title: Damian Wayne

text: Precocious, spoiled, and violent, Damian battles Tim Drake, whom he wants to replace as Robin, and sucker punches Tim off the stuffed Tyrannosaurus in the Batcave when Tim stops fighting to help him. 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. Although misguided, Damian seems to genuinely want to aid Bruce's war on crime as he is Bruce's son and wants his approval. Unfortunately, because of how he was raised, Damian lacks any sort of common sense in regards to social behavior and believes that to be accepted by his father, he must kill any rivals, which included Tim Drake. This troubles his relationship with Batman, who vows never to kill. However, because of his possible paternity to Damian, Batman, on some levels, is optimistic about the chance of fatherhood.


title: Damian Wayne

text: Eventually, Batman confronts Talia to confirm Damian's true identity, but both Talia and Damian are soon caught in an explosion. They survive the explosion. However, Damian's badly injured body requires transplants of harvested organs, which his mother orders her physicians to carry out. Damian makes a full recovery.


title: Damian Wayne

text: 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. Talia is unaware that White Ghost, a former servant of Ra's, plans to use him to resurrect Ra's, which would kill him in the process. Talia is able to save her son from his fate at the last minute.


title: Damian Wayne

text: Ra's is still able to return, but as a rotting, undead corpse, still needing Damian to stabilize his form. Damian flees to alert Batman but is pursued by his evil grandfather. Upon entering Wayne Manor, Damian attempts to relay to Tim Drake the fact that Ra's has returned. Tim, suspicious of Damian's intentions, does not believe his story and begins a fistfight. Damian flees and encounters Alfred. Before he can effectively relay his news, he is attacked by Tim, who perceives Damian's attempt to help a tripping Alfred as an attack, and renews their battle. As they fight, members of the League of Assassins approach the manor with the intention of killing everyone within and bringing Damian back to Ra's alive. Damian and Tim fight side by side against Ra's and his minions. Their collaboration is hindered by their very different philosophies of battle. Damian is willing to betray Tim at any moment for his own safety. Ra's captures the two and tells Batman that he will use one of them for his own body. Batman offers his own body instead.


title: Damian Wayne

text: Ra's refuses the offer, feeling that he needs someone of a younger age. The choices are Tim or Damian. Batman offers a third alternative: the "Fountain of Essence" which contains the qualities of a Lazarus Pit. Batman and Ra's go in search of the fountain, leaving Tim, Damian, Nightwing, Alfred, and Talia to battle the Sensei. Damian leaves his mother and Tim to an unknown fate, while he goes off to be with his father. He ends up captured by Ra's and is nearly killed. Batman and the others manage to save him, and Talia takes her son and escapes.


title: Damian Wayne

text: A subsequent conversation between Tim and Alfred implies that Batman has carried out a DNA test on Damian. Alfred says Bruce intended to tell him the results when the time was right. At this, Tim realizes that Damian is indeed Bruce's son, and exclaims "The son of Satan is my brother?"


title: Damian Wayne

text: Prior to the start of Grant Morrison's "Batman R.I.P." story arc in "Batman" #675, Damian senses that someone is out to get Batman. In response to this, Talia begins formulating a plan involving Commissioner James Gordon, whom Talia and Damian rescue from a booby-trapped Wayne Manor while in search of Batman, who is insane and has gone missing.


title: Damian Wayne

text: Damian and Alfred race to aid Batman against the Black Glove in a commandeered Batmobile. Damian, who is driving, knocks an ambulance off a bridge without any sign of remorse or even concern. When Alfred reprimands him, Damian retorts with a backhanded threat. The only occupant of the ambulance was the Joker.


title: Damian Wayne

text: In "Nightwing" #153 (2009), Damian is shown being left in Alfred's care and trained by Dick Grayson (alias Nightwing).


title: Damian Wayne

text: Upon the start of "Batman: Battle for the Cowl", it appears that Damian is now residing in Gotham, and living under the command of Nightwing (to an extent). 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. This is discovered by Oracle, who ejects the girl and takes control of the Batmobile, intent on taking Damian home. The car is blindsided by Killer Croc and Poison Ivy, who prepares to kill Damian. The older girl (Damian's companion) is later eaten by Killer Croc. 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). Although shot by Todd, Damian recovers and saves Tim Drake from falling to death inside Jason's Batcave. When Grayson hangs up his Nightwing mantle to become the newest Batman, he chooses Damian to assume the mantle of Robin by his side.


title: Damian Wayne

text: Despite becoming Robin to Grayson's Batman, Damian reveals that he cares little for his older brother and has no respect for him as Batman and that the latter would have to earn it. In an act of defiance, Damian decides to make the Robin mantle independent from that of Batman and decides to stop Dr. Phosphorus from breaking into Project Cadmus, but fails miserably and is saved by Dick. Dick then begins to train Damian as to how to properly become the new Robin and the two develop their own unique crime-fighting style. Damian then begins to mock Tim Drake for not being chosen as Robin, causing Tim to severely beat Damian, only to be stopped by Dick.


title: Damian Wayne

text: After Tim leaves, Damian starts engaging in chess games with Hush, visiting him secretly against Dick's orders. When Elliot asked why Damian is visiting him behind the Bat-family's back, Damian shrugs it off as a desire to keep Elliot company. Elliot surmises that Damian is rather using the resemblance to Bruce to "spend time with [his] old man". Dick and Damian then encounter a villain called Professor Pyg, who has created an army called Dollotrons. Dick and Damian take the entire army down and begin to form a brotherly relationship. Damian blames himself for being unable to save a single Dollotron, a girl named Sasha, but unbeknownst to him, the girl is taken in by Jason Todd, who had shot Damian, thereby becoming the new Robin's opposite number in Red Hood's no-holds-barred war against crime (Red Hood's maxim is "let the punishment fit the crime").


title: Damian Wayne

text: Damian and Dick then attack Firefly, who is attempting to kill Black Mask. Victor Zsasz defeats Robin and rescues Black Mask while Dick takes down Firefly. These events cause Hush to escape, causing Damian to grow a further hatred for the criminal. Damian is present when Dick is inducted into the JLA, upon hearing, Damian demands to be inducted along with Dick, but his demands are promptly ignored. Damian is once again saved by Dick, with the assistance of Azrael, after a man named Amon tries to sacrifice him. Sasha, now dubbed Scarlet by Todd, returns and attacks Robin, as Jason attacks Dick, the two duos battle it out until the arrival of the Flamingo, who temporarily paralyzes Damian. Talia fixes Damian's spine but puts in a monitor connected to his brain allowing her to control his every movement.


title: Damian Wayne

text: As Dick and Damian go through various events together, such as against the Black Mask, the Blackest Night, and a rogue Batman clone-corpse, the two bond, even more, prompting Talia to give over control of the monitor to Deathstroke who tries to use it to kill Dick. Working together, Dick and Damian manage to stop Deathstroke. 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. While he does not file a lawsuit against Dick, due to Grayson not being named the heir of Wayne Enterprises, but rather a high-ranking member, he does against Tim, who was named the heir to Wayne Enterprises.


title: Damian Wayne

text: Damian's second year as Robin begins when he initiates a fight against his predecessor Red Robin. Tim, who has been keeping a hit list of criminals and tasks, attracts Damian's fury when the latter hacks the hit list and discovers a hidden layer of allies to the bat family considered potential threats by Tim, including Damian. During a stakeout mission, Damian severs Tim's line, causing him to fall from a great height. 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. The two are stopped by Dick Grayson as Batman, who chastises them both for fighting in front of the theater where Batman was born. The two then enter into a grudging truce for the remainder of Damian's appearances in the series. Dick suggests changing the hit list password to Cousin Oliver, as Damian has little to no interest in pop culture references and would never guess it. Dick notes that his name is not on the list and Tim asserts it is because Dick is the only one who Tim trusts implicitly.


title: Damian Wayne

text: After Bruce's skull was taken from his grave, Damian and Dick decide to bring the rest of his skeleton, along with those of Damian's paternal grandparents, to their base beneath Wayne Tower. Damian is quite shaken by the sight of the bones of his family. On the way to the cave, Dick's body is possessed by Deadman, at whom Damian lashes out in confusion. Deadman then possesses and leaves Damian's body, subsequently passing his knowledge of the attack of the Black Lanterns onto him. The two heroes then prepare for the Black Lanterns' assault on Gotham. 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. However, they then find themselves in a horrific encounter with the parents of Dick Grayson and Tim Drake reanimated as Black Lanterns. Dick and Tim send Damian with the Gordons to their underground base while they battle the Black Lanterns. Dick eventually orders Damian through their comm-links to send one of his Wingers with Mr. Freeze's gun. Grayson uses the weapon to cryogenically suspend himself and Tim, forcing the Black Lanterns to retreat as they are unable to read any sign of life of them. Deadman later revives the former Boy Wonders.


title: Damian Wayne

text: Talia begins to clone Damian as she realizes that her son has completely sided with Dick Grayson and the Bat-Family. Damian finally stands up for his Robin mantle, telling Talia that being Robin was the best thing that he had ever done, and Talia does not need to save him from something he chooses to be. Talia then shows Damian a cloned version of himself, whom she sees as Damian's younger brother. 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 this blatantly, and he is therefore no longer welcome and will be considered an enemy of the House of al Ghul. Damian defiantly replies that he hopes to be a worthy one. Damian (as Robin) is then seen teaming up with Dick and Alfred to begin their own search for Bruce Wayne.


title: Damian Wayne

text: During a confrontation with a returned minor villain the Getaway Genius, Damian is initially angry that Grayson failed to capture the foe – as well as the implication that his father failed as well during the Genius' original run back when Grayson was Robin – but when Dick explains to him that Bruce let the Genius go because he discovered that the Genius' robberies were only him stealing medicines that he needed so that he could live long enough to see his daughter grow up, Damian realizes that he never really knew his father as a person, and admits that there was more to him than Batman.


