2.0
(*In old-timey announcer guy voice*)
Previously on “Thanks I hate it” Starring Timblr & Bernard as the “Manic Pixie Femboy”. Timblr acted so out of character, after taking down a squad of fake Robins. But Bernard is now Tim’s boyfriend so it makes it all better. Will SmartA55 be able to make it through this issue with all his hair attached to his head?
(We now return to your regularly scheduled smarminess)
Alright let's get all the usual complaints out of the way:
*Tim looks like Sid from Toy Story
*Ber-Nard, Ber-Nard, Dude looks like a lady!
*Tim is acting incredibly OOC & is acting like an idiot
*Narration boxes, over-narrating everything
*Bernard dressed up in a ridiculous outfit
*Tim being written as Gay not Bi
*Rossmo’s character designs are unpleasant to look at
*Blah, blah, blah, TUMBLR, blah blah
Positives first, I gotta say, the coloring in this series has been pretty good throughout. So thank you Loughridge, you have been the one consistently good thing throughout this book.
*sigh* And onto negatives:
Tim, CLOSE YOUR DAMN CURTAINS!!! Tim is supposed to be someone who takes every precaution to keep his identity safe, but he leaves his windows wide open where a drone can easily view him?! I remember during “Knightfall” when Bruce scolded him for eating in costume in a room filled with windows. Seriously, this is supposed to be the same guy who once faked an assassination attempt in order to keep his identity intact, yet he doesn’t even use any form of security measures on his boat?! I really don’t like this Marina setting, it makes zero sense for Tim, why a boat?! Then, Bernard gets all in a huff about that one guy getting fired and being called a degenerate, the same guy who in the last issue admitted to peeing in the Marina. Why would Tim want to live here of all places? Why did he ever leave Wayne Manor? Why doesn’t he go live with his friends? Why doesn’t he rebuild the place they used at the end of Red Robin?
Oh and then Bernard calls Tim “Superboy’s Biggest fan……..Alright that’s it!
*grabs keys, stomps out of the room, starts up car, screeching down the street.*
*About a half-hour later*
*Car comes screeching back, door slams, runs inside, stomps up the stairs* Okay! *takes off earrings of freshly pierced ears* ENOUGH WITH THE TIMKON QUEERBAITING!!!
It’s abundantly clear that this is the real reason why they decided to make Tim bisexual, not because of Bernard (and I’ll get to him soon) but because they just want to get to TimKon. It has been not so subtly teased ever since the Tim Drake Pride special, and it just continues here. If the plan was to have Tim admit his feelings for Conner, then why not do that in the first place?! I may think TimKon is the wrong route but it makes far more sense that his current relationship. It just makes Bernard all the more superfluous.
I really cannot stand Bernard. He serves no purpose to the plot but being a kind and supportive cute little boytoy to be Tim’s little cheerleader,, and someone for Tim to just fawn over and protect. I joked before, but Bernard is literally a “Manic Pixie Femboy” he serves no purpose. He’s just there to be cute, to boost Tim’s mood, and steer him in the right direction. He’s not even that cute! He doesn’t resemble the character he’s supposedly based off of in the slightest. Bernard used to be filled with personality, acting weird (albeit somewhat annoyingly), outgoing, and snarky. Here, he’s not a character, he’s a walking gay caricature. This isn’t even about Stephanie, I’m fine with Tim dating someone other than her (it’s not preferred but I can live with it) but all of his other previous relationships, while I wasn’t fond of most of them, all of them were characters that had characteristics beyond being a love interest. Take his first girlfriend Ariana. Ari was the daughter of immigrants, who lived with her aunt & uncle after her father was murdered, and had dreams of being a fashion designer. Now some of you may say “SmartA55, be fair they’re only 4 issues in” well all of those facts about Ariana were established in 3 issues of a 6-issue mini and the first issue of the Dixon “Robin” run.
