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bluejaysandblackbats · 2 months

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Eyes and Ears

Fandom: DC Comics, Batfam

Summary: An AU where Barbara finds Jason instead of Bruce.

Chapters: 3/?

Characters: Jason Todd, Barbara Gordon, Jim Gordon, Dick Grayson, Bruce Wayne, Sheila Haywood, Original Character(s)

Relationship(s): Jason Todd/Original Character(s), Past Barbara Gordon/Dick Grayson

Additional Tags: Canon Divergent AU, Older SIbling Barbara Gordon, Jason Todd-centric, Barbara Gordon is Oracle, Jason Todd is NOT Robin, Jason Todd Has Issues, Jason Todd Has a Crush, Adopted Siblings

Chapter Three: Michigan Style

When Barbara and Jason got home, Jim was gone. He'd left a note saying that he would be back late. Jason and Barbara had dinner, and she went out as Batgirl. Jason tried to sleep, but he found himself tossing and turning. Jason rolled out of bed and went to the kitchen to make himself a cup of tea. He warmed the milk on the stove, and he read through one of his library books. Jim came in from work and locked eyes with Jason. "Oh, hey there. I wanted to talk to you..."

Jason's heart dropped into the pit of his stomach, and he swallowed hard. "You want me to leave?" Jason asked. Jim shook his head.

"No, I don't want you to leave, son... I just wanted to know if you knew where your birth certificate was," Jim replied. Jason shook his head. "Well, Jason... The thing is, I went looking for it, and I found it. Eleven-forty-nine p.m. in Gotham City Hospital—."

"Yeah," Jason interrupted to move Jim forward.

"What is your mother's name?" Jim asked.

"Catherine," Jason answered. Jim took a deep breath. "That's her name. I'm not lying," Jason raised his voice slightly, and Jim gestured for him to keep his volume down.

"No, I know you're not lying. I just wanted to make this easy on you... I just don't know how to put it. Jason, your mother's name is Sheila Haywood—."

"So what if she went by a different name? It doesn't mean—."

"I don't think you understand. Sheila Haywood is a different person, and that after a bit of digging, I found out that she has been missing since you were a baby," Jim whispered, "Jason... Look—."

Jason's head started to spin, and he turned the fire off on the stove and went back to his room to lie down. Jim turned the milk on and finished making the tea. He made two cups and knocked on Jason's door. "Jason, it's chamomile," Jim whispered. Jason took a shaky breath and wiped tears from his eyes. "I'm so sorry, son..."

"Catherine is my mom," Jason cried as he faced the wall. Jim crouched by Jason's bed and sat the mug down on Jason's nightstand.

"Yes, yes she is. Jason, nothing changes that... It's just that I wanted you to know because if I do find her—."

"Why do you think she disappeared?" Jason asked as he sat up and wiped his tears away. Jim waited for Jason to take a sip of his tea.

"I don't know," Jim whispered. Jason continued to sip his tea, and Jim wrung his hands. "Babs said you went to work with her. How was that?"

Jason shrugged. "What'd she say to you? How'd she make you let me stay here?" Jason asked. Jim smiled.

"She said that someone has to look out for you... You know she must see something special in you to fight for you like that," Jim answered him. "I want you to know that this can be your home too if you want it to be."

Jason set the mug on the nightstand and lay down facing Jim. "We'll see, Commissioner... We'll see," Jason mumbled.

"Goodnight," Jim murmured.

Jason drifted off to sleep only to be startled awake by Barbara. "Hush... Jason, shh," Barbara whispered. Jason clutched his chest and grimaced at her.

"What?" he mouthed angrily.

"I thought you were crying, so I came to wake you up. I'm sorry," Barbara apologized. Jason closed his eyes and sank back into his pillow. Barbara fixed his blankets and went back across the hall.

Jason slept until noon the next day, and when he woke up, he searched for Barbara but found Jim instead. "Babs is at work, so it's just you and me for right now," Jim explained. Jason's face went grim. "I was just about to sit and watch tv... D'you like action movies?"

Jason nodded. "I'm gonna go brush my teeth," Jason replied. Jim nodded. "Hey... If you find her, would it be okay for me to meet her?"

Jim nodded. "If I find Sheila, I wouldn't think to keep you from her," Jim replied. Jason grinned and turned back, and went to the bathroom. Jim went to the kitchen, boiled hot dogs, and put on a can of chili. He wasn't quite sure what to say to Jason, but he had to admit it did feel nice to have a child in the house.

Jason stepped out of the bathroom and met Jim in the kitchen. "Can I help?" Jason asked. Jim nodded.

"Wanna get the chips and put the sodas on the table?" Jim requested. "You look a lot like him."

"I know... Everyone says I look like him," Jason mumbled. He hated to hear it most of the time, but he had to admit it was nice for Jim to acknowledge that Jason had a family before he got there. "Why are you being so nice to me?"

