#With major players in Gotham anyway!

[masquenoire]

@riddleroyalty​ asked:

if all the rogue gallery villains were in high school right? black mask got a yearbook, who would he cross out? who are favorite & least favorite classmates?? ( im sorry, i re copied this and pasted it without editing it)

I don’t have Photoshop so this wasn’t at all fancy but I tried! Roman is not particularly keen on his fellow rogues and only likes a select few, jackass that he is!

[ivestas]

the lady of crime alley

Summary: Jason had heard rumors of a woman who ruled Crime Alley and all of its underworld connections, so he pursues her for a favor. 

Tags: jason todd x fem!reader, canon typical violence, unedited

Word count: 1.2k

Notes: i’ve been on a red hood comic binge and i always thought his narration was corny in the best way, so i hope i was able to emulate that through this fic hehejejjejehe (also i use ‘tugging at your pigtails’ as a metaphorical descriptor, not an actual physical attribute of reader!) alsoo, please send some batfam requests! 

Jason had heard murmurs of the woman who was the true ruler of Crime Alley and all of its underworld connections. 

At first, he dubbed it a win for feminism, because women too can be major players in crime worlds! 

But then it got annoying real fast, because for some reason, you were real good at hiding your trail; every turn he went, the moment he thought he caught a glimpse of you, you were gone moments later like ash in the wind. 

It took him five of your men and his a few hours of continuous beating to get the vaguest clue of where exactly you resided; he spent the rest of the week nosing his way through that misty trail, his irritation growing by every second he had to march down Gotham’s shittiest streets, and it didn’t help that his red hood hardly had any breathing holes. 

He was trying to keep his cool—he really was!—but the more you seemed to toss at him your half-starved homeless men at him, the more brutal the remnants of them became. 

“God fuckin’—jesus, just tell me where the lady is!” He spat. “I just have some questions, that’s all, why does she keep sending you guys—“

“We’re telling you nuthin’, that woman’s an angel and you ain’t gettin’ yer dirty mitts on ‘er!” The man—a ragged, gaunt-looking guy—heaved, blood pooling out his mouth. "You’ll never see ‘er—!” 

“You just wanna talk?” 

Jason’s head snapped up, hand still wrapped around the man’s throat. 

In the warehouse which he had 'accidentally’ beat everyone half to death, a woman stood at the entrance. Though it was night, the moon was bright enough for Jason to make out some of her features. 

She’s easy on the eyes.

Suddenly, all the pent up irritation that had been writhing under his skin dissipated. 

He’s a sucker for hot women. 

“Hey,” He rose from the man’s body, standing tall. “You must be the ‘true ruler of Crime Alley’ or whatever—it’s a bit of a dumb name, don’t you think?” 

You were silent, face scrunched. 

“Jeez, tough crowd—”

“What do you want, Red Hood?” You sounded mildly annoyed, as if he’s just some pesky kid tugging at your pigtails or something. 

You took a step forward into the warehouse, arms crossed. “Talk. You have my attention now.” 

“Oooo-kay, great! So, I kind of need help with something—a favor, if you will,” he raised his sword. It was busted and dull, practically just a dented piece of iron than an actual blade. “I need a replacement for this—” he grinned. “—And all the information you have about Black Mask and his connections with Joker.” 

“...are you dumb?” 

“What?” 

“Do you actually think I’m some ruler of Crime Alley? You weren’t joking?” You laughed, eyes wide. 

“You’re not?” 

“No! I’m not the fucking ruler of anything! Come on Red Hood, is critical thinking not your strong suit?!” 

“Hey, hey, c’mon lady, go easy on me—“

“I’m just the woman who gives the people here a place to stay! That’s it! Is this the reason you’ve been up my ass?!” You scowled at him. Were you a model, because you even made pissed look delicious. “Beating up a bunch of homeless guys ’cause you thought I was a fuckin’ mob boss or something?—yeah, mob boss of the homeless? Seriously?"

He raised his hands. “Okay, when you word it like that, I feel dumb.” 

“You are dumb—anyway, do me a favor and stop beating up the guys here? Please!?” You hissed, your hands balled into fists. “Because I’m the one that fixes up their wounds and I don’t have the money to keep buying gauze and shit.” 

“Okay, okay, I’m sorry, I’ll lay off—though you coulda just have talked to me earlier?” He muttered the last part but you somehow still heard.

“You think I’m gonna go talk to the ‘Red Hood’? The guy that kills on his free time?” 

He sighed dramatically. “Touche—and it’s for a good cause! I only kill people that—“

“Yeah, yeah, don’t list me your commandments to be on your fuckin’ hit list, God you’re annoying.” 

He laughed. “I have a feeling I’ve pissed you off—”

“You beat a bunch of guys I take care of half dead. Pissed is hardly covering it.”

“—and you know what? I don’t like pissing off pretty women—I said it! I don’t like it. So, I humbly apologize.” He swept his leg and arm in unison into a grandiose bow. 

You scoffed, going to one of the unconscious men and pressing your fingers to his pulse. “I only accept apologies in cash.” 

“Oh, okay, that’s much easier,” making his way to you, he tugged off one of his blood-soaked gloves and rummaged his pocket. A couple hundred dollar bills were in there. 

He extended them to you. “These enough to soothe any hiccups?”

You carefully moved the unconscious man to the ground. From the pockets of your giant jacket came a small bag with a bottle of antiseptic, bandages, and a bunch of other shit. 

You then looked at him, brows furrowed. “That’s... a lot of money.”

“Is it?” 

“Yeah? Do you have enough money for yourself?” 

Jason stared at you for a moment before barking out a harsh laugh. That earned him a frown. “You’re worried? About me?” 

“No, I just don’t want you to beat some person up for their money if this is all you have—“

“Baby, I’m rich, I shit gold bars, just take it.” 

You glared at him for a second before snatching the money, shoving it into your pocket before tending to the man. Pushing up his shirt, Jason saw his body was covered in lacerations and bruises. 

Jason whistled. “Damn, didn’t think I was that strong.” 

“Fuck off.” You sprayed some antiseptic. The man groaned. 

Jason sat. He should be going off and looking for more trails of Black Mask, but he didn’t really want to—not right now, anyway. 

Even if you’re not some mob boss or whatever, you were still intriguing, and he’s a curious guy, he can’t help but want to watch you some more. 

However, he was quick to notice how stiff you were under his gaze.

His head tipped to the side. “Hey, do I scare you?” 

You ignored him, running a rag along the guy’s body. Blood stained the white cloth instantly. You lifted the cloth and looked at Jason. 

“This is the worst you could do. Beat someone. Maybe flay them. Then they die.” 

He hummed. 

“So when you say ‘scare’, I assume you mean the idea of you beating me or whatever—killing me, or torturing, your shit.” Your eyes went back to the beaten guy, continuing with the cleaning. “You don’t.”

“If that’s the case, then why’d you avoid me?” 

“Because I had shit to do, that’s why.” You unraveled a gauze. “Not everything’s about you—eugh, I can’t lift him, hey, since you’re just sitting here, help me a little—yeah, just like that, thank you,” you swept the gauze under the man’s back then brought it back up. You repeated that motion. “But yeah, not really scary. Death is just—well, death.”

Jason nodded along. You were weird. 

He liked weird. 

When you were done, Jason put the man back down.

“Well, I gotta go now, duty calls and all.”

“Okay.” You got up, moving to the next guy. 

“Bye?” 

“Just leave.”

AO3

Masterlist

Requests are open

[random-movie-ideas]

Son of Batman (Movie Outline)

This movie is yet another part of the Cinematic Universe the others I've written have been a part of. This one specifically follows Batman & Batgirl: Arkham Assault which ended with Batman, Catwoman, and eight criminals all being captured by Scarecrow, as well as Nightwing: Under the Red Hood, where Jason Todd was revealed to be alive.

The movie begins six months after the disappearance of Batman and nine high profile Gotham criminals during the burning of Arkham. In that time, the remaining members of the Bat Family have worked tirelessly to find their missing friend while trying to maintain order in the resultant power vacuum that occurred in the city’s underworld.

We see Dick Grayson, Tim Drake, and Stephanie Brown (AKA Nightwing, Robin, and Spoiler) interrupt a meeting between crime lords Carmine Falcone and Rupert Thorne, taking them and their forces down. From the Batcave, Barbara Gordon, now wheelchair-bound and going by the name Oracle, works with Alfred to give them support. They are in constant contact with Barbara’s father, police commissioner Jim Gordon, who has now been let in on the full secret in Batman’s absence. Working together, they manage to take them down and arrest both crime bosses.

The next morning, a news report announces the arrests. We see a fourteen-year-old boy with messy hair and dark clothing watching the report on a public television. He looks at a piece of paper with several addresses written on it and puts up his hood. Meanwhile, back at the mansion, the family are in relatively high spirits celebrating their victory. Tim and Steph are goofing off and messing with Alfred a bit. Dick instructs them to do a little recon around the city today, while he heads down to the Bat Cave.

In the Bat Cave, he talks with Barbara, looking over a list of criminal activity she’s compiled, talking about how criminals have gotten bolder with the absence of both Batman and the major players like Joker and Two-Face. Barbara mentions to him again that names like Nightwing and Robin don’t strike as much fear as Batman does, and that maybe he needs to consider taking up the cowl. Dick turns her down flat. They flirt a bit before he heads out to get things done.

He first visits Jonathan Crane at the hospital where he now works. Crane complains offhandedly about not having nearly as good equipment as he had back in Arkham, but other than that, he has nothing new to tell him. Dick then stops by the warehouse where he regularly meets with his brother Jason. The pair talk but Jason has no new leads for him either.

Across the city, Tim and Steph are wandering around in their street clothes, keeping an eye out for signs of trouble. Tim lets Steph badger him into getting some ice cream from a local vendor, where they encounter the kid from the beginning of the movie, staring at the vendor out of curiosity. Steph offers to buy him a cone and he accepts but doesn’t speak to them. He seems to really enjoy it.

Later, Tim and Steph slip into their suits and sneak into the burned out ruins of Arkham. Tim expresses concern, as everyone who had gone in came back out horrified, claiming to have seen horrific visions inside. They decide to do so anyway, because they know there has to be some kind of clue. As they venture inside, one of them triggers a silent alarm. A strange mist fills the air and they end up getting separated. Steph sees someone shambling toward her, while Tim thinks he sees a scarecrow propped up. The figure approaching Steph turns into her father Arthur, riddled with bullet holes, while the scarecrow looks up as Tim approaches. Arthur apologizes to Steph, saying he got back into crime despite his promise to her before dying at her feet, while the scarecrow taunts Tim with images of Bruce, Dick, and Jason, calling him a faker, third in line of a second fiddle title, taking it on for fun while all who came before were forced into it.

Tim and Steph both run, Steph haunted by visions of other people she cares about being gunned down and killed, while Tim’s insecurities are attacked from every angle, with every member of the Bat Family calling him a fake. They both run into each other and find themselves surrounded by their respective specters. The Scarecrow steps out of their midst, laughing at them as more mist releases from his body.

A small hooded figure appears, striking the Scarecrow and knocking him back. He goes to Tim and Steph, giving them breathing masks and telling them it’s all an illusion. They recognize him as the boy from earlier, with his hood up and a breathing mask covering his own face. The Scarecrow attacks the boy, slashing at him and tearing his sleeve to reveal a symbol on his arm. The Scarecrow steps back in surprise as the boy covers it and tells the other two to run for it. The three flee from the mist and escape the ruins.

Tim and Steph wake up back at the mansion, being treated by Alfred. Barbara is nearby, telling them that they both inhaled a large amount of a hallucinogen that invokes a panic response in its victims. She is tending to the small boy, who doesn’t seem to want her help, while Dick and Gordon are both nearby. Dick tells them off for going there when he’d forbade doing so, but the boy says they were right to go there. That if they wanted answers as to what happened to Batman and the nine criminals, the answers were there.

