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yanderes-galore · 9 months

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Can I ask for Injustice Damian Wayne with your prompts: 1, 22 and 54?

Yes! Damian from Injustice is such s good character :D @okchijt helped with the plot and I wrote the rest! Hope you enjoy the story :) I tweaked it a bit from their original idea.

Yandere! Injustice! Damian Wayne Prompts 1, 22, 54

"I'd burn this world and everything in it for you."

"You're crying... come a little closer, I'll make it all go away."

"Selfish! That's what you are!"

Pairing: Romantic

Possible Trigger Warnings: Gender-Neutral Darling, Obsession, Accidental murder that happened in canon, Violence, Jealousy, Angst, Manipulation, Kidnapping, Delusional behavior, Forced relationship.

The death of Nightwing, Dick Grayson, affected everyone when it happened. You had been part of the Batfamily by training under Batman. You weren't related at all, it was like being an honorary member.

Dick and Damian had felt like brothers to you. You cared for them both and got along with the two. When you heard of the accident of Dick's death... you wanted to forgive Damian when others wouldn't.

You still cared for him even if Dick's death weighed heavy on you.

Despite your hesitant forgiveness of the accident, the incident made you distance yourself from the heroes. You needed space away from Damian and the others. Your need for moving on made you an undecided factor in the war against Batman and Superman.

Even when you didn't pick sides you still fulfilled your role as hero. Both sides often offered you the chance to join but you always decided against it. By the time the war rumbled on you moved on and found a new path for yourself.

The fact you're actively avoiding picking sides never did sit right with Damian, a robin turned Nightwing.

Damian even began growing frustrated at the fact you actively avoided his invitations to join The Regime. In truth, Damian misses you deeply. Back then when Dick was still alive, Damian originally saw you as a friend or sibling. Then when you left he found himself pining.

His care towards you wasn't platonic, he knows that now. The entire time he was brewing more intimate thoughts about you. He slowly became aware of the fact he's in love with you... when you left his fantasies shattered.

His invitations to join him were also invitations to connect again. He knows deep down you forgive him about what happened that day. Part of him wonders if he'd still have you if Dick was alive. He regrets that accident.

Damian did everything he could to track you down. He often monitored crime in an attempt to meet up with you. Each time he tried to reach out, to convince you, you turn him down with a frown.

More than anything he just wants you in his life again.

Superman, Clark Kent, notices the desperation in the young man's actions. He knows better than most that Damian is driven by the love he has for you. Clark has lost someone close to him too... except Damian has a chance to have you by his side again.

Damian was originally confused and a bit irritated when Clark had called him for a meeting. Although his eyes quickly lit up when the tyrant offers a deal. Clark can help Damian reunite with you, he may even be able to help convince you to their side.

It was an offer too good to pass up.

Damian admits to Clark that your weakness always seems to be the safety of others. Even when you were younger you often forgot about your own safety and grew reckless. With such information, the perfect plan was produced by the Kryptonian.

It's easy to frame crime when everyone/most people trust you.

You had no idea what was going on behind the scenes. You simply saw people in danger and snuck in to help them. You had no idea there was anyone waiting in the shadows to prey upon you.

You were too focused on helping those around you...

You barely even registered the hit to your head before your senses went dark.

....

You felt like you were waking up from a deep sleep when you gained your vision again. Except instead of feeling well rested you were met with aching pains and the feeling of cold metal around your legs and wrists. You take a moment to realize your surroundings, seeing chains and cuffs around your limbs connecting to a wall. You barely even register the mattress under you as you're still trying to recover from the blow to your head.

What just... happened?

The sound of doors opening in the dimly lit room grabs your attention right before blinding you with light due to your light sensitivity. When you can actually process what you're looking at when the doors close you're surprised to see Damian in front of you. Surprise quickly turns into a sickly feeling in your gut when you start to piece things together.

"It's good to see you're awake. I'm sorry for the room, when you join The Regime you'll get a much better set up." Damian greets, watching your confused expression as you try to comprehend what he's telling you.

"Huh...?"

"I get it, blow to the head... you'll catch on soon enough. I can't believe you've been blowing off the chance to join the Regime." Damian sighs, kneeling beside you. "You shouldn't tackle crime alone, you've always been reckless. The Regime just wants to get rid of crime for good. We can't let it fester anymore."

Kidnapped... you can tell that much. As you try to find a way out of it you listen to what Damian has to say despite your mind feeling fuzzy. You try to listen to Damian's attempts to convince you but you begin to realize the conversation begins to drift towards himself.

"Think about it, won't you? We need each other. I've always missed you since you left, I've missed the old times. I don't get why you had to leave me and pretend like I don't matter, like our FAMILY didn't matter anymore...." Damian finds himself ramble, noticing the way tears begin to well up in your eyes.

You remember how it was back then. Before Dick's death things were great. You loved Bruce, you loved Dick... you loved Damian. It hurt you to think of the fact all of that was gone.

Would things even change if you didn't leave?

You both can tell Damian's tough persona crumbles as he reflects on the past like you. You see him clench his fist before looking back at you. He looks betrayed... but vulnerable.

"You're crying... come a little closer, I'll make it all go away." Damian mutters in an attempt to soothe the both of you. "We don't have to hold the past against each other anymore. I have you and you have me. That's all that matters."

You feel yourself being pulled into Damian's hold, his strong arms leaning you into his chest as he lays his chin on your head. You find yourself sobbing at both reuniting with Damian but also the fact he most likely kidnapped you. Damian answers you cries with soft shushing noises.

"You don't have to think about all of that. All you need to think about is me." He pulls away to tilt your chin up. "I've loved you since I saw you. I've loved you the most out of everyone in our family, I was the one always there for you. I should be the only one that matters to you now since I'm the one who was always with you."

"The others loved me too, Damian. They loved us both!" You retaliate, eyes narrowing. "The others were there for me too. It was never just you. What are you even talking about? What is wrong with you!?"

Damian's look of betrayal returns and he grits his teeth.

"Forget about them. They don't matter anymore!" Damian scolds, you don't seem to listen though.

"You can't make me not care for them Damian. They're still family! I still love them, you can't stop that!" You fight back, pulling away more from Damian. Your resistance only feeds into Damian's frustration.

"Selfish! That's what you are!" Damian yells, losing his cool. You hold your tongue and Damian's hypocrisy. He kidnapped you but calls you selfish for caring about family. Yeah right....

You only silently glare at Damian, pulling at the chains on your limbs in futility. Your relationship with Damian wasn't getting any better. You tried to forgive him before and keep things at that. Now you knew that was a mistake... Damian was always going to be a problem for you since the death of Dick.

Dick's death was an accident... kidnapping you was planned.

When you eventually realize there's no way out of the situation and fighting him on his delusions won't solve anything, you sigh in defeat. Damian sighs in return to rub away his anger. He looks at you in silence before shuffling closer.

"I'd burn this world and everything in it for you." Damian promises to you, reaching to stroke your skin. "That is how much I love you."

After that the silence in still thick. Your face holds a sour expression, more frustrated than scared. It hurts Damian when you look away but he stands up to try and hide his own anger.

"There's no use pouting." Damian says sternly. "I'm going to see you every day until you say you'll join The Regime. You can't be on your own anymore. You need me, you'll see."

You say nothing but Damian notices your silent sons. He doesn't like hurting you and wants life to return to how it was before. However... as much as he wants to comfort you it will only cause more hurt.

Damian turns away, saying a soft goodbye before locking the door when he leaves. You both leave the interaction in pain and frustrated. It will take time before Damian gets anywhere.

By now your relationship is permanently damaged...

There won't be normalcy or even mutual love between you for years... or maybe even longer.

#yandere injustice #yandere injustice 2 #yandere dc comics #yandere damian wayne #yandere injustice damian wayne

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dying-birds · 3 months

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Dying birds (Reverse robins Au)

(storyline part one)

Damian Wayne's childhood was unconventional, to say the least, raised by assassins only to be dropped off at his father's doorstep for his own protection. Consumed not only by wrath but the overwhelming pressure to please his grandfather, Damian was headed down a dark path of vengeance and blood. A path his father Bruce Wayne, was all too familiar with his father. Bruce took him on as a sidekick hoping to instill the values of justice and human life. Bruce becomes a more lighthearted Batman for Damian's sake.

After getting settled into his new role Damian was introduced to many other heroes and sidekicks, one of them being a redhead speedster. Wally West aka Kid Flash, may be the most annoying person Damian has ever met and yet he somehow he was also Damian's best friend.

As Damian grew older he found himself constantly butting heads with his father leading him to move out. A life away from Bruce and the constant fight had done him good Damina even considered doing away with the capes and mask sadly Gotham had other plans for him. Damian had been walking home from the store when he witnessed what appeared to be a mugging. He stepped in and things went south real quickly as he was shot by an unknown marksman. Bruce found his son bleeding out in the streets, a war on Gotham had begun. Damian woke up in a Gotham hospital unable to move his legs. Things were revealed about the mugging turning him bitter toward Bruce. Damian left Gotham altogether and Bruce became a harsher Batman

Tim Drake a mistreated child with a knack for photography, the next sidekick. Bruce would find this kid standing in the middle of his cave. Batman was on the edge of going rogue, Tim could let that happen. He pushed into taking the mantel out of necessity

The start of Tim's vigilante career was spent trying to get Bruce and Damian to talk to each other. For all his efforts he was treated horribly, Bruce's training was brutal and Damian treated Him harshly. For a while, Damian blamed Tim for taking his place but the truth was Damian thinks of himself as broken and sees what he could have been in Tim. Tim eventually does break through to Damian and the older boy comes back to Gotham taking up an oracle-type role.

Damian starts to see Tim as a little brother and enjoys having him around. Not long after Tim meets a ninja girl named Stephine Brown. Through a series of events convinces her to join the bats. Taking her under his wing Tim trains her to take his place so he can leave for a secret project called Titan. Only Steph and Damian know about this project.

One day on patrol Tim tries to help the wrong person causing him to get shot in the stomach. Tim gets away but he's bleeding heavily. Damian's on the comms trying to help him but everyone is to far away. Tim stumbles through the street before sliding down against a pole. In his last minutes, he talks to Damian and Bruce about how grateful he was to be a bat and tells Stephine how much he appreciated her friendship and how proud he was of her. Damian is on the comms the entire time helpless as his brother dies, his last words I love you guys.

#reverse robins #reverse batfam #damian wayne #tim drake #stephanie brown #batfam #batman #bruce wayne

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waldensblog · 1 year

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Reading Ruin and Rising

So I have finished The Grisha Trilogy! Overall, I quite enjoyed the book series after watching the show, and I will continue on to the Six of Crows Duology and then the King of Scars Duology. Below the cut are my thoughts on the final book in the trilogy.

TL;DR: -I liked how Alina grew more ruthless, really was full fledged. Her ending is tragic. -The Darkling basically won, and was taken down by his weakness: love. Still a Darklina stan, what a tragic romance they had. -I like Nikolai overall, and his ending is likewise sad, as he now is possessed. Kind of Darkolai ending for him. I like Nikolina too. -Mal isn’t the literal worst the entire time, but I’m not a fan of him still. I think he was not a true amplifier but a curse to whatever Grisha killed him. His happy ending comes at the expense of literally everyone else’s and the good of Ravka. -Story is overall a tragedy. A good tragedy, but a tragedy nonetheless.

Alina: Although she once again starts in a position of weakness, underground, recovering from the Chapel fight, I found myself loving the start. Alina’s developed into a morally grey and ruthless character, and I love this. She’s stuck with the apparat, but biding her time.

Her tether scene with the Darkling shows how far she’s come. She reached out to him, which surprised him, and stroke his face, taunted him with their love story - hell yeah, it was a very strong start for me.

When escaping the apparat, she almost kills (again), but only ends up branding someone. Again, loving this gray and ruthlessness, and all the inner thoughts about how very much like the Darkling she is becoming.

Alina eventually meets back up with Nikolai and they’re at the Spinning Wheel, where she trains more with Baghra, and gets stronger and stronger. During the escape from the Spinning Wheel, she uses the cut to kill someone, for the first time. She is disgusted with herself in part because yeah splitting someone in 2 would be pretty gorey, but also because of how... easy it was, how good it felt. She knows she’s going down a dark path, and I personally love to see it - because it breaks the hero archetype, giving her more an anti-hero arc.

I’ll discuss the ending itself further below, because I have a lot of thoughts on that, but to keep it brief here: the end of Alina’s story is, to me, tragic. She’s a tragic hero to me. I overall like her character, though I definitely have gripes about her at times, mostly, the Mal addiction.

The Darkling: My favourite still. The Darkling is to me an anti-villain - he does bad things for the right reasons. In another story, he may have been the anti-hero, not the one Ravka deserves perhaps, but the one Ravka needs (*Batman theme plays*).

The Darkling has basically won by the start of the story. He’s ruling Ravka, he can expand the Fold any way he wants, the King is on the run. He can ensure Grisha safety, stop the wars... he’s won. His weakness is what he always said: wanting, or more specifically: love.

When his mother jumps off a cliff, it’s because she knows this. She knows he would go after her - try to stop her from dying. Alina feels him try to pull her into the tether afterwards, and can feel his overwhelming grief. She refuses the call, but she knows. And in the Fold, when Alina loses her power - she doesn’t need the tether to feel his grief. Her metaphorical death there was too much for him. It wasn’t only about loneliness, but love. He wanted to rule with her - he wanted to his soulmate by his side. He wanted a partner. He goes about it poorly - having learned cruelty and abuse from his mother, and never breaking the cycle.

It was clear to me that they loved each other deeply as much as they hated the fact. In the tether, when he kisses her neck as she’s against him, the attraction, the pull, is very strong. At the end, she’s crying as he dies, and he just looks at her and is happy to know at least someone will mourn him - that he was loved.

I absolutely lose my mind about the fact that his body was burned alongside Ruby’s-disguised-to-look-like-Alina’s, because that was absolutely not for Ruby - who probably would not like that - it was not for him - because he probably wouldn’t like that either (though would be happy she respected his wish to burn the body) - it was certainly not for Ravka, who complained about it - this was for Alina. Alina asked for a Grisha effigy of herself to burn next to him. Her metaphorical funeral. Side by side. The immortal rulers of Ravka that could have been. As she watches this, she whispers his name in a sob. Dear.God. what a tragic lovers-to-enemies romance this is. I do wish there were more tether scenes, but I loved the ones we did get.

