The breakout story from Batman: Urban Legends collected in one volume for the very first time, in time for Pride Month!
Tim Drake’s search for a missing friend kidnapped by the villains known as the Chaos Monsters leads Tim to realize his identity as a bisexual man.
Collecting the Tim Drake stories from Batman: Urban Legends #4-6 and 10, with a brand-new story that sees Tim teaming up with his former Young Justice teammates and the Batgirls, beginning Tim Drake’s 2022 path!
So I read these in Batman: Urban Legends originally and they didn't do much for me, because I don't think monthly anthology books work too well, 'cause it's just 8 pages of nothing, spaced out throughout 4-5 months, and you just don't get the same effect. It's not like 2000AD where those are weekly anthology books, so you can take the story in a lot easier. Instead you're reading a snippet, then waiting a month+, and reading a few more pages of filler, and so on. So this definitely works better as one completed story. It has heart, and to be honest, I think it comes across as more real all together compiled as one, than in Urban Legends. In UL I think it came across way more forced than it really is — I can't really explain it — but it does.
But if you're going to read Tim Drakes coming out party, then this is the way to go
Also the two panels of Tim coming out to Bats is beautiful.
I'm really glad they collected Tim's Urban Legends issues into a single volume. While not without some flaws, they're some of the best stories to come out of the book and flow well in one complete package. The new story was a bit weak, though. Cass and Steph's voices feel off, ESPECIALLY Cass. I have no clue what the hell happened there. Tim and Step discussing their relationship isn't particularly satisfying, either.
Despite the flaws it was still a pretty good read. I like how we really got to know Tim on a more personal level through reading this. We get to see how he thinks and handles the struggles he faces. Though I didn’t like the pacing and the last story with Tim and Steph left much to be desired. It felt like a half done story, but the rest of the book was pretty good.
Come on. Going through puberty and constantly changing clothes in front of Dick Grayson and Bruce Wayne… Tim Drake would have realized he was bisexual a thousand issues ago! They’re two of the hottest characters in all of superhero comics. Especially Dick.
Retcons usually suck but sometimes they lead to good stories somewhere down the line. Stories about superheroes suddenly “turning” gay usually suck but… some day they may lead to good stories? (Northstar and Midnighter weren’t suddenly modified so they don’t count; still waiting for Bobby Drake to settle somewhere more cohesively between 50 years of frat boy and 7 years of drag queen before I risk my eyeballs on an Iceman story again.)
But go back and read Northstar’s coming out story. As dated as it is, the coming out aspect is realistic. There was a question mark about Northstar from the get-go. While obviously some gays do surprise people (these very same people will quickly pretend they always knew for reasons (ergo?) it’s not represented in media much), these surprises are harder to swallow after a character has been around for decades and we’ve been privy to their innermost thoughts. Any push back is seen as homophobia, unfortunately. Any criticism at all is seen as homophobia.
How would I like to see it handled? Like Northstar or Midnighter. Either the Question Mark route or the And So What route. Anything other than just magically changing a fundamental characteristic of a long established character. The problem is DC and Marvel aren’t very successful with creating new characters so they have to mangle their more recognizable characters to fit this new mold they are champing at the bit for. Why they are forcing their own hands to be as quick as possible about it, one can guess, but it doesn’t make for a better story.
Instead of this dreck, how’s about a fully thought out story arc in Tim Drake’s own title? Or, better yet, drop little hints for a year or two. Make Bernard a side character who graduates from subplot to A plot. Imagine a story with the balls to show even a blink-and-you-miss-it panel of Tim being turned on by Dick? Or Bruce? That would be legendary. Do something other than “oh my God, I’m gay, and I have a lot of catching up to do, let’s pull a complete 180 with how I dress and talk because being gay in 2022 is a personality and not a sexual preference.”
Yet, this story isn’t like that so maybe they’re learning. I bet Tim Drake will be sporting capri pants any day now but I hold out hope that he’ll retain more of his old character and this newly discovered aspect will be deftly integrated with the Tim Drake we’ve been reading about for years and years now. If representation matters, Marvel and DC would have homosexual characters. Homosexual gay, not Gay gay. Not every gay, and definitely not every bisexual man, is on fire. Like Iceman. The majority of gays are not stereotypical. There are gay punks, gay tough guys, gay librarians, gay bodybuilders, gay Republicans, gay pharmacists, gay athletes, gay Zamboni drivers, etc. Midnighter has even become more of a stereotype in recent years! With the Modern Gay Approved Haircut, even.
