This past week has been chock-full of announcements, and any DC fan is crazy to not be at least a little excited for September. There were a ton of books announced, characters shown and creative teams divulged. Many of us were waiting, each day, to see if our favorite characters and/or books were going to make it into the DCnU. Some of us may still be disappointed -- sorry Secret Six fans. Some of us may be enthralled at the redesigns. Either way, there's no denying that things are changing. 
 
For me, personally, I was waiting very carefully Monday morning for those inevitable Bat-related announcements. When they came through, before I read any single solicit, I scoured the covers for any sign of Tim Drake. Of course, I didn't see him anywhere, and thus was very disappointed. However, I knew that there was still hope for Tim, that he'd have a shot at appearing in the revamped version of the Titans, whenever they'd be announced. 
 
It wasn't until Wednesday that I found Tim, totally redesigned, on the cover of Titans #1. I was excited from the second that I saw it -- who wouldn't like a new Titans book with Tim, Conner, Cassie and Bart? Sure, some of the costumes are a bit 90s -- and yes, I'm lobbying to make '90s' a valid adjective and adverb -- but, I don't really care. In fact, I'll say it, I grew up reading 90s comics, and seeing the redesigns made me pretty nostalgic. I like Cassie's look, and guess what, Bart's too. I didn't have a problem with Conner's until I realized that it probably wasn't Conner and that Conner was most likely going to be relegated to being a cyborg. And I like Tim's -- a lot. I think it's leaps and bounds better than his current Red Robin costume, and it suits him much better; he actually looks like Tim Drake again! I love the bandoleer style chest-harness reminiscent of the Red Robin costume, and I love the mask, color scheme and streamlined nature of the suit that is so reminiscent of Robin. And then, there's the cape. The source of much scrutiny and angst amongst fans, the new feathered cape is a huge departure from the basic black that Tim's worn in the past. I wasn't so thrilled with the cape in the beginning, but I realized that it's probably not a set of wings, just a stylized cape, and I'm okay with that. If he starts flying around like Hawkman or the Falcon, than I'll take issue, but it doesn't seem like that's the direction they're going for. 
 
Like Tim's new cape, after reading the solicit information, I realized that, while he looks like the Tim Drake that I know, this might be a very different version of the character. 
 
There's not a single mention anywhere -- not in Titans, nor in the Bat-books. All we have is a single sentence about Tim, a teenager with computer skills who will seemingly rally other teen heroes together. No mention of his time as Robin, or even Gotham. This is very disconcerting. It was at this point that I realized that while I was excited for this relaunch, this could be a shot in the foot. 
 
I'd hate to see Tim not have any connection to the Bat-Family, in fact, I hate the fact that it doesn't look like he'll be in Gotham at all. The entire reason why I got acquainted with Tim was because he was a Gothamite, and I was a Batman fan. I'll follow him wherever he is, and I've enjoyed his stints with the Titans in past, but to me, there's nothing better than Tim in Gotham -- and I think that can be said for Dick, Babs, etc. These are members of Batman's family, Gotham is their city. 
 
Could this really happen? Is there any merit to this speculative idea -- that Tim will be a Red Robin independent of Batman and Gotham? 
 
I don't think it's too far of a stretch to wonder about it, after all we've seen a lot of changes this week. But, DC seems to be drumming in the fact that while this will be an all new, all different world, the bases of the characters will remain unchanged. Well, if you ask me, the basis of Tim Drake is not his computer skills, nor his ability to lead as a tactician, not even his intellect. It's his connect to the Dark Knight.  
 
Tim has always been Bruce's intellectual equal. Always. Bruce has said it, Ra's has said it, Dick has said it. The writers always intended to portray Tim that way; that's the whole reason for his origin story. To me, if they change that, if Tim is really made to have no connection to Batman or Gotham City, then Tim Drake is not Tim Drake any longer. 
 
I'm not saying Tim cannot be a hero in his own right; he certainly can be, and is. But, he's only the young hero that we know because of his time with Bruce, in Gotham.  
 
