Super Mega Batgirl Review the seventeenth
SO. This issue has a fabulous team-up with Steph and Damian.
I have very mixed feelings on Damian. On one hand, I totally hated him (as much as I hate any character. Even if I hate a character, I rarely dwell on it and I never wish them death- especially if they're like, ten. I'd much rather squee about characters I like) when he first came on. Several reasons, the fact we're clearly supposed to think he's so special because he is Bruce's biological son, the destruction to Talia (who I could care less about but turning a female character into an evil villain rapist- and letting her get AWAY with the rape because lol just a girl- never sits right with me), the fact he was rude to everyone and got away with a ton of shit including nearly KILLING Tim, and mostly the fact he has such a similar background to Cass but GUESS WHO'S GETTING TONS OF ATTENTION AND GUESS WHO'S NOT. But since I don't like it when people blame Steph for Cass being gone, I won't blame Damian for Cass being gone either.
But. It is basically two thingies fault that I don't hate him anymore. 1). Tumblr and the constant adorable fanart of Damian being obsessed with kittens and shippy with Colin and basically being a tiny adorable angry child who really loves Dick and doesn't know how to express it and b) how other characters play off him. This last bit is mostly Bryan Q. Miller, because I really like how he had Damian play off Steph. She doesn't take any of his shit, but she also shows her deep sense of compassion in feeling bad for him and protecting him. And she figures out a way to boss him around without him hating her, and by the end it's pretty clear he kind of admires her even if he'll nevereverinamillionyearsadmitit. Also the Supergirl/Damian teamup issue had the same thing, where he shows his respect for Supergirl at the end ("You're Supergirl, dammit!") and Dick trolls him about having a crush on her. So basically I like Damian when cool older girls are bossing him around and kicking his ass and he can't help but inwardly realize they're more awesome than he is? Also, if Steph can be patient and put up with him, so can I!
Also, I like that he really DOES want to be accepted and doesn't know better because both his parents are jerks and he's clearly quite attached to Dick and reacted well to the endless amount of love Dick showed- highlighting Dick's endless patience and compassion and the fact that Dick IS far better at being a parent/big brother figure than Bruce. Also, we need a Damian/Cass teamup where Cass kicks his ass and then he secretly loves her forever.
I guess I just can't hate Robins. It's a curse. So needless to say, I looked forward to this issue, since Steph/Damian teamups usually bring the hilarity, show what a good and patient person Steph is, and actually do what at one point I thought was impossible and make me empathize with Damian.
Page 1/2: Damian greets Alfred by hanging upside down, looking smug. Damian, you are not actually a bat, okay.
Page 3: Damian, Alfred is right, ten year olds need to sleep. NO WONDER HE'S SO CRANKY. ALSO DON'T BE DISRESPECTIN' ALFRED YOU CAN'T GET AWAY WITH THAT AGH YOU'RE SO ANNOYING. Though I have to admit, I find the fact Damian is okay with being tiny forever hilarious and SLIGHTly adorable- go ahead and do it, D, be an eternal midget.
Page 4: Alfred is just like "whatevs" and is probably plotting a horrible revenge. I'm all for it! Anyway, Damian has a red casebook (Oh, god, you are such a little dork copying all Bruce's stupid ideas. Damian, please forget Bruce, he is a terrible parent and no one deserves him) He says that there is "hope" for Alfred, which I think is Damian-speak for "I totally love him".
Page 5: Steph oversleeps and drools in her sleep. She is basically me. She's having a dream about Abraham Lincoln attacking her, which may be a reference to Batman's crazy ass casebook, according to Esther at 4thLetter. Bruce, stop giving your charges nightmares. But the real point here is WAFFLES!
Page 6:Oh God, Steph's Mom is my Mom, she never remembers any movies we watch together either, Steph is so awesome, sliding down the banister as her morning routine. Look at the happy face, that fun, that pep! I love her. <3
Page 7: Damian talking to himself in hilarious. He COMMENTS ON HOW AWESOME HIS OWN JOKES ARE. Dork. He reminds me of a tiny Rorschach, sitting atop a building and talking about how he hates humanity. "The world will shout save us..and I will look down and answer ..."PEDESTRIANS" Oh, hey, it's Steph's Numba 1 Fangirl, Nell, adorable as usual and target of a bad guy as usual.