Nikolai: Nikolai starts on the run, and without tether scenes, we don’t get to see him for quite a while. When he finally does show up, I cheer. Yey! Our pirate prince is back! I loved all the scenes with Alina, and found their chemistry intriguing. I do feel that they could have been happy together, King and Queen of Ravka - a Grisha Queen which may have helped bridge the gap between Grisha and otkazat'sya, even leading to a Grisha king if they had a son. Certainly, that’s what both Siege and Storm and Ruin and Rising were saying was supposed to happen. I would have accepted this end, even if it wouldn’t have been my favourite, because it would be a bit status quo-y. As good a King as Nikolai may be - a great one with Alina at his side, he is still ultimately a monarch, and a mortal man. His descendants may not been as good - we could hope, if they’re Grisha, that they would be. He would have died as Alina remained ageless, so this would still have a tragic end for her. I like Nikolina, but it’s still a second choice to me after Darklina. I did have a pretty big gripe about Nikolai at the Spinning Wheel though: when it came to Genya. Sure, it’s great that he took her side, but his punishment to his father is so... what a slap on the wrist. Oh you abused this woman, well off to a warm retirement you go, I’m the King now, dad! To me, the fact that he didn’t stand trial kind of tells me the nobility will always get away with more under his rule than peasants would. He may not be the Worst, he may be a good and great king - but at the end of the day... a monarchy is still a monarchy.

The Darkolai vibes here were great - fucked, but great. The Darkling saw Nikolai at the spinning wheel, Mal too - and could have a) killed one or both, b) infect them with nichevo’ya. He specifically targeted Nikolai for option b - instead of killing the King, instead of killing Mal or infecting him. Why? Jealousy because Alina showed interest in him? Because he never saw him during tether scenes and therefore knows Alina does have genuine feelings for him? Or because... secret option C? I mean the tendrils down the throat is bit... not-hetero. They both ultimately want the same things, and in another story, another life, they may have been allies. At the end, Nikolai is still ultimately scarred, and the shadow demon-ness is not gone. A part of the Darkling lives on inside Nikolai’s body, so we... sort of have a Darkolai ending, don’t we?

The Darknikolina-ness of no tether scenes when she’s with Nikolai, the shadow demon and emerald ring, trying to cure via her light, the tendrils down the throat. My god. I am still on about this, yes. Imagine the possibilities...

Mal: Mal was not the literal worst in this book like he was in Siege and Storm. He’s finally gotten past being a drunk, angry, asshole, and now sees himself as a tool in a war. I’m glad he’s had some development, and that he’s accepted a position as not-Alina’s-lover. I find his tracker abilities absurd at times - what the hell do you mean he can target a beetle and shoot it to make a bomb explode?! WHAT? What in the world does that have to do with his being the firebird anyway? On that note, I posted this elsewhere, but I have a theory that Morozova’s third amplifier - the firebird - Morozova’s daughter and her bloodline, so Mal - is actually not a true amplifier, but a curse. Any grisha that dared kill the firebird would lose their powers, and a bunch of nearby otkazat'sya would get them. Kind of a monkey’s paw situation (you want power? wish granted - they get the amplified power, not you). Not that Mal would know that. I also think that this curse is partially why Alina was so drawn to him. It’s a bit tragic really - they think it’s a sincere affection, but it’s really the amplifier, a trap, pulling her in, luring her. It’s unfortunately dismissed immediately by Mal when Alina brings it up - what if everything between them was just the amplifier? I personally think it was. I also maintain that he was very much a drug for her. He wanted to carve out her power, and in the end, he basically did. She goes back to being “useless” Alina, and unhappily staring out a window, longing for her powers. Once again, Alina tries to tell us she is happy - despite the evidence suggesting otherwise.

The ending: I’ve already touched on the ending above a fair bit, but to summarize, I interpret the ending as a tragedy. Alina is a tragic hero - she tries to make things better, but she didn’t fix Ravka, there are still wars, and people still hate grisha. She loses her powers in the process, dying a metaphorical death and burning herself alongside her soulmate who she killed - our anti-villain, the Darkling. Nikolai is scarred, possessed, and left to rule alone, as Alina removes herself from society, sadly looking out the windows at the sunlight and wishing she had her powers, as Mal - the only happy one at the end has succeeded in keeping her weak. I know many hate the ending - I don’t, but it’s because I view it as a tragedy.

#Grishaverse #ruin and rising #grisha trilogy #darklina #nikolina #darkolai #darknikolina #anti malina

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nightwing60thanniversary · 1 year

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Clark Kent's Relationship to the other Mantle Holders

Clark has a personal connection to most of the Nightwing successors.

Dick Grayson Clark’s relationship with Dick spans decades. Since very early on their relationship has been defined by mutual trust. As a friend to Batman, Dick and Clark meet soon after Dick becomes Robin. Dick hero worships Clark, which comes out less or more depending on the writer. In some cases their team-ups treat them as equals (Legends of the DC Universe (1998) #6 ) while other times Dick has much to learn from Clark. (Superman (1939) #700).

Clark inspires Dick to become Nightwing in every main canon universe by telling him about the legend, if in different ways. (More info here.) Clark checks up on Dick from time to time once he’s settled in Blüdhaven (Nightwing (1996) #30). Mostly they are brought together by cases that lead to Metropolis and once Dick operates in New York, their paths cross even more (Nightwing: Freefall (2008)). Dick thinks of Clark as inspiring and powerful while Clark appreciates Dick’s detective work and focus (The Adventures of Superman (1992) Annual #4, Action Comics (1938) #841-843).

They know each other well, so well in fact, that Dick expects Clark to figure out the truth while Dick is forced to work for Slade as Renegade (Nightwing #115), and Dick knows Clark is the real Superman once he comes back to a distrusting community after having lost his powers for a year. (Action Comics (1938) #841)

When Dick becomes Batman Clark’s grief causes him to react in anger at first. He’s just lost his father and now his best friend. He claims Batman was the real Bruce and therefore Dick wearing the cowl is wrong. Diana and Dick manage to make him see reason and Clark begins to look forward to working with Dick (Superman/Batman #76). When Clark has to deal with New Krypton and later with the trauma of losing his home for a second time, Dick’s there for him (World’s Finest (2009) #4, Superman (1939) #703).

Chris Kent (Lor-Zod) Chris Kent is the adopted child of Clark and Lois. (Action Comics (1938) #845) When he crash lands on Earth in a Kryptonian ship, Clark immediately feels responsible for him. Clark bonds fast with the child and enjoys speaking Kryptonese with him. He also sees himself in Chris and what would have happened had he landed in a big city instead of a small town. When the government abducts Chris, Clark saves him and asks his parents for advice on how to hide him (Action Comics (1938) #844).

When Chris’ parents try to subjugate Earth, Chris doesn’t want to go back to being their pawn. He’s grown to love his adopted parents. Despite Clark’s efforts to save him, Chris ends up sacrificing himself to make sure his biological parents are trapped inside the Phantom Zone once again (Action Comics (1938) Annual #11).

Years later he still considers Clark and Lois his parents (Superman (1939) #696).

During War of the Superman (2010), Clark and Chris briefly reunite. Nightwing and Flamebird are tied to the phantom zone. In order for it to remain closed forever and for Clark to be able to remain on Earth, Chris once again decides to sacrifice himself by using his Nightwing powers to trap his biological father inside the prison dimension.

Karen Starr (Kara Zor-L) Karen Starr, also known as Kara Zor-L is the Earth-Two counterpart of Kara Zor-El and the cousin of Kal-L. Her relationship with the Clark Kent (Kal-El) of the main universes is defined by hardships but also a mutual understanding.

She first encountered Clark Kent of the main universe, the one that was Nightwing, in the pages of Justice League of America (1960) #147. She instantly preferred him to her version of Superman, which doesn’t mean she had a bad relationship with the Clark of her universe. In fact, the Clark and Lois of Earth-Two adopted her.

Karen returns to Earth-One some time later and joins the Justice League Europe. On one mission she ends up suffering a serious injury that is untreatable with normal methods. Superman helps by using his heat vision. Kara is saved but not without losing a significant portion of her powers. Clark worries she’ll hate him for it but Kara doesn’t. (Justice League Europe (1989) #9)

When the first Crisis happens, Karen’s home Earth-Two disappears and with that even her past (Secret Origins (1986) #11). Clark’s and her relationship grows strained when her memories of Krypton turn out to be fake. She is of Atlantean heritage (Justice League Europe (1989) Annual #2). Because of everything she believed was a lie, she has lost her place in the hero community. That the Kara of the main universe has finally landed on Earth, doesn’t help. She feels as if there’s no place in this universe for her anymore. Clark who was happy to have had another living relative is disappointed by the revelation (JSA Classified (2008) #1), but he’s there for her and treats her no differently (JSA Classified (2008) #2). Another Crisis event finally reveals the truth. Kal-L reveals to Kara that with Earth-Two destroyed, the universe has unsuccessfully been trying to integrate her into the main universe. She is in fact Kryptonian.

Kara trusts Clark enough to ask him for advice. When she wants to go serious with her company Starware, she asks Clark how to handle her secret identity (Power Girl (2009) #22-#23).

Damian Wayne (Injustice)

When Lois Lane is killed by the Joker, Clark’s ideology regarding criminals changes. He’s in favour of harsh punishments even leading to death. Damian shares this opinion early on due to his upbringing. When Nightwing dies during a prison break, his stance against his father’s softer methods only solidifies (Injustice: Gods Among Us #6).

Damian works as a spy and footsoldier to Superman in the second year. The third year he spends imprisoned, Bruce pleading with him and the others to switch sides, Damian refuses. He’s still convinced Clark is right. Even when Alfred discusses with him that Clark has gone way too far his opinion doesn’t change (Injustice: Gods Among Us: Year Five #13).

It’s not until he has his father’s death to answer for, that he breaks his ties to Clark and his ideology, setting out to liberate Earth from the remaining regime. (Injustice 2 (Video Game), Injustice vs. Masters of the Universe)

In the video game Injustice, one possible ending causes Damian to betray Clark and defeat him.

Van Zee Van-Zee is one of many Kal-El doubles existing on Kandor (Superman Family (1974) #185). Their relationship has a bit of a rocky start when Van-Zee falls in love with Lois over a distance (Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane (1958) #15). Regardless, Clark helps him and Kandor whenever he can (Superman Family (1974) #183). Van-Zee sometimes has to remind Clark to not overexert himself (DC Retroactive: Superman The 70s (2011) #1).

Jason Todd Jason and Clark met while he was Robin. Same as Dick, Jason hero worshipped Clark quite a bit, and Clark thought he was a good Robin successor. (Action Comics (1938) #556). Clark doesn’t have a favourable opinion on Red Hood. He lets Jason walk free as a favour to Bruce. He’d prefer to see him charged and convicted. (Red Hood and the Outlaws (2011) #14).

#clark kent #dick grayson #chris kent #karen starr #van-zee #jason todd #superfamily #batfamily #dc comics #nightwing60thanniversary #spotlights #clark kent spotlight #mod post

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augustheart · 1 year

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Uh Oh, I couldn't pick :( not even three :( and this is not in any particular order.

doom patrol vol. 2 #78, "the path of the vanished alphabets": absolutely a must-have on any of my lists. easily my favorite issue of teiresias wars, which is already my favorite of pollack's arcs. just bangs so hard in every way. so many iconic lines and moments, so many excellent character decisions (kate and cliff with the contract, cliff defending kate to niles and "dr. ice," "orgasm happens in the brain," etc), so much gorgeous storytelling. a crown jewel in comic books and in pollack's run. while as i said i love the rest of the arc--especially the issue immediately preceding and the one immediately succeeding it--and i do equally love pollack's single issues ("bootleg steele" and "the laughing game" come to mind), i decided to go with this one.

batman: gotham knights #41, "killer rush": while unfortunately the art is extremely unappealing for me, this issue will always be one of my favorites. my favorite short and sweet thing to tell people to read if they want to get to know sue, especially if they're batman fans. she gets to shine so much in this issue, and i love that the narrative doesn't have to disrespect ralph to do it! they can both be detectives at the same time! while i love the way the mystery shakes out, i love the ending almost as much—"alias 'm. malone,' LIGHTEN UP."

firestorm vol. 3 #32 "what people do": g-d. it's so good. so, so good. jason and stein's relationship is already near and dear to me so seeing them handle a conflict that shakes their friendship to its core is so good. it's the perfect culmination of an arc about family, fatherhood, and who firestorm is—it would've been the perfect end to the comic if they'd decided to end it with moore's last arc instead of continuing it for a little longer. (i'm not complaining, mcduffie wrote a great firestorm for those few issues.) jamal igle illustrating all of it is just the cherry on top of the cake after having to put up with how freddie e. williams draws lorraine. i also love jason's homophobia moment.

dial h for hero vol. 2 #13 "dial f for finale": i love all of dial h. i love all of wonder twins. but while i find wonder twins to be inseparable from itself, dial h just barely isn't so. the finale brings everything together so well. the whole comic is a must-read for anyone but it's hard to find a better ending to a run than that, which is enough to elevate it a touch above the rest of dial h's goddamn fucking stupendous issues.

blue beetle vol. 7 #16 "total eclipso: the heart" (...and #20 "fear to live," and #22 "under pressure," #25 "a little help from..."): i love blue beetle vol. 7. it's so fucking good. nobody was doing it like john rogers. one of the best comics of all time, not just of the so-often poorly constructed mid-2000s batch. #16 rises above the rest of the pack for me for obvious reasons, but i couldn't just leave out my other favorites. #20 makes me feel like screaming and crying and throwing up just like #16 does. all of the endgame arc is killer, but #22 and #25 are my personal highlights.

#hii gwen i could not decide :(#comic time BABYYY #catgirlalchemist #long post

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hellyeahheroes · 2 years

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20 Writing Things I Wish I Knew 20 Years Ago

It’s my birthday. At 32 I feel old. I am still full of things I wish I learned earlier, when I started trying to become a writer. A lot of regrets for time wasted and mistakes made. So here is the 20 basic things I wish I knew 20 years ago. Maybe some of it will help someone else save off some time on their own path. If not, maybe you all will have a good laugh.

