Sometimes you just look at something and it gets worse with every second you think about it.

Reverse Mamma Mia Batman Au.

Think about it: It's Bruce's and Selina's wedding. Harley is trying to help with the invites so she just sends them to all of Bruce's contacts, which include his exs. Cue to Talia Al Gul, Janet Drake, Catherine Todd (She's Jason's Bio mum in this) and Mary Grayson showing up with dark haired boys with blueish eyes. When talking about their ages somehow it always tracks back to the time he was around their mothers.

So now Bruce and Alfred must find if any (or how many) of them are their bio sons all the while trying to keep Selina unaware (He doesn't even know why they're here). The Gotham city sirens are Donna and the Dinamos. At some point Selina gets upset that her fiance seems to be ignoring her and senses there's something afoot, so she and the girls get into detective mode.

The funniest part is the kids would also notice the weirdness and start investigating on their own. At some point they try to set up Bruce with their mothers (because in their mind he must choose the one that he had a child with). Bruce tries to do damage control and investigate, while hilariously the Sirens always get enough bits and pieces to think Bruce is cheating.

Mary Grayson spends their entire brunch talking about her husband and giving Bruce marriage advice. Catherine ends up confessing to Willis' abuse while stuck in Bruce's yacht (Jason messed with the engine), and he offers her help to get out of the situation. Before the coast guard rescues him Willis has been served divorce papers and Alfred has escorted him out. The girls interpret this as Catherine divorcing because she's trying to get back together with Bruce.

Janet Drake is horrified at the idea of dating Bruce again when they get set up in his bachelor party, but they end up having a wild night as friends. Talia and Bruce have a really emotional moment, a real "we could have been great" time. She confesses that Damian is his bio kid but they both realize they're not right for each other, not now. They leave things amicably and Talia has a talk with the kids about loving someone and letting them go. So the kids take that as "Fix Bruce's and Selina's relationship that has been struggling through the story because of wedding/possible affair/possible kids stress".

When they clear things out, Selina tells him she doesn't mind about his past nor about possible previous children. Bruce apologizes for not telling her sooner, leading her to imagine the worst. It's a really touching moment. The kids end up as flower boys and ring bearers for the couple. In the end he ends up "adopting" all of them in his heart.

He and Talia co-parent Damian peacefully, the Drakes leave Tim with him whenever they go traveling, Catherine moves into the mansion with Jason after her divorce from Willis and Dick stays in Gotham to finish his education while his parents travel with the circus. Selina is a bit confused about how she ended up with four kids, but very supportive.

Things that are now Canon.

At least in my corner of the internet

Dick has saved all of Bruce's smoking jackets. No one knows why. No one wants to know why

The children have a 'roasting Bruce' session about once a month. This has been the best team building exercise

Jason is trying to get caught up on internet culture, and the results are varied and terrifying

Tim likes oatmeal raisin cookies. Jason hates them

Everyone forgets Bruce is bi. Including Bruce

Cass has a hobby of training her family into taking care of themselves

Tim and Connor have date nights where they go to metropolis and cause problems for Lex and Clark

Joker hasn't been seen in a while, and for some reason, Alfred is the only one with an alibi

Jason says the nicest things while sick. Cass will curse your bloodline

Jason is asexual and doesn't understand why Bruce is such a slut

Damian doesn't always tell jokes but when he does they are the funniest by far

There are gangs in Gotham that find out if you like clowns and mug you

If there isn't enough drama going on, Duke will start some

Hugo Strange gave Alfred the creeps so Bruce didn't go to therapy

In the batcave there are 2 lists. 1 lists JL members from most to least competent. The other most to least likable. They are almost identical

Talia adopted Jason because of his sass

All of Metropolis is convinced that Kryptonians have abo dynamics and that Lex and Superman are Conner's biological parents

The batfam are metahumans but in comparison to people like Superman, their mutations are lame

Following an adventure with alternate dimensions, Terry McGinnis is everyone's pick for the next Batman

Demon Twins AU

In most Demon Twins AUs, Danyal is the spare, the weak one, never as good at anything as Damian. Damian kills most of his brother's targets and is the only reason Danyal hasn't been killed by their grandfather.

What if, instead, Danyal is the better twin, and Damian is the spare? That's why he tries to be the superior Robin. Ra's wanted to get rid of Damian, believing him to be holding Danyal back, but Talia convinces Ra's to send Damian to Bruce to be the Heir to the Bat.

Not too long after Damian leaves, Danyal is killed on a sabotaged mission. Talia revives him with the Pits (the Lazarus Pits are either a different type of ectoplasm, or not ectoplasm at all) and sends him to the United States. Danyal eventually makes his way to Amity Park, Illinois, and is adopted by the Fentons.

Danny has to deal with Pit Rage from being dunked in the Pits, but he mostly gets it under control. He keeps up with his training as well, and always has some sort of weapon on him, even when he gets older. Danny isn't as close with Sam and Tucker as everyone (including Sam and Tucker) thinks he is. He keeps many secrets and never truly let's his guard down.

