recs and links

anti-mutant bigots think JJ is one of them because of how he is about Spider-Man and he experiences no personal insight whatsoever in reaction to this but is so offended he dedicates the front cover of the Bugle to spotlighting the X-Men for like three days straight

Tim is really, really busy. Way too busy to take a break. But he's got a date with Bernard, his family keeps trying to prevent him from working, and his boyfriend may have just made an accidental breakthrough in Tim's case.

Homeless!Reverse Robins squat in Wayne Manor.

When Jason wakes up from the nightmare that was his death, there’s not a burning inferno in his chest, a rage potent enough to destroy everything in his path in a fiery immolation. Instead, Jason wakes up wishing more than anything that he was still asleep- there’s a bone deep fatigue that’s settled in his body, an exhaustion that becomes a second skin. So when Talia drops Jason back to Gotham, assuming he’s going to enact a forty-step revenge plan- she couldn’t be farther from the truth.Jason's going to leave Gotham, no matter how deep Gotham tries to sink its claws into him.

Alfred had a secret: he's an immortal who, after dying, returns to infancy and ages at an accelerated rate until he returns to adulthood. After his death at the hands of Bane, the family is left to raise the man who raised them. These are the first eight days (which is to say, sixteen years) in the next life of Alfred Pennyworth.

Gotham likes Batman, but she loves Jason. That's why she brought him back to life.

On a dewy Sunday morning in April, Dick Grayson, trust fund baby and local celebrity, is found dead at the tender age of 25. His abrupt passing sends his hometown, the sleepy beach town of Gotham, into a tizzy--and his former guardian, old money stalwart Bruce Wayne, reeling. But as Bruce struggles to come to terms with his ward's death, it rapidly becomes clearer and clearer to him that there's something off with this tragedy--no, this "town"--no, this entire reality...

As long as he got to be a part of it, he didn’t need anything else. He didn’t need anyone to see his photos, know how close he’d gotten, know the lengths to which he’d gone.It was enough, he thought, that he knew.

Dick knew he was going to have to get a handle on this somehow; get someone to pin him until he could work through the panic. Someone who he couldn't damage.Well...he didn't have any big brothers but he did have someone brother adjacent who was bigger than him…

The sweet boy he knew was still in there, he just had to be coaxed out with child-friendly forensics and the promise of violence.

Nonlinear, Jamie thinks. Trent explained that to him once, and it stuck with him, the idea that not everything just keeps on moving forward all the time. Sometimes people fall back into old patterns, sometimes things don't happen in the right order. Sometimes you think a story is going to tell you what happens next, and instead it turns around to look the other way. But the story isn't really moving backwards when it does that, Trent said. It's just using the backwards look to build a stronger foundation for moving ahead.

Pennyworth extracted the knife from his fathers hands and placed it gently in Damian’s much smaller ones and in that moment Damian understood why Jason insisted on showing Pennyworth the utmost respect, how despite the bitterness with which he often spoke on his previous life he had always saved a smile for the butler.

After being recognized by the Riddler, Stephanie Brown gets pulled into a memorable girl’s night with him, Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy.

"I would like to be a better parent to you all," Bruce said. "My resolution is to keep us like this—under one roof, together."It's a new year, and with all of his kids talking to him for once, Bruce resolves to be a better parent. But with Alfred gone and Dick acting strange, Bruce realises there are some things even he isn't prepared for.

After Jason Todd dies, Stephanie Brown becomes Robin.

"I bet Xenk fucks like a metronome, too. You know." Holga makes a highly suggestive, repetitive gesture. "In, out. In, out. No variation. Same exact rhythm every time. Boring."Edgin stares at her, torn between horror and fascination. "You've really thought about this, huh?"(So has he. Unfortunately.)

Family always comes around.Or, Dick and Jason learn that if you push people away, they come right back.

To Steph’s utter delight, Jason asks her to be his backup on an undercover investigation at a strip club.