#gotham war spoilers sorta

[creetchure]

eddie is alive and well and jason geets to call him for comfort after 138 godbless

#eddie bloomberg #kid devil #red devil #jayeddie #jason todd #red hood #gotham war spoilers sorta #creatchure screech

[ectonurites]

Thoughts on the new Steph costume from the Red Hood tie in?

So admittedly I haven’t had a chance to read this book yet but my beloved friend Gwyn did post a screenshot on twitter so i’ve seen the one panel of it and what I have to say is:

HELLLLLL YEAAHHHHHH this is SO obviously pulling from her actual original Batgirl suit

(Batman/Catwoman: The Gotham War — Red Hood #1 + Red Robin #9)

the whole thing just looks soooo much better with the little pops of gold! it helps differentiate it as a Batgirl costume separate from her N52/Rebirth Spoiler outfit so much more clearly… unfortunately though in solicits for upcoming stuff it seems like her all-purple Spoiler/Batgirl suit is still the standard

(Cover for the upcoming oneshot Titans: Beast World Tour Gotham #1)

I also think it’s a testament to the lack of communication between editorial at DC that Steph just got a new mask revamp like two weeks ago in Joker: The Man Who Stopped Laughing which is… seemingly ignored in this Gotham War tie-in and possibly that upcoming Beast World tie-in (she’s maskless altogether on this cover though so it’s impossible to say what specific mask she’ll have inside the book)

Like… is anyone checking to make sure costumes are at least sorta consistent? I totally get letting artists/colorists stylize stuff how they choose when it comes to how they render details on costumes/hue and vibrance of the color choices… but things like adding on an entirely new mask piece or introducing an entirely new color (or in this case bringing back one that has been missing for like a decade) to a suit feels like it goes a bit beyond that expected level of variance between artists.

And I mean hell, the Joker book & this Gotham War one are even from the same writer—it’s not like these should be treated as entirely separate/ignoring choices made in one book for the other.

BUT anyways, all that aside, I would LOVE to see the gold accents stick around as part of Steph’s current look. If we got that & she got her cowl back then i’d finally be happy 💜

[zombiesbecrazy]

How about a JaySteph hug to hide in?

(I added a & between the Jay and the Steph, I hope thats OK)

If anyone spotted them, they would think that Red Hood and Spoiler were involved in a secret tryst, with they had their arms wrapped around each other in a small, dark nook.

Anyone who spotted them who wasn’t currently trying to kill them that was, and right now those numbers were few and far between. They hadn’t even been working the same case, but they intersected accidentally and maybe, kinda, sorta, instigated a gang war, which from Stephanie’s experience was bad in the worst way.

It had turned even further south when the gangs decided to momentarily put aside their differences and claims over territory and unite against the common enemy.

It would be sweet to see people coming together like that. It was less so when the bullets were flying and they were running for their lives

Now they were out of options, out of ammo, and were pressed together hiding in a space that was far too small, Jason’s arms around her being the only reason that Steph wasn’t falling out of the secret spot that they had somehow managed to evade the gangs. They weren’t nearby, but they weren’t exactly far either. With any luck, they wouldn’t be found, but who knew based on how the rest of this crappy night was going.

“You’re crushing me.”

“Stop wiggling. You’re fine.” If anything, Red Hood shifted with his words, somehow taking more of her space. Her arms were trapped behind him, both of them wrapped up together to make themselves fit, so her options were limited for retaliation. It’s not like shoving a tank back would do anything.

“I’m going to bite you if you don’t back up.” She couldn’t do much, but if needed that spot between his jacket and his helmet was wide open. She’d have to some how lower her mask, but she she could figure it out.

“Do that and throw you right in their path. Give myself more time to escape before heading to the cave and sadly telling B about your heroic death in the field. You sacrificed yourself for me. It was touching.” He leaned in even closer, like he was taunting her to take her up on her threat. “I may even shed a tear.”

He was just so aggravatingly annoying.

“Why are you like this?” She whined at him. She wasn’t normally a whiner but this night was shit and she just wanted to go home and take a shower and it didn’t look like that was going to happen any time soon and he wasn’t helping. “Yeah, you died, but that doesn’t mean you have to be an ass because of it. We’ve all died, Hood. I died and I’m fantastic.”

Jason shrugged. “Maybe I was always an ass.”

“You weren’t.”

There was a pause and Steph wondered what his face was doing under the helmet. He was so hard to gauge when he was suited up, but when the helmet was off his face was an open book. “You don’t know that and you can’t rely on Bruce or Alfred’s rose coloured nostalgia glasses opinions and don’t even get me started on Dick because he barely knew me.”

Irritation. The special kind that he had purely for when people tried to bring up how he used to be compared to how he was now. It was like when you saw a great aunt who still treated you like you were five, only dialled up to eleven or twelve.

“But I knew Robin.” Stephanie stared at the brick behind Jason’s shoulder, trying to avoid the awkward eye to helmet contact. “You saved me once when I was a kid. Nothing big or flashy. I was out at night by myself when I probably shouldn’t have been and I almost got hit by a car. You appeared from out of nowhere pulled me back.” She remembered going to school the next day and telling everyone the she had seen him. “It was small and simple and not fighting the forces of evil. Just a nice kid doing a good thing.” Now she did look at him, seeing the tilt to his head. “And before you say anything, yes, I’m sure it was you and not Dick or Tim. It was Gotham Robin.”

