[16][17] Damian is Bruce's youngest child and only biological one in mainline DC continuity, with him having four older adopted siblings: Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake, and Cassandra Cain.
[23] In another Elseworlds story, Kingdom Come (1996) by Mark Waid and Alex Ross, which functioned as a possible future to the canon of the time, this child of Batman and Talia is named Ibn al Xu'ffasch (Arabic: ابن الخفّاش), literally "Son of the Bat", and is a member of Lex Luthor's inner circle.
[26][27] The final issue of 52 (2008) designates the Kingdom Come alternate universe as Earth-22, thus making the Ibn al Xu'ffasch version of Bruce and Talia's son part of the DC Multiverse.
He becomes a talented martial artist before his teenage years, at which time Talia reveals Damian's existence to Bruce Wayne and leaves him in his custody in an effort to disrupt his work.
Damian then escapes, dons a variant Robin costume made of Jason Todd's old tunic and mask and assorted League of Assassin gear, and fights and kills the villainous Spook.
Unfortunately, because of how he was raised, Damian lacks any sort of common sense with regard to social behavior and believes that to be accepted by his father, he must kill any rivals, which included Tim Drake.
[28] Beginning in Batman Annual #26 ("Head of the Demon"), Talia takes Damian to the Australian Outback, where he is tutored in the secret history of his grandfather Ra's al Ghul.
Where before Damian portrayed an arrogant and vicious personality, it appears the "death" of his father has regressed him to a more childlike mindset, as demonstrated when he takes the Batmobile joy-riding with an older girl.
[30] Damian is saved by Nightwing who ends up being cornered by Black Mask's men until a murderous figure appears stating that he is Batman (later revealed to be Jason Todd).
As Dick cares little for the financial problems of Wayne Enterprises despite inheriting it from Bruce along with Tim, Damian decides to involve himself and manages to impress the board of directors.
He survives, and Tim pulls Damian into an all-out brawl that begins with their quarry escaping and ends in front of the theater where Bruce Wayne's parents were killed.
[44] After raiding the Army Reserve National Guard Armory, Dick, Damian, and the arriving Tim Drake, are able to save Commissioner Gordon, Oracle, and the surviving police officers at Gotham Central from the reanimated versions of the original Dark Knight's deceased rogues gallery members.
Talia admits to Damian that even though she loves him, she is too much of a perfectionist to admire him for choosing a path that defies her so blatantly, and he is therefore no longer welcome and will be considered an enemy of the House of al Ghul.
[54] Tim Drake eventually comes to the Titans for help after a robotic duplicate of the Calculator attempts to murder his close friend, Tam Fox, and decides to rejoin the team once the mission is completed.
The later storyline, Requiem, deals with the aftermath of Damian's death and Batman's thirst for revenge against Talia as well as his own increasingly unbalanced mental state resulting from this loss.
[65][66] Damian's absence has also been causing a conflict between his father and his acting instructor, Carrie Kelley, who is determined to find out what has happened to him, leading her to realize that the Waynes are harboring a secret.
[69] After being preoccupied with a series of cases in Gotham, Batman begins his attempt to reclaim Damian's body despite Ra's claim that he wishes to resurrect his daughter and grandson.
Damian plays a particular role in Batman and Robin Eternal when the Bat-Family is pitted against Mother, a ruthless woman who believes that she can make her 'children' stronger by putting them through intense trauma.
After a meeting with his mother Talia, he discovers that it is a warning from his cousin Mara al Ghul, who has chosen him as her prey as part of an initiation ritual that she must undertake to properly join the League of Assassins.
Damian decides to collect the other Demon's Fist's targets to form the new Teen Titans; this includes Starfire, Beast Boy, Raven, and Kid Flash.
During a case in which Gizmo nearly detonates a nuclear device, Robin uses the ring to which Djinn is bound to grant her the use of her full powers to avert the crisis, and returns it afterwards, refusing to assume mastery over her.
[82] However, what Damian does not tell his teammates is that a deep cellar of the Titans' headquarters, a former juvenile detention facility, serves him as a secret dungeon to lock away the most dangerous criminals he captures for good, including Deathstroke, Gizmo, Brother Blood, Black Mask, and Atomic Skull.
Eventually, Kid Flash discovers the secret prison,[85] and Crush, who has fallen for Djinn, kisses her, showing her the kind of genuine affection which Damian in his grimness never really did.
[93] After the death of Alfred Pennyworth, and Dick Grayson losing his memories thanks to the villain KGBeast, Damian began to see his father's view of justice versus fear as not enough.
This decision, coupled with his recently adopted practice of holding criminals against their will and wiping their memories, leads Djinn to leave the Teen Titans, while Kid Flash, Red Arrow, Crush, and Roundhouse turn against him.
This leads to a new version of the Titans forming, consisting of Nightwing, Cyborg, Raven, Starfire, Beast Boy, Troia, Crush, Roundhouse, Red Arrow, and Kid Flash.
"[96][97] After observing how happy both his daughter and grandson are while living a peaceful life without killing, the now reformed Ra's al Ghul decides that he wants to turn himself in to the authorities to atone for all the crimes he committed, as well as publicly share all the secrets he kept hidden over the centuries.
However, as soon as the conference starts, Ra's is immediately shot by a sniper wearing a Deathstroke-looking costume, who also throws a bomb that turns his body to ash to insure that there would be nothing left of him to be resurrected through the Lazarus Pit.
[98] This incident deeply hurts both Damian and his mother, Talia, who had to watch her father get murdered even though he finally made the right choice for the first time in his life and was willing to turn a new leaf for his family's sake.
[20] Damian once managed to disguise himself as a teacher and proficiently teach Jon Kent's middle-school level geology class, stating that he would've been able to have a master's degree in the science by the age of seven from any of the world's top universities if his mother had not had his professor killed.