1. All Advice is Subjective

You will notice a lot of the points on this list are mutually contradictionary or make you go “this is just like an exception to point X”. This is by the design. All advice and all thoughts on writing you will ever read, this list included, is what is working for the person who wrote it, within the framework of their personal perspective and preferences. It may not necessairly work for you. Moreover, I am a person who often goes “but what about...?” when being told something only works in a specific way. There is an exception to every rule that is often a different rule for different purpose. I would even say that every contradictory pair or rules exists on a sliding scale and it is your decision towards which you lean more or whenever you disregard one enteirly in favor of the other. Cherry pick what works for you, disregard the rest, if you find everything I say trash but walk out of this post picking even a single thing you find worth remembering, my time writing it was not wasted.

2. Rules Are Made to Be Broken

One of ironclad rules is that you can never make your hero too strong. That if they can just rollstomp over every opponnent then the tension of the story is enteirly gone and no one will care. We can look at several titles that didn’t listen to it and never gained any fame, now being doomed to obscurity forever, like Hellsing, Overlord or One-Punch Man. Wait, they’re all popular? And most popular superhero of all time is Batman, despite being at this point a giant meme about how he always wins?

(sidenote: don’t come at me with some crap how Batman struggles or you can believe he is in actual danger, it may be just me but I never could beleive he will be anything, but midly inconvenienced at best, since he unbroke his back in the 90′s. Not even when he was laser-point nuked in the face by cosmic god of fascism, from which he walked out perfectly fine btw)

For every rule you will read, there is a perfectly good way, several even, to disregard or break it enteirly. Honestly, you can do whatever you want, as long as you know what you’re doing. As a matter of fact, you should question every rule, even on this list. As I have said before, they often are made by and for people with specific outlook in life, that reflect on their writing.

Just so you don’t think this is baseless rambling, even the pros are questioning the validity of supposedly fundamental rules all the time. I’ll demonstrate this on a big one: Viet Thanh Nguyen has argued in 2017 that the “show don’t tell” rule, which so many take as gospel, is a rule invented for white people born in country they publish and pretty much useless for POC and immigrant writers, who may often need to describe emotions and experiences impossible to show. Eric Bennet points out the rule was, not even joking, part of CIA’s Cold War propaganda effort. Cecilia Tan on the pages of Uncanny Magazine #18 opens her own dissection of the rule with “ Yes, the dreaded “infodump” is seen as a hallmark of bad writing, but it’s faulty logic to conclude that therefore all infodumps are bad. Try telling that to Neal Stephenson the next time he wants to exposit about Sumerian”.

3. You Cannot Break What You Do Not Know

Fuck ‘em rules, got it? However, you cannot accomplish it without actually knowing the rule, what it does and why people adhere to it. The cases of ignorant gracefully stumbling into a great subversion or a fresh take on a cliche are few and far in between. It’s not that they do not happen. but the chances of you managing to pull it off are too slim to attempt it deliberatelly. If you want to break the rule you first need to understand how it works and where are it’s weak points and most importantly, what happens when you do break it.

4. You Can Have Too Much Of A Good Thing

This really applies to anything I will advise, but since we mentioned breaking the rules and subversion, it comes with perfect illustration. Why did Game of Thrones finale suck so much? In my belief it is because the show was designed on the principle of subverting, deconstructing and defying as many tropes of classic fantasy, chilvaric legends and fairy tales as possible. And that did carry it on for a very long time by the sheer novelty. Then came a moment they had to actually set up the end and creators found themselves in a pickle. Because there was no way to set up a satisfying ending that did not, in one way of another, play into the same tropes and genre conventions they spent so much time tearing down. So they ended with narratively unsatisfying clusterfuck that seems more concerned with defying expectations than actually giving a proper conclusion. Staying true to what got the series popular in the first place and making something that feels narratively complete at the same time turned out to be impossible.

5. Have Something To Say

Everything you write is saying something. Everything that has a story is going to have message, themes and politics. Every book, every comic, every game. People who rush at you with examples trying to prove how such claim is wrong either do not see or willfully deny what lies at the very core of that example. That or said an exception proving the rule. Demanding someone proves to you politics of Tetris only shows that you need to be some abstract nonsense, divorced from any semblance of the narrative to not have politics in it.

You either will say something intentionally through your story and shape it to fit what you are trying to say, or you will do unintentionally. And believe me, people are gonna take different things from your creation anyway, last thing you need is to let something from your messy subconciousness slip through.

Be passionate about the story you tell, be passionate about its message. Speak of things you love, speak of your fears, speak of what angers you. Writer cannot be detached from the world, from life or from people. You’re not a dispassionate, objective observer removed from reality. I get you may be shy, or feel your own experiences aren’t worth talking about. Or maybe the memories are still too painful for you to open that particular wound. That’s okay. But I’m sure you are passionate about something. Even if your work is deriverative in some way. I touched upon it in my previous list. Even if you’re passionate about things like fictional characters or stories, there is likely a deeper meaning to them, that resonates with you. Tap into it.

6. Shut Up

Stories have different levels of clarity. In some it is obvious what is happenning, others intentionally muddle the waters to confuse the audience. Readers should put down your work having clear picture of everything you wanted to make clear. At the same time, they should be full of question and uncertan about things you purposefully left ambigious and unexplained. The former requires no explanations from the author outside the work itself. The latter should never be explained that way. If you find yourself having to go on the record and explain or clarify things you didn’t intend to left out unexplained, you fucked up.

7. Take Care of Your Needs

Don’t write when you’re hungry. Don’t write when you’re sleep deprived. Don’t write when you’re horny. In each of these cases the quality of your work is going to suffer. Even smut needs you to look at a sex scene with a rational, un-horny eye once in a while. Eat a hot dog, take a nap, masturbate. Take care of your needs, then go back to writing. If you know a scene can cause you to crave one of your needs, go take care of that need in advance and THEN write it. Similiarly if you know the writing you’re about to do may hit one of your triggers, prepare the tools of emotional support of your choice at hand.

DISCLAIMER: I have never done drugs aside coffee, not even a smoke. I have no fucking idea how this advice may interact with addictions so please do NOT take it as encouraging you to do that kind of things.

8. Characters Matter More Than The Plot

Plot does not matter as much as people like to think. At the end of day it is merely a framework within which the characters operate and interact. You can craft the most complex, intricate plot ever created. But if it unfolds for a cast of dull cardboard cutouts that have less agency than a pawn on a chessboard and seem more concerned with saying lines that will get them quoted on Tvtropes than experiencing actual human emotions, nobody's gonna give a shit. Great plot will not save the story with bad characters, but the opposite is very much true - if you have great, multi-dimensional characters and respect their choices and agency, people may stick with you even if the base plot is a convoluded storm of cliches and a mess of increasingly nonsensical events. As long as it feels that it is convoluded storm of cliches and a mess of increasingly nonsensical event that the characters made by their own choices and actions.

In RPGs an equivalent of this advice would be “situations, not stories”: Don’t design a story of what is going to happen on a session and then railroad the players to experience it. Create a situation, have a plan how it would develop if the player characters never got involved, then let them wreck it with their own choices and decisions. I’m not sure it is applicable to writing, however. At the end of the day YOU control ALL of the characters. They aren’t real and do not make their own decisions, you do it for them. Ultimatelly all chocies they make are serving to tell the story you want to tell. However if you can convince the readers of the opposite, make them believe that characters make choices in accordance with their personalities, instead of making choices you WANT them to make, that you respect their agency first and foremost...well, that’s what we call a “character-driven story”.

9. Plot and Theme Are Intertwined

Similiar to previous point, themes you are exploring in your story and the message you are telling won’t save it if the events makes no sense. The plot should complete and explore the theme. That means plotting the events that show the protagonist issues related to the theme and force him to take a stance. While showing and exploring opposing viewpoints to intended message can help with that, overall the main character should journey to learn the lesson you want the audience take from this work. Or, if they have a negative arc, they should learn all the wrong lessons so that the audience can see their downfall as a cautionary tale. If your theme is that murder is wrong but the plot rewards the protagonist for killing until he makes a sudden turn in the finale, suddenly feeling bad for killing a girl he fancied, but not about slaughtering his way through dozens of human beings through the whole story, it will feel jarring. Unless the real message was that the protagonist is a huge asshole, that is.

10. Aesthetic Is Narrative

The stylistic choices, be it in art, set/costumes or description, are part of your narrative and inform the reader what kind of a story it is. Say a character decides to join the good guys and gets a costume change. The moment they step out of changing room will send a different message if that costume is an army uniform, a padded biker suit with red scarf floating on the wind or a black, sleevless leather jacket with a dojo symbol on the back. First one evokes an image of a rebel being brought into the fold and tempered by military discipline, second implies the character’s newfound desire to protect the innocent by bringing to mind Kamen Rider and Tokusatsu heroes, and the last suggests a “reformed, but not tamed” wildcard deciding to fight for the school he respects.

This applies to what the character is wearing but also their overall design, body language, as well as the scenery. Imagine Jenny the Thief, dressed in plain clothes, scuffling nervously through the alley, keeping to the shadows cast by tall castle walls and towers, that the narrator compared to claws of a monster trying to grab sun from the sky. It evokes a much different image that the same Jenny dressed in colorful dress with many acessories, striding confidently, wishing one of palace’s fantastic towers would be casting a shadow on this back alley, so that she doesn’t need to suffer Sun’s full attention.

If you’re working in a medium that utilizes music, this appleis as well. For evidence, listen to 3 different entrance themes of professional wrestler the Undertaker - Rest In Peace, Keep Rollin and Memory Remains - and think about how they evoke a vastly different character.

This is also why an overt sexualization of women is often so cringe-worthy. It’s not that this is always bad (though I despise it on many levels), but it has its place and time. If a vilainess shows up in a skintight latex suit with proportions and body language of a stereotypical dominatrix femme-fatale, you better be writing smut or at least a shamelessly horny pulp, not a hard science story about troubles of long-term space travel.

Important exception, of course, is a deliberate subversion. A character whose looks are supposed to evoke certain set of expectations, only for their personality to be near total opposite, when used properly can make us question the reader’s assumptions and biases. For example, my favorite DC superhero is Cassandra Cain, whose costume as Batgirl evokes an image of typical dark and gritty 90′s antihero, and who actually has stronger moral code against killing than even Batman. Be warned, however, that this subversion must be done deliberatelly and carefully, othertwise it will just become jarring.

11. Google Every Word You Make Up

Stole this one from this very website but it’s worth repeating. If you make up a term, google if it doesn’t mean something unfortunate in some language. I’m just going to point out how at some point Magic the Gathering made a character named Sram and I will never stop laughing at them for that, because in my native tounge “sram” is a very vulgar way of saying “I’m taking a dump”.

12. "Convincing” not “Realistic”

Nobody wants a realistic story. We do not care what would be a realistic outcome of doing X in real life. What people want is to be convinced this could happen. We want to believe this could happen. We can take a lot of a story, even something so over the top fantastical like Gurren Lagann or Devil May Cry. But we need some point of reference for characters actions. Dragons, giant robots, eyes that are portals to punch dimension? We can buy that easily with some bit of handwaving like “divine will” or “the X gene” or “Minkovsky Particles”. What is really important is to convince us the characters are making decisions rational humans would. Not just the characters, but the world itself. We need internal consistency to your world’s rules and to the sociopolitical actions taken by nations and societies of it.

This is why we won’t usually accept in-universe excuses for something we know is a stupid decision. Your heroine can wear an “armor” that is basically just a metal bra because “she cast a spell of protection that defends her as much as a full plate would”? Yeah, that is still going to break my suspension of disbelief. In theory there is no threat to nurses, lawyers or teachers at work. But no woman who wants to be taken seriously in any of these jobs would come to work in a bikini, would she?

I will admit, what one finds convincing can vary from a person to person and may even change within the same person overtime, as their experiences pile up and perspective is refined. You might have seen it in some recent sentiments, like “When I was a kid I found Wheel of Time unrealistic because it was so hard for the heroes to unite the nations of the world against evil. After last few years, I find it unrealistic because they DID manage to unite everyone at all”.

13. Pick Characters Who Contrast Each Other...On Equal Footing

There is a lot of advice on why it is important to make characters who are great foils to one another, especially the protagonist and the antagonist. But what people forget often is that it is important to give them enough ground to stand on equal footing. Enough narrative weight it doesn’t feel one orbits another, existing only to enrich the latter’s story. If in Iron Man II James Rhodes, Justin Hammer or Whiplash asked “ Big man in a suit of armor. Under that what are you?” and Tony Stark just replied “ Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist.” , we would be quick to dismiss their question. This is because each of those characters, while contrasting Tony in different ways, is not as well-developed as him or given enough narrative weight to stand on his own, they are merely there to help tell his story. When this exchange occured in the Avengers, however, it became one of most memorable moments. Because the man asking was Steve Rogers, a character of equal narrative importance as Tony.

This is why so many people love good villains and rivals. Because they are sometimes the only people getting as much narrative pull as the hero. And yes, that is a dig at the Whiplash in Iron Man II not being well-written.

14. Make Sure Your Character Fits The Story

If Otello and Hamlet switched plays, neither would happen. Quick to action Ottelo would have Cluadius’ head on a pike before his father’s ghosts is done speaking. Always doubtful Hamlet would question Iago’s words enough to realize he is being played. Shakespeare choose to tell the story with each character because their flaws were what lead them to a tragic end in this specific situation.

Think carefully if your hero actually works for a story you’re trying to tell with them. Don’t bend over backwards to make it about a character you think will be more marketable for target audience. People can tell when you’re doing that and it always rings false to the whole story. And if you have to contrive reasons why you’re telling a story about your protagonist in the first place, the chances are that the story would benefit from cutting them out. Usually when that happens, there is someone in your supporting cast who fits the role of main character much better. For example, in the comic book version of the Boys Billy Butcher and Wee Hugie are incredibly boring choices for the protagonist, as each’s motivation to oppose evil corproation, and superheroes it makes, boils down to “they killed my woman”. Compare it with Mother’s Milk, whose entire life has been ruined by the same corporation and who lost his entire family due to that corporation’s actions, and he makes much more compelling character.

15. Not Every Trope Fits Every Story

Let us take previous point a step further. Each genre has its own conventions that you need to respect to a degree at least. There are storytelling tools that may work in one type of story but not in another. Casually killing characters for shock value may work wonders in a gripping, dark fantasy war story like Glen Cook’s Soldiers Live. But comic books like Ultimatum or Avengers Arena have shown that it does not translate well into a shared universe of uplifting superhero narratives. Readers of Cook come in with an unspoken understanding that he is writing a brutal world, where death is quick and merciless and does not care who you are. His heroes are, at the end of the day, just humans. Slaughtering superheroes right and left just makes the reader ask what exactly is different now from all those times when they saved the day with a smile. Why are they sudenly dying when other heroes are fine? Why is this edgy bad guy with tech able to kill someone who survived one-on-one with an actual god? And if you cannot provide a convincing answer, the audience will feel like you’re just flipping them a bird for liking characters you don’t care for.

