Teen Titans #89 preview, now with more Damian

[sherkahn]

DCUBlog has the preview for the Teen Titans as they have to deal with a pain in the ass.

Two behind the cut.





"CHICK" FIGHT!

The artist does impress. Damian does have his father's scowl down.

Comments

[aeolos_sakya]

I know the fight will be stopped, but I want Ravager to kick Damian's ass.
I like Damian, but I really want to see him lose for once.

[aelflar]

I KNOW. And Ravager looks like the right gal for the job :)
It just works wonderfully and I want him to have his arse handed to him. I get it he`s supposed to be the tough and gritty Robin, but....really, kid. Stop. Now. Not funny anymore.

[whitesycamore]

Yeah, I really wish everyone would stop humouring him all the damn time.

GO RAVAGER.

[benicio127]

Here's what I wish: that Dick would get off his fucking ass and sit this kid down and say, "Hey, yeah so insulting women? Not so cool. Making comments about women being tramps or commenting on women's breasts is not cool. Stop it and start respecting women."

Why the fuck has this not happened yet? I put a lot more responsibility on his mentor than on a 10-year-old kid. Who's the adult here? I mean I get that Dick is trying to do good things with this kid, but seriously not impressed with his mentoring/parenting skills when it comes to Damian. (And yet, look at all the others he's mentored and helped. And this is a guy whose best friend is an Amazon woman. And has a great respect for other strong women. Not. Cool.)

[star_of_airdrie]

That is a good point, not cool at all. With Bruce 'gone' all this time, something should have been said or done even with Alfred as back up to that 10-year-old. He needs to respect adults at least a little, no matter if you can kill them, but yes he has to respect women.

Have Kory come back for a long weekend and teach him a thing or two - although she is avoiding Earth and Dick - but you are right, she's closer and around more (but odd these days IMHO) get Donna to talk to him.

[fifthie]

Why the fuck has this not happened yet?

Because of Damien's magical Mary-Sue field.

I'm not about to start blaming Dick for Grant Morrison's crush on his own terrible character.

[alienist]

And the books Damian appears in that Morrison isn't writing?

[kagome654]

Which seem to be the books in which Damian interacts negatively with women the most. The only women I can remember Damian interacting with under Morrison's pen are Talia and Scarlet, both of whom he seemed to treat with something approaching a basic level of respect, or at least concern.

[benicio127]

Yes, but it's not just Grant who writes this character or this duo together. Gutter tramp comment about Selina? Written by Paul Dini. Dick just smiled. Comments about Steph's boobs? Written by Bryan Q. Miller and Fabian Nicieza. Dick said nothing. One time he wasn't even there, but the second time he was.

And the writers are ultimately to blame, but character-wise, why hasn't Dick said anything? He of all people I would *expect* to say, "No. Not Cool."

[sherkahn]

Because Dick knows better.

Damien responds better to action than verbal reprimands. Part of it is his mother's side of the family's arrogance, part of it is his upbringing, and mostly 10 year old attitude alpha males who NEED to establish themselves high in the social ranking. A 10 year old who was sent specifically TO Bruce to learn how to be humble.

Dick's trying to show Damien how to a better human being and still have the respect of his peers in the meta human community through action, not through verbal reprimand. The kind of respect Mr. Grayson commands.

(... wait for it... )

Because if you tell a 10 year old not to do something, they will do it again and do it worse, just to prove a point.

[benicio127]

Because if you tell a 10 year old not to do something, they will do it again and do it worse, just to prove a point

Not all 10-year-olds. Damian happens to be different because he is a spoiled brat.

Damian has responded to verbal commands by Bruce (in Batman and Son). Granted, those were verbal commands out of extreme anger. But Damian also just wants love and family.

The problem if Dick doesn't re-enforce this message that what he's doing is not cool re-enforces that that kind of talk is OK to readers - men, boys, women and girls. Well, it's OK, because he's just 10. But that boys will be boys mentality is a big part of why we see misogynistic crap when they become adults.

[sistermagpie]

I have to say, this sounds like a convenient way to let Damian keep up his hilarious misogynist act--an act that doesn't even really have that much of an explanation in his character. I'm not seeing Dick teaching Damian to respect women in any way besides the most passive--by not behaving that way towards women himself. He doesn't give Damian any orders about how to speak to women--and Damian has been shown to follow orders that Dick is serious about in the past. If Damian can learn to not use first names in the field he can learn what language is acceptable.

He doesn't talk to him about why what he's saying is unacceptable. The women usually just grumble and steam over his awesome burns while they continue working with him. Occasionally there's something like Supergirl giving him a verbal spanking like in that one book--of course, that was about not calling anybody fat--and then he goes right back to his usual insults.

But meanwhile he's pretty much got free reign to call Catwoman a whore and Donna harlot with nobody doing anything. Far from being addressed in any way it just seems normalized. Can he gain the respect of their peers through action while still being misogynist? Possibly.

Personally, I question why Damian's alpha male persona has been attached to labelling women by default as whores or inferior or things to objectify at all, tbh. I don't even think it's mostly a Morrison thing. It seems like a lot of other male writers thinking it's natural to me. Interesting that he hasn't been given a racist mentality for laughs.

[fifthie]

Damien responds better to action than verbal reprimands.

Which is why Dick and every other character should kick him in the head every time he says anything whatsoever.

[fifthie]

Gutter tramp comment about Selina? Written by Paul Dini. Dick just smiled.

Paul Dini doing a shitty job writing Dick Grayson: Not a thing I'm real surprised at.

[sistermagpie]

Dick doesn't do that because Damian's insulting of women is considered awesome. Not only awesome, but proof that he's a ladies' man. Sure Dick based on all his years of characterization would not be cool with that, but nobody's going to write Dick as taking away something people actually like.

[benicio127]

This, pretty much!

[icon_uk]

Closest in-universe explanation I can get is that when Damian badmouths women, he does so to women who are all more than capable of putting him in his place, every single one of them; Selina, Kara, Donna, Rose, et al and Dick knows this. (ANYONE, least of all a Robin, being rude to Selina is asking for so much trouble even Bruce would draw a sharp breath)

I can only guess that Dick is waiting for THEM to take some sort of action, (since if he intervenes he assumes he'll be assumed to be being over-protective to women who don't need his protection) and is just constantly surprised when they don't.

[kagome654]

His loss to Tim doesn't count?

Actually, I think Tim has beat him twice...

[aeolos_sakya]

No, it DOES count, but I would love to see happening more. He actually needs to learn to lose.

[kagome654]

I'll give you that. Considering how many times he's underestimated opponents, gotten himself captured, required rescuing, etc...you'd think he'd start to learn that assuming he's the best fighter in the room is going to get him in trouble.

I blame the writers, a smart kid like that should really be more aware by now, but the hyper aggressive kid who flies off the handle must be too much fun to write.

[shadowpsykie]

Makato-Chan! (or Lita in the American version!:)

[icon_uk]

Who appears to be trying to make the frog in her drink (Creme de Menthe? Absinthe?) dance by blowing down a straw at it...

[kagome654]

Great, I just spent a good thirty seconds staring at my icon trying to see a frog...(Oh, there it is!)

I always thought the drinks (and desserts!) the girls ordered in Sailor Moon looked so tasty, even if there were surprise!amphibians.

[icon_uk]

Sadly I can think of only one other pop-culture imbiber of frog based drinks..

And he ain't pretty

[nezchan]

If you've got a better way, I'd like to hear it!