Robin III Part 19: Detective Comics #621 (September, 1990)

We learn the fate of Tim’s parents.

I have this issue in the Robin: Tragedy & Triumph Trade Paperback.

Tim’s in a waiting room at a Gotham hospital and Bruce tells him the events of the past several hours; the Obeah Man was behind his parents’ kidnapping in Haiti, and had poisoned them both with jimson root. Bruce was able to get them to a local hospital and back into the States, but Tim’s mother was dead. His father survived but is paralyzed and unconscious.

Bearing the weight of the news, Tim visits his father while Bruce keeps watch from a distance.

Notes of Interest:

1) Tim comes to understand the world that Batman exists in, full of violence and evil.

2) It isn’t said outright, but it’s implied that Tim now knows why Bruce became Batman – the death of his parents.

WTF? Moment: I understand the idea that Robin must endure tragedy. I get it. No one should just “suit up” and take on the mantle. Dick lost both parents. Jason was an orphan, and was killed after finding his birth mother. Now Tim’s parents pay the price. Having his father still alive is a nice change, and it does set him apart from Dick and Jason, but it’s the continual use of parental units as the source of that tragedy bothers me.

WTF? Moment #2: Norm Breyfogle’s visual transition from Batman the hero to Batman the “night-demon” was fantastic. Tim acknowledges the evil surrounding Batman, but doesn’t yet know how to deal with it.