#Panel Topic

[himitsusentaiblog]

Ushicon is back! The last Ushicon was in 2020 and we are finally back this year with a full convention! So, I am working on revamping one of my old panels. The panel is a total classic I like to call HOW SPIDER-MAN GAVE THE POWER RANGERS A GIANT ROBOT!

I absolutely adore connections between US and Japanese pop culture and how the two have influenced, borrowed and changed each other. From the Transformers to the aborted Saban version of Sailor Moon to how I Married A Witch lead to the creation of the first Magical Girl anime, I find it absolutely fascinating and this is one of my favorite connection stories of all time.

So, if you happen to be in San Marcos, TX from February 16-18th, come check out Ushicon. I'll be presenting my panel as well as running showcases for general Tokusatsu Friday Night and Super Sentai specifically on Saturday Night. Plus, I am bringing back Saturday Morning Cartoons (classic American cartoons with all you can eat breakfast cereal) on Saturday Morning. It's going to be a lot of fun!

[the-gayest-sky-kid]

liking dazai really will have you acting like a victorian man scandalized by a sliver of skin huh

[thecruellestmonth]

Canon blood types: Gotham edition

Note that the following information is not medically accurate and should not be taken as any kind of medical advice. Copious amounts of comic book medicine and biology abound here.

Bruce Wayne may (or may not) have O- blood, the universal donor type. —Batman 2016 Annual #3

Bruce is a compatible blood donor for Andrew Bennett. —The Brave and the Bold #195

Dick Grayson is a compatible blood donor for Bruce Wayne. (If Bruce has O- blood, then Dick must also have O- blood.)—Batman/Nightwing: Bloodborne

In the DC Animated Universe, Dick has O+ blood. —Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero

Jason Todd has O- blood. —Detective Comics #1032

In the DC Animated Universe, Barbara Gordon has AB- blood. She has the same rare blood type as Nora Fries, wife of Mr. Freeze. —Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero

Crystal Brown is a compatible blood donor for Stephanie Brown. —Batgirl (2009) #24

The Joker is a compatible blood donor for Alfred Pennyworth. —The Brave and the Bold (1955) #141

Helena Bertinelli has a rare blood type, the same as Guido Bertinelli. —The Huntress (1989) #6

Kirk Langstrom and Francine Langstrom have the same blood type. —Detective Comics #429

Bruce Wayne

Batman (2016) Annual #3 suggests that Bruce could have type O- blood.

Batman (2016) Annual #3, written by Tom Taylor - Batman is seriously wounded in the field. Alfred performs a blood transfusion with a supply of type O- blood.

Type O- blood can be donated to patients with any blood type. Batman might be keeping a supply of O- blood not for himself specifically, but for anyone in need of an emergency blood transfusion. So maybe we can't conclude that Bruce must have O- blood.

The Brave and the Bold (1955) #195, written by Mike W. Barr - Batman donates blood to his friend, a heroic vampire named Andrew Bennett, who shielded him from a silver bullet.

Dick Grayson

In Batman/Nightwing: Bloodborne, we learn that Dick Grayson can donate blood to Bruce Wayne.

Batman/Nightwing: Bloodborne, written by Kelley Puckett - Batman is infected with a deadly virus and then taken captive. To save him, Nightwing takes an dangerous experimental vaccine that prompts his body to produce virus-fighting antibodies. Hours later, after Nightwing finds Batman, Nightwing undergoes a "complete blood transfusion" to deliver his antibody-rich blood into Batman's body, while Nightwing receives Batman's virus-laden blood.

If we assume that Bruce has O- blood, then he can only receive transfusions from O- blood, and thus Dick must also have O- blood.

In Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero (part of the DC Animated Universe), Dick has O+ blood. O+ is the world's most common blood type; about 40% of the population has O+ blood. O+ blood can be donated to people with any "+" blood type (including A+, B+, AB+, and O+)—about 85% of the total population. O+ patients can only receive blood transfusions from O+ and O- donors.

Jason Todd

In Detective Comics #1032, Hush states that Jason Todd has O- blood.

