I Soothe Azrael With Stories Of The Saints

Batman (Jean-Paul Valley) [Base] - 70

Batman #9 by Matt Fraction

Don’t worry! Jean Paul isn’t replaced.

When JPV was dead in post-crisis (don’t worry, he got better!) Michael Lane was indoctrinated into the order, however he’s not a replacement! Just another Azrael sharing the mantle! Michael’s order isn’t even the same, instead a broken off fraction puppeted by Ra’s Al Ghul.

Michael Lane is actually very cool! You should consider picking Azrael 2009 up :) I really like this devil.

When Jean Paul meets the mother in this story, Rosemary, she is trying to recover her baby from child traffickers. Jean Paul stops these gang members from attacking her, but he refuses to help her recover her child on the basis that she is an illegal immigrant. Despite being an otherwise well intentioned and harmless woman, he cannot get past the fact that she broke the law. All criminals are lumped together in his mind. Jean Paul’s simplistic, underdeveloped views leave no room for nuance.

Following his talk with her, he planned to leave the case with GCPD. But Rosemary had appealed to his emotions in mentioning his own mother—A woman he never knew, in the way her son would never know her if Batman refused to help. He becomes engrossed in the case, working for days on end investigating the trafficking ring and Rosemary’s past. It’s unusual behavior for Jean Paul, who notably hates detective work. Throughout the story he contradict his own methods and beliefs due to his emotional investment in the situation. We see this in how he handles the smugglers as well.

Jean Paul was an incredibly strict Batman who valued results above all else. He was not incapable of saving someone, but his priority was taking down criminals. When he catches the smugglers transporting the children, he lets them potentially escape so that he can make sure the babies were unharmed after their vehicle crashed. He is incredibly protective over them and displays a level of empathy and concern we don’t often see from Azbats.

Selfishly, he only got involved because he had managed to relate the problem to his past, but in doing so he was able to empathize with people he likely wouldn’t have helped otherwise. It challenges his belief that legality is somehow a baseline for goodness and it humanizes his Batman quite a lot.

Jean-Paul Valley with a blaster. Oh yeah.

Drawing on paper because stylus is still broken </3</3

Posting into the azdick echo chamber bc the pair is so rare it’s like the same five people talking about it, and I am one of them.

Anyway. This is kind of a follow up to my first post about my fankid au I’m writing a fic of (which I might turn into a comic instead maybe idk.)

I was just thinking about them and their kid I gave them named Lalya so I decided to draw her again cuz I missed her. Shes like six years old and a fucking MENACE. Yapping about that and also wtf is going on with azdick (bc they aren’t actually dating in this😭) under the cut.

Ah, I can’t wait to get.. 10 likes and maybe a reblog. Rarepairs, how fun.

Batman #503

And like, Jean-Paul is kind of the protegee of the man she loves. And sure, he is an adult, but Jean-Paul is younger than Dick, who Talia has known as a teenager and as the son of her beloved. And if we take Damian into consideration, who should be born at this time, her father is trying to marry her off to a man that sees the father of her child as a father figure.

I know people have opinions about how Jean-Paul gets treated in the modern day, especially since in SOA 92' Dumas was more of a cult cult and Azrael less of an actual angel and more metaphorical one, but In all honesty I love that they don't shy away from religion with him. It is messy, it is complicated, it is a thing that gets twisted and used for agendas that hurt others.