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Robins #3 revealed that the most twisted of Batman’s sidekicks planned to use the Dark Knight’s most ruthless trick against one of his allies.
WARNING: The following article contains spoilers from Robins #3, on sale now from DC Comics.
During a fight with the Junior Supercriminals in Robins #3 (by Tim Seeley, Baldemar Rivas, Romulo Fajardo Jr., and Steve Wands), one of the villains used the line “This is going to hurt you a lot more than it hurts me” against Red Hood. This is something the Joker said to Jason Todd before he killed him in the classic “A Death in the Family” story, a line that would undoubtedly bring up painful memories for the former Robin.
It was at that point that the current Robin, Damian Wayne, admitted he had read about that and intended to use that line against Jason to throw him off his game should the two ever come to blows. The offhanded comment, while completely in line with Damian’s character, shows just how similar he is to his father, who famously developed similar contingency plans to use against the Justice League.
It’s not surprising that it is Damian who would study up on his allies’ most traumatizing moments just to find a weakness, but it also shows that his upbringing with the League of Assassins has not entirely left him. At the same time, it also paints a grim picture about how similar Damian is to his father. Batman has a long history of making plans to take down his allies should they ever go rogue, but now Damian seems to be picking up on that legacy. Granted, he’s started fights with the former Boy Wonders before, but usually those were poorly thought out provocations. This is a predetermined effort to learn their weaknesses and exploit them to gain an advantage.
It’s a disturbing legacy to see getting passed down to a Robin. The interesting thing though, is that Batman has tried to teach his first Robin this lesson before. It did not take with Dick Grayson, but with Bruce’s own biological child the lesson seems to have stuck.
This also brings up the unnerving possibility that Damian has prepared contingencies for each of the other Robins. It’s not in his nature to solely focus on one potential enemy, he’s too calculating and thorough for that. Damian would most likely have set up other acts of psychological warfare he could wage against his predecessors should it ever come down to a fight. There are plenty of dark moments from each of their pasts that could easily make them lose focus if Damian pushed the right buttons.
Then there is the most disturbing thing to consider. Batman has extensively detailed files on each of his Robins, colored by his perspective, but no less true in their own way. If father and son are anything alike, then it’s possible that Damian wasn’t the first person to have the idea to use the Robins’ pasts against them. Batman may have kept those files not only to review how effective they are as crimefighters, but also to formulate contingencies should they ever go rogue, something that has happened in the past and something that is happening right now.
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