#barry freaking clones himself

[steakout-05]

in love with this new official multiplayer art someone posted as a screenshot in the jj discord

two of them!!! two barrys!!!! i LOVE how grumpy the right one is, lookat him he's so angy, grumpy little guy <3

[beckyh2112]

Half-Formed Fic Ideas That Probably Won’t See the Light of Day

Several of these are rooted in @one-real-imonkey‘s fics because they write things that please my brain.

- Very firmly off one of @one-real-imonkey‘s clone time-travel AUs: it’s around ten years after the events of the fic. Jedi Master Plo Koon is paying a visit to Mandelore for Handwave-y Reasons, but mostly so he can check on the Mereel quints and the Fett twins. (He still has no idea why one of the quintuplets latched onto him in particular, but he returns the young man’s caring as best he can.)

Jedi Knights Obi-Wan Kenobi and Quinlan Vos are along for some nice, mostly safe practice diplomacy in front of their padawans. For some (inexplicable to the Jedi) reason, the reaction of four out of five Mereel quintuplets and the blond Fett twin to Padawan Secura is: “Bly is going to hate this.”

(Bly’s reaction is he needs to be on another planet right now, kthx.)

Jango also spends the next several days dealing with Rex’s breakdown over Padawan Skywalker.

- From another of imonkey’s clone time-travel AUs, specifically “A Second Chance, A New Family”: Jango sits with the vode until one of them wakes up. He has a lot of questions about his past now that he’s found out he’s a clone of someone or another.

Rex wakes up first. Rex is Very Confused by a young Jango calling him vod and talking as if he’d been on Kamino with them as another clone. Well, talking as if he’d been somewhere with them as another clone, and that they might have “known him before he was rescued.”

- Based off the general idea of Palpatine secretly restricting the Coruscant Guard’s communications to cut them off with the rest of the GAR. So the Guard thinks they’re sending messages to their non-Guard friends that are getting ignored, and the GAR thinks they’re sending messages to their Guard friends that are getting ignored.

Palpatine’s efforts to isolate the Guard fail to account for the fact Gree is a weird bastard who is good at seeing from other people’s point-of-view. Fox hasn’t responded to any of his messages in the past year, but they’re marked as read? Fox is in charge of defending Coruscant from Separatist threats and doesn’t have transit downtimes like Gree does. Fox never accepts his invites to drink at 79s? The Guard does have to do a lot of military police work with drunken vode, Gree can see Fox not finding 79s relaxing. He’ll bring himself and some booze to Fox. Fox can’t relate to him as a frontline commander and he can’t relate to Fox as Guard commander? Good fucking thing they’ve got other ways to relate to each other. Also, Gree knows how to tell stories that don’t require the listener to have his exact experiences to enjoy them. Why does he put in all of this effort when Fox doesn’t seem to? Friendships take work to maintain, and he’s not going to fault Fox, who is basically always on deployment, having to focus on his duty.

Palpatine actively clouding Gree’s mind so he thinks he’s already visited Fox? Works once, until Barris asks him about his visit with Fox because it’s one of those nice, non-war things she can talk to him about that aren’t just her telling him about her studies. Gree realizes he “forgot”, sets multiple alarms on his next shore leave so he doesn’t get caught up in other things.

Senator being a dick to Guard shinies? Gree is an amateur xenologist and familiar with this particular culture. What said Senator is claiming as an insult is not an insult in their culture. It’s very... Coruscanti of them to find it insulting. (Senators do not appreciate being Judged by clones. Gree does not appreciate people terrorizing shinies. One of them is going to back down, and it sure as shooting isn’t going to be Gree.)

Palpatine rerouting the 41st to have their leave on someplace not-Coruscant and forging the paperwork to make it look like Gree put in the request? “Commander Offee, can you request Commander Tano to check with Commander Fox if he has any requisitions unique to [the planet in question]?” “You want to know if he wants a souvenir.”

Just a mix of Palpatine’s efforts being thwarted because Gree is perfectly willing to give Fox the benefit of the doubt in regards to communications, especially since Fox always seems happy to see him when he comes by the Guard base, and Gree having two Jedi to stumble face-first into Shenanigans as Jedi are wont to do.

- After the Temple bombing arc, Fox shows up at the on-Coruscant GAR barracks with booze. Rex is Not Impressed. Fox didn’t bring it for Rex, so Rex can stay Not Impressed. He brought it for his brother whose baby Jedi just got unmasked as a terrorist willing to frame her best friend.

Gree appreciates the booze, and also Fox’s willingness to get into a knockdown, drag-out fight with him, because no one else will, and he needs some catharsis.

Some ARCs don’t clear the training room they have their fight in when Fox tells them to. Said ARCs come to regret this decision as Fox and Gree use them as obstacles in said knockdown, drag-out fight.

Someone calls one of the other CCs about the time the knives come out, because it looks like Fox and Gree are going to kill each other. (They are not. They are much too good at hand-to-hand to kill another vod without meaning to, and neither mean to.) (They are also being a lot more careful with the knives than it looks like. Frankly, they’re more careful with the hand-to-hand than it looks since neither of them has broken bones.)

- Based off @silverxsakura’s “Your father wants me dead”: Gree gets decapitated by General Yoda during the execution of Order 66. Gree wakes up as a cadet on Kamino with a scar around his neck he definitely never had before, but everyone acts like he’s always had it and are Concerned that he doesn’t remember that. Also, Weird Things keep happening around him.

Fox gets killed by Darth Vader. Fox wakes up as a cadet on Kamino whose temper is a lot more volatile than he remembers it ever being. Also, when he’s really deep in his fury, his eyes turn sulfur-yellow, and Things Happen. The rest of his cadet squad are freaking out that he’s forgotten he has to hide that from the longnecks.

Neither have noticed that Wolffe keeps reaching up to rub a scar he doesn’t have yet.

[greatearthquakestudent]

The Flash Season 7 Characters

Love The Flash so love, I enjoy things that no likes but even I hate season a majority of season. 

#27. Esperanza Garcia/Ultraviolet

Allegra is an okay character. But Esperanza didn’t help her get better. Her death is hardly sad. Only thing sad about it is that Allegra’s sad.

#26. Mark Blaine/ Chillblaine

This man is so creepy. Why do the writer want Frost to with him. She genuinely looks like she hate him with has no actual feelings at least not anymore.

 #25. Eva McCulloch/Mirror Monarch 

Why is she mirror Monarch instead Mirror Mistress. The finding out she was mirror clone was interest what else. What her final plan? Replacing people with Mirror clones where does that comes from. Her defeat kinda lame. 

24. Kristen Kramer

Her arresting Frost was obsessives and her trying to stop all metahumans with meta cure weapon are insane. I guess her having sick power making little likable.

23. SpeedForce/Nora

They a freaking psycho who betrayal and try to kill two 2 innocent people and somewhat redeemed person. But Guess her help in Godspeed war helped little.

22. Iris West-Allen 

I’m getting to character don’t hate but really care much for. Iris my least favorite character. I’m glad got saved from the mirrorverse and all and why include her in the force storyline, that made it worse. But still she isn’t that bad.

21. Kamilla Hwang

Um, I’m glad ok, and have a good job? 

20. Allegra Garcia/Supernova

I like her, nothing wrong with her, But the writers seriously have to this girl something interesting. Isn’t she connected to villain wavelength?

19. August Heart/Godspeed

He’s cool, but he’s crazy and August Heart isn’t that interesting. 

18. Godspeed Clones 

All the really done is fight each other and attack the others which is cool but that all they do. Plus we don’t see much. 

17. Cecile Horton

I love Cecile is amazing and such a sweetheart. I love she has new powers. She really powerful member of The Flash.

16. Wells Droppelganger

Nice to see other 3 Wells and Orson is fun. 

15. Nash Wells/Pariah

All I have R.I.P Nash Wells you did your best to save the city.

14. Sue Dearbon 

Badass Queen, Wish we saw more. 

13. Jay Garrick/The Flash

Glad Jay’s  again, but he hasn’t done much help and is he from earth prime or earth two. 

12. Frost

I like Frost but I’m indifferent with storyline, the prison thing and the romance is kinda bad, Mark dies, because I’m pretty sure won’t care that much.

11. Caitlin Snow

Still like her, but the good thing she has is her sister relationship with Frost. Also like her more than Iris, but I hate Snowbarry, I like male-female friendship.

10. Harrison Wells

It was nice for him to help Team Flash. 

9. Chester P. Runk

Chester is very cool, he actually useful in the team.

8. Captain Joe West

I love his stoyrline with Kramer.

7. Cisco Ramon/Mecha-Vibe

Obviously,  why does not do much this season, outside his leaving storyline. 

6. Bashir Malik/Psyche

I know force quest storyline was bad, it was first a actually cringe with the family dynamic, but the three force holders are good characters. He’s threatening and sadistic and his motive are kinda petty and selfish and him using family thing is annoying. 

5. Deon Owens

Deon is very intimidating and cool. But his motives are sad, both in a good and bad way. 

4. Alexa Rivera/Fuerza

She’s nicest and strongest person who you would meet. Her backstory really making her a good representation of the strength force. Her, Deon, and Bashir are representation of the force they hold.

3. Nora-West Allen/XS

I’m glad to see Nora again, I’m they actually made her more responsible this around, the big sister. To Jessica Parker Kennedy haters, it’s not her fault, that Nora was annoying in season 5, she’s not a bad actress, the writing was bad. 

