#and it's also heavily implied that him not dealing with the death of superman that had happened right before this

[navree]

if i had a nickel for every time a famous and influential batman story arc had both superman and jason todd playing a pivotal role, i'd have four nickels, which really isn't a lot but it is weird that it's happened four separate times over three decades

[unknownunseenunheard]

Can you explain the whole baby guardian thing?

Sure, but like all comic things, its a bit... Convoluted af

Okay, so, first off, this all takes place during Our Worlds At War, which one of those major DC Crossover events that nearly destroyed the universe and yadda yadda yadda

Anyways, during all of this, President Lex (because, thats a thing) puts Amanda Waller in charge of Cadmus because that was a thing and Kon and she did not get along in the slightest to put it... Mildly

Warning: Some of Kon’s insults here are specifically about Waller’s weight

And, right now you’re probably thinking ‘Okay? Why does Waller being there matter?’

Waller, at the time, was working with Amanda Spence, who, during that continuity (bc DC comics loves retcons) was technically Kon’s sister, since Kon originally wasn’t cloned from Superman, but from the old director of Cadmus, Paul Westerfield

Spence herself blames Kon for the death of her dad even though Kon himself wasn’t involved and is a major antagonist throughout the Superboy run. She’s responsible for both Match’s existence, Sins of Youth, and Tana’s death, but that’s another whole can of worms

Now, after this, Kon decides to go bother Robin and Batgirl in Gotham because Kon (tm) which leads to these amusing panels

Because Dorks (tm) However, unfortunately, that also leads to the following:

Now, at this point, Kon was exhausted and Waller tried to line him up for a mission, and he passed it off the Guardian because Batman put him through the wringer 

Now, here’s were we start to get things that are not specifically stated, but pretty heavily implied

Since Guardian takes Superboy’s mission, he ends up getting killed by Shrapnel

Now, here’s the thing

The first time I read this, I skipped the larger Our Worlds At War issues bc tbh there were so many I couldn’t be bothered

However, the second time around, I decided to read them for context clues, and discovered one very startling fact

At the time Shrapnel killed Guardian, he was actively working for the Suicide Squad under Amanda Waller

Again, I repeat At the time Shrapnel killed Guardian, he was actively working for the Suicide Squad under Amanda Waller

Guardian’s death wasn’t an accident. It was an assassination that no one ever really caught on in-story because of all the other chaos going on with the Imperilex war, but Waller put a hit on Guardian and killed him, which means Shrapnel would have shown up for whichever mission Guardian was on, since he and Kon were meant to be on separate missions that day anyways

However, since Kon asked Guardian to take the mission, he a) blames himself b) everyone at Cadmus is also blaming him and c) Kon goes and takes out Shrapnel in single combat, which is impressive since Shrapnel can apparently go toe to toe with Superman, which I wasn’t even aware of since the guy seems like a minor villain but anyways-

After this, Waller inexplicably manages to clone Guardian back to life with his soul intact which uh- Tbh, its not really stated anywhere, but the only person shown to be able to do this (as far as I know) is Anita Fite’s grandfather, who is an antagonist in the later arc of the YJ Comic, and how Waller managed to basically reincarnate Guardian is never explained but, here’s Kon’s summary

This all leads to Mom!Kon bc Mom!Kon

Now, after this, Kon decides he’s gonna get back up from Cadmus because, hello? Of course, they’ll want to help, except-

The facility is completely abandoned and everyone went underground and left Kon behind, and he’s left to deal with the mess by himself since all of them were like ‘Yeah, fuck Waller and Luthor, Kon should be fine on his own’ which would normally be the case, but, Guardian was now a baby because of course he was, and instead of finding help at Cadmus, Kon finds this:

Now, for the record, Tim doesn’t have all the clues

On the other hand, his specific response to Kon saying he rescued a baby was calling it ‘government property’, which? Tbh, I’m just filing that away as the writers going ‘okay, we don’t want anyone helping Kon here with the baby, lets add wildly occ dialogue since Young Justice already attacked more than one Government run meta prison for children’

Before this can go anywhere, though, YJ gets flung through time and space because of course they do and nothing is ever really addressed until they land on Apokolips since Kon insists on going there after they spot Steel getting dragged over there by the Black Racer

Which leads to this heated exchange:

Now, because Comics, at the same time that this is going on, Tower of Babel is also apparently also inexplicably going on??

I can’t really comment there since I haven’t read the arc, but it basically boils down to ‘Batman contingency plans go wrong’ and, lets be real, Tim more or less implied above that he did have a contingency to take down Kon, and that he had it on him at the time

Did he? Likely not, but his words imply he does, and Kon, of course, is already paranoid of Tim since yeah, he managed to get him to back off on taking the baby by force solely because the Imperilex War is going on, but he’s still weary

Is Kon in the right? Nay, but this is a case of ‘emotions running high and Why Are These Kids In A War Zone’, and Tim doesn’t really help himself with all the lies he told to his team because Batman made him tell them

Honestly, the whole thing was just a powder keg waiting to blow, its a surprise it didn’t earlier-

Tim’s thoughts on the whole thing does show him going ‘okay, Kon fucked up but I guess so did I and I kinda wanna talk things out’, but they never really got that talk and the comics just ignored it

Also, Tim did apparently tell Oracle the situation sometime in between, who helped Kon out for a bit

The details are fuzzy on what else went down there since a lot happened off panel, but I found it weird that Tim would respond to the whole thing by having Oracle help Kon while making sure the rest of YJ wasn’t aware of what was going down and being pissed that Kon was ‘undermining his authority’ with the whole thing, which I still chalk up to OCC for plot reasons 

Now, Waller more or less got away scott free

Kon himself thinks that the whole thing was organized by Amanda Spence, and, well-

He fucking murdered her over it, which uh? I guess Tim got off lucky with threatening the baby- On that note, baby Guardian aged very rapidly because they’d designed him to, and ends up fighting in the Imperilex War after this 

Guardian himself doesn’t show up at all anywhere until after Infinite Crisis, along with the rest of Cadmus, so I took it to mean he died. Its not stated anywhere that he did, but Infinite Crisis did reboot reality, and thats the impression I was left with (Since Infinite Crisis also specifically retcons this storyline entirely by stating that Guardian didn’t die at Shrapnel’s hand in the first place and was only wounded by some other random Cadmus employee who shot him for whatever reason)

Anyways! There you go anon! That took. Longer than expected but eh

[bigskydreaming]

I just read that after Tarantulla raped Dick they were going to marry?! WTF DC THIS IS NOT A HEALTHY RELATIONSHIPP is this true?

Yeah, in the issues following Blockbuster’s death and the rape, Dick was a total and complete mess, and Tarantula pretty much spent the next several issues taking advantage of his emotional state. She encouraged him to get drunk to feel better, and tried to use his more vulnerable drunken state to do a number of things which included targeting villains like Copperhead for the sake of her own personal agenda and almost getting married at a chapel. I believe she’d gotten a marriage certificate and everything, and the only thing that kept that from happening is right before it did, Dick got a call from Bruce summoning him back to Gotham to help with the War Games storyline, and the city-wide gang war that had erupted. 

(I honestly can’t remember if it was outright stated or textualized in the issues, but it was heavily implied that there was sexual interaction between Dick and Tarantula during this period…..I don’t want to call it them having sex, because Dick wasn’t in a coherent state of mind to be making the choice to have sex based on his normal priorities. My personal interpretation has always been that Dick let Tarantula drag him along from place to place during this time and ‘consented’ to having sex with her because he was kinda trying to….retroactively reframe what she’d done to him on the roof in issue #93, if that makes sense? Like, my take is that Dick was heavily in denial at this stage, and was kinda trying to convince himself that if he made the ‘choice’ here and NOW to have sex with Tarantula, then he could from there kinda convince himself that what had happened on the roof wasn’t any different. Like ‘well maybe I didn’t technically consent at the time, but see, I’m having sex with her now, and that means I probably would have anyway if my head had just been a little clearer.’ Make no mistake - I’m DEFINITELY not suggesting that this in any way makes what happened in #93 any less of actual rape, and there’s no interpretation IMO of the later scenes between them where Dick was making full use of his own agency rather than just unhealthily trying to cope with something he was still trying to process as him having been victimized by rather than a willing party too. It was all just messy as fuck, is what I’m saying. And Tarantula, whatever she thought she was doing, was very much manipulating the fuck out of Dick at his most vulnerable moments through all of this).

Tarantula went to Gotham with him, and even ‘helped’ the Batfam due to the fact that Bruce kinda just….took the fact that she was accompanying Dick and he wasn’t protesting it as a sign of him vouching for her, instead of like….the fact that Dick wasn’t remotely in the right state of mind of to be making healthy decisions, and was pretty obviously on a path to self-destruction. He was extremely reckless throughout the War Games storyline, getting shot in the leg by cops without it even phasing him, heedlessly risking his own life in order to go after Firefly (who just a couple weeks earlier had been hired by Blockbuster to burn down Haly’s Circus), and he basically gave the impression that he didn’t really care if he got both of them shot by the cops while he was going after Firefly - to the extent that it freaked Firefly out and he was yelling wtf are you doing, you Bats aren’t supposed to act like this. 

In the immediate aftermath of the War Games storyline, while still recovering from a gunshot wound in his leg, Dick left Gotham again without a word to anyone, just leaving his Nightwing costume abandoned in the Cave. He went back to Bludhaven, with Tarantula following him, and there he turned both himself and Catalina in for the murder of Blockbuster. (He turned himself in as Officer Dick Grayson, who’d been fired from the force before Blockbuster’s death, and basically presented himself as a cop who’d gone rogue rather than implicating himself as Nightwing, so as not to draw any heat back towards the rest of the Batfam by association). He was in jail for like a day or two, but then his former partner and now the captain of the precinct, Amy Rohrbach, had him released and said she refused to let him throw his life away out of guilt for something he didn’t even do. 

(She’d known his identity for some time, and its the reason he quit being a cop, she told him he had to choose and it was a conflict of interest….BUT the very night Blockbuster died, she came to him, knowing what Blockbuster had been doing and how he’d been targeting everyone Dick loved in his civilian life, and she offered to give him his gun and badge back so he’d be ‘covered’ if he had to shoot to kill Blockbuster in their inevitable confrontation. Dick refused to take them though.)

But anyway, when Amy made it clear that she wasn’t going to sit back and let Dick throw himself on his sword out of misplaced guilt for a murder he hadn’t actually committed, and was willing to drag herself down with him if he pushed it, Dick was released and he continued to spiral….and this is when he came up with his plan to infiltrate the mob and then from there the Society of Supervillains as Renegade. He first worked as an enforcer for the mob, nicknamed “Crutches” for the fact that he was still on crutches due to his leg injury, but this didn’t stop him from being effective….and then once he got what he’d wanted out of that he progressed to developing the Renegade persona and working for the Society and with Deathstroke. Basically, all of this was part of a plan he’d come up with to ensure Bludhaven’s safety in the longterm, without his presence….he was explicitly counting on not being around to protect Bludhaven himself, mostly because he didn’t deserve to be in his eyes, and it was heavily implied that he was at least passively suicidal at this time and was enacting this plan as kinda a form of ‘getting his affairs in order.’ 

Basically, the idea was he used his infiltrations to get leverage over the various mobs and make deals with supervillains notorious enough to ensure other villains obeyed a decree to stay out of Bludhaven….and ultimately his plan was to have Bludhaven become a kinda ‘no-fly zone’ for supervillains, the mob and superheroes alike, a city that was left alone for its citizens to live without outside interference. He’d gotten the leverage he needed to keep the mobs from operating in Bludhaven and had a supposed agreement with Deathstroke to keep the villains out….when Slade went back on his word and cooperated with the rest of the Society to drop the nuclear supervillain Chemo on Bludhaven and destroy the city just before Dick managed to bring his months long plans to fruition.

So, this is why if you’ve seen me post about the Blockbuster stuff before, I tend to say I hate how its been boiled down and reduced to just the rape on the rooftop by Tarantula. Yes that was bad enough on its own, but there was SO MUCH SHIT being thrown at Dick from EVERY POSSIBLE ANGLE, simultaneously, with no reprieve. Everything he was working towards was systematically thwarted and dismantled in both his civilian and superhero lives and nothing was going his way, and nobody anywhere was showing up to help him, and he truly was at rock bottom, and I hate hate hate people thinking he only has one or two major traumas in his life because that was like….a good year long exercise in misery for him. He canonically spent months undercover working within the mobs and the Society to try and make his plans happen, months surrounding himself by the worst of the worst and convincing himself all the while that he BELONGED among them. That was part of why he was doing what he was doing, make no mistake…..he fully believed at the time that he’d become no better than them.

And its why I loathe Bruce’s ultimate ‘pep talk’ to him, when Dick was finally recovering in the Batcave after Superman flew him out of radioactive, destroyed Bludhaven, where Dick had RUN BACK INTO in an attempt to save as many people as he could. “I can forgive you for Blockbuster’s death, if you really need me to, but I can’t and won’t forgive you for losing sight of the value of your own life.” REALLY, Bruce? Like, what the fuck is that? First off, why the fuck would you make that conditional like “if you really need me to”….if you think your son needs to feel you’ve forgiven him for something that wasn’t even his fault, just SAY THAT, without qualifiers. But…how the hell do you expect him to keep sight of the value of his own life if YOU’RE NOWHERE TO BE FOUND WHEN HE MOST NEEDS SOMEONE ELSE TO REMIND HIM HIS LIFE HAS VALUE???

Ugh.

So eternally annoyed with the non-resolution to all of that.

Oh, and also keep in mind that in comic book time, relatively speaking, all of this is not that long after Dick killed the Joker and Bruce like….walked off and said Dick needed to figure out how to live with that on his own. With them pretty much never actually resolving this, or addressing how freaking much of the fallout from Blockbuster’s death and his bystander role in it was probably Dick overcompensating for still feeling like he’d disappointed Bruce and betrayed his ideals by killing the Joker, and that Bruce hadn’t and wouldn’t forgive him for that.

He thought he was responsible for Blockbuster’s murder because he was already convinced he was a murderer, because nobody after Last Laugh just went to him and said “Look, who the fuck cares what Bruce thinks, it was the fucking Joker, he murdered your brother and was trying to murder your other brother, anyone who says you were wrong to kill the fucker can fuck off.”

But I mean, hey maybe that’s just me. LOLOL.

[thecomicsnexus]

Crisis

DOOMSDAY CLOCK #9 MAY 2019 BY GEOFF JOHNS, GARY FRANK AND BRAD ANDERSON

SYNOPSIS

Still on Mars, Doctor Manhattan can see past, present and future. But once he sees the moment he prevented the creation of Green Lantern (Alan Scott), he also sees Ferro Lad’s Legion ring disappear. Then he sees nothing else. Something very similar to the climatic event of Watchmen is about to happen. A tachyon fog is obscuring the immediate past and future.

After the Firestorm incident in Moscow, the Justice League (more like a good representation of the DCU), travels to Mars, where they already figured out, the person responsible for the explosion is living.

Superman remains in a coma, guarded by his wife, while Ronnie Raymond has been taken to Mars by the League.

The president of the United States (I am pretty sure it’s Trump by the way he talks), decides to twit against Superman (claiming that he has done more for the world than Superman). Metahumans around the globe are seeking refuge in Kandaq, the only nation accepting them. Wonder Woman is set to return to the Man’s world to speak in front of the United Nations (a message of peace and reconstruction).

Bruce Wayne wakes up, recovering after the Moscow incident, Alfred helps him update on the latest news. Bruce realizes that he should have listened to Rorschach and now it is too late. He must communicate to the league (he says that the Doctor Manhattan may not be responsible either).

Lois is surprised by Lex Luthor, who reveals to her, he was the one that sent her the footage of “heroes that never were”. Proof that there is a force out there undermining, not only Superman, but ALL of creation. Lex says that the evidence points to one of his victims: Wally West.

The lanterns seal Mars and Firestorm generates breatheable air. They meet Doctor Manhattan and try to explain to him that they are basically badasses. It is then that Martian Manhunter sends all the heroes the last vision of Superman that Doctor Manhattan has. Supergirl reacts, “You think he’s going to destroy you so you’re out to detroy him first?”. Guy Gardner does the unthinkable, he one-punchs Doctor Manhattan.

Doctor Manhattan feels curiosity by these heroes (like he hasn’t really paid attention to any of it before), he dissolves Guy’s ring, then analyzes magic.

When Firestorm tries to put an end to him, he sends him back in time, to the moment of the creation of Firestorm, and he hears Martin Stein talking on the phone about fusing with Ronnie Raymond as part of his ongoing government project to make and study meta-humans.

When Doctor Manhattan brings Ronnie’s conscience back to the present, he tells him that he did that to prove him that even hope decays.

There is a moment when the Charlton heroes attack him (Question, Captain Atom, Blue Beetle, Peacemaker and Nightshade) these characters are of course, the original protagonists of Watchmen. Doctor Manhattan seems to realize this when he is attacked by Captain Atom.

But everything’s in vain, Doctor Manhattan seems to die, then reforms and puts everybody out.

Wonder Woman is giving her speech about peace in the UN, but the building is attacked by Black Adam, Giganta and Creeper.

REVIEW

Too many things to think about. It is implied by Batman that Doctor Manhattan may not be responsible for all that is happening, and considering he has the Rorschach journal, I would trust his reasonable doubt. During the issue, Manhattan seems to be surprised by what he sees, like all he did was prevent the golden age and the Legion of Super-Heroes, seeing a Green Lantern ring for the first time. Maybe he did all of this for curiosity (even proving there is no hope, something people think a lot about the New 52), and he might put everything back to how it was in the end.

But who is the villain then? Who benefits with this meta-human conspiracy?

Well, for starters, it feels like something that came out of the world of Watchmen, so I think Adrian is still a good suspect. How he managed to create all this mess, I am not sure.

And what’s the deal with Wally West? Lois knows him, as she had to report what happened in the sanctuary (but my guess is that this is a continuity error, and Doomsday Clock was written before Heroes in Crisis).

And how did Luthor get evidence anyway?

The one thing in this issue that may cause riots in the streets is the fact that Martin Stein used Ronnie to become a metahuman. I am not sure we can trust this vision, or the metahuman conspiracy. Something is off in this story and I would wait and see how Ronnie’s story ends. I wouldn’t be surprised if this becomes canon, after all Geoff Johns has ruined characters in the past. (Apart from several dead titans, I think he was heavily involved in the death of Ted Kord and bastardizing the JLI).

I just wish that this title came out more often. We are three issues away and it seems to be pointing at a big revelation. I know even Hope decays, but at this point, this title is our last hope for a coherent DCU.

I give this issue a score of 8

[mrsspidermanmaryjanewatsonparker]

I cannot figure out how to sign up or log in to gizmodo to explain directly to the author how wrong and broken they are so this will have to do. If anyone is able to post on this site I’d love them to link to this.

