What if Damian Wayne stays dead forever? What if all of the Bat King’s horses and all of the Bat King’s men cannot bring life to Damian Wayne again? Have many of us actually consider the possibility that Bruce Wayne’s son will never put on the Robin suit again? Chances are good that the answer is “few.”
What if Damian Wayne stays dead forever?
We All Know
Right now, we all know that Damian will come back somehow. The most common statement I have heard is that he will be thrown into the Lazarus Pits and come back to life. In Batman and Red Robin #19, we saw Batman try to have his son resurrected through Frankenstein’s power and technology. I have thought about the Trinity of Sin somehow bringing Damian Wayne back to life in the Trinity War crossover coming very soon. But what if he stays dead?
The Greatest Swerve in Decades
Simply put, the true death of Damian Wayne would be the greatest comic book swerve in decades. Technically, the death of a character is not the swerve. The swerve would come in the form of a character staying dead in the comics. It would be more of a slurve (baseball fans will get this reference) than a swerve, and it would be awesome. While I would not applaud the actual death of a character I have grown to care about, I would have to applaud the idea of taking the obvious away and countering what everyone believed would happen.
The Trends
I am sure you have picked up on the trend recently of Bat Family titles giving one major unexpected swerve after another. We all thought Alfred was going to die in “Death of the Family,” but we found we were wrong. We all thought Damian Wayne would be back within an issue or two, but have been proven wrong. We all thought the world would be talking about the proposal a month back in Batwoman, but we were wrong. Er…wait…that last one was not DC’s fault. You get the picture, though. DC is leading us on to expecting something and then crushing our preconceived notions with an unexpected swerve. Good job, DC. You are getting it right.
