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incorrectbatfam · 1 year

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Hello! While scrolling between random hurt/comfort fica I stumbled into a batfamily one and decided to give it a shot and now I am curious about this fandom! Never read any dc/marvel comic and watched maybe a couple of superhero movies so I have basically 0 knowledge about batman except that Robin is his apprentice but also apparently there's multiple Robins??

Can I have a general fandom/family introduction? I'm very confused but also really curious since I'm an avid found family enjoyer :)

What the heck is this fandom?

If you're reading this, you probably either a) want to get into comics but aren’t sure where to start or b) found yourself plopped in the middle and don't know what's going on.

DC Comics encompasses a wide range of characters and storylines with varying levels of popularity, and is home to some of the most iconic figures like Superman and Wonder Woman. What often happens in the DC and Marvel fandoms is that rather than trying to engage with everything, many fans will have a certain subset of content that they focus on. Sometimes it's a single character, sometimes it's a team like the Justice League, or sometimes it's a superhero family unit such as the Flash Family.

This blog primarily focuses on the batfamily, which is the group of characters that operate as Gotham City vigilantes centered around Batman. Some are legally/biologically related, some aren't. Generally speaking, the batfamily fandom is one of the larger subgroups within the DC fandom because so many of the comics revolve around these characters.

Who is Batman?

Are you living under a rock

Batman, AKA Bruce Wayne, begins with the infamous tragic origin where his parents were shot dead in an alleyway when he was 8, leaving him an orphan to be raised by his butler/surrogate father figure, Alfred Pennyworth. Once Bruce got a little older, he donned the costume to deal with criminals directly and bring justice to the city.

His civilian identity is Bruce Wayne, the (and I say this begrudgingly) billionaire CEO of his family's company, Wayne Enterprises. The company makes a little of everything and keeps Gotham afloat with job creation and philanthropy. Nothing unethical about one rich guy running an entire city.

His alter ego is Batman, and he uses his wit and extensive training to fight an array of both petty criminals as well as big-name villains like the Joker, the Riddler, Two-Face and more (collectively known as the Gotham Rogues gallery).

NOTE: some former villains, like Harley Quinn, have been rebranded as anti-heroes.

Batman operates out of a hidden cave (yes, a literal cave) under Wayne Manor known as the Batcave. This is where he keeps all sorts of high-tech paraphanalia, including his Batmobile, bat-plane, batarangs (bat boomerangs), and a powerful computer known as—you guessed it—the Batcomputer.

Batman's primary love interest is a former villain known as Catwoman, AKA Selina Kyle, who is a master thief. (Her backstory includes growing up with an abusive father and turning to stealing for survival.) She's since reformed and has been indicted into the Justice League. They're really cute if you don't think about how they're technically two furries who roleplay as cops and robbers.

NOTE: in an alternate timeline, Bruce dies as a child in that alley as Thomas Wayne becomes Batman while Martha Wayne becomes the Joker.

Okay, what about... Robin? Robins?

There's a lot to unpack here.

The OG Robin is Dick Grayson. Yes, we still call him Dick in the year 2022. He was a child acrobat who was part of a trio, The Flying Graysons, with his parents, John and Mary, in a traveling circus called Haly's Circus. Haly's stopped in Gotham, where a crime boss named Tony Zucco tried to get them to pay protection money. When Haly refused, Zucco sabotaged the trapezes and Dick's parents fell to their deaths. Bruce was at that show and because Orphans Unite or whatnot, he takes little Dick under his wing as a ward (not legally adopted at this point, Bruce is in his early to mid 20s). Dick joins Batman's crusade as the colorful pantsless sidekick known as Robin. As Robin, he also became the leader of what would eventually be a multigenerational superhero team known as the Teen Titans.

The second Robin is Jason Todd. He grew up in Gotham's notorious Crime Alley, where his mother, Catherine, was a substance user and his father, Willis, was an overall piece of garbage. After his father goes to jail and his mother dies of an overdose, Jason is essentially an orphan left to fend for himself on the streets. His run-in with Batman happens when he tries to steal to Batmobile tires to sell, and instead of getting punished, he gets adopted. Legally, this time. So while Dick is the oldest, Jason is Bruce's first kid. Jason takes on the Robin mantle and fights crime, yada yada. What he's well-known for is his death, where he set out to Ethiopia to find his biological mother, Sheila Haywood, and is killed by the Joker. Then Superman breaks reality and Jason comes back to life, spends some time with the League of Assassins, and gets rebranded as a crime lord/anti-hero with a hell of a grudge against Bruce for not avenging him.

While Jason was dead, we get our third Robin and the first one with pants: Tim Drake. Tim is actually Bruce's neighbor (the way rich people can be neighbors with spaced-out properties). He grew up with wealthy but neglectful parents, Janet and Jack Drake, who often left Tim home alone as a small child while they went on their archeology expeditions. Tim takes an interest in the Gotham vigilantes and sets out to follow them around and gather evidence to figure out who they are. Eventually, he deduces Bruce, Dick, and Jason's identities by some moves unique to the Flying Graysons. Then, Tim basically blackmails Bruce into letting him be Robin and has his own teenage superhero team called Young Justice. After the Robin title is taken away from him, he becomes Red Robin (yes, like the restaurant chain) and while everyone thinks Batman is dead during this time, Tim is the only one who believes otherwise. Also, his mom drinks poison, dad is killed by a boomerang, best friend is killed by an evil clone, other best friend is also killed by an evil clone, girlfriend dies (see below), assassins steal his spleen, and now he's bisexual and dating a boy who creates conspiracy theories.

NOTE: In an alternate timeline, Carrie Kelley becomes the third Robin.

Robin #4 is Stephanie Brown. She actually didn't become Robin until well into her vigilante career. She actually made a name for herself as Spoiler with the purpose of taking down her father, a D-list Gotham villain known as Cluemaster. Similar to everyone in this franchise, her childhood wasn't ideal as her father was always up to criminal activities and her mother worked a lot as well as (in some versions) used drugs. She later becomes the fifth Batgirl and then Robin before her death in the 2005 War Games comics, where she is killed when she seeks out a villain against Batman's orders. She then returns from the dead and goes back to being Spoiler. She also dated Tim and was a fairly long-running relationship before they broke up. She also had a teen pregnancy at one point (not by Tim) and had a daughter that she put up for adoption.

Robin #5 is Damian Wayne, the biological son of Bruce Wayne and Talia Al Ghul (daughter to Ra's Al Ghul, leader of a villainous organization known as the League of Assassins). Damian was raised in the League of Assassins for the first half of his childhood, where he was trained to be the heir to Ra's Al Ghul's empire. Talia brought him to Bruce when he was ~10 to refine his skills with Batman. However, that kind of goes awry when Bruce fakes his death and Damian is raised by Dick instead. Damian also becomes a Teen Titans leader as well as forms a friendship with Jon Kent, son of Superman (please read Super Sons, it's adorable). Damian is then killed by his oversized evil clone and is brought back to life on the planet Apokolips (no one stays dead istg).

Duke Thomas's relationship with the Robin mantle is a little more complicated. Duke first shows up as a really intelligent kid who solves one of the Riddler's puzzles. Later on, he becomes the leader (aided by Alfred Pennyworth) of a group of teenage vigilantes known as We Are Robin, who helped take care of Gotham crime while Batman was missing. His parents were, for a lack of a better term, disabled after one of the Joker's gas attacks (seriously, someone euthanize this clown). Bruce takes Duke under his wing and Duke rebrands himself as the Signal. He's unique from other Gotham heroes in a couple aspects: 1) he fights crime in the daytime instead of night and 2) he has photokinetic superpowers. (He's also dating one of the We Are Robins members, Izzy Ortiz.)

What about the others, like Batwoman and Batgirl?

Similar to Robin, Batgirl is a title held by multiple people. The first Batgirl was Bette Kane (who is now Flamebird), but the most well-known one was the second one, Barbara Gordon. Barbara (Babs for short) is the daughter of Gotham police commissioner Jim Gordon. Inspired by other Gotham heroes, she became Batgirl behind her parents' back and worked in tandem with Bruce and Dick, forming a relationship with Dick along the way. She became a quadriplegic after getting shot by the Joker but refused to step down from the field, instead using her intelligence and technological capabilities to surveil and provide intel under a new moniker, Oracle. She also has her own team, the Birds of Prey, which includes people like Huntress and Black Canary.

After Barbara, the next Batgirl is Cassandra Cain (who is also Bruce's only legal daughter in the main continuity). She is the daughter of David Cain and an assassin known as Lady Shiva. Cass was raised by David within the League of Assassins and trained to be a fighting machine, similar to Damian. She was raised in isolation without speech or literacy, but can read body language really well. Her first kill was when she was 8, and that traumatized her so much that she ran away, wandering around until eventually reaching Gotham and becoming both Bruce and Barbara's ward. She holds other titles like Black Bat along the way but is most known as Orphan. She also befriends Stephanie, had a short relationship with Superboy (Conner Kent) and, like half the people here, dies and comes back. Depending on who you talk to, some people keep her lack of speech, some have her speaking, and some prefer an in-between.

Stephanie was Batgirl after Cass. See above.

