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Hi, I am Aboud Al-Qudra, a Palestinian living in Gaza. Recentl… Abood Alqedra needs your support for Your support encourages me to move forw
I am Majed from Gaza, from the north of the Strip.
My family and I were displaced to the south. After 188 days of exhaustion, constant fear, and losing everything we owned, we were displaced to Egypt and paid a large sum, but some of my family and all our loved ones are still suffering in Gaza💔. We don't have residency here, so that's what makes it complicated. I also set a goal of 6,000, which is a short-term goal
Of the total specified amount.
Your donation, no matter how small, will make a big difference in my life and the lives of my children 🙏🏼🇵🇸🍉
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I suffered through Tom King Wonder Woman so you don't have to, here's the review:
The set up is that Amazons become outlaws because one Amazon attacked a guy who assaulted her, then all the guys in the bar attacked her because of it, a full bar brawl happened and she killed them. Already, this feels very uninspired.
Instead of being told through Diana's perspective, the entire story is narrated by a guy who's unnamed for most of the story. Wonder Woman is a secondary character in her own book and isn't even on most of the pages.
Additionally, a lot of important information is glossed over. The political atmosphere and lead up to the bill outlawing the Amazon's should be the focus of the first issue. We should see Wonder Woman and her allies organising and reacting to the events, but this is all handwaved away by a few narration boxes from the currently unnamed guy I just mentioned. He tells us that she protested the governments outlawing peacefully, but it's not shown. The only time we see Diana up to this point is a brief nothing-conversation with Steve Trevor.
When the act is put in place 300 amazons are killed or imprisoned. We don't see her defend them once. We do see a lesbian amazon get gunned down because apparently the government somehow got bullets that can cut Amazon steel.
When we first see Diana after the act's in place she's at the graves of those guys who were killed and she tells the government agents that are after her that she's trying to solve their murders? Homegirl, your people are being genocided.
She doesn't actually seem to care, she appears like an emotionless slate who talks of "obligation" to the Amazons like this is a job, not her people being hunted. The most emotion we get is being told by an Amazon ambassador that she gave her sword to her to resist the temptation of using it, which could point to her being enraged by all this but, again, it's not like we hear from Diana herself.
Edit: I forgot she got angry when a gov agent called her a bitch but yeah that's it on the emotion front.
She then talks to Steve about the situation, again, and then we're finally fully introduced to the narrator guy, The Sovereign. He is part of a dynasty of men that have been secretly ruling America for centuries wielding the lasso of lies. No, seriously.
Firstly, putting America's problems at the feet of an entirely made up guy who's secretly subverting democracy is exactly the type of overly simplistic bullshit I would expect from an ex-CIA operative like Tom King. It's a neat explanation that doesn't require you to consider structural problems, all you gotta do is dispose of this one guy.
Secondly, the idea of a person/group secretly pulling the strings is deeply tied to anti-semitic cabal conspiracy theories, even the word cabal comes from Yiddish. Sure, not all people who believe this type of thing believe that it's a Jewish person/group controlling the world, but the further you get in conspiracy circles, the more prevalent anti-semitism becomes. This guy also has a big nose, which is a common stereotypical Jewish feature.
Thirdly, the lasso of lies? Seriously? Why? Questions, questions and no good answers.
All of this is written in Tom King's unmistakable style (derogatory) where all the dialogue is disjointed, all the characters are sad + stoic and the political commentary is meaningless at best.
when duke's powers were coming in i bet he had some pretty crazy eyestrain/migraines, this may be photo sensitivity talking, but when your brain really isn't ready to take in a bunch of light it really likes to make you suffer for it
he probably carries sunglasses with him everywhere for when there's a lot of people/movement that triggers his powers to activate
on bad days he has to put his phone on a screen reader so he can use it without looking at the screen
he's also the epitome of "im just going to rest my eyes", most of the time he does, sometimes he just takes a nap. his siblings don't get it but Alfred and Bruce will 1000% join him cause yeah sometimes you just need to rest your eyes.
Hello! I’m bouncing around a fic idea of rewriting Battle for the Cowl/Batman and Robin 2009 with Bette Kane as a major character (mostly as a direct parallel to Dick bc I think it’s interesting, esp with Damian).
