Batman VS Everyone

I've been gaming and thinking about my boy...

Strange: Greetings, Spider-Man. It is good to see you again. How can I assist you?

Peter, holds up Laura like a cat: Can I keep her?

Strange: Wha- excuse me?

Peter: She fell out of a hole in time and space, and I wanna know if I can keep her without almost breaking reality... again.

Laura: Say yes or I'll strangle you with your cape.

he doesn't have to choose

they're my motivation currently

The chilling part about "Odysseus" is that the operatic Vocals in the background are Chanting "Old King, Save/Spare Us" and that's important because their old King Would have done that.

Except Odysseus isn't their old King anymore.

Their Old King was who Odysseus was at the beginning of Epic. The one who had Polites at his side, his men at his back, Eurylochus as a loyal friend and Brother, and Athena as his Best Friend Mentor. He was a king who knew when to strike but was, like Polites, greeting the world with open arms. And the people of Ithica remember their old King, see their old King in his son, Telemachus, and mourn his loss from their kingdom to his ventures in the war with Troy.

But now, he's back, and he's killing all the people who were openly chanting about killing his son and Raping his wife, both things that he would be justified for killing them for. And all these Suitors can think of is, he is still their Old King, so once he has killed our leader rallying us to action, he will be amicable to Open Arms talks to deescalate the situation.

Except, he's not the old King. The old King died with Polities. He was still alive as a hollow version of himself, but his heart of "Open Arms" died with Polities. But there were still remnants of him, Asking Aeolus for wind to get home, pleading with Poseidon for Mercy, and pleading to Circe for Aid to evade Poseidon. But it was the Underworld that put the nail in the coffin for their old King. Seeing all his dead men in the river Styx, finding out his Mom had passed while he was at war, and hearing the prophecy from Tyresias that "He" will not be the one to make it home to Ithica, to his Wife and Son, but that a Haunting man with a trail of bodies will stand before his wife.

And that's when their Old King Dies, and their New King is being forged in his Remnants. When he declares he will become the monster, adopt the very mindset of his Enemy Poseidon, and use Ruthlessness to get home.

But there's still a trace bit of their old King left, the parts that love his family, and the part that trust his men. And then the part that trusts his men kept getting attacked and chipped away at by his sole desire to get Home, and the betrayals that befell him after becoming a monster.

Finding out that Eurylochus was the first one to betray him, the one that directly lead to 515 of his men being killed because he didn't trust Odysseus's word and directly disobeyed his orders to not open the wind bag. I imagine that before he found that out, he intended to try and bargain with Scylla, to kill as little of his men as possible, if not be able to talk her out of killing anyone at all. But immediately after finding that out, he tells Eurylochus to lite up 6 torches. Because now he's been betrayed, and he will just pay the Toll to pass through.

And then immediately after, Eurylochus tries to lead a Mutiny against him, and he ends up stabbed through the back by the rest of his crew, tied to the mast, and has to watch as Eurylochus literally pisses off every god in the area by killing the Sun Gods Divine Cattle and having Zeus sicked on them.

And now Odysseus two remaining halves of the old king have to choose. His family back home, or the crew who has betrayed him twice and chiseled away at his remaining trust and loyalty to them ever since Polyphemus? He now has to kill off more of the old king. And he does.

And then, he has to deal with Calypso.

I'm not touching on Calypso, because if I do I'll be here for a lot longer, but she breaks him mentally and forcefully breaks his physical purity to his wife by SAing him. And then once he leaves, he mentally snaps and stabs Poseidon.

So, all that is left of their old King is a Monster who wears the few tattered scraps of their old kings clothes, who clings desperately to the final piece of his old form, his family. And they have the audacity of asking him for mercy after openly threatening to harm it? To destroy it? To defile it as he has been for the past 20 years?!?!?!

No. He's had enough.

And his family (Penelope, Telemachus, and Athena) are the only one's to recognize that Odysseus is still their old King, just beaten, bruised, abused, abandoned, and betrayed. But he's still the same person, and they will fall in love with him again.

AU where Bruce isn’t Batman and the ‘Brucie’ persona is mostly real, but he’s also not an idiot and well aware that his kids are vigilantes

Bruce, “I just wish Dickie chose a better costume than that. I mean, look at him! He’s like a traffic light.”

