#and I choose to become 1960s Joker

[zahri-melitor]

Do you think there’s any hope of Tim getting a transition story anytime soon?

If so, what would you like to see?

Depends what you mean by transition.

In terms of Tim getting a new hero identity? I suspect the order of events there consists of "someone pitches something that DC likes, that they think will sell, and that fans won't overreact to", and then title sells well.

Because they got burnt during Young Justice 2019. Whether or not you think 'Drake' was a terrible idea for a new identity, the fandom reaction to it made it that much less likely for Tim to get given a new ID.

Because I guarantee for you that no matter what someone proposes, there will be people who kick back against it, and for it to work, it's going to need to be woven into DC mythology in a meaningful way.

This is where I'm going to point out that MOST Bats are running around using legacy identities. Nightwing is a legacy Superman-related identity, that Clark gave to Dick as part of their friendship, that goes back to the 1960s. Red Hood is a legacy identity, that Jason took from Joker and turned into his own as a take that. Batgirl is a legacy identity, that traces to Betty Kane and to Barbara, which is actively used by Steph and Cass. Robin is a legacy identity that belongs to Dick. Red Robin is a legacy identity - it was developed for Dick in Kingdom Come, and it passed through Jason to get to Tim. Kate Kane is Batwoman BECAUSE Kathy Kane was Batwoman, and Batwoman and Batgirl were deliberately designed to be feminine legacies of Batman. Azrael as a mantle is explicitly a legacy mantle that JPV holds.

Yes, Steph as the Spoiler and Duke and the Signal work and were accepted by the public as solid hero names, but those were both their first proper identities, and they were new characters without a significant weight of backstory.

Oracle works as an identity for Barbara because John Ostrander and Kim Yale spent the time and worked up a backstory for Barbara's transition into becoming Oracle, and made it full of joy and promise. She seized something new and created it for herself out of the ruins of where she'd been left as a character.

This is why I hate when people just throw out suggestions for random bird names for Tim to have a new identity. It has no depth to it. There's no point in calling Tim 'Blackbird' or 'Raptor' or whatever unless you invest in storytelling for why Tim would find that a meaningful name to represent. Why does he attach more meaning to it than being Robin (or Red Robin). It's lazy storytelling.

You can rescue it from an Elseworlds or another Earth. It doesn't have to be a direct "I am giving you my ID" like the transfer of Robin. But it needs to have history to it as a name for it to feel right as an identity for Tim Drake, a legacy character who has been around for 35 years, and who is fiercely associated with the concept of belonging to a team. It needs to speak to who he is as a character, and what his goals are in using that identity.

This is why Tim!Nightwing during the Ric Grayson period would have worked - Nightwing has that meaning, and if you wrote Tim and Dick working on finding a 'graduation' name for Tim through that story you could have stuck whatever nonsense you wanted as it, because then you would have built in the meaning (that it was a Dick and Tim project together).

So yeah, that's what I'd like to see for a Tim with a new identity. Someone who's put in the work to choose something meaningful from the back catalogue and develop an argument that Tim would use it. Because they're going to have to sell fans on it.

If, however you mean transition in terms of 'Tim is trans': no. I do not think it is likely that DC are interested in writing that for Tim, and I am really reluctant to see it as it would only get him pigeonholed even harder as 'the queer Robin', to be pulled out for use out of obligation for Pride.

Also they just got burnt over that Kon story and its reaction, and I think DC are currently more interested in working on their development of trans characters who are trans from creation (see Nia Nal, who's getting a boost in the current events).

[denimbex1986]

'The Snapshot: In Netflix’s Ripley, Andrew Scott is Thomas Ripley, a sociopathic grifter living in New York in the early 1960s who is hired by a wealthy man to travel to Rome and bring the man’s son home to America. This begins a journey of deceit, fraud and murder.

(The limited series premiered April 4 on Netflix, and all episodes are now streaming)

The Performance: Criminals are fun to play. They’re inherently bad, and being bad is fun. That’s why some actors revel in playing villains because they get to take these bad characters — bad as in lacking moral fortitude, not in substance — and make them somehow sympathetic. The best villains, after all, believe that they’re right. Take the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Thanos. He was a genocidal maniac, but in his heart, he only wanted peace. Mass murder and the deaths of quadrillions of living beings were just a necessary side effect.