But this could easily have been a quality product. The art, of the chapters that deal with Tim’s sexuality, is not at all terrible, just a little too cutesy and “girl’s romance/yaoi.”. Like yaoi it appears designed for women, not gay or bisexual men. The dialogue is far from great but it’s readable, and the plot is Superhero Plot 148: serviceable. However, the story is extremely rushed. Everything about it is rushed and shoddy. Then the book is padded out with a totally different art style and a lame filler story that barely touches on Tim’s coming out. (And what’s up with his non-coming out to Bruce? I love the idea but it was clunky. At least add a panel of Tim looking sheepish, like “of course Batman knew.”) It’s like editorial was in a rush to get Tim Drake out of the closet as fast as possible so they slapped these short stories together, threw an ugly cover with an ugly title on it, and called it a day. Order up! More gay-bait ready for… who, exactly?
I don’t know if other gay people are actually buying these comics or just tweeting about representation, but for me it has long felt like pandering. Anyway. If representation actually was what mattered here more gay characters would be two things: 1) non-stereotypical and 2) gay. I mean, bisexuals are way OVER-represented in comic books. Maybe it’s the current “I have no personality so I’m x, y, and z fad” but it’s ridiculous.
I’m not sure who the target audience for this particular package is. The number of yaoi fans who read Batman must be very niche, no? Even if that’s what they were going for it could have been developed better so it didn’t feel like a half-assed gimmick rushed together for Pride month.
Hopefully Tim Drake will break the mold and remain recognizable. Whether his bisexuality is a baby step out of the closet remains to be seen. Overall, not a good package even though the creators of the actual coming out story did a decent job with two short comics. Not recommended whatsoever even as a curiosity. Better off getting the floppies.
(Also: it’s time to admit the gay pride flag is ugly when it’s slapped on products without a matching color scheme. And with the added colors, it’s never been uglier. Not to mention all the ugly ways corporations exploit it.)
My first real dive into Tim Drake and I enjoyed it! There was a good balance of case and character drama 👌 I'm definitely wanting to read more of the Bat-family members I'm not as familiar with - Tim first after this, but I'm interested in Steph and Cass too
Nothing extraordinary, but a good read if you have time to kill. I think my favourite part is not the Bernard thing and realising Tim is bi, but that his family (batfam) was around. Going to see Dick like the older brother he is, avoiding Steph like the teens that just broke up that they're... and also trying to help his father, Bruce. The style was mostly good, but by the second half it just... not the best, or at least I don't like it, too cartoon. I don't like when they break the style, but that's just my opinion. About the content itself, the story, I wasn't quite invested in it, it wasn't anything new. Detective case, fighting a villain, solving another mystery, that's it. Not that I'm complaining, the focus is on the relationships between the characters here (not only Tim and Bernard, but everyone, with Tim as a focus). You have to sacrifice a part of the story to have some balance. Overall, if you like the bat-family relationships and you enjoyed Wayne Family Adventures, for example, give this a read. Just one issue, it's not too long, good for a single issue, and they're not out of character. Not villainized, they're human, which is good if you're used to the "always happy and turning out ok" Wayne Family Adventures, or to the usual dysfunctional family in the rest of the comics.
I missed the first part of Tim's story because I was late to the Urban Legends party. I'm really happy they put together this omnibus collection. It highlighted the things I liked in the stories that I did read and gave me insight into what I missed. Some of the art is iffy. Some of the writing could be better. Some pacing is jerky. But Tim is such a sweet kid and an amazing Robin, and we get to see his heart shine brighter with everything all together here.
I definitely enjoyed this one more than I had expected to but it still had problems. I felt like Tim Drakes voice and inner monologue was pretty good throughout but most of the other characters felt odd from their normal selves. Yea like everyone said, it was all a little rushed and I’m not happy Tim broke up with Steph it all could have been handled a little better. Belén Ortega was great on the art for most of the characters, especially Tim. I’m definitely looking forward to the Tim Drake solo series coming out later this year, so we’ll see what that holds.
This was not good. The writing was all over the place, the stories disjointed, and the art disappointing. Also ACAB.
For those saying there are too many bisexual characters in comics, we bisexuals make up the majority of the queer community. We're also less likely to be out due to biphobia from straight and gay/lesbian monosexuals, along with the other reasons people don't come out. It makes sense for characters with 30+ years of comic history to come out as bisexual to 1) not discount past relationships and 2) because changing sexual identity is too nuanced for most people to handle IRL and comics are often terrible at nuanced conversations.
Tim Drake is bisexual. He avoids talking to Stephanie about him and they're relationship. Bruce Wayne is depressed and angry. Richard Greyson refuses to help him anymore. Bernard and Stephanie meet up with Tim on the last page. The artwork was beyond outstanding. The writing was beyond outstanding too.
