Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Teen Titans #1 Review and *SPOILERS*

Written By: Will Pfeifer
Art By: Kenneth Rocofort
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: July 16, 2014


Speed 3: Terror In Times Square


Here we are guys and gals the beginning of the relaunched series of Teen Titans!  While I love the Titans this relaunch is simply ridiculous and serves little purpose other than to trick people into thinking this isn't the awful Titans they were reading two months ago.  Well they got my money, so I guess it's worked so far.  Let's dive into this pseudo new series and see if Will Pfeifer and Kenneth Rocafort can make a go of this title and explain to me all the reasons why these Titans are so different that they needed to brand this as a #1.

Explain It!:

This story starts right off with a group of terrorists hijacking a school bus on a field trip to the Big Apple.  Red Robin is being his leadery self and monitoring the situation atop a skyscraper, ordering his team into the action a member at a time.  The terrorists seem to have watched Terminator one too many times because it seems that their plan to drive the bus full of children and explosives into S.T.A.R. Labs to stop them from creating Skynet.  For those of you who will take that seriously I'm just talking about Artificial Intelligence, so calm the hell down I was just trying to make a joke.  But yeah Skynet.

Wonder Girl moves in first but is told to stay on top of the bus and not attack until Red Robin figures out what the leader of the terrorists end game is.  Bunker is ordered to the front of S.T.A.R. Labs to hang tight and wait while Beast Boy is to infiltrate the bus unnoticed until Red Robin gives the order.  Oh yeah and for some reason Beast Boy is green again.  No explanation, no reasoning, just green.  Now I know a lot of you will be happy to see the Beast Boy you recognize, but I was perfectly happy with the New 52 brown Beast Boy and didn't need him to look like his cartoon counterpart.  I just hope that we're given something in the future and this simply isn't swept under the rug.

Like I said the plan was to wait for Red Robin's signal, but the plan goes to hell when the terrorists realize that Wonder Girl is on the roof.and decide to shoot a child to prove a point.  Well Wonder Girl isn't too hip on letting that go down, so she pulls the would be shooter out through the bus window and throws him aside.  It isn't specified but the terrorist might be dead.  It's getting dark again in the Teen Titans world.  This action leads to a new would be shooter, which forces Beast Boy to make his presence known by shape shifting into a Bengal Tiger and scaring the shit out of terrorists and children alike.  Since it looks like Red Robin isn't going to learn anything before the terrorists start killing people, it's time for the entire team to take action.  Raven shows up and takes three of the terrorists on a short trip to the Nightmare Realm, where we see that it's hard to be threatening when you have a load in your pants.  The leader of the group decides the hell with it and activates the bomb vests all the terrorists are wearing and without any other option Wonder Girl takes them and jumps out of the bus where they all explode.  Yup definitely getting dark as hell in Titans Land.  

In the end Bunker creates a wall to gently stop the bus from crashing into S.T.A.R. Labs and our heroes prevail in their first reissue.  Except that the leader of the terrorist group got away, and their might be some bad press in tomorrows paper because Bunker used a bit of force on a civilian because he believed he was going to say something disparaging about the heroes that saved him being homosexual.  That's it for Teen Titans #1, be sure to come back next month as we explore their ongoing re-numbered adventures. 

Bits and Pieces:

With the exception of Beast Boy being green again, I don't see any reason that this needed to be a re-numbered series except for DC trying to trick the readers into believing this was something completely new.   It's not and we're not told anything about Beast Boy's pigment change.  This issue all boils down to new creators, same heroes, boring adventure and the mystery of what happened to Garfield's brown fur.  We've moved away from the big adventures going on in the last series to the entire team taking on five guys on a bus.  Seems like a bit of a step backwards.

6/10

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