#(though she was written better as spoiler and batgirl)

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

Oh no was the spin-off bad or just mediocre? Is there anything you particularly liked or disliked about it?

god okay let's get into the good, the bad, and the ???? of it all. hiding it entirely under a cut because spoilers ahoy.

the :)

I have reservations about the Riddler as a full protagonist that I'll articulate below, but I can't really fault any of the writing re: Eddie's dialogue at all. the characterization of the Riddler as an insufferably cocky and nosy motormouth works really well, and Hasan Minhaj seems like he's having a blast with the expanded role.

I also like ESCAPE ARTIST PICKPOCKET RIDDLER recognition!!!

also hey even though they didn't follow up on some of the very promising tidbits re: Eddie's potentially deteriorating mental state dropped in Unburied, I like that it was made clear that there are physical components to his riddle compulsion, namely mentioning that his chest was getting tighter. it adds an interesting dimension to his whole schtick!

having listed all these fun traits that I enjoy, I also respect that the story doesn't feel the need to like... soften Eddie in order to make him a more likeable protagonist. oh haha the funny little asshole man? yeah he killed people. he kills a guy literally in the course of the story after proclaiming in the very first episode that he's mostly non-violent. and he's 100% chill about it because fuck that guy! he doesn't matter, he's in the way of the riddle! and the whole ending with Nadira is... oofah doofah, that's crazy. that's crazy crazy. and it's pretty tasty!

I LOOOOOVE appearances from minor villains!!! bro we got THE FUCKING TALLY MAN in this!!! also hey when I wrote that absurdly long post-Unburied fic I CORRECTLY predicted Croc, Sportsmaster, and the fucking Condiment King someone. I don't know. pay me or kiss me on the mouth for that or something.

I wish there was more Barbara, of course, but I really like what we did get of her! I like that we've kind of skipped over any need for her to have a Batgirl era and just got straight to the good stuff of being almost Oracle. I love to see her exactly where she belongs: flagrantly committing cybercrime to save lives because she can.

also the sound design is still good, and I really like the new music for the opening and Azrael's motif

also speaking of Azrael I'm going to say ONE nice thing about how he was written which is that I DO think it's interesting that they directly pointed out that the concept of Azrael as an angel of death is actually much more prominent in Islam than Christianity while also making in unambiguous that the Nygmas are a Muslim family. it adds a little bit of intrigue to the connection between Nadira and JP, not nearly enough to actually redeem Nadira as a big bad in my eyes (see below) but it is interesting!

also lastly Eddie is flirting so hard with Bruce AND Barbara I love you problematic awful bisexual representation. AND Killer Croc wants to fuck him? madness.

the :/

I alluded to this earlier, but I don't know if I love Eddie promoted to the POV protagonist! it's a big departure from Unburied, not just in terms of who's the main character but also in terms of limiting the scope of the story. giving Bruce and Barbara's alternating perspectives in Unburied was brilliant for building up the mystery and creating suspense in the story, and when the story came together to focus fully on Bruce as Batman it felt organically earned.

and also on a more Eddie-centric note I just! think he works better as a supporting character for other people to bounce off of, rather than being a lead in his own right!

I'm putting this in :/ instead of :( because it's more of a matter of personal taste than anything but godddddd I wanted more Barbara :/ I love her :/ where is she :/ I'm mostly mad because I wanted a spinoff of her and Eddie solving crimes while he crashes in her couch and does petty crime but godddddd god god god I want her back so bad I love her more than Eddie and Bruce combined

while I like the emotional beats of the resolution with Nadira I don't... like her as a character or a storytelling device. like I'm sorry but I don't really care about the Riddler's family drama! especially not when it's as heavy-handed as "my sister told me riddles to distract me from our parents fighting." very reminiscent of the backstory where Leonard and Lisa Snart would hide out in an ice cream truck or whatever, please stop trying to make psychology this painfully clear cut.

I also didn't really need an origin story but I do like that it's kind of an updated version of his first BTAS episode!

I can't decide if Jean Paul unceremoniously killing off Flass is really funny or sucks shit. kind of both but it does veer towards the latter, I was really hoping that if they're going to keep making more of this podcast we would at least get to see Babs get an arc where she investigates Flass and gets justice for her dad on her own terms. but then again. it is pretty funny.

also god this isn't REALLY about the show but I have to say this. the Riddler a.) getting #calledout by Azrael for bearing false witness and b.) ESPECIALLY him trying to dunk on his sister by implying she should marry a white guy are SO FUNNY given the timing of the minor scandal re: Hasan Minhaj maybe just straight up making things up entirely in his comedy and SPECIFICALLY getting that poor woman doxxed by claiming she dumped him for racist reasons. I'M JUST SAYING. (editor's note: since absolved of all wrongdoing and the woman who wrote that piece is genuinely unhinged, but the timing was still BANANAS.)

the :(

I'm just gonna say it, man: I'm not into Colman Domingo's Bruce/Batman performance at all. I don't know what happened behind the scenes to precipitate Winston Duke leaving the role, but god fuck I'm in mourning. Duke is genuinely one of my favorite portrayals of Bruce ever for his distinctive Batman voice and how much expressiveness, vulnerability, and warmth he brings to the character, and while I wouldn't want his replacement to try and mimic that performance exactly (impossible!) it seems like Domingo just... wasn't even given the memo? this is a much flatter Bruce, and I simply cannot love him.

re: my complaints about Nadira above, her character is just handled in a really underwhelming way. having Eddie repeatedly call her "sis" is stumbling straight into the one of the worst of all lazy exposition techniques, especially since Bruce works his way to that exact revelation, like would it have killed anyone to just... let us wonder about the connection a *little* longer? also, again, those flashbacks are ARTLESS. in Unburied there's framing and context for all of the ways the past blends into the present, whether it's Strange's recordings or the story taking place inside Bruce's own meddled memories. it really feels like they're just hurling backstory at us with a catapult in this one.

the ultimate big bad reveal is... ugh. UGH. Unburied was a really cool nesting doll of a minor Batman villain being manipulated by a more well-known villain being manipulated by an A-list villain with a cool and unique spin on her backstory... Secrets in the Dark has an absolutely WASTED member of the Batfamily used as a killer of the week, controlled by a minor dirty cop and a complete OC who doesn't get much screentime at all. cool!

also hey listen. as soon as they start going "hmm... I don't know this is just too big for Flass... SOMEONE else must be helping him..." it's like. I don't know, man. do you think it's possibly the only new character introduced in the series who we know was just elected to a government position? do you think maybe that's who it could be?

also hey man speaking of which they just fucking. they just used Jean Paul as a random deranged serial killer and then the fucking Riddler managed to convince him to off himself. fucking. disrespectful. this feels like that episode of Arrow (sorry to cite Arrow in 2023, I know) when Helena's just like. an antagonist of the week for Oliver to fight. disrespectful!!!!

"Makenzie I thought you didn't even like Jean Paul why does it matter" I'M COMING AROUND ON HIM

overall the plot just feels way more hectic and unpolished than Unburied and it's Unfortunate!

also hey do you remember at the end of Unburied where Bruce just casually blows the lid open on Eddie being afraid that he's like. devolving and actively losing his grip on his own brain and it's like extra bad and scary because he has no idea whether it really means anything when he passes psych evals, etc? really cool how we never really brought that up again

where was Ace :( :( :( my good boy :( :( :(

#secrets in the dark #batman unburied

[bitimdrake]

Was Dick welcoming towards Cassandra and Steph when they first joined the family? I’ve heard conflicting things about that

Cassandra

For when Cass joins the batfamily, this one's a yes.

Dick and Cass meet in Batman: Legends of the Dark Knights #120, in the midst of No Man's Land. Dick's a little skeptical at first, but that's more because he's (rightfully) skeptical of Bruce's judgement. Bruce has spent months pushing everyone away, and now has finally called them all back only to abruptly drop "btw, I met this girl and she's part of the team now."

However, with Barbara stepping into vouch for Cassandra as well, Dick jumps on board pretty quick and welcomes her.

On the flip side, when Cass joins the Wayne family years later, the answer here is no. (Which is probably why you've heard conflicting information.)

This part comes with a huge caveat: it is built off bad plotlines and characterization. Cass had just gotten out of the evil!Cass arc--a rare case of DC editorial intentionally trying to destroy a character (as opposed to the common case of them doing it accidentally). A belated retcon declared she was brainwashed and not really evil, to salvage the situation.

In the wake of that, we have the Batgirl vol 2 mini, which is about Cass seeking redemption, and ends with Bruce offering to adopt her. And, presumably because the writers wanted an antagonistic force, Dick is...a huge asshole in this one.

I could try to justify this decision if I had too--they were never close to begin with, and Dick is skeptical that she's better now, and maybe he's overprotective of his current family especially after Cass nearly killed his beloved little brother Tim. But the way Dick is written in this mini is just so over-the-top aggro and distrustful of Cass it's hard to swallow.

Anyway, this thread gets continued in Batman and the Outsiders vol 2 #13-14, where imo the characterization is not quite as bad but still pretty bad. Dick eventually admits he wasn't totally comfortable with Cass's adoption, and the two make peace.

Stephanie

If we're talking about when Steph first became Spoiler, was briefly endorsed by Bruce as Spoiler, or became Robin, this one has no answer on account of Dick and Steph never interact. Literally they were in one scene together that entire time, and never spoke.

Dick's main exposure to Steph was through what Tim told him. He's a little skeptical about Tim dating this girl--especially when he mentions her pregnancy--but that's about it.

Dick and Steph finally interact for real years later when she becomes Batgirl, which marks her true acceptance into the batfamily, and uh. No, Dick is not welcoming.

Steph makes the inauspicious introduction of ignoring Oracle's instruction to stand down and accidentally freezing Damian in the middle of a fight in Batgirl vol 3 #5, and Dick goes to argue with Barbara that Steph shouldn't be Batgirl.

But unlike the Cass part above, this one actually makes sense!

Beyond Dick's overall stress level as a newbie Batman and Steph's poor introduction, Dick's second-hand impression of Steph up to this point is not good! She's the girl who accidentally started a gang war that got a bunch of people killed, faked her death and let Tim (and others, but Dick just cares about Tim here) be consumed by grief for over a year, and then accidentally started another gang war.

His impression is, of course, biased and one-sided. But it's also completely logical for him to distrust Steph and see her as a liability! I approve of this interpersonal tension.

Dick is still able to see and appreciate when Steph does well though, and she proves herself. By the end of the arc, he changes his mind.

#* #ask #anon #*dc #dc #dc ref #dc meta #dick grayson #cass cain #cassandra cain #stephanie brown #long post

[ddaeng-danvers]

fleeting moments and daydreams

pairings: dick grayson x reader, jason todd x reader, damian wayne x reader, gar logan x reader

genre: fluff, general musings

summary: homage to my dc fictional crushes

warnings: discussion of nightmares, anxiety, general canon violence

a/n: i haven’t written in a long time but here we are...this is what happens when i get into simp mode

masterlist

dick grayson (as robin)

*reader is a meta-human on the young justice team, she has similar powers to Black Canary*

You know that the sweet yet predictable knock on the door is simply a gesture. You know Dick is coming to check up on you, regardless of your response. 

A recent mission left you with a few broken ribs, a hefty amount of bruising, and a concussion. Nothing a couple weeks of rest and low-profile couldn’t fix, and you would gladly use any excuse to get out of Dinah’s training and to finish the books you’ve had no time to read. 

Dick waltzes in, wearing your Gotham Academy hoodie that somehow still fits him (though you have a feeling he’ll finally reach his growth spurt sometime soon). His hair is messy, and his eyes are tired. He looks exhausted. You give him a smile and a small huff of amusement. 

“How you doing, Boy Wonder?” Dick gives a small chuckle in response. 

“School’s been rough without you. No one to gossip with, or cheat off of.” You laugh despite the ache in your chest. 

“I’m surprised the Bat hasn’t caught on to your suddenly high grades.” Dick smiles and moves from the doorway to sit on the edge of your bed. You can tell he’s keeping his distance. “You’re not going to hurt me, silly bird. Come here.” He scoots to move his back against the headboard, and you lean your head against his shoulder. 

“You need to get better soon, patrol is miserable without you.” Dick’s comforting presence and smell are already sending you off into dreamland. His hand drags up and down your arm, tracing your veins and the outline of finally fading bruises. “Sleep well, birdy.” 

dick grayson (as nightwing)

*reader is a meta-human, she has similar powers to Black Canary*

The only thing better than waking up on a sweet, warm Sunday morning…is being woken up by Dick Grayson falling in the shower after a night of patrol. 

Normally Dick is lithe and quiet enough to make it through the window, into the shower, and under the covers without waking you or Haley, but not tonight. The thud sent Haley running to the bathroom door tapping and scratching at the floorboards. 

“Shh, Haley everything’s fine.” You groan as you turn over in bed, using a pillow to muffle the noise. The puppy continues to bark and paw at the door. It seems she won’t be settled until she can discover what caused such a stark, sudden noise from the bathroom. With a grumble, you throw off the covers and stumble to the shut door to the bathroom. But as soon as you reach to turn the knob, the door swings open. 

“You miss me that much?’ Dick asks with a swirk slapped across his face. 

“You’re acting far too cocky for this late at night.” You laugh. Dick looks down at Haley, who is sitting calmly and politely at the sight of her owner. 

“At least someone is excited to see me.” Dick smiles and leans down to pet Haley. Now that the dog is calm, you find yourself stumbling back to bed and Dick isn’t far behind you. 

“How was the patrol?” You ask once Dick finally finds himself by your side. He wraps his arm around your shoulder, urging you to come closer and lay by his side. 

“Nothing eventful, I’m much better now that I’m next to you.”

“I’ve known you for too long for you to be flirting with me like that.” You laugh. 

“Well,” Dick muses, “I gotta keep you around somehow.” 

jason todd (as robin)

*reader is a non-meta-human on the titans team, with similar training to batgirl, spoiler, etc.*

“It’s the middle of the night, Jason your music is too fucking loud! And what in the hell are you listening to?” Jason is laying on the floor of his room, staring at the ceiling. There’s a vinyl spinning on his record player, something heavy and loud with absolutely no rhythm. “Hello? Earth to Jason?” 

He startles suddenly, like he didn’t realize you were there. “Sorry, spaced out.” He mumbled. 

“You sure you’re okay?” Jason doesn’t say much, but you can read the expression on his face. “Did you have a nightmare?” Jason nods, ever so slightly. “Do you want to talk about it?” A few beats of silence pass through the room. 

“I don’t really remember much, I just felt afraid, like something was wrong. A-and I woke up on the floor all sweaty and something just feels wrong-” 

“Hey, hey you're hyperventilating, take a deep breath for me, Jay. In-and-out, just like this.” You give him a demonstration, and when he seems to have some control you move your hands to cradle his face. “I’m gonna change this vinyl okay? To something a bit more relaxing, and I’m gonna get you a change of clothes.” Jason nods, his breathing approaching normal. After a quick flip of the vinyl you snatch the closest clean shirt and hoodie out of his dresser and come back down to his spot on the floor. He changes hastily, and you pick up his dirty clothes and throw them towards the basket in his closet. You begin to pick up his room, hoping a cleaner space will clear his mind a bit. 

“Can you come here?” You look up from his floor, and Jason’s sitting on his bed with his head in his knees. You drop what you’re holding, and sit next to him. He turns his head out of his knees and looks at you. His eyes are glassy, and he looks beyond exhausted. “Can you stay here tonight? I think I’ll be able to sleep better if you stay.” 

