#paul dini you can't do this to me

[clownprince]

hi don't mind me just thinking about how harley interpreted batman showing up at joker's execution in his dream as joker's desire for batman to save him (maybe from the execution maybe in general?) and the implication that she finally left him because his dream implied that if anyone were to save him it would be batman not harley...

[kerakeriza]

It's actually really funny how DC keeps trying to push the idea that Damian's life was just so horrible and terrible before he became Robin. You can't trick me, pal, I read Paul Dini's work on his character! I read Morrison writing that Damian actually gave up a LOT to be Robin! His life sucked significantly *more* after choosing to be Robin, actually, because nobody fucking liked him or trusted him despite him doing literally everything in his power to prove he's on the side of the Batman. His biggest problem before becoming Robin was just... Nyssa's existence, actually. If it weren't for her character being created, Ra's never would have been slandered so badly that he'd be stealing his grandson's body, and Talia never would've been brainwashed into betraying everything she ever cared about. Which is a meta problem, not an in-universe problem, but still...!

[misscammiedawn]

I have been tasked by EllaEnchanting to create a stage hypnosis routine

So let's preface this, I am going based on my love of the aesthetic of stage shows. I am aware of the discomforting ethics and bullyish attitude of the real world acts. It's a weird situation where the fantasy is alluring but the reality kind of makes me uncomfortable and that is a weird line to walk when stage shows are a real thing primarily and the fantasy is mostly held in the aesthetics.

In order to reconcile that I'll peak behind the curtain and say how I would approach it if it were a routine I ran at a hypnosis convention (I have considered doing this more than once).

The Lovely Assistant would be a plant and in complete collaboration with the hypnotist. They will act as a convincer and it means that the fantasy of the recruited assistant can be there for the audience without being dubious.

The volunteers would have been selected prior to the event and told the content warnings of the 5 acts and given the option to edit or opt out. They may not know how the acts will pan out but there'll be some element of control.

See the thing is that selecting "random members of the audience" is part of the convincer of the stage show environment, the idea that the all powerful hypnotist can weave their spell over anyone. Though there's tricks to get the right people and weed out the ones who won't work out. I would perform a routine like this at a hypnosis event. I don't need that element of the show.

Plus it'd save some time in going through the selection element of the show.

So let's get the show going.

--

Pre-talk.

The first part is to introduce The Dazzling Dawn to the audience. I've been meaning to update her outfit so just imagine wavy red hair, ruby red lipstick to match an equally garish crimson outfit punctuated by a top hat.

The pre-talk segment of a normal hypnosis show is part of priming the audience. Every word that they say is designed to train the audience's expectations. I've researched a number of different speeches and been able to point out stuff like language that introduces ways of processing suggestions to the audience and helps them identify theirs, ending with a claim that makes every member of the audience feel more confident that their version is the correct one.

In a real show this only needs to hit those who are eager/curious/interested. But it'll act as a convincer.

I've seen people do small little routines like the magnet fingers or "follow my words - touch your nose, touch your chin" etc moments to condition the audience to follow suggestions and then when they throw a curve ball by saying "touch your middle finger" while touching their index finger you get to see who is visually following and who is verbally following.

Hypnotism and mentalism are even more fun when you know how they work in my opinion.

Anyway. The convincer for my act would be selecting a lovely lady from the front row who is dressed casually enough. Bring her up, ask her name, run a quick induction and show how susceptible she is.

Now I can't physically be both the lovely assistant AND the dazzling hypnotist. I wish I could be, but I can't.

Incidentally I have an assistant persona too thanks to a Paul Dini Zatanna comic. The Sensational Sunrise!

But for this let's just imagine this assistant is one of my partners, already briefed on the routine.

Dazzling Dawn would bespell them for the audience and enthrall them to be a devoted assistant who may only say one phrase for the entire act "Yes, Miss Dawn!" which would be lovely for skits where I could be looking for a prop and ask my lovely assistant where it is only for her to shrug and chirp "Yes, Miss Dawn!"

Comedy is essential to an act like this.

We must let our imaginations work out how I would ethically get my lovely assistant into her new outfit. I am imagining her wearing it under what she is already wearing and going behind a screen and "transforming" but in reality it may just be a "leave the room and come back" moment.- I'm limited by the fact these ideas are ones I've tried to think of for a convention space. But I like imagining the walk behind a screen thing.

Huzzah. Pre-talk complete and now I have a delightful assistant who is pre-loaded with a single phrase.

Induction

Next is to select my audience members. I'd be upfront with the audience that the 5 or so people are pre-selected and negotiated with. Then I'd start the inductions by explaining that if someone consents to have my lovely assistant behind them I'll have them stand behind and delicately stroke their temples (obviously this would be arranged prior to the event and scrapped if no one was willing to commit to this bit) and repeat the word I say.

So as you stare at the hypnotic focus I will tell you that you're becoming more and more focused, and when I say focused my lovely assistant will whisper "focused" in to your ear to help you anchor that suggestion as we go on.

So I say "you grow more and more focused" and my lovely assistant will say…

"Yes, Miss Dawn."

…right.

Okay, we can work with this.

The idea will be for me to do my induction with Assistant husking "Yes, Miss Dawn…" in a hollow and empty hypnotized voice, making my every sentence more enticing and agreeable.

Mixing comedy with actually hot things? Yes.

