“Fleeing through the labyrinths with the hordes of the living dead fast upon them;
Once again they found themselves trapped in front of the abyss.”
While I'm not a fan of the Red Robin name either, I thought the book was wonderful, because at that time I was partially convinced Tim was on his way to being shitcanned as a character entirely. Morrison didn't seem to care about him at all and Damian was clearly his preferred Robin, so I was grateful that Tim still had a solo book that continued from his previous one.
I love the Rook for Tim as well, I even came up with a hastily designed costume for the idea...however, The Rook is a comic that was last published by Dark Horse in 2016, so I would say unfortunately that's not a name we will get for Tim.
Zdarsky on Tim's love life
https://www.dccomics.com/blog/2022/0...tmans-shoulderYour previous work in Jughead and Sex Criminals covered the breadth of the sexuality spectrum, providing a multitude of perspectives on queer identities. Over the past year, Tim Drake has been exploring his own sexual identity, opening up to dating boys for the first time. How much of that Tim Drake will we see in your Batman?
It’ll really be reflected in his confidence, which comes with knowing yourself. And for Bruce, it’ll be a signpost for him that the various Bat-Family members deserve happiness beyond “the mission.” Our story doesn’t really slow down enough for Tim to go on dates with Bernard, but it’s felt in the title for sure!
Really don't like how it keeps being emphasized how Bernard makes Tim happy which implies Stephanie didn't when that was not at all the case in Rebirth and YJ.The lack of a meaningful reason/exploration for the breakup further makes this seems seem eh. I know it's a recent development but the relationship has barely started and is barely shown so all constant hyping it up feels tacked on.
Last edited by NOCTPHOENIX; 05-14-2022 at 05:46 AM.
Tim's personal life does need some tlc from the writers, so I'm disappointed Zdarksy doesn't seem to be putting some much needed focus on that. Bernard needs development, the relationship needs development, and somebody at some point, preferably sooner rather than later, needs to work out exactly why Tim and Steph broke up.
If Tim is bi, it seems like liking boys shouldn't make him break up with Steph. If he is gay, then at least the break up makes sense. That's what I would prefer, as it is what seems to have happened, and DC has more bi characters than gay men.
It's a completely different title, but Zdarksy was a lot of fun on the Jughead title and did really well with handling Jughead's asexuality.
I'm not encouraged to hear there's no time for dating but we're supposed to feel the development by Tim's confidence. I guess we'll see how it plays out.
I'm pretty sure they will say Tim is bi, since they don't want to erase the importance of his relationship with Stephanie.
As you say, it doesn't make a lot of sense that Tim needs to break up with Stephanie if he is bi. However, that's just a product of how sudden the decision to change Tim's sexuality was.
I guess they will explain the break up as Tim needing to discover and explore a new part of himself (his attraction to boys).
PS: DC don't really have many bi men either.
I don't really buy the idea that Tim was having confidence issues because he hadn't embraced or explored his sexuality or that Tim specifically is suddenly a sign that the Batfamily deserves to be happy beyond "the mission" since we get that practically every run now.
But I guess we're still in the phase of pushing this Bernard relationship as far as it can go.
Here’s that redesign I made that I was talking about:
4FAEF81A-DA8D-4A59-A918-FEDCD6AE104B.jpg
Like action, adventure, rogues, and outlaws? Like anti-heroes, femme fatales, mysteries and thrillers?
I wrote a book with them. Outlaw’s Shadow: A Sherwood Noir. Robin Hood’s evil counterpart, Guy of Gisbourne, is the main character. Feel free to give it a look: https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asi...E2PKBNJFH76GQP
I guess it depends on you define many I guess. There's Jon Kent who's very high profile now, Constantine, Ghost Maker, Catman. Tim if he's bi.
The only regularly appearing gay man I can think of is Jackson Hyde.
This is all a great improvement over how things used to be. I'd say that bi women and lesbians probably are nearly double.
Tim I think works better being gay, not the least is how the relationship with Steph has ended. I could see them transitioning to friends better if he were gay. If he were bi and still dumped her, I think she could understandably take that harder. I do suspect they'll hedge their bets and say he's bi. I think at least part of that is some readers won't understand that a gay person can date the opposite sex before coming out and still actually be gay.
Last edited by witchboy; 05-14-2022 at 09:29 AM.
I think the problem is they've spotlighted and developed Tim and Steph's relationship and commitment for each other too much for it to be believable that he's full gay or even to the point where he would need to break up with her to explore his sexuality. The material just doesn't build up to it that way, unless committing to Tim being LGBTQ+ means continually throwing his relationship with Steph under the bus because he wasn't really sexually attracted to her or has instead moved onto a character that seems functionally like a male equivalent to her.