 “Although Peter Parker had several love interests in his early comic book history—most notably, of course, Gwen Stacy—when Mary Jane Watson was introduced, she was clearly the be-all and end-all of Spidey relationships. ”

 This is wrong on two counts.

 If we define MJ’s introduction as ASm #25 where we first see and hear her then she was absolutely not the be all and end all of Spidey’s relationships. They weren’t in a relationship and she existed as a gag nothing more.

 Fair enough though, few people count that preferring her furst full debut in ASM #42. Even then that statement is wrong.

MJ was introduced as a rival and foil to Gwen Stacy who was the actually intended endgame be all end all love interest.

 “Before that, early issues of Amazing Spider-Man spent almost a year teasing her as a potential romantic partner for Peter, with Aunt May constantly trying to set up a date between Peter and the mysterious, unseen Ms. Watson. Peter wouldn’t first meet MJ until the final moments of Amazing Spider-Man #42—with the cry of her famous line, “Face it, tiger... you just hit the jackpot!”—and it was love at first sight.”

 Oh okay so they do know about her pre- ASM #42 appearences they are just wilfully ignoring it.

 More importantly it was never love at first sight. Peter was attracted to her but he wasn’t in love with her at all and like 2 issues later was thinking how he actually didn’t like her.

 “Peter immediately began dating her, but it didn’t last that long, and the couple eventually broke up for the first of many times. ”

 Again wrong.

 Peter and MJ at best casually dated. They were not exclusive and not going steady therefore no break up ever occurred.

 “This led to Peter dating Gwen again while MJ, still a good friend to the duo, hooked up with Harry Osborn.”

 Again wrong. MJ and Gwen being friends is contentious. They were in the same friendship group but were not particularly close. Moreover Peter and MJ as I said never broke up. Peter began courting Gwen and said nothing to MJ who had herself been casually dating Harry too.

 This was the 1960s and college kids there was a lot of freely traded flirting and dating at the time. In truth Gwen and Harry were dating slightly more seriously but they didn’t even break up and when Gwen and Peter began courting that pissed Harry off.

 MJ didn’t even immediately begin dating Harry after Peter and Gwen got serious and when she did they were again not exclusive though Harry believed they were. Hence the famous panel in ASM #97 wherein Harry tells MJ she’s his girl and she dumps his ass telling him she’s no one’s girl but her own.

 “Gwen’s now-iconic death at the hands of the Green Goblin in Amazing Spider-Man #121 drove Peter and Mary Jane together again as they both tried to come to terms with the loss of Gwen.”

 This is also not strictly speaking true. Yes Gwen’s death was the catalyst but they were not bonding over a mutual loss of Gwen. MJ supported Peter in his time of need which led to their friendship deepening and spending more time together and from these interactions they fell in love.

 Had other circumstances served to allow a (single) Peter and MJ spent more time together, gotten to know each other better, showcased a lot of care and loyalty to one another the same scenario would’ve occurred. But Gwen’s death was such a big deal it threw them together is all.

 “But once more, it didn’t last that long—Peter’s dual life as Spidey began to tear them apart, and when Peter offered a hasty marriage proposal, Mary Jane turned him down, and decided to escape her stressful life with a move away from New York, leaving Peter on his own again.”

 Again this is incredibly incorrect.

 The first time Peter and MJ were explicitly dating on the page was ASM #136 (the debut of Harry as the new Green Goblin btw) in 1974. Their relationship BEGAN to fall apart after Peter’s proposal in ASM #182 and her rejection of it in ASM #183 in 1978. They were still together though but there was an understanding they were no longer exclusive or going steady so they saw other people whilst still seeing one another and steadily drifting apart in spite of efforts to try and repair their relationship. The final end came though in ASM #1992-193 in 1979. Peter made one last effort to fix things with MJ and convinced her to go on a date with him but Spider-Business made him miss it and so MJ decided she was done with him, telling him as much in the next issue.

This means Peter and MJ had some form of relationship, USUALLY a serious and exclusive one (across THREE titles!) for four to five years!  So ‘didn’t last long’ my ass.

Moreover MJ’s move out of New York wasn’t immediate. She appeared two more times, once in Spectacular Spider-Man #38 and then again in ASM #201 both in 1979.

Only after this did MJ move away and at the time it wasn’t even talked about IIRC. She was just phased out of the series without mention and only later did we learn her absence was due to her having moved away. It was even later that we found out her move away was partially prompted by Peter’s proposal and more significantly her learning he was Spider-Man.

 “Upon her return (and the reveal that she had figured out that Peter is Spider-Man), the two remained friends.”

 Again this is grossly over simplifying things.

 MJ returned in ASM #241-242 in 1983 and revealed she knew Peter’s identity in ASM #257 in 1984. During the interim Peter and MJ were still friendly with one another.

It was the reveal of her knowledge of his dual life along with her own painful past that made them CLOSER friends and confidants.

 “But dual traumas—Peter losing his close friend Ned Leeds, and Mary Jane confronting her crooked father—led to the two getting closer again, and this time Peter’s second marriage proposal stuck. Well, actually, MJ turned him down again but eventually reconsidered.”

 Again no.

 Peter and MJ grew closer following MJ revealing her secret history in ASM #259 and then they CONTINUED to grow ever closer thereafter.

 Ned Leeds death and MJ confronting her father were part of that sure, but they weren’t the root cause.

 Ned’s death was likely the motivation Peer needed to propose a second time and dealing with her Dad is THE thing that led MJ to accept the proposal, but they were already in love, already effectively dating and already very close.

 “Peter and MJ’s married life was defined by a frankly absurd amount of drama. ”

 God. An absurd amount of drama in a SUPERHERO story. Who’s ever heard of such a thing.

 Thank God there wasn’t as much drama in Superman and Lois Lane’s relationship across 70 years or Reed and Sue’s marriage across 45 years.

 It’s not like at one point they split up because Reed put their son into a coma   or Sue miscarried their child only to become reimpregnated with her years later.

 “Mary Jane’s modelling career hit new highs after her marriage, only for her to be stalked by her former landlord, who not only ruined her career but then kidnapped her (the first of many, many kidnappings during her marriage). ”

 Again kidnappings of a superhero’s loved ones! *clutches pearls*

Also MJ’s career was ruined by Jonathan Caesar AFTER he stalked and kidnapped her. FFS at least get the sequence of events right Wikipedia explains this better!

 “Meanwhile, Peter was distraught by the arrival of a couple claiming to be his long-thought-dead parents. Once they were revealed to be Life Model Decoy robots sent by the Chameleon (hired by Harry Osborn in an attempt to get revenge for the death of his father Norman, a.k.a. the Green Goblin) to kill him, Peter had a total mental breakdown, abandoning Mary Jane for a while before they eventually reunited.”

 The article pretends like the above event quickly followed the former when it didn’t.

 Moreover it claims Peter’s mental breakdown was specifically due to his parents being imposters but it wasn’t. It was actually multiple incidents gradually putting him under immense strength and the straw that broke him was actually Aunt May’s coma.

 Like...maybe fucking READ the comic where he breaks down maybe?

 It’s also debatable to say he ever actually abandoned MJ. He went off the rails briefly in that story but it was actually MJ who temporarily abandoned him though she made it clear she would be coming back.

 Then after a lot of other stuff they reunited.

  “And then, oh and then, there’s the Clone Saga, one of the most infamous Spider-Man stories ever told. ”

 FALSE! Peter and MJ’s reconciliation happened DURING the Clone Saga not before.

 “In between all the wild nonsense about Peter clones, Ben Reilly, and Peter being convinced that he’s a clone so he abandons being Spider-Man altogether, Mary Jane became pregnant, only to tragically give birth to a stillborn child after she was poisoned by an agent of the Green Goblin. ”

 Again not true.

 Peter didn’t abandon being Spider-Man because he was a clone. The story arcs ‘Exiled’ and the ‘The Greatest Responsibility’ make it explicit that just because Peter is the clone doesn’t mean he shouldn’t be Spider-Man. It was decided peter SHOULD remain Spider-Man but it was actually his impending fatherhood that led Peter to retire and hand the mantle to Ben.

 Also MJ giving birth to a stillborn child is at best debatable.

 It’s HEAVILY implied Norman merely faked the baby’s death. This makes more sense for his character too.

 “The horror and stress of the whole event—which culminated in the return of Norman Osborn, the apparent death of Ben Reilly (don’t worry, he got better too, eventually, sort of), and Peter’s return to the Spider-Mantle—understandably put the couple’s relationship on the rocks.”

 No it didn’t.

 The story arc in which Norman returned, Ben died and the couple believed their child to have died actually ends with the reaffirmation of their relationship and shows them growing closer and stronger from it.

 This is then corroborated in the very next issue, Spec #241 which again reaffirms they’re relationship is strong.

 “Then MJ got kidnapped (again) by a telepathic mutant who wanted to steal Peter’s life (and his wife) and staged a plane explosion in Amazing Spider-Man#13, which led to Peter believing MJ was dead for over a year. ”

 FALSE!

 Not only did he skip over more than TWO YEARS worth of stories by jumping immediately from the end of the Clone Saga in 1996 to the Mackie/Byrne era (which began in 1998 with the plane crash in 2000) but he also falsely claims Peter believed MJ was dead for over a year.

 He didn’t.

 MJ was presumed dead by the public for just 6 months and for the MAJORITY of that time Peter was in denial over her death. When he found her alive he even admitted he never truly believed she was dead. Meaning Peter NEVER thought she was dead and felt that way for 6 months not 12.

 “As if all this wasn’t more than enough kicks while Peter and MJ were down, Civil War broke out in the Marvel universe in 2006, which saw Peter’s identity made public, the superhero community tearing itself apart over something that is in equal parts tragic and dumb, and Aunt May and MJ having to go on the run after Spider-Man’s ginormous roster of foes started chasing them in the wake of Peter’s big, foolish reveal.”

 Wow there is so much misinformation to unpack here.

 Okay, so first of all Peter and MJ WEREN’T separated or dealing with the fallout of MJ’s trauma when Civil War occurred.

 They parted ways in 2001, got back together in 2003 and Civil War was 2006!

 Furthermore the Parkers didn’t go on the run because of Peter revealing his identity, it was because he no longer trusted Tony Stark and thus decided to go on the run...I said the author was wrong I never said the story was logical.

 “That still left the problem of Peter’s identity being made public during Civil War, however. Peter asked Doctor Strange to cast a spell that would wipe his identity from the mind of everyone in the world, including Mary Jane, in Amazing Spider-Man #641—only for Peter to protect Mary Jane from the spell’s effects at the last minute. Despite being kept in on his greatest secret, Mary Jane ultimately decided she couldn’t keep risking the danger of being someone special to Spider-Man, and told Peter to move on and find someone else to share his life with.”

 Again this misrepresents the sequence of events. The author pretends that these events occurred after Peter and Mj broke up in the new revised timeline when in truth the mindwipe was the thing that led to them breaking up (stupidly).

 Moreover the break up was spawned by MJ (stupidly) not wishing to risk her family not herself.

 “The two remained friends and confidants over the next few years, until another wild Spider-Man event—The Superior Spider-Man, in which a dying Doctor Octopus took over Peter’s body and seemingly sent Peter’s consciousness into the villain’s previously dying body, effectively killing Peter”

 FALSE!

 In Superior Spider-Man Doc Ock created back ups of his own and Peter’s minds and uploaded said copies into one another’s bodies.

 The Peter who died in Otto’s dying body was never the original, the original was simply a passive observer within his own body.

  “When Mary Jane noticed that something was up with Peter, the two quickly broke up again”

 SUPER FALSE!

 MJ DIDN’T NOTICE anything wrong! THAT was why the story sucked shit.

 Otto himself ended things because he believed that they shouldn’t be together because he’d always endanger her.

 “And when Peter was eventually restored to his body and Otto’s deception was revealed to her, Mary Jane decided once and for all that Peter’s absurd life as a hero shouldn’t define her life as well, choosing to remain friends with him but remaining mostly separated from his life. (Valid.)”

 No. INVALID.

 MJ victim blamed  Peter and wasn’t saying his crazy life defined her. She was saying some nonsense about wanting a normal life but still wanted that in the city where Skrulls invade ever summer.

It was toxically out of character.

It also wasn’t ‘once and for all’ since oh I dunno she still stuck around in his fucking life.

“The revitalization of Marvel’s continuity in the wake of 2015's Secret Wars kept this status quo for MJ and Peter—although fans jonesing for the couple’s time together were thrown a bone by Marvel in the form of Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows, an ongoing series that began in 2016 about an alternate-reality version of Peter and MJ that remained married, had a daughter together, and currently fight crime as an entire Spider-family.”

 Okay true but how is that relevant to the point of the article?

[damijon-supersons]

Master list for all my Super Sons fic prompts

Hi! This is the master list for all the fics i’ve done so far in response to the story prompts you guys sent me before and short ficlets that i’ve done. All of them are tagged #fic and #prompt. Thanks so much for the support you’ve given me all the while and I hope you keep enjoying my work :) I know I still got a ton of prompts in my inbox, and I hope I’ll get the free time I need to keep doing them. (Updated as of 5/20/18)

For the Master list of my non-prompt original longer Damijon fics, click here: Original fics

Love Letters - a damijon fic - A short but really sweet fic prompt I did for my damijon discord friends. Jon keeps getting love letters in his school locker, but he can’t tell who they’re from, and there are a lot of them. Updated to include art from my good friend @jaidenstar !!

How does the sunshine die? - an incredibly angsty damijon fic -  The third of some angsty fics that I’ve done recently. This was born from a time when I was really inspired to write but the worst prompt i could possibly get in my inbox showed up by way of an anon ask lol. One of the heaviest fics I’ve written, but one that I’m really proud of too. I was just coming off of reading Stephen King’s It, and I still had some inspiration from that wonderful book. Basically...Jon figures out how the sunshine dies.

“We’re friends, aren’t we?” - a Damijon fic - The second of some angsty fics that I’ve done recently. Jon always asks Damian one particular qustion that Damian could never bring himself to answer directly. This is my response (in the form of a fic) to the rumors that Brian Michael Bendis taking over the Superman comics might result in Jon getting scrapped as a character.

Superman’s Sword - an angsty damijon fic (sort of) - The first of some angsty fics that I’ve done recently. This was written before Super Sons 14 and Action Comics 1000. A mother tells her child about the story of Superman and why the Superman of their time carries a sword.

Damijon Week Prompt Day 4 (losing control) “Mid-air hugs are pretty cool”- My Day 4 Submission for DamiJon week. After getting kissed by  Damian, Jon takes Damian with him back to their farm in Hamilton so that they could have the privacy they need to sort through their feelings for each other. WARNING: Heavily Implied NSFW

Damijon Week Prompt Day 3 (first kiss) “We’re in the closet. Literally.”- My Day 3 Submission for DamiJon week. This was based on the incredible picture that flipityflip made for Day 1 of the week. With her permission, I based my fic on it. Here, Damian and Jon run away from detention and get stuck in a locker together. A really tight one. 

Damijon Week Prompt Day 2 (coming out) “I’m Damian and I do not pine! And yes, I’m just fine!” - My Day 2 Submission for DamiJon week. Here, Jon has been away from school for a mission leaving Damian alone. Damian bumps into Maya, and the two have a heart to heart talk about Damian’s not-so-secret secret.

Damijon Week Prompt Day 1 (middleschool AU) “Slice of life? Very poor choice of words…” - My Day 1 Submission for DamiJon week. Here, Jon and Damian are classmates in middleschool and Damian is having a lot of trouble adjusting. Jon tries to comfort him the only way he knows.

Picture Prompt: Hunted by the Son of Night - This short fic is a Jon Vampire Hunter/ Damian Vampire AU that was inspired by artwork from dsasworld. My friend and I on our discord group loved the pic and I was so inspired to write a fic for it, with the artist’s permission. Here, Vampire Hunter Jon is meeting Vampire Damian for a very clandestine and fateful reason.

Picture Prompt: You’re safe in my arms - This is the ficlet I made to accompany my pic commission from laizy-boy. This is based on the Super Sons of Tomorrow crossover arc (Teen Titans #15), where Damian rescues Jon after the latter exploded and fell into San Fran bay.

Prompt: Dark Future’s End - I wrote this before the Super sons of tomorrow arc, but inspired by the idea of it.  So an anon asked me if Damian would take the initiative and kiss Jon first. My answer to that is…yea, basically. He totally would. I was motivated to turn that into a cute little story but things got crazy and I somehow ended up with an overly dramatic end-of-the-world scenario. 

Prompt: Will I grow up a villain? - An anon asked me to make a story about Damian and Jon playing a game. I chose Injustice 2. At the time, discourse was flaring up about DC giving Damian really bleak futures as an adult. This is my response to that since, in Injustice, Damian turned evil.

Prompt: Baking with the Super Sons -  So a friend of mine gave me a quick story prompt about Damian and Jon just cooking together like in a romcom.

Prompt: Who has the best Superboy? - Damian and Tim argue over who has the better super BFF.

Prompt: What if Injustice Damian attacked the main timeline Damian and Bat Family? - I was asked what would happen if Injustice Damian, the grown up one who utterly betrayed Batman, came into the main DC universe and saw that his younger self was loved and adored by his family, and had a best friend in Jon. Long story short, Injustice Damian doesn’t take it very well.

Not exactly a prompt: What if Jon was in injustice? - This isn’t really a story, but an anon asked me what if Jon was in Injustice, and this was my long reply to that. I also couldn’t help but write a tiny little ficlet at the end. This ask informs the injustice prompt i got above.

Prompt: You don’t own this secret spot! - A prompt where Tim and Kon are flying to their secret date spot, except they find that Damian and Jon had beaten them there.

Prompt: Babysitting the Super Brats - Tim and Kon just wanted some alone time, but they get saddled with the responsibility of looking after their youngest siblings.

Prompt: I can’t protect you! - Originally a prompt where Jon doesn't want Damian to go on a dangerous mission because he’s at risk of getting killed. I turned it into an end of the world scenario, because of course I did :p Written in Jon’s POV.

Prompt: Dick’s Robin outfit does not fit Jon - Because Jon lost a dare with Damian, he now has to wear Dick Grayson’s original Robin gear. Yep, underwear and all.

Prompt: Maya’s Surprise - Supposedly part of a 5+1 thingie where people walk in on Damian and Jon kissing. It’s Maya’s turn, and well, she gets way more than she bargained for. This actually a censored version lol. The slightly more graphic version is on my ao3.

Prompt: Damian’s death anniversary - Jon accompanies Damian as the latter remembers the day he died. This prompt was really hard to write, because of all the emotion that Damian would have had to deal with.

Prompt: A TimKon Damijon double date - Damian and Jon are forced to go on a double date with Tim and Kon. They go eat dinner and then play laser tag, with a bet that the loser has to do what the winner wants.

Prompt: Super Puppy Love Epilogue: Why there’s a naked Damian in Jon’s bed - this was originally a story prompt but in the end I turned it into the epilogue of one of my better fics, which you can find over here:   (Super Puppy Love:   Damian finds out Jon has a crush on him and decides to have fun with it.)

