I miss Skitters.
This issue continues the trend of this series having loads of stupid bullshit in it but it actually begins to attempt to possibly start turning things around. Probably a little too late what with Rebirth coming and all. First the bad stuff: Ian Churchill reminds me of that truly most horrible of New 52 books, The Ravagers. He also doesn't seem to care about drawing realistic tacos which totally pulled me out of the story.
No, the real bad things are the things that have plagued this revamp of the revamp. The Titans continue to act as if they should be allowed to do whatever the fuck they want to do because they're protecting the team. They're basically a teenaged version of The Rogues which simply means they don't give a fuck about the law even if they have a decent set of ethics while also being more self-obsessed and whinier. But it's okay if they've broken many different laws across the first sixteen issues of this comic book because Tim knows people who can pull some strings. Fucking rich kid.
Another aspect of this comic book which Scott Lobdell really worked poorly at was the romantic entanglement subplots. He simply tried to wedge in members crushing on other members without actually writing any stories which made the crushes believable. Greg Pak continues that trend by having Bunker tell Tim that Tim and Cassie are in love while Power Girl just happens to notice that Gar is crushing hard on Raven. I guess since Terra vanished somewhere in the mess of previous issues of this and The Ravagers, Gar needed a new old target of his affection. So just like that: love everywhere!
These characters are not likeable. I find myself not hating them as much as I hate fans who actually like these versions of the characters. They are rotten, narcissistic, miserable people who claim to be heroes while never doing anything heroic because they're too busy dealing with personal problems. Hmm, I guess that's always been a pretty apt description of the Teen Titans.
What about the good? I suppose I grudgingly like that this is a Who is Wonder Girl? story which has become a staple of Teen Titans comic books. She's just always such a confusing character! I like that Pak has brought back the "Lennox is Cassie's father" plot thread. This makes this "Who is Wonder Girl?" story fall right into line with the previous Who is Donna Troy? and Who is Wonder Girl stories by Marv Wolfman.
The last thing I liked about this comic book is that it has merely allowed the Titans to claim to be friends without dealing with any of the weird rivalries that have been driving the team apart lately. Just stop. They keep claiming to be friends and teammates even when nothing could seem further from the truth based on past stories. If they just forget all of that nonsense and just pretend that they've been a team from this point on, I'm on board with that.
Although, of course, Rebirth is coming. So who the fuck knows what's going to be what in a few months!
No comments:
Post a Comment