All In All The Masking Tape Strategy Worked Pretty Well. For The Real Thing I Definitely Need To Make

Do you want me to take the day off to be with you 😭

what gets me about the green lantern corps is that—in addition to being a space fascist nightmare that deforms individuals into agents of its unflinching doctrine and sublimates goodwill into reverence for the law—it's also just really fucking stupid. before critiquing any minutiae aspect of its conduct you have to understand that the glc operates based on a very rudimentary hierarchy of brute force. for all of the guardian's posturing, the only thing justifying their authority as the in-universe law enforcement hegemon is their possession of the most powerful weapon in the universe. and every major appearance of the guardians since the bronze age has demonstrated how utterly out of touch they are. it's not wisdom or even competence keeping the corps in charge, it's the goddamn power ring. the green lantern code of conduct is literally only relevant because the consequence of disobedience is lack of access to the all-powerful weapon, and even then that all depends on the guardians ability to enforce it. the whole institution is fucked as soon as someone (parallax, sinestro, krona, literally anyone, etc) with more material power challenges it—and the guardians know it. which is why they're primarily preoccupied with micromanaging the lanterns' conduct and only personally appear to combat "evil" when it threatens the sanctity of the institution (read: their authority). the yellow weakness only exists as a safeguard against potential abuse!! but like breeds like. what the corps' indoctrination ironically creates is the perfect conditions for developing authoritarian ideology. thus the respective "falls" of its greatest agents are not aberrations but a product of its design—refer to this post by @dctrfate. any difference of intent becomes irrelevant when everybody’s a fucking cop. there is no reason for the green lantern corps to exist outside of its own self-justification.

Suggestion:

Noah Centineo should play a live action Jason Todd

Look at him, he’d be perfect

i love talking about the fistfight in outsiders #16 but the aftermath of it in #17 is equally delicious:

something about how dick and roy are standing noticeably further apart from the rest of the team (and yes, it's mostly because they just finished beating the shit out of each other) but it's the focus on dick's eyes glittering... how we know roy was bloodied and hurt too but winick focuses so extensively dick and the blood on his face.

like... here's his wound, here's how he's bleeding, here's how he's managed to force roy to cut himself on all of dick's edges... and still... the injury is all dick's. he's managed to push away the one person who has irrevocably supported him, built him a life raft so he doesn't drown in his grief and he did it intentionally. he knew exactly what to say to get roy to throw the first punch.

and then we get this interaction with kory & roy on the rooftop... starting off with roy looking up at the sky with a very conscious decision to not show us the stars or the sky. i can't help but think this is a reference to roy & lian's conversation in secret files '03:

because throughout the fight in #16, dick and roy throw punches and words carelessly, while also cognizant of exactly what to say to make it hurt... but neither of them say donna's name. neither of them give voice to the spectre that haunts the entirety of this arc in outsiders. they can't... it's all just so unbearable.

so for winick to bring kory into this role— another person who loved donna just as much but who's also been called in solely to get a handle on dick & roy— and for her to say that the team is concerned about roy as he's brooding on a rooftop all feels so intentional. once upon a time, donna would've been the one to check up on roy but she's the reason why roy is so hurt... she's gone and nothing will make it okay... not even cutting himself on dick's edges. so here he stands, so obviously defensive, unable to look at kory, unable to handle her concern, all while the foreground is gritty and dark. no stars, no sky

and then you have this heartbreaking panel... roy literally and metaphorically avoiding kory's concern, the team's concern... both physically and emotionally grappling away from the dick of it all. sure, he tells her that dick will give his all— because having faith in dick grayson is such an innate part of being roy harper that there's really no other way to answer kory.

but that added jibe of "particularly to prove you all wrong" is such a wonderful insight into how fucked up he is right now. he has faith in dick's abilities but he doesn't have that same faith in dick's intentions with him. at this point, roy has tried everything— giving space, not giving space, setting up a whole team & HQ, providing dick with an outlet for his grief, trying to talk to dick, trying not to... and yet. dick brought up the worst moments of his life casually... like a weapon that was always in his arsenal:

and so roy walks away from it. but then we have the punchline— dick hidden in the shadows, eavesdropping on it all:

which is such a direct parallel to the panels in secret files that there's really no doubt in my mind that winick is asking us to think about all of this in conjunction:

the two instances are markedly different too. in secret files, dick's hidden in the shadows, yes, but we see him visibly crying whereas in #17, we see him shadowed entirely... only the white of his domino visible. because while dick blames himself for donna's death, what he did and said to roy in #17 is different in terms of his self-blame because he did the latter intentionally. he knew exactly what to say to get roy to hit him, and he hit back... almost like he wanted to hit first. he didn't walk away from any of it till kory and jade pulled them apart.

