#and again as someone who is not a fan of DC or its characters at all

[whywoulditho]

I'm glad, that DC writers are changing constantly and therefore the characters are protected from the Bat-family. The Bats are the cancer of DC comics. There wouln't be any independant characters anymore if they could gez their grubby hands on the other DC families

That's another way to look at it.. I agree that they're trying a bit too hard to connect every character to the bats' storyline. so you might have a point there. maybe it would create more bad than good if they let batfam authors interfere with the other storylines... but i still wouldn't call the bats the cancer of DC. I think if you took the bats out of DC, it would lose like half of its charm and quality.

with all that being said though, i still think the biggest problem of DC romances (or comic book romance in general) lies in each run having separate authors. think about why harley x ivy worked. it's because both of those characters already existed before they got together. both of them were loved villains and later anti-heroes, they both have their own story, their own past and their own redemption arcs. they're both INTERESTING. and when DC made the risky choice of making them a couple, it worked.

i'm not saying it would work with any other characters, or that they should make all their major characters date each other. but if you want to explore romance in your comics you have to give the readers an actual relationship, involving two realistically written and interesting people. not a major character and their accessory love interest. that's my issue with tim x bernard, or jon x jay. no one will get attached to, or even invested in, these relationships because we don't know anything about the love interests. they're just some random people. even if you try to give them personalities they will still not have a story outside of their relationship with the major character. bernard and jay were only created so tim and jon would have someone to kiss. it's hard to care about them, and therefore their relationship. they're just boring romance side plots.

you can introduce a character with the sole purpose of making them a couple with one of your major characters and still make it work, like batman and catwoman. you can create chemistry with a new character just as well as you can with already existing ones. but i think we need more of the first option. less last minute love interests and more people falling in love. i think what makes DC special is that they show us so many different versions of their major characters, we get to see them grow and change (take notes, marvel) so it wouldn't be off-brand to see already existing major characters, like superboy and robin, ending up together. not when it's DC. to be honest i think it would be like super iconic of them to do that. and i also think that DC fans would much rather have their favorite characters end up with the kind of person they went through hell and back with instead of like, a random citizen. tim and kon have so many parallels. they're both people who didn't have to be heroes at all, but still chose to do it. they both struggle with carrying a mantle too big and the fact that they were not chosen for it makes them even more insecure. they also have a past together, they're close friends, they would take a bullet for each other. so much potential. dont even get me started on damian and jon. those two are like, literal mirrors of their fathers. they have huge legacies on their shoulders and they're like quite literally the only people that could understand one another. again, so. much. potential. i'm not saying they have to be together, but if DC was gonna write romance for these characters I wish it could have been with each other.

#DC comics #DC #timkon #tim drake #conner kent #kon kent #damijon #jondami #damian wayne #jonathan kent #jon kent #ships #thoughts #asks

[longwuzhere]

Some cool Easter eggs I caught watching My Adventures with Superman that I want to show to people so they can be in on it with comic book readers: For the first episode's Easter eggs it's here

For the second episode's Easter eggs it's here

For the third episode's Easter eggs it's here

For the fourth episode's Easter eggs it's here

For the sixth episode's Easter eggs it's here

For the seventh episode's Easter eggs it's here and here

For the eighth episode's Easter eggs post it's here

For the ninth episode's Easter eggs post it's here

For the tenth episode's Easter eggs post it's here SPOILERS if you haven't seen this week's episode obviously

We start off the episode with this shot of Superman with the drawn on glasses. A good homage to what Lois did in the 1980 Superman II movie...

where she not only drew the glasses but also a full suit and hat on a picture of Superman.

Next we see Jimmy waking up and seeing someone debunking his conspiracy theories on Sub-Diego.

Sub Diego was an actual place in the DC universe before the New 52 reboot. In Aquaman #15 and #16 (2003) , shown here (W: Will Pfeifer, P: Patrick Gleason, I: Christian Alamy, C: Nathan Eyring, L: Jared K. Fletcher for issue 15, Nick Napolitano for issue 16). The underwater city is actually San Diego, but is buried underwater thanks to a tidal wave and makes its first appearance in Aquaman #15 (2003). There was a lot of casualties from this.

When we get to our title its "You Will Believe A Man Can Lie" a reference to the tagline for the 1978 Superman movie.

As seen here on the poster, it says "You'll believe a man can fly".

Next we see our villain, well one of the villains, for the episode, Heatwave.

In the comics Heatwave makes his first appearance in Flash 140 (1963) (cover art by Carmine Infantino, Murphy Anderson, and Ira Schnapp). Heatwave aka Mick Rory is a Flash rogue usually acting as a rival to Captain Cold aka Leonard Snart. In MAwS, their Heatwave shares the same last name and powers, but MAwS Heatwave is gender flipped. You might have seen Heatwave in the CW DC comics shows where he is played by Dominic Purcell in The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow.

Lois, later in the episode, name drops Heatwave's name. Gotta be honest when Heatwave showed up I was like is that Rampage? Cuz the MAwS design looks vaguely like Rampage.

If she does show up in MAwS, I'll talk more about her in another post, but for now, Rampage aka Karen Lou "Kitty" Faulkner, makes her first appearance in Superman #7 (1987) (full page here: W&P: John Byrne, I: Karl Kesel, C: Tom Ziuko, L: John Costanza).

Steve drags Jimmy to film his debunking Flamebird videos and references Starro who I talked about here.

Lois, later runs around with the Daily Planet police scanner trying to catch Superman and the dispatcher reports that a robbery is in progress at McGuinness Luxe Garage.

This is a nice reference to Ed McGuinness who was the artist for Superman, Action Comics, and Superman/Batman in the early 2000s. If you've seen Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, then you'll know the movie takes inspiration from his character designs in the first arc of the Superman/Batman comic series. The Superman/Batman #1 (2003) cover here is done by Ed McGuinness, Dexter Vines, and Dave Stewart. I like Ed McGuinness's pencils, very stylized.

Heatwave name drops Livewire and the Gazzo mod family. Both of whom I've talked about here and here respectively

Heatwave has been running away from Deathstroke here who has been taking our her crew. Notice that Slade Wilson doesn't have the half black half orange helmet yet that almost every Deathstroke depiction always has.

He, Amanda Waller, and the General who I totally think is General Sam Lane, Lois's dad, are fans of DBZ cuz of the scouters they're wearing.

Later in the scene we see the General again he's totally General Sam Lane. I'll talk more about him when we get a double confirmation through a name drop/reveal in a later post calling Amanda Waller, Mandy. What a fucking bold thing to say to Waller! Like damn! power move right there!

Superman and Deathstroke are fighting under a highway and we see the traffic is heading to Bludhaven!

Very good reference to my favorite character in all of pop culture, Dick Grayson aka Nightwing. Nightwing makes Bludhaven his city to protect. The city makes its first appearance in Nightwing #1 (1996) (the panel here - W: Chuck Dixon, P: Scott McDaniel, I: Karl Story, C: Roberta Tewes, L: John Costanza). Fun Bludhaven fact, its crime rate is WORST than Gotham! Also HIGHLY recommend reading the new Nightwing run cuz its fucking amazing! Won a few Eisner Awards (think the Oscars but for comic books) recently and I am not just saying that because I am a Dick Grayson fan.

Near the end of the episode, we see Lois willing to jump off a building to prove that Clark is Superman. A lot of discourse was happening online over this, but I do want to say this is pretty on brand for her to do.

In Superman II, Lois does something similar and Clark saves her. its just in MAwS, Clark flies to save her thus ruining the secret identity, while in Superman II, Clark does save her but he is still able to get away with it thanks to him playing it more subtly.

Don't know why people we're in such a fucking fit over something that Lois has done before.

