Batman was not meant for this trashy self-insert YA fan fiction! (Gotham High Trailer Analysis)

[@MirandaSinistra]

I still can't decide what's worse. The fact that she openly admitted she knows nothing about the lore and is essentially making a self-insert fanfic. Or the fact that DC knew this is what she was going to do and signed off on it.

[@thathero5953]

Probably the second one.

[@Luke56721]

Why not both.

[@minnion2871]

@@Luke56721 See the way I see it DC is responsible for this. They hired a YA romance writer to write something about "Batman" in high-school and left her with no oversight to do her usual thing.... At the very least its on her bosses at DC for not bringing her up to speed on the basics of who Batman, Alfred, Joker, Cat-woman and the Waynes are as people... This is basically like hiring Steven King to write Archie and expecting people who don't like the horror genre to be happy with the results.

[@LadyDeirdre]

@@minnion2871It's much worse than that; King is a competent writer, and there have been horror stories in Archie.

[@fandude666]

@@LadyDeirdre I actually want to see a Stephan King's Archie now.

[@zvonimirtomac7896]

I see so many good fanfiction writers who deserve a spotlight, yet some incredibly bad ones make it officially. What backwards world is this?

[@javonyounger5107]

Do those writers have the right politics?

[@polyhymnia701]

Javon Younger Judging by a lot of the books that get published now, I think that's the main thing they check on an author's resume. As opposed to whether said author actually likes the characters she's writing about.

[@RealKull]

Bizarro World, apparently

[@CrisisComics]

Secret Empire: The Ultimate Ending is a good fix fic for the eponymous event, in case anyone wants to take a look.

[@Launchpad05]

The mainstream media isn't looking for 'quality'. They're looking for crap that panders to tween girls, and cat ladies.

[@raffikilee18]

Melissa de la Cruz: We need a token black character. Thomas Pitilli: I know lets race swap Dick Grayson! Luke Fox (the black son of Lucius Fox, played by Morgan Freeman in the movie): *exists

[@conradojavier7547]

De La Cruz: Screw that Imma Blackwash Dick Grayson Age 12.

[@williamtimonen6814]

I mean at this point they could easily have made Lucius a teacher and Luke his son or something.

[@muhammadfaizmohdnasiruddin9854]

@@williamtimonen6814 See, that would be a smart compromise.

[@karalovett8567]

raffikilee isn’t Dick Grayson already a minority anyway?

[@Troublethecat]

@@karalovett8567 Yeah, I vaguely remember it being mentioned at some point that he was Romani? But I guess as usual that's not dark enough. Since obviously racial minority status is only denoted by how dark you are.

[@Nemo-Nihil]

The writer even admits she knows zero about Batman. The only reason she picked Batman was because her husband loves Batman.

[@minnion2871]

@Frank Castle Or maybe she already had a manuscript about some love triangle based on one of her personal fantasies about her her husband and some rich Asian guy sitting on her desk, and then decided to rename the characters when DC offered her money to write comics choosing Batman because her husband kind of liked that franchise meaning that she could probably pick his brain for ideas on how to retool the story to look more like batman.... The results.... Well.... I think the resulting "Batman" story speaks for itself.... Not sure why DC hired her to bastardize their established lore when they could have simply given her money to write comics based on her previous work...

[@Tefezilla]

More like She: My husband likes batman so *I'M GONNA RUIN BATMAN*

[@Rinesmyth]

Welp, her husband's not gonna like him after this :[

[@chrisp.9385]

**Divorce has entered the chat**

[@yourfatboy5359]

*husband has left the game*

[@comicsrevenge6498]

"So the other day I thought, 'You know what Batman needs more of? ME!' so I pretty much just did that!"

[@TheSouloftheDragon]

A story where Bruce Wayne's in high school could work, bridging a gap between the boy who lost his parents to the man who use that pain to protect others. Of course, you need a writer how understands the character and not turn it into a generic YA novel.

[@dakotamartinez8310]

I see your point.😏

[@ManaPeerfr]

Believe in the theory that you can make a story works with the strangest concepts, if you work on them hard enough. Hell, I believe Snowflake and Safespace could work somehow ! They were even in a good direction with Safepsace, he could be like, the representation of lgbtq+ allies, a cliché big cis guy but dedicated to protect and with the superpower to match. But they didn't put even a thought in Snowflake. Snowflake would need to look different from xeir brother, and have to be unique somehow. Maybe xe has an unusual point of view about the role of the hero or humanity in a whole and that could be tied to xeir power or how xe received them (something more unique that shuriken...), and maybe xe can be frustrated or depressed because it's so hard for people understand xeir point of view. That could be a good duo of interesting characters, trying to own their derogatory names. But that would require effort...

[@DrMonty-yr1kc]

@@ManaPeerfr xe/xeir? Tf is that.

[@ManaPeerfr]

@@DrMonty-yr1kc xe is a pronoun neither masculine or feminine. I know "they" is more common but I find it confusing because it's plural.

[@silversmoke4159]

Haven't seen it I bet this versian bruce wayne is better than the one form ttg, who's a manchild that wears superman footie pajamas with an annoying laugh

[@bobbyjohnson6061]

So they made the guy who's incredibly smart and good at martial arts Asian?

[@Luke56721]

I wish that stereotype applied to me. I'm asian and not good at martial arts nor incredibly smart.

[@Troublethecat]

Author is Asian herself so it's okay for her to do it.

[@Troublethecat]

@Eugene Oisten What are you talking about? Is the author from the the Philippines? I thought she was from Hong Kong.

