#bruce wants to prove that gotham is a great city so he saves a woman who wants to give up & then decides to make her a star

[batbabydaily]

detective comics #53: viola vane

[youcalledsworld]

Danny Phantom across the Multiverse

Vlad never learns and like always left his 17 year old nemesis to clean up his mess. So what did Vlad do? He opened the sarcophagus of forever sleep again.

At least he didn't do it for ultimate power again. No he did it because he was desperate, because the Observants finally wanted to lock him up for opening the sarcophagus the first time and releasing Vortex.

So Vlad ran but he didn't want to run forever so he thought he could gain favor from Pariah by releasing him. But that didn't work he just ended up swapping imprisonment for 3000 years for ceasing to exist.

This led to Danny fighting Pariah again, this time without the ecto-skeleton. It was a fierce battle that had the Infinite Realms shaking, the effects of it could be felt in every dimension.

Battered and bruised Danny stood infront Pariah Dark ready to finally end the fight. He crushed Parish's core, but while the old King was fading he didn't want Danny to feel victorious. So he opened up numerous portals behind the halfa that was beginning to suck him in.

While Danny was fighting against the portals with the last of Pariah strength he blasted Danny where his core was and it split into 10 pieces and Danny's energy and body was sucked into them when all but one piece was sucked into the portal.

Clockwork made sure to save one piece so that his grandson could make it back to him and his family.

Once the pieces were spat out the other end of the portals in different dimensions, 9 different Danny's emerged from the pieces.

One Danny found himself stumbling into a Camp that had the campers wearing orange coloured shirts and running around with swords and other kind of weapons. They welcomed him into the camp and helped him recover. He spent 2 years training, questing and trying to find his way back home. Sadly Danny lost his life in the war against the Titans to save his fellow campers.

When he died his core went back to the piece that was being held in Clockworks lair

Another found himself on an island that had dinosaurs and two giant Viking warrior friends fighting to prove who had caught the bigger fish. When they weren't fighting they were training Danny. Sadly he had to leave them in order to find a way home, so he left with a small pirate crew that was led by a man with a straw hat. They had many adventures, they laughed and cried, fought in many battles, fought against the world government and completed their dreams all except Danny who instead of making it home, made one for himself and had lived long enough to meet his great grand children.

Then he passed peacefully in his sleep and made his way back to his grandfather.

Another Danny found himself in a crime ridden city called Gotham instead of helping he decided to find a way home, he knows he should help but this wasn't his dimension he needed to get home. So he started stealing from tech companies in hope to build a portal home. After a few years when he was almost done with the portal the city gained its own vigilante called Batman and he was trying to catch Danny already. The rookie vigilante was well trained but Danny found out that Batman was actually Bruce Wayne (what's with billionaires and their secret life?). Sadly Danny found out that the veil was too thick to punch a hole into the infinite realms so he gave up and became a teacher at Gotham Academy. He eventually married one of his students mothers. A wonderful woman named Paula Crock, they met by accident and got along well. They told each other about their past and decided it didn't matter. Plus she loved it when he broke her ex husband's nose arms and legs. He even punched Bruce Wayne in the face for sending his step daughter on a mission that got her sent to the hospital. Sadly he was gunned down by a criminal while he was shielding his students. On his death bed he promised Paula he would come back for her.

Clockwork promised that he would help Danny reunite with the families he made.

When Max opened his eyes he couldn't remember who he was or how he ended up on the side of the road. Thankfully the Tennyson's gave him a name and adopted him. They even helped him pursue his dream of becoming an astronaut. But thanks to a certain incident he found out he could become something more if he joined the Plumbers. Joining the Plumbers gave him the best and worst times in his life. He made friends he couldn't have met if he didn't join but he also lost friends in this line of work. He also met his ex-wife Verdona who had given him his sons. Then he remembered his past but he couldn't leave his family he made so he didn't look for a way home. His grandson then became a hero like he was when he found the Omnitrix so he trained him. Hoping he didn't make the same mistakes he did, of course Ben made mistakes but at least he was around to help him. Until he wasn't, he was on a mission until he was discovered and had to ask Ben to step up and complete it for him and he did. He was so proud of his grandson, who became a better hero than he ever was. He still helped his grandson when he could even if he didn't want his help. Then one of his grandsons enemies accidentally made a portal to the Infinite Realms and it was going haywire, so he told his grandson and great grandsons to leave so he could shut it down. The only way he could make sure it didn't destroy the world was making it implode which would suck everything in a 10 mile radius into the Infinite Realms. He said good bye to his family and allowed himself to be sucked in.

Max met his Grandfather on the other side and gave him the biggest hug he could. He asked Clockwork if his family was still alive in his original dimension. Clockwork told him that what felt like decades to him over there was only hours here. Then he went on to tell Max that other fragments of him scattered across the Multiverse and would come back when they died or like him enter a realm portal. He also told him that now he had to put the core that was in him with the other core fragments in his lair.

[distort-opia]

Did joker ever try to make batman jealous? i think that would be so funny actually, imagine him not giving batman attention and somehow giving more validation for some other herói and bruce getting so mad lmao

The only example i can think of is injustice when he messes with supes but i wish there were more

Well, Joker has gone to different cities and has fought a lot of different heroes, over time. More often than not, he goes to Metropolis, though the thing is, to my knowledge, Joker hasn’t ever done this with the express purpose of making Batman jealous. Not even his actions during Injustice: Gods Among Us were for this reason, but rather (as Injustice: Year Zero shows), it was to prove to Bruce that Clark was not the incorruptible, all-good person Bruce believed him to be. It wasn’t to make Batman jealous, it was because Joker was jealous himself.

However, this ask did make me revisit some great interactions between Joker and other heroes, and there are a couple of interesting conclusions to draw from them, regarding this subject. Bruce doesn’t always show up outside of Gotham when Joker himself does; for instance, Joker goes to Metropolis because some businessmen are ripping off his clown brand to sell toys, in Action Comics #714. But Batman doesn’t appear, and Clark deals with Joker on his own. In a similar vein, after No Man’s Land, Joker goes to Metropolis to piss off Lex Luthor (in Action Comics #765), but Bruce is once again absent. Hell, in Wonder Woman (1987) #96-97, Joker goes to Boston because there’s an ongoing gang war and he wants to make the chaos worse, fighting and getting defeated by Diana in the process... because he gets out-crazied by her. She communes with Pan, the Greek God, who teaches her how to dance the dance of chaos, and then she’s just as crazy as Joker, and able to defeat him. (God, I love comics.) Anyway, Batman doesn’t show up here either. You can either chalk it up to him not even knowing Joker changed locations, him not having the time to travel to where Joker is, or him trusting the respective hero to handle Joker themselves. Or, sometimes it’s Bruce being an asshole and knowingly letting Joker go to Metropolis to test Clark’s mettle (like in Adventures of Superman #14). 

But, when Bruce does show up, it’s “I know how Joker works, you don’t. Fuck off.” And it’s kinda funny. I’m putting the rest of these instances under the cut, as always.

Alright, Bruce doesn’t show up in person to this particular caper, but I love the fact that Clark called Alfred to make sure Bruce does not find out Joker is in Metropolis. They both freaking conspire to keep Bruce in the dark, because they know Bruce would instantly go after Joker, and he needs the rest :))

Oh yeah, this is also the issue Joker gets saved by Clark and calls himself a “fruitcake”... All-around delightful. I also recommend DC Comics Presents #72 for Clark kidnapping Joker so him and Phantom Stranger can weaponize his insanity. They team up and have crazy multi-dimensional shenanigans, it’s fun.

-- DC Comics Presents #41

Now, this next one is a story written by Morrison, in which Joker goes to the fictional Vanity City and tries to enact his mad plans there (using dancing crickets for mind control), under the hero Aztek’s nose. However, Bruce shows up this time.

-- Aztek: The Ultimate Man #6

-- Aztek: The Ultimate Man #7

Besides Bruce going “I’m gonna deal with Joker myself!”, I love the explanation he gives Aztek at the end. “He’s playing a game with me, and it goes way back.” This is why I honestly think it’d take quite a bit to make Bruce genuinely jealous. Even when Joker goes somewhere else and fights other heroes, Bruce still assumes the game Joker plays is with him (and he’s usually right).

Aaand lastly, here’s a classic instance you might’ve seen floating around, but the context of the whole thing is honestly so funny. Joker... kind of gains control of Atlantis by talking? After falling into the ocean on accident? And then Aquaman has to get his kingdom back, with Bruce hearing about all of it and managing to find him:

Again, Bruce tries to take Joker down alone and bring him back to Gotham (“Joker’s been mine for quite some time!”), but the funny part is that he does let Arthur deal with Joker first after they fight about it for a bit -- in exchange for Atlantis’ location.

-- Legends of the DC Universe #27

(Worth noting that at the end, when Joker is presumed dead, Bruce is still the one to investigate what happened with him, and discovers that Joker survived.)

Even in Adventures of Superman #14, Bruce treats Joker going to Metropolis as an ongoing game; he turns it into an opportunity to test Superman. It doesn’t occur to him that Joker might genuinely like Metropolis, or Superman, and not come back. 

-- Adventures of Superman (2013) #14

So, to sum it up... understandably, Bruce consistently assumes the things Joker does are about him, at all times. Even when Joker goes away or fights someone else, so him expressing jealousy would require some extreme actions on Joker’s part. Kind of like Injustice: Gods Among Us, although even then... personally I read “This has always been about us. Why did you do this to him?” as despair, not jealousy. It’s Bruce saying “I’ve always been the one to sacrifice myself to contain your madness, why would you go and destroy someone else? Why wasn’t it enough? Why did you ruin him, someone good, someone entirely unlike me?” (Bruce does not believe the best of himself, that has to be kept in mind, I feel.)

Anyway, hope the rant was enjoyable, Anon! I entirely agree it’d be such an interesting story -- having Joker genuinely try to focus on someone else, break away from Batman and Gotham... Sadly it hasn’t been attempted, at least not to my knowledge. I am very curious how Bruce would react.

[ragingbookdragon]

Friends To Arranged Marriage To...Wait, How Many Kids?

Bruce Wayne x Reader One-Shot

Word Count: 3K Warnings: Explicit Language

Author's Note: Y'all ever write a self-indulgent Friends To Lovers fic? 'Cause that's what this is. Enjoy! -Thorne

It wasn’t unusual for her to suddenly appear in his office. She did it most days. Okay, it was more like every day but that’s not important. The fact is, she showed up and he wasn’t at all the least bit surprised when she barged through the office door and slammed it behind her.

“Morning,” he murmured, taking his eyes off the screen but a moment to lock them with hers.

“Good morning, Bruce,” she responded with a polite smile. “We need to talk.”

That wasn’t unusual either. When she came to the office it was because she wanted to either complain about something going on or because she was bored and didn’t have anything to do, so badgering her best friend seemed like the best option. It wasn’t, but he wasn’t going to tell her that.

“What do we need to talk about?” Bruce questioned, clicking at the mouse until his screen loaded.

“Something important. Something especially important.” She replied and with one hand reached behind her and flipped the lock on his door.

Now that was unusual. And Bruce saw this going one of two ways and he hoped it wasn’t the first way that involved her pulling a gun.

“Okay,” he said and watched her out of the corner of his eye as waltzed around his desk and perched herself on the corner. “Am I in trouble, (Y/N)?”

“If you disagree with me, you will be,” she retorted and she started fumbling in her tote.

“You sound serious,” Bruce noted.

(Y/N) harrumphed. “I am quite possibly the most serious I’ve been in years.” She pulled out three manila folders and handed them to him, watching as he opened the first and started reading through it.

He didn’t say anything as he opened the others and read them but frowned when he set them aside and went back to his computer.

“I’ve already planned on a new secretary, (Y/N).”

She watched him with careful eyes and explained, “Those aren’t secretary files, Bruce. They’re marriage candidates.”

At that, his entire body went rigid and ever so slowly he drew his gaze from the screen back to her, staring her straight in the eyes.

“I…beg your pardon?” he asked as if not understanding what she’d just said.

(Y/N) rolled her eyes and picked up the files. “Each of these women are successful elites from either Metropolis, Star, or Central City. You have arranged marriage meetings with them Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday to decide which one you want to marry.”

This was happening way too fast, and he still didn’t know what “this” was.

“I’m not opposed to marriage, (Y/N), but why?”

She pointed to the picture on his desk, and he briefly glanced at it. Him, Dick, and Alfred on Christmas morning last year.

“Dick needs a mother.” She was never one to mince her words. “A father can raise a son, but the boy needs a mother’s love too, Bruce.”

“I think you’re a bit out of line here.” He remarked, brows pulling together. “We’re fine at the manor.”

“Bruce…please don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re not a soft man. You’re hard edges and firmness, and while that isn’t a bad thing, Dick needs a mother who can be the parent that isn’t firm. He needs a mother’s guiding hand.”

She handed him the files again. “I’ve met each of these women. They’re good women who will make wonderful wives and even better mothers.” She stared at him. “You should know how important it is for a boy to have a mother.”

Bruce was on his feet in an instant, in front of her, eyes narrowed into a glare as he bit out, “(Y/N), now you’re out of line.”

“Really?” she challenged, not at all threatened by his towering figure. “Look my in the eye and tell me which parent you miss more. Thomas…or Martha?”

“I miss both of my parents. Every day.”

“And I don’t doubt that. But I know you miss Martha the most. Isn’t she the one you promised to save Gotham for?” (Y/N) questioned and his mouth snapped shut, jaw clenching tightly as he averted his eyes because he knew she was right.

She reached out and rested a hand on his forearm, forcing his eyes to hers once more; her gaze softened and she murmured, “You miss your mother more than the world, Bruce. How do you think Dick feels every night when he goes to sleep? Fathers are the protectors for their children, but mothers are the comforters—there are going to be things that you can’t help him with, but a woman can.”

(Y/N) gazed at him and pulled her hand away. “At least go and meet them,” she requested and when he didn’t say anything, she sighed and picked up her tote, making her way to the door.

She flipped the lock and paused, glancing over her shoulder to say, “At least think about what I’ve said, Bruce. For Dick…and for you.” He met her eyes and she added, “I think getting married would be good for you too.”

He nodded, and since that was all they could hope for, she left the office and Bruce collapsed into his chair, turning around to stare out the window.

***

His theory that she would show up Friday evening proved true when she waltzed into his office and took a seat in one of the leather chairs in front of his desk, delicately crossing one of her legs over the other.

“How’d the interviews go?” she asked, not even bothering to ask him how his day was or how his week had been.

“My day was great, (Y/N), thanks for asking,” he mocked with a glare and she waved it off.

“Interviews, Bruce. How’d they go.”

He let out a sigh. “They went well. Each of them was polite and kind.”

“And?” (Y/N) gestured for him to continue.

“And nothing. That’s it.”

She huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. “Seriously? You just met them for a singular purpose and all you’ve got it, they’re polite and kind?” She glared at him. “What’d you talk about?”

Bruce sighed again and reclined in his office chair. “Humanitarian works, college days, high society—you know, the usual.”

(Y/N) gave him an unamused look. “Did any ask for a second date?”

“All of them in fact.”

“Did you agree?”

“No.”

Her head lolled back, and she glared at the ceiling. “Did you even think about what I talked about a few days ago?”

“I still am.”

“Then why didn’t you agree to see one of them again?”

“Because there wasn’t anything we had in common.”

“Most people who have arranged marriages don’t, Bruce. That’s why you go on dates and get to know them.” Her eyes were still on the ceiling. “What’s the real reason you said no?” She always knew when he’d lied to her.

After a moment, he murmured, “…I didn’t think any of them would be suitable to be Dick’s adoptive mother.”

“I guess that’s…fair,” she agreed and they both fell silent.

A couple minutes later, he said, “I’ve been thinking about what you said though, (Y/N). About finding a wife who would be a good mother for Dick.”

“Uh huh.”

“I think you’re right. I do offer Dick everything a father could. Support, protection, guidance…but he is missing that love only a mother can give a son.”

“And how’s that making you feel?” she questioned softly.

His voice got quiet. “Like how I was when I was growing up without mother. (Y/N), I…I don’t want Dick to feel that way.”

At that, she drew her gaze from the ceiling to his eyes and she reasoned, “Then I think you should call one of the girls back and agree to a second date. You won’t find perfection in one day, even with how intuitive you are.”

Bruce shrugged. “I just want to find someone closer to Gotham. Someone who is familiar with us already.”

(Y/N) grunted. “I purposely moved away from Gotham because no one is.”

“That’s fair,” Bruce chuckled, and they fell into a silence again.

Suddenly, a thought flashed across her mind and she sat up. “Us.” She blurted out and he looked at her.

“What?”

(Y/N) gestured between them. “Us, Bruce. You and me.”

“I don’t follow,” he replied with a confused expression and she huffed, rolling her eyes.

“You’re an idiot,” she griped, then she stood and planted her hands on his desk, leaning over to get in his face. “You and I are the closest to Gotham as you’ll get, and I’m familiar with you and Dick.” She smiled. “Marry me.”

She could count on one hand how many times she’d ever stunned her best friend silent and that was number two because his jaw went slack and his eyebrows shot up to his hairline, steel blue eyes wide.

(Y/N) frowned. “Oh, come on, you can’t tell me the thought didn’t cross your mind at least once.” Silence. “Oh my God, are you serious? You didn’t even think about it at all? Like ever?”

He shook his head, mouth still hanging open.

“Oh, for God’s sakes, close your mouth and wipe that stupid look off your face. It’s not a completely inconceivable idea, you moron.” (Y/N) held a hand up, counting off her fingers, “I’m of acceptable status, I dress well, I’m thoroughly educated, I do humanitarian work all over the world, I love your son, and I’m probably the one woman that doesn’t make you wanna stab yourself in the eye with a fork.”

She grinned at him. “You’re not going to find anyone better than me here in Gotham, Brucie-boy. Besides, I think (Y/N) Wayne has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?”

Finally, he managed to make himself speak and he blurted out, “I stopped thinking like five minutes ago. I’m not even sure how to do that anymore.”

(Y/N) pulled a face and griped, “You’re an idiot.”

“I am not,” he retorted with a glare. “You can’t just propose to your best friend out of the blue and expect them to function like it’s normal!”

“You’re Batman,” she whispered. “Figure it out.” (Y/N) pointed at him. “There’s another plus on my side! I already know your deepest secrets! See, aren’t I a catch?”

“Was this your plan all along?” Bruce suddenly questioned and she gaped at him for a second before shaking her head.

“…No.”

“(Y/N),” he drawled, and she sighed.

“Alright, it crossed my mind a couple times but that’s why I started with the other women first. I was kinda hoping you’d pick one of them.” (Y/N) looked at him. “I really don’t see anything wrong with us getting married though. We’ve been friends since we were babies, we have a lot of the same interests, and we both care for Dick.”

She shrugged. “I mean we might not be in love, but our marriage doesn’t have to be. We’re stepping up for a greater good. For a young boy who deserves to have two parents.” (Y/N) reached out and held out her hand. “So? What do you say?”

Bruce gazed at her for a long time, longer than she was comfortable with because she knew he was mentally pulling her mind apart. After a few moments he stood and walked around the desk to stand in front of her.

She pulled her hand back in and gave a curious look. “Bruce?” His hands gently took hold of her cheeks and he leaned forward, even as her eyes went wide and she whispered, “Bruce, what—”

He softly brushed his lips against hers and (Y/N) all but melted against him, her hands pressed flat against his chest. They pulled away a moment later and he rested his forehead to hers.

“I think we can make it work, (Y/N).”

She couldn’t fight the giddy smile that came over her face. “Yeah?”

Bruce matched her smile. “Yeah.”

***

“So, you’re tellin’ me,” he started dubiously, looking at him. “That you and Ma only got together because you guys wanted to make sure Golden-boy had two parents instead of just you?”

Bruce didn’t even take his eyes off the screen as he responded absentmindedly, “That pretty much covers it.”

Jason threw his hands in the air. “There’s no way! There’s no way that shit was arranged! You two make googly eyes at one another when you think no one is watching and you kiss Ma before you go to work every day!” he looked at his brothers. “Y’all know what I’m sayin’ right?”

Tim nodded. “Jay’s got a point, dad. For an arranged marriage, the two of you are really in love.”

Dick placed a hand over his heart and smugly admitted, “You’re welcome everyone, for bringing mom and dad together in real love.”

A chorus of “Fuck you’s” echoed from Jason and Tim, and Damian placed his hands on his hips.

“When did you know you loved Umi, Father?”

Finally, he pulled his gaze from the Batcomputer, and even behind his cowl, they could see the love he had in his eyes and in his voice as he said, “Your mother and I dated for a year before we married, but the night of our wedding, we spent it at the manor and Dick crawled into our bed and spent the night wrapped in our arms.”

Bruce smiled. “I woke up early that morning and saw him curled in (Y/N)’s arms and all I could think was that I’d never loved a woman more than that moment then.” His eyes shifted to all of his sons. “And I’ve only fallen deeper in love with her with each of you that’s come into our home. You make us better parents every day and I wouldn’t change what I was given for anything in the world.”

He barely had time to breathe before all four of his sons were crashing into him, squeezing him as tears spilled down their cheeks.

Bruce huffed a quiet laugh and took a moment to brush a hand through each of his sons’ hair. “I love you, boys.”

A chorus of “I love you too’s” came back at him and before anyone could speak, they heard someone coo, “Aww, that’s so sweet!”

They spun around to see (Y/N) with her phone out, a mile-wide smile on her face, eyes shining with tears.

“Ma…what are you doing?” Jason questioned and she clicked something on her phone.

“Oh, nothing, my sweet boy,” she smiled, and all of her sons started pulling away from Bruce.

“Did you just record that?” Tim asked and she took a step back.

“I would never!” and she stared them down for a split second before spinning on her heel and hauling off towards the stairs. Her sons sprinted after her and she let out a squeal as she skipped the steps two at a time to get away from them.

“Ma come back here!” Jason shouted.

“Umi! Our dignity is on that phone!”

“I dunno, I think it’s sweet!”

“It’s not going to be sweet when she sends it to the group chat that every superhero is in, Dick! We have reputations!”

“Oh…that’s a good point, Tim. Mom! Come back here!”

(Y/N) gasped as someone’s arms wrapped around her waist and she came face to face with Bruce—well, Batman, and she yelped when he pulled her phone out of her pocket.

“Bruuuuuuce!” she whined. “Please don’t delete it!” (Y/N) reached for the phone and he held it out of reach. “Darling, my sweet darling, Bruce, please,” she plead. “If you love your wife and mother of your children, you won’t do that.”

His gaze darted to hers and she pouted, sticking her bottom lip out in the way that she knew he’d crack. “Please, my heart. Let me have a reminder of my beautiful boys.”

“You won’t send it to the chats?” he asked, and she crossed a finger over her heart.

“Cross my heart, darling.” He handed her back the phone and she smiled, leaning up to peck the corner of his mouth. “Thank you, Bruce.”

He cupped her cheek with his gloved hand, thumb brushing over her cheekbone and he pulled her into a real kiss, ignoring the exaggerated gags behind him.

“I love you,” he murmured as he pulled away from her lips. “More than you know.”

(Y/N) hummed, her eyes still closed, and she whispered, “You might love me more, but I love you most.” She opened her eyes and gazed at him. “All my boys.”

Suddenly, her phone started dinging like crazy and he stared at her, his Batman voice coming out as he surmised, “You sent it to the chat, didn’t you?”

She gave him an innocent smile and giggled, “I might’ve.”

“You’re going to pay for all the teasing that Hal and Barry are going to give me, (Y/N) Wayne,” he warned, and she scoffed.

“Oh, boo hoo, I’m so scared of what the big bad Bat is go—” a gasp escaped her when he hauled her up against his body and she stared at him with wide eyes.

A siren went off down in the cave and he looked towards the boys. “Go.” They all hurried off, complaining about the various texts they were all getting.

Bruce looked back at her, voice lowering as he growled, “After patrol I’m coming up to the bedroom and you’d better be ready, because I’m not going to stop ravishing you until you’re begging me for release.”

Something hot, tight, and fierce shot through (Y/N)’s gut and she could only flounder like a fish as he pulled her into another searing kiss before he spun on his heel and descended into the cave.

She gathered herself and called out after him, “You can’t just say something like that and then leave! That’s not fair, Bruce! Bruce, are you listening to me!”

Only his laughter echoed from below.

“Bruce!”

[invisibleanonymousmonsters]

In Times Past

Character: Bruce Wayne x Fem!Reader

Summary: Bruce Wayne’s life doesn’t exist beyond the fake storylines he performs for the media and citizens of Gotham. Maybe the only person that can change that is someone who knew him before Batman ever even existed. 

Word Count: 8,200+ [One Shot]

Warnings: Violence, mentions of sexual harrassment

A/N: As I teased before, this was inspired by this scene from Batman Begins. 

Bruce could sense Alfred’s tension when he walked into the kitchen that morning. The man was not one to hold back his thoughts and feelings. It was both a blessing and a curse. But Bruce sensed it was the latter today.

Before Bruce could even get a sip of coffee in, Alfred tossed the Sunday newspaper in front of him.

