$LAYYYTER
Kiana Khansmith
No title available
"I'm Dorothy Gale from Kansas"
almost home
YOU ARE THE REASON
★
he wasn't even looking at me and he found me
tumblr dot com
izzy's playlists!
Sade Olutola
DEAR READER
Andulka
blake kathryn
Product Placement
No title available
2025 on Tumblr: Trends That Defined the Year
art blog(derogatory)
trying on a metaphor
Cosmic Funnies
seen from France
seen from Saudi Arabia
seen from Malaysia
seen from Türkiye
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Singapore
seen from Brazil
seen from India
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Lithuania
seen from Türkiye
seen from Russia
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
seen from France
seen from Ireland
seen from Malaysia
seen from India
@gesiatari
im only saying it in hopes of avoiding it but keep in mind the superhero cycle is
hope for a better world -> capitalists notice this is a profitable cash cow -> toothless fluff -> grief -> hopelessness -> deconstruction of the genre -> cynicism -> rage bait -> jesus fuck someone hired a nazi
one thing i’ve realized - older!jon slander because of wanting supersons back, and post-flashpoint!lor zod slander because of wanting chris back but without the baggage of his multiple tragedies are two sides of the same of coin. it’s like ppl love the concept of the Son of Superman but hate the very inevitability of the tragedy that is BEING a Son of Superman. we live with knowing lois can let clark go into the night because he belongs to the world and not just to her, but ppl struggle with accepting clark is destined to be a failure of a father BECAUSE of that same reason. you can’t be a father if you belong to the world, because being a father means you have to be your child’s number one, and that’s not something clark could do for chris OR jon, and usually of no fault of his own.
so if you can’t be a father bc you belong to the world, what does the world do? it sends your adoptive baby back to the shadow realm, and then your second baby gets kidnapped by some demonic version of you and abused in a volcano.
it’s fascinating bc one could argue that in the many versions of lois that has existed in the various continuities, there were times clark WAS the garbage partner and DIDN’T deserve her, just like there were times where one could argue she was being a bitch to the sweetest guy with the biggest burden. after decades and a crisis or ten, they did eventually find that middle ground where clois could exist with lois accepting she might become a widow eventually, and still that clark belonged to the world.
but adopting chris, having jon, losing chris twice, losing jon, getting them back in different ways and just not being really able to RAISE them because they’re GROWN….. it’s a challenge that’s gonna take decades more of storytelling to get to a good place bc clois have no choice BUT to be shitty parents, bc they married knowing the other could just die at any time. so what happens when the danger couple has kids? of course they can’t get their shit together! in theory they’re great ppl, but in practice they fail at the basics because they have no choice BUT to fail.
bc how do forgive yourself as a father for not being able to stop your son from sacrificing himself to save you from being his birth father’s warden in the phantom zone, just for him to get benjamin buttoned in that hellscape?
how do you forgive yourself as a mother for leaving your son to crazy peepaw bc of your own VERY real insecurities, only for your son to come back with a plastic smile and a glint behind his eyes bc he’s half mad but pretending be just fine bc your abandonment led him to being tortured by some madman during his pubescent years?
and then, adding fuel to fire, they both just…. let jon go to the 31st century. chris didn’t even get a return parade cuz they nuked the universe with flashpoint, but two strikes…… otho and osul gotta take this shit home for the fallen 😂😂😂
i don’t know where i was going with this, but im just saying, the chronicles of lois and clark being terrible parents is absolutely hilarious to me and i love it.
Superman, Wonder Woman, and Supergirl all have mermaid* love interests in the silver age. Superman with Lori Lemaris, Wonder Woman with... some guy who's name I can't remember as a kid when she was Wonder Girl, and Supergirl (Kara) with Jerro, who is somehow related to Lori Lemaris (either her son or he's friends with someone who knows her? I forget).
