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mistwraiths · 11 months

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5 stars

As if I could write something entirely coherent about the absolute chokehold this book had me in.

Look, if you're interested in big plot or action or fast paced things, this isn't the book for you. If you want a book where queerness is normalized, where there's a competent female Sultan and a female Commander who are great characters and do their jobs well, where there's a slowburn romance between a bodyguard and his prince that absolutely talks about the power dynamic and isn't instalove and is such a slow, sweeping thing, this is for you!!!!!

There's only minimal fantasy elements in here which is sad and I'd love to know more. Touch-tasting, people who can find lies through looking at people's eyes, two moons just casually being announced. I would have loved more of it. But this is ultimately a romance story. The plot is there but only in bits and pieces and, it's rather obvious who is involved. But that's a point of interesting conflict because there's already beef between the characters but it doesn't completely go there too much.

What makes this book so good though is the CHARACTERS themselves.

Kadou. God I just want to PROTECT him. He's a good man and he suffers from near debilitating anxiety that he calls the fear-monster because there's really no word for it there. He calls it cowardice but it ISN'T. And while he might be afraid all the time, he isn't a coward in the LEAST. I loved that he was able to hold his own during a alley brawl and had to save his bodyguard. I loved that he's entirely conscious of everyone's worth and power and such. Reading those scenes where he's having a panic attack and no one knows what to DO literally brought me to tears.

Evemer. God I just LOVE him; he's so disciplined and dutiful and he just wants to be useful and serve people who he seems as worthy and such. I love that he had taken what he heard and made his mind up and didn't like Kadou in the beginning. I love that slowly he began to edit his opinion of Kadou and when he's finally called out (not unkindly) for not liking him, he's honest with him. I love that he's not PERFECT at being the bodyguard.

The side characters?! Chef's kiss. Eozena??? Tadek?? I LOVE that there are people who just love Kadou very much because he just simply deserves it. It's not hammered in to be cheesey in your face. It's just like how could they not? They've known him for years. One loves him as almost his aunt. Another loves him as a friend and past-lover. They know he struggles so they put the words into actions too so he can hopefully believe it.

It was just so beautifully written. THIS IS WHAT A SLOWBURN SHOULD BE. There's angst and wanting and hurt/comfort and more.

I absolutely want more but I'm also so happy with what I have gotten.

#a taste of gold and iron #alexandra rowland #steph reads #steph's book review #book review #2023 reads

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steph-squatch · 2 years

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Sometimes a family is a feral librarian, a bisexual sorcerer, and his demon manservant

#steph derps #steph reads #sorcery of thorns is so good yall #its everything i love #love me a sad snarky traumatized man #and a strong female lead who's not a Wicker Basket #AND THEN PUT THEM TOGETHER #👁👄👁#also victorian era fantasy

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sepia-stained-sunset · 11 months

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Duke, Jason, Damian and Cass who only knew Kon and Tim during their "I would burn down the world for you" era asking the rest of the family how Tim missed their obvious chemistry, how he's been oblivious to the person he's been in love with since the day they met.

Steph, Dick, Bruce, Alfred and Babs, who all got a taste of their initial Young Justice years where Tim was one second away from framing Kon for murder, just exchange amused looks.

#tim would probably leave hundreds of messages to steph complaining about kon until even steph just hates him on principle #and then two months later he's making heart eyes at the man and steph is like 'are you FUCKING KIDDING ME???!'#if tim and kon ever got together steph would break into his house and force him to listen to her read his old texts out loud #tim drake #kon el kent #timkon #batfam shenanigans

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obsessedwithfandoms · 1 year

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Unpopular opinion: I finally finished reading ACOTAR (it took me months) and I don’t get the hype :|

#acotar #steph reads

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horsechestnut · 8 months

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The dichotomy between Jason dying because he disobeyed Batman and Stephanie dying specifically because she was trying to follow his rules is so good, and yet so under utilized.

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welcometogrouchland · 4 months

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[ID in alt text, transcripts for comics also found there!]

