Batman #655

Sep 2006 · DC · 2.99 USD; 4.00 CAD

📊 ~113,552 copies sold its debut month

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“Batman & Son Part 1 Building a Better Batmobile”

★ 1st appearance — Robin

About this Issue

Batman #655 is the launchpad for one of the most ambitious long-form runs in Batman's publication history: Grant Morrison's seven-year stewardship of the character that would ultimately span multiple titles and reshape the Dark Knight's mythology. The issue delivers the first (shadowed) appearance of Damian Wayne — the biological son of Bruce Wayne and Talia al Ghul — bringing into mainstream DC continuity a concept that had been seeded in the 1987 non-canon graphic novel Batman: Son of the Demon and then officially retconned away, now reimagined as a fully canon character who would go on to become the fifth Robin and a permanent fixture of the Bat-family. Beyond Damian, the issue plants the 'Zur-En-Arrh' graffiti in the background of a Gotham alleyway, a detail that reads as set dressing on first encounter but is in fact the opening move of an elaborate, years-long Chekhov's gun paying off in the Batman R.I.P. arc — a level of long-range narrative architecture rarely attempted on a monthly superhero book. Its cultural reach extended beyond the page when the 'Batman and Son' arc it kicks off directly inspired the DC Universe Animated Original Movie Son of Batman (2014).

In "Batman & Son Part 1: Building a Better Batmobile," Grant Morrison and Andy Kubert launch a gripping chapter in Batman’s saga, where the Dark Knight faces a revelation that upends everything he thought he knew about his past. With Andy Kubert’s dynamic art and Dave Stewart’s vivid colors, this issue dives into the mystery of a possible son, setting the stage for a story that blends personal stakes with the high-octane legacy of Gotham’s protector.

writer Grant Morrison · artist, inker Andy Kubert · colorist Dave Stewart · letterer Nick J. Napolitano · cover Andy Kubert

ComicBooks.com Value

Our Model is In Beta

Raw (NM) $31

CGC 9.8 · 1904 in census $176

CGC 9.6 · 1324 in census $93

CGC 9.4 · 518 in census $64

CGC 9.2 · 196 in census $64*

CGC 9.0 · 128 in census $55

CGC 8.5 · 76 in census $50*

Show all 13 grades ▾

CGC 8.0 · 41 in census $49*

CGC 7.5 · 18 in census $41*

CGC 7.0 · 10 in census $41*

CGC 6.5 · 3 in census $36*

CGC 6.0 · 5 in census $31*

CGC 5.5 none in existence

CGC 5.0 · 1 in census $20*

* estimate — limited direct-sales data at this grade

Our model’s value — refined as new sales data arrives · CGC census counts shown where available

More listings for this title

NM $5 VF $18.61 Blank $20 VF $29.54 NM $35 NM · Foil $39.99 Virgin $40 MINT $40

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History

DC editors brought Grant Morrison onto the main Batman title after the writer had just completed their acclaimed All-Star Superman, pairing them with Andy Kubert, who had recently signed a three-year exclusive contract with DC Comics. Senior editor Peter Tomasi, who had originally been slated to work with Morrison on Superman before the assignment changed, shepherded the book and championed the collaboration. Morrison drew deliberately on Mike W. Barr and Jerry Bingham's Batman: Son of the Demon (1987) — itself never in-continuity — as the conceptual springboard for Damian, while consciously treating Batman's entire Silver Age publication history as fair game for in-story archaeology, a method visible from the very first pages of this debut issue. The story arc was titled 'Batman and Son,' with this issue carrying the chapter subtitle 'Building a Better Batmobile,' a dry wordplay on the 'better mousetrap' idiom.

Trivia · 9 facts

First (cameo/silhouette) appearance of Damian Wayne — the biological son of Bruce Wayne and Talia al Ghul — who is otherwise fully obscured by shadows; his first full appearance follows in Batman #656.
Written by Grant Morrison with art and cover by Andy Kubert; colored by Dave Stewart; lettered by Nick J. Napolitano; edited by Peter J. Tomasi and Michael Siglain.
Marks the start of Grant Morrison's multi-year Batman run, which would continue across the main Batman title, Batman and Robin, and Batman Incorporated over approximately seven years.
First in-continuity appearance of the 'Zur-En-Arrh' graffiti — a Silver Age reference seeded as background detail here that Morrison would later activate as a major plot mechanism in the Batman R.I.P. arc (Batman #676–681, 2008).
The Batman impostor who shoots the Joker in the opening sequence is 'Bat-Cop,' one of the Three Ghosts of Batman — a debut whose significance is not explained until Batman #664.
First Post-Crisis mention of Kathy Kane (the original Batwoman), referenced in dialogue by Alfred; she had not appeared since her in-continuity death.
The character Damian Wayne reinterprets Ibn al Xu'ffasch, the unnamed infant from the 1987 graphic novel Batman: Son of the Demon — a story that had been officially retconned out of continuity during Zero Hour before Morrison brought the concept back.
DC published an official Facsimile Edition of this issue in July 2025, and the full 'Batman and Son' arc was collected in an Absolute Edition (hardcover with slipcase, 456 pages) released in July 2024, featuring an introduction by Andy Kubert.
The 'Batman and Son' arc directly inspired the 2014 DC Universe Animated Original Movie Son of Batman, though the film makes significant changes — most notably elevating Deathstroke to main antagonist in place of Talia.