#i loved reading superman rebirth because of him

[vechter]

is the best leader of the dcu or the "leader of all superheroes" superman? because i've seen many debates over batman, superman, martian manhunter, wonderwoman. but i always thought it would be nightwing! people say batman is the tactician and superman sparks hope in people and guides them, doesn't nightwing do both?

maybe im underestimating supes here! of course everyone loves and trusts him (who wouldn't?) but i always thought the "leader" of the dcu was nightwing

hmm. can't not put the titans (1999) #1 panel here:

ok fr tho, i don't think i can answer this in a manner that does it justice because i've only read a limited number of superman comics. but my understanding of the JL dynamic, so far, has been that batman is the tactician while superman is the guy who's the moral centre— in a kind of head and heart way while wonder woman is the balance between the two— operating from a place of both heart and head.

however, the trinity defer to martian manhunter for leadership several times, even going so far as to nominate him for chairman in one of the JL runs after rebirth (can't remember the exact vol and issue and honestly, i rlly don't want to look sorry).

as for nightwing, he's definitely the ideal leader- there's tons of canonical evidence where all the titans look to him for leadership and several times, bruce even tells him that dick is meant to lead the JL, going as far as letting dick be a contingency leader in cases where the league falls (like obsidian age).

dick has usually done a good job anytime he's had to lead and he does make sense because like you said, he can be the best of batman and superman: head and heart. but personally, i don't think it's where dick would thrive (this is not to say he wouldn't do well— he would!!) but lately, i feel like dc has rlly been pushing him as the leader in big world events, which is good because i was getting real tired of nightwing being dumbed down and losing his competence but it feels a little... i don't want to say disingenuous... but something along those lines.

dick, imo, is sort of the heart of a pre-n52 dcu. here's an excellent meta that captures the kind of importance dick has.

also, there's a separate argument to be made about how dc started putting all of the bats in leadership positions when they saw how well received dick was as the leader of the titans but that's kind of a different tangent as to how the ability to lead is not a bat-trait but more of a person specific thing lol

tldr: look at these panels from martian manhunter (1998) #0:

i think this is a very good encapsulation of the guy who should lead the league and what it looks like

[devine-fem]

i am BEGGING you to make that jondami ship guide. not because i need anything to make me ship them more than i already do but because they deserve to have their good moments highlighted

Jondami/Damijon shipping guide.

A collective guide to any cute moment between Jon and Damian in DC comics or motion pictures. Any moment that could make a reader like them more as a ship will be put all here in one Tumblr post.

• Superman (2016) Issues #10-#11

This is the first time they meet each other and they immediately knock heads. Jon’s lighter than life personality clashes with Damian’s cold personality and they don’t seem to get along but you can tell there’s something growing behind the eye rolling and tongue clicking… a friendship?

• Superman (2016) Issue #20, #21, #25, #26 (mentioned), and #43.

• Super Sons (2017)

This is the first of the Super Sons series, the series is really short but gold nonetheless. No Super Sons comic that I don’t like but this one is my favorite. They still are knocking heads and refuse to call each other partners but they grow and learn to be heroes together.

• Adventures of the Super Sons (2018)

They slowly start to get used to each other and this comic shows that Damian isn’t just straight up mean but is starting to somewhat ‘like’ Jon.

• Challenge of the Super Sons (2020)

The last main Super Sons comics. This one is fine but I love the others so much. These comics are essential to know Jon and Damian period, it’s the main comics of each others story and in a way they are important to each others development.

• Batman and Superman: Battle of the Super Sons (2022)

Now after all that reading treat yourself to a movie because Jon and Damian got their own movie. This is what started Jon and Damian for a lot of people and this is probably where a lot of you are from. This movie is great and fun. They made Damian wayyy nicer than in the comics and their friendship easier.

• DC Rebirth Holiday Special (2016)

Please find and read this. It’s so cute. I love it so much.

• Dark Nights: Metal issue #3 (2017 -2018)

They make a rock band in the beginning, its so cute.

• DCeased (2019)

• DCeased: The Unkillables (2020)

• DCeased: Hope at World’s End (2020)

• DCeased: Dead Planet (2020)

• DCeased: War of the Undead Gods (2022)

This is such a good series, and story in general please read it. DC peaked with this one and its so angsty. I don’t care what comphet was happening, Jon was there for Damian like no one else. I think Damian ends up with Cassie which is weird to me because Damian has never shown interest in anyone before but I excuse it since it’s not really gonna happen again since they were in a relationship just for the story to be more high stakes and sad. Jon and Damian’s relationship was at the forefront and for comic book readers DCeased made people see the potential in Jondami.

• DC’s Terror Through Time (2022)

This is so cute, please read this. It’s a halloween special and they switch uniforms <3!!

• DC Saved by the Belle Reve (2022)

They help a nonbinary person navigate school and it’s so damn cute.

• The age up incident.

(Disclaimer: You can pretend this never happens and I wouldn’t blame you for doing that.) A writer named Brain Micheal Bendis comes into the writers room for DC and ages up Jon in short. The story is that Superman goes missing (He travels to War World and gets stuck there) and Jor-El comes back to meet Jon and he takes him on a trip to explore space, then they get trapped in a wormhole, Jon gets stuck on Earth-3 and has to fight Ultraman. He’s stuck in a volcano for five or six years and becomes seventeen (we think) when he comes back. This was sad to me because it took away all the potential interactions for Jon and our ability to see him grow up, it was rushed and purposely so. Jon takes up the title of Superman somehow and starts to date some guy named “Jay Nakamura.”

• Superman: Son of Kal-El (2021) Issues: #1, #6, #14, and #15.

He does get a boyfriend here and I think it’s amazing the fact he simply gets a boyfriend but no one really likes his bf so… and the are real reasons why Jay as a character is problematic BUT if you just don't want to see him with someone else than every time you see a pink haired twink, quickly skip.

• Adventures of Superman: Jon Kent

• Super Sons (2017) Special

This is them reuniting after the age up and it shows how Damian reacts to it. I can’t actually find this and if anyone can please let me know where it is. I can only find bits and pieces of it scattered across the internet. All you need to know is that he doesn’t like the age up anymore than us since he says “I miss my friend.” which is really sad to me because the age up ultimately really hurts what people like about their dynamic as well as tarnish Jon’s character almost completely.

UPDATE: found it, it got attached to

• Dark Crisis (2022) till Issue #5

This is fine, after issue four Jon and Damian are not there anymore and if you read half the story just for jon and damian you might as well finish it.

• Green Lantern: Blackstars (2019) issue #2

They hug here. You’re welcome.

• Action Comics (2016) issue #1030

This is the best thing to come from the age up. This is so cute of them.

• Teen Titans (2016) Issue #43, #45, and #46

i didnt really like this, im not gonna lie but it has some damian and jon interaction worth noting with jon being protective over damian.

• Flash (2016) Issue #797

jon defending damian. this is such a cute moment for them. jon talks damian up and says how hes the strongest person he knows and how hes misunderstood.

• Legion of Super Heroes (2019) Issue #2 & #3

dont read this. its rlly bad but this is full of jon being the number one damian apologist, quality jondsmi moments over quantity. worth mentioning • Trinity Special: World’s Finest literally them raising a child together but their ages are a bit wonkey, i still dont personally know what age either of them are supposed to be there...

DC MEETS HANNA-BARBERA - Super Sons x Dynomutt

I’d say they aren’t exactly written right, well over all they are but their personalities are more relaxed and they care about each other a lot and will go out of their way to make sure the other is okay and protect them from danger, make them laugh etc, theres nothing wrong with this, its really cute but you can tell its not the typical jon and damian writers is all. I like it.

• Dark Crisis: The Dark Academy (2023)

• Wonder Woman (2016) Issue #800

- Fandom

Artist that draw Jon and Damian:

(I don’t know any of these accounts intimately so if they’re problematic in any way than I am sorry in advance)

Sheiya Vlad

Pechaghtlecha

Corinthianrm0

Hobiiiebrown

spider-jaysart

arunneronthird

Twitter

Hokke

Gozer

@_1209E

YouTube

Justice Lords Animation

Japanese Animation

Super Sons Meme Animation

- Fanfics

Trust fall by Ididloveyou_once

Those Who Wait by InsaneTrollLogic

moving in stereo by TheResurrectionist

Reasons to Not Fall in Love by nanami

Growing Pains

These are fics I read and liked, I don’t have much. I don’t read a lot of Jondami fan fiction so I insist that you recommend your own fanfiction in the comments. (Don’t hate me for the self promo)

- Music (A silly lil playlist I made for them)

END

[batbabydamian]

Hey, I started reading Robin son of Batman because of your recommendation (I literally have a print of your post on my phone to not forget lol). Honestly? One of the best things I ever read!!!

Thank you for opening my eyes! Damian has been one of my favorite characters for over a year, but I didn't read/watch much of him because of school, life (and probably an executive dysfunction in the mix).

Maya is incredible. I loved her.

I haven't finished all the issues yet, but do you have any other recommendations?

WAH this makes me so happy, i'm glad you still gave it a shot even with how busy life is!! ;v;

i’d love to give reccs, and i’ll try to go a beginner friendly route! tbh you can pick up whatever here, but since you've read R:SOB i’d immediately follow up with Batman and Robin (2011) #1-8! this first arc is what’s referred to in Maya’s introduction, and it's just. so good.

Main Books

Batman and Robin (2009)

Dick as Batman with Damian as his Robin!

#20-22 Tree of Blood: Dark Knight vs White Knight arc is done by Tomasi and Gleason, the team for the next Batman and Robin series

*Batman and Robin (2011)

Bruce and Damian figuring out their relationship as both Batman & Robin and father & son

imo you can enjoy the ride and read straight through this but i’ll add context to avoid as much confusion as possible since there’s the occasional tie-in or offscreen events, like Damian’s death nbd

Batman Incorporated (2012) #1-10

events leading to Damian's death - affects Batman and Robin (2011) from issue #18

kind of a tough read especially with how Talia's written, but a lot of iconic bits like Batcow, Damian's vegetarian declaration, Alfred the cat, "We Were the Best, Richard."

Robin (2021)

another self-discovery adventure, particularly after Alfred’s death and a fallout with Bruce (and questionable writing choices from his last Teen Titans run)

Batman and Robin (2023)

currently ongoing! after a number of events, Bruce and Damian are back as a duo

Damian Dynamics!

