Comic Review: Teen Titans #2: Underground and Overwhelmed / Scott
Originally posted on my blog, The Comics Cove, not too long ago...
Teen Titans #2: Underground and Overwhelmed!
Kid Flash is stuck in prison, lamenting his superhero decision. Wonder Girl allows Tim to stay on the couch at her place as thanks for helping her with N.O.W.H.E.R.E. When he leaves, he sees a story about Skitter, and finds her sister to learn where she is. He comes into contact with three agents from N.O.W.H.E.R.E. A fight starts, but when they teleport to Skitter's location, she handily beats them. She turns on Tim just as he arrives, but Wonder Girl steps in and saves him. She then tells him she was only paying him back for yesterday, and that she doesn't care about N.O.W.H.E.R.E. and other metahuman teens, and leaves. Kid Flash escapes from his prison, and finds another captive teen named Solstice, apparently in great pain...
There's a little bit of downtime for the heroes to catch their breaths before the action resumes, and it's well-spent on character development. The brief insights into Kid Flash and Superboy were good, though it would have been better to give them something to do, however briefly. Tim continues hunting for super-teens and analyzing N.O.W.H.E.R.E., and Cassie makes a slight effort to get him to open up to her. The fight scenes are okay, but I was more impressed with the dialog, particularly Tim's response to Templar still being alive after the last issue.
Skitter was viciously impressive, but had little role in this story once Wonder Girl trounced her. I was a little confused that she seemed to dispatch three guys in little to no time, but gets laid out by one punch from Wonder Girl. Tim's immediate reaction to Wonder Girl's sudden intervention was amusing, though I'm skeptical of it leading anywhere. Cassie doesn't seem like she's attracted to him, at least not yet.
Oh, and when Kid Flash busted out of captivity, I found myself asking how long it would be before he messed up and got captured again. Hopefully I'm wrong, but based on what little I've seen of him so far, I couldn't help thinking it.
One minor issue I have with Brett Booth's art in this issue is noses. I know they're hard to draw head-on, but in some places his characters look like they simply don't have one, or have an afterthought of one, and it distracts me. It's a rare occurrence, but I did notice it a couple times in this issue. Very horrifically impressive drawing of Skitter for her brief appearance. I'll be interested to see more of how she's portrayed in future issues.
Overall, I wasn't as impressed as I was with the previous issue. It felt a bit slow in places, though the lull scenes were well-handled. I think the writing could have been a little tighter, and the characters just didn't pop with as much personality as in the last comic. Still, the story is progressing, and I want to see how things turn out. Recommended.