"You're just a kid... And I know how easy it can be to get into trouble as a kid when there's no one to look after you," Jim explained. Jason cocked his head. "Don't look at me like that. I got in my fair share of trouble when I was your age." Jim chuckled, and Jason grinned. "What'd you say to Babs to get her to like you so much?"

"I don't know... I wish I did. She sort of tricked me into coming here, but I'm glad she did," Jason answered with a sweet-natured shrug.

Jim stirred the chili and shrugged in return. "Is the movie rated R?" Jason asked, a mischievous grin spreading across his face.

"PG-13," Jim held back his laugh as he made their chili dogs and put them on a platter. "Do you wanna get two plates for the table?"

Jason nodded and grabbed the plates, and set them down on the coffee table. Jim set the platter down and turned the movie on. Jason started eating, and Jim poured a few chips onto Jason's plate. "He's odd, isn't he?" Jim asked, and Jason giggled. They both started laughing. "Wanna finish off the chili?"

Jason nodded, and Jim got up and went to the kitchen. "Want me to pause the movie?" Jason asked. Jim shook his head, and Jason poured a few more chips onto their plates. Jim gave Jason a bowl of chili, and they went back to watching the movie.

When they were more than halfway through the movie, Jim got a call from Barbara. "Hey, Pumpkin," Jim greeted her.

"Is Jason okay?" Barbara asked. "I didn't want to wake him up again... Otherwise I would've taken him with me—."

"We're just watching a movie," Jim paused and glanced over at Jason. "It's Barbara. She wants to know if you're doing alright." Jason smiled at him.

"Tell her I'm having fun," Jason smiled. Jim grinned and nodded.

"He said he's having fun," Jim repeated for Barbara.

"That's good... Um, I'm sorry you had to watch him on your day off," she apologized.

"Don't worry about it. Jason's great," Jim reassured her. She let out a sigh of relief. "Don't worry. He's fine. Enjoy your lunch."

"Thanks, Dad. See you later," Barbara replied before hanging up. Jim looked over at Jason.

"Like it or not, I think you've got yourself a sister," Jim joked, "She was worried about you."

Jason looked up from his bowl of chili, and he wanted to say something, but he couldn't find the right words. "You said I was great," Jason whispered, "Is she worried that I'll get on your nerves?"

Jim shook his head. "No, I think she's worried that I'll get on your nerves. Or maybe she's afraid she'll come back, and you'll be old and boring like me," Jim joked. Jason snorted before letting out a laugh. "See, I told Babs I was funny." Jason shook his head.

"Just old," Jason joked, and Jim playfully nudged him.

They finished watching the movie, and Jason offered to do the dishes. Jim said no at first, but Jason insisted. While Jason cleaned up, Jim started preparing dinner.

"This is nice... I wasn't sure if I should say anything at first, but with Barbara being so busy sometimes, it's nice to have another kid in the house," Jim confessed. Jason frowned, and Jim thought that he'd said something wrong.

Jason wanted it to feel normal, but he knew how good new things could seem. He knew how horrible things could get once the newness faded, so he said nothing.

#fic #eyes and ears fic #batfam #Jason Todd #Barbara Gordon #Jim Gordon #Dick Grayson #Bruce Wayne #Sheila Haywood #Original Character(s)#Canon Divergent AU #Older SIbling Barbara Gordon #Jason Todd-centric #Barbara Gordon is Oracle #Jason Todd is NOT Robin #Jason Todd Has Issues #Jason Todd Has a Crush #Adopted Siblings

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zahri-melitor · 8 months

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Okay, general roundup of New 52 titles I have read so far, now I am well into 2013 in my read through:-

Batwoman, J.H. Williams run – genuinely great. This is a highlight of the New 52, honestly. If DC had stopped occasionally remembering that Kate Kane is now Bruce’s cousin and had let Kate and Maggie get married, it would be perfect.

Blue Beetle – it’s not the best Jaime run I’ve ever read, but in terms of restructuring Jaime’s origin to simplify it and remove the heavy connection with Infinite Crisis shenanigans, it worked far better than the Rebirth reboot. Let down by getting cancelled just as it started becoming more interesting (aka had finally finished the retread of Jaime’s origin story and started him having new adventures).

Threshold – this was certainly a comic I read entirely to see Jaime in it. If you are lucky enough to know nothing about it, it’s basically a planet of foxhunting tagged ‘criminals’, where Jaime ends up one of the tagged. It’s meandering, pointless and bad. I think if you’re a Lantern fan you’d also think it was bad. Deservedly knocked off after 8 issues.

Justice League Dark – I made it through 6 issues. My biggest takeaways were that everyone here was just so miserable and Boston Brand was dating Dawn Granger for reasons that surpassed understanding. I want to like it more than I do, for the cast it has.

