Well I'm back. I haven't updated this in awhile. The Teen Titans Annual #2 had broken me and I lost interest completely in this run. But, with the final issue set to come out on the 17th of November. I figured I might as well finish talking about it. I decided to reread the whole Glass/Thompson run and finish this thing. So anyways below was written a few months ago. So I'm just going to keep what was written and add onto it. Then I'll finish talking about this book as a whole after Tuesday's final issue.
(This was my original writing and I hadn't finished it until now because I just kind of lost the urge to talk about it).
This was the issue that I was most dreading and I'm not alone. I've never seen Damian Wayne fans so united in hating this direction. Even people who aren't Damian fans feel sorry for the character and what DC is doing to him. This issue single handedly destroyed years of development for Damian. Not only that but it ruined his relationship with the team and his father.
(These panels make me nauseous).
Why? That's all I have to say. The fact that Damian Wayne tore off the R that meant Redemption to him. The fact that this entire run ignored his entire character development. It's a slap in the face. Not only to him but to the writers who spent years developing his character.
What can I say about this issue? It's horrible. The artwork is nice. But, what is does to one of my all time favorite comic book characters is unforgivable. Making Damian a villain at this point is unforgivable. It makes his entire character arc seem useless. It's also a very hopeless story. What does this say to the reader when someone who grew up in an abusive environment under a madman like Ra's Al Ghul that you're just destined to turn into someone like Ra's? That you're incapable of changing for the better? That people can't be better people? Who is the one behind Damian's destruction as a character? Who thought this was a good idea? Why has he been regressed back to when he first appeared? Only this time it's worse because he learned to become a better person and now they want to erase that development. He's been blamed solely for everything that happened in this run even though the rest of the team played a factor in all of this too. Damian is being used as the scapegoat for everyone else's actions. It's just plain awful. This whole run has existed just to shit all over his character.
(Ok. That was where I stopped beforehand. Now listed below is new stuff).
Ok. So this annual is very hated by Damian fans. This whole run in general felt like it existed solely to destroy his character. He never grew for the better. By the end they turned him villainous and Now that he's out of the book entirely it feels like it's empty. Even going by this run. The way he acted at the end of Djinn war felt like the opposite of where his character should be. The way it seemed like it was going to go it seemed like he was going to finally learn. But it just got worse. There was no character arc. Just character regression. Ignoring everything that came before it.
Shipping Moments
Well Damiko is as dead as you can get. The writers destroyed their friendship and are trying to put Wallace and Emiko together. Even if Damiko never happened. I still at least wanted them to at least keep their friendship together. But, DC and this run ruined that. Why destroy his friendships to? What is this obsession with ruining Damian's character? Why can't they just write him like they did in DCEASED? That was perfect. In the future he is Batman and he's grown so much as a character. He's a hero. Not a villain. On a side note reading this run makes me really miss Benjamin Percy's Teen Titans. His run was eons better than this travesty. The characters were more likable. It didn't feel super miserable. They actually did good instead of turning psychotic. The prison idea was a bad idea from the start. The regression was a bad idea from the start. This whole team was a bad idea from the start. The previous team was so much better. They deserved so much more. I wish we never got this run. I wish we just continued with the previous team. It would have been better.
The Future:
Well Damian is appearing in detective comics right now. It seems like Tomasi is looking to try and fix the relationship between Bruce and Damian. So far Damian seems to be more in control and wanting to reach out to his dad. But, his dad doesn't seem to acknowledge his faults as a parent in that issue. But I hope that changes. The one good moment in the annual was this. I'm glad Bruce said he loved him and admitting to saying he failed. But he also needs to understand why he has been failing to be a good parent.
I just hope we get to see things fixed in the upcoming detective comics run. People aren't happy with Teen Titans. Hence the hashtag #SaveDamianWayne. No more character regression. Let's just have the characters grow and become better people and stay as heroes.
Well... that's all I have to say. Yeah I could go into more detail. But I just don't have it in me anymore. I'll cover these last 3 issues then that will probably be it for me. I don't know anymore. Only time will tell. Thank you to everyone who has been reading this. I appreciate all of your comments and I like having others around to vent with me as we watch and see what DC has done to Damian's character. I just hope to see things get better in the near future.