#just remembered it exists… want to write dc again

[based-bobcat]

Remember when Batman used to solve regular murders? Remember when Batman was fallible and could be beaten by a gunshot?

DC's writers don't.

I don't know if it's because writers only really write for trades more, but ever since new 52 every writer wants to be the O'Neil/Morrison and make it more epic than the last. I've lost count how many fucking times Gotham has been taken over and/or destroyed these last 5 years, but the fact that I lost count says something. There have been no civilian characters introduced since Tamaki's promising, but kind of mediocre, go at TEC.

They take his money away 'to go back to his roots' (laughable as Bruce has never been without his fortune), and sure you finally get him interacting with regular joes again, only for it not even mattering since he's gotten gear stashed everywhere anyway, not to mention that the next writer to throw it all into the garbage like a meal they don't like.

They reveal Batman's identity as if they're handing out pamphlets for a local political party; Including to Gordon, to Penguin, to Harvey Dent, to fucking Joker, but there is no consequence to that since Bruce's out-of-mask life isn't even a thing that exists anymore. When was the last time he interacted with someone who didn't end up clashing with/meeting with Batman? I sure as fuck can't remember it.

I had hope for Zdarsky's run, since his Daredevil run was a nice street-level romp. (At the beginning anyway, christ did he lose the plot in the end) but he writes stuff like;

That's just sad. Joker and Batman are not Gods or powerful beings like Clark or J'onn.

Th-they're just normal men.

And at the same time you have more and more influences that come from Wayne Family Adventures, which I like don't get me wrong, but these watered down fanficified versions of the Batfam is not what I want to read about when I open up a comic book. Just try reading Taylor's Nightwing without falling asleep and you'll get me.

I like these kinds of things as fan-art or fun covers, but not in my mainline comics.

The Batfamily used to be made up of people with the same goals, but with different approaches, ideals and moral boundaries. Which caused a lot of friction. (Barb and Bruce really, REALLY did not like each other during the early 2000s and that's putting it mildly. And they were co-parenting a suicidal gremlin at that time) They all respected each other, sure, but I can't see any of the family even slightly considering moving in with Bruce. Especially Dick, Barbara and Steph.

All this to say that I'm a boomer and miss the old days.

[i-yap]

Hello, good evening, how is everything there?

I was wondering if you could write something about Dick taking his cute girlfriend [Us] shopping (clothes, shoes, jewelry) and also what it would be like to do grocery shopping with him. I love going to the supermarket, it is one of my favorite activities.

By the way, you are like an angel fallen from heaven, there are so few writing about Dick and the Bat-family in general, I feel like writers who are fans of them are becoming extinct.

I just hope they continue making content with these characters, maybe the fandom will resurface once again.

praying for DC and Warner.

Bro same, Idk why but it feels like the fandom is dying but also batfam content is dying? Like I don't remember the last good batfam show was out ..fingers crossed ig.

Dick grayson x reader- Shopping headcanons

Best batboy to go clothes/fashion shopping . He has great style, can pull off anything, very supportive and all the store ladies are really jealous. He gives genuinely good advice and honestly he is like your personal styler and this point.

i dont think you even need to go shopping cuz he gifts you so many dresses and for home wear- his tshits exist?? why would be need sleepwear? why??

but its fun and I get it , sometimes even the perfect man forgets to buy something for his gf. He does keep track of whatever is about to finish, so idk honestly.

Maybe he drags you to go shopping, let him "spoil you" as if he doesn't do that enough already. Or if there's a gala and the 100 dresses in your closet arent enough?

um dressing room sex? yes sorry but yes. Honestly you probably will get jealous of hot seeing dick but dw if you don't initiate, dick totally will.

Mostly fancy ish stores, but unlike bruce he does shop as excitedly at smaller shows( you can find great deals there and really good fits)

Grocery shopping is so cute, he holds the cart and gets all the important stuff while you run around putting sweets and chocolates and while he might say "20 bags of chocolates may be a bit much sweetie, they'll go bad" he doesn't mean it. He is just teasing, and you know that so you play along with a pretty please and big pleading eyes. Thats all he wanted tbh, that and to pull your cheeks.

On the other hand if you look at a snack but don't buy it because you don't want to be excessive , he puts 5 of each in the basket without you noticing. you just notice when they show up in your cabinets .

Will need you next to him or in his eyeview, don't you dare run too far otherwise he will joke about tying you to him( actually considers it)

Will hold all bags and when you offer, he just gives you his hand and tells you that you have the responsibility to make sure not to drop his hand.

All smiles and excitement. Will want coffee afterward or during and will happily try out now boba places or anything cute you wanna have.

Will die if you guys share a piece of cake in a cute cafe..like that is so fricking cute, sharing a drink and a cake and omg he lives for it.

He genuinely enjoyed shopping with you and out of all batboys he is probably the only one that would enjoy it (maybe tim in certain cases) In the end, he got to spend time, compliment and dote on the love of his life..what more can he ask for?

lowkey wanna do all batboys now..maybe if I get time after the requests..i love grocery shopping too. the big American stores- literally dreamed of them growing up. the first time I went to America I just ran around the grocery shop( thebig ones) with my brother and it was so much fun.

[karaspal]

I just remembered about the existence of the Supergirl Special #1 and I got annoyed again. So now I shall copy and paste the review I left in comic geeks.

Perhaps Mariko Tamaki should stay away from Kara. I’m yet to read a good Supergirl story from her. I get that this story has some message about girlhood somewhere in these pages, but it poses an issue Kara has never had. She has never felt like she’s falling behind. That’s not a part of her character. So why use her to tell this story?

Another problem I have is her risking the lives of innocent people, and for what? Because she is jealous of Karen? She’d never do something like that. Helping people has always been her number one priority. And she’d never be jealous of someone else. Especially someone who had their entire charm assassinated by Leah Williams.

Kara can be arrogant and stubborn sometimes, yes, but not in the way it’s presented here. She is arrogant and stubborn in the sense she wants to save everyone and would never stop, even if she’s on the brink of death. Call it the indomitable kryptonian spirit, if you will. Call it stupid stubbornness, if you will. But it is who Kara is. Sometimes she can feel like she’s the only one who can do what it needs to be done, to save the people who need saving, and yes, it is arrogant, but the reason she feels so is because she can’t have anyone dying on her watch. Those “toxic” traits of her come from a place of selflessness and compassion, not jealousy. Everything she is, it comes from a place of selflessness and compassion. She suffered so much in her life, you better believe she’d do everything in her power and more to make sure no one else has to suffer the same way she did.

Kara is a competent woman who knows what she is doing. She’s confident and strong. Phillip Kennedy Johnson once described her as always being “the smartest person in the room”. It still baffles me how DC turned PKJ’s Supergirl pitch down, but green lit this.

It’s been half a year and somehow, I hate this more than the day it came out. Perhaps, it’s because this is last Supergirl thing DC published and it was last year. It’s never too late to let PKJ write her, you know.

[demonictumble]

fic rec list (1/??? )

this is a fic recommendation list for whomever wants a good read. All of these are on AO3. I have not provided links, so just search them up!

If you do end up reading any of these, or really any fic in general, remember to leave the author comments!! They deserve them, esp because they do this for free and they deserve to know how beautiful their writing is and how appreciated they are.

My PSA: COMMENT ON FICS AND DONT TAKE AUTHORS FOR GRANTED

DC..

IMPORTANT NOTE I am not a religious fan where I only like a fic when it adheres to canon characterization or texts. I can enjoy fics even when they completely throw off what's actually canon and that's okay for me, but it might not be for you. So just keep this in mind and the back button exists for a reason if you don't like something.

Buy Back the Secrets by Sundiscus (incomplete)

Tim Drake and Kon El centered!! OH MY GODS. I could rave on and on about this fic all day but I'll have to keep it brief. I've reread at LEAST 5 times. It's brilliant. The writing, the plot, the characterizations!! They are incredible. If I had to use a phrase to describe it, it would be "identity shenanigans and timkon" but that simplifies the absolute masterpiece that it is SO MUCH

Executive Assistant to the Batman by heartslogos (complete)

Tim is basically Bruce Wayne's assistant and is desperately trying to avoid letting them know that he knows. This is complete crack, but it is hilarious. The writing is so funny and It's what I need after a bad day or anything tbh. It may not be completely true to characters or whatever, but it makes up for it a thousand times over in spirit and the laughs it's produced from me.

anything (not the title because literally ANYTHING) by IzzyMRDB

I can rave about them all day because the dc/batfam fics I have seen them right are all so delicious and I devoured them far too fast and momggg its just so good. and I love their writing style <3

Reverse Robin AU by yellow_cabellero (complete)

I CANNOT DO THIS SERIES JUSTICE WITH MY WORDS. IT is a must read for me. The writer writes spectacularly and the characterization, even though its a reverse robin, feels on point, especially considering the circumstances (Im a huge believer in circumstances shape a person's personality, which is what I think occurs beautifully in all of these fics). They're just so GOOD.

Also this author has a STEPH FIC that is stunning. 10/10. Steph is a character that doesn't get the appreciation she deserves, so this fic was especially more touching for me. It was terrific seeing her girl bossing in the 90s (IT ALSO FELT SO PERIOD ACCURATE CAN WE TALK ABOUT THAT). Not to mention, the author shows off character flaws in a believable manner and nobody is a Mary Sue and it's just EVERYUTHING IS JUST *chefs kiss* by them.

The Fishbowl by LordLuxury (complete)

This is Dick Grayson centered. THEY HAVE MADE A MASTERPIECE. I genuinely mean it. Dick is constantly trying to pull the family together, he is trying to be the glue as everything tries to go the opposite. LET THIS MAN HAVE HIS FAMILY. This had me in shambles. Bad Dad Bruce hurt me, but it was just so realistic. That's what gets me. The whole dynamics portrayed in The Fishbowl are so goddamn realistic and it feels so real. Everyone is flawed in their own way and its just... PLEASE READ IT I BEG OF YOU.

