There’s no real understating how important Tim Drake was to me as a comic reader. He is the character that drew me into comics. It probably helps that his name is Tim–I can’t think of any other fictional characters with the name. It made him instantly relatable. But, obviously, it goes deeper than that.
I grew up watching Batman The Animated Series. I loved Robin. Dick Grayson was great. I think I liked him better than Batman. But when The New Batman Adventures started and this new Robin showed up I was instantly attached to this kid. He was somewhere between 10-13. My age. His name was Tim. Like me. He got to hang out with Batman, go on amazing adventures–and he even stood up to Bruce. Reined him in. He was fearless and street smart and funny and tough.
I’ve spoken and written about being sick as a child. There’s no doubt some of my love for super heroes comes from that. I have no doubt that it is even more true when I think about my connection to Tim Drake. I could barely make it through a day of school. I lived a life of pain and exhaustion. But I could wake up on Saturday mornings and watch a kid like me live out everything I couldn’t be. Everything I couldn’t do. I dreamt about being Robin–the Boy Wonder. My fondness for Tim especially grew upon watching the episode Growing Pains, which I wrote extensively about here. I related to Tim in that twenty minutes in a way I never had with a fictional character or any kind of story. I reacted to the emotions and lessons in that episode in deeply personal ways. Tim comes face to face with hopelessness, with the simple fact that not every battle can be won, not all endings are happy. I guess I related subconsciously to the painful truth that sometimes–no matter how hard we fight, we don’t win the day. But that doesn’t mean we give up the fight. Tim Drake taught me a powerful lesson about growing up.
Ultimately, it was Tim Drake that led me from cartoons to the comic books. I remember long hours scouring web site reading about comic books. Before Wikipedia or its offshoots. Those fansites run by a handful of people devoted to chronicling with encyclopedic accuracy. Sites like The Unofficial Guide to the DC Universe, TitansTower.com. More. Reading about Tim Drake led me down the rabbit hole. Reading about Crisis on Infinite Earths, the Silver Age, the Post-Crisis history of the DCU, I read about Hal Jordan and Parallax, Emerald Night and Zero Hour. I devoured it all. I grew fondness for characters I never even read comics about or had heard of.
And through it I learned about a wholly different Tim Drake. Not the abandoned son of a gangster who grew up on the streets–but a nerdy kid who wanted to help Batman. A brilliant young man who worked hard–worked hard just to help do the right thing. For a while I still preferred my cartoon Tim, but eventually I knew I had to read more about this comic book Robin. And so I started going to Walden Books every month and picking up issues of Robin. (Remember when you could buy comics at book stores in circular racks?) How lucky was I that there was a book about a sidekick on the market? There’s no place for that in DC’s current publishing strategy.
I grew to love this different Tim. He was never the best fighter–but he was the smartest. And he never stopped trying. Never gave up. And it wasn’t tragedy that spurred Tim on. It was just a desire to do the right thing. A desire to help people. I eventually bought one of the original Robin miniseries in trade. Got to his roots a little. Got to see those early days where he taught himself how to be better. Where he failed and learned from his mistakes and trained and learned how to utilize his age as an asset.
I always responded to the fact that Tim was always learning. I liked that he wasn’t the natural athlete that Dick Grayson was. He wasn’t the martial artist that Cassandra Cain was. But he had his brain. And he had an inherent kindness and confidence that ultimately made him a capable leader.
I discovered Young Justice, where Tim had wonderful friendships with Superboy and Impulse, and they worked together–not just to fight crime, but to have fun. Tim was awkward, kinda dorky, and they poked fun at him for it. But they respected him, cared about him. I have to say that meant a lot, too. Tim didn’t just share my name but he also shared personality traits with me.
I also started reading Teen Titans–the Geoff Johns, Mike McKone relaunch–when I first started reading comics. I loved that, too. It was a lot different than Young Justice, but I loved Tim just as much. It wasn’t as irreverent as Young Justice, since it was meant to be more of a soap opera than a comedy. But that made me respect other aspects of Tim’s character. He showed off his skills in ways that put him on equal footing with characters that outshined his physical abilities. Incredibly important–as I had no physical abilities. Tim’s greatest asset was always his intelligence and his kindness.
