The new creative team of Sean McKeever and Ale Garza kick of their run on this title with Teen Titans #51. I’m sad that Johns left this title, but I have hope that McKeever will be able to keep this title a quality read. The insertion of Superbarbie into this title certainly does lessen my enthusiasm. Let’s hope that McKeever doesn’t do what Waid did over on the Legion and let Supergirl hog all the action. Let’s go ahead and hit this review for Teen Titans #51.
Creative Team
Writer: Sean McKeever
Pencils: Ale Garza
Inks: Derek Fridolfs, Rob Hunter, Marlo Alquiza
Art Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10
Story Rating: 9 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Synopsis: We begin nine years from the present in Smallville. Kon-El tells Lex that he can feel his memories changing. That Kon thinks he dies. That this is all because the Teen Titans are dead set against this future ever occurring. Lex says that they shall not give up. That they will fight.
We zip back to the present. We see Blue Beetle arriving at Titans Tower. The Tower is empty. We slide over to Gotham County where the Titans of Tomorrow have the members of the JLA held captive. The Teen Titans are squared off ready to attack. Supergirl points out to Ravager that there are no future versions of the two of them present. Ravager thanks the blonde bimbo for pointing out the obvious. (I love Ravager even more now.)
Kon-El tells Robin that they have less than an hour before Starro sends out a bunch of super-villains to launch simultaneous terror attacks designed to weaken the JLA’ers that the Titans of Tomorrow have captured. But, that the attack by Starro is just the first salvo. The fatal blow comes from someone else.
Kon-El tells Robin that the Titans have to fight for the JLA. That if the JLA fought Starro, they would barely defeat him and leave themselves open for what’s coming. Kon-El tells the Teen Titans to not bother trying to free the JLA’ers. That the containment units are rigged to kill the JLA’ers if anyone attempts to free them.
The Titans of Tomorrow then split up into teams to find the super villains that Starro is using. The Titans split into teams and follow the Titans of Tomorrow. We cut to Supergirl and Wonder Girl following Kon-El and Wonder Woman. It is obvious that Cassie is now not so dead set against stopping this future from happening since it means that she and Conner are still together.
Our heroes then come across their targets: Brimstone and King Druid. King Druid quickly takes down Supergirl. Wonder Girl then takes on Brimstone.
We slide over to Gotham where Miss Martian and Robin follow their future selves. Their targets are Firebug and Prometheus. Miss Martian takes on Firebug while Robin brawls with Prometheus.
We cut to Chicago where Ravager and Kid Devil followed Bart and Red Devil. We see Ravager brawling with Livewire and Rampage. Kid Devil watches alongside Bart and Red Devil. Bart says that Ravager betrays the Titans and uses and hurts Kid Devil. Bart says that it would be for the better if they let the villains kill Ravager. Red Devil tells Kid Devil that he doesn’t need to be afraid of his deal with Neron. That the increased power will allow Eddie to have whatever woman he wants. He won’t care about Ravager anymore.
Ravager calls out for Eddie’s help. Kid Devil looks down and says “I’m sorry.”
We shift to Robin still brawling with Prometheus. During the fight, Prometheus falls out of a window. Batman (Future Tim) tells Robin that he needs to learn to start making a real difference. Batman pulls out a gun. Robin says that future Tim is right. Robin takes the gun from Batman. Robin says that he will “make a ‘real’ difference starting with us.” Robin then points the gun to his head. End of issue.
Comments
The Good: Teen Titans #51 was an excellent read. It was certainly much better than I was expecting. McKeever delivers a well written issue and does a great job building off of Johns’ Titans of Tomorrow story. McKeever wastes little time getting this story arc off to a quick start. Teen Titans #51 was a nicely paced and plotted issue. McKeever moves the story along quickly without it seeming rushed. The reader gets an enjoyable blend of drama and action in this issue.
Teen Titans #51 is a well balanced issue that does a solid job laying a sound foundation for this story arc as well as teasing the reader with various future plotlines. McKeever certainly has a clear goal in mind and is delivering a focused story with a purpose. The little teaser plotlines are just enough to whet the reader’s appetite without giving away too much information.
Among the teasers, McKeever lets the reader know that Starro is just the beginning. That the finishing blow comes in the form of another person or event. What a great way to create a foundation for this story arc by giving the reader an immediate threat with the hint of a future and much greater threat later in the story arc. This immediately gets the reader interested in the story as we anxiously wait to see what greater events McKeever has in store for us.
McKeever also teases the reader with the fact that Ravager and Supergirl are both noticeably absent from the roster of the Titans of Tomorrow. I guess it would be too much for me to hope that this means that Supergirl dies at some point in the next nine years. At any rate, McKeever is mum on Supergirl’s absence from the Titans of Tomorrow, but he does provide us with a little bit of information about Ravager.
Evidently, Rose breaks Eddie’s heart and then betrays the Titans in some terrible fashion. Rose’s betrayal is bad enough that Bart and Red Devil are willing to let Ravager die while battling Livewire and Rampage saying that the future would be better off this way. That is incredibly harsh. And I can’t wait to learn more about why and how Rose betrays the Titans.
And Eddie’s response to Red Devil telling him how Rose uses and abuses him and the Titans is well done. Eddie does love Rose. And he is embarrassed and ashamed of himself for not helping Rose in her fight against Livewire and Rampage. The reader gets a nice sense of the pain and confusion raging inside of Eddie during this scene. This should provide for some quality drama later in this story arc.