Detective Comics #1032, written by Peter J Tomasi - Hush captures several Batfamily members, and attempts to steal and sell their organs as revenge against Bruce. Hush begins with Red Hood, and confirms that Jason has type O- blood.

Type O- blood is the universal donor type. This kind of blood can be donated to patients with any blood type. (Recall Mad Max: Fury Road.) People with O- blood can only receive blood transfusions from other O- donors. About 6.6% of people in the USA have O- blood.

Barbara Gordon

This canon is valid for the DC Animated Universe. Barbara may or may not have a different blood type in the comics.

Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero - Barbara Gordon is listed as having AB- blood in Gotham General Hospital's database of blood donors. She is also a compatible organ donor (HLA match) for Nora Fries; and so Mr. Freeze kidnaps Barbara in hopes of performing a life-saving heart transplant for Nora.

For the sake of the plot, Nora needs a transplant from an organ donor with her same rare blood type. In real life, an AB- patient could receive organs from a donor with AB-, A-, B-, or O- blood, as long as the HLA typing matches (read more about that here).

Type AB- blood is the rarest ABO/Rh blood type worldwide; only 0.6% of people have this blood type in the USA. People with AB- blood can receive any Rh negative blood (including A-, B-, AB-, and O-); about 15% of the population has Rh negative blood that can be donated to AB- patients. People with AB- blood can only donate red blood cells to people with AB- and AB+ blood—about 4% of the population. However, type AB is especially valuable as the universal blood plasma that can be donated to patients of any blood type—and so people with type AB blood are often urged to consider donating blood plasma.

Stephanie Brown and her mother, Crystal Brown

Batgirl (2009) #24, written by Bryan Q Miller - Batgirl (Stephanie Brown) is poisoned with Black Mercy spores. She wakes up days later in West Mercy Hospital. Her mother, Crystal Brown, a nurse, donated her blood to help flush the spores from Steph's system.

We know that Crystal can donate to Steph, but we don't know whether Steph would or wouldn't be able to donate to Crystal. Parents and their children don't always share the same blood type. (This also means that Damian doesn't necessarily have the same blood type as Bruce.)

The Joker and Alfred Pennyworth

The Brave and the Bold (1955) #141, written by Bob Haney - The Joker tricks Alfred Pennyworth into drinking exploding juice. The Joker drinks anti-exploding juice. Batman forces the Joker to donate his anti-exploding clown blood to Alfred.

Helena Bertinelli

The Huntress (1989) #6, written by Joey Cavalieri - Helena Bertinelli has been captured by villains who wish to open the locked vault of her late father, Guido Bertinelli. The lock can only be opened using a sample of Guido's blood type. This blood type is so rare that the villains could not find any in the local blood bank at that time—and so they decided to capture Helena as their "fresh supply".

In the mid-to-late 1990s, Helena's father's name was retconned to be named Franco Bertinelli. Then Huntress: Cry for Blood revealed that Helena's biological father is not Franco, but instead Helena's mother's lover from the Cassamento crime family. In the end, all our information about Helena's blood type may be invalid and apocryphal.

Helena possibly has AB- blood, the rarest blood type. This is the same blood type that Barbara has in the DC Animated Universe.

The Langstroms

Detective Comics (1937) #429, written by Frank Robbins - Francine Lee Langstrom has transformed into She-Bat after secondhand exposure to her husband's bat serum and then being bitten by vampire bats in a cave in Nevada. Her husband, Kirk Langstrom (Man-Bat), says his the same blood type is the same as hers, and so he offers to donate his blood to help treat her.

Helpful references

Stanford Blood Center

UC Davis Health Transplant Center: "Matching and Compatibility"

American Red Cross Blood Services

[bsdtual]

These panels actually hit me like a truck. Even "Hikaru" noticed that Yoshiki still has feelings for Hikaru. Yoshiki never talked abt that with anyone bc he knows no one would truly understands and he also knows that Hikaru didn't like him back

He keeps "Hikaru" around with the hope that it'd make it hurt less, but seeing someone with Hikaru's appearance every day and knowing it's not him anymore just make the pain worse

Even if he doesn't understands feelings very well, "Hikaru" loves Yoshiki, he took this feeling from Hikaru and is dealing with it in a totally different way, but Yoshiki doesn't allows himself to love back bc he knows this ISN'T the Hikaru he loved

I love the way this manga talks abt grief and one sided love using horror and supernatural stuff

[boyfridged]

You may have already mentioned this in some of your other metas, and I just missed it, so please ignore this if it's redundant.

