#maybe she even has clayfaces powers?

[im-totally-not-an-alien-2]

Halloween prompts year 2 day 17

A supervillian had captured a supernatural creature in some kind of device, the entity in question looked like a white haired teen from what they could see of him in the glass sphere he was enclosed in.

The villian was monologing about how they would use the creatures sacred powers to resurrect some evil gods or whatever when the heros intervened knocking him away and accidentally started the machine.

The teen screamed as electricity flowed through his body. Tim ran to him searching for a way to turn off the machine when his hand touched the outside of the sphere.

Unbeknownst to the heros, the machine required a piece of whoever was dead to revive them, it could be hair, blood, bone or even...a memory

That was how Tim, as Robin (or Red Robin whoever you prefer) found himself holding not his mom or dad or anyone you might have expected.

No.

He was holding someone he never thought he'd see again. Someone who didn't even think she was real. Someone who was marveling at her new body made of flesh and blood

Annie.

[twosentencereviews]

Joker 2 will (probably) also be bad

I've gone on record saying Joker (2019) was a badly-conceived film, with ideas that are, at best, inconsistent and muddled.

And now they're making another one. With Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn. Maybe it will be better this time?

...no, probably not. Let me break it down.

So, the entire design philosophy of Joker (2019) from writer/director Todd Phillips was, quote, "we're gonna sneak in a real movie in the guise of a comic book movie". That is, Phillips wanted to make Taxi Driver...but he's only a talented enough filmmaker to make The Hangover at best, and The Hangover Part III at worst, and so Warner Bros only trusted him with an IP that was guaranteed to succeed regardless of quality.

This sucks on two levels. If we judge Joker as a "real film"...it fails utterly, because it's using the visual language of the 1970s to whine about 21st century woes, and even then doesn't have anything to say. The "failed standup act goes viral" plot beat doesn't fit with the media landscape of the 1970s, while the clown rioters echo the "eat the rich, defund the police" sentiment that was brewing in 2019 and would explode with George Floyd's murder in 2020. These things are included because Phillips is the kind of jerk who complains about "woke culture" on Twitter. The only reason Phillips sets the film in the 1970s...is because he's cheating off Scorsese's homework.

But if we judge Joker as a comic book movie, it also sucks, because it completely fails to live up to what makes The Joker so fascinating. See, The Joker is a Batman villain; a standout antagonist against the rogues gallery. You cannot understand The Joker except as a literary foil, as a dark reflection of the Dark Knight. Batman is a solemn, incorruptible force for justice. The Joker is a manic, incorruptible force of destruction. While many of Batman's villains are sympathetic (e.g. Mr Freeze), and others are garden-variety thugs with powers (e.g. Clayface), The Joker is pure. He cannot be reasoned with or negotiated with, he has no agenda beyond causing mayhem, and he has no better nature to appeal to. That charisma, that certainty of purpose, is what makes the Joker such a fun villain. Phillips throws all of that in the garbage--Arthur Fleck is weak-willed, cowardly, and just needs a friend.

And now, in Folie a deux...he's getting one, in the form of Gaga's Harley Quinn.

Now, Harley Quinn is different from the Joker. Harley was introduced in Batman: the Animated Series, voiced by Arleen Sorkin, as a counterpart to Mark Hamill's Joker. Her origin story is that she was Dr. Harlene Quinzel, a psychiatrist at Arkham Asylum, who tried to fix The Joker...only to be pulled in by his madness, taking a new name, costume, and falling head-over-heels for "Mista J", her "puddin'".

This is interesting because while The Joker only really makes sense as a Batman antagonist, Harley only really makes sense in the context of the Joker. Harley's story is one of domestic abuse; she is The Joker's greatest victim, and yet his staunchest ally. She sometimes realizes this and tries to get away, but can't escape his manipulative gravity. This obsessive love, however, is not returned; The Joker's soulmate is Batman, the yin to his yang, his equal and opposite. Nowhere is this more clear than in the iconic Mad Love, where Harley almost kills Batman as a gift to her puddin', only for The Joker to furiously lash out in a "no one kills Batman but me" kind of way.

So while the Joker is fun because he's so unsympathetic, Harley is fun because she is sympathetic. The Joker is fully evil, but Harley is only evil because of her exposure to The Joker; without him in the picture, she's just a manic antihero.

And that's exactly what's happened to her character over time; fan and authorial desire to see Harley achieve independence and escape the cycle of abuse led directly to her more modern portrayals, such as Margot Robbie in Suicide Squad (2016), Birds of Prey, and The Suicide Squad (2021). But even then, she was introduced in Suicide Squad against Jared Leto's Joker, and the start of Birds of Prey is her mourning her breakup with him. Her animated series starts the same way, seeking autonomy and an independent self-identity.

Folie a deux...isn't going to be doing that. It can't. It doesn't work with Arthur Fleck. The whole point of Joker (2019) is that Arthur Fleck is a loser, he's a failed nobody, he is the dregs of society that everyone ignores. His sexual frustration and loneliness form the basis of a major (and idiotic) plot beat with Zazie Beetz. He is a million miles from the "charismaniac" of Hamill or Ledger--there is zero possibility that he could "infect" a brilliant psychiatrist.

To his credit, Phillips realizes this, and is taking a different angle. From the trailer, it looks like Gaga's Harley is going to be a fellow Arkham resident, and she's going to be the one who initiates flirtation with Arthur, in a sort of "love letter to a serial killer" kind of admiration. The trailer leans heavily on the refrain of "what the world needs now is love, sweet love", and overall seems to be framing itself as an honest-to-god romance. Instead of the Joker/Harley relationship being abuser/victim, it looks instead to be toxic enabling, where Harley encourages Arthur to embrace his worst, most destructive instincts.

And...that's probably going to be framed as a good thing. See, if Folie a deux is going to be a romance, then plot constraints demand that there needs to be an obstacle dividing the lovers and preventing their happy union. What obstacle could exist between Arthur and Harley? Why, the entire legal system, of course--we see in the teaser multiple shots of them going up courthouse steps. It's likely that the pair fall in love in Arkham, escape ("let's get out of here", Harley says), are recaptured, and then have to defend themselves in court. This might have a "happy ending" where they win and leave together, affirming that enabling a violent criminal is a good thing. Or it might have a "sad ending" where the court outcome separates them, affirming Arthur's nihilism and anger at a system he perceives as unjust only when it inconveniences him. Either way, Harley is going to be framed as good for Arthur, making him better while making him worse.

Could this be done well? Maybe. It's certainly possible. Canon is already so broken that it's no longer a limitation. A talented director might realize the moral complexity in the relationship between two violent, mentally unstable murderers. One could frame the entire thing as a tragedy, where "boy gets girl back again" is shown to be disastrous (as in The Graduate). Or, it could even be something of an inversion of the more canonical Joker/Harley romance; instead of Harley realizing that she's better off without Mista J, it might be Arthur realizing he is better off without Harley.

But it almost certainly won't be any of that. Because Phillips thinks that Arthur Fleck is relatable. He thinks he's a martyr, a victim of targeted injustice, a doomed hero refusing to bow to societal norms. But he isn't. Arthur Fleck is an entitled white boy who simultaneously sees his suffering as a systemic failing, while also refusing to see how the system harms others, and refusing to see how his own choices make things worse for everyone. Arthur Fleck is an embodiment of denied privilege, where cishet white men expect to be lavished with unearned success, and are butthurt when they don't get it.

And above all, the thing that media has always told men is that a manic pixie dream girl is going to find you and fall madly in love with you despite your obvious failings. That is the heterosexual male romantic fantasy; love without effort, acceptance without labor, companionship without obligation. Todd Phillips might play this straight. Or he might set this up for Arthur, only to deny it as an act of authorial cruelty. But the first film demonstrates that he lacks the self-awareness necessary to actually deconstruct it, to criticize the expectation itself.

So no. I don't think Folie a deux will be better than its prequel. Because for Todd Phillips to make a better movie, he'd have to be a better person. And he's not.

[spiralcass]

The way Shiva and Steph have both been so heavily attached to Cass these past few years is actually pretty weird when you think about it in the larger context.

Yes, Steph is Cass' best friend historically, and Shiva is Cass' mom. But between 1999 (Cass' debut year) and 2019 (the last year before DiDio's firing and the begining of the modern versions of these characters), they really didn't interact much. Yes, erasures, reboots, and deaths played a role in this, but even so, Cass and Steph had maybe a dozen team-ups total prior to the latter's death, with the two never getting a proper reunion once she was back, and the story where Cass and the readers discovered Shiva was her mom was the last time those two would interact for over a decade.

And like...this is the power of fandom at play, right? Prior to 2006 (the begining of Cass' erasure), Steph and Shiva would appear with Cass and play important roles in her life, but they also had conpletely seperate lives and relationships; they are both older characters than Cass after all. This continued in the back half of the 2000s and the first half of the 2010s. Whatever you think of the quality of stories being told, Shiva and Steph's lives were distinctly seperate from Cass'.

Then you get to Rebirth, and this is where this discussion ends for Shiva, because ever since Cass was brought back into canon, she hasn't had a single story that wasnt about her.

Steph's a different story though. From 2015-2019, the joke in fandom was that Cass kept ditching her best friend for a new one (Harper, Clayface, Duke, and, Hell, count Tim if you want see he was her best friend by the end of Pre-FP) and that her and Steph barely seemed like close friends at all. They barely spoke to each other in Tec, and didnt speak at all in between Tec and Joker War.

And yet now, short of a Robins team-up, you'll be hard pressed to find Steph showing up without Cass (much more likely it'll be the other way around).

The fact is that Cass is by far the most popular of these characters, and DC has finally started realizing Cass is one of their biggest female and minority heroes. Naturally, that's gonna pull Steph and Shiva closer into her orbit. But I think the fandom aspect is the more interesting part here.

Fans love Cass. For over 20 years, fans have created lots of content for Cass. And for as little as Cass actually actually interacted woth Steph and Shiva back in the day, they were still the characters she interacted with the most (alongside Bruce and Babs). Not only that, but most of their appearences together are utterly beloved and considered foundational to the characters. And so with no competition, clear slots they fit into in Cass' life, popularity among fans, and fanfic writers and fanartists generally preferring to explore/focus on relationships and interactions over the types of things Cass' book mostly dealt with, Steph and Shiva became integral to her world. And more than anything, I think that's why we find ourselves in the situation we do today.

Edit: Shit, I forgot to talk about Futures End, Convergence, and how the meta corcumstances of being lumped together as the "other" Batgirls caused them to become even closer.

[crimsonvelvet]

The meanings of Batman’s rogues’ names

So I decided to find out the meanings of the rogues’ names. Idk why, but I find this sort of stuff really interesting.

First of all, I’m not putting here those rogues, whose real names are unknown(like Bane or Joker). I am also putting here the prominent villains. I would love to do them all, but that would take me WAY too long. But who knows, I could make this into a series...

Let’s go with alphabet order.(btw I’m using the Batman wiki for the characters’ order and various websites for the meanings)

First up is Bane. Like I said, his real name is unknown, so there’s not much I can do.

Next up, Basil Karlo, AKA Clayface.(Wow didn’t even know he was considered a primary antagonist...)  Basil comes from the Greek name Βασίλειος (Basileios), meaning "king". Huh... 

Selina Kyle, AKA Catwoman. Selina is a variant of Celina or Selene. Selene means "moon" in Greek. This was the name of a Greek goddess of the moon, a Titan. This is actually quite fitting for her.

Harleen Quinzel, AKA Harley Quinn. Harleen is, in fact, a name created primarily for Harley’s character in BTAS! So there really isn’t a meaning for it. (But the fact that they made up a new name is actually really cool)

The Joker. Yeah sorry, nothing here. Just like Bane.

Waylon Jones, AKA Killer Croc. Waylon is a variant of Wayland, which, in turn, comes from Wieland, meaning “uncertain”. Hmm, maybe it is a spin on his uncertainty whether he is human or a monster...

Jervis Tetch, AKA Mad Hatter. Jervis is an alternate spelling of Gervase (Old German): possibly derives from "spear". For such an unsual name, it has a really boring meaning.

