#like even if we go by arkham knight game jason in the tapes hes still not ruthless with barbara and asks her how alfred is

[cainware]

I feel like Jason becomes very protective over his siblings, like even Dick, post-reconcile with the family. Like this man is the Only Fucker that's allowed to fuck with them and make their lives difficult. He actively seeks out anyone that might mess with his family and makes their lives a living hell, and though he does do some shady shit sometimes, he'll always be cursed to care about the batfamily.

[about-faces]

Is TASK FORCE Z in continuity? (Or: “A Fool’s Errand”)

A lot of people, including myself, have been wondering if Task Force Z (the book where Jason Todd and Harvey Dent lead a team of undead villains hopped up on Lazarus resin) is canon or an AU title.

I’d initially assumed it was the latter, given that it was a zombie book launching around the same times as AU titles like Dark Knights of Steel and DC Vampires, co-written by TFZ writer Matthew Rosenberg. However, I didn’t realize that TFZ was initially established in a backup story in Detective Comics over the preceding months (explaining how Jason ended up with this team), thereby making it in-continuity! Right?

(”They’re DYING to meet you.” One can just imagine Harvey patting himself on the back for that joke, like the embarrassing uncle he is. Also, that fish guy isn’t even on the actual team in the book and only shows up in flashbacks as a lab rat. Is this the first indication of the book changing plot details at the last second?)

But as the little blurb says on the bottom, this is where things get complicated.

First off, there’s Bane. He was supposedly murdered around the time of the Joker War, wherein the Joker showed he did not approve of Bane’s methods in Tom King’s run and wanted to show his displeasure. It was a pretty ignominious end for a villain like Bane, and as far as deaths in comics go, that looked pretty final. There’s a body and everything!

(Also, Astrid Arkham supposedly died... at some point? I can’t find any scene where she died. Did someone forget to actually show her getting killed off before this happened? At least Man-Bat died onscreen, also in the Detective Comics backups.)

So having him show up in TFZ makes sense. He’s dead, now he’s a zombie shell of his former self, slowly regaining memories of who he is and what he’s done (like murdering Alfred). Which is something Jason made sure of before kicking him off a roof to kill him all over again.

However, thanks to Lazarus resin, Harvey and his team were able to scoop up the gooey pieces of Bane and regrow him in a tank. Because as a wise man once said, “A lot of tape and a little patience makes all the difference!” So zombie Bane is back, still carrying out Harvey’s orders much to Jason’s displeasure.

EXCEPT he showed up the very next month alive and well in the pages of the Joker solo series, written by James Tynion IV, the guy who killed off Bane in the first place!

So what the fuck?

We don’t yet know how Bane survived what seemed to be a pretty clear death, and I imagine answers are forthcoming in the next issue of Joker due out in late April. It seems like Bane’s faked death was likely part of Tynion’s personal long-game, and it’s entirely possible that either he or Rosenberg will explain what’s going on in their respective books sooner or later.

Like, we know clones play a role in TFZ, so maybe ZomBane is a clone? But how would that explain him having Bane’s memories like killing Alfred? Well, maybe he was programmed with them. But that would assume that some clone-programmer would’ve had to have known about Bane killing Alfred and why Alfred was important to Jason, so CloneZomBane would express understanding about why Jason is re-killing him. The only person who might have been able to supply that information is Harvey, and that’s even assuming that Rosenberg remembers that Harvey knows that Bruce is Batman. A lot of big “ifs” here! 

Now, there may be an explanation forthcoming, if this little tidbit from the very bottom of the final page of the most recent issue of TFZ is any indication...

... but I can’t shake the suspicion that any twist about ZomBane not being the real Bane wasn’t always the original plan for Rosenberg’s story. The Bane reveal in Joker happened well over a month ago, plenty of time to change story details at the last minute (see also: the zombie fish-man who was set up to be a main team member, then was gone one month later).

Look. So long as there’s an explanation, that’s fine. But there really needs to be an explanation, especially one that holds SOME water (the bucket can be a little leaky, that’s fine), and I’m still not confident that one is forthcoming. This is DC, after all, a company that has a long history of making shit up as they go, with editorial teams who don’t communicate with each other or even care about consistency. 

Which brings us to the other big problem: Mr. Freeze. He shows up in the first issue of TFZ and promptly dies in an explosion.