The boy introduces himself as Damian and says that he’s a former member of the League of Shadows. Dick and Alfred both recognize the name, saying that’s the group who taught Batman much of what he knows. Damian tells them they’re a shadow organization that has existed for centuries, subtly manipulating historical events through assassinations and sabotage. Gotham is their next target, and the scarecrow that guards Arkham’s ruins is one of their agents. He set a trap for Batman and the nine missing criminals, and now he remains to make sure no one can find out what happened to them.

Dick questions whether or not Damian can be trusted, and if he’s not the one leading them into a trap. This leads into a debate between them all, but Alfred, who’d been staring at Damian as if he recognizes him, steps in and says they should all get some sleep and talk it over later. Alfred takes Damian to a guest room, but decides to let him into Bruce’s room instead. Damian stares at a picture of Bruce, and Alfred talks to him about him for a moment. Damian dodges his questions, which Alfred takes note of, and Alfred lets him go to sleep.

Down in the Batcave, Dick, Barbara, and Jim talk it over, joined by Alfred. They agree to go in, using the gas masks Damian offered them, but only Dick and Jim would go, while Tim and Steph would stay back at the mansion to continue recovering. Dick goes out briefly to find Jason and ask him to come with them. Jason acts dodgy as well and refuses to help. Later, Jason visits someone else, who tells him he is needed for a job.

The next day, Dick, Damian, and Jim head out to the island, Jim getting them through using his police clearance. Barbara and Alfred assist them from the Batcave. Damian supplies his companions with masks and they head in. Once again, they trigger sprays of mist, but remain unaffected by them. Dick uses a map supplied to them by Dr. Crane, and they work down into the lower levels.

As they travel, Damian tells them about his life before this, how his mother had been the daughter of league’s head, a man known as the Demon’s Head, and how she’d trained him in the same martial arts that Bruce knew. However, when she caught wind of what her father was planning for Gotham, and what he had done to Batman, she sent him in secret to help stop it.

As they reach the lowest levels, they find the door blocked by the Scarecrow. He doesn’t respond to anything they say, he just sits and waits. Then someone else appears behind them. Jason appears, and at first, Dick is relieved, but Damian points out a mark on his arm, and Jason reminds them how he was restored to life in the first place. He attacks them, ripping off Gordon’s mask and going for Damian’s as well. Dick blocks him and fights his brother as Scarecrow attacks from behind, gassing Gordon with a full blast of fear toxin, some of which gets through the damage to Damian’s as well.

Dick orders Damian to get Gordon out, while he holds off Jason and the Scarecrow. Damian struggles to hold his breath and get Gordon out of the mist while the toxin starts to take hold. Gordon starts to hallucinate visions of Barbara as Batgirl, taking a shot in the back, or getting knocked off a high-rise, both resulting in her falling to her death, coupled with images of her actual injuries from the Joker, his friend Harvey on the ground after being attacked by acid, and the small broken body of Jason Todd after being beaten to death by a crowbar.

Meanwhile Damian starts to see images of his grandfather, Ra’s al-Ghul, looking down at him with contempt and calling him an embarrassment and a disgrace. Then his grandfather’s face morphs into that of Bruce, saying the same thing. He cries out for his father and grandfather, when Tim and Steph appear from the mist, collecting up the both of them and pulling them out.

Back outside the ruins, Damian and Jim both come back to their senses, Tim and Steph having inoculated them with a cure for the toxin that had been finished during the night. Barbara comforts her father over their comms, while Alfred brings up what Damian had said during his hallucinations. Damian comes clean and reveals that he is Bruce’s son from his time training under the league. Damian asks how Alfred knew, and Alfred says it’s because he raised a small boy who looked nearly identical.

Down in the asylum, Dick continues to fight Jason while the Scarecrow disappears into the mist. Dick is furious with Jason, but Jason reminds him that his goals are the same as the League’s, to truly cleanse Gotham, not just wipe up after it the way they and Bruce had done all these years. Their battle becomes more and more intense, both breaking each other’s masks. Their strength starts to waver, Jason first as he starts to be overtaken by images of the Joker striking him with a crowbar over and over again. Dick starts to see the very same thing, but with every strike, Jason turns into Tim, and Steph, and Barbara, and Bruce, and Alfred. He tries to attack the imaginary Joker to no avail, and instead, grabs Jason and pulls him through the last door and into the secret lab.

Inside the lab, Dick searches for anything resembling a cure, reasoning that the Scarecrow surely has some for himself. He finds a vial and tests it on himself, finding, to his relief, that it actually does cure the toxin. He then goes to Jason and administers it to him as well. As Dick looks around the room, he sees controls for the entire prison, ten special cells, all of which are crusted with ice around the edges, all leading to a secret train tunnel.

Jason tells Dick that they’re not here, that Bruce, Selina, and the criminals were all taken to a special prison run by the league. Dick demands to know who the Scarecrow is, but Jason refuses to tell him. Dick tells him that if the League gets their way and cleanses Gotham, it won’t just be villains like Joker and Black Mask who suffer, but little street kids like the two of them were. He can’t just let it happen. Jason relents and looks up at his brother. He says, “Is it not obvious?”

Back at the Batcave, Barbara and Alfred talk with Damian, Jim, Tim, and Steph, having lost contact with Dick during his fight with Jason. They talk about how, if the League is as far-spread as Damian suggests, the Bat Cave may be the only safe place left. A familiar voice scoffs at the idea as Jonathan Crane appears. The doctor says they’ve always known about this place before gassing the both of them.

Dick and Jason re-emerge from the asylum, telling Damian, Tim, Steph, and Jim that they need to get back to the mansion, that all of this here had been a distraction. The team try to contact Barbara and Alfred, but are met only by the voice of Jonathan Crane, telling them that if they want to save their friends, they will return to the mansion immediately.

The group returns to the mansion. They say it’s likely full of the fear toxin, and Steph jokes about it becoming a literal haunted mansion. They each strap on a gas mask and enter. Dick and Jason go with Damian, and they talk to him about him being Bruce’s actual son. Damian tells them his mom had been keeping tabs on Bruce through the league all these years, so he knew all of their names and many of their adventures. Dick tells him welcome to the family.

Dr. Crane torments the team throughout the mansion, using the smoke and mist to keep his location a mystery in lieu of the toxin working. One by one, he lures them into a trap and attacks them, taking each hostage in turn. Soon enough, Dick, Jason, and Damian are left, and they find their way down to the batcave. There, Crane reveals Barbara, Alfred, Tim, Steph, and Jim, all unmasked and unconscious from fear toxin.

Crane talks to them through the computer, saying that the League had been perfectly content to leave their little team be, as they’d never pose the threat Batman himself posed, but they just couldn’t keep their noses to themselves. Dick and Jason both try to attack him and free their friends, but he ends up catching them off guard and capturing them too. Finally, only Damian remains.

Crane talks to Damian, saying he’d heard of him, the Demon Head’s little embarrassment of a grandson, surprised to learn that he’d been the Bat’s child all along. Damian creeps around, keeping Crane talking, until he can manage to track down his actual body. He attacks Crane from behind, taking him by surprise instead, but Crane holds his own, reminding Damian that he’d received League training as well. The pair duel, but in the end, Damian comes out on top, giving Crane an overdose of his own toxin.

All the rest of the Bat Family are freed and administered the cure. They question Crane on the whereabouts of Batman and the villains, and Crane admits that Ra’s took them to a special prison where they will never escape. Damian says he knows of the prison, that it’s a horror story spread around the league. Crane is handed over to Amanda Waller in ARGUS.

Damian wakes up the next morning in his father’s bed. The entire family greets him and makes him feel at home when he arrives at breakfast. As they start eating, the team begins discussing how to move forward, to save Batman and to stop the League’s plans. In a post-credits scene, we see Selina tending to Bruce inside a dark cell, Bruce clearly unable to move. The cell door opens, and the silhouette of Bane appears.

And that's our story. This one will be followed by a two-part Bat Family finale, the first focused on Bane and the prisoners locked in his prison. What do you think? Would you watch a movie like this?

[havendance]

Scattered Batman: War Games thoughts

It honestly wasn't as bad as I was afraid it was going to be. Don't get me wrong, there were a lot of parts that were bad, but it also moved at a quick pace and I have definitely read comics that were way more of a chore to get through

Still way too much torture though. I purposefully skipped all the scenes where Steph got tortured but other people also got tortured in this and why is there just so much?

I do like that Bruce actually asked for help/called in the cavalry at the begining of the event rather than running around making things worse a bunch of times. Of course the only help he called in was Batgirl and Nightwing, but baby steps!

I actually enjoyed most of the entire first act of war games. It was focused mainly on chaos exploding on everyone being on the ropes and doing damage control. It was quick moving and I like seeing the bats on the ropes. Plus, there was the

I did like both Cass and Tim's storylines throughout.

And then of course, act II onwards just went downhill. Look, I wish Zeis had succeeded in killing Black Mask when he was disguised as Oprheus because he just sucks.

Anyway, I already talked about the torture stuff :/

The thing is, I think because I skipped the bad parts and I knew both that Steph was going to die and that she would eventually come back going into this arc, her death actually made me less made than say, Sarah Essen's death in No Man's Land which is in some ways much less egregious (I'm still annoyed about that). If I HAD been a comics reader in 2004 and not a possibly-illiterate child whose mom wouldn't let them read comics at that age anyway, I probably would've been pissed! But context is everything.

But to backtrack a little, Bruce was like "I was never going to implement the war games plan" but he also had Orpheus going undercover to get control of the hill? It certainly looks like you're laying the groundwork my dude. I mean, he still could have been planning to not go all the way and made the contingency plan in question recently, but still. Out of universe, it's clearly laying groundwork for the War Games event.

Hmm, what else did I want to bring up. Oh yeah. Bruce, trying to take control over the entire GCPD is definetly a major overstep. You deserve to be wanted by them after that. Seriously dude, you didn't even have control over the GCPD during No Man's Land where there was no goverment. Your whole stchick involves acting outside of the law. You can't just do that dude.

Also, him hijacking Oracle's systems was also an asshole move. I think it is interesting the way that they had the interection of the urban legend batman mythos with the event. He's out during the day, being captured on camera for the first time in ages and it's in the middle of a major disaster. Terrible PR all around. The batman is real and this is his fault. I do think that's a fun move.

I am here for Barbara beefing with Batman, he was a dick to you during the event! But also the whole tower blowing up thing at the end was clearly because it was required by editorial. You're telling me you don't have knockout gas or batgrade tasers in there? Your only option was to blow up your home base?

Like, he also was a major presence during No Man's Land, but that was No Man's Land.

Anyway, this was clearly an event that was designed to make some major changes to the status quo. I will probably have more opinions on these changes as I read more comics, but for some initial thoughts:

Batman & co wanted by the GCPD. I'm a big fan of this one. Make him have to face greater odds with fewer resources than he's used to!

Stephanie dead. Lame :/

The Birds of Prey no longer based in Gotham. I am tentatively optimistic about this. I did like the era of Oracle being a key player in Gotham, but her being an idependent force not tied to them is defintely something she deserves! Of course, if this just results in her being exiled to Birds of Prey rather than playing a major role in the rest of the universe that'd be disappointing.

(Of course I also primarily only read Bat books, so uh, I don't think I'd see this either way.)

Tim and Cass in their Blüdhaven era: why not? I've heard good things about this.

Black Mask being a key play: grump grump grump I don't like him.

[roobylavender]

People always make fun of Barbara when she was Batgirl but honestly a lot of her pre-crisis issues were really cool. They weren’t alway perfect but it was easy to understand what they were trying to do and say—especially the issues that were outside of the usual The Batfamily issues that are mentioned when people speak of her time as Batgirl. It’s harder to find issues with her individually because they are scattered, but they were actually enjoyable and Kesel did a good job of trying to make all of it into one origin. Barbara being too liberal for re-election was kinda funny.

