The following contains spoilers for Tim Drake: Robin #1 on sale now from DC Comics

The villain (or villains) from DC Pride: Tim Drake Special (Meghan Fitzmartin, Belén Ortega, Alejandro Sánchez, Pat Brosseau) is back in Tim Drake: Robin #1 ((by Meghan Fitzmartin, Riley Rossmo, Tom Napolitano). This time, however, the apparition they conjure is not from a Mark Twain story but from "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" by Edgar Allan Poe. While the original DC Pride story is great, the Poe story is a much more appropriate reference for Tim Drake.

C. Auguste Dupin, is best remembered today as the first modern detective. Poe's creation even predates the term "detective". This honor makes him a good analogue for Tim Drake. While Tim is by no means DC Comics first or only detective, he is unique in the Bat-family in that he is a detective first. Dick Grayson became Robin due to his acrobatic skills, Jason Todd due to his determination and grit, but Tim's detective skills made him a hero. In deducing so much about Batman's operations even before he became Robin, he proved his mettle as an investigator, with Batman even suggesting that he might a better detective than the Dark Knight himself.

RELATED: It's Time To Retire The Tired Cops Hate Vigilantes Trope

tim-drake-robin-detective

The similarities between the two characters is not limited to their abilities as detectives, but also extends to their style of detection. Poe opens the "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" with a discussion of analytical reasoning, outlying the methods and benefits of careful observation of clues and deductions. These methods are used by many fictional detectives, from Tim Drake to Sherlock Holmes. What separates Dupin, however, is that he is a keen observer not just of clues, but of people. In the story, Dupin deduces an acquaintance's entire train of thought based on a few words. Similarly, Tim's investigations are never reduced to simple logical problems.

His early discovery of the Bat-family's identities was not achieved by combing through facts, but by close observation of Batman. Aside from their similarities as detectives, Dupin and Drake share some similarities as people. In Dupin's past he was a member of a privileged order of knights, which granted him the prefix "Chevalier" that he still uses before his name. The parallel to the Bat-family is clear. Both are from originally wealthy backgrounds, as many fictional detectives are. However, unlike Sherlock Holmes or Poirot, both Dupin and Tim now find themselves without wealth or influence. Tim's circumstance at the beginning of Tim Drake: Robin #1 mirrors Poe's detective's, with his previous connections and family absent, working alone out of dilapidated accommodations.

Rather than set up a base of operations elsewhere like Jace Fox or Dick Grayson, Tim remains in Gotham, in the kind of environment where he has always operated. Auguste Dupin and Tim Drake are both urbanites at heart, operating in dense populations of Paris and Gotham respectively. Although Robin's adventures have taken him across the multiverse, like Dupin, he's never more comfortable as when he's in the center of a city. Tim isn't quite as cut off from his former life as Dupin seems to have been, but their fall from privilege and isolation in the middle of a city are certainly analogs for one another.

RELATED: Alfred Pennyworth Could Become DC's Lovecraftian Detective

tim-drake-robin-gorilla

The causes of this isolation are very different, but they might reveal another similarity between the characters. While Poe never elaborates on the series of circumstances that resulted in his detective losing his status, there are hints. The only connection in Dupin's life is the unnamed narrator of the story. The detective and this unnamed man live together, only going out at night. While the connection is never explicitly made between their living arrangement and Dupin's exile from his former society, the implication exists. Tim Drake's new life away from the Bat-family and Wayne Manor is certainly not the result of the kind of explicit homophobia that existed in Poe's time, but Tim left because needed a place where he could completely be himself.

When Robin eventually solves the mystery in Tim Drake: Robin #1, he does so by following Dupin's methods, but he also uses his knowledge of literature (something the detective prized highly), and his knowledge of the city. Poe's character would also have approved of the conclusion of the story. Tim doesn't seek to punish the orangutan, nor does he seek glory for solving the crime. Tim, like Dupin, prizes truth for truth's sake, solving the puzzle simply in order to discover the story behind it.