#I like Carrie I don't like frank miller for what he did to Batman I said what I said

[causeimanartist]

Carrie Kelley Robin for art request!! :)

This is either Carrie Kelley or Velma in cosplay, who could say

[jenn-the-mostly-harmless]

I don't want to get caught up in evaluating whether the old show is better than the new show, but I've been thinking lately about how wildly different the Trigun animes are.

The new show characterizes everyone very differently than the old one did. In the old version, Vash has this facade that he's carrying, a jokester silly man act to hide how fucked up things have been for him and how sad he really is. He also gets the chance to save some people now and then, and that's important, because it's what keeps him holding on. If he never saved anyone, the despair would be overwhelming and he might stop trying.

In the newer show, it's all out in the open. He starts as a sad boy, and he doesn't really save anyone. Some people survive, but it's not the same thing, there's little or no catharsis for his character. His experience is so bleak and his sorrow so obvious that I found it jarring when he was silly.

Meryl is different too. In the old version, she's a badass who has a shit ton of derringer pistols in her cloak because she knows the world is dangerous. She's savvy and prepared for anyone and everyone to try to fuck her over. She literally lives in a world so dangerous that following Vash the stampede to keep her job is worth it to her, and she keeps Vash at arms length for a long time because of all that.

In the new version she's basically Lois Lane. Other people fight and die for her as she naively follows Vash because she...thinks he's newsworthy? I found it hard to understand her motivation. She's also no longer the leader or the senior in her coworking relationship.

And then there's Milly from the old version. I loved her simply on big girl rules, so I'm definitely biased, but that said, she also brought an important humanity to the team. Milly was there to remind you that even though the world of the story is mean and desperate, there are still nice people who can treat others kindly. Talk softly, carry a big gun.

So how does Roberto De Niro (yeah, they really named him after the actor) stand up to Milly? He's mostly looking out for himself, but I guess he has fatherly feelings for Meryl, or he wouldn't keep shlupping along with her. I don't know, I found him and his motivations mysterious and eye-rolling. Is he a hard ass that is only doing a job, or someone who actually cares about all this?

But it's not just the characters, I'd argue the very plot is characterized differently. The first anime is all about characterization and spends a lot of time with the characters before getting to the broody sci-fi stuff, which only happens toward the very end. A lot of people who watched it when it came out won't even remember the darker sci-fi stuff because it was aired on old school tv and they just missed an episode here or there.

The new one is almost entirely concerned with the darker sci-fi plot, which is really interesting, but their characterization suffers for it. The action scenes are more impressive, but perhaps less fun. There isn't a lot of mystery to Vash's past in the newer version, but it definitely does a better job of telling the sci-fi part of the story than the first one did.

I haven't read the manga, this is just what I got from watching both animes recently. I find I like them both for different reasons, but it does make me want to read the manga to see how each compares to the original concept. It's easy to get tied down to the first way you meet a fictional character, but it's important to remember that they aren't real people and they change based on who is writing them. If I say I like Batman, am I talking about Adam West's version or Frank Miller's?

[alicepooryorick]

birds of prey for the ask game

or batman if you’d rather :)

I'm going to be honest, I've yet to really look that far into Birds of Prey so... Yeah I don't think I can have any opinions beyond "heck yeah, they're cool"

So for batfam.

Fave male character is probably Jason. He's such an interesting character when you put him in juxtaposition with the rest of the family. I feel like he has more that could be used but I still love Jason.

Favorite female character: Barbara or Cass. It changes daily I just love the two girlies that are (or should be I should say) on par with Bruce. Obviously Babs is different from him skill wise. But I love these two. Oh, and Carrie Kelly. But fuck Frank Miller.

Least favorite character: I genuinely don't understand the Joker's appeal post silver age. Not as the main villain at least. If he only showed up on occasion maybe. But with the frequency he appears... No.

Prettiest character: honestly Jason. Like, from an objective point of view I can't blame anyone for thirsting over him.

Funniest character: Alfred being one of the most dangerous people in both the batfamily and the world cracks me up constantly.

Favorite season: Batman the Animated Series. I can't lie, if the characterisation isn't as Kevin Conroy intended; I don't like the characterisation typically.

Favorite episode: Growing Pains from The New Animated Series. It introduced Annie who I honestly think should have been a recurring character. (writing a fic where she is 🙃)

Favorite romantic ship: Cassandra X Steph. Even as a QPR there's no way those two aren't together for life.

Favorite family ship: Jason and Babs in the modern era. I love that Jason cares so much about her opinion even after everything he's gone through. That she's still his older sister. I love it.

Favorite friendship: Superman and Batman being besties and basically brothers is so beautiful. I love that those two are friends to the point of family. The fact that Bruce's child took on a kryptonian name to continue krypton's legacy with Clark's permission is just AUGHHHH

Worst ship: anything batcest. I don't care what it is. DickBabs counts here for me. It feels to insest-y, I get that it's technically not. But Babs constantly acts as the older cousin.

