chronicdelusionistsart

[chronicdelusionistsart]

I have an alternate explanation for that in another musing I did, as well, but not a bad theory! Could be both tbh. I like how you can read a lot of consistencies into OG Bernard with the modern one. The effort put into making it make sense in retrospect is crazy.

Bernard Dowd and the Art of Recontextualization

I'm what you might call a "fake Batman fan" - that is, I've only watched most of the Batman animated series', all of the live action movies, most of the animated ones, played some of the video games... so, you know, probably thousands of hours of my life in Batman related media. But not the comics! Fake fan!

Frankly, I find the comics medium the way DC and Marvel do it to be really hard to follow. There's the fact that you can't really follow an individual solo character without them getting caught up in massive crossover events that ruin their arc and pacing, there's the soap-opera-iness that encourages cheap and revolving conflicts inherent to the longform monthly release schedule, the writer roulette, and there's also just that going back to try and thread a particular continuity or character is an exercise in frustration. Oh and the retcons. Everyone hates those. They've (basically) never been good. Don't remember this part it will never come up aga

But, you know, despite this - or maybe because of this - comics is a breeding ground for ideas. Because of the quick turnaround and the demand for novel conflicts, comics just churn out idea after idea. Good ideas, bad ideas, doesn't matter. Get it to print. Retcon it later if we write ourselves into a corner. Comics are often soooooo first draft coded. This is why I personally prefer adaptations - they often reimagine ideas and retcon them into new narratives where they can serve a more coherent plot. But what happens when a character is picked up for a second draft ... without actually contradicting the earlier material? While enriching the earlier material, even?

(SPOILERS for Tim Drake: Robin and uh... 20 year old comics under the cut!)

So, uh, quick disclaimer - because I have very little overall knowledge of DC's Comics continuity, there may be more interesting examples of times that what I'm going to point out was done. But I love Bernard and from a writer's POV I'm impressed with the way they did it so we're talking about Bernard lmao

The Beginning (Robin 1993) - Reading comics from the 2000s hurts in a way I can't describe

Okay so I heard Tim Drake is dating a guy now? (Penny Sonic voice) Whoa he's bisexual I didn't know that! I'm sure people on the internet are being very normal about this. Cool let's find out more about his new bf. I like starting from the beginning... so like yeah hold on while I crack open the Robin comic and take down what this guy's deal is.

😬

So basically the TL;DR of Bernard in his original appearances is that he seems to be an attempt to introduce some normal stakes teen drama into Tim's life. He has all the Funny Guy Friend Classics - he's got an inflated sense of his proficiency at pulling girls, he's inexplicably drawn towards the protagonist (who is cooler than him), he wants to date the most popular girl in school, and he wants to get down with older women!

This might just be me but while I was going through this I thought like, he almost reads a little uncanny, like he's been filtered through a Disney Teen Special. In practice he mostly serves to introduce Tim to the Real Plot, Darla Aquista, and be one of his ties to civilian life, which is, like, fine. He's ultimately just a background character and he's so unimportant that he only has one appearance after their school gets shot up(!!!), which is, again, to be more of an accessory to the Darla plot.

After this display of "wow this guy's kind of lowkey insane for offering to his resurrected bestie supervillainess to be her manager actually", he's dropped forever. Comics! We're not gonna unpack that.

The Sequel (Batman: Urban Legends) - We're Gonna Unpack That

Until almost two decades later when he calls Tim up for a date. And while I'm trying to skim over a lot to get to the point here and I don't really know the FULL context, it is notable that Tim is in the middle of an identity crisis / the cusp of adulthood when this happens (I think he just lost a spleen or something. That sucks dude). It's pretty implicit that part of the reason he's going to see Bernard is because he's someone familiar in a time when he's facing a lot of new and scary stuff.

And at first blush, he really does seem like the same dude. The familiar arm over the shoulder, the banter, it's all very casual and similar to the ribbing from high school -

- and I guess nothing has happened to Bernard in the interim haha he's just the funny friend guy right?

I really like the way they did this. I'm just unambiguously going to praise how good this is if you just came off the 2000s stuff. Comics have kind of breakneck pacing by nature but they really manage to condense down and then pull off a neat sleight of hand over the course of like four pages here. They re-establish Bernard as a silly guy and then wham you with the fact that yeah actually we ARE gonna unpack that. Fuck you Tim Drake life is ever changing and nothing stays the same

So the TL;DR on the rest of the Urban Legends storyline is that stuff like, HAPPENED to this guy while our focus was elsewhere. He learned martial arts, presumably so that he wouldn't be so helpless in the next school shooting level event, he got into a pain cult, he's just Not Doing Well. We find out, reading between the lines, that calling Tim on a date was probably one of his last attempts to reach out to someone when the cult stuff was getting really bad.

I've heard people complain that Bernard is uninteresting or not a character or entirely focused on his relationship with Tim, and I think that criticism is really weird considering that his entire re-debut focuses on the point that he's been having his own life and making his own (often wild) decisions - ones that really changed the course of his life - while Tim was gone. And it's also notable that this story is about how the fact that he's his own person and has changed and has made the nerve-wracking decision to take action and call Tim inspires Tim himself to take a leap and fling himself into the uncertain waters of young adulthood.

