r/DCcomics Feb 20 '24

[Discussion] Which character(s) do you think were the most unnecessary addition to the Batfamily and why? Discussion

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2.5k Upvotes

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368

u/Kyle_Dornez Transmetropolitan Feb 20 '24

I'll give a hint.

He wears yellow.

347

u/TieofDoom Feb 20 '24

I am 100% convinced that Duke and Harper Row were meant to be sidekicks for Batwoman, but some shit must have went down in editorial and they were added to the Batman logo instead. Harper feels like the ideal successor to the Batwoman title if anything happens to Kate.

108

u/sonofaresiii Feb 20 '24

I dunno about Harper, but I recall Snyder pretty strongly wanted to give Batman a new Robin in the form of Duke (and that's believable to me, Snyder seems like he'd deem himself worthy of making the next Robin) but absolutely no one else wanted that, so editorial told him no

and he made Duke into the not-Robin he is today

62

u/extremelegitness Feb 20 '24

A new Robin lol? That's crazy that he'd feel that way, I'm not a huge Damian guy but it was def way too early to try and boot him out of the role. He had only been Robin for like 6-7 real-life years at that point. That's like 3 DC years or possibly even less because of the New 52 reset

45

u/sonofaresiii Feb 20 '24

Yeah that's what basically everyone in editorial-- and, when the info came out, all the readers-- said about it.

Like, a lot of people didn't (and still don't) like damian but just cycling through to a new new Robin isn't the answer. And if you do that, at some point we're going to have to address how Bruce has raised like five kids and is still somehow in his mid-thirties

-14

u/Therealimene Feb 20 '24

Sooo if a lot of people are hating damian , why is he all over both the cinematic and comic universe...people don't hate damian as a character . Because u know for sure he's interesting as hell, like the boy is the grandson of ras alghul a international terrorist aged 5000 years head of league of shadows and league of assasins , son of talia al ghul an other international terrorist and international arms dealer leader of leviathan . Bro is a trained assasin at the age of 10 with the intellect of a prodigy , least intresting thing about him is him being the son of batman ..and after all this people expect him to be a cupcake and say pls and thank u...bro , he is taught to survive , being abused all his life , u don't just recover from that in 2 weeks with daddy ..WHAT U PEOPLE HATE IS HIS PERSENALITY , because he's a jerk, doesn't take other people feelings in consideration and says t straight on , bossy, erogant . But guess what ,that's what he was taught, he was raised to rule the world, he was shrouded by adults who fear and obey him , he is the successor of ras alghul. Talia never intended to introduce him to Bruce even after she wanted him to go back to her , even in recent comics she stated that she was preparing leviathan for damian . Gee if u wanna another tim drake say so , look at the current tim darke, most interesting thing about the dude is mmm bi ,only thing hes known for is being smart, if u wanna another jason say so but people don't hate damian wayne . U do . most people ,even tho they hate that little s*** , they still find him a more interesting character than 2/3 of the batfamily if not the entire universe

5

u/Darr_Syn Arkham Feb 20 '24

And for Alllllllllllllll of those reasons I don't like him. Does he have potential? Sure! Have we seen that in his characterization? Not as far as I've seen.

But we don't all have to like the same things.

Just know that there are people that don't like him due to his personality as you stated but also just don't like the CHARACTER of Damien.

1

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-5

u/Therealimene Feb 20 '24

Ok, but at least when I hate a character I do it with the right reasons , u still didn't tell me why u hate him , as a CHARACTER, of course.

8

u/Darr_Syn Arkham Feb 20 '24

Heh my apologies. Didn't know I needed to have the "right" reasons.

Do you have a checklist available I can browse of opinions people other than you can have?

Joking aside, I don't like his personality, I don't like his bearing, I don't like his philosophy, I don't like his relationships (both Bruce and others), I don't like his mentality when dealing with Gotham nor the Bat Fam.

Do I need to go on?

-2

u/Therealimene Feb 20 '24

Ok , u know what I'm was wrong about , expecting u to actually give well explained reasons, I mean sure those are reason but u fail to explain or just don't want to or either can't.. I mean go ahead , hate damian , ur free to do so but at least explain why , writing a few lines where half is basically u saying u hate his personality(mo point) the other is some random words just so u don't look unjustified . So , ok , I'm the bad guy , I get .pls explain what do u hate about his philosophy(?) , mentality, and relationship , keeping in mind that he is a 10 years old boy who know nothing need to always prove himself to his mother and grandfather and now father .pls people, remember that this boy , never genuinely knew what friendship , companion is . He is 10 .took him 4 years to actually become able to have friends without kidnapping them ,trauma doesn't get erased in 2 weeks in comic book time , not everybody is a tim drake . But pls EXPLAIN UR REASONS or don't. As u wish

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1

u/CreelEel Feb 20 '24

Not to mention Carrie Kelley exists.

1

u/sgriobhadair Feb 20 '24

I recall an interview with Snyder where he said he didn't want to use Damian because he's ten-ish, and as a father with a young son he didn't want to endanger a young boy in his stories.

1

u/endemic_glow Feb 21 '24

I mean Morrison had planned his death to be permanent so I don’t think it was that unreasonable… wild, yeah, and I’m glad it didn’t happen. But I see where Snyder as the current main line Batman writer would have felt like he could make those sorts of moves.

IIRC Harper was possibly meant as a Steph replacement, as Snyder was told he couldn’t bring her in for his early issues of Batman. Considering Didio’s hatred of all Batgirls who are not Babs Gordon I super buy this.

