asinglebluefeline

[asinglebluefeline]

(robin #67)

really cherish that dick's response to "Bruce has called me back to Gotham because it is a disaster zone and I have some complicated feelings about how quickly I come when called. we are crawling through a tunnel and we don't really know where it leads" is "annoy the shit out of Tim." he came late to being an older brother but he's a quick learner

bonus:

[asinglebluefeline]

Really big fan of whenever Batman uses his cape to shield/comfort the people he protects:

But consider:

the rest of caped Batfam members doing it too.

- when rescued victims cling to them for a while, they use the capes like shock blankets. Injured kids hiding under Robin's/Batgirl's cape while they wait for paramedics to arrive.

- teammates and younger heroes huddle up under their capes to rest when tired or injured (LISTEN they really didn't mean to fall asleep. It's not their fault that they just had an adrenaline crash and that the batkid's presence was kind of comforting sHUT UP)

- BUT ALSO for the older Batfam members: they may be too big to properly fit under their younger sibling's smaller cape. But imagine waking up on the ground after you got knocked out from taking a bad hit. You immediately know you’re not in danger anymore, because one of your younger siblings is shielding your face from noise/light/rain with their cape. It makes the concussion more bearable while you wait for the medevac to arrive. You’re taken care of. You’re gonna be fine.

[asinglebluefeline]

You know those photos of little birds sleeping together on a branch, all cuddled up in a line? This, but its the Order of the Robins from Dark Knights of Steel, high up on some precarious ledge:

(The photos in question:)

[asinglebluefeline]

You know how the Robins were trained to be able to fight enemies way bigger than them, since they started really young and also were taught by Batman (a Very Big Guy)?

It just occured to me that the reverse is also true: Batman is very good at fighting very short enemies.

I wonder if it ever came up.

Like if someone was trying to use their smaller size to their advantage and surprise Batman but it's just. Impossible. There is no move his little hypercompetent gremlins didn't already try against him.

[asinglebluefeline]

Putting him in my pocket <3

[asinglebluefeline]

Squish

[asinglebluefeline]

Dynamic duo. Just like the old days.

[asinglebluefeline]

Oh! Well now that you mention it, there is conflict between the two, but it never struck me as dislike per se. They're just very different people (and they always will be!), and they don't know how to deal with that at the beginning. But so far to me it feels like they're written on a trajectory of becoming besties.

Is my impression biased because of how close they feel in World's Finest? Probably. We'll see how Mr Waid will actually handle the conflict in Year One.

But so far? Bruce 100% thinks Dick is super cool, despite also being very inexperienced in being a crimefighter.

It's important to me that Bruce likes his kids. Not just that he loves them - of course he does, if often imperfectly and at times even poorly - but that he genuinely enjoys being in their company. He likes them.

[asinglebluefeline]

thinking about that Gotham knights chapter where Dick tells Bruce (more or less) that he thinks Bruce might leave everything for the chance to be with his parents again but Dick wouldn’t change anything and how Dick probably thinks and is resigned to loving Bruce more than Bruce loves him and how he’s wrong about that. it’s not even that Bruce has, multiple times in canon, refused his parents to stay with his kids, it’s that Dick’s love is bright and proud and loud and Bruce’s love is quiet and guilty and scared. it presents as less but Bruce feels that love just as strongly and I don’t know if or how long Dick will be able to realize that before his own insecurities and Bruce’s quietness cover the knowledge again

[asinglebluefeline]

Nightwing (1996) #106

[asinglebluefeline]

POV: you done goofed. You straight up biffed it.

Inspired by the times Dick got so full of rage he threw those giant heavy desks at people:

Gotham Knights #10

Nightwing vol.2 #98

DC let him throw comically large things at people out of sheer anger more often please and thank you :)

[asinglebluefeline]

Ok ok ok but. The fact that it's Dick that suggests the name. I don't know how big of a deal for Dick it was in canon that Bruce or Alfred gave his name to others (i can't keep all the versions straight lol). And obviously naming a child in honour of someone is different than giving someone someone else's identity.

But it's still nice that Dick gets to choose here.