16. Not Every Genre Fits Every Story

Taking the last two points even a step further, you need to make sure you are telling your story in a genre, or even a medium, best suited for it. Infamous creepypasta Sonic.exe can only work if you don’t think about what is happenning for more than five seconds. Othertwise you realize that the narrator is for some unexplained reason unable to tell fiction from reality and freaking over characters dying in a hacked copy of Sonic the Hedgehog game more than over death of his friend...and then playing anyway. A very common opinion, that I share, is that the story would be much better off if it ditched human narrator and presented itself as a dark fic, a genre always open for another “beloved character suddenly goes serial killer on the cast” story.

In more broader sense, there are things a specific medium does better from others. If your story relies on heavy introspection, discussions of complicated scientific concepts and thick worldbuilding, chances are it will work best as a novel, than a comic book. If you want to have a lot of martial art battles, any visual medium is likely going to convey it better than written prose. But even then, you need to know different forms of that medium to match your specifics. Western comics have length of 20 to 36 pages per issue, depending whenever its American or European standard. The audience excepts to get, in one such issue, roughly balanced mix of verious elements, which is why most action scenes are going to be swift, maybe only few pages. Meanwhile manga is used to hyperfocusing on a specific element of story at the time. It is also more decompressed, with longer chapters of 30+ pages on average. Meaning it fits more a drawn-out battle full of twists and turns over the course of multiple chapters. If your want to make an action-packed show or a film, live-action budget can much easier take in something closer to real life, with little to no powers, realying on choerography and actual martial arts. Meanwhile, in animation it is going to be as expensive to make two people fight one another regardless if they’re throwing around knives or laser beams. Of course if you overcomplicate on the powers, you can reach a point where it would be better off as a prose after all, which is why it is important to know what kind of story you want to tell in the first place.

17. Set Up Some Lines

Once in a while you come across a work that does something that is considered bad in this genre, medium or just this kind of story. And yet gets away with it, at least for you, if not for everyone. Maybe it does a particular trope you usually dislike but manages to pull it out just right to not bother you. Maybe they did something that made your most hated type of character at least bearable? These are worth studying as to how do they accomplish this, obviously. But it is also useful to note them as a line in the sand, so to speak. They clearly hit a sweet spot before the overdone thing becomes actually overdone. If you ever find yourself dealing with this kind of topic in your own writing, you can reffer to the line.

For example, let’s say that you’re wondering whenever to make a superpowered battle series a comic, animation or a prose. You may look at something like JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, a franchise that has been for decades getting away with having very complex abilities and characters explaining and/or analyzing them in great detail, despite it being something that should be avoided in a visual medium. You can set up a “JoJo Line” by asking yourself - would an average character of my story need more time/page space to explain their powers than an average one in JoJo?”. If answer is yes, you should probably make this a novel.

18. What You Do Not Show (Doesn’t) Matter

If you relegate certain action or things done by a specific character to happening “off-screen” and merely be something we see a result of, or are told about, you send a direct message this thing or character doesn’t matter. If you want to make sure readers consider a character competent at something, you need to show them being competent at it. Think of every time you have seen a scene where hero bursts to the room to save a woman from a villain, only to find her fine and the baddie tied up. How many of them actually established the woman in question as a badass in her own right? I bet you it were only those where we actually have seen her fight or outright overcome the villain, not the ones where it all happenned off-screen. Adventure Time brilliantly parodied how useless this type of scene is, by showing us how an incompetent villain manages to accidentially tie himself up, in front of a very confused girl, and heroes severly misread the situation.

What I’m trying to say here is that things you choose to not show matter....because they don’t matter. Your chocie what to ommit enforces an idea what the story is about and that the part you skipped is outside of that scope. It informs the focus of your narrative and the idea of what is relevant or irrelevant. So if you want a character to be part of main cast, be wary of pushing too much of their accomplishments or arc to happen off-screen. In case of accomplishments you can skip them if you already showed character good at the thing. If you have established the hero as badass by showing them beat a big, strong enemy, you can probably skip them fighting some losers as we know what outcome will be. You can then only show hero’s fights if there is an actual risk the character losing, to use what you were previously not showing to enchance the tension. But if you ever show the character losing and all their victories are from off-screen fights, it just shows they’re a fake who cannot win against a real opponnent, and their reputation as strong is as good as an informed ability. After all, if we never see them win, how do we know their “victories” aren’t just all from enemies slipping on a banana peel?

19. Overt Complexity is Self-Congralutatory

Resist the temptation to make the villain’s plan overtly complicated. The more steps the plan needs to accomplish, the harder it is to believe when it goes off without a hitch. It is very easy to reach a point when the plan no longer makes villain look like a master manipulator, but as if they have crystal ball and can see the future, as they account for events they had no way of knowing about

Make sure to keep your villain’s goal in mind and that the plan is actually serving accomplishing the goal and not just showing how smart the villain is. I recommend studying a movie Usual Suspects for this and realizing how the villain’s plan ends up undermining the very goal it was conceived for, just because the writer wanted to make sure we see him as a mastermind.

As with everything, remember you can have too much of a good thing. Gargoyles’ David Xanatos showed us that villains who can accomplish secondary objectives can look smart even if their main goal is thwarted. But the same writers’ Young Justice has took it to a such extreme it became a joke and sucked all tension from the story - why bother caring if we know the bad guys from the Light will win? Because they always win, even if they lose, they still win.

20. It’s Okay To Figure it Out As You Go

I bet this all feels very intimidating. So let’s me make one thing clear as my closing words. You do not need to have fully fleshed out characters before you begin plotting your story. It’s okay to not have the plot all figured out before you choose the theme of your story. Hell, it’s okay to just start writing scenes with your OC and figure plot and theme as you go. It’s okay to go without a plan or unprepared, stumble and make a note of the issue. At some point you will need to make revisions anyway, first draft is always supposed to suck. Once you finish it, you can start ironing everything out so that it fits neatly together.

Anyway, Happy Birthday to me

-Admin

#writing #writing advice

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zeta-in-de-walls · 3 years

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Tommy and the role of ‘hero’

Hey, this little essay is discussing how Tommy’s character has struggled with being called a hero and hows it’s been a significant part of his character arc for Season 2 of the SMP. It’s not a title he ever gave himself yet it’s a title he’s burdened with all the same.

Funnily enough, I don’t recall Tommy ever being called a hero before Technoblade’s damning speech on Nov 16th, where he compared Tommy to Theseus.

Tommy you just did a coup. You just did a hostile Government takeover and then immediately instilled yourself as President. And then you gave it to your friend but that’s still a tyrant Tommy.

But the thing about this world Tommy, is that good things don’t happen to heroes. Let me tell you a story Tommy, a story of a man called Theseus. His country, well his City-State technically, was in danger and he sent himself forward into enemy lines. He slayed the Minotaur and saved his city. You know what they did to him Tommy? (”What did they do?”) They exiled him. He died in disgrace, despised by his people. That’s what happens to heroes Tommy. The Greeks knew the score. But if you want to be a hero Tommy, that’s fine.

Do you want to be a hero, Tommy? Then die like one!

Technoblade’s speech is a frustrating one at first. It begins by essentially calling Tommy a power hungry tyrant despite that being far from the truth - Wilbur was the one who formed the Government and Tommy rejected power. He trusted it to Wilbur who then chose Tubbo. Schlatt wasn’t even killed by Tommy, he died of a heart attack after being abandoned by every one of his allies so it wasn’t even really much of a takeover at all and it wasn’t Tommy. Yet this speech was entirely directed at Tommy.

But the latter half is different, accusing Tommy instead of trying to be a hero who thinks he’s saving the world and that he’s doomed to have a bad end. It’s interesting as never has Tommy claimed to be much of a hero. Tommy’s always just fought for the things he cared about. Indeed his response to Techno’s speech suggests the same.

“I’m not the hero. No one’s the hero! We’ve got L’Manburg for each other.”

But of course, Techno’s words stick with him all the same. Particularly the bit about a tragic end as Tommy becomes very, very aware of his own mortality in the arcs that follow. To Techno, a hero seems to be a naive figure who tries to do good but is destined for failure and tragedy.

But there’s another path Tommy fears even more. One that he’s witnessed firsthand. Becoming the villain.

Let’s be the bad guys. Tommy, why not? Our nation’s gone. our nation’s far behind us, Tommy. Let’s blow that motherf*cker to smithereens. Tommy, I say if we can’t have Manburg, no one - no one can have Manburg! ...L’Manburg.

This is a new era! We burn the place to the f*ckin ground, I want no crops to grow there ever again. I want f*ckin mycelium and cobblestone, it all covered, Tommy. I want it all gone!

Tommy, let’s be villains.

Wilbur was Tommy’s hero. He loved Wilbur dearly and wanted nothing more than to be a good right-hand to him and make him proud. But when they lost L’Manburg and were banished, Tommy saw Wilbur changing, saw him giving up home and deciding he’d rather destroy the thing they’d worked for and blow it all up. After Wilbur made this speech, Tommy argued, making it clear he was entirely against his plans. Even saying that it wasn’t the moral thing to do. He said not to give up hope, that everyone wasn’t against them and that Wilbur’s ideas were reckless. But he stayed with Wilbur and continued to support him, hoping that he could convince him to change his mind. Tommy failed. And Wilbur died.

So, the Tommy at the start of S2 just wants to go back to his old life, a simpler time where he doesn’t have to worry about L’Manburg anymore as it’s in safe hands and he can focus on his personal concerns once more - like his music discs. He doesn’t want to be a hero or a villain, he merely wants to be happy again in a world without Wilbur.

But there’s someone else watching him. Dream.

I think it’s no coincidence that Dream wanted Tommy exiled by his own people. I think he was deliberately trying to make Techno’s speech into a reality. Dream had become rather obsessed with Tommy and treated all their interactions like a fun game where he played the villain and Tommy, the hero. It’s not a narrative Tommy himself liked but all he could do was play along.

Dream had him exiled and this seriously pushed Tommy to his limits. On the first day, Techno briefly visited and asked him why he was still trying and he answered that he always gets back up and he would keep on fighting Dream. But as his exile progressed he slowly lost his will to fight. Slowly Tommy stopped believing that his exile would ever come to an end and that people still cared.

In exile Tommy had a lot of time for reflection. Here’s something Tommy says days into his exile when he’s begun to lose all hope and is starting to accept that maybe Dream’s his only friend.

Everyone always tells me I was the- the hero of this server. The one that came and f*ckin fought Dream - the only one that ever spoke back to him. But maybe I was just... maybe this was just meant to be.

Tommy’s got complicated feelings about being a hero. To him it means standing up to Dream, never giving up - that’s what he believed people expected of him. But in his exile, he began to give in to Dream. He begins to express how no one cares and that the only reason they ever pretended to care was when he had status - when he was part of L’Manburg. There’s this implication that he felt like people only cared about him when he was being the selfless hero. When he was trying to be selfish for once, causing trouble like he used to and wanting to focus on his personal disc war rather than on L’Manburg, he got exiled. (Of course, this is Tommy’s biased perspective not how others actually viewed him.)

Tommy eventually escaped his exile, finding renewed courage to fight against Dream. Except, he’s still scared and uncertain and feels confused about Dream. He feels lost and clings onto Technoblade for support.

With Technoblade, Tommy starts to feel more like himself - but Techno also influences Tommy, turning him more against his friends. (I think Techno’s character genuinely thought they didn’t truly care about Tommy, likely not realising how much they had also been manipulated by Dream.) Technoblade gently encourages Tommy to be more violent and wants him to help blow up L’Manburg.

This is where Tommy’s fear about becoming more like Wilbur come into play. Tommy did not want to become a bad guy - he’d had nightmares about it even. But in his time with Technoblade, after how helpless he’d been during his exile, being given some power lead Tommy to start lashing out more violently, he began to get more aggressive - alarmingly so even. Technoblade’s path was one of revenge, dealing with his own pain by causing others to suffer (for noble goals, fighting corruption etc I don’t want to get sidetracked though this is about Tommy). Technoblade’s presence was helpful to Tommy, helping him to get over much of his fear but he still lacked in agency and still felt lonely knowing he hadn’t made up with his friends.

Tommy finally came to his senses at the festival, where he realised he was fighting his best friend and putting his personal attachments - his discs - over Tubbo. And that was wrong. He realised he was becoming just the sort of person he didn’t want to be - he had been on the path to becoming like Wilbur. And he rejected that path. He wasn’t going to be a bad guy. Just because he was hurt didn’t justify hurting others. So he reconciled and once more committed to protecting L’Manburg, having put his personal desires aside. It seemed like he’d put himself into the role of selfless hero yet again.

And he failed. Again.

Dream tells him how it was a fun game to him. And how their story was not over. Tommy though, had become extremely tired of it. He didn’t want to play Dream’s game.

They meet up again. And again, Dream talks to Tommy like he’s important - like he’s the key to everything. He wants Tommy to play the role of hero and has been manipulating events for a long time to keep pushing him, to keep taking things from him. Being a hero, which Dream believes Tommy wants, simply means playing along with Dream’s narrative.

Tommy, you want to be a hero, right? You want to be the hero of the server. And every hero needs an origin story, right? Batman had his parents, Spiderman had uncle Ben, you have Tubbo, right?

In the end, Tommy refuses to play Dream’s game anymore though. He called for help and got saved by everyone else. Then he killed Dream twice and had him locked away for good.

And once more, Tommy decided to do things for himself again. He decided to live peacefully, working on a project, talking to various people on the server and trying to avoid making waves and getting into any more conflict. It’s a good end.

He rejected Wilbur’s path and he defied Technoblade’s predictions and he didn’t lose his best friend to Dream. And now Tommy’s trying to avoid playing the role of hero anymore. It’s not a title he ever gave himself but one thrust upon him. Yet it’s one he’s keenly aware of. And one that, despite everything, he can fulfil.

Tommy’s arc has been in some respects about defying the expectations of others - but he also can’t help but fight for the things he loves. He realises his troubles were not that his friends didn’t care or that he had to play a role but that his life was being controlled by Dream and now he’s free of that. No longer is he so weighed down by expectations but when there is a sufficiently threatening enemy, he has not lost his determination to challenge it.

