#i know outsiders has a batman character in it so that might skew it a bit

[distort-opia]

so i just enjoy the batfam totally from the outside, i've never read the comics, i've only seen the nolan movies, and i've seen maybe an episode or two of the animated series. i find the family dynamic interesting so i follow people who talk about it, and maybe i'll actually dive in someday haha but WOW!! your tags on that post about jason's death and bruce's reaction really just blew me away. it seems like cynically realistic view of what might really happen between family members with a strained relationship like theirs seems to be, and it's painful to read about! of course, it could all be done with the intention of the fans leaving with the thought that bruce is a Good Guy, but still. it feels real in a really sad way. is this story from the comics? if so, do you know which series?

Hey! Yeah... That's the thing I find fascinating too, regarding that whole conundrum I mention in my tags to this post. When it comes to Bruce and Jason and Joker, the Watsonian and Doylist perspectives are both needed to understand the dynamics. DC bringing Jason back from the dead to create conflict with Batman… and then deciding to keep the character, but not really knowing what to do with him. Jason could not be allowed to challenge Bruce too much, make Bruce look too much like he's in the wrong, because Batman is the hero. Batman is the main character. So what we ended up with was a narrative skewed hard in Bruce's favor, one that does things like putting the blame on Jason for his own death and writing Jason as forgiving things that are hard to imagine ever being forgiven. And this couldn't be done without making Bruce express this attitude as well, which is what I was referring to-- within-Universe, this reads as Bruce being unable to accept that he has wronged Jason, and resorting to defense mechanisms mired in denial and repression. To stave off his guilt.

I do agree it's compelling though, from a character point of view... it makes sense in a tragic kind of way. Bruce was crushed by grief and guilt after Jason's death, he entered a spiral that was only broken by Tim and Dick's intervention. And then Jason came back, and confronted Bruce with a very difficult choice, borne from his anger at seeing that Joker suffered no consequences after killing him. And thing is, I am of the opinion Bruce's choice not to commit murder, even Joker's, is valid. (And also, that Bruce did do something; he refused to save Joker's life after Jason was killed, but Joker survived anyway.) The problem is... you know, Bruce slitting Jason's throat to save Joker's life. An almost-murder of his adopted son to avoid the murder of the guy who killed him. And how do you live with that, I suppose? Other than scrambling for every justification under the sun and burying yourself under mountains of denial? If Bruce reacted so strongly to Jason's death, how would he be able to keep going if he accepted the fact he nearly killed Jason himself? It's an incredibly selfish choice to shift blame onto Jason instead, make everything about Jason's death and not at all about the events of UtRH... but it makes sense in the context of Bruce defending himself from a grief and guilt he cannot come back from. Jason having committed crimes and killing people made it easier for Bruce to do this, too. Hide behind Jason's "instability".

Oof, ended up rambling again, sorry for how long this gets! I gotta say though, I'm not primarily a Batfam fan; I've got a similar approach to you, Anon. Making the note because there's definitely some comic-knowledgeable Batfam experts out there who are better equipped to speak on the topic. Alas, when asking about the story itself, I assume you mean Jason's death and return? Because if you want to read about that, I'd recommend the following (in this order):

Batman: A Death in the Family (Jason's murder)

Batman: A Lonely Place of Dying (for Bruce's reaction to Jason's death)

Optional: The Batman Files (Bruce's journal entry regarding Jason's death, which is a contradictory combination of blaming himself and Jason for it)

Optional: Batman: Gotham Knights #43-44 (for Bruce's recall of the events and a story that suggests that, even if Jason had been an emotional and reckless teenager, Bruce as an adult should have made better choices regarding him-- shoutout to Barbara)

Optional: Batman (1940) Annual #25 (Jason coming back to life)

Optional: Red Hood: The Lost Days (Jason's time after being resurrected and prior to coming back to Gotham)

Batman: Under the Red Hood (Jason's return)

And I guess if you want a sampler of what Bruce sounds like at his shittiest when doing the stuff described, there's Batman: Battle for the Cowl #3, in which Bruce leaves Jason a message post-mortem. It's not a very nice message. And I wish I could say Bruce at least doesn't do more shitty things regarding Jason even after all of that, but I'd have to be lying.

[forevercloudnine]

new 52 scarebat ship meme

(I had @heroes-etc​ give me more questions, but for scarebat this time, since we talk about it 24/7 but I never post about it. These are from this ship meme.)

4. Their favorite physical feature on each other?

There’s only one feature of Bruce’s appearance that’s scarier when he’s not wearing the batsuit, and that’s his creepy blue eyes. Especially the way Greg Capullo draws them where they’re sickly pale and have ridiculously constricted pupils.

So his eyes would definitely be in the running for Jonathan’s favorite feature, even if seeing them would require Bruce’s mask to be off, which is something New 52 Scarecrow explicitly avoids. Yes, that character trait only exists to justify why Batman’s identity is still secret after Scarecrow mind controls and subsequently institutionalizes him in “Gothtopia,” but I think it’s interesting so I’m going to pretend it’s not shoe-horned in there for meta reasons.

Actually having to see Bruce without the cowl on would definitely permanently break the illusion of Batman as a nightmarish inhuman bat demon, which I’m sure is a large part of the appeal for anyone as obsessed with fear as Jonathan Crane. But Bruce’s creepy eyes would be a serious consolation prize. 

Bruce’s favorite of Jonathan’s physical features is rough, because Jonathan is famously not great re: physical features. I’m going to say his mouth, because a) that’s where the snark comes from, and b) the New 52 establishes that in one of their earlier encounters, Jonathan had sewn his own mouth shut, so it’s one of those things where a bad first impression turned positive later on leads to more fondness than if you’d made a good impression in the first place.

I just looked up the panel where he does it and I DID forget how incredibly gross his lips look here, which makes the fact that I have chosen it as Bruce’s feature seem really funny in retrospect. But I do think that seeing Jonathan’s mouth healed and unmutilated would be a reassuring reminder of how he’s stabilized since their first encounter, at least to the point that he isn’t hurting himself anymore. Also, Bruce buys him a lot of chapstick.

Bonus alternate answer that did not make it into the Google Doc:

9. How open are they with their feelings?

Bruce and Jonathan are both pretty competent deceivers in the New 52; Bruce always, Jonathan depending on how the writer is feeling (though you could argue that Bruce just has a stronger grip on reality, while Jonathan’s skill at obfuscation varies with how lucid he is).

...I was going to use Detective Comics #23.3 as an example of Jonathan being a good liar, but actually upon re-reading I’m realizing that only 1/4 rogues buy his attempt at manipulation. So maybe he’s considerably worse at hiding his intentions than he thinks he is. Regardless, he doesn’t ever attempt to disguise his obsession with Batman.

Whether or not he’d express romantic feelings or try to hide them is debatable. There’s no Masters of Fear equivalent in the New 52 establishing that he was ever mocked or punished for expressing romantic feelings for someone, though there is a flashback panel in his origin emphasizing that he was always lonely in this regard (and coincidentally doesn’t specify that his interest is in women, which is fun).

In Green Lanterns #17 he has some internal monologue about how fear is his romance and he needs Batman to feel it, but it is an INTERNAL monologue, so it’s not clear if this is something he would express to Bruce or keep to himself. Or if he’s even fully processed it himself, given how incredibly out of it he is in this comic. Most of his spoken lines are just kind of screaming incoherently. Bruce gets pretty snippy with a Green Lantern at the end of the issue for suggesting that Jonathan should be punished for his crimes as if he were in control of his actions. 

Bruce is a similarly complicated answer, since for all his deceptions and shadowy mystery he pretty much wears his heart on his sleeve when it comes to romance. It’s just that his heart doesn’t express or process emotions the same way as anyone around him, which can create conflict. His (seriously underrated) love interest during Scarecrow’s origin arc, Natalya, spent most of her time dating him thinking that he didn’t care about her for this reason. He was trying to express that he loved her, but he mostly did so through complimenting her skills, which she never took as serious declarations of affection because he wasn’t being straightforward and she was insecure.

Jonathan does not himself seem like someone who would be especially secure in the idea of another person having romantic feelings towards him, so I assume that while Bruce might THINK he’s being open with any romantic feelings he develops, he would in reality just be really confusing.

13. How do they react to being away from each other?

I actually think that in general, Jonathan is one of the few people who would have no issue dealing with Bruce’s tendency to unexpectedly go AWOL for long periods of time, given that he himself has a tendency to fixate on his work to the exclusion of everything else.

But New 52 Jonathan specifically probably has pretty serious abandonment issues due to his father putting him in “the pit” and dying before he could take him out, meaning that Jonathan was waiting for his dad to come back for him for God knows how long, until Jonathan Sr.’s employers finally sent the police to investigate. 

So while in general I think he wouldn’t be very clingy, any impression that Bruce had died or otherwise wasn’t coming back for him would probably be incredibly triggering. If Bruce could assuage this reaction by occasionally sending updates that at least indicated he was still alive, then I doubt Jonathan would have any problems with his absence.

