Batman has experienced a life changing event, and Gotham City will never be the same. But wait, didn’t that happen just a few weeks ago?
Damian Wayne, the fourth Robin and biological son of Batman, has died. The news came as a surprise, as the Death Of The Family crossover event just ended weeks ago. After The Joker was once again defeated by the Dark Knight, it seemed as if Gotham City might actually be safe for a time. That sense of security seems to have been false though, as DC Comics broke news of Damian’s death days before the comic was even released. Most unexpectedly is that the event took place not in Batman or Detective comics, not even Batman and Robin, but in Batman Incorporated; the Batman book with the lowest sales figures and fewest readers.
The death has reportedly been a long time coming, certainly longer than the 8 issues of Batman Incorporated. Issue 8 is the culmination of everything that Grant Morrison has written in his run on Batman since 2006, the final realization of what he has been trying to achieve for years, indeed the reason that Damian Wayne was created in the first place. The problem is that the majority of that run came before the New 52 reboot, yet Morrison writes Incorporated as if the reboot never happened. The characters and their relationships are written differently from the other books in the series and Batman seems older and angrier than he does anywhere else in the reboot.
Unlike the other bat-books, Inc. has been charting its own course, not even mentioning the events of The Court Of Owls or Death Of The Family. There is a disconnect between Batman Inc. and it’s contemporaries, as if they take place in a different continuity entirely.
So if Morrison’s book has not been effected by the devastating events of the others, why do the events of Batman incorporated grind everything else to a halt? It brings inconsistency to a world whose creators have worked to instill a sense of conformity. Damian’s death was certainly dramatic, as were the events that lead up to it, but those events do not make sense with the rest of the Gotham comics. The siege of the city by Leviathan, the enemy organization in Batman Incorporated responsible for the Boy Wonder’s demise, could easily have been it’s own arc involving the whole line much as the previous Batman crossover events have. The way things played out though, it was as if The Joker was wreaking havoc concurrently with Gotham’s invasion and Batman was two places at once. Those who do not read Batman Incorporated (and I suppose, live under a rock and somehow avoided the news) will open issue 18 of Batman and the other Bat-Family series to find Robin as a casualty of a war that they did not even know was happening.
The real problem with the issue though, is not so much content as it is timing. The Death Of The Family came to it’s amazing close not 3 weeks ago, but so much of what happened in it has been undermined by Batman Incorporated. The Death Of The Family was most notable for its subtlety, it’s “death” being metaphorical rather than explosive and literal. Yet just weeks later, the big news breaking death has happened in another Batman publication. It is as if the readers cried out for blood when there was none to be had from Scott Snyder, and received it from Grant Morrison instead.
The point of Snyder’s recent arc was that it “killed” the family, breaking their ties and destroying their trust. If anything were to bring them back together, the death of their youngest brother should be it. Had this event taken place months down the line, giving the family more than one issue to grow apart and evolve as characters, then both DOTF and the death of Damian Wayne would have meant so much more. As it stands, we are left feeling as if we missed something.
Death Of The Family has been one of the greatest Batman arcs in a long time, and Damian Wayne being murdered is a massively important event. Both deserve time in the spotlight, yet for some reason they got shoved into the same month. We may never know exactly why that baffling decision was made. For now, we are left to try to gather our bearings and move on to see what happens to Gotham City. In the month of March, every issue will bear a “Requiem” seal as each member of the family deals with their loss.
So where do we go from here? How will Damian’s family deal with the loss? What will happen to the Batman and Robin book now that Batman has no Robin? Leave your thoughts and speculations in the comments below.
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10 Comments
This: “Morrison writes Incorporated as if the reboot never happened” effectively answers this: “yet for some reason they got shoved into the same month. We may never know exactly why that baffling decision was made.” Morrison marches to the beat of his own drum and DC go along with it.
Plus the fact that the New 52 has been a shambles since it started due to a total lack of vision from DC’s editors.