The Accident happens, but nobody is there with him. (He also just goes by Phantom to start with and hides his identity better.) Since ghosts are creatures of emotion, it makes his Pit Rage worse. He barely manages to keep it in check.

The Justice League actually does their job, and finds out about the Anti-Ecto Acts; they go to Amity Park to investigate. Meanwhile, Danny's been under a lot of stress. Whether it's his parents, the GIW, Vlad, or all of the above, he is not having a great time. Eventually, he snaps and attacks someone (Jazz, Sam, or Tucker? Someone he'd be upset about hurting, and that also can't really defend themselves) in his human form, transforming into Phantom and revealing his identity to everyone. The heroes try to intervene, but he goes into a full Pit Rage and attacks them. Nobody gets out uninjured, not even Superman. Danny flees after his head clears enough for him to realize what he's done.

Looking for safety and comfort, and with the Pit still clouding his mind, he flys to the LOA, looking for his brother. He doesn't remember that Damian is with their father, the Pit is still too close to the surface for him to think. When he finally arrives, he crashes at the gate and transforms back.

BatFamily: Omegaverse Edition

I have been recently re-hit by my enduring, overwhelming love for these anxious, extremely competent, disaster humans. So I'm making this post to cope with the Feelings.

This is just going to be a breakdown of the gender designations I usually give each member of the family, and why, the short version, because there's a lot of them. (Does include some more peripheral members, the only requirement to be included here is to be part of the core cast really)

I might do more in-depth posts for them on an individual basis at some point in the future.

Also this post is p much ship-neutral, with some acknowledgements of canonical relationships.

In age order...

Talia: (Becuase she is actually the oldest rip) Talia is an omega. Her relationship with Ra's in the comics is in a large part defined by his despair that she would be the perfect heir "were she not a woman" (pause for eyeroll) (Ra's is an alpha, of course. He doesn't get a full section because fuck him) This is just that scaled up. She also took control of multiple criminal organizations partly by weaponizing her femininity (but mostly by killing people and we love that for her). This also adds some layers of complication to her relationship with Damian. And also the rest of the Bats and Birds but Damian is the one she cares about.

(Also like, on a more serious note, the absolute character assassination she has undergone during her run time is horrific in a way that is very much centered around her identity as a woman, and specifically a woman of color, and I cannot in good conscience ignore that. Fuck Grant Morrison. All my homies hate Grant Morrison)

Alfred: Alfred is an alpha. Yes, I know most fics have him as a beta but I firmly believe alpha fits more with both his backstory (military and theater) and character (very protective and willing to get lethal with it.) He's a very low-key alpha, who, as the Wayne family butler, most people assume to be a beta, but his is very much an alpha.

Bruce: I write Bruce as a beta. Brucie Wayne is the epitome of non-threatening himbo and being a neutral beta helps with being not taken seriously as a danger. It also adds a wider layer of disguise for Batman, since the general consensus is that Batman has to be an alpha. (Also lets me have the trinity be "one each"* and that makes me happy. They’ll get their own post together soon)

Beta Bruce also means he gets to be consistently flummoxed by his children’s situations. He is more comfortable with alpha things, since both Alfred and his parents are/were alphas so they’re more familiar to him.

Selina: An omega. (As you can tell, Bruce may or may not have a bit of a weakness for omega women who don't take anybody's shit XD) Selina is an archetypal femme fatal (though also so much more) couldn't have her be anything else. This also adds to her reputation in Crime Alley, both in the sense of building herself into a serious faction and in her reputation as a safe space for strays.

Barbara: An alpha. More independent than the rest of her generation, only a Bat on her own terms and has never worked for Batman, only with him. As Oracle, who most people never meet in person, she is fairly genderless, though very much fem-presenting, but that counts a bit less in an omegaverse context.

Dick: Dick Grayson is an omega, the tendency towards being flattened into "sexy golden retriever and support of the family" and ignoring of the very real complexity in his character and storylines? he couldn't be anything else. (No, I'm not salty, don't @ me) Robin is genderless/gender neutral, Nightwing is an omega. (Titans era Dick Grayson did not give a flying fuck, as appropriate for a run about teenagers figuring out who they are in the world.)

Cass: I usually write Cass as either a beta or an omega. Part of her character is how she is deceptively non-threatening at first glance while being able to absolutely wipe the floor with the majority of her opponents. I usually lean beta for her, because I think it adds to her bond with Bruce. She has very firm connections with Babs, because of her support and care, so giving her that kind of mirror to Bruce helps balance out that relationship. It also allows for the continuation of Beta Batman in the Future. (Because Cass absolutely should be the next Batman I have been saying this for a decade and I stand by it)

Jason: Jason is an alpha. There is just something about the particular flavor of non-toxic masculinity that comes with Jason’s character that I think lends itself to this very well. Also something something expectations of violence and choices.

Stephanie: Steph is an omega. When I was first figuring these out (back in like, 2016-ish) I went back and forth between beta and omega for her before ultimately coming down in favor of omega. On the shallow side, it allows for the three main batgirls to hit each gender option. On the character history side I think it fits her teen pregnancy storyline she had. And it just fits her particular story imo. She fought literally everyone to be a vigilante. Everyone in her life has told her no at some point.