#tommyinnit #meta #analysis #uh feel like i didn't have a great conclusion #anyway i love tommy's character #and his arc has been great this season #i especially appreciated how the exile arc really showed another side to his character #and dream's a great antagonist #driving much of this conflict #dream smp #exile arc #i didn't really talk much about love and attachments which are also impornant to understanding his character this season #and also his grief and thoughts on death #anyway this is about tommy not techno or dream or wilbur so i'm not analysing their actions except in regards to how they affected tommy #but feel free to add or correct me on anything #cheers!#the disc war

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buttercupsbitch · 2 years

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issue #427

This is a formal essay about jason todd as a character written for the mgi civil war event :)

(cw: a little gory?? its dc and specifically jason soo.. be careful)

Jason Todd is a fictional character set in the universe of DC Comics. He is one of the iterations of Robin and a crime boss of Gotham. Considered an anti-hero, Jason is known for taking matters into his own hands. His attitude and confirmed kill count of 83 make him fairly popular within today’s DC fandom and crossovers.

To understand Jason, you have to know his past. Jason is widely considered one of the most traumatized and mistreated characters of DC by most of the fanbase. Jason’s first appearance in the Batman comics is when he is caught by Batman while attempting to steal the tires from the Batmobile in order to pawn them for money, something he had done to several other cars before. However, the Dark Knight catches him and decides to take him to his “good friend” Bruce Wayne who adopts the boy, after learning how his parents were dead. Comics are notorious for not keeping up with continuity, leaving some debate for how old he is when he is taken in, but he is most likely somewhere around 12 years old. Before meeting Jason, Batman (Bruce Wayne) had another sidekick, Dick Grayson, the original Robin. He was an acrobat that Bruce took in after he witnessed the murder of Dick’s parents at the circus (Dick also witnessed this) and decided to prevent him from heading down the same path that Bruce had walked many years before. Around the time that Bruce meets Jason, Dick is fighting with Bruce, leading to him moving out and taking a new mantle, Nightwing, in the city Bludhaven.

In early Batman comics, Bruce is seen being unnecessarily cruel to Dick, going as far to be physically abusive towards the boy. When Jason moves in, he does not receive the same parenting from Bruce, leading to a lot of animosity between the wouldbe brothers. That leaves Jason in a new environment with no allies and nothing but his street training. He is sent to Gotham Academy, a private school filled with the children of the wealthy and upper class population of Gotham. Most of the city heard of the ward from Crime Alley that was adopted by Bruce Wayne, leading to a lot of bullying for the boy. Jason goes on to take the mantle of Robin and becomes the second sidekick to Batman.

The relationship between Bruce and Jason is complicated. Jason is the first son Bruce adopted and was the only one he adopted for a while. Throughout multiple comics and continuities, something happening to Jason, in which he dies, hates Bruce, or gets hurt, is Bruce’s greatest fear. Bruce has done things for Jason that he never did for the rest of his children, one being that he ignored the bat signal because getting Jason back after he was taken from him by the court was more important. Another time, he missed a patrol to spend time with Jason because he was sick. Bruce used to carry a photo of Jason around in his Batman utility belt. Jason’s most precious memory was of the skipped patrol when he was sick and they watched a movie together, though he did give it up during a mission with the Outlaws, a team of morally gray heroes. The two truly care about each other, but after his death, there is a lot of animosity. Both have admitted to pulling punches and throwing fights in an effort not to hurt the other.

DC Comics wanted to do something different with the newest boy wonder, leading them to allow fans to choose the fate of one Jason Todd. They asked the fans to vote whether the boy lived or died. At the end of Batman #427, Jason was left to die in a building. The inside back cover of the issue listed two 1–900 numbers that readers could call to vote for the character's death or survival. Within the 36-hour period allotted for voting, the poll received 10,614 votes. The end results were very close, with a difference of 72 votes, 5,343 votes for him to die to the 5,271 for him to live. The next issue, Batman #428, was published featuring the death of the second Robin. Later on, one writer said it was possible that hundreds of votes in the "Jason Dies" line came from a single person, leading to the realization that they could not use such a poll to quantify a character’s popularity. Among the community, there are rumors that a single person programmed their phone to repeatedly dial the line for Jason’s death over the course of eight hours.

The actual circumstances around his death are even more brutal. Jason Todd was born to Willis Todd and Dr. Sheila Haywood, although Sheila relinquished custody when Willis married Catherine Todd. Catherine was a drug addict and died from an overdose, and Willis, who had once worked for Two-Face, was sent to jail and eventually murdered by the criminal. Jason was not aware that Catherine was not his birth mother and, when he finds out, decides to find her, leading him to Ethiopia. Unbeknownst to him, the Joker, a main rival of Batman, had discovered the identity of Robin, and also found his birth mother, convincing her to work with him. The Joker goes on to viciously beat the fifteen year old Jason with a crowbar and leave him to die in a building rigged with explosives. Joker actually held Jason for a few days, beating him and torturing him mentally by telling him that Batman was not coming for him. Batman does arrive, but only in time to see the building explode. He does retrieve Jason’s body and his end is viewed as the biggest failure, by Bruce himself. Alfred, Bruce’s butler and father figure, says himself that he believes that Jason’s death hurt him more than his own parents’ because he had the ability to stop it. Jason’s last words and thoughts were of Bruce, a thank you and an apology. This isn’t even where Jason’s story ends.

Six months after his death (due to some weird dimension shenanigans involving Superboy) Jason awakes in his coffin, with no memories, and begins screaming for Bruce. He eventually digs himself out with his bare hands, and then collapses outside of the cemetery due to the injuries he received before his death not being healed. For a year, he is in a coma, and wakes with amnesia. He is recognized by a random criminal, who informs Talia Al-Ghul, a previous fling of Bruce Wayne’s, who takes him to the Lazarus Pit, which heals his injuries and returns his memories, while also fracturing his mind and leaving him with Pit Madness. After learning that Bruce allowed the Joker to go free after killing him, Jason decides to avenge himself and begins training with the All-Caste. The group does train him, but they do not support his plan for revenge so he returns to the League of Assassins, before deciding they are boring him, so he heads back to Gotham. Jason makes his return by hijacking a shipment of kryptonium from Black Mask, announcing himself as Red Hood, an old moniker of the Joker’s.

Jason discovers that there is a new Robin, Timothy Drake, and, through Pit Madness and grief, decides to kill him. Jason doesn’t just meet him in the streets. Jason makes a Robin costume, breaks into Titans Tower, and goes berserk on Tim, while venting to him about his feelings. He tells Tim how he resents that he had parents, he tells him how he’s supposed to be the replacement, he’s supposed to be the better Robin, yet Jason is beating him. He knocks Tim out and punches him again after he is on the ground, writing ‘Jason Todd was Here,’ on the walls in what appears to be Tim’s own blood. Jason obviously has a lot of motives in this action, but one is his disdain towards Bruce allowing another child to become Robin. Red Hood goes on to oppose the Bat family and become a crime boss, notorious for not putting up with any misbehavior towards children.

This, and plenty of more complex story lines that would take an eternity to go through, not counting other continuities (like the one where the Joker literally causes Catherine to overdose and sends Willis to jail, just on the off chance Jason could become Robin so Joker could kill him to hurt Batman) are what makes Jason a complex character. He has the means and motives to become one of the worst villains Batman has ever faced, and yet he decides to clean up Gotham, his way. Jason Todd came back from the dead to find that not only had his adoptive father not avenged his death, but he had also given another child the same role that had gotten him killed. Jason holds a lot of resentment towards the entire Batfamily, though for different reasons.

Jason has a very strong sense of justice that is tainted by both his time on the streets and his own death. He thinks that the only way for victims to really get justice is for him to step in. As a street kid, Jason witnessed firsthand how corrupt the police of Gotham City really were, leaving him to have no faith in any portion of the justice system, but at least he still had Batman. His mentor and adoptive father was out on the town, making things right. Yet, when it mattered the most to Jason, Bruce did not avenge him. At one point, Jason is put into Arkham Asylum, believing him to be insane, but the asylum realizes that Jason is, technically, fine, just deciding to clean up the streets in his own way, so they send him to a prison, from which he escapes. To put the cherry on the sundae, after Tim is captured and believed to be killed, Dick Grayson, as Nightwing, goes after Joker, beating him to death. Not only does Bruce try to stop him, he brings the Joker back to life. Jason has every right to want the clown dead, and yet Bruce keeps foiling his plans, despite the pain Joker has caused, not just to him and Jason, but also other members of the Batfamily. Commissioner Gordon’s own daughter, Babs, is paralyzed due to a gunshot wound from the Joker.

After his death, Jason assumes that the reason Bruce got a new Robin and never killed the Joker is that he didn’t love him, while Bruce tells Clayface that Jason knew exactly how much he loved him. The two are really just traumatized and emotionally constipated. In every Batman continuity, Bruce loses Jason because it has become such an important part of the character. Annie is an orphan, Joker is insane, Bruce loses his son. A single person, should rumors be believed, has deeply affected a character so much that every version of that character goes through the same thing, or it just isn’t the same.

Jason Todd is a unique character in many ways, from his death to his life afterwards, the character has made a mark in comics. The complexity of Jason adds to appeal for many newer readers as he is not a perfect hero as some, such as Superman, can seem. He is hurt, he is traumatized, and he is healing, making many young people relate to him more than his siblings. Jason Todd is an outstanding character who has an iconic story both on and off the page.

#jason #jason todd #red hood #mgi civil war #mgi civil war 2022 #batfam #jason supremacy #dead hood society #batman #robin #bruce wayne #dick grayson #maribat

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fabianocolucci · 2 years

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Regarding the meta-narrative competition between the MCU and the DCEU

When it comes down to the two biggest comic book cinematic universes, there is no doubt that the Marvel Cinematic Universe is perceived as much bigger, more successful and more critically acclaimed than the DC Extended Universe.

Of course, there could be many reasons for that. The MCU came first, which gave the DCEU the aura of “you are merely an attempt to follow a successful franchise”, there isn’t a Kevin Feige-like figure who has supervised the DCEU from the start, one had set a path to follow through (leading up to Infinity War) while the other simply seems like a collection of movies that just share the same universe, and so on.

However, I have always felt like there is some narrative in how the people seem to enjoy that the MCU is more successful, even to the point of rooting for it.

You see, in the years before the first Iron Man movie premiered, Marvel had a lot of monetary issues, and they had to undergo through many choices in order to stay afloat. One of these choices was to sell the movie rights of their superheroes to various studios.

This is why, between 1998 and 2008, there have been more Marvel movies than ever before, since those studios obviously bought those rights in order to use them. The biggest heroes (X-Men, Fantastic Four and Spider-Man) had more than one movie, even though it was the Blade trilogy which technically kick-started everything.

As a result, when Marvel Studios was launched, they basically had to work with whatever superhero they could get the rights to. It was pure coincidence that some of these heroes (Iron Man, Captain America and Thor) were core members of the Avengers, which led to the plan of making movies about them, in order to lead towards their big team-up. Other heroes were considered to get a movie in that frame, such as Ant-Man and Shang-Chi, but they would only come in later.

This feels like a good story of someone hitting rock bottom and trying everything they could to not sink further, only for them to rise so high above that everyone wishes they could be like them.

DC, on the other hand, never had this issue, as it has always belonged to one movie studio (Warner Bros.), which means they never had to deal with “I can’t use this character in my movie because of their rights”. Sure, on their TV side, the story may be another one, with many cases like “you can’t put this character in your show because maybe we could be making a movie about them” (for instance, Wonder Woman never appeared on Smallville because they planned to make a movie about her. Said movie came out six years after Smallville, which ran for ten seasons, ended), but that’s something for another post, maybe.

As a result, they could bring in their big guns from the get go. In fact, while the MCU’s Phase One was all about introducing movie goers to the members of The Avengers, the DCEU first started with an origin story for Superman… before jumping straight into making a sequel where the Man of Steel literally fights Batman before teaming up with him and Wonder Woman, all while other important characters like Aquaman and The Flash make cameo appearances.

DC could do that because they didn’t feel the need to introduce Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman to moviegoers, since they are definitely more common and well known than, say, Iron Man before the 2008 movie.

Their cinematic universe felt like it was safe, to the point where they took its success so much for granted that, back in 2014, when they only had one movie released, they revealed their plan for the following six years, including not one but two Justice League movies. Not to mention, one of them was a Suicide Squad movie, which could have been felt as another gigantic power move, since, back then, MCU villains were criticised for how poorly they were developed, while DC had the ability to literally make them the stars.

Everything was set for the triumphant takeover of DC, which would have seen its shared universe become the bigger one.

And yet, what happened?

Well, Batman v. Superman “only” grossed 873 million Dollars. Mind you, this is by no means a failure, but, meanwhile, Captain America: Civil War, released a few weeks later, grossed about 300 millions more.

The first time DC’s biggest superheroes have met in live action did not outperform a movie where most of the main characters had been brought to mainstream audiences within the last 8 years, with the obvious exception of Spider-Man.

Many factors may have contributed, but that proved that the DCEU was not going to dethrone the MCU.

The subsequent movie, Suicide Squad, while managing to win an Academy Award, failed to please many critics and fans, and, while Wonder Woman was a much better film, it had the challenge of going against Spider-Man Homecoming, which managed to gross more once again.

On top of that, Justice League’s troubled production meant it was a box office bomb, compared to Thor Ragnarok. We’ve gotten to the point where the first silver screen iteration of the Justice League couldn’t even perform a team-up movie between Thor and the Hulk, whose previous solo movies are, to this day, still seen as weak spots within the MCU.

That, from a moviegoer perspective, seems like a form of justice, some sort of validation. The MCU had to earn its place among the big movie franchise. In order to have 10 of its films gross more than a billion Dollars, they actually had to flesh them out and develop them onscreen. In fact, only one movie out of those 10 featured a character that had not appeared anywhere else prior to that film, and that is Captain Marvel, and that was 11 years after the franchise had begun.

Seeing a company trying its best in order to stay afloat become this successful feels like the just triumph of blood, sweat and tears. Seeing its biggest rival, who wouldn’t even have to try so hard in standing in their place, fail seems like karmic retribution.

