up was not such a bad thing to happen as you had thought.

[tranz-regent]

" “Eh.  It’s hard to explain.  He cultivated us, bred for us, went miles out of his way to get us back if a member of his ‘family’ was taken from him.  Mounted a freaking crusade if it came down to it.  But when we were around, he paid almost no attention to us kids.  When he did pay attention, it was to discipline us or test us.  Discipline usually meant getting a dose of paralyzing terror for not listening to him, insulting him or even looking him in the eye, sometimes.  Testing happened on our birthdays or if he’d had a bad day… he’d try to set up a trigger event.  Not supposed to be so hard, given that we were second generation capes, obviously, but he started when we were eight or so.” “How old were you?  When your powers showed?” I asked, quiet, feeling intense pity not only for Heartbreaker’s victims, but for the kids in that situation. Whatever my feelings, Alec managed to look bored with the topic.  “Hard to tell.  Since I didn’t go to school, and nobody really kept records, I lost track of the years.  Ten or eleven, maybe.  I was his fourth kid to show powers, and there were eighteen or so of us when I left.  Most of ’em were babies, though.” Which made him, not Grue, the one of us with the most experience and seniority. Alec shrugged, “So yeah.  I worked for him for three or four years.  We did jobs, I learned the family trade.  Called myself Hijack at first.  He started to get on my case.  I think maybe he was having trouble affecting me the same way he did before my powers kicked in, so he compensated for that by riding me.  Pushed my limits, made me do stuff that was dangerous, stuff that was hard on my conscience.  Wanted me to break, beg him to stop, so he’d have leverage to get me to do what he wanted.” “And?” “And he ordered me to kill this foot soldier for a group trying to push us out of their territory.  After I was done, he told me I did it wrong, that I had to do it again with a captive we’d taken, and I knew no matter what I did, he’d make me keep doing it.  Just another way of pushing my limits.  I had convinced myself I didn’t care about the people I was hurting or about this guy I’d just killed, and maybe I didn’t.  Maybe I don’t, still.  Dunno.  But it was so pointless.” He shrugged, “I didn’t see a real reason to stay.  Walked away.  Changed my name, got fresh ID, changed my villain name too.” He’d killed someone on his father’s orders, which made him the second killer in the group. Armsmaster must have dug up that detail & drawn the right conclusions after connecting Alec to his prior alter ego. “When did this happen, this killing?” I asked, quiet, “How old were you when you killed that guy?” “Hmm.  I’d been gone for about two years before the boss got in touch with me, which was about this time last year, so three years ago.  I would’ve been twelve or thirteen.” "

[dannyphantom-justiceleauge]

I kinda wanna see a fic where a civilian, maybe retired military, accidentally kills the Joker in self-defense. Like, this man was just minding his own damn business, maybe he's new in town, & the Joker runs across him & decided to try & use him for one of his schemes so, thinking that he can take the slightly older, overweight gentleman, attacks the guy, but dudeman, like... pulls out a Glock 43 & *bang* roadkill.

However, I think the central focus of such a fic should be on the reactions of everyone else to this turn of events.

Like, no avoiding it. All tests say the body is the Joker's. There was no tampering involved. The Clown Prince is dead.

I kinda wanna see Gotham create a holiday in the civilian's name. A festival even. Legends are already being told of the galant "Bob Smith" or whatever & how he ended the clowns reign of terror once & for all. Like, absolute revelry!

Jason is just enjoying the hell out of it while Bats is sulking away at home, trying to look into Bob Smith & finding jack damnit. Other than being ex-military with 37 confirmed kills & a Concealed Carry permit (maybe a report of small town shoplifting or underage drinking/smoking once or twice, but after starting boot camp, that all dropped off the map), he was completely clean.

Just your Average Joe who happened to believe in the Second Amendment & practiced it freely.

Literally, his middle name is "Joesaia."

Besides, it'd be the biggest FU to the Joker's legacy that you could possibly imagine.

Remember episode 7 of Batman the Animated Series, Joker's Favour, where at the end, Charlie Collins pulls the wool over the Joker's eyes. The rant about how having a mediocre death was one of the Joker's greatest fears?

Like, imagine the Joker laying out on the ground, bleeding out, his body growing colder, & flashing back to that moment & slowly realizing that he was going to die. To some... Nick Nobody! That Batman was not going to save him this time because last he heard (which was not even an hour ago), the Caped Crusader was all the way on the other side of the world on some Justice Jockies mission.

Then, nothing. He dies with a deep frown on his face.

