DCU Comic Book Reviews

TERROR TITANS #6

One Second To Midnight

May 2009

Written by Sean McKeever

Pencils by Joe Bennett

Inks by Jack Jadson

Cover by Joe Bennett and Jack Jadson

Synopsis

In Los Angeles, Clock King’s Martyr Militia wrecks havoc while the Terror Titans fight against Ravager.  Disruptor is about to kill her when the Star Spangled Kid tells her to stop.  The interruption gives Ravager the chance to turn the tables.  Ravager threatens to kill Disruptor when the Star Spangled Kid stops her as well.  Ravager agrees, providing Star Spangled Kid reveals his true identity:  Miss Martian.  M’gann disguised herself in order to find a way to mentally break the Clock King’s conditioning and save all of the teens.  Realizing they failed, the Terror Titans return to Clock King’s headquarters.  There, Clock King kills Disruptor for her failure.  Moments later, the teens arrive to deal with the Terror Titans.  Elsewhere, Static deals with the rest of the Dark Side Club.  Meanwhile, Ravager attacks Clock King and is able to hurt him, but the Clock King is able escape.  The Terror Titans, however, are captured.  Two weeks later, the Terror Titans escape custody and return to Clock King’s headquarters to plan their revenge. 

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

Again, and I hate to keep repeating myself, but I have to wonder what McKeever story was trying to tell with this series.  The first part of the finale is focused on M’Gann, who reveals events that happened before this series ever began.  For readers of the Teen Titans regular series, this plot device won’t seem too bad, but for new readers (all two of them) it’ll feel a little bit like whiplash trying to keep up with the info-dump McKeever provides in M’Gann’s exposition-filled dialogue to explain how and why she did what she did.  And it also seems like a cheap way to resolve the plot of Clock King brainwashing the teens.  I don’t think McKeever has earned this plot twist.  There has been no set-up, no clues that suggest Miss Martian has been involved.  It comes out of nowhere and actually somewhat cheapens Ravager’s victory of the Terror Titans.

After that, the rest of the issue focuses on Ravager’s attack on Clock King and the Terror Titans trying to stay alive.  Neither of these truly work, probably because McKeever hasn’t and doesn’t give either story the room it needs to be truly effective.  Frankly, I am not even sure what Rvager was doing with the Terror Titans; there is really no explanation what she wanted or what she hoped to accomplish.  Now that it is over, I am still unclear.  Mainly, it feels like Ravager’s role in the story was just to connect this story to the Teen Titans.  In fact, I would wager a bet that the story might’ve been much more interesting without her or perhaps if Ravager fulfilled the role of Disrupter.  If she had been a member of the team and had a reason to fight Clock King, then I think it might’ve worked.  Speaking of the Terror Titans, I liked what happened to them at the end, but again, their characters and their relationships with each other were ill-defined so that I couldn’t really get into their struggle for survival or their goal for revenge.  They felt like outsiders, part of what was happening, but not actually in the middle of all of the events. 

 

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