Kirk Langstrom, AKA Man-Bat. Kirk comes from an English and Scottish surname meaning "church" from Old Norse kirkja. Uhh...maybe Kirk is religious?

Victor Fries, AKA Mr. Freeze. Victor is a Roman name meaning "victor, conqueror" in Latin. Could imply that one day he may achieve victory and find a cure for his wife.

Oswald Cobblepot, AKA The Penguin. Oswald is derived from the Old English elements os "god" and weald "power, ruler". Well, he is a very prominent mafia boss, so you could say he is the ruler of Gotham’s underworld.

Pamela Isley, AKA Poison Ivy.  Pamela as a name was invented in the late 16th century by the poet Sir Philip Sidney for use in his poem Arcadia. He possibly intended it to mean "all sweetness" from Greek πᾶν (pan) meaning "all" and μέλι (meli) meaning "honey". She sure is sweet, though. Dangerously so.

Ra’s al Ghul. This name is arabic for "Head of the Demon", as revealed in Robin#10. Should’ve guessed.

Edward Nygma, AKA The Riddler. Edward means "rich guard", derived from the Old English elements ead "wealth, fortune" and weard "guard". Uhhhhhh... He is the guard of his *cough* rich intellect?

Jonathan Crane, AKA Scarecrow.(Yay, my favorite DC character:D ). The undisputed origin of this name is that it comes from the Hebrew name Yonatan. This is taken to mean “Yahweh has given” or, “God has given”. YES oh hell yeah he’s a gift from God!

And finally, Harvey Dent, AKA Two-Face. Harvey comes from the Breton given name Haerviu, which meant "battle worthy", from haer "battle" and viu "worthy". hmmm, I mean, he is worthy to battle with Batman.

Aight, that’s it for now. Wow, that took longer than I expected... Sure was fun, though. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll do a part two with the less prominent folks like Firefly or Hush. We’ll see.

[emeraldspiral]

Thinking about how cool it would be to see Baby Doll in the next season of the Harley Quinn show.

She only ever had one episode in the DCAU after her debut and the only villain she interacted with was Killer Croc, but she had so much potential. It would’ve been great to see her paired up with other villains. Like, there’s been so much Batman-affiliated media dedicating to spotlighting partnerships between female villains and supporting characters but she never got to hang out with the cool kids in Gotham Girls or the Birds of Prey or Gotham City Sirens. Imagine if she’d gotten to strike up a friendship with Harley like Poison Ivy and Livewire did. Like, especially if it happened after “Love is a Croc” where they could’ve bonded over their relationships with shitty men.

The other villain I immediately think of when considering a great character to pair Mary up with is Clayface. Like, you could’ve even done “Love is a Croc” with him instead and it would’ve made more sense because they both have the angle of being treated like “freaks” because of their appearance, but they’re also both washed-up actors.

If you put her in the Harley Quinn show Mary having that relationship with Croc and her sitcom family can actually work toward advancing the main plot of Harley working through her own baggage and she can have an interesting dynamic with Clayface. Like, they could both be terrible actors constantly going after parts that they’re not right for with no self-awareness. Or Mary could actually be an unrecognized talent who’s jealous that Clayface’s powers are wasted on such a talentless imbecile. And maybe this leads to her trying to kill Clayface or steal his power or something so she can finally look like an adult and get adult parts. But it all gets resolved when Harley makes her realize she doesn’t have to be stuck doing sitcoms all her life. She just has to switch her focus from pursing roles that call for “adult” actors like Lady MacBeth and toward parts like "child vampire", "extremely long-lived alien/elf species", "child robot", "possessed doll", "evil Leprechaun", or "the girl from Orphan, aka a dramatization of her real life". Use her stint as a criminal to reinvent her public image and escape her sitcom typecasting and become an iconic horror actress.

[oncegreatness]

— character info sheet.

(repost, don’t reblog)

name: Basil Karlo.

name meaning: Literally named after Boris Karloff and Basil Rathbone. Basil is a plant, also.

alias/es: Clayface, or Clayface I.

ethnicity: Mostly German and Indian-American [as a nod to Boris Karloff]. Other than that, we don't know specifics.

one picture / icon you like best of your character:

three h/cs you never told anyone:

I've said it on Discord forever ago so technically not cheating, but he is wholly immune to prion diseases. He simply out-mutates the prions.

Other voiceclaims I'd considered for him were Tony Jay and Tim Curry. Eventually I decided the vocal dissonance of having him be mainly voiced by Vincent Price was too good to pass up.

I've implied it, but he suffers from pretty bad Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome, or wet brain disease, due to a lifetime of alcoholism. More on that here. It's bad, yes, but he has been convinced to try and get help.

three things your character likes doing in their free time:

Drinking. Dear god, drinking. It started off as a way to numb the pain of his nerve endings being on fire, but of course the 1900's just spurred on social drinking as a movement overall.

Providing snarky commentary on any situation ever. He revels in being a catty gay.

Just vibing NGL. Gotham is a very hectic place, and Basil is old as shit despite the powers offering a physical boost. Boy needs a break sometimes!

eight people your character likes / loves:

[main AU and in any AUs where I happen to write them both] Viktor Albrektsson Fries/Mr. Freeze. They're in an awkward polycule with Nora. Literal ride or die.

Sondra Fuller. The only child he doesn't view as a parasite, for whatever reason. Honestly, even I don't really know why he immediately latched onto Sondra. Perhaps it's because she reminds him of himself.

@enignoema he's quite fond of Riddler. Quite. It's genuinely rare people get beneath that exterior and tragically Eddie has captivated him.

Mary! @babydxhl :) best buds forever

Film Freak as a broad general. Fuck yeah, a loser who only speaks in movie references.

[NPC] Thierry Baudin. Arguably the first person he ever truly loved and wasn't just using as a means to an end. Baudin had a dark side to him, one he tried to only express in his camerawork.

@ people: yeah IDK interact with me more?? Shrug. My characters don't know a whole lot of people on the Tumblr side of things.

two things your character regrets:

Not killing his father.

At his lowest moments, the fact he wasn't the one who died. He managed to hide his having AIDS, as he was somewhat sickly to begin with.

one phobia your character has:

Being alone. He'll never cop to it, though. Who is he when he isn't performing? I don't think he knows; maybe he never knew.

Tagged by: I stole this lmfaooo

Tagging: @enignoema , @babydxhl ; whoever else wants, I'm going to bed in a bit and I have a literal single digit number of followers on this blog

[bisexualdinahlance]

I'm not gonna lie, considering I don't think there's been a time in canon that Batman has ever actually said "no metas in Gotham" I get really uncomfortable that this is a running gag in Batfandom. Like people seem to think it's a funny joke but it comes across as honestly? Kind of bigoted? Especially when there's next to no real basis for it in canon.

Like people love to bring it up now mostly in reference to either superbat or now that we have an explicitly powered member of the batfamily that the fandom at large acknowledges, but Duke isn't even the first metahuman member of the Batfamily! When Batman got his back broken by Bane in the 90s it was literally a metahuman that took over the role of Batman (Azrael for the record). Catwoman has at times been implied to be a meta (though this has mostly been dropped in more recent years).

Even if you consider Duke as the only powered Bat, Batman obviously didn't like kick him out as soon as he showed powers dsijrigjae

Black Canary, as I always yell to the skies, is from Gotham! She was born and raised there, and has often worked out of Gotham. The Birds of Prey are normally stationed out of Gotham, which has Dinah on it, but sometimes has other various metas as well. Wildcat (Ted Grant) does his solo work out of Gotham, it's where his gym is.

And even better! Bruce would be used to metas being in Gotham - the JSA used to be headquartered in Gotham.

That's even ignoring the fact that there are plenty of members of the Rogues Gallery that have meta abilities, plenty of which walk the line of villain and anti-hero (such as Nu52 Killer Croc and Clayface). There was an entire mini-series in Rebirth that was just about all the "monsters" (monster metas) that live in Gotham. 90s and 00s Gotham was legit cursed, there was so much magical nonsense going on in the city.

Like maybe it shouldn't rub me as much as it does, but I am really starting to hate that joke.

[aros001]

Going in blind: Watching season 4 for the first time. Random thoughts.

I never said anything about it before but I love Shadow Weaver's DCAU Batman eyes. They're so expressive.

Episode 1: Okay...I wasn't expecting Catra to do that. I mean, it makes sense. If she has leverage over Hordak then she's basically in charge of the Horde and that's what she's wanted (or at least believes she wants) since episode 1. It's an aspect that made her a good antagonist, that she's not blind to the evil of the Horde, she just doesn't care as long as she herself is secure. Which naturally begs the question, when the rebellion and the princesses are crushed, when the Horde is on top, when Adora is dead, when Catra finally has everything she's ever wanted...will she actually finally be happy? Somehow, I have my doubts.

I definitely feel for Glimmer in this. When you go through as big a loss as she did you need to be able to feel and vent if you're ever going to get through it. It doesn't have to be right away but everyone doing everything in their power to avoid the topic entirely can make you feel like you're going crazy. It'a especially bad for her since it unintentionally makes it feel like everyone is acting like it doesn't matter that Angela is gone when it clearly means everything to Glimmer.

Episode 2: I actually had a potted cactus plant once. Accidentally forgot about it and left it outside for an entire winter. Once the snow was gone the cactus looked like it had melted.

I kind of want to see what an interaction between Double Trouble and Clayface from the Harley Quinn animated series would look like. I'm guess Catra was just testing how good Double Trouble was as a doppelganger because it doesn't seem like she did anything while Adora was being distracted, though I suppose that could be a reveal in a later episode.

Not much to say except that I love how buff Huntara is while still clearly being a woman. Like, women can have a variety of different body types, as this series and Steven Universe show, and Huntara's build isn't just, like, Bow's body with lipstick and ponytail and the animators calling it a day. No, she looks like a freakin' jacked adult woman.

Episode 3: I didn't figure out the Flutterina = Double Trouble twist until a minute before it was revealed, so good job there. Before that I was wondering if Flutterina was some fan's original character where they won some contest where their OC got to be in the show for an episode. She was giving off some weird self-insert vibes. That twist made it all work though. It's honestly not a bad plan. Shapeshifters haven't really been a thing in the series before now so there's no reason to suspect it. Even if they did they'd probably be expecting it by way of magic or technology, while Double Trouble's seems to be a natural ability.

I like that even though Bow is definitely the goofier one of the trio he is still consistently shown as competent. That's never in question. He was very heroic and reassuring to the villagers this episode. I get why those kids idolize him so much.

Catra's having guilt over what she did with the portal and to Entrapta and her response is basically to just double-down. She doesn't know any other way to be. Not going to lie, I am kind of hoping we get another moment in the show where Adora just completely overwhelms Catra with the sheer power of She-Ra. I'm not saying like brutalize her or anything but just something where Catra is made to realize just how powerful Adora is and that she could just destroy Catra if she had a mind to do so.

Episode 4: Well, I was saying I wanted Adora to do it but I guess I don't mind Glimmer being the one to get some good shots in on Catra. Like I predicted, Shadow Weaver's moving in to become her teacher like she was with her father. Honestly I like that that was more Adora's problem than Glimmer using her as bait, which she seemed to get over pretty quick. Yeah, it was kind of a heartless thing to do but it was an understandable tactic and she clearly outright told Adora that she did it and why afterwards, which at least means she's still being honest.

It occurs to me that Glimmer and Catra may be the ones running parallel right now. Both are basically leading their respective sides of the war. They both have lost someone very important to them. And both are trusting someone they probably shouldn't. Both even have outfits that've been updated in the intro. The difference is Glimmer's just trying to deal with a bad situation while Catra's is entirely self-inflicted.

Minor thing but I like Glimmer's new outfit this season. I'm sure this is the intention but it makes her look older and more mature. A little more muscular in some shots too.

