#cluemaster

[graypark214]

[sweetmeatdale]

Cluemaster: Ask me any question! On any topic!

Batman(who has been getting help from Cluemaster’s daughter all night):

[incorrectbatfam]

Cluemaster: Batman, you ruined my life.

Bruce: I don't even know who you are.

[arkhamknightd]

While Tim isn’t exactly the most interesting Robin I think it’s notable that out of all the protégés he comfortably has the best Rogue’s Gallery and it Carrie’s him a long way. Barb has Killer Moth, and formerly the Cavalier I guess, and Damien has his family but all of them are mostly Bruce’s villains. And everyone has rivals in Bruce’s rogue’s gallery but those connections never stick. Tim’s got Anarky, King Snake, and the General as pretty much exclusively his nemeses, and he’s got a great dynamic with all of them, like Lonnie, Dorrance, and Ulysses are all full fledged rogues with history, and most of that history is up against Tim. Steph is the only competition, but Cluemaster is ontologically pathetic by design and it’s tougher to have him be a recurring threat yknow. I think it’s worth putting energy into, because otherwise you end up with Dick’s most recurring foes being Blockbuster and Double Dare, I like Blockbuster and Double Dare more than most, but if they’re your arch-villains then something is wrong.

[longslvs]

batfamily as things my friends have said

dick, helping the batkids with homework: so the root word uni means one; like unicorn

tim: they’re not real.

steph: how do YOU know that

jason, not looking up from his work: because i killed the last one.

[if-i-hate-the-headline]

wayne family adventures moments that i think about on the daily - but it's just the choices we make (pt 7)

DICKS FACE - i'm crying

i love tim as robin (don't get me wrong i love damian but tim as robin is amazing

I PROVE MY POINT

poor little assassin boy - like he's so cute when he's happy and with the bat fam

i love stephanie brown

honestly poor dick and jason - as cool as they are they were so young, like dick was 9

the parallels of this episode are so cute

LOOK AT THEM OML

[ko-conner]

A little Stephanie Brown comic

[why-i-love-comics]

Batman: Wayne Family Adventures #101 - "Enough II" (2023)

written by CRC Payne art by Starbite, Jace Camedon, Suzi Blake, & Paula Fidelis

[iconuk01]

Pouches - Who's to blame (Not entirely serious)

Now, we remember that the king of the super pouches is Cable, and for good reason... Since his intro in 1990 he has tended to be more than slightly... pouch intensive

This isn't even a spoof cover, it's an accurate representation of his costume at the time.

But did he START the trend?

I think not.

Leaving aside Batman from the 1966 series, who had hefty pouches in his belt...

Though still not remotely large enough for some of the stuff he randomly produced from it, even if it DOES fold up... sort of.

But I digress....

I did consider the Silver Age bat villain Cluemaster

But those are specifically "plastic-glass pellets" containing assorted chemical weapons, like explosives, gas, acids and the like, so not sure they count.

It's been suggested that one of the first in the modern era to develop this was Longshot in 1986, when he did indeed have pouches on his belt, because artist Art Adams thought he needed practically-sized pouches to carry things in.

But even then are there MANY pouches? His bandolier was to store his throwing knives for easy access, so weren't pouches per se.

So technically, the first X-Men character to really lay into the pouches side of things isn't Cable, not by a long shot... it's this guy, slightly later in 1986

So Doug Ramsey was leading the field of poucher-y in the X-Verse side of things.

Just look at that vest and belt, LOADED and lined with pouches, and we never even find out what's in them... Though I think it would include pens, pencils, notepaper, some money, spare keys to the Xavier school, first-aid kit, lock picks (because he's always wanted to carry lockpicks), string (Everyone should carry string), breath mints and other things a relatively sensible teenager would want to be sure he was carrying if he had the room in his outfit and wasn't given to cargo shorts!

And yet, there are other contenders, so let's work backwards...

Also from 1986, Batman (again) from "The Dark Knight Returns" where even his BELT looks to be on a course of serious steroids!

And in 1983 we got this stylish new costume retconned into the history of the Golden Age Tarantula in All-Star Squadron who, up until this point, wore a purple and yellow spandex outfit that was, oncufsingly, identical to the Golden Age Sandman's spandex costume outfit.

Notice that he has rings of pouches on both boots, where he keeps things like spare cash in case he needs to hire a taxi and probably some spare ammo for his wirepoon gun.

But I think I've found patient zero as, from 1981's New Teen Titans #3. we have the inventor and technologist par excellence, the man who would be known (Eventually) as Mikron O'Geneus, though he would, perhaps thankfully, becomes better known by his codename:

GIZMO!

Look, even his LOGO has pouches!

In fairness, given his speciality is creating techno-widgets and devices out of other technology, him carrying dozens of gadgets and components makes a lot of sense, to the extent that he even manages to carry MORE weapons than Robin's utility belt (Which is TARDIS like in and of itself)!

So I think we have a winner!

Gizmo started the modern pouch trend!

If anyone can find earlier/other contenders, then please feel free to add them!

[magnoliasandarson]

Stephanie Brown, Stained Glass

It's easy to disregard Stephanie Brown. She was unremarkable, through and through. Another loudmouth who never learned when to shut up. Another Gotham reject harboring a bone to pick with the world. 

