#i think this panel is from gotham wars???

[celaenaeiln]

who do you think each bats' favourite sibling is canonically? i haven't seen much about this outside of super fanon stuff so i'm curious

Let's start with the easiest one!

Tim - Dick

Tim's favorite sibling but also favorite person ever is unquestionably, undoubtedly Dick. This boy adores his big brother. He's full-on obsessed with him.

His thoughts on Dick are just a compilation of praises about him and his inner dialogue simply consists of a series of hero worship.

Robin (1993) Issue #32

Red Robin Issue #23

Sometimes I ponder about Dick and Tim's relationship because I feel like what Tim wants from Dick isn't just a brother, I feel like he wants him to be a parent which is part of the reason why Tim and Damian don't get along.

Because the truth is, before Damian came along, Tim was Dick's robin first. And Tim loved it.

(This post was on hold for months because I needed that exact panel where Tim says to Dick "It's obvious he wants us to be the new batman and Robin." BuT i CaNt FiNd It. I literally give up, if anyone know what panel I'm referring to people reblog it with the panel and I'll upload it with the post)

Dick was Tim's Robin and everything he did he wanted to live up to him

Batman/Catwoman: The Gotham War: Scorched Earth

Look at what he says about Dick:

Batman: A Lonely Place of Dying

Even before Dick and Tim met again, Tim started working out just so he could be like his idol. Tim literally says to Dick "My grades are okay but I studied because I wanted to just like you."

You know what they say about idols and pedestals and never meeting your heroes? The opposite is true for Tim about Dick. After meeting Dick for the second time, his idol worship grew so much it shattered every ceiling in existence.

Tim loves him so so much. People sometimes misunderstand and think that Tim hated Dick when he fired him from Robin but it wasn't hate that Tim felt. It was jealousy. Jealousy over Dick choosing Damian over him.

Tim even solely used the Red Robin persona for the mere reason that he didn't want to dirty Dick's Robin by stigmatizing it with his less ethical actions.

Damian - Dick

Obviously. The only reason I said Tim was the easiest is because Tim's inner and outer thoughts about Dick can be complied to create volumes of fanbooks of flowing poetry about him. Damian on the other hand is more of a tsundere, but there's still only one person who he loves aside from his father and even more than.

Robin War Issue #1

If there were any doubts, I don't think this panel could be any clearer about who Damian's favorite is.

Stephanie - Cass

Batgirl (2000) Issue #38

Cass - Stephanie

Batgirls (2016) Issue #14

Damn.

Steph and Cass are each other's favorites

Detective Comics (1937) Issue #945

Duke - noone? everyone?

Like actually I can't pick out one person Duke likes the best. You're either on his wavelength or he's snarking you off it. He's the type of guy where everyone likes him and he's chilling by himself, doing whatever he wants.

Jason - Dick

Out of the batkids who did deal with Jason during his worst phase, Dick is unilaterally his favorite. Sometimes when I think about Jason's relationship with Bruce, I'm reminded of how much Jason and Bruce are alike sometimes because Jason's view on Dick is almost identical to Bruce's view on Dick and they even have similar reactions. We all know that Bruce hero-worships Dick. Time and time again, Bruce emphasizes, stresses, and talks about how amazing Dick is and how he's so much better than him, and constantly places Dick on a pedestal. The issue comes when Dick doesn't want to do what Bruce wants him to do because he believes that Dick is an extension of himself, his better half, and he's furious when Dick doesn't follow or accept what he's doing because Dick should know what Bruce is trying to do because he's supposed to be better than him, how dare he stop him, etc.

Jason acts in similar ways to Dick. There's a whole issue where Jason gets fear gassed and one of his biggest fears is Dick. More specifically, it's about how amazing Dick is and never living up to him because in Jason's eyes, Dick is absolutely perfect. There is no one better than him because he is the peak of everything. He places Dick on the highest pedestal there is and he kind of safeguards Dick there in his heart. He used to get really angry because he believes Dick is the best but also refuses to let Dick be anything other than the best. The best way I have to explain them is Jason holding Dick prisoner as a result of his hero worship.

Once Jason is slightly calmer, his relationship dynamics with everyone became really clear, as well as what he thinks of them and it's shown how the way he treats Dick is just different.

Task Force Z Issue #8

Grayson Issue #12

"You don't do that to your--you don't do that to another Robin!"

He was going to say brother 🥺🥺

In this scene, it's pretty obvious that Jason loves Dick a lot but he's obviously not going to be all fuzzy feelings about it because he likes to be edgy. Jason's a little confusing in general for people to understand because they expect him to be nice and open but Jason's not nice, he's just nicer to the people he likes. Once we start understanding that, he becomes clearer.

And to Dick -

Nightwing (2016) Issue #15

-He's exceptionally nicer.

DC's Ghouls Just Wanna Have Fun Issue #1

Another example of why Jason loves Dick the most is because in the comics, Jason doesn't work with anyone in the family unless he has to unless it's Dick because he chooses to work with Dick by choice.

Dick - Tim or Damian

Dick adores Tim so freaking much. He loves him so, so much.

Nightwing (1996) Issue #139

Catch me crying behind my sunglasses at Dick kissing Tim's head lovingly 😭

Robin (1993) Issue #12

I just love these soft touch moments Dick has with Tim. It's so incredibly sweet.

He was Tim's mentor

The New Titans (1988) Issue #65

and a really good one too.

He loves him-

Detective Comics (1937) Issue #696

-so much.

(I'd add more panels but I ran out of image space :'0)

I genuinely cannot say who he loves more at all. I can't even pick. I really do think he loves them evenly because when I think about leaning one side, more evidence comes to mind for the other side like a pair of counter weights.

Damian...I don't really need to say any words because the pictures speak for themselves

Batman (2016) Issue #34

Grayson Issue #12

aldskjdhkdjfhldfah;dh. Look at what he gave his son! A souvenir from the first time his dad met his mom because Dick knows how much Damian loves his parents <333!! There's nothing I can even say more.

Here's my previous post on Dick and Damian's relationship.

#tim drake #red robin #robin tim drake #damian wayne #robin #damian wayne loves dick grayson #damian grayson #stephanie brown #spoiler #cassandra cain #black bat #batgirl #duke thomas #dc signal #jason todd #red hood #dick grayson #nightwing #robin jason todd #cl lesbianology-xx asks #cl asks #thanks for the ask!

[nightwingsgirlfriend]

i hate golden child Dick Grayson. everyone ignores how ANGRY this kid actually was. We rarely get accurate dick grayson, all the teen titans shows have been so off on his personality (you cannot tell me they accidentally made the character tim and realised halfway through wrong robin) and the fandom sees him as "oh everyone finds him attractive + he's Bruce's perfect angel and Jason hates him because of that"

no he literally killed the joker.

why do we skim over that he KILLED THE JOKER. He didn't even know Jason; bruce was his father and he not only refused to kill the joker, interfered when someone else tried to but hit jason in the same way after he came back. His SON. But dick felt so strongly about a kid he regretted not getting close to that he killed a man.

and then if you think that was a one off

in that panel where he fully BEATS Bruce's ass in gotham war? served. ate.

people dumb him down way too often like he wasn't the first robin. you cannot out do the doer so they gotta drag him down to bring others up.

not to mention the fanon portrayal ignores the trauma he has from liu, mirage and tarantula. it looks at that and goes "ok! cool but he IS a flirt :3" he isn't allowed to grieve in the comics either because SOMEBODY (devin) won't let him because he "didn't say no"

and give jason his own friends DC please stop giving him handmedowns he deserves more (i do love him and roy i just wish they also maintained the roy dick friendship because it's usually one or the other)

thabk yoau and gooenight

#nightwing #dc comics #dick grayson #golden child #batfamily #jason todd #bruce wayne #Read the “dick grayson kills the joker” ao3 tag #Actually just read ao3 #you haven't lived until you graduate from “wayne family webtoon” style fics into “bends canon cutely” fics #I don't mind the wayne family adventures but i just don't like their protrayal of some characters #ok this might be brainless rambling I've only had a muffin. #I HATE DICKIE WAYNE #let him be ANGRY #Let him be MAD #Let him shock everyone with the rage #the amount of times he's been sa'd. not once. not twice BUT THREEEEEE times. #everyone forgets about liu #She was THIRTY #He was seventeen #leave him alone #this is my roman empire #nightwings sa mentioned!! cover your ears fanon !!

[starrycomics]

Reading Batman #138 has just confirmed for me that one of the main themes of Zdarksy's run is the line Bruce's loved ones (particularly the Robins) walk between Family and Soldier, and his struggle to separate the two

It's shown pretty plainly from Zdarksy's first Batman comic where Tim gets shot in the throat. In the heat of the moment, Bruce cradles Tim in his arms and calls him 'son', prioritising Tim's safety over evacuating civilians

But then in the car a couple of pages later, you get these amazingly horrific panels showing Bruce de-costuming Jason and Tim's bodies, referring to them as 'soldiers’

At this point I read his soldier description as almost sarcastically bitter - he clearly hates that ‘the mission' drives him to treat his sons like impersonal soldiers, but he does it anyway

And this is something Tim completely goes along with - Bruce doesn't even visit him in hospital, but he's back out soon after with a bandage still on his neck. When he's back in the field he has an argument with Batman that with hindsight feels like an obvious set up for Gotham War

Bruce questions Tim's judgement and berates him for something he did in the field, while Tim says that Batman can't control him

Bruce is, at this point in the story, pre-Zur, and obviously doing this from a place of concern for his son rather than as something more coldly militaristic, but it's still the same type of justification Zur will later use during his fight with the rest of the Bats

Batman #138 is when this turns on his head, when he becomes more drill sergeant than concerned father, where having a son in place of a soldier is a hindrance rather than a gift

And that’s the whole point of Gotham War - a lot of people have been bogged down debating the logic of Selina’s plan, when it was really no more than a MacGuffin to put the Bats’ fault lines on show and illustrate the strain of being a father to your soldiers

And if you’re viewing this with a completely cold, mission-first mentality, then Bruce-as-Zur is kind of right - he’s allowing the rest of the Bats, his soldiers, to essentially mutiny against him because he’s tied to them by his love. Obviously that’s a good thing, he absolutely should care about his children like that, but it objectively makes him weaker

Tying back to Tim getting shot - the most fatherly thing to do in that situation would be to damn their identities, prioritise Tim’s well-being and take him straight into hospital without wasting time with his uniform. That would ruin him as Batman, but it’s still something he considers out of love for his son. Throughout his run and especially in Gotham War, Zdarsky is putting that love to the test and exploring what’s more important to Bruce, justice or family

I could say a lot more about Bruce’s role as a parent (personally, while I do think he can be fatherly, there is something inherently unethical about sending your children to war - him and Batwoman’s dad have a lot in common in that regard imo)

Mostly I just love the fact that Zdarksy’s exploring the complex dynamics between Bruce and his Robins, and I can’t wait to see where he takes it

#Batman #Gotham war #Bruce Wayne #Tim drake #Robin #red Robin #chip zdarsky #look at me writing a PEEL essay about a Batman comic #this is my at my strongest and most unhinged #already formulating my ‘Batman may be a good man but that doesn’t make him a good parent’ essay #while he is responsible for those children he is not responsible with them #but that’s a story for another day

[doraambrose]

I see this alot in fanon and I think jason Todd's parents are completely misunderstood.

