#robin 1991

[dailytims]

Robin Miniseries I (1991) #5

[of-mice-and-idiots]

tim drake’s training to be robin was objectively hilarious so here’s that

bruce: hey i’m sending you to paris to train with some old guy and his grandson

tim: cool

~paris~

grandson: pick a weapon to learn to fight with

tim: slingshot

grandson: seriously?

tim: yea

~later~

grandson: hey wanna go out on what is definitely not a date cause it’s 1993?

tim: sure

he immediately ditches this guy and runs off with a girl that is secretly apart of a gang, gets jumped by said gang, follows gang to a warehouse, and saves the life of an ex-fbi agent. lady shiva is also there and immediately clocks him as future fighting opponent material

~later~

ex-fbi agent: holy shit, that’s lady shiva

tim: neat

~later~

old training guy, fuckin dead

tim: guess i’ll just train with lady shiva /:

~later~

shiva: that slingshot is stupid, here’s a bo staff

tim: cool *slices it with a knife *

shiva: whatever floats your boat you funky little white boy

tim beats lady shiva in a fight

shiva, excitedly: one day you and i will fight to the death

~later~

shiva: hey this is the guy running that gang you were fighting earlier

tim: awesome

shiva: he killed the fbi guy from earlier

tim: aw ):

shiva: kill him

tim: what

~later~

batman, knows tim was hanging out with lady shiva: hey what’s up

tim, who just watched lady shiva “kill” a guy: oh nothing much, you?

[speedforce-zoomies]

I love the running gag of Tim Drake getting caught up in Cult Activities:

1) In his 1991 mini series - his first ever solo adventure? Gets caught up in King Snake’s bs which is often stems from the dude wanting to rule the Kobra Cult (Tim has to deal with the jerk on and off as Robin due at least in part to this obsession of the Kobra Cult).

2) Then in Robin (1993) #82 Tim meets Danny Temple and is like hmmm, something weird is going on with this dude. Then in issue #88, Danny is kidnapped by a robot with a snake on it. Then has to deal with the Kobra Cult from issues #89-92.

3) In Batman: Contagion (1996) the Order of St. Dumas, which is a religious cult, releases the biological weapon “The Clench” which Tim catches and then has a rough time cuz of it.

4) AND Tim’s practically a cult leader himself in the Titans Tomorrow (2004) future timeline and present Tim has to deal with his evil cult leader future self.

5) While Tim does not directly interact with the Cult of Conner in 2006 (52 #11, 13, 14) Cassie Sandsmark is a member which we can assume impacted him indirectly.

6) In the resurrection of Ra’s al Ghul (2008) Ra’s wants to either recruit Tim or take over his body and messes him up a bit, both physically and mentally and Ra’s is very much running a cult.

7) In the 2009 Red Robin run Tim is forced to work with Ra’s and the League of Assassins against another cult: The Council of Spiders who kill two of his allies and cause him to lose his spleen.

8) In Robin War (2016) #2 Damian has temporarily joined The Court of Owls and fights Tim

9) Then in Batman: Urban Legends #4 (2021) he meets up with his HS friend Bernard Dowd who gets kidnapped by the cult: Children of Dionysus.

10) And in Tim Drake: Robin #8 Tim Drake has to deal with Children of Dionysus again alongside Bernard who is now his boyfriend.

That’s ten just off the top of my head and I could be missing some (please let me know if I have!) but it’s like the writers are like Tim hasn’t had anything too bizarre to deal with in a little while… Hmm, you know what Tim could use? Another cult to deal with lol

Poor boy must be so tired of dealing with cults

At this point I’m just waiting for a plot line where Tim finds himself as an unwilling cult leader or is unwillingly made the face of a cult 😭 like that time Wally West was in “Blood Will Run” (2001)

[rootbeerrex]

Everything about this panel fucking slays me. Shiva gripping the wheel like she's an angry dad trying to get through rush hour traffic. Clyde staring angrily out the window. Tim curled up in a little ball in the middle like a child of divorce. The fucking "at least she has an excuse." It just radiates last leg of a road trip vibes. Top 3 panels of all time.

[thesecretdcblog]

I'm convinced Lady Shiva likes Tim more than her own daughter

[shyjusticewarrior]

Tim literally had imposter syndrome the moment he put on his Robin suit

[devonaeya]

A little sample of just how quick stuff escalates for Tim:

Tim's like "ah yes I shall just go to Paris to train" and then tries to help someone, then finds another person to help, gets overwhelmed and ends up learning from a deadly assassin and an undercover officer(?) instead of the marital arts master he was supposed to train under.

Oh also he went from Paris to Hong Kong on a weird road trip with said assassin and officer. How fun.

[junkdrawerfan]

Why do people make Tim being “sent” to train under Lady Shiva a bad thing in fanfics?

UM… ACTUALLY! Everything about that sentence is wrong.