To add to the last ask, there is a review that made a connection that said Barbara went from a small town girl to Gotham City’s most invaluable player and Barbara Kesel (the writer) really helped shape a more relatable and enjoyable origin story for Barbara than Dixon ever did. If you were ever to do a comparison against Batgirl:Year one, there is just one that feels more genuine. You get the childhood and the relationship to a parent that was still loved but escaped their pain the only way they knew how (people speak of Joker trauma in regards to JT but honestly the parent connection here would make more sense as a form of bonding) and then you also get shown the dedication and interest of this character through little details. It’s that life outside of the cape that a lot of writers really lack in many comics now. A new thought formed as I was typing but Barbara was also imo much more enjoyable when she was out of her cape and doing her work within the city and speaking to civilians then the time she ever wore a cape. Those are the highlight of the majority of her issues as a Batgirl.

flawed gems has so much heart and soul to it! i know people find barbara's little crush on or aspiration towards batman to be somewhat juvenile but i personally prefer it a lot to her wanting to be a cop, esp since she outgrows the crush/aspiration anyway and even reaches conclusions beyond bruce or gordon about the viability of vigilantism in the long term. i still have a lot left to read from her pre-crisis issues but i almost wonder if people call them bland bc they think nearly anything pre-crisis is bland. there's something odd about people severely disliking stories that don't adhere to an overarching continuity and simply exist for the purpose of conveying an important point or message that ultimately allows readers to believe in heroes. older stories have their problems but i feel like they're generally more possessive of some integrity in that sense

[taiblogcomics]

Joke's On Us

Hey there, sugar skulls. Now that we've refreshed ourselves with a somewhat decent Mountain Dew flavour, let's ruin the mood with a much worse comic book. What fun, right? What I love best about Taiblog is the diversity of review topics, said nobody ever~

Anyway, here's the cover:

So we went from a bunch of characters in a white void, to just one character in a red void. Is that an upgrade, downgrade? I dunno. I do know I always kind of hated this Joker design. Like, exaggerate the man, sure. It's a comic book! We're used to fun exaggerations. But he is, at the end of the day, just a man with a weird bleach job. Falling in a vat of chemicals should not give him teeth like that. The other details of this are good, though. The Joker has Jimmy Olsen's accoutrements to imply something bad has happened to Jimmy. And something bad has, he's starring in Countdown!

Last time, we kicked off this grand tale of god-awfulness by introducing a few of our major players. Darkseid has an action figure collection. Mary Marvel is out of her coma, out of powers, and out of friends. Trickster is joining the Rogues on a grand plan to put them back on the map. And most pertinently, Jason Todd watches Duela Dent get murdered by the Monitor, only for another Monitor to come in and stop his colleague. The other Monitor then goes to the Source Wall and asks it how to stop the Great Disaster. And instead of "CANCEL THIS SERIES EARLY", it responds with Ray Palmer's name.

Well, speaking of Jimmy Olsen, we open in a dirty alley in Manhattan. I'm sure that narrows it down for you. He's tracking down a lead for a story, and Superman's helping. More specifically, he melts the lock off the door with his heat vision--from outer orbit, mind you. That's precise to the point of impossibility, but since it's Superman, I'll give it to him. He warns Jimmy that his target is unpredictable, then wishes him good luck before flying off into space. Thanks, very helpful, Clark. I'm sure Jimmy will be fine, given the cover.

Anyways, it turns out the guy he's meeting is Jason Todd, who's wrapping fighting a bunch of orange ninja clones. And I don't mean Naruto. Even Jimmy sums up Jason Todd's recent return to life as "it happens", which probably shows how dumb the frequent resurrections are if they're being treated as this banal even in universe. And this was 2007, it only gets worse! Blackest Night hasn't even happened yet! But I digress. The real question is, how does Jimmy Olsen know Jason Todd by name? Did Superman tell him Red Hood's identity? Is it public knowledge post-resurrection? Is it just Countdown's poor writing? Let's go with the last one.

As Jason cleans up his fight, Jimmy fields an interview. (And lemme say, it's a little confusing writing up a rappaport between two guys whose names both have five letters and begin with J.) He wants to know the details on Duela Dent's murder. Jason first asks how he found him, and Jimmy just shows his Superman signal watch. Which I guess is also public knowledge. Jason quips it must be nice to not do your own legwork, and Jimmy doesn't comment. Regardless, the gist of the interview is that, since Jason didn't recognise the Monitor(s), he concludes they must be aliens. And Jimmy should be familiar with that.

Meanwhile, Mary Marvel is chasing her own mysteries. She's talking to DC's resident blind seer, Madame Xanadu, who notices magic stuff beyond Mary's questions. She's only asking where Freddy Freeman is, but Xanadu is much more intent on telling Mary she's going to be tested in the future. Her path is unclear when it comes to whether her magic lies on the light or dark sides. She also tells her to stay away from Gotham City, which seems like good life advice in general. And if she feels lost (which, who wouldn't after such cryptic answers), she should find a guide.

Speaking of Gotham, though, here's three wordless pages of Batman fighting Legion of Super-Heroes' Karate Kid. He manages to take Batman's utility belt, which apparently just comes off with no repercussions. With no transition, Black Lightning shocks Karate Kid, knocking him out. Batman notes that Karate Kid seems to be having an amnesiac incident, since he's dressed like (and responding to the name of) C-list Titans villain Trident. The fact that he's having such an identity crisis and managed to attack Batman in the Batcave is a bit concerning.

So the Rogues are hanging out in a run-down shitty place, doing hookers and blow. No, literally. No disrespect to the ladies, of course, work is work. But this place is seriously filthy, so I hope they're getting hazard pay. Heat Wave lays out some lines of cocaine on the table, and Mirror Master appears in the reflection to snort one. But the main point of the scene, other than to show the shitty lifestyles of the Rogues is to illustrate that the rest of them don't trust Trickster and Pied Piper, which we also established last issue. Great! Next scene!

Following his talk with Jason, Jimmy finally decides to pay off this issue's cover by going to talk with the Joker, who's currently in Arkham Asylum. I wanna dissect his logic a bit here. First of all, Duela did occasionally call herself "Joker's Daughter", so that seems like a connective line. But the real moment that gets him going "Hmm" is something Jason says after he postulates the "But it was aliens" meme. "It's a crazy theory, but we live in a crazy world. And there's a guy in Arkham who wrote the book on crazy." Apparently Jimmy takes this as a legit tip for his investigation.

To wrap things up, Jimmy's led to the Joker's cell. Jimmy interrupts the Joker's taunts by telling him his daughter's dead. Joker briefly feigns remorse, and then taunts Jimmy to come closer so he can tell him what he knows. To give Jimmy credit, he's smart enough to stand back behind the line of approach and not get goaded by Joker's taunts. Joker gives up and replies that his daughter isn't dead… because he doesn't have a daughter. He erupts into laughter, and will offer no more info. As the comic ends, Killer Croc breaks out of his restraints and is about to attack Jimmy, just as he quips "Well, that was a dead end." Wah-wah-waaah~

Now you begin to see how this series is going to go, yeah? We've got over a dozen protagonists (which we still haven't introduced all of) and eight different viewpoints to juggle. So some characters are only going to get a couple pages or even less per issue. So not only do you have to keep track of eight different viewpoints from week to week, some of them might be barely worth updating you on--or might not even get updated at all. And since this series was not so tightly plotted as its predecessor, this will quickly start to unravel as the series progresses.

And honestly, this is kind of a nothingburger of an issue in itself. Other than introducing Jimmy Olsen and Karate Kid as two more of our protagonists (and if it wasn't giving headlines each time the POV changes, would you even think Karate Kid was the protag? You'd think it was Batman and possibly Black Lightning), did this one really advance anything? Despite being one of the protags, Jason Todd did nothing but beat up some entirely unrelated Mortal Kombat fan characters. Jimmy Olsen had a pleasant chat with the Joker and ended on a cliffhanger. Mary Marvel got advice, Karate Kid got amnesia and knocked out, and Piper and Trickster got in a fight instead of getting sex and high. Isn't this fun~?

[betelgeusing]

hold up bear with me I need to scream right quick bc JIM GORDON IS A STUPID THOT AND I CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE

jimbo just met a lady right? he’s been unlucky in love lately and she’s beautiful and charming, she might be the one!

SEVERAL THINGS THAT SHOULD RAISE RED FLAGS FOR OL GORDO HERE

1. he shot and killed her brother like 6 months ago

2. she’s Carmine Falcone’s daughter she’s been steeped in politics drama and intrigue since birth

3. she’s like a decade (or more) younger than he is yet she’s showing interest in him lmao but seriously buddy wise up because--

4. HE SHOT AND KILLED HER BROTHER, WHOM SHE WAS BY ALL ACCOUNTS EXTREMELY CLOSE TO, LIKE SIX MONTHS AGO

he’s like “hey sorry I killed your brother” and she’s like “it’s fine :) you did what you had to do:)” JIM ARE YOU A DETECTIVE OR AREN’T YOU? HOW CAN YOU INTERPRET THAT AS “FULL SPEED AHEAD CAP’N” INSTEAD OF “I NEED TO STAY AWAY FROM THIS WOMAN BECAUSE SHE HATES ME AND IS GOING TO ACTUALLY KILL ME”

five minutes later

dennis reynolds voice don’t be a dumb horny bitch the whole time, jim

if she doesn’t kill him then I’m going to. Jim you idiot

[anastasiaskywalker4]

MisterLuu

That is actually the best pairing DC can make out of Trinity aside Lois and Clark. Or Bruce

and Clark for that matter. They both fit Bruce well, though Diana is even more matched with

him. In fact she's the best match romantically for him out there. At least so far. Though

number of fanfiction and arts on the net would suggest that that spot is reserved for

Superman not Wonder Woman :D

Except maybe for Silver and Julie - all Batman's love interest are abusive and downright

toxic. Selina, Talia, Adrea, Jet. Because in terms of comics and not relationships it fits

Gotham mold. People just tend to forget it after rebirth run. Yeah the one that made Batman

impotent and unable to do anything without the Cat around. Exactly that one. And tend to

forget how terrible as human beings his lovers really are.

Going back to the point. Both Talia and Selina tried to kill him multiple times in the past, or

those close to him. Whatever right? Who wouldn't like a lover that tried to end you few times

over. Both assaulted him physically and emotionally. Repeatedly. Both scared his body and

his mind. Repeatedly. Both tried to seduce his wards (adopted sons if u like), just to get to

him. In Talia's case that was basically pedophilia. That's just sick and makes you want to

puke. Both are possessive bitches, Cat threatening his flings while they are in bed while

Talia, well Talia can even go as far as beheading (to her credit she was right with this one).

Both makes him a goddamn hypocrite. Both face no repercussions after a cold blooded

murder while at the same time he berates Diana like a dick when she came to look for his

friendship and support after Max incident. Difference is she had no choice while Selina or

Talia most certainly had. Great move Bats, hypocrite much? And most importantly they both

lie and betray him, and leave him. Over and over again. Again, that's a constant with Cat

and miss Al Ghul. Diana never showed any of those traits with any of her lovers.

Get any counselor or psychiatrist to read actual Bat love history throughout the decades

and they would be writing books on how disfuncional they are. For a love-hate dynamics

they work fine. Or for some adrenaline fueled sex, but that's it. Hell, he even banged Dinah

when they were on adrenaline high. It all has a clinical term. Trauma bonding. As opposed

to authentic bonding. Which he could have with WW, had even one of them tried.