🎉🎇HAPPY NEW YEAR!🎇🎉

Sure was a year...This is just me taking the end of year opportunity to post the various DC comics doodles that have been gathering dust in my files! Disclaimer that I'm a heathen who mostly reads batfam comics (and also a lot of. Sidekick-y stuff? Like YJ98) and these are all for fun! (Image #3 is a direct adaptation of this text post I made)

#dc comics #dc #cassandra cain #damian wayne #roy harper #lian harper #cassie sandsmark #maya ducard #flatline dc #kathy branden #...im hesitant to tag steph bc i feel like everytime i tag her the post refuses to show in her tag #stephanie brown #anyway yeah uhhh recently bought the yj98 omnibus (IT'S FUCKING HUGE) so that's why cassie redesign #years and years ago i posted a draft of a cassie redesign that's like. similar to what i have but i vastly prefer this version #OH!#i forgot to tag stephcass :(#whoopsie #but yeah i did a lot of steph reading this year (STILL SO MUCH TO DO) and ouughh boy. she's had her claws in my brain ever since #damian and dick are there. nough said #<- I'm extremely mentally ill about them there's just still a lot for me to read. i have nightwing rebirth with them! and some early b&r 09 #also robin 2021 issue. 4? i wanna say? the one where dick gives damian his bday present. makes me cry like a pressure washer #also I'm so sorry if I've somehow managed to (in my extremely limited presentation of them) present roy and lian as ooc in anyway #I've only read arsenal 1998 bc it was a mini. hit or miss but it did imprint a love of roy and lian on me #I'm only semi following the current green arrow run rn mostly for those 2 #(also sidenote the guy who writes current GA is ALSO writing B&R AND SUPERMAN??? AND A G.I JOE COMIC????-#-girl say what you want about his work it's a miracle any of it is comprehensible at all w/ all those titles going on)#(he said he's not sure how long he'll stay on GA tho. I'm also low-key not sure how long he'll stay on B&R-#-though i imagine it'll be at least a years worth bc he said that's how much notes he has for plot? also idk if many other writers at dc-#-are interested in damian rn especially next to Bruce)#HOO this got away from me I'm outta tags. uhhhh see u guys in 2014! woo!

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shower-phantom-ideas · 6 months

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Danny is just a kid ya know? Like he is just a little guy. A baby really. 14? Tiny child! Look at him, he needs to be protected. Someone has to help this poor little dude. I mean he forgets to use his own powers to avoid attacks all the time.

Anyway cut to Batfam not knowing all of Dannys power set cause the lil dingus keeps forgetting he can do that stuff in the heat of battle.

Danny uses his invisibility all the time… to avoid being followed. But in a fight? Oopsies hes too busy thinking of funny one liners to realise he could do that.

Intangibility? Give the guy a break. I mean who calls themselves condiment king. Even he was stunned.

He so rarely actually uses his biggest advantage powers that the League doubt he actually has them. He, like any naive child, trusts them and reported fully on his power set. Instead of just asking him to demonstrate his powers they instead start watching him and try to find evidence of his powers.

At least they know duplication was true since they watched him make a copy of himself to go to the bathroom and not miss any of his fav tv show.