Page 8/9: Damian has observed long enough to know people doing their jobs are suspicious, and he is still obsessed with knives. I gotta love how Steph isn't rattled in the least when he swings the sword in her face. She's like "WHATEVER DAMIAN" EYEBROW RAISE. Girl is a badass, nothing phases her. Damian responds by calling her "Girl Blunder". I think it's safe to say Damian is definitely fully aware Steph was Robin before him, and he is INSANELY JEALOUS SHE GOT TO BE ONE FIRST. Steph is not impressed and we discover Damian does not know what a Laffy Taffy is. POOR BOY NO WONDER HE'S SO CRANKY HE IS DEPRIVED. They ignore the guy hanging upside down and start arguing, only interrupting to deny his plea for help. A+.
Page 10: "Look if you two wanna go talk or something" and Steph's confusion of how to refer to "Batman-Batman not to devalue other Batman Batman" are A+. WE ALL SHARE YOUR PAIN STEPH. Bruce and Dick need to come up with Different Names. Maybe Dick can be BirdBatman? Wingman? Meanwhile, Damian is disgustingly classist as usual. HEY BRUCE DO YOU KNOW WHERE HE GETS THAT FROM. And we end the last panel of a Damiansadfaece because Bruce is ignoring him again. Damian is obnoxious, but I am always on the side of anti-Bruce, so Bruce needs to stop making this boy feel like he hates him pronto. BE NICE TO ALL YOUR CHILDREN BRUCE GET ON IT NOW.
Page 11: Damian continues to pretend he is IN THE KNOW about all this and Steph continues to be unimpressed by his shenanigans. I really like that Steph questions why Damian's not in school. I don't think it would have occurred to anyone else- even Dick- they view Damian as "Trained weapon from the League of Assassins, Batman's son" while Steph sees "a normal ten year old boy who's a complete brat due to a screwed up childhood and happens to possess mad ninja skills". I think it's similar to Steph's friendship with Cass- she was the only one who would look at Cassandra and see "potential friend" rather than "weapon" (Batman) or "traumatized child" (Babs) or "scary girl I can't relate to" (Tim). She sees no reason Damian can't go to school, just like she sees no reason she and Cass shouldn't hang out like normal teenagers.She doesn't judge people for their background, she is ready to reach out to anyone. I'll get back to this.
Page 12: Steph's glee over field trips is adorable, Damian's lack of understanding about such basic things kind of sad. Damian calls the kids "half-breeds" which jolted me a bit- is BQM not aware that can be a racial slur? Then I realized it was a slur that would apply to DAMIAN HIMSELF, as he is technically half-vague-Middle-Easternish. It's not surprising I forgot this, no one ever draws him or writes him that way, instead going full on privileged white boy like in this bit- where he uses racial slurs that apply to himself.
That weirdness aside, Steph hilarious troll face is epic.
Page 13: And so Steph dresses Damian in a googly eyes hat and a smiley face shirt. Yes. I love her so much. I bet she took pictures and sent them to everyone in the Batfamily. "Ninja-camp", like I say, Steph doesn't judge Damian by his background at all. Steph's adorable little fangirl is just as friendly as she is and introduces herself, and he introduces himself as Bruce. Steph's heart breaks for him, and once again we are the same, because mine sort of does too. :( Damian, you need to stop idolizing and longing for him so much, he's a jerkface, it's unhealthy. But this isanother example of Steph's compassion: even as rude as Damian is to her, she is able to empathize with him and get where he's coming from. And of course, her aside about how the only way she'd let him know about her heatbreak is to keep him from killing her one day is amusing.
Page 14: GOD NELL IS SO CUTE. Steph trolling Damian about getting married to her is even cuter. "What Would Oracle Do" is my new bracelet. Though I'm not sure joysticks is the answer. Or are they? Steph once again proves she views Damian as any other boy by being floored that he has no idea how to play and putting that on her to do list to fix. Once again, I am reminded of how she reached out to Cass in a similar way, insisting on teaching her about having fun and friendship.
Page 15/16: Seeing Damian say "I need my steel" in a smiley face shirt is beyond priceless. Steph HAS GOTTA CATCH EM ALL. I like how sassy Nell is to the kidnappers, I like to think her idolization of strong woman heroes like Steph is where she picked up such bravery. Ohhh she should grow up to be Steph's partner in heroing!