Me when I have my bi awakening and call to get out of a rut simultaneously because Cute Insane Guy Inspired Me. iconic

So that's how Bernard has changed. But that's not recontextualization, that's just the writers taking a guy and making him do another, cooler thing. Well hold the fuck on because we're not goddamn done.

What did he mean by th-

The Recontextualizerrrrr (Tim Drake: Robin) - Bernard is the funniest person in Gotham City. I'll not be taking constructive criticism on this

Tim Drake: Robin is the followup to the Urban Legends story and Tim is the main character fr. Obviously. but Bernard is also a major character. Later, he even gets to be a POV character. But they don't do that for several issues, instead treating us to his shenanigans from Tim's point of view as he solves a bizarre serial murder case and like, they're cute! And neither of them are normal in the slightest. I love that for them.

Again, TL;DR, there are a lot of interactions where Bernard talks to Tim both in and out of costume, but we don't get to see his POV until they go out to a restaurant and meet Bernard's parents there by accident and Tim has to run off to do Robin stuff. And like... a lot of stuff happens in this one bois. Whammy after whammy

We're suddenly introduced explicitly to a lot that was only implied or just completely unavailable before. Bernard's parents are ragingly homophobic. Probably were never great even before that. He suffers from depression. All that is a lot to. wait. hold on a second

he knows?????

HE KNOWS????

Okay so if you stop at this point and reread the entire run so far you find out that Bernard is in fact the biggest troll in the entire universe. This is the moment that cemented him as my favourite, by the way. Like I had a feeling that he knew and I was just laughing my ass off when my suspicions were confirmed.

But this is really interesting on top of that because Bernard has been revealed to be, at this point, a guy who you should look deeper than the surface to understand. Someone who masks his true self and whose true motivations you can only uncover if you're really looking past the facade. Even with Tim, he sort of offers Tim and Robin half the story each, taking advantage of Robin's "distance" to give out information he wants Tim to think about but that he's reluctant to talk about frankly while at the same time almost daring Tim to open up about his identity.

Absolutely most normal way to tell your bf about your cult trauma. You'll always be famous to me Bernard Dowd

This is a really neat trick by the writers. It makes Bernard a multifaceted character who got to quietly develop while we were mostly focused on Tim, and there's some clever clever foreshadowing they set up in this run to achieve this. If it were just this, I would call it good writing.

But it actually goes one level deeper than that and becomes something really really special. because as we all know, Bernard was not conceived to be this way, he was a one-off guy who was kind of annoying and he was essentially retconned to be, like. Gay? Have depth? Be funny? All of those things?

The Seamless Retcon (Robin 1993 Again) - We took your guy and we gave him gay subtext and it worked astoundingly well

This is not a new observation btw, I've seen a ton of posts to this effect. But oh my god. Some of these panels really hit different with the new Bernard lore. Like holy fuck just read this back to back

There are tons of moments like this. There's SO MUCH that the revelation that Bernard is queer adds to his initially extremely underwhelming tenure in the Robin comics. A reread almost begs the question of what Bernard must have been thinking at any given moment! BRO YOU SAID YOU WANTED TO FUCK HIS STEPMOM. That's completely believable as a next-level closeting move and goes from kind of annoying to turbofunny.

Like yeah of course he's acting like a douche. His father is a status-chasing asshole and he's five racks deep in the closet. Of course he gravitates towards Tim - his gaydar is pinging and he thinks Tim is cute. And it's also pinging that Tim is like. You know

None of this would hit as hard if the writers had not set up Bernard as someone who masks so much. They worked it in that character trait to mean that you could always glean information deeper than the surface from his top level interactions.

Because of this, Bernard is really fucking interesting and he's a good character and he's one that gets better on reread. Like I said, that's a set of observations that are not new to me. But something that really gets to me is how seamless and intentional it is. It really feels like the writer sat down and took their time devising a guy that is believable as that other guy, but only if you read back with certain context.

The conclusion - Comics. Man.

So is this just about how Bernard is really fucking interesting and he's a good character and he's one that gets better on reread and that he can exist independent of Tim and all the haters are wrong. Yeah of course. 💖

But also like, I have thoroughly proven to myself that I was kinda wrong to just reject the published comics medium out of hand. I see now that there's room for the writer's roulette to hit the jackpot and that something I mistook as an outright flaw, the winding and unfocused and often improvised nature of it, can be ridden like a wave if you're skilled enough to do it. Meghan Fitzmarten is a goddamned genius.

I guess I have to read comics now. Fuck

[chronicdelusionistsart]

hey wait a secon- wait. wait. wait a seco-

THE VILLAIN IN THE FIRST ARC IS CALLED MORIARTY... I'm fucking losing it you're right IT'S INTENTIONAL. IT'S DIRECTLY ON PURPOSE TO ALLUDE TO BERNARD BEING HIS FUCKING W A T S O N and all of the literary allusions that comes with holy shit

im never done being sucker punched by this fucking run what the fuck.

