Batman: The Brave & The Bold #10 - "Nameless" (2024)

written by Matt Harding art by Mike Henderson & Adam Guzowski

Danny Phantom but he's just,,,,,there.

He doesn't have the portal accident, his parents get the portal working but everything goes wrong and the portal is way too unstable and it's just fucked up

Ghosts are making their way through the portal all the time, and not all of them have good intentions. The portal is unstable and keeps expanding and nothing the Fentons are doing is helping.

Danny still goes vigilante. He has to. He can't just ignore it when there's ghosts hellbent on destruction stepping out of the portal in his basement. He can't ignore it when the portal won't stop growing.

And so he goes. He straps in his ghost fighting gear and his fenton blaster and his thermos. He tries talking to any and all ghosts, even Plasmius, to figure out what's happening.

He steps out of class when his spook detector goes off, even when he knows it means he won't be passing his classes. He gives up sleep, he gives up Nasa, he gives up his friends.

It isn't enough.

Ghosts keep coming through. Bigger and bigger each time and he knows that he cannot fight whatever's coming next. It'll be too big. It'll be too powerful. The ghost portal is more of a gash in the universe now, encompassing his whole house and neighborhood. Amity park is at its breaking point.

And everyone knows it.

And maybe that's why Plasmi– no, Vlad. Maybe that's why Vlad finally told him how the first portal accident went. Maybe that's why he told him how he had to suffer to appease the portal.

Because that's just how it is, isn't it? The portal needed a sacrifice. The portal needed a stabiliser.

They try animals first. All kinds of animals, from lab rats to cats to chimps. All thrown to the portal, one by one. Shoved in by the desperate hands of all the Amity parkers.

It's a bit like insanity, he thinks. Maybe this is how the people of pompeii felt when they prayed for salvation.

It doesn't work. He isn't surprised.

The portal needed a person.

His parents and Vlad had made the prototype portal way back in their college days. Vlad paid the price. His parents made this one too, and who does that leave?

Who does that leave? Not Jazz who raised him when his parents wouldn't, who hadn't ever cared about their parent's insane work. Not Tucker who hacked into GIW files, who helped him hunt ghosts even when he was nearly crying from fear. Not Sam, who went out on patrol with them every night, who patched him up when he couldn't.

No, not them.

The portal needed Danny.

Hello! How are you? Hope you’re well

I’m here for young!Oz crumbs 🫣 also what does he think about his namesake ( penguins )?

@arabriddler

I'm doing alright, thank you!

The Cobblepots were initially excited at the idea of having a new addition of their family, but Oz's appearance when born was not what they expected. His fingers were fused, along with a curved spine, not good for a baby. They even thought his nose looked like a beak, and that was not befitting the Cobblepot name.

So, they decided to tell the public that they had had a miscarriage, and paid off the staff present for Oz's birth. But this didn't actually stop the gossip of Oswald not actually dying, but being discarded, from spreading.

The recently abandoned zoo is where Oz was discarded, luckily being cared for by the penguins there. This is where he spent his first 6 years, learning to swim, catch fish, huddle in penguin circles, and how to communicate with them.

The reason the Red Triangle Circus was looking in the zoo was for animals to use for their acts, stumbling upon a group of penguins (among some other animals) and to their surprise, a very young boy. The troupe was originally from the UK, so they didn't immediately put together that he was actually Oswald Cobblepot. This was learned later over their time living in Gotham and hearing the harsh whispers of Gothamites attending performances, having expected Oz to have passed away after being discarded, for surely how could a baby survive on their own after that. This is also why Oz was still called Oswald, instead of another name. It didn't mean much to him at first, considering every human he interacted with had a name too, but as he learned to understand English and process what the Gothamites were saying, he knew what his name meant and it made him understandably bitter.

Most of the circus troupe members Oz considers his family along with his penguins, especially Isabel, but not the ringleader himself. Cross only cared about how well his circus performed, not the performers and animals, so he often abused them when he felt their abilities or behavior was inadequate.

