#but i think the culmination of all of his robin's death and damian being the pinnacle that pushes him over the edge is some good story

[fantastic-nonsense]

wait so dick said to damian "you were my robin" which is sweet but also dick worked as batman with tim as his robin like, way before that, right? was it just not for very long?

Yeah, it didn't last very long! Prodigal was a limited arc that acted as an epilogue to the epic Knightfall saga, the story where Bane broke Bruce's back. After first enlisting Jean-Paul Valley/Azrael to temporarily become Batman while he recovered (it went badly), Bruce accepts Dick's offer to fill in for him as Batman while he goes on a globetrotting training spree to get back into fighting shape:

"I can't replace you, Bruce...but I'd be lying if I said it's not going to be wild standing in for you." -Batman: Prodigal Part 1

Dick works as Batman with Tim as his Robin during this arc, and it's full of a lot of really fun and wholesome Dick-Tim moments. It's also explicitly temporary, and served mostly as an opportunity to grow Dick and Tim's relationship and as a character exploration for Dick about what it meant for him to take on the cowl. He's coming out of a personal rough patch (his relationship with Kory has fallen apart, the Titans have temporarily disbanded, he wasn't Bruce's first choice to fill in for him as Batman during Knightfall, and he feels like a failure in a lot of ways), and it shows in how he approaches being Batman in this arc. He starts off fairly excited, but by the end he's learning the toll the cowl takes on him:

"Why was it such an effort to don the cape and cowl--to leave the Cave? Why does it feel like it should be finished? Did I put the Bat over my heart just to test myself-to get the memory of Two-Face off my back? No--I did it because Bruce asked me. Because he needed me. I gave my word, and that kind of promise-no matter how long the night-sticks for the duration."

"And now he's Batman, the culmination of a dream he thought he'd always had. But it's been wrong. Like [Jean] Paul, he was just filling in for somebody else--marking time till the boss came home. And when it seemed to be going well-this. Failure."

Dick doesn't really consider himself to be Batman in this arc: despite acting as Batman for around a month or so, he really thinks of himself as "Nightwing, filling in for Batman." It's not until Bruce's death and Battle for the Cowl that he actually "becomes Batman" in the way we think of it. And thus, he doesn't really consider Tim to be "his" Robin.

Sidenote: honestly I really feel like Prodigal (and Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul) should be required reading before anyone touches Tim's Red Robin run and Dick and Damian's Batman & Robin book, because it it provides so much background context, character nuance, and story depth to that entire era and shows how far these characters have come: Dick saying Tim was now his "equal" in RR #1 wasn't a joke. He knew how far Tim had come since Prodigal:

"Now I'm the Batman." "Saddled with the responsibility of your own tagalong Robin--and you're afraid I'll do what you did." "No, Tim...it's not you I'm worried about...not you at all." -Batman: Prodigal (1997) /// "He's my responsibility now. You're not my protege, Tim, you're my equal. My closest ally." -Red Robin #1 (2009)

Anyway, for Dick, Damian is "his Robin," and for Damian, Dick is "his Batman." While Tim worked as Robin alongside Dick as Batman in Prodigal, both of them knew it was temporary. Tim is his brother, but not his Robin; that's Damian. Tim still considered himself to be Bruce's Robin at the end of the day, and Dick only operated as Batman long-term with Damian at his side. It's also true in that scene that Dick was talking more from Damian's perspective than he was from his own:

"Tim, Steph, Jason...we were all Robins to Bruce first...but you were my Robin." -Robin (2021) #5

Damian barely knew Bruce when he died in Final Crisis, and him not knowing anything about his dad was actually an explicit plotpoint that cropped up multiple times during Dick and Damian's time as Batman and Robin. More importantly, Bruce didn't make Damian Robin; Dick did. Damian staying Robin was Dick's choice, not Bruce's, and that makes all the difference in the context of Dick and Damian's conversation. So while Dick and Tim did work together as Batman and Robin, Damian is Dick's Robin at the end of the day.

#dick grayson #tim drake #damian wayne #dc comics #batman meta #dick grayson meta #batman prodigal #long post #asks

[havendance]

Concept: Reverse Robins only Damian doesn’t exist. 

Okay, hear me out. It’s not that I have anything against Damian, it’s just that at some point in the future, Damain’s going to get replaced by a different full-time robin who’s Bruce’s new son and when that happens, Damian will no longer be the oldest in Reverse Robin AUs and really I think it’d just be interesting to explore a different type of role reversal. So, without further ado:

Batman has been active for a couple years when Bruce Wayne is invited to be a celebrity judge on a Gotham special of a family gameshow. While recording the special, one of the contestants, a Crystal Cooper (formerly Brown), is killed. Her 9 year old daughter and teammate, Stephanie Brown, watches it happen.

Bruce is struck by the common bond of watching one’s parents die in front of them. Crystal’s death may have looked like an accident, but when Batman comes by to check on Stephanie Brown (now in the custody of her father, Arthur Brown) she’s convinced that it was murder. He promises to investigate. Steph, however, doesn’t take his word for it and keeps sneaking out into the city to run her own investigation into what she’s convinced is her father’s secret criminal empire. Batman fails to get her to stop. In the end he finds that it was in fact Arthur Brown — the 2-bit villain known as the cluemaster — who arranged for it to happen. He allows Steph to come along for the confrontation and when it’s done, he reveals his secret identity to her and offers to take her in while her dad’s in jail. She becomes Batman’s sidekick — Batkid — in an eye-aching costume of purple, pink, yellow, and black. (She designed it herself. I think Batman’s sidekick deserves to be a bright and colorful contrast to his monochrome.)

They work together for years, but eventually Steph can’t stand the way he tries to control her. The way that she loves him, she considers him the father she never had, but it feels like he doesn’t feel the same about her. She’s just his ward while her father serves his sentence, occasionally breaking out and getting stuffed back in by the Bat. She thinks that he’s worried he’s going to turn out like her father, just another criminal.

This all culminates in an absolutely huge argument when she’s seventeen after she gets shot. Bruce tells her she’s fired from Batkid. Steph tells him that he can’t fire her because she’s quitting. Things escalate from there. Bruce kicks her out of the house. She decides that she’s all done playing second fiddle to the Bat and becomes Spoiler — an identity she’s been tossing around in her back pocket for a while now.

A couple months later, she finds out through the paper that there’s a new Batkid at Batman’s side.

When Tim Drake was 3, his parents brought him to compete on a family game show. He watched Crystal Cooper die in front of him. A wonderful first memory for a child to have. Batman solving the case of her murder solidified a lifelong obsession with the vigilante in his mind. When he was ten, he got caught up in one of the many showdowns between Batkid, Batman, and the Cluemaster and there was just enough personal animosity there that he was able to connect the dots between Batkid, Cluemaster, and the nice blond girl who’d smiled at him that day at the gameshow and confided that she thought that her dad was a supervillain but his dad seemed nice.

When Tim was twelve, his parents die in a plane crash and it turns out they didn’t have any relatives that they even got on remotely well with because they left his custody to a family friend who barely pays attention to him. He takes up Bat-stalking and no one notices.

When Tim was thirteen, Batkid vanished off the streets. Batman was clearly depressed by this turn of events and started being way worse at solving mysteries. Tim walked up to Batman one evening while he was brooding and told him that he had to stop being a wuss and get Batkid back because he was hopeless without her. Somehow, this ended with him becoming the new Batkid. And also Bruce adopting him.

Legacies are important to Tim. He sees himself as carrying on the legacy that the original Batkid left. So he wears a blond wig and the exact same costume despite the fact that it’s all pink and purple and he’s clearly way smaller than the last Batkid. I think the outfit has cute little shorts and armored knee socks because baby!steph thought magical girls were cool.

Anyway, Steph and Tim don’t really have that much of a relationship. Tim kind of hero worship’s Steph, but Steph’s hung up on her Bruce Daddy issues and the fact that the kids trying so hard to be like her is kind of awkward and if she admits that she likes him, then that’s like admitting that Bruce is right and also, he’s a little annoying and he might have a bit of a baby crush on her which is just kind of awkward and Bruce adopted him and not her does that mean she’s just not good enough? She warms up to him eventually, but then.

Then Tim’s captured by the Joker and tortured and turned into a mini-Joker and procedes to kill the Joker and then himself.

And Steph? Steph didn’t even notice he was missing. She was ignoring all of his and Bruce’s calls because she *might* have had a one-night stand with Superboy and her period *might* have come late and by the time’s she’s done freaking out about it, her and the titan’s have broken into LexCorp to get more information on Superboy’s biology, and fought off the killer robots that Luthor sent after them, well. Well, then it’s too late. Tim’s already dead and she should’ve been there for him, pregnancy scare and Bruce issues be damned.

When Jason’s thirteen, the Joker dies, and Batman goes majorly off the rails. Which means when he sees the Batmobile sitting in Crime Alley, it’s an extra bad idea when he decides to try and jack its tires. Like, a risking-his-life bad idea. Except… his mom’s sick and getting sicker and the doctors say there’s treatment but that costs money. And his dad’s in jail because he was trying to get money and the only way he could do it was by breaking the law. So now Jason’s the one that needs to track down the money because he *really* doesn’t want his mom to die.

Jason tries to jack the tires. He gets three done by the time Batman gets back. His life flashes before his eyes. He knows he’s going to die. The least he can do is go out brave. So he stands up, turns around, and calls Batman a wuss.

For some reason, this makes Batman go misty-eyed and call him Tim. Fuck, he’s taking off his cowl. Fuck, that’s *Bruce Wayne*. Somehow, this insane evening ends with Jason sort of maybe blackmailing Batman (Bruce Wayne!) into paying for his mom’s cancer treatment. And also, he’s Batkid now, because his mom’s cancer treatment is dependent on Bruce not getting arrested or getting himself killed and he needs someone watching his back.