The Conflict of Timbern: More Thoughts

As usual, SPOILERS for Tim Drake: Robin under the cut

So you might have read my post on The Conflict of Timbern. I'll link to it but the TL;DR is that the overarching conflict of their relationship, and thus the comic, is that Bernard doesn't know that Tim doesn't know that Bernard knows. and like

I saw this set of panels again and it fucking clicked that this is yet another hint that Tim isn't paying enough attention to realize that Bernard Knows. That they are YET AGAIN having two different conversations. this is basically shaking the reader by the shoulders and telling them what's going on again

Like, Bernard, who has been pushing the entire comic so far to be included in Tim's vigilante work, gives him a symbol of him to take with him IN BOTH IDENTITIES.

He wants to be fully in on Tim's life in whatever capacity he can. They just got out of a restaurant fire where Tim had to leave and Bernard desperately didn't want him to even though he understood it was Robin Business. He visibly like. You can see him making peace with it even as it hurts him to be left out -

- because it means that Tim isn't fully engaged with his life or his problems, either. Bernard immediately has to face down his homophobic parents alone because he's covering for Tim, who only did this dumb bathroom charade because he thinks Bernard isn't wise to his identity.

They're textually and subtextually separated in the problems they face because of this misunderstanding, to the point where it's highlighted beautifully in this page where Bernard is having the worst moment of his month as Tim is doing Robin Shit in the background.

Yeah. Life is worse when Tim's not around. Which he's not, right now, not really. Is he?

I think the real masterstroke of this issue is actually this - two pages later, when they're back together and actually talking.

Basically the instant they actually speak, Tim has the flashbulb moment to solve what's going on because of something Bernard noticed. The writing is telling us clearly: When they're communicating, they make a fantastic team.

Yes, this issue highlights and drives home a major problem in their relationship that had previously been foreshadowed. But look at how well they work together when they're on the same page? We're obviously foreshadowing the payoff of this whole (sadly ultimately cancelled) arc: a relationship where they work together seamlessly and bring out the best in each other.

This excellent beat is only possible because Bernard is far more perceptive than Tim gives him credit for, even as he's actively being helped by Bernard's skills. In fact, this mirrors a similar situation in the previous arc when Tim overlooks a critical fact about the Moriarty case (That HIS OWN COPIES of the books were missing, if I'm not reading this wrong, pointing to the fact that it had to be someone that had access to his boat) because he's too in his own head and isn't really listening to what Bernard is saying in favour of being Sherlock-brained and following Moriarty's very interesting and ultimately misleading literary-themed trail.

So like coming back to this. The Panels that sent me on this journey.

Tim fundamentally underestimates Bernard, misunderstands their relationship as a result! They're telling us again!!! They're mirroring it at us multiple times throughout the whole of TD:R!!!!!!

What a tightly written book man. TD:R fucking rules

[chronicdelusionistsart]

The Conflict of Timbern: More Thoughts

As usual, SPOILERS for Tim Drake: Robin under the cut

So you might have read my post on The Conflict of Timbern. I'll link to it but the TL;DR is that the overarching conflict of their relationship, and thus the comic, is that Bernard doesn't know that Tim doesn't know that Bernard knows. and like

I saw this set of panels again and it fucking clicked that this is yet another hint that Tim isn't paying enough attention to realize that Bernard Knows. That they are YET AGAIN having two different conversations. this is basically shaking the reader by the shoulders and telling them what's going on again

Like, Bernard, who has been pushing the entire comic so far to be included in Tim's vigilante work, gives him a symbol of him to take with him IN BOTH IDENTITIES.

He wants to be fully in on Tim's life in whatever capacity he can. They just got out of a restaurant fire where Tim had to leave and Bernard desperately didn't want him to even though he understood it was Robin Business. He visibly like. You can see him making peace with it even as it hurts him to be left out -

- because it means that Tim isn't fully engaged with his life or his problems, either. Bernard immediately has to face down his homophobic parents alone because he's covering for Tim, who only did this dumb bathroom charade because he thinks Bernard isn't wise to his identity.

They're textually and subtextually separated in the problems they face because of this misunderstanding, to the point where it's highlighted beautifully in this page where Bernard is having the worst moment of his month as Tim is doing Robin Shit in the background.

Yeah. Life is worse when Tim's not around. Which he's not, right now, not really. Is he?

I think the real masterstroke of this issue is actually this - two pages later, when they're back together and actually talking.

Basically the instant they actually speak, Tim has the flashbulb moment to solve what's going on because of something Bernard noticed. The writing is telling us clearly: When they're communicating, they make a fantastic team.

Yes, this issue highlights and drives home a major problem in their relationship that had previously been foreshadowed. But look at how well they work together when they're on the same page? We're obviously foreshadowing the payoff of this whole (sadly ultimately cancelled) arc: a relationship where they work together seamlessly and bring out the best in each other.

This excellent beat is only possible because Bernard is far more perceptive than Tim gives him credit for, even as he's actively being helped by Bernard's skills. In fact, this mirrors a similar situation in the previous arc when Tim overlooks a critical fact about the Moriarty case (That HIS OWN COPIES of the books were missing, if I'm not reading this wrong, pointing to the fact that it had to be someone that had access to his boat) because he's too in his own head and isn't really listening to what Bernard is saying in favour of being Sherlock-brained and following Moriarty's very interesting and ultimately misleading literary-themed trail.

So like coming back to this. The Panels that sent me on this journey.

