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I still hold to the idea that Fitzmartin never had any intention of honoring the concept and legacy of Tim Drake but instead seems to have taken this as her cue to write whatever fantasy ideas she has of him. This isn't about "trying to live up to the images of other people." When given a character like this, it's about making them the best version of who you can while still honoring the roots set down. You may not follow every single branch that stemmed from their initial creation, but there still remains that steady trunk of who they are as a character, and she seems intent on cutting that down as well.
The most glaring problem with this issue, as many others have already pointed out, is the idea that Tim wanted to be Batman. That he felt himself being set up for taking over the mantle, that his role as Robin was to one day step into Batman's role. He has stated on so many occasions that this is not something he has ever wanted, even if at times, he has donned the cowl. But Tim's whole point, one could argue, was to be the Robin who wanted to be Robin. It wasn't about being a cool sidekick and then taking on the name of Batman when it was time. Tim saw who Batman was without a Robin, what the loss of Jason was doing to Bruce, and he understood the real role of Robin. He approached Bruce with that very notion. It was not Bruce being unable to be Batman without a Robin, but what Batman was becoming without one. Bruce was still more than capable of acting as Batman, but the legacy of Batman, what he represented was in jeopardy, and Tim understood this. At least, this has been my understanding of their dynamic. And this is also why Tim has held a certain fear of becoming Batman. Because he knows himself and he understands what being Batman might do to him, who he might become, and that is not something he wants for himself. He's always had a level of calculated "fearlessness" when pushed, and it's partly why the role of Batman has registered as something he does not want for himself.
Which makes this whole notion of Tim not understanding himself in this series something of a joke. Yes, he has insecurities, but he also has some very clear ideas of himself and, most importantly, things he does not want, including the role of Batman and why. This tells us Tim has had some sense of himself, that he hasn't been completely lost. So, I find this idea that Tim has no clue who he is and that he's only finding himself with the marina and Bernard really reductive. Sure, he might not have it all together and still find himself plagued by uncertainty, but to act like he has had no sense of who he is as a person is rather insulting. The real issue with him may actually be in coming to terms with some of this, and a big part of that has been (despite kind of being answered already in a previous series) what becomes of him after Robin. Not knowing yourself and coming to terms with what you want and how that fits into the world can be two very separate things. But that probably requires a level of subtlety and understanding Fitzmartin seems incapable of managing.
That has probably been the biggest plague of this series. Fitzmartin's ideas remain all over the place. Take Moriarty. First, he wants Tim to be his ideal nemesis, then he talks about Tim joining him, which implies that rather than Tim taking him on as his main villain, they're working together to create this farce of an idea of them being better than Batman and Joker. Work with me or die. The level of villainy marriage proposals here was absolutely absurd in its execution. Again, nothing was really added to this story and this potential relationship between villain and hero. Rather, Fitzmartin continues to rely on tropes that she doesn't bother to dress up at all, and so they continue to fall flat in their execution. She hasn't given us any background to build upon as to why Moriarty is so set on having his Joker moment. What's his motivation here? Is it simply to be the next Joker? He's clearly not doing a great job of that. Is he supposed to be the next A-tier villain of the Batman world? Because he reads like a D-list one at best. Is the idea then that we haven't seen him at his worst, given the notion Tim threw out there about how he didn't do anything more than play with alchemic creations?
Am I excited to see him again? No.
Moriarty suffers from the same thing the marina itself suffers, that Bernard suffers, that Darcy suffers. Absolutely no build-up, no backstory, nothing at all to make a reader understand why we should care about any of this. He, along with all the others, made convenient plot devices for a plot that wasn't fully fleshed out. The whole final battle is just a repeat of the one Tim had with the fake Robins. There was nothing new there. Into the marina water you go, Moriarty. I still don't know how he got tangled in all that rope. He clearly falls on top of and slightly in front of it, untangled, in one panel, and then Tim kicks the anchor off, and suddenly the rope is twisted all around him. Not how kicking an anchor would go aside from the one hand shown pushed into a loop based upon his previous positioning. Maybe I missed something there, but I've looked at those panels multiple times and none of it makes sense. I suspect it's the writing not making clear what was going on. It looks like there was a missing scene here or a failure to understand how that mechanic might work and what would be needed to execute it properly. Again, it seems more of a moment where Fitzmartin probably thought it would be cool and didn't care about the reality of writing it.
I was also bothered by the idea that Moriarty put out there that the role of Robin has been keeping Tim down. It again reminds me of a lot of the other backhanded comments made throughout this series as far as Tim's past goes and this idea of having to put down his previous life in order to prop up his new one. Tim has loved being Robin. I do agree about him finding his next role like Dick and Jason have done, but to imply that Robin is somehow detrimental to him felt like a cheap shot, especially given the history of why he chose to take on that role. He's accomplished a lot as Robin, which led to other things for him, all of which it seems Fitzmartin is ignoring here. Maybe a smaller complaint in this issue, and only one I have, but that moment grated on me a bit.
She also contradicts her own idea of Tim in this issue, where she tells us on one page he's felt like nothing has been in control in his life, and then follows it a little later by saying he wants to be less structured and less careful about things. He talks about the deaths he couldn't prevent, which is juxtaposed by the one he could with Bernard at the last second. Again, this idea of using his past to support the "idealness" of his current life. It fell flat. The way everything here is written to show that what he has now is the best for him while ignoring all the good he's had in his life with the Batfam just registers as a really sad and hollow attempt to make us care about this current situation when in reality the absolute failure of the writing and story itself to convey that is what's truly at fault. But instead of addressing those issues, we're constantly being told over and over that this life is Tim's best life without any of the story actually supporting it. But part of who Tim is as a character is his ability to calculate and weigh the situation and the outcomes. It's what makes him a great detective (which again he clearly has not been in this story so far when you have a villain basically hand-feeding him the answers to the problems - which also makes this idea of Tim being "unable" to say no to the puzzle really hilarious). This reminded me once more of how Fitzmartin seems to be telling us her intent to change his character to who she thinks he should be rather than working with who he is and all that makes him great.
Bernard also remains incredibly flat as a character despite a little more page time here. The way Tim used "my Bernard" on that first page felt really weird and strangely possessive to me when we still have no idea why he cares so much about this guy. He's never acted like this before with him, and now suddenly, here we are with this "my" thing and then he's still not even sure they're actually boyfriends until they declare it in the last scene. It felt forced and out of place. And by the time I got to that last scene, instead of finding it cute, I found myself rolling my eyes at it all. I still don't understand how Bernard got chosen as the main love interest here given his actual history in Tim's life, but Fitzmartin has given me nothing to want to overlook that part and embrace the Bernard we have right now.
And the same thing goes for the marina (and these people just lost their supposed landlord - which no one seems to question since it doesn't seem like anyone knew James was our big baddie here - so what's going to happen now with that when you've got this supposed gentrification plot waiting to happen?) and all the people in it. And then you have Detective Williams just showing up to a major fight and having no backup at the start, just him and Darcy (and yes, I know Fitzmartin has painted EVERY other cop here aside from Detective Willams as the worst of the worst but still, protocols and civilian protection have to amount to something I would think). You don't even see these supposed other cops, only a bunch of civilians cheering Tim on, which again keeps painting this picture of how it's Tim's ideal life and setting, and it's just him against this outside world, asking us to ignore everything good that had happened to Tim before he knew Bernard and the marina. I honestly don't find a single thing about this setup intriguing anymore.
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