They did not though. Out of fear of ruining their mutual respect and deep bond. In

pre-flashpoint it may have been a thing if Diana acted on it. Again, Diana, not Bruce, so cut

the crap on how he was deflecting her. He was in doubt, yeah, but clearly was ready to give

it a go. She was the one that got scared even though she was clearly had over bat hills in

love with him. Even Martian stated this to Supes. Pre Crisis ? Not really. Some flirting and

kissing, nothing more. Post-flashpoint, New 52 and Rebirth ? Also not, though DC like to

tease those two. Forever Evil gets a hint that Bruce feels more than friendship towards her,

much to Selina's dismay. And that goddamn tension when they got to spends decades

together in another realm. Mostly from Diana side again. But no. The real canon love that Diana had for Bruce was during pre-flashpoint, not counting alternative universes. And it

was so strong that it showed her loving him more than her mother and sisters. And her

lasso forced her to admit it when facing Mera. But Bruce was "dead" at that point. So yeah,

never acted upon this. Pity. You could see she regretted it.

Aside their comics history in canon universe, realistically speaking Diana is way more

similar to Bruce than Selina will ever be (or Talia for that matter). Even though at a the first

glance they are nothing alike. She's the light , he's the darkness. She believes in love and

trust, tries to see the good in everyone. He's cunning, distrustful and downright realistic to

her idealistic approach. She's honest and straight while he will not hesitate to lie or to use

violence to get results. And you know what? It makes for great couple chemistry and

tension. It may be a cliche, yeah, but Yin and Yang dynamics work. That's why Clark ends

up with Lois all the freaking time. Even on elseworlds he and Diana are a thing only after

Lois is out of the picture. But that's not the most important thing. Yin and Yang provides for

a tension yes, but it would never last in the long run. For a relationship you need also

something in common. And Bruce has that in spades with Diana.

They might be on opposite side of the spectrum but than you realize how much alike they

really are. They are both kindred spirits. Both born fighters, warriors at heart. Arguably two

of the best in the world. At least Diana is according to Batman. And judging by Wonder

Woman's choices in man that is a highly important trait to her. Both endlessly fighting for

others. Both have utmost respect and admiration for each other. Both tirelessly train to

make themselves physically and spiritually better. Constantly. And to make the other better.

Their sparring sessions are legendary. And heated. Both with a great heart and

compassion. I would argue that Bruce's compassion is even bigger than Diana's. Even

though their methods might differ they share the same goal, which he has with no other

woman. Both have the heart of a warrior and are pushed by the circumstances of their

upbringing to reach for impossible dreams. They are also two of the most stubborn and

obstinate people in DC universe. Both perfectly capable of operating solo, and yet both

performing the best in a team. And yes, Bats is a great team player. Both natural leaders

that other heroes follow without hesitation. Both selfless and able to sacrifice for those they

value, trust and love. None of the other Bat trollups have any of those traits. Not to mention

they emotionally and physically find the other highly attractive. One being a literal goddess

and the other perfect male specimen. As for Batman, his relationships tend to collapse due

to a lack of trust. He's either unwilling to bring his romantic partner fully into his world or he

can't bring himself to trust completely. While Selina got his trust now, it's recent

development. And a mistake judging by latest issues. Again. One would think he's smarter.

When it comes to Diana, he trusts her. Fully. She's not privy like BatClan is to his world, but

they aren't that close in mainstream DC. She's not a psycho with daddy issues or a violent

narcissist. List can go on. Selina on the other hand doesn't have that much in common with

Bruce than she has. Not even close. He loves her, yes. But I don't see Di leaving him

countless times over the choices he makes. Or lying, or betraying, or trying to sleep with

Dick to spite him or... you get the point. Though there is one thing that gives Kyle an edge.

Immortality. Diana won't die unless killed. It doesn't make for a great long term relationship

prospect. But then again, those are comics, and he's a goddamn Batman. He would find a

way :)

The thing is - there is no other woman that fits his world as much as Diana does. And Bat is

capable to loving deeply and going to great commitments with a special woman. He showed

it with Andrea, he showed it with Silver. Problem is he always got burned. Every time he let

his guard down and opened himself. And he would have to do it when it comes to Wonder

Woman. She deserves that. It's hard to imagine with current Bruce, but it is most definitely

possible. It would be harder than with an ex criminal or an assassin though. Because there

would be much more on the line. The other two would crawl back anyway if he messed it

up, Di wouldn't.

There is also another aspect to this outside comic universe. His partners tend to be minor

characters compared to WW. She has her own series, JL, JL dark and every major

crossover/event happening in DC. They don't. And so does Batman. Both are one of the

most popular DC characters.

Besides changes to Bruce writing that are needed to make this work (cough.. pre flashpoint

Bats... cough), it would require fitting it to their distinctive titles. And frankly Diana can easily

function without any love interest and generate money. It's even easier that way. It fits her

as an independent, strong female character. Arguably most iconic of them all. And It's most

certainly easier for DC with a tease here and there than an actual WonderBat in mainstream.

Maisterluu wrote this is a comment on a YouTube video which is dow in the comments. They make really good points for ww and bats. No hate to other DC ships with ww and bats.

[failinggrade]

ok! also! can we talk about The Batman and the case it (almost) makes for complete police abolition? Every major player in the city’s justice system down to the petty street cop up to the DA and the Mayor are corrupt mother fuckers looking to make their next dollar by manipulating and polluting funds that should be used for things like hot school lunch programs, infrastructure updates, public art —whatever the fuck gotham needs.

The Batman himself (to me!!!!) isn’t a good guy because as selina kyle and bella real (the only two Black women in the movie!) both point out …he uses his riches not to invest in systemic change in gotham but to run around serving vigilante justice. if you’re black in america you know what vigilante “justice” actually means. redistribute your wealth bat boy!

even the scene where jim gordon is like “we’re not ALL bad cops” ok but you dip shits were running around completely unaware of the severe level of corruption within your own police force? there was a white supremacist actively plotting terror on his lil reddit discord 4chan server pretty openly and y’all had no clue? what do you do successfully? quickly.

anyway great movie but ACAB, even the super ones.

[mirrerover]

High on the Fumes

“Straying a bit far from the nest, Dickiebird,” Jason says. He’s got one hand shoving his mask back up into his hood, revealing just his mouth and the sharp line of his jaw, while the other digs in the pocket of his leather jacket, fishing for cigarettes. A beaten-up carton gets waved in Dick’s general direction, offering a cigarette Dick never accepts. Not like this. Not in the Nightwing suit, at least.

They’re currently overlooking Crime Alley, seated on the edge of the roof, legs dangling off the side. Jason hadn’t seemed surprised when Dick had dropped down next to him on the ledge. But Red Hood wouldn’t be Red Hood if Jason didn’t know the coming and goings of the various vigilantes creeping on Gotham's rooftops at night.

“Ran out of bad guys my side of the pond,” Dick says in the easy way he says lots of things. The patented Grayson charm. “What can I say—I’m just that good.”

That actually pulls a laugh out of Jason. A genuine one. One that has his mouth stretched apart in a smile that makes Dick think beautiful.

“No criminals in Blüdhaven. I knew moonlighting as a police officer would be bad for you. Six months on the job and they’ve already got you on their payroll.”

“Thought you’d be proud of me for lasting as long as I did.”

“Sure thing, Princess.” There’s a fancy Zippo in his hand now, one Dick has never seen before, lighting the first cigarette of plenty to come. Dick wonders if Jason lifted it off some crook he left for dead. “You probably broke some departmental records. Most Blüdhaven cops are on the take before they’ve even stepped off Academy grounds.”

Dick chuckles the way you chuckle when watching your own house burn down to ashes, all your mortal possessions still inside. Blüdhaven is a corrupt cesspool with no fast and easy fix. Maybe not even a slow and difficult one—and she’s all Dick's. He stuffs the thought somewhere deep and hidden and eagerly shifts his eyes to Jason so he can forget. Just for a while.

It’s hard to read Jason’s face, hidden in the shadows of his hood, but the body language is clear; no apparent stiffness or major sore spots. Jason looks relaxed, if not a little tired, fingers nimble when they lift the cigarette to his lips. So the bloodstains aren’t his own.

“Slow night?”

Jason shrugs. “Petty criminals, mostly.” His lips tighten into a harsh line. “Some creep who thought he could set up shop and play pimp. Fuck that. My girls work for themselves.”

His girls. And that, Dick thinks, is the difference between Bruce and Jason. Bruce has his villains, his meta humans, and when that well runs dry there’s the League. A galaxy full of nemeses for him to fight.  Big players and even bigger stakes. Abstract concepts of freedom and peace, and the liberty of dealing in absolutes. Jason has his people. The concrete reality of kids not being cornered by predators and sex workers keeping money in their own pockets. And his people love him. Prefer the Red Hood taking an iron pipe to the face of their abusive ex-husband, their kid’s drug dealer, or the rapist next-door, to the untouchable Bat Symbol high up in the sky.

Maybe Dick’s been staring too hard or maybe Jason can tell he’s thinking of Bruce because the next time he speaks, he’s extra crass: “I need a cock so far up my ass I’ll be seeing stars, a good meal, and a shower with better water pressure than the usual geriatric-taking-their-midnight-piss nonsense that’s rife this side of the city.” He sucks long and hard on the cigarette, posture thoughtful, before releasing the smoke in a slow exhale. “Not necessarily in that order.”

Dick snorts. Maybe there’s more than just the one big difference. “That really something you wanna yell off the rooftops? Thought you were some big bad crime lord.”

“The fuck's that s'posed to mean, Big Bird?” Some might assume that toting around eight severed heads in a duffle bag once would make it hard to take the moral high ground on anything. Dick knows for a fact that Jason doesn’t really give a shit about either morals or the high ground but it doesn’t stop him from taking both and making them his bitch. “Think I’m weak for taking it up the ass? How ‘bout you dial back on the homophobia, you bigoted prick.”

It might be more impressive if Dick was a little less familiar with Jason and his rage. Jason doesn’t settle his actual grievances with his words. This is foreplay.

“Wouldn’t dream of it, Little Wing. Got the best thighs this side of the equator. Ain’t nobody calling you weak, babe.”

“Don’t you forget it, asshole.”

Dick hums, lowering himself onto his back, arms stretched high above his head. There’s a weird serenity to being verbally abused by Jason as the Eastern sky is starting to brighten. The sound from the street feels distant and Jason feels so close, their thighs mere inches apart. When Dick lets his head rest on his arm, Jason’s broad shoulders fill up half his vision and he knows if he buries his nose between his shoulder blades it’ll smell of leather and smoke and sweat.

Jason twists his torso towards him. “Were you even listening, Fingerstripes? Just told you I want a cock up my ass before the night is through. Need me to grab a pen and a piece of paper and spell it out for you?” Jason gives a depreciating grunt. “And Daddy dares to say that you’re the smart one.”

“Jesus, Hood,” Dick teases. “Can’t tell if you’re trying to go for seductive or insulting.”

“Shows how shit your instincts are. I’m doing both. You turned on yet?”

Dick shrugs good-naturedly, arches his back and gives Jason the Grayson smile, blinding, crooked, winning. “Little bit.”

There’s another laugh, another smile. Another beautiful in Dick’s head. Then Jason’s lying down beside him, shoulders brushing, and voice bleeding a warm: “thought you would be, you big slut.”

When Jason finishes his cigarette he kills what’s left of it on the concrete. Wordlessly lights another. The new Zippo burns big and bright.

Dick lowers one arm, carefully drags his fingers across the busted knuckles of the hand holding the lighter. Sometimes, those hands will leave red streaks on Dick’s skin and Dick won’t know if the person it came from is still a person at all. And he thinks Jason painting him with blood should probably bother him more than it does. But it’s hard sometimes, between the night job and the day job and the things he sees during both. Between Bruce, who puts principles before people, and Jason, who puts people before Bruce, is Dick, who doesn’t want to choose between either, who wants to have both—but let’s Jason mark him up with the blood from Gotham’s criminals, anyway. So, maybe he’s made his choice.

"Make me a coffee tomorrow morning," Dick says, Jason's hand warm beneath his own. "With those fancy beans. From that specialty shop where they roast and grind the beans on the spot and you watch them like a hawk 'cause you're both anal and a snob."

"Just the coffee?"

"Just the coffee."

