Damian Wayne (S.O.B.) is the fifth "official" Robin (but the eighth by my count). Captain Comics posted something the other day that confounded me:
I actually like the Damian Wayne Robin. All of the problems with adding Jason Todd, Tim Drake and Stephanie Brown don't exist with him. He's well trained, he doesn't really answer to Batman and he's got enormous resources of his own, independent of Bruce Wayne. He would be doing something with all that training and money, and all Batman can do is desperately try to guide him to the right side of the tracks.
In his first story, he not only tried to murder Tim Drake, but he actually decapitated a new "novelty criminal" called "The Spook." Whenever I think of Damian Wayne, I either think of this:
...or this:
...or this:
The last time I checked (2017), Damian Wayne was still pretty unlikeable. My question is this:
When did Damian Wayne become a likeable character?
Replies
BATMAN & ROBIN #1-16:
My quest to determine when Damian Wayne became a likeable character continues into Batman and Robin (2009). By that time I had pretty much dropped all of the Bat-titles, but B&R was by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely, the writer/artist team who had done the best Superman story of the 21st century, so I decided to give it a try. It's not your father's Batman & Robin. Hell, if you're reading this, it's probably not your Batman & Robin. Batman is dead, for one thing, or rather Bruce Wayne is. He died during one of those "crises"... the "final" one, I think. The details escape me. But Dick Grayson has just assumed the "Mantle of the Bat" and Damian Wayne has taken over the role of Robin.
Back in 2009, I read the first three issues of Batman & Robin and liked them as much as I expected to. But then another artist was brought aboard for #4, as a fill-in I assumed, so I stopped reading but continued to buy. Frank Quitely wasn't coming back (at least not to the interiors), but Grant Morrison continued to write so I continued to buy. By the time #16 rolled around, Bruce Wayne had returned and the "Bat-family" of titles was about to undergo a dramatic revamp. Although the series would continue for another ten issues, I took that as an opportunity to bail.
Now that I have read these stories all together (#4-16 for the first time), I see that they are rather well-written, but not necessarily to my taste. It ends with Bruce Wayne going public as the financial backer of Batman for all these years (although he stops short of admitting he is Batman), with the launch of two new tie-in titles on the horizon: Batman: The Return and Batman Incorporated. But attempting a discussion of a 15-year-old series is a mug's game (believe me, I know), so I'll just continue with the point of this discussion.
To be perfectly honest, I haven't found anything to endear me to Damian Wayne yet... although I do now feel sorry for him.
NEXT: "Son of Batman" and "Batman vs. Robin"
For the next phase of my quest I am about to do something I have never done before: substitute an animated adaptation rather than reading the actual comics. I have been reading quite a few "Batman" comics lately (some of you may have noticed), and last week I decided to watch The Return of the Caped Crusaders, an original aminated movie, on DVD. Among the extras were previews of two other DCU original movies: Son of Batman and Batman vs Robin. I looked online and saw that they were quite inexpensive ("Almost FREE!" as the vendors say at swap meets), less expensive than the comics they are based on would be on the backissue market (or even new). I have seen Batman: Year One, All-Star Superman, Justice League: New Frontier, and The Killing Joke, so I know these cartoons are quite faithful adaptations of the comics.
SON OF THE BATMAN:
This was mostly based on comics I had recently read (Batman #655-658) in the Batman Unwrapped: Andy Kubert collection. It was, indeed, a faithful adaptation. So far, so good. On to...
BATMAN VS. ROBIN:
Whether or not the Batman vs. Robin adaptation is faithful to the original comics (and I have no reason to believe it is not) is immaterial; Batman vs. Robin represents, for me, everything that is wrong with mainstream superhero comics today. No, that's too far-reaching, but everything it represents is something wrong with mainstream super-hero comics. IMO. I will never watch this again and am glad I didn't buy the comics it's based on. I did buy something else, though...
I'm writing this post from the future... "some years from now." On Black Friday I took advantage of my LCS' annual sale and bought the Damian: Son of Batman collection (not to be confused with the "Son of Batman" storyline which ran through Batman #655-658) which includes D:SOB #1-4, Batman #666 and a story from Batman #700. So, for this weekend's Deep dive"...
DAMIAN: SON OF BATMAN:
In the near future, Batman (Dick Grayson) is killed on a mission and Damian assumes the mantle. Commissioner Gordon is apparantly a priest now, and Barbara Gordon is police Commissioner, again (still?) confined to a wheelchair. I can only conclude that this must be another "alternate future" (of many), because I cannot see the near-future Damian Wayne as depicted in Wonder Woman (babysitting and otherwise interacting with Lizzie Prince) ever becoming this Dark (and I do mean "dark") Knight. As alternate futures are concerned, I would rank this one somewhere between Batman Beyond and The Dark Knight Returns.
That's as far as I'm willing to take this topic, so I'll have to leave the mystery of when the S.O.B. became a likeable character unsolved.