buggery | Roy. Bruce. LOVE.

Roy. Bruce. LOVE.

So, I have a shiny new copy of (publication date February 1997) Batman plus⁺ Arsenal.

Oh my BOB, I love this book. Why, Jack? I imagine you asking.

Let me count the ways.

1) Roy!

2) Roy and Lian! Roy is a good daddy, and Lian is adorable.

3) Written by Devin Grayson. And if for whatever reason that isn't a sure sign of a good read to you -- this is well-written, deftly plotted, and full of delightful character moments, as well as dialogue that had me laughing out loud.

4) Pencilled by Rodolfo DaMaggio (inks by Bob Campanella, who's no slouch, but beside my point) ...I didn't know who he was before I got my hands on this issue, either. Now, I know him as That Guy Who Consistently Draws Bulges In Guys' Costumes Large Enough To Accomodate Actual Male Genitals. Here, visual aid:

(You can't really tell from the cover there, so I included the one relevant scan I found.
That's Connor Hawke, Green Arrow II and son of original Green Arrow Oliver Queen.)

The book is ~~cock~~ chock-full of panels like that. In fact, the first panel on the first page is Dick (oh, like he wasn't going to turn up) flying over some goons and kicking one in the head; his legs are splayed, there's lovely highlighting on the curves of his ass, and there's an unmistakeable bulge in the front of his uniform pants. His musculature is well-defined and lovingly detailed, as well (more so than Connor in that scan, actually) but hey, there are lots of artists doing that. Anyway. Batman plus⁺ Arsenal is full of eye-candy shots of Dick and Roy, though there are fewer, oddly enough, of Bruce (his midsection tends to be shadowed, turned away, obscured or off-panel entirely), and the one panel showing the KGBeast's bulge is actually deeply scary, but the preponderance of pretty makes up for it.

5) Still not convinced? Check out some highlights...

a) As I said, the story opens on Dick, in Blüdhaven, kicking ass. Roy turns up and they converse while Dick continues kicking ass. (Mmm, multitasking.) A bit of dialogue: Roy says, "I need to talk to you, buddy. It's... kinda important." Dick, on the ground wrestling with one of his perps (and having the upper hand despite being on his back under the guy) responds, "Shoot." Roy fires a crossbow bolt through the perp's knife hand. "Roy!" Dick chides, "I meant tell me what's going on!"

b) After Dick finishes subduing all the perps in that opening scene, he slings their unconscious victim over one shoulder, takes the guy's briefcase in one hand, *throws* a grapple-line with the other, and swings off as easily as if he was unburdened. GUH.

c) Roy goes to Gotham to meet with Batman, as arranged by Dick. He's standing on a gargoyle head, high over the city; it's night, and it's raining. Bruce appears out of the shadows behind him, moving utterly noiselessly until he starts to ask, "What do you--" "Whoa--" Roy yelps, startled, and loses his balance. Bruce steps up close enough behind him to share body heat, catches Roy's outflung arm by the tricep to steady him, and continues, "--need?" Just one of a number of panels in this book that resemble nothing so much as gay porn.

d) So they need the plans for a decommissioned military base, and it's so old the blueprints were never entered on anyone's computers. Bruce drives the Batmobile up to a government office and says, "I assume you're capable of getting into a locked federal building on your own?" Roy quips back, "Sure. I'll just grenade the door. Hope you don't expect me to be able to read, though."

e) Bruce wading in and kicking the KGBeast's ass hand-to-hand. No dialogue worth quoting, but... starts off by kicking him through a wall, then charges in, dodging projectiles, landing a left to his chin, ducking under the Beast's clumsy swing to jab at his midsection with another left and following up with a right to his jaw. Poetry in motion. Brutal, violent poetry, but no less poetic for that.

f) Roy catching a crucial detail during the hostage exchange that Bruce missed. You go, Roy!

g) Bruce holding his rebreather mask to Roy's face. (Man, I wish I could scan these pages for you guys!) Damned if it doesn't look... tender. And gay.

h) Roy finally going off on Bruce ...and Bruce letting him get it out of his system, and then getting right in his face and saying "Roy... I miss Ollie too." (And I do mean *right* in his face; if he ever got his mouth that close to Dick's in canon, people's underpants would catch fire.)

i) Roy's turn to go toe-to-toe with the KGBeast. Things don't go quite as smoothly for him as for Bruce, but when it seems like he's in over his head, what goes through Roy's head: Quick! What would Dick do? A high, kick, of course, and he breaks free. I won't spoil what his answer to "What would Ollie do?" was, later in the fight.

j) Dick showing back up at the end of the issue... which I also won't spoil the details of. But really, Dick. What more do you need?

There are, of course, many more choice panels, situations and conversations, and a truly priceless founding-Teen-Titans flashback -- this isn't like a coming attractions trailer that consists entirely of the five good jokes in the whole film.

6) The entire issue's on glossy paper. Not that big a deal, no, but it does make the art stand out better, and shows age more slowly. Unlike some glossy-coated paper, also, this stuff resists fingerprints.

