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#s: justice league unlimited

harveywritings92 · 9 months

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R/n, to Ghost after he stood her up again: You'll do anything to make it up to me? (Ghost nods) Then I want something from you that's very precious. Something you've worked very hard to conceal. Something when gone, you can never regain. Something soul shattering.

Price, looks between them confused: What is she talking about?

Ghost, starts to sweat: Oh no...

{Cut to a karaoke club where Ghost on stage singing a cover of "Am I blue?" Midway through the song R/n starts crying Gaz hands her a tissue..]

R/n, wiping her tears: Beautiful.

Price It really is..

Price: And you'll keep your end of the bargain?

R/n: A deal's a deal. I won't kick him out of my house, he can stop now.

Soap, whose filming Ghost singing: Not on your life, this shit's gettin' me a new car!

#S: justice league unlimited #call of duty modern warfare incorrect quotes #simon ghost riley #simon ghost riley x reader #afab reader #task force 141 #kyle gaz garrick #cod mw gaz #john soap mactavish #cod mw soap #john price

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harveyb-wabbit92 · 9 months

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{An alternate universe similar to Who framed roger rabbit? a strange tattooed human is helping Mob boss! Bendy rescue Boris from the Angel gang luckily Alice is willing to bargain, but not with Bendy.]

Alice Angel, to Valley: I want something from you that's very precious. Something you've worked very hard to conceal. Something when gone, you can never regain. Something soul shattering.

Bendy, looks between the two women confused: What's she talking about?

Valley, starts to sweat: Oh no...

{Cut to Bendy's club where Valley on stage singing a cover of the 1952 song "You belong to me". with her grandfather Sammy on the guitar, Midway through the song Alice starts crying Bendy hands her a tissue.]

Alice, wiping her tears: Beautiful.

Bendy, lighting up a smoke: And you'll keep your end of the bargain?

Alice: A deal's a deal. Boris is free to go, She can stop now.

Bendy, whose enjoying Valley's performance: Not on your life.

#s: justice league unlimited #bendy and the dark revival #batdr incorrect quotes #batim incorrect quotes #batdr oc: Valley Maine #alice angel #twisted alice #bendy x oc #boris the wolf #batim boris #Sammy Lawrence #grandpa! Sammy Lawrence

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smollestbean-2 · 11 months

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based on this meme here

Not the greatest but I'm still proud with how it came out ngl.

#justice league #justice leauge unlimited #Wally West #Justice league Unlimited wally west #that 70's show #gingers art

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softpastelqueer · 2 years

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2000’s media be like: *outrageous sinophobic remark* *ridiculous openly homophobic jokes* *random antiblack racial stereotypes* *female characters are romantic properties of men* *really out of pocket antisemitic plot point* *ableism*

#honestly I struggle rewatching 2000’s stuff because it was so wildly bigoted #I’m currently rewatching Justice league unlimited and by George…

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goodwhump-temp · 6 months

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FULL WHUMPS LIST;

Shows, movies, anime, & cartoons (Organized Alphabetically by TV Title)(pinned) - Message me if any of this is outdated!

LIVE ACTION

ANIME

CARTOONS

GAMES

Johnny Cage | Mortal Kombat

#whump #whump list #emotional whump #whumplist #anime whump

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digiflohw · 7 months

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Arttrober Day12: Huntress (DC)

DCAU version from Justice League Unlimited.

Here's a link to the Arttrober2023 prompt for those interested: https://x.com/Artgerm/status/1703225777087717827?s=20

#Arttrober #Arttrober2023 #Huntress #Helena Bertinelli #Justice League Unlimited #DC #DCAU #DC Comics #digital art #comics #comic books #animation

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heavenboy09 · 4 months

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#Batman85 Fact #5: On January 10, 1999, Terry McGinnis’ Batman debuted in the DC Animated Universe television series ‘Batman Beyond’.

Standing as a continuation of the DC television series ‘Batman: The Animated Series’ and then end to the DCAU, 1999's ‘Batman Beyond’ was created by The WB Television Network. A retired and elderly Bruce Wayne becomes teenager Terry McGinnis’ mentor as he becomes the new Batman in a Neo-Gotham City originally said to be set about 20 years into the future. Wanting to be the Dark Knight even after bringing Derek Powers, Terry’s father’s (Warren McGinnis) killer, to justice, Terry would continue to be Batman and battle his own villains in this futuristic metropolis.

