#are fans the issue or is dc to blame

[sjura]

Maybe blaming other fans for influencing DC comics with their evil fanon is a bit of a stretch when DC famously has a reputation for inconsistent character writing

#maybe its true #but even then #are fans the issue or is dc to blame #i dont think discouraging fans from making “bad content” is gonna make dc comics better #fic m #fandom bs #i believe dc is perfectly capable of fucking up all on their own without the help of an ao3 author with 300 hits on their fic

[heroesriseandfall]

Jason Todd & Chronic Pain

I scrounged for the panels I know from Rebirth about Jason still having lingering pain and injuries from when the Joker killed him. We know Jason had substantial injuries and brain damage when he was resurrected, and Talia healed that with the Lazarus pit. But here’s some I know of being mentioned even after Talia healed him with the Lazarus pit.

The first I know of is when evil future Batman Tim targeted Jason’s hip because of a Joker-related injury that he claimed would eventually become debilitating for Jason. This move does take Jason out of the fight so it definitely seems like evil Tim successfully aggravated the injury.

Detective Comics #968 (Jan 2018) — earlier in #966 Batman Tim also mentioned future Jason would eventually lose an eye and a leg while fighting assassins.

More recently, regular, not-evil Tim referenced it while evaluating how to fight a Clayface Jason mimic:

Tim Drake: Robin #3 (Jan 2023) — Tim says the pit brought Jason back, which has sometimes been a thing. Originally Jason was only healed by the pit after he’d already been resurrected by something else.

This next one was black label, so it may or may not be canon (the creative team claims “it’s up to reader interpretation” and disagree on whether they personally think it is canon). I’m not a fan of the comic but it did pretty clearly indicate Jason had chronic pain from the Joker:

Batman: Three Jokers #2 (Nov 2020)

(There might be more than these—my reading of post flashpoint comics is kinda random and incomplete compared to my reading of post-Crisis. In post-Crisis though I think they mainly put emphasis on Jason’s destabilized mental health and didn’t really bring up physical aspects IIRC. His brain damage seemed healed and yet he seemed more affected after the pit than other one-time-in-the-pit characters like Dinah Lance or Cass Cain were.)

They haven’t bothered explaining how the pit didn’t heal them so far as I know (the pits kinda work to authorial convenience anyway). My route is usually to blame any weird Jason stuff on the strange, multiversal circumstances of his resurrection, but versions of his origin where he’s only brought back by the pit might not jive with that (which includes some Rebirth IIRC).

In any case, I do hope more writers pick up on this more and I love to see when it’s expanded upon a bit in fandom. I would already consider Jason’s mental health to be a disabling issue for him but it’s neat sometimes to have writers recognize chronic pain-related issues among DC characters. (I’d love to also see more expansion of Bruce mentioning he experienced chronic pain…it pops up every so often but rarely if ever in depth.)

Alt text is copied and expanded upon under read more below.

ID 1: Two panels from Detective Comics #968 showing Jason Todd as Red Hood leaping to fight evil future Batman Tim Drake. Jason says, “Sorry, Timmy, I don’t believe in Santa Claus.” Batman Tim slams his staff directly into Jason’s right hip joint, sending him flying back, and says, “Jason. In a few years you were going to learn that one of your bones never set right after the Joker killed you. There’s a growing debilitating bone spur in your hip joint. There, I found it for you you’re welcome.” They’re both in the batcave.

ID 2: A cropped panel from Tim Drake: Robin #3 showing a red narration box for Tim Drake which says: “The Lazarus Pit may have brought Jason back from the dead, but he’s still sensitive where The Joker killed him.”

ID 3: A comic page from Batman: Three Jokers #2. A Joker leans in Jason Todd’s face, looking intense and serious. The Joker says, “Who is the Joker, really? We’re going to find out.” The word “out” is written in an extended sing-songy way. The Jokers put Jason’s Red Hood helmet over his head but they’ve decorated it with a wide Joker-style grin. The two Jokers laugh, then one says, “We’ve spent considerable time trying to best answer that question: who is the Joker? We found that judge. A serial killer. A surgeon. All rather predictable and uninspiring. And then there’s you. Tell me something. Why would you put on that helmet and call yourself Red Hood after what we did?” Jason, who is sitting naked tied to the wooden chair, says, “Come on. Is every one of you copycats gonna ask me the same thing? It’s a joke.” One of the Jokers holds up a crowbar as the other says, “A joke? We left you with brain damage and permanent nerve pain. Physical and emotional trauma so severe that the only relief you ever find is when you inflict pain on others.” The Joker holds the crowbar by Jason’s head. “You and me, boy…..We’re more alike than you’d care to admit.”

ID 4: A comic page from Batman: Three Jokers #2 showing Jason Todd with no shirt on and small bandages on various parts of his arms and face. He looks at a calendar on a wall and reads the crossed out days that have physical therapy sessions written on them. He sees a stack of various healing and exercise books. The top book is titled Chronic Pain Management by Dr. D. Kresan. He picks it up. Barbara Gordon as Batgirl enters a different, dark room through a window.

ID 5: A comic page from Batman: Three Jokers #2 showing Barbara Gordon as Batgirl entering her own bedroom. She says, “Jason?” She sees a book on her bed titled “Chronic Pain Management” by Dr. D. Kresan. Jason says, “Barbara?” and walks out of the attached bathroom with only a towel around his waist. Babs says, “I figured you’d left.” Jason says, “I hope it’s okay I used the shower and I…I didn’t mean to go through your things. The closet door was open and that book looked…useful.” Babs says, “It was. Are you okay?” Jason has small bandages and bruises on his face as he says, “I don’t think I’ve ever been okay.” Babs looks concerned. Jason continues saying, “What the Joker said…about how I’ve been on the path to being like them for years…they’re not wrong. I don’t want to be like them though. I really don’t. You believe that, right?” Babs says, “I’m willing to.” Then Jason says, “Can I ask you something?”

#jason todd #batfam #dc comics #red hood #batman #heroesriseandfall #disabled characters #disability representation #disabled jason todd #dc meta #lazarus pits #long post

[incorrectbatfam]

Alrighty, I'd like to take a minute to address something that's been cropping up recently, which is stuff like this:

I've been getting an increasing number of asks and comments like the one above (I've deleted the Ao3 comments and turned on moderation). Normally, they don't bug me, but when I keep getting them over and over it kinda feels like a moth buzzing around my room that I can't keep ignoring.

Basically, some people have been wondering if I use an AI to create my posts and fics as they are becoming more common.

Let me state for the record: I don't, nor will I ever.