Prompt: Board games with the Super Sons and the Bat Bros - Damian and Jon join the older Wayne boys for some games. What they don’t know is that the Bat Boys have already guessed just how much the two of them feel for each other.

Prompt: Everybody walks in on Damian and Jon making out - My first-ever prompt! Apparently, a 5+1 thingie where various people walk in on Damian and Jon snogging each other in some way :p

[aion-rsa]

How Dark Nights: Death Metal Reboots the DC Universe

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

The end of Dark Nights: Death Metal #7 is the last stop of more than a decade of Scott Snyder driving the DC metaverse’s bus. The conclusion to the Dark Nights saga, which started in 2017 with Dark Nights: Metal and ran through an entire Justice League series before concluding here, closes off storylines Snyder and his creative partner Greg Capullo seeded as far back as their first issue of Batman when the New 52 launched.

And with Infinite Frontier and Future State, DC’s next publishing initiatives, on deck, it’s worth taking a look at what Death Metal did so we can try and understand how the pieces fit together. Because if there’s one thing to take away from Death Metal, it’s that everything fits together. Even if you really gotta stomp on the pieces to get them to stick. 

THE ANTI-CRISIS IS HERE!

The final couple of issues of Death Metal throw a little bit of a curveball at readers. The entire series has felt like it was heading for a confrontation between Wonder Woman and The Batman Who Laughs, the Jokerized Bruce from the Dark Multiverse who (everybody take a DEEEP breath now) led an army of dark Batmen on behalf of Barbatos, the evil Bat god, in Metal; escaped captivity with Lex Luthor’s help in Justice League; betrayed Lex and usurped his role as evil overgoddess Perpetua’s right hand in Hell Arisen; and had his brain dropped in the body of a Bruce Wayne who had been turned into Dr. Manhattan after being killed by Diana earlier in Death Metal (with a chainsaw made from her invisible jet…just roll with it), giving him the nearly limitless power he needed to betray Perpetua earlier in this series. And from this point forward, we’re referring to him exclusively as BWL. Now let’s all go get a glass of water.

Ok, back? Cool.

So the rematch in the last couple of issues of Death Metal is what the rest of the series has felt like it was building towards. And we definitely get a BRAWL: Diana, charged up with Anti-Crisis energy (we’ll get there), is a giant embodiment of her golden lasso, and several times in the issue, she punches BWL so hard he traverses the history of the DC Universe. 

But it turns out BWL isn’t just fighting to dominate the entire multiverse. The Hands are returning. 

The Hands and the Green Lantern Connection

You know how DC time travelers can’t go back and watch the beginning of creation? Whenever they try, they just see a giant hand. This is pretty well established, going back to John Broome and Gil Kane’s old Green Lantern story about Krona, the Guardian scientist who first attempted to see the dawn of time. 

Turns out, the giant hand is part of a race of them: enormously powerful cosmic entities that bear a passing thematic resemblance to Marvel’s Beyonders, only sized up in power a few times. That hand we see when Krona tries to violate the laws of the multiverse, it belongs to Perpetua, and she’s one of them. Now they are coming to judge this local multiverse, and Perpetua and BWL both think it’s going to go poorly. So poorly, in fact, that BWL is asking Diana to join her Anti-crisis energy with his, as it’s their only hope of preventing The Hands from sweeping everything away and starting over.

Crisis Energy and Anti-Crisis Energy

Oh that. 

Perpetua and BWL power themselves up first (in Justice League and Hell Arisen) by harnessing the unseen dark forces of the multiverse – the invisible spectrum that manifests as John Stewart’s Ultraviolet Lantern powers, or the Speed Force’s opposite number, the Still Force, for example. They eventually graduate to eating universes to expand their power. These are examples of what Death Metal categorizes as Crisis Energy. 

Diana is charged with its opposite: Anti-Crisis Energy. This energy is produced by the connective tissue of the history of the DCU, by the totality of the DC Universe’s history. That’s why “everything counts” in Death Metal #6 was a big deal: it was a massive power up for Diana. It’s also an interesting meta critique of DC’s history of reboots.

Crisis Energy is described *by Diana* as being selfish and short sighted, focused on short term gain at the expense of respecting the sweep of history. Anti-Crisis energy is constructive, drawing strength from the depth and breadth of 80 years of DC continuity. 

We have to be careful assigning authorial intent where none may exist. But it is certainly a valid read of Death Metal to see criticism of DC’s accelerating continuity reboot cycle built in. It doesn’t take an enormous leap of logic to transpose Crisis Energy and all of Diana’s critiques over to Crisis Events and some of the fan criticism – short term sales boosts at the expense of the richness of an 80 year publishing history. 

Who Was Right? Wonder Woman or the Batman Who Laughs?

Diana, of course. She refuses to give into BWL’s cajoling, punches him through continuity a few times, and eventually meets The Hands, who come to her wearing the form of…her.

More specifically, they show up as Golden Age Wonder Woman. 

The Hand she speaks with explains to her that they were going to sweep away Diana’s multiverse because of its propensity for gross selfishness, but Diana’s personal heart and generosity touched them, so they’re giving the DCU another shot. Only this time, they’re putting everything back in place: the full history of the DCU, along with a blossoming multiverse. And it’s heavily implied that the barriers between worlds in this multiverse are going to be…less walls, and more suggestions. The price the Hand extracts for this boon is Diana’s existence: she ascends, no longer living as a physical being on Earth Prime. Instead, she joins the Hands protecting the new multiverse from a hinted at but as yet unstated threat.

It’s worth noting here that this evolution of the DC multiverse somewhat mirrors Snyder’s evolution as a writer at DC. His early Batman work, on the “Black Mirror” arc of Detective Comics, and early in his New 52 Batman run is very carefully plotted and paced. They’re written more like traditional detective/horror stories. Similarly, the DC multiverse has been slowly returning to continuity since Infinite Crisis and 52, only very slowly, with rigid rules and boundaries about what constitutes the new multiverse. Remember the Orrery of Worlds? 

The difference, in both Snyder’s style and the cosmogony of DC’s multiverse, are the rules don’t matter anymore. Death Metal, both in how the story is told and where it leaves the DC multiverse, has a certain “FUCK IT, EVERYBODY HAVE FUN AND WE’LL CLEAN UP LATER” vibe to it and if we’re being entirely honest, that’s kind of exciting. 

What Does this Mean for the Future of the DC Universe?

I’ll admit, it hits a little different landing after a year of wild rumors about the future of DC’s publishing line. The journey of Death Metal saw a bunch of new bosses coming in and rumors and threats that they were going to rip the DC Universe down to the studs, and whatever came next wasn’t anyone’s business. 

The end of Death Metal is a jubilant explosion of everything bright and beautiful about the DC Universe – our heroes have made it, and not only did they survive, but they did so specifically because everything in their publishing history saved them. Everything counts now, everything happened, everything mattered, and it’s that counting/happening/mattering that saved the day. And then Black Canary, Superman, Wally West, and Batman play a big metal concert for all the celebrating heroes. With Jarro on cowbell. 

Future State is the next step, in-universe and out of it. Death Metal closes with a group of heroes and villains – Martian Manhunter, Mr. Terrific, Hawkgirl, Lex, Talia, Vandal Savage, and maybe Wally West (it’s not explicitly clear that he’s part of the group and not just visiting) – gathering together to talk about the cosmogony of the new omniverse. Hypertime is healing, the multiverse is growing so infinite that it’s now the omniverse, pasts and futures are opening into what Wally calls an Infinite Frontier (NEXT PUBLISHING PHASE MIC CHECK!). But Earth Prime is no longer the center of the multiverse the way it once was, as you can see from your handy dandy Multiversity map. It’s replacement is actually two worlds: one yet unstated, and one the group of DCU bigwigs is calling…the Elseworld. 

After reading the first batch of Future State books, one could be forgiven for assuming many of those stories take place there. Each book has a blurb about the saved multiverse, and the wealth of new possibilities growing out of the ashes of Death Metal. These books are dripping with multiversal references. But I think that’s beside the point – some of the Future State stories will end up being Elseworlds tales; some, possible futures; and some will slowly integrate to regular continuity. I think the variety is the actual point here; variety of settings, variety of stakes, and a variety of stories and storytellers. 

One would think that emphasizing variety might also lead to variances in quality, but the hit rate for the Future State books is remarkably high. These books are genuinely exciting to read. Several of them look nothing like what DC has been doing before, almost to the point where we can hold a funeral for DC House Art Style. 

The characters are certainly vastly different from what came before, and a couple of them are going to be absolutely huge – watch Yara Flor, the new Wonder Woman. If Joelle Jones’ first issue of Future State: Wonder Woman is any indicator, she’s going to be extremely popular. 

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It has been a long, and sometimes very odd journey to get here, but between the power chords of hope from the end of Death Metal and the completely new jams being played in Future State, it’s hard not to be cautiously optimistic about the future of the DC Universe.

The post How Dark Nights: Death Metal Reboots the DC Universe appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/38iD7SX

[cakeandpi]

Aftermath - Part 1: Flotsam (also on AO3) Words: 12k

Warnings: Angst, canon character death, mention of child death (off screen), heavily implied major character death, mental and physical trauma, grief, alcohol usage

Summary: The team deals with the wreckage left behind in the wake of suddenly losing Kaldur'ahm. Follows Untangle, Consequence, and Interlude: Sha’lain’a. (Read those first in order to avoid spoiling yourself! Also the first scene follows pretty immediately off of the events in Interlude: Sha’lain’a.)

Notes: This was written for @yjficexchange​‘s mini big bang event! Probably the only reason I got this first part written this year, instead of just sitting on everything for forever. A million thank you’s to @lizziegoneastray for putting up with me talking about this nonstop and another million thank you’s to @windywords123 for the amazingly beautiful, heartbreaking artwork they’ve crafted.

“I told you that you should’ve waited.”

Orin grimaces at his wife’s tone and immediately regrets it as pain flares in his face. Readjusting his grip on the ice pack, he presses it gingerly to his eye once more as he watches his wife pace. Back and forth and back and forth, her feet slapping wetly on the tile. (There’s no need for a waterless room; it’s a frivolous luxury. They both breathe water as easily as air. They’re on the bottom of the ocean, with miles and miles of water above them, for Poseidon’s sake. But he has too much of the surface in him to not desire some reminder of it.)

“And then I’d be wrong for waiting.” He sighs. “I don’t blame her for being angry.”

“Good.” It’s only a single word, punctuated by the sharp report of her feet back and forth across the floor. It still leaves Orin with no doubt of how little sympathy Mera has for him right now. She’s always been better with words than him, be it giving grand, inspiring impromptu speeches, or cutting him - or whoever else has upset her - to the quick with such speed and precision that any swordsman would be envious.

He hopes her anger shifts away from him soon.

“This - this thing the courts have resurrected - we’ll fight it.” Orin says grimly as his wife paces. “Kaldur’ahm didn’t deserve this.”

“No, he does not. Did not.”

“Mera -”

“The last time this law,” Mera snarls, teeth showing, “was used was with a regicide attempt.”

“I know. I was present at the trial too, Mera. I know how they crafted their arguments. What they revived just so that they could maximize what they could inflict on him.”

Mera’s nostrils flare, but then she exhales slowly. Her pacing continues though it’s less full of directionless angry energy. The room is no longer full of echoes from her pacing as it becomes just something for Mera to do as she thinks.

“Can we fight this?” Orin blinks at her in surprise at the sudden question. Surely there’s no doubt that they must fight this, out of principle. Out of duty to his protege. Even assuming they’ve no chance of winning - and Orin’s not about to give up that easily - they must at least try.

“What do you mean?”

“Orin.” Mera sighs. “We’ve been slowly losing support in several key city-states over the past year. So far it hasn’t been too drastic a slip, or so we thought, but enough of one that our hands were tied where the trial was concerned. And this - that there even was a trial, even if it had had a different outcome - this is going to hurt us.”

“I would think Sha’lain’a and Calvin would want to support us.”

“We just lost their only son, Orin. Why would they?” She stops in her tracks, curling trembling arms around herself. “We don’t exactly have the best track record with children.” Her voice catches and breaks and Orin forgets the ice pack and developing black eye in favor of pulling her close. He tucks her head under his chin and rubs her back gently.

“Mera, love. That wasn’t your fault.”

“I know. But -”

“But nothing.” Orin exhales heavily. The guilt from the day they lost their son is still a knot in his chest; if he lets himself dwell on it too much, a raw, ugly rage uncurls from where he’s done his best to put it to rest. He knows it’s much the same with Mera. “We can blame ourselves all day for that, and it won’t bring him back.”

“I know.” She repeats. Only when he can feel the tension go in her shoulders does he relax his hold on her.

“We’ll need to tell the League about Kaldur.” He murmurs after a moment. He can feel Mera scowl into his chest. “They’ll need to know, love. They’d find out eventually, and it would just anger them if we kept these events secret from them.”

“Then they can be angry.” She pushes herself off of him and wipes at her face brusquely. “As bad as we messed up - don’t shake your head at me, you know we did, bad enough that Kaldur didn’t turn to either of us for help. But the League’s purpose - it’s founding idea - is about being there to help each other. About having each other’s backs. What happened there that he couldn’t, or wouldn’t, get help from anyone in the League? Not one single person, Orin.”

Orin opens his mouth to argue and then shuts it. He hadn’t thought of it that way.

“We’ll still need to tell them.”

“Fine.” She picks up the ice pack and runs her hands over it, light sparking down her arms and hands and fingers as her magic turns it frozen once more instead of being half melted. Handing it to him, she says, “I’ll talk to them.”

“I should do it.”

“And earn yourself another black eye? I think not.” She folds her arms and frowns at him. “If it is so important, then it is better that we tell them soonest. And you have several state engagements that would be difficult to break without further damaging our ability to recover from this mess. So. I’ll tell them.”

—

The League, as a general rule, doesn’t have meetings where every single member is present. Not only would it push the Watchtower’s occupancy limits, but it leaves villains free to do as they liked for too long.

That doesn’t mean that all of the founders never meet. But it is a little unusual for over half of them to actually be available for any given scheduled meeting, nevermind an impromptu one.

“What do you think this one’s about?” Diana asks Superman as he slides heavily into a seat.

“No idea. Pretty unusual for Aquaman to call an emergency meeting.” Which possibly explains why, for once, everyone has shown up. Except for J’onn, but he was on Mars. It doesn’t explain why Aquaman has yet to show.

Diana crosses her arms and leans back in her chair. She tunes out the sound of Flash chattering about some television show with Green Lantern. Further along the table, on the other side of Superman, she can see Batman carefully not fidgeting with growing annoyance.

Fortunately she doesn’t need to resort to distracting Batman from his poor attempts at patience. The door to the meeting room sighs open, and Diana sits up in surprise as Mera, not Aquaman, steps through. The woman crosses the short distance to stand at the foot of the meeting table, hands clasped behind her. Diana recognizes the stance as one she’s seen Aquaman use when he’s on his dignity or being formal.

“Our apologies for Orin’s absence. A situation arose in Atlantis that required his presence, and while we understand that League status is not transferable, the reason this meeting was called could not be delayed. We hope you will forgive our appearing in his stead.” Mera’s voice is, well, it’s not threatening but it’s not warm. If frozen air had a voice, it’d sound like Mera’s just now.

Diana can feel the scowl Batman’s making, and it’s not even directed at her. He’s probably grinding his teeth too. “Go on.” He grates out after Mera doesn’t continue. Diana’s fingers itch, and she clenches them closed on her lap before she finds herself with a weapon in hand. Mera’s eyes are like ice, an expression the queen rarely wore, and Diana can feel her own face sliding into a calm non-expression in response.

“When we first met, we were not sure working together would be of any benefit. Our only goal was to see to the continued safety and prosperity of Atlantis. But that was at the cost of ignoring the rest of the world. Maintaining our isolation was no answer if Atlantis were to continue surviving, let alone thrive, as the world’s many problems still came to rest at our doorstep regardless.

“Cooperation has benefited both Atlantis and the League over our years of working together. We have made many valuable friends and allies, we have new technologies, we have expanded our knowledge of not just this world, but other worlds in our solar system and beyond. It is our dearest wish to continue our cooperative efforts.

“However, as everyone here is doubtlessly aware, the situation in Atlantis has been precarious for quite some time. Recent events have made it clear that Atlantis requires more dedicated attention than we previously realized. To that effect, we cannot continue our current activities with the League. This decision has been a long time coming, and not made lightly. We understand if the League wishes to take this as a resignation, though we hope the League does not find such action necessary.”

“So Aquaman’s too cowardly to resign in person.” Green Lantern grumbles. Diana frowns at him sternly, and he squirms a little under her glare.

“If a resignation is how the League wishes to interpret this, we will not argue it, especially in light of recent events.”

“What recent events?” Diana asks. “It’s not like you to talk around things like this.”

Mera’s shoulders square up at the question, and her eyes gaze out somewhere above Batman’s head. Her hands don’t tremble, in the light clasp she has them in behind her back, despite the people who she usually considers friends and allies frowning at her. Her hands don’t tremble because she’s still angry, at the courts, at the League. At herself and Orin. She doesn’t tremble because he didn’t tremble, not once.

“Kaldur’ahm of Shayeris, also once known as Aqualad, no longer swims in our waters.”

For a moment the words are just that - words. Sounds. Noise without meaning or substance. And then unbidden comes the memory of the day Aquaman had told them about the lost of his son. He had used much of the same words.

Diana cannot remember a time she’s seen the Flash be more still.

“I’m sorry, I’m afraid I didn’t hear you. He what?” Superman’s standing, hands flat on the table. Diana reaches up and presses a hand lightly on his shoulder, silently urging him downward. He ignores her.

Mera’s eyes close briefly, and she inhales once. Twice. “Many of his actions during his undercover mission,” and her voice does not falter, remaining as icy as her gaze, “broke or heavily bent many of Atlantis’ laws. A trial was held to determine what judgment, if any, should be imposed as a result of his actions.”

“So you -”

Mera raises a hand to interrupt Green Lantern’s rising voice. “It is already done, Green Lantern. Forgive us if we decline to discuss the details; it is still a very fresh wound.”

Batman joins Diana on trying to push Superman back into his seat. She’s gripping him hard enough that she knows she’s leaving a bruise. The man ignores them both, planting both hands on the table and leaning forward, eyes sharp with outrage. “He put himself in a situation all of us would balk at, puts himself at great personal risk, infiltrates and takes out a group that the League has made no headway on for years, saves us from a hostile alien invasion, and this is how you repay him? What kind of mentor does that to their protege?”

Mera merely raises her eyebrows at the question. “And what kind of League is it, that Kaldur’ahm could not turn to any one of your number? We do not argue that we failed him, and we have no wish to assign blame, but it is also true that we did not fail him alone.” Mera meets each of their eyes in turn. Diana returns her gaze, almost defiantly.

“We have no wish to fail others in our care, now or in the future.” Mera says after a pause, her voice softer than before. But then it hardens again as she continues. “And so our sole focus must be Atlantis. To that end, however, uninvited guests from the surface world will not be tolerated.”