‘Batman Beyond’ ran for two years, produced 52 episodes and included a short lived spin-off (‘The Zeta Project’) and one direct-to-video movie (“Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker”). Revealed in Dwayne McDuffie, Bruce Timm, and Dan Riba’s ‘Justice League Unlimited’ 2005 episode “Epilogue”, set 15 years after the events of ‘Batman Beyond’, Terry learns from Amanda Waller that his connection with Bruce is down to the DNA because Terry is Bruce’s biological son. Waller intended for Bruce’s legacy as the Caped Crusader to continue after he retired, so she created “Project Batman Beyond” that made Warren’s reproductive DNA (through the use of Project Cadmus’ engineering) identical to Bruce Wayne’s. Coming to terms with his destiny, Terry would continue to embrace his role as the protector of Gotham.

While the animated ‘Batman Beyond’ universe would gain tie-in limited comic series during the television run (1999-2001), Terry McGinnis’ Batman wasn’t included within the mainstream DC Universe continuity. In the Pre New-52, Terry would appear in several stories such as Jeph Loeb’s “With a Vengeance!“ (2005’s Superman/Batman #22), Adam Beechen and Ryan Benjamin's “Hush Beyond” (2010’s Batman Beyond (Vol 3)), and Grant Morrison’s “Time and the Batman” (2010’s Batman #700). McGinnis’ Batman would officially be part of continuity in 2014’s The New 52: Futures End and continue to thrive within the New 52 and DC Rebirth / Universe comics with his own self titled publications. From the small screen to the comic pages, ‘Batman Beyond’ for the first time placed a teenager in the mantle, which resulted in popularity among not just same age readers but also new and old Batman universe fans.🦇🎊📺

#Batman Beyond #Batman #Bruce Wayne #Terry Mcginnis #Gotham City #DC COMICS #Spotify

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rowiewritesstuff · 1 year

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About Me

Hi there! I'm Row, and I write (inconsistently)!

Asks/Requests/Matchups STATUS:

OPEN FOR HAZBIN HOTEL/HELLUVA BOSS AND JUJUTSU KAISEN

Questions about things are OPEN

Masterlist At Bottom!

DNI If:

Homophobic

Transphobic

Ableist

Literally just a generally bad dude. I don't tolerate that stuff and you will be BLOCKED thx.

What I write for:

Transformers Animated

Transformers Prime

Bayverse (Haven't seen in a while)

Transformers Earthspark

Transformers RID (Maybe. Depends on the Bot)

DC (I love Justice League Unlimited)

Helluva Boss/Hazbin Hotel

Various Cartoons, just ask! (Not Spongebob.)

What I WILL Write:

Yandere

Angst (Not great at it lol)

S*icide/Depression (Not that gory/Severe, and I won't take a lot of these)

Fluff

Any Gender!

Matchups (Just learned about those!)

Cybertronian/Human/Angel/Demon, etc.

Mayyybe Existing Character X Existing Characers- It Depends

Maybe OC X Character- You would need to give me a detailed description of the OC and it has to pass the vibe check.

What I MIGHT Write:

Smut/Suggestive Content

What I WON'T Write:

A lot of Gore (Minor is aight)

Anything Really Gross

Incest

Minors (Platonic is Fine!)

Masterlist:

Transformers:

Full Transformers Master List

Lego Monkie Kid:

Redson X Reader X MK

Hazbin Hotel:

Husker X Angel Dust

Yandere Adam X Seer/Psychic Reader

My Little Pony:

Rainbow Dash X Reader

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gender-luster · 5 months

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the entirety of justice league/justice league unlimited is just one big, convoluted game of rock paper scissors, where the justice league beats lex luthor, some unimaginably powerful being(s) beats the justice league, and then lex luthor bears the unimaginably powerful being(s)

#lookin at you justice lords. amazo. darkseid. etc.#dc #dcau #justice league #justice leauge unlimited #lex luthor

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harveywritings92 · 1 year

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{After a bunch of monsters engage in a fire fight with the 1-4-1 thinking one of the members was the Kamen Rider, R/n couldn’t take the risk of transforming in front of Ghost so they play the helpless damsel, until she can find an opening to slip away.]