Tim: Works well with any gender, I usually opt for beta!Tim just because I think it lends itself well to his general perception as Bruce’s mini-me (despite how far from the truth that is in some significant ways). Usually if I’m not writing him beta I’m writing him alpha.

Duke: Duke I lean towards alpha both because it helps balance the family out (the perils of being the newcomer) and also I have a fondness for “chill but also absolutely unhinged” characters as alphas. Also, in a similar way to Jason, his gender means people tend to assume/underestimate how much his intelligence is involved in what he does (intersectionality also hits hard here let’s be real). I just really like the idea of Jason and Duke sending like, crossword puzzles back and forth to each other as a weird form of bonding okay.

Damian: Imma be honest Damian is who I go back and forth on the most. Any option gives a good story for his character, they’re just all different ones. Baby Damian would consider being an omega something to be ashamed of, being an alpha proof of his superiority, and being a beta merely acceptable (and maybe a way to relate to his father). As he grows into the person he is now, it would be either accepting his own worth, or accepting the worth of others, and figuring out how his gender identity and the social roles that come with it play into who he is as a hero and as a person.

I adore Damian so much. When I first was getting into comics he and Dick were just wrapping up their stint as Batman and Robin and they hold a special place in my heart.

Genetically, all three options are possible for him, his mother is an omega, his father a beta, and at least three out of four grandparents are alphas.

What’s your hc on islanders that would date single parents? Idk if you’ve already done it before lol

I feel like someone else might've done this recently - maybe @ariendiel or @hopeshoodie or maybe even @i-boop-you? I genuinely can't remember.

Anyway this includes the main LIs as well as a couple of popular 'others'

How would the LI's be when dating a single parent?

Not a problem whatsoever. Patient and understanding. Respects their parenting decisions and just perfect in every way.

Season 1 - Jake, Rohan

Season 2 - Arjun, Gary, Graham, Noah

Season 3 - Camilo, Nicky, Rafi

Season 4 - Hazeem, James, Oliver

Very excited, and way too keen. They love kids, so no problem, right? Doesn't understand why the parent wants to wait to introduce them.

Season 1 - Tim

Season 2 - Bobby, Henrik,

Season 3 - Bill, Tai, AJ

Season 4 - Bruno, Najuma

Makes them very, very nervous. But if they really like the parent, they'll be open to meeting the kid.

Season 1 - Talia

Season 2 - Carl, Felix, Jakub,

Season 3 - Ciaran, Yasmin, Seb

Season 4 - Angie, Tom

Dealbreaker. Runs the other direction

Season 1 - Levi, Mason

Season 2 - Elijah, Ibrahim, Lucas, Kassam, Rocco,

Season 3 - Harry

Season 4 - Dylan, Kobi, Will, Youcef

The We are Robin movement could fit perfectly into both UTRH and Battle for the Cowl in terms of world building but would so radically change the stories in question its wild.

Okay, I see what you mean, but consider this: WAR first appearing during, well, War Games would be also very apt.

Dre Cipriani is an orphan of a mafia family. Izzy Ortez is someone who got backlash after refusing to join a gang - and a conflict with her brother who did join. Duke's parents - one of whom is a first respnoder, and the second is social worker - suddenly disappear as the city is thrown into chaos. Daxton Chill is very disturbed by appearance of a gang called Jokers - even as Joker himself is not heard from for quite some time. Riko and Troy get into it when their school is attacked by men gung ho on gunning down an upperclassman, and so the duo, in turn, throw Molotov cocktails on their car, trying to give Darla time to run (unfortunately, it only gives her so much time as to be assassinated in a classroom instead of a school hall). Shug-R gets into it by deleting footage with Riko and Troy on it, and deleting them from school files, so they won't be found by gangsters.

They maybe don't defeat Black Mask, but. Duke finds his parents, Dre discovers why his parents were killed, Izzy saves her brother, Dax finds out who put Jokers up to it in the absence of actual Joker, Riko meets Batgirl, and Troy is just chilling. Doesn't blow up either.

By flapping the butterfly wings, We Are Robins prevent Orpheus from going into Black Mask's trap - and Steph went after Orpheus too, so Sionis is not getting his hands on her either. So - there's no such thing as Black Mask disguised as Orpheus finding out Batman's plan. Gangs are united under Orpheus pretty peacefully. GCPD arrests them. No riots, no escalation, no Clock Tower blowing up unless Black Mask is going to do it himself.

Which he tries to do, but Spoiler and We are Robins stop him. The end.

