Damn, Gambit Finer Than A Motherfucker ! Damn ! I’d Knock The Dust Off His Pussy ! (since Rogue Obviously

I beseech you for your Garth insight, wht personality of his do you like? Bc every version of him I've read is a little alienating to me (part of the reason why I prefer Jackson is bc Idk which Garth I'll get or wht even his backstory is now) so if I started to try and get invested in him wht stories or version would you recc?

Okay for absolute full disclosure here I’m currently getting into Aquaman comics chronologically. Primarily through the lens of Garth. And there are some things I had already read at some point, but in my current venture I’m just a little bit post-Crisis, so my knowledge of the Aquaman side of things in general is still relatively limited. 

But I can definitely talk about Garth.

First things first, absolutely anything featuring a man calling himself Garth from any point later than the year 2011 is a completely different person. I can say that with full confidence even having read, like, no more than 2 comics including the Rebirth iteration of his character. It’s just not the same guy on seemingly any level, which can definitely account for the alienation aspect, and it’s very disappointing.

But on the topic of OG Garth. Let’s discuss his personality.

Something that stands out to me immediately about Garth is that he is very emotional. (Apparently a common theme among the characters I like.) But more than that, he’s emotional in like a shockingly healthy way? He does not bottle things up, if something hurts or upsets him he makes it known, if he feels betrayed or disrespected by someone he takes it up with them, and he’s not at all afraid of direct confrontation if it’s warranted. 

But despite that, he remains consistently reserved, sensitive, and gentle, which is kind of a miracle among male comic book characters. He can have a temper too, but it only really comes up if something is stopping him from helping someone in trouble, or if he feels mistreated past a certain limit, and it never really feels like he’s lashing out unnecessarily. His continual willingness to stand up for himself in spite of his “softer” personality sticks with me.

And tying into all of the above he’s textually acknowledged for his talents in communication and later diplomacy, which, again, not usually traits emphasized in Superhero Men. This example is very cute:

Not that he doesn’t enjoy fighting. He definitely does. In fact, a few of his notable outbursts have been explicitly about his beef with pacifist philosophies LOL. Although he notably doesn’t go out looking for fights or starting them without good reason by any means. (I think this is a point of diversion between him and his imposter-self. Maybe. From what I’ve heard.) 

Now backpedaling a bit, part of why all of his fairly healthy emotional and communicative traits are so charming to me is that he definitely is NOT without his issues. Idk how much you know about his backstory but for starters, he was abandoned and left to die as a baby, initially thought to be due to an Atlantean superstition regarding his purple eyes, surviving (mostly) on his own for a while and eventually being found by Arthur. Due to this, as well as the ambiguous and changeable state of his relationship with Arthur (whether they see each other as friends, brothers, or a father-son duo is. Complicated to say the least. It’s almost like a Jedi-Padawan type thing if you’re into star wars LMAO), Garth is kind of a walking hotbed of abandonment issues, theoretically at least. Like I said, he’s pretty healthy when it comes to expressing his needs and feelings. He's definitely more well-adjusted than Arthur ends up being.

Loneliness and a lack of belonging/identity are also huge themes with him as well. This is why the Titans are so important to Garth, even if his responsibilities and limitations prevent him from being a consistent member of the team. During maybe the first period where he genuinely doesn’t know where he stands with Arthur anymore, he goes off on his own to seek out his (purple-eyed) people and try to find his parents to give himself some sense of personal identity and find out who he is--as it turns out, he has immense trouble relating to them or even being civil with them at points, and ends up feeling like as much of an outcast with them as he does in Atlantis, ultimately realizing that his identity and who he fundamentally is are things that only he can decide for himself! Go Garth!

Some other issues he deals with are general insecurity and anxiety--these are mostly shown within the context of the Titans, where he’s often the odd one out as an Atlantean and severely limited in his abilities and effectiveness outside of the water (i.e. nearly suffocating to death all the time.) At the end of the original Teen Titans, Garth quits the team because he felt so deeply inferior and useless to them that it was making him actually severely physically ill to the point of passing out multiple times and people genuinely worrying he was going to die. That is a lot of anxiety. Though he doesn’t have nearly as much insecurity when he’s in the water, he's still shown to be A Worrier, and Tula makes fun of him for being too vigilant or in his own head, unable to loosen up and so on. Also, in his very first appearance, he is deathly afraid of fish!!!!!

Now for recs. First of all, if you’re insane or plan on being so in the future, this is a link to a complete reading order, which is what I’ve been loosely following. More specifically, Garth’s first appearance is in Adventure Comics #269. I would also recommend Adventure Comics #270 and #278. It’s some of the cutest shit ever, but it has little bearing on his later appearances.

From then I would go to Aquaman v1 (1962). Specifically #17-18, #23, #25, #33 (Tula intro!), and #40-47 (this arc is really drawn out and silly and Garth’s segments are mostly separate from the rest of the plot so after the first one you can honestly just skip through most of it until you see Garth or Tula LOL). He’s also in Teen Titans v1 during this time, I would read the first issue and then skip to #19, #28-29, #30, #40 (kilt moment), #45-53. Also, The Brave and the Bold (2008) #10 is a very cute story that focuses on Garth and takes place during this era.

Sort of concurrent to the Titans appearances is maybe the first major Aquaman storyline which you can find as a trade paperback (on readcomiconline lol) called Aquaman: The Death of a Prince. Basically Arthur is put through a meat-grinder of facing a bunch of his villains back to back, being deposed as the King of Atlantis, losing Arthur Jr., and as a result, becoming estranged from Garth and Mera. This is where you also find the first real expansion of Garth’s backstory.

