Just…just put Teen Titans out of its misery already. Rebirth is well under way at DC Comics, with some great and note-worthy new titles. But for some reason, Rebirth won’t grace the Teen Titans for several months yet. For some reason, this comic is being forced to limp along and churn out meandering and uninteresting stories like this one. It makes no sense.

Comic Rating: 4/10 – Pretty Bad.

I don’t think we’re ever going to find a more perfect example of a comic book spinning its wheels. Teen Titans is running on fumes, and it makes absolutely no sense to me. Tony Bedard is a fine writer, and I love Ian Churchill as an artist, but they’ve got nothing to work with anymore. Is DC trying to let their adjectiveless Titans comic get a head start before relaunching Teen Titans? Nothing else makes sense.

Teen Titans as a brand is, arguably, one of DC’s most well-known properties. The Teen Titans have had a popular cartoon show ongoing for nearly a decade, with an entire generation of fans out there in the world. But Teen Titans the comic has been the biggest, ugliest blemish on the comics side. This was repeatedly named the worst comic of the New 52, but DC kept it going for the entire length of that imprint.

Now with Rebirth upon us with the promise of a completely clean slate, DC is only easing on the brakes and drawing out this title almost painfully. Bedard and Churchill do their workmanlike best, but what’s even the point anymore?

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Huh? Are we still here? Is this comic really still plugging along? Weird. We just got the new solicitations from DC Comics the other day that the Teen Titans will switch into Rebirth mode in September, so it looks like we’ve got a handful more issues to trudge through before the end. Writer Tony Bedard seems like he’s going to try and make the most of the time he’s got, and I’m not going to blame him for giving it the old college try.

Comic Rating: 5/10 – Alright.

After the extremely silly last issue, where Bedard proved he has little understanding of Internet memes, we pick up this issue with a battle between the Teen Titans and the Brain and Monsieur Mallah. They’re classic Titans villains, but not in the New 52, so I think Bedard is just having some fun — and he does. With theoretically nothing to lose or waste or cost, I think Bedard just decided to write a fun Brain and Mallah story. He delves into some interesting Mallah characterization that makes me think Bedard had a couple giggles writing this one.

As an issue of Teen Titans, it’s harmless. There’s nothing more to say or do with this team. We already know what happens next, and we’ve already seen that Tim Drake alone moves on to something bigger and better. So there’s no tension in what Bedard does to the team or the characters. We get a really pointless cliffhanger at the end of this issue, and I kind of want to roll my eyes.

But Bedard and artist Miguel Mendonca make the most of a meh situation.

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Writer Tony Bedard should not take up a side job writing Internet memes. As a long time reader of the Internet, I consider myself fairly well versed with the world of memes. I think I know what I’m talking about. Bedard dazzles us with a few in this new issue, as the Teen Titans take on this instantly dated phenomenon. I’m not even sure why they bothered.

Teen Titans is a lame duck comic book. With a complete revamp on the way in Rebirth, I’m not really sure why Teen Titans is still shambling along like it is.

Comic Rating: 4/10 – Pretty Bad.

Maybe if we were looking at a Scott Snyder/Greg Capullo-style climax, or if we had any sort of ongoing story to tell, or even if the comic was still using its original numbering and DC Comics wanted to get to the magic 52nd issue, then maybe I would understand why Teen Titans is still putting out new issues ahead of Rebirth. But there’s nothing here. Heck, this is Bedard’s first issue on the series. He’s clearly some kind of pinch-hitter brought on to keep the series on life support before the switch.

Why?

Is it sales? Does Teen Titans sell enough to justify scraping together a few more crummy issues over the next few months? Maybe if they were using these issues to build up to the Rebirth changes, I would understand. But that’s not happening either. This issue could be any regular issue of Teen Titans. There’s an awkward training sequence followed by the aforementioned memes plot, and the arrival of a sudden, random villain. Nothing in this issue signifies the end. Nothing in this issue signifies a new beginning or a new direction.

Nothing indicates the ‘Fall of the Titans’ that the cover implies…unless the Teen Titans are going to be undone because somebody is making crappy Internet memes about them…

Teen Titans #20 is weak filler. And it’s filled with some weird storytelling choices.

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