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havendance · 4 months

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Anyway, my proposal for a run on Detective Comics where I write a series of one-shot stories showcasing all of the various supporting cast Batman has accumulated with stories, including, but not limited to:

Batman invites Nightwing to Gotham to help him solve a murder. The murder is very straightforward and they dance around the real reason Bruce invited him, until at the end, he finally admits in a constipated Bruce way that it's the anniversary of him adopting Dick and he wanted to spend time with him.

Huntress and Robin (Tim Drake) team up to investigate Killer Croc. It turns out he's turning over a new leaf in the sewers near the Marina. Huntress is dubious, but Robin convinces her to give him a chance, though she says she'll be watching him. We re-canonize Joker: Last Laugh.

Damian and Duke team up to take on a street-racing operation--a mission that naturally requires them to do some high adrenaline racing together.

The Riddler gets on social media with a plot that involves lots of puzzles and clues all over Gotham. Oracle taps into old members of "We are Robin" to take it down.

Batgirl (Stephanie Brown) and Batman end up on the same missing persons case. With the pressure on to find the missing child, they snipe at each other as tensions rise. In the end, after saving the kid, Bruce sort of kind of apologizes in a Bruce way and expresses some measure of respect for her.

Jason teams up with Ghostmaker to take on, idk, one of the Clayfaces. Does Gotham still have one of those? I haven't read any comics ghostmaker's in yet, but from I've heard it sounds like they'd have an interesting dynamic. Jason gets flashbacks to digging his way out of his grave.

Luke Fox recruites Harper Row (She does engineering stuff right? I also need to read comics she has a significant role in.) They take some new tech for a joyride and go bother the Penguin.

Batgirl (Cassandra Cain) and Azrael team up to take down Mad Hatter. He probably has some elaborate Alice in Wonderland theming going on that neither of them get. (I think neither of them should have read it.)

Batwoman and Catwoman team up to steal back some Kane family heirlooms, possibly from Jacob Kane (What's his and Kate's relationship looking like anyway?), possibly from someone else.

Gotham Girl and somebody. Me advancing my Cass & Claire agenda Possibly Oracle trying to rehabilitate her in that controlling yet well-intentioned way she has sometimes? Someday, I will get to being more up to date on what Claire's status quo in current comics is.

A handful of representatives from Gotham's various crime families get together in the backroom of a bar somewhere. They play poker and exchange stories of being busted by the various bat-affiliated vigilantes in which they are very scary and almost inhuman. It ends with Batgirl (Cass) busting in and beating them up.

Helena Bertinelli takes a gig as a substitute teacher at Gotham Academy. She teams up with Maps & other supporting cast when Mr Freeze takes the school hostage while trying to escape the police.

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havendance · 1 month

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DC should give me a Black Label book to write an alternate future where Jean-Paul Valley goes to medical school and settles down to have a boring life and has three kids with Cass as their godmother. And then the order of St Dumas kidnaps his youngest son to be their new Azrael and he has to put on the costume again and team up with Cass and also his oldest daughter who's been learning stuff from Cass on the side to save him.

Or alternatively, his three kids all dive head first into vigilantism (with Cass' help) and Jean-Paul has complicated feelings about it.

#dc #bats + birds + affiliated #cassandra cain #jean-paul valley #my give jpv a baby agenda #dennis o'neil's poor little meow meow #cass tag #carthago delenda est

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havendance · 8 months

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You know what, I want to get in on these Jean-Paul Valley lives AUs. Building off ideas from @captainragtag and @tallochar in this post.

The way I'd do this is we start by still having Jean-Paul die of Azrael disease or whatever at the end of his solo. Idk, I’ve never gotten all the way to the end.

We then bring him back like three months later in a wild Robin arc written by John Lewis probably in which Tim stumbles across a secret Order of St Dumas lair where they have just resurrected JPV using a St Dumas themed knock-off lazarus pit that they stole from Ra’s al Ghul.

After beating up the Order of St Dumas with Azrael, Tim dumps him at, hmmm, idk, let’s go with the Trappist Abbey of Gethsemane over in Kentucky where he can recover from the system among a bunch of old monks who spend their days in prayerful silence and make fudge.

JPV can also impress/horrify them with all of the absolutely wild fringe theology of the Order! Does the Order of St Dumas even have the Eucharist?

