You're Not Wrong, But I Have No Idea How To Describe The Unsettling Feeling Of Suddenly Realizing That

I'm sorry but this keeps cracking me up. After nearly 24 years they release a mutant version of one of the most iconic petpets on the site

The Riddler one actually happened! Eddie was in a race w/Batman to solve this case, would only get paid if he solved it first. Then he did, and gloated all the way to the bank...and the name on the check was Bruce Wayne. We just cut to a grinning Batman, he gives a speech about 'keeping a mouser well-fed' it was great.

I know the popular take is Batman's rogues getting their butts handed to them by Bruce Wayne, and I'm not belittling that, because that's really funny for all stated reasons?

But how about a new take: most of Batman's rogues call him off limits, because they find out he is their benefactor, when/if they try to reform?

Mr Freeze won't touch him because when he's in Arkham, Bruce is the one who finances the research to help Nora Fries.

Poison Ivy won't touch him because he had been the one supplying her with plants, while in prison.

Harley won't touch him because he's just a great guy an' gotham needs guys like that.

Riddler won't touch him because he was the secret backer that time Eddie tried to open a detective agency.

Croc won't touch him because he's one of the few people who ever talks to him like a person.

Deadshot refuses any hits on him because he found out Wayne does a lot of secret work for people down on their luck who made bad mistakes.

You'd think so, wouldn't you? To be fair to the hospital, I don't really see any reason to keep a geiger counter by the blood bags.

Flash will spend a lot of time in the coming years getting his heart dragged out by force, a little at a time.

Also Peter they would probably notice if your blood had some noticable amount of radioactivity before giving it to her. Amazing Spiderman 10

The first one was a trap! This Side of Paradise is actually about avoiding groupthink and complacency. And also letting Leonard Nimoy actually have fun acting for once.

Star Trek TOS: Don’t do drugs. Here’s the episode witch alludes to use of drugs to escape reality.

Also Star Trek TOS: To survive this we need to get high… The whole ship crew actually needs to get high. And we sure going to have so much fun with it…

mr migraine. my me a grain

make it the hurtest of my stupid brain

I'd watch this sitcom

They meet at the Secretly Side-Characters Support Group, having all been referred to what they think is a Protagonist Party by well-meaning friends and acquaintances. Hilarity ensues.

A social gathering of dudes who all have serious Main Character Syndrome, but all are wildly different genres. One of them is the "people don't like me because I'm too smart" Misunderstood Genius who isn't actually particularly smart, just mean. Another one thinks he's wisecracking and clever by just talking like a character in a Marvel movie. Third one thinks he's subtly pulling off a mysterious Film Noir vibe by wearing a fedora and spending most of his time internally narrating, and silently staring at people. The fourth one is a deeply dramatic purple prose self-fashioned Byronic Hero who is unaware that he would be a mildly annoying minor antagonist in a Jane Austen novel at best. The fifth one has gotten his entire personality from shounen anime.

SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENIBUYFR5ZRYEYKUVUTIDERYAEEYKTUBGHKCYR

I love this take! I do feel that in his defense he only picks up the gambling as a schtick AFTER becoming involved with a mystical force that can demonstrably affect chance outcomes.

I like the idea of combining the two ideas; he learned there was a way to lean on the odds and he ain't too proud to try it.

It will never cease to hurt me that his whole gimmick is gambling and luck when his father's gambling issues are (one of) the very thing(s) that delt him a shitty hand in life. For fucks sake, Jou pays his own tuition (highschool in Japan is neither required nor free. It's mentioned that he is trying hard HARD to turn things around by getting into domino high in the manga.)

I can't even blame him for trying to fix things with luck and gambling, it's all he was taught by his old man after all. Ahh talk to me about this I have so many thoughts about Jou. He deserves better.

Shows what I know, I'd barely even heard of this Kent dude (Gothamites' reputations for being a little too focused on our own backyard isn't all that exaggerated, I guess), but I've for sure heard of Lois Lane. You're right, her and her husband have some really great articles.

I especially liked her 'Superheroes, hold the Superpowers: ordinary people hitting in the big leagues' write up. I've always figured our own heroes were a pack of metas, but she makes a compelling case that the Bats might be using gadgets and gizmos. If you're uncomfortable speculating on IDs I'd love to hear your thoughts on how they're pulling off league-level fighting sans powers (Nightwing at least has to have some sort of gravity shift, right?). Either way thanks for the answer :D

Love the blog, just wondering what your take is on the 'Superman has a secret identity' theory that makes headlines every so often when the tabloids run out of other stories? Usually with their fave celeb as the culprit. I usually find that part in bad taste. Everyone has a right to privacy, what if a supervillain actually believes that hogwash, etc. Although as for the latest one it was great that Mr. Wane ran with it and wore blue for a week to raise money for disaster relief. If nothing else his now-viral remarks to Luthor about how 'if he was superman, your buildings would have been redesigned via accidental super fight collateral damage a decade ago, my god man hire a better architect' made for satisfying watching for LexCorp's many critics.

