#of which he was doing progressively less

[cantsayidont]

Spring 1941. For sheer noirish atmosphere, no era of Batman stories has yet topped the period of roughly a year and a half between the introduction of Robin in DETECTIVE COMICS #38 and the late 1941 story in which Commissioner Gordon officially deputizes Batman. By this time, the strip was beginning to find its own voice and aesthetic, but it had not yet abandoned the intensity of the character's pulp roots. The material is not always particularly grim or dark, but there's a real sense of madness in some of these stories: Batman and Robin are still outlaws, moving through a macabre underworld of irrational violence and implacable fate, where any real rules are mostly arbitrary. There's also a degree of romance, something that the strip would later abandon for many years. This was the period in which Batman regularly let Catwoman escape him with a kiss and shove, and in which he could still be moved by a pretty girl like Queenie (above), the ill-fated heroine of "The Riddle of the Missing Card!"

This story from BATMAN #5 begins with an explanation of how the Joker survived his apparent demise in his most recent appearance (in the previous issue of BATMAN). Three crooks in a boat find the villain in the harbor and decide to rescue him for their own reasons:

At this point in the series, the Joker was not yet a prankster pulling themed novelty crimes; he was a greedy, homicidal schemer with a gruesome sense of humor. He proposes that they operate a gambling ship just beyond the three-mile limit, where it will be out of the jurisdiction of the police, and suggests that rather than simply fleecing customers at the gaming tables, they also gather information about their guests to identify targets they can rob later.

Reading about the controversial gambling ship, Bruce Wayne decides to pay it a visit in mufti, although while getting ready, he accidentally cuts himself shaving. On the ship, he soon meets Queenie, who's acting as hostess:

Writer Bill Finger often borrowed from the movies for these stories, and the conversation between Bruce and Queenie plays on a popular convention of talkies made in 1930–1934, before the strict enforcement of the Production Code: characters surrounded by libertines who make a romantic connection based on their shared weariness with debauchery and fast living. This particular trope played out many times in pre-Code films, one well-known example being the 1934 crime drama MANHATTAN MELODRAMA, in which former good-time girl Myrna Loy leaves gambler boyfriend Clark Gable for his straight-laced friend William Powell, and adds context to Queenie's reaction to Bruce beyond what's actually on the page.

Bruce then overhears Queenie talking with her confederates and realizes that one of them is the Joker in disguise, which so startles him that gives himself away. To Queenie's dismay, her partners' response is to immediately attempt to murder Bruce:

(Bruce does occasionally smoke in these early stories, although more frequently a pipe than cigarettes.)

Bruce of course survives and later returns in costume with Robin, leading to a fight and a car chase that ends with the Batmobile sailing off a cliff. Robin is captured, and Batman surrenders himself in hopes of freeing his ward, even if it means gambling for Robin's life. However, this gives Queenie a close look at Batman, and the familiar shaving cut on his chin:

As Batman fights the Joker's cohorts Clubsy and Diamond Jack, the Joker decides it's time to cut his losses by sealing the hatches and setting the gambling ship ablaze, intending to kill everyone aboard. Meanwhile, Queenie chooses Batman over her own accomplices:

It's not entirely clear here if Queenie has dropped the gun and Jack has picked it up, or if Jack has a second gun. In any case, Queenie collapses in Batman's arms and dies of her wounds after a final kiss, as seen above. Her statement that she was in love with Bruce is a bit much in context — they really interacted only briefly — but her fate makes an impression, not least because this story is framed as much from her point of view as from Batman's.

Batman and Robin then pursue the Joker by boat through a rainstorm, leading to a final confrontation in a nearby lighthouse that culminates in Robin throwing the Joker to his latest apparent demise:

Note that there's no pretense here of turning the Joker over to the police, and as with some of the men Robin apparently killed in his first appearance, calling this self-defense might be a stretch.

