The Life and Death of Tim Drake.
For months now it's been highly speculated that Tim Drake (Red Robin) was to meet his end in DC's Rebirth relaunch. Having been removed from Teen Titans and having a very low presence in the new relaunch of DC Comics, Tim's only appearance is in Detective Comics. Now, with his end finally here after all the speculation, here is a brief look at Tim's life as the boy wonder and his final days that have cemented his title as "Hero."
Tim Drake became the third Robin when he deduced Bruce Wayne was Batman when he saw him and Robin (Dick Grayson) apprehending the Penguin on a news report and recognised a trade mark maneuver of the Flying Grayson's. Tim spent his next few years following their career closely until he saw Batman spiral into more violence with the death of the second Robin, Jason Todd. It was then that he approached the Dark Knight and his family to try and fill the void of lost Robin, however he never imagined he himself would take that place until he helped capture Two-face and Scarecrow. From then on Tim went through intense training and went on to form Young Justice and then reform the Teen Titans, while aiding Batman with many cases.
In the years as Robin, Tim would know heavy loss in his life with the death of both his parents, the woman he loved Stephanie Brown (The Spoiler) and his best friend Conner Kent (Superboy). Having lost so much, Batman, Nightwing and Tim would spend a year away from Gotham training to become a closer much stronger family. On Tim's return he would dawn a new costume and take on many cases again, while leading a new group of Teen Titans. He lead his team against Deathstroke, and supported the Bat-family during the resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul. Pushing his hero status higher than most heroes in the DC Universe, Robin had become one of the strongest allies to the Bat-family.
Tim would later be faced with another loss, one that all the Bat-family were expecting one day. The Death of Batman, but Tim would not accept this news and believed that Bruce was still alive.
He dawned the costume of Red Robin, a persona used by one of his enemies and former Robin Jason Todd. Being the only person in the World to believe Bruce was alive, Tim travelled the World in search of proof of his claims until he discovered proof that Bruce Wayne was lost in time. By this point Tim had crossed paths with The League Of Assassins and gotten mixed up with another group set on wiping out the league. Having stopped the group and wiping out The League Of Assassins network, Ra's went to retaliate by killing all the Bat-family and wiping out Bruce Waynes fortune and legacy. But it was this moment where Tim Drake not only proved himself worthy of taking Batman's place, it was where he proved he was greater than Batman by dismantling Ra's plan expertly.
After saving the Wayne legacy, Tim remained Red Robin and set up back in Gotham, shortly after DC Launched their New 52, in which the time line had been tampered with, and characters and history had been altered. It's here Tim would only appear in Teen Titans and the odd appearance in Batman's comic. Most of his adventures would be spent trying to hold the Titans together, or aiding Batman with small cases.
But now with DC Rebirth, the tampered time line ties heavily to Tim Drake's fate. Tim became part of Batman's team formed to face a shadow group bent on using lethal force to protect Gotham. It's here that our hero Tim would make an ultimate sacrifice. When an army of killer drones was sent out to kill people, Tim would reprogram them to attack one target, himself.
Tim's final act would shake the Bat-families world with the loss of yet another Robin. Made even more sad by a recent plot involving Tim looking to hang up his cape and working on high tech gear to aid the World. It's only after Tim's death that Batman would find his acceptance letter to an Ivy university special projects program.
Tim Drake was a hero who gave everything he had for Gotham, and the World. To the DC Universe, Red Robin is dead and will live on in the hearts of his friends and family.
But for us, the readers....
The mysterious Mr Oz has appeared yet again, speculated to be part of the alteration in the time line. He is rumoured to either be Ozymandias from Watchmen, or another character from his World that ties to Ozymandias. He's been recently following Superman and very recently captured Doomsday, just like Tim. What plans does he have for Tim and Doomsday? High Speculation is that he is building a new team of Watchmen to stop Dr Manhattan who is supposedly responsible for the universe losing ten years. So for now the DC Universe mourns the loss of Red Robin. But with Tim now being pulled into the fray of DC Rebirth, you can expect to see the Boy Wonder flying high again in our comics soon enough.
Written By
Tommy Castle
Follow on Twitter and instagram: @Tommy_Castle