I know it's only like 3 of them but, 3 mermaid love interests is way more than I thought would exist outside aquafam comics. Some1 in the silver age just thought mermaids were awesome, IG
*i am not gendering the word mermaid, these comics were published in the 1950s and 60s assume heterosexuality
you would think mermaid love interests would show up in aquaman comics but no, letifos is the closest i can think of and she doesn't even date garth she just saves his ass and he thinks she's tula and they have fun interactions
There is more, well kinda
One time, Batman hallucinated that he became a merman and began a relation with a mermaid named Theta. The issue is vague if it's real or not
And it's not only in the silver age, well kinda
For 1 issue, Kon-El also had a mermaid girlfriend (ok it was more "Kon has saved a mermaid from a kraken and talked 5 minutes with her") named Lolina, which continue the tradition of "Super+Mermaid"
Superman Family Tree
Shared with Dropbox
Added Super Teacher from Krypton and Spot Connected a "created" line from H'el to himself
this is the most recent version of the family tree
I got bored so i did some research on Bruce Wayne's kids. Feel free to let me know if i missed any or wrongly added one
Someone: how many kids do you have?
Bruce: biologically, legally, or emotionally?
The answer is 42 children
Key
bold = the "main" kids
* = at some point this timeline and/or universe was "erased" from existence
** = ambiguous universe (ex: was it a alt timeline or just a dream?)
Lets start off where B started off:
Legally
aka adopted and/or fostered at some point in time
Dick Grayson
Jason Todd
Tim Drake
Cassandra Cain
Duke Thomas
Jarro
Alina Shelley (Batman: The Dark Prince Charming)
Lance Bruner* (Earth-One)
Turner Hayes (Gotham Knights)
Kal-El (Batman: Last Knight on Earth)
Roger Burnim Jr.* (Brave and the Bold #98)
Nyesha Burroughs Wayne** (Batman '89)
Stepchildren
Jackie Napier (mother: Harley Quinn) (Batman: White Knight)
Bryce Napier (mother: Harley Quinn) (Batman: White Knight)
Stephanie Trevor (mother: Diana) (Batman/Superman Generations)
Emotionally
aka other people Bruce has mentored/gotten attached to
Barbra Gordon
Stephanie Brown
Harper Row
Cullen Row
Carrie Kelly
Rui Aramiya (Batman and the Justice League)
Barbara Wilson (Batman and Robin (1997) movie)
Drake Winston (Batman ’89)
Mia “Maps” Mizoguchi
Claire Clover
Biologically
Mother = Talia al Ghul
Damian Wayne
Athanasia al Ghul (Injustice)
Tallant Wayne (Batman: League of Batman)
Ibn al Xu'ffasch (Earth-22)
Unnamed Son
Mother = Selina Kyle (Catwoman)
Helena Wayne (Earth-2)
Aion**
Bruce Wayne Jr.** (Batman ’89)
Tivali Wayne** (Batman ’89)
Mother = Diana (Wonder Woman)
Kull (Dark Nights: Death Metal)
"Batman" (JLA #90)
"Batwoman" (JLA #90)
Mother = Other
Bruce Wayne Jr. (mother: Kathy Kane) (Earth-154)
Bruce Wayne Jr. (mother: Unnamed Wife) (Earth-3839)
Kiki Wayne* (mother: Helen)
Genetically Engineered
Terry McGinnis (Batman Beyond)
Matt McGinnis (Batman Beyond)
Updated it this morning!
Thanks for sending in corrections! Keep sending them in if i missed one or mismarked one
Im not even halfway through this family tree yet and its so wide 🤣
CURRENTLY AT 103 PEOPLE and i cant figure out how to get it to Show All
Exile to Marvel Round 1
Superman | Clark Kent
The Presence | God
Why do they deserve to win?