2. Bart Allen/Impulse

Mr. Bart Allen is a fun character. Jordan Fisher is just is a the best actor for this role. It’s great idea to make him 19, it really fit his character counterpart. 

1. Barry Allen/The Flash

Obviously, he is so himself. But I kinda hate in episode 2 and 10, where he push Alexa. 

[miss-choco-chips]

Put a ring on it 2

Gonna drop this here super quick and then go back to cram for my finals. Who allowed me to schedule six finals in one week? I’m gonna die. Pray for me.

Tagging @jedissica ‘cause they asked me to, and @animemangasoul who I think will like this.

---.---

-Batman, here we are. It’s been a while since you last called an emergency meeting. Is everything okay?

-Were you aware that our children eloped together?

-...what.

-As in, my third kid, your first one, Diana’s second, and Barry’s… grandchild. I’m not exactly sure about who married who, but there was more than one wedding and they have a group chat called ‘hubbies and waifu’. Whatever that means.

-...

-...

-That’s my girl. I always told her, go big or go home.

-Diana, no.

----.----

Cassie’s phone went off again with her specific Diana ringtone, and she gave up, turning it off and throwing it on the pile with Kon’s, Bart’s and Tim’s (the last one had four all by himself, so it was quite a big ‘phone tower’; Hah, pun intended).

-You’re gonna freak out so badly over this when you actually wake up -she informed Tim’s fluffy hair. 

Said vigilante only released a cute little snore, face buried on her lap, legs thrown over Kon’s, one hand that had fallen from the couch resting on Bart’s head where he sat on the floor in front of them.

-Well, they were going to find out one way or another. And this was probably among the best scenarios.

-How? I’m sure this one was top five on Tim’s ‘worst case’ nightmare list.

-I was there and saw their faces. I didn’t even know Batman could express any emotion other than ‘cold’ and ‘overflowing with rage’. That image will bring me joy in future distressing times, I’m sure. My patronus memory, if you will.

-I’m soooooooo jealous, dude.

Cassie snorted, carefully not moving an inch, fingers cradling through Tim’s hair. Over her dead body would he ever cut it, now that it was finally long enough to make itty tiny braids all over it, her favorite therapeutic iddle work.

-We’ll make Tim give us footage when he wakes up. He has to provide for us, after all.

Kon let his arm, resting on the backrest of the couch, fall over Cassie’s shoulders- Be sure to include footage from after we left, too. Nightwing’s  ‘As in more than one?!’ part was solid gold.

-No kidding, I want that as my ringtone for you and Tim -chimed in Bart, carefully moving Tim’s hand back to the couch and then running to the kitchen- Ice cream?

-Do you even need to ask?

---.----

By the time Tim woke up, the hero gossip network had done it’s thing, and almost everyone with a costume was aware of the news. Even Cissie, who was officially retired, and Zachary Zatara, away on his shows and usually out of reach, had called, the first one to offer congratulations and ask if the thing was real emotionally-wise, the second to just laugh at them for full six minutes before hanging up. 

He did text them later, asking when the celebration ceremony would be.

-It’s not a bad idea -mused Cassie, showing them her phone screen with the magician’s text- a party, I mean.

Tim, from his place working a case on the Titan’s main computer, tuted- Batman might actually kill me for that. I think we’ve survived this far only because there are no written records making this official, and a part of him must think it’s all some elaborate prank.

-It’s not -insisted Bart, head poking out of the kitchen- we are family now, officially. No take backs.

Their Robin shifted in place just enough for them to see his smile, a gift on itself- I know, guys, and the sentiment is much appreciated. But from a legal standpoint, it’s not that different from what a few kids on a playground could do while playing family. Only place this could stand against judgement would be the future, some ancient Amazonian tribe, or Krypton.

-Doesn’t matter, as long as it’s true for us. And, I mean, we didn’t want to cut your options if you ever wanted to actually get married the classic way.

This time, their bird actually turned around, a warmth on his expression that he usually reserved for his team. It made them feel special like nothing else.

-Yeah, I know. Thank you for that. It was really considerated.

As if they would drag Tim into something like legal marriage without previous consent. The fact that he even felt the need to thank them for showing him basic human decency was making their blood boil with the need to punch a bat on the face.

Kon flew over, the high chair preventing him from draping himself on his best friend’s back, but not from hugging his neck and messing his hair.

-Back at my point -cleared her throat the amazonian-, your former mentor can suck my metaphorical Freudian dick. We could throw a party, and it would only be different from a normal one because marriage celebrations include gifts, which I’m totally for. I haven’t seen Zatara, Cissie, Greta and Anita in a while, and Miguel, Raven and Gar might murder us for not telling them about our plans and not making it up to them with a party. No ‘adults’ out of the ones on team, or mentors, invited, enough alcohol to re-drown Atlantis, fancy food bought with Bat’s credit card…

-You are right, it does sound kinda nice -hummed Kon, floating just out of Tim’s range when former Wonder Boy tried to slap his hands away. Silly bat, always denying affection.

-All in favor?

-I don’t know -giving up, Tim went back to his case files- I have a lot to do this days, and there’s a lead that might take me to Asia…

-Isn’t Cass there? Ask her to take over it for you, as a marriage present or something. C’mon Tim, do it for the gifts. Imagine what Zatara might get for us. So crash.

-If  it’s a magical object, I won't want it anywhere near me. We bats don’t have the best track record with that stuff, and I swear to god if I get deaged I would use my non-prosecutable age to murder someone. Probably Zatara himself.

-Adorable as that might be, it totally won’t happen.

----.----

-....can you repeat it one more time? Slower, though. I think I’m getting hearing problems.

Raven, through the video call connecting the Cave with the Tower, didn’t seem fazed by Nightwing’s slightly threatening tone.

-I said, the team had a party, everyone got drunk, and it was fine for a while. I was watching over them, but then I needed to use the restroom. When I got back, someone had gotten ahold of Zachary’s gift for Tim, Cassie, Kon and Bart, and…

-Why for those four? -asked Hood, standing right by N’s side. He had came in during Raven’s first explanation, and felt like there was something he was missing.

-It was a marriage gift. Moving on…

-A what?! Since when is Lil Red married? The fuck happened while I was in Russia?!

-...someone had gotten ahold of the gift -Raven kept going, cool as a cucumber. On the background behind her, teen heroes were running back and forth, people were screaming and something was smoking-, which happened to be some sort of magical artifact. Zachary wasn’t really aware of what it did, he just randomly choose it from among his collection of magical tools when he remembered at the last possible time a gift was mandatory for a wedding party. I returned from the bathroom and everything was a mess, the couch was turned upside down, a pipe had burst, the tv was on fire and Tim had been de aged.

There was a battle scream, in a distinctly childish voice, somewhere on the room out of view of the camera, and Raven’s eyes left the screen for a second as if looking at it.

-Was that Red Robin? -Batman, because of course he was listening in, started typing at the console, frantically trying to get a new angle to see what was going on on the Tower.

-He’s unharmed, and everything is under control.

Another scream, this time louder.

-...that didn’t sound under control -mused Dick, apparently still processing the information. Bruce typed faster. Robin gripped his sword tighter, as if readying himself for a war.

Jason still looked utterly lost.

-Marriage? She said marriage? AND YOU ASSHOLES KNEW ‘BOUT THIS?!

-He’s… throwing a tantrum -the woman ignored him, still looking only at her former leader-. Something about using his age to kill Zatara without being convicted. I’ll need to leave now, I only called to ask you to take over Tim’s cases while we solve this issue.

-Wait! Rae, if Timmy’s a kid, he needs to be with us. We are his family, it’s our jurisdiction.

A green bird suddenly landed on her shoulder, halthing whatever response she might give. Gar pecked her on the cheek lightly before turning his beak their direction.

-Husbands and Wives get priority, N, you know that. Cassie, Kon and Bart are looking after him, and keeping him from killing Zachary, while the rest of us research how to turn him back. Zach is actually trying to contact his cousin, maybe the great Zatanna will quicken this process. So, yeah, no Bats allowed on the Tower until then!

-But/!

A loud crash, followed by a wail, made Gar wince and Raven’s head to snap to the side and growl.

-Whelp, gotta go, Tower out! -a ‘Tim!’ could be heard in the background just before the screen went dark.

-...

-...

-...

-...Anyone gonna fill me in?

-Drake eloped thrice over without informing us and has been living in sinful unworthiness with his three partners since last month or so, that we know about. Probably more.

-...Partners?

-You heard her. The speedster, clone and amazonian.

-...

-...

-Dickie, how t’fuck did ya allow’is to happen?!

-IT’S NOT LIKE I WAS ASKED FOR MY BLESSING, JASON!

-B, what the utter hell, ain’t ya supposed to keep track of this kinda shit?!?

-...

-Don’t bother, Father has been broken since learning of Drake’s mistake, and will go unresponsive at the most inconvenient times.

-...

-Fuck, I need a drink. Also, ’m going there.

-You heard Gar, Jay -pointed out Dick- we can’t just walk in there, and the Tower is legally his. We have to be smart about this, plan this through, and/

-Yeah, no, he said ‘no bats’-gesturing at his gun holsters, he started to walk to where his bike was parked-. RIP ya’ll, but I’m different. See ya.

-...

-...

-Tt. Useless. I’ll go back to training. Father, Grayson, should you two, as the plebeians say, ‘snap out of it’ and come with a good plan to get Drake back under our tutelage, I’ll be by the mats waiting.

-...

-...Don’t look at me like that. I raised him for a few months tops, but he’s your kid, not mine. Same with Tim, and Jason’s entirely your fault.