[@Troublethecat]

@Eugene Oisten Well, maybe it was her brother who was in Hong Kong? Because I remember there being an interview where she mentioned some kind of connection to Hong Kong. Where's your source. And she certainly seems to see herself as Asian. I wasn't even trying to defend her decision to make Bruce Asian anyway. Just saying what her reasoning probably was. Or rather what it actually was, because that interview basically said she made him Asian because she is.

[@robanator9083]

Isn't that a bit racist?

[@SamtheBravesFan]

Well she did say it was "her husband" that liked Batman, not her. She doesn't know squat about it and here she is, being given the keys to the kingdom.

[@SuperCosmicMutantSquid]

Just as the kingdom dies....hmmmmmm....

[@Drixenol86]

After this, he’ll probably divorce her.

[@Tefezilla]

More like She: My husband likes batman so *I'M GONNA RUIN BATMAN*

[@natto4now]

Calling it now Harly and poison ivy will be introduce as a trending popular Instagram couple

[@Empty_Roar]

And they can insert people judging them because of their open relationship

[@Groomsman]

I really hope they’re not that predictable, I like Ivy too much for that

[@blackphoenix77]

Harley probably has a Tik-Tok 🙄

[@Troublethecat]

Probably. Ivy's real name is Pamela Isley btw.

[@darkmatter1721]

@@blackphoenix77 honestly, she probably would

[@freman007]

"Nobody is richer or more beautiful than Bruce Wayne." "Based on the art, I doubt that." Savage.

[@darkroninmarvel]

Marvel: Oh, so you're approaching me? Instead of making good stories you're coming right to me? DC: I can't be cringe with you without getting closer

[@youknowyoufuckedupright3058]

HO HO! Then come as close as you like.

[@josesosa3337]

@Neil Brown its still a good word.

[@williamtimonen6814]

Jose Sosa Yeah, like If someone can Come up with à Better word I Might use it. But its all WE have to describe this for now.

[@togucvinw7]

Manga : DC , Marvel , everything you do has proven to be uselessuselessuselessuselessuselessuseless !!! Or in my language , MUDA !

[@patrickmcguire7896]

How could the writer do that to Alfred?! It's a complete butchering of his character! And no it isn't cause she made him Asian, Gay or related to the Waynes its that she made him a horrible character by abandoning Bruce! Something Alfred would NEVER do. Yet the writer thinks this is an improvement because now he's no longer an old white man.

[@uanime1]

Fun fact: originally Alfred was introduced after Robin joined Batman and it was later retconned so that he raised Bruce after his parents died. One of the few good retcons as it added a new dynamic to these characters. Also why not focus on the Teen Titans for a YA novel, since they're young adults.

[@kelpietales4503]

To their credit they are doing TT YA novels. They did one focusing on Raven, next a Beast Boy one and will continue to focus on other characters until they become a team book last I heard. How well they execute it is a other story.

[@akanesaotome5924]

if they doing Batman YA novel, why are they changing everything people knew and love about him?

[@bethanymcgonigle]

Yeah he was originally raised by his uncle phillip which at the time was Thomas brother and not Martha's

[@DavidGraham221]

akane saotome Because the person writing the book knows NOTHING about the lore

[@fandude666]

Joker:"Bruce Wayne?....Oh my god I haven't seen you sense high school." Bruce sweating:"Do I.....know you?" Joker:"Jack, your old pal. We fought over this crazy hot girl, I had a side buzz cut." Bruce:"....oh god."

[@KelShu]

Joker: Hey do you remember that 16 year old girl we fought over Selina, she kept talking about metaphorical triangles, I think she wanted to have a threesome with us; man, good thing we didn't do anything with her am I right?

[@fandude666]

@@KelShu Bruce:"Yeah...." (Small world we live) Joker:"Hey who's the junior?" Bruce:"Dick Grayson, I adopted him." Joker:"Dick Grayson?....Boy is it me or didn't you hang out with a freshmen with that same name." Dick Grayson(2-3 younger than Bruce) reads a news paper about the tragic death of the Grayson family and how Bruce took him in. Dick smiles:"Huh.....different times, same old Bruce."

[@fandude666]

@Neil Brown Yeah I've always had a problem with grammar. I actually do these things a lot in other comment sections.

[@muhammadfaizmohdnasiruddin9854]

This comment chain's stories are already more entertaining than what YA spin-off could manage.

[@blackphoenix77]

There's already a Chinese Batman (Wang Baixi dc.fandom.com/wiki/Wang_Baixi_(Prime_Earth) ) that they could have used for this. They could have done his origin and went into how he feels about following in the footsteps of the original Batman, but no. Melissa De La Cruz probably never even heard of him. Also *THE JOKER IS NOT HOT.*

[@veraboohaus1996]

Does the writer think it's still 2009? "It's Gossip Girl meets Batman" dude Gossip Girl is not even on anymore. God everything about this feels like CW shows in comic form.

[@SuperCosmicMutantSquid]

Here's a better question to ask; does the writer think any woman who is into comics reads them specifically looking for Gossip Girl? Because that's the trend I notice with a lot of these shit-tier female writers vs the old guard ones. They're not writing for comics or comic fans of any gender. They don't like comics but they love shitty romance so they'll turn comics into shitty romance and imply that this is the ONLY WAY you can bring female readers in. Fuckin' no.

[@skyslasher2297]

theparanormalfreak except they actual CW Tv shows are much better then this

[@youknowyoufuckedupright3058]

Did KZbin delete my comment

[@adrianpamintuan5876]

@@skyslasher2297Yeah, At least the CW shows have some semblance of the characters they portray.

