Teen Titans #20-23 Review

Come one, come all to the Countdown before Countdown! We are post Identity Crisis, the powder keg paving the way for the event to end all events. I will stand here and say that this era of the DCU might be the most unified and exciting it has ever been (though a close second would have to be 2016-2017 Rebirth era). I would even dare call Countdown itself an event with how much impact it has line wide. With Geoff Johns, Greg Rucka, Gail Simone, and Judd Winick at the helm maneuvering all the power players into the places they need to be, there's not much that can go wrong!

[Teen Titans Vol 5 - Light's Out]

• Teen Titans #20 - "Hiding" = Awesome Identity Crisis epilogue. I loved the angle Johns tackled here, picking up the scraps of an interesting leftover sequence from the event's first issue: why was Bolt securing Luthor's Warsuit? Getting into Tim's head as he tries to suppress his emotions after his father's death is compelling as mess, and I loved that final moment where he lets his friends in and accepts their help. Excited for this Lex plot since I have some vague recollections of his story in Villains United + Infinite Crisis. Who is his partner? What does he have in store for Conner? The Green Arrow epilogue is crazy as well, Doctor Rape is unleashed!
• Teen Titans #21 - Light's Out, Part I : "The New Kid" = This was dope! Loved menacing Doctor Light and his sequence with Ollie at the beginning, but Mia and Cyborg were the standouts of this issue. I'm loving that we've gotten through the bulk of the teen angst of this run and now we can focus on the more interesting character development. I've never read anything with Mia Dearden in it, but Johns made me fall in love with her after just a couple pages. I'm assuming what she was going to tell Cyborg was that she has HIV (which I know of due to comic osmosis).  Did enjoy each super-team reaching out to the Titans, as well as the follow up to the reveal of the villain mind wipes from Identity Crisis.
• Teen Titans #22 - Light's Out, Part II : "War & Peace" = I was really enjoying this until the Hawk and Dove stuff came out of absolutely nowhere and through the whole pacing off. We started with some great Raven narration, but it feels like it was abandoned once we hit the midpoint. That Batman scene was very strange, but I think it's supposed to be Deathstroke impersonating him? Not sure who's posing as Cassandra Cain though, but it has to be someone in the Secret Society. Overall great first half, but I hope next issue can make up for the lost momentum.
• Teen Titans #23 - Light's Out, Part III : "Secrets & Lies" = Well dang! Loved the huge brawl, especially Cyborg's combos, but that final sequence between the titans was wonderful: I definitely could tell that it inspired Greg Weisman since it's totally adapted into the first season of Young Justice. As for the Deathstroke/Ravager reveal, I'm hoping I don't force myself to read Judd Winick's Outsiders run to prepare for the upcoming "Insiders" crossover since I didn't enjoy his writing in Graduation Day. Then again, I'm going to read "Under The Hood" anyways, so I guess I better get used to it regardless. But how did they take Bruce & Cassandra's place, where were the actual Batman and Batgirl? And how the heck did they get a batwing?

Teen Titans (2003) by Geoff Johns #8-19 Review

[Teen Titans : Raven Rising]