Do you think Bruce is projecting onto Jason by pushing him as a Robin? Obviously, Jason wanted to be Robin and was excited about it, and Bruce let Jason do other things, but (if I'm not mistaken) before Tim came into play, solidifying the whole Batman needs a Robin/support to keep him upright, Bruce and Dick becoming Batman and Robin, in the beginning, was also sort of a coping mechanism.

I think there are a few examples of Bruce enabling this kind of mindset. Like in Gotham Knights #43–44 (sorry), every time Barbara brings up Jason's inner turmoil, Bruce refocuses on his ability as a Robin; similarly, when Jason finds out about Two-Face and his dad, he is hurt, and Bruce acknowledges that but then does the same thing, zeroing in on reassuring Jason that he made a mistake but is still a good Robin.

Like, Jason got it from Bruce, but he unintentionally encouraged that kind of thinking.

oh, i definitely think that bruce is projecting on jason and that it profoundly affected jay. and, while every single one of your observations is apt, i would add that what truly made it so tragic is that he projected his own worst traits on jason while being blind to the fact that jay already shared his best qualities.

tldr: bruce projects himself on jason in terms of grief (saying that jason needs vigilantism to work his grief through) and sees his own worst traits in jason (anger) but doesn't see his own best traits in jay (compassion, love, and sensitivity). ironically, jason does end up developing all of the (projected) worst characteristics of bruce (obsessiveness, and relentlessness in pursuit of the respective perceived idea of justice). this happens even though they were barely present in his early storylines, and only ever manifested when jason was scared or lost. later, they truly came to be because of his trauma relating to vigilantism.

and the long, long version, coming with panels and quotes: under the cut.

first i want to say that the following analysis focuses very specifically on bruce's mistakes, but i don't view the overall of jay's upbringing by bruce solely in these terms. from text it is also clear that bruce deeply loves and cares about jay, and that jay enjoys being robin. now that this is clear, let's get to particularities, and start with jay's origin story.

i truly never stop thinking about the significance of bruce meeting jay in the crime alley, the place of his parents' death. there's a lot to be said about it, but here the focus is, of course, on the fact that he sees a little boy, very much similar to himself, angry and hurt, in the same scenery that brought him so much grief. and jay in some ways does appear to be a mirror of bruce's own agonies, as well as a mirror of his own inclination for seeking justice; and somehow, bruce fixates on the first one, while almost completely dismissing the latter.

bruce looks at him and assumes that the remedy to jason's pain and anger is being robin; and he doesn't stop to think about it. (it has to be noted that there's also classism at play, classism that is mostly a result of writers' own beliefs – collins did state in a couple of interviews that that the motivation behind jason's background was to make his introduction into vigilantism seem less offensive, as jason has already been exposed to crime...)

i think, in this context, it's interesting to look at the two-face storyline even closer, and from the start too. in the beginning, bruce talks of jason's 'street' roots and assumes jay would go "down the same criminal road that took his father [willis] to an early death." he also talks of jason making a lot of progress. later, in batman #411, after jason learns that willis has been killed by two-face, bruce comments that jay "has never been like this...listless...almost pouting--"

this all, along with jay's cheerful and diligent behaviour from the previous issue builds an interesting picture for us: because we essentially learn that jay has been overall an unproblematic child. bruce, of course, attributes this "progress" to the training. however, for anyone else, the logical conclusion would be that jay's quick adjustment was simply a matter of finding himself in a safe and stable environment and receiving continuous support and attention from a parental figure. i find it rather questionable that jason's personality softened down because he had something to punch in the cave–– the more intuitive explanation is of course that he was angry and quick to fight when they first met because he couldn't afford anything else and because he was scared. but months later, in a loving home, he can allow himself to drop his guard; and his cocky attitude disappears until much later.