Superman
God
Fun fact guys, Clark Kent is already in Marvel
I am not joking, he is already there with Lois
Look at him, he lives his best life
He was invited to the Christmas Party at the Bugle
For context here, the blond guy is Thor, 5 minutes earlier he said that glasses was a bad disguise
He also participated to some events of the community Here at the funerals of Captain Marvel (The first one)
And here at the marriage between Sue Storm and Reed Richards with the Beattles
Even if it's only cameos, the Marvel Wiki states 27 appearances of 616!Clark Kent, which is maybe more than your favorite obscur blorbo
There is no propaganda, only fun fact However, that would the funniest shit if Kon or Kara was send to Marvel with this guy
Concept: an episode of the Justice League cartoon where the MCs get sucked into a 90s teen movie… powers get reset to when they were that age.
Fuck being an episode I'd take a whole ass movie about this plot. Specifically just because there is so much you can do playing with the stereotypical High School teen movie tropes while the Justice League are fully aware of the bullshit around them yet helpless to stop it.
I'm also just imagining it's like MLP's Equestria Girls movie where you have recognizable characters with similar personalities reimagined in this context as students and teachers, so like you could get so many fun background cameos or be worked into plot related shenanigans.
Like for example a potential subplot with Lois and Jimmy being rivals with Vicki as they compete to investigate the mysterious teens and if they're connected to the superhuman freaks seen around town.
The only real question I'd have is who the villain should be and what their goal or method of returning home is?
Personally I'm thinking like The Legion of Doom tried to use some kind of artifact or device in an attempt to banish the heroes to a different Earth to get rid of them forever.
However it backfires and they also get pulled in with the artifact/device so they also have powers on the fritz as the heroes and villains have to compete to reclaim the device/artifact in perhaps a competition where it was accidentally made the prize and now the heroes have to get it first before they're stranded in this world.
For the villain, I propose the Queen of Fables
Is she a Justice League villain? Yes
Use fiction as her principal source of power? Yes
Any fiction? Like Krypton folklore, greek mythologie and tax code? Yes
Can she trap people in works of fiction? Yes
Does she manipulate reality at will? Yes
Does she made movies? Yes (Wonder Woman [2008] #24-25)
Does she hates Wonder Woman and will be willing to reduce her to the love interest in a teen movie? Yes
How much she want to humiliate Wonder Woman? Yes
Does she have a simple goal like dominate the world, eliminate the justice league et raise the taxes? Yes
pick a Clark love interest:
Lois lane
Lori lemaris
Lana Lang
Luma lynai
Lyla Lerrol
Lyrica Lloyd
Lydia Lawrence
Lourdes lucero
Lisa lasalle
Clark what kind of fetish is this
Lex luthor? Lightning lad? Lee lambert? Who is next? Who is safe? We’re gonna run out of names-
I think I’ve got a clue
L.L. are the initials for many Superman characters who, for the most part, have tended to be his adversaries, love interests, or relatives.
there’s more btw
Amnesic Mxyzptlk give us an another clue for KaL-EL from Adventures of Superman #646
Apparently, a double L is a symbol of infinity for kryptonians
@ligaratus asked me for Superman recommendations, which presents the rare opportunity that someone other than my girlfriend has provoked me to pull out my extensive knowledge of great Silver Age (1956 - 1969) Superman stories. Now, Superman has been in publication nonstop since 1938, but if we’re being realistic, if you want the best of the best with the character, you’re just going to be reading that decade of comics from beginning to end, but here are my highlights:
Action Comics #162 (November 1951) - “It!”: Superman fends off a seemingly incomprehensible fourth-dimensional entity. This one gives a solid basis for what Silver Age Superman is like, in that he lives in a world where hes already taken extensive measures in making it a better place, and so you really arent going to see him fending off the various forces of evil, but rather do increasingly weird and complex problem solving. Of course that sort of status quo gets us to now, where the only half-decent Superman villains are Lex Luthor, Brainiac, Bizarro…Mr. Mxyzptlk…Metallo…?…yeah.