R/n, being yanked behind a concrete barrier by Ghost: Anyone got a plan?

Ghost: Yeah, try to stay alive.

R/n:...

R/n: Anyone got a good plan?

{Ghost just hisses at R/n to stay down, and to run when he tells her to.]

#S: justice league unlimited #call of duty modern warfare incorrect quotes #call of duty crossover #kamen rider crossover #simon ghost riley x reader #simon riley x reader #afab reader #kamen rider! reader #civilian! reader #call of duty mw ghost #call of duty modern warfare 2022

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harveyb-wabbit92 · 9 months

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[Akari is helping Shio rescue the Tri-squad from Tregear and Reiya luckily the evil couple are willing to bargain, but not with Shio.]

Reiya, to Akari: We want something from you that's very precious.

Tregear: Something you've worked very hard to conceal. Something when gone, you can never regain. Something soul shattering.

Shio, looks between the three confused: What are they talking about?

Akari, starts to sweat: Oh no...

{Cut to a karaoke club where Akari on stage singing a cover of "Am I blue?" Midway through the song Reiya starts crying Shio hands her a tissue. Reiya wiping her tears and rests her head on Tregear's shoulder.]

Reiya: Beautiful.

Shio: It really is..

{Titas loudly clears his throat and the three of them look at the energy cage the Tri-squad is locked in]

Fuma: And you'll keep your end of the bargain?

Tregear: A deal's a deal. you're all is free to go, She can stop now.

Taiga, whose enjoying his cousin's performance: Not on your life.

#s: justice league unlimited #ultraman #ultraman incorrect quotes #ultraman taiga #taiga x shio #ultraman oc: shio #ultraman titas #ultraman fuma #ultraman fuma x oc #fuma x akari #tregear x reiya #ultraman tregear x oc #ultraman tregear #tokusatsu incorrect quotes #tokusatsu

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littleeyesofpallas · 2 months

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Thinking about what a genuinely clever mashup of Supergirl, Flashpoint's Superman, and Powergirl(and just a splash of Earth-11 Superwoman) The Flash movie had, and what a tragedy it is that it was wasted on The Flash movie... Because it was such a great excuse for a potential Powergirl origin when her classic story is such a pain in the ass to ever explain or address.

And the natural borrowing of elements from Crisis in Infinite Earth to bolster the weak points of the Flashpoint plot, and the reversal of the Supergirl death bit with baby Kal honestly makes for such a good excuse for why this potential multiverse refugee would be so different from her hypothetical Supergirl counterpart.

Not that there's necessarily any lack of excuses for there to be a rage fueled Supergirl...

But it also reminded me of that time Justice League Unlimited introduced the "original" character, Galatea, who was clearly just Power girl in design but with what was basically Superboy's origin story swapped in for Earth-2 Supergirl's. But honestly? A pretty solid alternative to Power Girl's usual m.o. a better explanation than Atlantis in any case.

I can't help but feel like it was someone's idea of a joke when doing Young Justice to then make Match, the evil double of Superboy, also wear a white bodysuit with a hole in the chest as a weird full circle of references... Like, haha give Conner the titty window. But that's a little bit of a reach to say too confidently. (Unrelated to the rest of this but man I forgot what a good touch it was to have Match laser the S into his chest in the mirror to get the bizarro Ƨ.)

Does make me want some kind of a Power Boy though... But being non native to the primary Earth she's kind of exempt from any fun multiverse shenanigans. (Man.. was she even in the whole Dark Knight Death Metal thing? The dark multiverse might've been our only good shoot at seeing any fun Power Girl alts, even if they've have just been edgy batclonea..)

Speaking of multiverse shenanigans, now that Dark Crisis technically reinstated the dead Earth's back into continuity, can she actually just, like, go home? There was that Infinite Frontiers thing where Director Bones was deporting multiverse people that I didn't really keep up with past maybe one or two issues... Plus that whole multiverse Justice League with not-Obama and Capt.Carrot... also where the hell is Helena Wayne these days?

I dunno where this rant was going...

