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The Teen Titans have been here before…
Cartoon Network’s “Teen Titans Go!” goes meta, and pays homage to one of the best comics-based cartoons ever aired. These feels go beyond the fourth wall.
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 10/24/15
Apparently Marvel Comics is quite keen on us enjoying their new Iron Man and Spider-Man comics, because the second issues are already here! And they’re both still pretty great! Marvel also delivers the return of Ant-Man this week, and drops a Karnak bomb in our laps! Writer Warren Ellis has got to be sitting on a pretty awesome throne these days. The guy is like one of those mafia ‘fixers’ who can just come in and kick ass no matter what assignment he gets.
Not that DC are slouching! Batman and Robin Eternal remains pretty solid and entertaining so far, and the latest issue of Gotham Academy is a ton of fun.
But Comic Book of the Week has to go to Amazing Spider-Man #2 for one of the funniest Spidey comics I’ve read in awhile!
‘Some guy’? C’mon!
Dan Slott is on a role! Also, the Prowler is pretty amazing in this issue too.
Comic Reviews: Amazing Spider-Man #2, Astonishing Ant-Man #1, Batman and Robin Eternal #3, Gotham Academy #11, Invincible Iron Man #2, Karnak #1 and Titans Hunt #1.
Review: Teen Titans #12
I…I don’t know how to begin this review. I don’t know what to say to introduce any of you to what you’re about to read. Teen Titans has left me speechless at times since the start of the New 52, but this issue…this is a whole new level. This is insane. It’s been nearly two months since the last issue of Teen Titans, and something has happened. I don’t know what, exactly. I can make a few guesses. It looks like DC Comics has simply decided to cut off writer Will Pfeifer at the knees, throw out everything he had been writing, and bring in the worst possible person to try and clean up Pfeifer’s ‘mess’.
Teen Titans #12
Forget everything you’ve been reading for the past year, apparently. Teen Titans has finally, and without warning, lost its mind.
Comic Rating: 2/10 – Very Bad.
When we last left the Titans, Red Robin and Chimera were battling Wonder Girl, the Elite and Despero in the bowls of a metahuman prison. Superboy had just arrived, seeking to clear his name. And Raven and Bunker were about to be attacked by a prison full of angry inmates. Well…uh…forget all of that. Just forget it. Pretend it never happened. There’s no more simple way to put this: Will Pfeifer is gone…I guess? His name is still on the cover, but I can’t imagine he had anything to do with this comic. Either DC has fired him or just told him to stop writing Teen Titans, because this comic literally just drops the entire prison story on the second page. You’re not going to believe it.
Maybe DC disliked Pfeifer’s comic as much as I did.
But then DC goes and makes the even more foolish move of bringing Scott freakin’ Lobdell back to take over! What the hell?! Lobdell? SERIOUSLY?! Of all the people working at DC Comics, of all the people in the comic book industry, of all the people sitting at home, they brought Scott Lobdell back to Teen Titans? He’s the guy who got canned so that Pfeifer could be brought in! He’s the guy whose exit from the series was so momentous that DC restarted the series at a new #1, an unprecedented move for the New 52!
Teen Titans #12 defies anything I could have possibly imagined happening. Join me after the jump if you’ve got the stomach for it…
Review: Teen Titans #11
Okay, I’m calm now. As you may recall, I thought the last issue of Teen Titans was an utter abomination. It was full of random, pointless character moments, crummy art and a general sense of terrible pacing and storytelling. It was a monster. But time heals all wounds, and I’m back to see if Teen Titans #11 is any better. Good news, it is! But only because all that prior insanity is behind us. I’m OK with the fact that Wonder Girl’s team is randomly called ‘The Elite’. I’m OK that Trinity exists in the face of all logic. I’m OK that Chimera is now a full member of the Teen Titans with little to no fanfare. I’m OK with the fact that Kid Flash is back for no particular reason.
Teen Titans #11
I think I’ve fallen too far down the rabbit hole of suckitude to ever ‘enjoy’ an issue of Teen Titans again, but the new issue is serviceable. The story is straight forward, so that helps. And writer Will Pfeifer keeps most of his worst characters in check.
Comic Rating: 4/10 – Pretty Bad.
If any comic was in need of ‘Batgirling’ in the wake of Convergence, it was Teen Titans. The book has been terrible since the launch of the New 52. There is zero focus on the main characters, some of whom have never even been seen out of costume. Teen Titans is all about what random villain the characters can be thrown at next, it’s never about the characters themselves, which has become a cornerstone of good comics this year. Batgirl is popular because it focuses on Barbara Gordon, among many other good reasons. Same with Hawkeye or Harley Quinn or Ms. Marvel. But Teen Titans remains the silly action figure comic it has been since the start of the New 52.
And it boggles the mind even further to remember that Teen Titans got a relaunch and a new #1 issue last year! Why the heck did that happen?! Pfeifer hasn’t done anything differently than previous writer Scott Lobdell.
But I’m rambling. Teen Titans #11 sees one half of the team try to break into a supermax prison, and that focus helps to keep the book from flailing painfully out of control. There’s another new artist, who’s both good and bad. Basically, Teen Titans continues to be a pretty terrible comic overall, but this issue softens the blow.
Review: Teen Titans #10
Teen Titans #10 is the worst issue of this comic since the start of the New 52, and possibly the worst professionally-published comic book I have ever read. I am in stunned awe at just how terrible this issue is, especially since I’ve generally kind of liked the past few issues by writer Will Pfeifer. But something seems to have broken inside of him. There is no other way to explain just how much this issue fails on every conceivable level. The writing is bad, the characters are bad, the exposition is bad, the flow is bad, the sequence of events are bad, the logic is bad, and guest artist Felipe Watanabe is horrendous.
Teen Titans #10
This will be the first comic to receive my lowest grade since I started reviewing comics on my blog. This grade was supposed to be intended as a joke.
Comic Rating: 0/10 – Abomination.
The insanity begins with the very first panel and just doesn’t let up. Nothing works in this comic. It’s as if Pfeifer has no idea that he’s been writing Teen Titans for a year now. Teen Titans #10 reads like he took several years off between issues, and rather than research the story he’d been writing before, he’s just decided to wing it. Almost every single page contains multiple instances of just straight up illogical events or dialogue. Characters talk about things that never happened. They move their bodies in ways that just don’t make any sense. They react to things with no semblance to what’s actually happening on the page. Teen Titans #10 is a mess.
But it picks up the story exactly where Pfeifer left off, that’s the weirdest thing! We’re still right in the middle of the Teen Titans fighting over Superboy. And that should make for a fun, character-based story! But Pfeifer can’t seem to handle that. Rather than write a story about the Teen Titans struggling with the moral quandry of turning on their friend, Pfeifer appears to have suffered a stroke. He’s clearly not reading the same comic that any of us have been reading the past several months and years.
And when regular artist Kenneth Rocafort is unavailable, apparently DC Comics found somebody even worse to fill in.
I have no idea why this comic is still being published. With DC going through a rather awesome creative revival this Summer, how the hell are they still churning out the pure garbage that is Teen Titans? Hell, Do you know what variant covers DC is offering this month? Teen Titans Go! covers! This is Teen Titans Go! Month! And yet the Teen Titans comic is so terrible!
Join me after the jump if you dare, and maybe you can help me make sense out of any of this.
Henchman-4-Hire 