[@natto4now]

Can't wait for the Batman who laughs to come in and kill that version of ""Bruce wayne""

[@JoseHernandez-xv2bt]

shelby MD I wouldn’t mind that

[@renattac4077]

This comment is speaking the truth!

[@thathero5953]

That would be worth reading.

[@p.andytheface.475]

Redemption Ark!

[@jeangentry6656]

when I heard that cat roar/growl, my pro wrestling soaked brain went "Sable's here!?" lol :-P

[@natto4now]

Rember Selina is pregnant with Bruce's baby in the main comic line rigth now and the whole designer plot But no, let put Riverdale in there

[@welovepopculture5821]

OMG, when will DC and Marvel understand that gender-swapping and ethnicity-swapping another author's character is an ABOMINATION?

[@Groomsman]

We Love Pop Culture To make it more insulting, there’s actually an easy fix to Dick Grayson’s character. Instead of having him be Dick Grayson, he should be Lucius Fox. It wouldn’t surprise me if this was mentioned to the writer though

[@muhammadfaizmohdnasiruddin9854]

@@Groomsman or as another comment suggested, have Lucius's son replace Dick if they wanted a black character so badly.

[@TurtleRhythm]

If they didn't use the Batman name, nobody would buy this comic, but then again who is going to buy this comic??

[@minnion2871]

If they didn't use the Batman IP nobody would complain about this comic, and they'd have to put some effort into finding the audience for it... Maybe inserting some adds into some actual YA romance novels.... Adds on TV during current year Soap Operas.... But that might cost more money than they are willing to put into promoting new IP... which is where we come back to the problem of figuring out how to sell a romance story to people that seem to prefer action/mystery/suspense stories...

[@dakotamartinez8310]

Not me!

[@dodojesus4529]

The Comic book Review crowd, ~10 sales so whoho

[@jeangentry6656]

the love triangle is Scott-Jean-Logan all over again, just done VERY VERY badly.

[@bbgunz1705]

As if that triangle wasn't bad enough in the 1st place.

[@muhammadfaizmohdnasiruddin9854]

I already hate that love-triangle angle they had going on in X-Men. It's hard to imagine it being worse than that.

[@cerulee]

And that love triangle sucked enough!

[@GNackers53]

Wow this is a new low for DC. 1. They turned an iconic superhero into a moody teenager, with possible abandonment issues. And gave him a race change for good measure. 2. They turned Bruce Wayne's butler, and sole guardian, into a gay Asian stereotype. 3. They not only made Richard Greyson black for no reason (but for minority points), but took away almost everything that made him the well known character that he is. DC really is trying to be like Marvel in all the worst ways.

[@ThatGreenMach1ne]

In this action-packed superhero comic, the most important element of the story is The Love Triangle TM!

[@Raximus3000]

THIS IS NOT A SUPERHERO COMIC!!! This is a bad fanfic!

[@RobotTanuki]

"My bid to take over the comic book industry from the inside by making Snowflake and Safespace and a self-insert YA graphic novel using Batman names is proceeding JUST AS PLANNED!" Edit: I hope you're referencing what I hope you're referencing.

[@ThatGreenMach1ne]

@@Raximus3000 * whispers * That's the jooooke.

[@ThatGreenMach1ne]

@@RobotTanuki Yes. Yes. I am.

[@minnion2871]

@@Raximus3000 Well more like a trashy romance story aimed at horny teenagers, but yeah DC would have been better off making comics based on this writers own creations than asking her to write romance stories about established super heroes...

[@SuperCosmicMutantSquid]

Here's the interesting tidbit about all of this and no, it has nothing to do with Gotham High already being pitched years ago and how DC Super Hero Girls kinda already fills in that niche anyway. Now, DC tried getting the YA base YEARS ago with their Minx Comics imprint but that failed as well. Why? A lot of factors are often spoken about that. 1. Some of the books were hard to find. They were all graphic novels so they were often paired up with the manga but for the most part because they were apart of an actual SERIES, it was often hard to find them. When the imprint shut down, I had to go to used books stores and Amazon to find the books that I did want because they were never carried in the stores near me. So availability was a problem. 2. Despite these being DC books they weren't exactly 'super hero comics' for girls and instead, as mentioned here, mostly YA. There were some that were sci-fi or super natural but for the most part they were YA inspired slice-of life stories that often tried TOO HARD to remind us that these stories were aimed at a female audience. Suffice to say a lot of people, even people within the target audience, didn't take to this because DC was more or less saying that female readers didn't want or couldn't handle straight forward super hero books. 3. A lot of the books themselves weren't that good. There were some gems here and there but for the most part as I mentioned, the books were trying too hard to remind their audience that they were YA and as a result they hit a lot of the YA tropes. By this time, manga had already gotten a large female fan base and those readers had seen that manga could balance heroes, romance, and so many other genres often times in the SAME STORY so what the Minx line was offering them was slim pickings. Manga also proved that a female audience didn't even mind if the main protag wasn't a woman, just so long as the art was cool, the action was great and other side stories were well mixed in. I even remember at the time Naruto and Bleach were SUPER POPULAR when Minx hit and Tokyo Pop were also doing their own American series which was much more diverse in terms of genre compared to Minx (but that whole issue had it's own trouble but I digress) and a lot of people were buying the Tokyo Pop series over Minx not just because of story but because they were simply easier to find. On top of that, it wasn't as if Minx was like Vertigo which offered more mature comics. It was just saddled to teen stuff and doing the typical boring shit for a lot of the books. No one really cared because hardly any of the books took that leap into making things more fantasy and into an actual super hero book. This is what Gotham High feels like and how a lot of comics have been going. They've been hiring (bad) YA writers who bring that sentiment into the comics and it doesn't work because fans of comics don't come for the YA and YA readers don't come for the comics. They're trying and failing to mix the genres and that's mostly because they're trying to force it into series that already have their own settings and when we DO see them try something original it sucks anyway. But we have to remember; a lot of the people they put in charge are not comic people. They're not action people. They're mostly fans of YA and will bring that sentiment into the books and have been forcing that change into them, all the while expecting people to be okay with that and bitching when sales slump. Also....anyone kinda notice that even though she was the 'voice' of this, Selena seems to do nothing in her own book? The last thing you need to do is make Selena into BELLA. And how exactly does it 'make more sense' for Bruce to be Chinese to show off that he is a billionaire? There are still plenty of White Billionaires in the US right now so I don't know how it makes 'more sense'. Her explanation makes NO SENSE and comes off that she is REALLY trying to hide her reasoning for wanting to race swap everyone at will. And of course Martha is the one who 'founded' Wayne Industries now because girl power right? Like she can't be competent on her own or what the fuck ever. I swear these writers can't do anything but flip and flip hollowly. Just so much self-inserting, clout chasing, no wonder all of this feels shallow as hell. It IS shallow.

