#but modern bruce just wants to throw everyone in arkham. fuck him
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Lil rant about the Outlaws webtoons here:
I was really hoping the webtoon would do robin!Jason justice but nope. They just went the stereotypical "Jason was the edgy, angry and violent robin" route, and I fucking hate it.
Slight spoiler for the next unreleased ep:
First thing Bruce does is call Jason a petulant child after the Outlaws cause a mess in a city, and he doesn't even ask for an explanation for what happened.
While the JL plan to fix their mistake, Jason offers to do watchtower duties in their place and Bruce tells him he'll give him 1 month not to kill or steal and to basically do what the JL do. Which is fine and all, seems fair..
but the issue is what he says after, that "If you fail, you and your team will be treated as true outlaws. No more money, no more Waynetech, no more weapons."
and THEN he adds on that they'll "spend the rest of their lives running, or in Arkham" which, personally this will always rub me the wrong way, that Bruce is totally fine throwing his son and his friends into the place where he would throw people like the Joker in.
and on top of all that, Bruce tells Jason "Let's continue this when you're done crying." Jason was wearing his helmet but it was revealed he actually was crying, and I just hate how cold-hearted Bruce is written because it's so fucking overused.
I hate this relationship dynamic between these two because it's just so OOC of Bruce to treat his kid this way, and calling him a "petulant toddler playing with toys in the mud, angry at the world that is begging to wash the stench off" is just so demeaning?? He says all this after knowing all the shit that's happened to Jason??
I can't read modern comics with this characterization of Bruce because all the older comics had Bruce as this compassionate and patient father, which we basically never see again in today's comics.
You're supposed to tell me that these are the same character? 80s comic Bruce would probably rather die than treat his son like every other sociopathic killer in Arkham. He would also probably feel like shit for making his son cry as well.
Same goes for Jason, where writers portray him as this murderous robin that doesn't think before he acts. Literally none of this is true. Jason was probably the most well behaved out of all the Robins. If you read his 80s comics, you'll see him even stop Bruce from killing people, and even spares the person who killed his bio father.
Jason being the happy, sweet, child is what makes his story so tragic. He came back different and broken, and I hate how writers just disregard that altogether just to have some cheap tension/drama between Bruce and him.
I just don't think I'll be continuing this series even though it's free. DC writers need to get their shit together.
#webtoons outlaws#sorry for my inarticulate thoughts its all over the place#im sorry but i already hate this comic#wfa stays winning#i have sm to say but just dont know how to word it#80s Bruce always tried to fix his problems with words and tried to explain to his sons patiently what the issues were#and how they could move forward#but modern bruce just wants to throw everyone in arkham. fuck him#jason todd#red hood#batman#bruce wayne#rhato#dc comics#fanatical posting#rant
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TimKon or anything from the Tuna Melt-verse, which is fantastic, by the way.
Thank you!!! Here’s some unfinished Tuna Melt Fic. Maybe one day it’ll get done. It’s called “His Day in Court.” The Joker origin referenced is lifted from Batman: Streets of Gotham.
“Mister President.”
Bartlet looks up from his desk and grins, before getting to his feet slowly. “Judge Walters.”
As they shake hands, Jed marvels, not for the first time, at just how tall, and just how green Jennifer Walters is. She’s a beautiful woman.
She’s just…
Well, she’s She-Hulk.
Well, she used to be She-Hulk.
Now she’s a United States federal judge.
Like Mendoza, getting Jenn appointed as a federal judge had been a nightmare. She’s green, she’s huge.
She’s hardcore leftwing.
“Please, have a seat,” he offers, gesturing towards the couches and chairs.
Jenn nods, and does, settling into one of the chairs carefully, always hyper-aware of her own body and its impact on the world around her.
“I assume you know why I’ve asked you here,” he says, settling onto the couch next to her, clasping his hands in his lap.
“I have a pretty good idea,” Jenn smirks, leaning back a little. “The Joker case?”
Bartlet nods. “The Joker case. The prosecution is putting everything together, and I’ve been informed you’ve been chosen to preside.”
Jenn doesn’t say anything for a long moment, watching the president carefully before speaking up. “Permission to speak my mind?”
“Of course.”
“This whole trial is bullshit,” she says.
“It’s the law.”
“It’s bull. Look, I believe in our justice system when it works the way it’s supposed to, but jesus, this isn’t a case of innocent until proven guilty, this is a case of the defendant boasting in a public forum about the very fact that he is guilty. He’s killed thousands of people. He’s maimed and mentally and emotionally scarred more. Why put the survivors and the families of the dead through this? And how the hell are we supposed to choose a grand jury? An enormous percentage of people in this country, and just about everybody on the East Coast has been affected, in some way, shape or form by the Joker.”
“So you think we throw United States law out the window and just kill him?” Jed asks, lifting his eyebrows. “You don’t think that might look bad to the rest of the country? That they’ll start pointing fingers at whoever the hell, and asking why those people haven’t been offed too?”
“I think the Joker is different,” Jenn says. “I think he’s this country’s modern day boogieman, and I don’t think he deserves a traditional trial. And anyways, it’s not out of the question that the Joker could die...other ways.”
“Jennifer.”
“Don’t you have the Red Hood on speed dial?” she asks, lifting an eyebrow. “Didn’t I hear that somewhere?”
“Like that kid hasn’t been through enough,” Jed grumbles. “The last time somebody tried to take out the Joker because they thought it was the right thing, it ended in an office full of dead FBI agents and an attack on this White House. We do this the right way.”
“The right way would have been lethal injection at Arkham twenty years ago,” she tells him. “Everything beyond that is just us cleaning up decades-old messes.”