7) Subtext out (up?) the wazoo. Roy/Dick and Roy/Ollie, of course... and a little Roy/Bruce, as a title with both their names should have.

8) Bruce! Rrrowr.

9) Last but decidedly not least-- wait, yeah, actually least. He has more than a cameo role, but not by much. Still --Dick!

All in all, well worth your money, up to or even a little over the original US$2.95 cover price, if you should have the good fortune to come across it in a back-issues box or on eBay.

ETA even more reasons to love the nummy book!
ETA2 OMG ratcreature is a GODDESS and scanned the first five pages! Links in comments.

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h) Roy finally going off on Bruce ...and Bruce letting him get it out of his system, and then getting right in his face and saying "Roy... I miss Ollie too." (And I do mean *right* in his face; if he ever got his mouth that close to Dick's in canon, people's underpants would catch fire.)

This made me *swoon.* And clutch the issue to my chest, and then stop for fear of crinkling it. But--but--man, Bruce just knows EVERYTHING. *adore*

This made me *swoon.*

YES.

And clutch the issue to my chest, and then stop for fear of crinkling it.

Oh, no, mustn't crease the comix!

Bruce just knows EVERYTHING.

World's Greatest Detective. (...in bed.)

Oh, God. Need to find that issue!

when it seems like he's in over his head, what goes through Roy's head: Quick! What would Dick do? A high, kick, of course, and he breaks free. I won't spoil what his answer to "What would Ollie do?" was, later in the fight.

He needs bracelets. WWDD on one wrist, WWOD on the other!

Heck, I need bracelets :-).

A while ago I shared some Arsenal love with

Jeez. Wally and Roy. Methinks Dick's got a thing for redheads.

That comment was supposed to have references to Kory and Babs in it too.

What about Wally?

Or the since-retconned-out naturally-redheaded Jason, who dyed his hair black for Robinning purposes?

Or Jim Gordon?

Oh. You mentioned Wally.

I'm just an idiot.

Um. Lex?

Honest, I hadn't seen this before I made my post...

Or hey, why not Lex Luthor :-)?

The hair dye is one of the few things I miss about pre-Crisis Jason. DYING HIS HAIR to look more like Dick--damn. Although I thought he was blond, actually...will have to go check.

!%^#& colorists. I checked a few early pre-crisis issues (357 and 360, to be exact) and Jason's hair color varies between blond and red and light blond.

In one case on the same page.

Well, between careless editing/fact-checking, ink quality issues, and the just plain weird colouring conventions of the time, most ostensibly redheaded characters' hair varied much like that. Even on the same page like that.

*CHOKE*

*DIE*

he what?

he--he--oh my god. Oh Jason. Oh sweetie. --although it lessens the intense disturbingness of Bruce's predilection for dark-haired blue-eyed boys. But adds its own special flavor. *facepalm*

Unless Jason dyed it that way so Bruce would like him more. Um.

now i feel DIRTY.

not that this is anything new, of course...

You should feel dirty, reading such perversion into the pure, innocent comic books...

But why would Jay feel the need to do that? It's not like he was needy-- oh. Well, it's not like he didn't have other people in his life to-- oh.

Um, indeed. You need to be writing Bruce/Jason RIGHT NOW.

Yeah, but Bruce's other "thing" has long been for redheads. Especially ones surnamed Gordon.

He does. He so does.

What always cracks me up is the sidekick names, you know in Flash Annual #8 Wally tells Linda that he wanted to be "Speedy" not "Kid Flash", but Speedy was already taken by Roy and the media stuck him with "Kid Flash"... each time I'm reminded of that, I think of the this hilarious Sidekick Angst! On Today's Oprah! thing...

You... that... those... I...

*THANK YOU*. So. Much. You rule with the scanning, man.

On my monitor, at least, some of the colours seem to have come out darker than they look in the book, which makes the contouring on those bulges hard to see in most of the panels. Still. Nice clean scans, and all the lovely dialogue and most of the detail of the art come through.

Sounds like there are a bunch of Action Comics issues I need to get my hands on. I don't suppose you know which ones from that period, besides #613 and #627, have Dick and/or Roy in them?

Actually those are both multipart stories. For a while, beginning with Action Comics #601 the title became Action Comics Weekly (until #642) and went from being a Superman title to one featuring different characters with several stories in one issue, and each story running for several weeks, each part 8-10 pages. So the Nightwing and Speedy stories those scans are from are ran from #613-618 and #627-634 (and btw unlike the Batman plus Arsenal comic, I don't actually own those Action Comics Weekly issues myself, I just downloaded scans of those comics, because I wanted to read the Chesire stuff but had been unable to find these in my store).

Exxxcellent. Thank you again.

::adds them to Need list::

Thanks so much for the scans.

But what's up with Arsenal's costume in this [the Batman plus Arsenal] issue? It's--pretty cute, actually, but rather unheroic, or at least, very unlike how I usually see Arsenal.

Ex-sidekick costume crisis? At least it's not the Elvis look.

Arsenal's costume seems to change a lot. I actually have no clue why it's different right then. I still haven't read the Titans issues from that time (whatever incarnation they were in then), so I have no idea whether those might shed some light on this.