[@jeangentry6656]

yes, but the current head of DC, Jim Lee, IS a "Comics Person", he's a well known and respected artist in comics. He's been a big wig within DC for YEARS. He should know better.

[@SuperCosmicMutantSquid]

@@jeangentry6656 I guess he didn't learn from the mistakes of Minx considering THIS story feels like one of the stories that line would have published but with actual DC characters in it..

[@SuperCosmicMutantSquid]

@Frank Castle You know what helped that though? Spider-Man still being a super hero book. It meshed the personal lives a hero together with his crime fighting persona. This really is just dollar store Twilight style YA where the assumption is THIS is the only thing female readers care about or can comprehend.

[@janette2691]

2:01 the adult store that was like 10 minutes from where i live closed down like 3 - 4 years ago, its now a loan place but you could still see the adult store sign above it. but the video store that is like 7 blocks from my house is still open to my surprise. this comic is basically a fanfiction. this is ridiculous.

[@wanderinghuntress8645]

They did 2 DC Girls cartoons and the Lauren Faust one isn’t even that good, this comic can only end soooo well

[@fandude666]

Not to mention they dropped this concept so many times before, from it came Batman Beyond.

[@JuanGomez-ke5py]

The first one was good have their own problem the second one I'm not a fan of more like Laura try to make trying to make lightning in a bottle twice you can I think Laura really wanted to make a rwby ripped off

[@taylorboney1089]

Not sure how it’s a rwby ripoff.

[@fandude666]

@@JuanGomez-ke5py I wouldn't call it a RWBY rip off, more of a superhero comedy like powerpuffgirls. Lauren also did had shorts during the dc nation block.

[@JuanGomez-ke5py]

@@fandude666 also she Laura trying to make lightning in a bottle strike twice Yeti you made friendship is Magic you cannot make lightning in a bottle strike twice

[@madamabis3432]

Fun fact: there was actually going to be a cartoon of the same characters but the love triangle consisted of barbara gordon,bruce, and selina. It got rejected though

[@patrickkelmer6290]

1:10 MARY SUE DETECTED BEEP BEEP BEEP

[@MistbornTaylor]

"They should just do a separate line of YA novels that could take place in the DC universe" .......actually they did a line called DC Icons. I am assuming it didn't do too well because there were only four of them and this due to a variety of reasons. The books were marketed as Wonder Woman, Batman, Catwoman, and Superman stories but in reality, they were mostly focused on OCs and the title characters were really side characters. Also *who* they got to write them. While Wonder Woman and Batman were written by beloved authors Leigh Bardugo and Marie Lu, Catwoman was written by an author named Sarah J Maas who is a very polarizing YA author, to say the least. Then the Superman author had #MeToo accusations and Superman was the last one to be published... It's kind of confusing why they got Melissa de la Cruz to write this. Leigh Bardugo, Marie Lu, and Sarah J Maas are all very high profile authors in the YA book world with very large audiences. However, Melissa de la Cruz is really not that popular. Her most popular and well-liked series is her series of Disney Descendant books. I read the first one and it was better than it had any right to be but it's not something that screams "this person should write YA batman". And there are high profile YA authors who could probably do a better job.

[@SuperCosmicMutantSquid]

Don't forget the Minx line which was DC attempt to get girls into comics via original stories but they were all YA style and not super heroes.

[@kalystagutierrez1607]

Doesn't Sarah J Maas write fairy porn?? I think it's called a court of Thorns and Roses. (EDIT) SHE DOES AND IT IS A COURT OF THORNS AND ROSES, A BOOKTUBER I LIKE REVIEWED THEM!! OH MY GOD WHY WOULD THEY PUT HER IN CHARGE OF A COMIC WITH HER WRITING HISTORY!?!!?!!?

[@MistbornTaylor]

@@kalystagutierrez1607 From what I've seen: Yes.

