Damian Wayne Robin Appreciation 2021

[Fergus]

By the way, Gleb posted the colored version on instagram. Hood confirmed!

This adorable but also kind of sad. he looks like a kid. like a lonely kid just sitting on a crate. Reading.

I wonder what he's reading?

[Perfidiously]

https://bleedingcool.com/comics/dami...nite-frontier/
Bleeding Cool leaked one more suit for Damian, he will wear in the first back-up.

Tangentially - I hate the "heir to the Demon throne" angle here. He's already had the "the way I brought up was an awful nightmare, the al Ghuls are terrible" revelation. If you really want Damian to go a darker path, fine - but I'd much prefer him to go "screw Batman, screw the League of Assassins, I'm forging my own path." I mean he's clearly going to go back to being Robin, but still. I hope that him trying to go back to the al Ghuls is a trick and not an actual desire of his, however temporary. Well, that or him trying to reform the League of Assassins, but this doesn't seem to be the way it's going either.

Also, I wonder if Mara al Ghul is ever going to show up again. What a character to create and then just kinda forget about.

[Fergus]

Tangentially - I hate the "heir to the Demon throne" angle here. He's already had the "the way I brought up was an awful nightmare, the al Ghuls are terrible" revelation. If you really want Damian to go a darker path, fine - but I'd much prefer him to go "screw Batman, screw the League of Assassins, I'm forging my own path." I mean he's clearly going to go back to being Robin, but still. I hope that him trying to go back to the al Ghuls is a trick and not an actual desire of his, however temporary. Well, that or him trying to reform the League of Assassins, but this doesn't seem to be the way it's going either.

Also, I wonder if Mara al Ghul is ever going to show up again. What a character to create and then just kinda forget about.

This would be an excellent way to reintroduce Maya and the Demon's Fist.

I don't mind Damian stating he is the Heir to the Demon or even going back to to the League and his Mother in his quest to find out his future/destination.

To move forward he has to face and make peace with his past and everything he is.

Damian is alone and young. He is clearly trying to find what's best for him and where he belongs in the world so it's understandable for him to go back.

I guess like most formerly indoctrinated people who manage to escape cults he might still be struggling [It was only 3 years ago in comic time] even if growing up in the LOa was nightmare.

I don't believe he is going back to the teachings of the LOA since the title is all about him getting back to the heroic path.

[Astralabius]

This adorable but also kind of sad. he looks like a kid. like a lonely kid just sitting on a crate. Reading.

I wonder what he's reading?

He doesn't seem sad though, he has a small smile on his lips.

Maybe it's just because it's not colored, but the way the panel above him is drawn reminds me of manga.

[Perfidiously]

This would be an excellent way to reintroduce Maya and the Demon's Fist.

I don't mind Damian stating he is the Heir to the Demon or even going back to to the League and his Mother in his quest to find out his future/destination.

To move forward he has to face and make peace with his past and everything he is.

Damian is alone and young. He is clearly trying to find what's best for him and where he belongs in the world so it's understandable for him to go back.

I guess like most formerly indoctrinated people who manage to escape cults he might still be struggling [It was only 3 years ago in comic time] even if growing up in the LOa was nightmare.

I don't believe he is going back to the teachings of the LOA since the title is all about him getting back to the heroic path.

I'd love to see Mara & the Demon's Fist again! At least with the Demon's Fist, they're presumably off doing their own thing, maybe finding their families. Mara's still stuck with Ra's and having a terrible time, probably. I'd love to see more of her and Damian's relationship, there's so many stories you can do.

You make a good point re: League of Assassins and Damian going back...Him still being young & struggling is why I don't mind the more villainous turn he's taking for now. He'd spent the vast majority of his life in a horrific environment, and even after coming to Gotham has experienced a lot of trauma. It makes sense that he'd regress, especially since one of the issues he struggles with is thinking he's inherently evil, beyond redemption, etc. I guess I'm more annoyed about his terrible past sometimes being downplayed, and am kinda worried it will happen here. And I liked how he progressed from working with Batman but still faithful to the League, then beginning to doubt, then outright angry and rejecting the old teachings. It's hard for me to buy him thinking "well maybe Ra's won't try and steal my body to use as his own this time", even if he probably does miss other aspects of growing up in the League.

