"that's everything." (detective comics, 1937, #570)

So the whole “Batman’s mission is impossible and futile” thing is… eh, to me, because I feel like the read on Batman should be like. The fable about the girl throwing baby turtles into the ocean, knowing she can’t save them all from the seagulls swooping in to eat them. It shouldn’t be this nihilistic hopeless thing. Batman’s perspective shouldn’t be “I can’t save everyone so it’s meaningless and everything I do is just self-punishment”, it should be “It means everything to the people I CAN save.”

the ultimate problem and the ultimate source of appeal of jason todd as a character really is that even on a meta level, his place in the narrative has to be everything or nearing nothing at all. he's a character that is predisposed to challenge the whole mythos, the politics and the dynamics between the characters, and to avoid that he ought to remain a haunting. but imagine...

in your fic “paint it over” is that how you imagine jason making it out of the explosion at the end of utrh? not exactly the events that follow, but the preferable characterization of bruce digging jay out of the rubble and carrying him to help. and how do you think jason made it out canonically (without the help of bruce) also!!! what are your thoughts on the specifics of jason’s scar and how he’d behave toward it. i liked the part of your fic where jason was temporarily unable to speak due to the trauma his neck received. i think the scar is something that rests on the junction of his shoulder/neck, and that can be hidden with whatever clothes he wears -> no one knows he has it (or how he got it) either. i like to imagine while bruce knows his batarang made contact with jason’s throat it’s never fully registered to him that it scarred until he sees it for himself (and while i believe bruce would turn the moment in head over and over again until it’s engraved in his brain, his delayed realization—to me—is due to his repression of the occurrence)

oh i adore this whole ask. some of it i explained in my notes, but this fanfic is quite dear to me, so i will elaborate.

short answer to whether this is how i imagine jay making it out of the explosion: not exactly?

the premise that i wanted to explore with paint it over is almost the opposite of a fix-it, and definitely not what i believe it should be in canon.

what i wished to explore there is, however, the part of utrh that is perhaps the most shocking to many readers: that bruce leaves jason to die.

in-universe, i think the answer why it happens is surprisingly simple enough: bruce does not come because he is just... not there. my understanding is, that in a way, the events of under the red hood did not happen. there is nothing to follow. that purple mist in the finale of the utrh, that is often read as a force resurrecting jason (not technically wrong, either)- i believe that is the timeline already rewriting itself, making the whole story into something that was not.

and the reason for the above is the infinite crisis. if i'm not wrong, it's also the inifinite crisis miniseries where bruce meets dick right after the explosions in (or of) bludhaven-- that in batman clearly happens in the background of his confrontation with jay. however, in infinite crisis (#4, just checked it now), bruce tells dick: "i wanted to make sure...you're alright... i was in new york when it hit. got here as soon as i could." which could be a lie or a matter of the editorial not being synced enough- but i'm willing to give them a benefit of the doubt given how it ties with that sudden, stunted ending of utrh.

this makes sense for canon for several reasons. in the animated movie, since it spares us the infinite crisis tie-in, bruce says of the whole incident: this changes nothing. it changes nothing because although aditf isn't, utrh is a tragedy; it changes nothing because since his death, jason is necessarily always pushed at the peripheries of the narrative, no matter how much the fate itself tries to fix it, becoming a tragic footnote. the dead have one right and it's the right to remain silent. and that is ironically ensured on a cosmic level, with his violent attempt at being seen hidden in the folds of the timeline. you can also see it clearly in canon -- i believe it was not until the infinite frontier that the events of utrh got just tangentially mentioned (before that, even lobdell barely touched upon it). other than that, they have no consequences; they are barely ever spoken of; they seem to slip out even from jay's solo comics.

this move was necessary for batman, as a character and as a title: let's say bruce does hold red hood as he does in the alt cover of annual 25 (and the cover of the deluxe edition of utrh.) that would implore a reckoning with his failure and his (suddenly non-productive) grief that would either reconstruct the whole myth or lead to some terrifying implications. these terrifying implications are, essentially, what paint it over is about. it's about the worst happening and about there being no way back from it. and jason, in receiving what he wanted (his father's love and care) wants to deny that reality. they both want to. yet even jay cannot ignore it completely -- and i chose to use the batarang injury to emphasize it.

and about the scar: i mentioned it briefly before, but in the au jason aggravates the wounds on purpose, hence it will scar worse and cause long-term issues for his voice. it's a theme i also keep in some of my other stories (to come...) and i very much think this is what would happen in canon if he had to take care of that injury. yet as it healed, i believe he'd take to hiding it, mostly. still, as it stands, my primary take might be that in canon (if it was to follow the interference into the timeline from the crisis at least) jason would simply end up with no scar at all, and only memories for evidence of what happened, which is perhaps worse for him too (but of course better for bruce. and as it happens, this is bruce wayne's story and everyone else is just living in it- or dies in it- for better or worse. and if we're ignoring that metaphysical timeline bullshit, as you said, i believe bruce would repress it all anyway.)