Page 17/18/19: I'm pretty sure Damian is trolling Steph with a fifty-percent argument, and her rather relaxed response to his "do you think the adults would hesitate to do the same to us" (relaxed by Bat-standards) fits in with her own history- she's pretty down with the no-kill these days, but she too once argued that murderers don't deserve the full benefit of caution. Steph does some grade-A window bashin' face kicking, Damain responds with sexism and terrible driving. Seeing Damian actually panic was funny, and Steph getting back at him for his sexist comment- "never send a girl to do a boy's job"- after knocking two men unconscious and then taking over the driving (I assume? I'll admit, the fact we don't see them actually stop the bus is pretty awkward) is glorious.
Page 20: Why are you letting him drink coffee Steph, he is TEN. Nell is still so cute. Steph is so patient with Damian she is such a good person.
Page 21/22: And here we have our heartwarming ending: determined to help Damian have some fun, Steph takes him on the Moon Bounce and shows him a brand new world. I really believe out of all the Batfamily, Stephanie is the least judgmental and the person who sees past people's prickly and socially awkward exteriors to the good inside and the reasons they act the way they do.
To make my point, I will contrast her with Tim, who, as much as I love him, is easily the most judge-y of the Batfamily. Granted, Damian almost killed Tim once, so he has every right to hate him forever- even so, Tim never makes an attempt to understand where Damian is coming from with his background, puts him on a list of heroes to "watch out for" and doesn't understand why Damian is so hurt by that, and then refers to him as the "homonucleus" completely judging him by how he was born and Tim had a similar attitude with Cass. He was scared and uncomfortable of talking to her or being around her because she had a background he couldn't relate to and she was the first person he checked out when he thought a member of the Batclan could turn evil. He never tried to understand where she was coming from or the sacrifices she'd made, he judged her and he judges Damian the same way.
Steph, meanwhile, doesn't judge. She isn't afraid to poke tons of fun at these people, and she won't let them push her around, but she doesn't care where people come from- she just wants to be friends with them and help them. She is not uncomfortable at all around Damian and Cass, and when she saw they were deprived as something- friendship, fun- she strives to give it to them. She doesn't take offense at how they act, because she makes an effort to understand where they are coming from and where they are hurting. Obviously, Cass is a way better person and way less rude than Damian is- Steph doesn't have to dig much to see the wonderful person beneath the cold attitude...but she still bothered to dig, and she didn't prejudge Cass. I think she sees the potential in Damian to be a good person and she is willing to dig for that as well.
I think the reason Steph is like this is very obvious-being a member of the Batfamily has always been defined by a loss of childhood, every character was forced to grow up and take on adult concerns sooner than is natural. For Bruce, Dick, Tim and Jason partly, it's defined by the loss of a parent. For Cass, Damian and Steph (and Jason as well), it's growing up in an abusive situation and being forced to take on adult responsibilities. Cass and Damian being the most extreme cases, having been put through abusive training from birth, denied normal parents and then thrust into the very adult position of assassin/heir at a very young age. Steph is a less extreme case, forced to grow up quickly and take care of her family and deal with abusive parents as a child , taking on the job as the one to protect her mother as a superhero at a young age. Coming from this background, it makes sense that Steph would empathize with both Damian and Cass's loss of childhood and see them as friends she can help out rather than threats and scary mean people she can't relate too. The amazing thing about Steph is that she came out of her situation not with bitterness, anger and selfcenteredness, but with a determination to make a positive impact and an unparalleled empathy for those in the same or worse situations than her.
So I am so glad that Bryan Q. Miller really GETS this about how Steph relates to people, and I really like this issue with Damian and seeing Steph interact with Damian because of what it says about Steph. Also, Damian in a sweatervest and Steph's casual reaction to his threats of stabbing= the best. And aw, he's having fun but won't admit it.
Needless to say, the echoes of the relationship with Cass in this issue made me miss her more than ever and I wish she'd been at least mentioned- it made me want to see Cass come back to team up with Steph so they could BOTH teach Damian to be a good person- Cass bringing the intimidation and solid advice, and Steph bringing the fun- and so she could comment to Damian on how Steph helped her too. How awesome would that be? But alas. Along with the awkward "four minutes later" and weird insults that make me think of how whitewashed Damian is, this issue was damn near perfect. It showed Steph at her best: kickass, empathetic, compassionate, funny and fun, the relationship with Damian really worked and their banter and shenanigans was hilarious. A solid 4.5/5.
