swim through the fires to stay in this world

Okay, so this post is going around my dashboard:



but let's be real, that list is very abridged because it's missing:

Jane Foster  ♥ SCIENCE: comes with space boyfriend

Pepper Potts 1: professionally better than you

Pepper Potts 2: still professionally better than you

Pepper Potts 3: the rise of Rescue

Agent Peggy Carter & The Howling Commandos

AVENGERS ASSEMBLE 21 WAS AMAZING AND EVERYTHING I DREAM OF COMICS BEING. IT'S JESS, NATASHA, AND ANYA TEAMING UP AND KICKING ASS AND IT'S ONE OF THOSE ISSUES WHERE YOU COUNT INTERACTIONS THAT DON'T PASS THE BECHDEL TEST, NOT THE ONES WHO DO, BECAUSE NOT ONLY IS IT A SUPERHEROINE TEAM-UP ISSUE, IT IS AN ISSUE WITH DRIVEN, EVIL LADY SCIENTISTS AND EVIL DIMENSION-JUMPING LADY MERCENARIES.

I finally finished season/series one of Luther.

When they said Catwoman/Batman dynamic, baby, they weren't kidding.

So, I just read Stephanie's run as Robin, War Games, and the couple of issues that have her coming back and I'm about ready to crawl into a fetal position and sob.

latenightcuppa asked me one tiny question that lead to more dc comics-verse not!fic, an outpouring of Jason Todd feelings, my feelings about killing fictional people (FUCKING DO IT) and my love for Natasha and Faith.

Several people asked for further context for bullet point 3, so here is some Stephanie Brown/Damian Wayne not!fic:

( Read more... )


Also, on the subject of Stephanie Brown, I get so fucking irritated with finding these beautiful, beautiful Dick/Jason/Tim/Damian fanarts. Like, I realize that Stephanie is not a pretty boy with dark hair, and I realize that people are tuning into 'the sons of Bruce Wayne' vibe, but seriously. STEPH WAS A ROBIN, OKAY?

First of all a rec:

No Dawn, No Day, Stephanie Brown/Damian Wayne

(Read the pdf of the main story first, then if you desire, look at the side stories.)

(There are two endings, btw, and both are awesome for different reasons, but one involves character death.)

I was so thrilled to stumble upon this fic. It’s long, it’s character driven, it’s GLORIOUS.

It takes all the threads of Stephanie Brown’s stories – basically, all the ways that DC screwed her over (the not-really-a-Robin thing, Bruce-Wayne’s-Batman’s lack of trust in her, the teen pregnancy) and resolves them in natural ways that feel organic to the story. It hit me in the middle of the story that, without feeling forced or preachy, the author was gracefully acerbating and then healing all of this trauma that Stephanie carries with her.

She also deals with the toxic Batman legacy vis-a-vis Damian Wayne and Jason Todd as well. I’m not 100% sold on her Jason Todd characterization, but especially towards the end, there are some fantastic character beats for him.(Milkshakes! Stephanie’s ringtone is “Walking on Sunshine”! He answers the phone in the middle of a gunfight!)

Other things that I loved about this story:

• Damian being head-over-heels in love and terrible at expressing it!


• An adorable kitten!


• An epic Pretty Woman-esque moment, followed by a truly epic verbal bitchslapping!


• Damian being the most amusing brat ever!


• Great upgrade of Harley Quinn!

Now, it must be said, I get the majority of my opinions about the Batfamily second hand (but I trust y’alls taste, so).

That is one of the MANY reasons why I think it’s a TERRIBLE idea for DC to try and reboot Batman with Batman vs. Superman.

Besides being a not-great idea for a movie in the first place, what DC really needs to do is create a Batman (and a movie-verse) that can believably have a Justice League. Which is why a trilogy of movies about the Batfamily could be so brilliant.