Without getting into the rabbit hole of my personal opinion on using AI for creative works, I started posting consistently for the DC/Batfam fandom on Tumblr and Ao3 in 2018 and 2020 respectively. Many popular programs came out post-pandemic, such as Sudowrite in 2021 and ChatGPT in 2022.

I don't blame folks who may think that, though. Incorrect quotes already tread on thin ice when it comes to some people not perceiving them as actual fan content—tale as old as time. Coupled with that, I often answer asks with an easily digestible format and write fics on a time crunch that aren't planned out in great detail. I'm fully aware the quality is somewhere in the middle. (This isn't inviting people to tell me I'm amazing and transformed their lives—I'm here to give people a quick chuckle as they go about their day.)

The issue is all of this is now within the capabilities of AI and it's getting harder to differentiate, which in turn is altering our expectations of each other. You can't draw characters with wonky anatomy, you have to get every feature right or you're using a generator. You can't post a drabble with bad grammar and overplayed tropes, you have to be the next Great American Novelist or you're relying on an algorithm. Fan creators—who are doing this for free, keep in mind—are being held to increasingly higher standards just to prove they are genuine.

Some of you are probably thinking, "it's just fandom, quit making a big deal." The thing is though, fandoms are built on people with different abilities creating for the love of it. This isn't to deride those who use AI as a tool—you do you, it is a hobby in the end. However, when we ascribe mediocrity to inauthenticity, we're reinforcing the notion that if you can't be perfect, you shouldn't bother trying. It's frustrating and frankly has no business in our community.

#i hope this made sense #batfamily #batfam #batman #dc comics #dc fandom #dc fanfic #fanfiction #fandom #fandom culture #artificial intelligence #ai art #ai writing #writing #tumblr #ao3 #mini rant #serious talk #chatgpt #personal #venting #tw current events

[kindlingkeen]

Hi! I absolutely adore your Asymmetrical Warfare series on AO3 (it’s got me back on a competent Jason Todd kick, which, there’s honestly too little of so if you have any recs pls fire away)!

I did have a curiosity that I hope you don’t mind answering though: are there specific reason why you’re not a Tim fan? And does that extend to other members of the batfam as well?

Hi, anon! I’m so glad you’re enjoying Asymmetrical Warfare (competent Jason ftw!). 🙌

Re: Tim. I should probably be more conscientious with my wording around Tim. A lot of what I say in ao3 comments or here tends toward facetious, and tone doesn’t really come across well online.

Which is not to say there aren’t things about Tim that bug me. For example—canon Tim, there are more than few instances of him being downright shitty to Jay’s memory. Case in point, from Batman #456, Tim imagines Jason’s ghost giving him a pep talk about becoming a hero and Jason says he killed himself because he didn’t listen to Batman.

Ah, no sir, the responsible party was the psychopathic clown with a crowbar and some explosives, not the 15 year old trying to save his newly discovered biological mother.

But is this really Tim the character’s fault? Or is it dc’s fault for creating a narrative that brutally murdered a child and then spent decades trashing his memory and blatantly victim-blaming him for it?

It’s really more fanon depictions of Tim that I have a problem with. In particular, the tendency to project Jason’s trauma onto Tim. Trying to spin the white boy who came from an affluent two-parent household as somehow more neglected than the kid whose parents are dead/incarcerated and was literally homeless is just ??? Jason’s backstory touches on so many important societal issues (the gutting of the social safety net, the industrial prison complex, the opioid epidemic, the criminalization of poverty, the stigmatization of sex work), and this approach sweeps all of that under the rug.

It also really gets my goat how many fics masquerade as being about Jason, but are actually just a vehicle for Tim time. These stories tend to dramatize Tim’s character, whether it’s woobie, touch-starved little Timmy who needs constant reassurance and protection, or smarter than everyone ever, can not be out thought or out fought, is actually a CEO while he should be in high school Tim. My problem with this type of narrative is usually two-fold. 1) It dumbs down Jason’s characterization (which should be so rich and complex) to ridiculously oversimplified motivations and actions. And 2) it turns Tim into a caricature of himself, instead of a compelling character with a balance of strengths and weaknesses and a normal amount of teenaged self-esteem.

It probably doesn’t sound like it from this blog post, but I do really try hard in life not to yuck other people’s yum. Just because I don’t care for how Tim is portrayed, it doesn’t make it inherently bad or wrong. And all of this aside, I’ve read plenty of fics where I enjoyed Tim just fine. For example, I love how @bonerot19 writes Tim in their Something in the Static series. And Tim and Jay’s dynamic in WFA is often amusing.

So, yeah, bottom line. Tim is … fine. I’m just not a fan, per se. I try to at least write him fairly in Asymmetrical Warfare, with both the realistic shortcoming of a teenage boy and the awesomeness of Robin. He’s never going to get the same amount of page time as the rest of the crew is, though.

Re: the rest of the batfam. I mean, I often want to bop Bruce on the nose. Especially canon Bruce who beats up his kids and is completely unrepentant about it. But, honestly, that’s not my Bruce. My Bruce, who I love and love to hate in turn, would never do that. (Compartmentalization, the key to happy fic reading and writing.)

I love Babs and Dick. I want to be besties with Steph, but in reality she’s way too cool for me. Duke and Cass I’m less familiar with, but have no problems with. Damian is growing on me, and if dc would just give up the game and admit that Dami and Jay met in the LoA and are actually super special murder brothers at heart, that would be great. Selina is a queen and someday I will write that Selina + Jay and Dami meet in the LoA fic I’ve been dreaming about.

Re: competent Jason fic recs. One of my favorites is butcherbird, fly away home by e_va @e-vasong. Bonus rec, the same author put out a new fic recently, another way to make it to ten, and it not only features competent Jason, it’s Jason & Tim, and I like Tim in it.

Thanks so much for the ask, anon! Really great questions. Kudos if you made it through the whole post. 💙

#keen converses #fic rec #tim drake #jason todd #my fic #asymmetrical warfare #batfam thoughts #character thoughts

[inamindfarfaraway]

So I saw your post here [https://www.tumblr.com/inamindfarfaraway/690058488775327745/batfamily-fanworks-that-purport-to-be-set-in-the] and oh my gosh YOU ARE SO RIGHT!

As much as I enjoy it, Hush is definitely to blame for this as it is held as THE end-all-be-all of all BatFam stories yet Cass (who an acclaimed ongoing series as Batgirl around the same time) was suspiciously missing from it along with Steph. Yet we only ever get flashbacks to Bab's time as Batgirl so that storyline also ended up cementing Bab's legacy as "the one and only Batgirl". Methinks a certain editor in charge at the time mandated for Cass and Steph to not appear in Hush because they-according to him-"were way too toxic" for said storyline. Because you see, as soon as he became a leading editor, his number one priority was getting rid of Steph and stripping Cass of her Batgirl role.

