1. A Huge Wasted Opportunity
When I first heard of this mini-series and that it was a precursor to Damian becoming the new Batman of Gotham, I was excited because I really liked what Grant Morrison had done with this particular Damian story. Consider what Morrison put into Batman #666 and Batman Incorporated #5: the world's climate has risen to nearly fatal levels; there is constant war; Damian has sold his soul to the Devil to become Batman and is seemingly invincible; Commissioner Barbara Gordon in a combat reinforced wheelchair! is Batman's enemy, believing him responsible for the death of a loved one; Damian is even more prepared for anything than his father, booby-trapping the entirety of Gotham City; Jackanapes is an ape-like version of Hank McCoy. Look at all that potential! Kubert could've shown the world descending into chaos, we could've had a scene where Damian sells his soul to the Devil, we could've seen the death that turns Barbara against Damian we saw none of that. Instead we got the most uninspired story of Dick Grayson being killed by a Jokerfish and Damian ineptly fighting a fake Joker with numerous scenes of a dull priest reciting mundane platitudes. We don't get a hint of Damian's obsession with traps and even Jackanapes is written to be a one-note goon rather than a super-intelligent ape. The diseased Joker who unleashes the Joker virus that leads to Gotham City being wiped out by an atomic bomb isn't here, and we get one panel of Barbara Gordon in the background without any lines. On the one hand it's not fair to compare Andy Kubert's writing ability to Grant Morrison's as the gap between the two is enormous I didn't expect Kubert to write as cleverly or imaginatively as Morrison and he met that expectation. But Morrison left behind a lot of ideas to be explored that even a half-decent writer could've made something much more entertaining out of. It's one thing to pick apart the different elements that went into making Damian: Son of Batman the disaster it was, but the biggest problem by far was the wasted potential. It could've been an AMAZING mini-series (or even a series unto itself) but instead it wound up being one of the most forgettable and poorly put-together Batman books in years. If there's one takeaway from all of this, it's that Andy Kubert should never be allowed to write Batman ever again and stick to drawing him instead! * What did you think of Damian: Son of Batman? Were you disappointed or did you enjoy it? Let me know in the comments below!