Robin was the very first superhero sidekick, and he's entered the global public consciousness via comics, movies, television, games, toys and bedsheets. None of them, however, share a level of public recognition anything approaching that enjoyed by Robin, the Boy Wonder. Whatever specific letter or letters of the queer initialism LGBTQIA+ Tim will ultimately resonate with, he'll join a growing pantheon of queer superhero and supervillain characters like Northstar, Batwoman, Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy, Iceman, Apollo, Midnighter and the Golden Age Green Lantern. Whatever it was, it always felt just out of reach. Like you know you're supposed to be on the same page as your brain but not everything made sense. ![]() Writer Meghan Fitzmartin captures the central, yawning internal disconnect between what we're told we should be and what we truly are:Įver had a lightbulb moment? Like something out of the ether taunting and teasing you. It stands to reason, too, that his coming-out process would be one marked by a halting, introspective approach. Which is to say: He watched these two men with a kind of achingly pointed attention that queer readers know only too well. He recognized their signature moves, he analyzed their body language. Think about it: Tim canonically figured out Batman and Robin's secret identities by closely watching their exploits in news coverage. Yeah we really should have seen this coming. In recent years, upon being supplanted by li'l Damien Wayne's Robin, he's questioned his place in the Bat-family, going so far as to rebrand himself with the perfectly terrible and just plain confusing name "Red Robin," despite manifesting neither a predilection for fast-food burgers nor bob-bob-bobbing along, and later still, "Drake." Which only makes sense, given who Tim Drake is.Ī huge number of different creators have written Tim Drake's Robin over the years, but a clear and consistent through-line has emerged: He's analytical, self-critical and tends to over-intellectualize. ![]() But his journey is just beginning, and Tim is still figuring himself out - he hasn't applied any specific labels to himself yet, and his creators haven't either. Yes, he's dated fellow hero Spoiler (Stephanie Brown) on and off. You'll see some coverage declaring that Tim has come out as bisexual, but that's not technically true. (There was always an element, to that storyline, of Tim as a kind of teenage Dick Cheney leading Bush's VP search committee, but let that go.) Tim was created by Marv Wolfman and Pat Broderick in 1989 in the aftermath of Jason Todd's death he figured out Batman's identity and urged Dick Grayson to re-assume his old role and costume, entreating him that "Batman needs a Robin." When Grayson refused, Tim assumed the role himself. ![]() No, this is the third Robin, Tim Drake, the Robin who most resembles his mentor in intellect and demeanor. Neither is it the fourth Robin, Damien Wayne, Batman's son who was raised by an international cadre of assassins/eco-terrorists. ![]() Nor is it the second Robin, Jason Todd, who famously died a bit (he got better, it's comics) and adopted his own, violent, decidedly anti-heroic identity of The Red Hood.ģ. This isn't the original Robin, the free-wheeling, acrobatic Dick Grayson introduced in 1940, who grew up and assumed his own superhero identity of Nightwing.Ģ.
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