"To the Father I Never Knew..." [Tim Angst]
In Batman 480 Jack Drake was out of his coma and leaving the hospital. Tim struggled between his life as Jack Drake's Son and Robin.
This issue features Tim writing a letter with the snippits appearing throughout. I did my best to keep a lot of the letter in the scans. It's written by Alan Grant and drawn by Jim Aparo.
The issue opens with Tim taking his father to the cemetary to see Janet Drake's grave. When they arrive they see that her grave has been vandalized. Jack gets upset and Tim has to give him some oxygen (he's still got a lot of health issues).
Later at the hospital...
Tim is also introduced to Phil Marin:
While Alfred is driving Tim back to the mansion, Tim spots a couple vandals whose signature (the "Y-Dogs") matches what he saw on his mum's grave earlier.
Tim shows them what happens when you mess with Robin's Mama:
That night Alfred questions whether Tim should remain Robin, saying he should be out socializing and making friends:
Before they go on patrol, Bruce asks Tim if he's sure he's up to it. Tim says yes and Bruce says "That's good enough for me."
Tim suggests they check out the Y-Dogs since the two guys he roughed up earlier had suspiously expensive designer clothes.
While the Y-Dogs are waiting for their boss man to show...
On one hand I like that Bruce is backing off and letting Tim make his own decisions -- it shows respect for Tim's judgement....but on the other hand I sort of want Bruce to smack Tim and say, "You have a chance to be with your father and have something of a normal life -- do you know what I would give for that? Get out of this madness while you still can!"
Turns out the Y-Dogs are working for Phil Marin, who's got them stealing from one of Jack Drake's companies. They plan to blame the theft on Tim when he starts working for the family business. Bruce and Tim do their thing: tie up the crooks and turn them over to the police.