Overhyped ship: SuperBat. I get the appeal, but I just generally see them as a brotherly bond. Especially when they look almost identical.

Underhyped Ship: I don't really have any? I mean I do think there's a world where Harley and ore-oracle Babs have a Kim Shego thing happening, which like. Could continue when Babs is leading various teams that Harley is in. But like, Harley is taken by ivy and they're so cute.

Unpopular opinion: buy one get two free. Killing Joke is a red flag if it's your favorite. It's not even good. The only good thing it did was allow another author to make Babs into oracle.

Silver age was a great period for Batman just because it allowed the varied cast of kooks we know and love today. As well as giving us a template for Batdad.

Tim Drake is just whatever. Idk. He's a self important rich kid who's traits as a Robin are better done in other Robins. (*cough cough* Carrie Kelly *Cough cough*)

[strawberry-nugget]

Bnha characters as things I've said or have been said to me

A/n: halfway through writing this, I realised many things have been said to me in a very mean way, I had just filtered them in my brain to the point everything seems funny now. Fear not, these are just super out of context things that are very humorous.

Disclaimer: minors dni, every character depicted is over 18 years of age.

Warnings: mentions of periods, spoilers for the amazing spiderman 2 (I believe), language, mhhhm if you find anything else kindly let me know so I can put it in the warnings

Uraraka (to Aoyama): we don't all have to like Big Time Rush just because you do! 

—

Denki: I'm going to give this dog my lunch

Bakugo: don't, have you ever seen a dog eat cheese puffs? 

Denki: yes... No?

—

Jirou, accidentally leaking during her period

Sero: WHAT'S WITH ALL THAT BLOOD

Jirou: i- ah, cut my hand? Uh? Yeah I guess?! I cut my hand

Sero: SHOW ME YOUR HAND WE HAVE TO STOP THE BLEEDING, EVERYONE! JIROU'S HAND IS BLEEDING

—

Amajiki: how do you tongue someone? 

Kirishima: it's like? An?? Octopus?? 

Amajiki: octopus? 

Kirishima: in like, texture and stuff

Amajiki: wait what? 

Kirishima: just get your tongue in their mouth it's not hard

Amajiki: why octopus tho i-

—

Reporter: Deku, who do you think is going to make it to the next big 5 of the hero charts? 

Shoto oh, oh, can I say? 

Deku: obviously my- well yes shoto you may say your own guesses, 

Shoto: *passionately swaying back and forth while singing 'I don't want to miss a thing'*

Deku: shoto? Shoto uhmm we're waiting

Shoto: OHHHHH

—

Mina, texting Bakugo: I'm never taking you along with me next time I do my nails. 

—

Mirko: stop being so pretty- oh my god did a fucking horse just turn around to stare at you? 

Hawks: I'm pretty sure I just caught its attention while passing by, calm your tits

—

Denki: which celebrity would you sleep with? 

Bakugo: none

Denki: what? 

Bakugo: You heard me. None

Denki: even if they paid you? 

Bakugo: yeah.. I'm never having sex so good luck with fishing an answer out of everyone else

—

Deku: uh that's actually incorrect, the joker doesn't have a backstory and by assigning him one you're taking all the essence away from his character. Justifying the acts of a canonically psychopathic serial killer with a fixation on a bunch of people by giving him a conventionally moral and excusable story to make him relatable is against the idea of why he's still who he is and that's what's wrong with our society. I think we are willing to excuse villains if they have a heartbreaking backstory but the point with Joker is that he doesn't have one so nice try making him be someone who could ever be salvaged. Now if you open the killing joke by Alan Moore and Frank Miller you will see that Batman is also of same nature, although in his face we find someone we can and should feel sympathy for-

—

Tsuyu watching spiderman with Bakugo and Sero: what's coming out of her nose? 

Bakugo: blood. She's literally dying

Sero: BRO!

Tsuyu: And why is it coming from her nose? 

Sero: she hit her head so that's? Natural? 

Tsuyu? Didn't she hit the back of her head? 

Bakugo: LET ME WATCH THIS SCENE IN PIECE OH MY GOD

—

Hawks: First of all, uncross your arms. You're in defense mode and I'm not attacking you… right now. We'll see what happens in a while 

—

Momo: I didn't mean it when I said don't text me back if you don't make a move on them. Text me back I miss you. 

—

Jirou: just because I went to see black Panther with you does not mean we're together

—

Koda: yes, I am gonna carry this dog until we find a place for it to pee and then I'm carrying it back, is that so hard to grasp

—

Tokoyami: I just realised that the joke with not being able to not see John Cena is because it's a pun with his name

Kirishima: I'm pretty sure it's because of a move of his

Tokoyami: you seem to know about this stuff. I trust you

—

Iida: wake up! Now! Were in a club and you screamed that this is a nice piece of broken glass and you run your finger over it? Are you insane? 

Uraraka: but its-

Iida: DON'T FALL ASLEEP, NO DON'T TOUCH THE GLASS AGAIN

—

Mina: wait- deku is NOT your boyfriend? 