Kate Kane is Batwoman and Bruce Wayne's cousin. She grew up similarly wealthy in a high-level military family, often moving around as a child. Her twin sister and mother were killed in a terrorist attack in Belgium, leaving her father to raise her. She got into West Point military academy but was expelled in her final year after coming out as lesbian under the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy. After that, she spent a year on an island civilization before returning to Gotham. After Batman saved her from a mugging, Kate bought some equipment on the black market and trained herself to become Batwoman. Also, we as a fandom don't talk about her flamethrower gloves enough.

NOTE: in an alternate timeline, Carrie Kelley was also Batgirl and Batwoman.

Harper Row is Bluebird, and similar to Batwoman, she is a mostly independent Gotham hero who was inspired by Batman. Growing up, Harper often had to take care of things like household repairs and look after her younger brother, Cullen, because their father was abusive and didn't do anything for them. Eventually, she sought emancipation and got them out of there, but things still weren't easy. She went to college, but had to drop out and get a job in order to provide for her and her brother. She became Bluebird after Batman saved her and Cullen, engineering her own weapons like a giant taser. Fun fact: she's bi and her brother is gay.

This is still really confusing. Who's who right now?

Canon sucks so here's what the fandom largely know them as:

Bruce is Batman. He might have some suit modifications or occasionally pilot a giant bat robot, but he's Batman

Dick is Nightwing. He took over as Batman for a short period of time, but after Bruce returned, he went back to being Nightwing we don't talk about Ric

Jason is Red Hood. That was actually the Joker's previous title but now Jason holds it

Tim is... usually Robin or Red Robin, it kinda depends on context. Canonically he's back to being Robin now, but a lot of us still refer to him as Red Robin

Damian is Robin. He had the alias Redbird at one point but everyone calls him Robin

Duke is the Signal. Again, there were some alias changes (like Lark) but he's the Signal around here

Stephanie is Spoiler, but again, it depends on context

Cassandra is usually referred to as Orphan, but you'll occasionally see Batgirl or Black Bat depending on who you talk to

Barbara was rehashed as Batgirl in recent canon but we all hate the disability erasure so you'll see a lot of us still call her Oracle

Harper is Bluebird. I don't recall her having any other titles. Her brother isn't a vigilante

Selina (yes, she's part of the batfamily) is Catwoman

Alfred is... Alfred. On the field he goes by Agent A and his previous spy career often comes in handy

This isn't the sum of it. There are a whole bunch of other bat characters (Bette Kane, Luke Fox, Jean-Paul Valley, Helena Bertinelli, Terry McGinnis, etc.) that I didn't get into here partly because I don't focus on them as much and partly because of space. I also didn't get into all the lore for characters I did explain, like Dick's police career or other teams/relationships. There are also some inconsistencies between different timelines and reboots.

I encourage you to explore beyond what I presented with other heroes and villains since I know Batman isn't for everyone. I also encourage you to explore the comics, talk to people, and figure out for yourself what characters or storylines best fit you. Don't be afraid to take your time, either. We've been here nearly a century. We're not going anywhere.

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dcxdpdabbles · 8 days

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hi first of all I looooove your stories so damn much especially The Royal Consor also how old is cave boy!dany and if you had the time can you explain the timeline for each one?(I got it mixed up all the time😅)

Thank you for liking my writing! I got you on the timeline stuff. These will be based on Danny's age. There isn't really a set time frame as in the era they are in. It's a mix of early two thousand to twenty-seventeen.

I hope these re-caps help!

Royal Consort

No one besides Team Phantom knows Danny is Phantom. He lies to protect his ID

Danny becomes King Phantom (Age fourteen)

When he is crowned, he finds the Consort necklace and puts it on (Age fourteen)

Justice League finds out the USA passed the anti-ecto Act (Age fifteen)

Danny refuses to remove the necklace, so it appears in the class photo (Age fourteen)

Danny continues to wear the necklace in all class photos afterward (Age fourteen - age seventeen)

Justice League managed to abolish the Anti-ecto Acts after much struggle (Age Seventeen)

Wes takes a picture of Phantom and posts it (Age Seventeen)

John Constantine stumbles across Phantom's photo as a long-time Wes' Superbat fanfiction fan. (Age Seventeen)

Justice League realizes that Phantom has appeared on Earth a lot in the last three years in the small town of Amity Park. The same place as a boy wearing the Ghost Consort Necklace (Age Seventeen)

The world finds out the same news the same morning (Age Seventeen)

The story of Royal Consort takes place over two weeks, basically. In Part 1, Danny wakes up to the heavy hitters (Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and John Constantine) in his living room three days after Wes posted the photo. The necklace he is wearing is the ghost speak for "Royal Consort," so everyone thinks he eloped at age fourteen.

In part 2, it's the same day, but they go up to the watch tower and find out about Dani, who was watching the breaking news on TV.

In part 3, the Fentons are hiding from the paparazzi for three days in a place Bruce rented until Danny gets cabin fever and goes exploring. He is caught by the paparazzi and rescued by the Waynes.

In part 4, it's been four days since the Waynes rescued Danny- precisely one week after Danny was confused as King Phantom's husband instead of King Phantom- and they throw a gala to welcome him. It's a rush job of trying to control his introduction to the world, but that same night, alien evasion is heading to Earth, where they kill Batman and Superman. Danny is sent back from the future by Clockwork after the world gets taken over to stop the aliens and Future! Danny is pretending to escort Danny to the gala as cover to stop the attack.

Cave Boy

Danny is the same age for most of the stroy (Age fifteen- No one besides team Phantom knows he's Phantom)

By latest part (Part 9) Danny turns sixteen since he been there a full year.

In part 1, Danny crashlands in a different dimension while taking the Specter Speeder on a joyride in the Ghost Zone. It's so bad in shape that he has to fix it from scratch. He spends three months exploring the cave system and the Gothanm at night to avoid being seen and collects tech to try to fix the speeder. He accidentally wanders too close to the Batcave, where the Batfam captures him. They run tests on him and thus realize he's a version of Bruce. Danny rolls with it.

Part 2 is the following night since he was let out of the Batcave. The Batfamily is having dinner. There, they see how Bruce used to act as a teen and find out Alfred told him he was only allowed to date people who could beat him up. Danny pretends to be called Brucie.

In part 3, Danny is in Wayne Mannor for a month. At that time, the Bats gave him a fake ID as - Danny Kane- a made-up descended from Bruce's maternal grandfather. By acting as lazy as possible, he works hard to throw off the Waynes, thinking he is not a version of Bruce. Tim starts to suspect him of being evil since no version of Bruce would ever be lazy and unwilling to involve himself in her life as a hero or a villain. He earns the name Rabid Dog at a gala where he bites Jason until he bleeds and creeps out the elites with Jazz's psyche training.

In part 4, Danny lived in Wayne Manor for two months (Five months since the crash-landed). By that point, he had been secretly sneaking away any tech he could grab to try and fix his ship. This is also when part 6.1, where Danny loves random animals and starts sneaking them into the manor, happens. Towards the end of the two months he grows tired of Alfred's ban on junk food and sneaks out to go buy some. He ends up traumatizing some Scarecrow goons who take over his bus with Jazz psyche training again.

In part 5, Danny has lived in Wayne Manor for almost three months. A week after the Scarecrow Goons Buss incident, he mentions Sam and Tucker, changing their names to Selina and Ethan, unknowingly linking them to DC people. The Bats learn he has a crush on them and that Danny has adoptive siblings back home. He changes Dan's name to Tommy and Dani's name to Harley. Jazz becomes Kate, another adoptive sibling. Another week later, Part 6.2 happens when Danny wakes up and decides to cook for everyone. No other Bruce across the Multi-verse can cook, so they are nervous about it. He comments about the food coming to life, and only Tim and Cass know he wasn't lying or joking about it

In part 6, Danny has lived in Wayne Manor for five months (It's been eight months since he crashlanded, and he's starting to get homesick). Alfred worries that Danny does not bother to go out or do anything (He does everything at night out of sight) and suggests a trip to the mall alone. Before this, if he did venture out, one of the Waynes would always be with him, limiting his tech-stealing chances. At the mall, Joker takes him and Bernard hostage as revenge for Tim helping the families of his old victims. Phantom's uncontrolled rage triggers after seeing Joker torture Bernard, and he realizes that Joker hurts others for the fun of it, which is the opposite of his protective core. Phantom rips Joker apart, leaving a smear of blood and flesh. An hour later, he is rescued by the Bats.

In part 7, Danny has been in Wayne Manor for six months. In the month following Joker's death, the Waynes have become wary of Danny. They do not like that he killed and are more upset by his lack of remorse. The rest of Gotham, however, hail him as a hero and send him gifts/thank you cards. Danny doesn't like how distant they are, and he is hurt by the sudden change in the Waynes, though he tries to hide it. The latest gifts from the people who wanted Joker dead arrive, and Tim once again accuses him of pretending to be a civilian. Danny lets it slip that his parents are alive, and the reactions of Tim and Alfred make him realize he should not pretend to be Bruce. He flees the Manor into the caves.

