Always think about Young Justice's Sins of Youth storylines and how it handles mentors/guardians/parents.
Like, Max knows it's Bart immediately, just from Bart talking, even though he acknowledges that his voice sounds different. Cassie's mom just looks at Cassie for a moment and very quickly realizes that it's Cassie, which Cassie did tell her but she only believes her after really looking at her.
They have these talks. Max telling Bart that he's doing well and living up to his expectations. Cassie tells her mom that she understands how difficult it must be to raise a brash and reckless child. Kon and Clark talk about understanding the difficulties they both face, the responsibilities they have to bear.
Then there's Tim's dad, who 1: doesn't recognize Tim but says the strange adult who sat next to him reminds him of Tim and 2) only comments that Tim is "the best" without anything else. He also makes a man who said he didn't want to drink have a drink, which Tim then spits out on him.
And Tim's story with his dad isn't in the comic focused on how Tim and Bruce are dealing with the whole age thing. It takes up all of two pages in part 12 of 12, the literal end of the storyline. Everyone else dealt with it in their own issues. It feels sort of just thrown in. Like the writers went "hey, doesn't Tim have a dad?" and scrambled to fit him in.
Which it all just furthers my belief that Jack Drake was pretty far from being a good father. He's not the one Tim goes to when Tim is having identity issues, Bruce is, and then Dick, later on. Tim stopping by to see his dad is strange, honestly, because they have little to no emotional attachment.
It's like, of course Cassie went to her house. She feels safe there, and of course she told her mom. She feels comfortable having a heart to heart with her mom. Of course Bart went to Max. He feels comfortable working together with Max to try and figure out a solution to the problem he's trying to solve. He trusts Max to try and figure out a solution with him. Of course Clark starts to understand Superboy's perspective when he's suddenly treated like Superboy, and of course Kon has the same understanding. And Kon saying "at least you had parents" never ceases to tear my heart in half. But, they had a heart to heart, they gained an emotional connection, they bonded the way Cassie and her mom did and Bart and Max did.
All these things are built up to. Bart's trust in Max, Cassie's trust in her mother, Kon being asked to live up to impossible standards.
Tim and his dad just aren't built up. Or, maybe it's more accurate to say that their relationship was built up to a punchline. The joke that Tim takes care of his dad without even looking, he knows both his dad's habits and the house so well. The punchline of Bart and Kon thinking Batman is Robin's dad is that Jack Drake is the furthest thing from Batman it's possible to be. The joke is that his dad doesn't know him as well as someone who was a complete stranger to Tim for most of his life. Tim's dad makes him try beer, and gets it spit out on him.
Tim's relationship with his dad is laughable, because Jack Drake is always portrayed as the punchline to a joke.
Their relationship is a joke.
There are comics on other superheroes during this run, but I mainly wanted to focus on Young Justice themselves, since it's their storyline. Where was Secret? you may be wondering. (Unless you don't know who Secret is, but still-) Secret was left dealing with all of her issues by herself, with no one to get advice from. She overcame her issues by being bigger and stealing a cat. Her emotional arc is basically her being kind of annoyed at Dead Man and very annoyed by her own past circumstances. Thus, she doesn't really count towards my point, but I wanted to add her because she is part of the main group making up Young Justice.