Once the volunteers are all set in their lovely soft and susceptible states it will be time for the first skits. I will emphasize that all suggestions will last only for the duration of the show. That is important and will be pre-negotiated. For the sake of skits I want suggestions seeded early in the act to come back for payoff later.

I also think it would be a good idea to suggest my volunteers play different "characters" for the act. A brat, an overly enthusiastic extrovert and Sleepyhead.

Sorry, I meant someone who is so comically easy to trance that them dropping at seemingly inappropriate (but actually planned) moments would be part of the act. Perhaps get some splash damage of suggestions not meant for them.

So Sleepyhead. Though not neccessarily THE Sleepyhead. So we will use lower case sleepyhead for them. But I guarantee I am imagining the real one as I type this.

One of the initial suggestions will be a siren call. The idea will come back later, I think I'd go for the brat for this one because at any point for the remainder of the act I could start singing and they would lose all their resistance would fade away and they would be drawn to approach me.

Once we have enough rapport on the "stage" it would be time to start the actual skits and routines.

Skit 1

The first skit is called "It takes a village to fractionate a volunteer"

The idea would be to have everyone look to their left and hear what the person to the left says and then turn to their right and flip it for the next person in line.

"UP" "Down" "Up" "Down" "Up" "Down" "Yes, Miss Dawn."

"Down" "Up" "Down" "Up" "Down" "Up" "Yes, Miss Dawn."

Every time you are told Up they wake up (still following the skit programming) and every time they hear Down they drop again. Assistant would go along with it and sleepyhead would go up and down every single time.

Just have that wave along a few times and switch it up with different words. "Sinking/Rising" "Lower/Higher" and such.

To make it more fun I think I'd add in a round of holding out a hand and raising up and dropping down. Just a way of getting the chorous of volunteers to get everyone trancy.

Skit 2

At this point I'd count everyone down to start off "3-2-1 aaaand go!" at this point four of my volunteers would begin while Sleepyhead will drop in to trance from a countdown. I'll ask my lovely assistant to wake her up and she will go and have a side skit.

For this one I want to highlight the personalities of our volunteers. Bratty and extrovert especially.

I dunno. Dancing skits or something?

Meanwhile assistant will be trying to wake up our sleepyhead by lightly rousing them and saying "Yes, Miss Dawn" to which the sleepyhead will echo the phrase and slip deeper in to trance. The assistant becomes frustrated and tries harder to wake them and the more aggrivated her "Yes. Miss. DAWN." becomes the deeper the sleepyhead becomes.

At the end of the main skit I'll walk over and fix this and return the sleepyhead to their chair and thank my lovely assistant for trying.

Skit 3

I'd have them all hold their hands on an object, let's say an orb, and have them put their freewill inside of it. As long as they are touching the orb they get to have their freewill but the moment they let go they'll drop into a powerfully obedient trance and their will shall belong to the one holding the orb.

Then I'd let them all act out trying to keep their hands on the orb while avoiding me and I'd end it by using the siren song to cheat and summon my sleeper agent and have them bring me the orb of their free will.

At the end of the act I'd hand it off to my lovely assistant. What harm could it do, she can only say "Yes, Miss Dawn." (this is forshadowing)

I'd tell my volunteers that every time she says "Yes, Miss Dawn." that just tells your empty wills that Yes, Miss Dawn is a correct thought and you are all too happy to do what she says (for the remainder of the show).

Skit 4

With the amount of comedy we have had so far I feel like something that is actually salacious would be appropriate for now. It's important to not undermine my own dominance by making everything go comically wrong if only for a single scene.

Skit 5

And when I snap my fingers you and the audience will imagine I did something really impressive.

I am joking because I ran out of stamina for the post, but I have used that suggestion before. It's fun.

Ending

I would thank the audience and my volunteers and lovely assistant. They all did so well. Take a bow, Assistant, "Yes, Miss Dawn!"

I'd release her from her spell and let her come back to herself for her to see what she is wearing and go HARUMPH! and realize she has the orb still and commands the volunteers to "get her" in which the volunteers would restrain the hypnotist within their comfort and Dawn would quickly rattle off a "And you'll all awake free from all suggestions knowing you did so well on 3-2-1!" moment.

And that would be the true end of the show <3

Though there'd be some after-show aftercare, I'm sure.

I kind of ran out of stamina while writing but as we noted I am in surgical recovery.

[popculturebuffet]

Christmas in July: Jingle Belle: Ring a Ding Jing (Comission for WeirdKev27)

Hohoho all you happy people. Christmas in July is almost done and i'm almost out of here. For now though we have some more presents to plop down your chimeny

No no we're not there yet. Get back in the cage mickey rooney. No today's present is another look at Jingle Belle, a character created by DCAU legend Paul Dini.

Since it has been a few years, a quick recap: Jingle Belle is santa's 20 something but actually pretty dang old daughter who gets into trouble and stuff. That's... pretty much it.

Okay THAT'S pretty much it. He's done occasional stories with the characters at a bunch of diffrent indie comics companies. Kev's a fan so he asked me to cover some more.

So with that we can get to today's story which involves casinos, the mafia, the rat pack and jing becoming a mob boss. You know christmas! Under the cut!

Ring a ding jing is a two issue story from a 2004 mini series done by dark horse.. which the image above lets you know, the previous two being the previously covered special christmas special.

