Fic: "The Universality of This Experience"

I meant to get this done and posted yesterday, in honour of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, but as it turns out I need sleep.

It's not that there aren't black / African-American characters in the DCU (though there could be more) but they get written about in fanfiction even less than they could be. The day Dr. King's birthday is celebrated here in the States seemed a good time to address that by writing about at least one such character.

Thanks to Te for requesting Detective Cris Allen as a focus character and for audiencing, and to siviusx (a promising new DCU fan-writer you should all check out) for her beta thoughts. Any errors or suck are on my head alone.


( Beside his foot, the surface of the roof is gravel under layers of tar. )

Title taken from Reverend King's Eulogy for the Young Victims of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Bombing, written in September 1963 in Birmingham, Alabama.

I encourage others to write and post (or re-post) stories about African-American characters this week, as well... or take a little longer and post them during February, which is Black History Month in the U.S. I'm not going to call it a challenge, because I've got all I can handle in that department, and there are enough other challenges going on right now in comics fandom besides, but... Challenge yourselves anyway.


read Jack's other DCU stories
read Jack's fanfic (all fandoms)
read fanfiction about Crispus Allen by other authors on LJ

::sigh:: Oh, the missed opportunities...

Really, DC, who MAKES your assignment decisions? A hat full of little slips of paper? A trained guppy? An iron?

From Jennifer Contino's interview with Nightwing: Year One co-writer Scott Beatty at PULSE webzine:

THE PULSE: Many people miss the classic Batman and Robin stories featuring Bruce and Dick. What do you think it was about their chemistry that made their stories together have such strong memories for so many different comic fans?

BEATTY: It's funny you should mention that. Chuck and I were chatting it up recently about how much we'd love to work on such a title. When Scott and Andy emailed us with the same idea as a possible pitch to DC, we were weirded out by the odd synchronicity...but just how PERFECT it could be. I'm uncertain it would happen, but we'd all jump at the opportunity to explore some "untold" tales starring the original Dynamic Duo.

Now if this was the team who were going to be on the forthcoming DC All-Stars: Batman and Robin title, I might actually feel compelled to pick it up, rather than to stay as far away as possible. (I lack the energy tonight for another rant about Frank Millerfucktard and his hatred of Robins, but yeah.) Just as well, I suppose, as long as my pull-list has gotten...