Batman: Streets of Gotham (2009) #7, 10-12

arc where Damian meets one of his first Gotham friends, Colin Wilkes

Batgirl (2009) #5-7, #17

Steph and Damian dynamic! "the bad cop, worse cop" dysfunctional duo

Red Robin (2009) #13-14

early Tim and Damian dynamic that of course includes fighting haha. funny enough, accidentally my first intro to Damian LOL

Teen Titans (2003) #89-92

Dick!Batman has Damian join the Teen Titans. Start of Damian and Rose Wilson dynamic that’s extended in Robin (2021)

Batman: Gates of Gotham (2011)

Damian meets Cass and has a brief team up

Gotham Academy (2015) #7

Damian meets Maps Mizoguchi! they have a few other meetings, but outside of that the series itself is a great read!

Robin War Event (2015)

Robin War (2015) #1, Grayson (2014) #15, Detective Comics (2011) #47, We Are Robin (2015) #7, Robin: Son of Batman (2015) #7, Robin War (2015) #2

Duke and Damian dynamic! not exactly beginner friendly but these are the main issues in order for the event! you can also read the TPB version for everything including Tie-Ins

Nightwing (2016) #16-20, #42, #43

#16-20 Nightwing and Robin arc!

#42 Dick on a mission to save Damian! the one appearance of "Wiggles" the dragon

#43 Dick, Roy, and Damian team-up

New Talent Showcase 2018 "Catwoman: Pedigree"

Selina, Damian, and Alfred the cat

Batman: Prelude to the Wedding - Robin vs. Ra's Al Ghul (2018)

Selina, Damian, and Cheese Viking - Damian's fav game shown in Nightwing: Rebirth (2016)

Monkey Prince (2022) #1-4

Marcus Sun Shugel-Shen's main comic, but Damian features as a fun dynamic here before they're in more serious circumstances in Batman VS Robin (2022)/Lazarus Planet event

Superman (2016) #10 - 11

the beginning of the Super Sons! featuring Maya!

Super Sons (2017)

solitary arcs but there’s a few event tie-in issues later

Adventures of the Super Sons (2018)

literally more Super Sons adventures lol galactic shenanigans yeehaw

Challenge of the Super Sons (2020) 

Super Sons time shenanigans feat. the Justice League

Robin 80th Anniversary (2020)

"Boy Wonders" - brief Damian feature as Tim considers his next step in life

"My Best Friend" - Jon's thoughts on Damian and their dynamic

"Bat and Mouse" - refers to Damian's unfortunate Teen Titans (2016) run at the time of release which follows up with Teen Titans Annual #2 where Damian briefly gives up Robin

Extra Comics!

Superman/Batman (2003) #77

Kara and Damian in a Halloween team-up! also the appearance of "Li'l Matches" lol

DCU Halloween Special '09 "Cavity Search"

Damian out on a solo mission for Halloween night. Immediately after is Tim's Red Robin story "Then and Now: Our Father's Sins" which is more somber in contrast but also a good read!

DCU Halloween Special 2010 "Robin the Vampire Slayer"

a Dick!Batman and Robin story featuring the vampire Andrew Bennett

Cursed Comics Cavalcade (2018) "The Devil You Know"

Halloween themed comic with a sweet short story of Damian alongside Solomon Grundy

DC's Terrors Through Time (2022)

"Trick or Treat" a Super Sons Halloween story

"The Haunting of Wayne Manor" Damian and Deadman story - in the end, Boston kinda refers to Nezha's possession of Damian in Batman VS Robin (2022) which was happening at the time of this release

Batman: Li'l Gotham (2013)

lighthearted series that instantly makes me smile with the silliness and Dustin Nguyen’s art i love this dearly

Secret Origins (2014) #4 "A Boy's Life"

a retelling of Damian's origin story

Detective Comics (2016) #1001-1005

Batman and Robin vs the Arkham Knight (unrelated to the game)

Truth & Justice (2021) #6/#16 - 18 Digital First version

cute story of Damian’s birthday! Juni Ba’s art is so fun!!

DC Festival of Heroes: The Asian Superhero Celebration (2021) “Special Delivery”

short story about Damian! and poisoned pizzas. completely forgot the artist Sami Basri drew Rebirth Damian here before catboy Damian lol Cass’s story “Sounds” is also cute! Marcus makes his first appearance in "The Monkey Prince Hates Superheroes"

DC VS Vampires (2021)

Damian makes appearances throughout this elseworlds book, but the one-shot DC VS Vampires: Hunters (2022) is vampire Damian-centric!

Batman: Black and White (2021) #5

“Father & Son Outing” short story written and drawn by Jorge Jimenez!

Batman: Urban Legends (2021) #20-23

#20 “My Son” Talia and Bruce focus

#20 - 23 “The Murder Club” 4 Parts

Tiny Titans (2008) #33, #39, #45, #47

a few appearances but SO CUTE, LOOK AT HIM

*Batman and Robin (2011) reading guide

i'm mostly trying to avoid the "what did i just walk in on?" kinda feeling when i first started reading comics LOL i'll list the comics where events take place, but you don't necessarily have to read them to go through this book since things are usually explained as quickly as possible in the first page or so

#0 Someday Never Comes

Talia and baby Damian before he grows up to meet Bruce

#1-8 Born to Kill

just an incredibly solid arc for Bruce and Damian!

#9 Court of Owls Tie-In Issue

Damian VS a Court of Owls Talon. While Bruce is occupied with a home invasion of Talons, Alfred makes a call for allies to protect targeted Gotham public figures from Talons. During Batman (2011) #1-11

#10-12 Terminus

Damian challenges the previous Robins sans Steph

Batman Incorporated (2012) is occurring at this time where Talia has placed a bounty on Damian and there's small mentions of that

#13-14 Eclipsed/Devoured

mostly solitary arc! end of it leads into the Death of the Family event

#15-16 Death of the Family Tie-In Issues

Damian and Joker face-off... Alfred's been kidnapped by the Joker, and Damian goes looking for him. During Batman (2011) #13-17

#17 Life is but a Dream - Death of the Family Epilogue

a sort of subconscious check-in through the dreams of Damian, Alfred, and Bruce. Nightwing (2011) #17 features Damian encouraging Dick after Death of the Family events

#18 Undone "Requiem"

Bruce dealing with Damian's death from Batman Incorporated #8

other reactions to Damian's death: Dick in Nightwing (2011) #18, Tim in Teen Titans (2011) #18

#19-23 Denial, Rage, The Bargain, Despair, Acceptance

Bruce through the stages of grief with some batfam appearances in each. also introduces Carrie Kelley into continuity as Damian's acting tutor.

Batman (2011) #19-20 also addresses Bruce's loss

#23.1-23.4

these could be skipped - villain stories, also related to Forever Evil event.

#24-28 The Big Burn

optional Batman and Two-Face/Harvey Dent arc, #23.1 is part of this story!

Damian's resurrection and return

#29-32 The Hunt for Robin

Ras took Talia and Damian's bodies from their graves, and Bruce goes after him.

-> Robin Rises: Omega

continues events from #32. if you don't want to jump to this, basically, Glorious Godfrey and a bunch of parademons from Apokolips are here for a chaos shard which Ra's put in Damian's sarcophagus. at some point, Bruce gets a hold of the shard where he sees a vision that leads him to believe Damian can be resurrected. Godfrey ends up taking the shard, along with Damian's body since it was emitting the same energy.

#33-37 Robin Rises

Bruce hellbent on retrieving Damian from Apokolips and reviving him

-> Robin Rises: Alpha

necessary to read and continues events from #37! Damian's back with a bang lol

#38-40 Superpower

Damian adjusting to having superpowers and being alive again

Annual #1 2013 Batman Impossible

sweet (and funny) one-shot of Damian sending Bruce on a meaningful scavenger hunt around the world while Damian gets to be the cutest Batman for a bit

Annual #2 2014 Batman and Robin: Week One

one-shot takes place during Damian's absence. after Bruce and Alfred find a mystery gift left for Dick, Dick recounts a story he had told Damian from his Robin days.

Annual #3 2015 Moonshot

one-shot Batman and Robin adventure on the moon!

...and of course after Batman and Robin (2011), Damian's story continues in his first solo Robin: Son of Batman (2015)!

[longwuzhere]

My Adventures with Superman Season 2 Easter Eggs

Welcome to another week of My Adventures with Superman! My hunch about the what happened last week was true and things are not going too well for the gang...

My Easter eggs lists for season 1 is here if you haven't seen it!

My season 2 episode 1 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 2 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 3 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman comic issue 1 post is here

My season 2 episode 4 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 6 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 7 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My Easter eggs and references for My Adventures with Superman comic issue 2 post is here

My season 2 episode 8 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 9 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 10 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My Easter eggs and references for My Adventures with Superman comic issue 3 post is here

Spoilers if you haven't seen the episode

To start things off we meet Kara on Earth! I talked more about her here. Shes's dressed similarly to Android 18 when she, 17, and 16 drive to Goku's house in episode 147 of Dragon Ball Z. While watching the episode I was wondering why does Kara's hair look so familiar? Then it hit me. Kara's got Sakuya Kumashiro's hair from Tenchi in Tokyo!

Shout out to recent DC characters enjoy ice cream for the first time like Wonder Woman in the live action movie and Justice League animated movie, and the new DC Super Hero Girls cartoon. As a mint chocolate chip ice cream fan, good first choice of ice cream to enjoy!

Perry puts Clark and Lois on a new beat for the Metropolis "Most Eligible Single" contest because Superman was chosen to be one of the five up for that title. Cat Grant self-invites herself to join the duo to figure out who Superman is through his love life. Lois is sweating bullets at this point. At the contest we meet the potential people for winning the title, Hank Henshaw, Chandi Gupta, Byrna Brilyant, and Silver St. Cloud. I talked more about Hank Henshaw here. We see a darker more bigoted side to him this time around. Will we see him get his cyborg body and become Cyborg Superman in this season or season 3? Who knows. Season 3 is confirmed though.

Dr. Byrna Brilyant is a very deep DC universe cut dating back to 1946, the golden age of comics. Back then Byrna Brilyant was an enemy to Wonder Woman going by the moniker, Blue Snowman.

