So I have a lot of thoughts about Dan, and just so we're clear I haven't read the new comic yet so not sure how the new material affects his character
Dan is a character that in DPxDC is see being just casually there... which is wild in context of his character because he was like suuuuper evil. Like i get liking his character and wanting to include him, but it rarely makes sense, sometimes it does, but man we love to do a handwavy "after his redemption arc" thing without actually talking about his redemption arc
So, let's give him a redemption arc, and lets make it get pretty gay
So stages of grief, I'm going to outright misuse it intentionally so don't tell me I'm using it wrong, I am well aware it is about coming to terms with your own death. Let's say in ultimate enemy, he was in the stage of Anger. He was angry. Angry at himself, at the world, at the stupid ghosts that messed up his life, he was angry and he took that out on everyone. Now here he is, his family is alive, his friends are alive, and he still is angry, but at himself. He can't go back to them, he's literally a whole other person than the Danny they know
So self destructive spiral. He's hard partying, hard drinking, waking up in a random gutter in Gotham, and doing it all again. He might also be dabbling in other illicit substances. The point is, if he wasn't already dead his behavior would lead to a quick grave
So we have this miserable, sad sack of a man who has done terrible things regularly abusing alcohol(and maybe more)
Now there's another character that had a similar issue. One Red Arrow turned Arsenal and his heroin addiction...
So who better to find Dan than the same man that got Roy sober and sponsored him?
That's right, Waylon Jones aka Killer Croc
To large, beefy, grumpy men with goodness hidden inside them bonding, maybe falling in love? all while Waylon helps Dan work through his emotional baggage and get clean
it has everything:
angst, emotions, bonding, gay, and potentially a happy ending for two former villains
“But if you forget to reblog Madame Zeroni, you and your family will be cursed for always and eternity.”
There was a teen in the cave.
A teen no one knows and looks like he could be a wayne, stands in the cave.
"Actually, I'm a wayne." He says with a shrug.
Bruce, Batman, carefully thinks of the implication.
"Not yet," The teen, Danny, doesn't say anything. Simple smiles. "You're not a wayne, yet. You will be. But not yet."
Then Bruce sighs, dropping the batman mask in order to take in the teen.
"Does future me know of the time travel?"
Dannys smile grows into a grin, deciding to take pity on the man. "You, grandbat, have..." He makes a vague gesture. "Theories, which none of your children ever confirmed."
The bat's mind short-circuits at the choice of words
Dick is sputtering incomprehensibly, there are Baffled expression all around.
Because.
Because that child isn't Bruce's, but one of theirs.
"Who is it?" Jason demands, hand clenching his gun uselessly.
Danny continues to smile, a hint of mischief now peeking out.
The cave is filled with theories, some yell, some sob, yet all eyes leave danny.
All but one pair.
She had known the moment his body language switched just enough for her to read.
She had known the moment he disappeared before the clan.
Had known when his hand found hers, shoulders bumping.
Her heart clenches, throat dry and memories of her childhood flooding to mind.
So she asks, voice soft and hesitant.
"Am I a good mother?"
And danny looks up at cass, adoration and pride laid out plain for her to see and accept.
"You're the best."
And so they both watch the clan together, silent and comfortable.
(Cass doesn't question when she finds him, how and why. All she knows is that she's more attentive when out on patrol, looking and waiting.)
(This is how Cassandra Cain-Wayne returns one night from patrol, a child, barely out of toddler stage and clinging to her form.)
(This is how the Batclan officially meets one Daniel James Cain-Wayne, freshly washed and clothed, a cookie in hand and hiding shyly behind Cass.)
(When they meet, all they say is "Welcome home, danny," and "Good to see you again.", Danny doesn't necessarily get it, but that's okay. Maybe his new mom will explain it one day when he's bigger.)
"You don't have a grave."
"I do not have one. Yet."
"...how did it happen?"
"....My parents had created a portal to the Ghost Zone. It malfunctioned. That tends to happen with their experiments... this one was more of an oversight." Danny recalled, Constantine could hear the melancholy in his voice. "I went in and accidently pressed the on button. Let it to them to have the on and off switch in said portal!"
Danny laughed at the memory before wincing at the pain he went through. "Yeah... it was rather painful."
"Did your body disintegrate?"
"Nope! I'm half alive, half dead. My molecules got rearranged. My human half still ages, alibet at a slower rate. My ghost half on the other hand...."
"How old are you?"
"86, but I look like I'm in the mid-twenties in my human form."
".... you know what. I don't want to know."
"I have two kids and five grandchildren!"
If you were to ask Barry Allen on his opinion regarding young Danny Fenton/Phantom, he could talk for hours about the young Halfa and his happy family of Ghost Hunters.
