"Isn't it obvious? You Teen Titans, you're superheroes. We're a super-science organization. We want to -What's the phrase I'm looking for-? We want to team up."
Review
Teen Titans is a title DC’s been struggling with even before
its companywide reboot but that’s another discussion.
After Scott Lobdell’s much maligned run that lead to this
book relaunching with a new creative team that also left you wondering how much
of the previous run actually applied to this with Lobdell’s run ending with the
team disbanded but here… not so much. That’s one problem I do have with
Pfeifer’s run is it’s hard to see why these characters are hanging out together
sans Beast Boy and Bunker. Even though Cassie and Tim have the longest history
together in the team this arc shows how they don’t always see eye to eye. While
Pfeifer’s initial run here has its obvious problems besides having to work
around Lobdell’s run, such as the team’s unclear reasoning for sticking
together and not much of any bond between most members. How in the world would this
incarnation of Cassie have trouble telling Tim she doesn’t agree with
him, or how Beast Boy transforming into a fruit fly makes him immune to time
slowing down? Raven? Sure I can buy it due to vague, magical reasoning and
really she could’ve taken the villains down herself in that certain situation. Why
does Tim thinks it’s a good idea partnering with STAR Labs and for money
reasons when he’s BATMAN’S ward? There's also no explanation of Beast Boy becoming his traditional green color again other than DC's been meaning to for awhile after that Animal Man thing ended but never got to til now. And that was one change that made no sense to anyone. There's also scene meant to show Bunker as brave and standing up for LGBT heroes but given the person he assaults never finished his sentence on whether he was going to say after "just my luck to be rescued by the two who look like a couple of -" was "freaks" or a harsh slur. Perhaps to show how people like Bunker are use to and expect the worse? Either way could've been executed better with being more obvious what the man was going to say. There's also how Bunker seems more prone to violence throughout the book than he was before.
However, what I really do enjoy about Pfeifer’s run are a
lot of the ideas and the very least gives something that’s fun to read. One of
my favorite things was actually doing something new for Raven that didn’t
involve her evil family or shoving her in some forced romance to please vocal
fans. Her taking an interest in music and actually seeing how she inspires
something that isn’t fear is refreshing (and cute) to see after the cycle of
angst she’s been stuck in for ages. It’s
also great seeing new blood on the team in the form of new Power Girl Tanya
Spears. Let’s hope she fares better than poor Solstice and Skitter. The
inclusion of Superman villain/ 90s-antihero-deconstrucrion Manchester Black is
an interesting one too though he spends most of the the storyline scheming, lying, and explaining what the hell's going on (supposedly). The rest of the story is decent combining a mysterious terrorist cell with peeks into the Titans' lives mainly dealing with personal things (like Cassie and her mom) and them dealing with their...enthusiastic fandoms. Almost as scary as the ones in real life, heh! Basically, there's interesting ideas all around and some nice character moments, like again Raven with music and Beast Boy demonstrating his animal knowledge, but with some parts that left you confused.
There’s also Kenneth Rocafort’s art which has received
criticism for taking cheesecakey routes like the infamous Red Hood and the
Outlaws #1 with Starfire as well as controversy in this series first issue’s
cover that with a very busty Wondergirl who may or may not even be legal age. It’s
easy to lose track of these characters’ ages especially when DC can’t. However,
problems aside I always admired Rocafort’s style and he can make things really
darn pretty such as Raven during the concert or even sight gags like Beast Boy as a dog carrying a doggy bag. Rocafort even draws Raven's weird costume the most plausible way I've seen so far.
Overall, there's some hiccups but this isn't the worst to be done to the Teen Titans. On its own its a fun read with adventure and some nice artwork for the YA crowd. Though looking at what happens in this run's future, especially with Lobdell's return, it's hard to guess what will happen with this book...again.
No comments:
Post a Comment