Batgirl, Gail Simone run – appealing and infuriating in turn. There’s some genuinely beautiful writing here (the WWII paper balloons!) and Babs is recognisable as Babs, but it’s horribly let down by the fact that ‘healing’ Barbara means that she’s now both not allowed to operate as Oracle (by editorial dictat) AND she’s having trouble as a street vigilante as she’s still recovering from her injuries. It makes sense but it also makes Barbara doubly incompetent which is maddening as they’ve taken away everything that was hers specifically. Also James Gordon Jnr is always intensely irritating to have around and I am never going to get over giving Babs a villain called ‘Knightfall’ in the run immediately after healing her back. Yes. I got the reference. It’s not that funny.

Birds of Prey – it’s hmmm still finding its feet. Lacks the soul of the original run, but there are flashes of the old magic occasionally. It is hilarious to me that they decided to merge Dinah Drake and Dinah Lance back into a single character for this run, creating a bizarre new ex-husband for Dinah in Kurt Lance (seriously, Kurt Lance, why do you exist you’re so weird) and then within 6 issues or so abruptly realised WHY Dinah Drake and Dinah Lance have been separate characters since 1983 and reinvented a new Dinah Drake mother for the character. Spectacular. Sheer evidence that nobody involved in new 52 was actually spending much time thinking about how an all new origin reboot would affect characterisation.

Batman – I have my differences with Scott Snyder over his run, but he at least manages to make things interesting and spend time interrogating Bruce’s identity. It feels in conversation with the Loeb and Dini storylines around Thomas Elliot and that whole crowd of elite Gothamites. Lots of interesting set ups let down by execution or obsession with conspiracy theories. Love his work with Harper Row as a character.

Batman & Robin – okay folk, I do agree, this is a far far better Batman & Robin run than 2009. I feel like I’ve spent more time with Damian showing me his character rather than being informed by Morrison via Alfred mouthpiece about Damian’s character. There’s some lovely character work in here. It’s still suffering from getting New 52ed but it’s honestly the first run anywhere that’s actually really good for Damian characterisation (plus or minus the Damian and Colin Wilkes fight Zsasz plot in Streets of Gotham or Gates of Gotham).

Batman Incorporated – fuck you Grant Morrison. Nobody reading this title is having a good time. If you’re here for actual Batman Inc characters well I’m sorry, they’re mostly standing around the sidelines of a plot about Bruce, Talia and Damian. If you’re here for Talia I’m so sorry for you. If you’re here to read Bruce and/or Damian you get like 3-4 sweet scenes that I am sure you have already seen in screencapped panels floating around with no context. DC would be a better place if this book hadn’t been approved (also Cyril might still be alive)

Nightwing – this comic so far is obsessed with Haly’s Circus. Now I don’t like the whole Talon retcon (I think it cheapens a lot of things about Dick’s backstory as a character) but I will admit it’s nice to see Dick spending time with his Haly’s Circus friends and Dick’s optimistic side coming out in the ‘let’s just rebuild Amusement Mile as a place that isn’t Joker-haunted!’ Tragically of course because we’re never allowed to have nice plotlines involving Haly’s Circus it gets blown up again and lots of people die. But at least Dick’s back to owning the circus, amirite? (For bizarre ‘Pop Haly left it to him in his will’ reasons rather than Dick buying it out with his inheritance money that is totally not one of the many occasions Bruce has lied to Dick and told him that this trust fund is 100% based on investments of his parents assets, rather than Bruce attempting to give Dick Wayne money again so he stops living out of cardboard boxes in a tiny apartment)

Red Hood and the Outlaws – I have now suffered through three whole issues of this comic (actually 4 but I paged through that one to read like one scene at the end) and it is determined to make me hate everyone involved with it in terms of its disrespect for Roy and Kory. Also all the issues kept trying to convince me that Jason and Tim have always been each others’ favourite brothers, which lol. (If that’s actually ever true for Jason it’s the most hilarisad thing ever).

Teen Titans – I made it through two issues for crossover purposes. I am tempted to come back as I think I will get some stuff out of it once I’ve finished my Teen Titans 2003 read (and look there does actually appear to be some things in here I may enjoy). Can’t believe Kurt Lance shows up in this comic. I swear he’s my new nemesis.

Suicide Squad – I am 100% not reading this comic, I only opened it for crossover issues. What have they done to Amanda Waller. (Also why is Harley Quinn trying to date Floyd Lawton, did editorial suddenly realise how many people are into his deep uh comradery with Thomas Blake and overreact trying to remove the gay cooties or something?)

Catwoman and Detective Comics – honestly I haven’t got a good enough read on either yet from the few issues I’ve read, but ‘Tec is running a Penguin plot and I’m not in the mood for a Penguin plot at the moment.

So far, my recommendations: Batwoman I recommend without hesitation. Batman & Robin has been embroidered in fans’ memories but is worthwhile in any case. Batman is interesting stories sometimes let down in execution and may actually read better if you avoid touching any tie-in issues for a readthrough.

Nightwing, Batgirl, Birds of Prey and Blue Beetle are “these are some of my favourite characters, I want to know even if I don’t always like it” reads. They’re still the same characters, just trapped in a maddening world.

