#HOLY ART IMPROVEMENT BATMAN

[frodo-with-glasses]

Merry crisis!

(Redraw of this doodle from last year)

[emsleyanbluejay]

how many OCs does one person need for the sake of an AU, you ask?

apparently about 30.

[fantomcomics]

What’s Out This Week? 9/21

IT’S SUPPOSED TO BE FALL WHAT IS THIS HEAT NO THANK YOU HARRUMPH

Aliengaged #1 -  Greg White & Colin Ingersol 

As an alien attack rampages the city, Garrett accepts that his time has finally come. It's the end of life as he knows it... as a single man, that is. Blinded by love, Garrett is blissfully unaware of his apocalyptic surroundings as he strolls through the mania to pop the question to his girlfriend, Claire. Meanwhile, Garrett's best friend, Morris, races through the city to save them both.

Azza The Barbed #1 (of 5) - Pat Shand & Rio Burton

Writer Pat Shand and artist Rio Burton launch a new fantasy epic! Azza was born into a family that, for generations, served in the Obsidian Guard, a military unit of holy warriors. During Azza's Coronation, a magical ceremony that would imbue her with a  holy glowing power, something went wrong. Instead of the sacred Obsidian tattoos, she became marred with thorned, black markings and was banished by her people. Now, Azza lives in solitude guarding a great evil... but when that evil escapes and begins to spread its wicked power, Azza must make a choice: save the people that expelled her or allow her home town to fall to evil. With an emotional, comedic, and awe-inspiring story of empowerment, Azza the Barbed blends fantasy, adventure, mythology, horror, and action in this unforgettable new series.

Birdking Vol 1 -  Daniel Freedman & Crom

From the creators of Raiders Daniel Freedman and Crom, comes an original dark fantasy graphic novel of epic adventure and magic. Bianca, teenage apprentice to an infamous arcane blacksmith, is forced to flee her homeland and seek out Atlas, a fabled land of light ruled by "the clean god." She is joined by a mysterious guardian spirit known only as the "BirdKing." Together they will have to overcome dozens of enemies to reach Atlas and along the way, unravel the mystery of the BirdKing and their ancestral connection.

Chilling Adventures Presents: Weirder Mysteries -  Ron Robbins, Ryan Jampole, Adam Gorham & Various

Riverdale is known to be a hotbed of strange happenings and paranormal activity... always has been and always will be. Take a look as a few extra-special case files are opened that highlight the weird occurrences that happen in the small, quiet town, in a one-shot anthology that's equal parts The X-Files and Black Mirror. *

Creepshow #1 (of 5) -  Chris Burnham & John McCrea

The worldwide phenomenon based on the hit Shudder TV series comes to comics in a star-studded five-issue anthology series that will SCARE YOU TO DEATH.

In the debut issue, CHRIS BURNHAM (DIE!DIE!DIE!, NAMELESS) terrifies with a tale of trick or treaters who are taught what happens when you mess with the wrong house.

Then, legendary Batman: The Animated Series creator PAUL DINI, STEPHEN LANGFORD, and JOHN McCREA (DEAD EYES, Hitman) petrify with the party antics of Shingo, the birthday clown with an appetite for more than cake!

Stuff Of Nightmares #1 (of 5) -  R. L. Stine, A.L. Kaplan & Francesco Francavilla 

R.L Stine is back-but not for the faint of heart-with a chilling take on an iconic character, perfect for fans of Fear Street and EC Comics horror titles! In the first of Stine's reanimated reimaginings, you're familiar with the classic tale of a mad scientist hell-bent on creating life, but what these two demented brothers have created is something else entirely! Horror lovers won't want to miss the legendary author's return to comics in his first creator-owned single issue series, with art by A.L. Kaplan (Maw, Jim Henson's The Storyteller). Fans also won't want to miss celebrating this milestone event with a Björn Barends variant signed by R.L. Stine and not one but two extra spooky glow in the dark covers by Francesco Francavilla and original Goosebumps cover artist Tim Jacobus!

Look Back GN -  Tatsuki Fujimoto

Two young artists from a small town inspire each other to improve their art and become manga creators. But as they grow up, a terrible tragedy will change their lives forever.

Heaven’s Rejects #1 -  Gregory Wright, Scott Sackett & Alex Monik

What if Charlie's Angels were real angels? When three violent, foulangels are dumped on Earth after flunking out of Heaven's army,  they find out the hard way that life ain't cheap. Good deeds don't pay the  rent, so these angels agree to freelance for a gang of demons, killing their  evil rivals for cash. The angels get paid, fight wickedness, and take money  away from bad guys. That's good, right? Join this angelic suicide squad on a wild ride into epic, mythological action. Your job still sucks, but these ladies have it worse. Say YES to Heaven's Rejects!

Momo Blood Taker Vol 1 GN -  Akira Sugito

A hardboiled and supernatural murder mystery from the creator of Boku Girl! Washed-up Tokyo detective Mikogami Keiji is investigating a series of murders where the victims have been torn apart and drained of all blood. Could these grisly new killings be related to the decade-old unsolved murder of the woman he loved? As he renews his vow to find the creature that killed her, he has no idea he's being stalked by a silver-haired girl with secrets of her own. Quicker than you can say "vampire," Mikogami finds himself embroiled in a frightening conspiracy with actual monsters he'll do whatever it takes in his quest for revenge.

