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

[batman]

This. I've been saying for a while (since the issue in Batgirl) that Damian's comments to women have been grossly misogynist rather than cute, funny or flirtatious. Dick is present or within earpiece-shot of almost everything that Damian says to female superheroes, and the fact that there hasn't been a scene where Dick comments to Damian that he's out of line (given that Dick knows that Damian respects him, otherwise his whole defusing of the Damian-bomb is just stupid) reflects badly on Dick too.

[sistermagpie]

It is a total tacit acceptance--really it comes from everyone but Dick is the worst since he's the person acknowledged as keeping Damian in line. It seens like Dick doesn't see this as any sort of priority or a special problem in itself--which is frankly weird. And completely OOC on Dick's part--and stupid. He's supposed to be making him fit to work with others but he doesn't think it's an issue that he considers half the superhero population to be beneath him because they're women? Isn't that the type of thing Dick has a history of nipping in the bud immediately? That would have been a basic starting point for him. But it isn't because clearly in a meta-sense it's considered a plus for the character. They know enough to not have Dick join in with him, but he has to just stand there helpless and not really interfere so we can laugh at Damian and the woman who just got called a harlot.

[batman]

The worst is that the only people who pick Damian up on it are ... well, the women he openly despises. He doesn't care if Kara tells him off for calling Steph fat, because he doesn't care about Kara or Steph's opinions of him. If Dick said something then he could possibly reconsider his behaviour (after grousing that he doesn't listen to Dick omfg >E), but that would mean highlighting that his behaviour is not cute or misplaced but instead just really offensive Damian knows very well that what he is saying to Catwoman, Donna Troy and Stephanie Brown is wrong. He doesn't care.

What's always confused me is that it's very rare for someone to bring Dick to task for letting the conduct go on. I remember Babs commenting that Damian's out of line early in the Batgirl run and I don't know if it's happened elsewhere. Dick does just let things go when it comes to Damian, presumably under the idea of "well he's still learning how to be a good citizen", and that's offensive. Firstly, it's insulting to Damian because it means that Dick is assuming that he is less aware than he is (and Damian is completely aware that what he says is offensive). Secondly, and most importantly, it is Dick prioritising Damian's comfort (over not being told off for his conduct) over the myriad of female superheroes who deserve to be treated as humans rather than objects.

It's why I tend to grit my teeth when I see Damian in a book now; I know that a bunch of sexist commentary is going to come through, and the metatext of the book is going to tell me that it's entirely reasonable.

[sistermagpie]

Right, it's like it's established that Damian doesn't listen to women-why would he when the whole thing he's saying to them is that he's better than they are? None of these women should really have to say anything to him because--hello? Batman?

But the women don't even get to really seriously talk about it either. It's like someone said to me about it recently--laugh at an angry woman and the world laughs with you. It's just played for laughs with the woman either giving an annoyed eyebrow or flailing and angry. Just as Dick isn't doing what he should (and imo would) be doing as Batman, which is stopping everything at the first comment and not letting him out until he learns his lesson, the women don't get many chances to seriously say to Dick that this is unacceptable. Because everyone in the universe--Dick, Damian, the women--have to be okay enough with it that it continues.

It all combines to give approval of it. If they had Dick actually come out against it seriously they'd be faced with either making Dick look ineffectual by Damian going on as usual or Damian having to knock it off, which they don't want. Though even having Damian keep it up--but only out of Dick's earshot--would show some understanding that it's not cute.

But of course they don't have to do any of this because the whole "Damian insults women" seems to be gold for them. It's the only reason I can see for the way they keep recreating that exact thing, teaming him up with Stephanie more than once and then Kara etc.

[batman]

His conduct to Kara, to me, is the worst of all. He calls her "Alien" for the entire issue, which on the face of it is pretty gross.

Then you remember that Kara had been recently hunted down by the US military for simply being a Kryptonian, her best friend just got immolated and she just saw everyone she loved on New Krypton die. It'd be stretching it for Damian to not be aware of the events, so Damian calling her "Alien" consistently rather than her name for an entire issue is deliberately and maliciously cruel.

Does he demonstrate the same conduct to male superheroes? I've seen him be dismissive, but I don't see his comments to male superheroes take on the ugly character that his comments to female superheroes do.

I genuinely don't see why we're meant to find him entertaining. I tend to drop books he's in. Teen Titans is now off my pull for good until he's off it, Red Robin is next on my axing list and the only reason I keep Supergirl and Batgirl on my pull is that Kara and Steph deserve better.

[icon_uk]

Male characters he can be very rude to or ignores (cf the Guardian, Dick himself) or attacks Tim (repeatedly). Female characters he is more likely to just be rude to.