Episode 5: Heart of Etheria project. No idea what that is but assumedly whoever's a part of it doesn't like Light Hope and Mara being friends. Sounds like it's very much interested in She-Ra being just a warrior, and perhaps a tool, for the greater good. It does make me wonder though how much Light Hope remember from when she was rebooting. Even if she deleted the Mara memory she could potentially still have the memory of her and Adora watching the Mara memory, as well as Adora asking to be her friend.

Episode 6: Yep. Scorpia; definitely favorite supporting character. There is something kind of funny about her whole "Scorpions are loyal" line when you remember the story about the Frog and the Scorpion, where it stings the frog despite it meaning death for itself as well simply because that is its nature. But finally we're having someone go save Entrapta, and I can only assume at some point Scorpia's going to access the power of the Black Garnet.

The parallels between Catra and Hordak are definitely at their max here with that speech of hers to him. She's basically trying to convince herself that she doesn't need anyone, the timing of which is appropriate since she just drove away Scorpia and now truly doesn't have anyone. Not that I blame Scorpia, obviously. Like Adora before her, however good you believe someone can be and that you can help them, at some point you just have to cut the toxic people out of your life. You have the right to be happy too.

And man, Bow is just the best. He saw something was wrong between Adora and Glimmer and defused the situation like (snap) that, pushing them to talk like any sane person would.

Episode 7: I'm sure it is just because I've seen way too many TV shows and movies (both animated and live action) that don't do it but it is just such a relief to have a show where the characters just TALK and LISTEN to each other. It doesn't solve all their issues but they're at least not being stupid and freakin' petty. It helps the drama feel a lot less forced and contrived.

Episode 8: A little bit of amusement in Bow thinking at first that Glimmer and Adora didn't even notice he was gone despite them coming to his rescue very shortly afterwards, given Catra is only now realizing Scorpia has left and assumedly she did so a while ago. Bow and Sea Hawk hadn't been gone for that long so it's not unreasonable Glimmer and Adora wouldn't be worried about their absence (Bow was literally talking about "me time" when they last saw him), while Catra is only noticing Scorpia's absence now and it was because she wanted something. Like Scorpia said, she's a bad friend.

Kind of ironic given that a lot of Catra's issues are the direct result of Shadow Weaver giving her very little love growing up but it does seem this tough love is probably what'll get through to Catra the best. She might finally stop making bad decisions and lashing out if she's forced to live with the consequences of them, like Adora told her last season.

Glimmer gets a bit of slack from me since she suffered through a huge loss, that being her mother, and then was immediately thrown into being queen right after. It'd be hard for anyone to be 100% on their game and well-adjusted in a situation like that, and I buy that she was on some level resentful of Adora for coming back instead of her mother, even if unintentionally so. What definitely helps is that Glimmer very clearly and immediately regretted what she said to Adora. Like Catra she's lashing out but unlike Catra Glimmer recognizes some of the damage she's doing and knows, at least in this case, that she went too far.

Episode 9: Now that I can see the design in color I definitely prefer Mara's She-Ra with pants to Adora's She-Ra with shorts. Honestly, while the differences are pretty minor, I do think Mara's She-Ra design is overall a lot better than Adora's. Sharper shoulder guards. Bigger cape (especially the cape, I love capes). I don't know, there's just a lot that clicks with it and I wouldn't mind Adora getting a similar outfit later.

Madam Razz definitely had a Yoda feel this episode. I was very much expecting her to start wacking Mara with a stick over the sugar like Yoda did with R2. Though while that was Yoda acting crazy, for Razz it's because she experiences time out of order, and I don't think I've ever seen that concept taken to this extent, or at least done this way before. There are characters like River Song from Doctor Who, Professor Paradox from Ben 10, or even the Reverse-Flash who interact with other characters in time out of order but those characters are still on a linear path from their own perspective, even when travelling through time. Razz is just bouncing around her own timeline, seemingly not even any real reason or cause to it like Subaru from Re:Zero. Clearly she's not just remembering things oddly because her talk about things of the present are heard by people in the past and have an effect. I wonder if maybe the reason why is because Razz was at ground zero of Mara's actions and this is a side-effect of pulling Etheria away from the rest of the universe.

Bringing more Star Wars into this, it basically sounds like the Heart of Etheria project has turned Etheria into a magic Starkiller Base; storing power that'll be unleashed to destroy whole planets. And jeez, I think this was the first time I really felt creeped out by Light Hope when she was talking to Mara.

I'm looking forward to seeing what it means that the First Ones only made the sword and that Etheria made She-Ra. If that's the case, why is only the sword able to bring out the She-Ra form? Is it like MCU Thor's hammer and the weapon was just meant to help him control the power he already had? Or is what we think is She-Ra not actually She-Ra and that form that Adora and Mara take is just a stand-in for the real thing?

Episode 10: It didn't even occur to me until now but Double Trouble's capture is another blow to Catra's circle of "friends" too. They were at least able to make her laugh. One less person for her to talk to and just...really just distract her from her thoughts.

It's a good dilemma this episode presents about what to do with the Heart of Etheria. The safest and probably best option is to just dismantle it, like Adora and Bow want, since it could easily lead to the destruction of the entire planet if it goes off. Not the mention there's so little they know about it and what it was intended for and the one person who can potentially tell them, Light Hope, they were warned not to trust. But it's not hard to understand where Glimmer is coming from in wanting to use that power to fight the Horde. They're already losing the war and now she knows Hordak Prime and his FAR more powerful forces are on the way. Tapping into the Heart is a huge risk but she's not seeing any other paths for the rebels to win. It's a really good dilemma, with good arguments presented from both sides, and I buy this widening the schism between Adora and Glimmer.

Episode 11: I have mixed feelings on King Micah still being alive. On the one hand there's a lot of good potential interactions we can now have with him, primarily between Glimmer and Shadow Weaver, and he is a fun character. But on the other I can't help but wonder if this kind of lessens the impact of what Angela gave up to overcome the false reality. Part of what made it so emotional was that she had to accept the person she loved was dead and not coming back...except now we see that he wasn't dead and now he is coming back. Yeah, their family lost out on years together and that does still carry some emotional weight but I was already also half-expecting Angela to come back later in the series because she's stuck between dimensions, meaning there's a chance she could still be alive. If both Glimmer's parents come back then that really feels like it takes a lot of weight out of her story. But I guess we'll see what happens.

Also, why did the Horde exile him to Beast Island? Why not just kill him?!

Episode 12: So the Horde exiles Micah to Beast Island instead of killing him. The First Ones protect their secrets by sending their bad tech to Beast Island. Does no one know how to just destroy things in this world?

Ohhh, I am so looking forward to next episode. While it's debatable whether Glimmer should be going through with her plan she is at least being smart with how she's going about it. Double Trouble was being paid by Catra to work for the Horde, not out of any sense of loyalty. Glimmer has the resources of Bright Moon at her disposal so it's reasonable she could pay them more to switch sides. Double Trouble was very good at sabotaging even a group as tight-nit as the heroes, so Hordak and Catra are probably easy pickings with all their issues.

Episode 13: ....WELL THAT AIN'T GOOD!

I'll admit, I had a little bit of an unintended laugh. After all we've heard about Horde Prime, like this shadowy all-powerful monster, I wasn't expecting the fabulous flowing dreadlocks and smoothness. Credit where it's due, man has charisma and charm, which goes a long way in helping your big evil world conqueror not be a very flat character, because it's doubtful he's going to have the same kind of sympathetic motivation as Hordak or complexity as Catra to keep him elevated.

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Double Trouble kicking at Catra while she's down. Adora and Scorpia were honest but they never wanted to hurt Catra. Not so much with Double Trouble and they just shove reality into her face. Everyone leaves Catra because of Catra. She's the common factor. It's her fault and no one else's. Again, I don't know for certain if Adora and Catra get together at the end (Catra would have a LOT to make amends for regardless) but Double Trouble was definitely implying Catra had feelings for her with the way they put Catra's hand on "Adora's" cheek while talking about how she left her.

I like that we see Glimmer's plan actually working at first. The princesses get a massive power boost and decimate the Horde forces. But the minute it starts going wrong she immediately admits Adora was right and she tries to stop the energy flow. I imagine having her there with Catra was intentional by the writers. Despite some parallels, Glimmer can actually accept her failures and work to try and fix things. Unlike Catra, she didn't blame Adora for things going wrong.

So the sword allows the First Ones to control She-Ra and the energy she'd be absorbing from the planet. Assumedly that means there are at least some parts to She-Ra that have nothing to do with the First Ones and thus maybe Adora can still use some of those powers without the sword.

Season 4 verdict: Yeah, the show keeps getting better, though I will admit last season's finale had me more emotional, but that's a bit of an unfair comparison given everything that happened in that finale vs. this one. This is definitely the series hitting its darkest hour, where it feels like EVERYONE lost. Not just the rebels but the Horde as well. The sword and Light Hope are gone and She-Ra (for now) along with them. Glimmer and Catra are basically prisoners. Hordak's probably going to have his personality stripped away. The Fright Zone is in ruins. The only one who's gained anything is Prime.

Really looking forward to what the final season has in store, especially since there seems to be the implication that Catra just saved Glimmer's life.

Original Reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/PrincessesOfPower/comments/o1j5gk/going_in_blind_watching_season_4_for_the_first/

[hood-ex]

I also have a question about writing bat-related fanfic! Whenever I think of a good plot, I always have a tough time building up the beginning because I have to create the initial conflict. And usually that conflict is some villain getting the upper hand (because I love that trope, sue me), but then comes the issue of how that happened in the first place, you know? Like, this one guy is going up against a bunch of highly skilled vigilantes. Got any tips for logicing it out?

The teacher is in!

Your Villain

First, let’s think about who your villain is going to be. We want to figure out who your villain is, what advantages they have, and how we can build a story around those aspects. 

Is your villain a member of Batman’s rogue gallery or is your villain someone new? If it’s someone we’re already familiar with (Joker, Clayface, Riddler) then you’ve already got an idea of what their strengths and weaknesses are. If it’s a villain you created, you get to choose their strengths and weaknesses. 

The villain’s goal

Knowing what the villain’s goal is will help you piece together scenes for your story. Think about what the villain’s ultimate goal is. Do they want to steal money? Do they want to be like the Joker and just cause senseless chaos? Do they want to produce drugs that can be weaponized? Is it something more personal like with Mr. Freeze where they want to help someone they love? Do they want to weaken Batman by killing one of his family members? Do they want to straight up kill Batman?

Once you have an idea of what you want your villain’s goal to be then you can think about what the villain already has/what the villain can do to achieve that goal.  

There are four things you can think about that will give your villain the upper hand. 

1. The villain’s powers and intellect. 

What advantage does the villain’s power/intellect give them over the vigilante? Riddler and Hugo Strange are extremely smart. Scarecrow has fear toxin. Joker has laughing gas. Clayface can regenerate and shapeshift. 

Even though the bats are smart, they are still vulnerable to these types of things. As the writer, you have control over how you want to disadvantage the vigilante. 

Let’s say the bats have been exposed to fear toxin. Okay, well, maybe Batman and Robin have fear toxin antidotes in their utility belts. But Nightwing? He doesn’t carry that kind of thing around with him. Also, maybe Scarecrow changed the dosage/effects of the toxin, so now the antidotes Batman and Robin have are useless or aren’t as effective. Maybe the antidotes are actually in the batmobile, but the batmobile is far away and the drugs are taking effect now. 

Like, yes, the bats are skilled and are prepared for many situations, but they’re still human. They don’t have supernatural reflexes. They aren’t bulletproof. They can’t predict every little trap that the villain has set out for them. Keep that kind of thing in mind, especially if you’re using a villain that you created. 

2. Using the setting to their advantage

Think about the place where the fight/confrontation takes place. What are some things about the place that the villain can use to their advantage? Are they near a river or the ocean? Maybe there’s a boat nearby that makes it easy for the villain to get away in. If the villain’s intention is to abduct a vigilante then they could ride away on the boat with the vigilante in tow before other batfam members show up to help. 

If the fight takes place in the middle of the city then maybe the villain is putting civilian’s lives in danger. Now the vigilante has lost track of the villain because they have to stop and help the civilians. Or maybe Batman has to choose between saving civilians or going after the villain who just abducted Robin. He chooses to help the civilians, so now the villain has successfully gotten away with Robin. 

