The Young Justice Comic Preview And You: A Friendly Primer For My Favourite Fandom.

The Young Justice Comic Preview And You: A Friendly Primer For My Favourite Fandom.

Hey all. Having seen a few questions pop up again and again on my dash after last-nights/this morning revelations, I thought I’d take a crack at answering some of them. So, here goes!

Question: “Is Dick Grayson a hussy/tramp/promiscuity based insult of your choice?”

In a word, no, he is not. And as this isn’t really the time or the place to go into why you probably shouldn’t be using those words, I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt and just assume you have chosen a very poor word to describe your concern about Dick’s potentially showing some incredibly poor dating ethics here. And that’s understandable. On the surface, it would be easy to assume that Dick had a one night stand and then went off to receive a birthday gift from his entirely none-the-wiser girlfriend. Such behaviour would, obviously, be entirely behind the pale. However, there are a few other possibilities that we should consider first.

Firstly, that kind of behaviour would be entirely out of character for Dick, both in Young Justice so far and his extended characterisation in the larger DCU. Despite what a certain section of fandom seems to think, Dick has been consistently characterised as someone who loves deeply and takes it seriously. Dick can be clueless. Dick is an incredible flirt. But is he someone who intentionally does hurtful things or puts his own pleasure above other peoples feelings? No. He is not.

Secondly, while it’s certainly possible that Dick and Bette slept together, (and if he isn’t already in a relationship that’s hardly the end of the world,) it’s also far from the only possibility. Indeed, I would suggest that the awkwardness in Bette’s flirting clearly implies a lack of consummation to their relationship. Or, put another way, if they had spent the night together, it’s a bit odd that they’re exchanging awkward handshakes instead of sweet nothings the next morning or that he bounced out of bed the next morning to talk to his friends on a laptop in the living room without her noticing.

My best guess is he recognised Bette wherever they were the night before, noticed she’d had a bit too much too drink and not knowing where she lived, took her home so she could sleep it off.

Lastly, I’d suggest looking at the preview pages again. There are no long faces, frowns, or recriminations in that room, and no hard looks or hurt feelings. This strongly implies that even if Dick has dated everyone there,he has never cheated with or on anyone and they all still feel like he’s a good guy. You should probably do the same. :)

Question: “Who is Nightwing dating, exactly?”

Sadly, there is not enough data for a conclusive answer. We do, however, have enough information to make a best guess, and at this point, the most logical answer is…

No-one.

At first blush, Zatanna would seem an obvious choice, considering their steamy kiss. However, while her “exes” comment could possible have been referring to Batgirl and Rocket, it would be a very odd thing to say in those circumstances, and both the time and phrasing imply inclusiveness. So my best guess is that Dick and Zatanna are exes, although still clearly very affectionate ones.

(Another possibility is that they are something along the lines of “Friends with Benefits.”. While that wouldn’t be my first choice for either of them, it would make a certain amount of sense for two of the most tactile members of the team. However, if that is the case, it seems unlikely that the rest of the team would be so surprised to see them kissing, so I ruled it out.)

Assuming for a second that my premise is correct, that strongly implies that he isn’t dating anyone else on the team, because anyone who would kiss their ex like that in front of their partner is being incredibly thoughtless, to say the least, and, most importantly, I doubt very much that Zatanna would kiss Dick like that if she knew he was seeing someone.

Question: “Why did most of the team look like that when Zatanna kissed Nightwing? And why didn’t Batgirl?”

Yes, technically, this is two different questions, but as they are so similar I’ve decided to answer them both together.

Firstly, we must consider the possibility that the team had a collective reaction to the kiss. If so, I’d consider the following possibilities to me the most likely ones, in order from most to least:

~They didn’t expect Zatanna to kiss him, or certainly not like that, and they were collectively bowled over by the levels of sexy being emitted by those pretty, pretty people.

~They didn’t know that Zatanna and Dick were dating/dating again, and this was one hell of a way to find out.

~Dick is currently dating all of them and they didn’t know he’d added Zatanna to the harem.

~They’re all Amish.

On the other hands, there reactions may have been individual, and just happened to lead to a similar reaction. For example:

Cassie: “I could have done that on his birthday? Why didn’t anyone tell me? I only brought him socks!”

Lagaan: “Oh. Megan was right. That is what surface-world kissing looks like…”

Miss Martian: “See, Lagaan! I told you! Look and LEARN!”

Gar: “If you ever want to be an auntie you should really let me see this!”

And so, to Batgirl. Clearly, Batgirl’s reaction is different to the others. But why? Well, here are my best guesses…

~ She knew the kiss was coming and is enjoying the rest of the teams surprised reactions.