In the after credits scene, Jimmy, who planned a sasquatch finding adventure with Lois and Clark, but they were dealing with their shit and Jimmy was by himself, decides to do the finding on his own and meets a giant gorilla. In the first episode Jimmy mentions an intelligent gorilla in France and my guess is this is Monsieur Mallah. You can read more about him here. If you made it this far down, I appreciate you taking the time to check this post out and if you want to see my other MAwS Easter Eggs posts - Episode 1 is here

Episode 2 is here

Episode 3 is here

Episode 4 is here

Episode 6 is here

Episode 7 is here and here

Episode 8 is here

Episode 9 is here

Episode 10 is here

#My Adventures with Superman #Superman #Clark Kent #Lois Lane #Jimmy Olsen #Superman II #Superman 1978 #Superman movie #Aquaman #Arthur Curry #Sub Diego #Sub-Diego #San Diego #Heat Wave #Heatwave #Mick Rory #The Flash #DC Comics Flash #Legends of Tomorow #Rampage DC Comics #Starro #Starro the Conqueror #Ed McGuinness #Action Comics #Amanda Waller #Bludhaven #Nightwing #Monsieur Mallah #Deathstroke #Slade Wilson

[damianbugs]

For the ask game, #3 for Jason Todd??

3. Least favorite canon thing about this character?

now i do want to preface this by saying my least favourite canon thing about jason isn't entirely jason's fault, and can be better explained of writers just doing whatever the fuck they want or using him as a device to extrapolate a very simplified view of another character (usually bruce) (more on that later). unfortunately however, since it's a character trend that has been repeated so many times, and the question is specifically about canon, it is a big part of his character.

and so my least favourite canon thing about jason is that... he's still around. what i mean by that is: time and time again, the story sets up a problem, a conflict, one that puts jason at odds with batman and/or gotham (two things that are connected whether you like it not) — and then a massive fight. a huge fallout. hurtful words are exchanged, a couple fists, maybe an exploding building or two.

you think woah, that was harsh and unhealthy, surely we won't see them hanging out with each other anytime soon.

then, it happens again.

next story, next conflict, next fight. jason usually gets the short end of the stick, because a batman who loses to his "greatest failure" is not a batman editorial want to sell, and also because in a lineup of characters were the worth of their existence is based on the moral conjugation with other characters, its very easy and usually not a emotional problem to kick the odd one out. red hood is cool enough to fight batman and really mean it, but not cool enough to win the actual battle.

it's come to the point where just the leak of jason in a new bat story makes me roll my eyes. even today, with the leaks of batman #145, all i could think was well, here we go again i guess.

so the most irritating thing is that jason still kicks around with the batfam. if you ask me, this unfixable break between him and bruce should have been established in Under the Red Hood (i have a really long essay post about that... somewhere tumblr tags will not allow me to find). if not then, then Battle for The Cowl (as horrendous of a story that it was) should have solidified the conflict between him and the others. it's because jason is still a character with (alleged) bonds to batman and nightwing etc, that dc gives us repetitive moments like the ones in Rhato, Batman and Robin (2011), Gotham War etc.

his character has remained annoyingly stagnant for this reason. he can't ever be a character cool enough to win the battle if he's always used as the Batman Your No Kill Rule Sucks also You Made Me This Way and I Do What You Can't (proceeds to not do anything all that different) conversational piece.

i don't say all this without some irrational hope that one say someone who actually likes Jason Todd enough to think about his character in any emotional capacity takes over. i do however say this with the acceptance that the one tweet that said "Nothing fans say about Jason Todd was actually ever written on a piece of paper published by Dc comics" was very correct.

to end happily, Red Hood: The Hill is his solo series away from the others! so! here's to hoping!

#jason todd #saki asks

[cat-line-may]

Jason Todd is not traumatised because he died but of how he died

Why is that whenever someone refers to Jason's death the actual trauma is taken away. Like i know that he jokes about it, but i have read fic were suddenly just because being tortured and dying has happened to lots of people in the DC Universe its no longer something he should be affected by. Sure it is common, but every other character is allowed to express their trauma from these events by the fans, why can't Jason.

Most of the heroes died in combat, doing the very thing they signed up for, knowing fully well that they might not survive. The ones who were tortured never died by there injurys nor were they tricked there by there mothers in a desperate attemt to have one good parent (cause f**k you Bruce). Which is horrific enough but then imagine having to dig yourself out of your grave, being brainwashed by a buch of assasins, not have any controll over your emotions and having to come back to find your murderer is still freely running around when your 'family' has the resourse to get him the death sentence.

Thats not even mentioning the fact that he probable died again when Bruce (his dad, his f**king dad) through a deadly weapon at his throat and left him bleeding out with a madman, after Jason essentally asked him who matter more to him, his child or the mass murderer who killed said child. And he chose the murderer. Not to mention when the building exploded he pulled out the joker instead of his son. Didnt even bother looking for him.

Jason's death is f**ked up in a way none of the other characters deaths were. It's about time people actually took it seriously.

#bruce wayne is a bad parent #bruce wayne bashing #jason todd #jason todd deserves better #jason todd's death #torture #joker

[lazaruspiss]

i enjoy a lot of your metas and i'm curious, what is your opinion on writers who aren't familiar with or care about canon?

it depends on if you're asking about fan content or actual DC writers. with fan content i do think its fine for people to engage with content however they want to. i don't really like content that contradicts established canon, but i do defend its right to exist in the first place. OOC fanfic doesn't usually* effect already existing canon.

adding a read more bc i started to rant a bit. TLDR: fan content creators can do whatever they want. separately, i really wish DC held itself to a higher standard. both as a company and in terms of the actual comics that they publish.

(*i say usually, because a lot of newer canon content has felt... off. like DC took a short shallow look at how fandom simplifies characters and decided that must be what people actually want to see/what will sell more product. never forget that DC is a corporation, not an actual person who cares about the artistic integrity of what they're producing. and many of the actual creators of the comics they sell are mistreated and beholden to exec decisions based off of. y'know. marketing.)

in canon comics. it sucks. Talia is the most prevalent example of a character who was rewritten by someone who refused to read or engage with any of her preexisting canon. but it comes up a lot that sometimes a character is used by or given to a writer who doesn't care or might just straight up hate the character they're supposed to be writing. I have characters that I don't like and don't really care to learn about, but if i decide that i want to write something with them involved i consider it a matter of personal integrity to at least try to understand the characters already established personality and background.

it doesn't matter when it's independent fan content, or even a published AU series, but for mainline comics it is important to account for the fact that most of these characters have been around for decades and you shouldn't, nor do you need to, just make shit up about them.

also! an idea that i try and maintain for any kind of story is that every character is somebody's favorite. i think i got that from someone talking about how every pokemon is some kids favorite, but i think it can be a useful framing for a lot of fictional content. especially with something as widely known as DC, the chances are that much higher that every character you see is going to be someone's favorite. and i want to be kind to that. like, i don't care about Punchline in the slightest. i'm still putting off this fic with her involved because i want to learn her character a bit first to at the bare minimum acknowledge that there are people who might love her. i don't want to explicitly contradict some major trait of hers just bc i don't like her.

again, i don't really care if fans don't go through the trouble. but it's upsetting when DC itself doesn't seem to require any understanding of their characters in what they publish. in older comics, even when i think certain comics are poorly written, i can still see when the writer cares about the character they're writing. but so much of the newer stuff just feels hollow to me. i dunno, i stopped reading any n52 stuff bc of it so maybe it'll improve and i just won't notice.

#asks #anon

[zahri-melitor]

Batman Eternal

I think for a weekly, event comic that was promising to deliver the Bat Family, it underperformed. Some people had a good event, some people had a mediocre event and were underused, and there were a few absolute shockers.

The Good:

In terms of a 'push Bruce to the limit' event, it was interesting in that this one pushed Batman, the Bat Family AND Bruce, separately, to their limits. I'm used to events being 'pick two of the three'. That said, it still underestimated the effectiveness of its supporting cast.

Bruce had a solid event, in that it was focused on him and broke him down to build him back up by running him ragged and keeping him guessing on 'who caused this'. Honestly I don't have a lot to say about Bruce's plot, sorry. It was an okay mystery running through various rogues? I think making Cluemaster Who Dunnit was not the right choice (Arthur should always be a bit pathetic), but I can see why they picked him in the story that's returning Steph and after making Riddler the big bad for Zero Year.