#danny phantom #dp x dc #dpxdc #im 100% here for danny using his powers for stupid shit and not the important battle stuff #this post wasn’t meant to be like this so I guess heres for you guys who read my stupid tags #I was gonna have the batfam adopt danny after a reveal and just not know all the crazy stuff he can do #they think they got him figured out then at the manner he does something like seep into the floor to get his forgotten school bag #or he turns invisible cause he got caught parnking and bruce is talking to him and steph but he just dips #no wait I can do better. he gets yelled at by bruce (aka new father figure) for eating a corn chip off the floor and just vanishes from…#… from getting surprised. meanwhile bruce is like!?!?!?!!?#just imagine them going crazy because they have no idea his powerset and they thought they did #his new siblings make a game of it #they get on missions and keep asking danny to do more and more impossible stuff just to see if he will reveal a new power #hey danny go scope out the area but make sure you arent seen ok #and hes like sure thing fam and goes invisible and intangible #doesn’t think to just take out the baddies and returns to them with a full floor plan and locatikn of all the baddies and drugs #like wtf #hey danny think you can do anything about that generator? and hes like sure thing fam and then freezes it #danny bro this guy is out of control! little help? and danny just walks up to the guy and overshadows him and handcuffs himself #brother daniel I dint think we can get in but theres a small hole here in the wall #would you be able to do anything about that? and instead of just walking thru the wall danny shifts his body and goes thru the hole #as if he had no bones and became liquid #the game gets intense and breaks bruce so he gives in first (yes he was playkng too) and just asks danny to show them his powers #he will say some shit like ‘ah hey chum think you can show us all your abilities? that was we can coordinate better in the field.’#dannys just like ‘yea daddio sure thing’ then proceeded to show off his entire move set minus wail until bruce showed him a chamber…#… that could ‘with stand’ his power (spoiler he destroyed that fucking toom lmao)#ok my spaghetti rings and meatballs have been done for a while and juliet is trying to eat them out the microwave so hopefully these tags #fed yall goobers #man I should have just made a second post lmao #stood in the kitchen too long typing and they got cold

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theerurishipper · 2 months

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Honestly, I do love Dick as Nightwing and Bruce and Dick's complicated relationship, but sometimes I like the old days when things were sweet and simple you know? When it was just them and Alfred and they all had fun with each other. Like when they blew off boring parties to go on patrol by using Dick's bedtime as an excuse. When Bruce let Dick go off on his own and said he was allowed "a little escapade" and ruffled his hair. When Alfred always brought coffee and "turkey sandwiches with Swiss cheese" to the Batcave while Dick and Bruce happily talked about their nightlife escapades. When Dick would make Bruce laugh regularly.

When they discussed Hamlet while riding in the Batmobile. When Alfred picked Dick up from school and dropped him off on dates and helped him go behind Bruce's back on cases. When Dick and Bruce would play fight with each other. When Dick made Batman's meetings with Gordon "more optimistic." When Bruce was being a helicopter parent and wanting to know why Dick would want to go to a public school. When Dick would sneak off with Clark when Bruce wanted him to stay back to finish his homework, and Clark did it for him before Bruce noticed. When Bruce teased Dick about his failed date, and they talked about it and their love lives. When Bruce apparently told stories about Joker to Dick during rides in the Batmobile. When Dick was actually the one who named the aforementioned Batmobile. When they would banter even in between a serious case. When Dick would cling onto Bruce to annoy him. When Dick was contemplating how alone he felt, and Bruce just showed up to catch him and do a routine on the trapeze with him. When Bruce would call Dick "kiddo." When Dick even called him stuff like "Bruce-ter." When Bruce used to call Dick "chum." I miss those days.

Yeah a lot of these are from Robin: Year One but that's just because it's the one I remember most. But there's a lot of them just having a good time and it doesn't feel like we see a lot of that anymore.

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twotailednekomata · 7 months

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Damian is so fucking baby. I love it.

#key's post #wfa #batman: wayne family adventures #dc #batfam #damian wayne #dc robin #Currently catching up with the latest WFA episodes #Just read Ep 103 and it was hilariously #(Damian HAD to eventually catch on to Steph's & Tim's bullshit)

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mistwraiths · 1 month

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5 stars

I super enjoyed this! I am a simple woman. Give me regency woman trying to find a fortune/husband and I will usually love it.

This did everything it was supposed to. It made me grin, laugh, and feel. The part where they drop EVERYTHING and help each other's siblings without another THOUGHT because they couldn't bear it for the other. I LOVED.

The banter was good. I loved Kitty and her devotion to her family and her single minded determination to get what she wants and succeed was so refreshing. James constantly underestimating her and trying to both botch and help her succeed was great too.

Super excited about the second book!

#a lady's guide to fortune-hunting #steph's book review #steph reads #2024 reads #book review

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steph-squatch · 2 years

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Sorcery of Thorns is getting a sequel novella and I am FUCKING STOKED

I'm a simp for feral women and their sad bisexual boyfriends. And now they're trapped in the manor together 👁👄👁

#steph derps #steph reads #i just finished that book this morning and i want to scream it was so good #needless to say i foamed at the mouth a bit when i found out there was a short sequel being published early next year #i wanted more and now i can have more #AND THEYRE STUCK IN THE MANOR.#TOGETHER.#AND THEYRE SUPER INTO EACH OTHER.#(granted theres like two other people also in the manor but like....doesnt matter.)