You may have noticed how much people enjoy seeing the DCEU not live up to its potential by how many videos and article about that pop put, especially when an MCU movie proves itself to be successful. Seriously, it’s as if people think “alright, Marvel is successful again, time to remind you of how much of a failure the DCEU is”.

And you know what? It seems like an interesting scenario to study and discuss about.

Of course, this is merely my opinion. I am curious, though: what do others think? Is there some sort of meta-narrative in how those two franchises are perceived? Let me know. Meanwhile, I head out.

#DCEU #DC Extended Universe #DC Films #MCU #DCEU vs MCU #MCU vs DCEU #Marvel Cinematic Universe #random thoughts #Kevin Feige #beb #horse plinko #happy zozz!#zozz is even better than zozi #metanarrative

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butwhyduh · 3 years

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Night Swim

Garth of Shayeris/Tempest x batsis!reader

Summary: pinning over him. I know like 7 people will read it but he’s too cute. Canon has no home here and timelines don’t matter.

Warning: dash of innuendos.

The apprentice of a justice league member that went on his own. That could describe almost all of your brothers but it also described the beautiful man standing before you. That currently didn’t even notice you were staring at him puppy dog eyed.

“So, are you ever going to do anything about it or just stare at him until he jumps back in the sea again,” Kori said beside you. You jumped and gave her a look. “Noise cancelling glass. He can’t hear us and no one is looking over here,” she reassured you.

“That obvious,” you asked turning to face her. She nodded with a little smile. Of course she thought it was cute. She had told Dick the first time she knew she was attracted to him. That’s how she was raised. No fear of rejection or shame in sexual attraction. You were raised by batman and had a healthy dose of both.

“There’s not like it would do any good. He’s never given me a second thought and I don’t even think he likes surface walkers anyways,” you deflected. She snorted.

“He dated Donna.”

“That shouldn’t count. She’s Themyscirian. They’re like perfect,” you rolled your eyes.

“I don’t know. I find Dick very appealing and he is human. Is his powers what attracts you to him?” She asked leaning on a desk. Her long curly red hair flowed over her shoulder in a way that only Kori could.

“No, of course not. I mean, they’re cool for sure. But it’s.. he’s nice and honorable and funny,” you said and she grinned almost proudly.

“And you can be nice and honorable and funny without any meta powers. Don’t put yourself down. And if you need help..” she started.

“No no no. No wing woman,” you said quickly.

“What do you need a wing woman for?” Dick asked behind you. Your eyes widened before you turned around.

“Nothing. Just some guy from college. That I don’t like,” you said in possibly the worst lie of your life. Dick narrowed his eyes at you.

“I can tell you’re lying but if I don’t know the truth, I can’t lie to Bruce about what you’re doing so don’t tell me,” Dick said. Wally, Donna, and Garth walked in the room.

“Wait, did I hear that Nightwing’s little sister is seeing someone? Is he ready to die,” Wally laughed clapping Dick on the shoulder.

“I’m not having this conversation,” you squeaked out before squeezing between the heroes, feeling yourself far too close to Garth for just a moment. Thank goodness M’gann wasn’t there to read your thoughts or feelings. Kori stayed mum on the subject and concentrated on the mission that Dick was prepping the team for.

You didn’t go on missions now. An injury that put an end to that. You just couldn’t maintain the level a vigilante needed. Sometimes you’d help with the computers but mainly you worked at Wayne Enterprise with Tim. You were just visiting on this trip and wasn’t involved in the mission.

“Wish us luck,” Kori said giving you a hug. You couldn’t help but watch Garth in his new blue suit that fit perfectly as the rest of the team walked by.

“Woah,” you said barely above silent but Kori hugging you caught it all and giggled quietly. You flushed and tried to stutter out some excuse.

“He is very handsome. Wish him luck,” she whispered in your ear. You made a little noise to disagree and she simply grinned at you while walking away.

“What was that,” Dick asked, suspicious.

“Nothing, just a joke. Good luck. Be safe,” you said to him and Dick didn’t argue but definitely didn’t believe you before joining his team.

As they left, your mind wandered to the first time you met Garth. It was a mission in a warehouse fire that had homeless people camping out on the second story. You walked carefully to the back office through dense fog with flames threatening any moment to see if there was anyone in there. The fire was getting really close and it was kinda dicey. But it was your first job away from Gotham and you were 14 and you felt the need to prove yourself.

You entered the room bent low with smoke overhead. You saw something move in the back of the room and you made your way towards it. But just as you crossed to the back half of the room, part of the ceiling collapsed, trapping you in the room and knocking you to the floor. You jumped back against the wall. There wasn’t a window and the movement? A toy.

You shrank against the wall and pushed your panic button. The fire was hot and you cursed wearing shorts. “Shit,” you breathed as it started moving closer. The air was starting to get thick. The flames jumped and you pressed against the wall with your eyes covered, expecting flames to hit you.

But instead you felt cool wet air and you opened your eyes to see water surrounding you. It appeared to float in air and you reached a hand out to touch it, confused. As soon as you felt the tips of your fingers dampened, the water crashed to the floor causing you to jump.

In there place was a teenage boy only a few years older than you, grinning. You stared at him in silence. He had just saved your life.

“Did you- how did you-“ you stuttered and his smile grew even wider.

“Aqualad, at your service. You wanna leave before it crashes on us?” He said and you took a step to wince in pain. Oh yeah, when you jumped you twisted your ankle. Your plan, like all the other bats, was to suck it up and hobble out. But Garth had other plans and he quickly scooped you up bridal style as soon as he noticed you couldn’t walk.

“Just hold on. I’ll carry you,” he said walked down the charred stairs carefully. You couldn’t take your eyes off his handsome face the whole time. Your heart pounded and your lack of experience with dating or liking anyone had you completely dumbfounded. “You can let go,” he said with a little smile.

You were out of the warehouse clinging to him past the time necessary and quickly moved away from him, feeling your skin flush. Dick gave you a look over before give Garth with a look you couldn’t recognize.

——————————————

“She’s catatonic, Bro.”

“Feed her something.”

“Wally, food isn’t always the answer,” Dick said giving your shoulder a shake. You jumped and knocked over a glass of water.

“Sorry!” You yelped reaching over to grab a towel.

“I’ve got it,” Garth said and with a flick of his wrist the water started to pour in the sink rather than off the counter. As you watched the water jumped before flowing down the drain. You laughed a little and looked up to see Garth grinning at you. Dick stared suspiciously at you both before being pulled somewhere by another Titan.

“So was the mission okay?” You asked, not knowing what to say. Your crush was more ‘stare across the room’ rather than do anything about it.

“It went well,” he answered grabbing a water bottle and chugging it. You tried not to stare.

“Cool suit,” you said and immediately felt stupid. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

“Thanks,” he said without adding anything else, leaving an awkward air to hang.

“Damn, you might be from the sea but are soo dry, Garth,” Roy said clapping him on the back on his way to his room. Garth looked at you confused.

“It’s been awhile since I’ve been land side. Is being dry an insult now?” He asked.

“I mean, kinda. It just means boring,” you answered with a shrug. “You know Roy.”

“But you are dry. I mean, you live on land. Not that you’re boring,” he said with an awkward laugh. You smiled back at him before taking a sip of your drink nervously. “Does that mean you want to be wet?”

You coughed as you choked on the liquid. He tapped you on the back. “You okay?” He asked concerned. Donna walked by with a raised eyebrow but said nothing.

“I’m fine. No, that’s not how that works. It’s just we aren’t really dry. We’re like 80 percent water. Dry means like sand or something. Too dry,” you said and he nodded humoring you.

“It seems pretty dry here,” he said playfully.

“I can knock over more glasses. Get this place all wet again,” you quipped.

“Tempting. Or you can go swimming with me,” he answered back.

“Haha or I could- what? It’s nighttime,” you answered. “And doesn’t that do something to the currents or something?”

He gave you a dry look. “The currents come in at night? Yep. You’d be the safest person in the water swimming with me. I could navigate night swimming as a squirt. Come with?” Garth asked.

“I-“ you stared before mumbling.

“You what? I didn’t hear the last part,” he said.

“I... can’t swim,” you said and he stared at you and you felt like sliding under the counter and through the floor. Then Garth’s lips curled into a smile and he laughed a little. You looked down awkwardly.

“Oh you’re serious?”

“Yeah...”

“I’m sorry. I forget that swimming is learned skill here. I apologize,” he started.

“It’s okay. Really,” you insisted.

“Come with me. We’ll stay shallow,” he offered. You looked at him before nodding.

“This is a bad idea but let’s go,” you said pulling him along. Garth laughed as you pulled him out the back door towards the beach. “I forgot a bathing suit,” you admitted.

“I guess you could go insi-“ he trailed off as you pulled your shirt off and shorts to swim in your underwear and bra. He quickly looked away as you ran in the water to your waist.

“Coming in? Can’t believe I have to ask, merman” you said and he pulled off his shirt to quickly join you. You splashed him with water which quickly turned into a splashing war.

“Okay, you win!” You yelped as he bombarded you with water. He splashed you one last time and you turned away. Garth grabbed you by the waist as a wave splashed over you. You simply watched each other for a moment. You noticed your feet didn’t touch the ground anymore. You clung to him.

“I can’t touch,” you said a little panicky. He held on to you.

“Don’t worry. I’m right here. I won’t let you drown. It’s my job, remember?” Garth smiled. “Look around. Look at the moon.”

You looked up to see the luminous globe hanging above the sea. It lit a silvery path through the water, highlighting waves crashing. The beach seemed far away. The only sounds were the sea and a few night birds as well as Garth’s breath from being so close. You looked back at him and almost froze. He was gorgeous. The water truly was his element. His dark hair curled in the water and the moon glow highlighted his nose and collarbones. His purple eyes looked almost black in the darkness but the way he looked at you said a ton.

He looked down at your lips and you couldn’t help but lick them, tasting salt water. Garth bent a little and you turned your head up to touch lips softly. His arms wrapped closer around you as you kissed. Garth easily kept you above the water. Your brain was broken. You were kissing Garth, who you’ve had a crush on for a long time.

Suddenly water splashed over your head as a wave crashed on you both. You leaned away with a cough as water invaded your mouth and nose. Your eyes stung and watered a little.

“Sorry, I forgot to pay attention,” Garth admitted sheepishly.

“It’s okay,” you said with only a little cough. “Can we?”

“Get you on land? Yeah. You’re getting cold anyways,” Garth said before swimming towards the shore. It wasn’t a rough choppy swim the way people did. He seemed to simply glide through the water gracefully. So beautifully. Which was broken when he fell over on the beach.

“You’re the most graceful swimmer and trip on your feet when you hit ground,” you said with a laugh as you attempted to help him up. He was far too heavy to lift but appreciated the effort.

“Atlantean,” he shrugged. “Don’t make fun of me too much. You can’t even swim.”

“Yeah? You wanna take a dip in Gotham Harbor?” You asked and he laughed.

“Absolutely not. I don’t want to get some unknown cancer from whatever pollution they have. Or whatever rouge is living there,” he added.

“That’s why I can’t swim,” you answered. It really was cool in the wind and you quickly pulled on your clothing.

“But doesn’t batman have like multiple pools?”

“Yeah but I never used them. I was 15 when he took me in. Too old to learn,” you shrugged.

“You’re never to old to learn to swim. It’s important for safety,” Garth said. “Especially here,” he motioned at the beach.

“Especially if I keep kissing Tempest in the water?” You quipped.

“That’s just a bonus,” he said pulling you close by the hips. You grinned up at him and wrapped your arms around his shoulders.

And a spotlight shined glaringly at you both. You covered your eyes and looked away.

“Come inside,” boomed the voice of your brother. “Now.”

And that’s how you got a 20 minute lectures on the danger of night swimming and risk of hypothermia and Garth got the shovel talk. But despite the fact that Dick was really angry, you didn’t regret a thing and went to bed with wet hair and smile on your face.

#Garth of Shayeris #Garth DC #Garth of shayeris x reader #Garth of shayeris x batsis!reader #batsis!reader #aqualad x reader #tempest x reader #tempest x batsis!reader #dick Grayson is a big brother #Titans tower is on the beach #it’s pretty perfect

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maxwell-grant · 3 years

Note

Cass wouldn’t even begrudingly tolerate [the Black Bat], because she’s even less lenient than Bruce on killing and far more willing to throw down.' - THANK YOU for remembering that.

Cass is my favorite Batfam member, the only one really that I have an active interest in reading about. I'd be incredibly ignorant to not bring bring up such a crucial aspect of her characterization. And even if I didn't personally care for her, well, last thing I'd want is to be another source of frustration for Cass fans. Lord knows there's enough of those to go around.

mousebrass also asked: On that note, how do you imagine a meeting between Cass and the Shadow going?

Fair warning: This one took me 6 hours to write, and it became a hell of a lot longer than I imagined. I liked Cass a lot, but I never quite realized I had this many feelings regarding her until I was tasked with writing this, and a lot of things clicked for me regarding my plans for The Shadow thanks to this ask. @mousebrass, thank you. I mean it. I think I may have found something here I've spent years looking for. Hope you enjoy the post.

I'm thankful that this scenario is only really taking place in a hypothetical fanon where both characters can get a fair shot, because I wouldn't trust DC with this premise. I don't trust DC with either of them as is.

There's a lot of ways that this crossover could go on about taking place naturally, initially because Cass is already connected to some of Batman's pulpier elements, due to her connections to Lady Shiva and the League of Assassins, and one could connect Cass to Myra Reldon (who really should just be race swapped if ever brought back so she can stand out as the cool character she is, without the yellowface gimmick holding her back). There's two things I think are crucial to making the most of this idea, and the first of which has to do with the subject of killing. I usually don't like to come up with hypothetical team-ups for The Shadow that focus too much on the fact that he kills, because it's far from the most significant aspect of his character to focus on, much of it is written from a wrong understanding of the character, and it never amounts to anything other than perfunctory. But here, not only is it completely unavoidable to discuss, here there is actually a very, very substantial grounding as to why this has to be such a big part of the story.

The first and foremost thing that's gotta be established to everyone reading that doesn't know already is this: Cassandra Cain, more so than Batman, more so than any other DCU hero, has a tolerance towards murder lower than zero, and this is completely non-negotiable. She will throw herself on the path of an assault rifle to stop men trying to kill her from accidentally killing each other. The defining moment of her incredibly grim backstory is that she was trained from birth to be the world's greatest murderer, and her first kill traumatized her so badly that she has pivoted as far away from that as possible. I stress a lot that the Shadow should not be written as the trigger-happy maniac comics made him into and that the pulp version killed mostly to defend himself and others, generally left criminals to the police if possible, offered plenty of second-chances, had stories dedicated to the rehabilitation of criminals and so on, but none of this would matter to Cass.

