Tim Drake: Robin #10 Preview (Final Issue)

[Hypo]

Tim Drake: Robin #10 Preview (Final Issue)
Writer: Meghan Fitzmartin
Artist: Nikola Cizmesija

[Frontier]

Man, this book kind of came and went huh? Feels like Tim deserved better.

[NOCTPHOENIX]

And nothing of value will be lost

[OBrianTallent]

Well...the art did improve over the last couple of issues. There is that. I did like the Melnikov cover though.

[Frontier]

Well...the art did improve over the last couple of issues. There is that. I did like the Melnikov cover though.

I wonder if it would've sold better without Rossmo's art.

[Rac7d*]

I wonder if it would've sold better without Rossmo's art.

100 percent
That killed it,

[NOCTPHOENIX]

Wonder why they went with Rossmo's art in the first place.......

but even with the new art it still was selling crappily.

[dietrich]

I wonder if it would've sold better without Rossmo's art.

Not sure what impact the art had but what we do know is that the 1st issue with the good art didn't even chart and issue 9 came in at 197 so the change in art didn't improve sales.


If people were enjoying the story/were really invested in following the journey then majority still would have bought it regardless of the art.

Because this was Tim's 1st solo in a while [and him being Robin in it as well] there were some fans who said they would support it regardless.

I feel that the art became a fall guy for a series that performed poorly.

Dc:yJ had beautiful art and didn't do well.
Tim's Pride special had beautiful art and didn't do well.

3 titles that didn't do well. They all had a number of things in common and Rossomo wasn't one of those things.

The art might not have been to everyone's taste but the art wasn't the reason for the failure esp in light of the fact that a different artist didn't lead to increased sales.

[Morgoth]

It was too late to change the artist. And, to be fair, Rossmo wasn't actually the biggest problem. Abysmal writing just killed this series.
They obviously need to rethink Tim's direction.

[NOCTPHOENIX]

Here is why in my view the series didn't do well

1. Tim being Robin
The problem with this is that Damian was Robin for like the last 10 years since 2009 and was being promoted as such and got more exposure in the role than Tim did such as being in the DCMAU and Injustice. As a result putting Tim back in the role (which Bendis did back in 2019) more or less reduced him to the "other Robin" especially in light of how Damian had his own Robin solo right before this series. So the shadow of Damian was looming over him as Robin the whole time. As a result Tim's time in the role is LONG gone and most have moved past it for the most part.

2. Tim's character beeing kneecaped by the new 52
The new 52 pretty much derailed Tim's character pretty badly via seperating him from the Batfamily, not making him even really be Tim Drake or even Robin. New 52 TT was seen as one of the worst New 52 series in general and Tim being a large part of it lead to his character being tainted by it via assocation. While there was attempts to recover him in Rebirth the damage was pretty bad and still lingers to this day.

3. Tim's lack of a niche due to Identity Crisis lead to a loss of appeal
I like Tim. He is my favourite Robin but Identity Crisis killing of his dad and more or less seperating him from his civilian life pretty much took away what made him unique and since then it has been hard to differentiate him from the other Robins or make him stand out and why many view him as superflous or irrelevant. Him being bi just isn't enough as it needs to be more than that and works at being his "niche" as much as being black works for Duke or being Asian for Cass if that is all that is being focused on.

4. Creative team
People have already said the art so yeah don't need to dwell on this. Rossomo was a mismatch and just didn't fit Tim. The writer lost a lot of goodwill with Dark Crisis Young Justice mini which did things like say if you want Tim back with Steph you're a bigot which ties into the next point.

5. Relationship issues.
For a lot of Tim fans Stephanie is THE love interest so it was an alienating thing to a lot of his fans to break them up off panel in such a poor manner and then throw their relationship under the bus to prop up Bernard as the "one". Bernard himself isn't cutting it as a character/love interest as a result of his incredible unimportance to Tim prior to UL there needed to be a lot of lifting to make him feel like a character or justify why Tim would like him which was never done and all we got as a lot of telling about a meta history that never existed or is shown. There is also the fact the choice of Bernard hearkens back to the War Games period which a lot of people think is where Tim's character started flopping and isn't too well liked in general

[skyvolt2000]

The art was part of the issue. Especially when we saw better by the artist elsewhere.

When they got a new artist-was the book not already axed?
When a new artist was announced it was pretty much after his first new issue was already passed Final Order Cutoff.

As for writing depending on what level of Tim fan you had-the majority of the newer ones (at least those that bothered to post reviews) had no issue with the writing but the art was a common thread.
Now veteran fans who read about Tim before New 52-saw the many issues this book had per the writing.


150 comic book store don't speak for the 2000+ stores out there-so who cares about it being ranked 197. That says nothing because there is no number of books ordered. It might have stayed the same but as new books come out every single month with way too many variants-90% of the books float between numbers.

Trying to single out Tim for Young Justice, Tim Drake Pride and this book is insulting.

Young Justice I guess Bendis wasn't the issue. Nor Cassie, Jinny, Bart & Conner weren't the issue or the We hate Teen Lantern & Naomi clubs either. It's all Tim's fault.
Tim Drake Pride was nothing more than reprints.

If the writer and the artist were the issue-why single out Tim?

NOCTPHOENIX summed up what was wrong with this.

Him being bi just isn't enough as it needs to be more than that and works at being his "niche" as much as being black works for Duke or being Asian for Cass if that is all that is being focused on.

This is the major issue for DC to address before they try anything more with Tim.

[Aahz]

Trying to single out Tim for Young Justice, Tim Drake Pride and this book is insulting.

Young Justice I guess Bendis wasn't the issue. Nor Cassie, Jinny, Bart & Conner weren't the issue or the We hate Teen Lantern & Naomi clubs either. It's all Tim's fault.
Tim Drake Pride was nothing more than reprints.

Young Justice Dark Crisis (by Fitzmartin) was the book mentioned in this regard, not the Benids Young Justice.

[Anthony W]

And nothing of value will be lost

Who could have possibly seen this coming?

Everyone.

Who could have known that going in this direction with the character was a bad idea?

Everyone.

At this point even the priestess Kassandra (look it up) would be shocked at the amount of warnings of impending disaster that went unheeded.

It was too late to change the artist. And, to be fair, Rossmo wasn't actually the biggest problem. Abysmal writing just killed this series.
They obviously need to rethink Tim's direction.

What DC needs to do is just kill the character and have it revealed that it wasn't really Tim but some kind of imposter. Go on a quest. Find the real Tim and never ever go down this path again with the character. At least try to leave the character in a better state.

[Frontier]

Not sure what impact the art had but what we do know is that the 1st issue with the good art didn't even chart and issue 9 came in at 197 so the change in art didn't improve sales.


If people were enjoying the story/were really invested in following the journey then majority still would have bought it regardless of the art.

Because this was Tim's 1st solo in a while [and him being Robin in it as well] there were some fans who said they would support it regardless.

I feel that the art became a fall guy for a series that performed poorly.

Dc:yJ had beautiful art and didn't do well.
Tim's Pride special had beautiful art and didn't do well.

3 titles that didn't do well. They all had a number of things in common and Rossomo wasn't one of those things.

The art might not have been to everyone's taste but the art wasn't the reason for the failure esp in light of the fact that a different artist didn't lead to increased sales.

I know it's easy to blame Tim as being the problem but I also feel like the actual quality of those titles had something to do with it.

[NOCTPHOENIX]

The first thing they need to do is kick Bernard to the curb. He's not cutting it as a character/love interest and the twitter/tumblr shipping folks who fawn over him are clearly not a long term audience to invest in.