I wanna paint a comics pages and I wanna start with DC so I wanna know what Batman, Batfam or Superman or any DC comic page should I paint!!!
Keeping on the massive crush Bruce, I have this headcanon for all of the batfam.
Talking how Dick just giggles and twirls his hair when Wally is talking about the stupidest thing and laugh about anything the speedster says.
Talking how Jason tries his best to not blush at any flirty pass that roy does, and later in his safehouse just swoons and giggles and kicks his feet because roy called him pretty bird and does the same thing he did to be called that again the next time.
Talking tim dreamily agreeing to anything kon says, and doing the classic laying his hand the bicep when laughing and calling him funny altho the joke was dry as fuck.
Talking how Damian is just like Bruce, stoic and serious on the outside, scolding Jon like usual but on the inside he's just a confused teenager because omg Jon looked extra cute and his guilty face was so adorable.
I like to see the superfamily be all gone for the bats, but I absolutely love when the roles are reversed.
Is it just me or is everytime I count Robin's I always end up with a different number?
Here me out! Here is my thought process: there's the (1st) original boy wonder (Dick Grayson) without a doubt, the (tragic) second Jason Todd, a little bit of Stephanie (3rd) but I count her anyway. Tim Drake makes 4 and Damian makes 5.
But then I remembered the little side quest with Duke Thomas (6th), then I start thinking of Teen Titans Go (yes I watched that horid show, don't ask) and in one episode there were 4 other versions of Robin (that I remember seeing, I could be wrong-). One of them definitely had red hair and I know for a fact they weren't Barbara Gordan (7th).
And for the sake of my mental health, I don't count the raven haired other Robins in that episode. Counting the forth on there own, makes 8.
So, correct me if I'm wrong, but to my knowledge there has been eight (8!) Robin's.
I am new to the Batfam as I just recently started getting into the Batman comics, shows and movies, but GODDAMN.
I UNDERSTAND if the Robin mantle might need to be replaced after a few years, but Bruce's going through children like reading the news.
Thank you for coming to my brain dump.
I'm what you might call a "fake Batman fan" - that is, I've only watched most of the Batman animated series', all of the live action movies, most of the animated ones, played some of the video games... so, you know, probably thousands of hours of my life in Batman related media. But not the comics! Fake fan!
Frankly, I find the comics medium the way DC and Marvel do it to be really hard to follow. There's the fact that you can't really follow an individual solo character without them getting caught up in massive crossover events that ruin their arc and pacing, there's the soap-opera-iness that encourages cheap and revolving conflicts inherent to the longform monthly release schedule, the writer roulette, and there's also just that going back to try and thread a particular continuity or character is an exercise in frustration. Oh and the retcons. Everyone hates those. They've (basically) never been good. Don't remember this part it will never come up aga
But, you know, despite this - or maybe because of this - comics is a breeding ground for ideas. Because of the quick turnaround and the demand for novel conflicts, comics just churn out idea after idea. Good ideas, bad ideas, doesn't matter. Get it to print. Retcon it later if we write ourselves into a corner. Comics are often soooooo first draft coded. This is why I personally prefer adaptations - they often reimagine ideas and retcon them into new narratives where they can serve a more coherent plot. But what happens when a character is picked up for a second draft ... without actually contradicting the earlier material? While enriching the earlier material, even?
(SPOILERS for Tim Drake: Robin and uh... 20 year old comics under the cut!)
So, uh, quick disclaimer - because I have very little overall knowledge of DC's Comics continuity, there may be more interesting examples of times that what I'm going to point out was done. But I love Bernard and from a writer's POV I'm impressed with the way they did it so we're talking about Bernard lmao
Okay so I heard Tim Drake is dating a guy now? (Penny Sonic voice) Whoa he's bisexual I didn't know that! I'm sure people on the internet are being very normal about this. Cool let's find out more about his new bf. I like starting from the beginning... so like yeah hold on while I crack open the Robin comic and take down what this guy's deal is.
š¬
So basically the TL;DR of Bernard in his original appearances is that he seems to be an attempt to introduce some normal stakes teen drama into Tim's life. He has all the Funny Guy Friend Classics - he's got an inflated sense of his proficiency at pulling girls, he's inexplicably drawn towards the protagonist (who is cooler than him), he wants to date the most popular girl in school, and he wants to get down with older women!
