It’s the Boy Wonder’s birthday in Batman: Wayne Family Adventures and his new present ‘Murder King’ isn’t even remotely what he sounds like.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Batman: Wayne Family Adventures #13, available now on Webtoon.
Damian Wayne may have just had his 14th birthday in the mainstream DC Universe, but other versions of the most brutal Boy Wonder are still much younger. The one seen in Webtoons’ Batman: Wayne Family Adventures absolutely is; in fact, in that universe, Damian is only just celebrating his ninth birthday.
Dick and Barbara are trying to cheer up a very unenthused Damian while Bruce, Jason and Cass get a very special gift in Batman: Wayne Family Adventures #13 by StarBite, Susan Cheng, Maria Li, Lan Ma, C.M. Cameron and Kielamel Sibal. The young Robin seems utterly disappointed by the festivities, and by his father not being there sooner. However, all is made right when the reason for his tardiness is revealed: a… murder king?
We’ll get to the name in a moment. Apparently, Dick and Cass thought it would be a good idea to get Damian a new pet – and they were right. Robin’s mood changes immediately when he opens his gift and discovers a new puppy! While the youngest Wayne doesn’t take to people usually, he immediately takes a liking to his new pup. It’s in that excited spirit that Damian gives his new goodest boy the perfect name: Murder King. Well, it’s perfect in Damian’s mind, anyway.
Murder King isn’t the first pet Damian Wayne has had; far from it. Nightwing may be the Bat-Family’s most recent pet owner, but the Son of Batman is the biggest animal lover in the family. He’s also brought the most animals into the Batcave. In fact, one of the Bat-Family’s dogs is Damian’s Great Dane Titus. During Peter J. Tomasi and Patrick Gleeson’s run on Batman and Robin, Bruce got his son the dog as a gift, just like he does here. Though Damian initially didn’t take to the new Bat-hound, the two soon became inseparable.
Two more pets entered during Grant Morrison’s New 52 Batman Inc. series. These were Bat-Cow and Alfred the Cat. In the case of the Bat-Family’s most bizarre pet, Bat-Cow was saved from a slaughterhouse, an experience that made Robin declare that he was now vegan. As for Alfred, he was gifted to the Boy Wonder by Alfred Pennyworth, his namesake. The Boy Wonder even had a pet Turkey called Jerry in the non-canon adventures of Dustin Nguyen and Derek Fridolfs’s L’il Gotham.
Then, of course, there’s Damian’s wildest pet, Goliath. The giant winged Dragon Bat from Patrick Gleason’s Robin: Son of Batman series has been in his life since before he came to Gotham, back when he was with Talia al Ghul. He had to leave the baby Goliath when Talia took him to live with his father but reunited with the fully-grown pet in DC Rebirth. They recently reunited again in the current ongoing Robin series.
When Talia is mentioned in this latest installment of Wayne Family Adventures, it’s rather tragic and adds a whole new dimension to Damian’s pet obsession. According to Robin, his mother never let him have pets, citing that attachments to living things would make him weak. That explains a lot of Damian’s personality and why he finds it so hard to connect with the Bat-Family at times. Even now, he’s running away from them to investigate the Lazarus Tournament on his own.
This revelation also implies that Goliath was a secret he kept from Talia. Therefore, he most likely would have brought the Dragon Bat to Gotham if it wasn’t for her. Who knows what she would have done if she had found out about the pet. Perhaps that’s also why it took him a while to warm to Titus, especially seeing as he took to Bat-Cow and Alfred almost instantly. Being part of the Bat-Family has allowed him to open up and embrace his love of animals.
It’s truly tragic that Damian has been forced to bury his emotions for so long because of his mother. That makes it all the more joyous to see him so happy here. He may have difficulty connecting with others but animals will always be there for him
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