Detective Comics #874 & Teen Titans #93

Okay, we're gonna do things just a little bit differently here... I was looking back at the posts I did back in March, and all I saw was “Quick Hits”, “Quick Hits”, Quick Hits”! If you're new to the blog, you'd have no idea what comics were reviewed in each post, so if you wanted to read a review for, let's say Detective Comics #873, you'd have to either go through countless Quick Hits posts, or find the “Detective Comics” label, click that and then scan through the Detective Comics posts until you found the issue you wanted to read up on. So I'm going to move away from the Quick Hits posts for a while and do a couple of posts with no more than 2 reviews in them. That way the titles of the comics I'm reviewing will be right in each post's title, making it a bit easier to find whatever review you might be looking for. Okay, got all that? Good. I'll be posting two DC posts now, and two Marvel posts tonight. Let's get on with it then.

Detective Comics #875:

Summary: This is an all Commissioner Gordon issue, so if you're like me and you like Gordon, then you're in luck! We get stated with Gordon thinking back to an unsolved case from 15 years ago involving the deaths and mutilation of 8 children. Basically, Gordon has managed to figure out who the killer was and apprehends him. While talking to the killer, the killer reveals that he nearly killed Gordon's own son 15 years back, but stopped after looking at the creepy kid. The revelation that the killer had visited his son right around the time a friend of Barbara Gordon's vanished, causes Gordon to wonder just what happened to the girl, since he was always haunted by the fact that his own son might have had a hand in the girl's disappearance.

Thoughts: Okay, this comic was awesome seven ways to next Sunday. That summary I did for it up above? It doesn't even BEGIN to do this issue justice. This comic was a tough one to actually review because a) the story kept jumping back and forth from the present to the past. b) I'm REALLY tired right now, and c) I suck! But yeah, that crappy “review” notwithstanding, this comic was really, REALLY good. So my hat is off to Scott Snyder, who has written the best Commissioner Gordon since... well, since Ed Brubaker. And a comparison to Brubaker is just about the highest praise I can possibly give a writer.

Score: 9 1/2 out of 10.Commissioner Gordon(and his mustache) is awesome!


Teen Titans #93:

Summary: We get started with Red Robin arriving at Titans Tower to officially retake control of the Teen Titans... I have mixed feelings about that, but I'll save that for my thoughts on this issue. The Titans head to India to help that Solstice chick Wonder Girl met in that terrible Wonder Girl one-shot from a few months back. It turns out Solstice's parents have mysteriously vanished, and WG's mother, who was working with them, has called in the Titans to look around. The team splits up(and naturally Red Robin places himself and Superboy together), and eventually Red Robin and SB run into a demon. The demon knocks SB around, and is about to trounce Red Robin when Ravager and Kid Flash arrive on the scene. The demon takes both of them out, at which point Beast Boy and Raven arrive on the scene and naturally get defeated... Are they the Teen Titans or a group of black ninjas from a kung-fu movie?!? By this point the demon has located WG's mother and grabbed a hold of her. WG rushes over and grabs her mother and the demon teleports all three of them away. WG is blinded momentarily by the teleportation effect and when her eyesight returns, she is laid out by an even bigger demon.

Thoughts: Okay, first things first, this issue automatically gets a 1/2 point bump in the score because Nicola Scott did the pencils, and I am an unrepentant Nicola Scott fan. Now on to the story. While I understand, and a part of me is really happy that Red Robin has returned to the Teen Titans, there's another part of me that would much rather see Robin in his spot... I mean, Robin could REALLY use the time away from the Batman books to develop a more well-rounded personality, sort of like how Dick Grayson did in the original Teen Titans and Tim Drake did in Young Justice. But I guess it's not gonna happen, because there's NO way in hell Damian and Tim would be able to coexist on the same team. As for the story, there were a few things that bugged me. First off would be the unfortunate return of horny Bart Allen... It just weirds me out so bad when Bart shows interest in a girl... I mean I was fine when he was the grown-up Flash and hooking up with women, but whenever I see Bart as Kid Flash I think back to Bart as Impulse and the thought of Impulse being romantic with anyone bugs me. Solstice does absolutely nothing for me. I wasn't impressed with her in the Wonder Girl one-shot, and I'm still not impressed with her. She's just too goody-goody for my tastes. You know JT Krul is going to put her on the team after this storyline, and that's a shame, because the team as is is just fine. Besides those little gripes, the story itself was solid. It made sense, moved along quickly and ended with a good cliffhanger. Teen Titans has become one of DC's better books... Who would have guessed it!

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.Bart's hair color this month? Brown.