can you imagine how deep his self-loathing must be at this point? first, he gets ousted as leader by his own team... remember, this is a guy notoriously hyperaware of criticism from others because for dick, it's fulfilment of his own self-criticism and failures. and then he flung poison at roy with both his face and fists... a guy who has only been trying to help him, a guy who's grieving for donna just like him... his teammate, his childhood friend. and he was ready to burn it all down. nothing will be bearable again so what does it matter if he burns another bridge?

and the most heartbreaking part is... there's no resolution. dick doesn't apologize, roy doesn't ask him to.

the panels directly after pick up three weeks later where they're noticeably separated... working on separate tasks and sub-teams:

it's so deeply important to me for people to realize how high dick's self-loathing and self-hatred are at this point in canon... how much that level of vitriol directed towards himself (and others) hurts roy... a guy who has been through that kind of hatred directed inwards where it just cuts and cuts and cuts... and how dick chose to weaponize roy's lowest moment yet again (like new titans #101). and still, roy won't stop reaching out... he doesn't know how not to. donna would kill them both if she could see them now.

dickroy in this era are just "tell me what to do so you'll stop hurting me" over and over and over except it's moot because they both know the answer... and she's been dead for months.

I adore Garth

Midpollo week 2018 Day 6: Soulmate au

Apollo

The first thing he saw was white. The white of the walls, white of the coats around him, white of the bed he laid on and the sheets that covered him. Chatter filled the air around him, slowly coming into focus like breaking through water. He wondered where that thought came from, he can't remember ever being in the water.

They told him that his code name was Apollo, that he had chosen to leave his life behind to fight for a better future. He had abilities now, he could fly, punch through walls, shoot lasers from his eyes. He didn't feel any stronger, but he supposed that he didn't really have anything else to compare it to.

Flying was amazing, feeling the wind through his hair, the sun on his skin. It was indescribable. The longer he stayed out there the stronger he felt and the more he could do. He knew that his past self had made the right choice, though he longed for the knowledge of who that man had been.

Midnighter

There was a voice inside his head. A voice that analysed the sounds the people surrounding him made as he regained consciousness, perhaps for the first time. He couldn't remember any other time.

The voice urged him to move, to strike while they thought he was still helpless, even whilst his sight was not fully restored. The man he grabbed screamed, high-pitched and annoying. His head is so full of overlapping knowledge. The room in front of him played out in different scenes, then reset and repeated. Over and over again in the fraction of a second. His head throbbed, and the scream reverberated through the room. The voice told him to snap his neck, to stop the sound, and he nearly did, but another, outside voice interrupts him.

The man called himself Bendix and told him his name was Midnighter. Then he touched his shoulder and where his hand lay, an ugly bruised green print unfurled across Midnighter's skin. He tells him that it was a soulmark. That anytime someone who has an impact on their lives touches them for the first time it leaves a mark, and that the vibrancy of that mark indicates how powerful their effect will be.

The mark Bendix left was unmistakably vivid.

Midnighter wonders if this is a good thing.

Apollo

He met the rest of his team nearly a month after he woke up. It seemed that none of the others had ever met each other before either. All of them had the same story though, no memories but they were assured that they had known what they were signing up for. It was also the first time he put on his uniform, white and gold with a red triangle and eye in the centre. The Stormwatch symbol.

Later on, he remembers feeling proud and shudders.

He watched as they took turns sparring, just to get to know each other's abilities and how they interacted with their own. He watched as a man all in black except for the matching red triangle and eye blazoned on his chest fought against a woman possibly stronger than he was. And won.

Apollo fought his own matches, waiting patiently for the time to come that he could verse the seemingly unbeatable man. Midnighter.

Midnighter

The first time he saw him, he could think of little else. The rest of their team faded away into the background as he regarded the man in front of him, the man who was to lead him. The voice in his head, the computer that had been put there, didn't know what to do with the man, with Apollo. The Sun God. Throughout his other fights the man was a distraction, one that the computer yearned to destroy.

He grinned as he took his position across from Apollo, who returned it with a matching one of his own. Still undecided on his strategy, they circled each other. Neither of them wanting to make the first move.

Then Midnighter struck.

