Dinah Lance as Tim Drake’s aunt:

I suspect that should she ever show up as Tim Drake’s aunt, keep in mind there are people whose own mothers (and grandmothers) dress skimpily. They’re not even unheard of (that’s if you study them more closely and either one of them could be a famous popstar). Though that would mean she’d not only replace both Lady Shiva and Dana Winters but also become much more involved in Tim’s life than the former, especially as his mentor.

That’s actually saying if because Dinah herself’s shown to be very motherly not only to Sin (her adopted daughter) but also a mentor to other characters on the Young Justice programme. If Tim Drake were her nephew she’d willingly take him under her wings. On the other hand, that’s pretty much realising there aren’t that many influential female characters in Robin stories other than Stephanie Brown.

Let alone one with a long history to boot. Dinah Lance as Tim Drake’s aunt would necessitate her not only replacing Dana Winters a lot but also becoming a big fixture in Tim’s life as she’s the one Tim turns to for support and learning. It wouldn’t matter what she dresses, some people’s mums do it too but that doesn’t make them any less parental. Though that would mean Dinah Lance’s a fully realised character.

And one who’d butt heads with Jack over Tim. (Though since she also has a flower business, she’d also help them along whenever they got broke.) So there’s that.

Bats in Neverland

Like I said, the real problem with making Black Canary into Tim’s biological aunt and giving Dick Grayson a millionairess for a female cousin’s that they’d make Batman look bad. No seriously, since Oliver Queen’s a similarly (financially) powerful man and a formidable superhero in his own right, he’d be a real rival to Batman. Not to mention both he and Dinah would be really strict on Tim, preferring to train him themselves.

Which is saying because it’s as if Batman’s now the overly intrusive child predator who tries really hard to woo minors. Even if you take away hebephilia and paedophilia, Batman would still come off as a creepy jerk. Similar things would happen if Dick’s found out to have a rich female cousin where his own aunt and uncle would expect him to stay with them more than with Batman. Just like with Michael Jackson. There could’ve been MJ fans who wanted to meet him in the flesh.

But likely had relatives who’d keep an eye on them, being aware of MJ’s bad side or at least the possibility of it. Now that he’s increasingly confirmed to be a sexual predator, this might have damning implications for Batman (especially when it comes to suspicions of both his apparent hebephilia and him being a jerk to everybody else). Especially now that Tim’s biologically related to Black Canary and Dick’s got a rich female cousin. (You now know that Michael and Bruce are bad.)

Meet Dick’s millionairess cousin

Like I said about Black Canary being Tim’s blood aunt, you’re dealing with a character that in the context of the Batman stories defies categorisation. She doesn’t have much of a real male counterpart, she’s already taken (twice) and is Tim’s no-nonsense aunt despite her fashion sense. Similar things could happen to Dick Grayson if he were to have a millionairess for a cousin.

She too would defy categorisation given there’s not much of a character like her (from what I know of). Though the other issue, the biggest one of all might be that they (and Oliver Queen) make Batman look bad. No seriously, it’s going to make Batman look like Michael Jackson given what he’d been doing to young lads all these years. Even if Batman’s not a pervert but when Uncle Oliver shows up, there’s a chance that he’d want Tim be by his side.

And with Dinah being his strict aunt, there’s a chance that they’d make Batman look like an intrusive babysitter. Same thing would happen if Dick’s got a millionairess cousin especially if/when she starts providing what Dick needs without being his girlfriend or something like that.

What about Dana?

I still have a feeling that should Black Canary ever turn out to be Tim’s biological aunt, she’d practically make the need for both Lady Shiva and Dana Winters redundant. Actually both she and her husband Oliver Queen would make half of the entire Batman family redundant too. Though one wonders if Dinah might be a far stronger and more maternal character than one realises especially with her being very protective of and strict on Tim.

It wouldn’t matter if she dresses like that as there are mothers and grandmothers who do dress skimpily but that doesn’t make them any less parental either. Conversely speaking, there are women who do dress modestly but still indulge in obscene sex acts and the like (any reports of nuns having sex with priests should prove this). Quite frighteningly, with Dinah taking on the surrogate mum role for Tim Dana Winters would have to be reinvented as Killer Frost’s aunt instead.

But that would mean Killer Frost and Tim Drake would have a lot more in common than one realises. In the sense that KF might be retconned to have a dead father all along and would be using the same guises Tim did (but because she’s now a shapeshifting werewolf). Not to mention Killer Frost might turn out to be smarter than Tim would ever be and that it’s quite frightening for Dana to turn out to be KF’s aunt.

If people can reconcile Dinah’s fashion sense with her motherly nature (as there are women who do dress like this but that doesn’t make them any less maternal), they can learn to realise that Dana Winters might be a much more suspicious character than one realises. Especially when it comes to fairy tale stepmothers at that.

Nerdier than he even is canonically

If you wanted me to be honest, Tim Drake comes off as a more of an idealised Gary Stu audience surrogate (which proves my point about audience surrogates being likelier to become Mary Sues in a way most author surrogates can’t because a good number of literature’s semi-autobiographical anyways) than as an actual everyman or even nerd.