(@heroes-etc​: bruce sending like a checkmark emoji once a day. jonathan hears his phone ping, looks at the screen, and goes hm. good. and doesnt respond.)

Bruce meanwhile has no problem ditching literally any love interest at any time if something crime-related comes up, unless he’s considering quitting the cowl for them (as Joker probably accurately fears will happen with Catwoman in Prelude to the Wedding). But I don’t think he’d stop being Batman for Scarecrow, nor would Jonathan ever want him to — he’s interested in Batman, not necessarily Bruce Wayne.

But even though Bruce wouldn’t have an emotional problem with distance, I think he would get similarly paranoid if they went too long without contact, though for different reasons than Jonathan. Unlike some other villains (*cough* Joker and Riddler), Scarecrow has machinations that don’t require getting Batman’s attention, so if he decided to continue with his less legal experiments, he would not feel compelled to get Bruce involved. While the “World’s Greatest Detective” would probably not have an issue keeping an eye on Jonathan while he’s in Gotham, he’s considerably less capable of that in space. And Jonathan is definitely a rogue he would be obsessed with keeping an eye on, even if he reformed. 

Batman & Robin Eternal established that Dick’s first supervillain conflict AND first mission leaving the country was chasing Scarecrow across the world for an entire summer, which is kind of insane considering how early it was in Batman’s career. Like, he did not have an army of children to watch Gotham for him while he was gone. He had one child, and he took that child WITH him. He left Gotham undefended for months, JUST to catch Scarecrow. Sooo that in of itself implies he wouldn’t be great at keeping his distance.

15. Does their view of themselves differ from their partner’s view?

Well, Jonathan occasionally sees Bruce as a giant bat demon, so yes.

Outside of that very obvious differing view, Jonathan in general sees himself and the rest of the rogue gallery as more vital to Batman’s identity than Bruce considers them; the extent to which he’s right varies depending on your interpretation of Bruce’s character, but it’s definitely not something Bruce would ever consciously think or say. 

This is related to something that’s definitely a misconception of his, though, which is that the majority of Batman’s job revolves around supervillains like him. In Kings of Fear, when Jonathan blackmails Bruce into letting him come on patrol with him (which is a whole thing in of itself), he’s shocked at how boring most of Batman’s work is. Which probably goes along hand in hand with sometimes seeing Bruce as an almost mythologically inhuman figure. 

In his defense, it’s not like he has a lot of context for what the minutiae of Batman’s job is like. He’s either fighting Batman, hiding from Batman, or imprisoned by Batman in Arkham, a place where everyone else also spends all their time fighting or hiding from Batman. Which would really skew your perspective.

Interestingly, Bruce and Jonathan are both people who pride themselves on being extremely self-aware. Both of them probably inaccurately. You can rant about how you have a perfect understanding of your troubled mental state all day long, but if you’re still dressing up like a monster at night to indulge the power fantasies you created as a traumatized child by scaring the hell out of people, there’s probably a level of self-realization you haven’t gotten to yet.

Bruce however is at least self-aware enough to regularly be able to analyze his way out of fear toxin induced hallucinations, which Jonathan is unable to do — when he’s not depicted as having become immune to his fear toxin due to overexposure (as he is in Green Lanterns #17), he can be defeated with the same formulas that Batman regularly manages to resist (like his honestly embarrassing breakdown in Nightwing #50). 

Which ties into the difference between how he sees himself and how Bruce sees him: Jonathan obviously visualizes himself as a “master” of fear. He actually has the same internal monologue about fear and trauma that Bruce does in Batman: The Dark Knight #13: “Make it your own... run to what you fear... stare it in the eye... until it whimpers and backs down.” But Bruce doesn’t see Scarecrow as conquering his fear; he sees him as addicted to it, to the point of his own detriment.

Which is interesting, because Jonathan clearly sees his Scarecrow persona as a way to regain control after being victimized by his father’s fear experiments throughout his childhood. I guess Bruce’s perspective would be that Jonathan’s father instead got him addicted to fear as a child, so his attempts at agency as Scarecrow are just a) reliving his trauma over and over and b) compulsively inflicting his own trauma on others. There’s probably some truth to that, even if overall it’s probably an oversimplification (and coincidentally pretty much EXACTLY what Riddler argues Bruce is doing by “funding” Batman in Batman Annual #4, so there’s that).

20. Did either person change at all, to be with their partner?

The obvious answer here is yes, because Jonathan is a supervillain with no regard for human life while Bruce is a superhero who has dedicated his life to protecting people. So presumably one or both of them would have to make serious compromises to be together. HOWEVER. Scarecrow’s primary motivation is to research, understand and inflict fear, while Batman’s modus operandi is making his enemies afraid of him. So despite their contradiction in morals, they’re uniquely positioned to advance each other’s goals, were they to ever join forces.

Bruce never has a problem using fear toxin on Scarecrow, presumably partially out of an “eye for an eye” sense of poetic justice, but also because Batman is practical and it’s a nonlethal weapon that’s always available to him while fighting Scarecrow. If he could have fear toxin customized for his own use, it’s hard to imagine him being unwilling to use it. In Gothtopia he actually advocates for using what’s leftover from Crane’s new formula on all the inmates at Arkham, which seems about as insanely morally ambiguous as it gets. Arguably, putting fear toxin in his smoke bombs would be considerably less wrong than drugging mental patients out of their mind when they’re supposed to be receiving therapy (this is also the issue where he illegally releases Poison Ivy because she did him a favor, which is both morally questionable and relevant to the current topic).

Jonathan obviously already thinks Batman is the most interesting possible case study in fear; it’s why he keeps coming back to Bruce and Gotham despite being one of the more independent villains in Batman’s rogue gallery in the New 52. So though he would have to give up actively kidnapping people (which would be a huge sacrifice, I’m sure), teaming up with Bruce would give him unrestricted access to his favorite test subject. Unfortunately, it seems very possible that he would fall back to old tricks if he ever felt that he’d gotten everything he could out of a partnership with Bruce. Fortunately, that would probably take a VERY long time.

[fyrapartnersearch]

Seeking long-term, fun, and literate roleplay! Pet photos on request.

My name is Chris and I'm a 28 year old roleplayer with 15 years experience writing! I'm an ICU RN in my free time with a beautiful wife and an even more beautiful cat and a fairly brand new puppy. I write mainly over email and reply 2-3 times a week with anywhere from 5-16 paragraphs, depending on the characters and actions in the scene. I also communicate over various messengers if that is at all your jam for plotting purposes and the like. I write M/F and F/F lines. And, since I'm a ICU nurse, I can always promise painfully medically accurate roleplay. I put extra *s by the lines that I will literally lose my mind if you approach me about. Searching hard! Figured I'd start with original lines: -This American Life Something set in the 1970s, focusing on a roadtrip. A group of teenagers leave their small town behind to head out west. I love this time period. Can be supernatural, supernatural lite (think Twin Peaks weirdness) or totally natural. F/F True Detective line A line about a pair of detectives from the city taking on a murder in a small down that isn't jazzed about two women taking the reigns of such a large case. Fandoms! -Star Wars** I know Reylo is all the rage these days, as is Qi'Ra/Han. But, man ALIVE, I really want something focusing on the core four: Luke, Leia, Han, and, ya boy, Chewie. Something taking place in that three year gap between New Hope and Empire as they work among the rebellion. Strange new worlds, getting into scrapes, sharply running from the empire, avoiding Vader, bounty hunters, and all sorts of things. This time period is far from explored and we can really thrive in the galaxy. Primarily I want to focus on the budding relationship between Han and Leia and Luke's training, pre-Yoda. In a perfect world, I'd want to write Han and Chewie (If anyone thinks Chewie is just a NPC, get out my face) while my partner takes on Leia and Luke. I'd be willing to switch out Chewie for Luke if need be, I guess? We could also split up C3PO and R2. Let's real build out the resistance and delve into the 'WARS' part of those big yellow letters that never get enough attention. On top of all of that, I also have an original love interest in mind for Luke if someone else plays him! She's a spitfire. Alternatively, I'd be down for writing something set in the clone wars. Perhaps two jedi that broke the order's relationship laws and then survived Order 66 together? -Preacher Seriously. Love this show, love this comic. Would happily write Jesse or Cassidy against Tulip. Just definitely looking for a Tulip -The Boys Would love to write Hughie against Starlight! Currently working my way through the season that just dropped. -Marvel -I will love you forever if you write an Elektra against my Daredevil. They are toxic and in love and I love it. Whether it be the comics or the Netflix series, I don't care. Someone please write me an Elektra. -Alternatively, I'd also be happy to write against a Black Widow, either with Daredevil (They were a mainstay OTP in the comics in the 90s) or Logan/Wolverine (This line would be bloody and murder-y as hell but it would be some fun).** -Has anyone seen the trailer for the neverendingly delayed New Mutants movie? I would love to write something based on that horror aspect of the mutant universe.* -I'd love to write an older MCU Peter Parker (like college) running across a MCU version of Black Cat. Or just a Spiderman roleplay in general. I've always wanted to write Peter but have never gotten the chance! I have a ton of ideas for this, plus faceclaims for a few of the villains. Pleeeease hit me up***** -If you write Jessica Jones, I'd be willing to write almost anyone against her. Just let me know. -Hawkguys! I would love to either write Clint sgainst Kate Bishop (This would be a slightly skewed MCU vibe) or Kate against America Chavez. I would really love to do either of these lines -DC -I'd love to write Batman against Catwoman, please. I'm not too picky on the setting or the iteration.*** -John Constantine against almost anyone. I'd kill for an Elsa Bloodstone but that's obscure as heck. A mage and a monster hunter that are both English taking on the supernatural underworld. Let's make it into an adventure like magic Indiana Jones and just go nuts with it. Seriously, this could be so fun.*************** Otherwise, Zatanna (old flames), Jessica Jones (Two cynical alcoholics become barstool neighbors before one's business shows up at the bar as well), or Scarlet Witch (Instead of going to Stephen Strange, Wanda ends up as John's student)? -Hannibal I've been dying to do a sort of season 4 for a while now, focused on Clarice Starlings interaction with Will Graham and later Hannibal Lecter. Just need to find someone willing to create an original style Clarice. -Resident Evil I'd like to write Leon against Claire Redfield or Jill Valentine in an original outbreak or a new one. I know this is an old school fandom but I'm a diehard fan. -Star Trek Okay, so first up, I am not the most well versed Trekkie in the world. Never watched any of the TV shows but am a massive fan of the trio of rebooted films and would love to give Kirk or Bones a try against Uhura, Dr. Eve, or maybe a female Vulcan OC? Hit me with ideas! -The Matrix Another obscure fandom. Maybe just an original crew, set during the movies, after, or an AU where they're the only survivors of Zion? Im not sure but I could plot something out! -Uncharted I'd love to write Chloe Frazier against Nadine Ross, continuing their adventures. I'm pretty wide open on what we can do with this one. -Overwatch I just recently got into this game and think the fandom is a ton of fun. While I might need a bit of tutorial on the storyline outside of the characters, I'd be down to write a few of them. But I have no idea what the standard ships are. RANDOM CRACK SHIPS! Caught in a Web: I would love to write an iteration (Daniel Craig or an original) of James Bond/007 against a non superhero version of Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow. Spy vs spy shenanigans as two people working for different governments. Totally impossibly but putting it just in case: Did anyone see all that Wonder Woman/Lara Croft art that was floating around the internet earlier this year? I would love to dive into that. I'd prefer to write Lara but I'm definitely not picky. My email is Chrisx104@gmail.com. I'm on skype at Chrisx104 (Same for gmail) and Discord at NurseBatman#3674