Doughnuts And Doom GN -  Balazs Lorinczi 

Being a teenage witch-or rock star-is tougher than it looks! Flying brooms and electric guitars set hearts aflame in this fantastically fizzy graphic novel. When Margot meets Elena, emotions run high, magic is in the air, and doughnuts... float? One is a stressed-out witch trying to get her potions business off the ground, the other is a struggling rock musician whose band is going nowhere. Neither of them are having a good time! No wonder things quickly escalate from words to literal sparks flying when they first meet. Could this be the start of a delicious new relationship... or is a bad-luck curse leading them to certain doom?

Vanish #1 -  Donny Cates & Ryan Stegman

Oliver Harrison was a mythical hero who slayed the greatest threat to his realm before even hitting puberty. But that was then.

As an adult, Oliver leads an average cookie-cutter suburban life-aside from the fact that he's mentally unstable, massively paranoid, smokes like a chimney, and gets blackout drunk every night to hide from his horrific nightmares. Will the arrival of a superhero team called the Prestige prove the madness isn't all in Oliver's head? And what about all the epic fantasy crap from his childhood? Join us for a brutal as hell tale of magical worlds, gifted youth, evil sorcerers, superheroes, war, blood, guts, and death that punches you right in the face!

Josee The Tiger & The Fish GN -  Seiko Tanabe & Nao Emoto

Josee has been in a wheelchair since she was a child, and has lived her life through pictures, books, and her imagination. One day, she meets Tsuneo, a college student, and while they clash at first, the two soon grow closer than expected. She takes this chance to venture outside with Tsuneo to experience a new world where surprises await.

Monotone Blue GN -  Nagabe

The critically acclaimed creator of The Girl From the Other Side and The Wize Wize Beasts of the Wizarding Wizdoms returns with this gorgeous Boys' Love/BL tale about animal boys falling in love! Hachi the cat finds most things monotonous, but at the top of his list is high school and all that comes with it. But when Aoi the lizard-a quiet, high-achieving transfer student-arrives, Hachi catches a glimpse of a brighter, more colorful life. If Hachi can help Aoi open up, unlocking new feelings in the process, maybe his life won't be so bland, after all.

My Body Created A Human: A Love Story GN -  Emma Ahlqvist

A graphic novel style memoir about the weirdness and wonder of pregnancy and early motherhood, told with humor and frankness. Emma Ahlqvist's graphic memoir about the birth and early moments of raising her first child is a wry and resonant portrayal of both the challenges and excitement of pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding, and embracing the experience of motherhood. Told with black-and-white drawings and short, frank captions, Ahlqvist considers everything from lactation woes, anxieties about late capitalism and global warming, the challenges of sharing labor equally as a couple-and the genuine rewards of bringing a human into the world.

Whatcha snagging this week, Fantomites? 

[gureshinnation]

looks at my recent post vs the old art ive posted here and holy art improvement, batman!

[telanana]

finally finished my redraw of Vax for the critrole redraw thing going around on twitter ❤

[nefariouslycrafted-archive]

redraw of this old silly thing

virgin killer sweater attempt #2 (*•̀ᴗ•́*)

[joshualunacreations]

Holy manananggal, Batman! Since #FilipinoAmericanHistoryMonth coincides with both #Batober and #Halloween, I thought it'd be fun to re-imagine Batman and Batwoman as Fil-Ams. 🦇 🇵🇭

Bruce Waynaldo wasn't born to extremely wealthy parents who were killed by a petty thief. Instead, his parents were struggling immigrants, who spent years laboring in inhumane working conditions in U.S. factories and were ultimately killed by the corporate thieves running them.

He dons the Batsuit to steal from corrupt elites to not only give back to Fil-Ams and other communities of color, but also finance his campaign of vengeance against his powerful enemies. He's aided by his tito Alfred, who gathers intel on the rich as a housekeeper for hire.

Kate Kanalan enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps to make her military family proud, only to later realize she was just a pawn for the U.S. empire and its colonization of Asia and the Pacific. She retires and becomes Batwoman instead, protecting civilians from police brutality.

Openly gay, she uses her media visibility as Batwoman to campaign for equal rights and better legislative protections—striking fear in homophobes and awe in the ladies. Inspired by Bruce Waynaldo's example, she donates her pension to homeless veterans and LGBTQ youth organizations.

While re-imagining white superheroes as people of color isn't a perfect panacea, it's one way to improve a lack of Fil-Am representation in comics and other media. So if DC wants a Fil-Am creator to write a Fil-Am Bat family, they know where to point those Bat-Signal lips. 😉

(Please don’t repost or edit my art. Reblogs are always appreciated.)

If you enjoy my comics, please pledge to my Patreon or donate to my Paypal. I lost my publisher for trying to publish these strips, so your support keeps me going until I can find a new publisher/lit agent

https://twitter.com/Joshua_Luna/status/1134522555744866304 https://patreon.com/joshualuna https://www.paypal.com/paypalme2/JoshuaLunaComics

[wikisense]

oldest to newest

a wild train ride

[avaritia-apotheosis]

Phantom Children Ch. 6

Hi guys! I'm back <3 (also, I'm currently looking for alpha/beta readers for Phantom Children, so if you're interested, feel free to shoot me a message!)

