Jason Formed A Superhero Book Club! So Far Only Three Members :D

Jason formed a superhero book club! So far only three members :D

I am. So fucking tired of Batman being portrayed as a bad parent and a toxic person. And it’s so goddamn widespread. Fuck, it might be as bad as the whole “Superman being a kindhearted Boy Scout is boring” take.

I get it, the man’s not exactly stable, he watched his parents get murdered in front of him and spent years of his life training to fight crime dressed like a giant scary bat, of course he’s not perfect.

But to say that Bruce Wayne isn’t caring, isn’t empathetic, to call him abusive…it just misses the point of who the character is to me.

Why do you think he fights crime? Yes, part of it is because he’s bitter and sad because his parents were cruelly ripped from him as a child, and he’s lashing out against the corruption of his city. It’s arguably the focus of his earlier years. But he learns to become more than that. He learns to bring hope, a chance to be better.

Harleen Quinzel is the Joker’s right hand lady, but she’s also a victim of an abusive relationship and a woman with a surprisingly strong moral compass and a love for animals, and wants to get better.

Harvey Dent is a man who will decide someone’s fate on a coin toss(and a pretty inaccurate depiction of DID), but he’s also Bruce’s close friend who clearly needs help learning to live with his condition, rather than try to get rid of it, and someone who he still goes out of his way to visit, even after everything.

Victor Fries is a cold, emotionless man who will callously discard allies and blame them for being careless, but he’s also a man who’s either lashing out because he had the love of his life taken from him, or just desperate to make sure she isn’t taken from him, and is willing to do anything just to guarantee her survival.

Even the Joker, arguably one of the most morally bankrupt characters in all of fiction, is someone that Batman has offered a chance to. After the guy shoots the daughter of his friend, a girl he cared for like she was his own kid, and paralyzes her from the waist down, he tells the Joker that he doesn’t want to hurt him. He wants to get him help. He looks at this monster who has taken countless lives and says “You don’t have to be alone.”

For fuck’s sake, he sat with Joe Chill in his last moments so that he wouldn’t be alone. Joe Chill, the man who murdered his parents, who took so much from him, the person responsible for all of the misery and suffering he’s gone through. And he sits with the man to comfort him while dies.

And you’re gonna tell me the man who did that would abuse his kids?

That he’d hold up the young man whose death was his greatest failure, the boy he grieved, and say this?

That he’d look his goddamn son in the eyes and say this to him?

Why the FUCK do you think he took in Dick Grayson in the first place? It wasn’t because he saw the kid and thought “Ah. A potential soldier.”, it was because he saw a boy experiencing the same heartbreaking loss he had so many years ago, and wanted to make sure he didn’t end up as bitter and miserable as he was.

Why do you think he smiled when Tim Drake presented him a broken watch for Father’s Day? Because he was just happy to see the boy alive and safe.

DAMIAN LITERALLY POINTED AT A COW AND SAID “I’m keeping her. She’s Bat-Cow.” AND BRUCE JUST WENT WITH IT. DIDN’T EVEN NEED TO ARGUE WHY BRUCE SHOULD LET HIM KEEP HER. HE SAID “this cow is my pet now” AND BRUCE SAID “alright, bet”.

The thing about Batman is that he wants to make sure nobody else ends up feeling the way he does. That’s not just about stopping a mugger so a boy’s parents aren’t gunned down. It’s about giving his loved ones the support and care that he couldn’t have, because it was taken from him. It’s about comforting someone who just went through a traumatic experience and letting them know that they’re going to be okay. It’s about going to someone locked away in a cell who thinks that they’re a lost cause and a burden to society and telling them that he wants to help them get better. It’s about EMPATHY.

That’s what makes him a HERO. He’s meant to inspire us, to show us that we can have that same empathy for others around us, that we can turn our suffering into hope for a better future.

