DCU Comic Book Reviews

TEEN TITANS #69

The New Deal Finale

May 2009

Written by Sean McKeever

Pencils by Eddy Barrows

Inks by Ruy Jose

Cover by Eddy Barrows and Ruy Jose

Synopsis

At Titans Tower, Eddie Bloomberg is surprised by the sudden arrival of Miss Martian, as well as the arrival of the rest of the teen heroes recently rescued from the Dark Side Club.  Later, Wonder Girl offers all of the teens a place to rest and recuperate.  And perhaps join the team.  This causes some grief among some of the teens and a number leave.  Later, Wonder Girl offers a spot on the team to Kid Eternity, who accepts.  Meanwhile, over the next couple of days, the teens get to know each other and discuss what happened to them and what they want to do next.  Eventually, only Static and Aquagirl remain behind as Teen Titans.  Although the Face originally decided against staying, he changes his mind and returns, but is captured and killed before he can make it back.  The Teen Titans are next….    

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

Sometimes, just sometimes, the story of what it takes to create a comic book and the arguments and difficulties to create a finished product is more interesting in what they actually produced.  I am thinking that this is probably one of those times.  The story in this issue is dull, uninteresting, and crafted with all the finesse of an elephant in a china shop.  Miss Martian returns with the kids from the Dark Side Club, but rather getting a story that delves into what these kids experienced and the ability (or not) to deal with it, the issue focuses instead on a membership drive for the Titans and crude sexual jokes from a stupid character that you could tell was destined to get killed.  A ton of characters get introduced, but very little is done with them (and in fact half leave right off the bat making me wonder why they were there in the first place).  Only Aquagirl and Static get any real space.  Even for these two, however, the story is more concerned on who they were than who they are.  It is almost as if editorial is concerned readers would get flummoxed if they didn’t know Aquagirl’s origin.  Don’t they realize that most people reading this book already know?

Worse, this issue doesn’t really flow well with the rest of the “New Deal” story.  Kid Eternity appears somewhat briefly, but he is not the focus despite his role in earlier issue, and Brother Blood is not even mentioned at all.  It is like the other issues don’t even exist; the trade paperback is going to be messy.  This entire storyarc feels haphazard and random with no real sense of direction to the story, as if McKeever didn’t know what he wanted to do or was forced to change things to satisfy editorial edicts.  And that is where the behind-the-scenes material comes in because a close look at the credits shows McKeever, the writer of the book, credited with “Original Story” suggesting that someone else rewrote this issue.  I would love to know what was changed, what McKeever objected to, why the editors felt strongly on the re-writes.  Is this related to the upcoming “Deathtrap” or is there something else going on?  Regardless of the answers, the editorial futzing made a worse story that was more interested in getting to the new team rather than, you know, tell a good story. 

Why, oh, why is Red Devil on the cover when Red Devil no longer exists?  And what the hell is the deal with the wings on Blue Beetle?  He doesn’t have wings, especially translucent wings like those.

 

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