3. The villain’s connections

Villains can use unexpected means to get the advantage over a vigilante. For example, in Tomasi’s Nightwing run, Two-Face has Nightwing shot with a bullet laced with fear toxin. Normally, you wouldn’t expect Two-Face to have fear toxin, right? That’s Scarecrow’s thing. But that doesn’t mean that Two-Face can’t use his connections to get some fear toxin for himself to use against the vigilante.

Your own villain can do something similar. If your villain isn’t a major player from Batman’s rogue gallery then maybe they can steal a weapon or a toxin that will help them. Maybe they’re super smart and can create their own toxin that other villains would find valuable to have. They could then work together to create an even more potent toxin. Maybe your villain teams up with another villain, and while the other villain creates a distraction, your villain comes in and attacks the vigilante. 

4. Blackmail 

Villains can use the vigilante’s loved ones or civilians against them. This can make the vigilante do things they normally wouldn’t or it can make them give themselves up to the villain. 

Building Around the Villain

Okay, so how can we take all that ^ information and build up to the conflict?

First, figure out which characters you’re going to want to go against the villain. Do you want just one person? A few members of the batfam? All of the batfam? 

Let’s create a hypothetical situation and say that we want a story that starts off with Nightwing as our protagonist. Our setting is in Bludhaven. Dick is walking down the street and talking to Tim on the phone. They’re making plans for Tim to come stay with Dick in Bludhaven for a few days. 

Great. We now know that at least Dick and Tim are going to be involved in the story so far. 

Let’s say the villain of this story is a scientist named Patty Thompson. She has absolutely no powers, but she’s extremely intelligent. She knows that Dick is Nightwing because she lives across from Dick’s apartment complex and once saw him go through his apartment window as Nightwing. She did some investigating about the residents in his apartment complex and put the pieces together. 

Now why is Patty interested enough in Nightwing to go through those lengths to figure out his identity? It’s because she’s managed to create a fear toxin replica that not only copies the effects of fear toxin but also causes temporary paralysis. She intends to use this toxin on Dick. 

Why? Well, let’s think back to our villain’s motivation. Because Patty is a scientist, she needs a lot of money to fund all of her research, equipment, and experiments. She decides she will capture Nightwing and sell him to the highest bidder so that she can get an insane amount of money for her funds. 

Nightwing is far more skilled in physical combat than Patty is, so what are Patty’s advantages over Nightwing? 1. She knows he’s Dick Grayson. This means she can attack him unexpectedly when he’s not Nightwing. She can also blackmail him into coming to a specific location or use one of his loved ones against him. 2. She has a fear-paralysis toxin that Dick doesn’t have an antidote for. Plus, the toxin is fast-acting and before Dick can try to run away, he’ll be paralyzed. 

So far we have our characters, setting, and we know how the villain is going to get the upper hand over Dick. All that comes next is putting all the pieces together to get to the point of the initial conflict. 

Let’s say that Patty wants to nab Dick when he’s dressed in his Nightwing gear so that bidders will know he’s the real Nightwing. She creates a setup for Nightwing that draws him to her (either by pretending she needs help or creating an explosion.) She has the fear-paralysis toxin in gas form. As soon as Nightwing appears or is in a more vulnerable position, she sprays him with the gas. He becomes paralyzed and Patty drags him off. 

Meanwhile, Tim (remember how I laid it out for him to conveniently show up around this time) arrives in Bludhaven to hang out with Dick as planned. After not finding Dick anywhere, he realizes that something happened to him. That’s the cue for him to call in Bruce and to get other batfam members involved. And that’s how Dick eventually gets saved by his family. 

So there we have it. I hope that scenario and the information about the villains can help you think about ways to create the buildup of the conflict in your story!

[shlabam]

TOP TEN COMICS BOOK VILLAINS WE PROBABLY WON’T SEE IN THE MOVIES

Superhero media is the hottest thing going right now. It was true ten years ago when the MCU was in its adolescence, and it’s even truer now. Even with film production on lockdown, Marvel and DC are still planning on literally dozens of their characters entering their respective cinematic universes. However, for the fans of the source material, things can be contentious. For every memorable Tony Stark quip, there’s Superman destroying an entire city because he’s, frankly, kind of dumb now. A major point of contention is how the various popular villains are utilized. Making an intimidating and potent villain in a comic book is very different than in a film. In comics, you have months to establish motive, powers, and backstory before the villain even makes their first move. In films, that all has to be compressed and spilled out in the scarce few minutes when Captain America and Bucky aren’t making bambi eyes at each other. To be concise, some villains adapt perfectly, and some, no matter how good they are in the comics, just don’t. And to be clear, this list is of popular villains who have the possibility of appearing in a big-budget film, so no, you won’t be seeing Ten Eyed Man or Big Wheel in there. Their powers are, respectively, having ten eyes, and being very good in business. (That’s a lie, he’s just a huge wheel who chases Spider-Man.)

10: Mr. Mxyzptlk:

Cool, let’s get this one out of the way. Despite being one of Superman’s oldest, longest-lasting, and most popular enemies from all the way back in the Golden Age, there’s no way in hell he will be in a movie. For the uninformed. Mr. Mxyzptlk is a 5th dimensional wizard-genie who appears every ninety days to torment Superman with his reality-altering antics, and can only be sent back to his home dimension if Superman tricks him into saying his own name backwards. Yes, it would be very dazzling, as Mr. Mxyzptlk’s powers in a movie would basically look like if Christopher Nolan directed Who Framed Roger Rabbit, but he’s a little too silly to fit in with the current “everything is gloomy and also a bummer” tone of the Superman films. This silly tone has lent itself perfectly to the Supergirl series, where he’s made a handful of appearances. Besides, if we get Mxyzptlk in a Superman movie before Brainiac, I’ll lose my entire freaking mind.

9: Hobgoblin:

There have been eight Spider-Man movies so far, and of those eight, four of them have, in some capacity, featured the Green Goblin. And that makes sense, right? The Green Goblin is easily Spider-Man’s most memorable and reoccurring nemesis, with Doctor Octopus and Venom close behind, and Peter Parker’s link with Norman and Harry Osbourn makes their tragic story perfect for film adaptation. On the other hand, we have the Hobgoblin, who is essentially Green Goblin with all the gimmicks, none of the Parker-adjacent backstory, and an orange and blue color scheme, likely tying him to the Denver Broncos [citation needed]. Still, in those four cinematic attempts at tackling the Goblin, none of them have quite gotten him right, and I can’t imagine this character, who is, even in canon, an intentional Green Goblin rip-off, would fare any better.

8: Starro:

Brave and the Bold #28 from 1960 featured the first story with the Justice League, and this story put them up against a very unique new villain: Starro the Conqueror, a giant telepathic starfish who can release tiny versions of himself. If these tiny starfish latch onto your head, you’re under his control and obey his commands. The Justice League have battled him fairly regularly over the last fifty years, and he’s a distinct and powerful enemy that the fans generally appreciate, leading to him being referenced occasionally in Smallville, Arrow, and Flash. Why won’t he ever be in a movie? Because if you’re a Hollywood producer, you stopped paying attention at “giant telepathic starfish”. Sorry. Maybe Shuma-Gorath will pop up in the next Doctor Strange movie, and he’ll set off a Twilight-esque wave of starfish monster movies! Then again, almost absolutely not.

7: Puppet Master:

Speaking of mind control, what’s scarier than that? For my money, nothing. Having your body and will taken away from you by an unseen force is a terror greater than death. How could you possibly make a villain based around such a chilling concept and have him not be scary? Well, maybe if it’s an old bald man in an apron playing with dolls. The Puppet Master is an ongoing threat for the Fantastic Four who is just that: he makes models of his foes out of radioactive clay, and makes them punch themselves and dance around and kiss each other, because he’s, y’know, a weird old man. Why is he such a consistent threat who hasn’t fallen into obscurity like other dumb gimmick-based villains? His stepdaughter, Alicia Masters, is the Thing’s longtime girlfriend. As long as she keeps appearing in movies (including being played by… Kerry Washington? That can’t be right), there’s always a chance he’ll pop up, but I don’t think any movie studio is that stupid, despite the quality of every Fantastic Four movie blatantly defying that prediction.

6: Bizarro:

Superman has always suffered in the villains department. When you’re essentially a god, what can they throw at you? As it turns out, Lex Luthor, almost always. But why not another Superman? Bizarro is essentially that, an imperfect clone of Superman who speaks in opposite speak - “Bizarro am good! Me not punch you until you live!” - and features the same abilities as the Man of Steel. Sounds great, right? Putting a hero against a villain with their same powers has worked for nearly every Marvel movie (shots fired). So why won’t we see him grace our silver screens any time soon? Because they’ve never really figured him out. Is he funny? Is he lethal? Does Kryptonite work on him? If he does everything the opposite of Superman, why does he wear clothes? Isn’t being naked the opposite of being clothed? Bizarro is a major Superman side-character and has made appearances in Smallville and Supergirl, but the idea of him being the Big Bad going toe-to-toe with Henry Cavill doesn’t sound like it would generate a lot of views.

5: Impossible Man:

You remember what I said about Mr. Mxyzptlk? Remember? So take that bit, but everywhere I say Superman, have it say Fantastic Four instead… yeah, that should do it.

4: The Wrecking Crew:

Thor has a unique quirk of having a very cinematic rogues gallery. Sure, most of the movies have pitted him against Loki, but if they were to run him up against the Enchantress, or the Absorbing Man, or Ulik the Troll, or Kurse, or even the Stone Men from Saturn, that’s not a bad movie! However, in one of the attempts to give Thor more of a mortal nemesis, they put him up against the Wrecker, who has an… enchanted… indestructible… crowbar. Yeah. Incredibly, the Wrecker and his Wrecking Crew have become very present characters throughout the Marvel Universe, essentially serving as “jobbers”, being rolled out to get beaten up by the new top hero or villain, but that may not work in a movie, where villains have to be seen as having some level of potency before being struck down. That means we’d need at least a short scene where it seems like Thor might lose to a guy whose power is “crowbar”, and that’s about as likely as an Edward Norton cameo in the next Avengers. Ho boy, they did NOT part on good terms!

3: Clayface:

When the movie-going public goes to see a Batman movie, they generally want something a bit more grounded than your typical superhero fare. After all, Batman has no powers, and therefore the most supernatural thing that should happen in these movies is a gas that makes you smile, or a different gas that makes you think your dead parents are back and disappointed in you. Might wanna put a mouth covering on that mask, Bruce! The one and only they’ve made a movie where Batman fights people with real, off-the-wall super powers (Batman and Robin), it did not go great. And those guys pale in comparison to Clayface, who is, yes, made of clay. In the comics and cartoons, Clayface looks awesome, turning his limbs into weapons and being very challenging to incapacitate, but in a live-action, realistic Batman adventure, we wouldn’t want to see the Dark Knight fight a poop-colored version of the T-1000, especially if it’s got the same chemical composition of a little dreidel that I made.

2: Red Hood:

A relative newcomer to the Batman universe, Red Hood is the revived body of Jason Todd, the second Robin, who was brutally killed by the Joker in one of the most controversial storylines DC Comics ever produced. Literally, fans called a 900 number to tell the writers to kill him off. A 900 number. That’s how much they hated the little turd. Anyway, Jason Todd, whom Batman and the rest of the world believed was dead, was revived by Ra’s al Ghul and became a ruthless villain. Since then, he’s gravitated more to the side of the hero, though one a bit more willing to spill blood than his mentors. Why won’t we see him in the darker, edgier Batman films? Because… that’s Bucky. It’s the same thing that happened in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Teen sidekick killed in controversial manner, revived by super villain to be a thorn in said hero’s side, later changes his mind and becomes a good guy again, though with enough PTSD to fill a PTSD super store. The two storylines even occurred in the comics in the same year, 2005, to much fanfare and across-the-board declarations of one company ripping off the other, reminding the world of the great Aquaman-Namor debates of the 1940s. Considering that DC’s films have criminally underperformed compared to Marvel’s, the last thing they want to do is be accused of lazy plagiarism, so Jason Todd will likely remain a permanent fixture in the afterlife, hanging out with Batman’s parents and, at the rate that people are coming back from the dead, literally no one else. (Plus, if they can’t even get Robin right, how are they gonna do this?)