---.---

Meanwhile, back at the Tower, Kon let out a screeching ‘Tim!’ before diving out and catching the baby bird in his arms, halting his fall from the ceiling rafters where he had been climbing. Behind him, Cassie let out a relieved breath.

-God’s above, you almost gave me a heart attack. Okay, new ground rules, this two little feet stay on the ground.

Tim, as proudly as a three year old toddler could, frowned at him.

-Don’t patwonize me, Kon. And lemme go, I havta cacth Zac/ Zat/… Magic-boy.

Bart materialized by their side, arms looping below Tim’s armpints to carry him to the recently put back to its correct place couch. He dropped there, tiny bird in his lap, cooing all the while.

-Aww, you’re precious.

-I could still huwt you -pointed out the toddler, resigning himself at being manhandled.

-I know -replied Bart lovingly, softly stroking his turf of hair.

Somewhere on the side, Cissie clapped her hands, as if getting rid of the dust there.

-Okay, I putted out the fire, so now I’ll be heading home. This magical bullshit is way out of my ‘retired’ comfort zone.

Cassie landed by her side and gave her a quick hug, while Greta walked up to them- I understand, thanks for coming.

-Give us a call when this is solved, we can have a coffee while you complain about your husbands. And… child, now, I guess. God, it was already weird calling Tim your husband, but now he’s a baby and it's doubly weird. Figure this out quickly.

-Will do. See you guys later.

One by one, they all left, some offering their support (appreciated, but not needed, thank you, we’ll manage), some still laughing. In the end, only the Core Four, Gar, Raven and Miguel remained. Zachary probably was there somewhere (if he dared leave without helping them fix this, he was dead meat), but out of the enraged toddler’s sight, which. Wise.

Even if said little human being was pint sized and cow eyed, he was probably still the most dangerous person in the room, unarmed or not (you know what, scratch that; if time with Tim taught them anything, was that no bat was ever unarmed. Even bare handed, their own bodies were weapons).

-...So... What should we do while we wait for Zatara’s solution?

-I vote movie night. It’s not like we can keep on drinking, with a kid in the room/ Auch! Pointy elbows, Tim!

Kon swooped in, picking Tim from Bart’s not invulnerable lap and cuddling to him on the couch by the speedster’s side. Tim knew better than to hit the Boy of Steel without proper equipment, so he let himself fall back against the broad chest. Cassie, talking to the older members of the team on the side, smiled softly at them before returning to her conversation.

As mad as his current situation made him, Tim couldn’t bring himself to pout too much. It had been a fun night, all things considered.

-----.-----

[theflashfictioner]

Bad Blood part three

I was told there were grammar issues but never found all of them so please let me know what you see.

As always, credit to the lovely @randomfanders-blog for the amazing idea!! Lemme know what y'all think!

Working for the fastest man alive, you'd think that you'd have done more research for treatments, but not at all. It's just training on getting faster. And although that's the reason your dad swears you need him to stay safe, you wish you were let in more on the planning. You're 23 for crying out loud! You can't be kept in the dark forever, but you knew he had his cryptic reasons, as always.

Which is why walking into the room when Caitlin was scolding Cisco and Barry was your favourite way to start the day.

"Well I'm the eyes and ears and he's the feet," you heard Cisco lamely explain as Barry sped into the cortex in a flurry of papers.

"He shouldn't be running around like some supersonic fireman, Cisco," you piped in. "He could have gotten himself killed," you continue and sit in the chair next to Cisco.

Barry and Caitlin got into it, along with Dr. Wells, and you sat back quietly as they discussed restraint for the billionth time already. When Dr. Wells and Caitlin walked to the dashboard, Cisco stopped Barry.

"Hey, anything weird happen out there? Your vitals spiked."

"Never better," Barry said as he answered his phone and talked to Joe.

As he walked out of the cortex and to the police station, you laughed as Dr. Wells made a comment about Barry not taking his clothes.

"I can't tell you how much I would pay to see how he fixes that " you said, unable to stop laughing. Cisco shook his head and both Caitlin and Dr. Wells left as you kept chuckling and began to get to work. You did have a job after all.

A while later, Caitlin was scolding him after telling her about his fainting and dizziness, and you helped hook him up to everything, trying not to interrupt Caitlin. When Cisco commented on her anger from Ronnie, you all were talking about how you miss him. Cisco set him up with the tread mill, trying to figure everything out and you watched him pass out and hit the wall, laughing hysterically as he did.

"I'm sorry," you said between giggles, " it's just that this only happens in cartoons. It's so much funnier in real life."

Caitlin rolled her eyes and looked at you, "Can you calm down enough to help me get him to the medical room?"

You bit your lip and nodded as you worked together to carry him and set him on the hospital. Caitlin hooked him up to an IV bag, and you all thought the work was done, but it was gone in seconds, so you and Caitlin hooked up one after the other to keep up with his quickly depleting vitals, until bag 39 lasted a few minutes, and then bag 40 took the normal amount of time to drain into his system.

When he woke up and was informed of his condition,he started saying all he needed was an IV bag, and you bit back laughter as he saw the pole full of bags. Dr. Wells told him the number of bags he used, chuckling. Caitlin told him that she came up with a new diet, which Cisco put into the terms of tacos, and then left to add cheese and guacamole, which made you laugh as Joe came in and scolded Barry. Joe then getting on Dr. Wells for not keeping Barry safe, who then yelled back at Joe about how he needed to help since he couldn't help his Dad, who was in Jail.

"You think you're so smart. /All/ of you. But you dont know what you dont know and I hope that you're clever enough to figure it out before somebody gets killed," Joe said before walking out and you all fell into silence.

"Food for thought," you said and everyone turned to you. "How is he and the police gonna figure it out if the smartest people in the room can't? What can they do that we can't?"

Barry shrugged and ran out to go back to his day job. Dr. Wells came and sat next to you, and you sighed. " I know I shouldn't be so upset, but I can't help but be tired of his superiority complex; the way he had to make us feel like we aren't trying to keep him alive and that we want people killed, Dad. None of us want to keep him safe as much as you and I," you said.

"Y/N, dont worry about Joe. You and I will prove our worth and become part of the greatest story to ever be told. Now, why dont you cool off and go grab some lunch," he said and you nodded, heading out.

It was as you were grabbing your coffee from the barista at Jitters that you saw the news, and rushed back to STAR Labs to help when you could. You got there a little too late and walked in as Caitlin was patching up Barry.

"You got Blood on my suit," Cisco said as he worked with a miners lamp on his head.

Barry looked incredulously at him as he tersely replied that some it probably belonged to the not so friendly meta, and Dr. Wells threw up a portrait on the screen.

"Danton Black. Hes a bio geneticist specialized in therapeutic cloning. Growing new organs to replace failing ones."

"Apparently Stagg stole his research and fired him," said Caitlin, sympathy displaying on her face.

Realization Barry's face, "I saw Black create duplicates of himself."

Cisco laughed, "That's pretty ironic. The guy specialized in cloning and now he can make xeroxes of himself."

"If he was experimenting on himself when he was exposed to the dark matter wave during the particle accelerator explosion-" you started to say before Cisco cut in.

"Meet Captian Clone!" He said in awe.

Everyone looked at him and he cowered a little, saying he'd find something cooler.

Barry was heading out and Caitlin asked where he was going.

"Joe was right. I'm in way over my head. I can barely fight one meta human, let alone six."

"Barry!" Dr. Wells called, "I understand. Today was a setback, but any grand enterprise has them, and we can never learn to fly without crashing a few times."

His face is wrought with defeat as he retorts, "This wasn't a grand enterprise, Dr. Wells. This was a mistake."

Barry retreats backwards and all of you watch as he leaves, before turning to your dad who looked worried. He left and went away and you awkwardly sit down and try to fix the gnawing feeling in your gut at his words. You decide that it's wrong. Your dad was a good guy and just wanted the best, so you sigh deeply and get back to work.

*A little later*

Your dad had left to go talk to Dr. Stagg. You decide to take a walk to stretch your legs and walked around for a bit, stumbling onto this weird panelling that seemed different from the rest of the wall. Like there was something behind it, but as you went to touch it, your phone chimes. You see a text from your dad saying to make sure to stay in the cortex until Barry came back, so you hurriedly went back, glancing back at the door once more before it disappeared from your view as you made your way to the cortex.

As you walked up, you saw Danton Black, and you hid as he stared at Caitlin and Cisco menacingly. You quietly walked away and called your dad when you were far enough away, as you had heard Caitlin call Barry and knew she ans Cisco would be okay.

When your dad came in, you guys both took a look at him and noticed he wasn't moving. Strange, but as you kept talking to it, it didn't move. Once you had all realised it was only a clone, Barry rushed in and freaked out, before Caitlin clued him in on what everyone else already knew.

"How did you get it?" He asked with confusion colouring his tone.

"I grew him" she answered, before going on to describe the process which she'd done to get a homemade Danton Black.

"Why isn't he moving?"Barry asked as he waved his hand in front of Homemade, as you deemed to call him, yet again.

"Take a look at the brain scans, the motor functions are on but little else," you offered.

"We think its acting as a receiver," said Cisco.

"So how do I know which one is the real one?" Barry asked

"That occurred to given your own passing out. BLACK HAS LIMITS JUST LIKE YOU. CONTROLLING THAT MANy would be exhausting. Look for the one showing signs of weakness," Caitlin told him.

Dr. Wells shrugged and said, "Just a theory, but one you might want to put to the test."

