When Grant Morrison brought Damian Wayne into the world in 2006, the shockwaves immediately reverberated across comic books. The disruption caused in the Bat-Family by the sudden appearance of this ten-year-old imp was colossal, and subsequently, the character has become a fan-favourite. With his harshly hardened attitude and biting humour, the fourth Robin has been the star of the Bat-titles of the first quarter of this century. However, the roots of Damian Wayne go back further than many remember. A form of consensus has materialised that Damian first landed in the pages of DC Comics not in the era of Grant Morrison, but twenty years prior. Were it not for Damian Wayne, few may recollect Batman: Son of the Demon. Published in 1987, this one-shot appeared to be the ultimate of tales featuring the Dark Knight and the Demon’s Head. Always in search of an heir, Ra’s Al Ghul looks to Batman to provide him a grandson who will continue his mission. On the surface, this appears to be an apt prequel to Morrison’s 2000s run, but underneath it all, what kind of story is Batman: Son of the Demon?
Released as a prestige format book in 1987, Batman: Son of the Demon was written by Mike W. Barr, at that time the writer on Detective Comics (vol 1). The graphic novel – by that time a new word with increasing usage but little meaning – was illustrated by Jerry Bingham, whose admiration for Neal Adams is clear within each and every panel. Son of the Demon is the first of a trilogy of one-shots exploring Batman’s duel with Ra’s Al Ghul; DC have collected the three tales in a trade paperback.
It is odd to think that Batman: Son of the Demon was one of DC’s first original graphic novels. Compared to the stories of the time which appeared in collected editions such as The Dark Knight Returns, and Batman: Year One, Batman: Son of the Demon doesn’t enjoy a gold-standard reputation. Even some Batman fan may not have heard of the story. Even though Damian Wayne’s emergence on the scene heightened its status to some extent, it’s a story rarely looked upon. Could we be staring upon a lost classic here?
The opening pages of Batman: Son of the Demon establish a story seemingly little different from anything in the mainstream Batman or Detective Comics title. The Dark Knight fights some gangsters who have taken innocents hostage. Barr paints Batman as the Dark Knight vigilante – he lives in the shadows and operates through fear. Thanks to the absence of the Comics Code Authority (as this was a graphic novel and not a comic book) we witness a rougher and tougher (though still stupid) class of gangster criminal. Batman rescues the hostages, but the criminals escape with their loot. Barr sets the scene for a darker Batman tale where organised and political crime are the enemy. Through some sleuth work thanks to Commissioner Gordon, it’s revealed that the criminals are working for Qayin, a maverick meaty mastermind who has connections to General Yossid of Golatia, a fictious Middle-Eastern country which views itself as an ally of both the USA and the Soviet Union, depending on what day of the week it is. Batman finds answers from clues left behind by a murdered American scientist. It’s good to see the Dark Knight Detective back on show, even if the threat is far beyond Gotham’s remit.
However, Son of the Demon isn’t just a plain story with a crime or mystery to solve. That constitutes one half of events; the other half focuses on the Al Ghul family. Talia Al Ghul appears rather out of the blue and tags along with Batman as he investigates the moves of Qayin and Yossid. Oddly, Batman seems surprised when he seems to uncover a link between Qayin and the Al Ghul family. That is strange, considering that Talia’s appearance here couldn’t have just been a random coincidence as she seems to suggest. The side of personal relationships and characters is what makes Son of the Demon a more interesting read. Batman and Talia make their way to the snowy mountains where Ra’s Al Ghul leads his League of Assassins. Ra’s Al Ghul is, as ever, in need of a bathe in his Lazarus pit, but his mind and wit is as sharp as ever. It must be remembered that at this stage, Ra’s Al Ghul is still a relatively recent creation. He was created by O’Neil and Adams in 1971, and aside from those two titanic creators, few other writers or artists did very much with the immortal. Mike Barr is the first to introduce us to Ra’s Al Ghul’s wife, now deceased. This is where the link with Qayin emerges – Qayin was the godson of Ra’s; the child’s parents were close friends and in his employment. However, in August 1945, Ra’s sent Qayin’s parents to Hiroshima – upon the pressing of a button across the world, Qayin’s parents met a nuclear end. Qayin never forgave Ra’s for this, and as the angst and anger grew with time, he pushed Ra’s wife into a Lazarus pit. Her immaculate condition of health rendered the pit deadly. In effect, it’s a classic personal feud of comic books. It’s good that Barr uncovers this shady area of the past, and those moments reminiscing about the effect of Qayin’s actions had on Talia adds a strong and personal layer of drama. Without a doubt, Barr’s portrayal of Ra’s Al Ghul is the best aspect of this one-shot. He captures the graciousness and wit of the villain while preserving his cunning mastermind brain.