Thomas Ripley, however, has no such lofty ambitions, he’s just a low-level con man out for himself, preferably with as little effort as possible. The hero, or rather anti-hero, of a series of famous novels by Patricia Highsmith, Ripley has been adapted before, most memorably by Anthony Minghella in the 1999 film The Talented Mr. Ripley. In that version, Matt Damon played the role to moderate acclaim. The issue was that he was overshadowed by the man playing the ill-fated Dickie Greenleaf, Jude Law, who scored an Oscar nomination for his efforts.

There’s no chance of that happening this time around.

In the latest screen version, Netflix has given us an eight-episode limited series from writer-director Steven Zaillian, who won an Oscar for writing Schindler’s List. The title role is played by Irish thespian Andrew Scott, who just about explodes off the screen in a remarkable turn that is alternately seductive and menacing, and so powerful that, no matter who else is in the frame, you can’t take your eyes off him.

The mistake a lot of actors make when playing a sociopath is to tip their hand too early. Giving clues as to their intentions and inherent evil. Scott avoids this by keeping a very cool veneer, even as he’s plotting how he’s going to get where and what he needs. There’s no wink at the audience, no self-conscious smirk to clue us into what he’s got going on. Instead, he gives us a man who appears to be the essence of calm. He is serene. He is a glassy pond at sunrise, without the slightest ripple, until he is ready.

That moment comes at the end of the first episode, when he finally shows us some semblance of his true self, in a chilling moment that sets up the rest of the story. No spoilers here, but suffice it to say, it’s much more menacing than seductive, although there is plenty of the latter in store.

Scott is a brilliant actor who has played his share of villains, but what makes his Ripley so much more interesting than, say, Damon’s, is how relatable he makes the criminal feel. There’s a quiet desperation to him at the story’s beginnings, but not an overwhelming one. Scott acts so much with his eyes that we both empathize with him and wonder what’s going on behind them. They may be the windows to the soul, but Scott wields them instead as mirrors, and that paradoxically serves to draw us in further.

One doesn’t have to love villains to love particular villains. We can pick and choose, based on who the villain is or, even better, how that villain is portrayed. James Bond fans have their favorite versions of Blofeld, for instance, and Batman fans have their favorite Joker. Take some time to sit down with Andrew Scott. He’ll likely become your favorite Ripley.

The Career: Andrew Scott had already been a working actor for more than a decade when he showed up in the BBC’s monumental 2010 version of Sherlock, which made Benedict Cumberbatch an international star. He appeared in both Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers, for instance, and played Colonel William Smith in four episodes of HBO’s John Adams opposite Paul Giamatti. He was in lots of British TV shows and some short films, and he was someone who had something special.

It was his turn as the villainous Moriarty in those Sherlock episodes that took him to the next level. Suddenly, this was a guy who could play a sociopath with charm and wit, adding to the considerable deviousness and menace that would show up again in several nasty roles, of course, most recently Netflix’s Ripley. In the immediate aftermath of Sherlock came Daniel Craig’s fourth outing as James Bond, Spectre, in which Scott was the traitorous C, leader of the British domestic secret service and ally of Christoph Waltz’s Blofeld.

But of course, Scott is far more than that, which he proved in the 2019 second season of Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s seminal Amazon series Fleabag, in which he showed up as a Catholic priest who falls in love with Waller-Bridge’s title character. Scott’s priest was sexy and charming and romantic and made it clear that there was more to this actor than just villains. That was hammered home yet again in 2023, with his leading turn in All of Us Strangers, as a screenwriter who gets a mysterious new way to heal from losing his parents 30 years before. Scott is heartbreaking in the movie, offering a hopeful sadness that is somehow never off-putting. On the contrary, it only serves to make the audience feel for him even more.

The point is, you can’t pin down Andrew Scott. He’s as versatile as they come, and now we get eight episodes of seeing that versatility in action. It’s not just Mister Ripley who’s talented.'

