#N52 problems

[blogpopular]

BMW N52: Um Motor Inovador Que Definiu a Engenharia da BMW

O motor BMW N52 é reconhecido como um marco na engenharia automotiva da BMW, oferecendo um equilíbrio notável entre desempenho, eficiência e confiabilidade. Lançado em 2004, este motor de seis cilindros em linha se destacou por incorporar avanços tecnológicos que redefiniram o padrão para motores aspirados naturalmente. Neste artigo, exploramos as principais características, a evolução, as…

[songofpurple-summer]

what is this “while gotham may know you as robin…i’m the robin who knows gotham” shit, dc i’m begging please let tim be red robin again this is just getting embarrassing for him 😭

[dickheadcanons]

This is just a little thing, but I just can't get behind characterizations of Jason that talk about him thinking that "Robin makes me magic" was proof that he was like, this sweet little kid.

For one thing, the Jason Todd who says that is pre-crisis. The Jason Todd who says that was being written as Dick, just a little more reckless and inexperienced. For another, Jason said that for exactly the same reason all Robins say shit; to justify disobeying Bruce lol.

The line isn't the cute wish-fulfillment of a poor kid from the Narrows. It's evidence of a circus acrobat's belief in his own invincibility, offered as proof that he is tougher than Bruce thinks he is.

The pages in question, from Batman #385:

[fredricwertham]

[soleilsketches]

anyone wanna guess who my favourite superhero is

[hawkgirlz]

carter/shayera are a god tier concept conceptually because they have so many parallels but the problem is katar & shiera have to die in order for said pairing to be god tier in the first place. but i mean, they are together now so, i just wish that book didn't get cancelled so we could've seen the proper reunion better 🤕

[thefaeriefeatherdark]

The New 52 hate (at this point in 2023) is so funny because in like 20 years when DC does another stupid reboot that fucks over every single character people are going to be talking about how good the N52 reboot was.

[karaspal]

abomination won’t even be the worst thing i’d call him if i was kara

posts that should get you jailed for 30 years

[silverwhittlingknife]

the reason why nu52 Dick is so simultaneously messy and yet boring is because they don't let him be bitchy enough whilst simultaneously making him a little bitch

sdfsdfdsfs I don't totally understand what this means and yet I feel like I agree with the spirit, anon <3

Outsiders 21 - preboot Dick yelling at Bruce my beloved

Yeah, caveat that there's plenty of nu52 Dick stuff that I haven't read and I don't think it's all bad, but also... man, he is not for me. As far I'm concerned, the main good thing that came out of n52/Rebirth is some setups for sad!Dick fanfic. And yeah, "Dick is not bitchy enough" is actually a pretty good summary of my complaints sdfdsfs

The thing is, nu52 Dick has some similarities to preboot Tim, in that he'll sometimes be insincerely fake-cheerful even when actually upset, plus he periodically seems uncomfortable with direct confrontation so instead he lies to avoid confrontation. And mmm I mean, I like these qualities in preboot Tim, so it's not like I think these are terrible traits to have!!

BUT :

1) Preboot Tim has no authority. But preboot Dick does, and it's frustrating to take it away from him in nu52.

There's some post-2011 panel where Dick lies to Batman and is cheery about it, a la Tim bragging to his friends about lying to Batman in Teen Titans, and I had to stare at it for ages trying to figure out why it felt like such a record scratch moment to me.

But it's because there is a huge difference between a presumably independent superhero lying to another superhero vs. a sidekick and his sidekick friends secretly joyriding in Batman's car.

Like, Tim lies to authority figures more-or-less constantly, because he doesn't want to be told what to do, but also because - importantly!! - those authority figures reasonably assume they have authority over him that he has to evade. Of course he tries to avoid direct confrontation with the JLA / Batman / Red Tornado / Starfire - they're not his equals and a direct confrontation would end badly!