[3195c]

Scott Snyder Talks Joker Anniversary

2020.6

QUAINTANCE: Where did the idea to approach The Joker from the perspective of his victims come from?

SNYDER: We’ve done so much with him over the years. It’s always been in relation to Batman. I haven’t really had a chance to do a Joker story where it focuses on him without any sort of Batman presence in it, or to just define him. I’ve had a clear vision in my head of how my take on The Joker — I’ve done it with multiple artists — has worked from Black Mirror all the way through Last Knight on Earth. For me, he’s literally The Joker card to Batman, where he takes on any kind of value he can given Batman’s worse fears. He makes himself those to be able to win or fight Batman, always making him as strong as possible.

It’s almost that he’s making it his duty to challenge Batman with the greatest nightmares of his soul, and through that trial by fire make Batman better or kill him — one or the other. So, I wanted to do something here that really focused on how scary that is as a concept, how wonderfully malleable as a concept, and it’s why I think he’s so enduring, why there are so many version, why he has so many faces, so many looks, and why so many great creators over the years have done so many incredible interpretations over the years.

QUAINTANCE: A lot of times when you write villains, they have really clear and easy to understand motivations, but The Joker maybe less so. How do you approach figuring out what The Joker wants in any given story and why he’s doing what he’s doing?

SNYDER: What I tried to do with each story I told with Batman and him was focus on something I was really afraid of either for my kids or myself, something that was difficult to admit, and then have Batman face off with that thing in its most terrifying form, which was The Joker’s version of it.

For example, Death of the Family was a very personal attempt at that. We were pregnant of our second kid when I came up with that story, and I was terrified of being a bad father, being too selfish to be a good parent. I was thinking to myself, Batman must be wrestling at certain moments with similar demons in the way he has developed that incredible family at that time in continuity with all of these allies. He cares about all of them, but isn’t there some part of him that worries they might be a weakness. That’s where Joker comes in and says, wouldn’t you be the best Batman possible without your family. So, I’ll just kill them for you.

Whereas something like Endgame was much less about my personal fears and more about my fears for the moment, some of the things we all worried about. I was worried for my kids at that time about the kind of violence that erupts out of nowhere, and I felt like it was always in the news, making your daily actions feeling meaningless. The Joker was there celebrating those things, saying whatever you do, it doesn’t matter. There’s no action you can take that’s going to mean anything. Everything is at best meaningless, and at worst cruelty and savagery. That’s it.

I try to take a personal fear of mine at that moment and have Joker extend it to its worst possible version and have Batman face off with that. That’s my approach to using him. I wanted to define that here with something that’s not epic and weird and over-the-top.

QUAINTANCE: Well, with all the different work you’ve done with Joker, what do you hope to have added to the legacy of the character?

SNYDER: That’s a tough question and it’s hard for me to answer that. It’s less about me and what I’ve added. I just hope that I’ve done it justice as an incredible antagonist, one of the best antagonists in all of literature, just by trying to use my own personal fears and be honest about what I find terrifying, and about human nature and the world, having him express those in ways that are celebratory and cruel and evil, making him the demon that really tests us with our own worst imaginings and fears.

I love writing him. I feel like I had him exist in one form or another in pretty much every story I’ve done on Batman, from Black Man even through Superheavy or the beginning of Zero Year. He was the one consistent thread to everything I’ve written, Batman-wise, outside of All-Star. The strain Joker represented through all of that was this underlying anxiety that Batman would succumb to his own worst fears, whether he was the main antagonist or in the background.

And there’s so many different versions. I love Grant [Morrison’s] version where he’s hyper-sane and so he’s always emerging as a new wild version of himself because he reinvents his own personality. I love the [Batman: The Animated Series] version where he’s slightly more sympathetic, more of a common criminal at times, all the way to the more obsessive Frank Miller version. There’s so many great stories too; I just wanted this story to be the definitive version of our take and the way I see him, a dictionary definition for The Joker that has haunted my whole run, regardless of artist.

QUAINTANCE: I thought it landed incredibly well with that last page, and I wanted to ask you how did you come to end on that last page and what did you think when you got the art back from Jock?

SNYDER: Jock is one of my best friends at this point. He was the first artist who was a big name to take a chance on me when I was nobody. I had American Vampire when I did Detective, but Rafael [Albuquerque] was new as well. Jock was well-know already. He’d done big series and had had movie success. I remember convincing him at San Diego to take a chance on me with Black Mirror.

He was such a great partner, and we’ve done so much together since. He was the first person I asked to do this one with me, because I knew I wanted it to be really dark and unsettling. What I love about his art so much is that it seems to magnify emotion. It’s like looking through the world through a skewed lens, but instead of looking at things based on light or anything objectively optical, it maginifies things based on the underyling emotions. So when things are more scary or intense in a scene, the shadows amplify and the angles are skewed…but it’s still realistic and grounded. Then when things are bright and super heroic, he has a lightness to his lines that magnifies that and underscores.

So, when you do something that’s psychological or really claustrophobic like this, it’s a perfect fit. I knew I wanted to do this with him. I don’t ever want to say, ‘I’m never writing The Joker again!’ I love getting invited back to do these kinds of projects, but I don’t see myself writing anything Batman or Joker-related for any long period of time. I wanted to make sure I was ending with the guy I started with.

I mean, Batman and Joker are in Death Metal, so it’s not like I’m never going to be writing them again, but I don’t have any plans to focus on them as a protagonist or antagonist going forward.

The Joker 80 Anniversary 100-Page Super Spectacular #1 is out Tuesday, June 9, with the first story being Scars by Snyder and Jock.

https://www.comicsbeat.com/snyder-and-jock-bring-what-started-in-black-mirror-full-circle-with-the-joker-80-year-special/

[danschkade]

ANALYSIS -- BATMAN: GOTHAM ADVENTURES #17

On a recent trip to visit my folks, I went through some boxes and found, sans cover, this copy of 1999’s BATMAN: GOTHAM ADVENTURES #17. Gotham Adventures was my full-stop favorite comic when it was coming out, a combination of me being smack dab in the middle of its target demographic and it being really, really well made. Tight story, dynamic artwork, clean, crisp colors and letters. As I transition from Vacation Dan back to The Schkade That Works, I thought it would be a useful exercise to go through this issue, page by page, to see how it ticks.