Cisco walked over excitedly and handed Barry a bar as he explained the calorie contents of it. Then Homemade moved and Joe shot it causing Caitlin to scream. Joe gave Barry a pep talk to motivate him to go Stop Danton. You them moved to help clean up the dead body and go get rid of it. Your dad followed as you dragged him out and looked at you.

"Y/N, you need to run him as far as you can so that you can get rid of him without anyone knowing. Understand?"He ordered, gaze piercing through you.

"Yes, dad, will do." You grabbed him and ran off as everyone else took care of Barry through the fight. By the time you got back, the fight was over and Barry was back. You saw the news about Danton and your heart fluttered in the sorrow you felt. Cisco named him MultiPlex and you smiled a little as Barry gave a pep talk of his own about how everyone was a part of the fighting before he left. You then nodded to your dad and he knew you'd done what needed to be done before sitting down and sighing. Life was definitely different from what you thought it would be. Dad wheeled off and you sat with Caitlin and Cisco as Barry then headed to help with an armed car robbery.

Your dad told you he had an errand that night and that no matter what, you were to stay home and not leave. When he came home, he had a bloody knife and told you he did what history needed to be done. You felt a pit in your stomach but cleaned the knife and set it away, praying that you'd get some sleep tonight.

[thecomicsnexus]

All of us

HEROES IN CRISIS #9 JULY 2019 BY TOM KING, CLAY MANN AND TOMEU MOREY

SYNOPSIS + REVIEW

Half of this issue is useless confessions from several characters, mostly one panel each. They tie into the “concept” of the series.

In a nutshell: Heroes in Crisis’ goal, was to show everyone that heroes cannot be heroes all the time and that they too suffer from trauma. You know, just in case you stopped reading comics in 1968.

The issue opens with Booster, Beetle, Harley and Batgirl crashing on the moment when Wally was about to kill Wally. Let’s stop and think that a bit:

Wally from the past fucked up, so he went five days into the future to kill himself and place his body in the past. He would then stay in hiding for five days until he gets the visit from his past self to kill him.

Harley finds out that Poison Ivy was re-grown... somehow... maybe the speed force did it?

The apparition of these heroes makes Wally stop killing the other Wally. Now, at this point something is really strange and it is hard to follow which Wally you are seeing. Past Wally is in crisis now because he has to kill future Wally, but future Wally had time to process what he did and he is no longer in the same mental state. So he comforts past Wally and tells him that he is not alone. At this point Booster, Beetle, Harley, Ivy and Batgirl are mostly just watching them and making comments among themselves.

Then we get the explanation as to why Wally did what he did. He didn’t want to undo his mistake by traveling back in time, because that is what Barry did and created a new universe, erasing his family. All of this, because Barry likes to keep secrets from everybody and didn’t share with Wally all his suspicions about Doctor Manhattan.

Wally wanted to make up for his mistake and do something good, but he knew he would be caught almost immediately and go to jail. So he framed Booster and Harley to buy some time, deliver the confessions to Lois, so that the whole world could see what their heroes did, that took them to the sanctuary. Why? because that would prevent other heroes (or normal people) from feeling isolated like Wally was when the tragedy happened.

Of course, Wally’s tragedy happened because he watched all the confessions and felt horrible inside afterwards, so I don’t see how he could believe in that theory.

I appreciate the intention, but revealing other people’s secret traumas and feelings is morally wrong. The witness heroes think that this was something good, I don’t see how doing that is good, beyond the effect it caused in others. I guess an ex-CIA agent (King) doesn’t see other people’s secrets as something sacred.

Booster Gold comes up with the idea of completing the loop by just replacing Wally with another body of Wally, who was also five days older. To do this, they will need to go to the 25th century, speed-clone past Wally and... I guess also kill him.

Past Wally, still considering killing himself, questions this by saying “Aren’t we heroes? Shouldn’t I sacrifice myself?”. To which Booster answers with this piece of gold: “Dude, we’re heroes, yeah, cool. But we’re brothers, too, right? sisters. We share this absurdity. This life. We’re people. We’re family. And sometimes, I’m telling you, THAT can come first”. I guess Tom King is Booster Gold and wanted to tell us that, because IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH ANYTHING!

And Wally ends up in jail, in uniform. And obviously will become part of the Suicide Squad.

And the issue ends. The story ends, without ever finding itself. Because until issue eight, it was about the people that had to work in removing impurities and what that does to them, and in this issue it was all about showing people they are not alone.

Continuity also doesn’t mean a thing, which makes me think editors are redundant.

Look at the scene where Lagoon Boy dies:

And then how we see him dying issues later:

See Steel there? Turns out he died of asphyxiation:

You could say that perhaps Wally added that to frame Harley, but I don’t know. If you are doing an autopsy, at some point you will find out that that wasn’t the cause of death.

And who was the Green Lantern that died in Sanctuary?

In the end, I know King is an unreliable narrator, and that works well in some of his stories, but it didn’t work here. He stopped writing the characters to write himself, and speak through these characters. He came down from heaven to tell us that the best way of helping people with mental issues is exposing our mental issues as well, so that no one thinks they are freaks. And I agree with the idea, as long as it is willingly. I often think that everyone is a bit insane, that if I sometimes have to put reality under the magnifying glass, others could be doing the same. But what does that have to do with what happened here? Readers already know that these heroes were “complicated”. He just made Wally reveal to the people in the DCU that heroes were “complicated” like them. Will this affect anything? Possibly... for a year, then everyone will forget about it.

I should mention that there seems to be a Doomsday Clock hint in this issue, through Metamorpho’s confession.

So Doomsday Clock is still happening in the future, and this story is never mentioned there (which makes sense, because that story started like two years ago).

I feel that the ending was too sloppy. I know he meant well, but he could have done this with other characters, at Image. At the end of this story, Roy Harper is still dead, killed by one of his best friends. Along with several other characters, MOST OF THEM TITANS.

Clay Mann did an amazing job, it’s a shame that the story wasn’t at the same level.

I give the issue a score of 6

[ladyshilya]

The Flash: Death of the Speed Force

Let find out what is going on with the Speed Force because it was enough to bring Wally back home.

The show starts off big with a plane about to crash and Barry is on his way there to help before he can get there Kid Flash is on the scene helping stop the plane from crashing by getting everyone off and dismantling it. It was a pretty impressive scene I am not going to lie.

The team has a welcome home party for Wally and Cisco comes back at the same time. It seems Cisco has been hanging out with Aquaman well at least Atlantis. At Jitters everything goes still like time froze. It seems there is a Russian lady Frida who is after the other Russian lady Kid Flash saved. Frida has the ability to control time so she ages the person she after to were she looks like a mummy. Cisco knows who this is and calls them Turtle 2. I think I am with everyone else that name is not all that impressive especially from Cisco. I feel a bit let down. Cisco works on a way to stop Turtle 2 with Caitlin’s help since she tells him to help Nash.

While all of this is going on Wally wants to know what is up with Barry because Wally senses a disturbance in the Speed Force. It is not longer talking to him. When they were helping clean up after the party Barry just loses his speed for a moment. Iris is the one who mentions to Wally about what happened with Ramsey. Wally takes Barry into the Speed Force where they find it dying. It is dying because of what Barry did. This causes Wally to yell at Barry for always trying to do everything himself and not telling Wally so he could help fix it. Barry goes back into the Speed Force and he finds out its the Spectre Energy that is killing the Speed Force. Basically what he did to save the universe is causing the Speed Force to die. The Speed Force dies but not after telling Barry they are happy he got the lighting because he taught them so much. After a talk with Papa Joe, Wally apologizes to Barry for yelling at him.

Currently they have a limited amount of Speed Force energy to use. They need to use it to take down Frida who has gone after Papa Joe. Good thing Caitlin finished the Velocity-X Cisco was working on to take out Frida. Barry and Wally head down the police station to save Papa Joe. Wally gets caught in one of Frida’s bubbles and Barry uses this chance to talk with Frida to convince her to stop. While distracted Papa Joe was released when both Flashes showed up injects Frida with Velocity-X turning off her powers. Wally has to leave for his next Peace Corp service but he mentions that there is something different with Iris. Barry tells the team what is going on and they want to do what they can to help. Right now Barry wants to working on an artificial Speed Force to give himself power. He is taking the idea from the Negative Speed Force device Thawne created. I am sure there is a way to get the Speed Force back but its going to take them some time to figure it out. They also might need some help. Where is the Council of Wells when you need it.

While all of this is happening Nash wants Cisco’s help to rid himself of the ghost that are plaguing him. Cisco cares more about stopping Frida because they is why he came back. Nash runs into the ghost of Reverse Flash. After talking with Caitlin Cisco heads down to help out Nash. When Cisco gets there its not Nash he is dealing with but Thawne in Nash’s body. Good thing is no powers because Nash doesn’t have Speed Force but Thawne is still pretty tough. Cecile jumps in and is able to save Cisco from Thawne. Of course Thawne tells everyone that he is going to kill them all. He also mentions the death of the Speed Force.

Iris is still trapped inside the mirror how does no one not realize that is not Iris. It seems if Eva gets all crazy it affects Clone Iris. Eva also mentioned how her husband tried to get her out of the mirror. How did he know she was in there? I feel like their are hole in her story. Or did I miss something she said? Clone Iris freaks out on Kamilla because of the picture she took and asks her to delete it. Clone Iris also tells Barry it might be a good thing him losing him powers. Iris would never say that and she would do what she could to help him get them back. I think Barry might realize finally that is not Iris. Wally seems to be the only one to realize that something is off with Iris. Maybe he helped confirm it for everyone else who might have been thinking it. The photo didn’t delete and Kamilla sees a mirror person where Iris should be. This causes Clone Iris to hit Kamilla with the mirror gun so she doesn’t tell anyone. Wait, what just happened. The gun destroys people down to their atoms. Kamilla is dead. Oh, this is not good and Cisco is going to be so upset because she was good for him.