It'd be incredible!

i'm thinking of the professional goon from those redpanda tictoks as our joe normal.

and i def appreciate the joker dying to something as mundane as a citizen defending themselves. part of me want to push how mundane the death could be though. i feel like somewhere in the comics joker may have died of cancer, from them chemicals. i also just have the mental image of a stone gargoyle falling and killing him loony toons style.

i think it would be more important alternatively if there wasn't a holiday or something that big about the joker dying. in the injustice game, the joker saw the future and realized that no one remembered him or his reign of terror. that was something he was far more afraid of. less the mundane death and more, being considered mundane at all. he's a narcissist, he wants to be acknowledged as important.

so giving a day to joe normal while, probably interestesting for joe, would be giving too much power to the jokers memory in my opinion. at the end of the day he was just a shitty terrorist with a gimmick. yes there should be a memorial to his victims, yes people are relieved and will call joe normal a hero. jason will probably even shake his hand and drink a toast to him on holidays. but i'd want the joker to fade to nothing in the gotham's zeitgeist. there is always other criminals, so why should they care about the dead one once he's gone - hestia

[wwprice1]

Scenes from the conclusion of “Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?”. Such a great story!

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

alright gamers it has once again become necessary to make a public shaming post for myself re: my atrocious reading habits. I am NOT allowed to place holds on, borrow, (god forbid) buy, or otherwise acquire any more books until I have finished the following:

Love Your Asian Body: AIDS Activism in Los Angeles (Eric C. Wat)

The Memory Police (Yoko Ogawa)

Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? (Neil Gaiman)

Paper Girls Vol. 1 (Brian K. Vaughan)

Harrow the Ninth (Tamsyn Muir)

The Joker War Saga (James Tynion IV et al)

What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat (Aubrey Gordon)

Conversations with People Who Hate Me (Dylan Marron)

Any Way the Wind Blows (Rainbow Rowell)

[davidmann95]

That reminds me, which Marvel hero(es) could do with a "Whatever Happened..." story?

Any of them? The only mandate seems to be that it’s a potential final story of a given character - even Superman’s story being so rooted in a specific time period is because his history is a little more fragmented than others. Between the The End books, End of Days apparently becoming its own thing with a Punisher follow-up to the Daredevil book, and one-off stuff like The King In Red for Daredevil, we’re hardly lacking in that department.

[writing-fanics]

. Batman x Gordon!Reader .

.summary: Batman arrives at Y/n's apartment to get patched up, and things get a little heated.

(Y/n) sighed, as she sketched drawings of a prototype bat-suit design for herself. "No, no, no!" She scribbled, overall the designs, letting out a frustrated groan. Turning to the next page to start drawing a new design. Just as her pencil hit the paper, she heard a tap on her window.

Turning towards the window she jumped seeing Batman, "Oh my god!" She exclaimed, rushing towards the window and opening it, "Jesus, what on earth happened to you out there?" She asked worriedly, helping the injured caped crusader into her apartment.

"O-Over here," She said, leading him towards the armchair.

"Wait here I'm gonna go get the first aid kit," She rushed, towards the bathroom leaving him alone in her room. Despite the obvious pain he was in his eyes scanned the room, he noticed the plethora of hand-drawn artwork around the room.

'She's an artist, a really good one.'

A groan escaped his lips, and (Y/n) rushed back into the room holding the first aid kit. Placing the kit on her bed opened it, and turned back towards him. "Okay, um so how do I take this off?" She asked, talking about his suit.

He helped her guiding her hands to take his chest plate off. A soft gasp escaped her lips, as she saw the number of scars and bruises on his chest. Reaching into the box she started to disinfect the wound, "Whatever happened to you out there must've been crazy?" She said, as started to treat the wounds.

He pursed his lips, "At least you came here," She said, reaching into the first aid kit and grabbing the items needed for stitches, "You sure you can do this?" He asked, and she looked up at him.

A smirk grew across her lips, "If I can sew the head back on of my build a bear when I was six might I add. Then I can this, Mr.Batman." She grinned. Placing her hand on his chest she started stitching up the wound, Batman could only watch as she delicately stitched up his wound.

"You're a natural when it comes to this," She says, looking up at him, their eyes meeting.

"Well, I'm used to getting patchwork done." He says, and she giggles looking back down at the wound, once she finished sewing cleaned up the suture. "Alright, done." She said, looking up at him.

She hadn't noticed that her hand is still on his chest. Their gaze met once more and they stared into each other's eyes. Slowly leaning towards each other. Slowly closing the gap between them, their lips inches away from each other. She leaned in closing the gap.

She sat on his lap. A groan escaped her lips as they kissed. His arms wrapped around her waist, and her fingers gently traced his chest. As they made out on her armchair. Her heart was pounding against her chest as well butterflies in her stomach. His hand gripped the back of her hair, and she cupped both sides of his cheeks.

He pulled her closer deepening the kiss. A moan escaped her lips as she continued to kiss him on the lips, but of course, as things started to get a little heated, "Hey, Y/n I-" Gordon said, as he opened the door.

He froze. Sees his daughter on top of Batman, who's shirtless. The atmosphere immediately was so thick, that you could cut it with a knife. "H-Hi, dad." (Y/n) said, nervously. Looking towards her father.