#spite waffle
I’m sure I’m in the minority, but I absolutely hate the New-52-fication of Bernard Dowd. It’s neck and neck with Jason being besties with Roy and Kory on my list of New 52 atrocities. Bernard was such a funny gossipy tinhat, his expansive clownishness masking a shrewdness that made Tim have to put in some real work to deflect and side-step suspicion and really lean into his wry, aggressively normal civilian persona. Why they had to mangle him to produce a cute little blonde twink for Tim to date that doesn’t bear any resemblance to OG Bernard’s personality I don’t know.
The reboot signalled to those of us who had followed DC comics for years that DC no longer wanted or had any use for us. I thought we’d at least always have a separate Pre52 fandom, but canon just keeps cannibalising and warping Pre-52 continuity to service the reboot timeline’s complete lack of substance and legacy. I wish there was a way keep them separate.
The more fic I read, the more annoyed I’m getting with this “Tim’s parents never loved him uwu” crap. Are we supposed to pretend we never read any of the Pre-52 Robin comics or what? Is his canonical emotional neglect and being subjected to Jack’s and Bruce’s different but similar brands of self-absorbed hot-and-cold parenting not woobie enough? Is having systematically lost nearly everyone Tim cared about in the span of one year that had him canonically suicidally depressed not enough trauma?
Y'all know that Tim’s whole tragedy is that he was the most normal, well-adjusted Batkid ever until life robbed him of every bit of stability and normalcy and he ended up exactly the person he swore not to become, right? That it wasn’t “going evil” he was afraid of, but becoming like Bruce, unable to function without being Batman, mired in his own darkness and isolation? That even after becoming a more morally grey and manipulative asshole, he still prioritizes his friends and family even more than Dick does?
Why do people even like Tim Drake when their version has barely any resemblance to his canon incarnation?