1: Mister Sinister:

Yes, he was teased at the end of X-Men Apocalypse, but ignoring that the film underperformed both critically and commercially, Mister Sinister is never going to be in a movie. It would make sense for him to appear, though, right? He’s one of the most present and potent X-Men villains, he’s played crucial roles in many memorable storylines, he’s got a sick cape, but… something a lot of comic book fans tend to overlook is his murky backstory, powers, and motivations. He was a biologist in Victorian London who did genetic experiments on homeless people in the hopes of finding clues about the oncoming threat of mutants. In this time, he unearthed the long-dormant En Sabah Nur, whom you plebeians may know as Apocalypse, and Apocalypse gifted him with great abilities. What abilities you ask? HA HA, good question! At various times, Sinister has displayed: telepathy, telekinesis, energy projection, shape-shifting, regeneration, and teleportation, but these powers will mysteriously disappear whenever they want him to get sliced up real good by Wolverine. Additionally, it has never been made very clear what Sinister wants. Does he seek perfect mastery of the human genome? Does he live to torment Cyclops? Is he a blind follower of Apocalypse? Is he just running through all the different kinds of goatee? Of course, in adaptation, the writers would pick and choose the aspects they’d want to use, but I doubt they’d want to untangle the Christmas lights mess that is Mister Sinister, especially when they’ve got a perfectly good villain whose power is just “magnets”.

[sinnamonn]

Now and Then, Here and There

The Secret Society free a former member of the Justice League, one who has seen multiple worlds and have lost just as many.

Warnings: Uhhh suicidal ideation towards the end

“...If I could do that for her,” Grodd gestured to Giganta, “Imagine what I can do for you.” The ape set down the picture frame. Clay face wondered if it was worth it for a minute, sure he wanted to be normal again, but the idea of keeping his powers plus being normal was too good of an offer. it’s not like Sinsetro, Killer Frost, Shade, and Parasite would just follow any villain blindly. He had to have been offering them something just as good.

“I’m in.” He replied, normalcy, sweet normalcy, Clayface could almost taste i

“Perfect. But to do that, we need to pick up one last friend.” He said.

“Wait a minute! You never said anything about another member.” Parasite exclaimed,

“I’m getting impatient, Grodd.” Sinestro added, “Just how long until we take down the league?!”

The group began to become restless, but Grodd remained calm. He was smarter than this whole group combined, after all, he could control them.

“Now, now, If we want to bring down the league she is integral to that.” Grodd said.

“She?” Killer Frost repeated.

“I can see you’re curious. Standing here arguing won’t get her here faster, now, let's take a little field trip to CADMUS.” Grodd started towards the exit. The others held back, exchanging looks.

But Grodd hadn’t lied to them.

So they followed.

“So how are we getting in exactly? CADMUS Labs aren’t exactly a cakewalk.” Shade asked, squeezed into the back seat with the others. Giganta’s car was spacious enough, but it was no minivan. Shade had been sandwiched between Parasite and Sinestro with Clayface and Frost at either windows.

“I’ve been sending out waves to a security guard there, he’ll let us in easy.” Grodd replied

“You really thought of everything, huh?” Giganta smiled at him.

“Of course.”

The lower levels of Cadmus were creepy. Lit by red LEDs and metal walls, the group’s footsteps echoed within the hallways. The red also illuminated...things, dead things preserved in formaldehyde. Aliens maybe? Failed experiments?

“Creepy…”

“The one we’re getting is alive right?” Shade asked, “ I’m good with a lot of things but carrying around a corpse isn’t one of them.”

“Not to worry, our new friend is very much alive, she’s just sleeping.” Grodd answered.

“That’s what my folks told me when my dog died when I was a kid, you sure about that Grodd?” Clayface questioned him.

“I’m absolutely positive, why would CADMUS keep a dead body under lock and key?”

“Touché.”

A door with a passcode lock, reinforced with steel.

“Frost?” Grodd said, not taking his eyes off the door.

“On it.” She placed her hand on the lock ,freezing and then destroying the keypad. With the security system broken, the inner locks released, revealing a small room. It was barren save for a few small tables towards the back surrounding a single cryogenic sleep container.

“Is that a kid in there!?” Clayface asked, squinting into the chamber’s small window. He was correct, floating inside the chamber was a small girl with an oxygen mask attached to her face. What had to be the most eye-catching thing about this girl was her hair, vibrant orange floated around her face, but the roots and bangs were a stark white in comparison.

“They just locked her up and left her here?” Giganta turned to Grodd, he nodded, a grim look on his face.

“Unfortunately yes, probably for years, the extent to which CADMUS is willing to go is horrifying.” He explained, “But before we free our new friend, it’s imperative that from now on we call the Justice League the Justice Lords.”

“Justice Lords?” Shade repeated, “Why the change?”

“You’ll see.” Grodd simply replied, inputting the code to the container's keypad. The sound of air letting out of the container filled the room, opening and fully revealing the girl. She looked so fragile and pale, her skin nearly pure white from the lack of sun .

Giganta was the one to catch the girl before she hit the ground, gently removing the oxygen mask from her face.

Oh, she had freckles.

Still, the redhead didn’t move and for a moment Grodd though that she was actually dead. Maybe CADMUS really did keep a dead body under lock and key?

The girl’s sleep-filled groan proved otherwise, and once again Grodd was right.

“Wha…?” Bleary, half lidded eyes scanned their surroundings. Seemingly upon realizing the company, the girl yelled and scrambled out of Giganta’s hold, shakily getting to her feet. “Who are you!? What world is this!?” Her eyes shot manically around the room, “Where am I!?”.

“Hey, calm down! What are you talking about?” Parasite said.

“ What’s happening in this world!?” She reiterated, only to be met with silent confusion. She sighed, “Are Themyscira and Atlantis at war?”

“Uh, no?” Clayface answered.

“Is Darkseid on earth?”

“Nope.” Shade replied

“Is Superman a communist?”

“Wha-? I don’t think he’s a communist?” Parasite answered confusedly.

“I’ll take that as a no, what about the Justice League? Are they still the league or are they a crime syndicate?” The redhead pressed.

“No, they don’t call themself that.” Grodd replied before anyone else had a chance to, the girl let out a sigh of relief.

“Ok, good, The Flash in that world was a major creep.” She replied, the soft smile she held faded when she saw Grodd’s expression.

“They don’t call themselves the Justice League either…” He trailed off. A manipulation tactic meant for the girl to fill in the blanks herself, and it worked.

“No...they’re calling themselves the Justice Lords, aren’t they?” She raked a hand through her hair, “ Damn it! I was so close this time…”

Grodd nodded, “I’m afraid so, they’re also the reason you were held by CADMUS.”

“Checks out. So I take it you guys are a resistance group now?” She questioned, turning her attention back to the others. The gorilla smiled down at her,

“You catch on fast. We call ourselves the Secret Society, I am—“

“Gorilla Grodd,” She interrupted and turned to the others, “and you’re Giganta, Shade, Parasite, Clayface, don’t know you but judging by the uniform you’re a red lantern, and Killer Frost. Some of us have met in other worlds.”

Awkward silence, the society looked between themselves, not knowing how to react to that.

Shade cleared his throat, “well, you seem to already know us, that just leaves you then.”

The girl chuckled dryly, “The only thing that truly stays consistent...Call me Illusium. Now let's get out of here before those fascists realize I’m out. ”

As if on cue, an alarm went off.

“Little late for that.” Giganta stated, looking from the door to the girl. Illusium merely smirked.

“CADMUS’s foot soldiers are no problem.” Illusium’ s hospital gown rustled as she walked out, facing the coming security officers, “Thought you could keep me locked up?” She glared at them, pupil’s beginning to glow red, “Idiots.” A simple wave of her hand, the guards stopped, looking wide-eyed at nothing. At least, that’s what the rest of the society thought. To Illusium and the guards, in front of them was one of Darkseid’s paradooms. Of course, only Illusium knew it was an illusion, what kind of League member would she be if she didn’t have control of her powers?

Besides, paradooms didn’t scare her anymore.

Yelling, blind shooting, bullets flying in the opposite direction; the guards were distracted, giving the others ample time to escape.

“Let’s go before they realize it’s a fake!” The redhead called back to the others before taking off.

“What did ya do to em’!?” Clayface asked, Illusium laughed.

“Made ‘em see something scary!”

They burned rubber speeding out of CADMUS, the first phase in Grodd’s plan going smoothly and with no interference from the League. This time around, in this world, the Secret Society was practically guaranteed to win.

“This is familiar.” Illusium stated, walking around the Society’s base; taking in all the computers and tech they had managed to compile. She had changed out of the hospital gown, now wearing a comically oversized sweater originally belonging to Giganta.

“So you’ve been here before?” Killer frost asked, Illusuim only shook her head.

“Not here exactly, but similar.”

Shade chimed in, “I gotta know what you did back there, you made those guards look terrified of thin air.”

“It’s a part of my power, I can project pieces of my memories onto whoever I choose to,” She explained, “the other part of it is immortality through quantum death. You guys know what that is, right?”

“Familiar with the concept, but who am I to explain your power?” Grodd replied.

“‘Kay...So it’s like this: you’re sitting on the ledge of a cliff, you decide whether or not to jump, but in the end you jump. The very moment that decision is made, a parallel universe where you didn’t jump is created, and here’s where my ability comes in,” Illusium swallowed, “Everytime I die I’m transported to a different world, all my memories of the previous one stay intact.”

“So that’s why you were freaking out about what world this was?” Parasite asked, she nodded.

“Yep, I call it the Death Loop.” Illusium.

“That sounds...intense.” Gigianta said, “How did you even figure that out?”

“Well, At first I thought I could temporarily shift to parallel realities. In that first world, myself and the League went to fight Darkseid, but little did we know he had planted spyware on one of us and...he...he killed everyone.” She scratched at her wrist, laughing nervously, “Including me. One minute I’m being torn apart by paradooms and the next thing I know. Amazons and Altlantians are killing each other and Wonder Woman is running a sword through me!”

“It was so weird. Sometimes it was minor changes, the league was fully intact except for a different Green Lantern or different Flash, and other times it was completely haywire, like they weren’t the Justice League at all but instead they were a crime syndicate and everyone looked and acted so different. The worst part was constantly seeing people you’ve known most of your life look at you like an enemy, or even worse a stranger.”

Killer Frost put a hand on her shoulder, snapping her out of her manic talk. “Don’t worry, this world’s gonna be different , for everyone.”

“Yeah, we’ll make it right!” Gigianta added.

Grodd and Shade stood away from the group, both of them watching as Illusium chatted away with the rest of the group.

“What’re you planning?” Shade asked, looking to the Gorilla

“Oh, it’s nothing elaborate. Illusium is a former league member, she knows how they think, how they fight. With her thinking they’re the bad guys our victory will be as easy as taking candy from a baby.”

“True, someone from the inside gives us an advantage, but what if she realizes that you’re lying.”

“She won’t. She’s lost so many worlds that she’ll cling to the first semblance of allyship offered to her.” He turned to rejoin the rest of the group, “So make sure all of you play nice.”

That night, Illusium lay on top of the Society’s hideout. They couldn’t sleep, probably because they’d been in cryogenic sleep for god knows how long. The stars were different here, they were always different depending on the world.

She wondered what the stars would look like in the world after this one?

Illusium could find out if they were to jump. It would be easy, they’d die from shock before hitting the ground and—

She shook her head, no, no suicide. Illusium needed to stay here, she needed to help the Society , she needed to find a world without losers and this one had barely even started. She needed to fight.

“Hey there.” Without noticing Killer Frost had taken a seat next to her, “Couldn’t sleep?”

