I Love It When Comics Let Dick Be Just As Unhinged About Tim As Tim Is Unhinged About Dick.

I love it when comics let Dick be just as unhinged about Tim as Tim is unhinged about Dick.

Tim Drake’s Friends (not to be confused with Red Robin’s friends)

Inspired by this post by cryptocism, I bring you: Tim Clique-Breaker Drake. 

(Don’t mind me, this is also basically just me taking notes for a fic I’m working on. Tim’s various normal boy friendships. High School Musical has nothing on Tim Drake.) 

(One of these days I’ll write half these characters’ DC Database entries. Today is not that day. All characters listed know Tim primarily as Tim Drake; anyone who knows Tim primarily as Robin/Red Robin, or who know Tim equally as Tim and Robin, is not included. If I miss someone… I missed someone.)

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why is this the funniest response I could’ve been given

Duke and Jason

The interesting thing about Duke’s relationship with Jason is that though he is a part of the family, he wasn’t really there for a lot of the divisive things that happened when Jason came back. Duke also never knew Jason beforehand or encountered the ghost of previous Jason; Dick, Babs and Bruce knew Jason before, Tim, Cass, Steph, and almost everyone else had to live with the ghost of Jason’s death haunting their moves and their relationships with Bruce, before Jason came back. Duke, meanwhile, joined after Jason’s return, and for him the status quo has always been what it is. To Jason, having someone who never thought of him as different than the Jason he is would be very important to him. Despite Duke’s knowledge of the past, sometimes distance makes the biggest difference - and Duke has the luxury of not having any emotional entanglements into who Jason was.

In addition, Duke comes at a time where Jason is able to openly admit he has brothers - and very much considers him to be one.

Artemis: Honestly? It was like kissing my brother. If I had one. Jason: Thank god! I was thinking the same thing. And I have four.

On Jason’s side, he seems to have decided to take a sort of mentorship role for Duke. The main instance is in the Roll Call short story in which Jason and Duke do a fight simulation on a very high level and Jason shares his hard-won wisdom.

Panel One -  Jason: Lesson number one: quips and retorts should only be used for distraction.

Panel Two- Jason: Find your own way. Because following in the Batman’s footsteps and being something that you’re not – is the fastest way to get killed

Panel Three- Jason: No. That’s a given. Lesson number four? No matter how you feel or what you think… you’re never alone

Jason makes sure to tell Duke that no matter what, he’s never alone. Jason wants Duke to know that no matter what, he will always have his back but it means more than that. Jason had long periods of time where he thought he was abandoned, and he lashed out as a result; hurting himself and others. A lot of the advice Jason gives Duke is not only useful things, but things Jason wished that he knew when he was younger. It seems to imply that Jason might see a bit of himself in Duke, and that he sees it as his responsibility to help Duke become something better.

Jason: – How many times are you planning to die, Duke?

Roll call also has a scene that drives me insane in which Jason recreates being beaten to death by the Joker in front of Duke. It’s pretty ambiguous whether or not this was on purpose. If it was on purpose, was it to show Duke what happened to him, was it to confront his fears on his own terms with his brother next to him? If it was by accident, did he brush it off to make Duke feel safe, or was he okay with Duke seeing him like that because he trusts Duke? Either way, Jason is comfortable enough around Duke to feel safe with him seeing one of his biggest traumas.

Joker (standing over Jason with a crowbar): I guess it’s over your dead body

And, after they finish the simulation (and Duke of course jumps right in to help Jason), Jason’s right back to joking with Duke.

Jason: Heads up Narrows, more clay bastards on the horizon. Batwoman and her crew usually warm up in the mud room on a level four practive setting.

Duke continues to help save Jason, notably in the Cheer’s story arc.

