Preview pages from Batman Beyond #7

"most of all Damian your grandson, I wish he could have known you" WTF?

also LOL at "for a while Duke", see anyone not named Snyder knows the truth.

Wait, wait, I thought the captions were Bruce's thoughts, why does he all of a sudden say "...Damian your grandson..."?

I'm pretty sure this isn't referring to Damian having a kid. If you read it again Bruce is basically telling this to the portrait of his parents and Damian is their grandson. It never says Damian has a son or a kid in general.

Oh, smacks myself, makes sense. This arc is about the LOA/Ra's so I thought maybe Damian's kids had decided to follow the al Ghul legacy or something. Still the narration puts more emphasis on Damian compared to the others so I think there's something going on here.

well yeah i just figured because he is actually Bruce's blood son, his relative, he would have wanted them to meet him.

hes already shown he would go to hell to do anything for damian, beat up people minding their own business, dragged Jason back and brought up old traumatizing memories to help him get damian back, faught the J.L.

I think even though Damian may not be his favorite personality wise, he will just always favor him just a bit more than dick, but then again the loss of Tim Drove him a bit more mad as well. The one case he could never solve, any mention of his name sent him in a fit of rage.

Yeah I think that he is just referring to the fact that Damian (the grandson of Thomas and Martha) would have a better relationship with Bruce if they were there. Now since this is about LOA, maybe Damian is Ra's Al ghul and that's why he has some more focus.

They gave Tims first costume to Jason? i guess they didnt want to draw dick and jason wearing the same costume.

Damian feels like the kind of character they'd give a daughter to.

That's not Tim's first costume (The "R" is less stylized, matching Dick's, the cape is pure yellow on both sides, and the belt appears to be black and yellow). Besides the long pants, it's a dead ringer for the one Dick's wearing. They then changed Jason's hair in the same way they usually do to differentiate him from Dick Grayson.

Well in my future Batman continuity, Damian become a man whore like his dad so I guess it's possible.

On a related note, what is Damian doing in Batman Beyond? Is the comic not following the BTAS canon? If so, I don't really agree with it. Beyond shouldn't be a future version of the mainline DCU because that creates a lot of problems least of which is why didn't Damian just become Batman? Damian and Terry don't really work when they both exist.

@nathaniel_christopher: Ah, good point.

@rdclip: Who knows? Why didnt i become an astronaut or an space cowboy or a mad scientist or the best at X sport? Damian is a child, he is not old enough to understand what being a hero even means, he just does it because he has been trained to do and thinks its cool. he is bound to get disillusioned with all of it eventually.

@Soulaf: Just like Dick Grayson and all the other heroes that started off as kids got disillusioned?

I just don't like the idea of Damian being in the Batman Beyond universe. Since he isn't and probably never was Batman, they either killed him off or they turned him evil. The former is whatever, I guess it's fine, but not very interesting. The later kind of betrays the character in that turning his back on the darkness is one of the cores of his character. Whatever the case, Damian just shouldn't exist in the beyond timeline.

thats not Tims first costume

@rdclip Beyond shouldn't be a future version of the mainline DCU because that creates a lot of problems

You and I are agreed upon this. However, the current version of Batman Beyond most certainly does stem from the modern DC timeline. It doing so was a plot point in Future's End and the series afterwards has continued referencing events from it. It's basically a combination of the original animated series, the original comic book series, which continued using the Timmverse as its canon, and the current universe. Therefore, you've got characters and events from all 3 popping up. Needless to say it's something of a mess. Part of what made things continue working for the comic after the DCAU ended was that it continued to stick very closely to that timeline. The previous comic series was much better, though i'll admit that this one is picking up. As for Damian, I expect that the current arc will reveal that he's become the new head of the League of Assassins.

@rdclip: Grayson didnt, but he has an adventurous personality and was raised to be a hero. Jason got plenty disillusioned, by way of crowbar. Tim too, he even tried to quit a few times, the only reason he didnt was that people needed saving, and that was important to him, he was a responsible kid.

Damians only reason for being where he is is to become the next hokage. Theres no greater purpose, he doesnt have tragedy like bruce or dick, doesnt have the character of tim, or the misguided righteousness of Jason. He just wants to wear a black costume with a cape and brood a lot. Been i dont know how many years since the character has been introduced but im still waiting some development that would take him on a more interesting direction, but nothing so far.

Now we know why Damian is highlighted:

It's interesting, I obviously wouldn't want Damian to be evil in the main continuity but If he became evil, him becoming Ra's is the obvious choice. One thing I like is how badass he is potrayed to be, Bruce states that he is a better than the original Ra's. Not only that but he is matching Terry on an amped version of the Batman Beyond suit, this suit is not only stronger and faster than the original one, It has an AI programmed with Bruce's moves, that amps his reflexes, his pain tolerance (Basically can't feel pain while on the suit) and it takes away his inhibitions against killing. Despite that Damian is matching him. The story is a classic with Damian, It seems that he is pissed with Terry because he is a pretender of Batman.

That's...actually awesome, is that an R on his staff? awww. Gonna change the title of this topic, this is going to be very interesting.

I'm not into the Batman Beyond comics so much. I heard they brought back the Joker and Ra's, a few issues after the Return of the Joker story, but I don't know if they did anything with those villains--looks like they did with Ra's. I kind of don't like that they are reinventing a lot of the characters in the new 52. I get that they're making them for a new generation, but it's kind of like when your favorite movie or soap opera gets a new actor or changes the personality of a beloved character. That benevolent hero is now a ruthless anti-hero, or the lovable scoundrel neer-do-well is now a maniacal maniac that not even a mother could love. It's just disappointing. It doesn't matter how many times people say, "but that's what they originally intended to do..." It's like losing that character entirely.

It would be cool if they brought back Duela Dent, though. The comics make her look pretty interesting.

There is a lot of "brother vs. brother" in this series, though, it appears. Terry faces off against Tim Drake as the Joker and now Damian as Ra's? What next? Do Jason Todd and Dick Greyson make appearances as villains?