Love and Bruises by Acin_Grayson and Hoebiwan (complete)

Despite what the title may suggest, this is actually funny! Jason thinks Batman is abusing Bruce. And I just remember dying of laughter as I read this. Terrific! Would read and Will read again

Marvel (I am a movies fan so most if not all fics I recommend from here on out will be probably based on movies!)

Tennessee Outreach for Spider-Man and Friends by ciaconna

GREAT FIC. Harley (potato gun kid in one of the iron man movies for those who don't remember) gets an internship with Tony stark for college application reasons and its to help Spiderman. Peter Parker and Harley whateverhislastname is such a funny duo and they made the fic spectacular. Terrific writing omg.

Peter and the Jailbirds by beautifullights

I THINK THIS FIC HURT ME. I don't really remember much bc its been a year and a half, but I think my emotions remember because I feel mildly sad when I think about it. Peter is on the raft and bonds with the ex-avengers also on the raft. The premise of a teenager possibly spending the rest of his life in prison is terrible, but I swear this fic has funny moments and the conversations that occur are to die for because the WRITING. WHEW.

O Brother, Where Art Thou? by theskeptileptic

Tony survives and it's set after No Way Home. Where I'm pretty sure the only people dead are May and Pepper. Morgan saves the day by remembering her big brother (Im a sucker for big brother Peter arc). Peter is kind of a mini Tony in this one I think, which is such an interesting take. And it's such a coming home story and its just so beautiful.

Cross Overs:

Even Heroes Have the Right To Dream by Bounemr (complete)

mlb/dc crossover!! where marinate and Jon are retired superhero and go to college together! Great writing and plot with a good ending. Fluffy for the most part as far I as I can remember (it's been a year since I've read it so you know it's good if I can still remember)

Hired Hands by neighborhood_yogurt (incomplete)

Percy Jackson/ DC crossover!! It's been a while since I've read this one too but It's stuck with me. It's hilarious and I need to reread it but Percy is accidentally on Penguin's payroll because he's just a dumb blonde at heart, but it's okay we all love him. And Shenanigans occur. I don't remember exactly what happens so reminder to read this again for myself as well!

(IDK if any of these authors have tumblrs, if they do, someone please tag them and I will forever be in your debt)

[the-random-phan]

Danny Fenton has 1 (One) Nerve Left, and it is Almost Fried

WC: 13,865

Ao3

Summary:

“Boss?” Asked FRIDAY. Tony looked up from the hologram he’d been staring at for the last two hours. “Yes?” He replied. He grabbed a smoothie from DUM-E's waiting claw, checked it for motor oil, and took a sip. It wouldn’t be the first time he made that mistake. “Danny Phantom has entered the building.” She informed. Tony grinned. “Let’s get the show on the road then, yeah?” Tony had a personal intern to coerce to and a tour group to stalk. aka; A re-imagining of the "Stark Industries Trip" trope starring a very anxious half-ghost :)

Read the first chapter below the cut!

“I have great news!” Mr Lancer was unusually cheery for a Monday morning. Danny certainly was not feeling the same.

Danny's feet dragged as he stumbled into class, fifteen minutes after the bell. Desiree had decided to go on a wishing spree during lunch and he had to track her down. She was easy enough to defeat- just wish she would go into the thermos- but this time she had taken to wearing earmuffs so she couldn’t hear him, and he had to knock those off first.

It was a hassle he had not been looking forward to this early on a Monday.

Lancer sent Danny a scathing look, but it was quickly wiped away and replaced by a smile. 

…weird.

Tucker looked concerned as Danny as he took his seat with a slight limp. But Danny waved the concern away. He was fine. Nothing he hadn’t suffered through before. He’d just taken a hard landing. Totally his own fault.

“Well, there is a touch of bad mixed into this news. The senior trip to Washington DC has been canceled.” Lancer announced. A chorus of complaints rang out. Danny was relieved. He hadn’t been looking forward to spending a long weekend away from Amity Park. No, he did not have attachment issues. (Lie.)

“Sh-Shh! That’s not all!” Lancer looked vaguely annoyed. The class barely quieted down at all. He seemed to resign himself to the chaos he’d created.

“It has been replaced.” Oh, no. That couldn’t be good. What, were they gonna go on a field trip to the Ghost Zone or something?

…

No, no. Danny could see that actually happening. He wiped the thought from his recent memory, pretending it had never existed in the first place. Best not to tempt fate, for it was cruel.

“A wondrous chance has arisen.” Said Lancer, sounding like he’d walked right out of one of Shakespear’s poems. Or wait, was he a poet? Or did he write something else?

Danny had sat through far too many of Lancer’s classes with raging concussions to remember such minute details.

”Instead of Washington DC, we are going to New York!” Lancer grinned. The class broke out into whispers yet again. Though they weren’t really whispering anymore. Lancer seemed to have given up. He collapsed into his desk chair, head cradled in his hands. If he was already this defeated, how would he handle this many teenagers in a whole other state?

‘That might be even worse than the Ghost Zone.’

See, Danny (Phantom) and New York did not mix very well.

New York was the home of superheroes, and well, that was really the most accurate title for Danny and his ‘ghostly protector’ MO. It wasn’t really all that likely he’d stumble upon an Avenger on the street, but he didn’t want to chance it. He had no interest in being a part of that band. Or worse, they might think he’s a criminal like the GIW do. His inner, childhood Iron-Man-fanboy wouldn’t be able to handle that.

Maybe with the change of plans Danny could fake an excuse? His parents had already signed the Washington DC permission slip, but they hadn’t checked off on this one yet. He could still weasel his way out.

Paulina raised her hand.

“You mean, like, New York, New York, right? The city that never sleeps?” She asked. Danny could hear the stars in her eyes. Lancer seemed relieved to actually be being paid attention to.

He nodded vigorously. His widened smile was almost disturbing.

“This school has been giving the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to actually tour Stark Tower! The base of operations for Stark Industries in New York!”

‘Oh Ancients, kill me now.’

~linebreak~

“Moooom! Daaaad!” Danny called down the lab stairs. There was no response, but Danny wasn’t really surprised. The GAV was in the driveway, so his parents had to be home. And he could hear their heartbeats in the lab. They probably just had hearing protection on.

Danny’s footsteps echoed heavily as he descended. (On purpose.)

Sure enough, there were his parents. Dad had on a welding mask and earmuffs, and was loudly yelling. On the other side of him was Mom, who sat on a rolling stool that was pulled up to a workstation. Danny could feel that she was buzzing with annoyance.

The portal glowed dimly from the other side of the room. Danny tried his best to avoid staring at it for too long. The eternal swirling and dance of ectoplasm had a mesmerizing effect. He’d lost hours of his life right after The Accident, fixated on the surface of the portal and yearning just to touch-

“Honey!” Mom exclaimed. She slid past Dad and wrapped Danny up in a hug.

“How was your day?” She asked. Which clued Danny in to the fact that something was definitely up. She never asked him anything like that. Usually they just shooed him out of the lab when he paid them a visit. It had been a hassle to get them to sign the original permission slip.

“...what’s going on?” Danny asked. His suspicion was plain to hear.

Dad finally removed his earmuffs.

“Oh,” He chuckled sheepishly. 

“We have good news!” Mom said cheerily. After the day he had, Danny didn’t need any more ‘good news.’ Not to mention that what was ‘good’ for his parents was usually ‘horrifically bad’ for him. Usually it had to do with new inventions. And if they were this happy, it had to be something especially dangerous and/or lethal. (Either worked.)

“We’re chaperoning your trip!” Dad exclaimed. Mom shoved him playfully.

“You weren’t supposed to tell him yet!” She chided. But the smile didn’t leave her face.

Danny’s first thought was, ‘I’m going to die (again) on this trip, aren’t I?’

“The New York trip?” Danny was already traumatized. And they hadn’t even gotten on the bus yet.

Dad nodded his head. His smile was shockingly similar to the one Lancer had been wearing earlier.

“They sent out an email last night, asking parents not to spill the beans. They also asked for any chaperones, since your entire grade is going. So we volunteered!” Mom looked up at Dad and he shared her grin. 

Dad wrapped an arm around her shoulders. Danny begged his knees not to give out under the force. Sometimes his Dad forgot his own strength.

“Aren’t you excited?”

Danny tried not to let the terror show on his face. Not too much, at least. He’d never been very good at telling his face what to do.

“Yeah!” His voice shook.

“Sure- sure am. Can’t wait.” For this to be over already.

~linebreak~

Which was how Danny ended up here.

He and his classmates took up a whole two cars on the Subway. Why the school decided to stuff a bunch of teenagers on public transport was beyond him. Mr. Lancer was having a hell of a time trying to navigate. He squinted down at an app on his phone and tried to figure out where they needed to be going. He’d already led them astray twice. They must’ve traveled under half of New York by now. 

Oh, and they were officially ten minutes late for their tour of Stark Tower. Would they cancel the tour if they were late enough?

Dad stood behind Danny, taking up the entire width of the doorway. He looked queasy, and was holding onto a pole for dear life. Mom was trying to comfort him, but he looked like he was gonna hurl. They drove the GAV over curbs and took out cones like they were bowling pins, how did this make them sick?

The subway car screeched to a stop and Dad’s face turned a sickly shade of green.

“Next up is our stop, everyone!” Lancer announced suddenly. There was about a… 17% chance of him being right. If Danny had to guess. Just picking a random number.

Classmates around him buzzed into action, collecting their things and themselves. Dannywas surrounded by laughter and smiles. Kids happy to be away from their parents and home, with their friends.

It was a stark (heh) contrast to Danny’s own loneliness.

