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100 days of enemy recs: 95. Bats
Look, Batfandom had to be on here, because it's so much classic hero/villain stuff. Batman/Catwoman, of course, which goes way, way back. Bruce/Talia, which produced a kid. Bruce/Harvey. Various other villain ships and traitorous lovers for Bruce, of varying levels of canonicity.
I just, I gotta admit I don't ship any of them? Bruce/Selina is, in theory, excellent, but in practice, canon has fucked it up so many times and in such a variety of ways, not to mention failing to settle on any sort of stable characterization of Selina, that I just can't make myself care. The other villain ships are fine, I guess? But again canon is just so interested in making all of his villains The One Real Enemy that none of them are any fun anymore. The closest he has to a nemesis is Joker, but honestly Joker is just sort of pathetic, not interesting or really a match for Bruce, and also super gross.
The Nolan movies tried very hard to make Batman/Superman an enemyship but I don't buy it, They are not enemies, they are Batman and Superman! They are best friends to the point where if they do get in a Mandated Hero Fight they just automatically assume one of them is under mind control or something, and they're always right.
Honestly though I think the real issue is that I settled a long time ago on a Bruce Wayne characterization where he doesn't fall in love. Like, Bruce the Socialite dates a lot, and so many people have tried to get under the shallow mask and find the real Bruce, but even if they manage it all they find under there is a somewhat befuddled polyamorous aromantic who is never going to fall in love or be want exclusive with them no matter how much he loves them. People who try it with Batman end up in the same place, just from a different direction. Bruce should be sleeping with half of Gotham and having complicated sexual/emotional entanglements with half of the Justice League and otp with nobody except Batman.
(That said, I enjoy the crap out of Bruce/Lex where Bruce is 100% doing it just to fuck with Lex and Clark, and Lex thinks he knows what's going on but is very, very wrong and will never find out. I also love Bruce/Lois in a similar way, except that Lois is smarter than Lex and will absolutely figure it out, and they unionize against Clark but they are still enemies because girl reporters and eccentric billionaires have a natural predator/prey relationship. But both Bruce/Lois and Bruce/Lex are ridiculously rare.)
(Okay, Bruce/Harley is also good, mostly because fuck the Joker, and also because Harley and Bruce would both enjoy dating someone who understands them on a deep level and also is in 0 danger of falling in love with them.)
ANYWAY. the point is, I don't really have recs for any of that because most of the limited fic I can think of is by people who I have already used elsewhere.
So instead I am going to rec Robins. I would try to explain Robins, but Robins are complicated. But they are complicated in delightful chewy ways that hit all of my bells for antagonists who love each other.
I just, I gotta admit I don't ship any of them? Bruce/Selina is, in theory, excellent, but in practice, canon has fucked it up so many times and in such a variety of ways, not to mention failing to settle on any sort of stable characterization of Selina, that I just can't make myself care. The other villain ships are fine, I guess? But again canon is just so interested in making all of his villains The One Real Enemy that none of them are any fun anymore. The closest he has to a nemesis is Joker, but honestly Joker is just sort of pathetic, not interesting or really a match for Bruce, and also super gross.
The Nolan movies tried very hard to make Batman/Superman an enemyship but I don't buy it, They are not enemies, they are Batman and Superman! They are best friends to the point where if they do get in a Mandated Hero Fight they just automatically assume one of them is under mind control or something, and they're always right.
Honestly though I think the real issue is that I settled a long time ago on a Bruce Wayne characterization where he doesn't fall in love. Like, Bruce the Socialite dates a lot, and so many people have tried to get under the shallow mask and find the real Bruce, but even if they manage it all they find under there is a somewhat befuddled polyamorous aromantic who is never going to fall in love or be want exclusive with them no matter how much he loves them. People who try it with Batman end up in the same place, just from a different direction. Bruce should be sleeping with half of Gotham and having complicated sexual/emotional entanglements with half of the Justice League and otp with nobody except Batman.
