Curate, connect, and discover
Yah ever take a break from reading a comic and kinda dread reading the rest? That’s Batgirl year one for me rn. I put it down a week ago and I haven’t picked it up again.
Oh yay misogyny and sexism wooooo~!
Not gonna lie I like reading it for Barbara’s half but knowing it was written around when in the mainline comics Dick and Barb just got together, his actions in it give me the massive ICK why did they write him like that?! I know Dicks two-faced at times, usually those cases have a reason and I accept them cuz Dicks not perfect. But, it’s low key creepy when you know what was happening in other comics during this one and then this one.
Like, am I supposed to feel grossed out? I know the main idea is to so how much sexism Barbara faces on a daily basis, but from the guy she’s supposed to be dating later? I don’t think I am? Maybe I am? Like if that’s the idea, yah failed to make me like him so far from her prospective or the reader. He doesn’t come off as “coy” or “cute” it’s just something about his behavior in how it’s as a cis female reader in 2024 just gross.
It’s not reading what? 14? 13 year old boy at this point? It’s reading I don’t respect you at all and you might as well be a toy to my own ends.
Note: these are my personal thoughts and they are subject to change, thank you… also no I’m not dropping it just taking a break cuz reading that stuff can be tiring even if writing it can be therapeutic.
Edit: Also this isn’t a hate post for Dicks character just SPECIFICALLY this comic presents him as a character. Robin year one was great but then you read this one and your like “what the fuck happened?”
That moment when you realize Bruce Wayne’s canon “favorites” aren’t his favorites… their his ideal selfs.
Bruce isn’t a ‘girl dad’ or ‘loves Dick because he’s his eldest’ no. That’s not it. He likes Cassandra because she’s has his exact moral code with little to no differences, she follows it to a tee. He likes Dick because Dick is his perfect version, his ‘success’ the best version of his exact situation. He loves them sure, but he doesn’t favor them because of love. It’s to further his own ego.
This is proved with Jay, to take care of Jay he had to push his own feelings onto Jay. To ‘fix’ him. Jay didn’t need ‘fixing’ or an outlet, he needed compassion, GENUINE compassion. Not self imposed compassion or understanding by grafting his experiences over Jason’s and making it more about himself then Jay.
He needs to keep making others ‘better’, that’s why he keeps Jay around. But shuns him too. Bruce needs to fix Jay, but Jay is imperfect, a stain on his legacy. So he can’t.
If you think about it from this perspective, Gotham War starts to actually sound completely in character. He succeeded, he ‘fixed’ Jay in his mind.
Same with Damian, not exactly, but close. He just couldn’t be the one to ‘fix’ him. Yeah he values Damian because he’s his son, but paying attention to him regularly? Nope. Damian’s been ‘fixed’.
Tim doesn’t need to be fixed, he fixed Bruce so Bruce ignores him. Any attempt at fixing would be met with a wall.
As for Stephanie he couldn’t twist her story to fit his narrative, so he just completely rejects her. 
Cass and Dick are his legacy. They were ‘fixed’. That’s why he values them.
Some food for thought, I personally don’t like this, I like good dad Bruce Wayne that values all his kids equally and tries to reach out to Jay because he genuinely wants to help his son but won’t put Gotham in danger because of himself. He pays attention to Damian, praises Tim, wants the best for Steph even if she isn’t his daughter.
But, when you think of the wider scale of Bruce’s actions in the comics (without thinking of the hand of the author) this pattern is a thing. I REALLY want to be wrong.
PLEASE COMICS LET BRUCE BE A OKAY DAD! NOT EVEN GOOD JUST OKAY IS FINE! JUST LET HIM LOVE HIS KIDS EQUALLY AND WITHOUT ANY STRINGS ATTACHED!