On the front page was a photo of Batman, far too high of a resolution for Bruce’s liking. ‘BATMAN: SAVIOR OR MENACE?’ the headline read.

“A little too close for comfort, don’t you think?” Alfred asked with a hint of sass.

However, Bruce controlled his reaction.

“Not the first time I’ve been photographed, Alfred.”

“You’re dancing with the devil, Master Wayne.”

“So, what? You want me to lay down the cape because everyone in America has the ability to take a photo on their cellphone?”

“Of course not,” Alfred retorted. Though Alfred secretly wished every day that Bruce would say goodbye to the Batman. “I just thought perhaps you should be putting a bit more effort into Bruce Wayne’s life if you really want to throw Gotham off your trail.”

Then he tossed another newspaper. This one of Bruce Wayne, the other mask he wore.

‘Bruce Wayne Lights Up the Room at Charity Ball.’

Alfred points to the date…it was 9 months ago. And it was unfortunately the last time Bruce Wayne was in the press.

“You better start creating alibis, Master Wayne, or the dark web will start to putting two and two together…”

Bruce sighed. He knew Alfred was right. But he hated all that went with what he had to do. He’d rather face off with Gotham’s deadliest criminals than go galavanting around the city as the self-absorbed and reckless playboy persona that he’d created.

“There is a birthday party for Eaton Elliot next weekend. Naturally, being old family friends, you received an invitation,” Alfred explained. “Plenty of press will be there to note your attendance. Seems rather convenient."

Bruce recognized the name. It was the older brother of Thomas Elliot, a childhood friend that he slightly lost touch with. He’d see him or his parents at various events, and things were always cordial.

But it didn’t really matter how absent or quiet Bruce was when it came to maintaining such relationships. Everyone forgave such behavior when it came to saving face with the only living member of the Wayne family. Bruce could spit in the faces of Gotham’s elite and they’d probably thank him for it.

“Black tie affair, as always,” Alfred added as he slipped the invitation to Bruce. “Perhaps you could bring a date…”

Bruce glared up at the butler. “Dates make it harder to make a quick and quiet exit, Alfred.”

“Well, maybe that’s the point, Master Wayne.”

————

Just like he was on patrol or working on an op, Bruce had prepared for every single scenario. He made a plan that would be the most effective in the shortest amount of time. He didn’t want to torture himself any longer than absolutely necessary.

When Alfred asked him again if he was planning on bringing a date, Bruce had only replied with a mischievous smirk.

Because he walked in with a girl on each arm.

It wasn’t the classy or gentlemanly thing to do. And that was exactly the point.

Conversations paused, attention was turned, and flashes went off.

Bruce Wayne made his entrance.

He carefully fell into the groove of being the spoiled brat everyone had painted him out to be. It had been awhile since he played the part, but Bruce always found it easy when he was surrounded by these kinds of people.

Bruce made sure to slightly slur his words. He would get too handsy with his dates. He would rudely interrupt people to share his own useless opinion on whatever topic was leading the conversation. He never looked waitstaff in the eye.

But now it was time for the finale.

Bruce whispered a certain suggestion into the ears of his dates.

They shared a look that proved they were both game.

The three of them stumbled into a bathroom – one out in the open that most of the guests would be steered toward.

The kissing began and clothes were quickly shifted.

There was a split moment when Bruce wondered what this would feel like for a man who actually wanted to be in this situation.

The two woman managed unbuckle his belt, the clanking metal echoing in the all-tile bathroom.

But just as they unbuttoned and then unzipped his pants, Bruce’s cellphone rang loudly.

Right on cue.

“Ladies, ladies, ladies,” Bruce whined. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” his words stumbled out. “But I just have to take this call.”

“Aww. Brucie. You’re no fun,” one of the women fussed.

But Bruce gave off enough dominate energy that they didn’t try to fight him on it.

Hair disheveled, mouth swollen and pink, lipstick stains on his skin and his pants and belt barely put back together, Bruce stumbled out of the bathroom first.

The two women didn’t bother to stay back and spread out their exits, making it very clear what had just happened – or what it looked like just happened.

It didn’t matter that Bruce didn’t actually have sex with them, every woman in Gotham wanted to say they’d shared a bed with Bruce Wayne. His two dates would lie to save face and get street cred. Bruce hated that he knew that, that it was guaranteed.

Dozens of people, who were socializing near the bathroom, stopped what they were doing and watched with judgmental looks. Some men looked jealous. Some women looked disgusted and eyed the two women up and down.

Then there was the flash of a camera.

Bingo.

Bruce wouldn’t have to linger much longer now.  

He played up being somewhat embarrassed.

But just as he put his phone to his ear to take the fake call that Alfred dialed, he saw the last person he expected.

It caused him to do a double take and freeze. 

His focus fell for a moment as they made eye contact.

Why did she have to be here?

Why did she have to be one of his witnesses?

Why did it hurt so much to see how she looked at him as if he were a stranger?

And why did she have to look so god damn beautiful?

Y/F/N Y/L/N.

The Y/L/N family were another one of Gotham’s elite – well, they used to be.

Y/N’s father was once worth billions. But being born into wealth didn’t guarantee intelligence or the skills to properly run the family business. When Bruce and Y/N were in high school, Y/N’s father filed for bankruptcy and confessed that the family was about to lose everything. With the announcement, the press also exposed Mr. Y/L/N’s many lustful affairs.

What came next was a messy and brutal divorce that the media ate up.  

Out of spite, Y/N’s mother remarried her ex-husband’s biggest competitor, maintaining her status and wealth, and making sure she still came out on top. It was the greatest revenge and even Y/N had to give her mother credit for the ingenuity of it all.

Bruce remembered how terrible it all was for Y/N, who was used as a pawn in her parents war against each other.

Having had enough of it, Y/N fled Gotham and chose to live with her eccentric great aunt in London and finished her last year of high school there.

But Y/N didn’t run away from Bruce. They emailed, texted, video chatted, called.

They had always been good friends.

The elites of Gotham always suspected the two would get married. But both Bruce and Y/N pretended to ignore such whisperings.

But when Bruce shifted his life, when he changed his life’s purpose, when he started becoming a vigilante…he stopped taking Y/N’s calls and he stopped returning them.

He told himself it was better that way. He couldn’t handle any distractions. Batman didn’t have time for personal relationships, so neither did Bruce Wayne. But more importantly, Y/N deserved someone who would prioritize her – even just as a friend.

Now Bruce needed to get actually drunk.

Putting the phone back to his ear, he broke eye contact and made a beeline for one of the bars. 

“Did you forget to tell me about the guest list, Alfred?” Bruce muttered evenly to the phone, knowing that Alfred would easily be able to hear his anger and irritation.

“How was I to know who RSVPed yes or no…” Alfred bit back. But he knew exactly who Bruce was looking at.

Bruce frowned as he ended the call abruptly and asked for a whiskey.

“I don’t know, man. She’s not my type,” a man said to his friend.

The two of them were just a foot or two away from Bruce.

“What do you mean ‘not your type’? She’s fucking hot.”

“Don’t get me wrong, she’s beautiful. But she’s so stiff and uptight. Look, she’s had a resting bitch face all night.”

Bruce’s grip on his face tightened as he easily put together who they were talking about. It was moments like these that Bruce hated being lumped together with men like this.

“You’re an idiot,” the friend said with a laugh.

“Oh, yeah? Alright. If you’re so obsessed with her, why don’t you go over and talk to her?”

Bruce saw his window. 

With a sloppy haste, Bruce turned right into the two men and just happened to spill his drink over the man who was about to make a move on Y/N.

Bruce laughed and spilled another drink on the bar as he tried to grab some nearby cocktail napkins. “Gentleman, gentleman…I so dearly apologize.”

Both of them were clearly annoyed, but then realized who he was.  

Bruce gripped them by the shoulders and made sure his eyes were struggling to stay open. “I could be wrong…but it’s possible…that I have been over served.”

He broke out into a chuckle and both men forced their own laughter.

Bruce subtle glanced over to where Y/N had been standing. She’d disappeared.

He’d spared her…for now.

“I think it’s time I go home,” Bruce told them too loudly. “Do me a favor? Wish her congratulations for me?”

The two men looked at one another. “Congratulations? To who?”

Bruce frowned in confusion and looked around. “Isn’t this an engagement party?”

They tried to hide their laughter. “Wayne, this is a birthday party. For Eaton Elliot.”

Bruce’s brows shot up. “A birthday party? Look at that!”

Then he turned around, zigzagged his walk, and threw a wave over his shoulder.

But Bruce wasn’t that lucky.

Because when he made his way to the valet, he found Y/N waiting patiently with her back to him. 

Her fancy dress and gloves seemed to do nothing to help protect her from the cold night. 

Bruce could’ve left. He could’ve left her alone, gone back into the party, and made more of a fool of himself.

But next thing he knew, he was walking forward.  

“Waiting for your car?”

Y/N didn’t turn to him, but it was clear that she heard his question and recognized who it had come from. “I didn’t drive. They’re getting me a cab.”

Bruce nodded slowly even though she wasn’t looking at him.

All charm had left his body now that he had quit the act. It wasn’t going to do any favors for him. He needed to do this on his own, as his real self.

Y/N finally turned with a slight attitude and Bruce was taken aback at how she was even more beautiful up close.

“What are you doing here, Bruce?”

He smirked. “I’m here for the party, of course.” He didn’t want to play the part anymore – not with her. But it was second nature at this point.

Her lips pursed at his response.

“Leaving so soon?” He asked.

Y/N sighed. “Between you and me, I’m only here as a favor to my mother. She wouldn’t get off my back about coming. I tried to leave sooner, but…”

One of the valets hopped up the steps. “I’m sorry, Dr. Y/L/N. It can take awhile to get cabs in the area at this time of night.”

Y/N gave him a sympathetic smile and opened her mouth to say she’d walk home.

“I’ll drive her home,” Bruce spoke before she could. Then he handed the valet his ticket.

Y/N looked at him with confusion and a bit of annoyance. “You really don’t have to do that.”

Bruce just gave her a look that said he absolutely did.

Then Y/N gestured back to the party. “You’re just gonna abandon your dates?”

The way she asked made it clear that Y/N had seen Bruce stumble out of the bathroom with the two of them. He also didn’t miss how she emphasized the plural.

“They’ll be fine,” Bruce told her.

He took a step toward her. “Let me give you a ride, Y/N.”

She took in a deep breath.

She knew she needed the ride. Only an idiot would walk home at this time of night, even if the walk to her apartment was a relatively safe one for Gotham standards.

Y/N just nodded.

A minute later, an Aston Martin drove up.

Bruce offered his arm to Y/N and helped her down the stairs before opening the passenger door for her.

He handed the valet a few bills, not even noticing they were all hundreds.

“Where to?” Bruce asked her.

“Oh, umm…” Y/N quickly gave him her address.

“I know you’ve been gone awhile, but you definitely shouldn’t be walking around the streets of Gotham at night.”

Y/N scoffed. “I’m aware. I moved back awhile ago.”

“Oh. I didn’t know…”

“Yeah. Well, why would you? It’s not like you kept in touch.”

The car filled with silence.

Y/N stared out the passenger window, looking at the skyscraper lights of Gotham

It seemed Y/N had no issue with staying silent for the whole car ride.There was nothing awkward about it for her.

But Bruce knew there were things he needed to say. “I’m sorry.”

This was the last thing Y/N expected and her head whipped to him.

But Bruce kept his eyes on the road. “For disappearing like I did.”

Y/N slowly turned back to the passenger window and said nothing.

Bruce didn’t expect to win her forgiveness. He would have to deal with that. But at least he could apologize.

“Y/N.” Bruce said it ever so quietly, like he was forbidden from speaking it. “This isn’t…I’m not…” Dammit. What was he even trying to accomplish right now? “Back there–”

“Back there?” Y/N interrupted his fumbling. “Oh, you mean the threesome you had in a bathroom at a party?”

Bruce’s jaw tightened.

Everyone bought his performance. Unfortunately, even Y/N.

Bruce pulled over and Y/N realized they were at her building already.

“You can say whatever makes you feel good, Bruce. Have at it.” Then she threw open the car door.

She put her hand on the handle to help herself out.

But she hesitated.

No. She wasn’t going down without a fight.

Y/N spun around to face Bruce, his blue eyes already waiting for her.

“You used to be kind. Strong and brave. You were better than all of them.”

And for the first time, Bruce really saw the damage he had done.

“Is that boy really gone?” She searched his eyes for the answer. “What is the act and what is the truth?” She whispered. “Huh, Bruce?”

He wanted to tell her.

Bruce had never felt the urge to expose his secret ever before.

But right now? Right now, he wanted to take Y/N back to the manor, drag her down to the cave, and show her all of his secrets – every single one.

But he couldn’t. And he knew that.

Bruce kept his face reserved.

His brow furrowed for just a second as he took Y/N in. All of her. Her eyelashes. Her lips. The styling of her hair. The dip of her neck.

“You became quite the woman, Y/N.” He told her. “And a beautiful one at that.”

Y/N blinked at the statement. Her mind desperately tried to decipher the hidden message in his words, in his actions from the night. But she came up with nothing.

She wanted to say that she knew he was using flattery to divert her attention from what she wanted to know. But it was also clear that he genuinely meant what he said as well. His eyes seeming to be taking in every moment of being in her presence.

If Y/N weren’t so irritated, she probably would’ve been more taken aback by his compliment, feeling vulnerable and almost embarrassed.

There wasn’t any point in pushing.

So Y/N took in a breath. “Thank you for the ride, Bruce.”

He just nodded. Then he watched her walk to the door of her apartment building. He probably lingered a few moments too long, but he couldn’t bring himself to once again put distance between them.

————

Alfred brought down food and an espresso to the cave.

When he looked up, Y/F/N Y/L/N’s face was on the giant screen.

“Working on a case, Master Wayne?” He asked with his usual sarcasm.

Bruce ignored the question. “She attended undergrad in Metropolis and then went to grad school in New York City.”

“Yes, I can see that…considering you have her student records exploited all over the screen,” Alfred responded with a smirk. “She’s been living in Gotham again for a few years, working as a psychiatrist. Even volunteers her services at Arkham – pro bono.”

That caught Bruce’s attention. He turned away from the screen to look at Alfred.

“I found no record of that,” he argued.

“Yes. Well, her mother is rather embarrassed by it. Thinks it gives the family a bad image. She insisted Y/N’s philanthropy was kept secret, even approved the NDAs herself.”

Bruce gave him a look, utterly confused how Alfred had access to such information.

Alfred raised an eyebrow. “Never underestimate the power of gossip, Master Wayne. Most family secrets cannot be found on the dark corners of the internet.” Then he smirked. “You would gain quite the knowledge if you didn’t turn your nose up at it.”

Bruce smiled at that and turned back to the computer.

“So, I take it that it was good seeing her?” Alfred pressed.

Bruce tensed at the question. “Not entirely. I’m certain that she hates me.”

“Hates you or hates the character you’ve so carefully created?”

“It doesn’t matter. I’m just Bruce Wayne to her.”

Alfred opened his mouth to say more.

“Leave it, Alfred.” Bruce cut off before he could.

“Well, it appears I’m not the one struggling with leaving it alone, Master Wayne.”

Like many of Gotham’s elites, Alfred had humored the idea that Bruce and Y/N would make a marvelous couple. Like Bruce, Y/N didn’t let money and power sway her morals or damage her good and kind heart.

Alfred had always enjoyed having her over and listening to her and Bruce’s laughter as they caused trouble around the manor and entertained themselves.

But he also saw how her departure effected Bruce, no matter how much the teenager had tried to hide it at the time.

Maybe Alfred was an optimist or a romantic, but he still believed there was a chance for the two of them. But Bruce, quite frankly, would have to get over himself and his stubbornness.

————

Bruce was looking down at the city from yet another rooftop. It had been a quiet night. And he hated nights like that. It was always ended up being the calm before a storm.

“Batman?” Alfred spoke into his comms.

“Yes.”

“It appears there’s been a breakout at Arkham. The media hasn’t caught wind of it yet. But law enforcement has already been dispatched.”

“I’m on my way,” Bruce announced as he slid down a fire escape and made his way to the batmobile that he’d hidden in the shadows of an alley.

“Master Wayne…” Alfred knew to only use codenames on comms.

Bruce tense. “What is it?”

There was hesitation from the butler. “Y/N was scheduled to work a shift there tonight…”

Bruce said nothing. But his foot pressed the gas pedal down further than necessary.

—

Y/N was sitting with a patient when the alarm went off.

The people that worked there called them inmates, and corrected her every time she chose not to use that title.

Harleen Quinzel had been sitting across from Y/N for almost 30 minutes when they were interrupted.

“Oh, fun!” Harley clapped and giggled as the sirens filled their ears.

Harley and Y/N had formed an interesting relationship. The criminal seemed to like her and looked forward to her visits. She never threatened Y/N or tried to manipulate her.

Y/N believes she won her over by addressing her as Dr. Quinzel and often asking her professional opinions on trends and news in their industry. 

Most people there only referred to Harley as if she was property of the Joker, no matter how many times Harley clarified that she wasn’t his anything anymore.

“Does this happen a lot?” Y/N asked her, trying to remain calm.

“Not enough, if ya ask me!” She laughed.

Y/N made the mistake of opening the door and seeing that the majority of the cells had been opened and prisoners were slowly making their way into the hallway.

“Not good,” Y/N muttered.

“Don’t worry, doc. I’ll protect ya! Us gals gotta stick together.” Harley said from behind her shoulder.

Y/N whipped around and looked at her and then at the table she’d been sitting at. “Dr. Quinzel! How did you get out of your restraints?”

“Oh, I’ve always been able to. I just leave ‘em on to be polite.”

Y/N sighed. No one had explained any sort of protocol for such a situation.

“Where the fuck are all the guards?” Y/N asked.

Suddenly the lights shut off.

“Yippy!” Harley cheered.

Y/N turned to her and softly grabbed her shoulder, but gave her an insistent look. “Harley, we need to get somewhere safe.”

Her face did dip to serious for a moment. “You don’t need to worry about me. But you’re right. Not everyone in here appreciates a shrink…”

To her surprise, Harley starts pulling her through the darkness with a purpose.

Y/N had no idea where she was planning on taking her. It seemed all the doors were in lock-down mode, leaving her stranded. If she survived tonight, she’d definitely be bringing that up to the board.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

Y/N yelped at the sound.

Someone had either gotten a hold of a gun or security guards were opening fire.

Either way, it caused chaos to erupt.

Suddenly the dark hallways were being filled with a stampede of prisoners. Either they wanted to take down the guard who was shooting or they were getting an adrenaline rush at the concept of their peers attacking their wardens.

The crowd ripped the two women apart. Y/N was shoved up against the wall and her head slammed against the cement.

Y/N swore under her breath from the pain.

“Is that…No, it can’t be…”

A voice called out over the madness.

A chill went up Y/N’s spine. She’d know that voice anywhere.

The Joker.

He wasn’t one of her patients. All researchers and doctors were forbidden to speak with him – especially after what happened with Harley.

But that didn’t stop the Joker from knowing who Y/N was. He whined and whined about feeling left out. “All my pals get to chat with her and all I get to do is look!”

Now, Joker was free from him isolation.

Y/N suspected he was behind the breakout.

And he was going to make a slight detour. A detour that was doing whatever the hell he wanted to with Dr. Y/L/N.

Y/N didn’t even bother hiding her fear. With a new found strength and endurance, she started shoving her way through the mob.

“I hear you and my pumpkin’ pie have gotten close.” Then his smile dropped. “Too close, if ya ask me.”

Y/N ignored him as another prisoner shoved into her shoulder.

“I don’t appreciate you putting ideas in her head!”

Y/N stopped, realizing she had miscalculated her escape and had come to a dead end.

So she slowly turned around to face him, putting her back to the wall. “And what ideas are those?”

“Independence. Self respect. A life beyond crime and incarceration,” he spat.

Y/N realized he had his goonies flanking him, only making her odds that much worse.

“Those aren’t ideas. They’re a reality, a possible future,” she defended.

Joker didn’t like that answer one bit. He threw himself against her, once again slamming Y/N into the wall.

He gripped her chin roughly and smiled with his yellow teeth. “You know…she’s not the only doctor I’d like to break in. And in more ways than one, if you catch my drift,” he giggled.

Then his eyes raked over her body, up and down. His hands slid down her hips and the side of her legs until they got to the hem of her pencil skirt.

Y/N shoved him away with all of her strength. 

But that earned her a slap across the face from him.

Joker gripped her waist tightly pressing her between the wall and his body. “I’m in charge now, doc. And I’ve got a few lessons to teach you.”

His hands grabbed at the buttons of her blouse and with one jerk, he ripped open her her blouse.

But before he could go any further, a few of his lackeys cried out in pain. 

Y/N swore she heard the sound of objects whipping through the darkness. 

She didn’t want to let herself feel any relief. But she hoped Harley had made her way back to her. She’d probably pack an even heavier punch once she realized Y/N needed protecting from her asshole ex.

But when Joker turned around and Y/N followed his gaze, Harley was nowhere to be found.

Yet three men were on the ground, unconscious.

“Well, well, well,” Joker muttered in amusement. “Has Batsy come out to play?”

Next thing Y/N saw was a shadow dropping down out of nowhere and taking out even more of Joker’s men.

Joker seemed to be prepared for such an interruption. Because he grabbed a knife from somewhere hidden on his body and ripped Y/N off the wall. He pressed Y/N’s back to his chest and put the tip of his knife to her throat.

“Come out, come out wherever you are,” Joker sang.

To Y/N’s shock, Batman stepped into what little light was in the hallway.

“Long time, no see!” Joker screamed so loudly that Y/N flinched. “Did you miss me, Batsy? And you came all this way to see little old me?! How very sweet!”

“Your attempted escape was a failure,” Batman stated. “There’s nowhere for you to go. All the exits are blocked. Arkham has been contained.”

“What a shame! I really felt this one was gonna work!” Joker laughed.

Batman took a step toward him. “It’s over, Joker.”

“You’re probably right,” Joker shrugged. “But I really wanted to have some fun with doc here. So, if you could give us some privacy.”

Batman’s eyes flickered to Y/N’s for a brief moment. “Let her go,” he warned.

“How about…no?” Joker laughed.

Just as Batman was about to make his move, Y/N grabbed the wrist of Joker’s arm that held the knife. She twisted it and dived in such a succinct motion that it was obvious Y/N had been trained.

Whipping herself out of Joker’s grip, she twisted Joker’s arm so roughly and quickly behind his back that he had no choice but to drop his knife from the pain.

Then Y/N was now facing him, and with one swift swing of her leg, she kicked him right in the groan.

Batman saw his opening and rushed forward, cuffing Joker in place.

While Batman neutralized him, Y/N stumbled for the knife that Joker had dropped, still not feeling safe and out of danger.

She looked around, realizing that the police had filtered in and apprehended all the escaped prisoners. Some were already locked back into their cells. Other’s were in handcuffs with guns being pointed at them in warning.

“Dr. Y/L/N,” his voice made her whip back around.

How the hell did Batman know her name?

She squinted wearily at him.

“You can drop the knife,” Batman told her quietly.

Y/N blinked and looked down at her hand, having forgotten that she even grabbed the knife. And she now had a vice-like grip on it.

Her hands were shaking when she dropped the knife and the clatter echoed in the hallway.

She eyed the Joker, not trusting any sort of weapon to be in his vicinity, despite being handcuffed now.

“He’s not going anywhere,” Batman noted, as if he could read her mind and hear the concerns she was thinking.

Police officers surrounded them now.

“Until next time, doc!” Joker sang loudly.

Batman stepped between him and Y/N, shielding her from even being seen by the lunatic.

Y/N eyed him, wondering if he did that on purpose.

“This way,” he directed lowly as he led her out of the hallway.

Y/N was surprised when he escorted her all the way out of the building.

Wasn’t this supposed to be Gotham’s Dark Knight? A disappearing act? An urban legend that some people still didn’t believe in?

When they got outside, there were even more officers. The night was flickering blue and red from all the patrol car’s lights still being on.

Commissioner Gordon was having a field day with Arkham’s warden, yelling at him about lack of protocol and no protection for the volunteers and workers that had gotten caught in the crossfire.

But finally, the reality of what just happened was starting to set in for Y/N. And she realized that her entire body was shaking.

All of a sudden, a blanket was wrapped around her shoulders.

She looked up to see that Batman had draped it over her. When and where he’d grabbed it, she had no clue. But the warmth was helping, so she didn’t question it.

“Thank you…for saving me back there.”

Was that a smirk on his lips? Was Batman amused by her?

Why was it so comforting when he was a mere stranger?

And his eyes, even when they were surrounded by a cowl and dark paint, they still felt familiar. Y/N had a similar feeling to deja vu.

“Looked like you had it handled,” he replied.

“Oh, I definitely didn’t. But thank god for those self-defense classes.”

They looked into each other’s eyes for a second.

“Make sure you get checked out by the paramedics,” he told her gently, but insistent.

It was far too gentle for his Batman alter ego. But she caught how it sounded like it personally mattered to him.

Y/N looked behind her, where the ambulance was.

But when she turned back around, Batman was gone.

Next thing Y/N knew, she was being surrounded by two paramedics and Commissioner Gordon who was careful not to push her by asking too many questions at once.