First, a Batman who is, by definition, interacting with another superheroes logically leads to a world that could support a Justice League. Secondly, a Batman who has a Batfamily (especially a Batfamily dealing with the weight and hypocrisies of his legacy) is so much more interesting than some square-jawed dude brooding. Third OH MY GOD HAVE YOU NOT PAID ATTENTION TO THE DRAMATIC POTENTIAL DRIPPING OFF THESE CHARACTERS? Dick Grayson, who both broke broke away from and struggles to be his father-figure! Jason Todd, who Came Back Wrong and with a morality that 85% of theater-goers are going very as 100% valid vigilante justice! The unsinkable Stephanie Brown, who is a hero because she refuses to be anything less!

(Sidenote, think about how visually perfect Stephanie Brown would be in Gotham’s night – her blonde hair as this light in the shadows, the visual representation of her innate optimism and the triumph of the human spirit. Awww, and now I’m imagining a conversation in a dark room between Stephanie and Jason, where she’s sitting in the stripped light that’s coming in from the broken blinds and he’s leaning against the wall, the only thing visible the glint of his eyes, the glow of his cigarette, and that shock of white hair.)

(Sorry, Timothy Drake and Cassandra Cain, I do not have opinions about you.)

Basically, DC. MAKE ME A BATFAMILY MOVIE.

In other news, all the speculated casting for Batman I’ve heard has been terrible. So, so terrible. I know! It’s time for a round of Batman-verse fan-casting. And…. go.

Does anyone have recommendations for books about bad girls? Girls who are not nice? Who prioritize their survival over other people?

Because I was reading the opening of Keturah and Lord Death and when I got to the part (about four pages in, so not a spoiler) where Death tells the heroine that he’ll spare her if she names someone she’s prefer to die in her place and she’s like, ‘oh, no, I couldn’t possibly!’ and I’m like, ‘BOOM, DONE WITH YOU, POLLYANNA.’ It could have been anyone! It could have been someone she hated! Someone she barely new! Sweet jesus, I can think of five people who I’d be willing to trade for my life WITHIN THIRTY SECONDS.

So, a couple of things showed up at the same time in my fannish life that I want to talk about. First, I learned about Ginnifer Goodwin's comment that Swan Queen was never going to happen because Once Upon A Time is a "family show", I was listening to femmeslash for fans show on Subtext 101,

and then I read this article, Why Embracing Slash Is Good For Everybody.

Let me bottom line it.

SUBTEXT IS NOT FUCKING REPRESENTATION.

ABC is not going to write Swan Queen (or ANY homosexual romance in their show about true love and blood family) because they are not going to risk offending viewers.

RDJ's Sherlock Holmes was never going to make out with John Watson because the studio isn't going to risk offending viewers.

Trust me, studios are already "embracing slash" in their 100% mercenary way, which is by showing deep, complex, meaningful and nuanced relationships between TWO WHITE DUDES without ever having to commit to actually writing homosexual characters.

That's what all those buddy cop shows and bromance movies are all about.

And the result of this, the part that really HITS ME WHERE I LIVE, is that "embracing slash" MEANS THROWING THE FUCKING FEMALE CHARACTERS THAT I LOVE UNDER THE BUS.

Do you know what it looks like when a show feeds the slashers? It looks like fucking Supernatural, where every goddamn awesome good/neutral/evil lady winds up dead.

The reason that there is not a gay Avenger is because MARVEL STUDIOS DIDN'T HAVE THE BALLS TO WRITE ANY OF THE AVENGERS AS GAY.

DO YOU KNOW WHY THERE ISN'T A BLACK WIDOW MOVIE ALREADY IN PRE-PRODUCTION? BECAUSE HOLLYWOOD DOESN'T THINK A WOMAN CAN HEADLINE A MOVIE.

And none of that is fucking okay.

The mainstream media is throwing scraps of representation at the audience and some people are pretending that it's enough. It's fucking not, and honestly, to me personally, it feels like a slap in the face.

Stop pretending to be inclusive of homosexuality and fucking be inclusive of homosexuality.

Realize that audiences can handle and fucking love movies with female/poc/homosexual (or all of the above) leads and film them.