Let's leave it here for now, as Oz getting older and leaving the circus will be in his full origin post....

On a lighter note, Oz doesn't mind being called the Penguin at all, actually. He feels much more connected to penguins than humans. Also, just "the Penguin" is a bit nicer for a namesake than "the penguin boy" or the "penguin man", as he'd have been referred to in the circus.

- Sarsee

Wukong: Question, is it an honor or sacrilegious to give a god it's sacred animal as a sacrifice? Nezha: Like as a gift? Wukong: Like if I killed a tiger... and burned it... and said it was for the Jade Emperor Nezha: No...Put it down Wukong: But- Nezha: Put the tiger and the knife down Wukong Wukong: Awww Macaque: *with a cat* Don't worry, I got chu *makes a run for the fire* YOU CAN'T STOP US BOTH Nezha & Sandy: NO

-source: Batman (1940) #10-

Weapon of Choice: Any more naysayers on Dick being violent?

Of all the things he'd imagined doing over the weekend, being drug around the pound by an overly excited Maxine hadn’t been high on his list.

Sure, he'd told her his therapist had advised getting himself a dog, but he hadn’t expected that to translate into "We're going dog shopping right now." He supposes he should have seen it coming, but he was always kind of out of it after therapy.

The lady at the counter had given him the stink eye at first, but relented when Max had bopped up to her instead. Not that his sister had any better manners than he did (worse, he'd argue), but she was small and she was excited and it was hard to say no to those big green eyes.

Which was how he ended up being pulled around to every kennel at the shelter.

In truth, Billy had hardly been paying attention. He figured whatever dog they'd land on would be fine. He'd never had a dog but how different could it be from having a sister?

It wasn't until they passed a seemingly empty kennel that his attention was snagged.

"The card on the door says there's a dog in here." Max gestured to said card, containing a little information on the supposed dog, "Daisy, five years old, red nosed pitbull, recent rescue. Huh."

Billy peeked around her, first at the card, then at the seemingly empty kennel before a though occurred to him.

He dropped down into a crouch, a little too quickly for his knees, and checked under the little doggy cot set up in there. Sure enough, there was a little ball of short fur tucked away in the very corner.

She was almost as red as Max's hair, though there were patches missing. Billy had had more than enough cigarette burns to recognize them on sight. It made his stomach turn, the idea of someone using an animal as a punching bag like that.

"Daisy?" He called, keeping his voice as soft as he could, with limited success. Gentle was still new to him.

To his surprise, a head perked up. Just a little bit, just two floppy ears twitching towards the sound of her name. Both ears were notched, and one didn't sit at the same angle as the other one.

"Hey there, Daisy." He spoke again, "You picked the best hiding spot in the house."

The only one really, one Billy himself had tried a time or two before he realized hiding only made things worse.

To his surprise her tail thumped against the ground in an aborted wag. Like she was happy to be spoke to, but so nervous at the same time. He knew that feeling all too well too.

He sat himself down on the floor since crouching was making his legs go numb, making sure he did it slowly so as not to spook Daisy.

"It looks kinda small for you though." He continued, "But I guess that's kind of nice sometimes too."

Billy loved small spaces. No one ever expected him to be able to fit into them, so no one ever looked for him there. Plus the tightness almost felt like a hug. There had been plenty of times he slipped himself into a crawl space or an overfilled closet and just let himself daydream he was somewhere else.

Daisy's tail thumped again, twice this time, and Billy found himself smiling a little.

"Well," Max said, just as quietly as Billy was, "I think we found the right fit."

After work today, I feel obligated to share a certain reminder again: for the love of Arceus, do not catch a Pokémon if you are not prepared for it to be unwilling or unable to battle other Pokémon. Or perhaps more accurately to today’s situation: Pokémon are allowed to be non-battling if they so choose.

