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Stephanie Brown has always been the most underrated Robin but, recently, the best Boy Wonder has taken that title.
Throughout his decades-long history, the Caped Crusader has had a number of Robins. Some popular ones, like Carrie Kelly, exist in Elseworlds tales like The Dark Knight Returns but, in the main continuity, there are five individuals who have taken up the mantle of Robin. For the longest time, Stephanie Brown, the only female Robin among them, was the most underrated of them all. Now, however, one of the remaining four has taken that spot.
That might come as a shock as the Batman comics have always undervalued Stephanie’s time in the role. She took over from Tim Drake when he briefly left the Robin mantle and the Dark Knight didn’t approve of her as Tim’s replacement. It wasn’t until her death that he fully accepted her as his partner. However, even in death she was disrespected, by not getting a memorial in the Batcave, as Jason Todd did. Then when the New 52 rolled around, she was erased from continuity completely. Not just her time as Robin but her entire history. So who could possibly be receiving that kind of treatment now?
The answer is Tim Drake. Considering he is most readers’ favorite Robin, this is a surprising development. However, ever since DC Rebirth, Tim and Steph have seen a reversal of roles. Both starred in the Detective Comics series (by James Tynion IV and Eddy Barrows) but since then Stephanie Brown has reclaimed her place in the Bat-Family and now stars in her own series, Batgirls (by Michael Conrad, Becky Cloonan and Jorge Corona), alongside Cassandra Cain. Both of these characters have reclaimed their history as Batgirl in the wake of “Infinite Frontier” and the Batgirls series means that four out of the five Robins have their own series (the others being Nightwing, Robin and Task Force Z).
Tim Drake on the other hand has had seemingly the opposite progression. Although he made the news recently by coming out as bisexual, all of his stories have been backups in Bat-Family titles or tales in the Batman: Urban Legends anthology series. It’s either that or he features as a side character in other series, like Nightwing. It’s not like Tim Drake can’t hold his own series either. Far from it. He was the first Robin to get his own self-titled solo series in 1991 and gained his own ongoing series in 1994, spinning out of “Knightfall,” which went all the way through to 2009. Even when Damian Wayne became the new Boy Wonder, DC gave Tim a new solo series with Red Robin.
The New 52 was when things started to change for this beloved character. He may have starred in the Teen Titans series (by Scott Lobdell and Brett Booth) as the team’s leader, but he had lost his solo series. After that, it was DC Rebirth’s Detective Comics, before moving onto Young Justice (by Brain Michael Bendis and Patrick Gleason). That was the last time where this fan-favorite Robin was a main character in his own series.
Considering Tim Drake held his own successful solo series for nearly twenty years, it feels like he’s been pushed aside now. Perhaps it’s because DC doesn’t know what to do with the character. Since Damian became Robin, Tim has had an identity crisis of sorts. He was fine with Red Robin for a time but soon seemed out of place in his new moniker. As if he was Robin but also not. This was made even worse by the fact that he became Robin again in Young Justice and, after the Drake controversy in that series, he’s back as Robin again. With Damian having left Gotham, Tim has been able to fill in but the question has been raised, what will Tim do when the current Boy Wonder returns? It seems DC still doesn’t have an answer.
So, as Stephanie Brown goes from underrated side character to beloved solo star, Tim Drake has regressed from beloved solo star to underrated side character. Despite his popularity, the problem basically comes down to the fact that he’s grown out of the Robin role. He’s always expressed that he never wanted to be Robin forever, ever since he first appeared, but fans love him too much. They’ll always want Tim to be the Boy Wonder and, as it turns out, that could be exactly what’s stopping him from being the star he once was.
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