I have very mixed feelings on Damian. On one hand, I totally hated him (as much as I hate any character. Even if I hate a character, I rarely dwell on it and I never wish them death- especially if they're like, ten. I'd much rather squee about characters I like) when he first came on. Several reasons, the fact we're clearly supposed to think he's so special because he is Bruce's biological son, the destruction to Talia (who I could care less about but turning a female character into an evil villain rapist- and letting her get AWAY with the rape because lol just a girl- never sits right with me), the fact he was rude to everyone and got away with a ton of shit including nearly KILLING Tim, and mostly the fact he has such a similar background to Cass but GUESS WHO'S GETTING TONS OF ATTENTION AND GUESS WHO'S NOT. But since I don't like it when people blame Steph for Cass being gone, I won't blame Damian for Cass being gone either.
But. It is basically two thingies fault that I don't hate him anymore. 1). Tumblr and the constant adorable fanart of Damian being obsessed with kittens and shippy with Colin and basically being a tiny adorable angry child who really loves Dick and doesn't know how to express it and b) how other characters play off him. This last bit is mostly Bryan Q. Miller, because I really like how he had Damian play off Steph. She doesn't take any of his shit, but she also shows her deep sense of compassion in feeling bad for him and protecting him. And she figures out a way to boss him around without him hating her, and by the end it's pretty clear he kind of admires her even if he'll nevereverinamillionyearsadmitit. Also the Supergirl/Damian teamup issue had the same thing, where he shows his respect for Supergirl at the end ("You're Supergirl, dammit!") and Dick trolls him about having a crush on her. So basically I like Damian when cool older girls are bossing him around and kicking his ass and he can't help but inwardly realize they're more awesome than he is? Also, if Steph can be patient and put up with him, so can I!
Also, I like that he really DOES want to be accepted and doesn't know better because both his parents are jerks and he's clearly quite attached to Dick and reacted well to the endless amount of love Dick showed- highlighting Dick's endless patience and compassion and the fact that Dick IS far better at being a parent/big brother figure than Bruce. Also, we need a Damian/Cass teamup where Cass kicks his ass and then he secretly loves her forever.
I guess I just can't hate Robins. It's a curse. So needless to say, I looked forward to this issue, since Steph/Damian teamups usually bring the hilarity, show what a good and patient person Steph is, and actually do what at one point I thought was impossible and make me empathize with Damian.
Page 1/2: Damian greets Alfred by hanging upside down, looking smug. Damian, you are not actually a bat, okay.
Page 3: Damian, Alfred is right, ten year olds need to sleep. NO WONDER HE'S SO CRANKY. ALSO DON'T BE DISRESPECTIN' ALFRED YOU CAN'T GET AWAY WITH THAT AGH YOU'RE SO ANNOYING. Though I have to admit, I find the fact Damian is okay with being tiny forever hilarious and SLIGHTly adorable- go ahead and do it, D, be an eternal midget.
Page 4: Alfred is just like "whatevs" and is probably plotting a horrible revenge. I'm all for it! Anyway, Damian has a red casebook (Oh, god, you are such a little dork copying all Bruce's stupid ideas. Damian, please forget Bruce, he is a terrible parent and no one deserves him) He says that there is "hope" for Alfred, which I think is Damian-speak for "I totally love him".
Page 5: Steph oversleeps and drools in her sleep. She is basically me. She's having a dream about Abraham Lincoln attacking her, which may be a reference to Batman's crazy ass casebook, according to Esther at 4thLetter. Bruce, stop giving your charges nightmares. But the real point here is WAFFLES!
Page 6:Oh God, Steph's Mom is my Mom, she never remembers any movies we watch together either, Steph is so awesome, sliding down the banister as her morning routine. Look at the happy face, that fun, that pep! I love her. <3
Page 7: Damian talking to himself in hilarious. He COMMENTS ON HOW AWESOME HIS OWN JOKES ARE. Dork. He reminds me of a tiny Rorschach, sitting atop a building and talking about how he hates humanity. "The world will shout save us..and I will look down and answer ..."PEDESTRIANS" Oh, hey, it's Steph's Numba 1 Fangirl, Nell, adorable as usual and target of a bad guy as usual.
