Welcome to another Judgment Calls. This month I want to talk about
Titans, personal rants, and a whole lot of other stuff, so let's get started.
I was waiting until there where a couple of issues out till I really
said what I thought of the TITANS. Well, we got #1-2 and a Secret Files.
I guess I got enough to say what I think. First things first, the newest
Titans scribe is Devin Grayson, (also done/doing DC's "Catwoman", and
Marvel's recent "Black Widow" mini), Mark Buckingham is on pencils(was
on "Shadow of the Bat"), and Wade Von Grawbadger is doing inks (from the
pages of "Starman"). That handles the creative team, but who are the members
of the newest incarnation of the Titans? Well, taking their cue from the
JLA, they decided putting the big names back in would sell more comics
(well duh), so the original 5 are back with 5 popular back-ups. The membership
consists of Nightwing (original Robin), Troia (original Wonder Girl), Flash (former
Kid Flash), Arsenal (former Speedy), Tempest (former Aqua-lad), followed up with
Cyborg , Starfire (both classic Titans members), Damage (popular member of "Arsenal's
Titans"), Argent (most popular member of the last Titans team), and Jesse Quick (popular
Flash supporting character).
I'm glad that the "OG 5" is back in the Titans, and with all the
back-ups being popular, or as about as popular as characters that can't
support their own title can get. I think that the newest Titans will be
a good run. I really haven't decided whether I like Grayson's writing
yet. I mean, she seems to be really good with Arsenal and The Flash.
Her Nightwing, and Cyborg are good, and the rest are pretty good. However, I
think her Troia is weak. Not only do I feel this way: several other comic
geeks I have spoke to also voiced the same concerns. It's true that her
Ex and son have died, and her life has been messed up 5 times over, but she
seems a pale image of the character's former self. Other then that, I
think the writing's good. Buckingham's art is not bad.
I really want to get into some of the background of the second
string characters. Now, some people think that they always cause a book's
downfall. Not always. I think that Devin took time thinking how she would
pull this off. I mean, Cyborg and Starfire are classic Titans members: they
belong in the Titans. Jesse Quick is a great character, I always liked her
in The Flash. I don't think she's a poor substitute for The Flash.
Yeah, she's a speedster but that's not all she does: she flies, can
produce super strength, and dabbles in the martial arts. Still, Flash is 10
times faster... Argent is about the best that came out of the last group of Titans,
and Damage, I hate him, but maybe they can do something with him.
That about wraps that up, but I must say one thing about DC. Sure,
it's my favorite company, but this needs to be said. The "Big Guns"
in the JLA, the "OG 5" in the Titans, and Young Justice has the
popular teen characters. Now follow this equation: fanboy's have favorite
characters. If a favorite character is in a team book, they'll read it. If
a lot of popular characters are in a book, lots of fanboys will read it, the people
that read that team book for that book will read it, people that want to
read a lot of popular characters without getting individual books will
read it. Put it together ,what do you get ? A LOT OF READING GOING ON!!!!!
Lots of reading means lots of money. The continuity can be worked
around. Why did it take them sooooo long to finally do it? WELL DUH!
That having been said, on to another personal rant. Last month I
spoke of an upcoming episode of Superman: the Animated Series. Well,
now having seen it, I gotta say I really, really, really hated it. Really.
I'm referring to the "In the Brightest Day" episode, the one with Green
Lantern. I can think of so many ways they could have not have screwed
it up that bad. If you want to know the reasons of why I hated it, all
that I feared last month was unfortunately correct.
After consulting the local experts of continuity in my area (I
talked to the comicbook store guys), I have some things to say about
Hypertime. We agreed DC's new approach to the multiverse ,"hypertime", isn't
necessarily bad. There should always be a damn good reason for a
DC character to interact with the multiverse. It should be harder then he...
um, finding a original Action Comics #1 in your attic, to get into hypertime.
It should under no circumstance be used to bring a character back from the dead. If DC
isn't stupid, it should, could, and will likely, work.
