Tim Drake is a vigilante and member of the Batman Family. He became the third Robin at a young age, succeeding Jason Todd as Batman’s sidekick. Eventually, he would be forced to give up the identity of Robin  when he was replaced by Damian Wayne.

He currently goes by Red Robin.

Drake is the iteration of Robin who has very publicly come out as bisexual or gay depending on the news outlet.

There’s an entire meta discussion around this as the character of Robin has often been associated or codified as being queer for many readers.

The original, Dick Grayson, was a trapeze artist who Bruce Wayne/Batman took on as his ward.

And this meta conversation had real world consequences.

The “homosexual” of their relationship is one of the primary indictments by Dr. Frederic Wertham  and his book Seduction of the Innocent.

Published in 1954, that warned that comic books were a negative form of popular literature and a serious cause of juvenile delinquency.

The book was taken seriously at the time in the United States, and was a minor bestseller that created alarm in American parents and galvanized them to campaign for censorship. At the same time, a U.S. Congressional inquiry was launched into the comic book industry. Subsequent to the publication of Seduction of the Innocent, the Comics Code Authority was voluntarily established by publishers to self-censor their titles.

Seduction of the Innocent cited overt or covert depictions of violence, sex, drug use, and other adult fare within “crime comics” – a term Wertham used to describe not only the popular gangster/murder-oriented titles of the time, but superhero and horror comics as well. The book asserted that reading this material encouraged similar behavior in children.

At this time homosexuality was still viewed as a mental disorder by society; still being officially classified as such by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

It was also, in much of the country, patently illegal.

Beginning in 1948, Wertham wrote and spoke widely, arguing about the detrimental effects that comics reading had on young people.  In Innocent, Wertham claimed, “The Batman type of story may stimulate children to homosexual fantasies, of the nature of which they may be unconscious” and “Only someone ignorant of the fundamentals of psychiatry and of the psychopathology of sex can fail to realize a subtle atmosphere of homoeroticism which pervades the adventures of the mature ‘Batman’ and his young friend Robin.”

The book was issued in the context of the “lavender scare” where authorities regarded homosexuality as a security risk. Wertham’s work is now often criticized, with one review of his work by Carol L. Tilley stating that he “manipulated, overstated, compromised and fabricated evidence”

Lauren R. O’Connor’s 2021 book Robin and the Making of American Adolescence re-codifies Robin as inherently queer. In it she first asserts his iconic status as character. He has been in continuous print for 80 years, just shy of Superman and Batman, and even longer than Wonder Woman. “Debuting just a few months after Batman himself, Robin has been an integral part of the Dark Knight’s history—and debuting just a few months prior to the word “teenager” first appearing in print, Robin has from the outset both reflected and reinforced particular images of American adolescence. Closely reading several characters who have “played” Robin over the past eighty years, Robin and the Making of American Adolescence reveals the Boy (and sometimes Girl!) Wonder as a complex figure through whom mainstream culture has addressed anxieties about adolescents in relation to sexuality, gender, and race. This book partners up comics studies and adolescent studies as a new Dynamic Duo, following Robin as he swings alongside the ever-changing American teenager and finally shining the Bat-signal on the latter half of “Batman and—.”

As Drake was Robin for much of the 90’s, he’s widely considered “the authentic” Robin by many fans.  Drake as consistently polled as Batman’s favorite sidekick and the most well known outside of the original: Dick Grayson.

His coming out raised and is considered by a significant number of fans as tokenism and the latest salvo by DC to torpedo a character they don’t know what to do with anymore.

After the horrific murder of Jason Todd, it was Tim who brought Batman back from the darkest place in his life— not to pursue any personal dream of crimefighting and costume-donning, but because “Batman needs a Robin.”

There is also a large contingent of fans who feel Drake’s character has been done dirty by the introduction of Damian Wayne.

Prior to Damian’s existence being revealed, Drake was Bruce’s only son, as he adopted Tim at one point (something Batman had not canonically done even with Grayson).

Drake has always been someone who puts the needs of others before himself, filling vacancies where no one else steps up. He has been pivotal in supporting Batman, Young Justice, and the Teen Titans but virtually no personal life.

The death of his best friend Conner Kent aka Superboy serves as a catalyst that nearly cascades into darkness as he secretly dedicates himself to bringing Conner back to life.

The realization leads him to take a sabbatical from being a hero and reconcile his dual identity and see balance. That journey culminates in a reunion with one of his oldest and only friends from his original series, Bernard Dowd.

Seeing Dowd again sets off a chain of unexpected emotions in Drake. He’s nervous and awestruck by his appearance. He banters with his old classmate over the check. And when Dowd is abducted mid-outing by a super villain, he becomes Robin in order to save him. And because he’s Robin, save him he does, but not before hearing a confession from Bernard which ignites a long-dormant lightbulb over his head. “Please,” Dowd says to Robin. “Tell Tim Drake… he helped me realize my true self. Who I am. Tell him… well, he probably already knows. He’s the smartest guy I’ve ever met. But tell him… I wish we could have finished our date.”

An explosion of fireworks go off in his head, uncountable tangled questions about his own identity come loose, ready to be pulled apart for the first time.

The closest thing to a romantic relationship was with Stephanie Brown, the vigilante known as Spoiler.

But in that moment he truly becomes Tim Drake, arriving at Dowd’s door to explore those feelings. But before he can act on them, Dowd asks him on a second date. Smiling brighter and truer than he ever has before, Drake says, “Yeah… yeah, I think I want that.”

While Drake is currently exploring a relationship with Dowd, readers are left with a conundrum: how can someone considered one of the smartest people on earth and among its greatest detectives remain unaware of something so pivotal to his identity?