Superman #76 (May 1952) - “The Mightiest Team in The World”: This one is a pretty easy recommendation, as it’s the very first team-up between Superman and Batman. Even though we had been getting Superman and Batman stories since World’s Finest Comics started publishing in 1941, we had never gotten a story starring both of them until a decade later. This one is mainly interesting for historical reasons, but I’m not going to mention any more stories involving DC characters outside of the Superman mythos starting now.
Superman #101 (November 1955) - “The Rainbow Doom”: Superman has a rainbow stuck around his body that causes whatever physical objects in his close proximity to turn to glass. This one is pretty solid because it’s an early example of how engage in incredibly preposterous hoaxes to get the edge in an ongoing battle, which is to say that this is a story that involves Superman tricking everyone into thinking he’s turned Lois Lane into glass i.e. killed her as one of the steps that allows him to win.
Adventure Comics #247 (April 1958) - “The Legion of Super-Heroes”: This isnt a Superman story, rather a SuperBOY story. Which is to say that Superman started his heroic adventures as a child in Smallville. Anyhow, I motherfucking LOVE the Legion of Super-Heroes. This story is their first appearance, and essentially they’re a club of children from the 30th century that love and adore Superboy, and go back in time to put him through arbitrary trials to see if he’s cool enough to hang out with them, which they intentionally sabotage, because these are the shenanigans that elementary schoolers frequently engage in. I’m not going to bring up any other Legion appearances here because honestly I’d say read every Silver Age Legion story.
Action Comics #242 (July 1958) - “The Super-Duel in Space”: This is the first appearance of Brainiac, and he’s a great science fiction/horror concept of a super-intellegent computer that must learn everything and shrinks down organisms so as to extensively study them, that also just happens to fight Superman on a regular basis. This is also the first appearance of the Bottled City of Kandor, the last piece of Kryptonian civilization, and it presents one of the great dilemmas of the Silver Age, in that Superman cant figure out how to restore it in size.
Action Comics #252 (May 1959) - “The Supergirl of Krypton!”: This is the first appearance of Supergirl, and she’s going to occupy a similar niche as the Legion of Super-Heroes on account of the fact that I have an intense love for the character and am not going to mention any more stories involving the character because then I’d have to mention all of them.
Superman #129 (May 1959) - “The Girl in Superman’s Past!”: Clark reminisces about a girl he was in love with in college, Lori Lemaris, which makes the third ongoing love interest of his following Lois Lane and Lana Lang. The difference being that Lori is a mermaid from Atlantis.
Action Comics #254 (July 1959) - “The Battle With Bizarro!”: This is the first appearance of Bizarro, there’s not much more to it.
Superman #141 (November 1960) - “Superman’s Return to Krypton!”: Superman travels through the time barrier and ends up being stuck on Krypton and struggling to find a way back before it explodes; basically one of the great tragic stories of this era.
Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #48 (November 1960) - “The Mystery of The Tiny Supermen!”: Jimmy Olsen’s solo series is ANOTHER case of me having to restrain myself from mentioning every issue, but this is a special case for introducing an important part of the mythos, the Superman Emergency Squad, which is where a group from Kandor all dress up like Superman and do his regular duties while he’s incapacitated.
Superman #143 (February 1961) - “Bizarro Meets Frankenstein!”: Now THIS is a great Bizarro story. Bizarro sees in a television broadcast that Frankenstein’s Monster is referred to as “The World’s Scariest Monster” and seeing as that title should belong to him, he decides to do something about it. Which manifests in Superman having to protect the actor that plays the Monster from Bizarro.
Superman #147 (August 1961) - “The Legion of Super-Villains!”: I know I said I wouldn’t mention the Legion again but I’ll make an exception for here, where Lex Luthor travels to the future to get the assistance of their counterpart team.
