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| “ | Since that night at the circus when I first saw him swooping down from the darkness... from the point Dick joined him-- Batman and Robin have meant everything to me. I've followed them both... I know them so well. I knew when Dick left to become Nightwing. I knew when Jason came and became Robin... and I knew when Jason died. And I saw how Batman changed without there being a Robin to care about. Look, I never wanted this for myself... but I wanted Batman and Robin back together the way they should be. And if Dick won't become Robin again... someone else has to! | „ |
| ~ Tim Drake. |
| “ | Look, I know you think this is what you want. But once you put on a mask... a uniform... once you do something like this, it can become all you do. And then before you know it, you're deep down the rabbit hole of this life and you're not even sure how you got here. I started doing this because I thought I didn't have a choice. But you still do, Harper. So for me, your brother, and everyone else.... you need to be sure you're making the right one. | „ |
| ~ Prime Earth Tim Drake. |
Timothy Jackson "Tim" Drake, better known as Robin or Red Robin, is a major character from the DC Universe, specifically as a major character in the Batman franchise, as well as the Teen Titans and the Young Justice franchises.
He is the third iteration of Robin after the death of Jason Todd, becoming the partner and sidekick of the vigilante Batman. After the mantle of Robin was passed onto Bruce's son, Damian Wayne by Dick Grayson, Tim took on the mantle of Red Robin to continue fighting against crime. Like Dick and Jason, Tim was adopted by Bruce after the death of his father during the "Identity Crisis" storyline. He is the best friend of Superboy and Kid Flash, the boyfriend of Bernard Dowd, the ex-boyfriend of Stephanie Brown, and has been a member of the Batman Family, Young Justice, Teen Titans, and Justice League Task Force.
He was created by Marv Wolfman and Pat Broderick, and first appeared in Batman #436 in August of 1989.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
Timothy Jackson "Tim" Drake was the only son of Jack and Janet Drake, and was raised in a wealthy household. When he was young, Tim was taken to the Haly's Circus, where he met the Flying Graysons, which was the same day as Dick's parents' deaths. Years later, Tim saw footage of Batman and Robin apprehending their enemy the Penguin, and noticed Robin's unique acrobatic skills. Despite his age, Tim showed himself to be highly intelligent, and was able to use his deductive abilities to piece together the truth behind Batman and Robin's identities. He proceeded to follow their careers closely, and even noticed Grayson's change of identity and the new Robin - Jason Todd.
Becoming Robin[]
After the death of Jason Todd at the hands of the Joker, Tim noticed a change in Batman's personality. Tim went on a quest to reunite Batman and Nightwing, hoping to return the dynamic duo back to basics. When Dick refused to leave his mantle as Nightwing, Tim volunteered to become the third Robin, but Batman refused. When Batman and Nightwing were trapped in a situation with Two-Face, and Tim decided to don the Robin costume and managed to rescue them with the aid of Alfred.
Impressed with his skills and bravery, Batman accepted Tim as the new Robin on a trial basis, and trained him over several months alongside Nightwing. While training, the Obeah Man captured Tim's parents during a trip to the Caribbean, and Batman attempted to rescue them. During the kidnapping, Janet was killed and Jack left paralyzed, and a nurse had to take care of him. After assisting Batman in defeating Scarecrow, Tim was finally deemed ready to fulfill his role as the new Robin.
Though finally given the mantle, Tim had cold feet about his abilities as a crime fighter, but Bruce told him that he had great confidence in him. Bruce later sent Tim overseas on a tour to continue his training, receiving training from Rahul Lama, and ran into some thugs working for King Snake. Tim also ran into Lady Shiva, who trained him and later worked with him to take down King Snake's heroin, but Drake refused to kill the villain when ordered to.
Soon after doing some patrols, Robin was tasked with training Bruce's new apprentice, Jean-Paul Valley, also known as Azrael. Robin and Azrael stopped a couple of crimes and rescued Lucius Fox from Cypher, and later worked with the vigilante to fight Killer Croc. When Azrael took on the mantle of Batman, Tim was tasked with keeping an eye over him, and later assisted Bruce in fighting Azrael for the cowl.
After the events of No Man's Land, the Drake family moved back to Gotham, and Tim was transferred to Brentwood Academy from Gotham Heights High School because of his many absences. Tim would meet and befriend the Kryptonian Kon El and the speedster Bart Allen, and the group formed their own superhero group, Young Justice. The group would later recruit Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark) and Arrowette, and Tim acted as the leader of the team until he quit after the events on Apokolips. He later returned to the team, but wasn't trusted by his allies since the Justice League discovered that Batman had contingency plans on how to defeat all of his teammates. The Young Justice believed that Tim had also created contingency plans as well, but the new members, Secret, Empress and Slobo trusted him, but Drake quit due to his feelings being hurt.
Robin later returned a third time to the group, but lost his leader position to Cassie, but the team still looked to Tim as a tactical expert. Robin and the team would assist the Titans on several missions, but during one mission, Donna Troy and Omen were killed due to Young Justice's inexperience and lack of coordination. Tim and the group blamed themselves for their deaths, and nearly disbanded until Cyborg agreed to mentor the heroes. Young Justice became the new iteration of the Teen Titans, who were mentored by Cyborg, Starfire, and Beast Boy, and moved to San Francisco. While working with the Teen Titans, Batman had Tim use his detective skills in a fake plot that one of the Bat Family members would betray them.