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giogio1998 · 2 months

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Fun facts about my art process:

Today I was making new JLI art and it got me thinking that I have the same ritual when it comes to drawing the JLI and some of them are very silly and fun so I wanted to share with you guys. Even if you don’t care, reading is important so just read the freaking post lol.

1- I hate drawing men !!! Seriously, drawing Martian and Batman is easy for me bc they have very easy features to draw like Batman’s mask and Martian’s nose. But every time I have to draw Ted, Booser and Guy it’s a struggle.

2- drawing Ted is the hardest, I think it’s bc I shipp Ted and Bea so I always try to draw Ted cuter than the other boys and that pressure makes it harder for me but drawing Ted is the bane of my existence.

3- idk why but Guy always ends up looking super hot. I swear it’s unintentional, but the man always looks so hot, sometimes I look at my drawings and I’m like “wtf Giovana why did u make him look so hot ? “

4- I like making Tora skin pinkish, mostly bc she has white hair so white hair and light skin would look very washed out but I like to think that her skin is like “ice burnt” (?). Idk if that’s a word, I’m Brazilian I’ve never felt cold in my life. All I know is sun burnt lol.

5- the opposite goes to Bea, I like to make her skin light bc, well she is in fact white Brazilian, but I like to make her hair color pop, that’s also why I give her black lipstick and eyebrows, it’s all about the hair.

6- Bea’s hair !!!! I always try to give her the best hair. I make it very voluminous, very wavy and very bright almost as if it’s on fire. I love her hair, also I’m trying to redeem her hair bc of the awful 80’s hair style that DC insists on giving her.

7- I listen to Hannah Montana while making my JLI arts … actually I love all the early 00s Disney channel music and I also listen to podcasts but I prefer listening to music while drawing.

8- if I don’t find a reference the drawing is not happening. Every artist struggles at something and my struggle is anatomy I can’t come up with poses, especially group poses so I’m always looking for references. Once I have my reference everything is fine but if I can’t visualize it I can’t draw it.

9- I love drawing booster’s suit, it’s just so shiny and easy to draw, Guy’s vest and Ted’s suit have too much detail so booster’s suit is just fun to draw.

10- I hate drawing booster’s hair tho I always think it looks stupid idk why I hate drawing short hair.

11- I love drawing skeets. I wish I would draw him more often tho. My reference for skeets is the justice league unlimited version.

12- speaking of references, when I draw Batman I almost always make his cape cover him completely bc I think he moves around like Dracula from hotel Transylvania LOL. Idk why but I treat him like the most unserious character ever.

13- I draw using photoshop, this isn’t a fun fact, that’s actually sad.

14- My laptop is an old Lenovo from 2017 and it crashes constantly. Usually I start and finish a drawing on the same day but sometimes my laptop decides otherwise.

15- my signature is my initials but one time someone commented that it’s looks like a “cursive B” and since then when I can’t get my signature just right I draw a cursive B instead and it works lol.

16- I always give Ted dimples, mainly bc dimples make him look even cuter but also bc I struggle with drawing men so I try to give them different characteristics to make them look unique.

17- I give every JLI member its own layer file while drawing and I always make it color coordinated. So Bea’s file is green, Ted’s is blue, Booster’s is yellow, etc.

18- I name all my layers and to keep my sanity I name them all with silly names like “bea’s million dollar hair”. “Boosters shiny ass suit”. “Tora’s blush she bought from MAC”.

19- I came up with Bea’s suit bc I always hated that she had normal looking clothes instead of a suit like everyone else so I came up with a new one and it was inspired by a pair of boots I saw on instagram once.

20- the JLI is my favorite thing to draw <3

That’s all I can come up with right now, hope this post encourages people to keep drawing bc most digital artists like to appear as if being good at drawing is a magical gift and they don’t struggle at anything. So this is my reality lol

Also the new JLI art will be coming out soon, stay tuned!!! Spoiler alert it’s a glee related post 🤫

#dc comics #fire #beatriz da costa #dc #justice league international #jli #ted kord #blue beetle #booster gold #tora olafsdotter #guy gardner #green lantern #batman #martian manhunter

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soleminisanction · 1 year

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An earlier ask reminded me that there’s still one sequence of Batgirl (2009) that I’ve always wanted to break down because my frustration with it is palpable so…why not. This is as good a time as ever. Let’s talk about Issue 24 and extended fantasy sequence that makes up the very end of this series.