Jason: … Have your back (urban legends 6)

(Although, it equally drives me insane that despite Duke helping Jason and Bruce in this arc, he’s the only member of the family to not be in both Jason and Bruce’s dream worlds which drives a lot of questions - do they not want Duke to have been a vigilante and thus part of the family? Has Duke’s entrance into the family been too recent for them to add them to their fairy dream worlds? Is the author simply forgetting to mention Duke being there even though Duke is in the comic saving Jason and Bruce? My personal interpretation is because Cheer deals very much with Jason wanting the Joker dead, a dead joker means that Duke’s parents were never Jokerized, and thus Duke couldn’t be a part of the family in a dream world where Joker was dead.)

Their relationship with what the Joker did to them is another huge parallel between Duke and Jason. When the Joker killed Jason, and when Duke’s parents were Jokerized mark a difference in both of their lives - now divided in the before Joker touched their lives and after. It’s interesting to see how both Jason and Duke expected Batman to save them initially, and ended up needing to take their lives into their own hands, though there are huge differences in the way Jason fought for revenge, when Duke’s feelings were expended on fixing his parents and not towards the joker. Of course, the two situations are not completely comparable, but it is a similarity that impacts their lives.

Duke (to Batman): I know you can save them. My parents. All of them. Just like you always do.

They also have nicknames for each other! Jason calls Duke “Narrows”, which is a pretty outspoken acknowledgment of some of their similarities, being children from Gotham. 

Panel One - Jason: Narrows, meet crime alley. we do things differently. Find a functional outfit.

Panel Two - Duke: Need help? Jason: No, narrows, I don’t

It is important to note that Duke and Jason’s living situation are not identical, though they are similar - the Narrows is often neglected in Gotham.

Jim Gordon (about the Narrows) : Its Gotham’s poorest neighborhood. Made up of nearly a dozen diverse communities. Its been let down over and over by the mechanisms put in place in order to protect it. Under-protected. Under-represented. It’s been burned so many times you are practically feel the embers everywhere.

However, as opposed to Jason, Duke did have a stable family as a child, his mom was a social worker and his dad was a construction worker. After his parents were jokerized, Duke had to live in a series of foster homes, so both Jason and Duke (along with Dick) were impacted by the childcare system in Gotham.

In addition to Jason being comfortable sharing himself with Duke, Duke is able to get by with a lot of jokes about sensitive topics in Jason’s life.

Duke (about Batman): And he’s not my boss. Or the the target of my daddy issues.

Jason: you’re the latest robin. You’re supposed to… whatever. Brighten his dark side. All that crap. So he doesn’t propose to a villain and then run off and do… This! Duke: Jay, what? Dude, when you were robin you got dead then came back as a vigilante villain! And you’re telling me to “brighten his dark side”. (Batman 33 (2016))

Duke: Question. Didn’t you die already?

If that had been anyone else, I don’t think Jason would have brushed it aside that easily! Anyways, Duke and Jason have a super interesting relationship and I hope more people keep exploring it!

I always wonder whether Batfam fans really get just how fucking rich the Waynes are. Like of course we shy away from thinking about the fact that we're talking Musk and Bezos money, and focus on how Bruce funds the freaking Watchtower and has what is functionally a high-tech military base and lab and the world's most expensive vehicles. But this is the one time you don't have to factor in the implications of wealth-hoarding, so there's nothing preventing y'all from understanding exactly how much money we're talking about here.

For instance, there doesn't seem to be any concept of how palatial Wayne Manor is, simply going by the outer facades of it that appear in the comics and movies. Or how decadent the lifestyles that accompany that kind of ancestral home. Alfred couldn't run that place on his own even if he had super powers, which is why even the movies occasionally show a rotating probably-temporary staff in the background. The house probably has like 3 hundred-foot pools. Their garden is a protected heritage park.

