DC Comics has confirmed to the NY Post that Robin the Boy Wonder will be killed battling a brutal enemy in a comic book published Wednesday. The shocking demise of the Dark Knight’s sidekick will first appear in issue No. 8 of the offshoot title “Batman Incorporated,” but the aftermath of his death will ripple throughout the DC Comics universe.
“He saves the world. He does his job as Robin,” writer Grant Morrison said in an interview. “He dies an absolute hero.”
Robin — a k a Damian Wayne, the 10-year-old son of Bruce Wayne — is slain fighting a hulking assassin who happens to be, in true comic-book form, a “brother” cloned from his genetic material. And unlike all the times he has swooped in at the last minute, Batman arrives too late to save his protégé.
A number of heroes have filled the role of Robin over the decades, including the first and best known, Dick Grayson, introduced in 1940.The latest Robin, however, was the brilliant and caustic Damian, the illegitimate son of billionaire Bruce Wayne and Talia, the beautiful daughter of one of his deadliest enemies, Ra’s al Ghul.
Morrison, one of the industry’s top talents, brings an adult perspective to the grim tale. Robin’s death, he said, will illustrate how parents lose sight of their kids when they fight.
“It’s all about the family and the family going to hell,” said Morrison, who threw in elements of his own parents’ divorce. “The two adults in the story are both culpable. The kid’s the good guy.”
