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thecruellestmonth · 4 months

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Canon blood types: Gotham edition

Note that the following information is not medically accurate and should not be taken as any kind of medical advice. Copious amounts of comic book medicine and biology abound here.

Bruce Wayne may (or may not) have O- blood, the universal donor type. —Batman 2016 Annual #3

Bruce is a compatible blood donor for Andrew Bennett. —The Brave and the Bold #195

Dick Grayson is a compatible blood donor for Bruce Wayne. (If Bruce has O- blood, then Dick must also have O- blood.)—Batman/Nightwing: Bloodborne

In the DC Animated Universe, Dick has O+ blood. —Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero

Jason Todd has O- blood. —Detective Comics #1032

In the DC Animated Universe, Barbara Gordon has AB- blood. She has the same rare blood type as Nora Fries, wife of Mr. Freeze. —Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero

Crystal Brown is a compatible blood donor for Stephanie Brown. —Batgirl (2009) #24

The Joker is a compatible blood donor for Alfred Pennyworth. —The Brave and the Bold (1955) #141

Helena Bertinelli has a rare blood type, the same as Guido Bertinelli. —The Huntress (1989) #6

Kirk Langstrom and Francine Langstrom have the same blood type. —Detective Comics #429

Bruce Wayne

Batman (2016) Annual #3 suggests that Bruce could have type O- blood.

Batman (2016) Annual #3, written by Tom Taylor - Batman is seriously wounded in the field. Alfred performs a blood transfusion with a supply of type O- blood.

Type O- blood can be donated to patients with any blood type. Batman might be keeping a supply of O- blood not for himself specifically, but for anyone in need of an emergency blood transfusion. So maybe we can't conclude that Bruce must have O- blood.

The Brave and the Bold (1955) #195, written by Mike W. Barr - Batman donates blood to his friend, a heroic vampire named Andrew Bennett, who shielded him from a silver bullet.

Dick Grayson

In Batman/Nightwing: Bloodborne, we learn that Dick Grayson can donate blood to Bruce Wayne.

Batman/Nightwing: Bloodborne, written by Kelley Puckett - Batman is infected with a deadly virus and then taken captive. To save him, Nightwing takes an dangerous experimental vaccine that prompts his body to produce virus-fighting antibodies. Hours later, after Nightwing finds Batman, Nightwing undergoes a "complete blood transfusion" to deliver his antibody-rich blood into Batman's body, while Nightwing receives Batman's virus-laden blood.

If we assume that Bruce has O- blood, then he can only receive transfusions from O- blood, and thus Dick must also have O- blood.

In Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero (part of the DC Animated Universe), Dick has O+ blood. O+ is the world's most common blood type; about 40% of the population has O+ blood. O+ blood can be donated to people with any "+" blood type (including A+, B+, AB+, and O+)—about 85% of the total population. O+ patients can only receive blood transfusions from O+ and O- donors.

Jason Todd

In Detective Comics #1032, Hush states that Jason Todd has O- blood.

Detective Comics #1032, written by Peter J Tomasi - Hush captures several Batfamily members, and attempts to steal and sell their organs as revenge against Bruce. Hush begins with Red Hood, and confirms that Jason has type O- blood.

Type O- blood is the universal donor type. This kind of blood can be donated to patients with any blood type. (Recall Mad Max: Fury Road.) People with O- blood can only receive blood transfusions from other O- donors. About 6.6% of people in the USA have O- blood.

Barbara Gordon

This canon is valid for the DC Animated Universe. Barbara may or may not have a different blood type in the comics.

Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero - Barbara Gordon is listed as having AB- blood in Gotham General Hospital's database of blood donors. She is also a compatible organ donor (HLA match) for Nora Fries; and so Mr. Freeze kidnaps Barbara in hopes of performing a life-saving heart transplant for Nora.

For the sake of the plot, Nora needs a transplant from an organ donor with her same rare blood type. In real life, an AB- patient could receive organs from a donor with AB-, A-, B-, or O- blood, as long as the HLA typing matches (read more about that here).

