How Super Sons of Tomorrow Redeemed Evil Tim Drake

WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Superman #38 by Peter J. Tomasi, Patrick Gleason, Sergio Davila and Vicente Cifuetnes, on sale now.

Tim Drake never wanted to be Batman. As a child, he’d deduced the identities of Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson, and after the murder of Jason Todd, sought out Wayne to caution him about his reckless ways in the wake of his second sidekick’s death. His original intent had been to convince Dick to walk away from his Nightwing persona—and go back to being Robin—but Tim ended up becoming the third Robin himself.

Ten years from now (roughly), in an alternate future, a grown-up Tim is consumed by darkness. Following an unexplained Crisis, he adopts his mentor’s persona and, using the gun that killed Bruce Wayne’s parents, executes the Dark Knight’s enemies one by one. He also takes over the adult version of the Titans and, in the process of making the western half of America safe, creates the conditions for a fascistic society whose citizens sacrifice safety for security.

We first encountered this nightmare scenario during Geoff Johns and Mike McKone’s mid-2000s Teen Titans run. The three-part Titans Tomorrow flash forward (Vol 3. #16-18) shows the adult team having taken the place of the Justice League, and having adopted the codenames of their elders. It is not a hopeful future, at least not in Tim’s half of the country. The East Coast is a much brighter place thanks to a group of breakaway Titans—co-led by future Batwoman, Bette Kane and Bumble Bee (Karen Beecher)—as well as President Mal Duncan, a former team member who guides his half to the country according to democratic principles.

It is a future that Tim desperately wants to avoid. As we saw in the pages of James Tynion IV, Eddy Barrows and Alvaro Martinez’ Detective Comics (#965-968), he has come back to the present to prevent it from happening by killing the current Batwoman. “A Lonely Place of Living” pit the future Tim’s fatalism against his present version’s hopefulness. He tried to convince his younger self that killing Batwoman will permit him to walk away from superheroics, fall in love, go off to college, and prevent the future.

The Bat Family, whom young Tim has christened the Gotham Knights, foils the future Batman, and sends him forward through Hyperpertime to his own reality. However future Tim returns once again in the “Super Sons of Tomorrow” crossover. This time, he’s intent on killing Jon Kent to prevent the death of millions. He gets his chance in Peter J. Tomasi, Patrick Gleason, Sergio Davila and Vicente Cifuetnes’ Superman #38.

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As we saw in Super Sons #11 (also written by Tomasi and Gleason, with art by Ryan Benjamin and Richard Friend), Jon has inherited his father’s super flare ability. Introduced by Geoff Johns in the New 52 “Men of Tomorrow” storyline (there’s that word again), the super flare allows Superman to release all the solar energy he has stored in his body as a single concentrated burst. An extension of his heat vision, the super flare is a last resort as it not only renders Superman unconscious, but also depletes him of his super powers for the 24 hours it takes his body to replenish its stores of energy.

There’s a further catch for Jon. Being half-human, he can’t control the super flare, and it can emerge unwanted at times of extreme physical or emotional stress. His inability to keep it in check poses an existential threat to the world, which has put him in the future Batman’s sights.

Jon’s weakness creates an advantage for Tim. In a showdown at the Fortress of Solitude, he realizes that he can kill Jon without laying a finger on him. All he needs to do is to let the boy—who was weakened by an initial flare-up, and who is now in a trance caused by emotional overload—consume himself in a second super flare.

As Superman works with the present and future Titans to save the boy, the unexpected happens, and the super flare becomes independent of Jonathan. The fatalistic Tim sees a chance to save the future while sparing John. Absorbing the power unleashed by the boy, Drake is pushed back into Hypertime, but something is... different.

Instead of flashes of the moments he’s tried to alter, we see key images from the various Crises that have reshaped the DC Universe, including Barry and Wally hugging at the beginning of Rebirth, and Superman carrying the corpse of Supergirl at the end of Crisis on Infinite Earths.

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Freed of his burden and falling into the light, Tim may have unwritten his future, but what does this mean for the DC Universe. Does he have a more positive role to play now that he is no longer a future fascistic Batman, but a self-styled Savior. Or does his new monicker add a new zeal to his cruel and murderous intent?

Tim is a bit of a wildcard at the conclusion of Superman #38. We know that Batwoman and Clayface’s actions in Detective Comics will trigger the events that led to his becoming Batman, but this is no longer a certainty. However, this is not the only curveball in the “Super Sons of Tomorrow” storyline. There are several questions that are spinning out of this crossover.

The first concerns the split in the present Teen Titans. Raven and Beast Boy agreed to follow Tim’s lead, while Aqualad, Starfire and Kid Flash decided to find and rescue Jon and Damian. This rift could play out in the coming year, especially if Tim from the future returns once again.

The second is about Damian. In Detective Comics #968, future Tim claims that Damian should be killed on sight for “what he does to the Kent boy.” While Tim may have been referencing the present day version of Damian, there are currently two different versions of Bruce Wayne’s son lurking in the post-Rebirth DC universe. An interlude in Super Sons #10 showed the Damian Wayne from Grant Morrison’s Batman #666 materializing in the present day and announcing that the Apocalypse was cancelled. We already know that Damian will sell his soul to the Devil in a year’s time in order to avert the end of the world, but could his future self have come back -- like Tim -- to alter his fate? And has Mr. Oz in any way influenced him?

The final curve ball may come courtesy of a character who doesn’t yet exist in the current DC Universe: Conner Kent. As the Superman of Titans Tomorrow conspires with our Superman to save Jonathan from perishing in the super flare, he tells Clark that he failed the boy before, and doesn’t intend to again. While he may be referring to the New 52 Jon, who sacrificed himself to save every instance of Conner in the Multiverse, could he be referencing to something that has yet to happen? We’ve already seen two future Batmans come back through Hypertime. Given Mr. Oz’s interference, and the various horrific tomorrows to come, could there be more Supermen of tomorrow materializing in DC’s post-Rebirth continuity?

Will Conner be back? Will we see a Jon from the future. Only time -- and perhaps the conclusion of this story in Super Sons #12 -- will tell. After all, we’ve seen plenty of folks from the future in “Super Sons of Tomorrow,” except for the Super Sons themselves.