Teen Titans #97 & Superman #713

Today we take a break from all things Marvel and head back to the DCU for two comics I am NOT looking forward to reading... With that rousing introduction out of the way, let's take a quick look at the comics in question.

Teen Titans #97

Summary: The Teen Titans rally and thanks to Solstice(who's name I'm tempted to put in all caps since she's SO damn important apparently) beat up Rankor, the evil Indian god. Solstice then tells her parents that she was going with the Titans, which her parents happily give their approval for, ending this issue.

Thoughts: Yeah, that's right, that's as much of a review this rubbish is getting from me. I'm SURE there are more in depth reviews out there if you REALLY want to know the minute by minute craptitude that was this comic, but I'm definitely not wasting anymore of my time talking about this one... It's bad enough I wasted time reading it! I will say this about this issue though, it actually helped establish two things for me... The first is that Nicola Scott can make even the worst, most boring, terrible comic book look good. She's that good an artist. The second is that I definitely WON'T be picking up the rebooted Green Arrow series come September... I was on the fence as to whether or not I should pick it up, I already handed in my pull list for September, but was still contemplating adding GA before the reboot. But after reading this? Nope. JT Krul just isn't a good enough writer to get me to commit to a comic I was undecided on, and this issue solidified that fact. So check that out, this issue of Teen Titans was SO bad, it actually convinced me NOT to pick up GA in a two month's time! That's some epically bad storytelling!

Score: 2 out of 10.*gasp*!! Who saw THAT coming?!


Superman #713:

Summary: This issue gets started with Superman calling Superboy and Supergirl to him and then proceeding to get undressed in front of them... Okay, there was a bit more to it than THAT... Let me start over again... Supes calls Superboy and Supergirl to him and after they arrive, Supes begins to talk about how he didn't think it was a wise idea to be Supes anymore because, in Supes mind, Superman served as a target for villains and caused regular citizens to resent him... Uh-huh... With that, Supes changes to Clark Kent and declares that he was finished being Superman, but that he WOULD still help people, just anonymously. From there, Clark walks into a coffee shop in Portland, Oregon, and begins typing up an article asking if the world needed a Superman. From there Clark meets a man dressed in a Superman sweater, and the man is aghast to see Clark Kent writing something negative about Superman! Yes, aghast!! The man tells Clark that Clark doesn't understand Supes at all(HA!), and then tells him that they wouldn't be able to find a single person in Portland who'd speak ill of Supes. Clark decides to go with the man, and needless to say, everybody they speak to in the streets only have positive things to say about Supes, no matter how Clark tries to paint Supes as a potential menace. After the sixth person, Clark begins to rethink his stance since it seemed so many people saw Supes as a symbol of all that was good and right in the world. While the two are strolling around town, Clark and the Supes fan hear a news report from Seattle stating that a crazy super powered woman had taken Lois Lane hostage. Needless to say, by the time the fan turns around, Clark is long gone, undoubtedly on his way to Seattle.

Thoughts: Huh. I'm actually having a bit of trouble thinking of what to say about this issue... I mean it was REALLY slow, but that's not to say it was awful... In a way I think this issue kind of epitomizes my problem with this entire storyline. It took too long to get where it was going... Did we really need four separate examples(told by six people) of why the world needed Superman over the course of an entire issue? Wouldn't two or three people over two or three pages have been able to suffice? In that same vein, couldn't this story have been told over 4 to 6 issues instead of a mind-numbing 12? I guess that's the thing. This storyline wasn't horrible or anything, it just took too long to get where it was going. Same thing with this issue.

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.Yeah, that's kind of creepy, Supes...