I think Batman’s going to react the same way he does every time another Robin bites the dust – get another kid and slap another Robin badge on him/her. Then when Damian returns in a couple years he and this 6th Robin can have an argy-bargy.
listen to kevin smiths podcast fatman on batman he talks to morrison and he talks about how he wanted to kill him off right away but started to really like the character and now that morrisons ending his run he thought it would be a great time to kill Damien now that he’s made people love him
Couldn’t agree more. I think Grant Morrison might have a problem with collaboration. He’s been planning this arc for so long, I think maybe he didn’t give a crap about what Scott Snyder was trying to do. It’s really unfair. You’re right, giving the family time for that mistrust to fester, and then later on bringing them back together with Damian’s death would have been good. As it stands, I am much displeased.
As a long time comic book reader who has been reading Morrison’s and Snyder’s entire Batman runs, I think you’re missing some context. I agree with you about it feeling like different continuity because their stories are so different, but it’s really nothing new. Detective Comics and Batman have often had the same problem over the years so have Action Comics and Superman. It’s just one of the hazards of putting the same characters in multiple books at the same time.
There are actually 16 issues of Batman Inc. since its story didn’t really reboot with the rest of the universe, but this wasn’t really a problem because Batman’s history wasn’t reset nearly as much as the other characters in the New 52. A few details changed when they renumbered, but it was a continuation of the same story. Pretty much all of the Morrison run is still intact, so when he writes “as if the reboot never happened” it’s because it didn’t really change that much for Batman or Morrison.
Interestingly enough, Batman Inc. #0 says that this all took place “Before the New 52″, but Snyder references Batman Inc. several times, Grayson has gone back to being Nightwing, and clearly the death of Robin happened in the present New 52 universe. I blame DC’s editors for continuity issues because they are ultimately responsible for what gets published, and after a big reboot of the universe that was supposedly to clean up continuity, not handling this better was a real blunder.
As for this conflicting with Snyder’s story directly, I blame that mostly on the title Snyder picked (Death of the Family). Had it been called something like Joker: Faceoff (bad example), we wouldn’t even be talking about this right now. It wasn’t the death of the family. It was something readers have seen dozens of times before: the Bat-Family being disillusioned with/not trusting Batman. It didn’t feel permanent or like it would have a long term impact, and it was clearly not the death of the family by any means. It was a fun read, though.
I see Morrison’s Batman run as “The Life and Death of Damien Wayne” with each arc being a chapter in that story, and in that context, it’s a masterpiece. He created a character who readers saw go from a murderous, entitled brat to a real hero. With Morrison’s run ending in a few issues, I think we’ll see Damien brought back by the end of 2014 by a new author. Hopefully, they don’t change him too much.
“It wasn’t the death of the family. It was something readers have seen dozens of times before: the Bat-Family being disillusioned with/not trusting Batman. It didn’t feel permanent or like it would have a long term impact, and it was clearly not the death of the family by any means.”
Steve, I think you’re thinking about it too literally – sure none of them died but it was the metaphorical death of the Bat-family’s trust and therefore the breakup of the unit.
I didn’t take it literally at all, and I’m surprised you got that impression from what I wrote, especially the portion you quoted. My problem with calling it “death of the family” is that we’ve seen the exact same rift in the Bat-family dozens of times before without it ending the Bat-family. Calling something that happens so frequently “death” is a misuse of the term.
Based on the title and story, I thought there would be an event that led to a long-term breakup, or “death”, of the Bat-family. It’s my opinion that the story failed to deliver that. Did you finish Batman #17 and think it was the end of the Bat-family as a team or even the last time the Bat-family would be together for the foreseeable future? I didn’t and have yet to talk to anyone who did.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tH2w6Oxx0kQ
Raise your lighters y’all.
Nobody going to mention that he’s actually the fifth Robin?
Totally agree!! The Joker comes to town with one mission: to kill off Batman’s sidekicks so he’ll become a stronger Batman. This continues across about 20-30 issues on nearly a dozen different titles. He captures and defeats all of them but kills NONE of them. But…no sooner does the Joker fail then the current Robin gets killed in an unrelated story that same MONTH. WTH??? If you’re gonna kill Robin…here’s a thought…have the JOKER do it? Of course, your suggestion of at least delaying the death is at least reasonable too. What a terrible job, DC!! I was equally unhappy with Batman’s death off in outer space with the Justice League. Stupid.