Whereas Nightwing lying to Batman feels like putting him in a subordinate position in a way that preboot Dick never is. Preboot Dick always tells Batman off to his face, because preboot Dick cares about being equals and refuses to accept being subordinate. He doesn't sneak around behind Bruce's back - he fights back! If he doesn't agree with Bruce's position, he tries to argue Bruce into his own. He'll do stuff without asking Bruce's permission, but he won't conceal it; he'll make a point of making sure Bruce knows what he did and also that he isn't sorry.

2) Preboot Tim's lying / tendency to be fake with people is a consistent personality trait that's also consistently problematized. nu52 Dick's characterization is wildly all over the map.

In preboot, Tim is a liar and obsessive compartmentalizer, which is both a strength (disguises, sneaking around authority) and a problem (loved ones who are hurt by it). He's self-aware about his lies, periodically resolves to lie less, and generally fails at it.

Tim's consistent enough that you can track this character trait in all his relationships: he lies to his dad. He lies to Batman. He lies to his girlfriends. He refuses to tell Babs his real name for ages for basically no reason. He stalks Dick and then tries to run away from him in his origin story and then tries to avoid telling Dick his name. And this evasiveness consistently causes him problems!! Dick's suspicious of him. Ariana's suspicious of him. His dad is suspicious of him. Young Justice and Steph get annoyed with his secret-keeping. Young Justice want him to take off the mask. Steph wants to know his real name. When she finds out and calls him by his real name, he has a panic attack and literally runs away. When upset, he insists he's fine and fake-smiles at people. In Teen Titans, when Tim's busy being fake-cheerful and Conner is startled to see him there right after his dad died, Tim gets upset and angry at Conner and demands that he not tell anyone about Jack. Fine, Conner says, I guess it's another secret. In AC 3, he's lying to Conner again and Conner accuses him of having an insincere "Starfire voice," which is a hilarious callback to Tim being fake-agreeable-yet-secretly-bitchy at Kory when he first meets her. I feel like I get that the lying is a Tim Character Trait which is sometimes endearing and sometimes less so and which all the people who love him are gonna have different feelings about.

By contrast, nu52 Dick spends a ton of time lying but it's hard for me to model his characterization in the same way? He's sometimes fake and ... sometimes that's totally cool and sometimes people punch him! also, does it say something about him? ehhhhh maybe? no? who can say!! At the end of nu52 Nightwing, he doesn't want to go undercover and Bruce beats him up, but then in Grayson he seems totally on board with his mission and willing to actively lie to everyone, and then in Batman and Robin Eternal he carries out a whole secret mission behind nuTim's back because he thinks nuTim is maybe a spy and is scared (?) of confronting him directly, but also he's so sloppy about it that he gets followed and the bad guys find nuTim's parents. Oopsie! He represents The Heart and is super-caring but also somewhat ditzy with a tendency to leap before he looks, and also he's very very very goodlooking and Grayson would really like you to know that.

You can try to make sense of this character's internal motivations and I have read various enjoyable fanfics that do, but in the comics I don't feel like he's clearly characterized.

3) Dick should be a convincing team leader

I know I kind of talked about this earlier but it bothers me SO MUCH that I have to talk about it again dsfdsfds

Preboot Dick is a natural leader: he seizes control of the feuding personalities in the Fab Five; he does the same thing in the NTT; he stands up to Bruce. He can overrule strong personalities like Pantha and Roy; he can hold his ground against the Outsiders. He doesn't back down and he doesn't quit. He's got instinctive authority, and he's a forceful and aggressive enough leader that he can lead teams even when his teammates are feuding or difficult or arguing with each other. Sometimes he's a little too forceful and it backfires on him, but for the most part, it works!

By contrast, nu52 Dick often comes off as kinda... hapless? He's definitely not a force to be reckoned with.

Like, just to take one small example, in post-Crisis's Red Robin 14, Tim and Damian are fighting and Dick wants them to cut it out, so he throws a batarang at Tim's staff and snaps at him, and the fight stops immediately. By contrast, in nu52's Batman and Robin 10, Tim and Damian are arguing and Dick wants them to cut it out, but nuDick is incapable of confronting anyone over anything so he just sighs about it, passive-aggressive and ineffectual.