Byrna in the 1940s makes her first appearance in Sensation Comics #59 (1946) [W: Joye Hummel, P&I: H.G. Peter], where she was a teacher who's father created this compound called blue ice, after his death, she uses it as a way to extort this town after freezing it over for monetary gain.

Byrna makes another appearance in 2010 in Power Girl #7 (2010) [W Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti, P&I: Amanda Conner, C: Paul Mounts, L: John J. Hill] where Dr. Mid-Nite and Power Girl are trying to stop Byrna from committing a robbery but the main bad guy, Vartox shoots a seduction musk rifle at Power Girl but the smell knocks out Dr. Mid-Nite and it works on Byrna, but not Power Girl. This all makes more sense if you read the comic.

Byrna's next appearance post-New 52 was in Superman/Wonder Woman #4 (2014) [W: Charles Soule, P: Paulo Siqueira, I&C: Hi-Fi, L: Carlos M. Mangual] where we see Wonder Woman and Hessia battling the Blue Snowman robots.

Byrna's latest appearance post-DC Rebirth is in DC: Love is a Battlefield #1 (2021) [W: Crystal Fraiser, P&I: Juan Gedeon, C:Ulises Arreola, L: Marshal Dillion, where Byrna is now gender fluid after interrupting a date between Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor. Good on Wonder Woman for letting them go and hoping the realization there is a word for what Byrna was feeling would make them feel much better. So going forward if we meet Byrna again, I'll be referring to them with they/them pronouns, but if its New 52 continuity and before, Byrna will be referred to with she/her pronouns with the continuities to help clarify the pronoun usages.

Chadi Gupta is also another deep cut from the DC universe because she's reference to her comic counterpart from Justice League Europe.

Chandi makes her first appearance in Justice League Europe #47 (1993) [W: Gerard Joes, P: Ron Randall, I: Randy Elliot, C: Gene D'Angelo, L: Willie Schubert] where she's escaping her family and comes across the the JLE and wants to join them. Her energy projection and construct creation powers came in handy for the JLE in issue 50 where she and the rest of the JLE were able to fend off Sonar's attack and that earned her a spot on Justice League Europe as the superhero Maya.

Silver St. Cloud is probably one of the more prominent characters from the DC universe who showed up in MAwS. She got into the pop culture zeitgeist through the Gotham tv show when it aired.

Silver St. Cloud makes her first appearance in Detective Comics #470 (1977) [W: Steven Engleheart, P: Walter Simonson, I: Al Milgrom, C: Jerry Serpe, L: Ben Oda] where she meets Bruce Wayne at a party on his yacht. She eventually becomes one of Bruce Wayne's more prominent love interests and one of the few who were suspecting Bruce to be Batman thanks to his constant disappearing.

She shows up in post-new 52 in the maybe possibly out of cotinuity anthology, Legends of the Dark Knight (2014) digital comics, specifically as a cameo in issue #50, Dr. Quinn's Diagnosis [W: Jim Zub, P&I: Niel Googe, C: Kathryn Layno, L: Saida Temofonte], where Batman is getting psychoanalyzed by Harley Quinn.

If you want to read a comic with a fun appearance of Silver St. Cloud give Batman/Elmer Fudd Special #1 (2017) [W: Tom King, P&I: Lee Weeks, C: Lovern Kindzierski, L: Deron Bennet] a read cuz goddamn is it noir AF and beautifully drawn (a while back DC superheroes crossed over with Looney Tunes characters and its very good. They have also done it with Hanna Barbera characters as well. Give those a read too! They're all fun!)!

The charity that MAwS Silver mentions was first mentioned in Superman #152 (1967) [W: Bill Finger, P&I: Al Plastino] where Superman is accepting a clock medallion for a charity event. In the comics Silver St. Cloud isn't usually working for charities, shes mostly a Gotham socialite.

At the event, the MC (who gives off Funky Flashman vibes imo), asked if anyone has questions and the first to jump on that was George Taylor of the Metropolis Star. I talked about the Metropolis Star here, but for George Taylor...

he actually makes his first appearance here in Action Comics #1 (1938) [W: Jerry Seigel, P&I: Joe Shuster, C: Strauss Engraving Company] where he is the editor-in-chief of the Daily Star.

In the silver age, George Taylor makes his first appearance in Superman #366 (1981) [W: Bob Eozakis, P: Kurt Schaffenberger, I: Frank Chiaramonte, C: Adrienne Roy, L: John Costanza] where he assigns Perry White on the Superboy scoop to see if he's active in Metropolis. In post-Crisis on Infinite continuity, George makes a cameo appearance in Adventures of Superman #451 (1989) [W,P,&I: Jerry Ordway, C: Glenn Whitmoore, L: Albert DeGuzman] where we see George's office door.

In the New 52 continuity, George Taylor makes his first appearance in Action Comics #8 (2012) [W: Grant Morrison, P: Rags Morales, I: Rick Bryant, C: Brad Anderson, L: Pat Brosseau] as editor-in-chief for the Daily Star where in the comic he's proud of Clark and encourages him to take the job at the Daily Planet.

Kara and Jimmy make it into the studio where Lois, Superman, and Cat Grant are and Kara confronts Superman showing off that she's the one in the armor. She is on a two-way radio communications with someone named Primus. Whether that is Brainiac's designation when Kara is on the field or its a different character all together, there is a Primus in the DC universe, not just in the Transformers universe. Btw this isn't Kara's first time siding with an evil faction, she was part of Darkseid's Female Furies in the 2004 Superman/Batman series, specifically in issue #11. You might have also seen it happen in the Superman/Batman: Apocalypse animated movie too.

Primus aka Pren makes his first appearance in Green Lantern #141 (1981) [W: Marv Wolfman, P&I: Joe Stanton, C: Carl Gafford, L: John Costanza] where he is the leader of the alien group, the Omega Men from the Vega star system. They jump Hal when he and Carol Ferris were on vacation thinking Hal is part of the Citadel, an extraterrestrial empire that is conquering the star system the Omega Men are in.

Primus/Pren NuParr makes his New 52 first appearance in Deathstroke #9 (2012), but gets a more prominent role in the Omega Man limited series from 2015 [panel from The Omega Men #1 (2015) W: Tom King, P&I: Barnaby Bagenda, C: Romulo Farjardo Jr., L: Pat Brosseau]. In this continuity, the Citadel is now a corporation that was exploiting Krypton's destruction by by selling stabilized planet cores to other worlds. This comes at a cost where the Vega star system is enslaved by them and those who resisted we killed and the survivors formed the Omega Men.

And with that another episodes Easter eggs and references are done! Come back next week to see what episode 6's Easter eggs and references are! In case you missed it:

My Easter eggs lists for season 1 is here if you haven't seen it!

My season 2 episode 1 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 2 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 3 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman comic issue 1 post is here

My season 2 episode 4 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 6 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 7 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My Easter eggs and references for My Adventures with Superman comic issue 2 post is here

My season 2 episode 8 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 9 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 10 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My Easter eggs and references for My Adventures with Superman comic issue 3 post is here

[distort-opia]

Hello! So I recently got into batman, and I’ve been slowly climbing my way up my reading list while also browsing through tumblr in search for metas about him, which is how I found your blog, and I really enjoy your metas!

I have a question though that won’t leave my mind, yet I also don’t want to stop my current reading list to jump into another series (JL), so I hope you don’t mind me asking this question to you instead 🙏

Basically, I’ve been wondering whether Bruce has opinions about Clark in relation to his self—Bruce’s self? So far from what I’ve read, Dick is (excuse me if the wording isnt exactly accurate, but just as a sums up) “the one that brings the light to Bruce’s darkness & the ideal self—the best of him”, whereas Joker is “the mirror to his self—the him that ‘what could have been’, the him who took different route”, and I wonder if there is a similar thinking/opinion about this self thing from him @ Clark too (like some sort of parallels)? I’m sorry if it sounds confusing 😅 Thank you!

Welcome to the fandom! Thank you for the kind words, glad you've enjoyed what meta I've put out. Hope you're having a fun time with Batman comics.

Oh Bruce definitely has opinions on Clark and Superman in general, in relation to himself. Though I have to make the note that in no way was Superman intended or built as a narrative foil for Batman's character, a "mirror self". Dick and Joker are characters who populated Batman's world from early on and were always meant to say something about the protagonist. Superman is a protagonist onto himself; he was created before Batman, and his popularity was actually a big factor contributing to Batman's creation. But that doesn't mean these two characters haven't grown together and influenced each other in a myriad of ways.

On a surface level, you've got the... grumpy one/sunshine one dichotomy. Superman is brightly colored and more emotional and fights in the light to bring people hope. Batman is enshrouded in darkness and stoically represses his emotions and fights in the night for justice and vengeance. One in the light, one in the shadows, one alien, one human, the "boy scout" and the "bad boy"... Even though they work together and are both on the side of good, these contrasts between Bruce and Clark are easily noticed by both others and themselves, and have led to conflicts on more than one occasion. But the way this translates in Bruce's head, to approach it from the angle you mentioned, is probably best summed up by the following pages... which I'm putting under a cut since this gets a bit long. Spoilers too I guess, for the Rebirth Batman run (if you haven't gotten to it yet).

Batman (2016) #36

"He's a better man than I am. [...] Who am I, compared to him?" And this is no way a new sentiment for Bruce:

Batman: Hush

Bruce doesn't see himself as a good person. He's capable of risking people's lives, of blackmail, lying, torture and manipulation, of unbelievable brutality and violence in the service of what he believes is his Mission. But he sees Clark as an inherently good person; as an ideal that he himself is not capable of ever reaching, of ever being. If I were to summarize only the projection aspect when it comes to Batman and Superman's dynamic, I'd say it's this one-- Superman is the hero Batman wishes he could be, but not one he'd ever try to become, because he believes himself fundamentally incapable of it. If as you said Dick is someone Bruce relates to and sees parts of himself in, but better (in trying to help Dick he retrospectively tries to help his child self), Clark isn't that. Superman is less of a mirror Bruce actively acts on, and more of a... negative. Clark is technically an alien, and yet in many ways he's more "human" than Bruce, having grown up with a loving family that Bruce wishes he had. Where Bruce tries to rise above the humanity he sometimes sees as weakness, both in emotional and physical terms, Clark is someone who's already "above" humanity, and yet yearns to be part of it. Moreso, Bruce envies Clark's sheer god-like power, but he knows that he doesn't have Clark's good character; that if he had this kind of unstoppable power, his need for complete control would drive him mad. Which actually happened one time, in Superman/Batman (2003) #53-56.

