Teen Titans #56 Review

TEEN TITANS #56
Written by Sean McKeever
Art by Eddy Barrows

Someone convince me to keep buying this book. Please. Because I think I'm done. I don't think there's a single redeemable quality in this issue. No, not even Blue Beetle managed to do anything for me here.

The entire issue is about Kid "Emoboy" Devil and how his life sucks and everyone hates him all of a sudden. To rectify this, he goes on an internet fansite and invites a dozen or so guys he doesn't know to party at Titans Tower and make himself feel loved, since everyone is out of town and basically hate him now. Yes, it's retarded and of course a super villain is in the group.

Once the team finds out about the party, they yell at Kid Devil, he goes out for some ice cream or whatever and one of the guys from the party reveals himself as a villain and attacks KD. The issue ends with the Terror Titans revealed. Kill me now.

Verdict - Avoid It

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Teen Titans #55 Review

TEEN TITANS #55
Written by Sean McKeever
Art by Eddy Barrows & Rob Hunter

First up, Eddy Barrows and Rob Hunter need to be fired for the eye rape that shoots bullets at anyone who looks at this disfigured "art". Ravager is like 90 years old in most images. Robin looks like the guy on the covers of MAD Magazine after he makes a date with Cassie. It's not the worst art I've ever seen, but god damn is it ugly. I think Blue Beetle is the only one that looked normal.

Unfortunately, the story wasn't much better. I liked the Ravager flirting with Blue Beetle / messing with Kid Devil scenes. Seems like something she'd do for some reason. Everything else was just painful. Martian Girl is supposed to be the idealistic and almost simple sounding member that says exactly what she feels in most cases. Now she's the dark and brooding member of the team. Blue Beetle was literally the only character that was great in every scene he was in.

Verdict - Avoid It

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Teen Titans #54 Review

TEEN TITANS #54
Written by Sean McKeever
Art by Eddy Barrows, Joe Prado & Greg Tocchini

I love time travel / alternate reality / etc stories. It's just fun seeing different takes on my favourite characters. However, sometimes the writers get way too caught up on the time travel aspect and the whole story devolves into a complete disaster, leaving the reader confused and unsure of what the heck they just read.

Unfortunately, this issue was just that, an unmitigated disaster in terms of story and plot. Every other issue seemed to have a clear and definite story that was building to something bigger. This 'conclusion' was impossible to follow. People start fading in and out of reality and there's new futures created and pretty much nothing, as far as I can tell, was really answered in terms of why these Titans came back in time or what their actual goal was. In short, the wheels fell of the wagon on this story.

While I feel the story ended up as a train wreck, there was still some shining moments in this issue. I loved all Martian Girl's lines and Blue Beetle's scenes were excellent as well. The hints of future betrayals, such as Kid Devil's warning that Blue Beetle would betray them and the new future for the Titans' showing Robin and Martian Girl dating behind Wonder Girl's back and joining forces with Lex Luthor. I wonder if McKeever has any plans for these plots or if it's just going to be a dangling plot that can be picked up on at anytime.

Verdict - Check It. It's not a pretty ending, but if you've been following this story, it's worth picking up for some of the stuff that's going on here.

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Teen Titans #53 Review

TEEN TITANS #53
Written by Sean McKeever
Art by Alé Garza and Marlo Alquiza

After last issue's fairly average outing, McKeever bounces back with an excellent third part to this future Titans storyline.

I'm still not sure what the future Titans were hoping to accomplish by coming back in time, as they are unable to do anything against the Starro invasion and it seems like every single thing they've tried to do to convice the Titans to become like them has backfired on them. Case in point, Martian Girl slicing her future self's head off after she was telepathically assaulted.

However, the issue was still a great read and I can't wait to see how this ends next month. My only concern is with Blue Beetle saying he's not really a member of the Titans. Hopefully McKeever plans to keep him around after this storyline as an actual member. He's one of my favourite characters and I think he'd fit in well with the team.

Verdict - Must Read.

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Teen Titans #52 Review

TEEN TITANS #52
Written by Sean McKeever
Art by Alé Garza & Marlo Alquiza

Aside from a few minor speed bumps, this was another solid outing from McKeever in this month's Teen Titans. However, much like Countdown, there was a serious dip in the quality of the art this month. While the art is no where near as bad as Countdown, it's still a noticable drop from last month's issue.

The striking visual of Robin with a gun to his own head from last issue was quickly cast aside as Prometheus jumped back into the fight. The Robin / Bat-Tim scenes are the best of the present / future dynamics. I really liked the ending of their scene when Tim-Batman hands Robin the gun after saving him and walks away with the smile, confident Robin will kill Prometheus and embrace his future dickery self.

The other scenes played out in fairly predictable fashions, with each future self failing to persuade their younger self to do what needs to be done. It's nice to note, that while the future selves act like asses, they all still help their younger selves with the Starros and various villains. Even Conner saved Supergirl, who he has no vested interest in like the other heroes, since it isn't his past self. Bat-Tim even goes on to help the rescue workers after saving Robin. So, they are still acting like heroes despite their attempts to persuade their younger selves. As of right now though, I'm still curious as to what they are trying to accomplish here. All they've done is manage to push their younger selves further away from becoming who they want them to be. Maybe I'm missing something though and this is all some part of the plan by Tim-Batman.

