Damian Wayne Robin Appreciation 2021

[Blue22]

Believe this is for the DC Festival of Heroes: The Asian Superhero Celebration one-shot:

https://twitter.com/juni_ba/status/1376638774088757254

So glad they're including Damian in this.

[Light of Justice]

I was also kinda disappointed that when Bruce finally got off his ass and started searching for Damian he failed to reflect on his own actions and how he contributed to Damian breaking away from him.

Tomasi also wrote Bruce only really thinking about Damian leaving the Robin mantle and how it might be possible to get Damian to return to that role.
Like, dude, **** being Batman and Robin, this is YOUR SON. Focus on getting your kid back and rebuilding your relationship as father and child first, not as hero and sidekick.

I love Tomasi, but I had to admit that Bruce and Damian arc on Tec is completely pointless. Like, if you read Demon or Detective after Teen Titans annual 2 and skip Tomasi's story, you will not miss anything. The story only shows that apparently Bruce cares for Damian, then gave Damian green light to go off on his own?? I feel like Tomasi desperately wants to save Damian and Bruce's relationship, but other writers and upcoming arc have a different idea.

[Light of Justice]

Believe this is for the DC Festival of Heroes: The Asian Superhero Celebration one-shot:

https://twitter.com/juni_ba/status/1376638774088757254

Is that corn on his mouth or he cosplayed as Nezuko? XD

[Astralabius]

Believe this is for the DC Festival of Heroes: The Asian Superhero Celebration one-shot:

https://twitter.com/juni_ba/status/1376638774088757254

Eating corn and texting on his phone while swinging through the air, Damian is living dangerously.

Looks cute

[Astralabius]

I love Tomasi, but I had to admit that Bruce and Damian arc on Tec is completely pointless. Like, if you read Demon or Detective after Teen Titans annual 2 and skip Tomasi's story, you will not miss anything. The story only shows that apparently Bruce cares for Damian, then gave Damian green light to go off on his own?? I feel like Tomasi desperately wants to save Damian and Bruce's relationship, but other writers and upcoming arc have a different idea.

We know from Joshua Williamson that he pitched Robin in August and I know that during that time the script for the first few issues of Tomasi's last arc must have been done, since the artists were already posting wips for those issues. I'm also pretty sure that introducing and developing Nakano was mandated by editorial for Future State and Tamaki's run and not something Tomasi came up with on his own.
So Tomasi certainly didn't have the freedom he probably would have wanted for this arc and DC might not have known themselves where they wanted this to go yet. But that doesn't change the fact that I didn't really get what I hoped for.

I didn't start reading the arc expecting for Damian to go back to being Robin or to reconcile with Bruce. I'm not disappointed because of that.

What I did want was to see how Bruce was feeling after the second Teen Titans annual. So I open the first issue of the arc I know will deal with what happened with Damian and instead of Bruce telling us how he feels about what went down I see him thinking about moving, thinking about how much he misses Alfred, about Nakano and the anti vigilante movement...and yeah I don't mind that, but it's not the main reason I bought the issue.
Bruce doesn't waste a single thought on Damian until he notices that the black casebook was stolen from him on the last two pages and for me that was a really disappointing beginning to that arc.
Because no matter what would come after, this first issue that was supposed to set the tone for the entire arc showed me that Bruce cared about so many things more than about Damian and that Damian had to force himself back into Bruce's mind by disrupting his work.

The second issue having Bruce blame everything on Damian's character and age didn't sit well with me either. The issue also revealed to us that Bruce had done nothing after the annual because for some reason he believed Damian would come back to him if he just waited long enough...after doing nothing and waiting for Damian to return back to normal had lead to what happened in Teen Titans.
Bruce still wasn't searching for Damian, he was going to a meeting with the rest of the family to talk about the protests.
It's there that Bruce tells the others about Damian and their reaction is kinda underwhelming. Seriously, nobody even noticed the kid was gone? Nobody is concerned? Oh and then Duke just changed the topic again. Great.

It's only in the third issue that we finally see Bruce searching for Damian and even that is put on pause because Bruce wants to keep an eye on a mob. Despite Barbara and Dick telling him they have it under control and Bruce himself saying that if he doesn't follow Damian's trail now he might not find another one for weeks. I hope it was Tomasi's intention to make me feel like Bruce wasn't putting his a game into finding Damian because that's the feeling I got while reading it.

The confrontation between them in the fourth issue was disappointing because I didn't learn anything I didn't already know from Teen Titans or previous issues of Detective Comics. Bruce's declaration of love was better in Teen Titans where it wasn't followed by an "but sometimes I truly don't like you because of the choices you make"
The part where they learn about Hush kidnapping the family and Damian decides to help Bruce to free them was skipped and I was disappointed by that because the rest of the issue was kinda boring and it would have been interesting to see Damian's reaction.