This might just be me but while I was going through this I thought like, he almost reads a little uncanny, like he's been filtered through a Disney Teen Special. In practice he mostly serves to introduce Tim to the Real Plot, Darla Aquista, and be one of his ties to civilian life, which is, like, fine. He's ultimately just a background character and he's so unimportant that he only has one appearance after their school gets shot up(!!!), which is, again, to be more of an accessory to the Darla plot.
After this display of "wow this guy's kind of lowkey insane for offering to his resurrected bestie supervillainess to be her manager actually", he's dropped forever. Comics! We're not gonna unpack that.
Until almost two decades later when he calls Tim up for a date. And while I'm trying to skim over a lot to get to the point here and I don't really know the FULL context, it is notable that Tim is in the middle of an identity crisis / the cusp of adulthood when this happens (I think he just lost a spleen or something. That sucks dude). It's pretty implicit that part of the reason he's going to see Bernard is because he's someone familiar in a time when he's facing a lot of new and scary stuff.
And at first blush, he really does seem like the same dude. The familiar arm over the shoulder, the banter, it's all very casual and similar to the ribbing from high school -
- and I guess nothing has happened to Bernard in the interim haha he's just the funny friend guy right?
I really like the way they did this. I'm just unambiguously going to praise how good this is if you just came off the 2000s stuff. Comics have kind of breakneck pacing by nature but they really manage to condense down and then pull off a neat sleight of hand over the course of like four pages here. They re-establish Bernard as a silly guy and then wham you with the fact that yeah actually we ARE gonna unpack that. Fuck you Tim Drake life is ever changing and nothing stays the same
So the TL;DR on the rest of the Urban Legends storyline is that stuff like, HAPPENED to this guy while our focus was elsewhere. He learned martial arts, presumably so that he wouldn't be so helpless in the next school shooting level event, he got into a pain cult, he's just Not Doing Well. We find out, reading between the lines, that calling Tim on a date was probably one of his last attempts to reach out to someone when the cult stuff was getting really bad.
I've heard people complain that Bernard is uninteresting or not a character or entirely focused on his relationship with Tim, and I think that criticism is really weird considering that his entire re-debut focuses on the point that he's been having his own life and making his own (often wild) decisions - ones that really changed the course of his life - while Tim was gone. And it's also notable that this story is about how the fact that he's his own person and has changed and has made the nerve-wracking decision to take action and call Tim inspires Tim himself to take a leap and fling himself into the uncertain waters of young adulthood.
Me when I have my bi awakening and call to get out of a rut simultaneously because Cute Insane Guy Inspired Me. iconic
So that's how Bernard has changed. But that's not recontextualization, that's just the writers taking a guy and making him do another, cooler thing. Well hold the fuck on because we're not goddamn done.
What did he mean by th-
Tim Drake: Robin is the followup to the Urban Legends story and Tim is the main character fr. Obviously. but Bernard is also a major character. Later, he even gets to be a POV character. But they don't do that for several issues, instead treating us to his shenanigans from Tim's point of view as he solves a bizarre serial murder case and like, they're cute! And neither of them are normal in the slightest. I love that for them.
Again, TL;DR, there are a lot of interactions where Bernard talks to Tim both in and out of costume, but we don't get to see his POV until they go out to a restaurant and meet Bernard's parents there by accident and Tim has to run off to do Robin stuff. And like... a lot of stuff happens in this one bois. Whammy after whammy
We're suddenly introduced explicitly to a lot that was only implied or just completely unavailable before. Bernard's parents are ragingly homophobic. Probably were never great even before that. He suffers from depression. All that is a lot to. wait. hold on a second
he knows?????
HE KNOWS????
Okay so if you stop at this point and reread the entire run so far you find out that Bernard is in fact the biggest troll in the entire universe. This is the moment that cemented him as my favourite, by the way. Like I had a feeling that he knew and I was just laughing my ass off when my suspicions were confirmed.