“Does he always do that?” She asked him in a daze.

“Do what?” Gordon asked.

“Disappear like that?”

Gordon smiled and nodded. “Annoying, isn’t it?”

———

“What’s the gossip of the privileged this week?” Bruce asked Alfred at breakfast a few days after the outbreak.

“Something specific you’re looking for, Master Wayne?” Alfred asked as he poured Bruce a big mug of coffee.

Bruce glared at him, knowing he was playing coy with him.

But he put his pride aside. “How is she doing?”

Alfred took pity on him. “She took some time off work. But seems to be handling it better than expected. Makes quite a bit of sense, doesn’t it? Her being psychiatrist and all.”

Bruce just nodded with a dazed look.

“You could always see for yourself…” Alfred added.

Bruce snapped out of his daze and looked up him questioningly.

“You could go see her,” Alfred confirmed.

“Alfred, don’t you start.”

��Start what, Master Wayne? Pushing you to form any sort of relationship?”

Bruce sighed and got up from the breakfast nook. He didn’t want to fight with him, so he’d made his exit before that happened.

“Batman has plenty of friends,” Alfred stopped him. “But what about Bruce Wayne, hmm? Who are his friends?”

“You saying we’re not friends, Alfred?”

“I’m all you’ve got, Master Wayne. And that’s my point.”

Before the discussion could go on any further, the doorbell rang.

The two men shared a look. 

No one stopped by the manor.

Alfred made his way over.

Bruce figured he’d wait where he was. But the front entrance was too far away from him to overhear any conversation.

A few minutes later, Alfred walked in with an unreadable expression.

“Dr. Y/L/N is here, Master Wayne. She is waiting for you in the drawing room.”

Bruce opened his mouth to tell him to make an excuse and get her to leave. But Alfred was already disappearing, making it clear that he would do no such thing for him.

When Bruce walked into the drawing room, he found Y/N’s back to him as she looked at the family heirlooms and trinkets that were displayed on the shelved.

She was dressed casually, which caught Bruce off guard since he’d only see her in formal wear and professional outfits since their reunion. Her hair was in a messy bun and she didn’t appear to be wearing much makeup, if any at all.

“Hi,” he greeted softly, making her quickly turn around.

“Hi,” she replied.

Bruce stepped further into the room. But neither of them moved to sit in any of the many seats that surrounded them.

“I heard what happened. How are you doing?” He asked.

She nodded and shrugged. “Alright.”

“I’m surprised to see you here,” Bruce admitted.

Y/N ignored his comment and her eyes went around the room. “I missed this place,” she thought aloud. Then her eyes fell back to his, softening. “I missed you.”

Bruce was taken aback from her confession. Seeing as the last time they were together, she was rather blunt about how disgusted and disappointed in him she was.

The energy between them felt so different than last time.

To his surprise, Y/N stepped toward him. And she didn’t stop until she was at a proximity that most would call rather intimate.

There was a voice in the back of Bruce’s mind, urging him to close the last bit of distance and place his lips on hers. But he managed to ignore it. That didn’t stop his heart from beating faster, though.

Y/N stared into his eyes for a few seconds, almost like she was searching for something.

“I have something that belongs to you…”

Bruce waited, not sure what she could possibly have to give him.

But then she pulled out one of his batarangs from her coat pocket, offering it to him.

She had found it embedded in the wall when she had gone back down to grab her personal belongings that night. 

Bruce kept his face composed. “I’m not sure I understand.” 

But he grabbed it from her anyways.

“He’s you,” she whispered. “Or I guess…you’re him.”

Bruce let out a breath, “Y/N…”

She took step away from him. “Don’t lie to me, Bruce.”

So he shut his mouth and said nothing instead.

“I’ve been doing some research. Things started lining up,” Y/N explained. “The first Batman sightings were right around when we stopped talking. The more Batman was in the press, the less Bruce Wayne was. And when he was, it was never positive – like it was meant to be a distraction.”

Her eyes went sad. “I never understood how the boy I used to love could grow into the man I’m so disappointed in. It never made sense.” She paused. “But when you wonder if the man himself is the mask, it all fits.”

“I’m sorry.” Bruce hung his head slightly. “I couldn’t tell anyone. Not even you.”

“I’d never share your secret.”

“I know,” he answered instantly.

Y/N couldn’t hold back her emotions any longer. Her eyes welled with tears. “Bruce…living like this has its consequences.”

Bruce said nothing.

She stepped forward and grabbed his hand. “You can’t change the world on your own. You don’t have to do this alone.”

Y/N wasn’t giving him advice. She was offering him something.  

Her trust.

Her secrecy.

Her love.

He shook his head, but gripped her hand tightly. “You would just end up in the shadows with me. And I…I can’t do that to you.”

“I’m stronger than you think,” Y/N defended.

“I’ve always known how strong you are, Y/N.” His jaw tightened at even the thought of being selfish. “You deserve more than what I can give. Gotham will always come first. That’s the sacrifice I made. That’s what is required. I can’t be what you need.”

Y/N studied his face, knowing that there would be no winning with him.

She nodded once, not even slightly hiding her heartbreak and disappointment.

Then she stepped closer and gave him a slow kiss on the cheek.

“It’s not a one time offer, Bruce.”

Bruce couldn’t move a muscle. He was rooted in place.

He heard Y/N have a short conversation with Alfred, then the door closed, and she was gone again.

———

Bruce Wayne was a fool.

Alfred could probably make a list, in seconds, with a hundred reasons why.

But, no, Bruce Wayne was a fool for believing Y/N would give up so easily.

Two weeks later, Y/N was at Wayne Manor again.

Bruce knew something was going on when Alfred didn’t seem surprised in the slightest.

In one of her arms was popcorn seeds, twizzlers, sour patch kids, and chocolate covered pretzels. In the other arm was a case of beer.

Y/N barely said hi to Bruce as Alfred helped her out of her coat and took the things out of her grasp so she was no longer struggling to hold it all.

“I’m here to use your theater,” she announced.

And with that, she walked right past Bruce like she owned the place.

Bruce looked at Alfred and silently asked, ‘What the hell is going on?’

“I believe you have a guest to entertain, Master Wayne.” Then he looked at the items in his hand. “And I believe I have some popcorn to make.”

Bruce still didn’t move.

“You successfully closed yet another case last night, it’s Friday night, and you have a beautiful woman who decided she wants to spend her time with you. Best you don’t keep her waiting, Master Wayne.”

Bruce narrowed his gaze as if telling Alfred they’d discuss this matter at another time.

“I presume you shouldn’t go empty handed,” Alfred added quickly and handed Bruce two beers from the case in his arms.

Bruce chuckled, but started walking away. “I’m surprised you even let this stuff in the house, Alfred.”

When Bruce reached the theater, Y/N had already started a movie.

He watched her a for a moment before she could realize he'd joined her. 

Y/N looked like she belonged there. Even after all this time apart, she just burrowed herself a cozy nook in Bruce’s life.

It was something she had been able to do even when they were kids. When Bruce had his mood swings or his depressive episodes, Y/N didn’t scare. She just found her way to stay at his side without upsetting him further.

Bruce grabbed the seat to the left of hers.

They weren’t really seats, more like small beds. A dozen were placed in the theater.

A couple could easily share one, but Bruce wasn’t planning on even approaching that fine line.

When Bruce sat down, he didn’t look at Y/N. But she gave a shy smile at his joining.

It was a long movie – almost a 3 hour run time.

And Y/N almost made it.

Without only 30 minutes left, Y/N had fallen asleep. Meaning Bruce’s attention was now taken from the movie.

He got up and grabbed one of the many blankets in the trunk hidden in the corner and placed it carefully over her, before silently leaving.

This was not a one time thing.

These type of visits continued.

Bruce knew Y/N and Alfred had to be in cahoots together. 

Y/N seemed to always come to the manor when Bruce needed her most. 

Alfred would force Bruce out of the cave and moments later, the doorbell would be ringing.

On the bad nights, she wouldn’t make him talk. She wouldn’t ask questions or try to make him magically feel better. Sometimes she would talk – mostly about mundane things. She’d tell Bruce about her day or how her neighbor always left baked goods at her door or about the new show she started watching. Sometimes she wouldn’t say anything at all, just sit there silently and make sure he wasn’t alone.

Sometimes she would bring coffee and pastries.

Sometimes Bruce would just walk into the library and find her reading.

Sometimes she would sit and chat with Alfred as if he was the reason she was visiting, and not Bruce.

Bruce couldn’t sleep one night. Nothing specific was causing his insomnia. Just the overall weight of being so many people.

It was 3AM when Y/N texted him to open the door for her because she didn’t want to wake Alfred.

When Bruce did so, Y/N was standing on the other door in sandals and a slightly transparent coverup that barely showed the outline of the bathing suit underneath.

He said nothing, but his face clearly showed that he wanted to know why the hell she was there in the middle of the night.

“Couldn’t sleep,” Y/N told him quietly. Then she shrugged a bit,“I decided I wanted to go for a swim."

Whether she was lying for his benefit, Bruce wasn’t sure. But he followed her to the indoor swimming pool like a sailor would follow a siren.

Without hesitation, Y/N kicked her sandals off and tossed her coverup on the nearest chair. And the next second, she was diving into the pool.

Bruce smirked at her nonchalance, but made sure to hide it when she breached the surface once again.

“Doesn’t your apartment building have its won pool?” He asked.

Y/N smiled and tilted her head back to get her hair wet again and out of her face. “They put too much chlorine in it.”

Bruce crossed his arms, “I see.”

“Coming in?” She asked teasingly.

He shook his head.

“At least keep me company,” she requested.

Bruce glared playfully at her, knowing the game she was playing.

But he finally sighed and nodded.

He was in cotton shorts and a t-shirt. But he decided to sit on the edge of the pool and dip his feet in.

He watched as she swam around, looking as natural in the water as a mermaid. She had always loved swimming as a kid and it appeared not much had changed.

“Why couldn’t you sleep?” He finally decided to break the silence.

Y/N swam to him and crossed her arms on the edge of the pool to rest and tilted her head to look at him.

She shrugged, “The usual: stress, nightmares, insomnia, too much caffeine.”

 Bruce’s concern spiked instantly. “Nightmares about what?”

She watched him for a moment, seeing how quickly her subtle comment triggered him.

“You’re not the only person who’s seen fucked up things, Bruce.”

An hour later, Y/N asked for a towel.

When she climbed out, she was taken aback by Bruce wrapping it around her shoulders and rubbing her down gently. It was innocent, but subtly intimate.

As their eyes locked for a prolonged time, and he seemed to realize what he’d done accidentally.

Y/N cleared her throat. “I should head home and let you try to get some sleep.”

“You could stay,” he offered. “I mean, we have plenty of bedrooms here,” he quickly added and saved himself a bit.

“Is that…what you want?” Y/N asked slowly.

Bruce knew what she was trying to ask. He didn’t trust himself to answer the way he should, so he didn’t answer.

“Let me drive you home,” he asked as they left the indoor pool and started toward the front entrance.

Y/N ignored the request until they were at the door. She turned to face him with a smug look, “I’m perfectly capable of driving myself. Thank you.”

She hesitated before kissing him on the cheek. “Get some sleep, Bruce.”

————

Months after Y/N’s visits started, Bruce was doing some research for a case on his tablet as he ate dinner.

“Margaret Caulfield’s engagement party is tonight,” Alfred broke the silence of the manor as he took Bruce’s finished plate.

Bruce looked confused on why he was supposed to care.

“Y/N will be there,” Alfred added.

But Bruce still didn’t understand what he was trying to say.

“Master Wayne, when you attend all those sufferable parties, what is the first question people ask you?”

Bruce thought for a moment. “When I plan on settling down, I guess.”

“Now imagine that, but magnified by about 100…and that is what Y/N’s experience is at those same parties. That young woman is one of the brightest people in Gotham and all those people care about is who will put a silly ring on her finger.”

Bruce leaned back in his chair, now understanding what Alfred was getting at. “I’m not her boyfriend, Alfred.”

“And you’ve made damn sure of that,” Alfred said a little too harshly.

Bruce watched him carefully.

“Y/N has fought off every one of your attempts to be a miserable recluse.”

Bruce opened his mouth.

“And don’t you dare try and tell me her efforts are wasted,” Alfred cut him off. “I’ve seen a change in you. And she has asked for absolutely nothing in return. She’d never ask you to pick her over Batman. Though she bloody well should!”

He wasn’t done.

“You’re not living, Master Wayne. And I won’t apologize for wanting more for you.”

Bruce just sat there and took it.

Alfred took in a breath, calming himself down. “There’s a suit waiting for you in your bedroom. I’ve decided I’m going for a evening walk.”

——————

Y/N didn’t know how many more champagnes she’d have to shrug to start feeling the buzz she so desperately needed.

Not even an hour of being at the party and she’s already been asked 15 times if she was seeing anyone. And when she answered no, half of those ended in them trying to set her up with someone.

As Y/N was trying to think of an excuse to escape, an old family friend approached her – a friend of her grandma’s unfortunately.

“Y/N, dear, let me see those hands!”

Y/N wanted to roll her eyes and snap, but she did as requested.

“No ring yet,” the woman teased, but she was also genuinely disappointed.

“That would be my fault, actually.” A voice said behind Y/N before she felt a hand on her lower back.

“Oh, Mr. Wayne, how nice of you to come!” The woman beamed. “Now, Y/N, why wouldn’t you tell anyone that you and Bruce are an item?”

“My fault again,” Bruce chuckled, “I’ve always enjoyed a good secret.”

Before she could ask more, Bruce smiled politely. “If you could excuse us for a moment.”

He steered Y/N to a private area of the party.

“What are you doing?” Y/N hissed at him. “The press are gonna have a field day. You and I will be every headline tomorrow.”

He smiled at her frantic concern.

“Why are you looking at me like that? I’m serious!”

Bruce captured her lips, silencing any further panic from her.

Y/N was completely caught off guard, but he wasn’t letting her go so easily. And soon, her hand went to the back of his head and she kissed him back. 

Damn all the people who were probably watching them.

When Bruce finally let her pull away, he smirked at her dazed look and cupped her cheek. 

She matched his smirk.

But then reality set in like a splash of cold water and she frowned.

“Am I – Is this your new cover?” She asked shakily, so scared that the answer was ‘yes.’

She could tolerate being Bruce’s friend for the rest of her life. But she wouldn’t survive being used in such a way. She couldn’t live in a fake relationship with a man she actually loved. She’d rather watch his sloppy persona with girls hanging off of him.

“No cover-up,” he muttered to her. “Just me and you – the real me.”

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

I worked so hard on this 😩  Please let me know your thoughts. 

[longitudinalwaveme]

Longitudinalwaveme Reviews Some More Old Comics (and One New One), Part 2

Batman #321, “Dreadful Birthday, Dear Joker...!” 

The story opens with Commissioner Gordon receiving an invitation to the Joker’s birthday party. “Black tie optional, funny hats mandatory”. A few seconds later, everyone in police headquarters doubles over laughing, the victims of Joker’s, well, Joker gas. 

Batman is on the scene only a few seconds later, and starts punching out Joker’s goons. Unfortunately, by the time he’s finished doing this, both Joker and Commissioner Gordon have disappeared. 

Eminently Quotable Joker: “Ah---the Batman! What an expected surprise! And what a waste of a perfectly good window! Couldn’t you have used the door?” 

As Joker leaves in his Jokermobile, the police officers tell Batman that the Joker also captured Robin earlier that day (by pretending to be a woman with car problems!) 

Meanwhile, Selina Kyle, Lucius Fox, and Alfred are talking when the Joker bursts in and kidnaps them as well. Notably, Selina mentions that she’s been having terrible headaches. 

Selina Kyle wakes up in a room with Batman; the other kidnapees wake up in the Joker’s “Ha-Hacienda” on his “victim-go-round”. 

Eminently Quotable Joker: “Tomorrow is my birthday, and by way of celebration, I intend to eliminate all you who’ve crossed me, while all of Gotham watches! It’s not exactly the catcher’s mitt I really wanted...but it’s a pretty fair second place! HAHAHAHAHAHA!” 

Hawkman stars in a Hostess cupcake ad! 

The Joker murders one of his own henchman with his “BANG!” flag gun for not laughing at his joke. 

Eminently Quotable Joker (in response to Robin saying “You’re out of your mind!”): “Gloriously so! Isn’t it wonderful?” 

In order to get his audience, the Joker put an ad in the newspaper that states that the “Harlequin Baking Company” will be inviting all of Gotham to  sample its wares at the Seaside Coliseum. AND IT WORKS, because everyone in Gotham has the IQ of turnips. A bazillion people come to the Coliseum to get free food. 

Joker dramatically reveals himself to everyone and explains that he’s going to blow up all the people he hates with a giant cake bomb. Then Batman arrives and offers himself in exchange for the other hostages. This goes exactly how you’d expect it to go, but Batman manages Batman his way out of the trap, saving both himself and all of his friends. 

Joker runs away and jumps into a boat. Batman follows him, they fight for a bit, and then the Joker apparently blows himself up. But he’s not dead, because nothing can kill the Joker. Batman even says so. 

This would’ve made a great episode of B:TAS. 

Batman #322, “Chaos--Coming and Going!” 

And now for something completely different! 

Catwoman looks at a bunch of old newspaper clippings of herself, as the comic hints fairly subtly that she might be unwell (just as her headaches last issue did). 

Meanwhile, a van is delivering issues of the tabloid The Gotham Guardian...when a thrown bundle of newspapers is intercepted by a boomerang! Captain Boomerang is in Gotham City! 

The two men in the van react by promptly trying to run Digger over....only for him to slice their van in half with a boomerang!

Digger yells at them to tell their boss that this was only a warning: the mysterious boss owes him a million dollars, and he wants it in 24 hours or else. 

Then Batman shows up out of nowhere and he and Boomerang get into a fight. Digger distracts Batman by using his exploding boomerang to damage a nearby building. This causes some rubble to fall on one of the drivers. Batman goes to rescue him, and Digger vanishes. 

Green Arrow stars in a Hostess fruit pie ad! 

Batman talks to Alfred about Captain Boomerang, telling him to ask Lucius Fox to find out who owns the Guardian, since he’s probably Boomerang’s next target. He also refuses to call the Flash in for help. “The night I can’t handle a punk like Boomerang is the night I hang up my cowl!” 

Catwoman goes to a doctor and it’s confirmed that she is, in fact, dying. She has less than a month to live and the only cure is some Egyptian herbs that have been lost to time. 

Meanwhile, Captain Boomerang lets us know that he hates Gotham. “Lor’, but I hate this cronky town! I never would’ve come her from Central City if it wasn’t for my million quid!” 

Apparently, Captain Boomerang set up a retirment fund for himself and is ticked off that has money was subsequently stolen. 

“It’s really rum--downright ironic! The one time I play the game by their rules--and it’s me who gets taken for a sucker! Well, nobody crosses “Digger” Harkness--and gets away with it intact!” That’s our Digger! 

Also, he has a giant boomerang hidden under a tarp. 

Catwoman goes to the museum to see a display about cats...and conveniently, some ancient Egyptian medicinal herbs are there. Catwoman determines to take them so she can save herself. 

Batman asks the most Irish Irishman to ever walk the pages of the comic book about where he might be able to find Captain Boomerang, but he hasn’t heard anything. Then Alfred calls Batman and tells him that Lucius has discovered that the Gotham Guardian is owned by a corporation which serves as a front for a guy named Gregorian Falstaff. 

The man in question is eating dinner at a hotel when he is rudely interrupted by Captain Boomerang, who knocks out Falstaff’s bodyguard and demands his money. Falstaff plays dumb, claiming that the whole thing was an unfortunate accident and offering to write him a check. Boomerang insists that it’s cash or nothing (since he doesn’t trust Falstaff). Then Batman shows up, and Digger throws a smoke bomb boomerang that distracts Batman long enough for him to knock him out with another boomerang. 

“You gave it a fair dinkum try, cobber-but fair ain’t enough when  you’re dealin’ with the likes of me!’” Didgeridoo! Crikey! Steve Irwin! Can you tell I’m Australian yet? 

Selina Kyle tries to call Bruce but can’t get ahold of him, so she decides to take matters into her own hands and pulls out her Catwoman costume. 

When Batman comes to, he’s been tied to the giant boomerang. 

“Nothin’ permanent, mate--you’re simply tied to my giant rocket-powered boomerang! Only Flash’s super-speed saved him from the original--and without super-powers you’ll never escape this improved version!” So...which one of the giant boomerangs you used to launch the Flash into space are we talking about here, Digger? Because there’ve been at least four at this point. 

Boomerang launches the boomerang into the air and it explodes. Digger is naturally convinced that he’s killed Batman, only for Batman to promptly prove him wrong by showing up alive and well. “Nobody could possibly survive a flight on my Doomerang!” Oh, Digger...

Batman explains that he survived by “maneuvering my bonds toward the Doomerang’s rocket-jets--and the ignition-flames freed me! Then I simply slipped away under the cover of all that smoke before the Doomerang took off!” I love that Batman also calls the thing a Doomerang (with a totally straight face, mind you.) 

Then Digger throws a boomerang at Batman at the same time Batman throws a Batarang at him. But because Batman is Batman, he wins the boomerang duel and knocks Digger out. Way to take away Digger’s only accomplishment there, Batman. It’s like if Superman won any of his races against the Flash. 

Batman decides to investigate Falstaff. 

Meanwhile, at the museum, someone who looks like Catwoman is stealing one of the exhibits....

Flash #286, “The Color Schemes of the Rainbow Raider”

This issue introduces the greatest villain of all time...the dreaded Rainbow Raider! 

After a long day at work, Barry Allen is heading home...only for an alarm to go off at the Centrex Art Museum! Barry has to promptly go into action as the Flash as Barry thinks about how tired he is. Apparently, his new police chief, Darryl Frye, has made him work overtime three times in one week alone. 

Suddenly, a rainbow appears, bewildering Barry, as it hasn’t rained for the past week. Barry runs inside the museum to find the guards crying inexplicably. Barry deduces that the thief has been altering their emotions and realizes that this is probably not one of his established Rogues. 

Sure enough, he soon comes face-to-face with the Rainbow Raider!

“Welcome, Flash! I didn’t think you and I would be meeting so soon...but sooner or later we were bound to clash! Allow me to introduce myself! I am the Rainbow Raider---the most colorful criminal this city’s ever seen!” Oh, Roy. You’re so amazingly silly, and we wouldn’t have it any other way. 

Roy shoots a beam of blue light at Barry, who somehow deduces that this was what enabled him to mess with the emotions of the guards. Barry dodges the blast of blue light, but it hit and knocked out by a blast of black light. 

The police are suitably baffled by the Rainbow Raider, who, incidentally, signed his crime scene with “The Rainbow Raider was here!” That’s amazing. 

Meanwhile, the Flash runs home, for the Rainbow Raider has...uh....sucked all of the color out of his body! Somehow! Wha? 

Meanwhile, in a mobile trailer, Roy is gloating to himself. “Now I know I’m ready for the big leagues--on a par with seasoned criminals like Captain Cold and Mirror Master!” Uh...sure, Roy. 

Batman and Catman star in a Hostess cupcake ad! 

“Roy G. Bivolo is compelled by higher motivations--like art appreciation!” 

Roy reveals that he suffers from achromotopsia, a rare form of colorblindness that means he sees the world entirely in greyscale. This fact apparently scuppered his burgeoning artistic career, because the art critics of Central City have never heard of black-and-white artwork even though it totally exists. 

Also, Roy’s dad was apparently a, quote, “leading world-renowned optometrist”, and he tried to create goggles that would allow Roy to see color. He passed away shortly after Roy turned 21; having finished the googles just days before. 

When Roy tested them a few weeks later, he found that they hadn’t cured his colorblindness...but that they could shoot out “bands of multi-colored solid light particles that I could literally “ride” through the sky”. Roy then uses his father’s notes to unlock even more abilities with his goggles. Eventually, his mother also passed away, and Roy decided to turn to crime. 

“Since I was robbed of a brilliant art career as a painter--I think it’s only fitting that I rob others....rob them of the pleasure they’ve derived all these years from priceless works of art I myself have never been able to enjoy! If I can’t see them in all their glory---then neither will anyone else!” Roy...that’s insane. 

Barry Allen fails in his attempt to flirt with Fiona Webb, then exposits about pseudoscience. “The color black appears black because it absorbs the light waves of all other colors...without reflecting them! Those black beams the Rainbow Raider enveloped me with must’ve had a similar effect--saturating my body with radiation that prevents me from reflecting any and all light-waves...leaving me totally colorless!” SCIENCE! 

Barry uses makeup and hair day to make himself look normal. As a result, he’s 20 minutes late to work and gets chewed out by his boss. 

Also: “The unnatural inner-vibrations from this color drain are steadily sapping more and more energy from my molecules by the minute!” More SCIENCE! 

Barry is about to get to work when he hears about the opening of the Skytop Art Gallery. Assuming that this would be an ideal target for the Rainbow Raider, he goes into action as the Flash. 

