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A review by helpfulsnowman
Teen Titans, Volume 1: Damian Knows Best by Benjamin Percy
2.0
I mean, damn, this one was okay, but I was already in Damian overload before this one. I don't know what it is with this character. He's in like half the Rebirth books! Okay, that's an exaggeration, but so far I've seen as much Damian as Batman and Superman combined. Damian is in the Superman book at one point!
The problem with Damian, as a character, is that he's completely Bat-capable and completely a Bat-jerk about it. It's not very engaging to watch a super capable character unless he's doing something really interesting or figuring a way to be out of his depth.
This book kinda plays the "Damian just wants friends card," which I totally don't buy. He's a jerk. He talks down to everyone. He spends a lot of time telling everyone how superior he is. And, well, he IS pretty advanced. He wrote his first letter to the editor when he was 2, and he was qualified for a degree in geology when he was 3. Not to mention being raised to be a deadly assassin from birth.
The thing that doesn't work for me is that I'm not entirely sure why Damian wants friends. For why? He seems wholly uninterested in hanging out with kids, and I can't say I blame him. He seems completely bored with almost every activity outside of Batman-ing, which also seems to mean he would be uninterested in chums.
I think there's a good story in it, this kid who didn't have a childhood trying to have one, going about it totally wrong, all that stuff. But I just don't feel sadness for Damian because I don't buy the sadness FROM him. The general idea of a kid wanting friends and trying to make them all wrong, that's sad. The idea of Damian trying to make friends and failing, that's a shrugger for me because I just don't think he actually would want friends his own age.
And the flipside, I don't buy the other Teen Titans' sort of, "Ain't he a stinker" response to being drugged and kidnapped and whatnot. They make fast friends, too-fast friends, and it makes the whole thing kinda flat.
There's a character who can make this story work, but I don't think it's Damian. And that might be my problem with most of the Damian-centric stories in DC Rebirth.
You can have a story about a kid who is in this bad situation and is now trying to be a kid. But you need that character to be sweeter. You need to feel bad for him when he fails at making friends because he did the only thing he can think of.
I think Damian is more interesting as this hyper-capable, very weird kid. I think the kid trying to fit in is something we've seen before, but the kid who has no interest in fitting in is a lot more interesting to me. I think other heroes being creeped out by him, both his demeanor and ability, is more fun than them making short jokes all the time. I think the idea that he's very trapped by the circumstances of his growing up, and that he'll have to manage until his appearance catches up with him, is more fertile ground.
The problem with Damian, as a character, is that he's completely Bat-capable and completely a Bat-jerk about it. It's not very engaging to watch a super capable character unless he's doing something really interesting or figuring a way to be out of his depth.
This book kinda plays the "Damian just wants friends card," which I totally don't buy. He's a jerk. He talks down to everyone. He spends a lot of time telling everyone how superior he is. And, well, he IS pretty advanced. He wrote his first letter to the editor when he was 2, and he was qualified for a degree in geology when he was 3. Not to mention being raised to be a deadly assassin from birth.
The thing that doesn't work for me is that I'm not entirely sure why Damian wants friends. For why? He seems wholly uninterested in hanging out with kids, and I can't say I blame him. He seems completely bored with almost every activity outside of Batman-ing, which also seems to mean he would be uninterested in chums.
I think there's a good story in it, this kid who didn't have a childhood trying to have one, going about it totally wrong, all that stuff. But I just don't feel sadness for Damian because I don't buy the sadness FROM him. The general idea of a kid wanting friends and trying to make them all wrong, that's sad. The idea of Damian trying to make friends and failing, that's a shrugger for me because I just don't think he actually would want friends his own age.
And the flipside, I don't buy the other Teen Titans' sort of, "Ain't he a stinker" response to being drugged and kidnapped and whatnot. They make fast friends, too-fast friends, and it makes the whole thing kinda flat.
There's a character who can make this story work, but I don't think it's Damian. And that might be my problem with most of the Damian-centric stories in DC Rebirth.
You can have a story about a kid who is in this bad situation and is now trying to be a kid. But you need that character to be sweeter. You need to feel bad for him when he fails at making friends because he did the only thing he can think of.
I think Damian is more interesting as this hyper-capable, very weird kid. I think the kid trying to fit in is something we've seen before, but the kid who has no interest in fitting in is a lot more interesting to me. I think other heroes being creeped out by him, both his demeanor and ability, is more fun than them making short jokes all the time. I think the idea that he's very trapped by the circumstances of his growing up, and that he'll have to manage until his appearance catches up with him, is more fertile ground.