DCU Comic Book Reviews

TEEN TITANS #27

Legacy, Part One

October 2005

Written by Gail Simone

Pencils by Rob Liefeld

Inks by Rob Liefeld

Cover by Rob Liefeld

Synopsis

In San Francisco, a number of meta-teens decide to re-enact Die Hard by capturing hostages on top of a building.  As the Teen Titans come to the rescue, Robin wonders why they are doing this when they all come from wealthy families to begin with.   Elsewhere, an unknown figure makes a request of the Lords of Chaos.  They tell him they will grant the request, providing they do something for them in return.  Meanwhile, as the meta-teens are being hauled away, one of the wants to make a statement, calling out “Happy Father’s Day.”  Later, the Titans go bowling, part of an effort to keep Robin from missing his father.  At the prison, Kestrel, agent of the Lords of Chaos, breaks in and frees the meta-teens.  Seeing footage of the incident, Cyborg goes to Washington DC to protect Hawk and Dove.  When they return to San Francisco, they find that Kestrel has attacked the Titans Tower.  Kestrel tells them that in order to be a Lord Of Chaos rather than just an agent, the other Lords want the Daughter of Trigon, Raven! 

Review

What is it about this issue that I don’t like?  As usual for comic written by Gail Simone, the action and the dialogue and the plot is crammed wall to wall.  She brings in new characters, reuses old characters, and generally brings everything to the book except for the proverbial kitchen sink.  She manages to make sure this follows recent events in the DCU by referencing the death of Jack Drake and excluding Superboy (residing in Smallville for the moment) from the story.  I think the problem is that this issue fells compressed, which frankly is an odd statement given we are in the middle of the trade paperback or decompression era of comic storytelling.  However, all of the events feel rushed as if there was not enough time or space to tell the entire story.  The Hawk and Dove section seems wildly out of place and actually seems like a square block trying to be crammed into a circle.  I also think the other problem is the art.  Besides the fact that these Teens look too adult, often the drawings just don’t seem to match the narration or the dialogue.  Hell, I had trouble with the first page.  He’s falling.  No, he’s jumping and landing?  Oh, maybe the first page is a flashback.  No, wait!  The story begins there.  Oh, crap. 

What happened to the one guy who was with the meta-teen villain team, the one who looked fairly normal and wearing the yellow tie?  He must be on the team, he calls one of the others by name, but we never see him in action or even taken into custody.  In fact, except for the one panel on page 4, we never see him again.  Oh, wait, he is shown in prison as well.  Humph. 

Isn’t this issue a little late for Father’s day? -- MRB