The Blue Beetle fight with Bart was pretty good. The Beetle powers are fairly vague in that he can generate just about anything he needs for a particular situation using the scarab. So, while his 'energy bubble' was in tune with the way his powers work, it still came off a bit contrived and out of no where to end the fight. He then goes on to save the JLA.

Speaking of the Justice League, what was up with their just leaving after Blue Beetle saved them? They're confident the Titans can handle their future selves that single handedly took down the more powerful and experienced JLA? Am I missing something here or did McKeever just conviently write them out of this crossover? Hopefully this plothole gets picked up next issue.

I also missed Rose this issue. She had a few scenes, but came off mostly as a background character while Kid Devil debated and fought with his future self. She's one of my favourite characters and I enjoy her dialogue and snide remarks. She typically steals most scenes she's in in my opinion, so it was a bit of a disappointment to have her not play much role this issue.

Verdict - Check It. While not as good as the Must Read first part, this follow up is still good and it's always fun seeing future evil versions of heroes. While I feel the entire story will end up being great, this issue on its own came off a bit short of the bar set by the first part, so only gets a Check It rating.

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Teen Titans #51 Review

TEEN TITANS #51
Written by Sean McKeever
Art by Alé Garza & Marlo Alquiza

After reading this issue, I had to bump Starlord off the Book of the Week spot. This issue was just too good not to give that honour to.

Lots of great interactions between the future versions and their younger selves. Last issue they captured all the heavy hitters from the Justice League and this issue they tell their younger selves that a Starro invasion is coming and they have to stop it. Any attempt to free the JLA will result in the Leaguers dying.

Rose was excellent this issue. I love her character and she's a perfect fit in this issue. The snide comments and funny reactions to things like finding out future Conner tortured her father Deathstroke are some of my favourite parts of this book.

The return of Bart is explained as Tim having perfected the cloning of Conner and used it to bring back Bart as well. I was hoping it would lead to a easy retcon for Bart possibly returning to the present day, but looks like they cut that option off. Surprised they made him hate Rose in this storyline, as he loved her in the future, even when she was on the East team. The future did change by the team coming back in time and knowing about their future selves, but I figured that would have stayed the same.

Great issue, lots of interesting dialogue with their future selves and a great finish with the Prometheus / Robin fight that lead to a dramatic ending. But I honestly don't think anyone believes Tim would kill himself in an attempt to change the future. Still, great outing from McKeever. Can't wait for next issue.

Verdict - Must Read

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Teen Titans #50 Review

TEEN TITANS #50
Written by Sean McKeever, Geoff Johns, Marv Wolfman & Todd DeZago
Art by Randy Green, Mike McKone, George Perez & Todd Nauck

This was the best Titans issue in a long time. McKeever did an excellent job on his first issue and I expect great things from him. His Spider-man Loves Mary Jane convinced me he knows how to write teenage characters and he does an excellent job with the young Titan team.

The issue is broken up into several smaller sections, handled by various artists and writers, including Johns and Wolfman, two of the definitive Titans writers from the past. The entire issue is more of a tribute to Impulse / Kid Flash, who died as the Flash several months ago. I was a little put off by the rehash of the funeral at the start, but that quickly disappeared when I saw how much better it was handled and how the book quickly branched off into excellent side stories.

Ravager is one of my favourite Titans and she gets plenty of good scenes in this issue, especially the skinny dipping in the pool with Kid Devil.

The Impulse flashbacks near the end by Wonder Girl were hilarious as well. They reference the Young Justice days and are great reminders for how under appreciated that series was.

I was also happy to see Wally West, the Flash, in this issue. He has barely been touched on in relation to Bart's death and it was great to see how much it affected him in this issue and his reaction to Bart as the new Kid Flash. The flashback scene was a great throwback and appreciated.

Blue Beetle #18 gets rehashed here without totally negating last week's issue. They managed to take most of the fight and transplant it in this issue almost word for word. You miss out of some of the funnier moments and character interactions from Blue Beetle #18, but it conveys the contents of the issue for the people that do not want to be forced to buy ancillary books to understand Teen Titans. Well handled by both books and you should not feel like you missed out or feel cheated if you did or did not buy both books.

Finally, the book deals with the future Titans. Throughout the book, we see various attacks on the JLA members, like Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and so on until finally we see the Flash taken down in front of Robin and Wonder Girl by the two currently dead Titans, Superboy and Kid Flash. Was a great end to a great issue and anyone remotely interested in the Titans should pick this up as it is a great jumping on point as well with the new writer and new storyline starting. Pick up Blue Beetle as well. That book rocks and deserves a chance from everyone.

Verdict - Must Read

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Teen Titans Archives

Archives - Back Issue Bins - DC - Teen Titans Archive

Teen Titans

Teen Titans #50 - Titans of Tomorrow...Today! - Verdict - Must Read
Teen Titans #51 - Titans of Tomorrow...Today! - Verdict - Must Read
Teen Titans #52 - Titans of Tomorrow...Today! - Verdict - Check It
Teen Titans #53 - Titans of Tomorrow...Today! - Verdict - Must Read
Teen Titans #54 - Titans of Tomorrow...Today! - Verdict - Check It
Teen Titans #55 - Martian Girl possessed by evil future version of herself - Verdict - Avoid It
Teen Titans #56 - Terror Titans attack Kid Devil - Verdict - Avoid It

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