Originally Posted by
godisawesome
If I can offer my personal nuanced view of it as a Tim fan... I actually don’t have any problem at all with Damian as Robin, and actually still want him in the role, and I don’t think I’m alone in that. In fact, I really *really* want more stories where Tim’s a graduated a Robin who still doesn’t really get along with Damian, and Damian doesn’t get along with him, but where they’ve clearly moved on to more vitriolic brothers than adversaries or literary rivals.
I think the problem is that the “Red Robin” role for Tim got poisoned and sabotaged by the New 52, making a perhaps shakey but until-then-successful transition and placement in the family go from a pretty good state of affairs to a somewhat untenable one, and one that no one, not even Tynion, seems to really know how to fix.
Red Robin before Flashpoint = a Nightwing-style solo character with his own supporting cast and mission statement, and mostly just evolving from the semi-autonomous role he had before he put on the cowl becoming a truly autonomous one... which actually worked out great in conjunction with Damian as Dick’s partner - they had different functions that fit their characterizations better.
Red Robin after Flashpoint = an attempt to make Tim an ensemble-exclusive character, but by largely killing off the evolution he had beforehand to get there and losing track of his voice. This soured most people on the identity change, and the mistake made with Rebirth was trying to renounce the change entirely, to the point where the only thing acknowledging it was a double R on his Robin suit... but not doing so by addressing his relationship vis-a-vie Damian.
*That*, intentionally or not, emphasized the old fandom rivalry people had when Damian first showed up, and seemed to make them alternatives to each other from very different philosophies about how to write Robin. Then Bendis went in and dropped even the bare pretense for a few issues and just christened him Robin again... and then promptly chose both a dubious new name to elevate him to and a half-baked explanation (“Drake” really would have seemed more believable if it were a dragon reference, and not an attempt to make Ducks badass without first calling them Donald.)
...I still kind of feel like if you slapped a cowl on Tim again, called him Red Robin, embraced the idea he’s got to be 18 at this point, that would still be a more workable solution than what they’ve been doing so far, and would immediately lend itself much more to Gates of Gotham-style hijinks between Tim and Damian, rather than someone trying to make two boys with nearly identical costumes look vaguely different.