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semper-legens · 6 months

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154. Berlin, by Jason Lutes

Owned: No, library Page count: 558 My summary: Berlin, 1929. A young art student arrives in the city for the first time, ready to learn and make her life in the big city. But there are rumblings in the background, political struggles about to boil over. Communists and Nazis are clashing in the streets, a violent conflict that leads to lives lost. The city's Jewish families are aware of their safety slipping away, bit by bit. And things can only get worse from there... My rating: 4/5 My commentary:

This one was a bit of an impulse grab, I'll admit. I always like to take a punt on the graphic novels that come through work, particularly when they're more indie titles (by which I basically mean not Marvel or DC) and they look interesting. This is a graphic novel set in Weimar Republic Berlin, after World War One but before the rise of the Nazi party, following a small group of disparate people and their lives across the different strata of German society. We have a young woman who comes to the city to study art, and ends up with an older man…and then a fellow female student. A reasonably well-off Jewish family struggling against the rising tide of antisemitism. A single mother who gets in with a Communist group, then ends up being shot at a protest and leaving her young daughter to the streets. And those are just a few of the graphic novel's expansive cast. It's got a lot of ambition - but how is it to read?

Overall, really good! Weimar Republic Berlin is a really interesting snapshot of history, and I think this graphic novel really captures the spirit of the time throughout its disparate characters. For example, while the Jewish family are doing okay, we can see Germany becoming more and more antisemitic as the story goes on, and know the context for what is about to happen. We get the points of view of centrists, socialists, Communists, nationalists, and straight-up Nazis - the latter never being portrayed as in the right, overall the Communists are more sympathetic in their portrayal, though nobody really comes up smelling of roses. One thing I found really cool was the portrayal of the LGBT+ scene. Weimar Germany was as close to a good place to be LGBT+ as one might get in this time period - sure, you're still doing illegal things, but there was a bit more community and tolerance than in other places. We see this with the student and her girlfriend, who the reader might be forgiven for assuming she's a man in early scenes, as she dresses in a suit and has short hair. There's a hint that there might be something trans going on there, something the character doesn't really have the language to explain, but is nonetheless present. We also get to see the hot new thing - jazz, by authentic Black musicians! And also the perils of being a Black American in this kind of place. History is messy, and sometimes ugly, but there's joy and hope to be found - though the story here is often grim and realistic, it's never without light and happiness, which really balances the more serious moments well.

But then there's my criticisms of the book. Largely, this boils down to the ambitious scope - there's a lot of characters being juggled here, both invented and real, and it's sometimes difficult to keep track of who's who and what everyone's story is, particularly when their lives intersect. In all fairness, I could always remember the main bullet points, such as the student, the young orphan, the Jewish family, et cetera. It's just that there were a lot of people to keep track of, not helped by the fact that many of them are drawn pretty similarly or don't have features that are particularly distinct from the others, so with my admittedly-poor memory for faces it was often a struggle to fit names and stories to faces. I will admit that's partially a me problem, however. But really, that's all there was to mar my enjoyment of this graphic novel. There was a lot to like here, and I'm really glad I picked it up.

Next, back to my favourite ever book series, to see what fresh bulls--- the House of Night can bring.

#Berlin #Jason Lutes #bookblr #book blog #book blogger #4

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teecupangel · 1 year

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Crossover idea - instead of ended up on in NYC, Desmond ends up in Gotham after running away from the Farm. Bruce (in or out of the cowl) stumbles across Desmond and ends up taking him in. Time passes, Abstergo still ends up nabbing Des, but that brings a very pissed-off Papa Bat kicking down their door, along w/ the rest of the Bat Clan. A lot to play w/ here: timelines, Assassin/Templar conflict in the superhero world, Wayne Family connections, Assassin spies, and dealing w/ the Flare...

Let’s talk about how we can integrate Gotham into the Assassin’s Creed setting first.

First of all, there’s an easy way for the Assassins to be integrated into Batman lore.

The League of Assassins (or, as others call them, the League of Shadows).