"You're one cheap fucking lay, Boy Blunder."

“Only for you,” Dick says. "The Bat family discount.” Dick wonders if there’s a little something special in those cigarettes when that doesn’t get him punted off the roof immediately. The vicious elbow stab to the gut seems rather mellow.

“Asshole,” Jason murmurs under his breath. The vitriol dripping off that single word makes Dick honest-to-God giggle, chest feeling light like flying.    

He thinks they’ll stay here a little longer. Maybe one or two more cigarettes—all Jason. Dick will smoke after. After the sex, and the shower and the sleeping and the coffee. Long after the morning is gone. When Dick has been stripped of his suit for hours and Jason the same for his mask and guns. Then Dick will sit naked in the afternoon sun on Jason’s windowsill, grab that Zippo and smoke.

One cigarette. Just then.

----------------

@wethatake I wrote a thing. Can you believe it? I sure can’t

[harristops]

Wasn’t Seger also on the Flash?

Yup! The 2011 WPS WNY Flash team might have been the greatest team ever assembled, tbh, because it featured some of the greats in:

Ashlyn Harris

Ali Riley

Abby Wambach

Christine Sinclair

Marta

Yael Averbuch

Whitney Engen

Candace Chapman

Alex Morgan

McCall Zerboni

Gina Lewandowski

Caroline Seger

If this was an NWSL team today it would have the power of the Thorns offense, NCC midfield, Gotham defense, and Pride GK'ing all rolled into one. To this day, it is one of the greatest teams assembled, in my opinion, and the fact they won their 2011 WPS championship on the back of Ashlyn Harris' PK save, an absolutely historic moment.

I would love to have a reunion of this team so badly. There's a pic of Ash hugging Sinclair after the PK shootout that always gets me:

Anyways, just me in my feels over the dynasty team that was the 2011 WNY Flash. It's crazy to think the majority of the players on this team were either WWC champions and/or Olympic Medallists.

[pl-panda]

To Marry a Vigilante: Part 17

MASTERLIST || First || Previous || Next

To Marry a Vigilante: Part 17

------

The altercation with three footballers had several outcomes. First, Marinette was no longer treated as someone weak. Quite the opposite. The smarter part of the school now had a healthy dose of respect for the small french girl when they saw the camera recording Chloé ‘leaked’. The more sport-inclined part of the faculty was devastated by the loss of the three star players, for which they blamed Marinette. 

Erica washed her hands about the whole incident, declaring that the poor souls must’ve just rashly reacted to the gossip going around the school. It still hurt her position a bit. Chloé and Allegra masterfully countered any of her minor lies and started spreading gossip about the head cheerleader instead. It was turning into a cold war, where neither side could get any advantage over the other for long. 

The initial background search turned clean on both of them. Lila’s mother was an orphan, raised in one of the covenants in the mountains before studying law and politology. She now headed the French Embassy, after previously working in Germany, Belgium, and Spain. Lila’s father was a mystery and his name was not given at any point. The Italian girl often changed schools. Usually, she didn’t stay even one semester there. Lack of any family and trusted friends made her move around with her mother often. Boarding schools were too expensive for a then-starting diplomat. At some point, Lila started to thrive in each new school. Her files were nothing but praise since then. 

Erica Layton was born Erica Blake, then Boyle when her mother married a wealthy CEO. Before, she ran a smaller Blake Industry, which merged with Boyle enterprises after the wedding. When Mr. Boyle was shot during one of the Two-face’s robberies, Erica’s mother started to date again. Until last summer, when she married a star baseball player, Lance Layton. The business was clean-ish and there was nothing that could be used against them really. There were some cases of inner nepotism and a bit of discrimination, but it wasn’t even worth a real investigation. Erica herself was truly a mean character, but her good looks, influential family, and good grades made her the “Gotham Academy Golden Princess.”

Damian wanted to get his vengeance. He tried hacking, but Barbara stopped him. It wasn’t as if anything he got that way could’ve been used against her and forging evidence was wrong, and would only hurt them in the long run. Marinette stopped him from going after them as Black Cat, which only agitated him further. He hated the feeling of powerlessness. Well, he loved Marinette more so he wouldn’t go against her orders. 

Sabine also did her best, but she was similarly blocked by Barbara, who went as far as to lock the Bat-computer. A woman of many skills, Sabine was still unable to beat Oracle at hacking. She did make sure to always be available and near the school to intervene if any of the teachers tried to punish Mari unfairly. She was doing the same for Chloé, who she slowly came to treat as her child too, just like Cassandra. 

Allegra tried to get her mother involved, but Catherine Hamilton-Kane was a woman of high morals and would not use her influence to fight dirty games. “That’s how corruption took seed,” she declared. And Gotham Academy, as a private school, was beyond her reach anyway. It still gave Allegra enough power to at least counter Erica and her mother, who was at best negligent and at worst co-operating with her daughter. 

All in all, Marinette and Chloé settled into some form of routine. The school was much better than Françoise Dupont. It was bigger, which meant Lila had a harder time setting up her court. Erica’s power also suffered a major hit when the ‘outcasts’, as the blonde witch called them, took a bit more active role in the events going around. Claude, who was one of the lead actors in the theatre club made sure that no one aligned with Lila or Erica could join. Felix started to slowly push Erica from politics, engaging in subtle games at every front. Even Jon helped by taking over the school newspaper. The guy that was running it previously happily handed over the reins. 

There were few minor dramas at school, like the Witch Club, haunting at the theatre, or the weird carnival. Damian and Marinette didn’t pay it much attention. Claude dealt with the ghost quite easily and met Katherine Karlo, who became his favorite actress ever since. Professor Trent was against including her, but when the usually cheery boy threatened him to quit and take over half of the crew, the discussion was over rather swiftly.

Of course, akumas didn’t make it easier. In fact, they were the biggest holdback. Whenever Chloé and Damian did something too drastic, Lila, Erica, or someone associated with them would become an akuma and then their work was in ruin. Every akuma on their side would earn them ‘pity points’ and serve as ammunition against the Waynes’ front. 

The investigation proved fruitless. Sure, akumas could’ve been traced, but they actually made sure to never come from the same spot. Sometimes, it was a rundown building, other times a flat over a crowded restaurant; a hotel; a public toilet at the bus station. Adrien was moving and making sure not to fall for what got his father. They had no idea how he could be so stealthy. The cameras never saw anyone even similar to him at any of those places. Sabine was now running the rooftops as Shadowbat, not wanting the press to associate the Miraculous team with Batfamily too much for now. She had been using her old assassin suit (still fitting perfectly) with a bat logo on her chest as her outfit. She mostly just worked with Cass. Black Bat and Shadowbat. They were probably most feared of all dynamic duos in Gotham. Silent, ruthless, precise, undefeated.

Of course, peace couldn’t really last forever. About six weeks since Christmas, when Marinette’s birthday was closing in, the first real hiccup appeared. 

--------------

Just before lunch, Marinette’s phone vibrated, as well as several other people’s in the class. When the bell rang, she went to check it. From past experience, she knew that mass messages to students were usually bad. It had Erica and Lila plastered all over it. It was a link to the tabloid article. It opened with a photo of Damian and Allegra, sitting in a coffee shop and drinking coffee. She only read a bit of the content, far enough to reach the first quote of GA student, before storming out. People were giving her pitying looks as she walked toward the cafeteria. She didn’t want to do anything rash until she spoke to Chloé and Allegra. That was a new kind of low for the Mean Girls front. They even dared to attach a message of fake condolences to Marinette. 

Unknowingly, the Bluenette was channeling Damian the whole way, making people jump out of her path. Nobody ever saw the Angel (not that anyone would call her that within Damian’s hearing range, or where one of his multiple informants could inform him) so angry. Suddenly, everyone remembered how she took three football players in less than twenty seconds without getting more than a light bruise on her neck. 

The cafeteria was completely silent the moment she entered. Everyone expected her to rage at Damian, who was waiting next to the doors to intercept her immediately. To their utter and infinite surprise, she instead grabbed his hand into hers and squeezed tightly. A small smile made its way on her face and Damian smirked too. Nobody (but the ‘outcasts’) had any idea what that was about. Didn’t he cheat on her recently, or for a long time?

The two walked past the baffled crowd toward where Allegra and Chloé sat, already waiting for them. There were no words exchanged between the four, but the two blondes nodded like it was a signal. 

Marinette and Damian jumped onto the table in a synchronized show of grace and agility. Everyone stared at them. 

“Hi!” Marinette smiled. Next to her, her boyfriend was glaring at certain people in the crowd. “First, I wanted to thank all of you who actually meant it when they gave me their condolences. You had good intentions, even if they were completely misplaced.”

“Tt. I did not cheat on my Habibti. Not with anyone, and especially not with my cousin!” Damian growled at the silent cafeteria. They didn’t dare to respond vocally, but some lowered their heads in shame. While the relation between Bruce Wayne and Mayor Kane was not that well-known, they didn’t hide the connection. “The first cousin once removed to be precise.”

“Point is, the article is full of fake news and we’ll be dealing with it later. Still, I appreciate your effort.” She smiled at those who weren’t angry. Then, her face turned to the cold mask and she channeled Damian. “Now onto those who mocked us or tried to use it to break me and Damian apart. It won’t work. Stop. Don’t. I can’t see any situation where we would break up, and even then, there is no chance either of us would lower ourselves to dating any of you. I trust Damian with my life. I’m his and he’s mine!” She declared. 

“I’m hers and she’s mine.” Damian echoed. They raised their joint hands before turning to one another and sharing a quick kiss. Many people cooed at the romanticism of the scene. 

Erica and Lila were on the verge of a stroke. This was harder than either anticipated and they were, in fact, slowly losing more than they gained. 

A black butterfly entered through the window behind Marinette. As soon as she saw it, she acted without thinking and grabbed it. Everyone looked at her in panic. They saw the muscles in her forearm tighten and after a short moment a bit of some dark substance leaked through her fingers. When she opened her hand, the butterfly was turned into a gooey mess.

“Not today, Hawkass Junior.” She seethed. Then, she left to clean her hand with Allegra and Chloé following her. She rarely was left entirely alone, especially at school. As they walked, people gave her a loud applause. 

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“Why did it not work!?” Adrien raged in his hideout. Next to him, Nooroo was floating with his head bowed. 

“She… she touched it only with her skin. There was nothing to akumatize… master.” The little creature added, forced by the magic of the brooch. 

“But why didn’t the akuma pass through her fingers!?” The hero-turned-villain seethed.

“She… She damaged it before it could…”

“I paid a handsome sum of money to have that article published! It was supposed to either break them up or give me my own Scarlet Moth!” Adrien stomped around his hideout. “Now it’s all for naught! I want their Miraculouses! I want my family back!”

Another figure walked from behind him and pulled him into a hug. In the darkness, the only visible details were her silhouette and a predatory smile on her face. 

“Don’t worry. We will get what we want soon enough.”

“Did you decipher it?”

“Almost. There are several symbols on it that I have no idea what they mean.”

“Hm… I think I might have an akuma just for the occasion. It will require some setting-up though.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll deal with it. Meanwhile…” She said, her grin widening

“No. Get out of here, Witch.” He snapped.

“Spoilsport.” She muttered and walked away. Adrien felt anger bubbling inside him. Someone was so getting akumatized that day.

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Masterlist // Next

[brian-in-finance]

What the Heck Is Going on in the Oscars’ Supporting-Actor Category?

Kodi Smit-McPhee is out front, but things get messy beyond him. Awards Insider goes over the chances of Leto, Affleck, the Belfast boys, and more.

With the Golden Globe winners and SAG Award nominations announced this past week, the race for the supporting-actor Oscar has cemented a front-runner—and a whole lot of uncertainty beyond him. Ahead, David Canfield and Rebecca Ford identify the few they can safely say will be recognized by the Academy, and the many others with a shot to fill out the field.