Selina actually had a reasonable event. She got her entire backstory rewritten and ended up controlling crime in Gotham at the end of it, but eh, the former happened to a lot of people during n52 and the latter is something Selina ends up doing every now and then. Her plotline involved organised crime and Carmine Falcone, so it was even something associated with her long term story arcs.

Jim Gordon: look, once we get past the incredible miscarriage of justice that was Jim being arrested and convicted for manslaughter (please, please, explain to me how Jim shooting the signal box input was what caused the trains to crash, rather than the railway routing that meant there was timetabling and no fallback override for two trains SHARING TRACK while running in opposite directions), it was essentially just an excuse to put Jim in Blackgate and start up the plots there. Which you know, went pretty well. Jim got to be the strong man, show off his personality, and presumably this all sets up the Superheavy plotline (sigh).

Julia Pennyworth. Look, I don't hate the idea of Julia, so much as am confused by the very tight timeline constraints required for her existence (post about this coming), and I resent that DC let the team basically invent a new Oracle without being allowed to acknowledge that Oracle is Barbara Gordon. It's like it's an important role in Gotham! Anyway. In terms of what Julia brought to the page, I did appreciate that the writing team seemed committed to increasing the number of women characters populating Gotham, I am happy to have someone not Alfred running comms for the Bats, and I can see several ways she'd be an interesting character to have around, long term, for storytelling. I could grow to like her. But man. I had a really hard time swallowing her existence while Barbara's in the same event having her character destroyed.

Harper Row is so clearly Scott Snyder's pet. Honestly, I really enjoyed her design and the general arc of her story; adding an electrical engineer to the group is actually a relatively unoccupied niche and gives her points of differentiation, but by handing her such a major part of the plot while other, fan favourite characters were appearing and getting not much at all was setting her up to fail in the eyes of the audience.

Steph ranks up in the 'had a good event' category. She essentially reran her origin story combined with aspects of her War Games plot (before everyone yells at me, I particularly noted the correlation with the part of the story where Selina hid her with Holly coming through here with Steph hiding from Arthur and her getting dumped at the Rows for protection. Go actually read War Games). I liked the concept of the Spoiler blog being what she used as her name inspiration here. I again wouldn't have minded if she had actually interacted more with other Bat characters (everyone got very siloed here) but you know what? The story brought her back and set her back up in her default sort of background state. Seriously, they picked from Steph's biggest stories here (her origin, War Games, and actually parts were in conversation with War Crimes, which is a phrase I never thought I would say), and that was a reasonable decision imo.

The Mediocre:

Luke Fox got an interesting plotline with Jim Corrigan and the Spectre. Unfortunately it rarely interacted with the rest of the story (apart from leading to Arkham blowing up). This could have been a separate mini.

Tim got to appear in actual Bat titles, doing actual Bat things, and while being abrasive I could squint at him and see his original characterisation. Tragically despite this he basically didn't get to interact with existing characters he knew for most of the plot. Got handed the idiot ball on occasion to show off Harper. I wish he'd had more opportunities to spend time with characters I know and enjoy him with.

Kate Kane was there, for this event. She got to spend some time with Barbara and Jason. She also really didn't do much of anything. It felt like an obligatory 'you currently have a solo' appearance.

Jason Bard: look this is where I'm conflicted. If this was simply Random Cop #34, I'd have probably bumped it up to good but unrealistic (in terms of the speed run to Commissioner), but as a Jason Bard story? About all they kept or knew of Jason was that he's a cop, he was mentored by Jim Gordon, and that he Has A Limp. I am still outraged they made Babs give him the limp, I think making him a minor antagonist of this was a waste of bringing back Jason Bard, and the endpoint left him in a position where he's moderately unusable by other writers (there was a slight set up for 'transition him over to a detective agency' but there was no resolution on why anyone in Gotham either among the GCPD or the Bats would trust him after this).

The Bad:

Hush. No, not so much in his story (it was boring, it was Tommy being Tommy, yawn), but in the fact for no apparent reason Tommy is running around with his head bandaged. WHY? No reason was given. Using the bandages as his 'costume' is actually painfully irritating, because he wore the bandages during the original Hush as he was healing from facial reconstruction surgery. Here, he was imported into New 52, with his face wrapped in bandages, and no reason given. He wasn't trying to become Bruce and steal his identity. He was just...in bandages. Because that's how he looked in Hush and the fanboys think of him, despite the fact he basically never appeared in bandages again AFTER the initial Hush storyline. I'm infuriated in the pointless iconography that misses the original intent that this is.

Barbara had a terrible event. Even if I excuse everything as she was still grieving over Dick's 'death' and Jim being in jail, and the fact she was undergoing personality surgery in her own title (Batgirl #35 sigggghh), a complete random 'ship Barbara and Jason together' plotline came out of nowhere premised on the fact Barbara was missing Dick? Or something? And their age gap in n52 nonsense is only a couple of years, rather than Babs being ABOUT TEN YEARS OLDER and having babysat Jason. Ugh.

Speaking of: Jason Todd did somewhat better than some of the others in that he got to actually hang out with Barbara and Kate for a storyline, and honestly pairing him up with Kate is a route DC should look at more often in terms of character mediation, but lost 1000 points for the Jason/Barbara stuff. Also had a terrible costume (but what's new there).

Crystal Brown I am so sorry. Not only did you get yet another completely new look and personality, you lost all the few characterisation elements we had for you, you collaborated with your ex-husband, and you betrayed Steph at one point. You should be awarded damages for pain and suffering.

Lincoln March/Owlman: you were in this event SOLELY to confuse Steph and delay her cooperation with everyone else. I resent your entire existence in this timeline and it irritates me that Scott Snyder set up an entire previous event essentially to introduce you to the main universe and then waited going 'did you get it?' You are not Thomas Wayne Jnr sorry.

#z canon read throughs #reading new 52 #this was certainly an event #things happened #I wish the plots had interacted more often #batman eternal

[soleminisanction]

Y'know, this answer deserves its own post. @tardigradetheking

They story they're telling seems pretty obvious to me:

Mickey Mxyzptlk, an entitled manbaby comic book fan who hates modern continuity and wishes things would go back to the way they were when he was a kid, traps (what he considers to be) the "real" Young Justice (only the boys, no girls allowed) in his idea of what their original adventures were like. Cassie, being ignored by the sexist twat, winds up being his undoing as she works to free her friends from the outside with the help of the rest of the original team.

That's the elevator pitch, the logline. I say the rest of the old team because I suspect Greta would have also been involved, had the Stargirl Spring Break Special not already set her up as being slated for the Lost Children. The Devil, of course, is in the details:

Mickey's idea of the boys' adventures are heavily skewed by his own biases which he, like the comic book bros on Reddit and Twitter, insist were part of those stories even when they weren't. Hence the exaggerated sexism, racism and homophobia.

He's also trying to reset the YJ boys back to who they were specifically in the early issues of Young Justice, ignoring all the growth and change -- both positive and negative -- that's happened to them since. Again, reflecting attitudes from entitled fans on social media, including here on Tumblr -- look at how many people care more about Cassie's fucking hair than her personality or experiences.

Kon slips into this illusion more easily than the others because he's adrift in the current timeline, without a place for himself -- his whole upcoming miniseries is already set to be about him figuring that out, but for now he's lost, and the future he always expected to be waiting for him -- being Superman -- has been given to someone else. Of course he wants to stay in the time when he never had to grow up and the future was full of possibilities. The more he lets himself give in, the more his mind slips into that kinda asshole bro sentiment -- which, let's face it, he had more than a trace of in the 90s.

Bart, meanwhile, is naturally resistant to this sort of thing partially because of his particular power set and partially because, despite all he's gone through, he's ultimately still the guy who goes with the flow, rolls with the punches, and accepts things the way they are. Whereas Tim is somewhat susceptible to slipping back into when things were easier, when he could just be Robin and hang out with his friends and never had to bury any of them, but gets jarred out of it when the reality tries to forcibly reset the recent changes that have made him happiest.

