Fan mini-wank in the form of ficlet.

[brown_betty]

Re-reading Rite of Passage, it occurs to me that another reason is plausible for Jack's irrational antipathy to Batman:

Comments

[thete1]

Oooh, fascinating. And you so totally win at Jack Drake. Just... *envy*. But I'm feeling a little slow, a little confused about the last line. What... am I missing?

[marici]

Did he maybe hand her the pitcher? I mean, they both drank, so he clearly didn't know... Though if he were as practiced at guilt as his son, maybe being there and failing to save her was enough.

[brown_betty]

Yeah, she's all "I feel sick," and he says, "Here, have a drink." It occured to me that Jack essentially killed his wife, after Batman had more or less bent space and time to save them both. That's gotta burn.

[angel_gidget]

Perhaps it's strange that I'm asking this so long after the fact...but do you know which issues these events occured in?

[petronelle]

I love your Jack Drake. You make me care what he thinks.

Also, perseverating Tim is a thing of beauty.

[__marcelo]

Cool. I mean, you don't only have *the* Jack Drake in your head - you have like a dozen versions of him, all of which are more interesting and consistent than the canon one (ok, so that last part isn't all that difficult, considering *g*). You rock.

Would you consider posting your Jack Drake stuff to secondbananas? I rather think he qualifies as one...

[brown_betty]

Hey, you're right. I've been feeling embarrassed that I have nothing to contribute there.

[huzzlewhat]

Ouch, ouch, ouch!

I had gone back to the Haiti incident as one source of Jack's Batman-resentment, but I hadn't added all the points together. I'd seen it as a "Batman failed to save," as opposed to a "I killed" -- and your version is much more powerful. Really chilling, and it makes psychological sense. When you do something wrong, really wrong, there's a childish part of you that hates anyone who discovers you, or witnesses it.

And I love the glimpse of young Batman-obsessed Timmy -- I can just see his little hurt face.

[brown_betty]

*nod nod nod*

And I can easily see Jack deciding that Batman killed Jack's wife, because in his heart of hearts, he believes he killed her, but he can't acknowledge that.