title: Damian Wayne

text: After Grayson's confidant, Oberon Sexton is revealed to be the Joker in disguise, Damian tortures the villain by savagely beating him with a crowbar to get information, considering it to be self-defense since the Joker planned to attack him. However, the Clown Prince of Crime's apparent helplessness is revealed to be another ruse and he incapacitates Damian with his hidden Joker venom. The villain intends to use Damian and Dick in his fight against their common enemies: the Black Glove. Help arrives in the form of the original Batman. After Bruce Wayne helps Dick and Damian defeat the Black Glove and the Joker, Wayne accepts his son in addition to his role as Robin. Despite Bruce's parental responsibilities to Damian, he decides that he prefers Damian to continue working with Dick (who maintains the Batman mantle and whom Bruce sees as a positive role model for his son) rather than being with himself primarily, due to his plans with "Batman Inc."


title: Damian Wayne

text: Damian joins the Teen Titans when Dick Grayson concludes that the team needs a Robin, while also feeling that Damian would benefit from the friendship of other heroes, having progressed to the point where he can be trusted not to kill if left 'unsupervised'. Although Wonder Girl objects to this decision, Grayson convinces her to let Damian stay on the team as he needs Damian to learn that he can trust others not to betray him, only for his temper to jeopardize his first mission with the team when he attacks an opponent just after Raven had convinced him to calm down, provoking their new foe into starting his wave of destruction again. Robin eventually begins to develop a friendship with Ravager, who initially reaches out to Damian due to their similar upbringings (Ravager's father being the notorious assassin, Deathstroke). 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. Damian chooses to leave the team upon Drake's return, reasoning that the Teen Titans do not need two Robins, and realizing that his teammates prefer to work with Tim. Upon returning to Gotham, Damian tells Dick that even though he had been brought to the Titans to find friends, he did not need to, as he already had one, Grayson himself.


title: Damian Wayne

text: When Blackbat, Stephanie Brown's predecessor, returns to Gotham, she and Damian are partnered together during a stake-out to catch the Architect, a new villain obsessed with destroying Gotham landmarks. Damian berates Black bat and mocks her for being sent to Hong Kong by his father, but she ultimately saves his life by rescuing him from the exploding Iceberg Lounge. Afterwards, the two work together to stop the bomber from destroying a massive bridge, saving dozens of lives in the process.


title: Damian Wayne

text: Robin and a group of other ex-Titans later head to Titans Tower to help the team during a battle against Superboy-Prime and the Legion of Doom. During the battle, Robin destroys one of Prime's evil Superboy doppelgängers by using a Kryptonite blade.


title: Damian Wayne

text: Following the "Flashpoint" story arc, Bruce Wayne was returned by writers as being the only Batman in 2011's the New 52 relaunch of DC Comics. Dick Grayson was returned to his previous role as Nightwing, and Damian still serves as his father's vigilante partner Robin. After reading the letter written by his father from an alternate timeline, the Dark Knight decides that it is time to take steps to put his past behind him. He tries to teach Damian the same values his parents have instilled within him as he finally assumes his role as a father. However, despite Bruce's attempts to build a relationship with his son, Damian remains distant from his father, which Alfred worries about. Although this relationship is further strained when Damian seemingly leaves Wayne Manor to join the villain Nobody, it turns out this was a ruse by Damian to bring down Nobody. Although Damian eventually kills Nobody in front of Bruce, they are able to work through the incident by beginning to actively understand and respect one another as father and son. Bruce goes so far as to conceal the event from Dick and Tim, leading Alfred to comment to Bruce that he has become "quite the overprotective parent".


title: Damian Wayne

text: In Batman-related issues of the New 52 taking place after Batman issue #14 (the Joker's return to comics), Damian was portrayed as being very interested in fighting his father's arch-foe. He seemed to always be eager to take on the Joker and repeatedly assumes that bad things happening in Gotham are related to the Joker in some way, in hopeful anticipation of an encounter with him. In "Batman and Robin" vol. 2, #15, Damian defies his father's orders to remain in the Batcave and investigates Alfred's kidnapping. The investigation leads to Gotham Zoo where Damian is captured by Joker. Joker accuses Damian and the other members of Batman's family of being a burden that prevents Batman from being the best foe for Joker. Joker tells Damian that his and Batman's greatest fear is being responsible for the other's death. Joker then presents Damian with Batman in Joker makeup, and states that Damian must kill Batman before Batman kills him. Unwilling to kill his father, Damian chooses death, but the Joker kills Batman before he can deal a fatal blow. Damian passes out from Joker venom and Batman is revealed to be a fake; as Damian recovers from the toxin, the Joker presents him with a cloche. The Joker is eventually defeated by Batman, but the trust between Batman and the Batman Family is shattered.


title: Damian Wayne

text: During the "Leviathan" story arc, when his mother Talia puts a price on his head and is targeted by the most dangerous and skilled assassins, Bruce faked Damian's death and secluded him in the Batcave to protect him while he goes undercover to confront Talia and her minions. But against his father's wishes, he escapes, donning a new costume under the name of Redbird.


title: Damian Wayne

text: Along with the mysterious Wingman and most of the Bat-family, Damian manages to rescue his father and defeat most of the League of Shadows. However, Batman explains that the temporary defeat of the League will not stop a larger force to attack later and destroy the city, so he came to the extreme decision that the only solution possible is for Damian to return to his mother, a decision that caused an emotional reaction on Damian like never before.


title: Damian Wayne

text: Damian is killed battling a brutal enemy, the Heretic (an adult Damian clone) in issue number 8 of the second volume of the "Batman, Inc." comic book, which went on sale February 27, 2013. According to the story's writer, Grant Morrison: "He saves the world. He does his job as Robin. He dies an absolute hero".


title: Damian Wayne

text: In the comic, Damian is fighting hordes of Leviathan henchmen in the lobby of Wayne Tower when Nightwing comes to rescue him. Behind cover, the two briefly reminisce about their time together as Batman and Robin before resuming the defense. When the Heretic arrives and knocks Nightwing out, Damian bravely fights him. However, the Heretic eventually gains the upper hand and impales Damian through the chest, the sword piercing Damian's heart and resulting in Damian dying almost instantly. Minutes after Damian's death, Batman arrives and sees Damian's dead body. Angered, he and a revived Nightwing battle the Heretic, but are eventually forced to retreat with Red Robin and Damian's body. After holding a private funeral for the fallen Boy Wonder, Bruce vows to avenge his son's death.


title: Damian Wayne

text: 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. He is buried next to Bruce Wayne's parents, Damian's paternal grandparents. Batman is also unwilling to accept his son's death, and begins seeking the means to resurrect Damian at the cost of his relationships with his friends and allies, and keeps his death a secret from the public in anticipation that his resurrection would succeed. 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.


title: Damian Wayne

text: When Batman and Nightwing finally re-confront Heretic, they overpower him, and the clone suffers a brutal beating from both in retaliation for Damian's death. Batman, despite desiring to kill his son's murderer more than anything and Nightwing making no attempts of stopping his mentor, spares the villain's life after seeing his resemblance to Damian, realizing the clone is what is left of his son. However, Talia later kills the Heretic for his failure to kill Batman and challenges Batman to a duel to the death in the Batcave. But Talia is killed following the duel by Kathy Webb, and it is later revealed that Damian's body was stolen from the Manor cemetery by the League of Assassins along with Talia's for plans against Batman in addition to making their resurrections. It has also been shown that Ra's al Ghul has begun to engineer more clones of Damian.


title: Damian Wayne

text: 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. Batman continues his pursuit out of his distrust towards Ra's. After defeating Damian's half-aquatic clones with Aquaman, Batman seeks Wonder Woman's help in chasing Ra's to Themyscira. Though Ra's attempts to resurrect Damian alongside Talia in what he thought was a Lazarus Pit in the island, in addition, to brainwash his grandson into joining him afterward, instead Ra's discovers that it is a portal to a Netherworld in the Pit's former location, of which both Wonder Woman and Batman were already aware. Ra's flees with the bodies afterward.


title: Damian Wayne

text: After Batman and Frankenstein locate Ra's and the bodies, they are too late as Ra's has successfully had them placed in a Lazarus Pit, leaving Batman in dread of Damian's fate. The resurrections fail, leaving Ra's to realize his arrogance for allowing the Heretic to kill his grandson and regret allowing Talia to clone Damian. After defeating Ra's in combat, Batman reclaims Damian's body and threatens his son's maternal grandfather that if he steals his son's body again, he will kill him in retaliation. They later encounter Darkseid's elite member Glorious Godfrey, setting in motion the "Robin Rises" story arc.


title: Damian Wayne

text: Later, Godfrey's reason for coming to Earth is revealed; to retrieve the Chaos Shard, a powerful crystal that once belonged to Darkseid which Ra's revealed was hidden inside the sarcophagus he crafted for Damian. After detecting a trace signature of the shard coming from inside Damian's body, Godfrey escapes with Damian's corpse back to Apokolips, despite assistance from the Justice League. Angered, Batman once again vows to retrieve his son's corpse.


title: Damian Wayne

text: Batman enters and accesses the Justice League Watchtower to use his unstable exosuit known as the Hellbat armor designed by Batman himself and the Justice League members to engage large scale threats. He then activates the Boom Tube to Darkseid's homeworld, Apokolips, to retrieve Damian's corpse. Batman successfully retrieve his son's corpse as he and his family team return to Earth via the Boom Tube directly to the Batcave after successfully escaping the clutches of Darkseid and his Parademons. After this, Batman uses the Chaos Shard on his son's corpse, which has been infused with Darkseid's Omega Sanction. With Batman facing two choices of whether to resurrect Damian or his parents, he chooses his son, granting Damian's true resurrection. As Damian and Batman embrace, Batman collapses from exhaustion.