Steph spends more time with Jason than she did with Tim. Her Bruce issues have evened out some. She’s established herself. She doesn’t want to fail Jason like she did Tim. Of course, that’s once she gets over the initial shock of Jason existing at all.

‘How the Fuck did you get in the Batcave?’ Steph asks.

‘You know, I was wondering that myself,’ Jason replies.

(Jason keeps the Batkid costume mostly the same. But he gives it pants. And refuses to wear a wig like Tim did.)

Bruce does not adopt Jason. Jason has parents, parents he loves, thank you very much. Their relationship is strictly professional and based on blackmail.

Jason’s dad gets out of prison about 6 months after he starts his Batkid training. He ends up killed by Two Face barely a couple weeks later. That’s the first time Jason goes out as Batkid officially. To take Two Face down.

In this AU, Jason’s the one juggling the double identity. He’s trying to take care of his mom and stay in school and be Robin all at once. He hates lying to his mom, but he also can’t tell her that the only reason her treatments are being covered by this mysterious grant are because he’s helping out Batman. Just, where would he even start? He doesn’t want to make her feel bad about the fact that she couldn’t take care of him on her own. (He doesn’t want her to tell him that he has to stop.)

Jason’s probably been Batkid for about a year when a new vigilante shows up, a kid about a year younger than him calling himself Robin.

Dick Grayson is thirteen when his parents get in an argument with Mr Haley and leave the circus to settle as an acrobatic act based in Gotham. He thinks there’s something sus about the whole thing. He starts poking around. His parents ask him not to, but well. Dick is thirteen and feels like he can do anything. Also, he *knows* he saw a weird creepy guy talking with Mr Haly the other day. And also the weird creepy guy kept staring at him. Dick has acrobatic prowess. He can take care of himself. He can get to the bottom of this.

He repurposes some of their old flying greyson outfits to be his costume, calls himself Robin, and sets out into Gotham to find out the truth. Batkid’s kind of cool, Batman tells him to go home, but it turns out there is something fishy going on  and that something calls itself the court of owls so Dick isn’t about to stop. Plus, being a superhero is just cool. 

When Jason’s 15, his mom finds part of his Batkid suit in his room when looking for something. She confronts him about it and he tells her the truth, about batkid, about where the money for her treatments is coming from, about everything. She cries, he cries, she asks him to quit. He does. Bruce keeps paying for the treatments, but she’s not getting better. They spend the last few months together before she dies.

Meanwhile, when Jason quit being Batkid, he asked Robin (now a good friend and partner in crime) to keep an eye on Batman. This results in a short tenure of Dick as Batkid before he stumbles on a lead for the court that Batman says he shouldn’t pursue. He pursues it anyway, Batman fires him from Batkid. Dick’s like whatever, I liked Robin better anyway, and chases it on his own. This ends in Dick Grayson missing, presumed dead. They fish a body out of a burned down building that matches close enough. The Graysons mourn. Jason, who just lost his mom and friend in quick succession morns and goes back to being Batkid because it’s something he knows he can do.

Bruce offers to adopt Jason. Jason accepts.

There’s a new villain in Gotham. Some guy calling himself the Red Hood. He’s calling himself the new Clown Prince of Crime. He’s trying to be the new Joker, alternating between what are essentially large scale practical jokes, and horrifying acts of violence. There are a series of clues. Jokes and punchlines that lead to a confrontation in Amusement Mile where it’s revealed that Tim somehow came back from the dead and is still kind of insane. The Batman-Tim confrontation goes poorly to say the least.

Flashback: Tim-Drake Wayne digs himself out of his grave and ends up in the welcoming arms of the league of assassins. A dip in the lazarus pit restores his mind, but also restores a healthy serving of insanity as well. (Brain damage is tricky at the best of times. The Joker rewrote Tim’s brain in a nasty way before he died. Tim died to a bullet through the brain. Add on the trauma of dying and there’s only so much a punch to the fabric of reality and a glowing magical pit can do.) Ra’s attempts to radicalize him to eco-facism before deciding that Tim who still has too many of the Joker’s ticks driven into him is too much even for him and sends him off to Gotham.

It’s clear to Tim that Batman needs challenges. That he’s grown to weak. It doesn’t bother him that Bruce has picked up another couple of  Batkids from somewhere. No, it bothers him that Batman’s growing complacent. That he’s less than he was when Tim was Batkid. (The reason Batman seems less is a mixture of the grief of loosing a son and the simple fact that Tim is older now). (Tim won’t admit it, but I think some of his anger comes from the fact that Bruce didn’t get there in time to save him. That he wasn’t good enough then.) This all leads to Tim’s decision to declare himself the new Joker. After all, someone’s got to keep Batman on his toes. He spends his time parroting Ra’s eco-fascist talking points and setting up elaborate plans that either result in vaguely eugenicist mass murder or the equivalent of a (normal) pie to the face.

Anyway, more shit happens. There’s a new court assassin who shows up — they’ve left a trail of bodies in their wake, they’re taking potshots at Batman and Batkid. When Batman and Batkid are finally able to stop him, it turns out that it’s Dick. That he didn’t die, he was just turned into an assassin for the court. It takes time to deprogram him, to take down and destroy as much of the court as they can before the rest goes to ground, but eventually Dick’s back to mostly normal. He got to have a tearful reunion with his parents, he’s back to being Robin, except it doesn’t feel like it fits right anymore. So he becomes Nightwing, inspired by the character from the kryptonian story he’d read in the book Superman published. (Yes, it’s the discowing suit because I love it unironically.)

Anyway, that’s as far as I got before running out of ideas.

#reverse robins #stephanie brown #bruce wayne #tim drake #jason todd #havendance writes #finally got the chance to get this all edited up #my au ideas #the one where steph is the oldest #carthago delenda est #dc #bats + birds + affiliated #dick grayson #last of the flying graysons

[taggingtim]

Why I love Pre-Boot Tim Drake and why the Reboot has ruined him

I love Tim Drake.  He is my favorite comic book character of all time.  I’ve been really upset the past few days about what DC has been doing with him lately, and I thought it would be cathartic for me to write something up about it.  (No, this isn’t a rant about Tim being bi/gay; it’s a much larger problem than that. But I’ll get to that in a bit.) Bear with me for a bit of history, first.

When I was a kid I loved the Batman Animated Series.  I know this will lose me a lot of internet cred, but I always preferred the fourth season. In particular, I loved Tim Drake. He was fun and funny and I absolutely adored him.  I used to beg my mom to take me to the mall so I could buy issues of Gotham Adventures. For my birthday one year my parents got me a subscription to the comic, and I was blown away by the idea that I could have comics MAILED to my HOUSE.

Around middle school I started collecting Marvel comics, mostly X-men stuff.  I loved them, but when I started college I quit the hobby for financial reasons.

 Fast forward a few years, and I felt I was financially stable enough to start buying comics again. Rather than going back to Marvel, I decided to give Batman comics a chance.  I had no idea where to start, and when I found out my beloved Tim had his own comic series, I thought it was a perfect entry point into the Batman universe. I bought the complete series from a local comic shop and dove in.

 Tim’s Robin series was exactly what I was looking for in a comic.  He was very different from little Timmy Todd from BtAS, but I loved him. I built the rest of my comic collection around him, grabbing up every book that he was featured in, from Young Justice to Teen Titans to Batman, Detective Comics, Nightwing, Red Robin, and many others.  I have random books from series like The Demon just because Tim was in them.

 So why did I like Tim so much?  What about this character made me so excited for more?  I found in Tim something that I had never seen in a comic book before: character growth.  Somehow, though he was written by many different authors over many different years, Tim managed to have a character arc that is consistent and makes sense. Sure, there were a few small bumps along the way, but on the whole Tim has always stayed true to his character, and he’s developed in a way that the big name characters, like Batman, never can.

 When we’re first introduced to Tim, he’s a young teen who has been neglected by his parents growing up. He’s smart, healthy, and strong, but he lacks so much self confidence and has little sense of self worth.  Tim notices Bruce’s increasing violence as he grieves for the loss of his son, and Tim knows he needs to step in and help.  Batman needs a Robin.

 For most characters, this would be the part where Tim put himself forward for the job.  But he doesn’t.  He seeks out Dick Grayson and begs him to come home instead.  It’s only when Batman and Nightwing are in danger and there is literally no one else to help that Tim steps up and dons the cape. And once he does, he’s constantly plagued by self-doubt, terrified he will screw up and leave Batman worse than ever before.

 From there, Tim undergoes intense training.  He never begs to be in the spotlight, doesn’t push to go out on the streets before he’s ready.  His goal is to help Bruce as much as possible.

 Here’s where I started to fall in love with him.  All that self-doubt, the constant need to be useful?  That’s exactly what you would expect to see from a child whose parents had ignored and neglected him.  He finally has a parental figure who sees him, who values him, and Tim does everything he can to make himself worthy in the hopes that Bruce will keep him around.

 This is the first example of character consistency that we see with Tim.  And it continues.  When his mom dies and his dad is put in a coma, you see Tim struggle to come to terms with losing the people he loves, but never had a relationship with.  Tim almost never mentions his mom after her death, because she just wasn’t present in his life.  When his dad recovers and decides to stick around, Tim struggles to build a relationship with him.  He’s plagued with guilt because he’s finally found the father figure he needed in Bruce, but he thinks that he’s supposed to feel that way for Jack.  It’s a running undercurrent in their relationship that creates distance between them for years.

 This is already so long, so I’m going to try to summarize a bit more.  We get to watch Tim grow up.  We see his awkward relationship with his first girlfriend, Ariana.  He doesn’t know how to treat her; he’s never had the opportunity to observe a healthy relationship.  But he tries so, so hard.  All of Tim’s relationships are awkward, because he’s never had a model of a good one. Steph is a great match for him, because she’s very vocal about what she wants and needs, and she isn’t afraid to call Tim out when he messes up, which is exactly what Tim needs.

