42. Marigold
Hong Kong was a city of lights. Every building in the skyline was luminescent. Strictly speaking, Gotham was a bigger urban sprawl with many more high-rise towers, but it was a darker city in comparison. Not just figuratively, but literally. For some reason, the architects and civil engineers of Gotham didn't think to illuminate their buildings and streets like those in Hong Kong.
In all her life, Dora had seldom left Gotham, let alone the state of New Jersey. She had been to Blüdhaven, which was also in New Jersey, across the bay to Metropolis in Delaware, and had flown down to Santa Prisca in the Caribbean a few times to visit relatives, but that was the extent of her travels. She never imagined she would end up in China, of all places—with Jason no less.
"Wow," she gawked from the window of the elevator.
"Great view, huh?" Jason said.
"How can you even see with those things on?" she asked, referring to his sunglasses.
"They're mirrored without tint, so they hide my eyes without impairing or darkening my vision too much."
"Maybe I should get some. Think they sell them here?"
"It's China. They sell everything here. Still can't believe you convinced me to let you tag along."
Dora had not told Jason about her meeting with Batman. If not for their conversation in Gordon's office, she would have stayed behind. Batman had given her two weeks to convince Jason to retire as Red Hood and leave town.
The morning after, Jason told her he needed to take a last minute business trip to China. It would take a long weekend. What Dora heard was three less days to convince him to leave the Red Hood mantle behind. So she talked her way into going with him.
She resented being told what to do by a stranger, but it was the fucking Batman. And Batman was crazy smart. He knew enough about Jason to know that Dora had some type of leverage over him, that she was capable of convincing him to put down the Red Hood.
Also, Batman somehow knew that's exactly what she wanted too. He had offered her exactly what she had been wishing for. A way out of the mess she was in. As bad as she wanted to kill Black Mask, she would never—could never—fathom following through with it until she had gotten back with Jason. If she was honest with herself, it scared her that he brought out that dark side of her. And she was beginning to fear his own dark side even more. Its shadow loomed over him whenever he put on the mask.
Jason's return had awakened a lot of emotions within her. Love, lust… Grief. Anger. Pain. Hatred. Fear.
Anxiety.
If she could just take Jason out of the mix of things to worry about… then maybe… just maybe, life would be more manageable. But then she thought, No, I don't have to lose him for that to happen.
The problem in her life was Red Hood, not Jason.
And so, Batman's logic won. She was convinced.
Jason had to stop being Red Hood.
"I'm glad you're here." Jason wrapped his arm around her, bringing her attention back to the present.
"Well," Dora said, nuzzling close, "you did say you wanted to take me out on a proper date, give us an excuse to dress up."
"True." Jason looked down at her outfit. "And dress up you did."
Dora blushed, feeling self-conscious. She wanted to fidget with her glasses, but forgot she was wearing contact lenses instead. She had never dressed so boldly before. Her crimson red dress was form-fitting and low-cut, hugging her chest and hips in a way that mostly accentuated her curves rather than exposed them. She would rather walk on hot coals than wear heels, so she completed the outfit with red and black Air Jordan Ones. They were a gift from Jason, who was wearing his own pair in olive green to match his shirt. His three-piece suit was a deep burgundy.
"You look amazing," Jason said, a lusty grin on his face. He straightened the strap of her dress.
"Thanks, so do you," Dora replied, adjusting the collar of his shirt.
"Gosh, save it for later, you two," Jessie interjected. "This is supposed to be a business trip, not a honeymoon."
"Hey, you don't look so bad yourself," Jason told her.
"Thank you, sir," she said, pulling at the cuff of her two-button pantsuit, in black. She wore a low-cut gray tank top underneath it, showing off her chest tattoo—a black and white bird that resembled a loon spreading it's wings. Already tall for a woman, Jessie's platform goth boots made her share height with Jason.
