A new era of movies with DC superheroes is on the way, and James Gunn and Peter Safran are tasked with bringing fresh stories to a mainstream audience hungry for more quality stories. It looks like things are off to a hot start with Batman: The Brave and the Bold after Gunn announced that Damian Wayne will be the Robin for this upcoming movie. That news has me unbelievably excited, and the fans who know the character don't need to be told why.
For those unfamiliar, one could make the case that Damian Wayne is the most exciting character to have been introduced to the Batman franchise since Harley Quinn. Let's dive into how Damian opens up the story of Batman: The Brave and the Bold, and how this could give us the greatest Robin movie in the Batman franchise yet.
Damian Wayne Opens Up An Unexplored Storyline Of Batman In Movies
Batman has had many outings in cinema, so it's hard at this point to throw something at audiences that they haven't seen. We've seen his parents murdered numerous times leaving the theater, many iterations of The Joker and even Bat Nipples. Frankly, it's a wonder we've made it this long without an appearance from Damian Wayne, especially considering he's been around for quite a while.
For the uninitiated, Damian Wayne first appeared in DC Comics in 2006 when he was introduced as the genetically-perfected and lab-grown son of Talia al Ghul. Damian is the biological son of the Caped Crusader and was molded in his most formidable years within the League of Assassins. As one can guess, that made him a little different than most kids and a bit of a problem to deal with.
You take Damian's violent and misguided tendencies and pair it with a superhero who was never really equipped with the skills to be a father? It's a pretty wild combination. And yet, we've gotten all of these great Batman stories over the years, and we're only just now getting a theatrical story in which Batman is forced into fatherhood by Talia al Ghul?
To walk that back further, we haven't really had a mainstream movie where Batman has had to play the father to a Robin. The only movie that truly touches on that, albeit in a joking way, is The LEGO Batman Movie, and while there were some mistakes, he got it together in the end.
Damian Wayne's Existence Likely Means Other Past Robins Are Also Around
If Damian Wayne is the Robin in a Batman story, then it's a given that a bulk of the Bat-Family has matured and grown by this point. While Batman: The Brave And The Bold hasn't given us anything to expect in terms of content, this is something that's a common theme in DC stories.
So while the story may be about Batman and Robin, there's a good chance we could see Dick Grayson's Nightwing factor into the narrative as well. In fact, it seems like Dick is often incorporated into these stories as a sounding board for Damian, considering their shared experience of being raised by Batman. The same is true for Tim Drake and even the formerly dead Jason Todd. Plus, Damian even teamed up with Dick in the comics for a period when the latter had assumed the Batman mantle.
The only thing that excites me about seeing Robin back in a Batman movie is the idea of seeing multiple Robins past and present in a Batman movie. Again, there's a chance I'm putting the wagon before the horse in assuming Batman: The Brave And The Bold will maintain the status quo of DC Comic stories in this new era. Given James Gunn's past work though, as well as his sense for knowing what fans want, I would be shocked if Damian was the only "Robin" that appeared in this movie. He shouldn't be, as the Robins are all pretty great.
Damian Is The Most Combat-Ready Robin We Could Get
Something that makes the idea of Robin appearing in a Batman movie worrisome to some is that The Boy Wonder is often used as fodder to threaten Batman. Inevitably, Robin is roped into a trap and captured, and the next thing the audience knows, he's dangling over a vat of acid or on the receiving end of a tire iron. There have been a number of Robins over the years for a reason. It's not an easy job, and more often than not, it's a deadly one.
While his upbringing might be questionable by societal standards, one thing that can be said about Damian Wayne is that he's the most combat-ready of the Robins. He's more than capable of taking down targets twice his size, and anyone looking to underestimate his abilities due to his age is in for a world of hurt.
That's not to say that he's indestructible, but I would say that Batman doesn't need to worry quite as much about Damian when talking about going up against the general threats of Gotham City. It would take some doing to bring him down, and a villain would need more than some low-level thugs to bring him in.
Now there are certainly many other areas in which Batman will have his wars with Damian. Mainly, he's stubborn and misguided, and when they first met, Damian and Bruce didn't share the same morale views on justice. Damian murdered and decapitated the villain Spook in an effort to prove to his father he'd be the superior Robin to Tim Drake. Suffice to say that Batman wasn't too impressed by his son's efforts, and that's really just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to disagreements they've had in their history.
All of this to say I have high hopes for Damian Wayne when he makes his big debut in Batman: The Brave and the Bold. His inclusion alone opens up the story for the upcoming DC movie in so many interesting ways that haven't been seen in a Batman movie. It's not often a franchise can have completely untouched territory to approach this deep into its run, so let's be grateful this bit of Batman's history hasn't been delved into until now.
Batman: The Brave and the Bold is in development over at DC, in addition to some other big movies. Keep with CinemaBlend in the meantime for more updates as they go out, and maybe browse our list of Batman movies in order if you're planning to revisit all the previous movies made about the Caped Crusader.