Non-stereotypical nerds are nice but there’s a greater risk at creating borderline Mary Sues in nerd works that looking for a non-stereotypical but still fallible nerd’s going to be hard. You’d be better off with loser everyperson Charlie Brown than with Tim Drake or even Spider-Man.

Not that Tim’s flawless but that it’s harder to imagine him as an actual person without drastically changing his tendencies. But he’s also far-removed from actual hackers that it still serves my point about how idealised he is. I suspect should should he like Goth/punk rock and heavy metal, that’s actually making him more relatable this way.

A good number of nerds are into rock music and the more esoteric, the better. I even personally know two characters within my family. But that’s going to realistically happen if/when Black Canary’s his biological aunt that even if dressing in black and fishnets don’t necessarily make somebody Goth (punks and metalheads do it), the association’s unconscious enough to make a connection.

Now as for Stephanie Brown, she’d change from being an unfortunate punching bag of a fangirl to a woman who’d not only resemble his aunt (I think Dinah would become Tim’s overbearing but loyal mother figure and mentor) but also be surprisingly into other things. Something like nursing in addition to becoming a seamstress.

The latter’s not too far-fetched as she’s shown to make outfits however to impress Tim. Not that there’s anything wrong with that but if taken to a logical alternative, she’d end up as a seamstress. (But that’s realising just how sexist her portrayal often is to the point where really being into clothes is less misogynistic than what she usually got.)

Not to mention many Goths are nerds themselves and a number of nerds are into Goths (including Elon Musk who dated one himself) which makes Tim and Steph much more relatable this way than what they’re presented as in comics. Either that I haven’t read enough comics.

Not that other stories are any better but when some franchises continue to pump out memes day by day that any of the Tim and Steph stories seem boring and unmemorable by comparison. Not necessarily a matter of being qualitatively better or worse other than being entertaining enough to be this influential.

To the point of making you wonder why Tim and Steph are written to be this bland.

Not that she’s bad

I suspect if a Comic Vine thread’s any indication, it’s not so much that Stephanie Brown’s a bad character but what makes her badly written’s that there’s a tendency to treat her as a massive punching bag. She can be as polarising as Supergirl though the major salient difference’s that nobody expected Supergirl to be this fallible whilst Stephanie tends to be treated as a punching bag. (Not that Supergirl isn’t a punching bag herself but her eventual character development had more to do with developing any real shortcomings.)

Or that some readers do have high standards of Stephanie Brown. I still think the real difference’s that in every storyline Supergirl’s shown to learn from her mistakes or at least try to reign in on her baser tendencies. Not necessarily any less misogynistic but more in the sense of her becoming fallible without writers intending to. Whilst Stephanie tends to be often treated as a punching bag.

Which I think is arguably more misogynistic than what Black Canary, Supergirl and Wonder Woman got. I also suspect should Black Canary ever be portrayed as Tim’s biological aunt, I think that’s when we get a less misogynistic take on Stephanie. Not necessary becoming more competent but would develop in a way writers didn’t expect to. Much like Supergirl though for different reasons for Steph.

Oddly enough, the least misogynistic take on Steph would be her developing into a take no-nonsense alternative type. The sort of girl who realises there’s no point in trying to please people who’d reject you anyways and becomes more self-sufficient because of that. If Supergirl’s unexpected fallibility comes from her being more emotional/socially inept than Superman is (that’s to be expected, at least in recent stories she’s actually older than him and lived in Krypton longer before it exploded).

Which leads to her learing a lot from those experiences, often by undoing what’s been done to her in whatever manner (including the 1990s stories) and progress to doing better things. Logically, Stephanie becomes a much more independent woman who ends up doing what she wants to do because there’s no point in pleasing people who’d reject her anyways. Some people do this anyways.

Not necessarily any less misogynistic but it seems just as Supergirl became a very fallible character willing to learn from her mistakes and aspire to do much better (like Steph in a way), Steph could become a much more independent if left field girl as there’s no point in constantly pleasing people who can’t stand her at all.

Maybe I haven’t read enough stories where she does learn from her mistakes but if DC were to pull a Supergirl on her, in this context Stephanie develops into a more alternative type who prefers to be independent as there’s no point in trying to be more like others anyways.

Dressing to please

That’s not necessarily always a bad thing in and of itself, whether in real life or in fiction. Though I do get the impression that at least in the Chuck Dixon stories, Stephanie Brown does dress up to please her boyfriend Tim Drake (twice I think) whilst my own in-universe understanding of Supergirl dressing up like Superman tends to be done out of cultural and familial reverence*. Sort of like a family tartan as well as seeing him as a role model she aspires to be.

(That helps if because she’s his cousin and she’s got a good reason to emulate him.)

Stephanie Brown on the other hand comes off as a kind of glorified groupie who also gets turned into a punching bag. (I actually think that’s much more misogynistic than what Supergirl and even Black Canary and Wonder Woman get.) As bad as what BC and WW get, at least they tend to dress what they like and will to (at least from what I recall), not because they’re always out there to please their boyfriends.

