Batman's no gun rule has been passed down through each and every decade (though exceptions have been made from time to time), as has his no-killing mantra. It's an ethos every Robin has adopted while they've donned the red and green outfit (Jason Todd's escapades as Red Hood are of course the exception), and while many have taken issue with the Dark Knight before, they've never gone so far as to cross the line and take a life.
More recent cinematic interpretations of the Bat-mythos have sadly ignored this element of the character, with the Caped Crusader of the DCEU having murdered dozens of people in Batman v Superman alone. Factor in a newfound love of firearms on the big screen, and it's easy to see why Titans thinks it can get away with the same approach.
It shouldn't.
The DCEU - now dubbed Worlds of DC - is well on its way to divesting from the tone of old, and no one really wants to see the Boy Wonder stabbing and shooting his way out of a fight, let alone break someone's neck when they're already out of commission.
How Warner Bros. keep on failing to translate the most essential part of Batman's vigilantism really does boggle the mind, but if Robin keeps doing it too, then something is very clearly wrong.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
