guh????

ok so basically: TDKR, but jason doesn’t die. joker still almost kills him and he spends like a year recovering but he’s not dead. he does go into the lazarus pit (clark takes him). however bruce still retires from batman bc of the trauma and fear that incident caused. jason resents him for giving up on the cause and leaves, opting to spend the next nine years recreating the training that bruce did to become batman, step by step, as he’s still committed to the cause and needs to be stronger. 10 years have now passed. we are now at the point where TDKR begins, and bruce can no longer stand by and watch gotham become hell on earth anymore. he puts on the suit and batman is back for the first time in ten years. after gotham realizes batman is back, jason returns home, post bruce’s first fight with the mutant leader, having heard the news. he’s no longer robin, but red robin instead (alex rosses og red robin design plus that DITF movie where jason is red robin post batman death occupy my mind ok), as he decided to reflect his elevated status post training. he’s strong as if not stronger than bruce was at that stage, given his training technically started before bruce did, owing to his tenure as robin. he meets carrie kelly, and gives her his old robin suit since he “won’t be wearing it for a while”. with the caped crusaders reunited, batman, red robin, and robin fight through the rest of TDKR, culminating in the ending battle against superman, and the beginning battle of their new crusade. basically the next volumes of TDKR (TDKR 2,3,4) happens the same, except for the end, where instead of bruce going into a lazarus pit after the battle with the kryptonians and being batman again, he survives normally, and realizes his body is done. he passes the mantle of batman onto jason, and with carrie as robin, the new dynamic duo go out to protect gotham once more, with bruce as man in the chair.

also dick isn’t whatever they did to him in tdkr, he’s like either retired as a cop or he retired to run an olympics gymnastics training program or smth cool like that, he quit in his late 30s after cleaning up bludhaven bc his body couldn’t take the moves he was doing as well as he used to.

anyways i thought this concept would be a really cool alternate take on TDKR bc throughout the entire series bruce has to come to terms with the fact his body is giving out on him and he needs a successor, and i find the lazarus pit thing kinda cheap, like i know he wants to be young again, but the whole point is him accepting he’s not getting younger, but also i recognize they didn’t want to end with bruce either desd or relegated to chair guy while carrie is out alone so this solves both problems, bruce doesn’t a cheap end to his characyer development, and there’s still a dynamic duo

anyways uh what y’all think

i have an idea. a universe where instead of jason resurrecting normally we get a duo. two jason’s for the price of one. the first half is black lantern undead jason todd. a black lantern ring finds him as hé is digging out from his coffin. witj the ring, climbing out becomes effortless. the combined effects of being in a coffin plus the sudden change of being a lantern renders him mostly catatonic, unresponsive to most stimuli save for instinct, or things that are hard wired into his brain like mentioning bruce or robin. because of his catatonia, jason can’t use the ring properly, or consciously anyways. he can only make one construct when his subconscious wants him to defend himself. a dark, hulking figure, darker than shadow, with a billowing cape for jason to take shelter in unconsciously. a batman. he can only summon his once partner to fight with him. it’s all hé remembers. bruce.

now, the second half of the duo. a spectral entity. a soul given form. the spirit of jason todd, come back to haunt the world. this jason has become this worlds deadman, or Raven as hé now calls himself. he took the mantle over from the former Deadman who’s name i can’t remember, when he was taking jason’s spirit to the afterlife. this jason has a vendetta. he’s mad. he’s scared. he’s angry. he’s a kid. he’s lost. he wants bruce dead. he wants his father. when he finds his own body stumbling around clad in an unnaturally black robin suit, ring on his finger, he thinks he can become whole again. but not quite. see jason can effectively give himself form by possessing his own body, and can also use the full powers of the ring this way, but only temporarily, and it seems there’s still a disconnect between his body and spirit that can’t quite be overcome. so the two wander, led by spirit jason, while lantern jason provides the muscle, trying to enact spirit jays vendetta, whilst trying to become one again. a jason split in two personalities, one lively, and one lost.

idk what happens after, probably the justice league gets involved bc they get reports of a black lantern ring being used or smth, and then batman gets involved too. maybe the league as well, bc an undead jason witj a bl ring would be interesting to ras still and talia would want to try and help him.

as for their appearances, spirit jay is robin jay, but a ghost, and bloodied by the injuries from his death. nothing else tho, cuz he’s a ghost his physical injuries don’t transfer obviously. black lantern jason wears a black lantern projected version of his robin suit, complete with cape, that has a black outer layer, and bright white inner layer. when the ring isn’t being used he’s in his burial suit, though it’s quite shabby. the batman hé summons is a completely black batman, including the eyes.

Dick will answer a hundred, a thousand ordinary, unimportant calls, but he will never miss an important one again.

One day he smashes the phone, and when half an hour later he recovers Jason’s missed call, he immediately calls back, his hands shaking.

Jason: Hey, big...

Dick: Is everything okay? Where are you?

Jason: What? I'm fine, I just wanted to..

Dick, his voice shaking: God, I'm sorry, I should have answered, I'm such an idiot, I'm so sorry..

Jason: Stop! I'm fine, I just wanted to ask if you want to patrol together today?

Dick, almost crying: Yes, yes, of course, of course I want to.

Masterlist

I don’t read the comics but i like to stay informed so i pose this what if not knowing if it exists.

bruce : if he stretches well before doing anything too major, then yeah, he's fairly flexible for his age. I do think he has back pain, though. come on. hes like, mid 40s at least.

dick : flexibility final boss. simple post-patrol stretches for him are full on scorpion ass pushups. his flexibility has started minorly straining on his body, but nothing too concerning.

jason : pre-lazarus pit/death jason was over average when it comes to flexibility. not as flexible as dick, hell no, but definitely more flexible than the average person. after the pit, his body pain and larger stature made it harder to do the same amount of tricks he used to be able to do, but he's definitely doing better than bruce. tbh I don't think he can do the splits. maybe he could if he just stretched a lot beforehand.

tim : honestly? he's currently almost as flexible as dick. they do a lot of the same stretches together, and dick did end up teaching him a few little circus-y tricks. back bends and high kicks hate to see this man coming. he does have some limitations due to body pain, and his body can't handle the amount of stamina needed to do the crazier stuff.

duke : a little tiny bit over average. he can do some flips, maybe a high kick here and there, but it takes more effort than it would if it were dick, damian, or tim. he does plenty of stretches and does have days where he focuses on practicing flexibility, but most of the time, he's working out to strengthen himself physically. can't do one of those crazy standing up back bends but can easily do the splits.

damian : flexible from day one. LITERALLY. they had this kid doing cartwheels before he could even say 'mother.' can do actual insane contortion, and it freaks everyone out. (him and cass bonded over being able to do weird shit one time. it was unpleasant for everyone besides them.) he and cass often do their stretches together since she's the only person who can hold the same contorted stretches for the same time span as him. back bends cower in fear at this kid. I feel like he's double jointed, too. (the metal spine did fuck him up a little bit, though.)

steph : she's more flexible than duke, but honesty rather neutral. I think she could be good at gymnastics, and she could absolutely do the splits, but she's nowhere close to the four horsemen of the wayne flexibility club.

He cradled his beautiful and brave boy's shattered body in his arms. He raged against a God that would see this as the cost of doing business.

He had to choose what little box would hold his decimated son's body, what liner and handles would be the last accessories to bury in the earth with his shining Jaylad when weeks before he'd still believed Robin was magic- when he'd still believed Robins could soar through the night sky with their dad.

What soulless creature buries their soul, only to turn around years later and spit in the face of a miracle restored?

This is why "We never kill" Batman bewilders me.