 Big things happen to Tim. He’s stuck with Jean-Paul Valley, who slowly goes insane, leaving Tim to try to keep the city in one piece.  He’s infected with the Clench, a plague that sweeps over Gotham and kills everyone it touches, and barely escapes with his life. His girlfriend is sexually assaulted, leaving him to deal with the fallout.  His family moves out of Gotham, and he has to sneak back in during No Man’s Land to help.  His relationship with his dad has intense ups and downs, resulting in him being sent to boarding school, punished in a variety of ways, and generally caused a lot of trouble in his life.

 Then people start dying. Over the course of about a year in his life, Tim loses his girlfriend, his dad, a close friend, and his best friend, each of whom dies under tragic conditions.  Tim’s grief is intense, and he is understandably traumatized by the losses. We see fundamental changes in his character.  He changes his costume from something bright and cheerful to something darker that reflects his emotional state.  He’s more subdued, his adventures a little more serious.

 When Bruce first tries to adopt him, Tim literally creates an uncle and hires an actor to play him, just to avoid dealing with the situation.  Bruce has viewed Tim as a son for years, so to him the adoption is an obvious step.  For Tim, it feels like a betrayal of his father, and it takes a while before he’s ready to accept Bruce’s love, home, and a place in his family.  

 When Damian shows up on the scene, Tim really struggles with him, and not just because early Damian is a horrid brat who tries to kill Tim on multiple occasions.  Tim has always felt the need to earn his place with Bruce, and Damian constantly throws all of Tim’s biggest fears in his face—he’s not wanted or needed now that the “real” son is here, he’s not worthy of a place in the family, he’s not good enough.

 Tim tries to clone Conner, his best friend.  He’s lost so many people, and he’s desperate to get them back.  Conner was cloned to begin with and fully matured over a very short period of time; the technology clearly exists, so why can’t Tim use it to get his best friend back?  And if he can get Conner back, why not the others he’s lost?  He eventually gives up, but when he eventually gets access to a Lazarus Pit, he immediately wants to incorporate the waters into his process so he can revive his loved ones.  With Dick’s help, Tim eventually decides to let it go, but it’s such a poignant moment for the character.

 Then Bruce dies, and Dick takes Robin away.  Tim switches to the Red Robin persona as he travels the world, alone, trying to prove that he was right.  He has to deal with the trauma of losing another father, finds out that his girlfriend never died but let him hurt so much for so long.  His brother and the only close friend he has left both think his grief has overwhelmed his sense and that he’s gone crazy.  He’s utterly alone.

 The Red Robin series is such a great culmination for Tim.  He finds a place for himself as a hero, as a CEO.  He gets parts of his family back—Bruce, Steph, Bart, Conner.  He finally figures out who he wants to be and creates a place for himself.

 This overarching character development is what I love about Tim.  His many, many traumas impact his decisions, and you can clearly see how he changes over time as a result of them.  I didn’t even go into his development as a leader from his early fumbling with Young Justice to his strong leadership of the Teen Titans, or how his relationships with Conner, Bart, and Cassie develop so fluidly and realistically over the years.

 This is why I love Tim. Characters like Batman are static; nothing that happens to them will ever have a lasting impact, because in the end the character always returns to what they were.  Tim, on the other hand, has changed and developed A LOT since his initial appearance.  His growth has always been consistent and logical.

 When the reboot happened, all of that character growth was lost.  Tim was replaced with a jerk who betrayed his friends and cheated on his girlfriend.  DC has basically retconned all of this and tried to turn Tim back into who he was, but by taking away all of the things that have happened to him over the years, Tim has lost SO MUCH.

 I keep looking for my Tim in recent comics, and I just can’t find him.  It breaks my heart, because I love him so much, and it feels like he’s lost to me forever.  The most recent Young Justice comic series actually gave me hope; I felt like maybe, finally, someone was going to write Tim correctly.  He had his primary friendships back, his relationship with Steph was developing (even if they seem to have completely dropped all the development around Steph’s decision to let Tim think she was dead).  The actual book itself wasn’t fantastic, but it felt like they were headed in the right direction.

 Over the last few days, I read the Batman: Urban Legends books.  I actually read the Batman/Red Hood story first, which was fantastic.  I was really excited to read Tim’s story (though I already knew how it ended).  Jason’s character was handled so well, and he seemed to actually have some character development that will hopefully last.  I anticipated the same for Tim.

 But Tim’s story was awful. The plot was all over the place—kids are being kidnapped, so Tim has to join a pain cult to get them back?  He’s somehow helping Oracle with computer issues while simultaneously questioning witnesses?  He’s broken up with Steph, off camera, shortly after telling her how much he loves her, but Steph somehow thinks that they should have a caring relationship where Tim tells her what he’s feeling?  Bernard has somehow become a good enough fighter to stand side by side with Robin?  Tim STILL doesn’t have a code name?  Why is everyone suddenly hounding him about what he wants to do with his life?

 It’s just such a mess of a story.  If it didn’t end with Tim agreeing to go on a date with Bernard, no one would ever have even mentioned it.  There’s nothing particularly re-readable or enjoyable about it.

 I actually liked that they brought Bernard back. I really enjoyed him in the original Robin series. It’s been a while since I read that part of the series (I’m actually working my way back through it now).  I know Bernard always read as gay to me, yet somehow I felt like he was out of character in these books.

 And then, the climax of the story.  Tim is bi, or gay, or has at least agreed to go on a date with a boy.

 If this had happened in the pre-boot, when Tim was Red Robin and had an actual character arc, I honestly wouldn’t have had an issue with it.  I do think it would have needed a LOT more build up than it was given here.  Tim has always been a very introspective character, and we’ve been party to so much of his internal monologue over the years.  It seems very strange to me that such a huge thing just sneaks up on him out of nowhere when he’s never even thought about it before.

 But more than that, this story just feels like the final death blow for the Tim I loved.  The whole arc is about how Tim doesn’t know who he is or who he wants to be.  What will his hero name be?  Will he go to college?  What is he going to do with his life?  These are all great questions, and his answer to all of them is… date a boy?  

 Is this going to be his defining characteristic going forward?  From here will we just see Tim exploring and discovering his sexuality?  The Tim we have now doesn’t have a family, a team, a purpose, or even a code name.  Why was this the thing that DC decided to give us?  It feels like they wanted to make a gay Robin and decided it would be Tim because they didn’t know what else to do with him.

 It’s stupid, but I honestly feel like I’ve spent the past few days grieving the loss of a loved one. The Tim that DC is presenting now is just not the person that I knew.  Tim would never break up with Steph that abruptly for what he admits is no apparent reason.  He would never say “just call me Robin, since Damian’s out of town.”  Everything that I love about Tim seems to be gone, and in its place DC has given me a date with a boy.  

 Again, it’s not Tim being not-straight that I have an issue with.  I’ve never read the character that way, but it’s something I can live with. My issue is the way it was handled. Why not make Tim an actual person first, and then explore his sexuality?  Send him off to college!  He’s obviously thinking about it!  It’s the perfect opportunity to give him his own book.  He can move to a different city, choose a new name, and DC can introduce a whole new set of characters.  Figure out which parts of Tim’s backstory are still canon, and which have been dropped. Make him a person again, and then let him explore his sexuality.

 I know this post is all over the place, and I don’t have time right now to go back and edit it.  I just really needed an outlet for my frustration.  Right now it feels like there are so many people who are so excited about Tim being bi/gay, but they don’t know anything else about him.  I keep seeing people comment how DC has been “dropping hints for years!” with no evidence other than “he and Superboy were really close!”  I guess I’d just really like to have some dialogue with other people who are fans of Tim, rather than fans of Tim-as-bi/gay or fans of Tim-as-straight.

 Does anyone else feel this way?  I’d honestly like to have a dialogue about it with other long time fans.

#Tim Drake #Red Robin #this is a long one #pre-boot vs reboot #this formatting is a little weird #Batman: Urban Legends 6 #Batman: Urban Legends 5 #Batman: Urban Legends 4

[fishtre]

What's your opinion of Jason's Red Hood black and white outfit with the cape and red pill-shaped helm-mask-very Freudian shaped thingie on his head? I know he was being a dramatic hoe and a supervillain at the time, but I just see Dick, Tim and Damien doubled over laughing, pointing and wheezing at the sight of that fashion disaster.

Hu-uh- Totally, but Tim and Dick being alive and active during the 90's to early 00's means they can't make fun of anyone’s fashion sense. ( ¬‿¬ ) ✧

As for my opinion, the TLDR is that it’s not a good design for Jason. 

There’s nothing easier to draw than a skin-tight outfit, just like drawing a helmet is easier than drawing a face with hair. Now easy don't always equate fun, but that's very subjective and it’s not why I think this outfit is bad.

The reason why I think it's not a good design is because ; context and questionable intents.

That design doesn't fit what was previoulsy established about the character, but perfectly ilustrates how after UTRH, Jason suddenly went from disillusioned to delusional off panels.

You said the magic word, anon : supervillain.

We're post UTRH then, and what did that comic establish about Jason? That Jason's not a cape. Simple as that. Jason thinks Batman or his methods (and thus any other bats), are out of touch with reality. He is very sufficient toward them; this disillusioned cynical who wear pants and not tights, a jacket and not a cape, a helmet and not a mask, etc... One glance at his design in UTRH and anyone can tell Jason’s neither part of Batman’s crew, nor is he part of Gotham’s more colorful rogues. 

Jason is literally this too-down-to-earth nerd who bully Batman because he's a comic book character who operates under comic book logic. Ironically Jason’s gray morals makes him a very versatile character, but DC still went with the only direction that was in complete contradiction with his motivations or background. Which is super impressive, in a morbid sort of way.

Last grip with the design: the creatives' intents. Because, again, context.

The way Jason read and is framed as in that arc feels ill-intentioned toward the character. The red pill-helmet is very different from the Batman Ninja’s basket head for this.

