#all of Tim’s TT buddies were…dead.

[benbamboozled]

I feel like Tim Drake getting fired from being Robin has a particular “the boy cried you a sweater of tears…and you kill him” energy.

Because like…Dick Grayson had already pretty much lost everything before he became Robin. Jason Todd was a homeless orphan street youth before he became Robin.

Tim Drake had a life and a family and friends…BEFORE he became Robin. And then, his entire life was literally dismantled until he had NOTHING, specifically because of his work as Robin.

All of his friends died, his family died, his girlfriend died, he was a high school dropout…he has ONE thing…and then he gets fired, lol.

The boy cries you a sweater of tears…and you kill him.

[bitimdrake]

I have finished Forever Evil!

Major event, and the first major universe-wide crossover event of the New 52, so some thoughts:

This makes it incredibly evident how much smaller the New 52 world is. Part of this story is that the JL went missing, and then the Teen Titans get sent into the time stream in issue #2 and...that's it. There's no extended roster of former/honorary JLA members and Titans to call on, no JSA, no Outsiders, no nothing. Other teams do exist in the New 52, but they're just not connected enough. It feels so different from the preboot events I'm used to, because there simply isn't the deep, expansive, interconnected community of heroes all those events rely on.

That's not necessarily a bad thing from an objective perspective, but personally it does feel like a huge loss. I love that sense of constant community across heroes in the preboot world, I love the sense of history in all the teams and all their members that have come before, so I'm very sad to be shown just how thoroughly that's been lost.

That said, I'm down with the concept of this event having a large focus on our villains--the evil version of the Justice League--and protagonists in the form of other villains who just happen to be opposed to them, while our heroes are out of commission. Very fitting for an event entitled Forever Evil. (And they clearly picked from their most popular villains: you got Luthor, Captain Cold, Manta, Black Adam, and Sinestro, plus Catwoman and a new version of Bizarro.)

(dc: do you promise to love B-Zero / me: yes!!! / dc: lmao sucker)

This also only makes it the more jarring and annoying that somehow Batman still manages to be a main character.

(DC i s2g you will not die if you let him take a backseat just once)

The Crime Syndicate mostly has just enough to sustain a story while still being enjoyably hateable, but :| Superwoman :| not good. Dislike that the single token evil woman's story is 100% about being pregnant and cheating and having relationships with men :|

"the prisoner" obviously had to be a reversed version of one of our leads, and that part wasn't particularly shocking

but fuck if "mazahs" didn't get me as a reveal. 👌 👌 👌

OKAY so speaking of how much smaller the world is, it's such a bummer to see this Dick plotline happening in the New 52. Because who is there to react to this really? We see Bruce, Tim, Barbara; probably would have seen Damian were he alive. Jason doesn't even appear, but that's still only one (1) other person. Dick has no other close friends among heroes. The Titans never existed. He isn't buddies with Superman.

The entire Dick plotline feels like it's trying to bank on the long-running pattern of Dick being an essential keystone of the DC universe, except that's just not true anymore.

Makes me sad, because I truly think Dick's identity being revealed could have been a cool af moment to prompt some fun new plots...but only in a world where Dick is actually important like that.

This is the one reason I forgive Bruce being a major character here, because god we need somebody to care about and interact with Dick in these scenes. Damian is dead. Tim gets thrown into the timestream with the rest of the TTs, and isn't close to Dick in the New 52 anyway. Jason isn't close to him. No Titans. He and Babs have a told-not-shown vague impression of a will-they-won't-they except they never have here. Bruce is the only one who can really bring emotion to that scene. So I will allow Batman being here, just this once.

(Dick & Tim crumbs: Tim sees Dick is captured and immediately is worried and declares the Teen Titans have to go save him, allowing me to pretend just for the course of this storyline they are still beloved brothers.)

All the oneshot villain tie-ins absolutely bog the whole thing down way, way too much. Reading was a slog, and I was still only reading the ones it batbooks. Once I dropped those, went back to the beginning, and read just the main Forever Evil and Justice League books, it was way more fun and a breeze to read.

Overall, I'd say I definitely have complaints, some of which are more the fault of the New 52 overall than this specific story line, but there were many points where I was excited to keep reading or see what happened next, so I guess I did ultimately enjoy it!

[runningwitches]

Buddy and Ummi: The Realization (Damian Wayne x Mother Figure!Reader)

Summary:  As Dick Grayson’s girlfriend, you meet his new younger sibling, Damian Wayne. The young boy doesn’t know how to express that he needs a mother figure, but once you figure it out, you’re happy to be just that. This is the third part in the series. If you haven’t read the first two parts you can find them in the masterlist below.

Word Count: 1216

Series Masterlist

You spent the next day replaying memories from the lovely dinner you had with your boyfriend’s family. You smiled when you realized that you were nervous over nothing not even 24 hours ago. You were so scared that his family would hate you that you didn’t even know what to do now that they didn’t. And as you sat there thinking about Dick and his family, your mind wandered to Damian.