I just wish more people at DC would start recognizing that. But I might as well follow that example myself. Maybe through this struggle of having to see this hero mistreat the people around him and act like a grade-A jackass, people will start to recognize that missing empathy, and slowly but surely, it might come back. After all, what is this post, if not trying to bring attention to the matter in the hopes of fixing it?

headcanon: for april fools one year, stephanie successfully manages to get all the batkids to operate as Robin. in the costume and everything, so one night there's like six Robins of varying sizes grappling around the city. and Robin is spotted at daytime, which is a rare occasion. when Batman calls for Robin on the comms, every single one of them responds, slowly driving him insane.

(the citizens of gotham are kind of confused, but y'know, they've seen weirder things.)

Constantine should be Raven’s Mentor

Maybe I’m a little late to the party because I’m admittedly only a newer fan of Constantine’s, but I honestly love the idea of John and Raven having something of a mentor/apprentice or father figure/daughter type dynamic in future media. Honestly, it’s kind of perfect. Both of them are religious magic users who primarily fight off demons. Raven’s biggest threat is her father, Trigon, who Constantine is straight up not afraid of. They have similar skills and focuses as heroes but are still unique enough in their abilities to not be boring copies of each other. Originally, the Teen Titans were basically the side kicks of the Justice League, and while Constantine isn’t in the main team, he is a part of Justice League Dark. Furthermore, there’s an inherent chemistry as their flaws can work off each other well. Constantine is a self-destructive Anti-Hero who might learn to take better care of himself if he has an apprentice to look after, and Raven is an emotionally repressed antisocial goody-two shoes. Raven is wise enough that she might help John deal with his own emotional baggage while also fostering a healthier lifestyle for John, while his charming nature might help to bring Raven out of her shell, become less afraid of her emotions, and even help her stand up to her father by training her more expressly in fighting demons like him. It’s obviously not perfect. There’s always the chance that his self-destructive behaviors combined with Raven’s tendency to suppress her feelings could result in them both hurting themselves and each other by not communicating, but these characters are edgy and troubled. I wouldn’t expect their dynamic to be cupcakes and rainbows. I would expect personality clashes and hurdles. But in the long run, if there was to be a revamp or new storyline where Raven started studying under Constantine, befriended him, or they fostered something akin to a family relationship, it could be a really neat relationship to explore and watch blossom. Just so long as it remains strictly non-romantic.

some designs for the evil Young Injustice team i've got in my head, here's some ideas i've got too if you want to see:

Tim is a sniper bc "evil au so Bats use guns lol." he doesn't really enjoy getting his hands messy so prefers long distance stuff rather than actual fighting even tho he's perfectly capable of hand to hand.

He's got a really lazy and childish personality, and his costume is just a Robin vest layered on top of sweats to visualize it. He also has an eccentric/batshit crazy and obsessive side but i didn't really want to draw that atm. he's also the very human protege of an Eldritch Horror Batman.

Cassie was prty much the origin of making all these designs. I had this idea that her Amazonian brace thingies are replaced with gold handcuffs bc Evil Cassie has a cop fit because yeah. She fights with a sword because i think that would be cool.

She's still the leader, and pretty much has the same personality as YJ'98 Cassie, just meaner. She curses in every instance she can, and insults her friends as a love language.

Also i think the world of this au is somewhat inspired by flashpoint, so Cassie's like, the general of WW's world domination scheme

Conner is Lex Luthor's bodyguard/ top henchman, hence the business suit/mobster vibe. He's a very moody, angsty dude, and prty violent. The collar Lex gave him has a little kryptonite in it to keep him in line. It's why he looks kinda sickly.

He's not necessarily as morally twisted as Tim and Cassie, but he's still loyal to Lex, so he commits crime because he's very ride or die, and also Luthor could very well exterminate him and make a replacement.

Bart is literally just normal Good Boy Bart who took an unfortunate wrong turn while time traveling and ended up in the evil fucked up timeline instead. Bart doesn't really wan't to be violent and hurt people, so he doesn't and usually tries to convince the others to lay off the murder when they do team stuff at the least.

He's super nervous around the others because they are absolutely insane, but also he still loves them a lot and because he's naturally chaotic like that, commits so much crime with them because friendship comes first, morals second.

Jasons second grave