Now that's out of the way we begin with a letter to santa: An old friend of his is asking for help, Bud Coleman, a kind old man who's been running a santa theme park in lake tahoe since 1962 which santa came to see open himself. I do like this bit, that santa took the time to help an adjacent park open and gave it his blessing. Feels very santa. He writes back he unfortunately CAN'T hlep but before he can provide presumibly some advice.. our heroine comes in

I hate to take sides.. but Rusty.. you brought this on yourself. He was trying to borrow her snowboard.. without asking her and when again she put a keep out sign. Immature.. yes. Clear as fuck? Yes. Implies Rusty does this shit a lot? Also yes.

So santa in his "infinite wisdom" decides to send jing to help this poor old man.

Seriously just... this whole story is at least 20% Santa's fault for sending Jing down there, knowing both what she's like. Granted I can't completely fault him for not thinking this goes where it goes, it's a bit chesnuts and not roasted on an open fire, but he still should've known this wouldn't end well. IT's why the ending dosen't sit right with me but we'll get to that.

For now Jing flies in and is unimpressed with what's left of the park, if nice to bud. Sadly the parks in deep disrepair, the rides busted, the reindeer replaced with a very good boy, and Bud's wife having been seriously injured in a fruit cake accident and really needing a doctor but not getting one because Trauma is funny right? I mean if it happens to a house cat named tom sure

But in this case meh. Jing needs twelve million dollary doos for her plan to save the park, but hears bud's friends joking about him being part native american and that gives her an idea: GAMBLING. She plans to turn part of the park into a casnio. Bud's not sure but Jing's got the charisma to talk him into this. She then gets busy grabbing some of her dad's staff specifically

Well a wolverine that fights a robot to test it for santa, but he acts like logan so he counts dammit. She grabs a few menehunes, some slot machine parts, paul anka and some cocaine. you know the things you need for a good casino.

So naturally when Bud gets back, he finds his park has been turned into a nightmare

Bud is naturally.. horrified by all this. Except the house band, they fucking rip. But wolverines as bouncers, lemmings as servers and something called

Ah yes the most iconic of x-men, texas murder alligator. Side note ask Gail Simone to add Texas Murder Alligator to her run. He really needs the work.

Bud is horrified with Jing wondering if she screwed up.. but he's pacificed a bit by the profits since it's more than they've made in 20 years. Jing naturally has let the success go to her head but soon has to deal with the greatest monster in gambling

But since that all happens in a tie in issue we instead see her get abducted by the mob. Specifically Leo Gatch, who runs all the casino's in the area and is impressed with her work.. but wants his cut. Jing refuses and he responds by telling her "Join up or get your legs broken" We end the issue on that cliffhanger.

So naturally she escapes.. by summoning a giant reindeer named thrasher. Or goat. Whatever he is he's got the poots and poots on gatch as jing runs away

So Jing comes back and Bud about dies when he finds out who Jing just pissed off wanting to apologize. We soon find out naturally letting a teenager telling a mob boss to go jerk off in a lake has consequences, as Gatch has cut off the food and entertainment. Jing being responable and entirely likeable.. decides not to. I like this panel of her going beetlejuice over her frustration at the situation before deciding to fight dirty

So she fights back. She has wolverine deliver a message telling Gatch

Has him eat his whole buffet and then invite him to see their new act

Yes Jing has brought in toy versions of the rat pack who are loyal to her and help throw gatch out, though she did skimp on the accuracey a little what with frank going AGAINST the mob, but ey creative lisesnce and all that. She also clearly hates Dean martin as he's the only one to get a joke at his expense. Or paul dini does and that sir I just don't understand.

Meanwhile Bud has to turn some kids away and realizes "maybe this giant casino war with anamatronic dean martin has gotten jus ta wee bit out of hand. "

Anyways Gatch heads back to fly in some muscle to break her legs and kidneys, but finds his casnio is super paying out. Turns out the people he told to fix the machines> He then passses out and awakens. Jing has taken over and plans to become queen of lake tahoe and then the rest of the world.

Sadly she forgot about her dad... who i'm suprised she dosen't just throw out as he found out about the scheme. And here's that part where I don't like him... he outsourced this to his michevous daughter, didn't bother to look into what she'd just requested when she came back and grabbed a bunch of his pepople for her scheme and didn't think to do ANY followup till bud called him. I'm not saying Jing's out of the clear, she lied to a man, turned his park into a casino without his consent, got into a war with someone very clearly part of the mafia, and then planned to become queenpin. She done fucked up, but multiple people can fuck up and it's hard to feel bad for santa when HE SENT HERE THERE. He sent her to his friend and while as I said at the top, he couldn't of seen THIS coming, he should've seen something going horribly wrong coming and maybe sent one of his elves to look after her.

Bud is closing down the casino part, so the war with gatch isn't an issue: he got enough to renovate the park and that's all he really wanted. Him calling santa in is a nice touch: it's one thing to make money they badly need to remodel, the rides were out of date and needed to be refurbished or replaced. That's fine. It's another to turn his place into casniopolis.

Gatch and Jing don't get off the hook though just because this solved all his problems: Gatch is let go, having claimed to learn his lesson.. but is told by santa to donate to several charities. Which is a slap on the wrist but given what Jing's put him through, I doubt he wants to piss off Santa as he won't play as dirty but he will play to win. Jing is left.. handing out fruitcake.