Jason stared at her, or at least she thought he did but through the helmet it was hard to tell. “Gotham Robin?”

“That’s what we called you. You were our Robin. All of us kids from the wrong side of the tracks, we didn’t know who you were, but we did know that you were one of us with your east end slang, sounding like you were straight out of the PS 24 playground.”

The sound was distorted, but it was definitely a snort. “32. When I went to school as a kid I was at PS 32. Everyone at 24 was a dingus.”

“They were, weren’t they?” she chuckled. “Anyway, that’s how I know you weren’t always an ass. An ass would have let me become a pancake. Wouldn’t have even noticed that I was in trouble.”

A minute passed in silence before Jason coughed. “Anyway, it doesn’t really matter because I’m an ass now regardless and you just have to deal with it. I saved you from the Vipers. You should be thanking me.”

“Excuse you. I saved you from the Black Street North crew.”

“Please. No one needs saving from BSN. Those guys are small fish.”

Stephanie was going to argue back, that her case was just as important as his case and her gang was equally as dangerous when the gunfire started up again at the far end of the alley. “I guess it didn’t work out between them.”

“I really thought those crazy kids were going to make it work. They had such a solid foundation of trust.” Jason edged out of the crevice, blocking Steph from any potential stragglers still hunting for them, before he pulled her back onto the street with him. They were safe, but they still had to do something about the fight before it got even farther out of hand. She was about to ask what their next move should be when Jason interrupted. “Let’s hit the roof and call in for some reinforcements. Red Robin and Black Bat will be upset if we don’t ask them to join our party.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Stephanie winked at him before firing her grapple at into the sky. “Gotham Robin.”

#hug drabbles #jason todd #stephanie brown #drabble lengths are more like guidelines anyway

[bonestructureandcontempt]

I got something to get off my chest about the Joker movie before I hopefully never feel compelled to talk about it again. Some spoilers.

And this is coming from me being on Twitter too much nowadays and seeing the discourse about it. The biggest champions of Joker I see there besides rabid DC stans are like, the Chapo Trap House hosts and the weird left wing shitposters/fellow podcasters in their orbit. So there's this section of the Extremely Online Left that has latched onto this movie as like, something that we should embrace the way the Right has co-opted Fight Club or The Matrix. Annnnd I think that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard for two reasons.

1. The only way Joker is actually a leftist movie is if you're a total blackpilled nihilist. Which I'm sorry, I'm not. I know I get angry sometimes, but I'm a pretty easygoing guy who believes a better world is possible if we work for it. I happen to think I would deserve to be ridiculed if I held up Joker as some kind of polemic. Like, yes, it does a sorta okay job at talking about mental illness and how bad it is when the state cuts funding for social services that benefit the poor and mentally ill. And sure, you could say the riot against Thomas Wayne and Gotham's elite is direct action, which I definitely am in favor of. But what's the end result supposed to be? We're still talking about the Joker, or a character we're supposed to accept as the Joker, the Clown Prince of Crime, the supervillain. Even in this version, he doesn't have sincere ideology to overthrow the rich, he basically says as much at the end of the movie. He is purely reactionary, even though he has the vaguest and most facile of antifascist leaning. So why is this a leftist movie again? We can do better, we should demand better.

2. Who the fuck cares anymore if bad people take art for their own twisted ends? We really shouldn't put too much power in that. That's gonna happen no matter what. Reactionaries and conservatives NEED desperately some kind of leg up in the culture war. Because they know they will always lose it. They lost cool - fuck they never had it to begin with. So they take popular movies and try to twist it into being about the dumb shit they're into so they can trick feckless normies with memes into doing racism. It sucks but we can't stop it. All we can do is learn to cut through it.

Underneath whatever veneer you prescribe to it, Joker's just another comic book movie, guys. I know this is an incongruous thing to say on tumblr, but...don't get too worked up about it. It's really not worth your energy, trust me on this.

[sqoiler]

my role reversal au:

damian is conceived when bruce is training with ra’s 

he’s delivered to bruce when damian is 10 and bruce has been batman for like 5ish years

bruce has no idea what to do with a child but he has a squishy little face and bruce’s eyes and bruce can’t??/ turn him down??

so he takes damian in, and damian being damian, wants to help bruce very!! badly!!

so he sneaks out a lot and eventually bruce is just like “whatever if you can’t beat em join em”

alfred is like “masTER BRUCE!!!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!!!! HES A BABY!!!!!!”

and bruce is like “hes fine he was trained???? it’ll all b good”

and damian is named robin after a carving on the handle of his sword. also robins mean spring and bruce is hoping it’ll add to the light/dark theme

damian thinks robin is the WORST and a baby job but he toughs it out bc he wants to make his dad happy

damian’s been robin for like ??? 3 years?/ when damian starts doing teen titans stuff 

(read more bc this is getting Long)

bc robin is gone from gotham for so long, the criminals start to notice and like. take advantage of batman’s weakness without his partner? 

plus justice league stuff, cant forget that

so these street kids start to dress like robin and help protect gotham from the criminals and the “we are robin” movement is led by some random kid named duke

bruce tries to stop the movement but it grows too fast and eventually just gives up and decides to train them. he trains duke personally and lets duke take care of the others (bruce does help a little)

eventually duke’s parents are put in a coma and bruce decides to take duke in?