[@polyhymnia701]

kalysta gutierrez Court of Thorns and Roses is shelved as YA in most libraries * barfs *

[@jamesprice6015]

Coming soon Gotham High Gotham High: Love and Laughter Gotham High: The Dark Midnight

[@SonicXtreme99akaCreeperMario]

No

[@rodracer4567]

Gotham High: The Long Fall Formal

[@jamesprice6015]

@@rodracer4567 Gotham High: The Ballad of Gay Alfred

[@natto4now]

I'm calling it There will be a weak mystery and awfull love triangle And will provably end with Bruce getting a proto suit or spray painting a bat logo onto a jacket

[@MK_ULTRA420]

Selina ends up choosing Bruce which turns Jack so crazy he becomes Joker, who then goes "supreme gentleman" on Selina and Bruce becomes Batman to avenge her.

[@AlgaeNymph]

A love triangle with Bruce at the center sort-of makes sense given Jack's obsession, but _Selena?_ Two adults really wanna tap dat teen.

[@skyslasher2297]

Bruce is 17 going on 18 so he’s still clean for now

[@AlgaeNymph]

@@skyslasher2297 I meant the producer and the artist; self-insert, remember?

[@VioletVerbosity]

Asian= rich, handsome and totally not racist

[@CaptainLunar1994]

DC has another Young Adult romance graphic novel coming out and I feel like THAT one has more merit, and dare I say chance of success than this ever could hope to have. Victor and Nora, the story of how Mr. Freeze meet his wife. We'd actually be seeing the amount of love and devotion at play in that story, and see just WHY he'd go supervillain for her... Sure it could be godawful but at the VERY LEAST it has more creative substance and reason for existing than this hot garbage.

[@fandude666]

On a very Special Gotham High, "Way way back in the 2020's Secret comic book employees Used famous guys and ladies And made unamused genetic copies Now the clones are sexy teens Now, they're going to make it if they try Loving, learning, sharing, judging Time to laugh, and shiver and cry Gotham High, Gotham Hiiiiggghhhh!"

[@AL-ws5yi]

They skinned Batman and pasted it over a CW show.

[@shooterdownunder]

This is not a new idea. After batman the animated series went of air, this was actually floated as an idea by the tv network executives to appeal to the younger audience. This was rejected and shelved. Unfortunately they should have burnt it and buried the ashes.

[@mortysmith6090]

This is a Wattpad DC fanfic that managed to make it into the DCU, looool

[@GR3GORY90]

They already tried this with Gotham Acadamy with original characters. There are so many problems that even problems have problems.

[@mollietenpenny4093]

Batman is one of my favorite comic book characters. When I was little I would get Batman comics from the library and read them for hours. I know the names of every Robin. So I know more about Batman than those two buffoons combined. The comics goofiest Batman stories from the Silver age look like masterpieces compared to this poor excuse for a comic book. One of the reasons I loved comics was it helped me escape all of those crappy YA novels every girl I knew were reading. I also know a lot of fans who write wonderful fan fiction and fan comics who would've been better for this job. If I was hired to create a Batman story I would do tons of research and do tons of brainstorming to create the best story I can.

[@Godzilla-tu2cd]

Why DC why? I thought Marvel got it bad but WTH am I looking at?!

[@jshadowhunter]

Thanks, Wonder Twins, for letting us know we're not the only sane people in a room full of lunatics.

[@NerdigansInc]

The only one that can save us from BatSimp is the waifu hero Corona-Chan🥰✊

[@DogmaBeoulve]

I have to say, you two are, repeatedly, a source of pride, inspiration and hope, for all kinds of reasons. It's good to know that such lovely and talented ladies are also so vocal, so intelligent and well-thought-out.

[@Alesiopdv]

There´s also the fact the name "ma-sha" is not only not chinese but doesn´t even exist! It´s most likely a misspeling of the name Masha which is a russian/jewish name. We´re having a laugh about this on twitter =P

[@johannesseyfried7933]

Maybe she's Russian-Chinese? But then Bruce's Uncles would be named Vlad and he couldn't be gay.

[@Sarah-pn9ut]

Imagine if someone at DC had the balls to create a new comic series starring a superhero from Hong Kong that goes into depth about current conflicts involving Hong Kong and mainland China

[@muhammadfaizmohdnasiruddin9854]

They did had a Justice League of China comic, which was basically like a superhero team of knock-offs of the Trinity, but even then, each character had a different origin and their own struggles to go through. Haven't read much of it, but the first few issues did feel like I was reading a shonen manga when it comes to the setting and characters.

[@kalystagutierrez1607]

YA Batman comic: **e x i s t s** Us: BURN IT

[@jeangentry6656]

basically, lol :-P

[@muhammadfaizmohdnasiruddin9854]

It's okay. Usually these YA Novels in the form of comics don't last long. I see it not lasting more than a year.

[@Zaelkrie]

They disabled the comments as well, what an absolute joke of an industry.

[@luma4902]

The execution was the problem for me and the joker/catwoman thing

[@usagijojo]

DC is desperately trying to prove their worth as an "idea factory" to keep AT&T from shutting them down. That's why they allowed this author to use Batman in the story; they *needed* that name brand recognition.

[@aaaah540]

It’s so weird that AT&T of all companies owns DC.

[@gtfghj3267]

Wdym

[@anavideos2445]

Wait, the other dude was supposed to be joker!? I thought he was that "Guess Who?" villan (Is Charade his name?).

[@aarontoland8015]

I'm trying to write a teen/coming of age/superhero/dark comedy-drama comic. As a teen this is dumb. I don't like teen soap opera stories.

[@fionnaitsradag5152]

I thought Madame Butterfly was an odd choice--being that China and Japan didn't have a great relationship historically. Like you say, Turandot, or an actual Chinese opera would have made way more sense.

