Everybody hates the Titans. They’ve just saved the world from the Beast Boy plague, which came about because Gar Logan saved the universe, but Sarge Steel of Amanda Waller’s Unamerican-sounding Bureau of Sovereignty is piling on the good guys.
Maybe a new toy will cheer the Titans up.
Also, it’s windy down south.
And when the rescuing is underway, and Beast Boy gets the reaction he feared from a scared dad, Raven doesn’t exactly calm the man’s fears.
It’s almost as if there’s a Traitor Within The Titans (Again).
This isn’t a great issue. It’s annoyingly stupid. I know the same old story tropes inevitably recur in a superhero universe, but come on – if the Titans are bad for saving ordinary people infected by the Beast Boy plague from being murdered by Waller’s drones, why are people not calling for her head?
Even if we accept that a section of the public buy into the Waller view, surely an equal – if not bigger number – would defend them? The million or so folk at whom Waller aimed her killer Quislets, say.
As for Raven being possessed by herself, or whatever, it makes no sense. Soul gems are a Marvel thing – either Raven stays good or goes bad, she can’t split in two like a demonic Duo Damsel. That’s no Raven.
This issue’s threat isn’t very exciting, what with hurricanes having little personality – couldn’t there at least be a supervillain behind it? I was intrigued for a second when writer Tom Taylor placed it in the Florida Keys, expecting a reference to the time Starfire spent living there – if you missed her 12-issue series a few years ago, track it down, it is delightful. Anyway, there’s nothing, no worries from Kory about her friends down there, one of whom actually works for the US Coastguard. Fail.
Talking of personalities, we could do with more from the actual humans in the book. Donna, Kory and Tempest get one line each. Wally has a few sentences. Vic – sorry, ‘Cy’ – is efficient but dull, little more these days than Boom Tube wrangler. It seems that if you’re not at the front of Taylor’s storyline, or Nightwing, you may as well not be there. So if you’re a fan of Beast Boy and Raven, you may be happy, as they’re getting the plot. Mind, the former looks to be having an understandable bout of PTSD – seriously, why aren’t his friends looking after him? – and the latter so wimpy she’s been locked away by her moodier side.
Jobbing DC guest artist Stephen Segovia does a good job, obviously more inspired by the action sequences than the several pages of talking heads in a cliched TV sequence. His Trigon is very good, and red as hell as coloured by Annette Kwok, whose sky on the final page is enchanting. Wes Abbott’s lettering choices work well too, while Dan Mora captures the ‘Titans Blah’ vibe skilfully for the cover.
All in all, this is a competent comic, but a series so directly nodding to the glory days of the New Teen Titans should be a lot better than this. I’d like to see a new writer, or a new cast – Damian Wayne’s Titans had some fun members, such as Roundhouse and Djinn, while Titans Academy gifted us Stitch. Heck, won’t somebody bring back Argent from Dan Jurgens’ Titans? This comic needs a massive shake up.
Too Dangerous For a Girl 2 
Soooooooo… news just broke a bit ago that Mark Waid will be helming an event series this summer built around Amanda Waller stripping heroes of their powers… And I hate to say it but I just don’t think even Waid can salvage this mess of a storyline DC has been building up to for the last few years. MAYBE if Waller winds up being some evil Earth 3 or Dark Universe doppleganger… But man I feel like the chances of that are just soooooooooooo slim at this point. Speaking of redundant, it feels like Waller is now Max Lord, except that it’s the mid 2020’s and not the mid-2000s…
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This news about a Waller event has me as disheartened as this series.
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Doesn’t it sound awful? I don’t know why Waid would agree to this one. Maybe he’ll sort out the Waller business in the first three pages and then moving on to something fun.
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I’m done.
Evil government officials turning the populace against Our Heroes.
Raven turning evil again and her closest friends oblivious.
Amanda Waller’s machinations.
No other heroes matter.
The most popular Titans cast stuck in amber with no real character development.
This is as far away from what I want in a Titans series as Damian’s team.
