#thatsastepladder

[austrononymous]

Another order of straight white male Christian bs. Can this old man js gtfo of the internet atp

Other posts abt this ladder bastard:

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[bitimdrake]

Thoughts on Jack Drake's death in Identity Crisis? I personally dislike it because it's a fridging (and somehow only the third worst death in that book behind "why did she have a FLAMETHROWER tho" and "that's not how Firestorm works you're confusing him with Human Bomb"), and it took away what made Tim stand out in making him an orphan like the other Robins. I'm not a Batfam expert so I haven't read a ton of the surrounding stories but it feels like there was more they could have done with Jack.

I would not personally call it fridging because I think we've gotten waaaay too liberal with that term, particularly when removed from the original context of misogyny (*unless perhaps we are applying it to other bigotry, which I do think is worthwhile), and because "side character dies to push forward a main character's story" is...not a bad thing. That's a perfectly valid story telling trope that can be used well or poorly.

THAT SAID. I do think there was more to do with Jack that could have been really interesting!

He'd just found out Tim was Robin, and imo there was sooo much that could have be mined from that. It could have been a really interesting and major shakeup in Tim's story, without entirely changing the fundamentals of his character. I'm so interested in the theoretical arc of Tim and his long time hot-and-cold distant dad trying to figure this relationship out now that Jack finally, for the first time, is both (a) interested in actively pursuing a relationship with his son (he's been on and off since shortly after Tim became Robin) and (b) actually able to get to know his son (which has been impossible from Tim's side since he became Robin and starting keeping so much of his life secret). Jack decided to be supportive, but their relationship is messy! Their history is complicated! And he still has understandably mixed feelings about his son fighting crime! How do they figure this out??

(Unrelated, I still think about this one fic where Jack comes back to life circa Brucequest and realizes his archeological skills can help. The future story it implied. The gentle question of can Tim and Jack repair their relationship. It compels me.)

I'm of two minds about Jack dying at all. On the hand, I do agree it took away a lot that made Tim unique as a Robin and lumped him more in with the others. On the other hand, there has been some nice stuff as a result of him being adopted into Bruce's family. And, e.g., I don't think stuff like his relationship with Damian would be remotely the same if Tim still had his own father.

Also like. the theoretical fandom shift from this would be fascinating. The best known batfam characters who are not Wayne family are largely women at this point, which means fandom is extra inclined to ignore them. But if one of the core bat boys was not part of the literal family, would that actually shift the whole fandom focus away from Force This Into A Nuclear Family Mold? Would we see an entire thematic shift? Or would people just be trying to contrive reasons why Tim's very much living father didn't count....

[bitimdrake]

So what’s with the fanon antagonism from Bruce toward Hal Jordan? It’s not something I see in canon outside of a little bit in GL Rebirth which is kind of justified because Hal, y’know, turned into a megalomaniac. But even in fanon depictions where the timeline is in some sort of pseudo-Bronze Age stasis where the League is the Big Seven plus maybe Ollie and they’re operating from the satellite and also the Batfamily exists somehow, I’ve seen a lot of Bruce hating Hal for no good reason.

Also, the depiction of Billy Batson in fandom, namely the tendency to have him act like a young child as Captain Marvel and get adopted by Bruce, leads me to believe that nobody’s ever read a Shazam comic. Post-crisis Billy is in high school - he’s canonically the same age as Stargirl. In both post-Crisis and New 52, he has his own adoptive families, and even when he didn’t, he worked at WHIZ Radio to rent an apartment on his own. Meanwhile, fanon Billy is homeless until Bruce adopts him.

I’ve also noticed a weird tendency in fandom to… not know who was in the League at any given time, or even attempt to set things in a particular period? Like, the JLA is almost always the Big 7 + maybe Ollie, Dinah, and Zatanna if you’re lucky. Even in the Satellite era, J’onn and Bruce both took long leaves of absence, and there were other people around. And that’s not even taking into account the Detroit League, the JLA/JLE split, the Morrison League, the Obsidian Age team, etc.

(lost this one in my drafts oops. sorry.)

Yeah god so. Two of these things I think are pretty reasonable results of people focusing in on their preferred characters and not knowing much about the rest of the universe.

And that's not hard! Even if you read comics--hell, even if you read a lot of comics--you can remain completely ignorant about one area of the universe. It's a big universe. (Hi! I know almost nothing about Green Lanterns except when they show up in massive crossovers or interact with my Titans blorbos.)

Personally, I'm annoyed when people are very wrong about the actual subject of the fic (e.g. if they're writing a fic about the JLA but getting everything wrong). And I'm really annoyed when they unfairly demonize someone.

But if the fic is about, say, the batfam, and the writer is spot on about them, but not so accurate when the JLA makes a brief appearance? I get it. It's a big universe.

Certain things about the JLA are better known than others, and people who don't actually know specifics about the JLA just kinda...assume all those things are Always True. Thus the perpetual Bronze Age, and perpetual Bruce vs Hal.

For those wondering what is true then: the JLA has a LOT of rotation. The team is constantly swapping out. They've had many different bases. I can't tell you who's on the JLA and where unless you first tell me when.

So the more we comics readers know, the more little annoyances you will get from fic inaccuracies. (For me, it's when people refer to Barry as the Flash in fics set mid post-Crisis and I'm like Barry Allen Has Been Dead For Years.) But I'm honestly very forgiving of those!

The Bruce adopts Billy Batson thing is hot garbage though. Like, c'mon guys. I don't expect you to know everything! It's okay if you don't know much about the Marvel family while writing batfam fics! But for god's sake stop making everything about Batman and the batfam. Other characters can exist without being spagettified by their gravity. Please let them be. And please stop trying to give Bruce new kids; he already doesn't deserve the ones he has.

[askaceattorney]

Dear thatsastepladder,

Yes, sir!

I’m resolving to do my best at whatever I do this year, no matter how bad my luck gets!  Even luck as terrible as mine can’t stop me from trying hard!

Show me what you’ve got, new year!

-Maggey Byrde