Uraraka: no!? 

Mina: I thought you two had SOMETHING going on? 

Uraraka: in his head? 

Mina: HE- ISN'T HE LIKE IN LOVE WITH YOU? 

Uraraka: wait what? 

—

Toga: I thought you were a bitch when I met you, I put on il ballo del la qua and you turned it off. I can't trust anyone who doesn't want to dance to this song! 

Shigaraki: maybe I'm just emo okay? Otherwise I'm harmless. Also. I was dressed as a vampire, I had to maintain my image at all costs

—

Dabi: *sings grenade by bruno Mars in every small gathering of the Lov and forces everyone to listen*

—

Aoyama, only listening to 5sos for four days: momo can you please buy me the 5sos book for my birthday? 

—

If you ask for part two I am simply going to expose how many dumb bitch moments or trauma I have which idk if it's humorous content. Anyways... Who wants to see bnha and shy things I do next?

[maxwell-grant]

Downfall of a Dark Avenger Part 2: Shadows of Manhattan

Having finished reading Al Ewing’s El Sombra trilogy and having had enough time to digest it, I’d like to talk about the trajectory of it’s titular protagonist, the character and series’s relationship with it’s influences. Relating to The Shadow and Zorro and general pulp archetypes, and also the way it incorporates Astro Boy’s Pluto into the mix.

This part is focused on Gods of Manhattan and El Sombra’s first appearences in Pax Omega and the ways in which the urban vigilante manifests itself in the books. 

In Gods of Manhattan, El Sombra takes a backseat to it’s central players, Doc Thunder and The Blood-Spider. I’ve mentioned how Thunder, while ostensibly a Doc Savage/Superman amalgam, also combines aspects that allow the character to condense the entire history of the superman into a single being, but to a character very much centered on the future and in progressive ideals, described in the book as someone considered both the city’s ultimate savior as well as viewed as "a faggot, a liberal and a miscegenationist”. In that regard, the Blood-Spider becomes his opposite. Perhaps the most comprehensive savaging of the dark detective/The Shadow ever put on paper, that has a larger point behind the questions and criticisms it brings up to what this kind of figure can be. 

"You can hardly have a war on crime unless you are the one defining what a crime is. First rule of the war on crime: everyone is guilty or something"

Us am vigilantes! Am us not men? Us use violence to effect social change! Am us not men? Us bring terror to underclass, make streets safer for overclass! Am us not men? Am us not men?

Making them loved rather than feared. Having them fight crime, or the right kind of crime, at least. Created a persona designed to appeal to the worst in people, to bring the citizens of New York around to his cause, his war on crime, which would, of course, then become a war against ‘urban crime’. Or some other little euphemism. ‘Inhuman’, for example. Sounds a lot more relatable than subhuman, doesn’t it? Comes to the same thing, though.

Although The Blood-Spider is an evil take on The Shadow, most of his character traits are taken from characters that followed him. He’s got the moniker, savagery, fright tactics and branded murders of The Spider, he climbs buildings and has a civilian identity akin to Spider-Man’s, with constant name references to characters like Stacey, Jonah and a redhead named Mary Watson, with him sharing a name with Peter Parker as well as Batman villain Jonathan Crane, he’s got Rorschach monologues that are echoed by his associates past his demise in white supremacist organizations dedicated to carrying off Spider’s legacy, predating HBO Watchmen’s take on Rorschach legacy. If Doc Thunder is all about taking the superhero’s past to create a better future with it, Blood-Spider takes the future of the urban vigilante and uses it as a conduit to enact a barbaric and reactionary agenda in service of undoing everything Thunder stands for, even before he’s revealed to be a Nazi agent. 

Blood-Spider is what happens when the absolute worst aspects of said characters are brought to the forefront and twisted by a dose of reality. He’s to The Shadow what Plutonian is to Superman, the most sour way said character and legend can be twisted into something horrendous. He’s the Doutrinador in a fedora, everything I vehemently argue that The Shadow wasn’t, and yet seems sadly ever closer to as more and more comics dehumanize the character. He’s Howard Chaykin’s Shadow, naked and raw and exposed for what it ultimately is. An insult and a wake-up call, if a necessary one.

In fact, said poisoning of a legend is explicitly a plot point in the book, because the book establishes that, before The Blood-Spider, the city’s main vigilante used to be a man by the name of Blue Ghost, friend of Doc Thunder and, although a mysterious public figure, still firmly on the side of good. Unfortunately, moral victories aside, “good” alone doesn’t cut it in the world of El Sombra. 

You took a look at the Blue Ghost - mysterious masked avenger, operatives all over the place, big fan-following with the working classes, and you figured...we need one of those. Just take away the Japanese orphan kid and replace him with a foxy Aryan chick.

Blue Ghost is almost a textbook Spirit analogue, even defined as being beat up a lot as his main asset, except here, he’s placed as Doc’s counterpart that died before the story began and is now replaced by a darker and more horrendous counterpart, and because The Spirit was influenced by The Shadow, it opens a roundabout connection. You can read this as a comparison between the shift from Adam West’s Batman to Frank Miller’s Batman, or a comparison between The Shadow and earlier more straightforward pulp vigilantes like Jimmie Dale, or a comparison between the pulp/radio Shadow and later iterations of him or analogues to his archetype that upped the nastier aspects. Again, nothing in El Sombra is ever quite just one thing. 

And at last we come to El Sombra, who spends much of the book caught in between the duels of Doc, Untergang and players in between. And it’s interesting that here, while El Sombra’s final victories over the story’s major conflict lie in his willingness to team up with Doc, despite knowing of his origins as a Nazi weapon, his victories over Blood-Spider instead come from turning tricks of The Shadow against him. First, when he discovers Spider’s true nature, spying on him by pulling a Fritz the Janitor. And then in the finale, when he schools Spider on what a real shadowy avenger looks like. 

"Amigo...that's my sword"

The voice came from the darkness above them, where the gaslight did not reach. The Spider's blood ran cold for a long moment, and then he grabbed hold of his other gun, tearing it from its holster and raising it to fire a volley of bullets into the darkness. "Where are you? Show yourself!" he hissed, turning in place, the gun raised to fire at the slightest sound or movement.

"You're not the only one who can hide in the shadows, my friend. I've got very good at it, over the years."

"Show yourself!" Another volley of shots, with no result. Was he throwing his voice? Was he everywhere at once? Was he a shadow himself? A ghost?

The voice echoed from another place now, continuing his speech exactly where he had left off. And still that mocking voice echoed from the shadows above.

"See, I didn't know if you were a good guy or a bad guy. I mean, sure, you killed people, and you were kind of a dick about it, you know? But I didn't know if you were one of the bastards. I didn't know if you needed to die or not, amigo."

The gun clicked empty. He was out of bullets. He turned again, and there was the man in the red mask. Just standing there, in the middle of the concourse. His smile didn't look human. And his eyes. Oh, his terrible eyes...

"Stay back." The Spider whispered, and his voice sounded in his ears like a frightened, animal thing, waiting to curl up and die in its hole.

The man in the red mask only laughed. A rich, deep, joyous laugh, a laugh that echoed and filled the whole station, bouncing from pillar to pillar, careening through the great vaulted arches. Such a laugh!

Then the laughter stopped, and he fixed the Blood-Spider with a look that would freeze the fires of Hell.

And suddenly - quite suddenly - there was no Blood-Spider. There was only Parker Crane, the Nazi. Parker Crane, the traitor. Who thought he could destroy America, and only managed to destroy himself. Parker Crane. Just a man wearing a mask. He ran, and left the sword behind him.

"Nice trick," Doc murmured, turning to the masked man. "Throwing your sword from up on the balcony - good aim, by the way - then throwing your voice and a little mental suggestion to make him think you were up in the arches where he'd been. Where did you learn that?"

The masked man shrugged, lifting up his weapon. "In the desert. You can learn a lot in the desert, if you put your mind to it."

By the story’s end, once Lars Lomax, Thunder’s arch-enemy and Lex Luthor, takes center stage as it’s ultimate threat, Parker Crane is left a traumatized, broken shell unable to even move, utterly stripped of any mystique or power that his mask and guns may have brought him. And in the end, El Sombra finds him, neutralized and no longer a threat to anyone. And he makes his choice.

El Sombra knew what it was to hate, to hate so hard and so long that you knew nothing else, to hate so strongly that it crossed that line into something beyond reason.

He lifted his sword, resting the blade in his palm for a moment, considering. Crane only stared, weeping and making his soft, mad noises. El Sombra sighed, shaking his head. "You know, I don't know if I can kill a guy who's already dead. Even if he is one of the bastards."

"Don't let him in here." Murmured Crane, his eyes wide.

"Shhh, I won't let him in," smiled El Sombra in response, trying to be reassuring. "You'll never have to face him again. I promise. It's okay, amigo. It's okay."

It was strange. He knew he should feel hate for Parker Crane. It was Djego's job to bear things like pity and doubt, to feel sorrow and shame. That was Djego's role in their team of one. El Sombra was there to take never-ending revenge and to laugh and to never look back. But to know that his murder of Heinrich Donner - his righteous kill - had resulted in so much harm coming to so many... and now to see the leader of Undergang, the man he'd come to New York to kill, just an empty, broken madman, a shell of a person... El Sombra wondered if he was changing.

"Don't," whispered Crane, a tear rolling down his cheek. "Don't let him back in."

El Sombra smiled, placing a hand on his shoulder. "It's okay, amigo. I'm going to go and make sure nobody ever needs to see him again. And I couldn't have done it without you." He squeezed lightly. "You didn't mean to, but you did some good. Remember that."

Then, gently, he pushed the tip of the sword through the front of Crane's skull and into his brain.

He was not incapable of pity. But he was who he was, and he did what he did.

