Paint The Town Red(red Hood Tim)

paint the town red🩸(red hood tim)

(based on @mammutblog's red hood timmy design i haven't stopped thinking about since the first time i saw it)

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I love it when comics let Dick be just as unhinged about Tim as Tim is unhinged about Dick.

Some appreciation for Duke-I Won't Hesitate-Thomas in Batman & The Signal under the cut because this got a bit long:

He starts off feeling isolated, like he doesn't belong with the rest of the Bats because of his powers. And yeah, look at how intimidating everyone is. Duke is really feeling the pressure here.

He only thinks his outing as Signal is going to last a week, tops. But even through his self-doubt, he pushes onward and tries his damndest to make it work.

And during his first outing as Signal, after he fights The Null, Gothamites heckle him:

He still doesn't give up even through it seems like everything's going against him.

Later, he has a moment of doubt where he thinks Bruce has orchestrated a nefarious scheme to get him to become Signal, and what does he do? Does he brood about it? Hell no! He gets on his motorcycle and confronts Bruce head-on. Zero hesitation.

And of course, after things are cleared up, the run ends with him at breakfast, feeling more confident in himself:

It's just a nice little arc.

Here's a bonus panel of Duke calling Bruce "the shit" after Duke saved the day and B came in clutch to catch him when he was flying through the air:

Robbie Reyes as textposts

Duke and Jason

The interesting thing about Duke’s relationship with Jason is that though he is a part of the family, he wasn’t really there for a lot of the divisive things that happened when Jason came back. Duke also never knew Jason beforehand or encountered the ghost of previous Jason; Dick, Babs and Bruce knew Jason before, Tim, Cass, Steph, and almost everyone else had to live with the ghost of Jason’s death haunting their moves and their relationships with Bruce, before Jason came back. Duke, meanwhile, joined after Jason’s return, and for him the status quo has always been what it is. To Jason, having someone who never thought of him as different than the Jason he is would be very important to him. Despite Duke’s knowledge of the past, sometimes distance makes the biggest difference - and Duke has the luxury of not having any emotional entanglements into who Jason was.

In addition, Duke comes at a time where Jason is able to openly admit he has brothers - and very much considers him to be one.

Artemis: Honestly? It was like kissing my brother. If I had one. Jason: Thank god! I was thinking the same thing. And I have four.

On Jason’s side, he seems to have decided to take a sort of mentorship role for Duke. The main instance is in the Roll Call short story in which Jason and Duke do a fight simulation on a very high level and Jason shares his hard-won wisdom.

Panel One -  Jason: Lesson number one: quips and retorts should only be used for distraction.

Panel Two- Jason: Find your own way. Because following in the Batman’s footsteps and being something that you’re not – is the fastest way to get killed

Panel Three- Jason: No. That’s a given. Lesson number four? No matter how you feel or what you think… you’re never alone

Jason makes sure to tell Duke that no matter what, he’s never alone. Jason wants Duke to know that no matter what, he will always have his back but it means more than that. Jason had long periods of time where he thought he was abandoned, and he lashed out as a result; hurting himself and others. A lot of the advice Jason gives Duke is not only useful things, but things Jason wished that he knew when he was younger. It seems to imply that Jason might see a bit of himself in Duke, and that he sees it as his responsibility to help Duke become something better.

Jason: – How many times are you planning to die, Duke?

Roll call also has a scene that drives me insane in which Jason recreates being beaten to death by the Joker in front of Duke. It’s pretty ambiguous whether or not this was on purpose. If it was on purpose, was it to show Duke what happened to him, was it to confront his fears on his own terms with his brother next to him? If it was by accident, did he brush it off to make Duke feel safe, or was he okay with Duke seeing him like that because he trusts Duke? Either way, Jason is comfortable enough around Duke to feel safe with him seeing one of his biggest traumas.

Joker (standing over Jason with a crowbar): I guess it’s over your dead body

And, after they finish the simulation (and Duke of course jumps right in to help Jason), Jason’s right back to joking with Duke.