Another ignominious death of a great villain, only without even a body being left behind, so it’d be easy enough to either ignore or have it be a setup for Freeze becoming a new zombie member. So what happens? DC does both. First, he shows up alive and well in Mariko Tamaki’s Arkham storyline in Detective Comics:

Then, little over a month later, he pops up as a zombie in TFZ alongside the reconstructed possible-clone-possibly-not ZomBane:

The events of TFZ follow a clear trajectory, with Freeze dying in the first issue and then getting reconstructed with Lazarus resin to appear in the fifth issue. But his appearance in ‘Tec plainly ignores that, which again feels like editors either not communicating or caring.

Here’s the thing, we comic fans know that continuity is a joke. If it really mattered, we’d also have gotten some acknowledgement of how Freeze managed to overcome where he was left off in Peter Tomasi’s run of ‘Tec, where a now-evil Nora Fries injected him with a serum which made it so that he couldn’t survive without being kept in cryostasis.

How did his condition improve back to the point where he could be awake and in his cold suit again? Fuck you, that’s how. He just is. In fact, that story may never have happened. In fact, what story? You’re imagining things. Buy more comics.

By the way, I checked: all these stories were overseen by the same editors, Paul Kaminski and Dave Wielgosz. So this isn’t a case of different editors not being on the same page as they rush to put out several monthly titles. It’s all the same guys.

Thing is, I’d be willing and able to overlook all of this if it weren’t for one problem: I’m actually invested in the plot of TFZ. Particularly, I’m invested in the brilliant new use of Two-Face as a complicatedly redemptive figure, doing shady work with good intentions and becoming a protective figure to Jason Todd. I love seeing Harvey Dent finally be something more than just a villain, and I’m amazed at how much I love his dynamic with Jason.

I don’t want to see this get ignored next year or even next month by whatever writer wants to come along and use Two-Face as a bad guy again. Hell, I’m already not comfortable with how TFZ is ignoring how Batman cares about Harvey, and bent over backwards to save his best friend’s soul in Tomasi’s story from 2020, all just so Rosenberg can stoke more tension between Bruce and Jason.

Despite this, I’m loving this take on Harvey and I want it to stick. But how can I do that, knowing it could be undone at any point? Possibly even by another writer in a different book before TFZ is even finished!

Look, we all know continuity is a joke at DC. At a certain point, trying to look for any consistency seems like setting yourself up for mockery. Ha ha, foolish little baby fan is trying to make sense of comics! To paraphrase MST3K, perhaps it’s best to just repeat yourself “It’s just DC, I should really just relax.”

But at a certain point, this callous disregard for even a semblance of canon--especially within weeks apart!--just becomes exhausting. Why bother getting invested in anything? If DC doesn’t care, then why the hell should I? Why should anyone? I’ve seen that question lead more than one person to quit superhero comics. Maybe that’s just the nature of the industry, and it’s foolish to expect anything better. But if I weren’t a fool, I probably wouldn’t still be reading DC, would I?

So is Task Force Z in continuity? As with any other DC story, it’s Schrodinger’s Canon: both in and out until otherwise stated and even then subject to change at any given time. Buy more comics.

[m00nslippers]

In a dream world where we are getting a Red Hood live action trilogy, how would you want the three movies to be? Like what plotlines, characters, villians, what arc to develop, how to present his character to appeal to the general audience and such :D

Oh man, this is an interesting question.

Well first of all, this might sound strange, but I absolutely do not think that Under the Red Hood should be adapted to Live Action. I believe this because it already exists in animated form and is perfect. No live-action remake is going to compare unless they recreate it scene by scene and they never will. The dialogue is too good, it cannot be made better, only worse. So, that being said, RH1 should not be a retelling of UtRH, rather that movie/storyline should exist as backstory for the first Red Hood movie. They should communicate the events of that story without retelling it wholesale as the plot in the movie. They should also go ahead and go with the Lazarus Pit explanation of Jason’s resurrection because the superboy-smashing-the-universe thing is too vague and requires more context than a standalone movie can really provide. I would amend it though so that it’s actually more like Arkham Knight games, in that Joker had Jason for over six months torturing him before he finally killed Jason and sent the tape to Bruce. At that point, Ra’s and Talia got a hold of Jason’s body and resurrected him.

I have a really solid idea for the first movie, a more vague idea for the second one and a really vague idea for the last one. I’ll write you guys the synopsis of the first one up here.

