When Damian Wayne was first introduced, it was to a very mixed reception from fans. Now, Damian has been around long enough that he’s become just as much a Robin as his older brothers, characters like Dick Grayson. In fact, shortly after Damian’s introduction and subsequent arrival in Batman’s life, his father, Bruce Wayne, passed away. After that, Dick Grayson became Batman, and Damian was his Robin.
During this time, the two of them really clicked; however, when Bruce Wayne returned from the dead and took over as Batman once more, Damian bristled at working as Robin to his father’s Batman. Afterwards, Damian had a hard time working as Robin, fighting against his own upbringing and inherent desires. Over time, there have been multiple instances where Damian crossed the line and simply went too far.
10 Joined The League Of Assassins As A Child
When Talia al Ghul, the daughter of Batman villain Ra’s al Ghul, briefly fell in love with Bruce Wayne, she conceived Damian. Though Bruce didn’t know about Damian’s existence, his son was just as skilled as his father and his mother, and arguably even moreso. Talia made sure that Damian was ultra-powerful, aging him up rapidly and training him all the while.
Before he even reached the age of five — which, for him, is also kind of the age of ten — he was an incredibly skilled assassin. In fact, he was so good at killing that he was even a respected member of the League of Assassins, before he was even an adult.
9 He Has Little Value For Human Life
One of the biggest issues Bruce Wayne has with trying to raise his son, Damian, after his son breaks off from Talia al Ghul, is that Damian’s morals are all out of whack. Raised as an assassin, Damian sees absolutely nothing wrong with killing; he’s been completely desensitized and sees it as his responsibility to take lives when he works. This is, of course, the antithesis of Batman’s morals, as he believes he can never kill anyone, even someone as maddening as the Joker.
In Batman and Robin Vol. 2 #1, by Peter Tomasi and Patrick Gleason, Bruce takes Damian out as Robin, and Robin almost lets a vehicle carrying irradiated fuel explode because he doesn’t care for the men they’re fighting. Bruce has to lecture him on the value of human life and the importance of control for a figure like Robin; this is important, as Robin wants to do things like beheading the Spook, seen above.
8 Left Bruce To Work With Nobody
Because Damian is bristling, fighting against Bruce rather than working with him, he starts to think that it would be better to work with someone else. Damian doesn’t think Bruce fully understands him. When the two of them are targeted and kidnapped by the supervillain Nobody, also known as Morgan Ducard, an assassin who wants to show Bruce Wayne how ineffective his rule about not killing anyone is.
Damian, as it turns out, agrees with him; Nobody appeals to Damian’s darker impulses and his assassin side, and Damian sees no reason not to join him. In a fit of rage, Damian leaves Bruce to instead kill people for Nobody in Batman and Robin Vol. 2 #4, also by Peter Tomasi and Patrick Gleason.
7 Damian Ultimately Killed Nobody
Nobody’s intent is to prove to Bruce Wayne that his no-kill rule is foolish, and that Bruce Wayne ultimately needs to know — and, more importantly, Batman needs to know — that not killing people is the wrong decision. However, Bruce Wayne also realizes he needs to save Damian; in the process of doing so, he and Nobody fight, and he nearly beats Nobody to death.
It’s only the fact that Damian is watching him that stops Bruce from killing Nobody, but this isn’t enough for Damian. Breaking his father’s no-kill rule once again, Damian believes Nobody when he says he’ll come back and kill their family and friends, and he kills Nobody — in the way Nobody taught him to kill. Bruce is, of course, distraught, but he doesn’t lash out at Damian this time, instead reaching out to him in Batman and Robin Vol. 2 #4.
6 Faking His Own Death
Eventually, Batman realized he would inevitably need to fight Talia al Ghul, Damian Wayne’s mother. Whether she’s Damian’s mother or not — and whether Bruce loved her or not — and both are true — she is still a supervillain. Talia al Ghul is a dangerous figure, and she ultimately needs to be stopped. It’s while Damian and Bruce are seeking Talia that Damian is killed — or so it seems.