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Yep, it’s not good. I don’t get why Tom Taylor’s video game books are so good but his mainstream books so bad. OK, he has more leeway to go wild there but surely he could employ the same sharp characterisations here.
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The “problem” with Titans/Teen Titans as a brand is that there is a wildly popular, long-running version in another medium. So, DC is trying to ‘split the difference’ between the comic continuity and the cartoon show, but has lost the charm of both.
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It’s weird, it’s not like there’ll be much crossover of audiences.
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My sense is that the Business Problem that DC and Marvel are struggling with is that they basically missed developing Millennials as an audience for comics. So, they have two completely different groups. One is Gen X guys (and it is mostly guys), like us, who have a bit more of an income and a passion for comic’s history. The other audience are the Gen Z teens and 20-somethings who came in almost exclusively from the Superhero Boom in the Movies and TV. However, they are more used to Manga than American floppies.
It is two almost completely discrete audiences with different expectations.
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That makes sense, Dean. I suppose we should be grateful comics are still going at all, what with the lack of attention span people have these days, even people our age.
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I’ve read this and issue 9 on DCUI, and while I like them more than you did, I see some of the same problems.
And I’m still thinking about Amanda Waller. In issue 9, she’s negotiating a deal with Trigon. And at first, I thought, whoa! Hold on there! Would she actually make a deal with an actual devil? And then I thought: Yeah. If Waller thought she had him over a barrel, she absolutely would. In a sense, she’s John Constantine, but instead of magic, she uses public opinion and bureaucracy. She’s always so confident that she’s untouchable.
And while I’m still holding out for a duplicate, I have to concede that spending an extensive amount of time on Earth 3 would change a person. Too much time there, and it would be literally impossible not to question the motives of folks like Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman — she’s just seen the same people do horrible stuff. And sure, some writers will overplay that hand, and make her cross a line she might otherwise have — or have started with.
As for the Titans’ popularity, I want to agree with you: Whatever Waller is selling, maybe just half of the country would buy it. But then I think back to the days after 9/11, and after a huge trauma like that, people rallied around our leaders, even though they were liars and frauds, and in way over their heads. There was still dissent, but it got shut down pretty hard. And it’s possible that having so many people turn into animals would be that kind of trauma. Then again: the Titans saved SO MANY lives by doing what they did. It’s hard to believe that could be effectively weaponized against them without pushback. (Beast Boy, on the other hand — I could see him being a pariah for a long time. And the Titans’ association with him can’t help their image.)
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Thanks for another thoughtful response, Rob. The idea that Trigon wouldn’t have called Waller’s bluff and smited her in the last issue is nuts, but I must say, that was the best issue in a long while.
I don’t know how long Waller was on Earth 3, I could accept that maybe being there awhile could warp her brain a tad, but knowing going in that it’s a non-Bizarro opposite of her Earth should stop her believing the heroes she knows could become like this. Let’s hope Mark Waid can explain things, then rescue her.
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I’m trying to keep a more open mind about Waller lately. I do think an extended trip to Earth 3 could significantly adjust her parameters. She’s always been suspicious of superheroes, and she’s seen her worst fears realized. There’s some logic to that — an argument to be made, at least, to justify her more aggressive approach these days.
And I’m also trying to give each writer a little leeway with her (and other characters). It’s not necessarily their job to explain a previous writer’s approach to a character, and how that might differ from their own. I think Waid will give us a good Waller — an antagonist (as opposed to Ostrander’s flawed protagonist), but someone consistent with her own beliefs as he presents them. (Which may differ slightly from how Williamson, Taylor, and many writers before them have presented her.) And, I hope by the end of the series, he gives her a comeuppance.
Ultimately, a comics universe is a big, flawed thing. Some of the flaws are amusing — like the different versions of Atlantis in Silver Age Aquaman and Superman comics, that eventually got papered over by saying they were two different cities. Others are subtler, like how Waller (or Constantine, or Wally or Hal or Kara, or for Christ’s sake, Power Girl) behave in different ways under different creative teams. And I’ve resolved, for the most part, to Let That Go. Enjoy the stories I like, set aside the stories I don’t, or maybe reevaluate them later.