I’ll be focusing mainly on the pencils and colors by Tim Levins and Lee Loughridge, respectively, plus Scott Peterson’s script — Terry Beatty is one of my favorite inkers ever and letter Tim Harkins acquits himself expertly, so I won’t have much to say about them beyond “continues to be amazing, surprising no one.”

And please, feel free to check me on any mistakes I might have made, add your own commentary, or share similar examples of good comics done well.

Batman: Gotham Adventures and all characters contained therin are of course property of DC Comics, reproduced here solely for educational purposes.

PAGE ONE

We open strong with a full-page splash. Three distinct players whose suits, hats, and bad ties immediately code them in the Timm-verse aesthetic as ‘Hoodlums’ give us immediate sense of threat. Their momentum is heading left, into the fold, against the western flow of reading; this is because they’re bad guys — their actions go against the proper order of things, up to and including the reading flow. But also for another reason, which the right-most hood’s reaction sets us up for, compelling us to turn the page.

PAGE TWO-THREE

An even stronger followup with a double-page splash. Batman smashes in through the window in a powerful left to right movement, in direct opposition to the gangsters’ movement on the previous splash. The background establishes the family Batman is there to protect, as well as the shabbiness of their apartment and clothes. The fact that Batman’s cape can still be partially outside the window while he’s hitting the hoods who just came through the opposite doorway immediately sells how small the space is. What could these poor people possibly have that’s worth three armed gunmen kicking down their door?

PAGE FOUR

This page is all about one thing: establishing Batman as an overwhelming force. Strong left-to-right movement, always dominating the panel, no signs that this is especially difficult for him. His first line of dialogue: a piece of short, relaxed, confident detective talk.

PAGE FIVE

The first two panels do a lot. Batman converses openly with the Agronas family, who clearly trust him. He’s a terrifying physical presence, but a terrifying physical presence of the people. It also shows that Nicky Agronas is bright — wears glasses, reads the newspaper. As soon as they mention the husband, the husband appears, which is a nice clean introduction for that character. There’s no reason the husband could’t have been in the double splash that introduces his wife and son, but having him coming home in the middle of this scene is a great way to inject a little motion onto a page that would otherwise just have been four people talking in a room. Lastly, the sudden use of heavy black — enhanced by Loughridge’s shift to unnatural yellow lighting — makes Batman’s suspicion of the husband feel intimidating without having to change his physical demeanor, which would have both been over-the-top and undone the work the first couple panels do to make him a sympathetic protagonist.

Academic sidebar: Setting aside that this is an issue in a series featuring one of the most famous fictional detectives of all time, how do we know Batman the protagonist of this story? Because he’s the one doing things and asking questions, moving the plot forward.

PAGE SIX

Nice one-two beat with the first two panels on this page: Panel one, Mr. Agronas is calmly answering the question — he’s a good citizen with nothing to fear from Batman. Batman still dominates the frame, though. Panel two zooms in on Agronas, putting the question of his involvement to bed with a simple, honest mini-joke. Letting him have a panel all to himself to say this is a good way to humanize him. In panel three, Batman continues to tower, but there’s no threat of violence. Here, as on the high-angle shot in panel three of the previous page, we see some shattered glass to remind us of the damage to the window and door from earlier. The money Batman leaves them for said damage is totally understated, with only the bright green color drawing attention to it. Batman’s a stand-up guy, but drawing attention to it wouldn’t fit his image.

PAGE SEVEN

There’s nothing in this first panel that says “JAIL” or “POLICE” — it’s just a bluntly governmental-looking building (I believe it’s specifically the blocky grey columns that give it this feeling), but we can tell from the fact that there’s prison bars in the next panel that that’s what the building is. No need to add extraneous detail. I like the design Levins gave the head hood, first seen on page one — the unibrow is a great way to sell the change from frowning to fear. Note also how many memorable features the big prisoner has — bald, scar, blind eye, bad teeth. He’s easy to remember, which will become important shortly.

PAGE EIGHT

Loughridge’s sickly green colors of the previous page snap back to natural lighting on this page, immediately conveying the change in environment. And hey, how great is that Commissioner Gordon silhouette in panel one? That’s some smart use of character model. Regarding the design of the big prisoner from the previous page — we see here that he’s in fact Batman in disguise, which actually saves us a lot of space on this page; instead of showing him removing the disguise and then putting on the cowl, we only need to see him opening the shirt to reveal the bat emblem, and then in the next panel, bam, he’s Batman. We know Bruce Wayne doesn’t look like that. We know it’s a disguise. We get it. It does rely on the reader having a basic knowledge of these characters and this world, but all things considered, that’s a pretty safe bet. Couple other things: Levins keeps the energy up by skewing the axis of the four panel grid, which also gives this rooftop scene a nice sense of vertigo. I’m actually not a huge fan of the last panel — I find that the upside-down pose kind of undercuts the gravity of what he’s saying, I think the leftwards movement is weird, and the whole panel is just, like, tangent city. That said, still a strong page.

PAGE NINE

Again: Batman as an Overwhelming Force. I know I just bashed the previous page for its leftward movement, but on this page it works really well — the wreckage of Batman’s assault on the house leads leftward towards the front door, up the stairs, ultimately across Zarelli’s desk, towards the man himself. I think this counter reading flow movement really effectively sells Batman as an invading presence in this man’s home. This page also shows us the wealth and power of Enrico Zarelli, who we finally see in the last panel after being mentioned regularly for four pages; The huge house, the framed artwork, the dozen armed thugs. See also the confidence of his speech, and the fact that he’s shadowed just like Batman. There’s an implicit feeling that this is a meeting between equals.

PAGE TEN

Nice that our first full look at Zarelli has him in his own panel, with the cowled shadow on the wall behind him suggesting Batman’s off-panel movement towards him. Great acting here — I love how Zarelli no-sells Batman’s gimmick.

PAGE ELEVEN

Levins (with the round panels boarders) and Loughridge (with his deceptively-hard-to-pull-off-well use of grey and sepia tones) work together well here to make the scene a flashback without drawing attention to that effect. Note how we don’t need to see Zarelli’s whole body to know he can walk, we just need to see him moving at the same height as other, presumably ambulatory people. Cool dramatic composition in the last panel, placing us in the line of fire along with Zarelli and his men.

PAGE TWELVE

This use of shadow to cleanly yet powerfully suggest something gruesome off screen is something ‘Batman: The Animated Series’ did so well, and it’s likewise effective here. Seeing Zarelli’s clenching hand (the Z ring was established on the previous page) gives us just enough intimacy to feel his pain. The use of black as a costume design element in this scene makes Zarelli, his son, and Batman feel a little more important and real than the hoods on either side.

PAGE THIRTEEN

I like that there’s a batarang laying on the ground amongst the dead/unconscious gangsters. It’s not necessary, but we saw him throw it on the previous page, so it’s a nice little piece of continuity. The final two panels have added impact because they’re the last before the page turn, giving them a feeling of isolation and hopelessness (undercut slightly by the fact that the page turns to a very colorful double page DC Kids page encouraging young readers to enter a nabisco sweepstakes, recycle this comic, and, perhaps most puzzlingly, pick up the first issue of the ‘Day of Judgement’ crossover).

PAGE FOURTEEN

Good call having Batman’s cape closed over him on this page. It makes him less aggressive, almost judge-like, befitting the respect he’s giving this man who lost his son. The cool coloring in panel four adds impact to the dicey situation Batman now faces.

PAGE FIFTEEN

Appropriately, we go from talking about sons de facto and de jure to having Batman talk it over with Dick Grayson, his son by any other name. Here, the upside down thing actually serves to break up the mood after a heavy scene. The fact that they’re talking about serious business while casually practicing acrobatics makes the scene particular to these specific characters — even when there’s no one to punch and nothing to detect, there’s still always Batman stuff going on in this Batman comic.

PAGE SIXTEEN

This page rules. I love how much motion there is, even down to Dick’s change of arm position in the background from panels one to two. It makes the motion of Bruce pulling off the mask seem smaller and more intimate by comparison. And that last line is just all-american grade-A understanding of character. It’s informed by Bruce’s origins, but not directly referencing them. He can’t put his personal desire to see Zarelli’s empire destroyed before his human duty to give Nicky the chance to know his biological father. Panel two of this page also features our first and only bleed art (art which extends beyond the edge of the physical page, as opposed to art contained within the boarders of a panel), which further gives the Batcave a sense of hugeness, and nicely breaks up the layout of the page besides.

PAGE SEVENTEEN

Note that the only characters we can clearly see on this page are Nicky and Zarelli — the scene is about them, not Batman and the goons, who are all either far away or in shadow. Nice touch, the goons all being in casts and bandages. I can’t even put my finger on why that works so well; they’re not really there to guard anything, since Batman already went through them once without much trouble. I think their main purpose on this page is to make us feel how Nicky feels in this place; this big house full of men with guns, this intimidating world this man is asking him to be a part of.

