In this week’s Young Justice #8, former Robin Tim Drake apparently changed his code name to Drake — just Drake — incidentally homaging the rapper/singer and leaving the comics world to make way too many related jokes on the Internet.
So yeah, Tim Drake seems (who knows if it sticks) to no longer be Robin nor Red Robin, with him and his reunited Young Justice teammates (no new friends, as the other Drake would say), brainstorming the new moniker mid-battle. The logic here is that a drake is a male duck, so it fits the Bat-sidekick bird theme. But as soon as I heard it, I immediately got Hotline Bling in my head, undoing all the hard work I put in to get it out after it dominated that space for pretty much all of 2016. Drake, it should be also noted, is the Earth 3 name of the character, and was primarily pushed here by Impulse.
This name change is to maybe also go along with a forthcoming costume change that has stirred up a bit of controversy after art for it appeared online. See below…
I actually don’t hate it, and I think Drake is a pretty clear step up from Red Robin, the hamburger chain.
But hey! Maybe this is fitting — brace yourself for the jokes now — Tim Drake did start pretty close to the bottom, and now he’s in Wayne Manor. And DC has been using Batman and his related characters like Young Money used Drake in the early 2010s, embracing the “we goin be alright if we put Drake on every hook” strategy, just putting Batman in every book. Tim Drake is also the lone Robin to not join up with Bruce after being orphaned (early on), instead pitching in because, like Drake, he just wanted to do it for his city.
I could keep going…but instead I’ll conclude by noting Damian Wayne could go as Lil’ Wayne (saw that one on Twitter), Jason Todd could be LL Cool Jason Todd (the ladies do love Cool J), and Dick can claim his rightful spot at the top of the Bat-family game by going as Gray-Z. Plus also, Cardi-Barbara Gordon, Big Daddy Cassandra Cain, and, uh, Stephanie Brown (sorry, that’s a tough one even with the low low bar we set earlier).
In conclusion, something something, straight outta Gotham.
