So I want to write some practice essays as preparation for uni next year. I want to be serious about this but I also want to have fun with it. So I thought it’d be fun to write some essays on DC comics!
I’m asking for topic suggestions. They can either be serious (e.g. an in-depth analysis of Bruce Wayne’s character) or not (e.g. an essay on which Justice League member would make the best roomate). Have fun with it!
I’ll do topics on any character, family or anything related to DC comics, really. And I’ll do persuasive, compare and contrast, and close analysis. Either give me the easiest topics or give me a challenge, it’s up to you! Additiionally, it’d be really helpful if you would also suggest what comics, show or movie to watch in order to research into the topic before writing the essay. You don’t have to! But it’d be helpful
[Image: a digital drawing of Roy Harper from DC comics holding his daughter Lian, she is a toddler held up in one of his arms holding his head and hugging his face against her chest. Roy is a thin white man with medium length red hair, he is grinning and looking up at Lian, she has slightly darker skin and black hair held back in a ponytail and is squishing her face into the top of Roy’s head. /end ID]
Roy pulls his phone out of his pocket, setting it up so he can film himself with one hand. Possibilities of sharing this video with others aside, he just wants to make sure this is actually happening. He frames it so he’s the only one on screen, capturing him sitting on the living room sofa. Just out of frame but within range of the mic is Lian sitting next to him.
“Can you ask me again what you just asked me?” he says. “What was that question?”
She looks up at him with her big brown eyes, obviously confused.
“I don’t think—Daddy didn’t hear you,” he clarifies.
Lian cocks her head to the side, beginning to pick at her shirt, seemingly already bored with this conversation.
But Roy needs to know he heard this right, and he needs it documented.
She looks up from her shirt, turning to look at Roy again. When she finally answers, her tone indicates a mix of confusion and annoyance at her dad’s apparent incompetence.
“Can we have lesbian?”
Roy tucks his lips into his mouth, trying his absolute hardest not to burst out laughing.
Just five minutes ago, they were watching a Pixar film in the living room when Lian had asked a simple question: What’s for dinner? When Roy said he hadn’t decided yet, she’d promptly answered, “Can we have lesbian?”
So, he immediately paused the movie and brought out his phone to film and capture this very moment.
Roy hums a noise of acknowledgement. “Mhm, okay.” He strokes his jaw with his free hand, a poor attempt at trying to cover up the smile threatening to split his face. “Maybe I did hear you right.” He moves the hand on his chin to brush his cheek.
He has no idea what the fuck she’s talking about. Where did she hear that word? What does it have to do with dinner? Is Lian trying to come out to him? How would he even get a lesbian (question mark?) for her?
(He briefly wonders if Dick or Jason are in touch with Batwoman. She’s a lesbian, right? Roy vaguely remembers something about an engagement.)
Lian looks at him expectantly, the corner of her lips tugging into the tiniest frown. Crap, he needs to wrap up this up soon if he wants to avoid a tantrum.
He decides to be honest.
“I don’t know—I don’t know what that is, sweetie,” he admits. He props his free arm onto the backrest of the couch, leaning his head against a fist. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Lesbiaaan,” Lian drawls, as if Roy didn’t hear her say it three times with total clarity now.
He hides his face behind his hand again, unable to stop the grin from growing. He smoothly (as smooth as he can in a situation like this anyway) turns the movement to look like he’s just rubbing his eyes.
“I kn-I know,” he stutters. Shit, he can barely contain himself now.
He takes a shallow breath. “I know what you said,” he tries again, “but I don’t think that word means what you think it means, okay?”
He’s about to explain himself a little more when Lian interrupts him:
“It’s like spaghetti!”
Roy nearly drops his phone.
Lasagna.
She means lasagna.
Lian looks at him with an expression that only says duh! and Roy can’t stop the snort that escapes him. He covers his face again in a last-ditch effort—he never wants his daughter to think he’s laughing at her but, god, he definitely underestimated how raising a kid had its moments.
He clears his throat, getting a better grip of his phone. “Ahem, excuse me. Um.”
Perceptive little girl she is, Lian’s frown turns into one of concern, so Roy answers her before she can divert the conversation.
“Lian, baby,” he says, deciding to completely give up on hiding his smile, “do you mean ‘lasagna’?”
“Yup!” she replies, popping at the P at the end.
Lian smiles back at him, apparently glad that they’re finally on the same page. Roy rubs his forehead again after nodding.
“Yeah,” he says, “I’m sure we can hav—”
His voice suddenly cracks, giggles threatening to pour out of him. He pauses to collect himself, breathing deeply as he rubs his forehead some more.
