Batman and Robin #38

Issue Details

Synopsis

SUPERPOWER,  PART ONE: FLY ROBIN FLY Damian Wayne is full of energy and ready to go while his father sleeps. To Bruce's annoyance, the boy wakes him and insists that it's time to go on patrol. Woozily, Bruce points emphatically, telling his son and his dog to wait for him in the cave. After getting dressed, Bruce and Damian get into the Batmobile as Alfred reminds that Damian should remain conscious of property damage that he could do with his new-found powers. Smirking, Damian comments that he'd like to go on patrol on his own now that he has powers. Bruce vetoes it, quipping that they are the Dynamic Duo.   Once out on patrol, they encounter a gang of thugs who attempt to fire automatic weapons at Batman. Confidently, Robin leaps in front of the bullets, and they harmlessly bounce off of him. Even as the gun keeps firing, Robin walks straight toward the gunman and crushes his weapon in his fist before throwing his victim into a nearby car. Batman warns him that that's enough violence, and insists he get back into the car. Robin tries to fly back, but Batman grabs him by his boot-strings, and forcibly puts him into the passenger seat. Angrily, he warns Damian that he won't be allowed on patrol for the rest of the week. Damian responds grumpily that he feels like he's being punished for having powers he never asked for. Batman explains that there is a difference between risk and unnecessary risks like Damian is taking.   That night, Damian is plagued by nightmares of his mother and grandfather, demanding to know why he isn't dead, and reclaiming him as an al Ghul, rather than a Wayne. With a start, he wakes, and leaps right up through the ceiling of his room, nearly startling Alfred from his tea and reading in bed. Sighing, Damian turns down the hot chocolate Alfred offers him in favour of some air. Alfred watches from his window as Damian walks out in uniform to his mother's gravestone, and scratches her name into it with his finger. He warns her that while she had wanted him dead, it was she who died, and no matter what she'd thought before that, he is back. She had failed. Affirming his own life, he launches into the sky. Alfred reports this back to Batman, who reveals that he is using a special fluid he'd dosed his son with to track him via GPS. Worriedly, Alfred suggests that he give the boy some space to reflect, and to feel trusted. As he tracks Damian's flight back to the island where it all started, Batman admits that he should give his son space - but he feels he should be there to help Damian through what's coming.   Filled with pent up anger, Damian destroys the lab equipment that birthed him and the other Sons of Batman before diving down into the sea, withstanding unexpectedly strong water-pressure to reach the domain of Atlantis. He accosts Aquaman, demanding an audience, and the King expresses his happiness that the boy and his father have been reunited. Damian's mind is on his mother, though - a woman who created monsters, whom Aquaman brought down to Atlantis after the attack on the island above. Damian insists that the Sons of Batman ought to be in his custody, because they are his brothers. Aquaman accommodates him, explaining that the clones have been treated with respect and offering special air-bubbles and a retinue of Dolphins to help transport.   Upon reaching the surface of the island, Damian tears open the bubbles and frees the clones. Addressing them, he explains that they should not hurt each other. They are him, and he is them. He declares that the island belongs to them now, and they had paid the price for it already, many times over. Now they are free. As the clones wander off, into the heart of the island, Damian affixes his domino mask, and flies up into the sky.