title: Damian Wayne

text: However, before the team can celebrate, the Boom Tube used to return to Earth was not closed and Darkseid's son Kalibak arrives and attacks the team. During the fight, Kalibak beats the team nearly to death, when suddenly Damian knocks out Kalibak with a powerful uppercut; discovering that due to the Chaos Shard he has gained superhuman abilities. While Damian fights Kalibak, Batman remotely controls the Batwing and sends it crashing into Kalibak, sending him back through the Boom Tube and then closes the portal. Damian then reunites with his father and his family team. In the aftermath, Damian is tested by Batman on how to control his new power abilities before Damian returns to the role as Robin. With help from the Justice League, Batman discovers that Damian's new powers do not last, and he eventually relies on his natural abilities once more.


title: Damian Wayne

text: After the events of "" that resulted in Bruce Wayne's disappearance, Damian, as Robin, sets out on a globe-spanning journey to forge his own destiny and make amends for all of his wrongdoings in his own series, titled "Robin: Son of Batman". Along his journey, he crosses paths with Ra's and Talia al Ghul, Deathstroke, and a new character named Maya Ducard, daughter of the late villain, Nobody. 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. Returning to assist his fellow Robins as the crisis reaches its conclusion, Damian helps Dick, Jason and Tim regain confidence in themselves after Mother decimates their initial efforts against her by recalling a conversation he had with Bruce where Bruce noted that he is proud of how all three of the other Robins have different strengths, Bruce wanting his partners to find their own paths rather than blindly follow his own example.


title: Damian Wayne

text: Damian is also a major player in the "Robin War" event, where he, Agent 37 (Dick Grayson), Red Hood, and Red Robin organize a street gang called "Robins" to defeat the Court of Owls with reluctant aid from Jim Gordon, who is now Batman. In the climax, the Court manipulates Damian into joining them so they can use him to recruit Agent 37. Dick does join to save Damian and end the war. In the aftermath, Robin forms an unlikely partnership with his mother Talia.


title: Damian Wayne

text: As part of the DC Rebirth, Damian is featured in three titles: "Teen Titans", where he becomes the team's leader to defeat Ra's al Ghul and succeed Red Robin (Tim Drake) as leader, "Super Sons", co-starring with Jonathan Kent, the son of Superman and the new Superboy and "Nightwing", where he has a supporting role.


title: Damian Wayne

text: On his 13th birthday Damian is sent a package by his grandfather Ra's al Ghul, which contains a dead robin. 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. Mara has been made leader of a group known as the Demon's Fist, which was originally supposed to be led by Damian, but became hers when he chose to leave the League. They, too, have chosen targets that they must hunt down to ascend to the League. 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.


title: Damian Wayne

text: After the events of "Justice League: No Justice", the Titans disband. In his subsequent struggle with organized crime in Gotham and a mysterious crime lord known as The Other, Damian assembles a new team of Titans, consisting of Kid Flash (the only old team member to join), Kid Flash's friend and kid genius Roundhouse, Red Arrow, Lobo's daughter Crush, and the immortal spirit creature Djinn. This new team faces initial difficulties because of Red Arrow's criticism and the individualistic tendencies of several members. 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. This earns him Djinn's trust, which gradually begins to turn into a mutual romantic attraction. 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.


title: Damian Wayne

text: His teammates are also unaware that he is working with Jason Todd, who goes by the alias Outlaw. Due to a miscommunication, Damian can no longer trust him, which ultimately leads them to cut ties.


title: Damian Wayne

text: Eventually, Kid Flash discovers the secret prison, and Crush, who has fallen for Djinn, kisses her, showing her the kind of genuine affection which Damian in his grimness never really did. When the other Titans find out, and when Red Arrow kills Deathstroke, conflict erupts within the team until Lobo, looking for Crush, crashes in. Djinn defeats him by altering his memory, and proceeds to do so with the other criminals Damian captures, giving them new, harmless identities.


title: Damian Wayne

text: In this book, Robin teams up with Superman's ten-year-old son Jonathan Kent, who he befriended previously during a test facilitated by Batman and Superman. Together, they form the Super Sons. In the first volume, Damian and Jon team against Kid Amazo, a child affected by a virus which grants powers to ordinary humans. They defeat him and Damian decides to train Jon, but Jon's desire to join the Teen Titans against Damian's wishes creates ongoing conflict between the boys. Batman and Superman construct an underwater base for the Super Sons, which Jon refers to as the "Fortress of Attitude," much to Damian's chagrin. The team returned in "The Adventures of the Super-Sons", where they spend their summer pursuing justice against Rex Luthor, an alien child who imitates Lex Luthor and attempts to assemble his own team of child-villains modeled after famous Earth ones. Changes made to Jon's character make the future of this team uncertain. Despite the book's cancellation, the characters have subsequently appeared as a team in other series.


title: Damian Wayne

text: 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. Instead, Damian decides to begin killing criminals to invoke true fear in his enemies. This decision, coupled with his recent actions with holding criminals against their will and wiping their memories, leads to Djinn leaving the Teen Titans, while Kid Flash, Red Arrow, Crush, and Roundhouse turn against him. Damian attempts to kill KGBeast, but only succeeds in cutting off his left arm before the Titans intervene and stop him.


title: Damian Wayne

text: Batman then arrives, having learned of his son's actions, declaring that the Teen Titans are finished. At that moment, a revived Deathstroke attacks the Titans and Batman with the intent to kill them all. Damian pursues Deathstroke and attempts to kill him, but the Titans again intervene. Red Arrow is injured and Deathstroke escapes. Batman tries to convince Robin to come home with him, but Damian attacks him, declaring that Wayne Manor is a coffin and that Batman's views are not enough to save Gotham. At the height of his anger and frustration, Damian rips the Robin insignia off his chest and gives it to Batman. Declaring himself free, Damian leaves for parts unknown.


title: Damian Wayne

text: After Damian left the Teen Titans, they, along with members of the Bat family and Superboy, tried to find him, but Damian was able to evade their efforts. While helping the Teen Titans battle the super criminals Mammoth and Shimmer, Superboy discovers a note from Damian to him. It is not directly revealed what was in the note, but it makes Superboy realize that wherever Damian is, they won't find him. Damian also leaves a note for the Teen Titans, which contains a set of coordinates leading them into a meeting with Nightwing. Nightwing explains that Damian encouraged him to have the remaining members of the Titans and Teen Titans work together in spite of the Justice League's disapproval. 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.


title: Damian Wayne

text: After having his own dedicated story arc in 2021, entitled "Demon or Detective", Damian starred in the ongoing "Robin" series written by Joshua Williamson and centered around Damian going on a solo journey to discover the mysterious League of Lazarus through competing in the Lazarus tournament with Ravager, Connor Hawke and Flatline, an apprentice of one of his father's enemies. During the tournament, he discovers that the host of the tournament is his paternal great grandmother, Ruh al Ghul, who was imprisoned on this island by her son, Ra's al Ghul. At the conclusion of the first arc, both Damian's mother and grandfather arrive to aid him in defeating Ruh and in the aftermath of this arc, he returns to live with them in their palace up until the events of "Shadow War."


title: Damian Wayne

text: After observing how happy both of 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 authority to atone for all the crimes he committed as well as publicly share all the secrets he kept hidden over the centuries, this decision has sparked a huge interest in both the superhero community and the villain community due the amount of knowledge the immortal Demon's Head has about the world, so all eyes were on him during a press conference he held before his incarceration. However, as soon as the conference started, Ra's was immediately shot by a sniper wearing a Deathstroke-looking costume, who also threw a bomb that turned his body to ashes to insure that there would be nothing left of him that can be resurrected through the Lazarus Pit.


title: Damian Wayne

text: This incident has deeply hurt 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. In her grief, she gathered all the members of the League of Assassins and put a hit on Deathstroke as well as all of his associates in revenge for killing her father. On the other hand, Damian has teamed-up with his father, who wasn't fully convinced that it was the real Deathstroke that killed Ra's al Ghul, to investigate the murder and find out who was really behind it.


title: Damian Wayne

text: This event concludes with a war between The League of Assassins and Deathstroke Inc, which ends with Talia killing Slade in a one-on-one battle, but shortly afterward the Deathstroke imposter reveals himself to be Geo-Force, who plotted this whole war in hope of having both Slade and Talia killing each other . Damian and Bruce arrive shortly soon and help Talia defeat Geo-Force, with Damian managing to convince his mother to not kill Geo-Force afterward because his grandfather believed that their family could be better than this.


title: Damian Wayne

text: Having been trained by the League of Assassins since birth, Damian is already an expert in martial arts and wielding a wide range of weaponry. He also has been trained in numerous weapons as shown in the "Blackest Night" event. Despite his age, Damian has taken on and bested trained fighters like Talia Al Ghul, Red Hood (Jason Todd), Red Robin (Tim Drake), and the Joker, amongst others. Due to the extreme training from his mother and grandfather has, Damian has the skills and stealth of that of an extremely trained assassin. He was also trained in the disciplines of forensics, acrobatics, criminology, disguise and escapology. Damian is skilled in mimicking voices and speech patterns of others accurately, as he was able to imitate his father's and Tim Drake's voices to bypass the Batcave's voice-recognition security systems.


title: Damian Wayne

text: Damian is shown to have highly advanced engineering skills, as he was able to complete his father's plans of building a flying Bat-mobile, the construction of which Alfred described as "being an endless source of frustration to Damian's father". Damian is also a capable businessman despite his young age, being involved with Wayne Enterprises and its board members.


title: Damian Wayne

text: Damian possessed superpowers similar to that of Superman following his resurrection, though this was short-lived. However in the current Batman Vs Robin comic, he is shown to have magic abilities.


title: Damian Wayne

text: Concerning the character's artificial gestation in respect to the al Ghuls' notable idealization of Bruce Wayne as the optimal specimen in leading the League of Assassins, Damian Wayne is warranted to be notably depicted in bearing a stark resemblance to his father.


title: Damian Wayne

text: After stealing Jason Todd's Robin tunic and mask from his memorial case, Damian's unofficial appearance as Robin was wearing them over his black and white League of Assassins bodysuit with a grayish hood and cape. He carried a pair of brass knuckles, which he incorporated as part of this costume, and would also carry a sword.


