I Know It’s For The Angst And Maybe It’s A Thing In Canon Cause Comic Books. But If The Batfamily

My face!

A Batman fanfic idea:

A “Tim gets adopted early” AU but Jason still goes to Ethiopia, still gets betrayed and captured and tortured and dies.

So Batman is losing it. It takes all of Superman’s strength and cunning to keep Batman from killing the joker. And it’s only his youngest son’s voice through the comms who calms him down long enough to be restrained.

But even then, Batman can’t control himself completely. He’s not drinking. He has a child to take care of and he’d die before he turns into the worst kind of father’s Gotham has to offer.

But Dick still hates him and Alfred’s quiet presence isn’t the balm it usually is — instead just reminding him how much he missed Jason’s noise and joy. Of course, little Tim isn’t handling the lose of his brother very well either, the quiet child turning inwards in his grief.

So Batman goes out and with each sunset becomes darker, more violent, more desperate. Sloppy. One night he takes two shots to the back after already tearing his suit. He has no backup. He can’t think of a back up plan.

Once again it’s Tim’s voice, warm and alive, over the comms that gives him the strength to get up and limp into the Batmobile. It’s Tim’s presence that gives him enough strength to come home.

Tim is waiting in the cave for him, refusing to leave as Alfred and Dr. Thompson dig the bullets out of his back and sew his skin closed. Tim holds his hand through it all, never turning those ice blue eyes, even when the tears come.

It’s the last night he’s Batman. He can’t do it anymore, can’t do it to Tim. He can’t make his last son an orphan. Not again.

He tells Alfred first. Then Superman who tells the league. Finally, he calls Dick and tells him the truth, not the lie he told Superman about injuries and rest or the story he spun Alfred about being tired, he tells Dick, “I’m not strong enough.”

Dick understands and Dick hates him for it.

Nightwing moves to Gotham. Dick Grayson-Wayne moves back to the manor.

Tim never becomes Robin. There isn’t a Batman to save anymore.

Bruce Wayne calms down after the death of his son, people say. He rarely leaves the manor these days and only when he’s accompanied by his sons. What a doting father!

Nightwing gets a sidekick called Black Bat. Batgirl returns with blonde hair. The underground speak of an all seeing eye coined Oracle.

Bruce Wayne never adopts another child after Tim Drake-Wayne.

Eventually, because of time and family therapy, Dick forgives Bruce. Nightwing never forgives Batman.

And three years after the retirement of Batman, Red Hood returns to the city that failed him.

Someone with more skill PLEASE animate Nightwing dancing to Like Jennie but specifically this TikTok sound:

Please tell me y’all can see the vision! He would be amazing!!

I have some money and a dream. No lie. I need to see this.

I wish DC would just give us 1 AU series where we go from the inception of Batman to the Retirement of Batman, done by 1 writer and a set of artists. Like a graphic novel variant. Keep all the major canon events: Bruce’s parents, Adopting the kids in the right order. Stephanie’s story. The killing joke. No man’s land. Jason’s death and return. Darkside. Superboy Prime. The Outsiders. Young Justice and Teen titans all in relation to the bat family. Etc etc. But let everyone grow old. Let Tim go to college and let go of Robin. Let Red Hood become someone new and let go of the anger. Let Dick get married to Kori and have kids. Let Damien retire and become a doctor. Let Bruce become a grandpa and have to retire because his body just can’t keep up. Some rogues die of old age or compounding wounds and have to retire. Some do become rehabilitated! New villains for a new generation of heroes!

What does that Gotham look like? Did Batman work? Are things better? Are things just different?

It would be interesting to see a comic book plot where time matters.

In honor of messy bitch Tim who deserves a maneater era after his womanizer era in the 90s. Here is a fic concept:

Bernard wants to get engaged young. 22-23. The minute he’s done with school he wants that ring on Tim’s finger.

Tim — allergic to commitment outside of the cape — is like “nope!” And it’s their biggest fight. It actually ends with them taking a six month “break” which Tim reads as a “break up” and proceeds to enjoy a voluminous ho phase, slipping in and out of the clubs of Gotham and Metropolis with Kon, Bart, and Dick as friends/guides.

It’s during this time period that Tim starts sleeps with Kon. They might have experimented when they were younger (no homo was said at some point because that closet was made of glass). A part of Tim, the part that has been in love with this boy even if he hadn’t had the language for it just yet, wants to cling to Kon with all the spite and terror of a bat. But the other part, the same part that ran away from Bernard, knows he won’t be satisfied if he ties himself to Kon just yet. There’s so much more to explore, to experience. He’s a researcher at heart after all. A scientist and an archeologist. He wants to experiment.