As for the UtRH, so if there's - look, so the assumption above is Jason killed Joker offscreen, and Black Mask paid to create Jokers for even more chaos and destruction, to distract vigilantes from seeing the pattern, the bigger picture. He's a clown because they're exactly how Robins find him out. But anyhow. I know I did it like this because I need a reason for Dax to be included but here it is. Jason put Joker under ground off screen. He's like. Stable and shit. He's staying the hell away from Gotham. No UtRH. And seeing as the massive losses both in people killed, arrested, property destroyed or sized, post-War Games Gotham is very much a different landscape here. Bruce lobbies for changing the way city institutions work, giving young people better opportunities for school and higher education studies, or professional education, more employment - lemme be clear, it's not him personally sponsoring the students and personally hiring them to Wayne Enterprise, but the city. He's just lobbying the changes. He's lobbying not just politicians and officials, but also business. Educated employees are more productive employees. And healthy employees, employees with enough (paid!) rest, with childcare. Anyhow. Gotham is going like Scandinavic model +/-. It helps that businesses and business owners who are too stubborn to keep up with the times - there's someone who hostile takeovers them. Or they are just losing their business. Or arrested for tax evasion. Unknown to each other at first, it's not only Bruce who's after it but also Talia al Ghul. So Bruce's main focus is on economy of Gotham and its institution. He's not being Batman anymore.

So yeah, Jason is staying the hell away. Somewhere on a beach. Meditating and doing yoga.

As for the rest: It's not that there's suddenly no crime, but it's different crime. Cass is on it. Although Barbara - despite the Clock Tower not being blown up - left to found Birds of Prey with Black Canary, Cass is assisted by Shug-R on the comms and computers. And Robins are officially taken under her bat-wing. They didn't disband completely - no way in hell Riko would lose on a chance to work with Batgirl! The Batgirl, for her! Duke, while he found his parents, still needs to figure out who poisoned them with Joker toxin and how to cure them. Izzy is trying to escape her mom. Dre wants to do good things to compensate for the things his parents did. Dax is in for the friends he made along the way. Troy, as usual, is just chilling. Spoiler is with them all the way, too, struggling to redeem herself for the failed plan.

At the same time, Tim joins up with Titans - it doesn't matter much, Gotham has its share of Robins. He's basically redunant there, while larger scale threats are more suitable for him, so he's like, a little bitter? But he deals and doesn't throw tantrums like with Damian.

Hmmm Bruce with his main battlefield being the market, and basically no time for Batman - well, he technically is on call for big scale threats Justice League deals with. But. They don't need him when they confront Darkseid because there's a guy who showed up kinda out of nowhere and assists them. The guy has no code name, his suit is... pretty much just basic armor and a red helmet. Although good armor. And he has moves on him, and good, quick thinking. He fills in the Batman niche in their group pretty nicely. The only one who knows his identity is Green Martian because he read his mind - the guy asked him to - and he was surprised, a bit distrubed, but he gave the go ahead for the rest of them to work with this guy. So that's what they do.

And, okay, so the confrontation with Darkseid ends with his defeat but not before the guy is hit with omega beam. He desintigrates before everyone's eyes, and Green Martian is - fuck. I need to tell Batman. Do I need to tell Batman? I have to, but I really, really don't want to.

But he goes. And tells Batman. That his dead son rose from the grave, and got himself killed again while helping them to deal with Darkseid. Batman goes nuts! He's like - no, that can't be true, but he checks the grave, and it's empty. He goes to Talia, or Talia gets the wind of it and finds him - and basically confirms it. And then he goes even more mad and insists that Jason Todd is not dead (again).

It will turn out that he's right - eventually. And while he's looking for his dead-alive son, he finds a very unexpected person who helps him, just a little guy but very misterious and full of knowledge of art and history which comes handy. And he's an ace with a sword. Bruce doesn't get why the kid is hanging out with him and basically his instincts are screaming to adopt him. He doesn't bring it up for some time because he's afraid to scare him away. The little dude, on his side, doesn't get why he's so freaking out about his former son. Didn't he dissapoint him? And Bruce is like - no, no kids of mine could ever dissapoint me so much I wouldn't want them back in my life. That's what being a parent is. And at some point, he finds out that this little dude is Damian. Who was heavily influenced by his grandfather, to the point when Talia decided to get out and take him to Gotham - he refused to go with her. She said that as long as he's ready, he can come to her, that she will take care of their future home for him, so that their lives will be more peaceful. But Damian is like, just got through his year of blood, and he realizes the fucked up nature of it all, and he's like - he's ashamed to desire safety, family, find his father. So that's the reason he didn't tell Bruce who he is and just helped him and traveled with him in incognito, trying to get at least some crumbs of his father.

So yeah, long story short, they bond, Bruce explains to him that no matter what he did before, it won't even make Bruce love him less, please come home with him when they find his older brother... So basically, Bruce adopts his own biological son.

And eventually, with their help, Jason Todd is brought back from the times, where - may I add - he kinda becomes responsible for the legend of Robin Hood, as in a prototype. But that' not here no there. And after he's brought back, he kinda visits Gotham? To see the big changes? And it would be rude to ditch Damian just after he helped to save him. And it would be nice to visit Talia. So - he visits Gotham, but he doesn't stay for long. He continues to unexpectedly assisst some heroes here and there, around the world, that's basically his main thing now. Like with Roy Harper and time traveling to save his daughter. Or Artemis Grace and finding her relique.