“Was that a threat?” It’s the first thing the Flash has said since Mera walked in.

“If it need be. Now, if you will excuse us, we have other matters requiring our attention.” Mera inclines her head at the group, almost as if dismissing them, and then turns and strides out.

—

Roy busily racks his brain for lullabies that kids like. Not that Lian is old enough to care. She cares that she’s hungry, that she’s cold, or that she’s not getting attention. He’s beginning to think she might care that he’s not Jade, which would be fair enough - he would complain too in Lian’s shoes. It’s not like he’s very good at this whole dad business.

Lian grumbles unhappily once more, and he shifts her a little in his arms and resumes pacing. He doesn’t think she’s sick, at least he hopes not. But he’s fed her and everything and she won’t stop whining and just go to sleep. Or rather, she only stops whining if he doesn’t stop moving, which has led to him wearing out a path on his apartment floor.

He’s never felt quite so out of his depth before, and he ought to just call Ollie and Dinah and get advice on if this is a normal baby thing. They’d ask questions, though, and he doesn’t want to answer any. Or admit that he doesn’t really know what he’s doing.

He swears as someone knocks on the door. “Definitely not your mom because she wouldn’t bother with such niceties.” He grumbles to his daughter.

Yeah, Dick’s definitely not Jade.

There’s no time to decipher the strange look Dick’s giving him as Lian decides right then and there that Roy has had enough ‘not moving’ time and takes to protesting. He must have made some sort of face because Dick snorts and motions for Roy to hand over Lian. Roy considers refusing for half a second, but he’s been pacing for the better part of twenty minutes.

He’s almost offended that Lian immediately stops crying once Dicks holding her. He doesn’t even have to pace to buy her quiet. Asshole.

“Yours?”

Roy shrugs the question aside, grunting in a kind of acknowledgement as he gestures Dick inside. Closing the door, he says, “Her name’s Lian. I guess you’re her favorite uncle or whatever now, cause she’s refused to quiet down until just now.”

“I’m flattered.”

Roy frowns when Dick looks anywhere but him. It’s not like Dick to make house calls like this, not out of uniform. There’s not much Roy can think of that would bring him all the way out here after midnight, and none of it’s good. “Hey, you okay?”

“No.”

Well, shit. Roy sits down slowly on his beat-up couch. He’s no good at this sort of thing; all he can ever think of is useless platitudes. Still, Wally had been their friend, and Dick’s stayed friendly with him even after the whole mole thing. He’d be a bigger asshole than usual if he didn’t at least try to say something.

“Listen, I know Wally -”

“It’s not about Wally.” Dick sighs and finally looks up at him. Really looks at him, and Roy feels his guts knot up. This is going to be bad, he can feel it.

“Dick?”

Dick clears his throat. “It’s Kaldur. He- It’s-” Roy’s fingers bite into the couch. He knows that if he looks, his knuckles will be white. He forces himself to be silent, to not interrupt whatever Dick’s struggling to say. All sorts of scenarios play out through his head - that Kal’s injured is the first thought; maimed is the second. Then there’s the possibility of poison. Or -

He pulls himself away from those thoughts. “Kaldur what?” Roy prompts when Dick doesn’t add anything more. His stomach is in knots. He doesn’t want to know. But, he needs to know. He must know. He’ll just worry himself sick otherwise, at best. At worst, he’ll be where he was before Lian had come into his life.

Dick visibly gathers himself. “Atlantis put him on trial, for his actions during the undercover mission.”

“On trial.” Roy repeats as if he didn’t hear it the first time. His heart thuds, in his chest, in his throat. For all that talk about being trained to be stoic and unreadable, Dick’s bad at hiding truly bad news. If it was just a trial, if Dick was only worried about the outcome, he wouldn’t look like he’d seen a ghost.

Dick’s voice is a hushed whisper. “It was a guilty verdict. He - he won’t be coming back.”

“What do you mean, ‘won’t be coming back’?” He doesn’t like the look on Dick’s face. He really doesn’t. “Just fucking tell me, I swear if you make me drag it out of you -”

“He’s dead.”

The words hang heavily in the air. It is weird how a only a couple of short syllables can make the world feel like it’s falling away. Can create a buzzing so loud that everything else is deafened and drowned out.

“That’s not funny.” It’s all he can think of to say. His voice sounds weird in his ears, all breathy whisper, as if he’s not breathing right. It doesn’t feel real. It can’t be real. And yet there’s Dick sitting at his table, holding his daughter.

“He never got to meet her.” He doesn’t remember deciding to speak. “I - I meant to. But something always came up.”

“He would have loved her, Roy.”

He knew that. He knew that, so why hadn’t he dragged Kaldur out here to meet her?

He knew exactly why he hadn’t.

“Roy?” Dick’s concerned voice breaks him out of his thoughts.

“Sorry. I. I need to - ” The words catch and crack and he clears his throat, but Dick seems to understand. He’s already standing and handing Lian back, and somehow she’s asleep and missing all of this. Not that she’d remember, but it’s a small comfort to know she isn’t distressed too.

“I’ll text you the details for the memorial?” Dick asks softly. Roy nods. Hopefully Dick will take the hint and goes away soon. Roy’s not sure how much longer he can hold himself together.

Dick says some other things that Roy doesn’t really hear and leaves. Slowly, as if by staying quiet this will all some sort of nightmare or hallucination, he gets up and puts Lian in her bed. He watches her for a long time, until his eyes water and his nose runs with the need for sleep and rest. He can’t cry, not when he’s the one who kept finding excuses to not see him.

An awful noise tries to rise out of his throat anyway, and he covers his mouth to keep it from escaping. Sitting on his bed, he struggles to keep his breathing even. Struggles, and loses. His free hand curls into a fist, and he slams it into the bed, once, twice. It’s his own fault that the last time he even saw Kal - not even talked to him but just saw - was over a month ago. He’s the one who chose to go after fleeing villains when there were others perfectly capable of catching them more easily. He could have stayed and actually caught up with Kaldur. Could have talked to him, could have introduced him to Lian, could have seen him melt with affection.

But no, he hadn’t wanted to hear Kal say ‘my friend’ that way, the one that always, somehow, managed to keep Roy at just the slightest bit of distance. The one that made Roy feel like there was some intangible glass wall that he could never break through and finally reach Kal.

He hadn’t wanted to deal with being the reason Kal kept that wall there.

And now he’ll never be able to fix what he’s done.

—

For the second time that year, Raquel attends a memorial for one of her friends. And once more it’s not a funeral because once more there’s not even a body. She feels… she’s not sure how she feels, really. Numb, mostly. There’s disbelief, and denial, and an earnest yearning to walk it all back to before all this had happened. Back to when they’d been indestructibly confident and high on having beaten the entire League with a MacGyvered solution to mind control. But mostly she feels weary numbness.

She can see Artemis leaning heavily on Conner, looking as spent as Raquel feels. Can see M’gann and Zatanna place flowers against the newest hologram to grace the Watchtower. Can see Dick next to her, in a suit, yet another set of flowers in his hands. Why are there only flowers? (Obviously, she answers herself, because food would rot, and anything else would be too trite.)

She watches as Dick places his flowers against the base of the hologram. As M’gann arranges framed pictures next to it. It might as well be a month ago, for all that this time it’s for Kaldur and not Wally.

Gods, she hates this.

Roy was here earlier, staring at the larger than life replica of Kaldur. He’d stayed for a bit when the rest of the team had joined, but had left soon after, claiming responsibilities. Or supposedly had. She can just barely see him fidget behind a tree out of the corner of her eye. She doesn’t blame him for wanting to grieve alone. It’s already hard enough when there’s company.

At least, most company.

“Hey.” Dick falls in step with her when she goes to leave. “How’re you holding up?”

Raquel shrugs. “As well as can be expected, I guess.” She says automatically.

“Same here. Was planning to get super drunk so I can be as un-well as expected. You want to join me?”

The idea is actually pretty appealing compared to going home by herself and being not drunk. “Let me see if my mom will watch Amistad.”

“Sure.”

A phone call and a pit stop at a store later, Raquel accepts a glass from Dick. She hums in appreciation at the taste. “You always did make good drinks. If the whole vigilante thing and detective work don’t work out, you could do this for a living.”

Dick laughs. “I actually took couple of bartending classes once. Don’t get to show off often.”

“Well I can tell you paid attention. This tastes amazing.”

“Glad to know I haven’t lost my touch.”

There’s a subtle hint of a question there. Raquel muses over her answer - it’s been some time since she’s fooled around with anyone, and she’s always had fun with Dick in the past. But she’s also not really feeling the urge to jump him, as enjoyable as that would be, so she just smiles crookedly.

Dick smiles back and nods. That’s the nice thing about him. He picks up on cues quick as anything and never makes it some big production to get turned down. It’s relaxing. “Is cuddling out of the question? Or I can reacquaint myself with the couch.”

“Cuddling sounds good, actually.” She goes to take another sip of her drink. To her dismay, she’s somehow already finished it. She looks up at him with a pleading look.

“Easy there R, those puppy dog eyes are veritable weapons.” He drains his own glass before getting up to fix them both more.

She snorts. “Not half as dangerous as those drinks you make. Bring me some water too? I don’t want to feel too much like death tomorrow.”

“Getting old over there? Sure you can keep up?”

“Now look here you little whippersnapper, I’ll have you know I walked uphill both ways in the snow for my hangovers when I was young.”

Despite Dick’s words about drinking so he could be upset, they don’t talk about earlier, not once. Raquel’s grateful; the numbness is slipping away and she actually feels kind of good; she’d rather not turn into the sobbing mess she’d doubtlessly be otherwise. She’s fairly certain Dick feels the same way, the way his face goes a bit strained whenever their conversation strays a touch too close to Kaldur or Wally.

“Here.” It’s later, and the room’s wobbling like it’s the one that’s been drinking. “Lean on me. We’ll stagger to bed together.”

Dick accepts her offered hand from the floor where he didn’t mean to sit. Probably.

She doesn’t remember getting to bed, or getting in it. But at some point she wakes up half tangled in Dick’s limbs and bedsheets with a headache and a dire need to pee.

Extracting herself is a chore and a half - she’d forgotten about this part of sleeping with him. When she returns he’s still asleep, with that faint hint of a snore he insists he doesn’t have. It’s seems too much like work to crawl over him, and shoving him over would require more effort. So she flops down on top of him instead.

It works just as it used to. Dick snorts, grumbles something about too many rooms to deal with this, and scoots backwards. Raquel victoriously rolls herself into the freed space and luxuriates in the warmth spot he left. Her head pounds in a dull rhythm - she should’ve gotten painkillers while she was up. But Dick’s already curling up against her and her headache is not that bad that she wants to leave this bit of comfort.

Sunlight streams in through a curtained window the next time she opens her eyes.

Stumbling into the kitchen area of Dick’s apartment, she finds water and painkillers set out. “Thanks,” she mutters, downing them both. Her stomach twinges, so instead of hunting down some breakfast she leans against the wall and nurses her water.

Dick is seated at his small table and seems just as worse for the wear, dark sunglasses already guarding his eyes. “Hey Raquel?”

“Hm?”

“Do you think I did the right thing?”

It’s too early for heavy questions. “Yes, the mustache was a mistake. Shaving it off was the right choice.” She can feel his eyes flick towards her; she stares right back at him. “Be more specific if you want an actual opinion.”

“I -” His voice cracks and he clears his throat. “The undercover mission.”

The numbness that had faded over the last night returns in full force.

“They volunteered. Kaldur’ahm and Artemis. It was meant to be secret, just between the three of us, but Artemis insisted on telling Wally. He didn’t like the plan - hated it actually - but he went along with it anyway. And now…” He trails off, as if not finishing the thought will somehow make the results less real.

“And now you lost two of our own.” Raquel finishes for him.

He flinches. “We all knew there were dangers. That things could go… badly. And the mission - we did complete it.”

“And that makes everything okay.” There’s more bite in her voice this time, but he doesn’t flinch again. His head remains bowed, staring down at the untouched bowl of dry cereal on the table before him. “If you’re looking for absolution, Dick, you’re looking in the wrong place because I don’t have it.”

“I - I don’t know.” He rubs his face. “I thought I was prepared. For failing, for things turning sideways. But then the mission was over and done, and I relaxed. And. I shouldn’t have. I should guessed that something would have gone wrong with the MFDs. That something was up after weeks with no contact from Kaldur.”

“Weren’t we supposed to go through this shit when we had alcohol to excuse the emotions?”

Dick gives a choked laugh. “Yeah, sorry.”

She sighs. “I don’t know, Dick, that even Batman could have predicted any of this.” She raises her voice when he makes a noise of protest. Heaven forbid anyone suggest Batman could ever be surprised by anything. “But I do know  you cut all of us out. You lied to us and deliberately led all of us into believing Kaldur had switched sides and had killed Artemis. So, yeah, maybe something would have turned out differently if you hadn’t kept secrets.”

“It was too dangerous to tell anyone.”

“Okay.” She shrugs, not really wanting to argue, not now. “Well then, guess you better make sure it was worth it.”

Dick gets Raquel a taxi a little while later. On coming back up to his apartment after seeing her off, returning to bed and sleeping away the rest of the day seems, well, less taxing than anything else. He’s already called in a vacation day at work - and thankfully still he has some saved up - and there’s not any pressing chores he has to do right now. But Raquel’s words prick at him. Make sure it was worth it? There’s precious little he can do to change the decisions he’d made, or repair the team’s damaged trust in him.

But there is one thing he can try to fix. And maybe it’d help with his overwhelming sense of guilt.

It’s much harder than he ever expected.

Weeks pass and his coffee table is no longer a coffee table. It’s a war zone of forms and legal red tape and he is in over his head. Way over his head, and maybe he should have called a lawyer or two or five. Bruce has several on retainer; one of them surely would be willing to help. Half of the paperwork requires some other second set of paperwork, which in turn requires the first set. Frustrated, he lets the folder he’s holding slide out of his fingers onto the table with disastrous results.

Papers scatter across the table, sliding out of their neat stacks and some even falling to the floor. Dick groans and covers his face with both hands. “This is ridiculous,” he announces to the empty apartment. “It should not be this hard to bring someone back from the dead.”

It had been Kaldur’s idea to go undercover and ferret out any useful bit of information possible. Actually, it had been his plan, and he’d mostly let Dick know so that there would be least one person who would know what he was really up to. It had also been partly to have a second opinion on the whole thing.

They’d wound up bringing in Artemis, and she had helped them turn a ‘well maybe if we get lucky’ crapshoot of a plan into something that actually stood a real chance of working. But it had been Nightwing’s brilliant idea to have Kaldur ‘kill’ Artemis to prove his boot-heel-turn to Black Manta.

And it had worked. It had worked so well that it actually did cost lives in the end.

He pinches his nose and forces himself to stop grinding his teeth. He knows by now that he could plan, and make backup plans, and make backup backup plans, for years and years, and it still wouldn’t be enough to cover every eventuality. Life’s not fair - he knows this, knows it in his bones and heart and he knows that the universe doesn’t care who it takes or when it takes them. But he wishes it could have been him. Nevermind that he didn’t have superpowers and had no way to help at the north pole. Nevermind that he didn’t answer to Atlantis’s laws. Nevermind that he wasn’t anywhere near Gotham when Jason -

He smashes his fist against his thigh. No. He’s been over this before. Ever since he was nine, he’s been over this. He knows he can’t take their places, no matter how much he wants to. Slowly, deliberately, he takes a deep breath. Another.

The least that he can do is fix the mess he’s made of Artemis’s life with her death. The paperwork involved is an ungodly hell, but it would hardly be any form of penance if it were easy.

—

Artemis sets her bags down with a relieved sigh and stretches, popping her back. The door to her mom’s place squeaks shut just as she remembers, and it’s weird how much she missed hearing that. Maybe she’ll stay a few days more than she planned; her mom always likes when she stays over.

Breathing in deep, she can smell her mom’s cooking, and her stomach growls in anticipation. “Artemis, is that you?”

It’s not the voice she’s expecting. She jumps where she’s standing. “Jade?”

“Hey little sis.” Jade steps around the corner, her arms wrapped around a mess of blankets. “Sorry I can’t stay for long, but here -” Jade passes whatever she’s carrying over to Artemis, which is heavier than Artemis is expecting. And warmer. Looking down at the blankets she’s been handed, she rocks back on her heels to see a face.

Jade is smirking when Artemis finally looks up.

“Who’s the dad?” It’s the least important part of everything about this, but Artemis can’t help asking.

“It was too dark to see.”

“Too dark to -” Artemis begins to repeat, then glares at her sister. “Really, Jade? I’m supposed to believe that?”

Jade simply shrugs and grins at her younger sister. “I should be gone three days. Think you and mom can handle taking care of your niece - her name’s Lian, by the way - until I get back?”

“How hard could it be?”

“Oh, you have no idea. But mom can help you if you have any trouble.” Jade’s smirk fades a little, briefly becoming an actual smile. “Take care of yourself, okay?”

The door creaks open and slams closed before Artemis can fish her voice back out from her throat. Looking back down at the child in her arms, she tries to rally herself. She’s face down super villains and the the end of the world. How difficult could it be too look after a baby for a few days?

“Mom?”

“In here, sweetheart.”

Her mom’s checking something in the oven, and it’s weird. It’s so weird, because she’s seen this a thousand million times before, her mom preparing food or working through bills or folding laundry, so seeing her wheel about the kitchen, humming softly to herself, should be no reason to get emotional.

She does anyway, and the way her mom whirls to face her at the first sniffle makes it worse.

“Artemis,” and somehow that’s what sets the tears off in full force. She’s crying and her mom’s there and somehow her mom manages to take Lian from her and still cradle her head in her lap. “I’ve got you.” Her mom whispers. “You’re home and you’re safe. I’ve got you.”

—

His fingers tangle with Kaldur’s, gripping tighter than he normally would allow himself. He can’t let go, can’t afford to let Kaldur slip from his grasp. Bad things will happen if he can’t keep hold of him.

Their foreheads rest together, one more point of contact. Garth wants more, but that’s hard when there’s a table between them. Already it digs painfully hard into his stomach; a small price to gain even a millimeter of the closeness denied him.

He can feel Kaldur’s exhale brush against his face, and when he opens his eyes he finds Kaldur watching him.

“Garth.” It’s a whisper, a sigh, a shadow of the usual solidness of Kal’s voice. Garth squeezes Kal’s hands harder, determined to memorize everything about this. He doesn’t want to forget. He won’t forget.

“I don’t want you.”

Kal slips his hands out of his with ease, despite the intensity of Garth’s grip. He leans back from him and melts away, disappearing into the darkness of the room. Garth bolts up from his chair, leaping over the table with a desperate grab, and catches nothing.

Garth wakes alone in his room with a start, the darkness of his dream slowly resolving into dim light. It takes more than a few minutes to gain control of his trembling body. “There. He didn’t want me there.” He whispers, correcting the dream, as he tiredly rubs at his face. Maybe one of these times his mind will listen, not that it has so far. The dream is always the same.