Disclaimer: I am not a victim of parents with drug abuse nor have a I ever done drugs. I sympathize and emphasize with people who struggle with drug abuse as there are many reasons to get into it and it's very hard on your body to get clean, I will link help organizations below. This does mean that I can be a little ignorant to the struggles so if I say anything offensive or wrong, please call me out and educate me so I don't make the same mistake

Jason's family has been retconned so many times, it's hard to keep it straight. But this is my headcannon based on what I've seen:

1. I feel like a lot of people write Willis Todd to be this awful abusive scumbag who hated his kid and his wife. If you are talking about young justice or arkhamverse, this canonically true, but I think that's far from the truth in the main universe, prime or whatever it's called. In batman 411, jason is clearly distraught by Willis' death and does try to avenge him by lashing out at Two face. We also can't forget about the incident with the penguin that led to the worst Bruce and jason characterization before gotham war. And that's because of one rhato issue where jason finally reads willis' letters (a truly heartbreaking issue: rhato rebirth 23)

I believe that Willis wasn't a bad dad. Not a good dad, but not an awful abusive one. I 100% believe he has never abused his family in this universe. And you know what, he wasn't a great person. He was a drug dealer and then a henchmen. But he CARED. He cared about his family. He tried so hard to provide for Catherine and Jason for their medical bills, food, shelter. He just had a poor upbringing and some real shit luck, trying to survive in poverty in Gotham city.

2. Catherine has been written in fanon to be a perfect caring mother who was nothing but a victim. I believe that she wasn't as good of a mother and a person as people make her out to be. And we haven't seen everything, but I believe this because she seems selfish. She seems to put herself and her drug addiction before her family, doesn't seem to even try to get clean or take care of jason or provide. Look at these panels:

She neglected Jason. He had to go out and put his life on the line day after day when it should've been the other way around. Jason was a kid. And don't get me wrong, she probably loved jason and had good intentions, no, she definitely loved him, or else jason wouldn't canonically think as highly of her and take care of her the way he did, but she wasn't perfect and I don't think she was as good of a mother as she's made out to be.

3. Canonically, jason seems to really care for Catherine, but not Willis. I have a theory about that. For why he thinks so highly of catherine: I've never had a parent who suffered from drug abuse, but I do have a parent who suffered from a lot of mental health issues like depression, diagnosed, and I feel like bpd, though it was never diagnosed. When things were bad, they were BAD. I witnessed a lot. But when things were good, things were REALLY GOOD. I feel like when Catherine would come off the drug haze, things were like that. She probably took care of him during those times and was loving and all that. Catherine is the one parent figure Jason has to hold onto (because of all the shit with Bruce, Sheila, etc.). He forcibly removes the bad shit she's done and hangs onto the good things she's done because she really did care about him and in life, it seems harder to hate your mom than your dad (from what i have heard when i did research on this from friends). I've done that for years, and idk if I'm explaining it right, but I think that's the best way I can. For why he doesn't love willis: I think up until he read the notes, he didn't have the full picture. From his perspective, willis leaves to do crime and then eventually gets caught and left forever. I think he blamed willis for making jason become "the man of the house" and have all this extra responsibility. Willis also strikes me as the type of parent who has trouble expressing feelings, so jason probably rarely, if ever, heard "I love you" from his dad. Willis also strikes me as the person who would believe that he needs to make his son stronger in order to survive, and there are a lot of parents like that, especially parents from a low income household or a history of poverty.

In conclusion, both parents were FAR from perfect parents, but they're not as evil or as innocent as people write them in fanon. They're just...people. fanon likes to write comic people as black or white, innocent or abusive, but in reality, It's a gray area. Willis had his flaws, I hc him as one of those old fashioned kind of dads who wants his son to be tough and strong and isn't good with sharing his feelings, but does truly care about his family and NEVER was abusive. Catherine was a mother who definitely cared about her family, but wasn't an innocent victim and had her own flaws.

Anyway, thank you for coming to my Ted talk

#jason todd #red hood #batfam #dc universe #dc comics #rhato rebirth #rhato #catherine todd #willis todd #batman #two face #dc penguin

[gffa]

LET ME TELL YOU WHY JASON TODD IS SO INTERESTING TO ME, because I think this is perfectly in line with his characterization in other places in this storyline (where he's angry at Bruce for feeling like he gets to set all the rules, that he gets to decide what Gotham "needs" as if Bruce was the only one who grew up in Gotham, that Bruce is trying to save him but Jason doesn't want Bruce to save him, where Bruce calls him family and Jason says that's looking at the past through rosy glasses) because Jason's relationship with Bruce is so thorny. He's practically hero worshipping Bruce in these scenes, he's practically putting him up on a pedestal, even when he's angry about it. He tries to pass it off as being realistic about Batman's skills--and he's not wrong, Batman would wipe the floor with these guys, would probably still wipe the floor with Jason if he was being serious about it--but it's more than that, it comes off as that there's a part of Jason who never let go of Batman as this larger than life hero in his eyes, the guy who was impossible to beat, the guy who would always be there, the guy who was his father figure. Despite that in that previous issue we watched as Dick just slid right under Bruce's defenses and clocked him right in the face, in that issue we saw Jason hurl himself at Batman and fought him tooth and nail. He's all over the map when it comes to Bruce, he says one thing in one scene and the opposite in another and I think that really, really works for me because I think that's what Jason's relationship with Bruce is, in his heart.

These panels and this page go hand in hand for me, because this is a summation of Jason's relationship with Bruce: I love you, I hate you, I want you to love me, I can't stand when you love me, I want you to fight for me, I'll spit in your face when you try to fight for me, I will verbally tear down everything you're trying to build in Gotham by saying you don't get to claim me or Gotham, I will tell everyone else trying to horn in on the crime-fighting in Gotham that they'll never be as good as you, I will say I have more in common with Selina than I do with you, but I will never truly join her and I stick to the ideals you taught me more than anything, I will fight you like I don't think you're all that scary, I will tell everyone else that you're undefeatable, I will insult you to your face, I will idealize you in my head, I will love you, I will hate you, I will try to walk away from you, I will define myself by you. Jason's in a war within himself over his feelings towards Bruce and he can't let go of either direction, he can't stop loving him, he can't stop hating him, and it just goes around and around in a circle, no matter how hard he tries to pick one or the other, both are still there, and he's desperately trying to get a reaction from Bruce, from other people, because he's caught in the middle of his own feelings. Jason has his own beliefs, but he'll say or do whatever he thinks will get a reaction that he can work with, one he thinks will help him leverage a situation (even if that just means starting a fight so he doesn't have to confront his own desire to come home in the way he used to be there), and it's all an extension of how he can't solve the problem of Bruce Wayne in his own heart and head, no matter how many times Bruce and the others say they love him, he's family, they want him around. AND THAT IS SO TASTY TO ME, I LOVE IT WHEN A BATBOY IS A REAL HOT MESS.

#lumi.txt #dc #batfam #jason todd #bruce wayne #gotham war #batman/catwoman: gotham war: red hood #tuesday spoilers

[scintillyyy]

you know, it makes more sense to me to visualize the drakes as actually being a fairly physically affectionate family (whenever they were home at least)

because to me, it makes sense with tim's character that they were physically affectionate but more absent emotionally. because tim? tim is a hugger. you want full-on body hug, you want tim. so tim will be affectionate until the cows come home, but when it comes to actually having heart-to-heart emotional conversations? shut down.

anyways, here's some examples of the drakes/tim and being free with physical affection:

detective comics #621

tim immediately goes in for a hug for comfort from bruce. tim also lovingly holds onto his father's hand as he lays in his hospital bed. this is shown to be pretty instictive for tim, to reach for physical affection for comfort--he's clearly also very comfortable doing so with his own father. what he doesn't ask for, what he keeps inside from bruce and from his dad, is all of his thoughts and emotions about everything that's going on. to me, this would make sense if he was used to getting hugs from his parent, but not feel like he's able to tell them how he feels inside.

robin i #1, robin ii #4

the hand holding continues through tim's first and second robin mini-series. i think it's an interesting juxtaposition of tim being able to hold tight to his dad's hand while not feeling like he can actually tell him anything.

robin iii #6, robin #7, nightwing #20

the casual physical affection continues. tim is clearly no stranger to hugging his dad and his dad clearly loves to hug his son. the hugs are assurance that they love each other, but also almost seem like they're there so the two don't actually have to talk about anything. was physical affection a way to try and show love without having to have any hard conversations?

robin #66, robin #100

honestly, jack in general seems like the kind of guy who would rather just hug than have to talk about his feelings. the first panel is from when tim runs back to gotham from keystone and jack has just yelled at him very aggressively for running away. however, he's decided tim is right and gotham is home and as a way to fix things he goes straight to a group family hug. the second one is after they lost their fortune--jack is having a very hard time with the loss of the company. they have to let mrs. mac go (and jack agrees with tim that they should give her money from the sale of the redbird so she can go home) and jack's the one who gives her a big old i'm gonna miss you so much hug. easy for him to give physical affection, hard for him to open up emotionally about how he's being affected by this (kind of like his son, hmmm).

so overall, the drakes seem like they were actually fairly physically affectionate with their son through his life. tim is a big hugger (seriously, he hugs everyone and seems very comfortable with affection) and tends to reach out for comfort in the form of physical affection and has a very tactile way of comforting other people (hugs them, hand holding, shoulder touching) however struggles more on the emotional side of things. this seems fairly consistent to me if he grew up being shown physical affection as a stop-gap for his emotional needs not always being met.

as a super interesting contrast:

robin #131

so in the war games arc after jack has found out tim is robin, the two are finally able to have more of an emotional connection and really finally talk to each other--but they're markedly more physically distant (not touching, can't even look at each other) now that everything is out in the open. they've lost the ability to act like everything is solved once they've hugged it out and therefore don't have to think about it ever again.

#tim drake #jack drake #batman #dc

[disniq]

i havent read all of the comics post urban legends to gotham war with jason, but as far as i remember between them jason didn't really kill anyone? tfz is on my mind (he tried to kill 'bane' but didn't). i suppose he couldve been murdering off screen as well but i also have no idea if that's hinted at

anyway with tmwsl and the beast war stuff having him kill it means:

urban legends -> stops killing

gotham war -> is brainfuckedup by bruce. cant do shit

tmwsl -> joker unbrainfuckedups him, he proceeds to go ham and kill some goons/tries to kill the jokers

beast world -> still killing in larger amounts

so if bruce had left his ass alone would he still be in a holding pattern with the bats? way to fuck it bruce (though im happy. so.)

obviously the doyalist explanation is they probably realized jason was in a bit of a limbo atm and decided to shake it up again. but watsonian is soooo funny to me. good job b

Thank you for bearing with me anon, I'm finally free from work and mostly compos mentis at the moment, so!

My initial instinct when I got this ask was to disagree, because I didn't read Jason's behaviour in the last issue of MWSL as any more or less violent than he was in the earlier issues, I don't think he ever actually killed anybody in that run (though do correct me if I'm wrong on that), and I'm extremely reluctant to take the Beast World characterisation into account because it's a, uh... reductive view of Jason, at best.

But.

BUT!

As I was turning this over in my head, I realised why it was pinging at my brain.

It's because this exact thing *has happened*, back in RHatOs Rebirth.

Pre-rhato 25 my beloathed, Jason had been consistently using less-lethal methods in exchange for Bruce's implicit approval and regular interaction with the batfam. He specifically says this on panel in The Trial of Batwoman, this is a choice he chooses to make against his own beliefs;

Detective Comics #975

This holds until six months later, when Jason shoots Penguin. And then Bruce famously snaps and beats the everloving shit out of him in a brutal and notably one-sided fight.

