Tim Drake's Relationship To Wealth In New Earth
Iâve talked about the Drakeâs wealth before, based on this slightly out of place scene in A Lonely Place of Dying where Tim zeros in on an Erte statue of Bruceâs, mentioning his father purchased a litho the year before.Â
To summarize, this scene is establishing the wealth gap between the rich Drake family and the rich Wayne family. Tim is impressed with Bruceâs Erte statue, which suggests the Drakes canât really reasonably afford one. While there are Erte lithographs more expensive than some Erte statues, Iâve only seen statues price down to about $1800, while Iâve seen lithos price in the hundreds.Â
Basically, this implies the Drakes donât have enough money to spend willynilly while also maintaining their prefered lifestyle. Based on other comic panels scattered around, Iâd say the Drakesâ money primarily goes to real estate, travel, boarding schools, and staff. (We only see Mrs. Mac as far as Iâm aware, unless you count their work assistant, but the Drakes will sometimes reference former staff, like an old driver mentioned in Robin #116.)Â
Strictly speaking, Tim is only refered to as ânew moneyâ once, which interestingly occurs after the Drakes drop an economic bracket. [Robin #100]Â
However, Jack specifically gives off the impression heâs probably new money. He prides himself on being a red blooded american man (read: ânormal,â down to earth) and heâs blatantly incapable of playing politics. Heâs not good at maintaining an image for reputation and status, and he doesnât respect people that do.Â
Heâs also shows little interest in networking, allowing his insecurities to get in the way of what would appear to be a rather beneficial opportunity for his son and his business - developing and maintaining friendships with people like Bruce Wayne opens doors.Â
Jack seems to view himself as seperate from what he sees as the uppity elite, but also sees himself as deserving of respect and status stemming from his wealth without the desire to actively cultivate it, all the while harboring some deep insecurities around the topic. This doesnât garantee he was new money, but it does imply he doesnât really fit in with the ins and outs of wealthy society the way someone like Bruce does.Â
To be old money, Jack would have to have come from wealth, and weâre just not given that impression. We know very little about Timâs ancestry, except that Jackâs father, Charles, was a teenaged soldier in World War II, but in general, other characters donât react to the Drake name the way they react to the Wayne or Luthor or Queen names. Hell, Dinah Lanceâs motherâs maiden name was Drake.Â
We donât really have anything to go off of if Janet was or wasnât wealthy prior to her marriage to Jack, and if so, how much.Â
When Jackâs bad investments cause the Drakes to âgo brokeâ - as Jack refers to it - Tim describes their situation as going from âupper-upper-classâ to âupper-middleâ class, living off of the proceeds of the sales of their assets and Danaâs middle class job. Tim isnât too bothered by this, having worked in war zones and areas of abject poverty, and doesnât think very charitably about his dad acting like theyâre starving. Neither does Dana for that matter, who understands they still have a very good life and is bearing the brunt of the work supporting their family and liquidating Jackâs assets.Â
This is where Timâs relationship to money gets interesting to me. Timâs very comfortable with his living situation, but he becomes very AWARE of how expensive crime fighting is. He has an itemized list of how much EVERYTHING batman related costs.Â
With Bruce out of the picture for an unknown length of time, Tim has a lot of financial anxiety. Steph, who grew up middle class (at least she is now, her mom being a nurse, living in a two story house - unclear on their financial situation when she was a small child), has much more of a âitâll work itself outâ attitude, while Tim canât stop thinking about the logistics.Â
This is honestly a very stark contrast to the fandom idea that Tim is of the âhow much can a banana cost? $10?â persuation.Â
Once Bruce is back and the monatary situation with Robin is solved, Tim is content to live an upper middle class life style.Â
After Jack dies, however, Timâs money situation becomes⊠fuzzy.Â
Tim ends up reliant on Bruceâs money. They donât really get into it, but as a child with no living relatives and Dana in a clinic, Tim SHOULD be in the foster system right now, without access to his inheritance. Heâs comfortable making promises in Bruceâs name, but Timâs reasons for not wanting Bruce to adopt him in the upcoming arc are⊠quesionable. They donât really say WHY Tim doesnât want Bruce to adopt him, nor do they explain HOW Tim pays for his hired fake uncle. Did he actively steal Bruceâs money, or was the deal access to Timâs inheritance? Was this whole thing a ploy for Tim to gain access to his own inheritance and not rely on Bruce for everything?Â
They donât⊠talk about it.Â
They especially donât talk about it AFTER Bruce adopts Tim. He seems to foster him for a bit after âUncle Eddieâ bites it, Tim is living on the manor grounds, but his legal and financial status isnât really brought up. Then Bruce adopts him, but money just kind of becomes a nonissue, we all just kinda assume Tim has access to Bruceâs money and call it a day.Â
But I do think, when talking about Timâs relationship to money, skipping over Timâs temporary downward financial mobility over simplifies him. Tim is aware of the cost of things and the transience of wealth and status. Thereâs additional things we can speculate on, like if a young Tim had access to his parentsâ money while theyâre abroad, and what it would mean if he didnât - my brain goes back to that anxiety about âre-supplying.â I can picture an 11-year-old Tim in worn out shoes counting down the days his parents pick him up from boarding school so he can ask to buy new ones - you know, things you need to shop for in person, rather than have something shipped to the school - but feeling like he canât really complain because, well, his parents CAN afford to buy him nice things, he just has to wait.Â
I think thatâs just overall more interesting and unique to Tim, rather than the default Rich Kids Donât Understand Money trope.Â
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