SPOILERS AHEAD
I've already had a problem with the wedding since I first heard it was their identities of Batman and Catwoman getting married. It's not legally binding and frankly it made it clear DC wasn't willing to do it because they wanted a loophole to get out of it.
The Preludes have Dick worried that he won't be the best man. I've heard that King promised we'd know who had what role but guess what? No one, not anyone from the league, not even Bruce's freaking kids were invited to the actual wedding. Just Alfred and Bruce planned to get the priest drunk so he wouldn't remember who he married. Classy.
We're also told that Batman never has and can never be happy. Pure B.S.
Or does Tim, Jason and Damian not matter since only Dick was mentioned to possibly attend the wedding?
Not only is the issue misleading because the wedding never happened despite the advertising but it also made the Preludes pointless. What does it matter what his kids (except Tim who never got an issue) feel? Damian feels like he's being forgotten and replaced, Dick doesn't want to be left out and Jason...I'm not sure what the point of Jason's issue was. That he's similar to Selina and wants to make Bruce proud? Well this reinforces those insecurities because not only aren't they invited they apparently never made Bruce happy.
This is one of the reasons fans are upset with what you're doing with the bat family DC.
Tim isn't his kid and he never should have been.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if that's a comment against his character or adoption. Regardless I stand by my opinions on the wedding.
ReplyDeleteWhile I found that anon's post random, off topic, and somewhat rude, however; after thinking about the anon's post for a few moments, I think I now realize what he was trying to get across. What I am about to explain to you is going to be rather lengthy and have to be separated into multiple replies to due to that length, so you will probably want to set aside some before going through all this.
DeleteWhen he was originally presented, Tim Drake had a unique dynamic in the Batman mythos. What originally made Tim so special in the comics is that he still had living parents and was not an orphan. He was not motivated by the death of a loved one, but by a desire to help Batman. This was changed when early on when Tim's mother was killed off early in his career because DC tried to make him an orphan from the very beginning but Chuck Dixon realized that this was a dumb idea and was able to partially block that decision only for it to last until that 2004 Identity Crisis storyline in which Tim's father was killed off for cheap drama. This is the move considered by many fans of his original characterization to be the one that ruined Tim's character beyond repair.
After this storyline, Tim's character devolved into a pale shadow of his former self, and he might as well have been killed because the character Tim became was unrecognizable to his past self. All it did was make him a Bruce Wayne clone personality wise. Angst does not equal depth. It made the Robins more homogenized as well. Also, DC gave him that embarrassing Red Robin identity which made him look like he was still trying to desperately cling to the past. The costume also made him look like a rip-off of Dr. Midnight, and also shares the name with a restaurant chain which has the slogan "Red Robin...Yum!" How am I supposed to take this identity seriously when it has this embarrassing element constantly flowing through my head?
War Games and Identity Crisis were just poorly done event comics in which supporting cast members are killed to make the heroes angst because apparently according to comic writers it is impossible for characters to have any semblance of happiness in their lives and can only express emotions of deep seated anger and sadness. This is one of my most despised tropes in all of comics. This move tries to give the impression of importance when in reality it just shows the lack of creativity of the writer since there are still story possibilities that could be done with supporting cast members. A major change should not happen unless there are more stories to tell with this major change than by keeping things the status quo. I swear, it's like comic book writers have absolutely no idea how to write characters who don't have dead loved ones. I already have enough characters who mourn over dead loved in the DC Universe. I don't need anymore. A character death only means something if it has a lasting effect, and felt like it meant something. Janet and Jack Drakes' deaths along with Stephanie's (though I did not like her at all but that's off topic) were just cheap, and an easy way to make Tim angst.
Also, it's part of the reason why DC is having such trouble with his character and can't seem to find a place for him. Ask yourself, "Without his parents and average civilian life, what else does Tim Drake have that makes him unique?" A Bo staff is not enough. The answer is really nothing else really. Heroes in the Batman line generally have dead parents (Bruce and Dick), abusive parents (Cassandra Cain), or if they are really unlucky both (Jason Todd). The reason why I liked Tim is that he did have a life outside his hero escapades. His dynamic was that he was Batman's savior in his time of recent tragedy (Jason Todd's death) which was the reverse of the dynamic of the previous two Robins (Dick and Jason) in which Bruce helped them through the tragedies in their lives (the death of Dick's parents and Jason's...life in general).
Something else I want to show is an excerpt from a fan marcelo and posted in 2005 about Tim's original characterization.
Delete“While The Editorial Powers That Be have done much to try and give Tim Drake a conventional motivation to wear the Robin suit, one rooted on personal tragedy and the loss of (several) loved ones, this is but a late addition to his story. In truth, one of the keys to understanding Tim Drake is the fact that nobody and nothing forced him to become Robin.