Type AB- blood is the rarest ABO/Rh blood type worldwide; only 0.6% of people have this blood type in the USA. People with AB- blood can receive any Rh negative blood (including A-, B-, AB-, and O-); about 15% of the population has Rh negative blood that can be donated to AB- patients. People with AB- blood can only donate red blood cells to people with AB- and AB+ blood—about 4% of the population. However, type AB is especially valuable as the universal blood plasma that can be donated to patients of any blood type—and so people with type AB blood are often urged to consider donating blood plasma.

Stephanie Brown and her mother, Crystal Brown

Batgirl (2009) #24, written by Bryan Q Miller - Batgirl (Stephanie Brown) is poisoned with Black Mercy spores. She wakes up days later in West Mercy Hospital. Her mother, Crystal Brown, a nurse, donated her blood to help flush the spores from Steph's system.

We know that Crystal can donate to Steph, but we don't know whether Steph would or wouldn't be able to donate to Crystal. Parents and their children don't always share the same blood type. (This also means that Damian doesn't necessarily have the same blood type as Bruce.)

The Joker and Alfred Pennyworth

The Brave and the Bold (1955) #141, written by Bob Haney - The Joker tricks Alfred Pennyworth into drinking exploding juice. The Joker drinks anti-exploding juice. Batman forces the Joker to donate his anti-exploding clown blood to Alfred.

Helena Bertinelli

The Huntress (1989) #6, written by Joey Cavalieri - Helena Bertinelli has been captured by villains who wish to open the locked vault of her late father, Guido Bertinelli. The lock can only be opened using a sample of Guido's blood type. This blood type is so rare that the villains could not find any in the local blood bank at that time—and so they decided to capture Helena as their "fresh supply".

In the mid-to-late 1990s, Helena's father's name was retconned to be named Franco Bertinelli. Then Huntress: Cry for Blood revealed that Helena's biological father is not Franco, but instead Helena's mother's lover from the Cassamento crime family. In the end, all our information about Helena's blood type may be invalid and apocryphal.

Helena possibly has AB- blood, the rarest blood type. This is the same blood type that Barbara has in the DC Animated Universe.

The Langstroms

Detective Comics (1937) #429, written by Frank Robbins - Francine Lee Langstrom has transformed into She-Bat after secondhand exposure to her husband's bat serum and then being bitten by vampire bats in a cave in Nevada. Her husband, Kirk Langstrom (Man-Bat), says his the same blood type is the same as hers, and so he offers to donate his blood to help treat her.

Helpful references

Stanford Blood Center

UC Davis Health Transplant Center: "Matching and Compatibility"

American Red Cross Blood Services

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therealtsk · 7 months

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What is the Brown family pre-Flashpoint characterization vs post-?

hoo boy. So, disclaimers, while I've read a LOT of comics, I have not in fact read all of the ones where a member of the Brown Family appears (mostly because I just don't have the heart to put myself through Batman and Robin Eternal, along with some of Dixon's notoriously sexist writing in his Robin run), but I think I've read enough to make a decently informative post on this. Let's go by characters.

Stephanie Brown.

Probably the one that most people noticed, Stephanie Brown in her pre-Flashpoint characterization is one that has (right up until a certain...event...) a lot of grit to her. While she's still the victim of Dixon's notorious attitudes towards women, she's still allowed to be competent, holding her own in a fight quite handily, especially in her own Batgirl run, where she's able to take on League of Assassin members without too much trouble at all.

Her major, I would argue defining characteristic, is that she does not give up. Ever. Her dad tells her to quit. Tim Drake tells her to quit. Fucking Batman tells her to quit. Multiple times!

Stephanie Brown does not give up. Ever. When the going gets tough, she shrugs, puts on her eggplant outfit, and kicks ass.