“I’ve been asleep for god knows how long,” Illusium replied, not taking her eyes off the sky, “what about you?”

“Curious, I wanna know the dirt you have on the others. You know, from the other worlds?” Frost elaborated.

Despite looking different, Frost still acted the same as she did back in Arkham. Illusium gave them a half smile,

“Looking for dirt on the rest of the Society or just other villains in general, ‘cause I’ve seen so many versions of everyone.”

Killer frost shrugged and Illusium took that as the latter.

“Well, for starters, the two of us met back in Arkham.” Illusium started, “We were on Task Force X with Quinn, Copperhead, Deadshot, and some other guys.”

“Task Force X?” Killer Frost repeated.

“A suicide squad.”

“Oh. So we…”

“Yeah, we died.”

“Lame.”

“I know right?” Illusium chuckled, “ but that world was fun. You and Harley made it fun.”

The two stayed up for hours, talking about the past worlds Illusium had been, how in one Harley Quinn had her own villain league, the “superman is a commie” world, and one where there was a new Batman, one that was much more spry than the original.

Illusium had to stay here. Stay and fix this world, maybe once they had taken out the Justice Lords she could find a way to prevent Darkseid from coming here.

She wouldn’t let this world end in tragedy like the others.

[thecosmicjackalope]

It’s probably not gonna happen but you know what would be amazing for next episode?

Kiteman leaves without saying anything to Harley or Ivy, who are then left comforting each other about the situation. Both feel like pieces of shit and both are confused about how to move on. Days pass. Weeks pass. As the city rebuilds itself, Kiteman is nowhere to be found and there’s a wall between Harley and Ivy. Everything between them is awkward now because Harley still wants to pursue Ivy but Ivy is riddled with guilt and is still confused about her feelings for Harley and for Kiteman. The crew suffers through the tension, moving between helping them get through their shit and trying to find Kiteman. Ivy wants to find him and so does Harley, but there is still an undercurrent of jealousy from Harley because Ivy’s focused on finding Kiteman and won’t even talk to her about the future and “what happens now.”

During all this, Gotham’s abuzz with gossip about what they have seen and everyone’s taking sides (like how we all are in the comments sections). There’s a good portion of the population that are hounding Harley and Ivy about their “new relationship”, some people are spitting on Harley and calling her a home wrecker (especially Kiteman’s parents, which would kind of be a nice little way to nod at the fact that despite being assholes they do still stand by him), Ivy has people who are talking about how glad they are that she’s dumped “that loser” which fills her with even more guilt, and everyone is laughing about Kiteman, with some wondering about where he is.

The scene shifts and we find Kiteman out of his costume, grounded, without his kite, blending in with everyone around him and succeeding because no one sans Ivy has seen him without his get up. He wanders from place to place, never really going anywhere, sometimes dropping by old spots where he and Ivy had some moments together. He’s not eating, he’s sleeping too much, living like he’s already dead. He walks by a wedding venue and sees the happy couple kiss and look into each other’s eyes lovingly.

He forces himself to look away.

Eventually he wanders into THE PIT or somewhere nearby, feeling low as dirt, lost, confused. He still hasn’t said a line since the episode started. He’s hanging out in the wreckage and the waste, he sees a kite, or perhaps a little harlequin doll, or something that reminds him of what he’s lost. And he snaps, and starts stomping on it and having a breakdown when he feels a hand on his shoulder. He turns to see that it’s Bane. Expecting Bane to attack him or do worse, Kiteman - or, “just Chuck” at this point - welcomes death. Bane refuses. In fact, he sits down with Kiteman and the camera and the audio pans and fades away respectively as they begin to have a long honest talk.

Back in the city of Gotham, Harley and Ivy have one big argument with a lot of their ugliest feelings bubbling up to the surface and bursting out. Very harsh words are exchanged. They separate, leaving behind the crew, lost, confused and hurt that three people they care about are suffering so much. Ivy goes to be alone in a place she loves, maybe an old greenhouse. Harley goes to a carnival or maybe some batting cages to practice her swing. Each of them respectively are confronted by different people who have something to say - Ivy is approached by Catwoman who “had a feeing she’d be at her usual spot” and Harley is confronted by Batgirl and Batman. They all talk.

Batman talks to Harley about relationships and responsibility and knowing what you want and listening to other people, going off of his own failed romances with Talia and Catwoman respectively, possibly even acknowledging a budding relationship with Wonder Woman or Superman (or both, as, in a hilarious twist, their incident with Ivy’s pheromones lead to them questioning their relationships with each other and trying to be a poly throuple). Batman closes the convo off with saying that Harley has to face the music for the people she’s hurt, but also says that he’ll be happy to see her with someone who treats her right and encourages her to listen to her heart. Harley admits that she feel like she doesn’t deserve love and Batgirl argues that yes she does. She thanks Harley for some of her good deeds, and especially for inspiring her to stand up for the person she loves (her dad) and be his hero, the hero that Gotham needed, while Batman was out. And she closes her end of the conversation by telling Harley that no matter what she chooses, she will stand by her decision. Harley smiles and hugs her, and humorously, Batman gets dragged into the hug and hates the whole experience.

In their own space, Catwoman and Ivy talk. Ivy vents to Catwoman about everything that’s gone down and all of her feelings and guilt and confusion about it, and for once, Catwoman listens, without fuss, without sarcasm, without a word at all. When Ivy admits that she thinks it’s over between them and that maybe it was doomed from the start, Catwoman talks about her romance with Batman, how she always expected it to be doomed, caused it to self destruct and how very deeply she regrets that she let him get away and didn’t try to actually fix the problems in their relationship. She admits that she’s lonely and that she lives her life alone and that she enjoys it, but that it doesn’t come without problems. It comes with regrets. It comes with emptiness. It comes with too heavy a price sometimes. And she encourages Ivy, in her own aloof, standoffish way, that if Ivy really feels like she has something special with Kiteman and Harley, she should pursue it. She should be honest with her feelings about both.

So Ivy and Harley run into each other, and they apologize and tell each other what they want. Harley wants Ivy, and also to take responsibility for how she did Kiteman dirty and wants to mend her friendship with him. Ivy admits she loves Harley and Kiteman both and wants to talk to them both to see if they can all pursue something together, namely, if Ivy is romantically with both, and if Kiteman and Harley are okay with that.

But first they have to apologize and take responsibility for what they’ve done.

At that moment, Kiteman enters the doorway. He’s wearing his uniform, he’s got his things. Ivy and Harley are relieved to see him, but somethings wrong. They can tell something is wrong. He walks past Harley like she’s not even there and he talks to Ivy and tells her that he’s leaving Gotham for another city, somewhere where he can start over, somewhere with lots of wind to soar majestically or something or other. Ivy asks him why and he finally finally lets out all his hurt feelings. Without yelling or raising his voice, he calls her out on all her bullshit, stating that if she had just respected and loved him enough to be honest, they could have worked through it. But she didn’t. And to him, that was unforgivable. He says something along the lines of “ive been a joke to everyone around me since the day I was born. But I thought, for once, I found someone who saw me for who and what I really was. A person. When I met you, I finally thought I found my match, my partner in crime who I could spend the rest of my life with, who would be with me no matter what. But I was wrong. In the end.... I was just a joke to you too.”

Ivy is hurt by this and tries to apologize but Kiteman says he’s made up his mind and he just came by for closure and to give her a proper goodbye. Harley tries to apologize, Kiteman ignores her but does tell the others he’s out of the crew and flies off.

He takes one last look behind him, but he doesn’t look at Ivy. He looks at Harley, not with hate, or anger, but bitter disappointment and betrayal. And it’s at this point that Harley truly realizes what she’s done.

Since You’ve Been Gone by Kelly Clarkson, aka Harley and Ivy’s trademark wedding song request, starts playing in the background as a sequence starts to play. Ivy and Harley drift apart. The rest of the crew - Frank, KS, Clayface and Sy - all struggle with the loss of Kiteman. If Harley was the brains of the group, Kiteman was the heart, and without him everything feels colder. Life in Gotham goes on. Villains fight heroes. People rebuild. College kids graduate, and Joker and his new girlfriend witness the kids perform at a school play, with all of his goons in the audience cheering them on. Bane continues helping others. Nora, Jennifer and Catwoman pay their respects to Dr Frieze and leave flowers on his grave before going out to dinner together as friends (and yes, they all have Cobb Squad tattoos on their arms). Riddler still does his riddles but has started teaching a class for cardio at a local gym and is deeply enjoying it. The only job Dr Psycho can get is running and operating a Ferris wheel ride at the local carnival, which, ironically, he’s good at and he actually kind of enjoys, if only because it’s easy money. He watches as a short little girl JUST misses the height test...and uses his powers to alter the sign so she can ride, just so she doesn’t know the crushing disappointment he felt when he was a kid. (Humorously, When she inevitably falls off the Ferris wheel later, he casually catches her with his powers and sets her back down on the ground without even looking up from the porn mag he’s browsing.) Batgirl and Gordon play videogames together until something comes onto the police radio, after which they race to the roof to meet Damien and Batman waiting for them in a jet. Damien shows a flicker of jealousy towards Barbara, but there’s clear implication that the two will form a strong sibling like bond. Batman smiles at Gordon and Gordon smiles at Batman.

Gotham rebuilds. Life goes on.

But in the very last scene, as the song comes to a close, the crew disbands, and Harley and Ivy separate, with heavy hearts and too much baggage between them for anything, even their friendship. King Shark goes back to the ocean, ready to throw himself into his loveless marriage. Clayface leaves for Hollywood, ever hopeful that maybe someday he can become a true thespian. Ivy takes Frank and Harley takes Sy. As Ivy and Frank look on with teary eyes, Harley gets into her car and drives off into the sunset, and leaves Gotham city limits while crying her heart out.

And that’s how the season ends.

[jupitermelichios]

DC: The High-School AU: The Series: The Staff (the musical)

So I finally cast the school staff and teachers for my DC High School AU, which I thought some of you would have some fun with! I took the subject list from a fairly fancy looking private school, because only schools you have to pay for have their subject lists online, so I’m probably offering way more classes than your average state school, but hey, it’s my AU and I wanted to cram in as many supervillains, obscure heroes, and bad jokes as possible.

Admin & Staff

Principle - Amanda Waller

Deputy Principle & Treasurer - Noah Kuttler (the Calculator)

Nurse - Myra Mason (she was Dr Midnite’s nurse and love interest in the 40s & 50s, then got fridged, but I’m unfridging her and giving her a job with much better survival prospects)

Councillor - Ethel Peabody (she’s a psychiatrist from the Gotham TV show, and also in my headcanon, Amanda Waller’s sister)

Librarian - Stanislaus Johns (The Librarian. I considered bookworm for this job but he’s literally called the Librarian, what was I supposed to do, not use him?)

