The New New Teen Titans

Teen Titans #100

As you can tell from my previous posting, I'm thrilled by the new direction and writing and art chores on the Teen Titans comic.  After the disaster that was Felicia Henderson, I have nothing but high praise for J.T. Krul and Nicola Scott, especially the introduction of their newest diverse member, Solstice.  

On June 1, DC Comics announced:  "DC Comics will be making history this September. We’ll be renumbering the entire DC Universe line of comic books with 52 first issues. We’re publishing innovative storylines featuring our most iconic characters helmed by some of the most creative minds within the industry."

My first thought was, Damn!  And the Teen Titans are so close to reaching their 100th issue!  Luckily, though, it looks like they still will.  The Teen Titans comic is shipping twice monthly this summer, so it will reach issue #100.  That looks to be like the last issue, though, as DC Comics' series will begin with #1 in September, thereby eliminating the long-running Batman, Superman, Action Comics, Detective Comics, and recently renumbered Wonder Woman comics as well.  So much for reaching issue #1000 for those series one day!

Teen Titans #1 (2011)

DC recently posted on their DCU Source blog some samplings of the future comics/series that will begin anew.   One of those was for the Teen Titans.  In the new series, "Tim Drake is forced to step out from behind his keyboard when an international organization seeks to capture or kill super-powered teenagers. As Red Robin, he must team up with the mysterious and belligerent powerhouse thief known as Wonder Girl and a hyperactive speedster calling himself Kid Flash."  And then there's the image of the new Teen Titans team and their new costumes.  I really like Red Robin's new costume; it's very "Black Condor."  It's also much more visually appealing than his current costume and really sets himself apart from any Batman, Robin, Nightwing, or Red Hood costumes, giving Red Robin his own identity.  The rest of the team's costumes, though, I can do without.  They look like a throwback to the early 1990s when storylines and character development were "out," and stylized art, accentuated body parts (hello, big female boobies and tiny, tiny waists), and hologram covers were "in."  Who's that crawling on the ground with their hair sticking straight up?   Legion from The New Mutants?  And is that a new Solstice or Terra in the background?  She looks awfully dirty, whoever she is.  I guess the color scheme for the new group is black, red, and gold?   

I'll definitely give the new series a try, since the Teen Titans are my favorite group of all time.  Sadly, though, just when the Teen Titans were getting back on track with Krul and Scott, in comes writing chores by Scott Lobdell with art by Brett Booth and Norm Rapmund.  I hope they do the Teen Titans proud, but I hope this isn't the rebirth of the quality-lacking 1990s that drove me away from comics oh-so-many years ago.

Inside the Outsiders

When Batman and the Outsiders debuted in the 1980s, it quickly became one of my favorite comics to read every month. The concept was brilliant: take a superhero that is well-established and everyone loves, have him leave the Justice League where he's been forever and was a charter member, and then have him start his own superteam with a bunch of misfits and unknowns. Not only did we get more Batman every month (besides his regular self-titled book and Detective Comics), but now we got to become involved with these minor characters that had interesting backgrounds and storylines of their own: Geo-Force, Katana, Halo, Black Lightning, and Metamorpho. The friendship between Katana and Halo was unique in that they had such different personalities, and the tie between the Outsiders' Geo-Force and Teen Titans' Terra was fantastically engineered. Later, the team is joined by the mysterious Looker who stirs things up between the team members, especially between Halo and Katana when she horns in on their friendship by befriending the innocent Halo.

After Batman leaves the team, though, the Outsiders became less interesting to me. Not because of Batman's departure so much as the writing and stories seemed to plummet. Not surprisingly, the book was cancelled soon after. Revivals of the Outsiders were attempted over the years, but never with Batman. In fact, once, Nightwing (from the Teen Titans, and the former Robin) became their leader with a totally new group of Outsiders. I wasn't reading comics during this period, so I can't really comment on the revivals.

However, when DC Comics decided to revive the Batman and the Outsiders concept in 2007, I thought, "Yea!" Sadly, it's been kind of lame, with the worst blow being Batman leaving the team AGAIN, this time because he "died." I continued reading the series, though, because...well, I don't know. I guess I'm a bit nostalgic, and I just felt sorry for them.

Having just read Outsiders 23-25, though, I have to say that they're getting back on track. We begin to see more of their individual personalities and character interactions again. It also doesn't hurt that the events in these issues tie in with DC's crossover Blackest Night event and feature the (dead) Terra coming back to haunt Geo-Force and play with his emotions. These are the Outsiders I know and love.

The prospect of DC Comics' Senior Vice President/Executive Editor Dan Didio taking over the writing duties with the next issue (issue #26) intrigues me, especially since it looks like he's having Superman join the team. This concept harkens back to the days when the original Outsiders were created ("take a superhero that is well-established and everyone loves, have him leave the Justice League where he's been forever and was a charter member, and then have him start his own superteam"). Let's hope he can deliver and make the Outsiders one of my favorites again!

P.S. just please take the Creeper off the roster. He is one of the most annoying characters in the DC Universe. Thank you.