Summary

• DC's newest Robin, a clone of Bruce Wayne, is aging rapidly due to a tragic flaw in Zur-En-Arrh's creation.
• Batman discovers that Zur-En-Arrh used his memories to train the young hero without any protections to stop accelerated aging.
• The new Robin is living on borrowed time, created solely to aid Zur-En-Arrh's war, with an unpredictable and short life span.

Warning! Preview pages ahead for Batman #149!DC's newest means this new Robin is living on borrowed time.

In a preview for Batman #149 by Chip Zdarsky, Michele Bandini and Steve Lieber, Zur-En-Arrh's Robin, a clone of Bruce Wayne, is taking out criminals in Crime Alley. Batman finds the young man, who attacks Bruce for what he and the Bat-Family did to Zur-En-Arrh. Batman restrains and comforts Robin as his emotions begin to overwhelm him.

Batman studies his clone and discovers how Zur-En-Arrh used Batman's memories to train and condition the young hero. Unfortunately, Bruce also discovers that while Zur-En-Arrh accelerated Robin's aging process to get him ready for fighting, Zur-En-Arrh didn't install any protections to stop it.

DC's Newest Robin is Growing Up Way Too Fast

Zur-En-Arrh, Batman's twisted backup personality, went all out to try and replace Bruce as the DC Universe's sole Caped Crusader. The new Dark Knight convinced Bruce's son Damian to him on his quest to bring Gotham City to order. However, Robin pulled back when he realized how extreme Zur-En-Arrh's methods actually were. Unbeknownst to Damian, Zur-En-Arrh already had a backup to fill in as the new Boy Wonder. Zur-En-Arrh revealed that he had cloned Bruce to serve as Zur-En-Arrh's Robin. Not only was this Robin the spitting image of Bruce, but he also had all of Batman's fighting skills.

When it comes to Robins, few, if any, had as rough a deal as Jason Todd. His path to becoming the Red Hood was set in stone the day he was killed by the Joker. However, this new Boy Wonder has been dealt an arguably worse hand. Zur-En-Arrh created his Robin for no other reason than to aid the corrupted Dark Knight's war and went against nature to have Robin grow up fast. Because Zur-En-Arrh couldn't be bothered to curb his sidekick's advanced aging, this Robin is going to speed through his life in the blink of an eye.

DC's New Robin's Life is Going to Be Over Before It Starts

There's no arguing that what Red Hood went through as Robin was a nightmare. While suffering isn't a competition, Jason at least wasn't created as a weapon of war. Zur-En-Arrh only wanted a partner to help him bring the world to heel and didn't care about his Robin's safety. Now there's nothing stopping the new Robin from growing up at an unpredictable rate. Red Hood may have got a second chance at life, but DC's new Robin is barely getting a first one.

Batman #149 is available on June 17th from DC Comics.