If this were about two brand new gay characters, I would think it was cute but mediocre. However, these are two established characters who are now bisexual. Bernard is written like a precious little puppy dog that needs to be protected, and not someone who has already gone through traumatic events, like say, a gang war taking place in the very school where Tim & Bernard first met. We could have had a story about two guys reconnecting after years apart only to realize that there is a growing attraction between them, something that neither of them had expected and yet it felt right despite it being something that neither one of them considered an option. But no, instead of a nuanced portrayal of the complex situation of realizing one’s sexuality, we just get basic ass gay romance between a one-dimensional sack of cardboard and a beloved character reduced to a parody of his former glory. Tim’s identity is exposed, and instead of immediately jumping into action, he has to cuddle with Bernard. PRIORITIES TIM!!!
Then he goes to ask the Batgirls for help, and we don’t even get one awkward moment between him and Steph, not one?! That is a goldmine for character moments and you don’t use it!!!! Then they have to fight a giant goldfish. Which reminds me, that was part of the solicit for the previous issue and the solicit for this issue spoils the ending! What the heck DC?!
There’s so much more I could say, but honestly I’ve written enough as it is.
I know this sounds harsh, but it's just how I feel. If you guys like this, I’m happy for you, but I think you deserve better. Maybe it’s because I recently reread “Red Robin” before reading this, and let’s just say that’s kinda like watching the Nolan trilogy followed by the Shumacher movies. I really want Tim to have his own book, but this, this isn’t it. I wanna see this turn around,
I really do, but this direction is all wrong.
Now, we’ll just wait til next time when Tim faces off against Maximillian Pegasus….yay? more
1.5
Let me start by saying, having seen more comments about the matter, that Rossmo's art isn't the main issue here for me. While I do continue to agree that this style wasn't the best fit for a Tim Drake book, it's still a style that has its place in the industry. Part of the issue with the art, though, is that it gives us one sense of a story while the actual story itself provides another, and I feel that this disconnect remains. Again it begs the question — who is the target audience for this story? Is this supposed to be a YA-centric tale? A continuation of the Tim Drake we knew from before? If there is a specific audience in mind, then marketing has failed abysmally on this point (but I imagine they were hoping to capture that nostalgia crowd while also shooting for a brand new one), and I think that is, in part, why there is such a divisive, almost contentious air around this comic's reception. That being said, I don't think anyone at DC really knows who this story is for at this point. It feels a lot like they're fishing around for that audience and trying to see what lands and what doesn't, and in the process, it's hurting Tim Drake's reputation. But artwise, Loughridge continues to be fantastic on coloring, and starting with the last issue, Rossmo's art feels like has finally settled into itself for this story. (I don't know if this is a matter of "doing better work" on other comics or whether this is some stylistic adjustments made for this particular comic as some artists will shift their style, within their own style, to work with the setting/atmosphere a certain story is going for.) Rossmo, though, for me, is not the real problem with this comic. I can adjust to art style if the story is good, and the writing still remains horribly lackluster and disjointed, in my opinion.
I'm beginning to wonder if the Tim Drake we are seeing here isn't being treated as some sort of blank slate. This idea of "Tim had no direction" and "Tim doesn't know who he is" rings very hollow when you read his previous runs. Within the first issue of Red Robin, I got a very clear idea of Tim and his emotional state, how he was reacting to the world and situations around him, and that told me we have a very defined person here, even if he is now trying to define himself outside of Robin. So, now I am questioning whether or not I'm supposed to be taking into account any of his previous history other than the fact that he once dated Steph and Cassie (take what you will of that based on her interpretation of that relationship for her Dark Crisis YJ run) and he became Robin. This current series almost seems as though it's taking a completely different direction, and asking previous readers (or new ones like me just discovering his old series) to forget who he had been so a new Tim Drake can be reconstructed as Fitzmartin believes he, as a character, should be, and not building on who he had already been. In this sense, it feels as if Fitzmartin is treating Tim as her own OC. Slapping a love of detective stories, saying "who am I if I'm not Robin," and giving him the costume does not Tim Drake make. He's a wonderfully nuanced character, and I'm just not seeing that here with him.
