New Teen Titans and Beyond (reviews by shaxper)
May 17, 2020 6:18:01 GMT -5
dbutler69, zaku, and 1 more like this
Post by shaxper on May 17, 2020 6:18:01 GMT -5
Okay, let's give this thread one more try...
New Teen Titans #11 (September 1981)
"When Titans Clash"
Script: George Pérez (plot); Marv Wolfman (plot, script)
Pencils: George Pérez (breakdowns); Romeo Tanghal (finished art)
Inks: Romeo Tanghal
Colors: Adrienne Roy
Letters: John Costanza
Grade: D+
After ten issues, Wolfman and Perez had effectively played all of their cards. The team is fully established, The Trigon situation is resolved, and The H.I.V.E. and Deathstroke have gotten plenty of time in the book as of late, so it's time to detour and add some new conflict to spice up this series.
I guess the idea of going to Paradise Island made sense on paper. First, the concept of The Titans fighting...The Titans is as catchy as it is a bad dad joke, but there's far more opportunity than that here. After all, Vic, Raven, Kory, and Gar have all had ample opportunity to develop their characters in these pages, but what about the veteran members of the team? A visit to Paradise Island should give us plenty of opportunity to get to know Donna better, right?
Well, that or have her be mind-controlled and not herself for most of the story.
Man, that's disturbing. So many panels in this issue really shouldn't have slipped by the comics code...
In fact, I'd argue that, as of now, Wolfman and Perez's Donna Troy has less characterization than her Silver Age counterpart. Donna often feels like a mouthpiece for 1980's feminism. I'm glad the viewpoint is repeatedly shared, but there is no human being to go along with such sentiments. She frowns at Gar's chauvinistic behavior, diplomatically explains Paradise Island's anti-man policy to Vic, and fights back like a bad-ass when gods try to molest her:
but that's all we really get from her. Pardon the pun, but who is Donna Troy?
Back in the Silver Age, she at least had an unquenchable libido. The Donna Troy of those stories would have practically thrown herself at a mega hot, muscle-bound god looking to make her his queen. After all, Hyperion is quite a few steps above this kid from the original title:
from Teen Titans #24 (December 1969)
I'd give Wolfman a ton of credit if, at any point in these first eleven issues, he'd had Donna acknowledge her past tendencies and explain that she's done a lot of growing since then, but no...she's gone from being a one note character of the Silver Age to a no note character here.
As for what we do get on Paradise Island, man did this issue bore me. I thought this was a New Teen Titans comic, not a let's-spend-twenty pages-watching-a-god-ramble-on-about-his-predicament comic. And, while Wolfman and Perez try their best to bring readers up to speed on Greco-Roman mythology, they are in over their heads at times, especially as Hyperion liberally throws around the word "Hell" while actually standing in Tartarus:
Maybe a minor detail, but it bugged me.
What bugged me even more? How the Hell (there, I did it too) did Wolfman take us from this last issue:
to this:
Yeah, that's not what you said last issue. What a rip-off.
Just a lousy lousy issue by my estimation. if I recall correctly, we've got a slog of forgettable stories ahead of us before the run finally hits its stride around issue #20.
Minor Details:
- Seriously? Hyperion breaks loose after millennia of trying to escape just as the Teen Titans arrive?
- Perez's first time drawing Paradise Island, but certainly not his last.
- Apparently, Donna doesn't fly so much as glide upon air currents.
Not sure I buy this, nor do I understand why Wolfman felt the need to make this clarification.
- I suppose any Bronze Age superhero book that takes characterization seriously needs to have this moment:
It's hard not to keep comparing Wolfman/Perez's Titans to Claremont's X-Men, though, and they definitely made more of their moment of awareness. In that case, someone actually died, and it took them more than five seconds to get over it. Coming six years later, this moment really pales in comparison.
-
With all their advanced Amazonian technology, they don't have a solar battery? How do they use the Purple Ray on a cloudy day, or at night? These are the same folks who would be anti wind-power because what happens when the wind stops blowing?
