Writer Scott Lobdell and artist Brett Booth team up to deliver what could be the very best issue so far of the new Teen Titans series. The problem is that I only say that because this issue is wall-to-wall action and fight scene, meaning there isn’t time to focus on the various problems I’ve had with this series. Still, great fight scene! The Titans take on Superboy in this issue, marking their first real superhero brawl as a team.

Teen Titans #5

Do they win? Well, you’ll just have to keep reading to find out.

Comic rating: 4/5: Good!

I’m going to try, from now on, to get over the various hang-ups I’ve had with this series. I can’t keep repeating them over and over again in every review. The dialogue feels forced, N.O.W.H.E.R.E. is a terrible villain and this team of Titans feels like they were picked out of a hat and just thrown together. These aren’t going to be fixed because one random guy is whining on the Internet. So I’m just going to start incorporating them into the basic fabric of the book. If they get better, I’ll let you know. They’re all still evident in this issue, but they don’t drag down what is an otherwise awesome fight scene.

Every character that appears in this issue gets their moment to shine, highlighting new aspects of their personalities while building towards a better story overall. Definitely an issue I would recommend.

Story and synopsis after the jump!

As I said, I’m going to try to simply ignore the typical problems I whine about with this book and focus on the positives. There may be a few nitpicks I bring up, but they’ll be few and far between. If I can help it. For the most part, this is a fun comic book. The action looks fantastic and doesn’t let up. The characters all get a chance to show off and the ‘villain’ is someone tangible and entertaining. That makes for a really good read. Which is a relief, because I’d been starting to write this book off as a big letdown. But I guess we’ll just have to wait and see if it stays good once the fight is over.

Actually, I’m going to start with a gripe. That is one ugly cover.

There is too much red in this book. It’s ridiculous. Almost every character uses red and black as the colors of their costume. Can’t the team be more colorful or diverse? Solstice is black. Bunker is purple with dull red highlights. And Kid Flash, who should be wearing yellow (and red) is wearing an old Robin costume on the cover. I know that was the joke from last issue, and he’s wearing that costume in this issue, but I would have forgiven everybody involved had they put him in his Kid Flash costume on the cover. I know he doesn’t have it yet in the comic, but they should have done it for the sake of a pleasing cover.

Even a first page looks too dark even though it features several characters with fireworks in the background.

All good superhero brawls should have fireworks

Take the Justice League for example, they’re all about color. Green Lantern is green, Superman is blue, Flash is a bright red, Aquaman is orange, Cyborg is silver, Wonder Woman is flesh-toned (wink, wink) and Batman fills in the dark blacks. They’re diverse and fun to look at.

But in Teen Titans, everybody is red. Dull red. Dark red. Ugh.

Anyway, so a fight breaks out between the Teen Titans and Superboy. Almost immediately, Superboy uses his ‘tactile telekinesis’ to uproot the sidewalk beneath their feet, scattering the Titans. We quickly realize/learn that Red Robin didn’t exactly have a plan for this fight. They kind of just showed up, announced themselves and gave Superboy plenty of time to attack. Not very smart.

Superboy’s power is based around a telekinetic field that surrounds his body. He uses this field to approximate super-strength, flight and invulnerability. So even though he’s a clone of Superman, his powers aren’t exactly the same – at least not yet. Old continuity Superboy eventually developed Kryptonian powers. But he’s in the past now. This Superboy isn’t above announcing his powers to his opponents, taunting them as he kicks their butts. The Titans recover from that first attack and go on the offensive. But then they make the biggest mistake in all of group fights. They attack one at a time.

That costume looks horrible out of context and without a cape

Though it’s not a smart way to  fight, this at least gives us an opportunity to get into the heads of the characters. Kid Flash is a little arrogant and overconfident in himself, eager to prove that he’s not a team player. We saw this confidence back in the first issue too. So it’s a nice little character moment. Kid Flash gets in a few good hits, before Superboy knocks him with some telekinesis. The ‘tactile’ part means touch, and Superboy points this out to Kid Flash as he expands the field and traps the speeding Kid Flash inside. Superboy makes him go faster and faster until Kid Flash can barely hang on anymore.

So Wonder Girl kicks him free of the telekinetic field.

Teamwork!

Solstice is dispatched to try and catch the falling Kid Flash. Then Bunker takes his turn at Superboy.

Using his bright purple constructs, Bunker tries to grapple with Superboy. I’m really liking Bunker. He may be flamboyant, but that is not a knock against him. He’s fun and friendly. Even while attacking someone as dangerous as Superboy, Bunker is having fun with it. Even when Superboy easily throws him off, Bunker is not deterred. He gives us a little explanation that he controls the density of his purple constructs. So he can make them as soft as a pillow in case he needs a landing, or as hard a rock if he needs to throw a good punch.

