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YMMV / Tim Drake: Robin

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  • Audience-Alienating Era: Largely seen as one for Tim Drake, which is unfortunate because he was just in one already during the 2010s (from the New 52 era to the "Drake" era, with only tiny bits in-between). In general, Tim had already fallen from being the general audience-favourite Robin in the 2000s to a character with a vocal hatedom and and a fandom who felt he was being misused by DC, and this series only resulted in turning even more fans off of his character.
  • Broken Base:
    • Riley Rossmo's art is very weird to say the least in this title, with some liking it for being unique while others felt it was off-putting and didn't fit the character. Although this may have been due to a rush problem since his artwork in their next run, Wesley Dodds: The Sandman, was more accepted.
    • The depiction of Tim's sexuality, and the Tim/Bernard ship. On the one hand, a lot of fans, especially queer fans, already believed Tim was bisexual or in-the-closet gay, so the news he was coming out as bisexual was seen as I Knew It! and praised as a win for LGBTQ+ representation. However, Tim's callous treatment of Stephanie Brown and the swiftness to which him and Bernard hook up is seen as unlikeable and out-of-character, leading to accusations Tim was being written In Name Only for the writer's sake. For the record, this split isn't just between LGBTQ+ fans and straight fans (many of whom had no problem with the idea but just the execution), but even among the LGBTQ+ fanbase especially, particularly bisexual men, as many found the idea Tim's bisexuality had to come with ditching Steph and treatment of her and their past relationship after to reek of bisexuality erasure, especially as Steph herself was also popularly among LGBTQ+ fans too. Some don't mind due to genuinely liking Bernard, though, so this isn't entirely unison, and some support it just to spite the homophobic reactions from some sections of the fanbase and several past creators who'd worked on Tim's character.
  • Fandom Rivalry: With the previous Infinite Frontier-era Robin ongoing staring Damian Wayne, as an extension of their character's larger fandom rivalry. Not helped by the belief that run was cancelled to make room for this book, as if two Robins couldn't operate at the same time.
  • Overshadowed by Controversy:
    • The reaction to this run online was pretty much dominated by the larger controversy of Fitzmartin's treatment of Tim Drake's sexuality, specifically having him come out as bisexual but in a way that actually ended up being more offensive to bisexual men than it was appealing. In fact, basically nothing else about the series tends to get any discussion outside of this element and the Tim/Bernard relationship.
    • In additional to the general off-putting of Fitzmartin's writing, the title was also cancelled due to the extreme backlash from Dark Crisis: Young Justice which she also wrote.
  • Romantic Plot Tumor: How many fans felt about the Tim/Bernard ship during this period. Fitzmartin's run on Tim's character appeared dominated by the focus on Tim's love for Bernard, to the detriment of his prior romantic relationship with Stephanie Brown and his character as a whole. As a result, many fans believed DC and Fitzmartin had turned Tim into a cynical attempt at pandering to LGBTQ+ fans, which ended up just being more off-putting to many.
  • The Scrappy: Tim Drake himself, as this run helped to sink his character even further than he'd already sunk since the end of the Pre-Flashpoint DCU. While Tim was already struggling to maintain a fanbase after his In Name Only writing in the New 52 and the questionable writing choices made during Rebirth (particularly the "Drake" period), this era saw Tim callously dump Stephanie Brown off-panel, treat her terribly, and in general act unlikeable and out of character while using his sexuality as a deflection from criticism, particularly in his treatment of Steph.
    • Bernard himself, though to a lesser extent. While some resent the character for being a shallow love interest who only exists to personify Tim's bisexuality, and others resent him for more or less blocking Tim/Steph from being pushed again, in general fans are more apathetic to him than outright hating him, recognising that he himself is rather innocent of the more shady aspects of how Tim handled Steph but not finding him interesting or engaging enough as a love interest to care.
  • Ship-to-Ship Combat: Tim/Steph fans are vocal about resenting this comic and Fitzmartin's treatment of the two, and the Tim/Bernard ship. It should be noted that while it can be mistaken as a case of straight fans wanting Tim to go back in the closet, a lot of bisexual male fans also prefer Tim/Steph due to liking Steph's character more than Bernard and resenting the implication that he couldn't come out as bi without breaking up with her due to the implication he's "less" bisexual if he's in a dedicated monogamous relationship with a woman.
    • To a lesser extent, Tim/Kon shippers are also not eager for the Tim/Ber ship due to it coming out of nowhere, especially as their past relationship severely lacked any of the depth and Ho Yay that Tim and Kon had. A lot of fans, even the ones not into Tim's coming out, have professed they'd have preferred it if he was paired with Kon instead.
  • Strangled by the Red String: Prior to Fitzmartin beginning her run on Tim's character, Bernard had been a completely forgotten supporting character with characterisation very different from what he'd show now. Within the first four issues of that set up this run, him and Tim had started dating, and were now so in-love that Tim's entire character revolved around how in love he was. This actually went further than just this book, but extended to DC's marketing of Tim Drake's character as a whole, with Bernard and their relationship getting referenced in Gotham Knights (2022) and appearing in Titans (2018) as that version's Love Interest, without any of Tim's prior love interests acknowledged.
  • Uncertain Audience: A big part of why the series failed so quickly. Fitzmartin's run on Tim Drake's character is largely marked by him coming out as bisexual, making it ostensibly aimed at appealing to the LGBTQ+ market, and more specifically the bisexual male demo who are often underrepresented in media compared to others in the community. However, the series managed to actually put off the very audience it was aiming for thanks to the implication that Tim had to dump Stephanie Brown in order to be "genuine" LGBTQ+ representation, which to many felt like Bisexual Erasure, making it more offensive to the audience it was meant to appeal. As well, it was felt by many that the treatment of Tim and Bernard didn't feel like a genuine same-sex relationship between two young men, but more an idealised Yaoi Fangirl fantasy of such, leading to the common viewpoint it was actually aimed at straight Yaoi Fangirl audiences rather than actual queer men. Add in that the straight fanbase was also uninterested thanks to the severe changes to Tim's character and the fact Tim had lost a lot of popularity thanks to his treatment in the 2010snote , the series utterly failed to capture the same audience adoration Tim's previous runs have had.

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