Red Hood Movie 1

So, the movie opens on some brief scenes of a seemingly ordinary guy as he goes through his day. He wears blue collar clothes with a leather jacket thrown over the top, rides his motorcycle to work and stops to give money to a homeless guy on the street. He works construction or something, shows himself to be really smart and maybe a little over-competent for his job, he can jump down from high beams like he’s an acrobat, he does complex math in his head, but when colleagues ask how he knows so much he just plays it off. He seems friendly but he’s secretive, keeps to himself. He goes home from work, he’s the only one there, he works out, punches a punching bag, he checks a secret compartment in his house to make sure no one has tampered with it, but we don’t see what’s inside. He eats alone and when it gets dark he walks a ways to a local dive and sits in the corner until a red-headed friend comes in.

He and the friend bullshit together, clearly they’re close. His friend asks if he’ll babysit his daughter so he can work on a case, he says sure. They’re in the middle of talking about the daughter when something on one of the televisions playing in the bar catches his eye. It’s a breaking news feed of an Arkham breakout in Gotham City, with the building on fire, lead by the Joker. He flinches and you see this snarl of twisted fear and rage and his friend reaches out to grab his arm. “Jason, don’t. He doesn’t have to be your problem. You don’t owe Gotham anything.” And Jason looks Roy in the face and says, “Gotham owes me everything. And I’m going to get my payback.”

Jason leaves the bar, goes home, opens the secret compartment–it’s full of guns and all of his Red Hood gear. He packs it up and leaves on his motorcycle bound for Gotham.

Switch over to Bruce being Brucie at a WE function for a charity. He’s called up to give a speech and he talks about how his second son was a boy from Gotham’s streets who’d been exceptional but just didn’t have the opportunities because of his poor background. Unfortunately he was dead in a tragic accident, but Bruce had dedicated this charity in his name for underprivileged youth to fund scholarships and community support, etc. He steps down and has to glad-hand some people until his phone vibrates and he looks at the screen. It’s Oracle telling him there’s a Gotham break out.

Bruce slips away and he’s in the Batcave putting on his Batman gear as Alfred and Barbara–over the computer–fills him in on what’s going on and talks about how most everyone is out of Gotham at the moment, it’s just Bruce and Oracle, and asks Bruce if he wants Alfred to call in Nightwing or someone else for help. Bruce says no he wants them to stay out of it as he’s looking at the Memorial case of Jason’s Robin costume that’s still damaged. Alfred reminds him that since it’s the Joker, Jason is bound to appear, Bruce just grunts and says he’ll deal with that problem as it comes and has Oracle on the look out for any activity from either of them.

Bruce shows up at Arkham and talks to Gordon briefly, who tells him there’s a riot going on inside and they’ve already confirmed the warden had been murdered. Bruce busts in and starts kicking butt and capturing everyone, getting various people to safety that he finds as he makes his way through the building. All the while Oracle is giving him tech support. Bruce finds Joker’s cell but it’s been broken open. Suddenly he thinks he sees joker and and chases him down, capturing him but it turns out it’s just another inmate dressed like him–there’s a whole bunch of fake Jokers running around the building. Oracle tells him they’ll never be able to confirm if it’s really him from cameras alone like this and Bruce has to admit that’s true. But also says the Joker is probably already long gone, and they need to stop worrying about containment and start searching the city for him.

Cut to Jason riding into Gotham. He opens up a derelict safehouse with yet more guns and suits up and hits the streets. Everywhere he goes, he sees flashes of memories–of him as a kid on the streets, of Bruce catching him stealing the tires from the batmobile, him as Robin, him fighting Bruce as Red Hood. He questions homeless people and hookers and roughs up some dealers. They all know him, they’re all afraid, he’s the King of Crime Alley and remember when he ran out Black Mask. After some investigating, someone tells him a certain crime family’s men were hired to riot outside of Arkham and sow even more chaos.

Jason attacks the guy in his big mansion, mowing down hoards of mobsters with guns, all to get to the head guy and question him. He says Joker put out the word he wanted some grunts to help with the breakout and Black Mask had done a deal with him to provide men. The head mobster is Black mask’s man outside of Blackgate prison. The meeting was held in Gotham’s abandoned Amusement Mile between Joker and Roman’s proxies. Jason kills the mobster and leaves for the place he mentioned.

As Jason is on his way, someone hacks into the comms on his helmet–it’s Barbara, she found him after the attack on the mobsters–and she’s trying to get Jason to stop and leave Gotham. He and Bruce had a truce, that Jason would say out of Gotham and stop being Red Hood. Jason says that truce ended when he let Joker escape and now he’s going to kill him. Barbara says he’s not the only person Joker hurt, we see her in the Clocktower in her wheel chair with a picture of her and Gordon. Jason says he’ll kill Joker for both of them. Barbara says she’d rather the Joker be alive than Jason dead at his hands, and Jason says, well that’s where they differ.