That being said, as is noticeable even in the pages above, this can result in Bruce putting Clark up on a pedestal, and idealizing him a bit too much, to the point of forgetting that Clark is a person too, with flaws and weaknesses. And not just that... the more ruthless and calculated side of Bruce never truly stops seeing Clark's power, both as something he can wield and something that can be turned against him (hence the hoarding of kryptonite and the contingency plans, in case Superman went bad). Perhaps Bruce's attitude more generally is illustrated best in this very recent moment:

Batman (2016) #128

Superman as Earth's greatest hero, and its greatest weapon. And Bruce is willing to risk his life to preserve that, because by comparison, he isn't these things. (And because Clark is his friend.)

[miimo96]

Thoughts on My Adventures with Superman S2 episode 8

This is Looking to be a Scary one folks, Idk about you but I'm kinda afraid of what's going to happen because judging from the title "The Death of Clark kent" it looks like we're going to be Definitely seeing either an Evil Superman or Clark losing what makes him who he is, His humanity

Ok So from this line "Your death, will be the rebirth of krypton" It looks like we're definitely going to be seeing the death of what makes him Clark Kent, his humanity, yeah Definitely an Evil Superman is happening; Also can we Not talk about this line "Now Let's find your weaknesses, So I can kill you" Yeah this Show is officially awesome, that fact that they literally had the guts to put that line in a quote unquote "Kids show" is completely mind blowing, Kinda reminds me of how when we used to have TV shows like that back in day, back of when they weren't afraid to show or Say stuff like that because they Knew we could handle it, gives me hope that we maybe could see more stuff like that in the Future

Omg they're so Cute together UwU!! I love how Mallah and Brain Give Jimmy the room and then we just have lois being Salty as she literally Ruins the moment with her Angry ass, like read the room Lois Now's not the time; Also can we talk about how cute the relationship is between Kara and Jimmy, the fact that Jimmy seriously claimed to be the 1 to steal the ship just to See Kara is so sweet and I love he always excuses her for her actions, like despite everything that happened on Earth between her Attacking and kidnapping Superman, he still chooses to defend her and gives her the benefit of the doubt, like it shows how much he seriously whole heartily belives in her, and Still has hope for her, Seeing her not as an invader but Rather the girl he Spent the day and had Ice cream with, it just shows how much he loves her and only really wanted to see her again, like the mission IS about Saving Clark, but it's also about Seeing Kara again; Also the fact that Kara Still refuses to Still see the truth about how Evil Brainiac is and tries to defend it as he's"Malfunctioning" just shows how naive she really is, and doesn't want to accept the fact that Brainiac is even capable of this, it really shows much he has really manipulated her, I feel so bad 🥺

I'm Loving the callbacks to last season with him reliving his memories and seeing all the battles he's fought, Showing us how much he's went through from last season, Also I love how how his "last minute strength" comes from him protecting his loves one's AKA lois and Jimmy because he doesn't want anything to happen to them, also the fact that we're literally getting an episode like this kinda reminds of that 1 spectacular spider man episode where peter was trying to fight the symbiote while being shown his memories, did anyone else get that feeling? No? Just me

Aaaaahhh!! My heart I can't take it Anymore, Please Just kiss each other you 2 already, Omg Please let them be together by the end of this season PLEASE!! 😖😖😫 (also it must be so handy to have super speed, especially when you Need to run away in embarrassment ^^)

Wow this is Sad, the fact that she's literally had this conversation before and doesn't even remember show's how much Brainiac has wiped her memory, like this isn't even maybe the 1st time she's rebelled against him, Showing that she was never even like this to begin with, and that she never even agreed with what he was doing, it's an amazing way to show how Evil Brainiac is, and that he never really cared about Kara in the 1st place but just saw her as a weapon he can use in the end , Gotta say I Really HATE this guy, Definitely not dad of the year material if I say so myself

Awwaaaah!! >_< I LOVE THIS SHOW SO MUCH, This shows that No matter what Universe or iteration they're in, lois and clark will always be together and will forever be 1 of the best iconic couples in comic book history, Also yeah! Eff you Brainiac for trying to manipulate our boys memories

Damn this man really knows how to manipulate someone the fact that he really knows what will make Clark Break, while also manipulating his memories shows how good of a villian he is and I really love how he just lurks over his shoulder as he's doing this, the dude is a Master manipulator

Nah did they seriously just hit us the Uno reverse card, making us think that he actually broke free and made it back to earth, like I Knew something was up the minute he defeated him too easily and made it back that fast, with No kara in sight mind you, like they really thought they had us for a second ^^; Also is it me or is this really unsettling for some reason, like Idk what it is but something about this scene just really feels creepy, like I feel like in the Next episode they're going to be talking and acting "robotic" if ya know what I mean, part of this episode is also giving a familiar vibe I had when watching an episode of Justice league where Superman was trapped in his own mind as well by a mysterious Squid like Creature that would just show him a false reality where he would have a life a krypton if it didn't blow up, wait a minute, that episode had Something called the Black Mercy too....OMG THEY'RE LITERALLY DOING THAT

Well looks like I was right about the Evil Superman sadly, it's a good thing we still got that Kryptonite right 😥😥

Alright 2 things, Nah he's disrespectful for hitting moves like that, Effing parying and weaving like if this is Child's play is Crazy, Also did I just see YELLOW lightning come from Kara's body 👀, that's so cool, so While Clark has Blue lighting she has Yellow lightning Omg that's such an awesome detail to include, can't wait to see how it looks with her Supergirl suit

Dude Brainiac is such a Gaslighter, like I don't believe a Damn he says, that shit about him hesitating and how he "loves" kara is a damn lie, like you literally brainwashed her countless times, made her do things She never wanted to do, and treated her like a weapon, You don't get to call her your daughter after what you did, you're a monster and you always will be; Like this legit textbook gaslighting 101, Step 1: Make you look like the Bad guy; Also there's This: " I love you my daughter" *proceeds to Slam her head in the pavement* 🤣🤣🤣

Wait you mean to tell me that the Kryptonite doesn't work on him!? That Because he's a machine he can just transfer his consciousness into Someone or something else!? BRUH THAT'S CHEEATING!! Also the fact that Jimmy was ready to slide for his girl with Him being the 1 to pull out the Kryptonite is insane, considering he was the 1 against that shit, anyone who says Jimmy Olsen is annoying or the worst character is Effing stupid because WHAAAAT! you better stop playing with my Boy

No modifications she says, We don't need them She says, bruh Lois must be Eating her words right now, without Those modifications her and Jimmy would be dead, if I were mallah and brain I'd ask for an effing apology, also where did Brainiac go, like part of me wants to believe Earth, judging from how he originally wanted to go with Kara and how he literally said last episode of how he wanted to use kal el to help him conquer earth and other planets for the empire, but part of me actually seems suggest that he maybe went somewhere else, considering last season we ended with a failed invasion attempt on Earth, so it would be kinda repetitive if we did the same thing again

Looks like we're going to be seeing another memory episode Next week, and judging from how this episode ended it looks Lois is going to be 1 to bring our boy back, reminding him of who he is and probably bringing back his humanity, considering we saw him as kal at the end rather than Clark, also omg but the imagery for this show is so Creepy, like they don't hold back with these designs at all, like between the Kryptonite and now this, this is starting to become more and more graphic and Dark, and I'm all here for it ^^

Tbh, Not a fan of this design at all, like I Adore the color scheme but as far as everything else, it just looks bad, like why does he have to have his chest and Toes out like only a Psychopath would wear their shit like that, and don't even get me started on that haircut, like this is a super computer and the best you could come up with, WAS THIS!? you're really telling me you thought having your toes out, chest showing, and haircut like that was IN, No Buddy I'm sorry Try again, also WHY ARE YOUR TOES OUT IN THE 1ST PLACE!? 1st mark grayson now this, like is having your toes out the new way of showing how Evil you are? Anyway can't wait for the next episode, hopefully we can get our boy back and Kara and Jimmy can end up together. hopefully (plz god don't let anything bad happen to them Pleeease!!)

[gffa]

what order would you recommend reading the batman comics in? also where do you find the comics?

"What order would you recommend reading the Batman comics in?" only has one answer and that answer is for me to immediately burst into tears. Okay, this list is designed around what I think is most likely to get you into comics and having a good time, if you're enjoying the kind of posts that appear on this blog: - Nightwing 2016, you can start from issue #1 and just keep reading (well, once you hit the Ric Grayson arc, you can skim if you want) because it's a fun, light-hearted series that's just very easy to read and is my comfort series in a lot of ways. I enjoy Dick Grayson's character, it does a lot of work to establish him in his own city, but also touches on his relationships with his family, and I think is a great starting place. You can start with Better Than Batman, Back to Bludhaven, Nightwing Must Die, Blockbuster, Raptor's Revenge, The Untouchable, The Bleeding Edge, Knight Terrors (not to be confused with the 2023 event of the same name!), Burnback, The Gray Son Legacy, The Joker War, Fear State Then there's something of a 'soft reboot' where the volume numbering starts over (but issue #s keep going) with: Leaping into the Light, Get Grayson, The Battle for Blüdhaven's Heart - Robin & Batman (2022), a beautifully illustrated series from the early days of Bruce and Dick, where Bruce is not exactly the world's greatest parent, but he's trying, there's an amazingly emotionally satisfying hug, and it shows what a delightful hurricane child Dick Grayson was. - "The Murder Club" is just one story out of many in Batman: Urban Legends but it's a fantastic one, with beautiful art and a story that's about Thomas and Martha Wayne traveling forward in time to see what's become of their son, and they don't necessarily approve--until Dick and Damian are basically impossible to ignore and they see what Bruce is fighting for. For more general Batman stories (rather than ones focused on my Blorbo), I'm enjoying: - The Court of Owls [vol. 1][vol. 2] by Scott Snyder, which is a solid case story and introduces the Court of Owls, which I genuinely like as a relatively recent addition to Batman's rogues gallery! - Batman 2016 is a bit of a controversial pick, because not everyone enjoys the authors writing for this series, but I've had a blast with a lot of Tom King's writing, personally. I especially enjoyed a lot of the run-up to the Bruce/Selina wedding with Rebirth book 3 (there's a double date with Bruce/Selina and Clark/Lois that's just a silly, fun good time!), The Rules of Engagement, Bride or Burglar, The Wedding, and Cold Days. I wasn't really a big Bruce/Selina shipper before those issues, but they really won me over because I love a good hot mess of a couple that have a bunch of thorny issues between them, that Selina loves Bruce not as some mythic figure but as the dumbass guy she loves, and then some bonus quality content with Bruce's kids, especially once the wedding falls apart and he's in such a bad place and Dick Grayson is so good at stabilizing Bruce that it's unreal. (You can also read Preludes to the Wedding in around here, if nothing else the Dick + Hush one was really, really fun! Clark and Dick take Bruce to Batburger for his bachelor's party because they're horrible people who think they're funny, and it's DELIGHTFUL.) - Batman/Superman: World's Finest (2022) by Mark Waid is also more light-hearted, but is so much fun, the characters banter with each other, but you can see their genuine friendship and how it became to be one of foundational relationships in both their lives, and plus Dan Mora's art is always TOP NOTCH. (Plus, volume 2 is out as well.)

