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The Hellbat armor is back and Damian might be the absolute most dangerous person to wear it.
Warning: The following contains spoilers for Superman & Robin Special #1, on sale now from DC Comics.
One of the most powerful weapons Batman ever created is back. Damian Wayne, aka Robin, wields the Hellbat armor to accompany Jonathan Kent, aka Superman, in a trek to the Fortress of Solitude in Superman & Robin Special #1 by Peter J. Tomasi, Viktog Bogdanovic, Daniel Henriques, Scott Hanna, Matt Snatorelli, Ivan Plascencia, Matt Herms, and Tom Napolitano. The power of the Hellbat armor comes with a great danger and because of that, Damian Wayne might be the worst person to wear it.
The Hellbat suit is uniquely tied to Damian. It was created to save him. The armor first appeared in Batman and Robin #3 by Peter J. Tomasi and Patrick Gleason. In that issue, Damian Wayne had been killed and his body absconded by the armies of Darkseid to Apokolips. To recover his son’s body, Batman utilized the Hellbat armor to invade Apokolips itself. Damian was returned to life through the power of a chaos shard that had been fused with the Hellbat armor.
Damian is not alone–Jonathan also has a unique connection with the armor. This won’t have been Jonathan’s first encounter with the Hellbat armor. His mother used it to defend him from the Eradicator. She even kept a glove from the armor for use in the future.
The armor was designed by Batman and created with aid from the entire Justice League roster. Superman forged the metal used in its manufacture deep in the heart of the sun. The other Leaguers added to it with their own abilities—the final product designed to survive the harshest of environments. The suit amplifies the wearer’s strength. It is composed of a nanoparticle metal that responds to voice commands. The armor even possesses a cloaking device allowing for full invisibility. Flash even assured that the armor could hold up to the Speed Force if needed. The armor is remarkably powerful, even allowing Batman to go one-on-one with Darkseid himself.
However, the suit is remarkably dangerous. The Hellbat armor draws its power from the user’s metabolism. The more it is used, the more the wearer is weakened, with death as a true risk. As Bruce says, “The Hellbat suit does have its limits—namely, mine.” This is a “for emergency use only” suit. The threat of the Hellbat suit is that the more it’s used, the more it drains its wearer. Restraint in the midst of combat is not something Damian is known for. This is not his father wearing the suit—this is the incredibly aggressive and confident Damian Wayne.
That’s the shocking part of Damian’s use—he seems to be using it only to keep pace with Jonathan, the former Superboy. Damian notes that he’s been using the suit and plans to use it more in the future. In this issue, returning to the Super-Sons team-ups, Damian didn’t have to press the suit to its limits nor did we see the drain on himself. However, the action of this issue focused on alien monsters and Nazi’s and each were easily handled by the dynamic duo. So, while the danger of the suit didn’t materialize in this issue, it doesn’t mean that Damian still isn’t at risk by wearing it.
Yet, having access to the suit, Damian is sure to press it (and himself) to its limits. As Bruce demonstrated, the suit’s drain on the wearer grows exponentially and can become rampant. Wanting to keep up with his best friend Jonathan, who is currently still seeing his powers grow up as he ages up, Damian is internally pressured to keep using the suit beyond what’s safe. The unspoken conflict happening in this issue is that Jonathan has grown at a rapid pace and is now older than Damian. Damian always felt challenged by Jonathan’s abilities. Now their age difference could make Damian feel further behind. There is likely a future moment coming where Damian will press the suit too far and risk his own life.
More likely, Damian could attempt to augment the suit and find a way around its parasitic nature, unleashing a whole new set of dangers. As Lois Lane has demonstrated, even parts of the suit are remarkably powerful on their own. Damian could find a way to integrate aspects of the suit into his overall toolkit—yet, those pieces still have the same risk of draining the wearer. Damian risks dependency on the suit and with that dependency, his own life. In a very real way, the suit functions like an enhancement drug—it works but the costs are severe and sudden. Damian is possibly the most dangerous person to be wearing the very powerful Hellbat armor.
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