Tim fundamentally underestimates Bernard, misunderstands their relationship as a result! They're telling us again!!! They're mirroring it at us multiple times throughout the whole of TD:R!!!!!!

What a tightly written book man. TD:R fucking rules

[chronicdelusionistsart]

Tim: Sorry about the Hush situation, Batman, but for no particular reason can I borrow the Bat Climbing Gear

Looked into the issue of Detective Comics (#1098) that they did the really cool Timbern alternate cover for. You know, the one with the doves.

Unless I missed something in my admittedly skimming readthrough, Tim isn't even in it, much less Bernard. This is at a level of shameless to me where I'm not even sure I can be upset at it. Like damn guys thanks for the free poster I guess?? (Bullock getting the shit kicked out of him in the other room noises)

[chronicdelusionistsart]

Looked into the issue of Detective Comics (#1098) that they did the really cool Timbern alternate cover for. You know, the one with the doves.

Unless I missed something in my admittedly skimming readthrough, Tim isn't even in it, much less Bernard. This is at a level of shameless to me where I'm not even sure I can be upset at it. Like damn guys thanks for the free poster I guess?? (Bullock getting the shit kicked out of him in the other room noises)

[chronicdelusionistsart]

Part of the juice is that the main trio here all have mirrors in each other. Like their good traits are genuinely held and foiled by the others

Steph's dogged kindness is something Jason has in him but he buries because being angry is easier. She never lets being mad prevent her from doing the right thing as she sees it. Damian's desire to get out of the Robin game reflects Jason's complicated feelings on the Robin Mantle and how he felt betrayed by his father figure; Damian likewise is fed up with Bruce at this point and wants to go his own way. Bernard is less relevant to him directly but he is a civilian and he does remind them what things look like from a civilian's point of view, often loudly

Jason's complicated feelings about the Bat Mantle but unabashed grab to hold it because he wants to be worth it mirrors Steph's own feelings of inadequacy and her tendency to be given up on and belittled. Damian's Being a Kid and his warring desire to stay in the game for the sake of others versus getting out of it for his own health reminds Steph to think about where others are coming from and stay on target remembering what people want and need when up against her spite drive. Bernard and her get to work out their feelings on a mutual important person in their lives while connecting in a more meaningful way over feelings of not being let in or belonging at all

Damian gets to see someone that doesn't play by the Bat-rules defy his father and Dick's wishes and gets to see the value in forging your own path. Steph is someone who struggles with people ruling her agency and who lets him value his own agency. Bernard reminds him that there are people that know him as Tim's Baby Brother, and reminds him that it's fine to not let your parents hurt you no matter how well-meaning they think they are, you can cut them out as much as you need to and stick with the people who love you for who you are

Changed my mind actually I'm calling this one THE BROKEN THE BEATEN AND THE DAMNED

Was talking to @electric-soulja-boy-porygon about ways to get the best out of modern Jason and we came up with a fic premise we call The Nightmare Blunt Rotation.

In this hypothetical story, every member of the Batfamily except Jason, Damian, and Steph are stuck in Eeby Deeby, leaving Gotham rife with crime.

(Note, this is like, closer to current Damian, so he's grown just enough emotional intelligence to want out of the Bat Business. We're talking "Damian wants to be a doctor" era Damian.)

Basically, the three of them predictably can't agree on what the hell is to be done about the Batman mantle, and this is the two pettiest people on the planet plus Damian, so they're making no headway until A) Bernard fucking Dowd sticks his nose in because his boyfriend is fucking missing and these guys need like ONE people pleaser to act as social lubricant and B) my beloved (derogatory) JEAN-PAUL shows up and forces them to work together because letting Azrael be Batman is agreed to be worse than letting Jason be Batman, somehow.

I think this cooks. I would watch five seasons of this. Give me Jason and Damian bonding over their complicated feelings about Bruce's parenting now that they're forced to work together more closely. Give me Steph and Jason having the messiest fights on Earth when they both dig in their heels and slowly working into a rhythm of being able to make up from those moments. Give me more Steph and Damian growing mutual respect. Give me Bernard attempting to be their Alfred and fooling everyone into thinking he's okay because they're wrapped up in their own drama until it explodes. Give me Damian becoming more involved in We Are Robin. Give me four people who for various reasons feel like the Off-Brand Versions of their mantles having to hang together to fill the shadow of the missing people. Gnawing on this

[chronicdelusionistsart]

Was talking to @electric-soulja-boy-porygon about ways to get the best out of modern Jason and we came up with a fic premise we call The Nightmare Blunt Rotation.

In this hypothetical story, every member of the Batfamily except Jason, Damian, and Steph are stuck in Eeby Deeby, leaving Gotham rife with crime.

(Note, this is like, closer to current Damian, so he's grown just enough emotional intelligence to want out of the Bat Business. We're talking "Damian wants to be a doctor" era Damian.)

Basically, the three of them predictably can't agree on what the hell is to be done about the Batman mantle, and this is the two pettiest people on the planet plus Damian, so they're making no headway until A) Bernard fucking Dowd sticks his nose in because his boyfriend is fucking missing and these guys need like ONE people pleaser to act as social lubricant and B) my beloved (derogatory) JEAN-PAUL shows up and forces them to work together because letting Azrael be Batman is agreed to be worse than letting Jason be Batman, somehow.