In part 8, Danny hides from the Waynes for two months. (A whole year since his crash landed. He turns sixteen during his hiding) He freaks out that he can't get his ship to work and stops caring for himself. He does not eat; he sleeps only when he collapses. He refuses to shift back to Fenton for fear of the Bats finding his heartbeat. By only going out at night time and actively avoiding everyone, Danny also puts a nasty strain on his mental health. He eventually nearly dies when his body gives out, and shifts into Fenton as he is passing out. Jon- who was helping Damian look for him- hears his heartbeat and works together to get him out of the cave-in he was hiding in.

In part 9, Danny wakes up in Wayne Manor. Unknown to him, he had been unconscious for three days. His human side is really banged up, and it's a close call of him almost dying. Tim blames himself and is left sitting at his bedside in guilt. Danny wakes a few times, too medicated to make sense, but blurts out information about himself to Tim. He tells Tim his real name and the coordinates of his dimension. Tim starts to build a ship for him as an apology, while John Constantine is called in by Bruce to see what the unknown energy around Danny is. John confirms its otherworld energy and places wards up, thinking he is protecting Danny from an unknown otherworld that is bothering him. Danny wakes to find himself trapped within the wards and threatened by one of his own Rune carvings of the Fenton family name.

#Mun speaks #dcxdpdabbles #Re-cap of Royal Consort and Cave boy #Time frame for both are very different #A lot happened in cave boy

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bookwormlover10 · 3 months

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look i love people talking about Terry, it's nice to have some more people in the fandom. But what REALLY rubs me wrong is how people are treating the Epilogue Clone Son Twist like it's Everything about Terry's character. You would Not introduce Harley Quinn as an anti-hero with her gf Poison Ivy. You would go into her PHD and history with the Joker first. I don't like how the "Batfam" fans just gloss over and "blorbo-fy" Terry into "poor widdle baby clone" and "sassy Future bat #7". His FAMILY and his attempts to keep his relationships stable despite being Batman ARE the things that make him stand out in the Batfamily. His past as a gang member and his acknowledgement of his mistakes with his repayment IS important to him - stop making him Damian but Better! or Jason but Better! He's Terry! he's a 90s child with all the cringe that goes with it!

Yea I agreed with you on somethings. Even though I personally don't really like the half clone twist, in the Grand scheme of things. The whole clone thing was only in one episode of justice league unlimited and they never brought it up again. It was never batman beyond itself. I don't read much comics but from I know the clone thing was Recon in comics. But that what people remembered and when people hear about they forget everything else that is interesting about his character! Which makes me not really liking the existence of epilogue. Even Thought I think the the episode fine on it own ending the cadmus ark

For the blorbo thing. It something that I noticed in a lot of fandoms. I just learned to ignore most of it.

For the Damian but better! Is something I don't really see. Because Damien was raised by literal assassins and Terry had a normal childhood. Don't really see how Terry could be Damien but better..... There origins or nothing alike.... There anger issues maybe. But that a common trait with bat boys. Like dick has it and Jason has it. So that not special. The only thing that I could think of that they have in common is there sperm donor and that their both future batman. Thought I personally think that there dynamic has potential

Jason but better is something I understand with giving how similar they are in a lot of things. Even fashioned tastes. But Terry was rocking the brown leather jackets and red bat symbols longer than Jason did... But seriously though with the simulator organs in some places. Terry was still a kid with a normal childhood was both his parents. He only started acting out is cause he couldn't handle his parents divorce and was a really bad kid. ( And from from what I know Terry is in the middle class) For what I know ( don't at me I haven't read a lot of comics) in his post crisis ( his second one) organs Jason only act up to survive. But overall was a good kid. ( For the most part. I think from my research...) I'm not going to continue this part before I butcher something. Their morals quiet different to. sent I got interested in Terry first I compared Jason to Terry. This that they would have an interesting dynamic.

For the sassy future batman is something I could see. Thought me personally I see Terry like a spider man like Batman.( Maybe because I'm bias and I like Spider-Man) Terry organs has things similar to a spider man story. ( But people have talk to death about that.) Terry also has that spider man humor. Thought he is seared when need to be. ( This is just me rambling at this point)

#terry mcginnis #batman beyond #batfamily #jason todd #damian wayne #sence people don't know about Terry ill take what i can get personally

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gonnalosemydougdimmadomedamnmind · 7 months

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Batfanon fans really just be saying shit. Like whatever they wanna say. They ain't even talking about the actual characters, just like the way they look and slap on some tropes! No thoughts! No character analysis based on the actual canon! Just fucking soundbites. Whatever fits your headcanon is suddenly facts they'll die on until they can't pull up any evidence! Then its all "why can't i enjoy what I want". Well why can't you admit you don't like the actual characters? Why else would they be unrecognizable from canon? I'll never understand how you can claim to be a fan of a character but know nothing about them or change everything about them. What are you a fan of then?? The saddest part is that this fandom is so big and pushy, the shit bleeds into everything.

#batfamily #anti batfamily fans #dc comics #batman #my posts

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roseworth · 6 months

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hey <3 heres what i think of every scene that rosenberg has written with rose

disclaimer: most of this is me being very nitpicky. rose was a side character for all of these appearances so obv i understand that its not gonna be perfect characterization. but i rly like talking about rose characterization so this is just me pulling apart her appearances for fun <3

ok lets go

overall

i LOVE the jason & rose dynamic. im not much of a jayrose fan but since its happening im glad that its like this. i love that its so much "rose is excessively horny and jason is giving her nothing" bc its so in character for both of them. shes fucking with him and he does not know how to reciprocate. they r so sillies

HOWEVER. rose would not just hang around him like shes doing. as much as i like that dynamic i feel like he also has to at least sometimes show that hes. you know. interested in having her around. shes just kinda tagging along and i wish there was a reason why she would put up with him never giving her anything, especially since she has a tendency to leave at the first sign of not being wanted

on a completely different note, im a little disappointed that shes wearing her old costume instead of the new one she has in btbatb/kt ravager. i appreciate that shes still drawn like an adult but i rly like her new costume so im sad that she doesnt have it

man who stopped laughing #9

STRONG start. beats up a bunch of cops, then right after she appears she does her stupid flirting thing then immediately says that she doesnt want to associate with the batfamily. queen.

not to mention right before this is my fav failgirl moment where she goes through her whole plan to crash the car and break jason out of prison. then just goes up and knocks on the door

flips the car over then walks up and says "hey its the fire department. open up" and not a single person believes her. i love her

lesbian rose crumbs <3 i still choose to believe shes talking about cass here idc. shes so silly and this was a cute lil panel

so yeah. she was on one page of this issue but that one page was great and i love her

mwsl #10

shes so lame <3 i talked about this moment a lot when this issue first released but i love it. "somebody had all the fun without us" upon finding a body, then realizing someone else was there and just. starts shooting. she doesnt hit anything. she doesnt even know where the other person is.

my big problem here is that she does not carry a gun and pretty much never uses guns. honestly now that im thinking about it this is one of the only times shes ever used a gun on panel (the other times i can think of being: shooting wade off a cliff after her mom died, shooting starfire in n52 outlaws (but new 52 rose barely even counts as rose), and using deathstroke's gun when she was pretending to be him in deathstroke 2016)

shes not anti-gun or anything but it still bothers me just a little that suddenly she has a gun (hence why i fully believe she stole jasons gun <3)

if i want to nitpick, kate should not have been able to hit her. rose should've seen she was coming wayyy before (bc precog) and she wouldnt be knocked down from one hit. i fear we are headed down a path of her becoming jasons incompetent girlfriend but i wont be too dramatic about her getting hit one (1) time

but other than that i thought this was a fun moment of rose getting hit then jason immediately fighting the person that hit her. toxic girlbesties fr

then also her needing to be held back after she gets up so she doesnt start attacking the person thats helping them <3 i love her

mwsl #11

this is a nice issue for her just because in true rose tradition she LOVES to have homoerotic fights with every other female character she interacts with. the kate & rose dynamic was soooo fun i love it when shes mean to people for no reason <3

i did not like this part though. i feel like there are a lot of implications about rose here that are unfair to her character & her place in the dcu. i'll meet the book on its own terms and say that we're only talking about post-52 rose (blah blah everything's canon rn but this book is very clearly not using pre-52 rose lore) but even then? theres no real reason for her to be ducking superheroes or for superheroes to keep an eye on her. shes not a villain or even much of a killer, the fact that shes "staying off the radars" of good guys doesnt make much sense. and the fact that kate knows her and "studies" her (fellas is it gay to study another woman despite never meeting her) implies that rose is like. a threat. shes just kind of around there is no reason kate should know her like that

cute moment! but also it bothers me. i think its fun that she refused to go since its not her fight and she doesnt want to get into a joker mess. HOWEVER. when has she ever in her life passed up an opportunity to get involved in someone elses problem. to me she wouldnt have even delivered the list of addresses without a fight if she wasnt gonna go along

other than her using a gun again (where the hell did she even get that) i like this <3 her showing up and saving manhunter after she said she didnt care what happened is so her. also i just like the fact that she shot joker

gay gay homosexual gay

the rest of this issue is fun <3 just kate & rose fighting together then getting blown up together <3 this was a nice issue for her despite the problems i had with it

gotham war red hood #2

gotham war break!!!