“Jason, of course I’ll stay.” You run a hand through his hair. “C’mon, let's go to sleep.’ You both tuck under the covers, and Jason wraps his arms around your middle. 

Neither of you wake until the following afternoon. 

jason todd (as red hood)

*reader is a non-meta-human, working as a nursing student*

“Sometimes I think you’re only dating me because I can patch you up so well.” You joke, because it seems humor is your only way to cope with the amount of fear and anxiety rushing through your head.

“Baby, I’m dating you for all kinds of other reasons too.” Jason laughs, which you take as an opportunity to close up his last stitch, causing him to wince at the stinging pain. 

“Sorry, sorry!” You startle. You hate seeing him in pain, but the alternative is to let him bleed out on your already dirty bathroom floor. “That was the last of them, Jay. All done.” He lets out a deep breath, a sigh of relief. 

“You’re gonna be one hell of a nurse, let me tell you that.” Jay laughs. You laugh along with him, leaning your head against his sternum. 

“I’m only so good because I have such a lovely test subject.” You press two chaste kisses to his collar and his cheek. “Do you need help showering?” Jason shakes his head. 

“No, you’ve helped me enough. I’ll be in bed in a few minutes.” You help Jason stand, and he’s steady, it’s clear that he’s been through worse. You help him pull off his outerwear and compression clothes, throwing them in a pile near the door. You lean in to turn on the water, making sure it’s warm enough for comfort and cold enough as not to disturb his bruises. Once he’s all in and settled, you pick the pile of bloody laundry off the floor. 

“I’ll be in our room.” You announce as you head to throw his clothes in the washer. By the time you’ve sorted everything and cleaned the blood off his chestpiece, he’s already waiting in your room, dressed, and laying down. You move to lay down next to him, and realize he’s already picked out your nightly read. 

“In the mood for a bit of Austen?’ 

damian wayne 

*reader is a non-meta-human…both are seniors in high school*

You wonder what prompted you to rearrange your room shortly after you started dating Damian. At first you assumed there was no correlation. You wanted a change, so you moved your bed from the middle of the wall to the corner, so it was pressed up against a window. You moved the rest of your furniture accordingly and viola, a nice change. Nothing more, nothing less. 

But now, you think it was some subconscious part of you predicting the future, because now you now your boyfriend is not only the son of a billionaire, but Batman’s one-and-only bird-themed sidekick who loves to crash through your window at odd hours of the night while he’s out on patrol. 

Normally, it’s all innocent. Damian just wants to check up on you while he’s making his nightly rounds. But every once in a while, he’s got a bit more on his mind. Tonight, he’s clumsy. He struggles opening the window, he stumbles right over your legs and manages to roll over onto the floor. As you wake up from your slumber, you notice that he’s breathing hard, harder than usual. And he’s not wearing his Robin uniform. Only a solid navy blue hoodie and gray sweatpants. 

“Were you out on patrol?’ You mumble sleepily. Damian has since moved back into your bed and underneath the covers. His breathing is somehow still heavy and erratic, despite having time to relax after making it through your window. “Damian?”

“Um, no. I was not on patrol.” You suddenly feel much more awake, your head filled with questions. If he wasn’t on patrol, then what was he doing in your room at three in the morning? But before you could even ask, he answered, “I had a nightmare. Just wanted to make sure you were okay, beloved.” 

“I’m alright Damian. I promise.” Immediately, just with your words, he begins to calm. “Now let’s go to sleep. You just have to be gone-”

“Yes, beloved, I know. By seven.” The two of you lay together, quiet, breathing syncing. “But for now, sleep.” 

bonus: gar logan

*reader is a meta-human on the titans team, with the power to read minds*

At first, being saved by Dr. Caulder seemed like an honor and a privilege. He saved you from certain death, and gave you the gift of telepathy, something you could use to be better. But on days like today, you cursed the ground that man walked on, and only wished he could see and feel all the pain he has caused. 

This morning, you were woken up not only by the aching in your legs and core as a result of training from the day before, but a splitting, mind-numbing migraine, which is a direct result of your gift. Gar only noticed something was wrong when you didn’t come out of your room for your morning coffee, so he decided it would only be right to deliver it to you. 

He cracked open the door, expecting you to be hiding away somewhere in the dark. He’s been with you through enough of these episodes to know what to expect. “Hey, you doing alright in there, bub?” Your only reply is a softly mumbled no. The door closes with a gentle click, and Gar’s footsteps to your bed sound like stomps. He sits by your feet, and sets a few things down on your nightstand, as softly as he can. 

“I’m sorry you aren’t feeling well,” He whispers. I left some coffee and water on the table, okay?” You nod, making a light swish swish with the blanket. Gar leans over, takes two pills out of a bottle, and taps your shoulder. “Bub, I’m sorry, can you just sit up for me real quick, just for some medicine.” You sit up slowly, as not to disturb your head any more than it already is. Gar hands you the medicine, and you take it as you have hundreds of times before. 

“I’ll leave you be, bub. Text me if you need anything.” As Gar makes a move to stand, you reach out and grab his wrist. 

“Stay, please.” You whisper. Gar nods and swiftly makes his way around the bed to your other side. He tucks himself under the covers, and lets you grab at his arm and squeeze his hand through the rest of the pain.

#dc #dc comics #dick grayson #nightwing #jason todd #red hood #robin #damian wayne #gar logan #beast boy #garfield logan #dc comics imagine #dick grayson x reader #dick grayson imagine #jason todd imagine #jason todd x reader #nightwing imagine #nightwing x reader #red hood imagine #red hood x reader #damian wayne imagine #damian wayne x reader #gar logan imagine #gar logan x reader

[ithinkthingsaboutstuff]

Batman Aesthic - Robin / Stephanie Brown

#batman #batfam #stephanie brown #robin #the fourth robin #robin 4 #some may forget she was robin but i will not #(though she was written better as spoiler and batgirl) #imo #aestethic #photo set #robin 80th anniversary

[danny-chase]

Do u think Cass should've stayed Batgirl even during the Dickbats run

This is hard for me because I don't really like the direction they went in canon and it's hard to form a good answer of where I would want her to go. And at this point it's kinda popular to just say "Cass should have been Batman" but I do think it's not quite that simple.

Starting at the beginning, a big issue was not even bothering to bring her into Battle for the Cowl, which is frustrating because she would have been a really good candidate for Batman and if you want Dick to still be Batman after this event, you would need to deal with Cass's desire and commitment to the Batman mythos and legacy after this. I think the one point that Dick has over Cass in why he should be Batman is that he is much more able to fool the older criminals into believing that Batman didn't die or whatever (although I haven't read the arc where Bruce Batman died, apparently it was in the news(?), but there is an arc in Batman where Dick gaslights Harvey Dent into believing the man under the mask hasn't changed - and while this works for some of them it doesn't work for all of them, like the joker - which... could have been for the best tbh). This is based solely on the fact that Dick has several inches on Cass and probably about 75-100 pounds.

I do think fandom tends to misinterpret Cass's desire to be Batman and limit it to being BatMAN or BatWOMAN when her commitment is the to the Bat not the gender role (and side note, if I had Cass inherit Bruce's position/legacy i think "The Bat" would actually be a very good codename for her) or the mantle. I think of the time where Bruce asked her if she was committed to Barbara or him and she just pointed to the bat symbol and said "this". I think to her the symbol is more important than the mantle itself (although she does understand the importance of mantles when it comes to Batgirl being something that was important to Barbara). That's my interpretation of the character, and I could def be wrong though.

Now with this being said, her reason for giving up Batgirl is kinda flimsy and wasn't explored very much. She's basically like, Steph needs it and then leaves. Which... there could have been a lot more there if the writers had acknowledged this as maybe some sort of an apology? Because she did make mistakes in her relationship with Steph before Steph died in war games and took Bruce's stance that Steph wasn't good enough to be a vigilante, and that hurt Steph and their relationship. Both arcs where Cass has quit the batfamily due to being disillusioned have not been well written and though it could make for an interesting premise I think it would need to be built up better beforehand, because of her intense dedication to the bat mythos. I think it would have been more impactful if Cass in reaction to Steph coming back tried to give Steph the mantle, but Steph didn't accept and Batgirl (2009) was actually Spoiler (2009) and had Steph as Spoiler - because that's the mantle she was the most disrespected in, so it would have been narratively satisfying to see her kicking ass as Spoiler and getting respect in that mantle from Damian/Barbara/Dick/Tim/Bruce (especially Bruce and Tim - both of whom have tried firing her from being Spoiler).

Now as for Cass herself, I can see her either staying as Batgirl or moving onto a new mantle such as Black Bat or The Bat. In either situation, if she stays in Gotham, I think the Dickbats era would have gone a bit differently because Cass strikes just as much fear into the hearts of common criminals as Bruce did. I think eventually it would be less necessary for Dick to go out as Batman so much and eventually he could start being Nightwing again in the meantime (still with Damian) because Cass would effectively be making appearances as "the big bad batman" without needing to be the "batman". I would have liked to eventually reach a place where having a "Batman" just isn't necessary for Gotham anymore 🙏

As for whether this should have happened or not, or which direction DC should have taken the character... well I don't know, I'll leave that up to whatever you find the most compelling

#asks #anon #cassandra cain #momo don't look #dickbats #me watching the argument in battle for the cowl and being like but actually none of you need to be batman #my unpopular opinion though is that Black Bat was a good name they just used it stupidly #it would be very gender for Cass to reject the notion of being batgirl or batman or batwoman

[peterxwade24]

Safety Found in Red Sleeves

Chapter 3

So, I know it’s been a long time waiting for this chapter but it’s finally done! It is 3500+ words of Thana’s overprotective friends and Jason being an overprotective dad/brother.

Before I get into the chapter, I’m going to go over a few words that might trip you up. All of the translations are courtesy of Google Translate so if I’m using a word wrong feel free to correct it.

Baba is Papa. Aleuma is Auntie. Kutlat Saghira is Little Nugget.

Thana stood in front of the class, carefully going over her note cards for her presentation.

Mlle. Bustier smiled at the class before clapping. “Okay, everyone. Let’s settle down and give Ms. Dupain-Cheng our full attention.”

Lila, ever the attention seeker, allowed crocodile tears to well up in her eyes. “Mlle. Bustier. She’s going to copy my presentation. It’s not fair.”

Thana glanced up at the other girl, her blue-grey eyes cold. “Well, Lila. If you’d paid attention, you would know that M. Dupain and Mme. Cheng are my adoptive parents. I’m not doing my presentation on Italy. I’m doing my presentation on Gotham City, New Jersey, USA.” She nodded towards Mlle. Bustier and waited for her to put the slides up on the board before turning to look at the class. “Gotham City, New Jersey, USA is called the ‘most crime-ridden city’ by the locals. The GCPD, or Gotham City Police Department, is exactly what it sounds like. The police department of Gotham City. Most locals, however, do not respect the officers of the GCPD because of the vigilantes that roam the streets. The main vigilante is Batman, he’s also the oldest, he dresses in all black with a cowl on his head that has bat ear like protrusions on the top. After him is Nightwing. Nightwing is very flexible and most Gothamites, people from Gotham, speculate that he is in fact the first Robin. He dresses in a suit of black with a blue bird across his chest. Red Robin, who is widely speculated to be the third Robin, works alongside the first two but also alongside Spoiler. He dresses in a red and black suit with a yellow robin head in the center of his chest atop a pair of crossed bandoliers. Spoiler, who most believe was both the fourth Robin and the second Batgirl, dresses in a suit that is primarily purple with black on her chest. Signal, a member of the team, dresses in a yellow and black suit with a white bat on his chest. It is believed he may be a meta, which is shorthand for metahuman which is what they call people with powers. There is also Black Bat, who most believe was the third Batgirl, who wears a mostly black suit with a yellow bat on her chest and yellow detailing on her arms and around her ribs. Black Bat’s suit covers most of her face from her nose to her chin. Most Gothamites believe that the first Batgirl is working hand in hand with the rest of the team behind the scenes after an attack by the Joker left her paralyzed from the waist down.”

The class looked on in amazement at the high quality photos that went along with each hero, but also in fear as Thana gave a thorough rundown of all the heroes and villains, called Rogues, before Thana’s face split into a smile.

“-The Sirens, a group of three antihero turned Rogues who don’t behave the same way that most of the other Rogues do. They have been seen helping Batman, when it fits them. The Sirens refers to Catwoman, Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn. Catwoman wears a black leather catsuit, which is self explanatory in her name. Poison Ivy wears varying shades of green and plant life while Harley Quinn, who was once affiliated with the Joker, most commonly wears a light pink crop top under a pair of gold overalls. The Riddler and Scarecrow, two Rogues who are relatively harmless since they partnered up, are rather distinctive. The Riddler, who wears a green three piece suit with matching hat and a purple tie and domino mask, leaves riddles and clues. Scarecrow, who wears a grey three piece suit with a canvas sack over his head, injects or sprays people with what he calls Fear Toxin but recently he has cut back on the injections and only soaks the paper The Riddler’s riddles are written on in his fear toxin. The Penguin wears a black three piece suit with a white dress shirt and is most commonly accompanied by twin girls who are most commonly seen wearing black wigs, green dresses and Kabuki masks. The Great Rodolfo, whom most speculate is related to the Joker, wears a cream or tan suit jacket, plaid pants, a matching plaid vest and a different patterned plaid necktie. Lastly, there’s Red Hood,” Thana’s hands fisted at her sides and pressed her lips into a thin line, who has recently been spotted fighting alongside various members of Batman’s team. Most Gothamites believe him to be the second Robin returned from the dead. Red Hood wears a red helmet, a dark brown leather jacket, black pants with black boots and a black utility belt, a black shirt with a red bat on his chest, and a red long sleeved shirt under his black shirt.”

---

Thana wrapped her arms around Kim’s waist and let out a shuddery breath. “My brother is Red Hood and he wants me to know it’s him.”

Chloé frowned but nodded. “We’ll help you see him again. However, we need to set up people here to fight the Akumas and someone to get, at least, Adrien to purify the butterfly.”

Alix smiled and turned towards Chloé. “I have some friends in Mme. Mendelieve’s class who can assist us while we’re gone.”

Adrien nodded and smiled. “You mean Bellamy, Brielle, Marc, and Alicia?”

Alix nodded. “Alicia is very sneaky and would be pretty good at using the Mouse Miraculous. Marc is very trustworthy and may or may not already be planning a storyline involving a hero who’s based on them. They would be a good temporary Horse Miraculous user. Bellamy is the Mom friend of their friend group and kind of reminds me of the dragons from mythology who hoard things, so I was thinking about him for the Dragon Miraculous. And Brielle is awkwardly good at keeping people organized, the only person better is Vivienne, so she could probably wield the Bee Miraculous.”

Adrien grinned goofily and slung an arm around Alix’s shoulders. “Those are great suggestions and unless anyone else has anyone better I think we’ll go with them.” Adrien, as the de facto leader of the team, looked to Thana for his longtime partner’s opinion.

Thana nodded from where she was hiding amidst Kim’s red sleeves. “Bellamy was nice to me when I arrived and Alicia always shadows her friends.”

Nino glanced at Chloé before tapping his headphones. He knew she would know what he meant. Nino glanced at their friend, could see how out of it she was becoming, and locked eyes with Chloé.

Chloé, always okay with coming off as argumentative and brash, looked at her oldest friend with a smile before falling back into her usual bratty persona. “Not to say this hasn’t been fun but, this hasn’t been fun. Kim, Nino and I are going to take Fragolina back to mine. Thanks for having us and thank your dad and Jalil for not interrupting us for me Alix. Kim. Nino.”