I'm not too worried though. I trust Jim Lee, Geoff Johns and Dan Didio. I've been a DC fan for 13 years, and I still read DC comics because they've never strayed from the stories that I love -- that's much more than I can say for some other company! I'm not upset about Tim (seemingly) only appearing in the Titans book for a while, as long as he still remains, at his core, the same Tim Drake. I guess we'll find out more as the months go on and September approaches, and I'm still genuinely excited to get more information, to read the books, and hopefully to love them. 
 
I know there's a ton of people here on Comic Vine who are, like myself, huge Tim Drake fans -- what do you all think?

Tim will still have connections to Bruce, as stated in this interview
 

Snyder: "Yes, overall, it's a solo title. In Batman #1, we'll have establishing moments where you'll get to see the roles played by Damian, Tim, and Dick."

It's been mentioned a few times that

Tim will still have connections to Bruce, as stated in this interview
 

Snyder: "Yes, overall, it's a solo title. In Batman #1, we'll have establishing moments where you'll get to see the roles played by Damian, Tim, and Dick."

@sEsposito7: Your right we have to trust DC and hope for the best.  I'm honestly really bummed that their isn't a red robin series because it has been my favorite over the past year.  If Tim wasn't involved in Gotham at all I will be very disappointed as well.  I'm kind of iffy about him going back to the teen titans.  He has had so much great character development over the last few years on his own that it almost feels like a step back.  With the revamp though I understand he could be losing a lot of that so if he is younger and with the Titans I guess we will just have to see how the writers handle it.

 I just hope younger, newer fans will take to the Titans like I did when I was younger. And as a disclaimer: I didn't need a damn #1. ;)

@sEsposito7:  The full solicit for the new Teen Titans #1 states that Tim is Batman's former sidekick. I would not have been a happy camper if they erased his connection to the Bat Family.

@jrock85 said:

@sEsposito7:  The full solicit for the new Teen Titans #1 states that Tim is Batman's former sidekick. I would not have been a happy camper if they erased his connection to the Bat Family.

Thanks for pointing this out, man. I saw this earlier and was planning on mentioning here in the comments, because it really eased my fears -- I'm pretty happy now!

@sEsposito7 said:

@jrock85 said:

@sEsposito7:  The full solicit for the new Teen Titans #1 states that Tim is Batman's former sidekick. I would not have been a happy camper if they erased his connection to the Bat Family.

Thanks for pointing this out, man. I saw this earlier and was planning on mentioning here in the comments, because it really eased my fears -- I'm pretty happy now!

So long as it would be temporary, I think it would have been pretty cool for Tim to no Bat-family connections. I may like this even better though, because now he has a history with the Bat-family, but his primary connections seem to be with the Teen Titans for the moment.

I'm not super-keen on the outfits for teen titans, but I'll have to read it to really decide. I like that it's a "tim book."

So, here's an excerpt from an interview with Lobdell: 

Brett would write to me and say “Robin is named after Robin Hood, not the bird.  No wings.”  I would write back and say “Let’s just TRY the wings, see how they look.”   He would write back “I sketched out some wings. They don’t work.” I’d say “Can I SEE the wings and we can DISCUSS the different looks?”  and he’d write back and say “Fans don’t want to see Red Robin with wings.  I know, I am a fan.  They won’t accept him with wings.”   LOL!  This went ’round and ’round and ’round until he relented and showed me the wings and then we all got really excited because Red Robin looks so great with those wings!  They say “Yeah, I’m a teen detective — but I’m smart enough to know what I need to kick your ass!”   (Storywise, how he came by those wings in continuity and the other additions to his “utility belt”, is so exciting I want to blurt them out right here!   And when you look at the character’s history, he grew up around a guy who had bat-mobile, a bat-copter, a bat-boat, a batcave, and the most expensive toys in the world.   This notion that Red Robin wouldn’t similarly use today’s technology to help him in his own fight against crime flies in the face of everything we know about the character.)

I hate it. Which I realize is kind of ridiculous because I had no problem with Nightwing's auto-pilot glider, but I still hate it.

I love the 90's (great adjective) costumes also!! I, too, grew up reading the 90's books and their flashy over done costumes.  Back when everything wasnt so serious.