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WARNING : Spoilers forRobin # 8 !
Of all theBatman ’s sidekicks , DC Comics’Damian Wayneis undoubtedly a fan - favoriteRobin , but his lifespan has n’t always been a happy one . Bruce Wayne ’s biological sonisn’t the easiest person for other theatrical role to get along with , but Damian has a very justifiable reason for his characteristically gruff nature . Like his male parent before him , it all goes back to hard childhood trauma .
Unlike his fellow appendage of the Bat - Family , Damian was enkindle amongst a family of assassins . While these years of training readied him for the mantle of Robin quicker than any of his predecessors , that does n’t change just how gratingly his female parent ’s brutal method really touch on him . Robin # 8 by Joshua Williamson , Gleb Melkinov , and Max Dunbar cements just how dysfunctional Damian ’s past was - and how it still affects his depiction to this solar day .
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Having whittled down the Lazarus Tournament to its final two contender , this issue retrieve Damian Wayne facing off against Connor Hawke , the Word ofGreen Arrow , Oliver Queen . While Damian ab initio hold his own against the former Justice League member , it speedily becomes absolved that he ’s no match for the one - time vigilante . Hawke pleads with Damian to give in , and he severalize him that there ’s no stage in take any more of this needless abuse , only for Robin to say , “ I ’ve been taking vilification my whole life . Why intercept now ? ” Ultimately , Robin does lose the match , but this brief moment spotlight Damian ’s tumultuous past that many reader often forget .
Despite how many fans comprehend him , Damian is far from the bad terror that people may expect . He was get up in a wealthy background , but his breeding amongst Ra ’s Al Ghul ’s follower - and his mother , Talia , in particular - was as scurrilous as it was affluent thanks to the rigorously tearing preparation he underwent much from birth as theHeir to the Demon . Though the looping of Talia from Grant Morrison ’s iconicBatmanrun was a noticeably more villainous loss from premature loop , her abusive portrait towards her Logos , Damian Wayne has clearly affect the unseasoned Robin ever since he was first introduced into mainstream continuity by Morrison and Andy Kubert inBatman # 655 .
While Robin has work to overcome the trauma of his plastic age , Damian clear still has some issues he require to work through - including the metre his mother had him killed by his own oversized knockoff . Despite all this bad blood , more contemporaneous series like Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev’sCheckmatepaint Robin ’s family relationship with his female parent in a far less nonadaptive light . Even though Talia was directlyresponsible for Robin ’s last , they ’re still pretend as if they ’re as unaired as can be . Without a uniform depiction and recognition of the Damian character ’s hurt like the kind reader find in this effect , it ’ll be hard for the current Robin ’s personal ontogeny to gain any forward impulse .
Batman rescued more than one member of the Bat - Family from a difficult aliveness , but it was his own son who had it the bad . Bruce Wayne had a loving puerility ripped away from him , whileDamian Wayneactively pick out to rive himself away from his abusive yesteryear . And althoughDC Comics’Robinhas long since outgrown his mother ’s shadow , the son ofBatmanstill has a long direction to go before his endure psychic trauma is appropriately processed .
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