These differing attitudes result in conflict and naturally dredge up a bunch of drama related to those past changes that they haven't talked about. Cassie's having similar encounters with Cissie because they're using the fact that Cissie is no longer a superhero as a reflection of Cassie and the boys all being on the wrong pages with one another. Which they are, because they're literally not on the same page anymore -- it's been ages since their canon selves have truly shared experiences, they've all been off doing their own things with their respective "families," and they no longer know where the others are coming from. But with each conflict, they're baring... well, conflict, things that have gone unspoken between them. Now that those things are spoken, they can be resolved.

It's not a perfect story. The art is definitely a little hit or miss (pro tip: blame the artist and the editor for not knowing which Bedlam to cameo, not the writer), the pacing feels a bit rushed and (speaking of Bedlam) the whole story would've been stronger if they used him as the villain instead of a new character no one's ever heard of. But that last part is kinda par for the course at DC right now.

Otherwise, the story's pretty straightforward. It's meta, it's criticism, and they're pretty bold to critique their fandom so blatantly, but there's nothing confusing about it.

#young justice dark crisis #young justice #dark crisis #meta #tim drake #kon-el #bart allen #mickey mxyzptlk

[cookinguptales]

OH right, Blue Beetle!

I really enjoyed it! I've been a fan of Jaime Reyes for a long time and I honestly never believed he'd get his own movie. And?? Such a good one???

I worried going into it that he looked too cool in the trailers. Is that weird to say? I loved dorky baby teenager Jaime when I was a kid. He felt like One Of Us, y'know? And then I watched the trailers and I was like "hmmmmmm."

But even though he's a bit older in this movie and has his shit together a little more, he's still very much Jaime Reyes at heart. 💙 Love that weird little dork of a man that always means so well, even if he doesn't always know what to do. And I found myself rooting for him so hard!

The movie was overall just really charming and fun and occasionally emotionally devastating. A good mixture of action, character relationships, humor, and politics, imo. The characters were so endearing, and I'm really looking forward to seeing how things develop going forward.

A few more thoughts (with spoilers) beneath the cut.

I was actually a little surprised by how sad parts of the movie were, but it felt right, too. The heart of the movie really was the simultaneous power of familial love and horror of family separation. Family separation really seemed to affect all the characters in their own ways, whether that was due to corporate greed, politics, war, racism, or just good-old-fashioned horrific US policy.

Like... You come to realize that it really permeated every part of the movie. Alberto's devotion to his family, the years he put into bringing them all to Palmera City. The very real fear that going to the cops would invite an unfair immigration investigation into their household. Jenny losing her parents at such a young age, and the sharp divide between her and her aunt. Jaime's family loss as well. Carapax's truly fucked-up backstory. Hell, even divisions being sown between Victoria Kord and her brother when her father gave the company to Ted instead of the person who'd built it.

(Don't get me wrong, Victoria Kord was truly evil, child soldiers and all. I was not rooting for her. But lbr, that doesn't seem to be why her equally war-mongering father cut her out of the company. You have to wonder if she would have done quite so much damage in the end if she hadn't felt such a virulent need to prove herself and destroy her brother's pacifistic legacy. But! Who knows? She might have been even worse if she'd had all that power from the beginning.)

And, y'know, all of the characters deal with the horror of family separation in different ways. Carapax became weaponized by an imperialistic power that didn't give one shit about him. Victoria became embittered, violent, and downright brutal. And Jaime could have gone the same way, so furious over the loss of his own family that he gave into wanton destruction as well -- but Khaji Da didn't let him. (WAILING.) Instead, he managed to take the same route as Jenny: transmuting his rage into a need for justice, into a passion for making the world better so no one else would lose their loved ones the same way.

Y'all, I was in there crying at a superhero movie!!! IT'S FINE, I'm FINE.

I heard that the creator of the movie hadn't actually initially intended for Alberto to die (which I understand, tbh) but I did think it was really beautiful the way it was incorporated into the movie. Bringing Mexican culture to the foreground yet again in its discussions about and attitudes toward death. God, those candles were beautiful. ;;

I mean -- as someone who literally dropped all of my DC subs the day they "fixed" Oracle and never gave DC another cent until this movie came out, I really am passionate about the need for diverse heroes. Part of the reason I felt like I was getting emotional in that theater was because I remembered how much Oracle meant to me as a young disabled teen who couldn't make sense of her trauma or her disability or her inherent power. I remember how much losing the only positive role model I had devastated me.

And like... I want kids with the same background as Jaime to see themselves in him. I want them to be able to feel the way I felt back then. Honestly, that was a lot of why I finally broke my boycott. I think characters like Jaime, while brilliant in their own right, are also important, and I want to support them.

So when I realized how raucously, joyously, passionately this movie was gonna depict Latino culture and its own diversity within the US, I was thrilled! And I cried lmao.

(What can I say, I've been kind of weepy lately lmao.)

But yeah, honestly I cheered in the theater when Khaji Da switched to Spanish. I was like YEAH GIRL.

Other times I was actively fangirling in the theater:

Nana Reyes gunning down imperialists

Ted Kord reveal(s)!!!

"Batman's a fascist. Blue Beetle knew how to have fun." :')

Khaji Da stopping Jaime from killing that man

Milagro and Rudy having no such compunctions

Dr. "Sanchez" standing up for himself and his name reveal (which is a very fun easter egg for WWDITS fans, lmao. I wasn't expecting it and I had to stifle a little shout of laughter.)

Honestly, as a former DC fan I really loved how much thought and care was put into incorporating the really messy canonical history of the Scarab. Obviously they deviated from existing canon, but in ways that I thought were really fun and interesting. I'm excited to see what happens with the Kords going forward, y'know? I hope that Jenny, too, isn't cut out of her own family legacy. I'd never want to separate Khaji Da and Jaime, obviously, but there has to be something for that woman to do to follow in her father's (secret) footsteps.

I realize that this review is kind of all over the place (like my mind the past few days), but I really, really enjoyed it. I was feeling pretty out of sorts the day I saw it and it really raised my spirits a lot. It turns out that after all these years, I still really love Jaime Reyes! And I love his family! And I love Jenny, too!

even dr. de la cruz a little bit, even if he sure did take his sweet time to find a backbone

The movie was just super fun (as well as unexpectedly thought-provoking) and I really enjoyed it!

#blue beetle #I'll probably go see it again before it leaves theaters lmao #what a good time tbh #I read Jaime's monthly as it was coming out (I'm old lmao) and I never thought we'd get here! #let's gooo

[dotthings]

And now, a bit of screaming about the spn UNIVERSE

It basically feels in my head like...hm...think of any cinematic moment that has the same feel as "there's a lot more of us." It's like that, only for the narrative potentials of the spn universe. And I love the og series dearly, I've always thought that timeline alone should be able to burst out into infinite stories. However going multiverse is not surprising and doesn't mean it won't also expand along the timeline of spn prime world too.

I had one hesitancy on if TW turned out to be an AU world timeline. However in execution, I'm getting a story value trade. Let me explain: What’s lost is unreliable narrators and how family histories get told and how trauma and grief impacts that to explain discrepancies. There are variations between TW and the mothership that seemed due to lack of having the full story, and context, a few things that seemed like trivialities, at no point did I think CMP creatives actually screwed up. Those things were all there on purpose. They perfectly well know spn mothership canon. While I’m sorry to lose that layer about unreliable narrators, same thing is true, they know spn mothership canon.

I’ve also maintained right along that the TW timeline is protected. Turns out it is. Not because it’s actually THE timeline leading to the spn mothership events. TW is still not going to be undone. It is not going to be wiped out, it's now been set free running on a more hopeful track that it would have been on if Dean hadn't meddled. These new characters, this series, linked to the spn mothership, has its own life.

That’s the trade. Put something in the portal, get something back. I still feel like going multiverse as explanation is more simplistic that I hoped for, there's so much complex narrative stuff going on I don't want to dwell on that.

It’s also still very much a rumination and reflection on spn prime, a reply to it, a loving tribute to it, and even a criticism of it. There’s a whole complex dialogue going on between TW and SPN for those who want to listen.

The stories of Carlos, and Lata, and Ada, and Millie, and that John and Mary, have their own journey and are worth loving on their own. It’s too late to go back, I love them for them, not just how TW was a delivery system on Dean’s story and that’s the dual role TW S1 was meant to have.

