OK, to be honest, I'm mostly OK with this one. I'm not thrilled with it, but I can live with it.
The most obvious problem with Tim's new origin is that it almsot completely erases "A Lonely Place of Dying." I've always considered it one of the best Batman stories ever told, because Wolfman just fit so much into it. It introduced Tim, gave us a meditation on the relationship between Batman and Robin, and got Bruce and Dick talking during a time when they were estranged. Lobdell jettisons much of that and it causes, to my mind, two major problems;
1) Rather that Tim having long conversations with Alfred and Dick (and later Bruce) about the importance of Robin, it is actually Alfred pushing Bruce to find a new partner. In fact, Tim may still be trying to discover who Batman is, but he's doing it mostly to build his résumé. I actually glanced over that change at first (focusing more on the second issues below), but now, in retrospect, I realize what a big deal it is. The DCU Tim respected and, in fact, revered the role of Robin. After he took on the role himself, it was his belief in what he was doing that allowed him to push his natural talents to their limits, becoming almost as good as Batman in a short period of time. The DCnU Tim no longer has the motivation to be the best Robin that he can be, but instead wants to be the best son that he can be. It's touching...but it doesn't work. Lobdell's portrayal of Tim's family as the "Ozzie and Harriet" of Gotham is too overdone to be believable. I don't know any teenage kid who would say the things that Tim says here to his parents. The problem is that Lobdell now uses that (unbelievable) relationship as the source of Tim's drive and I don't think that it's going to be sustainable in the same way as using Robin as the source of his drive was. When Lady Shiva is breaking him into little pieces, is he really going to think, "I don't want to disappoint my Mom and Dad?"
2) In the DCU, Tim proves his worth to Bruce over the course of "A Lonely Way of Dying." First and foremost, he deduces Bruce's identity. But, just as importantly, he saves the Dynamic Duo's lives twice over the course of that mini-series. In the DCnU, he does neither. Bruce knew who Tim was from the start and prevents him from discovering his identity at every turn. Moreover, although Bruce is impressed by Tim's gymnastics performance and his computer attack against the Penguin, he doesn't see that Tim can keep his cool under pressure like he does in the junkyard fight against Two-Face in "A Lonely Place of Dying."
The fact that Tim doesn't discover Batman's identity is the most serious change. Tim has always been "the kid who discovered Batman's identity." Taking that success from him changes his character in pretty fundamental ways. Lobdell goes to great lengths to show that Tim is still a brilliant detective, but he never implies that Tim would have eventually discovered Bruce's identity on his own. In so doing, Lobdell establishes a clear pecking order, one that didn't exist in the DCU, where Bruce was comfortable (and proud) that Tim would one day surpass him. Here, Bruce is clearly more dominant than he used to be in that regard. It changes their dynamic, and you can feel it throughout the issue. Whereas Lobdell hints at the affection that Bruce is coming to feel for Tim, he also writes in a distance between the two of them, mostly on Tim's part. (How weird is it that Bruce would be the more emotional one?) Tim is portrayed as a uniquely driven young man and, as I mentioned earlier, it leaves you feeling like he's just there to build his résumé, not because he believes in what Batman and Robin do.
But, in the end, I can live with the changes for a few reasons:
First, I admit that I'm OK with this new origin mostly because I'm just relieved that someone's parents aren't dead. Tim didn't have to learn that his mother was poisoned. He didn't have to find his father murdered by Boomerang. Sure, he has to deal with the loss of seeing them as a result of their entry into the Witness Protection Program, but he gets to know that they're alive and that they're proud of him. At least someone in the Bat-family gets to have that.
Throughout the issue, Lobdell has the characters surrounding Tim focus on how special he is and it works as a tool to organize our thoughts. I was enraged when I had heard that Tim was never "Robin." However, although it's technically true, it's mostly just semantics. He was Batman's partner, even if he called himself something else. But, Tim's "specialness" extends well beyond his name and Lobdell confirms that this new Tim, just like our Tim, is a computer wizard, talented gymnast, and brilliant detective (even if he's not as brilliant a detective as Bruce). He's being careful to remind us that some stuff has changed but Tim is still Tim, at least in the way that he operates in the world.
Lobdell, however, takes this idea that Tim is special and builds on it in a way that Wolfman didn't in "A Lonely Place of Dying." Tim was never going to be superhero on his own in "A Lonely Place of Dying." In fact, he wasn't even looking to be Robin; he just wanted Dick to be Robin again. But, here, Bruce realizes that Tim is going to go in his own direction, regardless of whether he blesses him with the Robin costume or not. I'm intrigued where DC goes with this new approach. As I mentioned above, the result of this focused drive does seem to be a more emotionally detached Tim, one who views the world a little too coldly for a teenage boy. This new Tim is more aloof than our old Tim. It's clear that the Titans are theoretically the vehicle that DC is going to use to remedy that, but, at this point, it interjects a distance between Bruce and Tim that didn't used to exist. Now, it wasn't like Bruce and Tim were close at the end of "A Lonely Place of Dying," so I'm going to try not to hold it against Lobdell that they don't interact here the way they did as the DCU came to a close. But, I haven't seen anything in the last 12 issues of "Teen Titans" to show that Tim is any more emotionally grounded now as he was then.
So, I'm sad to see "A Lonely Place of Dying" go and, after so many bad #0 issues, maybe I'm just relieved that this one at least made sense. It doesn't meant that I'm still not angry about "Nightwing" #0, though. Don't think we're good now, DC.
Now, I just wonder what Tim's real last name is...
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