Grant Morrison has a knack for taking potentially stupid ideas and making them great. Perhaps the biggest gamble he ever took - even bigger than having Batman shoot a God with a magic bullet and get zapped back through time - was introducing Damian Wayne, Bruce Wayne's son with Talia al Ghul, into the Batman mythos. The idea that Bruce Wayne had a son was bound to be controversial, but Morrison only upped the ante with Damian's characterization. Damian was something of a snot; literally bred to be an assassin, he had a serious superiority complex, and had no problem trotting it out for everyone to see. ("I imagined you taller," were Damian's first words upon meeting his father.) Many fans were hoping Damian would die quickly, and be forgotten about similarly quickly; in fact, Morrison had originally intended to kill Damian off during that first storyline, but both the writer and DC seemed to sense there was more to be mined from the character. And thank God they did. Because from being a sorta silly gimmick - Batman has a murderous son! - Damian grew into so much more. Robins have always been surrogate sons to Bruce Wayne; Morrison simply had the chutzpah to make the connection literal, and use it to take the battle between Batman and the al Ghul clan to even more operatic extremes. The love/hate affair between Bruce and Talia had always been the kind of melodramatic stuff comics were made for, but now it became that much more of a Greek tragedy - as many a commentator has noted, the worst custody battle imaginable, with two parents fighting for the soul of their child and the fate of the world hanging in the balance. And what a child! Prickly he might have been, but Damian had good reason; there was perhaps a hint of Jason Todd's arrogance and attitude in Damian's make-up, but unlike Todd, Damian could actually back up his bluster with action - here, for the first time ever, it was actually believable that a preteen boy could stand toe to toe with the Dark Knight Detective in the field of battle. While bringing with him the traditional "daddy baggage" - forcing Batman back into the role of parent and mentor, a role in which he was not always comfortable - Damian raised the stakes that much more by basically being a walking counter-argument to Batman's "no killing" rules; here was Bruce Wayne's own progeny, more than happy to take life whenever he saw fit. Dramatic possibilities though that characterization represented, it probably would've grown fairly old fairly fast. But Damian kept growing, kept evolving, kept revealing unexpected depths. Finding a loving (if atypical) "Bat"-family, Damian was allowed to know kindness, trust, community; his sharper edges softened out, and if he was still as uncompromising and could be as prickly as ever, he was also loyal, courageous and ultimately selfless, as proven when he gave his life to save his father's. Death is certainly not a new boundary to cross for a Robin - Stephanie Brown and Jason Todd both did it - but Damian's death was arguably more powerful, partially because Jason stumbled into his death while Damian willingly and bravely faced it, and partially because the idea of self sacrifice should've been so alien to the angry, hair trigger half pint killer. As Morrison himself put it, he and his fellow writers and artists had " this little monster into a superhero", and it was a remarkable transformation to witness. Perhaps on a symbolic level, the reason Damian is at the top of the Robin heap is not just what he did while in the suit, but what he did for the institution of Robin as a whole. Most of the best Robins are there to support and augment the institution of Batman - but Damian, even while acting as a "sidekick", was arguably at his best when he was working alongside Dick Grayson in that Batsuit. The two made for a great team in the way they threw the traditional Batman and Robin dynamic on its head: here it was a level headed, enthusiastic Batman having to cope with a temperamental, standoffish Robin. But symbolically, they also, in a sense, represented the ultimate triumph of the Robin concept: here were Batman's spiritual son, and his literal son, fighting crime side by side, a testament to Batman's status as a mentor, even in the event of Bruce Wayne's "death". If Jason Todd represents Batman's greatest "defeat" - the boy whose rage he couldn't contain - then Damian Wayne is "Robin's" greatest victory - by putting an unrepentant killer into the suit, he is transformed into a hero. Which is your favourite version of Robin? Share your pick below in the comments thread.
C.B. Jacobson pops up at What Culture every once in a while, and almost without fail manages to embarrass the site with his clumsy writing. When he's not here, he's making movies, or writing about them at http://buddypuddle.blogspot.com.
Perhaps on a symbolic level, the reason Damian is at the top of the Robin heap is not just what he did while in the suit, but what he did for the institution of Robin as a whole. Most of the best Robins are there to support and augment the institution of Batman - but Damian, even while acting as a "sidekick", was arguably at his best when he was working alongside Dick Grayson in that Batsuit. The two made for a great team in the way they threw the traditional Batman and Robin dynamic on its head: here it was a level headed, enthusiastic Batman having to cope with a temperamental, standoffish Robin. But symbolically, they also, in a sense, represented the ultimate triumph of the Robin concept: here were Batman's spiritual son, and his literal son, fighting crime side by side, a testament to Batman's status as a mentor, even in the event of Bruce Wayne's "death". If Jason Todd represents Batman's greatest "defeat" - the boy whose rage he couldn't contain - then Damian Wayne is "Robin's" greatest victory - by putting an unrepentant killer into the suit, he is transformed into a hero. Which is your favourite version of Robin? Share your pick below in the comments thread.