professional whiner

Batman #618 - Hush chapter eleven by Jeph Loeb

also this reddit comment I found when looking for additional panels took me out at the knees:

Bruce must always be SHARP and ANGULAR

Answer: Sometimes.

From my vague memory of the hundreds of Batman comics I've read, Bruce (depending on the writer; some never write him as being triggered while others do) is consistently triggered by the context, not necessarily just the gun.

(He spends the rest of the comic spiraling wheeee)

Certain writers will have him responding differently, but it seems that he is triggered pretty consistently involving any combination of at least two factors mirroring the event: gun + person he knows + child + alleyway + civilian mode.

Interestingly enough, he doesn't really care about being shot himself. He's afraid of not saving someone, whether he intimately cares about them or not.

Comics referenced are:

Updated 19th October 2025 More writing tips, review tips & writing description notes

Dialogue Tags

Facial Expressions

Masking Emotions

Smiles/Smirks/Grins

Eye Contact/Eye Movements

Blushing

Voice/Tone

Body Language/Idle Movement

Thoughts/Thinking/Focusing/Distracted

Silence

Memories

Happy/Content/Comforted

Love/Romance

Sadness/Crying/Hurt

Confidence/Determination/Hopeful

Surprised/Shocked

Guilt/Regret

Disgusted/Jealous

Uncertain/Doubtful/Worried

Anger/Rage

Laughter

Confused

Speechless/Tongue Tied

Fear/Terrified

Mental Pain

Physical Pain

Tired/Drowsy/Exhausted

Eating

Drinking

Warm/Hot

Batman (1940) #600

Cause like. I think in that moment Dick got the closest to getting through to Bruce.

But also the thing is, this happens not that long after Dick gets adopted, and this is something that is very much on Dick's mind during this whole mess:

Gotham Knights #26

And you know what? I think there was something that Dick, and only Dick, could have said to Batman to actually get him to not throw the Bruce Wayne identity away. Something along the lines:

"You don't get to take my father away from me."

I mean if the easily missed "Gunsmith" story in a random issue of Batman: Secret Files isn't one of the most topical and relevant observations on Batman....

It starts with a shooting spree and a child hostage situation at a Wayne Foundation funded Weapons Amnesty program where people could hand in illegal weapons without facing any repercussions. The antagonist disagrees with the program. Who is he and why does he disagree?

Well.

The Gunsmith does what villains do - puts a gun in the hand of the older brother of the child he's abducted and tasks him with shooting Batman to save his brother. Which he does - Batman is wounded but takes the gun from the boy. Then Batman does what Batman does, goes after the villain but obviously chooses to rescue the other child over pursuing the villain. Routine textbook Batman stuff.

But then we have these panels.

Detective Comics Annual #3 - “Chaos Theory”

There’s a bit in Darwyn Cooke’s New Frontier that always stays with me — a moment when Bruce is first starting out where he goes to help a small child, and can’t, because he accidentally frightens the boy too badly.

It nearly breaks him.

And another bit in, IIRC, Robin Annual #4, written by Chuck Dixon and penciled, I believe, by Jason Armstrong, where a freshly be-Robined Dick asks Alfred haltingly *why* Bruce wants to have him around, and Alfred lays it out — “Master Bruce has very few real friends. And while he most certainly became a man… I don’t think he ever became an adult.”

And then there’s Gotham Knights #32, a Devin Grayson/Robinson joint — their last I believe — where Bruce just goes to everyone he loves — *everyone* — and silently, lurkingly, subtly loves them. As best as he can. From the people he’s helped to his family — to Harvey.

And then there are those DCAU eps where he bends over backwards to build new lives for people like Harley and Arnold Wesker.

And all that time and effort he spent making sure Tim could be with Ariana, and then Steph, and then the Titans — because he *recognized* all the ways he’d fucked up in the past.

And then there’s the time when he tried to give Cass a birthday, even though he had no idea when it could be, and then sharing *Jay* with her, his dearest, closest-held *memories* of Jay, when he couldn’t with anyone else. (That second one was DetC, Gabrych run.)

And pouring his heart out to Steph on that rooftop, way back when, while Steph was in a state of 0.0.

And EVERY time Dick — fuck. Well, the entire DCU knows how he feels about DICK. INCLUDING DICK HIMSELF, WHEN DICK IS NOT DEPRESSED.

And Clark, at least, considers his love for Lois precisely the same as Bruce’s love for Jay.

Clark, who Bruce holds in his soul, trusting him above all others. His brother — in some ways.

And Barbara — the woman he respects more than anyone else. The woman he trusts behind the scenes for the motherfucking *JLA* systems. The woman who calls him ‘boss’ and means anything but. And he loves it that way. Look at the way Devin writes them together. The way Beatty writes them together. The way Simone writes them together. Fucking *A*.

And Damian! GOD! The son who was *denied* to him for *years*. The son who was *tortured* and *wronged* and led astray for so many years — and who is yet so beautiful inside, and so devoted to so much *right*. How can he not do his best by him? Even if he doesn’t know what that is, he has to *try*.

And so on. And so on.

Just — all of these moments.

Because Bruce is a good man, and a loving man, and a *kind* man, and he wants to make it better for *everyone* — even the people who fuck up and make things worse for everyone else. Because he recognizes his own capacities for failure, his own *fuck-ups*.

And he loves his family, his friends, Gotham, the *world*. He *loves* them. And he does not place himself above… anyone.

Not when he’s written anything like correct..

How do I discard all that other canon? Well, how do you discard the canon that doesn’t make any goddamned sense about *your* faves? The fact that I have to put up with *more* bullshit doesn’t make the bullshit less bullshitty.

It just means I need a bigger shovel.