Hi. I was talking with my best friend and we were going over the rogues of Young Justice and who had which person as their common adversary such as Tim with all of Batman's rogues being his and the point of it was that when they were all adults who would be their own personal nemesis? Batman has The Joker clearly, Superman with Lex Luthor, The Flash and Reverse Flash, Wonder Woman and Cheetah etc but what about the YJ crew especially Bart? Who would be Bart's main nemesis when he's an adult?
Did you forget about Thad Thawne?
Thad Thawne is absolutely Bart's main nemesis NOW in current, no matter how much Thad deserves and SHOULD get a redemption arc (which likely will never happen considering Fastest Man Alive is canon again).
I also really am hesitant to say Tim's rogues are just Batman's rogues because he ran into a lot of other people and themes in his own comics on a fair basis that there are other options available. Also it looks like the one responsible for Young Justice Dark Crisis (Mxyzptlk's son, allegedly) has already decided Tim is his nemesis (see Tim Drake's Pride Special).
***Edit*** Mickey was in fact NOT the person who Tim is currently up against in his comics. When this was written, it was assumed they were going to be the same.
King Shark (yes, he's a Superboy character) with Kay Fury as well as Amanda Spence (allegedly dead) are Kon's in his own comics but having them extend into the future with him as an adult is... iffy. His 2011 solo comic had Simon Valentine (his FRIEND) being setup as his Lex Luthor with a parallel narrative as well but meh, I really liked Simon and I just want these heroes to have fucking civilian friends and have their own rogues not just mirror their assumed mentor's.
Bart however is a little more tricky because in his own comics he rarely had reoccurring villains (Thad) that truly wanted to harm him (Thad), and many of them were more Max's adversaries anyway or were guest rogues.
We do have a few however but I do not foresee them as being a problem for Bart when he is older. But they could be brought back for fun.
For fun let's just explore a few interesting people from Bart's run that were presented as villains, see if they are a candidate for future rogue-ness, then I will tell you my own personal pick for his true nemesis that isn't Thad.
White Lightning
The first 'major adversary' we see is White Lightning who has some mild 'pheromone mind control' that allows her to manipulate men just like Poison Ivy, only she has not shown any murderous intentions.
Impulse #80
She shows up early on in his series, and she shows up every now and then and is predominately a thief who uses adolescent boys to assist her in her heists.
Impulse #4
She would make a GREAT current 'rogue' because she's basically a social media influencer. She uses the internet of 1995 to attract potential 'gang members', and she even has her own merch! This would translate VERY WELL for today for a morally gray rogue.
She's FUN, but she's not really a villain so she's out for being Bart's nemesis. She's more like a Robin Hood character than a true crook (a Robin Hood that KEEPS the money).
Likelihood of being a future rogue: 6/10
lmfao white lightning has her own merch but bart doesn't
Evil Eye Eddie/Wilfred Parker (once called "Danny" by his dad)
His first appearance is in Impulse is in issue #27 and he shows up on the regular up until the near end of the series. He's a very well written character that when he first shows up he is a thug and a bully that wants nothing more than to follow in the footsteps of his father, and grandfather (Dr. Morlo) and be a super villain, and a gang member.
As time progresses with him in the series, we see that he does not actually have the disposition to do what he needs to do in order to be that, but he still retains a shitty attitude which makes him more likable. He also has a friendship with Rolly that from everything we see is genuine and he does care about him. One day I'll make a meta post about Eddie because he's fascinating as fuck.
Impulse #47
Evil Eye also finds out on his own who Bart is later and doesn't tell anyone about it so he's not a good candidate for being a rogue of Bart's later. Dr. Morlo couldn't even keep up with being Max's rogue and they instead have a divorced spouse relationship. It would be fun to have him back though. I want him to meet Stephanie Brown.
Likelihood of being a future rogue: 1/10
Pocket Pal
A better contender is Pocket Pal who was penned for issue #60 by the legendary Dwayne McDuffie (yes, Milestone's McDuffie. RIP).
His particular abilities were similar to Chester Runk's aka The Chunk in that he had a pocket dimension in which he could put an infinite number of things into. He was slick, angry, and a young thief who could definitely grow up into a regular rogue for Bart to deal with later.
Impulse #60
I could absolutely see him coming back as an adult rogue for Bart to deal with on occasion. There's a lot of writing potential for a character that has a bag of infinite carrying.
Name's gotta change though. I like Supermassive (as in black hole) but I do not write for DC and I likely never will so Pocket Pal it is.