Tucker was having a big family reunion- the first in years- so he couldn’t come. He would’ve been able to go to DC, but there was a date change and he couldn’t just ask all of his family to cancel. And his parents wanted him there to help out and socialize.

Sam’s mother Pamela had just straight-up refused to let her go- “to that rubbish bin of a city! What could happen to my little Sammykins?! So far away from home!”

It probably didn't help that Pamela wasn't allowed to be a chaperone. Not after what happened last time at the Zoo.

Danny shuddered at the memory. Giraffes could be surprisingly vicious.

Valerie was the only familiar face around, but things were still iffy between them. Danny had finally come clean to her about his identity last fall, but ever since then things had been… stiff. Awkward. When they were both out ghost fighting at the same time they’d work together, but aside from some fight banter they’d barely said a word to each other.

Which was fine with Danny, usually, but he was finding himself wanting someone to talk to that wasn’t his parents.

They weren’t very good conversationalists, unless he asked about ghosts. But he wasn’t in the mood to hear about all the ways they’d tear his ghost half apart ‘molecule by molecule.’

Danny had tried to sneak off at the last moment before they got on the bus out of Amity Park, but it was Sam and Tucker who convinced him to go. They had shown up to see him off. Which he greatly appreciated, seeing as the sun hadn't even risen yet. It was a nice gesture. If a little inconvenient, because Tucker showed up with his new-and-improved ‘Foley Gauntlets’ and physically refused to let him go. It was the most evil hand-holding he’d ever experienced.

His best friends- no, traitors- weren’t about to let him dip. They said he needed a break and some time off from being a ghostly protector. But how was spending half a week in another state with his parents supposed to be a break? If anything, it would be more stressful than staying home. But they seemed to be convinced that this was best for his well-being, and they wouldn’t give up.

Sam and Tuck assured him that things would be fine, and they could handle any ghostly threats. Danny wanted to have faith in their abilities. After all, they’d been at this just as long as he had. But he couldn’t help the worry, the nagging feeling at the back of his head.

Danny weaseled them into promising they’d give him a call if things got out of hand. It was only a two-hour flight! He could probably shave off 15 minutes if he really pushed it. But Danny didn’t really trust them to alert him. His idea of safety and theirs were vastly different. And yes, Danny knew how hypocritical that was. But he couldn't find it himself to care enough to change it.

Danny had already checked the Amity Park News a dozen times since he got on the bus.

All of this to say, Danny was alone. Alone and with his parents, to be exact. Danny took a picture of Dad looking ready to puke and sent it to the group chat titled ‘Loser Trio.’

The doors opened and everyone around Danny hopped into action. Welp, here it went. Danny slipped his phone into his pocket. He hoped nothing disastrous happened on the tour.

He probably just jinxed himself there.

Ugh.

~linebreak~

“Boss?” Asked FRIDAY. Tony looked up from the hologram he’d been staring at for the last two hours.

“Yes?” He replied. He grabbed a smoothie from DUM-E's waiting claw, checked it for motor oil, and took a sip. It wouldn’t be the first time he made that mistake.

“Danny Phantom has entered the building.” She informed. Tony grinned.

“Let’s get the show on the road then, yeah?” He clapped. Tony had a personal intern to coerce to and a tour group to stalk.

[kaylinalexanderbooks]

Get to Know the Writer Questionnaire

Taking the open tags from @the-golden-comet here and @illarian-rambling here!

Rules: answer the questions!

Basics

How long have you had your writing Tumblr/Writeblr? A fast and loose estimate is fine!

I think it was November of 2022.

What led you to create it?

Twitter was going down so I moved elsewhere.

What’s your favorite thing about the Writeblr community?

The engagement and overall positivity! I was surprised how welcoming everyone was, and how touched I was when people gave compliments and how excited I was when people expressed interest!

What’s one thing you’d like your mutuals to know about you?

Well I'm always open to chat about whatever though I do have mild social anxiety. I'm always hyper analyzing whether I did something wrong or whatever. So if I come across as awkward I'm trying my best but I am always being genuine!

Is there anything you’d like to see more of on your dash?

Hm. This is a hard one. I guess I just wish I saw more interaction and engagement in people's work? Idk, it's always there, and I love seeing it, but having full conversations about each other's OCs and WIPs aren't as common. So idk more of that!

WIPs

Which WIPs or writing projects are you noodling about, lately?

Mainly I'm working on TSP but occasionally I'll dip my toes into SOTL again. Whenever I get an idea for a side project I barely have anything for, I'll write it down and get obsessed with it for a while.

And I also have a side project where I write reviews and analyses of TV shows or movies but I haven't gone back to it in a while despite having live notes of several movies and TV episodes in drafts.

How long have you been working on them?

TSP - spring of 2013, technically

SOTL - first came into my brain I think 2014-2015 but the first draft was 2015-2016

The first media analyses I wrote were in 2019 I think.

Do you remember what inspired them/what got you started?

TSP - I liked fairies as a kid due to the Rainbow Magic series, but thought I was too old for fairies so when I was assigned to write a fictional story I wrote about kids with powers

SOTL - I loved different takes on fairy tales due to The Land of Stories and wanted to write my own

Analyses - getting Disney+ because I unironically had always wanted to review every single Disney movie so I did. It extended after I watched two seasons of DC's Titans (the live action one) and I hated it so much I shat out 10k+ words in a single fever driven day

How much time, in your best estimation, do you spend thinking about them?

Pretty often, I'd think, unless I'm deep in a hyperfixation stage of an existing show.

When someone asks the dreaded, “What do you write about,” question, what do you usually say?

"Fantasy mostly."

Name any characters you created.  Side characters, protagonists, antagonists, characters who’ve never been written, the first original abomination you ever pulled from your ass; whomever you’d like!

For TSP the characters I've put any effort into characterizing include: Lexi Morgan, Maddie Morgan, Ash Hathaway, Gwen Amante, Noelle Bishop, Rose Hernandez, Kelsey Newman, Robbie Stafford, Akash Singh, Jedi Moon, Carmen Asghar, Carla Baxter, George Baxter, Liam Beaumont, Ewan Traeger, Jazlyn Nyambura, Wade Attwood, Parker Cassidy, Tyler Nakashima, Gabriel Medina, Niri Shyaka, Sam Stafford, Hye-Jin Song, Alex Vaughn, Issa Johansen, CJ Reynolds, Wendy Amante, Anathi Makeba, Teo Nguyen, Xitlali Zepahua, Atsila McLain, and Raissa Kamanzi. Everyone else is insignificant.

For SOTL, I have so many OCs I have no idea who the relevant ones will be. So far, the most are Jack McDonald, Tierney Wayne, Úrsula Lobo, Beau Bellerose, and Bai Xue. Again, so far. I have so many characters for this it's not even funny.

And then there's the others from my other works but I'll stop there.

Who’s the most unhinged?

I'm not entirely sure who's the most. Parker is the most chaotic but Carmen is just the character, y'know? Jack I give whoever I want and Zainab of SOTL is pretty insane.

Who comes the most naturally for you to write?

Probably Robbie, honestly. The way his brain works and goes on random tangents is very similar to me. He's like if I was extraverted sometimes.

Do you ever cringe at them?

All the time.

How much control do you feel you have over your characters?  AKA, do they ever “write themselves,” refuse to cooperate, or do things you didn’t expect? To what degree? Are some less cooperative than others?

I only have minimum control. I decide what to do with them but then they say "how about this instead?" And I listen to them all the time. Ash is the most uncooperative one, though. But Noelle has been given me trouble recently. She's told me I need to change her role in Part One. It's frustrating. But awesome.

Interaction

Do you enjoy people asking questions about your characters? And do you have a preferred means of receiving said questions? For example, as Asks, as replies, as reblogs, as tag notes, as comments on AO3, etc.

YES YES YES YES YES YES YES I love questions about my characters!! And no I don't have a preference, although AO3 would be hard because I don't have an account. Any way of interacting with me that you can, I love to hear the comments!

What makes you want to follow another Writeblr account? Do you follow ‘em as you see ‘em, or take time scoping out the blog to make sure you align with its content? Do you follow based on WIPs, or vibes? What makes you decide against following?

I do check the bio and scroll through their blog to see if there's anything I don't like or stands out as stuff. Sometimes it's a writeblr in the bio but I don't see any WIP posting so I don't follow.

Do you interact with non-mutuals often?

Yep! Constantly. Sometimes I forget people aren't mutuals.

Do your mutuals’ characters occupy space in your noodle?

Honestly @illarian-rambling's characters are amazing and I finished her manuscript of Mortal God for beta reading and it was awesome.

Tagging @elsie-writes @mk-writes-stuff @leahnardo-da-veggie @mysticstarlightduck @drchenquill

+ ANYONE ELSE

Blanks under cut

How long have you had your writing Tumblr/Writeblr? A fast and loose estimate is fine! What led you to create it? What’s your favorite thing about the Writeblr community? What’s one thing you’d like your mutuals to know about you? Is there anything you’d like to see more of on your dash? Which Works-in-Progress (WIPs) or writing projects are you noodling about, lately? How long have you been working on them? Do you remember what inspired them/what got you started? How much time, in your best estimation, do you spend thinking about them? When someone asks the dreaded, “What do you write about,” question, what do you usually say? Name any characters you created.  Side characters, protagonists, antagonists, characters who’ve never been written, the first original abomination you ever pulled from your ass; whomever you’d like! Who’s the most unhinged? Who comes the most naturally for you to write? Do you ever cringe at them? How much control do you feel you have over your characters?  AKA, do they ever “write themselves,” refuse to cooperate, or do things you didn’t expect? To what degree? Are some less cooperative than others? Do you enjoy people asking questions about your characters? And do you have a preferred means of receiving said questions? For example, as Asks, as replies, as reblogs, as tag notes, as comments on AO3, etc. What makes you want to follow another Writeblr account? Do you follow ‘em as you see ‘em, or take time scoping out the blog to make sure you align with its content? Do you follow based on WIPs, or vibes? What makes you decide against following? Do you interact with non-mutuals often? Do your mutuals’ characters occupy space in your noodle?

