If You're Re-reading TCF From The Start, My Advice To You Would Be To Read With A Slightly Different

Do you think when Damian first arrived at Gotham and to the Wayne Manor, he got an ick because Americans wear shoes indoors? Imagine him automatically starting to take off his shoes, searching for slippers, and realising that everyone just... walk around in their boots... without a care in the world?

Dick, jumping on the coach with his converses, straight from the street: So, watcha doing?

Damian, with his eye twitching: ...Why would you do that.

Damian, entering Tim's room to announce that the dinner is ready: Drake, Alfred had-

Tim, laying on his bed in his shoes peacefully:

Damian, through his gritted teeth: Unbecoming.

Tim: I JUST BREATHED

AAAAAAA HOW GOOD🥹😭!!! I didn't expect to see this idea, but it's really so good, I'll be looking forward to more of your texts!!

DC/Marvel Peter Parker in Gotham AU where Dick Grayson is Peter's bio dad, and Jason is Uncle Ben.

Peter finds himself in another world where Ben exists only for him to be dead here too. Peter is lost, alone in a world he knows nothing about and has no one to talk to. Even if he starts making friends he can't tell them the truth about being from another universe. And yeah his bio parents exist here, but what is he supposed to tell them? He would just sound crazy, better to avoid them.

But he needs to talk to someone, so Jason's grave becomes a place where he can vent and reminisce.

you know what.

I am so fucking tired of rape fics. I am a sexual assault survivor and you sexulise rape. why. why do I work so hard to get better and it all get ruined by some horny asshole just like last time. THESE CHARATERS DONT WANT TO RAPE YOU. rape is horrible, its NOT sexy. its traumatizing. why do you keep talking about it and writing about it. STOP MINIMIZING MY PAIN WITH YOUR DERANGED FANTASIES.

Simon Riley isnt a rapist

Leon Kennedy isnt a rapist

and belive it or not Jonathan Crane ISNT A FUCKING RAPIST

dont tell me not to kink shame

do not tell me to skip it

you cannot tell me that my trauma doesn't matter

STOP WRITING RAPE FICS

What will you be tonight? That’s the question

i usually dont post my Good Stuff but supersons are too cute to keep to myself...

Something I find incredibly cool is that they’ve found neandertal bone tools made from polished rib bones, and they couldn’t figure out what they were for for the life of them. 

Until, of course, they showed it to a traditional leatherworker and she took one look at it and said “Oh yeah sure that’s a leather burnisher, you use it to close the pores of leather and work oil into the hide to make it waterproof. Mine looks just the same.” 

“Wait you’re still using the exact same fucking thing 50,000 years later???”

“Well, yeah. We’ve tried other things. Metal scratches up and damages the hide. Wood splinters and wears out. Bone lasts forever and gives the best polish. There are new, cheaper plastic ones, but they crack and break after a couple years. A bone polisher is nearly indestructible, and only gets better with age. The more you use a bone polisher the better it works.”

It’s just. 

50,000 years. 50,000. And over that huge arc of time, we’ve been quietly using the exact same thing, unchanged, because we simply haven’t found anything better to do the job. 

The Washerwomen of the Night (Les Lavandières de la nuit) (Yan' Dargent, c. 1861)

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)