What I like about Batgirl 2024: everything to do with Cassandra Cain is fantastic and I love the side cast she's been given, Tenji and Jaya are fun characters and I love them dearly.
What I dislike: The Shiva stuff could be written better and could be less heavy handed, I think we should explore more of what David Cain has been up to, I really miss that bastard.
Overall I've been enjoying the series so far.
My favorite issues have been #5 and #11, while my least favorite issue has to be #14.
I think this is one of DC's better comics out rn and I'm gonna continue to be positive about it and if people have an issue with that, oh well, lol.
I understand the criticisms levied against it but like... it's not as bad as I've seen some people claim it to be, lmfao.
Anyways, I'm liking the start to the current arc and I can't wait to see what's next!
Skimming through “Death in the family” and like- Shiva was so lying one the truther syrum????
Obviously I have the modern foresight of her being Cass’ mother (aswell as some other boy?) but it’s still so obvious that she’s telling a lie- even before Cass was a canon character.
The scene is:
Bruce asks- “Have you ever had a baby?”- and Sandra looks shocked, and kinda sad? It’s not an expression you make when you find a question ridiculous and funny, she looks genuinely surprised as if she was upset and worried. She then laughed and joked- “Oh yes, I’ve had a whole litter of babies”- which to me sounds awfully like she’s tryna cover something up, thats deflection and distraction.
Bruce then gives her some truth serum and repeats the question, her face shows that same shock as she mumbles (ELIPSIS GUYS!) “…no…” She doesn’t spit out the truth immediately, she resists the serum before seemingly saying the truth.
Guys… To me that reads so much like she succeeds in resisting the truth serum and lies about her answer.
Obviously this could all be chalked up to the bad writing that’s evident in the whole comic and mixed communication between artists and writers- but to me it reads so obviously that she’s lying.
Again, we know now that she was lying, but that wasn’t canon at the time cause Cass didn’t exist yet.
Long story short- I’m taking this as proof that Shiva is Jason’s bio mom and that Sheila just lied and said she was so that she could use him for her own gain.
about a month ago, i bought physical copies of avengers spotlight (1989) for the us agent arc where he goes up against a serial killer targeting people crossing the us/mexico border. it is a short character study of john walker that turns a lot of what people know about him on its head.
well, marvel unlimited just added it to the app and I highly recommend checking it out if you’re a fan of john walker and want to read some of his older story lines
I’m basically writing my thoughts as I think them, so if this is messy, tough shit. I’m talking about age and years here, but it depends on the source, so keep that in mind. I’m thinking about Harley’s reaction to Joker killing Jason, and if anything I say is canonically inaccurate, please let me know.
Let’s begin.
To my knowledge, we never even see Harley acknowledge Jason’s death. Harley was first created in 1992, with her first comic appearance in 1993. Jason was originally killed in 1988, so she wasn’t around at that point. I do wonder, though—when did she find out, and how did she react? (I know in some versions she was present, but nah, I pick and choose my canon like a goddamn pick-and-mix, and originally, she wasn’t there.)
Now, Joker and Harley’s age gap changes from story to story, but it’s usually somewhere between 10 to 20 years, with Harley being the younger one. Again, I pick my canon however the fuck I see fit, but originally, it was about 15 to 20 years, so we’re gonna stick with that. That puts Harley in her early to mid-20s and Joker in his late 30s to early 40s.
With this in mind, I don’t think Harley would have been around when Jason died. Joker was likely in his late 20s or early 30s when he started his career. Dick was Robin for about 6 to 10 years—let’s say 8—and Jason was Robin for around 2 to 3 years—let’s say 2. That means Jason’s death possibly happened just before Joker and Harley got together. Maybe at that point, Harley was already obsessed with him but hadn’t actually joined him yet.
So, in my cherry-picking mind, Harley and Jason never crossed paths before his resurrection, which brings me back to my two main questions:
1. How did she react when she found out?
2. When did she find out?
I imagine they met before Joker was locked up for killing Jason—by that point, Harley had already quit being a psychiatrist to pursue him. Maybe she even knew about it beforehand and still fell for him, or more accurately, was groomed by him (which I really hope I don’t have to argue).
Either way, I see two possibilities:
• If she knew before meeting Jason: She wouldn’t really think about it until she was confronted by a very much alive Jason. What’s wild to me is that Jason is actually closer to Harley’s age than Joker’s. Deep down, Harley likes Batman and Robin to a degree—she acts like she wants them dead and would kill them if Joker asked, but she enjoys the game and knows they’re good people. If she ever wanted to leave Joker (not that she would ask for help), she probably knows Batman and Robin would be the ones to help her, if she wasn’t a wanted criminal. She wouldn’t fully realize those feelings until after she left Joker and started working with the Bat-Family (which, by the way, I have mixed feelings about—my opinion changes day to day).
Her and Jason would probably have largely positive interactions once he let his guard down, but that would take a long time. I think they’d bond over wanting Joker dead, but they wouldn’t be allowed to work together because they’d just feed off each other’s violent tendencies. They’d probably spiral into a murder spree if left alone too long.