I limited myself to anything from the 2016 reboot ("Rebirth") because I think that's easiest to draw someone in and these are the starting places that I would enjoy, though, they do assume a fair amount of pre-knowledge about Batman characters, like personally I enjoyed Batman & Robin Eternal but I don't think it's a good starting point for what the comics are actually like. As always, if someone has a good suggestion for a newer fan, I'd love to hear them! Especially since I tend to be Nightwing-focused, that's where my area of expertise is, if you have some good Tim or Jason or Damian recs, feel free! Though, in general, I think you can pick up almost any trade paperback and it'll be designed to be read without too much confusion, so just find a character you think you'll like and jump in! :D (p.s. I'm linking to Hoopla pages because, if you have a library card with your local library, you can use it to sign in to Hoopla!)

[spidey-x-male-reader]

GENUINE QUESTION

What comics or like in general pieces of media do you recommend with Roy in it?

MY TIME HAS COME

(I genuinely waited days to answer this cause I wanted to be at my laptop for this because I got really excited about that question so THANK YOU SO MUCH)

Sam's small Roy Harper Reading Guide

Generally I'd say it's important if you're more interested in the pre-52, new 52 or rebirth characterization. I personally love all of them so you're gonna get a Roy comic dump

Red Hood / Arsenal - probably one of my favorites. I just adore Roy and Jason too much. He's just a silly little bean there

Red Hood and the outlaws - to be honest I didn't love that comic series too much but I still adore the relationships between the characters so it's on the list too

Green Arrow Rebirth #18 to #20 - shows the backstory of Roy in the Rebirth timeline and I love the way that he's drawn in those

GREEN LANTERN (1960) #85-86 - good old Snowbird's don't fly. It's a classic but it's so worth to read

Literally any Teen Titans comic?? - I saw him for a few pages in my "superman & batman - world's finest" comic the other day and it cured my depression

INFINITE FRONTIER (2021) #1-6 (i think) - if you know, you know. made me very emotional.

INFINITE FRONTIER: SECRET FILES (2021) #2 - very short mini comic that made me cry a little but when doesn't Roy make me cry?

Also I can always recommend Young Justice. He doesn't have as many appearances as I'd like but I take what I can get because FOR SOME FUCKING REASON THEY'RE NOT PUTTING HIM INTO THE ANIMATED MOVIES??

I'll have a few other comics in mind right now but I can't remember what they were so I'll most likely still update this list (also when I continue to read more of them)

Again. Thank you. So much. For asking this question. I'm hyperfixated on this man since months. I needed this

I love you

Marry me

(whoever you are)

[nitewrighter]

Do you have any thoughts on Christopher Kent/Lor-Zod? I'm a sucker for 'villain's kid wants to be good' and like his dynamic with Clark and Lois, and you have to admit Superman adopting Zod's son is a real Pro Gamer Move.

Ahhh I haven't read anything with Lor-Zod yet--my only brush with him was in Young Justice, and would you believe I also completely dropped off and lost interest in Young Justice as soon as I realized Razer showing up was only a one-time thing? Also the pacing issues, and all the fucked up and violent shit they pulled with Halo in the 'Outsiders' season only to pretty much completely shrug her off and forget about her in the next season... i dunno maybe one day I'll pick it up again because there's a decent amount of New Gods content in there , but that show assumes I care WAY more about Artemis/Tigress than I actually do. She's the Kate-From-Lost of Young Justice.

But y'know every time I see someone talk about Christopher Kent they're really passionate about it! It makes me sad that it's one of those things that got completely wiped away with the Rebirth and now they seem to just kind of default to making Lor-Zod a villain because his biological dad is a villain. I'll have to check out Last Son though. Like, I loved his design, but Lor-Zod in Young Justice just wasn't that interesting as a villain. Like at that point you're just diet Zod. I feel like there's an opportunity to make a Kryptonian antihero/Free agent with Lor-Zod, but it looks like they're going the Edgy Kiddo route with Sinister Sons this February.

[supurman]

on a further note of clarks kids. it just gets me sad. all of them just got ruined or damaged by dc.

yall do not gotta read this i ended up ranting about the state of clark's son's/potential super successors and it got REAL long. this is more or less word vomit with no coherent structure. truly my raw thoughts but somewhere in here ( the end ) is what i would envision on this blog.

kon had the most potential to me. then they put him through the ringer. they made him. they hardly made him have connections with superman in his comic runs ( they barley interacted beside the beginning and when clark split into 2 ). then they erased all his character and turned into a re-envisioned character who lacked spunk and all the personality that he once had. then they they erased him from comics for years IN GENERAL. what im trying to say is they practically made a perfect superman heir, removed him from supermans contact, REMADE HIS CHARACTER AND DESIGN, deleted him for some years, BROUGHT HIM BACK unexpectedly when he was already replaced by another superboy since dc never planned to have kon ever come back.. and yeah.

chris well he was great at first like most super kids but then his writing gets weird ( the whole night wing spirit thing was random as hell i fear ). once again much like jon did NOT get enough time to be a child before he also just disappears into the void of potential super heirs to never be heard of again like kon. until chris makes a comeback in rebirth. but oop! dcs favorite child is here, jon, so now chris is a villain for some reason in his new imagining and come back.

and finally jon. he had a great start. super sons was great. but then he just kind of made superman of a lesser character once they AGED UP JON. clarks writing suffered for a period because they wanted jon to be superman so bad. its no surprise all of this was a fiasco. dc tried to do something ( i forgot what ), failed, and were trying to work with their huge stupid mistake. i like jon to some degree but unlike the other supers he really is a superman copy-paste from personality to looks to style ro everything. and I MEAN HE LITERALLY IS JUST CLARK 2... thats what made kon so interesting. he had every potential to be the super successor WHILE ALSO BEING WHOLLY UNIQUE. jon was also a stone thrown in clarks timeline by accident. i say this because the first superboy was kon. dc got rid of him. which made clark have a spot for a new superboy, jon! so they make jon. dc then realizes they want to bring kon back from the archive closet. they bring him back and kon comes back to a world where he is ‘replaced’ and feels replaced. he has all this needless pain that makes no sense because he was unintentionally both replaced and brought back to a world that was written without intention to bring him back. so hes like ‘superman has a new superboy now..what does that make me.’ idk if what im saying is making sense here. imagine if dc restarted the dc universe ( as they do ). they have their intentions in mind where kon wont be written and jon will be the superboy. superman never knew kon existed since its a new universe, everyone is a clean slate now. then dc is like man we should bring back original superboy except instead of making him a clean slate we should make him remember his past from the original universe so he can be in needless pain of story line where we never planned him in. do you get me? there is nothing inherently wrong with jon i enjoy him a ton. its just more or less the superboy title and how clark ‘replaced’ kon..IF CLARK WAS ALLOWED TO RMMR KON HE WOULD OF NEVER REPLACED HIM. EVER. HE LOVED HIM?? ok dc i hate you so bad this will all be fixed on this blog.

do i hate any of the kids? no. i just wish they made sense. i wish no aging up happened. i wish kon was never forgotten. i wish chris..made more sense.

anyway in a perfect universe ( ahem, the rocky cinematic universe found here on supurman dot com ) Kon is the first superboy who is adopted by clark and never got forgotten ( by forgotten i mean literally deleted by dc and forced clark to forget about him ), chris would come along later, and clark has jon with lois who would then be their youngest son with NO AGING UP. kon would be most likely to be the next superman but everyone son is a rightful superboy.

[brokentoys]

i will admit i'm growing exhausted by dc's indecisiveness when it comes to riddler's character. which i didn't mention this about the comic yesterday, but when superman was asking about riddler, gordon said he's a thief (which, y'know, implies nothing more)

which, while this is the first batman/superman world's finest comic i read - but from first impressions, it seems more lighthearted maybe. so i understand why they don't wanna say / make riddler a murderer in it. but this isn't the only time they've done this.

i believe this is from green lantern - and i forget which issue, i just know it's a newer one (probs from rebirth era.) which also just refers to him as mostly a thief.

an 80s comic also refers to him as mostly a thief, too. although unlike the others, gordon does suspect he may commit murder is desired. and like. i know. this seems consistent, right? there's these many instances of them simply calling ed a thief - it must be so! except... these statements do not match eddie's history. not when there's been quite a few comics where he straight up murders or nearly murders. zero year, joker's asylum, everything tom king and tony daniels corrupts, riddle me that, batman chronicles #3, are all examples of eddie having actually murdered (or in zero year's case, nearly killing all of gotham.)

so... which is it? is eddie just a thief, or is he a serial killer? and like. even tho i prefer ed as a murderer (WITH CAUSE) and my depictions has him as such (WITH CAUSE) - but like. the comics should stick to one instead of sometimes saying he's just a thief, but then having him commit horrific crimes.

and although i'm talking about this point a lot - this isn't the only point of them being indecisive with riddler's character. another problem is his backstory. what was the riddler even before he became the riddler? was he a teacher? a carnival game host? a deliveryman? did he cheat his school puzzle contest, or did he win it fair and square? is he abused by his father or? did he finish school and go to college or is he a high school drop out? like there's just so many different versions of riddler's backstory it's not even funny. and that's just mentioning comics alone. his backstory gets even more different if you mention adaptations - which i wouldn't mention because adaptations tend to have different takes on characters. however, i think eddie still has the most different backgrounds compared to other characters. because he's also been a scientist, forensics scientist, video game developer, head of the cyber crime unit in the GCPD, and so on. meanwhile the other rogues, even in adaptations, almost always have the same background - scarecrow was always a psychologist, mr. freeze and manbat are always scientists, harley quinn is always a psychologist too. so it's just kinda funny how dc just can't seem to decide what ed's backstory is. he doesn't have a solid, concrete one like the other rogues do.

and then there's his design, which is also indecisive.

is eddie a young man (early 30s) with nice hair or is he a middle aged man (40s-50s) with a receding hairline? hell, year of the villain practically confirmed eddie is in his early 30s. yet some artists still draw him looking much older. also - is he a redhead or a brunette? dc was pretty consistent on making him a brunette during the 2000s up until 2013 (new 52) and the new 52/rebirth was... mostly consistent with making ed a redhead is seemed - up until now. which i've been noticing ed's been drawn as a brunette way more often now, while sometimes still being a redhead in other comics. so. which is it?????

i love this character, but i just wish dc could be a little more concrete with him. sometimes, it feels like he is a character writers look at and just decide to do whatever they want and dc just lets it happen. especially when this doesn't seem to happen to other characters as often.