An example opposite Waller right now: Lex Luthor, in the Superman books, is acting pretty far out of character for me. He’s scheming, still, but he seems genuinely motivated by a wish to help people. And yet… I’m enjoying the story. I don’t necessarily buy it — either Lex’s conversion, or Williamson’s characterization of him (and most of all his continuity implant of him being a pre-Superman wannabe hero, which is bunk) — but it’s a fun story. I’m going along for the ride.
But he’s as far from “my Luthor” at this point as Waller is from “my Waller” — even though some things she’s done seem more reprehensible than anything the original Waller would do, IMO. But even, like, her killing of Chunk: Would I want her to do that? Of course not. Could I believe she’d do it in order to save pretty much everybody on earth? Put like that, sure. She doesn’t traffic in hope. She doesn’t believe superheroes will “find a way.” If she sees a solution to a problem, no matter how harsh, she’ll take it. Even if that means killing a bunch of animal people to save a whole lot more uninfected humans. (Which, I agree, is a decision she should be called on the carpet for.)
As for Trigon — yeah, he could have smited her. But bluffing devils is a longstanding fictional tradition, and it was fun to see Waller do it.
Phew! Didn’t mean to write so much!
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Thank you for the excellent thoughts on Waller and Lex. It’s true, I’m not consistent in my feelings about how the two are presented. And it’s not like Amanda hasn’t been getting gradually more awful since Rebirth, but she worked so well as a grey character, and DC has so many villains already. With Lex, I’m such a fan of Bronze Age Cary Bates Luthor, who always seemed one good day away from reforming for good, that I really want to believe he’s getting over his ego. Now, who is ‘your Luthor’? Mine is teenage Clark’s former friend, and if he’s currently visiting via Hypertime, lovely!
There is no excuse for this so-called Power Girl, unless she’s strayed over from Earth Wet.
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My Luthor is a mix; I grew up, like you, on the Bates/Maggin/Pasko super-scientist Luthor in the purple jumpsuit. One of my favorite Superman stories is the 3-parter in Action Comics 510-512, in which Lex falls in love and reforms for a while. But this is the same guy who created a hammer fueled by his his hatred to kill Superman, and who created a robot also driven by “hate tapes” to fight the Legion. So yeah, they guy’s got issues. I vacillate on whether he should be someone Clark knew in Smallville: I grew up with it, and enjoy those stories, but that strikes me as one coincidence too many.
My ideal Luthor definitely also incorporates elements of the Byrne/Wolfman Luthor, the corrupt businessman who was always asking for Superman’s long-form birth certificate. That version really connected with me, to the point where I was pretty disappointed when Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness brought him back to the power-suit wearing supervillain at the end of his presidency. So I’ve got a lot of leeway in my Luthor characterization — but I just don’t think it would ever occur to him to be a superhero until he saw Clark doing it first. With Luthor, I always think his urges to help people are just a little bit over the horizon: “I can do these great deeds, but I just need this power before I achieve it. And wait, THIS power, too!” So that instead of actually helping, all he’s doing is amassing power that he’ll *eventually* get around to using to better humanity as a whole. But never better them enough to be on the same level as him!
As for the new Power Girl characterization, while I can defend little parts of it — a discomfort with Supergirl, a feeling of alienation from the Super-family (despite their best efforts) — from what I’ve seen, this just isn’t the PG I have a lot of interest in reading. But I’ll check out the crossover issues when they hit DCUI; if nothing else, they’ll have Crush!
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I never saw Clark and Lex knowing one another as a coincidence so much as a fundamental part of their story. I suppose it depends on which stories you read first. And oh boy, Action Comics 510-512 was fantastic, so sad.
I do agree that the recent revelation that Lex tried to be a superhero is weird, how could Clark never have heard about that given he’s lived in Metropolis for something like 15 years? My head canon is that this is a recently Hypertime trickle!
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