Jason: Heads up Narrows, more clay bastards on the horizon. Batwoman and her crew usually warm up in the mud room on a level four practive setting.

Duke continues to help save Jason, notably in the Cheer’s story arc.

Jason: … Have your back (urban legends 6)

(Although, it equally drives me insane that despite Duke helping Jason and Bruce in this arc, he’s the only member of the family to not be in both Jason and Bruce’s dream worlds which drives a lot of questions - do they not want Duke to have been a vigilante and thus part of the family? Has Duke’s entrance into the family been too recent for them to add them to their fairy dream worlds? Is the author simply forgetting to mention Duke being there even though Duke is in the comic saving Jason and Bruce? My personal interpretation is because Cheer deals very much with Jason wanting the Joker dead, a dead joker means that Duke’s parents were never Jokerized, and thus Duke couldn’t be a part of the family in a dream world where Joker was dead.)

Their relationship with what the Joker did to them is another huge parallel between Duke and Jason. When the Joker killed Jason, and when Duke’s parents were Jokerized mark a difference in both of their lives - now divided in the before Joker touched their lives and after. It’s interesting to see how both Jason and Duke expected Batman to save them initially, and ended up needing to take their lives into their own hands, though there are huge differences in the way Jason fought for revenge, when Duke’s feelings were expended on fixing his parents and not towards the joker. Of course, the two situations are not completely comparable, but it is a similarity that impacts their lives.

Duke (to Batman): I know you can save them. My parents. All of them. Just like you always do.

They also have nicknames for each other! Jason calls Duke “Narrows”, which is a pretty outspoken acknowledgment of some of their similarities, being children from Gotham. 

Panel One - Jason: Narrows, meet crime alley. we do things differently. Find a functional outfit.

Panel Two - Duke: Need help? Jason: No, narrows, I don’t

It is important to note that Duke and Jason’s living situation are not identical, though they are similar - the Narrows is often neglected in Gotham.

Jim Gordon (about the Narrows) : Its Gotham’s poorest neighborhood. Made up of nearly a dozen diverse communities. Its been let down over and over by the mechanisms put in place in order to protect it. Under-protected. Under-represented. It’s been burned so many times you are practically feel the embers everywhere.

However, as opposed to Jason, Duke did have a stable family as a child, his mom was a social worker and his dad was a construction worker. After his parents were jokerized, Duke had to live in a series of foster homes, so both Jason and Duke (along with Dick) were impacted by the childcare system in Gotham.

In addition to Jason being comfortable sharing himself with Duke, Duke is able to get by with a lot of jokes about sensitive topics in Jason’s life.

Duke (about Batman): And he’s not my boss. Or the the target of my daddy issues.

Jason: you’re the latest robin. You’re supposed to… whatever. Brighten his dark side. All that crap. So he doesn’t propose to a villain and then run off and do… This! Duke: Jay, what? Dude, when you were robin you got dead then came back as a vigilante villain! And you’re telling me to “brighten his dark side”. (Batman 33 (2016))

Duke: Question. Didn’t you die already?

If that had been anyone else, I don’t think Jason would have brushed it aside that easily! Anyways, Duke and Jason have a super interesting relationship and I hope more people keep exploring it!

Damian slipping a dagger into Steph’s coffin as a funerary gift, because he would never risk sending his sister into the afterlife unarmed.

Steph waking up in her dress in her grave without even a belt buckle to her name, but feeling that hilt digging into her hip. Steph using the dagger to dig her way out.

Talia coming to retrieve Steph off the streets, and Steph still has that dagger. Steph pulling it on Talia on pure instinct.

Talia confirming Steph’s identity by Steph’s stance & grip—exactly the way Damian taught her (exactly the way he learned from his mother.)

Steph recognizing Damian’s features in Talia, and lowering the knife in confusion. Talia taking Steph by the wrist and leading her into the vehicle that will take them out of Gotham until Steph makes her grand return.