10 Things DC Comics Wants You To Forget About Robin

8. And Tim Drake, For That Matter

Tim Drake hasn't fared all that much better either, to be honest. The third official Robin took over after a period where Bruce Wayne simply didn't have a ward, grief-stricken after the death of second sidekick Jason Todd and deciding that maybe child soldiers weren't the answer to Gotham City's crime problem. He got won back around to the idea when the precocious Tim turned up, a whip-smart kid who had been in the audience when Dick Grayson's trapeze artist parents were killed and whose knowledge of the Flying Graysons lead to him figuring out Batman and Robin's secret identities. When he was a nine-year-old. Yeah, Tim Drake is pretty cool. Where Jason Todd had been roundly rejected by readers, Tim Drake was welcomed with open arms, his connection to Dick and his detecting proficiency helping things considerably. He stayed in the role for a good twenty years, he was so good at it, only adapting his codename into the cool-sounding Red Robin - which also saddled him an awful costume - following the deaths of his dad, BFF Superboy and disappearance of Bruce Wayne. He needed a little time off, understandably, but the assumption is he'd return at some point. Instead Bruce's long lost kid Damian turned up and became the new Boy Wonder, with Tim keeping the Red Robin title. Except then the New 52 happened and everything got kinda confusing. DC's huge continuity reboot wiped away a load of their 70+ year history, but it's still not totally clear what is still considered "canon" and what isn't. One of the things we are sure about is that, in the condensed history of this relaunched Batman, he's only had time for a couple of sidekicks - and Tim Drake ain't one of them. Hence he's always been Red Robin, for some reason, effectively removing a couple of decades of ace Robin stories starring him.