Then he pops up in New Teen Titans (1980) #23 and #33. Tales of the Teen Titans #45-47 + #50. New Teen Titans (1984) #6. And then Crisis on Infinite Earths happens wherein Tula is killed. It’s very minor and not worth reading the whole thing just to see that if you’ve never read it before. He sticks with the New Teen Titans (1984) team for a spell when almost everyone in the usual team is gone and/or going through a mental breakdown from #19-26 I believe, and the grief makes him very quiet and distant, but he breaks through it by the end. Basically right after that are the events of Teen Titans Spotlight #10 with a very odd psychedelic story where he has like a telepathic battle with Mento lol, and later in #18 of the same book. 

Congratulations, you are now caught up with me. This has also gotten disturbingly long, so I’m going to cut it off here. If you actually make it through all this and would like more recommendations for Garth past this point feel free to ask again. Or if you get sick of reading these older comics and don’t care about skipping ahead/potentially not understanding shit, he shows up pretty consistently in Aquaman v5 (and the excellent Tempest (1996) miniseries where he makes the moniker-switch takes place after I think #25 of that), and Titans (1999).

There is nothing more romantic than patching up each other's wounds after a battle. 

i’d like layla/nabu as a couple a lot more if nabu was never her arranged husband tbh… just feels like theres something off about her parents basically being right about putting her in an arranged marriage

when you’re looking through your buddy list deleting people to make room for new buddies and you see the usernames of very good friends and role playing buddies you used to talk to for hours every day but haven’t logged on in years and you just don’t have the heart to delete them even though they’ll probably never log in again

Inktober Day 12: Spicy.

So I drew everyone's favourite cajun enjoying some good ol’ spicy gumbo

crop top gambit save me…save me crop top gambit

btw yes two of these are directly inspired by glen in nightmare on elm street ❤️

My favourite part of Excalibur Vol 4 #1 is Gambit’s constant suspicious glaring at Apocalypse

Bart Allen/Impulse CHARACTERIZATION

People reblogging one of my Bart posts but it’s one of my most vague posts on him lol So I wanted to make a more indepth post if people actually are interested. And I’m going off the characterization his creator wrote for him, as it wasn’t very long for him till he was flanderized and not nearly as recognizable.

OTHER IMPORTANT THINGS ABOUT BART:

He is not a little rain of sunshine, and can be prone to getting into fights or scrapes with other kids. He is a teenager, who indeed, has teenage angst. Look at him go!

Yes, he even cusses! Sometimes in our modern English language, sometimes in future language.

He is not freaking 8–in the beginning of his solo he was 14 to 15 years old, and he hangs out with people his own age and an old guy. Writing him like he’s an elementary school student, can sometimes be genuinely offensive simply because it comes from his ADHD and people misunderstanding what it’s like–

Bart is NOT the biologically youngest member of Young Justice, and is older than both Tim and Greta (or at least I’m pretty sure in Greta’s case. I am 100% sure in Tim’s case.)

While Bart is primarily calm, he is prone to having fits like any other teenager, and can became a genuine brat. But it isn’t like he’s constantly having a fit. He’s just a teenager.

And while he’s not as hyper as people believe, he just has super speed, and like any average person, will get excited about things he finds cool, so he’ll speed around, he does zone out a lot, and have day dreams.

He is more of an introvert and does not enjoy popularity too much when he achieves it. He prefers being by himself or a small group of friends.

This teen has stolen cars, and it takes him a while to realize the hard way that life isn’t like the video games he grew up in.

There’s a page where he looks like this:

No, there is nothing important about it, I just thought it was really funny, and it reminded me of how Dick has worn Batman boxers before. That is all.

There are times where he can seem distant, because he’s very much a person stuck in his own head a lot of the time, but he genuinely really is a sweet, caring, helpful kid. It just sometimes take him a while to remember that.

He doesn’t actually talk that much in most situations. He has a smart ass remark every now and again, but he actually has very few words to say a lot of times unless he’s around someone he’s more comfortable being around like his friends or family.

Bart isn’t actually the shortest member of Young Justice, he was the same height as Tim and Cassie, and despite the latest Young Justice series written by Bendis suggests otherwise–Bart as an adult (which he is currently 19-years-old) is 5 foot 11, and even bigger than Wally, meaning he grows to be one of the taller members. So he gets a growth spurt more like Cassie, and less like Tim. The art is his solo was just stylized to be more cartoony, while others played more to 90s stereotypical art, or realism.

Inertia never lived with him. Most people are aware of that and just like to play with AUs, which is just fine, but some people aren’t aware of that lol.

Bart does have crushes on girls/women, and has since his very early days. Though, he doesn’t want to date his best friend, who is a girl. I’m mainly just saying this–because people like to infantilize him just because he has ADHD and choose to have him still act like girl’s are gross. When–he’s canonically had sex before. (Though he was an adult at the time, for the record.)

This isn’t the only example, but it’s the only one I have screenshotted. Other ones are way more obvious to the point Bart has hearts around his head.

He thinks more with pictures and scenes that play out, rather than words.

Sometimes Bart is more of a fish out of water, or alien-esque role, given he’s from the future and was only raised in V.R. Meaning that he isn’t aware of a lot of things due to how he was forced to be raised.

He’s not happy go lucky, he’s just not angsty as often as others.

Please respect the Bart.

I’m actually cackling