(I mean probably, since I think their origin was from the crusades, but I don’t think this has ever come up in comics…)

Anyway we proceed through War Games and Identity Crisis up until the point where Tim’s dad dies and he’s like, clearly I need a fake uncle instead of being adopted by Bruce.

Only instead of hiring an actor, he’s like, I know a guy who owes me a favor and is also in on the secret so I don’t need to hide being Robin from him

So he grabs JPV from the Abbey and rechristens him as his Uncle JP Drake.

(Jean-Paul probably comes back from the abbey being drawn with a tonsure because even though that’s not really a thing anymore because that’s how you know he’s been hanging out with monks.)

(Also I think he deserves a stupid hair style)

Bruce is like, man, who know Tim had this Uncle who looks vaguely familiar. Well, must be the family resemblance.

Jean-Paul looks exactly the same except with a stupid haircut and also possibly an eye color change from the knock-off lazarus pit.

Bruce also doesn’t know that Jean-Paul got resurrected because Tim didn’t tell him.

And then, you know, eventually he figures it out and can brood over the fact that Tim chose Jean-Paul Valley over him.

And that way Tim and Jean-Paul have built up a kind of positive relationship that we can then use to lead into the Battle for the Cowl and Brucequest AUs that other people have proposed.

#jean paul valley #tim drake #jpv lives au #carthago delenda est #dc #bats + birds + affiliated #dennis o'neil's poor little meow meow

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havendance · 10 months

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Bonus drabble for the JPV and Cass girlies. I’m on my give Jean-Paul a baby agenda.

—

“He’s small,” Cass says. She’s seen babies before, but it’s different, holding one. He’s pink, soft. Delicate.

“I know,” Jean-Paul says. He hasn’t looked away from her, from the baby. “I’m almost afraid I’ll break him.”

He’s still afraid, Cass sees. “You’re good,” she says. “You won’t.”

He laughs; it’s not real. “My father was Azrael. He made me into him. What if I can’t help doing the same?”

They are both weapons, forged by fathers. The baby is so small. How small was Cass, when Cain started with her? She can’t remember.

“No,” she decides. “I won’t let you.”

#azrael #jean paul valley #cassandra cain #drabble #my fic #havendance writes #my drabbles #carthago delenda est #dc #bats + birds + affiliated #dennis o'neil's poor little meow meow

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havendance · 10 months

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Lots of fun suggestions on the JPV Teams post. Sadly, it looks like both the Outsiders and Justice League: International had wrapped up by the time he was done running around being crazy batman and gotted booted back into the Azrael suit. It looks like Justice League Task Force was running, but I don't think anyone really cares about Justice Leage Task Force? IDK.

@upswings suggested that we create a alternate timeline where JPV didn't die, and instead joined the 2003 Outsiders. Which I completely support. Azrael should be on that team and have entertaining beef with Dick. I also think he should get along with Kory solely because it would make Dick even more petty.

@zahri-melitor suggest Linda Danvers as a potential teammate. I have not actually read a ton of her other than the young justice crossover, but I earth-born angel wings, whatever deal she's got going on does sound like it would make for a very fun combination with Jean-Paul's avengeing angel deal.

This is the part of the post where I reveal that my self-indulgent draft for a team with JPV would be none other than Fury a.k.a Lyta Hall freshly off of killing one of the endless in the Sandman comics and a little unhinged probably. (Look, Sandman was my first comics love). (Would DC actually do this? No. But that's not the point.)

So, with Azrael, Linda, and Lyta, we even have a group of trinity-aligned characters to make of the core of this super-serious new DC team that I am going to call The World's Blondest. Because they're all blond already and I want to stick with the bit. (The World's Blondest. DC's least diverse superhero team)

Other blond heroes we can stick on this team:

Booster Gold! - I only know him from the handful of JLI issues, I've read, but I feel like he'd add some fun goofiness

Hmmm, we could maybe draft Terra II from the outsiders. (Another character I don't know much about.)

I don't know when Green arrow dies, but there's him/Conner Hawke.

I am not feeling Black Canary as much, but that's because she's solidly a Birds of Prey character in my head. But depending on when this hypothetical teams comic starts, she wouldn't be doing that yet I suppose.

