Bolded, because — fuck, yes.
There’s a bit in Darwyn Cooke’s New Frontier that always stays with me — a moment when Bruce is first starting out where he goes to help a small child, and can’t, because he accidentally frightens the boy too badly.
And another bit in, IIRC, Robin Annual #4, written by Chuck Dixon and penciled, I believe, by Jason Armstrong, where a freshly be-Robined Dick asks Alfred haltingly *why* Bruce wants to have him around, and Alfred lays it out — “Master Bruce has very few real friends. And while he most certainly became a man… I don’t think he ever became an adult.”
And then there’s Gotham Knights #32, a Devin Grayson/Robinson joint — their last I believe — where Bruce just goes to everyone he loves — *everyone* — and silently, lurkingly, subtly loves them. As best as he can. From the people he’s helped to his family — to Harvey.
And then there are those DCAU eps where he bends over backwards to build new lives for people like Harley and Arnold Wesker.
And all that time and effort he spent making sure Tim could be with Ariana, and then Steph, and then the Titans — because he *recognized* all the ways he’d fucked up in the past.
And then there’s the time when he tried to give Cass a birthday, even though he had no idea when it could be, and then sharing *Jay* with her, his dearest, closest-held *memories* of Jay, when he couldn’t with anyone else. (That second one was DetC, Gabrych run.)
And pouring his heart out to Steph on that rooftop, way back when, while Steph was in a state of 0.0.
And EVERY time Dick — fuck. Well, the entire DCU knows how he feels about DICK. INCLUDING DICK HIMSELF, WHEN DICK IS NOT DEPRESSED.
And Clark, at least, considers his love for Lois precisely the same as Bruce’s love for Jay.
Clark, who Bruce holds in his soul, trusting him above all others. His brother — in some ways.
And Barbara — the woman he respects more than anyone else. The woman he trusts behind the scenes for the motherfucking *JLA* systems. The woman who calls him ‘boss’ and means anything but. And he loves it that way. Look at the way Devin writes them together. The way Beatty writes them together. The way Simone writes them together. Fucking *A*.
And Damian! GOD! The son who was *denied* to him for *years*. The son who was *tortured* and *wronged* and led astray for so many years — and who is yet so beautiful inside, and so devoted to so much *right*. How can he not do his best by him? Even if he doesn’t know what that is, he has to *try*.
Just — all of these moments.
Because Bruce is a good man, and a loving man, and a *kind* man, and he wants to make it better for *everyone* — even the people who fuck up and make things worse for everyone else. Because he recognizes his own capacities for failure, his own *fuck-ups*.
And he loves his family, his friends, Gotham, the *world*. He *loves* them. And he does not place himself above… anyone.
Not when he’s written anything like correct..
How do I discard all that other canon? Well, how do you discard the canon that doesn’t make any goddamned sense about *your* faves? The fact that I have to put up with *more* bullshit doesn’t make the bullshit less bullshitty.
It just means I need a bigger shovel.
*points to the one in the corner*
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