Main thing, there's no Battle for the Cowl. In Gotham, there's no Batman, but there's also no other Bat figure except Cass, so that's who gets called Batman, it's not like she woke up one day and started to call herself that - it's the people she protected. R-iko still remains her loyal fan, though. Duke discovers his powers and becomes Signal. Steph continues to rock it as Spoiler because you don't mess with perfection. Dre-b-Robin, Draxatax, Troy Wonder, Shug-R, they keep their aliases. So Damian is the only Robin-Robin among WAR collective. So there's no war betweeen them either. They deal with the Court of Owls together - Nightwing, Red Robin (Jason Todd, by the way!) and Robinman (I'm sorry, it's all I could think of for Tim) all come to assist.

I hope I didn't forget anyone.

i agree that scott and bruce are pretty similar and i get so much brain chemicals from someone else connecting them (they're both my blorbos )!! however, i think matt murdock is pretty similar to batman as well. they both have very strong morals (catholicism and strong no kill policy). they both have a vague 'protect the city' goal (whereas scott has a pretty different goal of survival of his species). they both trained with ninjas and elektra and talia are pretty similar. matt also grew up without his parents. matt's relationships to his villains seem more similar to bruce's to me. i also think matt and scott are similar to each other so i'm not disagreeing entirely sorry if this came off wrong

Well, seeing as how Batman predates a lot - a lot! - of comic superheroes (as a matter of fact, he's older than Marvel, I believe) it stands to reason that a lot of creaters mimicked what they saw before.

Here's a Fifteen Point ANALYSIS as to why Batman/Bruce's only real comparison in Marvel is on face Logan/Wolverine. (Courtesy of @bigskydreaming which he reminded me of yesterday).

So, there are quite a few that owe their characterization to how Bruce has been written over the years, many leaning into certain aspects of his character as he became more and more of a caricature to anyone who doesn't actually read Batman comics on the regular (myself included).

I mean, there are already quite a few Marvel characters that are very clearly modeled on DC characters, so Batman being used as a template (both physical and psychological) isn't at all surprising.

I have no clue what you guys have for godly parents so far (something about Hades and Persephone as Talia's grandparents?) But this is an au that's near and dear to my heart and here are my headcanon's.

Jason- Nemesis (goddess of retribution), although him as a son of Mnemosyne (Titan goddess of remembrance and the inventor of human language) would also be cool

Steph- I hadn't considered her as a daughter of psyche before! I was always thinking of her as a daughter of Dionysus but I like your take too

Dick- it's between Zephyrus (god of the west wind) and again Dionysus

Babs- Athena

Cass- Nyx (goddess of the Night and a bunch of other stuff. I have very strong opinions about this)

Tim- I know everyone probably thinks he's an Athena kid but it never fit for me. I didn't think about deified mortals as godly parents though! I can see him as a son of Ariadne. Dionysus would despise his very soul lmao

Duke- Apollo, self explanatory

Bruce- I know the obvious choice is Hades but I simply can't get behind that for multiple reasons so my top choices are Erebus (god of darkness, kind of like Nyx but if she was lame), Themis (Titan goddess of Divine Law), and Dike/Dice (goddess of justice and morality, so Themis but even more obscure and specific)

Alfred- probably a god in disguise tbh, feels like a son of Hestia (technically she's a virgin goddess but she does have kids if you look at her pjo wiki. Their both girls because their basically clones but trans Alfred is top tier so I'd accept it) . He could honestly be the child of the fates themselves and I wouldn't question it.

Not batfam (technically):

Roy- Hephaestus, self explanatory

Kori- Aphrodite (I have very strong opinions about this, and also the Aphrodite cabin as a whole. Rick really did them dirty in the books)

Donna- same origin but listen

Diana- Selene (Greek goddess of the moon, yeah there's like four of them. I hate the origin where she's Zeus's daughter. The presence of a man is simply unneeded in Themyscira)

Zatanna- Hecate (goddess of magic and a ton of other stuff, self explanatory)

Clark- ok I'd believe he was a child of Zeus, Jon and Jon's stores would probably bee the same

Artemis- Belladonna, she feels Roman

Cassie- I'm willing to allow her to be the daughter of Jupiter, but don't ask me how that works plot wise

Selina- Hermes (self explanatory)

Ivy- Demeter, hunter of Artemis (self explanatory)

Harley- this one was complicated, she gives off Tyche vibes but arguments could be made for Athena, Psyche, Aphrodite, and possibly Persephone (I think the reason it was cool for demigods to date despite all technically being related was that gods don't really have DNA or something? But that doesn't make sense so I headcanon that every god has unique DNA that's unique to them and their children. God genetics or something idk)

Harvey- Janus (Roman god of doors, Gates, transition, and duality. Literally has two faces. Self explanatory)

The flashes- it's split between Hermes and Zeus

That's what I have off the top of my head, and this only includes the Greek and Roman pantheons because if I included the others we'd be here for a long time. Anyway sorry for the ramble but this is a long time special interest of mine and seeing other people talking about it made me so happy!

This is what I have for the kids + the changes to Damian according to the whole al Ghuls discussion from today.

Mnemosyne is an interesting choice! I see why you would think of Nemesis. I already have that to Bruce at some point though, so it’s not an option for me lol.