Aquaman could add a little big name oomph to this team.

I also think that Oracle should be there, but like as a contracter. Because she's not blond.

Other thoughts:

Ideally, if I was putting a team together, I'd stick Cass on it because I feel like seeing her work on a team would be fun! And also, her interactions with Jean-Paul during No Man's Land were nice.

The other character I kind of would want to see on a team with him would be Starfire. I know she's a titan's character, and it'd probably be mean to remove her from her native environment/ friends, but she's also cool. She's also in touch with herself and comfortable with her power in a way that JPV very much isn't which could be a fun dynamic.

#jean paul valley #azrael #i'm just not going to tag everyone here #carthago delenda est #dc #bats + birds + affiliated #dennis o'neil's poor little meow meow

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havendance · 10 months

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This is perhaps, a little basic, but honestly my ideal ending for Jean-Paul Valley would be for him to retire from the vigilante game, go to medical school or something, get married, and settle down with a white picket fence and 2.5 kids. I just think he should get to be happy and break the cycle of fathers and sons that led him to becoming Azrael in the first place.

#jean paul valley #azrael #uh oh I’m back on JPV thoughts hours #carthago delenda est #dc #bats + birds + affiliated #dennis o'neil's poor little meow meow

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havendance · 6 months

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Anyway, I think that JPV should have a son obvs, so as to torment him the more with the Cycles™️. But also I think that after the son he should have like 3 daughters. because.

#jean paul valley #carthago delenda est #dc #bats + birds + affiliated #dennis o'neil's poor little meow meow

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havendance · 1 year

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Because I am back to thinking about Jean-Paul Valley and all of the ways that his character could be way cooler than the actual comics, here's what I think DC should've done with. I think they should make him a dad.

I think that Jean-Paul should look down at this weak, helpless, little baby in his arms and have to reckon with the fact that he is Azrael and his father was Azrael, and his family has been Azraels for generations. I want him to look at his child and think about the way that his father did the exact same thing and then started program his son to be a killer. I want him to break the cycle of violence! I want him to struggle with the fear of messing everything up, of doing to his child what his father did to him! It just has so much potential.

#azrael #jean paul valley #i also think he should retire but that's neither here nor there #carthago delenda est #dc #bats + birds + affiliated #dennis o'neil's poor little meow meow

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havendance · 1 year

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The thing about Azrael, is that while I have reluctantly become the sort of person who rotates Jean-Paul Valley around in my mind in my free time, I still don't get why he's the guy who got a 100 issue solo run. Like is he coasting off of being Batman during Knightfall fame? Was there some deep contingent of Azrael comics fans in the 90s that I just don't know about? I feel like there's just way cooler characters who could've gotten a 100 issue solo run.

Anyway, this is just a preface to my real point which is that I think that Azrael should've been a team comics character. I just think he would be more interesting to read about if there were about six other poor saps who had to deal with the fact that he would occasionally go all avenging angel mode and randomly get caught of up in weird Cult of St Dumas-y shit.

What team should he be on? This is when I reveal that I'm not super familiar with the landscape of dc's team comics (that aren't focused on teen's/young adults). I'm not sure what team comics were even running around that time. Hmmm. Options…

Batman calls up the Justice Leage like 'I have more important things to spending my time on than hanging out with you so you can have this random knock-off Batman instead.'

I read some Justice League International comics when I was tracking down Huntress' appearence, and it might be fun to stick him in the goofier atmosphere of them, but also, I don't think the comics was running anymore by the end of knightfall

Maybe Batman just puts him in charge of the secret Bat strike force, like, idk Outsiders redux? Weren't there a bunch of replacement supermen left over from the Death of Superman event? (Which I haven't read, but eh~). Maybe one of them can join him and we get knockoff Justice League or something.

Anyway, I am accepting suggestions.

#azrael #jean paul valley #carthago delenda est #dc #bats + birds + affiliated #dennis o'neil's poor little meow meow

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havendance · 10 months

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Shoutout to Spotify user Nathan Henderson for the absolute galaxy brain move of Crucified by Army of Lovers as a Jean-Paul Valley song. I’m stealing that for my own JPV playlist.