Kim stood up slowly, making sure to not disturb Thana as he did so. He shed his red hoodie and draped it around Thana’s shoulders before pulling Nino to his feet. Nino, who took his headphones off and placed them atop Thana’s head before selecting one of his playlists and stuffing his phone into one of Kim’s pockets.

The boys guided Thana out of the room, while Chloé smiled at the two other members of their group. “Fragolina’s going through some things at the moment, because she just realized her brother isn’t as dead as she thought he was and wants her to know that he’s looking for her.”

Adrien pursed his lips before glancing at Alix. “I didn’t know she had a brother, did you?”

Alix shrugged. “She didn’t really talk to many of us when she got here.”

---

Thana settled against the pillows on Chloé’s bed with Kim’s hoodie looking as though it was swallowing her whole and the hood pulled up over her head and covering Nino’s headphones with the lyrics to The Neighbourhood’s “R.I.P.2 My Youth” transitioning to Fall Out Boy’s “Stay Frosty Royal Milk Tea” sounding in her ears. Nino’s phone was no longer in Kim’s pocket but plugged in while Chloé was packing clothes for their trip to the States.

Nino and Kim were trading practice blows in an area far away from Chloé’s closet. Or they were before Nino began flipping away from all of Kim’s attacks.

Chloé glanced at the boys before shaking her head and turning to their resident Gothamite. Chloé let a smile cross her face before turning to the four Kwamis, who were all relaxing in a large dollhouse, and raising a brow. “What are you four doing?”

Plagg and Trixx wore matching grins while Stompp simply crossed their arms over their chest and Sass began humming a tune. “Relaxing, what does it look like we’re doing?” Plagg’s face broke out in a larger grin before he relaxed into Trixx’s side.

Chloé simply shook her head at the four Kwamis. “Why don’t you four go relax with Fragolina?”

-*-*-*

Jason smiled as he picked up his Little Nugget and settled him on his hip. “Hey Little Nugget. Did you sleep well?”

Damian nodded before burying his face in Jason’s shoulder. “Who are they?”

Jason adjusted his hold on Damian to allow for Damian to see the two girls. “You remember Lady Shiva, don’t you?” He waited for Damian to nod before he continued. “The girl with the dark hair is Lady Shiva’s daughter, Cassandra. The blonde haired girl is Stephanie Brown. Do you remember when Bruce proclaimed that he wouldn’t have his children hanging out with the children of bad people?” Damian pursed his lips in thought, something he picked up from Jason, before nodding again. “Lady Shiva is a bad guy, as is Stephanie’s father. But, by Bruce’s standards so are Talia and Ra’s.”

Cassandra bowed, low to the floor, in Damian’s presence. Cassandra would never forget her training, and all must bow before the Heir of the Demon’s Head.

Stephanie gave a two finger salute with a smile. “Sup?”

Dick and Tim emerged from the bedroom they crashed in the night before. “Jason? Does this place have coffee?”

Jason rolled his eyes. “Am I going to have a Tamaranean princess and a half-Tamaranean tyke breaking into the apartment you’re helping pay for?”

Dick’s eyes widened before he dove for the couch, where he left his phone the night before. He let out a victorious shout when he found his phone still had battery life left. He tapped out a text to Kory before turning back to his brothers. “No.”

---

Jason kept watching for danger out of the corners of his eyes, even though it was noon and he was in a supermarket, he couldn’t take any chance now that he had his Little Nugget and two sisters to watch out for. He saw a familiar man with short red hair leading a man with long brown hair, a familiar red haired woman and her companion, a familiar blonde haired woman, turn down aisles further down. “Stephanie Jeanelle Brown. Put down the toaster waffles. Take Cassandra and go find the boxed waffle mix, and while you’re there grab some pancake mix and syrup. Dick, Tim, go find some fruits that will keep for more than a week.”

The four teens nodded before going off to do what was asked of them. Damian, however, pouted from beside Jason. “Why do they get to go get things while I’m stuck with you?”

“Because, Little Nugget, I’m not afraid someone will steal them and make me reconsider how I feel about murder now that it’s not just me.” Jason smiled and ruffled Damian’s hair, which had grown out since Jason had first taken him. “I just want to keep you within eyesight because there are unsavoury characters who live in Gotham and darken the streets. I know technically I’m your brother but I feel like you are my child and I will do everything in my power to protect you, like I couldn’t protect your aunt my sister.”

Damian glanced up at Jason, a look of confusion on his face. “But I thought there were only three girls in the family in the right age range.”

Jason’s face melted into a faraway look and tightly pursed lips. “She was four when I met her, this tiny little slip of a child covered in bruises with dark red hair and blue grey eyes. I was following her, like most street kids would have, when she got the drop on me and then pinned me into the shadows beside a dumpster because her father was walking towards the alley we were in. I became Robin when I was twelve and she was nine, and then CPS and GCPD dragged her from one of our nests and took her away from here. I just found out about that at the press conference.” Jason’s blue green eyes kept sweeping the aisles looking for anyone who could pose a threat to his family. He saw, instead, Selina Kyle deciding between two different laundry detergents in one aisle and Oswald Cobblepot, accompanied by Pere and Gale, deciding between two different kinds of cereal.

Damian took in the information Jason gave him, knowing that Jason would tell him anything he asked even if it was painful to think about. “Who’s her father?”

“Jervis Tetch, aka Mad Hatter.” Jason’s voice was filled with so much venom he had to take a few deep breaths to calm himself down. “He’s a very bad man and if you ever hear anything about him, you run away. The Iceberg Lounge will provide you sanctuary if you can’t make it back to the apartment.”

Damian nodded as he allowed himself to be caged in by Jason’s arms so he was between Jason and the shopping cart.

Stephanie and Cass returned triumphantly with waffle mix, pancake mix and syrup. Followed by Dick and Tim a few minutes later.

Dick turned to Jason with a wry grin. “Is there a real reason we’re shopping at this store at this time of day? Or did you just want to surround yourself with other people who love your Pixie?”

Jason glanced up and made eye contact with Ed Nygma. Jason waved with a small smile on his face before Ed grabbed John’s arm and dragged him to the six siblings.

“Big Todd.” Ed called in lieu of greeting.

John nodded with a smile.

“Are you ever going to give that up?” Jason shook his head fondly. “Ed, John. This is Damian, my Little Nugget. Little Nugget, these are your aunt’s Uncles Ed and John.”

Ed nodded. “Have you tried to get in contact with her?”

John pressed a kiss to Ed’s cheek before looking at their present company. “Now might not be the best place to converse about this topic Love.”

Ed nodded before he let John drag him away. “We must converse again.”

---

Jason smiled as he tucked Damian into bed, before closing the bedroom door. He slumped back into the kitchen and with an exhausted sigh he set about finishing the dishes from the day’s meals. He paused to think about what Ed had said in the store. Would she even want to hear from him? Would she be receptive to talking to him or getting in contact with him?

Tim walked into the kitchen, intending to get a glass of water then go back to bed, when he stumbled upon Jason lost in thought. “Jason?” Tim stood next to Jason and gently pried a plate out of Jason’s hand. “Jason? Can you hear me?”

Jason shook himself out of his stupor and turned to the smaller boy. “Replacement? What are you doing up at this hour?”

Tim shrugged nonchalantly. “I was going to get a glass of water.”

Jason rolled his eyes and grabbed a glass out for Tim. “Sure.” Jason leaned against the counter and watched as Tim filled the glass with water.

Tim smiled at his older brother. “Were you thinking about what Nygma said?”

Jason ruffled Tim’s hair with a half smile on his face. “She was my only family for many years.” Jason turned back to the sink still full of dishes with a chuckle. “Go back to bed Replacement.”

Tim nodded. “Yeah, okay. I’ll, uh, see you tomorrow.”

Jason finished the dishes before dragging his still damp hands through his hair. He let out a tired sigh before turning around, to find discarded clothing covering his couch. He picked up a laundry basket and tossed all of the clothing into the basket. He glanced around the living room and nodded, satisfied with how clean it was. “We’ll have to clean up the apartment tomorrow, as long as Wayne doesn’t call us in.” Jason muttered as he put the laundry basket down on the counter and walked into his bedroom and curled around Damian.

---

Jason, with Damian settled on his left hip, stared at Bruce Wayne who was standing at the door to the apartment building. He raised a single eyebrow as he turned to have his right side facing Bruce. “Can I help you Mr. Wayne?”

“We need to talk.”

Jason snorted. “Then you can do it while walking. We’re meeting someone soon and we’re walking.”

Tim, Steph and Cass brushed past the trio. “Bye Jace! We’re gonna go hang with Kon, Cassie and Bart for a few hours!”

“Text when you get there and when you’re leaving! If we’re not home before you call to let me know you made it home safe!”

“Bye Jason!” Steph called while Cass waved.

Jason turned back to Bruce and raised his eyebrows. “Walk and talk Wayne.” Jason hitched Damian further up on his hip and started to push past Bruce, when Dick beat him to it.

“Call me if you need something or if one of the others needs something. I’ve gotta go home to Kor’i and Mar’i.”

“See you later Dickiebird.”

“See you Jaybird, see you Chick.”

Damian simply waved at Dick and rested his head on Jason’s shoulder. “Bye-bye.”

Jason watched Dick walk away with a smile on his face. He turned to Bruce and frowned.

“Jason-”

“Baba. Go.”

“In a minute Kutlat Saghira.” Jason pressed a kiss to Damian’s cheek. “Do you want to walk and talk or-”

“What did he just call you?” Bruce cut Jason off. “What did you just call him?”

“I called him Little Nugget, and last time I checked I didn’t have to tell you anything.” Jason shook his head and pushed past Bruce. “Are you ready to meet some friends Little Nugget?”

Damian nodded and smiled.

---

Jason pushed open the door to the Iceberg Lounge and smiled as the chilled air cooled the sweat on the back of his neck. “This is where we’re meeting some friends of your Aleuma.”

Damian smiled and patted Jason’s chest, his nonverbal way of saying he wants down.

“Don’t run off, stick close. Not everyone in here is friends with your Aleuma.”

Damian nodded before the two men from the supermarket approached them.

“Jason.” the man with brown hair smiled as he extended his hand to Jason.

“Mr. Crane. Have you been keeping your nose out of trouble?”

John laughed and nodded. “Of course, Ed keeps me in line.”

Ed laughed and shook his head. “Someone has to.”

The red haired woman and her blonde haired companion strolled into the area with matching smiles on their faces.

“Sundew.” The red haired woman called.

“Little bird.” Her blonde companion chirped.

Jason waved. “Damian, the red haired lady is Doctor Pamela Isley and her lovely companion is Doctor Harleen Quinzel. Pam, Harley, this is Damian al Ghul-Wayne. However, he’s more my son than Wayne’s at this point.”

Pam and Harley waved at Damian before offering him smiles.

“Oswald!” Jason called to a portly man across the lounge.

The man, followed by two women dressed in green long sleeved dresses and Kabuki masks, walked over to Jason with a smile on his face. “Todd. It’s good to see you.”

“You too old man.” Jason bowed to the two women. “Pere. Gale.”

The women bowed back.

“Damian, this is Oswald Cobblepot, your Aleuma liked him for some reason and he gave us shelter on more than a few nights.”

Oswald Cobblepot held out a hand to Damian with a smile on his face. “Hello there Damian.”

“Hello.” Damian smiled and stood taller. “Baba. I’m taller.”

Jason snorted. “I see that Little Nugget.” Jason glanced over his shoulder when he heard the door move.

“Hey, Ozzy? You heard from-” Jerome stopped talking before his face split in a smile. “Hoodie! You’re back!”

“Hey Rome.” Jason waved. “Come meet Damian.”

Damian tilted his head in a confused puppy manner before the red haired man appeared from behind Jason. “Is he?”

Jerome extended a hand to Damian with a more mild grin on his face. “Hi. I’m Jerome Valeska, although most of these people know me better as The Great Rodolfo. You must be Damian Todd.”

Damian preened for a moment before coming back to the moment. “Technically, Baba says my name’s still Damian al Ghul-Wayne but I like Damian Todd.”

Taglist

@southamericangothamite @maribat-is-lifeblood @mystery-5-5 @our-preciousss @mochegato @chocolatecatstheron @throneoffirebreathingbitchqueen @2confused-2doanything @wannajointhecrabcult @dreamykitty25 @tomanyfandomsonmymind @moonlightstar64 @justafanwarrior @mialuvscats @pheony1882 @pepelachanel @moongoddesskiana @abrx2002 @ladybug-182 @greatcatblaze @thatonecroc @vixen-uchiha @superbwhispersconnoisseur @lilkymilky

After this, there will be a short titled “Pixie?!” featuring Jason fresh from the grave and the appearance of Talia al Ghul using his panicked state against him.

#maribat #ml crossover #mlb crossover #ml x dc #mlb x dc #gothamite!Marinette #platonic sibling jasonette #Safety Found in Red Sleeves #sfirs

[thattimdrakeguy]

Why, uh, do ppl hate Tim so much? I just fell down a hole of anti tim and I can’t find a..valid reason for the hate besides that fact tht hes rich and white?

From my experience it’s one of those things where Tim has antagonistic relationships with other Bat-Family members like Damian, Jason, and even partially Steph. So they just crap on Tim, because it’ll make their favs look better.

Like that’s genuinely been the main reason I see, and they use the fact he’s rich and white to make it seem like it’s a social justice thing, even though in the end it really isn’t.

I sort of rant for the rest of the post going in more detail, and mentioning things I’ve been shown, and why I think a lot of it is dumb, but basically it’s just people being petty and insecure, and being unable to handle things in any other way than childishly.

For some Jason fans I’ve seen them talk about how much they hate Tim because they replaced the poor kid with a rich kid, but I’m really freaking poor myself. Obviously I’m not homeless, but there was a time in my life where I slept on the floor, and later on after I did have a bed my bed room had a hole in the floor. But, they’re just looking too deep into stuff just to find a problem anywhere they can.

I’ve also seen some say Tim bullied his way into being Robin after the poor kid died. When 1) that isn’t even an accurate description of what happened and 2) they’re obviously just trying to word it the worst way possible, because they’re pretty freaking childish.

Damian fans try to make Tim and his fans out to be racist cause Tim doesn’t like Damian, when that’s actually because Damian got so close to killing Tim I’m pretty sure Tim actually did nearly die from bleeding out. I think also because Tim once said “what about his biology” when referring to Damian, when Tim wasn’t referring to his race, he was referring to how he’s related to criminals and Damian literally had his biology messed with to make him a fierce warrior and a good body for Ra’s.

Steph fans also try to make Tim and his fans out to be sexist. But their reasoning is really weak, because it’s literally just boiled down to Tim being mean to Steph sometimes, but it’s not like that’s cause of her gender for that to make sense. It’s because in context she is an untrained citizens constantly putting herself and potentially others in-danger without any training to feel safe with her constantly being out there. Plus she flirted with him so much to the point it made him uncomfortable and fit the literal definition of sexual harassment.

And they always do that thing where they gotta make their favs sound better, and Tim sound worse. Which admittedly Tim fans do the same thing, but I’m not really here to pick a side. I’m just here pointing out how freaking annoying fandoms can be, because ultimately I don’t really care what fandom does it. At the moment though I can confidently say, that other fandoms are doing it a lot more than Tim ones lately, because I’m in the Tim tags at least twice a day most days and I’ve barely seen it lately.

It’s kind of a thing to project a lot of stuff on the Tim fandom for the same faux-social-justice kind of jargon they try to do. When you see it from a view like mine, where I’m not on any side of any fandom, even if I am a Tim fan (cause I never really been into deep fandom stuff), it just comes off as hypocritical frankly.