Cass has literally chosen suicide over the prospect of living with murder on her hands time and time again, and The Shadow kills. When he kills, he does so without remorse, with unshakeable certainty. He hates death, he doesn't want lives to be at risk in the first place. But people will die if he doesn't do anything, and what he can do, what he exists to do, is turn the tools of evil against evil, and murder is the oldest tool of evil there is. He doesn't kill because a war scarred him, he doesn't kill because he's got a demon in his soul, he doesn't kill because he's mentally off balance, he doesn't kill because he's evil or sadistic or arrogant or anything of the sort. He kills because the men he fights chose death when they sought to harm innocents and fire guns at him. He kills because he is Death itself.

Regardless of how compassionate he is or can be, regardless of the fact that he's motivated by a desire to protect people, regardless of how justified he is, he is still dropping corpses and laughing maniacally doing so. Cass's real arch-enemy isn't Shiva or David Cain, it's Death, it's the thing that she's fundamentally most opposed to. And guess what The Shadow gets compared to often enough? Literally the very first line of the very first book where we get to see him, this is how we are introduced to him:

So the premise here is that we are taking a character who is defined by her fundamental opposition to death with every fiber of her being, who understands death on a level no other human being does, who is traumatized and hard-wired to detest death at all costs and to choose suicide over it, and asking her to team up with The Grim Reaper.

Even if he received the most abject lesson conceivable on the sheer wrongness of murder, even if he does put down the guns around Cass out of respect for her, he cannot protect his agents and others if he cannot shoot or kill those who try to harm them, and the protection of the agents is absolutely non-negotiable and not at all something he's willing to fuck around with by trying out gadget kung fu superhero alternatives. The Shadow has chosen to throw his life away for their sake time and time again, and no matter how appaling or disgusting Cass finds his deeds, even if he concedes that she's right and should be right on all accounts and that he is fundamentally a monster who has no right to judge others, he would not concede on his mission and he would make it very clear she would have to put him down violently to stop him from protecting others this way, and death has not stopped him before.

And to be upfront in case there's anyone who doubts it, Cass would kick The Shadow's ass, if they had to fight. She is the strongest fighter in the DCU, she lives and breathes fighting and combat in a way no one else does. And The Shadow's not one of those characters who is supposed to be invincible and the best at everything all the time always, he can and does lose fights and scrapes to people far less adept at it than Cass. He's a great fighter, obviously, he hauls bigger men than him through doors and was disabling people with Vulcan neck pinches decades before Spock, and he would definitely have an edge in other areas, but he's out of his league here. Frankly, I don't see The Shadow raising a finger against Cass unless she's been brainwashed into killing people by bad writing. Not because she's a woman, that doesn't really stop him from dealing with evil. But because, for one, she's practically a child compared to him age-wise. Two, he'd obviously know beforehand of her capabilities and how futile it would be to fight or even provoke her. And three, the Shadow's whole thing is knowing. The Shadow Knows and all that. Knowing comes with understanding.

He'd understand very quickly that there is no way someone this young could grow so quickly into the world's greatest fighter without horrific treatment that no one should ever be subjected to. He'd see the movements too practiced and quick, the self-control, the strength and speed far beyond even the trained warriors he's seen, the places where she's been scarred and is good at covering it up. Assuming he doesn't already know about her life story, any meeting between the two would lead to him very quickly figuring out that there's something much deeper about her opposition to killing than just moral reservations, something deeper than Bruce's own gun trauma.

Denny O'Neil's 2nd Batman and Shadow story was about The Shadow secretly helping Bruce overcome gun trauma, and Bruce rejecting The Shadow's intentions to hand him a gun. And to make it clear, people tend to assume that The Shadow only helps people for utilitarian reasons, which is not true as I've tried to demonstrate many times now. I don't want to convey that he would want to help Cass overcome her trauma just so she could be more efficient or something, absolutely no, he'd help her because he helps people in any way he can. I think a story with The Shadow and Cass might involve a similar premise, The Shadow understanding that she has been traumatized very deeply by death and refuses to accept it on any terms, trying to help her overcome it, only to learn that she does not want to "learn" anything she doesn't already know, that she has weaponized her trauma into a source of strength, and wishes nothing more than to help others with it.

And here's where we get to the part that allows the two to be on less antagonistic terms, because one thing that also very strongly defines Cass, at least the Cass I like reading most, is her stubborn, almost desperate need to believe in the best of people, that people can and will change for the better. Like The Shadow, her strength too is knowing, it's perception, the things that she knows about people that words cannot convey. Just as there are many things The Shadow would grow to understand about her that others would not, there would be many things that The Shadow would not be able to conceal from her. Things that no one but her would figure out. Things that, despite her age and lack of experience compared to him, he would have to defer to her knowledge on, which reverses the usual dynamic The Shadow has with people. And perhaps one aspect of that reversal, it's that maybe it's she who winds up secretly manipulating The Shadow into overcoming a deeper issue.

Cass's perspective on killing is shaped not just through trauma, but from a painfully intimate understanding of not just what happens to someone at the time of death, but the cost of murder upon the human soul, the ways it warps people into things they never should have been. Killing is a deeply, deeply serious matter, much more so than fiction seems ever willing to go into. Of course we suspend disbelief for fiction, there's nothing wrong with that, but if a story starts asking questions, starts poking holes into fantasies, they should not be disregarded.

And so it begs a question: How has it affected The Shadow? Is he really as remorseless as he appears to be? Is the fact that he's only killing evil people really of that much use? What's the cost of living as someone who has to know so much about so much evil in so many hearts? Knowledge never comes without price, and knowing evil is his tagline. When he enlists Harry Vincent, he makes it very clear that he has lost lives as he has saved them. From when is that regret coming from? What lives did he lose then? Is he saving people by damning his soul or merely prolonging the inevitable by piling corpses on another end of the scale?

If there's a character that could meaningfully start bringing these questions forth, who could ever truly get The Shadow to stop and reveal things to the audience he never would otherwise, maybe Cass could be that character. A girl who was raised to be a monster, who is treated as a monster and an aberration in-universe (and even outside of it), and turned that into a strength she uses to help others, who cares about everyone and refuses to let others be dehumanized as she was. Who better to know what lurks in the Shadow's heart?

Sometimes when I get an ask, I bullshit my way through infodump walls of text until I can structure it into something vaguely resembling a point. And sometimes, and I know it sounds crazy, but sometimes I get a very, very clear word on my mind related to it before I start writing, that almost seems to be a beacon pointing where I need to get to, and I work my way into getting there. Once you sent me an ask about crossing over The Shadow with Cassandra Cain, the word that came to mind the very second was Language.

It's an interesting relation the two have with language. Language is of course a very substantial part of Cass's character, who does not process language and linguistic development the way most people do, and instead reads body language to the point of superpower. Many stories revolve around Cass's relation to the concept of language, the help she may require from others in getting around things beyond her upbringing, and ways in which she has mastered beyond anyone's scope. Though she is mute, language is her power, what makes her what she is, and she is someone that Batman freely admits could kick his ass if she ever felt like it.

For The Shadow, language is also his power. He speaks all languages and connects allies all over the world, he is an expert ventriloquist, he is able to project his voice beyond what's physically possible, he can imitate voices perfectly to the point of being able to conduct group conversations single-handedly well enough to fool even the people whose voices he's imitating, much of his presence and terror and manipulation are done through his voice, arguably the very reason he exists in the first place is entirely because a radio actor's voice performance was so good and captivating that it tricked people into thinking the character was a real star and not just a glorified narrator. The man you cannot see, but only hear, the perfect hero for radio. And then of course the laugh, which I have a whole separate post on and which, in many ways, acts as a substitute for language in the novels. He uses the laugh so often as a substitute for statements or words, even to himself, that it's pretty much his own personal language. And language is at the core of how he deals with people, as he knows the right language to use to manipulate and move and help them. He knows what to promise, what to reveal, what to omit. He knows what to say, how to say it, when to say it. Language is the strings by which he puppeteers the world around him (and he can talk to animals, at least of one kind).

The Shadow and Cassandra Cain have mastered two different types of Language as throughly as anyone can possibly master them. The Shadow can talk a group of hardened criminals into killing themselves, Cassandra can punch a heart into stopping without killing it. The Shadow echoes his voice "through everywhere and nowhere at once" to whip crowds of thugs into frenzies, Cassandra outraces missiles and was tanking bullets as a child. The Shadow can lie and usurp lives so masterfully to fool even the families of those he's passing off as, Cassandra is a living lie detector who gleams inner conversations from miniscule reactions. The Shadow can speak every language known, Cassandra is the greatest master of the world's most universal language other than music. The two are supposedly human, but every now and then, something comes along to call that into question because of the things they can achieve. They cannot hide secrets from each other the way they do to everyone else. They are driven by a deep desire to help others, to make something out of the circumstances of their lives. To weaponize that which dictates they should be evil and monstrous into a relentless force of good.

Language is the root of understanding. And if nothing else, as impossible as a conciliation of their approaches to crimefighting may be, I think there could be an unique understanding between the two. Perhaps, and this is a bit crazier a concept but one that seems to be where I might have been heading towards all along, even Cassandra Cain finding a calling away from the frayed dynamics of the Batfamily, away from the Bat's looming presence, to become The Shadow's successor, swearing to uphold a mission of justice through non-lethal tactics while he stays on the backseat guiding her. If The Shadow could trust the safety of his agents and the protection of the innocent at the hands of someone as capable and selfless and good-natured as Cassandra, I think he'd be all too happy to be able to trust someone in such a manner, to no longer be the Master of Darkness, but instead to serve the next generation that's weaponized darkness without submerging in it. To achieve, and perhaps return, to his strongest, highest self: A disembodied voice heard, but not seen. Once again the narrator, not the star.

It's a concept I've thought about very extensively for the years I've been a Shadow fan, but now it occurs to me that, if I had to appoint a successor of The Shadow, someone who could take up the mission but shine on their own right, even improve it with the right guidance and circumstances, it would be Cassandra Cain. The Orphan, The Shadow of the Batgirl. Daughter of the greatest assassins, meant to be the world's most lethal murderer, instead pivoted to being one of it's greatest heroes, but never allowed to shine as she should. But in the darker, less restrictive and wilder world of pulp heroes, in The Shadow's world, a beacon would shine all the harder. Perfect strengths attached to perfect opposites, joined together for a greater good, unstoppable after together having weaponized that which most take for granted: the power of language to move worlds.

#replies tag #pulp heroes #comic books #the shadow #cassandra cain #batgirl #i always had a feeling that a successor to the shadow should not be modeled on batman but someone within that range #i never quite found a character i would be happy with taking that role or a similar role #aw shit i just talked myself into a new favorite character #that just so happens to be another character brimming with potential that's denied them by corporate overlords #who could have seen that coming

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theliterateape · 3 years

Text

We Killed Jason Todd

By Matt Markman

In 1988 my friends and I killed a kid.

He was just a boy really. We had help it wasn’t just me and my pals. there were adults involved, lots of them. I mean we were young we were just thirteen and really couldn’t comprehend the ramification of our actions, the adults knew what they were doing. I’m painting it to sound way more sinister than it was, and in today’s society, wouldn’t trend on Twitter but maybe in the ’80s, it was probably considered quite ominous.

To set your mind at ease, it was Jason Todd. You know, Batman's sidekick, The Boy Wonder, Robin—well, the second Robin anyways. And I helped kill him.

I was big into comic books but my favorite was, The Dark Knight, The Caped Crusader, The Batman… He donned the best costume, he had all the money and was the most intelligent of all the superheroes. That last trait right there, the fact that he was considered a superhero and he had no actual super powers made him cooler than the other side of the pillow. You know how The Big Bang Theory has convinced the world it’s an Emmy-winning sitcom worth watching? I think it’s the fact that Batman was someone any one of us could actually be. Sure we needed to start with a base coat of genius followed by a splash of handsome billionaire playboy then train overseas in martial arts for several years, but if you had those things you, too, could be a vigilante. You ask me today and I'd stand by the fact that Batman would beat Superman in a fight, say ten out of ten times. This is not debatable because super beings from another planet are not real.

My favorite thing about Batman, though, is his ability to balance out good and evil. He spawned one of the greatest comic book villains and fictional characters ever created, The Joker. They have tried and tried again but in my opinion never got close to the Clown Prince of Crime—maybe Negan from The Walking Dead, he's pretty ruthless. The Joker is what would happen if a stand-up comedian became a criminal mastermind, so basically the plot of the 2019 film Joker.

My love for Joker made sense because growing up I was always more into the bad guys than the good guys. Watching and playing with G.I.Joe, I was always on the side of Cobra Commander, the twins Tomax and Xamot, and Zartan because they were always more glamorous and eye-catching than the boring ass Joes. Just once, I’d like that “knowing is half the battle” part at the end of the cartoon to have been Storm Shadow giving us kids a tip on how to fuck up Shipwreck and his stupid Parrot. Megatron, Skeletor, Shredder, Mumm-ra…

The list goes on, but the antagonists always resonated with me. they had a much better and more intriguing agenda than the good guys did. I know that wasn't the purpose, we were supposed to cheer on the good guys, like the idea of saving the world and all, but the mayhem… It’s like Alfred Pennyworth said, “Some men just want to watch the world burn.” It’s odd because the bad guys in my life were real, the bullies and I didn't like them at all. They tormented me daily unprovoked because I was short and had big ears. Perhaps my love for the dark side stemmed for my desire to be on that side because in real life there was no Superman swooping in to rescue me from the clutches of Lex Luthor.

There were two sides, and good had a lack of champions looking out for the weaker, smaller good guys. The bad guys in my neighborhood, well, they were real and never really foiled and more importantly, they always got the girl in the end. Fuck the good guys!