After which, Jason changes up his outfit, swaps the guns for a crowbar and a katana, and becomes significantly more lethal again.

RHatO (2016) #25, RHatO (2016) #26

And when I thought about it, well. I think you could argue that each of Jason's more lethal spells are proceeded by an altercation with Bruce.

Brothers in Blood, where Jason plays a murderous, knife-wielding Nightwing to annoy Dick, is the first Jason story after the infamous Under the Hood showdown wherein Bruce chooses to cut Jason's throat instead of... doing literally anything else instead.

Batman: Under the Red Hood, Nightwing (1996) #118

And after working relatively civilly with others throughout Countdown, Jason goes full murder gunbats in Battle for the Cowl after Bruce's delightful little "you're broken and you'll never be fixed" hologram speech.

Battle for the Cowl #3 , Battle for the Cowl #1

Now, I absolutely do not want to come across like I'm saying Bruce is responsible for all Jason's more extreme actions at all, because I'm not about that lack of agency shizzle at all. Obviously Jason was already very much down to kill prior to his final confrontation with Bruce in UtRH, and I think he does genuinely believe some people deserve to die.

But I think this pattern of Jason reacting to Bruce's outright and often violent rejections by escalating the very behaviour that has Bruce repeatedly rejecting him is super interesting as a facet of their continuous cycle of abuse.

So regardless of Beast World, I wouldn't be at all surprised if Jason does lilt more lethal for a hot minute before he inevitably makes consessions to get back into Batman's good books.

#asked and answered #jason todd #bruce wayne critical #my meta

[piedpiperart]

Four Can Keep A Secret

Secret trio plus Red Robin fic where Danny is captured by the GIW and Jake Long, Randy Cunningham, and Tim Drake end up rescuing him together. AO3

Chapter One

Due to a case, Tim had been patrolling the area by the docks more recently. It was within his territory, so it didn’t take long for him to notice something strange going on. The past few days, any time Tim patrolled the area, his comms glitched. The air was cooler here, and it felt like there was some sort of static in the air that put him on edge. It was almost like the weather reflected the bad vibe Tim was having about the location, and based on past experience, he figured nothing good would come of it.

After doing some research on the surrounding buildings, Tim was able to narrow it down to one of the bigger warehouses. It had access to Gotham Bay, and from the blueprints he scrounged up it looked like a sizable basement as well. It was clear that they needed a big space and access to water, so whatever they were carrying to and fro wouldn’t be noticed by boat. Both were bad signs, so Tim had to get a closer look. From there, it didn’t take long to do research and plan for a reconnaissance mission.

The purchase of the warehouse went through shell company after shell company, and any transactions were firmly shielded and rerouted enough that even Tim couldn’t bypass it. Which led to tonight, where Tim was scaling the surrounding fence to get in to see what was going on. He approached the side entrance, one he’d mapped out through the blueprints earlier, but stopped in his tracks when he heard voices. 

“Dude! That’s not stealthy!”

“We don’t need to be stealthy, we need to get into the-”

“And breaking down the door is gonna alert the guards!”

“But we’ll be inside!” 

“Inside and in danger!”A tall guy in a ninja uniform exclaimed, probably louder than he meant. Both arms were gestured wide as he towered over a smaller figure in red. 

At first glance, Tim thought it might be the League of Assassins, but the type of outfit paired with the red accents made him think otherwise. Not to mention an assassin would be much more subtle, not arguing loudly with a teenager in front of a warehouse they wanted to break into. It was unlikely that the league had sent what seemed like a kid Tim’s age on a mission as well.

On the other hand, the kid arguing with the ninja was short, dressed in regular civilian clothes with spiky black hair with dyed green tips. He wore dark blue shorts and a red jacket, crossing his arms with a scowl as he squared up to the taller ninja. As much as he was curious about how a civilian got involved, Tim was under the impression the two teenagers were about to start brawling if he didn’t do something. To keep them from getting caught, Tim dropped down from the AC unit he was perched on to land closest to the door. 

The two nearly let out a shriek before covering each other’s mouths. “What the juice dude!” The ninja scream-whispered, throwing his hands in the air again.

“Holy shit, you’re one of the bats,”The civilian teen said, albeit a bit more nervous. He scowled at Tim a second later.“What are you doing here?”

“Breaking in,”Tim said, hoping for nonchalant while connecting his wrist computer to the security panel on the doorframe. It was already open, most likely from the other two, so he only had to plug in his code to get it working. “I’ve been monitoring this place. Do you know what’s going on in there?”

“Not really.”

“Yes,”The guy in red said at the same time the ninja shrugged. 

“Great, care to fill me in? We’re on a time limit and I’d like to get in and out as fast as possible,” Tim asked, looking at the guy in red pointedly. 

“A government agency took the Ghost King captive,”He explained reluctantly. “I was sent to return him to his dimension before a war broke out between this realm and theirs.”

Tim paused, turning to him in surprise. It sort of explained why the guy was dressed covertly, but he didn’t seem to have any weapons on him, just a small satchel looped around his chest. It was perplexing to think about how this guy had connections to the ghost king. 

“Oh. That makes more sense,”The ninja perked up. Tim was surprised at that, because while magic might be involved, surely someone on the JL would have noticed a missing King.“I was told to rescue someone inside, something, something, he’s guarded by guys in white, by a magic book.”

Of course it was magic, Tim groaned internally. He’d have to reach out to Zatanna or Constantine about this. For now, he’d keep an eye on the two teens with him. If they had any ulterior motives with the rescuee, Tim would be able to stop them and get the King to safety. Before Tim could ask another question, the Ninja asked,”Which bat are you?”

“Which ninja are you?” Tim countered, unlocking the door. He slipped into the hall silently, glad that the ninja seemed to excel at stealth when he barely heard any footsteps following him. He was less impressed with the guy in red’s attempt. 

“I’m previously known as the Norrisville Ninja, now just the Ninja,”He introduced himself with a whisper. “I go on magical quests given to me by a cursed book.”

“Awesome,”Tim grimaced. He couldn’t help it when magic was involved, especially now that the Ninja was in Gotham. He hadn’t heard anything about Norrisville or Ninjas. If he remembered correctly, Norrisville was around Arizona. It was a long way from Gotham. Tim hoped the guy would be able to get out of Gotham before B caught wind of him. “You can call me Red Robin.”

“Yum,”The two of them chimed, and Tim wanted to smack something. Preferably the two idiots behind him.

“Just call me Jake. I’m an ambassador for magical creatures in America,”Jake added quietly. Tim turned to give him a look, but he didn’t elaborate. He could almost feel the need to unravel Jake’s secrets vibrating in his chest, waiting to burst and ask a million personal and invasive questions. But he refrained, like a normal person. “Someone’s coming on the left. Two people.”

Trusting the supposed magical ambassador, Tim pulled the three of them into a supply closet. Judging by the rescue mission and tense look in the two, Tim figured they were telling the truth. He couldn’t help but wonder what exactly he’d stumbled upon though, given that he’d never heard of Jake, the Ninja, or the Ghost king before. 

Tim turned away from the door to find Jake and the Ninja whispering furiously with each other. “You’ve met before?” Tim asked, raising an eyebrow. The two stepped apart.

“Unfortunately,”Jake grumbled. “We’ve met before, once or twice.”

“Cut the cheese, man, I saved your butt a bunch of times and you know it,”The Ninja said. Tim could tell he was grinning through the mask. 

“If you don’t shut up about it, I’m going to roast you like a marshmallow,”Jake retorted, his last words verging on a growl. Tim looked over at Jake subtly, wondering if that was a normal habit or if the guy was a meta. The two quieted down when Tim put up a hand, everyone now serious, and a few seconds later he opened the door to find the guards gone.  

Red Robin didn’t have to say anything to get them moving, and instead followed the blueprint in his head to the basement level. “Woah,”The ninja breathed when they reached the lower level. Everything was white with eerie glowing neon green lights that reflected off the three of them. 

“This is so creepy,”Jake muttered, glancing around. He was a bit paranoid that he’d be the one trapped in something like this one day. With how his old highschool teacher always tried to capture him, it was a very real concern, and he dreaded to think of what might’ve happened if his teacher was even a bit more competent. The eerie white walls and secret scary basement had been a fear of his growing up, especially during those times when he was being hunted. Clutching the strap of the satchel around his chest, he followed the two boys in front of him with a little more urgency. He couldn’t imagine what horrible things the Ghost King was going through here.

 While Jake couldn’t wait to get out of there, he wasn’t leaving until he found the Ghost King. His grandpa and the council of Dragons had been alerted to the danger when the ghosts started going crazy. Apparently, the Ghost King had a reputation for maintaining the balance between the ghost realm and the human realm, and not only was he good at keeping the peace, he was held in high regard by almost every ghost out there. Speaking of ghosts, they were coming in from the realms at a higher, more alarming level than ever before, searching the earth for their stolen king. A few made their way to the dragons with the news of war and Jake was tasked with finding the King to prevent it. Jake shuddered at the thought of a whole dimension of ghosts attacking the living. He wasn’t even sure what side the Dragon council would pick in that fight, but hopefully they wouldn’t need to choose sides. 

After Jake was sent on the mission, armed with a satchel of ghostly ectoplasm- said to heal ghosts from any physical ailment- he made his way to Gotham. Spud helped him track the King to the warehouse, but whatever software they were using at the place couldn’t be cracked remotely. He’d been told about the GIW, a government agency hell bet on eradicating the ghost population, and was upset that none of the magical community had learned about them before. It certainly made his job as the American Dragon more difficult, but at least he was here now.

Jake glanced over to Red Robin, who seemed to know where they were going. The guy led them confidently down the spooky hallway with no hesitation, so Jake followed easily. While he was nervous about being on a Bat’s radar, he was glad Red Robin was there to get them in quickly. From what he knew about the Ninja, he didn’t have any technical skills either. Red Robin was still a better choice than the Bat himself, but Jake was hopeful he wouldn’t have to reveal his powers to the guy. If he did, Jake figured it would be a little more difficult than usual to get him to keep quiet about the existence of the Magical community. 

The Ninja definitely knew he was the American Dragon, but Jake was beyond grateful that the guy hadn’t revealed Jake’s secret to the Bat. He’d only met the Ninja twice before, both when he was on some odd quest from whatever cursed book he was attached to. The first time he’d saved Jake from being revealed to a crowd of paparazzi after a battle with a well-timed smoke bomb. The lanky teen had disappeared so fast Jake thought he was hallucinating until he saw him again during a mission with unicorns. Some overeager college kids had come across a group of them outside and the Ninja had helped him round up some of the unicorns that ran closer to populated areas in the scuffle. Jake was pretty sure the guy knew about the Magical community, but since he seemed to be on their side, he didn’t see the point in alerting the council to the Ninja. He was a good ally to have, even if Jake wasn’t sure of his motives.

Jake shook his head, focusing on the task at hand. Looking around, he saw containment cells, a vat of glowing green liquid, and various tools that gave Jake more than a bad feeling. The sooner they could get out of here the better, he thought with a shiver. The place gave him the creeps, and he was sure that it would be haunting his nightmares for the rest of his life. 

“How do you know where you’re going?” The Ninja piped up, looking over Red Robin’s shoulder. It seemed like a genuine question, but Red Robin shifted the screen away anyway. 