Dionysus is clearly a favourite here lmao.

I’m going to hush about Nyx and Cass because I think I have strong opinions in the opposite direction. I see it, but I also don’t ^^;

Ariadne has me thinking. I think I really like her as Tim’s mother.

Apollo seems self explanatory for Duke, but then you realize that Apollo’s kids get healing or musical ability, not light powers (and definitely not shadow manipulation). We just have to make his bio parents minor gods (or have Elaine be blessed), or make him the child of two gods (neither of whom could be Apollo since he doesn’t have the powers we need).

I don’t see because Hades, Erebus or Nyx for Bruce because they seem like some a surface level understanding of Batman. Themis isn’t quite right because she goes beyond Bruce and his justice. Dice seems like a great choice though. I might be swayed here.

I didn’t know that Hestia had clones? I should probably reread the series.

Cassie works because she doesn’t inherit any powers but shows up to demand he give her some anyways. We just switch Greek for Roman from the original origin, and say it’s Cassie demanding demigod genes.

Ivy being a Hunter of Artemis doesn’t quite make sense with the stuff she does, but I do agree on Demeter.

I can get behind the DNA HC.

It depends on the Flash, but I don’t know if any of them would be Zeus. Hermes is really fitting though.

Dw about the rant, I don’t mind :]

Justin Mohareb consulted with an Arabic speaker and noted that "Ibn Al Xu'ffasch" means "Son of The Bat." This ties in to the long-running romance, or potential romance, in DC continuity between Talia Al Ghul (Ra's Al Ghul's daughter) and The Batman; here, obviously, the relationship took a more fruitful turn. Waid and Ross confirmed that Ibn Al Xu'ffasch is in fact the character who appeared in the graphic novel Son of the Demon, where Talia and The Batman did conceive a child which was later given up for adoption. According to Waid and Ross, Ibn Al Xu'ffasch was tracked down and recruited by Ra Al Ghul's men to run Ra's empire after the latter's death. (Carolina Lithgow-Bertelloni points out that the Son of the Demon is, post-Zero Hour, no longer in continuity). The Revelations supplement says this about Ibn Al Xu'ffasch:

"Just as Ra's al Ghul's name translated from Arabic means 'demon's head,' Ibn's Arabic name means 'son of bat.' Xu'ffasch is the heir to Ra's al Ghul's secret empire for one simple reason: he is Ra's' grandson. The child sired by Ra's' daughter Talia and his greatest enemy, The Batman, made his first appearance in the Son of the Demon graphic novel by Mike W. Barr and Jerry Bingham. The child was given away to adoptive parents in America (without Batman's knowledge). Later reclaimed by the criminal order the League of Assassins to be their master, one could assume that the long life of Ra's al Ghul had finally come to an end. Strangely enough, this character fit the design for my lead childhood hero's physical appearance whose costumed identity was also coincidentally named 'The Dark Knight.'"

Wdpattis adds this, however:

As for Ibn al-Xu'ffasch, I don't know what transliteration system Wade and Ross were using, but "son of the bat" would be better rendered as Ibn al-Xuffash or Ibn al-Khuffash.  The apostrophe in translitered arabic stands for either the hamza or the 'aeen, sounds we don't have in english (or any indo-european language), neither of which occurs in the arabic word for bat, xuffash.  I can't figure out why it was included.  The "x" can stand for the kha sound, a sort of throaty, harsh "H" that sounds to english speakers like someone clearing phlegm from their throat, but "kh" is much more common - in fact, I've never seen "x" used anywhere else to transcribe this sound.  The "sch" is also odd; I've only ever seen "sh" used to transcribe the sheen, a letter which is pronounced identically to the english "sh".  As a final note, the root noun, khafash, means day blindness, while the adjectival form, akhfash, means someone who is dayblind or afflicted with weak or defective sight.  "Batman" probably doesn't sound nearly as cool or intimidating in arabic as it does in english.

Comicbook women

I don't know why but women in most mediums don't really feel all that interesting as characters compared to male characters and I feel like this is more so the case in comics.

As the female in stories are just never really as compelling, such as love interests they can be kinda bland or pretty quickly summed up. It's possible that I just haven't really been up to date with following those kinds of characters or they've never really been my favorite. When I look at characters like Harley Quinn as they've been churned out, I feel like whatever depth she had, to begin with, has been stripped down to "hot mess badass clown lady" like if her story is about the joker's abuse it seems like it's a passing footnote of her backstory now, she was just always crazy and kickass. I think these characters come in 3 flavors: - villian that can fuck/flirt with the hero and it's not gay - love interest - There you have a female role model will you stop bugging us about it now? With flavor 1 villian that can fuck/flirt with the hero and it's not gay, I think that if your other characters seem better fleshed out and intriguing, with better chemistry or potential for banter or angst, that's how gay pairings just seem more interesting than whatever lady love interest they throw in there. Like I can see batmanxjoker or batmanxharvey being more intriguing plot relationships than Selina or Talia, just as they are, or even Harley or poison ivy. If we want to pair Bruce with a clown who's more interesting Joker or Harley? I think Joker-like they're both toxic and half the time writers are saying they're just made for each other. Poison Ivy? she's probably her least interesting when she's trying to seduce Bruce.

