Tim Drake. Batman’s third Robin (a title he held for nearly 20 years). A master detective with genius level intellect, a talented fighter and acrobat, and one of DC’s most popular characters. Until recently that is.
With the New 52 reboot starting in 2011, many characters and stories have changed. Martian Man-Hunter, once one of the leading members of the Justice league, was relegated to the little known “Stormwatch” for a time and currently finds himself without a book at all. And Stephanie Brown, a former Robin herself and the most recent Batgirl, seems to have disappeared completely from the new continuity. So what about Tim Drake? He is still present in Gotham City, but not like he used to be.
With Dick Grayson starring in Nightwing, Jason Todd in Red Hood and the Outlaws and Damien Wayne in Batman and Robin, Drake is the only Robin with no book to his name. What’s more, it has been revealed that Tim Drake was never Robin at all. Now known as “Red Robin”, the name he took up after the apparent death of Batman in 2008, Drake is part of the somewhat ill-received Teen Titans series. Another strange change is that Red Robin does not seem to use a bow staff, the signature weapon of Tim Drake since before he even became Robin.
A few months ago in Teen Titans Issue #0 even more shocking departures were revealed. Firstly, Tim Drake has loving, and more importantly living parents. Rather than losing both of his neglectful parents in the span of a few years, he has a pair of very proud and caring parents. The next, is that Tim Drake never actually discovers that the Dark Knight is Bruce Wayne. He gets close to the discovery, but Batman recruits him and brings him home before he figures it out for himself. That Discovery is perhaps the defining event of the original Tim Drake, convincing Batman to hire him after swearing never to take a partner again.
So in summation; The New Tim Drake was never Robin, he no longer uses his signature weapon, he has a completely different family history, and he never performed the incredible feat that made Batman hire him in the first place. With all of that change, could the character possibly be even more different? The answer, shockingly, is yes. In the last few pages of Issue #0 the most stark difference of all is revealed. After stealing a large sum of money from the Penguin, Tim’s parents are put into the witness protection program where they are given a new last name; Drake. In other words, though his first name remains Timothy his real last name is unknown.
The New 52 has surely made changes in the world of the Bat Family, but Red Robin may be the most pronounced. With no book of his own and not a lot of fan support for either his current placing or his new costume, Tim Drake may be in trouble. The current story arc of the Bat family as a whole titled “Death of the Family” promises to change Gotham drastically. If anyone in the family is actually to die, Tim Drake may just be the most likely candidate.
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7 Comments
This article basically sums up all of my despair and frustration over what DC has done to Tim Drake recently. I fell in love with the Chuck Dixon Tim Drake when I read Knightfall, and am currently striving to collect all of the Robin comics. But when I got to the New 52 Teen Titans, and saw that the writer, Scott Lobdell, basically liked to take characters and destroy their personalities just to make the comic more action oriented, I became pretty disgusted with the writing and stopped bothering to read Teen Titans. I also agree that Tim Drake deserves his own series. He has always been a powerful enough character where he does not need to be with a group, or any one person all the time…that is, when the writing is done well, anyways!
This article basically sums up all of my despair and frustration over the way DC has treated Tim Drake recently. I fell in love with Chuck Dixon’s portrayal of the character when I read Knightfall, and have been collecting the Robin comics ever since. When I read the New 52 Teen Titans, I found myself irritated at Scott Lodell’s writing, who basically took deep characters who have had great writing in the past, and he threw away all of their personalities in order to make a more action oriented story. I feel like he doesn’t ‘get’ character depth at all! I also agree with you that Tim Drake is a great stand alone character who deserves his own series. It has pretty much always been that way anyways. Why change it?
WHoops! Sorry! Didn’t realize the website posted the first one!
Tim has always been my favorite of the Robins, so I’m not liking these changes.
Dan DiDio needs to go.
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