Robin's History
Damian Wayne is the son of Batman and Talia al Ghul. This makes him an heir to the world's greatest crime-fighter, and its greatest super-villain Ra's al Ghul. During Battle for the Cowl he became the fifth Robin, working alongside Dick Grayson as Batman. He was eventually killed by the Heretic during an adventure with Batman Incorporated.
Origins
Damian's existence was initially unknown to Batman. Genetically perfected and grown in an artificial womb, Damian was intended to be a formidable warrior. Raised by Talia and the League of Assassins, Damian became a talented martial artist by the time he was a pre-teen.
Batman and Son
Damian is seen years later when Talia has him spy on Bruce with her. Talia reveals Damian's existence to Bruce Wayne at ten years old and leaves him in his father's custody in an effort to disrupt Batman's work. Precocious, spoiled, selfish and violent, Damian battles Robin (Tim Drake), whom Damian wants to replace as Batman's sidekick, and sucker punches him off the T. Rex model in the Batcave. Grounded by Batman, Damian escapes, dons a variant Robin costume made of Jason Todd's old tunic and assorted League of Assassin gear, and gets into a fight with the villainous Spook, whom he decapitates. Although misguided and malicious, Damian seems to genuinely want to aid Batman's war on crime as Damian sees himself as Wayne's true son though this remains unconfirmed.
Eventually, Batman confronts Talia, but both Talia and Damian are soon caught in an explosion. They survive the explosion, but a badly injured Damian requires transplants of harvested organs, which his mother orders her physicians to carry out. Damian made a full recovery.
The Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul
Talia, Head of the Demon, takes Damian to the Australian Outback where he is tutored in the secret history of his grandfather, Ra's al Ghul. Talia is unaware that a former servant of Ra's, named White Ghost, plans to use Damian as a shell for the soul of Ra's to return to Earth. This process would, of course, kill Damian. Talia is able to save her son from his fate at the last minute.
However, Ra's is still able to return, as a rotting, shambling undead corpse, still needing Damian to stabilize his form. Damian flees to alert Batman, but he's still pursued by his evil grandfather. Upon entering Wayne Manor, Damian attempts to relay to Robin the fact that Ra's has returned. However, Robin, suspicious of Damian's intentions, does not believe his story and begins a fist fight. Damian flees and encounters Alfred. Before he can effectively relay his news he is attacked by Robin, who perceives Damian's attempt to help a tripping Alfred as an attack, and renews their battle. As they fight, members of the League of Assassins approach the manor with the intention of killing all others within and bringing Damian back to Ra's alive. Damian and Robin (Tim) fight side-by-side against Ra's and his minions, with the help of Nightwing. However, their collaboration is hindered by their very different philosophies of battle, not to mention their strong dislike - even hatred - of each other. Damian is willing to betray Tim at any moment for his own safety. Ra's captures the two and tells Batman that he will use one of them for his own body. Batman offers his own body instead.
Ra's refuses the offer, feeling that he needs someone of a younger age. The choices are Robin or Damian. Batman offers a third alternative: "Fountain of Essence," which contains the qualities of a Lazarus Pit. Batman and Ra's go in search of the fountain, leaving Tim, Damian, Nightwing, Alfred, and Talia to battle the Sensei. Damian leaves his mother and Tim to an unknown fate, while he goes off to be with his father. Unfortunately, he ends up captured by Ra's and nearly loses his life. Batman and the others manage to save him, and Talia takes her son and escapes.
Batman R.I.P.
Sometime after surviving Ra's resurrection, Damian had sensed that someone is out to get Batman. In response to this, Talia began to formulate a plan. Meanwhile, a later talk between Drake and Alfred shows that Bruce Wayne had performed a DNA test on Damian to determine any blood connection between Bruce and Damian though the results of that test remain secret at that time. Alfred says Bruce intended to tell him the results when the time was right and Grayson already knew the results beforehand. At this, Tim realizes that Damian is indeed Bruce's son, and exclaims "The son of the Devil is my brother?" But the results of the actual test are not specifically revealed, leaving the specific question unanswered. Talia's plan then seems to involve Commissioner James Gordon, whom Talia and Damian rescue from a booby-trapped Wayne Manor while in search of Batman, who has gone insane and missing. Damian and Alfred race to aid Batman against the Black Glove in a commandeered Batmobile. Damian, who is driving, knocks an ambulance off a bridge without any sign of remorse or even concern. When Alfred reprimands him, Damian retorts with a backhanded threat. The only occupant of the ambulance was the Joker. After Batman's supposed death in Final Crisis, Damian is left in the care of Alfred Pennyworth and trained by Dick Grayson (Nightwing).
