Hello and Welcome to the World of Bats, the Batman Book Club!
This week, in honor of Father’s Day weekend, we’ll be reading the introduction of Batman’s biological son, the rascally ninja goblin Damian Wayne! The issues in question are Batman #655-658 and 663-666, written by Grant Morrison with art by Adam Kubert and John Van Fleet.
The Dark Knight discovers he has a son – but Damian Wayne has none of his father’s discipline. Can Batman rein in his arrogance?
All the issues mentioned can be found in this handy DCUI Storyline page here:
Reading will last from 2022-06-11T05:00:00Z→2022-06-17T05:00:00Z, but if you’re dealing with an infestation of ninja Man-Bats, you can always come back later.
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this book!
And if you’re looking for more Batman related reading to do this week, check out some from the awesome people working other Bat-adjacent Book Clubs!
First, if you’re looking for more Damian Wayne stories, Renegade Robins has resumed it’s look at Damian’s time as Robin by looking at the Rebirth run of Teen Titans, “Blood of the Manta!”
Meanwhile, over at the Birds of Prey Club, through the month of June they’ll be spotlighting the character of Batwoman, looking at the first year of her New 52 series:
Over at Harley’s Crew, through the month of June they’ll be looking at issues of DC Pride and other assorted tales of Harley Quinn!
Damien is a little snot, for sure, but here he is written such that I can have a little sympathy for him. There are times where it seems that he genuinely wants to help but he does things the way he was taught and not the way Batman would want.
The Joker one in the middle of this selection felt very different; it was more like reading a short story than a comic book. It was good, it’s just that the tone change coming from the previous book was abrupt.
The adult Damien story was fun. Sometimes it’s nice to see a less restrained Batman. I thought it was notable when he said that he wasn’t as good as Bruce or Dick. I guess Damien learned a little humility somewhere along the way
Yeah, you get the vibe that outside of the whole “be the son of the Bat” bravado Damian has, what he really wants is to be with his parents.
Yeah, you rarely see prose in comics (I think the closest most recent example I can think of is The Other History of the DC Universe), but Grant really pulled it off here.
That reminds me, there was another Batman issue that did this similar thing, and I think it was also by Denny O’Neil, but for the life of me I can’t remember the name of it. It was in one of those “Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told” trades that I read as a teen. Maybe @AlexanderKnox knows what I’m talking about?
Also, I loved the detail that Harley Quinn was the one who hypothesized the “super sanity” theory about Joker from Morrison’s Arkham Asylum. It’s cool to see those stories linked.
That it is. This did give me a thought that it would be fun to somehow see DamianBatman and Flashpoint Batman team up somehow. Some good, quality, ultra-violent Grandpa and Grandson time.