Their elevator finally arrived at their floor, opening up to reveal a nightclub with an arctic, winter wonderland theme. Jason had told her this was one of the Iceberg Lounge's many international locations. This one was more subdued than its' Gotham counterpart, and actually felt like a lounge. Smooth jazz played in the background. Cocktail waitresses wearing shimmering sequin dresses weaved their way through the recessed and elevated sitting areas, dining and cocktail tables, even a few tables with casino games. The waitresses' outfits were meant to resemble tuxedos, with flared lapels that exposed too much (or just enough) cleavage and little coattails in place of skirts.
Jason led Dora through the club as Jessie followed behind them, vigilant. They eventually ended up on the opposite side of the floor, at the entrance to what looked like the kitchen.
A burly Chinese man blocked their path. "Sanctioned guests only," he said in accented English.
"I'm sanctioned," Jason said.
"Name?"
Jessie visibly perked up at that, paying close attention.
Jason noticed and smiled at her. "Red Hood."
Jessie pouted as the bouncer checked his clipboard. He gestured them forward, and patted Jason and Jessie down. For a second, Dora wondered why he didn't bother with her, then realized that her outfit really didn't allow her to hide anything but her own skin.
"No guns allowed here," Jessie whispered to Dora. "It's neutral ground."
Beyond the double doors was a kitchen and a waitress ushered them to a service elevator. "You know, there's a real serious pool going for your name," Jessie said, straightening her jacket. "Both with the Demonz and the Vermilion Girls.
"Really?" Jason scoffed.
"As if you don't know, Rojito. Lots of bets on the letter R. I put my money down on C, for like Chris, Charlie, Caleb, Cory, or Connor or something."
Jason and Dora shared a look and chuckled.
Jessie narrowed her eyes. "Come on, you still don't trust me? After all we've been through? I mean, you were unmasked at Carla's party."
Jason laughed. "It was a huge party. I'm a stranger. Was anyone really paying any attention to me? You were there, right?"
"Right."
"What color are my eyes?"
Jessie thought about it, gritting her teeth. She finally said, "Okay, fuck you, man."
Dora chuckled. Jason had a good point. No one but her mother and Mercy had noticed he was even at the party.
"Take it easy. I trust you, Jessie," Jason said, lifting his glasses for a moment and winking at her.
Jessie gasped, snapping her fingers. "Baby blues! Fucking knew it! Reilly owes me three hundred bucks!"
"Keep it to yourself for now. His time will come," Jason said.
While Dora didn't expect any of this, she hoped it was a good sign. If Jason was opening up to people about his real identity now, it could mean he was willing to let go of his Red Hood identity, sooner rather than later.
The service elevator finally arrived. It opened up into a not-so-small arena. Certainly not as big as the stadiums in Gotham, but impressive for (what Dora assumed was) underground street-fighting. Concentric levels large enough to comfortably accommodate parties of six in their own booths surrounded a large fighting ring. A brutal and bloody fight was already in progress, recast on screens throughout the room. Both the combatants wore nothing but shorts and wraps on their hands—bare knuckle kickboxing, just like Jessie and Alex's fight a few weeks before. The crowd was booing and cheering as two announcers commentated in Cantonese. Bookies in a cashiers' cage were taking bets in cash.
A cocktail waitress approached them and bowed. "Mr. Red Hood, if you could follow me please?" As she led them down the stairs of the arena to the bottom tier, several people watched them. Dora noted that only a minority of them looked like Hong Kong locals, many appeared American. They eventually arrived at a cordoned off ring-side booth flanked by burly bouncers.
The booths in the arena were large, big enough to comfortably seat four or five people a side… but one side of this booth was taken up entirely by one woman. A large woman.
"Red Hood," she said.
"Suzie Su," Jason said, nodding his head.
Suzie Su was Asian, with neon red hair cut in an uneven bob, bright shifty eyes covered in what Dora thought was way too much make up—and she must have been at least 400 pounds. While she was certainly fat, from a medical standpoint, Dora could tell a lot of her weight was muscle. She had the physique of a strength lifter or a sumo wrestler, not a necessarily a morbidly obese person.