Battle for the Cowl
Gotham has deteriorated and Robin and Nightwing are trying their hardest to set it right. They have developed the Network, made up of their best allies, to help. Robin and Squire tracked and were about to take down some robbers, but before they could, someone else did. Robin and Squire don't see the person, but he leaves a note reading "I AM BATMAN."
Before anything can be said, Nightwing calls Robin for back up with a gang, and they take the gang down. Meanwhile, a coach full of Gotham's most dangerous criminals on their way to Arkham is stopped by a small army of goons led by the Black Mask. After the criminals are off the coach, Arkham is blown up (by the Joker). The criminals seem to have caught on that Batman is no longer around. Back in the Bat-cave, Nightwing is looking at all of Batman's different suits when Tim walks in saying that one of them (Tim or Dick) needs to become the new Batman. Nightwing shrugs this off, so Tim tells Dick about a man running around in a custom-made Batman suit fighting crime (possibly Jason Todd) and says this person was no beginner because he knew what he was doing.
Tim uses his brilliant detective skills to work out where the phony Batman's hideout is, but decides not to confront the fake Batman as Robin but as Batman. He uses the silver age Batman suit. Meanwhile Damian is joy riding in the Batmobile with a friend when Oracle calls him to do sweep of the docks. Damian's friend starts talking and Oracle takes control of the car, ejecting Damian's friend's seat. She goes flying into a small stream, where Killer Croc and Poison Ivy are trying track the Batmobile. Croc eats the girl, then knocks the car off the road into the stream. Damian is terrified and tries to talk his way out of the situation. Croc was about to eat Damian but Nightwing flies in on a hang glider and saves him. While they're flying they are shot out of the air and on the ground they are quickly surrounded by goons. Suddenly the phony Batman appears and shoots the goons.
Dick begins to fight the phony Batman. While they are fighting, Dick reveals that he knows the phony Batman is Jason Todd. Jason shoots Damian in the chest and flees the fight. Back at Black Mask's hideout, the criminal is planning to blow up Gotham police headquarters with Firefly and Adam Bomb. Meanwhile, Tim (dressed in the Silver Age Batman suit) has found Jason's Batcave, but he is not alone. Catwoman has followed Tim, thinking he was the one killing people as the phony Batman. At the same time, Dick discovers that Tim had taken the Bat suit.
Jason sneaks up on Catwoman and knocks her out. Tim and Jason begin to fight and Jason uses his knowledge of his cave to lure Tim into a pit, where Jason repeatedly slashes him with a Batarang. In the midst of the fight, Jason asks Tim to be his Robin, but Tim refuses and picks up a crowbar and begins to beat Jason with it. Jason manages to stab Tim in the gut with the Batarang and leaves him to die.
Tim wearing the Batman costume, is rescued from Jason's explosive destruction of his temporary Batcave by Damian, who was sent by Dick to retrieve Tim. Tim abandons the Batman costume, leaving the Batman hood behind.
After Dick Grayson takes up the mantle of Batman, Tim begrudgingly resigns from the role of Robin, with Damian Wayne assuming the title to work alongside Dick.
Robin
Despite working as Grayson's Robin, Damian expresses a strong willingness to take over the Batman identity himself if Dick is not "up to it." Damian has no respect for Grayson, and tells him that he needs to earn it if he wants his respect.
It is revealed that Damian has begun to visit his father's former friend and enemy Thomas Elliot, also known as Hush, in the prison at the top of Wayne Tower that Dick and Tim put him in, and engages him in chess games. Damian claims that these visits are out of his curiosity for why Hush would alter his appearance to that of Bruce Wayne's. But Hush suspects that the visits are rather Damian's form of grieving for Bruce and a way to "spend time with your old man."
It becomes apparent that Grayson had chosen Damian instead of Tim because he sees Tim as an equal and not a sidekick. He chose Damian as he feels his character needs developing or he could be like Jason.. Still, Damian mocks Drake and offers him the position of Batgirl, causing Tim to lash out and become the Red Robin and search the globe for Bruce Wayne, who Tim believes is still alive. After his first fight alongside Dick, Damian gets upset with Grayson and goes looking for the villain Professor Pyg himself. The Professor captures him, or rather, is led to believe so by Damian, who is in complete control of the situation, waiting for the right moment to make his move. Despite his good intentions, however, Damian is still overpowered by a large number of Dollotrons. Bent on catching Pyg, he is saved only by the timely intervention of Dick Grayson. While pursuing Pyg, he overlooks an earlier promise he had made to Sasha (a promise to save her and take her to safety), the only Dollotron who has an intact personality. As a result, the young girl's sanity is bent by her traumatic ordeal and disfigurement, ripe for the Red Hood to sway to his side , as her opposite number in the Red Hood battle against crime. The two are eventually defeated by Grayson and Damian.