okay first of all i LOVE that he took her along. there was no reason for rose to be here but jason was told to meet someone and said "ok ill go but my weird friend comes with me" its so funny

ive seen a lot of people complain about the "you're my only friend" line but i LOVE it. not necessarily because she doesnt have any friends but because she would not in a million years ADMIT that she has friends. she would rather be shot in the head than say that she actually likes the people that she hangs out with.

but to be fair.... she also doesnt have friends. "what about the lazarus island gang?" the only person she actually liked there and showed any friendship toward was damian, and they ARE friends but she considers him more of a little brother than a friend. "what about the teen titans??" a) she would NEVER admit that she is friends with any of them b) its technically.... not really canon that she was ever on the same team as them. like i said before, im meeting this book on its terms, and rose being a teen titan hasnt been mentioned since flashpoint :( i wont go on a whole tangent about her friends but given that she hasnt really made a friend in years and never talks to anyone else, i think its fair for her to say that she has no friends

so yeah all this to say: she has friends, but it is 100% in character for her to say that she has no friends. i stand by this line

i dont have much to say here i just think shes so cute <3 i also love the fact that jason jumped straight to "rose is robbing a dead person" instead of "rose is inspecting the body"

but im OBSESSED with the fact that she DOES rob him. i feel like we're not talking about this enough. she saw a dead body and took his money. im not even mad about it because its so fucking funny to me

im sorry jay/rose fans this makes me want to vomit. this feels too "earnest emotions" for both of them. the rest of this scene was fine but this panel specifically feels so :/

"i just need help" "always" and "please take care of yourself" and "meet at our spot" "promise?" "i promise" does not feel like them at all. its a very sweet and genuine moment but they would NOT have sweet and genuine moments! neither of them would ever express their feelings and they would not have this conversation

this does not feel like rose at all idk who this is. where is the rage!!!!!! where is the anger!!!!!!! why did she stand there for hours just. worried about him. why isnt she lashing out

comparing this to the scene in tt03 where she's worried about eddie:

she gets angry! shes worried about him and starts yelling at everyone around her because hes hurt and she doesnt know whats happening. i would have LOVED this energy in this book and its sooooo disappointing that she just. stands there like 🥺 when she doesnt know what happened to jason

mwsl #12

i rly liked this part fhdkjfhakjdfd i thought her pretending to be him just to get batman out of the way was so good and so real. shes helping out AND fucking with batman

very minor complaint here but this isnt even true . she DOES try to run into him in ds16 when slade kidnaps damian and rose gives bruce the ransom terms. also i feel like this line is vaguely implying that she HAS found him (/he found her) on accident before which is also not true given that their only interactions are in ds16 and being in the same general area in shadow war. and also reiterating that shes not a villain so batman has no reason to track her down or cause problems for her but. whatever. this is entirely just me jumping to conclusions about what this one throwaway line means and then getting mad about it

LOVE this. she inserted herself into the situation then complains about it. this isnt her business and shes making sure that jason knows it. but also she completely volunteered for most of this

BOOOOOOOO she would not fucking say that. "sorry about that whole chase" no she would not apologize. "please dont kick my ass" she would NOT say that!!!!! first of all given that this is after gotham war she would probably kick his ass just for what he did to jason. even besides that she would not be afraid of him even a little. comparing their convo in ds16 #5 to this is so sad bc </3 why is she afraid of him instead of being a huge bitch and yelling at him

this ending is really good for her though. she absolutely would dive into the water with joker gas, trash, and dead bodies just to save her friend <3

this is more like it!!!!!!!! shes worried for him and takes initiative to save him by jumping in the water despite it being a very dangerous decision and then insults him while she saves his life <3333 its a tiny bit more of her being mean to express worry which is nice <3 its not perfect but its closer

in conclusion: there are many good moments. there are many parts i like about it. but there are just so many things that dont feel like rose </3 most of the broad strokes are there but it just doesnt feel like her when shes not full of rage and going out of her way to piss people off

#yk i actually had some stuff i wanted to get done today. but instead i spent 2 hours putting this together #no regrets i have so much to say all the time #rose wilson #dc

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popculturebuffet · 7 months

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Beetlemania Epilogue: Batman Brave and the Bold (Rise of the Blue Beetle, Fall of The BB, Revenge of the Reach and Meanace of the Madinks) (Comission for WeirdKev27)

Hello all you happy beetlemaniacs and welcome to the long delayed finale/epilogue to my look the blue beetle. So while I was working on this project which for those just tuning in was a look at all three men to wear the blue, Kev asked me to take a look at Ted and Jaime's brave and the bold apperances. Being a massive fan of both, enough that Brotoman asking me to do this retorspective in the first place was one of the easiest yesses i've made in my career, and absolutely loving brave and the bold it was an easy addition.

So for those less familiar with this cartoon, Batman: Brave and the Bold was a 2009 cartoon. Brave and the Bold is easily the most unique of the batman cartoons thus far: while each one has it's own touches, Bold decided to go against the usual dark and broody nature of batman he'd had in the 70's to do something a bit diffrent.

Instead BATB takes after the silver age of comics, a time of camp, innosence, and fun goofiness like batman getting his own dimensional imp, Superman and Supergirl having two pets with superpowers and capes a piece, and of course a bunch of kids from the future who still act like it's the 50s who come to grab a young superman, leading to one of my faviorite teams of all time. But not before you know making him cry because 50s. It was a time of brilliant concepts, bonkers carefree storytelling and superman in a pope hat.

And while some fans titled their head, some wailed he needed to be grim and gritty and I just said "oh cool plastic man's in this"... the change in tone was both brilliant and needed. We'd already had three fairly serious batman shows, each distinct: BTAS is a noir masterpiece, Beyond is neo noir putting someone else in the role and thus giving us a batman with school and family to juggle and an older bruce as the mentor, and The Batman was an attempt to really shake things up, using both a younger batman and wildly diffrent versions of his rogues. So while another likely would've worked, and as seen with Beware the Batman it did as likely will the caped crusader, I can't blame showrunners James Tucker and Mike Jelenec for deciding to do something entirely unique.

Thus while Batman's still stoic, instead of being a loner who slowly adds sidekicks and uses over the top silver agey gadgets, from having a jetpack and helmet in his suit, to being able to summon fighting gloves to having his batmobile as a transformer. It comes off as a child's idea of batman: a guy who can do anything and can use all those neat toy add ons you usually only see in his action figures. It's a batman that has a sense of fun about it: While he's stoic as ever, the world he's in is werid and he adapts to it.

The the other secret sauce here is the show's decision to be a team up show: instead of the batfamily, who still show up on occasion, Batman teams up with a fellow superhero in each episodes opening teaser as a fun one off adventure and then in the main story, another nod to the silver age in how many books would have more than one story, batman in particular. It's also telling that most of the main focus heroes are almost entirely b listers: Common sights include Plastic Man, Blue Beetle, Captain Marvel (aka Shazam, pre movie), Guy Gardner Green Lantern and Aquaman, the only a-list of the bunch and the main character. Some had shown up before in the DCAU, sure, but most hadn't gotten this kind of focus and some like Blue Beetle, our natural focus for today's, hadn't shown up at all thanks to rights issues. And even some like Aquaman got a revamp, with the stoic brooding 90's anti-hero of the DCAU replaced with a glorious large ham whose every bit as goofy as the silver age but every bit as badass as he is now. They also wisely kept his beard.

It provides a nice mix of actual silver age characters, and more modern ones like the Jason Rusch firestorm or Jaime that simply hadn't been adapted yet, as well as for whole teams like the Metal Men, JSA and Freedom Fighters to get proper first appearances in animation. This series is one giant love letter to dc and just about every hero they could cram in here and have it make sense is here> And if that wasn't enough, for me personally instead of doing a big 7 lineup of the justice league or just using heroes batman had teamed up with a lot like green arrow or plastic man, they just straight up decicided to recreate my faviorite Justice League Lineup of all time, the Justice League international, even bringing in Martian Manhunter just to make it as close as possible to the core lineup of Batman (Who was leader in those days), Martain Manhunter, Blue Beetle, Booster Gold, Guy Gardner, Fire and Ice. The only changes were changing the beetle from Ted to Jaime (to fit the shows continuity) and adding Aquaman as it'd be all kinds of weird to not feature the shows breakout star.

So with what the show is down that finally brings us to the Blue Beetle and his long overdue first animated apperance. The DCAU PLANNED to include him but rights headaches meant Ted was relegated to the tie in comics. And since Jaime was such a fan faviorite , when it came time for Brave and the Bold he became the primary beetle instead, providing the fun angle of batman having a teen sidekick.. whose far more powerful than he is, if lacking experince. We rarely see Batman mentor superteens, and it's an intresting concept: He has a partner he can order around and such but can't REALLY stop if Jaime wanted to operate without him. IT's something I hope gets explored again sometime.