[capturedaestheticsslc]

“He’s the hero that Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now, so we’ll hunt him. Because he can take it. He’s a silent guardian, a watchful guardian, a dark knight.” Commissioner Jim Gordon: The Dark Knight

Do you remember what it was like, as a kid, to be left in suspense and in awe of the amazing things you’d see? The feeling you’d get when something amazing happened, or you witnessed something so spectacular it left you feeling so full of life and that feeling just sticks with you. A feeling of joy, happiness, of excitement and wonder. Do you still get that feeling? Very few things today can draw the child out of you and tug at you to feel alive and full of wonder as you once did. Well what if you never had that? What if when you were a kid you witnessed the opposite? What if you witnessed something so primal, so terrifying it left you a shell of what you could have been? Or what if it created a spark? A spark that set you on a path to be something more than yourself? More than you ever dreamed of? Let me set the stage: You’re walking down a dark alley, you just got out of a great movie with your mom and and dad. A fun time is had by all, it unknown you, is a figure in the shadows, a figure who would change you’re life forever in the blink of an eye.

You may already know this one, but today, today this story is very important, why? Well, the Batman has turned 80 and it’s time to celebrate.

Bob Cane would write the very first Batman story for Detective Comics #27 in May of 1939. The story would introduce the world the masked vigilante who fought to clean up the streets of Gotham of the crime that took his parents from him on that terrible and fateful night. Batman would go on to bigger and better things and would become a pillar in the world of comics. Don’t think Bob Cane ever saw that coming. But why is this so important?

For 80 years stories of caped heroes have been created, drawn and brought to life through various forms of media. Today you can see the Avengers, Superman, TMNT and the list goes on and on, in TV, movies and just about anywhere. But did you ever think a character dressed as a bat would be up there with them? I fact, Batman has been a pioneer in the world of comics. From the original Batman film serial in the 1960’s, the Burton films of the 90’, the Animated Series, the Nolan trilogy and the list goes on and on. To understand why a man dressed as a bat has gained so much popularity, you have to look deep into the mythology of this legendary hero.

Bruce Wayne was a boy who had everything a boy could ask for. His parents were Thomas and Martha Wayne. Children of the founding families of Gotham. You can’t go anywhere in Gotham without knowing who the Wayne’s were. But all of that would mean nothing after that night. The night his parents were gunned down in an alley. The young boy watched in terror as his parents were ripped away from him, leaving him alone and broken. But where many would succumb to the loss and live a life in fear, Bruce choose different. He would take the events of that night and use them as motivation. On that night he would embark a crusade to fight injustice, to rid the streets of crime and to ensure what was done to him would never happen to anyone ever again. On the night, the idea of Batman was born.

Through out the years some of the greatest authors and artist would take the character on a journey of self discovery, turmoil, growth, loss and so much more. A journey that would pit the Batman through some of the worlds most dangerous villains, and powerful allies like Superman in Frank Miller’s iconic Dark Knight Returns. But still, was is it about Batman that has kept him going through the years? For that you have to go deeper.

Have you ever gone through something, something you thought there was no coming back from? Loss, betrayal, a devastating injury? To understand why Batman is so powerful, you have to know what it’s like to hurt. To hurt on scale so big, you have no idea you can come back from it. Speaking from personal reflections, you relate to Batman. Everyone one does, in some shape of form. Batman was able to overcome the death of his parents, the death of 2 sons, one of his greatest allies being crippled, he himself being crippled. You put yourself in his shoes, you tell yourself if he was able to overcome it, then so can I. We often think of these heroes as more than characters but as an extension of who we are. We place ourselves in there world, in their lives, to escape and to heal, to learn, to overcome. From the minuet he was created Batman would be a character who would face adversity and would have to overcome it. Something we can all agree, is no easy job. We may not fight the likes of Superman, Darkseid or the Joker, but we fight everyday life. And to some that is just as bad as the Joker. We gain power, strength and courage from our heroes, our idols. And what greater hero, than the human Batman. A hero who has overcome death and fights for what he believes in.

It doesn’t matter how old you are, where you grew up or when, at some point you’ve heard or seen the adventures of the Dark Knight. You know his story, you know his mission and you know his secret. Heroes like the Avengers are what we see and know, but for how long? Batman has been around for 80 years now and for many more years to come. Wether your a fan or not, credit has to be given to his creator, the late and legendary Bob Cane on this mile stone achievement. We owe a lot to him and to his icon characters for paving the way for so many and for inspiring generations to follow in his legacy and to carry the mantle. I am vengeance, I am the night, I am Batman.