And "ineffectual" is too often the vibe I get from n52 Dick in general. You put that man with Pantha, and he'll probably be bemused, but he won't be able to make Pantha do anything, and he wouldn't be able to make Danny Chase do anything, and he can't or won't stand up to Bruce so he has to lie the way Tim does, and he would never have a fistfight with Roy over the proper way to lead a team.

And in a lot of ways this makes sense, because n52 Dick isn't a team leader, because they've deleted the Titans. He's just a guy. He's nice, I guess.

But even though he gets all kinds of excellent woobie plotlines that I'd normally enjoy (an evil organization is stalking him personally! his dad is beating him up and forcing him into becoming a spy! he's losing his memory!) his personality is usually so far off from the character I like that I struggle to get invested.

Because the thing is, Dick's leadership instincts aren't incidental to what I like about him. They're all wrapped up in his outsized sense of personal responsibility and instinctive belief that if anything is going wrong anywhere near him then it is his obligation to handle it and if anything goes wrong then it's his fault if he was involved and also his fault if he wasn't involved and actually if you have ever gotten within five feet of him and unrelatedly something bad happened to you then it's probably his fault and he FAILED. This belief gives Dick a lot of control issues and makes him bitchy sometimes and is not great for his mental health, but it's also very endearing and an outgrowth of how much Dick cares!

Anyway, re:bitchiness, I have similar feelings about various choices in Batgirls and in Tim Drake: Robin and in current Nightwing; like, I don't think any of these stories are bad ipso facto, I don't begrudge anyone who likes them, and I certainly enjoy fluffy fanfic sometimes - I don't always want the same things in transformative fandom that I want in canon.

But in comics, I often want the characters to have a bit of edge, to be cranky and difficult and just... y'know, clearly the kind of people who would choose to be vigilantes. I want them to care enough to be bitchy about it. And I often feel like I'm missing that, post-2011.

[zahri-melitor]

If you want to read comics and you want to test the waters:-

Yes, RCO and clones exist, everyone uses them, I do it weekly too for titles I cannot access any other way (The Warlord) but let me tell you, it’s not the only option, particularly if you want to read reasonably modern comics back issues rather than deliberately suppressed obscure stuff. Plus, don’t you want to look at comics without worrying about getting viruses?

Your Local Library: your library probably has comics as trade paperbacks, and inter library loan will have more. It’s not the most consistent way to find things, but you should definitely look them up, there’s probably something there you’d be interested in reading. Good for having multiple presses, and most take suggestions for their collections, which is a slow but free way to read titles with highly detailed art like Wonder Woman Historia in person.

Digital libraries: my local libraries have ComicsPlus subscriptions, which I can use for free. Now you won’t get DC or Marvel on them, but BOOM!, Dark Horse, Image, Oni Press, Papercutz? All options. A really helpful way to easily sample other presses.

Internet Archive Library: the IA is again going to have an eclectic collection and be difficult to search, but it’s there and it has a lot of stuff and you’re not going to be worrying about computer viruses.

DCUI: if you’re in US, UK, Canada, AU or NZ, you can get a DCUI account. There’s a free trial available of course, and if what you’re interested in trying was published more than 6 months ago, you don’t even need to shell out for Ultra. It costs me less than a Netflix subscription per month, even for Ultra. There’s also a small handful of comics you’ll be able to access for free without ANY subscription - essentially advertising for new runs etc.

MU: just like DCUI, only Marvel, and available more places. Also runs on a subscription model. MU also has the quirk that you can manage digital ownership of individual issues also through their app (if you buy Marvel floppies there is a mechanism to obtain a legal digital copy within ~6 months of the publication date)

Local Comics Shops: you can also…buy floppies and trade paperbacks for yourself. If you really love a story and it’s out in trade, I highly recommend buying it for yourself to have forever. It just sidesteps so many future problems. An LCS is also more likely to have a back catalogue of titles available - if you’re looking for a trade published 8 years ago, they might have it while an ordinary bookshop won’t. If you’re less certain, events like Free Comic Book Day and Batman Day are largely a marketing exercise more than new original material these days, but they’re also a good way to get to handle and own actual comic books if you’ve never done that before.