But this is really interesting on top of that because Bernard has been revealed to be, at this point, a guy who you should look deeper than the surface to understand. Someone who masks his true self and whose true motivations you can only uncover if you're really looking past the facade. Even with Tim, he sort of offers Tim and Robin half the story each, taking advantage of Robin's "distance" to give out information he wants Tim to think about but that he's reluctant to talk about frankly while at the same time almost daring Tim to open up about his identity.
Absolutely most normal way to tell your bf about your cult trauma. You'll always be famous to me Bernard Dowd
This is a really neat trick by the writers. It makes Bernard a multifaceted character who got to quietly develop while we were mostly focused on Tim, and there's some clever clever foreshadowing they set up in this run to achieve this. If it were just this, I would call it good writing.
But it actually goes one level deeper than that and becomes something really really special. because as we all know, Bernard was not conceived to be this way, he was a one-off guy who was kind of annoying and he was essentially retconned to be, like. Gay? Have depth? Be funny? All of those things?
This is not a new observation btw, I've seen a ton of posts to this effect. But oh my god. Some of these panels really hit different with the new Bernard lore. Like holy fuck just read this back to back
There are tons of moments like this. There's SO MUCH that the revelation that Bernard is queer adds to his initially extremely underwhelming tenure in the Robin comics. A reread almost begs the question of what Bernard must have been thinking at any given moment! BRO YOU SAID YOU WANTED TO FUCK HIS STEPMOM. That's completely believable as a next-level closeting move and goes from kind of annoying to turbofunny.
Like yeah of course he's acting like a douche. His father is a status-chasing asshole and he's five racks deep in the closet. Of course he gravitates towards Tim - his gaydar is pinging and he thinks Tim is cute. And it's also pinging that Tim is like. You know
None of this would hit as hard if the writers had not set up Bernard as someone who masks so much. They worked it in that character trait to mean that you could always glean information deeper than the surface from his top level interactions.
Because of this, Bernard is really fucking interesting and he's a good character and he's one that gets better on reread. Like I said, that's a set of observations that are not new to me. But something that really gets to me is how seamless and intentional it is. It really feels like the writer sat down and took their time devising a guy that is believable as that other guy, but only if you read back with certain context.
So is this just about how Bernard is really fucking interesting and he's a good character and he's one that gets better on reread and that he can exist independent of Tim and all the haters are wrong. Yeah of course. š
But also like, I have thoroughly proven to myself that I was kinda wrong to just reject the published comics medium out of hand. I see now that there's room for the writer's roulette to hit the jackpot and that something I mistook as an outright flaw, the winding and unfocused and often improvised nature of it, can be ridden like a wave if you're skilled enough to do it. Meghan Fitzmarten is a goddamned genius.
I guess I have to read comics now. Fuck
good news i finished Tim Drake : Robin, bad news i need More i want More i crave More i should've had a DC interest back when this was on going because i would've been the biggest hypeman ever.
Tim Drake unaware king, he doesn't know he lives in a place that would be the Top One Spot for hiding twenty bodies stitched together like the second coming of human centepede.
this also shows timbern loserboyxloserboy they are both losers about each other. they are so whipped with each other. i bet they sleep with the other in their mind and they twirl their hair while thinking of the other. Losers.
it also showed the 'vigilante is accused that they are dating their Own Vigilante Self' and its Funny
in conclussion, read Tim Drake : Robin so you can see him as a badass vigilante and the most loserboy boyfriend ever. he Cannot lie to bernard, he is Whipped.
Dick: Time for plan G.
Stephanie : Donāt you mean plan B?
Dick: No, we tried plan B a long time ago. I had to skip over plan C due to technical difficulties.
Tim: What about plan D?
Dick: Plan D was that desperate disguise attempt half an hour ago.
Cass : What about plan E?
Dick: Iām hoping not to use it. Jason dies again in plan E.
Damian : I like plan E.
Kon: Smart is attractive. Educate me on something I don't know!
Tim: The mouth of a jellyfish is also an anus.
Kon: Stop.
Kon: Hey Tim,
Tim: Yes?
Kon: Can a person breathe inside a washing machine while itās on?
Tim:
Tim: Whereās Bart?
