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Tim Drake is my favorite Robin.

For the record Dick Grayson is the one I grew up with. He didn’t become Nightwing until the 1980s, slightly over halfway through my childhood but before my teen years. I grew up with Dick as Robin from both Filmation shows, repeats of the live-action 60s show, and Superfriends. Dick will always be my nostalgic Robin, but Nightwing signified an evolution of his character. He grew out of being a sidekick and became his own person.

I’ve felt since then that “Robin” is sort of the apprentice to becoming their own superhero. It’s why I’m bothered by Stephanie being Robin when she already formed her own superhero identity as Spoiler but not bothered by any other Robin. As it is Robin was created to keep things light, to keep Batman from the edge and being a more violent character. Before the Comics Code was ever an issue that was the purpose National had for creating Robin, seeing how kids liked superheroes and decided to soften Bruce up a bit with a teen sidekick. Robin basically started the sidekick trend, someone that the hero could mentor but also count on as backup in a fight.

Tim has qualities that set him apart from the others and made him THE Robin in some fans minds, including myself. The problem is DC Comics would come to be run by people who wanted that dark and gritty Batman, the brooding Dark Knight who smacked people around in anger even when fans were shown why that was a bad thing and embraced Bruce over Jean Paul Valley. And so Robin had to go or be altered into something different. That meant to them Tim Drake had to go. The problem wasn’t that he was redundant, as the following Comicstorian commentary states, but that Dan DiDio was put in charge. That never ends well. This isn’t a Versus article because Benny and I actually agree on many points. It’s the reason for those problems where we disagree.

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