Other bookshops: if you don’t have a local bookshop with a specialist comics and manga collection (I do) it’s going to be a bit like trying to find comics at your local library: you’ll see lots of stuff with Batman and Joker in the title, and a random selection of anything else. Sometimes you can get surprisingly good deals from them as collectors are less likely to use them to get titles.

Overstock/Remainder Sellers: always worth a look, particularly if you’re trying to pick up titles printed several years ago. My local one has found some absolute gems for me, at a significant discount (I have picked up parts of Dixon’s Nightwing run, Bennett’s Batwoman run, Rowell’s Runaways, some Wonder Woman trades from Rucka and Perez, Gotham Central, I just managed to get the second n52 Blue Beetle trade…)

EBay/second hand shops/Abebooks/Biblio: a decent way to measure what the actual value of a comic title is on the second hand market. Sometimes you can find that the market value is far lower than you expected (Cassie’s Wonder Girl series is remarkably affordable). In other occasions you realise DC is leaving a LOT of money on the table by not reprinting (look up Red Robin trade prices and weep).

Friends: do you know anyone else who likes comics? They may already own stuff they can loan to you! (Once I lent out my Birds of Prey collection to a friend and he returned it with the first two n52 titles added. Still unsure if that was meant to be a kindness or just letting me store them)

[oatlystrawberryicecream]

In terms of canon Jason gets the short end of the stick in pretty much everything. He is just a player in other people’s stories for the most part. His entire stint as Robin of course but also Battle for the Cowl, Death of the Family, Gotham War, and yes even Under the Red Hood. All these (and many more!) feature Jason but they revolve around someone else. Under the Red Hood is at the end of the day a story about Batman. Just like in 9th grade english class: what is the conflict?Batman is trying to figure out how to stop the Red Hood from doing whatever it is he is going around killing people to do. Batman is the one whose actions decide how the story ends. It’s Batman’s story. Now for Jason comics: What is one of many common complaints about n52 rhato? Jason has to steal other people’s friends to prop him up. And yeah, this sucks, DC mangling other well established characters until they are suitably friend shaped to pair with Jason is not it. Another glaring problem (not just for n52 rhato) that doesn’t get talked about as much: Jason needs a villain. Or at least something more defined than the standard opposition to violence against innocents as a raison d’être. Every single thing they put out about him is so disconnected and hollow because they don’t know where he’s going or what he fights against. A long term villain gives him something to rally against and a way to show his ideals and convictions. It gives him a way to learn about himself by letting him see how he acts in various situations. I am pretty into Task Force Z. It works for me because the villain is someone we aren’t very familiar with so we can’t be sure what will mitigate the threat or where the plot is going. Don’t run it into the ground by bringing him back to exhaust every possible plot point. I like things that are underutilized better because you have the door open to bringing it back later on. Speaking of that, the All Blades don’t get enough love because the only thing they kill is a generic villain who don’t show any personality and we don’t get to see do much damage to stuff we are invested in. (I might be misremembering a little about the Untitled here because it has been a while since I read rhato) Black Mask is not Jason’s villain. He went down easily as part of Jason’s larger goal, he is not good enough to give that much trouble. I am of the opinion that DC should kill the Joker, or at least put him on the shelf for a couple decades. There is an element of personal bias there but for the most part his character is stale and overused. Every single thing he does makes me roll my eyes. I especially think that the Joker interacting with Jason is a dead end of a plot point. Unless Jason kills him I don’t care. Status quo is god. DC editorial don’t have the resolve to weather the storm and commit to change. Far too focused on immediate sales and short term interest when they could use some innovation. I suppose Batman could be his villain, it is certainly warranted. But I can’t figure out a version of it that works for me, Jason wants so many of the same things for Gotham that Bruce does. Them punching each other over differences in philosophies and the way they manifest in the field is not something we need more of.