Unlike Dick Grayson, he didn't have a personal tragedy to sublimate/avenge, and unlike both Dick and Jason, he wasn't living under Bruce Wayne's roof. He did not, in fact, particularly *want* to be Robin. Having discovered as a boy -by a combination of luck and a deductive mind that Batman himself holds as potentially his equal- the identities of Batman and Robin (in the two incarnations that preceded his), he was content to stalk them from the shadows, drawn more by Dick's loss and personality than by anything else. He had been present at the circus the night Dick lost his parents, an event that deeply impressed him. When he later saw on TV a rare footage of Batman and Robin, showing Robin do a quadruple somersault (an exceedingly difficult gymnastic move), he recognized Dick Grayson's movements, and thereby deduced the identity of the Batman. From that moment, he would spend countless hours waiting in Gotham's rooftops for a glimpse of them, and gathering as much information as he could using his remarkable hacking skills.
Imagine that. A lonely boy, physically unremarkable, with a somewhat distant family but without much violence or blood in his past, stalking Batman and Robin out of fascination, a touch of hero-worship, and plain instinct.
While Bruce remade himself as Batman, the children who become Robin tend to become even more like themselves. Even as they adapt to the unwritten strictures of the half mythical role, they enrich it with their own uniqueness. Tim will learn much from Bruce and the rest of the mentors and enemies he'll later encounter, but his nature as Robin has always been a reflection of his inborn personality: his watchfulness, his reliance on his mind over his body, his comfort in stealth, his paradoxical search for connection from a distant point.
He didn't learn any of that as Robin, or to *be* Robin. As much as anything else, he brought these qualities to the Robin persona.
After Jason Todd's death, as he witnessed the psychological deterioration of Batman, Tim decided that Batman needed a Robin, and thus set himself to find him one. When Dick refused to retake his role, Tim took the mantle to himself. Not because he wanted to. Not because he needed to. Because *Batman* needed somebody to, and Tim was adequate.
In that act we see exposed the basic motivation, the thing driving Tim Drake. As much as Batman is something Bruce Wayne does because he needs to, as much as Nightwing is a manifestation of Dick's emotions and desires, Tim Drake is Robin because he was watching, and he decided it was the necessary thing to do. Time and again his desires will conflict with this role, and time and again he will come back. Not out of love or hate, not because nightmares drive him to, or because he loves the lifestyle, but because somebody has to. And also because he loves his makeshift, unrelated-by-blood family, although the ways in which the Bat-family understand and express love aren't particularly healthy. Love, duty and necessity are not very distinct concepts in his mind.
While the recent, senseless deaths of his father and his girlfriend (Steph, who briefly took over his job as Robin) have drawn a veil of tragedy over his life, this is but a late addition to the complex psyche of a boy who -perhaps more than anyone else in Gotham- wasn't made, but born a Bat.”
That essay in my second reply to you was from the following link:
Deletehttps://ship-manifesto.dreamwidth.org/65163.html
Another series of links I want to show you would be some blog posts that discusses Tim Drake's debut in comics.
http://irrelevantcomics.blogspot.com/2010/08/tim-drake-from-beginning-introduction.html
http://irrelevantcomics.blogspot.com/2010/08/tim-drake-from-beginning-part-1-batman.html
http://irrelevantcomics.blogspot.com/2010/08/tim-drake-from-beginning-part-2-batman.html
http://irrelevantcomics.blogspot.com/2011/01/tim-drake-from-beginning-part-3-lonely.html
http://irrelevantcomics.blogspot.com/2011/02/tim-drake-from-beginning-part-4-rite-of.html
Also, apologies for the multiple replies and off topic nature to your main post. I wanted to fit this all in one post, but you have a 4,096 character limit. I like Tim Drake, and is he one of the most misunderstood and miswritten characters in Batman comics. I was against Bruce adopting him in the comics, because it missed the point of the character. I don't mind Tim seeing Bruce as a second father figure in his life, but just not the way the comics did it. Thanks for reading!
I appreciate your response and your passion for Tim. I do agree that he's been mishandled a lot and deserves better.
DeleteThe "son" label to me is important on a Robin level. I see the Robins whether blood or not as Bruce's kids on some level. To me what's important is that they see each other as family.
For example one of the aspects of the wedding Preludes that I hated was that Tim didn't get an issue. He deserved one just like the other male Robins.
No need to apologize. Please feel free to stop by to talk about Tim. There's been a lot of rumors lately and if a bad one about Tim does happen it would be nice to vent. Take care !