Tim Drake (DC Animated Universe)

Early life
Tim Drake was the son of Gotham City criminal Steven "Shifty" Drake, who was often a thug for the crime lord Two-Face. He had very little respect for his father, and often had to fend for himself. Around the age of 10, Tim began to idolize Gotham City hero Batman and placed newspaper clippings on his wall. After Batman left a batarang behind at a crime scene, Tim found it and began using it himself.

When his father double crossed Two-Face, he left Tim a note and a key to a Gotham City airport locker. This key was discovered by Two-Face's henchmen when they briefly kidnapped young Tim. Two-Face flipped his coin, and decided to execute Tim, but Batman showed up and rescued him.

Soon after, they discovered that Tim's father was killed outside of Gotham. With no place to go, Bruce Wayne adopted Tim and began to put him under his tutelage as the next Robin.

Adventures As Robin
Almost immediately, Robin began working in the field. One of his first acts was helping Batman thwart the Joker's attempt to kill Gothamites with his Joker Gas during a New Year's Eve celebration.

Later, when Mister Freeze began targeting assorted people in order to destroy people's hope, Freeze went after Bruce Wayne's family. Freeze at first considered to freeze Tim Drake the surrogate son, but ultimately decided to go after Alfred. Tim was left behind to watch over Alfred when Batman and Batgirl went after Mr. Freeze.

During one night of working solo, Tim came to the aid of a young girl with amnesia, whom he named Annie. He developed a bit of a crush on the girl, who seemed to be living in constant fear of an unknown assailant. She later proved to be a lost creation of Clayface, who had created her in order to scout out Gotham for his inevitable return. Unfortunately the girl had 'forgotten' her purpose and continued to run. When Clayface reabsorbed the girl, Tim took her 'murder' very hard and almost killed Clayface.

When Bruce Wayne went mysteriously missing, Tim was left to protect Gotham on his own, while Nightwing and Batgirl went to search for him, thinking that Ra's al Ghul had a hand in the disappearance. When Superman arrived, growing concern himself, he and Robin teamed-up with Superman masquerade as the missing Batman, and Tim being his guide. Together the duo discovered that Bruce was actually under Brainiac's mind controlling nanites. Together they managed to save Bruce and again destroy Brainiac.

At some point in his life as Robin, Tim Drake became a member of a superhero group known as the Titans.

Sometime after Dick Grayson left Gotham for good to establish himself in another city, Robin was patrolling alone one night. Upon hearing a scream of terror, Robin thought he was saving a lone woman from thugs but instead, fell into a trap set by the Joker and Harley Quinn. For three long weeks, at the old Arkham Asylum, Tim was mercilessly tortured with electro-shock and chemical injections. The Joker also took the opportunity to implant a microchip at the base of Tim's skull that contained an encoded version of the Joker's DNA and memories. During the course of the torture, the Joker learned the precious secrets entrusted to Robin. Not content with just destroying Tim's mind he sought to further humiliate Batman. To this end, the Joker transformed Tim into a crude version of himself. Tim's skin was bleached white, dying his hair green and twisting Tim's mouth into a grotesque Joker-like grin. Because of the torture and makeover he endured for the three weeks, he was also rendered unable to communicate in any way except with demented laughter. Re-naming him "Joker Junior" aka "J.J." the Joker claimed Drake as his and Harley's new son, and planned on using Drake to destroy Batman. During the battle that followed, the Joker gave Tim a gun and ordered him to kill Batman with it. Tim laughed uncontrollably and fought with the choice whether or not kill Batman. He finally killed the Joker instead, after which he completely broke down in the arms of Batgirl. After these events, Commissioner Gordon quickly covered up the incident and nothing was ever made public.

After the tramuas that he suffered, Tim was shatterred physically and psychologically. To help him recover, a close friend of the Wayne family, Dr. Leslie Thompkins spent a year treating Tim. But, to spite this, Tim would suffer horrible dreams for years. After what happened to Tim, Batman, feeling responsible for what happened, forbade Tim from donning the Robin costume ever again. Drake went out on his own as a hero and attempted several times to mend things with Batman only to fail.

Later Years
Later in his life, Tim completely gave up the life of a hero and became a top-level communications engineer, got married and had kids. He ended up apparently regretting ever being Robin and had less love for the Robin suit than the Joker. Despite his apparently hatred of his other life from his teenage years, he still had a relationship with Barbara Gordon. Tim however fell out of contact more or less with Bruce, and like his life as Robin, Tim seemed to resent his former mentor. It was later revealed however that much of his hatred for his life from Robin and Bruce, was caused by another source entirely.

As it turned out during the time that Tim had been under the Joker's care, the Clown had placed a Project Cadmus microchip with the Joker's DNA onto Tim's spinal column. As the years passed, the micro-chip activated, allowing the Joker's personality to emerge and take control of Tim. This explained Tim's increased hatred for the identity of Robin. The chip would also transform Tim physically into an exact replica of the Clown Prince of Crime. He went on a crime spree using Tim's communication engineering skills to take control of a satellite with a laser onboard. Ultimately, however, Terry McGinnis, the new Batman, was able to destroy the chip, freeing Tim.

Tim was taken to the hospital for his injuries, and was visited by Terry, Barbara, and Bruce Wayne. Barbara, now Commissioner of the Gotham Police Department, covered up Tim's involvement with the Joker's crimes, as he was technically innocent. As Terry took his leave to let Bruce and Tim catch up, Tim told Terry that he was more than worthy of being Batman, and Terry said that it meant a lot coming from him.

Background information
In the comics, Tim Drake was the third person to take the identity of Robin. The, second, Jason Todd, was the previous holder of the title until he was killed by the Joker. The animated Tim Drake seems to mix together certain elements of both Jason and the comic-book Tim.

Like Jason, he was an orphan and a former thief living on the streets until he was taken in by Batman when his father disappeared after working for Two-Face. He also had a very rebellious streak that had a tendency to put him in trouble. Jason was also much more prone to be willing to endanger the lives of criminals if provoked and the animated Tim almost killed Clayface after his absorption of Annie. It is also worthy to note that, like Jason, the animated Tim's career as Robin was brought to a tragic and horrifying end by the Joker.

However, the animated Tim did share a few qualities with his comic counterpart, in that he showed surprising knowledge and skill for detective work and was very adept at working with computers if need be. Like his comic version, the animated Tim also had somewhat of an early romantic interest in a person from the streets (Annie for the DCAU version, Lynx for the comic version).

Appearances and references

 * "Holiday Knights"
 * "Sins of the Father"
 * "Cold Comfort"
 * "Never Fear"
 * "Growing Pains"
 * "The Demon Within"
 * "Over the Edge"
 * "Critters"
 * "Animal Act"
 * "Old Wounds"
 * "Chemistry"
 * "Beware the Creeper"


 * "Knight Time"

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 * "Lost Soul"
 * "The Big Leagues"
 * "Hard as Nails"
 * "Future Shock"
 * "Future Shock"


 * "Gotham in Pink"


 * "Hereafter"
 * "The Savage Time"


 * "Epilogue"

Feature film

 * Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker
 * Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman