Dear DC Diary,
I think writing this reflection was more for me than for anyone else, but when I mentioned writing some kind of review over my first (with hopefully more to come) year as a DC fan, a few people showed interest, so here it is. 
Throughout my elementary school years, I occasionally would read a comic from the library or something, just because I was fascinated by the art or thought the characters looked cool, but I never really got invested. Then, in Fall 2021, I was at the library again, getting books. I typically did this once or twice a week, and the books I got were always actual novels, never comics. But I walked past a display shelf, and there was a Supersons comic. I stopped and picked it up, and I remember thinking about how ridiculous the concept was (at the time, I had never even heard of Jon Kent or Damian Wayne, and I still didn’t even know or care that there was more than one Robin) but for some reason, I ended up taking it home and reading it. From page one, I was hooked. There were several references and characters I didn’t understand or recognize, but I was absolutely invested in Damian and Jon. When I finished reading it, I remember telling several family members and friends about it, because I was just obsessed. I read several more Supersons comics, but when I had read all there was to read about them, I kind of just dropped comics for a while. I don’t really count this time as me being an actual DC fan, because I was only interested in the Supersons and told myself I wouldn’t let myself become a comic nerd (I don’t really know why I was so against being a comic nerd, I just was) Until March of 2022.
Throughout the tail end of 2021 and the start of 2022, I started watching Batman: The Animated Series. This was my first introduction to Batman really, outside of the Lego Batman Movie. The only character I had a real interest in was Dick Grayson. I did a little research and was exceedingly fascinated by Nightwing. And then in the first week of March, in the span of four days, I read every issue of the 2016-now Nightwing series that was currently out. That was when DC truly made enough of an impact on me to want to read more. For a good 6 months Dick Grayson was my favorite DC character, and I was pretty much just in love with him. In that time I read a lot of Batfamily stuff, and watched several DC series/movies. I think the first time I posted in the Community was in April. Joining here, I learned about more series and characters, and met some of the best people I know. One thing I will note about those first 6 months was that in that time, I was definitely a fan, but I had this weird mindset where I didn’t want to read anything older than like, 8 years at the most. But thankfully I was able to get over whatever the hell I was doing there, not wanting to read anything that wasn’t from recent years because since then the 90s and early 00s has become my favorite era of comics to read from.
September-ish of last year was when I became interested in Tim Drake. I quickly got over Dick Grayson, and in the span of exactly 3 days I went from hating Tim and thinking he was a boring, useless Robin, to kind of relating to him, to being absolutely obsessed. Becoming interested with Tim is what first drew me towards 90s and 00s comics, and I read a crap ton of Robin, Red Robin, and Batman comics with Tim as Robin. My Tim obsession introduced me to Young Justice (the comics, not the TV series) and a lot of characters that are now my favorites. I figured I’d quickly stop caring about Tim, but that was not the case at all. This borderline unhealthy obsession with that disaster of a guy is still going strong, and growing stronger every day. It’s funny- throughout the years and throughout all my many hyperfixations my faviorite characters have always been characters that I have crushes on. I never really found a character I related to, and I had friends who talked about these characters that they related to, found comfort in, and kinned. I never had that in any sense, until Tim Drake. In studying him and coming to conclusions about his character and what I believed to be true about him outside of canon it caused me to end up discovering things about myself. As I’m sure is obvious, I am just obsessed with him and will probably continue being obsessed. I’ll stop talking about Tim now because I’ve already ranted about him far too much in other threads and I think my thoughts on him are pretty clear at this point.
Throughout my time in this fandom, I’ve consumed a lot of content in many different forms, and my favorite characters and series and shows and movies have all changed from what they were when I originally got into DC, but as much as those different interests under the umbrella of DC have changed and grown, two characters have always been special to me and I really don’t think I’ll ever stop caring about them, and those characters are the Supersons. Damian and Jon, as I said, got me into DC. Since reading the Supersons comics, I’ve read Damian’s Robin run (wasn’t a huge fan) and Jon’s time as Superman so far in Son of Kal-El (I loved SoKE). Honestly, I was always a bigger fan of Damian, and he’s managed to typically remain ranked in my head as somewhere between my 1st and 3rd favorite character, depending on the day, but Jon is near and dear to me as well. Anytime they reunite, I love seeing it, and no matter what direction Damian and Jon go in, I’ll always be a huge Supersons fan.
Being a DC fan has been amazing in just this first year, because it led me to this community and I was able to meet some of the best friends I’ve ever had. The past 18 or so months have been pretty difficult for me, and I don’t want to get all mushy, but in all honesty, this community has made life a thousand times more bearable and helped me through a lot. I am eternally thankful for all my friends here.
This was more than I intended to write, but I have a tendency to rant and this quickly got out of hand. 
To anyone who may have made it this far, thank you, and I hope my silly rambling was entertaining.
~ basicallytimdrake
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