Damian Wayne/Robin Appreciation 2023.

[dietrich]

According to some people on reddit a few DC writers have stated that sometimes DC makes bad pitches on purpose to pressure a writer they actually want to take on a project to make their own pitch to stop DC from going forward with the bad pitch.
That's how they got Gail Simone to write the new 52 batgirl book apparently.
Not sure if I really believe it, but it would explain some odd decisions.

that's crazy.

What if the writer they are trying to motivate doesn't have another pitch ready?
They just run with the bad one? Surely that's detrimental to their characters?

[dietrich]

Damian being featured in back to back main events equals him being canned?
Perhaps if he was just in the background like the other batfamily members not named Bruce Or Dick. But he’s centerfold they got plans for him the GP is knows who he is.

I get what you are saying. Damian is far from neglected and is doing/treated better than the majority of DC/Bat characters.
Damian remains prominent but prominence isn't all fans desire. I'm a fan of Damian because I enjoy reading stories with him. I've enjoyed following his journey and watching him evolve.

I'm happy he is in these events and stuff but I'd rather be given a story/title that focuses on him. that continues his journey.
I'd happily trade a decent solo series for a couple of features in mediocre events.

[dietrich]

With you on that. You have to wonder what goes through their minds. They want profit, right? And the Super Sons was pretty popular. So, do more stuff with that. Push it. Expand on it. But don't forget their own respective corners either. But, nope.
And Damian isn't the only character to get hit, Jon's was too. Got shipped off to space with space terrorist grandpa, and then "got aged up" (erased for a blank character whose sole trait is being bisexual, after several years of constant publication). Damian, gets villainized, again. And after such a promising start with his own title in Robin. Which got canceled for a BAD fanfic writer's version of Tim, whom still has nothing without being Robin, apparently.

Right. Even if the Supersons weren't spectacular as some people have pointed out. It was new and it had potential to become more and grow.

New concepts and characters need time and require effort and investment to grow. The fact that Supersons caught on so quickly is a testament to the potential housed within.

More problematic is DC's continued trend of trying to promote new characters by dismantling existing ones.

They do this all the time and all it does is facture the bases. If they introduce Jace [a relatively unknown character without a base] by having him fight Damian [a known character with a base] how do they think that will work out for Jace?

That's setting a sizeable fanbase against the new guy which is unfair. The goal is to get fans who are already reading bat books to embrace Jace not turn them off.

It's almost like DC and writers don't believe that fans can like more than one character per franchise. Which isn't true. We can support multiple characters. I like multiple batmen and multiple Robins. Sure I have my favs but I still spend money on the others.

[Astralabius]

Attachment 128506

Wasn’t expecting this, but not totally shocked

I just want a group he gets along with I can’t have a 4 interaction of a team that says they hate him all the time
I am interested

The way I understand it the writer of this list does not know what DC's plans for the future are either. He's just speculating, it's not an official announcement.

[Astralabius]

I get what you are saying. Damian is far from neglected and is doing/treated better than the majority of DC/Bat characters.
Damian remains prominent but prominence isn't all fans desire. I'm a fan of Damian because I enjoy reading stories with him. I've enjoyed following his journey and watching him evolve.

I'm happy he is in these events and stuff but I'd rather be given a story/title that focuses on him. that continues his journey.
I'd happily trade a decent solo series for a couple of features in mediocre events.

With you on that. What has Damian gained from being in these events? Shadow War fixed his relationship with his parents to some extent. Okay, that's something.

But in the main Dark Crisis book he did basically nothing. All he contributed happened in the Dark Army tie-in oneshot and it was more about him finding a way to upgrade Doctor Light.

Batman vs Robin made Damian responsible for freeing Nezha and pluging the entire planet into chaos. Waid showed close to zero genuine interest in exploring Bruce and Damian's relationship. The first and so far only useful thing Damian was allowed to do in BvsR and LP was to come up with a plan to fix the mess he caused. We know from Waid that Damian will also have to make a big sacrifice to fix this.