PAGE EIGHTEEN

This page is lit warmly, with lots of sympathetic angles. It’s not until the last panel that Zarelli’s pitch is thrown into any kind of suspicious light. “Without family, you have nothing” — but family with Zarelli means gunmen, tainted opulence, and the looming, annihilating specter of Batman.

Now, I’ve eschewed ads in my scans until now, but I include this one as a particularly good example of how even the best writers have no control over what image might end up facing an important emotional moment.

PAGE NINETEEN

The first page dedicated entirely to Nicky and Zarelli. The very sympathetic first panel transitions into an intense close up in panel two that makes Zarelli’s offer feel almost like a threat, even though that’s clearly not how he intendeds it. Zarelli can’t help being the dangerous gangster he is. The first time Nicky speaks, it’s to ask about his parents, and I love Zarelli’s castoffish response, “The people who raised you?”

PAGE TWENTY

Another page solely of Nicky and Zarelli. If the last couple pages have been all about Zarelli’s pitch, this one is entirely about Nicky’s process. The Thinker’s a little on the nose, but I dunno, it works. And it goes towards our ongoing theme of Nicky Is Smart. He’s staged strongly throughout, reflecting the strong decision he makes. The choice to include the background in panel four helps reinforce Nicky and Zarelli’s spatial relationship, which heightens the act of walking away. That it’s this close to the end of the story and Peterson can still devote an entire page to this moment shows how well-paced the issue is.

PAGE TWENTY ONE

The goons become useful again in this final action beat. Batman Overwhelming Forces them into the doorjamb, a good use of the environment to make it clear he gets to them before they can get after Nicky, but his real rage is saved for when he turns around toward Zarelli. He’s huge in this panel, as aggressive and dangerous as we’ve seen him in this issue. Zarelli, by contrast, is made small by a high angle shot, his hands folded in his lap. The four panel grid is even skewed so as to squeeze him into the corner, in addition to making the action in the previous panels more dynamic.

PAGE TWENTY TWO

It’s Batman and Son again, with the green glow of the batcomputer establishing the change in location. The note to Lucius Fox in panel two is a nice large scale version of him leaving the money on the Agronas’ table on page six. And Nicky would be a good candidate, too — this is the (or at least a) payoff for Nicky Is Smart. Panel three is small and all utility, showing Batman’s change back to Bruce Wayne as we transition up from the cave to Wayne manner, a panel made necessary by the fact that we haven’t yet established that location in this issue. We’re left with a nice big final panel, rosy and nostalgic in direct contrast to the green of the batcave. Bruce looks from left to right at the portrait of his parents, mirroring the portrait in Zarelli’s study, cementing the emotional connection he feels to a man who is in all other regards his enemy. You could read the fact that Bruce’s sitting as an additional corollary to the wheelchair-bound Zarelli, but I think it’s just that a seated position works best for the horizontal composition of the panel. Strong ending for a very strong issue.

LETTERS PAGE

Nothing insightful to offer here, it’s just that I’ve always thought this next issue cover was rad. I probably have that one too, somewhere.

(The missing cover, by Bob Smith and Terry Beatty, is awesome.)

[lawful-evil-novelist]

Why Joker Getting Character Development Might be a Good Thing

Disclaimer: This is a long rant/essay primarily based on opinion and I am a bitter salt pile so if you disagree in any way that’s fine, this is just my personal take on things and you are free to disagree.

One of the few things that tends to irk me about DC Comics, particularly Batman, is that villains are not permitted arcs or development, save for a select few “choice” villains, and even these villains are severely restricted in what options are available to them in terms of character development.  Selina Kyle is allowed development, but only if it revolves around Batman or a member of the Bat Family.  Harley Quinn always has development in the comics, but it always follows a predictable pattern.  Even in Bombshells, to some extent, Harley grows independent of the Joker in some manner.

Harleen Quinzel is not Harley Quinn until she meets the Joker, and she cannot be with Pamela Isley until she learns to let him go.

And I think this is a problem we see with all villains in the DC canon but I think it’s especially prominent in Batman villains.  The Gotham Rogues Gallery is not allowed to stray outside of the very narrow boxes set out for them, and development they are allowed must remain inside these boxes.  Characters like Harley, Selina, Pamela, and Edward are allowed to dip into antihero territory, but only in predictable ways that the writers know the audience is comfortable with.

And I think this makes it so their most recognizable villains feel stale and overused.  They don’t stray far from their usual traits because they aren’t allowed to change in any way.

And for anyone’s money, I think we all know the biggest culprit of this lack of development and incessant use in spite of it.

Now I’m no Joker fan; I think the character is boring, overused, and frankly, an asshole.  But here’s the thing: he doesn’t need to be. Of all the plots they’ve stuffed Joker into, I’m surprised they’ve never tried to give him an actual arc.  He’s usually the bearer of an arc, usually one for Batman and is always the main bearer of Harley’s arcs, which I find particularly annoying because Harley’s development ends up centering around a man and it becomes often her only motivation to change.

Joker does not change, no matter the story. Even characters like Harvey Dent and Jonathan Crane change slightly, though the change often skews negative and they tend to get worse as a result (a different problem for a different day. Even as we laud Lego Batman’s Joker, we need to keep in mind that he does not change in that story.  The context makes it clear he has always been obsessed with Batman, and always will be, and the events of the movie do not alter his obsession, and in the end, it is used in Bruce’s favor.

This, in large part, is why Joker feels stale and overused, besides that he is forced into stories where other villains belong.  And though he is regularly used, he is not used to his full potential.  Writers pick him thinking he’s an easy write but he isn’t.

Now I’m not going to stand on a pulpit and list all the symptoms of ASPD to convince all of you Joker has it because, let’s face it, you’ve all heard it before and at this point it’s just part of the culture, but I don’t think that ASPD is an accurate summation because it has some caveats.  ASPD does not apply to conditions where the patient has another Cluster B disorder, and Joker’s “symptoms” as it were, fit closer to BPD than ASPD and a big portion of that is how he interacts with the world and how he himself acts, and in any case, I’m not here to give a sermon on how he has BPD instead of ASPD either. Diagnosing Joker doesn’t get us any closer to my point and it doesn’t make him any easier to write.

And my point is this: Joker doesn’t just need to be used less, though he certainly does.  What Joker desperately, desperately needs is to change and grow as a character.  Why? Well aside from not having the most boring thing that has ever dried your brain to a fine powder.  Joker is hard to write, I’m not going to sit here and tell comic writers or fanfic writers that giving him a character arc is easy because it isn’t.  Joker is a tough character to write.  He is simultaneously a man who is too far gone to care that anyone is getting hurt or killed in his jokes and a man who has lost everything and now desperately wants to die.  That isn’t easy to write and I think people tend to trivialize just how hard it is.

Or they do stupid shit like make him tear off his own face like that is exactly how a suicidally depressed person self-mutilates.

Yeah that’s totally an inoffensive portrayal of self-harm.

There’s probably a resounding question of why I should care.  Joker’s a manipulative, abusive asshole he shouldn’t be allowed redemption, right?  Well, I think there is a point where you need to look back and wonder: why is Joker so boring compared to the other rogues?  Because he really is painfully boring in comparison.

I think it’s because he doesn’t feel like a real person.  With Ed, Harley, Jon, Pam, Selina, we relate to them because they have personalities that feel organic and feel human.  We relate to Jon because we have all been scared children in situations we could not escape, we relate to Pam because we have all had scars that did not heal correctly, we relate to Ed because we have all been told at one time or another that we were not worth the time or effort to be loved.  None of us have been Joker.  None of us know, much less understand, what’s going on in his head. We know Jon is angry at the world, and we know it is because when he was suffering and scared no one did anything to stop it.  We know Pam is angry too, and we know she is angry because when she needed help to heal, help was not given.  We know Ed is overcompensating, and we know he is doing so because he desperately wants to prove that he is worthy of love.  We know and understand these characters and their motivations, they are human.

They are also not extremely offensive portrayals of mental illness and are seldom used as such.  If it sounds like I’m bitter about that face thing in New 52, it’s because I am, moving on.

When people call Joker a monster, it is accurate in that he is not humanized.  Even his very explicit wish to die is usually telegraphed by other characters.  The only time he mentions it is in probably the most human we’ve seen Joker in any comic: The Killing Joke.

And frankly this is one of my favorite comics involving the Joker because while I still didn’t relate to him, he still felt human to me.  And further, he recognizes, in this moment, that he has gone too far. This is something I think is important to recognize about Joker: he still has standards, he still knows there is a point of no return, he just doesn’t care.  And he doesn’t care because he wants to die.

But I don’t think Joker’s wish to die should be fulfilled, though I would like to see it explored, I’d actually really like to see Joker come to terms with the person he’s become, because he clearly hasn’t.  If he is so desperate to die that he purposely pushes at everyone’s threshold in an attempt to be killed, even Harley’s.