In Batman Incorporated Vol. 2 #3, by Grant Morrison and Chris Burnham, it’s revealed that Damian had to fake his own death to avoid the bounty put on his head by Leviathan. However, by obeying this decision and going into hiding, he’s putting Bruce in danger, leaving Batman vulnerable to attack.
5 Teaming Up With Jason Todd
In the end, it wasn’t bad enough for Damian Wayne that he had already caused a whole lot of trouble, and faked his own death, and left Batman vulnerable. On top of all of that, Damian decided to still go out and try to fight anyways. If he had already committed to faking his death, this is exactly the wrong call to make. Damian, of course, still knows he needs to avoid the bounty on him, so he uses a different name: Redbird, which is far too close to Robin to not be obvious. Jason Todd even teams up with his something-of-a-younger brother, using the name Wingman — also obviously a Robin persona.
In this thread in the aforementioned Batman Incorporated Vol. 2 #3, the two of them work together to take down the League of Assassins, directly causing even more trouble, even as they solve some other problems.
4 Damian Almost Caused A Plague
Issue number 5 of Batman Incorporated Vol. 2, also by Grant Morrison and Chris Burnham, opens with Talia al Ghul demanding that Damian Wayne leave Bruce Wayne and accompany her instead, and Bruce agrees with her, betraying Damian completely. However, when prompted, Bruce tells Damian that this is because he had a prophecy while dying that, if Damian didn’t retire from being Robin, this would eventually lead to a plague.
That plague would inevitably force the President’s hand, resulting in the nuclear destruction of Gotham. Despite this terrifying vision, two issues later, in Batman Incorporated Vol. 2 #7, Damian decides he can no longer stay at home, and breaks the rules by going out when it could end up causing countless lives.
3 Surveilling Superboy
Much like his father, Damian Wayne doesn’t have a lot of boundaries when it comes to what he thinks is the right thing to do. Like Bruce Wayne having surveillance on all of Gotham’s personal devices, like he did in the movie The Dark Knight, Damian Wayne has surveillance on certain people in the DC Comics Universe. One of the people he keeps a close eye on is Jonathan Samuel Kent, or Jon Kent, the son of Superman (or Clark Kent) and Lois Lane.
Damian thinks someone needs to be watching Jon, so he keeps Superboy under surveillance and even runs tests on him. Eventually, in Superman Vol. 3 #8, by Keith Giffen and Dan Jurgens, their fathers need to get involved.
2 Fighting With Jon
Even after Damian Wayne is caught spying on Jon Kent, he doubles down and insists it was the right thing to do. Damian can be kind of a smug and snide kid, so Jon doesn’t get along very well with him, arguing with him even when Superman and Batman are present. After their fathers send them away, Robin and Superboy get into yet another fight, prompting their fathers to realize the two boys need to learn how to work together.
Though they fail almost every single challenge Superman and Batman place before them, they ultimately team up when its their fathers that need rescuing. It’s revealed that this, too, was just a trick, but the two boys are now bonded. Alfred, at this point in Superman Vol. 4 #11, by Peter Tomasi and Patrick Gleason, calls them the “Super Sons,” a name that would stick.
1 Endangering People As One Of The Super Sons
The Super Sons, Damian Wayne and Jon Kent, the sons of Batman and Superman, ultimately want to do the right thing, as they are the children of two of the most important and popular superheroes. However, when it comes time for the two of them to act, it seems that their fathers are holding them back. They decide to go against their fathers’ wishes in Super Sons #4 by Peter Tomasi and Jorge Jiménez, trying to sneak out to fight crime.
The boys end up caught by Alfred and Lois, and end up punished by Superman and Batman. When Jon runs away to Gotham, however, in Super Sons #5, by Peter Tomasi and Alisson Borges, this time, he and Damian get in another fight about things, prompting their fathers to realize it’s for the best that these boys be allowed to continue fighting together.