And broken or not, the bastards had to die.

We’ve seen El Sombra struggle and be faced with choices, choices between Djego and El Sombra, choices between kindness and violence, between peace and conflict. We’ve seen the conflict in his soul between things that he knows are right, because Djego is a good man with a good soul who wants good things for himself and others, and things he knows he must do, because he is El Sombra and El Sombra was created to kill the bastards that brought his world to ruin and therefore it’s what he must always do. And in the end, El Sombra is simply stronger. He has to be. But strength and violence and hatred can only get one so far. 

Gods of Manhattan is the trilogy’s moral compass, the book that most clearly defines the morality the series operates on. And in between the spectrums of justice embodied by Doc and Crane’s approach, between the two urban avengers in The Blue Ghost and Blood-Spider, El Sombra made his choice. And it’s the first choice that dooms him.

Enter Pax Omega, and we learn that, 4 years since the previous book's events, El Sombra joined a squad of agents called Yankee Bravo Seven, who work for an organization named STEAM, who enact missions against Nazis to turn the tides of war. He is joined by several other types of characters, including The Blood Widow, Crane’s former assistant Marlene Lang now having taken up the moniker (just as Nita van Sloan did for The Spider, even with the “Widow” prefix). We see that El Sombra has joined a team of bantering heroes and even formed a friendly rivalry with a man named Savate, modeled after Batroc the Leaper. 

But we see that the hunger for vengeance still burns, still burns beyond reason, restless because it’s been 4 years and the war still isn’t over and Hitler still isn’t dead by his sword. And it’s that restlessness that again dooms him, when he once again makes the wrong choice and betrays leader Jack Scorpio, Scorpio who had personally brought him on board and gave him the best shot he ever had at getting to Hitler. 

El Sombra frowned. "We need to make our move now."

Scorpio shook his head. "Not yet."

"What?" El Sombra looked incredulous.

"Wait for my signal, I said! Damn it, I need you to trust me!" Jack Scorpio reached up to brush the back of his finger across his forehead, and realised he was sweating. 

Through his special glasses, El Sombra's aura was glowing an angry, pulsing red, like a throbbing vein. "Just...trust me. I'm asking you to hold back for just five minutes. There's more going on here than you know."

El Sombra just stared at him, his lips pulling back from his teeth in a cold snarl.

"Trust me. That's all I ask." Jack Scorpio looked into the blazing eyes behind the bloodstained mask, and spoke softly, soothingly, almost desperately. "Can you just hold back for one minute?"

The eyes behind the mask narrowed.

"Can you?"

PERSONNEL FILE: DJEGO "EL SOMBRA". TO EYES ONLY: THIS INDIVIDUAL IS HIGHLY DANGEROUS. IT IS STRONGLY RECOMMENDED HE NOT BE INCLUDED IN ANY OPERATIONS CLASSIFIED ABOVE TOP SECRET OR HIGHER. (I'll take the risk - J.S)

El Sombra spat in Scorpio's face.

"Chinga tu madre."

Then he drew his sword and leaped down into the fray.

After the mission is over, with the base destroyed and a major victory secured, although with Jack Scorpio having been killed, the team disbands. El Sombra continues to wander the forests near the Luftwaffe base for about two weeks, killing as many Nazis as he can, until an explosion blast hits near him, knocking away his mask and portions of his leg and arm, and rendering him unconscious for 8 months. By the time he wakes up, the war has ended, and so has El Sombra for the past 7 years.

Djego was afforded the best of medical care at the hospital in Venice. El Sombra was nowhere to be found.

His mask had been torn off in the explosion, along with some of the meat of his leg and arm. He walked stiffly, now, with a pronounced limp, and his left arm was all but useless, hanging limply at his side. The Wildcat crew had salvaged his sword, but Djego had little interest in using it.

Gradually, he regained his mobility. The back of his head itched constantly, and he suffered from horrendous mood swings, when he would rage against the Fuhrer and the bastards, or weep helplessly, like a child. But gradually, he found his personality stabilising in the gentle, antiseptic atmosphere of the hospital. He found that Djego - so long despised as a weakling, a coward and a fool - was capable of a kind of gentle, melancholic wit that made him popular.

Djego healed and grew, and the itch in the back of his skull began to subside, as El Sombra relinquished his grip.

Djego felt his heart seize in his chest. The cloth was missing a scrap at the end, and there was mud ground into the fabric along with the old bloodstains; but it had two evenly-spaced holes in it, and was unmistakably a mask. It seemed to be looking at him.

He takes up gardening and establishes himself in the city of Brandenberg, he becomes a fixture of the city and a friend of it, he enters a relationship, and El Sombra never appears again.

Until a mysterious stranger named Leonard Lorraine, walks through his door one day, saying he’s got a mission to fulfill, and hands him his mask. And, once again, El Sombra is simply stronger, and he makes the wrong choice again. 

Djego shook his head and tried to step back from it, but his legs wouldn't move.