[@CeciliaReads]

There is actually already a YA DC novel series released. It's called the DC Icon series. So far they have Wonder Woman (came out in 2017), Batman (2018), Catwoman (2018), and Superman (2019). I haven't personally read them but my friends who have said they are okay.

[@dramonmaster222]

It's like someone's fan fiction got green light. Plus this whole thing feels like a pitch for a CW pilot.

[@stanbartsch1984]

But the Batman/Superman/Wonder Woman Teen Triangle would have been SO much more interesting....

[@timephire]

Here's a silly idea, why didn't they use their stockpile of teen superheroes for a YA comic?! You know, like the TEEN TITANS or YOUNG JUSTICE or THE LEGION OF SUPERHEROES. Smh...

[@zachanikwano]

Honestly reminds me of the "high school/college au" genre of fan fiction. It's like, everyone's got their preferences but why the heck are you taking superheroes, mythical characters or otherwise and stripping everything away? Taking a character like Superman, rewriting him to be a human, with no powers, no tragic backstory, no other supers at all....and just putting him in high school? What is the point?

[@VerdantRange]

Oh, man. There's a to unpack here. I remember when there was a time where DC/WB told the people who previously worked on B:TAS to create a show about a Batman in highschool. Y'know what they did? The made Batman Beyond because they knew trying to do Bruce Wayne in high school and be Batman at the same time was a stupid idea. Gotham High was an idea pitched before, but it was rejected because it was deemed a bad idea. As for the race swaps, I can understand some of the idea of doing race swaps for this AU, but the execution here wasn't done well. Like, there was nothing recognizable about him. Like, if we were introduced to him in gym and we see him doing something acrobatic and being addressed by name, that would have worked better, but this is clumsy. Also, one could argue they did something racist by removing someone of Roma descent to replace him with a more common/well-known minority. As for the making Bruce Wayne part-asian and new money rather than old money, I figure that is severely limiting for the story since in the mainline DC universe, the Wayne family being old money had a large impact and led to them having connections to all sorts of things that go way back. I figure the main reason they decided to do they is for internet articles to try to draw more attention to this book, to seem trendy, and that's the best case scenario. A much worse possibility is the self-insert thing, which might carry some racist undertones on the writer's part. Plus, the thing with changing Alfred from Bruce's butler/found family to his gay uncle who left him for years makes the character look much worse to me. I could probably accept this Alfred if he was actually there for him. Him sending Bruce away when he's his sister's child who witnessed her murder just makes him look like a complete asshole. Finallly, there are so many ways they could have done this sort of appealing to the YA crowd better. For example, what if they did a thing where Bruce tries to deal with his emotional issues by playing a VR MMO like Sword Art Online, where he plays a crime fighting vigilante named Batman and along the way while dealing with his issues, he makes friends with people who also have familial issues like this guy named Clark Kent who recently learned he was adopted, or Diana Prince, the daughter of a Greek ambassador who learns who father is a mental patient who think's he's Zeus. There are so many options, but they went with the cliche teen romance where it's pretty much Batman in name only.

[@Groomsman]

Verdant Range Batman Beyond was a stroke of genius, and probably would’ve been the better option for a YA novel. But the writer knows nothing of the Batman lore so the fact that a Batman Beyond YA novel didn’t cross her mind doesn’t surprise me. The black guy should’ve been Lucius Fox. So I can’t share your opinion on the Dick Grayson race swapping. However, I do like your idea about Bruce playing a game. I thought that was very clever

[@skyslasher2297]

Verdant Range having Dick Grayson in general was a bad idea he’s supposed to be Bruce’s Adopted son not a friend race swapping is the least of this versions problems

[@KevinKess]

Sir / Madame, I have this to say about your idea... Have you given any thought of becoming an author, yourself? I ask this because, if I'm being honest... you have managed to come up with better ideas on how a Young Adult-centric version of the DC Comics universe could work. I would love to have read a story with the kind of idea that you just proposed.

[@Dragonkid1801]

they could've done a YA-esque story with terry mcginnis. that would work if you included dana and melanie but it definitely doesn't work with bruce selina and the joker also, i did not know the joker had a name. i saw the trailer and was just like "who the heck is jack naphier?" i had to watch jean's video before i realized he was the joker the joker's supposed to be psychotic, not edgy

[@Groomsman]

Dragonkid1801 Talking about the Joker’s name, he’s never had an official name. “Jake White” was something that got tossed around a lot in the comics so I’m surprised that’s never been used again, not even in the Joker movie

[@Dragonkid1801]

@@Groomsman as weird as it sounds, I think he's better off without a name. No civilian identity. No known link to regular society. He's just the Joker

[@Troublethecat]

Why did they make Dick into a Black Best Friend for Bruce when Lucius Fox exists?

[@Slitheringpeanut]

Why should they care about the financial situation? Comics, for the last 10 years, has been the playground of the rich, either trust fun babies, those with affluent spouses (Chelsea Cain's husband knew someone at Marvel and she demanded Mockingbird), rich Hollywood elites (Like Sana Amanat and Daniel Kibblesmith) or old, establish pros, money has never been a concern for them. And ever since Mark Millar, the well known superhero fan hater, got his Wanted made into a movie, and now has Umbrella Academy on Netflix, these people have been using Comics to get into Hollywood, if they weren't there already. After all, if fan hater Millar did it, so can they. Right?

[@h.stryker5519]

This sounds like a fanfiction AU idea that got turned into an actual comic.