Bruce doesn’t send Tim to train abroad after “only a few weeks.”

Bruce doesn’t send Tim to Lady Shiva. Tim finds that trouble all on his own.

Point 1: Bruce doesn't send Tim to train abroad until after he's been trained by Bruce for months and has "earned" the robin suit by saving Bruce from The Scarecrow. Tim meets Bruce during Spring — as seen in the art during Tim’s time tracking Dick to Halley’s Circus during his intro comic — and is being trained by him until Christmas Eve where Tim defeats Scarecrow. That is a at least 7-8 months of training.

After receiving the Robin suit, Tim expresses doubt in his ability to be Robin to which Bruce says “You just need to gain physical prowess” and suggests a training trip in Paris.

Point 2: Bruce then sends Tim to Paris to train under one of Batman’s old teacher: a Tibetan monk who’s taken refuge in Paris and is a specialist in both healing and hand to hand combat. The monk is referred to **cringe** as “Lama.” Tim then gets caught up in a gang fight which spirals into a conspiracy and catches the attention of Lady Shiva all on his own!

(Total side note and I know it was like 1991 BUT SO MANY early Tim stories have awkward racism you can’t even squint past. You gotta just grit your teeth and keep reading. His parents are killed by an evil voodoo guy. He trains under a mystical Tibetan monk. He has some awkward run ins with a Chinese mob. He had to manage a couple of “angry black guy” characters. Like I’m sure lots of other DC properties were just as bad at this time. But then you remember that Tim’s Robin is one of THE MOST successful comic lines during the 90s and early 00s and it’s just awkward. And DC still won’t hire enough non-white male writers and artists when you have beautiful stories like The Boy Wonder written by brilliant POC artists. Like why?!??)

Look I'm not saying Bruce is a perfect mentor to Tim. His reactions to Janet Drake's death is not ideal. Bruce also tries to hide information from Tim when his parents are kidnapped and lets Tim think his parents are dead because "what if Bruce can't fix it". Bruce's control issues are on fine display for several issues.

But sending Tim to Lady Shiva is not a neglectful act on Bruce's part. Tim ditched Bruce’s safe training plan and gets involved with a DEA agent and Lady Shiva.

It turns out — as you find out at the end of the comic set about Tim’s training — Bruce has been lurking around watching and waiting to step in if things get out of control for a while sfter Tim ditches Paris but otherwise lets Tim think he’s alone until Tim has succeeded in his mission and defeated King Snake. Bruce does this is to help Tim gain confidence in the field, something he was lacking during the moment Bruce hands him the Robin suit.

It’s a really sweet arc actually and helps set up what kind of Robin Tim Drake is going to be! Plus it’s a fun read (ignoring the racism)!

There is no reason to treat it as one of Bruce’s failings. He makes plenty of those all on his own.

[fairyfaithy]

was writing a tim drake fanfic and all of a sudden im too unmotivated to continue 😔💔

[dailytinies]

Robin (1991) #4

[dailytims]

Robin Miniseries I (1991) #4

[robintimate]

Robin (1991) #4

fascinating to me that somewhere down the line, this kinda shifts to a point where he starts considering killing someone if it means the people will be saved;; just goes to show the difference it makes when you have experienced all that the world has to offer

[oatlystrawberryicecream]

my takeaways from reading tim drake’s robin run so far

-god they would take every opportunity to shit on jason and set tim above him it is endless and also straight up unfounded

-ilu lonnie

-they have made a point to say tim is just some white boy multiple times

-he was ugly crying with snot while shiva kicked his ass he was probably also doing the little kid thing where you have to pause and catch your breath from sobbing too hard lmao

-this run is boring af canon tim is plain buttered noodles personified

-where is steph

- seriously tho i cannot stress enough how much the writers loathe jason for things that every robin does they could go out of their way to praise how much better tim is at breathing or tying his shoes and it wouldn’t be any more egregious than what they are already doing

-the only thing worse than reading about tim drake is reading tim drake vs the joker

[binglepringle]

Read possibly the worst fic ever last night and now I genuinely don’t understand why people thought Shiva had a specific ill intention in this page

Like she didn’t do anything?? She knew what he was thinking and immediately deflected? I don’t understand why some people think she was being predatory here when she immediately shut him down; she just wanted to teach him martial arts.

[magenta-somethings]

the thing about 90s comic book writers is i'm never quite sure how much trust to give them. like, did you mean this is as a critique of colonialism, or are you just kind of racist? did you mean to write about the exploitation of a kid, or are you just writing what you think is the fantasy of teenage boys? are you having this character act sexist as a character flaw, or are you just misogynistic?

[devonaeya]

Sometimes my neurons connect enough to finish pieces instead of having many sketches and doodles. Have this timlonnie piece from a long time ago that I retouched today.

When in the fucked up timeline would this take place? Who knows. Certainly not me

Edit: Hmm it seems to be glitching

Edit: is it better now?