As a categorical expert on Jason, can you tell me your thoughts on and also what the hell happened to that whole thing with Jason & Dick teaming up with others to break a hero out of prison after he was wrongly imprisoned? Cos it seems like it just kind of stopped before the prison break.

you flatter me too much!

i think you're talking about outsiders #44-46. the arc actually was finished -- for whatever reason the finale was put in outsiders: annual 1, which takes place a year later. jason's only mentioned in it, hence why the issue usually doesn't make it to the reading lists-- (or perhaps because people who made them don't actually pay attention to it?) but jay's role really is pretty much just providing dick with intel, one that dick chooses to believe (an interesting choice of winick. a rare one) jason does not join the prison break (i reckon he's simply not invited, but it also didn't seem to be his goal to be invited. he drops in and makes himself scarce later) , which good for him, because that ends up a catastrophe, with most of the team framed for murder of like 40 people inside.

i don't particularly like outsiders and this arc does hold to its usual problems -- there are some interesting moments and concepts, but also some awful characterisation (this is the story that is the origin of jason calling dick "golden boy" and claiming that he was "dad's favorite"). other than that it's not the worst (there's this idea that jason is willing to offer help to others and is even quite reasonable about the extent of his own involvement)- but as a dick vs jason team-ups/confrontation, it remains derisive and inaccurate to their og dynamics. and i really wish it didn't, because the concept of jay appearing somewhere at the peripheries of dick's life, at the time when dick takes an L after an L after an L and in that particular moment dick deciding to trust him is a scenario that has some potential. definitely not something that winick was truly interested in exploring though, especially that he gave his blessings to daniel.

What is your following and follower count if you don’t mind sharing?

not sure why it's interesting but i have around 500 followers on this sideblog and i hope it'll stay this way (one of the reasons for which i moved my blogs before was that i did not like my activity tab... & that's also why i very rarely use mainstream tags). i follow exactly 140 blogs but i think perhaps only 30-40 of those are dc-related (and some are mains/sideblogs of my mutuals).

if you're asking because you're worried that i did not follow back, then honestly don't worry about it, as i simply don't have much time so i rarely check out people who follow me immediately. i also sometimes don't follow people just because there's too much of a gap in our interests and i'm particular about my feed. but none of that means that interaction is unwelcome!! (<- though that also takes time. sorry about that:()

theyre pinning my wings to a cork board tomorrow

ive been working on this for AAAAGES but it’s finally done!!! happy death day jason!!! i wish i could explain my thought process for the symbolism but you guys will understand. i hope. teehee!!

beyond its perfect encapsulation of bruce and talia’s wistful, tragic dynamic, i really love this page for its subtle depiction of how the roles between them have significantly shifted. it’s no longer a heartbroken, principled talia making decisions for (son of the demon) or lecturing a petulant bruce (no man’s land) to remember that he has responsibilities to people other than himself. he’s the one who makes the decision here, who mirrors her steadfast sense of responsibility and duty to the world, who ends their sabbatical with an affectionate kiss because he’s in a better position now than he ever was before to understand the way they balance their worlds with each other. they’re not meant to be “together” in the most literal sense of the word, unyielding to the rest of the world, constant. but they’re together in the sense that they share the same vision for themselves. trysts are meaningful because they’re an expression of circumstances unchanged. i cannot love you while holding you close but i cherish every moment with you and walk away knowing that we will repeatedly gravitate back to this place and time in our lives because it is also where we are meant to be

brutalia is back 🥹🥹🥹😭

part two of my favorite talia panels (outfits) from batman: the tales of the demon

part one

batman #244 (chic and cute no one’s doing it like her)

batman #244 (THIS COMPLETELY ICONIC LOOK)

dc special series #15 & detective comics #485

(in the first panel she’s holding batman’s cape while her men kidnap him girlboss <3)

detective comics #490

(yes, batman’s lying on the floor in the first panel that’s the effect she has on him <3 fr tho she shot him with a poison dart, saved his life and took him to a cottage <last two panels<)

"You're not Talia. Talia smells of Jasmine and Rose of Taif"

she's evil manipulative two sided and cold to YOU. to ME she's my wife

me reading comics

Funky little dude and his weird dad