Luthor's the most outspoken disbeliever of that theory, maintaining that the most powerful 'man' in the world, with his own known private hideout in the Arctic, would have no reason to run around pretending to be a normal human. Bruce Wayne might be kind of a dim bulb, but he had a point when he told whatever poor sod from the Daily Planet was covering the Metropolis Spring Gala that Superman seems too personable (at least from interviews and eyewitness accounts) to be anything other than 'just some guy.'

So on the spectrum between the two billionaires what's your take? Does the Man of Steel walk amongst us? If he does, who would he even be when he's not wearing the cape?

Without even having to THINK about it very hard I would come down on Wayne's side in this particular debate just because I don't trust Lex Luthor as far as I could throw him and I have a MUCH higher opinion of Bruce Wayne as, I can imagine, does anyone with some combination of a heart, soul or a brain. As far as the hypothesis goes, it's pretty much confirmed by the Man of Steel himself. He's given multiple interviews where he has shared the outline of his origins and while most people focus on the fact that he's the last son of the lost planet Krypton what he does also say in those interviews is that he was discovered by a human couple and raised as their own in the manner of a normal human child. Now of course he has never shared ANY particular details about his 'foster parents' because any stray detail could be traced back to them but that pretty much seals the deal doesn't it? If he was raised by humans, one would imagine that he went to school, had dreams, wanted a job and a house and a social life and all those things that human beings get used to having and wanting. Anytime we don't see him directly in action we have to imagine it's because he's out there...doing whatever it is he does during the day! That being said I don't think I can, nor will I, speculate as to who or what he might be in that life behind the scenes. It's none of my business, it is none of the WORLD'S business and nothing good could ever come from finding out. What I will say is that I do not believe for a SECOND the most tired and well trodden theory on the subject.

(Bruce Wayne meeting with Daily Planet reporter Clark Kent) Daily Planet reporter Clark Kent is NOT Superman, people come on! It just doesn't add up to the facts. Clark Kent had a totally average childhood, more or less. He was born in the small hamlet of Smallville, Kansas to Jonathan and Martha Kent which is disproving enough in and of itself. Superman has stated he was obviously a foster child. Clark Kent is, by all records, his parents' biological child. There are records of his attendance of school, vaccination records, his journalism diploma, the whole nine yards. There are two main reasons this story remains so popular. In Superman's orbit he is the one who most resembles Superman...in that he is a dark haired white guy with blue eyes and a strong chin. Analysis on his posture and his gait have shown that he doesn't move or articulate like Superman as you would know if you have ever watched the man on television, read or listened to his writing or just been aware of him as a public figure in Metropolis for YEARS. I still get the Planet here in New York just because him and his wife are some of the best journalists I've ever read. And in that is the other reason, his wife, the world renowned Lois Lane who in the early years of Superman's career had a public infatuation and casual romance with the Man of Steel. Many people got very attached to this public love affair and have never quite forgiven Lane for her public "break up" with Superman in the aftermath of her engagement to Clark Kent. This is just real people shipping for all its nonsense, Kent doesn't have to be Superman for Lane to have married him. Lane and Kent have been partners in crime for basically Kent's entire career and maybe Lane just decided she loved Kent more strongly, or that Superman was unattainable, or any one of ten billion other reasons that don't have shit to do with me or anyone else. Kent and Lane's marriage has also put the inevitable final coffin in the theory with the birth of their son Jonathan who by all accounts is exactly as human as his father. Ignoring all the times and in all the ways that Superman and Kent have been filmed or photographed in the same place because Superman and Kent have been close friends for a very long time because Superman is publically very close with a large group of the Daily Planet's staff ever since his first appearance in Metropolis. Bottom line, yes, I believe that Superman spends his 'nights' as a normal human somewhere on this big blue marble. But his only distinguishing features are that he's a white man with dark hair and strong shoulders. He could hide that with a big enough coat.

Speaking as someone who (without breaking the law) wreaked vengeance such as was spoken of in hushed whispers for years upon my longtime tormentors...felt super satisfying. Still gives me the warm fuzzies to think of it. Then again, I also let go of all my anger at them afterwards bc I considered us even, so your experience may vary.

You know what's stupid? When a story's like "this character gets revenge and then just feels all empty inside and without any sense of accomplishment, thus proving that revenge is meaningless!" Like. My pal. I feel empty inside when I complete ANY kind of long-term project, including ones that have immediate and tangible benefits; so unless you want to seriously consider the thesis statement "making comfortable socks is meaningless", I highly suggest you revise your conclusion.