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Damian Wayne and Batman’s other sidekicks won’t let one fan-favorite Robin live down his most ridiculous superhero alter ego.
WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Robins #1, on sale now.
It seems that Tim Drake’s most recent identity change is going to haunt him for while. In two separate comic titles, Tim was gently teased about his decision to change his codename to “The Drake” most obviously because it’s just his last name and really careless with secret identities. There was a reason why he chose this name, unfortunately, the resulting costume change and a short stint as Drake has resulted in his siblings having a good deal of ammunition to use against him for years to come.
The reason why Tim changed his name from Red Robin to Drake was because of a fight he had with his evil counterpart on Earth-3. Tim had been traversing the multiverse with the newly reformed Young Justice and ended up on the evil Earth where his alternate self went by the name Drake. Tim’s confusion was swept aside when Drake explained that he chose the name because a drake is one of the deadliest kinds of birds, succinctly summarizing the evil doppelganger. Even Tim had to admit, the reasoning was pretty solid. Then he got vocal support from Impulse which might have been an omen of things to come.
Tim quickly adopted the codename for himself, as well as a new costume. To say that the change was not well-liked by fans would be an understatement. The costume change resulted in a lot of criticism due to its seemingly bland nature. What was even worse, this change was expected to be permanent. As a consequence of the outcry, the Drake identity didn’t stick around long and he had a convenient excuse to go back to the Red Robin persona when Damian Wayne renounced the role to Batman.
But bad decisions, especially funny ones, don’t get swept under the rug in the Bat-Family. In Batman: Wayne Family Adventures #7 (by CRC Payne, StarBite/Rhett Bloom, Maria Li, Lan Ma, C.M. Cameron, and Kielamel Sibal) it is brought up during a discussion about categories in vigilante bingo. One of the said categories was a change in codenames. Tim could claim that one with three examples, but in his case, his most recent codename “Drake” was scratched out in favor of the previous one, getting in on the joke that the Red Robin persona, while still heavily attached to the Robin title, was still the better option.
And of course, Damian was never going to pass up the opportunity to give Tim grief about his bad decisions. In Robins #1 (by Tim Seeley, Baldemar Rivas, Romulo Fajardo Jr., Steve Wands) Damian slipped up and called Tim by his last name while rushing him to defuse a bomb. Tim immediately corrected him, but Damian retorted by calling him the “genius” who referred to himself as “The Drake” for a time, winning the argument by pointing out the flaw in Tim’s reasoning while using that identity.
In all likelihood, this will be one of those moments in comic book history when a character makes a misstep that no one will ever forget. Tim genuinely believed at the time that this was a good move for him, that he was really beginning to carve out an identity for himself. Unfortunately, the decision resulted in a less than perfect costume and a flurry of jokes made at his expense.
While his siblings don’t bring it up often, it’s an excellent bit of recent history for them to use Tim to humble him a bit. Even geniuses can make mistakes. This one just happens to be Tim’s. It’ll probably be right up there with the time Batman wore a rainbow suit or the time when Superman split into red and blue versions of himself.
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