DCU Comic Book Reviews

TEEN TITANS #38

Titans Around The World, Part 1

September 2006

Written by Geoff Johns

Pencils by Carlos Ferreira

Inks by Art Thibert & Drew Geraci

Cover by Tony S. Daniel

Synopsis

After the Teen Titans battle and defeat Girder, they are surrounded by young kids wanting autographs.  Later, at Titans Tower, Cyborg tells the rest of the team he wants to go search for Raven.  In Russia, Red Star takes down the “Meta-Men Militia,” who recently bombed a local school and have caused over 100 deaths.  Afterwards, the Teen Titans find him to talk.  Red Star takes them to his spaceship.  In Colorado, Cody Driscoll (aka Risk) is offered the chance to join Titans East.  Meanwhile, Red Star tells the Teen Titans that Raven had come to him asking questions but other Titans, but he does not know why.  He gives them an address in Beijing.  At Raven’s apartment, the Titans find a journal in which Raven speculates one of the Titans was a traitor.  Elsewhere, Raven. clutching a book, is running for her life.   

Review

There are a couple of things that I find are keeping at arms length from truly enjoying the Teen Titans since the One Year Later jump and this issue demonstrates this to some degree.  The first is that there seems to be a strange fascination with presenting characters that are not part of the Teen Titans.  In the first arc it was Doom Patrol and in this issue we get Red Star.  While his background is interesting, I have to wonder what purpose does this serve?  Like the Doom Patrol cameo, it seems as if Johns is setting up another series or mini-series, but it seems unlikely such a series is going to be coming any time soon.  So, the scenes of Red Star in Russia fighting the Militia and the whole two page spread of him telling us about his powers and ship comes across as extraneous.  Rather I would have preferred to see more of the Teen Titans, to see them in action to see how well they work together.  They are shown to be fighting, especially with Ravager, but at some level you would think they work well enough together that they would want to be part of the team.  I mean, if you argue with other team members and you fail to help during the battles, what use are you?  So, Ravager must be a big help during the fights.  Let’s see that!

The list of Teen Titans who were members during the missing year is a curious list.  Amongst characters that we recognize (Hawk & Dove, Aquagirl, Flamebird, Argent), completely new heroes (Zatara, Power Boy, Talon), and Kingdom Come-related heroes (Zatara, offspring, and Miss Martian). 

Also curious is the list of titans that Red Star mentions:  Pantha, Baby Wildebeest, Superboy, Jericho, Starfire.  Except for Starfire, all are dead and Starfire has not been seen since the OYL jump.  Is it possible she died in the missing 52 weeks while in outer space along with Adam Strange and Animal Man?-- MRB

 

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