Damian and Tim are engaged in a prank war in Batman: Wayne Family Adventures #12, and the current Boy Wonder turned a tragic moment into a joke.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Batman: Wayne Family Adventures #12, available now on Webtoon.
Batman and the Bat-Family may be going through hell in Fear State but that doesn’t mean they can’t have some lighthearted fun elsewhere. The delightful Batman: Wayne Family Adventures continues to give a whole host of wholesome hijinks from the Wayne kids. Of course, this is still Gotham – it’s got its fair share of demons regardless of what universe it’s in. In a fun series like this though, that just leads to some pretty dark jokes.
Damian Wayne and Tim Drake are engaged in a prank war in Batman: Wayne Family Adventures by StarBite, CRC Payne, Maria Li, Suzi Blake, C.M. Cameron and Kielamel Sibal. When Tim used Damian’s pen without permission, the current Boy Wonder exacted his vengeance in classic fashion and took things a bit too far. Always going the extra mile in his crimefighting career, the third Robin applies the same to Damian, escalating the conflict. Eventually, Batman has to step in. The image he’s greeted with will seem familiar to fans of the DCEU films.
Tim may have made Robin’s costume a sparkle fest, but Damian paid homage to the dark deeds of the Joker with his own vandalism. On the Red Robin costume are the words “I’m with stupid” and an arrow pointing to Tim’s face, all in yellow spray paint. Though the words themselves are just a bit of harmless fun, what the whole image imitates is anything but.
Those who have seen Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice will have flashbacks to the Robin costume on display in the Batcave when reading this latest tale. In the DCEU, the Joker was responsible for the death of another Robin and mockingly spray-painted the words “Joke’s on you Batman” on the costume of his fallen sidekick. The homage to this moment in Wayne Family Adventures may be just that, an homage to a movie, or perhaps there was a similar incident that happened in this world and Damian is imitating that.
Amongst the other pranks he pulls on Tim, one is turning his hair a distinctive Joker green. The hair combined with the graffiti on the costume makes for an entirely Joker-centric image. It’s also perhaps another spooky homage, this time to the Joker turning Tim into his own twisted sidekick in the DC Animated Universe film Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker. Not only did he share the Joker’s green hair then, but the rest of his twisted appearance too. It looks like in this prank war, Damian is out for blood – and he’s using the Joker’s Robin legacy to do it. With references to multiple attempts the Joker made on the Boy Wonder’s life – something he succeeded at, as confirmed by the series’ Jason Todd – he’s essentially marking Tim for death. It’s not like the Son of Batman hasn’t tried it before, he brutally beat up the third Robin when he first joined the Bat-Family.
Given the nature of the series and the fact that even the main continuity Damian Wayne isn’t that bad anymore when it comes to killing, he likely wouldn’t really kill Tim Drake. He’s just messing with him and, as always, he’s doing it in the most twisted way he can imagine. The fact that Tim opted for sparkles when defacing Damian’s costume says a lot about these two characters and their differences.
The whole prank war ends when Bruce threatens to get Alfred involved. The mere mention of the Pennyworth name scares the two Robins straight and all are at peace once again. It was fun to see another Batman: Wayne Family Adventures take on Batman lore. Its ability to turn one of the Dark Knight’s darkest movie moments into a joke shows how it really understands these characters and how it can turn anything in their history into wholesome entertainment.
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