I find far too many people surprised by this concept just because “they must have been battling in the wild, right?” And yes, most of the time, we do catch Pokémon in wild battles. But sometimes Pokémon battle for self-defense, not to make a new partner, and sometimes we catch Pokémon without battling at all.

“But I’m a trainer!” Yes, and it’s a trainer’s job first and foremost to understand their Pokémon’s needs and wants. Not to force a creature that could be traumatized or worse to fight for prize money. And even if your Pokémon does want to fight, what happens if it gets injured, or grows old? It’s simply impossible to expect a Pokémon to be willing or able to battle from birth to death.

“But I don’t have the time/money to raise non-battling Pokémon!” Okay. Though I would say the same logic here applies here as it would to having a child in that you should be prepared for every eventuality before catching one, and if you couldn’t handle raising it without the extra income it provides, then you can’t handle raising it, period… I know that not everyone is taught that. At the least, if this is a deal-breaker, find a person who is willing and able to raise your Pokémon for you, and make sure to rehome them humanely.

As for what not to do: hitting, yelling, withholding food or water, making your other Pokémon attack your non-battling partner… I’ve seen people come in having done all of these, then asking me to “fix” their Pokémon. It saddens me every time, and often there’s little I can do to get these trainers to come around.

This time, I was lucky—I managed to convince this trainer to leave their non-battling Pokémon with me.

[An image of a Darumaka, curled up and rocking back and forth.]

This little gal doesn’t have a name other than “Darumaka” so far, and she hasn’t stopped rocking like that for a few hours. I’ll have to acclimate her slowly to my other Pokémon, but I’m glad she’s in a better place now at least. (If anybody has tips for keeping a Darumaka, please let me know—for now, I’m going about some fireproofing in my home.)

Just… I wish it didn’t have to come to this point for so many Pokémon.

Something else I noticed about GOTG3 is that one moment when High Evolutionary is holding Kid!Rocket semi-affectionately in his lap and Rocket is looking up at him and innocently asking him questions. As if he were Rocket’s actual parent. Rocket probably did view HE as such. Even though he knows good and well that this is the same individual who tore Rocket’s flesh from his skull and threw him into a dirty cage while he was still in a huge amount of pain as a baby. Not to mention the continuous torturous experimentations....

Rocket literally wasn’t able to actualize the fact that HE didn’t really love him or care about him, at all. Until Rocket reached a certain level of maturity and was betrayed by HE several times throughout his youth. This all hurts to watch especially for me, because it reminds me so much of what my relationship with my egg donor was like growing up. I look back and wonder how I naively could’ve believed that she loved me, while she was constantly abusing me. It’s incredibly validating that even a genius mind like Rockets took years to see the light. Just goes to show what a great example of what it’s like to be raised by a toxic parent this was. Gunn hit it out the park with this one. 

On a rescue mission. Really had some choice words for the guy who had them but kept my mouth shut.

Hades and Pinkie are headed back to the home that loves them for some tlc.

@homeofhousechickens

Kang & the fear response

Can we talk about how this line in the context of how Kang’s dad treats him?

To carry on the analogy of the dog (which is cleverly both about Sailom and Kang simultaneously), we know Kang’s dad won’t punish him. Nothing Kang could ever do would warrant a firm hand. From his perspective, his dad is more willing to invest in the time and energy to train an animal than him. How worthless does that make Kang feel?

And — with the caveat that I hate even taking about this — in this same scene, Pimfah talks about animals that get punished too harshly becoming aggressive. I feel like that’s a misdirect. Do you know what else happens to animals that are consistently treated cruelly by humans? They become afraid of them.

I think Kang has reached a point where he expects his dad to hurt him. Regardless of his dad’s intentions, he has so consistently made Kang feel useless that Kang preemptively braces himself for it now. In that video game scene, Kang wasn’t waiting to be scolded for skipping tutoring — he was waiting to be praised for it. He knew that he had inadvertently fed into his dad’s perception of him and his dad would like that he took the night off.