I definitely agree that he's not going back permanently (the whole 'getting back to the heroic path' thing makes it clear). I kinda suspect that Ra's is going to reject his appeal to rejoin the League? I guess we'll see.

[Perfidiously]

He doesn't seem sad though, he has a small smile on his lips.

Maybe it's just because it's not colored, but the way the panel above him is drawn reminds me of manga.

You're right, it does look like manga. Aww, I'd be into Damian reading manga.

[Astralabius]

Tangentially - I hate the "heir to the Demon throne" angle here. He's already had the "the way I brought up was an awful nightmare, the al Ghuls are terrible" revelation. If you really want Damian to go a darker path, fine - but I'd much prefer him to go "screw Batman, screw the League of Assassins, I'm forging my own path." I mean he's clearly going to go back to being Robin, but still. I hope that him trying to go back to the al Ghuls is a trick and not an actual desire of his, however temporary. Well, that or him trying to reform the League of Assassins, but this doesn't seem to be the way it's going either.

Also, I wonder if Mara al Ghul is ever going to show up again. What a character to create and then just kinda forget about.

I'm not taking what he's saying here seriously until I read the whole story.
Williamson said that he would put Damian back on a heroic path after Teen Titans pushed him more on the path of a villain several times in interviews, and this angle would be an odd way to accomplish that.

Damian also has a history of trying to con people into believing he will join them/turn his back on heroism for various reasons.
He did it in the Born to Kill arc with Nobody (and Bruce), he joined the Court of Owls to protect Dick in Robin War, he pretended to join Ra's in the first arc of Teen Titans (2016) and he acted like he was loyal to his "father" Deathstroke in the Deathstroke vs Batman arc during Priest's Deathstroke run.

I wouldn't get upset just yet.

[Perfidiously]

I'm not taking what he's saying here seriously until I read the whole story.
Williamson said that he would put Damian back on a heroic path after Teen Titans pushed him more on the path of a villain several times in interviews, and this angle would be an odd way to accomplish that.

Damian also has a history of trying to con people into believing he will join them/turn his back on heroism for various reasons.
He did it in the Born to Kill arc with Nobody (and Bruce), he joined the Court of Owls to protect Dick in Robin War, he pretended to join Ra's in the first arc of Teen Titans (2016) and he acted like he was loyal to his "father" Deathstroke in the Deathstroke vs Batman arc during Priest's Deathstroke run.

I wouldn't get upset just yet.

Yeah, that's fair. I just had a real visceral "ugh no" reaction - I'll hold out judgment until the story actually comes out.

Man, it's funny seeing all the times he pretended to join up with people listed out. He really does do it a lot, doesn't he? I wonder if he's going to end up, like, fake joining Legion of Doom or whatever in the future.

[Astralabius]

Yeah, that's fair. I just had a real visceral "ugh no" reaction - I'll hold out judgment until the story actually comes out.

Man, it's funny seeing all the times he pretended to join up with people listed out. He really does do it a lot, doesn't he? I wonder if he's going to end up, like, fake joining Legion of Doom or whatever in the future.

I wasn't thrilled either, but this was posted by bleedingcool and they love riling people up over out of context panels, so I tried to approach this with scepticism right from the start. One thing that I found odd was that they seem to have covered up the rest of the speech bubbles in that panel. Maybe those will already clear up some things? We'll have to wait and see.

The solicitation says he had to escape from Gotham and some of the art Melnikov posted indicates what I assume to be League of Lazarus or League of Assassins members are trying to attack him and Talia. I'm leaning more towards League of Lazarus because the art shows them attacking Talia and they are supposed to be this mysterious and until now unknown faction of the League that we'll get to know in Robin.
They are probably the reason he had to leave Gotham.

Anyway, I wouldn't be suprised if it turns out Damian is just saying what he's saying in that panel because the League of Lazarus either pressured him into acting like this or he's pretending to return to the league in hopes of getting more information about them this way.

