#dannibriere

other asks re: this

The wild card scent - steve dangle???

actually, both of the dangles? for the scents

Steve Dangle: hot cinnamon, lemon curd, maple syrup

you definitely have a gift at building a community! <3 you discord mom! 

Hello! Thank you for asking! I definitely have an answer, but I don’t know if it’s a universal answer so we’ll see!

Batfam Et Al are part of what I would call a “supermedia” (there’s probably a proper media term for it but I don’t know it) by which I mean: it exists in basically any form of media you could want, be it the original comics, animated series, live action series, live action movies, animated movies, books, video games, and — I presume — antique radio dramas. Getting involved in that is super daunting and understandably so.

The best advice I can offer for breaking in is to figure out what type of media works best for you, and then start there. (Other people reading this who might be diehards, I am about to name check three pieces of media that tend to get heavily side-eyed by comics purists but which I think are all very beginner-friendly, so look away)

For me, the form of media that tends to give me the most effective brain worms is video games. Although I had already started my DC entry somewhat against my will, the thing that actually fully dragged me into caring intensely about the Batfam was Gotham Knights, which lets you spend intense amounts of time with Gotham as a nightmare city, Dick Grayson, Barbara Gordon, Jason Todd, and Tim Drake.

If you’re not so much into video games, the first thing in the non-Arrowverse/non-Nolanverse/non-Snyderverse DC world I spent time with was the animated Young Justice series. It does not have a focus on the Batfam in particular, but they do all make appearances at one point or another. It also has the benefit of introducing you to bunches of other characters within the DC universe, and even if some of those characterisations differ largely from their standard characterisation in other media (Kon), it does give you a good faces-to-names-to-soundbytes introduction to quite a broad yearbook of folks.

If your interest in particular is the Batfam, honestly the easiest way to get a toehold on that group is Wayne Family Adventures on webtoon. It is free to read and it’s fun and even though it does tend to actually resolve these conflicts and tensions unlike the prime universe comics, it does a decent job of naming what a lot of the interpersonal conflicts and tensions between the characters are so you can get a sense.

At which point we reach step two of “how to get involved with a supermedia” which is to identify a particular character (or two, or three) you can become unwell about, and then dig in to see what media is available for them. And as you consume said media, their adjacent characters will also clarify and you may find yourself becoming invested in them, at which point you may dig in and find more about them, and rinse and repeat.

a cool breeze through a field on a summer day, a good hug after a tough day, a warm fleece blanket, soft music playing in the background, the moment everything becomes okay