That said while Jaime was the main blue beetle, and one of the most common recurring cast members, the series , like most adaptations didn't forget ted exists or to honor him. And while they sadly didn't give us the two beetles operating at the same time, something we didn't get in full blast until Blue Beetle: Graduation Day LAST YEAR (He did mentor Jaime for a while but weirdly they didn't have him resume the costume for a while), we do get one hell of an episode focusing on both beetles in the past and present, another hell of a heroic death, and a time travel episode with Ted's best buddy booster going back to see his friend one last time... and fucking it up because it's his superpower. So join me under the cut as we put on the armor and see the dawn of a new blue beetle and the legacy he protects one more time.

The Rise of the Blue Beetle!: Stinger: Batman teams up with Green Arrow to defeat clock king. Honestly my reaction to this version of Ollie is mostly

As he dosen't really have anything that makes him that.. unique or intresting. He's cocky and wants to one up batman. That's about it. I love Ollie, but this version is so boring. It dosen't help most of his spotlight episodes feature someone more interesting.

The opening however.. is solid, spotlighting the two's competitive nature with each other (and contrasting Ollie's open boasting with Batman being reserved and not showing his compettive streak outwardly), and fighting Clock King. And not the more grounded, awesome version we saw in Batman TAS, but the goofy silver age version complete with robes and a clock face.

Is it the best cold open they could've used? Probably not. But it gets across the team up theme of the series, and the important fact that most of the foes we face.. aren't batman's usual foes. Most of his Rogues are mia, and the only one who gets used a LOT is Joker, and even then it's in more creative ways like having him be Batman's team up for the mid season finale (And leading to the glorious scene in the final fight of him just running around with a mallet like a giddy three year old), teaming up with his own inspiration, or adapting emperor joker. Just like the team up format allows for a wide exploration of the dc's heroes, the antagonists are usually guys you wouldn't see or at least wouldn't see fighting batman.

The episode proper begins with Jaime and his best buddy Paco talking superheroes, with Jaime hyping up batman. It's here we get two big changes: the first is Jaime's personality: Instead of a kind, reserved, if with a biting tounge when called for it kid who just wants to help out his friends and family and who feels overwhlemed, this Jaime is a superhero fanboy whose super jazzed to have power armor.

This change is hit and miss for me: it does kinda miss a lot of the point of Jaime and his personality, a kid burdened iwth incredible power and responsibility who uses it not because he wants to but because it's the right thing.. but I get it for the context of this series. Here Jaime's being trained and mentored by batman, and thus having him be a bit more cocky and eager in places opens up stories more as otherwise Jaime would just be waiting at home. Not only that the series already had a reluctant legacy hero in Ryan Choi, the Atom, so at least one of them had to change personality a bit and it made more sense with Jaime. So while i'm not a huge fan of this change, I understand it enough to not be all that bothered by it, especially since both his Young Justice and Movie Counterparts hem closer to the comics.

A change I DON'T like at all.. is that Jaime's best friend Paco (his family and brenda don't show up).. has NO IDEA who he is. There is absolutely NO justification for this either. We don't see enough of Jaime's home life for him having a secret identity to have any impact and there's really nothing about his appearances that coudln't of been done without him knowing. In fact his next two probably would've been better had he known. It feels like the producers didn't know how to handle a superhero who doesn't have a secret identity.. despite Plastic Man and Aquaman, neither of whom have one and are just fine, being recurring characters. It's an annoying decision and one i'm not a fan of at all, especially since Paco doesn't seem to be in ANY other adaptations.

The rest of the episode is okay. Out of the episodes I had to rewatch (and in our last case watch for the first time) it's the one I was the least happy to see again as it didn't leave much of an impression. On rewatch it has some intresting ideas, but is mostly just a typical "supehero needs to not rely only on his powers" story mixed with a training the peaceful villagers one: Batman and Jaime are shanghied to a colony of admittedly neat looking little protoplasmic blob men woh put out an energy charge. They kidnapped Jaime to help because a previous wielder of his Scarab saved them from Space Pirate and justice league villian Kanjar Ro. Ro is part of why I largely forgot this one as i've never been a huge fan of the guy. He dosen't look terrible but other than space pirate there isn't much to him. The DCAU used him well but also had him as a simple criminal helping frame John Stewart. Here he works decently enough as he's intimidating ENOUGH to be a foe for Jaime, whose the real focus here, and give batman a fight, while still clearly being a villian of the week.

I do like that already, even before we get to ted, the writers of the show get that Jaimee. .is tied into legacy and It's a neat idea to hint at just who carried the scarab before Dan Garret, the first beetle, who for all we know very well COULD have been the person who fought Kanjar Ro before. It's just a shame this NEVER comes up again which is disappointing. It'd be neat to know if the Scarab had a host before the reach dispatched it to earth.

The rest of the episode is pretty by the numbers though, and while the idea of jaime getting cocky isn't bad... he's just not cocky Enough with his powers for the message to work. The episode has more clever stuff like batman hooking one of the little goo people up to a power cable to save them when kanjar leaves them all tied to a piece of debris to die, with the little guys later hooking their guns into themselves, using the fact Kanjar Ro harvests them for fuel against him. It's a clever chekovs gun and speaks to the message of the episode that DOES work: relying on one's self and the power of inspiration.

I"ll also say Batman is kinda.. fucked as a mentor this episode: While I get his logic, having Jaime pretend to be his predecessor to inspire these adorable blobs to kill their opressors, a good message for all, it's still mildly fucked up Batman is asking a children to lead a bunch of people to posisbly die in a war against a ruthless space pirate. I get jaime needs to be a symbol but maybe do't gloss over just how big an ask your asking bats.

Finally i'll say the episodes climax has a good idea: Jaime forced to rely on his brains.. and Kanjar Ro taking the armor. The problem.. is the latter RAISES A LOT OF QUESTIONS, especailly since later episodes go with the idea from the comics, that the scarab coudln't bond with ted kord and specifically choose jaime, making it come off contrived as all apokalips that Kanja Ro JUST SO HAPPENS to be a compatable host. It dosen't ruin the climax, seeing someone evil let loose with the armor is neat and Jaime turning the gamma gong, Ro's weapon he used to strip Jaime of the armor in the first place, against him is genius.

Overall an episode that's jus tokay. i'ts not a bad start to the series or Jaime's time on the show, but it's still clear they needed an episode or two before they started really cooking with gas. Thankfully that only took the first 4 or so episodes and by the time we next saw Jaime this season, the show was firing on all cyllnders with a true classic.

Fall of the Blue Beetle!:

Fall of the Blue Beetle! is more like it and while i'ts not where my obessesion with ted started, that'd be

This episode certainly didn't hurt. It is where Jaime started to grow on me though and where a lot more of his character from the comics comes from.

The biggest part of this.. is Legacy. We got a touch of that with the previous scarab wielder in Rise, but a key aspect of Jaime is that he ISN'T the first blue beetle. That he has to step into someone else's shoes. And it's something that fits dc like a glove as one of DC's bigger draws, one that they snuffed out for a while, is Legacy. Most heroes have more than one version and many have sidekicks, something marvel almost completely avoids thanks to Spider-Man's existence being a direct response to the concept, who more often than not later take up the mantle or find their own new one, leading someone take up THEIR old costume. Often you'll also get heroes sharring identities: it's why we have 9 earth green lanterns, three flashes, and two supermen.

So the fact that Blue Beetle was ALREADY a legacy made ted fit right in long before Jaime had to follow him up after his fatal case of bullet to the head. And Jaime learns that early, and thus has to carry around the fact that not only did Ted die a hero.. but armor or no this could EASILY happen to him. He has to learn to think with his head and learns to appricate Ted as he was. It's not an overwhelmingly major part of the book but the fact Jaime is part of a proud legacy is still important and when he needs help for his final fight, it's Ted's grandaughter Dani and Ted's friends in the JLI who come to help... because they know it's what ted would want.

Brave and the Bold cleverly plays with this as while like his comics counterpart Jaime knows there were other beetles.. he dosen't know what happened to Ted off the bat and this episode brilliantly plays with that.

It also plays with another Key aspect of Jaime: his self doubt. At the end of the days Jaime is a throughly normal kid given great power. In the comics and movie a lot of it is simply not WANTING this power, but with no way to remove the scarab and live he does what he can with it anyway because it's the right thing. The poor kid teared up because during a fucking hurricane, made worse by a supervillian, the kid couldn't save everyone, with his vetran dad having to explain that.. you simply can't. And the fact Jaime was there still saved a LOT of people.

While this Jaime's way more happy in the roll from the off, being a superhero fanboy, the idea that he's not worthy of it still crops up here in a clever way: He and Paco have a campout, and when he recites the Hal Jordan Green Lantern's origin (Which he likely knew as he easily could've met Hal at this point as he DOES exist in this continuity), Paco is doubtful. For those whose attitude to green lantern lore isn't

Like yours truly, a quick recap: The Green Lantern corps are space cops, though thankfully not nearly as corrupt as that implies, who patrol sectors of space. When one dies, their ring finds a replacement. But in this case, dying Green Lantern legend Abin Sur didn't really have time for the ring to do it's thing so he crashed his rocket on earth near Hal Jordan, the nearest worthy canditate and gave it to him personally.

Paco.. dosen't buy any of this, thinking heroes aren't chosen and most dickishly that a hero.. is just their powers. It's just the RING that's special not the person.