[@luma4902]

With a very strange love triangle by the way

[@h.stryker5519]

@@luma4902 Right?

[@elliotville7820]

I've read better fanfics than this YA Twilight ripoff crap

[@h.stryker5519]

@@elliotville7820 Same.

[@humblemarty]

This is like bad writing advice got used to write a book.

[@catspaw3092]

First off Jack could get into trouble for dating a minor & second how cliche for two guys to be fighting over a chick it's never worth it one is rich & hot & one is poor & hot we all know she'll go for the guy with the cash. How could De La Cruz degrade Catwoman like this Selina has always been confident, secure, cunning, stealthy, sassy, sexy, strong, self assured & independent she always relied on herself. Joker would never fall for Catwoman he's too fixated on Batman his missing half this author has a husband who's a Batman fan why didn't she ask him his input on the characters? If I was her editor I would never have green lit this garbage I would've told her "Why not just make a comic about you since this is based on your life you can make yourself the hot female lead with two hot guys vying for your affections." "You don't mess with an icon like Batman or any of the other DC characters you said yourself you don't know shit about Batman so why fuck him up?"

[@dreampiper]

I have a fix for this Gotham High story. Why not make it about the kids of Gotham heroes/villains and how they got to high school and it could be about how they are dealing with their family history, dynamics and troubles while also dealing with normal high school problems. Maybe they are all trying to escape their family's superhero/villain origins and just trying to live a normal life, and hide their identities as they all slowly start to become part of a friendship circle, but then as the story goes on things begin to slip, characters begin to shift away or into their parent's hero/villain role, and identities begin to become clear and test the friendship that they've developed. Gotham High. Fixed it for you DC.

[@dreampiper]

Probably going to draw this out now! XD

[@kendriccoley7053]

As pimpmasteryoda said billionaire Bruce Wayne or trailerpark joker smells like twilight

[@SuperCosmicMutantSquid]

Yes but without the powers....

[@Devilsblight86]

There are two adult video stores I know of close to the apartments I used to grow up in. I didn't know they were there until YEARS after I moved from the area. They're still up there too, though I feel that one is very poorly placed because it's connected to a laundromat and on the same block from a church and across the street from a public park.

[@zachanikwano]

This just begs the question, if you're going to radically change everything about a character and their story, why not just write a new story? With new characters? If your story is good, you cement yourself as a good writer with awesome new additions. Also the double standards of race bending caucasians/pale people vs minorities.

[@desdinovaincarnate9703]

Why does Alfred look like the result of Steve Buscemi having a one night stand with Johhny Dep

[@Empty_Roar]

Using well known character names gets more people to pick it up out of curiosity

[@kelpietales4503]

Teen Titans, Young Justice, Gotham Academy, and various teen superheroes solos show DC has done the YA Superhero genre before. Not always the best (TT has had periods of crappy, abysmal writing for years for instance) but those are examples of merging the genres with original characters that worked. I don't mind Elseworlds stories or adaptions that shake things up a bit but there's a point where they change too much and why bother? Especially altering a core concept of the characters i.e. Alfred leaving Bruce in a boarding school and coincidentally coming back in to his life when he's about to inherit a fortune is inexcusable. Not even touching the idea of a Catwoman/Joker ship, my brain refuses to think about it. I've seen plenty of other superhero books, shows, and movies not give a crap about doing a character right and just use them as vehicles for agendas or divisive humor. This looks no different and it's a shame for a variety of reasons, from the fact the YA concept can work in a way if they actually tried to the current economical climate which comics were struggling in long before the virus.

[@skyslasher2297]

So this is why smallville would’ve been like with Batman and it what I expected it sucks Yes I know Gotham exists but I mean Batman’s childhood as a highschool drama

[@liljenborg2517]

Sure YA and superheroes can work together. Young Justice was more than a little YA, as were the recent animated Teen Titans movies. The YA Percy Jackson novels, on the other hand, are more than a little super-hero-y. You could even make the case that X-men (especially New Mutants) was YA before YA was cool.

[@emmanuelmercado1162]

God the love triangle is such a shitty trope. It's 20-goddamn-20, we can do polyamory without getting atomized now

[@EmmanuelLopez-ij7sf]

Just like in the animated movies. They show Dick being beat just to show how tough Bruce is. EVERY FREAKING TIME!

[@KelShu]

It wouldn't be modern Dc Comics if we didn't see Dick Grayson take an L

[@xanderg.1070]

You want to know what’s funny, there was actually an animated series of the same concept with Batman and his rouges being teenagers in high school that was being pitched back in the late 2000s-early 2010s and was supposed to be the next Batman series after Batman: the brave and the bold, but was scrapped and got replaced with Beware the Batman

[@kerrychristensen7204]

Love triangle with Batman/Catwoman or Joker/Catwoman? Naaah. Love triangle with Joker/Batman or Batman/Catwoman? Eyyy Preferably a Batman sandwich... 😏 Although, eventually it could become some sort of DC Dagwood style thing because with the Joker comes Harley, comes Ivy, comes Kiteman... *Hell yeah~*

[@dzk004223]

CW is in the corner waiting for that sweet chance to use this as their next series

[@serenityjoy1872]

DC was awful for approving this self insert. Batman is more than big enough where an actual Batman story can attract teens if done correctly. Fan fiction writers are creating better stories than DC High.

[@vengeance1701]

Welcome to the world of Star Trek fans. Reducing iconic characters to the bare stereotypes! Like Kirk...in the show and movies, he was serious, cared deeply about his ship and crew. But JJ Trek... LOL, HE LIKES GIRLS AND HE IS HOTHEADED!