Tim: Carrie was banned from the chicken shack, so we had to go out of town to get some.
Carrie: Well, they shouldnāt say āall you can eatā if they donāt mean it.
Tim: Carrie, you ate a chair.
Tim: What do you think Jason will do for a distraction?
Duke: Theyāll probably, like, make a noise or throw a rock. Thatās what I would do.
*Building explodes and several car alarms go off*
Duke: ... or they could do that.
Dick: Is letting someone win at chess sapiosexual bottoming
Barbara: Does anyone in this godforsaken group ever think before they speak
______________
Damian: I'm a reverse necromancer.
Carrie: Isn't that just killing people?
Damian: Ah, donāt sweat the details .
______________
Jason: Okay. I get it. You've had a really hard time lately, you're stressed out, seven people died-
Dick: Twelve, actually.
Jason: Not the point. Look, they're dead now and really whose fault is that?
Dick: Yours!
Jason: That's right: no one's.
_______________
Damian: Donāt worry, I have a few knives up my sleeve.
Steph: I think you mean cards.
Damian, pulling knives out of their sleeves: No, I do not.
________________
Store Worker: Would a Mr. Bruce Wayne please come to the front desk?
Bruce, arriving at the desk: Hello, is there a problem?
Store Worker: points to the batkids
Store Worker: I believe they belong to you?
Dick, simultaneously: We got lost :(
Bruce: I didnāt even bring you guys here with me-
__________________
Barbara: I canāt believe you live nearby, and you wonāt let anyone crash at your place.
Luke: You people already know too much about me.
Tiffany: I know exactly three facts about you, and one of them is that you wonāt let any of us crash at your place.
______________________
Tim: Iām kind of crushing on someone, but Iām worried about telling you who it is, because youāre not going to like it
Cullen: Just rip the bandage off.
Tim: Itās Kon.
Cullen: Put the bandage back on.
Hilarious to me that in fannon so many people decided to give Tim Drake allergies. Thousands of people saw him and said, "This twink looks like he'd be allergic to clam chowder."
absolutely obsessed with Jason and Tim being the family psychologists that spend 90% of their time together just getting into long debates and discussions about the personalities and mental issues of everybody in the family. they will meet up at Jasonās apartment twice a week for takeout and a 2 hour conversation on how Damian might be so obsessed with the Robin mantle because the dynamics of the league make him think that family should be a business and if he cant work as a vigilante heāll be abandoned. every stakeout they do together ends up with them getting distracted talking about Dick and his obsession with red heads. theyāve let multiple people go during these stakeouts bcs theyāve gotten side tracked when they then start discussing if Jasonās childhood issues and strained relationship with Dick somehow influenced HIM to befriending Dickās old pals so often, and they get so fascinatingly into it that the guy they were waiting for just. slipped right by them.
nothing is off limits between these two when they start talking about mental health and family issues. theyāll compare Timās abandonment-independence from the Drakes to Jasonās caretaker habits from his dug addicted mother. there have been 3 hour phone call conversations about the loa and how it fucked with Jasonās perception of Bruce that then get turned into 4 hour face to face discussions about how Timās opinion of Bruce rapidly declined because of Jasonās death and how he handled it. they rehash how Bruce has effected every single bat child about 12 times and they still never get tired of it.
itās not even about therapy or coming to terms with trauma. these two bitches just love dissecting family drama and psychology within the Waynes. every now and then during dinner somebody will make a fairly casual remark that has nothing to do with anything and Jason and Tim will make eye contact across the table because they KNOW theyāll be tearing that apart at a later date. what Iām saying is english-enthusiast Jason Todd and stalker-genius Timothy Drake are 100% the gossip scientists of the family, and the Waynes are their lab rats being observed for their own entertainment
Damian and Tim bond by Tim taking a photo then Damian painting/drawing it.
ā-
Tim: I got this photo of the sunset with snow
Damian: printed?
Tim: yep, no blur
Damian: leave it on my desk.
Tim: *places photo on desk and leaves*
ā-
A few days later
Tim:*sitting on bed in room*
Damian: *comes in and without a word places a painting of the photo onto Timās bed and then leaves*
Tim: *silently takes it and hides it away*
Bruce, walking in: hey just wanted to-
Tim: oh hi
Bruce: what was that?