• Teen Titans #8 - "Family Lost" = History lesson! This chapter was a lot of fun, and I'm all in for this series now that I've gotten used to the cast. The Raven backstory was much needed, but it was the Tim Drake sequences that stood out the most in this issue. I loved Tom Grummett's pencils, they bring a Perez-esque quality to this book that McKone's didn't seem to have (no hate on McKone, his art is dope). There were some wonderful tid-bits in this: Alcatraz reopened, Gizmo and Mammoth, Batman/Starfire foreshadowing about Raven, + Deathstroke and Ravager on the move is fun as well, but I wonder how we get to modern Rose Wilson from this.
• Teen Titans #9 - "First Blood" = Out for blood! Fasten your seatbelts everyone, we are getting into grimdark territory for the Titans! Was having Brother Blood rip the gem out of bald Raven's forehead with his teeth truly necessary? One of my main concerns with this issue is the fact that it suffers from Act I syndrome: a bunch of stuff is thrown at you in a short span of time, you feel overwhelmed, but that's the point. These mystery-boxes will be clarified (hopefully) by the time the story arc ends. The schematics of the ritual + cryptic deliberations by the cult members are the biggest peeve, while the grey energy possessing Beast Boy and Krypto spewing ravens does entice some intrigue. The Conner/Krypto stuff was fun, but that Cyborg page was awesome, hats off to McKone.
• Teen Titans #10 - Raven Rising, Part I : "New Blood" = Great opening, loved the page of the huge mass of birds over the San Francisco bay area as well as the giant skeletal Trigon they had to fight. The grey energy bringing out the paternal insecurities was also a huge plus, and Ares snapping Cassie out of hit was a great way of reminding us about that plot point. Although I do want unity, the split between the YJ leftovers and the Wolfman titans brings a fun dynamic to how this fledgling team is operating; of course Tim is going to be skeptical about Raven and plan for the worst! It's stuff like that, the small character moments, that really holds a team book together: putting characters in tough situations and having them act like they would to solve the problem. The main issue with team-books these days is the mundane characterization, rarely do I get super invested in a character compared to some older runs like Joe Kelly's JLA or Johns' JSA. Besides that, I care very little for the edgelord Brother Blood, though I thought it was pretty funny when he revealed his age.
• Teen Titans #11 - Raven Rising, Part II : "Soul Survivor" = Loved this! The Raven pathos really did a whole lot to carry this issue, very compelling in it's ramifications to her character history as well as relation to this hostage marriage. Cyborg and especially Beast Boy get some great moments, with Gar and Raven having the best scenes. Can't deny that the Starfire and Tim stuff was fun too, and I'm eager to see how that relationship evolves. Deathstroke and Ravager as the wilds cards get more spotlight, and act as a great segue into the final pages. Rose must be under some kind of mental hold, because her dialogue is comically two-dimensional. Best moment: Blood getting sniped by Robin's birdarang.
• Teen Titans #12 - Raven Rising, Part III : "Titans Together!" = Hello wtf? This Wilson-Family plot thread is soap storytelling on god damn meth. That last page was stupid as mess and I honestly thank god that Priest actually gave Slade and Rose personalities in the Rebirth run, because anything is preferable to whatever the heck this is. The finale was fun and I enjoyed Beast Boy turning into a parasite and Cyborg clapping up OP Jericho with the freaking task manager application. I'm guessing Brother Blood is in one of the rings of DC Universe's version of Hell; I hope his return holds a better plan than this absolute failure, I don't know why he would bank everything on Raven acting against his will.

[TEEN TITANS : Beast Boys & Girls]

• Teen Titans #13 - Beast Boys & Girls, Part I : "Concrete Jungle" = Now that's how you open an arc! Great premise; I'm assuming that somehow these kids have been infected with Sakutia while Gar's power have been negated. Could this have been caused by Doctor Register, the scientist in the flashback sequence? Maybe infecting these kids with the disease helps immunize them in a different way, Gar mentions that he's never been sick since he was 6, and Register is trying to help children in his own twisted way? This is a pretty big leap for a first issue, but we'll see what ends up happening. The Raven/Cass interaction was dope, and it appears that Raven used her empath powers to sap her sadness away? Stephanie Brown Robin makes a fun appearance, though I wonder how far out from War Games we are in the timeline. Tom Grummett's art is like a Jim Lee/Paul Pelletier mashup and I loved every page.
• Teen Titans #14 - Beast Boys & Girls, Part II : "Wild Life" = We love accurate predictions! Horrifying opener, but the lightspeed pacing of societal collapse as the Titans try to hold everything together is fun as mess. Loved the sense of urgency paired with Gar's internal turmoil due to his return to normalness vs the loss of the Beast Boy persona. The Conner/Tim stuff was easily the highlight of this issue, and I admire how Johns was able to drop the fill-in exposition for those who aren't reading the Batman/Robin runs at the time. Great continuity weaving, and it all fits with what's going on in Tim's story throughout this run so far as well. Very interested to see what Ares agenda with Cass is, and I loved how she calls him a pedo.
• Teen Titans #15 - Beast Boys & Girls, Part III : "Changelings" =God dammit Johns! Stop with the anti-climax deus ex machina! At least Tom Grummett's art was here to add a nice coating to this flimsy arc. Loved the Cass/Ares sequence + possible Conner death foreshadowing during IC!? Aquaman + Lorena Marquez cameo was a little out of place, Tim is back, Raven is going to high school (but it makes sense because her new body is a teen?). The Legion sequence at the end was great, but I have no idea what is going on with Legion chronology at this point (I believe Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning are working on it at this time).