[batboyblog]

Batman timeline

For awhile I’ve been trying to work out the math of how Batman would work if characters showed up on the dates they were first published, this is what I came up with and yes I’m just focusing on Batfam. 

1874: Alfred Thaddeus Crane Pennyworth born in Surrey England

1899: Alfred moves to the United States and enters service with Thomas Wayne.

1901: Thomas and Martha Wayne marry 

1904: Bruce Wayne is born

1911: Thomas and Martha Wayne killed in robbery in front of their Son Bruce

1915: Selina Kyle is born

1922: Bruce Wayne leaves Gotham for a world tour to learn combat skills.

1931: Richard John Grayson born to circus proformers John and Mary Grayson

1932: Bruce Wayne’s cousin Kathy Kane is born

1938: Bruce returns to Gotham and starts experimenting with costumes 

1939: Bruce Wayne goes out as Batman for the first time

1940: John and Mary Grayson murdered by Tony Zucco, their son Dick is adopted by Bruce Wayne, taking on the identity of Robin.

1940: Selina Kyle is Catwoman for the first time

1940: first appearance of the Joker.

1943: Batman and Catwoman begin a clandestine relationship

1945: Selina Kyle turns herself in and is sentenced to 8 years in prison.

1946: Barbara Gordon, granddaughter of commissioner Jim Gordon born

1947: Kathy Kane’s niece Betty Kane born

1950: Dick Grayson retires in his role as Robin to focus on college 

1953: Selina Kyle released from prison, she and Bruce marry shortly thereafter, Batman and Catwoman begin fighting crime together.

1955: Alfred Pennyworth dies at Wayne Manor age 81. 

1955: Selina Wayne gives birth to a daughter, Helena Wayne

1956: Bruce formally retires as Batman, Dick Grayson takes over the role

1956: Kathy Kane takes on the role of Batwoman soon partnered with Dick.

1958: Dick and Kathy marry 

1959: Kathy Grayson gives birth to John Grayson

1960: Kathy’s niece comes to live with her and Dick, taking on the identity of Bat-Girl as the sidekick to Batman and Batwoman.

1964: Bat-Girl becomes a founding member of the Teen Titans

1964: Helena Bertinelli born

1965: Kathy and Dick’s marriage starts to break down.

1966: Helena Wayne takes on the role of Robin

1966: Betty Kane hangs up the costume of Bat-Girl and takes on the role of Nightwing

1967: Barbara Gordon takes on the role of Batgirl much to the frustration of Batman

1969: Dick and Kathy formally divorce, Kathy takes back her madden name and moves to upstate New York.

1970: Jason Todd born.

1971: Kathy Kane comes out as a Lesbian having found a romantic relationship with Silver St. Cloud, she’d spend the next 30 years on activism and art.

1971: The first conflict between Ra’s al Ghul and Batman

1974: Helena Wayne passes the role of Robin to John Grayson becoming Huntress. 

1975: Barbara Gordon elected to Congress, takes on the identity of Batwoman in Washington DC 

1976: Betty Kane marries long time teammate Wally West and retires title of Nightwing. 

1976: Tim Drake Born

1977: Stephanie Brown born

1979: Dick Grayson dies in battle with Joker, last known appearance of Joker.

1979: Helena Wayne takes on role of Batman, choosing to not change the gender of the name

1980: John Grayson takes on the role of Red Robin, joins the newly formed New Titans and meets Starfire.

1982: John Grayson and Koriand'r marry

1982: Cassandra Cain born.

1983: Batman catches Jason Todd trying to steal the tires off the Batmobile, shortly there after adopting him and handing him the role of Robin.

1983: Mar’i Grayson born

1983: Most of the Bertinelli family killed in a mob hit, Helena is the sole survivor.

1986: Barbara Gordon elected to the US Senate

1987: Ra’s al Ghul kidnaps Bruce Wayne and tempts him with a return to youth, Bruce rebuffs him and is saved by Batman 

1989: Tim Drake undercover the Wayne family secret, Jason steps down as Robin taking on the identity of Nightwing, Tim becomes Robin.

