Batman has had a lot of
Robins. Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, our next guy Tim Drake, and later his
biological son Damien. It’s a veritable Round of Robins. A Round being the
unofficial collective name for a group of Robins. Fun ornithology fact. And
while Dick is the most successful, Jason is the most dangerous, and Damien is
Batman’s actual son, Tim has his own quirks to make himself unique in this
group of red birds. Let’s get to it.
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| Don't love the costume but at least it's a semi original look. |
Tim grew up in the upper echelons
of the Gotham Social Hierarchy. When he was a kid, he and his parents visited
the Haly Circus, and got to witness the Flying Graysons acrobatics act. After
the show, he got to go backstage and got a photo with the Graysons.
Unfortunately, the next time the Drake’s came to watch the Flying Graysons, it
was the day that a pair of gangsters coated the Grayson’s trapeze wires with
acid. A few years later, Tim watched some footage of Batman and Robin in action
against the Penguin. During the encounter, Dick showed off his acrobatic
prowess, doing a quadruple somersault. Tim deduces that the young man adding
Batman was Dick Grayson, and logically then, Bruce Wayne is Batman. I feel the
need to point out that he was nine when
this happened. Nine-year-old figured something out that eludes the minds of the
greatest evil geniuses.
Tim kept their secret, and followed
the exploits of the Dynamic Duo. He was very excited to see Dick become
Nightwing, and to see a new Robin in the form of Jason Todd. After Jason was
brutally murdered by the Joker, Tim noted a…change in Batman’s behavior. The
Dark Knight was getting progressively more violent, which convinced Tim that
Batman needs a Robin to keep his sanity. Everyone needs a Wingman. He decided
to approach Nightwing. He helped the original Robin solve a mystery at Haly’s
circus, and then convince him that Batman was in need of a little help.
Nightwing planned on helping, but disagreed with Tim on one factor. Tim felt
that the key was a Robin. Nightwing
wasn’t interested in putting the red tights back on, but still raced to help
out his mentor. But he and Batman were pretty quickly captured by Two-Face.
Tim, realizing that his idols were pretty screwed, donned the Robin costume and
got Alfred to help him save the Dynamic Duo. After that, Batman reluctantly
agreed to allow Tim to be the new Robin, on a trial basis.
Over the next several months, Tim
was rigorously trained by Alfred, Nightwing and Batman before he was allowed to
wear the costume for real. This would have been a pretty awesome occasion, if
Tim’s parents hadn’t been kidnapped on the same day. His folks were kidnapped
by Obeah Man, an evil voodoo sorcerer, and being held for ransom. Batman
quickly figured out which tiny Caribbean island they were being held on, and he
and Robin rushed to the rescue. They were able to defeat the Obeah Man, but
were too late to completely save Tim’s folks. They’d been forced to drink water
laced with a powerful poison. It killed Tim’s mother, and left his father
paralyzed. Batman thought about rescinding the offer, fearing that Tim would
fall to the dark side like Jason before him. But, the ordeal made Tim resolve
to serve justice, not vengeance.
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| That's a heck of a lot of cape. |
Tim served alongside Batman for
several years, joined the Teen Titans, and tried to be as effective a side kick
as possible. He also helped out Nightwing from time to time. Tim likes being
active. He briefly relocated to Bludhaven, Nightwing’s main stomping ground,
after the triple wammy deaths of his father, his best friend Superboy, and his
girlfriend. It makes for a rough couple of weeks. When he returned to Gotham,
he was formally adopted as Bruce Wayne’s son. A little surprised that it took
three Robins for Batman to say, “He legally gets my stuff in the likely event
of something awful happening to me.” Dick and Jason must feel like chopped
liver. After Batman was seemingly killed by the dark god Darkseid, there were a
number of major changes in the Bat family. Dick took up the role of Batman, and
Damien stepped up to become Robin. Tim decided to start traveling the world.
Why? Because he believed Bruce was still alive, and decided to go out searching
for him.
Tim created the identity of Red
Robin, to separate himself from the role he’d given up to Damien, and yet still
pay homage to his “roots” as a sidekick. Side note, isn’t a Red Robin like
saying a Black Crow, Pink Flamingo, or Tan Turkey? Do they really come in other
varieties? Back on task. While searching for Bruce, Tim started butting heads
with the League of Assassins and another group of assassins the Council of
Spiders, both of which were also searching for signs of the Dark Knight. He’s
able disable both groups, by in large, and then returns to Gotham to stop Ra’s
masterstroke. Ra’s plan was to use another foe of Batman, Hush, to seize all of
Bruce’s assets. Hush, aka Thomas Elliot, was a childhood friend of Bruce’s, and
after some extensive plastic surgery, you have a perfect Bruce Wayne clone. Ra’s,
being a complete psycho, also wanted to destroy all those people that Bruce
Wayne held dear. Ra’s sent out his assassins to take them out. I’m fairly
certain Dick, Jason, and Damien can handle themselves. Just saying. Tim took Ra’s
head on, and was able to distract Ra’s long enough for Tim to be named
controlling shareholder of Wayne Enterprises. Evil plan thwarted. Ra’s bowed
out, called Tim a Detective (that’s basically his highest praise), and then
threw him out a window. No one ever said Ra’s al Ghul was a gracious loser. Tim
was saved from death via defenestration by Dick. Aren’t big brother’s great?