“I have the building schematics, and I downloaded their files,”Red Robin reported, taking a left turn out of the area with containment units and down the hall to the scary lab. “According to this, they have one current captive, labeled PH-01. Nothing in the containment cells we passed so I’m betting the guys here have him in a lab.”

“This is so rank,”Ninja grimaced, looking around. He seemed to talk when he was nervous, Jake observed,”How come this place is so empty? I thought we’d have way more guys to fight by now.”

“I set up a distraction at the other end of the building,”Red Robin grinned briefly before covering it up with a blank smile. He pointed, coming up to a bigger locked door at the end of the hall. Green light seemed to shine through the cracks at the bottom of the door. “It should give us enough time to get whoever’s inside and get out.”

“He’s the Ghost King,”Jake reminded with a frown,”Probably glowing. He can float, turn invisible, that sort of thing. If they caught him he’s going to be restrained in some way.”

“Magic book told me he has white hair and green eyes,”The Ninja added helpfully. 

Red Robin filed the information away as his wrist computer got the door unlocked. It slid open with a hiss, and bright, white lights turned on overhead, making the two without a domino mask wince. Whatever the trio was expecting, this was worse. 

In the room was a bunch oh medical equipment paired with what looked like torture devices. In the middle of the room lay a metal exam table with a small figure strapped down. Tim was surprised to find that the ghost king was around his age, smaller than he’d expected. It made the situation worse in a way, knowing that the people here were experimenting on a kid. Experimenting was sadly the best word Tim could find to describe it, given that the boy had heavy duty restraints on his wrists and neck. No restraints on his legs, but he figured it was because one of the legs looked bent at an unnatural angle. The beginnings of incisions adorned the King’s bare chest, and what looked like needle marks in his arms as well as the IV attached led Tim to believe that the guy was being sedated. 

They stood frozen at the entrance for a few seconds before bursting into motion. The Ninja, surprisingly, went to try to get the cuffs off while Jake went to patch up the unconscious figure with Tim. “I don’t think I can use anything to heal him until the restraints come off,”Jake said, pulling out bandages out of his bag. He didn’t know how ectoplasm would mix with the ghost-proof restraints, so since there was nothing he could do magically, Jake started making a makeshift splint to hold the crooked leg together. 

“Nothing I have can break these,”The Ninja said, frustrated. He went to the other end of the room, snooping for weapons or keys to unlock them before standing watch instead. 

Meanwhile, Tim tried to get the collar off. He figured out quickly that breaking it with the laser on his utility belt wouldn’t work, and set to hacking it instead. Almost immediately, he knew this was going to take longer than they had, and shut his wrist computer with a snap. “I need more time to get the restraints off. We need to move, now,”Red Robin said, moving to help Jake finish patching the kid up. He detached the IV and other restraints keeping him to table, while the smaller teen finished wrapping his leg. 

“There’s a bunch of people coming, any ideas on how to get out of here?” The Ninja said hurriedly, rushing over to help the two get the unconscious boy up off the table. Since the Ninja was the tallest out of the three of them and closest to the Ghost King’s height, they carefully situated the ghost onto the Ninja’s back. Red Robin took up the lead, taking the four of them out a back entrance away from where the guards were coming from. 

“This leads up to the roof,”Red Robin directed, a little surprised at the Ninja’s ability to carry the boy up three flights of stairs without breaking a sweat. “From there we can take him to the Batcave or-”

“No, he’s staying with us,”Jake growled deeper than before, and shouldered past Red Robin. “None of us want the Bats involved in this more than they already are.”

“I’m not saying you have to,”Tim placated, not letting any of his frustration bleed through his voice. “It’s just an option if he needs more medical attention than we can give him.”

“I have a safe house close by,”The Ninja offered, and Red Robin wasn’t surprised when Jake readily agreed. Tim agreed though, given that the Ninja seemed to be the closest thing they had to neutral. Alarms blared behind them as Tim kicked open the rooftop door.

The four of them got onto the roof, Jake closing the door behind them. He broke off the door handle in a surprising show of strength that Tim did not have time to process. “Here, I can take him and grapple-” Red Robin started before getting cut off. 

“I got him,”Jake growled again, and Tim was about to argue when the Ninja just handed the Ghost boy off. Sighing quietly, he resigned himself to just follow along as Jake held the boy easily in his arms despite his small stature. Jake turned to Tim,”Don’t freak out,”He said, accepting it with a bit of suspicion when Red Robin nodded.

Then, to the surprise of the vigilante, Jake transformed into a giant red dragon. “Get on,”Jake grumbled, securing the ghost king in his arms as gently as possible. The Ninja whooped, climbing onto Jake’s back gently despite his excitement and gestured for Tim to follow. Red Robin refrained from spouting all the questions he had and followed. He’d definitely seen weirder, and there was no time for introductions again with the guys in white banging on the door behind them. 

“Hang on!”The dragon called with a sharp grin before he stretched his wings out and leapt off the roof.  Snuggled securely in his arms was the unconscious Ghost King, while the Ninja and Red Robin were holding on for dear life on Jake’s back. They tried to be mindful of the guy, but it was hard not to grip too tight when they were flying so high. “Got directions for me?”He called, and Tim was surprised they could hear him over the wind. 

The rest of the ride went by quickly, with the Ninja giving directions to a small apartment not far from Gotham University. Meanwhile, Tim was trying to take in every detail of the two boys in front of him. Riding a dragon was something he’d never done before, and he had to restrain himself from running his hands over Jake’s ruby scales. He wondered if they were like armor. Was there heat resistance? Tim found his mind racing with the wind around him.

The Ninja on the other hand, was surprisingly muscular despite his lithe, tall figure. Since Tim was seated behind him, he had no choice but to hold on to the boy in front of him if he wanted to stay on the dragon. Despite knowing that the Ninja had multiple weapons on him, he couldn’t spot a single one. Did the Ninja have magical powers too? Tim had a lot of questions, but he knew now was not the time. The most important thing right now was getting those restraints off the Ghost King and preventing a war. 

The two riding the dragon didn’t waste any time getting off once they landed on a rooftop. The unconscious King was passed to the Ninja again and Jake transformed back to human. Tim supposed it made more sense that Jake was an ambassador of magical creatures now that he knew he was a dragon. Or part dragon, Tim wondered. This was not his expertise, so he followed the two with the most experience into the apartment, keeping his eyes peeled for anything suspicious while fiddling with the codes on his wrist computer. 

“Mi Casa es su Casa,”The Ninja grunted, tossing some keys to Jake while keeping a steady hold on the boy on his back, who caught them and easily opened the door. 

“I thought this was a safe house,”Tim said absently as they walked in, still typing. The more time he had to crack the code the better, just as long as he was in the same vicinity as the ghost he could keep working. 

“Well, it’s safe, and it’s where I live, so,”The Ninja added, unable to shrug with his arms full, and brought the boy over to a table near the kitchen. “Can you clear off the books?” He asked, and Jake scrambled to clear the table, helping the Ninja set the Ghost king down gently. The unconscious boy’s head lolled to the side and his white hair drifted over his face. Randy paused, helping him into a more comfortable position before brushing the hair out of the way. His face remained relaxed, not stirring in the slightest at the movement. Randy grimaced when he caught sight of the blood smeared on his neck under the collar, and he hoped they could help him.

“Do you have any medical supplies? Towels?”Jake asked, getting back to work on fixing up the guy passed out on his table. Randy went and got them, pointing Jake to the kitchen to grab some warm water. He rushed to the bathroom, reaching under the sink to pull out his first aid kit and snatching a few towels off the counter. He was glad to have washed them the other night. 

Making his way to the kitchen, he saw Red Robin in a chair next to the Ghost, typing away on the tiny computer on his wrist. He only paused a few times to lean over and look at the collar or fiddle with it, but Randy figured he’d get it off soon with that determined look. Bringing the supplies, Randy spent the next two hours cleaning and dressing the boy’s wounds with Jake. He paused briefly to get Red Robin a bigger laptop to work from, but stayed by Jake’s side to help secure the ghost’s broken leg..

Halfway through, he pulled off his mask, letting the rest of his suit retreat and revealing his unruly purple hair. Red Robin hadn’t even noticed, still typing away, only now he was using Randy’s laptop that he’d gotten for school. It helped to have room to type with both hands, he’d said when he thanked him. 

Jake on the other hand was speechless for a moment, staring with wide eyes before grinning. “Want me to keep calling you Ninja?” He snarked, and Randy rolled his eyes. 

“It’s Randy, actually, but you can call me anytime,”Randy winked, and Jake threw an unused rag at him. Randy dodged, snickering, but got back to work. 

Once the Ghost was bandaged and no longer bloody, they got him in some of Randy’s pajamas and moved him to Randy’s bed. It just so happened that the pajamas were blue and had little polar bears on them. Despite the bandages and makeshift cast, the kid looked more peaceful laying on the comfy blankets. “I’ll keep an eye on him,”Jake said, rolling Randy’s spinny gaming chair to sit next to the bed. He still had the satchel on him when he plopped down on the chair, and held it tighter when he got restless or nervous. Randy assumed he was carrying something important for their guest in there, so he left it alone. No doubt it was something magical and very hard to obtain, and Randy was well known for clumsiness outside of the mask. He was going to avoid messing with it.

“I’ll make some food then,”Randy hummed, but before he left he rummaged through his drawers to find some extra pajamas for Jake and himself as well. He tossed them over to the shorter teen and left the room before Jake could yell at him for it. 

After getting changed in the bathroom, Randy meandered his way past Red Robin, who still had his head in the computer, and into the kitchen. He figured the guy could use something to keep him awake. Opening the fridge, he found a grape flavored Zesti energy drink and brought it to Red Robin. The guy almost flinched at Randy’s presence, but zeroed in on the energy drink and relaxed. “Thanks,”Red sighed, reaching for the drink. He paused, finally noticing the absence of a ninja suit. Randy wanted to laugh at how wide the eyes of his mask went but took pity on him. It was late, and they needed Red Robin to get the collar off. 

“Call me Randy,”He grinned, then turned to the kitchen. “I’m making food if you want anything or have allergies. Let me know if you want another energy drink, I have a bunch.”

“Yeah,”Red Robin rasped, then cleared his throat and reaching for the drink. He got back to work a few seconds later, keeping the can between his arms as he typed. Tim wished he had a straw to drink while he worked, if only to keep him distracted from the cute boy in the kitchen.

Back in the kitchen, Randy was busy making breakfast sandwiches, because that was one of the only things he knew how to make and had enough of those ingredients. He wasn’t quite sure what the others wanted on their sandwich but he’d make it pretty plain in case they had weird tastes. Glancing back at Red Robin hunched over at the kitchen table, he didn’t feel as nervous as he thought he should be at the bat. Randy didn’t mind sharing his identity with the two, and to be honest, either one could figure out his name just by knowing where he lived.

 He had known Jake didn’t trust the Bats, so Randy suggested his own place. It helped that he wasn’t far away, considering he was going to Gotham University for a Media X major. His apartment was neutral ground when it came to magical creatures and the vigilantes, and he was sure the nomicon predicted things working out this way. It definitely wasn’t because he was lonely, no. Randy only just moved to Gotham, away from his friends and family. He was doing fine making friends in college. Sharing his apartment with other heroic teens was just convenient. It was just a normal, college apartment, and he hoped the ghost at least would be more at ease with the surroundings when he woke up. 

Soon enough, Randy plated the sandwiches individually, adding a bit of avocado, tomato, some onion, sriracha, mayo, ketchup, and bbq sauce to his own. He paused, then found the bag of chips on top of the fridge to add to the side of each plate. Going back to the fridge, he pulled out another energy drink and took one plate to Red Robin. 