(If you want to hear some dumb things some Tim fans do to even it up, they make him the most frail, emo, emotionally unstable kid ever sometimes. They can focus way too much on making him sympathetic (but even then, literally every fandom does that, but the Tim fandom always does it in a very notable depressing way). They also focus so much on coffee and practically act like he’s all pilled up on anti-depressants he just acts weird that it just seems obsessive and very out of character.)

Like as some examples they’ll bring up how Tim doesn’t trust Damian and put him on a list of potential threats. But Damian literally nearly caused Tim’s death, nearly caused it again in the same story, and at the end it’s shown that Damian isn’t on there because Tim considers him a villain, it’s because he has potential to be dangerous. Wonder Woman and Red Tornado are also on the same list.

To me, I just look at that story as ridiculous, because Damian isn’t dumb, and Tim literally spoke against contingency plan stuff before. Damian’s going to need more than to be on a vague list as a potential threat, especially when he’s visibly on the hero side of it. Damian’s not that thinned skin. He’s got a temper, and obviously really doesn’t like Tim, but even when he felt Tim was insulting him or being patronizing to him before he didn’t try to kill him then immediately. He tried to kill him because he thought that’s what he was supposed to do to earn his place beside his father.

The story’s just dumb in-general.

And then they pull out the New 52 story where Tim is just being a dick to Damian for no good reason, but it’s the same kind of thing. Tim was never that much of a dick without being provoked. The only time I think Tim started a fight was in Red Robin where he was on pills that messed with his mental state, and again had everyone out of character regardless. Because 1) Dick wouldn’t just give away Robin from Tim, because he knows better than that. 2) Damian acts like he’s happy his dad is dead and just acts like a generic child and not even like Damian. And 3) I legitimately can’t see Tim just hitting a kid, even Damian, unless a fight already breaks out.

For Steph fans they point out how Tim is passive aggressive to her, constantly doesn’t want her to be Spoiler, and yada yada. Probably because her Batgirl run portrayed that as being mentally scarring to Steph. Even though one of the panels they chose of Tim being upset and not wanting her to be Spoiler, was after Steph caused Tim to be disfigured and on the pills that messed with his mental state to begin with. Which inadvertedly just makes her look self-centered and narcissistic. But again, I don’t even consider that in-character, because 1) I don’t buy that Steph would listen to Batman especially when it puts Tim in danger, because she never gave a crap about what Batman said till they needed to villainize her before she died. 2) Steph can be arrogant and self-centered, she has it in her, but she wouldn’t ever be that self-centered, to the point she just looks narcissistic. 3) I’m pretty sure at the actual time it happened, Steph is shown being aware she messed up. 4) Steph never cared what others thought. She trespassed on other people’s property to party. She’s a very confident person the majority of the time. Batman tells her to knock it off, she might as well flip him the bird because she just finds him more annoying than anything else. It’s literally in her origin that she doesn’t even like Batman.

There’s also the context for in the 90s when Tim first started doing it. Steph was portrayed as a reckless citizen that could potentially get herself and others into harm because she didn’t know what she was doing, and didn’t have the highest morals. That’s not anything any of the bats would encourage. If Tim was extra passive aggressive, he’s a literal thirteen to fifteen year old boy during that time, no duh he’s going to be immature. That still isn’t a sexism thing. Steph may had saved him twice, but that wasn’t portrayed even in-story as a sign she can handle it like a pro. It was always portrayed as “thank goodness she was with Tim at that time, and knew where he was to save him”. Not to say she was completely unskilled, because I’m not taking that far, but just speaking in generalizations.

She was originally added into Robin to be a very specific foil to Tim, and be a general pain in his side. That was their dynamic. If that makes it seem weird that they eventually had them date then I agree.

And at the same time for both of their characters they also ignore what the character they’re trying to defend has done, because Damian literally nearly killed Tim. They act like Tim should just get over it, because Damian was a kid in a cult, but that explains why Damian did it, it doesn’t excuse it. When something like that happens the person who was nearly killed is probably going to be traumatized (rather or not Tim was can be argued, I’m not saying he was or wasn’t), and not ever trust the person. Like that is the natural and most accurate response for it.

It’s just villainizing for the sake of being petty.

With Steph they ignore the fact she essentially sexually harassed Tim all the time and straight up emotionally abused him for an arc. Which her fans hate to hear, but that is stuff that happened. It was written by her creator. I don’t really care if Tim took her costume away or kissed her first, because I’m aware, and I know the contexts, and it doesn’t take away from what she’s done, because that’s not how that works. They also ignore she caused Tim to be disfigured by saying she was just doing what Batman said. But at that point she was also an adult, and would know better.

Like Steph can be reckless, that’s part of her character, but she isn’t an idiot.

In the end, from what all I’ve seen, it’s literally just fandom pettiness. There’s a lot of fans out there that act childish, treat people like idiots, blatantly lie about things, or exaggerate stuff.

It’s all very dumb, but I find it hard to take serious, because if they can’t acknowledge what their own favs have actually done, it just comes across like they genuinely don’t like the character and can’t admit it. They prefer to stay in their candy land so they gaslit others instead.

For me it’s as easy as paying attention to the story, seeing the contexts, and a lot of the time it’s not even a thing that’s in-character for any of the characters involved, or at least the very least not nearly as serious as they treat it.

Especially for around the past 15 or more years or so. By then the care in making everything is crafted and makes sense went down the drain so it’s often that a story doesn’t even make sense to begin with.

They think fandom is about making everyone else look bad apparently, or at least they sure act like it.

Like it’s comics. I think the fandom in-general that gets so worked up over stuff needs to relax, deattach yourself to look at it from the grander view, and calm down over it. Because things aren’t always what they seem. People try to convince themselves of so much stuff, or bully others for so much stuff, and it’s all so petty and unhealthy.

My personal philosophy in the fandom to avoid any toxic behavior is to just keep it real. I don’t lie to myself, I give everything the same standard, I definitely don’t bully or gaslit anyone, I don’t treat my favorite like they’re a real dang person either, and I look at it all like how it is, fiction.

It’s the reason why I get upset at writing and not fictional characters. I don’t ultimately care when a character does a bad thing, unless it’s out of character. To me the only thing I get upset with is the writing, because it’s the only thing that’s real.

Don’t be obsessed, and keep the peace essentially.

[autisticcassandracain]

I don't follow you yet but I saw you reblogged the ask me anything post. Top 5 first Batfam members, then DC chars?

Asdghjk don't worry you don't have to follow me, I appreciate the ask either way!

Top 5 Batfam Members:

Cassandra Cain: I adore Cass with my whole heart. I think her introduction is one of the strongest character introductions I have ever read, and her Batgirl solo was by and large amazing. In particular, I love how it developed her perfectionist complex and low self worth, and how it showcased her sense of humor. Her character is complex and compelling and I love her.

Damian Wayne: Little shit (affectionate). It's a shame he almost never gets written well, because he might've had a serious chance at dethroning Cass. As it stands, I love him when he's written well, and can often enjoy him even when he isn't. His character arc of coming to question his upbringing and actively working to redeem himself and learn compassion is extremely compelling, and I adore the fact that he's a loudmouth arrogant little brat. Half of R:SOB lives in my head rent free. Actually tied with Duke but for the sake of this list he's two and Duke's three.

Duke Thomas: he has SO MUCH potential!! Bc he's a newer character his characterization has been pretty consistent with no major duds imo, which is nice for a change, but more importantly than that, he feels unique and compelling. I DESPERATELY hope DC starts actually exploring the concept of a daytime vigilante in Gotham and Duke's light powers, because both have SO MUCH potential. I really love his daredevil tendencies, natural smarts, and connection to the concepts of Gotham vigilantes and villains (long explenation necessary and im on mobile) as well!

Stephanie Brown: every day I kick myself for not getting off my ass and reading through the reading lists I have saved for her. I've liked her in everything I've read, from her more cynical Spoiler to her hopeful Batgirl, and I enjoy her backstory and personality a lot. She deserved better than to get fucked over by everything and everyone including the writers.

Dick Grayson: I tend to like Dick when I read him, though I admit to enjoying him the most when he's written as a flawed character with a tendency to push people away and lash out in times of stress than the emotional support batfam member. I like his style of heroing (when written as both flippity and sociable but calculating and hypercompetent), and think his sense of humor is fun. that said it's hard for me to get truly invested in him because, like most characters who've been around for very long, his characterization is highly dependent on the writer, and his history so vast it's nearly impossible to get through.

Top 5 DC Characters in general:

Koriand'r: Listen. She's the actual love of my lide. I ADORE her. The simple concept of 'alien from a planet that doesn't censor emotions' done beautifully, resulting in a truly unique character whose love and hate are deep and intrinsically intertwined. I love her stubborn love of life even in the face of all the horrible things she's experienced just as much as I love the hatred born out of them. Queen of my heart.

Cassandra Cain/Damian Wayne/Duke Thomas: tying them to cheat this list a little, but Cass is #2 and Damuan/Duke a shared #3, for reasons listed above.

Bette Kane: I just think she's Neat! I have a soft spot for both minor character and female characters fucked over by writers, and Bette hits both. I think the fact that she's an attention-seeking B-list hero mostly in it for the fun is a fantastic breath of fresh air, and I really appreciate it especially when she's also written as confident, competent, snarky, smart, kinda manipulative, and loyal to her friends.

Jaime Reyes: His 06 solo and particularly the Reach arc is a masterpiece. Admittedly, I haven't read terribly much of him outside that, but I adore the way it develops him and sets his character. He's such a staunchely heroic and kind individual, but is still vety much a teenager who gets angry, petty, and frustrated. His powers are cool as hell and his relationship to Khaji-Da stellar. I love how they had him learn strategy and rely on smarts, not because he's underpowered, but BECAUSE not all problems can be solved with power, especially not non-lethal power. Also the fact that his family knows his identity makes for brilliant and unique interactions and I hate all versions of him that remove it.

Diana of Themyscira: she has all the problems with popular characters that have been around for forever, and it does make it hard for me to feel like I truly know her or get invested with her, but I just ADORE her character as a concept, so I actually enjoy seeing different takes on her! I'm a greek mythology nerd and adore the world of Themyscira and Diana in general, her lasso of truth is a fantastically interesting weapon, and I think her base personality traits of very compassionate, truthful, yet a true warrior are very compelling.

#My posts #Asks

[fearfulkittenwrites]

“You know what? Fuck you.” and “Fuck you batman”

Word count: 2070

Warnings: Physical Abuse, pretty much child abuse (but lightly, i promise), vomiting

Notes: Okay, so this work needs some rather long notes, I think. If you don't want to read this, you can totaly skip it though. This is... pretty much the only angst thing I ever wrote that turned out actually good. And if the ending seems kind of... unfinished, in a sense, it's because it kind of is. Most of it was written when I was really down, and I can't give it a good ending. If anyone has any clue on how to make it better than this, by all means, go ahead. I'd love for this to have a happy ending instead of this. Also, I wrote this as some sort of catharsis for me? Most of my writing has some very personal element, but this is one of those pieces that if I handed my therapist, she'd laught at how obviously I'm projecting, so if anyone seems a little bit poorly characterized, that's probably why. Aaaaand this was written waaaay before I recieved my bingo card. But one of the two slots was filled by it, and the other fit so very nicely, that it pushed me to post it. Lastly, thank you for clicking this! And final warning to my emetophobic friends to walk away from this one. Good reading, and stay safe out there, it's a crazy world.

It was a stupid argument. They were yelling their faces off in the batcave, angry, nearly foaming at the mouth, over some serial killer. (It might seem like that’s a big deal, but c’mon, this is Gotham we’re talking about) It’s not like it had never happened before; both men were strong-willed, stubborn and hot-headed, they were bound to argue all the time.

“I’ve had enough!” Batman shouted “You’re staying out of this!”

“Are you insane?!” Nightwing shot back “You’re so deep into your own empty hopes you’re gonna get everyone killed!”

“I know what I’m doing Nightwing! And you’re staying on the ground tonight!” He pointed at the other’s face.

“You seriously think that I’ll just stay put, like a good little dog?!” He seemed incredibly offended. The volume of the conversation kept getting louder.

“You are gonna do as I say.” Now the man’s voice was lower. Dangerously so.

“No! I don’t give a damn about your skewed view of this city, and if you want to walk straight into a compromising position because of it, fine, go ahead. But if I let you go out there with them, following this stupid mindset, I’ll never forgive myself.”

“You think they can’t protect themselves?” He said, before shouting “You think I haven’t taught them well enough?!”

“I think you can’t protect them from what you refuse to see!” Nightwing shouted back. And then it happened.

The arguments were regular, sure. But this? This was unexpected, to say the least.

Batman slapped Nightwing across the face.

Except... That isn’t what happened. Or at least, it wasn’t all that happened.

It’s not as simple as that.

No, those weren’t simply two masked heroes getting caught in an argument that had gone physical. It wasn’t just Batman hitting Nightwing.

That was Bruce hitting Dick.

The silence that fell over everyone’s ears was deafening. No one in that cave even dared to breath, everyone waiting for the other’s retaliation. A retaliation that never came. Dick stared at the floor in the direction his face had been forced towards, breathing heavily. No, not heavily. He let out shaky breaths, although Damian was certain he was the only one able to tell the difference.

Nightwing then shook his head slightly, still looking at the ground, smiled sadly and let out a little huff that resembled a laugh. He left, walking past all of the other masked heroes, his brothers, with his eyes fixated on the ground. Damian never though he’d see Dick Grayson, the personification of confidence, staring at the ground. Now Bruce had a room of vigilantes staring at him in a way none of them ever did before. Even Red Hood seemed horrified. Robin scowled at him, before leaving to chase his brother.

“You know what? Fuck you.” Red Hood let out, before leaving the cave too, headed for the city “Don’t...” He stopped, gun in hand, pointing it up at the sky as he spoke “Don’t contact me. Just... Fuck you, Batman. And fuck you, Bruce.”

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m with him.” Red Robin said “I’ll check on the Titans. Good luck with the case.” He jumped out into the night as well.

Bruce turned to Steph, slightly.

“No.” She said turning to Cass “Look, you wanna stay, that’s your decision, but I can’t.”

“I’m not staying.” Cass stated, pulling her own cowl on.

His comm was static. Oracle had left too.

Bruce breathed in. He pulled out the cowl. Alfred stared at him from the door for a minute, and left before being noticed, heading for the kitchen.

...

Jason was sitting on a rooftop, looking down, when Red Robin landed next to him.

“You should go check on him.”

“Don’t you think he’d rather be alone?” He asked, looking up “Also, Gotham needs our patrols.”

“To the second point, sure, but me, Spoiler and Batgirl can cover the city for tonight, and we don’t know for sure that Batman’s not coming. To the first, maybe.” He sighed “But Damian went after him. He’s probably talking to Dick as we speak, and that’s not exactly a bad thing, but Dick won’t be able to drive him away, and we both know that tonight it’s gonna get ugly. Real ugly.” Red Hood turned to look at him, wondering what was his point “Damian looks up to him. He’s a parental figure, whether they like it or not. He shouldn’t have to see Dick like that, he won’t have the proper tools to handle it. You on the other hand...” Jason sighed too.

“Yeah, I see what you mean.” He nodded “I can handle it.” The Red Hood slowly stood up “By the way, you see him tonight, put that bo staff to good use and shove it up his ass. Then tell him I send my regards.”

...