Jason investigates the place, an empty funhouse or something. Down a hallway he thinks he sees the Joker and he runs after him but there’s no one there. He keeps seeing images of when he got captured by the Joker in the mirror, sees his younger self bloodied and dead. He’s getting increasingly unhinged. Then Bruce appears as Batman, tells Jason he broke their truce, he came back to Gotham and he killed people, but Bruce is willing to overlook it if he just leaves. Jason goes into his issues with Bruce, about how that’s his problem, he’s unwilling to go as far as necessary to really protect people. About how if Bruce had killed Joker from the beginning, Jason wouldn’t have died or become what he is, and Barbara wouldn’t be in a wheelchair, and all the people who died in the Arkham break out would still be alive.

Jason attacks Bruce, they have a huge badass fight. They are mostly fighting to a draw but they are both getting heavily injured. In the middle of their fight they think they see joker and Jason cuts off Bruce’s path and goes after him alone–only to get clocked with a crowbar from behind and dragged off.

Bruce finally makes it around to where Jason ran off only to a smear of blood on the ground that he runs through the computer and is told belongs to Jason by Alfred. Spray painted next to it is a Joker smile and the location where Jason first tried to get Bruce to murder the Joker.

Bruce goes to the location and finds the Joker there with Jason completely beat up and tied down. “Remember this Batsy? It was a fun little game, wasn’t it? It really had potential.” He’s missed his broken bird in Arkham and getting out has made him feel nostalgic, but alas he has better things to do, so it’s time to tie up this loose end for once and for all. He doesn’t need Red Hood getting between batman and his games, so he’s going to play one final round, winner takes all. “I think we should play again, but this time with a twist,” he says. Joker has set up Bruce to kill him or he’s going to kill Jason again–he’s like you can’t do it can you? Not even for your little robin. So he’s going to die–again.

The confrontation ends exactly like it did in Under the Red hood. Bruce throws a batarang that slits Joker’s throat but doesn’t outright kill him. Joker runs away laughing as Bruce goes to Jason, with Jason weeping and telling him to go after the Joker. Bruce refuses and says Jason’s injuries are more important. He tries to take him to the manor and Jason says no, he refuses to go there, to take him to a hospital. Bruce says if he goes there Red Hood will be arrested for killing the gangster. Jason doesn’t care, he refuses to have anything to do with a father who chooses the joker over his own son twice, he doesn’t get to treat his wounds and act like not going after the Joker was him saving Jason. it was just him betraying Jason yet again.

The last scene is Roy visiting Jason in Blackgate prison. He shows him home videos of Lian and brings him crayon pictures from her. He tells Jason if he ever wants out, just to say, but Jay says no, he’s got some unfinished business to handle. We see Black Mask, also there in the prison…

The End.

—

So pretty much the first movie has the Joker as the main villain in a re-working of the UtRH story, pretty typical Jason stuff.

The second one is where things are a lot less typical and almost brand new and not from the comics because let’s face it–Jason doesn’t have a lot of good stories that don’t involve the Joker. In the second movie Jason is in prison for most of the plot. And the villain? Astrid Arkham, who is the Arkham Knight. How does that work, you may wonder. Oh I have ideas and it’s twisty~ If you guys want to know how I think that one would go, I’ll write it up later.

The third one I’m thinking a League of Assassins thing. Basically Talia comes to Jason to try to get him to lead the league and we find out a lot about the circumstances of Jason’s death and resurrection and training. I’m much less sure about the exact plot for this one, but I think by the end of it Jason should finally forgive Bruce enough to go home and stop killing.

[dickheadandjaybird]

(Arkham Knight)Jason Todd x Reader- Come Home

A/N: This is my first fic on here, and I got the inspiration for these after listening to the audio tapes between Barbara and Jason in the game. I hope you enjoy!

Jason Todd was angry, and had been for a very long time. He was angry at what he was forced to become, at what Joker made him after over a year of torture, and pain, and mind games. He hated Batman, the person he trusted and loved as a father, for not coming to his rescue. He hated him for replacing him so early after he was taken. He hated him, because even after all he had been through, all he had been told, he still wished that Batman would have saved him, not only from Joker. But from himself.

The Clown Prince had changed how he thought of almost all the of members of the batfamily. Bruce, Dick, Tim, but no matter how hard the maniac had tried, Jason Todd never thought of her differently.  His Y/N, also known by her vigilante name Nightingale, was the love of Jason’s life. 

