Detective 621 – Rite of Passage ends

Grant, Breyfogle and Mitchell conclude Tim Drake’s Rite of Passage in Detective 621 (Sept. 90).

Batman relates the events of this issue to Tim and Alfred in the cave.  He arrived at the island the Obeah Man was holding Tim’s parents on.  Jack and Janet were both tied to a post, surrounded by flames, and the Obeah Man had a small army of his own defending the circle.

Batman battles his way in to the Drakes, and cuts them free.  None of them are at all suspicious of the jug of water on a table near them.

And that proves to be unfortunate, as it was not water, but poison.  Batman defeats the Obeah Man and his people, and gets the Drakes bodies out of there.  It turns out that Jack is still alive, though mentally and physically crippled, while Janet is dead.

The world of Batman may seem like a wonderful fantasy, but it’s a dark world that comes with a heavy price.

The story concludes with the Caribbean boy.  He had broke into his father’s baka earlier in the evening, and was disappointed to find it was, to his eyes, merely a clump of mud and bone.  He throws it into the fire, and we see that his father died a similar death.

While Jason Todd had been thrust on a readership, Tim Drake was slowly built up, in stages.  Rite of Passage was a powerful and important, if tragic, step in making him Robin.

 

Detective 619 – the Obeah Man draws blood

Steve Mitchell rejoins Grant and Breyfogle on Detective 619 (Early Aug. 90), the second part of Rite of Passage.

As with the last story, the young boy whose father works for the Obeah Man fantasizes about the hidden baka, worrying and fretting about it.

Batman joins Commissioner Gordon and Lieutenant Kitch to watch a tape sent by the Obeah Man, demanding a ten million dollar ransom for the Drakes, and killing their assistant.

Examining the tape closely, Batman spots a caterpillar, and off of that figures out what island the Drakes are on.  Tim is distraught.  But he wanted to be Robin.  Is this the cost?

Impressively, the issue ends with Tim and Alfred discussing that head on, the deaths of Dick Grayson and Jason Todd’s parents.  And though they try to keep the view that the death is not needed, the reader knows that yes, it is.

 

Detective 618 – Rite of Passage begins

Alan Grant and Norm Breyfogle are joined by Dick Giordano on Detective 618 (Late July 1990), as the Rite of Passage storyline begins.  This is an excellent story, and has many levels to it, some quite disturbing.  At the start of this story, Tim Drake is living at Wayne Manor while his parents are out of town.  He is not Robin, does not go out on missions, simply works the computers.  Because how can he be Robin if his parents are still alive, even if they aren’t around?

Right from the outset, Tim is contrasted with a boy in the Caribbean, whose father has a special “Baka” that the boy is not allowed to see.  As the story progresses, we learn that the father is working for the Obeah Man, who is the main villain.

We catch up with the Drakes, aboard their private plane.  Not only do they leave their son behind, they don’t even treat each other nicely.  This does not bode well for Jack and Janet.

Things take a literal turn for the worse when the Obeah Man contacts and threatens their pilot, who lands as commanded.

Back in Gotham, Tim is helping Batman try to solve a number of bank thefts that have been committed online.

As Tim tries to track the transactions, the news comes through that his parents plane has disappeared.

And the Moneyspider takes credit for the bank thefts.

The story continues next issue.