David Canfield: If you weren’t clear on whether the Screen Actors Guild’s nominating committee chose chaos, Rebecca, then its supporting-actor picks should be enough to convince you. The group left conventional wisdom at the ballot box, lifting the hopes of a few bubble contenders while humbling a few candidates trying to ride their front-running films to their first-ever Oscar noms. But one clear throughline is emerging, at least, as to who might be the man to beat: Between dominating critics’ wins and getting recognized by all the major precursors so far, The Power of the Dog’s Kodi Smit-McPhee is top dog. (Sorry.) So before we get into the mess beyond him, do you agree? And who’s emerging as a potential challenger?

Rebecca Ford: Yes, I totally agree with you on Smit-McPhee, David. Just like his character in the film, he’s really showing up strong and sort of out of nowhere. I have to say I love that Wednesday’s SAG Awards nominations were chaotic because I think we’re all craving a little bit of drama in this season—after all, the events where we usually get such drama are non-existent for at least the next month. Anyway, I would have answered your question completely differently two days ago, but it's true that SAG has very much shaken up this category. I do think Troy Kotsur from CODA may now be Smit-McPhee's biggest competition. He won the Gotham award, and earned Critics Choice and SAG Awards nominations. And CODA clearly has some renewed momentum behind it, also earning an ensemble SAG nom too. Who else do you think has increased momentum in this category based on the most recents news?

Canfield: CODA is gaining momentum fast, and to your point, other than Smit-McPhee, Kotsur is the only actor to have landed nominations consistently across SAG, the Critics Choice, the Golden Globes, and the BAFTA longlist. So at minimum he feels like our other lock for a nomination. I’m also pretty surprised to say I like the chances of Licorice Pizza’s Bradley Cooper; transparently, upon seeing the movie, while I greatly enjoyed his performance I just didn’t think he had the screen time. Getting a SAG nomination for the Paul Thomas Anderson film, which is a big overall contender (the Academy’s acting noms always lean toward strong best-pic players, relative to SAG), is no small thing. Since the category is more shapeless than ever, I’d bet on him making the final five. And who knows, maybe he can keep surprising and Judi Dench his way to an upset.

SAG’s list was rounded out by Jared Leto for House of Gucci and Ben Affleck for The Tender Bar; the former also showed up with Critics Choice, and the latter with the Globes. But both are still very vulnerable in my eyes. With Leto, it depends on how much of a force you see House of Gucci being. Actors clearly like it, but as we’ve seen with past SAG nominees like Da 5 Bloods and The Big Sick, that doesn’t always mean a ton. Leto’s performance is polarizing, if memorable, and if Gucci isn’t landing with the Academy outside of best-actress lock Lady Gaga, he needs to work hard to maintain momentum. Affleck, meanwhile, is on even more of an island; he’d likely be the only nominee for a small, poorly reviewed movie in The Tender Bar. Despite hitting a few key precursors, he could meet a similar fate to his current partner, Jennifer Lopez, Hustlers’ lone torch-carrier who couldn’t cross the Academy finish line. (Affleck also missed BAFTA’s 15-man longlist, which does not bode well.)

But then again, these guys beat out stiff competition for the SAG five! Rebecca, what is your read on their chances, and who might overtake them? Surely Belfast gets someone in here?

Ford: Leto and Affleck are interesting surprises. I do think Affleck delivered a very strong supporting performance in The Tender Bar, but he hasn’t been considered a strong contender to land the Oscar nomination. I agree I don’t think he’ll make it. Leto is more of a wildcard. But let's not forget he got a Globe and SAG Award nom for The Little Things, which did not come anywhere close to translating into an Oscar nomination.

It’s pretty wild that a few weeks ago we were so sure two of Belfast’s supporting actors—Jamie Dornan and Ciaran Hinds—were locks for nominations. But they both missed out on SAG noms. The film did land a best ensemble nomination, which is a good sign, so I’m not totally counting them out, especially Dornan. They also made the BAFTA long list—if they had not that would have been the kiss of death. So, I’d say one of them has a chance to land an individual Oscar nomination, despite this setback.

We’ve talked a lot about the good but who would you say has been slipping down the ranks or is likely to miss at this point?

Canfield: I expected the beloved J.K. Simmons to pop with SAG, given how well Being the Ricardos had played to the guild, so both him and the film itself missing feel like a significant blow to his chances, unless the movie overperforms with the Academy, which I would not count on. (It didn’t even make the hair-and-makeup shortlist.) And while my hopes weren’t too high for the tremendous Mike Faist, he shared in a disappointing SAG noms morning for West Side Story; he’s not totally out of contention, but he’s yet to meet any significant noms list and it’s getting late. This is also the end of the line for some personal favorites from Mass (Jason Isaacs), The Humans (Richard Jenkins), C’Mon C’Mon (Woody Norman), and other fading titles. Frustrating, but so it goes.

Let me pass to you to close by posing a scenario that could mirror last year’s: Is all hope lost for Jesse Plemons? We were shocked when LaKeith Stanfield joined his Judas and the Black Messiah costar Daniel Kaluuya in the 2021 lineup, since his performance was subtler and he hadn’t shown up on any other nomination lists. (It was doubly weird since Stanfield campaigned as a lead, leaving the movie with… no lead.) But a surprising Oscar acting nominee tends to coattail—for lack of a better term; I loved Plemons’ quiet Power of the Dog turn, and the film is surging. Can he pull that off and join Smit-McPhee? Or maybe another candidate we’re not thinking of, like one of those Don’t Look Up fellas?

Ford: The supporting categories do often lead to at least one surprise, no matter how many of these sorts of pieces we tend to write. And if it would be anyone I do think Plemons could be the one, though it still seems like a stretch. I am also a little bummed that Robin de Jesús hasn’t had more momentum for his great performance in Tick…Tick…Boom!, but all the attention seems to be going to lead Andrew Garfield, who definitely does deserve it, of course. The Don’t Look Up cast is a bit of a wildcard because the film is being welcomed in by voters (as proven by the SAG Awards ensemble nom), despite the tepid reviews and social media drama. But none of the supporting stars have picked up any major noms as of yet, so I’m not sure it’s possible at this point. With less than one month to go until nominations are announced, doors are definitely beginning to close for many hopefuls—so we’ll just have to wait and see if any of them find a window to sneak in through.

Remember… I’m not totally counting them out, especially Dornan. They also made the BAFTA long list—if they had not that would have been the kiss of death. So, I’d say one of them has a chance to land an individual Oscar nomination, despite this setback. — Rebecca Ford

[handeaux]

17 Curious Facts About The Cincinnati Reds

The Original Cincinnati Baseball Team Now Plays In Atlanta

Everyone knows baseball’s first professional team was organized in Cincinnati in 1869. What’s forgotten is that team’s disappointing 1870 season, after which the franchise dissolved. Manager Harry Wright moved to Boston, where he organized, with some former Cincinnati teammates, the Boston Red Stockings in 1871. Renamed the Boston Braves in 1912, that team moved to Milwaukee in 1953, and to Atlanta in 1966.

Red Stockings Were Dangerous

The 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings created a sensation by wearing knickerbocker trousers to show off their manly calves, clothed in lurid scarlet, to entice more women to the ball park. Other clubs adopted Cincinnati’s style, but players reported cases of blood poisoning when they were spiked, because the toxic dyes coloring their stockings seeped into the wounds. By the early 1900s, players started wearing white “sanitary socks” under brightly (and dangerously) dyed “stirrup socks” to avoid infection.

Today’s Reds Are Cincinnati’s Fifth Professional Baseball Team

1. The Cincinnati Red Stockings of 1869 dissolved after the 1870 season. 2. A revived Reds, formed in 1875, joined the new National League in 1876, but was expelled from the league and dissolved in 1880 because they refused to stop serving beer. 3. The current Cincinnati Reds team was organized in 1881 to join the rival American Association, then quit the AA in 1889 to rejoin the National League. 4. The American Association returned to town in 1891 with team known as Kelly's Killers, who played in the East End. 5. A short-lived professional league, the Union Association, recruited a Cincinnati franchise, the “Outlaw Reds,” who competed during that league’s only season in 1884.

Too Much Sunshine.

Baseball games have been called on account of rain, snow, earthquakes, darkness and all sorts of factors, but the Cincinnati Reds once had a game called on account of sunshine. The Reds and the Boston Braves squared off on 6 May 1892 in League Park. This ancestor of Crosley Field was built facing west and, after 14 innings of scoreless play, the catchers and hitters complained they couldn’t see the ball as the sun slowly settled behind Price Hill. Umpire Jack Sheridan agreed and called the tie game on account of sunshine. The next day’s Enquirer called the decision “just and sensible.”

Cicadas Are Good Luck

Local maven Joe Hoffecker notes the Reds have played eight seasons during which Cincinnati endured an infestation of 17-year cicadas. During those eight seasons, the Reds won a World Series, two National League pennants and two second-place finishes. The combined won-lost record for those eight years is 633-553, for a cumulative .534 percentage. This bodes well for the 2021 season.

Build It And They Will Come

Before settling in at the corner of Western Avenue and Findlay Street, the Reds played ball at Union Grounds, located approximately where the Union Terminal Fountain is today (1867 to 1870), at  a park variously known as Cincinnati Baseball Park, Avenue Grounds, and Brighton Park, located in Camp Washington on Spring Grove Avenue north of the stockyards (1876 to 1880), and at the Bank Street Grounds in Brighton, near where Bank Street ends at I-75 today (1882 to 1883). The team settled at a former brickyard at the corner of Western Avenue and Findlay Street, named League Park (1884 to 1901), rebuilt as the Palace of the Fans in 1902, and as Redland Field in 1912. This venue was renamed Crosley field in 1934.

Ovine Groundskeepers

On the morning of 4 July 1894, somebody opened the gates at League Park and all the lawnmowers escaped. Groundskeeper John Schwab arrived at the ball grounds early to get the lines painted and stands swept for a double header only to discover that a flock of sheep he employed to trim the grass had wandered off. By nightfall, he hadn’t located his errant grounds crew.

Palms Of Seasoned Leather

Second baseman John Alexander “Bid” McPhee was the first major leaguer to play his entire professional career (1882-99) for the Cincinnati Reds. Many years later, Johnny Bench and Barry Larkin also achieved this feat. But there is another curious feat associated with Bid McPhee. He was certainly the last second baseman, and some sources claim he was the last player, to take the field without a glove. After 14 years of outstanding fielding without a mitt, McPhee donned a glove in 1896 and had a Hall of fame year.

Let’s Go Out To The Lobby

In 1913, the hottest concept in movie theaters was the airdome, an outdoor set-up under the stars with a piano player pounding away as silent films unspooled. The Reds organization hopped on that bandwagon by opening Cincinnati’s only roof-covered airdome at Redland Field. The nightly theater sat 3,000 viewers who got to see a feature and four shorts for a nickel. The Reds also leased their ballpark for dances, boxing, wrestling and track events.

Spring Training In A Cemetery

Although the 1919 Reds went on to claim the World Series crown, the year got off to an inauspicious start. Manager Pat Moran hauled the team to Waxahachie, Texas for spring training but found the weather anything but vernal. Constant rain and plunging temperatures prevented play on the field at Jungle Park, so the team practiced on the adjacent railroad tracks or crossed the road and found higher – and dryer – ground in the Waxahachie City Cemetery. It was the “dead ball” era, after all!

Ejected For Napping

Hall-of-Fame center-fielder Edd Roush has the distinction of being the only major leaguer ever ejected from a game for taking a nap on the field. The Reds opened an East Coast road trip on 8 June 1920, facing the New York Giants at the Polo Grounds. The defending world champions played miserably but vociferously challenged an eighth-inning call by umpire Barry McCormick. The ump allowed the debate to go on for a good 15 minutes, so Roush made a pillow of his cap and glove and reclined in the outfield. At length, McCormick ejected a couple of players and ordered play to resume, but Roush couldn’t be roused and was sent to the showers. New York won, 5 to 4.