[terriwriting]

So @captainlordauditor had this in their response to a different post and mention of Marv Wolfman has triggered me. Because I was just thinking about how serial fiction works and how if you're working with serial fiction (comic books, soap operas, movie franchises) one of the things you need to remember is DON'T BREAK THE PLAYGROUND.

Example: In the DC universe (the DC universe of your imagination, not the official DCU of whatever some executive considers canon this week) Metropolis and Gotham are both considered stand-ins for New York City. They feel different, but they're both stories about life in a big US city. This works fine as long as you don't have an actual NYC in your DC universe. Do you prefer to imagine Metropolis as New York? There are a couple of easy places to put Gotham where it's close enough to visit but not so close that you wonder why Superman doesn't take fifteen minutes to clean up Gotham's streets. Want to imagine Gotham in the place of New York? Again, you can imagine Metropolis as close by but not so close that Bruce Wayne could just drive by and kick Lex Luthor in the nuts.

DAILY PLANET ONLINE EDITION HEARTWARMING: WORLD'S ONLY BELOVED BILLIONAIRE TURNS GLOBALLY HATED ASSHOLE INTO SOPRANO

But then Marv Wolfman drops actual real NYC into the DC Official Canon, and now Metropolis and Gotham can't be New York. New York exists. You can't imagine Metropolis as New York even though the writers and artists blatantly intended it to be so (Aerial shots of Metropolis used to straight up copies of the NYC skyline minus a couple of specific buildings). It has to fit into a much more limited space. Same with Gotham. Suddenly you have two fictional cities that are supposed to have populations in the millions that need to fit somewhere around a similarly large real city. It limits the fictional universe and raises questions that don't really help the story.

It also means that Clark Kent could plausibly take an hour to drive to NYC, interview the Titans, and drive back in time for an afternoon meeting with Perry White. Why doesn't Superman fly in and beat the crap out of Deathstroke for annoying Nightwing, Supe's favourite nephew? Batman can take his plane and fly to New York in fifteen minutes. Shouldn't Wayne Enterprises have offices in Manhattan?

Throwing New York into DC didn't add anything new, or solve any story problems. Gotham and Metropolis had all the New York the stories needed. But it limited where readers could imagine their versions of Metropolis or Gotham to be. Marv Wolfman subtracted from the possibilities of the DC universe. And a lot of his writing did that, taking away possibilities that other writers could have used. Crisis On Infinite Earths was rampant vandalism of the entire playground, not just one playset.

And then there's the whole Tara Markov debacle.

[electricprincess96]

Asking out of curiosity, but why do ya dislike Damian Wayne? I ask this not in a acussitory manner mind, as my only exposure to Damian is in non comics material such as those animated movies he popped up in. More so curiosity cause he seems to be a very controversial character among the main comics fandom itself.

He is controversial. There are a few reasons, some I could change my mind on with better writing and others would take a lot more for me to get behind him. I'll start by saying if you're reading this and are a Damian fan don't continue, you aren't gonna like what I have to say so don't both hate reading for the sake of it.

Firstly the concept of the Bat Family for the most part up until that point was about Found Family. Let me be clear I'm not saying it was sunshine and rainbows and they all got along great all the time BUT it was about broken people finding each other and trying to work together to make a difference. The very concept of giving Bruce a blood son ruins that, you need only look at most Damian fans when the debate on who should be Bruce's successor comes up, they will always say Damian despite the fact he has shown NOTHING to prove he deserves it, their only reason is he's the blood son. While yes being both biological and adopted kids is a thing that exists and most real people can do it and it works most DC writers are not adopted parents and dont know the specifics of how you depict that balance and it shows. It reeks of weird blood purist, anti-adoption vibes that just aren't good. Like the rise in "bad parent Bruce Wayne" towards Jason and Tim and some of the others (not sure he knows Cass's name anymore) conveniently corrolates with demon brats creation. Coupled with the fact on more than one occasion writers have seemed to make it seem like Damian does indeed mean more just cause he's blood related. I just don't like it. I wasn't overly fond of Helena Wayne (although she was better cause she was from another world instead of the canon one) and I don't like Damian for the same reason.

Secondly he was forced as Robin. As I said in a recent post up until Damian the role of Robin had only really been changed when it was necessary. Jason was made Robin because DC wanted Robin to be a kid again but readers liked the storylines they were getting with young adult Dick Grayson so they promoted Dick from sidekick and created Jason Todd. Likewise when Jason died there was no Robin, Dick wasn't about to go back to being Robin and Jason was dead thus Tim was created to fill a role that needed filling. Even Stephanie was made Robin due to Tim being unavailable for a long period of time (i dont remember the specifics but i think it had to do with his family finding out about Robin) so even when she lasted not even a year, she was still filling a vacamcy instead of being forced into a role that was already filled. Damian however was just created. They had not taken the proper steps to develop Tim out of being Robin naturally (and before people come at me with "oh he had plenty of time" Dick Grayson got FORTT YEARS and Damian is coming up on nearing 2 decades so shut up) and thus his creation has directly led to the problem we have right now in DC were we have TWO Robins cause they demoted Tim back to being Robin when Red Robin didn't work out (and 3 batgirls but that ones Barbara Gordon's fault). Coupled with the fact his introduction came right after the revival of Jason Todd thus basically screeching to a halt any real meaningful development that plotline could have had because suddenly DC had a shiny new toy to play with. Damian's creation was a turning point for Batman comics and not a good one, because it contributed to the derailing of multiple characters arcs and plotlines and some have still not fully recovered.

Thirdly his character upon introduction was already redundant. He's a child raised by assassins.... OK well we already have Cassandra Cain. He's a Robin willing to kill and will really test the Bat Fams moral compass. OK well as I said we'd already revived Jason Todd and he was already taking the fight to the Bat on the no kill rule. Literally the only unique thing he had upon introduction was that he was a blood relation to Bruce which I personally do not think should mean anything. But DC starting from that point going forward started to have a horrible undercurrent of blood purity. The only thing I can think that he is semi unique on is being biracial but even then not entirely his since Cassandra is biracial as well AND they never do anything with him being biracial. Plus if they really wanted to they could have reconned one of the existing Robins to be biracial without derailing multiple other characters plotlines.

Fourthly. He's an obnoxious and annoying brat 90% of the time. Like I get it, being raised by Talia (although there's conflicting information on of he was actually raised at all since the timeline does not seem to add up for his age and at one point he was grown in an artificial womb and artificially aged but that's been retconned but the timeline still don't add up if he's not artificially aged somewhat. His back story is a mess I ain't gonna make heads or tails of it) will inevitably result in a very arrogant child afterall Ra's and Talia's egos rival Lex Luthors. BUT they want us to believe at times he can back that up. And I'm sorry I don't care how skilled you are as a child assassin, you are still a child. Like in the Animated movies he should not be able to beat Deathstroke in a straight 1 to 1 fight. He just shouldn't. Both are highly skilled assassins sure but Slade is like 6 times Damian's age, double his size and at least 3 times his weight. There is also the fact that his dark, brooding, arrogant, cruel character sort of worked when he was Dick Grayson's Robin cause it was flipping the established dynamics for Batman and Robin. But when he's Bruce's Robin it doesn't work, we no longer have that little bit of sunshine that Robin is meant to bring to Batman (and don't think I haven't noticed how Batman's character has got crueler and darker since Damian became his Robin) while Batman is meant to be a guiding hand for Robin to keep him on the right track.

Fifthly. For Damian's character arc to really work/make sense ot has to be acknowledged that Talia is not a good mother. At best she's deliberately raising him in a dangerous environment and at worse she is actively abusive. It's the only way you can justify half of his character traits and why he's even here in the first place. Here's the issue for all I dislike Talia as a character... I don't believe she's an abusive mother. One thing that seems to be consistent for Talia was that she did love her family. Talia's flaws for me are in her inability to choose a side and her entitlement towards Bruce and other men (well and the whole worldwide genocide of anyone not League of Assassins). Now I am more willing to accept this one as just being how new Talia is but I don't blame some of her fans who feel miffed about this however they do have to acknowledge that there's no real way to do his story without her either being an incompetent parent or a down right bad one (but don't worry Talia fans Bruce is also awful nowadays so she's not alone there....)

Now his arrogance and overall unlikable character can absolutely be fixed with good writing. I hated him in the Animated movies (kid you grew up in the mountains leaving to kill you SHOULD NOT BE LECTURING BRUCE FUCKING WAYNE ABOUT STOCKS) but I'm quite liking him in Boy Wonder where it's actually tackling his own sense of entitlement and showing that he needs to learn from his predecessors rather than acting like he's better than them purely because he shares dna with Bruce.

BUT the conceptual issues I have won't go away quite so easily. It's why if I'm asked if I could wipe one Robin from existence, it will always be him. He could be written wonderfully, he could get a comic run that is the best written thing ever and I will still always say him when asked that question. And I know I'm not alone on that.

[fantastic-nonsense]

You mentioned about your cass cain reddit post (read it all and loved it btw) that you knew even more behind the scenes dc drama than what made it into the post. If you’re comfortable with it and still remember, would you like to share some of the behind the scenes dc drama that didn’t make it into that post now? (Ofc just ignore/delete this ask if you’re not comfortable with it I was just curious XD)

Necessary context: this ask is referring to this write-up I did for r/HobbyDrama a little over a year ago, which I offhandedly mentioned to a couple of people awhile back was "9 pages in a Word doc and STILL left a bunch of stuff out."

