Teen Titans #1 – Review

By: Will Pfeifer (writer), Kenneth Rocafort (artist), Dan Brown (colorist)

The Story: Like many a teen protagonist, Cassie Sandsmark’s story begins racing to catch a bus…

The Review: Though the title remains inexorably linked to some of the most beloved stories of their eras, the latest volume of Teen Titans was something of a disaster. The N.O.W.H.E.R.E. story never really caught on, Trigon’s introduction to the New 52 squandered its potential, and a time-traveling attempt to reinvigorate the series left many readers frustrated. With Scott Lobdell’s complex mega arc concluded, DC has seen fit to relaunch the Teen Titans with Will Pfeifer at the helm. Will it be enough to revitalize one of DC’s most beloved franchises?

Well thankfully, Teen Titans #1 is not accurately represented by its rather obnoxious cover. Those worried that this would be a twenty-first century repeat of the original hip, happenin’ Titans can put those concerns to rest. There aren’t any ham-fisted references to social media or attempts to be particularly topical, instead the issue focuses almost entirely on action. We literally meet our villain in the issue’s third panel and Pfeifer wisely chooses to use the excitement to introduce us to the Titans in action.

Unfortunately our villain leaves something to be desired. The addition of a competent, non-sexualized female master planner to the DCU is appreciated, but our nameless antagonist remains fairly generic throughout this issue. The universal media broadcast and speeding hostage situation are classics of the genre, but there’s not much to set this caper apart from its fellows. Honestly after facing down Trigon, Deathstroke, and Brother Blood this kind of seems like a downgrade for the Titans.

Pfeifer does a solid job of sketching out the basic relationships between the Titans, but there’s a certain absence of joy. While it’s partially Red Robin’s stern management style, this is a very distant, businesslike team of teenagers. Admittedly Beast Boy feels a bit more youthful but, for the most part, there’s a lack of passion that feels off for a teen superhero team. And while I expect that later issues will show us a little more interpersonal interaction, small things like Raven explaining her powers to Gar make these Titans feel like strangers to one another. Admittedly, it seems like the groundwork is in place; the opening panel of Wonder Girl seems to hint at bigger things for her down the line and the implied relationships between Beast Boy and Bunker and Red Robin and Raven, respectively, are intriguing. However, it’s odd that the first issue only shows up phantoms of what may yet be, rather than what is.

Teen Titans #22 – Review

By: Scott Lobdell (writer), Jesus Merino (finished art), Eddy Barrows (thumbnails), Pete Pantazis (color)

The Story: It’s hard to say, but I assure you that the Superboy turning purple due to the magics of a giant red demon is the most logical part of this tale.

The Review: Scott Lobdell’s Teen Titans run had a fairly remarkable comeback at the beginning of the current War of Light and Darkness arc, unfortunately the arc has dragged on for months and the quality hasn’t really held up.

As has become tradition, Lobdell opens this issue with a terrible recap page that puts no effort into sounding natural. As Beast Boy rambles in the middle of a world-threatening event, I can’t help but notice that his characterization has completely changed, falling more in line with Teen Titans Go or Young Justice’s interpretations. Unfortunately this is all on the first page. By the time you reach the second, you’ll likely be aware of one of this issues greatest weaknesses, self-deprecating humor.

Don’t get me wrong, I love self-deprecation. You’ll probably catch me doing it in my reviews now and again, and it can be a wonderful attribute to give a character, however, there’s really no excuse for an entire comic to constantly apologize for itself. All too often, Lobdell falls into stilted outdated modes of comic writing that see characters announce their powers and feelings for no reason. Just because Chris Claremont can do it doesn’t mean that Lobdell can make it work and it seems like he’s kind of aware of that. Most of the time when a character winds up acting in this way, another one comments on how silly it is and then punishes them for it.  It might seem mildly clever for a moment, but once that moment has passed you realize that Lobdell has effectively acknowledged his own weak writing and, instead of changing it, has decided to blame his characters.

On the bright side, Lobdell continues to build his side plots, allowing us to slip into a new story quickly. It’s a good idea on a title with such a large cast, especially as it looks to be growing, but I admit to having some worries about how quickly we’ll see them resolved.

Kid Flash is clearly going to be the nest Titan to get the spotlight, so this issue spends a good amount of time laying track for his story. The climax of this issue might legitimately take you by surprise, and you might notice after the fact that it was actually hinted pretty hard, but in all his preparation for his next story, Lobdell seems to forget about the one he’s telling. Things are wrapped up swiftly and arbitrarily and the events of the last half a year are dismissed as if they had fully run their course. It feels almost disrespectful to the readers.

Lobdell and Eddy Barrows provide us with some interesting layouts that tend to sacrifice depth for dynamism; however it falls to Jesus Merino to actually realize those layouts. Merino’s art is a little up and down, but at his best, he brings a great look to the issue.

Red Robin, the clear focus of the arc and title, is a standout. His costume reads a little bit too much like Nightwing’s but seeing as he’s in a similar place of finding his own way to help the world as Dick was when he took on that outfit, it’s feels kind of right.

Other characters don’t fare as well. Raven has a number of wonky panels and, particularly towards the end, Kid Flash’s expressions get kind of extreme. Trigon has a palpable slimeyness about him that befits a deceitful tyrant, but he feels vaguely underwhelming, not enough of a step up from his children.

It’s sort of a shame that we have so many panels with minimal backgrounds, but with all that’s happening, I think it’s actually for the best.

Also, it seems that Tim has instituted a mandatory midriff rule for women on his yacht. What’s up with that?