She was always on his mind. He desperately wanted to see her again, and knew that trapping Batman would send her directly to him. The Batman wasn’t in any direct harm, not yet anyways, and it was all an elaborate ploy to bring his Nightingale back to him. There were doubts in his mind, what if she had moved on? Or even worse, what if she hated what he had become just as much as he did, if not more? What if she refused to ever see him as her bird, and didn’t hold him to the same standards she once did? She was his world, and he knew that if she didn’t love him anymore, it would break him. He was willing to take that risk regardless, just to see her face again, even if it meant heartbreak for him.

Just as planned, glass was heard shattering as she broke into the room where the Arkham Knight was keeping Batman captive. She was beautiful, just how he remembered her, and he felt his heart clench at the sight of her. She looked fierce, and powerful, and angry. “Release him Knight,” she said fearlessly, glaring at him.

He melted at the sound of her voice. He was trying to ignore the way she was glaring at him, so angry and full of hate. He knew it was wishful thinking to hope that it would change when he revealed his identity, but if one good thing happened to him, he wanted it to be this. Batman was unconscious, gagged, and bound as to not ruin this moment. It was between him and her, no one else.   

“He is in no harm, yet. Don’t get me wrong, I have every intention to end his life, but I wanted to see you first. You and I have a history, Y/N.” He said with his modulated voice, taking steps towards her.

Her glare had a newfound confusion at his words, “I don’t know how you know my name, but since you do, I say we make the playing field even. Who are you?” She didn’t let her voice waver for a second albeit being as puzzled as ever.

He chuckled lowly, trying to feign confidence even though his heart was beating out of his chest. “Some things don’t change. You’re how you’ve always been, exactly how I remember you. But, as you insist,” He let the front of his mask raise up, revealing his face, “Remember me, baby girl?”

Her breath caught, heart stopping as she looked at him. She could feel her throat burning as tears clouded her eyes. “Jay-” she choked out, voice barely audible as she looked at him. She was speechless, and could feel her entire world shattering.

He took another few steps towards her, moving to place his hand on her cheek. She didn’t move away, and instinctively moved into his touch. “I thought you were dead… he sent a video, and I was the first one to find it....” the words leaving her mouth were still soft and barely there. Seeing her in this heartbroken and hurt state broke his heart to pieces.

“Shh,” he soothed quietly, gently running his thumb across her cheek. He let it be silent for a few minutes before speaking again, “I never stopped thinking about you. He tried so hard to get me to hate you how I hate all the others, but I never could. He could never make me.” His voice wavered as he said this, memories resurfacing of his time in Arkham with him.

All she could do was stare at him, she knew she couldn’t be with him, not like this. Bruce was her father, and he couldn’t die. She needed to convince Jason to come home, to heal himself.

“You need to stop- all of this Jay. You need to come home with me and Bruce and all the others, you need to let us help. But you can’t kill them, it wasn’t his fault. We all thought you were dead, you know he would never leave you there purposely to die. He loved you- he still does. And so do I, but I can’t be with you like this and you know it.”

She was desperate, and he could tell. He could practically hear the gears turning in her head, trying to calculate everything how she always did. Barbara had given him a similar speech about returning home, and Bruce had also tried to convince him too. He didn’t feel the pull towards the manor from either of them that he felt when she asked though.

“It isn’t that easy. I’m different- I crave vengeance, revenge. I want-” he couldn’t finish that sentence. He didn’t want to kill Bruce, he just felt that he had too to finally heal.

“It won’t help you Jason. I think you know that just as well as I do. Joker’s already dead, and if you kill Bruce, you’re playing to his wishes. You don’t win. He does.”

He paused at that, he knew it was true, even if he didn’t want to admit it. He hadn’t noticed the tears flowing down his face until he felt her move to gently wipe them away.

“Please come home. I need you.” She said softly, moving to kiss him gently. He reciprocated, and through it both of them felt all the love they had always had for each other. “I don’t expect to fix you. I don’t expect you to magically go back to how you were. I don’t want you to feel pressured to change immediately, but I can help. So can Bruce and Barbs. I just need you to come home, and let us help you.”

He was grateful at the lack of pressure from her, she always knew just what to say to ease him. “You think they’ll forgive me- after all of this?” He said, voice cracking quietly.

“I don’t think they will. I know they will. Let us help Jay- please.”

He moved to kiss her again, dropping his hands to her waist to hold her close. When he pulled back, he rested his forehead against hers. “Okay. I’ll go home.” He said softly, before dropping his head into the crook of her neck, “I’m so sorry- for all of this.”

“I already forgave you Jay. Now help us save Gotham?”

“Of course, doll.”