title: Damian Wayne

text: After Dick Grayson officially sanctioned Damian's role as Robin, while a standard Robin tunic was retained, the bodysuit was replaced with a black survival suit, the grayish cape with a yellow "para-cape" which grants him a gliding capability, the black mask with a green one, a bulkier utility belt to carry more weapons and gadgetry, a black hood, and green gloves and flexible boots.


title: Damian Wayne

text: In DC Rebirth, Damian's suit is modified. The gauntlets and boots are more armored and he has knee pads now. His cape is now black on the outside with the cape and hood having a yellow trim. His tunic is longer and has a yellow trim as well.


title: Damian Wayne

text: After running away from Batman, Damian gets a brand new Robin suit in his solo series. It differs greatly from most Robin suits. It’s entirely black and gray with a red trim around the knees, chest, and collar. The Robin logo is red with a black “R”. He retains his old black and yellow cape and green domino mask.


title: Damian Wayne

text: As of age 13, Damian was short for his age and had few other markers of impending puberty. In Super Sons, it was a running joke that he was frequently mistaken as younger than ten-year-old Jon Kent.


title: Bodybuilding

text: Bodybuilding is the use of progressive resistance exercise to control and develop one's muscles (muscle building) by muscle hypertrophy for aesthetic purposes. It is distinct from similar activities such as powerlifting because it focuses on physical appearance instead of strength. An individual who engages in this activity is referred to as a bodybuilder.


title: Bodybuilding

text: In professional bodybuilding, competitors appear in lineups and perform specified poses (and later individual posing routines) for a panel of judges who rank them based on symmetry, muscularity, size, conditioning, posing, and stage presentation. Bodybuilders prepare for competitions through the elimination of nonessential body fat, enhanced at the last stage by a combination of extracellular dehydration and carbo-loading, to achieve maximum muscular definition and vascularity; they also tan and shave to accentuate the contrast of their skin under the spotlights.


title: Bodybuilding

text: Bodybuilding takes a great amount of effort and time to reach the desired results. A bodybuilder might first be able to gain of muscle per year, if lifting for seven hours on a weekly basis. However, gains begin to slow down after the first two years to about . After five years, gains can decrease to just .


title: Bodybuilding

text: Some bodybuilders use anabolic steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs to build muscles and recover from injuries more quickly, but competitions sometimes ban using them because of the health risks or considerations regarding fair competition. Despite some calls for testing for steroids, the leading bodybuilding federation (National Physique Committee) does not require testing.


title: Bodybuilding

text: The winner of the annual IFBB Mr. Olympia contest is generally recognized as the world's top male professional bodybuilder. Since 1950, the NABBA Universe Championships have been considered the top amateur bodybuilding contests, with notable winners such as Reg Park, Lee Priest, Steve Reeves, Arnold Schwarzenegger.


title: Bodybuilding

text: Stone-lifting traditions were practiced in ancient Egypt, Greece, and Tamilakam. Western weightlifting developed in Europe from 1880 to 1953, with strongmen displaying feats of strength for the public and challenging each other. The focus was not on their physique, and they possessed relatively large bellies and fatty limbs compared to bodybuilders of today.


title: Bodybuilding

text: Bodybuilding developed in the late 19th century, promoted in England by German Eugen Sandow, now considered as the "Father of Modern Bodybuilding". He allowed audiences to enjoy viewing his physique in "muscle display performances". Although audiences were thrilled to see a well-developed physique, the men simply displayed their bodies as part of strength demonstrations or wrestling matches. Sandow had a stage show built around these displays through his manager, Florenz Ziegfeld. The Oscar-winning 1936 musical film "The Great Ziegfeld" depicts the beginning of modern bodybuilding, when Sandow began to display his body for carnivals.


title: Bodybuilding

text: Sandow was so successful at flexing and posing his physique that he later created several businesses around his fame, and was among the first to market products branded with his name. He was credited with inventing and selling the first exercise equipment for the masses: machined dumbbells, spring pulleys, and tension bands. Even his image was sold by the thousands in "cabinet cards" and other prints.


title: Bodybuilding

text: Sandow organized the first bodybuilding contest on September 14, 1901, called the "Great Competition". It was held at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Judged by Sandow, Sir Charles Lawes, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the contest was a great success and many bodybuilding enthusiasts were turned away due to the overwhelming number of audience members. The trophy presented to the winner was a gold statue of Sandow sculpted by Frederick Pomeroy. The winner was William L. Murray of Nottingham. The silver Sandow trophy was presented to second-place winner D. Cooper. The bronze Sandow trophy now the most famous of all was presented to third-place winner A.C. Smythe. In 1950, this same bronze trophy was presented to Steve Reeves for winning the inaugural NABBA Mr. Universe contest. It would not resurface again until 1977 when the winner of the IFBB Mr. Olympia contest, Frank Zane, was presented with a replica of the bronze trophy. Since then, Mr. Olympia winners have been consistently awarded a replica of the bronze Sandow.


title: Bodybuilding

text: From December 28, 1903 to January 2, 1904, the first large-scale bodybuilding competition in America took place at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The competition was promoted by Bernarr Macfadden, the father of physical culture and publisher of original bodybuilding magazines such as "Health & Strength". The winner was Al Treloar, who was declared "The Most Perfectly Developed Man in the World". Treloar won a $1,000 cash prize, a substantial sum at that time. Two weeks later, Thomas Edison made a film of Treloar's posing routine. Edison had also made two films of Sandow a few years before. Those were the first three motion pictures featuring a bodybuilder. In the early 20th century, Macfadden and Charles Atlas continued to promote bodybuilding across the world.


title: Bodybuilding

text: Many other important bodybuilders in the early history of bodybuilding prior to 1930 include: Earle Liederman (writer of some of bodybuilding's earliest books), Zishe Breitbart, Georg Hackenschmidt, Emy Nkemena, George F. Jowett, Finn Hateral (a pioneer in the art of posing), Frank Saldo, Monte Saldo, William Bankier, Launceston Elliot, Sig Klein, Sgt. Alfred Moss, Joe Nordquist, Lionel Strongfort ("Strongfortism"), Gustav Frištenský, Ralph Parcaut (a champion wrestler who also authored an early book on "physical culture"), and Alan P. Mead (who became an impressive muscle champion despite the fact that he lost a leg in World War I). Actor Francis X. Bushman, who was a disciple of Sandow, started his career as a bodybuilder and sculptor's model before beginning his famous silent movie career.


title: Bodybuilding

text: Bodybuilding became more popular in the 1950s and 1960s with the emergence of strength and gymnastics champions, and the simultaneous popularization of bodybuilding magazines, training principles, nutrition for bulking up and cutting down, the use of protein and other food supplements, and the opportunity to enter physique contests. The number of bodybuilding organizations grew, and most notably the International Federation of Bodybuilders (IFBB) was founded in 1946 by Canadian brothers Joe and Ben Weider. Other bodybuilding organizations included the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU), National Amateur Bodybuilding Association (NABBA), and the World Bodybuilding Guild (WBBG). Consequently, the contests grew both in number and in size. Besides the many "Mr. XXX" (insert town, city, state, or region) championships, the most prestigious titles were Mr. America, Mr. World, Mr. Universe, Mr. Galaxy, and ultimately Mr. Olympia, which was started in 1965 by the IFBB and is now considered the most important bodybuilding competition in the world.


title: Bodybuilding

text: During the 1950s, the most successful and most famous competing bodybuilders were Bill Pearl, Reg Park, Leroy Colbert, and Clarence Ross. Certain bodybuilders rose to fame thanks to the relatively new medium of television, as well as cinema. The most notable were Jack LaLanne, Steve Reeves, Reg Park, and Mickey Hargitay. While there were well-known gyms throughout the country during the 1950s (such as Vince's Gym in North Hollywood, California and Vic Tanny's chain gyms), there were still segments of the United States that had no "hardcore" bodybuilding gyms until the advent of Gold's Gym in the mid-1960s. Finally, the famed Muscle Beach in Santa Monica continued its popularity as the place to be for witnessing acrobatic acts, feats of strength, and the like. The movement grew more in the 1960s with increased TV and movie exposure, as bodybuilders were typecast in popular shows and movies.


title: Bodybuilding

text: In the 1970s, bodybuilding had major publicity thanks to the appearance of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Franco Columbu, Lou Ferrigno, Mike Mentzer and others in the 1977 docudrama "Pumping Iron". By this time, the IFBB dominated the competitive bodybuilding landscape and the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) took a back seat. The National Physique Committee (NPC) was formed in 1981 by Jim Manion, who had just stepped down as chairman of the AAU Physique Committee. The NPC has gone on to become the most successful bodybuilding organization in the United States and is the amateur division of the IFBB. The late 1980s and early 1990s saw the decline of AAU-sponsored bodybuilding contests. In 1999, the AAU voted to discontinue its bodybuilding events.


title: Bodybuilding

text: This period also saw the rise of anabolic steroids in bodybuilding and many other sports. More significant use began with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sergio Oliva, and Lou Ferrigno in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and continuing through the 1980s with Lee Haney, the 1990s with Dorian Yates, Ronnie Coleman, and Markus Rühl, and up to the present day. Bodybuilders such as Greg Kovacs attained mass and size never seen previously but were not successful at the pro level. Others were renowned for their spectacular development of a particular body part, like Tom Platz or Paul Demayo for their leg muscles. At the time of shooting "Pumping Iron", Schwarzenegger (while never admitting to steroid use until long after his retirement) said that "you have to do anything you can to get the advantage in competition". He would later say that he does not regret using anything.


title: Bodybuilding

text: To combat anabolic steroid use and in the hopes of becoming a member of the IOC, the IFBB introduced doping tests for both steroids and other banned substances. Although doping tests occurred, the majority of professional bodybuilders still used anabolic steroids for competition. During the 1970s, the use of anabolic steroids was openly discussed, partly due to the fact they were legal. In the Anabolic Steroid Control Act of 1990, U.S. Congress placed anabolic steroids into Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). In Canada, steroids are listed under Schedule IV of the "Controlled Drugs and Substances Act", enacted by the federal Parliament in 1996.