In BN, the design is in accord with the character, the setting, and the tone of the story. Here, the helmet and cape is a reference to a Red Hood design that Joker once wear in some versions. That’s it. The intents is to associate Jason with the Joker's imagery (whereas UTRH red hood design avoid this altogether). Here, Jason just pulled a 180° in term of characterization off panels so he can be Bat!Dick's Joker. Something-you become the monster you hunt- something.

Meaning: The outfit isn't designed to fit the character. But the character is changed/twisted to fit the new design/direction. 

It either intentionally betrays the material that established the character, or show a complete misunderstanding of the character.

RH!Jason isn't obsessed about the Joker or being the better Batman. That’s a hot take that appeared after, strangely coincide with the starts of Jason’s character assassination. UTRH Jason isn’t a Joker’s rogue. He’s a Batman’s rogue. Jason's obsessed to determine if his partnership/relationship with Batman meant as much as it meant to Jason, or if Jason was a fool all along. Joker is just a tool/plot device Jason use to get back at Batman. It’s a duel between Jason’s logic (an eye for an eye, a death for a death) versus Batman’s.  In a way, the way the story is set already admits Jason knows Bruce’s ideology is more important here, and crushes Jason last hope to be proven wrong in the ending.

Red pill Hood has no such nuance and brings nothing fun on the table unless you get off on hating Jason. BatDick, Robin!Tim or Damian would have profited from facing a ennemy or rival like UTRH!Jason.

Or maybe what ultimately culminated into Red pill Hood; the pathetic villain who can’t even escape prison on his own when it’s Gotham’s rogue 101, the rotten apple all-along, the failure robin in the wrong for betraying/criticizing the Bat’s creed, is the bad guy or mirror image theses characters deserve. Idk.

So, anon, if you’re still there lmao, you perfectly summed it: "the other Robins should have laugh, finger pointing at Jason for wearing this”. Like they're all mean kindergarteners.

I think it's very much what this design was supposed to inspire to the readers at the time. I think the outfit was meant to make Jason looks as unhinged and ridiculous as the character had been made to sound then.

Jason had this long character assassination period post-UTRH and this design/relooking is an iconic part of that era.

The minute DC tried to salvage red-head Jason (a change of staff was involved), Jason got a redesign that took inspiration from Red pill Hood. But everything about it, looks and characterization, was less vile. I still dislike that iteration because it's a follow up to this post-UTRH assassination and has red-hair. But if I forget that for a hot minute, we now had a character whose only purpose wasn't just to wanks the bats or some petty fanboys’ ego, but to be an actual antagonist, and DC forbid it, a fun villain/anti-villain.

#reply #that was cathartic to write #thks for asking anon #always my pleasure to butcher english lmao

[bigskydreaming]

Thinking about the Church of Blood story in general now, like, the big culmination one, and it had some really great Donna and Joey moments, as well as some great scenes between Kory and Jason actually.

I’ve talked a little about my disconnect with the Kory - Jason - Roy trio in general in the past, in terms of their New 52 dynamic vs their history pre-boot.....but this story in particular makes it stand out for me, because like, both Roy and Kory thought Jason was precious as fuck, but he was very very much their friend/boyfriend’s kid brother. Not in a dismissive or condescending way, but just like.....hmm, hard to describe exactly. But it also went both ways, and personally, I’ll never be able to look at the three of them and NOT see Jason as always viewing them through the lens of how he first knew them.

Because one thing that I really really think has so much potential to be explored after Jason’s return and when he starts to get closer with the family again, is......so like, if you’re going off of pre-boot continuity, whether you ship DickKory or DickBabs or DickRoy or whomever....I think if you play off of the idea of DickKory’s canon relationship at all, to any degree, like......Jason is Gonna Have Opinions and Feelings about them not being together by the time he returns to Gotham. I think it absolutely is gonna be a big deal to him, whether he voices that or not, and hell, whether HE even consciously processes why that is or not.

And that’s because canon DickKory IMO was quite literally Jason’s first look at a happy, healthy and mutually respectful adult romance.

Jason’s never cited any real memories of his parents being happy together, frankly. And for the three or at most four years he lived with Bruce, its not like Bruce was in any committed long-term relationships other than his flirtations with Selina. And while Jason was never quite as removed from Bruce’s Justice League circle of friends as a lot of fanon takes for granted, its not like Bruce was hosting weekly gatherings and thus giving Jason a lot of up close encounters with Clark and Lois as a couple, or Ollie and Dinah or Barry and Iris.

So for pretty much Jason’s entire existence as Robin, the relationship he had with Dick and by extension Kory as his brother’s girlfriend....literally WAS his first and most formative view of what two adults in love COULD look like.

And throughout that time, Dick and Kory were SOLID. Like, they were together for a very long time, and the issues in their relationship pretty much existed at the start of their relationship when they were first getting together and working through their very different at times outlooks on life....but with this predating Jason’s debut.....and then like.....conflicts in their relationship pretty much only then started appearing at the tail end of Dick’s brainwashing, with Kory’s wedding on Tamaran - which Jason wasn’t witness to, and didn’t last long at all as Kory returned in time to help rescue Dick and with Jason having a front row seat to her concerns for him and desire to reconcile and put all of that behind them. And then again AFTER that....Kory and Dick were once again quite solid for awhile, up until and after Jason’s death, with her pretty much being Dick’s rock through all of that....and their ultimate break-up basically only happening around the time of Knightfall, when Tim was already firmly established as Robin.

So for basically the entire time Jason knew Dick before he died.....he knew Kory too, and the fact that his brother and Kory were very much in love and very happy and very GOOD together. And then years later, Jason returns, and finds that at some point in his absence.....the literal golden couple, the two people whose relationship was literally his introduction to the concept of a healthy adult relationship, hell, probably the only reason he viewed such a thing as even POSSIBLE.....had broken up, and not only did nobody ever talk about this or bring this up....if Jason HAD looked for details....the reality is very few people probably even had a clue WHY....beyond just being able to tell him vague facts like “oh they were engaged, but something happened on their wedding day, and then they called it off, and then Dick left the Titans around the same time and they never got back together.”

I mean, if I’m Jason, and I come back and that’s all anyone can tell me about why my brother and his girlfriend, the two people who I thought were more in love than anyone else I’d ever in my life known two people to be.....

I’m gonna be like....dude, what the FUCK HAPPENED??!?!

But at the same time, probably not wanting to actually ASK Dick that, because sensing that anything to result in this probably isn’t something he remotely wants to talk about, or be reminded of just how good they used to be, back when Jason knew them.....and also there’s always the possibility that on some level Jason doesn’t fully WANT to know what happened, as he doesn’t want to ruin the mental image/memories he has of this formative-on-his-view-of-romance couple’s happier times by knowing just what exactly did happen to destroy that.

But that doesn’t mean he’s not gonna definitely have some thoughts about all that and a whole lot of confusion and likely some mixed feelings....

And it DOES also mean that if and when he DID find out about various factors that contributed to the end of their relationship, like the role Mirage played in that as well as the one-sided nature of how the Titans as a whole reacted to Dick in that storyline.....IMO, its not going to be as generic or removed a situation for Jason as most Jason-finds-out-about-Tarantula-and-sometimes-Mirage takes often assume it to be. For Jason, its likely to be a bit more personal than that, especially compared to the way Tim, Damian, Steph or others who came along later would view that revelation.

And this too, plays into why I’m big on “no, actually Dick and Jason did have a sibling relationship k and thx, this is kinda key and crucial to some very poignant story beats”....

Because Jason was THERE, back in the day. He SAW Dick and Kory together. I need to grab some panels of Jason and Kory from the Brother Blood story because they had some cute moments and like.....I mean, we might not have seen much there but what we did see, he was Team DickKory. The end of their relationship would not be some abstract piece of history the way it would be for most of the Batfam....because given that Jason literally interacted more with Dick during the time he existed as Robin than even Bruce did during that same period.....Jason is the one and ONLY member of the Batfam who could ever possibly have an actual clear image and view of just what Dick LOST due to the end of his and Kory’s relationship.

Because he’s the only one who ever really got a chance to see what Dick HAD there....back when he had it, and it was good.

#definitely still no agenda #you can trust me Im a doctor

[bullyingbatman]

so some folks and i on the batfam big bang discord were talking about the robins reading warrior cats and i started thinking about who their favourite characters would be so. here’s some analysis. (combining my newest and oldest obsessions?? it’s more likely than you’d think!) 

i’m going with the assumption here that people tend to like characters they relate to the most-- i don’t think that’s necessarily true, but i think it’s the easiest way to figure out characters’ favourite characters, so here we go 

(under the cut in case you want to skip out on this nonsense)

Dick’s favourite character is Firestar. Firestar, much like Dick, is The Original. Firestar is brave and charismatic and a good leader, all traits Dick embodies as well (and also, if we’re going with the assumption that Dick read the books as a kid, I can totally see him looking up to Firestar; & Firestar being the first arc’s protagonist works out time-wise for that). Also, Firestar left behind the culture he grew up in for a new, more dangerous world, and Dick did the same, leaving the circus to settle in Gotham and become Robin.

( @transdickgraysn also pointed out that Firestar would likely be Duke’s favourite as well, as both Duke and Firestar felt like they had no place in the family/Clan at first, and then later settled in as a respected member; also, much like Firestar, Duke wants to help others and is a hero for purely altruistic reasons.)

Jason’s favourite is Ivypool. Ivypool always felt like she played second-best to her sister, because everyone adored her sister and tended to ignore her (sound familiar...?). Ivypool’s feelings of inferiority were manipulated by a villain who trained her to kill, and even after she chose to leave that behind, her clanmates had trouble trusting her. I feel like Jason would definitely relate to her. Also, she’s badass as hell, he totally loves that. Jason would also be a pretty big Hollyleaf stan: Hollyleaf’s whole mental breakdown leading her to murder the cat who tried to kill her and attempt to kill her mother, and also her ‘death’, would be incredibly relatable to Jason, and I think he has a lot of respect for her mellowing out and choosing to live a simple life in order to redeem her past sins.