Harley even recognizes it. Can you imagine reading a comic where the main conflict is not dealing with someone who is mentally ill but someone who is mentally ill coming to terms with the fact that, no matter what, they can never be the same person as the one they were before their mental illness occurred?  That would be interesting!  In fact, I’m not even sure we’ve explored this with Bruce.  The only people who have come to terms with living with a mental illness and never being able to return to the people they were beforehand are Jon and Pam, and this acceptance is always before they ever become rogues, because they know what they went through and the changes they underwent as a result are how they’re coping, and that they can’t just pretend it never happened because that doesn’t change the fact that it did.

And keep in mind coming to terms with being unable to return to the time before the onset of mental illness is not the same as rejecting that time altogether, because that’s what Ed does and we know this is a coping mechanism and we know it isn’t healthy.  Ed does not like the person that came before the Riddler, Harley and Joker want to return to it so desperately they’re rejecting themselves now, and Jon and Pam, while not happy with the way they are now, know they cannot go back.  And the irony is that they both know they need to move forwards, and almost never do. Jon and Pam are frequently static in the comics, because the status quo is god and we must have a fear-obsessed delusional psychiatrist and a man-hating plant lady on the evil side because there is no way two people that have come to terms with themselves and are at best chaotic neutral types can ever do anything good and if they do it is with the aid of someone else because they are helpless to change on their own despite being intelligent human beings.

And if you are wondering, I am bitter about this too and it’s making me get off track.

The thing is, Joker has never been in a situation where his hand has been forced.  He has never been made to do something he doesn’t want to do and he has never had a single moment where, when the chips were down, he had a chance to definitively say: “I don’t want to die.  I want to be in control.  I want to do better.  I want to live.”

And I think he hasn’t because comic writers have never placed him in situations like that for whatever reason.  I think, and this is just speculation, that they are afraid that there is no situation you can put Joker in where he would, without a shadow of a doubt, say “I don’t want to die.”  There is an underlying feeling that Joker has no situation where he will look inward and realize that it is his fault he’s the way he is and he is the one that needs to change.

But no human is that stubborn or immovable, no human is so averse to change that they will never do so.  Somewhere out there, there is a situation where Joker would willingly change or even turn his life around, I can dare to dream of a world where instead of the Joker we have the Jokester because of character development instead of an alternate universe.

Especially since Jokester was summarily given the shaft in the Countdown series and we can add that to the third thing in this rant I am extremely bitter about.

Here’s the thing, there is something admirable about comics that address suicidal depression in a respectful and serious manner, there is a reason the Deadpool comic addressing it is so well-loved.

And the thing is, there are Gotham Rogues who suffer from depression, whether suicidal or not, and Joker is one of them.  It is perfectly fine to address suicidal depression with a character your audience will never see again, but I feel like it might also be accepted, or even welcomed, to have a character who suffers from suicidal depression address that it isn’t just a one-shot character, but one you always see.  Joker works for this too because it brings something up: you can be happy and still suffer from depression, these things are not incompatible.

I think Joker developing as a character is almost, in its own way, vital to the character as a trope. In continuities as long and extensive as Batman’s, characters need to grow and change to keep them from growing stale or feeling overused.

Though it might help to not use the characters so fucking much.

And that is the end of my bitter angry rant on the subject.

[aion-rsa]

INTERVIEW: Tynion Prepares Batman for War in Detective Comics

SPOILER WARNING: This article contains major spoilers for “Detective Comics” #951, on sale Wednesday.

“Detective Comics” writer James Tynion IV says Batman is “an overcompensation,” a possible outcome of what happens when the worst thing in the world happens to someone. As he explains, you can either collapse in the face of it or, if you’re Bruce Wayne, you can build yourself into the perfect being in order to prevent that “worst thing” from ever happening again.

Now that Batman has found his skewed version of a happy place, he’s assembling an army of likeminded crimefighters for a coming war — a war against a soldier who wears a button with a smiling face on it and, of course, some smeared blood. Over the course of our conversation, the writer discussed his excitement for the upcoming “Batman”/”The Flash” crossover, “The Button,” promising that the events of the DC Universe/Watchmen event will “absolutely” resonate in “Detective Comics” and beyond.

Tynion shared many details of the core figures in his DC Comics’ series, namely Clayface, Batwoman, Orphan and Spoiler, as well as teased upcoming plot details for both “Detective Comics,” currently illustrated by Christian Duce Fernandez, and “Batwoman,” the new series he’s co-writing with Marguerite Bennett, which is drawn by Steve Epting.

CBR: There is a line in “Detective Comics” #950 when Tim asks Bruce quite bluntly, “Why are you preparing for a war?” Is he talking about events coming in the “League of Shadows” arc, or something bigger — perhaps involving Mr. Oz and a certain button with a smiley face and blood splatter on it?

James Tynion IV: There are all of these very dark things on the horizon that Batman sees coming. I can’t really hint what those things are, but I will say that it’s not just what’s coming in the pages of “Detective Comics.” This is what’s coming across the entire DC Universe.

Orphan, Spoiler, Clayface even Batwoman are all broken or at least have relationship issues that are severely strained. When building an army for this coming war, why does Batman decide to surround himself with broken soldiers?

When I was choosing the members for his team, I thought Batman was very much about choosing people who he sees elements of himself in. Those are the people that he trusts. Gotham is a dark place, and a lot of bad things have happened to a lot of these Gotham characters. Each one of them represents a different aspect of Batman, and there is no character that represents that more than the original Robin. They each have a core piece of tragedy or pathos in them that they share. That’s why they were able to form such a powerful relationship.

With Batwoman, Spoiler, Orphan, and even Azrael and Batwing, all of these characters have the drive that comes from overcompensating from a point, which is what Batman is. At the end of the day, Batman is an overcompensation. He’s what happens when the worst thing in the world happens to you. You can either collapse in the face of that, or you can build yourself into the perfect being in order to prevent that from ever happening again. Each of these people is doing that in different ways and is currently on different steps in the path.

When you look at a character like Clayface, he had something horrible happen to him and that horrible thing made everyone see him as a monster and then he allowed himself to become a monster. And Batman recognized this. At this moment, Batman is at an even higher point of awareness and he needs to see that people can overcome these parts of themselves for reasons… for reasons that I can’t share just yet. [Laughs]

Let’s leave the Watchmen and those who will be watching the Watchmen behind for now. No spoilers here, because she’s featured on the cover of “Detective Comics” #951, but Shiva is back in Gotham and she appears to be connected to Cassandra Cain. This is DC Rebirth, so things might be different, but pre-Rebirth, Shiva was Cassandra’s mother. Is that still the case?

You’re right. You saw in “Detective Comics” #950 that Shiva still has some designs on Cassandra. In the current continuity, those two characters have not shown up together yet. You guys are going to have to go along for the ride, but you’re right — in classic DCU continuity, Shiva was Cassandra’s mother. This is the story that will answer the question of whether or not that is currently true, and what that means to Orphan if it is true.

What we know about the League of Shadows so far is that it was basically a myth that Ra’s al Ghul propagated. It was conceived as an idea that would let him take credit for terrorist attacks all over the world and all of these other things. He hinted that it was this shadowy cabal, which allowed him total control. It’s something Batman has gone out and searched for and, to his knowledge, he has no proof that the League actually exists. So when the Colony came in during my first arc, “Rise of the Batmen,” to eliminate these sleepers, Batman saw it as Jacob Kane basically buying into a conspiracy in order to enact his dark agenda. And we’re going to discover exactly who’s been right and who’s been wrong and how all of these characters connect to one another. But the League of Shadows is an independent group of the League of Assassins, and we’re going to slowly understand more and more exactly how dangerous they are, and how they’ve they operating from the outside in the DC Universe.

If we go by the solicitations, it appears that Batman and Ra’s may be joining forces in this arc. Is this a case of the enemy of my enemy is my friend?

[Laughs] We’ll definitely see them interacting. I don’t want to tip my hand just yet. The relationship between Ra’s and Batman is one of the most interesting relationships between any nemesis and hero in all of comics. Ra’s is a character that I have been fascinated by since I first started writing so bringing him into this story and exploring the ways in which he is connected to the League of Shadows and the ways in which he isn’t is a lot if fun. I can’t go into specifics just yet but he will definitely play a very major part as the story reaches its climax.

Again, you mentioned Jacob Kane and he is, of course, the father of Kate Kane. Now that you are writing a new “Batwoman” series with Marguerite Bennett, will Kate be leaving “Detective Comics”?

No, she will absolutely be a part of both series. Kate’s day job is working with the Batman Family in “Detective Comics,” and her own private missions that take her all over the world in between her missions in “Detective” are what will be covered in the “Batwoman” series. “Detective” will remain a fairly Gotham-centric book, while “Batwoman” will be very global in its scope.

I think Kate Kane is one of the most fascinating characters in the DC Universe. I love how she plays on the core Batman mythos, but she also has some very big differences right in the heart of the character. Batman’s parents were killed when he was just a kid and then he set out to become the perfect thing to fight that specific crime. He set out across the world to train and build himself to this point where he is the Batman – this real force of nature.