[farshootergotme]

Kinda doing a hurt/comfort aftermath of Forever Evil in Wayne Family Adventures universe.

Dick's "thing with the Crime Syndicate".

As posted in Asks before, decided Spyral and Identity Reveal is unlikely to have happened in this timeline. So it is mostly a Batfam hurt/comfort fic while Dick recovers from the torture (and Bruce tries to recover from having to watch his son die).

Thinking about the angst potential... The Crime Syndicate looked like the Justice League members. Bad in N52 Forever Evil, but at least that Dick doesn't have much of a connection to most of them.

WFA!Dick? These people torturing him has the faces and voices of his dad, his aunts and uncles, the people who watched him grow up. That has to be a whole new boatload of trauma.

Hours waiting in there, bleeding and in pain, strapped to a bomb, knowing death is next to inevitable... And the ones responsible look identical to the people he love and trust so much.

But he can get over that, at least, around that. They've all dealt with mind control/possession scenario of getting attacked by a friend.

Plus, Owlman kept his costume on all the time, and wasn't even the Bruce Wayne of Crime Syndicate universe, there's a difference. And Ultraman may have sounded like Superman, but he can't sound/look like Clark Kent. Diana and Superwoman... a bit more trouble, but Diana isn't a frequent visitor, he has time to get through it before meeting her again.

The problem is... Alfred.

Owlman's Alfred is the one who strapped Dick to the bomb, who watched, offering tips, while Dick was being tortured.

Alfred, who looked and sounded identical to their Alfred.

Dick, waking up in the med bay of the Cave, freaking out at the sound of Alfred's voice...being triggered by him...

I really hope you make something about this because I love what you're exploring and the potential there is.

Seeing the same person who raised you be the one who hurt you can be very damaging... Even if that wasn't his Alfred, he still wore his face and used his voice.

Luckily for Dick, he doesn't live in the manor, so he can get away if he needs space. But I'm sure the first few weeks he would be asked to stay to take care of him. Dick is tense, though. It's hard falling asleep when you could freak out once you wake up when you see the face of your parent (yes, Alfred is more of a parent to him than he is a grandparent).

It'd require a lot of space, time and some exposure to get over it in a healthy manner. (I wouldn't be surprised if at first Dick forced himself to repress these fears as not to hurt Alfred, though, which would only play against him later on since he didn't allow himself to heal naturally and instead left the knife where it is so the blood wouldn't pour out, even when he had the tools to clean the wound and stop the bleeding. All this figuratively speaking, of course.)

Hopefully Dick will reach out to his friends if he doesn't feel comfortable telling any of this to his family.

Thanks for sharing!

[royboyfanpage]

HELLO BELOVED can u tell me abt how Wally and Roy's friendship/views of each other change after Wally finds out Roy is/was an addict (i think he finds out after Roy is clean???)

The few issues Ive seen abt this stuff were N52 so I feel like ur a better source

Alrightalrightalright

So first thing's first, I'm gonna address-

This, which I feel like is the most notable instance of Wally’s reaction to Roy’s heroin addiction (funnily enough, another mutual sent me a DM about these exact panels a few days ago- we’re on a streak with these). Now, it’s important to note that these panels were from Titans (2008), specifically #23, which was one of the comics leading up to Rise of Arsenal and, later, Roy teaming up with Deathstroke in this same series. At this point in time, Roy was already in the hospital and Lian was already dead- he just hadn’t woken up yet. Now, I don’t have any sources to back up that this is what DC was actually trying to do so I’m just talking from my observations, but this issue in particular very heavily focused on trying to alienate Roy- particularly, a teen Roy who didn’t have Lian yet. Almost all of the flashbacks, and even a few bits of dialogue outside of the flashbacks, are very derogatory towards Roy. See:

