Damian Wayne
Damian Wayne is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, commonly in association with Batman. He was created by Grant Morrison and Andy Kubert. Damian Wayne is the biological son of Bruce Wayne/Batman. His mother is Batman's love interest Talia, daughter of Batman's adversary Ra's al Ghul, who wants Bruce Wayne to sire his future lineage. Bruce and Talia were engaged, but she calls off their marriage once she falls pregnant and tells Bruce she miscarried, keeping Damian's existence hidden until Batman #656. Damian was intended to kill and replace Batman and serve as a host body for Ra's al Ghul, which would unify the Wayne and al Ghul factions. Damian is Bruce's youngest child and only biological one, with Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake, and Cassandra Cain as his adopted siblings.
A prototype of the character originally appeared as an unnamed infant in the 1987 story Batman: Son of the Demon, which at the time was not considered canon. Following this, various alternate universe stories dealt with the character's life, giving him various names. In 2006, the character was reinterpreted as Damian Wayne by Grant Morrison, and introduced into the main continuity in Batman #655, the first issue of the "Batman and Son" story arc. Damian Wayne is the fifth character to assume the role of Robin, Batman's vigilante partner.
Damian, as a preadolescent, was left by his mother in the care of his father, who had been unaware of his existence. He is violent, self-important, and was trained by the League of Assassins, learning to kill at a young age which troubles his relationship with his father who refuses to kill. However, the Dark Knight does care for his lost progeny. After the events of Batman R.I.P. and Batman: Battle for the Cowl, he takes the role of Robin at ten years of age, becoming the fifth person to use the Robin persona. He first works with Dick Grayson before going to work alongside his father, upon his father's return to the role of Batman.
Damian appears in the 2023 Christmas-themed animated film, Merry Little Batman, voiced by Yonas Kibreab; and
returned in the TV series, Bat-Fam, with Kibreab reprising his role. He is also slated to make his live-action debut in the film The Brave and the Bold, produced by DC Studios.
Publication history
The child from Son of the Demon was used as a backup character in various stories before appearing as Damian Wayne.In the Elseworlds story, The Brotherhood of the Bat, a version named Tallant Wayne appears, who crusades against his grandfather Ra's al Ghul. Brotherhood of the Bat features a future in which Ra's al Ghul discovers the Batcave following Bruce Wayne's death, and outfits the League of Assassins in variant Batman costumes based on Wayne's rejected designs. Talia and Bruce's son joins the Brotherhood in his father's costume, to destroy it from within.
In another Elseworlds story, Kingdom Come by Mark Waid and Alex Ross, which functioned as a possible future to the canon of the time, this child of Batman and Talia is named Ibn al Xu'ffasch, literally "Son of the Bat", and is a member of Lex Luthor's inner circle. He works as a double agent for Batman in Luthor's organization, and thus aligned with his father instead of his maternal grandfather. In the Elliot S! Maggin novelization of Kingdom Come, al Xu'ffasch tells Bruce that his mother Talia is still alive and working as a Mother Superior in Cairo, one of Mother Teresa's successors. al Xu'ffasch reappears in Waid's 1999 sequel The Kingdom.
The Kingdom: Son of the Bat shows flashbacks that shed new insights into Ibn al Xu'ffasch's history: that he was reared by Ra's al Ghul to be the heir to his empire, that he eventually murdered his grandfather, and that he sought therapy from psychiatrist Dr. Gibson. He was eventually recruited by Rip Hunter to try to stop a madman named Gog from altering his history. He works with several other heroes of his generation – Kid Flash, the daughter of the Flash ; Nightstar; and Offspring, the son of Plastic Man.
In League of Batmen, the sequel to Brotherhood of the Bat, Tallant leads his own team of variant Batmen to combat the plague that was al Ghul's legacy. During the battle, Tallant discovers that his grandfather is the one who murdered his father and then cloned him. Ra's even sent the clone to murder his own daughter. Because of the deaths of his parents at Ra's's hands, Tallant has completed following his father's tragic path as Batman. The new Dark Knight desires justice for his parents along with trying to stop his grandfather while having to battle his father's murderous double.