#jean paul valley #carthago delenda est #dc #bats + birds + affiliated #dennis o'neil's poor little meow meow

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havendance · 10 months

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Question: Has Azrael ever gotten his ass beat by Lady Shiva? (Post crisis) (I know he has in Rebirth). Because if not, I feel like there's some serious potential there.

#azrael #jean paul valley #lady shiva #carthago delenda est #dc #bats + birds + affiliated #dennis o'neil's poor little meow meow

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havendance · 1 year

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Thinking about a hypothetical mid 90s Team to put JPV on. I feel like Steel would be cool, you‘ve got the vibe of replacement world‘s finest. What I really want is to stick Cass on it, but it doesn‘t make any sense with timelines :/

Anyway, anyone got any favorite random 90s characters that would be fun to stick on it?

#jean paul valley #azrael #carthago delenda est #yes i still think he should be a team comics character #dc #bats + birds + affiliated #dennis o'neil's poor little meow meow

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havendance · 1 year

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The thing is, I know that I am vocal in my opinion that Jean-Paul Valley/Azrael really just isn't that interesting, but the nature of comics means that every once in a while when I read his comics for events or whatever, I'm struck by the fact that there is the seed of something interesting in there. Like reading the God of Fear Shadow of the Bat Knightfall tie-in and the bit where Azbats is like 'I wonder what I'm afraid of', 'I wonder what it's like to feel fear', only to be hit by fear gas and it doesn't hit him as the system takes over. The fact that he's disappointed afterwards. Just the thread of how Alan Grant writes him throughout his appearances in Shadow of the Bat during that era where there's that conflict and question of who Jean-Paul is and what part of him there is that isn't the system. Where does he end and the system begin?

And like, also, a lot of his No Man's Land appearances and the relationship he builds up Leslie Thomkins. The way he welcomes her distaste for violence. She wants him to give up Azrael and he clearly thinks about it though he always goes back in the end. And then him and Batgirl in the Christmas issue where he empathizes with her and her upbringing. (Thinking about the way that they each exchange gifts and it's something new to both of them…)

Like, I'm not a Azrael expert or even like fan by any means, but like, I guess I don't see why he keeps coming back and putting on the mask. I think when Jean-Paul's his most interesting it's when he's uncomfortable with that part of himself and the conflict he has there. I get that it's superhero comics and on one level he can never retire because he's the cool comics character with like a flaming sword sometimes, but also looking at him, he's also the guy that strikes me the most as someone who would be happiest if he quit and went to medical school and didn't purposefully trigger the system in himself every night. Like, I'm not just saying this because I think his comics are kind of boring. Unless there's something major I'm missing from just not reading comics, he just strikes me as the bat character who would be happiest to just retire.

#and then he hallucinates St Dumas' floating head and i just remember all the reasons that actually i don't care about him #azrael #jean paul valley #i think i might have accidently tricked myself into caring about him #oops #carthago delenda est #dc #bats + birds + affiliated #dennis o'neil's poor little meow meow

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havendance · 8 months

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i 100% mean this as less of a 'well actually' and more of an interesting thing to point out that your post reminded me of wrt azbats -- there *is* a subtle, stylized bat symbol on his chest in most of the azbats costumes, including the 'final' suit at its most mechanized! unless you meant the most 'iconic' suit (the very first mostly blue with big shoulders and yellow accents, no visor) which had a collar that projected a bat symbol onto wherever he pointed it. that in and of itself - the separation/projection of the bat symbol onto other things as a sort of warning sign or way to announce his presence rather than wearing it on his chest directly - is interesting from an analytical standpoint, i think.

Yeah! That’s a solid point!

He definitely does still have that Bat imagery even in his iconic final suit.

He’s got those ears and the sort of silhouette with the blue out to his shoulder pads. And earlier versions of his suit do have the. At symbol on them:

As he’s distancing himself from the mission and the way that Bruce acted as Batman he also distances himself from the symbol. Even when projecting the Bat symbol, it’s still not something you see while looking right at him. He’s not associated with that imagery in the same way.

#jean paul valley #letters to the editor #carthago delenda est #dc #bats + birds + affiliated #dennis o'neil's poor little meow meow

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havendance · 8 months

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Category 10 Jean Paul Valley moment happening right now and I am here for it.

#carthago delenda est #dc #bats + birds + affiliated #dennis o'neil's poor little meow meow

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