Okay look I try not to go on tangents refuting a fictional character.... but given this kind of argument occasionally crops up in real life... no. While a heroes powers are cool and what allow them to do the job...it's the person that makes the hero. And the green lantern's are the biggest example of that. They were all chosen sure but each chosen because they can overcome great fear (Paco IS right that the idea of someone being WITHOUT fear is kinda fucked and the daredevil comics have gone into what exactly that means, it's why they changed it), nad because each one of them chosen brings something to the table. Hal Jordan can think on the fly like noone's buisness, Guy Gardner WILL never give up (Wether he actually should or not), John Stewart is a tactical and archetcural genius, Kyle Rayner has a boundless imagination and some of the best contracts, Jessica Cruz has deep and noble heart and empathy and the power to go on and Simon Baz has a drive no lantern can match. And tha'ts not even getting into Alan Scott, gay icon or the ones whole books I own but haven't read like Jo Mullen or Tai Pham, both of whom deftinely deserve it.

I do love the episode exploring this idea though as given it's something a kid watching this might've thought it nicely deconsturcts it.. and shows what hearing that would do to a person. IN Jaime's case he sprials and goes to his mentor for validation. And this brings us to one of the weaker parts of the episode as Batman is in Batdick mode this episode. Granted at FIRST it's a bit understandable: jaime interupts him during a fight with Doctor Polaris. That fight itself.. is a nice subtle nod to Jaime's history as in the comics, one big arc had him fighting the newest Dr. Polaris. It's really damn good for the record and I hope it gets reprinted. Later we can see batman having recently beaten the Squid gang from Ted's first solo issue. It's some nice background stuff.

Jaime is worried he wasn't chosen for a reason, and while Bruce not reassuring him at first is okay... bruce saying, and I quote "you are NOTHING like the blue beetle I knew" is a level of dickish only suprassed by this guy

Seriously bats, a teen comes up to you, is clearly going through something regarding being worthy of this. I get it, Bats was close to ted in this continuity.. but even in that context it's comes off pretty dickish to compare the kid to someone who had years more experince in the field.

Also yes, in this continuity Ted and Bats.. were besties. I had honestly forgotten that and it's a fun uniquely wholesome take. See in the original comics.. Ted and Batman weren't exactly FRIENDS. They were coworkers: Batman was the stern, often mean boss who expected everyone to do what he said without question, and Ted was the snarky guy in his cubicle who'd shut up when that guy said to but certainly would talk behind his back. It was a good comedic value. Even later, when ted was in his final hours in countdown, batman was someone he turned to.. and Bats didn't take him seriously.. and later deeply regretted it.

Here? The two utterly respect each other, and we get a lot of fun dialogue as the two talk about their gadgets: Bats is impressed Ted managed to get a mini laser working, he switched the coils, while Ted is suprised he can get smoke pellets on his belt because his always blew up. Bats then explains he had the same issue and the casing was ungodly expensive. Thankfully he just put it on the bat credit card.

As for how the two are interacting when Ted's a corpse in present day, that's where one of the episodes most clever aspects comes in: rather than have the intro be an unrelated cold open... the intro is Bats and Ted's on Ted's final case. We don't find out the last part till later, but it's a clever way to have ted around while still having him sacrifice himself in some way.

I'd also like to stop for a moment to talk about how great the voice actors are for our beetley buddies.. and this show in general. For Jaime we have vetran voice acting legend, feeeeee-hany fan, podcaster, and critical role hall of famer Will Fredidle, who does a great job with Jaime's wide eyed enthusasim, ocasional haminess.. but also his vunerablity and depth. You can sense at times in these episodes a kid who badly WANTS to be a good as hero as the heroes who inspired him, covering it up with a layer of jokes... just like his predecessor really. Granted this all comes with the necessary asterix of THEY SHOULDN'T OF HIRED A WHITE GUY TO PLAY JAIME.. which.. they really shoudln't have. It's.. not complicated and it shouldn't of taken till 20goddamn20 for that to be standard practice and not just what some productions did and other didn't. Given a cast this size they STILL coudl've cast my boy in a roll that wasn't racist. Hell he woudl've made a great booster (though who we got is excellent). So the casting decision dose'nt have a leg to stand on.. but Will still did a good job and I dearly miss his voice acting. He's still around granted: he's currently doing the podcast pod meets world with fellow BMW allums Danille Fischelle and fellow voice actor who really should be doing more of it these days Rider Strong. Seriously he was great in Star Vs. Maybe he's focusing more on his family, as he sometimes watches episodes of BMW with his son for the pod, and if so.. fair enough. I do miss these guys and I am glad Will at least is showing up in Legend of Vox Machina and that they have a podcast together.

The other will in the equation is will wheaton, star trek's scrappy doo turned geek icon. Will is a natural fit for ted and does him justice: this version's a bit more anlytical, but as we see later with boosters ep he can play the jokey side just as well and does ted really good. he's the bar that's set for whoever plays him in live action.. and i'm pulling for their top pick of Jason Sudekis. that is PERFECT ted kord casting and the only thing that could top this casting. If not.. will is old enough to still fit the part in the live action dcu. Just saying.

The freindship adds a nice layer to Batman's action: yes he's being bat dick... but it's clearly hard to talk about his best friend's death, someone who really got him as a crimefighter and he could relate to. Green Arrow uses similar methods.. but Ollie's ego's so big he's more concerned with one upping bruce instead of talking to him like a person. Given mots of Batman's partners defer to him in some way or form (and it's telling that for as much as his boisterous baffles our blue bat, he treats aquaman with respect), it had to hurt deeply. And as we'll see later the pain is still there and he's still not quite over Ted's death. It also explains why he's specifically mentoring Jamie: he wants to protect Ted's legacy. While the meteor mission in the last episode was to test of Jamie was ready to partner with him regularly with this ep it feels more like he wanted to make sure Jamie was worthy of his friends mantle.. and makes how proud batman was at the end all the sweeter. It also shows that despite batman using the worst possible phrasing, he DOES think Jamie is worthy.

It also adds a layer to Batman's

Behavior regarding what happened to ted, refusing to tell Jamie and then flying off in his batjet. Bats later fully admits he was worried Jamie coudln't handle it.. but it may be in part he simply didn't want to relive one of the worst moments of his life, when once again someone he loved died and he could do nothing but watch. He didn't want to saddle a teenager with his grief or the fact that in this job you CAN die. And that's something shockingly consitent about this series: Dead.. means dead. There's only three major deaths in the series: Ted's, B'wanna Beast's and the Doom Patrols, but all three stick. All are given weight and gravitas and all deeply effect bats.. not from episode to episode as this is more episodic but the moment still clearly shakes him.

Jamie isn't really happy with that explination and the scarab suggests checking the internet. Turns out ted has a fanpage run by a notboostergold. Who knew? It tells Jamie ted vanished a while back and is headquartered in Hub City, Ted's hometown in the comics though where he operates out of varried: he also operated out of Chicago, New York, el Paso and currently Palmera City alongside Jamie and his long lost slightly older sister we just met because the movies gave him one and DC thought "eh this could work". Which .. honestly it does, with Vicotria being more buisness minded and ruthless. Also sidebar but.. this.. this has happened with booster and ted right?

youtube

This had to have happened. We're alli n agreement, good.

Anyways Jaime heads to Hub City and finds Ted's old layer, covred with dust, something the movie ended up copying and I fully approve of. In fact it feels like the movie took some cues from this episode, turning Ted's adventure on pago island into a jamie story, having someone try and use the scarab to create robots, little touches like that. I don't mind as they did enough of their own thing with it and frankly more people are going to see the movie over this episode, so i'm fine with a good idea being used twice.

Speaking of which Jaime finds out the last cordinates were Pago Island. For anyone who knows Ted's origin that's a red flag. Quick recap for those who didn't read my review of Ted's first two solo issues: Ted worked with his uncle jarvis, found out he was a bad dude, and then brought dan to stop him. Good news: it ended terribly for jarvis with his robots sealed and him dead. Bad news: it ended with dan dead. Gooder news: Dan told ted to take up his legacy. So the fact Ted died on an island where nothing good happens cannot end well for Jaimie.

Batman DOES try ot make up for earlier, calling Jaimie.. only for Jaimie to tell Bats where he's going and where to stick it. Batman takes it like a mature adult and while flying ot rescue Jaime, mumbles "no more teenage partners"

This line.. just.. my god> I mean yes he says "adults got him into just as much trouble " right after.. but he still soley blames JAIME for this catstrophe. Jaime is screwing up yes.. but h'es a kid desperate to know he was chosen for a good reason and to live up to someone he found out went missing on his own because you coudln't take two bat minutes to try and explain things. Maybe tell him about ted without telling him what happened just yet. INstead you accidently told him he wasn't good enough then got mad when he was rightfully pissed you gave him nothing. His timing sucked, but you really should've brought up ted LONG before this.