See, apparently—and I have not been able to find a first-hand record of the interview that confirms this, so take it with a grain of salt—Brian Q. Miller decided that, since the universe was getting reset in the wake of Flashpoint, his Batgirl was getting canceled and Stephanie was getting retconned out of existence for the New52, he would use a fantasy sequence in the final issue show off all the wonderful ideas he never got to do because of editorial meddling or whatever. Which is… fine. Y’know? I get it, it’s utterly self-indulgent but not an invalid way to deal with your book getting canceled before you can finish all you set out to do.

The thing is though, sequences like this don’t just exist in the vacuum of their Doylist explanation. The entire narrative point of fantasy sequences like this, whether they’re fear gas, or lotus eater machines, or especially the Black Mercy, isn’t just to have a cool spectacle for the audience to look at, it’s to take a part of the character’s inner life and put it on display for everyone to see.

So the question I’m asking here is: what does a Watsonian reading of finale sequence say about Our Heroine, Stephanie Brown?

Quick primer for those of you who may be unfamiliar: the Black Mercy is an Alan Moore creation, originally introduced in the story he wrote with Dave Gibbons for 1985’s Superman Annual #11 – “For the Man Who has Everything.”

If you’re my age, you may be more familiar with this story as a fantastic episode of Justice League Unlimited, which has the notable distinction of being the only Alan Moore adaptation that the old warlock actually likes. The basic story of both is the same: Batman and Wonder Woman (and, in the comic, the Jason Todd Robin) arrive at the Fortress of Solitude for Superman’s birthday, only to find that Mongul has trapped Supes under the influence of the Black Mercy, a magical alien parasite that digs its vines into its victim’s chest while trapping their minds in an illusion of their ideal perfect life.

“For the Man Who has Everything” is regarded as one of the best Superman stories ever written so it’s honestly kind of a surprise that the Black Mercy has only shown up a handful of times since then. But I’m not complaining, because it means the concept hasn’t been diluted much… with this appearance in Batgirl being a notable exception, in weird ways that make me really wonder what was intentional and what wasn’t.

See, this whole thing starts when Steph confronts her father, Arthur Brown, alias the Cluemaster, in his prison cell. And Arthur—a second-rate Riddler knock-off whose only experience outside of Gotham was an extremely brief Suicide Squad adventure to Iceland where everybody died—just, has a Black Mercy, an incredibly rare and dangerous magical alien super plant, sitting in his prison cell. As you do.

Arthur then puts Steph under the Mercy’s influence to cover his escape from the cell, but he doesn’t subject her to the Black Mercy for real, he crushes one of the blossoms and blows it in her face, which his dialogue implies is something he regularly does to himself as a recreational experience.

Which means that, despite the following pages making a big freaking deal about “spores in her system” and Barbara gushing about how special Stephanie is for being able to, quote, “fight the Mercy and win,” it’s all a load of shit. Arthur didn’t need to be rushed to the hospital every time he took this drug, so it would follow the Stephanie doesn’t either.

That would actually make a lot of sense for Arthur as a character—for all his faults, he’s usually written as caring for his family and not wanting Stephanie permanently hurt (a sentiment she generally doesn't return). Hell, his last appearance before this one was trying to get revenge for her death. If that was intentional, it would mean that in the above panel, Stephanie knows that Barbara’s conclusion about her “fighting the Mercy” is full of shit and just, isn’t telling her.

I have no confidence that it was intentional—given the rest of the series I think it’s far more likely that Miller & Co. just didn’t want the icky flower vines to mess up Steph’s boobies and thus came up with a convoluted alternative that they immediately forgot the rules for—but I wish it was because it would actually be an interesting character turn. Black Mercy stories usually hinge on the emotional climax of the enraptured hero choosing to give up the beautiful illusion of a life they can never have in order to return to the hard world where they have real friends and heroic responsibilities waiting for them. Just ask anyone who still cries over this scene:

Stephanie not getting that moment and only escaping because it’s a temporary drug would imply that she’s still very susceptible to her own desires. It’s a way that she’s fallen short compared to others who’ve been subjected to the full Black Mercy experience. And who knows, maybe she could’ve pulled herself out of it if the illusion had lasted longer… but maybe she wouldn’t have. She can’t know. And that doubt could sit with her.

