Throwback Thursday: Damian: Son of Batman #1 Review

What Could Have Been

Written and Art by: Andy Kubert
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: October 30, 2013
Review by: Eric

What a strange title to jump into.  I haven't stopped bitching about the death of Damian Wayne since it happened, and here I am reading, and writing about a grown-up version of the character.  It's very odd but very rewarding.  So nothing here to catch the reader up on except, Damian never died in Batman Inc.  So let's dive right in.

Explain It!:

We begin this issue with a Robin who's body finally grew to fit his head.  He's no longer my little pumpkin-headed boy.  So Batman and Robin are at the docks, investigating a crime scene.  The dock is littered with dead bodies and decaying fish.  The Dynamic Duo search around for clues and were presented with a Damian that acts a lot like Jason Todd once did, and continues to throughout the book.  But we'll get to that.  Batman finds a joker fish, and goes to examine it, but triggers a booby trap.  The dock explodes, and a concussed Robin finds his father dead.  Right here, we see the first parallel between this story and A Death in the Family.  Joker causing an explosion that kills.  But instead of Robin, Batman is the one to go down.

Blaming himself for not reacting faster, and ultimately not saving his father, Damian (now this is a ridiculous part) checks the various blogs of super villains that claimed responsibility for killing the Bat.  Robin confronts each villain one by one, killing them.  Mr. Freeze goes down, Killer Croc, Jackanapes, and even the ridiculous Chipmonk.  Now we're into Under the Red Hood territory, where Jason Todd is upset that Batman never killed the villains that constantly put the city in danger.

Damian then goes to confession to talk to a priest about what he's done.  We find out that Batman had been seeing this priest for a while, and does not approve of how Damian is honoring his father.  We get another Jason Todd feel here as well.  Telling the priest about how Batman didn't do the job right.  Locking the monsters up didn't solve anything, they would either serve their time or escape and be back in the world plaguing the people of Gotham.  Damian knows that the only way to protect the city is to kill the monsters once and for all.

Back at the mansion, Alfred confronts Damian about the slew of criminal killings, but Damian doesn't have time for that.  He knows what he has to do.  Kill the Joker.  But before he can finish suiting up, we get a huge twist.  Bruce confronts Damian in the Bat Cave, yelling "What the hell do you think you're doing!?"  Wow.

Bits and Pieces:

This is a really good issue and a very good beginning to this miniseries.  The entire issue is almost a mirror of what happened in A Death in the Family.  The comparisons between the mindset, and attitude of a  grown-up Damian, and Jason Todd are uncanny.  I wasn't really a fan of Kubert's Parasite issue in Villain's Month, and when I heard he was the man behind the curtain on this title I was a bit worried.  I love being put to ease.  This was a fun issue, and everyone who loved that little pumpkin-headed boy, who was taken from us to early, go check out this issue.

9/10