When Tim's father discovered his secret identity, he ordered his son to leave his crime fighting life behind, even threatening to expose the Bat family if he didn't. Tim reluctantly retired from his role, and Batman gave Stephanie the title of Robin, but she later lost the mantle due to disobeying orders. During the "War Games" storyline, Tim returned to his role after his friend, Darla Aquista were killed by hitmen sent by the Odessa Mob. In the "Identity Crisis" storyline, Tim lost his father to Captain Boomerang, who was hired to kill Jack, but also died when Jack shot at him. Having lost both of his parents to crime, Tim was adopted by Bruce after falsifying records.
When Bruce's son, Damian al Ghul arrived, he challenged Tim for the mantle of Robin, but the two briefly worked together to battle White Ghosts's ninjas. When Ra's al Ghul offered to revive Tim's parents with the Lazarus Pit, Tim rejected his offer, but did briefly reconsider before backing out after being convinced by Nightwing. Tim then started to investigate Batman after seeing his erratic behavior, and learned that this was due to Black Glove and Dr. Simon Hurt. Tim would seemingly lose his mentor and adoptive father after he was "killed" by Darkseid.
Becoming Red Robin[]
After Batman's supposed "death", Tim believed he was till alive after seeing a painting of Wayne's "ancestor" Mordecai in the manor. When Red Hood took on the mantle of Batman, Tim assisted Dick and later battled Lady Shiva, and managed to defeat the martial artist. Dick defeated Jason, and decided to take on the mantel of the Dark Knight despite his reluctance. Angered that Dick chose Damian Wayne to become his new Robin instead of him, Tim left Gotham for Europe to investigate Bruce's disappearance.
Tim gave up his Robin costume and graduated to the role of "Red Robin", believing he continue his work without tarnishing the previous one. With the help of Ra's al Ghul in Paris, Tim found an ancient cave painting that proved that Bruce was lost in time and survived and ambush by the Council of Spiders.
Red Robin was later called back to Gotham by Dick and Damian when their old friends and enemies returned as members of the Black Lantern Corps, and saw his father revived as a Black Lantern zombie. Tim and Dick used Mister Freeze's freeze gun to avoid the Black Lantern's detection, and then had Deadman unfreeze them. Despite having fight old allies, the Green Lantern Corps, the White Lantern Corps, and the New Guardians contained the event.
Love-Interests[]
- Spoiler (Stephanie Brown)
- Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark)
- Secret (Greta Hayes)
- Ariana Dzerchenko
- Tamara Fox
- Bernard Dowd
Portrayals[]
Films[]
- In Batman Unlimited: Animal Instincts, he was voiced by Yuri Lowenthal, who voices Spider-Man in Insomniac's Marvel's Spider-Man series, and also voiced Alien X in Ben 10: Alien Force, Ben Tennyson in Ben 10: Alien Force, Ben 10: Ultimate Alien and Ben 10: Omniverse, and Neil in Camp Camp.
- Lowenthal reprised his voice for the character in Batman Unlimited: Monster Mayhem.
- In Batman: Gotham by Gaslight, he was voiced by Tara Strong, who also voiced Harley Quinn in numerous media (Injustice series and DC Super Hero Girls), Batgirl in Batman: The Killing Joke, Timmy Turner and Poof in The Fairly OddParents, Dil Pickles in the Rugrats series, Twilight Sparkle in the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic series and Ben Tennyson in the original Ben 10 series and the 2016 reboot series.
- In Batman: Ninja, he was voiced by Kengo Kawanishi in Japanese and by Will Friedle (who also voiced Ron Stoppable in Kim Possible) in English.
Television[]
- In the DC Animated Universe, he was voiced by Mathew Valencia, Eli Marienthal (who also voiced Hogarth Hughes in The Iron Giant) and Shane Sweet in Static Shock animated series, and Dean Stockwell as a middle-aged Tim Drake in Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker.
- In Young Justice: Invasion, he was voiced by Cameron Bowen.
- Bowen reprised his voice for the character in Infinite Crisis and Lego DC Super-Villains.
- In Titans, he is portrayed by Jay Lycurgo.
Video Games[]
- In Batman: Dark Tomorrow, he was voiced by Jonathan Roumie.
- In Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu, he was voiced by Scott Menville, who also voiced Robin in Teen Titans and his Teen Titans Go! counterpart, Zephyr in Resonance of Fate, and Jake "Stretch" Armstrong in Stretch Armstrong and the Flex Fighters.
- Menville reprised his voice for the character in Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham.
- In Lego Batman: The Videogame, he was voiced by James Arnold Taylor, who also voiced Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels.
- In DC Universe Online, he was voiced by Wil Wheaton, who also voiced Aqualad in Teen Titans.
- In the Arkhamverse, he was voiced by Troy Baker (who also voiced Joel Miller in The Last of Us series, Red Hood in Batman: Arkham Knight, Talion in Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and Middle-earth: Shadow of War, and Booker DeWitt in BioShock: Infinite) in Batman: Arkham City, Matthew Mercer (who also voiced Leon S. Kennedy in the Resident Evil series, Levi Ackerman in Attack on Titan) in Batman: Arkham Knight, and Tom Austen in Batman: Arkham VR.
- In Lego Batman 2: DC Superheroes, he was voiced by Charlie Schlatter, who also voiced Kevin Levin in the Ben 10 series.
- Schlatter reprised his voice for the character in Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham.
- In the video game Gotham Knights, he is voiced by Sloane Morgan Siegel.
Trivia[]
- Ranked 32nd in IGN's "Top 100 Comic Book Heroes".
- Tim and his boyfriend Bernard Dowd were the first to be in a male same-sex kiss on a comic book cover.
- Tim is bisexual, as he has had relationships with Stephanie Brown and Bernard Dowd.
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 Heroes
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Aqualad | Batgirl | Beast Boy | Impulse | Robin | Spoiler | Superboy | Wonder Gril | ||