Dick stormed into his room, slamming his door shut and hurling his mask against the wall. He pulled off the top of his costume, but that was all he managed to do before he broke down sobbing, sitting on his bed, hugging himself. He had taken many hits in his life. He handled all of them. This one... He didn’t know how to handle it, didn’t know where to start. His cheek still burned. It was probably red, maybe there would be a perfect mark of his palm and fingers on it.

He screamed, rubbing his face harshly in a fit of rage. He woud have scratched the skin off his arms if he didn’t keep his nails so short, but he had to settle for rubbing instead, fingertips digging into the flesh without breaking it. It went on for a minute, before he managed to calm down.

“I know you’re there.” He said trying to keep some composure “Leave.”

“It’s not him.” Damian answered from behind the door.

“I know. Leave.” Dick heard a ‘-tt-.’, followed by the sound of his door opening. He had his back turned to it.

“No.” He answered, closing it behind him.

“I don’t wanna talk about it.” Dick turned to face the wall, keeping his back to Damian.

“Then don’t.” He replied, sitting on the floor, infront of him “I’m here to make sure you won’t do anything stupid.” Dick knew that was his way of saying ‘I care about you’. He did a piss poor job at showing affection, but no one could blame him.

Damian slowly lifted a hesitant hand, setting it on the other’s shin, stroking his leg. Dick offered a weak smile, looking down; once again, this was a code. It was Damian saying ‘I know I don’t like hugs, but if you need them right now, it’s okay’. The boy looked down at his boots and helped him out of them, watching as Dick instantly curled in on himself once he was barefoot, pulling his legs to his chest, hiding his face between his knees. Damian sat down next to him, placing a hand on his back as he cried once more.

“It’s just...” He tried “I never thought...”

“I know. None of us did.”

Dick felt sick. He wanted to thow up. Maybe he would throw up, if he kept sobbing like that. Damian rubbed circles on his bare skin, trying to calm him down, to no avail. There was a knock on the door.

“Hey, Bird Brain.” Jason’s voice came from it, soft and wary “Can you open the door for me?”

Damian looked at his brother, who nodded. The boy got up and slowly cracked open the door, already scowling at Jason, who raised an eyebrow but kept quiet.

“Hey,” He kneeled in front of Dick “Calm down okay? I’m sure Alfred is knocking some sense into him as we speak.” Dick nodded weakly, and Jason pushed some strands of hair away from his forehead.

There was another knock on the door. This time Bruce’s voice was heard.

“Dick, I...”

“Leave.” He replied, voice cracking.

“I’m sorry, I...”

“Leave!” He yelled. They heard footsteps, walking away from the room. He turned to Damian “Dames, you should go too.”

“I’m not going anywhere.” He crossed his arms.

“Seriously, thank you. But... I just... Jason’s here and... I need to cry. Really cry and I don’t think I should put you through that.” Damian stared at him, unsure on what to do.

“It’s okay Damian. I got him.” Jason reassured. It wasn’t worth much for the kid, but he thought it best to give his brothers some space, so he walked out of the room.

Dick broke down again, and Jason held him through it. He held his brother for almost fifteen minutes. He knew there was nothing he could say that would make any of this better, so he kept his mouth shut, listening when he eventually gathered the strenght to speak.

“I can’t... Why did he do this? I’m- I was worried. I just wanted to protect you.” He cried against the other’s shoulder.

“I know Dickie.” Jason stroked his hair.

“He was just so – so blind. He’d walk you straight into the crossed fire, and-and... Oh God.” He pulled himself away from Jason and tried to run into the bathroom, covering his mouth, but there was no time. He threw up on the floor, and the only reason he didn’t fall face first into it was Jason’s fast thinking, wrapping his arms around the older man’s waist “Fuck.” He murmured, spitting on the ground “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay Dick. It happens. I’ll get Alfred.” He said, setting him on the bed.

“No, it’s fine, I can clean it...”

“Don’t be stupid Dickie,” He handed him some tissues “Look at your state. It’s okay, he can handle it just fine.” He shot out of the door, dashing through the stairs, finding the butler in the kitchen, making some kind of chicken soup “Dick puked.” He stated, going for a glass and filling it with water.

“Oh dear.” Alfred exclaimed, lowering the heat on the stove. He turned around throwing his apron on the marble balcony and grabbing cleaning supplies. Both of them ran to his room; and after all these years, Jason still wasn’t used to the idea that Alfred could run through the manor just as fast as him. He slowly opened the door “Master Dick?”

“I’m sorry Alfred.” He murmured from the bed.

“It’s quite alright, my boy.” He said, kneeling down to clean up “It’s not your fault.” Jason handed the man a water glass.

“Thanks.” Dick whispered “I feel awful for putting you two through this.”

“Nonsense, master Dick.” Alfred said from the floor “My job is taking care of this family.”

“Besides,” Jason sat down on the bed “You’d do the same. You have done the same.” He grabbed his bare foot, squeezing it before letting go. Alfred soon left, as quickly and discreetly as he came “C’mon,” Jason said, standing up “Let’s brush those teeth.”

“Yeah.” Dick let himself be led out of bed, going into his bathroom. His brother stood next to the sink, leaning against the wall.

Jason followed him back into the room, where he put on his pajamas but didn’t slip into bed.

“I don’t really want to sleep yet,” Dick said “Maybe I should go patrolling with you.”

“Dick, no offense, but you are the king of bad ideas.” Jason responded “And I’m not going on patrol, Replacement said they’d cover the city for tonight.”

“Okay then.”

“Are you hungry?” Jason asked “Alfred was cooking, maybe we can have some.”

“Yeah, let’s go pester him.” Dick answer, smile lacking the usual life.

The next morning, Dick didn’t go down for breakfast. Bruce tried finding him in the manor, but none of it’s inhabitants and usual visitors were anywhere to be seen. Even Duke, who wasn’t even in the cave when it happened, seemed to be avoiding him, not answering his calls. He decided to leave a letter for his son, but when he sat down in front of the paper, he didn’t know what to write. He was overwhelmed with guilt, and knew that he had crossed a line he couldn’t come back from, not entirely.

He had been so worried about deaths and killings as Batman, that he neglected the lines he shouldn’t cross as Bruce Wayne. And now that he crossed one of those, he had no clue on what to do about it.

#batman bingo 2020 #batman #dc #dcu #dc comics #batfam #batfamily #dick grayson #bruce wayne #damian wayne #jason todd #stephanie brow #cassandra cain #alfred pennyworth #duke thomas #oracle #nightwing #red hood #red robin #spoiler #batgirl #crying #fighting #angst #dick grayson & damian wayne #dick & damian #dick grayson & jason todd #dick & jason #vomiting #puke

[bexslittleworld]

i kinda find it ironic how most of the batfam flourish outside of the bat family. Dick thrives on the titans team (whether you ship dickory or not he still is at his best when working with them). Jason works so well with the outlaws. Babs, as well as Helena, are at their best on the birds of prey. tim is the most successful with young justice, Steph does pretty well with them too. Duke (I’m so proud of my boy) is doing amazing on the outsiders 2 (so is Cass, but she thrives anywhere). If it wasn’t for shitty writers i’m sure Damian would’ve been amazing with the teen titans, he also worked really well with Jon as the super sons. And when Bette worked with titans west she kicked ass. Hell, even Selina does better without the bat constantly with her (i.e the Gotham Sirens) And the characters that work best with the batfam are all ‘minor’ (meaning they don’t get enough attention because the writers suck) members of the batfam, like Luke, Kate, Harper, Jean-Paul (though he worked really well with the outsiders too), and Julia (bring her back fucking cowards). Like seriously, the batfam doesn’t need to stay in one little bubble. Most of them thrive on other teams and that’s okay, bat writers need to stop being so damn possessive of characters (some of which were created when the member left the batfam, i.e nightwing) and let those characters work with other people. 

and now my original list of tags that i couldn’t include becuase tumblr is a meanine,

#batfam  #batman #robin #dick grayson #huntress #helena bertinelli #batgirl #barabra gordon #jason todd #jaybird #red hood #tim drake #red robin #yum #ahhhhhhh #stephine brown #spoiler #duke thomas #the signal #lark #that name was so cute #hark a lark flying in a park #cassandra cain #black bat #orphan #this chick has so many names #damian wayne #bette kane #flamebird #hawkfire #aka the og #selina kyle #catwoman #luke fox #my boy here deserves more than to be used a babs rebound guy #batwing #he do be smart tho #kate kane #batwoman #aka the gay cousin™ #bruce is the dumbass #bette is the party girl #but thats another post  #harper row #aka my best girl #i definitely didnt get a side shave because of her #it was also because of venus mcflytrap from monster high #jean-paul valley #azrael #julia pennyworth #penny-two #the best british babe #titans #aka the og superhero kids team but we arent kids anymore and none of us are straight #outlaws #aka i made my own team because daddy sucks and i miss roy #aka i stole dicks ex #aka now shes gone but we have a different red head who likes beating people up #young justice #aka my brothers got teams now i want one #aka punk kon is back #teen titans #aka our writers are racist and suck #aka my brothers did this now i must but im poorly written #aka we have some amazing characters but our writers suck #birds of prey #aka babs was tired of sitting on her ass doing nothing #aka girls are better than boys #except our man hank #we love you hank #outsiders #aka bats made this team cause he could #super sons #aka an assassin with no filter and a super strong country boy #gotham sirens #aka two bisexuals and a lesbian who love to fuck with batman #and make is job harder #and one bisexual wants to fuck him and make him harder #the lesbian hates this and men but stays cause the other bisexual asked her to 

#batfam #batman #robin #dick grayson #huntress #helena bertinelli #batgirl #barabra gordon #jason todd #red hood #tim drake #red robin #stephine brown #spolier #duke thomas #the signal #cassandra cain #black bat #orphan #damian wayne #bette kane #flamebird #selina kyle #catwoman #titans #outlaws #young justice #teen titans #birds of prey #outsiders

[c-e-gold]

In light of recent events involving Damian in a certain DC Comic book, I have decided to revisit my proposed line up for a Teen Titans book that I would love to read. It’s going to be similar to the one I did before, but I’m going to try to go more in depth about it. If there’s any changes or additions you would make, please let me know. My knowledge on DC is limited. Especially now since I havent read them in awhile due to how annoyed they’ve made me lately. 

Enjoy!

Core Team

Damian Wayne / Robin

Maya Ducard / Nobody

Suren Daga (He’s been staying at Carrie Kelly’s place since he’s had nowhere else to go)

Jon Kent / Super Boy

Kathy Branden / Beacon

This is the core team at the start of their tenure together. There really isn’t any designated leader among them. Instead, they opt for a rotating system where a leader is chosen for specific missions. For example, Maya be more suitable to lead a stealth mission than Superboy. 

I know he would get brought up, by Colin isn’t included because I know nothing about him and haven’t read any of the stories he’s been in. I recognized that he’s popular among some of the fans, but I wanted this list to be as true to me as possible.

Team Mother

Talia Al Ghul

In this iteration, everything about her that was written by Grant Morrison is wholly ignored. Never happened. Talia, while not as involved in Damian’s life as she would like to be due to her work, maintains a healthy relationship with her son. She takes on the responsibility of training the team in combat, language, espionage, tactics, and assassination. She also does the mission briefings for them. 

For those who are familiar with the Young Justice cartoon, she’s pretty much Batman. the events of R:SoB still happens, so her relationship with Maya and Suren are still rocky at best. Maya goes out of her way to annoy her and Suren just doesn’t like her. But the course of the story will have moments where, while not being a fan of eachother, Talia would definitely go out of her way to protect Suren and Maya and they would do the same for her. Perhaps their relationship develops from antagonistic to just playful ribbing.

Den Brother

Duke Thomas

Duke takes on Talia’s responsibilities while she’s not around due to her job and/or missions. His tasks normally include being the team’s “therapist”. Talia recruited him for this because she correctly figured that the team would be more likely to warm up to him since he’s closer to them in age. It also helps that he’s a bit better when it comes to understanding emotional children. While not being licensed, he listens to their problems and help work them threw it. On occasion he will tag along on missions with them.

Future additions to the team

Mia “Maps” Mizoguchi and Olive Silverlock

(Anyone else remember in Robin War where Damian left supplies for the Gotham Academy kids and nothing came of it? I do.)

Maps- who is by far the most excited about the prospect of joining the team- she begins early training at the insistence of Damian, much to Talia’s chagrin. Talia tries to discourage her threw tough conditioning, but Maps perservere, showing her heart and that her desire to help people isn’t just surface level. Eventually she does join the team part-time.

Olive partakes in the practice concerning the usage of metahuman abilities in order to master her pyrokinesis. Duke and Kathy helps her navigate her training and slowly teaches her to be able to call upon her abilities without losing herself to the flames. I’m on the fence about having Olive join the team, so I’m open to suggestions on that front. I’m leaning more towards no, though.

Detective Chimp

Why not? He’s not really doing anything in the comics that is worthwhile. And I think his presence would add an air of brevity. He would be in charge of teaching the team proper investigative tactics. He even has a few tips and tricks up his sleeve that even the most seasoned detective wouldn’t be privy to.

Also I want to see him and Maps interact. Not to mention the potential for a fun side adventure with Detective Chimp and all of the pets teaming up.

Temp Join/Team-Ups

Batfamily

Not having the rest of the Batfamily interact with this team would be a crime in of itself. Nightwing, Red Hood, Red Robin, Orphan, Batgirl, Spoiler, Blue Bird, Batwoman, Batwing, and Alfred. I want to see all of them interact with the team. It doesn’t even have to be serious! Maybe Stephanie shows up with Cass and kicks all of the boys out and has a girls night with the female team. Or Jason regales the team with totally not made up stories about all of the times he saved Damian and all the favors that he owes him. 

Harley Quinn

I don’t know exactly the circumstances that would make this work, but I think this would be a cool and fun crossover. They would just kinda run into each other and decide, for the sake of the mission, to work together to get the job done. 

Justice League

I mean, they HAVE to have their “Now do you take us seriously” moment. It doesn’t have to be a situation where the League is brainwashed or anything. Maybe it’s just a test. Or a friendly competiton. Or an excuse to get Wonder Woman and Maya to interact and have a proper passing of the touch and make the Tiny Trinity a for sure thing.

Robzarro and Boyzarro

They obviously like hanging out with Jon, Kathy, and Maya. So them popping up every now and then should be a given. Also I kinda wanna see how Damian and Talia reacts to Robzarro. There is so much comedy potential there.

Base of operation

The Fortress of Attitude

The base has an official named that Talia had given it upon construction, but Superboy called it the Fortress of Attitude. The some of the team just started calling it that out of being easier to remember while others (read: Maya) does it because she wants to annoy Talia. It’s very sleek with cutting edge tech rivaling Batman’s own tech. But as the team gets more and more accommodated to the hideout, they start adding their own flairs (stickers, posters, beanbag chairs, animal dens, dolls, figurines, and magazines). 

It’s equipped with a central computer that monitors the coming and going of the members, the registry, and mission files. The AI is programmed into the teams phones, offering the same protection to their personal phones that the foretress has. Using technology similar to the Watchtower and threw studying Beacon’s powers, they can beam themselves to the fortress whenever they please.

Main villains

Slade and the Hive Academy

I put Slade and not Deathstroke because I’m not really a fan of comic book Deathstroke. But Slade is Bad. Ass. Methodical. Calculating. Brilliant. Powerful. Coniving. He would make a perfect overarching villain for this team. I wouldn’t have him want Robin as his apprentice though. That can stay exclusive to the Teen Titans cartoon. In that place, he would just be the headmaster of the Hive Academy and use the team to test his students.