It appears that under Dick's teachings, Damian has begun to grow a conscience and has even demonstrated signs of empathy, particularly towards children. This is demonstrated by his behavior during a mission with the new Azrael and more recently during a Christmas case, in which Damian and Dick find the bodies of several dismembered kids, causing Damian to vomit in horror.
Damian and Dick came to a blow with Stephanie Brown, the new Batgirl, and Barbara Gordon, who acts as her mentor. However, even though Stephanie and Damian initially don't get along, he is intrigued by the new Batgirl, watching her in an attempt to "figure out what makes 'Stephanie Brown' tick" (something said while drawing a stick-figure Batgirl in the snow).
Damian also becomes involved with the Wayne Enterprises' board members during one board meeting led by Lucius Fox. He manages to track down financial irregularities within the Wayne Enterprises accounts, intimidating the board of members along the way. The board becomes impressed that the young Wayne has such impressive business capabilities despite his young age, apparently inherited from his father.
After Tim Drake is revealed to have named as Bruce Wayne's heir in accordance of his will made prior of his disappearance, Damian has filed an injunction with the boards to against Drake since he is Wayne's son.
Blackest Night
After Bruce's skull was taken from his grave, Damian and Dick decide to bring the rest of his skeleton, along with those of Damian's paternal grandparents, to their base beneath Wayne Tower. Damian is quite shaken by the sight of the bones of his family. On the way to the cave, Dick's body is possessed by Deadman, whom Damian lashes out at in confusion. Deadman then possesses and leaves Damian's body, subsequently passing his knowledge of the attack of the Black Lanterns onto him. The two heroes then prepare for the Black Lantern's assault on Gotham. After raiding the Army Reserve National Guard Armory, Dick, Damian, and the arriving Tim Drake, are able to save Commissioner Gordon, Oracle, and the surviving police officers at Gotham Central from the reanimated versions of the original Dark Knight's deceased rogue gallery members. However, they then find themselve having a horrific encounter with Batman and the Red Robin's parents - the Flying Graysons and Jack and Janet Drake - reanimated as Black Lanterns.. Dick and Tim send Damian with the Gordons to their underground base while they battle the Black Lanterns. Dick eventually orders Damian through their comm-links to send one of his Wingers with Mr. Freeze's gun. Grayson uses the weapon to cryogenically suspend himself and Tim, forcing the Black Lanterns to retreat as they are unable to read any sign of life of them. Deadman later revives the former Boy Wonders.
Return of Bruce Wayne
Talia begun to clone Damian as she has realized that her son has completely sided with Dick Grayson and the Bat-Family. Damian finally stands up for his Robin mantle, telling Talia that being Robin was the best thing that he had ever done, and Talia does not need to save him from something he chooses to be. Talia then shows Damian the cloned version of himself, whom she sees as Damian's younger brother. Talia admits to Damian, that even though she loves him, he is no longer welcome and is now considered an enemy of the House of al Ghul. Damian defiantly replied that he hoped that he would be a worthy one. Damian (as Robin) is then seen teaming up with Batman and Alfred to begin the search for Bruce Wayne.
During a confrontation with a returned minor villain the Getaway Genius, Damian is initially angry that Grayson failed to capture the foe- as well as the implication that his father failed as well during the Genius's original run back when Grayson was Robin-, but when Dick explains to him that Bruce let the Genius go because he discovered that the Genius's robberies were only him stealing medicines that he needed so that he could live long enough to see his daughter grow up, Damian realises that he never really knew his father as a person, and admits that there was more to him than Batman.
After Grayson's confidant Oberon Sexton was revealed to be the Joker in disguise, Damian tortured the villain by savagely beating him with a crowbar in order to get information along self-defense as Joker had planned to attack him. However, the Clown Prince of Crime's appeared helplessness reveals to be another ruse and incapacitates Damian with his hidden Joker venom. The villain intends to use him and Dick of his fight against their common enemies: the Black Glove. Help arrives in the form of the original Batman. After Bruce Wayne helps Dick and Damian defeat the Black Glove and the Joker, Wayne accepts his son in additions of his role of Robin. Despite Bruce's parental responsibilities to Damian, he decides that he prefers Damian to continue working with Dick (who maintains the Batman mantle and whom Bruce sees as a positive role model for his son) rather than being with himself primarily, due to his plans with Batman Incorporated.