Alfred, “I believe it’s a similar outfit to one his mother designed for him when he was younger.”

Bruce, “….nevermind, I take it back. He’s my beautiful baby boy and his outfit choices are definitely not atrocious.”

—

Bruce, “Jay…mind explaining the bruises on your wrists?”

Jason, “Oh…yunno how it is.”

Bruce, stares

Bruce, “If your partner is hurting you-”

Jason, “NO, it’s nothing like that! I promise, it was….consensual?”

Bruce, “Is that a question or statement, kiddo?”

Jason, “Statement.”

Jason, later, grumbling to Dick, “Sometimes I feel like he’s onto us…”

Dick, “No way. We cover our tracks super well. You just need to come up with better excuses for your bruises. I mean, BDSM? You?”

Bruce, upstairs, listening through a bug he planted, “Dumbasses.”

—

Bruce, “Why is the Drake child in my home?”

Jason, “He’s a friend.”

Dick, “I think you’re choking him a little, B.”

Bruce, who has Tim in a bear hug, “Am I choking you, buddy?”

Tim, muffled, “Not at all.”

—

Bruce, “TALIA! YOU’RE HERE! Why are you here.”

Damian, “Why am I here?”

Talia, “We have a son. Here. Take care of him.”

Damian, “I will not stay w a man like…like him.”

Bruce, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Damian, “You’re pathetically human and weak. I have nothing to learn here, Mother.”

Talia, “He’s beaten me before.”

Damian, “What?”

Dick, “What?”

Jason, “What?”

Bruce, smiling dreamily, “Such good memories.”

—

The kids find out he knew everything from the start when Dick has to pick up a drunk Bruce from a party. They arrive back at the Manor and Bruce won’t stop clinging to Dick.

Bruce, “Noooooooo! Don’t leave me! Don’t put on that ugly costume!”

Dick, “W-what?”

Bruce, sniffles, “It’s better than the Robin one, but come on, chum. You can do so much better than that.”

Dick, “You…know?”

Bruce, still crying, “Of course I knew! Good at covering your tracks my ass!”

Dick, “Do you know everything?”

Bruce, wiping his face because his vision is blurring and there’s two Dicks standing in front of him. Fuck, he’s dizzy, “Jason’s outfit is better. Tim’s is atrocious. But at least you gave Dami pants.”

Dick, “BRUCE!?”

Bruce, “Nooooo, don’t yell. My head hurts.”

—

Sitting in what Bruce has decided to call the Bat Cave because, helloooo, the bats?

Dick, "How long have you known?"

Bruce, "Oh, you know."

Jason, "From the beginning???"

Bruce, "I'm not stupid. Alfred, why does everyone think I'm stupid? My own kids think I'm stupid."

Tim, "Mr Wayne-"

Bruce, stares at him

Tim, "....Bruce. We don't think you're stupid. We just thought we were being...sneaky."

Damian, "Hmph. All of you lack training in stealth. Unlike me."

Bruce, "Dickie, how am I supposed to not know when I adopted a child acrobat and 'oh, look! a pint sized vigilante who can do flips off of buildings!'"

Jason, snorts, "Pint sized."

Bruce, "Jaylad, you started using guns a week after I signed you up for a firearms class."

Tim, tries very hard to hide a laugh

Bruce, "Timmy, your bedroom is covered in pictures of Gotham you'd only get from being on top of buildings."

Damian, scoffs

Bruce, "Dami, you trained as an assassin. Of fucking course you're a vigilante."

The kids, "....fuck. We suck at this."

Bruce, waves his hands in the air, "Don't worry about it. You're all bad at covering for yourselves, but me and Alfred handled it. Anyone who might've even got an inkling of who you might be have been...dealt with."

Jason, "Did you kill them?!"

Bruce, "What? No. Of course not. Right, Alfie?"

Alfred, "....of course not."

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is Off to a Great Start, but Who Asked for This?

*No spoilers*

I stayed up to watch the premiere of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man (3am on the east coast) and things are off to an interesting start, but I have to ask, who wanted this show? When it was announced, the series was meant to tell Spider-Man’s origin story in the MCU, but as production went on, the producers realized how boxed in they were, so they decided to make it a multiverse story. Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man takes place in a universe similar to the sacred timeline, but instead of Tony Stark recruiting Peter, it’s Norman Osborn. 