Well this was an interesting and sad episode. The death of the Speed Force was so sad when it called Barry her son. I really do think there is way to get it back and the team will figure it out eventually. If anything Thawne might be able to help he sometimes does that if it will benefit himself. Also the team really needs to figure Iris is not Iris. Omg, killing Kamilla was not ok.

Looks like they are going to try to figure how to get Thawne out of Nash next episode while also possibly giving Barry, Speed Force injections. I really feel like I need to see this to get the whole picture.

[bluboothalassophile]

Getting to Know More

Fun facts about Terry McGinnis:

He was a notorious middle child in a HUGE family: Dick, Jason, Athanasia, Cassandra, Tim, Duke, Damian, Alina, himself, Helena, Thomas, Bruce Jr., and Matt. His extended family included Dick’s wife, and Dick’s kids, Thomas, Mar’i, and Jake; Jason’s adopted daughter Lian Harper; Tim’s wife, Stephanie; and Duke’s wife; Claire Clover. His extended, extended family also had Uncle Luke’s and Aunt Babs’ kids; Carrie and Nell, Bette Kane, Grampa Lucius, and, well, at this point one got the picture; huge ass colony of Bats living in Gotham here.

He shredded it where skateboard, hockey, motocross were concerned, but he had the coordination of a spaz for baseball and surfing.

His mom was awesome on epic proportions. Seriously, he didn’t know how she did it but she redefined super mom.

Another thing to know, he totally did not have a crush on the Princess of Atlantis, he was only going with her to this movie because he happened to like it, and because Mareena was the only chick he knew who didn’t like chick flicks (Mar’i, Helena, Lian, and Max could all go Suck It! He was going to see a damn action flick if it fucking killed him this year!) Mareena just also happened to like action flicks, which was why she was here with him.

Standing there in the theatre line he tried not to stare at Mareena who was hiding her identity under a hoodie she had stolen from his room when she had walk up to the Manor with a movie for them to see. Mareena did not have friends in Atlantis who appreciated the arts of action flicks. Terry didn’t care though, he was no longer being that weirdo who was going to a theatre alone. Also, she was a chick Dana could not get jealous over and drive him insane. He would think college meant that the drama would die off with the age grow up, but apparently not. And he was not getting blue balls because Dana was having imaginary jealous fits over imaginary slights.

“Why can the line not move faster,” Mareena huffed.

“Because the line is moving this pace because people are slow. Besides, we’re ahead of the line for the premiere line,” he jabbed his thumb over his shoulder to show her. Mareena frowned.

“You people are annoying,” Mareena said icily.

“How are we annoying, you wanted to go to this movie, so I’m going with you to see this movie,” he said.

“I would’ve asked someone else, but,” she started.

“There’s no one but Don and Dawn, and we both know there’s no way in hell that Barry and Iris would let them come.”

“I could’ve gone to New Krypton,” Mareena argued.

“Oh yes, because watching their movies is so entertaining,” Terry rolled his eyes.

“You land dwellers have no appreciation for the fine arts of moving with a flow,” Mareena argued.

“Pipe down, and don’t draw attention of the paparazzi,” he snapped when her hood started falling off of her head, which had him pulling it more firmly over the green hair of hers. Only disadvantage of going to the movies with Mareena was the fact her hair glowed in the dark. But other than that, trade offs, made it worth it!

“You do realize they’d be more inclined to notice you and not me, right?”

“I’m wearing a Gotham Knights cap, and I am not royalty, I’m just one of a hundred Wayne kids,” Terry point out.

“I thought you were a Prince,” Mareena said.

“No, I’m a Wayne,” he said. “Not royalty.”

“You are also…” she held up her index fingers by her head and smiled a bit.

“Yeah, but that doesn’t count,” he shrugged. Dick had been Batman, Jason had briefly been to save Dick’s wedding, Cass currently was, Damian was next. It wasn’t anything special anymore, it wasn’t special in the family he belonged in. Though B was still the control freak behind the scenes for them so technically B was still the Bat.

“Why not?”

“Cause B’s the big man in charge.”

“Your dad is in a wheelchair,” Mareena pointed out.

“Partial paralyses is not a disability, it just means his legs have to take a break sometimes and Mom has to push him around, it’s not abnormal to what normally happens with him,” he shrugged.

“You guys have issues,” Mareena stated.

Terry merely shrugged. “Dad’s fine, we’re fine, it’s all fine!” he snorted.

“Last time you said that everything was on fire,” Mareena stated.

“Let me restate we’re fine. But mostly keep your hair away so I don’t have to explain to Dana why the hell I’m seen with another woman.” Terry stated.

“Ah, the nefarious Dana, why are you still dating that woman?” Mareena asked. “She was bratty when you were a teen, she’s worse now.”

“Not all of us get fairy tale romances,” Terry shrugged. “Besides, I like sex, sex is a great relief to the stress of everything.”

“You sound like a cad.”

“You should hear my sisters talk,” he shrugged. Mar’i, Helena, Max, and Lian were way worse than him about the sex talks, girls were all about feelings, and emotions and connections, it was annoying, and they always talked about it and guys! Terry probably knew more about women than the average guy and it was a disturbing amount information his sisters had given him. And just to clarify, he thought of Mar’i, Lian and Max as his sisters because he had known them since he was in diapers! It was hard to think of them as anything remotely close to something other than sisters.

“And you shouldn’t knock down romance,” Mareena stated. “Your family has the most epic love stories according to my father. Other than maybe Diana and Steve’s.”

“You’re nuts!” he sputtered.

“Am not, the story of B and Selina, Dick and Kori, Jason and Raven, Tim and Stephanie, B and Talia,” she stated. “Epic romances.”

“That’s just gross, and disturbing to think about my family’s love lives,” he grimaced.

“You guys are secret sweethearts I bet,” Mareena decided with a cheeky smile.

“We are the Knight! We are the Terror of Nightmares! We are NOT Sweethearts! Even Alina is even an epic of epic badasses,” he argued. His phone buzzed and he pulled it out to see the text was from his mom.

“What’s up?”

“After the movie we need to go get Matt, Carrie, Tommy and Nell from school. Babs and Luke had to go to Africa,” he said.

“Oh.”

“So we’ll get them, get a slice, and then I’ll drop you off, or are you tubing?” he asked.

“Why would I be tubing?”

“Cause it’s up or down with you,” he retorted.

“Can I stay? I haven’t hung around the surface too much, and I do not want to go to the Tower,” she said.

“Yeah. Julia will help us set up a room for you,” Terry said. Julia had come to Gotham recently because Alfred was sick.

“Who is Julia?” Mareena asked.

“Julia is Alfred’s daughter,” he answered.

“Alfred is not B’s father?” she said in bizarre wonderment.

“Uh… yeah, not a secret,” he pointed out. “Alfred is awesome, and he’s totally grandpa, but he’s not blood.” Terry shrugged.

“WHAT!?” Mareena sputtered. Terry jumped a bit as he stared at her bewildered expressioned.

“What!?”

“He’s not blood!?”

“No, I mean, like ninety percent of my family isn’t blood.”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” he shrugged. “It’s not news.”

“I…” she started. “I always thought you were related,” he said.

“Really?”

“Black hair, blue eyes, ungodly pale.”

“What about Duke or Damian!?” he sputtered.

“Okay, so you don’t all look alike,” she rolled her eyes.

“Exactly, and we are all pretty much adopted. Only Athanasia, Damian, Alina, Helena, Tommy, Junior, Matt and I are actually B’s blood kids.”

“I thought you were just… you know, cause you’re a huge family and dad says B started young, really young, so I just assumed,” she shrugged.

“It’s all public record,” he shrugged. “B hasn’t been shy about it. Dick, Babs, Jason, Cass, Tim, Duke, Steph, technically and kind of, Harper, Cullen, Bette, and Renee.”

“I just thought you were related, and I thought you were also, you know,” she shrugged innocently.

“What else did you think we were!?” He sputtered.

“Vampires,” she said innocently.

“I hate dad for starting that rumor,” Terry muttered sourly.

“That one is funny though!” She persisted. “Hal told me, before I met you guys, that you were all demons.”

“Well, Rae is,” he shrugged.

“I thought your dad was big anti- anything that isn’t human marrying into my family,” Mareena said.

“Luci made valid points which had B accepting the fact marrying into a family as divine and powerful as Rae’s is a… you know, it’s kind of a divine honor,” Terry shrugged. “Besides, I didn’t know they weren’t married until they were officially married.”

“You didn’t know they weren’t married?” Mareena asked.

“They’ve been together since I was in diapers,” Terry shrugged.

“Really?”

“Yes really. I’m pretty sure they were the ones who found me,” Terry said.

“I’m learning more about you than I ever thought possible.”

“All of this is actually public record.”

“Really?” she asked skeptically.

“My biological mother was Mary McGinnis, she was married to Warren McGinnis, they died in a car crash when I was three days old and they were driving home from the hospital. I’m technically property of A.R.G.U.S. so Waller took me in, Jason found me about a year later,” Terry explained.