The Court of Owls

While theyre largely Batman’s villains, I feel they would meddle in the affairs of anyone they deem a significant annoyance. Their Talons would prove such a huge obstacle for this team to overcome. Of course it wouldn’t be the entire court after them, though. Just a small team that is assigned to keep an eye on them and steer them in the direction that best serves the Court.

 Blockbuster

I think 2 syndicates is enough for one title. Blockbuster is a departure from the cold, calculated, machinations of both Slade and the Court. He’s pretty much an immovable object that would be built up to be able to even withstand hits from Superboy.

Manchester Black

I think being trapped inside of a cow would make anyone thirsty for revenge. Also, a cow that is hell bent on revenge could be both terrifying and fun to read. No one is going to punch a cow, so the team would have to think of other tactics to take him down. Maybe Detective Chimp and the pets would have a hand in bringing him down!

I literally typed this out while working off of 3 hours of sleep the previous night and it is currently 12:37AM. That’s the excuse I’m going to go with if something is wrong here. I would want to include more villains that challenge the team both philosophically, physically, and mentally. But the longer I work on this, the more I go blank. So I’m putting a pin in this here.

If anyone has any ideas or suggestions, feel free to leave them! This is my own personal take on what I would like to see from a hypothetical Teen Titans/Young Justice book. 

#Damian Wayne #Superboy #Maya Ducard #Kathy Brendan #Talia Al Ghul #Teen Titans

[dick-g-ayson]

What's in a Name?

It was a quiet weekend in the Manor, which was unusual, especially with everyone home. Bruce was finishing up some paperwork for Tim, giving a proposal a second set of eyes, making sure he hadn't missed anything. Though Bruce doubt he had, his third son was much too meticulous for that possibility.

Well, almost everyone was home. Dick was in New York with the Titans, having some sort of reunion, and Duke was out in the city on Patrol. For those of his children that were home, it was mysteriously quiet. No arguing from Damian and Tim, no snide, but accurate comments from Jason. Cassandra was as quiet as a breeze, and Bruce honestly didn't know if she was home, or out with Steph and Harper, but he knew she'd announce herself when she wanted...or when she was hungry.

He set the proposal aside, twisting his neck from side to side, sighing in satisfaction when it popped. He stood, the old leather and wood frame of his office chair squeaking, and he reached for his coffee mug.

Tim was home, which meant that there would be a full carafe of coffee in the kitchen at any given time.

Bruce headed out of his office, heading for the stairs, footsteps light on plush carpet. He slowed when he heard voices from the room the family had dubbed the Mini-Cave amongst themselves. It was one of the few rooms in the Manor that had been declared a safe-zone, where no fighting, squabbling, or attempted maiming could occur. The others being the kitchen, each child's room, and the Cave itself.

He stopped just outside the room and listened as his second and third son talked.

"Dog is a terrible name."

"'s'not tha' bad, she seems t'like it, an' she responds to it."

"Jay please, Dick was able to come up with better names for his birds...and he still named one Tweety."

"Psh, yer jus' sayin' that 'cause he named one after ya."

"Uh-uh, sure, you're just jealous that Dick, of all people, was able to come up with a better name for a pet than you."

Both boys lapsed into silence, with Jay muttering darkly to himself, as his fingers typed furiously at the keyboard of his laptop.

Bruce grinned to himself, about to start walking again when Tim's voice, thoughtful and curious, stopped him.

"What about Drake?"

"Whatta 'bout you?" Jason's fingers slowed on his laptop, but his typing didn't stop.

"No not me, well, no, kind of me, but not me me,"

"Tim! Slow down an'use yer words, man."

"Oh, right...umm, I meant for a new name, instead of Red Robin?"

"That's, Timmy, I don' think-"

"I mean, Dick moved on from Robin and became Nightwing. You've made Red Hood you're own. Steph is Spoiler again, Cass has moved on from Batgirl and Black Bat, and is Orphan, Duke's Signal. I just.... thought it's time I moved on too?"

"Yeah, I get tha', it's just Drake? Really?"

"It's the most dangerous bird for it's size!"

"Yeah, it also happens t'be yer fuckin' LAST NAME."

"I....oh. Oh, I, I totally didn't even realize..."

Jason sighed explosively, and the clack as he set his laptop down on a table, had Bruce jumping.

"Okay, Babybird. I'll tell ya what. Y'go get a couple hours a'shut-eye, and when y'wake up, I'll help y'come up wit' a new codename, an' we'll come up wit' a new name f'r Dog, while we're at it."

"What? No Jay, I can't. I have to get this written up for WE, and, what hey!" There's the sound of a brief scuffle and Bruce is about to step in when Tim's voice sounds again. "Put me down, Jason! I have work! And Cases!"

"No can do, Timbo. Cass an' I can deal wit' th'cases, and I'll give whatever CEO nonsense y'got t'do t' B. Or it can wait until y'wake up. But yet goin' t'sleep."

Bruce took a step back as Jason's voice got closer and closer to the door. He managed to get out of the way so that when Jason exited the "Mini-Cave" he wasn't immediately run over.

Jason smirked when he saw him, giving Tim's thigh a pat, as his younger brother squirmed, trying to get free. "Heya B."

"Jay. Tim. What are you boys up to?"

"Nothin' jus' puttin' Babybird t'bed, Boss. He started talkin' nonsense, an' I'm worried f'r his mental health."

Tim pushed his hands against Jason's lower back, trying to get some leverage. "I have work! Jason Todd put me down ri-"

"That's a good idea."

Tim stopped his struggling, and looked over at Bruce, betrayl written across his face. "If you push yourself too far, your thinking can become impaired, and you might make rash decisions that you wouldn't make otherwise."

Tim stared at him from his awkward position over Jason's shoulder, face twisted as he tried to parse together what Brucec was talking about. His arms gave out suddenly, and he hid his face in Jason's back. "How much did you hear?" Was the muffled question.

"Most of it. And Jason made a good point, you can't use your civilian identity in your vigilante one. "

"I know."

Bruce smiled at the whine and rreached forward, ruffling Tim's hair. "Get some sleep, and then if you want I can help you and Jason come up with names. Both for you and Dog."

"Jeez B, way to eavesdrop. How much did you actually hear?"

"Enough. Dog really is a terrible name, lad." Bruce grinned, unrepentant in the face the glare his second son sent him.

"Told ya!" Tim crowed, face still smushed against Jason's back.

"God! I get it! Move on wit yer day."

#bruce wayne #jason todd #tim drake #reaction to yj8 #fix it fic #his name is bad and you should feel bad #you really couldn't come up with something better than that? #wednesday spoilers #yj spoilers

[our-happygirl500-fan]

I would like to take a moment to discuss possible Rogues and Villains for Stephanie Brown outside her dad because Steph has faced a lot of bad guys from Penguin to Victor Zazz and there are even villains that she hasn’t faced that would have a really cool dynamic against Steph I’m going to be combining both preboot and reboot continuity because Steph is badass and has kicked a lot of ass:

The Riddler: There’s a lot of potential here for Nygma to be one of Steph’s main Rogues simply because of the huge amount of history that he has with the Brown family, Cluemaster was called ‘a Riddler knockoff’ multiple times by fans and even in comics and Nygma has tried to kill Arthur multiple times for the man ‘stealing his bit’ however despite their almost rivalry Ed seems to respect Arthur even going so far as to want to work with him, and the Riddler even stayed at Arthur’s house for a period of time during which Steph had to call him “Uncle Ed”, it would have been really interesting to play with the Riddler’s connection to the Brown family especially if you think of the Riddler maybe even being what inspired Cluemaster in the first place you could say that he helped shaped the Brown families entire lives. Also when Steph went to his house the first thing Nygma did was give Steph apple juice and it would have been really cool for DC to play around with Batgirl (or Spoiler or whoever Steph is at the time) fighting the Riddler and then Edward Nygma acting like a weird uncle to Stephanie Brown.

Scarecrow: This should be obvious considering the Scarecrow was the first villain Steph ever faced as Batgirl but what’s really cool about him being in her rogue gallery is that Scarecrow is god damn terrified of Stephanie Brown both in preboot and reboot simply because Stephanie does not let her fear control her and she is able to power through any fear with determination and hope.

The Penguin: Steph god damn hates the Penguin as seen when Cass and Steph faced him in his Robin run. Oswald represents what Steph hates most about Gotham, the corrupt that use people and let them turn to crime and then let them take the fall. Penguin has escaped the law so many times simply because he has money and that infuriates Steph and it would really be interesting to see Steph face Penguin and his corruption as she herself grows and becomes for mature and controlled. We almost got to see some of that back when Steph came back from the dead and she was spy on Penguin and sabotaging him but that was later dropped.

 Deathstroke: Slade was once one of Dick’s primary antagonists though we haven’t seen them interact in a while but I was always incredibly disappointed that we didn’t see Slade interact with Dick much during the Batman reborn era, here is someone who Dick has faced since he was Robin and I’m supposed to believe that Slade doesn’t take an interest in Batman Dick and his Batgirl and Robin? Slade might take Dick becoming Batman as Dick being ‘all grown up’ especially since he has his own ‘sidekicks’ Batgirl and Robin. Steph is the Batgirl to Dick’s Batman (and I will always wish that DC showed the dynamic between Steph, Dick and Damian more just for it’s mountains of potential), but most importantly Batman Dick is primarily the Batman to Steph’s Batgirl, (Bruce and Steph only got to work together a few times before the reboot) and Dick chose Damian to be Robin so in a sense Damian and Steph are primarily Dick’s sidekicks the same way Dick and Barbara were to Bruce back in the day and I could definitely see Slade taking an interest in Damian and Steph primarily as a way to get to Dick and then getting interested in Damian and Steph themselves. We’ve seen a bit of this with Damian after the reboot the rivalry we once saw with Slade and Dick now being shown with Slade and Damian but we never got to see Slade and Steph interaction and I really do think he would have ended up rather interested in her not only because out of all the Robins she is the one most like Dick personality wise to the point where even Bruce compared the two and why I think writers like to hint at Nightwing being Steph’s future the same way they hint at Batman being Cass’s but Steph also has an impressive tenacity and ability to adapt and think on her feet that I think even Slade would have been impressed by. Also Slade hurt Steph’s best friend and she should get to punch him in the face for it.

The Joker: The Joker has a connection to almost all the Bats and despite them never actually interacting Steph is no exception. Not only does Steph have a connection to the Joker through Barbara her mentor who has expressed fear at the possibility of Steph facing the Joker but the Joker also has expressed interest in Stephanie herself. Robin Steph is quite simply ‘the one that got away’ to the Joker, she died by someone else’s hand before he could even face her and than infuriates in considering he believes he is Batman’s greatest foe. Joker has tried to kill Black Mask several times for killing Steph because he believes killing Robins is ‘his job’ and with out killing Steph no matter how many Robin’s or Batgirls he hurts or kills he’ll always be one behind. However Joker knows that the Red Hood is the Robin that he killed and if the Robin that he killed can come back maybe the Robin he didn’t get to kill can also come back and if he ever makes the connection between the blonde Robin and the Blonde Batgirl look out Steph.

Shiva: I know these days Shiva is primarily Cass’s villain but Shiva was once an antagonist for the entire Batfamily and has faced Tim, Bruce and even Jason a few times. I’m putting Shiva on the list primarily because of her connections to the people that Steph is connected with, Shiva’s faced and trained with Tim, Shiva has an interest in Black Canary who has trained Steph but most importantly Steph and Cass have Carolyn and Sandra parallels. Shown a few times and driven home by Cass’s hallucination of Steph’s ghost telling her the story of Sandra and Carolyn. There’s also a contrast to how Shiva reacted to her sister’s death by it driving her to be a killer and become stronger and stronger all the while looking for her death while Steph’s death drove Cass to try and become a better person often using Steph’s memory as a way to push her forward in things she was unsure of yet felt like she needed to do and drove her to become better so she wouldn’t loose anyone else. Steph’s memory also drove Cass to live with Steph’s ‘ghost’ telling Cass to keep going and keep fighting but like Shiva Cass was also shown to idealise death because she believed she would be with Steph again. It would be really interesting for Shiva to see Steph and Cass and be reminder of herself and her sister and it would be super cool to see how Shiva interacts with someone who reminds her of Carolyn.

Black Mask: This should be obvious the man tortured her, the man killed her, Steph deserves to punch him in the face. I see the fandom loving talking about Jason and Black Mask but he was Steph's murderer and Steph's death put him on the map of Gotham's villains, like he's a major villain *now* but no one cared about him before War Games in fact I've seen people think he was a character created specifically for War Games. Also because of the movie people seem to think that Jason was going after Black mask to get to the Joker but in comics Jason had the Joker before he even started going after Black Mask, and yeah you could argue he needed Bruce's attention but there are so many ways to do that so I am entirely convinced that Jason went after black mask for Steph, his fellow dead Robin and lower gotham kid and if that got Batman's attention even better. You all love having Jason face his murderer let Steph beat up hers.

Zazz: He’s primarily on the list because the comic where Robin Steph and Bruce went up against him was extremely well done and well written and had super good art and I want everyone to remember it and read it.

The Court of Owls: After Dick, Steph and Duke are the ones with the largest connections to the Court, Duke because they were the first antagonists the We Are Robin kids faced and Steph because the Court did actually kill Arthur Brown, they slit his throat, we saw it happen, Steph identified his body at the morgue and considering the Batfamilies whole theme of avenging dead parents Steph really should have faced the people who killed her dad more.

Talia Al Ghul: Okay god you have no idea how much I want Talia and Steph to interact. Both and Steph have been reduced to simply their relationships with male characters far too many times by writers for years Talia was defined by being her father’s daughter or being Bruce’s love interest and later it was all about her connect to Jason or Damian and when Talia finally is her own character when she is not defined by her relationship with Ra’s or Bruce or Jason or Damian she’s written as a villain. Steph only ever really had her first appearance and two glorious years as Batgirl where she was written as completely her own character without writers feeling the need to shove her connection to male characters in our faces. For years Steph was defined by being Tim’s love interest and Bruce worrying about her being out in the field. Even when Steph was dead we were constantly shown how much Steph death hurt and how it was affecting Bruce and Tim. It would be really cool for Talia to see Steph and try and stop Steph from ending up defined by her male relationships the same way Talia was for years, perhaps it would be cool for Talia to be invested in Steph’s growth and development because she does not want to see Steph make the same mistakes as her. Also I really want Talia to be like a mother figure to Steph because 1. Steph deserves all the mother figures because she has such bad luck with father figures and 2. If Talia acts like a mom to Steph she’ll have been like a mother to the entire dead Robin’s club.

Eiko Hasigawa: Eiko was the daughter of a Yakuza crime boss and she became Catwoman to foil her fathers criminal actions, she was Selina’s lover and Steph’s mentor until her father died and his death broke her causing her to become a ruthless crime boss and massacre over 15 crime families to make a point. Eiko’s men even hunted down and tried to kill Steph for weeks because they thought that Steph was a loose end before they learned that Eiko cares greatly for Steph and promptly backed off. Eiko was a mentor for Steph and was shown to care for Steph greatly, making her a lot of promises and wanting Steph by her side. I think Eiko and Steph saw a lot of themselves in each other both putting on masks to try and stop their fathers yet Eiko ended up taking up the role of the father she once tried to stop. Steph and Eiko have a complicated relationship in that they both care for each other yet are now on different sides with Eiko giving Steph the ultimatum of trying to save Gotham or standing by her side and Steph chose the life of a vigilante. Eiko’s kind of disappeared but it would be so cool to have those two interact again.

