Batman and Son by Grant Morrison, Andy Kubert and Jesse Delperdang

The Joker has killed Batman and poisoned the Comissioner with his laughing poison. Or has he? The Batman shoots the Joker in the face, then throws him from the top of the building. Afterwards, it is revealed that Batman has cleaned the super-powered criminals out of Gotham. The only ones still free are Two-Face and some two-bit hoods.

But cleaning up Gotham City isn't the end of crime. Only now, Batman only has to go after thieves, robbers and other regular criminals. There is also time for him to get back into playing Bruce Wayne, empty-headed playboy. But when he travels to London to attend a An Action for Africa auction. There, he meets Jezebel Jet. But when the art exhibition is crashed by a Kurt Langstrom, forced to give his Man-Bat serum to Talia, daughter of Ra's Al-Ghul, the Mayor of London's wife is kidnapped and Batman discovers that he and Talia have a son.

She abandons their son to him, and Batman rescues him and takes him back to Wayne Manor with him. But can a boy raised as an assassin ever be the kind of child who Batman and Bruce Wayne can be proud of? Damian has his own code of conduct, and when he wants something, he goes for it with total, complete ruthlessness... and now he's decided that he wants the "job" of Robin, and he won't let anything stand in his way. Can even Batman get through to him, or is Damian just a cog in a plan by Talia to get her way over even Batman? Or will Damian Wayne find out he makes better Batman than even the Dark Knight?

This was an interesting book, but in the end, I was completely unenthralled with Damian, who was just a spoiled brat with a murderous disposition. While the graphic novel posits him as a worthy successor to Batman after he rebels against the plans of his mother, I couldn't have cared less about him or his story, so I won't be reading any books about Damian Wayne, futuristic Batman. Honestly, I thought Batman should have showed him a little "tough love" and laid down the law to him before he ever even got the brat home, but Bats doesn't even try to reign in his behavior until he nearly kills Jason Todd and mugs Alfred.

I see nothing redeeming in his character, and trying to set him up as another Batman simply didn't work for me. This book left a bad taste in my mouth.