Heh.

I have the strangest Bruce/Clark going on in my head. It's turning into quite a story. I don't think the world is ready, but it'll have to be.

It had me going back and reading my TPB of Superman: The Man of Steel, and Clark first meeting the Batman face to face. I ended up posting the whole issue here.

It has my favourite panel of Bruce and Clark ever. Likely because this may well have been the first story I ever read with them interacting. It is, at least, the first I that's memorable. I fangirl over this issue on a regular basis.

( ...am I boring you? )

I was digging back both out of nostalgia, and because I'm setting this story within the first few years of both of them having had met. And because of the Crisis retcons, all three of them, trying to line up continuities is hard, even with some of the guides that have been fan-produced. Exactly what was the first incarnation of the League and it's relationship with the retcons after Crisis on Infinite Earths? And what does that have to do with when Bruce became Batman?

I got a headache. So I just went with what made my life easier in the end. Basically an AU. Sometimes I just have to give up on figuring these things out. Especially since the bulk of the story is just smut and snark.

P.S. Yeah, I know about the "History of the DCU" thing in the back of 52. It didn't go into quite enough detail for what I need. Alas.

A Lifting Fog

I had bunnies about why Bruce was so devastated after Scott's apparent death in Justice League America #39, as shown just after his funeral in #40... yet Bruce and Scott are rarely shown together. The ideas merged into the events of Action Comics #593. Goes by the Superman: The Man of Steel #3 first meeting between Superman and Batman. Takes an AU turn from there.

Assumes that Clark is still unaware of Bruce being Batman, and hasn't seen him face to face since their first meeting, a couple years back. Also assumes the Justice League has just reformed a la Justice League/Justice League International, without Superman, but with Mister Miracle and others, and Batman as a part-time unofficial member, and still an urban legend. And basically that Batman was just never in the first incarnation of the League.

Both Superman and Batman have only been around for a few years; Dick is still Robin. Barda and Scott recently moved to Bailey, New Hampshire.

A Lifting Fog

After Action Comics #593, Clark begins having dreams about Barda and the time they were together under mind control. Polyamory ensues.

Big Barda/Superman/Mister Miracle/Batman, and various combinations therein of various levels of subtlety, notably Big Barda/Mister Miracle (obviously) and Superman/Batman.
NC-17

( Fog, The Home of Scott and Barda, An Invitation to Dinner )

Green Arrow #65

Oliver Queen is the greatest fictional politician I've ever read.

He's playing politics like dancing with a villain, and he's brilliant at it. No other mayor has the balls to slam some sleazy fucker's head into a desk, then pwn him like the pansy-ass little turd he is.

This series just keeps getting better and better. If you have any love at all for the Emerald Archer, you'll be doing yourself a favour to follow his new ambitions as mayor of Star City.

( Welcome to the world of politics. )

Legends of the Dark Knight #209

Darker than Death.

I just was gifted a scanner, and am playing. Can't you tell?

I had a few words to say about the first issue in this storyarc, which is apparently the one that will end Legends of the Dark Knight... so they're going out with a bang.

And such a bang.

The mood of the book is the most striking thing about this book, both in text and in the art. Which is gorgeous.

( Always darkest before the dawn... )

The way that relationships are developed in the story is also... quite something. While the sub-plot of his newfound romance with the socialite has come to a place of angst in the first few pages, she's still very much in the forefront of Bruce's mind. And Alfred is done... perfectly. Stoic, both leaving more unsaid than said.

Oh yeah, and shirtless Bruce.

( Snippets of shirtless Bruce in the cave )

But there's also girls, girls, girls. And done so that those boobs look real. Much too rare in this industry, I think.

( Girls with snakes! )

This storyarc has been supremely satisfying on so many levels. And proves once again... yes, Bruce can be written as both a human being, and as a kickass Batman. Learn it DC, you've got all the good examples in the world. I'll miss Legends of the Dark Knight, but they're giving it a sendoff that almost makes it worth it.