This two parter is.. decent. The idea isn't terrible, but Jing feels very one dimensional mostly either being manipulative or angry in the first half and the setup is nonsenical. Again Santa, why did you think sending your teenage daughter fresh off nearly murdering her cousin would work?

But honestly the jokes do help: from a wolverine refrence, a cheap pop for yours truly, to the rat pack, the picked up screwball pace of the second half really helps the story and the ending does mostly work. I just would prefer if th efirst half had more jokes than "Jing thinks starting a santa casnio is a good idea" as a santa themed casino isn't that shocking to me or over the top. It probably exists. Now elves fixing machines, a wolverine eating his buffet and anamatronic rat pack that's my forte.

So overall a solid story just not a lot to talk about. You'd think they'd have more but i'm wrong.

[bohemian-nights]

Is Daemon and Rhaenyra kinda like Joker and Harley in period fantasy era? A dysfunctional relationship. Cause they look lovey dovey and the writers spoke about “honey moon era” which is something Paul Dini said too about Joker and Harley when she used to be a madly in love super villain. But that “aura” lasts very shortly, cause eventually things turn out BAD, for a reason or another. Remember Sara said they were trying to understand the nature of their bond? I think this is how writers is interpretating their relationship and is gonna portray that in the show. At apparence, a sort of love/care that is actually hiding abuse, phisical and emotional, the reasons of such behave though will be left to opened interpretations. The debate on feelings it's up to audience and even now that Joker and Harley broke up since long time, there are still people debating on Joker's feelings for Harley. Some who tell he loved her but can't love her normally cause is simply incapable of doing that, cause mentally unstable, or some people who say he never loved her and only used her as tool for his purposes. I think with Daemon will be the same. They wil keep this point vague till the end, to give audience the space to make their own idea on Daemon. (Included if he's cheating on her.) Matt said that too, GRRM lately spoke about his colorful and dark side, and for this reason i think they will never gonna confirm his feelings for Rhaenyra. It's gonna be up to interpretations of people and this is why Daemon is grey, cause what some people don't understand is that if Daemon is always good to Rhaenyra he wouldn't be grey, yeah ok he's evil with the Greens but they're his opponents. It's not the same thing, so totally make sense him being ass with Rhaenyra too. He needs to switch his mood inevitably. If all the leaks on Daemon is real, im right. Daemon kinda reminds me Joker too cause he's pretty mad like him, and Rhaenyra defenitely submissive like Harley.

You’re giving this ship too much credit. It’s not even close to reaching Harley and Joker levels(which is a mess, but at least that’s entertaining) or any other couple y’all want to compare it to.

At the end of the day, this is a boring abusive (ain’t no love or honeymoons in this bitch; Daemon don’t care about Miss Maegor which is why he keeps abandoning her ass in the show and the books) ship.

Put any white girl in Missy Anne’s place and people would hype it up to the Gods and say whatever because they find Daemon attractive and will use said girl as a self-insert(including the dumbass showrunners). White supremacy is the only glue holding this shit together!

Furthermore, I do not care about this wonder bread ship so I’d appreciate it if you guys would stop sending me asks about it specifically. Y’all can talk about the dumb fans and their racism because something that severe shouldn’t be overlooked, but the ship itself…I’ve said everything I need to on it.

[chris-aok]

The Best Batman

I don't think there is a best Batman or one Batman better than the rest. However, I do think there is one Batman better than the rest at a given thing. A Batman per category or trait.

To be clear, I am only referring to live action movie Batmen. I won't be discussing Batmans across comic books, animation, television, or other media. Only live action movie Batmanses. No other Batmani.

Without further ado, here are the categories:

The Best Detective: Robert Pattinson

2022's The Batman was the best live action demonstration of the Dark Knight's detective chops. It was something so many other portrayals of the character glossed over. Here, you see him put the pieces together and figure out The Riddler's puzzles; which added to the detectiving: It wasn't enough that he had to detectivate crimes, he also had to detectivize puzzles: Double the detective work. He was figuring things out like it was out of Seven (1995) (Another great detective story) We often forget Batman isn't just great at fighting, he's also The World's Greatest Detective. This story shows us why.

The Best Bruce Wayne: Christian Bale

Christian Bale gave us the best portrayal of Bruce Wayne to date. Here I mean Bruce Wayne as the alter ego or cover story. Not Bruce Wayne the person. In the same way that Clark Kent is Superman's disguise according to Bill, Bruce Wayne is Batman's. Bale oozed suave and charisma as Bruce Wayne. No one has done the Billionaire Playboy quite as effectively. What better way to completely misdirect from the fact that you're Batman than being smooth as silk and oblivious? While Robert Pattinson's Bruce Wayne is a more realistic Bruce Wayne in response to the trauma of having both your parents murdered in front of you, Bale's Bruce Wayne does the actual job of keeping people off the scent that he might even remotely be the Caped Crusader.

The Best Fighter: Ben Affleck

I really wish Ben had been given his own movie to show us more of his Batman. He committed to the role like crazy and showed us all what kind of a street-fighting beast Batman is. In the warehouse scene from Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), he breaks bones, snaps necks, and throws guys through walls. There is no greater Batman fight sequence committed to film and this scene alone is enough to earn Ben the title of the best fighting Batman.