Tim’s favourite is Bluestar. Bluestar is smart, she’s a good leader, but she’s also a tragic figure who has lost so much over the course of her life. Tim has also been through his fair share of shit: I feel like he’d emphasise with Bluestar over things like the death of her mother and sister, the loss of her kits, and Tigerclaw’s betrayal. Also, I think Bluestar’s descent into depression in the latter half of arc one, culminating in her heroic sacrifice, really appealed to Tim, considering his own struggles with depression and reactions to grief and betrayal. Tim’s suicidal ideation definitely comes in this desire to sacrifice himself for some noble cause, and I feel like he reads Bluestar’s death and thinks yeah, something like that would be good. (Tim please go to therapy.)  He also probably relates to Crookedstar: agreeing to learn from/work with/obey a shadowy figure with ambiguously good intentions leads to him losing every good thing in his life, to be left only with monumentous responsibilities. 

Steph’s favourite character is Squirrelflight. An upbeat, cheerful character who’s stubborn and takes no shit and invites herself on a god-given quest because what else is she gonna do? Steph is the BIGGEST Squirrelflight stan. Squirrelflight’s on-and-off-again relationship with Brambleclaw reminds her of dating Tim, and Squirrelflight also has an emotionally difficult situation regarding her children. Steph likes Squirrelflight because’s she’s loyal and she sticks to her guns no matter what and she’s not above character development but also she doesn’t betray who she is, and that’s relatable and compelling as hell.

Damian’s favourite character is Brambleclaw. Brambleclaw has an evil father and a father figure who is his father’s mortal enemy and paragon of good in comparison. Damian has an evil grandfather and a father who opposes him as a force of good. I feel like Damian relates to Brambleclaw’s struggles with his darker inner nature, and with wanting to be close to his evil family but knowing that they’re evil and don’t have his best interests at heart. Brambleclaw is looked at with hostility by his clanmates because of his father, and has to go further to prove himself, and Damian also felt that he had to prove himself against the batfamily’s hostility when he first joined them because of how he was raised. Also, Bramblestar becoming possessed in Broken Code reminds Damian of that time Talia implanted a device in his spine to control him in order to hurt his loved ones, a development that made this already relatable character hit even further home. 

(update: @transdickgraysn has done it once again by pointing out that firestar (dick’s favourite character) being a father figure/mentor to brambleclaw (damian’s favourite character parallels dick being a father figure/mentor to damian...)

So, uh, yeah! That’s that. I wasn’t really going anywhere with this it was just fun to think about (and I really enjoy figuring out character parallels). 

#hot takes #meta #i'm not.... tagging this

[yicruz48]

On CBR Community, there's debate about Event Leviathan : Checkmate is being indefinitely l postponed, is it related to Damian's fate after TT annual (lose Robin title, missing, etc). Because on Leviathan Dawn Damian is still Robin, so if Checkmate event want to use him as Robin, that will confuse the timeline. But on the other hand, the postponing is after pandemic break, and before pandemic break, Damian supposed to lose Robin title after issue 41. So what do you think about this?

First of all, I am so sorry for taking too much time to answer your question! 

I’ve been taking my time thinking about how to answer this post and how approach answering. 

Me and @wesavegotham discussed this a bit after the news broke, so this will be a culmination of our thoughts on it. 

To reiterate, a lot of things seemed to have changed at DC Comics since Dan DiDio left and quarantine put the comic industry on pause for a few weeks. These events coinciding with each other seemed to have given writers a chance to cancel and/or pause events (5G), expand events (Death Metal), extend their time on books (Tynion) and add new stories. Even Teen Titans changed during this time:

-> Annual being pushed an arc later than after the Djinn Arc.

-> Solicitations for issue 42 not making sense with the actual storyline in 42.

-> Eduardo Pansica was supposed to draw the interior in TT 42-44 not Javier Fernandez. And Javier Fernandez was supposed to draw the interior of the annual not Pansica but as you seen that has switched. Which means either stories were either scrapped or extended.  

-> You could even see Robbie Thompson’s entry as new main writer as a change brought upon TT. He has seemed to have returned Damian some what back in character, or more in character. That could’ve lead to changes. 

So it didn’t surprise me very much to see Leviathan indefinitely postponed. But as you said, it does brings a lot questions about Damian. 

Bendis’s upcoming Leviathan event is well about...Leviathan. And Leviathan not only has history with Talia but also Damian. And this is something Bendis himself empathized in Leviathan Dawn: 

Leviathan was Talia’s and Damian’s (whether he wants or not) family business. Initiated by Talia to be passed down to Damian. In other words, this event not only is important for Talia, but also for Damian. The future of Leviathan will make an impact in Damian’s life.

This comic is also supposed to ‘restructure the DC Universe’ (Surprise, surprise, name a comic Bendis doesn’t claim to ‘change’ the DC Universe). It also supposed to clean up all the similar organizations in the DC Universe and have a lasting impact.   

It is also important to note that this comic came into fruition between Dan Didio and Bendis and well...DiDio is not at DC anymore so who knows if that has had an impact on how big this event is suppose be. The one thing I know is that Manhunter: Secret Origins was canceled so it looks like this Leviathan thing has been minimized and/or changed. 

Now that I have established the apparent importance of this event, let me finally answer your main question:

“Because on Leviathan Dawn Damian is still Robin, so if Checkmate event want to use him as Robin, that will confuse the timeline. But on the other hand, the postponing is after pandemic break, and before pandemic break, Damian supposed to lose Robin title after issue 41. So what do you think about this?”

I am assuming your big question is; Do you think that Leviathan: Checkmate being indefinitely postponed has any relevance to Damian losing his Robin title or was impacted by DC’s future plans for Damian? 

Well, first we have to acknowledge we have a lot events going on at the moment in DC not just the situation with TT:

-> Joker War 

-> Nightwing Returning

-> Death Metal 

 And that DC said this about Leviathan being postponed: “ rescheduled to align with upcoming DC Universe storylines.“

So one of my thoughts is that they have so many events going on at he same time, they are trying to space it out by postponing it. 

But as you said, Damian is Robin in Leviathan: Dawn so it wouldn’t make sense to have 6 part series that runs through the time Robin supposedly loses his Robin title and goes missing. Plus its kind of strange to have Batman involved in this story if he’s out dealing with the Joker elsewhere. 

I think they are either waiting for Damian to return as Robin in the future in order to publish the series. Tynion did say that he going to demonstrate what the future of Batfamily will look like at Batman #100 and also that he had “big, big plans for Damian in bat-books” which could mean something positive or negative. On a positive note it could mean that Damian will return to work on Bruce’s side more often and separate from TT.

But also this is a theory, but Damian going ‘missing’  in TT could have something to do with Event Leviathan: Checkmate. Crazy thought, but Mark Shaw (Current Leviathan leader) could’ve kidnapped Damian to use as leverage against Talia in order for her give up Leviathan forever. Would be a great opportunity to patch Damian and Talia’s relationship although the thought of Bendis writing it makes me uncomfortable.

Or if we are inevitability going through this “Damian becoming an anti-hero/ Villian path” we could have Damian running off and working with Mark Shaw. Either because he wants to infiltrate Leviathan or because his current opinions about the world kinda aligns with Mark Shaw:

They both look like taking/willing to make radical decisions in order to change the world for ‘better’. So after the annual if Bruce does hurt Damian, it could be the final straw for Damian to decide to fully work against him and his mother. This also works with Tynion’s “big, big plans” for Damian. As I said before this could either a positive or negative thing. And the negative would be Damian returning as Batman’s enemy (which by the way making a child a threat to big hero is always a bad idea for the child. They wouldn’t be taken seriously by the readers or heroes alike, I mean see the Trickster in the Flash).   

But again, my second prediction would only work if Damian is gone for awhile. And we need too wait for the solicitations of TT #46 to get a hint if Damian missing is temporary or going to last longer than the Joker War.

Again, I’m sorry this took awhile to get out. 

Also, I am interested to hear your thoughts and also anybody else’s theories for that matter in the comments or in re-blogs.

#There is honestly so much possibilities for what DC could be planning for Damian's future #Damian Wayne #Robin #Batman #Bruce Wayne #Bendis #Brian Michael Bendis #leviathan #Talia al Ghul #League of Assassins #yicruz48 #Teen Titans #Mark Shaw #Green Arrow #Lois Lane #The question #The bones #colonel #the king #event leviathan checkmate

[our-happygirl500-fan]

One thing that is really interesting is how Steph shares experiences with each of the Batkids.

Jason and Steph parallel each other in really interesting ways what with them both growing up in poverty, having to be responsible for their households due to their mothers being incapable due to drug addictions and their dads being in and out of prison most of their lives, both have issues and trauma from their relationship with Bruce and both have been brutally tortured and died. Steph has even had experiences with homelessness and her own mother betraying her and leaving her to die as of the New 52 and Batman Eternal.

One of the reasons she was one of the first friends that Cass ever made is because they bonded over their abusive dads together: Steph never judged Cass for David and Cass never judged Steph for Arthur because they each knew what it was like to grow up with a dad that did bad things and have the conflicting emotions of loving them primarily because they're your dad, and did have moments of affection and love, and hating them because of all the pain and hurt they caused.

Tim and Steph both share a weight and burden that Jason's death caused during their early vigilante careers and time as Robin, both being in Jason's shadow yet contrasting each other, Tim dealing with that fact that he has to be different than Jason, what happened to Jason can't happen to him ect while Steph though she didn't know it at the time was dealing with the fact that she was too much like Jason and Bruce couldn't distinguish her and her talent and abilities from Jason's shadow and fate all the way until leading her to her own death.

