Category Archives: Robin
Holy Cow, Teen Titans has Been Cancelled!
The worst (best?) has happened as it seems that Scott Lobdell has driven Teen Titans into the ground. Announced by Lobdell himself on ComicVine today, Teen Titans will be cancelled at issue #30 in April!
Wow. This is fascinating news. It’s sad that I won’t be able to continue my popular Teen Titans reviews (ravagings?), but man oh man, how great would it be if DC Comics found something better to do with the title and the characters?
Lobdell explained that the last regular issue will be #30, followed by an Annual a week later, which will wrap up the series with a final battle against N.O.W.H.E.R.E., because Lobdell insists they’re the Titans’ arch-enemies. Groan.
I’m thrilled the DC is letting me wrap up the story on a high note as the TEEN TITANS square off against the N.O.W.H.E.R.E. in a final battle — bringing to conclusion the conflict that began in the first issue! I’m certainly going to miss writing the adventures of Red Robin, Wonder Girl, Bunker and the rest of the gang. But as a huge, life long fan of the title I’m very excited about the whispered rumors I’m hearing race back and forth between New York and Burbank. (Trust me when I say we haven’t seen the last of everyone’s favorite teen team adventurers.)
Let’s read between the lines for a moment. You’ll see that Teen Titans is being cancelled instead of just being handed off to a new creative team. With a title as marquee as ‘Teen Titans’, why wouldn’t DC just let somebody take over from Lobdell?
I think the answer is because Lobdell so greatly screwed up the team that DC has no choice but to burn it down and start fresh somewhere down the line. That is exactly what I think has happened. Ugh. Teen Titans is so bad. The characters have been all but ruined.
If only DC could completely erase everything Lobdell did to the Titans. But at the very least, now there is hope for something better. Hope with me, my friends. Hope.
Review: Teen Titans #26
Any Bart Allen fans holding out hope, after all this time, that the character and his origins were still somehow in tact, can go ahead and despair with the new issue of Teen Titans. Just like Wonder Girl, Superboy and Red Robin, Kid Flash’s origin is completely re-written for the New 52. Nothing of the original Bart, short of the time travel, remains. There was never any Impulse and there is clearly no connection to Barry Allen or the Flash. Writer Scott Lobdell lays out Kid Flash’s origin in this issue, from how he got his speed powers to how he ended up in the 21st century. And as is expected from Teen Titans, none of it is particularly interesting.
Teen Titans #26
When it comes to a space-age character origin, I can’t really say Bart’s story is very bad. It’s fine, perhaps even a little interesting. As for an origin to Kid Flash, and his place in the Teen Titans and DCU, it’s definitely worse than from before the reboot.
Comic Rating: 3/10 – Bad.
I feel bad for any Bart Allen fans who still had hope, but then, were there any left? Was anybody still expecting him to be the grandson of Barry Allen delivered from the future? That, at least, had a connection to the Flash mythos. That provided meaning and importance to the character, making him a part of the Flash legacy. But nope, not anymore. Everything you knew about Bart Allen is gone. Now, instead, he’s Bar Torr, a freedom fighter turned traitor from far into the future. There are a ton of questions and plot holes in this new origin, and parts of it that just don’t make any sense. And what any of this has to do with the DC Universe as a whole is beyond my understanding.
Wait until you see how he gets super speed. It’s…disappointing, to say the least. There are a lot of disappointing parts to Bart’s origin. I wonder if this was Lobdell and DC’s plan from the beginning. Have they just been sitting on this origin, waiting for he chance to tell it? Or was Lobdell just making it up as he went along when writing this issue? Because the plot holes are so huge you could fit Titans Tower through them. And the leap from Bar Torr to Kid Flash comes out of nowhere.
So strap in, Bart Allen fans, and prepare to have everything you ever loved about the character stripped away.
6 Pop Culture Resolutions for 2014
I may as well say that my New Year’s resolutions for 2014 are to lose weight and save money, but I’ve kind of been making those same resolutions for the past 30 years, and they haven’t come true yet! So how about we veer wildly off course and talk about something much more fun: pop culture!
No, I’m not resolving to play fewer video games or watch less TV. Don’t be crazy.
Though I’m totally gonna lose weight and save money. Totally.
Instead, I’ve whipped up a list of 6 pop culture things I want to see in 2014. We already know what movies, TV shows and more are coming out, and I resolve to drown myself in all of them. But we don’t know how good or bad they’re going to be, or what surprises might be in store. So let’s get our hopeful wishing hats on, and predict the 6 pop culture resolutions we want to see in 2014!
And yes, I realize these are more like ‘wishes’ than ‘resolutions’, but New Year is all about the resolutions. Cut me some slack, I had a cold this week. Join me after the jump!
First Arkham Origins DLC Does Not Feature Robin
We’ve known about this Initiation DLC for awhile now, but here’s a trailer to let us know what it looks like and what it may contain. The DLC is about Bruce Wayne’s time training with ninjas in Asia before returning to Gotham to become Batman. I don’t remember if it’s going to have story elements, but it’s definitely got some challenge rooms.
What do you gamers think? Gonna pick this up? I beat Arkham Origins and lost interest in playing, but maybe this’ll be enough to bring me back. There’s no Robin, though, so that’s disappointing. I was hoping for something similar to Harley Quinn’s Revenge from Arkham City. Maybe there’s still time…
Review: Teen Titans #25
You can always count on Teen Titans to have more than a few things wrong with each issue. Sometimes it’s an overabundance of editor’s notes pointing you towards some other series. Or maybe it’s a lot of long, boring, expositional dialogue. Or maybe it includes a few random cutaways to villains who will never appear again (the book loves to do that!). It’s always something with this comic. Teen Titans has been written by the same guy with what I assume is the same agenda since the start of the New 52, and writer Scott Lobdell hasn’t gotten any better. This new issue flings our heroes far into the future, into outer space, to meet a bunch of random space dudes and sort of maybe start to learn the secret origin of Kid Flash.
Teen Titans #25
Turns out he’s kind of a murderous monster with more blood on his hands than your average Manson. Our teenage heroes, ladies and gentlemen!
Comic Rating: 3/10 – Bad.
Sometimes I think I’m being too hard on Teen Titans, but then I read the rest of the comics I buy each week and the difference is staggering. Modern comics today usually focus on the character, and leave a lot of the exposition to the art. We readers don’t need to be spoonfed every little piece of plot. But Lobdell on Teen Titans looooves exposition. He loves having his characters explain everything as awkwardly and as stuntedly as possible. Teen Titans #25 is a fine example. And it’s made even worse by Lobdell doing most of the expositing via thought bubbles. Freakin’ thought bubbles! Those haven’t been in style since the 90s! But Teen Titans #25 is full of them, from multiple different characters. It’s deadening.
To say nothing of the actual plot and characters involved. Bart Allen’s origin has no connection to anything we’ve ever seen before in DC Comics or the Teen Titans – or at least that’s how it appears so far. So Lobdell is pretty much making it up as he goes along, whether it’s the names of random space mercenaries or space police agencies or futuristic technology. He’s on a roll just throwing out new ideas and concepts with absolutely no grounding, unless you count the Teen Titans themselves, who have never been particularly grounded.
Teen Titans #25 is another fine example of why this series is as dull and as flat as a piece of wood. Join me after the jump for a full synopsis and more review.
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