“That’s weird,” she decided.

“No, what’s weirder is the fact that Matt is my full brother,” Terry stated. “Mary and Warren were dead five years before Matt was even conceived, and he’s my full brother.”

“What?”

“Yeah.”

“I thought you were B’s blood son,” Mareena said carefully.

“I am. Waller injected a serum into Warren McGinnis’ DNA to scramble his own DNA to match with Bruce’s. Warren was a chimera essentially thanks to Waller’s tinkering,” Terry said. “I’m a ‘clone’ of Bruce’s in a way or I was supposed to be with what Waller set up, and I’m his son, but NO, he did not get involved in the conception of me or my blood brother Matt. He’s the genetic material for us. He’s still Dad though since he’s well, Dad,” Terry shrugged.

“That’s complicated.”

“That’s my family. Also, completely public record,” he shrugged.

“You’re not normal,” she said icily.

“What!? I’m completely normal! I’m going to a movie, and with you no less, in broad daylight, and I’m not turning to ash because of the sun either!” he smiled.

“You’re sounding like a assbutt,” she muttered.

“Asshole,” he corrected. “And you started it.”

“What did you expect from my family?” she asked.

“Lots of energy,” he answered honestly. “Dad always said that you guys were energetic like no tomorrow and wild, also unpredictable, dangerous, and loud, very loud.”

“You expected that!?” she sputtered.

“Did you think I was expecting a mermaid from Little Mermaid, fishtail and all?” he asked her.

“Yes!”

“Nah,” he shrugged.

“You’re an ass,” she informed him.

“I’m aware.”

“Good.”

“Besides, I’m a you know,” he shrugged. “Being unpleasant and assholes in general are required.”

“Oh! The ticket booth! And next time we are dropping your family name to get into the movie.”

“You wanted to be a normal American teen this time instead of being a Princess of you know,” he said.

“I did not want that. You wanted that. Freaking love of invisibility. I swear if you were metas you’d all be like that.”

“Rae cast an invisibility spell once, that was awesome, terrifying and cool.”

“Why!?”

“Oh, the demons were hunting her, I was like seven, and it was a giant hide and seek game,” Terry said.

“That’s not normal.”

“You grew up under the sea,” he pointed out.

“You grew up in Gotham.”

“I don’t like you right now,” she decided.

“You adore me, I’m paying for the movie,” he pointed out.

“True,” she decided.

“Awe, you two are an adorable couple!” the ticket attendant said when they stepped up to buy the tickets for S.O.S. “First date?”

“We’re not a couple,” Terry stated as he paid for the tickets.

“But we are friends!” Mareena declared slinging her arm around his shoulders.

“Barely.”

“You adore me!” she declared.

Terry rolled his eyes as the ticket clerk chuckled but gave them their tickets. “I’ll spring for the snacks, you get the good seats,” he ordered as they had their ticket punched and walked into the crowd.

[mobius-prime]

30. Sonic the Hedgehog #22

Previous / Table of Contents / Next

The Return

Writer: Ken Penders Pencils: Pat Spaziante Colors: Barry Grossman

This issue doesn't pull its punches. Right away, we find ourselves in the alternate future depicted in the "Sonic in Your Face" special, where Sally and Sonic are married with two children who look like tiny clones of themselves. An ordinary, sunny day is suddenly ruined by the appearance of Robotnik's giant face leering down on the happy family. Well that's relaxing!

As soon as it appears, the apparition is gone, leaving a confused and worried Sonic to try to reassure his family that it was just a "freak of nature," as if nature regularly flashes the ghosts of your defeated enemies at you on picnic days. Robotnik, meanwhile - who, as you may have figured out by now, is the same Robotnik we saw vaporized in the previous issue - is teleported up to a strange space station, where a familiar face is awaiting him…

Hey, it's ol' Robo-Robotnik! Interestingly, this doesn't appear to be the exact same Robo-Robotnik from StH #19, but rather an alternate version of him in a slightly different reality, and indeed checking the wikia lists them as two separate entities. This version of Robo-Robotnik makes no mention of having turned his enemies into cyborgs, or indeed having invaded a different zone in the past. However, the rest of his backstory remains the same, with him having roboticized himself during the final battle with the Freedom Fighters in an attempt to keep himself alive. Apparently, after Robo-Robotnik's defeat, his remains became stranded on this space station while the Freedom Fighters went on to have a happy life and rebuild society, and the station's systems are slowly winding down, with Robo-Robotnik's consciousness doomed to die with them. He's actually given up - but the appearance of the real Robotnik serves to inspire him. And with that, Robo-Robotnik is able to use the station to send Robotnik back to his own zone.

Meanwhile, back in the zone we know and love, Sonic and the rest of the Freedom Fighters are in the middle of cleaning up the mess Robotnik left behind, believing him to be dead and gone. At the same time, Snively is stuck inside Robotropolis, throwing a temper tantrum and generally very depressed that his oppressive master is gone.

Mysteriously, his words seem to set off a chain reaction, in which Robotnik's face appears on every monitor available, announcing his intentions to take a scorched-earth approach from beyond the grave, to ensure that even in death his enemies can't win. Good times! Unfortunately, the robots mean it when they say they're targeting everything, and poor Snively looks like a lost cause until…

It's almost cute, their little banter back and forth. Robotnik informs Snively that he had actually spoken the code phrase to set off the robots - "Sonic has finally won it all." Snively is mostly happy to have his old master back… and yet immediately falls back into complaining about him. Poor Snively, indeed…

Robotnik, not wanting the planet to be destroyed now that he's back to conquer it in person, opts to halt his attack on the Freedom Fighters, who are currently fighting for their lives against an entire army of swatbots. On Snively's suggestion, he then proceeds to rub his victory in their faces, doing the "be grateful I'm allowing you to live" thing that egotistical villains just love doing.

That said… this is the first time we really get to see Robotnik's dark side. After all, during most of the comic so far he's been a rather wacky figure, who merely enjoys being evil for the sake of it, polluting rivers, turning people into silly little robots, and generally being more of a nuisance than a real threat. You can see the pretty intense shift here. He not only wants to win, he wants to make sure his opponents' wills are utterly crushed in doing so. And things only get more intense from here, now that Penders has more power as a writer…

Tails' Knighttime Story!

Writer: Angelo DeCesare Pencils: Dave Manak Colors: Barry Grossman

…but first, we have to have our designated "Tails is being a silly little kid" story!

This time, Tails refuses to settle down for bed, instead preferring to zoom around his room pretending to be Sonic. Sally, when Tails declares that he hates being left behind on important missions, decides to tell him a fable, inventing medieval characters based on the Freedom Fighters, including "Sir Runalot" the hero, "Mortail" his loyal page, and the evil "Sir Knightmare of Robotannia." One day, while Sir Runalot is out on vacation, Mortail decides to try on his full-body blue armor, and is thus mistaken for the real Sir Runalot by medieval versions of Sally and Uncle Chuck, who want him to defeat Sir Knightmare, who is invading on a stick horse. Of course, all of this goes as well as you'd expect.

At the last second, Sir Runalot returns to save Mortail, who has learned a valuable lesson about how hard being a hero can be. And surely, thanks to this fable, the real Tails has as well! Right?

[ohallows]

okay i rant enough about kon and tim buttttttttt time for me to rant about bart allen because he literally has been completely ignored by everyone considering n52 bart WASNT ACTUALLY BART!!! anyway!!!

okay. this is going to get Angry

what bothers me the MOST right now is that barry and bruce are literally going into flashpoint and talking to people from flashpoint and you know what happened in flashpoint??? KID FLASH LOST HAPPENED YEAH. THATS RIGHT. bart /gave himself up/ to the speedforce to help his grandpa barry and basically? died? again? just so that barry could make it through and save everyone…… basically if there isn’t some reference to bart in the comics i’m going to be pissed (lmao there won’t be a reference catch me outside DCs offices with fuckin lighter fluid)

(side note: barry literally lost BOTH WALLY AND BART IN FLASHPOINT HE LOST HIS (BASICALLY) SON AND GRANDSON FUCK /THAT/ AND HE ALSO LOST HIS K I D S BYE AND NO ONE IS SAYING SHIT?)

another thing!!! why tf doesn’t wally remember bart like bart was his kid flash he was the first to meet bart from the future like sure max mercury was p integral but like!! wally loved him too and sure he didn’t take bart in but bart was damn important to him they loved each other and were family literally fuck anyone who says otherwise. also GUESS WHAT one of my fave comic panels of all time is jay garrick patting teeny little bart on the shoulder and looking like such a grandpa anyway. SO BASICALLY IF WE’RE GETTING THE JSA BACK (+JAY AND JOAN BY ASSOCIATION) and neither they nor wally (also where the fuck is max bring him back like he’ll outwardly be like ‘GOOD RIDDANCE TBH THAT KID WAS TOO MUCH™ but internally he would kill someone to protect bart) mention bart i’m gonna kill someone

WHY IS DC MISSING THE BALL IN SO MANY PLACES. we literally were giftED, GIFTED!!! with an /entire/ comic in which wally talked to superman about how they were BOTH FROM THE POST-CRISIS UNIVERSE!!! BOTH OF THEM!!! and yet we got nothing from superman like “hey that’s weird i remember one more little speedster in your family, super hyperactive, BEST FRIEND OF ONE OF MY CLONES WHO WAS KINDA ALSO MY SON/LITTLE BROTHER IT WAS NEVER REALLY CLEAR��� like jesus!! i know they’re both still missing stuff but DAMN how convenient that BOTH of them don’t seem to remember kids who were relatively integral to their lives and development as characters!!! wow!!! dc does it again!!!