title: Bodybuilding

text: In 1990, professional wrestling promoter Vince McMahon attempted to form his own bodybuilding organization known as the World Bodybuilding Federation (WBF). It operated as a sister to the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE), which provided cross-promotion via its performers and personalities. Tom Platz served as the WBF's director of talent development, and announced the new organization during an ambush of that year's Mr. Olympia (which, unbeknownst to organizers, McMahon and Platz had attended as representatives of an accompanying magazine, "Bodybuilding Lifestyles"). It touted efforts to bring bigger prize money and more "dramatic" events to the sport of bodybuilding—which resulted in its championships being held as pay-per-view events with WWF-inspired sports entertainment features and showmanship. The organization signed high-valued contracts with a number of IFBB regulars.


title: Bodybuilding

text: The IFBB's inaugural championship in June 1991 (won by Gary Strydom) received mixed reviews. The WBF would be indirectly impacted by a steroid scandal involving the WWF, prompting the organization to impose a drug testing policy prior to the 1992 championship. The drug testing policy hampered the quality of the 1992 championship, while attempts to increase interest by hiring WCW wrestler Lex Luger as a figurehead (hosting a WBF television program on USA Network, and planning to make a guest pose during the 1992 championship before being injured in a motorcycle accident) and attempting to sign Lou Ferrigno (who left the organization shortly after the drug testing policy was announced) did not come to fruition. The second PPV received a minuscule audience, and the WBF dissolved only one month later in July 1992.


title: Bodybuilding

text: In 2003, Joe Weider sold Weider Publications to American Media, Inc. (AMI). The position of president of the IFBB was filled by Rafael Santonja following the death of Ben Weider in October 2008. In 2004, contest promoter Wayne DeMilia broke ranks with the IFBB and AMI took over the promotion of the Mr. Olympia contest: in 2017 AMI took the contest outright.


title: Bodybuilding

text: In the early 21st century, patterns of consumption and recreation similar to those of the United States became more widespread in Europe and especially in Eastern Europe following the collapse of the Soviet Union. This resulted in the emergence of whole new populations of bodybuilders from former Eastern Bloc states.


title: Bodybuilding

text: In the early 2000s, the IFBB was attempting to make bodybuilding an Olympic sport. It obtained full IOC membership in 2000 and was attempting to get approved as a demonstration event at the Olympics, which would hopefully lead to it being added as a full contest. This did not happen and Olympic recognition for bodybuilding remains controversial since many argue that bodybuilding is not a sport.


title: Bodybuilding

text: In the modern bodybuilding industry, the term "professional" generally means a bodybuilder who has won qualifying competitions as an amateur and has earned a "pro card" from their respective organization. Professionals earn the right to compete in competitions that include monetary prizes. A pro card also prohibits the athlete from competing in federations other than the one from which they have received the pro card. Depending on the level of success, these bodybuilders may receive monetary compensation from sponsors, much like athletes in other sports.


title: Bodybuilding

text: Due to the growing concerns of the high cost, health consequences, and illegal nature of some steroids, many organizations have formed in response and have deemed themselves "natural" bodybuilding competitions. In addition to the concerns noted, many promoters of bodybuilding have sought to shed the "freakish" perception that the general public has of bodybuilding and have successfully introduced a more mainstream audience to the sport of bodybuilding by including competitors whose physiques appear much more attainable and realistic.


title: Bodybuilding

text: In natural contests, the testing protocol ranges among organizations from lie detectors to urinalysis. Penalties also range from organization to organization from suspensions to strict bans from competition. It is also important to note that natural organizations also have their own list of banned substances and it is important to refer to each organization's website for more information about which substances are banned from competition. There are many natural bodybuilding organizations; some of the larger ones include: MuscleMania, Ultimate Fitness Events (UFE), INBF/WNBF, and INBA/PNBA. These organizations either have an American or worldwide presence and are not limited to the country in which they are headquartered.


title: Bodybuilding

text: Due to those who found open-bodybuilding to be "too big" or "ugly" and unhealthy, a new category was started in 2013. The first Men's Physique Olympia winner was Mark Wingson, who was followed by Jeremy Buendia for four consecutive years. Like open-bodybuilding, the federations in which bodybuilders can compete are natural divisions as well as normal ones. The main difference between the two is that men's physique competitors pose in board shorts rather than a traditional posing suit and open-bodybuilders are much larger and are more muscular than the men's physique competitors. Open-bodybuilders have an extensive routine for posing while the Physique category is primarily judged by the front and back poses. Many of the men's physique competitors are not above 200 lbs and have a bit of a more attainable and aesthetic physique in comparison to open-bodybuilders. Although this category started off slowly, it has grown tremendously, and currently men's physique seems to be a more popular class than open-bodybuilding.


title: Bodybuilding

text: This is the middle ground of both Men's Physique and Bodybuilding. The competitors in this category are not nearly as big as bodybuilders but not as small as men's physique competitors. They pose and perform in men's boxer briefs to show off the legs, unlike Men's Physique which hide the legs in board shorts. Classic physique has only been around for 4 years now as it started in 2016. Danny Hester was the first classic physique Mr. Olympia and as of 2022, Chris Bumstead is the 4x reigning Mr. Olympia.


title: Bodybuilding

text: The female movement of the 1960s, combined with Title IX and the all around fitness revolution, gave birth to new alternative perspectives of feminine beauty that included an athletic physique of toned muscle. This athletic physique was found in various popular media outlets such as fashion magazines. Female bodybuilders changed the limits of traditional femininity as their bodies showed that muscles are not only just for men.


title: Bodybuilding

text: The first U.S. Women's National Physique Championship, promoted by Henry McGhee and held in 1978 in Canton, Ohio, is generally regarded as the first true female bodybuilding contest—that is, the first contest where the entrants were judged solely on muscularity. In 1980, the first Ms. Olympia (initially known as the "Miss" Olympia), the most prestigious contest for professionals, was held. The first winner was Rachel McLish, who had also won the NPC's USA Championship earlier in the year. The contest was a major turning point for female bodybuilding. McLish inspired many future competitors to start training and competing.


title: Bodybuilding

text: In 1985, the documentary "" was released. It documented the preparation of several women for the 1983 Caesars Palace World Cup Championship. Competitors prominently featured in the film were Kris Alexander, Lori Bowen, Lydia Cheng, Carla Dunlap, Bev Francis, and McLish. At the time, Francis was actually a powerlifter, though she soon made a successful transition to bodybuilding, becoming one of the leading competitors of the late 1980s and early 1990s.


title: Bodybuilding

text: In recent years, the related areas of fitness and figure competition have increased in popularity, surpassing that of female bodybuilding, and have provided an alternative for women who choose not to develop the level of muscularity necessary for bodybuilding. McLish would closely resemble what is thought of today as a fitness and figure competitor, instead of what is now considered a female bodybuilder. Fitness competitions also have a gymnastic element to them.


title: Bodybuilding

text: E. Wilma Conner competed in the 2011 NPC Armbrust Pro Gym Warrior Classic Championships in Loveland, Colorado, at the age of 75 years and 349 days.


title: Bodybuilding

text: In competitive bodybuilding, bodybuilders aspire to present an aesthetically pleasing body on stage. In prejudging, competitors do a series of mandatory poses: the front lat spread, rear lat spread, front double biceps, back double biceps, side chest, side triceps, Most Muscular (men only), abdominals and thighs. Each competitor also performs a personal choreographed routine to display their physique. A posedown is usually held at the end of a posing round, while judges are finishing their scoring. Bodybuilders usually spend a lot of time practising their posing in front of mirrors or under the guidance of their coach.


title: Bodybuilding

text: In contrast to strongman or powerlifting competitions, where physical strength is paramount, or to Olympic weightlifting, where the main point is equally split between strength and technique, bodybuilding competitions typically emphasize condition, size, and symmetry. Different organizations emphasize particular aspects of competition, and sometimes have different categories in which to compete.


title: Bodybuilding

text: The general strategy adopted by most present-day competitive bodybuilders is to make muscle gains for most of the year (known as the "off-season") and, approximately 12–14 weeks from competition, lose a maximum of body fat (referred to as "cutting") while preserving as much muscular mass as possible. The bulking phase entails remaining in a net positive energy balance (calorie surplus). The amount of a surplus in which a person remains is based on the person's goals, as a bigger surplus and longer bulking phase will create more fat tissue. The surplus of calories relative to one's energy balance will ensure that muscles remain in a state of anabolism.


title: Bodybuilding

text: The cutting phase entails remaining in a net negative energy balance (calorie deficit). The main goal of cutting is to oxidize fat while preserving as much muscle as possible. The larger the calorie deficit, the faster one will lose weight. However, a large calorie deficit will also create the risk of losing muscle tissue.


title: Bodybuilding

text: The bulking and cutting strategy is effective because there is a well-established link between muscle hypertrophy and being in a state of positive energy balance. A sustained period of caloric surplus will allow the athlete to gain more fat-free mass than they could otherwise gain under eucaloric conditions. Some gain in fat mass is expected, which athletes seek to oxidize in a cutting period while maintaining as much lean mass as possible.


title: Bodybuilding

text: The attempt to increase muscle mass in one's body without any gain in fat is called clean bulking. Competitive bodybuilders focus their efforts to achieve a peak appearance during a brief "competition season". Clean bulking takes longer and is a more refined approach to achieving the body fat and muscle mass percentage a person is looking for. A common tactic for keeping fat low and muscle mass high is to have higher calorie and lower calorie days to maintain a balance between gain and loss. Many clean bulk diets start off with a moderate amount of carbs, moderate amount of protein, and a low amount of fats. To maintain a clean bulk, it is important to reach calorie goals every day. Macronutrient goals (carbs, fats, and proteins) will be different for each person, but it is ideal to get as close as possible.