In Which: Danny Attempts to get Answers, Bruce Learns, and Dick Finally Learns What's Inside the Door that Doesn't Exist

AO3 | Prologue | 5 | [ 6 ] | 7

DANNY IS KNOCKED DOWN three, four, eight times on the ice. Each time made his back ache, his bones bruised and tired, and his mind burning with embarrassment and a drive to lash out. But each time he gets back up. Each time he lasts a little bit longer against Talia.

The ice still shifts, cracks and rumbles with every wrong move. Danny learned to roll with it. Move on light feet but attack with a firm stance, gauge which parts of the ice are stable and which should be avoided. Multi-tasking has never been Danny’s strong suit, but he’s good at learning and learning quickly.

Talia corrected his form as much as she beat him down. Exploited every one of his openings until he learned to defend them and praised him whenever he managed to pull one over her. The League’s martial arts was the holy amalgamation between almost every single fighting style there is, mashed and refined to perfection to become almost unpredictable to the untrained. A vast improvement to Danny’s previous ‘fuck around and see what works’ brawling and had the added benefit of meshing together with his spontaneity.

“You are doing well, Daniel,” Talia said as she sheathed her sword, hand resting just above her hip. “You have improved greatly in such a short time, as I have expected.”

It takes every ounce of Danny’s superhuman energy to not collapse to his knees, his every breath a ragged shudder as he tries to get his breathing under control. “Still can’t beat you, though.”

“Very few can boast that feat.”

“I’m not exactly sure if that’s supposed to make me feel any better or not. Do I get my prize at least?”

Tahlia tossed her braid over one shoulder with a laugh. “Come, then, let us rest in the caves. The sun is to set soon and we must make camp before we freeze to death.”

“Hypothermia is so last season. I’m way too cool for that.”

He didn’t know whether to be disappointed that Tahlia didn’t react to his pun. It was pretty clever, in his opinion.

('Puns are the lowest form of comedy,' said mind-Jazz.

Says the one who named the Box Ghost the ‘Crate Creep.’

'That’s alliteration, not a pun.')

It was kind of pathetic that even his mind-version of Jazz was smarter than him.

“What would you like to know first?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Sarcasm dripped from Danny’s voice. He sheathed his sword and let it hang loose at his side. “Maybe how old this mysterious brother of mine is?” Ancients, his life was weird enough already, it wasn’t supposed to sound like the B-plot to a bad soap opera.

“Damian is younger than you by a little over four years. He will turn eleven this year.”

“Huh. Never been an older brother before.”

“Perhaps you might have been, if circumstances had been different.”

Cryptic. Great. Danny stepped over a particularly large crack in the ice and scampered over to solid ground. “You gotta give me more than that. What’s he like?”

“Prideful,” she said. “But skilled enough to warrant it. He was raised like a prince—as how you should have been.”

“And he lives with…our dad?”

“Yes. In America.” The cave was deep enough to shield them from the worst of the eventual mountain winds. Tahlia had already started building a campfire with equipment from her knapsack, embers eating away and growing into a steady flame. He sat down, legs crossed, beside the fire, hands tucked beneath his armpits.

He bit his lip, a question forming in his mind. “Do…do we have the same dad?”

Tahlia looked up at him. “Of course. Only your father has had the privilege of being called my beloved, and only he is worthy enough to have sired my children.”

Once night fell, it fell quickly. Blanketing as far as Danny could see from the mouth of the cave in a thick darkness. Snow fell from the skies in thick tufts and covered their footsteps.

“Does he—do they know about me?”

“No, they do not.”

“And you probably aren’t going to tell them anything about me, if you could help it.”

“That is very perceptive of you, habeebi.”

“You won’t tell me anything more about them, will you?”

“In due time, I will.”

Danny blew part of his fringe away from his face. Figures.

Despite the ever-present niggling at the back of his mind, Bruce had yet to see what was in the flash drive. The weeks since his strange meeting with Vlad Masters suddenly exploded with criminal activity with the recent breakout in Arkham and the brewings of another gang war in the shadows of Gotham’s paved streets. It was all hands-on deck. And Bruce, whether as Batman or Wayne, had always prioritized Gotham and its citizens over anything else.

The flash drive remained on his person despite the crisis, tucked away in one of the sturdier compartments of his utility belt to prevent the data inside from becoming damaged. Sometimes he found his hands gravitating towards it, fingers brushing against the button that would release the mystery from its confines before he realized what he was doing and steeled himself. Hands fisted to his side and attention forcibly directed elsewhere.

Eventually, the rogues were placed back into Arkham, and Gotham let out a shuddered breath of relief as it remained standing for another day.

Most of the family were out on a light patrol, cleaning up the remains of the breakout and helping where they can. Jason and Dick bickering over the comms whilst Barbara laughed in her clocktower.

(“It’s not that bad.”

"‘It’s not that bad’—shut the fuck up.” Jason spat. Bruce could hear him revving his bike. “You’re a fucking idiot, you know that? Certified Grade A idiot. B’s gonna kill you.”

