Tales of the Teen Titans 42-44
Tales of the Teen Titans Annual 3
Here we go with my run of Titans issues. DC’s answer to the X-Men in the 80s, I never attached to them the way I did w/ Marvel’s mutants. Still, I picked this up in the quarter bins back when I first started collecting, having heard so many good things about the Judas Contract arc.
It holds up really well, despite a number of 80s drawbacks - super long exposition-as-flashbacks, exposition-as-dialogs, just a ton of exposition. It’s wordy in all the ways that Tempest was last entry, but Marv Wolfman makes it work, and this is really George Perez at his best. I never read Terra in any stories before this, so her heel turn didn’t have the emotional impact it probably did back then. (Taking this opportunity to mention how much I’ve never been a fan of Beast Boy. He’s immature and annoying, and his belief in Terra’s goodness in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary is incredibly frustrating.)
Regret Buying: No
Would Buy Again: No
Would Read Again: Yes
Rating: Nice
New Teen Titans 38
Tales of the Teen Titans 50
Also got both of these from the bargain bin. Who is Donna Troy is an incredibly well done mystery, highlighting Dick Grayson’s detective skills, and Donna Troy’s wedding is one of those heroes-doing-everyday-things issues that reminded me of the best in the Claremont X-Men tradition.
Regret Buying: No
Would Buy Again: Yes for Who is Donna Troy, No for the wedding issue.
Would Read Again: Yes
Rating: Pretty good
JLA/Titans 1-3
The lead in to the ongoing series. Devin Grayson and Phil Jimenez gather just about every Titan in history together for this event. The action is reasonably entertaining, but there’s just so much talking! It completely destroys any momentum in the story, which involves some nonsense about Cyborg, another character that I could not care less about. (Jeez louise, do these people love to yammer on about family.)
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| He may be annoying, but at least he got everyone to shut up. |
Keeping it around for the Perez-level Jimenez art.
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| Reading this immediately after her wedding issue made it particularly touching. |
Regret Buying: No
Would Buy Again: No
Would Read Again: Yes
Rating: Fine
Titans 1-16
Starts off really strong, then tapers off as it goes on. Grayson’s got a decent handle on these characters, and I’m a fan of a number of these characters individually, but the combination of them on one team doesn’t click for me. Keeping around because there are a number of fun moments, and Mark Buckingham’s art is wonderfully suited to these heroes.
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| Lian's the MVP. |
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| And also heartbreaking. |
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| It's an understandable misconception. |
I love how Starfire cuts through the Gordian knot here:
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| The women really do add up after a while... |
Regret Buying: No
Would Buy Again: No
Would Read Again: Yes
Rating: Pretty good for the first two issues, degrades to Nice, and then Fine by the end of the run.
Teen Titans 1-8, 17-19
This should be a fun series, but it’s got several issues:
Mike McKone, while not bad, constantly reminds me of an early Tom Raney, before he figured out how to make twisted anatomy work.
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| This is regrettable. |
WTF is up with Batman in the corner? I can only think of a quote from West Wing: "Is this a joke? If it's a joke, it's both funny and well-executed. But I think both you and I know that it's not."
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| Is he channeling Adam West? |
Geoff Johns portrays Conner Kent as a completely ungrateful punk, which surprises me considering how well he writes him later on in Adventure Comics. This is where we find out Conner’s human DNA comes from Lex Luthor. It’s a twist that I like for the character, but Johns doesn’t do much with it here.
Johns also writes Tim as a mini-Batman, which makes no sense given how much he has Tim insist that he’s not Batman. It’s not a good look for my favorite of Robins.
I have yet to read a non-Mark Waid Bart Allen that I enjoy. Bart makes the transition from Impulse to Kid Flash here, but I can’t bring myself to care.
As a whole, all the team members are just so dour. There are not many comics where you want that as a descriptor, and definitely not this one.
I remembered nothing of this title from my original readthrough, and the re-read confirms why that’s the case. I was going to cut these, but I’m going to hang on to them for now after seeing that they’re worth some amount more than cover price. Sigh. But I’m not happy about it.
Regret Buying: No
Would Buy Again: No
Would Read Again: No
Rating: Didn’t suck
Voodoo 1-4
The story by Ron Marz is completely forgettable. But I love the Sami Basri art. It’s completely fan service-y, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t gorgeous.
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| There's a Josh Middleton softness to Basri's art. |
Regret Buying: No
Would Buy Again: No
Would Read Again: Yes
Rating: Nice
Wonder Twins 1-3
I stand by my original posts; The first issue is a complete delight, the next two veer into totally depressing territory. I’m somewhat interested to see where it goes, given that it ended up being a 12-issue series, but I’m not going to pay money to find out.
Regret Buying: No
Would Buy Again: No
Would Read Again: Yes
Rating: Good for 1, Disliked 2-3
And that’s it for DC Box 7!
DC Box 7 summary
Time spent reading: 18 hours 11 minutes
Issues read: 196
Issues cut: 5
Highlights (Good or better): First two years of Judd Winick’s Outsiders, Richard Dragon, Shazam: Monster Society of Evil, Tim Sale’s Solo, Injustice: Year Two, Wonder Twins 1. A lot of good stuff in this box!
Project Summary:
Time spent reading: 29 days, 21 hours, 19 minutes
Issues read: 6127
Issues cut: 802
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