It’s still early, but late enough that he’d not have any time to get more sleep if he returns to bed. Assuming his dreams would let him sleep. He’s interrupted in getting up by a sudden, demanding beep, and old habits make him snatch the communicator, unused and forgotten for months, from its spot on his bedside table. He hesitates before answering though - he’d rather not talk to anyone just now. It beeps again, and again, and before he can decide to smash it against a wall and never have to deal with a surfacer again, he answers.

“What is it?”

“… Why, I’m fine, thank you for asking.” Is the response. “I’d ask how you’re doing but obviously we’re skipping niceties today all over the place.” Garth closes his eyes so he won’t sigh heavily. Out of everyone from Kaldur’s team that could have called, it had to be Nightwing.

“Woke me up.”

“Um. Yeah, guess it is pretty early where you are. Sorry about that. Anyway, this will be super quick, promise. Just need to know if you’ve been surface-side recently.”

“If I’ve what? Why?”

“Just curious.”

Garth spares a glare for the communicator, willing Nightwing to see it. “I’ve been to the surface a few times the past few weeks,” He doesn’t elaborate on why since Nightwing won’t share his reasons either. “You need to be more specific if you’re thinking about a particular event.”

“Thought Atlantis considered the surface off-limits now.”

“Atlantis is off-limits to the surface. And you are prying.”

“It’s what I do.”

“Good for you.” He tries not to grind his teeth in exasperation as Nightwing laughs.

“All right, all right. We’ve been investigating some of Black Manta’s business associates. But, well, one of the safe-houses he used has been rather… heavily damaged by water. Which is why I called.”

Garth’s response dies before it leaves his throat. Shit. What should he say? What could he say? ‘Sorry for demolishing one of Black Manta’s bases, I was upset while trying to retrace Kaldur’s footsteps from when he was pretending to be evil and neither you nor he thought to warn me’? Not a chance.

“That was me. I might have lost my temper.”

A rude sound comes across the communicator. “Might? Dude, over half the building’s gone.” Garth blinks. He doesn’t remember losing his temper that badly. Had he? “Listen, next time, could you maybe destroy the nearby countryside or something? Or at least lose your temper in a place known for tsunamis or tidal waves. Hell of time dealing with the news coverage of it. Not to mention that we could have used whatever info was there, but now-” Garth imagines Nightwing shrugging.

“Yeah, got it.” He clicks the communicator off, forgoing any polite parting exchanges.

Looks like he has new plans for the day.

It takes more than a day. Almost a week, actually, passes before he finds the place Nightwing must have been referring to. By the time he arrives, it’s night, not to mention raining. Neither of which impede him much - it is a rare Atlantean that doesn’t see well in the dark - but the debris is a different matter. He picks his way carefully around the remains of shattered windows and pottery and other things he can’t identify, making his way to the building. What was left of it, anyway. One corner of it stands untouched; the rest is just… torn away. As if a giant hand had risen from the sea, slammed down on the house, and then swiped the remains down into the ocean.

From what he’d seen swimming up here, that was pretty accurate. He could see why Nightwing had thought this to be his handiwork.

He almost misses the object in the mud. Would have missed it if not for stepping right on it, thinking it just another bit of wood. It feels weird under his foot, though, and that’s enough reason to pick it up and wipe it clean of mud. He almost wishes he hadn’t.

The four inches of leather is intimately familiar.

The military would have reclaimed the actual blade when Kaldur had been … sentenced. As Aqualad, Kaldur had been, very technically, still part of the military though not actively on duty, much like Tula had been - like Garth even now - in the service of the monarchs. So the three of them had been allowed to keep their standard-issue blades, as ‘insurance against enemy capture’. But unlike the knife itself, the sheath could be personalized as desired.

Most common was to have the names of loved ones close to the wielder, so that it could be returned in case of tragedy. He doesn’t need to look at it to know the names pressed into the leather of this one. His fingers pick out the names wrapped around it - ‘Tula’ and ‘Garth’, ‘Garth’ and ‘Tula’, over and over.

It’s like it just happened, the memory’s still so fresh. Kaldur stumbling over his words, worrying over what they’d think, if they would laugh at him, if they would find his feelings too intense. The confusion on Tula’s face slowly giving way to delight. The happiness in his own chest that Kal felt so strongly about them. The odd not-quite-shame, but definitely somewhere in that area, feeling that had come later when he realized that Kal had still felt so uncertain about belonging with them.

He remembers receiving Tula’s, minus the blade of course. Remembers being angry at Kaldur for not being there.

He’d never received Kal’s. He’d thought that that was because it was considered part of the trial evidence. He didn’t want to think about how it could have wound up here, mixed in with the remains of whatever had happened to Manta’s base.

He doesn’t want to think about the feelings rising in his chest, bubbling up and threatening to spill over. There’s nothing to be gained from searching beyond here. There’s nothing he’d find beyond frustration and grief and regret.

Even so, the urge to look, just for a little, just one sweep, just to make sure - it tugs at him. He ignores it.

“I -” His voice cracks and he clears his throat and tries again. “I miss you.”

It’s weird to say out loud after carrying it inside him for so long. It’s also hard to stop.

“This - I know you didn’t do this to me, but how could you do this to me?”

Neptune, this is all coming out wrong.

“I know I can’t see you again, I just. I. I never wanted this.” His hand clenches around the empty sheath. He drags the back of his other hand across his face. He’s not sure what’s rain and what’s tears. His chest burns despite the chill, and he battles to control his breathing. The most he can do is clamp down hard on the feeling of wanting to punch something. Pain flares in his knees, his legs; it rips through the pressure building in him, like some popped bubble. He doesn’t remember deciding to sit, but it’s easier than standing.

“I never got to ask you why. Why you left, why you didn’t run, why did you not tell me, why didn’t you take me with you.”

Why did you not trust me? He tries to say, but his voice catches and he swallows thickly. The words stick in his throat, because didn’t Kaldur trust him to understand? ‘Because of Tula’, he’d said. Three words, short and concise and complete and utter bullshit. And he’d trusted Garth to know him well enough to get the message.

“Why did you come back with me? Did you think I wanted this? Did you really think I wouldn’t have helped you run?” There’s no response - not that he was really expecting any, except sick, perverse hope never dies easy no matter how thoroughly he buries it.

There’s too many questions to give voice to, all of them piling up since that morning he’d woken up with Kaldur gone right after Tula’s death. He’s not stopped coming up with new ones, though he had thought himself numb to them by now. He was wrong, it seems, as his insides curl anew at the answer he doesn’t want to think about. The answer he doesn’t want to accept.

“Did you really think I valued Atlantis over you?”

—

Artemis leans against the doorframe, trying to think if she’s forgotten to pack anything. Hair bands, toothpaste, toothbrush, her favorite earrings, nail polish, any clothes that she’s not giving away, books … She’s pretty sure she hasn’t missed anything. And if she did, her mom would send it to her, or she can come back to get it.

She’s been at home for several weeks now, and she’s loved it and hated it and she’s ready to go back to college, to finish and move on now that Nightwing’s finally sorted out the paperwork of ‘not actually dead, sorry about that’.

Still, she can’t quite seem to get herself moving.

When she had come home, with a duffel bag of her things and her bow and arrows, she hadn’t planned to stay long-term. It was just going to be a few days with her mom before she moved on. There were so many memories of Wally here, after all. She’d been scared they’d rip her heart wide open anew when she had just started to heal.

But she hadn’t counted on having a niece. She hadn’t counted on Jade actually being around for once, actually cutting short her jaunts around the world. She hadn’t counted on the smells and sounds of home leaving her defenseless and crying within moments of closing the door behind her. It was like she was five again, like she was some kid who’d scraped their knee and needed a kiss to make it better. Artemis hadn’t meant to stay, but she’d missed her mom, had missed her mom’s cooking and how safe her mom always made her feel. She’d missed not having to avoid people in order to be alone like she’d had to do at the Watchtower.

She’d been right too; it had hurt to be here. She’d also been wrong; for all the crying she’d done, it had been, mostly, a good sort of hurt. At the Watchtower, with the League and the team, all there had been were missions and talking - or most definitely not talking - about Wally. She hadn’t had room to do anything like laugh because she’d remembered a pun he’d made and it had been so awful she’d just had to shove him of the pier into the harbor. And then he’d surfaced and made another pun with a broad grin on his face that was just begging for her to dunk him under again.

At home, though, at home there was room; she’d almost entirely forgotten that she had happy memories of him here. Afternoons spent partly studying, mostly flirting with Wally; cuddling together as they watched movies on her old second-hand tv; patrolling together, sometimes just the two of them, sometimes with Ollie or Batman and Robin, before Robin had ‘graduated’ to Nightwing. Wally earnestly learning how to make her favorite foods from her mom but never quite getting it right. Taking him out to her favorite Vietnamese restaurant one night after he’d gotten a rejection letter from a university he’d really wanted to get into and then dumping almost an entire bottle of sriracha into his food so he could blame any tears on the food. (And then having to help him eat it because that was also the night that she discovered Wally didn’t do well - at all - with any sort of hot spices.) The two of them quietly planning their future together.

And now she’s planning her future alone, and her chest aches and her eyes blur, and she’s crying, again. Maybe her mom’s right, maybe she is going back to college too soon, because she still has days that getting out of bed takes all of her strength. Because she still shuts down sometimes because of seeing some lanky, freckled redhead on the street. So maybe this might all end horribly and she’ll get kicked out, but still, she feels like she can, maybe, do this. And Artemis knows Wally would be behind her all the way, encouraging her to go and get the things she wants, to enjoy it all and to look forward.

Artemis closes her eyes and wipes the tears away.

She can do this. She can.

And it’s easier than she thought and harder than she’d imagined. School and classwork and studying slot neatly into place with little effort. The hard part is not from forgetting Wally’s not here anymore and trying to ask him something - about dinner, about going for a run, about what the hell the professor was thinking with that assignment. Those moments hurt, but she’s also expecting them, in a way, so it’s not anything she can’t handle for the most part.

No, the hard part is how easily she adjusts her routine to his absence.

Which is a ridiculous thing to be upset over - he’s gone and he’s not coming back and she’ll have to move on sometime, and yet. And yet she doesn’t want to erase him, and somehow it feels like she is whenever she realizes it’s been a week since she last tried to ask what he wants for dinner.

It’s in fits and starts, but somehow she makes it through one semester. And another. And then all of a sudden it’s been a year. And she thought she was doing okay - actually, she had been doing pretty great - but now it’s been a year and she’s not okay, she’s not better, and she can’t do this.

She can’t continue to act like nothing’s wrong, like she’s not missing part of herself. She can’t go to his memorial and be all sad soft smiles. She just can’t. Each time she decides she’s going, her chest gets too tight like she can’t breath. She wants to yell and cry and scream all at once and there’s never enough air.

She wants him back. She wants to be over him already so she can stop hurting from the smallest things. She wants to have never have met him if it was only going to end up like this. She wants to have never have wanted such a thing.

She wants to hear him call her beautiful again, wants to see him smile when she calls him Baywatch. She wants and wants and wants and she can’t have any of it, not one single bit, so she doesn’t go.

She tells herself he’d understand why she doesn’t go.

She still hates herself for it.

—

For most people, a bag of groceries wouldn’t be cause for alarm. But Roy’s not most people, and this is his safehouse. One that he hasn’t been to in far too long as evidenced by the fine layers of dust over everything. But lack of use or no, this is his place, and someone’s been here uninvited.

Roy eases the door shut slowly, holding on so that it latches as silently as he can manage. He came here to rest, but there’s little chance of that now if this place has been compromised. But a careful search of the place turns up nothing. His back itches, as if he’s being watched, and it only gets stronger as he looks for further sign of intrusion and finds none. Finally there’s only the table left, with its shopping bag.

He’s been holding his bow at half-ready, arrow nocked but not fully drawn in case he found the intruder. Now he relaxes it and sets it down, near enough to grab in an instant if he needs. Reaching for the bag, he frowns as he pulls out cans of soup and protein bar boxes and a canister of salt. Salt? Kal would always add salt to his drinks, even as he’d complain about it not being the same. He stares at it without really seeing it, then whirls around to the couch, where a light blanket lies folded neatly on the armrest.

Oh. Oh, fuck.

Kaldur had been here. He’d been here, Roy’s certain of it. Normally he’d leave a note whenever he’d left without meeting up with Roy, but a frantic search through the groceries turns up nothing. Not even a receipt to give him an idea of how long ago he’d been here. Though it was long enough that Kal had apparently felt the need to replace his stores of food. And long enough for as much dust to gather on the groceries and the blanket as everything else in the room.

Head buzzing, Roy pulls out a chair and sits down, hard, and drops his head in his hands. He knows better than to let himself entertain the thought, but it’s hard to suppress the sick, dizzying hope that somehow this is a sign that Dick and everyone is wrong, that he’s still alive and out there somewhere. But if he was, he’d have returned to them by now, not left the team and Roy grieving and hurting for months.

No, Kal didn’t ghost on people, not like this. Only Roy was fool enough to do that and then expect things to still be normal when he finally returned.

“Fuck.” He whispers, rubbing his eyes. He’s exhausted - he’s been out all day and almost all night now. It’s too much work to fight the tears spilling over. He looks at the couch for all of two seconds before deciding against curling up there. Every time Roy discovered Kal holed up in one of his safehouses - wounded or too tired to make it home or wanting to be certain Roy was alive - every single damn time Kal would use the couch and not the bed. Even when Roy wasn’t even there to make it awkward. They had argued over it, time and again, but Kal had stubbornly refused to see reason.

The blanket is evidence that he still hadn’t changed.

It’ll smell like him, Roy’s certain. That’s reason enough to avoid it.

“The fuck, dude? Why didn’t you come find me? Why’d you hide out here?”

As if there’d be an answer, as if asking now would make any difference, as if knowing would help at all.

He can guess the why of here in particular - this used to be one of Roy’s main haunts. If Kal had needed him but hadn’t been able to come after him for some reason, waiting here would have made sense. Kal wouldn’t have known that Roy hadn’t used this place in nearly two years, and only a combination of bad luck and being fucking exhausted had brought him here tonight.

He swallows hard against the emotions roiling inside him. This isn’t like finding the boy he’d been cloned from. Roy wouldn’t have been able to live with himself if he’d given up on tracking down Roy - the original one - until he’d either gone over every single square inch of the planet or died trying. With this, there’s nothing he can do. No amount of second-guessing his actions, no amount of bitter regret at lost chances, will bring Kal back to him.

Not that it’d be to him because he’d fucked that up too, in a magnificent fashion.

No, he’d been sixteen and a half to Kaldur’s fifteen and painfully oblivious and had panicked because he’d liked girls but maybe liked Kaldur too? And then had promptly avoided Kaldur to give himself time to think, not that he’d been thinking, not really, not about anyone besides himself and his own confused feelings. And to top it all off, he’d reappeared months later, believing that it’d be easy to return to how things had been. That Kal might give him another short, soft, hesitant kiss and Roy could kiss him back this time instead of running.

Which was absolutely fucking ridiculous in hindsight. Roy still can’t figure out what Kaldur ever saw in him.

It had taken over a year to mend the damage he’d single-handedly done to their friendship, and even then it had never been quite the same. There was always a distance that Kaldur kept him at, as if guarding himself against being hurt again, and even as much as that had frustrated Roy, he couldn’t blame Kal. It hadn’t been until Rhelasia and Kaldur actually responding to his call for assistance that Roy had known for certain their friendship was back on solid ground again.

Not that he’d ever thought to apologize for it at any point, which probably hadn’t helped. And he’d only racked up more and more he needed to and ought to have apologized for already. Like actually believing Kaldur had genuinely defected to the Light. Which only fed into not exactly avoiding Kaldur again but definitely not seeking him out.

The universe taunting him like this with traces of Kaldur’s presence is just cruel. He’s already tortured himself with all the things he could have done different over these past months; he doesn’t need yet another reminder.

—

“You usually aren’t the drinking sort.”

Dinah glances up from the counter of the Watchtower’s well-stocked kitchen. Shayera stood on the opposite side of the bar from her, arms crossed. “Usually don’t lose two people you’ve trained so close together, either.” She retorts more brusquely than she usually would. There’s still amber liquid in her glass; she drains it, the alcohol burning as it goes down. She sets it down to find Shayera sitting across from her with a glass of her own.

“Didn’t realize it had been a year already.” The woman explains as she pours her glass full. Dinah watches as Shayera raises the glass, murmurs “To Wally and Kaldur’ahm”, drains it completely and pours herself another within seconds.

“… I thought you didn’t drink at all.”

“Only because I might as well drink water, for all the effect Earth alcohols have on me.”

“Ah.” Dinah’s not jealous. Okay, maybe she’s a little jealous.

“And because, with this rare exception, you have normally enough presence of mind to not take on two entire bottles by yourself.”

Dinah’s eyebrows raise. “Are you scolding me?”

“Well, I am the maiden aunt. It’s part of my job, right?”

The deadpan delivery startles a laugh of Dinah. It takes her several minutes to regain a sense of calm. “Holy shit. I’d forgotten about that.”

“Me too. I thought he was going to expire on the spot.” Shayera shakes her head.

“You never explained why you wanted to be a maiden aunt. You’re married.”

Shayera just grins at her. “So? Doesn’t mean I can’t also be a maiden. Besides, I’ve never been the mom sort. Being an aunt fits much better.”

Dinah jumps as another chair skids beside her. “What’re we talking about?” Diana asks, joining the two.

“Kaldur calling us mom.” Shayera says. She raises the bottle towards Diana, eyebrow cocked. When Diana nods, the winged woman reaches over with a long arm to snag a third glass. “Remember that day where we all gathered on the beach?”

Diana chuckles. “How could I forget? It was rather flattering.” She raises her glass and clinks it against Dinah’s and Shayera’s. Making a face after draining half of it, Diana sets it down and spins it in her fingers slowly. “What had I asked him? ‘How are things going’, that was it.”

“And he said ‘fine, moms’ back.” Shayera grins like she’s the one who thought of it.

“He looked so mortified. Like he thought we were going to be mad at him.” Diana snorts at the ridiculousness of the idea.

“I think Paula was about to adopt him right then and there, she was so amused.”

“Are we sure she didn’t?” The three share a laugh.

Dinah sobers after a moment though. “We didn’t do very well by him, though.” That brings the other two back down too.

“No, we didn’t.” Diana admits. “Not that he easily accepted assistance in the first place, for all that he’d listen to advice.”

“He’d just promptly ignore it if it didn’t suit his needs. Very politely, of course.”

“Of course.” Shayera nods in agreement. “Is the team doing all right?”

“That’s… hard to say. Most of them are managing all right, more or less. I’m a little concerned about Artemis, but I can’t force her to talk to me.” Dinah sighs.

“Didn’t she go back to school?” Shayera nods at Diana’s question. “And is doing well with her studies?”