Part of that being, as I've taken issue with before, is just how utterly stupid Tim seems here. You're talking about a guy who made plans for the plans he already had sometimes. There are things he picked up on from being with Batman. I do not understand why, when he knows he has this "stalker," he's leaving his windows clear open for anyone to look inside his boat, including while he is researching this case. (Or you know, for someone to snap pictures of him, because that was the drone there in that one shot, wasn't there?) You're telling me Tim knows this villain knows who he is, and he's just letting anyone and everyone peep into his boat? Also, why does he not have some sort of security system on this thing? The landlord just waltzed in. Villains break in. (Or maybe they waltzed in too!) He has done nothing to secure his place. Hell, why didn't he even have a tracker on Bernard if he was that concerned? Seems like something Tim might do and apologize later for if found out. Also, why not grill Bernard on "letting a superhero" onto his boat? Seems like a prime opportunity to bring home the fact that maybe you can't trust just anyone, Bernard, including vigilantes, even if they seem like the good guys, and maybe create some breathing room for his secret identity. Since that also seems to be a sticking point about keeping Bernard safe at this moment.
I'm also not clear on why Bernard called out to him with "Superboy's biggest fan" when he easily could have just called him "Boy wonder" and gotten Tim's attention that way. We haven't even seen why Bernard would call Tim this unless I missed some sort of interaction with Tim Drake (as Tim Drake and not Robin), Bernard, and Superboy that would explain why Bernard feels getting Tim's attention with that was the best way to go about it. Also, again, how is Tim so distracted walking about the marina, with its rampant murders, and ends up caught off guard yet again by Bernard? These constant lapses in his judgment, given this escalating situation, only make Tim seem stupider than we all know he is. This also brings back home for me again how Fitzmartin tends to make assumptions about her own story by putting things that lack the context to hold them as she hasn't done to story work to bring the readers the understanding they need to place these little moments. You can certainly build up these little character idiosyncrasies, but they have to be placed well and eventually given context to uphold them.
I do also think that instead of getting more insight into Bernard and building on his character, the scenes we got for him were only there to prop Tim up. Again, something that can be fine and well if Bernard were a better established character at this point, but right now, his only purpose in this comic seems to provide a counterpoint to Tim's old life rather than being someone who is just that important to Tim. We're once again told how important Bernard is and not really shown it. Even when saying he wants to protect Bernard, this is undermined by Tim then saying he can protect everyone almost immediately after. It diminished the importance of Bernard to me. Also, Tim's reaction to the kidnapping seemed to contain yet again little thought in interacting with this new villain (which would have been the prime place to put that internal monologue of Tim analytically dissecting this phone call and new voice!) and was far more reactionary than Tim Drake typically tends to be. Show us Tim saying one thing while breaking it all down in his head rapid fire! That would have been a great call back to his Red Robin series and how it worked there.
I would also like to know how many times Bernard is going to get kidnapped because while this plot point is not new and is very often used and used again, it was literally the point of their introduction as a couple as we got to see it in his Pride/UL story. Which we basically just got. I know Fitzmartin herself said Bernard is there to be Tim's damsel-in-distress, but could we not?
I did find the interactions with Steph very stilted, though, and not in that "we just broke up and are trying to figure our work relationship out now" sort of way. It was weirdly impersonal-personal. A few comments here and there that let you know Steph knows Tim better than an acquaintance but lacking any real warmth. Again, because we have so little to go on with these two since the breakup, you can argue this any number of ways as to why it plays out like that on the pages, but the one sticking point remains in that their situation was not handled well from the start. This was brought up back during the whole Pride event storyline, and it's showing itself again here.
In conclusion, I still think this is a hot mess of a series. There are far too many discrepancies and contradictions in this story for me to suspend my belief reasonably. Comics do ask you to do that to varying degrees (hello, Batman #130), but Fitzmartin clearly struggles with voice here and doesn't seem to have a clear idea of who Tim Drake is herself, despite all her talk about it. Her writing is playing out far differently for me, and the more I see of previous Tim Drake stories, the clearer this is starting to become. It's unfortunate a character as amazing as Tim Drake is falling prey to this level of writing. He's truly great, worthy of standing there with any of his fellow Robins. As others here have said, I also highly recommend tuning into the Red Robin run if you haven't yet. But as far as this story goes, with this big new villain reveal, I'm not impressed. It's been a poor set-up all the way through, and this is beginning to feel more like a circus than a detective story with any weight behind it.
(Apparently, my main review is way beyond the max here but you can read the whole thing over at https://leagueofcomicgeeks.com/comic/3709319/tim-drake-robin-4) more
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