Amanda Waller: Tricky since Amanda being a villain depends entirely on your perspective. Cluemaster has ‘died’ a number of times in comics but the first time readers actually cared about his death is when Arthur joined the Suicide Squad, Waller’s team and Arthur later died on a mission. Arthur would later come back to life as ‘Aron Black’ and work to turn politician’s in Gotham and the people of Gotham themselves against the idea of Batman but I think it would be interesting to see Steph interact with the women who led the team her dad was on in one of his first deaths.

The Reapers: Remember those college kids with the Super Powered Tech suits that Steph fought in her Batgirl run? They were cool especially Harmony, you know the one with the sound powers I loved her, let’s bring them back.

Crystal Brown: Okay this one is going to make people upset I’ll admit, look I know we all love and prefer the Crystal Brown who got past her addiction and trauma and was trying to repair her relationship with Steph with waffles and board games that we got in Steph’s Batgirl run but DC got rid of her and now Crystal is even who helped Arthur with his plots and tried to kill Steph and then tried to emotionally manipulate Steph when that didn’t work and then abandoned Steph when *that* didn’t work. We haven’t seen Crystal since like 2014 and the last time she was even mentioned was when Bruce was setting up the Gotham Knights and said that Steph was raised by ‘two verifiable geniuses’ indicating that Crystal is intelligent and probably a dangerous villain if she wanted to be. And look we all prefer good mom Crystal but since we’re not having that I’d rather have a Crystal that gets to be a main antagonist than one that just disappears and is never seen from again. Also while the troupe of abuse victim becoming an abuser themselves does kind of suck it is important to see because it shows that just because someone has suffered it gives them no right to make others suffer as well, also evil Crystal would be super cool to see in contrast to Steph and how different the paths Steph and her mother took in response to Arthurs abuse was. Also if I wrote evil Crystal I’d give her cool shapeshifting powers as a little nod to how she had a different design every time she appeared before DC finally decided on the design we know today when Steph came back to life.

Those are the ones I have now though I’m sure I can think of more but feel free to add to Steph’s Rogue Gallery if you think there’s someone I missed, also I know they’re not villains anymore but Selina and Jason would also be cool options because not only was Steph briefly part of the Cat family in the New 52 and trained with Selina and Eiko but Selina was also one of the last people she saw before she died in War Games so they do have some strong connections and Jason and Steph are sort of universally connected despite never properly interacting both growing up in similar situations with addict mothers and criminal fathers, having complicated relationships with Bruce and dying and coming back. Before she died Bruce would make references to Jason when talking about Steph and War Crimes took place in the middle of the Under The Red Hood Arc heck Black Mask one of Jason’s primary antagonists was the one who killed Steph and in the reboot Steph has even MORE Jason parallels because she experiences homelessness and her own mother betraying and trying to kill her too so it would have been cool for Steph to face the Red Hood but honestly with all the connections and parallels any meaningful interaction between Steph and Jason is a long time coming.  

#DC comics #stephanie brown #cassandra cain #tim drake #jason todd #bruce wayne #edward nygma #dc #arthur brown #crystal brown #steph has a lot of potential for rogues and dc just keeps on making her fight her dad no matter how many times he dies

[kemdraw]

I’m rewatching The Batman right now. I have one of the seasons on DVD and watched all of it awhile ago but I don’t remember most of the episodes. It’s so good! I’m sad no one knows about it because the characters are really well written and the action is top fucking notch. I’m hyped to watch more. Since you’re one of the only accounts I know who likes the show, I’d love to know if you have any favorite episodes, and what you ship in the show.

@tiptapricot

Yes, I love this show! I even made art specially for it and I’m about a write an essay as a response so buckle in. 

It’s so fun and cute and I really think its some of the best characterizations I’ve seen, but in a way in which they’ve added twists to each character but kept their core selves. The animation and fight scenes are also really great, and although they’re basically gone after the second season, Ethan Bennet and Ellen Yin are great original characters. I think the only bad part of the show is what happens to them. 

I looked through the episode lists and I didn’t even realize till I was looking, but obviously, I loved season four the most. I think it’s actually the best season. I love them all but I will limit it to my top five. I’ll put them in order of when they aired.

The Batman 2004 Spoilers Below!!! (But all very mild)

Season 2, Episode 9: Ragdolls to Riches

I love this episode because I think its a great way to show that Selina is a bad guy but not a bad guy, ya know. Sure she steals, but she does actually end up liking Bruce as a person and she actually does donate a whole bunch of money to charity (money which she got from stealing but eh) and she clearly never steals from anyone needy, she just takes from those who have too much.  It’s also cute to see Bruce try to impress her by having Alfred serve her “The famous Pennyworth Nachos" because he’s a 26-year-old frat boy and doesn’t know any better.

Season 3, Episode 3: A Dark Knight To Remember

I think amnesia storylines are always fun and this is really the first episode you get to see Batgirl! Babs really does her thing. She’s great on this show and I think it makes her character especially interesting how she is a sidekick before Robin (This was due to his design looking too much the teen titan one and they didn’t want people to think it was the same continuity). I think it makes Bruce taking Dick make more sense since he already has sidekick experience. He’s also a very more big brother in the beginning and you get to see him kinda become their dad figure over time. It’s also funny in this episode to see Bruce act stupid because he’s forgotten he’s Batman, but also touching to see him have to overcome fear because he wants to save Babs. 

Season 4, Episode 7: Artifacts

I love this episode because we get to see Oracle and Nightwing. This episode is darker than the others because it also shows an older Bruce who can’t give up the mission no matter what, as well as seems to show a future where something bad happened that caused Bruce to stop being Batman abruptly. However, seeing how the timeline plays out is really interesting and did I mention that Oracle is in this episode? I love her.Season 4, Episode 9: Riddler’s Revenge

I really like Ed Nygma as a villain, especially in kids shows where he’s more riddles and less murder. This episode really explores his character, but it also shows that side of Bruce that I have very openly love, in which he really truly wants to help his Rogues because he knows that life has screwed them over in one way or another. It reminds me of the scene in JLU where Wally is being kind to the Trickster, telling him he’ll visit when he goes back to the hospital and Captain Boomerang tells Bruce he doesn’t understand how Wally can be so friendly with his Rogues, and Bruce says “of course you can’t understand”. It’s all about the empathy, baby!

Season 4, Episode 10: Two of a Kind

This one is Harley’s origin story in The Batman. I think it’s so cute that they made her a Dr. Phill/Wendy Williams type tv show host. But what I really love about this episode is how she basically snaps because no one takes her seriously because she’s young and cute but she’s actually an excellent doctor and really really smart. But she also discusses how even though she’s smart she still ends up with the Joker and she can’t really understand why. I think they do her character a lot of justice and also never glorify her relationship with the Joker. As for ships, I didn’t really find anything particularly enticing. I think the show really stays away from relationships on purpose so none of them ever felt strong. I think in another life where they didn’t villainize Ethan and have Yin randomly disappear once Gordon showed up, they could have maybe been something. Overall, I love this show. If anyone hasn’t watched it, you should! It’s all on DC Universe if you have access to it.

#ask #tiptapricot #the batman 2004 #batman #kemistry

[cursed-to-be-a-sidekick]

DC Ladies and Why They're so Awesome

Barbara Gordan: So of course Im going to start of with a good part. Babs is probably one of the smartest people in the entire DC universe. She graduated high school early (at like sixteen) and went to college. She got her masters degree so she could be a librarian. In her 20's she became a congresswoman but apparently was too liberal to get re-elected. On top of this all she was batgirl. When the Killing Joke happened the DC universe thought they lost Babs. Not only did Babs stick around she became stronger. Babs used everything she had and built up the Birds of Prey using her quick thinking and computer knowledge to keep her team safe. Not only that but as Oracle Babs was the information keeper for the Justice League. She had every single superheroes number easily accessible and knows them all personally. Also Babs became a Green Lantern! Like thats awesome. Babs has been at war with the Calculator for forever and has won every time. You can not tell me Babs isnt one of the best DC characters hands down.

Diana Prince: Okay I bet you're all surprised I didn't start off with Diana. I love Wonder Woman so much and there's so many reasons why. First off Wonder Woman defied her Amazonian sisters and went out to the real world. She didn't know what was out there and didn't really care. She wanted to promote peace and be a diplomat and that's what she was at least for a while. When Diana killed Maxwell Lord she regretted it so much that she decided not to be Wonder Woman anymore. Even though everyone told her that her reasoning was just (cause like yeah it was). Wonder Woman has this huge sense of responsibility and like how can you not love her for it. Also the fact she's more powerful than most of the Justice League and the Justice League knows and admires it. Yeah that's definitely a plus.

Mary Batson: Okay I love Mary and honestly I don't know much about her but I'm going to take a stab. Mary carries this sense of responsibility, she wants to be a hero and she's damn good at it too. When she lost her powers around Countdown she was devastated. When she got them back and become "Black Mary" that absolutely sucked. But she came back became Mary Marvel again and built herself back up. Mary is a key part of the Marvel family and I don't know what Billy would do without her. She's also still a kid. Like an actual kid. A teenager and she's out helping save the world. Yeah I have respect for that.

Kara Zor-El: Of course Supergirls on this list. Why would she not be? Okay supergirl has an interesting story. She's the sole survivor of not one but to planets. When she arrived on earth she knew nothing about the planet at all. She had to trust her cousin knew what he was doing to help her. She wanted to build a whole life away from being a superhero too. She just wanted to be a normal kid. She has her ups and downs but ultimately Kara is probably one of the best characters because she's realistic. She's written to be an angsty teenage girl who is still trying to figure herself out. Sure she's chronologically 30 years older than Superman (depends on what story you read) but that doesn't make her any less of a kid. Also she fought Darkseid and Lex Luthor while still figuring out her powers, she single handedly took down the entire Justice League and she's more powerful than Superman. I think that's pretty cool.

Dinah Lance: The Black Canary's name has belonged to like three different Dinah's at this point. But that doesn't make her any less awesome. Dinah is trained in all forms of martial arts and is thought to be the second best martial artist in the world. Yeah the entire world. Dinah is hot heated and can be moody at times but she knows what she's doing. Even after losing her Sonic Scream she continued to kick ass with the Birds of Prey. She did get her Sonic Scream back later while in the birds but she never seemed to rely on her powers, she always just used her gut instincts and quick thinking. At one point Dinah adopts a child who was being trained to be an assassin. She kept this child and even stopped being with the birds to settle down with Oliver Queen and have a family. Dinah is undoubtedly one of the best ladies in the whole DC universe.

Helena Bertinelli: Okay not only is Helena a superhero known as the Huntress shes also a school teacher. Helena originally was the daughter of Batman and Catwoman but at some point during Crisis she became a vigilante who was the daughter of a mob boss. After her whole family is murdered in front of her she vows to end the underground crime ring in Gotham. Shes pretty good at it and almost succeeds. Sure her methods arent well liked by Batman but she gets her job done. She joins the Birds at one point and actually gets a family. Babs gets her a job as a school teacher and Helena is happy again. Towards the end of the original Birds run Helena manages to take over the underworld and Gotham and manages to (almost) take it down.

Stephanie Brown: Okay Steph is the daughter of some low class supervillain called the Cluemaster. She becomes Spoiler as a way to make up for all the things that her dad did. She literally built herself up from nothing and became an amazing superhero. Steph might have never had a major standing in the comics but she was there in the background spoiling everyones plans. Also Steph got pregnant as a teenager. Like thats really hard to deal with. And she did it mostly while continuing to be a vigilante. Steph maintained a good friendship with Cass and when Cass ditched the title of Batgirl Steph took it up. While Batman never approved of her actions Steph did everything she could to be an accepted member or the batfamily. Plus she was briefly Robin which is really cool.

Cassandra Cain: Okay daughter of assassins is already cool but the fact she can speak solely with body language is amazing. Cass never learned how to speak and was trained to be the worlds best assassin. When she did learn how to speak she spoke few words. Despite that she maintained a great friendship with Babs and Steph. Babs trained her to be the new Batgirl and Steph ended up being her best friend. Cass is even better at fighting than Batman and she took down the Joker her first time fighting him. Not only did she break the Joker out of Arkham she beat him and sent him back just as easily. Cass had a great character arc and I just love her character. She really brought the name Batgirl to mean something entirely new and when she dropped it and gave the name to Steph she did it with honor. Cass did at one point leave to go run the league of assassins but she eventually came back to Gotham.

Talia Al Ghul: I dont know much about Talia but I think I know enough to write a paragraph about her. Talia is the heir to the demon. She trained as a child to be an assassin alongside her father Ra's Al Ghul. She also fell in love with Batman. But thats probably the least cool thing about her. I mean she is an assassin who will potentially inherit a whole army of assassins and be immortal. Like I dont know about you but I think thats pretty friggin awesome.

Selina Kyle: Okay Catwoman is amazing. She trained to fight under Catman which is pretty cool. Also like she controls part of the Gotham underworld. Selina is an amazing woman who is a great thief and she also has morals. She doesnt do killing (most of the time) and shes even been a hero for a while. Catwoman became a hero alongside Batman but at some point she decided to return back to crime. She's worked alongside the Birds of Prey a few times and at one point was even a member. Selina also decided not to marry Bruce because she knew marrying Batman might give him a reason not to be Batman anymore and she knew people needed Batman more than she needs Bruce. Also Selina helps girls on the street. Like thats a major thing. Helping kids who dont have much. Like thats great. Lastly she feeds and takes in stray cats and thats just wonderful.

Harley Quinn: Okay while I wouldnt consider Harls a hero persay (shut up new 52 and rebirth) she is still an amazing character. Harley is a genius, she blew through med school and became a psychologist. She built herself up from working at Arkham from the bottom all the way to working with the highest class psychos. Harls was also an amazing gymnast and she had tons of medals. After falling in love with the Joker she did some regrettable things but the fact she managed to get herself and she started to redeem herself shows a lot about. Harley now just wants to help people she wants to fix what she did wrong. Harley has a big heart and wants to do right and while she knows her methods arent that great shes trying hard. She just wants to please the people she loves and cares about.

Pamela Isley: Okay Ivy is a tricky character. She doesnt really have a set backstory or anything that I really know of. Ivy was a scientist and something happened that changed her physically. She became connected to the green. Now Ivy isnt really sure who she is. She became the Batman villain known as Poison Ivy and became an ecological terrorist (at least thats what I think they call her). Ivy really just doesnt know her place in the world. Ivy is wicked smart and she has patented a lot of biotech stuff and she made Harley the antidote that made her immune to toxins. She does end up re-entering the field of science a few times and is genuinely trying to turn a new leaf and become a better person. At first she didnt really understand that what she did was wrong she just wanted to help out the plants because she saw all these terrible things happening to them. For the most part Ivy is a misunderstood person who is trying to find her humanity.

Kara Zor-El (Earth Two): Okay Power Girl is a tricky character to figure out because she has so many different backstories due to the destruction and then reformation of the multiverse. Anyways Karen Starr is from another Earth specifically Earth 2. When she arrived on Earth 1 she learned there was already a Supergirl. She took on the name Power Girl and founded a company that focused on software (I think.) Shes older than Earth 1s supergirl and is kind of like a big sister figure at times even though her and Kara are the same person. The two also didnt start off on the right foot with eachother. Karen for a while led the Justice Society of America which is really flipping cool. Karen knows whats right in her heart which is what makes her like Superman in a way. Because like her cousin (even if the two arent really cousins on earth 1) she wants to help people.

Donna Troy: The original Wonder Girl will always hold a special place in my heart but I kid of want to focus on her time as Wonder Woman and also as simply just Donna Troy. When Wonder Woman quit being Wonder Woman Donna took her spot and she made a pretty great Wonder Woman. She doubted herself a lot and didnt think shed ever be as good as Diana she pushed herself up to the top and did it. As Donna Troy she was an amazing Teen Titan and she even cheated death. Her spot in the multiverse has been looked over a few times but her Roy and Jason last I heard were all kicking ass together.

