Art By: Kenneth Rocafort, Dan Brown
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: October 15, 2014
Domo Arigato Ms. Roboto
Last issue of Teen Titans I got the impression that I really wasn't liking the new direction. Yeah that's as much of an opinion that I could get out of my sideways brain. I got the impression. But enough about me, the second issue consisted of Bunker being pissed about hate mongers and then blowing off some steam with Beast Boy by putting out a fire and destroying the leader of the terrorists from the first issue who happens to be a robot girl named Algorithm. Red Robin was doing his detective thing trying to get to the bottom of the terrorist group and Raven went and watched a concert with a Raven themed band. Not much Wonder Girl going on with the exception that it seems Cassie has some groupies just like Raven, only Wonder Girl's consist of a group of girls that go around dressed like the hero and beat the hell out of would be criminals with baseball bats. So yeah, not the best fan club. In the end we discovered that Algorithm wasn't dead and recreated herself with the help of the man pulling her strings: Manchester Black who has schemes to have STAR labs moved to another location and there for set up the exploding bus that was headed for the lab in the first issue. Now all this sounds alright, the problem I had is that the Titans don't seem to be working as a team and that's a crucial part of the book for me. Okay let's get to this month's issue.
Explain It!:
Our story begins with Raven checking out the band that's completely about her and honestly as much as I might have complained about her having a "normal girl" life, I can kind of get behind it because I'm the kind of self serving asshole that would totally be checking out a band about me...... or anything about me. My only gripe is that I still see Raven as the daughter of Trigon and her having a sort of social life and going to concerts isn't what I'm used to for the character, especially so soon. I know we're in a new Teen Titans series and for whatever reason Beast Boy is green again, but I would like some sort of bridge between this series and the last. So anyway Raven's checking out the band and she let's her groove thing get a little out of control and displays her powers in front of the band and the surrounding audience. So of course it's fanboy and fangirl time. Really it's just a bunch of sycophants that want to get in with Raven until Algorithm makes her return to the book by totally zapping one of Raven's fans.
Well one thing you should never do is blast a fan of the daughter of Trigon. The fight is on and Raven calls the rest of the Teen Titans in for backup and the book finally starts feeling like the team book I want it to be.
The Titans arrive after having to be stirred awake and really the fight is pretty quick. Bunker says that's it's the robot he thought he destroyed the night before and now that Wonder Girl knows that it's a machine and she doesn't have to hold back, well she punches Algorithm so hard she explodes. Yeah I guess it's a little anticlimactic, but it's nice to see that the uber fan of Raven survived Algorithm's attack when Raven uses her power to heal her. So yeah, a job well done. We've got an explody robot and no casualties. Time for some breakfast
Wonder Girl, Bunker and Beast Boy head over to a diner to get their grub on after the fight but Wonder Girl's mom calls and tells her she's waiting at her apartment for her. The call is interrupted and Cassie is left thinking that her mom is a bit of a jerk for hanging up on her, but we know the truth because we got to see her mother surrounded by a gang of Wonder Girls, who I don't think have Cassie's mom's best interests in mind.
In the end Red Robin breaks into STAR Labs to do his detective thing and see if he can find out any information on Algorithm, but it seems Algorithm was waiting for him. That's right folks this girl is made up of nanobots and simply punching her isn't going to keep her down. As proficient as Red Robin is at ass kickery, it seems that the robot girl is too much for him and before he can call for backup, our hero is knocked out and we're left with the eerie cliff hanger where it appears that Algorithm knows Red Robin's true identity. Well his true fake identity because for some reason his real name isn't Tim Drake in the New 52.
That's it for this issue of Teen Titans and I have to say that this new series is finally growing on me. I don't know, was it just me being an awful fanboy for the last two issues and hating anything new? I don't think that was the case but everything in this issue just seemed better than it had been earlier and it's the exact same creative team, so I don't know what's up. The issue looks great and the team is working together and seem like they really enjoy each other's company so I guess it's all good on the Titans front and I'm so happy to be enjoying this book again. It's been too long. See you next month as we continue the fun and hopefully continue the wowing me that this issue has done. See you then.
Bits and Pieces:
Hey my constant pessimism has finally been lifted and I miraculously really enjoyed the Teen Titans! Yay! I know I might be a bit late to the trolley here, but for some reason everything seemed to work better for me here than it did in any of the previous issues of this incarnation of the Teen Titans. Pfeifer's story seemed to jive better, Rocafort's art seemed cooler than it has been and the colors by Dan Brown just popped and made this entire book something special. I'm really on the creative team's dicks here, but I'm happy as hell to be enjoying the Teen Titans again and I'm stroke the hell out of them if they continue to wow me the way this issue did here. Go check it out.
8.7/10
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