[TEEN TITANS : The Future Is Now]

• Teen Titans #16 - Superboy & The Legion, Part I : "Wherever Tomorrow Takes Us" = Spotlight Legion! Loved the feeling of being overwhelmed by the overly-complicated and bombastic nature of the LOS future, the monstrous amount of members and an absolutely fascinatingly rich landscape: this kind of possible tomorrow is so much more interesting than any of the dark Kingdom Come/Dark Knight Returns worlds. So I take it that our Superboy was dropped off in the 31st Century as a result of his future self coming back to the past? Or could it be that he was taken to the future by something else? Loved the Fatal Five hundred reveal, and excited to see how this transitions into Titans of Tomorrow. 
• Teen Titans/The Legion Special - Superboy & The Legion, Part II : "Future Is Foreshadow" = Temporal shenanigans turned up to eleven! A wonderful little two-parter to revamp our Legion, get the Titans where they need to be, and cap it off with a smooth though not so subtle layers of foreshadowing! Ivan Reis' art is a blast, and Geoff blows a silver age load all over the book; you can 100% tell he loved every second of this book. The Kid Flash stuff was a lot of fun, along with Superboy's whole arc coming in full circle. I loved the little snippets we got of each Legionnaire, and I am eager to get into some of their runs in the future to familiarize myself with those characters (besides the basic ones like Brainy, Lighting Lad, Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl).
• Teen Titans #17 - Titans Tomorrow, Part I : "Big Brothers and Sisters" = World-Building! Exposition! In Your Face! Johns flourishes when given the opportunity to write anti-heroes, these dark titans from the world-to-be are doused in 2000's edge! I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy this, spoon-fed lore introducing us to a grimdark prison for our heroes, the gods are gone, it's Tartarus for the Titans! Joker's Daughter is easily the most creatively bankrupt concept ever, but at least she had a mouthful of lead for her last supper. Interested to see what Tim's plan is regarding the present titans as well as if Slade ends up making it through the night.
• Teen Titans #18 - Titans Tomorrow, Part II : "Tales of the Titans" = It's really obvious that Johns and the other architects of the DCU at this time are radically shifting the polarity of continuity towards this edgy grimdark BS, with this storyline being a pseudo-commentary on that while simultaneously shifting itself in that direction: criticism while creating more grounds for that very criticism = hypocrisy? Tomorrow-Tim is literally wearing the N52 Batman costume 7 years before Flashpoint! Overall, not as good as the first chapter, but the Tim stuff was interesting while Slade jerking around was hilarious. How did the Titans East split off? Where is Starfire?
• Teen Titans #19 - Titans Tomorrow, Part III : "East Meets West" = DANG! Great final sequence, great issue overall. Enjoyed the glimpses of hope in the tomorrow-verse with Cyborg and the East-coast gang maintaining the status quo on the other half of the country. Foreshadowing is always fun and we got Star + Dick ships, Bette Kane + Ra's Al Ghul, Ravager/Bart, and endless mentions of the Crisis. Funny that this whole arc was an engine for the Titans to finally embrace each other as a team. I think it's fascinating that Johns really had them stick it out with tension post Graduation Day; it's nice to think that it would take this long after Donna's "death" while doing a lot of service to the importance of her character.

 

Titans/Young Justice Graduation Day + Teen Titans (2003) #1-7 Review

 

Graduation Day

• Titans/Young Justice: Graduation Day #1 - "Invocation" = Judd Winick's writing took a little to get used to. His Nightwing is a little off, much more like Batman in his aggressiveness. The concept of a mega-corporation trying to hire YJ and the Titans for tax write offs is hilarious, and I wonder if they have any link to this mysterious blue girl who's trying to repair herself using cybernetic individuals in the DCU. This group of Titans is interesting: I remember Argent from Rock of Ages (even though that was a future version), and I have no idea why Roy is using a gun? The Donna Troy dream sequence was interesting too, and Cyborg states Indigo is apparently benevolent, setting up a couple plot points for the rest of the mini. Not too crazy about the art, but at least I won't have to deal with it for very long.
• Titans/Young Justice: Graduation Day #2 - "Commencement" = This one was a bit of a step up. I am not a fan of Winick's characterization of Dick, he makes him so damn angsty which doesn't seem to fit in with his personality whatsoever. Tim was also on edge, and that makes me wonder if this is somehow related to the Batman line stuff with Hush and Murderer/Fugitive keeping the whole bat-family on edge. If not, then this gets really messy. The Donna moments are great, and Vic is always fun. Besides that, not much happens until the shock value final sequence. Omen is merc'd by a Superman robot that STAR apparently has? I have no care for Indigo, and I'm just excited to be done with this so I can move on into the Johns Titans series.
• Titans/Young Justice: Graduation Day #3 - "Recessional" = An excuse for a soft reboot. This was mediocre at best. The art is bleh. Winick's characterization of Nightwing sucks. RIP Donna, but I'm more excited for the Jimenez min than this. I think I had way too high expectations for Winick, and I'm praying that I enjoy his stuff in the lead-up to Infinite Crisis.
• Teen Titans/Outsiders Secret Files & Origins 2003 - "A Day After" = Phil Jimenez section carried the hell out of this. His writing and art work in tandem so well, a fusion that shows how much Jimenez really cares about the Wonder Woman mythos. Very hyped to read his Donna Troy mini-series leading up to IC. The Johns/Winick stuff was fine, but I really don't care for the grumpy Nightwing. The prelude to both Teen Titans and Outsiders was serviceable, but forgettable.

