Teen Titans #23.1: Trigon – Review

by Marv Wolfman (writer), CAFU (art)

The Story: After a disappointing debut in Scott Lobdell’s Teen Titans, Trigon has returned to the hand that birthed him as Marv Wolfman steps in to give us another version of the demon warlord’s origin.

The Review: A lot has changed since Trigon’s 1981 debut, and the classic New Teen Titans style is no longer in vogue, but thankfully that wacky wandering Wolfman has found a way to incorporate at least some of his unique narration. Unfortunately, though the caption boxes in this issue contain more than one interesting concept, they rarely make good on their ideas or reach the lofty heights that the original Titans run managed with such panache.

The other thing that Wolfman brings with him is a delightfully old-school sensibility when it comes to layouts. The panels vary in size and placement, drawing the eye with them. I hadn’t noticed until this issue just how rare it is to see panels flowing both horizontally and vertically in a single row, but it really is a novelty. Even better, Wolfman plays with his panel arrangements, finding fascinating ways to represent scale, the passage of time, and the enormity of Trigon’s malevolence.

Like so many of its Villain’s Month brethren, Trigon’s issue is primarily dedicated to a retelling of his origins. The story of the New 52 Trigon has a slightly different beginning than its predecessor; however he’s essentially the same character. Especially with this being the case, I can’t help but wonder why Trigon needs an origin story. I’ve never heard much about Trigon’s birth, nor have I needed to to enjoy the character’s presence.

Titans #16 – Review

By Christopher Yost (writer), Angel Unzueta (artist), Wayne Faucher (inker), Edgar Delgado (colorist)

The Story: The Titans book continues to examine its characters one by one. This issue is about Starfire talking to a therapist. As uninspiring as that sounds, Yost and Unzueta carry us through the logical fallout of what Starfire has suffered not only in pitched war with Darkseid, Trigon, Jericho and others, but much farther back, right to the basics.

What’s Good: As I said in my last Titans review, if you wanted to get into the Titans, now is the time to do it. These self-contained stories are very forgiving to the new reader. As they did with Cyborg and Tempest, DC carries us through a complete arc with Starfire. This is a good character study, starting from denial and moving to acceptance. Yost does a good at storytelling, making us feel the difficulty that Starfire goes experiences.

Deeper than that arc, though, is a win that I think is not easy to do in comics. Many writers have penned Starfire over the years, from her start as a young alien visitor to Earth, through revelations of her tragic past, through love and breakup from Dick Grayson, to control by Jericho and Darkseid. When you add it all up, it’s a lot of disjointed, disconnected suffering. Too few writers take the time to pull those different experiences together and say, “What does it mean to the hero who has gone through all this?” Yost does that here, and in fact, what is more compelling is that he resists the temptation to knit the fabric back together again. Starfire is broken and this issue is about getting from denial to broken; leaving future writers with a lot of scope for this character.

What’s Not So Good: I’m going to take a swing at the art here. First, Unzueta and Faucher have a bit of a plastic style that is effective enough. However, given that this is really a character story, I don’t think the command of expressions and poses and emotions was subtle enough for what Yost was trying to do. That being said, it might just be a mispairing of artist to story. I get the impression that Unzueta would draw a dynamic slugfest.

Secondly, while I like to look at pretty girls as much as the next guy, I think there’s an element of overdoing it with Starfire that goes qualitatively beyond what artists do with Powergirl. For the most part, Starfire’s costume doesn’t do as much clothing duty as teasing duty. While this is nothing new for her (her costume hasn’t changed since 1980), given the depth of the story Yost was trying to tell, the T&A was a creative hindrance. I know this art team didn’t design her costume, and that Titan books must be sold to pre-pubescent boys, but Wolfman and Perez put her in a sweater and jeans when she wasn’t adventuring, especially when they were striving for meaningful stories.

Conclusion: A fair book. I like what Yost is doing and hope to see where the writers take Starfire next.

Grade: C+

-DS Arsenault

Vigilante #1 – Review

By Marv Wolfman (writer), Rick Leonardi (artist), John Stanisci (inker), David Baron (colorist)

I wasn’t sure I would have the honor this year of reviewing a truly terrible comic, but then DC stepped up and delivered this steaming piece of crap like an awful, unwelcome Christmas present.  Hey, ’tis the season, right?

Vigilante, a character first updated in 1983 by Marv Wolfman and George Perez, is an anachronism that has spent the last twenty-five years living in the shadow of the Punisher’s glory days, and seems perfectly content to die there as well.  Not quite a hard-boiled detective, not really a superhero, and not nearly the ruthless vigilante Wolfman would have you believe him to be, the only things Vigilante seems to fully embrace is the degree to which he utterly sucks as a character, and his refusal to see how irrelevant he is in the DC universe.   How lame is it that a vigilante needs to call himself Vigilante and wear a helmet with a V-shaped visor?  I mean, is he so insecure that nobody will take him seriously as a crime-fighter that he needs to browbeat villains with the fact that, yes, he IS a vigilante!?

Wolfman is not a bad writer by any means, having helmed the enormously popular Teen Titans relaunch with Perez back in the 80s, but it’s obvious that he’s barely phoning this one in. The story provided is tiresome and simply uninteresting as it’s about a criminal power struggle between the Penguin and the Whale (seriously), the cops’ pursuit of Vigilante, and Vigilante’s pursuit of answers regarding the Mob’s connection to the Election Assassinations and a superhero gone rogue.  By the end of the issue, Vigilante proves what a hardcore vigilante he is by allowing himself to be arrested and sent to jail so that he can find his answers.  The Punisher’s done this five or six times by now, but hey who’s counting?

Rick Leonardi’s art, while traditionally reliable on superhero books, seems incredibly out of place on a story that wants to be crime fiction.  Leonardi tries to go for a dark, gritty, atmospheric look, but falls short. The one redeeming quality to this book is Walt Simonson’s dynamic cover.  If you can justify paying $3.00 for that cover, then I say go for it, otherwise please vote with your dollar, avoid this book like the plague, and let DC know you expect better than this.

Grade: F

-Tony Rakittke

NEWS: Wildstorm to publish “The X-Files #4″

Scully and Mulder are the targets of a killer from the Tong Underworld who is about to reignite a centuries-old gang war. If Mulder and Scully can’t figure out how this devious criminal can be in multiple places at the same time, San Francisco will erupt in a bloodbath!

Written by Marv Wolfman; Art by Brian Denham; Cover by Jim Daly and Tim Bradstreet. 32pg. – Color – $3.50 US – On Sale February 18, 2009

NEWS: Wildstorm to publish “The X-Files #3”

Mulder and Scully are sent to San Francisco to investigate a series of murders happening simultaneously throughout the city. But, according to fingerprints and DNA, all are being perpetrated by the same killer. As their investigation takes them into the unknown mysteries of the Chinese underworld, they learn that instead of being the hunters, they have become the hunted.

Written by Marv Wolfman; Art by Brian Denham; Cover by Jim Daly and Tim Bradstreet. 32pg. – Color – $3.50 US – On Sale January 21, 2009