I think this cooks. I would watch five seasons of this. Give me Jason and Damian bonding over their complicated feelings about Bruce's parenting now that they're forced to work together more closely. Give me Steph and Jason having the messiest fights on Earth when they both dig in their heels and slowly working into a rhythm of being able to make up from those moments. Give me more Steph and Damian growing mutual respect. Give me Bernard attempting to be their Alfred and fooling everyone into thinking he's okay because they're wrapped up in their own drama until it explodes. Give me Damian becoming more involved in We Are Robin. Give me four people who for various reasons feel like the Off-Brand Versions of their mantles having to hang together to fill the shadow of the missing people. Gnawing on this

[chronicdelusionistsart]

Wow, I really like the new Jason comic.

The way that they're setting up the doubts about Jason to Bruce that will inevitably be turned around as Jason improves throughout the run, and how it will most likely culminate in him not believing Jason when he tells him that he didn't kill the guy. Oohhhh this is gonna hurt so good.

The way that all of Jason's worst behaviours are the result of doing what Batman does and not what he says. Like just how being Batman and beating people up, no matter how it's supposed to be doing good for the city, sets this example for Jason that he feels he has to follow. To be a weapon.

I saw people argue that the comic is saying that Jason is violent by nature, but when I actually read it, the opposite was true. When he has that moment of intense empathy for this guy he sees as a bad guy and hesitates, because he sees his mom in him. The point is that the adults around him are imperfect people who are dealing with it badly and that Jason is better than they are giving him credit for.

I think people are probably caught up because they take what Alfred says as the narrative's beliefs, but that's just. Obviously wrong. Simply reading the comic and thinking about how that scene is followed by Jason hesitating to hit the guy he had it out for because he empathizes with him should be enough to disprove that read.

I know you're upset that they shifted around Alfred's characterization for this, and I sympathize if you have a certain idea in mind of what the character must be, but this is its own thing, man. Let the story do its setup 101 and use the characters in the way it needs to use them to tell the story it needs to tell. It's not going to be exactly what you would have done, dear reader, but it might still be good.

[chronicdelusionistsart]

Following my Bernardposting about how Comics Can Rule, Actually, I did actually go and read more comics! And I've done some thinking.

Something interesting about the comics fandom that I've learned being a Bernard Dowd fan is the degree to which the fandom buys into the idea of a continuous Main Timeline which is a complete uninterrupted story from start to finish and in which contradictions are unwelcome and sloppy at best and in which intentionally bad faith reinterpretations use retcons like a hammer at worst.

And like, I get that. That's how DC's readership drive works. They get people invested in the Soap Opera, the ongoing story, and that investment is what sells books. DC has a vested interest in pushing this interpretation of their comics. But the more I read comics the more it doesn't seem to work that way in practice!

Like, contrast TV adaptations which tend to have strong internal continuities. People will say "Oh, in My Adventures with Superman, Lois Lane is like this." This is a reasonable thing to say. But when talking about comics, most people will say stuff like "Oh, in Comics, Tim Drake is like this." And that's like, you're compressing 30+ years of events with different writers with different ideas of the guy into one assertion. And even when they don't say that, they often treat Tim's appearances as one story from 198X to now.

This is really weird to me. Because I think seeing comics continuities as a monolith makes them harder to understand and works at cross-purposes with engaging with the material in good faith. I personally want to engage with each writer's tenure as their own thing and take the surrounding runs as "fuzzy canon" or something to adapt material from, because I think that's how you kind of have to write in comics to make any story that has legs.

Like, when I talk about how much I like Tim Drake: Robin, most of the people talking about how they don't like it cite like it's because Tim is OOC because of this or that thing that happened in 2010 or 2004 or 1995 or whatever. And that's like. Great. I think we are talking about four different guys though. I'm talking about TD:R Tim who obviously has a lot of love put into him from his previous appearances but is having a Robin (And Queer) Identity Crisis and working through it in the way that the author interpreted the character. I'm not talking about Red Robin who's going through his Whump Locked In Era. Red Robin Whump Locked In Era is cool and all, but that's another run with a different set of surrounding context and a different author with different goals with the character. I don't think it's meaningfully possible for characterization or continuity to remain stable in the conditions that ask those two writers to make the stories they want with the baggage they have.

The fact that I'm coming at it with a fundamentally different viewpoint than a lot of people probably explains why I'm like. Why I don't really care if they "ruin a character" in a given run or adaptation (hello, Wayne Family Adventures antis!). Why I see Bernard (my beloved)'s characterization inevitably changing in the future and wince but have to let it go because this is how it works. I think it explains why I tend to disagree most with those who are hung up on The Continuity.

I think it would be nice if more people could articulate this fundamental difference in expectations! I think it drives a lot of arguments and misunderstandings that could be avoided.

[chronicdelusionistsart]

God I wish that were me. It would be far less embarrassing than pulling out this panel and telling people this is the guy that frogboiled me

I don't ship Timber because I like Tim. I ship Timber because I want more Bernard content.