"No," he whispered. "No. Please"

"I was happy," pleaded Djego. "Doesn't that matter to you?" He picked up the cloth in trembling fingers, looking into the empty eyeholds. "Doesn't that mean anything?"

There was no answer. The patrons of the bierkeller did not even notice anything was happening.

"I was happy," Djego choked, and then, in one spasmodic motion, he pulled the mask onto his face, and secured it tightly, so that the knot once again rested in the back of his head, where it belonged: so tightly that it might never come off again.

El Sombra looked at his hands.

He prodded his belly, amused at the rounded shape of it, and took a couple of steps back from the bar. The limp was gone.

He laughed, very softly, so as not to disturb the patrons.

Djego and Lorraine walk through the desolate streets of Berlin, which in the years since has completely sealed itself from the outside world through an impossibly thick dome, and Djego discovers the city completely bereft of life, with only a few lobotomized robotic citizens aimlessly wandering and chewing on the mountains of corpses in the city, as their Nazi ideology reached it’s inevitable outcome of total annihilation of any and all that the party could find an excuse to slaughter in the name of purity, which eventually included it’s few remaining members. In this world, Hitler has been a brain inside a robotic contraption ever since 1945, and it’s amidst this scenario that El Sombra, while thinking about how his final confrontation with Hitler would play out, eventually finds what’s left of Hitler. 

All around them, there were the sounds of machinery, but the Mecha-Fuhrer was completely silent, utterly motionless. In the centre of its chest rested a tank of toxic green fluid, and on the surface of the fluid, a human brain floated, like the corpse of a goldfish.

It was quite dead.

El Sombra stared at the Fuhrer for a long moment. Eventually, he spoke, and his voice was cracked and raw, and choked with rage. "Is...is this a joke?"

De Lareine smiled his terrible smile. "The Fuhrer's body needed a great deal of maintenance and repair, you know. After two years, one of the processes delivering oxygen to his brain failed...and there was nobody left to repair it. He died, slowly." There would have been some pain, at the end".

El Sombra slammed his fist into the great iron throne on which the massive body sat, shattering his knuckles and tearing the skin from them. He didn't seem to notice. "Some pain," he choked, through gritted teeth."

El Sombra was still staring into the empty, dead eyes of the Fuhrer.

El Sombra again chooses poorly. It’s this moment, above all else, that truly damns him to his fate, as we come to see what is it exactly that a persona created for the purpose of vengeance has, when said vengeance is robbed from it. Like Parker Crane, his persona crumbles completely to expose the petty, ugly little feelings that drove it to such grandstanding antics in the first place, and the allmighty El Sombra is exposed for the all-too human failings that damned him once and for all.

"This isn't right," he said, eventually, in a strangled voice. "How...how can it end like this?"

"Why shouldn't it?" De Lareine shrugged. "Here's a thought. Maybe, despite his twenty-year tantrum and all his dressing up, spoilt little Djego is not the centre of the universe -"

El Sombra turned, face red, tears streaming from his eyes, and charged at De Lareine, slashing his sword. El Sombra crashed down onto the floor, into the soot scattered about, as De Lareine walked around him.

"Did you really believe Adolf Hitler would wait around for your sword? Did you not imagine that it might be better for him to seal himself off in a hole to die, instead of murdering and enslaving continents until you finally got around to him? Did you think you were the hero of your own little story, El Sombra, with your mask and your laugh and your-"

"Shut up!" El Sombra cried out, scrambling to his feet, the sword shaking in his hand, tears and snot running down his face. "He was mine! He was mine to kill!" He lifted the sword, the tip trembling. "Bring him back," he screamed, "do you hear me? Bring him back to life!"

De Lareine had to laugh at that.

And in the end, El Sombra is crushed, spiritually and physically as his spine is shattered by Lareine, who begins to experiment on him as he lays dying, ready to fulfill fate’s greater purpose for El Sombra. Ready to become not just the perfect machine Pasito’s conquerors intended, but a superior design. Ready to abandon his former life, ready to abandon everything that defined him, ready to shed any and all traces of Zorro and Shadow and pulp hero in his system, because the age of pulp heroes and superheroes has passed. 

The metal man emerged from his hole, dragging the corpse of the Fuhrer behind him.

The brain in the metal man's chest would, perhaps, live for thousands of years. He wondered how he would spend the time.

He remembered little of his former life; he had been a man named El Sombra, or perhaps Djego. He had been stupid - he realised that now - but that was something he would never be again.

Apart from that, there was only a succession of faces, the memory of laughter and of a final, awful betrayal that had destroyed him. But there was also the sense that a great and terrible mission had ended at last, and it was time for a new life to begin.

The metal man took a last look back at the great dome of Fortress Berlin. Somewhere in there, the Leopard Man was hunting, freed from his own mission. And in the Fuhrer's old office, the empty, lifeless clay of El Sombra - or was it Djego? - lay, discarded, like a butterfly's cocoon.

The metal man thought on this, as the Fuhrer rusted at his feet and the tanks began to approach from over the hills ahead.

