Summer is over and Batman: Wayne Family Adventures on Webtoons is going strong…but Steph and Ian have been busy soaking up the rays outside and forgot to review! Now they’re diving in head first to review as many episodes as they can!

Steph: Wow, Ian! Man, did I lose track of time or what? We’ve got some many Wayne Family Adventures to catch up on!

Ian: A fun “problem” to have! Especially in this more serialized storyline!

Steph: Oh I know, last we left off the Joker had tried to take the Signal out, but failed and now Bruce is worried about the family and Jason isn’t taking things so well.
Which kicks of the first episode we’re looking at, #120 – “Break Myself To Pieces”.

Ian: I REALLY liked the tiny detail of Cass holding Duke when he’s found. It is a great callback to her specifically telling Duke to be careful, showing her care for him – and fear that something big was coming.

And Joker’s threat spray-painted on the walls really makes me think – normally I’m all for the Batfamily butting in and helping Bruce. But Joker knows they will butt in…and he wants to hurt them to hurt Batman. I think it makes it a harder choice than sometimes when it feels like Batman just wants to be the Guy Who Does It All.

Steph: For sure. I did like Alfred ribbing Batman about losing his belt along with his ability to communicate with his kids, but yes, Bruce knows that Joker will make good on his word and that his kids are in real danger.

A large portion of this episode is about the Jason coming to realize he’s on a bad trajectory, with Dick’s help. What did you think of Dick’s approach? Reaching out to help find Joker, but then using grounding techniques when Jason starts to have a paralyzing panic attack?

Ian: I thought it was a nice way to showcase some of those kinds of techniques – reminds me of the Netflix show Jessica Jones. It’s nice seeing Jason and Dick having a solid connection.

What did you think of the way Damian and Cass responded to Bruce ordering them once again to stay home? I thought the difference in reaction highlights the way CRC Payne really has a strong and solid characterization for each of the Batfamily – they’re not just interchangeable soldiers, but family members with unique relationships with every other member.

Steph: For sure. Damian wants to fight for his place by Bruce’s side, but Cass, more trained in reading emotions, knows to back off for now. I do love that, in spite of this being a Jason and Dick episode, we get to see inside a lot of the family.

Ian: Yep. And we get to see flashbacks with Jason’s old Robin costume designed specially for WFA, which is a really nice thing that sets it apart from other comic versions.

Steph: I also feel I can’t fault Bruce too much because Joker and proven in the past how far he is willing to go to take the Bat-kids off the table.

Ian: That’s the tricky thing! Because we know just how vicious Joker has been to Jason, and Babs, and Duke. We don’t want to see Steph, or Cass, or Damian, or Dick have to go through that!
And we know Bruce is desperately afraid of that too. So it’s HARD to fault him, even though at some point they do need to work together!

Steph: Yeah. And that brings us to episode #121 – “In Shatters All Around Me”…which starts with…
the name of the hero escapes me…

Ian: Bluebird?
Harper Row?

Steph: Spoiler! I guess it doesn’t start with Tim and Steph, it starts with Batman finding out that the Arkham guards are being watched by Joker.

Ian: Oh yeah.
She sounds vaguely familiar
hahaha
But really, I love the way Tim and Steph’s detective duo works. They have a shorthand and really dig into the investigation well together. Bruce working with Alfred is always good to see, as it both gives him community and helps to avoid too much internal monologue

Steph: I had a question for you specifically, as a Spoiler Super-Fan.

Ian: Ask away!

Steph: I don’t know why, but I noticed Steph was twirling her hair while Tim was clickity-clacking on the keyboard. Is that a canon thing? Does she play with her hair?

Ian: She will sometimes. It’s not one of her “key mannerisms”, but she does like to do it sometimes.

I do really love the way that Steph and Tim’s reactions differed strongly from Cass and Damian’s. Where Cass knew not to prolong a conflict, and Damian reacted with longing, Tim goes for logic, and Steph hits home with devastating emotional insight and a powerful urge to push back when she sees Batman pushing in the wrong direction. Or when she thinks it’ll be funny (like her drinking from a Green Arrow cup!), but in this case, it’s very much driven by her desire to see Bruce make better choices.