The Best Batman: Kevin Conroy

Ok I lied. There is a best Batman and it has always been Kevin Conroy, may he rest in peace. Batman as a character might be cool in live action, but Batman is a comic book character: Animation is the only medium that can truly do him justice. The work Bruce Timm, Paul Dini, Kevin Conroy, and more put into building this Dark Knight for Batman: The Animated Series (1992) is amazing. I always dug the Art Deco. What's more is that he shined even more when contrasted with the rest of the Justice League in the animated series Justice League (2001). Putting him next to Superman every week somehow showed us even more of what made Batman, Batman. When I think of Batman, Kevin Conroy's is usually who I think of.

Forgive the deception; but I'm not about to write about Batman and somehow forget to mention the best Batman. To show I mean well, let me share something else:

My Favourite Batman: Robert Pattinson

Yes, Kevin Conroy is the best Batman, but Robert Pattinson is my favourite. He's the most realistic and most grounded Batman to date. He's also the darkest. The Gotham Matt Reeves and team built is reflected in all of the characters of The Batman (2022); including Robert Pattinson's. This Batman isn't apart from the rest of Gotham. He's just as dark and twisted as the monsters he fights. I can't wait to see what other stories Matt Reeves and Robert tell together.

[lorbanery]

Uch I'm so disappointed.

I was so excited when DC announced the new BTAS comic and that it was being headed by Paul Dini, and even more excited when they said they were going to be working Jason into the existing canon.

But then I never really heard much about it?

And now that I've finally read it, I understand why.

I'll just admit, I don't like the "Jason is a legitimate evil supervillain" characterization. I know there's folks out there who prefer it, fine, it's not my cup of tea and I don't like the way they did it here anymore than I like it when they do it in the main continuity.

But what really gets me is that they wrote him as being evil and unsaveable even as a child. Jason goes on a villainous rampage through Batman's rogues gallery as a tiny baby Robin. Not because he was angry at the harm they were causing, but because he just kind of reveled in the violence.

And to make it even worse, Alfred of all people is the one who tries to convince Bruce — before Jason even officially became Robin — that there was something "wrong" with Jason and basically that he was an irredeemable monster who couldn't be changed and couldn't be saved.

ALFRED.

I can't even wrap my head around how you justify writing this character who has, historically been an advocate for every single child who's come through his manor, and say "yeah this guy would totally write a FOURTEEN YEAR OLD CHILD off as horrible person who can't be helped."

AND THEN

AS IF TO JUST RUB SALT IN THE WOUND

Dick? Is nowhere to be fucking found. He appears in NAME ONLY in that ENTIRE storyline. Even the mainstream comics — which HATED Dick at the time Under the Red Hood was originally published — included Dick in the beginning of the story. They even used his presumed death as fodder for Jay to needle Bruce with!

But here? When they're rewriting this whole story from the bottom up, when they have free reign to do whatever they want — there's not even an embargo on using Dick anymore like there was when TNA was airing! Nothing. He may as well not exist for all that he has anything at all to do with this story. He's name-dropped solely to remind people who Alfred and Tim are talking about when they mention the first Robin.

It's so egregiously bad that we don't even know if Dick knows that Jason even EXISTS. The whole timeline works out such that Jason's entire tenure as Robin took place while Dick was traveling the world and he didn't come back until Tim was recruited. And of course the justification for why he was never mentioned or even gestured towards in the cartoon is that Bruce "never talks about him", leaving the implication that that is very literal and only the people who personally met Jason knew anything about him or his tenure as Robin.

So you have a scenario where Dick never met the kid at the time, and may not have heard of him after the fact. And since he doesn't appear AT ALL during that storyline, he never addresses it at all (partially because he barely exists in even the REST of the series).

So yeah! I genuinely have no idea if Dick Grayson even knows who Jason Todd is, nevermind that he was Robin!

And honestly it just comes off as them just not wanting to make that decision. Or just not wanting to deal with Dick, since he's such a NON-ENTITY even in the issues he actually shows up in.

It's so fucking disappointing, coming from the series that really made me love the Robins in the first place.

[roobylavender]

Remembering Shelia and Catherine and Talia and just women in general that helped shaped Jason Todd, and DC and fans just undoing all that and making characters like Tim and Dick the more important characters in Jason’s narrative....misery

This is such an interesting panel but also what do you think about post that talk about the lack of women in Jason’s narrative I guess? Like this post

i hope it's okay to combine both of these asks but yes, it grates on me so much! i may be stretching it a little but i really do think it's a consequence of the fact that post denny o'neil editorial largely only viewed the women in the bat mythos as passive figures as opposed to active figures. i suppose you could argue against that on the basis of stephanie's batgirl run but even that was the product of significant outcry which wouldn't have been instigated had she not been so uproariously killed off in the first place. even talia's allegedly "active" role was created in response to damian's character, rather than any of her motivations across the morrison run being squarely her own. and i won't try to form a coherent thought about gotham city sirens bc i am sure we're all well aware by now that that book was nothing more than the product of an outdated paul dini fantasy based on a cartoon that was by that point two decades old

