Peter Gross explained his 25 issue run on the book as being the story of Tim's "boy time", commenting that previously the book had often presented benevolent female characters but had been less successful at their benevolent male counterparts. His story was partly designed, then, to show Tim accepting his male side and learning how to be a boy - one of Gross' reasons for not using the character of Molly during his run. He did comment that if he had stayed on the book, Gross' next story would have shown Tim similarly exploring his feminine side and would therefore have reintroduced some of the established female characters such as Molly or Gwen.