Warning!
If you don’t want to know the events coming in Batman Incorporated #8 you may NOT want to read this post!
Here it comes:
How does this week’s shocker in Batman Incorporated #8 affect the Batman family of books?
Peter Tomasi talked exclusively with Comic Book Resources about the future of Batman and Robin: and his reaction upon learning Grant Morrison’s plan for a major character:
“Actually, I knew Damian was going to die for quite a while, but my first reaction truthfully was, “Damn, he’s such an interesting character and one I love writing that I hope there’s some way that Grant, over the course of time, will change his mind.” As you’ll see in “Batman, Incorporated” #8, it was not to be.
Not to put down any other Damian stories that have occurred since the launch of the New 52, but I have to say, that aside from “Batman, Inc.” there were really no other meaningful stories being told with Damian except in the “Batman and Robin” book. If you wanted a book where the emotional relationship between Batman and Robin was front and center, our book was the only place you could get it. And in regard to being about shorter adventures rather than long term plotlines, I’d have to argue that in the end, our story had the longest throughline of all, stretching 18 issues from the get-go of the New 52. As I’ve said from the start in early interviews, our “A” story was always Bruce and Damian and the “B” story was the various action/villain plotlines — it was these two characters emotional arc/journey that I was zeroed in on (along with Alfred). So, since Pat and I knew from the start that Damian was indeed going to die, we took it as our responsibility to put as much emotional meat on the bones between father and son so that Damian’s death would have as much of an emotional wallop as possible, and it did indeed fuel the next set of stories coming up.”
I approached it knowing that I had an ending to work towards, and as I mentioned earlier, it gave me the freedom to keep our story centered on the hearts and minds of Bruce and Damian and not worry as much about the villain of the month angle. As long as we focused on that, I felt we were being true to our mission statement (which everyone can read in the back pages of the first collected volume “Batman and Robin: Born To Kill”). Now, as a writer, I’d be lying through my teeth if I said I didn’t care that one of our main characters was getting killed off in another series — if Damian had to die, I would have loved to craft that story. But Damian was Grant’s baby, so he deserved, and of course earned, the right to bring his character to the fated doomsday he’d been working on for so many years.
The first story I knew I had to tell after Damian’s death would be Bruce’s reaction in Batman and Robin #18. It’s an entirely silent issue; no text, no sound effects, storytelling at its purest form — show don’t tell — and, holy crap, does Patrick Gleason show why, in my humble opinion, he might be one of the best Batman artists ever. He knocks it out of the park.
I think issues #17 and 18 of “Batman and Robin” show just how much Bruce needed Damian and Damian needed Bruce, and the reverberations of Damian’s murder don’t stop there. There are five stages of grief, and we intend to explore it in a very visceral way.The title of the series for the next several issues will change, the first being “Batman And Red Robin,” the second being “Batman And Red Hood.”
Tomasi was Morrison’s editor when the Scottish scribe was on the Batman book and he brought in Damian.
By Editor
Op/Ed Note:
While Scott Snyder’s Batman and Morrison’s Batman Inc received more hype and media attention because of the Joker’s comeback and teasers for the upcoming death, I have to recommend the entire Peter Tomasi/Patrick Gleason run of Batman and Robin. It’s a great book and I look forward to seeing the gripping storyline this creative team will deliver in the aftermath of Damian’s demise.