Tim: nothing, just Damian
ā-
Bruce: Dick, Tim and Damian never speak. Iām worried they arenāt getting along again
Dick: Their brothers their bound to have disagreements
Bruce: no⦠I keep seeing them leave things for each other. It could be death threats but by the time I go to check they are gone
Dick: oh⦠I could ask Damian
Bruce: please
ā-
Damian and Tim go sightseeing btw
So the fix is that Bruce got hit with a truth serum that kind of just makes Bruce say the first thing that come to mind. So Jason still convinced that Bruce hates him asks Bruce what he thinks of him. Bruce answers like this: (be warned I do not remember how it went exactly)
Jason: What do you think of me?!
Bruce: Baby
Jason convinced that Bruce that some how found a way around the serum: What about Dick?!?!
Bruce: Acrobat Baby
Jason: Tim
Bruce: Tech Baby ( or smart baby)
Jason: Steph
Bruce: Purple Baby
Jason ,getting annoyed: How about Duke
Bruce: Light Baby
Jason: Damian!
Bruce: Staby baby
Jason: Cass?
Bruce: Ballerina baby
And I find it funny and love that in Bruceās mind they are all baby just baby (thought I do think that Jason is āBook babyā not just baby). It is adorable and I there are other fluff fic like this I want them please. Thank you and have a lovely rest of your night/morning/evening.
We NEED to talk about the stuff Alfred has done.
I love Alfred ok he is the only one in the Batfam with a brain cell but really people gloss over what he did that efected Bruce and Jason's relationship. Is it all his falt? HELL NO there is so much in there that needed to be unpacked but I want ONE fanfic where Jason finds out some of the thing he is angry at Bruce about is not his falt. Like the "Good Soldier" plaque that ALFRED put up. Granted it was for a sweet moment in the comics that was between them but still "Good Soldier" really?
And about Bruce moving on to fast from Jason's death. Yes, Tim was trying to help. Yes Alfred was also trying to help but Tim is a 11 year old child that ran after Batman starting at 8 years old and had barily any idea of what a normal childhood should look like. Alfred is the adult in this situation. Dick is also to blame for why Tim was robin. Like Bruce was STILL RECOVERING from his SON'S DEATH and they give ANOTHER child the idea that "Yes you can be robin the exact thing his son died with" to a stubern CHILD that is Batman did not train would go out and get himself killed in the same suit as his child.
I see people tend to also not agnolge Jason trama from his parents yes some talk about Wilis abuse of Jason but what about Cathrean. The comic book writers make Jason drink and be intoxicated but I feel like Jason would sparingly drink or not drink at all becuase he saw first hand how it drugs effects adults. In versions of Jason mothers death she died of overdose on drug's and Jason finds her dead at 10(?). Drugs and aocahol tramatised his in more ways then one and people should agnolige that.
My headcanon is that Damian and Tim fight but when someone messes with the other they will threaten/maim/stab the person.
Tim will be at a gala then someone will say a racist "joke' to Damian or being to close and Tim is in the corner getting ALL the dirt on them and sending it to the person lover.
Oh you cheated on you wife? I would be ashayem if she found out.
You are in the drug trade,sell to kids, mistreat the women and are a pedo? Well looks like the GCPD got an anonomase tip and the news somehow got a hold of ALL the things you did. So did the Red Hood funny enough.
And you are publicly BANNED from ALL Wayne Gala's and Brucie Wayne has an interview on why with the biggest newspaper company.
------------
Getting a little to comfy with Timothy Drake-Wayne even if you are more than two times his age well expect a "surprise visit" to the ER.
You backhandedly make a comment about how old he is? Well lets just say you will be a bit to scared to say a word.
Refused to leave Tim alone even after he tries to walk away from you multiple times. Well looks like some "evidence" resurfaced that you could have done some serious crimes in the past.
Tim stalked Batman and Robin he saw how good good they seemed to be together and it made him realize they he will never have a relationship with his parents because they are never really around.
I would like to add on to this by saying that after they grew up sometimes when they was to feel safe or when something happends on instinced they hide in the cape.