Roy has created a distraction by using his emotional manipulation powers to get all of the art patrons to fight each other while he escapes. Barry runs up a building and onto Rainbow Raider’s rainbow...whereupon Raider shoots a blinding light at him, causin him to slip off the rainbow and almost fall to his doom. Luckily, his ability to vibrate through anything saves his life, as he manages to vibrate through a green car he was about to land on. 

Barry then finds that he’s turned totally green. ‘I must’ve been vibrating on the precise wavelength of the color green when I passed through this heap--somehow allowing me to regain my capacity to absorb green light-waves!” SCIENCE! He then starts running through vehicles of other colors to regain his capacity to absorb those light-waves, too. Since Raider is colorblind, he can’t figure out what the Flash is up to. 

When Raider takes one last blast at the Flash, the effects restore him to normal, and Flash is able to make quick work of the Rainbow Raider. 

I love the Rainbow Raider so much.

[kimberly-spirits13]

Infinity Factor (Request)

Pairing: Batfam x batsis

Synopsis: You were born with what many would call a curse. From the reality last, where characters like Batman and Wonder Woman are just characters and everything was “real”, you had just died and now, as a result you were living this curse once more and have just been born into another universe. What you don’t know is that you’ll have to die for those you love until all your time here is exhausted. Thus, creating the Infinity Factor.

Note: (This was Google Translated so feel free to correct me if I’m wrong but it’s in the story) ‘ukhti alhabiba = my beloved sister (Arabic) ‘akhi alhabiba = my beloved brother

Warnings: Mentions of death

Word Count: 2383

           Bruce had found you on the streets of Gotham in the harsh winter during one of his nightly patrols. It was a routine thing to find the corpses of the homeless during this time which had desensitized him from any sort of event like this. What he wasn’t used to however was finding a screaming baby girl wrapped up in bundles of old cloth laying in the trash by itself with no other being around. That night, against all odds, you were alive. He took you home to Alfred’s care and immediately after that adopted you as he tends to have a habit of. ———————————————————————

           The first time you died was saving your father from a gunshot fired by an estranged guest at one of the galas. It was in the middle of him talking to one of the CEO’s that was invited and you that terrible feeling something would happen. You knew from the start that something was off but figured that Bruce would have to know too. The moment you saw him pull the small revolver, this unknown force just made you jump in front of Bruce. The shot fired and you took it. From there, everything was pitch black. You knew you weren’t done yet since you didn’t immediately wake up somewhere unknown to you.

           Instead, it was a miserable rest of the night for everyone else. You were rushed into the hospital and pronounced dead after only a few minutes upon arrival. The sounds of Bruce’s cries were what woke you up. Slowly light started flooding your senses and you heard the sudden starting of a heart monitor. Doctors came rushing in and the look of shock on your father’s face never your memories.

———————————————————————

           From then on you were known as the “Miracle Child” of the Wayne family. You didn’t particularly care for the nickname seeing as this thing that you had going on was never really a miracle, however there were many more incidents that proved this name to be a fitting one for more and more people.

           One by one, over the years Bruce had accumulated adopted many more children. All were at varying ages but you all came to know them as your family. This was the first real family you’d had in a considerable amount of lives and this time, you didn’t want to lose them. They didn’t want to lose you either. The curse that was bestowed upon you was like a double -edged sword. On one end, you might die for just a few minutes or even a day or two at most once you took a bullet, knife, sword, bomb, etc... for them. On the other hand, you might take that death and never wake up in this world. You lived every day in fear that something might happen to them thus, resulting in your own ultimate despise from this universe.

           The family knew this well. Jason and Damian especially. For someone who was roughly around Tim’s age, you had died a total of 14 times. Every week dreams flooded your mind of either some strange world you might come to live in, or the tragic and often graphic ways in which you had previously parished. The dreams of new worlds were often enticing and enthralling, however the latter was not. On nights you did have those bad dreams, someone was there with you under most circumstances.

———————————————————————

           This night wasn’t any different from past nights leading to this. It was a quiet night in Gotham during your own patrol. Nothing too strange was occurring and you certainly didn’t feel otherwise unsafe from the typical standard. Gliding from roof top to roof top, you were having the time of your life. It was an interesting aspect being on the ground below during the day but at night soaring above the tiny cars and street lights below.

           You didn’t stop until reaching a building where Bruce had found you in the diamond district that fateful January’s night. Walking to the front ledge of the building, you looked down on the streets and alley ways below. You had a habit of really looking carefully and even staring at some spots getting lost in what things in the shadows might be. Maybe it was a trashcan that looked especially off, or sometimes it was a cat casting a strange shadow in the city light’s glow, however, you always saw it.

           The unfailing and ever-present observation skills you picked up now were starting to register a different sound. It sounded as though someone were in great distress and the noise emanating from this signaled their near demise. Without a moment’s notice you could hear Duke’s voice coming onto the speakers. This was one of the nights that he decided to come on patrol since Steph had come down with the flu.

           “Someone’s been shot in the 6th Street – 5th Street alleyway. I’ve got this one handled.” He said.

           No time had passed from the end of that call to the moment you leaped off the building in the largest rush of your life, pulled by the same unknown force from so many times ago. Tears began to spring from your eyes knowing what was going to happen to you. You wiped your cheeks and carried on in pursuit of this killer so that Duke wouldn’t have to face what fate was so cruelly handing him if you weren’t quick enough. You knew that in consequence to what you were about to do, you’d be given his fate.

           It was dark when you reached the alleyway, there were no signs of any beings but for the woman laid on the cold concreate ground below. You saw the pain in her eyes and knew that she wasn’t gone yet. With this curse came another trait, you knew when someone was close to death. She wasn’t near it, not yet at least. Before jumping down the building, you dropped a flash bomb. It wasn’t enough to seriously startle the woman, it was just enough for you to see where the culprit was fast enough so that you’d be able to get him. The moment the light went off, trashcans started to fall. You knew where he was and without missing a beat, you jumped into your death knowing full well what was waiting for you down there.

           Duke wasn’t far behind. In fact, you had heard his calls and pleads not to go down there by yourself. Those were all obviously ignored seeing as you were now in the middle of a gunfight with two men. They didn’t seem to pose much of a threat compared to your training. It was the woman that knocked you off your guard some. You knew you had to get her to cover or she’d be shot by a stray bullet. That was Batman’s second rule. Don’t let bystanders be killed in your own fight. So that’s what you followed. With bullets flying and two fully grown men screaming at you to give up, you dragged her out of the way and into a safe place where the brick wall would give her cover as long as she didn’t move.

           “The woman that’s been shot is behind the wall for cover. Do not come out, I repeat urgh!” Your line went dead.

           Everyone listened in horror as a final gunshot went off. They heard what they hoped was you hitting the guy in the back of the head with his own revolver, and then a thud along with one other. They knew what that second thud was. It was Duke who found you dead, in a pool of your own blood. Next was your oldest brother, and then Bruce. They all kept coming until finally, Damian was there crying into your shoulder, your own blood now staining his costume darker red.

           No one spoke the rest of the way home. Bruce had you in the Batmobile to take you to the cave. Alfred was notified to open the room in which your body was to lay for at least three days. If you weren’t awake by then, you were certainly dead. In you went, each leaving and revisiting one by one. It wasn’t that you wouldn’t be able to leave. Not at all. From inside, the door was unlocked and Alfred always left a note explaining that in case you awoke and didn’t understand what was happening. You always understood, sometimes it just took a while for you to really grasp what had happened.

———————————————————————

           Hours and minutes ticked by. Every few hours or so, someone would visit outside your door and just stay there in either silence or in a conversation about their day. They knew you didn’t hear it, it was just nice feeling like you were still there in some way listening to their tirades on the idiot at the mall who didn’t know where they were going and was holding up the line. Or maybe it was someone at WE who wasn’t good at deals and negotiations and either wanted too much or demanded too little thus, a bargain was made almost at their expense. Either way, they always came to you to talk, even if you couldn’t answer back.

           When you finally did awaken, the lights were dimmed as they usually are. Inside was the fresh smell of your favorite candle which smelled like Alfred’s cookies and a few inches from it as to not start a fire, was a hand- written note by Alfred himself explaining where you were and how to get out of the room. You stayed in silence for a bit, crying to yourself over what you had experienced. The wound in your chest were gone and only a scar was left. Another “plus” of this curse was that your wounds healed without assistance or closure.

           Once the reality of it all had crept into your mind and you knew for certain that you were safe and home, you slowly opened the door. It was a bit brighter when the main part of the cave came into view. You wasted no time looking around for your family after using the bathroom that was downstairs close to where you were. They didn’t seem to be in the cave at the time being. Looking up at the bat-computer, you saw that it had been a full 27 hours since your death and right now, everyone should have been planned to be somewhere but for Damian, Alfred, and your father who would all be at home.

           Carefully, you climbed up the stairs and into the room where Bruce had set the main entrance into. It was hidden away and separate from the clock but none the less, everyone in the family knew about it. You made your ways through the halls not really knowing where to find anyone. You didn’t need to go into your bedroom since you were already in clean and comfortable clothes from the night of your death. The wood floors felt cold under your feet which is something that took a minute or two to get readjusted to but none the less, you continued on not to be deterred by something that mundane and simple.

           After not finding anyone in the lower wing of the house, you went upstairs straight to your father’s bedroom. You knew someone would either be there or in your room. Heading up the stairs, you found that there was no one in sight.

           “Maybe I should call someone?” You thought.

           Someone was always meant to be at the house when this kind of thing happened, however the manor was large and on many acres of land so even if there was someone there, you might not ever find them. You continued on back down the third flight of stairs and came to your own floor. Well, it wasn’t really your own floor, it was just where you room was. Slowly passing the opened doors of the other bedrooms just as Alfred kept them for air circulation, you made it to your room. The door was also wide open and the lights were not on.

           Stepping into your room however, you were met by a tear stained, wide eyed boy. Damian sat staring at you, his green eyes dimmed and darker from what crying he must have been doing. He sat on your bed, wrapped in one of your own blankets that sat on the chair you used to read him stories in. Immediately after registering your very alive self, he jumped up practically tackling you to the floor.

           “‘ukhti alhabiba!” He cried into your shoulder, “I m-missed you so much.”

           The two of you held each other as close as possible which wasn’t hard considering he was still very small in stature at this age.

           “I missed you too ‘akhi alhabiba.” You looked down at him and eventually up at Alfred and Bruce who had come from checking on you in the cave only to come up empty handed.

           Both of the men dropped to the floor holding you tight. There were some words of welcome back and others of happiness in gladness of your resurrection, but mostly tears. Bruce had contacted the rest of your family by now and they were all on their way. You knew when they got back, it would be a house full of crying bats.

           Now, only fifteen minutes later, everyone was there on the floor, huddling around you. You knew that you were safe in this moment. The smaller screams of joy in seeing you from your brothers entering the room made you sure of that. Damian hadn’t moved and Dick was latched onto you as well. You and Duke had almost had a facial expression conversation all including a sorry, gratitude, and a, “happy you’re back” moment. Jason wouldn’t really admit that he was sobbing that day even though everyone knew and Tim was so sleep deprived that he almost passed out upon seeing you. Either way, there wasn’t some crazy force pulling you into danger like those kind of this typically do. Instead, it was another even crazier and mind- boggling force that pulled you and your family closer together in the mourning a lost life, and finally the celebration of a restored one.

I had no idea where I was going to take this tbh lol. I had a good idea from the request but it wasn’t until I actually started writing that I was like ohhh okay. I hope you guys liked this one though, it was fun to write. Anyways, I hope you’re all doing great and staying safe and healthy. Have a wonderful day and rest of the week!

[peppersonironi]

Batfam Whumptober Day One

{Read on Ao3}

No. 1: Waking Up Restrained | Shackled | Hanging

Summary: Jason wakes up restrained in the med bay of the bat cave after a major pit-rampage. He panics and it takes Bruce rushing in to calm him down.

A/N: This is kinda soft? I just couldn't NOT put comfort at the end. It's really my first time writing anything whumpy/angsty, so bear with me. Unedited; we die like Robins.

TW: Panic attacks, referenced self harm

Jason tensed as he gained consciousness. He hadn’t remembered falling asleep, and in his business, that was bad news.

Jason sucked in a breath as he tried to raise a hand to his face. He opened his eyes and looked around. He was tied down to a medical bed in the cave’s med bay. They had used the heavy-duty restraints, the ones that were only pulled out there was a serious safety risk.

Jason’s mouth went dry as he imagined the implications. He was a security risk, so much so that no one was in the room. Not Alfred, not Dick, not Bruce, no one. Whatever happened had been serious.

Jason blinked several times and his breathing grew erratic. Why had they tied him up? Bruce promised he wouldn’t lock his son away again - PROMISED. Had Jason gone too far? Who had he hurt? Not Tim again, they were fine now. No one else had ever actually bothered him that mu - oh no.

Jason’s began to sweat, his chest clenching as he stopped straining to remember what had happened. Jason let out a choked sob as the images flashed before him.

*****

The League had come to Gotham, Ra’s leading it with Talia at his side. So of course everyone was called in.

They had taken down the agents preparing for whatever the f*** the old guy had planned, and were in the middle of a confrontation.

*****

Jason tried to calm his breathing, only to grow with panic. No, no, no, no.

*****

Ra’s had sent Talia in first, along with several of his assassins. Everyone got their turn to take down a league member, and it was going well. Then Jason had decided he wanted to take down the woman that had both saved, and ruined his life.

He ignored Bruce’s command to let him take care of Talia and attacked. They quickly disarmed each other and moved on to hand-to-hand combat. The demon’s daughter tried once or twice to pull a knife move on him, but Jasonw as lucky enough to have heard Duke’s sudden warnings.

Eventually, he pinned her to the top of the roof. Most of the fighting had stopped, and everyone was helping each other take care of the ninjas, except Bruce.

“How does it feel to lose yet again, Talia?” Jason had asked.

“Red Hood,” Bruce said as he approached the pair, “that’s enough.”

Talia smirked. “Why don’t I tell you how it feels?”

“Jason,” Bruce said in warning, “let her go.”

Jason ignored him, which turned out to be a horrific mistake.  When Talia leaned up and whispered in his ear, Jason’s eyes widened beneath his helmet. He fell backwards, scooching away from the woman.

“Little Wing?”

Jason wrapped his arms around his helmet at the sound of his older brother. He shook his head, trying to shake off the emotions stabbing at his control.

No, he thought, I can’t let Talia win.

Jason couldn’t breath, and began to scratch at his helmet, clumsy fingers struggling to rip it off. But when he did, he flung it across the roof.

“Jason?” Bruce asked, ignoring the retreating Al Ghuls.

“Enjoy your fun, Beloved.” Talia called from the helicopter she had just boarded. “He’s going to tear you apart.”

“No,” Jason muttered, tearing at his hair and face. His mask came off a moment later, and his scalp screamed at him, but he couldn’t care less. He somehow found himself on his knees, and looked up to find everyone staring at him.

The crowd was too much. The noises of the city were too much. The rage was too much.

“NO!” Jason yelled, his breathing becoming ragged. He lifted his head up to look at his family, eyes wide. For a moment, he couldn’t see anything beyond sickly green. “Stay back!” But he knew it was too late.

He stood up, stumbling backwards. He couldn’t hear anything anymore, beyond the great rushing of the pit. The roar filled his ears as he tried to look away from the other bats.

He tried, oh boy did he try. But it wasn’t enough. The moment someone came into his vision, he lashed out.  There were sudden yells as Jason blindly struck the person before him. The person was small, so he where he would otherwise have struck the gut, he hit the shoulder instead. Only one person was that small: Damian.

Jason could only watch in horror as his little brother spun and landed against the roof. Hard. He wanted to cry at the pool of blood forming beside the now prone body, but the pit would n’t let him. The red fuelled his rampage, causing him to lash out at the next nearest person: Bruce.

Once upon a time Jason wouldn’t have bothered to restrain himself, would've been elated at the development of events. But this time he couldn’t. This time all that filled the sliver of sanity left in Jason Todd was a cold twisting in his gut.

No, he thought pathetically as arms grabbed him, as broken fragments of conversation - it’s the pit! Hold him down! Talia! Triggered! Rage! Hold on!

No…

*****

Jason gasped and yanked on the restraints, trying to forget how everyone had crowded on him. Except for Damian. How someone had managed to tranq him.

He’d lashed out at his family.

He’d let the pit take over.

He’d let Talia get to him.

He’d killed his brother.

Jason whimpered and sunk down onto the bed, suddenly nauseous. He’d … he’d really done it. This was it. No way Bruce could ever forgive him after this. They’d already lost Damian once, and this time Jason was responsible?

“Damian,” Jason whispered softly, in between ragged breaths. He tried to swallow, but shouldn’t. It was too dry.

Jason shook, the room seeming to close in on him. He pulled on the restraints, suddenly aware of how tight they were. Almost as bad as in Arkham.

Oh no.

Arkham.

Jason blinked, trying to calm the rising panic. Bruce … Bruce had promised not to send him back. But, after he killed Damian? Proved that he has always been unstable? It was now a distinct possibility.

“No,” he muttered, “Please no. I can’t go back. Don’t send me back.” His vision blurred, and the silence of the room became stifling. “I’m sorry,” he cried, like it would do any good, “I’m so sorry. Sorry. Sorry …”

Jason shook his head and blinked away tears as he continued to mutter. He couldn’t think straight. Every spot of logical reasoning had left him. Some part of him knew this. Not that it mattered.

“Chum?”

Jason looked over his shoulder to find Bruce standing in the entrance. He wore civilian clothes - sweatpants and a t-shirt - and looked insanely tired.

“I’m sorry!” Jason began his chant again, the sight of his father renewing panic in him. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m -”

“Hey, It’s alright,” Bruce cut in, rushing forward to sit on the chair beside Jason’s bed.

Jason shook his head, unbelieving. “No, no I’m sorry!” He hunched his shoulders, trying to make himself smaller. It was what he had done when he was small, and first came to the manor. He hadn’t felt this vulnerable in years.

Bruce seemed to get this. “Jay, it’s alright. You’re safe.”

Jason shook his head vigorously. “No, you’re not. I can’t - You shouldn’t - I’ll just -” Jason let out a dry heave of a sob and squeezed his eyes shut. His hands shook in the restraints, irritating the already growing bruises. Suddenly, there was a hand in his own.

“Jason, look at me,” Bruce said calmly, patiently. Jason took a shaking breath before slowly turning to look at his father. “Hey, chum, it’s alright. No one blames you. Talia - whatever Talia said was purposeful, there to hurt you. You had no control over it.”

“But I could’ve stopped the pit, I let it get to me.” Why didn’t he get it? Jason was the problem here. He was the one who’d make the … mistake.

Bruce frowned, his eyes soft. A small part of Jason was surprised - he hadn’t seen Bruce look at him like that for a very long time. It was calming, he had to admit. “You held it off for as long as you could,” Bruce said calmly, “Besides, you did warn us. We just didn’t listen.”

Suddenly, the slowly calming emotions flared back up again. “Damian.” Jason out, eyes wide. “Oh no. no, no, no.”

“Jason,” Bruce said, grabbing his face, “breath. Damian’s alright.”

Jason blinked. “What? No, I saw -”

“He’s fine, just upstairs resting.” Bruce interjected promptly. “He was trying to draw your attention away, said that's what happened whenever his mom flared up. Just underestimated your strength.”

Jason frowned. “But I saw him-” Jason hiccuped.

Bruce smiled softly. “He just reopened some stitches on his soldier. A minor concussion from the fall, but Alfred says he’ll be alright with some bed rest.”

“He’s alright?” Jason asked, still shaking and not quite believing Bruce’s words.

“He’s alright.” Bruce confirmed.

Jason collapsed back onto the bed, the twisting in his restraints slowing down. He closed his eyes and breathed.

“The kid’s okay,” Jason whispered to himself.

A few moments later, Bruce spoke again. “Think I can take these off now?”

Jason opened his eyes and looked over to where Bruce was gesturing to the restraints. He tensed, staring up at Bruce. “I thought they were for you?” He asked, more than stated.

Bruce frowned. “No, no of course not. When we brought you in, you had started to wake up again. ‘Kept scratching yourself, and pulling out your hair.” Bruce paused to make sure Jason was looking him in the eye. “These were to protect you from yourself.”

Jason took a few moments to breathe. “Okay,” He said at last, “You can take them off.”

Bruce promptly reached forward and undid the restraints on both his wrists and ankles. He took a moment to gently rub the abused skin of his wrists before setting them down.

“Are you alright?” Bruce asked, moving back to his chair.

Jason paused to consider. “Ish?”

Bruce chuckled - honest to gosh chuckled! “I’ll take that, he said, leaning forward to press a kiss to Jason’s forehead.

Maybe it was tiredness. Maybe it had to do with released inhibitions from the pit. Maybe general emotional instability. Or maybe he just darn wanted to. Whatever the reason, Jason reached his arms up and wrapped them around Bruce. The man quickly reciprocated, keeping his son securely in the hug.

“Thanks, dad.” Jason said, and smiled.

They remained there for a while, neither really speaking. Slowly, Jason closed his eyes once more. This time,  it wasn’t out of panic, or fear. He was just tired, and honestly, Bruce was a great hugger when he wanted to be.

Later, he’ll check on Damian (bring the kid Cheese Vikings or something. Maybe a new cat?), and both thank and berate him for his actions. He’ll go to Kate and Selina, Dick, Tim, and Steph, Duke and Cass, and Harper. Check on them, and apologize.

But for now?

Now, Jason thinks he’ll sleep.

Tagging: @starrystories2

[currentfandomkick]

Marinette did not sign up for this part 4

hey, so OG chapter 4 will now be chapter 5 as the gremlins hijacked this chapter.

part one here   previous part here   ao3 here

--

            Damian stared in quiet horror as he looked over Ladybug’s exploits after hacking into Paris’ servers. His sister—the one he took down with little effort—had been defending the city for a month before he appeared. From the video of “Stoneheart” he could tell she was given no training. And her partner was flirting with her! When he should be focusing on the mission!

             What gathered from further research was the following: his sister and her ‘partner’ were untrained. Their teammates were also untrained. A team of ten untrained teenagers—perhaps younger—were tasked with keeping a villainous coward from stealing their magic artifacts, and with stealing his in turn. A team lead by his sister. A very alone, scared girl from his one interaction with her. Smart (he saw now she knew how to save her own skin. Redirecting his attention was a good move at the time). She is smart and creative because if she isn’t, then her city and her will lose. Be under the control of some madman.

             He had to get there, and he doubted he could convince Jon to help him at the moment—why are kyptonians always fighting one another when you need the assistance of one?

             Father would stop him.

             The League was keeping Father in Gotham and he didn’t have individual access yet…

             He was stuck for the moment, and did not like it. Perhaps Grayson could prove useful? He’d ask once the man was done resting from patrol.

---------

             Cass was enjoying Paris. She spotted the possible sister at the bakery with her adoptive mother. They were happy. Cass likes that.

             Cass moved quickly through the crowd, managing to make it to the bakery.

             Marinette ran into her.

             “Ah! Sorry!” the girl managed to catch her things before they hit the ground.

             Cass waved her hands, indicating there was no harm or foul. The girl was no clumsy—Shifu Cheng was ill-informed. Those reflexes and her expression before indicated nothing but an intense focus on something else. On what, Cass wasn’t sure.

             Yet.

             For now, Cass took a seat in the bakery, smiling at the kind woman working the front. Sabine Cheng, the woman who raised the maybe-Bat.

             Cass began doing her own research, messaging Babs that she saw Soup Girl for a moment, and would be assessing her parents. She knew of cases in Gotham where things weren’t always right, and she wanted to be certain that this girl was safe, regardless of if she’s a Bat or not.

--------

             Tim decided to ignore Babs offer in the end. The possibility of owing Jason was low given both him and Cass are on the Case. Jason is good, don’t get him wrong, but the chances of Jason actually talking to the girl in a real conversation before the rest of them? As Red Hood?

             This is a calculated risk and the odd are in Tim’s favor. (Well, not in Jason's.)

--------

             Steph hummed as she went over the designer pool she was looking over. Shockingly low given its Paris—granted 200 girls is a lot to investigate… she didn’t give the others all the information she had though.

             According to Damian, she “posts a disgusting amount” which means she’s posting or tagged often. When she used some of Babs old filtering program with social media involved, it brought the candidates down to 30. She could go through thirty teenage designers social media and comb over who at least has some genes that are dominant from the Wayne side. Her natural hair had to be medium brunette at the lightest, so the natural blondes took out seven candidates right off the bat. While blue or green eyes would give them more priority on the list, eye color genes are weird. Weirdly, five of her candidates had attached earlobes, so she only had 18 left after that filter was put on… Bruce’s hair isn’t curly, so two girls with intensely curly natural hair were taken off the list. Bruce’s thin lips only knocked out two more candidates.

             That left Stephanie Brown with 14 designers in Paris to find and investigate in the right age range, because she doesn’t think Bruce started having sex at 15, unlike Tim who is allowing college kids into his ‘could be Bruce’s daughter’ mix.

             Stephanie is also going to need a plane ticket to meet these girls, and that means getting help from one of Wayne kids… Or stowing away on the private jet that she knows Tim can and will be using sometime today to do ground work himself.