i love how dc consistently ruined everyone’s characterization with the n52 but the people who had theirs ruined the most (bart, kon, tim, roy, steph, etc. etc. etc.) aren’t really getting any redemption (an argument could be made by way of roy but like………. not really they just aren’t talking about it) aren’t getting ANYTHING to fix it and like i get it, writing comics is a process and i probably couldn’t do it but like…. jesus fuck if i don’t get something soon i’m going to scream like these are my freaking KIDS the core four saved my life and ??? here i am???? waiting for them to show up again???

basically i’m tired of dc ignoring the kids. like what? we have jon kent, damian, and wally? does kaldur count as a kid? the rest of the fucking teen titans are GROWN UP (kori, raven, etc) - also i feel like im missing someone i think but like you get my point! - one of my biggest issues with marvel is that everyone is a fuckig adult and all the stories (really) focus on the adults - with some exceptions (ya, spider-man, america (kinda)) but like! pre52 dc imo was amazing because there were SO MANY ISSUES about kids and teens! teen titans. blue beetle. the robin series. young justice. the superboy series. the impulse series. so many so so many issues of teen titans that talk about the struggles of being a teen and being a kid superhero and just dealing with unrealistic expectations FUCK I LOVED OLD DC!!!! and that’s all just fuckig GONE with new52 and rebirth like what. we have supersons? teen titans? that’s fucking it lads that’s basically it (i don’t count supergirl for Reasons)… like jesus…. give me my fuckig kids back dc

this sidetracked….

okay. i get it. bart’s a relatively unimportant character in the scheme of things. guess what??? so are a lot of people and they’re getting fucking screen time (no offense to clayface bc he’s wonderful in dc but like… seriously?) if dc has the time and effort to start giving space to random villains and heroes, maybe they could dedicate a little time to RE-ESTABLISHING CHARACTERS WHO WERE COMPLETELY BUTCHERED IN THE N52 AND GENUINELY DESERVE BETTER.

tl;dr, @dc meet me in a denny’s parking lot i’m literally ready to fight all of you (except geoff johns and scott snyder. probably. tom king and tim seeley and brett booth and scott lobdell are getting extra beat up

[firecoloredwater]

With Mercy: "Visits would also be... dangerous, now" to "there were any number of solutions".

“Visits would also be… dangerous, now.  Lucrezia has learned to imitate her much better.”  Damn her, for all of this.  If Lucrezia hadn’t had a daughter there wouldn’t be any Heterodyne for the jägers to rebel for; if she hadn’t killed Bill and Barry, the jägers would have other Heterodynes to cling to and not be so protective of this one.

—hm.  Actually, another Heterodyne would be fairly easy to make.  That circus woman’s body was still in Klaus’s lab, both perfectly healthy and completely brainless; he’d never gotten around to cleaning it out, but it would be useful for this.  Gilgamesh… no, Gilgamesh would be far too sentimental about a child, and any other potential father couldn’t be trusted, any family would try to use the political influence of a Heterodyne connection.  It would have to be a clone, then; more difficult, but certainly not unheard of.

“Hyu haff thot of sumting?” Goomblast asked.  Something snuck past the control he had over his voice for the first time in the conversation: hope.

“…Perhaps.  I will need to talk to her.”  It would be very easy to claim a Heterodyne child had been the girl’s idea.  The jägers wouldn’t doubt it; it was the sort of thing Bill would have done, if he realized he was dying.  Give them someone else to attach to, continue the family so that Mechanicsburg at least stayed in one place and somewhat restrained.

It would complicate things, of course, should the girl’s mind be intact once Lucrezia was removed.  If it ever happened.  But there were psychological studies on false memories; with drugs and repetition, it should be easy to convince her she’d agreed to it, and if not, that Lucrezia had suggested it while successfully pretending to be the girl.  (Not at all unlikely, in fact; Lucrezia had been successfully acting as the girl for a few months now, and would likely want a granddaughter to possess.  Klaus would have to make sure the girl was kept safe, as well.)  So long as the girl believed it was her idea, or believed it was Lucrezia’s and agreed to claim it was hers before she was released, it would work.  Or he could simply claim that her mind wasn’t quite intact and she’d forgotten about agreeing to it… there were any number of solutions.

Oh goody, the section where Klaus is the worst person ever!

Okay, so there are a couple things about Klaus.

The first is that I think he’s a bit of a control freak.  If he feels threatened, or feels that Gil (or, presumably, any of “his” people) is threatened, his immediate solution is to take control.  He does this when he conquers Europa and he does this when he orders Agatha and Adam and Lilith sedated and imprisoned on Castle Wulfenbach and he does it when he orders Gil to bring Agatha back as a prisoner.  There is a threat, and maybe Klaus would prefer a peaceful solution, but that’s the second step.  The first step is to make sure he has complete and total power over the situation/people, and then he can offer a peaceful solution, and deal with them if they refuse.  But first he needs total control, so that there is no risk of anything happening that he doesn’t like.

“No risks” is the second thing.  I’m sure he was willing to once, he was an adventurer with Bill and Barry after all, but not now.  Not with Gil, not with anything necessary to Gil’s safety, and that includes both the empire and himself.  (Or he’s just become risk-averse in general, possibly out of habit.)

The third is that he is terrified of Lucrezia.  Not even the Other, although the Other certainly scares him, but I figure (for this fic’s purposes; the other two things I tend to keep pretty consistent, but this one I don’t really use in my other fics) that the whole incident with Lucrezia drugging him and sending him to Skifander was actually pretty traumatic for him, and he’s not at all rational about any threat that Lucrezia is involved in or connected to.

As a result of all of this, Klaus is not going to believe that Lucrezia is gone.  It doesn’t matter that all the evidence says she’s gone, it doesn’t matter that he can’t find any sign of her, he knows she must still be there.  (Some of this certainty is also because he used information from Tarvek, but honestly his conviction that Tarvek is evil and untrustworthy is also mostly because Tarvek is connected to Lucrezia, so it’s just more indirect.)

However, he knows that no one else will “know how dangerous Lucrezia really is.”  If he let Gil or anyone else be involved, they’d believe that Agatha is in control and believe that she knows (can know) that Lucrezia is gone from her own mind.  (They would believe this because it’s true.)  So no one else can be allowed to interact with “Lucrezia” in any way, because she’ll probably trick them into helping her.

Klaus isn’t too worried about Gil trying to get to Agatha (well, he’s worried Gil might try, but he’s confident in his ability to keep Gil busy and Agatha hidden), but he’s worried about the jagers staging a rebellion if he keeps Agatha totally hidden too long, or if he tells them she’s dead (since that would, after all, imply that he killed her).  He’s pretty sure the rest of his military can beat the jagers, but in the meantime there would be a lot of destruction, the empire might be weakened, Gil might be in danger, and most terrifyingly, a jager could get to where Klaus is keeping Agatha and free her.  So he needs to keep the jagers occupied somehow.

Initially he was keeping them busy going after the geisterdamen, as a temporary measure when he thought he could, potentially, have Lucrezia removed from Agatha’s head relatively quickly.  And he succeeded!  But didn’t trust it.  And now he never will because he can’t find proof that Lucrezia has been removed because she’s already gone.  He still wants to try to remove Lucrezia, but now he expects it to take a long time and probably kill Agatha or at least seriously damage her mind in the process (assuming, he thinks, that her mind isn’t already destroyed by the first process he did).

So now he needs a longer term solution, and, well, the only thing that might sufficiently distract jagers from “give us our Heterodyne” is another Heterodyne, so Klaus is going to give them one.  The fact that this is entirely unethical on every possible level?  Might I remind everyone of the brain coring?  And that was just for the sake of his (admittedly sparky) curiosity, not Saving The World And Especially His Son From Lucrezia Mongfish.

So now he’s going to use Olga’s brainless-but-revivified body as a surrogate womb (no need to invent one and worry about side effects), and make a clone of Agatha.  He briefly considered making a Gil/Agatha child rather than a clone (Gil… may or may not have been informed what Klaus wanted his DNA for before the child was born had he gone with that plan) but he doesn’t want Gil attached to another Heterodyne, so no sons for Gil.

And then, since he’s still considering that he might save Agatha, he’s also going to make plans to brainwash her so that she believes that making a clone was something she asked him to do, or failing that (but he’s pretty sure he could do it) to believe that it’s something Lucrezia suggested, and that it would be best for everyone for Agatha to claim it was her idea.  Because the jagers would, again, revolt if they knew he did this to their Heterodyne.

(And of course the baby Heterodyne is going to be raised in the school with the other hostages, that goes without saying, but honestly Klaus is not planning to threaten her to keep the jagers in line.  He just wants her there so that he’s raised with non-Mechanicsburg morals, he figures her existence will be enough to keep the jagers happy enough to not rebel.  He is, to be fair, probably correct about most jagers.)

You know that quote about “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”?  Klaus built an industrial road-paver, and is chasing it in a sports car.

[sueboohscorner]

#Gotham S3 Ep. 16 "These Delicate and Dark Obsessions" Spoilers, Recap, and Review

Alrighty, nerds and geeks alike, let’s get back to Gotham. The sixteenth episode of the third season is titled ‘These Delicate and Dark Obsessions’, and it was directed by Jim Gordon himself, Ben McKenzie; a fantastic episode given direction by a fantastic actor in my opinion. We got the Court, we got Bruce, we got a guy called the Shaman, a Gordon family dispute, goons, mazes, and a strange partnership between Poison Ivy and Penguin! Let’s get started.