The boy saved the entire planet from the Disasteroid and became one of the Young Justice's most powerful supernatural hitters while his female clone, Dani, also proved to be a valuable asset to the Teen Titans as well.
When Barry returned after the events of Flashpoint, on an Earth that was similar but different to the one he left behind prior... Barry was devastated and believed that the duo of Halfas were gone alongside many other young heroes.
But that was until a few years later when now Flash looked at the screen with disbelief after the League was contacted by a government branch known as the Ghost Investigation Ward.
According to them a dangerous ecto-entity they had contained has recently broken out and are now considered a threat to the entire planet, they are to be recaptured at all costs.
Flash had a bad feeling the entire time he stayed silent, but felt his fears were confirmed when the picture of a familiar face appeared on screen, attacking GIW bases.
"...Danny?"
Flash knew a lot of his friends had changed after the incident... But he didn't want to believe if the young Phantom truly became a villain or not. He wanted to believe in the boy who was ecstatic when he first set foot on the Watchtower for the first time, but... Could he?
(Or... In the Post-Crisis Era of DC Pre-Flashpoint, a Post-Phantom Planet canon Danny became a member of the Justice League but was missing in the Post-Flashpoint Earth. However Danny was in his own rebooted history where things turned out differently in his life, with a life more like most fanon Danny incarnations where he is contained by a more competent GIW until he escaped.)
(Up to you with where Dani is during all this and if Danny is the same and remembers the last world because of some Clockwork related bullcrap or not)
He met her by sitting next to her at a coffee shop (there were no more empty tables) and letting out a world-weary sigh.
She'd asked him if he was okay.
He'd taken that as permission to just go off.
He finally has someone to complain to nonstop, and most of his complaints are not ghost related.
Oh no no, he has Tucker and Sam for that.
No, most of his complaints are Vlad related, and also by extension Rich People related. He knows so much shit about them because of the gossiping ghosts in Vlad's Hidden Forest Manor, and he's been fucking dying to spill the beans to someone.
Vicki is practically vibrating in her seat as this random nepo baby (because he has to be, how else would he know this crap with receipts to back it up) spills the filthiest tea she's ever heard about the upper elite.
2/3
Dcxdp trope twist
So, maybe taking Pariah’s crown was a bad idea, but he had meant it as a “rubbing salt in the wound” thing, not a “I want your power” thing. Now, he had been having trouble with his abilities being too strong and unpredictable along with new ones developing.
Luckily, his parents thought he was a meta. Unluckily, they were sending him to his great aunt and great uncle’s farm to learn how to control it. Apparently their son had had similar issues?
All Danny could hope was that he didn’t accidentally destroy the Kent’s farm.
Has Bruce ever packed the kids lunch when Alfred wasn't there? How'd it go?
[Wayne Enterprises]
Tim: Finally, time for my break.
Tim: *opens his mini fridge*
*dozens of apples fall out*
———————
[the library]
Steph: *chugs a gallon of milk*
Cass: *bites into a bread loaf*
Barbara: I'm not even gonna ask.
———————
[day patrol]
Duke: *opens his lunchbox*
Duke: *sighs*
Duke: *pulls out his bat-skillet*
Duke: *cracks an egg* *cracks an egg* *cracks an egg* *cracks an egg—*
———————
[West-Reeve Middle School]
Damian: Kent, I will trade you your cupcake for this head of lettuce.
Jon: ...
Jon: Deal.
———————
[Bludhaven]
Jason: Bruce packed our lunches. He said we're supposed to share.
Jason: *hands him a bag*
Dick: What'd you get?
Jason: A frozen turkey. You?
Dick: *opens it*
*fire alarm goes off*
If they ever use this visual gag they owe me money
lil comic i’ve had in my head for a bit
This had all started when Frostbite had asked Danny why he'd never changed out of his hazmat suit. Danny had assumed it would've been useless to try since the one time he had put on any of his normal clothes on as Phantom, they had disappeared when he turned back human and when he went ghost he was back to the hazmat.
According to Frostbite, though, ghosts could change clothes, as long as they had been made by ghosts. At first Danny had been ecstatic, and he'd rushed to the nearest ghostly tailor where his hopes had been crushed. Because ghost clothes were apparently very expensive and very in demand, ten-year-long-waiting-list kind of in demand.
That was when Danny had had a brilliant flash of inspiration. He was a ghost! Which meant if he made his own clothes, they wouldn't disappear into the void! Which brought him back to today, taking sewing classes two states over during summer break.
"That's good, those stitches are looking neater," Alfred said as he passed by Danny's chair. The halfa smiled up to the older man before bending back down onto his needle and thread.
This was not how Danny had thought the summer would go. At least he got some free cookies out of it.