And as a result.. it makes it VERY easy for Jarvis, still alive here, to con Jaime into giving him data on the scarab , claming he intends to improve humanity's lot and make things better. I get not telling him he was dead.. but maybe if you'd screamed "Ted kord was dead", as traumatizing as that would've been it woudl've at least stopped a villian you KNEW was still around fro mconning him

I"ll also say this.. Jarvis' scarab based tech.. looks amazing, very beetly and while I saw the twist coming... most viewers not familiar with jarvis' existance wouldn't. The tech all looks like something ted would make. It's something I give it over the movie where despite victoria kord's OMAC"s being based directly on the scarab.. they look NOTHIGN like the scarab armor nor the actual omacs. i'm fine with it being different enough to be visually intresting but the omacs and later caprapax armore are just.. boring. But that's a rant for another review.

The main takeaway is that Jamie has accidently given a mad genius an army of super fighting robots.. and by bringing up batman NEARLY caused the man's death. But not only does Jaime catch on the robots are weapons whne one spills i'ts bullets, Batman, being you know, the goddamn batman, is alive and well. He only gets tied up when Jarvis puts a gun to Jamie's head.. which i'm 90% sure is a bluff as the scarab can take on MULTIPLE green lanterns as we'll see next episode, but it speaks to Batman's character he doesn't risk it.

Jarvis.. is an excellent villain here, taken from your usual cackler to a guy who genuinely seems like his talk about wanting to make the world better is legit.. he's just willing to conquer it to make that happen. And a utopia forged in blood isn't rally a utopia is it? But Will does a great job as Jarvis too, making his voice similar enough to ted to buy him as an older ted.. but diffrent enough to hint at the twist.

With that Batman FINALLY is forced to explain what happened: Ted gave Jarvis the scarab because he genuinely thought he could help him use it. IN this continuity dan died another way. So when Ted found out from Batman that Jarvis was instead plotting world domination, he lept to stop it.

In the end though while they did beat Jarvis... he had one last play: launch a rocket full of his robots out to begin his world conquest. So much like with Countdown when backed into a corner.. Ted sacrificed himself to save the world, not telling Bruce exactly what his plan was till the was already on the rocket. As for how the Scarab got away that's easy: ted stole it back during the scuffle and put it on the rocket, so like the comics but in a much simpler way, it still got rocketed to el paso. Ted Kord once again died a true hero.

This dosen't help Jaime as he feels he failed Ted and his leagacy and was chosen just to do this. Batman explains the episodes aseop, similar to last times but executed better: it's not being chosen or what powers you have that make a hero. It's choosing to do the right thing> Despite not having the scarab Ted choose to use his intellect to fight crime. And while Jaime didn't chooose the scarab.. he choose to use it to help people and fight for good.

The two naturally escape, fight off jarvis, and fight the throng of robots, actually beating him this time and with Jaime setting it to explode. Our heroes win, Batman shows his pride and Jamie has his confidence back.

As you can probably tell.. I love this episode> it's one of brave and the bold's best and aside from the excess of bat dick, it's a compelling story of legacy and loss. If you haven't seen the show or are curious about ted and jaime after watching the film, this is an excellent watch.

Revenge of the Reach:

Revenge of the Reach is another banger episode. On first watch I wasn't really into this one and didn't really remember it but on rewatch it was a lot of fun. I'm also happy this episode is as good as it is... as this marks the final Jaimecentric episode in the series. The big reason for this is simple: The Justice League International.

For those less familiar with Ted and this show itself, the JLI was the first version of the justice league post crisis on infinite earths, the grandaddy of crisis crossovers and the event that brought Ted into the DCU. Writer J.M. Demattis finally got the gig writing the league after begging for it but the amount of stuff being reworked post crisis meant most of the vetran justice league was off limits. Demattis and his partner in crime Keith Giffen decided "Fuck it let's make this a sitcom", and used lesser known heroes including good old ted. The only vetrans to join the team were Black Canary (Who only stayed for about the first 12 issues) , Martain Manhunter, and Bats himself as leader before giving that headache to Jonn.

And since Brave and the Bold already had prominent spotlights for key members Blue Beetle (Jaime instead of ted), Booster Gold, and Green Lantern Guy Gardner, featured Fire as a guest star and had Batman as it's lead, it was easy enough to simply introduce Martian Manhunter and Ice. Also Aquaman was there since, as said before, he was their biggest star. The team showed up a decent amount in season 3 and likely would've more had the series not been cut so short, eventually adding other members from the comics like Rocket Red and Captain Marvel.

So with season 3 cut in half and the crew knowing the end was nigh, there was less time to give Jaime more stories, instead focusing more on stuff they clearly wanted to get in before the end: Stories with the league, a whole episode dedicated to Superdickery that's one of the most glorious things ever put to film, an origins episode for batman and his other recurring patners that weirdly didn't have jaime. Season 3 was just packed and had only so much time left. It also had powerless which objectively sucks and I will get to when we eventually do a JLI in brave and the bold retrospective, one of a few Kev's floated along with the Starro arc and Batmite (the latter I especailly want to do as I forgot the late great paul rubens was his voice. ) So this is Jaime's last hurrah. And lucky for him, he got a heck of a writer on board as J.M. Demattis himself wrote this one.

Spekaing of the Starro arc, our intro ties into it and i'll likely be covering again when I do that one. It features a jack kirby creation, THE CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN, with the intro for the segment funly done in the style of a 60's tv show. THE CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN are a quartet of adventurers who well.. challenge the unknown, experts in their fields who survivied a plane crash, put on matching jumpsuits and took on weird cases for the pentagon. They , to my shock came BEFORE Kirby would move on to Marvel, and with the challengers not having got a lot of traction, and even in recent dc works mostly showing up for one off apperances, I wouldn't be shocked if he reworked the concept of four adventuerers with public identtites who fight weird shit while wearing matching jumpsuits as the fantastic four.

Anyways the quartet fight a weird creatue with batman... but where this connects to the eventual story arc.. is after batman leaves a bunch of mini starros popping out of the meteor to posses the challengers.

So let's move on. Our main story has Jaime going out to space for an unauthorized solo mission. I'd say it was suprising Batman dictated when he could save lives or not .. but he is batman. And TBF, Batman probably wouldn't chastise Jaime if say he stopped a local fire or helped out with disaster relief. I"m sure the kid does the basic heroing stuff daily to stay sharp, and Batman, for all his faults would never want someone to not step in and help when they could. He just likely dosen't want Jaime tackling super crime without him.

Jaime fights Evil Star, whose name isn't a joke from me, but an actual Green Lantern villian, fitting given the Corps plays a large role in this. With some unknowing help from Paco, Jaime does in fact win on his own merits. Batman however isn't pleased as he apparently has Jaime chipped and followed him out there in his bat space suit. What I like though is Bruce isn't mad and his reasons for keeping Jaime on a leash aren't dickishness like last time: he TRUSTS Jaime, he both likely worries about his young ward, especially after loosing ted.. and DOSNE'T trust the Scarab, knowing nothing about it.

The two take him to Oa to drop Evil Star off. Oa is the home of the Green Lantern Corps I mentioned earlier, where new corpsman are trained and the central power battery, the source of their power is stationed. It's there a squad of Lanterns comes to pick up the leftovers, lead by Guy Gardner

So quick backstory for guy: guy was the second space cop green lantern for earth, being a backup for Hal Jordan and only not picked because Hal happened to be closer to where Abin Sur could land. For a while he was an also ran who ended up in a coma.

Eventually though Steve Engleheart decided to make use of him. During his run Steve made John Stewart the main green lantern and had Hal depowered for being mad at the responsiblity and such. Standard angst. Many a fan was simply, as tends to happen in comics, waiting for Hal to come back. Steve however didn't want that and had a simple thought: "Why CAN'T there be more than one earth lantern? Ther'es thousands of others up in space". So he not only allowed John to remain in the role, hence John getting to be the GLC's rep for crisis, but also brought Guy back, this time as a jingoistic right wing loud mouth. According to wikipedia Steve.. regrets the decision a bit as other people around him weren't fond of it and he got no royalties as he didn't create guy. Which is sad as this version became the premiere one.

But while steve lit the spark, it was Demattis who turned him into the tire fire we all know and love, deciding to pick guy for the JLI, likely because out of the four lantern's avaliable, Guy fit into the dynamic the most. While the JLI was still fighting superheroes, it made sense for a more comedic group to have a resident asshole, someone within the group who generally tends to start shit. The person no one likes but they can't really chuck for whatever reason. So for the JLI, guy was that dick, swaggering onto panel demanding to be leader and pissing everyone off with his abrasivness and general dickishness, paticuarlyl Black Canary who, in one of JLI's weaker moments, was portrayed as a straw feminist, working best against guy as a chauvnist. It was essnetially if someone had given Steve Dallas a power ring.

While Guy has mellowed out slightly over the years, he's still largely the loud obnoxious older brother of the superhero set, mostly known for challenging batman to a fist fight with predictable yet hilarious results

Guy ended up as BATB's main GL, mostly because he fit the tone well and James Arnold Taylor did a pitch perfect job getting Guy down. He never got bumped up to the status of Jaime, Plastic Man or Aquaman of being as close to a main character as the series format allowed, but he was still a memorable part of it and they did him good.

