Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Teen Titans #2

And now, to close out the week, I FINALLY get around to reviewing Teen Titans #2... Only about a month or so later than it first came out. But the important thing is that I finally have it, right? Although, considering how little I've enjoyed Scott Lobdell's work at DC thus far(Superboy, Red Hood & Teen Titans have all been sub-par for me) maybe it would have been better if my comic shop never got this issue in stock for me... Naturally, after I post this review, I'll be posting TT #3 to get myself completely caught up with this series.

Teen Titans #2:

What Happened: Kid Flash is locked up in some jail cell, while Red Robin and Wonder Girl talk about NOWHERE running around kidnapping teenage meta-humans to either force them to work for NOWHERE or kill them. Red Robin is surprised that NOWHERE hadn't made another attempt at capturing WG, but that's because Superboy has been told by Templar, the head honcho at NOWHERE, to study WG and be ready to take her down the next time Templar makes a move on WG. From there, Red Robin learns about another teenager with powers, some creepy girl named Skitter. After talking to Skitter's sister, Red Robin finds out that NOWHERE was also on Skitter's trail, meaning he had to find her first. A search of the sewers brings Red Robin into battle with three NOWHERE operatives, who are eventually downed by Skitter herself. Red Robin tries unsuccessfully to reason with Skitter, who moves in to attack him. However, Red Robin is saved by Wonder Girl, who claims that she only helped out to even the score with Red Robin, seeing as that he assisted her last issue. This issue ends back with Kid Flash, who manages to escape from his jail cell and can't find any other captive teens(he was speaking to one through his cell wall earlier). After a quick search of the now empty prison, he finds some girl named Solstice who was... well, I'm not sure what was up with her, but she was asking for help, so it was probably something not very good.

The Good: The Red Robin in this comic was a lot like the pre-reboot Red Robin, which is a plus in my eyes. You can see how this story and the Teen Titans team is going to come together, so obviously Lobdell has some kind of a plan here, even if I don't exactly like it... That's good, right? I enjoyed the art here. The fight scenes were well done. I can see myself liking this version of Kid Flash(probably).

The Bad: On the other hand, I can't stand the sassy, “Grrr, I'm a tough girl!!!” Wonder Girl. I don't really see lots of room for growth for a character like Skitter(who's obviously going to fill the Penance role on this team). Seeing as that Superboy has a series of his own, I don't get why he's pulling double duty in this series. If anything, with the popularity of the Bat-family of books, it should be Red Robin who's in this series and a self-titled book, especially as the more likable character of the two.

The Verdict: I'm trying to keep an open mind nowadays with these DC comic books, because let's face it, they are all new characters that have nothing to do with the characters I enjoyed reading about prior to the relaunch. And that's a very difficult thing for somebody who has read as many pre-reboot DC comics as I have. For example, the Tim Drake in this comic? He's not the same Tim Drake I was a fan of. He's just some other character Tim Drake that I only know from Teen Titans #1. Granted, it would have been easier if he was named... um, Dim Trake or something, that way I wouldn't be constantly comparing him to the pre-reboot Tim... Huh, I really went off on a tangent there, didn't I? Let's steer this back to this comic book... This was an okay comic book, which is pretty much as good as I'd have expected here. Seriously, I have pretty much the lowest possible expectations for this series and am only buying it because of the Teen Titans name... Well, that and Red Robin, who as I stated above, SHOULD have a series of his own... I'm still not sold on the whole “Evil top-secret government project” thing, because that is SO played out, but I do like the way Lobdell is moving the characters around here as he sets the table for the formation of the Teen Titans.

Score: 7 out of 10.Nice room there, Timmy.

5 comments:

  1. I got this when it first came out - benefit of buying online - so I think this is the first comic I've read in a while before I've read your review. I'm actually quite enjoying this series as well, I've always been a fan of Teen Titans but before the reboot I didn't pick up many DC Comics so I guess I'm more open to these new comics as I don't have many opinions from the old ones.

    Regarding Wonder Girl, I'm completely loving her. I way prefer the sassy girl who kick ass over the innocent naive ones who 'don't know what they're doing' but somehow win every battle, at least with this girl there's a bit more to get your teeth into than with others.

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  2. "so I guess I'm more open to these new comics as I don't have many opinions from the old ones." That's what I've been trying to force myself to do, be more open with these new DC books... I just have to forget about all of the older DC stuff that I read and treat all of the characters as if they were brand new. It was tough to do back in Sept when the DC reboot first happened, but I'm slowly getting better at it. It's just a matter of telling myself before I open a DC book that these are NEW characters, not the ones I knew.

    The pre-reboot WG wasn't really one of those naive girls who lucks her way into wins. She had developed into a team leader, her growth from Young Justice to Teen Titans was impressive, she was somebody who could easily lead the Titans when Red Robin left the team. My main problem with THIS WG is that I just don't see her as a leader-type. I don't even see her as a team player type. She's more of the loner type who I don't really see working in a team environment. Maybe as time passes she'll become more of a team player, but I'll def miss the WG who could convincingly lead the Titans.

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  3. OMG DUDE MARCH IS GONNA BE SO FREAKING KICKASS
    no spoilers............
    http://www.comicbookresources.com/prev_img.php?disp=img&pid=1323809611

    http://www.comicbookresources.com/prev_img.php?disp=img&pid=1323809398

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  4. Thanks as always, Movieartman. I can always count on you to link me the most awesome preview stuf. That Winter Soldier/Doom image? A-freaking-mazing!!! I can not WAIT for that!!

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  5. the artist for both thoose covers are probley my top 2 fav artist
    the thor one is gabrielle dell otto he did the art for secret war and the badass covers for hulk vs dracula
    the artist for the winder soldier
    here is his blog
    http://leebermejo.blogspot.com/
    he has done sevreal amazing grafic novels
    Superman/gen 13
    Lex Luther: man of steel
    Joker
    Batman noel
    he dosent work offen but when he does its amazing im so glad they got him doing covers for winter soldier in his spare time

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