10 Amazing Comic Book Redesigns That Didn't Last

by Ewan Paterson

1. Pre-New 52 Red Robin

Red Robin Tim Drake
DC Comics

The New 52 featured some hokey redesigns, but perhaps the most unfortunate belonged to Tim Drake. The character had rebranded himself as Red Robin in 2009, at which point Damian Wayne became the regular Robin. The mantle stuck, but the Kingdom Come-inspired costume didn't, with Drake instead opting for a mechanical cape and design that proved that 'more' doesn't always mean 'better'.

Possibly one of the most underrated comics of the Batman Reborn era, Chris Yost, Fabian Nicieza and Marcus To's Red Robin saw Tim Drake try and find the answers behind Batman's death in Final Crisis. To do this, To outfitted Drake in a new outfit, one inspired by Dick Grayson's costume from 1996's seminal Elseworlds tale, Kingdom Come.

The flat cowl may not have been for everyone, but the mix of bandoliers with the red and black gave Tim another iconic look in his already modest wardrobe of account outfits. Drake's been a bit of a trend-setter in that sense, owning the two best Robin outfits in the green-sleeved version seen in the nineties, and the all-red one seen during the mid noughties.

Out of all, though, Red Robin was probably the best. It's just a shame DC didn't stick with it for their future reboots.

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Batman Quiz: How Well Do You Know The Robins?

Tim Drake Robin
DC Comics

1. How Many Robins Have There Been In Canon?

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Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.