He would need a new name.

It’s now the age of Pluto.

[nightskywonderer]

FIRST LOOK OF INTERIORS: Frank Miller on Passing The Dark Knight Returns Legacy Onto the Next Generation in "The Golden Child"

Frank Miller interview with comicbook.com

Legendary comics creator Frank Miller is headed back to the world of The Dark Knight Returns again, telling a story that shows just how different the next generation of heroes in his future have turned out to be. In The Dark Knight Returns: The Golden Child, a one-shot written by Miller and featuring art by Rafael Grampa, Carrie Kelley -- now fully realized as Batwoman -- and Jonathan Kent will team up to be a bizarre and unpredictable riff on the "World's Finest" team-ups of the past. Bizarre, in part, because Jonathan Kent is a toddler but, possessed of super-intellect (a power mostly used during Superman's Silver Age adventures), he has become what Miller describes as a "floating Buddha."

While Jonathan's sister Lara took on the warrior attributes of her Amazon upbringing, Jon has access to all of Krypton's wisdom and knowledge at his beck and call. And that can make for a very different adventure than his father, whom The Dark Knight Returns's Batman had derided as acting without thinking, and relying too much on his powers.

"Jonathan did really evolve since DK3," Miller told ComicBook.com. "He’s in it himself, but what comes next -- Lara as the daughter of Superman, having all the power and fury and sturm und drang, to all of a sudden have the boy being this floating Buddha with all the wisdom of Krypton, seemed irresistible. In Dark Knight Returns, Carrie comes in and is really the daughter of Batman. And Lara in DK2 as the rather surprising daughter of Superman, and the third one, we’ve got Jonathan."

Miller wanted to explore what he calls the "turbulent" relationship between Batman and Superman in most modern comics -- that, of course, is a relationship that both he and The Dark Knight Returns had no small part in shaping over the years. But rather than doing it with two old men over drinks, Miller moved the dynamic on to the next generation and asked himself, what would it look like if the daughter of Batman was suddenly somewhat responsible for a being as powerful as the child of Superman and Wonder Woman?

"Partly what I’m up to, I’ve got to admit, is a bit of fun," Miller said. "I’m playing off the very turbulent relationship I gave Superman and Batman. In this situation, it’s almost a reversal, in that Carrie is working with a boy who’s very much her junior, and is just discovering things -- just discovering what people are. As innately wise as he is, she’s showing him the ropes. She’s very much a big sister...but she knows she’s dealing with an atom bomb in terms of power, and she’s trying to guide it."

Miller has made no secret about his desire to see more stories told with Carrie Kelley, including the potential for middle-reader adventure stories in the vein of Nancy Drew. But of course, the world of The Dark Knight Returns has become more and more fleshed out as sequels have come in the new millennium. While The Golden Child reads differently than the previous installments, it remains very much a story told in that same world. And while Miller admits that there are DC heroes he would love to play with some more, he seems to be enjoying working with his own original characters first.

"I do have a take on The Atom I’d love to do, and each one of these characters is so well-conceived that there are ways you can approach them that nobody’s done yet," Miller explained. "I won’t go into each example because I don’t want to be throwing too many ideas around. What I’m really into with this project, is exploring the switch from generation to generation. I think that’s a powerful motif, and I love the idea of Dark Knight going from this story about a hero facing age (and the first Dark Knight, he spends the whole thing moaning and groaning about how old he is and how much his bones hurt) and having it move now into how the characters are young and untried and learning the ropes."

The end result of decades of storytelling set in this universe seems to be that Miller has an opportunity that few creators -- other than Savage Dragon's Erik Larsen -- have: to comment on culture and the characters by allowing them to more or less age in real time and evolve alongside the rest of us. But don't give him too much credit for that, he jokes.

"I wish I could say I planned it that way, but orignally, I planned for the ending of the first Dark Knight that Batman was going to die and I changed it," Miller said. "So these things are not as planned as we often like to pretend they are. The stories do come naturally, the characters start demanding things by themselves, and that’s usually when the stories get better."

The Dark Knight Returns: The Golden Child hits the stands on December 11.

[mightyville]

(Originally published on July 19, 2012)

BATWEEK: MightyVille's Favorite Batman Action Figures

Continue celebrating BATWEEK here on MightyVille with a rundown of our favorite Batman action figures!

We scoured the catalogs of our favorite retailers; we battled amongst each other during the vetting process; we toiled for hours...to comprise this gathering of our favorite members of the miniature Batman army. The only rule was that each item had to be an action figure, meaning moving arms and legs, not just heads (Sorry, Pop Heroes, you're cute, but more on the inaction side).

So, in somewhat of a particular order, here we go...

Mattel's Batman from the Justice League Unlimited line. JLU is one of our favorite cartoons of all time, and this is Batman in a classic, animated Bruce Timm look.

The folks at Hot Toys are, in our opinion, some of the best action figure designers on the planet. Meet Batman (and Bruce Wayne) from the "Cosbaby” Batman Begins line. Don’t you wish you could pinch their cheeks?