I was wondering if you have any Bette comic recommendations, since I know she’s not as big of a character that she deserves to be and it’s hard to find them with her in it.
I sadly have not read much bette, but @autisticcassandracain and @mollyhats are two people I know who are familiar with her character!
@dilfdoctordoom has a reading list for Bette right here, which compiles pretty much all of her appearances. I recommend just reading all of it since there's not a lot to get through, but my personal favourite Bette comics are the Hawks & Dove Annual #1 (head and shoulders above the rest tbh), New Titans #56, and Young Justice #21. I am also very fond of her pre-crisis and Bombshells appearances. Beast Boy is THÉ Bette comic (even if I personally have mixed feelings about it) and the most essential reading on the list imo. Post-crisis batfam interactions are here and there but Bette in Gotham starts in the Detective Comics entries on the list, but I personally haven't read her Batwoman appearances bc tbh I loathed how she was played in Detective Comics and from what I heard Batwoman is just that but even edgier. These are just my personal opinions, though, and once again, I strongly recommend just reading through the list to form your own opinions.
Raven: busy going evil and/or being dead 80% of the time, annoying and pretty fucked up will-they-won't-they with Wally that makes neither of them look good.
Dick Grayson: the writers' specialest little boy who needs to be the smartest person in the room always, has the narrative bend over backwards for him constantly to the point where he gets a brainwashing arc that means you could argue nothing bad he did has ever been his fault since like, issue 26 or something.
Donna Troy: got married to Marv Wolfman's self-insert, little miss perfect.
Garfield Logan: group sexual harrasser and self-described chauvenist pig, won't stop complaining about his trauma and daddy issues (and yeah they're pretty bad but in the immortal words of Donna Troy 'that's not exactly unique in this group'), depressed funny guy except he's not funny 98% of the time.
Victor Stone: won't stop complaining about his trauma and daddy issues 2 electric boogaloo (again they're bad again that's not exactly unique in this group and also there's only so many times you can have the same character conflict before it gets annoying).
Koriand'r: idk I guess she's annoyingly clingy towards Dick but if a female character is stuck in an annoying relationship you should always blame the guy, it is always morally correct. She's written by a guy and Dick's that guy's specialest little boy, of course she's shafted. She's done nothing wrong ever in her life no I am not biased do not look at my icon —
Wally West: self-described conservative, primary character trait is not wanting to be here and complaining incessantly about it, see above point about blaming the guy in reference to his relationship with Raven.
Joey Wilson: honestly I have no clue why you'd find Joey annoying. He's too nice? Got no-homo'd too hard before they changed their minds and made him canon queer twice? Had a badly written villain arc bc the writers didn't know what to do with him? Idk. His worst crime is being attached to Deathstroke who IS annoying. Annoying by association.
Kole Weathers: introduced to die and it shows, if you thought Kori was clingy wait until you meet Kole's pathologically clingy ass. That said if I'm honest she's mostly here so I can justify putting Danny Chase on the list as well.
Danny Chase: fourteen years old but he thinks he's the smartest most capable person in the room and he's not even right. The narrative desperately wants you to think he's cool but he's just kinda not. Worst part here is that since I'm literally ten years older than him l can't even be bothered by him bc if I am that makes ME the loser. Damian Wayne did the annoying arrogant over-competent kid schtick better (source: me and my bias).
So I don’t often see discussion of Cassandra’s illiteracy in fandom. When I do, it is often in the context of how it must stand in the way of her doing casework or becoming a good detective, the rationale being that she can’t read case files which means she can’t learn about her opponents or solve cases. This line of thought has always seemed not just incorrect to me but extraordinarily close minded.
(Blanket content warning for potentially triggering discussion of stereotypes surrounding reading difficulties and intelligence/capability below the cut.)
So to start off, let's build up the case 'against' Cass so we can knock it down.
Illiteracy aside, Bruce has told her that he doesn't think she's 'ready' to be a detective.
Batgirl #34
She cannot read the word 'peace,' or even spell it out, leading to a situation where Oracle cannot disarm a dangerous weapon.
Batgirl #54
Bruce also tells her she needs to learn to read among 'other' things from Tim because those gaps in her knowledge constitute 'serious weaknesses.' Those 'other' things are, presumably, detection-related.