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secretlystephaniebrown · 9 months

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I Read Nearly Every Appearance of the Lazarus Pit Before Flashpoint and All I Got Was A Headache: A Meta Commentary

So! The Lazarus Pit!

The Lazarus Pit is obviously an iconic part of the Batman Franchise. We encounter it everywhere, from the Under the Red Hood movie, to the Lazarus Planet event which just ended.

But has the Lazarus Pit always been this way?

It's comics. Of course not.

Very long comic rant with citations below!

The Nu52 and following reboots obviously overhauled Lazarus Lore so completely they're functionally a different thing, so I'm not talking about them. Today, instead, we're talking about post-crisis/pre-Flashpoint Lazarus Pits, their contradictions, and what we can make of them.

The Lazarus Pits have been around nearly as long as Ra's and Talia have been, and even before they appeared, it was clear that Ra's had some method of extending his life.

Batman (1940-2011) #235

The first Lazarus Pit itself seems to be in a chalet in Switzerland, and it's very different than what we will later associate it as. It is instead, a mortuary slab that lowers itself into a pit of "bubbling liquid"

Batman (1940-2011) #243

In these early versions, the Lazarus Pit is portrayed as a medical invention that Ra's has used to extend his life.

It is shown to have consequences, which fandom has, of course, latched onto.

Batman (1940-2011) #244

Here, we see the Lazarus Madness described as including "the strength of ten men", and he is able to be able to resist nearly all attacks from Batman and Lo Ling.

In addition, Ra's claims that he has used the pit too often, which is shown to be the driving force behind his interest in Bruce and his legacy.

Batman (1940-2011) #244

Later appearances of Ra's and the pit throughout this era add a few more interesting tidbits.

He claims that only he can use the Lazarus Pit... but puts Talia in it in that same issue, claiming that it's okay if it's just a quick dip.

Batman (1940-2011) #335

Is Ra's lying about no one else being able to use the pit? Almost certainly. He will start putting anyone he wants into the pit soon enough.

Those with a keen eye might notice that the Lazarus Pit is already going through some aesthetic changes: we're still seeing a slab being lowered into a small pit, but now the liquid within is orange! This will come up a lot!

Next up we have the storyline Grant Morrison refused to read: Son of the Demon.

In Son of the Demon, Ra's claims that there was an earlier version of the Pit, before the final version Bruce has already encountered. In this version, he claims that Mellisande, Talia's mother, was pushed into this proto-pit, and it killed her.

Batman: Son of the Demon (1987)

Denny O'Neil will later retcon this in 1993, claiming that Talia's mother died of a drug overdose, and Ra's refused to bring her back.

But it is consistent in early versions of the story that Lazarus Pits, if not entered with proper care and with the right preparations, can be dangerous.

Bride of the Demon is the next storyline, and Ra's BRINGS the Lazarus Pits in this one. Ra's finds himself a hot MILF girlfriend and puts her in the Pit to make her younger so she can give him kids.

Batman: Bride of the Demon (1990)

This Lazarus Pit is shown to be more experimental than past versions, with Ra's and Dr. Weltmann attempting to prevent the Lazarus Madness factor.

Ra's later puts a child in the pit as a bribe to his father, but the kid had possibly been dead too long, and it was hinted there were going to be long-term consequences for the actions... which were dropped. As was the wife, who was supposedly pregnant at the end of this story. Comics!

This is the first time that limits on the Lazarus Pit are presented, but it is certainly not the last. This idea that there's an upper limit on how long someone can be dead for before a Lazarus Pit doesn't do anything will come back again.