             She’s cool stowing away—Babs is covering for her on principle since Tim wouldn’t take the deal. Steph was smart enough to relinquish one piece of blackmail in total in exchange for use of Babs filtering tech—she has more than that thanks to one Supergirl spilling a number of things Babs has done over the years. Has Stephanie mentioned she’s the only one of the Bats to listen to Oracle, Queen of Technology, in this bet? She is, and she is better for it.

-----------

             Marinette managed to make it to the Agrests Mansion with little issue this time. Today she was going to one of the production lines with Gabriel to learn how to reset the machines and program them to follow any simple stitch pattern she wanted. It was good.

             She also noticed that during none of her times with Gabriel, was there a single akuma sighting. Not an attack—those never happened anywhere near their time together. It was an… interesting pattern. She was beginning to suspect that if Hawkmoth wasn’t Gabriel (he was akumatized, it can’t be him. Get that theory out of your head Marinette), then it had to be someone who worked for him, and high on the food chain.

             She made sure to memorize each of his ‘supervising managers’ and partners’ names. One of them had to be Hawkmoth. And Gabriel had to be someone that this Hawkmoth either really respected or really didn’t want handle re-scheduling with. Which would be all of them…

             She really wished she had more time to dig into their lives herself. For now, she had to trust Max and Markov to do the research… which reminded her, her name had been pinged on multiple searches in Gotham last night. From numerous devices. If the Bats were planning anything…

             Marinette gripped her purse a bit tighter. Her team has her back. She just doesn’t want them caught up in this mess too. She wishes that Aquaman never showed up. If he hadn’t, then the Bats wouldn’t be looking into her civilian life, the one they already knew about but only now deemed worthy of their attention.

             She wished they would just stop—she won’t look into the Great Detectives. She knows she’s not one of them. That she wouldn’t hack it in Gotham. But Damnit, in Paris? Her Territory—she does more than hack it. Sure, she may have blown herself up that one time, and yes, there is the timeline where as Princess Justice she may have sort of broke the world by forcing it to conform to that akumatized version of hers’ idea of Absolute Justice (apparently she was ruthless, made no exceptions and took out a third of the Justice League using Multimouse at the time on top of it all). Yes, she is not a perfect leader. Or hero. But Damnit, her (admittedly two) supervillians have been almost caught twice. Her re-akumatazation rate is much lower than any of the Justice League’s heroes’ normal villain or general crime recidivism rate by more than a little. By a lot. She’s not some Detective but she’s a damn good strategist, a champion at improvising and she and her team do work with the public and victims and reworked so much of Paris’ social culture to lower akuma-creating circumstances and keep the public emotionally healthy.

             She’s no detective.

             She’s a Guardian. That means caring about the details that shift the bigger pieces. That means adaption with what is there and creating what she needs. That means knowing her limits and getting help—to set an example and prove that not even her or Chat are an island. That even superheroes need help, need others and need to work together.

            She’s no detective. Detectives work alone.

            Her? She’s forged a team that (she hopes) could become the new Order of Gaurdians with her… some day. For now, they’re heroes with the same mission and different roles to play.

            Marinette just wishes that she could shut up this hunch since its been disproven. Her instincts on guilt and possible baddies aren’t the best—Adrien’s job is to sense what’s wrong and take them out. Hers is to make whatever is needed to help fix things, to push someone forward and help them grow. Her job to craft a better tomorrow today… and to do that, she lost the parts of her that picked up Danger. She can still find Caution signs (and her anxiety will always invent danger) but real Danger detection went to Adrien when she agreed to become Ladybug in the first place… And until both her and Adrien renounce their roles as the pair wielding the Ladybug and Black Cat miraculouses, she’ll always be missing it.

            The same way Adrien is missing his ability to think outside the box—seeing things as what they could become to help them went to her. He can only see potential threat and act on them. She can only see potential aide and act on that.

---------

            Jason grinned when he managed to make it into Paris. The second there was some damn akuma attack, he was grabbing the baby Bat and hunting Hawkmoth his way—she need the jewelry? Fine. She can have it. The guy brainwashing kids? The one that slaughtered the city? He’s Jason’s. ---------

            Bruce didn’t like being benched. He doesn’t like not knowing he had another child. He especially doesn’t like that this one is constantly preventing an apocalypse and his allies can’t be bothered to even send him anything about it. Not even a basic ‘she’s not living on the streets’ like Jason did. Or ‘she’s got parents here, calm down’ so he could get this stupid instinct to storm Paris and take on the bastard threatening his family that he didn’t know he had.

            Apparently Barbra has a hunch, but isn’t sharing until she has “conclusive evidence” of his daughter’s identity. Damian just isn’t speaking of it. As if being someone’s father biologically gives him a built-in alarm system for when he’s had a child and the ability to track them down at birth. Damian being raised in the League of Assassins should be enough proof to the contrary there.

            The others were… he wasn’t absolutely certain, but fairly certain his self-proclaimed ‘middle kid club’ were tracking his missing daughter down themselves. Possibly to claim her as part of their group, specifically.

            God, she was so young, It was before he even heard of the League that she was born. In that lifetime before becoming Batman. Would she like him? He was absent her whole life—did she want to meet him, meet the family? They’re a mess, he knows it. But they’re his—he chose them and they chose him. Would she chose him too?

            He watched another video of Ladybug in her early days, before she and her partner (dear god he’s cat-themed. Is it genetic? Should he test her and himself for some ‘drawn to dresses-as-a-cat’ gene?) were given any kind of training.

            She blew herself up to stop her city from being taken over by ‘Animan’ and his creatures.

            His daughter.

            Exploded.

            (She died. She died and he didn’t know. God he’s a horrible parent, and he hasn’t even parented her yet.)

            She died.

            To keep her city safe.

            She somehow reconstituted. But her face, in that video, she was shocked.

            His daughter should be dead but she’s not.

            Magic, he’s so glad his daughter uses magic.

            He. He’s going to need to consult someone. Raven? Raven should work. He can’t talk to the Justice League—nothing wrong with talking to the half-demon all of his Robins that lead the Titans has worked with.

            Loopholes.

            The Justice League is horrible at closing them.

---------

            Dick wanted to be mad when Damian came clean to him about the needles. He wanted to freak out over almost losing a sister he hasn’t met.

            He did.

            But.

            But this is Damian.

            Damian who still has trouble connecting. Who still flinches at certain tones of voice and phrasing. Damian who desperately wants to do Good but… struggles.

             Damian who has all of Bruce’s communication problems and then some.

             So no, Dick did not scream when he found out Damian only sparred “the blood daughter” because she looked too frail and weak for her to be considered anything resembling a threat to him. He did not sigh when he found out that Bruce didn’t know when Damian assumed he did. He did not hit himself when Damian discussed the various weapons he’d gifted her as a apology with the bouquets over the years and their meanings.

             He did take a deep breath, and begin explaining from this baby bat’s stance what had happened.

             “Imagine for a moment that it was me before I became Robin, and I was almost killed by someone who only let me live if I never contacted a shared parent or that parent’s known family. How do you think Pre-Robin me would have responded?”

             “You would have feared for your life and done whatever you could to prevent contact.”

             “Now, imagine I wasn’t told who to be avoiding, only aliases.”

             “You would avoid everyone with an alias that you did not help them create, and keep them from unknown aliases.”

             Dick snapped his fingers. “Exactly. That’s what this sister, what are we calling her?”

             “Her alias is Ladybug.”

             “Yes, that is what Ladybug was going through before Aquaman made contact.”

             Damian was quiet for a moment. “She must be on edge.”

             Dick nodded at that. “She probably is.”

             Damian furrowed his brow. “Do you think the League would allow me to contact her and end our agreement?”

             Dick rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m not sure, but we can try.”

             “… And if they refuse?”

             “Then we find another way. We’re Bats,” Dick reassured Damian. He just hoped the missing members weren’t doing anything too rash…    

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

             Marinette made a (painful) decision. Adrien and her would swap miraculouses—at least until there were less pings on her sites from Gotham. For added protection, she kept the Mouse miraculous on. Chatte Noire was less known, and she doubted Wonder Woman or Aquaman informed Batman about the miraculous of Creation and Destruction’s particular… refusal to let anyone but a pair chosen together to wield them at any point.

             Chatte Noire would only be on call for a day or so… what’s the worst that can happen?

--------

the characters are jinxing themselves, and procrastinating the (vague) plot of Shenanigans. i swear. 

if anyone can message me on how to add in a read more, that’d be great since i know these can get long to scroll past for mobile users.

@heldtogetherbysafetypins @laurcad123 @raisuke06 @chaosace @jeminiikrystal @toodaloo-kangaroo @kris-pines04 @laurcad123

[thejuleselliot]

the Flaws of ‘Wonder Woman: 1984′

Fair warning: I’m gonna go longform on this one. If you want to read an essay dissecting the failures of this movie, read on. If not...

...

I wanted it to be great.

After suffering various delays over the years, I was as excited as anyone else to see it. Unfortunately, when I eventually did, I was disappointed.

The film’s many problems essentially boil down to only one: it can’t pick a side. Steve Trevor is Diana’s soulmate, or he isn’t. Barbara Minerva is Diana’s friend, or she isn’t. And, most glaringly, Maxwell Lord is either a good guy... or he just isn’t. The filmmakers themselves don’t seem to know, but they expect you, the audience, to. None of this is played out skillfully, or with a hint of nuance.

It could be argued that the majority of 1984′s problems lie with Lord. While almost every commercial or promotion for the film portrayed Wiig’s Cheetah as the film’s villain, it’s obvious upon first viewing that Pascal has spades more screen time. But the fact is, Lord is never given enough opportunity to become a menacing villain because the film never bothers to take the time to paint an accurate portrait. The first time he’s really introduced to the audience is through the eyes of Wiig’s Barbara Minerva. The meeting is awkward, even cringe-worthy. You’re meant to find him charming, yet you don’t. This is an absolute failing within the script.

When creating a villain, a screenwriter needs to make a choice: the monster you fear, or the monster you love. In the Dark Knight, Heath Ledger’s Joker inevitably fits into the former category. Through the film, he not only murders Bruce Wayne’s girlfriend, he is shown to be completely unhinged on several occasions. The audience never questions for a minute that he will do anything and everything to create havoc in Gotham City. So, here, we not only have a defined personality, we have a motive.

For the latter, let’s look to Tom Hiddleston’s Loki in the first Avengers film. Loki is the charmer. Intense, but beguiling. The characters - and, by extension, the audience - is drawn in. Therefore, when he does do evil, it catches you off-guard. When he shouts, you listen.

The character of Maxwell Lord never gives you that chance. He’s been compared to the 80′s personality of Donald Trump, which is a apt description. The one issue of this, however, is that Jenkins chooses to give Lord a different dimension - that of a caring father. She can’t seem to commit to one side of the character. Is he a monster, or isn’t he? By the finale, you’re expected to believe that by reversing his actions, he’s proven what side of morality he’s on. However, without defining the limits of that morality early on, the audience lacks a personal connection to the character. A better version of the script would have eliminated the son entirely and committed entirely to a Trumpian parody, or eliminated the Trump-ishness and depicted a struggling, good-hearted businessman who allows power to corrupt him and ultimately chooses the right side in the end. Without defining clearer character boundaries, the audience is never given a chance to care what he does next.

Cheetah belies another narrative issue entirely. While Lord is complicated to the point of confusion, the script can’t seem to discern a motive for self-styled superhero Barbara Minerva. Her own introduction shows her being stepped over (literally) by coworkers at Diana’s work, the Smithsonian museum. Her supervisor can’t remember her name. Sounds bad, right?

However. It’s worth noting that we quickly learn that Barbara has started there only one week earlier. Yes, it’s pretty rude to be ignored or forgotten by your coworkers. But it’s not as if she has known them for years and still been treated this way. I wouldn’t expect a coworker or superior to have my name locked-in on week one. Barbara has started a new job, and the film never bothers to tell us what her old job was or where she's been since college. (We also learn, most upsettingly, that she has a series of impressive degrees - something we are merely told, not shown. With the exception of one scene in which she researches for Diana, she’s completely terrible at her job, and Diana constantly steps in to do it for her.) We’re meant to believe that it was simply fate that brought her to Diana, and to the path she is set on.

Quickly, Barbara proves herself to be a kind, if vaguely frenetic soul. That alone is enough potential for a lovable, Luna Lovegood-type character. However, by consistently ensuring that she is the most obnoxious person in the room, it’s difficult to gain audience sympathy. Early on, she’s attacked by a man while walking home, before quickly being saved by Diana. This kindness is forgotten, once she has successfully made Diana the villain in her mind.

Strangely, the film never really tells us why she goes after Diana so viciously. Outside of a power struggle, one from which Diana has nothing to gain, they have no disagreements, with exception of Diana’s generic, disinterested distrust in Barbara’s quickly-discarded love interest, Maxwell Lord. The Lord/Minerva subplot never really goes anywhere, burning brightly in snippets of the film’s first thirty minutes and largely disappearing for the next two hours. Jenkins decides not to treat Barbara as a woman manipulated, instead making her in charge of her own actions.

There would be merit in this, if it didn’t remove any or all motivation from Minerva’s story. Later in, Barbara seethes and makes several inane statements about being ‘special’ like Diana (during a battle, no less) and the film clumsily tries to assign this as her character motivation. At the end of the film, Barbara is electrically shocked in a way that would kill most people. The last shot shows her sitting on what appears to be a cliff, looking out at almost-Wakandan sunset, boldly copying one of Black Panther’s iconic final shots.

Another issue with Barbara stands with the film’s issues with character perspective. In the first film, almost every scene, with the exception of those with the villains, takes place from Diana’s point of view. This doesn’t work as well when employed in WW84. For one, unlike the first, the film is unable to choose a perspective. The first major scene set in the 80′s takes place in the eyes of a group of thieves who are never seen or heard from again. (We assume Lord hired them... this is never clearly stated?)

By doing this, the film suffers. Sometimes it chooses to focus on Diana’s rich and grieving state, still deeply affected from the loss of Steve Trevor. And when it does, it expects you to care. However, by choosing to focus almost equally on the emotional state of Lord and Minerva, it takes valuable screen time away from the woman with her name in the title. And all that time spent sympathizing with the villains is left wasted when the viewer struggles to find a reason to love them, and the film never tells you why.

The character assassination of Steve Trevor is its own failing. By removing him from his time, he is removed completely from his own motivations. He exists only to be a kind of spiritual guardian to Diana. He had not been brought to life by the film’s MacGuffin, it would have made little difference to his overall effect. Steve and Diana get a few moments, but they’re clumsily written and badly paced. By the end, Steve and Diana do part, and you’re left wondering why the script bothered to bring him back in the first place.

Then, Diana herself. The film opens with a woefully, painfully dull Olympic-style obstacle course, showing a eight-year-old Diana attempt to win. While doing so, she cheats, which causes her to be held back by her aunt, Antiope (R.I.P.). You hope this disappointing sequence will lead to a satisfying conclusion later on, but the only thing I could garner is that they were attempting to make a clumsy comparison to Diana’s eventual choice to leave Steve Trevor behind. (A bit of a reach. I know...)

Diana never gets much of an opportunity to be herself in this film. She performs several rescues, the first of which involves a long, intense eye-contact filled scene with a little girl.

(Who, in case you were wondering, does not come back or prove to be important later. A more discerning screenwriter would’ve had this child be Maxwell’s son, but... I digress.)

(There’s another grievance, there, and I’m going to take the opportunity to air it: this overstuffed, yet completely airheaded film takes time to tell us the backstory of a great Amazonian warrior. Do we ever meet this warrior? No.

No, we don’t - unless you count a post-credits scene where she is portrayed by Lynda Carter, who for some reason, could not be bothered to help Diana out when all of this mayhem was afoot. The part of this that annoys me most of all is that the entire backstory is created simply for the sake of justifying Diana’s new, golden eagle-wing armor, which could have otherwise been explained with four little words: ‘I took up metalworking.’”)

In conclusion...

agh.

[ty-talks-comics]

Best of DC: Week of March 18th, 2020

Best of this Week: Robin 80th Anniversary

All of the Robins are awesome.

Every Bat-fan has their favorite as they usually define the era when they began their love of Batman and comics in general. Older fans love Dick Grayson for being the first and greatest Robin that helped make Batman brighter. Edgy 80s kids and teens both love and hate Jason Todd for being the bad boy that died. Younger fans love Tim Drake for being the one to carry the name in the later seasons of the animated series and being one of the best and smartest Robins. Girls get representation from the spunky Carrie Kelly and the awesome Stephanie Brown. No one like Damian. (I’m kidding, he’s super fun.)

There’s a Robin for everyone and this 100 Page Spectacular celebrates the long history of Batman’s greatest sidekicks (though misses a chance to give Carrie Kelly her own short story) and does an amazing job in displaying each characters personalities by some of the best people to have written them over the years. Because there are so many, I’m only going to talk about the ones I really enjoyed!

The first FOUR stories follow Dick Grayson and some of his best eras.

“A Little Nudge” is written by Marv Wolfman with pencils by Tom Grummett, two parts of the legendary team behind the best years of the New Titans (1989). This story follows Dick Grayson as Batman begins to nudge him in the direction of becoming his own man by being increasingly irritable to his protege. At this point in time, Dick was dealing with the stresses of outgrowing his childhood identity and Batman’s continuing overbearing nature. Where Bruce was all about being cold and methodical, Dick thought with his gut.

Grummett, Scott Hanna on inks and Adriano Lucas on colors illustrate Dick’s frustration through his increasingly sour facial expressions and sudden heroic actions. The costumes are as colorful as those old days with Dick wearing the bright yellow cape, bright red tunic and the elf shoes. In the middle of the dynamic duo’s fight with Natural History Museum thieves, Dick stops fighting when a child gets shot, against Bruce’s orders, and stays with him until the bad guys either get away or get taken down by Batman. 

Later on, Dick tells Batman that he’s outgrown the Boy Wonder name and sets off to become his own man as Nightwing. Wolfman gives readers an excellent inner monologue from Bruce where he owns up to the fact that he was nudging Dick in that direction because he had just turned eighteen and Bruce believed in him. Batman always supports his kids, especially his first and it turns the story of separation into something heartwarming.

“Aftershocks” is a fun story by Chuck Dixon and Scott McDaniel who worked on my favorite Nightwing series in the 1996 - 2005 era of the character. This wasn’t anything major, just Nightwing doing everything he could to save people after an earthquake causes massive damage to a suspended bridge in Bludhaven. This era of Nightwing was characterized by him mostly striking out on his own and becoming a Bludhaven police officer, being inspired by Jim Gordon. 

Dick really came into his own and developed a rogues gallery to himself during this time, not to mention the sweet costume with the blue “wings” running down his arms into his fingers and those big, bulky gauntlets and boots. This era was the epitome of the 90s with big set piece moments, big muscles and Nightwing just being a nice and generally charming guy. After diving off of the bridge to attach a winch to a falling car, the woman inside asks to name her baby after him and he smiles and says, “Robin works, right?”

“The Lesson Plan” is a story from my favorite modern age creators in Tim Seeley, Tom King and Mikel Janin. The Grayson series took place shortly after Dick’s identity was exposed to the world during “Forever Evil” (2013) by the Crime Syndicate. At this time he was acting as a spy for an agency called Spyral while spying on them for Batman. I never think of Tom King as a comedy guy, but this story was almost gut bustingly hilarious. It was just a world trotting adventure where he teaches one of the students of St. Hadrian’s how to be a spy.

Truly this series was Dick at his most handsome, witty and skilled. He jumps out of a helicopter and grabs onto the cords of a cable car before rescuing a woman held hostage by terrorists on walruses. Dick, the student and the hostage ten fight off more terrorists in Tanzania, riding a bus headed for Los Angeles of all places before Dick finds himself in something Dejah Thoris would wear and having a night with the hostage who reveals herself to be a gorilla from Gorilla City. It’s absolutely absurd, but it is immensely fun and welcome since that whole series is well regarded by fans.  

“More Time” by Judd Winick, Dustin Nguyen and John Kalisz is a far more somber tale about Jason Todd potentially a short time after the events of Under the Red Hood. Jason Todd was the second Robin and met his unfortunate end in the 1988 story, A Death in the Family by Jim Starlin and Jim Aparo. Jason eventually returned in the Batman: Under the Hood story where Winick and Doug Mahnke re-envisioned the former Robin as a violent vigilante Jason does have something of a strained relationship with Batman, but it wasn’t always that way as this story illustrates. 

One thing that Dustin Nguyen has always been great at, it’s making kids super adorable and he does so in this story as it flips back and forth between the past and the present as Jason gives Bruce a birthday present in the form of his father’s watch, which Jason sought to fix. Nguyen and Kalisz characterize the past with Jason appearing as a happy, young kid under the dim lights of the Batcave and a twinkle in his eyes. He’s happy to have a home and a father to care for him so he wanted to do something nice for him.

Present Day Jason is characterized by dark backgrounds with bright oranges, smoke and heavy blacks for the shadows. Jason is far more tired, grizzled and angry, but he still finds the time to place the same gift box from all those years ago on the Batmobile for Bruce to find. At this point in time, they may have been at each other throats, but the love between them was still there, buried deep - culminating in two side by side panels of past and present Jason saying, “Happy Birthday, Bruce.”

“Boy Wonders” is a story about Tim Drake by James Tynion IV, Javier Fernandez and David Baron and sees Tim taking advice from all of his brothers. Next to Chuck Dixon and Geoff Johns, James Tynion IV has had one of the longest lasting impacts on the Tim Drake character throughout his run on Detective Comics by emphasizing the power of his mind in comparison to the other Robins and why he could ultimately be the successor to Batman above each of them or eke out a new life for himself.

While taking down the cast of The Warriors on a speeding train with Nightwing, Tim contemplates what his future will be. He looks to Dick as the one who did everything that he’s doing now and Dick tells him that as the smartest Robin, the best thing he could do is use that mind to bring up the next generation of heroes. Jason, the reason he’s even wearing the costume of Robin in the first place, tells him to take everything he’s learned from Batman  to become BETTER than him. Arguably, it’s Damian that gives him the best advice by telling him that he’s the most capable of all of the Robins and that he should choose a path himself instead of relying on the advice of others.

Of course, this story takes place before the events of Detective Comics Rebirth where Tim does chart his own path in making Gotham safer with his Gotham Knights Protocol, but things don’t exactly turn out well for him. For all of the talk about how Tim is the smartest, he unfortunately could never get out of his own way long enough for things to go right...especially now that he’s going by “Drake” in that awful brown costume.

“Fitting In” is a Stephanie Brown story by Amy Wolfram, Damion Scott and Brad Anderson which sees Stephanie trying to live up to the standards of each of the boys that came before her. Stephanie was absolutely the shortest term Robin that Batman took on, as he only allowed her to take up the mantle in an attempt to get Tim back after his real father told him to hang up the cape after discovering his sons identity.

Even still, Stephanie did everything she could to earn Bruce’s respect and Wolfram plays on this and that past story by making it more about Tim than Steph. She has to train in the same costume that Tim did, but she proves more...voluptuous than Tim. Her costume bursts at the seams and Alfred designs the costume that she’s known for. She and Batman then get a call about fire at an amusement park and ride off to take down Firefly.

Unfortunately for her, she gets captured, but being the innovative girl that she is, she manages to free herself and take down Firefly at the same time. Damion Scott’s art is very well suited to the cartoonish action and paints her as a capable sidekick despite initially being a damsel in distress. I honestly wish her run as Robin would have been longer because she honestly fits well in the role as the bubbly Robin in contrast to the hell that Tim was going through at the time.

A point can be made that this story also had some needless sexualization, but given Bruce's lack of respect for Stephanie and him just wanting a replacement Tim at the time, this was well written from that perspective. He never cared for Stephanie and her time as Robin was mostly her trying to live up to Tim's standard which eventually left her to try too hard and "die" because of it. I’ll always take more Stephanie Brown as I can cause even now there’s not enough of her and I’m damn sure not reading Young Justice by Brian Michael Bendis.

“My Best Friend” is the one that makes me the most sad as it revolves around Jon Kent writing an essay on Damian as well...his best friend. I feel like the Super Sons series was also done a dity hand by BMB as he took Jon and aged him up for his Superman story when we could have gotten more fun stories between Damian and Jon. As far as homages to one of the better Rebirth series this one was just fun.

There’s not much to say other than Jon reminisces over a few of their adventures and tells readers about the side of Damian that we don’t often see because the Bat-boy is always a little bit too intense. Jon reminds us that they’ve fought for most of the time they’ve known each other, but when it comes to being heroes, Damian always had his back. It’s heartwarming. Of course there’s the continuity issue of them going to the same school in this story cause Jon was only ten at the time and Damian was thirteen, but honestly I only care about the friendship.

“Bat and Mouse” is a story by Robbie Thompson and Ramon Villalobos which sees Bruce and Damian having separate brooding inner monologues about how neither understands the other anymore and about how they want to open up to each other, but the distance between them has grown too wide. Admittedly, this is a much darker story in the respect that Batman and Robin haven’t really been the same since Damian started his new Titans team and started down a darker path that his father has yet to find out about.