Yeah. Just in general, very not nice towards him. It tries to paint him as someone who doesn’t belong with the rest of the team, an outcast (which is just bullshit considering they literally made Roy a Justice League member a few years earlier for the exact opposite reason). A little side note- one of the flashbacks in the issue is a continuation to the ending of Teen Titans: Year 1 #5, a comic which was far more enjoyable than this one, and I wish we’d gotten an actual resolution to that little storyline inside of Year 1 instead of… whatever this is. Anyway, back to #23, at the end of the issue there is one little scene wherein we see Wally and Roy actually getting along in a flashback, and it’s when Lian’s introduced. Which, if you remember what’s just happened at that point in time and what’s going to happen in the Rise of Arsenal arc… yeah, you can see why they wanna push the narrative that Roy’s friends only liked him after Lian was born, particularly Wally.

So! Lets’s rewind back to the 60s and see Roy and Wally’s relationship pre-retcon, both pre and post Snowbirds.

Roy and Wally’s first interactions in the original Teen Titans series were generally pretty positive! Particularly when Roy was a “guest star” instead of an official member, Wally expressed a lot of respect for him and genuinely enjoyed working with him

The main problem with their relationship came from, as most problems do, a love triangle. In all honesty, the Roy Donna Wally love triangle is one of my least favourite Titans things- it’s just kinda unnecessary. However, at least in most instances, in the original Teen Titans run this triangle wasn’t particularly aggressive- in fact, the most aggressive Roy ever got over Donna was actually with Hawk, not Wally. Titans (2008) definitely played it up a lot more than it ever was previously, especially on Wally’s end. But the love triangle was definitely more of a Big Issue between them than Roy’s addiction- when Roy returns to the Titans post-Snowbirds, Wally’s concerns have nothing to do with his addiction but more on “0h great, Roy’s back so I don’t get a shot with Donna”

Generally speaking, Wally and Roy do have a pretty close relationship most of the time, especially when they reach adulthood. The only instance that comes to mind immediately where Wally talks about Roy’s drug addiction prior to pre-Rise era is in Teen Titans (1996) #13, and even that is not particularly negative and also not spoken aloud (though there may be more I haven’t considered)

And even in the Gargoyle issues of Titans 1999 where tensions are at an all time high, Wally’s the Titan Roy has the least significant issues with- going just off of memory the only real “conflict” between them was Wally’s single remark of “he’s not even an original member” and the very brief revival of the Roy-Donna-Wally love triangle for a panel.

I might be forgetting some things (to be perfectly honest, of all of Roy’s Fab Five relationships Wally is the one I think about the least), but generally speaking all the conflict between Roy and Wally surrounding Roy’s addiction was fabricated in Titans 2008. Why Wally? Not sure. But yeah, they’re buddies :)

[arunneronthird]

so let me tell u a bit about jason todd, yall probably know this but let me tell the story anyway

as we all know, jason has black hair with a white stripe, or does he?

when he was created in the 80s, he was basically the perfect grayson replacement, good kid with a tragic past and a circus bg that wanted to do good and was sweet and had a beautiful relationship with batman and selina. he was also ginger

(these first images are from batman 1940)

in this timeline, jason died his hair black on his own to resemble robin

he was also the sweetest kid in existence btw

anyway someone decided that fuck that noise and remade jasons story entirely not soon after, this time hes a delinquent with good-for-nothing parents, with black hair and some interestingly violent tendencies

"jason todd was the sweet robin" my ass, anyway he became a gremlin of a robin who no one liked and then he died, v tragic (im only half joking, the writers despised him)

then he came back years later! yay! and when he came back, he looked like this

black hair, right? no white stripe yet, that one is harder to explain

so morrison, new batman writer, brings jason todd again as a ruthless antihero, and this jason is... ginger again? so basically even though he kept the delinquent jason story, he gave a wink to the first sweet boy jason

plus, this ginger jason has the white stripe! as explained here

basically, the explanation morrison gives is hes been dying his hair black all this time cause bruce needed him to look like grayson cause robin was a symbol, which honestly is kinda insane and i live for it

the problem comes further down the line, the timeline becomes a bit blurry cause flashpoint happened, n52 happened, we were all disappointed, let's move on

his next appearance is in red hood and the outlaws (i think, this timeline is insane) and he goes back to this

from this point on, i genuinely think the white hair stripe is a stylistic choice cause it makes an appearance whenever it pleases, he usually just has black hair like this

this is nightwing 2016, but it's also black in robin 2021 and robin war

he famously has the white stripe in the wayne family adventures (the canon status of that series being whatever you want it to be), it's also there in robins 2021 but uh, what was that, and gotham knights, seen here!

