Review by Ian Keogh

In The Boy Wonder Juni Ba casts his eye over Damian Wayne as Robin, cleverly relating his experiences and those of others who’ve been Robin as oral myth. Ba begins with Robin tied up by a crook in Gotham and as they wait, he tells stories of involving each of his predecessors in a search for those being kidnapped, seemingly by a mystical bird. Along the way several of Gotham’s villains appear, and although Batman is absent, he looms large over those who’ve been Robin as a father figure.

Ba delves deep into the psychological issues of a young teenage fighting prodigy brought up to believe himself superior, and the issues that might raise, while also assessing what trying to live up to Batman’s ideals has affected him and others. Damian recasts them in roles such as brother and hunter, while combating his own feelings of contempt for what he sees as weakness in others, and dealing with the shame of Batman having condemned him for following his earlier teachings.

The feelings may be internally complex, but they’re nothing that hasn’t been dealt with elsewhere. Ba’s addition is showing how Damian is so concerned with scorning weakness he can fail to look deeper. Because everything is told from his viewpoint his unreliability due to a form of blindness isn’t obvious at first, and leads to surprising revelations.

For all that, though, it’s the art that makes Boy Wonder stand out. Ba draws fast-moving and exaggerated animated characters in heavily shaded situations. The montages and recreations are gloriously imaginative and instead of emphasising the darkness Chris Halloran’s colours ramp up brightness, developing a distinctive world.

Because Ba prioritises images it’s a rare page with more than a few panels, resulting in a decompressed storyline occupying more pages than would be taken by other creators working with the same material. The art’s great, though, so that’s extra value.