While showing a definite and more grounded improvement over the last issue, Teen Titans #4 still feels off when it comes to teen dialogue and interaction. A lot happens in this issue – from the team getting together and getting a name, to finally confronting Superboy – but it’s not all gelling as well as I’d like. Or ‘gellin’ like Magellan’ if that’s how you roll. At any rate, I can definitely appreciate what writer Scott Lobdell does in this issue because I definitely want to see a lot more of these teens just hanging out and getting to know one another. But I can’t really put my finger on why that doesn’t quite work.

Teen Titans #4

Maybe it’s because everything feels so rushed and kind of sloppy.

Comic rating: 3/5: Alright.

Or maybe everything just feels forced. The same issues that have plagued this series continue here, but the specific actions and story points make up for that flakiness. N.O.W.H.E.R.E. continues to be a silly concept. The setting always seems very erratic. And this group of characters has yet to fully blend together, or feel anything other than forced together. I don’t think Lobdell found a very organic way to bring the team together. I don’t know if he came up with the members of the team, or if they were decided in some New 52 committee, but it’s like he had a list of characters he had to bring together and he just checked them off the list to ensure they were together by issue #4.

I just don’t get the feeling that this team is the team that belongs together, that this will be the Teen Titans of the new generation. But there’s still time to change my mind. The art, at least, remains phenomenal. Brett Booth is drawing beautiful, distinctive characters with great facial expressions and energetic movements. So at least good.

Spoilers after the jump.

So the big deal in this issue is that we finally get the entire team together. Not all of them are working under Red Robin’s banner just yet, but that’s probably only a matter of time. There are two stories in this issue: the first is Red Robin getting everybody together under one roof, the second is Wonder Girl fighting Superboy in Times Square on New Years Eve. Suffice to say, both stories come together on the very last page, setting up what could be an exciting issue #5.

I hope.

We begin with Wonder Girl running through Times Square, afraid that she’s been set-up by N.O.W.H.E.R.E. There are a few confusing problems with this moment. First of all, she’s dressed like Dazzler from the X-Men, complete with face paint. What’s up with that? I’ll admit I’ve never been to the Ball Drop in Times Square, but do kids really glam up like that for the event? Seems odd.

Is facepaint really 'in' with the kids these days?

Cassie Sandsmark also mentions something about Craigslist that I didn’t quite understand. I think she posted to Craiglist asking for information on N.O.W.H.E.R.E., and was told to go to New York City – but that turned out to be a trap.

Sounds like Lobdell was just trying to sound hip by mentioning websites. That never comes off well. I realize everybody in the world uses Twitter, but to hear comic book characters talk about Twitter or other websites just feels incredibly forced. Not to mention the fact that Wonder Girl’s brief description of what she did doesn’t make any sense. Why would she be so stupid as to post about N.O.W.H.E.R.E. on Craigslist of all places? And why would she take the response she got seriously?

Because Superboy is also in Times Square.

Notice the image of Lex Luthor behind him; can't be a coincidence

I have a small nitpick about the transition to New York City, considering the scattershot locations of everybody last issue. But it’s a minor gripe. Just have to accept that Cassie randomly put herself in Times Square, where Red Robin has also randomly gathered his team. It’s a little discombobulating to have the series jump so much around the country. Four issues in and we’ve already seen New York City twice, Los Angeles, the Badlands, Antarctica and more. Lobdell isn’t using all this moving to add to the story or effect the characters, so it just adds to the lack of cohesion. He’s not telling a road trip story.

Though he does have Miguel (Bunker) remark at how different New York City is for him, because he came from a small village in Mexico. Yet despite coming from a small village, he is clearly the most stylishly dressed person in the entire book. That small village must have had some fantastic stores. Skittles, however, is not as thrilled.

She's 'mopey' flavored Skittles

We get a brief moment for Miguel and Skittles, real name Celine, to bond and chat about their lives. While Miguel is very friendly and talkative, Celine is quiet, shy and very worried about her transformation. Quick note, the character’s actual name is ‘Skitter’, but that’s such a silly name that I’ve taken to just calling her ‘Skittles’. While I appreciate Lobdell taking a lot of time to have his teens interact out of costume, the dialogue in this scene is atrocious! No human beings, let alone teenagers, would ever talk the way Skittles does.

Here is how she describes her transformation into her insectoid form: “I’ll be enveloped in a cocoon of necro-plasmic energy.”

And then she says, “Each time I regain my human form — it seems a little part of me remains in the insectivoid statis.”

When insulting Miguel, she tells him, “You think I give half a fig about where I ‘live’?”

‘Half a fig’? Excuse me?

This character should not be speaking like that! Granted, we don’t know enough about this character to know her speaking habits, but based on everything we do know, this is ridiculous! This is the first moment we’ve witnessed Celine in her human form having a human conversation. But everything we’ve learned so far is that she’s just a teenage kid from southern California, with a sister who works in a clothing store. We have no reason to think she’s some kind of meta-human super genius who is fully aware of the technical terms of her transformation like ‘necro-plastmic’ or ‘insectivoid’. As far as we know, Celine has no idea how or why she turns into Skittles. So where are these words or phrases coming from?