Page 8/9: Damian has observed long enough to know people doing their jobs are suspicious, and he is still obsessed with knives. I gotta love how Steph isn't rattled in the least when he swings the sword in her face. She's like "WHATEVER DAMIAN" EYEBROW RAISE. Girl is a badass, nothing phases her. Damian responds by calling her "Girl Blunder". I think it's safe to say Damian is definitely fully aware Steph was Robin before him, and he is INSANELY JEALOUS SHE GOT TO BE ONE FIRST. Steph is not impressed and we discover Damian does not know what a Laffy Taffy is. POOR BOY NO WONDER HE'S SO CRANKY HE IS DEPRIVED. They ignore the guy hanging upside down and start arguing, only interrupting to deny his plea for help. A+.
Page 10: "Look if you two wanna go talk or something" and Steph's confusion of how to refer to "Batman-Batman not to devalue other Batman Batman" are A+. WE ALL SHARE YOUR PAIN STEPH. Bruce and Dick need to come up with Different Names. Maybe Dick can be BirdBatman? Wingman? Meanwhile, Damian is disgustingly classist as usual. HEY BRUCE DO YOU KNOW WHERE HE GETS THAT FROM. And we end the last panel of a Damiansadfaece because Bruce is ignoring him again. Damian is obnoxious, but I am always on the side of anti-Bruce, so Bruce needs to stop making this boy feel like he hates him pronto. BE NICE TO ALL YOUR CHILDREN BRUCE GET ON IT NOW.
Page 11: Damian continues to pretend he is IN THE KNOW about all this and Steph continues to be unimpressed by his shenanigans. I really like that Steph questions why Damian's not in school. I don't think it would have occurred to anyone else- even Dick- they view Damian as "Trained weapon from the League of Assassins, Batman's son" while Steph sees "a normal ten year old boy who's a complete brat due to a screwed up childhood and happens to possess mad ninja skills". I think it's similar to Steph's friendship with Cass- she was the only one who would look at Cassandra and see "potential friend" rather than "weapon" (Batman) or "traumatized child" (Babs) or "scary girl I can't relate to" (Tim). She sees no reason Damian can't go to school, just like she sees no reason she and Cass shouldn't hang out like normal teenagers.She doesn't judge people for their background, she is ready to reach out to anyone. I'll get back to this.
Page 12: Steph's glee over field trips is adorable, Damian's lack of understanding about such basic things kind of sad. Damian calls the kids "half-breeds" which jolted me a bit- is BQM not aware that can be a racial slur? Then I realized it was a slur that would apply to DAMIAN HIMSELF, as he is technically half-vague-Middle-Easternish. It's not surprising I forgot this, no one ever draws him or writes him that way, instead going full on privileged white boy like in this bit- where he uses racial slurs that apply to himself.
That weirdness aside, Steph hilarious troll face is epic.
Page 13: And so Steph dresses Damian in a googly eyes hat and a smiley face shirt. Yes. I love her so much. I bet she took pictures and sent them to everyone in the Batfamily. "Ninja-camp", like I say, Steph doesn't judge Damian by his background at all. Steph's adorable little fangirl is just as friendly as she is and introduces herself, and he introduces himself as Bruce. Steph's heart breaks for him, and once again we are the same, because mine sort of does too. :( Damian, you need to stop idolizing and longing for him so much, he's a jerkface, it's unhealthy. But this isanother example of Steph's compassion: even as rude as Damian is to her, she is able to empathize with him and get where he's coming from. And of course, her aside about how the only way she'd let him know about her heatbreak is to keep him from killing her one day is amusing.
Page 14: GOD NELL IS SO CUTE. Steph trolling Damian about getting married to her is even cuter. "What Would Oracle Do" is my new bracelet. Though I'm not sure joysticks is the answer. Or are they? Steph once again proves she views Damian as any other boy by being floored that he has no idea how to play and putting that on her to do list to fix. Once again, I am reminded of how she reached out to Cass in a similar way, insisting on teaching her about having fun and friendship.
Page 15/16: Seeing Damian say "I need my steel" in a smiley face shirt is beyond priceless. Steph HAS GOTTA CATCH EM ALL. I like how sassy Nell is to the kidnappers, I like to think her idolization of strong woman heroes like Steph is where she picked up such bravery. Ohhh she should grow up to be Steph's partner in heroing!
