Teen Titans: Year One

I'm a Teen Titans fan. Okay, I don't have the bedsheets, or the lunchbox, or the shrine to prove it; but, I'm still a fan.

I knew that Robin, Kid Flash, Aqualad, Wonder Girl, and Speedy were Titans - I saw the Mego Action Figures growing up. I didn't really start reading about their adventures until Marv Wolfman and George Perez launched The New Teen Titans. I started that right from the beginning - with DC Comics Presents 26 - Superman and Green Lantern/Hal Jordan. I have no idea what THAT story was all about, except that they were in some alien dimension facing an alien monster together. And they won. But enough about me...

I've seen episodes of the Teen Titans animated series, so I'm pretty familiar with with Amy Wolfram's writing. It's fun and it's funny. Right from the start, with Batman busting out Robin for web-surfing instead of crimefighting. Karl Kerschl's Batman is a delight to see. He gets a little help from Serge Lapointe and Steph Peru - and this becomes a masterpiece to read.

Amy's Kid Flash is almost a forshadowing of what Impulse is going to be; her Wonder Girl is fab, although I guess she was lost or seperated from Wonder Woman on the street in New York and seemed confused (or maybe that was just me); the panels without dialogue between Aquaman and Aqualad shout out at 10db. It must be true, but I don't remember Aqualad being afraid of fish. Of course, Purple Eyes is just a little different, even from the Atlanteans.

Be sure to look closely for the nice mention of The Flips.

What I liked about this story is that the Titans are fun. They're not the little establishment tools they sometimes appear to be in the old stories. Compare issues of Teen Titans to Uncanny X-Men and see what I mean. Trying to be hip, they sometimes seem, sound and act totally unhip. Here, I could see them teaming up with the original X-Men. I could see them being Young Justice.

The cover is awesome, because it captures everything. The coming of age; the stepping out of the shadows; but more importantly the hope, idealism and wonder that have always been the trademarks of the Teen Titans.

be sure you see them now, before everything - including their voices - changes.

Decided to pick this up just because it was there.

After the success of Batman: Year One, one could easily guess that they'd  cash in on the "Year One" idea. Even Marvel did a few. But when I searched this site, I saw a number of them, but I was surprised to see that the ones I saw were made 20 years later, instead of rushing into it immediately like I would have expected. So DC gets points from me for waiting to make these.

Apparently one of the writers from the tv show did this one. I actually kinda liked that show. But from what I can see, she really wasn't needed. This story only has one of the five recurring characters in it. (The most important one.) The only time they'd NEED her to write would be on Teen Titans Go. Oh well, maybe the story's decent.

It starts off with Robin (I guess it's Tim Drake) using the Batcomputer to contact other heroes his age. (Also, the Batcomputer's a Mac. Who knew?) Batman scolds him for wasting time and they set off to find a cat-burglar. Elsewhere, Kid Flash is on the same chatroom and is waiting for Robin to reply. After a minute, he looses his patience in a funny scene where he runs around the house (and then France) doing random stuff to keep himself occupied.

After that, we see Aqualad swim around and show how much of a wimp he is. Very funny. Aquaman gives him a mean look and swims somewhere, I'm guessing he's ashamed of being the same species as the kid. I mean, it's bad enough that he's Aquaman, now this kid's just making it worse!

Next we see Wondergirl show up in an unnamed city and just looking around for her older sister. How and why she got there is never explained.

Anyway, near theend of the issue we see Batman backhanding his sidekick (!!!) WHAT? Call somebody, that's CHILD ABUSE! Earlier in the issue, Robin did say that Bats was acting different than usual, so I guess this is forshadowing some kind of possesion or something.

The artwork is great here. Much closer to the stuff I like. The music part in the Wondergirl scene was definately creative. I only have one problem: WHY IS ROBIN WEARING HIS STUPID OLD-SCHOOL COSTUME? I thought everyone wanted to FORGET that!

So anyway, costume aside, this isn't bad at all. It's humorous and the art is great. Onto the next one.