And so the age of darkness began...

First, there was War Games that solely existed to torture Steph in the most vile, most voyeuristic ways before killing her off. Then there was Robin: One Year Later, one of the worst, horrific character-assassination storylines since Spider-Man's One More Day, where Cass was suddenly turned into an over-the-top Saturday Morning cartoon villain obsessed with killing everyone, giving long-winded "together we can rule the world" speeches and being able to speak and write in fluent Navajo. ONE OF THE MOST DIFFICULT LANGUAGES IN THE WORLD. Then there was Redemption Road which, despite its good moments and happy ending, did even more damage to Cass's character. And finally, we have Battle For The Cowl which ended up pushing Cass and Steph so far into the background, they were basically erased from the BatFamily altogether.

Yet despite Steph's well-received run as Batgirl, DC's poor marketing and the lead up to the New 52 prevented the series from becoming a proper bestseller and it was cancelled without any fanfare whatsoever. Still, all those horrible decisions and storylines (like War Games and Robin: One Year Later) did such massive, long term damage to the characters that, even despite all the small good things (Steph's Batgirl series to the excellent Gates Of Gotham mini-series starring Cass), they were buried from public consciousness. As for Duke (another character, I'm a fan of), I think its just a case of him being a very recent character, a lack of marketing and higher-ups not knowing what to do with him.

As for the asshole editor who everything to burry the Batgirls, he was eventually fired for creating an "unsafe working environment". And yes, his name rhymes with "Ban Video".

As for the people who keep erasing Cass, Steph and Duke from fan works, I know it sounds depressing but hear me out: Fandom, be it comics, video games, films, cartoons, TV shows, ect, has an unconscious bias of white male favouritism. (Yes, I know Dick is Romani, Damien half-Arabic/Asian yet they're still quite white-passing)

YES! THANK YOU! ALL OF THIS!

It is so sad and frustrating that these bias persist even in communities that are meant to be about joy and love; but of course the Batfam fandom has issues with sexism and racism when the canon also has for so long. I'm sure most fans don't try to be prejudiced, but male and white-passing characters are so much more popular than others. The unfair treatment of Steph as Robin and both her and Barbara in making Babs Batgirl again for no reason is one of the things I wrote Robins: The Musical to vent about, and that's only the tip of the iceberg.

Thanks for the explanation! I was already familiar with most of the context you generously provided, but I still really appreciate it as a specific comics shame/recommendation guide and education for others. I wasn't aware of Gates of Gotham and will read it! Black Bat my beloved. Dan Didio when I catch you...

(My original post is here)

#batfam #batfamily #batfam fandom #dc comics #dc #dc fandom #cassandra cain #batgirl #black bat #stephanie brown #spoiler #duke thomas #the signal #comics history

[robin-the-robo]

Okay so @steriafluff asked me for Red Hood recommendations and I apparently have a lot of those, so...

Do keep in mind that these are very much My Opinions, but this is what I think is worth reading if you're getting into Jason Todd/Red Hood and don't wanna end up reading the... Really Weird Stuff.

So I think everyone should start by reading Batman 1940 from issue #408 to #429, which ends with Death in The Family, to see what Jason was like as a kid and as Robin (an absolute delight).

Then obviously you gotta read Batman: Under the Red Hood, (and deal with a 19 y/o being drawn like he's 40. Yeah.) but I would also recommend Red Hood: Lost Days, which basically covers what happens between the Lazarus Pit and Under the Red Hood.

Then we have... Red Hood and the Outlaws (2011). Look. I'll be honest. The """characterization""" for Starfire in that comic is painfully sexist. It has its moments and we somehow managed to pull a pretty cool friend group (and/or polycule if you wanna interpret it that way) out of it, but I would never blame you for skipping it. Red Hood/Arsenal, which covers the time after the original Outlaws broke up, is pretty decent tho.

Red Hood and the Outlaws: Rebirth (2016), on the other hand, I think is cooler than people give it credit. I like that they're a play on the DC trinity (Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman) but as antiheroes. The plot goes in some weird directions from time to time, but the characters keep their personalities all the way through it and I think it's just really fun. Tbh the worst thing about it is that they ended it.

Now I'm gonna give you a few wildcard picks that you're either gonna love or hate, but I think there's something cool in each of them:

Batman: Urban Legends, from issue #1 to #6. Look, it's got Bruce and Jason struggling to cooperate, they're realistically tense but ultimately on the same side, I wrote a whole fanfic about how delightful Jason's interaction with a kid he saves in this comic is, so yeah.

Batman: Three Jokers. This one is quite dark and potentially triggering I think, so be careful. It also has a little bit of Barbara x Jason which No Thank You, but the art is GREAT and it has some banger moments in there. Read at your own peril.

Robins (2021). It's got ups and downs, not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but if you want to see all five Robins interact it's a pretty interesting read.

Knight Terrors: Robin. Hey do you want Tim and Jason interacting and being brothers and actually talking through some of their personal issues while battling their own nightmares? If yes, then you'll enjoy this. A lil bit on the nose but good nonetheless.

And then finally we have Red Hood: The Hill, the new RH comic currently ongoing. We only have a couple of issues out yet so it's a bit early to judge its quality. Atm i agree with someone here on Tumblr who said that it feels like it's more about the new characters than about Jason himself, but maybe that'll change later on. We'll see.

So yeah these aren't all the comics I've read about him, but they are the ones that get his characterization right, or better than the rest at least. Hope this helps some new (or simply confused, which is very fair) fans out there.

#jason todd #red hood #batfam #batfamily #dc comics

[violetganache42]

Be sure to watch the season 2 premiere of Moon girl and Devil Dinosaur because the show is in danger of being cancelled

Yeah, everyone at the Disney Beat server and I saw a couple of nights ago, and we've all been so fucking ANGRY at Disney. 14 episodes getting dropped all at once on Disney+?! What the fuck were they thinking?!

(Rant under the cut.)

It's bad enough they release batches of episodes at once like what Netflix did with Sonic Prime, but they plan to drop around half a season there to where they're making the main channel do two episodes per week?! You seriously couldn't do weekly premieres on TV and have the new episodes get released the next day on streaming, like what HBO Max did with Unicorn: Warriors Eternal and My Adventures with Superman?! The fact they reveal this on the MGDD Crew TikTok and paint it as a good thing does not help either. "How could you not celebrate" HOW COULD YOU NOT REALIZE YOU'RE BEING SO FUCKING DENSE RIGHT NOW?! LOOK AT THIS SHIT!

