Robin Ends the Bat-Family's Most Vicious Feud in the Perfect Way

In DC Comics, Batman and Robin are the original Dynamic Duo. Several sidekicks have taken that second slot over the years, bringing no small amount of tension between them about their respective places in the Bat hierarchy. Bruce Wayne’s son Damian has seen the cowl as his birthright since he debuted, which led to immediate resentment of Tim Drake and an ongoing contention between the two. In Robins #6, however, the newest Robin seems to have finally buried that hatchet.

Tim Seeley and Baldemar Rivas’ series has brought together all the former Robins—Grayson, Todd, Drake, Wayne, and even Stephanie Brown—for a romp through the underbelly of Blüdhaven in pursuit of the mysterious Mr. Neg and “Jenny Wren”, the heretofore unmentioned actual first Robin. The investigation takes a harrowing turn when Tim is kidnapped by Wren and held hostage as an informational bargaining chip against the others. The only lead to his location means plugging into a VR matrix developed by the Escape Artist, which Dick warns could change how all of them see Bruce—especially Damian. But the young Master Wayne somberly accepts this risk as the price of saving Tim, who he emphatically declares “my brother”.

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This is a pretty significant development for a character who previously brought Tim Drake the severed head of a minor Batman villain with a live grenade stuffed inside to prove his superiority; the same encounter that ended with Tim Drake unconscious and losing blood on the floor of the Batcave. Seeley reframes all of the initial Robin missions as “gauntlets” designed by Batman and here indicates that Damian’s decision not to kill Drake when he clearly could have was as close to a test as he was ready to give the boy. Ever since then, Damian and Tim have been the two members of the Batfamily with the most beef. 

Beyond that one relationship, Seeley raises some provocative points about what it means to be Robin both outrightly and subtextually. The story’s best moments are when all of the Bat’s wards grapple with their reasoning for joining the caped crusade. Each Robin represents a different era in Bruce’s battle against crime, but Dick Grayson was the first and that still holds weight. His cheery disposition and precise athleticism established the template by which every successive Boy Wonder would be graded. And yet, if there’s any Robin who’s the most like Batman, that would have to be Tim Drake. His genius-level aptitude and general disposition naturally fall in line with Bruce’s, where Damian struggled to form his own identity apart from a shallow imitation of his father. 

This has no doubt been painful for Damian to accept, so claiming Drake as his actual brother demonstrates his maturity and conveys Damian’s growing trust in the blended family around him. It’s just as well, considering that Bruce has at some point in continuity legally adopted at least two Robins before his biological son came into the picture. Damian has years ahead yet before the cape and cowl could become his, but now that these two Robins have paved over their rocky past, at least he knows he’ll always have backup in the Bat-Family. 

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