damian is super resentful but he can’t stay mad at duke for long

before long bruce is. actually adopting duke and then duke decides to be a new identity, the signal

the signal & batman & robin are a trio to be feared

when damian’s like...........16 & duke is like 18 lucius fox finds out that bruce is batman and his oldest daughter finds out also (bc she’s super smort)

tiff really wants to help the city!! but her dad won’t let her and she doesn’t know how without her dad’s help?? so she’s like “lol fine” and she makes a costume and decides it can’t be THAT hard if some privileged white guy managed to start from scratch

and thus; batgirl is born

after some fighting and trials bruce accepts tiff into the fold and tiff & duke become instant besties and damian begrudgingly accepts her presence

everything is gr9 until damian turns 18 and him and bruce’s paths in life seem to shift

tensions rise and it turns into a really messy fight between the two that ends with damian running off to college in bludhaven and signal & batgirl become more of a team then before

bruce is kinda mopey and depressed until some punk wrapped in a purple curtain starts running around and leaving clues everywhere and bruce isn’t sure if this kid is good or bad

the kid tells him to call her spoiler and that she was a professional and that she had everything covered

a week later stephanie brown was moving into wayne manor

steph & bruce argued a lil but bruce liked having a kid around the house again; plus she was so different from damian it was refreshing

before long bruce was offering robin to her, to be his partner, and she gladly accepted

her first night out as robin steph is attacked by some NERD in a dark costume and a hood calling himself nightwing; steph laughs in his face and separates his two fighting children

damian is angry but he can’t hold a grudge since steph is literally an angel and he can tell how good she is for his father and he accepts her as his sister

damian & steph get really really close and steph forces him to do kid stuff he never did as a kid and he shows her how to use a sword and everything is good

steph & tiff are great friends too and steph ADORES tiff as a role model 

steph also loves duke and crashes in his apartment like every other night

everything is great until black mask tells steph that crystal brown is still alive and that if she starts a war in gotham, he’ll let her see her mom again

she does & she doesn’t tell bruce so matches doesn’t show up so--

she dies.

steph dies and bruce is heartbroken and damian retreats to bludhaven without a word and duke soldiers on and tiff retires batgirl

just in time too, because black mask shoots tiff in the spine & she’s paralyzed for life

bruce gets more angry & reckless and little timmy d notices and he’s like “well something’s gotta change”

so he approaches damian and tim’s like “bruh u gotta b robin again” and damian’s like “lol no”

so tim goes to duke and duke’s like “kiddo. im not sure if there’s room for robin what with steph’s ghost so heavy around here” so tim’s like well eff that

and tim makes his own robin costume and he’s robin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

bruce tells him no then he accepts him but damian. hates him for replacing steph. 

duke & tiff (tiffiany is now oracle) like tim okay and they all get along

then some kid starts following robin around and they’re like “noT AGAIN” and the girl’s like “wait here me out: let me be batgirl”

nell little is homeless and she ADORED the old robin & batgirl and she just wants to HELP and they’re like “ok fine” so tiff trains nell and viola: batgirl!

this is all good until some OTHER punk with a tire iron shows up and dares to try and jack the tires off the batmobile??? wtf kid??

so bruce, obviously, adopts him, because duke and damian and nell and sorta-tim aren’t enough kids, apparently, and jason for a while doesn’t really have a secret identity? he just trains w duke or tim and hangs out with tiff

then tim quits robin and jason’s like “now’s my Time” and he becomes robin

tim’s a little bummed but he gets over it because jason’s so happy and tim doesn’t want to deprive his brother friend from happiness!

jason’s barely robin for 2 months before there’s a run in with you-know-who and jason’s pretty sure he can take him, or at least hold him over until bruce gets there, but bruce is too late. 

jason is dead and its all bruce’s fault and everything is awful and--

--and someone calling themselves cluemaster is in town

bruce freaks out because the cluemaster person is a girl and who is she what’s going on--

then she reveals herself and stephanie is ALIVE and that’s his daughter and she’s angry but willing to listen and bruce asks how she could POSSIBLY call herself cluemaster

“i picked the name that hurt the most,” she answered, and bruce started to cry

steph doesn’t. come back. but she doesn’t NOT come back. she moves in with damian and takes on spoiler again and she tries to talk to bruce & all the new people in her family

including the new-new batgirl, who followed nell home one day and asked without words to train her. cass lives with tiff & she loves nell and tiff and steph and duke and tim and all her siblings and bruce adopts her and she cries

some random other robin shows up and everyones like !!!!!! until he shows up in wayne manor like “waddup everyone im here” and it’s JASON and everyone’s coming back to life and bruce is like, the Peak Happiest he’s ever been

...so to celebrate he takes the gang on down to the circus

he hears the opening act is quite famous

apparently the acrobats to a stunt without a net under them

bruce is sure this will be a real treat 

#bruce wayne #damian wayne #duke thomas #tiffany fox #stephanie brown #brotp: moonbounce #nell little #tim drake #jason todd #cass cain #cassandra cain #my writing #dick grayson

[sweetwriting]

Kon has always been the mom

Category : Gen

Genre : Angst/Fluff

Fandoms : DC Comics, Teen Titans v3 (2003)

Prompt : Tim and Kon acting as Bart’s parents

Summary : Tim seems really down, Bart wants to cheer him up but it doesn't go as planned. As always, Kon is very perceptive and has actually started to mature enough to somewhat understand what's going on, kind of.