Barbara and Steph share similar trauma as both have been shot by villains, Barbara by the Joker and Steph by Black Mask who shot her and thought he'd killed her. Steph's trauma with guns was briefly implied during her batgirl run where she had a Black Mask flashback after she was shot. They’ve both also had to rebuild themselves after said traumatic events and both coming out stronger on the other side. Barbara becoming Oracle and Steph coming to understand that being a vigilante is part of who she is and going back to Gotham brighter and more sure of herself culminating in her earning the Batsymbol and becoming Batgirl.

Steph became Batgirl around the same time Damian became Robin both of them dealing with trying to fit into those roles and everything expected of them and yet wanting these roles and everything they mean so badly while also dealing with the fact that their predecessors have left Gotham and Gotham and the vigilante community in general is in shambles after Bruce's death and their own Batman is someone learning and trying to fit into his own new role himself. They also both shared anxiety over when it was revealed that Bruce was alive as they worried that Batgirl and Robin might be taken from them as they both got their roles after Bruce's death.

Dick and Steph both have similarities to the point that even Bruce has compared the two and both have been known as the 'happy robins' by the fandom yet both have a very strong anger underneath their cheerful dispositions. They also both have been shown again and again to push down their own negative emotions in order to provide emotional stability for the rest of the family Steph with Tim, Damian, Barbara, and even Cass and Dick with pretty much the entire family

Also this doesn't really have anything to do with trauma but Duke is from the Narrows and Steph lived in the Narrows for a while with Harper and Cullen so you know same neighbourhood!

I just think it’s really interesting how in one way or another Steph is in a position to understand each Batkid and is really set to be an emotional centre of the family because Steph is in a unique position of understanding.

#DC comics #stephanie brown #jason todd #cassandra cain #damian wayne #tim drake #barbara gordon #dick grayson #duke thomas #batfamily #dc

[ty-talks-comics]

Best of DC: Week of March 18th, 2020

Best of this Week: Robin 80th Anniversary

All of the Robins are awesome.

Every Bat-fan has their favorite as they usually define the era when they began their love of Batman and comics in general. Older fans love Dick Grayson for being the first and greatest Robin that helped make Batman brighter. Edgy 80s kids and teens both love and hate Jason Todd for being the bad boy that died. Younger fans love Tim Drake for being the one to carry the name in the later seasons of the animated series and being one of the best and smartest Robins. Girls get representation from the spunky Carrie Kelly and the awesome Stephanie Brown. No one like Damian. (I’m kidding, he’s super fun.)

There’s a Robin for everyone and this 100 Page Spectacular celebrates the long history of Batman’s greatest sidekicks (though misses a chance to give Carrie Kelly her own short story) and does an amazing job in displaying each characters personalities by some of the best people to have written them over the years. Because there are so many, I’m only going to talk about the ones I really enjoyed!

The first FOUR stories follow Dick Grayson and some of his best eras.

“A Little Nudge” is written by Marv Wolfman with pencils by Tom Grummett, two parts of the legendary team behind the best years of the New Titans (1989). This story follows Dick Grayson as Batman begins to nudge him in the direction of becoming his own man by being increasingly irritable to his protege. At this point in time, Dick was dealing with the stresses of outgrowing his childhood identity and Batman’s continuing overbearing nature. Where Bruce was all about being cold and methodical, Dick thought with his gut.

Grummett, Scott Hanna on inks and Adriano Lucas on colors illustrate Dick’s frustration through his increasingly sour facial expressions and sudden heroic actions. The costumes are as colorful as those old days with Dick wearing the bright yellow cape, bright red tunic and the elf shoes. In the middle of the dynamic duo’s fight with Natural History Museum thieves, Dick stops fighting when a child gets shot, against Bruce’s orders, and stays with him until the bad guys either get away or get taken down by Batman. 

Later on, Dick tells Batman that he’s outgrown the Boy Wonder name and sets off to become his own man as Nightwing. Wolfman gives readers an excellent inner monologue from Bruce where he owns up to the fact that he was nudging Dick in that direction because he had just turned eighteen and Bruce believed in him. Batman always supports his kids, especially his first and it turns the story of separation into something heartwarming.

“Aftershocks” is a fun story by Chuck Dixon and Scott McDaniel who worked on my favorite Nightwing series in the 1996 - 2005 era of the character. This wasn’t anything major, just Nightwing doing everything he could to save people after an earthquake causes massive damage to a suspended bridge in Bludhaven. This era of Nightwing was characterized by him mostly striking out on his own and becoming a Bludhaven police officer, being inspired by Jim Gordon. 

Dick really came into his own and developed a rogues gallery to himself during this time, not to mention the sweet costume with the blue “wings” running down his arms into his fingers and those big, bulky gauntlets and boots. This era was the epitome of the 90s with big set piece moments, big muscles and Nightwing just being a nice and generally charming guy. After diving off of the bridge to attach a winch to a falling car, the woman inside asks to name her baby after him and he smiles and says, “Robin works, right?”

“The Lesson Plan” is a story from my favorite modern age creators in Tim Seeley, Tom King and Mikel Janin. The Grayson series took place shortly after Dick’s identity was exposed to the world during “Forever Evil” (2013) by the Crime Syndicate. At this time he was acting as a spy for an agency called Spyral while spying on them for Batman. I never think of Tom King as a comedy guy, but this story was almost gut bustingly hilarious. It was just a world trotting adventure where he teaches one of the students of St. Hadrian’s how to be a spy.

Truly this series was Dick at his most handsome, witty and skilled. He jumps out of a helicopter and grabs onto the cords of a cable car before rescuing a woman held hostage by terrorists on walruses. Dick, the student and the hostage ten fight off more terrorists in Tanzania, riding a bus headed for Los Angeles of all places before Dick finds himself in something Dejah Thoris would wear and having a night with the hostage who reveals herself to be a gorilla from Gorilla City. It’s absolutely absurd, but it is immensely fun and welcome since that whole series is well regarded by fans.  

“More Time” by Judd Winick, Dustin Nguyen and John Kalisz is a far more somber tale about Jason Todd potentially a short time after the events of Under the Red Hood. Jason Todd was the second Robin and met his unfortunate end in the 1988 story, A Death in the Family by Jim Starlin and Jim Aparo. Jason eventually returned in the Batman: Under the Hood story where Winick and Doug Mahnke re-envisioned the former Robin as a violent vigilante Jason does have something of a strained relationship with Batman, but it wasn’t always that way as this story illustrates. 

One thing that Dustin Nguyen has always been great at, it’s making kids super adorable and he does so in this story as it flips back and forth between the past and the present as Jason gives Bruce a birthday present in the form of his father’s watch, which Jason sought to fix. Nguyen and Kalisz characterize the past with Jason appearing as a happy, young kid under the dim lights of the Batcave and a twinkle in his eyes. He’s happy to have a home and a father to care for him so he wanted to do something nice for him.

Present Day Jason is characterized by dark backgrounds with bright oranges, smoke and heavy blacks for the shadows. Jason is far more tired, grizzled and angry, but he still finds the time to place the same gift box from all those years ago on the Batmobile for Bruce to find. At this point in time, they may have been at each other throats, but the love between them was still there, buried deep - culminating in two side by side panels of past and present Jason saying, “Happy Birthday, Bruce.”

“Boy Wonders” is a story about Tim Drake by James Tynion IV, Javier Fernandez and David Baron and sees Tim taking advice from all of his brothers. Next to Chuck Dixon and Geoff Johns, James Tynion IV has had one of the longest lasting impacts on the Tim Drake character throughout his run on Detective Comics by emphasizing the power of his mind in comparison to the other Robins and why he could ultimately be the successor to Batman above each of them or eke out a new life for himself.

While taking down the cast of The Warriors on a speeding train with Nightwing, Tim contemplates what his future will be. He looks to Dick as the one who did everything that he’s doing now and Dick tells him that as the smartest Robin, the best thing he could do is use that mind to bring up the next generation of heroes. Jason, the reason he’s even wearing the costume of Robin in the first place, tells him to take everything he’s learned from Batman  to become BETTER than him. Arguably, it’s Damian that gives him the best advice by telling him that he’s the most capable of all of the Robins and that he should choose a path himself instead of relying on the advice of others.

Of course, this story takes place before the events of Detective Comics Rebirth where Tim does chart his own path in making Gotham safer with his Gotham Knights Protocol, but things don’t exactly turn out well for him. For all of the talk about how Tim is the smartest, he unfortunately could never get out of his own way long enough for things to go right...especially now that he’s going by “Drake” in that awful brown costume.

“Fitting In” is a Stephanie Brown story by Amy Wolfram, Damion Scott and Brad Anderson which sees Stephanie trying to live up to the standards of each of the boys that came before her. Stephanie was absolutely the shortest term Robin that Batman took on, as he only allowed her to take up the mantle in an attempt to get Tim back after his real father told him to hang up the cape after discovering his sons identity.

Even still, Stephanie did everything she could to earn Bruce’s respect and Wolfram plays on this and that past story by making it more about Tim than Steph. She has to train in the same costume that Tim did, but she proves more...voluptuous than Tim. Her costume bursts at the seams and Alfred designs the costume that she’s known for. She and Batman then get a call about fire at an amusement park and ride off to take down Firefly.

Unfortunately for her, she gets captured, but being the innovative girl that she is, she manages to free herself and take down Firefly at the same time. Damion Scott’s art is very well suited to the cartoonish action and paints her as a capable sidekick despite initially being a damsel in distress. I honestly wish her run as Robin would have been longer because she honestly fits well in the role as the bubbly Robin in contrast to the hell that Tim was going through at the time.

A point can be made that this story also had some needless sexualization, but given Bruce's lack of respect for Stephanie and him just wanting a replacement Tim at the time, this was well written from that perspective. He never cared for Stephanie and her time as Robin was mostly her trying to live up to Tim's standard which eventually left her to try too hard and "die" because of it. I’ll always take more Stephanie Brown as I can cause even now there’s not enough of her and I’m damn sure not reading Young Justice by Brian Michael Bendis.