Post-Flashpoint? Stephanie is constantly made out to be unreliable, unable to handle herself, constantly needing other people to pull her out of trouble. She loses fights she simply wouldn't have before (although to be entirely fair, this is a problem literally every batfam member has from N52 onward but that's another post) But worse than that, post-Flashpoint Stephanie gives up.

This scene is genuinely insulting- it's definitive proof that DC's writers from N52 onwards have never understood Stephanie Brown, and never plan to (yes, I know she does come back later, but the fact this happened at all is the point.) This is utterly antithetical to Stephanie Brown as a character, and spits in the face of everything she stands for.

Crystal Brown This is actually the main reason I decided to start writing sins of the father (working on chapter two in conjunction with this), because the treatment of Crystal Brown in Post-Flashpoint DC comics is just insulting- and a major disservice to Steph! Her relationship with her mom is essential to her arc. Crystal Brown starts out as a woman who's got a supervillain as a husband. She's struggling with him, with near-poverty, and with a drug addiction that seriously impedes her ability to be a good mom.

But like daughter, she doesn't give up. In fact, Crystal Brown kicks Arthur Brown out of her life and picks herself up, manages to quit her habits, and becomes a well-respected nurse at Gotham City West Mercy Hospital. Her defining characteristic is that she loves her daughter, even if it took some time for her to get her act together.

Post-Flashpoint Crystal Brown is not that. Hell, she's barely a character. When Steph calls her, desperate, afraid of her newly-learned-of criminal father, Crystal’s response is to lie to her daughter, and then call her husband and tell him Stephanie knows about his plan.

Sure, she doesn't want him to kill her, but this is so wildly out of character for Crystal that this is basically an entirely different person. And it leaves Stephanie without a single parent who cares about her, since Bruce sure has hell hasn't stepped up in Rebirth. Steph doesn't have any positive role models in her life in Rebirth, leaving her bereft of really any consistent form of love and encouragement outside of maybe Cass, but even that relationship is a hollow shell of what it was previously.

Arthur Brown.

So Arthur’s the one who’s arguably changed the least, because abusive asshole is hard to get wrong, but he does feel like he’s lost all consistency in Rebirth. Before, he's a smug, arrogant asshole who doesn't give a damn about his family beyond how he can use them.

In Batman Eternal he’s…well, fine, but in Batgirls he’s…nearly unrecognizable, even from his characterization in the previous issues.

Like seriously, what was going on here? Arthur's never given a single damn about Steph aside from literally using her as part of a plan to get rich. But anyway. TLDR; All three lost nuance, Steph used to be more competent and had an actual character arc, Crystal used to have an actual character and was an inspiring story of overcoming addiction, and Arthur used to feel like a consistent villain instead of a one-off whack job.

#DC #DC Comics #Stephanie Brown #Crystal Brown #Arthur Brown #ask submission #DC Meta #DC Comics Meta #Stephanie Brown Meta #as you might tell #i really don't like most of dc comic's decisions post flashpoint

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misosuper · 6 months

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Crystal Brown wins best mom award

#she and Stephanie are so cute?? they have regular Scrabble and Clue nights and have the best recovering-from-abuse-together support dynamic #and Crystal cares about her daughter SO MUCH #batgirl #dc #stephanie brown #crystal brown #into the soup

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autism-swagger · 2 months

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Alexa play Class of 2013 by Mitski.

#I have sooo many thoughts and feelings about them #imagine taking care of your mom your entire life #because she can't/won't do it herself #and you have a set dynamic that doesn't really ever change #only to find that she only changed and got better when you weren't there #I'd go insane actually!!#oh Steph your multitude of parental issues are so charming <3 #my art #Steph tag #stephanie brown #the spoiler #batgirl #crystal brown #dc comics

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soleminisanction · 2 years

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If you ever have the time/interest, would you break down the canon surrounding Stephanie’s economic circumstances/home life? It seems like a lot of people have chosen to take it a specific way so I’d love to see your reasoning

Sure. Thanks for asking, it's honestly a fun topic.

