New Robin writer Joshua Williamson has spoken about Damian Wayne’s journey, as he enters the Lazarus Tournament.
Warning: Batman and Detective Comics Spoilers Ahead!
Williamson also revealed that there’s an even more secretive cult of assassins called the League of Lazarus in the recent Robin backup stories. Furthermore, Damian must enter the Lazarus Tournament to uncover the secret of the new League. Most excitingly for long-term comic fans, the Tournament will also reintroduce the son of Green Arrow, Connor Hawke, into the mix.
The backup stories serve as a launchpad for the upcoming new ongoing series, Robin. Williamson will be writing the series, with Gleb Melkinov on art duties.
Why a Tournament Book?
In an interview with CBR, Williamson broke down how the Tournament will be portrayed, as well as setting up a rivalry between Damian and Connor. He details why he’s making the first arc of the Robin series into a tournament book, as that this type of story is the most appealing to Joshua Williamson, as a writer.
It’s funny, when I was pitching [Robin], I really was like, ‘Well, I want to do this book.’ I’m going to do this really fun thing, something that I would love to read. That’s always one of my rules of making comics, is making sure it’s something that I would enjoy. And I was like, ‘What if we did a tournament?’ I pitched the whole thing, and DC really went for it, and it has been the most fun I’ve ever had working on a comic. Honestly, I love Damian, and they just let me get away with all these characters that I really like. I was putting Ravager in there and then putting Connor Hawke in there, having some of these other smaller characters that haven’t been around in a while. It’s been super fun.
Joshua Williamson On Using Connor Hawke
Joshua Williamson also discussed the rivalry dynamic he is setting up between Damian and Connor. It will especially be interesting since Connor is considered one of the greatest martial artists in the DC universe.
When we first started talking about doing the book, and we started talking about the tournament and what Damian was going to be going through – because of Connor Hawke, and his own past, and his own history, and being this amazing hand-to-hand fighter – I was like, “Oh, I have to have Connor Hawke.”
I was able to really bring him more and more into the book, and he took on a larger role. Once I started really outlining what the whole first part was going to be, the emotional story for Damian became tied in with Connor Hawke and what Connor’s going through… I feel like I ran into some chemistry with the two of them, with Ravager, and a couple of other characters that we show. Something clicked when I was working on it.
Damian’s Character Arc
Finally, Joshua Williamson also delved into what makes Damian tick. Furthermore, how does Damian react in a situation where he is faced with people who are just as moral ambiguous as him.
Damian is a person who thinks they know everything and then suddenly is confronted with, “Maybe I don’t know everything, maybe there’s a piece of the world I’m not aware of and it was kept secret from me. How was that kept secret from me? Why was that kept secret from me?” And let’s throw him into that situation, the League of Lazarus, where he finds himself surrounded by all of these people that… When Damian was first introduced, a part of his story was that he was a person that was like, “I can take a life. I can do this thing. I’m the best at killing. I can do this, it doesn’t matter.” And then to just surround him with people who, all these fighters outside of Connor Hawke, a lot of them are assassins. A lot of them are mercenaries who kill people.
So to suddenly find himself in that situation again where Damian’s around people who are just like, “Oh yeah, I have no problem killing people. You’re totally right. We should just kill people.” Finding himself in that moment, I think, makes Damian confront a lot of parts of himself and the fact that he was raised to be a weapon.
Follow Damian’s adventures when Robin #1 hits the stands on April 27th.
Source: CBR.com
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