#z canon read throughs

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oraclebabsday · 5 months

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um hello!! im very new to comics, but of the characters I’ve seen so far, I really like Barbara and I was just wondering if you had any comic recommendations on where to start..? its very confusing trying to get into it all, but I’d like to be able to hold a conversation about someone I find interesting with my boyfriend so I can hear him info dump on me more cus he’s deep into dc so :)

Hi!!! That is so sweet omg 😭 Welcome to the weird wonderful world of comics!!! and also i’m so sorry for what I’m abt to throw at you lmao

Since you’ve sent this ask into an Oracle-centric blog, I’m gonna keep this rec list Oracle!Babs-centric (& also encourage my fellow mods to add on if they also have some recs!) I actually don’t have a whole lot of recs for Batgirl!Babs anyways, but I’ll be tagging my gen dc blog at the end in case you’d like to talk abt those or any other characters!

Also before I get Into the recs, I wanna give you some words of encouragement: there’s no right or wrong way to read! You’re also likely gonna have some well a lot of confusion at the beginning, esp bc there will be Events™️ that have ramifications™️ and you’re not always given full context of what’s come before or what’s happening concurrently with what you’re reading. I’ve been doing this for awhile and if I’ve learned anything, it’s that the more that you read & explore, the more fun you’ll have & the more things will usually start to make sense! But it’s all gotta start somewhere first! :D and you’ve def chosen a great character to be your launching point!

Im gonna be hopping around a bit in my recs here but I’ll try to keep it mostly in chronological order. That said, first up:

Suicide Squad (1987) - she appeared semi-regularly starting in #23! This was also her debut as Oracle! I really enjoyed the overall run & would normally highly recommend it, but also want to warn that it’s a pretty heavy read in terms of content itself (canon-typical violence ofc esp for a SuiSq comic, discussions of suicide ideation, period typical stereotyping/‘subversion’ of said stereotypes, but that’s a deeper discussion for a different blog) For that reason, I don’t necessarily recommend it for a first-time reader, esp if you’re wanting to solely focus on Babs. Team books usually aren’t super great when you’re reading for an individual character, in my experience, esp in a case like this where the character isn’t always necessarily part of the team or appears sporadically enough to disrupt the flow of following a storyline.

Birds of Prey (1999) - This team book breaks that prev rule tho, bc Babs is the leader & is in Damn near every issue of this run 😂 There’s several smaller team-ups before the main ‘99 run (BoP:Manhunt, BoP:Wolves, etc), which are also good as a prelude before the main run itself. This will be the longest thing that will give you a LOT to parse through & ymmv with a lot of it. (Dixon & Simone are the most prominent writers for it & without getting Into It they each have their Issues™️ & Crimes™️) It also crosses over with a few events/references others. Imo it’s a good window into what comics are like overall, esp when you get into a longer run with multiple writers at the helm. But it has an added bonus of keeping a pretty small cast at its forefront (for about half the run, it’s solely Babs n Dinah!) It also has a follow-up run in 2010 which is broken up by-

Oracle: The Cure - (technically a 3-issue mini-series but!!!) this one’s a culmination of Oracle & Calculator’s (it’s not rivalry? That can’t be the right word… Uhhh, nemesis-sitch?) from BoP & leads right into bringing Babs back to Gotham in Steph’s Batgirl run as well as the next BoP run I mentioned just a sec ago. It’s what I like to call connective (t)issues lol. Ymmv I think depending on if you’ve read BoP ‘99/TT ‘03 beforehand, but I hadn’t read a lot of TT before reading it at the time, and I enjoyed it a lot!

A couple individual issues I wanna suggest:

Batman Chronicles #5 - Oracle: Year One!!!!! Cannot rec this one enough!!! In lieu of reading Killing Joke (which really only serves Bruce, Joker, Jim Gordon’s characters) read this!!! LICHERALLY her origin in coming into her own as Oracle!!! This one is THE place to start, actually, before you read anything start here 😂

Batman: Gotham Knights #6 - okay, this one is admittedly a self-indulgent rec. Without spoiling the plot, it’s CLASSIC soap-opera level shit. The TENSION at play & the layers of Bruce & Babs dynamic, the messiness of the batfam!!! 👌 *chefs kiss* GK as a run in general too was a LOT of fun for me & Babs is a pretty prominent player in much of it, but this issue rlly takes the cake for me ngl

And to tie it all together for an extra couple of Important Event recs that you’ll run into esp if you pick up BoP first:

Batman: No Man’s Land - okay, this event was a Behemoth. It’s a LOT to read, but it is REALLY good imo as a launching point for where Bat-comics were at the start of the millennium. Babs takes the narrative role SO many times throughout & she rlly comes into her own by becoming a linchpin for the info system she builds for the batfam. Again, I don’t wanna discourage you when I say it’s a Long read, bc it’s well worth it imo, but also 100% okay to skip when you’re just starting out! It’s a big time sink!