Y’know it’s funny—I actually happen to own something that I think most people, even most Steph fans, haven’t seen: Steph’s first appearance. Not her Robin first appearance, her Detective Comics first appearance, her actual introduction. I happened to pick them up by accident at a con a few years ago because they’re also some of Tim’s first cover appearances.

Other people might disagree with me on this, but I like to go back to the characters’ origins whenever I can to find the baseline of what they were originally intended to be and try to bring later interpretations in line with that. I like to think of retcons as new revelations, new plot twists in an ongoing story, and not a way to reset aspects of the past just to fit your story. It works especially well for this because Steph’s socio-economic status doesn’t actually change, there’s just kind of a game of telephone that happens across the decades that leads people to misunderstand.

One thing worth noting in these early issues is just how much Steph, a 16-year-old girl, has at her disposal before she ever even glimpses Batman and Robin. Literally the first shot we ever see of the Spoiler is this:

And because I am, in fact, that kind of nerd, I have gone in a couple of times and dug out old era-appropriate electronics magazines to figure out what that piece of equipment would cost you in 1992. Baseline for a parabolic microphone is $600, and that price is for much larger, more delicate pieces of equipment meant to be used for like, outdoor nature shoots, which wouldn’t be able to hear through glass. Steph probably dropped $1,000 on that microphone alone.

Remember also that her costume is homemade—she doesn’t have any other way of getting it. She’s also shown using some pretty elaborate climbing and painting gear, with no indication that they were stolen or borrowed or anything, and you can see that she’s got a pretty well-stocked utility belt there.

Again, for some reason people tend to forget or overlook this but, right up until she demanded Bruce make her Robin, Steph operated as Spoiler with zero Bat support. She got some hand-to-hand training from Cass late in the game and tagged along on some of Tim’s assignments, but was otherwise being actively discouraged from vigilantism for most of her career. She made her own costume, bought her own equipment, and maintained her own motorcycle, all without the financial support of either Batman or her parents.

So right off the bat we know she’s a teenage girl with a not-insignificant amount of personal disposable income, the only hinted source of which is the implication she works a part-time job somewhere—which I don’t think is ever brought up again when she reappears in Robin.

We all know minimum wage went further in 1992 than it does now, but it didn’t go that much further. So it’s reasonable to assume that Steph has access to at least some money from her parents to support her vigilante habit, whether that’s in the form of an allowance, gifts that she carefully manages between Christmas and birthdays, or money that she’s able to just, take from Crystal without her noticing.

But this page is more important to our current interests because it’s also when we see Steph’s neighborhood for the first time. We’re told here that Steph and her mother (who is called Mrs. Agnes Bellinger in this comic, although it’s possible she was using a fake name to visit her ex in prison) live in what is described as “115 South Holden Street, in Manchester.”

Now keep in mind, the Gotham City map can be extremely fluid and tends to change depending on the needs of the story. But there have been attempts to map it, and “Manchester” has never been on any of those maps, so we have to do some extrapolation. At the very least, we can tell the neighborhood is clearly not in the city, given the very deliberate angle there in the first panel to show that they’re well away from the crowded downtown Gotham skyline.

This implies that Manchester is intended to be one of the mainland suburbs that feeds the island city of Gotham, similar to Bristol Township where the Wayne and Drake Manors are located. It’s not nearly as nice a neighborhood as Bristol—note the fenced-in front lawns, the broken shutters on the neighboring houses, and the vaguely racist lawn ornament on the Brown’s property—but it’s also not some rundown slum. People aren’t afraid to let kids play in their front yards or leave their garage doors standing open. And you'll note those aren't trailers, either, they're decently-sized suburban homes.