That sounds terrible. I simply want a book focused on Damian being Robin. Solving crimes. Beating bad guys. Working with his family.

I don't want Damian to cause global disasters, spent most of the story being one of the antagonists and then have to lose even more than the character already lost just to fix the unwanted mess DC made him be the cause of.

[MarvelARPGFan]

Hello everybody, were there any comics in which Damian had a similar hairstyle to the one that Tim had in Gotham Knights?. I only ask because this is one of the things that initially made people think that Damian was Robin in that game.

1450qwh7dnl71.jpg

[Fergus]

Hello everybody, were there any comics in which Damian had a similar hairstyle to the one that Tim had in Gotham Knights?. I only ask because this is one of the things that initially made people think that Damian was Robin in that game.

1450qwh7dnl71.jpg

Damian's hair was similar in his earliest days. Before he discovered product.



The first image.
Animated Damian from the DCAMU also has a similar haircut.

The uniform is what made me think it was Damian initially.

[Fergus]

With you on that. What has Damian gained from being in these events? Shadow War fixed his relationship with his parents to some extent. Okay, that's something.

But in the main Dark Crisis book he did basically nothing. All he contributed happened in the Dark Army tie-in oneshot and it was more about him finding a way to upgrade Doctor Light.

Batman vs Robin made Damian responsible for freeing Nezha and pluging the entire planet into chaos. Waid showed close to zero genuine interest in exploring Bruce and Damian's relationship. The first and so far only useful thing Damian was allowed to do in BvsR and LP was to come up with a plan to fix the mess he caused. We know from Waid that Damian will also have to make a big sacrifice to fix this.

That sounds terrible. I simply want a book focused on Damian being Robin. Solving crimes. Beating bad guys. Working with his family.

I don't want Damian to cause global disasters, spent most of the story being one of the antagonists and then have to lose even more than the character already lost just to fix the unwanted mess DC made him be the cause of.

Damian is essential being cast as an instigator. A character that goes around causing problems. Making decisions that create problems to kick start an arc for other heroes. He is 14 and he is smart. He shouldn't be blundering more than he did when he was 10.

[Rac7d*]

With you on that. What has Damian gained from being in these events? Shadow War fixed his relationship with his parents to some extent. Okay, that's something.

But in the main Dark Crisis book he did basically nothing. All he contributed happened in the Dark Army tie-in oneshot and it was more about him finding a way to upgrade Doctor Light.

Batman vs Robin made Damian responsible for freeing Nezha and pluging the entire planet into chaos. Waid showed close to zero genuine interest in exploring Bruce and Damian's relationship. The first and so far only useful thing Damian was allowed to do in BvsR and LP was to come up with a plan to fix the mess he caused. We know from Waid that Damian will also have to make a big sacrifice to fix this.

That sounds terrible. I simply want a book focused on Damian being Robin. Solving crimes. Beating bad guys. Working with his family.

I don't want Damian to cause global disasters, spent most of the story being one of the antagonists and then have to lose even more than the character already lost just to fix the unwanted mess DC made him be the cause of.

You have quite the bleak reception to all his work the past year huh

[garazza]

https://jesncin.tumblr.com/post/7062...aw-for-funsies
https://jesncin.tumblr.com/post/7063...er-sons-redraw

[Astralabius]

You have quite the bleak reception to all his work the past year huh

Since my reading caught up with the present DC's plans for have Damian have been "let's trash his entire character developement to make him our next supervillain", "oh, 5G got scrapped, let's isolate him on an island and actually just use the book to set up two events Damian is not even really a main character in and lets humble Damian to a degree that he doesn't even really feel like Damian anymore" and "lets make Damian free Nezha for no reason and cause a global disaster, have Damian fight Bruce (again!) even though everybody is tired of it just so Bruce has a reason to put on fate's helmet and have Damian make a huge sacrifice to fix the mess he caused and prove how humbled he is now! Even though the kid already died like five times to show his character developement in other stories!"
All while DC has tried to make Tim the main Robin again too.

