endophytes my beloved

bailey or clark red/yellow/blue shippers dni

[cryptidcharlie]

idea from this tweet

[cykelops]

another history making marvel post I never see anyone talk about is “so is nobody helping blade kill all those vampires”

[cykelops]

found it

[roguestorm]

Duke presents a problem for the DC writers. It’s 2016, DC’s launching Rebirth, and you’ve got this character who has taken up the Robin mantle in a different way. If you don’t tie Duke to the Batfamily, he disappears. DC isn’t interested in preserving him as his own thing (which would have been the most narratively satisfying thing for him). Instead, he gets put into the Batman and All Star Batman titles. But as soon as you put him into those titles, you’ve lost what makes him unique. You’re left with yet another smart, dedicated kid who wants to do what’s best for Gotham and is going to pursue that by working with Batman. He’s got a different name and costume, sure, but he’s essentially fulfilling the same role as, for example, Tim Drake’s Robin.

The Cursed Wheel, the backup story for the first arc of ASB, is directly about how Duke fits into the Batfam and what his role will be. That’s written by Snyder, who created Duke in the Batman: Zero Year story, and who I think is really interested in moving the character forward and keeping him around. Ultimately, DC (whether that’s Snyder or Tony Patrick or someone else) lands on something that, from a publishing perspective, makes sense, which is giving Duke powers. That’s an easy point of differentiation that opens up new possibilities. They also go with a daytime vigilante angle that’s a little silly (IMO) but works well thematically.

But they haven’t actually solved the problem. They haven’t given Duke a story or character trait or role that successfully differentiates him. And part of the problem goes back to my initial point — what made him unique (his disconnect from the Batfamily) was also what made him (in DC’s opinion) totally unmarketable. They didn’t want to pursue a genuinely new story because the entire comic book industry is kept alive by simply writing the same story over and over again. Another part of the problem, though, is lack of follow-through. They made Duke the daytime vigilante with light-based powers, didn’t give him a solo, and have shuffled him around various books. Rebirth was a decade ago! By the time Tim Drake was ten years into existence, we were on issue 60 of his solo series.

To sum up, I’m not saying Duke hasn’t had good writing. I’m saying that DC doesn’t seem to have a good vision for the character, and every time someone does have a good vision for the character, DC changes direction. We’re left trying to assemble a character out of short stories, which is never going to let Duke be a character as well-defined as Cass or Damian or Dick or any of the others.

[haveihitanerve]

huge fan of the headcanon that Duke can just... turn invisible and no one except for the BatFam/certain Associates know/can avoid him

Like Bruce is leading Clark and Diana through the Manor and chatting and randomly walks around the middle of the hallway for no reason and Diana follows him while Clark just walks headfirst into Duke and neither Duke nor Bruce realized what they'd done

Tim is casually talking with a couple of friends he has over and randomly picks up a sandwich from the plate in the middle of the table and holds it over his shoulder where it just disappears

Steph is helping Alfred set the table and just shoves a glass bowl into the abyss and lets go and Alfred is two seconds away from screaming when he realizes 'oh, Duke is holding it' and Steph didn't even realize he wasn't visible.

Hal is gesturing while telling a story on the Watchtower and turns to look at nothing and goes "You were there, tell them" and the emptiness starts talking and Barry nearly has a heart attack until Duke flickers into existence.

[larkralbirdy]

middle sibling club (Jason wasn't invited)

[elizaisdunn]

“tim, kon, cassie, and bart if tim had managed to successfully clone kon and they were all stuck with a baby”

[justrandomspams]

who's the ultimate pro gamer among the robins? (Like across all genres... shooters, puzzles, fighting games, strategy, orrrr)

Who is Robin the best at video games?

dickbin

jaybin

timbin

stephbin

damibin

Voting ended onJul 20

[pingo1387]

having a headache while hydrated is so unfair. you were supposed to protect me.

[bedupolker]

Friends in different Time Zones

[bedupolker]

did you know its national moth week? Happy national moth week!

[rydonthorn]

@scented-gargoyle @gascanposts @baileyondemand

[galaxy---ghost]

barry’s adventures in mapping the multiverse

[red-velvet-void]

How about both ☝️

[nightwingsgypsyrep]

As someone who worked some really shitty minimum wage shift-work jobs, I feel for Duke Thomas. Because he signed on for day shifts, and yet that poor fucker is still on the clock at 3am. Bro, call your union rep!

[houseofrozhenko]

Gagged him

[incorrectbatfam]

Smallvillers are Victorian children in that they'd explode if you showed them a spice rack and Gothamites are Victorian children in that they snort six lines before their 16-hour shift at the crime factory

[secretsdcblog]

RUN HIM OVER DUKE

[onyxedskies]

thinking abt that one post abt gothamites mimicking duke’s braids to help hide his identity and it becoming a Thing and also thinking abt a gotham transplant picking a style at random and getting comments like “is that the signal style from last summer? fuck yeah bro!” as they’re sitting there like Who The Fuck Is Signal

[genderfluidkoemradde]

when someone makes queer headcanons for the “bat family” members and even writes full length explanations to their hcs but they make Duke the “token straight ally”