"Please have a seat," she said. While accented with Chinese, her English sounded more British than American. "Have a drink."
Dora, Jason, and Jessie all slid into one side of the booth. The table already had bottles of liquor and cups set out. Jessie took it upon herself to give them all a round of whiskey.
"Please, introduce me to your guests."
"Sure thing," Jason said, taking a sip of his drink. "This is Jessie, my. . . Personal assistant." Dora guessed that 'secretary' would translate a little too literally. "And… Danna, an associate of the Venom Cartel. She'll be helping with shipping."
Suzie Su raised an eyebrow at Dora. "The Venom Cartel? Led by Bane, is that right?"
Dora steeled herself. Before leaving the hotel room, Jason and Jessie had filled in Dora on the purpose of the trip and given her a cover story so she could tag along on the meeting. "Out of Santa Prisca, yes. Please to meet you, Miss Su." She laid on a Santa Priscan accent to her English, essentially impersonating her abuela. The thought made her smile, but she worked it into her performance, hoping it exuded confidence. "Red Hood never told me how you know each other."
"Oh, really?" Suzie said, laughing. "Do you not know of his reputation? I guess you're not so famous in America, are you, little man?"
Jason actually looked humbled. He adjusted his glasses and took a sip. "Give me time."
Suzie took that as a signal to proceed. "What he's doing in Gotham, he's already done here in Hong Kong, Miss Danna. He waged a war on all the gangs: the Flaming Swans, the Steel Gates, the Black Lotus, and the Shadow Hawks, even my own family, the Flower Triad. In the end, they were all dead or disbanded."
Dora looked at Jessie, who tightened her fists and sat straighter. Dora suddenly got very nervous, but she didn't drop character. "If he killed your family, why are we…"
"Still alive and having drinks like old friends?"
"Um, yeah."
"Because we are old friends!" Suzie scoffed. "Because I hated my family… Or at least the half that Red Hood killed. My grandfather ran the Triad, and badly, quite frankly. There was a schism within the family, and you used it to your advantage, didn't you, Red Hood? My grandfather and father hated each other, disagreed about how to run things. So my father and I made a deal with Red Hood before the gang war commenced…"
"And when the smoke settled, your father and his loyalists were all that were left," Jason finally spoke up. "We united Hong Kong's criminal underworld under one family. Yours."
"Now, don't get me wrong," Suzie said, shrugging. "There are still some people in my organization that want to see you dead. As heir, I am honor-bound to kill you on sight. You killed my grandfather after all, but… I'm not so bound to traditions that I cannot see sense. I think I will wait to kill you until our relationship is no longer profitable. Even then, I might not try very hard. Might. The agents I will send… may not pull punches."
"Then never let it cease to be profitable," Jason said, holding up his drink.
"Cheers," Suzie agreed, clinking glasses with him. "Shall we begin?"
After that, Jason, Jessie, and Suzie talked business, going into details Dora only pretended to understand or have sway over. She offered a few rehearsed answers to Suzie's questions, but otherwise kept out of the negotiations. She knew what Jason's goals were with this business trip and she didn't want to get in his way.
Jason and Jessie were in Hong Kong to negotiate a pipeline of opium. Suzie Su and the Flower Triad had ties to the poppies grown in Bialya, transported to China via the underground Silk Road. The Flower Triad processed the poppies into opium, which could then be processed into heroin. Jason wanted to buy all the opium Suzie Su produced, so none of it got back into the communities of the Middle East and North Africa. He believed that drugs held back those countries from developing, that they turned their citizens into addicts and the drug money bankrolled warlords, perpetuating a never-ending cycle of political corruption and civil war.
When Dora asked Jason if selling those drugs in Gotham was any better, he countered that in Gotham, he could control the flow, and therefore cinch it. With the Red Hood Gang overseeing production and distribution, he could safely cut the potency of the heroin and make sure it was not laced with other lethal narcotics like fentanyl. His intention was to slowly ween the masses off the drug. Dora had pointed out that people would just buy more to get the same high or go to another seller. To that, Jason had said, "Not if I have a monopoly. Not if all my competition is dead."