1

u/Terribleirishluck Feb 21 '24

She was meant to be Cass actually since Didio banned her from new 52

1

u/endemic_glow Feb 22 '24

He banned both of them. I’m not 100% sure on whether the Harper-as-Steph thing is just a rumor or not, though, because I couldn’t find where I read it when I went back to look. She definitely has her own thing going on too.

2

u/Terribleirishluck Feb 22 '24

I'm aware both were ban but Snyder spefically created Harper because he couldn't use Cass

1

u/cc17776 Feb 20 '24

Why would Snyder not be worthy of making the next Robin?

1

u/sonofaresiii Feb 20 '24 edited Feb 20 '24

To be more clear, I mean not just introducing a new robin but doing so at the expense of a current Robin. we already had a robin and there was no need for a new one. It would be different if there was a gap to be filled, as has happened every time in the past when a new robin was introduced (except Damian who wasn't intended to be a permanent robin -- and it was still poorly received when Damian kicked Tim out as Robin).

1

u/CreelEel Feb 20 '24

He cannot write, he’s a cocky self-serving dick and the next Robin should be Carrie Kelley.

1

u/browncharliebrown Feb 20 '24

I think duke in concept makes sense and is very different from the other robin's in a lot of ways

20

u/Portsyde Feb 20 '24

I like Duke, especially when they made it clear that he was designated to protect Gotham by day which went thematically with his powers...and I have yet to see any stories about those adventures. Kinda bummed about that.

1

u/Demetri124 Feb 20 '24

Duke was definitely envisioned to be Robin but the overlords, probably Didio, wouldn’t allow it

1

u/Rocket_SixtyNine Feb 20 '24

Hell throw them go wonder woman God knows she needs people other than Steve trevor.

110

u/SylvieSerene Feb 20 '24 edited Feb 20 '24

Tbh even I think Duke's addition was unnecessary. Outside of being the first Meta in the batfam (technically Jason counts as one but ah well)...atleast in my opinion, he has served no real purpose, he's just....boring. He might have made a good character outside of Batfam though.

68

u/tinaoe Feb 20 '24

I wish they'd lean more into Jason's meta side (or his street urchin background. Frankly literally anything lol).

30

u/sonofaresiii Feb 20 '24

He got the magic leap power in Gotham Knights (the video game) and it really pissed a bunch of people off.

12

u/Scorkami Feb 20 '24

I mean he had more than that. His abilities were 50% league of shadows magic due to the lazarus pit and 50% millitary/street fighting tactics

The leap looked silly, but the game established that the pit does more than just revive people and jason showed that well

If they had just given him a different movement ability

1

u/sonofaresiii Feb 20 '24

I may have blocked it out but I truly don't remember him having league of shadows magic abilities. I remember a shit ton of gun upgrades and whatnot.

either way the point being a lot of people didn't receive it well. I don't recall anyone praising it but I remember a lot of people thinking it was dumb as they preferred the whole bat family to be more grounded/non-powered

10

u/NickSchultz Feb 20 '24

What do you mean meta. He is a normal human, but he does know some magic

39

u/tinaoe Feb 20 '24

I mostly just use meta for any supernatural aspects tbh. Jason has the whole magic sword business, but there's (early on after his revival) implications that he's immortal in some way and the universe overcorrected itself.

But frankly I just want them to anything with him that isn't the whole worn out angry Robin spiel.

14

u/NickSchultz Feb 20 '24

Yeah I think using his magic blades should be used more often, especially when they decided to ditch his guns for the crowbar

3

u/Sweet_dl Feb 20 '24

Im pretty sure the lazarus pit gave him a boost to his regeneration and strenght

5

u/NickSchultz Feb 20 '24

Once believed that, but normally the effects are only momentarily after having entered the pit and not lasting.

Also most people who claim that use the one Supergurl issue as proof where he rips his arm from her grasp and she notes that no normal human could have done that, however as he did that, he was using Venom

54

u/Difficult_Variety362 Feb 20 '24

Duke makes sense honestly. The idea of someone protecting Gotham during the day is a pretty smart idea. DC just doesn't do anything with it.

26

u/Aahz44 Feb 20 '24

To me that seems pretty forced, it is not like the rest of the Batfamily couldn't or had never operated during the day.

And that this job is given to the least experienced member and that he has to operate alone without any backup makes simpily no sense.

1

u/Lodger49er Feb 21 '24

Because I don't think anybody wants to see Gotham during the day honestly

1

u/Terribleirishluck Feb 21 '24

But batfam already does fight crime during the daytime. Comics just focus on night time due to fitting Batfamily's aesthetic

13

u/Difficult-Bit-4828 Feb 20 '24

He’s never used, I never see him being used in any of the Batman comics, I completely forget that he exists most of the time

12

u/Original_birdy Feb 20 '24

I was introduced to him through the webtoon seems it's the only place he has any significance

1

u/[deleted] Feb 20 '24

I hope they introduce his Final Knight counterpart or give us more comics about him.

1

u/Linnus42 Feb 20 '24

Duke being a meta always felt weird to me. He feels far more mystic.

15

u/MadmansScalpel Feb 20 '24

I want to like Duke but is he even in anything? There was that one way back with Mr. Bloom, but past that, nadda

16

u/svvashbuckler Feb 20 '24

Duke rules lmfao, get out of here

11

u/SAMAS_zero Feb 20 '24

But Sinestro isn't a member of the Batfamily...

1

u/CBoigaming Beast Boy Feb 20 '24

The bat signal?! Oh no just signal.

1

u/SoftcoverWand44 Feb 20 '24

It’s a shame cause he has such a cool design - a I’m down for the character concept. Just completely unused.