Admin Staff - Laura Conway (Superman supporting cast and occaisional vampire), Mabel Martin (Riddler’s secretary), Theresa Collins (Goldstar, also Booster Gold’s secretary)

Business

Loren Jupiter (aka Mr Jupiter the richest and therefore most thrustworthy man in the world) - Business 101, Business Law, Entrepreneurship

Wesley Dodds (Sandman) - Business Communications

Annabeth Chamberlain (Brimstone) - Marketing, Hospitality & Tourism (she doesn’t work in tourism, but I figure anyone who can waitress while also having the power to set people on fire and damn them to hell and keeps her job probably knows a whole lot about customer service)

Family & Consumer Science

Miss Tribb (Lobo’s childhood teacher who inexplicably survived the extinction of their species) - Childhood Developement, Early Childhood Education

Neil Richards (The Mad Mod) - Texiles/Sewing, Fashion

Tenzil Kem (Matter-Eater Lad) - Food & Nutrition

Finance

Noah Kuttler (The Calculator) - Personal Finance

Foreign Languages

Matron Bertinelli (Nu52 Huntress, who I’m declaring a sepperate character and the aunt of pre-52 Huntress because they’re radically different characters and I like both of them) - ASL, Italian

Chang Jie-Ru (Nu52 Yo-Yo) - Chinese, AP Chinese

Yolanda Montez (Wildcat II) - Spanish, AP Spanish

Barbara Minerva (Cheetah) - Latin

Health Sciences

Myra Mason - Emergency Medical Responder training

Charles McNider (Dr Midnite) - Anatomy & Physiology, Health Class

IT

Brian Durlin (Savant) - Computer Programming, Web Dev

Jennifer Lyn-Hayden (Jade) - Digital Art 101

Arnold Wesker (Ventriloquist) - 3D Animation, 3D Graphics (I don’t know why but the idea of Wesker as an animator just tickled me. Obviously his real passion is stop-motion, but he learnt 3D because there were more jobs)

English (the fancy private school called this ‘language arts’ which is so prentious it makes me feel slightly nauseous)

Wesley Dodds (Sandman) - English Language, AP English Language

Rac Shade (Shade the Changing Man) - English Literature, AP English Literature

Chloe Sullivan (the worst character in the Smallville TV show, a hotly contested position) - English Language, Communications 101, supervises the School Paper and the Yearbook

Shelly Gaynore (The Whip III) - Englist Literature, Creative Writing

Basil Karlo (Clayface) - Intro to Shakespeare

Nick Scratch (officially his supervillain name is just Scratch, but I refuse to consider that a code-name, looking at you Drake) - Communications 102: Public Speaking

Mathematics (which has a 100% villain make-up, which seems accurate from what I remember of high-school maths)

Noah Kuttler (The Calculator, because I think I’m funny) - Pre-Calc, Calculus, AP Calculus

Harlan Graves (The Underbroker) - Stats, Algebra 1, Algebra 2

Angelo Bend (Angle Man, becuase I know I’m funny) - Geometry, Trigonometry

PE (I realise this is probably too many PE teachers but there are a lot more caonical althetes than just about any other job in the DCU except maybe scientist)

Lawrence Crock (Sportsmaster, you knew this was coming) - Gym, Weight Training, coaches Baseball, Basketball, Tennis & Hockey

Lisa Snart (Golden Glider) - joint-coaches Cheerleading, coaches the Drill Team, Wrestling

Randy Hanrahan (Stallion) - PE, joint-coaches Cheerleading & Cross-Country, coaches Football

William Everett (Amazing Man) - PE, joint-coaches Cross-Country, coaches Track & Field

Matron Bertinelli (Huntress, sort of) - coaches Soccer & gymnastics

Performing Arts

Lisa Snart (Golden Glider) - Dance

Hartley Rathaway (Pied Piper) - Music 101, Music Theory, Composition, teaches Guitar & Percussion

Isaac Bowin (The Fiddler) - Music 101, AP Music Theory, leads Jazz Band, Orchestra, Marching Band

Siobhan Smyth (Silver Banshee) - part-time, leads the Choir and teaches singing

Basil Karlo (Clayface) - Theatre, Theatre 101

Simon Trent (Grey Ghost) - Theatre, Theatre 101, Film Studies

Ted Kord (Blue Beetle) - Theatre Tech

Mary Louise Dahl (Baby-Doll, from B:TAS) - Film Studies, Video Production

Betty Bates (Lady-at-Law, who is technically owned by DC now due to corporate buy-outs) - Debate

Science (do you have any idea how hard it is to pin down areas of specialisation for comic book scientists? TNT is on this list entirely because he’s the only actual honest-to-god professional chemist I could find)

Kirk Langstrom (ManBat) - Biology, AP Biology

Pamela Isley (Poison Ivy) - Biology, Environmental Science

Thomas “Tex” Thomas (TNT) - Chemistry

Achilles Milo (Professor Milo, again not really much of a code name) - Chemistry, AP Chemistry

Will Magnus (I refuse to even dignify it as a code-name) - Physics, Earth Sciences

Ray Palmer (The Atom) - Physics, AP Physics

Adam Strange (DC is just doing this to fuck with me, personally) - Astronomy

Social Studies & Humanities

Barbara Minerva (Cheetah) - World History

Maxie Zeus (ffs) - World History, AP World History (fun fact, Maxie was canonically just a normal history teacher before he got lightning powers, became convinced he was Zeus incarnate, and set out to become a criminal, making him my favourite DC mobster by a country mile)

Terry Long (aka one of the only characters to really deserve to get fridged) - US History, AP European History

Eobard Thawne (every code-name he has is stupid, but lets just go with Reverse-Flash as the least awful option) - US History, AP US History

Nick Scratch - US Government, AP US Government, AP Comparative Politics

Rex Tyler (Hourman) - AP Art History

Magdalene Kyle-Burton (Sister Zero, she’s a sometimes-nun and a sometimes-sister to Catwoman) - Comparative Religion

Michael Carter (Booster Gold) - Economics, AP Microeconomics, AP Macroeconomics

Jonathan Crane (Scarecrow) - Psychology (there is exactly one heroic psychiatrist in all of comics, and I’d already used Dr Fate elsewhere. Scarecrow seemed like the least bad option of the remaining pool for being around children, and he does at least have teaching experience)

Adam Strange - Sociology

Betty Bates (Lady-at-Law) - Law

Richard Occult/Rose Psychic (it’s complicated, lets just say Dr Occult and leave it at that) - part-time, Criminal Justice

Technology & Engineering

Ted Kord (Blue Beetle) - Electronics, CAD, Woodworking

John Henry Irons (Steel) - Engineering, Metalworking

Will Magnus - Robotics

Visual Arts

Linda Lee/Danvers (she’s Supergirl, but I’m making her a different character from Kara Danvers/Kent because the DCU is really short on artists and I needed someone to teach the damn class, although the only thing that really makes her distinct from other supergirls is that she fucked a horse that one time and IDK how that will translate into a personality...) - Ceramics, AP Studio Art: 3D Design, Art 101

Rex Tyler (Hourman) - Graphic Design, Drawing, AP Studio Art: Drawing

Jack Knight (Starman) - Painting, AP Studio Art: 2D Design, Art 101

Jennifer Lyn-Hayden (Jade) - Photography

So there you go - I’ll be honest I still don’t really understand how high-schools in the USA work, and I have no idea what Design studio art even is so I kind of assigned those ones at random, but now it’s done and cannot be changed.

As always this universe is open to prompts so if you want a chapter focussing on any of these characters just drop me an ask or a comment and I’ll see what I can do. Making Dr Occult & Rose Psychic a single gender-fluid person is already on my list to do, since that’s who I thought they were for a longest time when I started reading comics and I’m still kind of annoyed that isn’t canonically what’s going on.

[diloph]

Covers always lie.

Spoilers below the cut.

I know that the full Deathstroke arc isn’t completely over yet, but now that it looks like Clayface was only in the third issue, I’m pretty annoyed that Annie got used as a cover shill for the new BTAS comics when her likeness was used so briefly.

Like two panels, boom, done.

I can understand that her reappearing safe and sound might’ve undermined the tragedy of the episode she appeared in and hell, I would have been okay with what actually happens in the issue; where Clayface tries to pull a fast one on Robin, only for Tim to instantly see through it and hit him back. Keep in mind that Hagan has to do something nasty to get him stuffed in a jar before he resurfaces in Justice League.

But... really? You’re going to put Annie (or “Annie”) on the cover just to make people go “oh damn, I remember that episode, is she back or is it a cruel trick?” and use her for so little? That’s really how you use the character that created so much drama?

It’s even more annoying considering that even when you look at what was done, it could have easily been a full episode in the arc itself. I’d seen others’ suggestions pre-release about how it might’ve went down: Deathstroke hunting Clayface and Hagan ends up duping Robin by pretending to be his errant scout in order to get protection from Batman and the like, only to be outed at the end.

Granted, it’s not my favourite suggestion of how things would go with Annie or Clayface, but I think that it could have fit the tone of the BTAS episode she’d appeared in all the same. Having that further kick in the teeth, considering what happens to poor Tim Drake in the future, is maybe a little too dismal and tragic but it still would have been something I could have seen as a full episode on TV.

Whilst Tim seems to be a larger part of the interactions with Deathstroke so far, it could have been a good lead-in, where we could have gotten a good look at Tim again. We might’ve gotten some interesting character interactions with him caught between “Annie” and Bruce.

It could even call back to the Annie episode in question and give us a chance to see how Tim actually took the whole ordeal, considering in that it was sort of avoided at the end of the episode. It would at least set up a nice opportunity for Bruce and his charge to come to the same sort of empathy and understanding we saw from Dick Grayson when he and Batman came to loggerheads over Tony Zucco.

Of course, this is just me focusing on the Robin side of things because he’s still alive and a main character to this day. What if it had actually been Annie, returned from oblivion? Sent out as yet another decoy for Deathstroke and Batman to chase while Clayface makes a getaway? What if he had, in reference to his original arcs, gave up on becoming Matt Hagan, only for a sudden potential cure to be discovered?

We all know that he doesn’t get cured, but if there was an option to non-lethally neutralise a member of his rogues gallery permanently, I could see the colder and more pragmatic Batman of The New Adventures to seize upon such an opportunity. That in mind, if Hagan wanted to keep his powers, wouldn’t it be a good back-up plan for him to send out the poor, innocent Annie to take the metaphorical bullet of the cure so that he could continue his life of crime?

Or, for the same reasons, he sends Annie out as a smokescreen so that he can get close to the inventor of the cure and kill them so that it couldn’t be used against him? Or if he did want to become human and sent her as a test subject considering his usual luck when it came to chances like that? 

Surely the Caped Crusder would rather give the cure to her rather than a hardened crook like Clayface? How would Bruce react to her? To the plan itself? Would he suspect it from the beginning and argue with Tim over Annie’s involvement in it? Or would his convictions as a good man come through for them in the end and help to save her? He would at least try to duplicate the serum to cure them both first, only to discover it isn’t an option and choose to help the innocent kid. Help her to master her control over herself to make her morphology human enough for the cure to work, that sort of thing.

As for Annie herself, there’s all sorts of things you could do with her. Granted, I don’t think giving her Clayface’s suite of powers and making her a bit-part crime fighter would be... tonally appropriate, all things considered, but there are other options that the reasonably grounded world of the DCAU could go without it going over the top. Something akin to Teen Titans’ ending for Terra.

Being reabsorbed into Clayface might’ve been an interesting way to look at Annie’s character when she resurfaces. Does she consider herself Matt Hagan? Something separate, yet similar? After all that time, would Annie even remember Tim? That could be part of her story, remembering all they went through, setting her up to sacrifice herself again, only for things to go right this time?

Moreover, if they brought her back in full, it would have meant that the strongest point of Annie’s episode would come into play; the relationship between her and Tim. It wouldn’t have to be romantic or anything, good friends are likely just as hard to come by in Gotham city, but I think that it would be good for Tim Drake to have ties to somebody outside of Bruce’s cadre of caped nitwits to fall back on post Joker-brainwashing.

Have Tim fight to help her regain her sense of self, her memories. Have Annie wrestle with the fact that she could end up with a normal life outside of everything she’s ever known. Have Batman struggle between taking a powerful player out of the Gotham crime scene and being human, as is the greatest strong point of the DCAU’s portrayal of Batman. Have Clayface appear in a medium not restricted by animation and do wilder things.

It just seems like such a waste of a good idea.

All in all, I can get why they didn’t really bring Annie back. It would have made the arc that brings in Deathstroke solely about her and/or Clayface, which defeats the purpose of Deathstroke himself acting as a set-up for Jason Todd. The slap in the (Clay)face from Matt Hagan, while not my favourite, would’ve been fine as a straight-up gut-punch to both the reader and to poor Robin, even as that single bit.

But putting her on the cover just seems kinda low to me, man.

[braincoins]

Harley’s Crew

So, in the penultimate episode of season 2, we get Harley saying that she’s not a supervillain... maybe not even a bad guy. And I’ve been mulling this over in my head. I don’t think any of her crew are bad guys, except Dr. Psycho and I’ll get to him in a minute. They’re all people who’ve been fucked over, and they’re angry about that.