The name does not inspire fear, sorry

We take a quick break to show Solstice catching Kid Flash, who has been knocked clear out to the harbor in New York City. To make them crash safely into the water, Solstice uses her powers to SLICE A BIG SHIP IN HALF!

That's coming out of her allowance

Wow! Like a hot knife through butter, she just cuts off one end of this ship in the harbor so that she and Kid Flash don’t crash onto the deck. We hear the crew on the ship crying out in fear, evacuating, and then worried about survivors after their ship has been destroyed.

No wonder teenage heroes are getting a bad wrap.

Back at the fight, Bunker gets taken out and then it’s Red Robin’s turn to step up.

I am always in favor of Robin kicking ass

Tim Drake gets some kudos in that he knows how to approach Superboy and his tactile telekinesis, and is also able to get him down with a wing weapon to his neck. It looks like Red Robin has him beat! Even Wonder Girl is impressed at ‘Bird Boy’. But then Tim wastes a lot of time with a speech to Superboy about the horrors of N.O.W.H.E.R.E. It’s like a reverse super-villain. Tim has Superboy on the ropes, but starts monologuing about the good guys and about Superboy.

Red Robin tells Superboy that he’s nothing to N.O.W.H.E.R.E., but he’s somebody to Red Robin. He’s never going to stop until all teen meta-humans are safe from N.O.W.H.E.R.E., even Superboy. But Superboy just laughs and tells Red Robin that they know Red Robin isn’t a meta-human, that he doesn’t have powers. If Red Robin just buried his head in the sand, N.O.W.H.E.R.E. would leave him alone.

But Red Robin isn’t going to do that.

Of course, all this gives Superboy plenty of time to strike back and use his powers to flash-fry every electrical gadget in Red Robin’s costume.

Not quite sure how he's doing that...with telekinesis?

So Red Robin is taken out of the picture, which means it’s Wonder Girl’s time to try. She ropes her magic lasso around Superboy and tells him that the lasso is a ‘grift’ from the Gods (get it?), so he can’t break it. But Superboy doesn’t need to break it. Instead he flies up and drags Wonder Girl along behind him. Then he takes her underground into the subway lines, and she’s unable to get free in time before they’re both hit by a subway train! Superboy is unharmed, while Wonder Girl is completely knocked out. Superboy carries her outside and delivers a line sure to stick in the craw of everyone who hates the New 52 reboot.

Fans of the old Superboy and Wonder Girl, brace yourselves:

Salt in the wound

Back topside, the only Titan left is Solstice. She doesn’t back down against Superboy, but she doesn’t attack him either. If you recall, she was rescued from a N.O.W.H.E.R.E. facility, so she knows what they do to kids like her. Solstice delivers a stirring, heartfelt speech that’s a little heavy on exposition. She says there’s going to be a ‘Culling’, where N.O.W.H.E.R.E. starts killing the metahumans they capture. And they’re not going to let Superboy walk away from that. Her words are enough to start changing Superboy’s mind. But that doesn’t stop him from taking her out though.

Good thing nobody else on the team saw that

I’m liking Solstice too. She’s got a great visual, and is a nice person. I hope we see her more fleshed out in future issues.

Anyway, now he’s a Superboy with a different purpose! He’s ready to throw off N.O.W.H.E.R.E.’s shackles and be his own man! He’s been in touch with N.O.W.H.E.R.E. agents this whole time via an ear piece. He’s been telling them about the Titans and they’ve been offering tactical advice. Well now Superboy traces the signal to a mobile unit, and he launches the unit and the agents into the water! He’s not going to be a puppet or attack dog for N.O.W.H.E.R.E. anymore! He’s going to be his own boy!

He tells N.O.W.H.E.R.E. that he’s “already done enough damage” and we see the bodies of the beaten and bruised Teen Titans lying in a pile on the ground. So their first real fight and they get their asses handed to them!

But it was a good fight. The action was intense, it was incredibly well-drawn and every character got a chance to strut their stuff and show off their personality. The success of Teen Titans is going to rise or fall on the likability of the main characters. Just look at Cyborg. He debuted as a new Teen Titan back in the 80s, and now he’s popular enough to be retconned into a founding member of the Justice League! Do you think Bunker or Solstice will have that kind of staying power? They could, if they’re given the chance to shine. While I’m not a huge fan of Scott Lobdell’s work on this title, I can at least say that he’s making strides towards good.

While it appears that every member of the team is already in the book, the team-building itself is not yet complete. So Lobdell has a lot of fertile ground to cover about these wayward teens coming together as a unit. That is what I want to read, and am looking forward to reading. I just hope that the book doesn’t go back to crap when we have resort to Lobdell writing awkward and forced teen dialogue again.

I’d hate it if this book was only good when they were punching people.