Apollo

He could feel the blood surging through his veins. He was so light on his feet, he was surprised that he wasn't floating. He dodged the first punch thrown his way, feeling the force of it rush past his cheek. He attempted to counter it with his own, but Midnighter had already danced out of reach.

Apollo settled into defence, willing to watch the graceful movement of Midnighter as he whirls around him. And in a moment of distraction, too focused on the bunching of muscles visible even under the black coat, Midnighter lands the first fit.

Apollo swore that the area he touched, his upper arm, tingled. He knew by now of the soulmarks, his body littered with pale, multicoloured fingerprints left by the scientists that worked with him. No doubt they had more effect on his life than others, but not enough to make a hard mark.

In the showers afterwards, he searches the whole area and is bitterly disappointed when no mark has appeared on his skin.

Midnighter

It didn't take them long to realise that the mission had gone to hell. The first sign they had of it was the poor bastard Amaze killed, with his deformed face. Crow Jane had raged that something was wrong but Apollo, in his calm way of his that drove Midnighter insane, determined that they needed to go on. After all Bendix had said that this was a 'proving' mission that was supposed to test them in the worst-case scenario.

The computer wasn't happy.

Still he stuck to Apollo's side, the unofficial second in command that he had appointed himself.

Amaze died first, a bullet to her brain.

Apollo shouted commands, but Stalker quickly followed her in hail fire. Midnighter pulled Apollo out of the way just in time to avoid the blast that killed Lamplight and Impetus. The thing they had seen in that room was monstrous and it was then that Midnighter realised that Bendix hadn't intended for any of them to make it back from that mission alive.

He and Apollo made it out, just barely, with him clinging onto Apollo's back as they flew. But Crow Jane didn't.

Apollo

He scrubbed at the mark on his arm, the skin around it turned pink from the force. Earlier he had tried branding it away, with the last of his reserves of sunlight for the day, but when the skin cleared, the hand-print remained. A yellowish-green reminiscent of a bruise, ironic really that Bendix would be such a colour. Admitting defeat, he leaves the river he was washing in.

For the past few days, he and Midnighter had been on the run, dodging Bendix's attempts to hunt them down and kill them. They decided it would be best for the time being to stay away from civilization, from the technology it brought and the civilians they would be putting in danger. They hadn't eaten or barely slept in that time either, but it barely bothered him, neither of them needed to really.

But he had missed being clean and so convinced Midnighter that near the stream was where they should camp for the night.

Midnighter

He didn't dare make a fire. It would be like a beacon daring Bendix to find them and while Midnighter couldn't wait to but a fist through the fucker's face, he knew that it wouldn't be Bendix that he and Apollo would be facing.

Apollo joins him in the small clearing, uniform stripped to the waist with the arms tied around his torso to keep it from dangling. Midnighter had eschewed his coat and gloves to give them time to air a little.

He didn't need the computer to tell him that something was wrong. He approached Apollo, a question in his eyes.

"They're going to find us." Apollo said hollowly. He looks at the mark on Midnighter's shoulder, "We can't escape him."

"We can."

Apollo shook his head.

"We're going to hide and we're going to plan and then we're going to kill that bastard."  Midnighter cupped Apollo's cheek with his hand. "Do you trust me?"

"Yes." Came the reply, barely louder than a whisper but they both heard it perfectly.

He gave into the urge, pulling Apollo into a kiss.

Apollo

It was anything but gentle and all Apollo had wanted it to be. He poured his desperation and longing through it and into Midnighter, feeling the same pushed back at him. He reached up to grab Midnighter's neck, drawing him closer still.

Midnighter responded in kind, pushing himself up to cover the small distance between their heights.

Midnighter

Finally, Midnighter pulled back. His hand slipped from Apollo's cheek. A deep blue imprint left in its place. Apollo laughed, breathy and delighted.

Apollo

There was a hand print wrapped around the side of Midnighter's neck, a bright, brazen yellow.

Yeah, I feel that. It's so hard to chose which houses to put in them when they can fit well in so many. And anyone who doesn't put Tim in Slytherin obviously hasn't read his Red Robin run

The Batkid’s Hogwarts houses

Barbara Gordon: Slytherin 

Dick Grayson: Gryffidnor 

Cassandra Cain: Gryffindor 

Jason Todd: Ravenclaw

Stephanie Brown: Hufflepuff

Tim Drake: Slytherin

Damian Wayne: Hufflepuff

I was at the bookstore the other day and I found a book featuring Hal being chased by Clark on a motorcycle

I still hate writing fighting sequences but I think I'm getting better at them

hi idk