cosmiczeee

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aroace jason todd who lives a fulfilling life filled with people he cares about because being attracted to people romantically/sexually is not a prerequisite for happiness. jesus fucking christ.

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Jade Nguyen by Denise Zhang.

“Can we have some fashionable costumes for Asian characters from DC. Just asking.”

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instead of arguing if precrisis "sweetheart" robin jason or newer "bad kid" robin jason is canon (technically they both are), i think its better to ask which interpretation is more interesting.

personally, between "he was a good kid who went through a lot of traumas and then was murdered and brought back which messed him up even more and he became a killer, but he has his moral code and still cares about people and thinks hes just doing whats necessary"

and

"he has just always been bad and violent (because ???) and he died from being stupid and arrogant, and came back an even more heartless killer and now is just evil and doesnt care about anyone"

i know which one i find more compelling to read about

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Bruce picking up a gun and shooting at Jason in Batman #158 is actually him being a good father and engaging in Jason's interests with him (shooting people). smh fandom asks for good dad bruce but then can't stand how it manifests in comics....

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I'm sorry, WHAT?

Firstly, Jason already knows this. What makes you think Jason, the kid who was a THIEF out of NECESSITY, whose father was a criminal to SUPPORT HIS FAMILY, doesn't know that "sometimes criminals have no choice"? Yeah no fucking shit.

Second, that IS what DC has been doing. All they've been doing is misinterpret Jason's morality and try to teach him 'the value of human life!!' and 'criminals can be redeemed!!' as if that's what his ideology was opposed to.

Jason Todd how misunderstood you are..

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Quite honestly, I think Death in the Family is worse in terms of Jaybin character assassination than anything else in Starlin's run, and that's saying something.

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saw the tweet below on my tl and it was so devastatingly rude i had to doodle something out. happy late father’s day, i guess

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Justice League #8 Spoilers

All the jaybin appearances in justice league #8 today🥰

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As per my lrb + taken from my > RIVER comments:

“To Jason’s mind, Gotham wants blood. The DC audience wants blood (a reflection of his death in the vote). He meanwhile wants to ensure that it’s the blood of rapists + mob enforcers + kidnappers rather than rape victims + civilians brutalised by the mob + kidnapped kids. For right or wrong, this is the framework he builds from his trauma + the perception that nothing seems to improve in the DC universe. There will always be harm, so he wants to control who is hurt.”

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i think one of the most misunderstood aspects of selina is her pragmatism and how i’ve seen people use this to dismiss her, both as a character and as a love interest. selina kyle did not grow up with a support system and got stuck with a terrible deal in life where she had no one to rely on, and it’s true, what she initially wants in life is nothing more than to escape the crime infested hole that is gotham. this is because unlike bruce, the idealist, selina is a realist who understands structural inequality and therefore knows that gotham cannot be saved. she’s going to ask bruce to run away with her not because she doesn’t understand his mission but because she needs to offer him an out, because she knows that his mission is a suicide mission, and there’s nothing that she can do to stop him from marching to his death. she’s not wearing rosy colored glasses in thinking that his mission will find him peace, and it’s her more than anyone who understands what a burden it is to be batman. however, selina will always be the unlikely hero who despite all of this will show up to save the day anyway, because bruce is her other half and her mirror image, and she is seeing a version of herself going to her death that she cannot allow. she still feels that someone should be there to put up a fight even if it cannot be her and its the fact that she for a moment, chooses selflessless and understands bruce’s language of sacrifice for the greater good despite how jaded she is that makes her such a dynamic character in terms of motivations.

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"[...] two severely broken people who can't help but hurt themselves and others... and together they might just end up bringing out each other's worst instincts" <- phrase that would sound interesting as an independent story but that just doesn't reflect how I see Jason or Helena, or at least not in their entirety, or accurately, or fairly.

It does reflect how the likes of Bruce, Dick or Barbara have described or behaved towards Jason or Helena before, so there is that.

I will say I think I like that it sounds like they'll be on equal footing as Messes, though. My one fear regarding Helena (an unfounded wrt the author -though at least I'm willing to admit that-, but based on how women are written in DC lately), was that she would end up in the role of The Reasonable One. How boring. I think that even if I won't agree with the author's take on them, I'll respect it much more if both of them are down in the mud.

Another facet of the story seems to be using these characters to criticise "cape comics", superheroes as a concept at large, per the author's own words. Which is also interesting on paper... but these two are anti-heroes who regularly get portrayed as Black Sheeps and scapegoats with everything that it entails. Using them for this purpose isn't as innovative as some people are portraying it.

It doesn't mean that GFM can't write something interesting with this, but it follows a pattern within DC: some characters can be criticised, can be made examples out of; others must always be upheld as paragons of virtue regardless of their actions on page, must always be protected from scrutiny and reflection. Even if she wanted to point her focus to said figures (and she probably does, based on what little I know of her), it's always good to remember that this isn't just her story: it's first and foremost DC's property, and we know their values.

Admittedly those are only additional concerns for me, when it comes to the run. I don't like her characterisation of Jason; I don't think it is Jason. I'm tired of author takes on him that disregard what I consider the load-bearing stones of his personality (his original post-crisis Robin tenure, and Winick's stories); not even taking them into account and building up on them with new information, but actively reverting them, twisting them, and erasing them altogether. I put up with it for like two years and I'm done LOL.

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bb!jason + a kitten in other news i hit my elbow and it really hurts

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but now i plead, just take the deal

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The new Red Hood series probably won’t be actively painful to read so that’s something to look forward to. I’ve been reassured that the author isn’t pro-cop and might even write Helena okay, but I find it hard to have faith I’ll really enjoy it after Robin Lives and Robin & Batman. There’s a chance the story will be pretty good BUT it’ll still feature a dumb Jason who has to be given Perspective by someone else.

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My reaction to any Jason Todd news usually has two stages:

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Recently, Jason's eulogy from the actual priest had resurfaced on Twitter again, and I had been restless ever since then. My Roman Empire, if anything.