It doesn't. But it could, in a better story.

And then there’s the illusion itself. Keep in mind as we go through this, this montage, in-universe, represents Stephanie’s idea of her ideally perfect life. Just for comparison, in “For the Man Who has Everything,” Superman’s ideal life has him living on Krypton as a normal man, married with children, happy and content in his normal life. Batman saw his parents’ murder foiled and the life that could have unfolded without that tragedy to define it. Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), in another story, saw a world where his parents never died, his family is happy together, and his mentor Sinestro never turned evil.

Stephanie? Stephanie sees herself as Batgirl, posing dramatically and beating up random street thugs in a metaphorical continuation of her current status quo. Then there’s a sequence where she’s fighting the Queen of Fables alongside the four female heroes, all of whom except for Supergirl literally appeared out of nowhere in the last issue with no explanation because we need to pretend that Stephanie is very popular and well-liked and not a stuck-up loner who rarely leaves Gotham City and almost never talks to anybody but her boyfriend when she does.

But y’know, this scene makes sense right? Steph dreams of being a successful superhero and fantasizes about going on grand superhero adventures with other superheroes, fine. That’s all well and good.

Then comes the Blackest Night page which is just... ugh.

I am so glad DC vetoed this idea because it’s genuinely embarrassing. I get (finally! it several painful re-reads) that what Miller has been trying to do with Stephanie this entire book is pretend that she can be Captain America or Superman: a character who doesn’t so much develop or change as they do lead by example and inspire others to have hope for the future just by being themselves. So of course when he hears that Blue Lanterns are powered by hope he neeeeeeds that for his precious Batgirl—an idea that he apparently carried over to the Smallville Season 11 comics, but we’ll come back to that in a moment.

The problem of course being that Stephanie had never been that kind of character before Brian Miller decided she should be, and he did absolutely nothing to work his way up to earning her that status. So shit like this comes across as, frankly, blatant attempts to turn her into a Mary Sue, especially with how badly he refused to deal with her actual history and established character.

But again, remember: in-universe, this illusion isn’t being imposed on Stephanie, it’s being created by her, by her mind. This is part of her greatest desire. So where other heroes long to be safe and happy, surrounded by their families, Stephanie, apparently, wants nothing less than to be a literal Messiah figure. And I’m not exaggerating there—Blue Lanterns are supposed to be the holiest beings in the universe.

Just… the ego that implies. Yeesh.

After that comes a black-and-white photograph implying a time travel adventure where the three Batgirls (presumably from different eras in their own timelines) go back to 1944 to fly with the (male) Blackhawks. I’m not going to post it because there’s not really anything to say about it and this is already a long post but Stephanie’s stupid utility garter belt is drawn so HUGE it takes up her ENTIRE THIGH almost up to the crotch and it’s super distracting.

Then comes this scene.

Which mostly just drives home how much Steph hates her boring average school life given that she’s fantasizing about being attacked by supervillains at her graduation so her secret identity can be exposed to her entire graduating class. Thing is though, you’d think this should be a nightmare. Her identity has been exposed! She’s being attacked out in the open by supervillains and she doesn’t have her gear or weapons! Her classmates and—explicitly up in the audience—her mother are in danger, because Stephanie is Batgirl!

But because this is a Black Mercy illusion, we know it’s not a nightmare. This is, explicitly, something that Stephanie wants to happen. It’s part of her fantasy life, her greatest desire. And yeah, if we’re being generous, she probably isn’t thinking that people are going to get hurt. In her fantasy, she probably just gets to show off and save the day and be venerated as Gotham University’s Great Hero, like Buffy getting crowned the Sunnyville Class Protector. But even that, the most generous of readings, implies that she has never internalized the lesson that she should have learned back in War Games re: the great power of being a superhero coming with great responsibility. It absolutely flies in the face of anybody’s attempts to insist that no really, she’s only doing this whole superhero thing because she cares about other people SO MUCH.

Following that is page of what’s clearly Neo-Gotham, flashing forward many years into the future, where Steph is wrangling some kid into bed (while wearing her wedding ring on the second knuckle because otherwise you wouldn’t be able to see it and that might imply she’s a single mom) with the Batsignal shining out the window.

