Teen Titans #6 Review and *SPOILERS*

Written By: Will Pfeifer
Art By: Scott Hepburn, Dan Brown
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: January 21, 2015

Adding A Little Power To The Team

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

In the last issue of Teen Titans, we saw the group going over the decision of whether they should ally themselves with Manchester Black and STAR Labs.  It's a pretty big decision and Red Robin not being a dummy decided that they should find out a little more about who they're getting into bed with.  What does that mean?  Well it means Beast Boy gets to test out a new animal he's been working on and sneaks into the labs by morphing into head lice.........Gross.  Meanwhile, as Beast Boy gathers his information, some prep school no goodniks decide to take a new designer drug that would give them superpowers and come to the logical decision to use their new powers..........to become villains.  I really hope that these kids don't represent today's youth.  That's right kids, if you happen to get superpowers, help people.  Last issue concluded with the Teen Titans having their hands full with the teenage terrors but some help might be coming when we see that one of Wonder Girl's fan club gang gets hit by a garbage truck but lifts it off herself.  Oh yeah, it's new Power Girl time.  Let's check it out.

Explain It!:

Our issue begins with Power Girl picking up the Teen Titans slack.  I'm not kidding, for whatever reason after seeing Tanya Spears take out one of America's future, the whole team looks like they just decided not to suck and finishes them off as fast as they should have last issue.  After the fight we see a strong connection between this book and what Batgirl has been doing as of late and showing that the Teen Titans are a media sensation.  I don't know how I missed this before now, but all this youtube celebrity and fan club nonsense might be a part of the reason that I haven't been enjoying this title as much since it's been renumbered.  There is some weird correlation between fame and sucking at superheroics.  After Raven magics them out of there, the team regroups at Beast Boy and Bunker's apartment to get the info on who Power Girl really is.

We get the whole background about how Tanya worked for Power Girl when she went back to Earth 2 and the reason she left Tanya the name Power Girl and somehow powers is because she felt guilty about Desaad killing her mother, who also worked for Power Girl way back in Worlds' Finest #12.  It's funny because I never made the connection between the two Spears women until after reading this issue.  Even with my connection revelation and Tanya's background explanation, we still don't have a reason on why Tanya got some of Power Girl's powers, which only seems to be super strength and invulnerability at this point.......... That's a bit annoying.  After the introduction, Tanya then goes on to tell the Teen Titans that they suck because they aren't going on the offense in their war against crime but simply taking out the scumbags as they come and then patting each other on the back.  The fucked up part here, except Tanya being kind of right, is that Cassie goes and throws everyone under the bus by agreeing with Tanya and then the two just take off after giving the rest of the team the finger............ That last part didn't actually happen but I imagine it as a deleted scene.

After Tanya and Cassie get back to Cassie's apartment, the two have to stop patting each other on the back for telling the team off because Manchester Black came over for a social call.  After stroking Cassie's ego a bit, Black tells her about some transmissions he's received from an unknown group that plan on attacking the new STAR Labs.  This bit is a little odd to me because while Black is laying down the exposition, he tells us that his people who heard the information have been driven mad by it and from what we see by the end of this, it doesn't really make sense.  I guess it could come back later on but right now it's just really odd.  Anyway, apparently the worst case scenario for this attack is that they try and reach the sub sub basement of STAR Labs where they keep the most dangerous machines ever created and the only way to reach this portion of the labs is by a nuclear blast........ Which we then immediately see happen off in the distance from Cassie's apartment window.

In the end, we see Beast Boy escaping the explosion and the terrorist group entering the sub sub basement of the lab........... Maybe I'm a little naive about how nuclear blasts work and their blast radius, but these dudes and Beast Boy seem fine........ just a big ole mushroom cloud and all is well........... I don't get it.  Besides for these awful developments we also see that Raven's fan band recorded her casting a spell at the beginning of the issue and now that they play it back at their studio, they bring forth some hellish beast........... and maybe today's youth is just jaded or desensitized as hell because where I'd be screaming like a four year old girl and possibly soiling myself, they think it's awesome.  I think I'm becoming an old man.

That's it for this issue of Teen Titans and I'm just not really enjoying this new direction for our heroes.  Yeah, the old series had it's problems but the team themselves came off stronger and more..... team like.  The best part of the book to me was when Manchester Black came over to Cassie's apartment and her mother made a comment about him just walking around without a shirt.  I mean, I know we're in a superhero universe here, but who does that?  Does he want to show off his sweet union jack tattoo, is that it?  He's supposed to be a respected scientist and he comes off as a time traveler from England during the 1970's who's a part of the punk subculture.  I'm not a superhero but I wouldn't trust this douchebag.  Anyway, besides for a few strange choices in character's facial movements, I dig Scott Hepburn being on this book, I just wish I could dig the rest.  See you next month as we see what the damage of a nuclear blast can do and what game Manchester Black is playing.  See you then.

Bits and Pieces:

While fans of this new direction of the book will most likely enjoy everything that was given to us with this issue, I just can't seem to get behind it.  It seems like more of a deconstruction of the team than the revitalization that I hoped would happen after the renumbering.  Also with the inclusion of fan clubs and media promoting the Titans, it seems that DC is trying to go for a younger audience like it's done with Batgirl and I hate to say it, but maybe I'm getting too old for this series.  I still have high hopes for this series but as of right now, it's not for me.

5.5/10