~ She’s thinking something along the lines of “Lucky Girl”/”Lucky Boy.”

~ She’s thinking. “Really? It’s just a kiss, guys. You need to get out more.”

~ She’s from Gotham, and therefore, is not Amish.

Question: “I’m a shipper. How should I feel about what I just read?”

I’m glad you asked! We shippers are a misunderstood people and our feels are often brutalised by things the casual viewer just don’t understand. With that in mind, I offer both a rationalisation as to why your ship still floats, and a suggested course of action designed to bring you mental well-being and happy contented feels.

(Obviously, there are more YJ ships than there are stars in the sky, so I couldn’t possibly cover all of them, but I did my best to cover all of the ones I know best. If I missed out one of your favourites, I’m very sorry. :/)

Chalant:

Rationalisation: Do you really need one? Either Zatanna and Dick are a couple, or they were a couple, and exes who still kiss like that are clearly keeping the home fires burning for one another.

Action: Preen. Be Happy. Try not to gloat. Write sweet fanfic where they say “I evol uoy” and sexy ones where they say “redraH, nmad ti, ev’I neeb dab…” or, better still, sweet and sexy ones where they say both. Send me the link.

Babs/Dick:

Rationalisation: Babs is smiling because she knew the kiss was coming and she knows this because she and Dick are best friends now and share everything. All we need is for them to finally stop lying to themselves and tell each other how they really feel.

Action: Write long, sweeping, epic fanfiction that charts the entire course of their relationship, from friendship to realisation, through confession and courtship, and onto wedding, honeymoon, babies and beyond. Send me the link.

Babs/Zatanna:

Rationalisation: Babs is smiling because she knows how sweet those lips feel and thinks it’s cute when Zee tries to make her jealous.

Action: Write fanfic so steamy it makes your laptop overheat. Send me the link.

Traught:

Rationalisation: Do you know why Nightwing still hasn’t found his special someone yet? Because his one true love is in a happy relationship with his best friend, that’s why!

Action: Write fanfic with angst so thick you could eat it with a spoon. Send me the link.

Birdflash:

Rationalisation: Do you know why Nightwing still hasn’t found his special someone yet? Because his one true love is his best friend who is in a happy relationship, that’s why!

Action: Write fanfic with angst so thick you could chop it up with a knife and fork. Send me the link.

Tim/Dick:

Rationalisation: Tim is still too young for Dick, but that doesn’t mean he can’t have a puppy crush, and the “you’ll forgive me if I don’t give you a kiss, haha,” line would definitely fit that. Dick didn’t laugh at Tim’s joke, or even play along, he just smiled and let Tim change the subject. Hmmm…

Action: Write a fanfic set on Tim’s birthday a few years later where Dick finally gets the kiss he’s owed, possibly with interest. Send me the link.

Spitfire:

Rationalisation: Remember that your ship is canon. Rejoice in that fact that the one time we see your babies in this preview they are together, smiling and happy. Then feel sad because you’re not sure when that will ever happen again…

Action: Write fluffy fanfic to distract yourself from the fact that Artemis is currently surrounded by villainy a thousand leagues under the sea and Wally is all alone. Send me the link.

OT 3/4/5/6/Team:

Rationalisation: Come on. Multiple people looked at each other in a way that could have implied shared attraction. You know what to do.

Action: Write fanfic that piles warm bodies and willing minds on top of the lithe and supple form of Mr Grayson until the bed breaks and someone shouts “Jenga!”. Send me the link.

SuperMartian:

Rationalisation: …I’m sorry guys, I’ve got nothing. *glum*

Action: Rewatch season one. Listen to “Rolling in the Deep” on repeat. Weep openly. Join together for mutual support and group hugs and then write fanfics describing how SuperMartian defied the odds and became endgame. Send me the link.

Question: I’m a multishipper. What the hell do I do?

Ahh. At last. Ours is a difficult road, my brothers and sisters. I’m afraid, there are no answers. But I will do my best to offer some guidance.

Rationalisation: Impossible, as always. *sigh*

Action: Try to process your many conflicting emotions and feels. Fail, have an existential crisis that leaves you feeling numb. Then do it again. A true multishipper should be able to do this at least three times before breakfast, but your mileage may vary. Drag your withered husk to your computer, see other peoples thoughts and feels and feel the cycle begin again. Come up with an elaborate scenario, ostensibly to help other people, but actually in the hope that you can convince everyone in the fandom to send you links to good fanfiction, so you can distract yourself until you remember how to feel like a normal person agai-…

…

… I’ve said too much.

~DreamR