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I Don’t Know What I’m Going to Do About Teen Titans in DC: Rebirth!
If you haven’t yet heard, DC Comics announced their entire Rebirth lineup at Wondercon today, with all sorts of artwork, new creative teams and more galore! I’m all in favor of pretty much everything they’re planning. As long as it means good comics, I’m on board. They can shake up their lineups all they want. And there are some pretty big shake ups on the way. Nothing as serious as the New 52, but there will definitely be some new stuff out there.
If you haven’t seen the new lineups, I recommend visiting Newsarama or Comic Book Resources. They are much better equipped than I am to handle this stuff. I’m only interested in the parts of Rebirth I’m actually interested in. I’m definitely going to be checking out a lot of the new books, from the Batman books to the Justice League, and I think I’ll try to get back into Aquaman, Wonder Woman and perhaps even some Green Lantern, since my favorite Lantern, Simon Baz, is going to get some attention finally.
But the biggest question I have going forward is what the heck I’m going to do about Teen Titans! The series that I have been reviewing month in and month out since the start of the New 52 will be no more! Those reviews are some of the most popular articles on my blog. So where do I go from here?
It’s time for Damien to retire
What am I supposed to do with this version of the Teen Titans?
Join me after the jump for the rest of the news!
Review: Teen Titans #18
Rebirth is on its way, folks. In a few short months, DC Comics is going to kick off their next big thingamajig, and current comics are feeling the pinch. We don’t know what’s going to happen to the Teen Titans, who’s going to write it, who’s going to draw it, or what it’s going to be about. But for now, writer Greg Pak is cruising along with a fun little story about Wonder Girl’s origins. I enjoyed the last issue for its upbeat character work and interesting story. Teen Titans #18 continues the trend, though the issue is kind of light and breezy.
But I can live with light and breezy when it comes to a new Teen Titans.
Comic Rating: 7/10 – Good.
I have no real complaints about this issue, none that matter anyway. It’s fun, simple and pretty straight forward. It calls back to the brilliant Wonder Woman run by Brian Azzarello, which is neat. It contains the first ever team up of Wonder Woman and Tim Drake in the New 52, which I personally found kind of annoying, and I’ll explain why later. At times, I felt like Pak didn’t necessarily know what to do with all of the Titans. This is a Wonder Girl story, first and foremost, but I guess Pak can’t just ignore the rest of them. That kind of means he doesn’t find as many great character moments, like he did with the last issue, but it’s not a big deal.
Honestly, I feel so mellow about this issue, that I’m starting to wonder if I was too harsh with my previous reviews. Or if I’m being too lenient with Greg Pak. This is just a fine little comic, neither great nor terrible. Teen Titans feels like it’s biding its time until Rebirth, but at least Pak and artist Ian Churchill (with an assist by Tom Derenick) are making the most of it.
Join me after the jump for the full synopsis and more review.
Review: Teen Titans #17
Here we go! Buckle up, boys and girls, because the next era of Teen Titans is upon us! New writer Greg Pak takes the reigns, at least for a little while, hoping to right this stagecoach for a few issues, until Rebirth comes along to maybe change everything up again. It’s a little hard to get excited about the new writer when there’s every indication that nothing will stick. But I’ve stuck with Teen Titans this long, and I’m always eager for something new from this series.
Teen Titans #17
So it’s damn exciting that Greg Pak immediately and unequivocally solves one of my biggest complaints about this series. This is close to being the Teen Titans I’ve always wanted.
Comic Rating: 7/10 – Good.
The biggest problem with Teen Titans in the New 52, and even in DCYou, is that the characters are treated as little more than action figures. They are costumed superheroes first, people second. All they do is fight bad guys, bouncing from one random opponent to the next. Famously, Red Robin never once removed his costume when Will Pfeifer was writing the series. There was apparently no interest in addressing the Teen Titans as teenagers or youngsters or human beings. They were action figures, trapped in a strange mess of stories, many of which were likely tugged back and forth by demanding editorial.
I may never understand why Teen Titans was so shackled when things like Batgirl, Ms. Marvel, Young Avengers and Teen Titans Go! were allowed to exist.
Teen Titans #17 doesn’t fix everything. Pak and DC don’t go for the nuclear option. This is still the same team, carrying on the same storyline, and existing in the same New 52 world. But Pak treats them as people for the first time in a long time. There is more characterization in this one issue than in Pfeifer’s entire run. There are character moments that legitimately shocked me for how little we’ve seen that level of depth. And for once, the threat doesn’t come from some outside force, but from within. For once, the Teen Titans are driving their own story.
And you better believe that Tim Drake shows up in this comic! Join me after the jump to see for yourself!
Review: Teen Titans #16
When writer Will Pfeifer joined Teen Titans, DC Comics felt so strongly about it that they restarted the series with a new #1 issue. It was supposed to be a new beginning, but somehow, inexplicably, Pfeifer seemed to drown himself in the exact same problems that buried Scott Lobdell’s tenure on the book. Rather than breath new life into the series, Pfeifer simply continued all of the worse traits of the Teen Titans in the New 52. But it’s over now…maybe. New writer Greg Pak takes over with the next issue. Will he be cursed with the same problems? Or will Pak, who has been writing a very excellent Action Comics recently, somehow find a way to make this series good? I guess we’ll find out soon enough.
Teen Titans #16
As for Pfeifer’s final issue, apparently he got the memo that he needed to clean as much house as humanly possible. He cleans out Teen Titans so quickly that you’d think he’d thrown a party while his parents were on vacation, only to find out they were coming home early.
Comics Rating: 3/10 – Bad.
Based on the solicitations for upcoming issues, it looks like Pak is going to keep the team relatively the same, and try to find new stories with them. I’m fine with that. I like the lineup just fine. The characters have potential. It’s the stories and the premise that need to be worked on. It remains a marvel to me that DC has kept Teen Titans the way it is, despite all outside influences in comics these days. When books like the new Batgirl or Ms. Marvel are getting so much attention, when the DC animated shows focus so heavily on vastly different versions of the team, why then is the comic book Teen Titans still a team of random characters fighting random supervillains with little to no continuity or consistency?
Teen Titans Go! has better consistency and character development.
This final issue is no different. Once again, the Titans go up against completely random bad guys for an issue full of gratuitous fighting. Once again, this comic is just a bunch of action figures being smashed together. The writing is pretty wretched as well, with Pfeifer embodying the worst superhero comic traits when it comes to the characters explaining what they’re doing on the page. It’s like Chris Claremont’s worst X-Men habits. And on top of that, someone at DC told Pfeifer to clear the slate a bit for Pak, so he finds several quick and dirty ways to shuffle characters out of the book. And considering how he brought those characters in, this has to be painful for him as a creator.
Teen Titans #16 reads like DC told Pfeifer not to let the door hit him on the way out, but they didn’t really mean it.
Turns Out There’s a Full Justice League vs. Teen Titans Trailer
So much for that teaser I posted this morning! The full trailer for Justice League vs. Teen Titans is here!
Looks neat, but my comments from this morning stand: I’m just not all that interested. But I know I have a lot of Titans fans who read this blog, so I wanted to share. And now that I think about it, what the heck is up with this Titans lineup?! Starfire? Cyborg? What the heck is DC doing? Their animated universe is based on the comics in that it has Damian as Robin, and they do a lot of comic book stories, with appearances by the Court of Owls and Batwoman. But when they introduce the Teen Titans, they go with the animated Titans?! No Bunker? No Wonder Girl? What is with this odd disparity?
Speaking of animated Titans, I’m currently catching up on Teen Titans Go! That show is hilarious!
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Henchman-4-Hire 