Batman & Ra's Al Ghul #32 Preview/Discussion/SPOILERS

[K. Jones]

Batman & Robin, Batgirl and Batman are the only titles of the New 52 to keep their original creative team and concept the whole way through from September 2011. You could partially count Johns Justice League however in my mind that book is now unrecognizable to its first arc with drastic changes to cast, concept and artists along the way.

All-Star Western isn't dead yet!

[nepenthes]

All-Star Western isn't dead yet!

Not yet...but the Reaper has its date . and those books will be the final three standing.

[ReverseReverseFlash]

You win this round, ReverseReverseFlash.

SO was Damian's DNA tampered or modified in any way?

Like Jones said, he's definitely a Eugenics baby. The purpose for performing Eugenics was to write out any harmful diseases he might have inherited and enhance his muscle strength and reflexes to put him on par with his legendary father. Though not explained well, this is also how she was able to modify Damian's body to allow for unlimited donor organs. He's definitely a bit of a super baby(even if that is a cloning term). It seems this red crystal is the plot device used to explain this, although the DC Universe already has the necessary sciences to have done this without using Darkseid tech.

Imagine if Damian ends up being part of the Anti-Life Equation...

[Naked Bat]

This was definitely an epic issue, so well written and the art was beyond amazing. Can't wait for Robin rises.

[Jason the slasher guy]

So torn... I love Gleason's art, but Tomasi's writing has just got worse and worse sinse Damian died.

Blame Grant Morrison.

[Captain Jim]

Batman & Robin, Batgirl and Batman are the only titles of the New 52 to keep their original creative team and concept the whole way through from September 2011. You could partially count Johns Justice League however in my mind that book is now unrecognizable to its first arc with drastic changes to cast, concept and artists along the way.

Batgirl has kept its original writer, but has changed artists frequently

[DurararaFTW]

I used to oppose the accelerated growth theory because it diminished the old Batman timeline, which I favored. Recently, I began re-reading Morrison's run, and even though he makes no solid hints, the timeline didn't really work before, either. Batman's first encounter with Talia happened after Dick had become Nightwing and Bruce was temporarily without a partner(before Jason). There's no way that was 11 years prior in the old timeline. Jason and Nightwing's careers were at the five year mark in the old DCU, so Damian was still conceived about five years prior to current events, even before the reboot.

First of all, that's not true. Batman and Talia first entered a relationship while Dick was Robin.

Talia has already said Damian wasn't born as you would assume a normal pregnancy to go and you constantly see the flashbacks of him in artificial wombs during flashbacks. He only had like 4 official birthdays in his zero issue.....
It never needed to be spoon fed to us but here it is

We see 6 birthdays at least in his zero issue and only meets Batman on his tenth. And he'd still need to be dead for year too after that inside the five year timeline.

And turned her into a stereotypical, one-dimensional, mustache-twirling, psychopath. That's hardly and upgrade. And the sad part is that her motivations are STILL all about Bruce. She's STILL obsessed with him. All that Morrison did was to make it really petty and quite frankly stupid, as well as removed any level of complexity to her whatsoever. Retconning it so that Darkseid was messing with her mind, so be it.

Even sadder is that it's shown here that Bruce really doesn't spare a thought for Talia in return.

[daningotham]

Awesome issue, I really can't wait for Robin Rises now. It's going to be epic!!

[ReverseReverseFlash]

First of all, that's not true. Batman and Talia first entered a relationship while Dick was Robin.

Batman impregnating Talia comes from "Son of the Demon", from 87. Bruce met Talia sooner, but their sexual encounter didn't happen until later, when Dick was already Nightwing. This has been stated by Morrison, as he was tasked with combining 'Son of the Demon' with the main continuity, replacing the orphanage story with the test-tube baby part.

[blackbolt396]

Awesome issue, I really can't wait for Robin Rises now. It's going to be epic!!

I know this is going to be a true classic, what a great time to be a Batman fan.

[K. Jones]

Batman impregnating Talia comes from "Son of the Demon", from 87. Bruce met Talia sooner, but their sexual encounter didn't happen until later, when Dick was already Nightwing. This has been stated by Morrison, as he was tasked with combining 'Son of the Demon' with the main continuity, replacing the orphanage story with the test-tube baby part.

Mushy time to be sure.

Damian aging naturally didn't fit the previous 10-15 year timeline, OR the current 6-year timeline. But any way you look at it, Bruce doesn't meet the al Ghuls until dead center of his publication history, or "career", during the Grayson-era peak, when Dick first goes to college and is IMMINENTLY Nightwing. You can look at 1975-85 as two years of Bat-time, or just one year of Bat-time. The Tomasi-given accelerated aging timeline works "pretty well" with the 10+ timeline if half of his life was accelerated. With the 6 year timeline we simply must assume that Damian's "birthdays" weren't one year apart, they were "one year's development" apart, but that technically Damian is only 3 years old.

Which still makes him way older than Connor Kent, who was accelerated to like late-teenager. Anyone else remember that rad Superman/Batman anniversary issue where Damian is Batman and Connor is Superman in the dark future? It draws big parallels between the two of them. I've got to get back and re-read that short story.

In a universe where Wally can use time-hijinx to grow up and have kids who then also grow up even more, then Barry can use time hijinx to reverse that so Wally is somehow even younger (and half black!), I don't think accelerated aging needs to adhere too much to real-time. Talia was impregnated during the disco Nightwing days. She didn't carry the embryo to term; she had it removed to a test tube and grown into a 10 year old in 3ish years time, hyper-trained and only revealed him to the world a short time ago - but he's still a real boy! Even as she helped Jason Todd get better, helped her father with the Contagion, almost married Bane, and warred with Nyssa Raatko, and ran into Bruce semi-regularly, she had this project working in secret.

[DurararaFTW]

Batman impregnating Talia comes from "Son of the Demon", from 87. Bruce met Talia sooner, but their sexual encounter didn't happen until later, when Dick was already Nightwing. This has been stated by Morrison, as he was tasked with combining 'Son of the Demon' with the main continuity, replacing the orphanage story with the test-tube baby part.

Son of the Demon was not the first sexual encounter they had. And Son of the Demon is not canon, or the canon way it happened and Damian was introduced two crisis soft reboots later so there is absolutely no reason Morrison should feel Son of the Demon's appoximate placing in the batverse is when Damian needs to be conceived. It should be as early as he can get away with. A ten year old with accelerated aging really shouldn't be considered suitable for combat after all, let alone a three year old with accelerared aging.

[ReverseReverseFlash]

Son of the Demon was not the first sexual encounter they had. And Son of the Demon is not canon, or the canon way it happened and Damian was introduced two crisis soft reboots later so there is absolutely no reason Morrison should feel Son of the Demon's appoximate placing in the batverse is when Damian needs to be conceived. It should be as early as he can get away with. A ten year old with accelerated aging really shouldn't be considered suitable for combat after all, let alone a three year old with accelerared aging.

Read the posts better, especially the one above yours. I am as close to being right as you can get, seeing as how Morrison CREATED Damian and used a soft combining of an elseworld's story into the main canon to give Damian a familiar origin.

Son of the Demon is THE encounter that created Damian. That's a fact. What happens after that event is different, as to adjust it to fit the main canon before AND after Flashpoint. That part hasn't changed.

Honestly, Jones and I have already clarified this.

[BenTheBat]

Blame Grant Morrison.

I do blame him...every day. What a great issue I love this series and I can't wait for Robin Rises!

[Naked Bat]

You wouldn't have this issue if Morrison wasn't there to be blamed though...