title: Bodybuilding

text: "Dirty bulking" is the process of eating at a massive caloric surplus without trying to figure out the exact amount of ingested macronutrients. Weightlifters who are attempting to gain mass quickly with no aesthetic concerns often choose to use the "dirty bulk" method.


title: Bodybuilding

text: Intensive weight training causes micro-tears to the muscles being trained; this is generally known as microtrauma. These micro-tears in the muscle contribute to the soreness felt after exercise, called delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS). It is the repair of these micro-traumas that results in muscle growth. Normally, this soreness becomes most apparent a day or two after a workout. However, as muscles become adapted to the exercises, soreness tends to decrease.


title: Bodybuilding

text: Weight training aims to build muscle by prompting two different types of hypertrophy: sarcoplasmic and myofibrillar. Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy leads to larger muscles and so is favored by bodybuilders more than myofibrillar hypertrophy, which builds athletic strength. Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy is triggered by increasing repetitions, whereas myofibrillar hypertrophy is triggered by lifting heavier weight. In either case, there is an increase in both size and strength of the muscles (compared to what happens if that same individual does not lift weights at all), however, the emphasis is different.


title: Bodybuilding

text: The high levels of muscle growth and repair achieved by bodybuilders require a specialized diet. Generally speaking, bodybuilders require more calories than the average person of the same weight to provide the protein and energy requirements needed to support their training and increase muscle mass. In preparation of a contest, a sub-maintenance level of food energy is combined with cardiovascular exercise to lose body fat. Proteins, carbohydrates and fats are the three major macronutrients that the human body needs in order to build muscle. The ratios of calories from carbohydrates, proteins, and fats vary depending on the goals of the bodybuilder.


title: Bodybuilding

text: Carbohydrates play an important role for bodybuilders. They give the body energy to deal with the rigors of training and recovery. Carbohydrates also promote secretion of insulin, a hormone enabling cells to get the glucose they need. Insulin also carries amino acids into cells and promotes protein synthesis. Insulin has steroid-like effects in terms of muscle gains. It is impossible to promote protein synthesis without the existence of insulin, which means that without ingesting carbohydrates or protein—which also induces the release of insulin—it is impossible to add muscle mass. Bodybuilders seek out low-glycemic polysaccharides and other slowly digesting carbohydrates, which release energy in a more stable fashion than high-glycemic sugars and starches. This is important as high-glycemic carbohydrates cause a sharp insulin response, which places the body in a state where it is likely to store additional food energy as fat. However, bodybuilders frequently do ingest some quickly digesting sugars (often in form of pure dextrose or maltodextrin) just before, during, and/or just after a workout. This may help to replenish glycogen stored within the muscle, and to stimulate muscle protein synthesis.


title: Bodybuilding

text: The motor proteins actin and myosin generate the forces exerted by contracting muscles. Cortisol decreases amino acid uptake by muscle and inhibits protein synthesis. Current recommendations suggest that bodybuilders should consume 25–30% of protein per total calorie intake to further their goal of maintaining and improving their body composition. This is a widely debated topic, with many arguing that 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight per day is ideal, some suggesting that less is sufficient, while others recommending 1.5, 2, or more. It is believed that protein needs to be consumed frequently throughout the day, especially during/after a workout, and before sleep. There is also some debate concerning the best type of protein to take. Chicken, turkey, beef, pork, fish, eggs and dairy foods are high in protein, as are some nuts, seeds, beans, and lentils. Casein or whey are often used to supplement the diet with additional protein. Whey is the type of protein contained in many popular brands of protein supplements and is preferred by many bodybuilders because of its high biological value (BV) and quick absorption rates. Whey protein also has a bigger effect than casein on insulin levels, triggering about double the amount of insulin release. That effect is somewhat overcome by combining casein and whey.


title: Bodybuilding

text: Bodybuilders were previously thought to require protein with a higher BV than that of soy, which was additionally avoided due to its alleged estrogenic (female hormone) properties, though more recent studies have shown that soy actually contains phytoestrogens which compete with estrogens in the male body and can block estrogenic actions. Soy, flax, and other plant-based foods that contain phytoestrogens are also beneficial because they can inhibit some pituitary functions while stimulating the liver's P450 system (which eliminates hormones, drugs, and waste from the body) to more actively process and excrete excess estrogen.


title: Bodybuilding

text: Some bodybuilders often split their food intake into 5 to 7 meals of equal nutritional content and eat at regular intervals (e.g., every 2 to 3 hours). This approach serves two purposes: to limit overindulging in the cutting phase, and to allow for the consumption of large volumes of food during the bulking phase. Eating more frequently does not increase basal metabolic rate when compared to 3 meals a day. While food does have a metabolic cost to digest, absorb, and store, called the thermic effect of food, it depends on the quantity and type of food, not how the food is spread across the meals of the day. Well-controlled studies using whole-body calorimetry and doubly labeled water have demonstrated that there is no metabolic advantage to eating more frequently.


title: Bodybuilding

text: The important role of nutrition in building muscle and losing fat means bodybuilders may consume a wide variety of dietary supplements. Various products are used in an attempt to augment muscle size, increase the rate of fat loss, improve joint health, increase natural testosterone production, enhance training performance and prevent potential nutrient deficiencies.


title: Bodybuilding

text: Some bodybuilders use drugs such as anabolic steroids and precursor substances such as prohormones to increase muscle hypertrophy. Anabolic steroids cause hypertrophy of both types (I and II) of muscle fibers, likely caused by an increased synthesis of muscle proteins. They also provoke undesired side effects including hepatotoxicity, gynecomastia, acne, the early onset of male pattern baldness and a decline in the body's own testosterone production, which can cause testicular atrophy. Other performance-enhancing substances used by competitive bodybuilders include human growth hormone (HGH). HGH is also used by female bodybuilders to obtain bigger muscles "while maintaining a 'female appearance'".


title: Bodybuilding

text: Muscle growth is more difficult to achieve in older adults than younger adults because of biological aging, which leads to many metabolic changes detrimental to muscle growth; for instance, by diminishing growth hormone and testosterone levels. Some recent clinical studies have shown that low-dose HGH treatment for adults with HGH deficiency changes the body composition by increasing muscle mass, decreasing fat mass, increasing bone density and muscle strength, improves cardiovascular parameters, and affects the quality of life without significant side effects.


title: Bodybuilding

text: In rodents, knockdown of metallothionein gene expression results in activation of the Akt pathway and increases in myotube size, in type IIb fiber hypertrophy, and ultimately in muscle strength.


title: Bodybuilding

text: A recent trend in bodybuilding is to inject synthol into muscles to create larger bulges, or injecting PMMA into muscles to shape them. Use of PMMA to shape muscles is prohibited in the United States. However, it is not illegal to use synthol.


title: Bodybuilding

text: Site enhancement oil, often called "santol" or "synthol" (no relation to the Synthol mouthwash brand), refers to oils injected into muscles to increase the size or change the shape. Some bodybuilders, particularly at the professional level, inject their muscles with such mixtures to mimic the appearance of developed muscle where it may otherwise be disproportionate or lacking. This is known as "fluffing". Synthol is 85% oil, 7.5% lidocaine, and 7.5% alcohol. It is not restricted, and many brands are available on the Internet. The use of injected oil to enhance muscle appearance is common among bodybuilders, despite the fact that synthol can cause pulmonary embolisms, nerve damage, infections, sclerosing lipogranuloma, stroke, and the formation of oil-filled granulomas, cysts or ulcers in the muscle. Rare cases might require surgical intervention to avoid further damage to the muscle and/or to prevent loss of life.


title: Bodybuilding

text: Although muscle "stimulation" occurs when lifting weights, muscle "growth" occurs afterward during rest periods. Without adequate rest (48 to 72 hours) and sleep (6 to 8 hours a night), muscles do not have an opportunity to recover and grow. Additionally, many athletes find that a daytime nap further increases their body's ability to recover from training and build muscles. Some bodybuilders add a massage at the end of each workout to their routine as a method of recovering.


title: Bodybuilding

text: Overtraining occurs when a bodybuilder has trained to the point where their workload exceeds their recovery capacity. There are many reasons why overtraining occurs, including lack of adequate nutrition, lack of recovery time between workouts, insufficient sleep, and training at a high intensity for too long (a lack of splitting apart workouts). Training at a high intensity too frequently also stimulates the central nervous system (CNS) and can result in a hyperadrenergic state that interferes with sleep patterns. To avoid overtraining, intense frequent training must be met with at least an equal amount of purposeful recovery. Timely provision of carbohydrates, proteins, and various micronutrients such as vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, even nutritional supplements are critical. A mental disorder, informally called bigorexia (by analogy with anorexia), may account for overtraining in some individuals. Sufferers feel as if they are never big enough or muscular enough, which forces them to overtrain in order to try to reach their goal physique.


title: Bodybuilding

text: An article by "Muscle & Fitness" magazine, "Overtrain for Big Gains", claimed that overtraining for a brief period can be beneficial. Overtraining can be used advantageously, as when a bodybuilder is purposely overtrained for a brief period of time to super compensate during a regeneration phase. These are known as "shock micro-cycles" and were a key training technique used by Soviet athletes.


title: Vasa (ship)

text: Vasa or Wasa () is a Swedish warship built between 1626 and 1628. The ship sank after sailing roughly 1,300 m (1,400 yd) into her maiden voyage on 10 August 1628. She fell into obscurity after most of her valuable bronze cannons were salvaged in the 17th century, until she was located again in the late 1950s in a busy shipping area in Stockholm harbor. The ship was salvaged with a largely intact hull in 1961. She was housed in a temporary museum called Wasavarvet ("The Vasa Shipyard") until 1988 and then moved permanently to the Vasa Museum in the Royal National City Park in Stockholm. The ship is one of Sweden's most popular tourist attractions and has been seen by over 35 million visitors since 1961. Since her recovery, "Vasa" has become a widely recognized symbol of the Swedish Empire.


