Robin is one of the most important characters in the history of comics. Robin in an integral part of the Bat-Family, and there have been multiple characters who wore the mantle over the years. Everyone has their favorite Robin, with two of them jumping to the top of the heap — Damian Wayne and Dick Grayson. Part of this is recency bias; Damian is the current Robin and Dick Grayson is one of the DC’s most important characters. Each of them have their strengths as characters, and Grayson is an icon, a character who singlehandedly birthed the superhero sidekick. While Robins like Jason Todd and Stephanie Brown aren’t as loved as Damian and Dick, they have their statuses as their deaths of Robin to make them important. And then there’s Tim Drake.
The introduction of Damian Wayne quickly overshadowed Tim, and there’s a pretty good reason for that. Damian’s familial relationship to Batman made him the perfect Robin. Robin has always been Batman and Alfred’s “child”, for lack of a better term, and finally making a Robin who was actually Batman’s son was perfect. Damian took Tim’s place with Batman and the Teen Titans, and ever since then, Tim has been in freefall, with creators seemingly not knowing what to do with him. However, this is unfair to Tim, who is the most unique of the Robins. It’s time to call a spade a spade — Tim Drake is the best Robin. Here’s why.
Tim Drake Changed the Role of Robin in the DC Universe
Just to start out with, Tim Drake had the best Robin costume, and it isn’t even close. Damian has had some good ones, but none of them would exist without the masterpiece that is Tim Drake’s costume. Changing the costume for Tim is merely the most noticeable reason that Tim is the best. To begin with, Tim’s origin is completely different from his predecessors. Dick and Jason were both orphans of a sort, but Tim was just a Batman fan. Tim was basically just like the readers and was able to figure out something that no one else did — that Bruce Wayne was Batman. Dick and Jason both lucked into becoming Robin, but Tim earned it. This was very important, especially because of the failure of Jason Todd. Jason Todd’s greatest problem was that he was just Dick Grayson Version 2.0. Todd’s pre-Crisis origin is basically the exact same as Dick’s, down to growing up in a circus. Everything about Jason Todd was the same as Dick for a good portion of his existence. It wasn’t until the post-Crisis years that Todd was changed into the violent hothead. By then, the damage was already done. Tim was a very different kind of Robin, and this helped make him unique to readers of the ’90s, earning him fans.
RELATED: A Forgotten Superman Villain Is Causing Huge Issues For Metamorpho (And Could There Be Movie Ties?)
So, Tim was different right away, and that definitely helped fans connect with him. Tim had a better costume than any Robin before him. He had a unique origin, one that proved to readers that he was worthy of being Robin. However, what really made Tim such a great Robin is that he made Robin a hero in his own right. None of the other Robins had ever had their own solo books until Tim. Tim starred in several successful miniseries, including one that pit him against the Joker, and was given an ongoing series. Tim took the mantle of Robin and moved it away from Batman. Tim’s Robin still worked with Batman, but he felt like a solo hero in his own right. Tim helped found Young Justice, making his most iconic friendship with Superboy, and then was a major part of the return of the Teen Titans. However, despite leading DC’s teen teams like Dick had before him, Tim never felt like he was walking in the boots of the previous Robins. Tim blazed a new trail, and this is what made him so popular. Robin ran for 16 years, spanning nearly two hundred issues. He forever changed what it meant to be Robin.
Tim Drake Made Robin More Than a Sidekick
The years since Damian Wayne’s introduction haven’t been kind to Tim Drake. At first, he became Red Robin, Dick Grayson’s mantle in Kingdom Come, but since then there have been several other names (including Drake, which is the laziest “name change” ever), until DC decided that having two Robins wasn’t a problem. Damian even took Tim’s place as the Robin of the Teen Titans. It would only be recently that Tim was allowed to somewhat come back to prominence. However, Tim Drake deserves his flowers as the best Robin.
Tim is the best Robin. Dick set the standard, Damian has a familial relationship to Batman, Jason and Steph were the martyrs. However, Tim is the one that made Robin into something special. DC saw that just doing the same stuff with Robin as they had done before led to the Jason Todd situation, so they used the character in new ways, changing Robin forever. Tim Drake succeeded where even Dick and Damian failed — Dick is a solo hero now, but wasn’t while he was Robin and Damian may be more popular but he’s never been able to keep a solo book going for more than a few years, let alone 16 — and that’s why even though you may not like him the best, he’s definitely the best.
The post Tim Drake Isn’t the Coolest Robin, But I Think He’s the Best appeared first on ComicBook.com.