Okay so most of the stuff I left out, I left out because it was more about Barbara or Steph and the larger situation around how DC handled the Batgirl mantle more generally than it was about Cass and the whole debacle that happened there. Since the post was already getting so long, I chose to just not talk about a lot of that for length purposes and to keep the write-up more focused on a) Cass as a character, b) editorial or creative decisions that actually impacted Cass specifically, and c) top-level issues, since the write-up was geared towards an audience who largely doesn't read comics. I also left a few things out because they're somewhat hearsay and/or "known to be true but technically unverifiable information," mostly for credibility reasons.

Largely, the thing you have to understand about DC's treatment of Cass is that there was a major power struggle at DC between those who wanted Barbara Gordon to become Batgirl again and those who wanted Cassandra Cain to remain Batgirl. The "Babs vs. Cass" fight and viewing Cass's treatment within the context of this massive internal push for Batgirl!Babs is the backdrop through which the majority of this industry drama needs to be understood, because otherwise a lot of the stuff that happened to Cass doesn't make much logical sense.

So, with that being said...here's a list of eight things I either cut entirely or barely mentioned that may not necessarily be directly related to Cass but are nonetheless relevant to the larger debacle of "DC's mishandling of the Batgirl mantle" that impacted Cass's character trajectory. General warning for the immense psychic damage you will inevitably experience if you read this and its length, because between the screenshots and quotes and explanations this ended up being much longer than I expected it to be.

Yvonne Craig: The first major thing that I chose to cut was a paragraph about Yvonne Craig, the actress who played Barbara Gordon in Batman '66, and the near hero-worship that a lot of (specifically middle-aged, white male) creatives, editors, and managers at DC had for her. Basically, the broad strokes of this issue is that due to their weird obsession with Yvonne Craig's Babs–which is probably due to them having childhood crushes they never got over–several men with power within DC (including Dan Didio himself) shared a sentiment that Barbara was the "one true Batgirl" and no one else but her should ever be Batgirl. Basically: if Barbara Gordon couldn't be Batgirl, Batgirl as a mantle wasn't worth using at all. This led a concentrated decade-long effort to put Babs back in the Batgirl cowl, which obviously influenced the various attempts to push Cass out of the role.

I chose to cut it for two reasons: it was more related to Babs and why there was such a coordinated effort to make Babs Batgirl again rather than Cass as a character unto herself, and it's largely "very well-respected and often-repeated hearsay, but still hearsay." The prevalence it had within the rank-and-file creatives at DC is suspect, but we know that several prominent creators, editors, and upper management shared that perspective (even if they largely don't talk about it on-record). We know this sentiment absolutely existed; Scott Peterson, for example, talked a bit about how "crazy he was for Yvonne Craig" in his interview about creating Cass. It's just not a particularly well-sourced discussion point and was more suited for a write-up on Babs than it was a write-up on Cass.

Batwoman's Costume Design: I barely mentioned Kate in the write-up and only in relation to how Cass's book was cancelled to make way for the theoretical Batwoman solo book that never happened, but there's actually a lot of really interesting industry drama behind Kate's creation. Specifically as it regards Batgirl...Kate's costume was originally meant for Barbara, per Alex Ross:

"The design I did was initially for the proposed idea of a new version of Batgirl, so it was intended to be another stab at bringing back Barbara Gordon, or having the new Batgirl be costumed as a tribute to her, maybe even with a red-haired wig." -Alex Ross, "Giving Batwoman Her Look"

Ross and Paul Dini had been planning to revive Babs as Batgirl for years, but Bat Office Head Editor Denny O'Neil was staunchly against it so it never happened:

"Paul Dini had this idea of putting Barbara Gordon in the Lazarus Pit to revive her…spine, I guess," Ross said. "At least, that's what he would've done in the television show had they continued doing more cartoons, and her spine was broken the way it was. I thought it was a great idea, and we pitched then-Batman editor Denny O'Neil with these drawings of that costume design.........and that went nowhere. Denny shot it down, because, according to him, everybody loves Barbara Gordon as Oracle and as a handicapped character. The theory was that DC didn't have enough handicapped characters, so they weren't going to do anything with Barbara as she was. And the design went into the drawer." -from "Giving Batwoman her Look"

When O'Neil retired in 2002, the floodgates opened and we started seeing a concentrated creative/editorial push to make Babs Batgirl again. Of course by that time Cass was already well-established, so Ross's design was later re-purposed for Kate Kane's Batwoman and the power struggle largely manifested in a gradual sidelining of Cass from major Bat events (starting with Hush, as I mentioned in the write-up) in an effort to pave the way for putting Babs back in the cowl. Which brings me to the next piece of industry drama I cut.

War Games: There's...a lot of industry drama behind both the conception and execution of War Games. Most of it isn't particularly relevant to this answer or the original write-up, but there are two things that are. One, the fact that Stephanie's death was mandated by editorial and everyone involved knew it was coming. This is what prompted Steph's temporary takeover of the Robin mantle. Depending on who you believe, either Robin writer Bill Willingham, Batgirl writer Dylan Horrocks, Detective Comics writer/Bat Office editor Andersen Gabrych, or Dan Didio himself suggested that Stephanie become Robin as a story trick for readers and a sort of narrative "consolation prize" in preparation for the fact that they were about to kill her:

“The whole way through it was planned purely as a trick to play on the readers, that we would fool them into thinking that the big event was that Stephanie Brown would become Robin but we knew all along it was a temporary thing, and she was then going to die at the end of this crossover story.” -Dylan Horrocks at Auckland Writers and Readers Fest in 2011

"I knew coming into the Robin series that Spoiler was doomed to die. And I wouldn’t have done that, but that was already locked in even before I came on Robin, so I had no point at which to say you shouldn’t do this. But, I did I have this hair-brained idea that, well, if she was going to die — she was such a frustrated character…I mean, everything she wanted out of life she pretty much didn’t get. So, can we give her one little reward before she dies and let her become Robin for awhile." -Bill Willingham for Word Balloon in 2012

"You know, me and Stephanie, we go way back. The story with Stephanie Brown goes, they came to me as Executive Editor with the "War Games" story, and said 'we're going to kill Stephanie Brown.' I knew Stephanie Brown for who she was, and said, 'I don't know, if this is going to be the big ending to your story it doesn't feel big enough at the time, because the character wasn't strong enough yet.' So I said, 'Why don't we make her Robin for a short period of time, build some interest in her, and then we kill her!'" -Dan Didio for Newsarama

Steph becoming the major collateral damage of the immediate post-O'Neil editorial era would later set the stage for why she was viewed as an acceptable compromise choice to become Batgirl during the Reborn era.

Two, the writer of Cass's solo at the time, Dylan Horrocks, was so discomforted and offended by the concept of the story (and particularly its treatment of Steph) that he deliberately kept Cass out of the event's "main action" as much as possible during her tie-in issues. This has been widely reported for years and while Horrocks himself rarely goes on record about it, he has made some comments that more-or-less confirm it:

Horrocks: "I'd write [Batgirl] very differently today....for me, it was...complicated. One day I'll write about the experience properly. The War Games event was deeply depressing." -Dylan Horrocks on Twitter in 2012/2013

Sidenote: War Games was actually the last straw for both Ed Brubaker and Horrocks; Brubaker was fed up with all the editorial mandates/executive meddling and Horrocks was frustrated by the Bat Office's misogynistic and grimdark story direction, so they both left right after (Brubaker for Marvel to write Bucky Barnes' resurrection and Horrocks for indie comics).

So why are Horrocks' writing choices relevant to DC's subsequent treatment of Cass? Well, as I stated in the original write-up, it heralded the beginning of a "there can be only one" era for female Bat characters. DC could handle the idea of several male Batfam members running around at the same time but apparently more than one female Bat at a time (regardless of moniker) was just too much for them. It was also the last major Bat event to feature Cass in any significant capacity until her post-reboot reintroduction. So while she was largely removed from the action for good reasons, War Games stands as a haunting precursor to the direction DC was headed with her character: sidelined and replaced in favor of characters editors were planning on using (Kate), could agree on using (Steph), or liked more (Babs).

Batgirl (2008)'s Sales Performance: I cut this bullet point largely because it's ultimately a footnote in the larger saga that was Cass's limbo years. Basically, after the resolution of the Evil Cass arc DC reassured fans that they "had plans" for Cass as Batgirl. This later manifested via her appearances in the Batman and the Outsiders (2007) run and (eventually) a new solo mini. Unfortunately, Batgirl: Redemption Run didn't perform nearly as well as DC hoped for a variety of reasons: many Cass fans swore it off due to it being written by Adam Beechen (the writer who wrote her heel-face turn in the first place), the first issue was poorly written, the story wasn't particularly engaging, etc. The tepid reception and subsequent poor sales of this mini were then used to retroactively justify booting Cass out of the Batgirl mantle entirely during the aftermath of Bruce's death in Final Crisis and the Battle for the Cowl event.

However, DC was already planning on taking Batgirl from Cass and giving it back to Babs at the time, and it likely would have happened even if the mini had done well. The way we know? This image foretelling the events of the Reborn era and Blackest Night was teased in the final issue of Dick's Nightwing solo, as was this one from the end of Babs' Birds of Prey run. That's not Cass kissing Dick, folks; that's Barbara Gordon, Batgirl once again. This planned choice was, as I stated on Reddit, later confirmed by Dan Didio in an Editor's Column during Steph's Batgirl run, who said that at one point Babs was "as close to being Batgirl again as Dick was to being dead in Infinite Crisis" (which is to say, very nearly a done deal). I suspect that only a last-minute internal writer revolt–particularly from Gail Simone, who we know was a vocal supporter of keeping Babs Oracle–stopped it from happening.