And Kon… Kon wants. And if this is how Tim will have him, he’ll enjoy it. He’s a “life is for living” kind of guy. If it becomes something more, Kon would be delighted. But he’s lasted this long as one of Tim’s best friends by meeting him where he’s at. And it’s fun. The sex and the partying and experimenting. Tim and Kon make it fun.

(Dick is happy to be Tim’s guru on all things safe, sane, and consensual. Honestly, Tim’s crisis of the week is small potatoes compared to most of the family DRAMA Dick deals with.)

And then Bernard comes back into the picture. After six months of licking his wounds and realizing he’d rather have a part of Tim instead of nothing at all, asks for another chance. He even suggests keeping an open relationship, as long as Tim doesn’t say “I love you” to anyone else and agrees to a date a week. Bernard can live with it. He’s not… thrilled, exactly. It’s not his first choice but he’d take some of Tim instead of none.

Tim introduces Bernard to Kon three months after settling into the new arrangement. They hadn’t met before then because Tim had no way to explain their connection out of the capes. Now Tim can say, “Bernard, this is my most frequent partner, Kon. He’s been my best friend since I was 14.”

And so the messiness commences!

Here is a thing I’ve been writing if anyone is interested:

Inspired by an AU I wrote about here: [SPOILERS]

-///////////////////////--///////////////////////--///////////////////////--///////////////////////-

It had been Barbara who’d brought it up first.

The news had been everywhere: the kidnapping of Gotham’s own Jackson and Janet Drake, CEO and co-owners of Drake Industries, had been a sensationalized story. Especially when some well timed information leaks proved the US Government had failed to negotiate the return of the couple after three months. Vicky Vale herself had written an expose into the ethical pharmaceutical company, Drake Industries, and the darling family that led it. Soon after Timothy Jackson Drake’s photo had begun circulating.

A capricious, intelligent young boy. It seemed he had a bit of an attitude with authority and often switched schools because he advanced too quickly through the curriculum and frustrated his teachers.

“He sounds bored,” Dick had remarked during one of his bi-monthly visits. He’d been scrolling through his phone all afternoon, oddly attached to the new story.

Bruce for his part had double checked Vicky’s research and found nothing notable or dangerous about the Drakes. They really were a semi-rich if not average family with a smart son and a relatively ethical multi-million dollar pharmaceutical company. Certainly, they’d given some bribes to “grease the wheels” on some of their rarer expeditions but nothing nefarious, especially not for Gotham.

No reason for the Batman to get involved.

Which is why it is so odd that Barbara brings it up during patrol. It’s a quiet night, of course. No other chatter on the coms and with Nightwing taking Robin on an excursion throughout the westside of the city, Bruce found the night almost peaceful.

And then Barbara says, “I feel bad for him.”

Batman grunts questioningly as he leans forward as if to spy this mysterious him that Barbara is preoccupied with.

“Tim Drake,” she clarifies. “You should read some of these articles, B. It really makes you nervous who's going to try and snatch him up.”

That gets Bruce’s attention. “He doesn’t have any extended family?”

| a little tomfoolery

Hey so actually I might be a little obsessed with how Tim is Dick’s only real brother.

Like hear me out. HEAR ME OUT!

Dick’s relationship with Jason is full of regret and guilt. They might be building something now but their past is full of inflicting rotting wounds (metaphorical and often literal) on each other. Dick started the pattern first when he rejected Jason as Robin. And later Jason raging against Dick after his return. Jason’s semi-valid villain crash out ending with Dick putting him in Arkham because Jason was a straight villain pre-rebirth. And even then it takes rebirth remixed canon to allow Jason some family bonding time. I say they have a handful of months — and even then how often did Dick visit! He didn’t start reconnecting with the BatFam until after the Killing Joke and Death in the Family — they got along before shit got worse.

Damian is Dick’s BABY! That is his firstborn! Dick might have had some adoption tendencies pre-crisis with Jason but they realized that shit with Dick’s (Second? Third?) time in the cowl. Dick saw this small murderous child and was like “I can do it better than Bruce” and did. And yes they might be settling into a brotherly role with Bruce stepping the fuck up.* But I promise you having witnessed siblings with a 10 year age gap — even when the parents are perfect and emotionally available — that older sibling quickly becomes a third parent. With Dick, he was the first second and third parent. No way Damian and Dick could ever just be brothers and I love that for them.