Oh and btw ROBBIE CONFIRMED CARLOS MENTIONED ON SPN IS THE SPN PRIME VERSION OF THIS ALT CARLOS THEY ARE THE SAME CHARACTER DIFFERENT WORLDS. I'm gonna cry again, Sam and Dean had a Carlos, we don't know that version. Yet.

And there’s also just something about the fact that DEAN HIMSELF CREATED THIS STORY.

This timeline in this alternate earth, this kinder rumination on trauma, and contemplation on the mothership, this inclusive spn world show. Getting into the metatextual level, Dean is the avatar for Jensen, Robbie, everyone at CMP. In story, look what Dean gave birth to.

Also I cannot believe that here I’ve been rewatching Fringe and lacing a bit of that into my TW meta and pointing out TW has a producer who worked on Fringe S1 and somehow??? I really thought????? TW WASN’T GOING MULTIVERSE. If I start thinking metas on Dean and Peter Bishop and Walter Bishop my head just might implode and it’s already imploding

ALSO?? WORLD BETWEEN WORLDS??? THEY JUST STAR WARS REBELS AT ME ON MAIN WTF.

So, this kind of multiverse, just blew the spn universe wide open. Beyond opening up Dean’s story, it opened up the spn universe. I’m used to this from DC and Marvel (and being a Fringe fan). There are pitfalls to that kind of opening up. Robbie’s written for Marvel and DC, he knows how this works and what he’s doing.

I read Robbie’s EW interview. They've broken the spn universe open in every direction on potential canvases for stories.

1.13 in execution and the implications of what this could lead to is incredibly exciting to me as someone who wanted an expanded spn universe.

#The winchesters #spnwin #spinwin spoilers #THE SPN UNIVERSE

[timingmatters]

As the new nightwing comics seem to lead towards Barbara and Dick becoming “endgame” i am once again begging DC writers to free Kori from all this???? Since Nightwing went back to the batman domain back in like the 80s (??) and he cheated on her for no reason other than drama with Barbara, Star has constantly been hung up on him. It feels so…. Badly written. To have Nightwing constantly have all these relationships and choose Barbara but never allowing Star to actually choose someone else in her heart because they keep her as a back up for him for the sake of drama. Starfire is her own character outside that romantic relationship. She deserves better writing.

I’ve always been a huge dickkori fan, but it is also the worst thing that could have ever happened to her character. In mainstream dc media her character is often reduced to that relationship and she isn’t allowed to move on even though he cheated on her and has long since moved on. And in the only universe where they made it as a couple and had a child, they fucking killed her off.

Like can i make a petition of this shit??? Is time to give Kori a new iconic couple that becomes her endgame. Someone that appreciates her. Star can so easily be one of the best characters in DC because her story and person have so much to be explore yet, but because she isn’t in the flash, superman, wonder-woman, or batman domain she gets payed dust. I almost wish she could magically transfer to marvel. I mean she was a slave!!!!!!!! That alone is a whole series of origins they can expand on. They have written it but never expanded on it as they do other characters. She is magic and kind and full of love. Naive yet strong and brave. She is genuinely such a good fucking character and it makes me so mad how all these years they have developed nightwing and have left star collecting dust. Even when she had a poly relationship the reason why she couldn’t go beyond in commitment was because she still had dick in her heart. If they are committing to making barbara and dick truly the endgame after all this time, the least Kori deserves is to be allowed to have her own new endgame and someone who loves her back in the way she deserves. And to have more adventures of her own explored.

I feel like even Barbara fans have to admit outside of the love triangle the way Star has been written these past years has lacked so much. Ik DC SUCKS at handling women but my GOD if harley could get out of her sunken place after so long so can kori

Edit: given some comments i wanna make it one thing clear: i do prefer the dickkori dynamic and the whole cheating thing was a plot device to get him back into the batman domain and start cutting ties with teen titans. That’s an already proven fact. What i meant with him choosing barbara is not that I’m disregarding the truth behind what dickkori was, but rather that its been several years since DC has nightwing focusing on the batman domain and the characters there, and most of his storylines with them. Thus usually approaching barbara or other batman characters. Star, as a character outside of that, hasn’t really interacted with him in years, yet remains emotionally connected to him. Which i think is unfair. Is not that star’s only plot revolves around him, but rather that emotionally they haven’t been fair to her in terms of writing. Dickkori from the original teen titans run will always remain superior (and those alternate universes when they made it through even when one of them died).

#koriand'r #starfire #robstar #dickkori #dickkory #dc comcis #dick grayson #also who do i speak to so that kori can be queer in the main continuity #bc like both in universe and the public constantly over sexualize her characted #and like no man deserves her ever #i dont want literally any guy to even look her way #she needs to find a girlfriend asap #cant look me in the eye and say that the way she is written isnt perfect for it #like her ass wouldn’t care for gender when it comes to love #GIVE HER A GF #SO SHE CAN CLING TO SOMEONE ELSE RATHER THAT DICK HE IS BORING #dickbabs

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Psycho Analysis: Slade

(WARNING! This analysis contains SPOILERS! ALSO, TW: RAPE MENTION! It’s literally unavoidable when discussing this guy!)

Teen Titans was one of the great DC action shows of the 2000s. It danced back across the line of silly and serious with its anime-esque art style, goofy J-Pop theme song, and humorous characters all juxtaposed with incredibly dark villains, serious stories tackling everything from racism to the dangers of pushing yourself to your limits, and some shockingly brutal deaths that, while not onscreen, don’t leave much to the imagination.

And what would this show be without a big bad? And there really is no bigger bad than Slade.

Comic fans would likely know this man as Deathstroke the Terminator, or perhaps simply Deathstroke, which is one of the single most over-the-top names ever created. In the comics, Slade’s main claims to fame are that time he groomed a teenager and also had sex with her and, even worse, the time he soloed the entire Justice League!!!! GASP! He’s had some cool appearances in places like the Arkham series and the Snyder Cut, but if there’s any appearance that has redeemed this cunning assassin in the eyes of many is his appearance as the master schemer supervillain who served as Robin’s most personal foe and the most reoccurring threat over the course of the series.

Motivation/Goals: This man has made it his life’s goal to fuck with these teenagers (but not in the same way comic Slade fucks with teenagers, thankfully). Season one has him trying to turn Robin into his evil apprentice, while season 2 has him working to dismantle the Titans from within before he dies. Season 4 has him working for Raven’s father to bring about the end of the world, but then he backstabs Trigon to get his life back. Slade seems to be a sadist who loves making these teenagers suffer for shits and giggles, because I genuinely see no other reason he’d go to such lengths to torment children when he time and time again shows he could give heroes like Green Arrow or Batman a run for their money.

Performance: Ron Perlman, the one and only Hellboy, has the perfect voice for an evil, underhanded villain, and he gives Slade just the right level of menace while still maintaining an air of mystery and coolness. I’ll elaborate more in the final paragraphs, but long story short: Perlman is to Slade what Hamill is to Joker.

Final Fate: While he is constantly thwarted and at one point dies by falling into lava courtesy of Terra (something I wish happened in the comics), all setbacks to Slade are ultimately temporary, and he ends the series no closer to being defeated than he was at the start of the show.

Best Episodes: Slade is no stranger to awesome appearances, getting at least one great episode every season.

Season one has the two part finale, “Apprentice,” which features him finally taking Robin under his wing. It’s incredibly climactic as the whole season has built up to this moment, helps solidify Robin’s arc in the season, and gives a badass final duel between Robin and Slade. It also features one of Slade’s cruelest and most brutal schemes, with the torture he inflicts upon the other Titans when Robin doesn’t comply.

Season 2 has the condensed retelling of the infamous Judas Contract arc with “Aftershock,” particularly the second part where Slade is unmistakably and unambiguously killed. The dude straight up falls into lava and dies.

But even being dead doesn’t stop Slade! Season 3’s “Haunted” is one of the most dark and brutal episodes of the series, with some of the creepiest writing coming from Slade. What’s even creepier is there’s never really any answers as to what causes the hallucinations Robin experiences throughout the episode; it’s implied someone activated Slade’s mask, but who? We’ll never know. Either way, leave it to Slade to give us what might be the show’s darkest episode.

