As a young boy, Tim was in the audience the night Dick Grayson's parents were murdered and later managed to discover the identities of Batman and the original Robin through their exploits.

[6] According to Marv Wolfman, Tim was created to stand out from Grayson and Todd by having high intellect, a strong sense of justice and family outside of Batman's own.

Preorders for Batman and Detective Comics issues featuring a revived Joker and Penguin began to compete with, and even edged out, the last three parts of Grant Morrison's and Klaus Janson's Gothic storyline in Legends.

The next year, 1991, witnessed the ascension of Chris Claremont's, Jim Lee's, and Scott Williams's X-Men against Magneto, as well as Fabian Nicieza's and Rob Liefeld's X-Force, into the top of the preorder rankings.

Although both Grant and Breyfogle initially believed that their Anarky character could potentially become the third version of Robin, they were quick to support the editorial decision to focus on Drake.

[11] Tim Drake eventually transitioned from preadolescence to adolescence, becoming the third Robin throughout the storylines "Rite of Passage"[12] and "Identity Crisis",[13] with all issues scripted by Alan Grant and penciled by Norm Breyfogle.

Story arcs that included Drake only in subplots or featured his training in criminal investigation, such as "Crimesmith"[14] and "The Penguin Affair",[15] were either written or co-written by Grant and Wolfman, with pencils by Breyfogle, Aparo, and M. D. Bright.

Immediately afterwards, the character starred in the five-issue miniseries Robin,[16] written by Chuck Dixon, with interior pencils by Tom Lyle and cover art by Brian Bolland.

They wisely mobilized the expected adolescent behaviors of parental conflict, hormonal urges, and identity formation to give Tim emotional depth and complexity, making him a relatable character with boundaries between his two selves."

[18] Erica McCrystal likewise observes that Alan Grant, prior to Dixon's series, connected Drake to Batman's philosophy of heroic or anti-heroic "vigilantism" as "therapeutic for children of trauma.

By the end of "Identity Crisis", an adolescent Drake had "proven himself as capable of being a vigilante" by deducing the role of fear in instigating a series of violent crimes.

Due to the success of these miniseries, DC launched the first ongoing monthly Robin series in its history, once again written by Dixon, with Tim Drake as its main adolescent character.

[22]During this period, the character also featured prominently in the comic series Young Justice, written by Peter David, as a core team member from 1998 to 2003.

The character began starring in a new Red Robin ongoing series, written for its first twelve issues by Christopher Yost[29] and thereafter by Fabian Nicieza.

As of the DC Rebirth relaunch, Tim Drake became the main character in the series Detective Comics written by James Tynion IV where it was reinvented as a team book.

The character received widespread media attention when it was revealed that he was bisexual in DC's relaunch initiative Infinite Frontier through Batman: Urban Legends #6 (August 2021), written by Meghan Fitzmartin.

Growing up, Tim's parents were frequently absent for months at a time as they traveled around the world on archaeological digs and thus he was left in a boarding school with relatively little adult supervision.

Inspired by the heroes' exploits, Tim trained himself in martial arts, acrobatics, detective skills, and scholastics to better himself both physically and intellectually, though having no intention of joining Batman one day, mainly for his self-fulfillment.

Following the death of his father in Identity Crisis (2004) and the presumed death of Stephanie in Batman: War Games (2004–2005), Tim relocated to Blüdhaven, the city where Nightwing fights crime, for a period of time to escape the "ghosts" of Gotham City and to stay close to his stepmother Dana Winters, who was admitted into a Blüdhaven clinic after going into psychological shock over Captain Boomerang killing Jack Drake.

Tim, believing that Bruce is still alive, assumes the identity of Red Robin and leaves Gotham City to go on a worldwide search for Wayne.

[4][44][45] Red Robin, which was launched in late 2009, depicted Tim Drake's search to find evidence that Bruce Wayne was still alive after cutting himself off from the rest of the Bat-family.

Realizing that these attacks are a smokescreen and that the real target is coercing Hush to sign away Wayne Enterprises, Red Robin decides to confront Ra's head-on.

[48] Following an adventure with the Black Bat where he faces Ra's al Ghul's sister,[49] Tim stalks and attempts to kill a revived Captain Boomerang during the Brightest Day.

In the Pre-Convergence timeline of Futures End, refugees from Earth-2 are given a signal from Brother Eye, which allows them into the Earth-0 Universe, but start a war when Darkseid follows them, leading to the deaths of the Teen Titans, except for Drake.

Tim dons the Batman Beyond suit and goes back in time and prevents Brother Eye from sending the signal to Earth-2, creating a new future where there is less destruction, and the events of Convergence and everything afterward takes place.

After the team rescues Batman and Tim hacks their database to discover their plans, Jake sends two waves of Bat-Drones to take down the "League of Shadows", which will kill hundreds of innocents in the process.

[77] Over time, Tim's skills developed, his intelligence improving to a level where he was able excel in computer science and gain a grasp of assorted scientific techniques, including biology, engineering, and genetics, which he has witnessed his attempts at re-cloning Superboy.

Tim Drake's original Robin costume had a red torso, yellow stitching and belt, black boots, green short sleeves, gloves, and pants.

This costume was different from that of his predecessors in that it provided increased protection with an armored tunic and gorget, long boots, an emergency "R" shuriken on his chest in addition to the traditional batarangs and a collapsible bo staff as the character's primary weapon.

After Drake's confrontation with Ra's al Ghul in Red Robin #12, the costume was slightly altered with spiked gauntlets, a cropped tunic, and a new utility belt.