Overall a forgettable story that paces itself poorly and doesn't seem to know what it wants to do with itself. We are not invested in Hyperion nor in this conflict, and Donna is brainwashed, so who are we even rooting for as we head into the next issue?
New Teen Titans #11 (September 1981)
"When Titans Clash"
Script: George Pérez (plot); Marv Wolfman (plot, script)
Pencils: George Pérez (breakdowns); Romeo Tanghal (finished art)
Inks: Romeo Tanghal
Colors: Adrienne Roy
Letters: John Costanza
Grade: D+
After ten issues, Wolfman and Perez had effectively played all of their cards. The team is fully established, The Trigon situation is resolved, and The H.I.V.E. and Deathstroke have gotten plenty of time in the book as of late, so it's time to detour and add some new conflict to spice up this series.
I guess the idea of going to Paradise Island made sense on paper. First, the concept of The Titans fighting...The Titans is as catchy as it is a bad dad joke, but there's far more opportunity than that here. After all, Vic, Raven, Kory, and Gar have all had ample opportunity to develop their characters in these pages, but what about the veteran members of the team? A visit to Paradise Island should give us plenty of opportunity to get to know Donna better, right?
Well, that or have her be mind-controlled and not herself for most of the story.
Man, that's disturbing. So many panels in this issue really shouldn't have slipped by the comics code...
In fact, I'd argue that, as of now, Wolfman and Perez's Donna Troy has less characterization than her Silver Age counterpart. Donna often feels like a mouthpiece for 1980's feminism. I'm glad the viewpoint is repeatedly shared, but there is no human being to go along with such sentiments. She frowns at Gar's chauvinistic behavior, diplomatically explains Paradise Island's anti-man policy to Vic, and fights back like a bad-ass when gods try to molest her:
but that's all we really get from her. Pardon the pun, but who is Donna Troy?
Back in the Silver Age, she at least had an unquenchable libido. The Donna Troy of those stories would have practically thrown herself at a mega hot, muscle-bound god looking to make her his queen. After all, Hyperion is quite a few steps above this kid from the original title:
from Teen Titans #24 (December 1969)
I'd give Wolfman a ton of credit if, at any point in these first eleven issues, he'd had Donna acknowledge her past tendencies and explain that she's done a lot of growing since then, but no...she's gone from being a one note character of the Silver Age to a no note character here.
As for what we do get on Paradise Island, man did this issue bore me. I thought this was a New Teen Titans comic, not a let's-spend-twenty pages-watching-a-god-ramble-on-about-his-predicament comic. And, while Wolfman and Perez try their best to bring readers up to speed on Greco-Roman mythology, they are in over their heads at times, especially as Hyperion liberally throws around the word "Hell" while actually standing in Tartarus:
Maybe a minor detail, but it bugged me.
What bugged me even more? How the Hell (there, I did it too) did Wolfman take us from this last issue:
to this:
Yeah, that's not what you said last issue. What a rip-off.
Just a lousy lousy issue by my estimation. if I recall correctly, we've got a slog of forgettable stories ahead of us before the run finally hits its stride around issue #20.
Minor Details:
- Seriously? Hyperion breaks loose after millennia of trying to escape just as the Teen Titans arrive?
- Perez's first time drawing Paradise Island, but certainly not his last.
- Apparently, Donna doesn't fly so much as glide upon air currents.
Not sure I buy this, nor do I understand why Wolfman felt the need to make this clarification.
- I suppose any Bronze Age superhero book that takes characterization seriously needs to have this moment:
It's hard not to keep comparing Wolfman/Perez's Titans to Claremont's X-Men, though, and they definitely made more of their moment of awareness. In that case, someone actually died, and it took them more than five seconds to get over it. Coming six years later, this moment really pales in comparison.
-
With all their advanced Amazonian technology, they don't have a solar battery? How do they use the Purple Ray on a cloudy day, or at night? These are the same folks who would be anti wind-power because what happens when the wind stops blowing?
Overall a forgettable story that paces itself poorly and doesn't seem to know what it wants to do with itself. We are not invested in Hyperion nor in this conflict, and Donna is brainwashed, so who are we even rooting for as we head into the next issue?