As Jason, Suzie, and Jessie got into details Dora could no longer follow, she shifted her attention to the fight happening not ten yards away. It was underground kickboxing. The fighters wore no gloves, no mouth-guards—only shorts and wraps around their hands. There was no referee, only an announcer commentating from inside the ring. As the fight progressed, Dora studied the fighters. She could discern a few fighting styles they utilized, mostly muay thai, karate, and kung fu. More elbows, knees, and shins were being thrown than punches and kicks.
Dora had learned that punching with a closed fist or kicking with a pointed foot in a real fight could injure you as much as it did the guy you hit. Also, most inexperienced fighters didn't know how to counter such strikes from inside their reach. Lily had told her, "Soften them up with strikes, finish them with grapples, then run away." Jason had agreed with her, but amended the "run away" to "move on to the next guy."
For a while now, Dora had been going to Lily's Brazilian Jiu Jitsu classes once a week, Rochelle had even tagged along. But ever since the Blüdhaven trip where jiu jitsu skills had literally saved her life, Dora had doubled down. She visited the MMA gym Lily taught out of every single day now; and if she could manage it, she put in an hour workout at the very least. If she could, she would volunteer to spar with whoever Lily was giving one-on-one lessons to that day. And while she cooled down from all of that, she watched the other gym-goers spar, analyzing their strengths and weaknesses. As a result, she had picked up knowledge of other styles beyond the jiu jitsu and krav maga Lily taught her. Dora had the lofty goal of somehow using those skills and knowledge to kill Black Mask, but she was content knowing that no one like Sergei would ever get the upper hand on her ever again.
As Dora watched the fighters, her attention was caught by someone sitting ringside. A woman was watching Dora and not the fight. When they locked eyes, the woman did not look away. Instead, she smiled slightly at Dora.
To Dora, she appeared to be mixed race, but had predominantly Asian features, olive skin, dark brown hair, and a piercing hazel gaze. She wore a black bodice that exposed her toned midriff and bellowing pants sheer enough to hide none of her sculpted legs. The skin of her stomach and chest was ornamented with tattoos of floral patterns. All of her limbs were adorned with some Arabic script, but mostly Asian characters. Above all that, she was simply beautiful.
Normally, prolonged eye contact would make Dora shy away, but she felt compelled to stare back at the mysterious woman. She arched an eyebrow. Who are you?
The beautiful woman broke eye contact momentarily to look around the arena. Locking eyes with Dora again, she smiled and cupped a hand around her lips. She mouthed something and Dora interpreted it as: "Run."
Darkness. Pitch black.
All the lights had shut off.
Surprised silence settled across the room.
Then someone screamed, and panic spread.
The emergency lights came on, illuminating the arena in hues of red.
Several men across the top level of the arena stood and put on black leather gimp masks.
And they ran towards Jason and Suzie's booth.
"Fuck," Dora said, realizing what was happening. "False Facers!"
"Jessie!" Jason barked, leaping to his feet. "Boot!"
Jessie grunted an affirmative. She slid out of the booth, knelt down, and unstrapped her goth boots. The six-inch platform soles of the shoes came off, revealing compartments hidden inside. She handed Jason a red mask, switchblade, and knuckle dusters. She equipped herself with the same weapons from the other sole.
Jason threw away his glasses and jacket. He put on his mask. The lenses glowed white, shining through the darkness. He snarled and gripped his weapons.
A shiver trickled down Dora's spine witnessing the subtle transformation.
Jason Todd was gone.
Red Hood was here.
"Red Hood!" Suzie shouted, shoving the table aside as she stood. Her thugs formed a perimeter around them. "What's going on? Is this you?"
"It's my competition in Gotham. We'll have to finish our meeting later. Jessie, get Dora out of here!" he ordered.
"Dee, let's go!" Jessie grabbed Dora's hand and led her down the steps of the arena, towards the ring.
