batman slash recs: batman/jim gordon

[cimorene]

I keep pimping this story to everyone and their mother, even if as far as I am aware they don't actually like slash, or Batman. And meanwhile I keep trying and sometimes succeeding to convert people to Batman/Gordon! So I thought I'd post a few recs here.

First of all, the current must-read, and I mean this for everyone, not just those already interested in the pairing:

The Clues in Front of Us by solaras is a post-TDK WIP. She's got six chapters up after, I suppose, two weeks or so. Her update rate is pretty good, is what I'm trying to say, so I consider this fairly safe as WIPs go (I generally avoid them when not DESPERATE FOR SOMETHING, ANYTHING TO READ). This story is Gordon's POV on his blossoming friendship with Batman and, at the same time, his friendship with Bruce Wayne, who seems to be seeking him out for political reasons. The summary seems to indicate that he's eventually going to start putting the pieces together. Now, the narrative voice is delicious perfection, ringing astoundingly true. The pace is exquisitely slow, the UST developing at an appropriately controlled speed. The atmosphere is nice. The dialogue is, at times, hilarious and fantastic. The parallels between the two story lines are very satisfying and neat, too.

Other recs:

First Priorities, by jen_in_japan, is Batman and Gordon gen and extremely short.

Getting Close, by jen_in_japan, an established-relationship piece saturated with angst and mood. Also very short and well-executed, although the flashback to the beginning of their relationship is a little bulky around the edges.

All Kinds of All Right by sua_lay is preslash focusing on Batman and Jim's son. There's awww, and some angst, but the implied things about Batman and Gordon's relationship are what stand out.

Dropping Masks by planetgal471 is a little longer than the others, and particularly the dialogue and the pivotal scene in the middle are remarkably good. The beginning and the end are both a little abrupt and seem slightly out of place, where an episode with Gordon's kids and some references to his divorce seem out of place in relation to what is otherwise a pretty specific (and cool) plot device. But that device is really cool.

Comments

[anglepoiselamp.livejournal.com]

I'm an equal opportunity slasher in this fandom, and Batman/Gordon is a srsly adorable pairing. I'm biased though, as I've been shipping Batman/Joker since I was a wee kid. It's that arch enemy thing that I'm so fond of.

But here's a screen cap I took for youse. :D

[cimness.livejournal.com]

It'd be better if they were looking at each other... but honestly, for most of TAS Gordon's character isn't very significant.

[anglepoiselamp.livejournal.com]

True - there are a lot of repeated comic interludes where Batman disappears while Gordon is in mid-sentence, but that's about it. :(

[cimness.livejournal.com]

LOL, well, I think that Batman pretty much does that to everyone. Always. XD

[anglepoiselamp.livejournal.com]

My theory is that after all the tedious small talk a socialite like Bruce Wayne has to put up with, he relishes becoming someone with no social skillz whatsoever. :D

[sarren.livejournal.com]

Oh, cool. I didn't know about the jen_in_japan ones, and they're great. Coincidentally just read and enjoyed the Clark/Bruce one she just posted, though it was a little too romantic for me to really believe Bruce's character. Clark from Smallville, though, I could totally see him being romantic. *g*

[cimness.livejournal.com]

I read strictly within pairings, so I've never read and, I'm sure, never will read any Superman/Batman. I really like her gen, though.

[sarren.livejournal.com]

Ah. I love my OTPs but will happily read other pairings if I can see the possibility. And in this case, my first exposure to this fandom was special_trille sitting me down a couple of years ago and making me watch Justice League to show me the Superman/Batman slash. It didn't really take, sadly, but I've remained 'open' to the possibility.

However, Superman can't compete with JIM GORDON *is fixated*

[cimness.livejournal.com]

Actually, I can sort of believe Superman and Batman in the regular DCUniverse; I'm just not really interested because Clark/Lex is a bulletproof OTP of mine and I sort of prefer to imagine a sort of mishmashed highly-Smallville-influenced universe there. XD But I can believe Batman with a number of other people besides Jim, even if I wouldn't, like, purposely go reading them...