From Lobdell, that’s where. I know he’s got a good career with writing teenager superheroes, but the dialogue in Teen Titans has just been terrible. ‘Half a fig’, really?

Anyway, Red Robin shows up with a stern warning to his new pals about the luxury of being free. He also reminds them about the threat of N.O.W.H.E.R.E. They don’t take it well.

The troops are not happy

So Red Robin apologizes to Celine and promises to find a cure for her transformations.

Quick note, the team is hanging out at a penthouse suite in Lextower. It’s the north tower, since N.O.W.H.E.R.E. blew up the south tower in Teen Titans #1 in their search for Red Robin. This just strikes me as incredibly weird. First of all, we can see the damaged south tower right next to the north tower. It’s in the upper corner of that picture I posted of Miguel and Celine.

Why did Red Robin set up his new base right next to the old base, which N.O.W.H.E.R.E. somehow managed to discover in the first issue? Is he not worried about them discovering this second penthouse suite? It’s right next to the last one! Second of all, why is Red Robin staying in Lextower?  Why not a Wayne building? Why not use any of his connections to Batman or Gotham City to help keep his team safe? Is there some split between Tim Drake and Bruce Wayne that we don’t know about? In Teen Titans #1, Red Robin looks at a picture of himself (as just Robin) and Batman and makes a negative comment of “Look what you started. Seriously, what were you thinking?” And now he’s staying in Lextower?

Is Tim mad at Batman? There didn’t seem to be any problems in Batman #1 of the new reboot, where Tim appeared with the rest of the former Robins at a Bruce Wayne charity event. Is there a disconnect between the Batman editorial staff and the Teen Titans editorial staff? Teen Titans isn’t in the Batman family of books, after all.

I wonder if Lobdell has a reason for the Lextower thing. Maybe an upcoming issue will shed some light on Tim’s rebooted backstory, maybe explain what prompted him to leave Gotham City and strike out on his own gathering heroes to combat N.O.W.H.E.R.E. Sounds like a fun story to me.

But until then, the penthouse suite has some surprise guests!

The gang's all here!

If you recall last issue, Kid Flash and Solstice were escaping the N.O.W.H.E.R.E. base in Antarctica. They ran until they couldn’t run anyway, and collapsed on what looked like a city street. Now, somehow, that same city street has manifested itself right outside the door of the penthouse suite, which Miguel points out is 30 stories about the ground. How is this possible?

Red Robin says not to worry about it while they instead try to heal Kid Flash. They get some blankets to warm  him up and everyone settles down again.

Which gives us time to cut back to Wonder Girl and Superboy, who begin duking it out in the middle of Times Square!

Fight! Fight! Fight!

Wonder Girl drops a little hint about her powers: her combat bracelets start activating on their own, which lets her know that N.O.W.H.E.R.E.’s operative is nearby. Soon she’s in full costume, armed with her lasso, and the two super-powered teens throw down. In old continuity, Wonder Girl and Superboy were boyfriend and girlfriend. So in this new rebooted continuity, they do mix in a little flirting with their fighting. Both teens are super-strong, so the fight gets pretty heavy.

A news crew filming New Year’s Eve in Times Square decides to turn their cameras on the two battling teens. The reporter, Kim Wilkes (who also appears in Teen Titans #1) decides to christen the moment “Teen Terrors of Timse Square” This is another problem I’ve had with the series: the overblown ‘danger’ of teenage superheros. But I’ll save that for the end of the review. Right now, let’s continue with the snyopsis.

Cut back to the penthouse, where the team has a moment to get to know one another. Miguel and Solstice have a brief conversation, in which Miguel attaches himself to her like some kind of social leech. They barely exchange five words before he declares them best friends forever.

Her expression says: 'get your creepy hands off me!'

Meanwhile, Red Robin is interrogating the quickly-healed Kid Flash while he eats some food. Kid Flash, named Bart, has no idea where he comes from or where he got his powers. He just showed up on the door step of an orphanage a few years ago, complete with powers. In a previous issue, the Flash and the Justice League said they had no connection to Kid Flash. In the old continuity, Bart Allen was the grandson of Barry Allen, the Flash. He came back from the future. That may be a little complicated for this series. So I’m curious to see if they’ll ever reveal Kid Flash’s origin.

DC have yet to reveal the whereabouts of Wally West, the original Kid Flash, in this new reboot. For those that don’t know, Wally was Kid Flash to Barry Allen back during the original run of the Teen Titans in the 1970s. Then when Barry died in the mid-80s, Wally took over as the Flash and served as the Scarlet Speedster all the way up until the mid-2000s, when DC brought Barry back to life. So for a lot of people, Wally was the Flash. But as of this reboot, Barry is the only Flash and Bart is apparently the only Kid Flash.

He’s also a sweatshirt thief.

Batman gave him that sweatshirt!

Red Robin gets pissed at him for stealing his sweatshirt, comparing Kid Flash to N.O.W.H.E.R.E. That seems pretty harsh. Stealing a sweatshirt does not compare to abducting and murdering super-powered teenagers. Miguel and Solstice show up and add their two cents to the conversation. Then Celine interrupts all of them and directs their attention to the fight on the news between Wonder Girl and Superboy.