Three Is Better Than Two

In all of major league history, there have been only three occasions in which two ball clubs played three games on a single day. The last of those rare triple headers involved the Cincinnati Reds. Fighting against Pittsburgh for third place in the National League, the Reds faced the Pirates at Forbes Field on 2 October 1920 for a marathon outing beginning at noon. The Reds took the first two games, clinching their third-place finish. The Pirates were ahead 6-0 when the third game was called on account of darkness.

Postponed On Account Of Lindbergh

In May 1927, Colonel Charles Lindbergh flew alone across the Atlantic Ocean. After returning stateside, Lindbergh embarked on a nationwide tour, arriving in Cincinnati on 6 August 1927. The Reds hastily erected a temporary platform at Redland Field and the gates opened for a standing-room-only crowd to hear their hero speak. So many aviation enthusiasts filled the stands that the Reds couldn’t clear them out to let the paying baseball crowd in. That day’s game was postponed and the Reds and Phillies turned the next day’s game into a double-header.

Up, Up And Away!

On 8 June 1934, the Cincinnati Reds became the first major league baseball team to travel to a game by airplane when they journeyed to Chicago. Manager Bob O’Farrell and 19 players flew to Chicago, some said, in a bid to distract attention from their last-place standing. The Reds beat the Cubs that day, 4 to 3.

No Commies Here!

Throughout the late 1940s and early 1950s, Americans suspected anyone with liberal leanings of supporting Communism. Nationally televised hearings led by Senator Joseph McCarthy raised anti-Communist feelings to a fever pitch, and no one wanted to be labelled a “Red.” Bowing to popular pressure, the Cincinnati Reds became the Cincinnati Redlegs from 1954 to 1959 to allay any concerns about their patriotism.

Fewer Trains Meant Parking For The Reds

In 1957, both the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants departed for sunny California, and New York City was left holding the bag. That bag contained an unfulfilled offer to build what would become Shea Stadium as part of a futile effort to hold either of the National League teams in Gotham. Snubbed by both, New York determined to build that stadium anyway and attempted to lure the Reds to the Big Apple. Reds owner Powel Crosley Jr. hinted that he might consider such an offer, because he needed parking. Cincinnati rushed a plan to demolish Union Terminal’s maintenance facilities to create more parking spaces around Crosley Field.

Rosie Reds Kept The Team In Cincinnati

Despite winning the National League pennant in 1961, the Reds saw dwindling attendance over the following years. When owner Bill DeWitt let it be known in 1964 that he was entertaining an offer to sell the team to a San Diego syndicate, the Queen City panicked. Among the proposals to boost attendance was the successful formation of the Rosie Reds to encourage women to attend games. The Rosie Reds are still going strong after more than 50 years. “Rosie,” by the way, is an acronym. It stands for Rooters Organized to Stimulate Interest & Enthusiasm.

[A tip of the hat to Cincinnati Reds Historian Greg Rhodes whose research was invaluable in compiling this list.]

[anjuschiffer]

New Promise

AHHHHHHHH! The second to last update to To [Not] Be A Bat is here!!! To think it’s almost done QvQ Anyways, enjoy!

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P.Tag: @theatreandcomicfreak @damianette-is-life

Tag: @toodaloo-kangaroo @maribat-is-lifeblood @tis-i-beanbandit

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First | Prev

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AO3

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Jason heard a whimper, his head quickly snapping to look at Mari, her eyes quickly trying to adjust to her new surroundings. 

“Ja-”

“Take it easy, Bug.” Jason hushed, Marinette wanting to ask if it was him who yelled her name when she had passed out.

“I’m sorry.” Marinette whispered, her lips quivering. She didn’t miss the way his eyes saddened. “I should’ve never-”

“I’m the one who should be apologizing, Lutin.” Ah, so it was him who had called her out. “ I should’ve never let you go by yourself to-”

“It’s my fault for even making you agree with doing all this.” Mari cut off, placing her hand on his cheek. “I should’ve listened to Dad, because… he was right. I’m not cut out to play Gotham’s game. It’s nothing compared to Paris’ magical terrorist. Even with your short and harsh training, it still wasn’t enough. Gotham’s crime needed a more experienced player, something I am not.” God, how Marinette hated the lump that was forming in her throat, a pressure starting to weigh in her. “I should’ve just stayed back in Paris.”

“Nettie.” Jason grabbed her hand. “Stop blaming yourself. None of us expected for things to go the way they did.” Jason said, his eyes now stern. “And don’t ever say that again.” They softened again. “You don’t know what a blessing you are.”

“Mari!” Tim’s voice interrupted, Jason and Mari turning to see their little brother, his eyes red and filled to the brim with unshed tears, snot daring to run once again. “You’re awake!”

“Tim.” Mari managed to whisper, feeling responsible for his appearance. How dare she make Tim worry, how dare she make him cry! 

Didn’t she promise him to never make him cry? To always stay by his side? “I’m so sorry.”

“You don’t have to say sorry.” Tim said, climbing onto the bed, Jason getting off so that he can properly sit next to Mari.

“But I do.”

“No, you-”

“I made you cry.” Mari counted. “I left your side. I almost never returned.” Mari placed a hand on  Tim’s cheek, noticing his steel blue eyes warble. “I broke our two major promises. I let you down.” 

That’s all it took for Tim to release the waterworks.

“I was scared Mari!” Tim wailed. “I-I-I didn’t want you to die! I didn’t want you- I didn’t want you to leave me again!” Tim let out another hiccup, vigorously wiping away the tears that kept pouring out. “When I saw all that blood on you, I-I-I-” Tim stopped talking when Jason placed a shoulder on Tim,launching himself to Jason. He burrowed his face into his shirt, his cries and wails muffled, but still heart wrenching to hear. 

Marinette didn’t notice when she had started crying until she saw Dick and Bruce’s sadden expressions when they entered the room and saw her. 

Marinette looked at Dick but didn’t dare to look at their father, quickly looking away. Bruce didn’t miss this, watching as her mouth quivered.

“Marinette.” Bruce spoke softly, hating that she flinched when he spoke her name.

“Nettie, please.” Dick coaxed, his heart aching when he saw her attempt to turn over, her eyes shutting tight. “Please, just-” Bruce stopped him, shaking his head, prompting Dick to step down.

“Everyone. Leave us alone.” Bruce said, watching as his sons hesitated to leave. With a sigh, Dick rounded Jason and Tim, leading the two out of the room, closing the door with a soft click. “Marinette.” He watched as she flinched again. “Ma fille.”

An odd, yet comforting silence filled the room, the beeping of Marinette’s monitor providing some type of company. It broke with the slip of a tear.

“I’m sorry.” Mari said, finally turning to face her father, yet to raise her head. “I should’ve listened to you...because...because you were right. You were right about everything, and I...I-” A hiccup escaped her, Bruce shushing her as he sat next to her.

“That’s all over now.” Bruce held her hand in his, noticing how small it still was to his. But even then, they were covered in scars and calluses, proof of her growth as a fighter...as a person. “What matters now is that you're safe.”

“It does matter.” Marinette refuted, looking up to her father, hating that he seemed blurred in her vision. “You tried to warn me about the dangers of Gotham and I even saw it through the monitor in the Batcave and yet I went against you, I went behind your back and-”

“I forgive you.”

“But-”

“I made a promise to your mother...to Sabine.” He watched as Marinette looked at him with wondering eyes. “I promised her that I would protect you.”

“And I made you fail her.”

“No.” Bruce corrected. “You made me realize that I should’ve trusted you more. To believe that you knew what you were doing. Instead of sheltering you, I should’ve instead held your hand.” Marinette tightened her grasp on her father’s hand. “I should’ve guided you instead of treating you like a child when I fully knew what you were capable of. Even Tom told me of your experience as a martial artist when you were a child.”

Marinette let out a laugh, a small one, but one nonetheless.

“Papa always fought with Maman over that. He didn’t want me to do anything dangerous, but Maman always argued that I should be given the opportunity to try new things.” 

“I guess that’s what Tom and I have in common.” At that, Marinette smiled, a faint memory made its way to her. “I remember her smile when I told her I was Ladybug. She was so proud of me, boasting to Papa that all those classes were worth every cent.” 

“I bet she was very proud to have raised you the way she did.”

“She was.” Marinette managed to say without her voice cracking. “She really was.” Marinette led out a cry, a cry that catapulted to a long series of wails and sobbing, Bruce sitting there as she poured her sorrow out.

She rambled about missing her mother, she rambled about her conversation with her other father, the argument she had with her brothers, and endlessly apologized towards him about going against his warning.

Bruce didn’t interrupt her, not even once, simply holding her hand as she cried

“Marinette.”

“Yes?” Another sniffle.

“I’ve talked with the boys and discussed what to do next.” Marinette held in a breath. “We’ve decided that it’s best to let you join us when you’ve finished recovering.” Bruce watched as a twinkle made its way to her eyes. “Of course, we’ve also discussed arranging more time together as a family, attending family therapy as our first step. What do you think?”

“I think… I think we can do that.” Marinette said, a small smile appearing on her face. “I want to, with everyone.”

“That we will.” Bruce kissed her forehead, a giggle escaping Marinette. “Let’s recover together, okay?”

“Okay.”

Epilogue

[stxleslyds]

MY REVIEW OF UNDER THE RED HOOD!

EDIT: This is Tati from the present, Hello! I am writing this little message right now to let you know that I am rebloging this post because I recently re-read it and I wanted to make it “better”, this was my second review that I had ever made and I am quite fond of it but it needed to be brushed up and made easier to read. Now, let me be honest, I am not an excellent writer so there are probably some mistakes here still but I like it even more now, so yeah, that’s all I had to say!

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This review is here not only because I love that book but because Geoff Johns and Scott Lobdell’s characterization of Jason and Red Hood gives me nightmares and it’s just annoying.

First let me set the scene, here we go!

Jason’s death was confirmed in book three of four in the Death in the Family event back in December, 1988 (Batman #428). But he is officially brought back sixteen years and two months after his death in the iconic Batman: Under the (Red) Hood event (Batman #635-641, #645-650, Annual #25)

This particular event is just wonderful, I love this for many reasons some of which I will probably talk about in this post but it has impacted me so much that if anyone asks me what Batman story I would recommend it would be this one.

Now just a heads up, I always felt impartial to Batman as a hero but around three years ago I started borderline hating the guy and now I just can’t stand him half of the time, and I blame it on his overuse and the god complex that some writers can’t seem to write him without. So, I don’t really recommend UtRH in a good light when talking about the Bat himself. It’s all about my boy, Jason Todd.

UtRH is just amazing at showing these two character’s motivations and how they seem to think that their ways of handling crime are the best way. But it also shows us so many aspects of how Jason’s death impacted both Jason and Bruce.

Let’s start the review!

UtRH starts with a look into the future, a fight between Batman and a mysterious man in a red helmet that seems to not be an easy opponent for the Bat and it also looks like these two have been going at it for a while but just as we arrive we see that it may be over in the Bat’s favor but in that exact moment the red helmeted man unmasks Batman! Seemingly not shocked that Bruce Wayne is the Bat the mysterious man decides that he will show his face too...but all we get to see is Bruce’s face of shock and then.... we are thrown back at what we come to believe is the real beginning of the story.

Probably you can’t tell, but to me this is an amazing start to a story, you have the Bat who is sold as an excellent fighter struggling in a fight but when it seems that he is going to win something major happens... the mysterious man unmasks a legendary hero and doesn’t make a fuss about it and then he manages to shock the Bat by showing his face (which is not shown to the reader), I just think its genius, it sets up this new guy as an incredibly good and interesting character.

So now we find ourselves thrown back 5 weeks in the past and we come in contact with a meeting with some very shady people that don’t really know who put together the whole thing and while they try to rationalize it a round of shots hits the table they are sitting around.

