#reminds me i still did not finish my drafts about nml that i wrote when rereading it...

[boyfridged]

Wait wait, why does Leslie think of Bruce as "a monster of her own"? The whole post is beautiful but that last bit caught my eye. It's so interesting

ah, i was not precise enough! i suppose she thinks of batman specifically as of a monster, rather than bruce-- and i feel like i should highlight it, because even leslie, ironically, often indulges that batman-bruce wayne dichotomy.

she considers batman a monster because of what batman stands for - violence. but more importantly, it is also because she understands him intimately... and aren't monsters our mirrors? in their case it's even more inevitable -- he is her own, as she is also a creature of guilt, and never forgives herself for not being able to be a mother for him, even though he was also vehement in rejecting adults around him as a child.

she specifically calls him "her monster" in the batman chronicles #18. i have some issues with the minutiae of that story (and major complaints irt no man's land as a whole, and it is set in that era) but it's one of the better post-80s leslie stories.

"my monster." "he frightens me more than anyone else i know. "because he moves me more than anyone else i know."