A panel from 2007's Batman #666 has gone viral for a prescient description of news events that mirror the current state of the world.The panel, featuring dialogue by Grant Morrison and art by Andy Kubert, was shared on Twitter by Tim Seeley, the co-writer on DC's Grayson and creator of Image Comics' Hack/Slash. It shows an adult Damian Wayne listening to news broadcasts describing quarantine restrictions, record-breaking temperatures, climate change and an epidemic that has claimed more than 18 million lives.Seeley wrote that Batman #666 was intended to take place 15 years in the future of the then-current DC Universe, and Morrison's predictions seem likely to play out by 2022.
Batman #666, part of Grant Morrison's seven-year run on the Batman comic line, featured the story "Batman in Bethlehem." Intended to depict a dark possible future of Gotham City where Bruce Wayne perished in the line of duty, the story starred Damian as Batman. Unlike his father, Damian had supernatural power and could regularly withstand gunfire and other copious amounts of damage. Over the course of the issue, Damian revealed that he had brokered a deal with the devil, selling his soul for the power to keep Gotham safe.
This version of Damian had a shaved head, a cat named Alfred, tension with Gotham Police Commissioner Barbara Gordon and a willingness to kill when necessary, though he acknowledged that he was breaking a promise he had made to his father whenever he did so.
Batman #666's version of Damian received an origin story in the Damian: Son of Batman mini-series of 2013, which was written and illustrated by Andy Kubert. More recently, he appeared in DC's Nuclear Winter Special, a holiday anthology released in 2018.
Source: Twitter