Red Robin has a cool call to arms moment, at least.

Not to mention a ginormous TV!

Back at the fight, Wonder Girl is giving as good as she’s getting. Superboy rips off his clothes to reveal his glowing uniform underneath, complete with Superman ‘S’ symbol. Wonder Girl recognizes it and decides to not hold back. I like both of their costumes, especially Superboy’s. It looks neat and colorful, and is a definite departure from Superman’s outfit. Wonder Girl’s suffers a little from odd coloring, but I still like it. I think they are clearly trying to match the greatness of Donna Troy’s starlight outfit, but they just haven’t got the colors right.

She kicks with the fury of the amazons!

What is this costume supposed to be? Is it red, but then covered in shadows to create the black? Or is the black part of the costume? If she were standing in full light, would she been all red with golden stars, or would she have red on the extremities with a mostly black costume with gold stars? The red and gold stars look actually doesn’t sound that appealing.

Anyway, costume critiques aside, Wonder Girl and Superboy continue to battle it out until he finally gets the upper hand. Wonder Girl gets a good kick in, using her lasso to spin her around into Superboy’s path. Turns out she can’t fly, or something, so she has to use momentum. Superboy drops a comment about the possibility of Wonder Girl joining him with N.O.W.H.E.R.E., but she rejects him. The fight continues until Wonder Girl looks defeated. Superboy asks her how to find Red Robin, and she tells him that it’s not as hard as he thinks.

Because Red Robin is right behind him, along with the rest of the Teen Titans!

Superboy asks them who they are, and Red Robin reveals the team name.

There is far too much black, red and deep red in this color scheme

As I said, this will hopefully set up an exciting issue #5 as we get a full team fight! Will they convince Superboy or Wonder Girl to join their little club? How will any of them stand a chance against Superboy? I’m definitely interested in finding out. As much as I complain, I am sort of, maybe enjoying this series. It still has a lot of potential, but writer Lobdell is just creating too many gaffes.

The dialogue is just terrible. Lobdell is clearly trying for witty banter, but he’s failing miserably. None of the jokes are funny, and none of the conversations feel as meaningful as he’d like. I appreciate that he’s devoting time to the characters hanging out without their costumes, but he’s not using it to its full potential. It doesn’t help that we’re bouncing around so much. The scene in issue #2 between Tim and Cassie as he crashed on her couch was nice, but we’ve already moved so far beyond that quiet moment that it feels like forever ago. Now everybody is jumbled and bumbled together, getting little moments here and there. The Teen Titans are fighting each other for panel space.

I understand that Lobdell has got a lot to cover. He’s got to introduce three brand new characters, introduce the revamps for Superboy, Wonder Girl and Kid Flash, and he’s got to show the new status quo for Red Robin. At the same time, he’s got to make N.O.W.H.E.R.E. a viable threat. He’s got a lot on his plate, but sadly, he’s failing to bring it all together cohesively, in my opinion.

I think he needs to slow down. Spread out the character introductions a little. Maybe Skittles didn’t have to join until the second story arc. Maybe keep them all in one place for more than a few pages.

N.O.W.H.E.R.E. is a terrible villain. I ranted a few issues ago how they are said to have higher authority than the United Nations, yet their entire operation seems to be abducting or killing teenage superheroes. What sort of agenda is that? What about adult superheroes? Where do they draw the line? If you’re 20-years-old, are you completely exempt from N.O.W.H.E.R.E.’s persecution? Who is giving them higher authority than the U.N.? Who is giving them permission to abduct or kill teenaged superheroes?

I’m not reading the Superboy comic, is it explained there?

There is little to no motivation revealed for N.O.W.H.E.R.E. They have attacked a few heroes so far, and both times Red Robin was there to stop them. How is he able to find the exact location each time? Where is he getting his intel? Why is Red Robin the only person in the world seemingly concerned with stopping N.O.W.H.E.R.E.? Does Batman not care? Do the Justice League have better things to do than put a stop to an organization that’s abducting and killing young superhumans?

So far, N.O.W.H.E.R.E. is just evil for evil’s sake, and that makes for a terrible villain. Especially since the guy in charge, NAME, has only made one or two vague appearances in Teen Titans. So mostly, N.O.W.H.E.R.E. is just a concept that Red Robin says is really bad.

Another thing we’re just being told is that teenaged superheroes have a bad reputation. Hence why that news caster immediately jumps into calling them ‘Teen Terrors’. We were told this as well in the first issue, when Kid Flash caused that explosion at that structure fire. Yet we’ve never been shown why there’s this huge prejudice against teenaged superheroes specifically. It just seems an odd sort of issue to focus in on. What is society’s cut off point? If you’re 20-years-old, do you also get to avoid society’s prejudice?

I remember reading about the new DC reboot that the new world was a little more suspicious and less trusting of the superheroes. I’m reading a lot of DC books, but Teen Titans seems to be the only one really using that concept, but they’re using it too much.

This book is off the rails. But not in a good way.

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What are your thoughts about Teen Titans? Am I making any sense? Or is it me who is off the rails? Let me know in the comments.