Batman: Officer Down - okay put away the meme forJUST A SEC, our old friend Jim Gordon’s been shot & it’s up to Batma- oh wait bruce sulks by Jim’s bedside while Babs rallies the troops and GETS SHIT DONE to find who shot her dad? INTERESTING 🧐 In all seriousness tho, & compared to NML, this is a much easier bite-sized event that can give you a taste of what Event/crossoverComics™️ are generally like 👍

Bruce Wayne: Murderer?/Fugitive - okay so, take that same energy of the batfam having to Put In The Work to help Bruce out & flip it around bc now Bruce is the Main Suspect. The drama, the Intrigue™️. Pretty much everyone in the fam gets a moment to shine & this is def peak of how Babs fits into the fam during this era. This one runs a bit on the longer side & babs is again, more of a support role here, but god damn I loved it a lot!

I feel like I’m obligated to at least Mention Batman: War Games, mostly to note that it finally shakes the foundation of Oracle being the batfam’s main support (her CLOCKTOWER gets nerfed in this event 😭) If you read all of BoP and skip over this event & then are confused abt why Babs is suddenly being ejected from Gotham, just remember that her clocktower gets blown up, Steph dies, Bruce n Babs have a falling out & that’s basically why Babs starts flying around the country & settles in Metropolis for a bit instead of going back to Gotham. I reread this event at least once a year bc it gave me brainworms, I can not in good conscience recommend it to anyone bc no one understands her (War Games) like i do 💕 Godspeed if you decide to read it o7

Other recs/mentions:

Batgirl (2000) - okay if you end up reading NML, you’ll be introduced to Cass in it, & this run picks up with her. Babs is in it a LOT at the beginning as supporting cast to Cass (up to War Games ofc, but I won’t say much more abt that lol) I’m ngl, when I was trying to get more into comics, this run was what HOOKED me

Batgirl (2009) - so in a similar vein, Babs also features as a support for Steph too in her batgirl run. It’s… different from Cass’ run, but I also rlly love this one too. And also am forever bitter that the Batgirls run didn’t realize their potential BUT WE’RE NOT GETTING INTO THAT HERE.

Gonna mention Batman: Gotham Knights one more time bc again, while Babs isn’t a main focus, I think it’s rlly good at tying the batfam together during that era & giving a reader glimpses into other characters/dynamics. I think I got more out of it after I had read a few other runs from this time period (namely Robin, Azrael & some prominent stuff with Huntress), but can also see it as a potential launching point for new readers too 👍 if you wanna get more into the batfam/Batman but are intimidated by the Big Runs, this can potentially be a good bridge!

Gonna rapid fire mention that Babs as Oracle has a lot of appearances in Robin (93), Nightwing (96), JLA (96), Azrael (95) and obvsly Batman/Detective Comics from the 90s into 00s. I’ve read a few of these runs, and ymmv depending on how attached you may get to certain characters. But that’s what comics is all about! Getting attached and exploring other characters n teams n stuff!

A Gen note that I wanna end on: I wasn’t exaggerating when I said earlier abt how the more you read the more you’ll have fun. I can’t even begin to count the number of times that I’ve read something from a 90s/00s comic & was essentially jumpscared by a sudden Oracle cameo that I wasn’t expecting! She pops up in so many things throughout the universe at the time!!! She was THE info broker for all the supers!!! It makes me so insane that DC threw that all away to magi-cure her and demote her back to batgirl when she had grown so much 😭

anyways I hope you have fun!!! And again if you’re ever looking for other recs my more Gen dc blog is @dyketectivecomics! If my fellow mods or anyone else have some recs to add or to dispute haha, I’ll be tagging this so others can see/rb/reply to add their recs too 👍

Okay! \o/ that’s all I got for now! Happy reading anon!!!!

#barbara gordon #oracle #oracle day #birds of prey #reading rec #~randy #added a cut bc length 👍 and to add a warning that this isn’t just a list #I wanted to include some commentary bc having a reading list is good sometimes #but also having a Guide™️ is what I’m ultimately aiming for when I’m curating my lists now in 2024 #esp bc I’m gonna be revamping the duke list soon but THATS a convo for the duke blog 😂#okay enough tag rambles. I hope this helps anon! sorry it took a Hot Sec!#you sent this right as the holidays were swinging at me full force 😭

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holyserverbatman · 11 months

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Out Of The Shadows Event Notice!

Hello! You may have noticed that our event has not been advertised recently, that's our bad, sorry!! It was originally meant to be an event that took place throughout June, but unfortunately mods had conflicts. But we still want this to happen!

This event will now take place the week of July 24th-30th.

Out of respect to our original timeline, if you published anything in either June or July that fit our prompts, then feel free to tag us! We'll allow it all into the collection.

This is an event to bring less popular characters, relationships, and timelines into the light! The focus should be on less popular platonic pairings, and canon events that don't receive much attention. Are you passionate about Cassandra Cain? Does the New Teen Titans era hold in a special place in your heart? Do you love Sebastian Ives & Tim Drake? Does Dinah Lance's work with Barbara Gordon excite you? This is the event for you!