in conclusion: no one actually knows what color jason's hair actually is, my preferred idea is that he dyes it but does a terrible job, but honestly make canon whatever you want it to be, clearly the artists already do and i support them

[synergysilhouette]

Changes I'd make to Tim Drake (Warning: may be controversial)

As my favorite Robin, I've needed to make this post for a long time. I know my opinions may not be agreed upon, but I hope my dedication is still appreciated, nonetheless.

He isn't dragged for his superhero goals--Any poor mistake that DC makes, they decide to pin it on him having poor judgement, which is really unfair. As many things that get ignored/retconned (even if they arguably shouldn't be, depending on the subject), it feels bizarre to drag Tim for things like his ill-fated "Drake" costume and era, especially when it was walked back on so quickly. On top of this, people seem to look down on him for genuinely enjoying being Robin. Robin wasn't always a "move on" position, per se; Dick had been Robin for consecutive decades before deciding he wanted something different, while Jason was murdered and became someone else as a reflection of this. Tim became Robin because he saw that Batman NEEDED him, and deduced Batman and the previous Robin's identities on his own. If he wants to do stop being Batman's partner (or sidekick, depending on perspective), it should be his own choice, not everyone else saying "this was a temp job and you're out."

He has his own unique color, costume, and maybe even codename--Even if he remains by Batman's side, Tim deserves to be distinct; his codename and color scheme are shared with all his brothers, and it doesn't do much for him. I'd definitely prefer a cowless take on his Savior costume (unsure about the codename; it feels a bit too on-the-nose, but it also feels like it represents his need to help others) or bring back his N52 Red Robin suit WITH the wings as well as making him the brother in purple, which goes well with the Batfamily's aesthetic as well as signifying his romance with Stephanie and friendship with Bunker.

He's going for a psyche major--I feel like this fits so well with his motivations. It's weird that the Batfamily doesn't put more stock in studying psychology outside of Harley (who rarely uses this skill, much to my chagrin). Tim wants what's best for everyone, and became a hero in order to help people. He isn't simply trying to stop problems, but prevent them and make Gotham a better place for everyone. While he can still go for a cyber-related degree (I don't remember his exact major), I'd prefer he also go for a degree that furthers his desire to understand and improve others, plus it's good to help him better understand himself as well. Definitely would've made this something he furthered in "Heroes in Crisis" (which I should make an post about another time).

He isn't bi--Hate me if you must. I'm a gay guy, and I just didn't vibe with this reveal. During the mid-2000s, it was stated by one of his artists that he and the writers kind of already saw Tim as bi, though DC never made this canon until 2021. As far as I know (as a 2010s comic person), it never seemed like DC was keen to lean into LGBT sexuality for Tim, and given that they've been treating him poorly post-N52, it feels like this was a random "let's find a way to make Tim as popular as his brothers" by making him stand out in a way that they didn't. I know this is a bold claim, but this is a feeling I've had for a while now, especially since his personal life now mainly revolves around Bernard (personal bias, but I'm usually not a fan of heroes dating non-heroes; I'd prefer him with Bunker--or Connor, if he's romantically into guys). And they haven't done him many favors since; DC infamously described him as the "always-online bisexual" in a now deleted tweet that embodies my concern that they're just defining him by his sexuality now, as well as a solo comic with horrendous art for most of the run. If Jason or Damian were depicted as bi (with the latter being the least controversial choice, imo, given his younger tenure in comics and romantic life not as fleshed out), I'm almost sure they'd be better handled, probably because they've been better handled as characters in recent years. Overall, I found Tim's retcon of sexuality unnecessary (yet we have bi characters such as Ghostmaker who were LGBT from the get-go and don't get nearly as much attention) and overall used as a metaphor for his "indecisiveness" at making decisions that DC forced onto him.