Her mom loved her; she had at least that going for her, but it wasn't motherly love as seen on TV. Whenever her mom wasn't popping pills to drown out her emotions, she was weeping about Stephanie's dad. Speaking of the douche, Cluemaster, how original. She couldn't make her dad behave as Stephanie, but if she donned a mask, she'd be able to spoil his fun.

Spoiler took to the streets, and suddenly people saw her. Not the loudmouth whose dad got his ass kicked by Batman, Spoiler. And she was glorious. Course the Bat disagreed, said she was unpolished and unprepared. But that emo furry didn't get an opinion on how Stephanie lived her life, and Tim was always there to smooth things over if B took it too far. Tim was sweet and all, but Stephanie knew damn well what it felt like when people looked at her and saw only a step in their path. So when Boy Blunder fucked off, she donned a new mask because she'd always been worthy of his time, and he was an idiot.

She was good at being Robin; whether Batfuck would agree or not is totally irrelevant. She saved his life, and he fired her. Her eyes caught on the memorial in the cave, A Good Soldier. Yeah, maybe Stephanie wasn't a good soldier, but being one hadn't done Jason any favors. If the Bat's idea of a good Robin was a rule-following pushover, Stephanie would show him a great Robin was anything but.

She set out to prove once and for all that she, Stephanie Brown, was good- at her job, at being a hero, at being a daughter- good. She nabs one of Batfuck's underdeveloped schemes off the Batcomputer and modifies it to suit her. Maybe she wasn't the problem, maybe- just maybe, the problem was B's bullshit. Her plan goes beautifully. She's alive, brilliant, and better than ever- and she was right all along: she was a hero. They find her body hours later.

She didn't even get a memorial.

[about-faces]

Seeing those BatFam webtoons of Steph and her dad issues makes me annoyed about One Bad Day: Two-Face all over again. One of the big reasons that issue was popular was because of how Steph didn’t trust Harvey for one second, didn’t feel any sympathy towards him, and criticized Bruce’s own sympathy for Harvey as being stupid and dangerous.

And in the end, the plot vindicates her skepticism when Harvey destroys his noble father for absolutely no reason. Just evil for the sake of evil.

Which only worked because the author went out of her way to create a whole new backstory for Harvey, turning his abusive monster of a dad into a kind, loving, successful man. “All the best parts of me are my father,” Harvey says at one point. This Harvey is written expressly to be exactly the person Steph says he is, just to prove her right. He is just rotten to the core, playing up a “good” side that isn’t really there to manipulate Bruce and others. And there seems to be no reason for it in this story other than to make Steph look like the only sensible person who can see through it.

It wouldn’t have worked the same way if the author had actually incorporated Harvey’s canonical abuse. I still wonder how Steph would react to that Harvey. How much empathy would she have for what he went through? Would she condemn him for not pulling himself up by his boostraps the way she did, choosing to become a hero instead of a monster? Would she take his mental illness into account, or the extent to which he tried to be heroic and was torn down by forces without and within? Or would she be like Dick, and flatly condemn him as a psychopath, unworthy of any sympathy and unable to be salvaged, if not redeemed?

And for that matter, what would that Harvey make of her? Even if she didn’t empathize with Harvey, what if he empathized with her? What if Two-Face decided to pay Cluemaster a little visit, to mete out some justice of his own, and how would Steph react to that?

There’s a far more interesting and troubling story to be written about Harvey with Steph (and/or Cass, for that matter), but it would require a writer who was willing to dive into these complex questions about what makes a monster. Someone willing to acknowledge that Two-Face is both villain and victim, an abusive “survivor” who arguably didn’t actually survive. A walking scar, still seeking out some sense of justice and fairness in his own broken way.

[comicbookcovers]

Jigsaw puzzle covers!

[maemil]

Can't believe I never realized she absolutely stole these from her dad. Most iconic hater of all time.

[incorrectbatfam]

If Bruce ever adopts Steph, how do you think it would go? He asks her? She does? Though tackle-hugging is involved in some form.

Bruce: That's it, you're grounded.

Steph: You can't ground me, I'm not your kid.

Bruce: Wait, you're not?

Steph: No!

Bruce: I thought I adopted you.

Steph: My parents are still around.

[three days later]

Crystal: Look, I won the Wayne Enterprises sweepstakes for an unlimited vacation.

Steph: *sticks her head out the window*

Steph: Nice try, Bruce.

Bruce: Pretty please?

Steph: *shuts the window*

[goodoldfashionedengineer]

Why did it take me watching the 1966 Batman show to learn that Dick has an aunt?

Actually, no, objectively I knew he had other relatives, but that fact never really registered?

And now I've fallen into a rabbit hole...

Did you know that her comic counterpart, introduced in 1964, was introduced after Alfred died when he saved Batman and Robin from a falling boulder and essentially took his role?

And when she found the Batcave, she smeared pitch onto all the exit routes of the Batcave, because Bruce and Dick tried to trick her into thinking that they aren't Batman and Robin.

They used a hydrofoil attachment to get over it.

So they go out for partrol to catch the latest villain.

You'll never guess who it is.

It's Cluemaster. Fucking Cluemaster.

He painted a special chemical onto the BatTires so he could locate them but the tracks just stopped at some point.

Bruce and Dick thought they outplayed Dick's Aunt Harriet.

[capesandshapes]

Stephanie Brown would visit her father in prison just to bully him.