Grant Morrison's story titled Batman and Son expands upon the Son of the Demon storyline as part of a remodeling of Batman's personality after the events of Infinite Crisis. In Morrison's version, the child Damian Wayne is the result of a tryst between Batman and Talia, during which the Dark Knight claims he was drugged when they were at the Tropic of Cancer, though Morrison later admitted the claim of drugging was a canonical error on their part. Since then however in issues of the Morrison penned Batman Incorporated, the drugging is reaffirmed and is once again part of Damian's origin. However, Batman and Talia's tryst was later shown as consensual in Peter J. Tomasi's Batman and Robin, thus the circumstances of Damian's conception can vary depending on the writers.
The final issue of 52 designates the Kingdom Come alternate universe as Earth-22, thus making the Ibn al Xu'ffasch version of Bruce and Talia's son part of the DC Multiverse. Justice Society of America vol. 3 #22 reveals that he would eventually marry Nightstar with whom he would have a daughter and son, and his family has inherited the Wayne Estates after Batman's death.
Fictional character biography
''Batman and Son''
Damian's origin was unknown to Batman. Damian was genetically perfected and grown in an artificial womb to be the perfect warrior. He is raised by his mother Talia al Ghul and the League of Assassins. He becomes a talented martial artist before his teenage years, at which time Talia reveals Damian's existence to Bruce Wayne and leaves him in his custody in an effort to disrupt his work.Precocious, spoiled, and violent, Damian battles Tim Drake, whom he wants to replace as Robin, and sucker punches Tim off the stuffed Tyrannosaurus in the Batcave when Tim stops fighting to help him. Damian then escapes, dons a variant Robin costume made of Jason Todd's old tunic and mask and assorted League of Assassin gear, and fights and kills the villainous Spook. Although misguided, Damian seems to genuinely want to aid Bruce's war on crime as he is Bruce's son and wants his approval. Unfortunately, because of how he was raised, Damian lacks any sort of common sense with regard to social behavior and believes that to be accepted by his father, he must kill any rivals, which included Tim Drake. This troubles his relationship with Batman, who vows never to kill. However, because of his possible paternity to Damian, Batman, on some levels, is optimistic about the chance of fatherhood.
Eventually, Batman confronts Talia to confirm Damian's true identity, but both Talia and Damian are soon caught in an explosion which they survive. However, Damian's badly injured body requires transplants of harvested organs, which his mother orders her physicians to carry out. Damian makes a full recovery.
''The Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul''
Beginning in Batman Annual #26 , Talia takes Damian to the Australian Outback, where he is tutored in the secret history of his grandfather Ra's al Ghul. Talia is unaware that White Ghost, a former servant of Ra's, plans to use him to resurrect Ra's, which would kill him in the process. Talia is able to save her son from his fate at the last minute.Ra's is still able to return, but as a rotting, undead corpse, still needing Damian to stabilize his form. Damian flees to alert Batman but is pursued by his evil grandfather. Upon entering Wayne Manor, Damian attempts to relay to Tim Drake the fact that Ra's has returned. Tim, suspicious of Damian's intentions, does not believe his story and begins a fistfight. Damian flees and encounters Alfred Pennyworth. Before he can effectively relay his news, he is attacked by Tim, who perceives Damian's attempt to help a tripping Alfred as an attack, and renews their battle. As they fight, members of the League of Assassins approach the manor with the intention of killing everyone within and bringing Damian back to Ra's alive. Damian and Tim fight side by side against Ra's and his minions. Their collaboration is hindered by their very different philosophies of battle. Damian is willing to betray Tim at any moment for his own safety. Ra's captures the two and tells Batman that he will use one of them for his own body. Batman offers his own body instead.
Ra's refuses the offer, feeling that he needs someone of a younger age. The choices are Tim or Damian. Batman offers a third alternative: the "Fountain of Essence" which contains the qualities of a Lazarus Pit. Batman and Ra's go in search of the fountain, leaving Tim, Damian, Nightwing, Alfred, and Talia to battle the Sensei. Damian leaves his mother and Tim to an unknown fate, while he goes off to be with his father. He ends up captured by Ra's and is nearly killed. Batman and the others manage to save him, and Talia takes her son and escapes.
A subsequent conversation between Tim and Alfred implies that Batman has carried out a DNA test on Damian. Alfred says Bruce intended to tell him the results when the time was right. At this, Tim realizes that Damian is indeed Bruce's son, and exclaims "The son of Satan is my brother?"