Pulls: Batman, Detective Comics, SiKtC, Catwoman, Nightwing, Titans, Godzilla, Wonder Woman, Batman & Robin, Brave and the Bold, No/One, Kill your Darlings, and Deviant.
My runs: Batman #230-, and Detective #420-
"Drake" doesn't appeal to me but its what we got.
I'm hoping he fights a dragon or atleast a dragon themed villian at somepoint.
Last edited by the illustrious mr. kenway; 08-04-2020 at 06:14 PM.
Personally, I don't HATE Drake. But it calls to mind a duck, which is pretty lame. If they'd built it explicitly on the dragon imagery, with a new logo for example, I could maybe have gone for it. But instead Bendis made it clear it was the bird. It's a duck, people.
To wander away into the weeds of my mind for a second, I was always disappointed when Tim Seeley introduced the new Raptor in the pages of Rebirth Nightwing. Not because I don't love that character as a villain for Dick, or because I dislike his design. I think he's one of the best new villains to come out of the Bat offices in some time, in terms of having potentially varied use across characters in the line. (Hell, one of his best appearances is in Priest's brilliant Deathstroke run.) But only because I was hoping for Raptor for Tim's new codename, when they eventually gave him one. I honestly think you could have kept the Red Robin costume, or at least modified it, and gone with the new codename and I'd have been ecstatic. Obviously, probably wouldn't work for some, or even most, but that's where I was at the time.
And my biggest problem with the Drake ID isn't even the name. It's that horrible costume. Gray/silver, black and gold I'm fine with. But the brown just completely destroys it. It's hideous. I'd rather have the Nu52 wing suit back (although, in fairness, I'm one of the people that didn't hate that look). But I felt like the Black/Red/Gold of the Red Robin design was a great scheme for Tim. And while I"m not opposed to a new look, or new colors, the new design is both too busy and too ugly to survive. Maybe future artists could tweak it to make it worthwhile, it wouldn't be the first time. But it needs to be redesigned, and quickly.
Drake wouldn't be so bad if a good reason had been used to introduce it, but Bendis' idea was so bad and he made clear since the beginning: 1) Drake stands for the duck and 2) He chose it because his evil counterpart did it... it was the worst but I only hate the color, seriously what were they thinking?!
"Tim Drake" and "Robin" both need each other. It only makes sense and I don't see why it needs to invalidate Damian, or Tim's "development" or "history" any more than Barbara Gordon's time as Oracle.
The audience is savvy enough that I'm fine with "Robin" being multiple people, but also "Damian" is hardly referred to as "Robin" in the comics anyway. He can keep the costume and go by "Boy Wonder" if you really need to split the name.
==Tim Drake is the cool, relatable Robin, the Teen Wonder -- similar to the 90s book, he's the high school version of Nightwing but wears the classic Robin costume.
==Damian Wayne is the dark, mean Robin The Boy Wonder. -- he's the junior protege with the most senior pedigree
Who are these characters and books for? I mean I'm the potential audience for this as much as anyone. I like Robin stories with both characters. I think they're kidding themselves by trying to find a "Robin Lite" IP name for Tim Drake and I'm a lot more interested in seeing these characters at full strength than some lobotomized version.
I feel like I must be the only person who actually thought that "Drake" had some potential and liked the costume well enough too. If they were willing to have given it a chance, I think that it would stick better than flailing around as they are. Almost ensures nothing else will take in the future IMO.
It's the Dynamic Duo! Batman and Robin!... and Red Robin and Red Hood and Nightwing and Batwoman and Batgirl and Orphan and Spoiler and Bluebird and Lark and Gotham Girl and Talon and Batwing and Huntress and Azreal and Flamebird and Batcow?
Since when could just anybody do what we trained to do? It makes it all dumb instead of special. Like it doesn't matter anymore.
-Dick Grayson (Batman Inc.)
"Wow. You made Spider-Man sad, congratulations. I stabbed The Hulk last week"
Wolverine, Venom Annual # 1 (2018)
Nobody does it better by Jeff Loveness
"I am Thou, Thou Art I"
Persona
The problem with the Drake identity is the same problem that Bendis has with pretty anything that he does, he likes to break the characther and try something new and daring, but when it comes to actually executing it, he either half-assed the idea or doesn't anything particulary great with it. To an extent i applaud him.for giving Tim an identity that only belongs to him (unlike Nightwing and Red Hood), but he did nothing interesting with it, even the way that Tim decided to change his identity was dumb.
To said something a bit different, this is what i would do with Tim:
-Either i would go for a detective noir type of book when it comes to him, when he takes every type of case, from typical murder cases to really weird misteries that you can find in superhero comics. Nobody in the batfamily is doing Noir right now, so he might as well use it
-Or i will retire him, but i will ask for a last good run before it happens, maybe he is trying to figuring out where he wants to take his life while doing one last superhero job, maybe a loose end for his previous solos, like that "Voice" from Red Robin #25 or stopping Ulysses Armstrong of creating a secret army aiming to throw thw world into chaos. Plus i will bring his parents back to life and i will actually give him a little sibling (i leaning more to girl than boy, but i'm still undecided), he never has to be the big brother before, so i want him to learn what is to take care of another person that relies on you.
"Wow. You made Spider-Man sad, congratulations. I stabbed The Hulk last week"
Wolverine, Venom Annual # 1 (2018)
Nobody does it better by Jeff Loveness
"I am Thou, Thou Art I"
Persona