i can't remember the exact wording i used but i think i had a tweet last year where i joked that bat editorial went from denny o'neil facilitating the maintenance of women playing active roles while nonetheless sometimes restricting them to their archetypes, to paul levitz and his underlings deciding to render near completely the women in the bat mythos as reactionaries to every other person's story. we went from moderately okay and in need of improvement (though i’ll note shondra was a prominent, really distasteful exception) to outright disastrous, imo. and under the red hood was perfectly placed in the immediate aftermath of that editorial shift! it no longer mattered that catherine had imbued jason with plenty of love that he remembered and cherished, it no longer mattered that love and compassion were what propelled jason to save sheila, or to express anger and grief over gloria before that. and like that post mentions even talia, notwithstanding her questionable portrayal by winick, was excised from the narrative despite the fact that it was her love that initiated his renewal. even onyx, who posed a potentially hefty challenge to jason's newfound way of life, was excised because the new craftsmen of the stories believed jason's only potential to clash was with bruce and the other robins. barbara may not have been a prominent feature in jason's old stories but she was nonetheless way more present alongside the post-crisis version of his character than dick ever was, and yet

it repeatedly speaks to this denial of the importance of women in the mythos and i really don't think bat editorial has ever recovered. idk if it ever will like mark waid can certainly work magic and i'm glad he appears to be in charge on a big picture level but he's only one man and he can only focus on so much. even the few women currently working within bat editorial seem to premise their writing on nothing more than caricatures. it's miserable 💔

[astrologista]

batman caped crusader: is it mid?

i don't know! i honestly think it's pretty good for what it is! of course it will never hold a candle to b:tas, nothing could. in terms of the bad... think of it like you took b:tas and took away the warm relationship between bruce and alfred, kevin conroy's voice, paul dini's writing and most of the light-hearted moments. what you would be left with would be a great aesthetic, crime noir, explosions and random toxic gas, forensic detective work, and interesting psychological exposition. and that, more or less, is what you get!

more under the cut! disclaimer, i haven't finished it entirely yet!! sorry! i just wanted to get this written down while it's in my head!

for as dark as this take is, they do purposefully make some things pretty fun. penguin is great, i love how unapologetically evil and fucked up she is. harvey dent is interesting and doesn't disappoint. barbara gordon and jim are awesome, and have lots of screen time. the interpretation of harley quinn really surprised me (in a good way!). catwoman is very fun, a bit one dimensional, but fun. renee montoya is very interesting in this, gets quite a bit of screen time. seeing characters like bullock, rupert thorne and leslie thompkins really cements the show in the crime-noir, gritty 40s detective aesthetic in a way that hasn't really been done since b:tas.

the music direction is really good! i thought the animation was very good too, there's a sense of cinema and establishing shots that clearly had a lot of thought put into it. the writing isn't perfect, but compared to anything DC has put out animated in the last decade i'd say it's pretty excellent! i really couldn't ask anything more of a b:tas spiritual successor in terms of aesthetic, tone, mood and animation.

does it deliver what i would like to see in a batman animated show? no! not entirely! but that doesn't mean it's necessarily bad. they just made some... choices? the ah. batman voice. is not great, it kind of grew on me, but it's veeeery difficult to fill the shoes of the late kevin conroy, so i really can't complain. you just can't follow that performance with really anything. their choices to have alfred be very restrained in quips or snark was... um. not my favorite, pretty clearly a way to distance this show from the b:tas characterization, but without the warmth, it really noticeably loses something. i didn't feel like the character really was alfred. i know bruce timm wanted to portray a darker, more hardboiled version of batman, and i think he did. something he perhaps felt was more "true" to the real original version of the character. but is this interpretation... perhaps, a bit outmoded? you could argue that.

the team of bruce timm's animation and designs with paul dini's writing chops was always what made b:tas such a revolutionary series. paul dini's writing (and of the other members of the b:tas writing team, as well) lent itself to a lot of heart, which is what people remember about the series the most. taking away the heart of the series, the emotion, is... a choice, to be sure. but again, it's not b:tas, though it is trying to be. bruce timm has always had a very particular vision of batman that he wants to portray - as dark, as hard, as unflinching and uncompromising in his fight for justice. this is the aspect that i think interests him - the darkness in batman AND in bruce wayne. paul dini, however, contrasted this with the lightness and goodness in bruce and his family. that interplay, with kevin conroy's voice performance perfectly balancing the two, was what made b:tas such a huge accomplishment. caped crusader loses that dynamic, and for huge fans of b:tas, the loss is very noticeable when you watch something like caped crusader.

at the same time, i loved the heart that they clearly tried to put into these episodes. there was clearly thought put in and homages for longtime batman fans. when i saw the errol flynn and basil rathbone robin hood swordplay homage in episode 2, my jaw dropped. there are so many crime-noir-y tropes and old cinema cliches done so well in animation here, i couldn't help but nerd out at the smorgasboard of fun, funny, scary and just plain cool explosions, chases, shootouts, beatdowns that bruce timm is known to direct so very well.

i can't rightly say i enjoy the idea of b:tas with the heart taken out. and this show DOES have some heart. bruce does save some kids, he does do some good things. one scene in particular really stands out almost alongside the ace scene from the original justice league, and you've probably seen it already. it's great, i liked that. overall it was nitty, gritty, very well done, made me want more, and brought back a lot of the spirit of DCAU in an unflinching and unapologetic way that i can't help but applaud. for bruce timm, this really seemed like a realization of a passion project that had been looking for a home for a while, so i'm happy for him. he's a creator that's really passionate about the things he does and has always fought the censors on his ideas, preferring to provide an engaging and exciting story and animation over all else. i'm happy for him, but as i watch caped crusader, i can't help but miss kevin conroy, think of paul dini's amazing writing, and recall what i loved about the DCAU.

it may not be peak, but it's not mid, and i can recommend everybody check it out. enjoy it for what it is, a great batman cartoon with some interesting stories and some great animation. it looks like animation was directed or lead by christina sotta (sottapop) who is a fantastic artist, worked on young justice, and is also a tumblr user. really happy to see them on them credits, great job.