Yeah Steph and Tim break up. Next day he introduces her to his lover and she's hugging and kissing. Yeah cause that's realstic. That alone makes it one out of five. Worse than that not Starfire crap. Idk where they found this Hack. This whole team and who ever signed off on this should be fired Jim Lee needs to step down from Management, he's clearly not Todd Mcfarlene
I love Tim, and I love the idea that he's bi. I can't express my joy enough at that. There's things to like here: It's a book, and it's focusing on Tim! That's super cool! The art is mostly gorgeous, with great colorization and some awesome action panels.
The story is kind of mixed. Ostensibly the plot begins with Tim trying to track down a bunch of "runaway" teenagers who he believes have been inducted into a cult. In truth, the "plot" is fairly barebones where that's concerned, with neither the antagonist or the stakes getting enough page time to feel particularly exciting. The primary focus of the story is Tim's sense of self-discovery. Now, I stan a good character focused story, but parts of this one missed the beat for me.
The biggest elephant in the room is Stephanie. Her break-up with Tim gets some lipservice, but we don't really learn why they broke up. Last I recall, they were pretty happy together. I could see how Tim, who internalizes things until he's blue in the face, could feasibly push her away when he's concerned about his potential bisexuality, but it feels like a total cop-out not to let us see the actual break-up itself. This collection of Tim stories could have really benefitted from a newly written epilogue which had the two break up, which would have tied in better at the end when Steph and Tim finally have to face each other again.
Tim's realization of his sexuality, though it feels completely natural to the character (don't @me), does feel like it could've been built up a little more at the beginning of the book. It's understandable that each story feels rather abbreviated, primarily due to originally featuring in an anthology series, but it doesn't help some of the themes the author is trying to convey with Tim's journey of self-discovery land the way I think was intended.
The short time each story had to work with is really notable in how it treats Bernard. Bernard is a pretty deep cut in Tim's old supporting cast, so it's cool to see him envisioned here. Unfortunately, he's sort of just a bland Nice Guy Romance Interest who supports Tim with whatever he needs, without much definition to him as a person. He comes off as fairly bland (other than when he inexplicably has the martial arts skills to fight off some cult members) and so far there's very little chemistry between him and Tim. I'm really hoping he gets some more time to develop and be more of a character in the future. All this book does is make me wish Tim would go back to Steph and have an open relationship (she can date Cass on the side, and Tim can date Conner).
You also gave us a book where Tim comes out as canonically queer and include a scene where he holds hands with Conner because you hate us and only want to tease forever. I'm on to you DC.
La primera historia, dividida en 3 partes, está horrible de simple, básica y plana. A través, obviamente, de un "culto" Tim tiene que "decidir" si es solo Robin o también Tim Drake. Así que obviamente el culto secuestra ramdom al wey con el que tenía una cita, al momento de pelear justo el wey es el que iban a sacrificar, random el wey sabe pelear, random le ganan a 20 weyes grandotes con cuchillos para "demostrar" que el amor lo "puede todo" y bien random acaba la historia.
Que en general la historia de Tim está padre, poco se habla de la bisexualidad en personajes de cine, tv y cómics; pero ojalá hubiera una mejor trama para Tim/Red Robin.
Las otras dos historias están mejor planteadas (y en partes autoconclusivas). Tim habla de sus sentimientos por un chico con Batman (dicho sea de paso en esta historia me llamó más la atención la implicación de que cuando Bruce no tenía dinero posiblemente le pidiera apoyo a Selina Kyle); y después con Spoiler para terminar presentándole a su wey. Tampoco son grandes historias pero es un buen avance (ya mejor sin mencionar lo irreal de que de pronto "todos lo sabían" o "todos lo apoyan" sin nada de peleas, burlas u homofobia) o que de pronto el poli nuevo tiene su primera conversación con Tim (como Robin) sobre como él también pasó un proceso de "aceptarse" y blabla.
