Originally published on Patreon
With issue six the first arc of Tim Drake: Robin comes to a close, and this might be one of the worst Robin comics I've ever read. I really wanted to like this series, I love Tim as a character, he was my first Robin, and I love that he's being allowed to be bisexual and that this book would explore that. But it is just so dull, so uninteresting, and so off-putting to read that the only thing keeping me with this title has been sheer stubbornness.
The main thing that's not helped this series for me has been the story. I just haven't cared about it. The plot feels overly convoluted and doesn't make much sense to me. Tim is the detective Robin, so yes, give him a mystery story; but this isn't really much of a mystery as all of the mystery is someone redoing existing mystery stories. Tim isn't really solving crimes, he's remembering fictional detectives solving crimes and working back from there.
The villain, once revealed, also doesn't really do much for me. It's basically just another Clayface. And yes, the book can claim that its not, that it's alchemy mixed with Clayface clay, but it's still the basic Clayface model with a few new bells and whistles. And Moriarty himself is a bit of a nothing. He's a Robin fanboy who wants to be Tim's arch nemesis. Well, then do something to earn that, don't just turn up and whine that Tim doesn't want to play with you.
Even when out of his hero guise the book fails to make Tim feel interesting for me. He just doesn't feel like Tim Drake. There's not a single moment in the book where it felt like the Tim I'd been reading for the last couple of decades. This could have had any name attached to the character and I'd have believed that it was a new creation rather than Tim.
The artwork doesn't help with that either, as the Tim presented here doesn't look anything like Tim. The artwork kind of doesn't look anything like any other DC book or character. Having variety in art style is important, and it's great to have new artists with their own distinct style, but the characters should at least look like the characters. I honestly don't get on with the art in this book, and I know that's a me issue because it's down to personal taste, but the weirdly shaped and overly large heads with the almost stick thin bodies just feel off to me.
Another criticism of the art that I've seen, which I kind of have to agree with, also ties into how the book seems to be handling Tim's queerness. Tim is drawn very effeminately at various points throughout the book. I don't know why. It's not how Tim normally is, and it's not how he's been portrayed in other books since he came out either. Being queer and effeminate is absolutely fine, and if that's how Tim always is that'd be cool, but this is the only book that does it. And that just adds to the feeling that this just isn't Tim. It's like the book is trying too hard to go 'Tim's queer now, see, look how queer he is' and it feels like it's gone too far into that and lost what makes this character who he is. Tim isn't defined by his relationship with Bernard, and doesn't need to be. He's strong enough to stand on his own.
I'm honestly glad this arc is done, and that we're getting new artists going forward. Whilst I'm not holding out much hope in the quality of the writing improving, at least the new art might make it easier to read. I really want this book to be good, to showcase how fantastic Tim is; but so far it's become one of my most hated DC titles each month.
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