Teen Titans #96 – Review

By: J.T. Krul (writer), José Luis (penciller), Sandro Ribeiro & Jonas Trinidade (inkers), Jason Wright (colorist)

The Story: Hasn’t anyone learned by now it’s not a good idea to anger a giant ape?

The Review: One key feature of weak writing is when the story makes its points a little too obvious.  In these cases, it almost feels like the writer is so uncertain in his ability to get his message across that he feels the need to shove it in your face and remind you of it over and over.  He tends to neglect the fact that if the characters and plot come off convincing and strong, his points will too, without all that irritating reiteration.

Take Krul’s opener of Solstice’s dad reading her the tale of Rama vanquishing Rankor.  On its own, the scene is sweet and relevant.  Had it started this story arc, and had Krul spent less time emphasizing his key words (“His light would endure…I believe he had faith…faith in the light overcoming the darkness.”), its impact would’ve been much stronger.  But since he’d already in previous issues explicitly made the parallels between the Titans’ adventure in the demon world and the original Hindu story, the scene just feels tiringly redundant.

It also makes the rest of the issue fairly predictable.  As soon as Krul mentions Rama’s light and his monkey king companion, you already know why Solstice and Beast Boy end up the last two teammates standing against the revived Rankor, and you know exactly how they’ll finish the boss demon off.  Krul clearly intended this issue as a character piece for Gar, playing up his role as veteran Titan, but since you saw that from page one, a lot of the sentiment gets lost.

This issue also offers some of the most senseless of Krul’s dialogue to date, with page eight showing the choicest samples. Beast Boy calls out the name of each trapped Titan like he’s announcing roll call: “Superboy!  Red Robin!  Wonder Girl!  Ravager!”  Wonder Girl: “Beast Boy?  Is that you?” (she knows some other green shapeshifters, I assume).  B-Boy: “I’m here, Cassie.”  (No you’re not—you’re there!”)  He immediately follows up by saying, “Wake up.  It’s time to go.” (she just spoke to you; I’m fairly sure she didn’t fall asleep directly afterwards).

Doom Patrol #20 – Review

By: Keith Giffen (writer), Matthew Clark & Ron Randall (pencillers), Art Thibert & John Livesay (inkers), Scott Clark with Dave Beaty, Jose Luis, Scott McDaniel (guest artists), Guy Major (colorist)

The Story: Wanted—studio space for four (one miniaturized), open access to power grid, appliances included.  Must love freaks.

The Review: With Doom Patrol’s cancellation imminent, it’s worth reflecting on the series’ possibly dooming shortcomings.  Of course, it’s a niche title, with a peculiar cast of characters.  It leans more towards comedy than drama—always risky, as comic book humor tends to be very hit or miss, as D.P. frequently is.  But the title’s biggest weakness is it has always been more interested in its character interaction than actually giving those characters things to do.

This issue serves as a good example: it’s one of the strongest of the series, yet basically involves nothing more than the Patrol looking for a place to crash after getting kicked off their base.  The interest comes from how each member’s particular brand of social awkwardness rubs off on the DCU’s more mainstream characters.  The ultimate unfruitfulness of the team’s efforts serves as a good reminder of how out of place they are in their world, and with readers in general.

You just can’t get a handle on these characters.  They’re ostensibly heroes, but as Beast Boy and Congorilla astutely point out, most of the Patrol’s endeavors to this point have come across more terrorist than heroic.  They’re more a gang of losers who can’t catch a break; most of their misadventures involve them acting out of self-preservation rather than for a good cause.

Titans #15 – Review

By J.T. Krul (writer), Jose Luis (artist), J.P. Mayer (inker)

The Stories: The Titans are in a bit of a strange place right now. They finished the appallingly bad Deathstrike storyline too early to jump into Blackest Night right away, so they’re doing a bunch of 1-issue solo stories. In this issue, we see Tempest (formerly Aqualad), dealing with the fallout of the destruction of Atlantic and of the death of Aquaman and the power vacuum that has left in the undersea world. We see his past, watch him visit with Dick Grayson and ultimately, bring himself to a crossroads. There is also a very suspicious encounter with the villain, Slizzath, that I’m guessing ties this to the broader Blackest Night arc.

What’s Good: First of all, if you wanted to get into the Titans, now is the time to do it. These 1-issue stories are perfectly self-contained, giving you all the background you need to hop on board as a new reader. Also, this issue was a relatively satisfying arc fit between two covers, but it also left some tantalizing hints of doom and what is to come with Blackest Night. The parallel talk that Dick and Garth get into, both having lost their mentors and father figures, serve an interesting character studies. They have both reacted to their loses in different ways, but they themselves spot some parallels.

As for the art, it was also solid throughout the book. Luis and Mayer evoked the undersea world with the fall of Atlantis, giant fish on most pages, kelp and seagrass and the hint of currents in the aquatic world… I thought the art really hit its stride with the arrival of Slizzath. This villain was pretty revolting and had to be depicted well to get the full effect. The art team clearly succeeded in delivering the goods.

What’s Not So Good: Unfortunately, the plot was a bit of a straight line. I was able to guess the ending seven pages before the last page. That’s never good. Even the battle with Slizzath was a bit of a one-note affair. More could have been done with this plot. And as a nod to a small pet peeve, this is another one of those books where the cover has absolutely nothing to do with the story.

Conclusion: A pretty good offering by DC. Not a home run, but a respectable base hit, and maybe a double for Titans fans.

Grade: C+

-DS Arsenault