Season 4’s “Birthmark” has Slade at his absolute creepiest, which is saying something considering the sexual assault vibes of “Haunted.” This is the episode where he assaults Raven in incredibly uncomfortable ways while delivering the news about her father. It’s horrendously disturbing in an allegorical sense, and serves to make Sade more monstrous than ever.

Season 5 doesn’t have any Slade, sadly. There’s a fake Slade in the final episode, but that’s it. Guess the Brain didn’t want his gay ass upstaged.

Final Thoughts & Score: Slade is genuinely one of the finest foes to come out of the great animated series of the 2000s, and arguably rivals Mark Hamill’s Joker with how good he is.

It mainly has to do with how utterly fucking disturbing his plans are in a symbolic level. Isolating teens like Robin and Terra from their friend groups, forcing them to depend on him, the undertones of grooming in his interactions with Terra, and both Robin and Raven suffering through experiences with Slade that could easily be read as allegories for sexual assault. Slade manages to be absolutely repugnant and unsettling, and mind you a lot of this comes before he is resurrected as a zombie demon slave. Of course, despite being disturbing as all Hell, he still manages to be cool. This is mainly due to Ron Perlman’s stellar performance, which is easily on the level of iconic voice acting that Hamill’s Joker is ; he adds so much menace to everything he says while (un)fortunately making Slade sound incredibly sexy.

I think what’s most impressive is just how much better than the comic version the animated Slade is. In the comics, Slade has been the bearer of one of the corniest monikers in all of comic history: Deathstroke the Terminator. And while it’s often shortened to simply “Deathstroke,” the name is still the sort of thing you’d find in the edgy Liefeldian crap the 90s shit out. Add on to this the guy is an uninspired mashup of Frank Castle and Steve Rogers in terms of origins, the fact that he is the subject of such obnoxious character shilling he soloed the Justice League in the already contentious Identity Crisis, and that writers continuously bend over backwards to justify him grooming with and having sex with an underage girl to the point where they actively put the blame on said girl, who for the record is a fucking teenager while Slade fought in goddamn Vietnam, and you have a character who is just remarkably unappealing and easily overshadowed by his Marvel ripoff (one Wade Wilson).

Contrast with the show Deathstroke. They ditch the edgy name, leaving him with his canonical first name only, which adds this air of intrigue and mystery to the guy. They keep the super soldier strength and reflexes, but they don’t expound on the origins and instead make him more akin to an expy of Doctor Doom, what with the robot duplicates, unseen face, seething hatred for the team leader protagonist, and the complicated chessmaster schemes. And best of all, they keep all the creepy, skeevy undertones comic Slade has… but they don’t try and justify it! Slade is always portrayed as a conniving, self-serving schemer and an inherently nightmarish figure who sucks up the comedy whenever he’s onscreen. This is the character done right, and he easily scores a 10/10.

#Psycho Analysis #Slade #Deathstroke #Teen Titans #Ron Perlman

[sister-lucifer]

hey its me lons again. give me your most autistic take. what's the opinion you've had (any fandom) for so long as the result of your deep, soul-crushing obsession of canon. the comsic truth of the universe

oh boy i’ve. i’ve got quite a few. let’s get these over with

(multiple fandoms ahead)

Bubba Sawyer AKA Leatherface from Texas Chainsaw Massacre is NOT a villain. He grew up away from civilization and only ever interacted with his family, and therefore only knows what they taught him. he is also clearly disabled to some capacity and literally does not grasp the weight of his actions because he’s only ever done what his family has told him to. He has had no other significant human interaction besides his family. he is an antagonist, an opposing force, yes— but NOT a villain

The Batman fandom gets really pissy when characters are confirmed as canonically queer in any iteration, usually the Riddler and/or The Joker. This makes me angry for a few reasons. One, literally who gives a fuck, just because you don’t like a single interpretation of a character doesn’t mean all other media of them doesn’t exist, just go watch that. Two, it’s literally denying the entire history of these villains. “But isn’t making a flamboyant man gay a stereotype?” Yes. Exactly. Because they did that on purpose. Whether conscious or not, DC has been queer coding their villains since the beginning. They were literally made to be theatrical, flamboyant gay stereotypes to demonize gay people. There’s a reason all the male rogues are so out there and colorful and batman is stoic and dark. we deserve to reclaim them. Three, it’s been confirmed like a million times that the Joker is in love with Batman in his own special messed up why, and if you deny it you’re literally just lying go read a comic (this can also be applied to Venom + Eddie…Venom literally sucks eddie’s dick, gets him pregnant, tongue kisses him, and eddie refers to their relationship as a love story. they’re dating get over it).

The reason people hate 2022/Dano Riddler is because fandoms hate any significant change and because they can’t read between the likes enough to actually see the nuance and understand the character. Superhero fans need every aspect of a character fucking spoon fed to them and it’s so frustrating.

Nina The Killer’s rewrite was a downgrade, sorry. she’s just a copy of Jane now. which i was confused as to why she was rewritten anyways was because i always thought that the point of her story was to be satirical? Like…the whole joke was that she wasn’t actually talking to Jeff, just an impersonator messing with her not realizing the damage they were doing, and the moral was about the dangers of extreme idolization. but idk maybe that’s just me

Tim punching Jay in the parking lot in MH was totally justified. Deserved, even. Imagine if someone recorded you and posted it on the internet without your consent, and on top of that had been basically stalking you and totally lying to you. Jay was basically on a mission to uproot Tim’s entire life whether he knew it or not. I know Jay didn’t totally realize what was going on, but he needed the wake up call. He was doing some fucked up shit

No, [WOMAN CHARACTER] does not deserve to be hated on, you’re just misogynistic. hope this helps!

oh boy that was a lot. I have many more of these but this is all i can make myself type out rn. hope this is satisfactory!

#hot takes #fandom opinions #marble hornets #tim wright #jay merrick #creepypasta #nina the killer #batman #dc #the joker #the riddler #edward nygma #texas chainsaw massacre #bubba sawyer #leatherface #the batman 2022 #dano riddler

[sir-adamus]

The JL X RWBY crossover is getting the business because RWBY isn’t suppose to be this acclaimed. It’s supposed to be this bad show made by bad people with bad writing. Why is it getting recognition in the form of a team up with some of the world’s most popular characters even conceived?

In the case of haters outside of the RWDE, it’s like when finding a former partner that you left on bad terms with to be thriving and doing better.

Basically, they see the next to remind RWBY “of its place.”

these people tend to operate almost entirely within isolated in-groups that assume their opinions are incontrovertible objective universal fact - and getting angry when anything defies that notion

because they don't like it and have decided that it is Bad Forever because they don't like it because it's bad and it's bad because they don't like it and they don't like it because it's bad and-

(people are also making "look guys, rwby's a real anime now, it's on crunchyroll and everything" cracks like the show hasn't been on crunchyroll since a month after volume 1 started, and also like that joke isn't extremely old at this point - because seriously, who actually fucking cares?)

