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Clark, who does Superman spend his holidays with? Friends. Loved ones. He’s a pretty lucky guy. Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman

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jason shows this powerpoint to talia at the end of lost days

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Batman: Wayne Family Adventures #59 - “Home Alone” (2022)

written by CRC Payne art by Toby Fan, Geoniya Acuna, & Lan Ma

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Superman: The Movie (1978) | Dir. Richard Donner

Requested by: @movietopia 💕

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hoodedmenace​:

   “That’s the most midwestern shit I’ve ever seen,” Jason mumbles under his breath. “No reason.” He’d been hoping for something juicer, partially out of spite for all the questions about Dick, and partially to distract Clark from bringing up Dick again, but it seems as though fate decided not to bless him with a Super meltdown of the decade.

   Not that he was hoping for it. Kara was incredibly pretty and also incredibly blunt with him, in a good way—he just wanted something to rib Clark about.  Though… he may have just inadvertently turned it all back on himself by bringing her up in the first place, and the state of his love life is the absolute last conversation he wants to have with Superman.

   “Uhhhh, hey, can I get a to-go box for this—?”

Clark smiles to himself. He knows they've  worked together before, and, by Kara's account at least, they make a good team. He wants her to have that. He and Kara are so much stronger than everyone else that more often than not they're forced to work alone. It doesn't have to be like that all the time.

Clark wolfs down the rest of his food and lets Jason off the hook for his crush, though he does make a point to ask him to say hi to her next time he sees her.

He pulls his hat back as they exit back onto the street. "Come by Metropolis sometime. I know none of you are getting enough vitamin D here."

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hoodedmenace​:

   Jason rolls his eyes so hard he can feel pain blossom behind them. “Yes and no. We’re not attached at the hip.”

   But they might as well be.

   Jason grew up as an only child—having a brother was a novelty, and then an annoyance, and then… then it felt like Dick wasn’t just a brother. Like a twin. Like a mirror image of himself, the same but different. It’s no wonder everyone and their mom thought they had a sudden falling out whenever they were seen without the other.

   And then, just as easily as sharpening a knife, Jason lifts the straw of his drink to his mouth and asks, “How’s Kara?” He knows how the JL’ers like to compare the trouble children, as if one of them has it harder than the other.

He flags the waitress down and asks her for a cup of mayo. "What?" he says when Jason stares at him like he's got two heads. "It's good on fries. Alfred would agree with me."

"Kara's good. Flying circles around me most days and making fun of my accent when we try to have a conversation in Kryptonian." He cocks an eyebrow knowingly. "Why do you ask?" As if he hasn't seen the two of them making eyes at each other whenever they’re in a room together.

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hoodedmenace​:

   Jason could, he thinks, feel that way—but ultimately he shakes his head.

   “I never asked him to do anything for me, and he never gave me anything on the condition that I had to do something in return. It’s just… I feel like it’s there. Always. When you come from nothing, and some magical billionaire with a savior complex and enough trauma to power all of Gotham swoops in to rescue you the way he needed someone to rescue him.”

   Jason stares at the mess of a french fry he’s left with now that he’s finished using it as a ketchup spoon, and finally puts it in his mouth. He’s not sure he wants to keep talking about Bruce. “And then you have Dick. Can’t pry him off with a crowbar. Can’t convince him to join the Titans. They’d have him, too, he’s just… stubborn. Doesn’t want to leave me alone.”

And then you have Dick, indeed.

Clark never saw him upset after what happened to Jason. No tears, no anger. Nothing. A lot of people called him an eternal optimistic. All light to Bruce's dark. But that wasn't true. Something in him had changed. Clark suspected it was too close to his experience losing his parents. Dick decided he wasn't going to let that happen again — no matter what.

"So that's what tonight was about? You needed some time alone?"

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hoodedmenace​:

   “Him knowing it’s not enough is one thing hearing it from someone else, another thing hearing it directly from him.” Jason’s expression masks over for a moment, warm and pleasant when their food is brought out to them, and then fades back to something vaguely jaded once the waitress leaves, picking at his fries. “He’s a man of extremes. Sometimes he’s so far up our asses that it feels like we’re kids again, and other times he gives us so much room that it feels like he’d prefer we weren’t there at all.” He punctuates his statement with a shrug. It is what it is. A billionaire with a warped sense of justice adopted them, and here they are.