[ibmiller]

Hey so you seem to know stuff about Steph (obviously) and mid-2000s Batman stuff, do you have any ideas about what might've changed if War Games hadn't happened? This is something I've been poking at but there's a lot of major events going on in the comics at that general point in time and it gets confusing, I'm pretty sure Tim and Cass wouldn't be in Bludhaven for instance (would Tim even be back as Robin?) but I can't guess at much else and I'd like some more knowledgeable input

Thanks for the question!

I think the question of “what would have happened without War Games” is really a question of “what would have happened if DC hadn’t decided to go grim and edgy in 2004-2006″. To me, that means a couple of things.

1) Identity Crisis doesn’t happen, or if it does, they don’t push to have it include rape, heroes becoming murderers and brainwashers, and deaths calculated to be as nasty as possible. In terms of the Batfamily, I’m speaking specifically about the death of Tim’s father.

2) Infinite Crisis isn’t as destructive, both in-universe (with Cass not going evil), or out of universe (with Greg Rucka getting fired from Wonder Woman - I just did a runthrough on Comichron to see what his sales were like, and there was definitely an artificial boost from the various tie-ins he’d gotten, but it seemed like they could have let him do at least one more year on the book). One Year Later is a huge mixed bag, with an attempt to push both lighter, more fun and hopeful directions (with Paul Dini and to some extent Grant Morrison in the Batman stuff) and really dark, grim stuff, with the weekly miniseries “52″ covering both sides of that push.

Obviously, these are some of the events you’re talking about when you say that comics from about 2004-2007 were quite confusing. As someone who simply doesn’t read anything with “Crisis” in the title, I’m not a huge help to you on that front (outside of reading wiki summaries :) ), but I do think that there was a real problem from the end of War Games to the beginning of Grant Morrison’s “Bat-Epic” (in roughly 2006-7). You do have some fondly remembered things, most noteably “Under the Hood/Under the Red Hood” where Jason returns, but outside of the fact of his return, I think more people seem to fondly remember the animated version of that storyline, rather than the actual story. What DC chose to do with Jason for the next 4 years was kind of frustrating, too.

I would be very curious to know how much the architects of War Games knew about Jason’s return. People say that Hush, in 2003, foreshadowed Jason’s return, but so much of War Games was hammering home two things:

1) Batman is super sad because Jason is super dead and will never come back

2) Stephanie is too much like Jason, including being dead

In terms of the nitty gritty: If you remove War Games, you probably also have to remove Identity Crisis when it comes to Tim’s storyline, because so much of what they built for that character had to do with him being sad and alone because Steph and his dad die, and there’s all the drama of him being Robin because his father finds out. Honestly, once his father found out, his father was almost certainly dead, because DC wasn’t cool with people knowing Batman’s secret identity back then (these days they seem much less hardcore about it, though they don’t give it out like candy). So I think Tim’s father wouldn’t have found out, and Tim wouldn’t have quit, thus Steph wouldn’t have been Robin. All of those massive changes were just put in to service the overall story of War Games and Identity Crisis, and make Tim sadder. 

Cass had some fun stuff going on in Bludhaven, but her character was kind of aimless due to creative shifts (it’s been a few years since I did my blitz through her solo series, and I didn’t make careful note of issues or dates, so I’ll be interested to see what Cass fans have to say about my impressions here). It’s actually an interesting question if the writer during War Games, Dylan Horrocks, would have quit if War Games hadn’t happened, since it seems to me that he was deeply unhappy with having to write that story, and it contributed to the problems which led to him leaving the title. Many Cass fans are a bit torn about Horrock’s run, so I don’t know, long term, if they would have been excited about that, or would have preferred Gabrych to come on when he did. I don’t know who pitched the end of Cass’s series being the revelation that Shiva is her mother, but a lot of that seems directly tied into the fallout of War Games (with dead Steph appearing in a dream), so it’s possible that either they wouldn’t have chosen that direction for Cass, or it wouldn’t have been as harsh an ending as it turned out to be for the title.

The other major Bat-title that I know about from that time is Birds of Prey. That period was smack in the middle of Gail Simone’s amazing first run. That book was profoundly impacted by War Games - the Birds’ main base, the Clocktower, was blown up, and they moved out of Gotham and started having more international adventures again (as they did in the Chuck Dixon run). This was all part of the “Make Batman be alone again” plan, and was stupid - but Simone did a wonderful job, showing Dinah (who’d mentored Steph a few times) mourning, and Babs using Steph’s story to scare Misfit into not claiming the Batgirl title for herself. The Birds title didn’t often impact the main Batman line, and it’s unlikely that much would have changed in terms of the storylines Simone wanted to tell. But the framing likely would have changed significantly - she might have not set as many stories outside of Gotham, and she might have been able to write her favorite Batman (the hugger) a bit more.

