#talking comics

[jeremywhitley]

Donate to Support Bob Reyer: A Hero in Need, organized by Aaron Amos

Hello and thanks so much for checking out our GoFundMe; we are the Talking Comic Books cr… Aaron Amos needs your support for Support Bob Rey

My good friend and one of the amazing elders of the diverse and accepting comics community, Bob Reyer of Talking Comics really needs some help. It would be great to see comics go to bat for him the way he has for us

[miragekarma]

the struggle

[chia-sprout]

I was given the exciting opportunity to draw the cover art for a D&D podcast: Adventure! by Talking Comics

They were super nice to work with, and I had a lot of fun bringing their characters to life! Everyone should go check them out!

(commission info)

[miragekarma]

decided to put nat’s narration boxes and some of the dialogues from marjorie liu’s black widow together, because it’s truly a masterpiece.

You always knew what you had to do. No one ever told you. You had the resolve, even then. Nor were you afraid of the dark. Of what waited for you there. But sometimes... Sometimes... I wish you had been.

There are some things a suit like you will never understand. Like trust. Trust in battle. Trust when the chips are down. The kind of trust that lets you put your life in another person’s hands. A person like Natasha.

You must always have a safe place to go. That is the first thing you learn. Though you should know that by instinct, before anyone has to teach you. It isn’t just spies that need to run. Good times don’t last forever.

The Black Widow is a legend. Some folks think you kill a legend, you’ll become one, too. But that’s not how it works. Legends aren’t made so cheap. And legends always die hard.

There are wolves in the night. The soldiers would say that, when I was a girl. My uncles and brothers, in war. My friends. Raising me on the battlefield because there was nowhere else to go. There are wolves, they would say. And there are stories about wolves and girls. Girls in red. All alone in the woods. About to get eaten up. Wolves and girls. Both have sharp teeth.

I outlived all the men who raised me. I stayed young while they faded, and died from bullets and disease, or old age. You forget so much. You forget them. Friends. Family. You put aside what can’t be changed. Like death. Until something small and unexpected catches you.

We all burn. We burn in fire. We burn in blood. We burn in dreams. And it never ends. Dreams never end. You would not want them to. Not if it means forgetting. You can never forget. You, who are all that is left. So, remember: We are born in fire. Again, and again. You would live it all, again. No matter how much it hurts. When it hurts, you know you are alive. And you know that as long as you live, they live. And when you die, they die. You are the inheritor of memories.

Tell yourself that there are things you wil never forget. Tell yourself that you will always remember what is important. Tell yourself that everthing you love will stay with you, forever. Even though it won’t. Not even a little. Nothing lasts. In the end, all we have is ourselves. But unless you are strong... And careful... That will not be enough.

I’m the Black Widow. I could eat you for lunch.

I discovered the writer, Leo Tolstoy, in a muddy ditch that held more blood than rain. One of the soldiers loved his words -- And then, so did I. ”All, everything that I understand,” he wrote, “I understand only because I love.” That was so many years ago. But words on a page didn’t teach me that lesson. I learned it on my own. I learned it in trenches with bullets flying overhead; pressed back to back with grizzled starving men who would have laid down their lives for mine. I learned it from a ribbon tied around my ring finger. I learned it from a kick inside my belly. I learned it from death, and hardship, and brief acts of inexplicable kindness. I learned love from sacrifice. I learned love from living. And no matter where I’ve gone, or what I’ve done -- All the dark things I do not regret, but will never speak of -- that is the one part of me that I have always kept safe. Imus was such a fool. Tolstoy will live forever. Some people do. But that’s not enough. It’s not the length of a life that matters... Just the depth of it. The chances we take. The paths we choose. How we go on after our hearts break. Hearts always break. And so we bend with our hearts. And we sway. But in the end... What matters is that we loved... And lived.

[miragekarma]

what do you like about stephanie brown

you are literally asking me to write an essay because i can never shut up about her

so, steph is one of my favorite characters of all time which you will see if you check my tags lol. there’s not a single appearance of her i haven’t already read -good for me- so i like to think i know pretty much everything about her. if i tried to say every little thing i like about her this would be too long so i’m gonna try to summarize under the cut.

first of all steph is the daughter of a villain, she grew up in really bad conditions, -even had riddler stay at her house at some point- she pretty much had the worst possible father. (“he destroyed my life... destroyed it!”) what first got me really into her was how her first motivation in becoming the spoiler was because she wanted to stop her father, so that he doesn’t hurt anyone else like he’d hurt steph and her mother. batman was busy with other bigger threats so she wanted to get his attention to get him to help stop her father. and she came up with a brilliant idea (which is very underrated, something people keep forgetting about her is that she’s actually very intelligent) and just never gave up on it. robin tried to stop her, batman tried to stop her, her mother tried to stop her but she simply said no, and did what she wanted. (“gotham city needs heroes. [...] and it doesn’t matter that robin doesn’t want me doing the spoiler thing. it doesn’t matter that batman told me to stay off his streets. to hell with their rules.”) and helped people who were unintentionally overseen by batman. (“maybe gotham needs a spoiler. you and batman handle all the crime in the city. the suburbs don’t have anybody.”) (“i did it for us, mom. the cops weren’t going to protect us from dad. the system caught him and let him go how many times? i thought someone like the spoiler could keep him locked up.”) she was also never afraid to put batman in his place. (“so excuse me if i don’t jump when you bark, batman.”)