[insertcoolusernamehereee]

This is gonna be pretty controversial, but like, my least favorite fannon characterization of DC characters is Hal Jordan. YUP, i ignored all the batfamily members, who i mostly read about, and jump right up to GREEN LANTERN. let me explain why-

In cannon, even Guy Gardner points out in Green Lantern: Rebirth, that the reason Batman hates Hal so much is because Hal is one of the only Justice League member who doesn't take Batman seriously. He isn't scared of Batman, and fear is something Batman relies heavily on.

quote- Hal Jordan is the Man Without Fear, and what is the Batman when you're not afraid of him? Just a man

that quote i put above is not the exact quote here, but i know it gets said, i just can't find that exact page- somebody PLZ link it in the Comments/Reblogs if u find it

And that's a line i actually really love for Hal.

BUT IN FANNON, HAL AND ALL THE OTHER JL ARE SO WEAK AND CLUELESS AND STUPID, it drives me up the wall. Batman and his kids are the only competent superheroes/vigilantes and i hate it.

especially when its about Superman, Green Lantern and Green Arrow. Because, while I love batman as much as the next person, I love these characters toooo. (Especially Batman's relationship with them)

In fannon, they make Batman bully Hal into fear, make him incredibly stupid, and BABYSIT THE BATKIDS, AND HE GETS FOOLED DURING THAT AS WELL.

basically, Hal Jordan deserves better. Do better @fanfiction

So, if anyone has fanfictions where Superman, Green Arrow or Green Lantern are treated with the respect they deserve and maybe interacting with the one of the Bats, make sure to link in Comments/Reblogs

read the tags, they're kind of important :3

[apopcornkernel]

funnily enough im pretty sure i did read the actual comics before wfa. i vaguely remember reading utrh first? and then i either watched the movie next or read batman's whole robinjay run + aditf + alpod. and then wfa. i only read detective comics' robinjay after i finished wfa i think. i know i also spedran all of the post-crisis jason's death aftermath/appearances according to the reading list by dailyjasontodd. spedran his stuff post-resurrection too, minus countdown, 52, brothers in blood; i only realized I'd already read outsiders before when i reread it just now, though. which is really funny like the reason i remembered was because anissa and grace got together. that's how i knew I'd read the comic before. i was like oh i remember these gay bitches. i know there was a time after comics where i then dove into fandom and just immersed myself with art, fic, and posts. it was a little weird at first but i hadn't read enough for the other characters to know, and it's very easy to get drawn into fanon bc its satisfying to an extent, you know. ooh, i know i read three jokers early on. i was in love with that artist's jason and i found that one panel really funny (babs "he literally killed a man" bruce "you don't understand... jason's suffering"). i dont remember much about my first batman period. i do know it was all batman tho.

this is getting long.

my second batman period (more accurately termed batman/dc) was mostly me revisiting fics and remembering canon things that made me upset again. oh and also other robinjay stories that i hadn't read before like the cult, etc. but after some time i, and i dont know how this happened, got interested in hal jordan. i genuinely think it was just a fanart i saw of him with white temples. i thought it was hot and imagine my delight when i found out it was canon. and then i found out he turned villain and i was like WOAH I NEED TO GET ON THIS and tada, speedran parallax arc all the way to the spectre. tried reading rebirth and hated it so bad. stopped reading hal after that. somewhere along the way i found myself reading superman. then i dont know how this happened but i got interested in matrix/mae kent specifically and read up on her origin. afterwards i went to death of superman all the way to his resurrection and mae/lex breakup arc. i think this period fizzled out shortly after that. ooh, im checking my gallery rn, apparently i also read death metal and the return of bruce wayne. i dont remember anything about the latter. i remember being pissed at the former. i also read the damian resurrection arc and got really mad at an interview in one of the comics bc it was more of those "bruce feels more strongly for damian than his other kids bc damian is his Real Son" like bitch. No.

OH!! i also read the long halloween & dark victory during this time! this must have been when the batman came out. ALSO READ CONNOR!! i started at the time ollie died and went on until the time ollie came back but connor was now comatose (?). i remember a lot of screenshotting panels bc of how appalling the coloring was, connor's skin color was disrespected so much in this few issues 😭

ooh, interesting. after connor panels there's no more until this year, which would be my 3rd dc period. i reread the long halloween and dark victory, and then finished the last few chapters of the spectre. after that i started young justice but never finished. i reread utrh, and then funnily enough went straight to reading all about steph up to war games. after steph i read some other robin tim issues at random and then i finally read brothers in blood. quick break for batman year 100 and then right into batgirl (this was right after lee and i became mutuals). ooh, spirit world. and then ram v's the vigil. then i read rhato special? special? idk if that's the name but it was like a oneshot for rhato? or was it rhato #0? idk. i laughed the entire time. it was so bad. then i read gotham war, hated it. read some issues of black and white. three jokers again. finally read robins by seeley. robin year one. some pre-crisis jason esp the nocturna arc. tt #29. issues of gotham knights #43 something? + the interview about jason issue. actually i think that's all in the same arc. batman prodigal. pre-crisis talia. mandatory reread of batman #496. tried to start countdown, failed. the cult reread. BIRDS OF PREY!! cry of blood, and then a vichelena binge. the huntress cavalieri! the question o'neil! read a lot of huntress. tripped abruptly into hawk and dove, read a lot of cameos after their solos ended. read identity crisis after seeing the bruce tim panel. read jade (nguyen) in preparation for my comm critical essay. read superman again for the invisible mafia. started both superwoman 2016 and steelworks but never finished. read talia lexcorp arc and Never Recovered. tower of babel. redemption lost (ASS). rucka's wonder woman & the hiketeia. some titans bc of jade. more jade stuff. more huntress stuff (specifically nightwing cameos). read tom fucking taylor nightwing. started but did not finish dixon nightwing after that. started a reread of the spectre. started reading azrael + knightfall stuff but am not finished. was hit with the jli disease (lethal). then went back into superman comics but specifically the start of the lex luthor 2 arc + mae :). and now retracing post-rez pre-morrison jason comics

[tatedeco]

My recs for Nightwing!Dick-comics

This is the real meat of it when it comes to Dick Grayson-recs. Most of his modern stories have been as Nightwing ever since he took on that mantle in 1984. You will hear different recs from different people but these are the stories I personally enjoyed the most. Strap in because this is a long list:

Nightwing's Solo Title

These are the stories I liked the most from his solo title. If you want to read Nightwing as a main character, these are the stories I can recommend:

1. Nightwing: Rebirth by Tim Seeley (2016-2017)

Recommendable? Yes, perfect for newcomers. This very much feels like it brings Nightwing back to his roots. You can't go wrong with this as your first Nightwing-comic.

What is it?

It's Dick going back to being Nightwing (he was a secret spy before but don't worry about it). He goes back to his city Blüdhaven and re-establishes himself there.

What do I like about it?

This just captures why Dick is such a beloved character for me. It includes the fun of reading him but also his grit and need to be independent. He very much makes Blüdhaven his own. Blüdhaven is a delightful setting here. Seeley reimagines it as a former whaling town that tries to reimagine itself as a neon-lit casino city. It's a flashy underdog city that fits Nightwing.

This run has one of my all time favorite romances for Dick with Shawn Tsang (a former low-tier villain) and it introduces one of my favorite DC villains Raptor. Giving Dick a villain who is connected to his mom and his circus days is brilliant in my eyes.

2. Nightwing The Untouchable by Sam Humphries (2017-2018)

Recommendable? Yes, one of the best Nightwing-arcs ever. A short read that is collected in one volume. This follows Seeley's arc directly so you could just read this once you've finished the Seeley-issues.

What is it?

It's a story arc where Nightwing fights a new villain The Judge. This villain is very much connected to Blüdhaven, the sea and Dick's past.

What do I like about it?

Sam Humphries filled in on Nightwing directly after Seeley left but he gave us one of the best Nightwing arcs ever. I love how this arc draws on Dick's past and the Blüdhaven-setting to create a new villain. The Judge feels very mythological and the story is well-told over a short time. Humphries did so much with so little. I'd love to see him come back to Nightwing for a longer run.

3. Nightwing by Tom Taylor & Bruno Redondo (2021-now)

Recommendable? Yes, also for newcomers. It's currently going on so you would be very up-to-date with where Dick is now.

What is it?

Dick's return to form after his amnesia (don't ask, you don't need to know). He is heroing in Blüdhaven again and trying to change his community through his newly-acquired wealth He inherits a lot of money from Alfred who's been dead for a few years (but will hopefully return soon).

What do I like about it?

This entire run is just pure positive vibes. I feel like it very much captures Nightwing's positivity and empathy. Fans of Dick/Barbara will also have a good time here because Babs is featured heavily. The plot moves very slowly - which makes this run a bit controversial among many fans - but if you're here for the vibes and the slice-of-life, you'll have a good time. There are also many team-ups, especially with Babs, Tim and Wally.