A Kid's Game [#1-7 + 1/2]

• Teen Titans #1 - "Teen Titans" = Interesting opener. Fun that it's the JLA getting the proteges together for a new Teen Titans post events of Graduation Day. I think them making that effort displays an extremely healthy relationship between both generations that I wish was more present in current continuity. There are some interactions that came off as jarring: Wally being cynical about Bart, the Cassie teen angst stuff, Conner and Tim. I guess everyone is super on edge after the death of Donna and Lilith, so it makes sense (I sleepwalked through that mini-series, and I know Donna comes back so I didn't care much). The final twist was cool, I know Johns has had this in his fanfic for quite some time, so it's fun to see it implemented for the first time.
• Teen Titans #2 - "Child's Play" = Gah damn that last page. Still getting some weird vibes off of the dynamic; the novelty of the teen angst has worn off. Tim is the most jarring, but maybe that has to do with Johns' characterization of Batman. Conner is the standout, but everyone else is just annoying. I know for a fact that Johns can write good teen characters, I mean just look at Stargirl, but he's 100% doing this intentionally. I already know the Deathstroke twist, but the disposal of Wintergreen sucks since he ends up being so good in the Priest-Stroke run.
• Teen Titans #3 - "Too Young To Die!" = All I felt reading this was how similar the interactions were to Johns writing the League in the New 52. Teen angst is not for me, but I will certainly power through it while reading this run. The mausoleum sequence was cool, and the foreshadowing leading up to the final page reveal worked out really well. The McKone art is growing on me, but I hope the plot accelerates soon, because the writing is certainly not carrying the book. Also, I'm assuming the girl in the church of blood sequence is Raven.
• Teen Titans #4 - "Breaking the Rules" = Great last page. Seeds are being sown with Cassie, Raven, and Conner; everything else seems meandering. Starfire, Beast Boy, and Cyborg are the weak links while Jericho possessing Slade maintains sufficient tension as an introductory villain in classic Johns "sins of your past have come to haunt you" type fashion. McKone's art is great, the fight scenes are dynamic and brutal as hell. The Bart stuff was the stand out, makes sense too since Johns is a Flash-fanatic.
• Teen Titans #5 - "Clash of the Teen Titans" = I think I'm past the transition point and have finally got used to the characters. Johns obviously seems to have an affinity for the YJ remnants over the Wolfman titans, but I wonder if that'll change over the course of this run. A pretty unsatisfying anti-climax to this whole arc, and Deus Ex Raven showing up out of nowhere to yoink Jericho didn't make it any better. Bart becoming Kid Flash was dope, and Diana yeeting Conner on that last page was hilarious. 
• Teen Titans #6 - "War & Peace" = Titans vs JLA! Heroes vs Heroes over an understanding, one of the stupidest tropes to ever exist in comics. The only justification to make it work in this context is the fact that these are goddamn hormonal super-teens, of course they're going to let the angst turn to punches and kicks (the older titans should be in their 20's, so that's pretty inexcusable). Mike McKone continues to deliver wonderfully choreographed art, very much cemented in the 2000's era ambience. Nightwing coming in was hilarious, and the evolution of the Tim/Conner brotherhood is still great. One thing that has bugged me is the fact that all the YJ leftovers seem so distant even though they were on a team together for multiple years; they act like they first met each other recently! Conner and Tim have been friends since the dang 90's, where is all this disconnect coming from, because if it's really a result of Graduation Day, than I don't know what to tell you.
• Teen Titans #7 - "Wednesday" = The best issue yet? Drop-ins for every member of the Titans (sans Vic sadly) with little old Slade as our bookends. Conner and Bart had the best internal reflections (makes sense given it's Johns) while Tim and Kori were some great runner ups. Still adjusting to pre-flashpoint Deathstroke since I'm so used to his characterization during Priest's run. 
• Teen Titans #1/2 - "The Ravager" = I think this was fine, nothing too crazy. The use of Wade LeFarge was cool, but I'm not sure how I feel about this characterization of Rose. Like I mentioned in the last entry, the Rose I'm used to is from Priest's Deathstroke, so John's half-baked/newborn personalities are not doing it for me. The Ivan Reis art was fun, and I'm sure the flashback panels were great for fans of Wolfman's Deathstroke run in the 90's, but the Titans were pretty useless in this.