Our Prompts

Featured Relationships:

Alfred Pennyworth & young!Bruce Wayne

Stephanie Brown & Tim Drake

Dick Grayson & the Titans

Cassandra Cain & Jason Todd

Helena Bertenelli & Tim Drake

Duke Thomas & Damian Al Ghul-Wayne

robin!Jason Todd & batgirl!Barbara Gordon

Prompts:

Cass using daytime TV to practice her English

The consequences of Damian's metal spine

Duke asking Dick for advice on being a big brother

Babs being badass in a wheelchair

batgirl!Steph & robin!Damian & batman!Dick

Reverse Robins!AU - Duke becomes the Red Hood

All-Caste Jason

Remember to tag #dcoutoftheshadows and @holyserverbatman to get your creations attached to the event, and remember you can add it to our AO3 collection as well!

If none of these events inspire you, then feel free to check out our list of character and relationship prompts here!

If you are wondering what is not allowed, then check out this post here! @dc-fandom-events, @dc-event-calendar

#dcoutoftheshadows #batfam event #fandom week #dc event #fandom event #batfam #fanfic #fanart #batfamily fanart #batfamily fanfic #week event #batman #mod posts

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fantastic-nonsense · 1 year

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Hello!! As you can tell from your notifs somebody may or may not have gone through your Barbara Gordon tag haha. But anyways, I have been meaning to make a little slideshow for my friends about Babs for god knows why reasons and couldn't quite find enough of the Behind The Scenes stuff that you, and many other blogs like you seem to find. Do you know any good resources for this? Specifically though, I have been wondering a lot more about why they got her back to Batgirl for the N52. I've seen a lot of chatter about it but I've never really seen a genuine source (or i forgot, idk ;;).

But yeah, I know this is a lot to ask for, but if you answer, tyvm !!! rlly appreciate it :]]

Hi! Sorry about the delayed response. You're perfectly welcome to trawl through any tag you want. Thank you for liking my posts!

The answer to your question is a bit complicated, because quite a bit of it is a combination of "I've been in the fandom a long time," "I go hunting for interviews and explanations whenever I write meta or discuss things with people," "several industry professionals are on social media and answer questions/volunteer information occasionally," "I interact with a lot of people who read comics across multiple platforms and so see a lot of the information they dig up and post," and "sometimes stuff just pops across my dash and I remember it."

Because there's absolutely stuff to read about on some aspects of this, but other things are just pulled from my experience as a fan & long-time comic reader of ~15 years who happens to know a bit about the industry. There's not really any one place to look, unfortunately; half the battle is knowing there's something to look for in the first place, to be honest. Some of my more historical knowledge (especially as it regards the Comics Code and the impact it had on the industry) comes from academic resources and pop history books, but largely? A lot of it is just hunting down interviews and other peoples' write-ups and old twitter Q&As and forum rumors to see if you can get an industry professional on record saying it.

I have been wondering a lot more about why they got her back to Batgirl for the N52

I don't have time to do a full write-up on this question, unfortunately. It deserves one, because there's a LOT of nonsense and drama. But......tl;dr: sexism, ableism, racism, and a small handful of creatives and upper management who couldn't let go of their childhoods and allow characters to grow, age, and move on from the roles they occupied when those creatives were teenagers. Babs specifically has been subject to a ridiculous amount of industry-level sexism and ableism since Denny O'Neil retired as Head Editor/Group Editor of the Bat Office in the early 2000s, but both of those things were ramped up to 11 with the advent of the New 52 and it's had a dramatic impact on her narrative direction and the quality of the content that's featured her.

At some point I'll do a full write-up focused on Babs (rather than Cass, which is who the two write-ups I've already done have focused on), but....yeah. Dan Didio and a handful of other creatives couldn't stand that Babs was a successful, independent, disabled female hero in her early 30s with connections outside of the Batfam. So they de-aged her, gave her back the use of her legs, axed all of her friendships (especially with other women), disallowed reference to anyone or anything that acknowledged her pre-existing skillset or the existence of "Oracle" as a good thing, and refused to let her move on from The Killing Joke. Her character growth trajectory has been static and even regressive ever since.

#barbara gordon #barbara gordon meta #dc comics #asks #Gail Simone being specifically not allowed to have Babs shown wearing glasses or reference being a librarian.....hate. hate them for that

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cephalog0d · 10 months

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Hey, Batfans, are you a weird completionist who likes sortable data way too much, like me? Do you want a giant spreadsheet of appearances of a bunch of Batfam members that you can filter across multiple people to see where they show up in the same issue together?

WELL GOOD NEWS because thanks to my hyperfixation I made a spreadsheet. (It's view-only but if you save a copy it should be editable for personal use.)

The Spreadsheet currently contains all post-crisis appearances for the following characters: Barbara Gordon, Cassandra Cain, Damian Wayne, Dick Grayson, Duke Thomas, Harper Row, Helena Bertinelli, Jace Fox, Jarro, Jason Todd, Jean-Paul Valley, Kate Kane, Luke Fox, Stephanie Brown and Tim Drake. I feel like that's most of the big ones (and several not-very-big-ones), but if there's a Bat-person missing you'd like to see on there, feel free to ask!