I also liked how Red Devil tells Eddie how great it is when he becomes a servant of Neron. That the massive increase in power makes it something that Eddie should be looking forward to rather than dreading. Clearly, Eddie is being influenced by his older self. McKeever is doing a great job keeping me interesting in Eddie’s character. Eddie has so much going on in his life between his secret about Neron and his budding feelings for Rose and I’m interested to see what happens next.
McKeever also teases us a bit with the future of Miss Martian. Evidently, Miss Martian undergoes a serious shift in her personality and embraces her white Martian heritage. The future Miss Martian is a true Martian Manhunter and is definitely a much more vicious warrior than the present Miss Martian. I dig that McKeever shows the reader that at some point, Miss Martian develops immunity to fire.
Of course, it was great to see Bart and Kon-El alive and well, even if a bit evil. And the impact on the Teen Titans is obvious. McKeever does an excellent job handling Wonder Girl’s reaction to seeing her older self with Kon-El. The reader can tell the desperate hope inside of Wonder Girl that if she doesn’t fight against the Titans of Tomorrow’s future then maybe Kon-El will return to life. That they two of them will be able to be together again.
It is completely understandable that Cassie’s love for Kon-El would overpower her desire to prevent such a terrible future from occurring where the Titans are more villains than heroes. I’m sure we are going to see Cassie undergo a real test of her sense of right and wrong as she struggles with this heavy decision. Does she do what is better for society in general or does she do what will make her heart the happiest?
McKeever manages to impress me with his move to keep Supergirl from hogging the action and spotlight. I was extremely worried about this especially in light of how Supergirl made the rest of the Legion seem so irrelevant during Waid’s run on that title. It seems that McKeever understands that the Titans are much more than Supergirl and that this title isn’t all about the little red S. Thank god for that. Less is more when it comes to Supergirl.
And speaking of Superbarbie, I have to say that I love Rose even more after this issue than I ever have before. Now, Johns got me to really fall in love with Rose’s character. And I have been thrilled with her addition to the Titans. Rose is an excellent source of controversy and plays the role of the instigator who always offers a contrary opinion on practically every subject. But, now I love Rose even more as she continually calls out how stupid Supergirl is. Rose has such a nice sarcastic personality and her making fun of Superbarbie always puts a smile on my face.
McKeever really impressed me with his excellent feel for the various Titans. McKeever seems to understand these characters and that shows in how nicely developed each of the Titans are in this issue. McKeever also whips up some well done dialogue. Each Titan has their own personality and voice.
McKeever delivers a fantastic hook ending. I definitely didn’t expect to see Robin grab Batman’s gun and place it to his own head. My jaw hit the ground when I saw the last page. McKeever did an impressive job handling the relationship between Robin and his older self. Robin has been through so much pain and emotional trauma with the deaths of so many loved ones that it is completely believable that his future self would act in such a tough fashion. It actually makes more sense for Robin to end up more like this future Tim from the Titans of Tomorrow than just a duplicate version of Bruce as Batman.
I’m certainly excited for the next issue and can’t wait to see what McKeever has in store for us with all of these various interesting plotlines.
Garza gives us plenty of solid artwork. I don’t dig it as much as when Tony Daniel drew this title, but it is better than average and provides a dynamic and youthful enough look to this title.
The Bad: I have no complaints with this issue.
Overall: Teen Titans #51 was a well done issue. McKeever impressed me with his debut on this title. I am confident that the Teen Titans are going to be just fine in the capable hands of McKeever. This is certainly a great jumping on point for new readers. Teen Titans is definitely a title that is worth the cover price.
4 thoughts on “Comic Book Review: Teen Titans #51”
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Like most alternate characters (especially Evil alternates), Cassie’s Wonder Woman costume is much better than her regular one (I particularly like the tiara that’s more of a faceguard).
Given the Evil Titans’ actions, I’m assuming they’re trying to get Ravager and Supergirl killed (in the latter’s case, they don’t go to help her, in the former, as noted, they actively stop someone from trying).
I found it amusing that the only guys the Evil Titans feel compelled to defeat, out of the dozen or so Leaguers, are four people, plus one guy who isn’t even a member now. I’m absolutely certain that was not a shot at several of the more useless characters currently on the League, but I choose to interpret it as such.
On art, this is Garza’s only issue; he abruptly reconsidered his whole career or something, so Jamal Igle fills in next month, and then regular artist Eddy Barrows takes over (they pulled him off Countdown to Adventure). Garza’s good, but I really loved Barrows’ CoA art.
I wouldn’t really read much into it (I just enjoy imagining it is, since I don’t like several of the B-listers); character economy and the desire to have the heroes take out their doubles would be the primary determinant here.
Although, strictly speaking, the only other members who would really merit consideration would be Hal and John, but the Titans books have a long history of ignoring the Green Lanterns because there’s no “Teen Lantern.”
I like Diana’s costume too; it’s nice from a comic book sensibility, although it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense given her character background. If I were modifying it, I’d just give her a battle skirt similar to the one Evil Cassie has.
Black Lightning, Hawkgirl, Vixen, Red Arrow, Red Tornado – I don’t actively dislike any of them, but I can think of several characters I’d rather have on the team (Steel and Green Arrow, most notably, although the latter is “dead” for the moment (not that I believe it’ll last). If Firestorm joins, he makes the list too.
And on the subject of “Teen Lantern” (there was one in the most recent issue of the LSH cartoon-based comic; ‘Jordana Gardner’ (guess her ancestry)), I guess they just haven’t risked trying to fit it into the GLC concept.
Batman Beyond had a GL who was a preteen Asian boy; he was pretty cool, with the attitude of a Buddhist monk novice, so if they wanted to have a teenaged Lantern, that’s what I’d do.