“My Best Friend” is the one that makes me the most sad as it revolves around Jon Kent writing an essay on Damian as well...his best friend. I feel like the Super Sons series was also done a dity hand by BMB as he took Jon and aged him up for his Superman story when we could have gotten more fun stories between Damian and Jon. As far as homages to one of the better Rebirth series this one was just fun.

There’s not much to say other than Jon reminisces over a few of their adventures and tells readers about the side of Damian that we don’t often see because the Bat-boy is always a little bit too intense. Jon reminds us that they’ve fought for most of the time they’ve known each other, but when it comes to being heroes, Damian always had his back. It’s heartwarming. Of course there’s the continuity issue of them going to the same school in this story cause Jon was only ten at the time and Damian was thirteen, but honestly I only care about the friendship.

“Bat and Mouse” is a story by Robbie Thompson and Ramon Villalobos which sees Bruce and Damian having separate brooding inner monologues about how neither understands the other anymore and about how they want to open up to each other, but the distance between them has grown too wide. Admittedly, this is a much darker story in the respect that Batman and Robin haven’t really been the same since Damian started his new Titans team and started down a darker path that his father has yet to find out about.

Thompson captures this feeling that Damian is arrogant but scared. He feels like he’s outgrown what Batman has become because he’s willing to get rid of threats almost permanently through erasing their memories and villainous tendencies (see Teen Titans, 2018). At the same time, he’s afraid that maybe what he’s doing isn’t the right path and he so desperately wants to reach out to his father, but feels like he can’t.

Batman is the same way in that he loves his son more than anything and wants to regain the relationship that they had in the past, but doesn’t know how to say the words either. He knows that Damian is hiding something big, but he doesn’t want to accuse the boy and deepen the already cavernous rift. Even as they take down the robotic villain Quietus, they show signs of breaking through their equally cold exteriors, but fail to do so and I get the feeling this will all come to a head soon.

The Robins will always be some of my favorite characters in all of comics. Each of them have distinct personalities and quirks that set them apart from a lot of comic characters, especially when it comes to the trauma that they’ve faced alongside Batman. This special won’t be for everyone, just like each era of Robin isn’t for everyone, but overall, I really enjoyed it and the creators selected to honor these fantastic characters.

#robin #robin 80th anniversary #dick grayson #jason todd #tim drake #stephanie brown #damian wayne #carrie kelly #dc comics #comic books #comic review

[m00nslippers]

Regarding your Robin 1 & 2 mix up headcanon, what if instead of Dick being the target of mix up it's Tim? Tim and Jason and a lot closer in age so it could be Tim minding his own business and then suddenly some lowlife has dedicated his entire life to destroy everything Tim loves. Tim's 'why the heck!? I'm like the polite Robin (okay... more polite compared to others)'. Then Jason shows up shoots the guy dead and is like 'my bad all good' =) and between him and Damian Tim is just done w/it. X/

Well, the Robin 1 & 2 headcanon was more based on the fact that Jason and Dick had the exact same costume, unlike Tim, who had quite a different costume. Also I think most of the rogues knew that Joker killed a Robin so when the new one showed up with a shiny new outfit, they were aware it was a different kid.

But I can definitely imagine goons who just have it out for Robin in general because Dick was so goddamn annoying with the puns, and Jason had a tendency to go for the crotch and the jugular at the same time and be an asshole about it.

Tim wasn’t exactly under the impression that thugs were nice to Robin or anything, he was never that naive, he did follow B&R around at night and snap pictures of them after all, he saw the reality. He just kind of assumed they held back a bit against Robins, because Dick and Jason made kicking their asses look so effortless. Bruce knew, though, and it was another one of the reasons why he rejected Tim as Robin, or Robin being brought back at all, for that matter. Jason and Dick had built up a rep, a serious resentment in the streets of Gotham, and it had started with Dick, but he grew up as it progressed and he was able to handle it. By the time Jason came along the streets were WAY worse to Robin than ever before, it wasn’t like in the good old days, but Jason persevered by being harder and meaner when he had to be and that just made the rogues and goons hate him more and more, eventually culminating in his death at the hands of Joker. Being Robin was in some ways more difficult than being Batman, and Bruce didn’t want to be responsible for putting a kid into that situation again. It had died down a little since Jason’s death as the less heartless criminals seemed to realize there had been an ACTUAL KID behind that mask and now he was dead and it was on their hands, but Robin would always be a target, that was just a fact.

When Tim first started going out in the suit he was a bit startled to realize that no, thugs didn’t go easy on Robin, and most of them didn’t sympathize with Batman about the dead Robin either, Gotham thugs HATED ROBIN WITH A BURNING PASSION and not only DIDN’T HOLD BACK but seemed to shoot at him MORE than they did at Batman. Dick and Jay just made it look easy because they were that damn good. When he showed up on the scene, bad guys would straight up shout, “It’s Robin! Fucking Robin is here! Get him!” and Tim is just like, “No! Why!?” Not to mention Tim was about the same size as Dick when he was years younger than Tim actually was. Honestly, the only way he survived was by changing his approach. He got the bow staff to more easily take on more and larger opponents, he avoided head-on fights when possible and he used the terrain to his advantage more i.e. tripped people over trashcans, dropped streetlights on thugs, smoke bombed groups and dipped out. It might be cheap or cowardly (it wasn’t but he thought so at first) and not how the other Robins, his heroes, would have done it, but living was itself a victory.

When Jason came back as Red Hood, Tim was aware that he hated Tim’s guts. He’d broken into the Titan’s Tower to kill him after all. At first he’d thought it had less to do with Jason being angry and hurt and heart-broken and traumatized and more of the same “hate on for Robin” that all the thugs and rogues in Gotham had. It made him just as bad as them in Tim’s eyes. Tim had idolized Jason, but this guy wasn’t him anymore, he was just some criminal like the others. And when Red Hood took shots at him again and then Damian too, it just seemed to validate that idea in his eyes. Red Hood wasn’t a fallen Robin, to be treated differently, he was just a more effective thug with a vendetta.

Tim pretty much held on to that belief until one night in Gotham when Tim was out alone and found himself on the ropes a group of goons, he was honestly pretty sure this was going to be his inglorious end and didn’t that just bite? It wasn’t even against anyone famous, he’d just been outnumbered and had some bad luck and his trick ankle was acting up again, and Tim was about to be done for–until Red Hood showed up.

He outright dispatched two of the meanest goons with blindingly fast and deadly accurate shots to the head and then took down three more with kicks from his steel-toed boots that laid them out flat in an instant. The last two guys just kind of quivered in fear and put their hands up as if Hood might care about surrender, which Tim was pretty sure he didn’t.

And then Hood was marching over to where Tim was panting, tired, sitting on the ground, holding himself up with his bow staff, and Tim was sure he was about to get the hole-in-the-head treatment as well.

But he didn’t, Red Hood yanked him to his feet and shoved Tim toward the alley exit behind him. Hood faced the thugs and said, “Don’t you ever. Touch. A Robin. I don’t give a fuck if he smashes your face in or hands you to the cops. You can run, if you’re idiot enough to think you can get away, but if I ever catch you trying to hurt one of those kids–I’ll put a bullet in your head.”

After that moment, whenever any of Red Hood’s men ran into Tim, they would try to get away but they’d never fight back. Same thing with Damian to the point that he was getting outright poutty about it because that kid loved a fight and had taken to being a target like a pinata takes to being hit by a bat except he gave as good as he got even in the very anti-Robin Gotham.

And that was when Tim realized that Jason didn’t hate him because he was Robin. After all, Jason might shoot at Damian but he didn’t hate him like he hated Tim. Actually Jason probably just went harder on them because he (mistakenly, in Tim’s opinion) thought they could take it. He respected the office of Robin, he’d been one after all. No, Jason wasn’t just another thug with a blind hatred for the Batman’s sidekick. He was a kid who’d had the whole world against him, and then the whole of Gotham against him as Robin–except for Bruce. And he didn’t hate Tim because he’d taken Robin after he’d died, but because he’d taken Bruce after he’d died. Red Hood was still Jason, and he was hurting.

#Thugs hate Robin #Jason Todd #Red Hood #Robin #Tim Drake #Red Robin #Damian Wayne #Damian Al Ghul #Gotham #Rogues #batman #Bruce Wayne #comics #asks #headcanons

[secretlystephaniebrown]

Why Rebirth’s Stephanie Brown isn’t the Same as Preboot Stephanie Brown

Hi I’ve got opinions about how the reboot has been handling my girl. 

I’ve been enjoying Detective Comics for the most part, but I’ve been frustrated with Stephanie Brown’s role in them for a while. And I think I’ve finally put my finger on it. 

Special thanks to @renaroo for all her help finding panels and issue numbers!

Below the cut is 2k of screaming and panels. 

Stephanie Brown in the preboot era was a kid with a bad past. Her mom was a drug addict, her dad was abusive and a villain. She lived in poverty for at least chunks of her original run as Spoiler. She dated older guys, one of whom got her pregnant and ran away, and has been implied to be a sexual abuse survivor.

And as Spoiler, her life wasn’t necessarily better. She dated Tim, and they had a pretty decent relationship, but Tim didn’t tell her his secret identity, on orders from Batman. For reasons. (Bruce later told her his identity without Tim’s permission, which… doesn’t really make things better.) From day one, she was an outcast from the family; she regularly got locked out of the Batcave, wasn’t informed about major developments in the family, and Bruce denies her training and resources. She even suspects that this is because of her family life. 

(Robin (1993-2009) #100.)