so the rather unsettling picture that we derive is that bruce is training jay to become a vigilante in order to "channel" his (nonvisible at this point) anger into something useful and just. and he clearly links this to his own trauma in batman #416 (that’s already starlin btw), in his conversation with dick, explaining why he took jay in: “he’s so full of anger and frustration… he reminds me of myself, just after my parents were killed.” bruce also mentions that soon after their first meeting, jason helped him and "handled himself well" in the fight, but he doesn't mention that jay has ran away from a crime "school" and intended to stop injustice on his own only because he was ignored.

the theme of bruce comparing jay to himself appears again in detective comics #574 (barr), where it is approached with a much more... critical look, thanks to leslie's presence and her skepticism of bruce's actions. after jason has suffered nearly fatal injuries at the hand of the mad hatter, bruce reminisces on his own trauma and motives. he tells leslie: "i didn't choose jason for my work. he was chosen by it...as i was chosen." leslie replies: "stop that! (...) you do this for yourself... you're still that little boy (...)" then, the conversation steers to the familiar ground and the topic of anger. in bruce's words, again: “i wanted to give jason an outlet for his rage…wanted him to expunge his anger and get on with his life…” and finishes "and instead, i may have killed him."

the recognition that bruce's projection on jason and involving him with his work might have fatal consequences is, as always, fast forgotten once jay wakes up and proclaims that he wants to continue his work as robin.

but to circle back, i think there's something else worth our attention, something deeply ironic, that is showcased in that issue: that bruce has no evidence for jay's "rage." when leslie talks of bruce's past, she recalls his tendencies to get into brutal fights at perceived injustice as early as in school; when bruce talks of jason, two pictures that are juxtaposed, are that of jason fighting as robin and jason... smiling, playing baseball.

so, in the early days of jason's training and work in the field, we see bruce talking of jason's anger a lot; but we barely see it.

that being said, jay is angry sometimes– and i think your observation about how bruce deals with it is incredibly interesting and accurate.

we first see jay truly and devastatingly angry in the two-face storyline. bruce focuses on jay's reaction as robin, which is, in fact, aggressive. but something that he barely addresses is that jason's first reaction is sleeping all day, and not beating anyone to a pulp; in fact, this vengeful instinct seems to arise only when he is put right in front of two-face. and his third instinct, once the rage (very quickly) dies down after the altercation with two-face, is crying, because bruce hid the truth about willis' death from him. jay, while crying, asks bruce: "you have taken me out into combat-- but you spare me this?" in response, bruce lectures jason about how grief inspires revenge, which is, again, deeply ironic, given that jay seeking out revenge seemed to be prompted and enabled solely by the role of robin. moreover, his question suggests that at this point he saw grief ("you spare me this") and fighting as two different things.

the final is, as you said, bruce focusing on making it into a lesson on vigilantism, or, in his own words, "tempering revenge into justice." personally, i think in this way bruce directs jason to bring his grief into the field as a powering force, something that he didn't necessarily have an own incentive to do. the flash of compartmentalisation between his ordinary life and being a sidekick that jay has shown by questioning bruce's decision is lost. emotions are now a robin thing, and they have an (informal) protocol, a moral code. and when jay is confronted with an emotionally exhausting case next – the garzonas case, i believe that the focus on "tempering revenge into justice" is exactly the problem– we don't see jay crying, we see him frantic about finding the solution. this, right there, is bruce's obsessiveness, that in my opinion, was developed in jay specifically as a result of how his engagement with vigilantism combines with his deep sensitivity.

and, needless to say, his sensitivity is all the same as that of bruce – they both can't stand looking at other people hurting, they both wear their hearts on their sleeve, caring way too much – the thing is, bruce never quite acknowledges how they are similar in this matter. instead, he focuses on his sparse bursts of anger, wanting to bring jason closure in his grief the only way he knows it – in a fight for a better world. so, as you said, he focuses on jason's ability as robin.

which just doesn't work for jason. at all. we know it from how his robin run comes to an end: in the first issue of a death in the family (batman #426) alfred informs: “i’ve come upon him, several times, looking at that battered old photograph of his mother and father, crying.”  to that, bruce contends: “in other words, i may have started jason as robin before he had a chance to come to grips with his parents deaths.” he also tells jay that the field is not a place for someone who is hurting; a message that is the opposite of what he's been saying for years now, and something that i imagine was difficult for bruce to conceptualise, because then he would have to question his own unhealthy tendencies. it's a bit late to come to this realisation; bruce's self-projection that caused him to worry so much about jay's anger has already turned into a self-fulfilling prophecy that will fully manifest itself in utrh, when jason does the only thing he was taught to do with grief: try to channel it into justice.