[chronicdelusionistsart]

Wait. Wait. WaIT. WAIT. NO WAY. NO FUCKING WAY DON'T HIDE THIS IN THE TAGS

MEGHAN FITZMARTEN IS RUNNING CIRCLES AROUND US. THIS IS IT THIS IS TOTALLY THE MOMENT

No, he is not a Completely Different Character from when he was in high school - The Continuity of Bernard Dowd

SO I often see the argument that Bernard my man has changed into a completely different guy since high school. Me too, bestie. And much like Bernard, if you had met me in high school, you probably would have wanted to throw me into a lake.

People grow and change from high school to young adulthood, of course, but the nature of this criticism tends to be the idea that there's no continuity - that Bernard was completely retconned and there's very little to nothing recognizable of his personality and characterhood at the time. The common argument I see is that there's no way to reconcile the differences, even taking into account that people naturally age out of being obnoxious teens.

This just isn't the case. I got into it a little at the tail end of my previous post about Bernard and the art of Recontextualization, but it's really astounding just how much effort seems to have been put into respecting the continuity of the character. I'm gonna go through the 1993 Robin run and go character trait by character trait and see how these scenes read as foundational information for the continuity of the Bernard we have today.

Yeah you heard me. It's basically a fucking listicle. come at me

(SPOILERS for Tim Drake: Robin, Urban Legends, and the 1993 Robin run under the cut!)

1) "They just randomly made him gay" - yeah but it was really funny and based did you ever think of that

I already posted this one last time but let's take a minute to really sit with this one because it's soooooooo

It's absolutely undeniable that the original author of the Robin run almost certainly intended Bernard to be a pointedly heterosexual teenage boy. No arguments there. I actually think based on my experience living in that era and being bi that if you'd suggested the idea of an explicitly deeply closeted best friend for Tim Drake in the early 2000s at DC they would have laughed in your face and then possibly fired you and/or called you a slur or something. There are probably standout queer comics from the time, but mainstream Batman? We're making this for boys that want to ogle Steph's tits, I say, grinding up a rock into dust in my bare hand as I look over this storyline again for panels

My point here is that a lot of comics at the time come off as overly exaggerated about how cool and manly and heteronormative their guy characters are, which is of course also the ultimate refuge of the closeted gay guy. If they'd been normal about it it wouldn't have been so easy to read closeting into it, but as it is...

Yeah this is believable from a teenager but becomes a zillion times funnier as just covering a panic attack over going over to meet the cute boy's paren- wait why does he have elf ears. Why does he look 40 five panels ago

the two genders etc etc.

ANYWAY this was obviously a purposeful choice when rehauling the character. We're going to see a pattern of using things from the 2000s that were baffling or weird in retrospect and expanding on them to bring some consistency and intrigue to his character. "Now Pika," I hear you saying, having divined my nickname from some other source, "you're showing panels out of context to create a false narrative. Five panels ago when Bernard was 40 he was notably accused of staring at Tim's stepmom ALL DINNER. That sounds just, just SLIGHTLY heterosexual and there's really no other explanation f

2) He was always smarter than he looked actually

ah.

ah.

I said before that a lot of Bernard is hidden behind layers.

While he appears to be a dumbass in the 2000s, he manages to notice something is Wrong with Tim. Like, consistently. A lot of what we see on panel is Bernard questioning Tim and probing into his personal life - he notices something is unusual about Tim on literally their first meeting, and no shit, Bernard is only in a grand total of five scenes with Tim in the entire run and he spends four of them asking inconvenient personal questions at Tim.

"Tim, is your dad secretly an asshole? Blink twice for yes" "How about we stop talking for a little while"

Obviously in the context of the 2000s this is just like forced drama. But there's a sort of elegance in how seamless it is to look back at this with the context that he's been someone who downplays his own intelligence the whole time. Like "actually, he tends to hit on or adjacent to the truth a LOT, doesn't he?" Even without the new stuff, it's a pertinent observation.

3) "I like Robin a normal amount" - guy who pirates modded Robin games

This feels free. Is this free? I feel like this is free. I don't need to explain this one. Celebrity crushes on Superheroes are literally always funny

See Mario dies every time and it's like not the same guy. There's actually 3 Marios and then every time you make a certain amount of money (points) they get enough to clone a new one. Wait Tim come back I hadn't gotten to the shadow Koopa government. Bowser isn't actually in charge it's Big Goomba -

4) Alienation and the sincere desire to seek meaning in this life

The cult thing might seem to come out of nowhere if you were focused on his goofy persona and the specifics of Bernard's hilarious theories, but it's interesting to me that we get told that Bernard doesn't feel like he fits in like literally right away. One of his very first panels:

yeah okay i sure buy that dude

Bernard is textually, before adding any of the new stuff into the mix, an outsider. He has weird conspiracy theories, he's initially dressed like a douche who's trying to impress everyone and actually impressing no one, and he's obviously putting on airs here.

A lot of people who are depressed are just... you'd never know. Sincerely, the person you know who laughs the loudest and surrounds themselves with the most people might be the most depressed, the most isolated.

In the future, we see that he's similarly got a lot of people that know him, but not a lot of people that know him.

Having him get caught up in a cult after this setup is a very logical progression. He was already the type of personality to turn to conspiracies to feel some degree of fulfillment as a teen. Why the fuck wouldn't he become a Gotham cult statistic. Cults love intelligent people who are susceptible to isolation and emotionally not in a good place.

