Teen Titans #0 was a total mixed bag.
They appear to be off on the total wrong foot in the first 4 pages. It looks like Bruce is recruiting Tim, and that Tim isn't actively seeking the role of Robin.
Then they turn it around, and take the classic approach -- with an interesting twist. Tim is seeking Batman out, and doing well at it -- but Bruce catches on and starts to leave his own clues for Tim to follow.... but is still impressed by Tim's skills.
Seemingly discouraged by Batman's refusal of taking him as a partner, Tim uses his considerable hacker skills to get Batman's attention. He hacks into the Cobblepot's bank account and steals Penguin's entire fortune. This doesn't only get Batman's attention, but the attention of Penguin and his men. A gang shoots up Tim's house -- causing Batman to intervene, saving Tim and his family.
So far, it's not awful... They've changed his origin considerably, and the Cobblepot involvement felt forced. His abilities as a Olympic level gymnast were also "off" to me. Tim was never a super athlete, that was Dick. Tim was just overly ambitious, always trying to prove himself. Here, they execute that -- making Tim want to prove himself to Batman, as well as his own parents... But they still feel the need to make him over confident and perfect at everything -- this is not who Tim Drake is.
Still, I was about 17-18 pages into this re-telling of the Tim Drake origin, and I wasn't hating it. I didn't love it, it's no A Lonely Place of Dying, but it's not pure ****.
Then the last 2-3 pages happen.
Spoiler Alert:
Batman has to strike a deal with the Justice Department (not Bruce Wayne, Batman). Batman gets Tim's parents into the witness protection program, to protect them from Cobblepot's pursuit. Tim's parents, however, don't want Tim to have a life of anonymity or have to live on the run -- so they relinquish their son to Batman (again, not Bruce Wayne). They just give custody of their son over to a man who runs around in his bat pajamas and thrashes criminals on what? Good faith? Did he reveal he was a secret billionaire somewhere off panel? What the hell? This is totally contrived and wreaks of "we have 5 pages of story to tell and only 3 more pages to do it!" So they just went for something easy and not something smart.
Okay -- so that's pretty awful. Tim's parents enter the witness protection program, and give their son to a complete stranger who is mentally insane -- no questions asked.
But that's not all! Tim decides he isn't going to wear Jason Todd's Robin suit. Fine, okay. Honor the dead. He then goes on to reveal his own uniform. (Essentially the Robin suit we saw him wear pre-New 52, with the red leggings). He calls himself the Red Robin. Alright, I'll live with the change. But that's when the bomb drops. The last panel shows Batman and Red Robin -- in an iconic splash.
The captions read: "His name is now Tim Drake. He is Red Robin. And I was right, he was going to forge his own destiny."
What the hell?!
His name is now Tim Drake? As in -- that's not who he was before he came under Wayne's guidance. Tim Drake is now not Tim Drake's identity, but rather his cover and alias that he is assigned as he joins the witness protection program and moves in with Bruce Wayne! He's not ACTUALLY Tim Drake? What the hell, man? So now we're going to be left with the mystery of who he actually is.... will it be revealed in a few years that his original name was....John Blake? Or some other name that will either relate him to a villain or a hero in the DCU? It's stupid, it's forced, it's unnecessary.
They changed Tim to the point that well, they got what they wanted -- he's not Tim anymore. His character is too perfect. He's too good at everything. He is to sure of himself and too good an athlete. They took away Jack and Janet Drake from the character. No more is he the son of a single father who's mother passed. And later, the son of a loving father and a loving stepmother, Dana.
His normal homelife was part of Tim's appeal. He wasn't a soldier in Bruce's war who was enlisted -- he volunteered. And it was the sneaking around his Dad and stepmom that made it even more interesting and exciting. He didn't live at Wayne Manor -- that was something that separated him from the other Robins. What Lobdell has done here is make Tim a copy of Dick -- and that's exactly what Tim was NOT supposed to be.
They have taken and ruined one of the best characters in the Batfamily, if not the DCU and made him lackluster and ordinary.
Good job.
-R