Superman #149 (November 1961) - “The Death of Superman!”: This is the first Imaginary Story I’m bringing up i.e. one that isn’t “canon”. As much as I’m not a giant fan of this incarnation of Lex Luthor, I can’t deny that this is the character at his very best. Luthor pretends to have finally reformed so as to get an opportunity to get in close to Superman and kill him, which he actually does, leaving the rest of the world to pick up the pieces.
Superman #156 (October 1962) - “The Last Days of Superman!”: All the wacky shenanigans I’ve already written own aside, this is without any doubt the best single-issue Superman story ever written. Superman is infected with Virus X from Krypton and given 30 days to live, and spends that time carrying out all the missions he planned to officially make the world a better place. The moment where he carves his final words into the Moon?
Action Comics #300 (May 1963) - “Under The Red Sun!”: This is another great tragic story. The Superman Revenge Squad (I’m not getting into them after talking at lenght about Comet) sends Superman into the year 1,000,000 A.D., with him being unable to return to the past on account of how the now red sun has stripped him of his powers.
Gets me every fucking time.
Action Comics #293 (October 1962) - “The Secret Origin of Supergirl’s Super-Horse!”: Yeah I just wanted to take this opportunity to talk about what is undoubtedly the strangest comic book character I have ever seen, Comet the Super-Horse. He was first introduced as one of the Superpets, a legacy that got started with Krypto the Super-Dog, but here we, uh. Learn that Comet was actually a centaur named Biron from ancient Greece who was accidently turned into a horse by Circe who tried to make up for it by giving him the powers of “ Jove, Mercury, Athena, and Neptune”, and then he’s sent into the distant future (our present) and outer space by an evil wizard. Also sometimes a comet comes by the Earth that turns him into a complete human with amnesia that goes on to date Supergirl even though most of the time he’s a horse that she owns. Yeah. Any time someone tries to bring up how weird comics are without knowing who Comet is, they ain’t seen shit yet.
Superman #162 (July 1963) - “The Amazing Story of Superman-Red and Superman-Blue!”: This is probably the most famous Imaginary Story, with Superman being fed up that he can’t solve all the world’s problems, so he uses a machine to increase his intelligence that ends up splitting him into two separate Supermen that are now capable of doing everything Superman wanted. Also one marries Lois and one marries Lana. It’s great.
Action Comics #304 (September 1963) - “The Interplanetary Olympics!”: This one is pretty simple, Superman is chosen as Earth’s representative in the Interplanetary Olympics where it seems everyone is stronger than he is.
Superman #164 (October 1963) - “The Showdown Between Luthor and Superman!”: Another simple one; Superman and Lex Luthor engage in a boxing match on a planet with a red sun.
Superman #167 (February 1964) - “The Team of Luthor and Brainiac!”: Says it in the title.
Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane #51 (August 1964) - “The Three Wives of Superman!”: Last Imaginary Story, and this one’s a doozy. Superman marries and becomes widowed to Lois Lane, Lana Lang, and Lori Lemaris in a quick succession.
Egregious Tax Evader Round 1
Power Girl | Karen Starr
Power Girl | Karen Starr
Why do they deserve to win?
Superman
Power Girl
SUPERMAN DOESN'T PAY HIS TAXES AND I HAVE PROOF!!
In Superman#148 (1939), a man, named Rupert Brand, found not only that Superman never paid taxes, because he gives all his income to charities
He also discovers that Superman owes the US government ONE BILLION DOLLARS or he will send the FBI!
Then, Superman will try multiple ways to gain money :
-Collect white ivory tusks from an elephant's graveyard -Squeeze coal to diamonds -Borrow the world's biggest oyster from Atlantis to make the world's biggest pearl -Consider to sell a baby alien monster matter-eater to a collectionner -Go treasure-hunting in sunken Spanish galleons and pyramids -Dig up radium in an another world -Make a check from the Bank of Krypton, which exploded years ago
All these attempts will fail, the FBI will now come for Superman
BUT PLOT-TWIST!!!
