Heartbreak in Gotham

Damian haters, you got your wish.

The current Robin, beloved by G3 and created by Grant Morrison, dies today in Batman Incorporated #8. It’s not exactly a spoiler as the news has been blazing across the Internet like a giant Bat-signal.

Grant giveth and Grant taketh away.

We’ve written before about how rich a character Damian is and how he’d grown from an angry, murderous time bomb to a gifted, thoughtful hero — all while wrestling with a lifetime’s worth of issues that erupted from time to time. He evolved without ever losing the prickliness, unpredictability and hauteur that made him one of the best characters ever to grace a DC comic. He challenged Batman, his father, in ways that none of the Dark Knight’s previous charges had. Not even Jason Todd.

So this sucks on an epic scale.

Batman and Robin writer Peter Tomasi, who has done so well by Damian, spoke for a lot of fans when he told CBR his reaction upon getting the news: “I threw up my hands and yelled: ‘KHAAAAAN!’ ”

This being comics, it was tempting to think that there was some magical twist or that we all interpreted the news too literally. (“It’s a metaphorical death!”) But that was just wishful thinking.

While I’ll always love Dick and Tim, Damian brought something new and exciting to the Robin uniform. He was infuriating, brilliant, insecure, charming, ruthless, funny and fearless. Sometimes all in the same issue. At his core, he was a boy who wanted his father’s love and respect. He got both, plus a bunch of fans who delighted in his sharp retorts, almost casually breathtaking combat skills and rare moments of sweetness.

So now we ask you, dear readers. How do you feel about the character’s fate?