You cannot make this up! Streaming as a whole has seriously fucked over entertainment. Netflix made the binge format the new norm, and it's not working anymore. If you thought shows getting shorter-lived hype through binging compared to a weekly release was an issue, the quantity is a-whole-nother problem. If it was 5 or 6 episodes getting added at a time, that would be less infuriating, but this is 14 half-hour episodes we're talking about! That's 308 minutes of straight-up binging Disney expects us to do! No one is gonna binge this many episodes in a timeframe like that! And keep in mind, this isn't an earlier season from a finished or ongoing show; this is a whole new season we're talking about. People who haven't watched MGADD yet or don't have Disney+ and/or cable are gonna get exposed to a fuck ton of spoilers. Not to mention Disney Channel is gonna have to spend 7 weeks catching up to Disney+ with the episodes they air on TV. That will do a serious number on the TV views! And don't get me started on the international releases because I was told MGADD has been delayed so much to where S2 of dubbing is done (hence the promos in Japan), but considering the company's crapass handling of international releases, people won't be able to watch it until a much later date. Oh, and there are also countries that don't have the show despite it being dubbed in their language. Right off the bat, that's international views down the drain and the strong possibility of people in the other countries being exposed to spoilers depending on what they come across and who they're following.

You know what the absolute kicker is? They had the fucking audacity to reveal this shortly after they treated The Ghost and Molly McGee like garbage. No joke! The very minimal reruns they gave it throughout its run, its cancellation as season 3 was being drafted, the shitty promotions, them releasing "Jinx vs. the Human World" on iTunes and "The End" on YouTube ahead of their TV and Disney+ releases. I am not kidding about the last part; because Disney didn't temporarily remove them, SpoilerTV reported both episodes received only 63K and 56K TV views! Now compare that to the 375K views "Watching and Dreaming" got; all three TOH specials weren't released on YouTube or Disney+ until after the DC/XD simulcast premiere! And this is the same show that got shortened by the now retired Gary Marsh! The upsetting part is Bill Motz is blaming himself for putting too much pressure on the fans for watching TGAMM and appointing ambassadors to help promote it. No, it's not your fault, Bill. It's the Disney executives and their shitty marketing strategy's fault your show got cancelled. You care about the show you and Bob Roth created, and you wanted it to do well. The higher ups didn't bother to continue promoting the show after it premiered, and that alone just forced you, the ambassadors, and the audience to do their job for them. They're the reason why it underperformed on D+ and DC. Now, it may potentially happen again with MGADD thanks to them!

Why did they pulling any of this shit was a good idea?! The show got ample marketing, from an advertisement outside the Days of Christmas store in Disney Springs and Moon Girl herself appearing in Disney California Adventure to merchandise such as a Moon Girl Funko, a couple of books, and even a graphic novel! It has received nominations and won awards, and the current lead executive Ayo Davis said season 1 performed well in ratings! Yet they turn around and pull all of this bullshit as season 2 approaches! Seriously, what is preventing you from doing next-day weekly releases and continuing your marketing, Disney?! All your other Marvel shows have gotten weekly releases and so much promoting, and regardless of the reception of each show, they all get high ratings! That even includes What If…?, the MCU's first animated show! Just because MGADD is adjacent/not entirely connected to the MCU and is a Disney TVA show doesn't give you the excuse to treat it like crap post-season 1!

I'm sorry for the ranting, but this multi-whammy has been so fucking frustrating. I have been a big fan of MGADD since the beginning, and like I previously said, it helped fill the DuckTales-shaped hole in my heart. I'm glad that it has such a strong start, and I want it to continue doing well, but the upcoming 14-episode release was such a fucking gut punch. The more the active Disney Beat server memebrs and I ranted and vented about it, the more furious we grew to where a few of us—myself included—were in tears; it is such a horrendous decision the Disney executives made! I'm at least glad the past week has gotten people to talk about how shows are getting treated nowadays thanks to streaming, and Disney Beat tweeting about the 14-episode bomb release announcement got deleted. Unfortunately, the higher ups most likely deleted it just to save face and won't reverse the decision in the end. Regardless, more people are catching onto the pitfalls with streaming and are noticing how shows no longer have the opportunities to build audiences over time. They are treated as nothing more as a means of gaining views and instant gratification rather than a medium made for one's enjoyment. With the Animation Guild's contract having been expired for around a few months, I hope one of their demands is to stop the shows' mistreatments and lack of sufficient marketing because streaming left a devastating and worsening impact on the entertainment and animation industries.

#my inbox #anonymous #moon girl and devil dinosaur #mgadd spoilers #the ghost and molly mcgee #tgamm spoilers #disney branded television #disney channel #disney+

[ursie]

TT isn’t ableist it’s DC/the editors/ect stop blaming him ok but he wrote these scenes he wrote this dialogue and this is just off the top of my head not even touching the “subtle” ableism woven throughout the run :

⚠️

Major tw for ableism :

These may seem minor to you but they’re overt to literally any physically disabled person

-why couldn’t Barbara eat pizza in the park before? Take down low level thugs? She literally could. She literally did. This retroactive take on her years as Oracle is ableist. She was not miserable or useless or anything like that. She was quite literally still a crime fighter living an active lifestyle. She was happy as Oracle. In her own words “the joker took nothing from me”. But TT does not understand the disabled experience and cannot write a woman ok being disabled-this is not about Babs being able bodied now-this is about the language used. There are plenty of similar examples throughout the run (and dc period atm) TT did not have to write such dialogue. He chose to do that. It should also be noted that he wants credit for giving Babs accessibility aides but does not have any real interest in showing her use them (the justification of her not using a chair anymore) or writing her as a Disabled woman at all (a similar issue applies to his writing of Dick)

-Why reintroduce Risk and make the point to remember his prosthetic (I should also note he’s a recovering addict as well) just to kill him brutally and rather intimately on panel. It’s important to note that for all intents and purposes Risk was an invincible hero. Killing him (and frankly for shock value) is ableist. I’m not saying you can’t kill disabled characters but if you do it after consistent allegations of ableism it’s hard not to see Risk (and any physically disabled person in his run) as a proxy for the disabled people who criticized him after all they only seem to show up to get brutalized or be a joke. It’s important to contextualize that this was his introduction into main continuity again-they made the point to retain his disability (whilst under scrutiny for ableism) just for killing him without an once of dignity. It’s just horrific and genuinely these panels may trigger me the most.

