There wasn’t a page of this issue that I didn’t love.

In this issue we see Tim Drake returning home to Gotham City, and running all the way through the book is an extremely infectious sense of joy in that homecoming. Despite the daily simmering armageddon brewing endlessly underneath the surface of Gotham, Tim is happy to be back. In fact part of what he’s so happy to return to is the opportunity to defy the innumerable ne’er do wells and hold the city together.

Not only that, we find Tim much changed since he left Gotham so many months ago. He’s found the evidence he feels proves that Bruce is still alive, he’s found out that his good friend Superboy is also back from the dead, and it looks some love birds are starting to chirp for him Lucius Fox’s daughter, Tam. Things are starting to look up for Tim Drake.

That is at least until Ra’s al Ghul lets Tim know that Ra’s is in Gotham and that he’s going to destroy everything that Bruce Wayne ever loved or built. This is a big deal, Tim definitely needs help, and it’s a pretty amazing reveal that I won’t ruin regarding what help he is able to find. Most importantly though, even in this crisis, you still get a sense of Tim’s playfulness. This is no longer a son in mourning, driven by anger and loss to travel around the world looking for answers. This is Tim Drake, back to some sense of normalcy, looking for a way to hold Gotham City together.