Here is where we see this leather-jacket-wearing dude, holding an AK-47 while posing for the Google earth cameras, telling those people that he reunited them and that he is hot shit. He is there to make a deal; the dramatic queen wants to run the underworld of Gotham and not only is he offering protection against the Black Mask but against the Bat too.

Well, needless to say, those guys aren’t necessarily buying what he is selling so that my friends takes us to an iconic moment, this dude proceeds to throw a duffel bag with the heads of these people’s lieutenants and to finish it off he just shots another round to make the message clear...I mean talk about dramatic entrances!

Please don’t worry I didn’t forget about the most important part of this whole entrance...we were just introduced to this man who means business and wants to rule Gotham’s underworld and manage its drug trade and it’s all very swell but the truly important thing is what he says next:

“You stay away from kids and school yards. NO dealing to children, got it? If you do, you are DEAD.”

That’s a powerful message and this is just me speculating but if he has to make that specification clear...it leads me to think that kids are people that he wants to protect and no matter how much money they could bring to the business he wants them out of the equation, also the price for breaking that rule is death…. So yeah, is he truly a villain or...?

Now after all of this we jump to Black Mask receiving information of a new player in the game and he doesn’t seem like he cares, to him it’s just a newbie trying to mess around on a street level so he moves on with his business of recruiting Mr. Freeze for an undisclosed job. On the other hand, we are shown Batman crying over the fact that Oracle isn’t working with him anymore and then teaming up with Nightwing (that is wearing a knee brace and probably shouldn’t be out doing extreme parkour with his furry dad but hey, what do I know?)

We see Freeze trying on some new clothes and then we are back again with Black Mask, here, for the very first time we hear the new player’s name...Red Hood.

Following Batman and Nightwing we find them intercepting a shipment that appears to have a bunch of gadgets from several villains and among them there was a bomb, it explodes (detonated by the Red Hood) and from then on, the fun begins...the Bat and Nightwing go on pursuit and we get to see what the Bat thinks about Hood. He thinks that he is very well trained, agile and unpredictable, he also has an overall sense of familiarity coming from Hood but he ends up saying that it’s nothing they haven’t seen before, what he doesn’t expect is having been led to a trap which is, Amazo, yay! (Amazo was the cargo that Mask was waiting for).

Amazo is taken down with a little bit of struggle but he eventually is thrown to Gotham harbor and we are informed in another panel by Mask that Amazo wasn’t supposed to be activated so we can safely assume that it was Hood the one who did it. Mask is pissed that the Bat broke his toy and is going to be more pissed off when he answers a call from a certain red helmeted man...

Hood informs Mask that he took one of the crates from the shipment and that it might be one of the most valuable ones, our boy stole a crate with at least one hundred pounds of kryptonite...yeah no big deal.

Here I will make a stop to tell you that we know that this Red Hood is extremely tactical, he has a plan within a plan that takes down several players, he is confident in what he is doing and is certainly not afraid to get his hands dirty. He is a worthy opponent to Black Mask, Nightwing and Batman. We are just starting to know him but he is already great and it only gets better.

As we enter chapter three of the story we see Hood asking for 50 million dollars from Black Bask for the kryptonite that he stole from Black Mask (say that again), to everyone’s surprise Mask “agrees” to give him the money easily... well, not really, Mask is going to send Freeze to kill Hood and get that (quite honestly) unnecessary amount of kryptonite back.

Hood obviously knew that he wasn’t going to get whatever money he negotiated but he also wasn’t quite ready to take on Freeze but he did his best. When Freeze is the last one standing Batman shows up and a kinda lame fight ensues...Freeze leaves and Hood says that he really doesn’t care about the kryptonite, all he wants is the “lay of the land” and then leaves.

If you are wondering where Hood went, well…he went to an abandoned funhouse to terrorize the Joker! Yes people, it’s confirmed, Hood is a good boy! Go get him Hood I am rooting for you!

IT IS CROWBAR TIME! (And this time in reverse)

 In the start of chapter four Hood is blowing up yet another truck full of weapons belonging to Mask.

Elsewhere Batman is bothering Zatanna about one of Ra’s Al Ghoul’s (sealed) Lazarus pits. Asking if the pit can raise the dead and being his natural rude self. Because he doesn’t get the information that he needs and goes to Jason Blood who tells him that if he wants to know about people who came back from the dead he might as well talk to Green Arrow but his chat with him doesn’t lead anywhere so that’s that.

Onyx is introduced to us as a vigilante accepted by the Bat (you know, because of that thing where other vigilantes can only do their thing in Gotham if the Bat lets them because he is the high king or something) and when she comes across some dealers she finds out they work for the Red Hood and given that he is an unknown player she relieves the information to B who acts like an ass because he thought she had seen Hood and that she compromised one of his informants…now here is the thing, why does B act like everyone has mind reading abilities? How on earth would she have known that he had an informant and that the Red Hood wasn’t news to him...I am sorry dude but you are a shitty person of the highest quality  

Anyway, Onyx is actually doing her work watching shady men talk about if they will or not join the Red Hood, one of them says something like “I won’t join that psycho because he decapitated some of my men” (good men, he specified) but Onyx isn’t alone, Hood makes it known by telling her that those men were selling drugs to twelve-year-old’s (remember kids are protected by Hood, you absolutely do not involve them and if you do...well, congrats, you are dead)

At this point we are in chapter six of the story and another character trait is revealed to us from Red Hood, he is meticulous in the way he works. He knows almost everyone involved in the drug trade, what they did and are doing, the relationships they hold with Mask or whoever their boss is. The information he gathers lets him know if the people will stick to his rules and can also use the information he has against them. So, he is extremely dangerous, we have to imagine that if he is that thorough with street level baddies what kind of knowledge does he have on people like Batman...well, spoiler alert, he knows everything and he will use it and has been using it since he first saw him.

 While Onyx and Hood are on their way to take down those men Batman is in Metropolis asking Superman about his death and how he managed to come back to life.

Onyx soon understands what “taking down” truly means when it comes to Hood...they manage to get out of the warehouse just for him to grab a gun and shoot everyone on sight, which doesn’t sit well with Onyx so she tells him that, to which Hood has something to say just before he stabs her:

“Welcome to earth, baby! These dead sacks of meat on the floor made their living by beating, raping and devouring. Fear isn’t the answer.”

And I want to put as much importance into this as I did to the whole “keep kids away from this business” because it’s really important in what’s to come and the way Hood thinks is the better way to battle crime in Gotham.

That sentence alone tells us what kind of people Hood takes down, he plays judge, jury and executioner, he chooses who he kills and who is worth leaving alive if their crimes aren’t the ones that he decided must be paid with death. But it goes beyond that, he brings the fear factor… we know how batman works, he relies in criminals fearing him and the fact that they will be beaten and sent to jail or Arkham (if they are mad enough).

Here is what I believe is the fundamental difference between the fear factor used by those two, on the Bat’s side, the fear is left in the people he attacks but in Hood’s side, the fear is left in those who find the bodies.

After Hood stabs Onyx he decides to stay and chat, he tells her that he stabbed her in the shoulder because he knows it hurts and because (look at this smartass) he saw that she was “favoring one side” so he deduced that she had had an injury and teases her about maybe coming back to crime fighting a bit early...if you don’t think that’s cocky enough he then makes a comment about how the angle of the knife will make it harder for her to pull it out so, there you go, the man is well trained and knows what he is doing.

After that we get another piece of information about Hood and it’s actually given to us and Onyx by Hood himself, he says “I am no one’s son”.

Hood also shows us another character trait of his...he is a little shit. And very good at it. After he stabs Onyx “choice time” comes, basically he gives her two (three) options either he takes out the blade and she runs or he pulls the blade down from her shoulder to her hip and she bleeds out.  He also says that she could maybe join him, which is revealed quite quickly to be a joke and then proceeds to take the blade out and covering the wound with a “high-end field dressing for the modern soldier. It adheres as well as closes the wound with an antibacterial adhesive agent...stops the bleeding cold”.

I wrote the whole thing word for word because I think it’s important for us to see that he saved her life, and he also didn’t let her choose he just did it, let’s think about this, Hood shows up to that meeting not expecting to see Onyx there and instead of losing his cool he just talks to her about the men,  invites her to fight (his way but she didn’t know that) they make their escape and after the men are all killed by Hood she is furious so he, rather violently, completely immobilizes her so he can tell her what’s on his mind and then he gives her choices but here is what I really think...she never had choices because she is not his target, she doesn’t fit among the people that he thinks must be put down, so stabbing her came hand in hand with saving her.

Saving her just to ask her if she will “get up, fight and stop him” because he is still a cocky bastard...but surprise! Batman showed up to the party!

Hood isn’t too shaken up, in fact he uses the opportunity to make a show of his knowledge of the Bat’s thinking and his gadgets...he flatters the fact that he didn’t even hear him land and starts explaining to Onyx how the plane works, it can be stealthy or it can destroy your eardrums, then the chase ensues, B actually makes Hood fall at some point but it really doesn’t bother him, he continues to “flatter” the Bat’s technique, training and gadgets (all to fight the “malignant scum that ravage this city” Hood says) but ultimately tells him that he also has toys (that apparently he intercepted from Kord industries).

The chase turns into a fight in a rooftop, and yes my friends, this is the fight from the beginning of the story, the “you show me your face and I show you mine” fight.

Hood wants Batman to ask himself what has he done, and this I suppose is in reference to what he has done to deserve Hood coming after him. To which the Bat offers nothing but accuses Hood of being a murderer to which he answers with “No. I’ve killed, not murdered”

That confuses me, so first I will tell you what I found about the difference between killing and murdering somebody. A human kills another when it’s without intent or an accident, on the other hand when a human murders another it’s done with intent. About intent I found the following: “A person intends a consequence when they 1) foresee that it will happen if their given series of acts or omissions continue, and 2) desire it to happen.”

I don’t really know if Winick or the editors mixed the concepts of the two or if there is more to it. I honestly cannot wrap my head around it. It really doesn’t fit with what he has been saying, like the no dealing drugs to kids because if they do they will pay with their lives.

Anyway, my confusion is not what matters here, what matters is that we have arrived to the moment in which Red Hood will reveal to Batman his identity yay!

It’s Jason! Jason Todd is back from the grave!

It takes a bit of time for Bruce to come to terms with the reality of things but Jason assures him that he is who he says he is, he even suggests that Bruce has known his identity for a while and that it has been brewing in his head since Clayface.

I know, there are some things that need to be cleared up, the UtRH story is set in issues #635 (February, 2005) to #650 (April, 2006) but in a previous story (Batman: Hush) that ran from issues #608 to #619 “Jason” or better said Clayface disguised as an adult version of Jason had a fight with Batman where some old wounds were opened, this happened in issue #618 (October, 2003).

As far as we know that Jason wasn’t real and that was that, in fact we didn’t get the real events up until Red Hood: The Lost Days, a miniseries that came out in 2010, in the last issue it’s explained to us that by the time of Batman: Hush’s events Jason was already in Gotham and he was giving Hush information to mess with the Bat, and that’s all the information I have right there.

Back again to the story, Batman wants to know how Jason came back to life and he responds that he doesn’t know and doesn’t care, but he does give blood, tissue and fingerprints to Bruce so he can do some tests in the cave to prove that it’s really him, Bruce is once again being difficult saying that it still won’t make him believe but Jason knows better and tells him so.

He also says that it doesn’t matter what he is now, what matters is what Bruce is and what Jason will become. And Jason will become the kind of man Bruce would have been had he killed the Joker.

This whole conversation is very informative; Jason tells Bruce that he knows how to help Gotham because he understands the city more than Bruce. And in order to do that he will kill the Joker and those who deserve to die. This obviously doesn’t sit well with Bruce but Jason doesn’t really care what he thinks so he creates a distraction so he can leave B alone to marinate his thoughts.

It’s here at the end of chapter seven that I am going to cut the first part of the review before too long becomes way too long, so, see you in the second part!

The second part is linked here!