Page 17/18/19: I'm pretty sure Damian is trolling Steph with a fifty-percent argument, and her rather relaxed response to his "do you think the adults would hesitate to do the same to us" (relaxed by Bat-standards) fits in with her own history- she's pretty down with the no-kill these days, but she too once argued that murderers don't deserve the full benefit of caution. Steph does some grade-A window bashin' face kicking, Damain responds with sexism and terrible driving. Seeing Damian actually panic was funny, and Steph getting back at him for his sexist comment- "never send a girl to do a boy's job"- after knocking two men unconscious and then taking over the driving (I assume? I'll admit, the fact we don't see them actually stop the bus is pretty awkward) is glorious.
Page 20: Why are you letting him drink coffee Steph, he is TEN. Nell is still so cute. Steph is so patient with Damian she is such a good person.
Page 21/22: And here we have our heartwarming ending: determined to help Damian have some fun, Steph takes him on the Moon Bounce and shows him a brand new world. I really believe out of all the Batfamily, Stephanie is the least judgmental and the person who sees past people's prickly and socially awkward exteriors to the good inside and the reasons they act the way they do.
To make my point, I will contrast her with Tim, who, as much as I love him, is easily the most judge-y of the Batfamily. Granted, Damian almost killed Tim once, so he has every right to hate him forever- even so, Tim never makes an attempt to understand where Damian is coming from with his background, puts him on a list of heroes to "watch out for" and doesn't understand why Damian is so hurt by that, and then refers to him as the "homonucleus" completely judging him by how he was born and Tim had a similar attitude with Cass. He was scared and uncomfortable of talking to her or being around her because she had a background he couldn't relate to and she was the first person he checked out when he thought a member of the Batclan could turn evil. He never tried to understand where she was coming from or the sacrifices she'd made, he judged her and he judges Damian the same way.
Steph, meanwhile, doesn't judge. She isn't afraid to poke tons of fun at these people, and she won't let them push her around, but she doesn't care where people come from- she just wants to be friends with them and help them. She is not uncomfortable at all around Damian and Cass, and when she saw they were deprived as something- friendship, fun- she strives to give it to them. She doesn't take offense at how they act, because she makes an effort to understand where they are coming from and where they are hurting. Obviously, Cass is a way better person and way less rude than Damian is- Steph doesn't have to dig much to see the wonderful person beneath the cold attitude...but she still bothered to dig, and she didn't prejudge Cass. I think she sees the potential in Damian to be a good person and she is willing to dig for that as well.
I think the reason Steph is like this is very obvious-being a member of the Batfamily has always been defined by a loss of childhood, every character was forced to grow up and take on adult concerns sooner than is natural. For Bruce, Dick, Tim and Jason partly, it's defined by the loss of a parent. For Cass, Damian and Steph (and Jason as well), it's growing up in an abusive situation and being forced to take on adult responsibilities. Cass and Damian being the most extreme cases, having been put through abusive training from birth, denied normal parents and then thrust into the very adult position of assassin/heir at a very young age. Steph is a less extreme case, forced to grow up quickly and take care of her family and deal with abusive parents as a child , taking on the job as the one to protect her mother as a superhero at a young age. Coming from this background, it makes sense that Steph would empathize with both Damian and Cass's loss of childhood and see them as friends she can help out rather than threats and scary mean people she can't relate too. The amazing thing about Steph is that she came out of her situation not with bitterness, anger and selfcenteredness, but with a determination to make a positive impact and an unparalleled empathy for those in the same or worse situations than her.
So I am so glad that Bryan Q. Miller really GETS this about how Steph relates to people, and I really like this issue with Damian and seeing Steph interact with Damian because of what it says about Steph. Also, Damian in a sweatervest and Steph's casual reaction to his threats of stabbing= the best. And aw, he's having fun but won't admit it.
Needless to say, the echoes of the relationship with Cass in this issue made me miss her more than ever and I wish she'd been at least mentioned- it made me want to see Cass come back to team up with Steph so they could BOTH teach Damian to be a good person- Cass bringing the intimidation and solid advice, and Steph bringing the fun- and so she could comment to Damian on how Steph helped her too. How awesome would that be? But alas. Along with the awkward "four minutes later" and weird insults that make me think of how whitewashed Damian is, this issue was damn near perfect. It showed Steph at her best: kickass, empathetic, compassionate, funny and fun, the relationship with Damian really worked and their banter and shenanigans was hilarious. A solid 4.5/5.