Warning: SPOILERS for Dark Crisis: Young Justice #4Only one Robin has proven able to take down the Justice League by himself: Tim Drake. Tim has struggled to find his place in the Bat-Family since Damian Wayne took over the mantle of Robin, but since deciding to share the title, Tim is reaching new heights in his personal and crime-fighting lives. But one recent fight shows that, under the right emotional circumstances, Tim Drake is the most terrifying Robin of them all.
Though Tim has found a lot of peace and happiness in recent continuity—from taking over as Gotham’s Robin to coming out as bisexual—his past is rocky, to say the least. Tim Drake originally became Robin in 1990 in order to protect Batman from his own destructive tendencies after the previous Robin’s death. During the first decade of his tenure, Tim was known as the “normal” Robin because of how he balanced his civilian school life with his vigilante duties. But soon the tragedies began to rack up: the deaths of his father, his then-girlfriend Stephanie Brown, and his two best friends, Kid Flash and Superboy, all only preceded the loss of Bruce Wayne during the events of Final Crisis. Tim then took a darker path as Red Robin in an attempt to prove that Bruce was still alive: he showed fans a new ruthless side of himself, willing to bend his morals like no other Robin before him.
Even though most of his lost loved ones eventually returned, Tim’s ruthlessness is on display yet again in Dark Crisis: Young Justice #4 by Meghan Fitzmartin, Laura Braga, Hi-Fi, Luis Guerrero, and Pat Brosseau. The issue finds Robin, Superboy, and Impulse embroiled in a battle with a fake Justice League created for the 90s-themed alternate universe in which the three boys have been stuck. In the middle of the fight, Tim and Superboy begin fighting about what it was really like when Superboy died, an event that Tim claims “ruined” his life. While Tim gets lost in his own angst from that time, he manages to take down Batman, find his hidden Kryptonite, and pierce Superman’s chest.
Tim Drake Has A Dark Side To Him That Other Heroes Don’t Realize.
Tim has become much more content since his pre-Flashpoint days, but this fight with Superboy reveals that his character still has a lot of unbearable emotional baggage—baggage that clearly still affects him. Part of what made Tim’s time as Red Robin so compelling was just how dangerous a “hero” he became—if one could call his single-minded quest from that time “heroic.” Grief changed Tim’s character, and that grief still lies in wait, even all these years later. In this moment, Tim reliving his darkest moments after Superboy’s death coincides with his absolutely ruthless take down of two of the most powerful characters in the DC Universe. Even if these versions of the Justice League aren’t the real deal, this serves as a teaser of what could happen if Tim Drake’s Robin ever really breaks bad.
Tim Drake’s forthcoming solo series, Tim Drake: Robin, will hopefully show fans a version of Tim Drake who’s, at last, happy in his own skin, but that won’t erase the darkness lurking within him. Tim is one of the most conniving Robins, and when he’s emotionally compromised, he’s certainly the most ruthless. The Justice League should definitely keep their eye on this Robin.
Check out Dark Crisis: Young Justice #4, available now from DC Comics!
