Robin - #156 Review

Robin - #156

Synopsis: The comic starts off with a full page spread of Zoanne kissing Tim Drake and then bitching him out in front of the other students for making her worry and not calling her after he escaped the kidnappers. This depresses Tim and he goes to visit Dodge in the hospital as Robin. There he finds Dodge's parents who tell him not to blame himself b/c he's saved so many people and Dodge shouldn't have gone out trying to play hero.

This talk doesn't help Robin, and he goes to the top of a roof to brood. There he spots a young guy standing at the edge of another building, planning to jump off. Robin approaches him and says that while he wun stop him from jumping, he does want to talk. The young man agrees and they sit down and talk. He explains his problems: he was an outcast in high school, his parents got divorced and his girlfriend left him when he went to university, which he is currently struggling in.

Robin tells him that when life gets him down, he finds somebody to talk to, somebody who can make him feel not alone. The guy reveals that he had a teacher he enjoyed talking to and maybe he should talk to him again. Robin encourages him to and leaves.

At the end Robin calls up Dick Grayson (Nightwing) to talk.

Review: I sorta have mixed feelings about this issue. :\ I appreciate the message behind it and they had the requisite plug for the Suicide Prevention hotline at the end, so it was clearly a comic meant to do some good. But as somebody who was there at one point in her life, the story didn't work for me.

IGN says that it's clear that the story was personal to the authors, but that's not clear to me at all. :( I've been there, both as the friend trying to prevent another person from suicide, and as the person trying to do it. A simple speech about talking to somebody, or "everybody, even Superman, has problems" will not do it. :( I wish it did, but it's not that simple.

It also sounds rly cliched. His parents divorced, he was an outcast in HS and his g/f left him. :\ Is that all the wirters could think of? Ppl usually have more complex reasons, or complex emotions. Mind you, this is a one issue comic, I shouldn't criticize it for not having enuf depth, I guess. >.>

I dun wanna be SUPER critical and sound like I'm some sort of suicide expert or something, but I think that when an issue is just a very cliched, "let's get this over with" one-shot dealing with a very serious issue, it dismisses it, and makes ppl who read it dismiss it too.

There is ONE saving grace to the suicide talk tho, and I think it's one of the best lines of the year. It's when Robin tells the guy that "YOUR problems are WORSE than anyone else's... because they're YOURS."

I've always believed this. B/c we all have problems. And yes comparitively, some problems are worse than others, but I hate saying "it could be worse", b/c it's NOT worse, and ppl have to deal with what's on their plate, regardless of how much worse it could be. If something is truly troubling somebody, telling them to suck it up, or that it's not rly that bad compared to being in a car crash isn't helpful and doesn't make them feel better, just feel worse for other people.

So I liked that line. :) I think it was a good one. So I'm inclined to believe that the writers would have put more in the issue if they had more pages to work with.

Moving away from the suicide part of the story, I didn't like the beginning with Zoanne kissing Tim and then yelling at him publicly. That's EXTREMELY cliched and I'm tired of seeing female chars act that way! >.>

*I* dun act that way! I dun even understand the kiss. They're not going out! I'm tired of girls in TV or Comics getting angry and kissing the guy b/c she's angry and then yelling at him. >.<;;;

And.. so he didn't call. She's his math tutor, not his g/f. Yes they prolly WILL go out cuz this is the comic world and a girl char is never introduced unless they're intended to be a love interest to the male lead. >.> And then she goes away later and will be replaced by ANOTHER girl char. It's like all of Jerry's g/fs in Seinfeld XD

But I like that Dodge's parents dun blame Robin. I'm tired of that "let's blame the hero" thing that Marvel has in spades (esp with Spiderman). Maybe I'm just a hopeless optimist in these things, but I believe that ppl understand when you're trying to help, and a mistake will not ruin all the good work you've done. Robin's saved the city many many times and is always helping ppl and stopping crimes. I'm glad that ppl understand he's not trying to hurt ppl and he tried his best to save Dodge.

I hope they make Dodge better later and he doesn't gain super duper powers and become a villain that's obsessed with hunting down Robin. :(

Neways... this is a SORTA standalone issue. I dunno if I recommend it b/c I think the msg is pretty simple: "dun kill yourself, talk to somebody instead" and there's not much more there except that.

I wish Robin hugged him. :( He looked like he needed a good hug! Everybody needs a good hug!!! I demand more hugging in Superhero comics!!! XDDDD

Angelwings Rating: 3/5 for trying to send a good msg
Recommendation: It's not rly worth the money, but you might wanna check it out :)