The last issue had some nice callbacks to Tomasi's Batman and Robin run, but all I could think about was how long ago that was, both in our time and in theirs. Great Bruce, you cared about him when he was ten. What about now? Why did you let this happen?
Their last conversation was weird too. I didn't really understand how they came from one topic to another, Bruce saying that he doesn't blame Damian for Alfred's death contradicts what he said in Batman (and an apology for not being there for Damian after Alfred's death would have been more appropriate) and then he suddenly wants to give the R back to Damian.

To be fair, Damian rejects the R and doesn't go back to Bruce, which is the only logical outcome after Bruce failed to put any real effort into getting him back after TT and failed to say or do anything that would change Damian's mind in that arc.

And then Bruce goes home, packs his last boxes, thinks about Alfred some more and...sets off for new shores.
Not sure if your underage son leaving you is something you should just put behind you.

The arc did have some nice moments, I really liked Damian solving the case, but overall it was a really weird arc.

[Astralabius]

Sorry about that really long post, but I had a lot of thoughts when I read that arc.

[Astralabius]

Williamson had Damian talk about how he escaped from Bruce in Demon or Detective and in an interview with Bat Force Radio Williamson talked about how Damian is secretly on the run from Batman, which is also why he didn't chose any characters with ties to Batman to take part in the tournament arc because they would call Bruce and tell him where Damian is.

When it was just Damian talking about how he "escaped" I thought it might just be Damian trying to make himself feel better, but after listening to that interview I wonder if Williamson is serious about this.
Of course he could write Bruce looking for Damian in Robin, we know Bruce and the rest of the family make an appearance in Damian's book in Robin #1.
But if we're just looking at what has already happened then Damian didn't escape. Bruce let him go. He let him go after No Justice, he let him go in Pennyworth RIP, he let him go at the end of the second Teen Titans annual and he let him go at the end of Tomasi's Tec run.
So if Williamson wants to make this a story where Damian tries to hide from Batman he needs to establish Bruce looking for him first.

[Digifiend]

I think what really pissed me off was that Thompson had NIGHTWING, of all people, swoop in and "save" this team while acting like Damian was the only problem (you know...like EVERYONE was doing after Djinn left).


Like...sir! **** them kids! Stop throwing your brother under the bus and go find him! You are literally the only person he'd probably listen to! Let the other Titans deal with the knock-offs!

That was a mandate to set up Teen Titans Academy. So blame Sheridan, not Thompson.

Did they publish the wrong issue of Challenge of the Super Sons today?
It's supposed to be chapter 10, but on the cover and the credit page it says 11. I don't think it's a typo because they wrote 11 at the top and at the bottom of the credits.

Which JLAer are they rescuing? Does it match what was said at the end of the previous issue? If not, yes, they printed the wrong one. But if so, the number is a typo.

[adrikito]

Believe this is for the DC Festival of Heroes: The Asian Superhero Celebration one-shot:

https://twitter.com/juni_ba/status/1376638774088757254

I like it..

[sifighter]

Eating corn and texting on his phone while swinging through the air, Damian is living dangerously.

Looks cute

Yeah that’s how you get into an accident by crashing into our swinging or flying heroes.

Never text and swing

[Astralabius]

That was a mandate to set up Teen Titans Academy. So blame Sheridan, not Thompson.

That the Titans are helping the Teen Titans was definitely for Sheridan, but the words he made Dick say were Thompson's.

[Rebeca Armus]

I think Damian-Dick now is a little like Tim-Dick when Tim discovered Bruce is lost in pass and no one believes and Dick is like "you are crazy, I will put you on Arkaham", broke the idea of Dick being this big brother we all love. (I remember someone here told about it happening with Dick-Jason, but I didn't really read it).

[Rebeca Armus]

Anyway, I thing family, friendship and love works like this, he can give up of his brother for take care of job, romantic relationship, another brother, a child, even knowing he is needed, he changes the focus and this is it?

[Zaresh]

I think Damian-Dick now is a little like Tim-Dick when Tim discovered Bruce is lost in pass and no one believes and Dick is like "you are crazy, I will put you on Arkaham", broke the idea of Dick being this big brother we all love. (I remember someone here told about it happening with Dick-Jason, but I didn't really read it).

As far as I recall, Dick never said that Tim had to be put in Arkham. He just implied that Tim was in severe denial about the whole thing with Bruce and he needed help, psychological, help, maybe, because he had lost a lot of friends by then. Dick wasn't especially nice or sensible, he came across a bit too condescending and patronizing, if I recall right. But nothing like some fanfiction and some headcanons imply or tell.

Dick did put Jason in Arkham, Bruce let him there too when he came back, if I recall. Apparently they thought he would be safer in there than in Blackgate (nonsense, but whatever). Joker wasn't there when Jason was, despite, again, some fan depictions of his time there.

[Restingvoice]

I don't know if it's been posted here but in Detective Comics, Bruce's phone wallpaper is the family's portrait sitting from way back in New 52 Batman and Robin, with Jason added at the back, and Damian moved to the center. Peeps on tumblr said Bruce Photoshop it because the screen isn't wide enough.