Batman: Birth of the Demon finally brings in a more mystical aspect to the Lazarus Pits, which so far have been vaguely scientific. In this story, we are introduced to the fact that Lazarus Pits are located on the convergence points of leylines (which in-universe have something to do with the electro-magnetic field). Ra's's approximate age is revealed, and it is shown that Bruce and Ra's have been fighting a real-estate battle over sites where Lazarus Pits can be built.

Batman: Birth of the Demon (1992)

In flashbacks, we learn that Ra's figured out how to build a Lazarus Pit, and was not actually the first person to use it. Instead, it was for the son of the Sultan Ra's worked for as a physician.

After the Sultan's son went mad, killed Sora, and blamed Ra's for it, Ra's had his vengeance... by putting the son in a false Lazarus Pit.

This pit was sabotaged by not being built on a Leyline. So uh... be careful with those, I guess!

So in short: by the end of this era of Denny O'Neil/Mike Barr Lazarus Lore, we know that anyone can use a Lazarus Pit, but Ra's controls them with his knowledge of how to create them. Bruce can find where they should be by tracking leylines, and will pass this knowledge on to others over time.

We then enter a new era! The Chuck Dixon era, to be specific.

Chuck Dixon has surprisingly few retcons for us. We first really encounter his take on Lazarus Lore in his mini series Bane of the Demon, where Bane works with Ra's and co.

We get a brief recap of the lore here:

Batman: Bane of the Demon #3 (1998)

We are now introduced to an interesting new layer: the Lazarus Pits can be predicted, not just detected. Ra's has headquarters set up all over the world, in places where Lazarus Pits not only are, but will be. Some pit locations appear to remain the same throughout the years (Ra's has built numerous pits on the location of the first site: at least three that we know of), but generally, Lazarus Pits seem to be a one-time deal.

Ra's clearly has dedicated most of his life to these pits; to acquiring their locations, to predicting where they will be, experimenting with how to make them better... so obviously, he guards the formula for how to make them extremely closely, right?

Well. Not according to Chuck.

Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight (1989-2007) #145

And if you've noticed that head of green hair on the ground there, that's right folks! BRUCE WAYNE PUT A DEAD JOKER IN A LAZARUS PIT HE MADE HIMSELF.

Bruce justifies it by telling Alfred that if he does this, it means Ra's can't use it later. However, it does not change the fact that Bruce put the Joker in a Lazarus Pit. No I'm not going to be over this ever. Jason might have a point, actually.

Ra's decides, after this, that he wants another wife. And he picks Dinah Lance! But whoops, as it happens, Dinah was tortured and can't have kids (also lost her Canary Cry), way back in Green Arrow, before Ollie died! So Ra's decides to throw her in a Lazarus Pit. It... doesn't go well. Lazarus Madness + Restored Canary Cry = one destroyed building.

Birds of Prey (1999-2009) #33

Oh look! We've got locations! And of course every other Lazarus Pit we've seen or will see except Birth of the Demon is nowhere near any of these convergence points!

So! To recap the current state of the lore: Lazarus Pits are a combination of science and magic. They are an alchemical creation, built on leyline nodes. Generally, they are one-use only, or at least they require centuries to be re-usable. They can resurrect the newly-dead, but but Ra's is very cautious about letting other people use them, probably because he's a control freak, and he doesn't have too many of them left.

We depart the Dixon era and enter... the Nyssa Raatko era.

Nyssa is introduced in Death and the Maidens, with Greg Rucka, who is a huge fan of Denny O'Neil, still sticking pretty close to the original lore.

Here, we see that Bruce has still been on his kick of preventing Ra's from building more Lazarus Pits by buying up real estate where they could be. This forced Ra's to try to reconcile with his daughter Nyssa, who he gave a Lazarus Pit to sometime in the 1700s.

Batman: Death and the Maidens (2003-2004) #1

"But hey!" I can hear you say. "Isn't part of the thing that you mentioned earlier is that they're one-use?"

Well they are! For Ra's.

Nyssa, however, is a smart lady.

Nyssa, at some point in her life, figured out how to make a Lazarus Pit reusable. So she's been getting a lot of mileage out of this baby, and has been since the 1700s.

