Boy Wonder #5
Chad Burdette
Recap
The young prince Damian Wayne was raised to be the heir to the fearsome League of Assassins — to follow in the footsteps of his deadly mother, Talia, and the Demon’s Head himself, his grandfather Ra’s al Ghul.
- The Boy Wonder #1: A Robin By Any Other Name
- The Boy Wonder #2: The Demons Of Two Birds Of A Feather
- The Boy Wonder #3: Sibling Rivalry
- The Boy Wonder #4: Nature vs. Nurture
The Robins have united to battle their way out of the stronghold of the Demon’s Head, but Damian cutting his family ties to Ra’s al Ghul isn’t just a matter of punching his way through ninjas.
Could this fairy tale possibly have a happy ending? Or is the story of Damian Wayne an inescapable tragedy?
Review
Boy Wonder #5, the final installment of the Black Label imprint series brings the story to a satisfying finale allowing a cathartic moment for Damian as a hero and a member of the Bat-Family.
Ba completes this masterpiece by examining Ra’s and how he manipulated his daughter and grandsons he schemed to reshape the world in his image. As Damian faces his grandfather in a battle to the death, his brothers are shown helping with the League of Assassins and Batman arrives when he is most needed.
Ba also gives Bruce and Damian the much-needed and expected moment together that the series has been building to since the first issue when Batman leaves Damian after killing the thug. As story resolutions go, the framing story also resolves as we learn that the girl who has been narrating the story reveals that Damian has been at work putting together a collective of Robins, paying tribute to the DCYou series We Are Robin, that would introduce Duke Thomas into the larger Bat-family as The Signal.
Throughout the entire series, Ba respectfully paid tribute to the history and mythos of Robin The Boy Wonder and the art stylings of Darwyn Cooke. This series has been an eye-opening deconstruction of the Robin mantle and Damian Wayne’s place in the Batman Family moving forward in this continuity and beyond.
Final Thoughts
Boy Wonder #5 sticks the series landing with a finale that offers Damian resolution with Batman, his brothers, and past, but shows the larger impact that Damian has made on the Bat-Family after a more than rough start.
Throughout the series Ba treated the characters with respect while paying homage to past creators such as the Late (and great) Darwyn Cooke, Grant Morrison, Bill Finger, Jerry Robinson, Bob Kane, and the rest who brought the Robin character to life over the past 80 plus years.
Boy Wonder #5: Robins of a Feather, Flocking Together
- Writing - 10/1010/10
- Storyline - 10/1010/10
- Art - 10/1010/10
- Color - 10/1010/10
- Cover Art - 10/1010/10
