DCU Comic Book Reviews

TEEN TITANS ANNUAL

Home Invasion

June 2009

Written by Sean McKeever

Pencils by Fernando Dagnino

Inks by Raul Fernandez

Cover by Eddy Barrows and Ruy Jose

Synopsis

At Titans Tower, Aquagirl goes for a morning swim.  Static tries to keep awake after spending a restless night.  Bombshell pushes herself in her workout.  Kid Eternity talks to Marvin to determine if he made a good choice when he joined the team.  Eddie and M’gann enjoy breakfast together, but are interrupted by Blue Beetle.  Wonder Girl tries to understand the power of lasso.  However, someone is watching over all of them.  Suddenly, the team members are attacked, except for Static.  Suddenly, Cyborg appears via tv screen to inform Static the attacks are part of a training exercise.  Cyborg also admits he doesn’t know Static and asks a few questions to learn more about him.  Meanwhile, the team join forces and eventually fight through the attacks.  They find Aquagirl and Kid Eternity and attempt to rescue them.  Meanwhile, Static realizes the attacks are not a training exercise, but a real attack.  Cyborg admits that much.  He also attempts to use Static’s powers to kill Aquagirl and Kid Eternity.  However, Static turns the tables, destroying the Tower, but shutting out Cyborg in the process.  Afterwards, Static tells the team what happened.  Wonder Girl tells them they are going to New York.  There, Beast Boy finds Cyborg unconscious due to the feedback created by Static.  Beast Boy also realizes it is not Cyborg.  [Continued in Titans, issue #12]   

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

There are two very fundamental problems with this issue.  Before I get to them, I will say this wasn’t a bad issue.  I liked the way the normal, day-to-day activities lulled you into a calm serenity before all of the crazy stuff starts to happen.  There a few scenes with a nice bit of characterization (and I always enjoy M’gann and Eddie together and Bombshell’s decision not to use her powers is very insightful) at the beginning to counter balance the wall-to-wall action for the latter stages.  As pieces of the issue, both parts work very will.  However, as a whole, it doesn’t quite come together.  The reason (and the the first problem) is that we don’t get any type of motivation on why Cyborg is trying to kill the Titans.  Sadly, the training exercise excuse doesn’t work, partly because McKeever (or whoever wrote the issue given the credits at the beginning) didn’t provide enough background to properly sell the idea and partly because we already know that Cyborg is Jericho (as seen here and here).  So we don’t get enough motivation on why Jericho would want to kill the Teen Titans.  It seems like Jericho is doing it for kicks, which doesn’t quite match on what we know of Jericho.  For the attacks to work, there needs to be a reason.  Villains are not villains simply because they feel like it; there needs to be motivation and reason behind their actions otherwise it is just random stuff.  Even if it is good characterization and electric (sorry for the pun) action. 

The other problem is that, once again, someone invades Titans Tower and destroys the building.  Although I like the fact that the Titans are aware of it and comment on it in the book itself, it is also getting annoying.  Granted, I think Cyborg would be able to penetrate the systems defenses than most villains, but coming on the heels of other recent attacks, it feels redundant and unoriginal.  There has got to be a better plot than simply attacking the tower.  Hmm, now here is an idea:  a construction attacks the tower than charges an exorbitant fee to repair it.  That is positively evil I tell you.  But I digress.  I guess all I am saying is that for as exciting the attack was, it still felt like I only just read a similar type of issue. 

What happened at the end?  The only explanation that I can deduce is that Static somehow shorted out the electrical systems in the tower, which caused the entire thing to blow.  It makes the most sense, but if that is what was supposed to happen, it is not explained very well.

Why is this labeled as issue #1?  The Teen Titans series began in 2003.  There was an annual in 2006.  It was part of the Infinite Crisis storyline and contains the infamous story of Wonder Girl losing her virginity to Superboy, er Connor Kent. So, shouldn't this be #2? 

 

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