Because Kang didn’t relax when his dad told him not to worry. If anything, he only got more upset.

I think Dangerous Romance has been trying to use Kang’s nervous reactions to show us just how long-lasting this dynamic has been, and just how deeply it has become entrenched in Kang. He braces himself to be kicked now from the moment his dad walks in the room.

And so far, he’s never been proven wrong.

Just Thorkell being Thorkell

Cockfight statue goodwill Merrillville indiana

Penguins' full backstory is complete!!!

The Cobblepots were initially excited at the idea of having a new addition of their family, but Oz's appearance when born was not what they expected. His fingers were fused, along with a curved spine, not good for a baby. They even thought his nose looked like a beak, and that was not befitting the Cobblepot name. So, they decided to tell the public that they had had a miscarriage, and paid off the staff present for Oz's birth. But this didn't actually stop the gossip of Oswald not actually dying, but being discarded, from spreading. 

The recently abandoned zoo is where Oz was discarded, luckily being cared for by the penguins there. This is where he spent his first 6 years, learning to swim, catch fish, huddle in penguin circles, and how to communicate with them.The reason the Red Triangle Circus was looking in the zoo was for animals to use for their acts, stumbling upon a group of penguins (among some other animals) and to their surprise, a very young boy. 

The troupe was originally from the UK, so they didn't immediately put together that he was actually Oswald Cobblepot. This was learned later over their time living in Gotham and hearing the harsh whispers of Gothamites attending performances, having expected Oz to have passed away after being discarded, for surely how could a baby survive on their own after that. This is also why Oz was still called Oswald, instead of another name. It didn't mean much to him at first, considering every human he interacted with had a name too, but as he learned to understand English and process what the Gothamites were saying, he knew what his name meant and it made him understandably bitter. Most of the circus troupe members Oz considers his family along with his penguins, especially Isabel, but not the ringleader himself. Cross only cared about how well his circus performed, not the performers and animals, so he often abused them when he felt their abilities or behavior was inadequate.

Oz was fed up with the treatment; for himself, for his family…Cross’ blatant abuse of power was unacceptable. So he started to make a plan in his head of how he could revolt. He just had to figure out who was on his side, and who was an obstacle. As Oz grew to adulthood, he put this plan into action, slowly but surely winning the favor of all of the troupe over Cross. It was in his early 20s that Oz killed Cross, hitting him over the head with a chair before continuing to smash his body until he was sure the man was dead. Now the leader of this rag tag circus, Oz took Cross’ funds and invested in an umbrella business under the name “K. G. Bird”. 

It did sell regular umbrellas, as well as trick ones, and providing a cover as Oz started to weed his way into Gotham's crime underbelly. He was determined to make himself the most powerful man in Gotham so that no one would dare try to hurt him or his family again. He had to go slow at first, wary of Falcone, as his men could snuff out Oz if he weren't careful enough. So by the time Falcone was aware of Oz, he had already established himself as a force to be reckoned with, so Falcone left him be, albeit they were feuding.

Oz's cover name “Bird” also did little to keep people from once again suspecting that he was actually Oswald Cobblepot, but there was still no way to tie them together. By the time Oz is 57 (his current age), his parents passed away and Oz was finally able to claim his birthright that his parents had tried so hard to keep from him. This only added to his wealth and infamy, and that leaves us with the Penguin we have today.

- Sarsee

The Punk from Paldea - a Pokemon Day Care AU

I work at a doggy day camp and my mind's constantly floating to Director Clavell caring for pokemon as a pokemon breeder so... an AU happened.

An AU where Clavell worked at the Pokemon Day Care in Kalos and it changed his young life forever.

More details under the cut~!