SUPERMAN DOESN'T PAY HIS TAXES BECAUSE HE DOESN'T HAVE TAXES TO PAY.
Superman performing cpr on humans: *gently does it with one hand like u do on babies*
Superman performing CPR on Wonder Woman: *punch punch punch*
Justice League: A League of One
Wonder Woman performing CPR on humans: *Use a defibrillator*
Wonder Woman performing CPR on Superman: Lighting of Zeus goes brr
Justice League of America (2015) #9
I read an interesting meta post about Kon's time in Smallville the other day and it got me thinking about how all the non-Steel Supers have three identities: superhero (Super), secret identity (Kent, usually), and Kryptonian (El). But they don't all identify with those identities in the same way.
Clark, in his heart, is human. Yes, obviously he isn't literally human, but he was raised his entire conscious life on Earth, by humans, surrounded by humans. He married a human. His two closest friends are humans. Until puberty, he thought he was human. It's not that Superman is a disguise, exactly, but as Lois and Clark put it so beautifully: "Superman is what I can do. Clark Kent is who I am." And Clark Kent is human.
(Same with Jon, if not moreso. Jon was born on Earth and didn't know he was half alien until he was ten. Jon is also human in his heart.)
Kara, meanwhile, is Kryptonian. Kara lived on Krypton until she was sixteen. It shaped her beliefs and her values. I don't think this necessarily means she's forever alienated, it's just a different experience of life than Clark has. And I think it's telling that she's had so many identities on Earth: Linda Lee, Linda Danvers, Kara Kent, Linda Lang, Kara Danvers, probably some others I'm forgetting about. None of them are as foundationally real to her as "Kara Zor-El," or as "Clark Kent" is to Clark. Supergirl is what she can do, but Kara Zor-El is who she is. And Kara Zor-El is Kryptonian.
But Kon? Kon was created to be Superman. Kon didn't have a name besides "Superboy" or "SB" or "Kid" for years. Even after Clark offered him the Kon-El name (and don't get me wrong, that was an incredibly meaningful moment for Kon), he didn't develop it as a separate identity. For the first ten years Kon existed in canon, he had no secret identity whatsoever. He was an extremely public hero, he loved being a public hero, and he had absolutely no desire to live any other way. When he was given the name "Conner Kent" and the secret identity that came with it, it wasn't something he wanted, and it took literally dying and coming back to life for him to see any value in it at all. He had to pretend to be something he wasn't, but hey, at least he wasn't dead! Even as recently as his current miniseries, Kon has chosen to "find himself" by leaving Earth and going on a mission in space where neither the Kon nor Conner identities are in use or at all relevant.
In other words, at the end of the day, Clark identifies as human and Kara identifies as Kryptonian. But, in a way that's half inspiring for what it says about his heart, and half tragic, like a grown-up child actor who has no idea how to interact with ordinary people, Kon identifies as a superhero.
Something I realized about Superboy Prime
I learned this from watching “The Panda Redd” on youtube in his DC comics discussions but Superboy Prime is the perfect critique of toxic masculinity and toxic comic fans. Like, most of the times when a writer tries to cover toxic masculinity in their works, it backfires because they end up making people like the ones they’re critiquing think the character is super awesome and “it’s totally like me!” but Superboy Prime is so hateable and pathetic.
He has so much power and caused so much destruction but at the end of the day, he fails to be intimidating because he says shit like “I’ll kill you to death!” and “Everything was better on my world!” he doesn’t have grand villain speeches. He sounds like a toddler having a tantrum and is basically DC holding a mirror to toxic fans and those with toxic masculinity and saying “This is you. You’re an overgrown, whiny jerk and you need to cut that shit out.”
Now, why do I bring this up when Panda Redd and Linkara have already covered him? Because I realized something. One of the toxic fans that Superboy Prime represents are the ones that killed Jason Todd and in his big villain turn, he brings him back to life.
