Batman Incorperated 8 Variant Covers Leaked

[espanolbot]

Spoilers, huge ones.

Leaked by the guy who leaked Spider-Man 700 early, which kind of makes you wonder when they'll take legal action against the guy.


Soooooo, who's saying they won't carry through on it, and who is saying they will? The solicit says that this is something that Morrison planned from the start of his Batman run, so that combined with some of the other May solicits could imply SOMETHING will happen to Damian.

And what with Jason being distinctly upwardly mobile these days, we do kind of need something to justify bringing back the display case that people kept crashing into during fights in the Bat Cave.

As demonstrated by this Shortpacked strip,


http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=43787

Comments

[silverhammerman]

I don't know about the marketing side of things, Damian is probably the Robin that could be most easily phased out just from a business perspective. Dick, Jason and Tim all have a certain degree of profile outside of comics, having appeared in cartoons, videogames, and the like, whereas Damian has pretty much been exclusive to the comics as far as I know.
Plus, I think that Damian easily has the weakest core concept of all the Robins. Dick, Jason and Tim all have that sort of simple, appealing "He's a kid just like you, and he gets to hang out with Batman!" concept, while simultaneously having other levels that they work on. With Dick Bruce was reminded of himself, with Jason he wanted to give this kid an outlet, and Tim was just a kid who really like Batman and wanted to help people. Damian on the other hand is Batman's super secret ninja son who is kind of a brat, and when he's paired with Bruce rather than Dick it lacks the subtlety and relatable quality of the other partnerships.

[icon_uk]

Damian has showed up in, of all places, the "Batman: Brave and the Bold" cartoon, for one episode perhaps, but he showed up.

The other issue is, Batman pretty much HAS to have a Robin marketing wise (and in terms of being "iconic") so who would they get in to replace him? Tim taking on the actual Robin role seems unlikely and whilst Steph would have a certain coolness as a concept, it would definitely feel like Robin not only has been, but is, a very... replaceable character?

[mrstatham]

Squire. I could see Grant doing that, somehow? Cyril's dead and Bruce has to feel guilty over that, since it was part of his initiative that led to it, and Beryl has a deliberate Robin flavour to her.

[rdfox]

But that would mean a GIRL Robin, and that wouldn't be ICONIC!

No, I'm sure they'll find some excuse to put Dick in the scaled manties again.

[mrstatham]

They should've done that anyway. It would have been stupid, granted, but at least they couldn't have been accused of deliberately making the entirety of the family a sausage-fest in general, which hasn't really done the current Batgirl any favours because it looks like blatant favouritism for Barbara.

Reset everything. Go back to just Bruce, Dick, and Barbara. Basics. That way, at least fans would know the things DC are doing aren't intentional dick moves toward certain characters but more attempts to simplify and streamline stuff. Should've been done with the entire DCU, only Johns was too selfish to reset Green Lantern.

[silverhammerman]

I don't think resetting everything would be the way to go, Dick as almost as well known as Nightwing as he is as Robin, and he's a character's actually gotten to develop, which I wouldn't want to take away. I mean, I think it would be cool to revisit his career as Robin and eventual split from Batman in a modern context, but I also flat out don't trust DC to actually allow significant character development these days. Also, I know that personally I'd just be anticipating the day the he finally becomes Nightwing again.
I think it'd be better to maybe have it so that in the "present" Dick has only recently become Nightwing, and then do a couple flashback arcs, ala Morrison's Action Comics, to show him as Robin. Depending on how they work the ages Dick would then be available as an independent teenage character and they could substitute Jason or Tim as Robin. I'm not so sure what I'd want to do about the Batgirls though, because I kind of prefer Barbara as Oracle but it would be hard to get her there without retreading the Killing Joke yet again.

[philippos42]

Eh, just have her fall down some stairs.

Yes, that really changes her backstory and themes, but that's what these simplifications do.

[halloweenjack]

Sadly, you're probably right. I'd almost rather that they don't do anything with Beryl rather than have her end up getting fridged and/or retconned away.