[Astralabius]

The article claims to be about the purple color of his cape and suit, but since it's pretty obvious it's just the lighting I doubt that was the real reason they wrote it. They probably wanted to get attention for what Damian is saying without outright claiming that Damian wants to be Ra's heir again because they probably already know that that's not true.
They get the attention without technically saying anything wrong or misleading.

[Fergus]

I hate the idea of Damian believing he's evil. That that's his nature. That is sad and untrue. Like he's a lost cause. I know DC has tried to paint him as such in some stories and some readers and characters believe and have said as much.

That is bonk.

damian isn't evil and he never was. he did some bad things in the past which he worked very hard to atone for.

He became a hero because he saw that there was another way not just the LOA way. He made the decision to become a hero even before he became Robin. Alone in Gotham before joining the family.

He has made mistakes and has made some bad decisions but he isn't evil. All heroes have made mistakes.

It sucks whenever a writer goes down the heel turn path with Damian after he spent years fighting for redemption.

I don't think they should do those turns evil type stories with heroes like Damian. A young kid who started off with the odds stacked against him but still determined to change what the world believed to be his destiny.

He over came intense brainwashing and a bloody childhood just so to fall back again? That's hopeless and besides DC does far too many 'becomes evil' type stories with the bat kids. Enough already

[Fergus]

He doesn't seem sad though, he has a small smile on his lips.

Maybe it's just because it's not colored, but the way the panel above him is drawn reminds me of manga.

It might be the way he's sat with the hood and he's body position. Like he's cold or something. I don't know it's just my 1st impression on seeing the panel was 'poor thing' not sure why.

Williamson in interviews has mentioned naruto re the tournament and I hope the manga/anime influences doesn't stop there.

Superson's I've noticed has some anime vibes which my kids really like. With how popular manga and anime currently is such such vibes might be positive.

DC and Comics in general might do well to emulate Japanese style to lure some of that lucrative market. If they are serious about going after the YA market it's going to take more than just putting out some watered down reimagining's of their heroes penned by YA authors to crack that market.

[Eckri]

By the way, Gleb posted the colored version on instagram. Hood confirmed!

Judging by that bag near him he's going on a roadtrip. Chasing after the league? That's a good reason for Damian to go around places, granted no Wayne funds or Al Ghul gold, just a boy with skills trying to survive, sounds fun. Is he going full nomad, or have permanent HQ to on, maybe temporary HQs. I'd his HQ in Detective comics, Damian setting up a crude HQ in the place he's doing his mission, hope they role with that idea.

Obviously still he's going to clash with Dick's Titans Academy in the future, here's hoping what's that going to be like, no doubt Dick knows Damian enough that inviting him to join the Titans is not what he needs.

[Morgoth]

I'm still sure that Damian's goal here is to use Lazarus Pit to resurrect Alfred, and that's the reason why he went after League of Assassins, and participates in tournament.
And regarding Titans, I think Williamson at some point use them to finally resolve their conflict with each other. But Dick obviously will not invite Damian to the Academy, it would be stupid, he perfectly understands that it will not work.

[Astralabius]

Judging by that bag near him he's going on a roadtrip. Chasing after the league? That's a good reason for Damian to go around places, granted no Wayne funds or Al Ghul gold, just a boy with skills trying to survive, sounds fun. Is he going full nomad, or have permanent HQ to on, maybe temporary HQs. I'd his HQ in Detective comics, Damian setting up a crude HQ in the place he's doing his mission, hope they role with that idea.

Obviously still he's going to clash with Dick's Titans Academy in the future, here's hoping what's that going to be like, no doubt Dick knows Damian enough that inviting him to join the Titans is not what he needs.

The tournament is held on an island by the League of Lazarus and I assume he'll stay on that island for most of the arc, so several months in our time.
With only one issue coming out each month the tournament will probably take some time.
They probably have quarters for the participants.

Why does he have to clash with Dick's Titans Academy? I didn't hear anything about crossover plans for that book with Robin so far.
We know Damian will meet Jon again outside of the Robin ongoing and Taylor and Williamson both seem open to do a crossover with Nightwing and Robin, but only at a later date.
Plus, Damian was the one who suggested founding the Academy to Nightwing, I don't see why he would be upset about it. It was his idea.