1989: Helena Bertinelli becomes Huntress bring a new violent outlook toward crime in Gotham.

1992: Barbara Gordon chooses not to run again and returns to Gotham, retiring as Batwoman and takes on the identity of Oracle hoping to recruit girls and women into crime fighting.

1992: Stephanie Brown takes on the identity of Spoiler, soon is working with Oracle and Huntress 

1994: Tim retires being Robin to go to college, Stephanie takes over the role.

1994: Mar’i Grayson first goes out as Nightstar alongside her parents.

1995: Bruce Wayne dies age 91. 

1996: Stephanie Brown becomes Batwoman

1996: Damian Wayne born, Talia al Ghul uses genetic materials stolen from Bruce during his captivity in 1987. 

1999: Cassandra Cain is recruited by Barbara Gordon to become the new Batgirl

1998: Tim Drake returns using the codename Black Bat

2004: Selina Wayne dies age 89

2005: Helena Wayne retires as Batman, Tim Drake and Jason Todd jointly take over the role

2006: Damian Wayne is reveled to the Batfamily, after a brief struggle he is recruited to be Robin under Todd and Drake.

2015: Damian becomes Nightwing

2016: Duke Thomas is adopted by Tim and takes on the role of Robin.

2017: Helena Wayne is 62 and acts as an Alfred and support for Batman, Time Drake age 41 is Batman jointly with Jason Todd age 47, Damian Wayne age 21 is Nightwing and pushing both Drake and Todd to retire and allow him to have the role, Duke Thomas is age 17 and Robin, Barbara Gordon (age 71) is active as Oracle and supports Huntress (Helena Bertinelli) age 53, Batwoman (Stephanie Brown) age 40, and Orphan (Cassandra Cain) age 35. Jason Grayson and Kori are still active in their late 50s as Red Robin and Starfire with their daughter Mar’i (Nightstar age 34) 

[garryspolicememories]

                                         Policing Memories of

                                   Garry Crawford Circa 1962

                                                  Part XI

     I received a visit the other day from the person who was the longest serving member of the Warren Detachment in the person of Willy Leveillee. I believe he started with the OPP in 1966 and served his total of 30 years at Warren Detachment. After retirement he pursued a career in local politics and became the Mayor of Warren – Markstay.

      I was his first coach officer. He helped to fill in a couple of memory lapses for me. In my part IX story I mentioned the Man from Poland. Willy was the Investigating Officer and he advised me that was his first death investigation. In my Part X story I referred to two culprits as Lappy and Ocky. Willy has informed me that it was Peter Emes and him that made the initial check of the two individuals and they that commenced the initial pursuit. I am pleased that I have the memory I have, but always can use a little help.

     Willy’s visit made me think of one other incident involving Constable Wilmay Sylvio Joseph Leveillee. During the 1960’s it was stressed to all of our members that the OPP wanted us to be making contacts while we were out on the road. They wanted us to record those contacts in our notebooks. Whether they be charges, warnings or just plain safety checks. One day a couple of the local Ministry of Transportation employees reported to our office. A sawed off shotgun had been found by them in the ditch of Highway #17. All of our members were contacted and requested to consider any stops or checks they had made in the vicinity of the key point where the shotgun was found. We all thought back and referred to our notebooks. Willy Leveillee remembered making a stop of a vehicle from  Quebec in that location. On checking his notebook, he was able to produce the information as to the occupants of that vehicle. Subsequently contact was made with Officers in the Montreal area, it was learned that several armed robberies had occurred in their jurisdiction with the culprits using a similarly described weapon to the sawed off shotgun. The individuals were apprehended and brought to trial. The culprits had obviously thrown the shotgun out of their vehicle when they were being stopped. Thanks to Willy’s note taking the person’s information was recorded.