So that leaves Tim! The little baby brother he started calling little brother YEARS before Bruce ever adopted Tim.** Timmy, the freak who broke into his apartment to track him down and drag him back to Gotham. Timmy who Dick follows back to Gotham and — through his growing relationship with Tim — reconnects with his second family.

He spent his early 20s with Tim! He comes into his own as Nightwing with Tim as Robin. He literally grows into his adult self with Tim as his witness.

How many lows has Tim helped him pick up after? How many falls has Dick caught Tim after (metaphorically and literally)?

But that’s the sweet sappy shit.

Tim is the one brother Dick doesn’t have to be responsible with. He eats shitty pizza with Tim. He has movie nights and hang outs and poor-tasting inside jokes with Tim. They race each other across rooftops! They play fight in the streets. Dick booby traps his apartment so Tim can have fun breaking in.*** Dick complains about his messy love life to Tim while Tim mocks him!

THEY ARE BROTHERS YOUR HONOR!

With Jason there is too much pain. With Damian there is too much responsibility. With Tim, Dick gets to be his age and just hangout with his brother!

There is a reason Dick calls Tim his equal. Dick loves his brothers, he’ll always be there for them. But Tim is the one Dick doesn’t have to watch or monitor or hover over. Tim is his brother, not his regret or his child.

20 years in real time and 4 years of comic time put Tim and Dick through the ringer. No Man’s Land. Knightfall. The nuking of Bloodhaven. Contagion. Try to name a tragedy Tim and Dick haven’t witnessed and weathers side by side! But no matter how they fight or have to disappear for the mission, they always find each other and trust each other and believe in each other. Because they are truly brothers!

(So context… I’m very much reading the 90s and 2000s run. I’m like chronologically in 98. I’ve heard modern comics have dropped this FOR SOME FUCKING REASON (they forget Tim exists, I guess). But I refuse to believe that rebirth got rid of their brotherly bond. Just as Tim’s “friendship” with Kon-El transcends timelines so does Dick and Tim’s brotherly bond! They are family bonded through the fires of time and comic book bullshit!)

* How much this is true take with a grain of salt. I’m not reading modern yet. I’ve read some cause Damian just slaps and I love him. But there’s so much!

** Tim was adopted for like a year before being emancipated. WILD! What fatherless behavior!

*** What feral menaces! I love them!!! I just need to scream. Not important. Carry on. ^>^

If Jason didn’t die and Tim didn’t become Robin, Tim’s parents would have been killed by the Obeah Man** and Bruce would have become his foster father.

After all, who other than Bruce is qualified to foster a rich kid in Gotham? I doubt there are a lot of other upper crust folks who are capable or certified of being an emergency foster. And Tim is rich enough and public enough (a massive scandal where elite Jack and Janet Drake of Drake Pharmaceuticals is kidnapped in Haiti and ransomed by a foreign costumed criminal! It’d be headlines for weeks!!) to not get lost in the Gotham foster care. So off to the Wayne’s he goes.

I imagine angry and heartbroken at the death of his parents, Tim would see his fostering with the Wayne’s as a sign! After all, this is the same kid who asked if “Robins have to be Orphans” when his parents were kidnapped in the comics. He’s superstitious enough to believe in signs from the universe.

Imagine that first dinner. Dick has been invited over because Bruce has learned his lesson after Jason and he’s been busy reassuring both his sons that this is all temporary and trying to hid any proof he’s Batman in preparation for Tim to come. Alfred has cooked something simple and hearty for a heartbroken boy in the news whose big sad blue eyes remind him so much of the first Orphan he ever cared for. Jason is nervous about having another rich kid at the manor. And Dick feels like he recognizes this kid in the news from somewhere but he can’t put his finger on it.

And boom! Right after everyone is done scrapping their plates and thanking Alfred after a relatively normal dinner. Tim, who’s been very quiet, looks up and demands to be trained as a superhero. He’s not looking to be Robin, not with Jason alive. He’s not trying to replace Jason. But he won’t let what happen to him happen to any other kid. He wants to be a hero and he won’t take no for an answer.

Well fuck… I guess Bruce is keeping another one? What else is he supposed to do?

—-

** The reason Jack Drake lives is because Batman goes to Haiti to save him. If Bruce isn’t emotionally connected to Tim why would he care about this case personally? It has no effect on Gotham and he was in the middle of another a serial robbery case which is more pressing that he abandons to look for Tim’s parents. So I fully believe if Tim wasn’t Robin, Jack would have died with Janet.

Tim Drake is destined to be an orphan just like his brothers and sisters.