He still has a (biological) family and life--A big problem with writers and artists is that they sometimes have a problem with trying to make the 4 Robins identical in appearance and lives. Unlike Jason and Dick, Tim wasn't an orphan adopted by Bruce, not originally anyway. He had his own life and chose to be part of Bruce's world, and the need to make him an orphan with pretty much nothing going on in his civilian life was disrespectful (is he still an Olympic-level gymnast? Kinda love the idea that he takes time off for "me time" here and there and that's when Damian or another Batfam member jumps in). Let him have friends and family as Tim Drake, not just as Robin. Let Bruce be his dad without killing off his biological one. Let Tim have autonomy and individuality!

More A-list connections--This is being petty, but most of his friends are next-gen heroes with no major stuff going on for themselves, just like him. Surrounding yourself with important people can help you become important, too. I'm not telling friends to drop his friend groups (him and Conner have one of the best male homosocial relationships in comics and it sucks how they got overshadowed by Damian and Jon), but giving him more relationships with well-known characters could help his status. Plus maybe involve him in more teams outside of Teen Titans and the Batfamily; it's not good that he jumps between being an underrated member amongst iconic characters and a leader of underrated people. Just make sure he's not trading positions to become another hero's apprentice--there was once plans for him to be the next Blue Beetle as well as a temporary Nightwing, neither of which would be good for him, tbh. I have similar feelings for Starfire (we need more of her friendship and Superman; plus I'd love another underrated TT team led by Tim, perhaps with Ryand'r).

Never lose sight of who he is--The idea with Tim (at least from what I've absorbed) is that he's the most optimistic, maybe even naive, version of Dick, committed to wanting to help people and support them, and not one to brush them off of devalue them. He's got a heart, not just a brain, and I like to consider him one of the glue sticks that holds the family together. He doesn't need to be edgy or cool in the way that Damian and Jason are, nor should he be reduced to a sex object like Dick (which is another post entirely).

[ectonurites]

Have you read that awful Kon pitch yet?

I've gotten an ask or two about this and hadn't had a chance to actually give it a full readthrough until now, and well...

Yeah, I overall do not like the story as laid out.

I truly have nothing against interpreting and then portraying Kon as a trans woman—that is one of the few elements of the pitch that I don't have a problem with, frankly (though I do agree with the sentiment I've seen some people on here & twitter say over the last few days—Wendy would have been such a better name pick for her than Constance/Connie because it... ties in with not only pre-established Kon lore/interests to ground the choice in something familiar while moving in this new direction, but also the idea of him going from someone who quotes/has compared himself to Peter Pan -> someone who names herself Wendy... There's something there about going from a young boy stuck in stasis/without direction into a woman who knows the path she wants to go down as she grows up).

However, much like the impression I got from the Action Comics #1057 story that was the backdoor pilot to this pitch that will never be, I just don't think this writer understands Kon and his history. The incorrect/contradictory pieces of information about him scattered throughout (plus the inclusion of... an N52 Kon panel—from Teen Titans Vol. 5 Annual #1—when like, N52 Kon isn't even the same dude lol) make it incredibly clear that this writer is not familiar with him & his comics beyond a cursory level... which, if you want to entirely reinvent a character in a drastic way like this, you really need to be.

But frankly... as frustrating as this situation has been since that backup dropped, I just think the pitch now going public like this sort of... puts an end to it—we know this story with this writer isn't happening now. So I really don't feel the need to dwell on it. Life moves on.

I do hope that someday we can get a story where Kon being queer in some way gets to be incorporated into canon—but I want it done in a way that feels authentic to him, his history, and his characterization.