-now I understand you may not see the big deal here because hey he’s not being hatecrimed here but yet again disabled characters are either brutalized or made into a joke. There’s multiple issues wrong here . You do not touch a hoh persons hearing aides. 1. You don’t touch anyones accessibility tools (especially hearing aides which are delicate at the best of times) w/o explicit permission. This joke is not funny to disabled people this is our lived experience and it’s called assault. 2. In line with TT previous inclination to not actually write the disabled experience this person does not seem to have any emergency setup such as a bed shaker for example which while not criminal does show a lack of research. TT would rather have a joke at our expense then just write a disabled person living realistically. And 3. Dick does actually canonically know sign language. There was no need for ableism in the first place. Instead of highlighting Deaf/Sign culture TT opted for dated jokes and further erasure of Dicks competence (which is a separate conversation). It should be noted that showing sign in comics is not new or impossible if Hawkeye can do it so can Nightwing.

Again these are just three out of many examples and that’s not counting TT’s ableist behavior on Twitter. That’s not talking about the artist. But three is enough. Three is a pattern. At a certain point when people refuse to reflect and address their behavior-when they refuse to even entertain the notion of fixing it-real accountability must be discussed, and if you cannot handle disabled fans discussing his accountability here-if you’re ambivalent, if you’re defensive, if you’re apologetic for him, you’re complicit as well. It’s 2022 we can do better. It’s July. It’s Disabled Pride month. Listen to Disabled voices. Do better. Or be quiet.

Ok to add on and discuss but no clowning and if you are able bodied you do not get to debate the ableism at hand.

* if anyone could write the image ids that would be great my hand feels like it’s going to fall off :(

image ids :

[Three panels from Nightwing comics by Tom Taylor. In the first, Babs is saying, “I have some pretty new technology holding my spine together.* (*see batgirl: three jokers) I’m happy to do most things--eat pizza in the park, take down low level thugs--but leaping from rooftops seems unwise” while Dick looks on. This is from Nightwing 79.

The next part is two whole pages. In the first panel, Dick in a narration box is saying, “..in metropolis” while there is the skyline of metropolis in the background. The next panel is Risk jumping off a building while his prosetic arm is clearly visible. The next three are of him saying, “enough running. I don’t know who you are but we are clear of civilians now. I’m ready to hit back.” The next panel is of him being hit by a purple laser while in the next he says, “ha! I’m invulnerable.”

The next page starts with three people in black suits and jetpacks flying towards him while the lead one says, “we know.” In the next panel, she has Risk slammed on the ground while saying, “we know all about you Risk.” In the next three panels, she drags Risk towards the water and sticks his head in it while monologuing, “we know you were a Titan. and we know that you still have to breathe. The rising has begun.” The last panel is of some bubble underwater.

The third example is one page. In the first panel, Dick (Nightwing) is hitting down a wood door while calling out, “Maurice!” In the next panel, Maurice is in bed while his hearing age is pointed out by zoomed in bubble. In the next panel, Dick has grabbed Maurice’s hearing aid, and is holding it out to Maurice while saying, “Hey. I just need you to put your hearing aid in.” Maurice replies while looking angry, “Is that what you do? Steal hearing aids?!” In the final panel, Dick says while looking confused and still holding out the hearing aid, “what, I’m not” before Oracle interupts him over the comms, “Nightwing!” He responds, “Oracle” end id

#tw ableism #ask to tag #anti tom taylor #dick grayson #barbara gordon #Nightwing #Oracle #Cody driscoll #risk #I babble #disabled tag #it’s disabled time <3 #anti dickbabs #ig

[dragynkeep]

-

is2g some rwby fans just see a take & boil it down to the most basic, inaccurate trope so they can go "see! y'all are wrong!"

we aren't saying blake didn't have struggles. we see on screen how she's marginalzied when she comes to beacon because weiss immediately targets her once she knows that blake was part of the white fang & a lot of us criticize the narrative in the series proper that allowed weiss's behaviour to slide without even a basic apology.

however saying blake isn't priviledged because she didn't "get the big house until she was a teenager" is crazy inaccurate. we see in the dc comics, which people love to use to say bees moments are canon & adam is a canonical pedophile despite his age never being stated & ilia looking the same age — blake was in that house from a child. there's pictures of her as a child in that house with her immensely privileged people & this existing at the same time that blake says that there's an overcrowding issue in menagerie is an issue. the belladonnas should not be living in a comparable mansion while their citizens are in huts.

the belladonnas did not "work" for this house. it wasn't given to them for being leaders of the white fang, otherwise they would've left when sienna overtook the organization to actually do something other than bootlick humans & beg for peace. there are also pictures of presumably other belladonna relatives in this home, alluding that it's more than likely something passed down through the family.

where was the work? ghira is useless & kali even more so, functionally existing as a milf joke while being a nothing housewife.

& as for the latter point of blake not being privileged because she's also part of the marginalized group — this ignores that blake is living on menagerie for a majority of her upbringing, a place that is functionally an ethnostate. there is no racism to be experienced on this island because there's no human influence & even when blake comes out of menagerie, she is actively hiding her faunus traits to avoid racial discrimination.

compare this to characters who can't do that: like sun (who experiences police brutality the first time he's on screen), velvet (who suffers physical assault & racial violence), ilia (suffered violent discrimination in an actually oppressive society towards faunus & her parents died due to faunus exploitation), adam (a former goddamn child slave) & so many others.

the only time blake has had to "fight for her rights" as a young child was when her parents took her from the functional safety of menagerie to put her in potentially violent protests. blake isn't affected by the racism of the world until her deadbeat ass parents choose to show her it & that's something that they should be criticized for.

rwby fans learn that people are not saying blake isn't marginalized: she absolutely is. but she also exists in the show as functionally far more privileged than her other faunus counterparts, to the extent that she can preach for peace & blame them for setting her own mansion on fire while they're just trying to survive in their huts.

if blake being the faunus equivalent of weiss makes you uncomfortable, good! that's a starting point into deconstructing the rest of this mess of a racism plotline instead of y'all just telling poc & bme folks that we're dumb.

#rwby #rwde #blake belladonna #ghira belladonna #kali belladonna #ais.txt

[aboutzatanna]

To put into perspective just how forced the whole JohnZee pairing has been for the last few years, Zatanna met John 5 times in the pre-reboot continuity. That's 5 out of the 379 times she has appeared in comics before the Pre Nu 52 debut of Justice League Dark. Similarly John's Hellblazer lasted for 300 issues with his own supporting cast and love interests and Zatanna only appeared once in it.

(Yes, there was a divide between Vertigo and DC at the time but Zatanna was one of the few characters who famously flaunted the line)

Swamp Thing #49-50: this is where we first find out that these characters knew each other as John tries to recruit Zatara and Zatanna for the magical seance. Note that there is an element of manipulation involved in all of John's interactions with everyone in this issue. John was also a new character at the time and Zatanna was a very established character. Moore can be a perv so it's not surprising that he made their relationship sexual. He also basically ended the pairing with John Zatara's death and Zatanna blaming John for it. Although they were established as collegues, we got fans and writers today who think Zatanna should be a novice who needs John to lead her around and tell her where to aim her powers.