Author’s notes : I tag this as TimKon but you’ll only find it if you squint very hard. It’s more like pre-slash I guess. This happens right avec Stephanie Brown and Jack Drake’s deaths

Word Count : 1941

You can find it on AO3

_______________________________________________________________

 Bart was bored. Like really, really bored.

  He had finished both his and Superboy's homework and Conner hadn't even deigned do anything than stare at Cassie's....pretty eyes (yeah right, like Bart would believe that).   He had read a lot in the past couple of hours (which actually seemed like days to him, but hey, a speedster has to adapt his internal clock to the outside world) but he needed a change of pace....and human interactions. Sadly, because of the mission they had finished earlier, almost everyone had fallen asleep while he was busy reading a strangely interesting collection of Art History books (more specifically, animal deities and humans represented as animals (deities) between ~ 4000 BC and ~600 AD... There was some really weird stuff in there and there was an actual Scorpion King even if the Return of the Mummy didn't get anything other than the name right, on that note the anime watcher in him laughed endlessly -well for him- at the fact that Egypt also had had an actual Prince Baka).

  So there was nothing to do besides, maybe, bothering Tim…Who might actually need it. The other/new/girl (?) Robin had disappeared during the week and he's not an idiot (he also knows how Tim became Robin in the first place even if not in details), since Spoiler/Girl!Robin hasn't reappeared (he actually checked, he has spent a lot of time with Tim after all) and there's no new vigilante in Gotham so chances are she's either hurt or undercover somewhere (or dead but he'd rather not think about that)? In any case, Tim probably needs some cheering up (though if he's honest with himself, they all do. Tim's just a bigger case to work on).

  But what to do? The last time he tried to cheer up one of his teammates had been when Kon had lost his powers back in their Young Justice days. He couldn't do it yet these days had been a lot more happy (though when he thought about it back then Kon hadn't just lost his powers but also Tana and while thinking about how a newborn/16 years old Kon was in a relationship with a clearly adult woman now felt slightly creepy, there was no denying that she had been really important to him, just like Rob might have to deal with something having happened to his (ex?) girlfriend)...Ah…Considering how his cheering Kon up had turned out he was probably not gonna be able to get Tim's head out of his ass (also he might get killed). After all it had ended up pretty badly.

  Then again if there's someone who can cheer Tim up it's Bart! (Well, actually, it might be Conner but while he probably noticed Tim wasn't at his best, he's been trying to give Tim some space and not force him to talk too much. Bart knows because Conner had asked him to help in distracting him from confronting Rob…And Conner had little patience and there was Cassie and…Huh…now that he thinks about it maybe there's a link there…Anyway Conner may not be as intelligent as Tim or himself (well he kinda is…just…in a very different way) but that's because he's more of an intuition kind of person. But while he's getting better at using it efficiently, while he realizes something is wrong he doesn't always know what is.

  So…What to do? What to do? Get Tim mad at him? Probably not a good idea (even if there's like a 90% chance that's how it'll end up…That and a lecture…After all Conner has been a master at annoying Tim since their first meeting and he taught Bart well).

  Maybe ask him to work on something together?  But what ? After All, while Tim's widely more intelligent than he is, Bart 's still sufficiently intelligent (more than that to be honest) to not need help (or to have already asked if he did)…Plus while Tim might have understood his explanation building stuff's not really his thing (though he could have proposed ideas to make it better…maybe) so it probably wouldn't have worked anyway.

  So yeah…he's kinda stumped.

  Or maybe if he's …? Yep quick check and Conner's still ogling Cassie (Bart still thinks it's a little weird that, like, half of the time Conner gives his attention to Cassie it's (in)directly related to Tim but this thought has little chances of being well receive….by anyone so, like most of his thoughts on the matter of his friends' (sorta) relationships, he's gonna try to forget about it). So yeah, Conner's not gonna be of any help.

  Tim was starting to get a headache, a Bache, a Bart-Induced headache. They were a special kind that had developed after months of hanging out with Bart on a regular basis. And for the past five minutes Bart has been passing through the room while stopping behind the armchair Tim is slumped in for a second and then disappearing, only to come back every few second and doing the same again and again and again.

  And Tim, well, he can't say he was actually working on his laptop unless you count staring at it blankly working. Steph was dead and so was his dad.  He hadn't been able to help them, much less save them. Hell in his father's case he had been at least partially responsible. They were…. And Dana was…she was…not well and she hadn't adopted him anyway so it's not like he could have gone with her even if she hadn't…And he had until the end of the week-end to find a solution to his situation.  And why oh why does Bart keep on doing that? It's distracting and Tim doesn't have the time to deal with it! So if he wants Tim to know about something that badly he should just come out and say it :

"OH MY GOD BART! Just stay still and tell me why you're bothering me!" he said, raising his voice in annoyance.

  At which point he looked up, at Bart's face. Bart who was trying and failing to hide his crushed face (because while he had gotten better at hiding his emotions, he was still Bart and face it, anyone who had known Impulse!Bart couldn't be fooled by his newly acquired -and far from mastered- skills). And okay, maybe Bart had been right not to engage him.  Also Bart was gone now and if he tried to look for him on the feed from his laptop…and found him, intercepted by Conner, who's hugging him…and looks mad…Yeah he probably deserves what's coming.

"TIM!"