[@kinghoodofmousekind2906]

Good analysis; I think your final suggestion, of a "story within the DC universe with new characters" could be a good change.

[@SenorSparkle787]

I do think it's more than possible to do a young adult story with the DC characters. It's all on the execution. Take JL8 for example, a story based on the Justice League as Elementary school students and he is a very successful.

[@LadyDeirdre]

And yes, video stores do still exist, though they're very rare, but that's apparently an adult video store, which is actually stupider since as far as I know, they went extinct years ago. Either that, or it's a peep show parlour, which themselves went extinct long before adult video stores. The intent is clear, to establish that Jack's from the bad part of town, but the choice of venue was... not the best.

[@luma4902]

This narration is a perfect meme i want to laugh every time if it was a joke or parody would be perfect

[@itspikachutime5624]

ok so i dont know how many people are aware of this but this isnt the first time gotham high was gonna be a thing and like if you just look it up right now "i typed in to google gotham high original concept" you can see the original kinda designs they had for what wouldve been a tv show like several pieces of i suppose it would be concept art? and it looked interesting so its sad to see that they dug up this old idea and the first thing they do is a love triangle story and with less interesting designs then the concept you can find

[@meanncat3050]

What is the obsession of highschool AUs with women? I mean...really?! I'm female and I still don't know! School is lame. School is boring. Why do you want interesting characters going to school?

[@jeangentry6656]

yet somehow, Shoujo manga gets it right.

[@polyhymnia701]

I'm a girl and I think there's only two ways to write high school well: - treat it like the sick comedy it is ( _Freaks and Geeks,_ _Napoleon Dynamite_ ). _Freaks and Geeks_ could be dramatic at times, but it never fell into melodrama. They had two semi-love triangles on the show but they were never a big deal, kind of like real life! - go back to the days of the one-room schoolhouse ( _Anne of Green Gables_ ), where there was plenty of drama but at least the kids weren't having sex Some would argue that there's a third option, high school but it's magic ( _Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Keeper of the Lost Cities_ ) but to me those are just as soapy as the non-magical varients. There is no way to take high school drama seriously and make it a good story. Just my opinion as an amateur writer who has suffered through way too many bad YA books. 😂

[@nomiflower9707]

Some people can't get past highschool which is pretty sad

[@nidalderoo3448]

When I first heard of this I thought it would be like Spider-Man loves Marry Jane except that had Spider-Man pretty much put on the sidelines. This doesn’t sound like Batman at all

[@mamodokod]

I like how she made Bruce Asian cuz that's more believable in being rich.

[@ManENames]

After The Silencer, Doomsday Clock and Batman Curse of the White Knight, this just comes off as really underwhelming and bland. Either way I got the final issue of Batman Curse of the White Knight and I'm officially done with DC. Unless Sean Gordon Murphy writes another Batman story (or any other DC Comic) but I'm not holding my breath on that.

[@Rakeem-osa]

Looking at it makes me feel like somebody who was on Wattpad somehow moved to making dc comic books

[@Demolitiondude]

Marvel still won. Dc at least isn't proactively chasing fans away.

[@zeldaprincessgirl100]

I can redraw the characters and change the story, i'm not a professional artist, but it'd be fun to do.

[@luma4902]

Give him a "Authentic family" with their version of alfred but the change is that they are blood relatives now, he was not taking care of him but is still his butler like ???? Blood doesn't necessary mean authentic actually her description makes them look more distant from each other them the tradicional bruce wayne and alfred relantionship. And YES she talked as a improvement

[@Raximus3000]

Please this entire thing is a downgrade, it perfectly represents the comic book industry.

[@mzareer2376]

i dont understand how anyone can read this product and be proud of themselves for creating it

[@dantecopy4619]

this was originally going to be a animated tv show in the 2007

[@KokoroHane]

Calling this a bad fanfiction is an understatement.... a true fanfiction author knows that being IN CHARACTER even when writing an AU is of upmost importance (which, obviously, this fails to do). So what the hell even is this? Lame OCs with Batman paint....

[@alejandrocervantes3624]

This is made for a teen girl who just got off watching Foamy the Squirrel on newgrounds.com while signing a bring back Invader Zim petition wearing a Jack Skellington hoodie and Happy Tree Friends tube socks purchased from Hot Topic during an Emily the Strange buy one get one fifty percent off sale, where she discovered Serenity Rose from slave labor graphics comics while her overbearing but loving father restricts her from going to the My Chemical Romance/Limp Bizkit concert with a five years older than her boyfriend that constantly IMs unsourced stolen Pom & Zee comic art over 56k modem American Online trial disks on myspace.com with a top-eight consisting of Tim Burton, Jack Sparrow, Eminem, Jesus Christ and whatever angsty band is the hit new thing on Disney Adventures magazine and spends all day filling out "What Kingdom Hearts Character Are You?" quizzes only to complain that she didn't get Riku and is unable to watch the 2003 MTV Music Awards because her deadbeat older brother is always hogging the living room TV playing Tony Hawk's Underground on his Halo Edition transparent green Xbox using a third-party Mad-Catz air flow controller with a busted analog stick constantly leaning to the right making anti-semitic remarks on how Eric stole his Wicked McTwist over the helicopter in Hawaii footage. Ya know what I mean?"

[@MK_ULTRA420]

This is made for Ted Bundy stans who still read Twilight fanfiction.

[@fandude666]

#RebelTaix