#that one panel where kons looking at tim looking at bernard | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

forestlingincorporated · 2 years

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FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF DARK CRISIS: YOUNG JUSTICE #2

I know I’m late to the party, my copy took AGES to ship

lol I feel like this panel summarizes pretty well how the boys all feel about this whole experiance at the start. I feel a lot for Kon, he’s feeling out of place in the world, and he’s loving the familiarity of the Not Quite Right world around them. Tim has a little bit of that, too, for different reasons, but he’s a very analytical person so he doesn’t ever fully trust what’s around them, even if he’s initially enjoying feeling important and in control. And Bart is just “this sucks.” I won’t really belabor this point too much cause it’s a lot of what we saw last comic, but more from Tim’s POV, who we were less aware of the emotions of last comic due to how in his own head Tim can be with his thoughts and feelings.

“That’s the Conner I remember. Happy, snarky, filled with... life.”

I see what you’re doing.

Please be her partner, please be her partner, please be her partner, please be her partner....

....What? If she’s not gonna date Cassie...

.....pssssssssssh.... I hate sitting here like “I hate everything with the girls” when Cissie’s literally standing there complaining about sexism, but it’s not... written... super well, in my opinion. I cannot tell if this is supposed to be a legitimate criticism or if it’s supposed to be a strawman femininst, and I don’t care for either one. It’s hard to take her argument seriously when it’s coming from Cissie, the privledged white Olympic archer daughter of an Olympic archer, which the comic even draws attention to by Cassie commenting on how Cissie attends the sort of private school that gets you into ivy league colleges. I’m rolling my damn eyes listening to her call the boys privledged, cause girl, have you looked in the mirror?

The first thing Young Justice did was rescue a girl from government expiraments. But sure, the “only people they fought” were “people doing their best.” I’m sure Darkseid and Granny Goodesss were just dOiNG ThEiR beST. You have a crap memory, Cissie.

“Scraped for any attention,” Cissie, you litereally had a stage mom, you had more attention than you ever wanted.

I mean, like, Greta and Anita who, much? You know whose opinion I want to hear about the sociopolitical side of herowork? Anita Fite’s.

Oh, poor Bart. He’s so... Blunt and Aware.

I do love a good art mistake.

Aw man... this world is really selling itself to Kon. “Look! You’re biological father loves you! You’re important! You have a place in the world. You DESERVE a place in the world.”

Honestly, this is where the comic’s been strongest - Conner’s emotions are on full display, align with his past history fairly well, and are easy to understand.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

*wheeze* HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Kon, you absolute himbo.

Okay, okay, so... not sure why this world hit a road block with Tim. It seemed to be trying really hard to sell itself to Bart and Kon, and even if it was less successful with Bart, it still, you know, tried. And then with Tim, it just drops the ball COMPLETELY. Maybe it’s because this world is The 90s But Worse, so it doesn’t know what to do with Tim’s bisexuality, or maybe it’s because Tim never knows what Tim wants so it can’t get a read on him (he was already quesioning if he even really wanted to be Batman like it was offering).

I’m also not entirely sure what this means for Kon, if it means Tim has yet to tell him Bernard is his boyfriend, or if Mr. I Have Two Bio Dads is just... totally unaware of the concept of “it’s just a phase.”

Conner: I Came Out to Have a Good Time and I’m Honestly Feeling So Attacked Right Now

lmao get his ass, Bart

Not ENTIRELY sure how to feel about this? I stand by I think Conner’s feelings are really understandable given how he’s been written up to this point, but it also feels a bit like a backslide... like, in the Bendis storyline, we had a Kon who was like “fuck toxic masculinity, i am ALLOWED TO CRY.” Now Bart’s like “this is a place for immature little boys” and Kon is like “ok, but me tho.”

But I can justify it as Kon having an off day and feeling bad about himself in the aftermath of Superman’s death with a lot of unresolved issues.

...I can’t really say WHY, but I’m increasingly certain the girls (or even just Cassie) are in a fucked up imaginary world of their own....

A feeling.

I DO NOT buy this. I do not buy that the boys don’t know where Cassie goes when she’s upset. I know for DAMN CERTAIN Conner knows, I’ve SEEN him search her out, literally the answer is “Donna’s statue at Titan’s Tower cause she’s easier to talk to in bronze,” it’s where she and Conner broke up. Not particularly forgettable.

This was a good bit of writing. I noticed that “Cassie” seemed to be with all of them at once, but it also could have been written off as being at different times, I think this was a good bit of foreshadowing.