  Yep, there stands Superboy, in all his (furious) glory, hands on the hips. Shoulders bending his upper body slightly toward Tim, towering over him, his frowny face promising a big lecture. Kon really was the mom, he hadn't been joking when he had first said that…Well okay he kind of was joking but he was also partly serious.  It wasn't often that Conner had the moral high ground over him. It used to be because of his immaturity but since the last Bedlam debacle (and that awful war) -when Steph had been Robin and Harm hadn't killed Greta and Kon was an adorably puny nerd and Steph *was Robin* (to be fair he had also been puny but a lot less than Kon- it had been because they were on a more equal standing and actually communicated so there wasn't any high ground to have.   But Tim had obviously upset Bart and he should know better because if the roles had been reversed he'd be planning Conner's destruction (OK, maybe not, but he'd plan a very humiliating revenge plot…Maybe).

"Look. I don't know what's going on but it doesn't give you the right to treat others" Bart "Like they're nothing!" Kon yells.  Direct as always, he's actually going easy on Tim. Probably because they both know Conner has just kickstarted Tim's internal lecture system.

"Tim…" he started again, more gently this time, only to be interrupted:

"I know. I realized as soon as I said it, ok. I wanted to apologize immediately but between Bart's speed and yours I didn't have the time."

  Now he just needed to find Bart…and get out of the protective arms of the corner he had chosen to make his nest at.  He could feel Conner looking at him, frown still in place but anger replaced with worry. And damn he didn't want that. Conner was his best friend but he didn't want to burden him just because he had trouble dealing with death. He also couldn't hurt Bart because of it.   So he ignored Conner the best he could while trying to look for Bart (again) on the feed of his computer. Conner just sighed and went to find Bart who had luckily just come back from a run (where? Somewhere Max Mercury related probably and wasn't that a whole can of worms in itself?) and looked calmer, if still wary, when Conner escorted him protectively to the living room where Tim was still hiding.  He quickly got up and ran to Bart, stopping a few centimeters from him, hands hesitating before falling solidly on the younger boy's shoulders.

"I'm so sorry Bart, I just. I'm not…Some things happened and, well I took it on you and I shouldn't have. I'm really sorry."  This was the most heartfelt Tim had been in a while and he was almost proud of it.

  Whether Bart had decided to forgive him before his apology or his speedster brain weighed the pros and cons of accepting his apology right after (or Bart decided to forgive him on the spur of the moment), he ended up jumping into Tim's arms for less than a second (Tim barely felt the hug but he wanted more of it) and gave Tim a small smile. All was forgiven and they started moving toward the couch. Conner was still frowning slightly but he smiled back at them only a few moments later (as if to make sure there was no issue left between them) before joining them on the couch, on Bart.

"You are so the mom".

  Oops. Tim had apparently slipped up. Bart looked surprised and speechless (they had the "argument" because Bart had just sped off after all), but then a sly smile made its appearance on his face.

"Hey you're right! Conner's totally the mom!". He shouted excitedly.

  Conner, whose cheeks had started to redden and was glaring dagger at Tim, became redder and started glaring at Bart too so that Bart felt the need to defend himself:

"C'mon Conner you're like the nurturer and protector! That's totally what moms are!"

  Tim smiled slightly as he started to list the "nurturing" types of behaviors Conner had shown to corroborate Bart's statement while Bart looked at them, happy to have distracter Tim (even slightly) and he started falling asleep, listening to his best friends' bickering, smiling slightly more when he felt Conner lifting him up (with his famous TTK, luckily Tim must have glared at him because Conner stopped before he even began talking about it) and to his room where he deposited him on his bed, took off his boots and pulled the covers over his body while Tim joined them and they both messed with Bart's hair, patted him on the head and temples before turning his light off and closing the door, leaving him to a few hours of blissful sleep.

_______________________________________________________________

Author’s note part 2 : I hope I did Bart justice. Because of his Speed and unique growth he acts more like an hyperactive child than any other speedster has, but at the same time he has started gaining on maturity by that point in time (also I'm mad that they made him go darker instead of trying to simply keep on making him mature bit by bit), plus Bart is one of the most intelligent characters of this generation so I wanted to be able to show both. That's why I tried to write him in a way that shows a speed of thoughts where it can seem kinda jumbled because he makes a lot of connections.As for Tim, he's a special blender of PTSD and Depression (canonically), and most likely Anxiety, Boarding School Syndrom and, as of his father's death, survivor's guilt (granted it was viable until Kon's death) and all other secondary effect of having your parents leave you for unknown periods of times like lack of empathy and 0 Self-Esteem. (and probably Borderline Personality Disorder, but I'm not completely sure about that one...It'd fit though). So with this plus his recent grief and Tim usually being fairly prone to irritation and anger, I tried to make it realistic without being too aggressive.Finally Kon is a very nurturing person if an arrogant one *cough*over compensation because few people wanted him and those who did left/died*cough*. Kon is a very perceptive character but due to his relative youth he doesn't know how to interpret his perceptions, it's something I wish had been explored more, but anyway. Kon is a very loving and nurturing person and by the beginning of Teen Titans he had started really assuming this role especially toward Tim and Bart. And here he's worried about Bart of course, but he also knows how repressed Tim is and if he lashed out, especially at Bart then it means something's wrong (but he's willing to give Tim a bit of space for Tim to talk to him on his own...he doesn't have that big of a patience and Tim can be very stubborn though so he might want to ask him later ? But then canon catches up to them and Tim's forced to talk about his father (and not Steph because ? ).