Books of Magic: In which we learn that John hasn't met Zatanna at all since the traumatic seance but feels he can just waltz in and ask her to babysit a kid for him. The writer likes him so of course it works and she hugs and kisses him, which felt so very jarring. Books of Magic is a book I enjoy except for the Zatanna scenes (and Spectres). Then we had Zee acting like a complete idiot who endangers Tim Hunter and needed to be saved by John Constantine. Really jarring when you see her appearances in JLA comics around the time where she was a powerful magician whose kicking ass. ( Yet, this one comic would decades later set the pace for her characterization in JLD as this novice with a lot of power except for when John needs to shine. ) We would later get a follow up to this in a dream sequence in the 1991 Zatanna mini series by Lee Mars but that too had a scene where Zatanna went 'oh no, I'm not as good John' which makes no sense since she has been involved in magic her whole life.

Hellblazer Vol 1 #63: Zatanna's only appearance in the title at John's 40th birthday party. I don't have any objections to this one. Zee getting high at a party with a floating joint is hilarious.

Totems mini series: A brief appearance where she turns down his offer for sex and even goes 'reven niaga'.

Zatanna Everyday Magic: I like this one. As it deals with things from her perspective. She is the one who saves him and very subtly we see her shed any resentment she may have for John but is not hung up on him. She has her own life and her own love interests, even has casual sex with them.

So we have a pairing that cratered and halfway buried, only for an ill thought out reboot to drag it back up and heavily retconning both character's respective histories to make it work. Like introducing Nick Necro and treating the seance like Zee's origin story instead of Zatanna's Search. Ignoring any aspect of her that's not related to John, like all her relationships with the JL members (except Batman) don't matter anymore even though they played important roles in her life as well. Yet, John gets to keep most of his history and supporting cast and even get several shots at an ongoing. Zee ends up being treated as less smart, less competent and daresay even less sexy, whenever the JohnZee pairing comes to the forefront. The seeds were there since even their second meeting.

I don't see why this pairing needs to be treated as something so sacrosanct that the characters aren't allowed to grow past it. It's definitely not an earned relationship that's up there with Clark/Lois, BatCat, WallyLinda or BarryIris. It's only post nu52 that writers can't seem to go two pages without mentioning the pairing whenever Zee shows up. And I hate the fact that it's lead to Zee developing a reputation as a woman with a bad body fetish. Yet another aspect of the character they had to twist to make the pairing work.

It's not just that Zee deserves better, it just plain doesn't make sense. Even on it's own, it's a constant merry go round 'oh John, you are lying to me, I can't trust you/John, you lied to me, I trusted you. Everyone in JLD gets this but Zatanna gets it the worst.

Also, Zatanna didn't 'choose him', they were apart then the reboot happened and DC went 'well, lets pretend these two are an angsty couple who can't quit each other, forget anything that might contradict this narrative'.

To drive the point home; compare Zee's last appearance in 2022 in JLD as team leader where she was shown to be reckless and dumb leader who endangered her team for no reason and refused to take responsibility (of course John comes out looking good). To her later appearances in Batgirl and the excellent Knight Terrors crossover team up with Robot Man.

Once she is away from John, she goes back to being her fun, competent, bad ass, sexy self.

Side note: Can we also go back to a time when Zatanna, Phantom Strnager, Spectre and Dr Fate were bad asses and not chumps so John Constantine can look cool as he pulls out a vaguely defined spelled from his ass? I saw scans from a comic recently where he got the drop on freakin' Waverider recently.

#zatanna #zatanna zatara #john constantine

[boyfridged]

im curious though, what do you think it was that caused this sudden slander recontextualisation of jason in the 90s. was it dc editorial i bet it was fucking dc editorial

i don't think it was sudden at all, nor that it was specifically a 90s issue. it was already, in a way, facilitated in adift (although not as radically as some believe it to be; i always say that ironically, in spite of his hatred for jason, starlin still afforded sympathy in his portrayal that editorial later on seems to completely abandon). it's also visible in the responses to fan letters after it- victim blaming followed as the first explanation, both to the event as a creative decision and in order to justify bruce's ability to keep going as batman in-universe... and of course, as they quickly realised that there's no batman without robin, to set up the introduction of the new sidekick. a lonely place of dying comes out in 89, so that's right before the decade ends, and the robin solo comes out in jan 91... so it's all a quite rapid (negative) development that is mostly used to hype up tim's character. which is also why it does strike me as a bit ignorant irt the source material when fans claim that tim has absolutely no interest in jason in any sense when in fact his origin story was built upon jay's death and it's a recurring theme in his solo... so much of his identity as robin is based around jay's suffering and his perception of him as a failure... the "good soldier" case was literally invented for tim's angst, and he misses no opportunity to spit at jay's memory. this is of course not merely tim's in-universe opinion, this is also the narrative that dc tries to sell in order to put their brand-new robin on a pedestal. and besides tim, jay was obviously fridged mainly for bruce's sake – except the editorial has lost all ability and willingness to criticise bruce in any matter, so any indication that his choices could have played a role in a child's death ought to be swept under the rug. and butchering jay's personality was the easiest way to do it.

#also classism. as always.

[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

[guiltyofbitchcraft]

Finally read the first issue of the new Flash run and I'm honestly really intrigued about the direction it's going! Do I have a lot of questions? Yes. Is it perfect? No, I do have a few critiques. However, I am really interested in talking about what's going on with Linda cuz I'm actually a big fan of what Spurrier appears to be doing.

First of all, I am not really worried about Linda and Wally divorcing. I think they'll be fine cuz it would be a really stupid move on DC's part to break them up after all the hassle it took to get them back together. To me, the Grodd line about a breakup felt like a red herring. I actually think this has the potential to lead to some really beautiful moments for their marriage and the sense of overwhelm and isolation they're both feeling parallels well with the cosmic horror plot that's going on.

But it honestly the setup for everything Linda is going through makes so much sense. Not only did she just have her third child (and remember that right after he was born Wade was kidnapped and Linda was caught in an explosion, it was not a fun day), but she already has some previous trauma and worries surrounding pregnancy so her having postpartum depression makes absolute sense, although even without those factors it would arguably make sense regardless because it's a super common thing! But she also lost her powers. Linda is the only nonpowered person in her family and while I think she was fine with that, the pregnancy allowed her a glimpse of everything she was missing, it allowed her to connect to her husband and kids in a way she hadn't been able to before and that's gone now. She is absolutely allowed to mourn that, especially since from her POV(and I do love that we're getting so much of her POV), her family doesn't seem capable of slowing down around her.

