Teen Titans #8 Review and *SPOILERS*

Written By: Will Pfeifer
Art By: Kenneth Rocafort, Blond
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: March 18, 2015

Fame!

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

In the last issue of Teen Titans, we saw our angsty heroes take on some rogue scientists, who broke into the Governors Island STAR facility to steal some sealed off weapons.  One of them being a device that could stop time, so that put our heroes in a real bind.  It was a good thing that Raven being all mystical like she is could overcome time itself and Beast Boy for some reason being able to defy time because................. He turned into a mayfly.......... I don't know, it didn't make a lot of sense to me but we'll go with it.  So while our mad scientists prepped a bomb to destroy New York, our heroes caught them by surprise, saved the day and became celebrities for their efforts.  As the issue closed we saw the head evil scientist break his restraints, kill the officers transporting him and walk away from the exploding vehicle as he was on fire himself.......... Which led me to all sorts of Terminator references.  Let's see if our heroes can overcome the celebrity bug and get back to business or if they'll go the way of Batgirl.  Let's check it out.

Explain It!:

As our story begins we see that the Teen Titans are really digging their new found fame and man is it really going to go to their heads from here on out......... All except for Red Robin that is......... Thank jeebus and at this point I begin getting frustrated with this book........ Even with Red Robin because for some reason he's just coming off as an idiot........ Hopefully, he's just playing some long con and we find out in later issues that he was just playing dumb because for the life of me I can't understand why he doesn't realized that Manchester Black is playing him and the rest of the Titans.

The frustrations I was talking about are because the entire book just shows the different members of the team getting their fame on, like Beast Boy hosting the DC version of SNL, Comedy Tonight and the cast and producers of the show using him for ratings, while Bunker stands off stage drinking coffee and rooting for his buddy.  Raven's tribute band is now a headliner from her fame and Raven just seems to enjoy that these people are getting rich off her image and Power Girl is getting harassed by a Q-tuber who went after her with camera glasses so that she'd appear on his show.  Yeah, we're supposed to see the ills of fame here but with the pop art style and the inspiration poster color pallet, this book has just become what feels like a clone of the direction that Batgirl is taking and that really........ really upsets me.  At some point in this book I was expecting that evil scientist that escaped at the end of last issue to show back up but we see that for all my Terminator talk last issue that he was just hopped up on some designer PCP and that he's just dead now.  I know that this is just Manchester Black covering his tracks but I really thought there would be something to that cliffhanger last issue.

In the end, Red Robin decides to stay out of the spotlight like a good superhero and goes back to Governors Island to investigate the rumors of a even more dangerous weapon that might have been housed there.  Of course Manchester Black shows up and wonders why Red Robin isn't out there exploiting their popularity like the rest of the group and even shows Red Robin a video of another friend of his trending on the interwebs.  That's right even though we were promised the return of Superboy this issue, all we get is a video on a phone and Manchester Black saying that he's just killed a bunch of people.  The End.......... Bah.

That's it for this issue of Teen Titans and man is there nothing really going on here.  All of our characters at this point seem like they're Pinocchio and this is their foray on Pleasure Island where they all become jackasses.  We do get to see that they are becoming wary of the spotlight here and I guess we can take some solace in knowing that this will probably be a very temporary thing and that they'll get back to being the heroes that we want them to be but this whole thing where DC is making all there younger heroes seek celebrity is getting on my nerves........... At least they aren't constantly on their phones or taking selfies because that isn't what heroes do.  As much as I've tried to look past the art the past couple of months and just go with it, this style and even the colors aren't for me and even though I hate disparaging anyone, I think it's time for a creator change on this book.

Bits and Pieces:

The Teen Titans for me just keeps falling further and further away from what I'd like it to be.  Yeah, they're young and for the most part inexperienced but I don't expect them to become idiotic, fame seeking, Batgirl clones.  If you ever wondered what your favorite teen heroes would look like if they were in Pinocchio and became jackasses on Pleasure Island, then this issue is for you.  Hopefully in the Annual or in June they resemble more of the heroes that we love and the ones we know they can be because right now they just disappoint.

4/10