#comics dc

⌕ DC COMICS • kyle rayner.

Ig: nyla_vss

I would take advantage of Batman’s large cast of characters and cast it as an ensemble show. To reflect that, the show would be named something like The Dark Knights of Gotham, with the ‘s’ spray painted on at the end of Knight to give the impression this is a new reality for Bruce, with it by the end of the show the ‘s’ appearing as though it was there all along.

Season 1

In Season 1, the pilot would not be a retread of Batman’s story, but instead the pilot picks up with Dick’s story of the circus. Bruce has been active for about three years, and it’s just him and Alfred. I would want it to be a show that doesn’t focus too much on the larger world it’s sport of, à la X-Men: Evolution, so the Justice League is almost a non-existence presence. At the end of the two part pilot, Dick joins as Robin, as it’s the normal story, but at the end of the pilot we learn that the Joker pulled the strings and coerced Tony Zucco into taking the step to kill Dick’s parents, revealing he is closer to his portrayal by Heath Ledger, in that his brand of chaos is still chaos but it’s calculated. He has a goal, to break Batman, and he will play the long game to do it. Throughout the first season, we have small but noticeable time jumps that reveal Dick is getting older, with growing tension between Dick and Bruce as he gets older. Throughout the season, we get hints that Joker is building towards something, and in the finale it comes to a head — Joker kidnaps Dick and uses him as bait to lure Batman out. His plan is to kill Dick to break Batman, but Dick manages to escape and they take down Joker before Batman is killed, a last-ditch effort for Joker to get what he wants. Joker loses, but he notices the tension between Batman and Robin. The season ends with Dick leaving to become Nightwing, with teases of two characters in the final moments of the season — Batman catches someone stealing his tires and a Dr. Quinzel is buzzed into Joker’s cell at Arkham, where he was taken after his capture.

:readmore:

Season 2

Season 2 takes place two years later (you’ll find time jumps are common, similar to Young Justice). Jason has established himself as the new Robin and we open this season mid-battle between Batman, Robin, Harley Quinn, and Joker. The battle ends in Batman and Robin’s favor, but it’s difficult and it’s established that Harley Quinn has made Joker all the more formidable. Nightwing makes sporadic appearances throughout the season, sometimes it’s merely Nightwing declining calls other times he helps on a case. We’d have an episode based on that part in Nightwing: Year One, where Nightwing and Robin team up to save Batman. This would be towards the end of the season, where after multiple episodes of Nightwing dismissing or being outright rude to Robin, they finally connect and Nightwing accepts him as Robin. The finale is the Death in the Finale storyline as Joker tries to break Batman again, with the added addition of Harley Quinn, who after Jason dies realizes the error of her ways and vows to be better. We close on Batman weeping as he holds Robin, and we hear him whisper Jason’s name mournfully before fading to black.

Season 3

Season 3 opens on the same shot of Bruce holding Jason, before it transitions to Batman viciously hunting down Riddler and demanding to know if Riddler knows Joker’s location, who has disappeared in the aftermath of Jason’s death. Jim Gordon appears and arrests Riddler, and we zoom out to see a dark figure watching from the distance as Batman disappears into the night. Harley Quinn is in Arkham, where Stephanie Brown is visiting to see Cluemaster. Stephanie recognizes Harley and demands to know how she sleeps at night, to which Harley replies she doesn’t. Stephanie is shaken by this. Tim breaks into the Batcave and demands to be Robin, and to which Bruce refuses and almost has him arrested. A day later, Dick intervenes and tells him to get over himself and take Tim on. For half the season, Tim is Robin, and periodically we visit Stephanie, who is starting out as Spoiler and her rocky relationship with Batman, with Tim running interference when they meet and in the mid-season finale, Tim is busted as Robin by his father and Stephanie takes over as Robin from him. Stephanie and Bruce argue constantly, and we see flashbacks to his fighting with the other Robins, and he fires her in the penultimate episode of the season. Tim takes back over in the final battle against Joker, who has come out of hiding. Stephanie reappears when it looks like all is lost, and she and Batman make up. We close on a speech from Batman about never giving up on family, and he says he can’t make Stephanie Robin again, instead he makes a new position for her — the first Batgirl.

Season 4

Season 4 opens with a flashback indicating it happened the night Jason died, and we are introduced to the League of Assassins, who take Jason’s body from the morgue and revive in a Lazarus Pit. We jump to present day, where we see Robin, Batgirl, Batman, and Nightwing all chasing one man — the Red Hood, a new villain in Gotham. We see them getting aid from an off-screen voice, and then we learn who it is — Barbara Gordon, who was a victim of the Joker and decided to help the heroes of Gotham as Oracle. (Side note: I made Stephanie the first Batgirl and put Babs first as Oracle just to streamline the process, and because I don’t want this to just be a repeat of all the comic books.) Red Hood gets away, but a few nights later they are aided by a mysterious figure. The whole season is spent investigating this person and Red Hood. Mid-season we learn this is Cassandra, and she joins them. Cassandra will be completely mute and speak through sign-language. She takes on the name Black Bat. They eventually corner Red Hood after he finds the Joker and in an emotional confrontation, Jason leaves before he kills Joker but says he will never join Batman again. Season 4 is the last season, so in the finale we cut to a time skip. Dick has become Batman to an arrogant and moody but four years in the future — this is Damian. Stephanie and Tim are married and have left the hero game behind, and Babs runs mission ops for the new Batgirl Cassandra. This leads into a spin-off, where we follow the new Robin and Batman.

this stinks but I couldn’t get it out of my head