The scene with her sitting on the couch was beautiful and tragic and I truly felt Linda's loneliness and overwhelm. I feel her frustration with her husband who doesn't seem to understand what she needs. And I honestly get it from Wally's perspective too like I don't think he's necessarily the bad guy in this situation!! The dude has been regularly phasing out of reality into truly horrific realms for the past month, I don't blame him for being super distracted. Plus I do think he is trying he's just missing the cues. He knows Linda is dealing with a lot, that's why he's taking on so much himself to try and give her space. But she doesn't necessarily need space I don't think, that space he's giving her is just making her feel further isolated from her family even though that is absolutely not his intention. He's also completely overwhelming himself to the point that he's missing very basic things like the fact that she can't have caffeine while breastfeeding.

To me, this is the start of a story about a family who loves each other so very much that they're trying to protect each other from their problems and in doing so causing a gap between them. Which is very realistic to me like that happens. And I don't think this story will end in tragedy for them, I think this is very clearly setting up that the way they're continuing cannot last and it will blow up and force them to connect again. I hope I'm right and if I am I'm really looking forward to seeing the rest of this story unfold.

#linda park #wally west #the flash #flashfam #si spurrier

[clay-cuttlefish]

Finally we've arrived at 52, the series that turned me from a casual reader of a few comics into a full-on DC fan and Question enthusiast. This is the reason I set out on this project in the first place. I love it so much.

#1

This is my fifth time reading this in full, I think, and I still get hyped at this opening issue. Look at my guys.

It's a miracle this came together as well as it did. The omnibus is great for giving some insight into that construction process.

#2

There's just so much in 52 and I can't believe they pulled it off. Part of that is that it's thematically coherent, despite how different the plots are. Grief, reinvention, self-destruction as a means to cope with loss... it all feeds into itself.

In a slightly different timeline I came out of 52 fixated on Booster Gold and stumbled back into the Question later through Blue Beetle, instead of the other way around.

It took 416 issues but they're interacting! They're together! It's paying off!

Renee's heartbreaking spiral into self-destruction is interrupted by this massive dork. I love them.

#3

I really need to read Steel. Captivated by these two.

Skeets nudging the gyro cart owner out of the way is a very good panel. Catlike behavior.

#4

Booster and Bea's conversation is so. Hhh.

In the omnibus, Mark Waid calls Vic and Renee's scene "one of the high points of the entire series", and I'm with him.

#5

Renee and Maggie...

The metahuman hospital's a really cool piece of worldbuilding.

The only plotline I don't care much about is the spaceguys. I still like them, but the bar's really high here and I want to see other characters more.

Wish this was less creepy about Starfire.

#6

Kind of obsessed with Bob the theatre teacher and villain-for-hire, conceptually.

It takes a while for the Black Adam plot to pick up steam so this part isn't quite hitting yet.

Booster having a normal one.

#7

Renee hasn't talked to her mom in three years by this point. Oof.

The exes of all time!

Booster... Ralph blaming him for Ted's death is brutal.

#8

Oh cmon girl you're smarter than this. It's Lex Luthor, when has he ever had anyone's best interests at heart.

At least Ollie's still doing his thing.

Clark hating Booster is so good.

#9

"Smart-ass." "Consistency is everything." He is so annoying!

The John and Natasha fight is great.

#10

Clark taking a page from Lois' book is so good. Ridiculous.

I like Will and Professor Morrow a lot, nice that they're back in focus.

Supernova time :)

#11

His anti-smoking rant...

"I don't owe you anything." Oof ouch my soul.

Big talk here from a guy who spent a decade hung up on Myra.

The one superheroine ass shot I respect is in the "that's a Batwoman" panel because Renee deserves to appreciate Kate's ass.

#12

Besties moment.

Black Adam's plotline is gaining speed.

Oh Ralph.

#13

Oh NO, Ralph.

#14

They both look so good here. Love his stubble.

Desperately want to hear Tot's side of their conversation, and also their previous phone calls, because I'm sure he'd have Opinions about Vic deciding to become a mentor.

Shaking him. You are so annoying!

"There's no such thing as crazy, just behaviour that society has deemed unacceptable." SO true bestie.

#15

BOOSTER...

#16

Oh god, Renee.

Billy officiating Black Adam's wedding is very sweet.

#17

Luthor's superteam is one of the series highlights.

Still very funny that there's just a guy named Hannibal on it. Zero subtlety here.

Oh Lobo. I do not care about you.

#18

He's so silly.

Renee is having truly awful time falling back into old coping measures and he's out here getting scooped and being made fun of for cockblocking.

Booster's shitty funeral still fucks me up. Choosing to believe Skeets intentionally didn't invite people for evil reasons because the idea nobody showed up is too much.

Once again, oh no Ralph.

#18/2

A backup with Vic's origins. It's about right, though I prefer him starting as the Question before moving back to Hub City.

It lists his "essential storylines" as Mysterious Suspense, The Question 1987, and Cry for Blood, which I mostly agree with. Mysterious Suspense is less important but reading a pre-DC story is useful background for the 87 run and it's his only solo option.

#clayposts #clayreads #the question #vic sage #renee montoya

[clearancecreedwatersurvival]

As a follow-up to my let people use fanfiction as narrative therapy post I would also like to state for the record:

Ain’t nothing wrong with self insert fanfiction. Or Mary Sue OCs that are basically self inserts. Also nothing wrong with people writing ‘bad’ fanfiction that has nothing to do with the canon really. I don’t give a shit. People are making art and that’s awesome. I may not read stuff that isn’t to my personal tastes, but I am Glad people are making their art regardless. Especially young people. Especially people who are otherwise new to writing. Hell yeah, Make Art.

One thing I have noticed about fandom on tumblr is that in very large fandoms with mass appeal, there are often a lot of kids and youths and young folk watching or reading and thus wanting to create transformative art about it. This also means that a high concentration of fic may tend more towards having less to do with the actual canon of the thing and being more focused on whatever those kids really wanted to write or read about it. To discuss one specific example, the largest subsection of fandom that currently exists around the DC batman franchises on this site is the batfam fandom, a fandom comprised mostly of younger fans who are fans more of the platonic ideal of batman and his adopted kids and close associates that only really exists in their own works and also the webtoon**** For most of those people the appeal is the found family aspect, and that’s what they want to read and write about. Hell yeah. Good for them. At least they’re writing. At least they’re making art.