Looking back, Dora saw Jason and Suzie's Flower thugs clash with the False Facers. While each Flower thug clinched with their own False Facer, Jason literally shredded his way through a pack of them.
The first two to arrive had their throats opened by Jason's knife before they could even swing their opening punches. The third took a full-force brass-knuckle punch to the temple. The fourth met the butt of Jason's knife handle with his forehead—twice. Three and Four both crumpled like rag-dolls, their skulls dented. Five was taken to the floor where his chest became a pin-cushion, drenching Jason's hands in blood.
No smart talk or banter this time. Jason simply roared. He lunged at the next pack, and mauled them.
Meanwhile, Suzie Su was a capable fighter in her own right. Several False Facers tried to take her down, but she literally brushed them off. The hulking woman grabbed one thug by the collar and threw him over her shoulder. He tumbled down the steps of the arena, landing on the back of his head. Suzie took another False Face thug and smashed his nose in with a crushing headbutt. A third False Facer sunk a knife into her shoulder, but Suzie only growled. She backhanded him so hard, he spun around. She pulled the knife out of her shoulder and shoved it in his back, then Spartan kicked him into a group of his fellows, bowling them down.
"Why aren't they shooting?" Dora asked.
"The Iceberg Lounge has a strict no gun rule!" Jessie said, breathing hard. "Hard enough for me to sneak in these knives and knuckles. Come on, this way!"
Jessie led her to the floor of the arena. The fighters had already run away somewhere, leaving the ring open. Flanking the ring on opposite ends were two doorways, which Dora assumed led to dressing rooms—and Jessie's escape route.
But three False Facers ran out of each set of doors. They were surrounded, and the thugs were closing in. Fast.
"Fuck!" Jessie cursed, rubbernecking around, looking frantic. "Dee, take cover under the ring. I got this."
"No, gimme this." Dora took the knuckle-duster from Jessie's hand, slid it onto her own fingers. "You cover your ass, I'll cover mine."
Jessie scoffed. "Alright, then." She brandished the switch-blade. Snikt! "Bring it, you gimp-faced freaks!"
Dora had nothing clever to say, so she just shouted the Street Demonz battle-cry, "Hell yeah!"
Jessie charged… towards the ring. Her three thugs chased after her. She reached the ring first. She leaped, planted her foot on the edge, and vaulted into the air. The thugs hesitated as she flew over them… and dove knee-first into one of their friends. Dora could hear his rib-cage cave in and crumple under her weight.
The other two closed in. Already kneeling, Jessie batted away Two's opening strike, and shoved her knife into the inside of his thigh. A fountain of blood poured out of his leg, his femoral artery severed. She met Three on her feet. They exchanged a flurry of strikes, but Jessie quickly gained the upper hand.
Foot to the ribs, fist to the chin, elbow to the temple, knee to the stomach, knee to the face. Knee to the face again…
Face to the floor.
Knife to the throat.
Dora was only vaguely aware this was happening because she had her own trio of False Facers to deal with. For a split second as they closed in, Dora's courage faltered and her brain whirled in panic.
These men were going to kill her.
There were three of them and only one of her.
They were big. She was small.
Her brain flooded with all the fighting lessons Lily had given her. The different strategies to take down larger opponents. The techniques she needed to disarm and disable. The precise, dance-like steps of each move. Which to use? When? How? This was real, not practice. It was too much. This was happening so fast and her brain couldn't keep up. If she made a mistake…
Death.
But then…
Serenity.
Deafening silence.
The panic was gone.
Her brain shut off.
Instinct took over.
She clenched her fist around the knuckle-duster and dove into the fray.
Her dive saved her from the first thug's punch. She landed on her hands and knees. The momentum helped her sweep kick Thug One's legs. As he fell, Dora rolled on top of him and hammered her brass fist into his face. Twice. Three times.
Someone grabbed her from behind and put her in a headlock. The choke was so tight, it cut off her air. The thug was strong and he lifted her off her feet.