(That said, I enjoy the crap out of Bruce/Lex where Bruce is 100% doing it just to fuck with Lex and Clark, and Lex thinks he knows what's going on but is very, very wrong and will never find out. I also love Bruce/Lois in a similar way, except that Lois is smarter than Lex and will absolutely figure it out, and they unionize against Clark but they are still enemies because girl reporters and eccentric billionaires have a natural predator/prey relationship. But both Bruce/Lois and Bruce/Lex are ridiculously rare.)
(Okay, Bruce/Harley is also good, mostly because fuck the Joker, and also because Harley and Bruce would both enjoy dating someone who understands them on a deep level and also is in 0 danger of falling in love with them.)
ANYWAY. the point is, I don't really have recs for any of that because most of the limited fic I can think of is by people who I have already used elsewhere.
So instead I am going to rec Robins. I would try to explain Robins, but Robins are complicated. But they are complicated in delightful chewy ways that hit all of my bells for antagonists who love each other.
- Heart, Humble (7791 words) by Betty
Fandom: DCU - Comicverse
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Tim Drake, Jack Drake
The one where Jack Drake meets Robin. - Take It Back Now Y'all (82815 words) by TimTheToaster
Chapters: 22/?
Fandom: Red Robin (Comics), Batman - All Media Types
Characters: Tim Drake, Original Characters, Jason Todd, Dick Grayson, Bruce Wayne, Waylon Jones, Oswald Cobblepot
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Additional Tags: Time Travel, to call this a fix-it is disingenuous but it is in the spirit, other batfam will apear, tim just has to figure his stuff out first, the OCs are kind of filler but also not if that makes sense, more tags as the situation develops, i'm just gonna slide in the, Slow Burn, tag because this is going to be a long build-up to Something, Canon-Typical Violence, but more like Tim's normal than Bruce's, Just So We're Clear, BAMF Tim Drake, Tim Drake-centric, Implied/Referenced Underage Prostitution
The one where Tim gets trapped in the past and decides the obvious solution is to set himself up as a supervillain and take over Gotham's crime scene so that the Time Cops will notice him and send him home. - Panic Room (15912 words) by envysparkler
Chapters: 2/2
Fandom: Batman - All Media Types
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Tim Drake & Jason Todd, Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne, Tim Drake & Damian Wayne, Bruce Wayne & Damian Wayne
Additional Tags: Whump, Hurt/Comfort, Batfamily (DCU), Panic Attacks, Strangulation, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Jason Todd Needs A Hug, Tim Drake Needs a Hug, Damian Wayne Needs a Hug, Bruce Wayne is a Good Parent, Broken Bones, Hugs, Hurt Tim Drake, Hurt Damian Wayne, Enemy to Caretaker
The one where Damian locks Tim and Jason in a room together.
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HALLELUJAH
All of your takes on Bruce in relation to his enemies/friends/coworkers/lovers are excellent and god, like a breath of fresh air when I've been hip-deep in nothing but the Youths going on and on about Bruce being primarily daddy and Daddy. You'd think by this point these dry super-basic characterizations of him being Always Right Except About His Kids would have run their course.
TY for the recs!
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And I've surely read the Bruce/Lois/(Clark hanging on in hope on the sidelines) fic by unpretty, which was of course excellent, and I'd love to see any Bruce/Harley recs if you had them!
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I told myself I wouldn't attempt to summarize the Robins but now I want to try. Okay.
Dick: The son of circus acrobats who were killed as collateral damage in Gotham's corruption, he was adopted by Bruce when Bruce was just starting out. Robin from the time of the original 30s comics up through the 80s, so he was there through a lot! Eventually grew up enough to start chafing at his sidekick role and left Gotham and the Robin name on pretty bad terms with Bruce. His official Supervillain Mentor was Slade aka Deathstroke, what exactly went down between them varied but it's definitely Complicated and Messy. Bat specialties are acrobatics/flying and teamwork.