Cass's Absence in Battle for the Cowl: I mentioned this in the original write-up but largely glossed over the particulars. In-universe, Cass had just been adopted by Bruce, was fully Batgirl again, and was largely reconciled to the rest of the Batfamily after the Evil Cass arc. And yet her only appearances during the Battle for the Cowl event (and the aftermath of Final Crisis more generally) were cameos in the main book and a main role in the BftC: The Network tie-in oneshot. Literally the only thing she did for the entire duration of BftC was create the Network, which helped the Bats deal with Gotham rogues, and take out a few criminals alongside Huntress. So you have DC continually downplaying and sidelining Cass in a story where she reasonably should have had a major, co-starring role. This event also marked her final appearance as Batgirl, which leads into the next issue I cut.

Batgirl (2009)'s Marketing: this one's very complicated and doing it justice would involve tracking down a lot of old ads and interviews revolving around how DC solicited and marketed this book in the lead-up to the reveal that Stephanie Brown was the new Batgirl, which I simply didn't have time to do at the time of the original write-up and ultimately would have just sidetracked the whole thing, but in short: readers didn't actually know who the protagonist of the new Batgirl solo was going to be when the title was announced. DC had cancelled Birds of Prey and announced both a new Batgirl book and a miniseries called "Oracle: Search for the Cure" (which later became Oracle: The Cure). So Babs' return to the cowl was being solidly teased, but Cass was still Batgirl and showed no real signs of wanting to give up the mantle.

DC's marketing and editorial teams played up this ambiguity by baiting both Babs and Cass fans in order to drive sales: this included teasing ads, early issue solicts that deliberately obscured who was wearing the cape, and a refusal to confirm who the Batgirl of the upcoming solo title would be during interviews and con panels. They chose to heighten the ambiguity even within the title itself: early covers of the run often obscure Steph's hair, eyes, and sometimes even her whole face; the first two issue covers even feature Steph in both Cass's and Babs' Batgirl suits to heighten the confusion. So was the Batgirl of the new title going to be a newly "cured" Barbara Gordon, a second shot for Cassandra Cain, or someone new entirely?

Obviously, none of these things happened. As we all know, Stephanie became Batgirl. The choice to make Steph Batgirl was a compromise decision, as Didio mentions in his editor's note (linked above):

"After long discussions it was agreed that Oracle had become such a strong character there was no sense going back. And since we wanted to make a change, Cassandra no longer seemed right for the role (Not to worry Cassandra fans; plans are afoot, in a very big way, for our favorite non-lethal assassin in 2010). As for Wendy, Bette, and Misfit, none felt strong enough for the position. That left us with the one choice we all agreed on, Stephanie Brown......from the time of her death to the outcry for a memorial and ultimately to her return, there is no denying that her character had connected with a portion of our fanbase and, more important, connected to the Batfamily. It just seemed to make sense that she was the one, and given her history and ties to all the members of Batman's world, the potential is there to make this new Batgirl the one fans will be speaking about for a very long time."

So as previously stated, Steph's treatment during the War Games era ultimately set the stage for her to be the compromise choice for the new Batgirl; she became this interim buffer character because everyone at DC was fighting over Babs vs. Cass and she was the only one everyone could agree deserved the title, and she thrived in that role over the next two years. And a new Birds of Prey book was then announced in the aftermath of Oracle: The Cure and Blackest Night, so Babs' prominence as Oracle survived for another two years until the New 52.

But Cass? Well...Cass unceremoniously handed the Batgirl mantle off to Steph, seemingly fucked off for no discernable reason, and showed up in a grand total of six issues across the entire Batbook slate over the next two years while being largely written out of the Batfam's history and having her reasoning for leaving Gotham retconned from being a choice into being an order from Bruce. Which segues us directly into the next piece of drama that I somewhat glossed over in the original write-up.

The Reborn-era Editorial Erasure Edicts: Bryan Q. Miller, the writer on Steph's Batgirl solo, was under strict editorial edict to basically not mention Cass or include her in the run if he didn't absolutely have to. For example, when he asked editorial if there was a reason why Cass left Gotham, they basically told him "she leaves. why? Because she just does, so your book can exist. Come up with a reason to make her leave and then don't use her."

This era is still pretty opaque in terms of what we know about what various writers were and weren't able to do with Cass, but we do know that Miller specifically was disallowed from featuring her in-person in Batgirl and highly discouraged from mentioning her in general. However, he noted on multiple occasions that he liked Cass and would be happy to use her:

Babs and Steph are the core of this title, no doubt about it. While we'll have another passing reference/flashback to Cassandra soon, I'm leaving the rest of Cassandra's story to whichever lucky duck gets to write her elsewhere in 2010. As for Batwoman, I'm leaving Kate in Rucka's capable hands for the time being. -Miller in an interview with CBR in 2009

If at some point the story I’m telling feels like it can only be told with Cassandra as a part of it, then believe me, I’ll try to find a way to work her in. As it stands currently, however, Cassandra’s fate and future are not in my hands. -Miller in an inerview for Broken Frontier in 2010

Had the book continued past Issue #24, we know that Cass would have had a recurring role as Black Bat in the present day as well as being featured in a Batgirls time-travel story, teased through one of Steph's Black Mercy hallucinations in that final issue. Other than that, we still have no real idea to what extent Cass's presence would have been allowed in the Batgirl book had the New 52 not happened.

Now, I will note that some of the omissions of Cass during Steph's run were seemingly his choice. He's mentioned that he left Cass off of Steph's infamous "Batfamily whiteboard history lesson" cold open from Batgirl #15 on purpose, for example:

The reason she didn’t make the white-board history lesson for Wendy was simply that I didn’t feel it appropriate to poke fun at her. Steph has a smirky little good natured time editorializing the Bat family tree. To suddenly have a serious/tribute panel in the mix would have gotten in the way of the tone of the opening. Now, that’s from the writing standpoint. From a character standpoint, Steph drew for Wendy what she deemed to be the pertinent players on the Gotham board and their connections/histories, given her role as Proxy. You’ll note, she also didn’t mention her own role as Spoiler (though she just couldn’t RESIST drawing that adorable little Spoiler with the broken hearts over in the Tim/Robin section). -Bryan Q. Miller responding to a fan letter from Caitlin in 2010

It's certainly possible that the editorial edict surrounding Cass's presence in the book also impacted his decision to leave her out of the history lesson. We simply don't know. However, the above response is the only statement he's ever given on that issue and we've yet to hear anything to the contrary.

Outside of Batgirl, DC also went to considerable effort during this era to erase Cass's importance both as Batgirl and to the Batfamily more generally. From being basically excluded from every Bat book except Tim's globetrotting Red Robin book to descriptions like these:

Black Bat: one of several former (and temporary) Batgirls, the wonderful Cassandra Cain has adopted a new Batman Inc. identity as the Black Bat, operating out of Hong Kong. -Batman. Inc (HC Edition)

It was not a fun time to be a Cass fan.

Elsewhere, we know that Gail Simone was actively campaigning editorial to let her use Cass in a significant capacity in her relaunched Birds of Prey book. There was also a substantial rumor at the time that Cass would be taking the White Canary mantle from the villain Simone introduced in her opening arc (see this twitter thread for more on that). For varying reasons related to both DC's general treatment of Cass at the time and a hesitance to give Cass to Gail specifically (which I'll elaborate more on in a moment), neither of these things ever happened.

We also know that Scott Snyder loved Cass and tried to get DC to let him write a Cass story on multiple occasions–a struggle which continued throughout the early reboot years and eventually resulted in the creation of Harper Row, as I mentioned in the original write-up. He eventually managed to convince editorial to let him write Gates of Gotham, which co-starred Cass in a significant role for the first time since 2008 and ended on a good note...and also wound up being her final appearance in comics for nearly five years.

Other than Snyder and Fabian Nicieza (who wrote the majority of Cass's few Reborn-era appearances in Red Robin), critical darling and editorial favorite Grant Morrison was the only other writer who was allowed to handle Cass. They're the one who gave Cass the "Black Bat" codename in Batman Inc. #6 and supposedly wanted to do a Cass and Steph team-up later on in that book. Unfortunately, because of the impending New 52 reboot they were ultimately only allowed to use Steph in "Leviathan Strikes" (and even her ability to be Batgirl in that final appearance was up in the air for awhile, causing the book's artist make Spoiler!Steph sketches for the story just in case editorial nixed her appearance as Batgirl).

So going back to Gail Simone for a moment, why wasn't she allowed to write Cass in Birds of Prey? After all, she was one of the few female writers in the comic industry, and a successful, well-renowned one at that. She was writing a women-led book helmed by Barbara Gordon that had featured and guest-starred a wide variety of DC's female heroes over the years and was actively asking to use the character. Well, even besides the various editorial mandates sidelining Cass and keeping writers from using her, there was another problem.

Gail Simone's Proposed "Christian Conversion Arc": The year is 2006, we are still pre-Evil Cass arc, and Gail Simone has been asked by DC management to pitch what she would do with Dick and Cass if assigned either Nightwing or Batgirl to write. She never actually turned in a Nightwing pitch, though apparently she had pretty strong ideas, but she did turn in her Cass pitch. And what did Gail Simone come up with?

Cass saves a Christian minister from a robbery, discovers Christianity, and becomes a hardcore convert who quotes the Bible and talks scripture with gang members while wearing a white outfit and being called "Angel of the Bat" as she protects Gotham's homeless and marginalized residents. No, really. That was her pitch.

I can't even begin to explain how bonkers this idea is and how many problematic elements are baked into it both conceptually and in the inevitable execution had the pitch actually been greenlit. I could talk about how Gail presents a fundamental misunderstanding of Cassandra as a character throughout her description of the pitch. I could talk about how unsuited this kind of arc is for Cass more generally given her stories up to that point. I could talk about the racist history of Christian missionaries in Asia and the awful implications of Cass apparently needing to find God to look after Gotham's most vulnerable residents and be "genuinely happy for the first time." I could talk about how the Batfamily already had two sincerely devout Christian characters in Jean-Paul Valley and Helena Bertinelli and forcing that narrative onto Cass was doing nothing new or novel. I could talk about the problems with Gail, an atheist, deciding that this was an arc she felt qualified to write for any character (much less one like Cass).