Sobre el romance hay más en la portada variante que en todas las historias juntas, pero al menos lo hay. También es una especie de fan service; porque el personaje que de pronto pasa a ser "no heterosexual" sigue siendo el héroe, guapo, de dinero, caballeroso y masculino; pero su contraparte sí es siempre el nerd de pelo rosa y medio "amanerado" que se enamora del protagonista por "quien es" y no por ser superhéroe, millonario y cosas así.
so i read the original urban legends stories back when they came out monthly. i was there to witness tim coming out and it was great. love urban legends 4-6 amazing showstopping never seen before. the christmas story in ul 10 was cute but i remembering feeling disatisfied with it. like we didnt actually get to see tim coming out to bruce and bruce being all awkward yet supportive with it because lets be honest hes an awkward guy and an awkward dad and it wouldve been so funny to see.
i think my biggest disatifaction with this book though is from the only bit of new content we got. tim teaming up with bart and conner again yay! but why are they there if this is ultimately a story about tim coming out to steph? but also tim doesnt come out to steph it just appears she has heard through the grapevine for some reason. would have loved to see tim come out to at least someone i guess. wanted to see conner’s reaction (because its a mixture of happy for you bro and damn i had a chance this whole time?) yes im a timkon till i die i dont care.
love me cass cain content but also why was she here? her and tim’s sibling relationship is so precious to me but like they didnt even interact here so i mean okay go girl give us nothing. i guess its just dc really pushing the dual batgirl agenda. everyones personalities just felt off in this story i dont know. also conner being friends with steph is just wrong. life is so much more fun when they hate each other i think.
I bought it when it came out as I wanted to read this sort of prequel to the new Tim Drake ongoing series. But it was before I realized who will be the artist on that Tim Drake ongoing series and I finally passed on it. So I finally read this months later, and it was an ok compilation of 3 short stories with Tim Drake as the main character.
Though I do not believe that Tim could have been around Dick Grayson (Nightwing) for so many years without realizing he likes boys too!
I cannot personally rely if that is a plausible way for someone to discover their preferences, but as a comics reader I can only wonder if there wasn't a better way (maybe take more time through a main ongoing title) to introduce it / show the change (the character exists for over 30 years)?
I have been an unapologetic Tim Drake fan since I started reading Batman. He is one of the reasons I still read Batman comics. This story collects the Tim Drake story from the Batman Urban Legends series.
This collection is a nice story. Some moments felt a little disjointed. I felt like I was missing some tidbits that would explain how Tim reconnects with Bernard. I have quite a few comics to catch up on so I probably did miss something. I also wanted a little more insight into the villains Tim was hunting.
I did enjoy the interactions Tim had with Barbara, Bruce, Dick, Stephanie, and Detective Williams. The art by Ortega was lovely.
Take a B-story from 'Batman:Urban Legends' and pretty it up... BAM! Instant DC Pride special issue!
Characterization is a little off on some of the characters, but they are characters that never have a consistent voice no matter who is writing them. Other than that, it was nice to have a Tim Drake story that wasn't him being '4th wheel Robin'
Bonus: Yes, Oracle. Nobody else wants to call him 'Drake' either. Bad codename gold star. Bonus Bonus: Could there be a teamup with his boyfriend in the future? Hmmm
The Tim Drake stories from Batman Urban Legends are collected in a special issue, chronicling the character coming to terms with his bisexuality and sharing it with his loved ones. The Batman story is wonderful, as Tim grapples with pleasing his father while they find understated ways to show each other how much they mean to them. The Steph one feels undercooked, needing some more issues to round things off. Regardless, this is a wonderful collection for an important part of my favourite Robin's story.
An excellent compilation of some of the Tim Drake / Robin books centered on his much-touted coming-out story. Writer Meghan Fitzmartin handles Tim's personal awakening very compassionately, as he simultaneously struggles with his guilt from breaking up with Stephanie Brown, and discovering his feelings for an old school friend, Bernard Dowd. Those feelings come to a head when a strange cult kidnaps Bernard. Tim sets out to rescue him, only to find that Bernard's pretty damn capable of taking care of himself. Excellent artwork by Belen Ortega.
Where excellently balanced, badass comic book meets a YA LGBTQ+ romance!
I love Batman and the whole Bat family, and the fact that DC released a Pride comic around Tim Drake/Robin - I knew I had to read it! It was actually something I stumbled across in a store one day.
This book is just adorable, and there’s nice character growth, all the feels of a cozy Bat family, and the illustrations are incredible! I will definitely he re-reading this in June for Pride!
In general I really liked the story and Tim finding out and accepting that he also likes boys BUT I dislike how they wrote his relationship with Bernard It has literally no chemistry and imo it kind of feels forced there was no need to make it so rushed maybe they will fix it in different comics but honestly right now I kind of don't care about their relationship
so in conclusion I love that they made Tim canonically bisexual but I wish they had written it better
I wanted to really love this, I’m so sad! Tim Drake is my boy!! Bernard is so cute!!
But the moment he says you can call me Robin while Damien is out of town (which is the very first panel), I knew this wasn’t going to be the characterisation of Tim that I love. Tim got over Robin not being his identity SO LONG ago, come ON!!