your night is about to be spoiled, boys!

NO FOR REAL like.

for context, this was in the previews we got this week:

(Preview for Dark Crisis: Young Justice #1)

Revisiting these moments now, in the aftermath of Tim realizing he's bi, written by the same person who wrote that revelation... I think could be utterly fascinating. Especially because Meghan Fitzmartin had even referenced Kon's death during Tim's coming out story:

(Batman: Urban Legends #5)

Like, knowing that Fitzmartin is about to be digging into this group's history and specifically stuff around Infinite Crisis/in the aftermath of Kon's death... that line feels way more intentional now than it originally seemed when this released.

When I first saw this line, my interpretation was basically "Kon is commenting on how Tim wanted him back so badly when he was gone (Kon knows about the cloning attempts and how Tim & Cassie tried to find comfort in each other, I think the only thing he doesn't know about is the close call with the Lazarus Pit water in Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul), yet now that he is back after another situation he'd been lost- Tim's kinda ignoring him... which is making him worried that something's wrong," and I don't think that interpretation has changed. The thing that now has a slightly new light shone on it imo is maybe why this line was included at all.

After the Gotham Outsiders podcast interview shortly after UL #6 came out, in which Fitzmartin had compared Steph & Kon's respective importance & history irt Tim:

[starting from 22:48] Interviewer: Soooo- my boy Conner Kent- [laughter] Can we hear this- In your Urban Legends story, and he and Tim have a complicated history of being read as queer coded, was any of this running through your mind while writing their interaction Fitzmartin: I mean, I’ve-I’ve seen the internet. I’ve-I’m aware. I’m aware that the internet exists. Umm… Interviewer: [overlapping] Alright Fitzmartin: K-Ya know. Conner is part of Tim’s history just like Stephanie is part of Tim’s history in-in varying different degrees in varying different ways but, um, we are who those around us- we are what others around us are- ma-uh- make us to be. And. so. Interviewer: Right- Fitzmartin: [overlapping] I’ll leave it at that- Interviewer: That’s a fair- fair answer, I will take it.

I had mainly just (realistically) seen it's inclusion (on the same page as his scene with Steph) as... part of showing that closeness between them, and specifically including something with a connection to their newly restored pasts to acknowledge their history, and figured I was just reading way more into it than was intended (which admittedly I definitely still am).

But now that we know Fitzmartin's going to be addressing that exact period of time at least a little bit... It does just feel more intentional that she brought up Kon's death specifically. I think the odds just now feel a bit higher of seeing unpacked some of the dynamics behind what happened in the aftermath of Kon's death that we as fans have often seen as present (the parallels between how Cassie was feeling about Conner and how Tim was feeling about Conner) but that were never like officially canonically said to be there. Not a sure thing of course, but it just feels a lot more possible that it'll be addressed now.

Plus, ya know, Fitzmartin did establish he's "always kind of known" he was attracted to boys, but just hadn't had the brain space to reach that point of "personal enlightenment"

(Batman: Urban Legends #10)

and then i got into comics and now my conversations start like this:

don’t have any feelings about them as a couple but I really enjoy their banter