another thing i absolutely adore about her is that she became her own hero. batman didn’t save her, robin didn’t save her, she saved herself. she stood up for the people she loved and she stood up for herself. the thing is, as a kid, she used to dream she’d see batman someday. that he would come and save her from that terrible life no child deserves.

but you know what happened? she became the hero she needed her whole life. and started it by stopping her father who was the one to ruin her childhood and was the reason why she needed a hero in the first place. i just think that’s really powerful.

another thing i love is that she is the epitome of hope. (“everything doesn’t have to be about fear. there’s room in our line of work for hope, too.”) that kind of life, having a villain as her father, could’ve turned her into a bad person too. but she never lost hope and she became this strong, hopeful woman who is able to look back and say i did it. i came all the way by myself, and never lost hope for a better future. (“this is about me having hope... about me saving the one person who’s ever given a real crap about me. this is about keeping promises, about being a hero.”)

she’s also very sensitive about kids going through what she had been through, like damian. when she met him he was cold, full of rage. she managed to see behind that mask and knew he was just a child who couldn’t be a child. just like herself. she saw he was a child who didn’t know how to have fun, and did everything in her power to fix that. she believed in second chances, after all. that was all she had. (“...so why stay? why open yourself up to all the bad you’ve tried to leave behind? ‘the only variable you can control is yourself.’ you can forget who you are, or you can be who you want to be. that’s why you stay. you stay for a second chance.”)

she’s a skilled fighter, she’s quick witted, she probably has more medical knowledge than the rest of the batfamily excluding bruce, she knows how to turn things into her advantage, she’s good at reading people and she’s very compassionate. also she’s bad with authority and is never hesitant call them out when needed. she’s so determined that it’s almost impossible to stop her if she puts something on her mind. (“even after i fired her — her determination remained unabated.”) she’s fun to be around, she’s sarcastic and daring and talkative. (“what do i bring? besides my sunny disposition. and donuts.”) she gets angry very quickly and she gets dangerous when she is. she’s scared of failure and doesn’t handle it very well. she’s too quick to react especially if someone’s life is in danger which sometimes causes her problems. she’s very human after all.

also i can’t not mention this, in young justice (2019-) there was an alternate reality version of her who was batwoman. it was a world where almost every hero we know in the main universe was a villain. it was a world ruled by hate and do you know who was the one remaining hero there? stephanie brown. even in a world full of bad people (including the main world’s justice league, young justice etc) she was still good. she was still a hero. she is probably so lonely, having to save people everyday all by herself, doing good when she’s surrounded by evil only. but she just keeps going, she never gives up or loses her determination and hope. i really think that says so much about who she is. she doesn’t do any of that because that’s what she’s told to do, she’s doing it because she’s good, she’s so good, and she loves helping people as much as she can.

as you can see i can keep talking about her because she just means a lot to me, feel free to message me about her anytime. i will also post a detailed reading guide of her very soon :)

[miragekarma]

Don't get me started on Stephanie Brown's time as Robin

my favorite character to hold the robin mantle is steph, but when people ask me who my favorite robin is i usually say tim. that’s mostly because she didn’t really have much time to prove herself as a good robin. i geniunely think she would’ve been the best if given time. she had qualities in common with dick, jason and tim and had her own style of dealing with things. yes she was bad with authority, but this man raised dick and jason and has had tim as his robin for ages so i don’t get how that’s a problem. i think how her time as robin ended deeply rooted in misogyny, obviously. it was more of a way to get tim back so i don’t think bruce thought too much into it. but it also caused steph’s death at the end so he definitely should’ve thought more about it.

i think steph has all the qualities a robin should have and more, but again, it was never meant to be a long time thing. though it did give us some good moments.

no matter what, stephanie should always be recognized as a part of the robin legacy. she was trained by batman and she carried the mantle. i’m glad dc finally decided to care about her time as robin. no matter what name she takes, spoiler, robin, batgirl, nightwing, batwoman; she’s always great :)

[miragekarma]

dont get me started on team batgirl

LISTEN. they’re my favorite characters in the entire dc universe and i’m being %100 honest when i say they get the worst treatment out of all of their characters. first of all barbara gordon has left a legacy of batgirl, she trained two batgirls after her, she grew up so much as a person and became her best self as oracle. she was a grown mature woman who was needed in the superhero community and was respected by so many. and dc does what? erases all that development for b*rnside babs who is inexperienced and immature. (not to mention how ableist it was if i start talking about that this will take ages) i cannot even begin to explain how much i hate this. even typing it made my blood boil.

for cass, she spent a whole solo run becoming a trusted ally for batman. the bat symbol means so much to her and she mentioned how her loyalty is with the symbol, not the man. and dc does what? of course takes that away. she was literally adopted by bruce, accepted as a part of the family, was respected and loved. taking her symbol away and giving her the name orphan sounds like joke.

for steph, don’t even get me started i will not shut up. she worked so hard to get where she was before the reboot. she had so much development. all her life she was rejected and was never anyone’s priority including herself. in her batgirl solo she let that go and matured so much it was literally rejuvenating to read that growth. batman started trusting her a lot to the point where he gave her the batgirl mantle. and dc took that away too. made her an amateur, didn’t involve her in the story of the batfamily like she was before the reboot. there’s so much more i can say but anyways.

looking at the bright side, before the reboot the three of them had great a relationship and i loved reading about all that so so much. they just meant so much to each other and grew up together and learned together it was so beautiful and i really miss it. they’ll always be my favorite dc characters and i DEMAND good writing for them right now