Afterward, Bruce has a reflective moment about Queenie:

While there's no mention of Catwoman in this story, the parallels between Catwoman and Queenie are notable, aside from their physical resemblance. Like Queenie, Catwoman is a criminal, but she still has a conscience, a dangerous commodity in these stories, and one that leaves her vulnerable to more ruthless villains like the Joker. Indeed, in one of her previous appearances (in BATMAN #2), Catwoman had attempted to bargain with the Joker to stop him from killing Robin and was nearly burned alive for her trouble, after which she plunged into the river to an uncertain fate, much as the Joker does here.

In this period, few of the characters had been around long enough to be assured of any script immunity (even the Joker had very nearly been killed off at the end of his second appearance), and it's easy to see this underlying the early flirtation between Batman and Catwoman: Their world is a lawless one of frequent, serious jeopardy, beyond just the whimsy of a dedicated crimefighter being attracted to a pretty thief, and it's probably not coincidental that the frisson of their interactions steadily diminished as Batman and his mise-en-scène became less perilous and more respectable throughout the '40s. By the end of the decade, the Batman series rarely had any meaningful romantic subplots, and it would be years before there was another with any real spark; Batman had grown too staid and his world simply too safe for it to carry the same charge.

[spliqi]

higuchi thoughts of the day: as much as i love the idea of her having some devastatingly destructive ability… her having a healing/support ability would explain so much of her character. like. her high ranking in the mafia despite (as far as we know) not being extraordinarily strong. her assignment to akutagawa + his resentment of her + her being so overprotective of him. the irl author’s connection to mori and yosano. dw about it

[legendoftherisingtide]

autistic becoming a neutral/positive adjective in todays culture would make my younger neurodivergent self so happy and hopeful (and i hope others can find that too:))

[ruvviks]

Of course Aubrey had heard of the Council before. I mean– who hadn’t? They didn’t necessarily rule the streets, or Night City’s underworld for that matter, but they sure as hell loved to rub their asses all over it at any given opportunity and never in his years of being a fixer himself had he felt the need to associate himself with any of them. He understood why it was necessary, sure– the agreements they made and the city-wide gang activity they monitored and reported to one another were a vital part of ensuring business stability as well as their own survival– but he knew the biz well enough to not trust the feigned kindness and so-called sense of community they supposedly aimed for. Everyone always had their own agenda. None of it was simply out of the kindness of their hearts, to ensure the safety of the innocent citizens of Night City– it would be naive of him to think so and by then he knew better than to let wishful thinking cloud his judgment.

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[blackhazefanblog]

Have a rare Rood x Iel fanart, by yours truly!

Based on the friendzone meme!

[bandtrees]

Annoying fandom people when you tell them characters do things based on writers’ decisions and biases and are not fully autonomous sapient beings they’re watching in a terrarium

[bitegore]

if your ocs were bosses in a video game, what do you think their boss fight would be like?

[writterings]

Your post about South Park really does hit the nail right on the head for why the hell this show has a fandom that I've never seen anyone acknowledge, at least not on this fucking webbed site. Instead mosts stance is along the lines of "why are you shipping the racist children" which ignores. That they have INCREDIBLY strong characterization, to the point that even side characters personalities are able to be pinpointed with a lot of accuracy, enough for there to be subsets of fans for those guys even. The show is primarily about putting those fucking circle guys in situations and people who like to see them in situations are like. Man. I could totally come up with some situation for these guys to be in. And they don't even have to be weird and centrist about it like the creators. (Not to say plenty of fans don't still land there. If Cartman is included you really have to decide whether you declaw him and either answer gets dicey unless you get him. And some people really don't and it gets. Bad.) It feels a lot more generous seeing someone actually clock the appeal of the show for what it is rather than stopping at Matt and Treys wild ride of very very mixed messages and leaving it at that so thanks

no like literally i only started watching the show as a background noise type of deal after i finished family guy (in my "watching every adult cartoon" type of beat) and then just got. enthralled.

