From the Batcave: Damian's clones

At the end of Morrison's run Ra's is shown to still have many Damian clones in his secret lair. What happened with these clones?

After Damian died Bruce went on a quest to bring back his son. Naturally it lead to a conflict with Ra's that we saw in "Batman and Robin Vol. 6 - The Hunt for Robin" storyline. In Batman and Aquman #29 (or just Batman and Robin #29) we see Ra's trying to use those clones against Batman and Aquman. They obviously fail and Aquaman takes them under his own protection to Atlantis due to whole "nurtured by whales" thing.

Eventually Damian came back and one of the things he did was visit Aquaman in Batman and Robin #39 to see how his clones are doing. He says they are his family and with Aquaman's help moves them to some remote island where they can live in peace. Last time we see them is Robin: Son of Batman #5. Damian during his adventures ends up on the same island, there is a battle and his clones end up sacrificing themselves to save Damian. A touching moment and probably about as good an ending a bunch of disfigured clones could get. 

I think that majority of Damian's fans have read Robin: SoB and Batman and Robin by Tomasi/Gleason so it is not something that needs recommending. I think they did fine job resolving this dangling plot thread, but there were other clones as well...

Heretic is the most obvious one. Yes, Talia killed him in Morrison's run, but you know how these things go. His first "return" was during Futures End promotional month in Teen Titans and Batman and Robin. Teen Titans issue isn't very good and we don't see him much there or even find out why he is there in the first place. Felt like creative team just added bunch of random characters to show a different version of TT for whatever reason. Anyway, Batman and Robin issue has great art by Nguyen and is decently written by Fawkes. We don't get an explanation how he is alive again, but it works as a nightmare encounter. 

One weird thing about Batman and Robin Futures End issue is that when Damian died there were lots of rumors and speculations that Duke would become next Robin. And we do see Duke as a Robin in this issue. Due to that it feels a bit dated, but if you can get past that then it is worth picking up. Teen Titans issue? No.

Unfortunately this wasn't the last time Heretic returned. During Rebirth initiative Damian was leading Teen Titans team and one of the big threats was The Other, a guy running some big underground criminal empire or whatever. They finally run into him during Teen Titans #36-38. Turns out it is Heretic! But wait, how could he have built an empire if he was dead? In #37 it is explained that some League of Shadows guy put his head into Lazarus pit after he got killed and he came back to life.

I don't think that there is much point in wondering how do you come back to life if you got only your head or where did they find Lazarus pit considering them being gone was big plot point during that time period. So anyway, he came back to life, killed the real Other and took over his empire. Now he wants to give it to Damian, because reasons. We get a fight and Heretic gets a "he'll be back" death. I hope that he won't be back. So yeah, I'd suggest skipping this storyline and this TT run in general.

And we are still not done. Williamson in his Robin series introduced mysterious new character called Respawn. He hates Damian and is obviously related to Deathstroke, so what he is about? In Deathtroke Inc. #7 and Robin #13 we find out that Ra's modified one of Damian's clones with Deathstroke's DNA. Why? So that due to Deathstroke's healing factor he would be a better organ donor for Damian than other clones.

I'm not sure why Ra's just wouldn't use other clones for that, it is not like they were short on them! But besides that we also get shown that Ra's tortured Respawn for seemingly no reason. I suppose idea here was to make Respawn look like a tragic character, but it just made Ra's look like an even bigger asshole than he usually is.

Anyway, during Shadow War crossover he ends up getting killed. As is usual in such cases his healing factor kicks in only after he was declared dead as we see him alive in Robin #17. I think that the main purpose behind Respawn's addition is DC trying to connect Deathstroke with Damian and Batfamily by extension. Personally I dislike what Williamson has done with Damian and to me his run is a good example on why fans shouldn't write characters that they supposedly love. But at the same time other people like his Robin run so what do I know.

So to sum it up I think that Tomasi, Gleason, Fawkes and Nguyen did a good job with closing Damian's clones plot thread and in a perfect world thats where it would have ended. Thank God for headcanon.