[sunglassesmish]

some chaotic jib moments over the years

[mxdotpng]

the progression of events in this arc is so so good and great and i love how you can just clearly see where and how each characters thoughts begin and progress throughout each chapter as it goes on. while steven was probably set in stone about his view on how to handle the situation i earnestly believe zed and zapp set out to disobey steven's request. and then they make it very easy to understand leo's point of view and why hes doing what he is - its why they show us that flashback and don't tell anyone else, and why he speaks very little after zapp threatens him - and then immediately cuts to klaus, who knows absolutely nothing about the situation currently but he can figure it out just by looking at whats in front of him. and because klaus is so unflinching when it comes to upholding what he believes is morally right he does so without anyone needing to tell him whats going on. he sees this percieved 'monster' protecting someone else and immediately goes to protect it, too. and even though a lot of them disagreed with each other at the beginning there is still the scene afterwards where they all come together to try and catch each other when they begin falling. i think nightow should pay me for what its done to my mental health

[oifaaa]

Does Batman actually care about Jason Todd? There has been stuff I’ve read about how Jason was beaten half to death for seemingly killing the penguin and he was taken to where he was buried to revive Dick or something. I forgot.

The honest answer is it depends on whose writing batman some writers really want Bruce to be just the worst father especially to his kids that aren't biologically related to him like Jason and it shows in RHATO - which is that first instance you mention were Jason attempts to kill the penguin and Bruce beats him half to death - and the n52 which is what I think you mean in the second instance - which was Bruce taking Jason to the warehouse he died in bc he was hoping to jog Jason's memory of how he came back to life bc damian had died and he was trying to bring him back to life by traumatising Jason again and then he him and Jason fight

But to counter that there are alot of good writers who actually understand batman better (imo) who show that Bruce does care about all his children, including Jason, like im not the biggest fan of how chip zdarsky writes Jason but when he writes Bruce and Jason he does show how much Bruce loves Jason and cares about him

[mewkwota]

November 2013 → November 2023

Boo-haha, sorry for the Twink Simon Jumpscare. I can't believe it's been 10 whole years since I started drawing this vampire hunter. And all because of a little bond he had with two other platformer boys.

Though I only got into seriously looking into Simon and his series 4-5 years ago, he had always been a character of interest to me. Just, not as much back then as he is now, but I'm glad I gave him that chance.

I've always wanted to redraw this scene from a super old comic I made, it's pretty much the first uploaded comic I ever drew of him.

[martyrbat]

world's finest (1990) #1

[ID: two in-universe drawings from two different orphan children talking about their heros. The first one is by Ann Gray, who's eight years old. She drew a surprisingly decent photo of Batman in front of a yellow background and wrote, ‘My hero — Batman. He is strong and fierce and he can beat anyone. He is very tall. He wears a cool suit with a bat on. He is not afrade of bullits and he saved my life (true). No one nows his reel name or address. the biggist crinminel in all the world could not make him sorender. Batman keeps gothum city safe for everyone and pets.’

The second drawing is by Zachary Sikes who's 12 and a half years old. He drew a photo of Superman using his heat vision as he flies. He wrote, ‘My Hero — Superman. My hero is Superman. He is able to fly and I have seen him lift up a car (with 2 peeple in it). If you hit him in the face then he will just laff. Every one likes him and he saved my life once. The big S on his shirt is for his name (Superman). He lives in Metroplis (where I used to life also). He keeps everything there in law and order.’ END ID]

[auslanderka]

I did an experiment and colored him in my fav color palette - not the original, but I surprisingly like the result🤔

[neversetyoufree]

Ok I promise this is the last time I'm gonna vaguely talk about my de sade post wip before I just actually finish the thing, but I am actually so excited about the new chapter bringing up specifically that the whole family has a reputation for being bad tempered hedonists.