Which is bad for Jaime as Guy's approach to the lantern's request to take JAIME in with his prisoner goes over like a lead ballon, not helped by Guy basically saying "Shut up and get in the van' While his fellow lanterns do fuck all to actually explain WHY the guardians want Jaime. A fight insues and it's easily the best part of a standout episodes. See with the Green Lantern's what makes them so awesome is that the power ring can make ANYTHIGN they imagine. Any thought can be a weapon. There's limits of course: some things can tamper with the vibration, the user needs to be able to concetrate, the rings have to be recharged by reciting the badass oath, stuff to keep the stories interesting, but even with those limits the ring is a deadly weapon in the right hands. It's also what makes the lanterns fun in comparison to other heroes who share the same power sets: while they all have the same ring, each person uses it diffrently: from Hal Jordan favoring planes due to his airforce background, to Kyle Rayner going with a lot of Manga style designs due to being a self confessed "Manga nut with a power ring". It's just some writers can't see the full potetial and just have it be a glorified ray gun or have them only reatrain people with rings and such.

Demattis.. dosen't have this issue, and also fully gets that Jamie's scarab is just aas formidable, leading to a dope as hell fight as we get two fighters both experinced, both with weapons that can do anything going at it with highlights including guy making a sword and shield and later armor for himself, befitting his brawler styles.

Batman eventually steps in and stops this, though I like that he dosen't chastise Jaime. While Jaime esclated, he was faced with a bunch of people wanting to take his incredibly dangerous scarab that he saw as a friend and not explaning why. Guy on the otherhand.. is guy and tries to get Bats to butt out.. only for Batman to remind him he punched his lights out in this contuity too. Yes folks BATB made sure to adapt that moment for Guy's debut. Guy wouldn't listen to batman on a mission, with Bats keeping him on a short leash.. so Guy decked him. While Guy mumble's it was a lucky shot.. it's clear he's cowed and the Guardians step in.

They explain things to the trio in private: the Scarab is, like in the comics a dangerous weapon of the Reach, intergalactic conquerers the Corps defeated years ago, with the scarab users being a false flag: heroes sent to help them.. to keep the planet alive long enough for said user to conquer later when the programming tookover. The diffrence here is in the comics, the Reach played the long game, planning to wait a few generations to sell the planet and use it's inhabitants for slaves, slowly making them docile so by the time they were ready for market, they woudln't fight back. IT's part of what made them such a threat: Jaime coudln't just punch them away, he had to outsmart them.

Here their more like the borg from star trek: a cold collective with but one purpose, a hive of insects planning to swarm. The false flag part remains, it's just less nuanced. And tha'ts.. okay. I didn't like it at first, but I get that unlike Young Justice after this... BATB simply didnt' have the real estate for that kind of story, so they codnsensed it.

The Guardians let Jamie go for now as they want to see if he can control it and trust Batman's words. Guy being guy.. isn't convinced.. and proves a broken clock is right once a day as the Scarab, now in position to do some damage way sooner, regretfully hyjacks Jaime. The one weakness of this one is it's hard to buy Jaime and the Scarab as friends given we've barely seen the two and don't really see them bonding. It just beeps behind him, with the comics, movie and young justice taking effort to show Jaime warming up to his metallic parasite.

Most of the ep is really just a large fight between a possesed Jamie and the corps, and unlike the comics, where their on an even keel, or when Jamie is in control.. this scarab easily mows through them without anyone holding the leash, and Jamie only gets to wake up for a secona nd panickedly try to fight it's control.

So we're left with two sides; Guy who, again, being a dick assumes Jaime is a willing traitor

And Batman.. who see has come a long way, now fully respecting Jaime and has all the faith in the world he can fight this. He gets blasted a lot but is ultimately p;roven right even as a small reach squad arrives.. and easily mops the floor with an ARMY of green lanterns who barely hold them back.

Jaime ends up turning the tide though, fighting his way free and proving himself.. and Guy decides to trust him because why not. How Jaime wins is also clever: he has the lanterns load him up with thier power.. but choose THEM for a reason: since the lanterns run on a user's will, it allows jamie to tape into the scarb's hosts an dresotre there,s disarrming the scarabs. The guardians not only thank jamie ut plan to destroy them... and Guy, as is necesiated by tv law, steps in and tells them not to include Jaime's, with Batman fully graduating his old sidekick.

Revenge is a solid ep. It lacks some of the depth of Fall, but is still a fun episode with some really tightly animated action and plays with the toys it has beautifully. So that leaves us with one last beetlecentric episode.. only this time.. it's Ted's farewell.

Menace of the Madniks!:

We end this retrospective still in season 2.. and this is a very close second favorite out of this pile. It's also the only one I hadn't seen, having not really tracked down most of the episodes I missed, apart from the Doom Patrol one.

The opening.. is the Haunted Tank. Now the concept of a possed wwII era tank, is awesome and the car chase is great. But for some reason not only did the original writers think it being a CONFEDERATE ghost was okay.. but so did the staff of BATB. I get this was long before BLM but.. come on. Just.. come on. He has CSA ON HIS HAT. WHy is batman riding shotgun with a racist confederate ghost? WHY IS BATMAN TEAMING UP WITH...

Menance builds on Batman's characterization from Fall of the Blue Beetle, having been one of Ted's closest friends and working hard to mop up the Madniks, the only member of Ted's rogues gallery to have staying power after his death. Their a bunch of artists, doodly doo, who want to peddle their weird anti-society ways man. Basically their what Steve Ditko thought beatniks were, but work because they have great designs that help cover up being created by an old man who yells at clouds.

Batman is trying to take them down in ted's honor.. but wasn't the ONLY one with that idea as we get the glory that is Booster Gold. Booster was ted's best friend in the comics, a janitor from the future who came back to our time to get rich being a hero, learned to be a hero, and spent most of his time in the league dragging Ted into get rich quick schemes

The two are joined at the hip, with Ted's death shattering the poor guy. Their also shipped a lot. Not really my thing in most cases but this episode is very much "the two guys into me have to hang out and neither likes each other", and I suppport it.

And tha'ts how they cleverly account for Booster and Ted's history not having been brought up till now: Ted was close with both bats and booster.. but made sure neither one knew about it, with booster only finding out when Batman berates him.

Booster being a time traveler also allows for them to cleverly bring ted back without undoing his sacrifice: While he is VERY dumb, Batman outright snaps at him later when he asks too many time travel questions a time traveler should DAMn well know, and Skeets, Boosters robot buddy voiced by voice acting legend billy west (Who along with Booster's va tom everett scott is reprsing his role from the DCAU, the only actors to do so here), is worried Boost just wants to save ted. He dose'nt know: while he'd LIKE to, he's again not THAT dumb and simply wants to see him again and wrap up the madmen as they were the last case Ted worked before Pago island.

It's sweet at first as we see how close the two are: Ted's super happy to see booster, glad to work with him, and only mildly confused his best friend is here after seeing him just a week ago. It speaks to the type of friends they are: wo goofuses who need each other and speak the same very dumb language. Ted is way more relaxed in this episode and it implies his more withdrawn manor with batman.. is simply matching bat's energy. IT's a nice way to have ted still be the awesome science guy.. but inject the fun back in.

The two go to stop the Madniks together, but booster makes an oopsie and shoots the gun their stealing. Their all imoblized by it but if you thought "a weird raygun backfiring and spraying red ominous energy over a bunch of c list villians" is going to end badly, your correct as Booster going back to the present.. finds it ravaged by three weird energy monsters who i'm calling the Meganiks as unlike booster, you can put two and two together. Booster tells on himself, and Batman, having not even REMOTELY suspected him, makes Booster take them back.

This leads to the fun part of the episode: Ted awkwardly having to navigate his VERY different besties, with batman being utterly shocked Ted spends time with such a goofus, not getting that not EVERYONE thinks fighting crime is the funenst thing possible. Seriously this episode has such "my best friend hates my boyfriend" energy and I love it. The two naturally bicker a lot with Ted trying to be civil before just telling the two to shut up and admitting this is WHY he didn't tell them about each other. Eventually the two DO end up working together well enough when Ted's in real danger.

And that's where the two sweetest parts of this come from. The first is when Booster finally admits he just wanted to see Ted again.. and Bats not only realizes he was a bit hard on the moron, accidently end of the world or no.. but that their friendship was as strong as Bats own with ted. I mean really.. who WOULDN'T want one last moment with a loved one, wether that loved one knew it or not. It bonds the two.. and in doing so gives ted something better than simply finishing his last case.. he gets to see the two people he cares about most actually get along. It's a really nice way to end it and when they get back to the present bats decides to invite booster to patrolw tih him. They may not really get each other.. but mayeb they can help each other move on.

So all in all one meh, early episode and a bunch of REALLY strong episodes. In general Brave and the Bold was really fantastic and only had maybe a few duds. It's a glorious celebration of the dcu and I wholly recommend checking it out especailly if you love those boys in blue

For now.. it's time to let Jamie and Ted have a rest. I'll go back there someday, I still want to cover the movie at some point, the rest of Jaime's run but for now we can simply watch as one flies and one swings off into the sunset, for more adventures, and a bright future. The bluest, and bravest, heroes there ever were. Thanks for reading.

#batman the brave and the bold #ted kord #jaime reyes #blue beetle #booster gold #guy gardner #will wheaton #will friedle #the madniks #the reach #the green lantern corps #green lantern

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