I’ve touched upon how in this post

Centuries ago, a group of assassins lost faith in humanity and believed that the Creed gives them permission to save the world through fear and death.

They left the Brotherhood and their mentor, Ra’s al Ghul, gave them a new name.

The League of Assassins.

Lazarus Pit can be some kind of Isu BS that was one of the many failed research the Capitoline Triad did to survive the Solar Flare. Unfortunately, the Lazarus Pit’s side effects deemed it a failure.

Now, as for the Templars.

There’s already a Templar Order in Gotham. Has been for centuries. They’ve separated from the Templars who founded Abstergo and isolated themselves from the rest of the world.

You wanna know why Abstergo doesn’t have any facilities in Gotham? It’s not because of the crime rate, no, no.

It’s because they have an understanding with Gotham’s Templar Rites.

Gotham is off-limits.

And, to separate themselves from the Templars and Abstergo, this Order changed their name.

They are known as an urban legend in Gotham, mostly known by the nursery rhyme:

Beware the Court of Owls, that watches all the time, ruling Gotham from a shadowy perch, behind granite and lime. They watch you at your hearth, they watch you in your bed, speak not a whispered word of them or they’ll send the Talon for your head.

As for the superhero world, this will get too long if I was to list all the superhero in DC and how they’d mesh with the whole Assassin/Templar conflict so let’s focus on only some of them:

Abstergo keeps their hands clean of any superhero bullshit. That’s the only way they can keep the Justice League off their back, after all. They’re absolutely rivals of Lexcorp and they like to help out superheroes to show that they’re the ‘good guys’.

Bernard is one of the few conspiracy theorists who think Abstergo’s goody-goody act is fishy. Tim is supportive but they can’t find any dirt… yet. Also, Bernard is absolutely friends with Shaun but they only know each other by their avatar names

Themyscira and the Amazons are related to the Isus in some way. Minerva and Tinia definitely had a hand in their creation but the truth has long been lost to them. The leading theory is that the Amazons are experimented humans that were meant to be super soldiers for the Isu-human war but something went horribly wrong.

The Kryptonians are an alien race that came from the Isus who didn’t migrate to Earth. Other alien races may or may not be related to the Isus in some way or another.

John Constantine is a Kenway. He’s played by Matt Ryan so he’s a Kenway. I will not be taking any objections to this.

Now, we got that out of the way, let’s talk about how Desmond would fit in the Batfamily. For the purpose of this idea, we’ll be focusing on the Batfamily’s characterization from Batman Wayne Family Adventures since this is probably the most accessible Batfamily story that has most of the Batfamily. We will still keep it a bit generic so that you can pick whatever Batman arc or comics you’d prefer to use.

Even if he was taken in as Bruce Wayne’s next adopted son (Desmond Wayne does sound nice) without any knowledge of Bruce being Batman, Desmond would know something is up. He’s been training to be an Assassin since he was a child and the only reason why he wouldn’t be all suspicious of the strange happenings in Wayne Manor is if he’s deliberately ignoring them.

But he won’t.

This is a sixteen-year-old Desmond, still held by the paranoia his parents and the Farm instilled to his very core.

It’s what made Bruce see him in the first place after all.

And, honestly, Desmond would probably run away at first because this entire thing feels too similar to the Farm.

But Bruce will find him.

However, it won’t be Bruce who will talk him into returning to the manor.

It would be Damien.

Because Damien is the most similar to Desmond in terms of upbringing.

Where Desmond ran away, Damien stayed.

But both of them are broken by the very same cycle created by the Assassins.

Desmond returns to the manor because he wants to believe in the nice things Damien tells him. Things that Damien swore he will kill him if he ever tells anybody else.

And so Desmond becomes Desmond Wayne, the most mysterious adopted son of Bruce Wayne.

And he does become a Robin but a different kind of Robin than Damien. I honestly see him wearing this kind of outfit

An urban-esque take on Robin.