                                  A Real Joker

      I really enjoyed my time at the Warren Detachment and feel sorry for those officers who choose not to live in their Detachment Area. The big advantage is that you get to know the people you are policing and you become part of the community. Sam Whitehouse the District Commander made it quite clear from the very beginning that he wanted his men to live in the community they policed. You realize your acceptance in many ways. One thing I had to learn very quickly was that there were a few practical jokers in the Warren Detachment area. You had to be prepared to put up with a joke as well as learn to get even. One person that comes to mind right away was a local businessman named Rene Roy. Rene owned and operated a service station in the Town of Warren. He also had a towing service, which we used often for accidents etc.  One day I stopped in at the Service Station; located on Rutland St, the main street of Warren. I walked into the service bay to speak to Rene. His tow truck was parked in the bay and as I was walking by it I noticed my shoelace was undone. I put my foot up on the bumper to tie the lace and as I did, my eyes fell on his license plate of the truck. It was expired by about three months. I said to Rene: Your plate is expired! His reply was: Yes I know, I was waiting to see which one of you would notice first. Needless to say, Rene bought new plates that day. I know myself and several other members had used his tow services during the time it was expired.

      I think Rene’s sense of humour is still being expressed by his oldest son Ron Roy who served his full time as a member of the Ontario Provincial Police. I still see him being interviewed for one public event or another on the Sudbury TV.  It is rumoured that he too is known for his practical jokes.

                                  A Confession

     One Fall evening in the latter 1960’s I was working the 5 to 1 shift and in the area of Markstay. I overheard Sudbury DHQ Radio dispatch Const. Claude Hetu to a moose car accident on the Kukagami Lake road. The moose was deceased. Claude had the dispatcher call MNR to ask if he could put his tag on the moose and salvage it. Some how the Macdonald boys from Markstay found out about the moose and that Claude had to drive from his patrol zone west of Sudbury out to the east of Sudbury to get to the accident scene. When Claude arrived only the front quarters of the moose were still at the scene.  Sorry Claude but just so you know the meat was just fine. I think that was around 54 years ago, I think any statute of limitations has run out. I also hope that if Claude is still with us he can see some humour and is in a forgiving mood.

            Thinking About My Next Move

     In the spring of 1968 my wife and I bought a new Dodge Coronet from Gardner Motors in Sudbury. To celebrate the occasion we decided to take a trip up to Sault Ste Marie, Wawa and Thessalon. Rhoda’s sister Lee and her husband Don accompanied us. In an attempt to keep our expenses down we took along a cooler and Coleman stove etc. so we could make our breakfasts and lunches during our travels. We got a motel room in Sault Ste Marie the first night and the second night we rented a motel room at the Beaver Motel in Wawa. We explored along Lake Superior and the Wawa area the second day, stayed in our motel that night. In the morning we drove over to William Teddy Park, which is, a town park located just off highway 101 as you head east from Wawa. We set up at a picnic table and cooked our breakfasts. We were right on the edge of Wawa Lake looking back at the town of Wawa. I remember exclaiming to those present how much I liked the area and that I would give my right arm to be posted here. The reason for my mentioning this will come out later in my story.

     I believe it was in the spring of 1970 we learned that there would be a promotional competition that year. As I remember, they had these every five years and we had to have five years experience before we could compete. As on the previous competition I had not had five years on the job, this was the first one that I was eligible to compete in. At that time competitions required a positive assessment from your immediate superior, a positive assessment from the District Headquarters, a written exam on the general police work, and finally a good assessment from a board that was assigned from

GHQ in Toronto and consisted usually of five Commissioned Officers. In the early Spring of 1971 I proceeded to Toronto in the company of Morgan Pitfield from Sudbury Detachment. The two of us were marched in before the board as our names were called. The board members each had a turn at questioning us as to our general knowledge and police orders. Each gave us different scenarios to which we had to advise what our response would be. I remember we both were confident of our assessment on completing our presentation. In each of those areas we would be assigned points depending on our performance. Those that scored highest would go on a promotion list. I received notice the following Spring of 1971 that I had been successful and would be promoted to Corporal and posted to Wawa Detachment effective June 14th1971.

     I drove up that day in my personal vehicle, Orville Waito accompanied me. Orville had just been promoted from Sergeant to Sergeant Major and assigned to Sault Ste Marie District Headquarters. I first reported to the Superintendent at Sault Ste Marie, and then continued on to Wawa. I hope to continue my stories in my next submission.

           If you wish to read my previous submissions, they are all stored at the following URL: <garryspolicememories.tumblr.com>