The guy didn’t even notice Randy dropping off his food, but he seemed to be concentrating so Randy let him be. He left, taking the empty can with him. The purple haired teen hoped the plain egg, sausage and cheese muffin was fine. It was one of the only things he could cook after working at McCluckbusters for one too many summers. 

Grabbing the other two plates, he made his way to the room with the sleeping ghost. “Your dinner awaits, milady,”Randy bowed dramatically, holding out the plate to Jake.

The dragon boy snorted, but dug in gratefully. It was almost 6am already, and Randy was sure all three of them had been up the whole night. He himself was used to late nights gaming, but Jake looked tired. Randy took a bite of his own sandwich, putting some of the barbeque flavored chips inside it to add a crunch, but paused when he saw Jake staring at him. 

“Yo, what did you do to that sandwich, man?” Jake asked, setting down his own sandwich and looking at it like it suddenly had a bug in it. 

“It’s delicious,”Randy said with his mouth full. “Why, do you want some? I left yours kinda plain in case you didn’t like other stuff.”

“Okay, I do like the avocado but it looks like you have ten different sauces on there,”Jake judged. “You couldn’t just pick one?”

“It adds to the flavor,”Randy defended,”And it’s only like, four. I was out of ranch.”

“Oh my god,”Jake sighed, exasperated, “Next time I’m cooking,”He added,”I’ll show you real food.”

“Hey, I learned these secrets the hard way,”Randy said, adding more chips. 

“What, from a fast food place?” Jake asked, mentally planning what dishes he could make with ingredients that a midwestern college white boy would have in his fridge.

“Yeah, exactly,”Randy grinned, and Jake just rolled his eyes.”So if you want breakfast sandwiches or cake fries, I’m your guy.”

“Cake fries?” Jake repeated, looking at Randy in disbelief.

“Just wait til you try it,”Randy pointed out. Jake just rolled his eyes, but Randy could see a small smile on his face.

 They ate in silence after that, talking about random things and watching the sleeping boy between them. Randy took Jake’s plate when they were done, walking out to put them in the sink and check on Red Robin. 

To Randy’s exasperation, the guy had drunk the energy drink, but left the food with a few bites next to him. It seemed obvious that Red Robin had barely taken a break from trying to crack the ghostly restraints, and Randy didn’t know if it would be more or less helpful to remind him of the food. He decided to leave it for now, and took the empty can. He was worried that Red Robin was pushing himself too hard trying to crack the code, but for now he’d help out however he could without bothering his work flow. 

Randy admits, he is a bit restless with no emergency going on, and two strangers in his house. He ended up doing the dishes, giving Red Robin another energy drink, and started on cleaning around the house when he noticed Jake starting to fall asleep in his chair. Cracking his knuckles, he approached with the subtlety of a younger sibling.

“Come on, get up,”Randy shooed, much to Jake’s confusion and annoyance. “Don’t give me that look, you’re practically falling asleep.”

“I’m fine,”Jake growled, but let Randy herd him out of the room.

“Go take a nap on the couch, I’ll keep watch on him and wake you if anything happens,”Randy assured, leaving Jake to settle on the couch without tripping on the too long pajama pants to go grab a spare blanket. He draped it over Jake, grinning in satisfaction when he seemed to drift off in seconds. 

Randy glanced over at Red Robin, who had eaten a bit more but was still hunched over the laptop, and figured the guy was still doing okay. A thought came to him though and he grabbed some more pajamas and a glass of water to set next to Red Robin. Randy was never so grateful of his mom’s Christmas Pajama Tradition. He got a new pair every year and since he’d stopped growing he never needed to throw them away unless they got super old or beat up. 

Randy made his way over to the ghost king and took over Jake’s chair. Plopping down, he grabbed a blanket on the floor to wrap around his cold feet and leaned back to watch the sleeping boy in front of him. All the blood and cuts were cleaned and bandaged, so the little King would have looked almost peaceful if not for the bright green collar around his neck. Throughout the escape and getting settled in the apartment, Randy hadn’t actually gotten a good look at the guy before now. His skin was pale, with almost a hint of blue in it, and his short hair was almost ethereally white. Leaning closer he could see his eyelashes were white too. 

Sitting back, Randy huffed. He definitely had to skip school tomorrow. Considering he and the others had been up all night now, Randy hoped he’d be able to stay awake. Spotting his switch on his nightstand, he leaned over to grab it. Starting it up, he figured he’d play some Animal Farm to try and stay awake. It was a kind of mindless game so he wouldn’t miss anything if the Ghost King moved at all. 

Meanwhile, Tim was nearly done. He had hacked into the files he downloaded to try to find the key to unlocking it, but it turned out that the GIW had gotten the invention from some scientist named Fenton. It was even harder to find blueprints for the collar, but from what he could tell it was running on some sort of alternate power source. The glowing green energy didn’t seem to run out, and reminded Tim a bit of kryptonite. 

Given that it ran independently, the restraints were stuck on the ghost until someone deactivated it with a similar device. It was like the thing was half magic half technology, and Tim was only good with one of those things. What Tim was trying to do was unlock the restraints without the key, and to do that he needed to try and mimic the power source on his own end. To do that, he was trying to get the devices to register each other as a key, but it was slow going. Tim hadn’t done something like this before, but he knew he could do it with enough time. Time he wasn’t sure the ghost king had. 

Then the vigilante frowned. He looked up from the computer, wondering why Jake and Randy were being so quiet, only to find Jake sleeping on the couch. Tim blinked, but figured Randy was keeping watch on the Ghost King, while Jake slept. Looking at the clock on the laptop, he could see why. They’d been up all night, and it was nearly 9 in the morning now. With all the energy drinks he’d had, Tim wasn’t even tired. He couldn’t be tired if he wanted to get the restraints off the boy in Randy’s bed.

Tim sighed, reaching for the can on the table but instead brushed fabric. Surprised, he turned to see a pair of space pajamas with a soft Nasa t-shirt. Next to it was a glass of water and Tim frowned. While he was getting a bit uncomfortable staying in his suit for so long, he wasn’t completely at ease around the boys. Reluctantly, he took a sip of the water, hoping that they didn’t run out of Zesti. 

Glancing back at the screen, he figured now was a good time to take a break. No one else was around, so he quickly and quietly stripped out of his armor and into the soft pajamas, but kept his utility belt, boots, and mask on just in case. Folding his suit and placing it on the chair next to him, he took the time to stretch out his muscles, relishing the way his back cracked. 

Sitting back down, he was glad for the clothing change into something more comfortable. The pants were a bit long and the shirt too big, but they were soft and smelled like some sort of flowery laundry detergent. It was nice. He took another sip of water and started typing, hoping to figure out how to get the power source in the restraints to mimic the type of key needed to trick the system. 

Jake jolted awake with the imprint of the sterile, white lab and eerie green lighting on his eyes. He swallowed down the flames in his throat and rubbed his eyes. When he was no longer afraid to set something on fire, he yawned, stretching. He looked around, seeing Red Robin now sporting space pajamas a few sizes too big, and he could just make out Randy playing a game on his switch in the chair through the doorway of the other room. 

Yawning again, he set the blanket aside and got up. Jake scowled when he almost tripped over the pant legs of his borrowed pants. Despite the tripping hazard, he made his way to the kitchen to look through Randy’s cabinets. Looking at his phone he saw it was nearly 11am and figured the others would appreciate some food. He was surprised to find rice in one of Randy’s cabinets, and figured he could make some fried rice with some of the vegetables in the freezer. Nevermind that the rice looked untouched for months, but it would be easy to make a large amount of food for everyone. 

Jake was pretty sure that ghosts didn’t need to eat, but he figured the guy might appreciate being saved a plate just in case. He placed the satchel with the ectoplasm inside on the counter, and got started cooking. It was calming his nerves to focus on cooking rather than the vigilante at the table and the unconscious Ghost King in the other room. Randy seemed chill, but Jake was paranoid that one wrong move and Red Robin might contact some other heroes to take over.  Looking at the guy now, knowing he’d been hunched over the laptop covered in various stickers for hours and not calling anyone because Jake asked him not to, he felt like the guy deserved some trust. And rice. 

Almost an hour later, Red Robin stood up, ignoring the now cooled bowl of rice at his side. “I got it,”Red exclaimed, making his way to the Ghost King. Jake and Randy perked up from their chairs, sitting around the bed. 

“You got it?” Randy asked with a grin. He stood up, switching to hover around the boy on the bed. 

“Just let me get this ready first,”Jake muttered, pulling out the vial of ectoplasm. Tim nodded, making his way over to the collar. He only needed to activate his program with a push of a button. Once Jake was ready, he nodded to Tim. 

Red Robin took a breath and pressed the button, hoping it would work. Abruptly, the Collar’s bright green light cut out, and after a moment it seemed to pull apart, dropping into two halves on the side of the boys neck. The three watching gave a sigh of relief, but tensed back up when the white haired boy started to stir. 

A weak groan filled the room, and the ghost’s face twisted in pain. Jake was all but ready to use the ectoplasm when suddenly a bright light filled the room. Looking away, the three covered their eyes as it seemed to get brighter and encompass the boy on the bed. 

Red Robin was the first to look back when the light faded, and held in a gasp when he saw a very human boy in place of the ghost. “He turned human?” Randy exclaimed, looking from the other boys in the room and back to the ghost king turned teenager. 

Jake, still holding the ectoplasm, was gaping. “Will this still help him?” Jake asked no one in particular. He had no idea if the human part would reject the ectoplasm. 

“I’ll get the medical supplies,”Tim threw out when he noticed the kid’s appearance. The others, just now looking at he tattered clothes and fresh injuries, blinked in confusion and panic. 

“How does he have different injuries now?” Randy complained. Even the pajamas were gone, replaced with tattered jeans and a t-shirt that used to be white. 

While the ghost version of the boy had a broken leg, this kid’s arm was dislocated, horribly bruised, and possibly broken. Further inspection led to a few nasty burns that looked like something like a blaster hit him, and based on the new rattling sound when he breathed, they were pretty sure some ribs were broken. 

Another thing they learned was that the ghost king might also be… a ghost queen. In their human form, at least. Red Robin took point on getting the… teenager dressed while Jake and Randy averted their eyes in embarrassment. Tim’s cheeks had turned red, but he was at least used to clothing mishaps and more unsavory situations while being a hero. This hardly phased him, but they were all confused about how the Ghost King thing worked when one was a human girl at the same time. They all more or less agreed not to comment on it and stuck with the Ghost King’s he/him pronouns. At least until the teen was able to explain. 

Jake however, was still trying to decide if it would be a good idea to give the teen the ectoplasm or not. He’d received limited information about ghosts and that to do with the ectoplasm, but he had no idea if it would help or hurt the human part. He sat in the chair with a huff when they finished patching up the kid and got him in another set of pajamas. This time they had little dogs on them.

“I can find out for you,”Randy said, looking at the ectoplasm meaningfully. He waved an old looking book in his hand for emphasis. Jake however, did not know what Randy meant by that. 

“How-?”Red Robin asked, but cut himself off. He clearly didn’t know what he was allowed to ask about or not, and it was very amusing for Jake. 

“Sure, go for it,”Jake said, thinking Randy was just going to read the book. He was unprepared, however, for Randy to open it and immediately collapse. 