[sarren.livejournal.com]

YOU! You with your casual mention of OTPing Clark/Lex, forcing me to go check out your website.

I HAVE NOT BEEN TO BED.

*cries*

[cimness.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry; did you get sucked into the recs vortex? XD;

[sarren.livejournal.com]

Not exactly. (http://sarren.livejournal.com/369980.html)

Though I will definitely bookmark the recs for after my Batman obsession subsides.


More good Gordon/Bruce slash posted today, yays!! I am definitely sliding from prefering the gen relationships with them into the warm waters of sins of the flesh OTPing them. *g* Oh, the hardship.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

Oh... huh. Well, Unintended is definitely my least favourite trek fic by a factor of ten or so because it's almost completely rooted in fanon and not canon, and my writing was pretty... teenie back then. But you wouldn't be unlike the rest of fandom in preferring that one. I don't understand it, but I've come to accept it!

[sarren.livejournal.com]

Huh. I kinda feel a bit embarrassed that I love it so much now.

Is there a rule against going back and editing posted fics? You could have a Version II tha you're happy with.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

No, I'm sure you love it *because* of all the fanon, and you shouldn't be embarrassed about what you like (or about liking fanon - God knows in many fandoms it's a lot better than canon)! I'm just always kind of sad that fandom doesn't appreciate more the ones that I worked the hardest on, if that makes sense? I know taste doesn't work that way, but I can't help being slightly sad in the centre of my inner emo arteest. In a meta sort of way, Unintended is a fictional sort of... pondering of fanon and meta tropes in the fandom and it's pretty representative of a lot of them I think. I'd pretty much mainlined the entire online fandom 24/7 for a few months and then sat right down and wrote it, so that's not very surprising! And my knowledge of canon was still superficial when I started it. And the version up there is the edited version - I made certain corrections and rewrites in summer of 2003 for publication in a 'best of internet k/s' zine published by... oh, I forget who does those - Jenna Hilary Sinclair maybe?

[sarren.livejournal.com]

Ooh, what other people?

[cimness.livejournal.com]

Oh, well, there's the canonical interests. And there's Harvey Dent. In the animated series Batman and Harvey were totally intense. (I don't buy Harvey in *this* Nolan-based universe, mind. Not unless he comes back from the dead, which the writer has denied stringently although I think he totally SHOULD.) And I totally believe Batman with Superman, even if I don't want to read it. And besides Two-Face and Catwoman, Batman's relationships with many of the canonical villains are kind of complex. I mean, a lot of them aren't all bad, just like, bizarrely crazy monomaniacal terrorists bent on something or other who might or might not help Batman out at some other time with some common enemy...

...and there's Robin of course. And Alfred. And R'as al Ghul.

[sarren.livejournal.com]

Oh, cool. I'm looking forward to watching the animated series, we're still working through Batman Beyond. Is the intense relationship with Harvey before he becomes Two-Face?

Hee! "not all bad - just crazy monomaniacal terrorists" Hee!

[cimness.livejournal.com]

Hm, well, I haven't watched since I was a kid, but they were close friends before the accident and their relationship continues being nuanced after. Two-Face actually has sort of... two personalities, and so it's ambivalent. He's a bad guy, but he can be sympathetic and rational as well, as I recall, if only maybe occasionally. And Bruce still is kind of all torn up about the tragedyyyyyyyy that happened to him.

[sarren.livejournal.com]

Close friends, huh? *looks interested* Wait! You shall not turn me from my love of Jim Gordon! *covers eyes*

[cimness.livejournal.com]

Not that I ever received a slashy vibe from them. But any genuine friendship is, you know, plausibly amenable!

[troublemagnet.livejournal.com]

Does anyone know what happened to jen_in_japan's account? Such wonderful fic and the journal has been deleted...