There is a more traditional (with hood) version of Robin’s outfit in Gotham Knights as well but this is a Desmond who ran away from the Farm. He didn’t become a Robin to honor his Assassin heritage. He became a Robin to help his real family.

And Abstergo knows about him. They know him as Desmond Wayne and they only realized that he is a descendant of both Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad and Ezio Auditore because they got a hold of his DNA. They considered the risk to be worth it since getting the Abstergo-Eye online would mean they could control the entire world anyway.

And… let’s be fair, the moment Desmond gets kidnapped, he’d be finding a way to get out as soon as he can. He has lived with the Batfamily for the past nine years. He would have some tricks up his sleeve by this point and everyone would be on the lookout for him.

Red Robin and Oracle would definitely find a way to ping his location.

Robin might even contact Talia and ask for a favor because this is damn serious. Talia would be the one to push them to contact the Modern Assassins as she’s lived long enough to have an idea that this reeks of Templar/Assassin bullshit.

Vidic probably got Desmond to relive one or two memory blocks of Altaïr before the entire Rome facility is stormed by the Batfamily.

(And they might even be helped by the Justice League at this point).

Unorganized notes:

Bruce knows Desmond is related to the League of Assassins and he's looking into it but he doesn't tell Desmond anything because he knows Desmond wouldn't approve of it.

Alfred knows all of Desmond's favorite foods and they always have tea whenever Desmond wakes up from a bad dream about his time on the Farm

Desmond would have more acrobatic moves in his arsenal because Dick will definitely see him move and go “My successor!”

He spars with Jason regularly. They recognized each other’s moves as Jason also trained with the League before but they never talk about it, honoring each other’s past.

Tim likes working with Desmond the most on cases because Desmond sees things even without any gadgets. To Desmond, this is instinctual (since his Eagle Vision hasn’t activate fully yet).

Desmond and Damien don’t have any more heart-to-heart moments after that one incident where Damien got Desmond to return to Wayne Manor but everyone agrees they’re close. Desmond is one of the few people Damien calls by his first name after all. Also, whenever there is animal smuggling in the manor, Desmond is always a key suspect as Damien’s collaborator.

Babs is the one that notices that Desmond hasn’t watched a lot of things they watched as kids so she made sure they always have a movie night at least twice a month.

Cass’ ability to read body language unnerves Desmond a bit but he learned to live with it. Now, he deliberately makes shit up just to tease Cass. Cass actually finds this strange as it shouldn’t be possible but, at the same time, she appreciates it because she sees this as Desmond’s way of saying he’s cool with her. (Desmond can do it because of his Assassin heritage and Isu bullshit as Cass’ ability is another version of Eagle Sense)

Chaos duo is the name given to Steph and Desmond. Desmond will agree to pretty much any mischief Steph can think of. Because of Desmond, Damien sometimes gets suckered in which delights Steph a lot.

Duke and Desmond complain to each other a lot. For Desmond, he sees Duke as a fellow normal dude whose entire family is composed of eccentric people. For Duke, he just thinks Desmond needs someone to vent to and likes venting to him as well because he knows Desmond can keep a secret and won’t tell anyone about it but he also actually thinks Desmond is just as weird as the rest of them. (Duke still loves the Waynes though but it’s clear he’s the only normal one)

Desmond is the most mysterious of the Waynes and the paparazzi likes to call him the shut-in Wayne. When he does make appearances for galas and charity balls, he’s always next to one of his siblings. He likes staying next to Jason the best because Jason is the intimidating one. Anyone who does talk to them gets hit by Jason’s charisma and leaves Desmond alone. He can’t do this to Dick or Bruce because both of them liked to make sure they include Desmond in the conversation and likes to praise him to other people which embarrasses Desmond.

This is a Desmond who never became a bartender and surrounded himself with the eccentric personalities of the Waynes so… he’s a bit awkward and quiet but everyone who talks to him will tell you that he’s just a shy sweet young man.

But teecup, what about the sun and Juno?

Juno can go rot in digital purgatory because Superman can fucking absorb the solar flare:

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