I just adore the idea of Batman completely concealing his kids under his cape. Like I literally love it sm, so hereās how I think a few of them would have done it :)
Dick: hugging Bruceās leg(when he was tinier) or his waist. I also like to think that outside of combat he would have stood on Bruceās feet as he walked, yk?
Jason: holding onto Bruceās arm usually, occasionally hugging him like Dick if he felt threatened. I like to think that when they were idle late at night he would fall asleep while hugging Bruceās arm
Tim: Tim would be a bit nervous at first, but eventually ended up just huddling himself close to Bruce. He would often be peeking out from under the cape too
Damian: It took him a few months to agree to being protected in the cape, but one late night after detaining a rough arkham escapee heās just so tired, and heās nodding off and Bruce just gently lifts him up and holds him, and itās so surprisingly warm and comfortable that he canāt help falling asleep. After that he went under the cape more often, huddling close like Tim used to(haha), and occasionally allowing himself to be held in his fatherās arms.
Take this song and be sad with me
edit for confusion!: heās not taller than Alfred heās standing on a rock
i talked about bruce's biggest fear being the IRS, but i was blind: it's obviously CPS
man i wish that robin having a hood started sooner, because like itās so cute??? they can be trying to make damian crazy terrifying and iāll just be like: āyouāre so scary! yes you are! with your little hood and cape!ā idk dude im already so bad about dicks robin when he was small, but i could be soooooo much worse
When referring to Dick, Jason, Tim, and Damian:
Batboys doesnāt work cause that includes Duke
Robins doesnāt work cause that includes Steph
So I propose a new and improved name:
Itās straightforward, itās classy, it rolls off the tongue, itās in character for all of them
Thank you for coming to my TedTalk
I know heās just lying to protect his secret identity but Iām sobbing over the idea of Jack Drake being the Tony Hawk of philanthropists in Gotham
The way Tim and Steph actually share one singular braincell. . . when they are in each others presence neither of them are ever capable of using full brain capacity for more than 30 seconds
Stephanie: Cass isnāt just my best friend, shes my baddie from another daddy
Jason: . . .
Stephanie: Oh dear god why did I say that
~
Duke: Whatās wrong with Tim?
Damian: The idiot took NyQuil instead of DayQuil by accident but refuses to sleep because heās got work in an hour
Damian: Heād probably be fine if he hadnāt taken twice the recommended amount too
Damian: Heās gonna pass out any minute, wanna watch with me?
Duke: Hell yeah
Duke: Tim! Howās it going dude?!
Tim: I CAN SMELL THE RAINBOW
~
Dick: Iām really not that sunburned
Barbara: lobsters aspire to achieve that color Dick
Dick: At least my skin actually has color
Barbara: Itās not my fault Iām translucent!
Damian: You canāt talk you flat ass!
Stephanie: I may be part of the itty bitty titty committee, but i am NOT part of the itty bitty ass committee so shut your mouth
Damian: Oh sureee whatever you say
Stephanie: 38 inches Damian. 38 INCHES! thatās bigger than cassās head
Cass: Itās true! we measured :)
~
Roy: My friendship is your birthday present!
Jason: Does it come with a receipt?
~
Dick: This is a circus, a certified circus
Dick: And I would know, I traveled with one for 6 months when I was 19
Donna: You know I always forget about that
Wally: Yeah youād think itād come up more
Iād tell them you said that, but they really donāt need that kind of ego boost
Dick: Woah! Whatās with the face?
Jason: Itās Bruce. He never leaves me alone! I swear heās so far up my ass I can feel him in my ovaries
Dick: You donāt have ovaries?
Jason: Exactly
~
Tim:
~at 3 in the morning~
Tim: Did you know that only 5% of the ocean has been uncovered? For all we know, there could wild JoJo Siwas in the ocean
Kon: And she attacks your boat and violently humps you
Bart: Or there could be glowing squids! Thatād be pretty cool
Cassie: Have any of you ever heard of inside thoughts??
~
Tim: Why are you crying!? Whatās wrong?!?
A very pregnant Stephanie: Sometimes when my eyes get lonely I cry because theyāre friends with my tears :(
Tim: