Matt Meyer
To paraphrase an oft-quoted line from Zoolander, “Tim Drake is so hot right now.” The character (inarguably the best Robin) is having a blazing-hot moment in the spotlight after DC revealed him as bisexual in the pages of Batman: Urban Legends last year, which is being reprinted in this week’s DC Pride: Tim Drake Special.
So we figured, what the heck – what better time to re-examine the character’s history, and try to dig into what’s made him so enduring for over three decades!
I. In the Beginning
Tim first appeared very unassumingly in Batman #436, cover-dated August 1989. This issue was the first chapter of the “Batman: Year Three” story. Unlike Years One and Two that preceded it, “Year Three” wasn’t solely set in the past – instead, it wove flashbacks and present day together. Batman, reeling from the then-recent death of the second Robin Jason Todd, was growing more and more cold, distant, and ruthless – and it wasn’t going unnoticed by his associates, most notably Dick Grayson. There had been a rift between the two going back to before Dick’s New Teen Titans days, but Alfred, seeing his adoptive son unable to cope with his recent loss, summoned Nightwing back into the fold to help his old mentor.
All of this becomes pertinent to Tim because part of “Year Three” is a flashback to the deaths of the Flying Graysons, the tragedy which lead to Bruce taking Dick on as his ward. As it turned out, though, the Drake family was in attendance at that circus – meaning young Tim, less than ten years old at the time, was witness to the unofficial birth of Robin.
But none of that came around to being of importance until the next arc after “Year Three,” “A Lonely Place of Dying – ” in which a now-older Tim Drake sought Dick Grayson out and revealed he had deduced both Dick and Bruce’s identities, having pieced the puzzle together of his own accord. In his own precocious way, Tim was convinced that Batman had to have a Robin to balance him out. Dick, impressed with the young detective’s skills, took him to the Batcave and introduced him to Alfred, who supported the young boy’s quest to earn his place as Batman’s new Robin.
Batman would have none of it.
Here, then is the key difference between Tim Drake and his predecessors as Robin, and differentiates him from Batman in a critical way: he isn’t driven by tragedy. He isn’t out to avenge any deceased loved ones, or nursing a quest for vengeance. He simply wants to do the right thing by society and sees his chance by being the light to Batman’s dark. Without that tragic past forever lurking in his rearview mirror, Tim has the clearest mind when it comes to the actual act of detection – and in future stories, Batman would easily acknowledge Tim would one day surpass him.
Having both parents living and loving him wouldn’t last long, though. Tim’s mother would die at the hands of a crazed voodoo practitioner in Detective Comics, and his father, Jack, would be permanently paralyzed from the waist down in the same attack. This shook young Tim, but rather than let the loss of his mother turn him bitter, he doubled down and strove harder than before to be good enough to assume the mantle of Robin.
That chance would finally come in Batman #457, when Batman, captured by and at the mercy of the Scarecrow, was saved by Tim – donning the Robin costume, and earning it at last by defeating Scarecrow single-handedly.
Batman at last saw the wisdom in Tim’s vision – and the worthiness of this young man to carry the mantle of Robin. And so, a new era of Robin greatness began.
II: The Golden Years
It didn’t take long for DC to capitalize on their new Robin’s popularity, and Robin #1, the first of three solo miniseries, hit the stands in late 1990. It sold like gangbusters – one of the perks of being a hot first issue debuting as the collector’s bubble was surging – and had an important milestone: the debut of writer Chuck Dixon, who would carry Tim Drake on his shoulders for over a decade.
Dixon, who wrote a shocking slew of Bat-centric comics throughout the ’90s (Birds of Prey, Catwoman, Detective Comics) and had a hand in creating Bane, the man who would famously break the Bat in “Knightfall.” It’s not a stretch to say that Dixon, along with writers Doug Moench and Alan Grant, was very largely responsible for shaping the Dark Knight’s world for a good solid decade post-Crisis, setting the rules, tone, and relationships for the entirety of Gotham. All of this was under the stewardship of Bat-editor supreme Denny O’Neil (himself a Bat-writer of some mean historical importance, to say the very least), and his ability to crank out story after story that – while not always game-changers in terms of quality, could always be counted on to be entertaining, if nothing else.
After the aforementioned trilogy of Robin miniseries, it was time to graduate Tim to an ongoing series, and a fourth volume of Robin debuted in 1993.
With Tim firmly established as a solo star, Dixon set about the task of establishing his world apart from Batman. His school, his friends, his cool girlfriend Arianna, a rogues gallery to call his own, and new allies like Spoiler all fleshed out Tim’s world in important, meaningful ways. DC knew they had a strong character on their hands – and put their trust in Dixon to shepherd his world. Along with teen-character-drawing superstar Tom Grummett, Tim was in fine hands.
And so it went. Tim was Robin, Robin was Tim. This persisted for 183 issues, any and all manner of Gotham-shredding events: “No Man’s Land,” “Contagion,” “War Games,” “Bruce Wayne: Murderer?,” and so, so much more. He briefly quit and Spoiler took up the mantle, becoming the first in-continuity female Robin; he had stellar runs with like-aged teammates in Young Justice and the latest iteration of the Teen Titans.
And then, Identity Crisis brought his world crashing down.
The controversial miniseries killed off Tim’s father Jack in a stunning act of tragedy. Neither Batman nor Robin was fast enough to save him, forever shattering Tim’s world and permanently altering the basis of his character: now, he could no longer say he wasn’t orphaned. He had joined the rest of the Bat-family in tragedy.
Things would get harder.
Damian was coming.
III: The Wilderness Years
Damian Wayne debuted in Batman #655, and two issues later, demanded he take on the role of Robin from Tim as Bruce Wayne’s “rightful” heir. The change didn’t take, but the winds of change were blowing: fans, responding in a major way to Grant Morrison’s seminal run, liked this brat, and it didn’t take a soothsayer to see that DC was priming him to become the fourth Robin. Move over, Tim.
Damian was everything Tim was not: brash, impulsive, egotistical, stubborn. But he was a League of Shadows-trained fighter and had been trained in the art of detection since birth by his mother, Talia al’Ghul. And once he debuted, he was an elephant in the room that couldn’t be ignored. The fact that he was Bruce Wayne’s biological son – not just adopted “Robin-son” – made for a compelling new dynamic for Batman and Robin, and fans couldn’t get enough of the idea of it.
But that left Tim twisting in the wind. After Bruce Wayne appeared to die during Final Crisis, there was a battle for the cowl – and briefly, Tim assumed the mantle because he thought he knew Dick Grayson never would. But it was indeed Dick who assumed the role, alongside a brand-new Robin – Damian.
For the first time, Tim took on a new identity: Red Robin (albeit briefly). Decked out in a costume took for no apparent reason from the Dick Grayson of Kingdom Come, Tim set out on a new international mission to prove Bruce Wayne was alive.
Fans, though weren’t enamored with this new Tim, and the Red Robin series only ran twenty-six issues before being scuttled for the DCU-reimagining New 52.
With continuity being rewritten, revised, and reshuffled, Tim got a brand-spanking new origin, one that removed his ties from Dick Grayson. Instead, he was a talented athlete and computer wizard who had come close to discovering Batman’s identity, but not quite. Yet nonetheless, Bruce took him on as his new protégé. As if that weren’t arbitrary enough, Tim’s parents (both of whom were alive, now, for whatever reason) wound up going into Witness Protection, but didn’t want Tim to live that life, so they had Bruce Wayne adopt him.
And give him the new last name “Drake.”
Not good. Tim Drake fans were understandably unenthusiastic, especially as Damian continued to be the “official” Robin. But not to fear – Tim wound up shunted to the near-future during Future’s End, and somehow wound up becoming that era’s Batman Beyond instead of Terry McGinnis.
It was safe to say that DC was, by this time, at a complete loss for what to do with Tim. He’d lost all connective tissue with what had made him unique and a great character, and was instead bouncing around from one life-changing story to another in a bid to keep throwing crap against the wall until something stuck. Tim Drake, it seemed, was destined to fall by the wayside into the quarter bins of also-ran characters, past his prime, making occasional, unheralded appearances in other characters’ comics.
But hope was on the way.
IV: Renewal and Rebirth
IN 2016, DC made a strategic bid to win back lapsed fans with their Rebirth initiative, with a guarantee to “fix” the perceived mistakes of the New 52 era and put an enthusiastic focus on the unflinching heroism that made their characters great. Many benefited from this realignment – including, even, Superman – but the sheer one-eighty DC put into righting Tim Drake’s ship was a standout moment.
Beginning in Detective Comics #934, Tim Drake was one of a new Bat-family-centric title, written by rising superstar James Tynion IV. Right out of the gate, Tynion’s love of Tim shone through: he was back to basics, happy, off to college, and the smartest detective in just about any room. Not only did Tynion love Tim, but he made sure readers remembered why they loved him, too.
So of course, at the end of Tynion’s first arc, he appeared to kill Tim off in an act of self-sacrifice. Readers knew that Tim wasn’t really dead, but Batman and family didn’t. The apparent loss of Tim sent shockwaves throughout the book, hammering home just how much he meant to fandom.
Tim’s apparent act of self-sacrifice in Detective Comics #939
Death, even fake death, is always a temporary condition in comics, and naturally, it wasn’t too long before Tim was walking, talking, and running from Doomsday (yes, that Doomsday). Tim Drake was a hero, a beloved member of the DC universe, and that was never going away (even if he did temporarily change his name to just “Drake,” like the rapper, and wore a god-awful brown costume for about five minutes. He’s better now).
Tim is on a new journey now, though. He’s recently discovered his bisexuality, and is exploring a new side of himself and a new caring, tender relationship. The broader story implications of this new development in Tim’s story are still being explored, but for Pride Month this year, readers could do a lot worse than get to know where Tim’s story is going now. And as he at last re-assumes his role as the “official” Robin in next month’s Batman #125, it’s safe to say that Tim’s future has never been brighter.
DC Pride: Tim Drake Special #1, collecting Tim’s coming-out story from Batman: Urban Legends, hits stands today! Meanwhile, Tim’s ongoing story in Batman #125 goes on sale Tuesday, July 5th!