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As Jeffrey Brown’s Batman and Robin and Howard paints a middle-grade adventure with Damian, the Wayne family’s greatest fault comes to light.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Jeffrey Brown’s Batman and Robin and Howard, on sale now from DC Comics.
Jeffrey Brown’s Batman and Robin and Howard is a middle-grade adventure that focuses on Damian Wayne as he makes the switch from Gotham Prep to Gotham Metro Academy. Bruce thinks Damian needs a change of environment to improve his attitude. But as the graphic novel unfolds, Batman gets a new sidekick who highlights the true greatest fault of the Bat-Family: their ego.
For the most part, Damian acclimates well to life with kids from a middle-class upbringing, but it underscores how the Waynes live in a different world. It begins with the arrogant Damian first trying to beat up a guy, who’s simply trying to get into his car after he and his wife are locked out. Batman chides Robin, urging patience, observation and deduction, but Robin brushes it off. He says that Bruce is rich so he’d pay for any damages incurred, setting the tone of the story for the Dynamic Duo.
This incident is what sparks the school switch, but we soon learn the apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree. Bruce is arrogant as well, which Howard, a kid who’s initially Damian’s rival on the school football team, picks up. While Damian and Howard compete to be the teacher’s pet, Howard smartly points to his parents out Bruce is narcissistic too, so maybe Damian learned it at home.
When Howard’s parents mention the charity work he’s done with WayneCorp, Howard points out that, if the act of kindness came from the heart, he wouldn’t necessarily need a children’s wing named after him at the hospital. The book later doubles down on Damian’s attitude when Damian gets Wayne-sponsored uniforms, despite it being against school regulations. Corporate backing automatically rules them out the tournament so they’ll lose before even kicking a ball. Not to mention, red isn’t even their school color, but Damian’s as selfish as can be. He’s a brat who throws temper tantrums, and this is his way of sticking it to Howard, fooling kids with a cool uniform despite the cost.
Howard later learns Damian doesn’t even tip at a pizza parlor Bruce owns, and the waiter is clearly disillusioned with how the Waynes view them. As jealous as Howard is, these faults about the Waynes have been seen in the mainstream DC books too. Bruce doesn’t care for the little things, which is why even Jason Todd called him out recently on how the elite don’t help the less advantaged parts of Gotham. And here, Damian is like-minded as he chides the school’s lack of proper tech, the food and looks down on the kids. He’s not a team player, which Bruce does try to instill in him, but he’s no example of humility either.
The fact Damian calls his old coach for advice on the uniforms, not knowing he’s being sabotaged, or that Bruce doesn’t take time to really sit with him and work out why he’s bullying others or being a ball-hog on the team sums up the problems with them both. They’re caught up in being leaders in their own world but they’re too disconnected to relate to or properly bond with others beneath them, which luckily changes as Howard enters their life and shows Damian what it’s like to be normal.
He helps Damian find a missing Batman, who’s trapped at Damian’s old school, they realize they need to come down a notch and live amongst everyone else for a while. Howard ends up being a blessing in disguise, which Alfred is thankful for as not even he could impart these values as Bruce and Damian were immersed in that self-absorbed lifestyle of the rich and famous.
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