fact of the matter is, this show doesn't exist in a vacuum and it's not only consumed by terminally online weirdos who are incapable of seeing past the edge of their noses and think that all media that isn't Super Serious and doesn't Look a Certain Way is trash that deserves to be shat on at every opportunity; the show is liked, it has an audience who enjoy and engage with it - a global audience in fact

and that audience that isn't constrantly chomping at the bit for whatever imagined bullshit issues and constantly trying to ignite discourse are still gonna watch it, it's gonna be seen and talked about no matter what some dickhead on twitter says about it - because unlike folks who apparently make it their mission to be as miserable and loud about it as possible, most of the people who watch rwby do so because they enjoy it, they care about the characters and story and want to see where it goes

i've also seen some idiots trying to claim that this movie is a 'desperation tactic' (yeah because you spend so much money producing two movies and delaying the main show out of desperation, make that make sense for me please) and that it's WB trying to phase RT out of RWBY and fold it into their other IPs after the recent controversies when planning and sign-off for JLxRWBY would have been years ago (showing they know absolutely nothing about how animation works - big surprise - you don't crack out a movie in under three months, especially when that movie had been announced for well over 6 months at this point), i imagine talks probably went into effect after the first DC comics run and likely signed off at the same time the RWBY/JL comics were - these claims are also often alongside accusations that this film was somehow the result of RT execs blackmailing someone at WB

it just always seems to be jumping to the most irrational conclusions to try and justify shitting on both RWBY and the people behind it - like back when Fortnite was teasing the Naruto crossover and the official RWBY twitter responded with a gif and these chucklefucks immediately jumped to 'begging to be included in fortnite' as if that makes any fucking sense - like yeah, sure, the official account of a show that is 100% not run by someone high up in the production company is going around twitter begging to be included in crossovers because that's totally a) professional behaviour and b) how that would work. if anything that was just a teasing nod to how some fans and Arryn had talked about wanting RWBY in the game, and possibly that background discussions had been had or were on-going for future inclusion, we don't know

or the same when Multiversus was coming up and the official twitter responded with a gif and the same assholes continued with the mocking 'begging' bullshit when, again, Multiversus was covering WB associated properties and RWBY would fall under the umbrella and would be up for consideration and was probably undergoing background talks for it (that the director of the game seems to be a fan of the show, posting about the anime announcement and retweeting some rwby-in-multiversus tweets, including the official account's tweet, would further hint at this)

this has even been retroactively applied to shit like BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle - you get people being shitty about RWBY being included at all and saying it should've gone to a series 'more deserving', completely ignoring that the reason it was included is because director Toshimichi Mori is a fan of the show (he and Monty were in fact both fans of each other's work, Penny's fighting style is partly a BlazBlue reference and in BlazBlue Central Fiction, that came out towards the end of 2015, four characters have palettes that reference team RWBY). and then if it's not that it's spreading rumours that the reason the RWBY roster in that game was pitifully small was because rooster teeth wouldn't 'let' them use certain characters (which as far as i can tell is from some bullshit 4chan discussion where someone claimed to be working for arcsys US and talking about how much of a pain it was to be working with the RT team on including characters because they were trying to 'block' certain characters from being included - like Relius Clover, whose Astral Finish involves putting characters in very uncomfortable positions as he experiments on them. he's also a puppet fighter, which is the real reason he wasn't included because it wouldn't work for the game's mechanics - and too 'protective' over which characters to include - all a crock of shit, obviously, especially as it's clear that the reason there's hardly any rwby characters is because the game mostly uses re-used assets and building all those characters from scratch took up a lot of dev time)

fact of the matter is; these people don't want to live in a world where rwby is successful or liked, and think if they keep attacking it at every opportunity, that'll make their worldview true

sucks to be them i guess

#rwb/y

[vihattu-thethoroughbredofsin]

Hey, I saw your post on what the skybound comics did to Jetfire and I feel you. The comics already made it clear it wasn't for me when they killed Bumblebee, but I THOUGHT they would keep Jetfire around after that but no! I didn't read it, cause a friend was kind enough to spoil Bee's death for me but NONE of the Decepticons died in that issue after killing Jetfire?!

That is bull. That is literally bull. And I'm hearing people throwing heeps of praises to this comic series and wishing that this becomes a show. I DON'T. Let comics stay comics and let shows be its own thing for Transformers. Marvel has shown how badly one can mess up a good series when they try mixing that mess together! It ruins the characters AND the plot in the worse way imaginable! No one wins! No one! I know there will be people out there saying differently but this era of shows prove that it will be a high chance of it failing compared to the past!

Hello, anonym! I think you're a fan of Bumblebee, so I sympathize with you, it's very sad when your favorite character is killed in the first issue :(

In fact, the comic series is not so bad, it is clear that it was handled by a person with an idea and inspiration, and he brought a lot of interesting moments. But I don't like the fact that two Autobots were killed in the first issue at once, and the Decepticons are doing well. Once again, the Autobots are at the very bottom and must overcome. Yes, this is the way of the «good guys», but there must be some kind of balance! I think this is because the Decepticons have more fans, and they won't like having one of their favorite characters killed. And so, how many fans does Skyfire have? Not so many, and there are more Bumblebee haters now than fans, there are also few voices of indignation. But maybe the authors themselves love the Decepticons a little more, at least Skywarp is definitely the author's favorite character.

It's interesting with Bumblebee in general, because Hasbro's representatives themselves asked to put this character in the background, because there are a lot of him, and, apparently, approved of his killing. This impression is created from the words of the author, who spoke about this request to shift the focus from Bumblebee to someone else, and about the fact that he was asked to change the number of Ark engines for the final version. It means that there is some degree of control there and all this has been approved.

As for the show, I agree, fandom and Hasbro want it, without understanding the consequences. As if the "Rise of the Beasts" was not an example of this strategy being a failure. Let's hope that comics will not be affected by this trend.

Well, right now I'm just foolishly hoping that Skyfire will be fixed somehow, because it's not fair to just kill him.

By the way, here is the author's channel, he sometimes broadcasts and tells interesting things about the process of creating a comic book, I highly recommend watching it.

#Transformers #transformers comics #Image Comics #skybound #skybound transformers #skybound tf #energon universe #answered ask

[0pin0n-custard]

Harley Quinn Season 3 Episode 2 and DC’s Refusal to Address Harm

**TW Discussion of Sexual Assault, Victim Blaming, Mental Health Issues, and Suicide**

Please note that I am writing this as a survivor of rape, and as someone who suffers from PTSD and dissociation

Hearing that Nightwing was making an appearing in Harley Quinn really got me excited. I wanted to see how they’d depict him and what they’d do with his character.

Overall, my feelings are mixed. And it’s all because of one line.

Yep. The “I let Vigilante kill Blockbuster” line that had “I let Tarantula kill Blockbuster” in the closed captions.

I could get on my soapbox for hours about Nightwing 93 and its absolutely abhorrent handling of rape. Devin Grayson did a fucking horrible job, and her victim blaming commentary did nothing to help her cause. She’s since addressed this, but I personally can’t bring myself to forgive her for the genuine harm she caused.

As an aside, please don’t go harass her. That isn’t ok. You don’t have to like her; just don’t harass her.

Back on topic, DC handled Nightwing’s rape by pretending that it never happened. Nightwing 93 isn’t in print and the assault was never addressed in the comics again.

So you can imagine my genuine shock when the I was watching Harley Quinn (with subtitles on because auditory processing is a bitch) and I heard/saw that line drop.

I want to make one thing very clear. I’m not opposed to DC acknowledging its fuck-ups. They made Dick’s rape canon, so it’s better to address it and handle it in a proper, respectful manner than to just shove it away and hope no one remembers.

But the way that it was handled in the show frustrated me for two reasons.

1. The lack of acknowledgment (again)

Yep. DC really fucked up in that regard. No surprise there.

The people behind Harley Quinn all collectively decided that mentioning Nightwing 93 was a good idea.

And I agree! Harley Quinn has plenty of moments where they address serious subject matter (like… ya know.. how the Joker treated Harley.) They managed to pull that off in a way that kept the humor, set the stage for the show, but also remained respectful towards survivors of domestic violence. It’s a perfect platform for the long-ignored assault to be processed.

But then they pulled a Devin Grayson (although to a significantly less harmful degree) by simply not acknowledging it.

Dick wasn’t upset because of what Tarantula did. He was upset that he let Blockbuster die. Just like in the comics.

And to make matters worse, somewhere along the line, someone had the bright idea that “hey maybe we shouldn’t mention Tarantula because of what happened.” And the voice line got changed to “Vigilante.”

This doesn’t work for a variety of reasons. Nightwing 93 is infamous in the fandom. You mention Blockbuster’s death, and fans are gonna know exactly what event is being referred to. You can’t just bring it up and change the name around. We all know what happened, and, to me, it feels like the show erased Nightwing’s trauma (again.)

Not to mention, the subtitle wasn’t changed. So… that was kinda a dead giveaway.

Either the creators realized midway through development that mentioning Tarantula would be a bit ~controversial~, had Nightwing’s VA do a quick redo, and then forgot to change the CC, or the DC higher ups weren’t too happy that Tarantula was brought up, told the Harley Quinn team to change it, and they did but also kept the CC the same. Idk which.

