The big news in this week’s comics bundle, as it was back in the 80s, is of the tragic loss of Batman’s partner in combat. Unlike that previous instance, however, this Robin’s death was not voted on by the fans, and the child in question was biological this time, rather than an adopted son as Jason Todd was. Leaving aside all questions of whether or not this will stick, or whether his mother having a Lazarus Pit doesn’t cut down the drama a bit, I’m finding myself intrigued by the fan response to Damian ceasing to be. When the character debuted a few years ago, most of the response seemed to be negative, but now that he’s rung down the curtain and joined the bleedin’ choir invisibule, a vocal portion of fandom seems to be of the belief that killing Dee-Dubya was a bad idea. For my part, while I’m not sure that Damian pining for the fjords is a great idea, it makes narrative and logical sense for things to have taken this turn, and I found myself enjoying the actual issue…
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) always figured it was just a matter of time before Santa joined the Rogues Gallery, asking: If DC had run their infamous reader dial-in poll in 2013, would you have voted to kill Damian “Robin” Wayne?
16 Comments
I didn’t vote the last time, and I probably wouldn’t have voted this time either.
No. Damian wasn’t my favorite character, but he certainly wasn’t bad enough to kill.
No, I think the character
hashad a lot of potential. Maybe next year….I wouldn’t have voted for him, no. He seemed like an interesting enough character and I was hoping to see how he developed further over time. Guess I should have known better.
I don’t think I disliked him enough to kill him. I probably would have voted to keep him around. Even though I wasn’t his biggest fan, I liked the interplay between him and Batman, him and Dick, and of course, him and Alfred.
No, I would however have voted to kill Bruce Wayne again so that Damian and Dick could team up again.
I wouldn’t have voted, though I did vote to off Jason Todd back in the day. I haven’t read a single thing that had Damien Wayne in it, so no vote for me.
No. I have really enjoyed Morrision’s run and have come to like Damian. In that same time I now have a son of my own so the touching father/son moments have really gotten to me.
I do hope he can be resurrected, because I don’t think the Batfamily can take this right now.
I would vote for him to be erased. There is no reason to have yet another Robin. There isn’t even enough time to have had four Robins since Batman has only been doing the job for five years or so.
Hell no. I still haven’t figured out why some fanboys love HitGirl in the “KickAss” series but then crap on Damian as Robin. He’s not your ordinary 12 year old kid. He’s the ultimate redemption story, even better than the first Azrael. Of course, as stated before, all the indicators are that if Damian’s “gone” that he’s not gone for good. Now ask me if Jason Todd should have ever been brought back. Again, no. That was a storyline that DC should have to “live with” (pun intended) so that there would only be three (3) “Robins” in the current continuity.
No, not that I liked him, but dead isn’t dead so why bother?
This
World’s Finest #7 was my favorite issue in it’s New 52 incarnation. It features Damien and his “sister” Helena working/not working together. Their interactions felt real. Jerk little brother with skills and knowing sister who doesn’t actually know it all, for whatever reason, work well on the page. I even cheered out loud at one point while reading it. It was the first time in a while that a comic did that to me.
I don’t want him dead, if only because I want to see where that Helena, Damien and (Father)Batman thing goes.
No. Damian was the reason I was reading the Batbooks. Once Batman, Inc is over, I won’t have any Batbooks on my pull list.
I probably would not have voted to kill Damian. That being said, I have zero investment in the current Bat family, as far as their inter-personnel relationships go because of the re-boot, which is a shame, since I thought the idea of legacy and family was the real strength of the the books previously.
The concept that Bruce was in his prime, but clearly looking at the down-side of his career, the knowledge that he had a worth successor in Dick waiting in the wings, 2 other capable proteges in Tim and Damian, and even a failed protege acting as a wild card in Jason (although I liked him dead better) had a lot of appeal for me. I also liked that his war had casualties, in Barbara’s injuries, but that she was able to move on and become an important resource for the family and the DC heroes as a whole.
I think eliminating this continuity, or rejiggering it until there were serious logic errors in the timeline was a tremendous sacrifice DC made, to attempt to appeal to new readers across the whole line.
I liked him, if he’s dead he better stay dead.