This story also presents an explanation for why the Lazarus Pit is sometimes green and sometimes orange: Nyssa's is orange and Ra's has green ones. I guess maybe the earlier orange pits that Ra's had were him trying to make them reusable like Nyssa? Hmm.

Batman: Death and the Maidens (2003-2004) #4

When questioned about it, Nyssa tells Talia that there used to be more pits, so he was less protective of them when he gave her this one.

Batman: Death and the Maidens (2003-2004) #6

At the end of this storyline, Ra's is dead, Nyssa is the new Ra's al Ghul, and according to Bruce, she has the only Lazarus Pit left.

Batman: Death and the Maidens (2003-2004) #9

Nyssa pops up again in Batgirl, facing off against Cass, and brags about her special pit again. Cass and Shiva both get dips in it. Fun times!

Batgirl (2000-2006) #69

Yes, the torture hooks are a reoccurring feature of Nyssa's pit. I don't know why.

But wait! A brief interlude!

Jason Todd came back to comics in a storyline: Under the Hood, in 2005, which wrapped up in 2006. We weren't told how Jason came back in the story itself, but a few months after Under the Hood ended, we get Batman Annual #25, which shows Talia shoving Jason into a Lazarus Pit while Ra's was using it.

Batman Annual #25 (2006)

There's no discussion about if this is a weird dip. He's got brain activity again though!

This is revisited again in Red Hood: The Lost Days, but it doesn't really add anything from the point of Lazarus Lore, except that Ra's posits that Jason, having already been resurrected, could have suffered some long-term consequences, unlike literally anyone else who had a dip.

Red Hood: The Lost Days (2010-2011) #2

Anyways, enough Jason! Nyssa gets killed off-page in OYL, so she's gone now, Talia's running the show and oh fuck it's Morrison-era. And Morrison never bothered to read any other Ra's or Talia story because it wasn't Silver Age or something. So... retcon time!

The Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul attempts to retell Birth of the Demon, but with a few retcons. The pits were discovered, not made, being the official point in which the Lazarus Pits become purely magical phenomena, rather than a work of alchemy.

Batman Annual #26 (2007)

Bruce also mentions that the Pits are connected to actual waterways, which is a massive difference from the shallow pits from earlier eras.

This era does however confirm the concept that older bodies, further along in the decay process, probably shouldn't be dipped in the Lazarus Pit. At least, Dick convinced Tim of this fact after a little while.

(Also White Ghost wants a perfectly healthy, alive Tim to bathe in the Lazarus Pit, and this is never explained. Maybe it was a distraction?)

Nightwing (1996-2009) #139

In this era, and the Batman: Reborn era following it, the Lazarus Pits are pretty absent, but the few references we do get from this point forward (including in Red Hood: The Lost Days, which are published in 2010-2011), tend to use the Morrison-era canon that the pits are natural. And also we're back to having a lot of them, instead of just Nyssa's singular one in the Balkans, and, since Ra's has a new young(er) body, there's no sense of urgency to buy up/prevent him from making new pits. Potentially, Dusan/White Ghost took advantage of the fact that the Bats thought Ra's was dead to buy back the real-estate and make new pits, but that's using the pre-Morrison lore. I guess in Morrison era, the Bats just... don't know where Pits are until they find one, and then they blow it up.

We also no longer see any one-time-use limitations. One could assume that Talia figured out the formula Nyssa used to keep the pits reusable and told Ra's, if we're trying to merge the canons.

And that's not even counting whatever is happening in the post-Flashpoint era. Lazarus Planet gives me a headache. Let's not talk about it just now.

Anyways, in short: I think the artificial, single-use Lazarus Pits are way more fun. But anyways, here's the citations to help you decide what YOU think Lazarus Lore should be!

#Steph Speaks #Steph Reads Comics #The Lazarus Pit #Ra's al Ghul #Bruce Wayne #Talia al Ghul #Bane #Nyssa Raatko #Jason Todd #Tim Drake #Dick Grayson #Barbara Gordon #I had more images but there's a 30 image cap so you guys don't get to see Ted and Babs dealing with Lazarus Mad-Dinah #DC #I will go back and add the rest of the image descriptions

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