I understand why this show isn’t in the MCU, and while I admit that the series is taking the character in a different direction, I’m tired of seeing Peter Parker in high school and most fans seem to agree. I love a good superhero/average teen combo, which we see in this series. Peter misses class and skips parties to fight bad guys, and I love that dynamic. I love that Peter can’t tell his teachers why he wasn’t there for the test, or tell his friends why he missed their play, or birthday party. I enjoy that dynamic every time I see it, but it’s not anything that The Spectacular Spider-Man (2008-09), Ultimate Spider-Man (2012-17), or Spider-Man (2017-20) didn’t do. The live-action films also take on these scenarios, and they execute them well for the most part. 

I don’t mean to be a pessimist, because this is a good show, but I can’t write down my thoughts and opinions about it without also expressing my exhaustion at how many times we’ve seen this play out. Marvel Animation should’ve placed Peter in college for this series. It would’ve been way more interesting, especially if they framed it for adults specifically, like Invincible (2021-) or Creature Commandos (2024-). My idea isn’t for them to make Spider-Man unnaturally dark, brooding, or edgy, but it would’ve brought more fans to the table in my opinion. 

Some people say this show should’ve been about Miles Morales and I don’t agree. To me, the Miles-shaped hole in my heart is being filled by the Spider-Verse movies, and if they do a Miles Morales animated series, I believe it should wait until the Spider-Verse movies are over because the Spider-Verse movies are animated I believe the producers would have their work cut out of them trying to create another animated universe that rivals the Spider-Verse films, and because of this I believe that the show would suffer critically for it because everyone would compare it to the Sony rendition. 

But let’s talk about this show and why it’s good, sans spoilers, of course. 

The first thing you notice about this series is the animation and it’s just splendid. The fight scenes look immaculate, the shots of Spider-man swinging around the city are so well done. Episode 2 in particular had some really sweet shots. The voice acting was okay. I can’t decide if Hudson Thames is a good Peter Parker. At times he sounds good, but then it sounds like he’s got phlegm and didn’t bother to clear his voice before recording. The opening title was superb. The music and art together were just perfect. The callbacks to Civil War were also pretty cool. The suit Peter wears feels homemade, more so than the MCU edition and I liked that. I like that he uses some propane-type thing to power his webshooters. 

Peter Parker feels like Peter Parker in this series. He’s stumbling around, chronically late, and missing the bus, it’s all very Peter-coded. On top of that, he’s very empathetic to criminals, something I think was lost in some of the films. The characters have got good chemistry. I like the dynamic between Peter and his friends. There was a certain character whose name I recognized from the comics, but he looked so different and there were some scenes with him that I didn’t fully understand, so I’m curious how his future in the show will play out. I can’t decide if Norman Osborn will be a villain or not. I always got the vibe that he has something going on under the surface, but that could be an intentional choice to make us suspect misdeeds from him. This show wants to subvert our expectations, similar to how the MCU films did. There were more names I recognized and I’m excited to see where they go from here, especially since the series was renewed for a second and third season. 

I like that Marvel Studios is putting effort into this show. There have been plenty of Spider-man shows in recent years, but you could tell they were for children. This series has more attention to detail, it’s an animated superhero show that can be enjoyed by adults, and as I get older that’s something I value more and more. I love to rewatch shows like The Spectacular Spider-Man (2009-09) but something gets lost there as you get older. You can’t enjoy the story as much because it’s written for children, but today’s animators seem to understand the need adults have for these shows. 

I just said that I’m tired of seeing Spider-Man in high school, but this series makes me nostalgic in all the best ways. Watching shows like this makes me feel like a kid again, and in recent times I value that experience so much. Listening to the awesome music selection as Spidey swings through the city oddly reminds me of walking to class in the morning, blasting music, and worrying about the math test I had later that day.

Overall, I’m excited to see where this show goes. 

Final grade: B+

Rick Stepp (irresponsibleink@gmail.com)

@luciaintheskyainthi HAIII!!! Technically these were made bc I was reading ShutterBug (another SpideyHood fic) but i thought that they also fit ECM so I wanted to show you them!!! I hope you like them!!!!!

(As i was drawing the one with makeup I thought of ECM Pete and Jay and had to show you but i couldnt send media in you asks)

Tony and his PPs (forgot to post this one too)