Teen Titans (2003 Series) #10

April 12, 2004

Quick Rating: Very Good
Title: Raven Rising

Brother Blood has Raven, and the Titans want her back!

Writer: Geoff Johns
Pencils: Mike McKone
Inks: Marlo Alquiza
Colors: Jeromy Cox
Letters: Comicraft
Editor: Eddie Berganza
Cover Art: Mike McKone
Publisher: DC Comics

The Geoff Johns plot to slowly take over the world by writing the best superhero comics in America continues! Last issue, the Titans ran smack-dab into a plot concerning Trigon, the demon father of their former teammate Raven. Birds are going psycho, the seas are turning to blood, and things are getting seriously Biblical in San Francisco.

Johns does what he does best in this issue – working in characterization in the midst of action. When a spell causes the Titans to feel a wave of hatred for their fathers the way Raven hates Trigon, for instance, Robin’s anger is not reserved for Jack Drake. Later, as they rush in to battle, the younger Titans discuss the necessity of taking out Raven if the older members, her former friends, are unable to do it. All of these characters are unabashedly heroic, but their different experiences have given them very different priorities. The young Kid Flash gets to show off a little more of his newly-acquired knowledge, but again, doesn’t quite know how to apply it yet. The writing in this issue is almost flawless, save for one panel where Robin apparently forgets how to count. “I count five of them going into that room, and there’s five of us…”

Mike McKone, of course, does a fine job on the artwork. The image of a towering Trigon standing in a sea of blood to bring his vengeance down upon Titans Tower is one of the boldest images you’ve ever seen in comics. He does great “charging into battle” poses, which you’ve gotta have in a great superhero comic, and even the supposedly young and unimposing Brother Blood looks very menacing. The cover especially is good – Blood standing, appropriately, in a pool of blood while the younger Titans lie defeated. It’s a great image.

Between this title, JSA and The Flash, nobody is doing superhero comic books as good as Geoff Johns, and if you’re not reading this title (or those other two), then you’re depriving yourself of some of the greatest comics on the stands. Superhero fans have no excuse not to be reading this title.

Rating: 8/10

Outsiders (2003 Series) #6

November 18, 2003

Quick Rating: Good
Title: Pandora’s Box (Brothers in Blood Part Three)

The two Green Arrows join the Outsiders as they face down Brother Blood at the Slab.

Writer: Judd Winick
Pencils: Crisscross
Inks: Sean Parsons
Colors: Gina Going
Letters: Comicraft
Editor: Eddie Berganza
Cover Art: Michael Golden
Publisher: DC Comics

As closely as this book and the new Teen Titans have been linked with their launch, it makes you wonder how Winick and Geoff Johns wound up using virtually the same cliffhanger before six months had passed – a character getting shot on the last page, leaving you to wonder for a month if he’ll pull through.

At the end of last issue Arsenal was shot in battle against Brother Blood’s minions. As he clings to his life in a hospital bed, the Outsiders and the two Green Arrows (Ollie Queen being Arsenal’s surrogate father as much as Connor Hawke is a brother) head to the rebuild Slab prison in Antarctica, where the nastiest, most powerful villains in the DC Universe are incarcerated.

Brother Blood’s plot is fairly generic as far as supervillain plots go – he’s positioned a million sleeper agents around the globe who, when activated, will kidnap a million infants to begin his own cultish nation. Exactly what he needs the villains at the Slab for this isn’t entirely clear, and in fact, it almost appears as though there are missing word balloons on the slash page that would clarify this.

As Winick also writes the regular Green Arrow series, he has a good grasp of that character as well as the stars of this book. The selling point here isn’t the plot, it’s the characterization. The heroes interact well and everyone is written in-character – even the robot Indigo is starting to show a little personality, she almost seems to enjoy annoying Grace. The new incarnation of Metamorpho remains the most interesting character in the book as he deals with his amnesia, and although the cliffhanger that ends this issue isn’t entirely unexpected, it does open a lot of interesting possibilitites.

It’s always a treat to see Chriscross’s pencils – he’s one of the most solid superhero artists in comics these days, and it’s just a shame that most of the villains in the Slab were in their prison grays and he didn’t get a chance to cut loose.

I’m not quite as pleased with this title as I was after the first story arc, as it does seem to be drifting into generic superhero territory, but it’s still clever enough to keep me interested and see where it’s going next.

Rating: 7/10