This is up to date through July 2023. I have intentions to keep updating it on a semi-monthly basis, but we'll see if that happens.

All sheets are conditionally formatted so if you enter "Y" in the Read column it will highlight the whole row in green to mark it off, if you're the kind of person who likes to keep track and mark things off a list.

The Master List is filterable by any character, and more importantly, multiple characters! Up to "all of them" although I don't think anything actually contains *all* of them.

(Some more notes below)

SOME NOTES:

Dates are the start of the series, since that's how a lot of places besides DC itself with their weird "volume" convention distinguish different runs.

These aren't sorted by preboot vs. New 52 vs. Rebirth vs. IF, sorry, that was too many sorting functions for now. You can kinda figure it out by date, though (New 52 was 2011, Rebirth was 2016, IF was 2022) or look up the issue on a wiki and see what version of the character is tagged.

On that note, all of this was pulled from the DC Wiki, and while I did a little bit of spot-checking as I went for things I knew off the top of my head it's entirely possible things are missing or mis-attributed. I'm happy to update accordingly if there are.

Similarly, I didn't go through every issue here to check what role people are appearing in, either in terms of what identity they're using (e.g. Spoiler vs Robin vs Batgirl) or if they're a major character or not. Some of these are as minor as background appearances or off-screen mentions. Some day I might add more metadata to sort for those things, but right now that's not part of it.

#batfam #comics #comics list #why yes i am a professional science person who spends way too much time sorting and processing data why do you ask

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ursie · 2 years

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I don’t know if you know the artist Babs Tarr but they made a sexy D/Babs drawing where Barbara is in her Batgirl Rebirth suit and she’s undressing. It was posted yesterday and the artist tagged it “sorry Dickkory fans” but this artist was also the artist who drew the majority of Barbara Gordon’s Rebirth run and who partnered with the Cameron Stewart who the writer at the time and who has been accused of of grooming teenage girls. Wouldn’t you feel embarrassed that your run and largely your deign with this writer is what you continue to promote? Like your infantilized drawing is contributing. Anyways Happy Birthday Barbara Gordon. Hope you are free soon.

Yeah like 😭 I promise you no dickory babe is looking towards tarr for art also tbh her art?? Kinda sucks hard nowadays like it was fun in motor crush and early burnside but she’s leaned sm on the stylistic part she’s forgotten basic anatomy like I haven’t seen a good tarr piece in years

#also I feel like she drew inappropriate art of characters who were minors but I might be conflating artists there #I haven’t like. kept up w her at all #I just think she’s a shit artist 😭#asks #anon #anti dickbabs #ig #anti Babs tarr

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lesbianclaryfray · 10 months

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Saw your tags on the Barbara post and you know that Babs’ disability wasn’t erased right? Visible disability or not she’s still a disabled person. Like so many disabled people, she uses tech that helps her walk. Everyday disabled people choose to use tech or prosthetics or aids but that doesn’t erase or invalidate their struggles.

Her disability hasn’t been retconned or erased and it’s still affects how Babs operates in the world. Not saying you have to like the decade old editorial decision have Babs walk again but your “discount acrobat Oracle” tag reeks of ableism and is actually the erasure you’re accusing the writers of.

hi! her disability absolutely was erased and there is no divorcing her current status as batgirl from the ableism in that decision. of course characters with any type of disability, visible or not, are important, but babs was a character with a very much visible disability that would not allow her to also be an acrobat. that was erased and later retconned into what it is now. which would be fantastic rep! …if it hadn’t come at the cost of not only erasing an already-established disabled hero but also erasing two separate female characters who each provided their own rep within the dc universe. also, idc if the decision happened a decade ago. it was ableist then, it’s ableist now, and it’s going to still be ableist 10 or 30 or 50 years from now. all that said, i’m sorry that my comment came off as erasing her current disability. that wasn’t my intention. what i meant by the oracle comment is that a) she should be in her wheelchair, and b) a lot of the writing decisions regarding her actions/tone/personality lack the nuance and interesting traits she had before n52 and she’s far less interesting to read about these days imo

tldr: disabilities aren’t interchangeable and babsgirl coming back at all was an extremely ableist decision

#replies #anonymous #ableism mention tw #i literally have invisible disabilities myself lmfao #and i don’t need babs as my rep i need a character who hasn’t had their other disabilities erased or sidelined

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arttuff · 5 months

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oracle hosts another powerpoint presentation on booleans at the batcave. attendance mandatory.

#dc comics #dc #barbara gordon #oracle #oracle dc #birds of prey #batfam #batfamily #batgirl #babs im sorry i had to tag you as batgirl will you still marry me

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ao3feed-brucewayne · 2 years

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you've got a lot of nerve!

by meher (saheeli)

When Barbara opens her mouth to reply, Eddie holds up his hand. "I know what you're thinking. Yes, I had the time to make a safehouse before going to Egypt. Yes, Shahrukh is languishing without me. Yes, I've made very detailed instructions for you. You'll find them in your fridge."

