#also brian apthorp draws ibn as ABSURDLY handsome

[soleminisanction]

The comic shop I get my subscriptions from always has a nice deal on back issues for Free Comic Book Day, and my birthday's in May so I always get myself a stack of oldies as a treat.

This year my finds included The Kingdom: Son of the Bat (to go with Nightstar from last year) and I gotta say, finally getting to read Ibn al Xu'ffasch brings a lot about Damian al'Ghul into clarity.

In a lot of ways, Damian is Ibn. Morrison clearly used Mark Waid's version of the character as inspiration -- he's got the same overwhelming confidence with the incredible skills to back it up, the same tendency towards plans that are both over-the-top and ruthless but also undeniably effective, and the same dramatic mannerisms and semi-archaic, chivalrous way of speaking. Heck, he even kills somebody in part by throwing them off the dinosaur in the cave. The primary differences between them are that Damian has a stronger, more childish temper (not that Ibn doesn't have one he's just got it under better control), and that Ibn stubbornly rejects every implication that he might someday become Batman because he wants to be his own man.

But the thing is, Damian also isn't Ibn, because we get to see a flashback of Ibn as a child and he just acts like a child. A scared child who, it is implied, was taken from his mother at a young age and subjected to horrible abuse at the hands of his grandfather until he finally grew up and killed the man (and scattered his dismembered body across most of Asia).

Meanwhile Damian acts like adult Ibn even at 10, which just... makes less sense overall, even before you factor in the character assassination of Talia that went with him.

It's all very interesting.