Without those two stories, I think Tim continues to be Robin, and Steph probably continues to be a fun girlfriend, but not really growing or changing that much (both Jon Lewis and Bill Willingham liked using her, but didn’t really seem to have any plotlines devoted to her that weren’t editorially dictated). Without a Chuck Dixon, Bryan Q. Miller, or James Tynion, Steph was probably just going to keep being a supporting character, instead of getting a chance to be a solo or lead. This one fact, actually, is a large part of why, even with how stupid the event got, I’m somewhat glad that War Games happened, because Steph got three months as a lead, solo character, and fans really rallied to her, and even more after her death felt so unfair. Without that, I think her fans would have continued at pretty low levels - people loved her, but they didn’t see her as representative of something really key - the outsider who desperately wanted to be in. Without War Games, we don’t get the redemption story of her Batgirl run, and we don’t get fans who cheered when James Tynion brought her back as Spoiler in Batman Eternal.

[kerakeriza]

the whole Damian being a Black Canary fan made me think of him having crushes on a bunch of different heroes as a child. i think it's funny to think of like Damian preening at the attention of heroes he has a crush on and pretending he's so cool about it... trying to chanel the "i don't even care that you told me i did a good job idc idc"

thoughts???

Lol I love it!

He kind of did, too, anyway. It's not like it isn't canon or very true to his character. He only didn't express those crushes very easily, he was always quite emotionally constipated about the whole thing, not knowing how to express his feelings. I believe it was Paul Dini who wrote him with a little crush on Katana lol. It wasn't really explored, just a small quip, but it was still there. He found her, let's say, attractive after seeing her threaten - who was it? Tommy Elliot? (This happened in Batman Streets of Gotham #1.) Dick called him out on it and Damian acted like that wasn't it at all.

So even if you think every other time he's shown interest in gorgeous, strong women is bunk because of the writer making him act slightly sassier/goofier than was usual at the time, you can't deny Paul Dini. That guy knows what he's doing with Damian.

Canonically (on New Earth because I'm a New Earth Damian expert here, not a Prime Earth expert), Damian has shown attraction to Stephanie, Kara, Katana, and some random girl that was never named that nobody cares about because *she* was in Battle for the Cowl and everybody agrees nobody was acting right in that comic lmfao. So, all except for the BftC girl, all heroes, all badass women that he acts like he isn't into but totally is. So y'know! Your idea here is totally canon.

(I went ahead and found the one with Katana since I hadn't read it in a while lol. Yes it's Tommy Elliot they're all threatening. Damian is the one watching Katana put a knife to Tommy's throat lol.)

[caspianxth]

hi em! again sorry abt the delay in asks haha hopefully i'll be able to send them consistently up til christmas though!! only a couple days left!! i read comics for a bit a year or two ago but kind of fell off haha. i read a couple batman stories and enjoyed them well enough, i just got a little distracted after a while and dropped it, do you have any recs? also great taylor lyric choices, she really is the greatest so i understand it's hard to pick!! also i've gotten many friends into her by sheer persistence so it can be done!! just keep being annoying!! some more random qs: what's your favorite color? favorite book? -🍒

hello!!! it's ok!!! I hope that things are calmer and that you can truly enjoy the holiday season!! I was way better at reading comic books in high school but I kinda fell off it too. but there's a couple I want to get like dark knights of steel, it's the dc heroes but in medieval times! seems fun! I haven't read it yet so I can't say for sure if it is but nico showed me smth from it and 👀. I also want to start reading the new wonder girl and wonder woman, yara flor and nubia seem fun too. I would say my biggest recommendations would be: batman hush (batman, 2 volumes) and blackest night (green lantern, 1 volume but like, all the justice league heroes of that time are in it). I didn't like brightest day as much (the epilogue to blackest night). also if paul dini wrote smth I am generally interested, he wrote my favorite episode of batman the animated series (heart of ice) with mr. freeze that I think about a lot. he had so much depth for a villain on a 22 minute show and batman beat him with a thermos of soup. I also liked the new 52 runs of the flash, green arrow, and wonder woman, but I only got to volume like 6 or 7 for them. as u can likely tell it's been a while since I got any bc new 52 was like 2011-2016 sjgjsldjgskakfjsxk

favorite color: tie between pastel pink, lavender, and pastel blue. pastel bi flag essentially!!

favorite book: you'll never believe what happened to lacey. I love amber ruffin she's so funny so I was so interested in reading her book and some of the shit that happened to her sister is absolutely *disgusting* and fucked up but she and her sister really are so funny in recounting it.

tbh I don't read a ton anymore because I like to write (mostly fanfics) in my free time (I probably have a modest 15 different works in progress, most all are titans fics, a couple works are original stories tho) so I mostly reread what I write bc I'm continually editing and reworking things. my longest work rn is a titans fic that has 24,341 words in the 'main' story then there's one part that I'm reworking that only has 2290 words bc it's being redone and has to get put back into the main story, then I have a big work of 'this will go somewhere in the main story idk where yet but I had this idea' doc that has 13,923 words so total my biggest work has 40,554 words as of today! I don't post my writings anywhere at least rn I don't, I mostly just do them for my own entertainment. mayhaps when I know who u are I can send u a part on discord if u wanted to read it (don't feel obligated btw, like only two people have laid eyes on a single part of a fic I've written, I really just do them for me. also dw there's nothing nsfw in anything I write bc I am not good at writing that stuff so I don't). I struggle with like, descriptions of shit so I want to work on that, a lot of my works are dialogue based esp with fanfic so that's a goal with my writing. I don't wanna drone on for pages like f. scott fitzgerald but a little more description would help things prolly. I say as I drone on for this ask lmaooo