Tim Drake Escapes Mr. Oz. Detective Comics 965 Review

Holy cow this is a really well done comic book. In such a short issue, it manages to touch so many awesome factors that makes this single issue a must read. I cant find anything wrong with this issue so lets go over what worked for me.

Now that Mr Oz’s identity has been revealed, we are gunna talk about that and a few more spoilers such as the other prisoners contained by mr oz. . But before we get into that, lets take a look at how this comic is basically a big homage to Tim Drake the 3^rd robin.

All of the flashback images are taken from previous issues from back in the late 1980’s. Even the cover art takes direct inspiration from Batman issue 441 where we see Tim Drake standing center focusing on a piece of costume. I’ve read quite a bit of James Tynion before but I never appreciated his work until now. He has the utmost respect for these characters that he handled and has been handling the character of Tim Drake gracefully. He truly knows the character and he never tried to reinvent the wheel or add something crazy drastically new to the character. He drew on what was already there and continued the story a bit further. Some other writers will try to bring something dramatic and exciting to the character which could be welcomed with open arms or it could ruin a well beloved character. Venom is a character that writers are very confused about. Is he a reluctant hero or is he a cold blooded killer? Deadpool is a huge exception.

Writers throw everything and the kitchen sink into deadpool stories and he comes out unscathed ready for more. Then there will be writers who have earned a prestigious spot to be able to change a character and have it be exciting and refreshing. Im referring to Batman writer Scott Snyder and how he introduced Bruce Wayne as being prophesized to be a doorway to the dark multiverse. If Snyder makes a change to Batman, you know he will tread carefully and we all respect him for his past and present work on Batman.

James Tynion is starting to fall into this little inner circle as well due to the respect he has for these awesome characters.

Now let’s take a look at the story in this comic. Tynion nails the sharp intellect of Tim Drake. He gets interrogated on purpose by Mr Oz just so he can hack into the kryptonian tech and breaks free. That is ingenious – one of the best parts in this comic.

Then the reveal that can knock your socks off: The identity of Mr Oz has already been revealed in action comics 987 but the problem is that it gets expensive following these stories so it is a nice treat for the writers to add an important factor from the main grand plan into detective comics. But for those who are following Mr Oz, the watchmen involvement and the doomsday clock, this issue offers another key fact about Mr Oz that I know you can appreciate. And that is the fact that Mr Oz says that he was a prisoner much like Tim Drake is currently. This was hinted at in action comics 987 where we see Jor El get taken from a poor family and get subjected to a series of tests which fuels his anger for mankind. He is saying that he and Tim Drake are not very different. They both are very smart people and they both had a lot of hope for their world. But of course Jor El was shunned from the scientific community for his discoveries. Jor El has judged the people of earth as being evil and corrupt and yet, he took Tim Drake. It appears that Jor El wants Tim to don the green cloak and take up the staff or scythe and continue his work.

Ok so after Jor El leaves, Tim opens all the prison cells and this is where he thought he found Batman. But this batman carries a gun and starts firing it. This batman takes off the cowl revealing himself to be an aged Tim Drake. He further states that the gun he wields was used to gun down Thomas and Martha Wayne, the gun of Joe Chill. He rebuilt it and is redeeming a tool of evil. Soon after, Doomsday breaks free but that was not the shock factor. The shock factor is this aged Tim Drake dressing up like batman.

We once saw Tim Drake don the classic grey and blue batman suit during the battle for the cowl when Batman went missing. Then we saw the end of Futures End where an aged Tim Drake traveled to the future and became Batman Beyond for a bit. At the end of that story line, the aged Tim Drake was taken presumably by Mr Oz. I have theorized that the Tim Drake from futures end was on one of the cells but this Tim Drake seems to be a lot grittier, willing to use a gun – the same gun that murdered Thomas and Martha Wayne to be precise.

This Tim Drake has gotta be from Titans Tomorrow, a 2005 story by one of my favorite writers, Geoff Johns. In this story set 10 years in an alternate future, every teen titan saw the gruesome death of the justice league. Something in Tim Drake’s mind snapped after watching his mentor Batman die. So he takes on the cape and cowl and started to use Joe Chill’s gun. He gunned down all of Gotham’s villains because now he believes in the motto, the end justifies the means. He is basically red hood at his bloodiest. This Tim Drake leads the titans of tomorrow. Back at Mr Oz’s prison, the aged Tim Drake takes off his cowl and says ‘I’m the Tim drake of tomorrow’. The word tomorrow is a direct nod at the titans of tomorrow. This also explains the cover art for detective comics 967 where we see a bludgeoned Tim Drake pressed against a wall with what appears to be Tim Drake Batman with a gun to his younger self’s face.

So there you have it, DC is bringing a lot of the awesome story lines and characters from pre new 52 into DC Rebirth and I’m loving every bit of it.