My admiration for evildoers achieving their agenda was tested in 1988, Batman was running a four-part series called A Death in the Family. It was your typical Batman arc. Somehow, The Joker was going to get the upper hand on The World’s Greatest Detective only to be bested in the end by Batman. But this time, the third comic decided to do something nobody had never seen in the industry. The writers were going to give the fans the opportunity to decide where they were going to go with the story, only it was an option between two different roads, one quite unconventional. Apparently a few years earlier, one of the writers, Dennis O'Neil, had seen a sketch they did on SNL where Eddie Murphy held up a Lobster—Larry the Lobster—and was asking viewers to decide whether Larry was boiled and eaten or was to be set free. The choices were offered in the form of two phone numbers both costing fifty cents a call. One number was a vote for him to be freed and the other number was a vote for Larry to be murdered, smothered in butter, and devoured by Axel Foley. Ultimately, after nearly 500,000 calls, the people voted for Larry the lovable lobster to be pardoned with a 12,000 call margin. The popularity of this bit intrigued O'Neil and A few years later he decided to implement it in his Death in The Family storyline.

In the third book, The Joker had taken Batman's sidekick, the Boy Wonder, hostage. He’d beaten him bloody with a crowbar leaving a cliffhanger to be wrapped up in the fourth book. The last page of the comic was full page and at the top read in true ’80s Do the Right Thing fashion: “Robin will die because The Joker wants revenge, but you can prevent it with a telephone call!” They even phrased it to steer you down the hero’s path, like you can literally be Batman with one phone call. Underneath the imploring verbiage were two numbers, dial one number; The Joker fails and Robin lives, Batman would once somehow saves the day. However, call this other number and The Joker succeeds and Robin dies. Gruesomely.

Wow! They were going to let the fans decide the fate of Robin, really this was one of my earliest introductions to a reality voting competition type show. In my opinion, it was a bad idea. Robin was always the worst. Go back and read through an adventure or two involving Jason Todd and tell me he wasn't always whiney and bellyaching. He was never going to be iconic or cool like Bruce Wayne or even his predecessor Dick Grayson—the first Robin. See, Dick got pissed off, decided he was tired of being in Batman's shadow, ditched the Robin costume, threw on a black blue and gold costume, moved to another city and became Nightwing. Dick was a go getter, ambitious. Grayson’s Robin was a winner, Todd's Robin was an irritating little bitch; he was not an innocent lobster.

I went to my mother and asked if I could make a call that was going to cost just fifty cents and I would pay her back or she could just take it out of my allowance. She wanted to know what it was for and mostly wanted to confirm it wasn't for an adult sex line, which costs more than fifty cents a minute, but that’s a different story. It was nothing as tawdry as phontercourse, I just wanted to help murder an annoying teenage sidekick. My mother response was “Oh, yeah, that’s fine.”

I think after it was exposed that it wasn't phone sex anything else I said went in one ear and out the other, surely she didn't think I was actually voting for a plucky comic book sidepiece to be murdered by The Joker. So that’s what I did. I cast my vote along with a majority of DC comic book fans that shared my detest for the boy wonder. Ten thousand votes were recorded with a narrow margin going to Robin dying. I think the writers never suspected that fans would go that route.

O’Neal himself voted for Robin’s stay of execution. A man of his word, Batman issue #429 was released and Robin was killed by The Joker in an explosion and we were to blame for it. Sad to say but you give a bunch of comic book nerds the power I think it would go bad every time. That day we were all proud to be The Joker's henchmen. I felt like a soldier at the end of Star Wars cheering madly while The Joker received his metal shouting, “I helped that happen!”

So many shows these days embrace our fascination with the anti-hero with the success of The Sopranos, The Shield, Breaking Bad, hell Narcos had me rooting for Pablo Escobar—Pablo fucking Escobar. I wouldn't say I was a bad person growing up. Quite the contrary, I was a shy nerd with no power to do anything but pick my books up after they were smacked to the ground. What I’m saying is don't give me the power to make important life or death decisions with your franchise because myself and the other dorks will have the bodies of Orko, Snarf, and Jimmy Olson lying in a shallow grave, just tell me what number to dial… or text.

Matt started performing standup comedy in 2004 in Las Vegas and is now a regular at every major comedy club on the Las Vegas strip. He released his first comedy album in 2016 titled Uncut available on iTunes. More about Matt and his upcoming appearances can be found on MattMarkman.com.

#Matt Markman #Matt Markman Comedian #Matt Markman Comedian Las Vegas #Las Vegas Comedians #G.I. Joe #Skeletor #Joker #Batman #Joker kills Robin #Jason Todd

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prettyannette · 2 years

Text

Robin and Nightwing: The Evolution of Dick Grayson

Fans of Batman will be familiar with the The Bat’s first adopted son, Dick Grayson and how he came to be in the hero’s care before he became the first Boy Wonder, Robin. But, what many don’t know is how much he has grown as a character. Dick’s evolution over the years has become one of the most recognisable character developments in DC Comics history.

Let’s take a much deeper look at who Dick Grayson is and how he has evolved over the years as a character. Before we dive into the gritty details, we need to establish who he is.

Who Is Dick Grayson?

If we’re going to talk about any character, we need to know who they are and what their back story is. So, just who is Dick Grayson?

Born as the son of Haley’s Circus trapeze artists, John and Mary Grayson, Dick was born was Richard John Grayson and practically lived and breathed aerobatics.

When he was young, Dick overhears crime boss Tony Zucco threatens the boss of the circus. When the circus boss refused to pay Zucco his money, the crime boss took revenge and had the Graysons’ trapeze sabotaged. Dick was forced to watch as his parents fell to their deaths.

Adoption and becoming the first Robin

After his parents’ murders, Dick was placed into the uncaring foster system. He was treated poorly. Though was soon rescued by none other than Bruce Wayne. Despite being saved from a cruel fate in the Orphanage, Dick quickly became frustrated when Bruce would give him even the smallest of attention. Deciding enough was enough, Dick decided to investigate his parents’ murders on his own, regardless if he had Bruce’s help.

The first place Dick went was back to the scene of the crime, Haley’s circus. However, he gets ambushed by one of Zucco’s associates, Eddie Skeevers and is almost killed. Dick awakens in the Batcave, discovering Bruce is Batman. Together, the unlikely pair work together to work out, exactly what Zucco is up to.

After a while, Bruce comes to the realisation Dick is a lot like him and offers him a chance to prove himself. He asks the boy to take on the mantle of his sidekick and to do some good in the world. Dick accepts and becomes the first in a long line of Robins.

Romance With Batgirl

Dick was many things and he had a high profiled romance with one of the most beloved characters in Batman lore, the original Batgirl herself, Barbara Gordon.

For the longest time, Dick and Barbara had a close relationship as Dick’s foster dad was Batman and Barbara’s dad, Jim Gordon was an ally of Batman, so they would have crossed paths. The pair went through a lot together and eventually, ended up romantically linked and this was long before they became known as Nightwing and Oracle.

When Barbara fell victim to The Joker and his war on Batman and Commissioner Gordon — she ended up paralysed after The Joker shoots her in the spine. When Dick gets wind of what has happened, he’s first reaction is total devastation. As time goes on, Dick proposes to Barbara and she accepts, however, when Batman asks for his help, Dick is reluctant as he promised Barbara he would give up being a hero. Barbara, seeing him torn over what he should do, allows him to help their friend, telling him they just aren’t ready for marriage.

Romance with Starfire

Other than Barbara, Dick’s other great romance was with Teen Titans teammate, Starfire, despite it being widely believed that Barbara was the love of Dick’s life.

During the crisis involving the Judas Contract, Dick and the original Teen Titans, rescue an alien girl who doesn’t understand English. The girl, Koriand’r and Dick had instant chemistry which resulted in a kiss. This kiss was the way Koriand’r learned English.

Five years into their relationship, Dick impulsively proposes and Kory says yes. However, their union wasn’t to be. Their friend and teammate Raven became evil and interrupted the wedding, killing and injuring people. After their near wedding, the pair end up with a strained relationship as Kory fears Dick had become anti-alien.

Relationship With Batman

Not matter what comic book era you’re reading, Dick’s relationship with his adoptive father is almost always the same: tense. It should be noted that Bruce was always tough on Dick which was why young Grayson always went to Alfred for fatherly advice instead of Bruce. This came when Alfred realised his mistake upon raising Bruce after the deaths of his parents. Bruce was raising Dick the same way Alfred had raised him: with tough love.

When Bruce discovered he had fathered a child with Talia Al Ghul, Dick was brought in to help train the heir to the demon and was often forced to play babysitting, big brother and sparing partner to the boy. Despite his own upbringing, Dick certainly didn’t like the idea of playing babysitter, but he did it because Damien was now his family and his little brother.

It’s evident in every piece of media he appears in that Dick is the polar opposite of Batman. When he was Robin, he was a cheery lad who followed his mentor’s rules and often broke them when he saw fit. As he grew, Dick found he didn’t deserve to be in Batman’s shadow and decided to venture out on his own.

Team Ups

Over his lifetime, Dick was a member of a number of teams of heroes. His most famous venture was The Teen Titans in which he started out.

The Teen Titans started as a group of sidekicks, associated with various members of The Justice League. Originally, the version of the team Dick was a part of consisted of him, Wally West; the nephew of Barry Allen’s The Flash and Garth; the sidekick of Aquaman. Later on, Donna Troy; the original the sidekick of Wonder Woman and Roy Harper; sidekick of The Green Arrow joined the team’s ranks.

Dick was elected as the team’s leader as he was the most experienced. The group of former sidekicks would see their fair share of horrors and dangers, including having to save their mentors from mind control.

As the years wore on, the team started to disband as they started to grow up and move away from their sidekick roots. However, Dick was called back into action, not long after, he became Nightwing. He was called upon by a figure known only as Raven. Dick once again took on the role of leader, but soon headed the handed the reins over to Donna Troy. Raven had pulled together the second generation of Teen Titans.

Becoming Nightwing

As he started to grow into his solo hero role, Dick wanted nothing more than to step away from being known simply as ‘Batman’s sidekick’. However, after he was shot in the shoulder by The Joker, Batman tells his adoptive son that he needs to give up being Robin.

Eventually, Dick decided to move out of Wayne Manor to attend Hudson University. He dropped out some time later, after just one semester. Because he quit college, Grayson was free to continue serving alongside the Teen Titans.

When it came to advice, Dick often found himself turning to Superman, as he knew the Kryptonian understood what he was going through. For a short time, Dick considered giving up being a superhero all together as he could no longer fight as Robin. Superman told him a story about a man on Krypton who was rejected by his family. While the strange man’s identity was not revealed, he did go by the name Nightwing. This inspired Dick to become his own hero under that very same moniker.

When the Titans were caught by Deathstroke, Dick decided the time was right to on his new persona as Nightwing. Because of this mission, Dick had finally found himself stepping away from Batman’s imposing shadow. However, despite not being Robin anymore, still upset him, especially when Batman decided to take on Jason Todd as the second Robin.

Because of this new arrangement, Dick’s relationship with Bruce never fully recovered. Though, it was through longtime fan Tim Drake that made Dick reconsider. Tim tried to get Dick to return to his mantle as Robin, but Dick refused. When Jason was killed by The Joker, Dick saw Bruce’s need for a sidekick and pleaded with his adoptive father to consider taking on Tim as the third Robin.

After impulsively proposing to Starfire and having their wedding interrupted by an evil Raven, Dick was left devastated when Kory decided to go on a ‘spiritual journey’ after Raven planted a ‘demon seed’ within his now former fiancée to do so.

Some time later, Dick almost gave up with the superhero mantle a second time but decided against it. It was also in this time that he realises there was so much more to the murders of his parents than he was originally led to believe. Later, he returned to Bruce and Alfred and told them they were the only family he had ever needed. He then became Nightwing in a permanent basis.

Famous Storylines (As Robin)

All superheroes have their own storylines. Therefore, Dick Grayson is no exception. Here are three of Dick’s most famous storylines while he was Robin.

1. Robin The Boy Wonder Dick’s introduction was during 1940 as a combination of Robin Hood and Doctor Watson. His original purpose was to serve as Batman’s companion.

Dick’s backstory was similar as Bruce Wayne’s. He saw his parents murdered and decided to avenge them by fighting crime.

2. Operation Escape By the time late 1940’s rolled around, Robin had gained his own solo comic series. The Robin comics ended during the early 1950s.These comics showed Robin was more than just Batman’s sidekick and that he was able to work on his own.

3. Requiem For A Titan By the 1960s, Robin found himself in the position of leader of the Teen Titans. The Teen Titans were a junior incarnation of the Justice League of America. It was this adventure that Robin would begin to distance himself from Batman.

Famous Storylines (As Nightwing)

The 1980s saw a massive change in Dick Grayson’s persona. He slowly began to shape into another persona. He became known as Nightwing. Here are four of Dick’s adventures as Nightwing.

1. The Judas Contract As of the 1980s, Dick earned his place a separate hero to Batman. By this time, he had become Nightwing, the polar opposite of the sidekick, he had once been to Batman. After the founding of the new Teen Titans, Jason Todd became Robin.

2. A Knight In Blüdhaven A Knight in Blüdhaven became the start of Dick’s transition into Nightwing. This first adventure shows him getting a sense of the corruption that plagued Blüdhaven.

3. The Black Mirror In the early 2000s, Dick accomplished the one thing fans may not have expected him to do. He becomes The Dark Knight himself. However, Dick does not become Batman full time. When Bruce is presumed dead, Nightwing takes on the Batman cowl.

The Upcoming Nightwing Film, The Batman And Titans

At San Diego Comic Con 2016, DC Entertainment announced Dick would star in his own spinoff film as Nightwing. The film, which is entitled Nightwing, will be directed by Chris McKay. McKay mentioned he knew how the fans felt about the character and knew how they would the character to be portrayed in the right light and how he knew the would want the character to be portrayed as closely as possible to the original.

However, McKay stressed that fans shouldn’t expect a straightforward origin story, though he did mention the possibility of flashbacks.

Director of the two most recent Planet of the Apes installments, Matt Reeves will helm The Batman, which could very well be the starting point for Dick’s debut into the DCEU. It could even set the events of the Nightwing movie into motion. The film could should a young Dick move through the ranks of Robin and eventually becoming Nightwing.

Dick is set to enter the live action television world sometime in 2018 with the television series, Titans where he will be portrayed by Australian actor Brenton Thwaites and will begin his tenure on the show as Robin, trying detach himself from Batman and to become an independent hero.

Conclusion

So, there you have it, a look at the evolution of the great character, Dick Grayson. Despite being a sidekick, he has grown into becoming his own person by detaching himself from his mentor and adoptive father, Bruce Wayne. Dick has the heart and soul of a leader, having learned from one of the best heroes around.

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#DC #dick grayson #comics #superhero #nightwing #batman and robin

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