In the mid-2000's, writer Grant Morrison began his 6 year run on Batman by introducing to readers two versions of the offspring of Bruce Wayne and Talia al Ghul, Damian. The first was the 10 year old little bastard that everyone hated, but would come to love. The other was a look into the possible future, where Damian would take his father's role as the new Batman. With comics though, these possible futures almost never happen, and with Damian's death around this time last year, that said future may never come to pass; but with comics, death is also never permanent. Despite that, DC decided to give fans more Damian with a miniseries written and drawn by Andy Kubert, who co-created the character with Morrison, showing exactly how Damian would have become the Dark Knight. While the concept is brilliant, Kubert's execution is wholeheartedly underwhelming.
Before this miniseries, the origin of Damian as Batman shown in Batman #666 was that he took the role after the previous Batman had been killed. That's how this series starts out, with Batman and Robin investigating a pile of dead bodies at a fishing dock, but a booby trapped placed at the scene led to Batman's death, with Damian placing some blame on himself. By the end of the first issue and the start of the second issue, we learn that it was actually Dick Grayson who died, while Bruce had retired. Now this leads to my overall problem with the series, a twist that I feel shouldn't have been a twist. Dick is considerably smaller than Bruce, yet the Batman shown in that first scene could have passed for Bruce, not to mention the dialogue didn't make me think of Dick at all. To be fair though, dialogue is a major problem throughout the series. Though I think what really gets me about this twist is when Damian goes to visit Ra's and Talia and unsuccessfully asks them for help to find who was responsible for killing Batman. Talia says she had a deep bond with Batman, which makes sense if it was Bruce, but it was actually Dick who died. The only way I could see that making sense is that Ra's and Talia didn't know Dick had taken over the role. I find that hard to believe though because while the al Ghul's don't have a real partnership with the Waynes, they would at least keep tabs on them.
Another aspect of the first issue is that apparently supervillains love social media, as some of them, including Mr. Freeze and Killer Croc, make posts online taking credit for killing Batman. It's kind of ridiculous, but that was just the beginning of ridiculousness as the series would progress.
While I do enjoy Kubert's work, sometimes it's a little hard to "read", if that makes sense. Along with hiding who the Batman that was killed was, I couldn't tell how old Damian actually was in this series. He was in his Robin outfit, which made me think he was still young, probably a teenager now, but he would become Batman in a pretty short time, which made me think, "Okay, maybe he's in his twenties." But with that thought, I think it's kind of weird that Damian would still be Robin into his adulthood. Yes, we've seen Dick as a much older Robin in the original Earth 2 comics and Batman: The Animated Series, but it's hard to see Damian holding on to the role that long.
While I've mentioned in previous comic reviews that writers tend to draw things out in order to lengthen the story, this is one story that I think could have benefited in some way from lasting more than 4 issues, particularly Damian's decision making process. In issue one, Damian is like "I won't be Batman." Then in the second issue, he's like "Okay, I'll be Batman." Another example is he goes from "I won't kill my adversaries out of respect for my father" in issue three, which then becomes "Fuck it, I'm killing this guy" in issue four. But I think that Damian's mind isn't all there for the most part anyway. By issue three, after Alfred saves Damian's life, he just drops dead, and when Damian wakes up, his cat, also named Alfred, begins talking to Damian in the human Alfred's voice. Now it's possible Damian's is hallucinating, but what if Alfred's spirit somehow went into the cat? Ridiculous? Yes, but I think I can see Kubert going this route. Throughout the story, Damian is also seeking guidance from a priest, who kind of looks like Gordon, on how to pursue Batman's killer, but then it turns out he was just a hallucination, which makes no sense considering he was at Dick's funeral. Now, I know Grant Morrison wanted to make Damian a different kind of Batman, but I don't think Kubert needed to make him the crazy guy who talks to his cat.
By the end of the series, Damian encounters someone claiming to be the new Joker, who kidnaps Bruce to draw out Batman. The problem I have with this character though is that he seemingly comes out of nowhere, and I feel like I have to connect some threads that aren't expressly there. Allow me to list them:
- Professor Pyg appeared at the midway point of the series, and with the new Joker's appearance, I must admit they do resemble one another. It would also make sense that both characters had Jackanapes, genetically altered gorilla henchmen, working for them.
- There was a Joker fish that triggered the bomb that killed Dick, and Damian found a Joker card with a fish on it when he found Bruce's bed empty, telling Damian who took his father. Not to mention there was also a resemblance, at least to me, between the new Joker and that fish.
- Bruce had a pretty ugly nurse that talked kind of weird and kept talking about her boyfriend. I know this is reaching, but maybe the nurse was Harley Quinn. I mean, why else would they show that scene? It would make sense if she was still working for Joker, or new Joker to be exact. Still, the years had not been kind to her if that's the case.
The last issue of this series definitely leaves more questions than answers, which is a bad thing to do with a limited series. Why does Damian think there are more people responsible for Dick's death? What does the Joker's reappearance mean? There's a catch-22 situation here. On one hand, I want to know what happens with Damian after this story, but on the other, I don't think I can handle more of Kubert's writing.
I give it props for concept and art, but dialogue and content hurt it. Honestly, I would only recommend this to those who love Damian or would like to add this story to their collection as a companion to Grant Morrison's Batman run. He didn't write this, it probably would have been better if he did, but Damian is Morrison's baby after all. I find myself like I did after I saw "Prometheus." I wasn't exactly satisfied, but I would be curious enough to take a look at a sequel. Overall though, if this is where Damian was heading, it was probably a good idea to kill him off.
STORY RATING: 5/10
RECOMMENDATION RATING: 2/10
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