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sighs mournfully (<- thinking about jason's isolation as robin again)

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huge if true

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comic shop that would have been within walking distance of my college campus got replaced with a vape shop sometime in the past couple of years this is possibly the worst possible thing to have ever happened to me

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the

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how it feels to submit an attack on artfight

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Red Hood and the Outlaws #7 (2011)

Hey remember when I was recapping this series? Anyway.

That "At Last!" is a pretty bold assumption, considering that the last (and only) time we saw Essence, she had a brief, context-free conversation with Jason and then left, way back in #1. Who was counting down the days waiting for her return?

We open with Jason, disguised as a doctor, delivering a heavily restrained Crux (the guy who tried to kill Kori because his parents were accidentally killed by random other Tamaraneans) to Arkham, which he describes as "breaking in" even though they clearly opened the door and let him in.

He then exposits that he's "caught in the middle of a centuries-old war between a nameless evil known only as the Untitled - and the remains of an ancient order of humanity's defenders called the All-Caste who were responsible for my training." This is the most context we've ever gotten so far and it's barely anything.

He gets into the spaceship they've stolen from Crux, where he and Kori have an incomprehensible ethical argument:

On the previous page, Jason explained that though Crux tried to kill Kori, aliens don't have the same rights as humans, so their only recourse in terms of dealing with Crux was to fraudulently imprison him in Arkham under heavy sedation for the rest of his life. Here we see that Kori just wanted to kill Crux, but Jason appears to be arguing that they can't do that, because it's okay to kill criminals, but killing an alien isn't a crime, therefore Crux isn't a criminal and thus they can't kill him. So...it's okay to 1. fraudulently imprison someone in a mental institution in a nonconsensual altered state and 2. extra-judicially murder people if they have committed an illegal action even if they haven't been tried and convicted, but because Crux didn't technically break the law, even if Jason doesn't agree with the law, killing him for trying to kill Kori would be crossing the line??? Like, I'm not arguing that Jason should murder this guy, but I don't blame Kori for being pissed. "What can I say, princess? Legally, you aren't a person."

Oh yeah, then Essence shows up.

Jason tells Roy not to fly into that black cloud, and Roy and Kori are confused because only Jason can see the cloud, which tips Jason off that Essence is there. Sure enough, she materializes on the ship, although Jason is still the only one who can see her. Kori is concerned that Jason is talking to himself; Roy tells her not to worry about it because he's trying to have sex with her. Great.

After Jason's narration reveals that he and Essence were lovers when they were younger, he pulls a sword out of nowhere, stabs Essence (she's fine), and accuses her of betraying the All-Caste and trying to set him up to kill one of the Untitled.

Roy is finally alarmed now that Jason is waving a sword around. Suddenly he and Kori can see Essence, who tells Jason that Ducra believed he was the special-ist boy in the world. Then she breaks the All-Blade, much to Jason's shock, but not the reader's, because the blades were only introduced two pages earlier so we have not yet learned that they are supposedly indestructible. This is why it's bad when a comic is written by someone with the attention span of a gerbil.

Essence tells Jason that the Untitled were created when some cavepeople drank from the "waters of absolute evil" (sure) and became possessed. Ducra was there, and refused to drink, but still ended up possessed. Also Essence was there because Ducra's her mom.

Sure.

Kori and Roy attack Essence, who kicks their asses. Jason shoots her with an alien gun, not knowing what it does, and she screams and disappears.

Roy makes a throwaway comment about Jason not knowing any normal people, and Jason's like "Yeah I should call that one flight attendant who hit on me in issue #2." Yes. That seems like the logical psychological impact of this issue's revelations.

The second worst piece of storytelling on this page is Isabel's "traced from a piece of vintage pinup art" pose. The WORST piece is the little smile Rocafort gives the mask, which creates a total disconnect between the art and his self-loathing narration. Like. THIS was how you conveyed "this guy is cursing himself to be alone forever?"

Finally, Suzie Su, the random woman Jason shot and seemingly killed in issue #2, wakes up in the hospital. Even though Jason shot her in Hong Kong, the doctor explains that her father had her airlifted to Gotham for medical treatment, which...the idea that doctors in Hong Kong can't treat bullet wounds so they needed to subject a dying woman to a sixteen hour flight just feels kinda racist to me.

Anyway at least stuff happened in this issue? Sort of? SIGH.

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“You’re not immune to propaganda” has been the most posted phrase of the year, including from yours truly.

But here’s the thing: I am NOT immune to propaganda. I get taken in by it every day. It’s in my head and inside the building.

Someone called me out the other day for absorbing aspects of anti-Russian propaganda, and they were totally right. And yall should keep calling me out.

I’m a massive, passionate proponent of information literacy, critical thinking skills, etc to an almost obnoxious degree.

Doesn’t make me immune.

Openness to being wrong, to not thinking things all the way through, to succumbing to the very propaganda we abhor, is part of the fight against propaganda, you know?

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For the sake of clearing up canon — Jeremiah Arkham + Alyce Sinner turn Arkham into a punitive hell-hole for its patients when they get the opportunity to rebuild it following its destruction around Batman R.I.P./Battle for the Cowl. (I’d highly recommend reading Arkham Reborn #1-3 if you haven’t, it’s very interesting). Though Jeremiah is taken down in the storyline which is told across Batman #697, 699, + TEC #864, 866, Alyce remains in charge of the institution afterward + we see her retain this role into Gotham City Sirens #23, which was published just before Flashpoint. So I think it’s safe to assume that her personal power over the institute remained intact between late 2009 + the universe resetting. AKA when Jason was placed there by the GCPD + their psychiatric staff who would have had to consider him qualified for Arkham admission to send him there rather than placing him elsewhere.

To his credit, Dick suspected her (rightly) of being involved in Jeremiah’s scheme but he didn’t have the proof to show to the police + anyway they explicitly said that since there were no other qualified candidates they’d have to keep her in charge anyway. So Arkham wasn’t reformed like some people suppose since a very dangerous woman intent on punishing her patients remained in control of it. Since canon doesn’t go into Jason’s circumstances at any depth, I think it’s legitimately up to the imagination as to whether he suffered Alyce’s attentions or whether she was unbothered with him + he just had a peaceful time.

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Wait hold on

Jason Todd fans who haven't read his pre-crisis Robin run, why? Like, genuinely I really and truly want to know why

*Pre Crisis Jaybin is roughly Batman #357-400 & Detective #524-567, running from early 1983 to late 1986

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one-off comic character so specifically designed to appeal to my tastes that it's making me question my sexuality all over again

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i will die your daughter

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Since ra's half Chinese I thought it would be neat for him to wear those clothing too but thinking of Talia and Damian in them really made me determined to draw these, I'm so Sorry for reposting the same thing over and over✌😭

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i keep on thinking about writing nonlinear narratives but then not really committing to writing any of any real substance or length so it turns out that i actually don't know how to approach them at all from a structural standpoint. write it in order and cut it up later? write it like i'm reading it, so the actual timeline of events is all out of order as i go? actually sit down and figure out the timeline instead of making shit up as i go? okay the last one's probably a good idea.

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this is MY red hood 2025

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i have big big big brown eyes so i’ll be okay. rest of y’all stay safe