   “Like, I know I’m supposed to be grateful and thankful and whatever, but sometimes I wish he was less Batman and more Bruce.”

"Yeah. Me too." He smiles a little wistfully knowing the impossibility of that wish. He understands perfectly well why Bruce chooses to be Batman, even at the cost of his personal relationships.

He wonders how he'd feel if he could hear Jason talk like this. It might do him some good, but the more cynical part of Clark thinks Bruce would only retreat further away from the pain.

"It's one thing to feel gratitude and another to owe a debt. Do you feel like you owe him something?

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i like Ma & Pa Kent a lot bcos like, their whole thing is that they’re the normalest, nicest human parents in existence, but also, they are the people who found a baby inside a crashed spaceship and just took him home and told no-one.

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hoodedmenace​:

   Jason, visibly flustered by Clark’s open admission of understanding, settles a little.

   It’s always hard to tell where you stand when you’re talking to someone from the Justice League, and Jason’s always suspected that they’ve all given them, especially him, some amount of leeway because of Bruce. But Clark’s always been a bad liar and always had a weird, Wayne-shaped soft spot, so Jason takes this conversation for whatever it is.

   Whatever he’s admitting he might do, and whatever Clark is admitting he might let him do.

   Maybe it’s better that he doesn’t find out.

   “That’s a lot coming from you in the direction of someone whose father figure breaks out in hives when he has to talk about his feelings.”

Jason seems taken aback, but the simple truth of it is that he’s not a kid anymore, and it wouldn't do him any good for Clark to treat him like one. That means giving him the space to make his own decisions (and own mistakes) and hoping like hell he trusts Clark enough to come to him before doing anything colossally stupid.

"Watch what Bruce does. Don’t listen to what he says. Because, let’s be honest, you’ll be lucky to get two words out of him on anything that isn’t related to a case he’s working on.” Clark’s grin fades as he looks out the rain streaked window. He stares at the green and red reflection of the traffic lights on the pavement, considering his next words carefully. “He does his best. He knows it’s not enough sometimes. Even someone like him has to admit that they can’t do everything on their own.”

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one of my favorite superman tropes is a de-powered superman who gets his ass absolutely handed to him in a sparring match with any of the batfam because my dude just never learned how to fight

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Clark Kent/Superman by Paul Smith.

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hoodedmenace​:

   Jason’s brow twitches, his eyes darkening dangerously. A sore spot that he voluntarily aired out himself, but Clark poked it.

   It’s been years, and there’s always some excuse. He went dark. Then he got put into Arkham Asylum. Then he escaped. Then he got tossed back in. It’s put the biggest strain on his relationship with Bruce—what if he died? What if Dick had died? Would he have the same lackluster response then?

   Bruce proclaimed Joker his responsibility, but what he failed to see was that his responsibility almost cost Dick and Jason their lives. It took a long time for Jason to get over the fact that it wasn’t his own fault. Him deciding to steal Bruce’s credit card and run away wasn’t his fault. It had been this huge, sick plot from the very beginning.

   “Let’s put it this way,” Jason rumbles out, the timbre of his voice leaving no room for argument. “If he gets out of Arkham again, he won’t be going back in. I’ll make sure of it.”

The look in Jason’s eyes is eerily similar to the one he’s used to seeing peer out from behind the Batman cowl. He doesn’t ever recall seeing that look from Jason before.

"I figured it was something like that." He takes a bite out of a fry, then adds, "I'm not gonna try to talk you out of anything. I know you only listen to half of what I say anyway." He flashes a teasing grin to try to lighten the mood. "I only asked because I think it's better to be honest about these things than to let them fester."

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Batman, doing 30+ hours of intensive research to learn Superman’s civilian identity: My god Alfred. He’s Clark kent, the Daily Planet Reporter. This must be a conspiracy-

Superman, who accidentally used X-Ray vision on Batman when they first met: ope- wasn’t supposed to see that.

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Stoicism is a well-known treatment for brain injury.