He needs to get a hold of himself. She’s been patient with him this whole time, and he still needs to figure out dinner after all.
“I’m sure we can have lasagna really soon,” he assures her. “Okay? I’ll try to—” and he can’t help but nod at her encouragingly when her expression turns into one of excitement, “—I’ll try to make sure we can eat that soon, okay?”
Lian makes a happy noise, lifting a hand up to pat him on the chest.
“Yeah!” she exclaims, beaming a huge gap-toothed grin at him, and Roy practically melts.
“Okay, alright,” he says, voice going from slightly hysterical to overwhelmingly fond. He ends the recording before shutting his phone off and putting it away.
Lian faceplants into his chest—getting an oof! out of him in the process—and she shifts around until her little arms are curled around his torso, face tilted up.
(Roy doesn’t care what anyone says—he’s definitely got the cutest kid in the world, probably the galaxy. This is not the first time he’s thought this, and it certainly won’t be the last.)
“So can we have liz…” She struggles with the word. “Laz-laznia—”
“Lasagna.”
“—lasagna. Can we have that today?”
Thinking about what’s in their kitchen, Roy shakes his head. “No, princess, I’m sorry, not tonight.”
“Aww,” she whines, burying her face into his chest. He brings up a hand to stroke her hair—it’s getting long now, several inches past her shoulders, and he makes a mental note about maybe taking her in for a haircut.
Roy hums to himself. There are some leftovers he can probably toss into some sort of meal for tonight, but his little girl wants lasagna. Lasagna can’t be that hard to make, right? Maybe Ollie or Dinah (or Jason?) has a recipe even Roy can manage.
And if all else fails, he’s been on enough late-night missions to know that pre-packaged frozen lasagna isn’t half-bad.
“We can’t have it tonight,” he says, “but maybe after we go shopping this week, we can have some, okay?”
“Yay!” she cheers, looking up to flash that megawatt grin at him again.
He grins back, eyes crinkling at the corners. “You wanna help me make that next time?”
He offers a raised palm to her, and she responds with a delighted squeal, high-fiving him with a satisfying smack!
Connor’s pride story was so beautifully written. I *love* the way it focused on how our society is so focused on the sexual aspect of love that it at times it seems all-consuming, like that’s the *only* option. As an ace person, that really hit home and I love how they didn’t shy away from using the word asexual either. Most stories about ace characters are just vaguely implied or hinted at. But this… Connor was proud, proudly wrote it in that letter to his mother and the whole thing was beautiful.
I especially love how they distinguish between the romantic and sexual aspects and make it clear that Connor *does* experience romantic attraction but *doesn’t* feel the sexual part. So many people conflate aromanticism and asexuality, so it was nice to see those independently acknowledged.
I also *really* loved the metaphor about the music and allosexuality/sex in general. This is such a perfect example of what it feels like to be ace, especially in a society where almost everyone is allo, and how hard it can be to figure it out. So much is focused on sexual attraction that it can be difficult to figure out that you’re ace, or accept it. Lots of people feel broken, like they’re missing something everyone else experiences, but asexuality is not a bad thing, it’s not a curse. Asexuality is beautiful, and I think this story really represents that.
summary: Planning out Connor’s coming out would be simple if Roy and Cissie didn’t get involved. a/n: This is basically a humorous retelling of how I figured out I was ace but with more arrowfam
“In the interest of maintaining the image of being the only vaguely rational person in this family, I’m going to tell you to just tell him,” you say, wondering how exactly you got into this conversation when all you wanted to do was have a nice brunch with your siblings.
“You can’t just come out. He’s gotta do something.”
“Babies come out and all they do is cry.”
Cissie snorts.
You roll your eyes.
“This is a big thing. He’s gotta do something to tell Ollie. ”
Roy says all of this like you care. You would think that he’d figured out by now that anything that comes out of his mouth completely slips by your brain like rainwater over Teflon. Honestly. “Right?” He turns to Cissie who is busy delighting in the fact that you are suffering too much to tell her not to eat too much syrup.
You turn to Connor, chin on the heel of your palm. “What are you afraid of?”
Connor gestures vaguely trying to capture his point and hand it to you, punctuating the action by saying, “that.” You stare at him and want to tell him that you don’t speak Roy but you’re half sure he got that gesture from Kyle. You let out a dismissive breath.
“You’re being insensitive again.”
You blink and flick your gaze wide-eyed.
Connor kind of shrugs dejected and Roy comforts him but still manages to look so very irritating in the process.
“Ok,” you say slowly trying to retrace your steps. Where had you misstepped? Ok, you repeat in your head. You run through the facts in your head and come up bust. “It’s pretty normal to be disinterested in that stuff, right? There are better things to do.”
