Ask almost anyone and they’ll say that the last Teen Titans series was rather… underwhelming to put it nicely; to put it bluntly — it was lackluster and really fell apart in a lot of areas — ultimately disappointing fans of these characters. If there was ever a title, outside of Catwoman, that needed a breath of fresh air, it was this book.
So, Teen Titans was cancelled back in April and now it’s back with Will Pfeifer writing and Kenneth Rocafort on art duty. Are these the right men for the job to bring the characters back to their former glory? Or will things continue to be problematic? Teen Titans #1: is it good?
Teen Titans #1 (DC Comics)
In New York City, a weird group of terrorists hijack a school bus and plan on using it to ram into S.T.A.R. Labs’ front doors. However, the Teen Titans are on the scene and aren’t about to let that happen. Red Robin develops a strategy on the fly that the Titans plan to put into action: will they succeed?
Hey wait a minute, I count only four compatriots in this image! Is the fifth guy camera shy or something?
For a fresh start — Teen Titans is off to a good one. It’s what a good first issue should be: it sets up all the main characters on the team, displays their personalities well, and shows off their powers and what they contribute to the team. It’s a bit of a simple formula with few surprises but it does a good job and there’s nothing about it so far that makes it feel necessary to read the previous series. As such, a newcomer can enter this title without any trouble.
The weakest thing about the characters are their morality and some of their questionable behavior; while I understand not getting too worked up about some of the bad guys dying since they were planning on killing the kids and stuff, it’s just a bit surprising to see how cold our protagonists are at some points regarding them being dead. Also, the behavior displayed by Bunker at the end of the issue also seemed pretty extreme and a bit out of line, even though I can somewhat understand his anger and frustration.
That looked like it hurt a bit.
Will Pfeifer’s writing is pretty solid. The story, again, is just setting up the characters and all that jazz; it didn’t get into what the focus of the arc will be or seem to have any clear direction yet. I assume it’s going to be about S.T.A.R. Labs and the terrorist leader , but that’s pretty much it at this point. As such, it doesn’t have much of a hook story-wise for readers. Notwithstanding, this debut issue manages to be exciting throughout and ends on an interesting note.
Probably the best thing about the comic book in general is the artwork. It looks beautiful with the combination of Kenneth Rocafort’s line work and Dan Brown’s colors. While there is a lot of white space in the book that’s rather boring looking, the panels and layouts are truly fantastic: they’re dynamic and well laid out, leading to some really eye-catching pages. The attention to detail is prevalent in a lot of the scenes, the action flows very well, and the characters look great (their anatomies and postures look superb). There is certainly something to be said about some of the designs of the characters, like Raven, but that’s a whole other argument.
Dude, it’s a rhetorical question. Don’t answer!
Is It Good?
Teen Titans #1 is a solid start for this relaunched comic. The team itself is well introduced and their dynamics are strong. The writing isn’t too bad and the artwork looks fantastic. It needs some more work done with getting a real story started and working on making the characters a bit more likeable. However, it got off on the right foot and I do look forward to where this comic will go from here.
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