Also the stuff on Egypt 100% true. There was an actual Prince Baka (that’s how I learned at least half of the Ancient Egypt Speciality of the Ecole du Louvre of the 2011-2012 years was made of weeaboos)

#TimKon #Bart Allen #Tim Drake #Kon El #Conner Kent #Teen Titans #DC Comics #Teen Titans v3 #BrOTP: TimKon #OTP: TimKon #BrOTP: TimBart #BrOTP: BartKon #BrOT3: TimKonBart #Gen #Angst #Fluff #Angst & Fluff

[vampykitty-kun]

Hi! I'm really interested in reading comics/graphic novels about or featuring the Batkids, and you seem like you know about that kind of thing (or at least more than I do, although it's a low bar), so do you think you could give me some suggestions to get started with? Also, I've seen some DC stuff at the library with "Death of the Family" on it but some is Batman and some is Batgirl and I think I saw a Teen Titans one and are they all connected or something? I'm confused. Thanks!

Yes! I do know quite a bit about comicsin the BatFam area, I just unfortunately can’t recommend anythingthat came out in the last 2 years as I’ve not read it. But 1989-2015I can give LOTS of recommendations.

For the most part any title can be astandalone, but titles do unfortunately get wrapped up in companywide events at times. But if you read the GN rather than theindividual comics they try and keep events to their own combo storybooks and character titles to their own.

This is such a huge list that I’mputting it under the cut so you click to read it instead of everyonegetting spammed with a HUGE list of things…

Here is what I’d recommend:

-Jason Todd as Robin II (Later known asRed Hood): It seems as though the majority of Jason writers presentday neglected to actually read his original issues, because they basetheir knowledge and opinion of him on what readers in the 80’sTHOUGHT of him, and unfortunately at the time many people hatedJason. Much of the hate was for a Robin in general as at the timeplenty of people thought Bruce should be on his own. No Batgirl (seethe Killing Joke) and no Robin. So the hate was for the role ingeneral. And then you had Robin fans that hated him just because theydidn’t want anyone trying to replace Dick’s role even though Dick hadmoved on to Nightwing. Jason as Robin issues are Batman #408-428, andNew Teen Titans Vol2 #19-21, 24, 28-31. I’m sure there were issues ofDetective Comics, but I have no idea which. In recent years much ofthese issues are in GNs but some of the issues are not, so you mayhave to look those up individually to read online or buy them instores with older issues. These GN are- Batman: Second Chances(Batman Issues #402-403, 408-416, and Annual #11), Batman Ten NightsOf The Beast (Batman Issues #417-420), DC Comics Classics Library:Batman- A Death In The Family, Hard Cover (Batman Issues #426-429,440-442, New Teen Titans Vol2 #60-61). this edition of “A Death InThe Family” contains both the death of Jason and the introductionof Tim, which was a story focused around Jason. So it’s a 2-for-1deal. There’s also a GN called Batman: The Cult and Jason’s the Robinwith Bruce in that story as well though I’m not sure where to placethat in the chronology.

-Tim as Robin III (Later known as RedRobin): Tim had an excellent run as Robin. He had 3 mini-seriesbefore he had an entire run of his own that spanned 183 main issues,not counting team ups or annuals. All while also appearing in theother Batman, Nightwing, and Batgirl titles. Plenty of issues werecompany wide tie-in issues but the rest were all put into their ownGNs. Robin: A Hero Reborn (Batman #455-457, Robin Mini-series1 #1-5),Robin: Tragedy & Triumph (Detective Comics #618-621, RobinMini-series2 #1-4), Robin Mini-series3: Cry Of the Huntress #1-6 isnot in a GN that I know of, then the rest of his main run in FlyingSolo, Unmasked!, Fresh Blood, To Kill a Bird, Days of Fire andMadness, The Virtual Cell, Wanted, Teenage Wasteland, The BigLeagues, Violent Tendencies, and Search for a Hero.

Likewise…

-Dick as Nightwing in his solo title(Vol2): 153 issues not counting team ups or annuals. Like with Robinmany of these issues are tied in with company wide events, and therest are in their own GNs. I recommend the 2014-present editions asthey have a bit more in them, better paper/graphics, and are wayeasier to find, but they haven’t remade all of them yet. Nightwing:Blüdhaven, Nightwing: Rough Justice, Nightwing: False Starts,Nightwing: Love and Bullets, Nightwing: The Hunt For Oracle are thenew editions. Continuing from there the older editions are:Nightwing: Big Guns, Nightwing: On the Razor’s Edge, Nightwing: YearOne, Nightwing: Mobbed Up, Nightwing: Renegade, Nightwing: Brothersin Blood, Nightwing: Love and War, Nightwing: The Lost Year,Nightwing: Freefall.

-Batman Knightfall: One of the classicBatman stories, in which the main bad is the villain Bane, whoseriously injures Bruce. This story spans three GNs: Broken Bat, WhoRules The Night, and Knightsend

-Batman Cataclysm: Another classic. Amassive earthquake hits Gotham and decimates the city. This can befound in one GN, thought look for what I think is the 2012 edition ofthe book not the one one as they included a lot of previous cut storyin the newer edition.

-Batman No Man’s Land: FollowsCataclysm. Essentially Gotham is covered in rubble and a massiveterritory war breaks out between BatFam, GSPD, and several separategroups of Gotham’s baddies. It spans 4 super thick GNs in the 2012newer edition (don’t bother with the older editions) but also has areally enjoyable novelization if you would prefer to read it inwritten format!