"My fridge?" Barbara asks incredulously. She raises an eyebrow.

Eddie shrugs. "I am a crook, Babs."

"I know," Barbara says. "I know. I'll feed your pet. What is it, a cat? Lab mice? You look kind of like a bird person."

"You'll see," Eddie replies.

Barbara feeds Eddie's pet. It becomes, surprisingly, an act of healing.

Words: 5124, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: Batman Unburied (Podcast), Batman - All Media Types

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: Multi

Characters: Barbara Gordon, Edward Nygma, Bruce Wayne, Alfred Pennyworth, Pamela Isley

Relationships: Barbara Gordon & Edward Nygma, Barbara Gordon & Bruce Wayne, Edward Nygma/Bruce Wayne, Edward Nygma & Shahrukh The Slime Mold, Barbara Gordon & Shahrukh The Slime Mold

Additional Tags: eddie has a pet, pamela and alfred are just mentioned sadly, one day i will write a poison ivy fic, POV Barbara Gordon, Black Bruce Wayne, South Asian Edward Nygma, my "eddie is rlly good with aunties" agenda, don't let the slime mold throw you off, it is never described, it is very cute actually, like a houseplant, i can't tag this i'm sorry, Weirdly Deep, Leftism, Batgirl Arc, mechanical bats as a love language?, Robotics Nerd Bruce Wayne, Scientist Bruce Wayne

source https://archiveofourown.org/works/40083204

#IFTTT #bruce wayne #batman #the dark knight #the cape crusader #gotham #dc universe #ao3 #ao3feed

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rezhood · 4 years

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Three Jokers Spoilers and CW for mentions of trauma

Ok a lot of people like me are very not into JayBabs at all (1. Because she’s too old for him (DC stop deaging her im begging) 2. Babs is being pushed into another random relationship with another random bat boy 3. She was basically his tutor/ babysitter in the past wtf dc) but beyond that THIS SCENE

IS SO MESSED UP FROM A REALISTIC STANDPOINT

Jason in this scene is so vulnerable, he is emotional and looking for validation of being cared about. It is so problematic for this to turn into a kiss, especially without any indication of any romantic intention beforehand. It boggles my mind. He is coming down from a full on break down, feeling very emotional, and has just been told is cared about. For that to immediately be followed up with a kiss is so manipulative, and the last thing Jason needs in that moment. Barbara could be anyone in this scene, at that moment Jason would have let anyone who said those words to him kiss him, because of his trauma. It’s just wrong for the scene to play out like that. This is how abuse victims end up staying with their abusers, it is not romantic. It is a perfect example of how people with trauma end up associating emotional support and validation with romantic, sexual, and physical actions. This scene demonstrates Jason literally hearing “you’re cared about” for the first time and immediately ties it to being kissed. Even if he kissed her, she shouldn’t have let him. It opens people up to being taken advantage of, gaslighting, and all sorts of messed up associations of love, support, and sex. It’s toxic.

And a hero would know that. Barbara Gordon would know that, and she wouldn’t do that even if she was interested in Jason like that (which... where is that build up??? N52?? Because no thank you). She literally spent half the issue trying to tell Bruce to take Jason down (which is another whole can of worms) and suddenly she sees him naked and vulnerable and becomes interested in him?? What??? That’s so fucked.

Point is, Jaybabs aside, this scene is problematic as hell, and Barbara would not do that. It’s poor characterization, and another instance of Babs being made to do out of character shit for the sake of a relationship (I’m so tired).

Also not to be that person but imagine the scene from a swapped perspective, if Jay was the woman and Babs the man. If a fully clothed man (in a super suit no less) had kissed a emotionally traumatized half naked girl in this situation way more people would be calling this out as problematic. Just becbecause Barbara is a hero doesn’t mean this is okay and just because Jason is a man doesn’t mean it’s any less problematic to fetishize his emotional vulnerability. This scene is fucked up (and very ooc for Babs) for more reasons than just jaybab.

#three jokers spoilers #jason todd #barbara gordon #batman #batman three jokers #three jokers #red hood #batgirl #oracle #comic spoilers #tw molestation #tw abusive relationship #just mentioned but better safe than sorry #should I tag ship?#I’m gonna not to be anti to harmless peeps but because this really isn’t a win for them #edit: untagged ship because I realized I was v aggressive towards ship and my personal feelings are irrelevant to my point here #sorry to harmless shippers but yeah this is not a ship win you should celebrate #another edit: yes I know Babs has prob been deaged again and I hate it you’re not going to change my mind or justify this to me #also stop trying to justify the huge age gap by bringing up people irl because #1. they didn’t know each other when one was a child and one was an adult at least not on a personal level #2. if they did then that’s fucked up stop justifying grooming you fucking crustaceans #Jason is not a simp and Barbara is not a price to be won over by batboy of the week #three jokers was the worst take

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