The art is also to die for. Bruno Redondo is just perfect for Nightwing. There is an entire issue that is one continuous chase-scene and it's one of the most impressive Nightwing-issues ever. Every Nightwing-fan should at least pick up Nightwing #87 for this reason. It's a masterpiece of comic artistry.

4. Nightwing by Peter J. Tomasi (2006-2009)

Recommendable? Yes, a very self-contained run that shows how connected Dick is to the DC universe. Dick is very competent but also fun here. It's all collected in one book.

What is it?

This run has Nightwing move to New York and have adventures there. He is very connected to the DC-universe and there are some cameos and team-ups. Superman shows up at one point, Wally, the Justice Society, Tim Drake... Our boy is beloved.

What do I like about it?

You very much feel how integrated Dick is in the superhero-community. At the same time, he is very independent and competent. There is an especially epic fight here that I won't spoil. You have to love a run that starts with Dick jumping out of a plane for fun and Bruce giving him the disappointed DadTM-vibes.

Nightwing with the Titans

These are the stories where Nightwing is part of the Titans. Either he is the lead for an arc or he gets some great character moments within the team. I also threw a team-up with Wally in here for fun:

5. The Judas Contract (1984)

Recommendable? Yes, if you're interested in Dick's first appearance as Nightwing and classic Titans-stories. This is *the* Teen Titans-story. It is an arc within the pages of New Teen Titans/Tales of the Teen Titans. Be aware of the dense 80s style. It's manageable though.

What is it?

Deathstroke makes his move against the Titans and captures all of them except Dick. Dick takes on the identity of Nightwing and has to save his team with the help of Slade's son Joey Wilson.

What do I like about it?

If you read all of New Teen Titans (which you should because it's a masterpiece), you'll feel the masterful build-up to this arc. It's a pretty well-known spoiler but I won't spoil it here in case you're not familiar.

This specific arc shows Dick fully stepping into his own and moving forward with his new identity. It's a central piece of characterization for him. He's also really badass here, the way he takes on Deathstroke. He's the only non-powered Titans but he deserves to be there 100%. This arc really shows what Dick contributes to the team.

I also love the introduction of Joey. He's a great character - a pure cinnamon role with a compelling backstory and a great addition to the Titans. One of the few mute characters in comics. He actually communicates in sign language.

6. Titans: Rebirth (2016)

Recommendable? Yes, for the pure fun factor.

What is it?

It's the Titans coming together again. Wally is the driving factor here. He was erased from existence for a while due to the 2011-reboot (don't ask, you'll learn everything you need in this comic) and makes his friends remember him again. This time, the team consists of Dick, Wally, Roy, Donna, Garth and Lilith. Bumblebee and other characters also join at some point.

What do I like about it?

I love all of the characters. You just feel the love these long-time friends feel for each other. There are also so many great Dick & Wally-moments. The overall vibe is just very wholesome and I love spending time with all these characters.

My only gripe with this run is that the Titans are quite obedient to the Justice League. In my mind, the Titans should be their own independent network. The point of them is that they don't want to be controlled by their mentors. Still, this is a great run for anyone who likes these characters and wants to spend some time with them.

7. JLA/Titans The Technis Imperative (1998-1999)

Recommendable? Yes! A great story-arc that highlights what makes the Titans so special and different from the Justice League. There are information boxes for all key characters so newcomers should be able to catch up.

What is it?

An event-comic in which all the (former) Titans get abducted for a specific reason. The JLA and the Titans have to deal with what develops into a global crisis.

What do I like about it?

This story arc highlights why I love the Titans so much. They are friends who are close enough to be family while the JLA are more like co-workers. Many of the Titans get some great character moments, including Dick. There is a particularly heart-wrenching page here that says a lot about Dick's relationship with Bruce. Always a gut punch for me when I see it. Again - it's complex.

8. The Flash plus Nightwing (1996)

Recommendable? Yes, for everyone who loves a good Dick & Wally team-up. This is very much a beginning point for their very close friendship in modern comics.

What is it?

It's Dick & Wally going on their yearly vacation where shenanigans happen. Did I sell you on it yet? It's just one issue so it's a very quick read.

What do I like about it?

These two are just too much fun together. There are so many great character moments and you can just read it with some bare knowledge about Dick & Wally as characters (any fanfic-reader should be fine). The plot is also really wacky. Not spoiling it - but it gets wild.

I also love the premise that Dick & Wally go on yearly vacations together. It's a retcon (in the sense that it was never mentioned before & Dick&Wally weren't that close before) but it works so well - one of these great retcons. Since then, these two have been one of the best comic friendships. (And I like to ship them of course. So, any shipper's heart will also find some great moments here.)

Nightwing with the Batfam

These are the stories where Nightwing's relationships with the Batfam are in the foreground. I have two great arcs that deal with the relationship between Dick, Bruce, Alfred & Tim. They follow up on each other so you could just read them one after another:

9. Batman: Year Three (1989)

Recommendable? Yes, if you have bare knowledge about Batman-lore and Dick & Bruce as characters. Again, fanfic readers should be fine. This is very much related to Dick's backstory with Zucco - the killer of his parents. The arc is contained in Batman #436-439.

What is it?

Such an underrated story arc. Basically, it takes place after Jason's death and deals with the possibility of Tony Zucco coming out of prison. We see Dick, Bruce and Alfred reacting to the Zucco-situation.

What do I like about it?

This takes place after Jason's death but before Tim's introduction. So, it's a very dark time for the Bats - Bruce in particular as Batman gets more brutal. I love how this little arc illuminates Dick, Bruce & Alfred as characters. The characterization is very nuanced.

There are a lot of flashbacks back to Dick's time as Robin and the way he deals with grief. In the modern time, Nightwing tries very hard to get Batman back from his more violent tendencies. Great character moments for Dick, Bruce & Alfred!

10. A Lonely Place of Dying (1989)

Recommendable? Yes, again with knowledge of basic Batlore. A requirement for Tim Drake-fans because it's his proper introduction as a character! You can easily get this collected. It takes place directly after Batman: Year Three.

What is it?

The introduction of Tim Drake that takes place after Jason's death. He has figured out Batman's identity and sees the brutal rampages Batman goes on. So, that little fanboy goes up to our boy Nightwing and tries to convince him to become Robin again.

What do I like about it?

This story sold me on Tim Drake as a character. It is very much a case for why Batman needs a Robin. Tim, Dick & Bruce get great character moments. Dick's & Bruce's relationship is very complex here again. You also see Dick meeting one of his little brothers for the first time which is a lot of fun.

Nightwing with the Outsiders

This is a very special time in Nightwing's history. This recommendation shows him with the Outsiders - a more edgy team:

11. Outsiders by Judd Winick (2003-2007)

Recommendable? Yes, if you want to see a moodier Nightwing with a more edgy team. Also, for any Dick/Roy-shippers. I see you and I hear you. This is like the Dick/Roy-bible.

What is it?

The Outsiders form as a black ops team. Their mission statement is to do what other teams aren't willing/ready to do. Roy gets Nightwing on as the leader. Other team members are Jade, Anissa Pierce, Grace Choi, a version of Metamorpho (it's complicated) and Indigo.

What do I like about it?

On paper, I should dislike this concept. Nightwing is very moody here and a giant asshole (I love my boy but he screws up hard here). There is very much a reason though for Dick's mood shift:

Donna - his bestie - died before the Outsiders formed and the Titans disbanded for that reason. Dick is very much grieving and doesn't want to join any teams. He doesn't want to get close to anyone again for the fear of losing them. Still, Roy gets him to join the Outsiders under the condition that they won't be friendly with each other - purely professional.

So, the premise of the comic and the context explains Dick's cold and harsh behavior. I like this comic because it's interesting to see Dick in this dark place. Despite his attempts though, he can't help but get attached over time. He also has so many fights with Roy. The tension between these two is running high - no wonder you see so many Dick/Roy fics related to this time (it's headcanon though, I don't want to mislead anyone here).

Also, the characterization for each team member is supreme. I hadn't read much with characters like Jade, Anissa or Grace before but they quickly became some of my favorite DC-characters.

Dick/Roy may not be canon here but Grace/Anissa is a *canon sapphic romance* within the pages of this comic. It's a wonderful relationship and very unexpected for the early/mid 2000s. So, this may also interest you if you are looking for some cool LGBT+ superhero-couples.

This comic shouldn't work on paper but it did. It has so much heart that I can recommend it also to those who may not find the idea of Nightwing in his edgy-phase appealing. An interesting time for his character that I'll probably dig into at some point with a future post.

Events

Events often concern the entire DC-universe. They bring characters together. Here, I recommend an event where Nightwing is part of the larger cast and gets some character moments that made me very happy as a Nightwing-fan:

12. Infinite Crisis (2005-2006)

Recommendable? Yes, also if you are interested in reading an iconic DC-event where most of the DC-universe comes out to play. This also has some great moments for Dick & Bruce's complex relationship.

What is it?

A giant DC-event. Basically, characters from the old DC-universe try to erase the new DC-universe because they believe that the new universe is too dark and corrupted. What is Dick's role here? He's involved in the action and there are some great character moments that will make most Nightwing-fans squeal with joy (okay, maybe it was just me).

What do I like about it?

It's an epic event. The action is big, so many great characters are here, incredible art... But apart from that, this event shows how much Bruce loves, respects and appreciates Nightwing. I won't spoil this moment but it shows how important Nightwing is to the DC-universe. The original plan for this event was to kill Nightwing off so they were really trying to make you sentimental about him. Thankfully, he didn't die so we only get the wonderful character moments highlighting our boy's impact.

It also has another big character moment in Nightwing's history that is related to his city. Slade is a real bastard here and this is a key event in their rivalry.

Comics that didn't quite make my list:

Nightwing by Chuck Dixon (1996-2002)

Recommendable? Depends, if you want to see where much of Nightwing's lore comes from and don't mind older tropes and writing.

What is it?

The first long-running Nightwing-solo. Dixon established Nightwing as a solo hero in Blüdhaven after his time on the Titans. He takes on a lot of organized crime and one of his most iconic villains Blockbuster.

Why do I not quite recommend it?

This is probably the most iconic Nightwing-run. It firmly cemented Nightwing as a solo hero and established Blüdhaven as his city. If you want to understand where much of Nightwing's lore comes from, you should read it. I'm personally glad I read it and got a lot of enjoyment out of it.

