The Captain Marvel Dad AU Is Literally Just Billy Not Wanting To Be Adopted SO Bad That He Mentally Adopts

if you were at your worst, if you’re a villain or a screwup or whatever, there is a goth man dressed as a giant bat who keeps coming after you, bothering you. he sabotages your journey of self destruction over and over. ur ready to give up but he won’t let you. you think, today he won’t come. today he will give up on me too. he never does.

New fic idea! Mary breaks into Uncle E house, beats him up, and then steals all the family documents so she can finally figure out which twin was born first

Duke Thomas Meta List

Ones without a credited author are from me!

Character

Duke's Resolve by redjaybathood

Duke is Not (Really) Nice by himejoshiangels

Duke and Emotional Repression by 5-7-9

Fanon Extremes by strawberrytalia

Duke and Self-Reliance by himejoshiangels

Personal Responsibility by dukethomas

Relationships

Duke's Views on Jason by batboopp

Duke & Damian

Duke & Tim

Duke is a Dick Hater

Duke is Dick's Successor by mattiebluebird

Duke & Bruce

Is Duke in Bruce's Care? by duketectivecomics

Robin / We Are Robin

Duke & The Robin Mantle

Robin and the Making of American Adolescence by Lauren R. O'Conner; screenshotted by 5-7-9

Thoughts on We Are Robin by millylotus

Meta Powers

Summary of Duke's Abilities by dukes-cassettetape

On Duke Being a Meta by arellas

Elaine Thomas

The Karma Incident by himejoshiangels

Extras

Duke in Wayne Family Adventures

Duke is Shaped By Love by ungodlybliss

How Old is Duke? by duketectivecomics

Not all of these are comprehensive and some slightly contradict others, but I find them all interesting and valuable discussions about Duke. If you don't know Duke at all or haven't read his comics, I recommend starting with the Character section!

I will be updating this whenever I find another meta so feel free to send any my way :).

thinking of the differences in cass and bruce regarding their no-kill rules, and how cass’ rule is better in regards to the batman persona and what it stands for. death and bruce have an awful relationship, to say the least. he has gained nothing from death and murder, in fact it affects him so much that all he can do with death is just sit in its presence forever, without ever working through it (he literally refers to death as ‘a curse constantly hanging over him’ i mean that is not the most accepting mindset). with cass though? she can actively process death and even accept that it has happened. she isn’t like bruce, because she uses others dying to make her intense love and empathy stronger, while bruce just uses it to fuel anger and an onslaught of repressed negative emotions (which we all know can only last you so long before your whole body just gives out). i mean, the second bruces parents died, he separated the concept of murder from his life, (even though that is literally impossible, minhkhoa, ra’s, talia, selina, and basically anyone who has been in a meaningful relationship with bruce has pointed this out. i mean even a ghost martha wayne has told bruce there’s no avoiding death, only going through it). however, with cass? she literally was a murderer. one of the many reasons cass vows to never kill is because she actively sees herself in murderers, and thinks they all have the capacity to be redeemed, while bruce barely has an idea how to even process murder, let alone accept it or the people who do it (thinking of how he straight up denied that cass killed anyone, or was even capable of doing it, even with video evidence shown right in front of him, and im not even gonna get into the whole jason todd thing). cassandra could be a better batman simply because she can look death (specifically murders and murderers) dead in the eye and accept it, something that bruce cant even do. basically what im getting at is that, ironically, cass’ backstory of her being a murderer allows her to use the batman persona to its full unfiltered potential, something that even bruce is aware of. anyways here’s my cass should take up the batman mantle propaganda!!

I'm chewing on this like it's a five course meal thank you so much for this analysis there's so much to go through.

You're so right about their different mentalities like Bruce was ultimately a victim and his drive comes from both never wanting anyone else to suffer like that but also never wanting to be a victim again himself. And if does mean that his various complexes around death and crime can sometimes be very harmful to people he should be trying to save! Batman is a symbol and an ideal and no one, not even Bruce can truly live up to it.

Meanwhile Cass views herself as the perpetrator, the responsible party instead of a fellow victim tricked into killing a man. And her projection while again not in anyway perfect is definitely better for those around her than Bruce's because it's full of empathy and a belief for change. The heartbreaking part is that she's no less fucked up over the concept of death imo, she just directs it all inwards. Every life lost is a tragedy that Bruce and Cass both carry on their shoulders. The difference is Bruce views anyone who takes a life as having sacrificed a part of themselves they can ever get back, of ruining their life regardless of circumstances. And we really do get to see frequently in comics how that standard ends up harming innocents even as he tries to do good. Meanwhile Cass... Does actually hold quite similar views but she also stubbornly refuses to believe it's true for anyone else just because she cannot escape it being her own personal truth. They killed but they can change. They killed but they can turn their life around. They felt bad for a second there, I saw them. I'm going to help them because of that.

Part of it definitely comes down to the thematic cohesiveness of Cass's Batgirl run compared to Bruce's... Everything. But ultimately yeah Cass best Batman for multiple reasons and you can fight me on this.

red blood cell girl bringing you oxygen on a cute little platter and then curtseying

Captain Marvel gets kidnapped and put under a magical truth spell except it’s the Marvel & Billy Are Separate People AU so the kidnappers don’t get any info on his (Billy’s) secret identity

Kidnapper: “Alright Marvel! What’s your real name?”

Captain Marvel: “Captain Marvel”

Kidnapper: “what??? No! I mean your real name!”

Cap: “my real name is Captain Marvel”

Kidnapper: “what?! Ugh nevermind. How old are you?”

Cap: “I’m supposed to keep count of that?”

Kidnapper, getting more frustrated by the second: “just- just give me a rough estimate”

Cap: “at least a few million years, though I was asleep for a few thousand”

Kidnapper: “…”

Kidnapper, moving on: “well, where do you live?”

Cap: *shrugs*

Kidnapper: “you can’t just shrug! Where do you live?!?!”

Cap: “the rock, I guess”

Kidnapper: “the rock- WHAT IS THE ROCK?”

Cap: “basically a big cave”

Kidnapper: “YOU LIVE IN A CAVE???”

I don’t watch house md and I never will but I’m very interested in what those two old gay men have going on

Sometimes I think Gotham should just save time and throw you directly into the Asylum the minute you get your doctorate.

“We should give Billy Batson a gun” He should be given a kiss on the forehead and a warm glass of milk- the gun could then be discussed at a later date.

Captain Marvel (Shazam) AU where Billy thinks the JL knows his identity so he’ll just walk around the Watchtower as Billy. So others see this random kid and —in all the wisdom of the smartest heroes in the world— they assume he’s just a ghost haunting the place.

Cue identity shenanigans