He could hear Dick roll his eyes. “Sure, pile it all on, Jaybird. Blame the victim.”

"It was your fault.”

“It’s not my fault I didn’t see it there!”

"You tripped and got a concussion. From a stick. A. Stick.”

“Can we please just leave that out of the report?” Dick groaned. Barbara laughed. “Oh god.”

“Richard motherfucking John Grayson. I swear if you vomit on me then—”

“I’m not gonna vomit on you! You just turned the corner a little too fast. It’s nice to see you care though.”

"Fuck no, I just don’t wanna smell like regurgitated cereal.”)

Damian was benched from a patrol. Their last conflict with Poison Ivy ended with Damian sticking a bad landing and twisting his ankle. He dealt with it with as much grace as can be expected. Meaning that he spent the last few days sulking as he caught up on his missed schoolwork and shooting daggers at everyone else who came back from patrol.

Bruce flicked the flash drive open and plugged it into the computer. The flash drive contained only a single folder dated six months ago.

He clicked it, and a news headline popped up.

LOCAL TEEN DIES AFTER DRIVING OFF CLIFF

Beneath it, a picture. Blue eyes. Black hair. A familiar face.

Blood pounded in Bruce’s ears. He could hear nothing except a sharp gasp from Damian behind him.

When Dick and Jason arrived at the batcave, it was to an eerie silence. Not that it was usually loud, only that Bruce spent most of his free time down in the cave and Dick had come to expect hearing some signs of him around. Typing on keys, the clicking of a mouse, the heavy thuds of a fist meeting a punching bag or a training dummy, etcetera, etcetera. Or maybe even Alfred cleaning up around the cave, feeding the bats, or restocking their med bay.

(Dick, it turned out, didn’t have a concussion. Probably. Not a severe one anyway. What mattered most was that he managed to convince Jason to have dinner at the Manor. Alfred was making a tarte tatin for dessert tonight and those were absolutely to die for. )

One of Tim’s cases took him to the other side of Gotham. The only person in the cave was Damian, who was staring agape at the batcomputer.

“Why the hell is the demon spawn looking at old pictures of Bruce? We get it. They look alike.

“Uh, Dami? What’s up?”

Damian snapped his mouth shut. “I believe it might be best if you asked father that, Grayson.” Despite his clipped tone, there seemed to be little anger in his voice. His proud shoulders were hunched over on the chair, eyes trained on his lap.

He looked so small.

Damian clucked his tongue. “He’s upstairs, if you need him. So is Pennyworth.”

Dick shot a glance at Jason who raised his hands in mock surrender. “You’re up golden boy. Whatever the fuck the old man’s problem is this time, I’m not dealing with it.”

Dick sighed. “Fine.”

There was a door in Wayne Manor that didn’t exist.

When Dick was a child and recently adopted by Bruce Wayne, one of the first things he did was explore the manor. It’s the prerogative of every child that somehow found themselves in a large mansion—even more so given the castle-like exteriors of Wayne Manor. All castles have secret passages, and if the Batcave lay in the subterranean depths below, then surely the manor proper must have its own secrets.

Dick would tumble and cartwheel along the hallways, opening any and every single door he came across. A lot of them were just empty bedrooms or unused parlors and sitting rooms; the furniture covered by white sheets to keep the dust away. Alfred was probably magic, but even he can’t keep the entirety of the manor dust free.

The majority of the unused rooms were unlocked.

Except for one.

It was a room in the west wing, on the second floor. A couple doors down from where Bruce’s and Dick’s were. Why it was locked, Dick never found out. But he was curious since it was the only room on that floor that remained shut.

When he asked Alfred about it, the old butler only said that it was an unused storage room they preferred to keep locked just in case. When he asked Bruce about it, he’d be quick to change the subject. Usually something Batman related. Which, well, always worked, because it was Batman related. And Dick, young and spry and itching to fly under Batman’s wings, would quickly forget about that curious little mystery in favor of punching bad guys in the face and flipping over rooftops.

At some point that locked door quietly disappeared, leaving a blank expanse of wallpaper and a decorative vase where it once stood. It was never brought up again. And Dick slowly forgot that it was ever there in the first place.

Until now.

The wooden table and vase were shoved off to the side. Wallpaper sliced away to reveal the lines of a doorway. The door, covered in its faint damask wallpaper, was kicked open, the wood around the bolt splintered and cracked. He could hear voices—Alfred’s and Bruce’s—speaking softly on the other side.

He pressed his back against the wall and kept his breathing quiet.

“Three times, Alfred.” Bruce’s voice was hoarse, barely above a whisper. “Three times she’s done this to me.”

“Master Bruce…”

“I don’t—I don’t understand why—” Bruce choked, swallowing a shuddered breath. “Damian, I can understand. Jason, I can too. But…This? I—” Bruce suddenly quieted. Dick knew the jig was up.

He unlatched himself from the wall and slowly slid through the once-hidden-door, a hand kept on the frame. “Um. Hi, Bruce? Alfred?” The words fell flat, stilted. Dick winced as he said them. “I didn’t mean to eavesdrop but, uh…” He trailed off the second he registered what was in the room.