Also worth noting: Crystal seems to keep this house perfectly fine on her own as a single mother. Arthur doesn’t live with them; when he’s shown having residences it tends to be apartments in the city by himself, and it’s not like he could support them from prison or with his ill-gotten criminal gains. And yet, we don’t see Steph or Crystal worrying at all about bills or mortgages or anything like that throughout any of their appearances. We see the interior of their house on several occasions and, while it’s often messy, it’s not in disrepair or neglect.

This is a constant portrayal throughout all of Steph's appearances, from Robin through even her run as Batgirl. So, with that in mind, where does the idea that Steph is poor come from? Well, I’ve got a couple of theories.

One is the usual comics fandom problem: canon is huge, nobody can keep up with all of it, and some people go out of their way to be assholes about it, so misinformation gets spread like wildfire, in no small part because Steph is a character that a lot of people use as a self-insert and therefore she must be the misunderstood underdog in all things.

But on the more-interesting-to-talk-about front… I don’t think it’s controversial to say that Steph’s first big storyline was her pregnancy. Yeah? Like, it’s the first story involving her that really started getting critical attention. Whether it deserves that attention is more open to debate—personally, since reading Icon & Rocket for the first time, I’ve come to view it as Dixon pulling the comic book equivalent of white guys repackaging black music and watering it down—but the important thing right now is that it’s the first time people would’ve been specifically reading the Robin comics for Stephanie Brown. And in those comics, Steph’s house is shown as visibly run-down, covered in cracks and disrepair.

Thing is, there’s a context that people miss if you’re reading for the baby storyline and nothing else: this storyline plays out over the last days of “Aftershock” and early months of “No Man’s Land,” the storyline where Gotham is racked by a destructive earthquake that nearly levels the city and is abandoned by the federal government.

Again, we get the reinforced confirmation that Steph’s house isn’t actually in Gotham because it’s not destroyed in the quake—the neighborhood is damaged and briefly evacuated due to a gas line rupture in the immediate aftermath, but once that’s cleared up they’re free to return home, and their suburb is not part of the federal government's evacuation. Nearly every building in Gotham is shown with similar damage during this time, including Drake Manor.

This storyline also plays into, I think, the stereotypes that people jump on when it comes to Steph’s socioeconomic status. Like I’ve mentioned before: Arthur is a criminal, Crystal is a drug addict, and Steph is a teen mom. Therefore, they must be poor, right? Because good middle class families supposedly don’t have those kinds of problems.

But, as I’ve mentioned before, that’s an inaccurate stereotype that ignores reality: plenty of drug addicts, criminals and teen moms live in the suburbs. And the Browns’ specific circumstances are distinctly atypical of the stereotype—Arthur’s not some down-on-his-luck thief pushed to crime by economic hardship, he’s an arrogant former gameshow host who thinks he’s smarter than everyone else and resents the world for not handing him the success he feels entitled to. Crystal’s not some crack addict, she’s a working nurse who used to get her doctor friends to write her scripts for prescription painkillers. And Steph is just a teenage girl who slept with a boy and got pregnant, with the costs of prenatal care and/or childrearing never seeming to be a factor in her decision to bring the child to term and give it up for adoption.

I could go on but that’s pretty much the long and short of it: Steph is simply not shown as being poor in the comics. Ever. She’s not rich, she does clearly rely on her fists much more than any gadgets or fancy gear and lives with her mother rather than moving out on her own for college, but she’s also never shown worrying about student loans and can apparently pay for all her classes with some government assistance and a part-time job alone.

People just assume that she’s poor because they’re misinformed, or they’re projecting, or they’ve got biases they haven’t examined, or they need her to be an underdog to justify their argument against one of the other characters, or they really want her to be buddy-buds with Jason for some reason.

Or, y’know, they just don’t want to acknowledge that they’re rooting for a middle-class white girl from the suburbs who commutes into the inner city to pick fights for fun.

#stephanie brown #is this critical? I honestly can't tell I don't think it's criticism to point out that she's not poor #dc comics #batgirls #robin #detective comics #meta #ask me stuff #anon ask #crystal brown #dc #arthur brown #the cluemaster

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