Rachel Roth: Ravens a weird character Im not going to lie. Shes kind of mysterious. Rachel was a key addition to the Teen Titans, her powers are unmatchable in battle a lot of the time. Also shes the child of the demon Trigon. Rachel herself never really knew what to do with herself but while growing up she knew she had to do something and that she has to save people. She spent her teenage years with the Titans and continues to be with the Titans even if shes technically supposed to have aged out by now.

Kate Kane: Kate is one of my favorite characters of all time. Batwoman adds so much to the story and it covers a lot of things Ive never even thought of. Kate was kicked out of Westpoint under Dont Ask Dont Tell. The story talks a lot about her experience with PTSD, being gay and also being in the army. Kate runs a major business and is Batmans cousin. Kate literally gives zero craps about what Batman says and she does what she wants even if he doesnt approve. Kate has a big heart and ultimately she just wants to save her sister. After being kicked out of Westpoint Kate became a party girl and an alcoholic becoming Batwoman changed all of that for her. She became the woman she was meant to be.

Maggie Sawyer: Maggie Sawyer is a badass cop. Shes also Kates girlfriend and shes a mom. Being a cop in Metropolis is one thing but since moving from Metropolis Maggie has joined the GCPD. Being a cop in Gotham versus being a cop in Metropolis are to completely different things. Maggie can do it all and she works well under pressure. Shes an amazing cop and deserves so much more credit that what she gets in the comics.

Renee Montoya: Renee Montoya started out as another Gotham City Cop well until she became The Question. Also one of Kates ex girlfriends Renee has taken up Vic Sage's mantel and become the Question. She's a cop turned vigilante who is trying to do everything she can to keep Gotham safe.

Zatanna Zatara: So Zatanna is a magician. An actually magician with real magic and also a performing magician for kids. She does a lot of volunteering and loves showing her magic to the kids. Shes part of Justice League Dark and her powers are probably some of the most powerful in the whole DC universe. Zatanna can literally do anything just by saying it backwards. She doesnt get as much credit as she deserves but Zatanna is a kid with a big heart and deserves a lot more than she gets. Also did I mention she once climbed Mount Everest?

Courtney Whitmore: Not many people know much about Stargirl but this teenage girl is a key part of the Justice Society. Stargirl is a nobody without her Cosmic Staff but with it she is one of the greatest members of the JSA. Courtney has befriended Supergirl and has run around on all sorts of adventures before she could even vote. Her friendship with Supergirl is strong even if it isnt seen too often in the comics. Stargirl is just another kid who wants to change the world and who does manage to do it.

Lois Lane: Supermans girlfriend has ring to it enough but pulitzer prize winner Lois Lane is so much more than that. Shes an investigative reporter who strives to find the truth no matter the cost. Time and time again she goes undercover and risks her life for her job. She has no powers and no fighting skills just faith and a keen eye for a story. So sure while she's Supermans girlfriend she so much more than that. She's a woman who's going places and will always be independent. (Bonus: the first time Clark meets Lois she's yelling at some guy at the phone for being sexist)

Lana Lang: Supermans other girlfriend. Lana kind of got abandoned for a while but trust me she's still great. Lana takes in Kara while Kara is still struggling to figure her life out. Lana is the most supportive and loving person there is. She really cares about Kara and treats her like a daughter and as a best friend. Her friend ship with Lois Lane is amazing and Lana had an amazing story arc when she became possessed. Moral of the story never mess with any of Supermans girlfriends because they will fight back and theyll fight back hard.

Lady Shiva: If it wasnt for Lady Shiva Black Canary would be the best martial artist in the world. Lady Shiva is a long time Batman villain and not even Batman himself can beat her. Shes said multiple times that the only time he did she let him. She just wanted to know how worthy of an opponent he was. Shiva and Dinah trained under the same sensei together and have a mutual respect for eachother. For a short period of time Shiva even took Dinah under her wing to teach her new techniques no one else in the world even knew.

Mia Dearden: Speedy is hands down the best Green Arrow sidekick. And no Im not talking about Roy I really do mean Mia. Mia was living on the streets for the longest time and as a teenager. Constantly in the comics she talks about what it was like as a teenager being homeless on the streets, doing drugs and even selling her body just to stay alive. She became a great fighter while training with Ollie and Dinah and becomes the second Speedy. Mia is quick thinking and knows how and when to act. Later in the comics before she joins the Teen Titans she gets diagnosed as HIV +. That was the first time the DC universe made a character be HIV + and it hit hard for a lot people. Her backstory is really sad but its meaningful and really tells a lot about things that nobody knows anything about. Mia is a spunky kid with a lot of personality and she wants to help people.

Emiko Queen: Emi wasnt really around until she become the Red Arrow in Rebirth. She had her ups and downs but she stay devoted to Ollie throughout all of it. Emi is a tough character who really wants to be just like her big brother. She does at one point join a cult but then she breaks away from the cult to save her brother. Emi really admires Dinah and their friendship is great. Her story is still just starting to develop and its really cool to see where its going.

Zinda Blake: Lady Blackhawk has been no where in sight since New 52 hit. Im not really sure if theyll bring her back but I hope they do. Zinda is a hotheaded pilot who thinks more with her fists than she does with her brain. Shes a key member to the Birds of Prey and a true hero. After somehow re entering the continuity despite having to have originally been in WW2 Zinda has begun to fit right in with her weird accent and odd slang. I really hope she gets put back in soon.

Charlie Gage-Radcliffe: Misfits not really a well known character but shes a good one. Shes a spunky kid with an obsession with Batgirl. She takes on the mantel of Batgirl briefly before the real Batgirl, Barbara Gordan, stops her. Babs takes her in as one of her Birds and trains her. Charlie is just a kid and Babs knows it. Charlie doesnt get to see much action throughout the series but her character really grows a lot and she molds into this amazing character. Misfit is pretty impulsive and her mind (and body) tend to bounce all over the place. Charlie is just like any other teenager and she does everything she can to look on the bright side of every situation

Cassandra Sandsmark: Cassies Wonder Girl is what got me into Teen Titans. Cassie knows what she wants and knows how to get it. She can be short tempered but she had a really good heart. Her friendship with Supergirl is one of the best friendships in the whole DC universe. Cassie ultimately just wants to impress Wonder Woman. When she's not roaming around with the Teen Titans or on Paradise Island she's like literally every other teenage girl. Sitting at home argueing with her mom. Her power for her lasso comes fron her anger which she seems to carry a lot of. Shes still figuring out how to be Wonder Girl but shes become a valuable asset to the team. Cassie is a really relatable character and I love her for that. Her and Diana are a great pair and seeing them together is amazing. (Bonus: In New 52 Teen Titans she can put up a fight against basically anybody including Tim Drake and she hates the name Wonder girl)

There are more characters but this took me about two hours to write so Im going to cut it here. If anyone wants me to add any more characters let me know in the notes and I'll edit this. Also special shout outs to characters who I didnt have enough info on to put on here but are still equally as awesome: Martha Kent, Director Cameron Chase and Linda Park.

#batgirl #dceu #dc #dc comics #wonder woman #black canary #huntress #birds of prey #spoiler #batfam #catwoman #talia al ghul #harley quinn #poison ivy #power girl #wonder girl #donna troy #raven #batwoman #maggie sawyer #the question #zatanna #stargirl #justice society of america #lois lane #superman #lana lang #lady shiva #speedy #green arrow

[onetruesporkbot]

One or the Other...Preferably the Non-Stupid One

A website I frequent, the Outhouse, has an article pertaining to Detective Comics #980, and the potential effect it (and to a degree, Flash War) has on the lives of Cassandra Cain and Stephanie Brown. I’ve mentioned my problems with their reinventions before, but...well, I’m doing it again. Sue me. And yeah, this’ll be a long one, so maybe go for a walk around the block to stretch your legs first, make sure you got to the bathroom, and maybe grab a drink before reading on.

I've had my own ideas on how to fix the error of Cass and Steph’s altered histories. Mostly they involve retconning Harper Row into either non-existence or just not being an attention/glory leech on the Bat-Family’s butt-cheek, praised as a paragon of splendor. Even if someone can find evidence that editorial/executive mandates forced the spotlight on that character throughout the Eternal books, the interpretation/execution of that, vis-a-vie how she affected Stephanie's and Cass' lives, is on Tynion (and, granted, the other writers who were working off his ideas), and acts as a basis for his ‘Tec run. As is her lack of development, off-putting but still happily accepted bad attitude and generally not really doing much, but still being treated like royalty by her experienced betters. She’s a bad character, and none of the Bats or Birds, acting in their right mind, would tolerate her like they did. THAT is the core of the problem with those stories and these reinventions, and they aren't solved simply because Harper became the Mr. Wick to 'Tec's Drew Carey Show, and just isn't seen very often later on.

           Not the most fair comparison, because the depraved, abusive, lying,        cheating, over-privileged misery-mongering manager is by far more likable.

While heavy-handedly-hoisted Harper is a large part of the problem, there are others where these characters are concerned. Steph's reinvention started out well enough, but then Tynion decided to charter her a flight from "beginner" to "accomplished crime-fighter" in a mere few issues. Stephanie lost a big part of what I've seen draw her to readers (like a friend of mine): her tenacity. Instead of a girl that kept doing the hero thing after being frequently told by those around her, including Platinum-Status Crook-Scarer Batman, to quit, and publicly (off-line) actually spoiling her Dad’s schemes, training hard to better herself...she was remade into a girl running around with her mask down half the time, leaving vague hints online that are ignored or hacked away. It’s later discovered didn't really want to catch her Dad, regardless of what that meant for Gotham, a city she’s quick to abandon when the s#&t hits the fan. She could swing across the sky and fight off assassins despite little or no training (excelled in this regard only by...you know blue). So, she’s got a skill-level and bravery on par with vigilantes with years of experience...until she doesn’t.

Cassie's changes are the biggest offense to me. While Steph started somewhat strong and had any thunder thoroughly absorbed by Harper, Cass' entire EXISTENCE became tied to Row. Every movement, every action, every breath was about some unlikable wastrel with delusions of perfection. Remaking a pre-existing character's life all about a newer one’s is even worse when that newer one has all the originality of the comic Diesel (see Linkara's review for context). Their "friendship" had zero basis, other than one party's guilt and the other party needing constant attention and praise heaped upon her. It makes Cassie’s her entire motivation more about appeasing Harper, proving herself to Harper, even asking for death in Harper’s name...as opposed to realizing that, regardless of who the victim was, killing someone was wrong. I don't recall if they ever named the guy Cassie originally killed, but it was better that he didn't have some "important" connection to a character like a bad soap opera desperate for ratings. Now it’s felt more like “killing that person was wrong...because it was Harper’s Mom.” Just like the Wayne Murders, it's better and more poignant if it were left random. But again, the problems go beyond Harper. Having Cass speak so early changes her "neurologically atypical brain", or how, when you think about it, slaughtering children and piling them up (seriously, what the eff, Jimbo?) kind of defeats the whole revelation Cass has when she takes her first life. Even if she feels she has no family, Cass taking the name of a serial killer makes no sense...I would think the body count would outweigh “feeling alone” element to the name (really, Jimmy’s stretching for that one). Then there’s the fact that Tynion’s blithering idiot version of David Cain never loved his daughter, except as a passing reference in his kamikaze strike, which was mostly about Mother not appreciating him enough. And probably just an excuse to kill another characters father because some at DC has Daddy Issues. I mean, they cut Cluemaster’s throat, THEN cut Orphan-Cain’s throat...but he somehow survived...oy, now I’m remembering all the plot holes. So many plot holes. I mean, Cassie turning evil was incompetent, but not only did that give fixed in under two years, Adam Beechen excelled in other respects during Robin, and wasn’t prone to unbearable slog.

                                      This is the crap you’re making me miss, DC.

Harper Row was either the standard or the launching pad for Tynion’s versions of these characters, and much to their detriment. This vision OMAC-Tim gives Cass and Steph just proves what I've been saying, that these characters of Orphan and...Not-Quite-Spoiler...aren't "just the same" characters as before Flashpoint, despite some similarities. They haven't earned what they did beforehand, Tynion just tried rebuilding them from the ground-up, then a few issues later just wrote "it's this way now" to closer resemble their pre52 versions, with no build-up or effort put into it. Heck, after hearing 'Tec readers talk about how Steph has been acting insane, these last pages suggest that, perhaps, she was playing Achilles or whatever his name is, which...I could kind of see Batgirl-era Steph doing...not a bumbling idiot who let Gotham burn over her stinkin' parental disputes and took orders from an ego-maniacal brat.

Cassie and Steph can hug all they want when things get emotional, it doesn’t change that the versions under Tynion had one called the other subhuman, and then when they next saw each other, spontaneous group-hug-invite. That is nowhere NEAR the same as the two of them disliking each other, and their rivalry developing into a friendship.

“Remember when I said you weren’t a person only because you didn’t speak?                                     AHAHAHAHA! Good times, GOOD times...”

And really, I think fans of these characters are just so glad to have ANY version of them, they're more forgiving of Tynion's writing, whether it's error-heavy or just serviceable. They’ll excuse the problems to support the characters. Sure, Jimbo tosses in some emotional moments, hugging, crying, but given his previous work and history with them, I question if it had any real structure to it. He didn’t hesitate to have Tim bone Steph, even though that’s not something pre52 Tim would do, so why should I believe he put any effort into the Clayface/Cassie friendship, or...any character/Cassie friendship? But even if he did...how does it justify what he changed or how he changed it? I’d say it doesn’t; his mistakes aren’t better just because he and/or DC refuse to acknowledge them (hence the absence of Harper). NOTHING justifies these problems.

So, moving forward from Steph and Cass learning they had alternate, better-written lives...we don’t know how that’ll go. ‘Tec 981 could see them decide they (for some unholy reason) prefer to have started out as side-characters in their own origins if it props Harper up further, never having actually ever been the same as before (but “different” and “change”, so that makes it better somehow). Or, in a rare show of intelligence, this will lead to them ACTUALLY getting their lives back, no reinvention, no dead Dads either influencing their sociopathic negligence or wanting them dead, no stupid changes mandated by a bunch of witless baboons in charge...none of it. Because none it was good, none of it improved or equaled what was done before, and none of it is justified by long slogs in between distracting heart-string-tugs. Tynion’s changes, including but certainly not limited to the spotlighting of Bluebird, brought nothing new or good to the table, regardless of circumstances, and I fail to see why they or their effects should continue.

The characters CANNOT have both histories; they just don’t work together. Steph’s beginnings cannot be both humble AND tied to yet-another city-wide massacre. Cassie’s life cannot be about her AND someone that has no right, rhyme or reason to be associated with her. David Cain cannot be a trained assassin at odds with a daughter he genuinely cares for AND...whatever the Hell Tynion thought he was writing Orphan to be. None of this deserves passive dismissal, not after all the years of crap DC has flung our way. They’re mistakes don’t deserve the validation of continuance for these characters or their world.

We’ll see.

#Cassandra Cain #Cassie Cain #Detective Comics #980 #Orphan will never be Cass #Stephanie Brown #Spoiler #Batgirl #Black Bat #Robin #james tynion iv #retcon #comics #DC Comics #snark #Craig Ferguson #Mr. Wick #The Drew Carey Show #cartoons #The Critic #and nothing of value was lost #The Outhouse #Harper Row #Bluebird #mistakes #Flash War #Rebirth