Do not buy this week’s issue of Batman and Red Robin #19! Well, I mean, you can buy it if you want to. But if you, like me, were looking for any examination of the Bruce/Tim dynamic in the New 52, you will be grossly disappointed. The two barely have anything to do with one another, and when they do interact, it’s just a circumstance of the plot.

This is almost as bad as when we were teased about Red Robin getting an issue of Night of the Owls. Seriously, if you were planning on buying this comic just for the Tim Drake appearance, save your money.

I guess you could buy it for Carrie Kelley, maybe

I’ll post some spoilers after the jump. Just know that this issue is not a team up between Bruce and Tim. DC Comics is a Den of Liars and Thieves!

They should have called this comic Batman and Frankenstein.

The basic plot is that Batman is so distraught over Damian’s death that he kidnaps Frankenstein (from the cancelled Frankenstein: Agent of S.H.A.D.E. series) and dissects him to try and figure out if he can bring Damian back to life as a walking corpse monster. Batman is insane in this issue. At not other point in the aftermath of Damian’s death has Bruce been shown taking it so hard that he wants to resurrect Damian as a Frankenstein. And yet here he is.

Frankenstein spends the whole issue trying to talk Batman out of it, but Bruce isn’t listening. Still, he has a much deeper and more engrossing conversation with freakin’ Frankenstein, of all people, than he does with his former sidekick and surrogate son Red Robin.

What is Red Robin’s role in this comic you ask? Why, let me tell you, friend.

Red Robin just happens to be the name Alfred picks out of a hat when he asks one of the Bat-family to go check on Bruce in the remote laboratory where he’s dissecting Frankenstein. Tim is still a pissy little brat about what happened with the Joker, but he reluctantly goes to help Bruce. How does he get there? Oh, perhaps in the multi-million dollar jet that Bruce gave you so that you could be a superhero, you ungrateful little twerp! So sorry it’s such a burden for you to check on your mentor and father-figure’s well being when he’s clearly insane with grief.

Tim shows up and spends maybe two panels trying to tell Bruce this Frankenstein idea is crazy. He attacks, but Bruce easily dispatches him. So Red Robin uses the guns from his “Titans Jet” (even though the Teen Titans don’t have jets in their own series) to destroy all of Bruce’s lab equipment. Batman gives Tim a sour look and then leaves.

That’s it. THAT’S FREAKIN’ IT!!

They barely say two sentences to each other. They don’t talk about Damian’s death. Batman is too crazy and Tim is too pissy to have any kind of meaningful conversation. Let us not forget the fact that Tim became Robin after he recognized Bruce’s grief when Jason died. Now Bruce is suffering that exact same grief in the wake of Damian’s death, but Tim can barely spare even the slightest concern.

This may as well be the nail in the coffin, folks. Tim Drake has become the useless, forgotten member of the Bat-Family. DC has no interest in Bruce and Tim as a team anymore. What a damn shame.

For some positive Tim Drake vibes, go read Chris Sims’ glorious examination of why Tim Drake is the best of the Robins. It’s fantastic.