• If she didn’t know Joker had killed Jason until later: The reaction would be similar. She already had some level of respect for Batman and Robin, but when she found out, she was probably already on the verge of leaving Joker. Maybe that was the final straw—he murdered a 15- or 16-year-old kid. Sure, she knew kids probably died during their crime sprees, but Joker had never directly killed one before (to her knowledge). Maybe that was the moment everything clicked for her—years of manipulation and most likely dissociation beginning to crumble.
Harley is chaos personified. She lives for drama, good or bad, but that doesn’t mean she wants to kill kids. Joker did. He wasn’t just chaos—he was evil disguised as chaos. And maybe that’s when she finally left, going off on her own until she eventually merged with the Bat-Family.
Obviously, that wasn’t the only reason she left Joker, but it could have been a contributing factor. I know Harley isn’t a good person, but I don’t think she’s completely evil either.
Thoughts on X-Men 97 S01E02 – Mutant Liberation Begins
TL;DR: X-Men 97’s butchering of the Trial of Magneto is more than just a bad adaptation. It’s an offensive stripping of a core part of the original story and of Magneto’s character.
The Trail of Magneto story arc in the Uncanny X-Men comics is an iconic turn for the character and the team; it is a transformation of an enemy turned friend. But that is not all the story represents. Delving deeper into its layers, one can pull out a lot of messages. The biggest one I relate to is the effects of compound systemic oppression when one has multiple identities marking them as a minority. But that’s missing in X-Men 97’s adaptation… even worse, it actively counters this point.
Before we get into the cartoon’s adaptation, let’s take a look at the comics, first.
The story begins in Uncanny X-Men #199, where Magneto and Kitty Pryde both attend a special reception at the National Holocaust Memorial in Washington, DC. It is here that Kitty is able to reconnect with folks who knew her family, who were victims in the Auschwitz concentration camp, and Magneto reconnects with people he knew there as well. They praise him for helping them survive.
But Freedom Force breaks into the reception and tries to arrest Magneto in the name of the US government. Magneto initially resists: “My land—all the countries of the world—turned their backs on me and mine when we were condemned to Hitler's death camps. Therefore, in return, I have sworn to deny them!” However, when he sees how afraid everyone around him is, he accepts their arrest and agrees to stand trial.
The story continues in Uncanny X-Men #200. Magneto’s trial by the international court of justice begins with England’s Attorney-General claiming there is no such thing as mutant oppression, which we the readers know, is a blatant lie. Despite this, Magneto remains calm, and when it’s his turn to speak, he says the following:
“My dream, from the start, has been the protection and preservation of my own kind, mutants. To spare them the fate my family suffered in Auschwitz and do not tell me such a thing cannot happen again, because that is a lie! You humans slaughter each other because of the colour of your skin, or your faith or your politics—or for no reason at all—too many of you hate as easily as you draw breath, what's to prevent you adding us to that list?!”
But the trial attracts the attention of the Fenris twins; the Nazi offspring of Baron Von Strucker. They are there to kill Magneto, Xavier, and Gabrielle Haller (AKA David Haller’s mother), because she is Jewish and was an enemy of their father. Magneto risks his life to save everyone in the trial from them, but Xavier’s heart gives out and he nearly dies in Magneto’s arms, until he’s whisked away by his alien girlfriend who says she can save him. Xavier makes Magneto vow to stand with the X-Men and teach the New Mutants in his absence.
So, let’s keep in mind how intertwined Magneto’s Jewish and mutant identities are in this story; how they interact and shape his views and actions together. Because X-Men 97 is about to take all that away.
In X-Men 97 S01E02, when Val Cooper and the UN show up to arrest Magneto, he surrenders peacefully to try and gain the X-Men’s trust. And Magneto’s speech is very different from that of the comics:
“As a boy, my people's homes were burned to ash, because we dared to call God by another name. Then, my people hunted me with those who had once hunted them. I was a freak, born a mutant. An abomination to their misnamed gods. In history's sad song, there is a refrain. Believe differently, love differently, be of different sex or skin, and be punished. We sing this song to one another. The oppressed become oppressors.”
And it is not the Fenris twins who show up, but just generic Friends of Humanity baddies, led by X-Cutioner.
This adaptation may contain the surface-level story beats of the original, but it misses the heart of the matter; it misses the point!
Magneto’s cartoon speech separates him from his Jewish community. That is something the Magneto I know would never do. In the comics, his part about how humans are always killing each other speaks much more volumes, because he is speaking about his experience not just as a mutant, but as a Jewish person who has survived genocide. Magneto, or anyone with more than identity, does not have to choose between them. This show now says otherwise.
What I hate most of all about his cartoon speech though, is the line, “the oppressed become oppressors.” This is straight up cloaked white supremacist rhetoric; the fear that if racial/ethnic minorities are given equal rights, we will take over and start oppressing white settlers. And no, I’m not saying minorities are exempt from carrying prejudices against others, obviously. What I’m saying is, oppression is a systemic problem that largely stems from colonialism, and to paint oppressed people as a danger that needs to be oppressed or will oppress you, is a terrible idea used by colonizers to justify the system of colonialism. It is not based on fact.
The message of Magneto’s speech in the comics is that he has personally suffered from the hands of oppression before, and does not want others to suffer more. The message of magneto’s speech in the cartoon is that all people are bad, end of story. There is no nuance, there is no larger context at play, and there is no real grit to the words said! They have de-clawed Magneto’s character, and they have ripped away what he stands for… who he stands for.