In his younger years, he was basically a lot like Clive, mostly in looks but in actual greaser rebel demeanor. He, shocker!, does not care about school or pokemon or anything, due to family drama (a messy divorce). The school decides to handle his delinquent behavior by sending him on a "study internship abroad" to Kalos (they were actually just getting him away from the school bc sucky administration), and the program sets him up with the Day Care center, which back in the day is more like a full-fledge ranch and rehabilitation center for Pokemon.

And here, where he actually has to take care of Pokemon, each in their own special and unique way, does his entire perspective change and he learns to love and adore Pokemon and wants to learn more about them and become a researcher!

I then ran this AU by my bestie and Court of Roses' co-writer Lilbluebox. And, as usual, she made it better.

Since we needed OCs for the Day Care family, she created Abigail, a no-nonsense Pokemon nurse-in-training who is in no way impressed by this punk from Paldea. She's also Jacq's older sister so there's like a lil' 5-year-old Jacq running around and talking everyone's ears off about Pokemon it's super duper cute.

We're developing the AU's story as we go, but the definite turning point is when a Bad Trainer drops off a Pokeball with few words and ditches, and when they open it, they find a terribly injured Houndour inside.

And then he just. BOOKS IT to the Camphrier Town Pokemon Center

He stays the night, worried sick, doesn't care that his hair was matted by the bike helmet, doesn't care about much of anything else besides that poor Pokemon.

Completely stunned when Abigail brings him coffee and addresses a question he snidely threw at her weeks ago.

Ugh. GUH. Character development. Pump it into my veins.

DON'T WORRY THE HOUNDOUR GETS BETTER it is in fact the very Houndoom he has in ScaVio, one of his very first Pokemon.

Anyways me and Blue are RPing this and it's so much fun, so I thought I'd share it with all of you <3

-source: Batman (1940) #10-

Weapon of Choice: Outclimbing a kitty cat. And animal abuse, thanks Golden Age...

Tw: animal cruelty, animal deaths mention

Can we talk about how Larian put so much unnecessary animal cruelty in bg3? Like Yenna and Grub only exist to serve as a backup option for the Orin abduction, which involves Orin killing Grub and trick your character into eating his meat! 🤢 I was utterly disgusted when I encountered it and almost quit playing until I found a way to avoid this outcome in my first playthrough (I used no romance limit mod and romanced all of the possible companions that could be abducted therefore I needed to breakup with one of them and leave them in camp), it’s really triggering for me because I also have a cat and we live in a place where animal cruelty is not illegal and companion animals are not protected by law from being served as food, there are countless pet and stray cats and dogs got stolen and later found slaughtered in meat factories and made into off-brand sausages and meatballs, not to mention there are many torture rings that target cats in here and they’re openly taunting and threatening people who oppose them to kill more cats because they know they can get away with it, it’s every cat parent’s worst nightmare. We already get that Orin is this sadistic evil shapeshifter who tortured and killed people for fun, is it really necessary to show us that she’s indiscriminate to children and animal too for shock value??

And for Durge, Larian and the writer they hired from a fan discord server for writing ast*r**n fanfics really put extra effort into making more animal cruelty scenes into the storyline which I have to look into guides before I play durge’s origin to avoid them(a squirrel, a bird, a cat could fall into durge’s victim), making durge unnecessarily edgier when there’s tons of other stuff already shows his gory urges, while durge’s main story in act 3 has so much plot potential yet still feels underwhelming, underwritten and lacks companion reactions other than ast*r**n’s. Really shows their priority, huh? Isn’t these animal cruelty content avoidable? Sure, but you need the knowledge of how to avoid them first, the dialogue option that leads to killing Steelclaw the cat is something like “trying to remember why you know this cat” which is just like the one that leads to durge cut off Gale’s hand, these options doesn’t explicitly say you are going to choose violence, it’s very misleading almost tempt you to choose them. There should be explicit indications of these outcomes in the dialogue options. And that squirrel encounter, durge just automatically kills them if you don’t have speak with animals on. Players that go into the game blind are going to have these triggering content shoved into their faces. But I guess Larian just doesn’t care.