See, when Jason was first created, he was a carbon copy of Dick Grayson. Hell, he was even part of an acrobat family called “The Flying Todds” and his parents died the same way. The only difference was that he had red hair. No one minded…until post-crisis where they not only gave Jason his own backstory and personality but used him to discuss darker topics like abuse and homelessness. That’s when the most toxic aspects of the DC comics fanbase came out and started throwing a fit. They would send angry fan letters to DC offices, leave angry phone calls and basically broke down the ones in charge until they finally said “Fine! We’ll kill him off but only if it’s something you really want!”
And despite what many believe, it wasn’t that many people calling the number to kill Jason off. It was mostly just a few people repeatedly calling the same number over and over again. There’s even a story of one guy rigging up his phone to his computer to call the “kill Jason” number again and again.
This adds all the more delicious irony when Superboy Prime, punching reality in a fit of nerd rage, ended up undoing one of the most famous events caused by toxic fans. Not only did the representation of those fans bring Jason back to life but they made him more popular than ever before and a beloved member of the batfamily.
everyday i think abt the differences between how superfam and batfam interact. And how it translates into their relationships with 3ach other
how clark is SO fucking lonely sometimes and how he keeps people at arms length and how most of the time like maybe 5 people know both his identities and . fucking. his BASE is called the fortress of SOLITUDE. Whereas the batcave, while still exclusively, is.. shared! Like Bruce is rude and mean and a lot of people in Canon do know his identity and it's like. So many thoughts
Like.. its about how deeply he wants to be normal and how he's afraid he'll hurt people and how that restraint and fear is baked into his very soul and it's about how much TRUST he has in someone to tell them his secret identity because he's spent his life hiding it and leading a double life that very very few people actually know about. Whereas almost fucking everyone in the batfam knows who batman is and it's like.
It's about how clark's so friendly and open and he uses that to keel people at arms length !!
Like people talk abt bruce being a loner but like. In Canon, he usually does work with people! He has an entire family of people who do vilgante stuff with him and keep in contact with him, for better or worse.
But Superman usually! Works alone! Like yes superfam is a thing but they very rarely interact with each other and unlike batfam who are connected, through love or through malice, superfam is a group of people who are connected but don't really talk to each other all that much and they're all very repressed. They're just better at covering it up.
Bruce did start to work with Dick so very very early on in his career. He was only very recently trying out the whole Batman schtick, and here's a child (-sometimes barely 10 years younger than him in some versions of canon too!) who has similar trauma, and is ready to channel all of that trauma in similar ways (vigilantism).
Meanwhile, Clark, who's been hiding who he is for a very long time, who's only moments where he's had to wonder whether he should reveal himself was with potential romantic partners, the first supers he finds are either (depending on continuity, medium, and how one personally envisions the concept of superfam) Kara his cousin, Matrix an engineered clone of Kara, or Kon his clone/sort of clone/superman replacement. each are already fully formed late teenagers, with a trauma that's so very very different from his.
All that to say that I think Bruce has had the benefit of having "training wheels" in terms fo sidekicks, making the batfam much tighter, whichever dynamics you like to see in them, but Clark never had the benefit of bonding easily or even of being "needed" by his first potential sidekicks.
It makes the superfam all the more complex in a way, and their ties all the looser, because to bridge the gaps, they would have to invest an incredible amount of time in each others.
Also for all the posturing happening in the batfam, they all are strangely prone to emotional vulnerability. Either through shows of violence, emotional outbursts or analysis in hindsight. They yell, fight and talk, even though they are tight lipped.
On the contrary, there is a culture of fronting as "I'm good, It's fine" in the Superfam. I don't know as much about Kara, but Supers will keep their shit so close to the chest you'll never know what's happening for real sometimes. How do you finally bridge gaps if you refuse to show your soft underbelly?
