Well, I already shared some of my thoughts about Tim Drake and Jason Todd, so I think now is time for my thoughts on Damian Wayne. And, oh boy, do I have a lot to say...
Damian was the second Robin I was introduced to after Dick Grayson. Being introduced to me by the DCAMU movie Son of Batman. And funnily enough the scene that cemented Damian into my mind for years since first watching it was this:
Aka the scene where 10 year old (at least I think he might be, maybe younger, idk) Damian Wayne stays behind a curtain while his parents flirt...
And then goes to Batman and says:
And I found him hilarious!!
And despite the many problems I have with these movies (especially with how dirty they did my boy Dick Grayson), I found Damian to be quite the interesting character. I mean he has first shown in the movie as living as an assassins cult heir, and then they get attacked and he watches his granpa die. Honestly I felt kinda bad when Damian saw his grandfather die (also keep in mind that at this point I didn't know anything about comic books, so I didn't know Ra's until this movie where he is just in this scene and I really didn't remember him from the Young Justice Cartoon at the time, so ya, continuing). Like, it's a lot of things happening for a supposed introduction of the character but I think it got the main points about Damian across.
And these movies also showed that he can be a little shit, like that scene where he disrespects Starfire in the Teen Titans movie.
(As a sidenote: gotta love how Alfred sasses the shit out of Damian's league mannerisms)
And that he has such a great respect for animals, that he doesn't even address his father until Bruce salutes his dog.
Then, well, I got over the movies of the DCAMU and I also noticed that Damian was getting a lot of hate in things like comment sections and online posts. Which is fair, not everyone has to like him. But, I remember feeling at the time that it felt like a little too much, but then again I didn't know about the comics, so I think most of the dislike came from this movies skipping over the other Robins and feeling like they were the "Damian is the coolest, the movies", especially because he seemed too good at everything and they nerfed Nightwing a lot. So I can kinda get where the frustrations with how this movies presented them came from.
And then I started reading some comics...
And I remember looking at some panels of Damian's confrontation with Tim Drake and be like: how is this supposed to be a 10 year old, wtf
(Keep in mind at this point me has never read comics, so there...)
Then, to be honest I kinda abandoned this run and then started reading the Red Robin comics, so you might say that I was at that stage, that I think it's pretty common in this fandom, where you side with Tim (others might have sided with Damian though), and in my case I did so because I took an interest in the Red Robin comics and in Tim Drake as a character (that was new to me). Though that didn't mean that I suddently started to hate Damian or something. I still liked him and read sporadically some of his comics where and there, like the Batman and Robin and the Teen Titans (honestly I don't have much time for comic books so please excuse my selectivity).
And after a while, where I took a break from comics, I got interested in comics again from a random post I saw somewhere (I don't remember where, but whatever) about the new Superman comics about him and his son, Jonathan Kent. And from there I went from his origin to his introduction to Damian which finally got me to the Supersons. Where I absolutetly adored both Damian and Jon. I loved seeing them fighting and then getting to learn to work together and understand each other. I loved their dynamic of having some screaming matches, then some more bickering and then to properly working together as a duo.
But what I loved the most in this comics has getting to see Damian acting more like a kid his age. Either it would be him being excited about playing the Cheese Viking after training.
Look at him.... he is adorable!
Or just everytime he spent some nice times with Jon, like:
I really like seeing this 2 kids interact and be superheroes on wacky adventures while also getting to be kids, especially in how Jon expressed his child wonder so openelly, despite everything they go through basically everyday being way way more out of the ordinary than an helicopter. And also how it contrasts to Damian's nonchalance at this things.
And that has made even better more recently with the Supersons movie. Which came as some kind of salvation, especially after Jon was aged up in the comics.
And well, getting the overall general portrait of Damian as that he started as a kind of a spoiled brat, but that also just really had a very hard up bringing. Yes, he still was kind of an ass to a lot of people, and he also learns to be humble through a lot of storylines in the comics and through his relationships, such as with Jon Kent and Dick Grayson. Which is great.
I also understood that DC comics also kinda fucked it all up, for lack of a better word. Aka, the whole Jonathan is aged up, so bye bye Supersons. They also seem to be doing the let's humble Damian arc on repeat and he and his dad, aka Bruce Wayne, seem to always go back and forth between being on good terms and Bruce being at least a decent father to going back to fighting and painting Damian as being the "bad one" in certain situations where it feels like he shouldn't be. Like, I remember seeing a panel circulating around of Bruce saying to Damian that if he was the one there he would have prevented Alfred's death... which is so messed up to say, especially to your kid that already blames himself for his basically grandfather's death, for not saying that at this moment he also lost his maternal grandfather.
And seem to have kind of isolated Damian from the Batfamily now. Also, there is the problem of always putting Damian in the middle of his parents. As if he was to be obligated to choose between his mother and father all the time or to always be between their conflicts.
(And also there seems to be a problem with how they tend to portray Talia in the comics. Especially with her relationships with Damian and Bruce, which is not great.... but moving on.... because that is a discussion for another time. Maybe?)
All in all, Damian is a character that I like quite a lot and that I think gets a little too much hate from the fandom and, well, sometimes even from the comics. Like, I understand he is not everyone's cup of tea, his character arc about becoming more humble and learning to work with others has great, but it was become an annoyance that DC seems to keep doing it on repeat. And now they are taking away everything and everyone Damian had, for absolutly no good reason, besides for probably trying to actually make him a villain in the future, which I am not a very big fan of, to be honest.
Like, let this boy be happy and have other types of character development besides learning humility through other characters constantly beating him down or by going through the most painful experiences ever. Just give Damian a break, please. And let him be Robin in some relative peace.