“From what I’ve gathered, yes. But I try not to involve myself on that level too much. Had my hands full enough badgering Roy about his schoolwork, let alone anyone else. But last I heard, she should be graduating in the next year or two. Don’t quote me on that though.”

“Yes, well.” Diana’s quiet for a moment. “Sometimes all you can do is give them space. Let them come to you when they’re ready.”

“Yes, but it’s hard to wait for them to be ready.” Dinah refills her glass once again, ignoring Shayera’s pointedly raised eyebrow. She doesn’t drink it immediately, however, instead drumming her fingers on the table. As much as she wants to air her thoughts, sitting through yet another rehashing of who was at fault for what and by how much doesn’t appeal.

“What is it, Dinah?”

“Do you think that maybe we had a part in what happened?”

“What do you mean?”

She picks her words slowly and with care. “I don’t mean that we were directly at fault. But it still bothers me, what Mera said. That we - the League - failed Kaldur too, not just her and Orin.”

From the quiet of the other two, they too don’t want to have yet another argument of going round and round and getting nowhere.

Shayera’s the first to break the silence. “You blame yourself still.” Dinah shrugs. Of course she would cut straight to the center of Dinah’s doubts. “You just got done saying you can’t force someone to talk to you if they don’t want to.”

“I know. I know that. But I can’t help but think of what if. What if I’d done things differently? What if I hadn’t simply accepted that he had chosen to fight for Black Manta? What if I had questioned it, what if I had tried harder to get him to open up, what if I - ”

Diana lays a hand on top of hers, interrupting her. “You can second-guess yourself all day long. Hera knows that I do. I could have used the lasso of truth to have question him, and yet I did not. Shayera is skilled in subterfuge and misdirection, and she too believed it.”

“Diana speaks true. And maybe the League truly had created an environment that made it hard for him to ask us for help.” Dinah stares at Shayera - she can distinctly remember the woman once hotly arguing that the League held no personal responsibility the first time these ideas had been brought up. “Isn’t that why we’ve been doing more and more collaborative group missions? So that everyone - protege or the Team or League - has a broader network of heroes they’ve actually met? So that even if they can’t talk to their mentor for whatever reason, they’ve probably met someone they can talk to? You spearheaded that, remember?”

Diana squeezes her hand gently before letting go. “We can’t change what happened. But we can do our best to not repeat our mistakes in the future.”

“I suppose.” It sounds right but also too easy an out. “I just wish it hadn’t come at such a cost.”

—

Zatanna took a moment to compose herself before stepping back into the living room. Voices greet her as she does. “So did you find anything?” Impulse asks, hope in his eyes, before she’s even clear of the curtain that serves as a door to her ‘divination room’.

She catches Artemis’s eyes before she answers. The archer smiles tightly and looks away. “No, I’m sorry.”

“Not even a trace?” Impulse presses. Of all of them, he’s the one who’s pushed hardest to continue searching for Wally. By now, the rest have let it rest, but not him. Zatanna’s almost certain it’s because of guilt, but she wishes he wouldn’t drag her into dealing with it. “You’re certain? Like, beyond certain?”

“Yes.” The response comes out harsher than she meant, and she almost apologizes but stops herself. She had done these same fruitless searches a year ago, with nothing but headaches and exhaustion to show for it. There was no point to doing them again - all it would do was reopen old wounds - and yet Impulse had insisted. And insisted. And insisted. And now had dragged Artemis into it.

“But there ought to be something. Even if it’s just, I don’t know, an after image or -”

“If Zatanna says there’s nothing, then there’s nothing, Bartholomew.” The boy winces at Artemis’s use of his full first name.

Zatanna nods. “I’m sorry, Impulse. I’d be overjoyed to find anything that hinted of him. But if there is, it’s not anything that I recognize as being even vaguely Wally-ish. As it is, there’s not even anything that even hints at being abnormal for that area.”

“Maybe if you widened the search -”

“Drop it.” Artemis’s tone is flat, and Zatanna suppresses the urge to shiver at the sudden drop in temperature.

“… Fine.” Impulse scowls at Artemis, gives Zatanna a part-apology, part-farewell shoulder shrug, and then there’s only a faint breeze to show that he was even there.

Artemis exhales heavily, running a hand through her hair. “Sorry about him.”

“Don’t be.” Zatanna crosses the small living room to her even smaller kitchen. “Do you want some tea?” Getting an affirmative, Zatanna busies herself in making some. Only once she’s done does Artemis break the silence they’ve fallen into.

“Do you really need a whole separate room to do your magic?”

Zatanna chuckles. “No, but the whole special room with the curtains and crystals and silks and everything is part of what people expect. Makes it more mysterious and all that.” Her smile fades a little as she adds, “And I wasn’t sure I could keep it together, given who I was trying to find. Wanted some privacy if I broke down.”

“Sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Zatanna shrugs. “I know it must’ve been harder for you, to have to deal with Impulse wheedling you into this.”

Artemis doesn’t look up from her tea, turning the cup in her fingers.

“Hey, you doing okay?”

“Hm?” She looks up when Zatanna’s fingers brush lightly against her elbow. “Oh. I’m all right, more or less. I think I was kind of secretly hoping there would be some trace, this time around. I know it was silly to hope, especially after so long.”

“Not silly.” Zatanna wraps an arm around Artemis, briefly squeezing her shoulders. “Just human.”

“I keep thinking that I’m done grieving for him, you know? And then I fucking broke down and couldn’t even bring myself to visit his grave, Zee. And now I feel terrible that I’m upset about feeling terrible.”

She squeezes Artemis’s shoulders again, longer this time. Artemis drops her head onto Zatanna’s shoulder. “Seems fairly par for the course in my experience.” Zatanna says softly. “Everyone grieves differently and all that, but I know I’ll be fine for what seems like forever and then something normally innocuous will remind me of my dad, and well, cue the waterworks and all that jazz.”

“I was doing fine.” Artemis mutters into her shoulder. “Even with… with visiting Kal’s memorial. Like. I miss him terribly - I don’t think I ever told him how much I valued his friendship. But I was dealing with him being gone, with losing Wally and Kal and everything, I really was, until Impulse refused to let this drop.”

Zatanna makes what she hopes is a soothing sound, releasing Artemis’s shoulder to stroke her hair.

“I’m just tired of people leaving me behind all the time.”

Zatanna doesn’t know what to say to that. “I don’t think he meant to.” She says at last.

“I know.” Artemis sighs and straightens, pulling out of Zatanna’s hold. “I know he didn’t mean to, and I know it’s not fair to him.”

“Have you been, well, talking to anyone about how you’re feeling?”

“What, about being a selfish piece of work who can’t even let her boyfriend’s noble sacrifice be just that?” Artemis snorts and takes a gulp of tea. “No.”

“…  Not exactly,” Zatanna drawls after a moment. “I meant, are you talking to a grief counselor, or doing any sort of general therapy?”

“Because there are so many therapists available for vigilante heroes. What am I supposed to say, Zee? ‘Hi, I moonlight as Tigress, by the way my sister and dad are villains and my mom’s a retired one, and my superhero boyfriend sacrificed himself to save the world a year ago, and then, for icing on the cake, two months later our team leader died too, and I would like to feel less sad?’”

“Ouch, sorry for asking.” Zatanna raises her hands in surrender, not at all surprised by the bite in Artemis’s voice. She’s always been prickly even at the best of times, and Zatanna would have been a fool to expect her to react kindly to having old wounds poked at. Especially when others had already been poking at them.

Artemis grimaces. “I just - Black Canary’s offered a few times, but… I don’t know. It’s just weird. Talking to her about Wally and everything.”

“Mm. Yeah, that’s kind of too much like talking to your mom. I mean, not exactly, but -”

“Yeah. And she’s also kind of our boss in a way. Makes it extra weird.”

“No kidding.” Zatanna finishes her tea then stretches. “Okay, so I don’t know about you, but I could use some plain old Artemis time, you and me hanging out. What do you say to getting pizza and beer and getting your ass kicked at video games?”

Artemis snorts, a small smile forming. “It’s going to be your ass getting kicked Zee, just you wait.”

—

He’s highly aware of the irony of the situation. He’d laugh, if not for how he’d ended up here. He slowly dries himself off as he watches the older man inspect the haul he’s dredged up. Bits of it glisten; more of it will once the water damage has been fixed. The man pokes at the pile, picking up some of it and letting it run through his fingers. Slowly it gets sorted into two smaller piles, presumably ‘treasure’ and ‘junk’. Finally, the man grunts and straightens up, apparently finished with his inspection.

“Good enough,” the man allows. “You seem to know what you’re doing, I’ll give you that much. Know your way about a boat?”

It takes a moment parse the question rightly. “Not well, no.” He answers after a moment. There’d never been a need to learn before. Not that he’d sought out opportunities to learn; it had seemed rather unnecessary at the time.

“Willing to learn?”

He nods an assent.

“Well then. I’ll give you a week’s try, see how you fair. Do well enough, you can stay. Don’t like you, well, you’ll get paid for your time and I’ll see land back under your feet. Deal?”

Once, the man’s unchanging, stern expression might have bothered him. But this is no mission where a single misstep might lead to his death. And he’s had to deal with too many people who were far better at hiding their thoughts to feel even a little nervous now.

“Deal.”

The man’s expression finally changes, a grin spreading across his face. “What did you say your name was again?”

He resists the urge to point out that the man hadn’t even asked for it in the first place. Long practice of holding his tongue - aside from the rare slip - keeps the remark in check. It wasn’t as if he had volunteered his name either.

“Kal. Kal Durham.” It flows out naturally, without any hint of the practice he’s done to avoid tripping over the sounds. It still sounds weird in his ears to use his father’s name as his own.

“Well, Kal, let’s go eat and talk money.”

He lets out a breath he hadn’t realize he was holding. Now, if he can just avoid repeating history, maybe he can survive this too.

[orionsangel86]

12x19 - Episode Review - Intimacy, Love, Faith and mixtapes

What can I even say about this episode? Since my first watch I have been going around with a goofy grin on my face while thinking of nothing but mixtapes and intimate touches between two people who love each other so dearly that even the most stringent heteronormative people must be side eyeing the show thinking “that’s kinda gay”. When I try to think about the actual plot of the episode though and what will come of this in the finale? Well, I am a bit lost… though I do have some ideas. I can’t say I am entirely thrilled by the plot structure this season. Hence my long tumblr absences as well as limited thoughts and meta since 12x12. There is too much going on, too many stories which don’t seem to have any real connection. Also Lucifer really pisses me off as a character now and every time he is on screen I roll my eyes.

This episode wasn’t up there with the likes of 12x10 and 12x12 for quality. Then again as soon as the story turns back to Kelly and her unborn Satan spawn I do find it hard to stay switched on, but the destiel this episode was glorious and gave me a lot of hope for where Dabb intends to take this. Am I still annoyed that we are lacking Cas so much this half season? Yes. Very. The fact that he doesn’t return until the finale pisses me off to no end, I will most likely disappear again after writing this review and not comment on the episodes leading up to the finale unless Dean suddenly decides to jump out of the closet and hit on handsome bisexual Max next week as a rebound for all the rejection he suffered in 12x19. (honestly I am praying to the TV Gods that Max takes a liking to Dean and we get a good helping of Gay to get us through our Cas withdrawal symptoms).

Without any further rambling however here is my review of 12x19.

It gets long down there under the cut…

Take this mixtape for my heart… complete with kisses and songs about you

The best part about this episode? Destiel. Oh boy the destiel. It was so gloriously gay. I can’t even imagine how the antis and non-shippers are feeling about this! I am so very full of joy and glee about this!

We know from the opening sequence that Dean has been pining for Cas and worrying about Cas for a while now, but the glorious moment when Cas walks into the Bunker and Dean looks up at him is just…

Oh how very dramatic. The might as well have put him in soft focus and had a swell of romantic music as his lover returned home from war… seriously. But then all the DeanCas shots in this episode are framed so romantically/intimately. Kudos to Amanda Tapping for just getting it. (then again she was present during the most heartbreaking DeanCas scene of all time the crypt scene and therefore I have no doubt that she is very much aware of Destiel and its importance.

Once again this shot escalates into an argument between Dean and Cas that Sam is stuck in the middle of. I seriously love how this has continued throughout season 12. Sam is the poor third wheel stuck in the middle whilst his brother and brother in law have a lovers tiff.  

We get another classic confused kinda bitch face from Sam when Dean snaps at him because he dares to be nice to Cas…

Seriously we have now built up a nice collection of Sam bitchfaces and knowing looks when he is stuck having to deal with these two once again. Poor Sam. Let him save the day and get a dog and marry Eileen so he can finally get some PEACE! :P

“Not only were you ditching us you were ignoring us”.

“What the hells wrong with you man?”

We have a LOT of call backs to previous seasons in this episode. I mean A LOT of call backs. This one particularly was quite interesting as it threw us right back into Purgatory:

“I prayed to you Cas, every night”

“I know.”

“You know and you didn’t… What the hell’s wrong with you?”

So what does this mean? Already we have a call back to the start of season 8, which then lead to a whole story arc where Cas was brainwashed by the angels and ended with Dean managed to break through that brainwashing with the power of… platonic friendship pfft.

Doesn’t bode well for the end of this episode though does it?

Now we need to talk about the mixtape. Yes I know this has probably already been meta’d to death on tumblr. Yes I am sure some of you are sick of it (though be honest.. you aren’t really sick of it now are you? I know how long the “I love you” conversations lasted for after 12x12 aired so shut it and enjoy my meta thoughts too. :P )

Cas follows Dean back to his room (for the privacy of course – also note that he doesn’t feel he needs to explain himself to SAM) under the pretense of returning a mixtape that Dean gave him. My first though before we even GET to the subject of Dean giving Cas a mixtape in the first place, is why Cas is using the return of this very romantic gesture at all. Even with his knowledge of pop culture, I don’t think Cas realises the importance of giving someone a mixtape, hence him thinking he needed to return it in the first place. It was in no way a rejection from Cas (like he could reject Dean pfft). But Dean clarified that it was a gift anyway. Oh but can we just pause again and store this to fandom memory forever and ever?

DEAN WINCHESTER GAVE CASTIEL A MIXTAPE

And isn’t that the most beautiful, innocent, loving gesture that for these two macho manly gruff heros its almost too much to bare! Dean Winchester is such a fucking teddybear deep down I can’t quite stand it. Argh I love him so much for this moment!

So lets talk about this mixtape some more because I can’t get enough:

“Dean’s top 13 Zepp Traxx”

Except that’s not exactly what it says. Why two Xs rather than the correct spelling? Why the slight spacing between the “TRA” and the “XX”? Why, if you are spelling “Tracks” the ‘cool’ way would you not shorten it to “Trax” why two Xs unless those Xs also had a separate meaning loosly hidden in the spelling?

Basically those Xs are also ‘kisses’ and no one can tell me otherwise.

Isn’t that just a perfect mini metaphor for destiel itself though? The main text reading is that Dean has spelt the word the slang way, using the Xs as a fun way to spell the word only. Nothing suspicious here, totally platonic.

And yet everyone knows that Xs also mean kisses. Everyone.

The romantic message is hidden in the label. It isn’t totally obvious at first, but it is once you put it together with the general meaning of a mixtape.

Speaking of, for all you kiddies out there who haven’t lived in the age before CDs, ipods and MP3s, giving someone a mixtape has a HUGE meaning to it. It is also, without a doubt, always romantic.

I am sure that by the time I post this, the mixtape will have been meta’d to death on tumblr and you will all be flailing about it anyway… I know I was as soon as I first watched the episode. This is a big moment. No. Seriously. Friends don’t give friends mixtapes. People who love people and people who have major crushes on people give people mixed tapes. It is always always romantic in its meaning.

If we try to look for a platonic reading to this, perhaps Dean didn’t make this tape for Cas, perhaps its one he had lying around already (though the Xs kinda throw that reading out). Even so, it is still a mixtape that Dean made at some point and then gave to Cas. This is the canon. I just wish we could have seen the moment Dean gave it to him (probably shoved it at him with a gruff “here, you need to listen to some real music” whilst desperately trying and failing to stop himself blushing. I LOVE this and I wanna read that fanfiction.

To make this whole thing even more romantic. Dean confirms it himself. There is no denying it. “It’s a gift. You keep those” this wasn’t just something that Dean had lying around that Cas picked up and asked to borrow, it wasn’t something Dean just shoved at him and said “You need to listen to some decent music, take this” and didn’t think about it any more. Dean put thought into it because it was a gift specifically for Cas.

If only Cas had actually realised that fact. Though I will talk more about Cas’s continued unknowing rejection of Dean this episode a bit later… first this shot:

Its beautiful, and you all know me and my hand obsession in SPN. Hands have meaning. They are important. They leave a print. There is always intimacy in moments like this. The way Dean and Cas exchange touches throughout this season always brings me joy. This moment is no different.

I have decided to make a separate post about hands in this episode because I am a nerd who got super excited about all these beautiful close up hand shots that have such a massive significance. Anyway, back to the mixtape…

Ultimately, there was no plot related reason for the mixtape scene. Other than to give Cas an excuse to come find Dean… which he had anyway? To apologise and try to clear the air (and also to find the Colt) so… why the mixtape? Why even bring it into the show if not to emphasise Dean and Cas’s relationship and the romantic nature of it that is now more than heavily implied. After a previous one sided love confession how is ANYONE supposed to read their relationship as anything other than inherintly romantic?

Cas’s quiet “Oh” just infuriates me because REALLY CAS? You didn’t KNOW what that meant? Urgh. I mean, yeah okay so he never has been very good with the whole social conventions and stuff like that but still. Then Dean just goes and does something which makes me love him even more. He starts a conversation. Oh boy how he has grown. Communication is key and Dean FINALLY seems to be understanding this.

“Cas, you can’t… with everything that’s going on you can’t just go dark like that”

Interesting. Dark like Superman going darkside yeah? We are back to 6x20. We are seriously getting flashbacks to Destiel’s greatest hits in the space of a few minutes here. Also, this whole conversation is just so freaking intimate in the way it is shot, the dark moody lighting, the way both actors are speaking relatively softly compared to their usual gruff tones and just the sheer weight of emotion in Dean’s face.

Its forcing the viewer to get up close and personal with Dean’s feelings here. Forcing them to really consider how much he is hurting and therefore forcing them to ask the question WHY. Why does this make me, as a viewer, feel like I am intruding? Is this a common shot composition for friendly conversations between platonic friends?!? Um. Nope. Hence this ENTIRE SCENE SCREAMS ROMANCE. And also, sadly, betrayal.

At least we get an explanation from Cas. The thing is, we see Dean’s POV most of the time, therefore we don’t really get to understand Cas’s reasons for doing things, but this episode he does get a chance to justify his actions, and as expected, it all comes back to Dean…

“I needed to come back here with a win for you… for myself”

Because Cas has failed so much, is still suffering from depression (though it hasn’t been brought back into maintext for a while now) and is so conflicted on where he is supposed to be going nowadays. He has lost his mission, he has no riteous path, and no faith… and this episode is all about faith when you get down to it… faith and fate, destiny and hope for the future… though not from the right place (and we are now back even further – in season 5.) and Dean is desperate to get him back on track but still doesn’t really say the right things.

