@redtool
And you shouldn't tell people what to like dude. Or assume they are more ignorant than you about his development as character, because in reality you don't really know how much people has or not read about Damian in the comics. I personally "hate" Damian Wayne and yes I have read many comics where he has "grown" (example Tomasi) and I still don't like him. Is like if you hate apple juice you just gonna hate it and it doesn’t matter how many times other people tells you how tasty it is, or how nutritious or whatever a thousand things they expose you to the stuff and reasons of their likes, if you don't like something you just don't and there is nothing "wrong" about it. No one is here telling people that likes Damian to hate him right?. But is ok that you like him, because the rest of us just can't stand him. :P
Now to answer the OP my reasons why I don't like Damian:
I don't like or enjoy overly dramatical, convoluted and kinda cliché father/son tough love nonsense stories in a Batman comic. To be clear, I know many people like the "soap opera" into their favorite characters and I get that, we all kind of want to relate to which is familiar to us but for me the Damian father/son dynamic has ruined the fun out of Batman.
First, it automatically ages the character, Bruce can't be mid 30's or late 20's. He has to be on his ealry or mid 40's to have a 10 or 13 year old son. That, if you take into account his early years and training before becoming Batman and his "adoption" of Dick Grayson.
Secondly the presence of a "blood son" has kind of diminished the presence of the "adoptive sons" in the Bat-family. Dick, Jason, Tim, Stephanie, Carrie have all been there to learn from Bruce, we all have easier time relating to them because they all have been "just kids" that happens to be taken under the wing of Batman. Some of the things about them are fantastical true, (Dick an acrobat, Jason a street kid, Tim a genius kid, etc.) but they still feel mostly human and we have easier time understanding and imagining what is like to be them. Also their backgrounds are more realistic.
The genetically enhanced baby trained to be assassin that can do amazing things since age 2 doesn’t. Many people still resent the "kid genius complex" fashion of the 90's. (example, Wesley Crusher/ Star Trek, Anakin Skywalker, etc.) What's the point of Batman being the hero and mentor if you have a kid beside him that can do everything he can do?
Thirdly, ( I know many will disagree) Batman is not really a father figure emotionally mature enough to be taken as a sort of role model to follow. Exposing Batman to fatherhood contradicts and complicates the core of his character foundation, which is the loss of his own parents. Batman can no longer "grieve" the same way he does his parents because Damian will push him to move on. It may look as a good thing, and I would agree, if Bruce were a real person. But he is not. Batman is a character motivated by tragedy. And to stay true to his character he has and most remain that, a tragedy character.
You can't simply change a fundamental element of a character and make them the same afterwards. Characters can evolve, but you can't take away the hearth of what makes them in the first place, because unlike real life people, there are emotional elements of a character that can't change without making them unrecognizable as they would no longer hold the candle of what created them in the first place. Batman is that character, we all want him to move on from his trauma, we all want him to see him happy, we all want him to have his own Lois Lane, etc. But Batman never and will ever be happy because that's the fundamental element of the character, he is and always will be a tragedy, no matter how many fans wish otherwise. If you make Romeo and Juliet find happiness at the end it would no longer have that fundamental element of their story and would not be otherwise remembered as one of the best stories of their time.
The loss of Bruce's family is in the core of his motivation to become this, dark, angry and obsessive man that seeks vengeance against that unfairness that happened to him, which inspired all those sidekicks and people he works with to fight crime. This is called "characterization" and is this psychological make-up of a character that makes them a recognizable, believable personality. You can't simply take away Bruce's motive to crimefigthing without changing it.
The compelling thing about the Bat-family is that Bruce has "adopted" this many people to fill that dark hole on his soul. There is a symbolism on the Robin figure as the "son" of Batman, just as there is a symbolism with Alfred being that surrogate father figure, but who will never be able to replace Thomas Wayne as Bruce's real father, see?. Damian takes away that symbolism and makes it literal which is one of the problems I have with Bruce having children. This is what happened in the recent Batman and Robin comics when Damian died, see how Batman reacted (he wanted to resurrect his son, why not his parents too? what about when Jason died?) I’m sorry folks but this is not Batman.
Damian Wayne was only an element to bring tension and unconformity to the readers, as may of the things Morrison has done. And while it doesn’t make Damian a bad character it doesn’t necessarily makes Batman stories better. I think Damian would have worked better as an alternate reality character, just like Helena Wayne from Earth 2, she is that happily ever after wishful desire of many of us, with Bruce married and with a family but still fighting crime. And yet, this daughter/father dynamic would not have worked out for long if you really think of Batman as a dark and tragic character.
The same thing is applied to Damian, he had stories that many people got interest in (Dick Grayson and Damian as Batman and Robin, the Dead of Robin, Robin Rises, Batman Inc. etc,) but after all of that is done, what’s left is this family thing that only adds this baggage of daddy and son issues or overly exhausted family drama a la Star Wars; which is getting tiring and it takes away Bruce's excuse from not moving on from his traumatic childhood.
Take Superman for example who's character is centered on an idealization of the guardian and protective father who looks invincible to us when we are kids. Now, that’s a character who makes sense he would have children, because Superman is already that idol father figure. As one the creators got inspired on his own father when they created Superman.
Superman with a wife, a child and a happy life feels natural to his character. But it can't be said the same about Batman.
Bruce is a Sherlock Holmes with an obsession and Joker is his Moriarty. The battle of brains, the tension, the crimes, the death and tragedy around them makes their stories transcend time. Now, imagine if Sherlock Holmes had children it would have ruined his character, as he would not had the same focus or obsession he is known for, as his impulses and almost zealot desire to solve crimes crowded out almost everything else from his life, including the possibility of warm and reciprocal relationships, just like Batman. And imagining Sherlock Holmes having children and trying to balance that cold and calculating personality would have made him a bad parent at best and a poorly written character at worst. The same with Batman.
I'm sorry, but gonna have to kind of agree with Joker a little bit when he tried to murder the Bat-Family in Death of the Family. :P
"The Bat-babies are making you fat and slow Bats and is killing our relationship!"
(please forgive my English if some paragraph doesn’t make much sense)
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