title: Vasa (ship)

text: The ship was built on the orders of the King of Sweden Gustavus Adolphus as part of the military expansion he initiated in a war with Poland-Lithuania (1621–1629). She was constructed at the navy yard in Stockholm under a contract with private entrepreneurs in 1626–1627 and armed primarily with bronze cannons cast in Stockholm specifically for the ship. Richly decorated as a symbol of the king's ambitions for Sweden and himself, upon completion she was one of the most powerfully armed vessels in the world. However, "Vasa" was dangerously unstable, with too much weight in the upper structure of the hull. Despite this lack of stability, she was ordered to sea and foundered only a few minutes after encountering a wind stronger than a breeze.


title: Vasa (ship)

text: The order to sail was the result of a combination of factors. The king, who was leading the army in Poland at the time of her maiden voyage, was impatient to see her take up her station as flagship of the reserve squadron at Älvsnabben in the Stockholm Archipelago. At the same time the king's subordinates lacked the political courage to openly discuss the ship's problems or to have the maiden voyage postponed. An inquiry was organized by the Swedish Privy Council to find those responsible for the disaster, but in the end no one was punished.


title: Vasa (ship)

text: During the 1961 recovery, thousands of artifacts and the remains of at least 15 people were found in and around "Vasa"s hull by marine archaeologists. Among the many items found were clothing, weapons, cannons, tools, coins, cutlery, food, drink and six of the ten sails. The artifacts and the ship herself have provided scholars with invaluable insights into details of naval warfare, shipbuilding techniques and everyday life in early 17th-century Sweden. Today "Vasa" is the world's best-preserved 17th century ship, and the most visited museum in Scandinavia. The wreck of "Vasa" continually undergoes monitoring and further research on how to preserve her.


title: Vasa (ship)

text: During the 17th century, Sweden went from being a sparsely populated, poor, and peripheral northern European kingdom of little influence to one of the major powers in continental politics. Between 1611 and 1718 it was the dominant power in the Baltic, eventually gaining territory that encompassed the Baltic on all sides. This rise to prominence in international affairs and increase in military prowess, called "stormaktstiden" ("age of greatness" or "great power period"), was made possible by a succession of able monarchs and the establishment of a powerful centralized government, supporting a highly efficient military organization. Swedish historians have described this as one of the more extreme examples of an early modern state using almost all of its available resources to wage war; the small northern kingdom transformed itself into a fiscal-military state and one of the most militarized states in history.


title: Vasa (ship)

text: Gustavus Adolphus (1594–1632) has been considered one of the most successful Swedish kings in terms of success in warfare. When "Vasa" was built, he had been in power for more than a decade. Sweden was embroiled in a war with Poland-Lithuania, and looked apprehensively at the development of the Thirty Years' War in present-day Germany. The war had been raging since 1618 and from a Protestant perspective it was not successful. The king's plans for a Polish campaign and for securing Sweden's interests required a strong naval presence in the Baltic.


title: Vasa (ship)

text: The navy suffered several severe setbacks during the 1620s. In 1625, a squadron cruising in the Bay of Riga was caught in a storm and ten ships ran aground and were wrecked. In the Battle of Oliwa in 1627, a Swedish squadron was outmaneuvered and defeated by a Polish force and two large ships were lost. "Tigern" ("The Tiger"), which was the Swedish admiral's flagship, was captured by the Poles, and "Solen" ("The Sun") was blown up by her own crew when it was boarded and nearly captured. In 1628, three more large ships were lost in less than a month. Admiral Klas Fleming's flagship "Kristina" was wrecked in a storm in the Gulf of Danzig, "Riksnyckeln" ("Key of the Realm") ran aground at Viksten in the southern archipelago of Stockholm and "Vasa" foundered on her maiden voyage.


title: Vasa (ship)

text: Gustavus Adolphus was engaged in naval warfare on several fronts, which further exacerbated the difficulties of the navy. In addition to battling the Polish navy, the Swedes were indirectly threatened by Imperial forces that had invaded Jutland. The Swedish king had little sympathy for the Danish king, Christian IV, and Denmark and Sweden had been bitter enemies for well over a century. However, Sweden feared a Catholic conquest of Copenhagen and Zealand. This would have granted the Catholic powers control over the strategic passages between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, which would be disastrous for Swedish interests.


title: Vasa (ship)

text: Until the early 17th century, the Swedish navy was composed primarily of small to medium-sized ships with a single gundeck, normally armed with 12-pounder and smaller cannons; these ships were cheaper than larger ships and were well-suited for escort and patrol. They also suited the prevailing tactical thinking within the navy, which emphasized boarding as the decisive moment in a naval battle rather than gunnery. The king, who was a keen artillerist, saw the potential of ships as gun platforms, and large, heavily armed ships made a more dramatic statement in the political theater of naval power. Beginning with "Vasa", he ordered a series of ships with two full gundecks, outfitted with much heavier guns.


title: Vasa (ship)

text: Five such ships were built after "Vasa": "Äpplet" ("The Apple"), "Kronan" ("The Crown"), "Scepter" ("Sceptre") and "Göta Ark" ("Ark of Gothenburg"), before the Privy Council cancelled the orders for the others after the king's death in 1632. These ships, especially "Kronan" and "Scepter", were much more successful, took part in battles, and served as flagships in the Swedish navy until the 1660s. The second of the so-called "regalskepp" (usually translated as "royal ships"), "Äpplet" was built simultaneously with "Vasa". The only significant difference between the design of "Vasa" and her sister ship was an increase in width of about a meter (3.1 ft). The wreck of "Äpplet", visibly very similar to "Vasa", was found in December 2021. "Äpplet", and other ships, are believed ultimately to have been decommissioned and sunk as underwater spike strips to snag enemy ships.


title: Vasa (ship)

text: Just before "Vasa" was ordered, Dutch-born Henrik Hybertsson ("Master Henrik") was shipwright at the Stockholm shipyard. On 16 January 1625, Master Henrik and business partner Arendt de Groote signed a contract to build four ships, two with a keel of around and two smaller ones of .


title: Vasa (ship)

text: Master Henrik and Arendt de Groote began buying the raw materials needed for the first ships in 1625, purchasing timber from individual estates in Sweden as well as buying rough-sawn planking in Riga, Königsberg (modern Kaliningrad), and Amsterdam. As they prepared to begin the first of the new ships in the autumn of 1625, Henrik corresponded with the king through Vice Admiral Klas Fleming about which ship to build first. The loss of ten ships in the Bay of Riga led the king to propose building two ships of a new, medium size as a quick compromise, and he sent a specification for this, a ship which would be 120 feet (35.6 m) long on the keel. Henrik declined, since he had already cut the timber for a large and a small ship. He laid the keel for a larger ship in late February or early March 1626. Master Henrik never saw Vasa completed; he fell ill in late 1625, and by the summer of 1626 he had handed over supervision of the work in the yard to another Dutch shipwright, Henrik "Hein" Jacobsson. He died in the spring of 1627, probably about the same time as the ship was launched.


title: Vasa (ship)

text: After launching, work continued on finishing the upper deck, the sterncastle, the beakhead and the rigging. Sweden had still not developed a sizeable sailcloth industry, and material had to be ordered from abroad. In the contract for the maintenance of rigging, French sailcloth was specified, but the cloth for the sails of "Vasa" most likely came from Holland. The sails were made mostly of hemp and partly of flax. The rigging was made entirely of hemp imported from Latvia through Riga. The king visited the shipyard in January 1628 and made what was probably his only visit aboard the ship.


title: Vasa (ship)

text: In the summer of 1628, the captain responsible for supervising construction of the ship, Söfring Hansson, arranged for the ship's stability to be demonstrated for Vice Admiral Fleming, who had recently arrived in Stockholm from Prussia. Thirty men ran back and forth across the upper deck to start the ship rolling, but the admiral stopped the test after they had made only three trips, as he feared the ship would capsize. According to testimony by the ship's master, Göran Mattson, Fleming remarked that he wished the king were at home. Gustavus Adolphus had been sending a steady stream of letters insisting that the ship be put to sea as soon as possible.


title: Vasa (ship)

text: There has been much speculation about whether "Vasa" was lengthened during construction and whether an additional gun deck was added late during the build. Little evidence suggests that "Vasa" was substantially modified after the keel was laid. Ships contemporary to "Vasa" that were elongated were cut in half and new timbers spliced between the existing sections, making the addition readily identifiable, but no such addition can be identified in the hull, nor is there any evidence for any late additions of a second gundeck.


title: Vasa (ship)

text: The king ordered seventy-two 24-pound guns for the ship on 5 August 1626, and this was too many to fit on a single gun deck. Since the king's order was issued less than five months after construction started, it would have come early enough for the second deck to be included in the design. The French "Galion du Guise", the ship used as a model for "Vasa", according to Arendt de Groote, also had two gun decks. Laser measurements of "Vasa's" structure conducted in 2007–2011 confirmed that no major changes were implemented during construction, but that the centre of gravity was too high.


title: Vasa (ship)

text: "Vasa" was an early example of a warship with two full gun decks, and was built when the theoretical principles of shipbuilding were still poorly understood. There is no evidence that Henrik Hybertsson had ever built a ship like it before, and two gundecks is a much more complicated compromise between seaworthiness and firepower than a single gundeck. Safety margins at the time were also far below anything that would be acceptable today. Combined with the fact that 17th-century warships were built with intentionally high superstructures (to be used as firing platforms), this made "Vasa" a risky undertaking. Henrik Hybertsson died in 1627, before the ship was finished, and the contract was taken over by his widow Margareta Nilsdotter.