Steph: Yes, in my notes I had written “Spoiler dropping the truth bombs on Batman”.
I feel like Batman’s excuse that the family is distracting and delaying him is of his own making. He could let them help, but he is choosing to see their help as a distraction.

Ian: I really think CRC Payne knows and loves these characters very passionately and intelligently – they each have their personalities very strongly!

I think Bruce is definitely making the wrong choice here, but that’s why I think it’s so crucial to see him acting in fear, rather than out of arrogance. The spray-painted threat and the flashbacks to previous attacks really highlight that it’s not a game – these kids really are in danger.

Steph: Fully agree, but also, don’t be a jerk.
As Steph says.
Both of us.

Ian: Two Stephs, both wise 😄

Steph: The episode ends with Dick and Babs talking to Jason and his decision to step back and be away for a while. This whole arc did have me thinking, do you think that Bab’s level of trauma reaction is appropriate (virtually nothing in these episodes), or do you think that she is being downplayed too much?

I know she is literally in a wheel chair due to Joker, and Jason isn’t, but he also had experience prolonged torture and murder face to face with Joker, while Babs, though facing long term suffering and recovery, only had to face Joker for a split second.

Ian: I do think it’s interesting that WFA Babs is either much farther along the road to recovery/stability, or that’s just not the story they’re interested in telling here.

Steph: The healthy recovery is a good point.

Ian: I think that Babs in this series is supposed to have the years and years of Dixon and Simone’s Birds of Prey, facing Joker herself multiple times (particularly in the great issue #16 by Dixon), whereas Jason has spent a lot more time running from the problems, and so he’s still working through a lot of the stuff that Babs has travelled to.

Steph: All very good points.

Which brings us to episode #122 – “Always Leaving, Never Staying”. I really was interested in Dick’s interactions with Bruce in this one. Dick very much approaches Batman as a peer rather than a “Robin”.  And Bruce appears to see him as one.

Ian: I also really appreciate the way in these three episodes particularly Dick steps up and takes a leadership role.
He’s not just acting or reacting, he’s planning and using his mind and heart to help the whole family.

Steph: How do you think CRC’s Batman would describe Nightwing’s relationship with Batman?

Ian: I think this is clearly a Nightwing who has gone through hell and back with Batman, and then gone there and back on his own, so he knows he can stand on his own two feet, and has the tools of Batman without being driven as much by fear.

Steph: I do love that it’s Dick that gets Bruce to admit to at least needing to at least talk to the family.
Now, to shipping. In Webtoon’s “Red Hood and the Outlaws” Jason and Artemis end up together, and the series’ did overlap at one point, making the relationship canon in the Wayne Family Adventures series. Do you think they’re together in this story?

Ian: I think that’s really tricky, because in that series, Dick and Babs are also very much together – and while there’s clearly sparks between them, nothing nearly as overt as the relationship between Bruce and Selina.
So I think they’re probably at a more intermediate stage in this storyline.

Steph: Hmm, make sense. What do you think of Artemis’s decision to call in more friends? I know Jason wants to withdraw, and sometimes that can be helpful, but this is going against his wishes to bring reinforcement in.

Ian: I think it’s a good thing. Jason has a perhaps surprising amount of nicely defined relationships, and getting a band together seems like a very solid way to deal with the threats that Joker poses!

Steph: I agree, though I would be mad for a bit.
Did you have any more thoughts about this set of episodes?

Ian: I think this set of episodes is a bit less structured per episode than I hope. I’ll admit that my own hope for a stronger serialized element for WFA tended more towards the soap opera relationship aspect, rather than necessarily wanting to see more of a big case or villain battle – but I think that the comic is growing in its ability to handle the ongoing stresses, setups, and payoffs, and the strong character voice individuality really helps it stand on its own. Even though I’m not 100% convinced that the world of WFA is ready for a No Man’s Land or City of Bane, it’s handling things pretty well by focusing on the family relationships, as the name of the series always suggests the focus is.

Steph: I do love that the story is moving on, but we are still getting little family focus’s and even a mini-family member arc within the episodes. This definitely shows a growth is story telling for me. We’re getting more serial story telling without losing the family aspect, which literally in the name of the series.
I can’t wait to cover more of this story with you Ian! See you next time?

Ian: See you indeed!