Thompson captures this feeling that Damian is arrogant but scared. He feels like he’s outgrown what Batman has become because he’s willing to get rid of threats almost permanently through erasing their memories and villainous tendencies (see Teen Titans, 2018). At the same time, he’s afraid that maybe what he’s doing isn’t the right path and he so desperately wants to reach out to his father, but feels like he can’t.

Batman is the same way in that he loves his son more than anything and wants to regain the relationship that they had in the past, but doesn’t know how to say the words either. He knows that Damian is hiding something big, but he doesn’t want to accuse the boy and deepen the already cavernous rift. Even as they take down the robotic villain Quietus, they show signs of breaking through their equally cold exteriors, but fail to do so and I get the feeling this will all come to a head soon.

The Robins will always be some of my favorite characters in all of comics. Each of them have distinct personalities and quirks that set them apart from a lot of comic characters, especially when it comes to the trauma that they’ve faced alongside Batman. This special won’t be for everyone, just like each era of Robin isn’t for everyone, but overall, I really enjoyed it and the creators selected to honor these fantastic characters.

[teatitty]

SO ABOUT BRUCE’S LOVE-INTERESTS

First of all I think we need to address why he has so many compared to other DC characters. Well, my good people, this is very simple: his writers are bad. A lot of his love-interests simply existed for the sake of a story and most of the time the reason they don’t work out is because, and I’m not bullshitting here, it’s part of Batman’s nature to be so obssessed with solving crime that he can’t maintain a serious relationship with women. And Bruce Wayne’s relationships fail because of his constant absences and secrets.

That being said, sometimes his relationships fail for other reasons. So let’s get this started shall we?

Category One: His Major Relationships

These are his relationships that have consistently shown up in many continuities and were, in fact, attempts on giving him some kind of serious girlfriend, regardless of how the writers failed.

1: Julie Madison. Julie’s character has changed a lot in the different continuities but originally she was an actress who broke up with Bruce because he refused to stop his “playboy ways” even when she confronted him about them. In one version she goes on to marry a man in Europe. In New Earth her hair was changed from black to auburn and, instead of being an actress, she was the daughter of an entrepeneur. 

She broke up with Bruce when she learned he was Batman and that her father had been killed as a result of Batman’s action. She moved to Africa and became a missionary. In current continuity, Julie is an artist and her father is an arms dealer who sold the gun that was used to kill Bruce’s parents. They first dated as teens but met again when Bruce lost his memories (amnesia stories yaaay). Bruce was so passionately in love with her, that he was even ready to settle down and marry her. Unfortunately, in his absence, Gotham’s crime had skyrocketed and Alfred and Julie had to, regretfully, give him his memories back so he could be Batman once more. This also erased his memory of being with Julie.

In The New Batman Adventures comics, Bruce and Julie dated right up until Bruce found out she was only after his fortune. That’s just how it be in comics sometimes. She also appeared in the Batman And Robin movie but her character added little to the plot and most of her scenes ended up being edited out in the final cut.

2: Victoria/Vicki Vale. Vicki Vale was created to be Bruce’s version of Lois Lane (yeah it’s no wonder this never worked). They got involved because she made it her life’s mission to expose Batman’s identity and ended up dating Bruce in the process (it’s also worth noting she was already suspicious of him being Batman). Her character hasn’t had a lot of changed over the years and, surprisingly, has managed to keep most of her original characterization. 

She disappeared from the comics when Julius Schwartz took over the editorial office in 1964. She was re-introduced in the early 1980′s by Gerry Conway but idea was ill-advised as her character had very little development and was instead the same old concept of someone finding out Bruce’s identity. Doug Moench was mainly responsible for slowly removing her as Bruce’s love-interest, though she has since returned to that role. In Batman: The Road Home, Vicki finally got proof that Bruce was Batman but decided to keep it to herself and instead became a confidante and ally of the batfamily, rather then Bruce’s girlfriend.

She appeared in Tim Burton’s Batman as well, but was a damsel in distress throughout the film and only learned his identity through happenstance rather then because she was seeking it out.

In various other continuities, she’s been shown as an occasional date for Bruce Wayne.

3: Selina Kyle needs to introduction but her influence in his life is so long and extensive she’d need a post of her own to cover it all. You’ll be pleased to know that there have been quite a few stories where they’ve managed to sustain a relationship and be happy together.

4: Talia Al Ghul. Obviously we all know her for being Damian’s mother, whoever Ra’s himself has encouraged her relationship with Bruce, because he wants to try and recruit Batman into the League of Assassin’s.

Originally, Talia was very devoted to Bruce and loved him as much as she loved her own father, even saving his life on multiple occasion’s, though she always returned to her father’s side afterwards. They had a sexual encounter that lead to the birth of Damian, as we all know, but over time Talia became more antagonistic towards Bruce, seeking to fulfill her father’s goals and rule with Batman by her side instead. However, he rejected her proposal and she declared war on him (yikes.)

In Batman: The Animated Series, her character was practically the same as her comic iteration. She returned in Batman Beyond where Bruce was horrified to learn that she’d given up her body for her father (yeah. That’s a thing).

In Batman: Arkham City, Talia and Bruce had a romantic background and cared very deeply for eachother, even willing to risk their lived to save the other’s.

On Earth-16, Bruce broke all ties with Talia due to her conflicting morals; her love for Bruce vs her loyalty to Ra’s. 

In the Dark Knight Rises film, Talia is an executive member of Wayne Enterprises who becomes romantically involved with Bruce. She eventually takes over the company and tries to destroy Gotham per her father’s mad design.

Category Two: Minor Relationships

These are his love-interests who have only appeared sporadically as options for him over the years, rather then being a consistent thing.

1: Amina Franklin. Originally someone who worked as a nurse at Leslie Thompkins’ clinic, Amina met Bruce at a party and they started dating shortly after. Her brother, Wayne Franklin (I know), was the villain called Grotesk (original name there buddy) and Amina was killed during a confrontation between him and Bruce.

2: April Clarkson (Midnight). If the name Midnight strikes any familiarity to you, then you’ll know who April is. She was a GCPD officer who briefly dated Bruce and helped Batman track down the gruesome murderer Midnight (yeah his track record is great isn’t it? In her defense April only killed the corrupt dudes but like. Still). Bruce was pretty torn up when he learned this because he had very strong feelings for her! Alas what can ya do, right?

3: Bekka. Bekka saved Batman’s life from Darkseid’s forces on the planet Tartarus and the two shared a mutual attraction (Bekka is also Orion’s wife. Yikes.) She was later murdered (in my mother’s own words “another one bites the dust”).

4: Black Canary. Yes seriously. Despite her long-standing romance with Green Arrow, Dinah has shown attraction to Bruce on numerous occasion’s and the two have even shared kisses before (Batman: Brave and Bold #166 and Birds of Prey #90). On Earth’s 31 and 37 this attraction is way stronger.

5: Charlotte Rivers. A news reporter in Gotham, Charlotte wanted to leave the city which put a rift between her and Bruce. After her twin sister, Jill, made an attempt on her life, Charlotte dumped Bruce and took a job offer in Paris. Ouch.

6: Dawn Golden. Dawn was the daughter of cult leader Aleister Golden, who practiced Dark Magic. Dawn was a childhood friend of Bruce’s who dated him in college and apparently broke his heart (lmao). She became a socialite and then her dad murdered her as part of a dark ritual to give himself eternal life. Yeah.

7: Harley Quinn. YEP HERE’S ANOTHER ONE. Harley has had occasional romantic encounters with Batman over the years, specifically in the Animated Series when she kissed him in the episode Harley’s Holiday. In recent N52 canon, there’s been a couple of stories where Harley has ended up infatuated with Batman or Bruce Wayne. They’re all one-sided feelings as far as we know, however.

8: Jaina Hudson (White Rabbit). Another name that might be familiar to those who know Bruce’s villains. Jaina was a socialite of Indian descent who met Bruce at a charity fundraiser. Later Bruce found out she could duplicate herself into two beings: herself and the scantily clad (its comics what do we expect?) criminal White Rabbit, who had, more than once, lured him to other villains like Joker and Bane.

9: Jezebel Jet. A wealthy woman of African descent, Jezebel was a model who owned an African province and secretly worked for Black Glove. She gained Bruce’s love as a ploy to destroy him during Batman R.I.P and was later killed on Talia’s orders. 

10: Jillian Maxwell. Jillian met Bruce at a costume party in Batman: Legends of The Dark Knight Halloween Special #1 (wow thats long). It turned out, however, that she was actually a woman who used many different personas to seduce wealthy men before orchestrating events that led to their deaths so she could take their wealth. Wild. When Alfred told him this, Bruce was heartbroken. Jillian used the name Aubrey Marguerite in Brazil and Bruce, as Batman, tracked her down and left a note ordering her to confess her sins. 

11: Julia Pennyworth. Daughter of Alfred and French Resistance fighter Mademoiselle Marie, Julia was introduced to the comics in by Doug Moench in the early 1980′s. Efforts to make her a romantic partner for Bruce proved difficult with the presence of Noctura and Vicki Vale (guess why he writ her out of comics lol).

12: Kathy Kane (Batwoman). Strap in lads this one gets Weird. Kathy was made in the Silver Age to be Batman’s female counterpart and romantic partner. Many stories showing the two getting married were published though in the main canon at the time her feelings for him were one-sided. On Earth-Two, Kathy resigned herself to live without his love and on Earth One she was murdered by the League of Assassins. Grant Morrison wrote stories featuring her in New Earth canon bc he liked using Silver Age comics for inspiration. She was eventually replaced by Katherine “Kate” Kane, a lesbian who got discharged from the military for homosexual conduct (in New Earth as well). In Prime Earth canon, Kate Kane is Bruce’s cousin. So yeah. There’s that.

13: Linda Page. Adapted from Batman serial (1943), Linda came into the comics during the Golden Age and was a former socialite who worked as a nurse for the elderly, disproving the idea that rich women were lazy and spoiled. She dated Bruce for a few issues but fell through the cracks and disappeared.

14: Lorna Shore. Lorna is a Museum Curator from the Lovers and Madmen story in Batman Confidential. Her relationship with Bruce was love at first sight and he was able to find peace with her for the first time since his parents’ murder (look. I know). However, after his first encounter with Joker, Bruce broke off their relationship to keep her safe and Lorna left Gotham soon after feeling that the city was no longer safe bc of Batman and Joker.

15: Mallory Moxon. Daughter of mob boss Lew Moxon, Mallory was a childhood friend of Bruce’s who dated him for a short time when they were kids (I know) before they drifted apart. They dated again as adults even while Bruce suspected her of continuing her father’s criminal operation. He never found conclusive proof.

16: Natalia Knight (Noctura). Another character created by Doug Moench in the early 1980′s, Natalia was the most remarkable of Batman’s love-interest’s at the time. A jewel thief who briefly adopted Jason Todd and knew Bruce’s identity, Natalia had a rare light sensitivity disease that bleached her skin white. She used a special narcotic perfume that caused men to fall in love with her and Bruce was no exception (yeah...). They started dating because they were both “equally fascinated” by eachother (Y E A H). Bruce realized his love for her was because of the perfume and struggled to stop thinking about her. Nocturna was stabbed by her brother during Crisis on Infinte Earths and floated into the sky on her balloon, presumed to be dead. Other versions of her character have appeared since but none of them are the same as the original pre-Crisis version. 

17: Natalya Trusevich. A Ukranian pianist, Natalya grew frustrated with Bruce’s closed-off demeanour until Alfred had him reveal his secret to her. Abducted by Mad Hatter soon after, Natalya was tortured in an attempt to get her to spill Batman’s identity. When she refused, Mad Hatter threw her off the helicopter to her death.

18: Pamela Isley (Poison Ivy). Here we go again lads. Ivy, as we all know, uses seduction and pheromones to get men to fall for her and obey her commands. This is no different with Batman, who initially confused the lust caused by her methods for love. Ivy has a love/hate relationship with him: sometimes she claims to love him and desires his affection and other times she has no problem wanting him dead. They had a brief but genuine relationship when Bruce cured her condition but this ended when Pamela seemingly died trying to turn herself back into Poison Ivy. Yikes. 

19: Rachel Caspian. In Batman: Year Two, Bruce fell in love with Rachel. Unfortunately her dad moonlighted as a murderous vigilante who committed suicide. Bruce was prepared to end his crime-fighting career to marry her but Rachel broke off their engagement and enrolled into a nunnery to pay her father’s penance after learning of his evil deeds.

20: Sasha Bordeaux. Assigned as his bodyguard, Sasha deduced Bruce’s identity as Batman and briefly fought at his side. Framed for the murder of Bruce’s girlfriend, Vesper Fairchild, Sasha later joined Maxwell Lord’s Checkmate Organization. She was turned into a Cyborg during The OMAC Project but this was resolved later. Though she did kiss Bruce near the end of OMAC Project their relationship passed on.

21: Silver St. Cloud. Appearing in the late 1970′s in the story Strange Apparitions, Silver was a socialite who, despite deducing Bruce was Batman, couldn’t handle dating someone with such a dangerous life-style (fair enough actually). She left Gotham but returned years later in Batman: Dark Detective where she and Bruce tried to make a serious romance work. This fell apart after she was kidnapped by Joker and later on Silver was murdered by the criminal Onomatopeia.

22: Shondra Kinsolving. A psychic and half-sister of Benedict Asp, Shondra had a brief romance with Bruce when she helped heal him after Bane broke his back. Before they could fully commit to eachother, Benedict kidnapped her and turned her abilities to evil use. Batman defeated him but the damage to Shondra’s mind was too great and, after healing Bruce’s injuries, her psyche regressed back to childhood. Bruce paid for her to have the best intensive care for the rest of her life in a psychiatric institution.

23: Vesper Fairchild. A popular radio host in Gotham, Doug Moench (jeez dude chill) established her romance with Bruce during his second run of Batman in the 1990′s. During the No Man’s Land Crisis, Vesper left Gotham and was killed by David Cain on Lex’s orders. This started the Bruce Wayne: Fugitive storyline.

24: Diana Prince (Wonder Woman). Briefly dating in the comics, nothing actually came of their romance and they both decided to simply stay good friends. They did, however, still care deeply for one another and it was this love that allowed Diana to become a Star Sapphire during the Blackest Night storyline. They were also paired together in Justice League Animated. 

25: Zatanna Zatara. Bet you weren’t expecting this one huh? The first time they had romantic interest was in Batman: The Animated Series where they met in their youth. Bruce gave priority to pursuing his training to becoming Batman and they met again as adults but nothing came of their interest. This was later introduced in the comics. They had a major falling out when Bruce discovered Zatanna had windwiped him after he’d caught her mindwiping Doctor Light at the JL’s instruction. Bruce made it clear he didn’t trust her anymore but they later resolved the issue and became close friends again.

Category Three: Other Media

These are still minor relationships but as a whole they didn’t really happen during main continuities. Basically these are romances specifically from films, crossovers and the DCAU.

1: Andrea Beaumont. In Batman: Mask of The Phantasm, Andrea was engaged to Bruce before he became Batman but she broke off said engagement when she fled the country with her father to escape the mob. She then became the title villain of the film.

2: Barbara Gordon (Batgirl). Probably the most infamous for making everyone go “wtf”, Barbara had a heavily implied past relationship with Bruce in Batman Beyond and had sex with Bruce on a rooftop in the animated Killing Joke adaptation.

3: Lois Lane. In a crossover between The New Batman Adventures and Superman: The Animated Series, Bruce and Lois dated eachother to Superman’s annoyance but Lois broke up with him after learning his identity as Batman. During a 3-4 issue long amnesia storyline in the Batman/Superman teamup comic, they also shared romantic feelings for eachother and kissed right before Bruce restored his own memories (dont. Ask).

4: Rachel Dawes. She was his childhood friend and love-interest in the Dark Knight Trilogy. Like. That’s it. 

And there you have it! All of Bruce’s gf’s aired out for everyone to screw their noses over! This wasn’t worth any of my attention but fuck it! It’s done!

[fyeahwonderbat]

Keywords #7

Theme: Commitment Rating: PG / T Word Count: 1,635 words

As he held Diana in his arms, Bruce stared down the man who claimed to be a god, the lord of death, the ruler of the Underworld. Having lived his entire life haunted by the two exact instances where his parents were gunned down by some lowly criminal in Gotham City, it dawned on him when he met those cool grey eyes that every moment of his life meant that he had been fighting this one man in some way or another. He didn’t believe in mythology or even in religion and so his take on the afterlife was much more morbid than the average person could take. However, when he gazed upon the physical embodiment of loss - of the grief he lived with for all but eight years of his miserable life - it staggered the typically composed Batman.

“Barry,” He murmured low under his breath.

“On it.” Whispered back the speedster as he lowered himself into his racing pose. Bruce felt the static in the air against the lower half of his face just before the Flash vanished from sight. 

It was at that moment that Diana tried to rise up onto her feet, obstructing his view of the Godkiller disappearing from its position in Hades’ throat, disappointing him to some degree. By the time she had risen, Barry had returned with the sword in hand and he immediately presented to Wonder Woman. She would have taken it from him, had she not been distracted by the helping hand the shot out at her, garnering the attention of everyone in their presence.

“Diana,” Hippolyta choked on her daughter’s name and it managed to stir something in Bruce’s gut. Just as she had in the great hall of Themyscira, the queen tried and failed to remain composed in a moment when her heart strings were being tugged. In front of him, the woman he had come to see as a warm and passionate partner now looked like nothing more than a wax figure of herself, incapable of moving or reacting to what or who was right in front of her. 

For once, he couldn’t be accused of ruining an emotional moment, as Hades took it upon himself to ruminate aloud, “How long has it been since an Amazon has come into my chambers? Not since her highness i believe, has one of your kind approached me so openly, begging for my… aid.” 

“Scan complete,” a computerized voice muttered in Bruce’s ear piece, along with comms of every other League members’. “No vital signs detected. Oxygen levels: zero. Heart rate: zero bpm.” Victor’s ability to examine Hades from across the chamber did very little for them other than confirm what they already knew. Still, Batman always relied on scientific avenues of research before he allowed himself to believe in the fantastical. 

The god of the Underworld could not be slain like his brothers and sisters it would seem.

Having no foreseeable way to defeat him only enraged Diana further and she stomped her foot forward in an agitated stride as she screamed, “Don’t you say another word!”

“No, I will not be silenced in my own home,” Hades barked back. “I’ve waited centuries to once again have such arousing company.”

“That only proves that you were a fool to choose Persephone over me.” Hecate growled venomously. She had retained her animal-like mannerisms since Bruce had last seen her and it made him worry to himself over what she might do to them should she ever see the Justice League as her enemy. 

Before he could dare antagonize the seething goddess further, Hippolyta walked a few paces ahead of her daughter and demonstrated the exact sort of domination he expected from her. “That’s quite enough. These foolish games you’re playing have garnered the attention you so desperately craved. If you want to see your regency unharmed, I advise you to remain silent and allow us to depart in peace.”

“What!?” Hecate’s screech reverberated off of the many stony edges in the Underworld, her immense displeasure palpable by every single person present. The queen held out her hand in the direction of the infuriated witch, her elbow bent so as to appear less authoritative and more sincere. Then, she carried on. “I warn you now, Hades. We have all lived without our gods for many years, and should you choose to challenge the forces of the Amazons and these heroes of mankind, you will be reduced to the very same state as your brothers and sisters: dead--”

The mere mention of death made him cackle at the proud queen. For a man who appeared to be so lifeless, his amusement only made him seem even more sick and twisted. Everything about Hades reminded Bruce of the horrible villains he dealt with in Gotham - drunk on their own power and existing solely to torture others. “Pitiful Hippolyta! To think that you would have the gall to threaten me? We both know that none of you could stand in my way, no matter what it is I plan to do.” “And what is this plan of yours?” Bruce challenged him with the same amount of aggression he usually reserved for the Joker. He walked up to Diana’s side and simplified his inquiry for the man who enjoyed dodging whatever it was they said to him. “Why make some demon army just to leave alone to kill each other in Russia?”

The interrogation amused Hades, and he knew it. “To grow stronger in a human-made cesspool of energy.”

“Why!?” demanded the Batman. While he panted after releasing such a harsh shout, the lord of the Underworld stared at him with an eerie smile on his face. He even looked past the Amazonian queen to stare into Bruce’s soul, almost as if he was communicating the answer he sought through the silence that befell them all. But no, he realized soon enough that he didn’t say a word because he didn’t need to. “You know, don’t you?”

“Know what?” Asked Hecate, panic in her tone.

“Indeed I do.” Hades confirmed.

“What do you know?” Taking a step backwards, Hippolyta turned to face Bruce at a proper angle as she looked to him for an answer.

Eyeing Diana, he decided if it was best for her to decide if her mother needed to know what it was the League was made for, or why she was on a team with superpowered men. Diana appeared grateful a mere second before she acknowledged her mother and explained, “There is a threat coming to Earth from beyond the cosmo, from another world.”

“It’s why you have your precious team,” Hades acknowledged with an unflattering sneer. “To protect this planet from the reach of those who wish to claim us all as theirs to control. I will not be anyone’s subject. I will take control over the Earth before I allow an alien to take what is rightfully mine!”

“None of us are YOURS!” 

“You have no right to the Earth!”

“How dare you threaten all of mankind!”

So many cries of disapproval and trepidation sounded off once he had admitted to his scheme, but that wasn’t what Bruce had his focus geared towards. No, all he could think about was the probability of a mythological god defeating an alien that commanded a legion of creatures like Doomsday. He fretted instantly over the lives that would be lost between two almighty forces colliding if they made the earth their battleground. All he heard was more and more chaos spilling out of Hades lips and he couldn’t stop himself from spewing out some tactless words of his own, “Those monsters you made are nothing compared to the alien that Diana and I have already faced.”

Once more, Hades zeroed in on the anxious Bruce and paid him the closest attention. With a tilt of his head, his leer somehow became even darker, even more devastating as he lifted his hand into the air. “Those ‘monsters’ were merely for the numbers. What I have in my grasps is all I truly need.” Then, he snapped his fingers loudly enough to rival the sound of Hecate’s shrill wailing. 

Bruce was prepared to deliver to him the very same snide remark about how his plan would fail, about how there was no secret weapon to overcoming the monsters that could descend upon them from outer space. 

Until he heard a familiar boom in the distance. He had no idea which direction it came from. All he knew was that one moment there was only Hades glaring at him. 

And then next, there was a reincarnated Superman hovering at the lord of the Underworld’s side.

Bruce heard Diana gasp with the exact same amount of shock that he was feeling, but he had his breath stolen from him at the sight of their deceased friend under the influence of Hades. The entire purpose that the two of them had made the Justice League was gather together the strongest people on Earth and protect it, in Clark’s memory. Their shared commitment to Superman, to Lois, to the human race was meant to carry on the promise he’d once made to Superman: to save.

“Diana,” his voice broke as he said her name, as did his conviction.

“Bruce,” she replied with the confidence in her voice that he needed to rely on in that moment. Within the depths of the Underworld that he never thought could exist, locking eyes with the friend he believed he’d never see again, the only one who could pull him out of his stupor was her. And she did just by saying his name. 

That’s why they were a team.

That’s how they were going to defeat the unkillable god of death.

Together, with their team.

To be continued...