like i genuinely would not recommend the show to anyone who doesn't have the stomach for gross out humor, frustrating political takes, and even satire that often actually is progressive and even straight up anti-discrimination at times but can be packaged distastefully -- especially since i feel like the show can only be truly enjoyed if you watch the entire 26+ seasons and movies and play the games.

but like matt and trey are unfortunately VERY good writers so i totally understand why the show has a legit, functioning fandom with popular headcanons (shoutout to marjorine) and AUs. like oftentimes the fans are also just Putting The Circle Children Into Situations. or they're playing around with the Situations the Circle Children were already put into in the show, like expanding on tweek and craig's canonical relationship via fanart or exploring kenny's canonical trauma of being repeatedly killed and reincarnated as himself.

but yeah happy to provide my input on this when asked! glad you liked my take

[ssreeder]

Hi pook 😢 ( sorry if u don’t like the nickname) but I’ve been reading your series and I am reading Into the Fire (chapter 8) and I’m just wondering why you made Sokka give in so easily when people tell him to control himself that’s not Zuko. Because I would imagine that he would be more stubborn and more focused on what he wants instead of being caring. Even though he’s a caring and kind person I feel like being in prison would make him more selfish and less understanding of other people if than makes sense 😭

Like it just aggravates me when I see Katara try to idk really baby him and control him a bit (not mentally) it just kind of annoys me. Because even though Sokka loves his Sister I feel like he shouldn’t listen to her for real.

But that’s just me because that’s my opinion coming from someone behind has anger issues/ gets angry easily 🤷‍♀️

I love love love this series btw!!!!

I added your other ask too so I could respond to both! Hiiii hellooooo I don’t mind nicknames it’s actually nice because then I can keep anons apart haha

as for your comment about sokka I gotta say you’re probably the first person to tell me sokka isn’t angry enough haha. Which is fine because everyone’s allowed to have their own opinions, but my thoughts on LIAB angry sokka is his intelligence is often battling his emotions. I think sokka is smart enough to know he isn’t supposed to be lashing out at people the way he is or clinging to Zuko so tightly to where they both can’t breathe. i also think he is desperate to be back to his “old self” without actually wanting to be his old self. I do think he is fighting his path to healing every step of the way but even with all the time spent in prison he is still SOKKA. He cares for people he loves his family and he knows from watching his parents growing up what a healthy relationship looks like - his codependency to zuko is probably not it. I doubt it will change much, but when people tell him ‘you need to chill’ Sokka is very much like I FUCKING KNOW BUT I HAVE NO CHILL!!! NONE! ZERO CHILL.

but I can’t imagine sokka wanting to hurt anyone who doesn’t deserve it. Or fighting his friends and family to isolate himself anymore than he already is. I have learned that writing a more emotionally triggering fic does stir up emotions in people and causes them to project onto the characters a bit which is fine but everyone processing trauma differently. & sokka is doing it his own way just like zuko is.

Also…. This is a fanfic and I don’t know if people wanna read sokka being a raging asshole for 50k… so some of the realism in healing gets lost to word count because unfortunately I can’t spend years and 1000k helping these boys overcome their trauma so some of it has to be rushed a little for word count / plot purposes haha.

Liiiiiiisten here pooki-anon you come yell at me anytime about liab I’ll be right here to soak up every word! Thanks for the ask I’m glad you’re enjoying the series!!

[starlooove]

The Jackie lives au in my head

[relicsongmel]

Kieran's personality shift in the Indigo Disk is really hammering home to me that his voice is just an edgier version of Simon Keyes and I don't know how to feel about that

[vaugarde]

also why does this episode feel like it’s already happened twice

[skinnymeanfaggot]

also

[sappymix1]

genuinely what the fuck is jack manifold’s problem

[trans-xianxian]

FIRST DRIVING LESSON SUCCESSFUL I didn't hit anything and I went around the block many times and parked along a curb successfully and even drove from one destination to another 😤

[akkivee]

i think it’s still both but it may have started as positive affirmation and as he grew into himself, it became ego 🤔