Robin/Tim Drake's LGBTQ+ journey continues in Batman: Urban Legends #10
Update: Writer Meghan Fitzmartin and cover artist Belén Ortega have posted art on Twitter for their Tim Drake story with artists Alberto Alburquerque and Nick Filardi in December's Batman: Urban Legends #10, the follow-up to their three-part storyline 'The Sum of Our Parts' that concluded in August's Batman: Urban Legends #6.
In the final chapter of the story (see below), Batman's third Robin realizes he has romantic feelings for his male friend Bernard and thus realizing he's romantically attracted to boys for the first time. The last page depicts Tim stopping by Bernard's house to enthusiastically accept an invitation for a date from him.
The Batman: Urban Legends #10 is the promised continuation of that storyline.
Ortega, who drew the interiors for 'The Sum of Our Parts' is drawing the main cover to the issue, which DC did not provide with its original solicitation.
You can check out the cover to your right and a few pages by Albuquerque and Filardi below, in which (as solicited) Tim appears to visit Batman to "make peace" with him before leaving Gotham City, which Fitzmartin describes on Twitter as "BatFam angst…"
We have no doubt Batman will be fully supportive of his long-time partner/sidekick if he shares his personal news with him.
Tim also appears to be talking to Bernard while on the streets of Gotham as Robin. Superheroes trying to make or keep dates with their civilian love interests while juggling their crimefighting duties is something of a common comic book theme and we wonder if that's what we're looking at here.
"Can't wait for you to find out what they're saying," Fitzmartin tweeted about that image.
Batman: Urban Legends #10 goes on sale on December 14.
Batman: Urban Legends #10 preview
Original story follows...
Tim Drake likes boys.
It may have taken him over 30 years to realize it (but only a handful of years in comic book time) but Batman's third Robin and arguably the best detective in the Batman family this side of the Dark Knight himself, has finally put the clues together to figure out who he is and what he wants.
In August 10's Batman: Urban Legends #6, Tim discovers he has romantic feelings for his male friend Bernard, and that single moment of realization is depicted not as a moment of turmoil or doubt, but quite that opposite - as a moment that makes immediate sense to Tim and has a calming influence over him.
In part three of 'The Sum of Our Parts' that began in Batman: Urban Legends #4 by writer Meghan Fitzmartin and artist Belen Ortega, Tim has been working tirelessly to rescue his high school classmate who has been abducted by a "pain cult" that preys on Gotham City teens.
While working the case obsessively, Tim's inner monologue depicts a young man of self-doubt, or at least unanswered questions, who's trying to figure out his place in the world and explain recent actions that don't even make sense to him, like breaking up with his long-time love interest Stephanie Brown, the former Spoiler who now goes by Batgirl.
In July's Batman: Urban Legends #5, Tim asks himself why he is so fixated on the case and why he isn't asking Stephanie or his best friend Connor Kent for help. He digs even deeper in an extended inner monologue by asking himself who he is if he's not Robin and while he doesn't have that answer he realizes he needs to figure out what it is he wants.
In Urban Legends #6. He finds his answers when he locates Bernard, who's been training and helps fight the cult in his own rescue, perhaps foreshadowing a potential new crime-fighting partner for Robin. Leading up to the pivotal moment, Fitzmartin makes it clear Tim's interactions with Bernard feel right to him, and as previously noted, even calming him.
During the course of their escape, Bernard asks Robin to do him a favor if he doesn't make it out of the fight alive, to tell Tim Drake that Tim helped him realize his "true self" and to tell Tim he wished they could have finished their date.
(Bernard apparently doesn't know Robin is Tim but believes Robin knows Tim).
Fitzmartin describes what happens next as a "lightbulb" moment for Tim, and that Bernard's request suddenly put all the puzzle pieces together for him.
"It's like something changed in … in a program I didn't even know I was running," reads Tim's inner monologue. "Or maybe it didn't change. Maybe it was always there. Waiting for someone to start the program."
Whatever unanswered questions Tim has about himself, he seems to have little doubts about what he wants after the proverbial lightbulb goes on. Fitzmartin makes it clear Tim realizing he has feelings for Bernard makes immediate and perfect sense to him and that he now understands why he broke up with Stephanie, who he also acknowledges he genuinely loves.
In the story's final scene, Tim goes to Bernard's house and lets him know he wants to figure out what the night of their first date means to him and enthusiastically accepts Bernard's invitation for another date.
Fitzmartin and DC don't go any further in labeling Tim's sexual identity, just that he has romantic feelings for Bernard, but Tim and Bernard's story promises to continue in Batman: Urban Legends #10, which if the series maintains its monthly schedule, would be in December.
Tim Drake's sexuality has been a topic for debate for years, especially after a scene in 2003's Titans/Young Justice: Graduation Day #2 where he and Conner/Kon-El (Superboy) share a moment in a supply closet. While not immediately sexual, some readers read that as a hint to something more.
In 2018, Winick seemingly confirmed that subtextual reading in a response to a fan about the scene, tweeting "I saw this as an opportunity for them to both come out of the closet. #liveyourbestlife"
In 2020, DC columnist Alex Jaffe wrote an article for the company's DCUniverseInfinite.com website titled 'Robin & Superboy: The Greatest Teen Romance That Never Was' that touches on this moment, as well as several others.
DC seems ready to fully embrace it in the coming months.
Tim of course ranks highly on Newsarama's list of the Batman's best Robins of all time.
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