Jason: A street kid Bruce caught trying to steal the tires on the Batmobile very soon after Dick left, promptly took him home and pushed him into the Robin role. Dick was unhappy with this and took it out on both of them, which Jason still resents and Dick still feels guilty about. Jason thrived as both Bruce's kid and as Robin for awhile, but disagreed on methods and was more willing to push back. Eventually got lured into a trap by the Joker and murdered. Stayed dead a long time, but then reappeared as the supervillain Red Hood, who murdered other criminals and hated the Bats. Gradually lured back into the family over time. His official Supervillain Mentor was Talia al Ghul of the League of Assassins, who had control of him most of the time he was "dead". Unclear how much of is Red Hood career was down to what Talia did to him and how much was down to justified resentment about his Robin career. Bat specialties are violence and telling it how it is.
Tim: the poor little rich kid son of Bruce's neighbors. Clocked Dick as Robin almost immediately and figured out Batman's ID soon after, spent years quietly stalking them while his parents ignored him. After Jason died, Bruce started spiraling out of control, and Tim decided that if nobody else was going to do anything about it, he would have to. By becoming Robin. Bruce did not like this idea at first; Dick went in hard on the "big brother" stuff out of guilt over Jason. When Jason came back to find Tim settled in, he deeply resented his "replacement" and tried to murder him repeatedly; Tim was mostly convinced he was right and didn't deserve the job. Eventually forced to quit after his dad found out, but then came back and was fully adopted after his dad was killed by supervillains. His official Supervillain Mentor was Lady Shiva, a Sexy Ninja Assassin who found him during the period when Bruce was trying to scare him out of being Robin, and put him through a very fast an intense apprenticeship. Bat specialties are detective work and being heir to large corporations.
Steph: Tim's first girlfriend and daughter of an extremely small-time supervillain. Took up her own cape as Spoiler to foil her dad's schemes, got semi-adopted by the Bat Clan, and then took up Robin when Tim quit. Both she and Bruce expected her to step right into Tim's shoes, which didn't work, and things went really badly. She was dead for awhile; it's possible her Robin time isn't canon anymore but she will still always be a Robin where it matters. She and Bruce have always had a distant and awkward but respectful relationship. Bat specialties are not having any special abilities but doing it anyway and keeping people from getting too far up their own butts.
---And this is the point in canon in which I stopped trying to follow the canon, and not coincidentally also the point at which DC decided to reboot their own continuity every five minutes, so I get a little vaguer from here, but:
Damian: Bruce's biological son via a dubcon-at-best liaison with Talia al Ghul. Did not know about him until Talia dropped him off at the Mansion as a preteen. He was raised by supervillains to be an emotionless assassin and to be Bruce's heir, and is trying to get over that. Shortly after he showed up, Bruce was dead for awhile, and Dick took over as Batman; he picked Damian as his Robin and Tim did not deal with this well. Dick and Damian bonded but Damian resents Tim as an usurper and repeatedly tried to kill him, and Jason has complicated feelings about him after his time with Talia. Official Supervillain Mentor was his grandfather R'as al Ghul, the immortal head of the League of Assassins. Bat specialties are assassin skills and kindness to animals.
And then the honorary Robins, who didn't officially hold the title but are also Bruce's kids:
Cass: Lady Shiva's daughter. Raised by her abusive assassin dad without any access to language of any kind in order to make her rely on nonverbal cues and be a better fighter, snatched up by Bruce as soon as he realized. Does not have any complicated emotional issues with the rest of the family, everybody loves Cass. Was Batgirl for a long time. Supervillian mentor is her evil dad. Bat specialties martial arts and emotional intelligence.
Duke: The newest one. I think there was some kind of big Bat-event where a bunch of young Gotham citizens took on the Robin mantle in a crisis, and Duke was the standout who kept up superheroing after the event. The only one of Bruce's kids to actually have superpowers. I don't actually have a good handle on him and I don't think he's met his supervillain mentor yet; so far his specialties seem to include not being super screwed up and having an outside POV on the bat-drama, but give him time to grow into it!
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The Robins have the kind of relationship where one has to draw complex plots with arrows that have paragraph length descriptions next to it, and it's /fun/.