Red Robin has since become a major hero in Gotham. He reestablished his
connections with the Bat Family, and was overjoyed to see his adoptive Father
return. So goes the rollercoaster of life.
Like his predecessors, Tim is an
exceptional athlete and has an above average IQ. He’s trained in nearly a dozen
forms of martial arts, though his favored fighting style is Bojutsu. That’s
traditional Japanese Bo Staff fighting, for those who don’t recognize the name.
He’s considered to be the smartest of the Bat Family, and when you consider his
competition, that’s saying something. He excels in computer science, biology,
engineering, and genetics. The last one he developed in an attempt to re-clone
his dead best friend, Superboy. He also has the gift of gab, speaking Russian,
Spanish, German and Cantonese. A jack of all trades.
Tim Drake has only appeared a few
times outside the comics. An interesting little factoid about him, that I’ve
read is that he was named after Tim Burton. His reward for directing 1989s
Batman.
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| He's got a stick, and he knows how to use it. |
Tim was introduced as the new Robin
in The New Batman Adventures. This
version has certain elements of Jason Todd in him as well, as he’s introduced
as a young orphan that is adopted by Bruce at the start of the series. One
episode that sticks out in my mind was “The Demon Within,” where he and Batman
assist Jason Blood. Blood is split from his demonic alter ego, Etrigan, by an
evil young sorcerer, Clarion the Witch-Boy. While Batman takes on Clarion and his
shapeshifting pet cat Teekl, Tim is left to protect Jason from the mind
controlled Etrigan.
We see how Tim’s life played out in
Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker. The
movie explained that Tim’s life as Robin ended when he was kidnapped by the
Joker. The Joker and Harley tortured and experimented on Tim, turning him into “Joker
Jr.” During the procedure, Joker also learned all of Tim’s little secrets. When
Batman and Batgirl catch up with them, Joker taunts Batman while showing Bruce
a video of Tim’s transformation. Batman beats the crap out of Joker, but Tim is
the one to finish the job. There are two versions of Joker’s end, in the TV
version, Tim shoves Joker and he falls onto some electrical wires. In the DVD version,
Tim impales Joker with a spear gun. Graphic. After that, Tim is forced into
retirement, and Batman returns to a solo act. Years later, Tim is a
communications engineer with a wife and family. When the Joker resurfaces in
Gotham, much to everyone’s shock, the new Batman Terry McGinnis believes Tim
might be connected. When he meets Tim, he sees a slightly bitter man who doesn’t
look fondly back on his time as Robin. Terry initially rules him out, but it’s
ultimately revealed that Tim is the
Joker. Sort of. The clown prince of crime had used stolen genetic technology to
implant Tim with a copy of Joker’s mind, memories and DNA. This causes a Jekyll
and Hyde transformation in Tim, who had no idea what’s going on. Terry frees
Tim of Joker’s control by zapping him with a high powered joy buzzer, and sees
Tim reconnect with Bruce. All’s well that ends well.
We see Tim appear again in Young Justice season 2. He and Dick have
strong relationship, a very mentor/mentee set up. In the early episodes, Dick
does his best to give Tim encouragement and experience, while keeping Tim safe.
In the first episode he’s put in charge of Team Gama, as the Young Justice team
is stretched thin and that Gama wasn’t expected to see much action. Can anyone
guess what happens? Gama uncovers a huge alien invasion operation that sets up
the plot for the rest of the season. Tim is largely a background character in
this season, the cast was pretty huge, but he and Dick have a number of good
moments together.
Tim’s a solid character. He’s a pretty
good mix of brains and brawn. Like Wally West and Guy Gardner, he’s the third
iteration of a character. You’d think it’d be hard to keep a character
interesting when he’s the third guy to take up a title. It’s kind of hard for
me to judge him, though, as the two versions of the character that I’ve seen
are so vastly different. The DC Animated Universe character is at time brash
and arrogant, traits that the show creators must have taken from Jason Todd.
The Young Justice version is much
more reserved, and isn’t as confident as Nightwing or Batgirl. He tries,
though, which counts for a lot. He’s the bo staff brandishing, secret identity
uncovering, second detective, the Red Robin. Next time, Hawkman, Golden Age
version.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/02/Red_Robin_Drake.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Drake#/media/File:Robin_v2_150_art.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Drake#/media/File:Robin0.JPG
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