-Batman Hush: Essentially Bruce vs Hushand sometimes Clayface, and a story that unintentionally set up JuddWinick to bring Jason back to life lol…one GN in more recenteditions but was previously 2 smaller GNs. I do not know if there isa difference but generally larger book versions have a bit extra inthem.

-Batman Under the Red Hood: Jasonreturns as the Red Hood, sending Bruce on an emotional rollercoaster, while Joker and Black Mask end up roped in. Lots of peopleinvolved. Like Hush this come in one or two book format. I have thesingle book format. This story was adapted into an animated movie,one that also takes a few moments from “A Death In The Family”,but the beginning part was highly modified to make it a stand alonefilm, so several key details are removed. I do recommend watching themovie, but after reading both “A Death In The Family” and thecomic version of “Under The Red Hood”, so you get the fullexperience.

-Batman War Crimes, War Drums, and WarGames (WG is three GNs long): this connects into both Robin and RedHood. This is unfortunately where Stephanie (Spoiler, brief Robin IV,Batgirl) “dies” and there’s a massive war against Black mask.It’s five GNs total.

I pretty much have to recommend anyBatman Titled GN that comes after that as it goes more into Hush,Damian comes in and there’s a lot of plot to cover there, Bruce“dies” and the mantle is picked up by Dick, and it was a heck ofride until the reboot happened.

Outside of main Batman titles aroundthat time I have to HIGHLY recommend the following:-Batmanand Robin: Basically Dick and Damian’s team-up book series. Itspanned three GN with Morrison, and one after him totaling four. Wealso got more Jason here, and his sorta Batgirl type sidekickSasha/Scarlet. Admittedly it was weird because Morrison thought itwould be fun to give Jason red hair (something the main version ofJason never had, but had in issues for another version of Jason thatwas scrapped before any issues I mentioned in this post) and bulk himup. But if you can gt around that the actual plot on the Jason endwasn’t too bad and had some gems. But the Dick and Damian interactionand banter is the treasure here.

-Batman Streets Of Gotham: Again moreof Dick and Damian as Batman and Robin. But here we get Thomas Elliot(Hush) who surgically had his face changed to look like Bruce, and hefill Bruce’s public role under very close watch. We also get Damian’slittle friend Colin Wilkes (Abuse) who ends up close to him. He turnsinto a giant bulky rage man good guy :)

-Red Robin: Tim’s new solo series thatstarted after Damian took up being Robin and Dick went from Nightwingto being Batman. It’s 4 GNs long and was amazing. I can’t stress thatenough. I still mourn it ending. You get Tim on his own, you get himgoing up against/working with/outsmarting/impressing Ra’s al Ghul.You get Prudence Wood, one of Ra’s assassins that ends up liking andworking with Tim. You get Tam Fox, and Stephanie, and Conner Kent.

-Batgirl Vol3 (Stephanie Brown asBatgirl): Stephanie came back from faking her death, took back upSpoiler, only for Tim to demand she stop being Spoiler. He shouldhave been more specific, and she DOES drop Spoiler but then becomesBatgirl with previous Batgirl’s (Casandra) blessing lol. Spanned 24issues in three GNs but they are hard to find. Obviously there isCasandra’s run as Batgirl but i’ve never actually read it so I findit wrong of me to suggest it before I have so it’s up to you if youwant to hunt those down as well. But Casandra’s run was 73 issuesVol-1 (7 GN) sand 6 issues Vol-2 (which is in a single GN)

-Teen Titans Vol3 (Tim, Conner, Bart,etc) spans twelve GNs and had its ups and downs, but if you’re a teamfan this is a good series to read.

-Catwoman: A few different runs, andsome stand alone books. They’re all good pre-reboot. Read them ifyou’re a Catwoman fan :)

Now as far as books NOT in the main runof pre-reboot comics I also REALLY need to recommend the following:

Batman Year One: Bruce’s first year asBatman. Also Gordon’s first year on the job. One GN. Awesome and alsoadapted into an animated movie.

-Robin Year One & Batgirl Year One:These come in separate books or both in one big book. The Robin inmention is Dick and the Batgirl is Barbara. Both are fantasticstories.

-Huntress Year One: Huntress’ originstory. This is the Huntress that is NOT Bruce’s daughter from anotherEarth, this is the Mob associated one that was also featured in theTV series Arrow.

Superboy / Robin World’s Finest Three:two tiny GNs that tell the story of Tim and Conner’s first meeting.They end up going against Metallo and Poison Ivy.

JLA: World Without Grown-ups: This is astory spanning again two tiny GNs. Where Tim (Robin), Conner(Superboy), and Bart (Impulse, later known as Kid Flash) team up whensuddenly all the adults are in one dimension and all the underagepeople are in another.

Red Hood: The Lost Days: the story ofwhat happened between Jason’s resurrection and when he came back toGotham in Under The Red Hood. It’s one GN.

There are also some alternate universe stories that came out pre-reboot called Elseworld’s stories. Here are some good ones:

Batman:Brotherhood of the Bat: Alternate Universe what-if type story. Thisstory is if Talia had joined Bruce in Gotham and abandoned her fatherRa’s and his ways. The story is centered around their son, TallantWayne. This was an AU created before Damian entered the comics andthus one of many stories where Bruce and Talia’s son had a differentname. Bruce is dead and Tallant has to face his grandfather. This wasone thin GN but did have a sequel…

Batman: League ofBatmen: takes place after the above and spans two GNs to finish thestory.