One of the best things about Tim was that he never wanted to be Batman. This despite Batman flat-out stating that Tim would potentially be a better Batman than he one day. Heck, Tim may not have even seen Robin as a permanent lifestyle–indeed, at one point he even retired for a while. The story in Teen Titans where they come face-to-face with a possible dark future was great. It really highlighted some of the best aspects of Tim’s character.
And it also highlighted a long series of everything I loved about Tim Drake being stripped away systematically.
He lost Stephanie Brown. He lost his father. His two best friends. Suddenly, Tim Drake was depressed, obsessive, and driven by tragedy. Gone was the hopeful, nerdy kid. In those circumstances, how could he be? There were a few bright lights in this dark time–his team up with Batgirl immediately following Stephanie’s death springs to mind. But ultimately, Tim’s stories came down to scenes like this:
Eventually things started to turn around. Everyone came back to life. But things were never quite the same. Tim stayed on that darker path–highlighted by an outfit change that echoed his darker cartoon palette. But Tim’s best days were behind him. Bruce Wayne died, and Tim’s prominence in the DC Universe went with him. Sidelined as Robin, Tim had to forge a new identity. He took on the mantle of Red Robin, so that he could “Cross lines he couldn’t” if he was closely connected to Batman. His obsessive personality, cultivated following the deaths of Spoiler and Superboy manifested in a seemingly hopeless hunt for proof that Bruce Wayne was not really dead.
Ultimately, Red Robin was vindicated–and so was Tim. A year long journey to prove Bruce wasn’t dead proved to be correct. And Tim reconnected with his old friends and seemed to find happiness again. The Red Robin series did extensive work to retrieve Tim from the character assassination that had been going on for years.
But even in those dark days I related to Tim. I could connect with losing all those things you dreamed of, and losing your way. But the hope was gone. Thanks to the Red Robin series, though, it came back. And Tim was once again a bright, brilliant teen. He came face-to-face with Ra’s al Ghul and defeated him. And he didn’t do it through being obsessive and turning in on himself. He did it by turning to his friends, using his mind, and outsmarting one of the greatest criminals to ever live. Ah! Hope was alive!
But Tim was still on the sidelines. Today, for the first time, I got the last two issues of “Return of Bruce Wayne,” and was thrilled to see Tim play such an important role. Tim, who Morrison had really shoved to the side for most of his run, illustrates a deep love, admiration and faith in Bruce that ultimately is what gives him the strength to overcome what occurs in the final issue. Despite not utilizing Tim all that much, Morrison displayed a real understanding of who the character is, and what makes him unique. He didn’t quarrel with Bruce as much as Dick had, didn’t struggle being in the shadow of the bat. Rather, it was where he wanted to be. Side-by-side with Batman. Helping to make the world a better place. Chris Sims from Comic Alliance has this to say about that moment in this writeup about his favorite Robin (guess who that was!)
For Tim Drake, though, my favorite example is relatively recent, involving Bruce Wayne’s return from THE OMEGA SANCTION! THE DEATH THAT IS LIFE! in The Return of Bruce Wayne #6. While Damian may have been Dick Grayson’s partner, Tim Drake never stopped being Bruce Wayne’s, and when Bruce gets turned into a time-spanning weapon against life, he ends up being the only one who can talk him down:
In the biggest, goofiest, weirdest, most comic booky terms, that’s what their relationship is. When everything is at its worst, Batman’s there to stop it. When everything’s at its worst for Batman, Robin’s there to help him.
Which is one of the great strengths of Grant Morrison. He ties up ridiculous comic book spectacle and bizareness with fantastic haracter moments.
Just when things looked like everything was going to be alright for Tim Drake, the universe was rebooted… and the character as we know him…. is gone.
But I will always have these stories. These great, larger-than-life stories that helped me to dream. I have outgrown some of the feelings that made me love Tim Drake so much. I’m an adult now, whatever that means, and the struggles of adolescence are behind me, but Tim Drake…Tim Drake will always be incredibly important to me. I will always think fondly of my Robin. The nerdy kid who wanted to do the right thing. Who wanted more than anything to stand by Batman’s side. The kid who didn’t seek the limelight, but by strength of his personality owned the room anyway. I’ll always look back fondly on discovering this character, the adventures we shared, and, hopefully, I can pass some of them on to my own kids one day.
And I will always miss this costume.