If this figure evokes the word "classic" in you, that's because it\'s from Matttel's Batman Legacy line and is called..."Classic Batman"! We dig this one because it combines a Batman of multiple eras: the early silver age, Darwyn Cooke's lovely New Frontier, and has that Adam West guffaw we all know and love.

Are they cute? Are they tough? I don\'t know!! They're Mez-Itz!

Batman: Gotham by Gaslight was a cool "Elseworlds" story before anyone knew what an "Elseworld" was. This Batman figure from that storyline by DC Direct is ready to take down Jack the Ripper (which he did). Also, Mike Mignola (Hellboy) designed it.

Zombies are hotter these days than they were in the 80s. Zombie super heroes? Why not?! This Black Lantern Batman from the epic Blackest Night storyline from DC Direct lives on our office wall right now and has the perfect level of freakin' creepy!

The Dark Knight Returns is one of the greatest Batman sagas of all time. This plastic version of Frank Miller's lunatic Batman looks like he stepped right off the page. Also on display at MightyVille HQ, this Batman is ready to break your arm and call himself a surgeon. 

If you're like us, you read Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne and it confused the Hell out of you. On the plus side, it gave us this awesome, Lone Ranger-esque "Old West" Batman from DC Direct, also a resident of the MightyVille toy shelves. And, no, he does not carry a gun, and still can throw down like Wyatt Earp at the O.K. Corral. That's how boss he is.

The Batman design from the Arkham Asylum and Arkham City video games is one of our favorite Bat-looks. Combining the classic look of the comics with the gritty feel of the Christopher Nolan films, we get a bulky, "tech'd-up" Batman ready to kick some bad-guy ass. This particular figure is from the Play Arts-Kai line by Japanese toymaker Square Enix. The level of detail and pose-ability, along with the stylized look, make this a must for most Batman figure collectors. 

No Batman action figure list would be complete without an entry based on master penciller Jim Lee's designs. This DC Direct offering from the New 52 Justice League line is the newest Batman addition to the MightyVille collection and features Batman in his most current comic book look.

Starting our top three is Batman from Kenner's Super Powers line in the mid-1980s. This classic line started the trend of the current line-wide diversity we see at Mattel. The fact that all you had to do was squeeze his legs and he could go around punching things blew my 7-year old mind and remains forever tied to my childhood memories. Hmm, I feel an eBay visit coming...

Remember that thing about Hot Toys up there? Here's another stellar example. This Batman from The Dark Knight Rises line is beyond museum quality. You can see the mole on Christian Bale's face! The level of detail, pose-ability, and a ridiculous amount of accessories put this squarely on the "wish I could afford this" list.

Did I mention Hot Toys yet? They bring us our favorite Batman from this list. This thing looks more like Michael Keaton than Michael Keaton does. I adore the 1989 Tim Burton classic Batman film, and you could probably recreate the whole film with the level of accessories this comes with. Everything that applied to the above The Dark Knight Rises Batman applies here, especially the "things I wish I could afford" list entry. Nostalgia overload!

We hope you enjoyed this trip through Batman collector history. We'll be bringing you similar features down the road. Have any ideas what characters to feature? Want to share your own collection? Let us know!

“Where does he get those wonderful toys?”

[jonroxton]

re: captain america, i don't think he had the 'no kill' policy like batman had-- he's a soldier. i think that's the difference why so many felt betrayed (for me, i'm annoyed because i've always hated frank miller's batman and that carried over w/ bvs). steve is similar to diana for me, in that she's a warrior and doesn't have a no kill policy. (jason coming back to confront bruce was so fascinating bec he confronted bruce about not avenging him). oh cap america 2 was framed as a spy thriller.

sure, cap’s a soldier and he gets a pass (diana too). but cap still kills bad guys. it’s exactly what batman does. what every superhero does when they fight bad guys. they save people and bad guys die. that was NEVER a problem until znyder did it.

the no kill rule does not fly with me as a criticism because batman’s killed in movies before AND comics canon is so vast, i’m sure it can be easily contradicted there too.

as for the dkr, i think people give that story too much credit in regards to bvs. sure, the bare bones are there, even lines/panels are lifted directly, but that’s about it. i recently reread it and was amazed by how much bvs actually counters dkr and how little it lifts from it adaptation wise. the most i think bvs takes from dkr is the media presence, older bruce and what happened to jason. that’s about it. there’s an interview out there with znyder specifically saying that he loves dkr but that’s emphatically NOT the way you want to do superman.

as to the genre. it makes no different to me. cap’s still a hero. he’s still killing bad guys. he takes that shield and slams its edge into their torsos, their faces, their legs, he pushes them off boats to freezing water, he kicks them unconscious, is faster and stronger. he has the advantage. and he’s killing them. and he’s saving people. he’s not alone in this of course, every single hero does this, but again, when znyder’s batman does it. suddenly it’s fucking superhero morality discourse lol