So yeah, if DC wants me to trust them they should earn it back. Small scale stories. Stop trying to humble Damian. Stop making him always sacrifice everything when he never really seems to be rewarded for it. Stop trying to make Tim Robin and let Damian finally have his time as Robin and as his father's son in peace. Don't forget all his previous relationships and character developement once a new writer takes over to give us the same damn arc again.
I'm really not asking for that much.

[Astralabius]

Damian is essential being cast as an instigator. A character that goes around causing problems. Making decisions that create problems to kick start an arc for other heroes. He is 14 and he is smart. He shouldn't be blundering more than he did when he was 10.

Basically.
He screws up to give other characters an opportunity to shine, get's humbled (I hate it so much at this point), makes sacrifices, is still regarded as a selfish ******* who hasn't earned his place among the heroes once the next story starts.

When I read the interviews Mark Waid gave, talking about the free upgrades so many characters are getting because of Lazarus Planet and the only thing he could say about Damian was "he's going to make a jaw-dropping sacrifice"

Screw this. What has Damian to gain from this ****? And if the answer is nothing, in fact they're just going to make him lose even more than he already has, then don't put him in the damn story.
I don't need more proof that Damian is a hero. What I need is Damian stories that are actually fun to read.

[dietrich]

You have quite the bleak reception to all his work the past year huh

Can't say I blame OP. I feel like DC routinely undermines Damian.
They keep trying to make us believe he's a bad guy. They make him take the fall for the bad decisions others made/agreed to.
They made an entire title to villinize him. Every decent solo he's had was ended prematurely while other less selling bat characters and titles carry on.

I'm happy for everyone enjoying what DC's doing with him in these events but I've not been able to get excited for this.

I was really happy when he got a solo and it liked like they were just going to let him be a hero, a teen and a part of the family but that was cut. he's fighting with bruce again, he apparently was disowned by the Gotham heroes [not sure why] and the new Robin writer can't stop dragging him [salt - wound]

2022 gave us good content after Robin ended though that was thanks to elseworlds and anthologies.

I hope we get better canon content this year for Damian. i want a title that focused on him. Work needs to be done fixing his relationships, re-establishing friendships and familial relationships and addressing recent traumatic events. Those can't really be done in a team book or another character's title.

[dietrich]

Since my reading caught up with the present DC's plans for have Damian have been "let's trash his entire character developement to make him our next supervillain", "oh, 5G got scrapped, let's isolate him on an island and actually just use the book to set up two events Damian is not even really a main character in and lets humble Damian to a degree that he doesn't even really feel like Damian anymore" and "lets make Damian free Nezha for no reason and cause a global disaster, have Damian fight Bruce (again!) even though everybody is tired of it just so Bruce has a reason to put on fate's helmet and have Damian make a huge sacrifice to fix the mess he caused and prove how humbled he is now! Even though the kid already died like five times to show his character developement in other stories!"
All while DC has tried to make Tim the main Robin again too.

So yeah, if DC wants me to trust them they should earn it back. Small scale stories. Stop trying to humble Damian. Stop making him always sacrifice everything when he never really seems to be rewarded for it. Stop trying to make Tim Robin and let Damian finally have his time as Robin and as his father's son in peace. Don't forget all his previous relationships and character developement once a new writer takes over to give us the same damn arc again.
I'm really not asking for that much.

Yes to all of this especially the bolded.

[adrikito]

Attachment 128506

Wasn’t expecting this, but not totally shocked

I just want a group he gets along with I can’t have a 4 interaction of a team that says they hate him all the time
I am interested

I can´t see it.. Damian does not fit there. He is not a magical user.

Hope that he can have a solo again soon..