Batgirl #17 - fun fun fun 'til Daddy takes the Batpod away

[perletwo]

2 and 2/3 pages from Batgirl #17, plus small preview image. My love for Steph/Damian team-ups continues to grow with this issue. Batgirl and Robin are investigating a series of kidnappings of upper-middle-class children (as opposed to Damian's 'child of the super-rich' class), and begin by trailing a group of schoolkids on a field trip to the museum. One of them has to go undercover and blend while the other serves as mission runner. Guess who's which, and how well it works out?





Observing Damian's attempts to mix with the schoolchildren, Steph discovers the chink in his armor.



The kidnappers acquire their target, but not for long with this ragtag team on their necks! After, Batgirl and Robin debrief and decompress.



What indeed? ;D







Nifty, no?

Comments

[icon_uk]

You all talk as if that was a bad thing.

And the fact as diverse a crowd as we are do doesn't... hint at anything to you perhaps?

And Tony Stark is your template for healthy childhood and mature emotional state?

Phineas and Ferb is also a bad example, as it's been shown many times that their intellects are well balanced by emotionally well rounded personalities and a perfectly natural approach to play. They DO do what they do because they find it fun, and share their projects with each other and their friends.

Look at the Thaddeus and Thor episode where after unveiling their multi-level treehouse (with imported Italian marble floors) they compliment the others on the liquorice dispenser, and are quite genuine about it.

[jarodrussell]

Phineas and Ferb is also a bad example...

P&F isn't an example, it's an alternative, hence my acknowledging there wouldn't be as much snark as a Damian story.

That said, I would much prefer a story where Damian learns to be a bit less of a jerk with P&F, rather than Stephanie Brown. (Maybe a race around the world or something.) Given what we know from Batman #666, that some time in the future Damian rebels against being a hero by turning to science¹, that doesn't undermine my previously stated theory that working on the flying Batmobile might have been his way of playing around, or learning more about his father. The fact it turned into something useful doesn't negate it could have started as...not business.

There's a scene in B&R #1 or #2 where Damian is working on the flying Batmobile, which we know works because they just used it to catch that Toad guy. If you ask me, that's not Damian training to be Robin, it's Damian puttering around with his toys. The car worked, what's to fix? Why was taking the engine apart? Why was he strangely aloof-but-polite when Alfred brought him dinner? He was enjoying himself, he was relaxed. That's a scene right out of Fantastic Four with Reed messing with the Fantasticar.

You can make wisecracks about Tony Stark's dysfunctional childhood all you like, but his childhood isn't that much different than Damian's: grew up super-rich and super-smart with overbearing parents and escaped from it all by working on machines.

*shrugs*

If I haven't explained myself by now, I don't think I'll be able to. What I do know is, I've seen this same kind of thing happen to my other favorite characters...Stargirl, Impulse, Oracle, and Iron Man...and whenever writers start having them do silly "humanizing" stuff like the bouncy castle, it always ends with their hyper-competence being dulled down so readers can relate to them better. I don't want to see Damian transformed from a quirky curmudgeon who's fun to read into a well-rounded character people like.

---

1. At least that's what I inferred from a panel that said, "He rebelled," while showing Damian with a chemistry set.

[icon_uk]

Damian was working with the engine because the design HADN'T worked until he, sic, improved on his father's designs. He was most likely checking his own handiwork for flaws

And even then, even if it was "fun" for him, it wasn't "play" and it certainly wasn't a socialising experience.

Comparing Damian and Tony only proves my point, Tony is in many ways a damaged individual, a recovering alcoholic, with more than one nervous breakdown to his name, unsuccesful businesses, and a string of massively unsuccessful relationships behind him and many, many friendships soured or destroyed by his actions. That's not a template to follow to be anything like a well rounded human being.