Batgirl #58
She can't even make out the first two words of A Tale of Two Cities. So how is she supposed to read case files, or write them, or use them to solve cases?
Batgirl #58
Well, in all of these instances her illiteracy and general lack of 'detective skills are treated way differently in canon than in fandom. In fandom, it’s treated like a satisfactory conclusion for Cass, or the natural order of things. Of course she isn't a detective. Of course she needs Tim to be the brains of the operation. She’s not smart enough to be Batman all on her own. She can’t even read. And here I thought the point of fandom was to be less bigoted than canon, not to create issues that aren't even there in canon.
How is it treated in canon?
To start out with, let's circle back to Batgirl #34. Bruce might start the issue by saying she isn't ready to be a detective, but this is how he ends it:
Batgirl #34
And if you read the actual comic, her 'readiness' is not about being literally unable to solve the case, it's about being emotionally ill-prepared. So when she displays the "right" emotional response to a really fucked up case (according to Bruce), he says she's ready.
Not to mention, this issue comes on the heels of Murderer/Fugitive, where Cass's detective work was crucial to solving Vesper Fairchild's murder.
What does Cass do in Murderer/Fugitive that's so noteworthy? She works with Spoiler to exhume Fairchild's body to compare perimortem bruising to what she knows of Bruce's hand shape and size. You know, like a detective would.
During this exhumation, she recognizes that a small fracture on the victim's jaw which is indicative of a nerve strike and immediately reaches the conclusion that it proves Bruce's innocence because, as Nightwing, Robin, and Oracle put it:
Batgirl #27
This is a nerve strike that was taught to her by her dad, David Cain, and implicates him in the murder. So not only is she doing real detective work here, she is putting clues together that none of the characters above- who are often pointed to as the 'real' detectives of the Bat family- were equipped to find.
Furthermore, what Babs says to Cass in issue 54- i.e. that she is 'stupid' for struggling to learn how to read- is (rightfully) addressed as fucked up and wrong. Because it was.
Batgirl #54
Not only that, but even though Babs couldn't think of a way to stop the weapon without reading, Cass could. Because she was smart enough to turn it against itself.
Batgirl #54
Basically, Cass saved the day by out-thinking Barbara fucking Gordon. I'm sorry, but we're supposed to think she's not smart enough to be Batman?
And as for Batgirl #58, it's right there in the original panel- there IS a lot Cass can learn from Tim. As in, she is just as capable as he is when it comes to detective work, she just needs the opportunities he has had to develop those skills. Because Tim got to grow up in a normal house with normal parents and go to normal school while Cass was being turned into a living weapon.
Bruce isn’t describing Cass’s illiteracy or her perceived ill-preparedness for more 'typical' aspects of life as a permanent state. He wants Cass to improve and become ready. He isn’t envisioning a future where Cass is the dumb muscle because he sees her potential for more. Honestly, I think he would be offended that anybody thought he considered her 'dumb muscle' at any point.
Finally, Cass already can and does make full use of Bruce’s case files and training materials. Because Bruce and Oracle and Dick are smart enough to understand that illiterate doesn’t mean incapable of learning and instead of shrugging and going “I guess she’s just the muscle” they arranged accommodations for her.
She uses holographic recordings for combat training.
Batgirl #7
She records her case notes and messages verbally.
Batgirl #25
Batgirl #60
When she needs to access case notes, she has Bruce and Barbara's extremely sophisticated computer systems read them out loud to her.
Batgirl #12
Batgirl #60
So it turns out there actually isn't any barrier to her accessing case files or solving cases despite her illiteracy, even in her earliest days as Batgirl. Because Batman and Oracle are smart enough to provide their mentee with basic accommodations of the type that would have been publicly (if not widely) available in the mid-aughts for kids with more typical reading difficulties.
Sure, all the text to speech in the world won't help her to read a physical book on paper. Sure the written word trips her up sometimes. But she works around it. And she is learning. Because she's smart and observant and capable and good at problem solving. Which are the traits you really need to be a good detective. So can we as a fandom please stop acting like this isn't the case.
Heroes show up when they show up. And sometimes they take too damn long. So you try to become your own hero. Make things right yourself. But sometimes you wonder: Are you really helping? Or just making things worse? And another. You think: The world's not fair, but maybe I can make it fair. Because someone has to.