IDK that's my take, I do think it's fascinating seeing these paradoxical differences! And I think that's why it's also so interesting to shove batfam and superfam members into situatiosn together: their apparent and deeper contradictions and the paradoxical exceptations people have, makes it interesting.
The DC Trinity on Morality
Late last night, I was struck with an idea that ran wild.
Basically, my idea was that each member of the DC Trinity represents a different classic method of persuasion in their moral compass.
Superman represents Pathos, as he acts in ways that feel right for the situation, therefore emotionally resonating the most with the audience. This leads to the paradox of Superman always being the highest standard in any setting, but not really having any sort of code or philosophy, leading to Wonder Woman and Batman being more profound paragons overall.
Wonder Woman represents Ethos, as she acts towards specific ideals that form her world view and her credible source of right and wrong. She’s less hung up on specific actions and more about values, chief about them being truth, kindness, honor, compassion, and bravery. As such, she takes actions to fulfill what she views as credible attributes, not specific rules. This has a paradox as well, where she will sometimes be seen as taking the moral high ground whilst compromising success. There is also the unfortunate truth that Wonder Woman is misrepresented as her own antithesis just as often as she is shown to be her true self, even more frequently than either of her peers, so her own credibility as a character is often called into question by those who’ve only known her through Injustice or Flashpoint.
Batman represents Logos, as he acts in specific actions that are logically good without any room for nuance. These commandments typically include “killing is wrong” and “chaos is bad.” It’s a lot more complicated than that, but Batman is the most strict in this manner, never straying from his own code even when it would be beneficial. It informs his logic on fighting crime, even if it is cold and sometimes lacking in credibility.
I won’t go ahead and say this was intentional or that it’s concrete, but it was sort of food for thought.
we’ve seen so many dc trinity stories where it’s bruce and diana who don’t get along at first, how diana takes issue with bruce’s methods and how bruce mistrusts what diana says her heritage is. it usually is extremely overdone and turns either bruce or diana into caricatures of who they are and the values they stand for (for bruce, that he doesn’t believe in mercy and is brutal in his methods, and for diana, who is a directionless bleeding heart with too idealistic of a vision of the world)
but what if it was clark and diana who were hesitant of each other to start? what if clark hates diana a little (and he hates himself even more for this fact), someone with similar powers as he does, who was born with it, but raised in a world that wasn’t easily destructible? that she was raised in the light, in the open, free to explore her powers and let herself be guided by countless mentors while he had to repress it, fearing that he’d hurt the ones he loved most? while he hid because what if people came for him, viewing his loved ones as collateral?
and diana, in turn, sad that clark is so burdened by fear and repression but also furious at clark’s implication that she didn’t understand the consequences of being bestowed of all this power at birth. she, who won the games and left for the outside world destined to never return? to never see her mother, her sisters, her homeland ever again? she, who was destined to see themyscira fall again and again, every time too late, unable to fight and die alongside her beloved people?
One thing people get wrong about the Trinity is that Clark/Superman isn't the optimist.
He talks about having hope and believing in people. But really he is a pessimist who tries to be optimistic. who is always struggling with a fear people can't change and can't be saved.
Bruce/Batman is the optimist. He is always sure people can change, be better, are better, that things will be better in the morning.
It's only the fact Clark loves humans, earth and everything about the average life that he keeps that small seed of hope.
Going on to Diana, Diana isn't a pessimist or an optimist. People say she is the beacon of Truth in the Justice League. But Diana isn't just driven by a need to bring truth to light. Honestly Diana is a bit of a fatalist.
She is basically immortal, has seen the worst and the best of humanity and fully believes everyone should have a chance to live the best life possible because it will be over before they know it. She knows that life is imperfect and fleeting and everyone she loves will one day die, but she wants to fight so they can have as many seconds of love and happiness they can.
It's why they work so well as a trio.
Clark wants to believe in humanity like Bruce does, Bruce wants to love every second of life like Diana does and Diana wants to fight for that reason to have hope everyday like Clark does.