title: Vasa (ship)

text: "Vasa" was built during a time of transition in naval tactics, from an era when boarding was still one of the primary ways of fighting enemy ships to an era of the strictly organized ship-of-the-line and a focus on victory through superior gunnery. "Vasa" was armed with powerful guns and built with a high stern, which would act as a firing platform in boarding actions for some of the 300 soldiers it was supposed to carry, but the high-sided hull and narrow upper deck were not optimized for boarding. It was neither the largest ship ever built, nor the one carrying the greatest number of guns. What made her arguably the most powerful warship of the time was the combined weight of shot that could be fired from the cannons of one side: 588 pounds (267 kg), excluding "stormstycken", guns used for firing anti-personnel ammunition instead of solid shot. This was the largest concentration of artillery in a single warship in the Baltic at the time, perhaps in all of northern Europe, and it was not until the 1630s that a ship with more firepower was built. This large amount of naval artillery was placed on a ship that was quite small relative to the armament carried. By comparison, , a frigate built by the United States 169 years after "Vasa", had roughly the same firepower, but was over heavier.


title: Vasa (ship)

text: The "Constitution", however, belonged to a later era of naval warfare that employed the line of battle tactic, where ships fought in a line of ships (or "line ahead") attempting to present the batteries of one side of each ship toward the enemy. The guns would be aimed in the same direction, and fire could be concentrated on a single target. In the 17th century, tactics involving organized formations of large fleets had still not been developed. Rather, ships would fight individually or in small improvised groups, and focused on boarding. "Vasa", though possessing a formidable battery, was built with these tactics in mind, and therefore lacked a unified broadside with guns that were all aimed in roughly the same direction. Rather, the guns were intended to be fired independently and were arranged according to the curvature of the hull, so that the ship bristled with artillery in all directions, covering virtually all angles.


title: Vasa (ship)

text: Naval gunnery in the 17th century was still in its infancy. Guns were expensive and had a much longer lifespan than any warship. Guns with a lifetime of over a century were not unheard of, while most warships would be used for only 15 to 20 years. In Sweden and many other European countries, a ship would normally not "own" its guns, but would be issued armament from the armory for every campaign season. Ships were therefore usually fitted with guns of very diverse age and size. What allowed "Vasa" to carry so much firepower was not merely that an unusually large number of guns were crammed into a relatively small ship, but also that the 46 main 24-pounder guns were of a new and standardized lightweight design. These were cast in a single series at the state gun foundry in Stockholm, under the direction of the Swiss-born founder Medardus Gessus. Two additional 24-pounders, of a heavier and older design, were mounted in the bows as "bow chasers". Four more heavy guns were intended for the stern, but the cannon foundry could not cast guns as fast as the navy yard could build ships, and "Vasa" waited nearly a year after construction was finished for its armament. When the ship sailed in August 1628, eight of the planned armament of 72 guns had still not been delivered. All cannons during this time had to be made from individually made moulds that could not be reused, but "Vasa's" guns had such uniform precision in their manufacturing that their primary dimensions varied by only a few millimeters, and their bores were almost exactly 146 mm (5.7 in). The remaining armament of "Vasa" consisted of eight 3-pounders, six large-caliber "stormstycken" (similar to what the English called howitzers) for use during boarding actions, and two 1-pound falconets. Also included on board were 894 kilograms (1,970 lb) of gunpowder and over 1,000 shot of various types for the guns.


title: Vasa (ship)

text: As was the custom with warships at the time, "Vasa" was decorated with sculptures intended to glorify the authority, wisdom and martial prowess of the monarch and also to deride, taunt and intimidate the enemy. The sculptures made up a considerable part of the effort and cost of building the ship. The symbolism used in decorating the ship was mostly based on the Renaissance idealization of Roman and Greek antiquity, which had been imported from Italy through German and Dutch artists. Imagery borrowed from Mediterranean antiquity dominates the motifs, but also include figures from the Old Testament and even a few from ancient Egypt. Many of the figures are in Dutch grotesque style, depicting fantastic and frightening creatures, including mermaids, wild men, sea monsters and tritons. The decoration inside the ship is much sparser and is largely confined to the steerage and the great cabin, at the after end of the upper gundeck.


title: Vasa (ship)

text: Residues of paint have been found on many sculptures and on other parts of the ship. The entire ornamentation was once painted in vivid colors. The sides of the beakhead (the protruding structure below the bowsprit), the bulwarks (the protective railing around the weather deck), the roofs of the quarter galleries, and the background of the transom (the flat surface at the stern of the ship) were all painted red, while the sculptures were decorated in bright colors, and the dazzling effect of these was in some places emphasized with gold leaf. Previously, it was believed that the background color had been blue and that all sculptures had been almost entirely gilded, and this is reflected in many paintings of "Vasa" from the 1970s to the early 1990s, such as the lively and dramatic drawings of Björn Landström or the painting by Francis Smitheman. In the late 1990s, this view was revised and the colors are properly reflected in more recent reproductions of the ship's decoration by maritime painter Tim Thompson and the 1:10 scale model in the museum. "Vasa" is an example not so much of the heavily gilded sculptures of early Baroque art but rather "the last gasps of the medieval sculpture tradition" with its fondness for gaudy colors, in a style that today would be considered extravagant or even vulgar.


title: Vasa (ship)

text: The sculptures are carved out of oak, pine or linden, and many of the larger pieces, like the huge 3-meter (10 ft) long figurehead lion, consist of several parts carved individually and fitted together with bolts. Close to 500 sculptures, most of which are concentrated on the high stern and its galleries and on the beakhead, are found on the ship. The figure of Hercules appears as a pair of pendants, one younger and one older, on each side of the lower stern galleries; the pendants depict opposite aspects of the ancient hero, who was extremely popular during antiquity as well as in 17th-century European art. On the transom are biblical and nationalistic symbols and images. A particularly popular motif is the lion, which can be found as mascarons originally fitted on the insides of the gunport doors, grasping the royal coat of arms on either side, the figurehead, and even clinging to the top of the rudder. Each side of the beakhead originally had 20 figures (though only 19 have actually been found) that depicted Roman emperors from Tiberius to Septimius Severus.


title: Vasa (ship)

text: Overall, almost all heroic and positive imagery is directly or indirectly identified with the king and was originally intended to glorify him as a wise and powerful ruler. The only actual portrait of the king is located at the very top of the transom in the stern. Here he is depicted as a young boy with long, flowing hair, being crowned by two griffins representing the king's father, Charles IX.


title: Vasa (ship)

text: A team of at least six expert sculptors worked for a minimum of two years on the sculptures, most likely with the assistance of an unknown number of apprentices and assistants. No direct credit for any of the sculptures has been provided, but the distinct style of one of the most senior artists, Mårten Redtmer, is clearly identifiable. Other accomplished artists, like Hans Clausink, Johan Didrichson Tijsen (or "Thessen" in Swedish) and possibly Marcus Ledens, are known to have been employed for extensive work at the naval yards at the time "Vasa" was built, but their respective styles are not distinct enough to associate them directly with any specific sculptures.


title: Vasa (ship)

text: The artistic quality of the sculptures varies considerably, and about four distinct styles can be identified. The only artist who has been positively associated with various sculptures is Mårten Redtmer, whose style has been described as "powerful, lively and naturalistic". He was responsible for a considerable number of the sculptures. These include some of the most important and prestigious pieces: the figurehead lion, the royal coat of arms, and the sculpture of the king at the top of the transom. Two of the other styles are described as "elegant ... a little stereotyped and manneristic", and of a "heavy, leisurely but nevertheless rich and lively style", respectively. The fourth and last style, deemed clearly inferior to the other three, is described as "stiff and ungainly" and was done by other carvers, perhaps even apprentices, of lesser skill.


title: Vasa (ship)

text: On 10 August 1628, Captain Söfring Hansson ordered "Vasa" to depart on her maiden voyage to the naval station at Älvsnabben. The day was calm, and the only wind was a light breeze from the southwest. The ship was warped (hauled by anchor) along the eastern waterfront of the city to the southern side of the harbor, where four sails were set, and the ship made way to the east. The gun ports were open, and the guns were out to fire a salute as the ship left Stockholm.


title: Vasa (ship)

text: As "Vasa" passed under the lee of the bluffs to the south (now called Södermalm), a gust of wind filled her sails, and she heeled suddenly to port. The sheets were cast off, and the ship slowly righted herself as the gust passed. At Tegelviken, where there is a gap in the bluffs, an even stronger gust again forced the ship onto her port side, this time pushing the open lower gunports under the surface, allowing water to rush in onto the lower gundeck. The water building up on the deck quickly exceeded the ship's minimal righting ability, and water continued to pour in until it ran down into the hold. The ship swiftly sank to a depth of 32 m (105 ft) only 120 m (390 ft) from shore. Survivors clung to debris or the upper masts, which were still above the surface. Many nearby boats rushed to their aid, but despite these efforts and the short distance to land, 30 people reportedly perished with the ship. "Vasa" sank in full view of a crowd of hundreds, if not thousands, of mostly ordinary Stockholmers who had come to see the ship set sail. The crowd included foreign ambassadors, in effect spies of Gustavus Adolphus' allies and enemies.


title: Vasa (ship)

text: The Council sent a letter to the king the day after the loss, telling him of the sinking, but it took over two weeks to reach him in Poland. "Imprudence and negligence" must have been the cause, he wrote angrily in his reply, demanding in no uncertain terms that the guilty parties be punished. Captain Söfring Hansson, who survived the disaster, was immediately taken for questioning. Under initial interrogation, he swore that the guns had been properly secured and that the crew was sober.


title: Vasa (ship)

text: A full inquest before a tribunal of members of the Privy Council and Admiralty took place at the Royal Palace on 5 September 1628. Each of the surviving officers was questioned as was the supervising shipwright and a number of expert witnesses. Also present at the inquest was the Admiral of the Realm, Carl Carlsson Gyllenhielm. The object of the inquest was as much or more to find a scapegoat as to find out why the ship had sunk. Whoever the committee might find guilty for the fiasco would face a severe penalty.


title: Vasa (ship)

text: Surviving crew members were questioned one by one about the handling of the ship at the time of the disaster. Was it rigged properly for the wind? Was the crew sober? Was the ballast properly stowed? Were the guns properly secured? However, no one was prepared to take the blame. Crewmen and contractors formed two camps; each tried to blame the other, and everyone swore he had done his duty without fault and it was during the inquest that the details of the stability demonstration were revealed.