Time To Go To School
We've got a new status quo for the young heroes of the DC Universe and not only that, we've got them working with the older guard of the New Teen Titans from the '80s and the two groups are going to be looking towards the future as they train up the next generation of heroes through the newly formed Roy Harper Academy. It's just too bad that from what we saw in Future State that things aren't going to turn out all that well in the end. Let's just hope that with the new class that there's a glimmer of hope somewhere that the future we saw isn't set in stone and one or many of these new characters will have the power to change it. Let's jump into this issue and check it out.
As we jump into this new iteration of Teen Titans, fused between the old and the new and the next generation, we see that there's way too much going on here. I mean, I'm all for the New Teen Titans of the '80s, even if I think that calling them "Mr." or "Ms." before their superhero names will get a bit old after a while and I'm all for the new iteration of the current Teen Titans with Kid Flash, Red Arrow, Crush, Roundhouse and two new additions to the team in the form of Bunker and Jakeem Thunder.... but when you combine these two teams with the idea that we have to introduce everyone to the students that were picked to join Teen Titans Academy, not to mention wrap the whole thing around the mystery of Red X..... I just felt that this entire issue lacked any real focus.
As I said, I love the current Teen Titans and love Jakeem and Bunker on the team but they're more of an afterthought here that doesn't play out as much as it should, and while I want to know the next generation of heroes, they aren't introduced all that well and by the end of the issue I'm still not really sure who is who and think it's odd that I would need to go back and study this issue to nail down the new characters. The thing that concerns me the most though is the Red X lore that's just being thrown into this because we've never had Red X in the main continuity and for whatever reason, everyone and their mothers seem to know that Nightwing was Red X and that there were two other Red X's after him and it just doesn't play off very well because we know nothing while everyone who should know nothing, knows everything and because that's the case...... nothing really gets explained..... you know?
All in all, this issue tries to introduce the new status quo to the Teen Titans and while you do leave this issue knowing the premise of the book, the details in my mind about who these people are, while this is happening, or who you should care about feels lost in the shuffle and that's disappointing to me because I was really looking forward to this book and while it may play out better as the series continues, this first issue just didn't grab me the way I wanted it too because there were too many characters, not enough information and the situations felt odd and forced at times just to match up with things we saw in Future State and it felt a bit unneeded right out of the gate. As for the art, I enjoyed it for the most part but like the story, it seems like information was lost or purposely withheld and because you're not sure of the creators' motivations, this aspect leaves you wanting more and that feeling is weird since so much was jammed into this issue.
Bits and Pieces:
While I really love the idea of this book I wish that this first issue took its time to flesh out the characters and their motivations because it just throws so much at you, while starting a mystery that is forced on us about Red X, that doesn't play off very well because everyone has more information about it than we do. There's just too much going on here and nothing feels solid to me since we're just thrown into this new status quo that feels slapped together and I want to see the evolution of the Teen Titans coming together, new and old to see that the next generation of heroes are taken care of.
I think this was a fun book and it sets up something i have wanted for a long time the teen titans as a team under the older Titans
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