Johns did a fantastic job in my opinion. Johns and Winick are basically my Jason homeboys. They can do him and if it does turn out to be him, turns out Morrison can too. Who knew? I think his speech to Tim in the TT issue is the most telling. The fact he calls himself a failure but doesn't want to be upstaged but some shutterbug kid, then acknowledges that yes, he is good at it actually. I like to think it was, in part, doing what every Robin needs and getting the crap kicked out of him. Dick got Two-Face, Jay got the Joker and this was a non-lethal way of checking that Robin wasn't going to die if he took the kind of punishment they did and that he had Bruce's back in the field. It's also a way of highlighting flaws in Tim, which in a round about way, will make him a better Robin in the same way Dent did with Dick. And of course, he's insanely possessive so there was absolutely that element too.