Batman unites behind Ra’s and Talia in the goal to defeat Qayin and Yossid. Barr paints the latter as a typical crackpot dictator who continually craves power. His attempt to achieve ultimate power comes with his plan to hijack a US-sponsored satellite which can alter weather conditions across the world, ergo creating huge devastation. I suppose it’s a comic tale typical of the Cold War. Despite their previous entanglements, Batman gets behind Ra’s Al Ghul with incredible speed and scarcely questions him. Within a matter of pages, Batman is in charge of the League of Assassins! It’s quite bizarre how Batman seems to lose any ability to question Ra’s from this point on, at least until the end. The romance with Talia continues to blossom, and because Barr writes a darkly emotive Dark Knight, he doesn’t seem to think much before spontaneously getting Talia pregnant. Yes, Batman will be a father. His protective stance towards Talia for the rest of the story is both endearing and intriguing, especially as he goes to any length to save her. However, it doesn’t take too long from the initial shock of Talia’s pregnancy to give way to another surprise. During all the conflict with Qayin in the latter pages of the story, Talia lost the baby. Very little time is given to digest such events, nor does it feel particularly believable that Batman will just have a child on a whim. Some of the emotion of events does come through, but overall, these personal moments lack the time and space essential for them to work.
What makes prospects even more depressing is that Son of the Demon isn’t a story short of space. At around eighty pages long, it’s a shame that Mike Barr spends his time focusing on a battle between Batman/The Al Ghul’s and Qayin and Yossid. As villains go, they are extremely typical and dull. One is a crackpot with barely any personality, while the latter is a meathead whose aims are all over the place. At Yossid is consistent in his aims of attaining world dominion through destruction. Qayin wants the Lazarus Pit so he can fend off death – a reality coming closer to him through his terminal illness. However, what this has to do with Yossid’s plan is extremely vague. Mike Barr wastes the entirety of the middle of the story by focusing on the launching of the Satellite. Batman and the League of Assassins spend what feels like an age fighting Yossid’s men only for the Satellite to be launched anyway. That sequence – especially with its overlong fight scene and pointless dialogue – felt like a waste of time. As for the climax, whereby Yossid is killed by Qayin, it is a typical dry ‘hero vs villain’ affair. Qayin just wants to watch the world burn now, and predictably Batman and Ra’s defeat him after another overlong fight sequence. It’s tragic that much of the meat of Son of the Demon is overlong, boringly written, and just tedious to read. Even much of the dialogue seems vacuous and void.
Son of the Demon could have been a good story. Were there to be more of a tighter focus on Ra’s Al Ghul’s family and then the romance between Batman and Talia, the story would have been more believable and powerful. But as it stands, the story is heavily dragged down by a boring schizophrenic plot featuring some terribly dull villains and countless events that may as well not have occurred. Really, alongside the scenes with Batman, Ra’s and Talia, it’s the final page of the story which is memorable. That is when a happily married couple find a baby outside their home.
Little do they know their adopted son is the product of Batman’s odd aloofness and Talia’s loyalty to the bloody throne of her father. Nevertheless, that is the legacy of Batman: Son of the Demon. Were it not for that final scene, this story would be forgotten and left in the rubbish pile, and deservedly so.
As for Jerry Bingham, his storytelling adds a degree of flair to a dry story. His panels are creative and there is a sense of fluidity to the drama and action. The influence of Neal Adams is colourfully on show, and while that style certainly fits for a story featuring the Dark Knight and the Demon’s Head, it does mean that any creative identity of Bingham’s own is lost. For all intents and purposes, he is a decent Neal Adams clone, even if his storytelling may not be as striking or finishes are finessed. Still, the art is certainly better than the writing.
VERDICT
Overall, Batman: Son of the Demon is no classic. It is remembered simply because of the few pages Grant Morrison would later lift for his run. Even then, such praise is nulled anyway – Morrison revealed that he hadn’t even read this story and even in his own Batman (vol 1) run he gets details from this story wrong. He can be forgiven. Despite some nice art, it is an arid read; even Batman and Ra’s Al Ghul cannot save this one.
Next Week: Batman: Bride of the Demon. Written by Mike W. Barr with art by Tom Grindberg.
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