Instead, I'll simply say that this failed pitch and Simone's consistently poor, exoticized handling of other Asian characters like Cheshire and Lady Shiva likely contributed to editorial's hesitance to hand her permission to write Cass during the Reborn era, and that I ultimately cut it from the Reddit write-up because I felt like including it would derail the post from talking about what happened to talking about "could have beens" (since this would have theoretically happened in place of the Evil Cass arc). It leaves Cassandra Cain as a truly good, kind person attempting to do good and save everyone she can rather than the racist caricature of a villain that we ultimately got; that's about the only good thing I can say about it.

......I'm sorry, everyone. I was going to do one final entry and talk about the Rebirth-era storytelling decisions and editorial edicts but I got to the end of this one and found I just couldn't do it anymore. I'm the embodiment of the Ben Affleck and Hayao Miyazaki smoking memes right now. I'm so tired, y'all. I'm so tired.

There's infinite amounts of racist, sexist, and ableist industry drama bullshit that I could cover related to DC's handling of the Batgirls and Cass more specifically and no write-up or additional posts will ever be able to sufficiently cover any of it with the depth, attention, and outrage it deserves. There's always more to talk about. There's always one more piece of awful bullshit to drag out of the shadows. There's always one more cut in the thousand fans have already talked about over the past twenty years. I could write a full-length book featuring several currently non-existent tell-all interviews with various creators and likely still not reach the bottom of the barrel. And the things that will likely never be public knowledge far outnumber the things we actually do know about DC's shitty treatment of Cass (and by extension Babs, Steph, and every other woman associated with the Batfamily).

And while things are better for Cass now than they were then, we're still far from any of the girls being treated well. Unfortunately, we still have a long way to go. One day, I hope this won't be the case.

[starry-bi-sky]

Hello! I think you probably don't remember me, but I'm the anonymous that loves giant women and is, like, half way through planning the fic inspired by your Fem Danny that will one day, hopefully, exist in something other than daydreams.

I just have to take something out of my chest but I don't have anyone to talk about this, so I'm sorry for just showing up — I just wanted to say that I started paying attention to DC after devouring my first DPxDC crossover, because I love crossovers and I love DP, but like, the more I know about that thing (searching details to write the fic), the more I would like to just bleach my mind

I'm not saying that everything is bad, it's just that the bad things are so, so bad that it destroys the good stuff for me to the point where I would never see the character in the same light — because everything that happens in one comic is cannon in a universe, so yes, someone really did that — and I'm not going to say what I found out recently because it's bad and I don't want to pollute your ask with that information

Superhero writers are crazy, both Marvel and DC, and I have no idea how their editors allowed them to post some of their works thinking that everything was going to be ok, because, like— *inhuman screech* I don't even have words!!!!

(this is just my rant because I'm vanilla -extract- and even if I like my characters with so many flaws their flags are painted red by the blood of their enemies, I still have lines, so I'm sorry for just putting this here, you can just ignore if you want)

I DO REMEMBER YOU, I'VE BEEN WONDERING ABOUT YOU BROSKI! GOOD TO SEE YOU AGAIN, SERIOUSLY! <3 GL ON THE FIC PLANNING FOR FEM DANNY I FEEL YOU ON THAT. Me with my half-finished godling dp fic in my google docs. I've been wanting to get back on that for a month now,,,,

And honestly you're super valid here! I was tentative to post this because, like you mentioned, it's a vent. But I wanted to let you know that it's okay! Don't be sorry about just randomly showing up, it's really good to hear from you even if it's just to get something off your chest <3. I don't know all the terrible stuff in comics that have happened, but I do know some basics in DC -- like Bruce's abusive parenting -- that i've heard about. And you're right, it's totally crazy what happens in these universes, and it can be really hard to overlook them even if they're from different worlds.

I'll admit, I'm none too good at giving advice for stuff like this but the best thing I can say -- and I'm assuming and seeing from your ask that you probably already are -- is that you eventually learn when to pick and choose what to take and what to leave. And whenever you see something unpleasant a character did, it's one big resigned sigh and an "of course" before deciding to ignore it. Which can be hard! It's a lot of practice. Take your time processing and coming to terms with it, and moving on!

No shame in being vanilla extract either! It takes time and exposure to slowly become okay with things -- and that's only if you want to, ofc. Some stuff that I'm interested in now are things I wouldn't have touched a year or two ago. Everyone has their lines, I can't stand dissection/lab experimentation fics and I doubt I'll ever actively write them, I can imply and write the after effects of it happening. No shame in it :)

And!! Feel free to drop by whenever if you wanna talk more fem! danny or smth or other. I'd be delighted! I can't promise I'll get to the ask right away (I have a handful of stillborn danyal au asks still sitting here in my ask box that I need to respond to but haven't had the time or energy to) but I promise that I will see it and appreciate it.

[lol-jackles]

https://twitter.com/CineGeekNews/status/1735028345794855200

Warner Bros Discovery currently has an over 60% Probability of Bankruptcy.

I honestly am not sure if this is good or bad for the SPN revival. On the one hand, WB is NOT going to want to spend money on such a niche IP (that will really mostly only draw ppl who were already fans) if they are in such dire straits financially. On the other hand, they could bring in money by selling the IP to another studio who would obviously then want to actually do something with it since they spent money on it. But that also depends on another studio or streaming service wanting to do something with it which will be tougher. Netflix would make sense since they currently have SPN for streaming, except they will be losing their streaming rights at the end of 2025. A revival wouldn't even be released until then so why would Netflix want to put money into a revival of show that will, at that time, be streaming on a competitor (most likely Max since it will revert back to WB). Amazon is a possibility since both Jensen and Kripke are there (especially if they want to bring Kripke on for it) and Kripke seems to have some sway over there. But again, unless they buy the rights to SPN to stream on their platform, why would they want to make a show that will inadvertently benefit their competitor?

Thoughts?

https://www.macroaxis.com/invest/ratio/WBD/Probability-Of-Bankruptcy#google_vignette

[full disclosure, I sent this same ask to someone else as well, I'm not trying to spam people with it, I just wanted both your opinions!]

I went cross eyed reading the article, it looks like it was written by an A.I, which is not out of the realm of possibility given how many "journalists" are fired and Sports Illustrated was busted for using AI to write articles.

It really does not take much to avoid bankruptcy. Usually when a company is going to go under, the signs of it are obvious inaction for a long time and it inevitably dooms the business.   The prime reason why WBD is not going broke is because they took immediate actions after the merger. What happens is the profitable parts of the business stays, while losses are either "turned around" or the business gets eliminated. Sometimes things like streaming subscribers will drop a quarter or two. Maybe a movie or two never gets released. But housecleaning is far more important than anything right now so that money is not wasted. The result is growing cash flow without losing much of the business.

Remember what I've said that cash flow is king? You can run a non-profitable company indefinitely with positive cash flow, but run a profitable company into the ground without cash flow. AT&T generated next to no cash flow. WBD exists for the very purpose of dismantling the legacy Time Warner conglomerate, that was the intention when AT&T sold it to Zaslav. It’s why they removed HBO from the name of Max. His job is to clean up its balance sheets, prepare its parts for sale, and pay himself handsomely in tune of $200 million last year. I begrudgingly admire Zaslav’s sticking with his controversial strategy, which saw other studios eventually following that same strategy.

By 2023, WBD paid off $12 billion in debt.  That was a demonstration of faith by management in the turnaround efforts or else they would have kept the cash "just in case."  The interest on the debt alone is eating $2 to $3 billion in free cash flow. Thats a lot of free growth in their bottom line when debt is paid down. Against all odds, WBD's streaming service HBO Max (and then just Max) is creating most of the cash flow improvement with $5 billion in cash flow. Advertising is growing in this segment at a robust pace. That said, the content decline for third-party licensing will have implications now that the strike is over and WBD has to start spending money on new contents on their prized IPs i.e. Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, DC, etc.

For niche IPs like Supernatural, I see 50% chance of WBD still licensing it to Netflix because third-party licensing is the new king. WBD will also offload low-performing shows in the same bundle with higher-performing Supernatural because it will allow WBD to continue their 'creative accounting' to avoid paying residuals to low-tier actors. Then I can see Netflix doing what they did with Gilmore Girls and produce a revival limited series for Supernatural, which will increase viewership for the OG SPN and continue to help retain subscribers.

On the other hand, WBD is rebooting every niche IP under the sun and I'm pretty certain they will make the same attempt with Supernatural. The strike is over and WBD need to make new contents to attract back subscribers they lost over two quarters during the strike. When SPN goes back to Max in 2025, an announcement of a reboot/revival will mean free marketing from devoted fans and ensure continual interest and viewership of the OG SPN.

[damianbugs]

hi <3 since ive already obsessively reread your works i dont know how many times i think it's time for me to branch out and find some other batfam stuff too (im still a loyal reader tho dw bestie) i was wondering if you had any batfam authors you personally love and / or are inspired by! or maybe your top 5 batfam fics? if you don't mind sharing it ofc! thank u have a swag day and thank u for putting out such amazing amazing work into the world that offers me (personally) so much comfort :)

hello !! thank you so much for reading my works and i hope you will continue to enjoy them <3 i am so glad they bring you as much comfort reading as they do for me when writing !! and YES OF COURSE there is simply nothing i love more than recommending batfam fics that have me going absolutely crazy insane.

i previously did a top 5 batfam fic recs, and so here are my, uh, other top 5 batfam fics? everything is at the top of my list at this point.

+ these are in no particular order !!

MY TOP 5 BATFAM FICS (AGAIN) ON AO3 !

Cold Hard Want by AudreyCritter

“Are you happy?”