Before I get going on this, let me also say that I don’t consider Ivy to be part of Harley’s “crew” because that implies she’s an underling of some sort, and she’s Harley’s equal. That being said, I’ll get to Ivy also. But let’s focus on Harley, King Shark, Clayface, and Sy Borgman. ...and put this under a cut because of course it got long.

Harley’s parents didn’t really show her love, except for when she was winning competitions and then her dad tells her to throw it, and... yeah, all of that was fucked up. She’s a young woman being constantly fucked over by men - most prominently her father and then the Joker - and at the beginning of the show, she comes out of an extremely abusive and co-dependent relationship. She’s had people telling her who and what to be her whole life, so of course she has trouble deciding what she actually wants for herself!

King Shark has that same problem with his dad: You’re going to marry this person you don’t know and don’t love. He accidentally killed his sibling as a child. That’s not something he decided to do. So he leaves and goes to land and he just wants to do what he wants to do, dammit. But he’s a fucking talking shark. People probably assumed he was a bad guy because Jaws and whatever, and where else could he go? 

Clayface? Oh man. He just wants to be an actor, and now he has this ability to look like whoever he wants. He’s just a gay actor who is constantly shunned and mocked. He just wants to be appreciated. But even with as weird a place as Gotham City is, most normies can’t handle him - even when he’s not hamming it up. So, again, where else is he gonna go? The bad guys are the only ones who’ll even allow him to tend bar.

And Sy, hooooo boy, Sy. The government did a number on him, man. Look at how he keeps talking about ‘Nam and Commies. He has some flashbacks during the series, too. At the point we meet Sy, he’s an old, disabled Jewish man. The odds of him getting respect anywhere are slim to none. 

So, Harley’s been fucked over by men, King Shark is the victim of ...speciesism, Clayface is gay, and Sy gets ageism, anti-Semitism, and PTSD. They all have a reason to be angry, to go against the norm, to say “fuck this shit, I’m doing what I want.”

And then there’s Dr. Psycho.

Dr. Psycho thinks he’s been fucked over, which is why he seems to fit so well in the crew at first. But who fucked him over? That depends who you ask. He’d say Wonder Woman and the Injustice League’s sudden “P.C. culture.” In reality, he fucked himself over by showing himself as a misogynistic asshole.

Look at that penultimate episode when he goes to try to fight Harley and the now-freed Ivy: “I’M A POWERFUL MAN!” he shouts. As if his having a dick trumps what these two women can do to him. (And of course he’s wrong because he doesn’t just have a dick, he IS a dick.) Also how he gets aroused seeing Harley and Ivy kiss because he fetishizes them (”Girl on girl!”).

Ivy, as Harley’s BFF (and, at long last, girlfriend!), is also someone who’s been fucked over, as we see in some flashbacks. She doesn’t ever really talk about it, because she has problems with her emotions. But she also insists repeatedly that she’s not a villain. She’s fighting for the planet, standing up as the voice for plants who - aside from Frank - don’t have a voice of their own. 

Harley and the crew have been trying to be baddies this whole time, and over and over again we’re shown that they’re... really not. And Ivy - who is closest to Harley - keeps saying over and over, “NOT A VILLAIN.” She means it about herself, but really, it applies to all of them.

Dr. Psycho fucked himself over and then chose to blame other people. Classic villain schtick. But Ivy and everyone else on Harley’s Crew aren’t supervillains: they’re anti-heroes. They’re people who’ve been fucked over and aren’t going to take it any more. 

[ty-talks-comics]

Best of DC: Week of February 19th, 2020

Best of this Week: DCeased: Unkillables #1 - Tom Taylor, Karl Mostert, Trevor Scott, Neil Edwards, John Livesay, Rex Lokus and Saida Temofonte

Ahhh shit, here we go again. DCeased was awesome.

In much the same way that the original Marvel Zombies filled my heart with dread, DCeased absolutely blew my mind with the short six issues that it took place in. It was equal parts violent and heartbreaking as the heroes of Earth had to figure out a way to either stop the Anti-Life virus or die trying. We had a good spin off with the single issue, A Good Day to Die and now we have Unkillables, another spin off focusing on some of the more violent heroes and villains while the events of the main series unfold elsewhere.

The book begins on the first day of the Anti-Life virus being released as Deathstroke finds himself on a job in Kentucky. Throughout the original story, I did kinda wonder what people like him or the other assassins were up to, given that we saw a select number of other dead supervillains throughout like Giganta and Clayface. As Tom Taylor and Karl Mostert unfold the story we see that Slade Wilson was killing some infected Neo-Nazis before an attempt to renegotiate his price ends with him infected too.

Mostert and Taylor set this opening up in a very comedic way with the white supremacits running from something in the local church as Deathstroke looks on, puzzled as to why they’re running before taking a few out before heading inside. Mostert, Rex Lokus and I think Trevor Scott then give us an awesome single page of Slade facing down a horde of zombies with only his gun and a bloody sword. He looks like a badass and, in the following panels, proves it by killing them with ease.

Mostert doesn’t shy away from Slade’s brutal violence and shows how fluidly he can kill with dynamic poses as he shoots and slices multiple enemies at once. This accentuated by the excellently colored spurts of blood from the zombies and the gory detail of blood on the walls. There’s even a really good panel of one of the zombies being cut in half with Scott inking the silhouette as their blood and insides drip down. Even better is when Slade gets infected and violently rips his mask off before coming back to his senses while choking a guy.

Tom Taylor introduces a unique aspect here as Deathstroke returns to normal on the second day of the virus being introduced. As we learn later, it’s due to Slade’s unique super soldier DNA that allows him to fight off the infection, effectively being immune to a point. I can definitely see this being a double edged sword for him as the infection seems to last for a day before being purged from his system. This makes him unique amongst both the heroes and villains of Earth as maybe a potential savior.

I’d also like to praise Saida Temofonte for her amazing lettering as well. She does an amazing job, not only with word balloons, but with captions that have a bloody background and the typefaces she uses for sound effects. For the most part, they fit the gruesomeness of the story with intense and bloody BANGs to eerie RRRRRRs, signaling the incoming zombies. Deathstroke’s scream as he claws his own face is intense, scratchy and blood curling until we get an AMAZING title page with names filling the empty space.

As things progress, we cut to Jason Todd in the Batcave. The silence is eerie as we get one small “spsh” sound as Jason steps through the blood trail of Bruce, Tim and Dick. Unfortunately, this seems to take place shortly after the events of DCeased #2 when an infected Dick and Tim attack and infect Batman, leaving Alfred to kill them all. Jason, like most readers, is shocked because he thought Bruce would have found a way to survive and then he’s met by Ace the Bathound. After letting Ace see that he’s not infected, Jason proceeds to make graves for his brothers and father before speeding off in the Batmobile to find the rest of his family with Ace.

These scenes are powerful as Jason, normally the black sheep of the family, has to deal with the fact that he’s one of few left. Why wasn’t Bruce prepared? Why was he the one left and not Dick or Tim? Damian’s still alive in Metropolis, but effectively, Jason is all alone. Mostert and I believe Neil Edwards show Jason’s love for his family as he carves out wooden headstones and buries them in the cave. Without a word of dialogue, this speaks volumes about Jason’s love for his family.

Elsewhere in Gotham, Ravager, Rose Wilson with a missing eye, unlike her main continuity counterpart, is curled up in her apartment in fear. The zombies are pounding on her door when Slade radios in and tells her it’s time to escape. Rose has the ability to see into the future in short bursts and sees that everytime she goes for the door, Zombies come through and kill her. Deathstroke, however, has a plan. As a side note, it’s great to see Rose in gear similar to what she wore in Geoff Johns’ “Teen Titans” while also complementing Deathstroke’s current armor.

Unfortunately for Deathstroke, as he keeps his eyes to the sky, he sees the terror that is an infected Man-Bat flying at him with a terrifying SCReeeee as he crashes through the window and smashes the plane on the roof Rose runs to her dad and, believing him to be infected, plunges her sword through his chest and he screams “Ow.” This scene is pure comedy made even better by the dramatic rain and fire in the background. Soon after, Mirror Master, Evan McCulloch, shows up offering them help.

I don’t know what the reason is for using the Scottish version of the character, but it doesn’t really matter as the representation of the Mirror Dimension is still cool as hell. While wearing special glasses that block signals, they walk through the dimension and Mostert draws an epic depiction of it with all of the violence, gore and death through the many mirrors while the characters look miniscule compared to the vastness of it all. The Mirror Dimension has always been terrifying and McCulloch could do a lot to solve the problem, but it makes sense that he doesn’t. Cause it’s terrifying.

After many pages, we arrive at the rest of the stars (fodder) of the series in Vandal Savage, Solomon Grundy, The Creeper, Cheetah, Lady Shiva, Bane, Deadshot and Captain Cold. I do have a bit of a continuity issue as Cold was shown to have been one of the Infected during the events of “A Good Place to Die,” but alternatively this series could explain how he got there or, much like that story, it’s off base with what’s happening in the main pages. But some of these additions are pretty interesting to say the very least.

Savage is near immortal, but has been shown to have been killed before. There’s a high chance that using Deathstroke, he’ll find a way to cure and rule over the people of the Earth after the heroes leave. Grundy is already dead, so can he get infected? The Creeper is much like Deathstroke in that he can heal from anything, so it makes sense that he’s managed to survive. Cheetah is strong and fast, but I don’t rate her chances high and the rest, while immensely skilled, are still just human. This is a ragtag group, but they’re not averse to getting the job done by any means.

The rest of the issue focuses on Jason Todd and his fight to rescue the remaining members of the Batfamily. Mostert, Lokus and John Livesay give readers an awesome assault on the Gotham PD with Cassandra Cain as Black Bat, James Gordon and Harvey Bullock fighting back against the zombies. Cass awesomely kicks and knees zombies in the background while Harvey and Jim shoot them. I LOVED Cass as Batgirl/Black Bat and it was awesome to see the return of the iconic costume and a character that I like so much.

Of course, Temofonte thrills with the lettering here again. She sells the panic in both Jim and Bullock as they fight off the horde as well as the frankness of Bullock as he has to break it to Jim that Blck Bat is the only one coming. The static-y bubbles that she uses on Bullock when he gets infected is also amazing and saddening, but gets even worse when Cass has to “CRCK” his neck to kill him. Soon after, Jason plows through the GCPD in the Batmobile with a “CRNNNCH” that shrinks around the vehicle.

Jason rescues Cass and Jim after shooting the remaining zombies in the head and plans to get the hell out of dodge. Jim, still holding out on the idea of hope, tells Jason that Barbara is still out there somewhere, but Jason, knowing that it’s no longer the time to keep secrets, reveals his and Cass’ identities and shows Jim that Barb is dead. He then takes the haggard detective to her last known location and Mostert and Lokus sell the utter despair of the scene.

Infected versions of Barb, Stephanie Brown, Batwoman and Catwoman were killed by Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn in Issue #3 of DCeased (if I remember right). This scene of James finding his daughter is depressingly grey and his facial expressions show us just how painful this is for him. He’s lost just about everything and cries in his grief. Jason, however, finds the dead body of the Joker and ties him to the front of the Batmobile before they all make their escape to Bludhaven.

This first issue of a three part miniseries already has me as excited as the original story did. I love each of the characters being used, the callbacks to past history and the way that everyone is being written. Each of these violent characters sees that there’s no need to hold back anymore as the regular rules are tossed out of the window. Everyone now has different amounts of pain and grief to deal with while others have different hopes of power or a cure. Ultimately, I don’t think things will end ultra well given the events of the main series, but I have no doubts that this will stand on its own.

Tom Taylor continues to be excellent when writing the despair and tragedies of DCeased and lifting up lesser characters, like The Creeper. His scripting and dialogue are a joy to read and I really feel like he’s got a grasp on everyone. Karl Mostert brings their all to this book with awesome panels and scenes that make readers want to wince, but look again to see the utter brutality of what they’re witnessing. His art is stellar. The various inkers definitely bring it to life alongside Lokus’ vibrant colors and Temofonte’s amazing letters.

I’m already gleefully anticipating the next issue and it more than justifies the $5.99 price, high recommend!

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