A mistake.
Dora curled up her legs then kicked, making him lose balance. He bent forward and his hold loosened. She elbowed him in the groin and they rolled to the ground. He fell. She slithered her legs around his arm, and pulled.
And twisted.
Crack! Pop! The man screamed as his shoulder was removed from its socket.
Then a foot collided with Dora's face.
Pain flashed through her cheek and nose. Her teeth felt loose. Her brain felt loose. She saw flickering red lights, then realized it was her own strobing vision.
She heard bone cracking, a scream, and a body collapsing to the floor.
"Dora, get up!" Jessie ordered. "More are coming! Run!"
Her senses finally returned and she saw Jessie standing over the body of the False Facer that had kicked her. Blood was draining from his gouged eye socket.
"Let's go," Dora grunted, spitting out blood.
Jessie helped Dora to her feet, and pulled her through the doors to the hallway of the arena's green rooms. The emergency lights in this area were white, so it at least provided better visibility. They followed the exit signs, running through hallways and slamming through doors. False Facers in their leather masks were hot on their heels. Suzie's Flower thugs and the Iceberg Lounge's security all lay on the ground, either unconscious or dead.
Another hallway and set of doors, and they finally skidded out into the top floor of a parking garage.
"Okay, Dora, I don't care how tough and trained you are now, this is where I hold them off and you run like hell," Jessie said, heaving.
"No! I'm not leaving you!"
"Dee, you could barely handle two guys! You need to go!" Jessie slapped a phone into her hand. "Lay low and hide. Wait for us to call you. Now, fucking run!"
"I owe you," Dora said, wiping the running blood from her lip and nose.
"Godmother!" Jessie shouted as a pack of False Facers burst from the doors leading out to the parking garage. Jessie charged, her knife in reverse grip.
Dora booked it for the stairwell. She wasted no time, vaulting over the rail of each flight, until she reached the ground floor.
She was exhausted, but both Lily and Jason had taught her how to escape a pursuer. All she had to do was find a crowd of pedestrians, the bigger the better. Ideal: she blended in and lost her tail. Reality: her assailants would be too reluctant to attack her in front of witnesses.
But the second she landed on the ground floor, she was met with a hail of bullets.
Lucky for her, her momentum allowed the shots to miss. Ricochets rang as she took cover in the nook under the last flight of stairs. Unlucky for her, she was now pinned and she hadn't bothered to count how many assailants were shooting at her. Apparently the Iceberg Lounge's no-gun rule did not apply to the first floor of their parking garage.
"Fuck!" she spat. She would kill for a gun right now. Her heart skipped a beat when she realized disarming a thug and stealing their gun was exactly what she might have to do. She wasn't so good at disarms yet. And her position put her at a mean disadvantage. Where was Jessie? Where was Jason?
The garage's fish-eye security mirror allowed her to watch the False Facers close in on her. She finally counted eight of them, all armed with handguns. She rummaged under the accumulated trash and junk in the stairwell and could only find a tire-iron. It would have to do.
Then someone vaulted over the rail of the parking garage and charged the False Facers.
The figure was slim and feminine. She moved too fast for Dora to see clearly. The earlier kick to her face had knocked a contact lens loose. Jessie?
But she was brandishing… a sword?
Dora peeked around the corner for a better look.
It was the mysterious staring woman from the arena.
She sliced her way through four thugs and made it look like a dance, a ballet. It was so elegant, so simple. She just… slashed a thigh, severed an arm, opened a throat, and stabbed a heart.
The four thugs crumpled behind her, their blood pooling on the floor and drenching her blade.
She paused for a moment and flicked her sword, splattering blood on the concrete. Sheathing her sword across her back, she winked at Dora again. Then she turned her attention to the remaining four thugs who had taken cover behind parked cars. "Shall we dance?" Her accent was British. Her fighting stance was bouncy and confident.
