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Teen Titans should be a comic about teamwork and camaraderie. It should be built on a foundation of strong characters who actively want to spend time with one another because they are legitimately friends. They’re not the Justice League or the Avengers. The Teen Titans are not Earth’s greatest heroes, joined together to fight the threats that one hero alone cannot handle. They’re teenagers, and they just want to hang out and be friends. That they also use their powers to save the world should just be icing on the cake.

Teen Titans #21

This is why I hate the current Teen Titans comic so much.

Comic Rating: 3/5 – Alright.

I say this all the time: I like comics where the characters are people first, superheroes second. In Scott Lobdell’s Teen Titans, they are only superheroes, randomly grouped together because that was the decided cast list of this series. There is nothing deeper or meaningful about the team. They’re friends because we’re told they’re friends. They’re a team because we’re told they’re a team. Their friendships and relationships are barely skin deep. Lobdell and his fellow writers are far more interested in writing generic superhero stories than they are in character interaction. We’re 21 issues into this series, and I don’t think any of the characters have dealt with anything all that emotional or personally important. There’s been no drama. There’s been very little done with any romantic relationships or personal friendships. Nothing memorable has happened at all.

The current Teen Titans is a concept-driven comic. DC knew they wanted a ‘Teen Titans’ book in their reboot, so Lobdell slapped one together. He picked a bunch of characters, created a few new ones, and then has just been kind of coasting from one issue to the next. The threat that pulled them all together in the first place – N.O.W.H.E.R.E. – was a dud, and is now long gone. Since then, he hasn’t touched upon any reason why the team should stay together, or why they even want to do so. They stay together because that’s the comic. If they didn’t stay together, there wouldn’t be a series. And it’s frustrating, because so much more could be done. I want to read stories about these essentially orphaned teenagers actually expressing what they get out of the Teen Titans and why they stick around. I want to see some real friendships blossom, or better yet, some real relationships and the drama that comes with those. I want to see these kids understand their place in the DC Universe. How do they see themselves compared to the Justice League? Why are they superheroes? Sure they have powers, but what is it that drives them to dress up in costume and throw themselves at dangerous situations?

These are all plot points that I think could make for a great Teen Titans comic, but we don’t get any of that. Instead, in this issue, the Teen Titans fight Trigon’s three sons in a generic, mildly entertaining superhero slugfest. It’s just mindless, mostly boring superhero fights. Not only that, but still the Titans treat Raven like she’s been their friend since the beginning. I must have missed a scene where Raven even went so far as to introduce herself to them. But this is how weak the camaraderie is: Raven and Beast Boy pretty much just glom onto the Titans and are treated like total members just because that’s what the plot has dictated. It’s maddening.

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