#my two favorite superheroes are tony stark and tim drake and bendis really just totally screwed with the identity of both them back to back

[boywonderfuls]

on tim drake’s new name

Young Justice #8 spoilers under the cut

Okay. It really just boils down to: why?

Like....there was no reason for this. BMB didn’t even try to give a reason for the name change! Look, the codename of a superhero character is important to their identity! They really went and changed Tim’s whole identity seemingly on a whim, hardly even FEIGNING reasoning.

So, our boy is Drake now. After male ducks. Ohh, how clever!! It’s an aggressive bird but also his last name!! Wow how genius!

So, you mean to tell me, that Tim Drake is getting a new hero identity taken from an evil version of himself (but wait, wasn’t he recently traumatized by an evil version of himself??) because his friend thought it was a cool name and started using it? There’s isn’t even any agency in that! I guess the story of Tim choosing the name isn’t over yet so maybe he will get to make the decision for himself in the next issue or something but this is how it stands right now

I feel like I’m going to see the argument “it’s good that he finally has a name that’s separate from Robin, Dick and Jason do and now it’s Tim’s time” okay, I see your point. Looking at it from outside the narrative, I’d maybe even agree. Tim has always been tied to Robin by name, even though he left the mantle 10 years ago. DC has been struggling as they try to make him an almost-Robin in Detective Comics & Batman. Perhaps it’s time that he takes on something more unique. I get it. But the narrative has not addressed that in-universe as a reason that Tim feels he needs a new identity (except for maybe the one panel of Heroes in Crisis, but if we’re counting that as valid, then all the Robins need new identities lol). Maybe if there had been a running theme in Young Justice and even Detective Comics before that where Tim expressed that he felt he’d grown out of Robin or even something more negative like he felt he was pretending he belonged as a Robin when he knew that the role was solely Damian’s and he didn’t fit there anymore. Any kind of buildup. Anything character-driven. But no.

And, really? Named after a male duck? Drake? Outside of it being his literal name, there’s not much correlation between drakes and Tim Drake. Drakes are famously very mean, aggressive, and even violent. I get it, name a crimefighter after a violent bird, that works doesn’t it, because the character does a lot of fighting. But in what way does that represent Tim? Tim is not aggressive or violent by nature. The main example of that behavior I can think of is his early relationship with Damian, but in that case he was provoked and not quite mentally stable. Maybe I’m just stuck in the ‘90s, and when I think of Tim I think of the kid who just wanted Batman to get better with no intention of being his partner, or the kid who wondered if heroes cry when he knew his parents were in trouble. But even then, in Rebirth, I recall Tim apologizing more than once for getting kidnapped and for how he was reacting to the resulting trauma- seems pretty passive to me. tl;dr: this is just not character driven at all

And this isn’t a legit grievance bc it’s so nit-picky but you’re really telling me that Tim Drake, Tim “I will let all my relationships slowly burn to ashes for the sake of maintaining my secret identity” Drake, is using HIS ACTUAL NAME as his codename? Gothamites really about to be like “Red Robin stopped a guy from stealing my bag last night, and you know what? I kinda think he looks like Bruce Wayne’s kid, Tim Drake” “I thought he wasn’t Red Robin anymore” “oh yeah what’s his new name” “I think it’s......Drake.....wait a second.....” like the tabloids are about to have a field day with this rumor as Tim spirals into a secret identity crisis

How long do you think this will last? Is this our boy’s name for years and years to come? Is this it? Will it get retconned with the inevitable convergence of pre-52 and 52 continuity if we complain about it enough? Only time will tell