“Jennifer, are you saying we should find a different judge to preside over this case?” Jed asks, looking at her seriously. “Because what you’re telling me is that you cannot possibly be fair-”
“I’m telling you there is no fair,” she interrupts him. “Mister President, the Joker has eschewed legal council. He’s defending himself, which means he will run around my courtroom like the damn lunatic he is before he gets bored and attempts to massacre everyone in it.”
Bartlet closes his eyes and takes a breath before opening them again. “Jenn, all we can do is prepare for the worst. But we don’t have any other choice.”
*****
“It starts tomorrow, you know.”
“Hm?”
“The Joker trial,” Danny clarifies.
Maggie nods as she steps past him and back into her cube. “And you’re pissed.”
“A little.”
“Because you’re not the one writing about it,” Maggie goes on. “Because there’s no way to be impartial when you thought he was gonna kill you.”
“There’s not an impartial journalist in the world when it comes to this maniac,” Danny points out.
Maggie sits and looks up at him. “You can still go to the trial you know. Take a few days off. Head up to New York. You could even write an independent piece and farm it out to the Atlantic or whatever.”
Danny shakes his head. “Not worth feeling that angry. How are you doing with all of this?”
“I...have to be fine,” she says, blowing out a breath. “So I’m fine.”
“What are you working on? Anything good?”
“Well…”
He frowns, tilting his head. “What?”
“I...it’s just...how does somebody like the Joker, become the Joker?” Maggie asks. “What drives a person so far over off the deep end that they become...that?”
“Does it matter?”
“Doesn’t it?”
“So you’re looking into who the Joker really is,” Danny surmises.
“I have some leads,” she admits. “The problem is that he’s killed so many people, it’s hard to figure out what was personal and what was just...his version of a good time.”
“But you’ve got a hunch.”
Maggie nods, looking troubled. “I have a hunch.”
“Well?”
She blows out a breath. “About five years ago, Joker cornered an aging Mob Boss named Guzzo.”
“That guy was no joke,” Danny comments, pulling up a chair and taking a seat. “My mentor did a write-up about him back in the day. The stuff he did was almost as bad as the Joker. This was a few years ago, right?”
“Right. So...Joker corners him on amusement mile and sics a pack of hungry hyenas on the guy,” Maggie says. “All that’s left are a few teeth, which is how they identified him. What’s confusing is that if you look at the interviews done of the for-hire goons back then, Joker and Guzzo didn’t know each other. And if you look at the way the city was split up before Guzzo died, Joker’s usual territory was as far away from Guzzo’s as he could get.”
“Like he might have been avoiding the guy.”
“Maybe…”
“You think there’s a connection?” Danny asks. “Joker kills Guzzo for revenge?”
“I think Guzzo hurt a lot of people over multiple decades,” Maggie tells him. “What if one of the people he hurt was Joker, before he was Joker?”
“So you think Joker’s got a sob story.”
“I think he was once something resembling a person,” Maggie corrects him. “And if you wanna take down a monster, you show the world its weak spots.”
*****
“Maybe you should come home for a few days.”
Jason closes his eyes as he listens to his older brother over the phone.
“All anybody is gonna be talking about down there is the trial,” Dick goes on. “Or hey! We could take a roadtrip! Load up the car with snacks and sodas and get outta town for a while.”
“Dick.”
“I don’t want you to be alone,” Dick admits.
“I’m not.”
“Fine. I don’t want you to be so far away from me that I can’t be there for you,” Dick adds. “And neither does Bruce.”
“Is he testifying?” Jason asks.
“Yeah,” Dicik confirms. “He’s showing up in full bat-gear and he’s testifying.”
“That’s nuts,” Jason points out. “This whole -”
“I know.”
“Fucking - why can’t I just kill him?”
“Because it won’t help you,” Dick says sadly. “Little Wing, just because the monster is gone, doesn’t mean the nightmare never happened.”
Jason goes quiet. “I wanna go to the trial.”
“Jay-”
“I wanna go. At least to the first one.”
Dick sighs sadly. “The last thing I want is for this to be the thing that breaks you. You’ve been doing so well...the job, and the girlfriend...you looked so happy at that wedding we all went to. What if going to that trial just sets you back.”
“What if he hurts somebody?” Jason asks. “What if he takes down an entire courthouse full of people?”
“Then it won’t be your fault,” Dick says gently.
“One of us should be there every day of that trial,” Jason argues.
“Maybe. But it shouldn’t be you.”
“The hell it shouldn’t!”
“Jay,” Dick says firmly, but worriedly. “Look, with what he did to Babs...I have a good excuse to be at the trial every day. I’ll go. I promise. But you need to stay home.”
“You don’t get to-”
“Jay.”
Jason goes silent, and Dick can hear deep, heavy breaths.
“I’ll be there every day,” he says. “I promise you, Little Wing. I’ll go every day. Whatever happens, I’ll be there to help stop it.”
*****
“You’ve reached the office of Jason Todd, Wayne Technologies Liaison to the White House. I will be out of the office until the end of the month. You can reach my fill-in, Luke Fox at the following number…”
*****
“He took the entire month off?” Leo asks, staring at Luke Fox, utterly bewildered.
“He did,” Luke nods.
“To do what?” Leo snaps.
“Not go crazy,” Luke says simply. “This Joker thing has him fifty shades of fucked up, Leo.”
“The DoD hate you more than they hate him,” Leo points out, relaxing a little.
Luke chuckles and shrugs. “I know it freaks those old farts out to have to deal with a black man who is younger, smarter and more attractive. That’s what makes it fun for me.”
Leo sighs but grins wryly. “It’s gonna be a helluva month.”
“Oh it definitely is,” Luke smirks back. “You want lunch? My treat?”
"It’s hard to say no to that.”
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