"Well... Robin works, right?"

[asinglebluefeline]

I know we're all mad about the removal of the headphone jack, but does anyone else feel the absence of the notification LED? I liked being able to just glance at the phone after I was away from it to see if I had any notifications. You know, without actually having to go and pick it up. It was so convenient! And a tiny LED seems so much more power-efficient than any Always On Display solution could be.

*like access to all contents of notification, like your private messages or texts from your bank that contain your logins and security codes. You know. The type of information you should never share with a stranger on the internet.

[asinglebluefeline]

Thisss

Also I'm pretty sure that I've seen some versions of Dick who was a Robin as an adult in older comics (was it Earth 2? I don't really know how DC multiverse works yet lmao)

The only reason Robin is associated with being a child in mainline comics is because of the precedents: Dick wanted to distance himself from Batman, and Robin was heavily associated with Batman; Jason died at 15; Steph got fired real quick. And Damian is still a teenager.

And the thing is, I think some people think giving Tim another hero identity would make him a more interesting character. But I think the only thing that can do that is giving him good writing. A good story. It doesn't matter which name he has or which costume he wears.

I really like Tim as Robin - he understands the weight and impact of the name. He's a keeper of the mantle and he honours it, both as Dick's successor and as Batman's partner. Personally I think it could be pretty cool if Tim would fully lean into being Batman's partner again, but as fully his equal now that he's an adult. It wouldn't have to make his character revolve around Batman, not any more that Batman's would revolve around his. But again, this is nothing, unless it's well written.

This is my formal protest against "Tim needs to grow up and move on from Robin!"

Disrespectfully, Robin isn't the training phase. Robin isn't only for children. Robin is a respected vigilante who is expected to continue being a vigilante.

Specifically with Tim, he already grew up. He did that. And he found that he wanted to continue being Robin because that was the most helpful to the people of Gotham and it made him feel fulfilled.

Robin was never supposed to be a child forever. Robin is a mantle that can be carried by one person for their entire lifetime. Dick Grayson didn't make Robin as something he wanted to move on from.

Tim even said that he'd stop being Robin when someone better came along. Not someone else willing. Someone better. Someone who would perform the role of Robin better than he could.

And that 'someone' hasn't appeared yet.

[asinglebluefeline]

Nightwing vol.2 #109

So my curiosity got the better of me, and I decided to look it up:

According to Wiktionary, "puss" (of Celtic origin) means "face" or "mouth" (this is where "sourpuss" comes from). It has a completely separate ethymology from "puss" of Germanic origin (meaning "cat").

The ever-helpful Wiktionary gives these examples of usage:

Noun

puss (plural pusses)

1. (slang) The mouth.

Shut your puss before I shut it for you.

2. (slang) The face.

She gave him a slap in the puss.

Do with that what you will.

[asinglebluefeline]

Adding this panel I found saved on my phone, for which I unfortunately have no context whatsoever:

Look at them <3

You know what I need more of in my life? Tim and Dick's coordinated combo moves. We got little bits of it here in a fight:

and passing things to each other without looking (these panels are from two different issues):

PLEASE I bet that back when they were Batman and Robin, when they were bored while waiting for the computer to finish some analysis or other (the Batcomputer wasn't as fast in the 90s as it is now) they would practice the most unnecessarily convoluted moves or coordinated trickshots for fun.

So imagine:

- discreetly passing objects between each other without looking, with various sleight of hand tricks? Saved a couple of missions, both in and out of costume, when they needed to smuggle some kind of dangerous artifact or data.

- a fighting move that's so unnecessarily complicated they're basically a living Rube Goldberg machine? So chaotic that it completely disorients the enemy, devastatingly effective.

They almost never get to use those super specific moves in the field – opportunities to use them are very rare. But when they do happen, Tim and Dick are both immediately on the same wavelength. And you just know that (while cool and collected on the outside) internally they're fistbumping and screaming at how cool it was.

[asinglebluefeline]

(Context: Dick's undercover investigating a series of murders.)

These panels are so precious to me. Look at Dick and Tim playing together. I love them to PIECES.