The Psychotic Perspective: Teen Titans #13
The Origin of Wonder Girl
This volume of Teen Titans, as a whole, has sucked, but I have actually enjoyed the latest story arc.Showcasing Wonder Girl’s struggle with her armor, Lobdell has focused in on the series three primary protagonists, Red Robin, Superboy and Wonder Girl, and crafted a story with actual intrigue and good character interactions. The story is still not great, but it is a vast improvement over the drivel that turned into “The Culling.” The series reverted to form in the zero issue as Lobdell took Tim Drake’s origin and raked it over the coals in a move that strikes me as nigh sadistic to pre-Flashpoint fans of the character, but to be fair to Lobdell, he was empowered to create new interpretations of the character, and he has done just that.
Regardless of the damage to the legacy of the various characters, Lobdell has no excuse not to create a story which is good regardless of previous continuity, and he failed in this on the early run of the series, but the current arc has shown surprising promise. Does Lobdell demonstrate through this issue that he has a story to tell, or does he merely serve to destroy another character’s origin to no effect?
In this issue, Cassie reveals her past as a thief and lover as Red Robin and Superboy fly with her to the site where Cassandra became Wonder Girl.
Wonder Girl’s Not So Bloody Origin
This appears to be the month to lie with your cover art since Teen Titans has joined Red Hood and Nightwing in completely misconstruing the contents of the story. Wonder Girl is not revealed to have a bloody past, but it is still a rather interesting history. In the original promos to the DCNU Teen Titans, fans were shocked to learn that Cassie was going to be a thief. In Teen Titans #1, Cassie was seen driving a stolen sports car, but there are several reasonable excuses for that. In this issue, we find that there are no mitigating factors to Cassie’s thievery; she is simply a spoiled girl who likes to take shiny things for the challenge and thrill of the chase.
After one such theft, the presumably underage Cassie is rescued from arrest by the apparently adult Diesel who then uses the minor as his teenage sexpot/personal thief. Though this is certainly a plausible scenario and this relationship clearly goes bad with Diesel becoming a supervillain, I do not much like it when teen girls hooking up with older guys is presented as acceptable/normative behavior. However, Cassie’s description of this relationship did lead to very amusing reactions from Tim and Superboy.
Eventually, Cassie gets her armor which she has to wear because only she has the inner strength to resist the urge to “use it—abuse it.” Glad to know that we can trust someone who hurts others for fun to avoid abusing her massive, evil imbued armor.
Despite all my reservations, I actually quite enjoyed Cassie’s origin. I think it is a better setup for an antihero rather than a member of the Teen Titans, but that is a discussion for a different time. However, I believe Cassie was a rather lily white character pre-DCNU, so I have to imagine that this change really hacks off her fans.
I Am So Confused!
I did enjoy this issue, but at the same time, I have some serious confusion on many aspects of the story. It is time for the saving grace of those too lazy to organize their thoughts in paragraph format, enumeration:
Things That Concern/Confuse Me
1. Our main characters, (the Teen Trio) consists of Red Robin, who risked his parents life for a chance of becoming a hero, Superboy, who was created to be an assassin and briefly worked to enslave metahumans to work for an evil organization, and Wonder Girl, who steals for fun. I’m not sure this is a team of heroes.
2. Where was Brett Booth for this issue? He has been one of the only consistently good things about this series. Garza was okay, but he is just not on the same level.
3. Why couldn't Superboy carry the trio to their destination with his telekinesis?
4. Why is Tim wearing his mask and why is the team acting like Tim has not revealed his secret identity? I am not sure, but I thought they called him Tim in previous issues. I understand he may not have wanted the pilots to see him without a mask, but it is odd for him to be so cautious now when he was so reckless earlier in the series.
5. When did Superboy get back his pre-Flashpoint costume? I admit, it is refreshing to see.
6. How did Diesel fail to get squished? I suppose this is meant to be a mystery, but it seems like the heroes should at least acknowledge this oddity.
7. What is going on with Kurt Lance? He’s alive. He’s dead. He’s alive again. He’s in Birds of Prey. He’s in Team 7. He’s in Teen Titans. Who can keep track?
8. Over half of the Teen Titans did not even make an appearance in this issue.
Conclusion
This issue is rough around the edges still lacking the coherence that I would like to see in the title, but the characters, though drastically altered, are beginning to take shape and actually develop both in terms of personality and history. Furthermore, the plot, though far from excellent, is at least interesting and appears to be going somewhere. The DCNU Teen Titans finally feels like a teen team book, and despite all its flaws, at least it is finally fun.