[inappropriatefangirlneeds]

Gotham s5ep4 “Ruin” Personal Review

“There goes the element of surprise..”    Warning spoilers below (ahaha not this week, boy am I late, not that anyone would have missed this though, also little meta content this week)  

What I loved about the episode is that it´s the “apocalypse” and then it comes down to a crime scene investigation! I would take much more of that! Much more!  Just less of a bloodthirsty MOB. Like would they really want Zsasz hanged? The evidence was pretty clear, Jim Gordon really got no reason to lie to them, actually it would greatly benefit him if he did. Do they really not want to see the real culprit punished? I´m not a fan of lynch/mob law in general but does it make sense for the mob to want the wrong guy hanged, that way the police probably will think / claim everything is settled and call it a day, which means the real culprit is free to do that again, but then again I wonder how many people know about Zsasz and him having been a hitman, did some of them have had relatives that got into Carmine / Sal Maroni crossfire, was this partly a he´s a guilty filthy criminal *anyway* thing?  * “You don't need to smuggle in explosives when you can detonate 250 gallons of highly pressurized heating oil that's coursing through all the floors.”  Ah damn, they really had Edward Nygma do it, I kind of didn´t want them to follow that route. Also why put that running guy with bomb in there then, huh .. damn exploding herrings.  HOPE goes on and off this week:  “But whoever destroyed that building can't destroy the hope we've built. Not unless we let them.” “I told the people it was safe. I made them into a target.” “Jim, you gave 'em” “Don't tell me I gave 'em hope. They're dead.”  * It´s GOOD vs. EVIL “This city will never be what you want it to be, Jim. It's always gonna belong to the bad guys, like me.”  “People like you are always trying to own this city. But you never will.” * It´s GOOD ft. EVIL Oswald Cobblepot poses as if he was the synthesis of both those opposites: A bad guy that cares. “I lost people, too, Jim. People you lured with promises of safety and security, only to have them incinerated.”  Oswald arms the GCPD talking about working together just to take over and get his own trials and justice going. He´s claiming to provide what Jim can´t. While both Barbara Kean & Oswald Cobblepot claimed their help came no strings attached Oswald´s help does not include staying aside and letting them do their work. Although to be fair he said “Save for the one that we will cinch around the neck of the Haven bomber.” What is it with people that it always needs a couple hundred dead people that they can focus on nice things. Anyway everyone is appropriately appalled with this atrocity. They also gave all the villains some selfish reasons. OSWALD COBBLEPOT wants people and their cheers. EDWARD NYGMA wants the file of the inmate.  “I've been putting out feelers.” BARBARA KEAN is worried Sirens might be next, making her probably the least “selfish” one because she seems to care about the people that she protects and might not demand the same level of praise that Oswald does. (I know probably other things but unless canon proves me wrong I headcanon slightly differently) She feels hurt but understands Jim would suspect, even for a moment that she could be responsible for the destruction Haven. They slowly get her back on suitable for Jim Gordon to kiss track, which phu idk. I liked her and their relationship in S1,  but there´s just so much happened in between. And plenty in Barbara´s characterization I didn´t like so it´s nice to see her on a more reasonable track now but how about they just gave her an awesome relationship with Tabitha ........  Characterization questions aside I really loved that she did not and could not kill Oswald in the light of the explosion! That was a touching moment!  Also her outfit is nice, although they toned down the make up. And Jim gripping her arm during the kiss almost gives old timey movie vibes. I´m sure I don´t need to write on Babs / Oswald paralells, I assume I just can reblog better words on it from someone ..  * Also something tells me if JIM GORDON  had gotten that shoot out with VICTOR ZSASZ, that kiss would not have happened …… “Inmate number 1215 knows! Knows what???!!??!” Ha, distressed, puzzled, annoyed EDWARD NYGMA is a joy to watch. I don’t really have to say more on that. Edward snatching the blanket from the woman when walking into the GCPD makes me wonder, what would he have done if that woman hadn´t been there? Just walked in? Did he have a stupid disguise and was like, oh no wait that´s better.  He and LUCIUS FOX were a delight. Edward trying to snatch the file from him and run was wonderful! Him preening in pride when his expertise is wanted was delightful! Lucius claiming, he´ll deny having said the praise he gave Edward in the end, precious! Lucius playing him like a fiddle, and moving him with barely more than his fingertips, damn! Just that the whole thing was shot like when Ed pursued Kristen Kringle!  Their dynamic is just wonderful: “Impressive. Calculated the angle of incident to follow the trajectory through the window, into the fuel oil tanks.” “Yep. That, and the RPG case is right over there.”  * One thing that stressed me was Ed sending the Files flying around him on the rooftop. Like at that moment he didn´t yet know that the woman he saw in the window was connect to the note he put down on his hands. Even when the inmate was dead there could have been some hints in the file or who knows in hid grave. Like, no Edward! No! Go run and pick them up.  * Someone needs to do a Parallel Meta for 5x04 & 4x12  when Ed found out he hired the hit on Leslie Thompkins. * “I did not make that building go boom, Jim.”   Yeah, that´s a VICTOR ZSASZ line. Love him. * ““Hey, do you guys have any canned peaches? Man, I'd trade an arm and a leg for that right now. Not mine, somebody else's.” Food and cut off limbs, that´s another one. Love him. * And that one: “Do the math.  If I blew up a building full of people, I would have covered every inch of my body in sweet, sweet scars.  You guys want to do a strip search?” “I'd let Alvarez do it. He's handsome” * Him shooting Oswald´s head on the major poster after he said something was a great detail! * Him drinking while waiting for the bullet hail to stop as well. * I´m gonna make a post about the Gunman magazine that fell on the floor, after Jim tackled him so majestically ...  * Zsasz usurping the applause afterwards, and later was adorable. * “Is this about Sofia Falcone? Because you should really move past that. It's not healthy.” DOES HE KNOW SHE KILLED CARMINE, DOES HE OR DOES HE NOT ???? They had him express sympathy towards Carmine in Season 1, they showed that he cared when Carmine got killed. I get that he might abandon issues like that in the current environment but they can´t open up such a plotline and then just drop it. Does he know that Oswald didn´t kill Carmine? Like honestly .. I know it´s the Jim Gordon show but I would have loved it if Victor Zsasz just had saved himself!! I would have loved it even more if along the way they somehow figured out the whole misconception, Zsasz would recognize that Sofia and not Oswald is to blame and maybe even apologize. * But hey Oswald´s “Well said” about the mumbled last words was mean but awesome. * Soooo who went in the trashy local torture museum to get the guillotine? * How does Zsasz work? There where zero people shown around him. What is it like to live on Zsasz turf? * Zsasz mumbling must have been bewildered that they aren´t honouring the tradition of the last meal before an execution, like he got his order ready, that was the last silver lining, if he´s really going to face his end at the hands of penguin in those halls at least he´s going to get his teeth into something juicy and tasty before it happens ..  SELINA KYLE, (Bruce Wayne), JEREMIAH VALESKA, ECCO * Sykes and the Soothsayers digging a tunnel for Jeremiah Valeska. Is that poetic justice? Also is this a new tunnel, when the Soothsayers had the children dig it they went out of their way to state that their cruelty is even more infuriating because the whole endeavour is very likely futile.  Like they made it damn clear that the TUNNEL is not going to go anywhere. Also would Jeremiah, who made the bridges go boom want a tunnel that remedies that  issue partly? Only for himself? His cult? Is he doing something else altogether? Is it about what he can get into the city through it? Is he better at static issues and remedied the tunnel digging plan? Was he involved before?  * “Yes you certainly have set a very high bar - for devotion.” Fucker gave me an earworm, Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio & Spiritual Front - A Song 4 Hate and Devotion (live) I mean quite a fitting mood considering all the other portrayals of the Harley and Mr. Jay relationship, but maybe they give ECCO and JEREMIAH VALESKA a different path. Aside from that the little dance was slightly nice. * “Bruce Wayne and his sidekick Curls Or is he the sidekick?” Yes! Ecco got the right spirit. I wonder if Ecco sees herself as sidekick?  “You see, a river cuts through rock not because of its power, but because of its persistence.So what do we do when we feel like giving up?” “Dig a little deeper.” “And what do we do when we can't possibly go on any longer?” “Dig a little deeper.” “And what do we ..” “Deep enough?”  I´m afraid it was not deep enough, I´m afraid it was quite shallow because the show is not as clever as Ecco, I bet that he isn´t dead, if he was it if could have actually been just about her. Honestly, I would love that. All the BatJokes built up and then it´s about Selina. And she has plenty right for it to be about her, Jeremiah almost killed her. What else does it need.  * SELINA KYLE keeping in the shadows investigating, disguising herself as one of the people there, then getting close to Jeremiah dressed as Ecco: She´s good! She´s awesome! * That GCPD woman that was doing PAPERWORK when Ed sneaked into the building. Do they do regular paperwork? Cause damn, considering the governmental neglect if Jim got them to bother to do the regular paperwork he must have given one hell of a speech. Or is it paperwork related to organize a place like Haven? How do they do things? * Oswald destroying all strategy with a megaphone: “There goes the element of surprise.” * “Elevated position, back to the sun.” * “Never ever ask me to do anything like that again. Pull yourself together.” Harvey does not approve of Wild West Jim  * “ I know the wheels of justice turn slowly, so I'm here to provide - a modicum of grease.” / “I did not expect you to go soft, Jim. Actually, I did.”  / “By the power vested in me by well, me, I sentence you, Victor Zsasz, to die.”   * “One of the areas in which I excel is the loosening of tongues.” “No. He's mine”  Oh damn I thought Jim said “it´s mine” as in he´s better with interrogations. Well there goes my whole comparison with the Edward Nygma & Lucius Fox expertise quip:  “So, the second smartest man in Gotham needs my help.” “Explosives are not my expertise.”  “Didn't realize you had one.”  *“Jim Gordon cares more about protecting a murderer than he does about protecting you!” Okay look who is projecting .... 

[sunlitroom]

Gotham – s4e22 – No Man’s Land

As I watched it, and some random observations here and there.

Previously on Gotham:

Oswald strutted into Sirens.  Hugo can apparently fix Butch.  A completely-normal other-than-being-slightly-blue Butch tells Tabitha this might be their only hope.  Jim cares about Lee and always will.  Jerome is dead – long live Jeremiah.  Ed tells Jim that once the buildings collapse, the structure of the maze will be formed.  Or would have been, only Jeremiah’s switch didn’t quite work – and he has to go back to the drawing board.  Ra’s has a vision of Gotham in flames.  Selina is shot.  Alfred rugby tackles Jeremiah and punches him repeatedly in the face.

As always, long post will be long.  There are likely to be rambling digressions. Gobblepot might appear (although I welcome all shippers and non-shippers alike :)).  There will be naked favouritism and naked not-favouritism.  Broader comments at the end on plotlines and parallels and general direction.

At the hospital, Selina is wheeled into surgery.  She desperately asks Bruce if he’s going to leave her.  Bruce says he’ll be right here.  Selina’s voice cracks as she asks him to promise – which he does.  She’s wheeled away – Bruce and Selina both terrified and in tears.

 A cell in GCPD, where a bruised and battered Jeremiah sits, demure and calm, under graffiti of frowning eyes – painted by one of Jerome’s followers.  A police officer drags a baton across the bars, and others stand beside her, glaring at him.

Jim and Alfred regard from a distance.  Alfred says he should have killed him. Jim tells him he did the right thing, but Alfred replies that he didn’t see what he did to Selina.  He tells Jim he’s going to the hospital now, and Jim tells him he’ll stop by when he can.

Harvey approaches and shares Alfred’s sentiments – killing Jeremiah would do the world a favour.  He adds that they’re still clearing bombs – but the mayor wants to lift the evacuation.

Jeremiah looks directly at him.

Pardon me, Jim?

He doesn’t raise his voice – but he can still be distinctly heard.  Jim approaches.  Jeremiah tells him that he wants to press charges against Alfred, sourly adding

I mean, just look at my face

An unimpressed Jim stares back

I think you look great

Jeremiah wants to talk to Bruce – they were interrupted by his girlfriend bleeding out.  Jim tells him dismissively that all he’s interested in is proving he’s better than his brother – but he’s sill here, the city’s still here, and Jeremiah is a failure.  As a parting shot, he tells him to

Enjoy Arkham - your brother did

Jeremiah doesn’t respond to that, but as Jim walks away, quietly says if that he brings Bruce here, then he’ll tell Jim where the other bombs are.

Jim stops – and he and Harvey exchange glances.

Jeremiah reminds them that he’s an engineer – and he would always build in redundancies in case of failure

Harvey says he’s bluffing – but Jeremiah asks Jim how many lives he’d be willing to risk?  He has a new goal, and he now understands the vision he is servicing. Ummmm. I mean, you can use servicing, technically - but I’d choose another verb, maybe.

My eyes are now open as yours will be

He turns his back on them both and tells them to bring him Bruce Wayne and coffee, black, two sugars.

At what I’m assuming is still the Falcone mansion, as opposed to the Van Dahl place. Hugo Strange looks over a prone Butch – connected to many wires and machines. and remarks

No heartbeat.  Extraordinary

Hugo is a dreadful person, but BD Wong’s delivery just makes me laugh so much.

Tabitha being Tabitha is entirely unable to be anything other than unpleasant, and threateningly tells Hugo that this better work.

Hugo says that the chemicals made him a beautiful specimen – with well-preserved organs.  If they flush him with anti-toxin – give him fresh blood (we see some unhappy ‘volunteers’) give him a jolt to the heart – and the job should be done.

Tabitha smiles at Butch and asks him if he heard that – he’s going to be cured.

Oswald stands quietly in the background.  Tabitha’s phone rings – giving her the news about Selina.  She immediately makes to leave.  Butch acknowledges that she should go check on the kid – but Tabitha says she’s off to kill Jeremiah. Butch wants to join her – but the procedure can’t be interrupted.  

Oswald says he’ll stay, and make sure everything goes as planned.  He adds that he’s doing this for Butch, not Tabitha.  Tabitha eyes him sneerily, but smiles at Butch before leaving.

 Lucius and Harvey are discussing how many bombs Jeremiah might have made.  Lucius says there’s no telling – but Harvey still thinks he’s bluffing.  Harper says the mayor phoned again about the evacuation.  Jim has been quiet, but – frowning – says something has changed with Jeremiah.  Up until now he was just Jerome’s echo – but something is new.

(An aside.  Jim is at his best when he has this oddly personal relationship with the villains – first name terms – and actually tries to understand their motivations and behaviour.  That’s not to say he in anyway condones what they do – but just shouting about them being bad people makes him look dumb.  This is so much better.)

 In the mayor’s office, the mayor blusters blusterily.  An assistant informs him that there’s a hot man in a black and gold lame jacket standing on the roof of a building opposite, smouldering meaningfully at them.

We look and see that it is indeed Ra’s – projecting his hotness at them

We then see that there is a bomb in the mayor’s building – which promptly explodes.  Ra’s stands motionless as the cloud of dust sweeps over him.  Let’s hope he has a change of clothes.

 Jim slams Jeremiah against wall – who barely reacts, only reiterating that he wants to see Bruce. Jim punches him and asks who’s helping him.  No reaction. Jim tries to punch him again – but Jeremiah only tells him that more will die.

He slowly turns his head – which had snapped to the side when Jim punched him – to look him in the face.

But then, you were never good at holding on to what you care about - were you, James?

Harvey interrupts before Jim can reply.  Jim leaves, and Jeremiah slowly slides down the wall, humming – iirc – Ode to Joy.

 The army has arrived at GCPD – because the mayor (very new acting mayor?) has declared martial law. The Major who is in charge of things is the hugest man ever, and make Jim look tiny.  Jim is unhappy about the move, of course, but the Major tells him this isn’t a pissing match – he justs wants to restore order

He asks Jim if he can count on him, to which Jim replies

Yes Sir

Jim explains about the extra bombs and the request to see Bruce – adding that there’s some new element in the mix he hasn’t figured out yet.   The Major promptly tells them to bring Bruce here.

But Jim says no.  The Major turns away, reiterating his order – but Jim grabs his arm.  The Major orders that he is arrested and taken across the river.  For a man who wasn’t into engaging in a pissing match – he sort of needlessly escalated things there.

A struggling Jim is dragged away, yelling that the Major is out of his fricking mind, while the Major comments disapprovingly on his insubordination.  I somehow feel we just saw Jim’s military career, condensed.

 When we get to the carpark, Jim’s guards are shot with tranquilliser darts.  It’s Ed – who starts reciting a riddle, which Jim quickly solves.

It’s sleep

Ed pissily remarks that it’s rude to interrupt, and then shoots Jim – knocking him out.

 Oh no – a profile shot of a sleeping Jim. More fuel for the Jim crush.  The camera goes to a funny angle as Ed leans over him, which reminds me of that upside-down Spiderman kiss.

Ed yells rise and shine in Jim’s face – following it up with a good morning sweetheart at a more normal volume.

He blabbers on about history repeating itself, and then backhands an immobilised Jim in retaliation for the punch he received last week.

Jim doesn’t care.  He urgently tells Ed that Jeremiah has more bombs – he has to set him free.

Ed carries on, bored

So you can save the city?  We tried that - Lee and I are still fugitives

Well – you got caught robbing a bank.  You robbed lots of banks.  What’s that phrase?  Play bitch games….?

Jim says he offered Lee a way out - returning the money, but Lee has apparently dispersed the money throughout the Narrows.  I’m sure that will have achieved meaningful and lasting change.

Ed puts on his showman act – saying that he’s pressed for time.  He presses a button, and a huge weight descends towards Jim’s chest. Jim, panicked, asks him wait.

Ed stops only so he can show off – explaining the torture of peine forte et dure to Jim.  He lowers the weight further.  Now it’s 100lbs of force.

Jim groans why – and Ed says he wants to help Lee break free from her history – Jim anchors her, and he is a dead weight.  Without him, Lee will be free to be the person she’s meant to be  - the one he wants her to be.

He increases the weight to 150

Ed says he saw them together.  

For her sake – you’re going to die

For my sake - you're going to suffer

He adds more weight as Jim groans.

 At Sirens - Barbara is talking about the evacuation leaving undefended territory, and how it would be a shame not to capitalise on it.  The lights flicker.  Her henchwomen are taken out, and Ra’s appears.

Hello Barbara

Ra's is hoping to talk. He says he’s leaving, and wants her to accompany him.  Barbara is angry, however, not overly impressed by his talk of a vision when he took back the Demon’s Head – all about destruction and flames.  It wasn’t as clear as it could be, though, and has disappointing him since –and he wonders if some powers were perhaps left behind in Barbara.

Barbara assumes that he’s here to kill her – but he denies this.  He lied about the woman in the painting to get under her skin.  He actually loved her very much – but she turned down the offer of eternity that he made her.  He wants to make her the same offer – rule the League of Shadows with him.  

She says she’ll consider it. As he leaves – she asks again about his vision.  He says that he will make sure of it, and it will give rise to the one he foresaw, his heir.

 Alfred and Bruce are dragged reluctantly into GCPD.  The Major says Jeremiah has been prepared, and Bruce will be safe.  Bruce just wants to het back to the hospital as soon as possible.

 We reenter the interrogation room.  Jeremiah is restrained Hannibal Lecter style. Bruce is alone with him, everyone else watching on a screen in anther room.

Hello Bruce - great to see ya.

Bruce hangs back near the door, but Jeremiah’s not having that

Closer please.  Closer 

It’s an homage to two scenes from Silence of the Lambs – the dialogue from the first time Lecter meets Clarice, and the style of restraints from later scenes with Chilton and Senator Martin.  There’s quite a lot of Hannibal influence here and there in Gotham, and there’s a scene later that is closely related too.  Jeremiah’s manner here echoes it too – deliberately friendly and avuncular – asking familiar questions to needle a response.

Tell me - how is the young lady doing, hmm?

Bruce doesn’t reply. Jeremiah continues anyway.

You know why we’re destined to be best friends?  We’re very much alike.  You are as I used to be.  At war with your true nature.  You should embrace it.  I’m trying to help you

Bruce stares at him disbelievingly – and asks if torturing Alfred and shooting Selina was supposed to be help

He goes on to say that there’s darkness in them both – but he knows how to control his.

Jeremiah smiles at him

I think you could be so strong.  I see it.  He sees it too

Bruce frowns.  The Major talks to him through a headset, asking him to ask about the bombs.

A smiling Jeremiah says there was only one bomb.  There only had to be one, to bring him here.  

 A panicked Alfred says this is enough – I want my boy out of there, mate

 Bruce asks who’s he?

Jeremiah tells him he’s the one who opened his eyes – to show him the Gotham he should make should not be Jeremiah’s, but….

Yours.  The one you need

Bruce draws closer – demanding a name.  Jeremiah looks calmly at him

Tell me what the doctors said.  Will the little bitch ever walk again? What vertebrae did I sever?  I was hoping for lumbar

Bruce grabs him and demands the name again.  Jeremiah smiles

You already know his name.  You’re his heir

Bruce looks aghast

Ra’s

He steps back, starting to panic.  Jeremiah shushes him

Sh sh sh.   Calm

The lights suddenly flicker and go out.

 In the other room, everyone panics and runs out – but it’s too late.  The soldier in the interrogation room is dead, and Bruce and Jeremiah are gone.

Back with Jim and Ed. The weight is now at 350lbs, and Jim is gasping.  Ed gleefully comments that they will hear ribs cracking soon.

450

Lee walks into the room. She tells Ed that a healthy human male can take 450lbs before ribs would crack.  She seems irritated, but not panicky.  She tells Ed she’s the Queen of the Narrows – did he think he could keep this hidden?

Ed says he knows how this looks.  Lee remarks that it looks like he’s going to crush Jim to death because he thinks they still have feelings for each other.

Ed slips almost into Ed of old in demeanour, explaining to Kristen Kringle why his filing system works better.  He says he’ll tell Lee why that’s a good thing.  It’s because Jim is holding her back from being person she was meant to be – the woman he loves.

Lee sighs

Do you really think so little of me?  How weak would that person be if Jim Gordon could hold her back?  It's insulting

Ed fumbles – and says that this isn’t what he intended.  Lee says this is enough.  She approaches Jim.  She tells him that yesterday he said a part of him would always care for her – but that the woman he loved is gone.  She asks if he understands.  

Poor squished Jim does look finally resigned as he says yes.

Lee says that the Narrows is now free from landlords and gangs, and families are free to live. That’s right.  Just handing out wads of cash fixes hugely complex structural problems.

Her gap year now over, she asks Ed to come with her.  If he does, he’s not to kill Jim.  She will decide who she’s going to be, and she’s leaving tonight.  It’s Ed’s choice.  

She leaves.

Ed smirks down at Jim

She chose me, Jim.  Did you hear that?  That’s all I wanted.  You can have Gotham.

He puts the control beside Jim, and leaves.

 Sirens.  Alfred marches in looking for Bruce – wondering if they know where Ra’s is.  Barbara says Ra’s plans to leave Gotham in rubble – but she has a plan.  Tabitha gets to kill Jeremiah, Alfred gets Bruce, and she get Ra’s.  She apparently has a surprise for him

Oswald strolls in with a shotgun and one question – who does he get to kill?  He glances over at Tabitha and says that the only way to keep Butch on the table to promise help.

Barbara comments that they’re quite the gang, and they all stride out.

 Meanwhile, a gasping Jim staggers out onto the street.  

Hey

It’s Lee.  She tosses keys at him, and says her car is around the corner.  I don’t know how conscious the costuming is – but while she’s still largely in her Narrows aesthetic – sparkly gloves and all – her blue coat is a call back to a colour she used to wear – maybe suggesting that she is trying to become a more integrated version of herself.

She tells Jim to ice his ribs.  He asks if it’s true that she’s leaving.  She tells him it is.  He asks if Ed is going with her – but she tightly tells him that’s none of his concern.

Jim tells her what he was starting to say back at GCPD, when she was arrested, is that if he could go back, he would change everything.  Leave Gotham with her the first time he saw her. Had a life.

Lee smiles wryly, but tells him then he wouldn’t be him.  Jim morosely remarks that would be a good thing, but Lee tells him it wouldn’t be. She then reiterates what she said before.  She’s not going to go back to who she was – but she will always care for him.  

She gives him a brief kiss goodbye – and tells him to go save Gotham.  They turn, and head in different directions.

As Jim is leaving, his phone rings.  It’s Harvey – telling him that things are bad: Jeremiah has Bruce and bombs.

 A hooded Bruce is brought into a room with a huge window (is this the same room where the Owl guy tried to convince Bruce to destroy the city?).  Ra’s stands by the window.  

Jeremiah removes Bruce’s hood with a flourish, and goes to stand by Ra’s

Bruce asks how they found each other.  Ra’s says Bruce brought them together.  He and Jeremiah gloat a little about their smooth plan.  

Bruce tells them they’re both insane.  Ra’s says this is for his benefit, and talks about his prophecy again – referring to blood and fire.

Jeremiah tells Bruce that - to be honest-  prophecies and visions aren’t his cup of tea, but that Ra’s revealed his twin obsessions are one and the same: rebuilding Gotham, rebuilding Bruce.  Bruce is the brother he never had – the brother Jerome could never be.

He puts a hand on Bruce’s shoulder

As Gotham falls, we rise.  Together.

(An aside.  Jerome and Jeremiah both definitely considered Bruce as a brother substitute in different ways.  I’d maybe suggest, though, that the intensity of Jeremiah’s obsession wanders into somewhat less fraternal territory.)

Back at GCPD – they pore over maps.  The stolen vans with the bombs are being driven to the outskirts.  The Major asks Jim to explain – but he, Harper and Harvey ignore him.  They recall Jeremiah’s talk of turning Gotham into a dark island – and it dawns on Jim.

He says that they need to get people off the bridges,  The Major objects, because he is an obstructive authority figure.  He tries to arrest Jim again – but Harvey pulls his gun. Then all the other cops likewise point their guns at the soldiers.

Defeated – the Major can only watch as Jim grabs a radio and puts an order out: clear the bridges immediately.

 Back with Ra’s, Jeremiah and Bruce.  Ra’s comments that civilisation is so fragile – Gotham will be each man for himself, a savage place.

Barbara strolls in, commenting that this sounds like fun.  She acknowledges Bruce and ‘freak’.  Jeremiah looks put out at this.

Ra's is glad she came, but Barbara says she’s not leaving – Gotham is in her blood.  

She shows him the knife. An amused Ra’s said that she had it reforged

Well now

Barbara says that she doesn’t trust that he’ll leave, and doesn’t want to live looking over her shoulder. Ra’s remarks that she’s outnumbered. She grins – and tells him the Demon’s Head really isn’t working, as Oswald sweeps into the room – shooting at all and sundry.  The rest follow behind him, and a huge rammy ensues.

 On the streets, police cars gather at bridges.  Jim gets out of a car.  The officer tells them they’ve cleared the bridges – but the vans are already in position. They’re too late.

We hear bombs start to detonate.  Jim spots a little girl who has somehow been left at the bridge nearby, and sprints towards her.

 Back with the huge fight. Alfred and Barbara tackle Ra's. Tabitha has her whip wrapped round Jeremiah’s throat, and tells him that this is for Selina, but he manages to stab her in the leg and flip the tables – pinning her to the floor.