“What the-” Jake exclaimed, rushing to catch Randy before he hit the floor. Red Robin joined him and they carefully lifted the purple haired teenager onto the bed so he laid next to the other unconscious teen. “Geez,”Jake breathed. 

“Did you know he was gonna do that?” Red Robin asked absently, and Jake shook his head. 

“I knew his book was magic but- man he coulda warned us that would happen,”Jake scoffed. Red Robin let out a small laugh, sitting on the edge of the bed. They were a little overwhelmed, but it was a relief to be able to have someone else to talk to about it. 

Seconds later, Randy woke up with a gasp, startling everyone but the unconscious kid. “Jesus, man, you coulda warned us!”Jake exclaimed, but Randy largely ignored him in favor of pointing to the ectoplasm vial that Jake was still holding. 

“S’good! All good, give him the stuff,”Randy got out, climbing out of the bed and pacing the room. Jake hesitated, but started getting to work while he watched Randy pace. “So- the nomicon was pretty vague about why he’s human in the first place but basically the green stuff helps both forms. Basically.” 

“Basically,”Tim repeated, while Jake gently coaxed some of the ectoplasm down the kid’s throat. He hoped it worked. 

They hovered around the bed for a moment, then watched in awe and surprise when most of the injuries started to heal. It didn’t heal the bigger injuries as much, but most of the bruising and smaller wounds disappeared, leaving little scars. 

Bright blue eyes suddenly opened, and the teenager lurched forward with a cough, huddling in on himself. Unsure what to do, Jake and Randy stepped back to allow Red Robin to come forwards and reassure the kid. “Hey, it’s okay, its alright,”He said softly, but nothing he did seemed to calm the kid down. 

The human ghost king tried to crawl away from them, moving until his back hit the headboard of the bed. He was obviously still in pain, and his eyes were darting around frantically but not seeming to recognize anything. Tim bit back a retort when he was shoved backwards as Jake moved to be right in the kid’s line of sight. 

To Tim’s surprise, Jake transformed into a dragon again, and it actually seemed to calm the kid down. “You’re safe now. The humans won’t hurt you anymore, okay?” Jake said, and Tim understood. Having a more magical creature around would help the kid recognize there were no more agents around. It was smart. 

“I’m out?’ The kid croaked. Tim was amazed at how quickly he seemed to trust Jake, but he supposed it made sense. Meta solidarity or something like that. 

“Yeah, you’re out,”Jake reassured, helping the kid lay back down. The kid seemed to lose all strength when he recognized he wasn’t in a lab. “You’re the Ghost king, right? What’s your name?”

“Danny,”The kid sighed, going boneless in Jake’s arms. The dragon was nice and warm, and he hadn’t felt warmth like that in… what felt like forever. Looking around, he saw just a normal bedroom. “Where..”

“I’ll explain everything when you’re feeling better, but you don’t have to worry about them finding you. Just relax and heal, okay?” Jake said, pulling some blankets over Danny without disturbing the injured arm. The teen was still out of it, obviously exhausted from his earlier panic and trauma, but he laid back down easily enough. “I’ll be here when you wake up.”

Danny was asleep before Jake could even finish his sentence, and all three conscious boys breathed a sigh of relief. “Poor guy,”Randy whispered, plopping down on the chair again. Tim hummed in agreement, and looked over to Jake, who was still holding Danny’s hand in his dragon form. 

“You okay?” Tim asked, and Jake turned to look at him. 

“Yeah,”Jake said, shaking his head. “It’s just. What happened to Danny could have easily happened to me, or any one of the other magical creatures out there. I’m.. It’s my responsibility to protect them from things like this, but I didn’t even know…” Tim patted Jake on the shoulder reassuringly. “You still saved him, and he’ll get better thanks to you.”

“Yeah,”Jake said, turning back to human form in a dazzling show of light. Tim was fascinated, but he swallowed back his questions to not make the guy feel uncomfortable. He ended up yawning, and Jake looked at him with narrowed eyes. “You should take a nap, you’ve been up for like, two days.”

“I’m fine,”Tim yawned again, refusing to tell him that it was more like three days he’d been awake. With Danny in the clear, most of the adrenaline keeping him up was draining out of him. Jake hummed in a way Tim knew he didn’t believe him. 

“Hey, you can just take the couch over there, “Randy piped up, and Tim was wholly unprepared for the guy to foist a handful of blankets on him and drag him over to the couch. “We’ll wake you if anything happens.”

“I’m not tired,”Tim tried to protest, but once he was laying on the couch piled high with blankets, he really didn’t feel like moving. 

“Sure, just rest your eyes then,”Randy said placatingly, and Tim was already on his way to dreamland. 

#jake long #randy cunningham #tim drake #danny fenton #danny phantom #ninth grade ninja #red robin #american dragon #dcxdp #dcxdpxjlajxrcngn #secret trio #plus tim #four can keep a secret #if one of them is dead #see its a pun #kinda

[knightwingsblue]

I think the part that's been sitting with me the most about the batman 138 panels is this panel of jason. i'm not an avid comic book reader for dc, nor am i reading the entirety of the gotham war arc (i read up to bruce getting home from being stuck in the time stream and since then have only seen the spoilers) so i don't know exactly what the relationship between jason and the bats was before this point but goddamn.

i can't imagine going through all this trauma beforehand with someone who is supposed to be a father figure to you, and finally being able to simmer the anger inside of you and start to open up to these people who you're supposed to call family. that you're trying to do better for them, and for yourself and then- this happens. back to square one. your life was ruled by anger and needing vengance, and now it's going to be ruled by an ever-present fear. a fear of fear.

i hope that whatever this is can be reversed in some way? i would hate to see jason's character reduced to something that feels like it basically wipes all his previous development away. i hate dc sometimes.

#dc comics #bruce wayne #batman #jason todd #red hood #gotham war arc #gotham war spoilers #batman 138 #i hate it here #i feel so so bad for him no lie

[celaenaeiln]

Sometimes, I feel like DC is afraid to put Dickkory in canon and for real (like endgame pair and no divorce bs or smth even if the plot continue to move forward) is because Dick seems to be the type that's very family oriented and if he has a wife and eventually have children, he'd put alot more focus on his own family, having less and lesser time with the batfam(not totally counting them off tho). Titans maybe won't be so affected because both Dick and Kory are part of the Titans and it's gonna be probs like Roy and Lian situation(?) where they still spend alot of time with the Titans with their children with them.

Less time in Gotham means less time with Batman, and Batman needs his emotional support Dick Grayson.

EXACTLY

EXACTLY!!! EXACTLY, EXACTLY!!

The actual reason Kori and Dick's wedding blew up is because the writers wanted him back for the batfam. They couldn't have Dick spending time with the Titans, having children, and being separated from the batfamily, especially not with Bruce's emotional state.

Oh I forgot to mention. Guess what else goes on the day of Dick and Kori's wedding?

The New Titans (1988) Issue #100

What a massive freaking coincidence.

Bruce has attachment issues to Dick. It's like that Batman and Superman comic panel where Bruce is talking about his robins leaving and he says, "It was like with Dick. I couldn't let him go."

Bruce refuses to rest in bed when he's injured. But all of a sudden he's willing to skip his son's wedding for an injury. Sure, B. That's why.

Dick and Kory would definitely raise their kids with the Titans like Roy does but that would also rub the batfamily the wrong way because Dick is such as integral part of the family. Since he loves them too, he would try to split his time with the Titans and the Batfamily but that wouldn't fly with the titans because they think Dick is too good for Batman. They hate when Dick has anything to do with him.

Titans (1999) Issue #13

Batman gets on the Titans' nerves like nobody else. And Bruce thinks the Titans aren't good enough for Dick. So mutual hate because neither side want to let go of Dick Grayson, and Dick's in the middle desperately trying to bridge the gap.

Yeah, DC's definitely scared of making Dickkory canon. And the tug-of-war's the only reason.

#dick grayson #nightwing #koriand'r #dickkory #roy harper #arsenal #starfire #cl anon asks #thanks for the ask! #bruce wayne #batman

[fractualized]

Knight Terrors: The Joker #2 is out and I have never had so much to chew on in my life. I'm trying to moderate my enthusiasm so I stop exceeding the image limit making these posts, but there is so much going on!!

(spoilers ahead as usual, along with violence, gore, and death as usual)

At the end of last issue, we were left with the mystery of what exactly is up with supposedly dead Batman's reappearance, but this issue answers that pretty quickly:

This is at first presented as Joker's dream-within-a-dream, but later we get confirmation that Joker is sleepwalking as Batman. Sleep-vigilante-ing. Sleepigilanting. He's a Batman Who Jokes!

With Joker awake, we find that some time has passed, and now Joker is married to Lena, the wife of Johann to whom Joker showed some kindness back at the real-world hospital before she died. They also have a child, Albert, who was also a dying patient at the hospital.

The poster is for an actual movie I haven't seen, but it's about a scientist who is betrayed by a wealthy patron who takes credit for his work, and then becomes a beleaguered clown who has a heroic and tragic end. Oh, Joker likes a movie about a clown who was betrayed by a rich guy? You don't say!

At first I was amused by the onesie, but then the story returns to Joker at work and we see that he's no longer wearing a plain gray suit. He's in his usual Joker colors, perhaps indicating that he's found comfort in this humdrum life? This corporate dullness is his identity now? Oh dear.

Also he's interviewing Mr. Freeze.

Joker asks why Freeze wants to work at WE, and Freeze says he wants to lay low now that Batman is killing people. Like the last issue, Joker insists that Batman is dead, and he also acts like his memory of his old life is fading.

Fair point, Victor, but I don't think you're getting the job.

Is Poison Ivy Joker's secretary?? Well, no one would look for her there, I'm sure. So long as she resists the temptation to poison her boss.

Cut to night: Joker starts sleepwalking.

Oh my god, Joker has his own dour bat-monologue. Batman's truest fanboy.

This brings me back to Joker War, when Joker told Bruce that Gotham City didn't want to be saved. But here Joker is, protecting her dead body for/as Batman anyway.

Gremlin Batman, being up front about his MO.

These clowns are with Gaggy, who sadly cannot get Joker to remember him but does receive some TMI.

Poor Gaggy. ANYWAY, we cut to a corporate baseball game between Wayne Enterprises and freaking LexCorp. In dreamworld, Jimmy Olsen works for Lex, at least until he jokes about how with Joker's sports ability, he should be called Batman.

omg AND BRUCE IS THERE

Damn right Joker is your man, Bruce!

Talk. Dinner. At Bruce's place. IT'S A DATE. So much packed into an instant classic batjokes panel.

When Joker arrives at the manor, Insomnia is there, and… like… there is so much going on.

- Joker seems to recognize Insomnia as his boss, but then instantly accepts that he's now Winchester, Bruce's butler. (Not sure if Joker noticed Insomnia was also the umpire at the game.)

- Insomnia tries to say that Bruce was called away, in a classic Batman bit, and when Bruce shows his face, Insomnia seems perturbed. He doesn't want Joker to talk to Bruce.

- YEAH BRUCE IS WEARING THE KILLING JOKE OUTFIT. The tourist costume that Joker wore when he shot Barbara. Alright. Okay. Alright. Okay.

There is so much going on!!

You may have noticed that Bruce called Insomnia Windham, not Winchester, and he misnames him again here, as Winthrop. Joker regularly does this to people, particularly henchmen.

Also, Joker earlier told Bruce that he can't eat seafood, but that's all that's being served. lol

Here's an extended version of a gag from Batman 1989, and also Joker noting that his sense of humor has resulted in lawsuits (but not in him being fired, of course). There's an implication that Joker's been muting his personality at work, adding a layer to all the jokes he unleashes when he sleepfights as Batman.