Have you seen his first Arsenal (first post-Speedy) costume? Less gay than Dick's first Nightwing costume only because Dick's was SOOO gay. Roy's was even purple.

Batman plus⁺ Arsenal seems to be set shortly after Roy left the CBI, and the costume he was wearing was similar (though not identical) to the CBI agents we saw in the issue, so I'm guessing government conspiracy is to blame for it.

My personal favourite is the pretty brown-and-gold Arsenal uniform Roy discarded (at the same time he buzz-cut his hair) at the beginning of Outsiders #1.

Managed to catch a glimpse of the purple one at Titans Tower.

Oh *man*. I need a Roy costume gallery...or a lot of backissues :-).

I love that panel of Dick coming out of the shower. So...ripply:-) And how cute was it that he was *washing* his Nightwing costume while they chatted? They're so domestic it hurts. Thanks so much for the scans - I'm about to dip my feet in Nightwing/Arsenal slash territory and this helped contextualize things a bit. Where did you download these from, btw? Suprnova.org has been a life (and budget) saver, but it doesn't have as much variety as I'd like.

Well, with torrents you usually just have to wait a while, then the stuff you're looking for is going to be posted by someone. I don't know any place where you find all comics at any given time. I think I got this one from suprnova.org a while ago, in an Action Comics Weekly pack. Otherwise you can take a look at the tracker sites directly for torrents that people didn't post to suprnova or go to the boards. Digital-update has a good comics forum, but registration is closed at the moment, or invite based on moderator recommendation only or something like that, but the majority of the comics are shared on the comic trackers not the du trackers (which forbid crossposting in their usage rule a while ago), so the stuff can be found elsewhere. Good places to look are the comic tracker sites and their associated boards (just follow the links from suprnova torrents to the tracker sites and you'll get there). filesoup.com has a comic forum too. I know that dc++ is a filesharing system that people use to share single issues, but I've never gotten the software to run on my system, so I don't have any clue about that or ow to find comic hubs.

Thanks for the info! I'll take a look around - I guess it's mostly just luck of the draw and doing a lot of hunting for what you want.

DC++ is WONDERFUL. Strongly recommended. Mutant Liberation Front has a list for some good comic hubs in their FAQ section.

Mutant Liberation Front? Though, my main problem with dc++ is really that so far the linux clients I tried wouldn't compile on my system, and I've been unable to figure out why (I tried resolving all the dependencies and such, but it still would work). I think it might be that I haven't updated my core distribution in over a year, so the libraries aren't the newest ones, but it always takes some time to do a core upgrade because of all the little tweaks and fixes you have to do afterwards, and right now I have my system working okay, with all hardware recognized and working, a ton of little adjustments and configurations made, so I'm kind of lazy about the upgrade, and rather live without another p2p download option. I haven't even read all the comics I have in paper form, after all.

Sorry, Mutant Liberation Front (http://www.sketchyorigins.com/comics/?) was my first comic tracker site :)

It was really active back in the days of torrense and bitetorrent. Also used to have a very active private tracker. But I haven't been there in ages and they don't seem to be as active anymore. But I still like their FAQs.

Personally, DC++ was quite the relevation when I found it, so good luck with trying to get it to run. You are a brave one BTW, I always make sure to have both, a Linux and a Windows just in case.

Heh. I haven't used Windows on my computer since my Win98 crashed on my then dual boot system many years ago. I never bothered to reinstall it, because it always caused trouble, like mysterious booting errors, and I didn't use it much anyway. Also I can't afford to buy M$ programs, like office or photoshop or virus software and all the regular stuff you need, which is why I installed Linux in the first place. Well that and the fact that the errors and crashes were so damn cryptic with Windows. At least when under linux something doesn't work there usually is some discernible reason and internal logic to it, and you can feel in control while you track down tons of How-To and FAQ documents, and wade through list posts spending your next two weekends fixing the problem, and *pretend* it is you who controls what your computer does. ;D

Ah,

Roy's haircut from that time is blindingly ugly. (second and third series you posted, especially third)

I guess "it was the 80s" probably explains a lot... ;)

But it still hurt the squeeability for me.

But it's also one more reason to love Ollie, because his haircut was consistently good even back then!

Dick is a good role model.

Though I think he'd be an even better nude model...

Whereas Ollie's always had more potential as a nude model than a role model...:-)

(Don't know if that would have resulted in more or less issues for Roy overall...)

Hmm, thanks for the rec. I'll take a look for it - there is a depressing lack of emphasis on crotch-bulges in comics today. *shakes head* I think it should be an artistic requirement for every new applicant who wants to draw Batman and his pals. C'mon, give us a reason to point and giggle, or widen our eyes in appreciation! :-)

And I've noticed that artists tend to neuter Bats in shadow or pannel crops more than any other member of the spandex set. I guess we're supposed to get our fallic fullfillment in those pointy ears of his, but man...is it too much to ask that they detail his lower half?

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Roy. Bruce. LOVE.

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Arsenal/Nightwing Scans

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Batman + Arsenal = so much subtextual goodness