In that case, this must be very disappointing for you - dying like this

Before he can kill her, though, he’s shot by Oswald.  Tabitha stares at him disbelievingly

Barbara grabs Bruce. He asks what she’s doing – but she clasps their hands together, roars, and runs at Ra’s – stabbing him.  It’s a very stabby episode.

Jeremiah sits up in surprise as this happens.

Ra's gasps a well done, Barbara – but is interrupted by an explosion.  The bombs are starting to detonate, and the bridges are falling.  Oswald looks shocked, while Jeremiah grins maniacally.

 Jim grabs the little girl and shelters behind a car.  There’s a huge explosion, and the bridge falls.  At the window, Oswald, Barbara, Alfred and Tabitha all stare solemnly at the destruction.

Ra's grabs Bruce and tells him that the choice is now his – he can stay, and become Gotham’s dark knight. I… he’s not really given him a choice, though, has he?  He’s forced him down a specific path.

He then distintegrates ickily.  

Bruce stares.  The sirens stand out most amidst the other sounds, a nice touch that it’s the general humanity of the situation that will affect Bruce most.

 The Narrows.  Lee is drinking.  We heat helicopter and sirens in the distance, general chaos.  Ed approaches.  

It seems Jeremiah made good on his threat.  I guess this means you’re not leaving

Lee asks how she can, they’ll need her now more than ever.  No-one will help them but her.  

Ed asks what that means for them.  Lee looks round, and tells him that it’s the end of the road for them.  Ed flicks the knife open behind his back.

I thought the other Ed was stupid – but I'm the idiot.  You were never going to leave with me.  It was just a ploy to save Jim.

Lee looks tired, faintly wry.

You and Jim aren’t that different.  You both think know me.  You both want to change me.  But neither one of you really sees me.

Turning, she beats Ed to the punch – stabbing him in the gut before he can stab her.  With her free hand, she cups his face.

For what it's worth, I was offering something real.  But I would never be who you wanted.  Sooner or later, you would have killed me.  It’s just what you do.

She makes to walk past him. Ed replies.

That’s entirely possible

And turning, stabs Lee in the gut.

He goes on to add

You’re wrong, though.  I do see you

They lock eyes and kiss as big dramatic music swells, and they both start to fold to the ground.  

It’s very similar –ambiguous body language blurring lines between stabbing/sex, talk about leaving together, letting someone else truly see and know you – to the Hannibal season 2 finale scene here.   Give it a watch and you’ll see what I mean

(A lengthy aside:

First up, the obvious stuff.   The scene is heavily sexual. You’ve got the whole sex and death thing anyway, which seems to get them both going.  You’ve also got the fine line between pained facial expressions and sexual facial expressions.  There’s a gifset going round that really illustrates it, though.  Lee’s hand placement with the knife is pretty suggestive, Ed’s hip thrust forward as he stabs her is very suggestive. They’re standing very close. Ed grunts with the effort of stabbing Lee, given his own wound – and there’s very heavy breathing from both.   It’s maybe no coincidence that we were only shown kisses before (although sex was implied). This moment was essentially consummation - when they were finally fully intimate.

That aside.  I’m…. confused.  I think the take home from this scene is that Ed and Lee do apparently see each other, and want what they see.  I get that.  I’m not entirely sure why they had to stab each other, or how/when/why their mindsets flipped so dramatically from one scene to the next.

Last we saw Ed, he was gloating triumphantly over Jim that Lee had chosen him.  But now – about an hour or so later – he’s consumed by insecurity again? Just because Lee is now likely to stay in town due to Jeremiah’s destruction?   Meantime, Lee was apparently genuinely offering him the chance to leave town with her – but now that the move is off, everything’s over for some reason – and apparently he’d have murdered her anyway?

Maybe some of what’s confusing me is to do with the assertion that Ed would definitely have killed Lee.  Because while I think it’s a real risk – because Ed is Ed- I don’t think it’s inevitable.  I don’t think it’s a compulsion.  I didn’t with Isabella either, to be honest.  I think if it has been decided that this is something Ed will always do –  murder his girlfriends - then that’s a pretty fundamental change in that character. Need for attention and praise, compulsion to solve puzzles, to set puzzles, to demonstrate his cleverness – yes. Killer with a tendency towards sadism, yes.  If you’re adding this new element, then we’re implying some very specific serial killer type stuff.

I dunno.  I don’t have a problem with this pairing.  I think there’s a good chemistry and a lot to explore. But I feel like, at some point, some decisions had to be made about motivations and characterisation.  As it stands, it feels like there’s lots of idea strands – but no definitive line.)

 Back at the manor, Tabitha pulls a knife on Hugo – who tells her to calm down. She demands to know where Butch is

Right here

His complexion is now normal.

You're you

I’m me again

Oswald smiles

Tabitha gazes up at Butch

I love you

Butch stares back at her

I love you too

He turns to oswald

I'll never forget this.  Anything you need. I'm there.  Thank-you.

Oswald smiles at him – slightly teared up.  

I want you to know, Butch, I consider you a friend.  And I’m truly sorry

Butch is confused.

Oswald raises his gun and shoots Butch dead.  Tabitha kneels next to his body.

Oswald walks closer

Did you think I forgot you murdered my mother?  Do you think I just got over it? I’ve lived with that pain every day for two years.  I could have killed you anytime – but I believe in an eye for eye.  You took away the one person I loved, so I took away the one person you loved.  And you get to live with that.

Tabitha tries to run at him – but Oswald shoots her in the shoulder.  She stares up at him

All this – was just so you could kill him in front of me?

Oswald smiles

Exactly.  But don't worry.  When I think you’ve suffered enough, I’ll kill you too

She snarls not if she kills him first.

Oswald grins and tells her she’s welcome to try

Tabitha is taken away screaming that she’ll kill him.  Oswald looks regretfully down at Butch’s corpse.

(Another lengthy aside:

Oswald’s revenge was a long time coming.  I’m not sure if I’m supposed to believe this was his plan from the moment he said he could help Butch find a cure – or if it formed later and he couldn’t pass up the chance – but it’s believable that he planned to get revenge somehow.  Tabitha laughed as she and Theo showed Oswald footage of his weeping mother.  She told him she enjoyed listening to her pleading.  She murdered her in front of him, and enjoyed doing it.  She’s never expressed even a scrap of remorse.   Oswald adored his mother and lost her in the most traumatic way possible.  I have no sympathy for Tabitha.

As for the notion that we’re supposed to consider Oswald’s actions monstrous because she’s heartbroken, I... don't really care much about this?  Apart from the fact that Oswald has my sympathies in virtually everything - it's not much of a deep, meaningful love on Tabitha's side - is it?  Specifically not when it's considered in the light of one of the key tenets of the value system that the show has built for us and repeatedly shown us - the importance of acceptance.

Acceptance, especially in a town full of outsiders and 'freaks', is everything.  I see you - I see all of you - and I still want you/forgive you/care about you/value you/love you.  

Oswald knows how powerful this is.  That’s why, when he twists the knife in Sofia, he does it by telling her that his parents loved him unconditionally - while Carmine did not see her, did not accept her. It's why the moment where she asked to see his leg was so cruel in retrospect: because she wheedled the intimacy out of him – he let himself be seen -  and then she faked that acceptance.  In Gotham, that recognition and acceptance is everything.  

We see it all over the place, in different relationships.  Harvey knows every last one of Jim's failings and sins, but will always wind up looking out for him anyway.  He doesn't magically stop being his friend because he knows he can be a self-righteous ass at times.

Bruce and Selina are equally aware and accepting of each other's weaknesses – even if they infuriate them.  Jeremiah believes that he truly sees Bruce, and is possessed with the need to have Bruce acknowledge that, and accept himself.

This is paramount in Lee and Ed’s big scene.  Lee is completely frustrated by the notion that Ed doesn’t see her for who she truly is. When they finally fully see each other for what they are – having knifed each other in the gut - and Ed tells her that he does see her, the moment is acknowledged in their kiss before bleeding out.

It's even glimpsed in smaller relationships.  It's what makes Jonathan and Jervis talking to each other in rhyme oddly sweet.  A willingness not only to see someone else, but accept and indulge them in their differences, which just so happen to be dressing as a scarecrow and talking in rhyme.

So when that acceptance isn't there - its absence is glaring.  Butch is the love of Tabitha's life - for whom she was willing to lose a hand - who not only came back from the dead, but regained his mind and memories....and Tabitha hesitated about getting back together because he was a slightly funny colour.  In the context of the value system that the show has offered us, this is about as pathetic as it gets.

As such, this isn’t exactly a moment worth weeping over.)

 Selina is being taken from the hospital.  Bruce runs over – asking for an update. The nurse tells him that she has a severed spinal cord and the damage is likely permanent – and also that there’s room on the ambulance for him

Alfred heads immediately to the ambulance – but Bruce hangs back.  He says he can’t leave.  Ra’s is right – this is what he’s meant to do.

Alfred tells him the city's abandoned – and there’s nothing more to be done.  He adds that Jeremiah is not his responsibility, and nor is Gotham.

Bruce says he’s making it his.  Alfred says sod it, and makes to join him – but Bruce tells him he needs to stay with Selina – Bruce has to know that she’ll be OK.

Alfred looks tearfully at him – and tells him that he will come back and find him.  He turns and gets into the ambulance, leaving Bruce behind.

 At GCPD – Jim looks out over an empty precinct.  Harvey approaches.  The mayor essentially wants to evacuate – give up on the city, but Jim refuses. They’ll have to arrest him.  He and Harvey comment that the government has abandoned the place, and gangs are dividing the turf.  The city is a battleground. 

We get a montage of the battlelines that are being drawn.

 Oswald enters a beautiful-looking abandoned building – his weird jangly theme tune playing.  Some thugs try to tell him this is their turf, but he gestures to his henchmen – one of whom is faithful eyepatch guy! – to kill them, which they do.  He nods

Yes.  this will do nicely

Look at my boy.  I’m so proud.

 In a tunnel somewhere – another thug indignantly tells a newcomer that this is their territory. The newcomer turns out to be Victor Fries, who tells him,

And now it’s mine.

 Meantime, Bridget wants a ring of fire ten blocks wide around her lair.  If anyone objects, burn them!

 In a presumably abandoned home somewhere, a thief creeps into a room with a makeshift lab – and stares round incredulously

The hell?

Not hell

It’s Jonathan – who gasses him, then decapitates him.

Hell is what's coming

I assume Jervis is just having afternoon tea in another room.

Back in the manor, a random thug tells Hugo

Penguin says fix ‘em

And leaves

We see Ed and Lee’s bodies on makeshift stretchers

Hugo smiles

What should I do with you?

There is no italicisation strong enough to convey Hugo’s voice.  He’s another level of italicisation.  Something needs to be invented.

 Sirens.  Two of Ra’s acolytes stand before Barbara

Ra's is gone.  You defeated him.  We have spoken and agreed.  We will follow you.

They kneel.

A bored Barbara remarks that, wow she is honoured.

A bleeding Tabitha is dragged in.  Barbara exclaims.  Tabitha tells her that Oswald killed Butch and shot her.

Barbara pulls a sulky face and begins to speak in a trembly voice.

Everything wrong with Gotham: greed pain corruption destruction….

Is apparently all down to men.  Yup.  All men’s fault.  

(An aside.  Barbara.  Oswald took revenge on Tabitha because Tabitha murdered his mother. You know about this, because you were living with the Galavans at the time.  You know Tabitha got her jollies listening to Gertrud cry and beg to see her son.  You know she all too willingly and gleefully put a knife in her back.  Where, pray tell, does tormenting and murdering old women fit into your big girl power agenda?  

As for corruption and destruction – you plotted with Ed way back when to bring the city to its knees. Greed?  Your first thought on hearing about the evacuation of the city was carving up turf.  Pain?  Remember when you helped to kidnap a child who could easily have wound up dead?

This whole idea and direction is execrable.   I hate it. Everything about it.  Is anyone honestly supposed to be cheering this moment on?  It’s flat-out nonsense, and hearing Barbara earnestly espousing it is going to garner more dislike for her – which is irritating, because she could be better than this.)

She goes on to say that it’s time they had a men-free zone.  She sits back and sips her drink while her lackeys murder the two men.  Their corpses are displayed outside with a big sign that says ‘Sirens turf.  No boyz allowed’.

 Really, Barbara?  Really?  This is asinine.  Whatever. I don't think I can fully articulate how little I care about this or want to see time spent on it next season. If, like, some loose bridge debris somehow landed on Sirens right now and flattened it, I don’t think I would give a stuff.

 GCPD.  Jim wanders the darkened station alone – but only momentarily, as we hear Lucius arriving cheerily – along with the power coming back on. Jim smiles at him as Lucius remarks that Jeremiah’s generators are quite ingenious when put to their original use.

Harvey walks in behind him, commenting that he figured they’d need help with…. science stuff

Lucius turns and smiles at him.  He turns back to Jim and says that there’s others on the way, this is their city, and it needs help.  Jim says that there is something he needs him to do.

 In an alley somewhere, Bruce beats the bejesus out of a random guy before grabbing him and adking where Jeremiah is.  The guy doesn’t know – but Bruce tells him when he sees him to tell him that Bruce is looking for him.  That should take approximately 30 seconds, then, since Jeremiah seems completely obsessed with Bruce – and I can’t honestly imagine him managing to stay away for too long.

As Bruce strides down the alley, he looks up into the night sky and sees a light – what will become the bat signal.

 Up on the roof of GCPD, Jim stands next to the batsignal, staring out over the city. 

Bruce approaches.  Jim tells him that he’s not supposed to be here. Bruce retorts that he isn’t either, but he stayed to fight for the city.  Jim says they’ll have to go block by block, with no idea what they’re going to find.  This darkness will bring out whatever’s lurking in the shadows.

 We see homeless people shuffling into church, where some weird ass thing drops down from the ceiling. What in the name of fuck was that?

 Elsewhere a creepy masked woman walks through a dormitory type room containing creepy dolls, to where a creepy masked child is beating a corpse.

 Bruce comments that the light is daring what's out there to come after him.  Jim says let them come.  There are still good people out there, and they need to know that they’re here – and willing to fight.  Bruce smiles and says he remembers the night they met, when Jim told him that the world may seem dark…Jim finishes his recollection.

.....but there is light.

(An aside.  Aw.  Bruce and Jim’s relationship is nice – when they let us see it. I’m guessing Alfred’s absence will allow them to develop it a bit more.)

 Thoughts?

[optimisticcritique]

Gotham Review - 4x21

I delayed this review a bit due to stressing and tweeting over season 5. Now I can edit this review properly :) Congrats Gothamites!  

An episode starting off with Lucius and Harvey scenes? Already a good episode. 

“Listen, Jim found his way out, understand?” I love how confident Harvey is in Jim’s survival. Either that or denial because he loves his best friend so much. 

On second thought, he probably knows that Jim’s plot armor shall be his salvation!

Oof all those cops talking smack to Harvey over the Pyg fiasco. Now is not the time to be questioning his authority, people. Don’t let them get to you, Harvey! 

Thank you, Harper. I have always loved you. Please don’t ever be cannon fodder. 

Oh, I completely forgot that no one knows about Jeremiah being evil yet. All they know is about Jerome followers and Bruce/Jeremiah possibly being in danger. 

Snazzy clothes Jeremiah! 

Yeah, he does not like being compared to his brother. Always insulting Jerome any time that someone mentions him. 

An evacuation huh? Hmm...

Huh. I kind of expected a bit of a more emotional response from Babs and possibly Oswald over Jim dying. I think Oswald is masking his pain with a styling wardrobe and money.

“or woman power, if you will” Awe look at Ozzie all for woman power lol

Using Butch’s “condition” to get what you want, Oswald? I see what you’re doing. 

Tabby giving her girlfriend puppy dog eyes to get what she wants. How can you say no to that, Babs?

Oswald’s expressions always get to me XD

They saved your life from Jerome, mayor. It’s best just to roll with it and do what they say.

Great. Now Bruce will be blaming himself for Jeremiah and the whole city destruction because of Wayne Enterprises funding it. As if he needed more things to blame himself for. 

Yeah, Jim would probably nag at Bruce to stay away, only for Bruce to not listen anyway. So, even with Harvey in charge, Bruce is right on track :P

The first thing you say on the phone is that you hope he didn’t catch a cold? As if that is his first concern when you are answering Alfred’s phone lol

You are going to prove you're his best friend by driving him insane, killing his butler, and destroying the city? Here’s a thought: buy him a card or dinner instead! 

Lee and Jim interacting once again. Well, that was quick. Always awkward when you keep running into your ex.

Oh! Of course, it would be because of Ed that Jim is alive. Ha! Wonder if he will regret that decision later on.

“Bruce, I am going to be here whenever you need me” Awww that’s so sweet.

 If she wasn’t such an important character, I’d almost think it’s a death foreshadowing.

Ed with the doubting and jealousy. Come on, you knew she was using you. Why are you still on this? 

Okay, I love the idea of Ed helping to solve Jeremiah’s plans...but this isn’t exactly what I had in mind. 

I love seeing Lucius and Harvey working together to save the day. We don’t see enough of their scenes. 

“Lucius, English please” I feel like I hear the “English please” in every show that has to do with technology or science these days :P

Part of me doesn’t believe Jeremiah envies Bruce going through his “one bad day” but another part of me wouldn’t be surprised if he truly does.

No, don’t kill Alfred! That won’t make things better!

I don’t say it enough but great acting with Cameron. I never once ever see Jerome or Jeremiah as “oh that’s just Cameron”. I automatically see them as two separate characters with two separate personalities. Fantastic acting! Why is this cast so gifted? 

Oh my gosh...all of these characters. In the same room. Together. I love it. 

Oswald twirling that trigger is just fabulous. 

Money? Wait, all you want is money? You are all okay with the city being blown to bits? Even Oswald? 

I really hope they are expecting the unexpected here. Babs is right “is that it?” You shouldn’t underestimate. It’s a trap!

Yeah, I wouldn’t have let him walk away if I were you...

Oh okay! So they do want to help save Gotham. Good to know.  

Gee Oswald, say it louder why don’t you...

Plan #2 is a bazooka? Well, now I’m intrigued with a plan #3. 

You know, the more you insist you aren’t insane, the more people suspect you are insane. 

“No! You promised the city 6 hours!” I got to say, I love how Babs has been written and shown these past few episodes. She just seems like she is given so much more depth. I also love that all of the villains are bad but have their own levels/rules of bad. Destroying a city and thousands of people is just too extreme for them.

Jeremiah is one fast runner. Did he ever run track in school?

Scarecrow! I really want to know how he got Jonathan involved with this. Was it the whole “you knew my brother” thing? Or Jonathan just felt like it? 

Ed seems to be the only person so far that doesn’t care if the city turns to rubble. Given his past comments, it doesn’t really surprise me. At the same time, does he not care to save even his friend “through thick and thin”? 

“I’m with Lee now” Oh here we go...

Ugh I’m sorry. I can’t with these scenes. It’s just so cringy. 

I like that Jim uses the word “validate”. It’s such a good word to use for Ed. 

Exactly! No one truly knows Lee the way that they think they do. 

“Oh Jim, she’s with me in every way...” I didn’t need to know this. Somehow, I don’t know if I believe that. But honestly, this is Ed. He could just mean “every way” as “I teach her how to riddle” 

Wow...this whole “ten times the killer” thing. I mean, Jim was a soldier and he has shot a lot of criminals in the past seasons but like...his motives were still somewhat different. I can’t tell if he is just agreeing to the killer thing because he feels guilty about all the deaths that were because of him (more likely) or there was a part of him that knew that him agreeing to Ed’s words was the only way for Ed to finally help him.  

I love when Ed is solving puzzles and being smart, showing off his knowledge. 

“Ed, wait, there’s one thing I can’t figure out” No! Ugh, Ed! Don’t be this stupid. You should be smarter than this! “One? Being a little kind to yourself...” Okay, that helped a little lol He just had to slide a comment like that in there. 

“HARVEY!” It just wouldn’t be a Gotham episode without Oswald yelling. Or dressing amazingly. Or giving expressions that are moods. 

Harvey’s relief to see Jim alive and then the hug. So nice :)

Harvey: we just need to know the locations. Jim: *walks in* I know the locations. Me: Could that be any more conveniently timed? 

Selina and Scarecrow! Interacting! Sweet. 

Foxy being all helpful :) He’s getting some nice screen time this episode.

Oh, this is all toxin then. Is he really even seeing what he thinks he’s seeing?

Oh my gosh...the cutting of the smile. This has to be the toxin, right? This can’t actually be Alfred. 

Selina finding a man in the closet? Must be Alfred. I thought Jeremiah asked them to kill him? 

Selina helping Bruce through it and getting his attention. So intense.

The looks shared between Bruce and Alfred. He’s so relieved! ...What? No hug!? Missed opportunity. Harvey took the hug quota in the episode I guess? Eh, he deserved them though.  

“Lucius, they’re identical...” Harvey’s shaken and upset voice :(

Ooh Jim being savage. 

Eeny meeny...? Really Harvey? lol

YES! HARVEY DID IT! A hero right there. He looks so happy. 

Another failed trigger. Gotham just never wants triggers to work well.

Oh, Jeremiah is pissed. Very intimidating. 

Haha he ran so fast out of there.

I admire that he has so many back up plans. Thinking ahead. 

*burns his followers* “Hmm...well, that’s disappointing” lol

Wait, is that all of your followers? What happened to Ecco?

“Ever since we teamed up, everything has gone to crap” True but it isn’t the finale yet. Oswald tends to get back on top at that point. 

Yeah, I definitely think Oswald hasn’t been forthcoming with this Strange stuff. I sense many ulterior motives. 

Man, I just noticed that Oswald, Ed, and Jeremiah are all being outsmarted and foiled from their plans today. Just can’t catch a break to blackmail or murder. 

Yup, it was also Ed that did that :) When are Jeremiah and Ed going to share a scene, huh? 

Ra’s! I had a hunch. 

“you’re behind me, aren’t you?” So, Jeremiah is familiar with tropes and “scary” movies, I see? 

Jeremiah: no thanks. Ra’s: *mentions Bruce* Jeremiah: Okay! Let’s do this! What are we waiting for? *is already running out the door because it’s apparently his favorite sport*

Ed is going to be creeping and listening-yup. It figures.

Why am I not surprised that Ed is listening to all this? Yeah, I predict he is going to go after Lee, Jim, or both of them now...and fail at it because of plot. Oh, this is not going to end well. 

Okay, this is conflicting. On one hand, I find this whole thing aggravating. I hate that Ed is always involved with love storylines and seemingly acting dumb because of it. I hate that Lee fell into that too. At the same time, in terms of his behavior in this episode, this is such an Ed thing to do in a way. He is insecure and seeks validation. That really fits his character. His paranoia is also understandable. He’s always been that way and made stupid decisions because of it. Like when he was paranoid that Jim was onto his murder of Kristen in S2 and blew it all for himself. So, that part of the storyline actually makes sense, which is why I can see him ruining everything next episode because of that paranoia. At this point, I just hope it gets resolved quickly. 

Awwww! Everyone applauding Harvey! Giving him the appreciation he deserves! I love this so much! It’s about time! 

Lucius and the GCPD joking with him lol

Aww another Harvey hug in an episode. That hug! So touching! I love it!

Are they gonna-yes! They actually kissed this time! 

Well, at least one ship is happy. *Jeremiah shoots Selina* You just can’t let people be happy for more than a few seconds? Can you Gotham? 

Bruce, your security system sucks. If you even have one.

Selina! No! I know you won’t die but still! 

Hey, is that a new hat? Okay, how can Jeremiah have two new hats in one episode and Ed have his bowler hat yet Oswald gets nothing but a hallucination? A travesty. Jeremiah does pull them off though.

I hope Jeremiah gives Oswald his second hat as a way to broker a peace or something. Or Oswald just steals it after firing his machine gun at him, not being able to kill Jeremiah though. 

Jeremiah doesn’t even care that he’s getting beaten up. He’s just like “whatever. I expected this” 

So much silence of sound. The intensity... poor Selina. Poor Bruce, having to deal with another loved one shot in front of him. 

This was seriously the plan? Walk in, shoot Selina, get beat up? Does Ra’s want her hurt so that he can leverage some Lazarus water or something? How does Jeremiah getting arrested fall under this? 

Overall: Great episode. Many of the characters dealing with the same threat, which I love. Everyone banding together against Jeremiah, who I am very much enjoying thus far. I loved seeing the team-ups and interactions. Different changes of pace. Oswald and Butch/Grundy team up with Babs and Tabs to take down Jeremiah. It fails. They decide to go find/threaten Strange to help Grundy. Ed and Jim have a Lee conversation, Ed helps decipher Jeremiah’s plans and then gets knocked out by Jim. Trouble brews with Ed/Lee/Jim. Lucius teams up with Harvey to stop the explosions. Harvey disables it. The GCPD celebrate him. Jeremiah tries to drive Bruce crazy. It fails. Jeremiah burns all his followers. Jeremiah teams up with Ra’s. Bruce and Selina save Alfred. They kiss. Jeremiah shoots Selina in the gut and Alfred starts beating him up. 

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