A similar thing happened to Kate. Her mother was killed and she believed at the time that her sister was killed, as well, and she started building herself to become the perfect soldier to fight the kind of terror that killed her parent. But the thing that’s different in her character is that there came a point where she was about to achieve what she wanted to achieve. She was about to graduate from West Point and actually become a real soldier and she would have been one of the best soldiers of all-time – she was on the path to being DC’s Captain America – but that path was ripped away from her and then she was lost. She then stumbled through the world for a few years. And that is the thing that Kate has that Bruce doesn’t. She knew what she needed to become, there was a single drive to her path, but then that was no longer an option. She had nothing to become anymore. And it’s that lost period, before she came back to Gotham and saw Batman for the first time and realized the costume could be the way that she served, which is wholly unique to her. She has the same drive as Bruce, the same ferocity as Bruce. But she can see failure in a way that Bruce can’t. And that can give her incredible strength in a wholly different way. And that’s something that Marguerite and I are very interested in exploring. And we really needed a singular series to explore it to its full extent because at the end of the day, her role in “Detective” will always be about her relationships with Batman and the other characters, including her father, around her. “Batwoman,” the ongoing series, is about her relationship with herself. And the fact that she knows that the path can get ripped away from her so that’s why in “Batwoman Rebirth,” we see a glimpse of what would happen if that path was ripped away from her again, what could she become and would it become something good or would it become something really frightening. There is so much material [Laughs] There could be five years of “Batwoman” stories just based on the my first conversation with Marguerite so I am very excited for everyone to see what we’ve got cooking.

Can Batman/Bruce and Spoiler/Stephanie repair their relationship or are we past the point of no return?

I very pleased with the final speech that Bruce gave at the end of “Detective Comics” #947. That when he said that he’s not willing to go out there and cut her down. He disagrees with the points that Spoiler is making but he sees why she’s doing it. She hasn’t just made the switch and become an unrepentant villain. She just doesn’t agree with how Batman operates in Gotham City. And that launches her into the next part of her story that we’ll be picking up on right after the “League of Shadows” arc. Spoiler will definitely continue to be a part of this book, especially as we move forward with the dangling thread of where is Tim Drake and what’s up with him.

That’s a nice place to end, because I wanted to ask you about Tim Drake. I know you can’t talk about the war that’s coming, but all points are leading to the fact that Tim is going to be a part of it, as is the mysterious character that is holding Tim captive. Will those events and the upcoming “Batman/The Flash” crossover “The Button” tie-into “Detective Comics”?

I will definitely say that fans of “Detective Comics” should absolutely read “The Button” when it comes out. Fans of DC Comics, really everyone, should pick up “The Button.” This is the first of a few launching points that will send us into the next year of stories. I’m very excited for everyone to see what we’ve got cooking but at this point, I can’t even hint at the shapes coming in the dark but there are shapes in the dark and they are coming. [Laughs] There are going to be a lot of really big, really cool stories coming up that I’m very excited to take part in.

“Detective Comics” #951 goes on sale February 22.

The post INTERVIEW: Tynion Prepares Batman for War in Detective Comics appeared first on CBR.com.

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[tessatechaitea]

Justice League #15

Well, it's got to end sometime, I suppose.

Okay, maybe she's not a time traveler. But she definitely knows what's going on in the future. So she's some kind of time something or other. Probably a Time Witch.

• Superman and Batman learn from the Infinity Corporation that something is rewriting time. You know, the way that sometimes happens. Usually it only happens when an idiot believes a thing they think they remember even when the proof that they're remembering it wrong is right in front of them, like that book with the incestuous bear family and that movie with the African-American Djinni. But in the DC Universe, when something changes in the past, things are rewritten slowly enough that people with a time traveling office building can pick up some hitchhikers and try to set history right once more. Although what is right, really? If the Infinity Corporation hadn't picked up Superman and Batman, they'd be fine! It would just be slightly different versions of them in the new reality. Which might be the better reality. Or maybe the real reality! If time can be changed so easily, whose to say this change wasn't setting it back to the factory settings?

This is how philosophy can be misused by idiots. He's got the whole concept backwards. It's not "The future is malleable so the past must be too!" Because that's fucking nonsense. It's "If the past is immutable, why would you think the future was? Boom! Free will is an illusion!" It's so obvious. Once you make a choice and the present becomes the past, it can't be changed. So why would you think you ever had a real choice anyway? Fate, motherfuckers!

• Also, the guy's ability to philosophize is terrible if he's saying things like "You think somebody ten years in the future reading about you fixes your choices?" Of course that doesn't work! Because the future isn't happening simultaneously with the present, dum-dum! I mean, I suppose it could be. Without our ability to observe it, all history would just happen in the blink of an eye. Our observation slows it down. So why can't it all have happened spontaneously and immediately. That's why some beings are omniscient, like dolphins and gerbils. • During the United Nations fight, Cyborg winds up in 31st century Metropolis beside Brainiac 5. I guess they're all surprised by this happening because The Flash quickly distributed all of the bracelets which kept them from being obliterated by the Timeless. • The Green Lanterns wind up in the 26th Century where Washington, DC, has been devastated. It's probably been that way for five hundred years now. • The Flash winds up in Central City on the day he received his powers. Apparently they've all time traveled to different points in time where the Timeless have set up "temporal nukes." See? It's easy to get your heroes on the mission when you have somebody from the future saying, "This is what is happening and here is the problem and now off you go to solve it!" • Molly the Keeper explains that if these bombs go off, the fans will be super fucking pissed again. A whole new DC Universe! This time it won't be Wally and Steph and Cassie who disappear forever. This time, it'll be all the superheroes. Which would make for a really boring DC Universe. I'm not sure even I would keep reading any comic books telling stories from it.

I wish every time somebody said this in a time travel movie, they'd get punched in their stupid face.

• From this moment on, whenever anybody asks me, "Where are we?" or "Where am I?", I'm going to reply, "When might be a better question!" • Batman and Superman wind up in a time when Earth has built a bunch of scaffolding around the planet. Hopefully somebody will tell them that they have a temporal nuke to disarm. The Ranking! No change! If I wasn't being so lazy and not wanting to change the sidebar, I'd probably drop this a ranking just for being another terrible "The present is changing because of time travel shenanigans that must be corrected!" bullshit story. I mean, isn't it lucky that Molly the Keeper appeared to help everybody save the current timeline! Without her intervention, time would have just changed and nobody would have been the wiser. Readers probably would have been confused though if they picked up What's the Justice League? #15 about a bunch of people who don't remember the Justice League and never mention them at all in whatever boring tale of mundane life Bryan Hitch decided to tell. Probably a story about an artist who is trying to finish the facade of a building with a ton of tiny details on it but he has to pee really fucking badly. Does he finish before he goes? Does he go before he finishes? Does he make a huge mistake in one of several possible scenarios?!

[fangirl-university-blog]

Set (and achieve!) Goals Like a True Badass

  It's that time of year when New Year's Resolutions are a thing. The New Year feels like the perfect time to start fresh, and with the excitement of the holidays, many of us get overly ambitious with our goals, only to end up bombing everything a week later and giving up. Sound familiar?

In our fast moving world, instant gratification has become an ingrained expectation. We expect instant results in all aspects of our lives. Even when it comes to things that we should know take patience and persistence-- like creating an empire or, you know, taking out the local crime boss-- our favorite stories and heroes create unrealistic expectations on the type of work, dedication and persistence that is required to make shit happen.

In books, television and movies, the timeline is necessarily skewed. These stories have to leave out the boring bits, which in reality make up the bulk of the process. We only get to see the exciting parts and then the end result. 

Even for Sam and Dean Winchester (from Supernatural, in case you didn't know), there battle against the Big Bads generally take the course of an entire season. So sure, it takes about a year, but we don't see the hours and days of time when they're stuck without a lead, or researching fruitlessly, just hanging out until something comes along. As a viewer, we understand that something is going to happen any minute, and so we hang in there. But Sam and Dean have to hang in there, remaining dedicated to their goal even when it seems like nothing is ever going to happen.

So how do they do it? How do the Winchesters, Superheroes, and real-world heroes actually complete their goals even when things look bleak? Well, they have a process that they stick to-- a process that you, too, can learn to follow.

(Download your free step-by-step worksheet.)

Making shit happen takes so much more than wishing for change. In reality, it takes continual action, persistence, and oftentimes, help from an outside source or two. But follow these steps, and there's nothing you can't achieve!

1. Pick one primary goal that comes from the heart.

When a hero decides to do something, they do it. They don't stall, they don't get distracted by unimportant minutiae, and they don't quit when things get a little hard. They keep their eye on the prize and push forward, no matter what.

2. Figure out why it matters to you.

One of the reasons that our favorite characters and heroes are able to maintain focus and drive when they have a mission is because they know why their goal is important. That know that the end result is sufficiently important to warrant the hard work. If there's no greater purpose, they simply wouldn't bother.