The Waynes are 10x richer than Crazy Rich Asians. They buy and wear the jewelry worth hundreds of millions that belonged to royalty. They own private islands. The art in the house alone is worth more than the GDP of a small country. They went to school with like every US President since Teddy Roosevelt and still think the Rockefellers are new money. They're personal friends with Beyonce and can get her to perform at private parties. They can rent out an entire three-star Michelin restaurant and fly out to one for every date. They have top-line penthouse apartments in every major city in the world. They can buy a luxury sportscar instead of hiring a vehicle anywhere they visit and then just toss the keys to the nearest person on their way out (Arab royalty is known for this appearently. There's been some very lucky parking valets in the UAE iirc).

Bruce is as rich as Ra's Al Ghul, regularly make social calls to heads of state and his family has a history of being king-makers. Every one of Bruce's children, from Dick to Jason to Cass, is poised to inherit one of the largest and most powerful empires in the world. That means every time Bruce adopts an orphan off god-knows-where, the entire global elite is thrown into consternation and horror. Even Tim is barely acceptable to these people because he doesn't have the pedigree. I don't follow the reboot comics so Idk if Duke is adopted, but it would be so fucking funny if he was because they'd react a lot like the British establishment did to Meghan Markle (except the family and WE would have Duke's back completely). As for Damian, the fact that he's not white would get him snubbed if everyone who's anyone didn't 100% know who Ra's Al Ghul is. And they're fucking terrified because, for maximum hilarity, they probably figure that Bruce doesn't.

I just find it incredibly fucking funny when I'm reading fics that the writers can only imagine Bruce and the kids's civilian privileges extend only to "big house", "a lot of cars" and "Gotham famous". Lol. Lmao even.

...

Edit: Explanation for people justifiably skeptical that Bruce could be rich as Ra's (scroll down)

Who is Duke Thomas?

If you’ve read Batman Rebirth #1, you probably know at this point Bruce has pretty much officially adopted Duke Thomas into the Batfam.

But because of alienation many fans feel from the Nu52, a lot of people who haven’t read many recent comics are wondering just who Duke Thomas is. So I’m going to try and answer that the best I can. 

Back in Zero Year, when Bruce was first starting out as Batman, the Riddler challenged the city to get smart or die by “natural selection”. So Duke started swatting up to, you know, not die. The Thomas family also rescued a unconscious Bruce Wayne when a sudden hurricane hit Gotham around the same time as Zero Year. Bruce thanks Duke, then he’s off to tackle the Riddler.

Look at how cute baby Duke is. 

Anyways, Duke disappears for a little while then reappears during Endgame. The Joker having figured out Batman’s true identity and his connection to Duke, kidnaps Duke and his family and plans to recreate the Wayne murders in front of Bruce and Duke by using Duke’s parents. It’s all pretty grisly stuff. 

Bruce manages to rescue Duke from the Joker, but Duke’s parents succumb to the mind controlling gas of the Joker. 

After that, I’m not sure what happens to Duke’s parents. I think they were missing at first, then get found but there is still no cure for the Joker gas, so I think they still aren’t well enough to look after Duke which explains why he’s being shuffled around foster homes in We Are Robin #1.

He’s also a massive nerd.

Throughout the We Are Robin run, though short-lived, we see Duke grow from an immature, unruly teenager into a mature leader of his little gang of Robins. (Although there is still some sassiness left in this boy yet.) We also see the significance of Duke as a leader and a kind of “stand-out” Robin and the bond that begins to form between him and some of the Batfam members, particularly Dick and Damian, in the crossover event, Robin War. 

Leadership:

The sass:

And finally the bonding. Let’s start with Damian first. Basically Robin War is all about the repercussions of reckless Robins that leads to the police arresting all kids associated with Robin in any way, as simple as wearing the Robin logo or even wearing red shoes like in the above panel. But of course, nothing is ever that simple in Gotham and the Court of Owls is secretly pulling the strings in an attempt to draw Dick out and have him join the club. 

So anyways, Duke and Damian’s first meeting goes down exactly how you would expect it to. Damian beats Duke (and his friends) up. 

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