We are informed by the Court about the apparent and poor status of Gotham and the Court of Owls has so graciously taken it upon themselves to obtain some sort of super weapon to destroy the city. Oh, and since the Court does not seem too worried about the real Bruce Wayne (David Mazouz), there’s no reason we should worry about him, right?

Now, the last time we saw Bruce, his clone had sedated him in order to carry out the Court’s plan. And once again, the Court took it upon themselves to take the real Bruce to some unknown location. He just wakes up inside some sort of temple cell overlooking a snowy, mountainous area. Isn’t the Court of Owls just so freaking nice?

 We quickly find out that Bruce is not alone when he comes to. The Shaman (Raymond J. Barry) informs Bruce that he has been waiting for him for a long time…..kinda creepy but at the same time, kinda cool and stoic.

 Let’s get back to Gotham and see what’s going on there. During Oswald’s “absence”, Aubrey James has been reinstated in office…..yay. Jim is investigating in his father’s murder case; a supposed “car accident”. The man that was apparently drunk while driving and who killed Jim’s father had a chronic persistent hepatitis.

 I’ll say that again: The driver who killed Jim’s father was diagnosed with chronic persistent hepatitis.

If some of you readers notice something wrong with that police report, don’t worry, so did Harvey Bullock (Donal Logue). Anyone who has chronic persistent hepatitis, or “the Irish Curse”, they are unable to drink. So much as a tongue dip could kill anyone with it. Jim takes Harvey’s alcoholic trivia and figures out that the man who killed his father was never drunk and that he had to believe his uncle Frank’s (James Remar) words.

Jim decided to have another chat with Frank. He admits that there is a weapon that the Court plans on using on Gotham City, although he has no idea what the weapon is exactly; but he does know who paid the lawyer of the supposed drunk driver: Carmine Falcone (John Doman). Dun dun DUN!!!

 Let’s take a breather from all that for a minute and get to the hijinks!

We cut to see Ivy Pepper (Maggie Geha) wheel in a newly revived Oswald Cobblepot (Robin Lord Taylor) into her greenhouse to give him some fresh air and to show him her friends. By friends, I mean plants. A lot of plants. Remember she’s not Poison Ivy just yet, she’s just making her way. But hey, I think it’s cool that Ivy is good to her plants and that she’s close to them. Sometimes real friends or real people can be mean, plain and simple. She’s found her knack in life and more power to her, I say!

 Instead of being grateful to Ivy for saving his life, Oswald decides to be a bit of a prick about her friendly, naïve, and enthusiastic nature. Although, I’d be mad too if I lost my political status, both in a mayoral sense and in the criminal underworld and if I was shot point plank and left for dead by someone I loved. But that’s no excuse for turning away an herbal beverage when it’s offered.

 We all know that Penguin wouldn’t be Penguin if he didn’t have some sort of plan any time of the day, and Oswald aggressively expresses his need for his newest plan: Get an army of loyal goons and thugs and kill Edward and Barbara Kean. Simple, yet effective. He urges for Ivy to call in Oswald’s most dumbest and loyal follower Gabe so his plan will be properly and quickly executed

Gabe is so happy and excited to see that his old boss didn’t bite the big one! However, Ivy feels very distrustful towards Gabe. Oswald’s frustration comes to its end when he decides to give her the brush off, in a very prickish manner I might add. Ivy legitimately feels hurt and states that she thought they were friends. To which Penguin scoffs and tells her,

“You’re a bit of a freak.”

I don’t know about you, but the words “weird” or “freak” kind of trigger me. Much like several people in Gotham City, I am learning to own up to it and make it sort of my own; but you know, words still hurt. Oswald, I love you, but damn dude!    

Understandably, Ivy leaves in a huff. Gabe inquires to Oswald if she didn’t trust him. Oz shrugs it off but is abruptly bopped in the head by Gabe. Turns out, Ivy was right.

Back to Bruce, he is confronted by the Shaman. He presents Bruce with a set of what look like acupuncture needles with strange symbols on each end. Bruce is hesitant when the Shaman pokes Bruce’s forehead. His eyes turn white, he gasps as this transcendent force runs through his mind.

In a flash, Bruce looks around to see that he’s not in the cell anymore. He’s back in Gotham City. A look of dread washes over his face when Bruce realizes that what he’s seeing is not happening in real time.

Bruce is standing, watching the memory of a lone thug shoot his parents in an alleyway.

Bruce is revived back into the present completely shocked and dumbfounded by what he saw. The Shaman tells Bruce to rest for he will come back and try again.

As we resume the story through Gordon’s perspective, we see him confront Carmine Falcone in his home about his father’s death. He demands the name of the person who ordered the hit in the first place. Falcone is a bit miffed to see Jim, to say the least. After all, he did murder his son on his wedding day; but he gives up the name anyway: Frank Gordon.

It’s Frank’s turn to be confronted by Jim. Frank admits that he was the one who initiated the hit on his own brother, Peter because he was planning on exposing the Court of Owls. Now, anyone in this situation would want to just beat up Frank right there on the spot, but not Jim. Above many things, Jim is a cop. He tries to put Frank under arrest, but Frank reluctantly puts Jim in his place, revealing where the weapon of the Court will be. Jim and Harvey realize that neither they nor the GCPD can just go down to where the weapon is without bringing too much attention to themselves from the Court.

So…..Jim has to ask for help.       

 The new Barbara Queen of Gotham (Erin Richards) happy agrees to assist Jim. She and Tabitha (Jessica Lucas) play a good round of punchies while interrogating one of the workers who work where the weapon is supposed to arrive: Dock 19. The worker admits that the weapon has already been shipped in. He gestures to a large crate labeled:

Indian Hill

But before anyone can do anything else, a single Talon appears with a sword and, at the risk of sounding like a kid being impressed by a cool assassin with a cool sword taking on a bunch of guys with guns, he was all *WHOOSH* *SWING* *JUMP* *STAB* and it was totally awesome!!!! When the Talon took out all of the guys with guns, Barbara and Tabitha make a break for it and get out of there.

 Meanwhile, the Court of Owls let Frank know that they are aware of Jim’s actions about investigating in his father’s murder and order Frank to kill him.

Ivy, along with Oswald gets captured and restrained by Gabe and a few of his goon friends. While he’s reeling over the betrayal, Ivy remains cool as a cucumber because she just so happens to be wearing her special perfume. She gets one of the guys to come over and take a whiff, putting him under her complete control. She orders him to shoot and kill everyone but Gabe and untie them.

Ivy holds Gabe at gunpoint as Oswald considers reenlisting him. He tells Ivy to use her perfume to make Gabe tell the truth. Even though Gabe said he would go back to Penguin and be completely loyal, Ivy’s perfume made him sing. Gabe reveals that he never intended to remain loyal to Oswald and that the only reason that he and other would follow him was because they all feared him.

They feared him, but they never respected him.

Gabe also says that he always saw Oswald for who he really was: just a weak umbrella boy. A freak.

Needless to say, reminding Oswald of his past that way did not set well. In his anger, he kills and hacks Gabe with a gardening tool.

Now left with no men, no goons, Oswald is back to step one. He still needs an army to kill Edward and Barbara. Ivy gets a bright idea to recruit an army of freaks from Indian Hill that were driven out of Gotham.

Jim and Frank confront each other once again. He tells Jim that he has orders to kill Jim since he could not persuade him to join the Court. Frank finally fesses up and tells Jim that he need to join in order to finish what he and Peter wanted to do from the beginning: take the Court down. For extra insurance for Jim’s sake, Frank shoots himself in the head, making it look like Jim killed him in rage over his father’s death.

Back in the cell, the Shaman makes Bruce relive his parent’s murder. The Shaman inquires that Bruce has never let go of the pain of that night, and that he needs to in order to become something bigger: a protector. He needs Bruce to become a symbol in Gotham so that it can be reborn.

For a Batman fan, like myself, this is where I was squeeing and flipping out going “He means Batman! He means Batman!”

The last scene that we see is Jim Gordon visiting his father’s grave when he receives a phone call from Kathryn (Leslie Hendrix). Gordon does what his uncle asked of him when got the call. He made it seem like Jim killed Frank in an act of revenge for his father and he asks to meet her and the Court. Jim turns to the side and he sees a limousine waiting for him.

I can’t express how great this episode was and I give major applause to Ben McKenzie for his directing skills as well as his acting. Bravo!

Things I liked:

The dynamic and partnership between Jim and Harvey.

The newfound team and relationship between Ivy and Penguin.

The chance to see Bruce take his steps in becoming “a protector” for Gotham. I never really wanted to see Bruce become Batman when I first heard about this show, but it is evident that the people working on Gotham have a specific plan for Bruce and I love seeing that plan come to life.

James Remar and Raymond J. Barry. That’s it. They’re frigging awesome.

Loved seeing some Penguin rage.

Love what Maggie Geha is doing with Ivy Pepper. She may have aged, but she still kind of has that child mentality and maturity in her mannerisms. And yet she keeps the appearance of a street-wise woman. I’d like to think that if Ivy was still a kid and she went about in the same manner, no one would take her seriously or even look her way. But even though she still is somewhat a kid, since she has the body of a grown woman, Ivy will feel more heard.

Things I did not like:

Even though I agree Gabe got what was coming to him, I’m going to miss that lug.

8/10 for the sixteenth episode of the third season.

And as always, stay weird!