......I guess this is our bad guy? .......Am I supposed to know who this is, cause I’m not reading the rest of Dark Crisis, I have no idea.

I see! What! You! Did! There!

.....Okay, yeah, I think I have to talk about the ship baiting.

So, ship bait’s fine, it’s annoying if there’s no follow through, but it’s not the same as queer bait. Tim’s canonically queer, he has a boyfriend, there can’t be queerbait. Ship bait just kinda leaves that relationship open as a possibility in the future.

And boy is this relationship WIDE OPEN for possibility in this comic.

......And I want to address how I feel about that given Tim is currenly ALREADY IN a relationship. If they intend to canonize these two having feelings for each other in this arc, there are MANY WAYS to do it wrong, given Tim’s relationship status. I do not want to see a cheating arc, that sucks. But there are ways they could like.... realize they have feelings for each other and have to grapple with “oh, but Tim has a boyfriend.... what does that mean for us?” Which could be interesting. But I anticipate Ber sticking around for a good while longer, given he’s in the description for Tim’s solo.

I mean, I want them together, but now that it’s a real possibility, I’m scared of them fucking it up. Just don’t give me a cheating arc, I will riot.

....I guess I will find out very soon, since the next comic has already shipped to me, but.... why Slade? And is Boomerang for Tim or Bart, it... could go either way.

#lmao the 'slam' onomonopia for Kon throwing down the sandwhich #what is in that sandwhich??? rocks????

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thattimdrakeguy · 2 years

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It's actually amazing how twinkified Bernard is. I mean, even Jericho, in the 80s, while sensitive and not at all interested in going into the family business, is significantly taller than Nightwing, and it's not like he doesn't work out (including once with Roy). I think it's "what aesthetic the hets will accept". In the 60s, muscle. In the 80s, bears and clones. Today, twinks.

Like Bernard was always really notably taller than Tim. I mean a lot of characters are, obviously, but Bernard is still one of them.

In a panel or two they make it seem like Tim is taller in the Urban Legend stories--and it feels very wrong. And I knew from that moment on I was going to see some uncomfortable stuff, because that's enough to trigger a very specific reaction.

And I know this because you know how some ships Tim is in always make Tim take on the stereotypical "woman" traits for lack of a better word since he's known to be super short and very cute especially compared to his nearly always tall, muscular, handsome men date-mate in fandom ships? Even how people end up drawing Tim sometimes to look more feminine than he actually does because of that?

They're starting to do that with Bernard now when he was actually a pretty masculine guy despite his skinny, lanky frame. Not super masculine. Bernard was still a typical pretty boy looks wise. He wasn't as macho as Kon, but he still had a bit of a macho thing to him in a snobby kind of way with his presentation.

Giving him a boyband haircut, wear pink, big grinny smile, and a cuter disposition...that isn't Bernard Dowd.

I do not accept it as Bernard to same way I don't accept any art of Timmy looking ultra manly as Tim. Not saying Tim is feminine, he's not, he's just super super boyish and short.

This guy is not the same person as this guy.

The Tim is ultra good. But Bernard doesn't look like Bernard at all from his original appearances besides the fact he's blonde. If they switched the colors of how he dressed that'd at least match.

I think they got the hair and face from this artist's depiction, but his hair is just grown out and shaggy from not getting a haircut, it's not neatly trimmed and combed like boy band hair. It's actually pretty long in other panels, and his face even looks closer to what it originally did. And the person that drew that didn't create the character anyways. And even then he isn't depicted as super grinny, or cutesy. The mannerisms are totally different.

Saying all of that just sounds like nit-picking, because in most situations that'd be super small stuff, and there's even times where Bernard does look taller than Tim, and looks less cutesy in the newer stories. But that's obviously not what people are taking out of it which is why it's bothering me now rather than my initial 'Huh, he looks off' response when the issues started coming out.

I'm not down for this fandom transformation of Bernard into something more acceptably stereotypically twinky, when he was already an established character, no matter how obscure, with a well defined personality.

In fact he has such an established personality, and obvious sexuality given he says stuff like that, that seeing people clearly just do guess work based on his appearance in some panels in these latest stories, that end up coming purely from stereotypes on twinks, is in bad taste.

Most people won't know anything about Bernard. I do not expect them to read old stories for themselves, because most people probably don't know their are sites out there in which you can read for free.

But changing almost everything about Bernard besides his well known conspiracy theories all because of the impression that he's this cutesy, stereotypical gay, twink is in bad taste. I can't think of any other way to feel about it for me. It's not done out of malice or bigotry or anything. But it's still in bad taste, and it certainly takes the substance out of everything.

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