Not to mention, the fact that it was changed somewhere along the line means that DC recognized that Dick had been raped in Nightwing 93, and made the deliberate decision to silence him once again.

Either way, DC fucked up the soup by sticking their toe in it, then trying to pretend like they didn’t.

2. Dick Grayson’s Characterization

Harley Quinn is a dark comedy. It pokes fun at its cast all the time. Dick being dramatic and trying too hard to be like Batman is a really funny concept; I like how the show ran with it. Dick being overly confident and fucking up the chess? Honestly, pretty damn hilarious and a good in-character caricature.

It’s his subsequent breakdown that I take issue with.

Because despite someone’s best efforts, Tarantula was mentioned. And as I said before, almost every DC fan knows what Tarantula did to Nightwing.

The moment that the Blockbuster incident was brought up, Harley Quinn’s version of Nightwing became a survivor of sexual assault. You can’t separate the two incidents; trust me- DC has tried.

And so, Dick’s breakdown in the escape room gained a new, darker context. Dick’s emotional instability wasn’t just due to his allowance for Blockbuster’s death; it was also because he’d recently been raped.

Dick’s suicidal behavior wasn’t just him being overly-dramatic. And that scene became significantly less humorous with the added context of Nightwing 93.

The resolution felt really half-baked as well. Even putting the rape aside, Dick was still really traumatized by what happened with Blockbuster. His fear over his family’s reactions wasn’t addressed. The ending felt rushed and, to a degree, unsatisfactory.

I know that some of you might be saying that I’m looking too deep into this, and that it’s just a TV show. But to me, it’s not.

I have wanted DC to actually address Nightwing 93 for years. Dick Grayson has been the victim of several instances of abuse, assault, and rape. The character has endured so much trauma, and yet DC ignores it; they allowed it to happen, but they refuse to give him the time of day to actually address it.

I can’t tell you how many comments I’ve seen made by fanboys about how “lucky” Nightwing was for being raped by Tarantula and Mirage. About how his relationship with Liu wasn’t statutory rape. Etc. etc.

It’s fucking disgusting, and DC is partially to blame. By continuously making Nightwing the victim of sexual assault, and then never addressing it as such, they are sending out a very harmful message.

By never acknowledging the trauma, they’re implying that it wasn’t trauma. By ignoring the rape, they’re leaving the door open for assholes to say that it wasn’t rape to begin with.

This has real world consequences.

Male survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence, abuse, rape, etc. are constantly invalidated and ignored by society. (Non-male victims are ignored and invalidated as well; I’m just specifically discussing male victims right now.)

Boys are called lucky if their female teacher rapes them. Men are called weak if a woman rapes them. Men are emasculated if another man rapes them.

Even “safe” spaces aren’t safe for them. Most survivor resources use female-only language, thus making many men and gender non-conforming people feel unwelcome. I’ve experienced this IRL.

By never addressing the harm they caused, DC has allowed Dick Grayson to become a symbol of a silenced victim, never allowed to share his story or process his trauma.

But despite all of that, many survivors, myself included, have found comfort in Dick Grayson.

*just a warning for some trauma dumping from my own life, but it’s relevant to the topic at hand i promise*

In 2020, I moved to a new state (I live in the U.S.) I was all alone; my entire support system was over 500 miles away. Only a few weeks after I moved into my new apartment, I was sexually assaulted only a block away.

When I called my mom, she blamed me and took the time to shame me for being on testosterone. My (now ex) boyfriend blamed me and refused to visit me. My friends were only able to offer surface-level support. I was completely alone.

When I say that Nightwing saved my life, I genuinely mean it. For years by that point I’d been processing my trauma and life in general through the lenses of media and fanfiction. Reading fanfictions that actually addressed and expanded upon Nightwing 93 became my primary coping skill. I can’t thank the fanfic authors enough tbh. I projected myself onto Dick Grayson. I, a man who survived sexual assault and dissociation only to be invalidated, saw myself in that fictional character. He was more a hero in my eyes than ever before. Nightwing got me through that shit. Fanfictions that actually addressed and handled Nightwing’s trauma got me through that shit. Was that entirely healthy? No. But I didn’t have many options at that point. They kept me alive. That’s all that matters.

*ok trauma dumping is over sorry about that.*

I wish Harley Quinn had been different. I wish that the show had been the one to finally give Dick a voice in DC. I wish that it hadn’t censored out Tarantula’s name. I wish it had handled it like it handled Harley’s trauma. I wish it had given me and other survivors representation.

I wish that it hadn’t subsequently turned Dick into a suicide joke.

Approximately 33% of women who are victims of sexual assault contemplate suicide. 13% of them attempt it.

I’d give you a statistic based on male victims or a non-gendered sample, but such a study hasn’t been published. (At least, not based on 20 minutes of searching both google and academic articles.)

I understand and fully embrace that Harley Quinn is a dark comedy. It makes dark jokes, and a lot of them get a laugh out of me. But given the context of.. everything, that scene just felt in poor taste. Especially since his suicidal behavior wasn’t addressed again.

Thankfully, Harley Quinn isn’t over yet. I’m really hoping that DC will actually explore Dick’s trauma and give him a respectful, kind, long-overdue resolution to Nightwing 93.

But based on DC’s past and current behavior, I’m not getting my hopes up.

And please know, this whole rant is not me saying that Harley Quinn is a bad show or that the creative team is like Devin Grayson or that they need to be cancelled or anything like that. Not at all. I’m still going to continue watching and enjoying the show. I think it’s really good, and I love what it’s doing for Gotham characters. I blame the DC higher-ups wayyyyy more than I would ever blame the Harley Quinn team.

I just wanted to put my thoughts and frustrations out into the universe, because I’m very tired of survivors (regardless of gender) being silenced, ignored, and mocked.

#tw rap3 #tw sui ideation #tw sui implied #dc comics #dc #harley quinn #batfamily #batfam #gotham #poison ivy #dick grayson #batman #bruce wayne #nightwing #nightwing 93 #dc i will never forgive you #devin grayson #i hate her so much

[roseworth]

I’ve been thinking about something recently and I’m curious about your opinion. Sometimes I worry that the comic book fandom, especially the DC one, are inadvertently pushing away people from actually getting into comics. I’ve seen people who only really consume DC fanon stuff say that the comics seem really bad and that’s why they don’t want to get into it. I worry that all the negativity with people on their blogs saying they hate so and so’s storyline and talking about what writers they hate might be just further increasing the problem DC has with people who only engage with the fandom and not the actual source material. I know it’s a bit more nuanced than that but I really want more people to get into the comics and I don’t know how without being pushy lol

no yeah you make a really good point, especially bc comics are like the worst thing to get into for a beginner bc no matter where you start youre wrong

however as someone that only started getting into comics like less than 2 years ago i think that its not actually as bad as it seems, bc i definitely (shamefully) started as a "fanon is better than canon" person, with a lot of the other fanon blogs i followed saying that the comics werent worth reading. so it definitely is hard to convince people to actually read the comics. but what happened to me is that i would slowly find more blogs of people that read comics that would talk about characters they like and give recommendations for stories that are at least nice for a character even if theyre not good

i am absolutely a hater and i complain about comics on here all the time but most of the time it comes from a place of love <3 ill complain only bc i love the character in other runs, and i never shut up about the comics i like and i know im not the only one <333 so as much comic blogs talk about how much we hate comics there are also so many comics that get good reviews from tumblr girlies (gn)

so i think that while some fanon fans stay as fanon fans a lot of them do end up developing into fans that actually read the comics just bc fanon is a really easy way to start off and learn the characters before jumping into runs !

and id like to say in general once again that although i do complain about fans that dont read the comics it is okay to be starting out and not have read a lot !!!! there are so many comics and its so hard to start off but you dont need to know everything to be posting online, were all here to have a fun silly little time and its not the end of the world if you make a silly batfamily post without reading every batfamily appearance

#we're also on the superwholock website ppl arent looking for good media theyre looking for vibes and characters #and im certainly marketing the vibes and characters #check out the silly little guys they are soooo lame and cringe <3