IMAGE I D: comic panel of batman and wonder woman talking to each other. Dialogue is as follows: Batman: choosing gifts for him is always difficult. This year, i paid a horticulturalist to breed a new strain of rose called "the Krypton." I'm pretty certain no one else will have got him flowers... Wonder woman: uh, Bruce... END I D.

Posting this panel in honour of Valentine's day.

The thing that's always struck me about this isn't even the whole "having someone invent a whole new strain of rose, of all flowers, for his lover teammate", but the line "I'm pretty certain no one else will have got him flowers."

So much revealed in just that one line.

First I want to point out how Bruce refers to this new rose strain as just "flowers".

You could either read that as Bruce having no idea how absolutely insane his behaviour is, thinking that having someone invent a whole new species is the same as just "getting flowers". And I guess what's new with that, this is the guy who dresses up as a bat cryptid to fight crime and thinks that's, like, fine.

You could also read this as a genius billionaire knowing exactly how it looks and being a blasé little shit about it.

Both interpretations are good imo.

Second, he wants so badly to get Clark something that's both unique and that he'll like and appreciate.

Bruce Wayne is loaded, he could just buy him a fancy watch or car or sth, but they're pretty generic gifts, even if they are expensive. Plus they're things that other people could get Clark, if not to the same extent, price tag wise.

So he wants something unique, that Clark will like and his solution is to have someone cultivate a piece of Clark's adoptive home planet and name it for his native home planet.

I D: a comic panel. the frame on the left shows a close up of clark holding his glasses as if his has just taken them off. on the right, a woman wearing a long pink coat stands behind clark and watches him walk away. Clark is wearing a black suit and tie with a white shirt. The woman says "Clark... you forgot your glasses." Clark replies "No, I didn't..." END I D.

Text adapted from my tags on @allgremlinart's post here

Seriously cannot stop thinking about this and I have to meta about it. I want to preface this by saying I have never read this comic or any others so this is literally just based on this panel and fandom osmosis.

So there are imo two ways of reading this:

One being that clark wants to honour his friend by attending his funeral as his “truest” form: not superman, not mild mannered reporter; just clark. Bc he feels bruce deserves that and so he does away with a representation of the Clark Kent disguise as a symbolic gesture and its easy to see it as such as readers.

And this is probably the reasoning he gives himself and the one presented in the comic (although again I have no fucking clue bc I've never read this).

So basically an act of love. Or of grief. But then what is grief but love persevering. etc.

But I think there's a second way of reading it, which is as an act of self destruction.

To us, the glasses are just a symbol, but in-universe, they're a pretty vital part of Clark getting to live his life as hes known it bc without the glasses and the rest of his disguise, Clark Kent cant exist anymore and if Clark Kent gets taken away, who's to say what will happen to Clark and nevermind to superman?

Considering all this, Clark actively choosing to not wear the glasses to the funeral reads very much as someone giving up on life, or at least life as theyve known it. And ofc there's putting these two interpretations together and finding love as a destructive force.