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.