There's actually a really clever set of panels in the Urban legends run where Tim and Bernard are fighting against the chaos cult and they're mirrored. And Tim is the one "speaking", but the way the comic is framed, you can tell that they were both kind of having the same struggle from different angles and it doesn't snap into place until they fight together.

God, I love the medium of comics. I didn't actually notice this until I was writing this up and staring at panels. This is so subtle, but when you stop to look, the visual language clicks. They're both searching for something. The same thing. But it's not explicit. You gotta be paying close attention.

I think part of the reason people accuse Bernard of being bland or too different from before or whatever is that so much of this requires you to read. No, come back, hold on -

Like, the fundamental writing sleight of hand on this guy is that they earnestly set up the premise that he's so convincing that he managed to fool Tim, and by extension the distracted reader. To this end, Fitzmarten, and I can't believe I'm saying this, successfully weaponized the shittiness of early 2000s writing.

The idea that they went with is that sometimes you think you know people, but you don't have the full story until you really look and actively put the pieces together. He's someone, that very real kind of person, that flies under the radar both in and out of the fiction. And when the whammy hits -

- you end up wondering if you ever knew them at all.

This is very real. I mentioned earlier that you might not know someone is depressed until you know them very, very well or they tell you. And it's true. Be on the lookout for people like Bernard in your own life - from personal experience, they could use someone on their side.

Bonus: No he was legit always that insane. I think this is some A to B shit

"well if my friend won't hire me as a super-manager maybe I'll just prepare for the next time I see a superhero by learning martial arts!" - extremely normal thing to do thank you bernard. that's all folks

[chronicdelusionistsart]

Never seen this mentioned but isn't it just really cool that Bernard is a foil to Tim himself by being a funhouse mirror of Early Tim and his motivations. Obviously he figured out Tim's identity by himself which is the gimme but it goes deeper than that

He's a Robin Superfan like Tim was a Batman superfan

(Yes I think a picture of Tim's stalker wall would be better here but then all of Tim's panels would be Stalker Wall pictures) He notices that Tim is off balance the same way that Tim noticed that Batman was off balance

He concludes from this that Tim needs to let people help him, though of course instead of trying to get someone else to do it first he skips straight to helping himself

Obviously they have a much different dynamic on account of being the same age and it being a romantic entanglement instead of a mentoral-to-familial one but isn't it just neat how Tim's arc in Urban Legends and TD:R about struggling over what the Robin identity means to him is supported by every aspect of the work like this. How the guy he likes is in many ways an echo of a younger and more idealistic Tim. How he's internalized the thing he pushed against - the Solo Batman I-Don't-Need-Anyone-when-I'm-having-a-breakdown thing - so hard that he has to have someone do for him what he insisted on doing for Bruce.

This is what it means to have a civilian cast that has meaningful thematic integration with their superhero. I've joked before that they matched freaks but they REALLY match freaks! On purpose! Lois Lane type of character

[chronicdelusionistsart]

I think that "being Tim's boyfriend" is genuinely aspirational to Bernard, though, and I really want to see the payoff of the really cool misunderstanding arc set up in TD:R where he was really eager to help Tim out and Tim Didn't Know, Chat before I see him branch out.

If they had followed that trajectory to its logical conclusion, he would have gotten involved in Bat Business anyway while working with Tim, which I think would have been a good springboard for him to do things outside of Tim, too.

But fundamentally it's important to address that Bernard is depressed as hell and has really low self-esteem and that being the guy his teen idol chose is going to be sustaining him in the short term. I don't think it's possible to shortcut out of that one and maintain any kind of continuity of character because it's one of the things that *is* fleshed out and interesting about him.

There are some really cool things that you could do with a story with that in mind (Guards! Put that funny twink in a room with the Outlaws!), but they take a level of setup and payoff and attention to the characters and relationship dynamics that I just don't know if DC would be willing to take the risk and then not steamroll him and Tim's relationship for cheap soap opera drama in the process. It's a hard thing to wish for when I'm not certain they'd bring in a writer that Gets them.

Tim and Bernard are cute together, but Bernard should be fleshed out more instead of just being Tim’s boyfriend

[chronicdelusionistsart]

It bums me out that no Batman / TMNT crossover will ever give me what I want, because the versions of these characters I actually want to see interact don't really exist in the cultural consciousness now. I want this hyperspecific thing and to see it I'd have to write a fanfiction nobody wants to read lol.

I want end of the Eastman and Laird original 1984 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics Master Splinter specifically to interact with "my Robins are my soldiers in my war on crime" loser Frank Miller and peak Jeph Loeb Batman specifically.

Master Splinter was originally commentary on the kind of fatherhood presented in Frank Miller's comics. Most specifically Daredevil's Stick yes, but Frank Miller repeats those notes more directly with Batman (and famously, fucks up his own meme with All Star lol). That is, this kind of emotionally distant, unexpressive, toxic father you are desperate to impress, but who struggles to show real emotions and mostly communicates with you through expectations, discipline and clumsy emotional moments. A very 1980s kind of dad. Y'know,

So!

1984 Splinter very explicitly raises the turtles for his war of revenge against the Shredder / The Foot, just as Stick raises Matt as a replacement not-quite-father for a war against The Hand, and as Batman raises an assortment of Robins and Batgirls for his war against the concept of crime.