It was large, as so many rooms in the manor were. The room was covered in peeling green wallpaper with faded pictures of baby deer and owls and other woodland creatures prancing about. There was a dresser on one wall. A shelf filled with little picture books and stuffed animals on the other. A brown teddy bear had fallen on its face on one of the shelves.

In the middle—where Bruce was hunched over—was a crib. The wood streaked and aged with time, the beddings within pristine and untouched, if not dusty. Hanging overhead was a mobile with little animals dangling on a string.

“Worry not Master Dick. It is good that you are here since it will inevitably involve the rest of the family at some point.”

Dick nodded absentmindedly, trying to lock eyes with his guardian. “B? What’s—what’s going on?” Dick took one step deeper into the room. “The pictures in the cave. I thought they were you since they were too old to be Damian—” Bruce’s hands on the crib’s railing flinched.

Dick’s breath hitched.

“They’re…not your photos, are they.”

Bruce took a deep breath in, the lines of his shoulders tense. “No. They’re not.”

In their line of work, the answer could have been anything. Clones, magical doppelgangers, alternate universe counterparts, hell, even just someone’s genetic code being coincidentally similar to another person. But…this room, this nursery, pointed towards only one conclusion.

“Who is he, Bruce?”

Bruce angled his head towards Dick, unshed tears glimmering in his eyes. “He’s my son, Dick.

“He’s my son.”

[whetstonefires]

Now, I have...basically 0 stake in Batman in a Christmas sweater. I tend to find most Christmas fan art insufferably twee. My quality of life would be basically unaffected by the magical disappearance of all batfam fan content depicting them celebrating Christmas, and probably improved by less Christian batman stuff in general.

But I have a lot of stake in the misuse of ‘canonically’ in fandom, especially when tied to harassment.

The thing is.

Canonically, Batman has been celebrating Christmas, on-panel, for roughly eight decades.

Canonically, his mother is almost definitely Jewish.

Canonically, his father is not. Technically this is more canon, if there is such a thing, because it’s been shown rather than stated in framework terms, but none of those ‘memories of my father taking me to church’ etc were consistent with one another, so it’s whatever. Comics.

Additionally his mother seems to have gone to the trouble of ensuring that her son would not go into her family’s custody in the event of her death, and he has never been depicted as having a warm or close relationship with them despite living in the same city. Which is a whole accidental can of retcon worms on DC’s part lol.

Canonically, Kate celebrates Hannukah and Bruce does not. She has her own personalized Batwoman gelt.

If we are deriving our conclusion from the canon, Bruce’s relationship with Judaism-and-self falls somewhere between near-indifference and hella-complicated.

Now, I’m all the way here for the hella complicated! I’d love to dig into it, but that’s not my place. And because this is DC Comics and canon is a lie, there is absolutely no reason people cannot ignore all of that canon and depict him as actively practicing Judaism and observing the holy days in accordance with any strain of tradition, and bringing his kids in on it and the whole deal.

Maybe doing that thing people apparently sometimes do of escalating gift-giving throughout the eight days of Hannukah, and at the end since he’s a billionaire everyone gets their own luxury car. Even those too young to legally drive. Has anyone written that? I want to read it.

Anyway cherry-picking canon is a great and fundamental part of our fan community and the fact that you need to cherry-pick super heavily to get that form of Jewish Batman is absolutely no barrier to using it in fanworks. Jewish Batman content is great and I value it and it would be neat if it continued to catch on, and if DC actually engaged with it in a comic at some point even.

But approaching other fans in proscriptive terms is bad form, and should be reserved for extreme and unambiguous situations. Making flat statements about what other fans morally should be allowed to do is an extreme act likely to have fallout if anyone listens to you, and should be saved for extreme cases.

Especially when as in this case it has an immediate, recent history of provoking harassment campaigns.

Now, of course, stating a ‘fact’ to raise awareness with people about what they personally should not in your opinion do is everyone’s right, and is not in itself endorsing harassment.

But in the immediate historical context of ‘batman fandom on tumblr’ this misleading statement did in fact require heavy qualification for our wellbeing as a community. Probably gecko could have phrased it better, but in this context it badly needed saying. That post as written amounted to misinformation.

And the use of social justice language, guilt-tripping, and extremely vague additional citations for authority in response to (successfully) invalidate the attempt to clarify the misinformation, while completely understandable from the emotional space of ‘mad about erasure,’ did not impress me much. Which is why I weighed in on that other post.

(I also could have phrased my point better if I’d been in a more focused frame of mind, but it also clearly wouldn’t have mattered because the responses are entirely focused on ‘demonstrating why batman can in fact only be depicted in one specific way and this is why disagreeing at all makes you a bad person;’ constructive dialogue wasn’t happening.)

So. It is, in fact, appropriate to depict Batman doing Christmas, if you want to. And if it was not, ‘canon’ would still be a very bad argument against it. He has celebrated umpteen Christmasses, canonically. This is not a matter of ‘the default,’ it is a matter of established Batman behavior.

I mean, he’s been written that way because our culture is how it is, but he has been written that way. Still is. This week’s Nightwing was a holiday issue which featured Bruce asking Dick to come home tomorrow because ‘it’s Christmas.’

Guilting people about this and citing ‘canon’ in a deeply misleading manner is not good-faith behavior, even though I don’t imagine it’s being done maliciously either. It will, which is to say it has in very recent memory, create an unhealthy and abusive fandom environment.