They all kind of just look at you and you’re backtracking again, thinking, “What did I do now?”
“Do you,” Cissie says slowly, “do you think the rest of the world just has sex because they have nothing better to do?”
You want to say yes but you feel like that’s the wrong answer so you go with, “maybe?”
They’re all back to staring at you again.
“What?”
“Here I thought (Y/n) was the straight person on thin ice,” Roy says in a small breath.
“What?” You repeat.
“I think you just came out to us,” Connor says, the corner of his lip curling into a smile. You feel like you should be offended but you’re just happy that the sick grey-green color swimming under his skin has gone. Connor turns to Roy. “Should I just do that?”
“Naw, knowing (Y/n) she’ll get it patented in like 2 hours.”
“For Connor, I won’t. But I don’t see how you would sneak that into a conversation with Ollie.”
Connor shrugs, “I could ask him about him and Dinah.”
“Please don’t.”
“It’s a great idea,” Cissie pipes in.
“Please don’t pull a Roy.”
Roy makes an annoyed noise at you in the back of his throat. He usually only reserves that noise for when you call up Donna just to walk her through his latest fuck ups on patrol. You’re very happy to find that it can be induced in other ways.
You stick your tongues out at each other.
Cissie clears her throat and points out, “Someone has to be the token straight person.”
You and Connor point to your noses. “Not it.”
“I have eldest immunity privileges!” Roy protests.
“Since when?”
“Forever.”
“News to me,” you say.
Connor seems to contemplate this. “It’s not in writing.”
You grin as Roy tries to sputter a response.
“Sorry, straight person. If it’s not in writing, you can’t enforce it,” Cissie shrugs pounding her palm against the table like a gavel.
Roy throws his hands up and starts to argue with Cissie about why she should be the person on thin ice. You would like to take credit for Cissie not taking Roy’s bullshit like a champ but she was like that to begin with.
You take the opportunity to lean in and whisper in Connor’s ear. “Ollie’s probably just going to add to his collection of pride shirts.”
He side-eyes, less skeptical and more than a little weary. “He has that?”
“He also got pride ties when someone on the board had something to say after Cissie came out.”
“Huh.”
“Mmhmm,” you hum, “I promise I won’t come out when you do. Then again, Ollie’s probably guessed my case by now. Maybe. I dunno.”
“Ollie’s dumber than any of us,” Cissie laughs.
“He took you in so probably,” Roy sniggers.
“Hey!”
“The fact that he took us all in is grounds for an insanity plea,” Connor admits.
“Can we all agree that him being friends with Uncle Hal is a better case?” You say, slouching back in your chair.
“Ok. Yeah.”
“Oh, he’ll love hearing about it. No Christmas presents for you.”
“ Yeah, cus I’m gonna miss the shitty Coast City souvenir shop mugs he gets me every year.”
“Oh yeah, I forgot I told him you were starting a mug collection waaaaay back.”
UnusedGreen Arrow Costume Designs by Phil Hesterand Ande Parks from the Green Arrow: Sounds of Violencehardcover.
Phil notes, “In the middle of Kevin’s run we toyed with the idea of putting Mia in a Speedy Costume and changing Ollie’s Costume. Neither came to pass.”
Before you say it, Mom, I know. Dating can be difficult for everyone. It can be hard, opening yourself to someone like that. To be seen completely. To be heard. I do want that for myself. I want almost all of it. I want to hold hands and watch movies with someone. I want them to come home and tell me about their awesome day. I want them to wait for me while I jump off rooftops chasing down Lady Shiva. I want someone to share ice cream with after I get press-ganged onto a bananas immortality island murder tournament where I’m forced to fight a literal demon. I want to share myself. It’s just so hard, when sharing yourself is so often assumed to mean your body as well as your soul. Primarily your body. I understand why most people see sex and love as interchangeable. Society is composed of celebrations of the sexual aspect of love, it’s cacophonous. Which is what made this so hard to realize. Because when that… noise… is everywhere, it can be hard to hear the silence within yourself. Especially when everyone in the orchestra thinks your silence is… an aberration. Ruining their chorus. But this silence is me, and it has a beauty of its own.I’m asexual, Mom. And I’m proud of who I am, now that I can hear it.
CONNOR HAWKE in DC PRIDE (2022) story by Ro Stein and Ted Brandt
[ID: A digital drawing of Oliver Queen and Connor Hawke hugging. Ollie’s back is turned to the viewer. He’s wearing a white short sleeve high collared shirt. Connor is wearing his Green Arrow suit. His face is resting against Ollie’s shoulder. His eyes are closed and his eyebrows turned up. End ID]
