Batman Incorporated #8 (DC)

writer: Grant Morrison
artist: Chris Burnham

Frankly, when this was released I was more surprised to learn that most people weren't reading Batman Incorporated already.  Then again, not so surprised.  Most people only care about something when it's been proven that lots of other people already do.

Anyway, this is "the" issue.  You know, the one where Morrison kills off Damian Wayne.  (Oh, wait!  SPOILER ALERT!)

The really interesting part about all of this is that there are five issues (originally four, but like Action Comics another one was added, to be released this July) to go and this event came about well before the end.  Technically, this second run of the title has been the end from the very start.  Batman Incorporated began as a series before the New 52 was launched, and ended with a Leviathan Strikes! special issue.  The second one launched last summer, months after the New 52 debuted, and because everyone was focused on Scott Snyder's Batman (because of his Detective Comics in previous continuity) apparently the last of Morrison was easy to overlook.  An issue of Batman Incorporated was delayed because of the Aurora shootings at a premiere of The Dark Knight Rises, and that was the last time anyone talked about the series before this one.

The fact that Damian has been put back into the box (as Morrison has been saying) is only appropriate, especially with this timing.  The majority of Morrison's Batman has in fact been about Batman, naturally, including the "R.I.P." arc and The Return of Bruce Wayne.  Damian really only entered the discussion with the launch of the original Batman and Robin, in which it was Dick Grayson and not Bruce Wayne who wore the cowl.  When Wayne returned, Batman Incorporated 1.0 launched, but Damian wasn't important until 2.0, when suddenly his father grew concerned about a future we'd previously seen in the landmark Batman #666.  Damian's mother is Talia Head, daughter of Ra's al Ghul, and also the Big Bad at the end of Morrison's run.  In the New 52, Damian also starred in the rebooted Batman and Robin, receiving some excellent character work from Peter J. Tomasi (working alongside artist Patrick Gleason).

This has been Morrison's plan all along, and he has been teasing it since the start of the reboot.  Perhaps ironically, the title of the issue is "The Boy Wonder Returns," possibly an ode to Frank Miller's classic, which featured the concept of Robin as a kind of afterthought (though Carrie Kelley in fact saves Batman's life in that story to earn the role, which she could very well assume again in New 52 continuity).  Anyone who was already reading the series would have seen this coming.

The issue features a reunion between Damian and Dick Grayson, another appropriate nod, this time to Morrison's own work.  When Damian meets his ultimate opponent, it's an alternate version of himself.  It was probably easy to assume his brash personality and seeming answer to everything meant he could survive any challenge...but he was still a boy, and Robin basically exists in a zero sum game, which is why there have been so many of them.  If you survive the experience, you move on to another role.  Batman doesn't have adult allies in his regular beat.  There's a reason for that.  His very nature negates the basic need.  He only needs support, but the trick is to always know when that support is needed and when you've become cannon fodder.  Batman knew that Damian should stay out of this fight.  Damian's hubris refused to believe that.

Anyway, it should be interesting to see how Batman deals with this for the remaining issues.  Morrison's whole arc was about Batman trying to convince himself that he didn't need to work alone, that he could amass all the allies he wanted.  It seemed like such an affirmative, positive development.  Turns out Morrison's own conclusions are very much different.  There may be a reason why he's always been presented the way he's been.

That's what you get if you have an idea what was going on the whole time.  I wonder what everyone else thought about the issue...