And to say  ‘those instances of harassment based on takes like mine shouldn’t have happened, but also the fan creators who got harassed out of the fandom over sweaters shouldn’t have done the same thing canon does, because other canon i like better and which is more morally pure’ is just fandom wank.

It’s just fandom wank, and the fact that it involves the representation of a discriminated-against group just raises the stakes and offers the people attempting to pass fandom laws additional ammunition. Which raises the odds of things getting ugly.

It doesn’t change that distorting facts to coerce people into doing what you want is not an appropriate way to behave within a community.

[davidmann95]

Comics this week (4/28/2021)?

adudewholikescomicsandotherstuff said: This week’s comics?

comics-and-videogames said: Comics this week?

The Marvels #1: On the one hand this is a well-constructed debut with solid art, I love the basic premise of “the Seven Soldiers setup but as an ongoing and spanning the whole universe”, and the new guy Kevin Schumer has a really fun gimmick. On the other there’s nothing stellar about it and...holy shit, Busiek’s actually building this entire book around the Fake Sliding-Timeline-Friendly Vietnam Waid came up with (or I’ve heard Busiek came up with but Waid used first)? I don’t think I’ll be pursuing it on my own, but my dad seemed excited for it and I expect he’ll keep getting it, and if so I’ll be curious to see where it goes and how much it ultimately delivers on the promise of its setup, and also whether it manages to avoid immediately becoming the most unwittingly racist thing in Marvel’s current lineup. Or maybe it's already there and I'm just too pale to see it?

(And that last page? This really is just More Astro City, huh?)

M.O.D.O.K.: Head Games #4: Not as good as the issues leading up to it, but a solid end to an enjoyable mini.

The Amazing Spider-Man: Curse of the Man-Thing #1: Not as much of a blast as the first issue, but Orlando predictably writes a good Spidey.

Miles Morales: Spider-Man #25: God, I just don’t know how much longer this can keep me on the strength of a one or two good moments every few issues only for it to coast on that. Where’s the Black Bolt and Exiles guy? I’m giving it one more issue because it looks ready to turn some cards over, but if it keeps dithering I’m done.

Abbott 1973 #4: I’m giving this one more issue too, but literally only because it just has the one issue left.

The Department of Truth #8: This is gonna be one of those books where unless you’re willing to go seriously in-depth in a way I don’t for this format it’s gonna be basically impossible to review, because the shorthand is always going to be “yup, it’s exactly as incredibly good as it’s already been in exactly the same ways”.

Once & Future #18: This keeps on almost getting me to go fuck it and switch to trades - not as a matter of quality, as a matter of how best to process it as a reader - and then giving me a reason to stick around for the month-by-month, and damn if this doesn’t give the best reason yet.

Crossover #6: The best issue yet, because this time I yelled FUCK YOU twice instead of just the once the first issue pulled out of me. Gotta admit I’m very curious about this next one though (and that this is apparently how it went about, well, that, as much as it ever could is so defiantly anticlimactic and unsatisfying I’m almost convinced it has to be deliberate, and I would nearly be impressed were that the case).

Batman/Superman #17: This continues to comprehensively rule and is almost certainly DC’s best ongoing comic for the foreseeable future, and the demonstration of the new Batmobile upgrade is one of the purest “god, aren’t superheroes/comics just the best sometimes?” moments I’ve read in a minute.

Action Comics #1030: It’s wild how much this reads like a debut issue, though given this is in a sense PKJ’s *fourth* kickoff to his Superman run after Worlds of War, The Golden Age, and Superman proper, it’s not too surprising he’s really good at it by this point. Sampere is a beast unchained here, Warworld is interesting for the first time ever and Krypton feels as tantalizingly alien and magical as it ever has, there’s really good character bits anchoring every scene here, and Johnson clearly recognizes where he’s treading familiar ground and makes sure to subtly assert that he’s not going in the well-worn, predictable directions. If this is what to expect from him going forward given this is the title he’s staying on long-term, I’m a more than happy camper. The Midnighter backup continues to be a very pleasing improvement from its Future State debut too.

Batman: Black and White #5:

Jimenez/Leigh: This was really fun! Looking forward to what Jimenez writes in the future.

Weeks/Cowles: Obviously gorgeous but I do not even kind of get what this was supposed to be.

Tamaki/Lupacchno/Von Grawbadger/Maher: ok

Gillen/McKelvie/Cowles: OK. So reading this I immediately thought “yes, this absolutely rules, but it’s a *little* surprising to see people flip out so hard at it when I’ve seen this exact gimmick done very, very recently. Well, I suppose when you do Young Avengers and W+D and you’re doing a Batman comic you’ve more earned that name recognition boost”. But THEN I saw what was really up and yeah this absolutely rules, no caveats.

Campbell/Bennett: Suffers from having to follow up the last feature and the narration gets more than a touch turgid by the end, but forgivably so for a first-time writer when it looks like this.