The Conclusion: Teen Titans #22 is a deeply disappointing issue that squanders most of the buildup that Lobdell has spent so long giving us. The art is attractive and the layouts dynamic, but overall the book is only decent visually and writing like this demands better than decent. It’s a shame that it’s come to this, but this issue is not only weak on its own but undermines the best elements of the title’s last six months and that’s just unacceptable for a once proud franchise like the Titans.

Grade: D

-Noah Sharma

Teen Titans #5 – Review

By: Scott Lobdell (writer), Brett Booth (penciller), Norm Rapmund (inker), Andrew Dalhouse (colorist)

The Story: Oh, let them punch and electrocute each other—kids will be kids!

The Review: The first time a team comes together usually goes one of two ways: they may, by fate or fortune, surpass all expectations and work as a unit naturally, or (much more frequently) they barely manage to get through their scrape without major incident, usually questioning their communal future afterwards.

Of course, the Teen Titans fall into the latter category.  They’re young and raw, many of them having only just taken up their heroic identities, and they’ve got a long way to go in working out the kinks in their teamwork.  Most of the issue has each Titan taking on Superboy on their own, with the others either spectating or standing by to rescue their teammate when the clone eventually dispatches them.

With the fall of each Titan, you begin to wonder what the point of banding up for the sake of mutual protection was if their combined might doesn’t even seem to make Superboy break a sweat.  Even in the Justice League, Wonder Woman and Martian Manhunter give Superman a run for his money in the powers department.  Hopefully, this issue doesn’t indicate the team will someday turn into “Superboy and his Merry Band of Back-Ups.”

It’s true, however, that Superboy has gotten a lot more formal training than his opponents, and you can’t help noticing throughout the battle how much more honed and technical he is with his telekinesis now than he ever was in his previous incarnation.  The Superboy of old had a more hands-on approach with his telekinesis, as opposed to the Jean Grey school.  In a lot of ways, that helped keep him from becoming too powerful, since the applications of full-throttle teke are pretty much limitless, as he demonstrates here.  How can his colleagues hope to catch up?

Teen Titans #4 – Review

By: Scott Lobdell (writer), Brett Booth (penciller), Norm Rapmund (inker), Andrew Dalhouse (colorist)

The Story: Cheer up, Wonder Girl.  For some, it’s traditional to get beat up on New Year’s.

The Review: Thus far, most of the Titans are pretty one-dimensional as individuals.  Like J.T. Krul, the last writer to handle the title pre-relaunch, Lobdell has a habit of stamping a mantra to a character and emphasizing it over and over.  You have Tim, wordy and pensive; Bart, frenetic and impulsive; Cassie, defiant and contrary; Miguel, upbeat and easygoing; Superboy, sullen and aloof.  As any one of their narratives demonstrates, these kids can very easily get on your nerves if you have to deal with them on their own.

Throwing them together, however, improves the situation quite a bit.  I have to admit, I like the energy of all these kids when they’re in the same room.  They undercut each other’s personality crutches before it gets too annoying, and together they genuinely project that restless, yet eager spirit that makes members of their age group so terribly annoying and exhilarating at the same time.  It’s fun to see them encounter conflicts adults would try to avoid, yet they actually egg on, like Miguel enthusing, “Fight!  Fight!” when he sees Tim and Bart arguing over a sweatshirt.

The smart guy and idiot dynamic between the two young men is exactly right, of course, but Lobdell introduces it with the most ridiculous point of contention ever, with Tim accusing Bart, “…is that one of my sweatshirts?!”  It’s a joke that may have rung true back in the nineties, but now seems petty and cliché.  Worse still is Tim’s overblown anger over the offense: “How is that any different from what N.O.W.H.E.R.E. is doing—stealing teenagers!”  Does he not realize he just answered his own question?

Teen Titans #3 – Review

By: Scott Lobdell (writer), Brett Booth (penciller), Norm Rapmund (inker), Andrew Dalhouse (colorist)

The Story: Presenting the fabulous entrance of Bunker!

The Review: It sure seems like Lobdell attracts more than the usual share of controversy on his titles.  After the whole outcry over Starfire and sexism on Red Hood and the Outlaws, he almost immediately had to answer for his creation of Bunker, an openly gay (“flamboyant” is the word used by Comic Book Resources) teen with all the superficial signs of flamboyance: hipster clothes, funky colors, preening hairdo.

Here I’d like to apply a point I made about strippers in Voodoo #1: the flamboyantly gay are facts of life; they don’t just exist as hilarious sidemen in sitcoms or reality TV.  So fiction shouldn’t have to be shy about portraying these people, so long as they stick to the principles of good writing and avoid clichés, flat characterization, or lazy research.

On that note, what can we make of Bunker?  He certainly has a cheerful, go-with-the-flow personality, even if the flow leads him to sparring with a silver-haired transient on a train car (“I don’t know how you’re going to [kick my ass] from—a—hospital bed.”).  But also proves that extreme narcissism, wherever your sexual preference may lie, is an highly irritating quality in a person: “Look at me!  You think something this exquisite—this perfect—happened by chance?”

While Bunker himself steers clear of campy stereotypes, there’s no shortage of camp in the issue, as the entire showdown between him and Red Robin is just full of it.  Let’s allow the dialogue to speak for itself, shall we?  Bunker: “Maybe my papi owns this railroad and I want to look firsthand at my inheritance.”  Red Robin: “That’s an awful lot of maybes.”  “Maybe I just like maybes.”  “Maybe so.  Maybe not.”