As the dust settles in the wake of Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne, fans are faced with a new era in the Bat-family. Last year was crazy and we saw a lot of changes. Dick Grayson took the mantle of the Bat, and made it his own by moving out of the Batcave, taking on a new Robin, and stepping into the public spheres, transforming Batman from an urban legend into the face of crime-fighting in Gotham. Bruce Wayne, after his adventures in time, has come back into the family business with a new perspective and has taken the Mantle global with Batman Inc.
Probably the character to face the most change of all is Tim Drake, who found himself first fatherless, and then partnerless as Dick gave the job of Robin to Bruce’s wayward son, Damian. With feelings of rejection, loss, and anger, Tim turned to crime-fighting with new zeal and focus as Red Robin. His intelligence and focus rival that of even the Batman, and his long-term approach to cleaning up the streets of Gotham has proven that he has outgrown the role of sidekick and into a hero all his own.
CBR recently sat down with Fabian Nicieza to talk how Tim has evolved and what’s in store for Red Robin in his upcoming storyline Seven Days of Death.
I introduced the idea of the tournament during the Red Robin: Road Home issue. The basic idea was to create a mystery that frustrates Tim because of its seemingly random nature, it’s international scope and appeal to the thrill-seeking nature of many assassins as well as their sense of greed, which means it will draw a lot of killers out of the woodwork. But the most frustrating part, as we’ll see, is growing evidence that this tournament has possibly been going on for a very long time — and it had escaped the notice of the Bat-family. I like putting Tim in situations that challenge his need for control, letting the bad guys know more than he does.
When asked about Tim’s need for control and what it means in terms of the lengths he will go to achieve his goals, Nicieza responds that Tim’s “Big Picture” allows him to justify walking a gray area in terms of right and wrong. On countless occasions Red Robin has aligned himself with the criminal element so that he may achieve particular results. He has even broken Lynx out of jail when he deemed it necessary. These decisions will eventually lead to conflict with one of his oldest allies.
That was meant to both play on the arrogance of thinking you can make the right call by making the wrong decision and also to set up potential problems down the road between Tim and [Commissioner] Gordon.
It’s interesting to see the pat that Nicieza has set Tim on. His current course of action could easily lead to the future Tim sees for himself in the 2005 Teen Titans story arc Titans Tomorrow in which Tim eventually becomes a cold and ruthless Batman who kills his enemies using the gun that killed Bruce’s parents. Of course Nicieza admit’s we will probably never truly get to see the end results of Tim’s decisions due the the limitations of the comic book medium.
Ultimately, the “bigger picture” I see for Tim is one I will never get the chance to display in print, since in terms of real publishing time vs. comic book fiction time, I’ll never get to writing a thirty-year-old Tim, unless I’m writing Red Robin #3,450 — which, you know, what with renumbering all the time and everything, not really likely.
Needless to say, the longer-term plan for him would be to make him King of the World
Seven Days of Death kicks off in issue #23 and hits stores May 11th.