The next bit just calls for the full page.

- Bruce saying the world needs a little craziness, that the city needs Batman, so that life makes sense, so that it isn't boring.

- Insomnia trying to stop the conversation twice, and shut down by Bruce twice (again with the wrong names).

- Bruce saying he wouldn't be the same man if Batman died and indicating he knows Joker feels the same way. Batman is integral to both of their identities. Just laying it out there that Joker is acting as Batman so the city doesn't lose something irreplaceable.

- Bruce saying, jk, Batman is fine and whatever is wrong with Johann, Bruce must have dreamt it up. He's telling Joker what's going on in reality, that Batman is fine and this is a dream!

- Insomnia blames Bruce's rambling on a seafood allergy, but he's applying a trait of Joker's to Bruce. He's just strengthening the connection.

And maybe the allergy is supposed to be real for Bruce too, and not a throwaway, and he's eating like a ravenous animal, because he doesn't care, because like Joker he dives into danger even when it's idiocy. And because Bruce basically is Joker. Joker sees them reflected in each other, but also Joker's subconscious is telling him all this to bring himself back to reality. The TKJ outfit on Bruce of all people is glaring signal meant to shake Joker out of it. It's just wrong. But it's also that Joker is hearing the truth from someone he really knows. Yes, it's not the Bat who laughed with him in the rain, at the futility of trusting each other, but the face behind the mask is the man who wanted to help him anyway. Maybe Joker does want to trust him deep down I KNOW I'M RAMBLING THIS IS A LOT

And it all gets into Joker's conscious thoughts too. He's, uh, distracted at work the next day.

Hey, Freeze got hired after all!

HR can't have you being silly, Joker. You start killing people at work again like a good Batman nemesis, and then you might take the dream in a different direction! Insomnia doesn't want that, and he tries telling Joker that Bruce is just messing with him.

And Joker intends to clear his head, but when he goes home he discovers his secret corpse is no longer well-kept.

Batman's corpse, face down and ass up. What an image!

Joker's old life will not be suppressed!

As Joker loses it, he's contradicting himself. All this time he's been saying Batman is dead, but now it's "he tried to make me think that Batman might have died." Either his thoughts are scrambled up, or "he" actually refers to Insomnia, or maybe both. But regardless, now Joker needs to prove that Batman is alive. If Batman is alive, then the boring little life Joker has made for himself makes total sense. Batman has always made Joker's life make sense.

Joker resurrects his old skills and creates a plan to catch the Batman, but the logic behind it is that Batman is uncatchable. So if Joker's plan fails, then the Batman running around is real, and everything is okay. Then of course Joker takes a "nap" so we can see this plan come to fruition.

It starts with a gaggle of violent clowns attacking a couple on the street. "Batman," with no memory of this plan, appears to stop them, and is overwhelmed.

And one of the clowns releases toxin.

The Batman was caught, and he's exposed. He's not real. He's Joker, and he's dying. Batman is dead, and everyone needs him. Joker needs him.

And it's with this revelation that Joker wakes– and we get confirmation that it's shot-in-the-head, sewer rat Joker who is having the dream! This has to be confirmation that he's the real one, doesn't it? Right?? It's possible the other Joker had his own dream… But I have a soft spot for the underdog. I hope he's our guy and Mr. Waffles defects to his side. Then everything will be right as rain!

Speaking of, Joker does seem to shake the dream off pretty well. For now, anyway.

I wasn't sure how to interpret this at first, but I figure it's just that Joker doesn't care too much for these friends, and having weird dreams about Batsy is more appealing even if they're nightmares about losing him and becoming a defanged normie.

Still, I expect this nightmare will bolster this Joker, who started out lost and despondent, in his efforts to get rid of his doppelganger and re-establish himself as Batman's one-and-only nemesis. Maybe bring some flowers to smooth over the divorce thing, apologize for trying to cut his face off…

#knight terrors: joker #the man who stopped laughing #joker #bruce wayne #batjokes #spoilers #my jibber-jabber

[lou-syd]

So I read the first issue of Red Hood: The Hill and my expectations were admittedly low because of how poorly Jason is handled most of the time so I'm not disappointed like I've seen some people be (if you are, that's totally valid though, I def get it). I feel entirely neutral about it. I think it wasn't a strong start for an already very, very short run, and with it being a flashback its pacing worries me a bit.

I think it could be interesting going forward but I'm definitely getting the vibe that this is not going to be Jason-centric like a lot of people are. I do think it's too early to tell but it's definitely possible this will focus more on Dana and her crew which like I guess?? I like Dana and I don't mind some of the focus being on her at all. She's interesting and I like when Gotham-set stories actually feel like it's a real but weird place with real people living in it. I enjoy it when they show how much of a mess the city is and how the people living in it have to adapt to get by. Dana's dynamic with Jason has potential and that being the focal point of this whole thing could lead to a more compelling narrative overall. The idea of Jason being the one to try and guide a friend entering into this world could offer up a lot of good character beats for him that we haven't seen a lot of in a while. That being said, it feels like Red Hood is more of a vehicle for this story about The Hill so I'm not holding my breath for it. Retroactively changing his backstory around to fit this place into it also doesn't give me the best feeling either.

As for the rest of the 'new' characters, I don't really care for the little neighborhood watch crew outside of Dana. There's not much to go off and seeing Jason interact with them does nothing for me and just feels forced (but then again most of his relationships are forced in general). Having this many characters with such a short run is not going to allow for any of them to be fleshed out enough for them to feel like they matter in the grand scheme of things. By virtue of this being a flashback, the stakes already feel pretty low so having a cast of characters that aren't particularly compelling and whose relationships with Jason evolved off-panel doesn't help. They have cool designs though, I'll give them that.

I don't like that it took getting through almost halfway through the issue for Jason to show up and when he does it's underwhelming.

So far, it's shaping up to be a one-off story with low stakes. Which is fine. A short, contained story can be good if it's written well and there's something to take away from it. Otherwise, they're just slapping Red Hood on the title for readership's sake and calling it a day. Which like, nothing surprises me anymore but it's lame that this is what we get for Jason after the nightmare mess that was Gotham War and TMWSL.

Apparently, Zdarsky is planning on including Jason in his upcoming Batman arc according to some posts I saw so take that with a grain of salt but the thought of that happening makes me want to grind my teeth into a fine dust.

At this point, I feel like I'm just holding out for nothing with Jason. I don't like any direction they've taken with him outside of some interesting bits here and there so I hope this run picks up.

#is this anything #i do really like Dana so I'm at least interested enough in continuing for her if not for Jason #the new love interest is cute but like im so tired of him being in any kind of romantic situation like please focus on his characterization #especially because it's not going to amount to anything because they want to force him into a situationship so bad #jason todd #red hood #red hood the hill #peach talks #also let me write jason's spanish dialogue thnx

[tonkysexist]

I’m begging y’all to stop posting Gotham War panels out of context because Bruce Wayne is my problematic baby girl and this run is difficult enough for me without the fandom nonsense

It seems rather clear (to me anyways) that Zur is the one behind this. He’s twisting Bruce’s genuine (if not often misguided) care for his kids into something more sick. The use of the word “soldier” is a tip off. I’m not saying Gotham War is peak writing (far far far from it), but if I just don’t want to see one more post (that’s isn’t obviously a joke) about how Bruce Wayne thinks his kids are soldiers and this is proof. Please.

#gotham war #gotham war spoilers #*sighs in why did it have to be zur* #I haven’t decided fully how I feel about this one #I like some of it but I really really dislike a lot of it #idk #bruce wayne #batman

[clownprince]

Joker's motivations in Joker War

Now idk if I was the only one initially confused by wtf Joker's actual intentions were in Joker War. Maybe I'm just a bit schewpid and everyone else got it but regardless here's my attempt to piece together what's going on in his weird little mind.

Imho, the first lines we get about Joker's underlying intentions are here:

It's extremely important that he was aware of Bruce's intentions to redesign the city. That was definitely the catalyst for the whole thing.

Speaking of Bruce's plans to redesign the city:

He mentions multiple times that his goal is to build a city that doesn't need a Batman.

Regardless of whether he actually mentioned something like this at a press conference or something, I'm sure Joker would be able to pick up on it anyway.

And it's very well-established that Joker needs Batman. The Best Man arc has this whole beautiful monologue about it:

Joker NEEDS Batman. A city without Batman is a city with no place for Joker.

The whole Best Man arc takes during the same year (year 17) as Joker War (prior to it, obviously).

The Batcat engagement took place in year 16. (In which Batman also had Joker locked up in his basement. And he deliberately tracked down amnesiac!Joker and made him Normal Joker again so he could get information. Yowza! Not cool, Bats.)

Additionally, the events of Endgame took place on year 15 and Death of the Family in year 14.

Joker reveals more of his motivations in the final fight scene between him and Batman:

Very interesting that Joker initially chooses to stab Batman in the back. Hmm I wonder if that has any deeper meaning or reveals anything about Joker's own feelings in this situation /sar.

Also very, very, very significant that Joker chooses to battle Batman in that particular suit, after he essentially desecrates it:

So, by now, it's apparent that Joker's direct intention with Joker War was to essentially destroy the possibility of Bruce's vision of Gotham:

He even directly says that all of this was about them.

Hm... I don't think he's just talking about the city, here...

And then we have this:

There's been a recurring theme since Death of the Family, that Bruce isn't being the Batman that Joker wants him to be.

To me, this line feels like "okay, Batman is ruined irreparably, let's just destroy him and start over from scratch."

Then we have this panel. Whew. I think this might be one of the most revealing panels in the entirety of Joker War, largely because of how Joker is depicted in it.

He doesn't look angry, he looks genuinely distraught.

And I didn't notice this until someone else pointed it out but if you zoom in, it definitely looks like he's crying.

I don't think this is just an artistic thing, largely because of this panel from a few issues back:

So those are definitely tears of laughter. But it looks roughly the same. Except based on the context and his expression, I don't think those are tears of laughter in Joker War. At the very least, he's hysterical.

Somewhat of a tangent but it's important to tie everything together: Joker War reminds me very much of DOTF and Endgame in that Joker is depicted (or tries to portray himself) as this terrifying, ruthless, inhuman thing, but if you actually look into his motivations, he's being driven by his emotions, particularly his feelings about Batman, which are almost inarguably the most human part of him.

In DOTF he talks about how Batman isn't being the Batman he wants him to be and yadda yadda, but then in the tie-ins, we have this section, which I think does a beautiful job of explaining his real motivations:

It's jealousy. Jealousy and fear. He's terrified of losing Batman.

And then there's a similar thing in Endgame.

Initially, he says this:

"Haha yeah I'm just bored of you lol."

But then in the final scene we get this:

He's not bored, he's heartbroken. He's genuinely hurt by Batman (in his perception) rejecting him, and he's lashing out in a major way.

I think it's definitely similar in Joker War, except he's not as afraid of losing Batman to the Batfam, more so he's afraid that Bruce's new design for the city will eliminate the need for a Batman, although the Batcat almost-wedding and Bruce's growing family definitely play a role in his motivations.

I think that might be where his whole idea of making Batman start over with nothing came from. Because when Bruce started, he didn't really have anyone except for Alfred, and later Dick.