Except Splinter and the boys are allowed to sit in that concept and develop for a decade.

Batman and Daredevil are sort of retconned or refocused away from this concept again and again. So many different Batman exist that the Frank Miller Batman is lost in the hustle. See, Batman needs to be marketable as a hero and as part of a very different kind of comic book product, maintaining his marketability means never quite allowing him to become impossible to root for. In wrestling terms, Batman is a face that plays in heel tropes, but you're never allowed to take him to the point where he's really all the way a heel. Batman specifically has always, or at least since 1954, been read subtextually as in conversation with the concept of child abuse, and playing too hard into "Robins and soldiers" would of course invite that reading, so it's something writers and editors (most notably Denny O'Neil as editor) tiptoe up to, then run away from, like

The same is debatably true of Splinter, but turtles is a by-and-for comic fans, post-Marvel situation. That is to say, the people handling the franchise know a reboot MUST be a clean break or you'll end up in a Post-Crisis or Flashpoint or whatever situation, or the nightmare of inconsistency that Marvel can spiral into.

Hence:

You can never mistake the Splinters. Splinter in fact becomes an immediate visual indicator that this turtles run is totally divorced, set in a different reality from, other turtles incarnations.

1984 Splinter as a distinct character was allowed to inhabit this concept of a bad revenge war on injustice dad for a decade or so, and his Robins, the turtles, matured to have their own complex understandings of their childhood, ie. Donatello simply maturing away from Splinter's concept of his future while still loving his dad, Leonardo's Cyclops like faith, Raphael's "they hurt us so we must hurt them" cycle of revenge approach, blah blah blah. At one point, Splinter "loses" his sons, has a major crises of faith, and is compelled by a spooky rat god to eat another rat, thus violating his Buddhist principles, symbolizing that he must compromise in order to survive both as an individual and within family with the turtles.

Batman never has that kind of moment. He's just slowly edited away from it. We don't revisit Batman punching Dick in the way we revisit Splinter raising his babies for war.

I don't want to see 2003, 2012 or ROTTMNT Splinter interact with Batman because I don't care. They have nothing interesting to say to each other. 2003 and 2012 would just be like, "consider being a better father because you suck at it," and ROTTMNT Splinter would be like "lol I pretend I don't know my sons' names as like a weird affection thing, bro you should do that with the Robins it'd really piss them off."

I want to see specifically late arc 1984 Splinter, at the point where the turtles have begun maturing into their own people and forming complex opinions about Splinter's raising them to be weapons, interact specifically with Frank Miller edgy "Robins as soldiers" Batman, and for 1984 Splinter to be like listen bro I've been where you are and trust me the kids are not alright, you need to chill out.

Anyway I really think Batman fans should read some turtles personally lol. As a franchise, turtles comics are such rad commentaries on comics tropes like this, while being actual stories in their own right.

[chronicdelusionistsart]

Gotham Knights Tim is at all times two minutes away from being a full-blown AI bro, a trait that conveys a certain shrewd understanding on the part of the writer's room about the kind of (not exclusively, but majority) guys that get really invested in Tim Drake.

This is funny on its own. Based on the Belfry conversations and emails, it's safe to say that the others (Barbara) are holding him back every semester from trying to find a way around his "totally not necessary I don't need these to get good at engineering" humanities classes. While patiently explaining to him that you can't simply make a robot that fixes wage inequity.

But it's also funny to imagine the irony of Bernard the conspiracy theorist trying to get him out of it.

Like.

Imagine you're Babs. You just came back from a full evening of patrol. You've had just about enough of everything. You've been to the fuckass Mario death trap this month. The fuckass cave. The fuckass Zelda puzzles. If you see another owl you're going to throw your back brace at it. And you hear Tim go like "No it's fine, see, the AI can compile that info for me."

And you're like, steeling yourself to the misery of ONCE AGAIN reminding your Real Life Teen Genius Teammate that even if you host your own model, it is seriously A) not a good idea to have a generative model based on Bat-data lying around and B) it can't actually do detective work or even report on files correctly half the time and you're just coming up with how to phrase C through F when suddenly some other kid whose voice you haven't heard before goes like

"Tim, you can't talk to ChatGPT. It's seriously trying to cover up bigfoot. It's funded by the Clone Farm guys, man. You can't trust it."

And then against all odds you hear Timothy Jackson Drake who had to be talked out of creating the literal undead for a science experiment last week go "Oh, really? I'll have to look into that. Thanks Bear"

And you feel an emotion that is utterly indescribable as you lock eyes with Dick, who proceeds to pour a full bowl of dry cereal into his mouth without losing eye contact in a way that conveys despair

[chronicdelusionistsart]

Congrats to @chronicdelusionist on finishing Pokeymanz!! Your little guys are taking a break from their hard work.

Time lapse under the cut!

[chronicdelusionistsart]

Sincerely think we should make an official Lego Batman and Wayne Family Adventures crossover. It would be genuinely good and funny. If you don't like this idea I'm sorry but you may be suffering from terminal fun haterism. Can you imagine the WFA cast talking out Lego Batman and Lego Joker's relationship drama like come ON we are COOKING