Originally published on Patreon
I love Tim Drake. I love that he's got his own series. And I love that he's an openly bisexual guy dating another man. It's been a great development for the character, and the way the story has been done so far is really good. Despite all this, I just find so little to like in this series.
Once again, Tim is being tormented by a mysterious figure who's harassing him with crimes that tie into classic mystery and detective stories. This has also resulted in Robin being framed for a diamond theft that has resulted in the GCPD making him one of their most wanted criminals (I guess saving the city multiple times doesn't get you any reasonable doubt when you're being framed). Tim spends much of the issue running around the city, trying to figure out what's going on, and worrying about his new boyfriend.
Sadly, neither story line really seems to do much. Every other time I've seen him and Bernard together in other series they've been doing great, but this series seems to have Tim constantly on the verge of a meltdown about their relationship. I know he's a newly out queer, and that can be a scary, weird time as you're still trying to figure out who you are and how you fit into the world, but can Tim not just enjoy his relationship for one minute? It feels like Meghan Fitzmartin is trying to set up a break up between the two of them with how the relationship is being played here.
The mystery is also a bit weird, and it's strange how Tim, the most detective of all the Robins, isn't being assailed by a brand new mystery, but with already existing detective stories. It's like the writer either can't think of a new mystery to throw Tim up against, so is using ones that already exist, or is trying to get Tim to prove himself as a detective with these older stories. Neither scenario feel particularly great, and Tim has more than proven himself to be the smarted Robin. The problem is, Tim doesn't really do much detective work here. He doesn't figure out the answers, he remembers having read the answers before in books, and fits them to what's going on around him.
Tim doesn't feel much like Tim here, his abilities don't feel like they're being showcased particularly well, and his personality doesn't fit with what I've seen of him in other books recently. This doesn't feel like the same person we've seen in Batman, Dark Crisis: Young Justice, or the DC Pride Special. Change the name and this could be any other character. Nothing about him says Tim Drake, and it's hugely disappointing for his solo series.
I also have some issue with the art on this book, by Riley Rossmo and Lee Loughbridge. The art has a very distinct style, one that doesn't really mesh with any other DC books out there. That's fine, there's no one way to draw comics, and different styles are always needed to help keep things fresh. But it doesn't feel like it fits the gritty nature of Gotham well. Everything is very cartoonish and exaggerated, and most of the characters look pretty bad. There's nothing about Tim in this book that says Tim Drake from a visual point of view, and like I said in the first issue review, he looks like a bad meme drawing half the time. There's even one panel that takes up the whole top third of the page where the characters don't even have faces. Did the artist just not care at that point?
I'm sure that there are some people who are loving this series; and that's great for them, I'm glad someone is. But as a long time fan of Tim, and someone excited to see him leading his own series, I just feel let down each issue.
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