Originally Posted by
Astralabius
Of course he can. There where lots of events in the past where Damian and other batfamily members didn't show up even though they could or even should have gotten involved.
Or if we want to reverse the situation, I still remember Bruce doing absolutely nothing and noticing nothing when Damian moved out to live with his rogue Teen Titans team in a former warehouse of Batman Damian made him abandon by faking some reports about its structural integrity, took some villains as prisoners in his secret torture chamber for at least a few weeks, did all kinds of other stupid things and felt terrible after Alfred's death, but our world's greatest detective and loving dad didn't get off his ass to get his son back or comfort him until the very last moment and the best excuse they could come up with was "oh, he's not a neglectful father, he just didn't notice anything! He's totally not a shitty father!"
World's greatest detective my ass. And don't even get me started on how messed up King's Batman's plan was in City of Bane. Sure, risk your 13-year-old son's life to get the members of the batfamily inside the manor by first having him fight Gotham Girl and then get beaten by his grandpa from an alternate timeline so he can replace Alfred as the hostage inside the manor. Bet that your crazy alternative timeline father won't have it in his heart to shoot the kid. And of course don't comfort the kid once he's heartbroken because your stupid plan got Alfred killed either. Instead try to blame him for it.
God, I just can't stand how DC keeps fucking over Damian.
Anyway, back to my main point. No, he could have left Damian out of this easily. Has happended many times. This is a choice.