[scifi-gk]

Today’s #SketchEndeavor (see? I told you I’d do it 😏). But holy lead usage, Batman! Sketching a silhouette with a .5mm lead drafting pencil takes FOREVER! I still see room for improvement (I didn’t even try to tackle the background highlights and shadows from the source/inspo image) but, over all, I kinda like it. Way more than yesterday’s offering anyway. And, BONUS, my headache backed off while I concentrated on this so win/win. #Art #ArtistsOfInstagram #MyArt #ActualPencilSketch #Silhoutte 
https://www.instagram.com/p/B-LwW19ggkF/?igshid=g5tg7brab7md PS Though this isn’t why I chose it, I’ve been told this sketch has Lizzington vibes and I’m so stoked I’m going to tag it that. Thanks to my mutual who pointed it out. You rawk! 💋

[nealflitherland]

For some reason the whole first paragraph shows up in the preview... but anyway, you get the idea! If you like my take on Nightwing, go check him out!

[ask-jokeboi]

Your art has improved a lot, I just saw the first picture you drew of Jervis and compared it to the newest picture of him, it looks amazing and your use of colors and creation of original clothing has skyrocketed into a level I haven’t seen before. You are doing an amazing job and your work shows it.

// @ all of you and anyone else whos thrown a compliment into my inbox, thank u so much! 💜💛💚💙💖 i use this blog as motivation for practice and experimentation so to hear that my improvements been noticable is fantastic and helpful. There’s so many of you in my inbox that i cant possibly respond to all of you individually but just know that i probably read whatever you sent and it probably made my  day. Thank u! 

Also, yes i have seen Holy Musical B@tman and it’s one of my favourite things next to lego batman!!

[djgamek1ng]

PLD LEVEL 80 STORY RAGE [FFXIV] RANT

So it has been a while since ShB came out. I’ve gotten all my tanks to level 80, did all of the job quests and oh boy I have some stuff to talk about. Since this is a rant post as you can see by the title, I’m just gonna put this out there: I’m gonna be swearing in this post. I’m probably gonna be swearing a lot. If you don’t like that or don’t like anger/negativity in general, you should probably skip this post (aka, don’t click “Read more”) even though I will be raising some more legitimate criticisms and how to improve one of the tank’s stories... no shuddup, the title totally doesn’t give it away.

Also, on another note, I will be posting my impressions of each of the tanks later. Hopefully somewhere this weekend, but no promises. I have a lot to talk about and I wanna cover it well.

Also also, spoiler warning. I will probably spoil some stuff though I will try to be vague about it.

Okay, let’s start with some positivity first. Some happiness if you will and so we shall start with what in my opinion is undoubtably the best level 80 story of the tanks: Dark Knight. All of the 80 job quests are really short, but still give a decent story. I hope next expac we do get a bit more, even if they decide to just go with the one job quest route again.

Anyway, DRK’s level 80 story quest... holy fuck. I was not prepared. This only re-affirms it for me: the DRK story has no right to be only just a job quest story. It honestly feels like it should be part of the MSQ. So TL;DR for this quest: you go to Sidurgu to check in on him and Rielle. Sidurgu hands you a letter from an unknown sender. You go to find out who the letter is from through a slightly long fetch quest, though you do get to re-meet people from the DRK quest of the previous expacs. Eventually you come by the person who send it, the person that ridiculed you for ruining the wares he asked you to return to him. He feels sorry about it and wanted to thank you (which is what the letter was about btw) and tells you the story of how life went for him after that (not well until recently). He hands you a flower to give to someone, though it is more suiting for a funeral or a farewell. You go off to be brooding and there appears your darkside. You exchange some words with them and then return back to Sidurgu. This honestly felt really powerful and in fact, was the second time I had to wipe away a tear or two from my face this expansion. I have done it no justice and I implore you to at least look it up on YouTube, but preferably you do it yourself. Even though it was just 1 pretty short quest, this was hands down the best tank job story this expac. Even the entirety of the GNB story doesn’t come close.

Onwards to second place: WAR. The WAR story this time around was pretty nice. Not as deep or feeling provoking, but just... nice.

TL;DR: Curious Gorge can’t take it anymore and wants to know if Dorgono (the female Auri WAR from the SB story) loves him the same way he does with her. He wants to travel to the Far East. Coincidentally, Dorgono and her dad come to Eorzea. Drogono’s dad, Luvsan, wants to repay us for helping Dorgono control her inner beast. He repays us by making a medicine (which is a placebo) which allows Broken Mountain to train as a WAR once more. Afterwards, Luvsan returns to the Azim Steppe but leaves Dorgono behind to train more (and fall in love, which was his first intent in Eorzea to begin with). Oh and Curious Gorge freaks out and thinks that the WoL and Dorgono are in love with each other because they smiled at each other. Dorgono knocks some sense into him, since she isn’t in love with us but someone else (no points if you guess right).