Which leads us, at last, to the page I have the most to say about, and the one that is my biggest inspiration for make this post:

I. Hate. This page.

I hate it because it gets regularly reposted without context on Tumblr and Reddit so the Steph simps can gush over how much they wish it was real and how Stephanie should get to be every single member of the Batfamily because she’s just so awesome and not one of them ever stops to think about what any of it would or should actually mean in-universe or out.

This page exists because Brian Q. Miller was originally a writer on Smallville. He joined the team around Season 5, served as showrunner for Season 10, and used the connections he made there to get some comic book jobs, including Batgirl and the spin-off comic Smallville Season 11. In “Season 11,” they finally showed the Smallville version of Gotham City and Batman, who is accompanied by only a single sidekick: not Robin, but Barbara Gordon as an (adult) female Nightwing who eventually becomes a Blue Lantern (hence the Blackest Night page earlier).

Now again, I cannot find the original source for this so I’m going off fandom rumor and wiki trivia, but supposedly, Brian’s original pitch was that the Smallville character would also be Stephanie, making her the only Batfamily member to ever exist in that universe. DC’s editors supposedly made him switch to Barbara instead, which was smart of them, because it’s way more likely that the people picking up the Smallville comic would be excited to see her, one of the most famous pop-culture characters ever invented, and not a satellite character like Stephanie who’s only familiar to a niche market. (This for the record is the same reason Babs is the Batgirl in Gotham Knights.)

So that’s the out-of-universe explanation for why Brian would stick this idea here, but stop and think about this for half a second: why the fuck would Stephanie want to be Nightwing?

Nightwing is not like Batman, Batgirl, or even Robin, it’s not a larger symbol with a legacy behind it. If you say the word Nightwing in the DC Universe, you’re referring to only one of two things: either you’re Kryptonian and you’re referencing a legendary figure from your lost planet’s mythology (either a god or a culture hero depending on the continuity), or you’re talking about Dick Grayson. Every other character who has ever taken on the name in a non-Kryptonian context has done so because of their relationship to Dick: either to piss him off (Jason), because they were inspired by him (Cheyenne Freemont, the Nightwings, Nite-Wing in a negative capacity), or in memoriam/penance after his death (Damian in the first Injustice game).

But Stephanie doesn’t have that kind of relationship with Dick. At this point in her career, they’d barely spoken, and all of their meaningful interactions had been with him as Batman. Nightwing means nothing to her. She has no emotional connection to identity, not even the desire to be “part of the legend” that drove her to chase Robin and Batgirl. So then, why? Why is this part of her fantasy?

Well… because if Batgirl isn’t the second-most popular superhero in the franchise after the Big Bat himself, then Nightwing is. And all Stephanie has apparently ever wanted is to be everybody’s favorite superhero, loved and adored and told how she’s so very special and wonderful, forever.

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In Conclusion – As you might’ve noticed back in the panels where Steph was getting dosed, Brian Miller actually calls out his own bookending, having started the story with a climax where Steph got exposed to a fear-gas-based-anger drug and ended it with one where she encounters the Black Mercy. Like I’ve said before, the narrative purpose of hallucination sequences like this are to lay the characters’ psyches bare and show us who they really are on the inside.

In issue 3, Stephanie’s anger/fear gas exposure (and the resulting philosophically frustrating speech) presents Stephanie as someone whose primary motivation is her own self-interest, the sense of control and personal triumph she gets from being a superhero. All through the series, the way she handles her rare rescues (and, even more tellingly, the few people who don’t immediately recognize her greatness) only backs that up.

And now, the Black Mercy sequence, the very last thing to happen in the entire series, just solidifies it: after 24 issues, she hasn’t changed. Her only desire, the only thing she cares about, is that she gets to be a badass superhero who goes on adventure after adventure without worry or care for anyone around her, even after multiple people have literally died over the course of just this book. Who cares? They’re not Stephanie, so they don’t matter. It’s all about her.

I will never understand what anyone saw in this series.

#stephanie brown #batgirl #batgirl 2009 #meta #dc comics #dc comics meta #stephanie brown critical #batgirl 2009 critical #brian q miller #my writing #my meta #and with this I may finally have this series out of my system #at least until I decide to string all my various essays into a video or something lol

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