He grew up in such a different environment. He didn’t have a childhood, and that made you upset. You could tell that he was clinging on to the idea of finding a parental figure. Obviously he had Bruce, but you could see the dynamic between them wasn’t necessarily healthy. It was clear to you that Bruce loved his son, even if he didn’t quite understand him, but you also knew from conversations you had held with Dick that he wasn’t always the best at showing it. The idea of the boy growing up in such a hostile environment and then being thrown into a family who is awful with feelings wasn’t an ideal situation.

And then it dawned on you.

After the initial meeting with him, Damian instantly began to like you. By the end of the evening he was by your side and didn’t seem to want to leave. And you realized that you were the only female in his life, even if you had just met. Obviously he had his mother and people from the league, but he was no longer in contact with them. Now his questions about your family and if you had younger siblings made sense. Even if he didn’t realize or if he would never admit, he was hoping to find some sort of maternal figure in you. And now you were determined to give him exactly that.

It was only one week later when you returned to the manor. Dick picked you up from your apartment despite the insistence that you were able to drive yourself, and the two of you headed out for an early lunch at the manor. It was the weekend, so Damian was off from school (which he was just recently enrolled in), you didn’t think Tim went to school anymore (yet you still weren’t sure the reason quite yet), Bruce had gotten the day off from work and Alfred convinced him to take the day off from being Batman too, and so the only one missing was Jason, who ended up showing up halfway through lunch, claiming he got held up (when everyone knew he really just slept in).

Upon entrance to the manor, Alfred greeted you with a smile on his face as usual before making his way back into the kitchen. Then you were greeted by Damian, who appeared to have been waiting for you to arrive.

You gave him a smile and ruffled his hair. “Hey bud.”

He scowled at you before saying, “It is good to see you, (Y/L/N).”

“You know you could call me (Y/N), right?”

“Tt.”

“I’m pretty sure he calls everyone by their last name babe, don’t worry about it,” Dick mentioned to you. You gave your boyfriend a smile, ruffled Damian’s hair again and walked to the dining room where you presumed Bruce and Tim would be. You found Bruce sitting there working on paperwork and nursing a cold coffee that he must have had since breakfast hours ago. Tim was at the other end of the table with a fresh mug of coffee that had to have been at least his third of the day as he was typing away at his computer. The two of them were both completely immersed in their work, and didn’t notice your entrance until you spoke up.

“Hey Bruce, Tim,” you said, nodding at each of them as they looked up from their work. “Alfred told me today was supposed to be work-free. What happened to that?”

“Running a multi-billion dollar company happened,” Bruce simply stated in a gruff voice, before taking a sip of his coffee and returning to his paperwork.

You smiled fondly at the both of them, taking note of how similar the two were, before making your way into the kitchen and offering help to Alfred, who was still cooking the meal.

While you were in the dining room, Damian turned to Dick, “Tt, I would appreciate it if you told (Y/L/N) to keep her hands away from my hair.” 

Dick simply smirked at him and said, “I don’t know, Dami. If I didn’t know you better, I’d think you enjoyed that.”

“Do not be a fool, Grayson. It is annoying and I do not wish to tolerate it any longer.” Though his words seemed harsh, the usual aggression in his voice wasn’t there, and Dick was happy to know that someone was finally getting through to him. The two of them made their way into the dining room, and sat down. When you came back into the room holding a tray of food, you smiled upon seeing the family that so readily accepted you into their lives (sans Jason), and placed the food on the table. Alfred followed you seconds later with the rest of the food, but he left one plate covered in the kitchen, saving it for Jason’s arrival.

“So Damian,” you began, “how’s school treating you?” Damian was in the seat directly in front of you this time, seeing as last time, Jason occupied that chair in an attempt to prevent Damian from murdering you. (It worked.) The new seating arrangement made it easier for you to converse with the boy.

“Tt, it’s awful. Everyone there is stupid, including the teachers.”

“Are you going to Gotham Academy?”

“Yes. All of the people that paid their way in think that they are the best, and all of the scholarship students think they’re the smartest. I’ve only been there a week and it’s insufferable.”

“Sounds like you have the same mindset that you think they have, buddy.”

Though everyone at the table was doing their own thing (much to Alfred’s distaste), their heads turned to you when you called Damian ‘buddy.’ They were expecting some type of outburst, a thrown knife (which is why he was only allowed butter knives), a punch thrown, some sort of tantrum, but as they looked to the young boy, they saw him begin to contemplate your words instead of overreact to them. Dick was beaming when he realized that you were actually getting through to the young boy. Tim and Bruce sat there in shock as Alfred looked between the two of you. Even he was confused at the sudden change in demeanor.

“I suppose you’re correct.”

“Of course I’m correct,” you stated, sending the young boy a smile, “you should try and give people a chance. I know it’s difficult because everyone probably already has an idea of you in their mind that they want you to conform to, but if you ignore everyone forever and assume that they’re all awful, you’re going to be terribly lonely, don’t you think?”

“I don't get lonely, I'm used to being alone.”

“Okaaayyy,” you simply responded before returning to your food. You couldn't help but notice the beaming smile Dick was giving you.

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