Thrillkiller Batgirl & Robin: 3 issue AU where Barbara and Dick are the first vigilantes in Gotham in the 1960′s and go up against a FEMALE Joker. Bruce is a legit Detective. Every bit of this story is PAINTED and it’s amazing. It is followed up by a sequel.

Thrillkiller ‘62: Takes place where the above left off. But now Bruce is Batman alongside ‘Batgirl’. I won’t spoil the events of the above to give goo detail here lol.

Superman: Speeding Bullets: AU where Baby Kal-El crashes into Earth, where he is discovered by Thomas and Martha Wayne. The couple decide to adopt Kal-El, and name him Bruce. Fuses the two characters together. Thomas and Martha still die. “Bruce” becomes a flying Batman and later Superman.Batman: The Dark Knight Returns: Pretty much the most popular and longest AU that DC did. Spans 1 thick GN or multiple tiny ones. Not the greatest of art/setup but still good. Think of this as an AU Future Fic taking place after Jason died and Bruce retired instead of Tim coming along. Then he comes out of retirement to be a total badass. I do NOT however recommend any of the sequels or prequels because they are just BAD. This was adapted into TWO animated films which I honestly think I recommend more than the GNs due to the art.Post Reboot we hit the New 52. It had its up and downs. Nothing BatFam was particularly terrible but very little was amazing. personally the first 4-6 volumes of GNs for any given series was worth a read but not necessarily a buy. I read all the BatFam titles and the only ones that were MEH for me were Catwoman and Teen Titans. Red Hood and the Outlaws wasn’t for everyone, but I personally enjoyed it other than some details like Jason suddenly having magic??? and Kori having some personality issues but I was glas she wasn’t ditzy if that makes sense, and I really loved her character design even if I wish she at least had a touch more clothing on (once she was in a space suit and it was amazing). Suicide Squad isn’t technically BatFam but it had Harley in it in the New 52 and it was amazing even if I hated her visual re-design. Talon was a branch off of a Batman story line, and a specific character got his own title that spanned 2 GNs and was enjoyable.

Past that any Gns involving Batman The Animated Series are great, so are the Young Justice GNs.

I also have a huge love for the Batman Beyond show and Comics, but after the reboot they messed that up too.

#BatFam

[ectonurites]

thoughts on convergence batgirl?

ah yes i did mention i have problems with it in a tag last night which i imagine prompted you asking this.

on the one hand, in 2015 it was a 'made me cry out of joy to see Steph back in the Batgirl suit at all' sort of thing, so i'll always have a certain fondness for it. i do think it has some good moments (like the one in that above linked post) plus Steph & Cass as roommates my beloved.

BUT the major problem I have is that I think the premise is inherently flawed—I think it's way too out of character for Steph to quit being Batgirl/a vigilante the way she is shown to have done once the dome appeared. And that sorta bleeds into the whole story, it's a driving force behind how Steph & co are dealing with the Convergence situation.

Steph’s resilience and unwillingness to ever give up anything—no matter what the world threw at her—had pretty much always been a defining characteristic for her. The only times prior she’d ever ‘given it [being a hero] up’ were temporarily while she was pregnant (because. obviously) and when it was entirely not her choice post-War Games (because Leslie faked her death and brought her to Africa, but basically the second she got back to Gotham she was being Spoiler again).

Being a hero is something she had to work so hard for. It's something that she was told to stop doing over and over again—by Bruce, by Tim, by fucking everyone—but it's the thing she wanted to do and it's the way she wanted to help, so by god she was gonna do it!

And once she became Batgirl, that determination to be a hero only intensified:

(Bruce Wayne: The Road Home — Batgirl #1)

Like... this is her last page before the reboot:

(Batgirl (2009) #24)

Literally saying 'it's only the end if you want it to be' in rebuttal to Babs mentioning an end, and following it up with 'Here we go' as she swings off into the early morning to keep Batgirl-ing—in her last appearance before continuity is about to reboot and make her disappear entirely for a few years. This page is like the clearest example of showing how Stephanie Brown is a character that will carry on being a hero—doing what she loves and thinks is right—even if things are ending all around her.

So I just can't comprehend looking at that and saying 'yeah, when an emergency hits, she's gonna give all this up ASAP'. It just feels like it contradicts the very nature of Steph's attitude on being a hero and will always rub me the wrong way.

Then, a smaller thing that also bugged me on the reread of Convergence Batgirl I just did is how Tim/Steph was handled.

Because they were apparently together as Red Robin and Batgirl pre-dome which then led to the 'Tim ghosting Steph because she quit being Batgirl' breakup... but them being together was not the case nor really the trajectory things were headed towards last we saw the post-crisis versions of them. They had never gotten officially back together after Steph's death in War Games—like there were a few kisses and obvious feelings that were still present when she was revealed to be alive right around Batman RIP, but after the shit that went wrong at the end of Robin '93 they were very much so NOT together anymore. And when they had the chance to get back together during the Red Robin/Batgirl crossover they very specifically didn't.

So it just feels like... IDK, randomly added in drama for the sake of drama, that felt like it didn't add anything meaningful to the story besides... connecting an action to the already-seeming-ooc 'Steph Quit' plot point. But like, I think there easily could have been a story of rekindling their actual old relationship—without adding in this off-panel getting back together and breaking up thing—that would have made them getting back together again at the end feel way more satisfying.