Likelihood of being a future rogue: 8/10
Honorable Mention: Shanela
Shanela first shows up in Issue #82 and she and her twin sister Shantay both have the ability to manifest illusions. Shanela is just an A N G R Y teen, and her sister Shantay is seen as the one who is constantly trying to keep her in check.
Impulse #83
Shanela has a great narrative and she deals with a lot of internal teenage negativity and low self esteem. She does not really use her power to physically hurt anyone but she definitely has enough anger and hatred towards her peers to get to that point and probably would have had Bart not intervened. Her weakness it turned out was dogs as she is petrified of them.
She was a fascinating 'villain' and it would be fun to see her and her sister again; whether working together as some sort of hero team, working against each other, or simply being civilian metas.
Likelihood of being a future rogue: 5/10 (it's circumstantial)
And now... The person I feel personally strong about being Bart's rogue (other than Thad)...
Bedlam/Matthew Stuart
There's something about a Speedster having an adversary that has infinite power and ability through use of magic that just offers infinite potential when it comes to possible stories. It's terrifying and exciting. When it comes to this particular character however we have established history AND motivation and this character has already mentioned that he HATES Bart (and his friends) and will absolutely given the opportunity wreck his life just out of spite.
Good god don't let him team up with Thad.
Impulse #85
For context here we first meet Matthew in the story that started Young Justice. JLA: World Without Grownups and he is supposed to be a brat even before he comes into his powers.
Now, you can make the argument here that he is justifiably irritated that his father almost did not make it back in time for his 13th birthday, and that his family dynamic is not the best here, and there is probably some toxic dynamic but he's also a moody teen with some anger at the world that helps him along the path of being Bedlam. You can read this scene as him being a brat, or you can read it as him just being a normal kid dealing with loneliness and acting out. Either way, things go bad quick.
He comes into his powers by accident from that clearly stolen archeological artifact his father dug up, someone get Arthur because the Atlantean artifact contains the magical power of Garn Daanuth.
He becomes possessed by this entity Bedlam and immediately changes reality to mirror something he finds fitting; one without grownups where children rule.
Eventually he is apprehended by Tim, Kon and Bart and it is Bart who is key to finally beating him.
Matt remembers Bart very fervently when he shows back up 2 years later without the entity, but with all of his powers roiling through him (TLDR the actual entity was able to be born as a mortal human being and he ditched his magical powers and they went back to Matt).
Impulse #85
Matt to me would be top tier level for an original adversary for Bart specifically considering he targeted Bart (and other members of Young Justice but not the the same extreme as Bart).
He has history, motivation, and a kick ass power that would be nothing short than mayhem any time he showed up.
Now YES he did technically lose all his powers (Bart again, foiled him) and they jumped into Bart's body, but there is no real reason to not have Matt regain the abilities in some way. These are comics, after all.
I feel that in a hypothetical scenario where Bart had to have primary rogue that was not Thad it would be Matt Stuart 100%.
So these are just my own thoughts and Bart certainly dealt with a lot more than just those I have listed but this was still fun to explore and I hope this got you thinking into the subject of hypotheticals and maybe it inspired some fan works.
Thank you for the probing question!
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2024 Update
Hello, Tumblr!
I really want to use this platform more, especially since this is supposed to be my main thing, with the domain and all... so I'm setting up some challenges for myself this year to keep myself on track!
2023 has been kind to me and my art but I think I haven't documented it well enough as something that I could look back to easily. As someone who's a sucker for nostalgia and keeper of old journals, I want to give my art journey some sort of documentation.
For 2024, I want to make a monthly blog like this, featuring some art pieces I truly enjoyed making the past month and some insights on where I am in terms of art and life. Just want to stay true to this being a personal & creative blog.
The last art piece I made for 2023 is this piece featuring my character, Spice. It's for Pocket Pal's monthly prompt. It took me less than a day to make and it was a really fun piece. I did keep getting sidetracked since we're also preparing for the new year.
At the end of 2023 I find myself enjoying the watercolor brushes in my app. I find them really convenient for someone like me who's very impatient on coloring and shading. I also stopped busying myself with lineart; it's too tedious for me and I personally like a more loose-looking piece vs something too clean and proper. So most of the pieces I made at the end of the year are just from cleaned up sketch layers. I only redo them if they look too pixelated from all the transformation tools I used.
I still have quite a few art trades to do from December, so those will definitely be the priority this January. Here's to hoping I could get on with this monthly thing, and possibly, share more art here.
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