I feel like this archetype is just made for the "step on me dommy mommy" fetish or "let's stick the dick in crazy" and not much else. I don't know if it's because of stock melodrama that's just dulled the appeal of straight pairings or the completely borderline toxic behavior from it, that those stories just don't stick or feel genuine as a legit interesting romantic option. flavor 2 love interest, it generally seems like this character is usually an accessory. If the male hero is with a lady love, you know there's no way you can call them gay no sir no homo here so don't try to pair him with any of the guys because he's already with someone. This is the case that the female love interest is not really a character other than she's pretty and the main man likes her for some nondistinct reason (she's nice). What's her name or general disposition towards the male main character? I dunno doesn't matter, does he care about her? of course! why like who even is she? uhh... These characters if they serve a plot are usually fridged or baby mamas and then fridged because parents must be executed unless they can serve as an antagonist or be the bad abusive parent. I feel like Talia is done the greatest disservice here, where she just exists to give context to why Damian is a very skilled fighter and not just a normal kid and her character gets further assassinated so Bruce can be the better parent without lifting a finger. As if you can't be the bad parent if mom is a murderer training a little murderer that you use in your fight against crime, just because the little gremlin came pre-trained he'll be alright on his own you don't need to interact with it, the kid's a killer and that ain't on you. flavor 3, There you have a female role model will you stop bugging us about it now? this includes basically a gender-bent what would have been a dude character, but this is more of a character that just "I'm badass too and I don't need no man" character. I personally find them to be really bland like they just hate guys because they're strong and independent and not much else because all we're looking for is an empowering female character, not an interesting one. This character to me feels like the equivalent of slamming two action figures together until one of them breaks, but one of the action figures is traded out for a barbie. Like it's not bad because it's barbie and she's pretty, it's bad because it's still boring.

I'm not more excited for the outcome of the fight because the power level is now over 9000 and I'm not any more impressed because a woman is the one who wields the power of over 9000. These characters because they're so strong and more importantly independent don't feel like they have any bearings with everyone else around them, if they die no one in the universe would really mourn them other than maybe losing a strong team member (which would be unlikely for them to die because they're the only female representation and women would riot or the team comp becomes a full sausage fest with no, assumed completely necessary, sex appeal for the straight male audience to enjoy, maybe it's a loss for lesbians too but I don't know how real the thirst is for you guys) and if someone else dies around them it's a 50/50 chance that they let out a singular tear and then move on. This is applicable to boring too manly to care about anybody male characters, this just makes a boring character.

All in all, I'm not calling for more female characters, or more female writers (You can be female and still suck at writing). This isn't about a sexy lamp test or negative or lack of diverse representation. These characters are just boring. I'm fine with 1 to 3 characters like this male or female, it's just weird that for female characters I need to wrack my brain for characters that aren't just 1 or 2 of these flavors. I think the only extra secret flavor of the female character is the "need to take care of the baby" which is just the damsel trope, which is not even a bad trope so I don't really count it. The only character I can think of that isn't one of the aforementioned flavors is from more recent kid shows because you can't sell sex in those

Entering the Final Act || Akira || ATTN: All Passengers

His smirk grew slowly as everyone reacted.  He was glad to see Airi put the knife down; getting stabbed would really put a damper in this moment he was savoring.  The anger, the fire everyone was spitting out… He’d even gotten Billy to snap. And here he’d thought the guy was too foolhardy to actually crack.  This was beautiful, honestly. If only there were more people to see it.

Would applauding a little overdo it?  It would probably overdo it. Still, it wasn’t like he was going to be regularly interacting with these people after this.  Just some things for the police, maybe a little for HPA, and then home free. And jegus, the urge to clap was just too strong right now.

So, he did it.  He brought his hands together, his slow claps echoing throughout the trial room.  Congratulations, everyone, you found the mastermind. You found the one who put you on this train and didn’t stop until the station of living hell.  Bask in your glory.

Here he was, and he was about to talk your goddamn ears off.

“So, why’d I do it?”

“I’m sure you’ve all been waiting long enough for some sort of answer.  You’ve watched your classmates die around you, send some of them to their deaths by your own hand, and for what?  Why would anyone want to do this? And especially to us, just innocent little HPA students?”

He cracked his knuckles and took a deep breath.  “Well! You’ve heard of the Reserve Course, right?  I’d hope you would have, given that I’ve been here this whole time.  So I’m not going to explain it for you if you don’t. Too bad.

“What you might not know is what sort of treatment the Reserve Course students get.  Long story short, we’re like the red-headed stepchildren of the establishment. Even though we pay the outrageous tuition that funds the whole place, we’re treated like substandard by pretty much everyone on campus.  We’re students, but we don’t get to use any of the fancy equipment our money pays for, we don’t get the benefit of ‘guaranteed success upon graduation,’ and we don’t get any goddamn respect.