Teen Titans
Dick Grayson eventually sees that Damian requires friendship and compassion in order to curb his harsh methods. So Grayson takes Damian to Titans Tower, where Damian, despite not being a teenager, takes steps to become the leader of the Teen Titans. His first mission ends in disaster after a super powered teen, who was using his powers in revenge for being bullied, is attacked by Damian after Raven is able to calm him down and the teen lashes out and escapes.
Eventually Damian and Ravager work well together to defeat the feral students in the cafeteria, even coming to a truce with one another after a few final insults. During this the other Titans defeat the super powered teen Head Case. Not long after this Tim Drake commissions the Titans help to deal with The Calculator causing for the first time there to be two Robin's with the Titans. While fighting against The Calculators androids Ravager states that Damian seems to "turn up the snark factor for his brother", after which both Damian and Tim reply "He's not my brother!" After revealing The Calculator to be an android as well, Damian quits the Titans stating "you fools will only get in my way" and "you still have a Robin" Also telling Tim that it's obvious that he is the one they prefer.
Upon his return to Gotham, Grayson notices that Damian's time with the Titans has made him more patient and he is less prone to use his weapons. After apologizing to Damian about his time with the Titans being a bust, Damian states that he knows Grayson sent him there to find friends but "[he] has one in Gotham and that's more than enough" implying that Grayson is the only friend he'll need.
Flashpoint
During the Flashpoint event, Professor Zoom creates an alternate timeline that removes the Flash while destroying his own legacy. In this version of history, Bruce Wayne dies instead of Thomas Wayne and Damian is never born. Eventually they find a way to repair the timeline from this dystopia, but Pandora alters the DC Universe even further.
Born to Kill
Bruce and Damian begin patrolling together as Batman and Robin for the first time. Bruce tries teaching Damian about the sanctity of life, but has trouble relating with his son. Damian begins showing restraint, which Bruce commends, although Alfred still criticizes him for not being supportive enough. Bruce buys Damian a dog named Titus to teach him compassion. They're both targeted by a super-villain named Nobody. They are kidnapped by Nobody, who tries to show Batman that his no-kill methods are ineffective. He encourages Robin's darker side and tries to take him as an apprentice. Robin angrily leaves the Batcave to work with Nobody, who asks him to execute a criminal. Robin reveals that he was lying, and refuses to betray his father. Nobody decides to torture Robin, continuing his personal vendetta against Batman. When Batman discovers their location, he beats Nobody mercilessly. Nobody swears that he will return and kill their friends, so Damian shoots and kills him. Instead of growing angry, Bruce reacts with compassion. When Damian gets out of the hospital, they talk about how difficult it is to adjust from the life of an assassin. Despite their differences, they play with Titus and enjoy spending more time together as father and son.
Batman Incorporated
Bruce and Damian begin working together against his mother Talia, revealed as the head of Leviathan. During a fight in a meat factory, he converts to vegetarianism and adopts a pet named Bat-Cow. He is believed dead when he's shot in the head by an assassin named Goatboy. It's revealed that Talia has created another clone as his replacement, the obedient fully-grown Heretic. Robin is shown to have faked his death, and is confined to the Batcave at Batman's orders. To avoid the bounty on his head, he begins using the name Redbird and switches to a new costume. This allows him to team up with Jason Todd, who is using the Wingman identity. They work together with Batman Incorporated to take down the League of Assassins' top killers. However, Batman tells Damian he has to quit crime-fighting altogether. Bruce reveals that he has seen Damian's future, as told through Batman in Bethlehem. If Damian doesn't retire, his actions will lead to a plague that forces the President to nuke Gotham. Batman Incorporated fights Leviathan in the streets, while Damian is forced to stay inside. Alfred Pennyworth gets him a cat to take care of, who he also names Alfred. Damian refuses to stay home while his allies are dying, and Alfred allows him to leave knowing he can't be stopped. He flies his exo-skeleton into the center of the battle, where Leviathan has taken over Wayne Tower. He neutralizes the child soldiers, and teams up with Dick Grayson to take down the remaining assassins. The Heretic flings Grayson aside, and challenges Damian to a sword-fight. Despite his bravery and refusal to give up, Damian is impaled through the chest and killed.
