Robin #25

If you hadn't noticed by now, (by #25 of Dixon's mini-series,) Robin doesn't like guns. Robin HATES guns, along with alcohol, girls (debatable, not only does he have a regular girlfriend that he's very shy around, but he's playing the field with Stephanie. He kisses them both, only when he either comes close to dying, or when he comes close to losing them because they were moving away. Still, he's very reserved about his emotions)

That being said, this entire issue, and the next, is devoted to why KIDS SHOULDN'T HANDLE GUNS! Which is a great subject. In fact it's a lot like the plot in Superman #121 - They Call It Suicide Slum from 1997, (Another issue I reviewed) Gun control is not a new topic. It's been happening around the world, (South Africa, South America, UK) for a long time now. Me, it's never affected me personally, Asia ftw! Although, there was this war on terrorism there, and I used to hang out with all these special forces people. Did hold my first (unloaded) pistol when I was... Kindergarten, i was in Kindergarten.

But the moral of this story is that using guns involves a LOT of responsibility. And even though his own father thought that this kid in the story was responsible enough, he wasn't (also, let me point out a ridiculous amount of racial profiling here. Black people = guns, ooook,..) Wait so let me explain the plot briefly,

Yeah so that's what happens. And it was the gun his dad gave him. There are no spoilers. It's a simple story, covered very well, with perhaps a subplot in it like this being Arianna's first time in Tim's school. But people need to understand that guns are dangerous and are liable to go off, by themselves, regardless of who is holding them. Let me show you some results for a quick google search on guns going off by themselves;

Some people are civilians, idk if i have any defense for the drunk Mexican story, but there are also stories here of a POLICE CHIEF and a VET. If gun accidents can happen to them, who we assume are really good at handling guns,... then there is no justifying this kid using a gun. Which his dad DOES do.

I could have cropped that, but I decided this would give you a better idea of the argument in the story.

So anyway, kids r dum, guns r bad. And within the Bat Fam there's a strict policy of a no-gun code. WHAT I WANT TO POINT OUT here is that Comics are an excellent medium of spreading that news. A comic book, like any book or magazine, like any work of ART can deliver a message. Of course, that message might be filtered heavily sometimes due to the ACA, but that's still great. THIS comic, other than superb art and characters and stuff, receives 5 stars because it shows how WORTHY this medium is.

Then again, there are some dumb stereotypes here like these:

This not the first time that this series has shown Robin as a bully who's looking for bad guys to beat up to get his anger out. Here, he's rolling with Spoiler and Connor Hawke. Last time, he was with Grayson who dressed up as Batman (till Batman recovered from his pitfall, or rather his "Knightfall") and Grayson right out asks him if he felt better for beating up those thugs. Maybe they deserved it. But the reality of it, the truth in it is that these heroes are only pretending to be heroes. They're better than us, they are strong enough to stick to their principles such as no alcohol or no guns, even at the most desperate moments. But they're still as bad as the criminals themselves.