And that was WAR’s story. Simple, funny, effective and heartwarming. I actually really liked it and it was my favorite tank job story before I leveled DRK. Overal, pretty good! GNB. Well, probably the 2nd weakest tank job story but even then, this is honestly pretty good. I will only summarize the 80 story to the others. TL;DR: after having trained under the last Gunbreaker out there, Radovan, and having saved the First, you return to him. You tell him your story, especially about another Gunbreaker being out there named Thancred. He’s confused since he doesn’t know Thancred and he didn’t train him. You go on a fetch quest on a trail for someone that looks a lot like Radovan and uses the same kind of weapon. It turns out, Radovan isn’t the last Gunbreaker out there as others of his home place have survived and the trail we picked up was of Rostik, another Gunbreaker. After it, you return back to Mor Dhona and are happy to know that the art of Gunbreaking isn’t about to be lost. Again, like the DRK story, I didn’t do it much justice and with the context of the 60-70 GNB quests it becomes a lot more interesting. Still very nice. I would personally say it is a bit weaker than WAR, but that is because I have grown to care about the people in the WAR quest for longer. PLD... UGH. TL;D-FUCKING-R; You go to Jenlyns. Jenlyns is worried about Mylla, the head of the gladiator guild. You got to Mylla. She is worried about Aldis, the wandering bum. Speaking of him, he walks inside the gladiators guild to show of his samurai skills. He challenges you to a duel. You get ready to fight and he sees how much strong you have become. You say it is because of you have things to protect. The duel ends with Aldis giving up before it began. You and Mylla go back to the gladiator guild. Aldis steps in and asks if he can stay. Mylla goes all tsundere (ugh) and allows him to stay. You fuck off and do literally anything else.

UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. WHY. THERE WAS ONE REALLY COOL THING. ALDIS SEEING HOW STRONG YOU GOT BY SEEING AN AURA AROUND YOU. THIS HAS SO MUCH POTENTIAL BUT NOOOOOOOOOOO. FUCK THAT, WE NEED TO HAVE THIS ROMANCE PLOT BETWEEN TWO CHARACTERS OF THE FUCKING GLADIATOR STORYLINE. YEAH, THAT IS SO MUCH BETTER. NO NEED TO EXPLAIN HOW THE PLD POWERS ARE EVEN A THING OUTSIDE OF TRAINING (WHICH LITERALLY EVERY FUCKING JOB HAS TO DO BTW), NO NEED TO SHOW US THAT WE SAVE PEOPLE AND DO ALL THIS KNIGHTLY/PALADINY SHIT OUTSIDE OF THE GODDAMN MSQ. NOOOOOOOO, THAT WOULD MAKE FOR AN ACTUAL GOOD FUCKING STORY LINE INSTEAD OF THIS BULLSHIT. GOD FUCKING DAMMIIIIIIT! AAAAAAAAAAAAAA- *insert static screen here* sigh As you can no doubt tell by everything that I just typed, I am slightly upset at the PLD story. It had one really neat thing going for it, something that could make it feel more like a Paladin/Knight story (need I remind you, in JP PLD is called Knight). Instead however, anything interesting gets brushed aside because “well, the MSQ covers it already. Nevermind that the fucking WAR, DRK and GNB stories do show us protecting stuff in their respective quests”. Hell, wanna know the biggest slap in the face? We got a really good PLD story. It just wasn’t part of the PLD story. Instead it was inside of the tank role quests where we got to see more of Branden (the PLD inside the Warriors of Darkness group) and his past. It was amazing and honestly heartbreaking, since it didn’t have a great ending for Branden but he still did what he had to do. The biggest problem for me since SB is that the PLD story has just become a continuation of the Gladiator storyline and I’m happy for the people that really like Aldis and Mylla, but I’m so fucking bored of those two. At least with Curious Gorge and Dorgono you know that the two are actually in love with each other and that they will finally be able to be together, even if for now it is only to train together. With Mylla and Aldis... Aldis just does not give off that he has any interest in Mylla while Mylla is obviously in love with him but doesn’t want to admit it since “oooh, let’s have a tsundere character”. SERIOUSLY. DO ANYTHING WITH THEM. Aldis comes to the conclusion to ask if he can stay with the gladiator’s guild because of us admitting that we have something to protect now (WHICH BTW, IT ISN’T STATED EXPLICITLY WHAT WE HAVE TO PROTECT NOW AND HAS TO BE GAINED OUT OF THE FUCKING MSQ) and that is why we became that strong. Okay, so how would I rank them? DRK >>> WAR => GNB (WAR overal was better, but GNB is pretty close to it) >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> PLD. 

Now, since I don’t want to be only negative, how about some ways to improve the PLD story? Honestly, it is very simple: make it similar to the DRK one, only with a brighter, more optimistic tone compared to the DRK’s more somber and pessimistic tone. Think of Superman and Batman: one is about needing to save the world while being a beacon of hope for the world, the other is about dragging the world back from the brink and being pessimistic/realistic about everything. An example: let’s say someone important to the job story dies in a battle. The PLD would mourn them, but still continue to fight the good fight and rally their (potentially) allies. The DRK would mourn them and instead go fucking nuts on whoever killed their ally. Either would be able to go for vengeance, but it wouldn’t be on the PLD’s to-do list while it becomes the only thing on the DRK’s to-do list.

That’s just my idea on it though. Could obviously be better written than I could ever do, but it would work honestly. Anyway, I think I’ll wrap it up here. I’m glad that 3 out of the 4 tank stories was good, but I’m really pissed of at that 1 out of the 4 that isn’t good. Thank you for reading. Sorry for the swearing, but I had to get it off my chest.

[surpirate]

How do you art ~ small insecure fangirl anon

painthen you practice for a couple years and look back at your first art and think 'woah I got better!'