I wouldn't quite recommend it though especially to newcomers because it feels quite dated in some of the writing and art. A lot of the tropes are well-worn and I needed some time to get into it. The plot can feel a bit unremarkable with Dick working his way from one forgettable gangster to another.

Dick is also characterized in a more angsty way. It fits with this point in time because he still has a lot of tensions with Bruce and is struggling with his independence. Still, not my favorite characterization of his. I'm definitely grateful this run exists though because modern Nightwing builds on this a lot. Anyone interested in Nightwing's history should read it.

New 52: Nightwing by Kyle Higgins (2011-2014)

Recommendable? Depends. It's very understandable for newcomers but it is held back by more company-wide decisions. What do I mean by this? Let me explain.

Why do I not quite recommend it?

In 2011, DC rebooted its entire universe. Newcomers could just jump on. This also goes for this run. In principle, it's cool that newcomers can just pick this up but the New 52 (as it's called) had a lot of issues though which you can feel here.

A lot of the beloved Batfamily-characters are missing (Cassandra Cain, Stephanie Brown) and the lore is very stripped down (this Nightwing was never really part of the Titans). So, the entire universe feels more empty and bleak.

More importantly though for this run, there were a lot of Batfamily-events (Death in the Family, Night of the Owls). These events call all of the Batfamily together and they interrupted the storylines that were currently happening in Nightwing. So, you can feel that Higgins isn't really allowed to let loose because he has to write around these events.

So, I can't really recommend this run as one of your first Nightwing runs. I would still encourage anyone to check it out eventually because I got a lot of enjoyment from it. You can feel that Higgins has a lot of love for Nightwing and when he is allowed to let loose (especially towards the end), he has some brilliant character moments.

I would be happy if he came back to Nightwing at some point with more creative freedom. He still delivered a solid run despite all the hurdles he was forced to overcome. There are just other runs which are more in line with the more classic Nightwing-lore that I would recommend first.

This is it! Take some deep breath because this was a long list. Again, these are all my opinions and there may be stuff I missed or haven't read yet. Nightwing-fans are quite divided on many of these stories.

So, pick what seems interesting to you. I've got enjoyment out of pretty much every Nightwing-solo run (except the run with the tentacles, don't ask).

I have a list of Robin!Dick-recommendations up and I'm going to make one for Batman!Dick-recommendations.

[chainsawcorazon]

#deadass forreal forreal#one thing i hate about ppl who sensationalize chris but then turn around and shit on jon is this right here#like cousin be real#chris ALSO got shafted by the narrative and they did it to pitch some ultra epic romance and keep clark form raising him#age-ups are common for a reason#i am deadass terrified they're gonna age up otho and split her from osul so clark won't have to raise her either#truly terrified#clark's children suffer on account of being his kids#it's sad and i hate it and neither chris nor jon are at fault for being editorial's playthings 😭😭😭#real talk#dc comics

OP I am vigorously shaking your hand, THANK YOU.

I have been screaming about how Jon got the literal SAME treatment as Chris for AGES but people can't seem to get over the fact DC decided for the UMPTEENTH time that you know what couples need? Biological kids over adopted ones we have always been screwing over anyway! Chris isn't the first adopted kid to get fucked over by DC! Stop concentrating your anger on the fictional characters and start getting angry at the writers and editors! I want THEIR asses on a platter, not Jon's!

Oh, let's not forget the fact Chris was always going back to the Phantom Zone at the end of his debut run— but because Last Son's artist had to take a nearly year-long break due to health issues, the other writers took that as an opportunity to develop Chris and his relations with the Superfamily.

Superkids are disposable for Clark angst, whether one accepts it or not. Chris isn't the first to get the shaft (that would be Cir-El, who was even retconned as not being RELATED to Clois because people hated her guts as a Supergirl-replacement so much) and as you can see, he certainly isn't and won't be the last (see: Jon). I'm sure those twins won't last long either.

(I have beef with Kennedy so I tend to ignore the twins' existence unless someone forces me to acknowledge them. He is on my shit list though— at least Jon wasn't created as a (blatant) replacement for Chris, unlike those two! I can't believe he even admitted that! In an interview!

You could have found a way to deage Jon and solidify yourself as a legend regardless of how the rest of your run goes, but noooo, you had to cram in your own OCs instead! You don't even get to own their IP, idiot!

Oh, and I read somewhere (or was it in the same interview?) that the girl was gonna die at the end of the Warworld saga too! As if the boy twin wasn't enough of an obvious replacement (who I might add even has some similarities with Chris too)! And you had to screw over the New Gods for them too! They are barely recovering from King's Mister Miracle, dude!)

see anon, one thing i've realized about BOTH dc fandumb and dc editorial after being off dc comics for nearly ten years is that......... they not reading 😂😂😂 that's literally it, and im tired of pretending like that's not a problem on BOTH sides. it's so funny bc yeah, chris was never meant to last, but he DID have an impact, but you would think that after the nuking of the universe, the failure that was the new 52, and then the rebirth initiative to bamboozle hoes back into buying overpriced singles.............. they would, like, make a genuine effort not to be stupid with their own heritage properties, but the clowns keep clowning!!!

as for the children of clark kent.... i mean, yeah. they're destined to suffer. i don't know kennedy johnson that well but i enjoyed warworld, and tbh, i love ALL of superman's kids. call me clown too, it's ok. i know there's no hope for any of them to lead any kind of meaningful life on account of being his children, adopted or not, but i do love how their characters fit into the broader narrative. unfortunately, i did not know he was using otho and osul to substitute for what would have been OG chris, but tbh, that does not surprise me.

just like it doesn't surprise me how a lot of fandumb is quick to blame pink capitalism as to why jon was revealed as bisexual and not, like, the fact that bendis didn't DO anything with jon after aging him up. homie was just floating in the 31st century macking on a telepath and looking like tom welling circa 2005 😂😂😂 listen, the gays are being fed for the time being. tomorrow they might decide we're not worth the hassle, but for now, we get to see cute pride specials with superman and his pinkette since no one's bold enough to write a series of elgibbityqueue elseworlds where clark gets to mack on john henry irons and jimmy olsen.

but i digress! i love those superkids! i love chris and jon! i hope bendis comes back and destroys the rest of this continuity so we can finally force editorial to commit to character bibles, and hire editors who aren't writing books that might be easy to adapt into shitty tv shows and movies. i also hope the next wave of dc blockbusters flop. plus i want kon el to kiss bart allen. i am a woman of multitudes.

[stranger-who-writes-fiction]

NBD just crying over Action Comics 1060 (in a good way but also a sad way because DC is being VERY DUMB and ending PKJ’s run in favor of a Jason Aaron Bizarro filler arc ohhhhhh how I weep bitter tears of frustration)

…Anyways, spoilers!

So 1060 is the penultimate installment of PKJ’s (stellar, spectacular, phenomenal, brilliant, top-tier) run on Action Comics and I just want to applaud him—for a lot of things, really, but in *this* specific case, I wanna stand and cheer because he’s making it EXTREMELY CLEAR that the twins (who are not actually twins) are in fact, Clark’s kids. No question, no ambiguity; Otho calls him papa, Clark refers to her as his daughter, and he’s willing to travel through LITERAL HELL to get her back.

It’s entirely possible that future writers will try to get rid of these kids, but I appreciate that PKJ has made it *very* difficult for them. XD Any retcon they’d come up with would be so messy. (Of course, saying this, I realize that the more depressingly realistic outcome here isn’t that writers actively try to erase them, but rather, will probably sideline/ignore them, trot them out for generic precocious kids stuff every now and then, and wait for the next line-wide reboot to ‘streamline’ Clark aka toss out anything mildly interesting and/or additive to Clark’s corner of the DCU.)

Right. Sorry. Salty tangent. XD

So anyways here’s some panels that tugged on my ‘Aunt Kara’ heartstrings.

‘I know sweetie. I know. It’s so hard, not knowing.’ HOW VERY DARE.

There’s also a really great page wherein Kara gets Osul to calm down by reminding him of a…I think Phaelosian legend? Or possibly Kryptonian, I know she was trying to find stuff for them in a previous issue.

(Went back and it’s actually the House of Ra fable; the House of El’s is ‘Nightwing and Flamebird’, Ra’s is ‘Red Son and Starchild’.)

I love that Lois lets Kara and Osul have that moment, that space; I maintain that while Clark has a better handle on getting what the kids went through on Warworld given that he was there, and Lois obviously has more experience with raising kids that have unique needs thanks to Jon being half alien, but *Kara* is more readily equipped to sympathize with Otho and Osul’s struggles with transitioning to Earth life, based on her current, canon characterization. (Which is, uhhhh…Woman of Tomorrow and alsoooooo…Rebirth? Maybe? WoT is def canon, the recent SG one shot visually referenced Kara’s departure from Argo.) But I digress!

Speaking of the kids’ struggles…Otho is Going Through It. The stuff with Sister Shadow (AKA Norah Stone AKA evil daughter of an alt universe Bruce and Talia) trying to tempt her to the dark side by preying on her trauma/difficulty adapting to her new home and revealing a future, tyrannical version of herself is some wonderfully juicy character work, both from the perspective of fleshing out Otho AND being additive to Superman’s roster of villains; that’s something I love about PKJ’s approach to world building overall. Yes, he’s revamped some of Superman’s established bad guys (Metallo, Mongul) but he’s also added awesome new foes, like Norah Stone, and Pyrrhos.

I really hope DC lets him do like. A mini series on his original Kryptonian/House of El characters. I would honestly love to read about all these cool new, additive elements, than deal with the Luthor cameo fest over in Superman rn. XD

In conclusion: DC once again shying away from anything interesting and new with Superman in favor of the safe status quo. -_- I mean, I hope I’m wrong. I hope the new ‘Superman Superstars’ opt to build on the solid foundation PKJ has set up. But given what happened with Bendis? Creators’ absolute refusal to incorporate any of the canon he built, because they knew DC would walk it back ASAP? (And the Superman group editor openly admitting that was his number one priority as soon as he GOT THE JOB???) Just shows a complete lack of faith in your creators, and doesn’t really give me too much hope for one of the few remaining titles I look forward to each month.

…but hey, hopefully Marilyn Moonlight will be neat??? XD

(Also LET A WOMAN WRITE A MAIN SUPERMAN BOOK YOU COWARDS.)