As one user on Reddit said: “The controversy stems from 3 main points. The first being the fact that Tim and Stephanie are not together anymore, the second with some people being upset since they believe this to be a political move that came out of no where, and the final portion actually just being homophobic and not liking the fact that he’s bi.”

The main insistence here is Drake is popular.

As recent as February of this year fans still had hope that he would be getting his on ongoing series again. Drake has had a longer continuous print run than any of Dick Grayson’s various identities.

YES! Let’s get it done. Tim Drake needs his own series and Freddie does a great job. @JimLee @ms_brittanyjean @CBR @EltdPodcast https://t.co/USwiiwbrkK pic.twitter.com/VLtFNEGVqW

— Jonathan J⃝ (@magicwhiptx) March 11, 2021

The Redditor continued: “Then there’s the people that believe it to be more of a political stunt. It would make sense for it to be one since it’s just as all the advocates say, Robin is a big name to have come out as bi, so perhaps the industry wanted to get in some good credit with the LGBTQ community and decided to see how well Tim coming out as bi was received. The theory is often backed up by how Tim has never showed romantic or sexual feelings for men before and that the whole Tim/Connor ship was purely fans reading way too much into a best friend duo (which isn’t exactly wrong). And then there are the bigots who are simple enough to understand, they just don’t want Tim to be bi cause they don’t like it”

“So finally here’s my opinion. I honestly don’t care if he is or isn’t bisexual, it doesn’t change the fact that he’s Tim Drake, the BEST Robin,” he concludes.

To the notion that it came out of nowhere, I simply balk. Throughout “the Sum of Our Parts,” we see Tim questioning who he is but when we get to the second part he reveals that he is wondering who Tim Drake is if he isn’t Robin and this identity crisis is made to be very clear at the very beginning of the mini series when Oracle makes fun of him for switching names a lot lately from Robin to Red Robin back to Robin, then to Drake, and once again back to Robin.

And the idea that a fictional character needs IRL time to deal with his issues is equally ridiculous.

DC revealed some fun facts about all the Robins in their Round Robin event and here are Drake’s:

• Two-Face was Drake’s first super-villain before he officially became Robin (Batman #442), and King Snake was his first foe after inheriting the mantle (1991’s Robin #5).
• Damian Wayne has been trained to be a perfect vocal mimic. Batman #657 reveals that he can do an impression of Tim Drake’s voice that’s accurate enough to fool the Batcomputer.

• In Young Justice #52, the team agreed to be filmed for a reality television series. Batman has rules against Robin appearing in the spotlight, so Tim Drake solved this problem by creating a new superhero persona as the flamboyantly obnoxious Mister Sarcastic.
• Tim Drake and Stephanie Brown were each other’s first on-panel kisses in 1994’s Robin #5. As of this writing, Damian still hasn’t had his first kiss, but he came pretty close with his teammate Djinn in 2019’s Teen Titans #27.

• In Detective Comics #668, Tim Drake obtained his driver license, even though he was years from his sixteenth birthday. Due to his father’s disability, Tim was able to get a provisional license.

What happened to you Tim?

When Tim disclosed to the Bat Family that he lied to Bruce all the time  it should come as no shock. Tim has always been willing to use deception if the outcome is the greater good. In that respect he is the most calculated and similar to Bruce.

Tim got away with lying to Batman as early as the second miniseries (last page of the final issue, regarding what happened while Bruce was away, but I may be misremembering). He definitely lied about his whereabouts when he was working with the Huntress in the third miniseries. The whole subtheme of that series was Tim lying to everyone – his dad, Bruce, his friends, and, in a positive and premeditated light, the villains – both in misdirection with KGBeast and, at the end, the whole planned ahead sabotaged counterfeit Euros, which was an interesting counter to his guilt about the lies, and the revelation that Tim had mastered one of Batman’s skills that the previous Robins never really fully had, the prepared-for-everything-as-a-superpower trope.

Lastly and quite significantly we have to see  the long shadow of TimKon in all of this, which all of a sudden makes a lot of sense.

Tim is a master at the “Lie of Omission”, and most of the things you mentioned are those.

Drake and Kent (aka Kon-El) were shipped as TimKon and it was a huge thing that was kept alive across the Bat books, Young Justice, Teen Titans, and Superboy series.

In fact the only relationship I took seriously was his and Conner’s. To be honest both characters were done dirty by DC. They were around in some form for almost 25 years. Their relationship is the one consistent thing at DC during a quarter century of biannual reboots, retcons, and various crises.

Tim coming out as bisexual only doesn’t make sense when you erase TimKon.

But since that relationship is such an indelible feature that I’d argue that it makes up the DNA of all the Young Justice generation. So much so that it’s almost a wink and nod through all of the hugely popular Young Justice animated series.

Highlights of Drake’s search history, submitted by readers on Reddit, provides clues. Some more irreverent than insightful, they follow herein:

Search comments:  who is red hood? red hood trying to kill me?? red hood is in house what to do hospitals near me

Reply: The Red Hood is an alias used by multiple fictional characters and a criminal organization appearing in comic books published by DC Comics. The identity was first used in the 1951 storyline “The Man Behind The Red Hood!”, which provides the earliest origin story for the Joker. More details here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Hood This comment was left automatically (by a bot).

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Tim Drake’s persistence and optimism are evident in actor Jay Lyrcugo’s take on the character on Titans where he was introduced in season 3.

For Drake’s character to have largely remained unchanged in his transition to television where virtually none of the cast have proves he’s here t o stay.