I do love the trope of 'the character with the most fear also has the most experience dealing with it.'
The Batman & Scooby-Doo Mysteries #7 - "Night of the Scaredy-Bat!" (2024)
written by Ivan Cohen art by Puste & Carrie Strachan
I'd like to think this misconception is the result of a deliberate snow job on the part of the younger Ms. Watson. For the purpose of getting an in with the cute boy next door, natch. I mean, MJ *is* an actress, is she not?
HA! And I say again HA That's like the winning entrant in a "explain what MJ is NOT" contest. Amazing Spiderman 15
Hope is a lie if you mistake it for a promise. No, hope is a gamble. A chance that it might work out in your favour. A possibility that those odds are worth the risk. A cornered rat does not launch to bite a dog in the face with absolute confidence that it will escape with its life.
It attacks for the chance that it might.
My friend sent me this with a "this made me think of you."
I feel so seen.
Dick Grayson: so as you can see I definitely win the 'stupidest kidnapping' competition by virtue of having been abducted by a literal bird-brain :D
Other Batkids: HOW SMALL were you when you started crtimefighting?!?!
My favorite genre of image is plushies getting grabbed by hawks
When I was just a small girl this really solidified for me what real, healthy love should be. I idolized Holmes and reading that story absolutely drove home to me the difference between love and obsession. Amazing story, notable for the most bad*ss exchange in the series "You're too late, she is my wife!" "No, sir, she is your widow" *pulls gun*
Hey I think I can help! My dad is from Rural America and My mom is a Fancy Lady from the Big City (it was a real scandal) so my sib and I are oddly bilingual in one language. In certain rural dialects "Old Man" (especially with a possessive adjective i.e. 'mine' 'her' 'your') is used to mean specifically a patriarch of the family to which a person belongs (which can be father or husband, as you said, but can apply to grandparents, stepparents, or other male relatives that fill that role) as in "my old man won't let me out tonight, but you best believe I'm goin' anyhow." It has a level of exasperated affection; there are many old men, but (for better or worse) this one is mine. ALTERNATELY, especially in the city, it can be a derisive description when used about a stranger; an old man is no one of import, or someone to be regarded with scorn. The first and most important trait you notice about him is that he is past his prime. "Sorry I'm late, some old man ahead of me in line was shouting at the barista." This makes it an extremely interesting phrase because if you use it on someone you know but have an undefined relationship with it is either a term of familial endearment or a dismissive insult.
(When it comes to writing Batfam, this has almost as much utility as the belts XD)
edit: whoops just realized somebody already answered this really well, my bad, I gotta learn to read those replies
Okay, can anyone explain the nuances of 'Old Man' to me?
Like, it's a way of teasing someone about ageing and the passage of time. It's both a slang for 'dad' AND 'boyfriend/husband.' It MIGHT be a way of referring to other authority figures??
I just ... I'm trying to sort out references used by the various Bats.
Dick and Damian use it for Bruce.
Bruce uses it for Alfred.
Are they alluding to the parental role these guys have? (Damian definitely is.) Just teasing them about ageing?
I'm pretty sure a 'my' in the front firmly drops it into dad territory. But how about a definite article? No article at all?
I didn't grow up with this phrase, and it is challenging me!
Either yes, because extinct deer cannot punch, or DEER GOD NO because that ton-and-a-half terror-elk somehow learned fist fighting
your icon punches you in the face do you survive
One of Spidey's first (and still one of his finest) chilling moments of superhuman intimidation. This is a teenager, and up til this he mostly moved like one. As opposed to, you know, a force of pure primal fury.
Notice that Peter's stride is not even MOMENTARILY halted by the gangsters trying to tackle him. Amazing Spiderman 11
Based on my own and my familiy's life experiences, I've long held the sneaking suspicion many ghost stories on one side were 'dangit do you think they saw?!' tidbits on the other.
Imagine going on a walk on a really foggy day, enjoying the vaguely eerie, faint and distant aesthetic of it all, and the soft quiet of having no other people around. You're about to cross a familiar bridge when you suddenly feel lightheaded. It's nothing to worry about, just a weirdly wobbly feeling that means you should sit down. And probably get more iron in your diet. Either way, you need to get up and you need to cross this bridge to get home. But now being alone has put this weird fear in you - irrational or not - that if you walk over the bridge, you might get dizzy again and fall from it.
Weird and lonely problems require weird and lonely solutions. Since you're all alone here anyhow, you can act strange if you need to. So you get down on all fours - not on your hands and knees, but on the balls of your feet, like a dog. And like this, you start to slowly creep over the bridge. Nice and slow, happy about your solution that made it feel safe to cross and get home. You can be weird if you want to, nobody's judging here.
You're creeping at a comfortable speed, very slowly, but the bridge isn't that long. You can kind of make out the outlines of things on the other side through the mist. The end of the bridge, a familiar tree, a streetlamp, the silhouette of a bush and-
A person. A human figure. You freeze mid-step to stare. That is the most definitely the outline of a person, standing perfectly still. Staring right at you. You don't know how long this moment lingers, but eventually you can't hold your balance anymore and you have to step forward, placing your open palm back on the cold damp bridge. The figure turns, and takes off running. Bolting off in a very normal, startled way that anyone would when they're spooked.
It occurs to you that you only saw the vague outline of an unexpected person, an obscure figure standing in the fog. They, however, saw the vague outline of you, something perhaps vaguely human-shaped, but moving in a way that people simply do not, slowly, very slowly, creeping over a bridge.
Assuming that nobody would see you, you accidentally became someone's unexplained Silent Hill experience.