I've been struggling for a while to organize my thoughts on vnc's de sade references into a coherent post (and I have so many thoughts I want to share), and I feel like this is exactly the boost/touch point I needed to get the thing done.

[skruttet]

what the fuck is happening in this goddamn comic 😭😭

[bsdtual]

Today's topic: the lovely way Dazai looks at Chuuya

[boyfridged]

i’ve been thinking a lot about what is so unique and appealing about 80s robin jay’s moral standing that got completely lost in plot later on. and i think a huge part of it is that in a genre so focused on crime-fighting, his motivations and approach don’t focus on the category of crime at all. in fact, he doesn’t seem to believe in any moral dogma; and it’s not motivated by nihilism, but rather his open-heartedness and relational ethical outlook.

we first meet (post-crisis) jay when he is stealing. when confronted about his actions by bruce he’s confident that he didn’t do anything wrong – he’s not apologetic, he doesn’t seem to think that he has morally failed on any account. later on, when confronted by batman again, jay says that he’s no “crook.” at this point, the reader might assume that jay has no concept of wrong-doing, or that stealing is just not one of the deeds that he considers wrong-doing. yet, later on we see jay so intent on stopping ma gunn and her students, refusing to be implicit in their actions. there are, of course, lots of reasons for which we can assume he was against stealing in this specific instance (an authority figure being involved, the target, the motivations, the school itself being an abusive environment etc.), but what we gather is that jay has an extremely strong sense of justice and is committed to moral duty. that's all typical for characters in superhero comics, isn't it? however, what remains distinctive is that this moral duty is not dictated by any dogma – he trusts his moral instincts. this attitude – his distrust toward power structures, confidence in his moral compass, and situational approach, is something that is maintained throughout his robin run. it is also evident in how he evaluates other people – we never see him condemning his parents, for example, and that includes willis, who was a petty criminal. i think from there arises the potential for a rift between bruce and jay that could be, have jay lived, far more utilised in batman comics than it was within his short robin run.

after all, while bruce’s approach is often called a ‘philosophy of love and care,’ he doesn’t ascribe to the ethics of care [eoc] (as defined in modern scholarship btw) in the same way that jay does. ethics of care ‘deny that morality consists in obedience to a universal law’ and focus on the ideals of caring for other people and non-institutionalized justice. bruce, while obviously caring, is still bound by his belief in the legal system and deontological norms. he is benevolent, but he is also ultimately morally committed to the idea of a legal system and thus frames criminals as failing to meet these moral (legal-adjacent) standards (even when he recognizes it is a result of their circumstances). in other words, he might think that a criminal is a good person despite leading a life of crime. meanwhile, for jay there is no despite; jay doesn't think that engaging in crime says anything about a person's moral personality at all. morality, for him, is more of an emotional practice, grounded in empathy and the question of what he can do for people ‘here and now.’ he doesn’t ascribe to maxims nor utilitarian calculations. for jay, in morality, there’s no place for impartiality that bruce believes in; moral decisions are embedded within a net of interpersonal relationships and social structures that cannot be generalised like the law or even a “moral code” does it. it’s all about responsiveness. 

to sum up, jay's moral compass is relative and passionate in a way that doesn't fit batman's philosophy. this is mostly because bruce wants to avoid the sort of arbitrariness that seems to guide eoc. also, both for vigilantism, and jay, eoc poses a challenge in the sense that it doesn't create a certain 'intellectualised' distance from both the victims and the perpetrators; there's no proximity in the judgment; it's emotional.

all of this is of course hardly relevant post-2004. there might be minimal space for accommodating some of it within the canon progression (for example, the fact that eoc typically emphasises the responsibility that comes with pre-existing familial relationships and allows for prioritizing them, as well as the flexibility regarding moral deliberations), but the utilitarian framework and the question of stopping the crime vs controlling the underworld is not something that can be easily reconciled with jay’s previous lack of interest in labeling crime. 

[femmesandhoney]

thinking of focusing on south korean radical feminist movements for my women and poli sci class bc that means i get to stand in front of my class for ten mins at the end of the semester and they have no choice but to listen to me support these women