@renaroo and I have talked about this, and a part of Bruce’s reaction to Steph during this time period was clearly based off Bruce’s recent trauma because of Jason’s death. Steph, Cass, and Tim’s relationships with Bruce in the preboot were all tied to that event. Tim stepped up as Robin, providing Bruce with the balance and support that he knew he needed, so Bruce couldn’t really send Tim away. Cass had no secret identity, no life to return to. Bruce looked at her and saw his own morals concentrated, a dedication to the cause that he thought makes Cass an ideal protégé and possible successor down the line. (Not that it ever happened of course because of course it didn’t.) Besides that, Cass was a better fighter than he was, and had been looking after herself for years. Firing her wasn’t very effective, although he certainly tried in the later parts of Cass’s initial Batgirl run.

But Steph?

Steph was none of those things. Bruce didn’t need her, she wasn’t trained and capable like Cass. Instead, everything that Bruce saw when he looked at her probably remindd him of Jason. A mother lost to drug abuse, a father entrenched in crime and violence, a kid from the less great parts of the city. The parallels were right there to Bruce. But Bruce was too late to save Steph from this life, unlike Jason. Instead, Steph had decided to save herself. But he looked at her, and he saw a kid with no training and no experience. And he’d just lost a partner from a background very similar to hers.

He told her to go home. He never really stopped, not until she became Batgirl. (Although they had some amazing bonding moments as well, which I’ll probably make another post about later)

As a result Steph was an outcast for the majority of her run as Spoiler. She got brief flashes of integration and family; she teams up with Cass, works with other heroes like Black Canary, Huntress, and Oracle. She worked with Tim and Bruce as well. But just as often, Bruce did things like forbid Cass to patrol with Steph and the aforementioned locking her out of the Batcave and not telling her that the family was undergoing a MAJOR crisis at the time.)

(Batman: Bruce Wayne: Murderer? Robin (1993-2009) #98 - Yes Bruce was in prison at the time, but you’d have thought that SOMEONE would have thought to tell her he was unavailable.)

The end result of this should happen when she becomes Robin. Steph becoming Robin should have been cathartic; a culmination of Steph’s hard work paying off and Bruce recognizing her place in the family. And it was for a while!!

(Detective Comics (1937-2011) #796. Making me nostalgic for what could have been. Steph with anger issues and a complicated but growing relationship with Bruce? Amazing.)

Instead, it was a cheap stunt by DC. Steph got fired, Steph screwed up by starting a gang war, Steph died. (And then came back in an outrageously OOC manner, but that’s another story.)

We got some of the catharsis of her becoming part of the family in Steph’s run as Batgirl, but it was undermined by a lot of things. To make her Batgirl, Miller began what Tynion and the Nu52 (and later Rebirth) continues to do.

They take away what makes Steph interesting.

Steph’s anger issues were integral to her early character. She canonically went to visit her father in prison to fight him. Her anger was not once touched upon in Miller’s Batgirl. Her status as a teenage mom was similarly erased. Her trauma at the hands of Black Mask was only hinted at once, after Steph was shot in the head, when she saw him in a flashback. 

(Batgirl (2009-2011) #6. Don’t worry, this will never come up again.)

And her friendship with Cass, a relationship I would say was defining and important to Steph, was washed away, with Cass not even appearing in Steph’s history of the Bat Family. Steph still had to fight for her acceptance in the family; Babs didn’t want her to be Batgirl, her first ever meeting with Dick Grayson and Damian Wayne was a disaster, and she struggled to find her place. There was still catharsis there; she built a team and support network for herself, and it was wonderful, despite my issues with that run.

Miller also started moving Steph away from her roots with her mom; Crystal in Miller’s run was clean and she and Steph seem to have achieved financial stability. But in the preboot, both of those worked, since we’d seen how far they’ve come. Arthur’s abuse wasn’t directly stated, but his attack on her specifically through Black Mercy mad it pretty clear that there were still elements of abuse present, even if the events Steph had referred to in previous stories weren’t shown.

But Tynion doesn’t have that history to build off, because the Nu52 annihilated Steph’s entire history.

Steph in Batman Eternal is from a perfectly happy middle class background, with her parents already split up and with joint custody. Her dad isn’t abusive (in fact, him being a supervillain appears to be a complete surprise to her), her mom isn’t an addict. She’s never been a teenage mom, and although she starts a relationship with Tim off page, she knows his secret identity from the beginning.

(Batman Eternal #3)

And Bruce accepts her into the fold right away in Detective Comics. As a fan of Steph, the catharsis is there on a meta level; Stephanie Brown is accepted enough by the company to allow her to be in the comic which they named themselves after! What a change from the days when Steph was brutally killed off and then banned from appearing in any medium! But in universe? That catharsis doesn’t exist.

So suddenly, Tynion is faced with a character with many of Steph’s traits; the name, the upbeat attitude, the costume, with none of her history or markings.

(Sidenote: Steph’s anger isn’t completely non-existant in the Nu52/Rebirth era: Selina notes that Steph is angry during Steph’s appearance in Catwoman #42.)

(Catwoman (2011-2016) #42. Thank you for this moment, it’s a balm to my soul.)

Steph’s inclusion by Bruce in this initial team he sets up is a fascinating choice. He’s integrating her into the family from the very beginning of her character arc. This could have been a chance to let Steph grow in new directions; she could have grown closer to Cass and Harper, have Bruce and Kate as mentor figures, and explored her relationship with Tim in new and exciting ways. She could have met Duke and Jason and bonded with them over their similarities.

But instead, Steph and Cass barely interact, Harper’s relegated to cameos and sage advice, and Steph’s character is instead defined solely by her relationship with Tim. She has a few nice moments with Bruce, like the hug I’ve been waiting for ever since I got into comics.

(Detective Comics (2016-) #940. THAT HUG)

But overwhelmingly I’ve been left wanting more, and not in the good way. It’s not satisfying. Steph has some great moments in ‘Tec and even some great lines, just like during her run as Batgirl. But there’s a kind of hollowness there for me, lacking the heart and soul of Stephanie Brown.

Tynion also makes some strange changes with Steph; she loses her snark and attitude that even Miller managed to maintain. 

(Robin (1993-2009) #56. Just hanging around, you know.)

(Detective Comics (1937-2011) #796. Poor Bruce has to hang around with snarky teens.)

She’s lacking her relationship with gravity. 

(Batgirl (2000-2006) #20.)

She also no longer loves being a hero and doing good, instead having her arc being dedicated to… saying that superheroes shouldn’t exist… while still functioning as a vigilante… (I really don’t like this kind of arc in comics, not going to lie, so I’m predisposed to not be happy here. But I still think this is a RADICAL departure from Steph’s prior characterization.) 

(Robin (1993-2009)  #100. Here we see Tim planning on retiring, and knowing that Steph is hardly about to stop being a hero.) 

It all culminates, of course, in Steph’s departure from the team after Tim’s death. She calls out Batman for his actions, raises some valid points about how he’s not really parenting Cass (which… Tynion continues to ignore, because what, letting Bruce adopt Cass and teaching her to read? Nah, she’s too busy learning Shakespeare and hanging out with Clayface.) And after that moment of awesome she… leaves.

(Detective Comics (2016-) #947)

She becomes the outcast again. But this time it’s her fault.

And it’s so frustrating to me, this idea that Steph’s isolation is her own fault in Rebirth. That Bruce offered Steph a place and a team, but that she rejected it, is so aggravating. Steph’s isolation is supposed to be Bruce Wayne’s mistake which she pays for throughout her superhero career. Steph wants this place with the family, fights for it tooth and nail in the preboot. Now, if Steph had gone through the preboot arc, fighting for this, trying to earn it, and then turning away from it out of frustration with Bruce? I’d have been willing to listen, and might have even been excited for it.

(Detective Comics (2016-) #957. This is just such a departure from preboot Steph that it boggles my mind.)

But this is a Stephanie Brown who has not been a hero for long. This is Stephanie Brown, who is about the age preboot Steph was when she became Robin, new and inexperienced (meanwhile Tim is exactly where he was in his own timeline when Steph was Batgirl, a frustrating process that’s also familiar.) Steph is younger than she was in preboot and less competent. So are Barbara Gordon and Cass. The Batboys have gotten to grow up and improve. The Batgirls were forced backwards in both age and ability, and yet were older when they started their superhero careers, making them inherently less experienced then their male counterparts.

Part of it is, of course, DC’s refusal to let the Batgirls move forward in the status quo. Babs can’t become Oracle again, Cass can’t become Batgirl, and Steph can’t be Robin or Batgirl. The Batgirls (and Harper) are all now around the same age, and their relationships have been completely and utterly decimated by the retcons and reboots. Steph and Cass aren’t best friends, Babs isn’t a mentor to either Steph or Cass. Steph’s relationship with Bruce is no longer the complicated beast that it was pre-Flashpoint, she still hasn’t met Damian and established their bond, and her first interaction with Dick was an aggravatingly airheaded “kiss me sexy Batman”.

(Batman and Robin Eternal #2. Just. Why.)

And her relationship with Tim is lacking some of the most interesting elements; the drama of Steph’s history and Bruce’s disapproval. But despite its blandness, it continues to be the front and center of Steph’s arc. It’s what drives her away from the others and causes her to isolate herself. Steph functions as a manic-pixie figure to Tim, encouraging him to live his dream, while still being the goofy and funny partner he needs, with her primary motivation being his death.

Her goofiness and mourning are both clearly about to pay off in a manner which I am terrified about. In Detective Comics, Anarchy clones Steph’s phone. A phone which, it was shown in the previous issue, to contain information which could compromise Tim (and by extension everyone’s secret identities). 

(Detective Comics (2016-) #963. Oh look and Tim even told her it would be a bad idea! Haha, how funny!) 

(Detective Comics (2016-) #964)

We could be about to witness War Games, reboot version.

But this time, there will be no one to blame but Stephanie Brown. She chose to isolate herself, she was sloppy with her phone’s security, and she was fooled by Anarchy.

If Tynion does what I’m scared he’s going to do, we’re looking at some next level bullshit.

I live in fear.

#Stephanie Brown #DC #Detective Comics #Steph Reads Comics #DC Rebirth #Steph vs The Bat Fam #Steph Writes Steph (Brown) Meta