Fighting Towards The Future
It's the final issue of the Teen Titans...... for now since they'll have Endless Winter and Future State issues for the next bunch of months, but this team, this iteration of the kids that never really got the chance to shine are done for now and it's time to see if they can complete their unfinished business with bringing in all the villains that are out and about, who they previously mind-wiped after incarcerating them in the Teen Titans dungeon..... Okay, there were a lot of problems with this series and our characters, but even with some dark turns, they deserve the chance at redemption and being the heroes we all know they can be. With the villain Joystick being the last baddie that they need to bring in it's time to see if our heroes are up to the task, especially since Joystick has found them first. Let's jump into this issue and check out this finale.
Joystick is back from the Teen Titans Annual and he's looking for a bit of payback against our heroes and he plans on accomplishing this by taking over the bodies of Red Arrow and Kid Flash and using them as his weapons against Roundhouse and Crush. This is an okay concept for a regular issue, but kind of falls flat here as a finale, especially with Javi Fernandez on art because everything just looks scratchy and lackluster, while on top of that, he makes Red Arrow and Kid Flash look like zombies during the battle with their friends and I have no idea why.
When we previously saw Joystick he was a formidable meta, who was only taken down when he became overzealous, took over Djinn's body, and then Red Arrow with Djinn's ring had to wish him out of her mind. So ultimately it seemed that it would take the all-powerful magic of a genie to break this mind control but here it just took Crush saying "I know you're in there Emiko" and that was pretty much it, besides for some explosions to knock Joystick out. Thankfully, even if it doesn't make as much sense as it should, there's a nice ending to this issue that leaves you optimistic for the future.
All in all, I hated the art in this issue and wish that the Teen Titans could have gotten someone better for their final issue, but even if that was the case, this final villain battle left a lot to be desired and kind of made Joystick less than he previously was....... not that anyone was caring about Joystick but this fight just left me wanting more, not to mention that the end of the issue is really what people will want to see when they pick this book up, where Nightwing shows up to mentor what's left of our team with the rest of the New Teen Titans..... Starfire, Cyborg, Beast Boy, Donna Troy, and Raven...... even though they were never a team like that in this continuity..... Hell, Cyborg's never been a Teen Titan in this continuity. It's a nice ending but it doesn't make much sense but even with that, I look forward to seeing where these characters can bring our newest iteration to the Teen Titans because I want to see them continue and think that they could still be a really cool team.
Bits and Pieces:
While the final battle with Joystick and the art in this book left a lot to be desired, it's the ending of the issue that will leave a lot of people excited for what's to come in the future from the Teen Titans, which is weird for a final issue, but even with this final reveal, it makes little sense and only tries to grab some unearned "wow" factor. Yeah, I'm excited to see where our Titans will go from here, I just wish that this finale was treated a bit better.
Actually, I'm pretty sure continuity has shifted since this series started so the Titans team that appeared in the end was retconned back in. Or DC just doesn't care anymore lol. And recent issues of JL and JLO have retroactively made Cyborg a Titan again.
ReplyDeleteHaving said all that, I'm glad to see this series and. I never cared about these new characters not when there were so many classic heroes they could've used. I was kinda looking forward to this issue when I heard the original Titans were going to guest star and give the current team a people talk according to the solicitation so imagine my disappointment when all we got was a tiny little cameo on the last page. But maybe we'll get a better Titans series now.
I'm all about the timelines opening because I love me some continuity, I just need it spelled out more. The last time we really saw anything that suggested that the New Teen Titans were a thing was after Starfire and Cyborg came back from JLO into the Metalverse...... which would be after this, which makes this not make sense. That being said, I'd love it to be canon, I just can't wrap my head around them de-aging Raven and Beast Boy..... Well, maybe Raven, but Beast Boy feels weird.
DeleteWell, we know reality shifted at the end of Doomsday Clock which has to be at least partly canon since Death Metal has alluded to it by having Wally have Manhattan's powers so there's that plus for the past two years JLO was silent about Cyborg's past as a Titan other than him and Starfire being "old friends" and issues of Nightwing have had cameos of the NTT team in flashback albeit without Cyborg but still.
ReplyDeleteDoomsday Clock is total canon. As for the timeline shift, who knows what that means overall beyond the JSA being back and the Legion of Super-Heroes being back and changed, because it will only be used when they need to explain something..... like Superman Reborn. Like I said, I'm all for the New Teen Titans to be canon, I'd just like some explanation and setup to go with it.... and have the characters look like they could have all been on the same team at the same time.
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