3. Focus on what you need to add to your life rather than what you need to take away.

A frequent mistake we make when setting our New Year's Resolutions or other goals is that we focus on what we want less of-- we want to lose weight; quit smoking; stop biting our nails; less debt. The problem is that when we focus on what we don't want, our subconscious doesn't here the "not" part. So you think, "I want to lose weight," and your subconscious hears "Weight!"

When we look at our heroes-- in this case I'll use Harry Potter-- we'll see that they inherently understand this principal even if they don't talk about it. Harry doesn't spend all of his time dwelling on "what ifs" or focusing on his hate for Voldemort. Rather, he creates positive goals that will propel him forward. He focuses on what he can do right now. Like finding the horcruxes.

Same goes for you. Don't focus on losing weight by thinking about what you can't have; aim instead to add things to your life to gain better health. For example, start by adding 4 servings of vegetables to your diet each day, or exercising 3 days a week. You'll find that adding is hella easier than taking things away, and you'll achieve results quicker because you'll be able to stay consistent.

4. Make a plan.

Sometimes a hero has to think on his feet, but more times than not, that's only when something unexpected happens. But in order to get to that point, first you have to have a plan! What steps do you need to get through to reach your end goal? What tasks will be necessary for each step?

Remember, it's okay to change things up as you go, but it's important to have that starting road map.

5. Enlist the help of others.

Tell me just one character or real-life hero that has never needed help from anyone for anything. Go ahead. Just one!

No matter how good you are, eventually your going to need help. Knowing that in advance will make it easier for you when the time comes. Might as well embrace it now.

6. Track your results.

Unless a goal happens overnight (which, sorry, just doesn't happen) it can be easy to forget what you've accomplished in your journey. And when you forget-- that's when you get discouraged and your much more likely to quit.

All of the best heroes have a way of tracking their results and accomplishments along the way. John Winchester has a journal, the Winchester boys create their wall webs of information, Batman has his lair. Harry Potter, Ron and Hermione continuously discuss what they've found so far and what they still need to find when they're looking for the horcruxes.

Whatever way works best for you-- journals, charts, computer logs, videos, newspaper clippings-- don't let yourself forget how far you've come. Heck, maybe even celebrate once in a while.

7. Never quit!

Sometimes you'll go a long period of time when it feels like nothing is happening. You may feel discouraged and feel like you should just give up. This is the time when you dig in your heels and remind yourself that anything worthwhile takes time. So go scream in your pillow, take a weekend to binge on Netflix in your pajamas, or go for a run. It's okay to take a break. But make sure that during that break you are reinforcing yourself with positive thoughts and words. Then when you're ready, get back to it!

(Note: Every couple or months or so I'll require a week-long break to get my head back in the game. I used to feel guilty about it, but I've come to learn that it's just part of my process. Every time I come back stronger and that's what really matters!)

8. Have fun!

If it's not fun at least some of the time then you need to take a second look at what you're doing. Are you doing it for the right reasons? Any goal that you're not passionate about will quickly go by the wayside.

  Can you think of anything else that you or your favorite hero does to make shit happen? Comment below!

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Set (and achieve!) Goals Like a True Badass was originally published on Fangirl University

[fyrapartnersearch]

Let's create something awesome together.

My name is Chris and I'm a 28 year old roleplayer with 15 years experience writing! I'm an ICU RN in my free time with a beautiful wife and an even more beautiful cat and a fairly brand new puppy. I write mainly over email and reply 2-3 times a week with anywhere from 5-16 paragraphs, depending on the characters and actions in the scene. I also communicate over various messengers if that is at all your jam for plotting purposes and the like. I write M/F and F/F lines. And, since I'm a ICU nurse, I can always promise painfully medically accurate roleplay. I put extra *s by the lines that I will literally lose my mind if you approach me about. Searching hard! Figured I'd start with original lines: -This American Life Something set in the 1970s, focusing on a roadtrip. A group of teenagers leave their small town behind to head out west. I love this time period. Can be supernatural, supernatural lite (think Twin Peaks weirdness) or totally natural. -Stranger Things inspired** A group of four to six friends enjoy their last summer together in a remote town as strangeness begins to unfurl. I'd be willing to set this in the present but think it would be way more fun in the 70s or 80s. I have an idea for one of the kids having lost a sibling in a strange way when they were young and possibly some sort of cult in town. Fandoms! -Star Wars** I know Reylo is all the rage these days, as is Qi'Ra/Han. But, man ALIVE, I really want something focusing on the core four: Luke, Leia, Han, and, ya boy, Chewie. Something taking place in that three year gap between New Hope and Empire as they work among the rebellion. Strange new worlds, getting into scrapes, sharply running from the empire, avoiding Vader, bounty hunters, and all sorts of things. This time period is far from explored and we can really thrive in the galaxy. Primarily I want to focus on the budding relationship between Han and Leia and Luke's training, pre-Yoda. In a perfect world, I'd want to write Han and Chewie (If anyone thinks Chewie is just a NPC, get out my face) while my partner takes on Leia and Luke. I'd be willing to switch out Chewie for Luke if need be, I guess? We could also split up C3PO and R2. Let's real build out the resistance and delve into the 'WARS' part of those big yellow letters that never get enough attention. On top of all of that, I also have an original love interest in mind for Luke if someone else plays him! She's a spitfire. Alternatively, I'd be down for writing something set in the clone wars. Perhaps two jedi that broke the order's relationship laws and then survived Order 66 together? -Preacher Seriously. Love this show, love this comic. Would happily write Jesse or Cassidy against Tulip. Just definitely looking for a Tulip -The Boys Would love to write Hughie against Starlight! Currently working my way through the season that just dropped. -Marvel -I will love you forever if you write an Elektra against my Daredevil. They are toxic and in love and I love it. Whether it be the comics or the Netflix series, I don't care. Someone please write me an Elektra. -Alternatively, I'd also be happy to write against a Black Widow, either with Daredevil (They were a mainstay OTP in the comics in the 90s) or Logan/Wolverine (This line would be bloody and murder-y as hell but it would be some fun).** -Has anyone seen the trailer for the neverendingly delayed New Mutants movie? I would love to write something based on that horror aspect of the mutant universe.* -I'd love to write an older MCU Peter Parker (like college) running across a MCU version of Black Cat. Or just a Spiderman roleplay in general. I've always wanted to write Peter but have never gotten the chance! I have a ton of ideas for this, plus faceclaims for a few of the villains. Pleeeease hit me up*** -If you write Jessica Jones, I'd be willing to write almost anyone against her. Just let me know. -Hawkguys! I would love to either write Clint sgainst Kate Bishop (This would be a slightly skewed MCU vibe) or Kate against America Chavez. I would really love to do either of these lines -DC -I'd love to write Batman against Catwoman, please. I'm not too picky on the setting or the iteration. -John Constantine against almost anyone. I'd kill for an Elsa Bloodstone but that's obscure as heck. A mage and a monster hunter that are both English taking on the supernatural underworld. Let's make it into an adventure like magic Indiana Jones and just go nuts with it. Seriously, this could be so fun. ********************************************************** Otherwise, Zatanna (old flames), Jessica Jones (Two cynical alcoholics become barstool neighbors before one's business shows up at the bar as well), or Scarlet Witch (Instead of going to Stephen Strange, Wanda ends up as John's student)? -Hannibal I've been dying to do a sort of season 4 for a while now, focused on Clarice Starlings interaction with Will Graham and later Hannibal Lecter. Just need to find someone willing to create an original style Clarice. -Resident Evil I'd like to write Leon against Claire Redfield or Jill Valentine in an original outbreak or a new one. I know this is an old school fandom but I'm a diehard fan. -Star Trek Okay, so first up, I am not the most well versed Trekkie in the world. Never watched any of the TV shows but am a massive fan of the trio of rebooted films and would love to give Kirk or Bones a try against Uhura, Dr. Eve, or maybe a female Vulcan OC? Hit me with ideas! -The Matrix Another obscure fandom. Maybe just an original crew, set during the movies, after, or an AU where they're the only survivors of Zion? Im not sure but I could plot something out! -Uncharted I'd love to write Chloe Frazier against Nadine Ross, continuing their adventures. I'm pretty wide open on what we can do with this one. -Overwatch I just recently got into this game and think the fandom is a ton of fun. While I might need a bit of tutorial on the storyline outside of the characters, I'd be down to write a few of them. But I have no idea what the standard ships are. RANDOM CRACK SHIPS! Caught in a Web: I would love to write an iteration (Daniel Craig or an original) of James Bond/007 against a non superhero version of Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow. Spy vs spy shenanigans as two people working for different governments. Totally impossibly but putting it just in case: Did anyone see all that Wonder Woman/Lara Croft art that was floating around the internet earlier this year? I would love to dive into that. I'd prefer to write Lara but I'm definitely not picky. My email is Chrisx104@gmail.com. I'm on skype at Chrisx104 (Same for gmail) and Discord at NurseBatman#3674