“And it’s not even like we all wanted to be here!  Sometimes, it’s just your parents assuming oh he must want to go!  Let’s uproot him from his friends and isolate him with the person he’s known since forever and see how they improve, hm?  Oh, this is gonna be great…”

He paused for a few seconds, then cleared his throat.  “But I digress. Anyway…

“The one thing I despise most about HPA?  It gives kids false hope. They sell this narrative about talent, how if you work hard enough, even you, you pathetic little Reserve Courses, you too can join us in the Talent Course!  The goddamn Land of Milk and Honey. It's all bullshit.  Like, seriously, that's not cynicism, that's just reality.  You come from all over the world, have experiences all over the world.  Talia’s from Australia, at least, and this is just a sample group. There's so many more.  There's no way any average Reserve Course student would be able to replicate that sort of world experience and recognition.  No matter how much they want it, no matter how determined they are, no matter how much money their parents funnel into them. But the academy puts this shitty idea in their head, that maybe if they work hard enough, they’ll be able to compete with these ridiculously lucky people who had all the right opportunities!

“And some people actually believe it.  That if they can run a kickass newspaper on campus, they're sure to become a Talent Student, the SHSL Reporter.  But they can't. There's no way that can compare to someone else who's had better opportunities. It'll get overlooked, in spite of all the effort she pours into it.  They just won't care.”

He paused again, but for less time than before.  After a deep breath, he balled his hands into fists, thrust them down at his sides, and continued.

“So, pretty damn clear I hate this place.  But, I'm not alone. Far from it! In fact,there's more than one organization that'd love to see this academy go down in flames.  One particular organization -- though I'm not going to name them, I'm sure they don't want the authorities on their tail -- had the perfect idea to do it.  Create a scandal so devastating, something that would be such a blemish on the academy, they just couldn't stay open. And it should be pretty obvious to you what this scandal is: the mutual killing game.

“So, they have the plan, and they have the means!  There's just one thing they don't have -- an in. They have no way to get in and legitimately gather some HPA students for this, without the academy getting suspicious.”  At this, he chuckled. “That's where I came in. What better place to find a like-minded individual than on the internet? They find me, a genuine student, and with pretty good standing thanks to the student-run paper I'm part of, the Reserve Hope Shimbun.  I have the connections, they have everything else they need, it's a perfect match.

“So we make a deal.  As satisfying as it is to bring down the shitshow that is Hope’s Peak Academy, it's not something I do for nothing.  And I have this friend, you see -- the other founding member of the Reserve Hope Shimbun. She's a good girl, earnest, hard-working, and wants more than anything to be a reporter.  And for some stupid, bullshit reason…” He took a moment to glare out at the students in the trial room. “...she thinks she needs to go through HPA to do that. But now, that doesn't have to be the case.  Her getting a job as a reporter at a news station somewhere in Japan was one of my conditions. And since I've held up my end of the deal, they're legally bound to hold up theirs. She'll get what she's wanted all her life, and she won't have to stake everything on some shitty school that can't even protect its own students from themselves.

“As for me?  I want a life away from all of this.  From all this chaos, all this snubbing, all this talent.  After I get the fuck out of HPA, I’m angling for an average job.  That was the other part of my contract. I'd love a job as an accountant, but, y’know, I'm not picky.  Any sort of salaryman job’ll do. Then maybe I can pick up life where it left off. Move up on the corporate ladder, build a nice family, make a good life for myself.  I've got simple dreams, I'm not asking for much.

“As for you guys?  Heh. It's been pretty damn fun watching you all fall apart, and it's gonna be fun watching what happens next.  This organization I'm working for has their eggs in a lot of baskets, including the media. Useful for getting my friend that job, and useful for making sure Hope's Peak Academy burns.  Once we get out of here, just about every network is gonna wanna know the details.  What toils you went through, what depravity your captors subjected you to.  You'll never be able to get a moment's peace!  You'll never be allowed to forget what happened here.  And you'll never be able to say who did this to you.

“But, at least you'll be able to live your lives.  HPA won't be so lucky. They send their students off to see the headquarters of a newspaper, and then they do nothing when they're kidnapped along the way.  I really did take the time to schedule a field trip, by the way. I asked the faculty for permission, set up the outing with the newspaper itself, it all checked out on paper.  They had no idea it was just a front. Until we failed to show up, of course. Naturally, the organization in charge of this set up the train and the venue. They even set up the conductor!”

The mention of the conductor seemed to remind Akira why they had all gathered here in the first place.  With a peeved sigh, he looked away, then shrugged.

“Oh yeah.  Speaking of Jenova.  Guh, the fucking wimp.  Yeah, I killed him, you're welcome.  He was right, I was sort of planning to kill him, but not from the outset of all this.  He was doing fine at first, but...honestly, if you're going to start a dirty job, you finish the dirty job.  He was getting soft, wanted to wrap this up because ‘he couldn't take it.’”  He scoffed. “Couldn't take it… You do what you need to do. Beggars can't be choosers, he ought to have know that better than I did!

“So… Are we ready to wrap this up?  Ready to get back to the rest of our lives in the real world, for better or for worse?  Because I'm sure as hell ready to see what arises from all of this…”