Art By: Kenneth Rocafort, RB Silva, Tom Derenick
Cover Price: $4.99
Release Date: May 7, 2014
That's A Wrap!
It's bitter sweet being here for the last issue of Teen Titans of the New 52. Yeah we all know they'll be back in July, but this truly does feel like an ending, which this iteration of the title probably needed. Now I love the Teen Titans, I've always been fascinated by sidekicks joining up and doing their own thing, so I'm glad all you sidekick fans are out there so we get to take this journey together. Alright last issue the Titans got another member in the form of their old friend Skitter, their yacht home was destroyed by an old enemy Grymm, and Raven is finally free from Trigon's hold on her. For that last bit we have no explanation, only that since they came back from the future Raven's her own girl. Let's jump right into this issue because the sooner it's over, the sooner we'll have our #1 in July.
Explain It!:
Our final story begins with Red Robin standing at the empty dock where the Teen Titan's yacht home once sat. He contemplates with Wonder Girl about what the Titans have done, and where they'll go from here, when Skitter comes out of the water with something Red Robin needed salvaged.
Now we jump to the team getting together at a restaurant in Chinatown, and we get a very sweet scene with Raven and Bunker. Raven stands outside and watches her "friends", and wonders where she'll go from here now that she's free from her father; Trigon. Bunker see's her and tells her to join them inside, and we find out that the Titans have always known that Raven planned on killing them for her father. Bunker tells her a bit about God and second chances, and Raven joins her friends inside with a new outlook on life. It's a very nice moment. Inside Red Robin tells the team about the item he had Skitter salvage. It's a beacon that alarms if Harvest is ever seen again, and apparently he's set up another colony in Africa. But how does a young team of super heroes get to Africa without flight powers or a jet? By the guest star who returns for the final episode; Danny The Street. Well Danny The Alley now, and I love this character just for being a character. Does that make sense? Danny teleports the team to Africa, where they find some more cameos from yesteryear. Harvest's new colony is made up of all the kids he put through hell before, and even those who have died. Omen, Kevin Ridge, and even Artemis. Harvest has brought everyone back, and has given them a paradise to live in. It seems that everything still has a price though, because all the inhabitants of this paradise have had their meta-gene removed from them.
Red Robin goes to meet with Harvest alone, and we see that he's a tired old man who's decided that the war against meta's was wrong, and only wants a second chance to make things right. Of course the Titans don't believe him, and Raven finds a gigantic meta DNA strand comprised of the new colony's meta genes, oh and I do mean GIGANTIC. If that's not ridiculous and over the top enough it's also alive and kicks the shit out of the Titans. Harvest in his full Hellraiser looking armor confronts Red Robin, and asks him to join his cause. Well Harvest didn't like Red Robin's answer, but luckily before Harvest could kill Tim, Bunker uses his power to break apart Harvest's armor. Meanwhile Raven has found out that the living gene doesn't like Raven's soul self touching it. Yep, I guess that could be a thing. This all leads to the Titans running off and the laboratory blowing up with Harvest inside. It really moves this fast as your reading it. The End.
Okay not "The End", but the end of the Titans final fight against Harvest. In the end we get a shit load of spoilers to things that if are true will piss a lot of writers off who have been trying to keep things secret. Okay for real this time. In the end we get an epilogue by Superboy and yes I mean Kon, who apparently is alive and is heralding for the giant space Oracle from Krypton Returns. So Kon is all right, and enjoys his new existence. He goes on to tell us that Wonder Girl went back to being a thief, and shares an apartment with Raven. Bunker and Beast Boy took some of Commodore's seed money to start a new team of heroes from the end of the Green Team. Kid Flash and Solstice still lead a life of hell on the prison planet, but are still happy they're together. Skitter went back to working in the lab that created her powers, and for the biggest baddest spoiler of them all. Now I have no idea if this is accurate or if Lobdell is just fucking with us fanboys and girls, but if true then Red Robin will go back to being Batman's sidekick, a la Batman and Robin. If it is true I bet Peter J. Tomasi is pissed because he's been playing that secret close to the chest.
Bits and Pieces:
Where do we go from here? It seems a little too finished to be coming back in July, and I don't know if this is Lobdell seeing the characters end his way for his team, or if it's to screw the next creative team. Either way it's over, and I hope the next iteration can capture the audience this title deserves, because it should be one of the best sellers in my opinion, especially for the characters it supports. As for the Annual itself, we get a bunch of final episode characters to tie up everyone's story, or just there to make fans happy to see them once again. I thought the story just rushed to get things done though, and the only real great thing about it was the pseudo epilogue at the end, which if this was the actual end would of been really nice.
6.8/10
God make Lobdell retire once and for all from writing duties because the more he's still around the more the pain for comic readers. Not also he has taken a great DC franchise title and ran it to the ground but spoils the work of his colleagues. I'm grieving that he will return to ruin the lives of Jason Todd and his crew again. Can't DC see the abomination storylines he has created so far? By the way keep up the good work, your ratings are the closest to reality and unbiased.
ReplyDeleteI thought about it this morning, and I don't know if I can take Red Robin's continued sidekickery seriously. I mean there has to be editors that say "No way you can't spoil this big secret that isn't supposed to drop till December", at least I like to think this is how it works. But hopefully Lobdell will be better suited to do the dark and gritty of Red Hood, which I didn't hate when he wrote it before. All in all we get a new Teen Titans in July so we all can be happy about that. Also thanks for the compliments, me and my giant head always appreciate it.
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