The first thug ran out from cover and met the woman's flying knee with his face, making him stagger back. Thug Two did the same and caught her shin to his ribs and her foot to his temple. Thug One regained his footing only to have the woman's back spinning heel collide with his chin. They both fell to the ground, out cold.
Dora had only ever seen such leg work from Jessie, but this woman was clearly on a whole other level of muay thai. Or kung fu. She couldn't tell the difference. All she knew was that this woman was good.
The next two thugs shot at her, but she simply rolled and cartwheeled to avoid their bullets… and close the distance. She grabbed the third thug's weapon hand, leaped, wrapped her legs around his head, and rolled. On the ground, she stole his gun and shot him in the face.
Before the last thug could aim, three bullets pierced his body. One to the stomach, chest, and head.
The woman stood, holstering the stolen gun in her waistband.
"Come on, let's go," she told Dora, pointing to a dark green car nearby.
Dora peeked out from under the stairs, surveying the carnage. "Wait, who are you?"
"I'm a friend of Red Hood. Of Jason."
That made Dora pause. Knowledge of Jason's true identity did not inspire trust right now.
This woman somehow knew that the False Facers would attack before the assault commenced. But she had also just saved her life.
Dora repeated herself. "I said, who are you?"
The woman unsheathed her sword and used the butt of the hilt to smash the car window. She reached inside and unlocked it. She sighed, sounding annoyed. "He's never spoken of me? Shame."
"No. Whats your name?"
"Talia. Talia al Ghul."
Notes
I'm back!
I don't know for how long though. I pretty much have until mid-August to draft as many chapters as I can, then work starts up again. (I'm teacher. 8th grade history.) Going for longer chapters instead of short this time. Hope you like them.
And in the meantime… My cancer is back. It's not life-threatening… but the chemotherapy knocks me on my ass. Makes me a couch potato. When recovering from it, all I can really manage is editing, not drafting.
I think this chapter very clearly demonstrates my John Wick and Daredevil influences, which I've been re-watching to help inspire me to write these days, but they've always been a core inspiration from the start. Dora's preference for jiu jitsu is because of John Wick. Jason's flippy brutal style of hand-to-hand fighting is thanks to Daredevil. So if you want to see it live-action, I highly recommend watching them. I heard Daredevil is getting renewed for a 4th season on Disney Plus thanks to cameos in Spider-Man NWH and Hawkeye. Also, Jason's approach to guns and knives… John Wick, lol. Also the Punisher, but that's another conversation. Some world building is part John Wick is well. I based the Vermilion and the Iceberg Lounge on the Continental as much as the canon versions.
More canon cameos!
First up, Suzie Su… She's an obscure character from the Outlaw comics, but I always appreciated how she's a reference to Jason's time between leaving the Robin mantle and pick up the Red Hood. Always thought it was cool how she went from enemy to ally. Even as I wrote her, she was difficult to cast. Mostly because I have not been exposed to memorable plus-size female Asian representation, but… Cancel me, I cast her as Awkafina, but doing a slight British accent. She killed it in Crazy Rich Asians and Shang-Chi. Imagine her in a fat-suit, IDC.
Next, the False Facers. Yeah, it took a while, but Black Mask's thugs are finally on the page. Most portrayals in the shows, cartoons, and games, they just wear whatever masks they can find. However, leather gimp masks are from the Rebirth Outlaw series, drawn by Dexter Soy. He's my favorite Red Hood artist, so I went with his depiction of them. Also, if you're wondering, it's the Rebirth helmet I like most, thanks to Soy.
And then there's Talia. My fan cast is Alex Doig, no contest. Although her portrayal of Talia in Arrow wasn't perfect, she's the best and most accurate live-action Talia al Ghul we've ever gotten, and she's the main source of inspiration I'm drawing from when writing her. That, and how she appeared in The Lost Days and Batman & Son.
Wow, just noticed there's a lot of Asian representation in the this chapter! Support your AAPI friends, everyone! It's tough out there! And thanks for reading!
Song Reference: "Marigold" by Periphery. Because of Suzie's Flower Triad and Talia's flower tattoos.
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