Batman's son lives again in Andy Kubert's 'Damian' comic

Brian Truitt | USA TODAY

Andy Kubert isn't letting a little thing like character death get in the way of a good story.

The last time comic-book fans saw Damian Wayne, the 10-year-old Robin was getting killed at the hands of his clone brother in writer Grant Morrison's Batman, Incorporated series earlier this year. But thanks to the magic of out-of-continuity storytelling, he stars in DC Comics' Damian: Son of Batman courtesy of Kubert, the artist who introduced Bruce Wayne's son to the masses in 2006 with Morrison in the pages of Batman.

Debuting Wednesday, the four-issue Damian miniseries has been in the works since 2008 and is Kubert's first writing project. At its core, it's the story of how Damian went from being a hotheaded little kid to the supernatural Dark Knight that Morrison and Kubert showed in the futuristic Batman No. 666 from 2007.

"He was a Batman who killed," Kubert says of that older Damian. "He was very violent — I guess regular Batman's pretty violent, too — but he carries that over into his adulthood and that's the point he's struggling with: what he was when he was younger, should he bring that stuff into his adulthood?"

Batman No. 666 showed Barbara Gordon (not her father Jim) as Gotham City's police commissioner, and Kubert's Damian series also showcases familiar characters that have been around for a while, he teases. (The Joker Fish in the first issue hints at the appearance of a certain Clown Prince of Crime.) "I grew up with them, so I might have had a better or easier time of seeing how they would be rather than Damian, who has only been around a short time."

Kubert recalls having lunchtime conversations with Morrison about their plans for Damian, the son of Bruce Wayne and femme fatale Talia al Ghul. They thought he was a great character, but neither of them imagined how popular he'd get.

"He was a character people loved to hate — a little wise guy, basically," Kubert says. "I was just watching all the Breaking Bad (episodes). You look at Walter White and he's a mean, nasty character, but he's a character you love to hate. I love watching him. I think Damian's along the same lines."

Kubert put his miniseries aside when he worked with writer Neil Gaiman on the two-part "Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader" story, and then he became busy with other art projects such as the Before Watchmen prequels and Geoff Johns' Flashpoint event series.

"I really haven't had a chance to pick it up again until DC put it on the publishing schedule," he says with a laugh.

"It really is something that's near and dear to my heart. I have a hand in everything — the writing, the penciling, the inking, developing the style of the coloring, and even the lettering."

To find Damian's voice, he used a tip from Gaiman: "Just let the character speak — don't hold them back. That was always in my head when I was writing and that helped me out a lot."

Kubert counts Gaiman, Morrison and Mark Waid among his key influences, but the biggest lesson he's learned so far is writing's not as easy as it looks.

"It's not just a matter of putting words down," says Kubert, who also penned a Joker-starring "Villains Month" issue of Batman in September. "You have to really figure it out and pace it out and plan it out. It's daunting."