I think that Joker could tolerate him having a few allies but he can't handle the idea of Batman having an actual family. Both because he doesn't want to share Batman's attention, and because he doesn't have a family, so why does Batman get to have one? Why does Batman get to connect with people when the only person he's truly connected to is Batman? He wants Bats to be as dependent on him as he is on Bats.

So, that's just my Hot Take (read: mediocre interpretation) of Joker War. I wasn't too fond of the storyline until I kinda pieced everything together and it's still not my favorite arc but I definitely like it better than I did initially.

#batjokes #joker war #meta #my silly little thoughts #my timeline might be slightly off my only source was the batman continuity project lol #i am not putting myself through the hell that is tom king's run #and i haven't read batman metal and all that shit yet #i'm going based off of the rebirth timeline though if that isn't clear #my stuff

[gffa]

Okay, not to defend Gotham War or anything, but I think I'm talking myself into liking what I see it's trying to do. Starting with some great tags on this post:

#i get why people are hating on it i really really do. trust me#but TO BE FAIR... zdarsky has been making it overwhelmingly clear that bruce is SERIOUSLY unwell right now#like it's been nonstop Horrors for him for like. over a dozen issues straight. with no rest or time to process. and he doesn't have alfred#who was a HUGE part of his support system not to mention the finances etc etc#iirc there's even a panel that pretty much outright states that this is more of an issue of control than morality#and that includes the choosing sides thing like the batkids seem more concerned w how bruce is going off the fucking rails than#just the moral aspects#anyway (via @clownprince)

#Batman#Bruce Wayne#REAL#REAL REAL REAL#LIKE. Zur En Arrh is a LITERAL Defense Mechanism going Malignant at this point#Not only that but throughout Zdarsky's run there's been allusions to illnesses and Bruce Not Having A Good Time#Not Having a Good Time and Not Having Time At All to take stock of the sheer What The Fuck-ery that's been going on recently#Because it's been a CONSTANT steam of What The Fuck-ery nonstop#And the Worse is yet to come if one considers the future issues synopsis and the ''I am a Gun'' story by Zdarsky#(At most I'm a little bit concerned over how Zdarsky will try to wrap this up‚ but that's a normal concern especially about Comics)#(Especially Batman Comics considering how often Editorial likes to... do things) (via @kaosvrow)

I agree with so much of the criticism of Gotham War, especially that the arguments for or against Selina's plans are absolute garbage by characters who should be making better arguments and that the other characters are being used as bobbleheads instead of actually giving them their canon personalities--and, okay, I will also point out that in the VERY FIRST ISSUE, Selina's plan gets someone killed and so I'm willing to extend some grace that the story isn't trying to push forward that either way is actually right, I honestly don't think it's about that. I think it's a story about Bruce Wayne's mental state, because Zdarsky's been building this up for awhile now, like the issue immediately prior to Knight Terrors? Shows us Bruce's mental state is ALREADY absolute TRASH right then:

Zur-En-Arrh was already leaking through the seams of his mind, he was already feeling the impending doom of everything he cared about being burned away, that his mind literally couldn't watch his kids being happy and together and getting along without feeling like it was all burning to ash.

And then Knight Terrors happened, which was one more thing digging hard, boney fingers into his trauma, and he handled it pretty well in the moment, but it's such a giant, non-stop pile of stress on a mind that is already damaged to hell and back because of his trauma.

Further, the very first issue of the Gotham War storyline? The very first panel, the one that sets up the stage of what's going to happen, makes a very clear point about how this is about Bruce fracturing:

And then on the very next page, Zur-En-Arrh is literally stalking at the bars of the cage around Bruce's mind.

And then Bruce wakes up and it's immediately more establishing just how worried everyone is about him because so much has been piled on lately:

Bruce hides his missing hand from his family, just like he's trying to hide how scraped thin he is right now, and goes out on patrol.

Where his internal monologue is all about how defensive he feels lately, how he feels like the years are catching up to him, how nothing feels right but this, making it clear that Bruce is hanging onto Batman with a death grip because it's the only thing that feels stable to him right now.

And all of this is in the first TEN PAGES of the first issue, this is our set-up, this is our foundation, this is what we're being given to understand what this story is about. Then Batman #137 happens and it's literally ALL ABOUT BRUCE'S MENTAL SPACE, that Selina's plan is the catalyst, not the driving point behind all of it. Again, I'm in 100% agreement that the Batkids are acting like cardboard cutouts because you will never get me to believe that they didn't notice crime going down or that they wouldn't be pointing out that Gotham's wealthy are just going to start making their security lethal in response or that the Court of Owls won't step in, that this is not a long term solution to giving these people lives beyond crime, or even that a lot of them should be agreeing with Bruce, that they don't get to decide who is an acceptable victim. But the story isn't really about changing up the way comics deal with crime, it's about even the Batkids are framing it in terms of how it's about Bruce. Jason is really the only one who seems onboard with trying out Selina's plan, but even his confrontation with Bruce isn't really about that, it's about all their baggage, their fight immediately becomes about how angry Jason is at the way Bruce has treated him. This fight isn't happening because Jason's a true believer in Selina's plan, it's happening because he's angry at Bruce and Bruce is in a shitty mental place, after all the non-stop horrors AND feeling like he's been betrayed by the kids who he thought understood that people being victims wasn't acceptable, and so he lashes out at Jason.

When they fight, it's not because they're siding against Bruce, it's because he's become unstable and dangerous. The why of it doesn't matter, it's not about that.

(And I'm actually okay with the way that fight happened because I can buy that, for example, Cass might be holding back against him, she's a stronger fighter than he is, but he's being ruthless because of the state he's in, while she might be feeling more cautious.) When they fight, it's not because they're siding against Bruce, it's because he's become unstable and dangerous. The why of it doesn't matter, it's not about that. Even further, when Bruce fights against his kids, he's wrong and biased, especially in the fight with Dick, who he thinks has a sloppy offensive and doesn't know darkness like he does--to which Dick just immediately cracks him in the face because, yeah, Dick Grayson does know darkness and Bruce isn't as untouchable as he's trying to make himself seem (because being Batman is all he has right now).

I think it's important that it's Dick who defies his expectations here, because this story is building off context of what happened between Selina and Bruce, that they were truly together for awhile, they were about to get married--Selina mentions that it the first issue, it's a major thorn in that conversation when she throws out how she doesn't believe that Gotham needs Batman anymore, it needs her.

She's giving him what he said he always wanted, she's giving him the thing that kept them apart, he should be happy, should they head to the church now? Saying that he won't because he wants to be Batman more than he wants to solve the city's problems.

The failed wedding between them is important in part because of what Selina's saying here, illustrating that both of them are bringing a lot of baggage to the table but also because of what else happened during that storyline, why the context is so important. Because that storyline dovetailed into one about Bane wanting to take over Gotham and he needed Batman unstable and distracted, which was working after Selina left him at the altar, he was a mess. But you know what was saving him at the time, bringing him back from the ledge? THIS KID:

Dick was the one poking and prodding at Bruce with jokes and warmth and care and it was working. He actually got Bruce to cry in front of him, to release some actual genuine emotion!

Dick makes Bruce more emotionally stable, to the point that Bane had to hire KGBeast to shoot Dick in the head just because he was so good at stabilizing Bruce--this is also why Dick's the one who says he'll go talk Bruce down off his moral ledge in Batman #137.

So, it's Dick that has to be the one to defy his expectations in the fight, has to be the one who breaks through Bruce's offense and knocks him down in what feels like a betrayal even when it isn't, because this isn't a story about who's right and who's wrong, it's a story about Bruce isolating himself because he's mentally fractured to hell and back, because he's not trusting his kids, he's still hurt by Selina leaving him, he's still grieving Alfred's death, he's run ragged physically and emotionally and mentally by a series of exhausting horrors piled on him, he's lost his family's fortune, he's not even living in his own family home anymore. (I focus on Dick here as an illustration of tying this back to previous examples of Bruce crumbling and important context that the storyline is drawing on, but Gotham War isn't really specifically about Bruce and Dick's relationship, but more about Bruce's relationship with all his kids, like Tim and Jason and Damian all have equally important moments. But it's a very direct example of how his children are a huge part of his support system and draw him back from the ledge of being just Batman and back into being Bruce.) That's why the issue ends with Bruce getting the papers telling him that the bank sold Wayne Manor to Vandal Savage, because it's one more thing that's stripping Bruce Wayne away from the character, and leaving him with nothing but Batman and Zur-En-Arrh. Gotham War isn't actually a story about a war for Gotham. It's a story about Bruce Wayne going out of control and everything is written to serve that. The characters' fights are catalyzed by Selina's plans, but they quickly become about Bruce's relationship with the characters. The narrative makes heavy-handed points about Bruce feeling like he's losing his grip, that he's hallucinating and talking to himself, that he is extremely mentally unwell right now. Everything Zdarsky's been writing (like especially the "I Am a Gun" storyline right before Knight Terrors) has been building up to fracturing Bruce Wayne.

#lumi.txt #dc #batfam #bruce wayne #dick grayson #selina kyle #gotham war #long post #feral gremlin length post

[boyfridged]

Could I ask what makes you dislike zdarsky so much? Not disagreeing in the least lol, just curious for ur opinion

i was going to link my posts criticizing his work but tumblr is not cooperating, so let me just write up a couple of bullet points:

constant retcons of characters and their stories for much worse, including jason and talia. his retcon of jason's robin days in cheer is the most shameless and heartless interpretation of the character to date, and jason had already been a victim of plenty poor-taste flashbacks. his retcon of talia in the knight makes her a mindless seductress without her own will nor motivations. their respective relationships with bruce lose all depth, love and unique qualities. zdarsky managed to even retcon khoa within a year since he was first introduced as a character. and even when he does not rewrite the backstory per se, he just makes the characters act in ways that make no sense for what we already know of them (like with selina in gotham knights.) most of the time his ideas completely upset and discredit the already existing storylines and contradict what lies at their core. the audacity it's unbelievable.

classism & misogyny: this is a simple one. the previously mentioned retcons turned the characters into stereotypes of their background and gender, the most malicious ones even.

his personal biases and favouritism: here's a thing. zdarsky has perhaps three favourite characters: bruce, tim, and khoa. and you will know about it, because everyone else will be thrown under the bus to make them look good. bruce is a perfect man and all of his mistakes come only from his good intentions apparently. he is so perfect that he knows better about classism than jason. and tim is his favourite robin because (checks notes) jason hated being robin and dick just didn't care about cooperating enough apparently. this is a claim that literally appears in-text.

since i already mentioned classism twice: his politics are plainly atrocious. he sometimes loosely uses phrases and tropes that make some readers think that he is progressive, but somehow all of his storylines always get a "plot twist" that reverts them into something ugly and cynical. and somehow a lot of fans just don't notice. i think the fact that he loves a war on drugs moment should perhaps give people a hint but what do i know.

his writing it's just bad? he can't write dialogue. his plotlines are all over the place. what even was failsafe. the concept of zur as the backup personality is so incredibly tacky and useless it doesn't belong even in the genre as camp as superhero comics. and on top of that, there is so much meaningless melodrama that doesn't say anything about the characters, their values nor their relationships at all- there's just a couple of panels that batfam fans will go crazy for because bruce hands kid a lollipop as batman or because tim calls bruce "dad." but neither of them convey anything of significance, especially not within their original context.

there are more reasons and i could talk of particular creative decisions that i just think are offensive to both the legacy and the intelligence of the readers, but it would take forever given zdarsky's prevalence in dc as of late.

#outbox #core texts #<- my hatred to zdarsky is essential.