“We will find a better way”

“You mean we?” *gestures to the both of them

“Yes, dumbass, we.”

Dean is still having to clarify for Cas that he is part of their family and that they want him around. Cas still doesn’t get it, because even if Dean thinks he is being clear, he really isn’t. Not to someone who has struggled with their self worth, struggled with depression and feelings of total worthlessness. It will take far more than some words about the three of them to get Cas to realise just how much Dean cares. Remember folks, from Cas’s perspective, he has confessed his love and hasn’t heard it back. He didn’t a get a “I love you too” or even a “we love you too”. Just a “we ain’t leaving you behind”. Which is easy to explain away as the Winchesters not wanting people to die on their watch. The Winchesters always try to save people, meaning Cas isn’t any more special than any other random civilian who the Winchesters wouldn’t leave to die… when you think about it from Cas’s perspective, its still a bit of a kick in the teeth.  

“You, me… and Sam. We’re just better together” Again, Dean isn’t quite giving Cas what he needs? The pause, then the added “and Sam” just takes us right back to the beer run in 11x23 and Cas’s dissapointment, It becomes easy to understand Cas’s motivations when you look at it from a destiel perspective and consider that he has been rejected and continuously referred to as a third wheel to the brother dynamic. In Cas’s mind, Dean doesn’t return his feelings, and by not understanding the implications of a mixtape as a gift, nor the extent to which Dean would go to forgive him, Cas continues down his path of destruction and takes the Colt. They may be communication, but they aren’t really communicating. Its such a classic romance trope and I’m pulling my hair out STILL over these two.

“Lets go Team Free Will”. Could the callbacks to previous seasons be any more obvious? Now we really are in season 5 and in the past 5 minutes have travelled back through the greatest hits of destiel. From Purgatory guilt, Season 6 betrayal and now season 5 loss of faith. These are the major themes of 12x19. Cas is stuck in a cycle of self destruction. Where will this end for him?  

The next scene with Dean and Sam discussing Sam’s theories and the grace extraction as a potential solution just proves how far they have come. Its no longer “how do we kill the thing” but “how do we stop the thing from being evil without resorting to violence?” I call this the “Amara Effect” and I am very happy about this. Anyway, what I really wanna talk about here is just how happy Dean was to finally have a solution and how his FIRST THOUGHT was “I’ll get Cas”. Like he just wanted Cas to be there to work with them on this together. He really did mean what he said to Cas in his room. My heart breaks for him when he realises Cas is gone.

However can we please just take a moment to be so fucking thankful that FINALLY IT IS CANON THAT CAS HAS A ROOM IN THE BUNKER!!

This is CAS’s ROOM! CASTIEL HAS A ROOM AT THE BUNKER. Number 15 to be exact. 3 doors down from Dean. (yes I know this was also the number of the room used by Mary apparantly earlier on in this season but clearly Cas stays there because why else would Dean have gone to this random room to look for him and not the kitchen or the archives hmm?)

LOOK AT THE HEARTBREAK ON HIS FACE WHEN HE REALISES CAS IS GONE AGAIN

Oh Dean. It is such a common trope though. Just when he thinks he has the person he loves back by his side again, they are gone. We really are back to season 8 here with Cas being the one rejecting Dean. (please lets not forget that the extent of the rejection for the past three seasons has been on Dean with Cas holding the torch for destiel and it is only now that we are finally experiencing the brunt of the shift back to Dean.) This episode is by FAR the most romantic we have had so far in terms of destiel in the past FOUR seasons. The only episodes that really surpass it are 6x20 and 8x17 (though 12x10 is a close contender). This is being written, and shot as a romance and my gosh I love it. Poor Dean.

THEN we get further justification for Cas’s actions. I know that this episode hasn’t really done him any favours for painting him as a bit of a villain and I know that the Cas haters will have a field day with his treatment of the Winchesters, but we are getting solid explanations for his actions here, and they all point back to Cas’s love for the Winchesters, his love for Dean…

“I am doing this for the Winchesters. I stole the Colt to keep them out of this mission”

“I will kill this girl, so that Sam and Dean won’t have to.”

Because that really is love, Cas would do the dirty work to spare Sam and Dean the pain of having to do something that could traumatise them further. Cas is doing this so that they won’t have to suffer that. He is doing it to protect them, because he loves them. I swear to god if I see a single post from a cas hater trying to paint him as a villain who doesn’t care I will be all over it. They have NOTHING to back up their arguments.

It is of course, the same tune that Cas is singing again and again. This is the reason behind ALL of his motivations. Its always about the Winchesters. Its not about his reputation, glory, praise, its not even about saving the world. Its about sparing Sam and Dean from doing something horrible. He just wants them to have the peace and freedom they taught him was so important back in freaking season FOUR. I won’t be holding his decisions in this episode against him, because I think Dabb has a very clear idea of where Cas is going with his story arc, and its all about emphasising what is truly important to him, what Cas basically lives for now. Yeah, he needed the win. He needs to put a stop to something that could potentially destroy the world, but his true reasons for doing it are spelt out in this episode.

Coming back to Sam and Dean, the conversation about the Colt:

“How did Cas even get the Colt out of the safe in the first place?”

“…”

“Dean, you put the colt back in the safe right? Dean?”

“… it was under my pillow… I like to keep it close.”

“He came into my room and he played me.”

“He played us both.”

What I love about this exchange, is that until this moment we don’t know where Cas got the Colt from. He could have just broken into the safe, or he could have got it from where Dean previously kept it under the table in the library. But they chose to have him steal it from under Dean’s pillow. Once again there is added intimacy to a scene where really, the intimacy is unecessary for the plot. When you start to put together all the choices that the writer and director made for this episode, it becomes really difficult to see it from a persective that doesn’t involve Destiel.

Yes, we know in the previous scene that Dean left Cas alone in his room, but the way Dean acts when he owns up to Sam that it was stolen from under his pillow makes it sound like it WASN’T innocent. “Cas came into my room and distracted me and manipulated me enough to find and steal the colt from under my pillow.” It just stinks of sexual subtext and it makes the betrayal that much worse. As I said before, this is 6x20 all over again. But this time its even MORE personal BECAUSE of everything they have been through since then and just how much they have admitted to each other including a bloody love confession and a mixtape. The theft from under the pillow of all places only adds a sexual layer to that heap of intimate subtext. Am I saying they had sex? No. I am not saying this. What I am saying is that having Cas steal the Colt from under Dean’s pillow rather than from a safe or from another safe place adds a layer of intimacy that was not previously necessary. It makes the theft a bigger violation of Dean’s trust than stealing it from the safe, it makes the betrayal a lovers betrayal rather than the betrayal of a friend in the subtext. (I’m not sure if I’m explaining this well, but hopefully you all get the general idea).

Basically, it is another point to add to the list of things in this episode that show that Dean and Cas’s relationship is romantic rather than platonic at this stage (even if textually it isn’t… its how they both act and feel around each other and emphasises how their feelings for each other are NOT PLATONIC.)

As always, at this stage, if you are still struggling to see a destiel reading, consider the same scene but with Sam rather than Dean. Would it work the same way? Have the same impact? How about instead, just considering WHY this never happens to Sam? Why Dean gets the emotional close up with the sweeping string music whilst staring longlingly into Castiel’s empty bedroom and not Sam. Why its Dean that runs off to get Cas, why its Dean’s pillow that Cas stole the Colt from under, why its Dean that gave him the mixtape, and not Sam.

Then we get shots like THIS:

Which lets be honest, are oozing with sexual tension. I was discussing with @godshipsit about how when I first watched this scene, my heart kinda skipped a beat and I was stunned for a second into thinking “this is how they will go canon” (not in this exact scene in this episode of course, but it will be like this when it finally happens. Because I can picture this shot, I can picture the frustration between them and Dean just deciding enough is enough and taking that final step forward and just kissing his dumbass angel so that he finally gets it) The framing of the shot again is beautifully done, the circle around them, framing them and also making the viewer feel like once again they are spying on them. Yes Dean is angry, but Cas is letting him manhandle him up against a wall. Remember he is an angel, he could easily stand his ground, but he doesn’t. He lets Dean get out his frustration here. Lets Dean be threatening. Notice how Sam doesn’t ever react in such a way. Because its not really how friends react is it?

Okay so Dean and Cas have a volatile relationship, that sometimes leads to moments like this which could be viewed as violent or even dare I say ‘abusive’ and gosh wouldn’t the anti’s have a field day with that. But think about romantic tropes for a second, the old hollywood types. Its never friends that get angry and have moments like this that are shot in such a way, but lovers? Having lovers tiffs? Yeah, this is common. The fighting, the pinning against a wall, the staring into each others eyes trying to stand their ground? Its classic sexual tension. Dean doesn’t hurt Cas in this scene remember. Cas doesn’t hurt Dean either. Not physically. The only reason that Cas hurts Dean emotionally is because he doesn’t realise how much Dean cares about him. He knows he is betraying his friends, he knows he is doing wrong in terms of a friendship but views his actions as justified to keep them safe. From a romantic perspective Cas has not yet grasped just how much he is emotionally hurting Dean at this point – because Dean hasn’t yet given him reason to believe he is hurting him this much – though he makes it pretty obvious from the audiences perspective.

Then if we hadn’t already had it spelled out to us again Cas once again gives us his reasons:

“I wanted to keep you out of this, I was trying to keep you safe”

“this is my responsibility”

The writers are constantly trying to remind the audience that Cas’s reasons are always about the Winchesters. There isn’t a selfish bone in his body. He may be jepardising his relationship with them, but to him the end justifies the means. Cas wants the Winchesters kept safe, so his betrayal makes sense to him. Like I have said before. It is season 6 all over again. I just hope it ends differently.

I have to give Dean major kudos here though for being the most understanding boyfriend on the planet, because even after Kelly and Cas steal his beloved Impala he STILL is able to stick up for Cas

“He’s so desperate for a win now he can’t even see straight”

In case the viewers weren’t aware already that Cas is SO NOT THE BAD GUY HERE, Dean spells it out for us in his own words. Yeah, he’s pissed, but he is still able to see Cas’s POV, he gets it, he still cares, still wants to be there for him. I am sure there is some awesome symbolic meaning behind him fixing Cas’s truck up for him as well. If the way Dean fixing up the Impala is supposed to symbolise him healing his own soul, fixing up Cas’s truck has got to also symbolise him fixing Cas. Dean will be there for Cas when he comes back, like he always does.

Dean has come so far this season. His development, his ability to see other peoples POV, his distaste for lies and his slow deconstruction of his ‘performing Dean’ mask. I just adore how far Dean has come, and I can’t wait to see more of this. Dean is being forgiving, he is understanding, he is communicating and I think it is wonderful, really. Not just for destiel, but for his own health and state of mind, and for all the other characters he interacts with.

Moving past the epic finale with baby lucifer taking control of Cas to destroy Dagon, I need to talk about this scene:

Because yeah, something is wrong with Cas, but he was still himself enough to show this level of care and consideration to Dean. The gentle “you’re hurt” and this gorgeous and intimate (again the intimacy in the shots this episode has me majorly fangirling at Amanda Tappin’s excellent direction) caress as he heals him. Dean doesn’t get a standard tap on the forehead or glowy hand hovering a few inches above an injury. Nope. Dean gets gentle, intimate caresses as he is healed. Because Dean is and always will be special to Cas.

Dean won’t let Cas leave, even after everything Cas has done this episode, he still worries about him and argues to stay with him

“Whatever that thing did to you we’re not just gonna let you walk away” Dean knows that Cas isn’t right, he knows that he can’t leave him now. Dean has been down this road before, and that whole speech about faith and the baby well, it just brought back major 8x17 feels to be honest. It sounded like Cas talking about the angel tablet all over again. That was after the brainwashing was broken remember? More on that in a bit.

Basically, this episode was full of destiel moment and I am a big heap of emotional mess thanks to it. Nevertheless, there is more to talk about than just the glorious destieliciousness of this episode (yes that is totally a word).

Therefore, let’s consider what we learned about:

Lucifer’s Baby, Faith and the Future

The fact that this episode started out so darkly, immediately screamed to me that it was not going to end well either, or that any of this was going to end well. Kelly was so very lost to the point that she killed herself. A striking visual for the viewer, and one that is all too common in TV and film nowadays. Kelly couldn’t cope with what her baby would become, and so resorted to taking her own life and the life of the baby instead.

Honestly this is the first episode that I have actually liked Kelly’s character. It feels like the first time she has had any real depth and personality (which is fitting since its also the first time she has been written by a writer other than the terrible duo).

The baby saves her though of course, since it is half angel and therefore has the power of grace to heal her. This shouldn’t be surprising to anyone who understands angels but Kelly treats it as a miracle. She has a change of heart and suddenly we are on the “faith” path.

I think that Cas was probably always going to bond with Kelly after this scene. It may still only be buried in the subtext, but we have had enough call backs to season 8 this episode to make us remember that very heart breaking moment in 8x08 when Cas admitted to Dean that he might kill himself. Cas has been suicidal in the past. With everything he has been through, it’s no wonder he couldn’t go through with killing Kelly.

Whilst I don’t think that the baby will be quite the great evil that Dagon thinks it will be, I have no doubt in my mind that it has Lucifer-like tendencies to manipulate and that at this point its main concern is its own survival. I don’t think it is inherently evil, but still:

“Every sad weak human, every tight ass angel, every snivelling demon, they’ll all be consumed.”

Doesn’t this all seem very Amara-like to you? Because honestly the use of the word ‘consumed’ kinda throws big Amara signs my way. But surely not because we did this story last season. (see this is why the Lucifer baby story annoys me). Anyway, the stories are really similar. The Angels all want this baby dead, so they go to great lengths to kill it, only Cas can’t do it because hes’ Cas and he may talk a big game but killing innocents hasn’t been his thing since well… Jesse… and that is yet another time they basically did this freaking story.

As I mentioned though, Kelly gets through to Cas because of their similar experiences with desiring suicide and feeling hopeless. They are both mirrored this episode as feeling lost and hopeless and therefore vulnerable and easy to manipulate. Isn’t that always the way the devil gets to you? Isn’t that exactly what Lucifer did to Cas last year?

The whole conversation about faith and destiny is very season 5 and is very intentional in an episode that has already used the phrase “team free will” to refer to Sam, Dean and Cas. Other things in this episode that seem kinda pointless on the surface but must have some deeper meaning include the death of Joshua. Why bring him back for all of one episode only to kill him like that? Unless of course he was simply there to remind the viewer of something? Just like the mentioning of “team free will” even though honestly why Dean would say such a thing to Cas who was unconscious the first time he said it? This isn’t just fanservice. This is to take the viewer right back to season 5 and the BIG theme of that season. Free Will, Freedom and Choice are far more important than destiny and fate, and that faith can come from all kinds of different sources.

The last episode where we met Joshua was Dark Side of the Moon. The episode where Castiel lost his faith. Since then, Castiel has had only one real source of faith: the Winchesters. Yes he has been lost and low and broken over the years but he has always had one overall believe, and that is the Winchesters and what they do. In the same episode where we see a massive increase in Destiel subtext and Pining!Dean we  also see the return of Joshua for all of two seconds and Dean trying so hard to get through to Cas, to convince him that the three of them work best together, but Cas still doesn’t get it, doesn’t see it, because Dean hasn’t given him the real reasons, hasn’t spelled it out for him the way Cas did to Dean in 12x12. There has been no obvious love confession from Dean. So Cas is still lost, still wondering, still without a guiding light to bring him home.

Hence he is an easy target for the creepy baby to come and take him as its personal protector. By the end of the episode, Castiel is not our Cas. Not the Cas that chooses the Winchesters anyway. Not the Cas that chooses love over all else. This is a Cas who is reminiscent of Cas when he held the angel tablet and it spoke to his angel coding and told him to keep it safe at all costs. This isn’t brainwashing as such, not the way Naomi brainwashed him, or Rowena cast a spell on him, or Lucifer possessed him. This is a Cas that is vulnerable and in desperate need of a mission to keep him preoccupied to stop him from feeling utterly worthless because he couldn’t bring Dean a “win”. That baby latched on to those feelings, and convinced Cas that he was the best chance of a better future.

The fact that both Kelly and Cas had these yellow eyes is clear proof that this is NOT GOOD. Okay so they still have their pupils in tact unlike the Princes of Hell, but it is still yellow and it still came with that unsettling sound effect that was always associated with Azazel (and then brought back for Ramiel). The baby may not be “evil” in the literal sense, but it is not a good thing. It will not be born and be the “savior”.

Castiel and faith do not go together. When you give Castiel faith in anything that isn’t a Winchester, well, its just not done. This won’t be good. Especially when the words “The Future” were heard over this shot:

Isn’t that ominous. Castiel may have come back to his senses enough to gently heal Dean’s injury (proving that our real Cas is still in there somewhere – always thinking of Dean when he is hurt) but real Cas would NOT just leave Dean and Sam lying on the ground vulnerable outside the ENTRANCE TO HEAVEN AND ALL THOSE ANGELS THAT HATE THEM. WHAT THE FUCK? Yeah so not good basically.

Whatever the future that the baby showed Cas was, it seemed to please him. Now, since it showed Kelly the real future that we saw in this episode then it must have been somewhat real, it also had to be something that was enough motivation to give Cas his faith back… but what could that possibly be? A world without SPN creatures? A world in which Sam and Dean have the peace they deserve? Safety? A life outside of hunting? What else could possibly motivate Cas to go along with this babies ‘plan’ if not something to help the Winchesters?

I’m still unconvinced that this will be anything but bad and that Castiel has been shown a lie. Either that, or this is how they tie the whole thing into the BMOL plot where they want to get rid of all spn creatures as well… even though Sam and Dean are also against them (or will be once they realise the extent of their crazy fascism).

All I can hope is that Dabb knows where he is going with this. The emotional plot seems to be far stronger than the actual story line this year. Which is great in one way, but I still feel we are lacking structure, and I cannot see how this is gonna end. I kinda want to believe that Dabb has decided to let Cas get sort of brainwashed again just so he can have another go at the Crypt Scene (and get it RIGHT this time) because really what else is gonna break Cas out of this weird kind of semi-controlled state? Other than Dean’s love? Why else would they ramp up the subtext to 11 in the same episode that Cas loses his own free will if not to prove to us that Dean will yet again be the key to his freedom?

Overall

The Destiel was great, the plot kinda meh, I have no idea where this baby plot is going and if we get a repeat of season 11s baby Amara plot I’ll be pissed. If Lucifer doesn’t die in the finale I’ll be pissed (I want Cas to hold him down whilst Sam kills him). Fingers crossed for a Crypt Scene but with a canon confession of love from Dean far greater than 8x17s “I need you”. After all, he has been shedding so much of his performance mask, trying so hard to be honest, to accept other people into his life… he is opening himself to vulnerability and accepting that it is okay to do – even when those people hurt him… Dean is learning to be emotionally healthy and really, this route can only end in him doing the one thing he has always struggled to do. The return of his mother this season has only emphasised this. Bearing in mind she is the only person he has ever said the words to before. Could we be on track to getting a confession of love from Dean to Cas? Isn’t it about time? After this episode, I actually think it’s a possibility.

