Teen Titans #73

Besides this review, I was going to put some thoughts for the Wanted trade I've been reading up tonight, but unfortunately, that's just not in the cards. I still haven't finished Wanted off yet(for the record, I'm up to the final issue)so that post will have to wait until tomorrow. However, this is supposed to be a review for Teen Titans #73, so I should probably take care of that right now! This comic is written by Bryan Miller and pencilled by Joe Bennett.

-We begin this issue with a quick glimpse into the near future where we see Wonder Girl and Miss Martian mourning at the casket of a soon to be deceased teammate.

-In the present, the Titans have discovered that Shimmer has freed her brother, Mammoth, from Alcatraz and has captured Wonder Girl in the process. Oh yeah, and Shimmer also freed a whole slew of baddies as well to further complicate matters. Shimmer and Mammoth want to kill Wonder Girl, but the Calculator(who is the guy who set this whole plan up)tells Shimmer that Wonder Girl isn't to be killed, he only wants her punished for her role in the death of his son and the condition of his daughter.

-The Titans come up with a plan of action(after a lot of arguing)and storm the prison island. Before they arrive Shimmer sends Mammoth to murder a fellow inmate named Geiger. The Titans arrive and discover that the villains have left Wonder Girl behind but have killed several inmates before leaving. The Titans free Wonder Girl and stand around trying to figure out why Shimmer killed several inmates but allowed Wonder Girl to remain alive.

-While scouring Alcatraz for clues, Red Devil(who is back at Titans Tower)sends the Titans word that Shimmer and her crew have attacked an amusement park not far away from the Titans current location. The team reaches the amusement park and find Shimmer and her teammates, the new Fearsome Five, waiting for them. This issue ends with the computers in Titans Tower alerting Red Devil to some kind of nuclear signal being detected on Alcatraz.

-The Second Feature in this comic stars Ravager and is written by Sean McKeever and illustrated by Yildiray Cinar. Ravager wakes up after passing out last issue and learns from a doctor that her abuse of the drug epinephrine is slowly killing her. After leaving the doctor's office, Ravager meets a man named Will who seems to know a lot about Ravager. He offers her a place to spend the night alone and she accepts. As Ravager falls asleep in the room she was given, Will orders several armed goons to enter the room and kill Ravager.

-Other Developments: Kid Eternity is targeted by some guys in a van for some reason...

It's still very early in Bryan Miller's run on this series, but thus far I've liked what I've read. The story is good and thankfully isn't overly complicated, which is nice for a change. You have your good guys(the Titans), you have your bad guys(the Fearsome Five)and you have the secret mastermind behind it all craving revenge(the Calculator). Simple and enjoyable. That's not to say there isn't room for improvement, because for the most part I'm still not thrilled with the Titans team line-up, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that sometime soon we'll see the return of Superboy and Kid Flash to this team. If Superboy and Kid Flash arrived and Blue Beetle left, I would be overjoyed. For a score, I'll give this issue a 7 1/2 out of 10. The story was solid and the artwork was good, this is another example of a perfectly acceptable comic book.It sure sucks to be Geiger...