It could be that either Dixon’s not that good at writing female characters at times (in the sense of making even their love interests have more of a real will of their own or at least not come off as blatant fangirls) or most likely, he seems more at home with writing male characters that whenever he does depict females at all they’re either stereotypical or are just males with enlarged, misplaced testicles.

Now if that’s the case, I suspect there’s a reason why having Dinah as Tim’s mother figure and aunt’s likelier to produce very different stories especially where she starts being more involved in Tim’s life to the point of micromanaging him. Not that he hasn’t interacted with her but him having an older female relative in Dinah’s going to differ from what Superman and Supergirl get.

(I get the feeling given his interactions with Dinah would’ve influenced the way he treats and regards women, Stephanie would become more of an alternative girl and that might ironically be the least misogynistic take on her.)

*Lois Lane, being the first Supergirl, did this to please and amuse Superman though I suspect it would’ve been too obsessive of her so it’s unsurprising they had to pre-empt Kara Zor-El instead.

The problem with them having those

Like I said elsewhere, the real problem with making Black Canary into Tim Drake’s grandaunt’s that she (and her current husband Green Arrow) would make Tim’s parents and Lady Shiva redundant. But that’s also implying that they have much more weight and depth than they ever did. Not to mention Dinah’s a strong and forceful enough character that she’d effectively replace Tim’s mums and Lady Shiva to the point of being his go-for maternal figure.

It’s one thing for her to interact with him and they did in canon. It’s another if she’s actually related to him and given her powers and abilities, Tim would end up at the receiving end of things and becomes a more foolish Jason Todd when you think about it. Heck Tim practically becomes Donald Duck, which makes Dinah his Uncle Scrooge. That’s not even that far-fetched and moreso that the work drake means ‘male duck’.

As for giving Dick Grayson a millionairess businesswoman for a cousin, that doesn’t just emasculate certain readers and writers but also realising that Dick’s actually either maladjusted or at least a kind of loser who keeps on changing jobs. Rather than being this cool bloke who goes on adventures, he’s her hapless cousin whom he sometimes relies on her support.

But that’s also realising that there aren’t that many strong female characters who don’t end up as their love interests (or in Tim’s case, his dad’s). Dinah’s taken twice, first to Mr Lance and then to Mr Queen and her being Tim’s grandaunt would have her entirely replace Lady Shiva and his mums and eliminate the need for Dana Winters. (Though that’s realising she’s much more interesting than Dana’ll ever be.)

It’s that subtle

I think turning Tim Drake into somebody with Mexican ancestry actually wouldn’t change his appearance much. Most Mexicans tend to have dark hair anyways and some Mexicans are this pale, which makes this not that big of a change either. Let’s not forget that there are Mexican Americans with Anglicised names like Rachel McLish and/or people with Mexican ancestry but don’t have Hispanic names (Louis CK to my knowledge). There are also naturally blond Latinx even like Cameron Diaz and Sofia Vergara.

It proves you that this can go either way with Tim Drake. It wouldn’t change his appearance much as there are white-passing Mexicans out there. In the same manner making Barry Allen Irish-American wouldn’t change much either (naturally blond Irish people exist if Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh and Ronan Keatning are any indication). The biggest changes however might come from making them less of fan surrogates.

Being a fan surrogate might explain why they don’t seem to have personalities because if they did develop personalities outside of this, fans would find them unrecognisable. Heck this even exists without having to grandfather a certain ethnicity onto them though making Barry Allen into Dante Alighieri would be just the same too (but that’s also proving my point that if/when naturally blond Italians do exist, that still wouldn’t change Barry much either*).

*Barry Allen does exhibit some stereotypically Italian traits like tardiness and Catholic guilt over not saving his parent in time (though it seems to be more of an Irish Catholic thing). It’s been assumed that Dante himself had blond hair, is often depicted wearing red and is a Virgil fanboy. That and obsessing over otherwise shrewish women (Iris West and Beatrice as portrayed in the Divine Comedy).

Too strong to be Tim’s relative

I still suspect having Dinah Lance as Tim Drake’s grand-aunt would involve different interactions and even different personalities than if she were merely a guest star but one that involves a much more forceful maternal figure than Tim Drake ever got with Dana Winters. I mean, instead of a female character who just bears with Tim’s crap here’s one who’d suffer his gladly. Not to mention loud as well.

Stephanie Brown certainly had her moments but Dinah’s another matter. Now that’s one character Tim ought not to mess with on a bad day. Not to mention instead of Lady Shiva, she would’ve been more responsible for training and looking after him thus making both Shiva and Dana redundant but with the added forcefulness that Dana lacked.

It’s one thing to say that critics should care about the personality rather than the presentation, it’s another however to replace a passive character with a much more forceful one. That’s why I think having Dinah Lance as Tim’s relative would yield entirely different stories than with Dana Winters.

If the animation’s any indication, you could swap the fishnets for opaque tights and it wouldn’t change the appearance much. It would still be another if Dinah ended up as Tim Drake’s grand-aunt which necessitates a more assertive maternal figure than what we got with Dana Winters.