I hate that Cas is not himself again. It breaks my heart. I imagine a lot of people see this as a regression, and I am trying not to. He needs to learn that there are other ways. The difference is that now Dean knows the reasons why Cas is like this. Cas did use his words to explain his reasons quite clearly, so Dean understood. Dean just needs to figure out the key to getting Cas to see things from his POV.

This episode had many great points in it. Obviously the destiel was glorious. The camera work and framing and composition and direction were also fantastic. I hope Amanda comes back and directs again. The one word I will use to describe this episode is “intimate”. Because half the time I felt like I was watching very private moments between characters and I don’t usually feel that way. It was really well put together. I do hope it all comes together by season end, though I am still not too sure. Either way, I liked this episode, even with the baby plot and Lucifer turning up in the middle there. It was satisfying. I’ll give it a 8/10 for how it made me feel after my first watch.

[knightofbalance-13]

http://dudeblade.tumblr.com/post/158821156544/rant-on-yangs-nonexistent-recovery-arc

I wanna preface this before I begin: I really do think yang needed more screentime this Volume. She got shafted in Volume 1 and 2 and here it was a souring experience to see her sidelined. Now I am not blaming Jaune: That guy had about a third of the screen time to himself than Yang. If I were to blame someone in the series, I’d blame Blake for hogging an entire episode to herself or Tyrian for taking up ending time that could have been used for Yang. But my honest opinion? I’m optimistic: If the writers show that Yang ahsn’t gotten over the PTSD in latter Volumes I will actually be very happy. Nothing is more insulting than underplaying the lasting effects of a mental illness, making it seem easy to get over. I didn’t get that vibe from Yang considering she had to be depressed for around nine months considering it was fall when we saw her after Beacon, it was winter after that and a minimum of six months have passed since that point. It’s entirely possible for Yang to recover in that span of time, especially if Volume 4 was told out of order.

I am saying this now to put what I am about do in context: I am a Yang fan, my main complaint with V4 was that she got too little screentime and I have an aversion to mental illnesses being downplayed. By all rights, I should agree with @Dudebblade right?

Well...

IF YOU WERE TO USE THE SAME TECHNIQUES SHOWN IN RWBY ON A PTSD VICTIM, YOU WOULD BE CALLED OUT ON YOUR INSENSITIVITY!

This isn highly hypocritical as Dudeblade has in the past said that Taiyang was wrong for breaking down after Summer’s death....his team leader...and the mother of his second daughter and caretaker of his first...after losing Raven, his first love and mother of Yang...all in about four years time...leaving him a single widower of two, a job meant for to people at minimum. It’s hard raising a kid I know, I’ve been hearing my mom state the hardships for years. And quite frankly, I wasn’t that hard of a kid I didn’t go around challenging demonic wolves or attacking bars and as much as I love my mom, Taiyang is a better parent than both of them and suffered even more than her. And Dudeblade calls this insensitive but not a widower. Yeah, he’s not allowed to talk.

I don’t give a shit if the arc was “Too hard” to write. You set yourself up to make a recovery arc. You should deliver. If it wasn’t as easy as you thought it was, then you should tough it out, and do it. Otherwise you failed to deliver on something that you promised.

You promised to be my friend and then betrayed me three times. Again, Hypocriticial.

It’s like if the RWBY writers promised that there would be LGBT representation, but refuses to point them out… Oh wait… That’s actually what’s happening right now.

You now, I have an LGBT friend named @mageknight14 and he’s just as sick of this as I am. I am starting to think they SHOULDN’T have an LGBT character if you keep bitching. You don’t hear me bitching for Asperger’s representation even though Autism is synonomous with “Brain damamged” in the world and the closest thing I have to a representitive is Sheldon Cooper.

Alright, something I’m going to have to do, is to compare this show’s PTSD recovery arc, with another show’s recovery arc. Not to be a dick or anything, but the only other well-known show that did a PTSD recovery arc well, was Legend of Korra. Not to compare RWBY to a show that has had an entire team of writers, professional animators, a previous series that was well-received, and an epic premise to undermine it or anything, but hey. Miles did say that the Season three of LoK missed the line by an inch, and found it “Meh” (Yep. Bringing that one back.)

Oh so people’s personal opinion is something you are allowed to judge them on? Okay then, you like Raven ergo anything you have to say about parental characters ever is disregarded. And unlike you who has stated their opinion as fact, Miles stated his opinion as ONLY that. And if you’re gonna pull that, how about I start comparing your DB chronicals to Miles’ writing? Let’s see: Pandering to LGBT demographic with Tifa and Yang, crappy reasoning for not using Goku or Superman which hasn’t been addressed, under usage of the Villians, under suage of Vegeta, directly copying and pasting Godzilla Vs. Gamera ect. Doesn’t feel to good huh? Maybe next time you could learn some empathy?

Hey, if Miles wants to criticize a show, and claim that “missing the mark by an inch” makes the finale “Meh”, then I can say that missing an entire plot by a light year is INFURIATING.

And I can point out the bullshit in your crap without an inch of regret or remorse. Funny how that works.

It’s almost as if it was the most insulting piece of shit that I have had to watch since reading poorly written fanfics that were clearly meant to troll people.

You emna like basic pandering, random and lazy fourth wall breaks, expecting us that Deadpool would be friends with you, under using 90% of your cast, making some deity look after you and making Yang and Guts look similar when they share like three basic things together? Or how about yang remembering Carolina ahs Pyrrha’s voice but the snarky AI in her suit that sounds like her father? Nope, nothing to see there. Also, TYang knows RT but doesn’t know a single person from RvB because...plot?

I’m getting off-topic here. Legend of Korra Book 4 handled PTSD with an ENORMOUS amount of seriousness, respect, and time. Not only was this a case of a timeskip being used in a manner that was actually the right way of using it, but they showed that Korra was struggling. While she could always blame it on the mercury poisoning, it showed that Korra wasn’t merely “moping” (I will never let that line go), it showed that she was terrified. She wanted to get better, but she had to go at her own pace.

Yeah and tehw riters of Korra had a shit ton more experience, payment and less pressure considering they could coast off of the original’s success. Which they kind of did seeing as I have heard a shit ton of non-LGBT people call bull on Korrasami.

Okay then, I will never let anything yousay go then as well. Have fun with that: My specialty is turning one’s words against them.

In fact, she had to be the one to decide to get the mercury out of her system. She wasn’t guilt-tripped into doing it, she did it because she was ready. It had nothing to do with someone calling her a burden. It was because it was at that moment, that she had recovered. There’s a reason why this episode stands out from most. It was because, through the help of Toph, Korra managed to overcome her fears and doubts, and remove the mercury herself.

Okay...is Yang Korra? No? Then they will NOT handle this situation the same way. Unless they are carbon copies of each other or at least have the same basic experiences, your point DOES NOT stand. And since you just expect us to take your wrd for it after insulting Taiyang, Miles and later on you will use Shane and Monty to attack RT, I have no good will.

Hm, let’s go through this again shall we?

Terrified...Guess that Adam dream or the PTSD flash never happened...

Choose to get the Mercury out of her system...Not how the body works...And taiyang didn’t stitch it on neither did Yang have to deal with her fault at letting her sister be in danger. Yeah, If Taiyang is a bad father for breaking down, Yang is a worse sister because she broke down longer, with no one to help Ruby, over less pain and had support all unlike taiyang.

And is RWBY over yet? ... No? Then I’d bet you’ll be eating your words sooner than latter.

RWBY just rushed it. Yang wasn’t given time to actually decide to put the arm on, her father heavily implied that she was a burden, she overheard it, and felt guilty (Seriously, how did she hear that? Is she some kind of rare half-breed or something?).

Like all children are: it’s a fact of life get use to it. Whether or not the child or parent think that way, iyt is a fact. Just as well: We only have your word on that. You, who have proven you are projecting your own parental problems onto Taiyang. yeah, you are the definition of Unreliable Narrator.

But hey, let’s take a look at Berserk. Let’s see what would happen if we were to use RWBY’s techniques on Casca. Hey, Casca! I know you got assaulted by the man you used to love romantically and everything, and that he violated you in ways that we probably couldn’t even begin to comprehend, but how about you get over it? - And now, I have been bifurcated by Guts for saying something like that. Why? Because Casca from Berserk has PTSD! She’s not going to magically get better by getting some heals or shit like that! She has PTS FUCKING D! You either treat it with respect, or don’t set yourself up to write it out to begin with.

Pardonnez-moi, mais vous n'avez aucune idée de ce que vous dites.

Okay then, let’s use your method of parenting on Guts shall we?

HEY GUTS! DUDEBLADE SAID YOU’RE A TERRIBLE FATHER FOR BREAKING DOWN AFTER TEH ECLIPSE AND CASCA’S RAPE, THAT YOU DESERVE EVERYTHING THAT HAS HAPPENED TO YOU, THAT YOU ARE NEVER GOING TO BE CONSIDERED GOOD AGAIN AND THAT YOU ARE WORSE THAN YOUR OWN FATHER AND GRIFFITH!

Oh look, he’s pretty pissed. Hope you enjoy having a crossbow shoved up your neither regions.

Also: Is Yang and Casca the same person? Have they faced the same troubles? Do they even share one event in the past? NO. So how about you stop using stupid examples and I might stop Guts from shoving his sword up your uretha?

Then Tai said, “Looks like you lost some brain cells along with that arm of yours.” Keep in mind that both Port and Oobleck were shocked at this. It shows that Tai crossed a line there, and in all honesty, if Yang hadn’t laughed, they would have been scared shitless for Yang’s mental health. Something that they didn’t really consider. These are supposed to be her teachers and parents, but they don’t do anything to actually help Yang get better mentally. Not to mention that Miles and Kerry said that writing the PTSD recovery arc was “too hard.” is rather insulting considering NOTHING HAPPENED! I don’t give a shit about that. I don’t give a single shit if it was “Too hard.” or not. You have to do it in a respectful manner, or you become one of the most insensitive people ever. to the point where I think that this becomes appropriate:

Oh so you’re insensitive for telling one joke but not for directly insulting someone when they are trying to help you? Because Yang did EXACTLY that! remember this line?

“I lost a part of me, it’s gone and it’s never coming back. You can’t possibly understand how that feels.”

She says this to man who lost both of his lovers, lost his team, nearly lost his kids twice with one comatose and the other depressed and hurting him for trying to help, had to wake up every day for six months wondering if his brother in law, daughter and friends were all dead. It’s like bitching about a hangnail in front of Guts: Not comparable in the slightest. If I were Taiyang I would have walked up to her, got in her face and recounted everything that I have lost to her and make her see just how much she actually lost.

Not enough? How about Ruby, her younger sister who lost more than her, was comatose for it and preserved still? Or Qrow, who lives with misfortune over his head 24/7? By far: Yang is the BEST one off so by your logic, she has no right to complain and neither do you!

Yeah. People who treat PTSD as insensitively as the writers did should be fired from breathing.

... You are telling them to die over a fictional character...

You know what is even more insulting dudeblade? Using suicide baiting right in front of a formerly suicidal person. Fuck you in every sense of the word.

Before anyone says any bullshit about how Red vs. Blue had the character ripping on each other, so that this is “okay.” - I’d like to point out that in the scene where Doc’s split personality O’Mally, roasts Grif for having to take care of his sister because his father left, and his mother was in the circus. Nobody really laughed. And when Doc snapped out of it, he apologized. None of the Reds or Blues ever hit that close to home, and when it did happen, they treated it seriously. It wasn’t a joke, it wasn’t a punchline, it was an actual serious thing.

Yes itw as a joke. It’s called Black humor and the narrative treated it as  afailed attempt at Doc’s peace which was the real punchline. And the same guy also insulted his own sister several times throughout the BGC.

And what about getting shot by a tank, being told you’re worthless, being said you won’ta mount to anything, being forced off to die several times and take the blame for everything? That’s the entirety of the BGC’s thing.

And it was treated seriously as a way to break the ice and unlike Grif, YANG WAS OKAY WITH IT. And unlike Doc, Taiyang KNOWS YANG. HE RAISED HER! How convenient for you to not mention these factors huh?

The really infuriating part was the fact that it started off so well. Yang nearly had a panic attack when she dropped the glass, she was having nightmares about Adam, she openly said that she felt as if “A part of her was missing, and it wasn’t coming back.”, she had gotten used to using only one arm- It was going so well! At this rate, I wouldn’t be surprised if the current writing team for RWBY would be unable to write a respectful, and realistic PTSD Recovery arc to save their lives. The writing’s become shit since they booted Monty’s wife, Sheena and Shane off the team. I’m sure they REALLY appreciate it.

(Growls deeply)

You wanna know what is really fucking sick, as in, I can NEVER forgive, that I have deemed people horrible for, that has truly made me hate them?

Using a person’s death or mental illness for their own gain, usually attacking friends and family with it.

Like you have done with Monty and Shane.

I hoep you’re happy because you have crossed so many lines. I hope you’re happy being hateful and pessimistic because you know what? You are no better than those people at Yang Haters Haven for threatening Ben and Chad’s lives. In fact, you are WORSE than them. You are essentially digging up Monty’s corpse to beat his friends, his grieving friends who shared so much with, with it. Congratulations, you are what you hate. Except they can always say “I never used a dead man for my own gains.”

I have no respect for you, no hope for you, no kindness for you.

You are worse than most people in the rwde tag and that is saying a lot considering their suicide baiting and death threats.

Enjoy the fucking hole you dug for yourself, I’ll be sure to fill it up and put you out of your misery never.

[cobrienba1a]

Essay Research

Question: Does Frank Miller’s “The Dark Knight Returns” bold step in substituting the status quo for a darker, more brutal Batman, work for the character?

Essay Revamp Notes

The essay needs to be roughly 6-8 paragraphs

Need to have a strategy for every paragraph

Get Bolder as I go

Write as if the reader doesn't know

Back up all facts with evidence and Harvard referencing

No opinions, only facts

Things I know

The silver age was heavily censored- because of this, everything that came after it for a while was toned down

Batman’s origin story and motives- After his parents’ death he swears to bring justice upon Gotham through being a vigilante

How brutal batman can be- He does not stop at one punch on a criminal, he would go as far as to instill fear into them whilst breaking bones and leaving them traumatized, but he would never willingly kill.

 Although, Batman has had times where he did kill, either he had no other choice or unwillingly killed people.

Batman had trained with the league of assassins which explains his movements and attack strategies

Things I know now after research

The censorship died out gradually after the realization that this method was failing

The enforcers of this act were the CCA, Comics Code Authority

The method was to try and put a stop to juvenile behavior among the child population as they thought that the amount of crime committed by children was caused by the violence in comic books.

The animated intro for Adam Wests     Batman first appeared in 1966, an animated series did not come out until 1968

The CCA would only approve of the comic if it had: no horror, no sympathizing with criminals, good must triumph over evil etc.

Batman and his archetype, he is     more of a hero type in the 1966 but F.Ms one is more of a combination of     most archetypes

Things I need to find out

Frank Millers Motivations for the piece- Why he chose to break the norm

Why the darker Batman was preferred?

The design choice for Batman – Why was he aged and why was he made the size he was

How his movement and combat changed as well as why.

Structure

200 words for intro and conclusion

Leaving 700 words MAX for the rest

Batman’s origins and who he’s meant to be character-wise

Status Quo of the 1960s

Frank Miller's interpretation and Why Frank Miller changed the character

The archetypes both the old and new batman represent

Why the newer animation was more preferred?

Why the old Batman may have been more preferred?

References

“I fell in love with Batman and with Daredevil. In both cases, I simply fell in love with the characters, and have revisited them from time to time when I miss them and when I get a new idea of some new torment to put them through.” - Frank Miller

What I can gather from this is that Frank has decided that he adored the characters so much, that he wanted to create tougher situations to help reveal the character more, give everyone an insight into his mind and how he thinks. By putting the character through “torment” it will truly express his true nature and how he deals with the harder decisions, ultimately painting a more developed character. 

 “Circumstances don't make the man, they only reveal him to himself.” ― Epictetus

“Study the classics. Beyond that, my best advice would be to mix it up”- Frank Miller

This was also taken from the interview and The evidence suggests from this that Frank’s change on Batman was still inspired by the original classes. It is implied that he has done his research and to create his take on that character, he felt to “mix it up” and thus the dark knight returns was born. 

(Miller, Spring 2012, pp. 42-57)

Fingeroth, D. (2012 Available at: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,sso&db=asu&AN=73881644&site=eds-live&custid=ns195502 (Accessed: 19 October 2018)

Appearance:

“Criminals are a superstitious cowardly lot. So my disguise must be able to strike terror into their hearts. I must be a creature of the night, black, terrible... a . a... a bat!”  

Finger, Bill  and  Fox, Gardner. (1939)The Batman Wars Against the Dirigible of Doom, Detective Comics, Vol 1 #33

Looking at this iteration of Batman (1973) we can see Batman’s character pose, we can see he has that superhero physique (evident muscular features as well as strong, square, shape language) although as Batman’s goals was to put fear into his enemies, this design is very distant from his comic counterpart in the bronze age. 

It is clear here that this costume and this quote does not go hand in hand, Batmans circular features give a non-threatening look to the character, definitely not one to visually instill fear into criminals. As well as this, he is described to want to be a creature of the night, although possesses a mid-tone blue attire which does not fit the “black” aesthetic he originally wanted in the comics.  

Frank Miller’s iteration of Batman (in the animated film) is a lot different from the 1960/1970s Batman, but if you look closely, there are still a lot of similarities, for example, the color scheme is the same, only with a darker tone, the build is still muscular, the layout of the suit is the same. However, the only difference is, everything is exaggerated. He has muscles but they are MUCH bigger, he has the same layout but it’s been given more detail and definition, he has a blue attire but it’s a much darker blue (almost black). There are no circular shapes in this body, it is all very angular and blocky, which gives it a more sharp, intimidating and dangerous vibe, which hits a lot further to home than his predecessor. 

Audio:

Peter Weller:

This Batman represents a dated one, one that has been in business for many years and has gained a lot of experience with it. He is quite harsh in his tone, definitely not one you’d find in your typical hero, Batman in this film is quite dark and his brutal nature really shows through his voice. He had just had a fight with one of his best friends (Superman) as he had become corrupt and a dog for the military, which goes against Batman’s beliefs. This also shows in his voice, you can sense his anger with his lecture to Superman about staying out of his way.

Olan Soule:

Soule is a definitely what you would recognize in a heroic voice as it sounds strong and light-hearted, it lacks the dark nature that later iterations have but it makes more sense in the mind that he is a superhero. This is just an advert to road safety but the voice doesn’t really change depending on his scenario, he always keeps up with the heroic voice.