It was when I wrote "Falling on Hard Times", that it was a small plot involving the Lair Legion having financial difficulty sneak up on them, resulting in them all being evicted from the Lair Mansion and having to find somewhere else to live for a while.

Hatman didn't have a separate place at the time. Poster-Jay was gone from the board at the time also, but I remember him a long while ago saying that he wished Hatman *would* have his own place. So I tried to accommodate that in the story.

After I posted it, I got a couple of "you should have asked first" (ask who??) complaints. I explained that this is what Poster-Jay asked for a long time ago, but that if nobody liked the idea, it could be temporary. After the story was done, I kind of abandoned the idea, because the complaints turned me off to it, and later stories stuck him back in the Mansion (so I assumed the idea was universally abandoned). I guess I give up easily in order to keep the peace.

I'm not saying I should be allowed to make sweeping changes without asking anyone, but sometimes I do try to remember things people say and grant the request as a surprise. What turns me off to that is when there's a touch of political "Maybe we like the idea, but we'll reject it until you email every one of us regulars and wait for permission first". I tend to walk away from concepts when that happens.





The distinction is very small when he's walking down the street alone and a gang tries to put him in the hospital.





Like I said, it depends how much pride he has. I get the impression that his deepest flaw is when he gets it into his mind that he wants to do something on his own, he'll do it even if it means the hard way.





I admit that one's pretty easy - all he has to do is make friends with a reporter who can make sure Velma Klein faces embarrassment in every newspaper.