****I know there are a lot of people in the batman comics fandom that have serious issues with the webtoon and the way that dc comics publishing agendas have begun to reflect more what people on the internet are talking about and less coherent storytelling that makes sense based on past canon. And this is a very fair criticism.

But this is not a problem limited to dc. This is a problem of all major production companies who produce art for mass release. TV shows being written in response to what people say on reddit has been ruining creative endeavors in an obvious way at least since Game of Thrones was airing. Books being published based on what will be popular on tiktok derived from the popularity of some frankly terrible novels (yes I do mean acotar) leads to some absolute drivel on the best seller list. Of course the comics industry is also fucking things up the same way.

Your enemy there are not the young fans new to fandom who are just discovering writing fanfiction and doing so by writing about whatever interests them most. Please stop blaming kids and other people who aren’t writing fanfiction close enough to your concept of canon for this problem, it is far bigger than that.

Let people make their maybe bad art in peace. Everyone has to make bad art on the road to learning how to make better art. I am glad they are making their art regardless.

Also no shade meant to those fans this is just an observation and I wish you all well, but I do find it a little funny that the people who Are experts on the dc comics canon who I have seen criticize the existence of the batfam fandom on here are also usually like ‘this is my favorite character, I hate every single run this character has ever been in except this one from 30 years ago and five panels of this one run that got cancelled early.’ Like, you don’t really like most of the canon you wish other people would familiarize themselves with right? Give new fans a chance to want to learn more about it. Most of the fans in that circle are pretty young, they’re gonna have kinda bad taste sometimes and that’s fine and good actually. They’ll grow out of it and maybe some of them will come to know the comics canon more closely.

This is also why even though I am vocal about personally disliking the works of SJM (acotar my beloathed) and its impact on the publishing industry, I am honestly happy for anyone that read those books and enjoyed them. Same for every other book I don’t like. If you read it and get something out of it hell yeah good for you. I was unironically into twilight for many years as a teen I am not here to pass judgement on teens or anyone for that matter for what they enjoy.

Most big fandoms I have dipped my toes into have this same problem. If there are a lot of young people in that fandom, there’s gonna be a lot of fanfic that is written by people just learning to write, and that’s great, I love that actually, good for them. But those are always the fandoms where I see people being perhaps more vitriolic than necessary towards other fans for not being up to snuff. Let people make art that you don’t think is good, please. It’s fine actually. If you don’t like it you don’t have to read it. Just be glad someone is making art that makes them happy and move on.

#this is a long one but I have been seeing a lot of this tendency to blame new writers for not keeping to canon #and I have been having some Thoughts. so #fandom #transformative fandom #fanfiction #fandom discourse #fandom sociology #batfam #publishing #television writing #sjm critical #caitie speaks

[dailycass-cain]

Knight Terrors: Nightwing #2 had Cass in it so of course I'm going to give my thoughts on the issue. Is it good? Is it bad? No matter what I'll talk about the Cass in extraordinary detail!

I'll start with the good.

As a series focusing on Nightwing and Scarecrow? It was good. Alright. I mean this isn't the first time we've seen Dick facing his nightmares (nor will it be the last), but the layer of Scarecrow being involved added something to this mini.

Daniele Di Nicuolo's art was amazing. Really made the two issues pop more. More so when it went into the whole "nightmare" vibe.

That's all the positives I can give.

The whole Batgirls section of this issue felt superfluous to the overall story with Dick. It didn't really add anything to the plot, and all the two did was free Barbara-- which is kind of a detriment to the character.

I mean you could've had Nightwing and Scarecrow fix her and she finds out the exit herself. There was "zero" need for the Batgirls in this story sadly. In that area, the whole female section to this mini just felt-- meh to me.

Ironically, once again Nightwing and the three Batgirls just don't mix well. The character overshadowed all three Batgirls back in the infamous Batgirls #7-8 arc.

The ideas are solid with each Batgirl facing their own nightmare. But that's the grand problem with this issue and the story in itself. We just never see it.

I went into the issue and this page above is like, "Okay, we're gonna get some context right? Akin to what's going on over in Action Comics and Superman tie-ins to this event? We're so getting a Cass/Steph story and-- oh that's it no more issue? WHAT WAS THE POINT?!" 😩

Going into the story I kept expecting more and got the rug pulled out from under me. Therein lies the rub. Dick, Jason, and Tim (Damian gets to be in the main story) got FULL exposure to their "Knightmares".

Batgirls? Well, tough luck here's a tiny nugget and um.. WE'RE DONE!

At the very least with Batgirls #7-8 I know the context of the two issues. I can understand why that story is a calamity as it entails everything so very wrong with Dick (he overshadows the actual leads) and Barbara (is squandered in reused bad subplot again for the 4th time).

If it wasn't for Spirit World #4 the week prior, and Birds of Prey #1 next month (September 5th and you should ALL buy it). I'd be more peeved at the waste of space Knight Terrors: Nightwing series gave Cass.

The ideas by Michael Conrad and Becky Cloonan are sound. The problem is-- we get NOTHING more. Just, "hey this happened. We're not even gonna explain why Cass looks way different now and is caked in blood."

Just enjoy this cool moment. That's it.

I don't blame the writers for this. They thought of the idea to put this in here and that's it. I blame DC heads for this. You clearly could've given us a Batgirls tie-in or small story to "fill that gap" from point A to B.

This felt like I was back in 2016-2020 where we'd get a "small bone" and that's it. Well, coming off Batgirls ongoing, Cass being in Spirit World and BoP. I can say I don't mind overlooking it almost.

Almost.

The problem is in regards to Stephanie Brown and Barbara Gordon two female characters who deserve better. Whatever comes from the godawful "Gotham War" event next month something bad just feels will come over Steph and Babs.

It already feels unneeded as Tec, BoP, and Batman & Robin feel like they're just going in this direction:

So if that's the case. Why can't we get one nugget in this damn event for Steph and Babs? Freaking Knight Terrors: Punchline #1-2 gave Babs a better nugget here and that was a goddamn nightmare construct.

I can go on and on. But DC you need to still treat female characters slightly better here. Ironically, yet again when it comes to your Batgirls.

This issue disappointed me. It made me slightly angry, but hey Spirit World is currently out there. Birds of Prey is out next month. As a fan of Cass, I'd be feasting and feasting good.

Do you want a better-written comic by this team? Batgirls #14 and anything after #7. I also LOVED the idea of Cass being scared of what she might become still. I wish we you know-- SAW IT TOO!

DC?

Treat your female characters better than this. This issue feels like a regression. If Stephanie gets "taken off the table" for a bit due to this godawful event beginning next month. This issue will just feel worse.

#cassandra cain #dc comics #my thoughts