There comes a time when each Robin should depart the nest. Dick Grayson left Wayne Manor in Batman #217 and started a collection of solo adventures on his school campus. After coming back from the lifeless, Jason Todd selected to go his personal approach as Crimson Hood. Tim Drake started patrolling the streets on his personal when Batman’s substitute Jean Paul Valley kicked him out of the Batcave. Stephanie Brown—properly, she all the time marched to the beat of her personal drum. So the place does that depart Damian Wayne?
The present Boy Marvel is placing out on his personal in his ongoing self-titled collection, which lately launched its first commerce paperback assortment, Robin Vol. 1: The Lazarus Match. The storyline finds Robin attending a martial arts match run by a mysterious group often known as the League of Lazarus. The match pits Damian up in opposition to a number of the biggest fighters on the planet, together with Connor Hawke and Rose Wilson. And if you happen to suppose Damian will simply make quick work of all of them, properly, know that the Boy Marvel graphically will get his coronary heart ripped out of his chest earlier than the tip of the primary subject.
Teen Titans GO! this isn’t.
This additionally isn’t Damian’s first prolonged solo outing. The Boy Marvel beforehand starred in his personal ongoing Robin: Son of Batman and led the Teen Titans. But this feels completely different. Though Robin was placing out on his personal, you continue to bought the sense that he was coming house to Wayne Manor infrequently. Now Damian feels decided to carve out his personal id. The place is that this want coming from? I feel it’s a mix of three issues.
The primary one is the only—he’s fourteen years outdated. Each teenager rebels and strives for independence in some unspecified time in the future. It’s a pure a part of rising up. As a lot as Damian likes to faux he’s atypical, on the finish of the day he’s extra like a mean child than he needs to confess. Some youngsters sneak out of the home or get a tattoo. Damian attends tournaments the place he fights a bunch of lethal assassins. Typical teenager stuff.
The second cause is Damian is struggling to make sense of his personal id as he’s pulled between two households. He’s the grandson of Ra’s al Ghul and the son of Batman, which implies he’s continuously being pulled in two completely different instructions. This can be a downside not one of the different Robins ever had. The beliefs Dick Grayson discovered from his acrobatic mother and father have been by no means challenged by Bruce Wayne’s parenting. Stephanie Brown may need had a prison father, however he was not an energetic a part of her upbringing.
When he’s with the Bat-Household, Damian is continually criticized for being too bloodthirsty. When he’s along with his mom Talia, he’s continuously criticized for not being bloodthirsty sufficient. Is it any marvel Robin is struggling to determine who he’s within the grand scheme of issues? Damian is hoping the Lazarus Match can show his price past his heritage.
The third and most tragic cause for Robin’s revolt is the dying of Alfred. Contemplate how the dying of Thomas and Martha Wayne formed Bruce, then cease to remind your self that Damian by no means needed to expertise a tragedy like that. That each one modified when Alfred was murdered earlier than his eyes within the “Metropolis of Bane” storyline. Robin looks like Alfred’s dying is his accountability, and he isn’t certain the way to deal with that grief.
This may be a scorching take, however I’m calling the Bat-Household out for the best way they dealt with Damian’s feelings after Alfred’s dying. In Batman: Pennyworth R.I.P. #1, Damian tells everybody that Alfred’s dying was his fault, he is aware of that they blame him, after which runs out of the wake in tears. Not one member of the Bat-Household follows him. After he leaves, they acknowledge it wasn’t his fault, however he was now not there to listen to it. He wanted to listen to that from them. He wanted consolation. Damian’s carrying round plenty of guilt, particularly for a kid.
I feel everyone seems to be underestimating how a lot Alfred’s dying has shaken Damian. In reality, all through the Lazarus Match, Damian regularly has imaginary conversations with Alfred’s ghost. Pennyworth followers will probably be happy to see that the butler nonetheless has his traditional wit, even when he’s only a figment of Robin’s creativeness. At one other level within the story Damian alludes to Alfred’s dying, and the way he hopes the match will give him an opportunity to redeem himself.
In some ways, Damian has already modified the position of Robin. All through Dick Grayson’s tenure, Batman and Robin have been an inseparable Dynamic Duo. Though Tim Drake had his personal solo collection, he was nonetheless usually by Batman’s aspect within the Darkish Knight’s personal titles. It’s been completely different with Damian. His early years as Robin have been stuffed with team-ups alongside Dick Grayson and Bruce Wayne, however that appears to have modified. Contemplate this, what number of Batman and Robin team-up tales are you able to recall from the previous six years?
Underneath Damian’s tenure, Robin is now not as tied to Batman as he as soon as was, and that’s not essentially a nasty factor. Don’t get me flawed, he’ll all the time be the son of Batman and an vital a part of the mythos, nevertheless it doesn’t imply they must be inseparable. The Lazarus Match may not maintain the solutions Damian is in search of, nevertheless it’s an vital step in his journey. Robin has left the nest, and I’m desirous to see the place his flight will take him.
Robin Vol. 1: The Lazarus Match by Joshua Williamson, Gleb Melnikov and Jorge Corona is now obtainable in bookstores, comedian outlets, libraries and as a digital graphic novel. It’s also possible to learn Robin’s ongoing collection on DC UNIVERSE INFINITE.
Joshua Lapin-Bertone writes about TV, motion pictures and comics for DCComics.com and writes our month-to-month Batman column, “Gotham Gazette.” Comply with him on Twitter at @TBUJosh.