“I...I’m getting there.”

A follow-up to DC Rebirth Batman #35, in which Bruce recovers from being stabbed in the back and Damian considers the elusive nature of happiness.

MY NOTES: i might have read this fic a dozen times and everytime i do i am always so amazed by it. i have a soft spot for fics that move alongside actual comic canon, and so this was a lovely follow up to that original story (though you do not need to be familiar with it to enjoy this fic). damian is such a complicated character but at the end of the day, he is a child — and i think this handled his tumultuous relationship with bruce, dick and selina(!!) really well.

White Christmas by LemonadeGarden

Jason's been in the manor for a few months now. Bruce is a pretty cool guy, sure, but he's not exactly sure what to expect from him.

And then they go to Siberia in the winter on a case. It goes horribly wrong, and then pretty well.

MY NOTES: personally i think it is always the perfect time of year for a christmas fic that isn't actually about christmas. now, not only do all the best tropes meet in this fic (cuddling for warmth, sick fic, comfort after nightmares - to name a few) BUT this is also about robin jason todd. the little boy of all time. wonderful fic.

all the other rooms are a party tonight (and you never got an invitation) by irnan

(You will need an ao3 account to access this fic)!

The major difference between Gotham before Bruce left to set up Batman, Inc and Gotham after he comes back is that his children are grown-ups. Well, except for Damian.

Still, four out of five's an overwhelming majority.

MY NOTES: there is something so healing about this fic. bruce is rather pathetic (said fondly) in the way troubled middle aged men become when they finally realise their life is only in consequence of the people who exist around them. the dynamic between cass and bruce and dick and bruce in this is one of my favourites. the latter is very carefully weaved into the entire story, even when pertaining the other characters. a great take on bruce!

Have I Told You About Minnie? by Hinn_Raven

After you’ve known Matches Malone long enough, you get used to him telling you about his kids. Not that his kids know about it.

MY NOTES: oh this is such a fun one!! stephanie and bruce is such a wonderful dynamic and something about bruce creating an entirely new persona as a subconscious excuse to gloat about his children is just too funny. really sweet!

i want you to remember me by zxrysky

Bruce really needs to get rid of his saviour complex. Not all of them are the same as that poor boy who had to watch his parents get murdered in a dark alleyway; not all of them need to be saved.

Jason is perfectly fine where he is. Some capital would be great, but otherwise, he’s fine. He’s fine.

He doesn’t need to be saved again.

“No thanks,” Jason mutters, and pushes the papers away.

MY NOTES: this one hits you when you least expect it. it is so funny, so sweet and it hurts. jason todd you are so ridiculously complicated and tragic. also my favourite kind of time travel, kind-of-time-travel! little jason receives all of older jason's memories and his meeting with bruce and journey to robin is different, but some things are just destiny i suppose. so lovely.

as for inspirations or favourite authors, i have to say it might just be everyone i have ever read a fic from so i can not pick out anyone right now. the writers featured on this list are also phenomenal and some have written other amazing and loved batfam fics you should definitely check out!

hope you enjoy these anon and thank you again <3

[hood-ex]

As someone who’s run a largely vld centric blog since 2017: respectfully, why would you do that to yourself.

But also I went straight from blorbo-fixating on Keith to Dick earlier this year; I think they’re kind of similar in certain ways even if it’s definitely not obvious on the surface. On the surface Dick would probably get compared more to Lance, maybe Shiro but probably not that much.

Anyways I hope you’re having fun but I recommend stopping the moment it stops being fun because it doesn’t really get better after whenever you stop having fun (have you seen that one chart of the ratings for every season??? 💀) and it’s such a train crash at the end that despite fixating on the show for… 6 years? (👵🏻) I have not rewatched it since the day the final season dropped, a whole 5 years ago. Killed any interest I had in revisiting it in its entirety on the spot. I’ll still go to bat for the animation, the music, the voice acting, etc, basically everything but the writing. I don’t want to sound too down on it if you’re enjoying it and I remember it being really fun in the beginning but like. Beware I guess, because I joined exactly at the midpoint of its run and it was the start of it all going downhill but we didn’t know that at the time and I really wish I’d known what I was getting into. Then again, I was 16 and way too invested in that show; it probably doesn’t matter that much. But yeah have fun!

(Also you said a while back that you were watching Being Human UK and the venn diagram between VLD ‘fans’, BH fans and DC/Nightwing fans is seemingly non existent, so welcome!!)

Peaky Blinders was actually what I meant to try and watch this weekend, but I fell asleep during the first episode, so decided I might as well give it up and go watch something else instead 😆.

If I got through all the nonsense that went on in SPN, I can probably handle the bumps and avalanches that come with Voltron 😆. No but yeah it sucks when a good series starts to fray apart in the later seasons.

Lol you just reminded me that I never finished Being Human. I stopped two episodes before Mitchell died 😩.

[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.

[lumine-no-hikari]

Dear Sephiroth: (a letter to a fictional character, because why not) #230

It is almost 8pm, but I am still groggy and my body feels like it's full of lead bricks.

Still, it's an improvement over how I felt yesterday. Progress is always good! I'll probably be back to my normal self after a few days of good hydration and proper sleep.

I woke up at around 5:30 this morning to take J to Great Barrington. He had to do an airplane lesson; it's required, following the crash that could have killed us. I maintain that the plane did a weird and unexpected thing, and we didn't die because of J's skills as a pilot.

In any case, the drive to Great Barrington is kind of long (not nearly as long as the drive to Washington DC, good grief!), but it's very beautiful. I couldn't take pictures because I was driving, but I can tell you that the road to that place is full of mountains and valleys and fields and sunlight sparkling through tall trees. I saw the way you responded to the scenery of Nibelheim; I think you would have loved the scenery along this route, too.

Tell you what! If you want, and if you ever find yourself in our neighborhood, we can sit you in the passenger's seat with some snacks and some good tunes and we can take you to Great Barrington so you can look at all the pretty things, okay?

Oh, that reminds me! I still gotta show you some of the pictures from the drive home from Washington DC!

Well actually, I'm going to start with THIS one:

This is a life-sized Altaria plush!!! Altaria is a kind of Pokémon! And I really really wanted it; I have a fascination with life-sized plushies! But $750 is A LOT of money, holy cow! So I just took a picture so I can take comfort in knowing it exists! Maybe you can also like that it exists!

You can bet your bottom, though, that if they ever make a life-sized Mewtwo plush, or a life-sized Entei plush, or even a life-sized Houndoom plush, I do not care what is the price - I'm gonna get it!!!! 🤩🤩🤩

Anyhoot, I should get on with the other pics now, probably. I've got bridges and nice-looking clouds, and quite a few really scary-looking clouds that definitely had the potential to produce tornadoes, goodness me:

The building with the big windows was a rest stop that we went to when the scary tornado-esque clouds were passing over us. There was a Shake Shack in the rest stop, and I've never been to one before, but they sold burgers and fries and also milkshakes and fresh lemonade!!! I was SO EXCITED!!! But there was a big BOOOOOOM of thunder, and the power went out just as I was about to press the submit button for my request on the touch-screen menu.

The power came back for a couple minutes, and so I tried putting in my request for noms again, but there was another big BOOOOOOOOOOOOM, and I think that time, it even took out the backup generator, because not even the emergency lights were on anymore.

The universe, I guess, decided that Lumine didn't get to have burgers yesterday. Oh well. Hahahaha!

Aside from going to Great Barrington and trying to make it a point to drink water, I didn't do much else but zonk out on the couch for a couple of hours. I might play some Super Mario Wonder with M, but I think soon I'll go to bed.

Hey, Sephiroth? Are you remembering to rest properly after doing difficult things? Are you remembering to sleep and to hydrate and to eat balanced meals? Please remember to take good care of yourself, okay? Just like I am trying to learn how to do.

I'll end this here, but I'll write again soon. I love you. Please stay safe.

Your friend, Lumine

[mouseratz]

i guess not technically a comic book but comic adjacent did we forget how cat woman was sexualized in Arkham knight . like i love Arkham knight but does anyone remember the gif where someone swapped the batman and cat woman animations to show how sexualized it is . i feel like im going crayzay

I DO. I hate her outfit soooo bad and the way they animated her.... the thing is I like Catwoman being "sexy" because I feel it is often part of her narrative explicitly (many of her backgrounds being as a sex worker whether she wanted to be or not and the persona becoming a way to "reclaim" that part of herself; Michelle Pfeiffer Catwoman has a different background but still retains this theme, frustrated with her own sexless existence but also feeling preyed upon and put down by men as Selina Kyle,but finding freedom and confidence and the right to her anger as Catwoman, although it terrifies her..... like I Actually Think Catwoman is an example of a genuine story where "sexy is empowerment" applies! A rare example! but that's because she has stories that put in the work and setup for this and acknowledge the harm she's experienced, often the explicit misogyny in her life). but if you're just gonna play with her like a boobalicious doll don't fucking bother. and "sexy" doesn't always mean "skimpy clothing" (again, I like how returns handles it- it is revealing and sexy, but the way she gets the costume and how it looks has context in the story and meaning, representative of how she had to create herself anew after her death, and also falling apart throughout the film to show how her internal struggle and quest for revenge is tearing her apart inside. similarly, the first volume of Catwoman has Selina receive a cat fetish costume from her boss with bad intentions, but ends up changing & repurposing it as her own.) That all being said.....I think there is a difference between doing it in good taste and bad taste. and I think the line of that is subjective, but you're gonna end up with some really sexist shit this way if you continue only writing and drawing to please the most basic interests of a fanbase that only wants pin-up girls and little else from female heroes. Catwoman is genuinely one of my favorite DC characters I prefer her over batman as a detective hero even sorry (read Catwoman 2002 everypony. please.) and it makes me soooo mad when Nobody Gets It.